The two trainers were sitting in the half-empty suite finishing breakfast at the table. Their bags sat side by side at the door, packed except for the supplies they'd be picking up after they ate.
Luke had been busy enough fiddling with his Pokenav, compliments of Mr. Stone, that Julia was sure he hadn't picked up on her mounting panic in the two days since meeting with the Devon Company CEO.
Everything had fallen in place for her mentor: in a two-day period, he had won a gym badge with minimal effort, gotten a new sponsor, received the newest model 'nav, and gotten his old communicator's data transferred over. Completely free. He was even blissfully unaware of the corruption that was giving him the technology.
It was common knowledge in Hoenn that the Lily League had been incredibly corrupt under Champion Steven Stone. He had risen to power quickly, having been a trainer and executive in his father's business years before challenging the gyms, using his Metagross in a tier-one battle.
He swept through the tournament, then the Elite 4. The only true resistance he met was when he reached the former champion, the Dragon Master Drake.
But he won that too, and became the champion at 25 years old, presiding over the trainers and pokemon of the region as champion and effectively holding the cities hostage with the Devon company.
Champion Stone used his influence for the next seven years to grow his company's wealth and his own power as champion. Professor Birch couldn't risk his research being halted to make an attempt, which left only Drake to challenge Stone, but he never could reclaim his title. Until Wallace Winstrate returned the Sootopolis gym to his mentor to challenge the league himself.
Norman had told Julia and her family that he hadn't even considered Hoenn, the region that he loved more than his native Johto, as a destination until Wallace dethroned Steven. Months later, he was inaugurated as the Petalburg City gym leader.
And all of this was cultural context that Luke was ignorant of. He didn't realize they were playing with the devil, or the possible danger they could have been in had they refused to be couriers for Devon Stone. His son might not be the champion any more, and his company may have been forced to give back to the communities and release the stranglehold they had on the people of Hoenn, but he was still one of the strongest people in Hoenn. If not the world.
"This thing makes no sense." Luke's voice brought her back to the present and out of the modern history she'd been reminding herself of, "It takes up so much space for so little screen, the keyboard is clunky, and the UI is unintuitive." He released a sigh, as though he were trying to forcefully expel the tension he was experiencing.
"I don't see how a competitor hasn't made a better product than this. Or rather, I really want my X-Transceiver back." He looked at her own device critically. "And mine is supposed to be the new and improved version."
"There isn't really another big tech company in Hoenn to compete with Devon. If it says anything, Brendan, May, and I have been using our pokedexes instead of our 'navs." Julia explained, but based on his reaction he didn't really understand the problem.
"Well, whatever. It'll do until I can get something better." He closed the device and slid it into his pocket before standing up. "Time to go restock. Walk with me?"
She was more than ready to accept.
When they got to the mart, it struck Julia that this was the first time she saw Luke shop. His body seemed to move on autopilot, grabbing food and supplies, never breaking the conversation. Well, conversation wouldn't be the best word to describe it. Conversations imply that both parties are communicating.
Luke was talking at her as much he was to her, but she didn't really mind. This was a routine he was comfortable in, much like waking up to prepare oatmeal for himself. So she listened instead.
He talked about different preferences in camp dinners, the benefits of cooking over fires to using a camp stove, and the importance of knowing the berry ratio when making a cobbler in a cast iron pot. But the most interesting thing were the names he mentioned.
There was no dramatic reveal or sudden change. He brought them up of their own volition to talk about their eating habits. He still used nicknames, but that was fine by Julia.
"And Bel has an even bigger sweet tooth than I do. Always drove CH nuts when it was his turn to cook. B would eat anything. He did prefer it to have been soaking in hot sauce though, drove everyone by me and Dubs nuts. He ended up cooking the least out of us. Although that was mostly because he couldn't really cook worth a damn anyway." He paused for a moment to fish his wallet from his pocket, giving the clerk a smile and nod.
Once they were outside, he started talking again. "Actually, I don't think I've had non-camp food that any of you guys made now that I think about it. Right Jul?"
It took her a moment to process that he addressed her. "Huh? Oh. Um, no, I don't think so. There was the cereal we set out that one day, but we didn't actually make that."
The boy's tenor laugh poured from his mouth. "We'll have to fix that at some point. I may have only been making oatmeal and vacuum sealed camp food this entire time, but I think that adds up to something resembling a real meal."
"Well, no promises on my end." She said with a shrug. "There is a very real reason why I put out cereal the morning you weren't up and making oatmeal. And I wouldn't expect Brendan to suddenly turn into a cooking ace either, because he's barely any better than me."
Julia didn't realize how odd it was to be on the road alone with Luke until they were half way through the woods. It also gave her a chance to really observe him without May's teasing or Brendan pretending to throw up when Luke wasn't looking.
The peace from teasing and Brendan's suspicion of Luke gave her a new sense of clarity. The green of the leaves and blue of the sky poking through the canopy seemed all the more vibrant without distractions. Even the air tasted fresher.
Neither she nor Luke had heard from the other pair since they left Petalburg beyond communicating a simple plan of meeting at the Petalburg pier for the Briney company to take them to Dewford.
Luke seemed at ease for the most part, leading both humans' pokemon in light training while she took the part of an observer. The lack of the two other trainers allowed her to fully appreciate the way Luke operated in the wild.
Each step he took was measured, feet avoiding roots and fallen branches as though of their own volition, moving near silently and leaving no tracks on the ground. His head was eternally on a swivel, both appreciating the world around him and assessing the possible dangers it could produce. He afforded small smiles to the pokemon, and his eyes carried a warmth she wasn't sure had been present before.
Each pokemon had its own distinct personality, although his team seemed perturbed by Rebecca's absence. Matthew the Nincada switched between Luke's shoulder and scuttling beside Serra the Whismur. Shigure the Tailow flew in circles above the two humans, giving the occasional chirp down to Luke.
Franz was the odd one out. Instead of what she had come to recognize as his normal, playful nature, he stoically walked beside Luke. Every so often he would twitch or stray farther from his trainer as thought to break into a giddy run, but he reigned himself in every time.
With a start, Julia realized he was stepping into Rebecca's role. She was ever observant, always ready for a battle when Luke let her out of her ball. And the grey-eyed teen now realized what was happening.
Luke's team all put their trust in their trainer and one of their teammates to watch for threats. Much in the same way as she, Brendan, and May trusted Luke to react first and keep them safe. It made her wonder if Brendan had assumed Luke's role of protector while he was with May, or if she would herself if Luke wasn't there.
They ate vacuum sealed ravioli that evening. "So, a while back, when we were in Petalburg, you mentioned that you had some tips for dealing with nightmares. Would you mind teaching me?"
She didn't know what had prompted her to ask the question, but she had. Beyond simply wanting to talk to the other teen, find out more about him and his experiences, that is. Plus if she could decipher the mystery around him, maybe, she could end her nonsensical crush.
Luke wasn't quite sure what kind of ground meat was being held inside the pasta envelopes, but it sure wasn't Buffolant. It didn't have the same texture or taste. Which made sense, seeing as the creature wasn't found outside of Unova, yet he had expected them to taste the same regardless. Granted, that was on him. He should have known better.
"So, a while back, when we were in Petalburg, you mentioned that you had some tips for dealing with nightmares. Would you mind teaching me?"
His spork stopped halfway between his dish and his mouth, the ravioli sliding back into the sauce with a small splash. That certainly hadn't been a dinner conversation he'd been expecting to have tonight. "I mean, sure. That is what I originally offered, right?"
Julia nodded and averted her eyes. "You did. I've just been losing sleep to them over the past couple nights, and May and Brendan haven't been here to help me calm down."
"You're having them again and waited this long to ask for help?" Luke didn't mean for his voice to sound quite so harsh, but it did. He smacked himself several times mentally. She had no reason to lie or mislead him. Besides, he had no room to talk about someone else's stubbornness when it came to asking for help. "Why didn't you ask sooner?"
She flinched away from his words, eyes buried in the sauce in her bowl. "I didn't want to disturb you, or make you worry about me. I know you're already stressed about Brendan and May being on their own. You don't have to teach me."
Luke sighed, and offered her a smile that she couldn't see and he didn't really feel. "It's fine, I'm overreacting here. Thunder and Snowfire, I'm the last person on the planet that should make someone else feel bad about waiting to ask for help."
When she still didn't look at him, Luke realized he would have to carry the conversation forward. "Let's start from the top. What are the nightmares about?"
He watched her take two deep breaths, running her hands through brown hair to calm herself down. "The one that happens the most is that I'm falling."
"Let's start from the top. What are the nightmares about?"
Well, Julia wasn't sure what made her think it was a good idea to launch the conversation without thinking through what she'd tell him. So she bought time, taking deep breaths and running her hands through her hair. If he recognized it for the stall tactic it was, he didn't show it.
She might as well lead with something that she was legitimately afraid of, right? That way the fear and anxiety she'd be showing would be genuine. And maybe she'd pick up a tip or two of how to deal with her fear.
"The one that happens the most is that I'm falling."
Steel-grey eyes finally returned to lock with cold blue. "I'm falling, and I can't move or slow down." She closed her eyes, feeling anxiety building in her stomach from just imagining the sensation. "But the worst part is that the ground never seems to get any closer. I just keep falling…"
As she trailed off, she gave an involuntary shudder. She was supposed to be learning more about him, not giving herself an image that she very well could have nightmares about. She barely felt the corners of her eyes begin to get wet.
But she did hear Luke as he stood up, the soft sound of his boots crushing detritus underfoot. He moved to the left first, she assumed to shut off the stove that had been boiling water for her tea. Then he came beside her and put a blanket around her shoulders.
He had no idea what he was doing. He hadn't really been in the position before where he was helping someone else cope with nightmares. So he did what his friends had done for him.
So he stood up, turned off the mini-stove, and grabbed the blanket out of his hammock. When he came back to Julia, she had started quietly crying, and softly wrapped her in the blanket. It was what Bel and Kat had done for him at different points, so he went for it.
Then he sat down beside her and put one arm around her shoulders in what he hoped came off as a friendly half-embrace. He wasn't sure if it was helping until Julia relaxed and leaned into him, turning her body to rest her forehead on his shoulder.
The tension both disappeared for a moment when Luke recognized she was relaxing. Then skyrocketed when he realized their proximity. He did his best to calm himself down.
"What are your nightmares about?" Julia asked, in a voice almost too quiet for him to hear.
Luke was lost for a moment, body tensed. He was tempted to deflect the question and justify it by saying this was about her, that she didn't need to worry about him. But he recognized the tremor in her voice. She was scared. Of him, of her own nightmare, he wasn't sure, but he didn't want to jeopardize her fragile composure.
"My failures." He said, his voice low and even. He felt Julia's head shift against his shoulder as he continued, "The friends I've lost, mistakes I've made. I relive them, feel the pressure and shame all over again. Two of them more than any others."
"Do you want to talk about them?" It was an innocent enough question given the circumstances.
"Not really."
She nodded into his shoulder before closing her eyes. After a few minutes, her breathing became deep and even, and Luke realized that she'd fallen asleep.
Luke looped one hand under her knees and brought his other behind her shoulders and lifted her up. He carried her to his hammock and set her down softly, more than willing to give up his spot for the night. The ground would do just fine if he did end up going to sleep.
The teen made sure his team was watching the camp site and walked into the woods with only Gojira's ball and his hip pack. There may not be any threats nearby that his team couldn't handle but having the extra layer of security couldn't hurt. It was just a matter of getting far enough away that the ball opening wouldn't wake Julia.
Plus he needed to call Dubs, or at least see if he could connect the pokenav to the Pokedex network to make that call.
After Gojira appeared in a flash of shadow from their dusk ball, it took a couple hours to connect the new device to the Pokedex and boost the signal. Dubs wouldn't be particularly happy that he was calling at six in the morning Unovan time, but it'd be fine. Eventually.
When her face filled the 'nav's screen, Luke smiled. "So I replaced my X-Transceiver with something that isn't nearly as good."
"I noticed, the camera quality is awful." Her unamused voice carried perfectly through his earbuds. Well, he'd tossed the dice, time to deal with the bad roll. "Care to explain why you're calling so early again?"
"Because any later and I'll probably oversleep." Luke said, even though he knew she knew him better, "And I needed to test if this thing could handle connecting. Plus I need a favor."
Dubs sighed, glaring into her camera. "You're lucky I was waking up early to get everything ready for a group coming in today. What is it?"
"Any chance you could send Bastion over?"
She didn't realize it until they arrived at Petalburg pier, but Julia had grown accustomed to being alone with Luke. Well, it wasn't just that, it was that she had become comfortable being around him, relaxed.
Of course, it was May who pointed it out to her while Brendan and Luke talked to Mr. Briney's son, Mr. Briney, who was the captain of the ship they'd be taking to Dewford.
"You two really are so cute, you know that?" the younger girl said, green eyes practically glowing with mirth, her new Skitty cradled in her arms. "You walk so close together, keep giving each other little looks and smiles. If I didn't know any better I'd think that you two had some fun during your alone time."
The heat slammed into her face like a charging Camerupt as she spun her friend by the shoulder so their backs were towards the boys. "May! We aren't even dating yet and here you are implying that we had-"
May's face lit up even more. "You just said that you aren't dating yet? As though there's a plan to be doing so in the not-too-distant future? Do tell."
Julia could only meet the raw enthusiasm by flushing an even darker pink and sputtering. She shot a 'help-me' glance to Luke over her shoulder without realizing the caliber of mistake it was. "That's not what I meant, and you know it!"
"What is this you didn't mean?" Brendan asked, tossing a white jersey with the Briney logo on it to his sister.
The only parts of the shirt Julia saw before it covered her face completely were her own last name and the number 4. She didn't bother removing it from her face, preferring to hide until she could regain control of the conversation. Except May was there to ensure that there was nothing resembling control in the conversation.
"She said they aren't dating yet. She used the word yet. Which means she's on board with it, and now you're the only one who isn't!" It was May's voice, and Julia figured it was a safe bet it was directed at Brendan.
"That isn't even remotely close to what I meant." Julia's voice came out much calmer than she felt. "I was just saying that there were a couple steps that got skipped over to be asking if we had sex."
Brendan started coughing on his water as May continued to smile smugly. "I'm just saying that instead of just denying it you pointed to something that needs to happen before you get there. You're just delaying it."
"Who's delaying what now?" Luke asked, holding up the party's passes onto the boat, offering them to the rookies. "I guess I'm sorry I took so long getting these, didn't mean to hold us all up."
Once they boarded, they immediately went to their rooms. Brendan and Luke were in one cabin, May and Julia in the one beside it. The wall separating the two rooms was pitifully thin, only offering privacy with regards to sight.
The rooms themselves were barely furnished. Two small dressers stood opposite the shared wall in each, and the boys' room had a folding card table set up in the center with four plastic folding chairs around it. In place of beds there were two hammocks, one hung over the other, at the shared wall. A wooden door stood in the wall, connecting the rooms.
Julia was excited to try sleeping in a hammock. Ever since the morning where she woke up in Luke's, she wanted to wake up feeling like she was floating again. Except the top hammock was a bit high for her taste. But she wasn't going to mention either of those to May. Unless she wanted to be teased into oblivion even more.
They went into the boy's room once they'd put their stuff down and sat at the card table. Brendan passed both of them a granola bar as Luke took a deck of playing cards out of his bag.
"This boat moves slow enough that it's supposed to take either four or five days to get to Dewford, according to the captain." He said, shuffling the cards as the rookies looked between his face and the deck. "So I figured I'd go ahead and teach you a game that every Braviary Scout worth his shorts knows. Just tell me: are you ready to learn Kantoan Rattata Screw?"
Turns out that they were not ready to learn KRS. Or at least they weren't ready to play it against him. In hindsight, he reasoned it was unfair to introduce them to a game based so heavily around raw recognition and reaction speeds.
Besides, they all improved dramatically over the span of the trip. They never beat him, but they were winning some of the stacks and sandwiches in each game.
It was the last evening of the trip as Luke laid in his hammock. Being on water always felt good in the past, but something was different here. It wasn't anything to do with the boat or the ocean, both were pleasant as he could expect. Rather, it was something to do with his charges.
There seemed to be some sort of disconnect between the three. As though something was driving them apart since his gym battle, but Luke couldn't put his finger on what it could be. None of them were acting noticeably different on their own or with him, just when it was the three of them.
Luke got out of his hammock, strapped his hip-pack on, and walked out of the cabin and up onto the deck. It was a clear evening, the silver moon staring down on him. He would understand it better if it were just between Brendan and Julia. Siblings fought sometimes, there was no reason they should be any different.
But May was wrapped up in it too.
Luke found little peace in staring into the horizon, having no way of answering his questions or getting out his anxious energy. Something felt wrong.
Something other than the rookies? He knew from experience that nearly unnoticeable environment changes could cause excess stress and tension in a group, but he couldn't proceed with that idea until he figured out what the change was.
He was fairly confident that it had nothing to do with being on the boat, or with having to share rooms instead of being in a suite. He sighed as he did his best to expel the thoughts. The sea would provide no answers.
The teen briefly pondered summoning Heracles but decided otherwise. It wouldn't really matter if the crew saw the pokemon, but he didn't want to take the chance of one of the rookies spotting either of them. Instead, he turned around to return belowdecks.
And promptly ran into Julia hard enough to knock her down.
Quickly recovering from his surprise, he offered her a hand. She took it and stood up with a smile.
"Sorry about that, didn't expect anyone to be sneaking up on me." Luke said lightly, flicking out his 'nav to check the time. 10:38. She was normally asleep by now. He slid the device back into his pocket.
It was hard to tell in the low light, but Luke thought she was flushed when he looked back to her. When their eyes met, she quicly broke eye contact, gazing out over the sea instead.
"Couldn't sleep?" She asked. The breeze blew Julia's hair into her face, stopping Luke from seeing where her eyes were anymore.
"Nah." he said, turning back to the ocean. "Not sure why, but I can't relax tonight. You?"
"Don't make fun of me," she said, grasping the rail and leaning slightly over, "but I don't feel like I need to. I'm not tired, just have too much energy I guess."
Luke couldn't be sure, but he thought she was smiling when she said that. She just seemed so peaceful and relaxed. "I wouldn't make fun of you for having extra energy. But I would ask if you have any idea why you have so much."
"Nope." Luke saw her shrug in his peripheral before she turned towards him, so Luke turned to face her. The new angle she stood at made her hair blow behind her head instead of across her face. "Hey, about the night we talked about my nightmares?"
Julia phrased it as a question, asking if it was a safe subject to talk about. Which surprised Luke, since she had been the one to break down. If anything he should be asking her for permission. "What about it?"
She looked down at her hands, intertwining her fingers. "I realized that I never said thanks. Talking about it and you being there helped me sleep peacefully. I also wanted to apologize for stealing your hammock that night." Her voice was barely over a mumble, and Luke had to strain to hear it.
She was embarrassed by what had happened and nervous about bringing it up to him? Well, at least that made some sort of sense.
"It's all good, I'm happy to be able to help." He said, waving off her apology, "If you need to talk again, I'm here. And don't worry about the whole stealing my hammock thing. I'm the one who put you there, remember?"
Julia nodded as she leaned into Luke. They stood like that for a while: shoulder to shoulder with both hands on the rail. It was comfortable, peaceful.
Yet something felt off to Luke. As peaceful as it was, he still couldn't relax. It wasn't his proximity to Julia, or being on the ocean, or even being without Bastion. His nightmares hadn't been awful recently, nothing nearly as bad since Ewan's death.
So why couldn't he settle himself? It wasn't even the normal twitchiness or desire for action that normally came with his nerves. Instead it was just a tightness in his gut, a nagging feeling from the back of his skull.
"You asked me about my nightmares that night. Do you still want to hear about them?" Luke didn't know why he asked. He felt as much as saw Julia nod her head.
The Unovan teen took a deep breath before blowing it out over sixteen counts. It was an exercise he'd learned years ago, before he really considered being a trainer, that he used to calm himself. He needed to be as calm and centered as he could get for this.
"Imagine a dark expanse, a void where only you seem to exist." He started, looking up to the moon, "There's no ground or air, but you don't fall, and don't need to breath. Then come the voices and cries of people you know or used to know. You can't see them, but you know they need help, but you're powerless to move toward the sounds. After a while, they die out, until you're in an oppressive silence, until they all appear in front of you."
Luke sighed as he tucked one hand behind his head, still looking away from Julia. "Pretty soon after that they start talking and blaming you for things that may or may not have happened. I guess you could think of them as the personifications of my many mistakes and failures." His last sentence was accompanied by a laugh that felt empty, that he was sure didn't fool her.
The girl's response was to press closer to Luke, pushing past his arm so that her shoulder was pressed against his chest rather than his arm and shoulder. Then she yawned.
"Thank you for sharing that," she said, her voice suddenly sleepy, "now would you mind helping me back to my cabin?"
"No problem." Well, there was a problem, but he wasn't going to tell her that. "And what do you mean by help you back? You've been the one with all the energy here."
"Carry me?"
Luke snorted. "You have two perfectly functioning legs last time I checked, you should be able to walk to your cabin."
"Oh, have you been checking on my legs?" she asked with a smirk, leaning against Luke with a hand on his shoulder to steady herself.
"C'mon Jul, let's just get you to bed, you're as bad as May right now."
"But it's not a bed, it's a hammock."
"Not the point."
The town on Dewford Island was larger than Luke had expected it to be, as was the waiting list for gym battles against Brawly.
"Really though, what's up with everyone challenging Broly right now? The wait in Rustboro wasn't nearly as bad as this." Luke asked the rookies as they walked away from gym after adding their names to the list. "And Rustboro is a much bigger city."
"The culture here on Dewford is all about battling," Brendan said with a shrug. "There's probably a tournament going on or getting set up, a lot of those people would want a shot at the gym."
"Or," Julia cut in, "People want to get this gym out of the way before the wet season kicks in, the storms make passage between Dewford and Petalburg and Slateport almost impossible."
Luke shrugged and adjusted his cap. "Those both make sense. But it doesn't really matter, either way, we get to wait a couple weeks. Which means a couple more weeks of training to make sure we're ready."
His statement was greeted by Julia and Brendan's groans and May's snicker.
Aww, don't give me that," Luke teased, "we have to get ready for the gym! Besides, a little more training is probably the last push Oliver and Salazar need to evolve. Franz, Chocolate, and your Cascoon are all about ready too." When he saw that none of their expressions changed, he sighed.
"But the training can wait a couple days. We have a couple errands to run anyways."
"Wait, what errands?" Brendan asked, a crease appearing in his brow. He was doing his best impersonation of Luke's glare, and frankly, the older boy was both flattered and unimpressed.
"I need to find a good training spot for you guys, pick up some groceries for our stay here, get myself a fishing rod, and deliver-"
A high-pitched shout cut Luke off. The four turned towards the sound near simultaneously.
Then they ran towards it, each reaching for a ball.
/AN/ And they're on Dewford! Sure to enjoy themselves for the entire time they're there, yeah?
If you have anything to say, go ahead and do it! Comments, questions, concerns quandaries, criticisms
As always, huge shout outs to Maycontestdrew for her fantastic reviews!
ZA WARUDO
So government in the Pokemon World. The way it's portrayed in the games and anime doesn't really make sense realistically, where the one in charge is simply the strongest. Instead, there's a citizen's government that regulates the economy, infrastructure, international relations, etc. So you know, govt. the way we know it.
On the other hand, there's the pokemon league, which regulates pretty much everything to do with pokemon. The champion appoints the E4, so long as they fulfill certain requirements, who in turn help the champion appoint the gym leaders. Gym leaders are essentially the executive branch of local government along with the mayors and/or town council. They often get to choose and train their successors, as seen with Juan training Wallace and then stepping aside for him to take over. On the flip side, the E4 can recommend a successor, but it's the champions prerogative as to who gets appointed, like when Lance kept Bruno, promoted Koga, and said so long to Agatha and Lorelei. Meanwhile each E4 member can challenge the champion once every six months without needing to collect badges. Meanwhile, the gym leaders have to step down temporarily and collect the badges except their own, then run the gauntlet.
Yadda yadda move again…
Anyway, I'll be gone until I'm back again. Stay safe y'all.