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.
14. The Forbidden Fruit: Citrus paradisi– Preparing the Manger
The darkness surrounded her, feeling heavy and suffocating like a tangible force weighing against her from all directions. Only a distant pinprick of light penetrated the unfathomable darkness, yet it offered neither hope or warm. It did nothing but increase her sense of foreboding.
But there was nowhere else for her to go – only the impenetrable darkness behind her and the cold pinprick of light ahead of her. She could feel the darkness closing in on her, forcing her to make her way towards the distant light. As she moved forward her eyes adjusted to the darkness, slowly revealing the familiar raw walls of her beloved gym.
"Wanna play a game?" a low voice rasped at her, rattling around inside of her head. A shudder ran down her spine.
The distant light grew as she came closer, eventually eclipsing the rest of her surroundings in a such brightness that all she could see was a black silhouette against the cold, white light. It stood unmoving as she approached.
The light continue to grow in brightness, until eventually, when it seemed like it might consume them both, it dimmed suddenly and she was temporally blinded by its absence. Once her eyes adjusted, she was unsurprised to find herself in familiar surroundings. She was in the battlegrounds, standing in the challenger box facing off against a shrouded figure standing in her place as gym leader.
And then the voice spoke again – chillingly unfeeling. "Let's play, mother."
The figure stepped forward, shadows shedding away from him like layers of silk cloth and she was met with a pair of frosty blues eyes. He was like she always imagined him – blue eyes, russet hair, and olive skin. But his eyes were unfamiliar in the cold and calculating way that he examined her. And he didn't smile at her the way that she liked to imagine, with his father's smile and a mischievous scrunch of his nose.
'No', she thought desperately to herself. 'This isn't what I wanted.'
Desperately, she tried to make an escape, but she felt the tendrils of the other mind willing her body to stay in place before she could even make a movement away. "Stay, mother," he said, forcing the words into her mind. "Come play with me."
Unable to move, she did the only thing she could do. She opened her mouth and screamed.
She struggled as she came awake, still feeling herself being held in place by the force of another. It took her a moment to realise that she wasn't being held by the mental will of a young boy, but by the strong familiar arms of the man she married. As she came to her senses, she could hear him murmuring words of comfort into her ear, quietly reminding her that he was there and everything would be alright.
She stopped struggling against him and felt her heart slowly settle back to a normal rhythm, his words soothing and somehow exactly the thing that she needed to be reminded of in that moment.
"It's okay," he said gently, lifting her face towards his so he could look her in the eye. The sincerity that she saw there felt like a balm on her soul.
Scooting closer to him, she buried her head against his bare chest and took comfort in the firmness of his presence as his arms tightened around her in response. "I had a nightmare," she murmured against him, squeezing her eyes tight as though that would somehow make the memory of those cold blue eyes disappear from her mind.
"The same one?" he asked as he rested his chin against the top of her head, finding a way to bring them closer. She nodded as well as she could, being encased so tightly against him in this way.
"You'd never let that happen," he said, his voice low and firm. His faith in her was unshakeable, even after having seen her at her very worst. "I know what your father said scared you, Princess. But you have nothing to worry about.
"He's gonna be perfect," he assured her. "And we're gonna love him and tell him that every day. And it's not gonna matter whether he's the most powerful psychic in the world or just a kid who can make spoons bend with his mind, because he'll have you and I know that you'll keep him safe and teach him the things he needs to know."
She smiled, the last of her niggling fears seeming to dissipate at those words. "He'll be loved," she reminded herself, repeating the words she had told her father as she left the restaurant.
"More than any other kid in the world, I reckon," Brock agreed, with just a hint of mirth.
"I don't know why I let him get to me," she said with a sigh, not yet releasing herself from the cocoon of protection buried against her husband's chest with his arms firm against her back. She breathed deeply through her nose, enjoying that slight whiff of chocolate that seemed to linger on his skin.
"He's always been obsessed with his legacy," she muttered bitterly. "It's like I'm just some piece that he can use and manipulate to get what he wants.
"Did I tell you I was arranged to be married?" she asked, lifting her head from his chest and tilting back to meet his gaze. Brock shook his head in surprise. "It was when I was much younger – had been arranged long before I took over the gym."
"What happened?" he asked, curiosity evident although he could clearly guess that it hadn't worked out.
"Well, once I was out of my spell, I didn't want to marry simply as some sort breeding arrangement," she said flippantly, turning her head slightly so he wouldn't see the bitterness it brought to her features, "we got to know each other, even dated for a while, and it didn't seem like it was too bad.
"And then, on the day we were going to announce the engagement, he told me that he would only ever marry for love, and that he could never love me, for various reasons that were and probably still are completely true," she finished tightly, forcing a nonchalant smile onto her face. "And that's my story. The end."
"But you forgot the happy ending," he offered.
"It's not that kind of story," she said drolly, still not meeting his gaze.
He shook her head, and smiled. "I'll tell you how it ends," he said, using a gentle finger against her cheek to turn her face back to his. She could see him grinning widely and forced herself to frown in return. "You see, spurned by her suitor," he began wistfully, "the princess is lonely for many years."
"I wasn't lonely," she protested, digging her finger pointedly into his chest. He ignored her.
"And many years later, a handsome man comes into her life," he continued. She scoffed at his comment, which only made him to grin at her all the more broadly. "And unlike her former suitor, this one falls madly in love with her, probably for the very same reasons that caused her to be spurned by all others."
"I was not spurned by all others," she argued. "I just wasn't looking."
"And he loves her forever more, finding her a beautiful castle-"
"Excuse me? Who found the 'castle'?"
"And endowing her with the most wonderful child-"
"Not exactly the turn of phrase I would use," she cut in, rolling her eyes.
"And baking her lots and lots of cakes 'til the end of their days," he finished wistfully. "Good ending, right?"
She shrugged, but smiled all the same. "I didn't think much of it until the part about the cakes," she critiqued. "There should be more cakes in it."
"Ok," he accepted, kissing her lightly on the forehead. "I'll take note of that.
"Get some sleep," he said, nestling her back against his chest rubbing soothing circles into her back. "We've big day tomorrow and you need to rest."
She nodded, needing to say one more thing before she closed her eyes. "I don't know how you put up with me," she sighed into his chest, savouring the warmth and comfort that his embrace brought her. "I've been so crazy and emotional lately, but you're so good to me regardless. I feel like I'm bringing you down sometimes."
"I think you're entitled to be a little crazy," he commented, a warm smile on his lips. Tears welled in her eyes, and he cupped her face in his hands as he wiped them away. "I love you, Sabrina, and you will never be a burden," he told her honestly, and with a gentle kiss he silenced any attempt to protest.
All her concerns seemed to drift away in that moment. She knew that as long as he was with her, that all of it would surely be all right. And although that thought was a comfort, if she followed the thought to its logical conclusion she was left with the inevitable conclusion that she could no longer be without him.
Somehow in the course of things, their lives had become inseparable. It was more than just the baby, which was admitted the catalyst for moving forward in their relationship. In the months since they'd discovered her pregnancy they'd begun to build a life together.
A life that meant she couldn't sleep without his arms around her. She felt restless when they were apart. She longed for his presence, and could think of no place she'd rather be than wherever he was.
And when he kissed her like that – softly, gently, conveying all the love he felt inside – it was like a hole in her that she hadn't even been aware of was suddenly filled.
The puzzle was complete.
And he was the answer.
"Sabrina, please take a seat," Brock insisted as they shifted boxes out of the moving van. "You're going to wear yourself out at this rate."
"I'm fine," she replied surely, her concentration unbroken as she used telekinesis to carefully manoeuvre items from the moving van to the front garden. Given her current state, Brock had insisted that she not carry anything and just let them do the work of moving into the house. This was her defiant attempt to find a loophole.
"Besides," she added, glancing over at him once she had safely placed the box marked 'kitchen gadgets' on the dolly, "little Alonzo is helping me."
"Alonzo?" Misty questioned, raising a copper eyebrow at the name. "Please tell me you guys are not planning to call your son Alonzo Slate."
"I don't know, I kinda like it," Brock joked, earning him self a disgusted look from Misty.
"Me too," Ash agreed. "Hey, Misty. Maybe Brock can call his kid Alonzo, and then when we have a son we can call our kid Alonzo too. And then they can be best friends and when they hang out together everyone can say 'well there goes Alonzo squared'." It was hard to tell whether he was joking, or completely serious about the matter.
"Ash, we are not calling any of our kids Alonzo," Misty told him darkly. Unbeknownst to Ash, Misty had already picked out seven possible names for their future children – and that Alonzo Ketchum was not on the list.
"I don't think we will either," Sabrina commented, laughing at her husbands mock pout. "We're just testing out names. We went through all the ones we definitely didn't like, and now we're just trying them out. If he kicks then, it gets to stay on the list."
"Sounds reasonable," Misty nodded, "after all, he is the one who has to live with Alonzo for the rest of his life."
"What about, like, your grandparents name and stuff?" Ash asked, being surprisingly thoughtful about the topic. "That's how I got my name."
"We were considering my great-grandfather's name, but it's a little too old fashioned," Brock answered, looking a put-out by his ancestors cumbersome name. "I guess, it has a unisex sound to it, so could work for a girl - but not for a boy - so we'll just save that one for later."
Sabrina nodded in agreement, completely missing what Brock was implying. "The closest name to it was 'Malachi', and that does- oohh," she said suddenly, cutting herself off midsentence. "I think he likes that one. I guess 'Malachi' is on the list."
"Hmmm," Misty mused, testing the name 'Malachi Slate' in her mind and obviously finding it more suitable than Alonzo. "What else has 'Baby Slate' approved?" she asked.
The list was not long, and Sabrina recited it easily. "Patrick, Eliot, Isaac, Gideon, Phoenix, Dylan-"
"Shotgun," Misty cut in quickly, unsubtly announcing that she had already reserved that name for her own use. Sabrina quickly realised that this was probably the boy's name that had something to do with the sea that Brock hadn't been able to remember when they first began discussing names
"- Henry," Sabrina continued, mentally crossing 'Dylan' off her list, followed by 'Henry' when she realized that Henry Slate sounded terribly dull, "Ethan, Arthur, Santiago, Mason, Llewellyn, and – as much as it pains me to say this – Brock Junior."
Brock beamed at her droll tone.
"Any favourites?" Misty asked, glancing over her shoulder as she carried a small box, while directing Ash and Brock who were working on the more substantial items.
"I like Eliot and Gideon, maybe Phoenix," Sabrina shrugged, though she hadn't found anything yet that she was totally enamoured by.
"So 'Dylan Ketchum'?" Sabrina asked suggestively once the boys were out of earshot, Ash clearly having missed the implications of Misty's earlier shotgun.
"Yes," Misty replied snootily. "There is absolutely nothing wrong with an engaged woman considering the names for her future children."
Sabrina smiled knowingly. "I suppose there's nothing wrong with a twelve year old doing the same, and the list remaining unchanged nearly ten years later, right down to the last name."
"Like you never did it," Misty argued back, to which Sabrina shrugged indifferently. "You've got to have at least one name," Misty protested. "It's practically a part of being a girl."
"I only had two boyfriends before this, and I can honestly say I never thought about having children with either of them," Sabrina answered.
"And Brock?" Misty asked, smiling brightly when her friend flushed. "You have a name, don't you?"
"Yes, but it's irrelevant because I only came up with a girls name."
"Tell me," Misty insisted.
Sabrina sighed, knowing she'd lost this round. "It's Soraya," she answered reluctantly, to which Misty cooed excitedly and whispered the full name in a dreamy tone.
"That is the perfect name. Now I'm mad you're having a boy," she complained. "Do you think you guys will have more kids?" she added, having clearly picked up on what Brock had implied earlier even if Sabrina hadn't.
"I don't know, maybe?" Sabrina answered uncertainly. The answer had changed, somewhat, from what it would have been months ago when she figured having a kid was something that would happen in the future but that she wasn't entirely persuaded on either way. "It'd be nice to have one of each," she mused, unable to resist a small, dreamy smile as she immediately began to picture what their little family would look.
"Brock's gonna be such a good dad," she continued, not needing to see Misty's nod of agreement. Anyone who had ever met Brock Slate already knew what an amazing parent he would be. "And I've always known that he wanted a big family.
"It's me I'm worried about," she admitted, lowering her head. "What if I'm not any good at this? What I can't give him what needs?"
"Oh, Sabrina," Misty said softly, coming to her side and wrap her older friend in a hug. "Of course you'll be a good mum. The only thing that they need from you is for you to love them, and you already do."
Sabrina nodded, breathing slowly to calm herself and keep her emotions in check. She hadn't realised it, but she'd needed to hear those word from someone other than Brock who adored her and seemed to see in her a great capacity for things that she couldn't see in herself. It worried her, sometimes when she was feeling particularly vulnerable, if his judgement of her abilities was a little biased by his feelings for her and his own self-interest.
"What about you and Ash?" Sabrina said, needing desperately to turn the focus of conversation away from herself. "He doesn't seem to be freaking out about the prospect of kids anymore."
Misty scoffed and shook her head. "It's like sometimes if he doesn't think about it his brain forgets to tell him that he should be freaking out," she said, her expression tight with annoyance. "He'll say stuff like – like he truly, genuinely wants our kids to be best friends like him and Brock. But if he has to think of it any concrete way, he'll start worrying about things and whether he'll just be like his dad.
"He's getting better," she conceded, looking a bit hopeful now. "I mean, it's still a way in the future and I feel like we're still kids ourselves in some ways. There's no rush."
"Exactly," Sabrina agreed.
"You guys having more kids would help," Misty wedeled, grinning teasingly at her friend. "You know, give us a little leeway on the best friend thing."
Sabrina smiled enigmatically, giving nothing away.
"I'll think about it."
~ to be continued ~
One chapter to go!