And I never minded being on my own
Then something broke in me and I wanted to go home
To be where you are
But even closer to you, you seem so very far
And now I'm reaching out with every note I sing
And I hope it gets to you on some pacific wind
Wraps itself around you and whispers in your ear
Tells you that I miss you and I wish that you were here

-Wish That You Were Here; by Florence and the Machine

Sitting on the edge of her bed, Lani looked at the strands of hair that were between her thumb and forefinger. Lani's mother had expressed on multiple occasions how unhappy she was with the color of her daughter's hair, and it always — always — made for Lani feeling embarrassed and a little self-conscious. It was almost like her mother was blaming her for having red hair, for not looking exactly like her siblings. But Lani had to keep in mind that she had a different father than her siblings, that was the main reason she didn't look entirely like them. That didn't seem to matter, though. According to her mother, she didn't look "beautiful" enough. Lani's red hair and brown eyes, in contrast to her mother's and siblings' blonde hair and green eyes, made her stand out. It made her, according to her mother, ugly.

Lani's mother threw around words like "beautiful" and "ugly" shamelessly. She didn't care if it hurt anyone, she didn't care if she said it about family. If someone wasn't beautiful enough for her, they weren't as important. So that meant Lani wasn't as important. She tried to assure herself that there had to be something about herself that her mother liked, since she did seem to be kind to her sometimes, but it wasn't often.

Dropping the red hairs, the young girl hunched her shoulders, feeling a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. Could she really stand more of her mother calling her names? How much more could Lani take? Her mother's dismissive behavior seemed to hurt more than being called ugly, but the woman's short temper was even more scary. Lani's mother demanded that her children show "unwavering loyalty" to her, something she believed was required of her children whether they wanted to do so or not. Any child who showed signs of disloyal behavior would simply be rejected, that was what Lani could gather. Her eldest brother seemed to start showing rebellious behavior, and it was starting to get on their mother's nerves. Lani's older sister wasn't displaying the same behavior as their brother, but she was showing subtle signs of something else. If they were brave enough to stand up in some way to their mother, then maybe Lani could, too.

. . . .

Slowly sitting up, the young girl felt a familiar sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. She hadn't experienced a feeling like that in a long time. Lani let out a sigh, rubbing the bleariness out of her eyes as she tried to process everything. Memories of her family always made her a bit emotional, and she hated it. Lani loved her older siblings, she did, it was just difficult to truly care for their mother. Their mother was selfish and uncaring. Aside from words like "beautiful" and "ugly" being thrown around, their mother used the word "love" loosely. "Love" was used when Lani and her siblings displayed loyal behavior to their mother, when Lani and her siblings were younger and more obedient. As they grew older, becoming less obedient, their mother's "love" became less and less.

"(Are you OK)?" Mimikyu asked. With a small smile, Lani nodded. The small Ghost/Fairy-type Pokémon looked at Marowak worriedly, the Bone Keeper Pokémon, who awoke before anyone, looked just as concerned for Lani.

"We should probably go," the young girl suggested. "We shouldn't stay in here any longer than necessary."

. . . .

Lani thought her entire foundation growing up was normal. She mostly lived with her father, Ramon, on his farm. On occasion, Lani's mother would come to visit; she didn't actually live with Ramon or Lani. In all actuality, Lani had to wonder if her parents were even married. A lot of the visits her mother arranged were usually business related, short and to the point. Very rarely did the young girl ever get real quality time with her mother. It was sad, in Lani's opinion, that her mother cared more about her work than her own child — her own children. Her mother never went into detail on what it was that took up most of her time, and the only thing Lani really understood about her mother's work was that it was "big, important, and only capable of being done by her, the president of the company". Still, in her young mind, Lani was upset that her mother never really wanted to see her. She would be so happy to see her mother, but the older woman would barely blink in her direction in her short visits. It mostly consisted of Ramon handing over specific Pokémon for reasons unknown to Lani.

There was one visit the young girl remembered vividly. Her mother had come to visit in request to a Pokémon Ramon had, an Eevee. Lani had to be at least six at the time, and she hadn't seen her mother in over five and a half months. When Ramon had delivered the news her mother was briefly visiting to retrieve an Eevee, one who'd recovered from an injury, Lani had been excited. Not only was the Evolution Pokémon going to have a new home, but Lani was going to see her mother, for the first time in what felt like forever. When the day rolled around to her mother's arrival, Lani dressed up as nicely as she could, having brushed her hair and washed her face, too. Her mother didn't even look her way, didn't even acknowledge her. She simply took the Eevee and left. No hello, no goodbye, no 'Where's Lani?'. The six-year-old cried her eyes out later. Ramon did his best to comfort her, saying her mother was a busy woman and was probably occupied with other things.

Ramon, a Unova-born former Trainer, had moved to Alola in hopes of studying the tropical Pokémon. He found them interesting, and he eventually settled down and decided to become a farmer. He had some Mudbray and Mudsdale help with the fields, even some Miltank and a Blissey in case anyone needed extra help. The farm was used mostly for berries, which was the main form of profit. While Pokémon like Mudbray, Mudsdale, Miltank, and Blissey weren't really helpful with berry picking, they did help with the growing process. Ramon and Lani did the berry picking themselves.

The one thing Lani did love about her father were the stories he'd tell about Unova. She loved hearing how different his birth region was compared to Alola. How there were Gym Leaders instead of Trial Captains or Kahunas; how there was an Elite Four and Pokémon League. Ramon would tell about how he gathered all eight Gym Badges, thus being eligible for the League challenge. He'd come close, but lost after a battle with a man named Grimsley.

Lani always wanted to travel to Unova, or any other region like that. From what she understood, Alola was the only region without Gym Leaders or a Pokémon League. How different were the Pokémon in other regions? Ramon would talk about how drastic the differences were in certain Pokémon — unlike the Exeggutor common in Alola, the ones typically seen in other regions didn't have the long necks or a tail. An Alolan Exeggutor would be Grass/Dragon, in other regions an Exeggutor would be Grass/Psychic. Lani thought that alone was mind-blowing. Raichu commonly seen in Alola didn't have the Psychic typing, the Meowth line weren't Dark-types, neither were Rattata or Raticate. From what Ramon had said, the Rattata line in other regions were Normal-type. So was the Meowth line. But as Lani got older, while she was still fascinated by the foundation of other regions, she never had the opportunity to see them. Her mother wouldn't allow it. Ramon couldn't do anything about it. It was only around the time Lani was entering her teenage years her mother would pay more attention to her.

That was also when the young girl met her older siblings.

While it seemed a bit odd that Lani wouldn't realize she had older siblings, that was exactly what happened. She had no idea she had an older brother and sister until her mother suggested she come live with them. At that point, Lani's older brother — older half-brother — was starting to show signs of a rebellious streak. Not only that, but Lani herself was less than pleased that her mother would even think she'd want to live with them. Lani loved living on the farm with her father, where her then Cubone and the other Pokémon were. Her mother was making it difficult for her. She had to beg and plead that she'd still be able to visit her father whenever she wanted, despite her mother being stubborn and refusing. It was in that moment the young girl experienced what her mother's temper was like.

"You are my daughter!" the older woman snapped. "You're supposed to be loyal to me! Don't you want my love? Why must you be so ungrateful?" Her voice only rose the more she spoke, to the point to where she was nearly shouting at the top of her lungs. It scared Lani, she didn't want to see her mother like that again. Lani could see the darkened look on her brother's face, and the pale look on her sister's already pale skin. Lani chose to live with her mother and siblings, sneaking Cubone in without her mother knowing. That had been another mistake. Ramon had disliked the idea of his daughter playing with a wild Pokémon, Lani's mother was livid such a thing would be in her pristine building. Lani practically wept to have her Cubone stay with her; that seemed to satisfy her mother somewhat.

It was only after about two years Lani grew tired of living with her mother and...

"(Someone's coming)." Marowak's response was sharp, having a bit of an edge to it. Lani, Marowak, and Mimikyu had been traveling for most of the day, hoping to avoid any busy routes to try and avoid Trainers and other people. Seemed as though the back-road they took wasn't as unused as they thought. Thankfully, the rain had stopped early in the morning, long before they woke up.

"Is it a Trainer?" Lani murmured, clutching her bag closer. "Can you tell?"

Snorting, Marowak shook his head. "(They're too far away)," he said darkly. "(They could be more of those people who chased us yesterday)."

"(You think so)?" Mimikyu, who was perched on Lani's shoulder, looked anxiously at the Bone Keeper Pokémon. "(I thought we lost them)."

"We don't know for sure it's them," Lani murmured. "Let's just be careful, OK? Try not to look so anxious. It'll be fine."

(A/N):

I think I mentioned this in the previous chapter, but this is my first time writing a story centered around this fandom. The first few chapters will be really wobbly, and any kind of constructive criticism will be helpful. So if you've got any kind of helpful comments on how to improve these chapters, don't hesitate to let me know, OK? You could PM me or leave a review, I don't care which. I'm also sorry for the wait on this chapter; I just started my second week of community college, so my schedule's been super busy.

Nothing in this fandom belongs to me. All I own are my characters and the subplots I put in.

If you've got suggestions for OCs or subplots, don't hesitate to let me know. You can tell me through reviews or PMs, whichever you prefer. It doesn't matter to me.

Also, I know that with each new season there is of the anime, Ash will be 10. I was thinking of changing that, however, in hopes that maybe Ash being a bit older could work with the story's plot. In this story, I was thinking that maybe he could be somewhere between 14-16 years old. I know there are some people who've been keeping a close eye on Ash's age since the anime first came out, so if you think I'm a bit off with my prediction, let me know.

Other than that, I'm done with this author's note.

Thanks a bunch.

Willow