Beginning notes
(This story was previously published on Archive Of Our Own and has been brought over to FFNet for PokeShipping week. It was written after JN 118 but before the following episodes.)
Oddly enough, I was listening to "Daybreak Meteor Shower" when I thought of this, that could be called ironic since I'm pretty sure it's about the ship most commonly seen as a direct rival to this one. Not that it will be mentioned at all in this.
This is NOT a part of the "It's Okay To Cry" story.
I do not own Pokémon. It is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures Inc (who together run the Pokémon Company). Please support the official releases.
-Story begins here-
"Pikachu, Iron Tail!"
The mouse I had known for so long swung into that shiny mega-evolved Metagross.
It's crazy he's there. It wasn't that long ago he couldn't deal with flocks of Sparrow. I saw it!
I was so ahead of him at the time, I know that I wasn't full-time until later, but I still had the gym leader position…
But now…he's so far ahead of me. "The Masters' Eight" they seem to call it. The eight best trainers are there. He's in a group that includes Lance. And he won a round, while Lance did not.
I realized a while ago that I should have told him how I felt when I could. But now it isn't going to happen.
But now there's no shot for me. He's probably still a bit of a doofus, but he's a doofus way beyond my level.
I got frustrated thinking about that even though I shouldn't have and walked down to the kitchen, where Daisy happened to be, visiting for the day.
"What got you so worked up?" She asks, always trying to prod her way into the business I try to keep a secret.
"Nothing, I just look worked up for some reason," I said, not doing a good job not looking uncomfortable.
"It has to be about him, I just know it," she says, smirking while leaning into a counter.
"I just watched him, but it isn't like I'm always talking with him. I haven't spoken to him since I went to Alola!" I respond, speaking faster than I usually do.
"Ah, so it is Ash, heh." She says, like she made some big discovery.
"So?" I respond, leaning into the counter, looking into a wall
"Maybe you should have done the PWC. Maybe it would have been you there, instead of that purple-haired girl. I'm pretty sure she's your age."
"It would hurt her feelings if I was there and left her at ninth. And then I would be the one who'd lose to Cynthia anyway." I replied, thinking I was being funny (and I know I also wouldn't stand a chance against the Unova champion, but you'll never hear me say that out loud!)
"Say, Ash is facing her next, don't hype her up too much!" She pointed out, surprising me with how much she's paid attention.
After a brief pause, I was still thinking about how weird it is to see Ash there and how he's so far ahead of me now, I don't know if he even thinks about me anymore. I know he was glad to see me last time, but that was before a championship and getting into the Masters Eight.
"Maybe you should call him on the Rotom Phone tonight?" She says, breaking the silence.
"He has better things to do." I nonchalantly say, figuring he's going to just train all night.
"You know he probably would think talking to you would make his night!" She says peppier than she usually is.
"You do realize he just beat the Hoenn Champion." I spat out.
"I shouldn't have to tell you how his priorities are messed up," she said, laughing.
"That was a while ago," I muttered.
"You know you want to. Are you really going to be chicken?" She prodded, going next to me.
"It ain't anything like that. He's just above me now." I also muttered.
"When has he cared about that?" She inquired, now looking into my eyes.
"Anyone who's gotten into the Masters Eight would! He's not like how he was when I traveled with him, can you get that through your thick skull?" I retorted.
"Wow, my baby sister always acts so toughly but she's so scared about talking to a guy…" She said, walking away.
Later, I was staring at the pool. I was the only one in the room. It still sometimes feels odd not having Ash and Brock with me, and that I'm not constantly in a random forest, but, at the same time…I'm glad to always be near a shop. Though, I still kind of miss traveling. I often wonder to myself if I should have gone to Hoenn with them. No, I couldn't do that. If I had kept away from the gym for much longer, my sisters might have given the gym away, they have never cared about doing gym battles. And it's all we have.
I decided to take off my shoes and dip my toes into the pool. It should have gotten old a long time ago, but I still enjoy doing it.
He's just moved past me. I know he's in Kanto a lot, but he never came and visited. It's just the way it is. Our lives went in different directions, and I just have to be happy for him.
Going back to the kitchen, I see that Daisy wrote a number. Got it from Brock, who has seen him recently, by the way, something to do with Heatran. the note also says.
Just then, Psyduck waddled in. How did he get out of his Poké Ball? I know I shouldn't have left them all in my office.
"Psy," he says, looking up.
"Oh, not now, go back into your ball in your office!"
I realized that he was now blocking the doorway.
"Why don't you want me to leave?" I shout out, my face getting red.
He doesn't respond. That rude duck! Always either the sweetest thing or eviler than anyone in Team Rocket.
I walked over and tried to pick him up but…I couldn't do it.
"Crap! Have I been feeding you too much? You might have to take on some battles just by yourself to lose weight, and you know how I don't accept failure!" I shouted to him, trying to look tough.
Again, nothing.
Just then, he put his hands on his head and started to concentrate hard.
"Psyduck, I don't want you hurting yourself…" I said to him.
Then, the phone slightly moved. Must have been his psychic.
"So that's what you're trying to do. Daisy put you to this?"
Psyduck laughed.
"I'm going to get my revenge on you and her after this!" I shouted back, but being defeated, I had no choice but to call him.
Here goes nothing…
I watched the Rotom Phone do its calling screen.
Eventually, it picked up, but not Ash. Instead, it was this boy with black hair and blue eyes, with a Grookey on his shoulder.
"Sorry to surprise you, Ash is in another room, I'll go get him and Pikachu!"
Before I could respond to that boy, he ran off. After a few seconds, I could hear "Pikachu-pi!" and "MISTY?" and both Ash and Pikachu ran on screen.
They both came running onto the screen.
"Oh, what's up Misty! I take it you watched by battle just then! Dracovish is part water if you couldn't tell!" he said with that notorious smile of his. I love that smile, though it often is followed by disaster.
He came so fast I didn't even know what to say as a response to that, I wasn't even thinking of his other Pokémon.
"Yeah, I checked on my phone. Why haven't you taught it Hydro Pump?" I said if he was going to go there.
"Trust me, it didn't get to do much, but it has other moves when it needs to dish out some power." He said, his energy somewhat lowering but still very much into the conversation.
"It used to be that I had to teach you everything…now it seems like you're the one who has to teach me whenever I see you," I said, scratching my head.
"You don't know how you would have placed if you had done this!" he said, I noticed in Alola that he was very perky and that has continued.
"I guess that's true. I just decided I get too much traffic to do the PWC at the same time, you know how everyone likes to face me as their second leader, meaning I get a lot more than people like Blain and Erika, since a lot of the people who beat me later give up." That answer was pretty much prepared, as I've been asked about it before.
"There will be more seasons!" He responded, fixing his hat.
"Look, after this is done, come to Cerulean, alright?" I decided to cut to the chase a bit.
"Yeah. To tell you the truth, I've been with a ton of people I've traveled with recently, I felt kind of bad you weren't one of them."
"What, am I ancient history to you?" I said in shock…
He's seen everyone but me? Does he see me as old school? Too much in the past? But my trip to Alola wasn't that long ago!
Then again, it's because of me that we didn't keep traveling together, so is this just my punishment?
"It's because I bumped into them during my journeys. You're just in Cerulean, and I didn't go there, so that's pretty much that."
"Then it's a good thing you'll freaking come to Cerulean!" I said, making my eyes big to intimidate him since that's the only thing that seems to work on him.
"Yeah, yeah, definitely, just let me win this, and I won't even stop in Pallet beforehand!"
"Wow, you're much better at that than you were in your journeyed through Kanto, The Orange Islands, and Johto!" I said with my best smile
"I guess you trained me well!"
I giggled at that. It stinks that he gets me like that.
"How are you going to beat Cynthia?"
"Like everyone else." He said nonchalantly.
Ugh, he's still not good at answering questions.
"That was not a good answer, that was like that time you did a radio interview in Goldenrod City!" I said, always keen to bring up his silly moments. That I think about way too much. And need to hear more of it.
"I blame you for that." He said, laughing.
He's still blaming me for things?
My face getting red, I shout "It was on you for not knowing how to do media appearances by then even though you weren't a rookie by then! I didn't know I had to do everything!"
Straightening up, he said "Now, now, I was just joking. Guess I'm lucky that I don't have to do that with this! Leon made sure of that."
"Is he a Pokémon Master?" I ask. They say Leon is the best.
"There are no Pokémon Masters currently, that's why I want to be one so badly!" he said, leaning into his desk now, saying that surprisingly casually, though he's obviously thought about it a lot.
Does anyone know what the term means? Nobody seems to be able to explain it to me.
"So, the next battles are full battles, huh?" I said, changing the subject.
"Yeah, like those battles you saw me do against Gary and Harrison way back when!" He said, starting to smirk.
"Quit acting like I don't know what those are! I'm just not used to them since I like my 2v2s. Not as much room for smoke and mirrors, not that that will happen at your tournament."
"You gym leaders, and your 2v2's." He said, giggling.
"We beat you quickly. Like how I pretty much beat you the first time." I said, smiling back.
"Are you always going to bring that up nowadays!" He said, trying to cover his face with his hat.
"Always will," I said, with a smile.
There was a bit of a beat after that, like the road suddenly ended.
"Pikachu, you're still my favorite electric type!" I said, wanting to acknowledge him, though it was hard to interact with him without holding him.
"Cha!" He said, very happy.
Another brief pause, we had run out of things to say.
"So, I'll go to Cerulean City first thing after this!" He spoke.
"You better!"
"Find a good place to eat, I'll pay. Bye!" He said, quickly ending the call
What?
Psyduck laughed.
"Wow, it wasn't that hard to score a date after all!" I heard my sister called out. I've always hated how she eavesdrops!
"DAISY!"
-Ending notes-
If you know who I am, you know that I just couldn't help myself but to briefly mentioning Iris. I thought it would be interesting to give first-person perspective a shot, let me know how it went.
It's definitely harder to write then third-person perspective!
