Author's Note: I wonder, do I have to blatantly ask for reviews in order to get them? I don't want to because I feel like it would be kind of obnoxious, but I would like to think what people think of this fic. Oh well.

...Um, I had something else to say, but I forget. It was probably just whining about how I want my copies of Diamond and Pearl to hurry up and get delivered, though, so I guess you're not missing much. 8D;;

Fixed Star
Chapter 2 - Angetenar

There was a long silence between the two as the gravity of the situation sunk in.

"W-wait a minute..." Seika backed up slightly. "I-I don't even know you! I don't even know your name! And I only just turned fourteen! How can we be..."

"I didn't make this up," Kouta sighed. "But that's how it is. If we pretend it didn't happen, the Legendaries will have us doomed for eternity. I tried to ignore it, but that's when this big storm blew in."

Seika frowned at him, looking like she was about to cry again. "You're lying. I don't believe you!"

Kouta threw his hands up in exasperation. "As if I'd want to marry a crybaby like you!"

"I am not a crybaby!" the girl insisted, even as the tears rolled down her face. "You're so mean, you– you–"

"Kouta."

"Kouta-san! I refuse!" Seika was standing now, and she stomped over to the furthest corner of the base and curled into a ball. Her Sunkern gazed up at her in worry.

Kouta hmphed and lay down on the ground. He rested his head upon Kiba, who smelled like wet dog, but he didn't care. He just didn't want to look at that unsightly girl anymore. "Ridiculous," he mumbled, closing his eyes. "To think it's a girl like her."

---

He must have fallen asleep, because when Kouta opened his eyes again, the rain had stopped and there was light filtering into the cave. As he began to come to his senses, he noticed the smell of something cooking, accompanied by the crackling of a fire. He sat up, his sleeping bag falling off him, and looked in the girl's direction.

Seika was kneeled by a small fire, her Sunkern and a Vulpix by her side. She glanced up briefly, acknowledging that Kouta was awake, then turned her attention to something on the ground. Standing up, she approached Kouta and placed a plate on the ground by him. "Here's breakfast, I hope you like it." Then she placed another plate on the ground, this time in front of Kiba. "I'm not sure what Mightyena eat, but this is the Pokemon food I give my Vulpix, so..."

Kouta ignored the food for a moment, instead staring at the sleeping bag still half-covering him. "I don't remember getting this out..."

"Oh, I..." Seika paused momentarily before continuing. "You fell asleep last night, and your clothes were still wet, and I didn't want to wake you up, so I covered you with that so that you wouldn't catch cold..."

"Did I give you permission to go through my stuff?" he asked sharply, shooting a glare at her.

Seika recoiled, and her eyes started to water. "I- no, but I thought it would be better if–"

Kouta raised a hand to cut her off, and then sighed. "Whatever, just don't do it again, okay?"

The girl was silent a moment before quietly apologizing and retreating back to the campfire.

With her gone, Kouta looked down at the food she had given him, and scrunched his nose up in disgust. On the plate were two horribly misshapen pancakes, a couple pieces of blackened bacon, and an orange that, fortunately, actually looked edible. He cautiously cut a piece of a pancake and placed it in his mouth, and was horrified to discover that it wasn't cooked all the way through. He shifted the half-goop on his tongue for a moment, debating whether he should choke it down or spit it out.

Then a thought occurred to him: was this what commoners considered "good" cooking? Frowning, he felt a slight pang of guilt, and swallowed the pancake so that he could ask her. "So is this considered high-quality food among you peasants?"

Seika stiffened, then answered, "I'm sorry my cooking doesn't live up to your expectations!"

"That's not what I–" Kouta started to reply, but decided that it really wasn't worth it to redeem himself to a girl like her, so he shut his mouth and began picking his pancakes apart. He gingerly tried another bite.

Well... maybe it wasn't that bad.

The two trainers ate in silence for a few minutes, until Seika finally spoke up. "Um... I'm sorry about how I acted last night."

"Huh?" Kouta glanced over at her quizzically. What was she apologizing for? Why wouldn't she get angry about the situation? There was no need to apologize. But instead, he replied, "You better be sorry."

The girl didn't respond and just looked downwards. She was probably crying again, but with her tawny bangs obscuring her face Kouta couldn't tell. After another moment of silence, she said, without looking up, "I've been thinking."

Kouta glanced at her as he worked on peeling his orange. "Impressive."

Seika's head snapped up, a frown on her face. "Could you maybe say something without insulting me?"

"Why should I?"

"Because it's rude!"

Kouta stared at her. "...Well, go on. What thought managed to make its way into your thick head?"

She pouted, trying to keep the tears back. "You– you said that our betrothal was decided by the Legendaries, right?"

"In a manner of speaking," he replied, turning his attention back to his orange.

"So we have to abide by that."

"Unless we have a death wish, yes."

Seika paused for a moment before saying, "You know, I don't think that's really fair that they decide it for us. People should have the freedom to fall in love themselves, don't you think?"

Kouta shrugged. Technically speaking, the binding would not occur unless the two individuals involved were destined to fall in love anyway, but Kouta felt that saying that aloud would make it true, which is most obviously was not. "And?"

"Uh... well, my point is," Seika continued, "do you think that maybe it could be revoked by a Legendary? If they were the ones to decide it in the first place, surely they'd be able to."

"And why would they do that unsolicited?" Damn, his fingernails would smell like orange for the rest of the day, wouldn't they?

"They wouldn't, which is why we would appeal to them to change it."

Kouta finally looked straight at her, putting his half-peeled orange to the side. "So you're saying that we'd have to find a Legendary and ask them to revoke the betrothal."

Seika nodded. "Yes."

"Do you know how impossibly difficult that would be?"

"Uh, well..." She put a finger to her chin in thought. "I'm sure we'd be able to find one eventually if we put all our effort into it. Aren't there about twenty Pokemon that are considered Legendary...?"

"Twenty-one. That are known of, anyway."

Seika nodded. "That's a lot, though! So the chances of finding at least one of them are pretty good, right?"

Kouta sighed, and said, "Well, I suppose we could try. It's not like we have anything to lose."

"Right!" Seika smiled, finally. "And now I actually have a goal to aim for!"

The blond cocked an eyebrow at her. "You didn't before?"

"Well, no..." Seika laughed sheepishly. "I was actually just traveling around, doing odd jobs for money. I'm not that good at battling, really."

"That's what you get when you use a Sunkern."

The Sunkern defiantly yelped its name in response, shooting Kouta a dirty look from over its food.

"Summer actually doesn't battle," Seika admitted. "She's still little, and I haven't found any Pokemon at a low enough level to train her."

"Hmm..." Kouta trailed off in thought. "Well, anyway, if we're going to hunt for Legendaries, we'll have to do it strategically. Let's make a plan."

---

"So, there are twenty-one Legendary Pokemon." Kouta recited the names as he wrote them down in a notebook. "Native to Kanto are Mew, Mewtwo, Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres. Johto has Lugia, Ho-oh, Raikou, Entei, Suicune, and Celebi. And in Hoenn are Groudon, Kyogre, Rayquaza, Latias, Latios, Regirock, Regice, Registeel, Deoxys, and Jirachi..."

"Oh, I love Jirachi!" Seika gushed from over his shoulder. "Do you think we might be able to find it?"

Kouta frowned. "Actually, I think Jirachi is one of the ones we're least likely to find. After all, it only wakes up once every thousand years."

"Oh, that's right..." She sighed as she watched Kouta cross Jirachi off the list. "Well, Hoenn still has the most, right? If we stay in this region there's a greater chance of running into one."

"Not necessarily..." Kouta ran a hand through his blond hair. "There's no reason for them to stay in one place. Mew did appear here in Hoenn, after all." He ran his eyes over the list again. "You know, I don't think many of these Pokemon would be able to grant our request, anyway. I can only imagine that a few would be able to, but most of them have pretty specific duties unrelated to something like who marries whom."

"Well, even if we come across one that can't do it, they should be able to contact one that could," Seika reasoned as she scratched her Vulpix behind the ears.

Kouta looked at her incredulously. "Do you honestly think that Legendaries keep tabs on each other? That they get together for a luncheon once a month and chat it up?"

Her eyes sparkled in wonder. "Wow, Kouta-san, do you think they do? That would be fun!"

"No, I don't think they do!" he yelled back. "Are you that stupid, peasant girl?"

"Stop calling me that!"

Kouta turned back to his notes when he realized that rather than glittering in wonder, Seika's eyes were glittering with tears. Again. He gave a heavy sigh and tapped the tip of his pen on the paper. "Well, we have to start somewhere."

Seika sniffled and said, "Maybe there's something in Lilycove City?"

"Nah, there's nothing there," Kouta said, waving a hand dismissively. "I live there, so I should know. Besides, I don't want to go all the way back there; I only left yesterday." Then a thought occurred to him. "Hey, where are you from?"

After blinking in surprise, Seika answered, "I'm from Olivine City."

"In Johto?"

"Uh-huh." She nodded the affirmative. "I've been in Hoenn for about a month now."

"Oh." Kouta paused, trying to decide whether the conversation should continue in that vein or not. "That's nice. But back on topic..."

"Right," Seika agreed. "Well, if Lilycove is out of the question, maybe we should head to Fortree. It's less than a mile away from here, and even though I've already spent a few weeks there, I don't mind."

Kouta pulled out his PokeNav and looked up a map of their location. "I'm not sure that Fortree would have anything, either. It strikes me as being rather... crude."

Seika rolled her eyes. "Is nothing good enough for you? I happen to think that Fortree is very nice."

"That would be because you're an ungracious commoner."

"Well fine!" She stood up then, her purple jumper fluttering about her waist. "I'm going to Fortree, so meet me at the Pokemon Center once you deflate your overblown ego! Come on Summer, Plamya."

Kouta silently watched the girl leave the cave with her Pokemon. Once she was out of sight, he turned to Kiba and said, "What kind of stupid name is Plamya?"

---

Kouta took his sweet time getting to Fortree City, and then he took his sweet time getting to the Pokemon Center. The bland treehouses and dense trees didn't offer much in the way of aesthetic appeal, he noted, while sitting on the edge of a rope bridge. And the interiors of the wooden houses were no better; he had checked out a few stores just to see what was available, but he saw nothing that suited his tastes. Exactly what about Fortree did that girl consider "nice"?

After loitering around for a while, Kouta had settled on that bridge while sharing a sandwich with Kiba. He gazed down through the tree trunks as he chewed thoughtfully; it wasn't the best ham-and-cheese sandwich he'd ever tasted, but at least it was better than Seika's cooking.

"Hey Kiba," he said out loud suddenly. "What do you think of that girl?"

The Mightyena gave no answer, of course, other than fixing an intent stare on Kouta.

"She's such a crybaby," Kouta continued, "and when she's not crying she's being impudent towards me. To think that I'm destined to marry her... it must be somebody's sick idea of a joke!"

Knowing that the boy wasn't done ranting, Kiba watched and waited for him to continue.

Kouta was silent for a while as he appeared to be pondering something. "Though, I guess when she's not angry, she actually does treat me with the respect I deserve.

Kiba grumbled a short reply.

"She does have the decency to call me 'Kouta-san.' And I have to admit that while her social graces leave something to be desired, she's not that annoying. It's better than being betrothed to someone like Mai, at least."

He was met with an affirmative grunt.

Kouta sat in contemplative silence for another moment before hoisting himself back on his feet, dusting off the back of his khaki pants. "Well, it's probably about time we get to the Pokemon Center now. Let's go."

---

"Kouta-san! What took you so long? I've been waiting for three hours!"

Kouta wasn't sure what he had expected upon entering the Pokemon Center lobby, but it certainly wasn't being met with a genuinely worried Seika, tears brimming her eyes.

Actually, the tears weren't that surprising.

"I, uh..." He hesitated, a bit taken aback. Why in the world would she be worried about him? It didn't make any sense! "Well, you told me not to come until I had deflated my ego."

Seika rubbed at her eyes. "I didn't expect you to actually listen to me!"

Upon hearing that, Kouta couldn't help but smirk. "Well, I didn't. You'll probably think that I'm just as pompous as I was before."

"I expected as much," the brunette sighed, her arms dropping back to her sides. Then she looked up at him and smiled. "Well, I'm sure you'll come around eventually."

"Come around? There's nothing that I need to come around to, stupid girl."

"Oh well," Seika said, turning on her heel and returning to the seat where her Sunkern and Vulpix were waiting. "Summer, Plamya, let's go to the room we reserved!"

A thought occurred to Kouta then. "Oh right, there was something I wanted to tell you," he said.

She turned her spruce-colored eyes towards him again. "What is it?"

"You have really bad naming sense."

Seika stuck her tongue out at him.

...I didn't leave out any Legendaries, did I? I think I got all of them (except the Diamond/Pearl ones, of course), but if I did neglect to notice one or two (hopefully no more than that) that are actually Legendaries, well, tell me so I can fix it. And pretend that they were always there in the first place, because that's my mistake, not Kouta's. XD He wouldn't make such a mistake; he's a smart cookie, he is. ...Hmm, I think I'll have to work on not ignoring the Pokemon so much in future chapters. This is, after all, a Pokemon fanfiction!