And this concludes the Alphabet Challenge! :D Thank you to all who have read this far!

Drabble 26: Reminiscence

Marshal picked up the busted piece of wood, the fourth leg of the table which now lay slanted on its side. "Yep, it's broken all right."

"Thank you Captain Obvious," Shauntal replied. "Should we try to fix it, or throw it out?"

Such a simple question, yet it shocked Marshal how long he would have to think about the answer. It was just a cheap, pine table, bought at an auction in Mistralton for fifteen dollars, nothing special or rare about it. Every once in a while, the Mistralton Airport auctioned off items that hadn't been claimed in a year or more and the two Elites had come there to bid on an extremely rare item called an Odd Keystone. Supposedly it would help Shauntal to find the Pokemon Spiritomb in the Sinnoh region.

However, they were grossly outbid by none other than Cynthia, and Marshal would've done anything to make Shauntal's sad, disappointed look back into a smile. So when the final dregs of the auction items were called and Shauntal said "Nobody's bidding on that table. I could use something to write on in my Battle Room." Marshal's hand shot up and one more bid later, the table was theirs.

Marshal himself carried the thing all the way to the Celestial Tower with one hand, just to prove how strong he was and from there, a very impressed and much happier Shauntal flew it back to the League on her Golurk. She had used it that very day to write her frustrations away. Marshal was watching, listening, and otherwise trying to help improve the story any way he could.

The table was the one they used when Shauntal began teaching Marshal to write, showing him all of her work and the techniques used by her favorite authors. Marshal often saw her feet propped up on the wooden surface when she was reading a book. They ate there on weekdays during their lunch breaks between challengers and sometimes for dinner too. They'd snuggled on it three or four times, but that was just uncomfortable.

Sometimes on weekends they'd use the table to host the League's weekly game of poker, or liar's dice. Marshal remembered laughing every time Grimsley checked underneath it, to make sure he wasn't cheating. When Marshal was first learning to do one-legged squats he'd come all the way here just to use this table. It was the perfect height and very stable. He'd come back to the table a few months later to stack boxes on it and practice his precision high kicks.

But most of all, here was where Shauntal and Marshal would do nothing but sit and talk, for minutes or for hours, about Pokemon, or personal problems, urgent news, or life. They'd laughed here, cried here, learned about each other and themselves at this table. Milk and apple juice had been spilled on it, but Shauntal's greatest masterpiece was also written here. It was chipped and banged from their Pokemon playing around it, but this table was where Marshal had first told Shauntal "I love you." And at last, he knew the answer.

"No need to waste our money," he said casually. "Throh and I'll clamp a strip of steel around it, and then Sawk will pound it down around the wood with its knuckles. Your Chandelure can weld it tight, and then it'll be stronger than before it broke."

"Yeah," Shauntal answered. "Sounds good."

As Marshal left to go get the metal he needed, he looked at Shauntal and she smiled back at him. He didn't need to say anything. She knew.

IIIIII

Okay, that's all the drabbles...for now. If you want to see more, be sure to review and tell us! Either way, this has been fun :).