Chapter Twenty-Eight -- Dramaqueen
Diamondpelt basked in the shade the foliage the greenhouse provided, a giant bubble connecting to her snout indicated she was sleeping peacefully. Aldara made a perch closer to the tinted ceiling on a tall oak, down below her was Blaze and Panther chasing each other merrily. Victory, the newest recruit, watched the team wearily from her own coils from atop a large sunning rock. Kameko stayed close to Ivory, her tails swaying with each movement as Ivory made her way under a tree to lay on her stomach.
Ivory's pale skin hungrily soaked up the comfort the thick grass provided as she placed her face down on the cool surface. Kameko followed suit with a content sigh.
"It doesn't even feel like it's all inside…" Ivory commented lazily, completely uncaring of her condition (on the run from Team Rocket) at the moment. The stress was still there; all the pokemon felt it but chose to ignore it all for the time being. No one could blame them, especially since there were others looking out for danger anyway.
Panther tackled Blaze into the ground, avoiding his flaring tail. Diamondpelt automatically shifted away from the fire in her sleep and Aldara rolled her eyes.
Ivory pondered over the lizard, he was becoming more energetic. He wanted to spend more time with his teammates and seemed more alive every day. Perhaps it was the Cecil in him; he was never a boy to dwell on the past…
"Hi, name's Cecil. Cecil O'Brien, I noticed a moving truck and just thought I'd come over-"
Ivory shook her head then buried her face into her arms; Kameko's eyelids drooped in sorrow towards her trainer. She wasn't a hundred percent sure what she was thinking about, but lately anything that went through her mind was melancholy.
"Blazing Heart, Blaze for short. With my pokemon, I'm gonna beat every Kanto gym leader and beat the Elite Four! If I'm lucky, I'll go one-on-one with Ash Ketchum! That would be awesome!"
Ivory sniffed, forcing the memory back into the crevices of her mind. Blaze jumped to his feet and playfully waved his tail at the Normal-type, Panther squealed and ran off, Blaze pursued but not as fast as the eevee.
"Hey, knew I would find you here!" Ryuu cried, shock rendered Ivory frozen. She heard a smile in that exclamation! In fact, he was grinning as he strolled over with a Styrofoam cup in each hand. He plopped down beside Ivory before offering her one.
"It's hot chocolate," he tempted; Ivory blamed it on the Grass pokemon that surrounded them. Ryuu had to be intoxicated off their Sweet Scent! Even Kameko was eyeing strangely to prove her point.
"The grass can't possibly smell as good as this!" Ryuu was already taking quick sips from the cup in his left hand while still offering the other in his right.
"C'mon! It's something other than water, I thought you would leap for it," he teased.
"Who are you and what have you done with Ryuu?" Ivory questioned as she finally peered up at him, her eyes rimmed with red. Ryuu sighed when he glanced at her face.
"What is it this time?" he asked, but not unkindly. Ivory huffed.
"I thought you would know by now I cry over everything," she growled, shame written all over her morale. Ryuu took another drink from his hot chocolate, as if hoping it would keep him from making an outburst.
"You didn't cry when you fell from Mt. Moon,"
"That was actually kind of funny, I landed on you." She smiled as she looked back on the event; Ryuu unconsciously reached for his back where it had ached two days after the painful encounter.
"What about getting your nose fixed? You didn't cry then either,"
"Funny, I don't remember you being around?"
"Casey told me,"
"Who didn't she tell?"
"Giovanni,"
"What?" Ivory peered at Ryuu with confusion, he smirked.
"Giovanni doesn't know you broke your nose,"
"Shuddup,"
"Now your little button nose resembles a crushed aluminum can-"
"It does not!" Ivory snapped as she grabbed her nose as if to be sure it was fine, Ryuu laughed at her reaction.
"I'm kidding! Geez Dramaqueen," Ivory seemed to finally notice the hot chocolate.
"Is that for me?" she asked slowly, Ryuu shrugged.
"If you want it," he replied blandly, her azure eyes kept focused on the older teen. Then cautiously she raised her hand to it; she was only paranoid because she felt Ryuu would only start moving it away from her as his nature commands.
"Oh, stop!" she barked as he did begin moving it away with a smirk.
"Stop boy!" she said, but wasn't expecting it when he did. Some of the hot chocolate grazed the edge and dropped onto her outstretched hand.
"Ow!"
"You okay?"
"Fine, fine," she took the steaming cup and fondled it in her hands. Ryuu chuckled.
"Did I ever tell you how I got Blaze?"
"Hm, the charmander?"
"Yes,"
"I don't recall, why?"
"He came from a friend of mine from Pallet," she explained, Ryuu suddenly felt the atmosphere drop a few degrees. Was this friend of hers killed in the bombing?
"He left Pallet before it was…yeah," she answered his unspoken thought, "he was shot and killed by a Rocket I think, I wasn't around when it happened."
"What was his name?" Ryuu asked.
"Cecil O'Brien,"
"Oh, that kid that defeated Erika?"
"Erika? He was never here-"
"I heard some of the trainers here talking about him, Erika wasn't hard on him, she battled him with a bellsprout and an oddish. He got the Rainbow Badge,"
"How did he get all the way over here?" Nothing was making sense, Cecil was killed a long ways from here with only Blaze as his partner! Worse, she hadn't even bothered looking for other valuables on him before she buried him! She could've given whatever badges he won to his parents…
She forgot again.
Ivory couldn't help but remain gloomy for another five minutes as her hot chocolate cooled. Ryuu was drinking his happily as if it wasn't over a hundred degrees Fahrenheit. Then again, he probably liked it hot or he got his sooner than hers. She set the cup on the grass with her hands still cradling it; Kameko was beginning to doze off.
"He did somehow, but it was rough," Ryuu said suddenly, she looked up at him with woeful blue eyes, he didn't look her way. He had finished his beverage and now held it with his hand over a bent leg, his back against the tree behind them. "Erika said he was in pretty bad shape, took about two weeks before he could walk again she said…a houndour or something got a hold of his leg…"
"Oh," what else was she supposed to say? There wasn't a Cecil O'Brien alive for her to pity, sympathizing for him while he died doing something he wanted didn't feel right.
"I…can see how you two became friends," Ryuu finished awkwardly as he adjusted his position a little. Ivory smiled softly, Cecil was a sweet kid in his own right. Why were the innocent ones always the first to go? It wasn't right, the evil ones shouldn't exist…the fact that Cecil's murderer was still on the loose scared and angered Ivory.
"He would've liked you, he would've been like me…" Ivory whispered, Ryuu cocked his head.
"What? You mean-"
"You would be one of his role models, Ash Ketchum was one of them." Ivory explained in more detail with exasperation written all over her features. "He liked to battle, when I first met him all he ever talked about was pokemon and battling…" A look similar to the one she had in the cave while having a nightmare smeared across her face. She instantly dropped the subject and went silent.
"I told Erika your story,"
"Since day one?" Ivory attempted to joke, Ryuu grinned lightly.
"Day one since your dead weight plummeted me into the ground," he retorted playfully, Ivory snorted.
"You shouldn't have been there,"
"You would've looked like a pancake,"
"Ewww…"
"Yep, Erika said she wishes to battle you." Ivory got to her knees.
"Really?"
"I had a feeling you would like the idea,"
"Are you kidding! It seems like we haven't battled in centuries! When can we?" Ivory asked, Ryuu searched his brain.
"Uh…tonight or tomorrow I think," Ryuu replied, Ivory's eyes shined, the first they had since…well, Ryuu couldn't remember. It must've been a long time since he had seen her so happy, which saddened him because he knew he was mostly the reason why she was so plaintive.
"Who are you going to use?" Ryuu questioned, referring to her team. Ivory peered over at them.
"Blaze is definitely one of them, he's been doing really well and I think he's ready…Aldara, she's a Flying type…do you know what the rules will be?" Ivory asked, Ryuu looked up in thought.
"Three-on-three I do believe,"
"All right Dr. Suess," Ivory laughed, Ryuu smiled in return as she went on to think of the third fighter.
"Chandra? Hm…I don't Panther sliced and diced,"
"You want Chandra sliced and diced?" Ryuu raised a brow, Ivory flushed.
"T-That's not what I meant!" she went on the defensive quickly.
"I think Panther will do well, what attacks does he know?"
"Tackle…Sand Attack…Quick Attack…Growl…"
"What level?"
"Around his late twenties,"
"He'll do fine, Erika's using pokemon in their twenties." Ryuu replied encouragingly, but that wasn't the problem. Panther was Ivory's baby; she didn't want to have to use a Potion (or worse Revive) on the eevee.
"You need a little more trust in your team Iv," Ryuu claimed, Ivory suddenly felt her back pressed closer to the ground with a shameful burden. He just read her like an open book.
"Just believe a little, throw them out on the battlefield and hold your faith and everything will turn out in the end," Ryuu assured, Ivory didn't looked at him as she bit her tongue.
Was that how you always saw it? She wanted to ask, but somehow, it would've sounded wrong no matter how hard she made it not to.
"If you win, I'll take you to an EO Zone, you can catch your own pokemon there."
"You would?"
"Why not, there's one on the way to Fuchsia,"
"Why…are you being so kind?" Ivory had to ask now, she didn't know if this new Ryuu was scarier than the last or not. Ryuu folded his hands behind his head.
"I thought you preferred me being nice, or would you rather I go back to being brutally honest?"
"You can be brutally honest, but it doesn't require you to be mean," she replied simply, he looked away.
"I can't wait…to see the outside world like this and not from beneath a tinted ceiling," Ryuu commented from out of the blue, Ivory nodded in agreement.
The poke'gear suddenly started to buzz against Ivory's chest, she flashed it out in a jiffy. She eyed the number, not believing the ID it told her. Ryuu watched her carefully.
"Who is it?"
"I won't believe it…"
"Who is it?" he repeated, shaking Ivory pressed her thumb against the keypad and spoke into it.
"H-Hello?"
"Ivory? Sweetheart is that you!" the voice was masculine and it was someone Ryuu didn't recognize, but apparently Ivory did as she burst into tears.
A/N:
This was one of those talkalot chapters, there will be action soon I assure y'all!
Anyone who can guess who that is gets a cookie!
RR
