Heya! Akira is back once again with another installment of Time's Design (as if it wasn't obvious).
I'm really excited you guys. Enraptured. Ecstatic. Euphoric. And those are just the "E" synonyms!
Why? The last chapter alone got eight (count 'em!) reviews! And the number of reviews total was boosted past forty! I want to hug every single one of you guys! 3
But since I can only virtually glomp people on FanFiction, I'll just thank you guys instead! ^^
Big thanks to my regular reviewers, along with any new ones: MarlinMarlen, Sparks101, AikoAkahana, DittoGirl553, Remey2, Splitheart1120, I Lov3 Wizardmon, and Fuffeh!
You guys are all so awesome!
In the spirit of Valentine's Day, I offer this next chapter (there's not any direct romance, though. Don't kill me).
This next chapter and I have a love/hate relationship. I really don't like the first half, but I totally LOVE the second half. The first half seems a little rushed and filler-ish, because I didn't want to skip right to Silver coming back from Dragon's Den. And... well, you guys tell me what you think.
I do not own the characters of HG and SS.
Please read, enjoy, review. ^^
(~)
The silence of the cave wasn't the standard sort of silence. It was the kind of silence that had the drone of gushing waterfalls, gurgling whirlpools, and the gentle slapping of obsidian-black waves against the shore of solid stone. It was a noisy, yet solitary silence, and Silver was grateful for it.
Without the sound of the water, he'd be reminded too much of his nightmare. And complete silence would have also meant that he would be left to fend helplessly against the cacophony of his own thoughts. Why did his brain have to betray him in times like these?
Oh well.
"Return, Crobat," Silver uttered quietly, jumping to the wooden planks of the dock with noiseless footfalls. His mode of transportation, since he had no Pokémon who knew Surf, disappeared back into his ball with a flash of red light.
And Silver was left alone in the waterlogged cavern. Moonlight streamed half-heartedly into several large gaps in the craggy ceiling. Besides the ever-lit lanterns that hung on the four corners of the shrine, the moonlight was all that provided light in the dank place that was Dragon's Den.
Silver looked around morosely, then sank to the ground with a sigh.
This place was a sort of haven for him. It had a sort of atmosphere that could calm him and allow him to think more clearly. Why else would he come here twice a week to train, rather than scaling Mount Silver or having rematches with the Gym Leaders in Viridian City?
Well, his face darkened at the last thought, the fact that he had unpleasant memories embedded in Viridian probably made the idea of going there strike out automatically. But Dragon's Den was the only place where he could train while feeling so… at ease.
Perhaps it was the location and the fact that so few were allowed entry. After all, even though he might hold disdain for Lance's equally-costumed cousin, he wouldn't be the last to admit that she was very powerful, and that few could defeat her and thus gain the privilege to enter Dragon's Den. Perhaps it was the idea that the Den was guarded by the dragons who dwelled here, hidden in its watery depths. Perhaps it was the presence of the shrine itself that lent the enormous cave a sense of peace that shrouded everything when battles were done and over with.
Whatever it was, it was a relief to Silver, who wanted, more than anything right now, a little peace of mind.
o0O0o0O0o
Silver had lost track of how long he had been sitting there, his back against one of the posts on the pier. The only way he could keep some basic sense of time was by the angles of the moonbeams that filtered through and hit the glassy black water and the far walls. Slowly, so that one could only notice it if they hadn't been staring at them the whole while, they had crept from one end to the other.
Silver sat in a half-dozing trance. Time seemed to slip by quickly, but his eyes were open the whole time. He'd never been here overnight before. But it seemed to have its perks.
He was quite sure that several times, he had seen a few Dratini make splashing jumps out of the water, the moonlight briefly glinting over their serpentine bodies before the quite waves swallowed them up again as they played.
He jerked his head up as suddenly as if someone had shouted in his ear. He had nearly nodded off. The moonlight was still quite strong, but it had swung far over to one side of the cave, so he was certain that it was only a few hours until sunrise. But now, he could feel the presence of someone else invade the cave.
He tensed up, dragging himself to his feet to see the newcomer face to face. There appeared to be a large pillar in the water, coming towards him. He blinked and rubbed the drowsiness from his eyes. No, it was a Gyarados.
Dang, had Lyra woken up and come out to search for him on the back of her crimson beast?
No… No, as a shaft of moonlight hit the Atrocious Pokémon, he saw that the enormous serpent's scales gleamed the standard blue instead of the unusual ruby. That wasn't Garnet, Lyra's Gyarados. He tensed again. Gyarados were dangerous. It took a skilled trainer to tame one, or at least manipulate and direct one's rage.
And if this trainer happened to be someone he didn't want to meet in the dead of night, well, he would be screwed.
"Ah! Who goes there?" cried an authoritative voice so suddenly that Silver jumped. "If you have not defeated me in battle, then you have not the privilege of setting foot in Dragon's Den! Show yourself!"
Whoever it was that was riding on the back of the Gyarados took a flying leap off the monster's spiny crest, landing on the dock with ease.
He sighed, at once feeling both relief and annoyance. At least it wasn't someone who was an enemy. Though, with the way he had enraged her before, she might not hesitate in attempting to battle him.
"Calm down," he said, rolling his metallic eyes. "I'm not here to poach Dratini or anything stupid like that."
"Hey, I know that arrogant voice," she said with a note of accusation as she returned her Gyarados.
Arrogant?
She stepped closer, and Silver saw long, blue hair pulled up into a ponytail. A black and blue cape swirled behind her, and he found himself looking Johto's eighth Gym Leader in the face.
"You. You're that egocentric smart-mouth that I faced off against with Lance," she said, looking at him with remembrance and faint dislike in her eyes.
"And you're the high-and-mighty woman with the passion for crazy costumes," he replied coolly. He was exhausted and in no mood to be cordial. Clair's eyes narrowed. Obviously, she did not share her cousin's trait of being able to let any insults roll off her back.
"I'd watch it, you little Wurmple," she said, crossing her arms.
"I prefer the name Silver, actually," he retorted, sounding bored.
"And I would prefer if you gave me the respect my position deserves," Clair warned. Silver merely shrugged.
"You started it with the name-calling, not me."
Clair gritted her jaw. It was clear that had Silver not defeated her before, she would have enjoyed kicking him out of her sanctuary. But she just huffed and turned on her heel, cape swishing with her movements as she tried to ignore his company and act as though this were any ordinary night.
Easier said than done. Clair had not entirely dropped her prideful attitude. She still took losses hard, and was visibly reluctant to admit defeat without crying foul. So she was not about to train and possibly divulge her dragon-taming secrets to this… this… She shook her head, not bothering to finish the thought. But frustration was evident on her face.
Silver was annoyed, too, but he managed to disguise it much better than the Gym Leader did.
Finally, Clair's patience (now there's a bit of an oxymoron) broke. She turned back to face Silver, who was still staring off into the distance, ignoring her much more effectively than she had been ignoring him.
"Well, since it's obvious that I will not be able to progress while you are around, would you mind revealing to me the purpose of you loitering in this sacred place in the hours of predawn?"
Silver didn't even look at her as he replied. "Would you mind if I asked you to stop talking like your cousin? It's obnoxious that you try to do everything like he does. You're not Lance, so stop acting like you are!"
"How dare you?" Clair asked in shock. "I do not try to emulate every action he does. I am my own person!"
"Oh really?" Silver asked sarcastically, looking back at the older woman. "Let's see. Lance is a dragon-tamer. So are you. He placed in the Kanto Elite Four. You went to get a Gym Leader's position after. He wears a cape. You model your ridiculous outfits after him! He speaks with a wide vocabulary, and you copy him! In fact, the only damn differences are that he's more powerful and more successful, and when he loses, he loses gracefully and doesn't get pissed off!"
Didn't you do that to Lyra, though?
He angrily shoved away the nagging thought.
Clair looked stunned, and it took a few minutes for her to find her tongue.
"How dare you?" she asked again, but she looked a bit shaken. "How dare you lecture me on this? Lance told me about you before we met. Her said that he defeated you once, and that instead of taking the defeat, you turned on your own Pokémon and treated them harshly. You refused to acknowledge Lance as the victor."
Silver grimaced. It had not been his shining moment. That was for sure.
"Yeah? Well I changed."
Clair grimaced. "You have no idea what it's like."
Silver felt an influx of anger at this statement, and he responded vehemently, his fists balling up.
"I know what it feels like to live in someone's shadow. I've lived in someone else's shadow my whole damn life!" Silver blurted. He gritted his teeth, preventing himself from continuing and exposing who his family was. He took a deep breath in an attempt to control his anger, but his voice still shook with contained fury. "And I learned the hard way that acting just like that person was not the way to escape from the shadow. I had to be someone else. I had to be myself."
Clair just stared at him. He glared back, but was surprised when she sighed, her shoulders slumping.
"When I was younger, me and my older cousin were great friends," she said, and Silver noticed that the venom in her voice was gone, and she was talking normally, without the formal use of language she'd been using earlier. "I looked up to him. So when he decided to be like the elders and train dragons, I decided I'd do that too, when I was old enough. But when I finally got my Dratini, his was already a Dragonair. When I had gotten my Dratini to evolve, he had a Dragonite, and a two more Dragonair. When I finally had completed my training, the elders still hadn't approved of me, and Lance had found a place in the Elite Four. A year later, he was Champion, and I had only managed to become a Gym Leader. I thought that if I was more like him, I'd be stronger and more successful. I guess I tried to get out of his shadow the wrong way," she sighed, a tinge of irritation present in it.
"Did Lance's lecture actually get to you, then?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
"No, not really. Well, it helped a bit, but it wasn't him," Silver replied with a shake of his head.
Clair smirked with a sudden epiphany.
"Oh, not Lance, then? Maybe some other person. A girl we both know, perhaps?"
Even though the question had no hidden implications, Silver felt heat rising to his cheeks. He gave Clair a brief scowl before gazing at the water again. Clair needed no further confirmation.
"So what are you doing here, then? I come here early every morning before I open the gym, and I've never seen you sitting around here before," she said, deciding to stick her nose into the issue and find out why he would be here, alone, not training, at four in the morning.
"Is it any of your business?" Silver asked reluctantly.
"Somewhat. I agreed to protect this place, so I'll make it my business," Clair said with a sneer.
Silver groaned in aggravation.
"I needed to be alone for a while, okay?" he hissed, if only to quell the caped Gym Leader's curiosity.
"Alone?" Clair's face showed confusion. "You mean you were with someone?"
It was too late to cover his slip-up now. Grinding his teeth in frustration, he nodded.
"Who?"
Silver just continued to glare at her. And then she made the connection. Her smirk split her face again.
"You? Traveling with Lyra?"
Silver decided that he didn't like the woman's smug grin.
"It's a temporary thing, all right? We're doing some training together. That's all," Silver explained waspishly. Clair put her hands up at shoulder height.
"No need to get defensive about you and Lyra. Although I did have the sneaking suspicion that you-"
"I need to get going," Silver said as he stood up, effectively cutting her off. This only seemed to amuse her. He inwardly cursed as he released his Crobat so that the he could carry Silver to the other side of the watery cave.
"Alright then. Hope you do well in your training, Silver," Clair said, extending her hand towards him much like Lance had done some time ago in this very same place. Silver looked at it, then ultimately shook her hand.
He nodded at the older woman, then climbed onto four-winged bat's back. As he headed out, Clair muttered one last thing that he didn't hear.
"I wish you and Lyra the best of luck."
o0O0o0O0o
Well, at least she doesn't hate my very existence anymore… I think…
Silver jumped the short distance from Crobat's back to the ground in front of the Pokémon Center. No solutions had presented themselves to him while he'd sat in Dragon's Den, but his mind was more at ease. At least he would be able to glean a few hours of sleep today, since Lyra wanted to stick around Blackthorn while she did her mysterious errands.
He sleepily dragged his fingers through his hair as he trudged into the dark, quiet Pokémon Center. So few trainers managed to get to Blackthorn that the Nurse had gone to her room to sleep, but a bell served as a way of waking up a dozing Chansey who sat behind the counter.
Ignoring the sleeping, egg-shaped creature, he quietly made his way to his room. He reached for the handle before remembering that he had locked it. With a sigh, he dug one hand into his coat pocket, feeling the cool, jagged metal brush against his fingertips. He pulled out the keyring, which jingled faintly, when he heard a sudden shriek, followed by a loud thud.
"Lyra!"
Silver's eyes flew wide open, as thousands of horrifying scenarios flew through his head. Kidnap and assault were the ones that most occupied his mind. He jammed the key in the lock frantically, fumbling with the doorknob in a frenzied state for a paralyzing ten seconds, cursing rapidly before he managed to hear the click of the lock. He slammed the door open with unnecessary force and scanned the room anxiously. He felt his heart jolt when he saw a crumpled heap lying on the floor next to Lyra's bed, and automatically assumed the worst.
"Lyra," he breathed as he rushed over to the heap and shook what he was sure was Lyra's shoulder. "Lyra, are you alright?"
A light groan came from the girl, and he felt an incredible sense of relief when he noticed her stirring. Her movements were hampered by the fact that she was completely tangled up in her blanket, but eventually her face surfaced, and he glimpsed her cinnamon eyes blinking up at him in surprise.
"Silver…? You're here…" He took note of the fact that her voice trembled just slightly, and he managed to pick up a trace of fear.
"Lyra, are you alright? What the heck happened?" Silver's eyes flashed concern, and a slight bit of anger directed towards whatever it was that had scared her.
"I… I woke up, and you weren't here… I didn't see you, so… so I called you, but you weren't here… Then two huge, red eyes popped up in front of me. I-I guess I was so freaked out that I fell out of my bed," she explained in a bit of a daze.
Well, that explained the loud thud he had heard earlier. But what was this about a pair of huge, red eyes popping up out of nowh-
Wait.
Wait.
"Dammit, Gengar. Get your spiky, purple behind out here. Now," he uttered lowly, his anger more pronounced.
He ignored Lyra's lost stare, and his glaring eyes narrowed when he saw the ghost rise slowly out of the shadow of the coffee table.
He had nearly forgotten about releasing Gengar and asking him to keep an eye on Lyra until he had gotten back.
"Did you scare Lyra, you piece of-"
"Silver," Lyra managed to scold him, despite being so tired and bewildered.
He ignored her, and leered at the ghost. Gengar tried to look apologetic, but he couldn't hide his wide grin. He couldn't help finding pleasure in scaring someone, whether or not he had intended on doing it.
"I swear, I'll set Sneasel on you with a few Faint Attacks," he growled in threat. Gengar merely laughed guiltily. Silver rolled his eyes in exasperation. He promptly grabbed the empty pokeball on the table and returned the chuckling ghost fiercely. He then looked back at Lyra, who was rubbing the back of her head sheepishly. She had bumped it when she had fallen off of her bed. She met Silver's eyes and looked away abruptly, darkness hiding the pink tinge on her face.
Silver was confused by the fact that she looked ashamed and relieved at the same time.
"There's something you aren't telling me, isn't there?" he asked quietly. Lyra winced and bit her lip nervously. He sighed and took a seat on the floor next to her blanket-ensnared figure.
Silence spiraled.
"Well?" he asked, and she started. "Are you going to tell me or not?"
"I was… worried. I kept waking up every once and a while, and I felt like something was missing. Then… I woke up again and looked around to stop my worrying and… you weren't there," she whispered the last sentence. Silver frowned. Why would that bother her so much?
"I stayed awake, but I didn't move, thinking that maybe you were in the bathroom, or taking a short walk. But a couple hours passed and you still weren't back."
"I went to Dragon's Den for a while. I couldn't sleep, so I thought some fresh air would help. I ended up staying longer than I thought I would," he explained. Lyra nodded, but it was more of a quick jerk of the head, as if she was trying to convince herself of his words.
"I-I was a little worried that something happened to you, or that maybe you got sick of me and up and left, and I… got… scared."
Silver felt guilt wash over him. But he couldn't see why she had gotten so worried. She knew he could take care of himself easily, even without Pokémon if push came to shove. And why would she worry about him leaving her? Better yet, why would the idea of him leaving scare her?
He wanted to ask her these questions, but he was certain that now was a bad time. He found that, strangely, what he was more focused on was the fact that her eyes were, indeed, clouded with worry and a hint of fear. And he didn't like it. It made something in him clench uncomfortably, and all he could think about was making that fear go away.
"Psh, I know I'm a first-class jerk, but I wouldn't do something that inconsiderate," he said with a huff, trying to get her to lighten up. It half-worked. She smiled, but it was a rueful smile. He inwardly grimaced, trying to think of something else that would bring her real smile back on her face, where it fit best.
For what seemed like the hundredth time tonight, he let a sigh escape from his lips. Hesitantly, he reached out and gripped her shoulders. Lyra blinked, but she still didn't make eye contact with her red-headed rival.
"Lyra," he said firmly. "Lyra, look at me."
She tentatively obeyed so he could look her square in the eye.
"Now you listen to me," he snapped forcefully. "You asked me to come train with you, and I agreed to it. I may have been a jerk, a thief, and an ignorant, arrogant, prick in the past. That's all true. But there's one thing I never do, and that is to break my word. Especially to you. Got that?"
Lyra blinked again. Silver continued to stare her down, forcing himself to ignore his accelerated heart rate. No, to look away now might make her think that he was bluffing just to gloss over things. That was unacceptable.
"Why… especially to me?" Lyra asked in slight confusion.
Now it was Silver's turn to blink. He struggled to get some words together in his mind, since the question caught him unprepared. He knew that he meant the statement, but… why?
"Listen, you. We've been rivals ever since our first day of training. You've always managed to defeat me, even when I looked down on your methods. You kept my arrogance in check, you showed me how and why I was wrong, and you were genuinely nice to me the whole freaking time. If there's anyone in the world who deserves to have my word kept, and if that person's not you, then I have no freaking clue who that person could be."
Lyra stared at him speechlessly. He fidgeted under her gaze, suddenly feeling uncomfortable. Then, after a painfully awkward moment, Lyra reached out and hugged him tightly.
"Thank you, Silver," she whispered, her anxieties practically gone.
Silver, who had gone rigid for a half-second, relaxed into the hug and returned the embrace. He felt a peculiar warmth spread through him, as well as the protectiveness he had felt earlier. It was extremely new to him, and he had no idea of how to react to it.
But, his exhausted mind concluded, it's certainly not an unpleasant feeling…
"Hm, you're welcome," he replied shortly, before breaking off the hug. "But I'm going to go to sleep."
He helped her up off the floor so the poor girl could disentangle herself from the navy comforter before heading back to his own bed. He flopped down onto it, and before he could remove his jacket or bid goodnight to Lyra, his eyelids slid closed, and his consciousness slipped away into the distant realm of sleep.
(~)
Well, there it is. Hope you liked it, because that first half I'm not 100% sure on.
SS story recommendations:
Longshots:
"Infiltrate" by Sparks101
"Stockholm" by Liz Hollow (Completed, and awesome!)
"If I Lost on Purpose, Would You Stop Following Me?" by MarlinMarlen
"Follow Me" by SakuraMota
"Tell Me" by
One-shots:
Just read the one-shots by NicoleGoldstein13. They're awesome!
Fang wants you to review, and he wishes each of you a Happy St. Valentine's Day. Rawr.
See ya later! ~Meta-Akira