~AUTHOR'S NOTE~

This is set 6 years before the game, so in other words when Steven was 19 ("you're" 17). I should probably have added that in the summary... Oh well! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The next day, Steven sat in his office sipping his tea as he pondered over what (y/n) had said yesterday. 'I know exactly what you mean.,' she had said after he was talking about his… loneliness? Idiot! I should really learn keep my mouth shut sometimes. Steven wondered what struggles she had. It was probably due to her father, he thought, remembering the rude phone call he had made after the battle. The screen on the wall beeped and turned on and Steven saw his friend Wallace walking up the stairs, right on time for his visit. Steven smiled and walked over the bridge, assuming his usual position at the center of the battle room.

"Steven!" puffed Wallace, having just finished his ascent.

"Hi Wallace."

"There's a problem."

Steven's eyebrow furrowed. "A problem?"

"Yes," said Wallace having caught his breath. "A problem."

Resting his hand on his chin, Steven made a thinking noise. "And what is this problem?"

"Well, according to some trainers, there's a rogue Aggron of an interesting colour storming around Victory Road and causing destruction."

Steven bit his lip. A shiny Aggron would make a great addition to my collection… but I already have an Aggron. And besides, do I really have to deal with something as trivial as this? "Can one of my colleagues sort it out?"

"No, they're preoccupied at the moment. It'll only take a minute. Just as long as you don't get distracted…"

"Okay okay I get it. I'm going. You can wait in my office in the meantime."

"Thanks, Steven," said Wallace, making his way over the shiny steel bridge.

You stared at your reflection in the mirror of the hotel. I almost look as if I'm about to enter a pokemon contest...

The plan was to show up at the Pokemon League wearing nicer clothes and pray to Arceus that Steven invites you for tea again as you hopefully seduce him into falling in love. You sighed. This is ridiculous… After shouldering your bag you left the hotel, jumping on to your Altaria and flying to Ever Grande City, deciding, as usual, to make the unnecessary walk through Victory Road, hoping for it to clear your head and ease your nerves.

Why am I doing this? Why am I going to exploit someone's feelings for personal gain? Why am I even attempting to become Champion when I know it will abolish any chance I'll ever have of freedom? Even when I come of age in a year and be able to be free from my father I would still have the responsibility of being Champion, and then I'll never be able to enter contests until someone has beaten me! Besides, this plan probably won't even work, and if it does, will I ever be able to forgive myself after betraying Steven, who has shown me nothing but kindness? You had made up your mind. You weren't going to face the Champion.

Stopping to stretch, you looked at your surroundings, your Skitty's flash illuminating the dark cave. Wait… is that? You walked up to a light shining about five paces to your left. Picking it up, you blew the dust off the shiny disk and examined it. It was a TM! You peered at the tiny writing, getting your Skitty to come closer so you could see. TM47… steel wing. Groaning again, you double checked that that was what it said. Steel wing? How am I supposed to use that? I don't even own any steel type pokemon, let alone one that can learn steel wing! My best bet would be my Altaria, that would probably work... but that's never going to happen seeing as her other moves are so good… Maybe I should just sell it at the department store, I mean now that I'm homeless… you gulped. I'll have to save up some money. You turned around, pocketing the TM, and started walking back. I don't think my pokemon would be able to get good at steel wing anyway. You turned a corner and Skitty stopped using flash having gotten to the brighter part of the cave. Steel wing is more of the type of move that someone with a thing for steel would use. Someone like…

"Steven?"

The blue-haired Champion turned around from the mention of his name after seemingly examining a shiny rock or something. Just as you were about to say hi a flash of green and silver coming from the corner of your eye caught your attention. Oh no…

"WATCH OUT!" you cried as what appeared to be a discoloured Aggron headed straight for Steven. He only just lept out of the way of the spikes on Aggron's head, but was still hit as the raging pokemon thundered past.

"Are you okay?!" you squealed as the shiny Aggron stood right over the metallic stone that Steven had been looking at moments ago.

"I'm fine!"

That was all you needed. "SKITTY, USE SING!" you yelled, bringing out your Milotic's pokeball and letting her out too. "MILOTIC, AT THE SAME TIME USE BLIZZARD!"

The blizzard swirled out of Milotic, twisting and curling in time with Skitty's song. It caused the distressed Aggron to stumble, unable to move out of the way of the blizzard thanks to the beautiful music floating through the air like a cloud, as the move hit it full on. The kind of combination you had been learning in secret in the hopes that you may one day enter a pokemon contest. Agitated, yet soothed at the same time, the Aggron gave out a woeful cry, and as a last attempt to remove the threat, used metal claw. Oh Arceus, it's coming straight for me!

"No!" shouted Steven, but Milotic managed to jump in front of you just in time to take most of the damage. You took a moment to curse at your ruined right sleeve, which was now torn and bloody from a scratch on your upper arm. Sighing and ignoring the stinging pain coming from the wound you paced over to Steven and helped him up.

"Are you sure you're alright?" you asked, glancing at the sleeping Aggron which was too close for comfort.

"I'm great! Just a bit winded I guess," Steven brushed himself off as you let go of his arm. "But are you okay?" he said, looking at your arm apprehensively.

"Oh! It's… just a scratch," you replied, stepping toward the Aggron and throwing a pokeball. Gotcha! "Hmm, a shiny Aggron," you said as you picked up the pokeball and clipped it to your belt.

"Yes, well… I was actually meant to get rid of it, because it's sort of been attacking the trainers… so, um, thanks for that," said Steven awkwardly.

"No problem," you said, crouching in front of the metallic stone that the Aggron seemed to be… guarding? "What is this you were looking at anyway?"

"Umm…"

At that moment a pair of blue eyes blinked open from the rock. "Is that an Aron?!" you exclaimed as the small pokemon stood up to look at the two intruders. "Huh," you said, looking at the pokeball containing the Aggron. "I guess our friend here was a mother."

"That would explain its aggressiveness," said Steven.

You bit your lip. "I feel bad. Perhaps we should release them somewhere else?"

"That would be a great idea!"

You smiled. "And I know just the place."