A/N: Thank you all for reading! And look, another chapter on time! Iris's point of view, so I hope you enjoy this one!

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon or the picture used as cover (though I did edit it).

Days

The day with the apology

Iris

Monday, December 30th

This was madness. Utter, complete madness. How had it come to this?

Iris stood on the edge of the forest and watched Striaton City in the far distance. May stood a little behind her, and Haxorus stood next to her.

Just two days ago she had been ready to get married. Except, she supposed, she hadn't really been ready.

"It'll be alright," May repeated for what was certainly the umpteenth time the past two days, and Haxorus muttered something in the same vein. Iris nodded in agreement, if only to reassure herself.

But it would not be alright, at least not today, nor in the near future, and they all knew that. Otherwise they wouldn't be standing here on the edge of a forest, still delaying going forward because of what waited her there.

Realizing that she was doing just that, Iris swallowed and started down the path towards the city. Maybe it would not be alright today, but if she didn't do anything it might never be alright.

May didn't talk on the way there, but Haxorus kept up a quiet stream of constant encouraging sounds, though Iris wasn't paying enough attention to understand all he was saying, too caught up in her own thoughts. As the city drew closer, a feeling of pressure was starting to build inside her. She wanted to run and hide, but she had been doing that for two days already, and now it was time to face the consequences of her actions.

Oh Arceus, how was she ever going to do this? How could she just walk in and ask to see Cilan and then explain-

Her feet seemed to suddenly stick to the ground and Iris felt her breathing quicken as the world closed in around her.

May's hand on her shoulder brought her back to reality and Iris turned around.

"Haxorus?" Her Pokémon looked at her with worry, seeming unsure how to act.

"C'mon, Iris," May said. She gave her an encouraging smile, which stood in contrast with the rest of her mussed-up look, with the smudges of make-up and dirty streaks, completed by unbrushed hair.

It was her fault that May looked like she had slept on the ground, because that was exactly what they had done these past two nights. Iris doubted that she herself looked any better, although she was no longer wearing her dirty wedding dress.

"I…" Iris started, but didn't say anymore, not knowing what she actually wanted to say.

I can't? She couldn't say that. She had been hiding in the woods while she had literally left Cilan at the altar. She needed to talk to him, even if she felt like she was entirely incapable of even looking in his direction.

I'm afraid? True, but not something that was going to change the current situation.

I'm sorry? Also true, but it was not something that she hadn't said before these past days. The first night had been spent with a combination of crying and yelling, after which she had pretty much fallen over from pure exhaustion.

"Remember what we talked about," May said.

Yes, that had been yesterday, after the first rush of emotions had passed and some rest had given her a clear head again.

"We talked about that I was going to apologize," Iris started with the obvious. Although, actually, their first proper topic of conversation had been about their clothes. Iris couldn't help but smile a bit as she thought back on it.

"And how you should have gotten us other clothes."

Haxorus growled a laugh, seeming desperate to help his trainer but without knowing how to do it. A claw rested on Iris's other shoulder in a copy of May's movement.

"Which I did," May pointed out with a smile. "Just not right away."

No, May hadn't had wanted to leave her alone in the beginning, so they had spent the first night still dressed in their party clothes. Their Pokémon had kept them warm. Only yesterday May had quickly gone to the hotel to get them some other clothes and food, and now their dresses were put away in May's bag.

"What else?" May prompted, serious again.

"We talked… about how things were moving too fast for me," Iris said, more quietly now. "And how… I thought he was marrying me because I'm pregnant." The last part was almost inaudible.

To May's credit, she had taken the news very well yesterday, when Iris hadn't been able to help herself and had blurted it out amongst all the other raging emotions.

Iris knew she should have spoken up sooner about her feelings of hesitation. At first marrying Cilan had been like a dream come true, but her dream had never been like this, with a rushed wedding after a relationship of less than two months. That realization had come slow, but she should have acted faster.

And while she knew, rationally, that Cilan wouldn't marry her just because she was pregnant, she knew they wouldn't be getting married if she hadn't been pregnant. It was so typical Cilan to want to do things the proper way.

"If I hadn't been pregnant, things would've been very different," she whispered.

May didn't respond. And Iris knew what she would say, because they had spoken about this yesterday.

Things would have been different, yes. But she was pregnant, and she had been about to get married, and she had run away and hurt Cilan terribly-

"And I was just stupid! I shouldn't have left, I should've- I should've done it differently, I should have told him, I should've-"

Iris breathed out shakily and May squeezed her shoulder. Haxorus went a bit further and pulled her in for a hug.

"Thanks, Haxorus," Iris said, leaning into the rather uncomfortable embrace of the dragon type.

Wishing for what-ifs wasn't going to change reality, and she would just have to deal with it.

She blinked quickly, trying to clear her vision of the unbidden tears. She had already cried more than enough, and now it was time for a straight back and to own up to her mistakes.

Even if Cilan never wanted to see her again, she owed him an explanation.

Iris breathed in deeply and then looked May in the eye, nodding. "Let's go."

Haxorus let her go with an encouraging roar, and with an unwavering pace the trio walked to the city. She would go to the Gym. She would ask to see Cilan. She would tell him- well, pretty much what she had just told May, as they had decided on yesterday. Even if she had spent the whole night tossing and turning and thinking about all the horrible scenarios, she knew she had to do this.

Then suddenly they were in front of the doors of the Gym and her feet stopped moving.

"You can do this, Iris," May said.

Iris pushed the doors open and walked straight through the still empty restaurant to the Gym.

There part of her plan fell through, because there was no need to ask for Cilan. Instead, she had found him straight away. He sat on the sidelines of the battlefield, watching Cress battle a challenger with a Solosis.

He hadn't even noticed her at first, and silently Iris watched Cress order his Panpour to evade an attack.

"Us?" Haxorus asked her quietly, but the sound was enough to draw Cilan's attention to them. The first shock was quickly hidden behind a carefully blank mask and seeing him look at her like that made Iris waver.

"Hax," Haxorus said, a claw pushing at her back.

Iris walked forward, hearing but not registering May's quiet words of encouragement.

"Cilan," she rasped.

"Iris."

While Iris was certain that the battle was still going on, there was only white noise in her ears.

"Could I talk to you?" she finally managed to say. "Please?"

He nodded once, then walked to the back of the Gym, leading her to the empty kitchen. The door closed and then they were alone.

Silence stretched on and Iris knew she had to be the one to start. Her thoughts were running rampant in her head and she tried to remember what she had wanted to say.

"I'm so sorry."

Cilan's blank mask fell away and he just looked very, very sad, and it hit her gut with a painful punch.

She was not good with words. That was Cilan's department. She was not good with things like these. Oh Arceus. She was blowing this. She had ruined everything and now she was even messing this up.

"I'm sorry for leaving you like that. I'm sorry I hurt you. I never meant... That was never my intention."

To her horror and frustration, her voice faltered and tears were burning in her eyes. "I... didn't want to get married. It went too fast, it didn't feel... it didn't feel right. It was out of control..."

"Why didn't you say anything?" he asked cuttingly. His open expression was gone, the sadness from before hidden by sharp lines and accusing eyes.

"I'm sorry!" she said. "I don't know, I mean, I thought that- with the baby- and I wanted to marry you, I always wanted that, but- We're moving too fast and I need... I need time..."

Her rambling sputtered out and Iris barely even knew what she was saying anymore, just anything that would make him stop looking at her like that. Like she had broken his heart. Which she had.

"I'm sorry," she said pathetically, using her sleeve to wipe the tears off her face.

Cilan nodded once, haltingly. He stood ramrod straight and his eyes were still cold.

Iris took a step forward, and he stepped back. The air in her lungs turned to ice and fresh tears fell from her eyes.

"Perhaps-" His voice cracked, and his eyes seemed focused on some point behind her. "Perhaps we both need some distance."

Cilan blinked quickly a few times, caught her eyes for a heart stopping moment, and then looked away. Maybe there were tears in his eyes, but it was difficult to say with her own blurred vision.

It hurt, but at the same time his words held a small thread of hope, a promise that they still had a future, maybe, and that kept her from falling apart right there and then.

"Alright," she said.

And that had been that.

A/N: Thank you for reading! This was a complicated chapter to write, though it still went surprisingly easily. Upon rereading it I'm not sure if it was too dramatic… And it was difficult to write the characters with these extreme emotions. So I'm not sure what to think of it haha. I hope you enjoyed it, and I'd really appreciate it if you'd leave a review to tell me what you thought of it!

Thank you!

Recommendation:

Star Wars: Signature by Caya Strife. FFN. A sadly still unfinished multi-chaptered story which features my favorite themes: Darth Vader redemption and father-and-son bonding. It's really well written, so check it out!

Recommendations are welcome!