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A Second Journey

Chapter 14:

Goodbye, Cerulean

I shoved my clothes into my backpack after changing out from the ones I had won the battle in. Despite the efforts of the dutiful Psychics, I was still drenched by the time that the match was over. Those clothes were in a bag, I'd have to wash them later, and tucked somewhere near the bottom of my ungodly knapsack. I shrugged the thing over my shoulder before straightening out the collar of my striped, maroon shirt. The stripes were black, in case anyone was wondering.

"Mime, mime," Mimey chanted. He was bobbing near the door. His hands moved erratically, but I knew it was the odd language of Mr. Mimes. They didn't have much need for one, being Psychic and all, but they still used it from time to time. It was usually for when they were sick or tired and couldn't communicate telepathically.

My Mimey just liked to talk with it. I didn't understand his hands beyond the simple "I'm upset" or "Look out!" but I liked to indulge him. He still sent the psychic message anyway.

"I know," I said. I looked my partner in the eye. He wasn't typically the jolly sort, but there was a certain amount of seriousness there that was hard to mistake. "It's time I talked to them."

"The Disaster Child is on the very edge of my range," he said. "Likely near Vermillion, if I am to be correct."

I nodded. Now, if that wasn't going to be a traumatic experience, I don't know what would be. The only thing that would scare me more than the 10-foot tall Lt. Surge would be a creature that was somehow bigger than—

"Fuck," I said. Mimey's eyebrow quirked. "Bill's Lighthouse is between Cerulean and Vermillion, isn't it?"

Mimey nodded. It was slow, but it was encouraging. He didn't see the problem, but he was willing to let me continue.

"Do you remember who roosts in the waters between Cerulean and Vermillion?" I asked, hysteria in my voice. I had been moving while I was talking, and the rest of my things were already being pushed into my comically oversized bag.

It took Mimey a few minutes to get what I was hinting at, but when he did his eyes lit up. A crack and a boom, and the Psychic-type had teleported away, likely to gather Free and the Boy. I nodded. He was always a reliable partner. With a final look around the room, I made sure that I wasn't leaving anything behind. Not finding anything of note, I prepared to leave yet another of my rooms behind.

It wasn't lost on me that this was the third time I was doing such a thing in just as many weeks.

I ignored that thought. This was nothing new. I closed the door, reveling as much as I could in the sights and smells before the lock clicked. The sound was as final as the action, and I let loose all the pent-up anxiety that was building. I turned from the door, ready to start the day—

—and felt a whole new kind of anxiety.

"Hey," Violet said. The Sensational Sisters, though they were so similar in mannerism and style, were not actually triplets. When seen from afar, they were nearly identical. From the top of diving boards and floating in the waves, they were practically the same barring their clothing and hair.

Get close enough to them, however, and the difference was telling. Daisy presided over her sisters, often looking down to them when they walked next to each other. Lily, while the youngest, was only a couple of inches shorter. Violet, on the other hand, was the shortest. While, again, the height difference was only about an inch from Lily, she was still quite a bit shorter than Daisy.

As Daisy saw me eye-to-eye, I had to look far down at the middle sister as she stomped her way over to me.

"So, this is it," she said. She was never the kind to beat around the bush. "You're really leaving."

The memory of the other day came back to me. The promise that I made Violet wore heavy on my conscious, and I could feel my shoulders sag under the weight of such a thing.

But I couldn't stop. Not now. The kid needed me.

"I am," I said. The words were so hard to say. I felt like I was kicking a puppy. "There is an adventure that I have to complete."

Violet didn't say anything. She didn't grunt, or scream, or even nod. She just looked at me. We stood there, in the hallway of the residential area of the Gym, for a full minute.

Then she walked. She brushed past me and continued down the hall. The way she was going was the opposite of the stairs, and thus the opposite of where I needed to be going.

"Come," she said once she was several doors down. "We have stuff to talk about."

I followed. I was hesitant, but I followed anyway. There wasn't much time, but I suppose that there was nowhere in Kanto that I could really be late to with Mimey's abilities.

We came to a stop before her door. I knew that it was her door, because she had painted it several different shades of blue. She wasn't expressive in her words or mannerisms, but in terms of art she was definitely the most vibrant. The turned the handle and walked in.

I gotta say, I was pretty surprised at what I walked in on.

The carpet wasn't anything new. There was a carpet in my old room, which was converted into a guest room of sorts. It was that the carpet was so damn fluffy that threw me off. It pushed back against my feet the instant I walked on it, making it feel like I was walking on marshmallows. It being white with hints of blue everywhere only added to the image.

I looked to Violet. She walked across the carpet as if it weren't some sort of giant cushion covering the floor. I shrugged.

She walked over to her desk, pulling out her chair and collapsing into it. She started fiddling with some papers there, giving me a chance to take in the room.

The only thing I could say was wow. The walls were painted blue, but different shades that crisscrossed at different angles at every spot. Navy into sky into aquamarine blended endlessly until they were nearly seamless. The only thing to break the mixing blues was the occasional white fashioned into churning waves.

"Here," she said. She held out a piece of paper that she had fished from the flurry on her desk. On it was an entire essay of words, none of which I felt particularly excited to read.

"Uh," I started. I let my eyes roam over the page. There were quite a few words on here with more than five syllables.

Violet looked at me, her deadpan eyes somehow feeling more critical than they usually were. She sighed, before holding out her hand expectantly. I dutifully dropped the paper back into her hand. She cleared her throat, before starting to read.

"This is a formal letter of farewell," she started, and I felt my eyes roll, though I did not command them to do so. Of course Violet would make something as small as a goodbye so needlessly grand. "... from Violet Waterflower to Adventurer King Gimult."

I winced, and I know that she knew the effect that name would have on me. A smile, as tiny and unnoticeable as a crumb, appeared on her face. Still, it was better than nothing, so I let her continue without voicing my protest.

"While our time together was short, I know that you meant no harm in it. Even though you abandoned us for over a decade, I know that it wasn't in malice."

While she was right about that, it didn't make the words hurt any less. Had it really been that long? To me, the time had passed in the blink of an eye. I know that I could have given them more time, or visited, but it truly did not seem like I was gone for so long.

"What matters..." Violet continued, "is that you returned. Through trials and tribulations, through championships and hardships, you returned to us."

Violet didn't make it a habit of talking to people. She was an introvert by nature, the only one of her family to be so. She enjoyed her time with her family, and as far as interactions went it was enough. As such, not many got to enjoy the nuances of her conversations.

I was one such people that got to enjoy it. Over ten years apart, and I could still pick out the little changes in her demeanor. I could catch the little way that her voice shuddered at the end of every word, or the way that she rushed through the end of her sentences. I could see the way that her index finger pawed incessantly at the back of the paper she held in her hands, and the way that her socked foot tapped at the carpet.

I could see how she was on the verge of tears. I wished so heavily that Mimey had not run off to get the rest of my Pokemon.

"You," Violet continued, though I wished that she wouldn't, "are our brother, no matter what you say or think. You can fight any King Pokemon or topple any tournament, but you will always be our brother. And you always have to return."

That last part wasn't written. She looked up at me, and tears shone in amber eyes. She was also the only one of her family to have that color eye. I don't know why that was the only thought on my mind.

"You have to promise me," she said. The end of her words were little hiccups and they were all rushed, but they still came out as clear and calculated as ever. "I don't care about the outcome of the battle. I won't let you leave here until you promise me."

She pinched at my shirt. A single step back and I would be out of her grip, but some invisible force kept me rooted in place. I shook my head, hoping that she would accept my answer, but as I expected it wasn't enough. The pinch turned into a pull and, though I didn't let it bring me closer, I couldn't pull away either.

"No," she said. "You have to promise. And for real, this time. Not in a couple of years, not when Daisy finds you on our bench." She held up three fingers. "Three months. Or less. You have to promise me or I'm not letting go."

Her grip was comprised of all of two fingers, and yet it was stronger than any ViceGrip. I didn't like making promises I couldn't keep, and yet...

I couldn't just leave without telling her something. I didn't know where I would be in three months, but surely it wouldn't be too far.

"I..." I started. My throat felt so constricted and my words were a struggle, but I got them out. "I promise."

Her smile was bigger now. It was no longer a tiny crumb of a thing, but a real, genuine smile that stretched her cheeks. She let go of my shirt, only to hold up her pinky finger. Despite myself I smiled.

"Then it's a promise," she said.

"It's a promise," I responded. I hooked my finger with hers and, this time, I meant it.

XxX

We had exchanged tears and an extra-long hug before I was allowed to leave. Violet, despite not choosing to show much, was a very clingy girl. She shoved her letter back into my hand, crumpling it all the while, before tearfully waving her hand at me.

I waved back, unsure of what to make of it. All of a sudden, I wanted to spend the rest of the day there, but I knew that other matters needed to be attended to. No matter, I would return before long. Three months was a pitiful amount of time.

With a heavy heart and a raw emotions, I retreated from her room. I was expecting a quiet retreat.

I was not expecting Daisy.

Aptly dressed in daisy dukes and a crop-top, the eldest sister leaned against the wall across from Violet's door. She looked up at me as I closed her younger sister's door, and offered me a shaky smile.

I returned it. Some part of me was hoping that she wouldn't notice the now dried tears that had escaped my manly eyes.

"Hey," she said. Boy, was that an unstable hey. It was the kind of greeting that was given when someone had no idea how to start a conversation that needed to be had. She knew, I knew it, and yet we were both forced down this road.

"Hey," I responded. I had nothing else to say, and thus, the expected awkward silence commenced. We stared at each other, the two oldest and most mature of the house.

Though, considering I had spent the last twenty minutes crying in the middle sister's room, I wasn't so sure anymore.

We stood there, staring at each other for what felt like a quiet eternity. Her eyes, like all the rest of the Waterflowers, were a deep ocean blue. Same color, same shade, the only real difference was that Violet had amber ones.

But the other Waterflowers had different tells. Misty was a hothead. From our only interaction I could tell the volatile nature of her eyes. Lily was a tempest. Where Misty exploded and burned out, however, Lily would rage and churn until she decided that it was time to be calm.

Daisy, however? Daisy was the surface of a lake hidden in a grove. Every so often a leaf would fall, sending placid little ripples through it, but for the most part her eyes were a clear, undisturbed surface.

I would spend entire conversations just lost in that simple serenity. I would have this time as well, had Mimey not pulsed a warning to me. The Disaster Child was on the move again. I had to go.

"So," I said. I pulled at the strap of my bag, hoping that she would get the hint. "I have to get going..."

Daisy jumped, as if a Pichu had shocked her. She nodded, the action bobbing her blonde hair. "Oh, yes. Right. You were leaving. I remember."

The silence returned as she finished her sentence. I knew that she didn't have anything else to say, but there was this feeling hanging overhead telling me that this wasn't over. Once again we were left to staring at each other, and once again I was lost until Mimey's Psychic pulse pulled me free.

"I..." My words caught in my throat. I wasn't sure whether it was the very emotional conversation I just had with Violet, or not, but I was finding it hard to speak. "I guess I will see you around?"

Daisy nodded, though it was obvious she did not agree. A frown, something that was rare on the eldest Waterflower sister, graced her face. Unlike Violet, Daisy was open about her emotions. You could see through her as easily as you would a glass of water sitting on a desk.

After a moment of nothing being said, I turned. I made it three steps before she grabbed my arm. I turned to her.

"Come with me," she said. I looked at my watch. It was almost noon. Little more than half an hour since Mimey left. I couldn't waste much more time here. I wanted to say no.

I traced Daisy's steps as she led me down the stairs.

XxX

There are three Gym Leaders of Cerulean City. The Sensational Sisters were all Elites, and deserved their titles as collectively one of the Nine Pillars. Any one of them could give even Flint a run for his money and, while they would be crushed by Giovanni, they would likely easily oppose any other Pillar.

Still, there could be only one registered Water Pillar, and that one was understandably Daisy. She was the strongest, the most level-headed, and the most experienced. While Violet mainly handled the paperwork, Daisy handled the day-to-day minutiae and planning, as well as any official League business.

She was also an obsessive slob, and she rarely kept her things in order. When I walked into her office I wasn't surprised by the open books and stacks of paper strewn carelessly about. I passed over the documents, taking care not to jostle any of them, before taking a seat across a messy desk laden with various odds and ends.

I pretended not to notice the crinkle crunch of paper or the various blouses that I had settled into.

"Sorry for the mess," Daisy said, her voice an awkward laugh. "I was going to clean it up yesterday, I swear, but then things got out of hand."

I chuckled, but I knew that the next time I came it would look exactly the same. Right down to the upturned book that lied halfway against a bookshelf.

A small part of me noted how I was already planning to return. That feeling was not there the last time I left.

"I'm sure," I said. Daisy laughed at it, though it was short. Before I could do anything we fell back into a silence. I could hear the Pidgey chirp outside her window.

Luckily, the silence did not last long this time.

"So, you're leaving," she said. Her hands were folded before her, her thumbs twiddling every so often. The thumb twiddling wasn't a nervous thing of hers, she was prone to playing with her fingers often. What was telling was the fact that she had decided to fold her hands at all. She only did that whenever she was at a loss for what to do.

"Yes," I answered. I could feel us doing this little dance forever, so I continued the push. "We've gone over this. Was there anything you wanted to tell me before I left?"

To that, a wry smile returned to her face. A single, mischievous wave rippled across those deep blue orbs.

"I wanted to tell you that you were coming back."

I smiled. "Violet already got that from me. No sooner than three months."

Diasy cocked her head. Her blond strands fell over her shoulder the same way a stream might cascade down some rocks. "Could you make it two?"

"Isn't that a bit soon?" I ask. "What's wrong with three?"

"It's too long."

I chuckle. "You've waited fourteen years. Is three months suddenly too much?"

"For me?" she asked. Pointing to herself. There was a coy teasing there. "Probably not. I don't know about Lily or Violet, but frankly I could do without the drama you bring."

I smiled, a gentle sort of affection settling into my heart. I captured it, holding it close for as long as possible before letting it fade.

"Then I suppose four months wouldn't be too bad?"

A delicate blond eyebrow raised. "You would break a promise with Violet?"

Tears. Raw. A desperate hug. I shake my head. "No, never."

A soft smile, one of renewed faith and fulfilled expectations, came to her. "I know you wouldn't. Besides, four months really would be far too late."

"And what is so important about two months?" I asked. "Is there a special show happening?"

She shook her head. "No."

"A special challenger?"

Another shake. "No."

"Then what is it?" I asked. "Is a Legendary visiting-"

"My fiancé will be stopping by."

The silence returned, but this time it was born of a genuine shock. I stared, mouth wide open, as the eldest sister found an interesting place to look everywhere in the room except for me.

"Your... fiancé?" I asked. "You're married?"

Daisy held up a hand, and for the first time I noticed the gold engagement band wrapped around her ring finger.

"No," she said. "But I will be soon. I have been dating Clement for a few years now. He popped the question a year and a half ago."

We returned to silence, and for the first time I preferred it. Daisy was married?

Was she allowed to get married?

An ugly feeling rose in me, born in my stomach and rising perpetually outwards until it wrapped around my limbs and kept me still. Daisy was getting married? But…

"I know that it isn't really big news to you," she continued. I was broken out of a trance that I didn't even know I was in. "I mean, look at us. We've seen each other for all of two or three days after not seeing each other for years. We barely know anything about each other. We're not even the same people anymore!"

Her words stung. How could she not be the same? Violet was the same. I'm pretty sure Lily was too. Daisy couldn't be too different. She was still the mermaid that loved swimming more than life. She was still messy. She still folded her hands.

Little Daisy was getting married. But that didn't change a person. That didn't...

No... that much time couldn't have passed... could it have?

"We've become so much since the last time we've seen each other," she said. The corners of her eyes crinkled when she smiled, just as they always did, but I was too focused on the golden ring that looped her finger. This was real. "Last time we saw each other, I was only a Gym Trainer, not the Gym Leader I am today. And you weren't the Adventurer Champ-"

"Don't say that name," I snap. Daisy frowns, but she doesn't recoil. Her strength of character was always great. She had to lead her sisters. Alone, I realized, with me gone. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be," she says. Her voice is kind. Much kinder than I deserved. She's getting married. "We've all done things we aren't proud of."

I winced. I definitely had, but had she? For some reason, it was hard to reconcile the image of sweet, loveable Daisy with the kind of acts I had done to earn the title of "Adventurer Champion."

Yes, it was just as hard to say that name in my head, as it was to out loud.

"And," Daisy continued. She wasn't even looking at me anymore. Her thumbs were twiddling at an alarming rate as her eyes focused on something that definitely wasn't in this room. "And… I don't know. I just… Oh geez. Look at me. I'm getting all nervous in front of you and I don't even know why."

Her hands flew out, finally uncurling from one another, before one came up to her head. She leaned forward, head holstered in her hand, and sat there.

We returned to a silence. For once, I appreciated it. I didn't know what to say, and it was a solace that she didn't either. We could have stayed there like that forever, but another Psychic pulse came, and this time it was more urgent. My time was running out.

"Daisy, I—" I started. Or, at least, I tried to. Daisy raised her hand, and whatever I was going to say was silenced.

"Did you read Violet's letter?" she asked. She still wasn't looking at me, though I desperately wanted her to.

I shook my head. "No, I…" My throat felt raw and scratchy. I took a moment to clear it before continuing. "She read it to me."

"Really?" she asked. "The whole thing?"

I thought about it, and what little I glimpsed of the paper before she took it back from me. There were definitely a lot more words on there than she said, but I figured that she had just simplified it.

"No," I finally said. "Not the whole thing. I figured that she had just adlibbed it."

Daisy nodded, but it wasn't some form of acceptance. It was the kind of nod one did upon realizing that it was them that would have to clean up a mess.

"Don't bother," she said. "I should've known that I couldn't trust this to Violet. She was never good with emotional things. Ask her to meticulously plan out the logistics of running a show and all of the advertisements and endorsements that come with it, and she could do it in a heartbeat. Ask her to get to know someone, however…"

Daisy chuckled, though it was much darker than I remembered. I never remembered Daisy doing such a thing.

Arceus, I really hadn't expected them to change.

"I can read it," I said. I shuffled around in my pocket for it, but another raised hand stopped me.

"Don't bother," Daisy said. "You have to leave soon, don't you? I can just tell you the part that Violet missed."

To be honest, I should have been alarmed with Daisy reached into her desk and pulled out a folder. Daisy didn't keep anything organized. Anything. That this one received such special treatment should have been a big enough red flag.

She reached in and pulled out the only thing in there: a stapled pack of papers. It wasn't too thick, not by any means, but it was quite a few papers.

Daisy took one look at it before nodding. She set it on the desk and flipped it towards me. It was hard to ignore the big, bold letters set in the top.

"Adoption?" I asked. "You're adopting a kid?"

"No," Daisy said. For once, she was looking straight at me. "We are adopting you."

My mind, it… To say that I went blank would be an understatement. I looked to her, then to the paper, and back again. I hoped that Daisy would understand the shock on my face. Unfortunately, she didn't. The awkward silence continued for far too long for the socialite. She took it as an opportunity to continue talking.

"And don't think that this is like a burden on us or anything!" she said, a twinge of awkwardness in her voice. She was used to me carrying my own weight in a conversation. This was probably weird for her. "You're a fully grown man! You can take care of yourself! We just wanted to make it official that you were our brother!"

I continued to stare at her. I wanted to say something, I really did, but no words came to mind.

"And, since you don't have a last name or anything, we felt like Waterflower wasn't too bad, you know?"

I nodded, though the action was much more muted than I anticipated. I had hoped to alleviate some of her anxiety, but I think I only made it worse. She smiled, but it wasn't her usual smile.

"And… and like… besides!" she continued. "It isn't like you're anywhere near as troublesome as our other addition to the family!"

It was here that I recovered a bit. I saw an opportunity to be crass and, damn it, I was going to restore some normalcy to this conversation. "I think it's a little late to call Misty an addition to the family."

And it was here that Daisy looked at me as if I had grown a new head. Her mouth stammered, opening and closing with no sound, before a look of realization came over her. Suddenly her anxiety doubled, and for once words failed her as well.

Instead of the rambling that she was doing up until now, Daisy settled for a single action that said more than even a million words could. She moved her hand, the same one that held her wedding band, and held it gingerly to her stomach.

My world broke.

XxX

I'm not entirely certain how I ended up on the roof of the Gym. I don't remember walking back up the stairs, or climbing the ladder from the attic that let me up here. Mimey was pulsing away, urging me to hurry up, but I sent him back the signal that I needed a little more time. He was, of course, my oldest partner and oldest friend. I could feel that he understood.

I sat on the edge, the same way that I did countless times before when I was younger. My feet swung a little lower than it did back then, and the ledge was a little smaller in my opinion, but otherwise it was exactly the same.

At least something was.

So caught up was I in my own thoughts, that I hadn't noticed as the final Cerulean Sister approached me. She took her place on my right, sitting over the edge of the Gym, and the two of sat there in silence.

If she noticed that she was holding my hand, she didn't say anything about it. I'm fairly certain she did, however, as she was squeezing it rather hard. No matter. I was squeezing hers right back.

Minutes or seconds or hours passed in such a way before one of us spoke. The person who did wasn't me.

"So, they told you," Lily said. It wasn't a question. This was something they had planned. "How are you taking it?"

I didn't answer. Instead, I just squeezed her hand twice. It meant yes in our little language, back when we were kids. Now, I'm not sure it means anything at all.

"Yeah," Lily said. She sighed. "Did you accept? Are you a Waterflower now?"

Two squeezes. A small smile came to her face. It left when she noticed I was no more excited for it. We sat in silence, both of us just watching the horizon. While Daisy and I were the closest in age, it was no secret that Lily and I got along the best. As such, I didn't need to say anything to get my point across. Lily just guessed it.

"You couldn't have possibly believed that we hadn't changed," she said. "Did you think that the whole world would stay inside your little box until you returned and let it out?"

Maybe? Yes? No? I wasn't even sure anymore. I saw the differences in Flint, but he still fell within the parameters of the anime. Daisy Waterflower had never gotten married as far as I knew. Then again, this Daisy wasn't the Daisy from the anime.

Perhaps… perhaps it was time to acknowledge that these were, in fact, people.

Her hand squeezed mine three times, our code for "are you okay?"

I chuckled.

Then I squeezed hers back once.