This was a fun chapter to write -- it's been a while since I've had the chance to throw in a segment of humor (was the last one in chapter 2, really?!?). Look out for a shout-out to the epic/infamous Splash Attack battle between Ash and Gary on Youtube. Yay for pop-culture(ish) inserts in fanfiction and otherwise!

As always, huge thanks to my beta Greenflower and to my reviewers, who I try to thank individually. This story really does exist for and because of you guys!

In Ruins

chapter 12

They had gotten better at it. Or Shigeru had, anyway. Satoshi wasn't sure why his wide-brimmed plates kept breaking in the kiln and Shigeru's usually didn't, but every morning since they'd begun to learn from Tano, Satoshi felt the bursts of excitement in his veins building higher and higher until the energy brimmed over into a near-constant thrum. Satoshi didn't know that he had been feeling dead until he was alive, like he hadn't been for years; or alive like maybe he had never fully been. He couldn't remember which it was because too many years had passed in-between.

Tano had given him and Shigeru the task of gathering different dirts ("not dirt; minerals" Shigeru would say) for the day's clay-making, which Satoshi thought to be great, because it gave him a chance to enjoy the perfect weather with Shigeru. Standing on the far side of the city, just outside the low walls of Alph, he watched Shigeru shoveling a bunch of dirt glinting with specks of mica into his linen bag. Satoshi did the same, though far less methodically, hacking at the ground with his hand shovel furiously.

"And Satoshi uses another Dig Attack!" he crowed to himself.

"Did you say something?" Shigeru called over. Satoshi winced at being caught, but tried not to show it otherwise.

"No, nothing," Satoshi yelled back at him.

"Didn't sound like nothing," Shigeru laughed in reply, but Satoshi ignored him. It would only be kind-of-extremely embarrassing to be caught at his own game of Pokemon.

He wasn't sure how it had started, but a week ago he had begun to pretend that he wasn't actually working, but it was some sort of pokemon training. There was of course no battle league to aim for, but that was entirely irrelevant to Satoshi: all he cared about was beating Shigeru.

He had worked out a system even. For every successful piece that he molded and fired in the kiln, Satoshi would count it as another Level Up. He had started at around Level 24 this morning and was pretty sure that today was a good day, and so he was aiming at finishing the evening at Level 27. Shigeru, on the other hand... he was, as always, in the lead, at roughly Level 31 already.

"Stupid..." Satoshi muttered. "...rival.."

"What was that?

Shigeru was standing over him, smiling, when Satoshi reconnected with the present.

"Nothing," Satoshi evaded, ducking his head back down and scooping out the dirt more vigorously.

"Uh-huh," Shigeru replied skeptically. He wiped a glean of perspiration off of his brow and smudged some red dirt on his forehead. "Any way, I'm ready to go back to Tano's when you are."

"Oh," said Satoshi. He had barely filled up three fourths of his bag. "I have a bit more to go. It's kind of rocky around here."

"No it's not," said Shigeru.

"Yes, it is," Satoshi lied.

"I don't see any rocks," Shigeru told him. "Nothing but the dumb rock that's supposed to be your head, anyway."

"Hey!" Satoshi reflexively grabbed at his head, and Shigeru swatted him.

"Kidding," he laughed. Even though it had been kind of mean, Satoshi found himself reluctantly smiling, too. He unbent his legs, stretched, and squinted in the bright light of the sun that was nearly overhead already. No wonder he was hungry. Or was he thirsty?

Shigeru was bent over and digging again. Satoshi's mouth was dry.

Definitely thirsty, he decided.

"You know, I need some water," Satoshi told Shigeru. "If you wanna finish this bag for me, I'm going to get a drink really quickly from the Trough."

Shigeru shuddered. "Sure, I'll finish your bag. But I don't know how you can do it," he said. "Drinking from a water channel open to the air, that goes throughout the village, that people put their dirty hands in upstream? No, I'll take my water straight from the well, thanks."

"You're such a girl. I'm pretty sure that Tano doesn't get his water directly from the well," Satoshi pointed out. "Neither do Haruka and Masato; I've watched them."

"Fine. If that's the way it is, then no more water for me. From now I'm drinking rice wine."

Satoshi grinned. "Wine instead of water? Shigeru, I'm pretty sure that Alph doesn't need a town drunk."

"Of course it does," Shigeru responded. "That way, you and I could be a matching set."

"A matching set? How?" asked Satoshi. "Wait -- who am I supposed to be?!"

"Village idiot, of course," Shigeru smirked. "As I said earlier, dumb as a rock..."

Satoshi dropped his dirt bag on the ground. "I'm leaving," he declared, attempting to inject anger into his voice, "I'm going to get some water and I'll make sure to bring back extra to throw at you with."

"Yeah? You gonna hit me with a splash attack? If so then I should probably be thanking you!"

"What!" exclaimed Satoshi.

"Obviously, I'm thirsty too, and sweltering in this heat," said Shigeru, and he lifted the hem of his tunic over his head and threw it to the ground beside him. "Anyway I was just kidding."

"I know," Satoshi bit out. He turned away and briskly walked toward the low wall where the Trough ran through.

For some reason, even though Shigeru still wore tan drawstring trousers that rode on his hips, when Satoshi was watching him take off his top in the middle of the field it had felt strange and -- inappropriate. And immodest.

And that's why he was blushing.

Satoshi dipped his water pouch into the stream and held it there, even though it was already full. The water swelled around his hand and some of his lower arm, cool and refreshing, and Satoshi began to wonder about Shigeru - in a specifically vague sort of way. I'm doing good, sure; but what about Shigeru? How is he doing in all of this, anyway? Is he adjusted? It wasn't normal for him to talk with Shigeru (or anyone!) about his feelings, or feeling in general, so he had to settle for guessing that Shigeru was doing fine, too. After all, Shigeru seemed happier now than he had when they'd arrived at Alph. Come to think of it, he was happier, too, even though Pikachu...

Immediately the guilt began swelling around his adam's apple, and Satoshi had to swallow. No, he thought, as he took out his hand and bag from the water, it's better not to think about the past when I'm this happy.

Occasionally, only occasionally, memories of his old life popped up like images from a distant dream. It was weird, Satoshi thought further, how quickly he had acclimated himself to his new life at Alph, and how he didn't dwell on his old life much at all. When he tried to compare one world to the next, it was difficult to say which one felt more real. Perhaps it would be easier to separate what was his old life and what was not if he hadn't met Masato, Haruka, Hikari, and everyone else from his old world, living completely different lives. Whether or not this was the world he had lived in most of his life, to Satoshi it felt more real simply because it was here, and now; was it really that surprising that he had begun to live a different life, too?

When Satoshi looked up, he found himself eye to eye with Kasumi. Alph's Kasumi, that is; all 5"4 inches tall and 3"2 inches wide of her.

He dropped his water bag in the dirt.

"Kasumi!" he exclaimed, completely shocked.

"Satoshi," she greeted him with a hand on her (even more massive than it had been before) belly. "How are you?"

"Not pregnant," he blurted, and of course regretted it immediately.

To his fortune, and surprise, she didn't seem to take offense, and beamed with pride instead, looking down at her stomach. "I'm about eight months along now. I can feel my baby turn when it hears Takeshi's or my voice. Isn't that miraculous?"

"It is," Satoshi agreed, though he was thinking that it was miraculous how she wasn't kicking his butt. It had to be the hormones. "So... I haven't seen you since you and Takeshi and Shigeru and I talked at the Festival last month."

Kasumi looked up and smiled.

"Well, I don't get to move around as much as I'd like to. Walking around with a little one attached to my stomach is hard on my feet and my back. Fortunately, Takeshi has strong hands and can give me a really good massage when I tire myself out."

Satoshi though it was weird how she kept mentioning Takeshi in every other sentence. It was like they were the same person or something.

"So... What are you doing out here?" he wondered. "If you're not supposed to be out of the house."

"Ha! Takeshi couldn't keep me in the house even if he does think it's better for me. I have a job after all. I'm not doing most of it anymore, as you can see I'm a bit preoccupied, but I still work on some stuff. Right now I'm just checking on the water flow of the Trough. My sisters and I are in charge of the water at Alph, you know."

"I didn't know that," said Satoshi, surprised. So this Kasumi had sisters, too! Satoshi tried to remember what Kasumi's sisters looked like. He only remembered that they were supposed to be beautiful, and he remembered that he had been unimpressed, and annoyed that they wouldn't battle with him on top of the rest. "What does Takeshi do?" he asked.

"Oh, well that's the funny thing," Kasumi laughed, and leaned herself against the side of the Trough. "You know how the Trough is made of rock?"

"Yeah," Satoshi nodded. "Shigeru noticed that it was really special somehow..."

"It is, and it takes a lot of work to maintain. My family may take care of the water, keeping it clean and flowing, but there other things that are important, too. Like the way that the rocks are put together."

"I guess that makes sense, but it doesn't really answer my question about what Takeshi does for a living..."

"Oh. Right. Takeshi comes from a family of masons - people who work on rocks. We'd met before several times, being near the same age and just in the course of life here, but the first time that I really met him was when I was working on a dam, and he'd seen me having problems. He dropped everything that he was doing - literally, he'd been carrying a huge boulder and just left it in the middle of the road - and he ran up to me, took my hand, and insisted that I would let him help me at any cost." She laughed. "Of course, he took my hand right out of where it had been holding back the leak, so as soon as he was done with his speech, the dam completely broke and we got soaking wet!"

"You must have been so mad!" said Satoshi, the images churning in his mind. But Kasumi cocked her said to the side.

"Well, I was at first. I was freezing cold, and I called him an idiot and an annoyance and - well, all sorts of things! But when I finally finished, there he was, still on his knee, frozen as if he were holding my hand, drenched in water... and still staring at me, with wide, hurt eyes! Just like a kicked Growlithe! He looked so adorable, I couldn't stay angry. I finished fixing the leak and invited him to my house to dry off. We were engaged a year later."

"Wow." Satoshi looked at Kasumi and felt like he was seeing the past, present, and future of everything that was his orange-haired friend. He thought back to the first year they had traveled together. Never, not even once, had he imagined that Kasumi would grow up to enjoy Takeshi's girl-chasing antics. But then, he had never seen Takeshi target those attentions to Kasumi. Satoshi thought about how she had always been so convinced of her own beauty, yet at the same time, so desperate for someone to prove that it was true. Maybe she had never thought it was true. Maybe it really did take someone like Takeshi to make her feel beautiful and happy. And he had probably evened out her temper a bit, too. He finished thinking it over and smiled.

"Kasumi, I'm really happy for you," he said, and for the first time, he wasn't too confused or jealous. He meant it.

Shigeru ventured his questions about the visit later that afternoon, after the two of them had returned to Tano's house and workshop to put their dirt and rock to a more worthy use.

"You took a long time getting water earlier. I saw you talking to someone," Shigeru mentioned. "Anything interesting happen?"

"Yeah, actually," said Satoshi, "When I was at the Trough, I ran into Kasumi and she invited me over for dinner."

"Kasumi, Kasumi... Was she the pregnant half of that couple who you talked to at the Festival?"

"Yeah. And not only is she pregnant; she's eight months pregnant," Satoshi replied.

Shigeru whistled, and turned his unfinished goblet in his hands. "I bet she waddles like a Pinplup."

Satoshi thought for a second. Actually, when Kasumi waved goodbye and went back to her house, she really had waddled like a Pinplup. He tried very hard not to laugh, and only succeeded in stifling it with a hand over his mouth.

It probably wasn't the best idea, but he only realized it after his clay-covered hand had touched his lips. Satoshi spat out as much as he could and grimaced at the taste of grits in his mouth. He hated grits! Hated them!

"Anyway," he said to Shigeru, as soon as his mouth felt relatively clean again inside. "I'm not going to go back for dinner with you and Haruka tonight."

"What?" Shigeru's hands stopped moving around his clay and looked up at Satoshi. "What?" he repeated.

"I told you that Kasumi invited me to dinner," Satoshi looked at Shigeru, who had an odd expression. He spoke the last sentence as clearly and drawn out as he could. "So... I'm going."

"I had assumed that you'd declined."

Satoshi could only stare at him, dumbfounded. "But why would I do that?"

"Well, for one thing... " Shigeru said, "Are you sure you can get back? I mean, we haven't gone back from Tano's alone before."

"We've been here nearly a month, though. I could probably walk from Haruka and Masato's to Tano's in my sleep," said Satoshi. "I don't know why Haruka keeps coming to pick us up. And besides, if I follow along the Trough long enough I'll end up in a place that I know, rather than just recognize. Alph's really not that big."

"Hmm." Shigeru frowned. He continued molding the clay for a few more minutes. Then, without looking at Satoshi, he asked, "So... What does Kasumi do for a living, besides make babies?"

Satoshi couldn't explain why, even to himself, but he got the impression that Shigeru was displeased with the idea of him going out. Or maybe he just didn't like Kasumi? Or pregnant people?

"She and her three sisters take care of the Trough. And her husband, Takeshi, is a stone mason, and -- Shigeru!"

Satoshi and Shigeru both stared at Shigeru's nearly finished goblet. It would have been perfect, but during Satoshi's story, Shigeru had poked a finger through the clay. Frustrated, Shigeru mashed the clay against the rock slab, at which point he started over completely.

Satoshi watched him with concern. "Shigeru..."

But Shigeru ignored Satoshi, his face was all disbelief as he rolled out his clay for a second try. "Seriously?" he said to himself as much as to Satoshi, "The water and rock gym leaders of the Indigo League take care of the water and rock, here at Alph?"

"I didn't even think of that," said Satoshi, surprised. "That's a really weird coincidence."

"There's no way that it could be coincidence," Shigeru said flatly.

At that, Satoshi finally had to put down his half-formed bowl.

"Are you mad at me?"

"No," said Shigeru. Then he sighed, and swept a hand through his auburn bangs. "...Or, I don't know. Not really. I'm just not looking forward to walking for twenty minutes with Masato. That's all it is."

"Haruka will be there, too," pointed out Satoshi. "And you like Haruka."

"Everyone likes Haruka, but I'll be outnumbered without you to play interference," Shigeru replied. But Satoshi just couldn't bring himself to understand why it was such a big deal.