The second chapter of the side story. This chapter is actually unexpected, because I never imagined Sabrina as a "legal guardian" type of character, but then her current dominant personality is her "nice, flaky" one from EToP. I was planning on finishing off the "Forget-me-not" Anthology by writing the epilogue, but I figured that it would be more fitting to get this chapter done because it would explain the peculiar behavior. I think you guys might also see more of this. When I finish this side-story, I'll finish off the "true" Forget-me-not Anthology after, and then it's all systems go to the main story =3=
2nd Legal Guardian: Sabrina/Natsume
The dry autumn leaves were carefully gathered into a pile. The miko stared at said small pile of leaves before her, proud of her hard work. They were so few today, for she was responsible in carefully picking out the leaves every day and raising shrubs that weren't likely to color and fall off even in the last days of autumn.
The sun was still high in the sky, but Sabrina didn't feel hot despite being dressed in full ceremonial robes. She made a show of it by wiping imaginary sweat from the crease of her forehead. The cool fall wind made her even doubt that the material she wore was enough to keep her warm. It's days like these that bring a calm air about her, and she reminiscence all on her own, from her days when her parents weren't really the best, to when she strayed over to Team Rocket, and finally encountering a certain Trainer and began turning her life around for the better…or at least, as best as she could with that embarrassing stint at stardom when she was in Unova. Boy, that was unpleasant. 'I wonder how that paparazzo is doing now?' She briefly recalled the reason that she ended her movie career.
She had made the camera implode in his face when the paparazzo stalked her to disturbing levels. She terminated her acting contract the next day in favor of returning to the temple (and sweet privacy). Of course, Sabrina was already famous by then, so she couldn't escape from that, and if she wasn't busy, she would agree to take on freelance acting jobs back at the studio, like her last role as a talking soccer ball (don't ask…).
'Ah! It's getting colder. I have to remember to prepare some tea or cider and later and to pray.' Sabrina relaxed her head against the pole of the broom (1) and gave a casual wave of her hand. "Alakazam, please go play with some spoons. I'll finish up here. Haunter, please go check the purity of the shrine's water. Hurry, I know for sure it's about to rain soon even if it's sunny now." She laughed at the pair's antics and thanked them with a smile while the two Pokémon went off to do their duties.
Before a hand can snuggle its way into her haori, she clutched it before it even so much as touched the white cloth, and snapped the broom in two with her mind as a threat. The owner of said hand smiled and she let go with a huff. "Jeez, you did the same thing last time. I didn't even need to foresee the future to know that." She said it with a soft serene smile, albeit, with a hint of apprehension and weariness. "There aren't any matsuri being celebrated anytime soon. So, why are you here? If the head priest saw you, heads will roll. He doesn't like it when anyone patronizes with any of the temple's shrine maidens."
"Do I need a reason to visit my favorite girl?" He chuckled. She cocked her head to the side with another smile, noting in her mind how he looks good with one of his rare positive moods. "Aww, you're happy to see me too? I knew you'd miss me." Sabrina returned the statement with a half-hearted glare. "Okay, okay, you got me. Actually, I was just in the neighborhood and wanted to drop by, see if we can have a chat at lunch, my treat?"
"You're in Saffron, you little unholy freak of nature." She slid her voice with disdain and irritation, but he knew that she meant no malice, and he ruffled her hair instead. She gave him a pat on the chest and pushed herself away although her next response has a sarcastic bite to it, felt her unpleasant personality as it started to surface. "Yeah, you, my colleague, and my rival. I don't date. That's what I told them, and that's what I'm telling you." Her sweetness began to crumble, and she knew it. 'I have to get out of here. It was such a pleasant day. Please, please, I want you to go away.' She thought.
"This isn't a date. This is lunch."
Sabrina knew her pleasant mood and cheery façade has crumbled. It was too late to go inside and avoid this…this…whatever this was. The sound of thunder got closer, and she miserably hoped it would stave him off. She hoped that she can still salvage some of the situation before she starts to remember unpleasant things. "That's a lie. I have been surrounded by perverts during my days in Team Rocket; I can obviously tell when I'm being asked out on a date. And even if this wasn't a date, it'll lead to one, and soon we'll be having dinner, having a rendezvous in the Rondez-View, and having trysts within my room here at the temple and defiling holy ground. I'm not ready for romance, ever, and as much as I love my parents now, I don't want to be one; I don't want to have psychic warriors or clairvoyant babies or even little starlets. If however, that is an invitation for friendship, can you wait here until I'm free in, oh, say, three hours from now?"
'Ah, there it is.' He knew that she knew. He didn't come here for lunch, but to confront her. How long have they known each other that for a time, they walked side by side? But the reason was still unclear to her. And he hoped that he threaded the ground carefully as her spiel and tirade ended with that snappy question. He didn't let on though, and his mind wasn't so clear to decipher for the psychic, he made sure of it. Instead, he smiled. "Natsume, we're friends. If I were asking you out on a date, I'll tell you about it directly, because skirting around it is not my style. I know it isn't any of my business, but you already confided in me; don't you think someone else's failed relationship isn't something to guard yourself against love?"And there it was. The cursed L-word. He never really was one to beat around the bush…almost every time, anyway. He did just lie after all. He never got to think this through when he felt a jab on his chest.
Sabrina looked distressed and angry, the broken stick of the broom now lay on the ground with a small pile of leaves. "How…how could you!? That relationship cost me a dear friend! I was so biased for her happiness, I failed to see the obstructions in the way because of my pride." She disliked it whenever her personality reverted to back what it used to be. She despised being unstable, but she hated it more when someone brought up her past mistakes to her face. Her emotional outburst was unstoppable then and there. "It wasn't only her who ended it all." Her body shook, and she clutched at him to support herself from falling, while she tried to look at his eyes. "Everyone she knew, him, the love rival, his friends, her sisters, EVERY ONE, had a hand in it, even me. Look at her now, she's gone from this world, and her daughter was taken away with no one left to turn to because the poor girl's a bastard, literally. I should've adopted her, darn it!"
It only took one sentence from him to bring her to tears and bawling at his chest. "I see that you still haven't let it go…"
"I will never forgive myself for this, never! How can you be such a good friend to me when I've abandoned another?" Her fists started banging against his ribs, and her tears started to soak his chest, or was that perhaps the rain falling from the now gray sky? How ill-fitting. She couldn't let him go as her tears fell to the now wet ground and dissolved with the rain.
The rain became slightly stronger, and his vision was impaired by the water falling, but dismayed anyway when he sensed Alakazam and Haunter out here looking at him with irritation, obviously thinking that he had made their mistress cry (and didn't he?). He couldn't do anything now, and couldn't relent at this bad idea of coming here and asking her for a lunch date. He sighed and spoke his words softly with a venomous and aching bite on his throat, like a struggle to let those words out. "Yeah, I'm such a good friend…" He left her with a peck on the crown of her head, surely knowing that it was so chaste that she didn't feel it in her anguish.
1 – Yes, a broom, not a rake. For some reason, whenever I try to imagine cleaning up leaves in a Shinto Shrine, I'd think of a broom instead of a rake. Please correct me if I am wrong.
All good things come in threes. Hahaha. Like Misty, I hinted that her fiancée and Julia's stepfather is a brunette, with brown hair. The ideal candidates I presented were Danny, Rudy, and Georgio, with whom in the anime she had a chemistry with, although I noted to you guys that it can be anyone at all up to you, even some OC (as long as they have brown hair). However, opposite of Misty is Sabrina, who also has 3 admirers even if she tries to dissuade them. The ones I had in mind are Morty, Kiyo, and Brycen, hence the "baby trio" combo. I wrote that Sabrina said "you, my colleague, and my rival" and all three fit that description of the latter two. A mystic/psychic dynamic duo, a body/mind idiot couple, and a hot "it" item for the tabloids to have a heyday with. Who Sabrina was talking to could be any of the three; but only within those three, no other characters.
Explanation and views are posted in the Preface.