Summary: Despite his better judgment, Brock agrees to an illicit affair with the Saffron City Gym Leader. That was his first mistake. His second was falling in love with her. His third was buying her a sea breeze on her birthday. Mangashipping.
Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon. If I did all of my shipping preferences would be cannon.
A/N:I began writing this story in 2008 and finally finished writing it in 2021, which might explain any stark stylistic changes. Let me preface this by saying that I adore pregnancy fic tropes, so this fic is as much an homage to that as it is to my favourite rare pairing. In writing this fic I wanted to embrace all the pregnancy tropes as much as I wanted to turn them on their head.
Starting with the premise of this story. No one-night stand or summer fling (that's a different pregnancy fic I've been writing), no hormonal teenagers. Just a couple of savvy twenty-somethings in a long-term relationship, practicing safe sex that simply had the misfortune of things going inadvertently wrong. Because sometimes it isn't just one stupid mistake; sometimes it's a series of innocuous happenings. Sometimes it starts with something as simple as a drink, or a smile, or even a bet that had nothing to do with our protagonists.
And sometimes . . . sometimes it all starts with a phone call.
1. The Forbidden Fruit: Citrus paradisi – Sunday Morning
Brock hated being a booty call, but he hated the thought of her calling someone else more.
He was surprised at how demeaning and unsatisfying things turned out to be. As a guy he was supposed to want this, wasn't he? Pure, unadulterated sex without all the complications of an actual relationship. The arrangement was simple. No strings, no feelings – just sex. There was nothing stopping them from forming other, more fulfilling relationships, or even others along similar lines. Both parties had the option of ending things if it ever became too complicated, and they could go back to their former relationship as friends and colleagues.
It was supposed to be every man's dream, but he was starting to wish he had never agreed to the arrangement.
Only he'd gone and made the fatal mistake of falling in love with her.
And that was why he came to her every time she called.
Because more than anything he wanted to be with her. And if this was all she was willing to give him, then he would take it with a grateful smile on his face. Just one phone call and he would propel himself to wherever she wanted him to be by any means necessary, ready and willing to do anything she asked of him.
In the beginning he was happy to go along with things. He let her control things - let her say when and what and where - and let her be the one to instigate and determine how far or how deep they would let this thing go. But over time, as he learnt more about her and became more familiar with her quirks and traits, he couldn't help but rue the day he agreed to their affair.
It wasn't long before she had wrapped herself around his heart, making refusal impossible. He was addicted to her in the worst kind of way. He longed for her every second of the day: for her smile, for her laugh, for her touch, for even the slightest caress.
She was his vice. She alone was the reason he kept coming back for more. She was unique and unmatched in her ability to inflict both pleasure and pain.
She had made it impossible for him to even consider seeing anyone else or starting a real relationship, even though that was totally within the terms of their arrangement. That wasn't here fault. She was the only one that he wanted to be with on all possible levels of interaction, and he couldn't even imagine himself with anyone else. He had no desire to see other women and they no longer held any appeal to him physically or emotionally.
In the end he just eschewed all other romantic or physical entanglements altogether.
It went unspoken that she was doing the same. Yes, she went on dates – though rarely more than oncee with the same person – but he was the only one that she'd been physically intimate with since the arrangement had begun. Somehow, without either of them really meaning to, they'd practically fallen into a long-term monogamous relationship, albeit an usual one.
She had just one rule: the arrangement or relationship or whatever he wanted to call it stayed between the two of them. If anyone caught wind of it, that was it. They would be finished, and she would ensure that it was the last secret he ever told.
He never doubted her on that. If anyone could fulfil such a promise, it would be her.
Still, it was demeaning to know where he stood with her. She was happy to invite him into her bed whenever the mood struck her, but a real relationship was out of the question, as though he wasn't worthy of it or her company out in the real world where people could see them.
He was just a convenience. Another thing for her to control. Nothing more than the sum of his man-shaped parts.
And he desperately wanted more from her.
The phone next to him buzzed, and her name flashed upon the screen.
Not even a phone call this time. A text message consisting of a hotel and room number. She didn't need to say anything more; he knew what it meant and she knew that he wouldn't refuse her.
She was nearby. Brock wondered for a moment why she hadn't told him that she was going to be in Viridian, and then almost laughed to himself for asking such an obvious question. Why on earth would she tell him she was going to be in his city? There's no reason why someone as insignificant as the man who shared your bed needed to be privy to that sort of information.
But in spite of his own hurt, the over whelming feeling within him was one of concern. They'd been carrying out this arrangement for almost a year now and he had become accustomed to a certain frequency and regularity to her invitations. Her call had come sooner than he expected – he'd only seen her a couple of days ago and hadn't expected to hear from her again for almost another week – and he was sure that it wasn't for his convenience.
He quickly changed into a nice dress shirt and pair of slacks. He didn't know why he even bothered; it wasn't like she ever noticed and in the end he was just adding to his ironing. But part of him needed to impress her in the hopes that it would help her see something in him she had failed to notice before.
It didn't take him long to get to the hotel she was staying at. It was at most a ten-minute walk in the cool summer evening. It was going to be a hot summer, and the couples were enjoying the cool while they could.
The doorman and concierge paid him no attention as he walked through the door and towards the lift, purposively pressing the button for the top floor. He didn't know what it was with her and the top floor, especially seeing as she was almost deathly afraid of heights. He asked her once, but all she had to say was that it was quiet and he left it at that.
He knocked gently on the door to her room and waited patiently for her to answer. He could hear her moving inside and it didn't take long for her to reach the door, pulling it open and pulling him inside in the same motion.
She immediately threw herself into his arms, pressing her lips roughly against his before he had a moment to draw a breath. Her hands ran desperately over his chest, feeling around his shirt to try and undo the buttons and fiddling with his belt.
Brock smiled into her lips before pulling himself away and taking her hands in his. He kissed her cheek gently – reverently – and pulled her into his warm embrace.
In spite of the terms of their arrangement and her best efforts to hold him at arms length, he knew her. He knew when she was happy and when she was sad. He knew when she was angry beyond reason or when she was scared. He knew what she needed, even when it wasn't what she wanted.
He stroked her long jade locks as he whispered words of encouragement quietly into her ear.
"It's ok," Brock said tenderly as she began to sob into his chest. "It's alright, Sabrina."
~ to be continued ~
This story is COMPLETE and I will be posting weekly updates. It's relatively short compared to most of my other multi-chaptered fics at just 15 chapters. The story focuses primarily on Brock and Sabrina, but because I can't help myself there's lots of pokeshipping on the side (drama free pokeshipping is of course one of the benefits of focusing on a different ship).
The chapter title for this fic is a reference to the song 'Sunday Morning' by Mitch James, which was part of the inspiration of me wanting to finally complete this fic which has been about three-quarters complete since 2010.