a/n: cross-posted from ao3
a/n: aah it's been awhile since i've written something. unbeta'd.
a/n: black/white if you squint

+standard disclaimer

burn your bridges

(love is not an emotion I am familiar with. — black, rosa, white)

Day seven hundred forty-nine of his self-imposed exile, Black returns home. He returns with his bag of names safely tied to his bag, and his hair a wild mass of tangles. He returns without White, without N, without anything he had set out to bring home with him. Worse yet, he knows that they have, in fact, returned, but not because of him—never because of him—but because of some plucky teenage girl two years his junior. He returns home to White and her red lipstick and her sarcastic smirks working at Virbank with half of the Pokéstar Studio's staff wrapped around her finger. He returns home to N helping the newest champion, some bun-haired girl named Rosa, who wields her serperior like a goddamn genius.

When word gets out about his return, he gets a message, which is really more like a demand. He's to fly out to Virbank for a party—and that's kind of ridiculous, because whythe hell would he go to a party after spending a little over two years scouring the world? Still, he owes it to Cheren to visit—Bianca, too. So he hops on his braviary and heads out west, to where his friends have gathered.

It's there that Black meets her, the plucky sixteen-year-old with dual buns and a ridiculous pair of shorts. He tries his very best to avoid her, and because of that, he's certain she tries even harder to talk to him. Black silently thanks her friends Nate and Hugh for distracting her, and for the very few gym leaders—Cheren, Elesa—that go out to show him what's changed since he left.

And really, at that point, after seeing the new studio, catching up with his friends, and a quick greeting from White that ended up with him spending several minutes in the bathroom wiping off her lipstick, he's ready to go to White's apartment—she invited him over, bless her soul—and crash.

But White's not done messing with Cheren and Bianca, nor is she done drinking, and he's fairly certain that Elesa and Iris will kill him if he even thinks about leaving before three in the morning. Instead, he goes out to a balcony, leaning against the rail and stares at the sky.

For the moment, he's pretty content with that, and White nods her head towards him, catching his eye as Chili twirls her. Then, Rosa comes bounding up to him and goddammit all, he just wants to go to sleep. He doesn't look at her, and it appears that she either doesn't notice or doesn't care.

"Hi!" she greets cheerily. "I'm Rosa! You're Black, right? Everyone's told me so much about you!"

It's past midnight and he's running on five hours of sleep, three glasses of champagne and a few bottles of beer—his filter is nonexistent.

"Oh, god," he says. "I'm not nearly drunk enough to deal with this. Are you just reading off of a script?"

Her smile slips off her face, and she places her hands on her hips. She's changed into a navy blue dress since he's last seen her, just as he's in a suit and White is in a dangerously gorgeous silk black dress.

"They never said you were an ass," she retorts. "God, you're just like White."

It elicits a laugh out of him, because where White is careful manipulation, he is shit-eating grins and how could she even expect that he'd stay the same after two years of travelling. It's certainly long enough to make anyone have their views on the world do a one-eighty.

"Well, I don't know what the expected. I've been gone for—"

"—two years, yes, I know. They've been worried sick about you. They didn't know how to find you. I think it nearly drove White mad," she says, cutting him off. There's a note of irritation in her voice and he can't really bring himself to care.

"I guess that's just too bad, then," Black responds. "That's just too bad. Why are you here?"

The question catches her off guard, and her response is a little guarded.

"You were the champion before Iris, right…? The one who ran away? The one who saved the world?"

"Yeah, I guess I am."

She smiles and breathes, "I guess we have something in common, then."

He tilts his head towards her, still leaning on the balcony railing, and drawls, "Do we, now?"

Rosa isn't an idiot and she's damn well aware that he knows what happened since he's left, so she raises an eyebrow and gives him a look, the very kind that puts Hugh and Nate in their places. It barely works, so she goes for a more honest approach.

"I really admire you and White. I think what you did back then… was amazing."

Black gives in and picks himself up off the railing, sighing, "Do you really think there's a point in saving the world? It means jack shit."

Rosa feels herself falter at his words—how can he say that?!—and opens her mouth soundlessly. He shoves his hands into his pockets and begins to head towards the hall where White is chatting with Elesa. He's had enough.

Rosa stares at his back.

a/n: hopefully, the next installment will be an actors au.
a/n: drop a line!