Disclaimer: Surely everyone knows by now that i don't own pokemon right?
Chapter Six: Are You Afraid?
Haruka and Yuki had quickened their pace through the grass once they were informed by that same business man about being stolen, Haruka didn't even think about the situation that much before but…. She realised that they were actually after a criminal, a big strong looking one actually and anything could happen to them. She stopped dead shaking a little.
"Haruka? Whats wrong, why are you shaking?!" Yuki asked surprised looking behind him,
"Nothing" Haruka lied whispering, looking down at the dirt ground, not wanting to look him in the eye,
"Liar! You're scared aren't you?"
"…"
I'm such a coward! I don't want to admit it but its true! Yuki should just leave me behind since I'm such a…
However he didn't, in fact he grabbed her hand and carried on walking.
"Y-Yuki! What are you doing?!" Haruka flustered out of surprise, she was taken back by the sudden tug of her hand,
"What do you think? I'm not gonna leave behind now am I? I beat this guy before and I wont let him hurt you. So… don't worry ok?" he said sounding oddly annoyed, although Haruka couldn't see his face, he turned slightly pink, a bit surprised at himself too for saying that, was it because of earlier before?
"Oh… Um, thank you… You're right" Haruka thanked him now walking at the same pace since she calmed down, Yuki just gave her an embarrassed yet reassuring smile which made her feel a whole lot better, she was still a little scared but at least she wasn't alone, she had Yuki with her.
"Strange, where could he have gone?" Yuki mused looking around while Haruka sighed pointing to a cave entrance while Yuki sweat dropped.
"I knew that…"
"Of course you did," she laughed making Yuki pull down her bandana over face in revenge,
"Hey!" she muffled in complaint making Yuki laugh at her now, Haruka was about to counter back until they heard a voice calling for both their attention coming from just a little further past the cave entrance, they walked quickly through the grass to the stranger in need.
"Ah Yuki! I thought recognised you, I need your help!" an old man begged, however he didn't look like any old man Haruka has seen before considering he has muscles and what appears to be travelling sailor clothes, he was quite tall and obviously had grey hair with a small beard over his worried face,
"Doesn't everybody…" Yuki commented dryly as the old man just gave him a scowl,
"Yuki! What is it you need help with mister?" Haruka asked him wondering what Yuki's problem was,
"Why thank you lass for sparing your time for you see my darlin' Peeko has been pokenapped!" The sailor explained panicking,
"Poke… Napped?" Haruka asked with slight confusion this time,
"Yep its true, some miserable Team Aqua thug with a briefcase just swiped her away from me while we were enjoying our stroll! I wanted to go after that miserable so and so but… I have no other pokemon you see and well, let's face it I wouldn't have been able to win in a fight with a young man like that…" he finished off with a sigh looking up into the sky with a pained look,
That's… So sad! I wanna cry! Oh we just have to beat up that guy now!! I'm sure Yuki must be thinking the same thing too right?! Haruka thought hopefully turning her head to Yuki who was stunned by what he said next.
"Oh come on Briney, you could have at least tried right?" Yuki shot at him annoyed,
"It's Mr Briney to you, you little squirt!" Mr Briney shot back equally pissed off by him,
Oh good grief… I cant believe this is happening, well knowing situations like this I may as well just go ahead and rescue the pokemon already… I hope i'm doing the right thing... Haruka thought nervously as she walked past them without them noticing, leaving the grassy woodlands and into the dark cave where her fears lay.
"Brr.. It's freezing! Maybe it's because of the fog? Plus its dark too, I hate this…" Haruka complained rubbing her arms, "I wonder… Hey Kyo come out!" Haruka now ordered her Torchic out; as soon as it landed on the ground it felt the chill go up through his body,
"Tor chic tor tor chic!" Sheesh the one time you let me out and it's in a cold cave, thanks!
"Don't look so angry! Here let me carry you" Haruka said holding out her arms for him to jump in to, which he did in delight, and just as Haruka thought, he was really warm! "Yay Kyo! You're the perfect heater for me!" she stated happily hugging him lovingly,
"Tor chic chic?!" I'm your perfect what?! He chirped in confusion giving her a strange look, Haruka just ignored it and carried on her pace through the darkness, now only hearing her foot steps. She was starting to regret going in by herself now,
After all the fuss I made earlier as well about being scared and I went and did this, why do I always do things like this just to try and look strong? All I'm doing is being stupid… Again she thought sadly slowing down her pace, looking down again, this time at Kyo who shot his head up as if he sensed something was coming.
"Huh what's wrong? – Oh no…" Haruka asked but then realised as fear struck her when she started hearing footsteps approaching, however she couldn't tell where they were coming from and she could barely see through the fog and darkness surrounding her, she started shaking again and crouched down to the cold hard ground unsure what to do anymore, Kyo was calling to her but she couldn't hear him, because so many thoughts were spinning through, about what will happen when the Aqua Grunt comes over? She didn't have the energy to battle right now so what would happen, but aside from that though, was she really up for this journey after all? Was she really up to the challenges ahead of her? How could she when she can't even handle the dark of all things and not follow her plans through? She wanted to help out the businessman, she wanted to save Peeko for Mr Briney and most of all, she didn't want to let Yuki down and put his reassurance to waste… He gave her confidence before so where did it go?
Where DID it go? Am I that pathetic that I need to depend on him for everything?... No... I gotta get up and face that stupid crook, I-I don't want to let Yuki down.
With this new goal in her head, Haruka slowly lifted herself back up so that she was standing up again.
"I'm sorry Kyo, do you mind if you stand on the ground? It's time to get ready for battle…" she asked her Torchic quietly who gave a nod and hopped off, glad that his trainer is at least talking him now and stood in a battle stance while Haruka tried to focus her eyes by rubbing them with her stiff hands, still listening as the foot steps became louder and louder until… She saw a body, although it was'nt very clear, however it was smaller than the Aqua Grunt so it had to be Yuki... It was! Yuki managed to catch up to her at last.
"Haruka? What do you think you're doing running ahead like that! Anything could have happened to you!" Yuki scolded panting a little, while Kyo had to quickly dodged his feet from being stepped on, Haruka was speechless and didn't know how to respond to him so she just said whatever came out of her head.
"…I'm sorry…" After saying that she started to cry, not able to stop the tears, "I'm scared of the dark but I just wanted to do the right thing… That's all" she told him sadly not wanting to look him in the eye,
"Haruka, don't cry It's okay" Yuki told her, apparently in a reassuring way,
"No its not" she persisted, still avoiding his eyes,
"Your right" he agreed bluntly,
"What?" suddenly her head jerked up looking at him, taken a back twice already by this guy today,
"It wasn't okay just going in straight away knowing you're still scared I mean, you could have just whacked me on the head to get my attention… Or something" he explained sighing at how silly she can be,
"Oh…" was all she could say,
"And another thing, you don't think you're a loser or something like that do you?" he asked giving her a "You better not be" look,
"Um…" Haruka answered sheepishly now looking away, while Yuki another gave a sigh,
"It is okay to be afraid of things you know, even… sigh even I'm afraid of something too" he admitted turning away,
"Huh? Really… But still! I'm scared of the dark Yuki!" Haruka persisted surprised,
"So? You could have still told me i don't care about stuff like that if you know what i mean" he pointed out calmly
"Ah? I didn't expect you to be so easy going about it…" she commented quietly blushing a little from embarrassment,
"You learnt something new then, c'mon we've wasted too much time and, Kyo can tell that someone is coming, I can hear footsteps too"
"You're right, i can too… Yuki can I battle him this time?" Haruka asked hopefully,
"What? Are you sure about this?" Yuki replied unsure,
"Yes I'm sure, I haven't gotten this far just to give in, and I wanna fight!" Haruka confirmed him wiping away her tears with a swipe of her arm and walked over to Kyo to get ready knowing this time it will definitely be the Aqua Grunt, Yuki on the other hand just stared at her, surprised at how quickly she can change from sad to determined just through a telling off from him, which for some reason he still couldn't help but admire that part about her, he walked over and stood next to her while listening to the foot steps, that became louder and louder and grumpy mumbling could be heard now as well as the complaints of what sounded like a wingull?
"What the? You two again! What the hell are you guys stalking me for?!" The Grunt demanded angrily clutching on to a briefcase and a cage holding a Wingull that must be Peeko who at the moment wont stop squakiing to get out. "And you! Shut the hell up! It's bad enough that my exit is blocked off but the one time I steal a pokemon successfully and it turns out to be useless, damn my life sucks…" he carried on shouting bitterly, while both Yuki and Haruka gave him a look of contempt,
"First we're not stalking you for crying out loud, second you're going to give us back those things you stole!" Haruka shouted, insulted by what he said,
"Oh ho is that so? Well is your boyfriend up for a rematch? Because there is no way I'm giving these back to you brats so easily, especially since I underestimated you last time!" The Grunt laughed getting out a pokeball from his belt,
"B-boyfriend?!" Both Haruka and Yuki turned pink at that word which not only made Haruka embarrassed but also made her willing to beat this guy up limb from limb, somehow the fog and darkness didn't seem to matter to her that much at the moment… Yuki decided to take a step away from her, knowing how fierce she can be when tempted.
"That does it i'm tired of this, you're fighting against me this time and you're not gonna win! You ready for this Kyo?!" Haruka asked fiercely holding up a clenched hand,
"Tor chic tor tor?… Torchic Tor Tor!" I've been ready for how long now?… Of course I am! Lets just start already! Kyo chirped impatiently at his trainer getting bored now,
"Yeah I think he's ready Haruka" Yuki answered for her grinning a little while Haruka sweat dropped I was just checking…
"Go Poochyena!" the Grunt called sending him out and Poochyena did the same stance as last time ready for a match, "Now remember kid just 'cause you're a girl doesn't mean I'm gonna go easy on ya!" the Grunt warned her laughing again,
"Whatever I'm still gonna beat you, you sexist jerk!" Haruka countered back letting out a lot of anger.
This Grunt made her determined to beat him, so she's gonna do all she can to fulfil that goal.
TO BE CONTINUED!!!
Hello! And Merry Christmas to all! I decided to do this chap as a present to you all so there you go and I hope you liked it, it was meant to be longer but I thought this would be a good place to stop or else it might have been too much or something like that (or maybe I'm just lazy X3) anyhoo I dunno when the next chap will be done 'cause I got stuff to do and I gotta revise during my x-mas hols for a GCSE science test for when I get back to school SOB school can be so horrible… But there you go, hopefully I'll get the next chap done soon though, I'll just do loads of it whenever I'm on PC so yeah wish me luck that I can get on before anyone else does in my house lol, right I've talked too much now so I'll leave saying this last thing… Thank you to those who have RR and those who continue to do so, it makes me very happy to know that I have readers and I'm getting new suggestions, friends and helpful advice! It's wonderful! Waah now I'm so happy that I'm crying! TT I'm going before I get anymore weird and please, may everyone have a happy new year that actually does last the whole year through! 3 D XD