- Hidden Journey -
.:.2.:.
Often Imitated, but Never Duplicated...
I can see it in your eyes, I entice you."
-- I Do -- by Toya
_____________________________________________________________________________
"Gary?" I called out when I reached the upper hallway. "Where are you?""Is Mew gone?" His voice came from my room.
"Yeah," I said, reaching my bedroom door. The door was wide open and I peered in. Gary was laying on my bed, which is in a very bad Fung Shui position in that it points feet first to the door, with his arms crossed under his head. He was staring intently at the ceiling. "What are you doing?"
"Thinking," He answered, still staring up. "I heard what she told you."
"Oh." I walked over, my arms crossed over my chest. "Are you mad?"
He looked at me, his eyes slightly reddened, and my heart went out to him. "No, not at you, at least."
"I don't think this is going to be as easy as I think it is," I said as I sat on the bed next to him. "Vulpix doesn't exactly like me."
"You've met her?" Gary pulled me close to him and I sighed contentedly. "I've heard Ash say that she's a bit...spoiled."
I snorted, "There's the understatement of the century. Mew had teleported her to my room a few days ago and things went a bit askew..."
...begin random flashback sequence...
Looking down at my dresser, I contemplated running a brush through my hair and nixed the idea, settling for pulling the unruly mess into a ponytail. I would have to get my hair cut if I wanted a less time consuming style. Why am I rambling about my stupid hair???
A sudden growling had me turning around very slowly, and I was glad I shut my bedroom door, because there was a very pissy looking Vulpix glaring at me. If looks could kill, I'd be three month old road kill. I wasn't sure what to do, but luckily, Mew popped in and saved me.
"Cirrus meet Vulpix, Vulpix meet Cirrus!" Mew sounded pretty pleased with herself.
In answer, Vulpix blasted an Ember attack at me. I shrieked and ducked, and the attack hit my dresser, setting the whole thing ablaze. "Holy Shit!!" I screamed, knowing that shit was no where near holy, and went to snatch a sheet from my bed, only Vulpix was blocking me and I froze.
Mew flew into action, sufficating the flames with a TK bubble, and then glaring at Vulpix, who merely sat down and smiled, wrapping her tails around her forefeet, like a cat. She yawned, showing very sharp teeth, and narrowed her brown/black eyes. "Vul pix," she said, sticking her snout in the air and looking away.
Mew gritted her teeth and apologized to me, "I'm sorry, Cirrus, I had no idea she'd be such a brat."
Vulpix glared at Mew, "Pix! Vul pi vu!"
I looked at Mew, "Translation?"
"I'll just let you in on the conversation." Mew's eyes started to glow blue and suddenly, I could understand Vulpix perfectly. Uh, a little too perfectly.
"I am NOT a brat and there's no way I'm letting this...this HUMAN into my body and getting near my Trainer." More snooty snout in the air showing. "Not getting NEAR my Trainer at all! Besides, I have a show to attend in Blackthorne and I know I will win."
The smell of the charred wood was really stinking up my room and I opened the window to let fresh air in. Luckily, Matt was fully engrossed in his N-64, though I knew he was getting his ass whooped on by Celerity. "What do you have against me, Vulpix?"
"Besides your bad grooming habits? Everything." She snorted, "Just looking at that nasty fur of yours is making my stomach churn. Just thinking about inhabiting your body makes me even sicker." And she swayed for the sake of overacting.
"For a fox, you're really catty. No offense, Mew." I sat on my green and white directors chair and rubbed at my left temple. Vulpix was giving me such a headache. "But listen, I didn't ask Mew to bring you here so you could insult me or destroy my home," I sobbed inwardly at the thought of my ruined containers of M.A.C. eyeshadow. I had JUST bought the silver shade. "I wanted to thank you for this disturbance in your little life."
Vulpix stopped glaring at me. "Well, I suppose I could slum for a while, and let you live the high life for a time. A SHORT time."
Resisting a snappy comeback to the short line, I struggled to smile. "Great, all you have to do is be me for a month. It shouldn't be that hard. Mew will keep you in line so you don't destroy my reputation..."
"What reputation?" Vulpix muttered.
Ignoring her, and ignoring Mew's silent giggling (she was amusing herself with juggling small TK bubbles), I went on, "That means no chasing guys, no stealing, no killing, no terrorizing my brother, no selling of my things, and no getting close with Gary."
Vulpix blinked and cocked her head to the side, "I can understand the first ten million requests, though the no chasing should be hard to deal with, but a girlfriend not being close, even intimate, with her boyfriend? Wouldn't people wonder if you two were....breaking up?"
"Trust me, there's no one that would think that." I stood up, feeling better, despite the ruined way overpriced makeup. "No one at all."
"We'll see about that."
...end of flashy backflash sequence...
"Don't worry about Vulpix, Cirrus," Gary said, hugging me gently, "I won't let her hurt our relationship."
We snuggled for a while, a little kissing, more talking, until Gary said, "I want to bring our relationship to the next level."
"What?"
"Well, this is your last night with me. Don't you want to make it...interesting?" He wagged his eyebrows suggestively.
I laughed, slapped his shoulders, and made to get up, but he pulled me back down. "Gary! I'll be gone for only a month! It's not like you won't see me." I yawned, we'd been talking for an hour and it was already nearing eleven at night. "Besides, being bf/gf doesn't mean a free ride whenever you want it. I mean...::yawn::...I'll miss you too." I hugged him, laying my chin on his chest and looking up at him.
"I guess I can respect that," Gary's mouth quirked.
Smiling, I rested my head on his chest and closed my eyes. I'd rest for a little, then take another shower. I smiled at the rapid beating of his heart.
"I'd wait forever for you." He yawned. "But you have to spend the night with me anyway," He looked down. "Typical of you to fall asleep when the mood is the most romantic."
I woke up the next morning to bathroom deja vu. A shrill, horrified screech of "Cirrus!" rang in my ears. My eyes flew open to see my wrathful bro standing in the doorway of my room, his eyes ablaze with rightous brotherly anger.
"Whaa?" I sat up, rubbing the sleep from my eyes.
"Th..tha..tha..that!" Matt shrilled again, pointing a finger. "What is THAT doing with you?"
Wide awake, heart thumping, I turned slightly to see Gary, sound asleep on the bed next to me. For a twin sized bed, Gary was very close to me. He snored once and turned on his side, away from me, dragging a blanket over his head. I sighed in relief, half-expecting to see some sort of giant spider. "Izzat all?"
Okay, so I was half-alseep still and it didn't dawn on me. Seeing Matt storm over, yank all the blankets away, had me WIDE AWAKE!
"Matt! Are you NUTS!!" I shrieked, "We didn't do anything!"
*besides, we were fully dressed*
"Doesn't look like it to me."
Suddenly, Mew teleported in, sparkles and glitter flashing all around her. "She's telling the truth," Mew sighed dejectedly, then sneezed, "It was as boring as watching bread-dough rise."
"What is this?" Matt reached out a hand to see if Mew was real. He poked her gently in the tummy, and Mew giggled like the Pillsbury Dough Boy and let out a cutsie, high-pitched, "Mew!," which was followed by a trio of sneezes.
"C'mon, bro," I sighed, annoyed at Mew's remark. We were NOT a boring couple. "That's Mew, the incredibly rare, soon to be extinct, telepathic Pokemon."
"You forgot incredibly congested with sinus-itisis..."
I sighed, not acknowledging her psychic mutterings.
"Oh, right." Matt looked confused still. There was a long pause, broken by a snore from Gary's direction. I popped a pillow over his head, which only slightly lessoned the next rackus snore.
Mew was further introducing herself to Matt, hovering in the air by him, and showing off her credentials. "I'm the President of the Official Gary Oak Elimination Organization, where all members know how annoying the Arrogant One is. Wanna be a member?"
"I...sure..."
"I'm in luv," She vanished and reappeared by me, "Can I keep him Mom? Huh, huh, can I?"
I rolled my eyes and sighed at another muffled snore from my side.
::snore::
"He'd make a GREAT Snorlax..."
"MEW!!!" I warned.
We had lunch at a nice café in Viridian, Gary and I. There were lots of café in the Pokémon world. I didn't tell Gary about this mornings events though; some things were better left unsaid.
After lunch, which was totally delish, we flew over to Saffron City and went shopping. See, the ultimate sacrifice for any male, and Gary was doing it for me! Whatta guy. I peered up at the tall store, the sight of it reminding me of some of the bigger department stores in the downtown of my home dimension. People were buzzing in and out, packages galore. It was as if it were a...
"Sale day! Get your Sale Day coupons here!" A loud voice proclaimed. Okay, so it was a Sale Day, where most things were up to 60% off. Unfortnately it wasn't Princess Day, but I guess I'd experience that sooner or later. At any rate, we strolled in to the large department store.
The scents of different perfumes and colognes assulted us, along with the sales people that were selling them. After running a veriable gauntlet of sales personnel (I bought a bottle of Riph Lark's Romantic), Gary took me up to the third floor. I had thought there would be lots of Pokemon stuff here, but it was the jewelry/electronics floor. I love electronics!
To my surprise, Gary steered me over to the Jewelry side of the floor. He had me stand next to a display of earings, while he got a sales person's attention. I frowned and crossed my arms. Just what were we doing here?
The sales person, a young man that looked about 30, nodded at Gary and walked away. Gary turned back to me with a grin on his face. "I can't wait to see your face!"
Deciding to be a smart ass, I said, "You already are!"
"No, Cirrus! This is special!" He took my hands in his, "See, there's this big convention in two months. There is going to be a ball and everything. I had this gift specially crafted for you and I was going to give it to you in three weeks."
The salesman came back then, a wide box in his hands. With a nod, the salesman left.
"This is it."
The necklace he had made for me was extravagantly gorgeous. The necklace was really hard to describe. A delicate platnium chain held diamond and ruby 'beads' that alternated until they reached the a y-shaped pendant. The pendant that hung from the center of the y was a perfectly round ruby the size of a cherry tomato. The whole piece sparkled in the department store's overhead lights and I could only imagine what it looked like in natural light.
"Gary," I breathed, "This..this is so..incredible!"
"Fire and ice! Just like us," He laughed as he placed it around my neck. It looked so out of place resting over my black tank top. "One, you are so worth it, and two, someone owed me a huge favor."
"Will this be all, sir?" The salesman asked.
Gary nodded, "How about wrapping this up for us." Gently he took the necklace back, giving it to the clerk. A few minutes later, it was back in its box, and we left the store. Gary told me he was having it sent back to Pallet, to wait for my return.
"It'll be safest with Gramps," He nodded, one arm firmly around my waist. "Best place in the world to store anything."
Suddenly, someone ran into us from behind and we all fell to the ground. Well, Gary remained standing, and the stranger and I fell to the ground.
A.N.: A ruby the size of a cherry tomato?? What was I thinking? Sheesh, okay so I'm not all that imaginitive when it comes to jewelery..Riight.
Let's see, so who was the person that bumped into Cirrus? That's right, you don't know, but it will be revealed in the next chapter. Why is Mew sick? Because I'm sick. I hate stuffy noses that run like Niagra Falls and I hate it when said nose keeps me up all night long. I need more Dayquil.
IN THE NEXT CHAPTER:
Cirrus finds out who bumped into her. Team Rocket might make an appearance. Plot thickens. Cirrus trades spaces with Vulpix. Insanity Ensues.