Disclaimer: AshKetchumDarkSide: Sure! I'll do the OC X OC one if someone requests two OCs that I can do. Herpinthederpin: First off, your username is just awesome. You have won the internet with that username. And yep, I'll do the Chili X White one for sure. Rat2rrj: Thank you! And yes, Shooti X Langley would be an option X D
Question:
My Answer:
Characters: Tons. (Includes minor shipping, including Touko X N and Skyla X Black as requested.)
Summary: An analysis of family life in the games. And I'm so proud of this one. SO CRY, DAMMIT, CRY : 3
Everything Is Fine
(Until you check until the floorboards.)
Dad, you (looked) look so much like me. Mom always (said) says so. We (had) have the same dreams, the same eyes, the same voice.
She once told me that it only took you a few days to reach Viridian, so you must (have been) be a fast traveller. Where (would you be) are you now? You know, the only thing I have of yours is the cards you used to send me, but you don't even do that anymore.
(Did) do you ever think about me? I think about you all the time.
And I think I'll just keeping on thinking that you're dead, because it's easier that way.
-Red
000
Not all of my dreams of you are good ones.
You always have a shadowed face, and no voice. Sometimes we'll be running to somewhere, to someplace I can't see, and you'll be so far ahead of me that I'll scream at you to please, please wait for me.
You never do.
You leave me behind, and I fall to my knees, fighting for air. I cry and cry and cry, and Mom or Green or someone will wake me up and I'll find out that I'm crying in real life, too.
And then I'll realize that the saddest thing isn't that I don't know if you'll ever come home; it's that I'm not sure that it'll matter if you do.
-Blue
000
Sometimes, when I'm not making someone else feel bad, I start to.
I watch cars pass and remember pain shooting up my arm and trying to crawl through the wreckage, searching for you and Mom. I watch little children get embraced by their parents and remember how it used to feel.
Daisy will find me when I'm like this, when I'm remembering the salty tang of tears flowing into my mouth and sterile hospital beds and graveyards and moving in with Gramps and-
And then she'll hug me, and she'll smell like Mom, and the tears will turn into more than just a memory.
-Green
000
I saw you in the water today. I was bending over a pond in Ilex Forest, washing my face with the cool water, and when I opened my eyes you were staring back at me: the same bright eyes, the same thin mouth, the same unruly hair.
It terrified me.
I stumbled so that my back hit a tree, my hands on my still-damp face. I won't become like you; I won't abandon the people I love, I won't leave the ones who need me most. I won't throw it away for some slut I met in Goldenrod and let the wife I was too lazy to divorce rot away in front of the television. I won't. I may look like you, but I will never, ever be you.
Right?
-Gold
000
My birthday is when it's hardest. I'll wake up early and wait for you to walk in the door. For years I've given up thinking that you will, but I sit on the steps anyway, waiting. I suppose I just want something to wait on. A dream, if you will. Something to hope for.
And when I blow out the candles and silently wish for you to come back, I can see the pain in Mom's eyes.
How can you hurt us like this?
-Crystal
000
Every night I peel off my shirt and stare into the mirror.
I look at the R you branded into my skin, and every single thing you've ever done or said comes back to me. I feel the blows landing on my skin, I feel your words knocking the breath out of me, and I feel all the worthlessness of the world pile up onto my shoulders.
But then Kotone will come in and button up my shirt for me, and kiss my scars. She'll look into my eyes and see me, really see me, in a way that you'll never see anyone.
And all the worthlessness will dissipate, because I'll remember that you were wrong.
-Silver
000
Daddy, I always find myself going back to the morning you yelled at me. You yelled that I was annoying and clumsy and dumb.
That morning I went to school and realized that you were right. My voice was high pitched, and very annoying indeed. I was clumsy- especially in Gym. And I was so dumb that I was surprised that no one had ever mentioned it before.
So I didn't talk all day. My friends asked why I wasn't talking, but I didn't want to annoy them, so I just shrugged in reply. In Gym I stuck to the sidelines because I didn't want to get in anybody's way. In Math I leaned my head onto the paper and shed a few tears when the test I was handed back turned out to be a 'C'.
Now, though, I don't think you're right. I don't think you ever were. Both Gold and Silver tell me that I'm annoying, clumsy and dumb- but in all the right ways. And I agree. It's what makes me who I am.
I always forgave you, Daddy; I was always the one that apologized first. But not anymore.
So goodbye, Daddy.
Don't tell your other daughter what you told me, okay?
-Kotone
000
Yeah, Dad, I get it. I'm not you, and will never be you. Quit yelling! I'm not talking back to you, I'm just trying to tell you-
Seriously, I'm not trying to give you attitude! I love you and everything, but I really don't want to be a trainer. Prof. Birch already offered for me to help out as his assistant, so-
No, Dad, becoming the Champion was always your dream, not mine! I've always loved researching-
Leave May out of this! It isn't because of her! What? You can't forbid me to see her: I'm seventeen! I can choose my own friends-
N-no, I'm not c-crying. I just have s-something in my eye. I k-k-know that crying isn't 'manly', a-alright? So just lay off! I-I-
F-forget it! I c-can't deal with this anymore! ALL I'VE EVER WANTED TO DO WAS MAKE YOU PROUD. T-there, I've said it! And I'm s-sorry that I'm such an embarrassment to y-you-
No! You know w-w-what, Dad? No.
This time, it's m-my turn to leave.
So fuck off.
-Brendan
000
You know, Pa, you're the number one dad in the world.
Even if you barely listen when I'm telling you how my day went.
Even if you're grooming me to be a professor, even though I want to be a coordinator.
Even if you spend more time with your work than you do with Ma.
It's okay, though. Because you're my pa, and I love you.
-May
000
This happens all the time, really- no need to fuss. I'm sick, you see; I'm prone to illness. A little vomit is natural. My vomit has blood in it, you say? No worries, I have medication for that.
Oh, no, please don't call my parents, nurse! I don't want to bother them. Mother and Father get so worried about me, and I'm not even supposed to be travelling in the first place. They'll be so mad. Father especially. And I really don't like it when Father gets mad. He… he…well, never mind that.
Does he abuse me? Not at all- he punishes me. And I deserve it each and every time. I'm the worst son in the world, after all. So ungrateful, and so time-consuming….
Hm? Why, yes, I did mention that I'm sick. Blood tests? No, I don't need blood tests- I don't need to be here at the hospital at all, honestly.
What do I have? Oh, it's something really quite common- no need to fuss. Just cancer.
But please don't tell Father.
He'll be so very angry.
-Wally
000
Mom's seeing someone else now.
I spend my days over at Rowan's lab working with Dawn, and last week when I came home for supper there she was, kissing a man that I didn't know. I was so shocked- she saw me and tried to explain to me, but I ran up to my room and locked the door. It was like hearing that you were getting a new baby sister or brother when you were perfectly fine with the size of your family currently; confused, upset, resentful.
For two days I let myself cool down, and when I finally talked to her I was calm enough to understand.
I understand now that you're gone, Dad.
Wherever you are, I hope you're jealous.
-Lucas
000
This is to the role model that I never looked up to.
This is to the trainer I never saw fight.
This is to the teacher I never learned from.
This is to the song I never sang.
This is to the heart I never loved.
This is to the dad I never met.
-Dawn
000
I stand outside your battle facility every Friday, outside your office window, and battle with all my might.
Me and my team battle challengers that have come to face you, and they find themselves getting wiped out by my team. I laugh the way I saw you do on TV once, and I smile the way I saw you do on TV once, and I do the same victory pose.
And yet, when I turn around to glance up at your window, if I do glimpse you watching me it's when you're shaking your head, disapproval clear even from where I stand.
And I feel myself wilt a little.
-Barry
000
I'm scared for the day when straight As will mean nothing anymore.
They're the only thing that will earn your smiles, though they never keep them. Good grades equal a good university, which equals a good future. That's the first equation I ever learned.
Sometimes, though, I wish that you would smile when I phone home, or encourage my dreams of becoming Champion instead of calling them silly fantasies.
…Forget I said that. You're right, you're right- sentimentality doesn't get us anything worthwhile in life.
Maybe that's why straight As mean nothing to be anymore.
-Cheren
000
Mom tells me that you want another kid, and I can't help wondering if it's because of me.
Is it because you want someone who gets better grades? Is it because you want someone more talented? Is it because you want another child to love instead of me?
Skyla says I'm being stupid, and I think that I am, too, but there's part of me that wonders if you want to try again because you don't like the way I turned out.
Am I right?
-Black
000
I never asked for that sort of love.
I never asked for your hands to take off my pants, my shirt. I never asked to be touched like that. I never asked for me to be told to keep it a secret, that you would hurt me if anyone found it.
I never asked for it. For any of it.
I used to always tuck myself away in a safe place when I felt you crawl into bed with me. I used to daydream about a prince that would treat me kindly instead of roughly, and hate my pain instead of getting aroused by it.
Even now when I'm with my prince, if I feel his hands graze violated areas I find myself panicking.
He doesn't rush me, though. He just kisses me and holds me close and promises that he'll never hurt me.
I trust him. Know why?
Because he is nothing like you.
-White
000
Maybe if I was a boy you would love me. If I was a broad-shouldered, blonde boy with a bright grin and flashing blue eyes, who loved to play sports and lift weights. If I was a boy I would be intelligent, too, like Cheren. I would be fearless like White. I would be ambitious like Black.
But I'm not. I'm a girl. I'm a slim blonde girl with a shy smile and pastel blue eyes, who likes to shop and listen to peoples' problems. I'm not intelligent, fearless or ambitious, but I love flowers and making someone smile.
You know, you tell me that you love me even as you yell. You tell me that I'm not dumb, only to treat me like I am. You push me down, down, down, and then wonder why I'm being negative.
Gee, I wonder.
-Bianca
000
Everything's fine until you check under the floorboards.
When you do, you find things that you should have seen all along: the lies Father was feeding me and everyone else, the two different sides of the truth, the beauty in the world we live in.
I may not have a human heart, Father, but I can feel just as much as everyone else can. I don't know what it means to have a heart, but what I do know is that I was inhaling an illusion, and I might have lung cancer now.
Reality's set in, and I've put the floorboards back where they once were.
Because it doesn't matter what you or anyone else thinks. It doesn't matter what you or anyone else does. It doesn't matter.
What matters is me, and the people that love me and accept me for who I am.
And I know that I don't need a crown to be a king.
-N