5. Princeling
Rain. It came down in hellish cold weather. Prickling the back of the Aali's neck as he tilted his umbrella and witness lightning flash before his very eyes; spectacular, jagged and with elegant purpose.
There he was, umbrella grasped in one and a bag which held a few books in the other. He watched, purple eyes wide as a bike slid mercilessly down the steep hill. Onlookers eyes looked or pointed at the very last second as biker had no means to stop. She cried for help but no one could possibly save her for it was too late. The sound of a train approaching had also caught his attention. Frings of his vibrant, wine-colored hair stuck to the sides of his face as if making him witness this tragic scene about to unfold.
More lights flickered on and off, warning bells ringing and the roar of the train's horn cautioning those who could not see its fast-moving pace. The unthinkable would happen; bike wheel propelling the rest of the young woman and her belongs forward. Her eyes vacant, as if her fear devoured the rest of her emotions and stilled her movements except for her going up and into the air. The head of the locomotive poised to strike her head on and the man watching this all before him...
The reoccurring dream plagued the young man's thoughts yet again. Aali wakes up in cold sweat, alarm going off through his dream, seamless with the siren blown from the train.
His long, thin fingers brushed back his dark red hair as he sat up in his bed. The sheets slid down his upper body as the chill of the room settled around his warm body. Aali sighed, just about finished with this predicament, if was one at all.
His legs swung at the edge of his bed, hands resting on either side of him as he recollected his bearings on reality. The dream would vanish in a few minutes, seconds even, and then he'd go back to his daily routine. He frowned a little from that thought.
The trainer felt like a robot at times, showering his worries from the previous day, clothing himself in one of his finest yet casual wear and then heading off to the university. A school for students both human and Gijinka whose acceptance was but a step away from the working well. Aali felt himself to be a young, capable adult who took care of himself fairly well. The aspects of applying to a college had been something he promised his kid-sister. Something he promised himself to do long before his parents left him.
It was raining, just like his dream. It's been like this for the last couple of days as the forecast predicted to be the precipitation well overdue for its seasonal downpour.
The young man chuckled, flipping his widow's peak of red hair back as he went to walking. Such sadder moments in his life she be kept in the past, reminding him to keep moving forward. As if things couldn't get any worse for him.
Suddenly, he felt the pressure of something heavy and solid slam into the back of him. Aali skit forward only to turn in time to see a young woman about to fall herself. He abandoned his own umbrella to catch her, albeit struggling to keep upright. The wet drops of rain pelted on the both of them despite their efforts to not end up on the pavement.
He held her up the shoulders, panting as if he were (in some way) out of breath. "Are you alright, miss?" His purple eyes searched her downward gaze in concern. Huh, he hadn't felt something like that in a while.
"Y-Yes," she stammered, "I will be." Her eyes were monochromatic. A shimmering gold right eye and her left eye a fiery red-orange. The man would be lying if he said he found her eyes to be less than ordinary. How peculiar. It wasn't long before he noticed the other features about her; pointed ears on top of her head and the base covered by her dark hair, chest and hand spikes and a medium length tail.
A Lucario Gijinka.
The tall man puffed, going to rub the side of his head, pushing his now wet hair back and away from his eyes. "You should be more careful of where ever you go. It's dangerous in the wet and rain." An image of his little sister flashed in his mind, making him frown.
"Of course, how clumsy of me. These short legs get me into a world of trouble." She laughed bitterly, softly a she went to pull herself away, going to pick up her notepad and book and also her own umbrella. "Thank you, really." She bowed a little before sidestepping away from the man and going about her business.
Aali glanced over his shoulder, watching her stumble and nearly trip up with whatever boots she wore. As if he didn't believe any of her words to hold any many toward them. Then again, he wasn't particularly trustworthy of what people ever told him. It was something he grew accustomed to after one too many tragedies in his life. And so, he found his own feet carrying him down the same path into another day of academic studies.
. . .
It happened again, the crackle of thunder, rain dripping down his sharp chin as his eyes grew wide with unmasked trepidation. A girl, in her twenties, riding down the hill with no means of stopping. The people spotting this all but looked unable to do a thing to either seize her actions or help in anyway.
Aali couldn't do anything. He was but a mere statue to observe the oncoming events tumbling like the water down his umbrella clutched in one hand. The screech of a tire and the uplight of the girl, but this time the face he could recognize and that but made him shut his eyes away. He opened them up again in the waking world, gripping his sheets as he tried to calm his palpating heart.
He exited out of bed, quickly this time as he all but wanted to erase the graphic images threatening to overwhelm him. This made his thoughts shift into darker times, grasping the knowledge of his parents dying by the hands of common criminals. His hand pressed against his dresser. The blood, so much of it and his young eyes drank every detail of the vacant stare his mother gave. His father's neck twisted in some way as the both were strewn. He shied his siblings eyes away, not wanting to break her innocence so soon after what he saw.
So much law brought into his younger years, and colors of blue and red that appeared behind those empty eyes of his. He held strong, for her and for himself but also for his now deceased parents. No one wanted to claim such young ones and they all but disowned them in some way, but Aali refused to be shoved down the throats of any of his relatives. No. He didn't have any at this point. Taking his sister's smaller hand in his he led her into the light of a better, brighter future.
The trainer, prodded by his trusty partner who often removed him from his distraught reverie. He smiled kindly at the Ampharos as she twirled and moved about in his room before guiding the reluctant man into to kitchen, begging to have pancakes for breakfast. As if he could deny his electric type such simple pleasures in life. She, and his other beloved Pokemon was all what was left of his past. One particular dark type attracted his attention the most, for her Mega Stone gleamed in the rays of sunlight.
"Good morning, Mia, how you girl?" His voice husky with sleep as he went to run slender fingers through her lush, white hair. Her brilliant red gaze slitted at the attention received. He chuckled a such simple attention revved him back into the reality of this world yet again. Perhaps it was time to adopt a hobby of sorts. Easing his mind from the past only spurred him to try new things outside his apartment door. "Perhaps today will show some promise." He scratched underneath her chin as her long claws scraped the wooden flooring beneath.
After spend an ample amount of time with each of his beloved Pokemon he exited his place yet again. A compel sling backpack over his chest as he walked. The aftermath of yesterday's rain quelled as the birds came out to sing their morning song.
See-through sequences of his sister, Portia, skipping before him and glancing back ever so often made his heart ache. Her bright, youthful smile, small arms out as if trying to grab the whole world and prevent it from tearing apart. Her bright yellow dress, brown shoes and pigtails. All child-like features resting within her tiny body. Why did such long past feeling come about and so suddenly? He breathed a wry sigh, glancing up as the dawn of a new beginning warm his broad shoulders and moved him to press forward. The nickname he had given her still fresh on his mind, Lil Pea...
"Look out!"
Aali had precious seconds to dodge away from the bike and person in on it before the crashed into a nearby tree. He flinched at the head first slam she received before going over to assess the damage. "Arceus, are you alright?" His eyes looking over her once more as her canine ear shivered from impact. He didn't try to touch her in anyway, being more of a reserved gentlemen than one of the lesser beings of his kind.
The girl groaned, rolling to her side as she recollected herself from that nasty crash and fall. "Yeah, I'll be fine, eventually." Her eyes blurry stared up the taller being and they widened a tad. "Haven't we met before?"
"Yes, and I do believe I warned you to be careful in the wet." He admonished which earned a tired sigh from her.
Her ears pricked forward as she sat while he crouched; one knee down on the ground while the other poised to assist him in standing again, if needed. "So, what's your name, stranger? Or should I give you some ghastly name that you'll either hate or love? Hm, you look like a Princeling to me, all refined and sophisticated though I'm sure that's not entirely true."
Aali gave her a skeptical look, not really one to introduction but he supposed that no harm would come of it. "I'd much refer to myself as Aali Santiago." His name rolled off his tongue with grace and ease, something he did often to appease those he hoped to approve from.
"Oh, that's a name I've not once heard before. I'm Miriam Young. It's a pleasure to meet you." She reached out her hand to shake. He blinked, wary before going to grasp it with his own.
"The pleasure is all but mine." The diverse trainer had to say, he didn't expect her to hold a strong grip despite seeing as she was a Lucario from first encounter. He went to helping her up, seeing to that her bike would remain grounded as he doubted the brakes were actually working on it. "I'll leave you to your devices then." He bid her ado (with a tilt of hs fedora) and went on his way.
. . .
Aali didn't expect to come back this way again (so few days after the encounter of the female Lucario), the darkness of clouds threatening to break with another torrent of rain water. It had been a familiar path to follow and one he gladed took without worry. His life went on as per usual, despite him joining a book club that would only bore him in one way or another if he didn't contribute to some way of sharing his enjoyment of reading. The man's mind idled down to simpler things during this week of repetitive sequences.
A yelp made him halt his movements. There on his right laid a dark alley and shady movements which would be either a gang fight or someone cornering an innocent soul for money or something else. Now, he wasn't one to pry into other people's affairs but the unrest of predator on the hunt for the weaker minds of others left a bad taste in his mouth.
He fixed his shirt collar as he went down the cobblestone path, purple eyes glittering like jewels in the dark of night. "Excuse, but what's all the ruckus I'm here where eyes can not fully reach?" He raised a brow, both surprised and mildly curious. Ther before him had been Miriam but she was by no means in harm's way. On the contrary, the hefty biker gang members were the ones at her mercy.
Her eyes glowed, nearly ignited by the frostiness behind them. Splatter of blood on her cheek, corner of her mouth and sky blue blouse that she wore. The sight made Aali shiver but his expression hardly faltered from the onlooking scene. He casually placed one hand in his pocket, the other resting against his chin, grasping it gently. "I didn't think you were the type to be so direct in your actions, Miriam." Her eyes downcast as she gave a ragged, low sigh.
"Please, stop with all that fakeness and go about your business, princeling." The jackal's scatterbrained perception fell away along with the drips of blood on her knuckles. This turned the tables of whatever of a normal depiction of the tale. "I'm sure you weren't expecting a klutzy Gijinka like me to actually have skills other than hurting myself. What's this, the third time we've met already? This is starting to creep me out." She growled, her feral look still ever present but didn't phase the human one bit.
"Oh, you think I've been jesting you this entire time?" He gave a cool, mechanical grin. "My dear, please, I wouldn't dream of trying to fool you, not one with a strong sense of reading other people's body language. This is who I am, in full. Take it or leave it as you wish." Aali was probably asking to be the next selective human on the ground with cuts and bruises but he took his chances with reason.
Then again, why would she want to pummel him and for what purpose? Dominance? Satisfaction to see someone else at the mercy of her feet? Aali wasn't one to grovel for his life and would much rather have fairness if not any in talking out said problems. He'd scoff at any attempts to threats and brush away blackmail as he felt having the upper hand was all but a process to control.
What Miriam said next had genuinely intrigued him. "I'm actually curious to learn more, but I'm sure after seeing this," she gestured to the fallen bodies (though not yet dead) and the bloody scene in whole, "you'd want nothing else to do with me."
Aali hummed, "now you're adding words into my mouth unnecessarily. How rude." He quirked up a smile, though smile as he saw the young woman raise her head up astonished by his next flow of words.
And thus begun a new chapter revealed itself, teeming with life of something new.
A/N: Now, this is a depiction of one of the many lovely alternate universe in which all charries reside in and out of. Aali's story goes back and forth from his past to present and whatever future that holds for him. He's willing to move on even through his struggling consciousness. Such determination. Aali Santiago belongs to . as you already know that Miriam is my special snowflake. ;) Another chapter fueling out of me in a jiffy!
