Thanks as always to my readers, my reviewers, and my beta, Vivian. Hope you all enjoy this next chapter!

In Ruins

Chapter Eighteen

"So, I don't really understand why you wanted to come to Alph in the first place," said Satoshi out of the blue. He paused to assess the cross-hatch line he'd affected onto his clay with the blunt edge of a twig, and rubbed it off with the pad of his finger. "I mean, you used to be working in the Orange Islands making pokemon out of fossils. I always thought that sounded exciting."

"It was," answered Shigeru, distantly. "But only at first."

They were at Tano's, decorating pottery again. But somehow, they seemed to be getting worse at it rather than better. It seemed as if over the past few days since the accident, they had been as focused on conversation as it had been on decoration. There was no question in Shigeru's mind that something had been changing and deepening since the accident. They had begun to speak of the past. They usually had nothing more than anecdotal to speak about, but even that was significant. Shigeru couldn't even remember the last time that Satoshi had done more than off-handedly mention the time he'd spent traveling the world.

In a lull of silence, Shigeru looked up to see if Tano had caught on to their diversion. Far from it, the master potter was humming to himself as he collected mulberries from his tree. He was stooped over and laying them out in neat rows under the sun. Satoshi had been quick to catch onto the edibility of the little fruit that occasionally dropped onto his head and shoulders, and every now and then he would put down his tools to pop a fresh berry or two into his mouth. He was a messy eater, though. When he bit down on the fruit, juice dribbled out from his bottom lip and stained it. And then his fingers, which he would have to clean as well.

Shigeru couldn't say that he minded. But it was also true that he couldn't look away. When Satoshi left a spot of the juice ignored, Shigeru had to restrain himself from reaching out and touching the stain with his lips; from tackling Satoshi and licking it off with slow and languid swipes of his tongue. The fantasy was completely inappropriate, though, and Shigeru knew it, but Satoshi's unwitting performance wasn't too innocent to be ignored. Satoshi wasn't a little boy anymore - not in any way at all. And neither was he. So time after time, Shigeru looked in spite of himself; and every time he did, he fought against the tightness in his groin and tore himself away.

The need to touch Satoshi was getting worse all the time. He really had to get himself under control, but it was so hard to distract himself from Satoshi when they were together all the time. And it had been over a week since he'd found time to sneak off and deal with his 'morning problem' while Satoshi slept.

"So?" Satoshi broke his increasingly dirty reverie. "Why did you go to Alph, anyway? You know, the first time. As a researcher."

Shigeru settled on the distraction with welcome relief.

"The reasons I liked pseudo-paleontology had to do with how tactile the results were," he confessed. "We were re-creating life from bones. You could see the product of your work so easily. But... the field lacked creativity. Once we'd figured out the secret to restoring life, there just wasn't much left to do. Every day it was the same old, same old. DNA extraction, cell tissue manipulation, incubation..."

Shigeru tried to gauge Satoshi's whether Satoshi was comprehending anything he said. It didn't seem like his interest was particularly piqued, but he was listening, so Shigeru continued more simply,

"...Anyway, that's why I decided to stop studying bones and decided to study how ancient pokemon used to live and think. That seemed like a bigger challenge. So after traveling through Sinnoh, I set off for Alph with a team who were planning to do research already."

"And that was the team studying the Unown at Alph, right?" asked Satoshi, and Shigeru nodded in confirmation. "The only thing is, I don't get how Unown are ancient pokemon. They're not exactly extinct."

"Ah. Well, pokemon that lived at the same time as an ancient people are considered ancient pokemon. Staraptor, Altaria, and the other pokemon here in the Coop would be considered ancient pokemon, too. We've researched all of them at the lab in Alph."

"Oh, wow," said Satoshi. "I never realized that. So I guess there'd be such a thing as an ancient Pikachu."

Shigeru looked at his friend and quirked a brow. "Probably. And you've probably noticed how pokemon here in Alph - in the past - are bigger, right? So that Pikachu would have one hell of a Thunderbolt attack, I'd bet."

Satoshi's mood sobered so quickly that Shigeru felt himself grow tense.

"I've never been away from Pikachu for this long," said Satoshi, his voice nearly cracking at the start, "Alph is great and all, but I miss everyone. I want to see them again... and you know what else? I miss seeing pokemon every day. Like Pikachu, and the others."

"We're going to see them again," Shigeru said. "So you don't have to talk like that. We're going to solve the legend, and we'll go back. Soon."

"Yeah," said Satoshi. But it was easy to tell he wasn't convinced.

The rest of the afternoon rolled by so pleasantly that Satoshi was taken aback when Tano told them that they could go back home for dinner. He'd pointed to the sun that was closing in on the frames of the sky and then began to gather his tools.

Shigeru protested. "But I'm not even close to finished!"

"Aren't you even kind of hungry yet?" Satoshi looked at him in pure amazement. Shigeru had to admit that Satoshi had a point, but then, Satoshi didn't really understand the artistic process at all. Finishing work, as far as he saw it, wasn't more complicated to him than to put down the marking brush.

"I'll eat when I eat. My stomach can wait a couple of minutes. Go wash your hands," he said lightly. "I'll join you in a second."

"Okay," said Satoshi, stretching out. "See you soon."

The word 'soon', Shigeru realized after some time, was surprisingly vague.

As he sat in meticulous scraping, he felt the minutes drifting by, as hot and lazy as the air around him. He wondered at first if Satoshi had gotten dirtier than usual. Then, as he moved on to his next blank panel, he wondered if Satoshi had been distracted. That quickly led to the thought that he was being paranoid, and he was determined not to be, no matter what.

But he had to give in eventually. By the time that Tano began to gather the mulberries for safe keeping, and the sky was streaked with a purple stain of clouds, Shigeru could no longer stand it. He got to his feet, and walked toward the Trough.

"Satoshi?" he called out.

When a reply didn't come, he began to walk faster.

He turned the corner of Tano's home, and whipped his head from side to side. He shut his eyes tightly and counted as if the act alone would change his perception. But when he opened his eyes, there was no accounting for it: Satoshi was gone.

"If you'd wanted to spend the afternoon with me," said Satoshi, his words as reasonable as his voice whiny, "You could have just asked."

His captor just barely turned her face to show her scowl. She didn't seem to care that he had just endured five minutes of solid abuse, and now, his right arm had started to lose its circulation. Both of Satoshi's arms, in fact, were caught up and twisted in a deep burgundy scarf that shimmered with thumbnail sized golden coins. They clacked and shivered as the younger priestess of Alph pulled at the fabric that entrapped his limbs, and they slapped his forearms in mid-step with such force that Satoshi was sure that they would cause his skin to bruise.

But lasting marks of torture were to be expected, he figured, when he was being led away by a kidnapper.

"Hikari, this is really overkill," he said.

"Overkill? How!" she answered on the edge of hysteria. "I've been asking you to spend time with me for weeks."

"Okay," Satoshi had to admit, "That's true, but-"

"So, I asked around and made sure that you'd have no plans this evening." Haruka pulled a little harder on the scarves to emphasize her point. "And since you don't, I made plans. We're going to have dinner."

Satoshi half-expected his stomach to growl in audible relief. He may have been kidnapped by Hikari- as if being brought to this island by the Unown wasn't essentially kidnapping in the first place - but at least he wasn't going to starve.

"That's good news," he said. "I wasn't really sure whether you were actually trying to abduct me when you attacked me at the Trough."

"It wasn't an attack!" Hikari defended.

"You covered my mouth and dragged me away," said Satoshi. He shrugged his shoulders, attempting to rearrange his arms more comfortably. "So, is Shigeru coming, too?" he asked.

"Honestly, Satoshi, do you see Shigeru around here?"

Satoshi got the impression that she was being sarcastic, but before he had the chance to ask for her clarification, Hikari continued, her voice dropped down several octaves. "Besides, wouldn't it be more fun if it was just us two?"

"Sure, I guess," said Satoshi. "But Shigeru and I always eat together."

"Only almost always. I heard from Haruka that you went over to Kasumi and Takeshi's without Shigeru at least once, so how is that any different from this?"

Well, Satoshi started to say, the couple hadn't essentially kidnapped him to make him come over to their house. But then, he reasoned, he didn't have a good reason not to be spending time with Hikari if he was spending time with Kasumi and Takeshi. Even though she was still acting weird, they were friends, weren't they?

"It's not so different, I guess," said Satoshi. "Let's hang out."

"Great!" Hikari clapped her hands together as she let out a squeal. But she hadn't let go of her scarf, so Satoshi lurched forward and nearly fell over. Even though he hadn't toppled, he had the feeling that the experience should've been quite painful, but he couldn't feel past his elbow anymore.

"Hikari," he ventured, "Could you let me go now?"

She put a finger to her chin.

"Hmm... no."

"I promise I won't run."

"I know you won't," said Hikari, "because you can't."

She rounded the corner, and Satoshi followed after her in a halting scramble of legs.

He could see that they had neared the market in the middle of the town, bustling with the end of the evening's wares. Satoshi had only seen and heard it when he and Shigeru felt like taking walks at night, but he had never actually entered before - after all, Haruka and Masato had always provided more than plenty in their provisions.

It seemed like a very strange choice for his kidnapper to take him to.

Up close, torchlight casted shadows, illuminating smiles and vendors finishing off their day of wares. It gave a new emphasis on the food. And it was really delicious-looking food - fish being cooked on stakes, skewers of crab with their pincers tied shut, little balls of octopus laid out on giant banana leaves.

His mouth watering, he turned to Hikari. "Please tell me we're eating."

"Of course we are! What did you think I was going to do with you? Take you back to my house and leave you there to rot?"

" Kind of?"

Hikari abruptly stole back her scarf, and replaced its' grip on his arm with her fingers.

"You're so strange, Satoshi," she said, tugging at him as she began to walk into the midst of the scene, "But I like that. Anyway, let's go eat dinner!"

Shigeru was not ranting, really. He was having a full-bodied conniption fit. The angry show extended from him in every possible manifestation - his arms flailed, his feet paced, a frown overwhelmed his face when his lips weren't too busy forming the words of his angry diatribe. A safe distance from him, Haruka sat beside the fire and poured the tea.

"I can't believe, that Tano would do this to me," he spewed. "How could he just let Hikari take Satoshi away like that!"

"Shigeru," Haruka tried with the calm forbearance, "Tano wasn't doing anything to try and hurt you."

"He wasn't trying to do anything kind," Shigeru argued.

"Yes, he was. Tano was doing something very kind; he was helping two friends spend some time together. Two other friends," she clarified.

Shigeru sneered.

"Hikari is not just 'some friend' trying to spend some time with Satoshi. Anyone who isn't blind can see that Hikari wanted to spend time alone with Satoshi."

"Yes, I had gathered as much," said Haruka mildly. "But is there something wrong with that?"

Shigeru felt a whine creeping up in his throat and tried to rein it in.

"No," he said reluctantly. Even in his own mind, his voice sounded fairly pitiful.

But Haruka was right; after all, if he were sane he would freely admit that there was nothing wrong with friends spending time together. However, he wasn't sure if he were fully sane anymore. He'd felt his grip on reality growing less strong with each day since the incident in the Temple. To be fair, he'd been intentionally living like in a dream up until then. When Satoshi had been gone, before, he'd only had to deal with missing Satoshi. But now, being apart from Satoshi amplified his distress about everything: about the nature of the people of Alph, about his alleged purpose in Alph, and about his future in Alph – assuming he even had one.

It was impossible to tell Haruka what was happening without sounding ridiculous.

It was also impossible for him to explain the second reason for his anger. It was, at least, much less complicated than an existential crisis. He was simply jealous, when he had no right to be at all.

He knew he wasn't misinterpreting things- that when Hikari had said she wanted to be alone with Satoshi, it meant that she wanted to go on a date with him. It had all been so clear in the way Hikari had practically fallen across Satoshi's lap the other night, her boobs just dangling in front of him like melons that had escaped from the stand, and it wasn't like her clothing left anything to the imagination in the first place. Plus, she had been completely disgusting in pleading for Satoshi to come with her, with her pouty lips and drooping eyes and sad faces- it made him so angry he couldn't even stand to think about it.

"Ugh, what is wrong with her?" he growled.

Haruka let out a soft sigh.

"Oh, Shigeru," she said.

Shigeru's head snapped up, and his eyes honed in to the place where Haruka sat on the floor. He'd forgotten, for a moment, that she was still there. Now that he could see her, it was hard to miss the raw emotion in her expression. It strangely made him feel defensive.

"What?" he asked her, grouchily.

"You're acting like she's doing this just to hurt you. But can't you understand how she feels?" Haruka tried. "How love feels?"

Shigeru let out a 'humph.' "That is not the problem," he retorted. He knew exactly how it felt to be stupidly in love, and with Satoshi. He knew it better than Hikari did. He had plenty of years of experience.

"Everyone has the right to try and be happy," Haruka tried again. "You shouldn't try and keep Satoshi from having a chance at that."

"I want Satoshi to be happy," Shigeru defended. He turned back to Haruka. "Hikari won't make him happy."

"But if she did?"

"She won't."

Haruka smiled to herself, but appeared to let it go. "You're stubborn," she said, half-teasing. "And agitated. I suppose you'll spend the evening pacing instead of eating, then?"

She held out a morsel toward him, and Shigeru stopped. He closed his eyes, and collected his breath with effort.

"No," he said intentionally, "No. I want to eat."

He crossed the room and sat down across from Haruka. As he settled, he put his hands on his knees, waiting for Haruka to fill his plate with food. She wasn't slow, exactly, but for some reason he couldn't stop his fingers from tapping with impatience, or from straining at his hair; the urge to move, to do something, to distract himself from his anxiety, was insatiable.

Finally she passed him a flat-bread bun filled with spicy ground meat. Seeing her rather delicate hands on the food, Shigeru was reminded that he could be grateful for something in the midst of Hikari's treachery: at least Haruka was here, so he didn't have to be alone.

"Thanks," he said, mentioning the food. But then he found more words spilling from his mouth, "- and for staying for dinner, too."

"It's nothing," she said, a smile in her voice. "No one wants to have to eat alone."

Shigeru shrugged. "I used to eat alone all the time. But I've just gotten used to Satoshi being here, all the time, so..."

As soon as he said it, of course, he was thinking about Satoshi and Hikari together again. Suddenly the taste of the food was bitter in his mouth.

"Haruka, you don't really think they'd be good together, do you?" he queried.

She swallowed her bite of fruit, having chewed on it thoughtfully.

"Satoshi and Hikari, you mean? It's hard to say."

Shigeru grunted once in disagreement. "Maybe hard for you. But I think Satoshi would be terrible with her, or with any girl for that matter."

"You sound convinced," Haruka commented.

"Because I am. Satoshi is the most oblivious person I've ever met."

"Hikari is one of the most straightforward people I've met," Haruka returned. "To a fault, as this situation might show us. It could work out for them."

Shigeru knew he was clutching at straws, but he couldn't stop himself. "Just having complimentary personalities doesn't mean anything. I'm saying that there's more to it, and Satoshi doesn't have what it takes. Hikari seems like the type of girl with high expectations, you know? And Satoshi isn't a romantic. At all," Shigeru stated. "He wouldn't even know where to start, what to do for a girl."

"Oh? What should a boy do for a girl, then?"

"Romantic things, of course." Satoshi began to tick the options off of his fingers as if making a list. "Give her flowers, or chocolates, talk about how beautiful she looks, write her poetry, or something."

"Is that what you would do, Shigeru?"

The question took him by surprise, and Shigeru blinked. He tried to clear his eyes, but he was seeing things correctly. He wasn't imagining it: Haruka's gaze was coy.

She was flirting with him.

Shigeru's heart sank in his chest. Why did she have to do this; why did Haruka have to be interested in him? If it had been Hikari, he would've known exactly what to do to break her heart and make her leave him alone. But this girl had been good to him during his time in Alph, and so few people had ever been good to him and not asked for anything in return. Not even his own Grandfather had fit that simple requirement.

So he had to stop this. He couldn't let her keep thinking there was hope between the two of them just because they had a strong friendship. And he liked the friendship that they shared, but for that to happen, she had to know where they really stood. It was risky, but there was no other way.

"Haruka," he said quietly. "You need to stop acting like this with me."

"Acting how, exactly?" Her expression clouded with a sort of innocent bafflement. Shigeru wondered how much of it was feigned, or if he really just wasn't making sense.

"Let me start over," he offered.

"Go ahead," said Haruka, with almost an irritating calm. "When you're ready."

"I'm ready right now. And I have something to tell you," he said, and quickly added, "But you're not going to like it."

Haruka furrowed her brow.

"I don't understand what you could have to say that would-"

"- Don't say anything just yet," he interrupted. "I don't want you to have to pretend to be okay with something that you don't like. Just listen."

"Okay," Haruka said solemnly. "I'll listen. What is it?"

"I can't answer your question, Haruka. I don't do romantic things for girls," he said.

Haruka looked somewhat relieved. "So, that's it? You're not a romantic."

"No, that's not what I'm saying! Listen. I don't do romantic things," Shigeru raised his eyebrows emphatically, "for girls."

Shigeru tried to make eye contact, to see her face and see if she had understood, but at the last second, he couldn't do it. His eyes darted away, and he decided that he was in for it already so he might as well just keep letting go. His jaw unhinged, and staring at the carpet on the far side of the wall, he let the rest of his words spill out:

"And I'm in love with Satoshi."

Hikari and Satoshi had taken their meal from an outcropping of rock and grass on the edge of the city, a short deviation off of the road leading to the Perch. They were close enough to hear the sounds of the bird Pokemon, yet far enough from it that the sound of their cries was more musical than shrill.

The spot was nice, too nice; the grass was smooth as baby hairs, the rock slab behind him cool and slick against his back. It made Satoshi slightly upset that he hadn't found it earlier. He could lean against the rock wall, stretch out his feet and be surrounded by only natural things. And when he looked down past his feet, the drop to the beach revealed the hint of flowers waving in moonlight. It was amazing to him that the hibiscus field was still in bloom, as full and pink as it had been when he and Shigeru had arrived a month ago.

"It's beautiful, isn't it," said Hikari from beside him.

"Yeah," Satoshi agreed. He thought he might have seen the dark form of a Wailord emerging from the vast plane of water, breaking through the surface for air, but he could've been imagining it.

A light wind waved in Hikari's hair, catching her three earrings. They jingled as she put her hair behind her ear with an easy smile. She looked a lot less stressed than she had seemed earlier - it had probably changed, thought Satoshi, once she realized that he wasn't actually going to run away at the first chance he got.

Hikari passed him a goblet filled with juice.

"Cheers," she said, and Satoshi raised his cup in salutation before he could've thought better of it.

As Hikari took a long draw from her cup, Satoshi caught a whiff of a spicy taint in the air. It wasn't juice but wine, he realized, a bit upset. The first and last time he had gotten drunk was hardly a month ago, but it had been embarrassing and distasteful enough afterward.

"I'm not going through that again," he muttered.

"What's that?" asked Hikari.

"Nothing," said Satoshi innocently, and raised his cup as if to drink from it. But as soon as she looked away, he discretely poured the wine out on the ground opposite to her.

"This is really nice," she said, curving her back against the rock and stretching out a bit like a Delcatty who had just finished eating a bowl of cream. "Are you having fun, Satoshi?" she asked him.

"Yeah," Satoshi answered honestly.

Satoshi hadn't expected spending time with Hikari to be anything but torture, seeing as he'd been forcibly kidnapped, but things had changed. As he and Hikari had gotten lost among the busy night market, he'd felt his tension draining away. Hikari was easy to talk to. She always had something sharp and amusing to say about the people and the activities going on around them. It reminded him of Shigeru, but in a very distinctively female way. Of course, with the way she was dressed, it was quite hard to forget it. It was also very hard to forget that she wasn't the Hikari he knew from home. From the way she spoke to the way she moved, there were times when this Hikari just seemed like she were an exaggerated version of herself.

"How do you like Alph?" Hikari asked him.

"It's okay," Satoshi answered indifferently.

"Just 'okay'?"

"Well, it's not, honestly. I thought it was great, but I'm not so sure anymore," Satoshi admitted.

Hikari nudged him with her arm. "You can keep going," she said. "I'm not going to be angry if you talk for a long time. I do it enough, after all."

"Well, uh... This place is... Honestly, I liked Alph a lot at first, but it's started to give me the creeps. Shigeru got attacked in the Temple, and there's this legend, right? And while it used to feel exciting, now..."

When Satoshi seemed unable to finish his sentence, Hikari picked the conversation back up. "Of course you don't really like your situation. But putting aside the legend and everything, Alph's not that bad, right?"

"You mean, like, the people and stuff?"

"Yes, especially that," she confirmed.

Satoshi looked at Hikari, then beyond her, out over the water. He thought of Pikachu, battling and laying in sleeping bags together. He thought of his mom and her pancakes, she made the best pancakes. And then he thought of walking through forests with a map in his hand, and the feeling of a first step in a new city.

"It's not home," he said finally. "Alph's not bad, but it's just not home."

"Maybe not yet," said Hikari. "But you could make it your home."

Satoshi turned to look at her fully. "Do what?"

"You could stay in Alph."

Hikari was being serious, he could tell. Her eyes were imploring and intense as she stared at him. Lit in the moonlight, they were almost desperately hopeful and he felt guilty knowing that he had no choice but to let her down.

"No, Hikari..." he said. "I can't do that. Shigeru and I don't belong here."

"You could belong here," she insisted.

"But I don't, and neither does Shigeru. Why are you trying to convince me to stay?"

She answered quickly, "Because you have to. If you don't, you'll ruin everything!"

"What are you talking about?" Satoshi wondered in bewilderment.

"I'm talking about solving the legend. If you want to do it, you have to stay here in Alph. With me."

"Hold on. Is that what the legend says? That I have to-"

Hikari turned away from him slightly, evidently upset. "Not in those exact words," she answered him honestly. "But I... I can't tell you what the legend says. I'm not allowed to."

"Why does everyone keep saying that?" Satoshi lamented. "This isn't fair."

Hikari grabbed at his wrist with desperation, "Listen, Satoshi, I want to. But Haruka says I can't. That's why I've been trying so hard to get you to do what the legend wants you to do on your own. I had to force you to come here! Doesn't that count as trying to help?"

Satoshi couldn't even start to fathom how kidnapping could ever be helping someone. But then he caught on to the other things she had said, about how she had kidnapped him to the place where they were now. He looked around himself anxiously. Nothing seemed immediately special, but...

"Wait, you were trying to bring me here?"

Hikari actually rolled her eyes.

"I stole you from the Trough to spend time with you. I just happen to like this place."

"That makes more sense," Satoshi began, then stopped. "Wait. No, it doesn't. I thought you said you kidnapped me because of the legend?"

"Yes, that too. Being with you and fulfilling the requirements of the legend goes hand in hand, Satoshi!" Hikari had still been clutching onto his wrist, but Satoshi only noticed now that she released her grip to grab his hand and hold it in her own. "They're connected. Like this."

Satoshi looked down at their intertwined fingers, and then up at Hikari. She was gazing at him almost as if she expected something from him. The moonlight was doing funny things to her eyes again, and was lighting them in a way that Satoshi knew on some deep, instinctual level, he couldn't trust.

"We're connected," Hikari repeated.

"I still don't understand," said Satoshi.

"Then you'll just have to try harder," Hikari answered. She opened her mouth slightly, as if she had something more to say, but decided against it, closing her lips and pursing them in a pout.

And then she leaned in.