Yui's Journey – The Tokko Adventures

Chapter 12 – After Aurora

                Yui laughed out loud as Morty carried her down the pathway to the next city on his back; he held onto her legs, and she had her arms wrapped securely around his shoulders. "Don't go too fast, you'll fall!" she cried between furious giggles.

            "I'm not going to fall! Don't worry, Yui," he called back. She laughed again, and leaned her head down a little closer to his.

            "Do you remember the name of the city we're going to?" she asked.

            "Well, we're on Route 52 now, so the two closest cities are Red Rose City and Kitty City," Morty said. "We can go to either one, since they both have a gym; but Kitty City is a little more out of the way, so it'd be hard to backtrack there if we went to Red Rose City first."

            "Kitty City it is, then!" Yui said, turning around to look at Teal and Falkner, who were trailing behind. "Is that okay, guys?"             "Yeah, whatever," Teal called forward, looking off to the side. Falkner was a bit worried; ever since Yui and Morty had hit it off in Aurora City, Teal had been very quiet… She almost seemed depressed, or jealous.

            "Hey, Teal, are you okay?" he asked. "You're acting differently."

            "It's nothing," she said, still looking away from him. Falkner blinked, and put a hand on her shoulder, making her turn to face him.

            "It's not 'nothing'," he said almost accusingly. "Something's wrong. Please tell me what it is."

            "Falkner, it's nothing!" Teal repeated. "So please leave me alone!"

            "Alright, sorry," he sighed, removing his hand. Teal stared at the ground as she walked, not even looking in his direction, but Falkner couldn't keep his eyes off of her. He was definitely worried about her now…

            As for Teal, she wasn't exactly sure what she was feeling. Many feelings were spinning through her head - jealousy, anger, even a bit of guilt - and it was hard for her to grasp her emotions. She was angry at everyone right now… Angry at Yui and Morty, for beginning the relationship that she had secretly wished would never happen; angry at herself, for lying to Yui and Morty the night before about being happy for them. She even felt anger toward Falkner, because he didn't love her the way she wanted him to. Teal knew inside that it was wrong to discriminate her friends for these reasons, but she couldn't help it. It just felt like loneliness was overwhelming her… enveloping her in a negative state of mind. All her mind was saying to her was "You'll always be alone."

            Suddenly, there was a yelp, a crash, and a series of screams from ahead of them on the path; Teal's head jolted up, and she saw Yui sitting in the middle of the walkway, rubbing dirt off her face and crying to Morty, complaining that he'd dropped her when he had said - he had promised that he wouldn't. Morty was planted face first in the dirt, attempting weakly to stand up. Teal didn't see, but Falkner noticed a thin trail of blood streaming from underneath the blonde boy's face.

            "Oh no… Are you guys all right?" he questioned, darting up the path. Teal followed, making an attempt to be normal, as if nothing was wrong. Morty sat up, and Teal gasped as she looked at him; blood not only poured from his crushed nose, but from a gash in his forehead, right below his precious headband.

            Yui saw him too, and turned away in fear, breathing deeply. "I'm so sorry, Morty," she said quickly, "I didn't mean to shout at you!"

            "It's fine," he groaned, holding a hand over his face lightly and cringing. "Can we please do something about this, though?"

            "What can we do?" Teal put in. "Aurora City's too far back… there's not a building for miles!"

            "I don't think it's that bad," Morty said, inspecting his nose. "It's thankfully not broken… just kind of hurt."

            "I'm so, so sorry," Yui cried, hugging him lightly. "I didn't mean to. Really."

            "It wasn't your fault," he replied. "I leaned forward too far or something… If it had been you that had fallen, you would have fallen backwards off of me, not forwards."

            "O – okay," Yui stammered, looking down.

            "I think we need to get him to a shelter of some kind, or something," Falkner pointed out, a small sweatdrop forming on his forehead.

            "You think?" Teal said. "He's hurt; of course he needs a place to rest!"

            "But… There aren't any buildings within miles of here," Yui whined. "Moving that far is useless… Let's set up camp in the forests around here."

            Teal nodded slowly. "Sounds fine," she said, "…but who's going to take care of Morty?"

            "I will," Yui declared, brushing off her face one last time and standing up. "I owe it to him."

            Falkner and Teal stared at her in surprise. Morty just smiled… slightly. "Er… Are you sure you're in good hands?" Falkner whispered to him.

            "I think I can trust her," he replied. "…Sort of."  

            "Yui!" Morty called playfully, waving a hand in the air. "My nose is bleeding again!"

            The redheaded girl was at his side instantly; both of them laughed as she wiped away the tiny trickle of blood before it touched his lip. "So, you think you can trust me to take care of you now?"

            "I know I can," Morty said, pulling his sleeping bag up over his shoulders and wrapping Yui in it with him. She giggled, and slid her arms around his waist, cuddling up as close as she could.

            "You know, you guys, there is a fire going," Falkner said, walking through the campsite and throwing another log into the fireplace they'd built. "It's not that cold."

            "We never said it was," said Yui, resting her head on Morty's shoulder.

            "We're just sitting together," Morty added.

            Falkner rolled his eyes, and sat down on the ground. He looked over at Teal; she was curled up in her own sleeping bag, turned away from the group and the fire. "Teal, you okay?"

            "Fine," she said lowly. "I'm getting some rest."

            He yawned, leaning back and laying across the grass. "You've got the right idea, I think," he said, rubbing his eyes. "It's almost eleven o'clock… Guess it's time to go to sleep."

            "We'll put out the fire," Yui said, "don't worry about it."

            "'Kay," Falkner agreed, yawning again as he crawled into his sleeping bag. After that, Yui and Morty didn't hear another sound from either of their friends.

            "Maybe we should go to bed too," Morty suggested. "We want to get to Kitty City as soon as we can, right?"

            "But… You're hurt," Yui said. "We probably shouldn't be moving too quickly."

            "I'll be fine," he assured her. "My nose isn't hurt that badly… the only thing that really hurts is this cut on my forehead, and it'll heal. So I'll be okay."

            "Okay… I trust you," Yui said, smiling softly at him. She quickly ran the tip of her tongue over her upper lip; Morty grinned, and leaned in to softly kiss her. She hugged his waist tightly and pulled herself closer, deepening the kiss. Yui was the first to pull away; she stared forward into Morty's alternate colored eyes, and blushed deeply.

            "Ready to get to sleep?" he asked, his voice low and breathless.

            "Sure," Yui replied. They stood up together, still tangled in Morty's sleeping bag. He pulled it off of his shoulders and set it down on the ground right next to Yui's. After Morty took a second to put out the fire, the two of them snuggled inside their respective sleeping bags, looking into each other's eyes as they settled their heads onto the pillows.

            "Good night, Morty," Yui whispered.

            "Good night, Yui," he responded softly.

            Minutes later, after making sure that all three of her friends were sound asleep, Teal slowly sat up in her sleeping bag. She looked around the moonlit-stained campsite, and stared in jealousy at Yui and Morty. They were in separate sleeping bags, but they were still lying extremely close to each other. Teal frowned, and looked away, staring back at the ground.

            "Why did they have to get together so soon like that?" she said quietly to herself, biting her bottom lip to keep from speaking louder and waking the others up. "I wasn't lying when I said that I no longer liked Morty… But I hate seeing couples so happy together like that! It just reminds me that I'll never experience that…"

            Her eyes darted to where Falkner was sleeping; she stared at him in his sleep, allowing a light blush to come to her cheeks. He was turned over on his side, and the eye that was usually covered by his hair was now blocked off by the pillow as well. His other eye was peacefully shut, and he was smiling in his sleep. His light skin was enveloped in the moonlight; inside of his cloud-white sleeping bag, he looked almost like an angel. A small, single tear fell from Teal's eye, and she smiled as she stood up from the spot where she was rested.

            "I know I'll never have a chance with you, my sweet Falkner," she said, approaching him cautiously. "I know you can't hear me, but I want you to know… I want to say that I love you."

            Leaning down, she brushed her lips against his pale cheek, blushing even more furiously; this was the closest she'd ever been to him, or to anyone… and as far as she was concerned, it'd be the last time as well. Making sure to stay quiet, she rolled up her sleeping bag and picked up her backpack. Once she'd made sure she had everything that belonged to her, she turned and sauntered off into the dark forest.

            Yui awoke in the morning to the sound of somebody yelling. She sat up in her sleeping bag, groaning and rubbing her eyes… As her eyes adjusted to being awake, she noticed that it wasn't morning quite yet… The sky was still dark, and the moon was still out. But Falkner was already awake… He was rushing around the campsite, calling Teal's name and looking around frantically. 

            "What's going on?" she said, quickly checking her PokeGear for the time. "It's only two in the morning."

            "Teal's missing!" Falkner cried. "She's gone… so is all her stuff! I don't know what could have happened!!"

            "What?" Yui stood to her feet, looking around. "She wouldn't just leave like that… She must be nearby!"

            "I've looked everywhere," he said. "There's no sign of her."

            He sat down on the ground, holding his head in his hands." What if we never find her?" he cried. "I'll never see her again…"

            "Don't say that," Yui said. "We will find her. And…" she nudged him with her elbow, "we'll make sure she knows how you feel about her."

            Falkner looked up. "How did you –"

            "I can just tell," Yui interrupted. "Now come on; let's go into the forest and search. I'll wake Morty up."

            "Okay…" he said slowly, letting a single tear fall from his visible eye. As Yui went to try to awaken Morty, Falkner grabbed a flashlight out of his bag and ran off into the forest. Yui heard his quick footsteps, and spun around, watching him disappear into the thick arrangement of trees.

            "No, Falkner! Wait! We shouldn't get separated!" she called.

            "Uh… I'm not Falkner," said Morty, slowly sitting up and placing his hand lightly over his forehead. He raised his other arm, and pointed into the forest. "Falkner went over that way."

            Yui sighed, and fell over backwards. "I know that!" she said. "Hurry, get up! We have to go after him!"

            "You go," Morty said tiredly. "I'm too tired…"

            "But…" Yui stammered, staring out into the dark forest; there was no sign of Falkner anywhere. "I can't go out there myself! I can't even see him!!"

            "Stay here, then," he replied. "Go back to sleep. I'm sure he'll be back in the morning."

            Morty curled back up in his sleeping bag, and Yui crawled back into hers. She kept looking out into the forest, worried for both of her friends. "Falkner might," she said silently to herself, "but I'm not sure about Teal…"

             A cold droplet of water fell from the sky, landing on Teal's forehead and running down between her eyes. She looked up just in time to see another drop land on the tip of her nose

            "Oh… Well, isn't this lovely," she said to herself, watching as more raindrops started falling steadily. "And there's no shelter in sight… What have I gone and gotten myself into?"

            Nearly panicking, Teal looked around for any sign of shelter, or anything that would keep her dry until this sudden storm let up. There was nothing… only rows and rows of trees in every direction she looked. Sighing, she chose the biggest, leafiest tree she could see and took shelter under its branches. The rain was falling heavily now, and a few drops still found their way through the branches and onto her head, but at least it was better that standing in the open and taking the rainstorm full-force.

            "If I had stayed at the campsite, I would have at least had some shelter," she said silently to herself. "There was a small cave near there… it would have been cramped, but at least it would be better than this."

            Teal slid to a sitting position, not caring that her feet were out in the open and her shoes were being soaked by the rain. "What was I thinking?" she asked herself. "I shouldn't have just left them like that… even if I am really confused right now." She looked up to the sky; the raindrops blurred everything out, though. She could barely even see the stars, their faint glow through the seemingly endless downpour of rain was their only sign that they were still up there.

            "I could have asked them for help," she continued, speaking out loud as if there was actually someone there to listen. "I could have solved this problem and gone on with my life… but I had to run away. And now… I'll probably never see Falkner or my friends again…"       

            "Oh, come on… You didn't think we'd leave here without you, did you?" A hand touched her shoulder from behind and, half-startled from the voice and half from the sudden touch, she spun around. Falkner stood there, hair dripping wet, with a sympathetic smile on his face. "You know, Teal… You're crazier than I thought you were."

            Her eyes went wide, and she backed up a bit. "Oh, so I'm crazy now!" she snapped.

            Falkner jolted, "No, that's not what I meant!" he said. "I guess I shouldn't be joking around at a time like this…"

            "A time like what?" Teal asked.  

            "Teal… I was really worried when I woke up and saw that you were gone," Falkner said softly. "I was really scared… I thought you had left because of me, and it really hurt me."            

            "So it hurt you, and that's all that's important, right? If you cared how I felt, you would have just left me alone!" she retaliated, turning away from him. "You're too busy thinking about yourself to care about my feelings!"

            "Listen, I wouldn't have come out here if I didn't care about how you feel!" His voice was getting louder now… he didn't know how to explain himself to her, especially when she was in this condition. "You're crazy if you think I don't care about you!"

            "Then you'd be the first one," Teal said, a sorrowful tone overcoming her voice. "Nobody's ever cared about me before… I've been through too much to even know what it feels like to be cared about. You can't possibly know how I feel."

            Falkner scowled. "I may not know exactly how you feel," he said, "but I do know what it feels like to feel pain! I've had to deal with a lot of bad times in my life… probably a lot more than you!"

            "Prove it!" Teal snapped, spinning to face him. "If you think you're so much worse off than me, then prove it!"

            "Fine," Falkner said as calmly as he could. He looked up at her, the soaking wet clump of hair still carefully placed over his right eye. "I… have no family," he started. "My father died when I was a young child. And my mother died when I was thirteen. Only about four years ago. I had no siblings and no contact with my grandparents. I had an aunt, but she moved away somewhere when I took the Violet City gym. I haven't seen her since then."

            He studied her face; she was looking sadder with every word he spoke, and there were already tears on her face. The rain was washing away his own tears, as he was facing into the wind. "And if that's not enough for you," he said lowly, "take a look at this."

            Slowly, with one swift hand motion, he pulled away the excess hair that hung over his face, tucking it behind his ear. Teal expected to see a crystal blue eye, identical to the other one, staring back at her. Instead, what she saw made her eyes go wide and her pupils narrow… His right eye was made entirely of glass, and all she could see in the center was a circle of colorless gray.

            "This has caused me more pain in a short amount of time than most people have experienced in their entire lives," Falkner growled. "It was a Beedrill belonging to a young trainer that took away half of my eyesight. Since then, I could consider myself the 'freak' gym leader of Johto. Most of my friends abandoned me, because they were scared of how I looked. And I could never hold a decent relationship, because all the girls were scared of me."

            He paused for a second, letting his words sink in. After a few long moments, he continued, "The one girl that wasn't afraid of me… we had a disagreement. And since then, we've become worst enemies. Just think about that, and then see if you can tell me that your life sucks more than mine."

            There was a long tense pause. Teal stared forward at Falkner, and he looked down at the ground. Suddenly, Teal stepped forward and took Falkner into her arms, hugging him tightly. She hid her face in his shoulder, crying as she spoke.

            "Falkner… I'm so sorry…If I had known…"

            "It's okay… Like you said, you didn't know," he whispered.

            "I'm still really sorry," Teal cried, looking up at him. "I… I understand completely if you hate me now…"

            "Teal," Falkner said, holding her in place by her shoulders. "If I hated you, I wouldn't have bothered to tell you all of that. I would have just walked away and forgotten about you."

            "But you didn't have to tell me everything," Teal sobbed. "Now I feel even worse about trying to run away from you like that…"

            "There was a point behind it," he said. "I've been through so much… But I'm still trying to go on with my life." He leaned in closer, as if that would help to convince her, "What I'm trying to say is that no matter how much pain you have in your life, it's always worth it to take the pain and keep going. There's no reason to give up if one or two bad things happen."

            "I… I guess you're right," she said, letting her shoulders relax. "Thank you, Falkner… But why would you be so worried about me? Why not just let me leave?"

            "Because…" Falkner swallowed hard, and swung his hair around so that it hung over his right eye again, "I care about you a lot, Teal. And I couldn't just let you walk away like that… Not when you needed me the most."

            Teal smiled, reaching over and placing her hand on his right cheek. "You don't need to hide this," she said, pulling his hair back behind his ear again. "I'm not afraid. I'd never reject someone because of something like this."

            Falkner blushed, and shut his eyes (well, his one eye) as Teal leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. "Now come on," she said. "Let's get back to the campsite. I don't know about you, but I'm freezing cold…"

            "I agree," he said, taking her by the hand.

            ~*~*~

            "I'm so glad you're okay!" Yui cried, giving her friend a hug. "I thought you weren't going to come back!"

            "I thought the same thing," Teal said. "But I guess that was a pretty stupid decision to make…"

            "Don't worry about it. You weren't sure what else to do," Falkner said, putting his arm around her shoulders. She smiled, and leaned her head on his shoulder, sighing happily.

            "But everything's all worked out now, right?" she said.

            "Right," Falkner replied. "At least, that's how it seems…"

            At this moment, they were back on the road to Kitty City. Everyone was still a little tired from all the excitement the night before, so they were progressing a little slower than usual.

            "I wish we could have slept in a little bit longer," Morty said, yawning loudly.

            "Me too," said Yui. "But we're not going to get to the next city by lying around in a forest all day."

            "I guess so… but it's not like the city's going to get up and walk away if we don't get there today."

            Yui giggled. "You're right. Tonight we'll stop early and get some extra sleep… no matter how far we are from Kitty City."

            Morty was about to reply, when a high-pitched tone sounded off out of nowhere. Yui jumped, looking around for where it was coming from; she stopped when she saw Falkner pull a small cloudy-blue pocket phone out of his shirt pocket.

            "Hey, I didn't know you had a cell phone!" Yui said. "Who's calling?"

            Falkner took a look at the name on display, and sighed. "I'll be right back," he said, wandering off to the side and turning the phone on. He talked for a short time, and then came back.

            "Well, who was it?" Yui asked.

            He sighed again. "It was Matt, the lead trainee from my gym," he said. "His Pokemon just got into a tough match, and they were severely hurt. They'll be in the Pokemon Center for at least two weeks, and none of my other trainees have the capability of running the gym. I'm afraid I'll have to go back for a while."

            Teal nearly fell over in shock. "You can't go back now!" she cried. "I'm almost afraid to ask, but… when do you have to go?"

            "As soon as I can," he said, looking down to avoid eye contact. "I really don't want to leave now, but someone has to defend the gym…"

            "I… I know," she sighed.

            Falkner looked up, smiling weakly at Yui and Morty. "Can Teal and I be alone for a second?" he asked.

            "Sure," Yui said. "Bye, Falkner. Hope to see you back soon!"

            "Yeah, see you…" Morty said, taking Yui's hand as they kept going down the path. Teal just stood there, looking down at the ground.

            "Teal… I'm really sorry," he said. "I hope you understand…"

            "I do," she said. "I'll be fine… You just have to promise to come back as soon as you can."

            "I will," he told her. "I promise."

            Teal looked up and smiled brightly at him. "Thank you," she said, leaning up and giving him a quick kiss. "I'll miss you…"

            "I'll miss you too," he said. "And I'll try to call you on your PokeGear."

            "You'd better," Teal laughed. "I don't want to lose contact with you completely!"

            Falkner laughed too. "That would never happen," he told her. "I don't break contact with the people I care about."

            A light blush came to Teal's cheeks, and she smiled slightly, watching him send out his Pidgeot. He climbed up onto its back, looking down at her the whole time. "I'll give you a call when I'm on my way back," he said.

            "Okay," Teal said quietly. Pidgeot flapped its wings, and they took off slowly, heading back in the direction that the group had come from. Teal jogged after them for a few seconds, waving. "Bye, Falkner!" she called. Then she stopped, watching them disappear into the sky, and whispered, "I love you…"  

            Once Pidgeot was completely out of sight, Teal turned and sighed again, wiping away a few tears. Then, beaming brightly, she took a deep breath and ran forward along the path, eager to catch up with the rest of her group.

            ~To Be Continued…~

            A/N: Whee… Finally finished! ^^ This chapter took way too long to write… I'm not really all that satisfied with it, either. But I hope you like it, and I'll have Chapter 13 up as soon as I can! [Kittie: Which had better be soon… -_-] Yeah, yeah. *pushes her out of the room* Kittie is a Pokemon that I made up, and she'll be making an appearance in the next chapter, so she's a little eager for me to get it finished.. [*pokes her head in* A little?] *shuts the door* Okay, more than a little. But like I said, it'll be up as soon as I can get it done. So for now, see you later! ^^