Lilycove City
The tide dragged inwards and outwards, foamy white bubbles brushing against the drenched sand and fizzing away again. Detachedly, Madison stared outwards, the furthest horizon desperately attractive as it soared wildly beyond her reach. Uncharacteristically for Hoenn, especially in the final dregs of the summer months, the sky looked like the palette of a painter who had been working in silver and grey, with swirling whites and dull, dead tones swirling across the canvas that the sky offered. Overcast, drudgery, miserable. The wind was hefty, and so were the waves that crashed out in front of her.
Madison hated them.
Her phone buzzed intrusively from the discarded tote bag that lay next to her, but she didn't bother to look to answer it. It was a supposed day off, a day Courtney would describe as their human days, and she knew the only person that would call her today would allow her the impolite gesture of silence. Courtney was generous in those ways.
She was absorbed enough in thoughts that took her far from her location that she didn't notice an approaching figure to her left. Too late to react, or leave, he stood over her with an insatiable grin that made her want to rip it from his smugly creased cheeks with the sharpest points of her nails.
"Evenlyn," his voice sounded like a purr. "Or Madison. Or something in between?" He seemed to preen in his height, his stature arching over hers euphorically as she remained huddled on the ground, feeling the foamy waves wash over her bare feet, staring out at the ocean far beyond. Her silence seemed to encourage him. "So when you said I'd find you in Lilycove, it wasn't completely dishonest."
"Lies are best when sprinkled with small truths," she replied softly, not bothering to look his way. "It helps smooth the process out. It becomes more fluid." The waves licked the bare skin at the base of her feet, and she ground her teeth together to swallow her shudder. "Easier to remember. You just have to watch exactly how much you plan to give away to someone." He'd caught her at too intimate, too personal a moment. Madison jerked her jaw forwards, frustrated with herself.
"How much did you give away to me?" Axel asked lightly, his arms moving next to him slightly. Madison didn't notice much more than that; he only existed in her peripheral vision. Now, though, she was curious enough by his question to change that. Tilting her head back slowly, she glanced over to him. His face was swollen to one side, purple and black bruising swirling around the bridge of his nose and leaking across to his eyes, green tinging the edges of his bruises spectacularly. Making his injury more striking was the apparent pale, withdrawn look to his skin. Axel was typically tanned in bronzes and golds from filming out in the open waters of Hoenn, sunkissed and pink in his cheeks. Now, he was pallid and grey, just like the skies above them.
She found herself misguidedly intrigued.
"Evidently," Madison murmured, her eyes narrowing as she focused, "too much."
This seemed all the invitation that Axel needed, and he dropped down to sit beside her. For a moment, he struggled with loosely tied shoes, pulling white running shoes away and discarding them lazily to the side. Madison said nothing, intending to be welcoming, and pretended not to watch as he stuffed socks inside his shoes and dipped his toes into the same tideflow as hers.
"So," he ventured lightly, teasingly, "how's the fear of water?"
"Pretty dreamy," Madison shot back, defensive and haughty. "Comprehending the nature of death and epistemological nature of ghosts yet?"
"Working on it," Axel retorted smoothly without looking at her. "Did you get ripped into over Mount Pyre as much as I did?"
"I refuse to talk on classified intel." Her tone gave her away. Axel mocked a wince.
"Must have been rough," he replied musically. "I got shipped off to another region to get out of everyone's way for a while." Curiosity got the better of her, and Madison glanced his way again.
"The nose?" She asked, her voice thin.
"Not from my boss, although I think at times he wanted to," Axel grinned, rubbing it self consciously and flinching at his own touch. "No, I almost tracked down a target. Unfortunately, they had a bodyguard, and all hell broke loose." Madison snorted, stifling a pleased grin.
"Good." She gloated. "You probably deserved it," Madison flashed her eyes across at him challengingly. "Aqua scum."
"Big talk from Magma vermin," Axel laughed winningly. Madison cracked a momentary, sincere, smile. Immediately, she jerked her head back towards the horizon, chastising herself.
"I'm surprised you'd tell me about Aqua targets and your boss, and anything really." Her voice was now hard. "You've surely realised I'm one of Magma's top operatives. I have no reason not to tell my colleagues that you had a target and missed it."
"What good would that kind of intelligence do you anyway?" Axel scoffed, dismissive. "We didn't get something we wanted? What's new?"
"I know you have targets," Madison reminded him crisply. "I know you've got goals that you're working towards, that the lost orb wasn't your only objective. Or," she tilted her head, thinking as she spoke, "that the orb was your objective, and you almost found where it is."
"Well," Axel returned, his voice level, "I know that you know the orb was lost, and that Magma doesn't have it. Which up until this point," he licked his teeth, "I didn't know."
Madison turned pink.
"We suspected," he backtracked quietly. "Archie felt you'd have shown off a little more if you had both. But we didn't know."
Shaking her head, Madison signalled for silence. It was safer for them both. Instead, they observed the way that the waves lifted and dropped, crashing into the surface of the sea with angry insistence, reabsorbed into the mass of the water in sputters and splashes. The clouds growled overhead, and a gentle haze of thin, windswept raindrops began to fill the air they breathed like fog.
Madison scrunched sand into her fists on either side of her, and Axel's palm found the back of the hand that shook between them. Quietly, pointedly, he laced their fingers together.
"When I saw you at that old shipwreck," he said quietly, "I thought you were the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen."
"You're an idiot," Madison spat.
"And then when I saw you again at Mount Pyre," he continued, undeterred and monotonous as his shirt became waterlogged, "at first I thought it a shame. But now, I think maybe, it might be perfect."
"Perfect?" Her eyes narrowed, like a Liepard that stalked prey. She was prepared to lunge, to gauge, to fight.
"Who's going to understand what we are better," he shrugged, nonchalantly, "than someone who's the same?"
For a split second, Madison thought back to Courtney's description of this as her human day. For a second longer, Madison parted her lips and bit them. A second turned to a moment, and the rain trickled down her back, reminding her of the waterproof nature of her skin.
Meteor Falls
At the top of a trail lined with wildflowers and trees, dripping with fruit, they found the entrance to a cavern. Wiping berry juice from their fingers on the hems of their clothes, they stumbled into the cave one after the other, their eyes wide as they took in the expanse of the cavern.
The endless sound of crashing water reverberated and echoed around the peaks of the cave with a brutish insistence. Contrastingly, the cave itself seemed silken. The walls almost glowed in glittering golds, unearthly stalactites of rock dripped down from the impossibly high ceiling above. The entrance led them to a slope of gentle, steady platforms that had gathered their own pools of water, and they splashed satisfyingly underfoot as the trio made their way deeper into the cave. When they reached the top, the source of the sound was located, and a silvery, powerful waterfall greeted them with a light spray of water and a roar of noise.
"Beautiful," Dawn murmured, almost to herself. The sheen of the water drew her in like the most effortless contest appeal would.
"What?!" Ash bellowed next to her. "I can't hear you!" Recoiling from his shout, Dawn gave him a dark glare.
"It doesn't matter," Dawn grunted, folding her arms across her chest in frustration.
"What?!" Ash repeated, leaning closer to her. Dawn fumed. "You have… to speak… LOUDER!" He enunciated boldly and gesticulated wildly towards his own mouth as he informed her of this. Dawn looked back to the waterfall again and considered the ramifications of drowning him in it.
Gary put a hand on her shoulder, bringing her back to the moment. "Ignore him," he instructed, loud enough to be heard but not obnoxiously so. "Odds on us getting up that thing?"
"I'm not sure." Dawn narrowed her eyes, thinking. Gary pursed his lips, also thinking. Pikachu stood alert atop Ash's cap, sniffing the air curiously, equally intrigued by their surroundings. Ash, impatient, huffed out a hot breath and became sullen.
"Maybe we could…" Dawn licked her lips as she thought, inching closer to the edge of the ground beneath them, staring at the mass of water crashing ahead of them. "Or… um…"
"LO-UD-ER!" Ash bawled into her ear. On impulse alone, Dawn reached back and gripped his ear with force, dragging it to her mouth.
"This loud enough for you?!" She boomed back. Ash recoiled, falling back and covering the offending ear with a whine of discomfort like a scolded Bolthund. "You sure have a lot of nerve Ash Ketchum!"
"That hurt!" Ash protested meekly, clutching a squirming Pikachu to his chest defensively. Gary watched them, quietly tired, in the way a babysitter might look at their squabbling children. "You wanna get up the waterfall? Let's just climb it!"
"Genius solution," Gary drawled, giving Ash a long, hard stare. "Absolutely. Let's just literally climb a waterfall. I see no reason why that could possibly go wrong." Inspired by this, Ash became openly pumped up, his fists clenching at his sides and focusing in front of him in a display of enthusiasm. It was Dawn's turn to give Gary an exasperated glance.
"Yeah!" Ash cheered. Pikachu gave his trainer a patient, pitying smile.
"Do you have to wind him up like that?" Dawn gave Gary a touch of side eye.
"You're the one that let him have sugar," he returned coolly. "Any suggestions that don't require our imminent death?"
Dawn narrowed her eyes, focusing a little harder on the waterfall in front of them. The jagged rock either side of the vertical river stuck out awkwardly, breaking into the sides of the falls and causing clashes between the dropping water and solid cliff faces, resulting in more spray and more noise.
"Do any of us have Pokemon that could carry us and fly to the top?" Gary suggested, ever present as the provider of sensible options. Dawn thumbed over her Togekiss' Pokeball thoughtfully - she'd never carried a human before but it was possible that they could try.
"Dragonite is back at the lab right now," Ash offered helplessly. Gary sighed, folding around himself as though moving into standby mode.
"If we can't get up there," he complained testily, "we can't explore deeper into the cave. I'm pretty sure carrying on through the way we're going is just going to take us back out the cave."
"Let's," Ash said slowly, "climb," he continued, "the waterfall."
"I'm not even going to entertain that again." Gary shot him a reproachful look. "Cut your losses."
"No, wait," Dawn interrupted, waving an arm pointedly. "He's right. We have to climb the waterfall."
"Not you too," Gary deflated further. Ash punched the air above him in victory, almost dislodging Pikachu. "I thought you at least had more than one neuron firing in there."
"Our Pokemon can't fly us up," Dawn shrugged, "so really it's the only way. What we can do, though, is make it easier for ourselves using our Pokemon!" A smile started to spread across her face, and she reached into her pack for a moment to fish out a small red Pokeball. "Watch. Buneary! Come on out!"
The small, fuzzy Pokemon burst out in a flash of white light. Flirtatiously, Buneary landed before them with a twirl atop one foot and sent Pikachu a pointed, giggling wink. Pikachu smiled awkwardly, but shrunk slightly behind Ash's cap, bashful.
"You're kidding," Gary deadpanned.
"Buneary!" Dawn took command, her arm flying towards the waterfall with the strength of her purpose. "Use your ice beam to smooth out the edges of that waterfall!"
Immediately flying to work, Buneary shot out a silvery blue get of energy that began to encase the edges of the waterfall in a thick casing of ice. Without the jagged cliff to bounce and clash against and instead smooth ice guiding the waterfall into the pool below, the thrash of the water diminished, the noise reduced, and the spray of droplets that would have assaulted them had they been closer to the falls fell away. Dawn grinned, pleased.
"That's awesome Dawn!" Ash cheered, looking enthralled. He stared at the gushing water, now so much noticeably quieter, and then began to frown. "It's definitely not going to be as hard to talk or to stay dry if we go near it, but how does that help us climb it?"
"It doesn't," Gary murmured, his frown analytic. "But I can't deny this is a good start." Dawn preened for a moment, tucking some hair behind her ear and scooping Buneary up into her arms with a pleased giggle. "It's a solid first step."
"Well, let's find the second step!" Ash was keen to continue. "Can our water types swim upstream now that it's smoothed out a bit?"
"Blastoise might be strong enough," Gary replied thoughtfully. "Maybe enough so to take us up on his back. It would be tricky, though, and if we fell it would hurt."
"It's worth a shot!" Ash insisted, brazen. "If we fall, you can return Blastoise to his Pokeball and we can take the fall together."
"Agreed!" Dawn nodded keenly. Gary hesitated, looking between his faithful, determined companions, but then smiled confidently.
"Right," he grinned. "This is Blastoise after all. There's nothing he can't do! The benefits," his gaze rolled over to Ash antagonistically, "of being raised by a trainer with talent."
"What's that supposed to mean?!" Ash protested hotly, his face scrunching with the weight of his protest. Gary didn't bother to hide his laugh, tossing a Pokeball forwards so that Blastoise could be released into the water source beneath them.
"Still so easy," Gary mocked, giving his oldest friend a fond smile.
Open Waters
With a new set of supplies packed up in their bags, food stored away to last them long enough, and a quiet bond of determination, Paul and May were back out to sea quickly. They'd stopped by in Olivine for their immediate needs, Paul managing the shopping errands while May sought refuge in the Pokemon Center. Nurse Joy had proven sympathetic to their plight, and she checked over their Pokemon while May kept concealed in a back room, far from where Aqua might be able to spot her.
The ocean to the south of Johto was always choppy and rough, making it hard to navigate. Wailord made that much easier, thankfully, and was able to follow Manaphy's direction without much input from his human passengers. This left Paul with the one thing he'd hoped to avoid, and the one thing May had been desperate to find.
Free time.
As the Pokemon that accompanied them steered onwards through tumultuous waves, May insisted on engaging him in conversation. It was bearable during the moments she simply talked, narrating pointlessly long stories about her journey or things she'd seen, as he could nod along and listen quietly to avoid feeling too bored out in the empty ocean. There were far too many moments, however, where she insisted upon more active participation.
"Come on," May needled, nudging his arm with her finger. They were laid side by side, staring up at the afternoon sky above them, thankfully overcast enough to protect their eyes from the light. "Unless you want me to go off on another angsty tale about Harley and his tricks, you really gotta start telling me some stories of your own."
"No, I don't." Paul gave her a quietly puzzled look. He wasn't sure why she thought he was trying to avoid her stories in the first place. She huffed, folding her arms over her chest, changing her plan of attack.
"Maybe…" she mumbled to herself, thinking. "Well, okay, so what if I ask you about specific things. Like, uh," she frowned, but then smiled, keen. "How did you meet Ash?"
"Uh," Paul paused for a moment, as though trying to recall. It was easy to decide to give away small victories like this to May so that she felt justified in going back to her own personal monologue. "I heard him say his Pikachu knew Volt Tackle, so I challenged him to a match."
"That's it?" May's ears pricked up, delighted for a little bit more context. "Who won the battle?"
"Tied." Paul shrugged, not wanting to linger. May paused, wondering how to press for more information.
"What Pokemon did you use?" Was the question she landed on. Paul squinted, for a moment to recall, but then he decided he didn't want to.
"Elekid, at the time," Paul said quietly. "And a Starly I released. Can't remember the other one."
"Oh," May faltered. She couldn't imagine forgetting a Pokemon, especially not one she used at the beginning of what clearly became a formative rivalry. She bit her lip. "Okay."
They were both quiet again for a time, Paul not looking at her, and May only looking at him.
"Did I tell you about the time that Ash's Torkoal nearly died?" She broke the tension quickly, and for that Paul was quietly grateful, content for her to continue her one sided conversation and for him to resume his silent absorption. Paul shook his head slightly, closing his eyes and settling back to hear the story. May launched onwards. "So there was this Spoink, and it lost it's pearl. I think it must have fallen into the ocean or something, and Torkoal was so determined to get it back! He just threw himself over into the sea and went down after it to try and get it back, and then like… really, we should have reacted right away, but it really took us all a second to remember that Torkoal can't swim. Or probably wouldn't do that well at the bottom of the ocean." She paused to take in Paul's reaction, and he was smirking a little.
"What happened next?" He asked quietly. May beamed.
Meteor Falls
The water spray blasted their skin and saturated their clothes. The churning waterfall was surprisingly warm, trapped in this cavern full of humid air, and left them sticky with an unknown residue. Blastoise had positioned himself at the base of the thundering water, roaring in anticipation. Ash swam across to join him first, treading water as best he could next to the violent waves created by the collision of water. Hastily, he latched himself onto the back of Blastoise's shell with one arm and extended another arm across to reach for Dawn and Pikachu, who was sheltering in her grasp unsurely. Pikachu scurried across first, leaping from Dawn's grip onto Ash's outstretched limb, and then he placed himself neatly between Blastoise and Ash so that he could clutch his trainer's shirt for safety.
Dawn followed, getting to the edge of the land and shielding her face as best as she could from the barrage of water. Then, with a deep breath, she leapt forward and grabbed Ash's arm. He pulled her as well as he could, and soon she too was clutching Blastoise's shell. Gary watched them, and once confident all three were secure, he prepared to make his own journey across. Blastoise gave him a reassuring nod, his eyes glinting with confidence, and it gave him the boost to take the next steps.
He jumped forwards, staggering a little at his ending and nearly slipping from Blastoise's shell. Dawn wrapped an arm around his side, sliding down herself from the exertion but at the least securing him enough to help Gary find a foothold and place to grab onto. Moments passed, waiting to be confident they were all well attached, and then Gary spluttered out the order.
"Go!" He coughed against his starter Pokemon's shell.
Without looking back, Blastoise took to the vertical body of water with as much enthusiasm as he would a pristine, still lake. With arms and legs scrambling against the cliff wall behind the waterfall, Blastoise moved with a slow but purposeful climb, propelling them higher and higher up the thrashing falls. The three trainers clung on tightly, trying to hide from the furious deluge of water assaulting their faces and stopping them from breathing as easily as they would like. It was arduously slow, but Blastoise was being cautious and in the long run all present knew it was the best possible call.
Finally, they pulled over the top edge of the cliff. Choking on water that had forced into their lungs, the companions coughed and spat water from their lungs desperately, heaving in heavy breaths to account for their lack of oxygen so far. Blastoise dragged them to the water's edge and they scrambled onto the solid ground, panting and falling over one another as they flopped against the dry floor.
"Thanks…" Gary breathed, "man…"
Blastoise huffed out his response, looking both proud but also drained. As soon as Gary had retrieved the energy to sit upright, he gave his starter a proud nod and returned his oldest ally to his Pokeball, pressing the red and white capsule to his lips afterwards. Pikachu chirped in recognition, smiling from atop Ash's rapidly rising and falling chest.
"We made it," Dawn sighed, her hands gripping the floor beneath her with adrenaline. "We climbed a waterfall."
"I told ya we could do it!" Ash cheered, recovering faster than his companions. He turned towards the new sight, the new depths of the cavern that lay out before them enticingly, and he grinned hungrily at all there was now to explore. "We're making progress!"
Delighted, Pikachu mimicked his trainer, his eyes glistening at the adventure before him. Exhaustion aside, both Gary and Dawn joined him in examining their new territory and shared a conspiratory, companionable smile. There was much further to go yet.
Open Waters
"... and all I heard from him, for like months afterward was how I owed him money for these cookies that frankly," May narrowed her eyes pointedly, "are not as good as he tells everyone they are."
The day had dragged on, and neither party knew how much progress they had made with little ability to judge the distance they'd travelled. Wailord and Manaphy had been completely entrusted with navigation and planning, and May had been sure to dangle herself in front of Wailord's face multiple times reminding him to rest when he needed to. It was getting towards late afternoon, and the lack of entertainment was starting to leave May frustrated. They'd been laying there, side by side, neither having reason to move for a timeless passage of moments. It could have been minutes, hours, days. May had lost the ability to place it, and she didn't want to ask Paul to check his watch again.
She cleared her throat - she'd been talking a lot, and her throat was becoming hoarse. Wordlessly, without checking, Paul reached for his pack and then passed her a water bottle from inside. She drained it quickly, her cheeks pink, and then passed back the empty plastic with a quiet thank you.
"Anyway," she continued, still blushing slightly. "That's Harley."
Paul nodded.
"Do you have any rivals like that?" May asked lightly. "Ones who just… do everything they can to get under your skin and ruin your day! I mean, in the end I guess Harley and I are friends now, but ugh!" She pulled a disgruntled, sulky expression. "He was so annoying!"
"Ash." Paul replied thoughtlessly. May glared at him. "Annoying, loud, ruined my day. Ash."
"You're heartless," May protested feebly, trying not to laugh. Paul didn't respond, but settled himself back more, looking back at the sky again. "You know, Ash is the one who taught me how to catch Pokemon."
Paul raised an eyebrow. "Sorry. I'll show you how when we get back to land."
"Funny," May retorted dryly. Paul's lip twitched. "No, but he taught me great in practice. Showed me how to throw the ball, how to weaken a Pokemon without hurting it too bad… but then like, literally days later, he went against everything he taught me and just chucked this ball at a Pokemon with no sense of trying to weaken it or anything first." May's face contorted into a grin. "He's such a doof." Her voice started to lilt, and Paul frowned. She was beginning to sound emotional, and that was the last thing he wanted. "I hope he stuck around Rustboro for a while. Max would have liked that."
A change in conversation was Paul's best bet. "When did you stop wearing pink?"
"What?" May blanked, her expression completely dropping into surprise.
"That stupid shirt with frills that you used to wear," Paul grunted, only half believing that the words were coming out of his mouth. "Now you don't."
"I," May panicked, "got more practical clothes for um, for traveling. You remember my shirt?"
"It was terrible," Paul told her bluntly, "it was hard to forget."
"You pretended to forget my name when we met in Dewford," May reminded him factually, her stare zeroing in on him in fascination, "and now you're telling me you remember a shirt I wore the three times we met when you were in Petalburg?"
"Was it three?" Paul frowned, this not aligning with his memory. "I thought it was two."
May's jaw went slack. "I cannot believe these words are coming out of your mouth." She paused for a moment, staring at the ocean to collect herself. "To be honest, sometimes I'm surprised when any words come out of your mouth at all."
"You're heartless." Paul said it humorlessly, but it still made May laugh.
"I really can't believe you're admitting you remember!" She grinned, imbued with new confidence. "I knew you would. I've thought about it so many times over the years." This was no longer new information to Paul, so he chose not to react. "Did you ever do it? You know, like, did you prove yourself?"
Paul blanched, paler for a moment, before silently raising an eyebrow to ask her to elaborate.
"Before you left," May continued, her voice meeker, "and I yelled at you about how I was going to prove myself. And you got all dramatic and said that's why you wanted to become stronger." She flushed, and looked down. "I've always wondered if you ever got to achieve that. And, um, who you wanted to prove yourself to. But it's stupid, you probably don't want to share that kinda thing, I know you're very private and-"
"My father is an asshole." Paul told her bluntly. May startled, looking at him with wide eyes. "There's not much more to it than that. Does that satisfy your curiosity?" His voice had hardened again, and May sensed she'd broached a topic far beyond his comfort levels. Still, he was still talking, and so she took it as a sign that he was at the least trying. It warmed her.
"I don't know what happened," May said quietly, "but was whatever it was worth being angry for all these years?"
Paul tensed, ready to snap at her, ready to lash out, to do something to shut her away from ever mentioning this again. He turned to her, his lips taught and thin, and froze at the sight of May's wide and vulnerable eyes. An echo of her question frothed in his mind, and he thought of Norman and a relationship she must have had with him that he didn't know much about either.
Instead of answering her, he chose to echo her previous question. "Did you prove yourself?" She flinched, and looked away. "Did you prove him wrong?" He clarified.
May swallowed thickly, and then shrugged. "I hope so. I thought maybe I did."
With that, they fell into silence, the afternoon beginning to merge into evening. They remained laid, side by side, each burning with curiosity but either too proud or too shy to search out answers to questions they ached to ask. Content with at least this much, May let her neck twist and roll her skull along Wailord's back, just enough so that the top of her head met with the side of Paul's shoulder. At first, she could feel the muscles there stiffen, uncomfortable. It took less than what she'd call a moment for him to relax, and so there she remained.
Meteor Falls
Soggy but determined, three sets of footsteps stormed through the cavern. Damp reminders of their path trickled behind them in the form of dark patches shaped like shoe imprints in the dust left in their trail. Pikachu directed them from atop Ash's hat, pointing in the direction he sniffed out as having the most interest to explore. Wild Golbat swooped above them with little care for personal space, Solrock and Lunatone observed them suspiciously from a distance, and occasionally they could smell the sulfur that characterised the presence of dragons.
"I have a good feeling about this," Ash repeated for the third time. "It feels like something… special is just around the corner, you know?"
"Mmmhmm!" Dawn hummed her agreement. She had a much higher tolerance for Ash's repetition than Gary did. "I think we're onto something too. There's something exciting here, I just know it!"
"I just hope whatever we find," Gary replied in a lower tone, a little more pessimistically, "will be useful somehow. Answer some questions, you know?" Ash gave him a sidelong look.
"You worry too much," Ash dismissed. Pikachu agreed, wiggling his tail tauntingly at Gary to rile him. "Come on, buddy, let's go ahead and see if we can spot anything that'll liven up Gary 'Misery Guts' Oak over here!" Ash and Pikachu darted ahead, laughing and pulling faces behind them as they went. Gary gave Dawn a tired, exasperated sigh, and she giggled right back.
"We both know what he's like," Dawn told Gary teasingly, and Gary gave her a smarmy grin, tucking his arms behind his head.
"All too well," he replied in a singsong voice. "Wonder how long it's going to be before he runs into a wall or something."
"Not long, I'm sure," Dawn joined in jovially. They laughed together, enough to ease some of the tension in Gary's shoulders. "It's alright you know," she told him brightly. "I don't have a crush on him."
Gary stumbled over his own feet for a moment, jarred. "Excuse me?" He spluttered.
"I saw your face when we were in the hospital, and I had my arm around him," Dawn explained lightly, mirth in her eyes glistening. "You looked like I'd just punched you in the gut or something."
"That's…" Gary paled, stammering. "That's completely off base. There was a lot going on! How can you try - I mean - we were in a hospital! I'm allowed to look like I'm in a bad mood!" Dawn's smile stretched wider and wider until she replicated her mother's Glameow in her feline grin.
"Sure," she drawled, her eyelids lowered pointedly. "That's definitely convinced me." Gary stared at her, jaw slightly slack. "Relax dingus, I'm not gonna get in your way or anything."
"There is no way!" Gary insisted, his voice tight, "to get into!" Dawn guffawed behind her hand and began to speed up her pace to chase down Ash, swinging her hips a little as she ran.
"A-aash!" She cat-called musically. "Gary's looking flustered, maybe we should slow down!"
"Dawn!" Gary seethed, his blood reaching a boil. He broke out into a sprint to catch up, determined to stop her. "If you don't stop I'll never write you a poem ever again!"
Ruin Valley
Wailord needed rest. The sky had plunged into an inky darkness, but Manaphy had navigated them to a small island neither May nor Paul recognised. At first, the island seemed impossible to find shelter in. It seemed like a wall of cliff faces, jagged and unwelcoming, harsh and inhospitable. With a little navigation, though, they found an opening that allowed them to step out into a clearing that took them to a meadow. It was full of overgrown grass, girthy trees and seemed relatively undisturbed. In the center of the clearing, beyond where they had the energy to explore, a rocky opening lay. Where it led, neither May nor Paul could find the enthusiasm to explore. Instead, they quickly set up camp and collapsed to the ground.
With some fidgeting on her phone, May announced they were in a collection of islands south of Kanto called the Sevii Islands, that they'd arrived in a place called Six Island and they were a little ways south of a town. Wailord returned to his Pokeball, resting for the night, and they made camp quickly. Manaphy was clearly weary from his day of travel but was determined to stay awake. He'd looped his antenna around the back of May's neck, yawning regularly from her arm, nestled into her chest stubbornly. Paul listened to them, murmuring together and laughing quietly, staring up at the stars. They were particularly vivid and bright here, and so May was drawn to them, pulling out her nostalgia.
Paul had come to anticipate May's sentimentality, and after a long day with nothing to do but to talk to her he was keen to avoid more. He'd tried to set about falling asleep as quickly as possible. May had not protested nor had she tried to do the same. Instead, she'd made herself comfortable with her back up against a tree, swaddled in her sleeping bag and sharing moments with Manaphy, watching stars move above them with rapt fascination.
"Once," May told Manaphy in a whisper, "I had a wishmaker. It was during the Millennium Comet, and I had to make a wish, the same wish, every night that it hung in the sky. And I made it, and I wished that I'd get to have a life filled with love. But so much happened that week, and now, I," her voice wavered, weak from overuse through the day. Paul tried to convince himself to stop listening, but there was no sound in the night to drown her out, and so her lilting, hushed chatter was all he had. "I just can't look at the stars without thinking of Max. You remember Max, right? My baby brother?"
Manaphy cooed in her arms, his voice showing the strain of exhaustion. May tsked quietly, and Paul could hear the plastic shifting as she rearranged the pair of them deeper into the sleeping bag. He kept his eyes closed and the rise and fall of his chest even. His ears were alert, against his will.
"He was so young when we traveled together," May murmured mournfully. "I think it was good for him. I think I took good care of him. I don't know, it's hard to say. I'm definitely not taking good care of him now, am I? I wonder how mad my Mom will be with me when she wakes up."
May stressed the 'when' too hard. Manaphy made another soft, reassuring coo, and May pressed her lips to his temple.
"You're tired, silly," she whispered. "You should sleep. I used to sing Mom's lullaby for Max when he was little, do you want to hear it?"
Through a strained and sore throat, May murmured a melody that was lilting and sweet, enriched with tenderness for a family that was not with her. Paul listened, quietly, an unheard harmony buzzing in his ears and filling his head with heaviness. Sound washed over him with a physical presence, like a weighted blanket designed to press you into place and coax you towards seep. He never felt the sound resolve; he was gone before she reached the end of her song, and so it lingered in his sleep like a half peeled bandaid.
Lilycove City
The sun rising woke them, light trickling through a crack in the curtains and burning into their eyes. Madison didn't know where she was - the sheets felt rough and unfamiliar, the mattress beneath her was soft when she was used to firm. Under the blanket, she was naked, and her skin was caked in sweat. Lips met her shoulder, and she shuddered, violently and suddenly realising what she had done.
"No," she stated firmly. Rudely, she jumped to her feet and stole the unfamiliar blanket from the bed to swaddle around her and protect her dignity. Axel's eyes followed her as she began to move around his rented room, amused and exposed. "That didn't happen. This, this never happened."
"It happened," Axel laughed, open and welcoming. Madison fluttered to a stop for just a moment, pink in the cheeks and hair ascue. "I'm really not that surprised. I don't think you're entirely surprised either."
"I was…" Madison panted, before screwing her face up in despair. "Arceus, I was just… I was vulnerable yesterday. You caught me on a bad day, and I behaved in ways that otherwise I would never even dream, never even imagine!"
"Well," Axel turned on his side to face her more directly as she began to gather her scattered clothes from the floor. "I wouldn't think you would ever let yourself imagine something you want that much. Doesn't seem entirely your style?"
"Don't get cute with me," Madison warned in a growl. Axel's grin became broader.
"I might want to get cute with you." He shrugged. "I mean, what are the consequences?"
She picked up his underwear from the floor and tossed them into his face, not willing to listen to more of his taunts. She used the distraction to pull her shirt back over her head, her jeans over her shaking legs, and then bundled up the blanket and dropped it unceremoniously on his head.
"I was never here," she reminded him briskly. "This, categorically, did not happen!"
"Should I be taking this personally?" Axel's voice was muffled by the thick covers now concealing him from view, and Madison scoffed, checking around for anything else that might be hers. She shoved discarded undergarments into her pockets, checked a tote bag that she'd once again abandoned by the door, and moaned pitifully over the state of her notifications.
"I'm so late," she seethed, furious at herself. Turning on her heel once more, she stared Axel down as he pulled his head free from the blankets, his bruise still painfully prominent but not more so than the smug grin he was giving her. "What happened last night?"
Axel mockingly put a hand over his bare chest. "We made love."
Madison bore her teeth. "What happened last night?" She demanded. Axel held his hands up in surrender.
"Nothing," he assured her quietly, "I have very vivid dreams, that's all." With a softened, sincere nod, Axel finally made Madison relax.
"Thank you," she whispered, her eyes rolling shut for just a moment more. Then, stiffly, she fled.