To my dearest Guest: I just happened to get really sick when I wrote that A/N and reading your review the next day made me feel a lot better and made my weekend! I forgot to mention in my endless editing that this is not a Bianca/Cheren fic. Bianca ends up falling for someone definitely considered a "crack pairing" more suited towards her interests and the purpose is to treat it as seriously and realistically as possible (I mostly specialize in said crack pairings, anyway). I want Bianca/Cheren/White (or Hilda or Touko or Whitlea or Nina, etc) to be one of those "Two Girls and a Guy" tropes played straight where they remain friends for life.
Chapter 2
"Feeling my way through the darkness, guided by a beating heart, I can't tell where the journey will end, but I know where to start." Wake Me Up by Avicii ft Aloe Blacc
"Dad I'm leaving on a Pokémon journey!" I say out loud the moment I walk in the door in the most affirmative tone I can. Problem is that no one is visible in sight.
The door slams from behind me, making a very audible smack! noise.
"BIANCA GWENDOLYN BEL GET UP HERE RIGHT NOW!" I hear dad's voice screaming from upstairs. It makes my feet quake so much so that I'm afraid I'm going to turn into a shell. Tepig feels my fear and begins shaking in my arms as well.
"We need to be strong, okay?" Truth is, I'm not a strong person. I'm really not. I made this decision a few months ago and ran it through with my mom. Okay, she's not really my mom, but she's been so helpful and supportive of me my entire life that I see her in that way. She said to me that if stuff goes down with dad about this, she'll be there to back me up. I hope this holds true.
I'm half surprised I made it upstairs in one piece. There he is, standing straight and holding my bag by its string. Mom is sitting on my bed with a dejected, defeated look on her face. I can feel my blood turning cold.
"Bianca!" Dad is seething in anger, the redness of his face glowing all the way towards his receding hairline. Dad and I don't look much alike but I'm told I have his ears. He's not very tall, if I'm being honest, as when I stand straight, I match him in height. He's kind of chubby with black eyes and brown hair. I meanwhile, have blonde hair and green eyes, making my appearance very distinctly different from his. I'm not exactly fat, but I'm not thin either, as everything goes straight to the lower half of my body, aka these demon things I call my hips. My lack of resemblance to him can be a problem sometimes. Mom is standing behind him, giving me encouraging looks. "What is this?" he asks in an interrogating matter, pointing my green bag in my direction. "And what is that piglet doing in your arms?" His eyes are narrow, his rage palatable.
"D-D-Dad. I'm..." I falter, "I'm going on a Pokémon journey!"
"No you are not," he retorts in a matter-of-fact tone.
"Albert..." mom says, standing up. "Hear her out."
"You are going to march up straight back into the lab and return that thing back to the professor right now!" he says, ignoring mom completely.
"No." I adjust my Tepig and make sure that he's being held by one arm and boldly make my way to where my dad is standing. "I'm going to take this now." I grab my green bag and head downstairs.
Of course, he follows me with mom trailing him. Our footsteps thump with a loudness that all of Nuvema could possibly hear. "Bianca! Bianca! BIANCA!" He says as I approach the door.
I turn around so I can face him. My eyes can't meet his. "S-So tell me, dad why do you think I c-can't leave on a journey?" I have a feeling I know what he's going to say. I can feel the color draining from my face and Tepig won't stop shaking in fear at his behavior. I'm about to break down crying.
"You know nothing about the Pokémon world, Bianca. That's reason enough."
"Albert. She's eighteen. She's old enough to go exploring."
"No! No! A thousand times no!"
"But...I'm a good trainer and my Tepig and I love each other. I'm ready to see the world and see things for myself. I can't stay here in Nuvema my entire life while everyone goes out and sees the world."
"This is nonsense. Where is the Bianca who always listened to her father? The quiet, studious girl who is kind and polite? This is petty behavior on your part and you are being inconsiderate."
His words take a blow to my heart. Maybe I should have consulted him on this. I mean, he's right. It isn't like me to be rebelling and doing things behind someone's back but I know that if I stay here I will live a life full of sadness and regret. I will never learn and I will be the Bianca who everyone's always made fun of. I won't prove anything. I won't do anything. I'll just wilt into something that never was. "I'm sorry, daddy. But this is what I want. Just because I look like my birth mom doesn't mean I'm going to end up like her."
Dad is stunned into silence.
"She's right, you know."
"I guess this is goodbye. Even though I don't have your blessing, I'm still leaving." Mom comes up to me and gives me a warm side-hug. She also pats my Tepig on his tiny head and gives a small, resolute smile.
"You may not have your father's blessing, but you have mine. Be safe and grow. I love you," she whispers. Her whisper alone gives me confidence, reminding me of all of the times I confided in her in regards to my future and the possibility that I would go on to train Pokémon.
When I walk out the door, my emotions begin to swirl in a tizzy. I did it. I gained a spine and did what I had to do to make myself happy. What I don't notice is White standing right there.
"Hey, is everything okay? I heard loud noises." It's White, who just happens to be walking from her place and passing by. How much did she hear?
"Everything's fine," I reaffirm. I know I have a tendency to do that even when everything's not with me, but people don't have to know. She gives me a knowing look. It's odd. She can both sympathize and at the same time, not understand me at all due to the situation our lives spun us in. "Please don't mention any of this to Cheren." I know Cheren and once again, he and my dad will have a clash of personalities and I'll end up losing. It's best to just leave the situation be at that.
"Okay. It's your choice." Tepig makes a menacing oink at White, giving her a glare. If she noticed it, then she chose to ignore it.
"Good. Um. Last one to make it to Juniper's a rotten egg!" I take off, leaving White in the dust. I need to put this in the back of my mind.
Juniper's lab is a mess, to say the least. There's books scattered everywhere and posters of rare and fully evolved Pokémon stuck on all corners of the lab. It's scatterbrained and yet somewhat calming. Juniper comes off as a lot less scary than the other Pokémon regional professors. Sinnoh's Professor Rowan is so ridiculously scary I change the channel whenever he's on!
"It's good to see you three here at the lab. And I see that you three chose the starters I hoped you would choose so that makes me quite glad. There's a couple of things I want to discuss. First, here are your Pokédexes. Your job is to capture data from as many Pokémon as you can. This is a rather ambitious task as Unova is on record, one of the regions with the most native Pokémon to it so I do not fully expect you to fully achieve the Unovan amount. Especially with the sheer number of Legendaries and the whole Sword Trio and Zekrom and Reshiram and those cloud ones and I've heard of some mythical ones like Victini and Meloetta and Gene-"
"Err, excuse me, Professor Juniper, but we could be here all day talking about Legendary Pokémon," Cheren interrupts, raising his hand.
"Oh, but of course! Second, and more important: your Pokédexes will be the keys to unlocking Pokémon data, of course and by this, I mean their nature, habitat, what they eat, and so on. Cheren, you have a Snivy with a serious nature. Although you don't have to worry about feeding it food it won't like, it is recommended to feed it leafy greens. The Snivy line requires a lot of care, especially when its evolutions shed their scales. Bianca, you have a Tepig of a quirky nature. Like Cheren's, he'll eat everything and anything, though as he reaches his stages, you'll have to feed him more as his body grows. Emboars are giant eaters and fierce protectors and yours is the only line of the three to gain a second type after evolution. Hilda," she rolls her eyes at the mention of her name, "you have an Oshawott of a naive nature. Oshawott are low maintenance and this one is no exception just make sure to..."
She goes off into more tangents and one of her posters catches my eye. It's of a giant, orange pig with flames coming out of his shoulders and what looks like an infinity sign on his center. He has a proud look not unlike the one Cheren's Snivy has. I burst into a fit of giggles when I realize what this Pokémon resembles.
"Bianca, are you all right? She just asked you if you wanted to nickname your Tepig?" Cheren says, not understanding why I find this so hilarious.
"Oh yeah. Uh right. Emboar is the final evolution stage, isn't it? It's that one over there?" I point to the poster.
"Why yes. Why do you ask."
"Hey guys. Doesn't he look familiar?" I ask both White and Cheren.
"Uhhh," I get bewildered expressions from both.
"It like totally looks like Ganon! You know! From The Legend of Zelda! Oh my gosh! I'm totally gonna name you Ganon. You like that?" Ganon squeals in joy. "Yayyy! Well, we're off!" I take off, feeling the need to go on an adventure.
"Have fun!" Juniper says.
"Wait for me!" Cheren says and White follows after. The three of us open the door and instantly collide with White's mom.
"Hello there. I'm noticing you three are forgetting the most essential part of a trainer's journey. Here's a map of Unova to help guide you through."
"Oh wow, Mrs. White. You didn't really have to do this," Cheren says.
"But it's the right thing to do. Otherwise you'll end up lost. Well, this means goodbye. I hope you three see lots of Pokémon on your journey and grow as people." She comes closer to me and hands me the map. "Don't worry too much about him. He just misses Wendy, you know? He doesn't want anything bad to happen to you, that's all," she says, her voice low enough for only me to hear.
I look down at the floor in response, knowing it would be a terrible idea to start crying. Ganon has no clue what Mrs. White is saying and he grunts in a confused manner as he senses my change in feelings. "I think it's time for you to go back to your ball, Ganon." I recall him back, the red light absorbing him and taking him back to his place.
"You'll be okay, Bianca. I know you and Wendy would have wanted you to disobey your father, too. This is a natural part of life." She hands me the map of Unova and I stuff it in my bag.
"Hey Bianca, aren't you gonna catch up? I thought you wanted us to take the first step out of town you with?" Cheren asks from afar.
"Coming!" I look back at Mrs. White. "Thank you."
Cheren and White are at the town limits. I know we've been to Accumula thousands of times with our parents but this is the first time we'll ever take our steps on our adventure. Even though we plan on having a separate journey, I did want us to take the first step into Route 1 together as friends to show that we'll still be the same despite growing up.
"Okay guys. Are you ready to take the first step into our journey!"
"Yes," Cheren says.
"Hell yes!" White yells, scaring off all of the Pidoves.
White stands in the center and hooks the left side of her arm to Cheren's and her right side with me. "Okay. On the count of three," I begin.
"One," we say in unison, "two...three!" One small step for us, one big step into adulthood.
"Yay we did it!" I hug White and Cheren gives us a high five.
"Ahem," coughs a voice that doesn't belong to either one of us. When we find the source of the voice, it belongs to none other than Professor Juniper. "I see you've made your first step into Route 1 but you still don't know the basics of Pokémon catching!"
The three of us give each other pained looks. "Ughhhhhh," Cheren groans. This is going to be a long day.
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