The night following elementary graduation, there are children out to play, dressed to summer comfort, all across Route 1 and the surrounding towns. Green and Leaf are no exception, shoes atop the small hillside leading down to the creek bed in Pallet, clothes dotted with dirt, dust, and broken leaves. The lab lights are on just up the slope, Samuel puttering around inside with assistants to make up for time lost at the ceremony.
Leaf's hair is in a fanciful braided updo, courtesy of Daisy, ever-present Growlithe at her ankles. She's decked in her favorite overalls and the flowers Green's sister wove into her hair, streaks of berry juice painted onto her face in bold strikes. Wild Pokémon emerge from the brush on occasion, readying in position to challenge the pair, only to fall with a puff of embers, hot air and mist.
(It occurs to Green, for the first time, that she is so ingrained in his life that he couldn't imagine it without her.)
They wade in the water, shivering from the ankles down. Green grins through the gripping cold of the rush on his feet, and Leaf's lips quirk up at the corners as she breathes, deeply, steadily, fogging up the dark air between them.
She releases a breath — slow, steady — pulls another in — while he skips rocks beside her. As Growlithe bats a paw through creek's slow, hazy stream, she laughs, bending at the waist to lift him into her lap as she collapses to sit with her feet resting in the water.
In an instant, between a twig creaking and the grass shifting, a face set with wide eyes and a gaping maw appears, overtaking the dark with vivid, saddened eyes. Her calm countenance, the sleepy set of her shoulders, vanishes.
Green peers up from the water, moon rays catching on his vision, and a hollow choke lodges in his throat. There sits a Rattata, one arm hanging limp and claws frayed and broken like crushed plastic. Its whiskers are twisted, some singed at the tips, others crumbling at the roots, and its left ear twitches, a tear in the cartilage visible even from a distance.
"Leaf," he whispers. His eyes dart from the injured Pokémon to the ash-haired girl and back, finally settling on the ringed tail pocked with bright pink bumps and scabs. "Should we… take it to Gramps?"
She burrows in on herself at the scene, digging wiry fingers into her pale arms, shaking her head after a beat. "We — we should wait. Just wait." A moment passes, and he sees blood on her lips. Its eyes are trained on hers.
Her teeth bite down on the skin again, and though he wants to tell her that breaking skin won't help anything, he quells the urge and sets forward. The Rattata shrinks backward, chattering shrilly, and disappears back into the brush, charred fur blurring into the inky shadows of foliage.
Leaf frowns down at her bare feet. He is reminded distantly that she has been hurt, too. She would know better.
Green and Samuel insist that she sleep over at the Oak house that night. She agrees, if only to appease them.
(There is no one home to say no, and there has not been for three days. She doesn't say this aloud.)
"Hey, Leaf," Daisy greets the younger girl upon their entering the front door. She sits at the table, papers in hand. Upon Green's questioning glance, she holds the pages up and taps the front with a smile. "Mom and Dad sent a letter. They're so proud!"
He snatches the letter and reads it with zeal, and shows a particularly heartwarming passage to Leaf. "They miss me... and wish they could've come!" He hands the crinkled stack back to his sister and can't hold back the grin that spreads across his cheeks. "It's the thought that counts, right?"
Though she shows no anger, Leaf avoids looking at him entirely. For a long time, he wonders if it's the Rattata's ragged appearance that's bothered her, or her odd kinship with the Pokémon.
He remembers, waking in the middle of the night, that during graduation, she was alone.
a/n very little to say this chapter, except thank you very much for the support!