Title: Halo Effect
Author: Shadow/Phantomness
Pairing: Championshipping (Lance x Red)
Fandom: Pokémon
Theme: #15, Halo Effect
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Pokemon belongs to Nintendo and Shogakukan Comics. This non-profit, non-copyright infringing fanfiction belongs to me under international copyright laws and taking it is plagiarism. Thank you. *Phantomness bows*

Notes: () for telepathy, ** for thoughts, italics if a pokemon talks

Warnings: AU, shonen-ai, mental illness

Summary: Lance takes paranoid schizophrenic Red away from a mental institution.

Lance sighed as he steered Red away from the prying crowd of journalists, as flashbulbs popped and cameras whirred. Many rushed at him, waving microphones in hand, but he ignored them, as he calmly walked to the waiting car. Getting inside, he snapped at the driver to drive, and the man did.

Red shivered as he watched the media running after them, some on flying pokemon and some in more mundane forms of transportation. There was even a woman running in six-inch heels!

Still, he felt nothing but utter contempt for them, and he turned to Lance with a frown.

"You're right. They are like buzzards."

"We may have to bail if they come closer." Lance warned.

Red frowned. "I don't care." He said petulantly. Lance smiled as he gave the younger trainer a quick kiss on the cheek.

"I know, love. I know…"

"You don't think I'm crazy, do you?" He asked anxiously.

Lance smirked. "I'm not the judge of that. After all, I'm certified dissociative identity disorder after all. Ahh, here they come." He whistled, and his Aerodactyl and Dragonite both flew down from above their cloud cover. After they flipped the roof of the convertible up, Lance jumped on Dragonite's back while Red mounted Aerodactyl, and then they were off.

Red simply smirked as he and Lance soared away. Maybe he was crazy, but did it matter? As long as he still had Lance…

"I don't believe it." Green stared at the newspaper article in shock. "He… he can't be crazy…"

"I'm afraid there's enough medical evidence." Professor Oak frowned. "It is a pity. He was quite a promising trainer."

"Just because he talks to himself…!"

"Green." Oak said calmly, "Red was a brilliant trainer because of his mental illness. That is all there is to it."

Green said nothing, but he began to recount instances of almost quirky behavior dealing with Red, and he shivered.

"What are we going to do now?"

Lance turned to Red. "Do?"

"I mean they'll be angry that you took me away. I wasn't supposed to be released – it was only for a press conference that they agreed to let me leave, and whatever happened to the guards?"

Lance smirked. "They'll never find us here." He purposely chose not to answer the rest of the question.

Red had to agree. He had never thought there would be a hidden chamber deep inside the Burnt Tower, but it mattered little.

Now they would be safe.

He smiled, and Lance said no more. Not even when Red hugged him and began to speak in discordant speech, casting an eye about for assassination attempts, for he really did love him too much to put him through therapy.

End Fic

Completed 12/4/06

The Halo Effect, as defined by Wikipedia, is "Halo effect refers to the cognitive bias which in a series of perceptions the interpretation of later ones are influenced by perception of former ones. Said another way, if we are told that we are seeing a person that has just returned from psychiatric treatment, we will tend to interpret otherwise neutral behaviors as indicators of mental illness."

Yeah, Lance is creepy… and I think I gave Red schizophrenia, but I'm really not sure…