Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon or its characters. But if I did, Leaf (the female character from FireRed and LeafGreen) would appear as a character in the Pokemon Origins anime.
Silver sat on Latias's back, shock swamping his system. Lyra. The name resonated like a Perish Song in his mind, condemning his heart and his mind to a dark hole from which it would not return.
"Lyra." He said the name, and he longed for it to bring her back before the shock was overridden with a black emotion. "Lyra…LYRA!" he roared. Latias whispered condolences, but that didn't matter to him. With a dirty, badly-made fist, he punched the Distortion World barrier, wanting it to give. He slammed it over and over for at least two minutes until the skin split on his knuckles and blood poured down his hand. "Lyra…I love you. I love you so much, Lyra. I love you with every ounce of strength I have," he whispered, slamming his forehead against the portal.
From behind him came a voice that exacerbated his anger. "There's no point. She's gone," Morty, the Arceus-damned Gym Leader from Ecruteak City, the one whose Gengar had just ruined everything, sat behind him on Ho-oh.
The Gym Leader certainly wasn't prepared for Silver to fling himself off of Latias's back and onto Ho-oh's and punch him in the face with his bloody, torn-up fist.
Silver! Latias cried as Silver drove his elbow into the Gym Leader's chest. What are you doing?!
"F*** you, Morty! F*** you! Your f***ing Gengar ruined everything! Give me one of your ghosts! She'll die because of you, so help me, you stupid bastard!" Silver screamed, not caring how insane he had to look. "HELP ME GET HER BACK!"
Morty deflected Silver's next attack and threw him down against Ho-oh's back, pinning him. Tears prickled in his eyes when he noticed Morty's expression was filled with devastation as well. "This was Ho-oh's idea! He wanted to know how the portal worked! Don't blame me! And I'm not sending you back in there! Giratina will kill you, too!" he roared, his voice thick with barely-contained sobs.
"I don't give a f*** whose idea it was! I'm going in there! Better to die by her than live without her!" Silver roared, grabbing Morty by the shoulders and flinging him aside. He reached for the Gym Leader's belt to snag one of his Pokeballs.
Silver. Please don't get yourself killed, Raikou whispered, his voice filled with leaden shock. Giratina is going to kill anyone that comes in his line of sight right now. I don't want another one of my human friends getting killed.
"Mellow's in there, I doubt Lyra's dead yet. Even if it wasn't going well for Mellow she'd pull through. And Gengar was in there, too. And Shuppet," Silver muttered to himself, his voice crazed. But I don't trust anyone else to keep her safe. I have to go get her. I need to save her, and I need to save her now.
Before anyone could tell him otherwise, Silver lunged for Morty's belt again and snatched a Pokeball off of it. He pressed the button, releasing a Mismagius that squinted painfully against the sun. "Help me!" he begged the Pokémon, who looked relatively confused by the sudden change of scenery.
Morty lunged for Silver, trying to steal the Pokeball back, but Silver drove his elbow fiercely into Morty's bruised-looking shoulder, earning a loud howl of physical devastation from him. Mismagius's interest-filled gaze fell onto Silver; very few ever elbowed his Trainer in front of him. "Please help me," he croaked. "I need you to cross through the portal with me, otherwise Lyra will die. I know that you know her; please help her, and help me, too."
Return his Pokémon right now, Ho-oh commanded, but Silver would have none of that. When Morty lunged for him again, he took a chance and leapt off of Ho-oh's back. Morty shouted profanities as Silver fell—but surely enough, Mismagius caught Silver with its rippling arms. With a serious nod, the ghost levitated toward the portal with Silver.
"We have to save her," he growled, "or she'll never know that I felt the same way about her."
The moment Giratina grabbed her, Lyra prepared for two things: possibly dying and hopefully curing him of his hatred. As his tentacle wrapped around her, she let her hands drop so she could grab the length of Destiny Knot she'd stuffed unceremoniously into her pocket. Even if she couldn't save herself, she wanted to be able to save all of the Pokémon. He whipped her to the ground, and Lyra kept a firm grip on her wadded-up Destiny Knot even as the air was knocked violently from her lungs. As the stars cleared from her eyes, Lyra noticed Giratina crouching over her with a tentacle pushed forcefully against her ribs. His expression was entirely unhinged, suggesting there was little hope for a happy ending. Nearby, Mellow attempted to struggle to her feet while Gengar slumped motionless against the boulder he was thrown against, with a worn-looking Shuppet worrying over both of them. In his snapped state, Giratina was far more powerful than what he'd demonstrated earlier. The absence of their health reminded Lyra that she had to fly this one solo. Focusing her attention on Giratina, Lyra gave a depraved smirk, channeling all of the fourteen-year-old-Silver she could possibly muster, even as her heart skipped every third beat in fear of her life being ended brutally. "Taking out someone else's mistake on me?" she asked, slowly unraveling the Destiny Knot in her hand. She needed to stall him from attacking her.
Giratina's tentacle pressed hard against her ribs. I don't trust you, he growled. It was all a ploy; you only wanted to savage me brutally in the end. His dark blood dripped onto Lyra as he leaned his face in closer. You can't eradicate me, you vapid woman.
"That isn't my plan!" Lyra exclaimed, desolation coloring her voice darkly. "I just want Pokémon like Mellow and Shuppet to be happy and free to do what they want! You say you want others to know how you feel, but you are so miserable! Why would you want anyone else to be as miserable? Do you really want everyone else to hurt as badly as you do?"
Yes, Giratina said, and his tentacle pushed down so hard on her ribs that she felt her lower ones crack. Lyra screamed. The sound seemed to splinter the Distortion World. Why do you care so much about them? He snapped, his voice swirling through Lyra's head strangely. Why do you care so much about others? How do you do it? How can you do it?
"I…just want…others…to be happy…and…free…" Lyra forced out. She couldn't breathe properly; she wondered if Giratina had punctured one of her lungs. "Life…is far too short…to…not…be…happy."
What of the Pokémon you capture? You have them. I saw your belt and the devices you kept them in. Aren't they slaves? And what of that boy you confessed your love to when he will forever be burdened by the fact that you died here instead of living with him? Will he not be weighed down by the idea of what could be? Giratina snarled.
Lyra closed her eyes and gave a smile. The thought of her beloved rival and her Pokémon friends dulled the pain. Whenever Giratina lost his momentary composure and killed Lyra, the thought of those she loved would be enough to keep her from suffering for too long. "Silver…won't…have to…guess…anymore…about me. That…should…make…m-make him…happy," she paused, trying to regain air before adding, "And…my…incredible… Pokémon…they…chose…me…not…the other way…around. They love…me," she wheezed.
And won't it disappoint them that you chose to cross me and die? Giratina snarled. Lyra opened her eyes slightly, watching one of his tentacles rise higher. He planned to smash her. End her. Go figure; she wanted to end this without violence; instead, she would die by the most violent means she could imagine. The irony was almost laughable.
A massive Shadow Ball blasted Giratina's raised tentacle, knocking him sideways. Lyra glanced sideways to see Shuppet and Gengar at ready, with Mellow standing, albeit shakily, at their head. She'd lost nearly all of her head blade and her back leg seeped volumes of blood due to her fight with Giratina, but she was standing and standing proudly at that. "Mellow…?" Lyra breathed.
Do the cure. Now. We'll keep him immobile, Mellow told her, half a smile tugging at her mouth. You're too nice to die a death like this one. Without another word spared, Giratina, Mellow and Shuppet triple-teamed the massive Legendary with Shadow Balls and other attacks, keeping him from moving the tentacle that was pressed over Lyra or moving away at all. With herculean effort, Lyra lifted her arm holding the mostly-untangled Destiny Knot. The movement hurt her injured ribs so badly she wanted to cry out, but she would do no such thing to alert Giratina. Gleaming with a violet hue in the light of the Distortion World, the Destiny Knot was wrapped tightly about the tentacle. She took the loose end in her hand and tied it around her own wrist.
Motion became a concept lost to Giratina. He froze in the middle of a slap at Gengar. Every active, writhing tentacle fell limp as the knot around Lyra's wrist was finished being tied. His expression of rage melted away, leaving a stark one of a bare bones understanding. Looking down at Lyra, he gently removed his tentacle from her ribs and her abdomen. What…what have I done? he whispered, his eyes massive in his hideous face. I…I am so sorry, he whispered, slumping forward.
Lyra held out a Mental Herb shakily. Breathing had become a difficult task, far more difficult than mustering the courage to stand up to this Pokémon and possibly die by him. "Giratina…eat this. You'll feel better. You'll forget the hatred and the horror."
He eyed the herb, and without a moment's hesitation, he dipped his head forward and ate it from Lyra's hand. The moment he entered his mouth, his eyes rolled back and he slumped to the ground, his form twitching. Mellow darted over to Lyra and cut the Destiny Knot tying the two together with her broken head blade. She accidentally sliced the outside of Lyra's wrist; her coordination seemed suddenly impaired. Lyra, before I lose the language you understand, I'd like to thank you, she said in a quiet voice. With each word, Lyra noticed it became more slurred; as the cure worked slowly through Giratina, it began to work on her, too. No one has ever wished me happiness before, and as selflessly as you. So…thank you…for…every…Mellow fell to her side, convulsing.
Lyra managed a weak smile as the black leaked from Mellow's fur, and the glow of her frightening red eyes softened. Her head blade, or what was left of it, lost its serrated edge, leaving a gorgeous Pokémon that reminded Lyra vaguely of the yin-yang symbol in her place. "No, Mellow…thank…you," she breathed.
Gengar and Shuppet rushed over to her. "Miss Lyra! No, no, no! Please don't die on us! You're too young and pretty and nice to become a ghost!" Shuppet cried as Gengar attempted to lift her from the ground, though he lacked the physical strength to do so.
"You're too…sweet…" Lyra complained, with a choked bark of laughter. Everything hurt so badly; she didn't have much air left in her body.
"Lyra, don't waste your breath. We'll get you out of here. I promise!" Shuppet cried, her eyes wide as Lyra began to lose focus.
You're all so very kind, Lyra thought. With unfocused eyes she noticed the white lump—Mellow—rise to her feet and dart after Gengar, who had resorted to dragging the human girl away.
Distantly, she heard a voice roar her name, and the slap of hurried footsteps on a rocky floor. Lyra recognized Silver's voice, but she felt that it wouldn't be like that night in Ecruteak, where she woke up from a nightmare to have Silver in her bed. She didn't know there would be any waking up from this slumber. Warm arms scooped her up, and something warm—lips, maybe?—pressed to her forehead, and sweet nothings and desperation hummed in her ears as Silver carried her away. He came back for me. I'm sorry, Silver. I don't know if I can come back from this…even…for you…
Lyra's eyelids fluttered shut, and a velvety blackness greeted her.
The thirty-six hours that passed after finding Lyra dragged so slowly for Silver that he was certain that Dialga, the master of time, had conspired against him to make him suffer more. Upon leaving the Distortion World with a badly-injured and unresponsive Lyra in his arms, he'd leapt onto a rather unsuspecting Raikou's back with the demand that he take her to the nearest hospital.
Sterile and painted in what was supposed to be soothing pastels, the Lilycove General Hospital was the place that Raikou had flown to at top speed. Teams of doctors and nurses had worked for eight hours straight on Lyra when they'd brought her in. Her list of injuries had included five broken ribs—one of which had punctured her right lung and nearly caused it to collapse—a partially dislocated jaw from blunt trauma, and some damage to her intestines and stomach had occurred due to "massive amounts of pressure and force". After three procedures in the span of twenty hours, all damage had been corrected and Lyra had been put under to rest. The doctor in charge of looking after Lyra, a slender, blonde woman named Dr. Millar, informed Silver that it was due to the large amount of physical and emotional stress the young woman had undergone.
"Don't worry, though. We've started lessening the dose it takes to put her under, and within a day or so she'll be awake and alert. And also ready to go home," the doctor had said in a voice that was much too clinical, trying to soothe the agitated Trainer as he paced back and forth when Lyra once again entered recovery.
Sixteen sleepless hours later, Silver realized this was the toll of curing a mad Legendary from his all-consuming hatred. Lyra hadn't been anywhere near death, but the physical shock and the emotional pain that followed had been enough to land her in the hospital for at least a day and a half now. Unlike Johto and Kanto hospitals, Hoenn had a strict family-only rule when a patient was unconscious. Lyra's mother had yet to make an appearance—the average travel time to the Hoenn took up to a week by boat and nearly two straight days of flying by airplane. After talking to her over the Pokegear twice, Silver had calmed her enough about Lyra's condition to spare her the expensive plane ticket. "If she wakes up in two hours, she'd be released in another ten, and quite frankly, Mrs. Soul, we'd already be headed back to the Johto by the time you even make it here by plane," Silver had assured her. Instead of worrying about Lyra, he'd merely gotten an earful about how her name was Chiyo, not Mrs. Soul, and that she had also dropped her husband's last name when he'd left her and her daughter.
Except now Silver was pacing the halls, mostly alone. Mellow had joined him in the hospital in her cured state with Shuppet in tow, along with Latias in her human form when she wasn't helping Morty, Rayquaza, Raikou, and Ho-oh relocate all of the Pokémon that had been cured by Lyra's nearly self-sacrificial work. Unlike Lyra, he couldn't converse with them and couldn't begin to guess at what Shuppet was saying every time she jabbered at him in her meek little voice.
"Are you Silver?" greeted an unfamiliar male voice. Ceasing to pace, Silver turned to see a man about Morty's age with silvery hair and lavender eyes, dressed primly in a black suit trimmed with purple accents. Something about him seemed vaguely familiar, but Silver couldn't put his finger on it.
His instinctual reaction was to frown. "Yeah. I am. Who are you?" he asked, his voice sounding flat and ragged to his own ears.
"I'm Steven Stone, a friend of Lyra's," he greeted in a somber voice. "I was blown away when I heard what she did. It doesn't surprise me by any stretch of the imagination, but it was just terrible to hear. I mean, I'd been working hard to rally a force against the ghosts at Mt. Pyre, but suddenly there were no more ghosts like the ones there." He paused, gauging Silver's reaction. "If I'd done it sooner, she wouldn't be here."
Silver couldn't find it in himself to be angry with his steely-haired stranger. "It's fine. She'll be fine," he said, more for himself than for Steven's sake. "But how do you know my name?"
He gestured toward the mop-headed figure of Latias's human form. "The young…lass…out there told me who you were and I had to meet you. Lyra was never the sort to be a fangirl, not even over particularly 'attractive' male Trainers with a lot of power, but yet she spent a lot of time oozing over you," Steven said with a faint smirk. "Consider yourself a lucky man, attracting her attention like that."
Silver found himself blushing slightly, wondering whether or not he should accept Steven's backhanded compliment, but he nodded. "I'm just happy she's alive," he said simply.
Steven took something out of his pocket and handed it to Silver. "Give this to Lyra when she wakes up, as a thank-you from me to her. Tell her to regain her Champion title, too. I find my current Johto counterpart to be quite…sullen. The rest of the Hoenn League has a gift for both of you, but it's a little too important to bring here." Before Silver could even glance at the object that had been pressed into his palm or ask what they were going to give them, Steven, apparently the Hoenn Champion, sauntered out of the hospital.
Raising his eyebrows slightly, Silver glanced down at his palm. A Shiny Stone had been pressed into his hand…what did Lyra possibly need that for? Just when he thought he would be left alone once more, a hand tapped his shoulder. Silver turned to see a dark-haired male nurse with a tired expression and a dusting of stubble on his jaw. "Are you here for Lyra Soul?" he asked, pushing his glasses further up on his nose.
He nodded, trying not to look too anxious. "I am. What's up with her?"
"She's starting to wake up. We think it'd be nice for her to have familiar faces around her when she does. If you'd like, you can bring the Absol and the Shuppet with you," the nurse added. Silver didn't have to be told twice. Calling Mellow and Shuppet to him, he strode after the nurse. He glanced to see if Latias would follow, but she, too, had disappeared, like the enigma of a man known as Steven Stone.
Silver was escorted to a room in recovery, and along the way the nurse re-informed him that Lyra would be released if she was alert and showed signs of emotional and physical stability in the next few hours. Quite frankly, the hospital possessed little room for long-term patients. Once they arrived, the nurse let Silver and the two Pokémon into the room, but didn't follow. "Doctors and nurses have been poking and prodding and stitching her for the past day and a half. I doubt she wants to see any more of us right now," the nurse said, and he shut the door behind the ragtag group he'd let into the room.
Silver gazed at Lyra with a thick throat. With various machines and tubes hooked up to her body, Lyra seemed smaller and weaker than she ever had. Much of her body appeared to be bruised or scraped, yet with eyes that were just starting to open, she gazed at Silver.
Whatever it was that clogged Silver's throat thickened, and he took a seat next to her bed. Carefully he slid his hand under hers. "Lyra," he whispered, squeezing gently.
She gave him a faint smile, squeezing back. Her eyelids seemed heavy yet; they settled back over her eyes. Lifting her hand gently, Silver kissed the back of her hand. Quietly, he said, "Take your time. Don't force yourself awake like a dumbass."
Lyra chuckled softly. "But I am a dumbass," she whispered, lacing her fingers through his with some effort. Silver let their intertwined hands rest on the hospital bed as she added quietly, "Is Giratina cured?"
"Morty says he retreated far into the Distortion World after your cure took effect. All of the beasts were cured, too, like Entei guessed," Silver explained to her, reaching forward to brush hair from her forehead as her expression relazed. "Steven Stone came here. I think he's a condescending dick and everything, but he brought you this as a get-well present."
Lyra took the Shiny Stone in her other hand and opened her eyes to look at it. "Perfect," she breathed. "I can evolve my Togetic now."
"Didn't you give your Togetic to Ethan?"
"I tried. The two didn't get along well," she said airily, an amused smirk twitching on her lips. Silver couldn't help but smile himself. Togetic, one of Lyra's training projects back from when Silver and Lyra travelled the Kanto together, got along with almost anyone; it was a marvel that Ethan didn't fall under that expansive category.
However, Silver noticed Lyra's expression grow serious. "I'm sorry for the things I told you before Giratina pulled me into the Distortion World."
Silver's stomach twisted oddly. Frowning, he asked, "Why are you sorry about that?"
"It was untoward of me. And if I'd died, you would've had that to hold onto for all the years you lived after," she murmured, and she pulled her hand out of her grasp. "If you don't feel the same way…I understand."
Silver groaned. "Dammit, Lyra. Don't belittle yourself like that!" Reaching forward, he took her face into his palms, gazing at her intently. "I've been stupid, and I almost waited until it was too late to tell you as always."
"What are you saying?" she asked, her voice raspy.
Before he lost his nerve, Silver said, "Lyra, I've loved you for four years. I've wanted nothing more than to be with you since I was thirteen," he said. Hanging his head in shame, he added, "And like the stupid f***er I am, I lost you for three years. I lost our friendship, I lost everything we had."
Lyra was silent for a few moments, aside from the steady gust of her breath. She murmured, "Come closer."
Silver looked at her curiously and leaned in. Slowly, she raised her hands to cup his face. "Closer, you doofus," she whispered.
He leaned in tentatively, and Lyra closed the distance between them, pressing her lips to his in an almost apologetic manner. Silver's heart rate and breathing quickened, and he slid his arms down to wrap them around her back, deepening and strengthening their kiss. The gentle blips of Lyra's heart monitor became quicker, but neither Silver or Lyra cared. It was only when Mellow gave a polite cough from the corner she and Shuppet had delegated themselves to when the young lovers realized that they weren't exactly alone in the room.
"I want to say sorry, but I'm really not," Lyra stammered with a chuckle as Mellow rolled her eyes; the former rivals peeled away from each other at her obvious distaste in their actions.
Silver kept a level gaze on Lyra as Mellow and Shuppet took this as an invitation to come closer and greet her. She yelped in shock as the small ghost Pokémon threw herself into Lyra's arms, nuzzling her collarbone affectionately. "Hello, sweetheart!" she greeted Shuppet. As Shuppet chattered at her, she gazed at Mellow, who sat statuesque at the end of the bed with cool eyes. Her damaged head blade already began the process of growing back; new keratinous "Mellow…I can't thank you enough for what you did for all of us," she murmured, dipping her head.
"I owe you for saving Lyra's life, don't I?" Silver asked. Mellow gazed at him strangely, cocking her head. He held his hand out to her. "How about Lyra and I take care of you?" he asked.
With startled eyes, Mellow glanced at Lyra, who smiled at her kindly. "Would you let one of us take you in? You don't even have to battle for us or take orders from us; we just want you to have a home. You, too, Shuppet," Lyra added, brushing her hand over the ghost's head, earning a happy cry from the youngster. "Just let us—" Before she could finish, Mellow did something incredibly out-of-character. Eyes filled with certain gentleness, she gently padded toward Lyra on the bed, and without tripping over any of the tubes in the girl's arms, Mellow pressed the blade-less side of her face against Lyra's.
"I'll…take that as a yes?" Lyra questioned. Mellow pulled away and gave a shaky nod. The disbelief in her eyes was evident; yet, deep within them, Silver sensed a curl of desperation to find a home and with the human who seemed to care about her. Lyra smoothed Mellow's chest ruff good-naturedly. "Welcome to the family, you two," Lyra said breathily, embracing an overenthusiastic Shuppet in one arm and patting Mellow with the other.
Silver couldn't help but smile a little at Lyra's quiet enthusiasm. He let her spend some time chatting back and forth with the Pokémon without his interruption. In their conversation, Shuppet mostly chattered at Lyra and translated a few things for Mellow, since Lyra couldn't understand her now that she wasn't a beast anymore. Minutes had passed before Shuppet realized Silver was waiting silently and with more patience than he could usually muster. Mellow seemed to have pointed this out to her, though. With an apologetic look on her young, sweet face, she said something to him, which Lyra translated kindly. "She says that she's sorry for monopolizing me—nice word, Shuppet," she added, poking her horn affectionately. "She and Mellow are going to step out for a bit."
The two Pokémon let themselves out of the sterile room; unlike many wild Pokémon, Mellow seemed to have a keen sense for how human establishments and belongings worked. Moments of silence stretched between Lyra and Silver. Gazing at Silver with hazy tawny eyes, Lyra asked, "Silver…what are we?"
"Vague question you're asking there. Trainers? Heterotrophs? Johtonese—well, technically, I'm Kantonese, but you get what I mean. You're not a moron."
Lyra whacked his arm playfully. "That's quite the compliment from you. 'You're not a moron'," she quoted mockingly, rolling her eyes. "But…I guess I should've word that better."
Silver folded his arms across his chest. "What are you getting at?" he questioned.
"Silver, we didn't talk for three years, and we were only friends back then...even if we might've been interested in each other…and…well…I guess what I want to know is…what are we now? Friends don't let friends kiss each other's necks, after all. That's not a platonic sort of thing," Lyra commented, her gaze cool but her cheeks flushed on the last comment.
Taking a sudden and overpowering interest in a flyaway hair, Silver took a moment to think, mulling over the connotation of her question. "You're trying to say that we can't have the same relationship as before," Silver pondered aloud.
"We've both changed a lot. We never would've dated back then. We probably would've never gotten the nerve or given each other the chance," Lyra said, frowning slightly. Curling her knees closer to her chest, she exhaled and added, "We can't really be friends as we are right now. It's obvious we don't think of each other like that. I think…I think we should…be…together. In a romantic sort of way." Her voice tapered off quietly at the end, and her eyebrows were furrowed with a mixture of concern and embarrassment at the blatant phrasing of her statement.
"Arceus, woman. You're acting as though I wouldn't want that, Lyra, but it's all I've wanted for four years," Silver grumbled. To prove his point, he leaned forward and kissed her on the tip of the nose. "If you're just in it for getting kissed on the neck, I'd still take everything that I can get," Silver said, smirking at her.
Her flushed cheeks burned brighter yet, and she leaned away from him, giggling nervously. "Don't be untoward, Mr. Silver! You shall make the ladies faint," she crooned in a melodramatic voice suited for an over-the-top operetta.
Silver assumed a dangerously serious expression he might've worn when he was younger. "There's nothing untoward about kissing your willing victim on the neck, you fool."
"Creepy much?" Lyra muttered, but he noticed that she'd tilted her head slightly to the side, inviting the sort of kiss on the neck he'd given her just yesterday. He glanced at her, checking for the assurance that he was allowed to do it. However, before he got far, the door open and Lyra's door walked in, hindering progress.
Dr. Millar gazed at Silver, with his head bent at a strange angle, and Lyra, with a red face, and merely sighed deeply. "At least she's awake while you're doing this," she commented wryly, earning a chorus of rebuttals from the teenagers.
Due to Lyra's early morning revival—she'd woken up a little after three in the morning—and relatively good shape in spite of undergoing a few surgeries, she was released from the hospital under the condition that Silver kept an eye out on her condition in place of a relative, since her mother was so far away. Likewise, Lyra wasn't allowed to eat solid foods or lift large amounts of weight for a while—another thing Silver had to keep an eye on.
From there they were left to navigate the unknown port of Lilycove City together. It wasn't nearly as cramped and chaotic as Slateport, but the two were turned around, nonetheless. "This is stupid," Silver muttered as they hid themselves from the sun underneath the veranda of a shop. "We need to buy plane or boat tickets and get home. Or we should try and find the others and help them out in any way we can."
Fanning herself with a straw hat she'd bought at a nearby stand, Lyra chuckled at Silver and immediately clapped a hand to her diaphragm. Her ribs hurt her whenever she stood, especially if she laughed. "Silver, you do understand we've been running around like a bunch of Farfetch'd with our heads cut off, right? How about we find some cute little inn or a swanky hotel or something and just relax until tomorrow? I don't want you running yourself ragged when you're already supposed to be babysitting me," she informed him, a hint of a smirk Silver recognized as one similar to his own creeping onto her features. Their traits had bled into each other in their three-year hiatus, apparently.
Thinking about Lyra's suggestion, he watched an elderly couple sitting near the window of a restaurant across the way take each other's free hands, even as they read separate newspapers and occasionally took bites of sandwiches. Silver never used to believe in taking breaks and playing it cool, but there was something appealing about the idea. He figured that it had something to do with spending some one-on-one time with Lyra. After very little deliberation, he nodded. "That's not a bad idea. Let's see if we can find something relatively quiet. We can't have you getting overexcited."
"Seriously, are you my mother or what?"
"No, I don't want you to re-break the rib they had to surgically repair getting all jumpy and excited over something!"
The day began to pass in a pleasant blur. After some wandering around, they discovered a small and attractive inn called the Cove Lily that they checked into. Lyra fit in well with the people of the inn; in a red summer dress with a floor-length skirt, she looked breezy and warm, even though she was just in the hospital recovering from a series of operations earlier that day. Silver couldn't remember the flavor of ice cream he'd eaten that day or how he'd managed sand in his shoes at the beach, but he did remember the way Lyra shot him secretive little smiles in spite of the obvious pain she was in and the way that she would link her arm through his as normally as if they'd been an item for years. He also remembered the way she'd released all of her Pokémon, with Glaceon, Shuppet, and Mellow, whom she refused to put in PC boxes yet, on accident and almost capsized the floating dock they'd been standing on to watch the surfers on the beach. This was mostly because he'd laughed at her until tears leaked from his eyes and Lyra attempted to hide her face in shame. Though the moments were fairly silly or trivial, he found them far more important than the large, brazen memories he had of her as a Champion. This was her personality and her spirit in their purest form. Not only that, but those moments became the proof that she wanted to be with him and cared about what he thought and felt about her.
By the time the sun set and the stars winked to life, Silver and Lyra were sitting on the beach, gazing up at the stars. The scene was familiar to him; he remembered all of Lyra's stories about the constellations and was able to identify them, tracing his finger out in front of them and pointing them out to her. "And…that's…Canis Major…the Arcanine, right?" Silver questioned, frowning a little as he traced the constellation with his index finger.
"Yeah. It's much harder to see in the Johto at this time of year, quite honestly," Lyra muttered, almost to herself, but then she smiled. The crescent moon overhead cast her in a glimmer of pearl grays that made her look so divine and incredible to Silver. "It's been a while since we've looked at the stars like this."
"We've never looked at the stars like this," Silver commented, tentatively wrapping an arm around Lyra's shoulder. As he pulled her closer, she pressed a kiss to the hinge of his jaw and rested her forehead against his neck, making his heart accelerate dangerously in his chest.
Lyra seemed to smile into the crook of his shoulder. "Some people would probably kill you for being snarky, but it's one of my favorite things about you, you know."
"I'm just happy that you like me at all, honestly."
"Selling yourself short?" Lyra muttered, earning a low growl from Silver that made her laugh. The two fired their rapid banter back and forth as they giggled, kissed and embraced deep into the night.
High above, the crescent moon grinned knowingly down on the most unlikely of young lovers.
A/N: Hello and welcome to the final chapter of It's Been A While-aside from the epilogue, which I haven't had a chance to start on yet. Anyway, this just sort of ends the problem the beasts present and there will be more closure in the epilogue.
So...was that fluffy enough for you guys? Kissing? Confessions? LOVE?! This story ended up being far more of that than I'd originally planned, actually. This was originally going to be a lot darker with a bittersweet ending, but I couldn't bring myself to do that to my OTP...
I don't have a lot to say today, which is quite unusual. I guess I don't have anything I feel like I need to justify with this chapter aside from a lack of closure with the Pokemon that had become beasts, what Lyra and Silver's friends are doing, etc. And also Morty is still on everyone's crap list, but it just might remain that way for fun.
Thank you all so much for reading. You're incredible, guys. I've worked really hard to give you guys a decent fic, and this is also my first totally finished fic! Whoo! And it's also my first serious attempt at a Pokemon fic, too, so I had no idea this would become so popular amongst the Soulsilvershippers!
Please leave a review for this chapter. I'll be glancing at them as I decide the most tactful way to write the epilogue and close out the ending of It's Been A While, which I started writing exactly seven months ago from yesterday, actually, and it was going to be a one-shot at the time. Look how things change!
I promise the epilogue will come up within the next week or so, and then I'll write my official end-note there.
Be safe, everyone!