Note: Sorry for the delay; been busy and distracted lately. Here we are, back from our intermission and catching up with our main characters again. Enjoy!
Follow Me
A Pokémon Heart Gold/Soul Silver Story
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Rattled
"Bog, use your Ice Punch!"
A blue fist shone with a chilly aura, gathering power from the frozen air around them, and then connected into a wild Tangela's face. Bog the Quagsire jumped back and waited for his opponent to rise once more. It climbed to its feet with what little strength it could muster and then slumped off, on the verge of collapse, signifying that Bog was the victor.
The female trainer smiled behind her blue scarf. "Great job, Bog; return!" A red beam of light shot from the Pokéball in her red gloved hand, and Bog disappeared. She then turned to the other Pokémon beside her. "I think that's enough training for today, Chocobo."
Clawed hands reached up and removed the odd black headgear from the Pokémon's head, and Chocobo the Combusken readjusted his plumage with a spare hand. He then turned to his trainer and handed the Exp. Share back to her.
"Thank-you," Soul said, replacing the item in her bag. Retracting her hand suddenly with a whispered exclamation of, "Ow," Soul cautiously returned her hand to her bag to retrieve the culprit. What she removed made her eyes glaze over in deep thought. She held the small Team Rocket pin in her hand for a long while, turning it over and over, examining every inch of it. Silver had given it to her for safe keeping, and after their fight, she'd forgotten to give it back to him.
It had already been three weeks since she'd parted ways with Silver, and in those three weeks, she'd done everything she could to distance herself from him and every thought of him. She'd been to visit her mother for a few days, and then she'd headed straight-way to Kanto to finally start Chocobo's training; Silver had completely distracted her from doing so back in October. As a matter of fact, Silver was nothing but a gigantic distraction. She was happy to be rid of him, truthfully. And yet, as she scrutinized the pin, once worn by Silver's father, she felt warm tears well in her eyes, the same tears she fought each night as she lied in bed with a sharp pain in her chest. She felt the achiness in her heart start to swell, but before it could properly consume her, she shoved the pin back into the deep recesses of her bag and wiped her eyes clean. She turned to her Combusken, who was staring at her with a worried expression. "It's fine, I'm all right. It didn't even hurt." Chocobo flustered at her, as if to say the prick from the pin wasn't what he was truly concerned about, but his complaint was overshadowed by an expression of slight surprise from behind them.
"Oh...it's you, Soul. Didn't think I'd see you around here again."
Soul turned and let out a small, involuntary gasp: there in the cave entrance into the depths of Mt. Silver stood Red, his Pikachu perched happily on his shoulders. He had flecks of snow on the brim of his red hat, which he dusted off as he tromped through the snow-covered grass to join her and Chocobo. He was dressed abnormally light for the bitter December weather, trading his short sleeved black shirt for a long sleeved version with his usual jeans and red vest, but considering that Soul was still quite cold while wearing her thick flannel longcoat, it was a wonder Red wasn't sick because of dressing so improperly for the weather.
"O...Oh, Red!" Soul said, sweating a little. She shouldn't be so surprised to see him; after all, she was training near Mt. Silver, which was well-known to be Red's training territory. "It's good to see you again. How have you been?"
"Okay I guess," Red said with a shrug. The seventeen-year-old smiled a bit as he stood before her, a good head taller than her. "You been training out here, or did you come to see me?"
"Just training, I'm afraid," Soul said, indicating her new recruit beside her. "We were just calling it quits for today. Is that what you were doing too?"
"Nn, yeah, a blizzard's supposed to come through tonight, so I can't camp out like I usually do," Red said with a sigh, absentmindedly scratching his Pikachu's chin.
"Ehhh, you camp outside in this kind of weather?" Soul gasped. "It's way too cold for that, isn't it?"
"Nah," Red said with a dismissive wave, grinning. "I can imagine for most normal trainers it would, but," he snickered, "I'm no normal trainer, you know."
Soul was reminded briefly of Leaf's admonishments about how Red was a little full of himself, and she smiled weakly. "Well, you're welcome to join Chocobo and me back at the Pokémon Center. The nurse there lets me use the kitchen, so I can make us some stew."
"Nn, sounds good," Red said with a nod.
"...And that makes you the Old Maid!" Soul said happily as she paired her last card later that night as she and Red knelt near a table covered in playing cards.
Red let out a sigh and threw the Old Maid card with a Wobbuffet on it. "Jeez, that's three in a row for you now."
Soul gave him a toothy grin. "You just suck at this game, I guess."
"It would've been different if you would've agreed to play strip poker..." Red muttered, looking away with a sinister glint in his eye.
"Absolutely not!" Soul said, leering at him as she gathered the cards back into a deck again. She shuffled the cards together and brightened. "So, wanna play another round?"
"Mmm, it's getting kind of late, don't you think?"
Soul glanced at the clock on the wall; Red was right; the two hands were joining together on the twelve at the very top of the clock. The nurse, happy to have some visitors in her usually empty Center, had retired to her personal quarters hours ago, leaving the two alone in the Center lobby to talk and play cards. She'd been having a good time chatting with Red; she'd smiled more in the hours spent with him than she had in the past two months.
Red stretched and rubbed the back of his neck. "Man, first you beat me in battle, then you beat me at cards...I must be slipping or something..."
Soul's eyebrows raised. That's right, she'd almost forgotten. "Actually, about that..."
"Hm?" Red said, scratching his Pikachu behind the ears as he lay dozing on the couch behind him.
Soul eyed her hands as she wrung them in her lap. "I've been telling everyone that I lost that match."
Red's eyebrows jumped. "Why would you do something like that? Any other trainer would be bragging to the heavens that they beat me. I mean, sure, our match was close, but you still won, Soul."
Soul's face flushed slightly. "I guess...Well, there isn't a trainer in Kanto or Johto who doesn't know your name, Red. Everyone idolizes you and aspires to be just like you."
"Well, of course they do," Red said with a smug grin, scratching his cheek.
Soul squirmed a bit; she was stroking his ego too much. "Anyway...I guess I just wanted to preserve your legacy. Or maybe..." She held her chin in thought. "Maybe I just didn't want to draw attention to myself as a trainer that had defeated the 'legendary Red.' Maybe a combination of those two."
Red stared at her for a moment, surprised, and then he let out a chuckle, closing his eyes. "You know, you really are some kind of woman, Soul," he said.
"E...Eh?"
"I mean, you're an amazing trainer, a great cook, a humble person, and cute, too." He leaned closer, giving her a smooth smile. "Keep that sort of thing up, and I'll be hard pressed not to fall for you."
Soul's stomach tightened, and as she stared into the brown eyes of the older boy, an image of the same charming smile on the face of another boy floated to the top of her mind. Her chest began to ache, and her eyes watered. "I...I should be getting to bed..." Soul said awkwardly, standing. "I'll see you in the morning, Red."
"Hm? Oh, sure," Red said, climbing to his feet. "Yeah, it is pretty late." He gathered his snoozing Pikachu off the couch and walked with her to the hallway that branched off into the bedroom section of the Center. "Soul," he said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable..."
"Oh, no, it's fine, really," Soul lied with a meek smile. "I'm flattered, really, even if you were just saying it."
"Right..." Red said distantly, nodding. "Well, it's something to think about, at least. Good night." He took a left down the hallway and disappeared into the nearest room.
Soul stood silently in the hallway for a moment, her body trembling. Finally willing herself to move after a minute or two passed, she went to her designated room, where she found Chocobo snoozing in the second bed. As the door closed with a click, she leaned against it and slid down to the floor. Images flashed in her mind, images she'd been blocking for her own sanity. The boy she'd cherished so much despite his harshness, the boy she loved for all his complexity...His face and all its many expressions washed over her, and tears dripped off her chin and into her lap. Cupping her face in her hands, she sobbed uncontrollably into them. Falling for her? How could she possibly accept the advances of any other man? The very notion made her ill. And yet there she had been, smiling and laughing with that other boy, pretending she wasn't broken and injured inside. She'd been running from it, ignoring it all this time. Coughing and spluttering, she clutched at her shoulders and leaned forward, suppressing a sobbing scream.
"Silver...!" she gasped in a whispered shout. "You idiot, why do I still need you so much?" Soul curled in a ball on the floor, choking and crying, repeating the name of the man she yearned for over and over again.
Selected quote from the next chapter:
"Soul..."
