~Ruby~

"Hey… I—I just thought I should call to tell you that I should make it to the studio tonight…" I mumbled to Sapphire over the phone, hissing at the terrible cramping in the back of my leg. I hadn't gotten a good solid grip on Flygon while we flew this morning, so I spent the whole two hours gripping him with my legs so I wouldn't fall off. Note to self, never sit BEHIND the wings on a dragon pokemon.

Sapphire hadn't answered the first time I called her, which was only about five minutes ago, but persistent as I was she knew better than to ignore me. I called back again and she picked up on the first ring.

"You—you're really coming?" She asked in a small voice, very unlike herself. "Why?"

"I told you Sapphire… I want to talk to you." I furiously rubbed the back of my leg and flinched, trying not to grunt in pain. I gritted my teeth. "I'm sorry…"

"For what?" she said, sounding distracted.

"For leaving in the first place… I should have told you beforehand. I should have let you know… but really it was a split decision. I didn't think about it myself."

Today I had woken up feeling good, knowing that there was hope in stringing things together again with Sapphire. I was confident and eager to see her. I had even already decided I would kiss her and hug her and tell her I love her. Even if I didn't mean it, I had to tell her. I had to win her over somehow.

"Mmmnhhmm." Was all she said.

"Are you distracted? Sapphire this is important" I was nearly begging now, releasing my leg and stretching it back and forth, making faces as I went. I could see Wally giving me a skeptical look from where he stood a little ways off. His breathing had been bad today, and it was strange not hearing his familiar curious chatter. Usually he would fill the silence with asking me about my personal life, which wasn't all that bad. I enjoyed talking about myself—who didn't?

"Yeah well… Ruby I—I have to go." A moment later Sapphire said. There was the faint noise of rustling in the background. "I'm getting ready right now."

"Getting ready for what?" I shook my head in frustration. "We don't air today, there is no performance." I hadn't been gone so long as to forget exactly when we went on and what our hours were.

"I know. I'm going out tonight with a friend."

"A friend?"

"On a date."

A sudden burst of shock rose in my chest, chilling the air with a painful silence. The noise in the background stopped, Wally stopped breathing heavily, even my heart seemed to brace itself. What terrible coincidence was it that Sapphire was so eager to dump me… and now she was going out on a date? It hadn't been more than a week later! Was she cheating on me? With who? Why? What did he have that I didn't? Maybe she had gone lesbian for that stuck up asshole judge that always seemed to want to do her nails.

"I'll talk to you later…" Sapphire whispered in a pain filled voice. "Ruby… I—I'm sorry."

"Then why are you doing this to me?" I bit back a scream of hate. "Who is it? Sapphire!"

"Ruby." Wally coughed from a few feet away. He came forward and stuck his hand out to me, but I ignored him.

"Sapphire! Answer me! Who is it!"

"I have to go!" she snarled back.

"SAPPHIR—

"Ruby!" Wally gripped my wrist and yanked the phone out of my hand. I glared in anger as he hit the end button, though it was because of Sapphire, not him.

"She's going out with someone else!" I was appalled.

"Ruby stop." Wally said in his muted voice. There was a faint rasp to it, from where I could hear his chest had swelled and tightened. His throat must be dry as well.

"Use your inhaler." I grumbled. I didn't need him passing out again.

"I'm fine." He lied. "It's just the smog in the air."

"Use it."

He sighed and moved to sit next to me, placing himself barely an inch away in the weedy field where we landed. It was nothing like the lush and plentiful area we stopped at yesterday. The lake had been stunning and beautiful, whereas here it was nothing but half sun-baked grass and rocks poking up through the dry soil.

Wally looked at me for a long moment before reaching into his pocket and pulling out the small silver lifesaver. He looked at it in his hand before speaking. "If I keep using it… then my lungs won't get used to the smog, and I will only be worse later."

I pulled my knees up to my chest and hung my head on them. I didn't know anything about that asthma or breathing problems, so I just assumed he was right and left it at that. My mind was on other things anyways. I took a deep breath to steady myself, but the wave of angst was strong. It threatened to pull me under.

Seventeen years of being best friends was slipping down a drain to nothing. I was losing myself in that current, thinking about all the memories we had. The happiest times of our lives spent together. I remembered the first time she won a contest, and I had been the first person to hug her—even before her mother. I could still feel her head on my chest when she needed to feel loved. I could see her backing into a monstrosity of a truck with her brand new BMW that she had gotten for her sixteenth birthday. I had disgusted the thing anyways, preferring to travel by pokemon.

The initial impact of such memories made me flinch. How much longer would I have to think about this? And more importantly… why did it bother me so much to know that she was slipping away? It was as if everyone had always expected so much of us that now, without an expectation, we were slipping away.

I recalled a word my mother had said to me a few months ago, just before I started to hate everything about showbiz. The word was showmance, and she used it to describe the way our fans saw us. I knew it was wrong—or so I had thought—but now I was considering that maybe she had a point. My and Sapphire were a couple under the eyes of the world, constantly being fed the bullshit of those fans that wanted much more than friendship. When we hugged, they saw, when she was upset with me, they knew. I had done so much to protect that barrier between their world and ours so that I could convince myself that what we had was more than a showmance.

I used to take Sapphire into the rotted out basement of the studio just to get away from the cameras and the fans. It was the only place where we could truly be ourselves… and we had done that in the most frivolous way possible; together.

I hid my face from the pair of pale eyes at my side. What could I possibly say to Sapphire that would change her mind? She was the most stubborn person I knew other than myself, and I knew if she was dead set on going out with this whoever-he-is, she would do that. Part of me wanted nothing but to turn back around and go back to the middle of nowhere and sulk. I wanted to return Wally to Verdanturf town where he could breathe again and just forget this whole thing ever happened. Going back in time would have been nice… but I doubted a Celebi would just show up on cue. My luck just didn't swing that way.

"Ruby…" Wally said my name softly. "Are you ok?"

NO! I almost snarled at him, but caught myself in time. It was not his fault that Sapphire had turned away from me, so I knew I shouldn't take it out on him. Instead I sat silently, letting the anger engulf me.

A slender hand placed itself on my shoulder and squeezed softly. He didn't speak, but he was there for me, and I couldn't tell if it was comforting or not. This was one of those times where I knew I would be talking to myself if I was alone, but was somewhat glad for a reason not to. I wasn't exactly self sufficient when it came to the conversations with myself. I always ended up feeling worse.

Wally sighed. "I'm sorry." But I knew he couldn't quite understand. It was clear in his voice that my emotions were foreign to him. I envied that he had never felt the effects of heartache before. He was the self sufficient one. He didn't need anyone to make him happy because he knew how to do it himself. I wondered if that could have something to do with the fact that he had grown up always fighting for himself.

A gentle hand wrapped around the back of my shoulders slowly, reached across the broad black slate of my shirt and gripping the other side carefully. Wally embraced me like you would a child in pain, which was probably the closest feeling he could understand from me, and I felt the strangest wave of comfort.

Despite myself, I was happy Wally was here. I had never found someone quite like him to share my world with, and even Sapphire couldn't reach that. Wally had seen things from me that no one else had, and for once it didn't bother me. I was sheltered my whole life, and braving the wild with someone of the same-yet-so-different upbringing made it that much easier.

"Thanks." I mumbled, pulling my head up to look at him, and for the first time I seemed to REALLY look. Not only at the obvious features- pale blue eyes, honeydew colored hair, slight gap between his front teeth; but at all the immaculate things that blended so perfectly into his flaws. Sure his features were too small, more likely to be seen on a female, but they were brave. His lips were slight and skinny, touched with a pink lilac kind of a color that also accented his cheeks. They were smooth looking, soft when you would think they should be rough like his insides.

Wally was neat and orderly in appearance, but also serene in a way, airy and radiating with light. He was the definition of innocence, no doubt, and I couldn't help but wonder what was so refreshing about that.

His hand moved down the length of my shoulders and he released me, breaking away from my gaze as well as touch. He drew an inch closer to push his shoulder against mine comfortingly and flushed a helpless crimson. Not much of a hug, but I wanted to snort at the attempt.

A tiny smile cracked through the morbid sadness that was burning me, and I felt nothing but a sudden stinging, devious anger stir.

Sapphire could do whatever the hell she wanted and I couldn't stop her, but that didn't change the fact that Wally was still there for me. I blinked in satisfaction and hope. I knew that if I could stop the one other person holding Sapphire up, she would have to fall back to me.

Sapphire didn't have someone like Wally to keep her stable, she was swayable. I could change her mind…

"Let's go." I was suddenly shoving up off the ground and gripping the pokeball from my waist.

"What?" Wally blinked in surprise at my sudden attitude change. He saw the blatant determination in my eyes, and maybe that bothered him. "You want to go back still?"

"Damn right I do." I threw the ball and it landed with a sharp thud. Flygon emerged with a cry of satisfaction.

"Oh—ok…" Wally pushed himself upwards and fallowed slowly. If I would have known better, I could have sworn there was hurt in his eyes. I couldn't imagine why. It didn't matter anyways.

I had to get back to the city and stop this madness.