Chapter 3: Romantic Waterways
We sat on the edge of a canal. "So? We have four days left, what do you want to do?" Rob said, tapping my foot with his own.
"I don't know. Maybe nothing." I said, kicking his foot back. We sat there playing footsie until Latias came and sat down by us with a friendly wave. "Hey Latias." I smiled.
"You haven't answered me." Rob said, gently kicking my foot again.
"Yes I have." I said. "I told you. I might not want to do anything." Latias waved her hand and pointed near a few buildings on the other side of the canal. "What?" I asked, confused as to what she was trying to say. She then pointed to her face and I understood. "Oh… Oops. I forgot. We are supposed to see Bianca today." I laughed. I pat Rob's leg a few times. "Come on, lets go." I said, jumping into the water. I turned into Latias and let Rob on my back as Latias turned into a pokemon herself. She zoomed off to the south and I followed happily as Rob pet my neck.
We came to a small house on the corner of a canal and Latias turned into a human. I followed suit and turned back into Jamie after letting Rob off of my back. She knocked on the door and a person that looked exactly like her answered the door with a gasp. "Latias." She gasped, hugging the pokemon. "Come in, I haven't seen you in forever." She laughed. "You must be new friends." She moved aside to let us all into her house. "Is there anything I can get you?" She asked in a cheerful tone. I looked around her house and was amazed to see bright and beautiful paintings all over her walls. "Hmm… none of you talk, are you two her children?" Bianca asked.
"Oh, no." I said smiling. "Rob and I are just friends of hers."
"Oh." She laughed. She went by Latias who had turned back into a pokemon and saw how she was marvelling at the paintings. "I am sorry for not visiting… I get so caught up in my paintings."
"I can tell." Latias said, putting her hand on one of a vaporeon and glaceon sitting in front of a tree.
"So would any of you like something? You didn't answer me before." She laughed, walking into her kitchen.
"Oran berry juice." Latias chimed.
"Latias wants oran berry juice, and for me, I will just take water."
"I know what she wants, she always… wants.. that." Bianca said, looking at me funny. "You can understand Latias?"
I gave a polite nod. "Yea, and any other pokemon for that matter." I smiled at her clueless face. "I am a pokemon… well, half." I said. "My mother was a mew and my father was a human."
"Really?" She said, handing Latias her juice. "That's incredible." She then turned to Rob, who was admiring some of her work. "Ahh, you seem to like art. Do you paint too?"
"No, but I draw." He said with a smile. "I know you carry around at least ONE of the pictures I drew you." Rob said, looking at me.
"Nope. But I can grab one. Gimme a sec." I said, teleporting to our large room. I went to my desk and opened the drawer where I kept all of his drawings and grabbed the one where we were sitting on the beach holding hands. "Oh what the hell." I said as I grabbed them all. I teleported back to Bianca's as she gasped in amazement. "Here, these are his." I said, handing her the stack of paper.
"Wow… These are amazing." She said, flipping through the drawings. "It's also apparent that he absolutely adores you." She laughed. "She got to the picture of me as a mew and she gasped. "When were you lucky enough to have a mew pose for you?"
"Oh." I laughed. "I did that for him weeks ago." This had gotten her attention.
"Would you mind doing it for me?" She said with excitement.
I thought it over for a minute. It wouldn't be very long, but we did come see her for Latias and it would be rude to draw the attention of her best friend away. After thinking for a minute while Bianca eagerly stared at me I came to a conclusion. "I can, but not now. Latias hasn't seen you for a while and it would be rude of me to take you away from her."
"Oh… You are right. Sorry Latias." She said, walking over to her. "Well, I could take you all out for ice cream or something to try and help."
Latias shook her head at this and I could see her face light up as she got an idea. "Jamie! Tell her I want to do something even more fun." She said excitedly.
"Latias says she has a better idea."
"Really? What is it?" She said, turning to me.
"Lets race again. The winner gets…." She paused, thinking for a minute. "No, the loser's human has to buy ice cream." She finished.
"Hmm, not a bad idea." I said, thinking about it.
"What did she say?" Rob and Bianca said, causing me to laugh.
"She wants me to turn into her and we race. The loser's human has to buy ice cream."
"Wait… what?" Rob said. "So you're saying if you lose, I have to buy ice cream?"
"I guess so." I laughed. "I think it sounds fun, because I think she wants you two to guide us. The worse guide gets to buy ice cream."
Latias gave an excited nod, agreeing with me.
"Well it is a good thing I have a map." Bianca said, walking into her room. She came out with a rather large rectangle of paper and set it on the ground. "We are here. The ice cream shop is here." She said, pointing to two different spots. "I am sure you two have already been to the ice cream parlor, its where all tourists go." She laughed.
"Yea, it was one of the first places we went to." Rob chuckled.
"It isn't too far or too close, so it will be the perfect distance." Bianca said, rolling up the map and putting it back in her room. "I am ready. I hope you brought your wallet Rob, because Latias and I never lose." She said eagerly, opening the door for us.
"We will see." I said as I turned into Latias and let Rob on me.
We got into position in the canals as Bianca counted us off. "Ready. Set. GO!" She said, speeding off on Latias with a laugh. I sped off too as Rob egged me on. We approached a fork in the canal
'Which way?' I said over the link, because the wind howling in our ears was too much to hear by.
'Left.' He said as I sped down the left canal. I saw Latias and Bianca speed down the right one after us and I realized we might have taken a wrong turn. 'Oops.' Rob said sheepishly. 'This will cost me.' He laughed. We went through a few more turns until I felt a devious idea make itself known in Robs brain. 'You thinking what I am thinking?' He said devilishly.
'Of course.' I said, tilting myself upward and clearing the buildings. 'They never said we couldn't.' I laughed and angled my way to the ice cream shop. It was almost a full minute before I saw the sign to the building, but when I did, I didn't see Bianca or latias waiting there for us. 'We did it. It worked.' I cheered as I slowed myself to a stop in front of the colorful ice cream cone they used as a sign. A few seconds later we saw them speed down the nearest canal and I could see shock on their faces as they saw us waiting for them.
"How did you get here so fast?" Latias asked in disbelief. "We took the fastest possible route and you two still beat us."
"We are just that good." I said triumphantly.
"Yea, I bet you cheated." She laughed.
"How could I cheat?" I said, turning back into Jamie.
"I don't know… you just did." She said, turning back into her human form.
"Well, a deal is a deal." Bianca laughed. "You three choose." She said entering the shop as Rob held the door.
"Oh, you're such a gentleman." I said with a smile as I passed him. He just smiled and followed me in. I could feel a devious idea form in his mind, but as much as I tried, he would not let me see it over our link.
"One oran berry flavored cone for my twin here and I would like a fudge for myself." Bianca said, approaching the counter. "What would you two like?"
"Chocolate chip mint please." Rob said over me.
"Ahem!" I said playfully slapping him on the chest. "I would like rocky road."
We all thanked Bianca as she paid for our treats and we walked out the door. Rob had held the door open again I thanked him for it. I regretted letting him go after me because as soon as I passed him he gave me a pretty hard swat on the butt, causing me to yelp. "A true gentleman slaps her ass on the way out." He whispered in my ear with a laugh.
"You are so MEAN!" I said trying to push him into the water. He sidestepped though and I had to catch myself and my ice cream with my psychic powers to stop myself from falling in. "It's ok 'babe'" I said, stressing the word. "I have plenty of time to think about payback while we are here."
"I wouldn't." He grinned slyly.
"Oh, but I would." I said, trying to look into his mind again to see why I wouldn't want to. I came up short again and decided to just sit on an invisible chair, floating over the water.
"Oh god, look at the time!" Bianca said frantically. "I am SO sorry Latias, I have to go. I am late for work. I'll make it up to you. I will be in the garden tonight I promise." She said, running off as she finished her ice cream.
Latias turned back into a pokemon and flew to catch up to her. "I can take you." She said. Bianca didn't understand exactly what she said, but she got the idea and got on and they flew off.
"So, it's just us." Rob said as he finished his cone.
I made my way over to him and sat at his side. "Yes it is. Anything you wanna do?"
"Not really. This is YOUR vacation. I should be asking you that." He laughed.
"Mmh." I said, looking into the clear water. "I don't know." I began thinking about the couple of days we had spent already. I realized how interesting it was calling the meeting compared to the rest of the week. "I was maybe thinking of cutting it short. It has been fun and all, but I feel as if I need to do something. Sitting around here has been really nice, but lifeless."
"I get what you mean." He said. "I have been feeling the same. I just need a favor of you."
"Hmm?"
"Stay one more day. I have things planned." He smiled. "Don't even try it." He said, sensing I was about to look through his mind. "You won't get very far."
"You are no fun." I smiled. it made me wonder exactly what he had in store.
"If I wanted you to know, I would have just told you."
"Fine." I said, giving him a playful pout. We wandered Alto Mare for the next hour.
We were walking near the center of the city holding hands when Rob swung our hands up, pointing to a large building. "Hey, lets go there." We approached the large building and read the sign that was hung over the entrance. "Alto Mare City Museum. Sounds interesting." He said, dragging me through the large doors. I walked through the intricate doors of the domed building and we were greeted by Lorenzo.
"Jamie, and… the guy." He laughed. "I am sorry, you never did tell me your name."
"Rob." He said, extending his hand, which Lorenzo happily shook.
"Ahh Rob. Welcome to the museum." He said, waving his arm to show the long hallway of the building. There were pillars and halls that lead to different parts of history and the main hall lead to something that looked like a statue but I knew better. He saw Rob and I looking at the DMA and laughed. "Ahh Jamie. You should know about that. It was your father that dismantled it and saved our town and my life."
"Mhm." I nodded, walking up to it. It looked completely totalled.
"He was so modest. He gave all the credit to Latias, but honestly, if it weren't for him, we wouldn't have been able to break free and Latias would have never found us." We went down one of the halls as Lorenzo guided us. "Here we have the fossils of the two pokemon that terrorized our town before the water came. The one on the left is Kabutops, on the right is Aerodactyl. Our next exhibition is the ruins left by the old settlers of Alto Mare. Some say they predicted that Latios would come to the city and bring the water, but many are still skeptical on the fact." He guided us through various halls in the museum. There were a few interesting things, like the very first water chariot race champion and small section dedicated to my dad, but other than that there were just some boats and other things that had came with the water.
"Thank you for the tour Lorenzo." I smiled as we left the museum.
"Anytime." He waved us goodbye.
I looked up at the sky, which was getting dark. Not because of the lateness in the day, but because dark grey rainclouds were gathering over the city. "We should probably get to the garden." I held my hand out and sure enough, little drops of rain were already coming down. I hugged Rob and teleported us to the garden to avoid having to walk in the rain.
"Well this is going to spoil my plans for tonight." He said, rain falling from in between the leaves of the trees that are scattered around the garden.
"What plans?" I said curiously, hoping he would tell me.
"Have to wait until tomorrow." he smiled, kissing my nose.
I gave a sarcastic groan and walked underneath the tree the Latis slept in. It confused me because they weren't there. I didn't even see Kyle or Clark, who usually stay in the safety of the garden. It was getting darker and so Rob and I decided to fall asleep to the peaceful patter of rain drops on the leaves.
I was walking in a bright, grassy field. I smiled as the warm sun was gently kissing my skin. I decided it wouldn't hurt too much to take a walk for a few minutes under the gentle sun and so I walked for a few minutes, not really caring where I was going. "This would be so much better with Rob." I whispered to myself. I stopped dead in my tracks when I had come to a dark grey gravestone, on it which read,
"Here lies
Colby Fredrickson
1993-2014
Died by your hands."
I gasped in horror as more and more gravestones slowly rose out of the ground, each with a different name and date, but all the same cause of death, "Died by your hands." I ran frantically as the sky quickly became dark and the grass started dying as I avoided the headstones that were popping out of the ground. I ran for a few minutes until one had began rising right in front of me. I couldn't stop or turn in time, so tripped over it, bruising my shin. I looked up in horror to see a floating and tattered back robe with an equally dark scythe at it's side rise out of the ground.
"Jamie Christine Ketchum… You have ended countless lives." It said in a eerie whisper, removing it's hood to show a pure white skull with fangs as it pointed to me with a skeletal hand. "The souls of the damned… Demand vengeance!" He screamed, flying at me holding it's scythe above it's head, as if to cut me in half. I covered my eyes, awaiting a quick end.
I opened my eyes to the crackle of thunder. I was laying next to Rob and I could hear soft snoring above me. "Oh thank god… It was only a dream." I said, putting my hand over my chest to try and control my panting. As I did, I could feel tears well up in my eyes. "I ended people… People I didn't even know." I said, bursting out in tears. I hugged Rob to try and find comfort. He must have woken up, because I could feel his arms pull me close.
"Shh… Shh. It's all over. You are safe. I am here." He whispered in my ears as he rocked me slowly and wiped my tears away. "It will all be ok." I couldn't stop crying, so instead I cried myself to sleep, suffering slightly less vivid nightmares, but nightmares all the same.
I woke up to clear skies and Rob holding me tight. "Good morning." He said as I stirred.
"I am sorry." I whispered, realizing my nightmares had robbed him of his sleep. "I just wish there was something I can do. I feel sorry for all of them… but I just don't know how to make them go away." I said, grabbing my head as tears welled up in my eyes again, only to be wiped away by Rob's gentle touch.
"Listen… I don't care about sleep, I don't care about food, or water, or shelter. I just care about your happiness. That's what makes my world turn." He smiled, stroking my hair. "My world dims whenever I see you frown and it stops dead in it's tracks every time I see tears fall from those gorgeous eyes of yours. There are very few things I wouldn't do for you to see you smile again." He finished off by gently grabbing my face and bringing me into a loving kiss.
"Wow…" I said as we broke apart, my tears reinforcing the ones that were swept away. I cried tears of joy this time and leaned into his chest, sending him my gratitude and love through our mental link.
"Jamie? Is everything ok?" Latias worriedly asked, floating down to me and putting her hand on my shoulder.
"Y-yea." I nodded and brought her into a hug.
"I heard you groaning and screaming in your sleep. I tried to help, but the nightmares were too strong." She said, looking down.
"Yea… All of them made me feel like shit." I said grimly. "I will be back." I said, getting up. " I haven't had a warm shower in days." I teleported to my room and grabbed the things I would need for my shower and I walked into my large bathroom. It had small white pillars all along the wall and a bathtub large enough for a few people on the far wall. there were some sinks on the wall that had the door on it. There was a large hollow in the wall beside the bathtub that had 4 faucets hanging from the ceiling, all of them pointing together to form an X shape. I turned the water on hot and stepped into the hollow, setting my clothes in a neat pile beside it. I let out a content sigh as I felt the warm water glide over my skin. I nearly slipped when I felt a pair of hands gently massage by shoulders. "Oh SHIT!" I said, covering myself up with my arms and turning around. "Rob! Not funny." I said trying to calm myself and slow my pulse. He was standing behind me and I wasn't surprised to see he was in his shorts instead of the normal shower attire. He always was shy, even though he tried to act tough.
"Geez, I can't win." He laughed. "You tell me help, you tell me don't help."
"It's- I mean I am sorry. I am just not in the mood right now." I said, sadness tainting my voice. "The nightmares… I didn't sleep to well last night. Not that you did either, but.." I trailed off.
"Come here." He said, bringing me into a hug. It was a little awkward because I was still covering myself up, but he didn't seem to mind. "I meant everything I said earlier, so I won't rest until I see that smile. Remember how you promised to stay in Alto Mare one more day?"
I nodded.
"Well, I figured if that won't make you happy, then I don't know what will." He smiled. He let me go and I finished showering as he finished his back rub, making me feel slightly better.
I slipped on clean clothes that I got out of my dresser shortly after exiting the shower.
"I have a question." Rob said, slipping on his shirt.
"Shoot." I said, straightening my plain red shirt.
"If you transform.."
"Yes yes, where do my clothes go. Whatever I transform into, it becomes fur, scales, skin, you know." I said, rather uninterested due to my weariness.
"So your clothes… are a part of you?" He said, bewildered.
"Thats one way to put it." I said. "Anyway, I am eager to see what you have in store for me in Alto Mare, Come on." I grabbed his arm and teleported back to the garden.
"Hey, chill. It isn't till tonight." He laughed.
"I can fix that." I said, preparing to teleport us through time. I was stopped when Rob declined. "Yea… I am sorry. I just need something to make me smile. Last night was one of the worst nightmares I have had." I sighed.
"Well then here." He smiled, lifting my chin and kissing me gently. It had helped a good amount and a faint smile played across my lips. "Better?" He asked.
"I MIGHT need one more." I giggled, closing the distance between our lips again. "Much better, thank you." I said. We had settled to wander around Alto Mare again. Without warning I transformed into an umbreon and rubbed against his leg, purring.
"I can't take you shopping if you are a pokemon." He said with a laugh.
'Where are you taking me shopping?' I asked, nuzzling his leg some more.
He took out his map of Alto Mare Bianca let him borrow and crouched down, pointing at a small dot. "Here." He said. He moved his finger down some, indicating where we were.
'What kind of shop is it?'
"Can't tell you." He smiled.
'Great, more secrets.' I mumbled, following him. We came to a small dress shop and I looked at him, confused.
"Well, you will need one for later tonight." He said, making me even more confused.
'What do you have planned?' I asked cautiously.
"Just trust me." He laughed. "I think they have a restroom you can change in, come on."
I followed him into the store even though I didn't know his motives behind it. I tried looking into his mind once again and came up with a clue. I saw candles in his mind and sighed. 'You really aren't giving me much to work with.' I said, walking into a changing room.
"Um… Excuse me, the changing rooms are for customers only." The cashier said.
I hurriedly transformed into Jamie and responded. "It's ok. It's just my umbreon, i'll put her in her pokeball."
"Ok." She said, obviously convinced.
I walked out of the dressing room and smiled at the array of dresses. "Which one to choose." I said with a sigh.
"Whichever one makes you feel beautiful." Rob replied with a smile.
I returned his smile and went to a blue dress with a bright red Gracidea flower flower on the side. "This one is pretty." I said with a smile. I looked at the price and gasped. "Wow… Seventy five dollars too."
"Get it." Rob said, surprising me.
"Wow." I said with a smile. "You are awesome." I said hugging him and grabbing the dress. I teleported some money into my pocket to pay for it and I walked into the dressing room to try it on. It came down to my ankles and I sighed happily. I walked out and Rob gasped.
"You look amazing." He said with a smile, hugging me.
"I feel amazing too." I giggled as I swished the dress side to side.
"Good." He smiled. "It will be perfect for tonight."
"Ugh… You keep saying things about tonight, but you never say what it IS." I laughed, going back into the dressing room to change back into my original clothes.
"That's kinda how surprises work." He laughed.
I went up to the cashier and saw she wasn't really much older than me. She was chewing gum and playing on her phone. "Excuse me, do you have this in white?" I asked politely.
"No, sorry." She said with a fake frown.
"Ok. This will do then." I said, placing it on the counter and reaching in my pocket for my money.
"Nope." I heard Rob say as he grabbed my hand. He paid for my dress with a smile and we walked out of the store.
"You really didn't have to do that." I said hugging him.
"I told you, you need it for what comes next." He said with a romantic look in his eyes. "You need to get changed." He said with a grin.
"Ok." I sighed. I teleported to The Hall and sighed as I changed in my room. I looked down at the dress and noticed how much I contrasted, with my white hair, blue dress, and red flower. "Lets fix that." I said, tapping into Arceus' power and turning the blue sections white. "There. Now I match." I said with a smile. I went into the restroom and put my hair up. I teleported back to Rob when I was done. I looked around and saw he wasn't in the same place when I left him, so I stood around and waited for a second. "What could he have planned?" I said, tapping my chin with my finger. I couldn't continue because he teleported right in front of me and I got confused until I remembered Arceus gave him the power to teleport to and from The Hall.
"Back." He said with a smile. He was dressed up rather nicely and I recognized them as the nice clothes he had one year when we went to a fancy party his family had been invited to. "You changed the dress color and put your hair up… I like it. Are you ready?" He asked, offering his arm.
"I guess." I said, taking it. He lead us to a restaurant and I smiled. It's name was "The Gilded Goblet." I took a good look around and took in all the details of the restaurant. It looked very fancy with deep colored wood making everything. We were lead to our table as I looked at the artwork on the wall. There was a girl with a flute playing on a rock as pokemon surrounded her, obviously calmed by the melody. The painting was quite large, almost considerable to be life sized. We sat down at a dark wood table for two and Rob smiled as he saw my amazement at the scenery. I looked near the back of the restaurant and noticed a big clearing with small speakers surrounding it, playing slow songs.
"Excuse me, what would you like?" The waiter said, drawing me out of my scenery look. I looked down at the menu and noticed the array of meat they had. He got slightly impatient. "Drink, madam."
"Oh, sorry." I giggled. "Water."
"And you sir?"
"I'll take water as well." He replied.
I looked through my menu, again noticing the abundance of meat. I looked at the corphish meal and decided it was what I wanted right as the waiter came with our drinks. "Are you two ready to order now?"
"Yes, I would like the corphish meal, steamed, with the side of vegetable soup please."
"Very good choice." He said, turning to Rob.
"I'll have the same."
The waiter left with his little notepad and pretty soon he returned with our meals. I marvelled at the taste of the food as I have never tasted anything that good. My ears perked up when the announcer said the name of the next song.
"Next we have A Thousand Years, by Christina Perri."
I looked at Rob hopefully as he was finishing his supper. "You don't even have to ask." He said, getting up with a smile and offering me his arm again. The next few minutes were absolute heaven. My favorite song was playing in the background as Rob held me close as we danced to my favorite song. The song faded and I let out a sad sigh. He grabbed my cheek gently. "Hey, not so fast. The night isn't over yet."
I got confused again as he said this, wondering what else could be in store. He lead me out of the restaurant after paying the bill, and we went to the edge of the city at Lorenzo's shop.
"Hello there." He said with a smile. "I figured you would come here earlier." He laughed. He pointed to a small boat meant for two and Rob had lead me to it. It all began falling into place as I remembered a romantic scene where we were out under the stars.
"After you." He said, helping me on the boat. He followed me and I began pushing the boat with my psychic powers until I got to looking at the clear, starry skies.
"This is just beautiful." I murmured. I slowly remembered our dance in the restaurant and I grabbed his hand.
"Where are you going? You will ruin our cloth-" He cut himself short when he noticed we were walking on the water instead of floating in it. I pulled him close as I began making the song we had danced to, play out of thin air. He got the idea, and began dancing with me again as the waves gently rolled under our feet and the stars twinkled above us.
I sighed happily as the song played itself on a repeating loop as we danced and I clung to him. "I love you." I whispered.
"I love you too." He said as the final words of the song's chorus sang themselves once more as we danced in the moonlight.
"All along I believed I would find you
Time has brought your heart to me.
I have loved you for a thousand years,
I'll love you for a thousand moooore..."
So this is chapter three X). A few weeks ago i had the overwhelming urge to write something romantic, so i thought here would be the best place to do so. Seeing as how they are in Alto Mare, I figured it would be fitting as well. As i said in the previous chapter, this has to be one of my favorite chapters. I am still ahead, but i dont know how long that lead will last, but until then, i will be posting thursday and monday XD Also, the poll i had said i posted is now up. I had messed up because i didn't let it show on my profile. It wsa my first poll, so mistakes happen lol. Vote on that if you want to decide the next villain for my next story.