Who knew how much time had passed when I finally awoke. All I knew it was dark, and I felt very alone.
And extremely pained. My arms, wrapped with gauze, were stiff and sore, stinging every time I moved them. The intensity of the pain seared throughout my body, and I cried out, releasing some of the pressure inside of me. But my arms, my legs, my whole entire body and soul continued to burn in acid. I gasped, waiting for the pain to subside, as pain usually does, rising and falling in pulses.
Then, there was the gentlest of graces that brushed my arms tenderly, soothing to the touch. I felt my muscles relax, and I closed my eyes. I didn't care who it was, I'm just grateful for it. But on second thought, it would be a little disturbing if it was Mandite, even though he was like a doctor.
"Lucario," it was Aurora, her voice soft beside my ear, "are you okay?" To be perfectly honest, I was dazed.
"You have quite the healer's touch," I said wryly to her, opening my eyes. Around me, it was dark, but I could see Aurora's eyes, lit up by the moon. She smiled back, perhaps a little somberly, but it still was a smile.
"It seems to me that you're the one getting into trouble now," she observed, looking over me, still rubbing the pain from my arms. I chuckled, but I knew it was perfectly true. Before, so many years ago Aurora was the one who had been the one clinging to the trouble. Now, as I lay here, gazing up at her covered in gauze, things have flipped. It was sad, in a sense, but time has to roll onwards. Aurora seemed to realize this as well, closing her eyes.
"Do you remember when you were trying to teach me how to efficiently use an aura sphere?" she asked, and I laughed.
"How can I ever forget that?" I smiled warmly, recalling the memory, "you nearly blasted me to oblivion." That day, Aurora had accidentally used too much of her aura in her aura sphere and fired it at me in a jet like form. I had managed to jump away on time before I had been hit. Aurora now was giggling, remembering that day.
"You were so mad after that," she recalled. I looked at her, confused.
"Was I?" I asked her, and she nodded, grinning.
"You were a grumpy person back then," Aurora said, laughing softly. Thinking back, remembering those times I had been so impatient with Aurora, made me admit to myself I was quite the grump.
"Do you remember the time when you started to sneeze non-stop?" She asked, teasing in her voice.
"Don't remind me," I groaned, but still had a smile planted on my face.
"Do you remember the double rainbow?" I asked her, and she nodded.
"I'll never forget," Aurora said dreamily, closing her eyes to see it again, crystal clear in her mind. I too would never forget it.
"Do you remember the swarm of beautiflys?"
"Do you remember the time you got your head stuck on a tree covered in honey?"
"That wasn't funny, Aurora – do you remember the time you started to scream because you saw a rock that looked like a mismagius?"
"Now that's not funny – but do you remember the time you got stuck upside down in a tree?"
"Well, at least I wasn't crying to get down,"
"I wasn't crying!"
"Yes you were," I teased her, and Aurora snorted. We continued to share our memories, each one seemingly remarkable and so long ago. The longer our conversation drew on, the more I realized that Aurora and I had gone through so much together in the past years. Each memory as it slipped from our tongues became so precious to me. This was a majority of my life passing by, and my most enjoyable. I don't want to ever loose these memories – ever.
Finally, Aurora popped the question we had been waiting for.
"Do you remember when we first met?" She asked, her voice becoming so soft and her eyes flickered with the warmth of a fire, and reigned with the serenity of a bubbling creek under the moon. I gazed into her eyes, taking in every moment.
"I will always remember," I whispered.
"Me too," she answered. It was such a tender moment then, with the two of us together and reminiscing, the years we now cherished. And, thinking about it all, I decided to do something about my passions.
"Aurora?" I asked, my heart beating, the blood pounding in my ears. I couldn't believe that I was actually doing this. Aurora tilted her head, like she had always done.
"Yes?" I swallowed hard, trembling. This whole process was so nerving...
"There was something I really wanted to tell you for a long time," I said, buying me time to ready myself for that big statement. Aurora sat there, her eyes watching me with a soft expression.
"Yes?" she said.
"Aurora, I..." I found that the words were caught in my throat and refused to get out. As she watched me expectantly, the more recent memories came flooding in. Zhoke. The look on her face when he saw him. And, the very moment that shattered my heart into a million pieces, all of it fine dust – the very moment she told me that there would be no one else for her to be her lover, as I sat to the side. It hurt – all of those tiny blips in time ruining those many years of friendly moments. I couldn't say it – I just can't.
"I love your eyes," I finally said, still speaking the truth, but not the whole truth, "they look like they are made out of fire and water – two of the most beautiful, and wildest of natural elements. They suit you." Aurora looked stunned for a moment, her eyes wide with surprise, before she just turned away a bit, thinking. I sighed, crying on the inside. We sat in silence, alone with our own thoughts.
"What's Mandite doing?" I asked her, trying to fill it with something. Aurora made a gesture towards somewhere beyond a bunch of trees.
"He's asleep," Aurora said quietly, "I offered to watch over you." I was slightly touched by this statement.
"That's nice of you," I thanked, "are you sure you want to do this?" Aurora nodded solemnly, brushing my arms again. We fell into silence, our eyes downcast. We had been fondly recalling the best and strangest of our memories, laughing together. But time rolls on, continuously like the ocean tide where I grew up, never to wash the sand the same way again. Just like our relationship before Zhoke.
"Lucario," it was Aurora who broke the silence this time, "when this journey is done, what happens next?" How I felt then was probably the worst yet, even more terrible than the one I had felt when Aurora claimed to love no one else. I knew what would happen, and it looked extremely bleak for me.
"Well, Mandite will be gone, for one thing," I started, "he will go back to his home to his uncle. You and I will probably go back to find Zhoke, so you two can be together and happy – am I correct?"
"Yes," Aurora answered. Just as I feared – I left the ending unfinished. Aurora seemed to notice this.
"And then what?' she asked. I drew in a long breath, ready to say what came next without flinching, tearing, crying, or dying.
"And then I would leave you guys to wander around just like the way you had found me nine years ago." Not quite the same – instead of thinking about no one but myself like before, I would be missing the one love of my life, until I find another.
"But what about that female you loved a long time ago?" Aurora asked, to my great dismay, "what about her?" I sighed sadly.
"I already considered that," I answered somberly. Aurora seemed to become a little upset with my answer.
"But don't you love her? Wouldn't you want to be with her?" she demanded for an answer. Perhaps a little too forcefully for my taste.
"I do love her, and I would trade all that I had to be with her – I would die for her sake!" I cried out forlornly, "But she never loved me! She fell for someone else a long time ago, so even if I tried to go back, she would only say the only male for her was him." I found myself breathing deeply as I said this, trying not to stumble over my words.
"We grew up together, knowing each other for years," I said, becoming very quiet, shaking, "I knew her best, and she knew me like the back of her paw – and yet she fell for a stranger." I gasped. Aurora was staring at me with her eyes shining from moisture. I drew in my breath for the final sentence.
"And nothing has been the same since." I leaned back, closing my eyes to keep myself from crying. I think Aurora got the point, but I only hoped that she didn't know I was talking about her.
To my surprise, I felt two arms wrap around my waist, and hold me tight. Aurora was crying, sobbing into my fur, making it damp, holding me.
"Really, Lucario?" she choked, her voice muffled by my fur, "Did she really leave you?" Unable to use my arms to pat her on the back, I had no form to give comfort, except for my tail, which entwined with hers.
"Honest," I said firmly, and Aurora broke into tears again. It's funny, how she was crying for me, never knowing that she was the one who had done that. But I didn't say a word about it – I'm not here to frame her for anything. So I let her cry, holding me as I sat, staring at the moon and the surrounding stars, the night sky reminding me of the time I told her the story of Palkia, and how he made space. We had been so young and carefree, then. Together, sitting under the midnight sky, under the glow of moonlight and star shine, the two of us mourned for my losses.
"Lucario?" Aurora called my name weakly, after she had calmed down a bit. I glanced at her, blinking.
"Yes, Aurora?"
"When all of this is over, and we go our separate ways," Aurora began to ask, leaning her head against my neck, "do you think you could visit me?" I only wish. Since Zhoke and his trainer traveled from region to region for pokemon battles, the chances of seeing her again is slim to none.
"You and Zhoke would be traveling a lot with his trainer," I said, "so we would always be in different places, sometimes in different regions."
"So," Aurora asked, her voice quavering, "we won't ever see each other again after this is over?" I glanced down at her, her eyes gazing back, not wanting to believe what I would say next.
"I guess so," I said. Aurora stared at me, and then pressed her muzzle into my fur, whimpering. And knowing that it would cause me great pain to do so, but wanting Aurora to know that I cared, I took my injured arms and wrapped them around her.
"Will you remember me, fifty years from now?" I heard Aurora's timid voice ask, hopefully. I smiled sadly, rubbing her shoulder, not minding the pain that came with it.
"Yes," I replied, "and for as long as I shall live."
The shortest I've written in a while... I was about to tack it on to the previous chapter, but it seemed too much. So, this remains as a little short scene - that I kinda sucked at. Mehr.... It's hard to write in a noisy room full of kids too. ^^;