let me know about any mistakes - wrote this super tired and super stressed. in any case, please enjoy.
usual disclaimer.
summers best left unsaid
(if i really wanna see you, there's a waiting list.)
i.
Dan is twelve years old when he first starts to feel like a war veteran. He's splayed out on his bed, wondering how his life got so far into a mess involving a different species, and wondering how they ever succeeded. Not that he would change anything, though, with the arrival of a best friend (who was a dragon - come on, that's wicked cool), and then the departure of said best friend. Though sad, Dan wouldn't want it any other way, because now Drago and the other Bakugan can be free and live in peace.
And now it's Dan's turn, too.
Long has he been involved in a cause that endangered him and left him stressed and emotionally run down. Maybe it's time to do something for himself, right? He's sure Drago would want him to, as well.
So maybe he'll do something new, find a new hobby, hang out with his friends with or without Bakugan, and maybe he'll just lead a normal life. At this point, it sounds pretty good.
(But he grows restless fast, and he's not the only one who notices.)
ii.
Runo is fifteen when Dan goes off on another adventure. It's not like she wasn't expecting it, really, because he's Dan and he's reckless and got so restless so fast that she knew something like that would happen soon.
Sure, leaving her and the others behind was inconsiderate but it was just Dan's way of being considerate - or in his eyes, anyway. So maybe she's mad - scratch that, infuriated - that he left her behind without even telling her what was happening or letting her know that he's going away without her, but she gets over it fast enough to realize that she misses him (just a little), and that she wishes she was there, too.
Her decision to go to New Vestroia is reckless and she knows, but she just doesn't care. She's angry, upset and a million miles away from the boy she only recently realized she missed. When it doesn't work, she's not surprised.
But when she realizes Dan misses her, too, she feels a little bit better.
iii.
Dan is sixteen when the plight for New Vestroia officially ends and he's back home on Earth. Drago stays with him this time, and there's something even sweeter about being home again, though he can't quite put his finger on it. He can't stop thinking about what it is, until he finally has a moment alone with Runo.
She'll probably get angry at him, but he hugs her tightly and doesn't plan on letting her go anytime soon. She squirms mindlessly and tells him to get off over and over again, but eventually sinks into his hold realizing he's not going to.
When he lets go, her face is pink and she has her arms crossed over her chest. He says something akin to missing her and she just waves it off, smirking at him.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm glad to see you, too."
And he has the solution to what's sweeter about being home this time.
iv.
Things are solemn when Dan and Julie move away. Marucho is close by, as is Shun, but then they go off on another adventure and Runo spends the summer wallowing in her loneliness. Tigrerra makes things more bearable, sure, but nothing really changes. They spend most of their time together in comfortable silence, being each other's only company.
Runo doesn't really have any other friends, or so she realizes. She talks to Julie about whatever adventure the boys have gotten themselves into, and it's something about aliens again. Runo doesn't really remember much else, probably because she's sad she can't go with them. But she felt the same way in New Vestroia, and the feelings are just resurfacing.
She gets over it faster this time, though, and she's nearing seventeen when Dan calls her to tell her all about his adventure and how much he wishes she could have been there.
Oh, Runo's heard that one before, and most days, she wonders if Dan is speaking the truth when he says he misses her or if he's just trying to appease her. She's spent most of her summers alone and not on their wild adventures, so she can feel herself drifting apart from her former Brawlers, with the exception of Julie and Alice because they're too close to let go.
Maybe it hurts to think she's falling out of Dan's loop, but no matter what, he always finds away to call her and tell her about his crazy schemes and adventures with Drago. It always brings a smile to Runo's face, that's for sure, and she feels just a tad bit more in his life whenever he does that.
Though it doesn't make up for the summers upon summers she spent worrying about him and his stupid one track mind, it makes her feel less useless. And she misses feeling useful.
She misses being a part of something, but she tries to make it through each day with make-up and a sigh, and for the longest time, it works. But by the start of the next summer, Dan is away again, doing something crazy. She still worries, but by this point, she's gotten used to it.
v.
He's surprised to see Runo standing there, with news that she can and will operate Vestal technology. In a good way, of course, but with her oncoming presence, he feels guilty.
He used to call her a lot, back when he had the time, and tell her all about his adventures. He knew it probably saddened her since she wasn't able to be with him for most of them, but he always wanted to keep her in the loop. She always listened, anyway.
It's nice to see her, though, and as Dan is pondering these things, he finds himself alone with her for the first time in years... She smiles at him, and then she goes her own way, too, and it becomes clear to him that they've spent too many years apart that they don't even orbit on the same Earth anymore.
(And that distresses him in a way he didn't know was possible. Maybe he wants to orbit on the same Earth as his sort of ex-girlfriend again. Just maybe.)
vi.
When he tells Runo he'll be home, he doesn't mean back in his new neighborhood or even his old one. He really means back with her and the rest of their friends. That feels the most like home, really, and he wants to be back with them.
But he also wants to see more of the world, and adventure some more. It'll be a few years before he can officially be back home.
But by then, he'll (probably) be ready stop leaving Runo all alone in the summer.
vii.
He comes home a few years later, when the weather is warm and the sun is bright. He walks right up to Runo and says "hi."
And then she goes off on a tangent about how he can't just leave like that and about how angry she is, and how she hates him so much...
"I missed you, too," he says, telling the truth but also trying to push her buttons.
Then she gets so frustrated she starts crying tears of anger and Dan can't really tell how much time passes between them before he hugs her tightly and doesn't let go.
Instead of squirming, she calms down, her tears stopping almost as fast as they started. She returns his gesture, wrapping her arms around him, too, and then he kisses the top of her head.
(It's the warmest summer in a long, long time, she decides.)
end