Quick note. I'm up to over 2,000 views on this story, and its greatly appreciated. There's also a weird statistic where chapter seven has more views than chapter six. Just thought it was strange enough to be worth mentioning.
Return to Veilstone
It was an easy ride. It was that simple. At least that's what Chris's thoughts were about just going back to Veilstone City. It had been two years to this point since he left. Since he went on the lamb. When he woke up in Solaceon Town this morning, he thought that he had grown so much in just a couple of short months that coming back would be easy. Then his hands started shaking more and more the closer he got to the city. His emotions so thoroughly got the better of him the last night that he was in this city, that he could've easily been arrested here. And the memory of that very same night made him pull over his Harley, park up, and begin to have a panic attack.
He was doing everything he could to calm himself down. He practiced breathing techniques to regain his composure, but they were failing him right now. His fingertips were rubbing at his temple, hoping to calm the pounding in his head. It was to no avail. The further he slipped into his memories, the less he was able to hear baby Togepi calling out to him in concern. In a last ditch effort, Chris activated his Marshtomp's Poké Ball, and sent his closest friend out. Hawke immediately saw the turmoil in Chris's mind, and stayed right beside him as he slipped into his memories.
Chris sat alone in his room. His caretakers had adopted two other kids who proudly called them both mother and father, but Chris couldn't bring himself to do the same with how they treated him. To him, these two were no better than the people at the foster center, and he didn't care much for his "siblings" either. While the man was out working late tonight, the woman had taken the other two kids out and left Chris all alone. Her logic of course being that he was the oldest, even though he knew that it was because her and her husband just didn't like him.
Chris didn't care. He had his guitar, and he was learning how to play it well in short order. Alice in Chains and Johnny Cash songs were his favorite to play at the moment, and he was now just perfecting how to play Metallica's Nothing Else Matters. His guitar teacher had asked him to do so, and that man was more of a father figure to Chris than his "foster father" ever would be. It was his teacher's approval that he really cared to earn.
Unbeknownst to Chris, his caretaker had come home early from work. Although Chris wasn't wearing any headphones, because neither of these two would buy him a pair, he was so caught up in playing the guitar, that he didn't hear the door slam. He didn't hear the man yelling out his name, nor did he hear the drunken screaming telling him to cut it out. Chris simply kept on strumming through the chords, until this drunk of a man had reached a boiling point.
He snatched Chris's attention away from his guitar as he nearly kicked his bedroom door off of its hinges. He then stomped right up to Chris, cursing at the young man. "I told you," He says angrily, ripping Chris's guitar out of his arms. "To stop playing the fucking guitar!" He then slammed Chris's one source of happiness into the ground, over and over again, until it was in pieces. And all Chris could do was watch in shock. The man then looked at Chris, pointing at him as he spoke to him through slurred words. "Don't shed a fucking tear, boy. Or your pansy ass head will be getting bounced off the floor next.
The shock in Chris quickly turned into rage. This drunken fool didn't know what the boy he had adopted was truly capable of, but he found out the hard way. Chris came up behind him, and pushed him into the wall outside of his room. Before the man could even react, Chris punched him right in the mouth. He crumbled to the ground, and could only look up to see Chris punch him three more times until he lost consciousness. Once he was out cold, Chris realized what he had just done, and got it in gear quickly. He knew that he couldn't stay here, so he got everything together that he knew he'd need, and bolted away from that house long before the man woke back up, or his wife came back with Chris's "siblings".
"Marsh!" At the sound of Hawke's voice, Chris let out a gasp as he came back to his senses. He slowly caught his breath, as he saw Hawke standing in front of him, holding Togepi.
Chris slowly nods his head. "I'm find you two. I'm fine." He puts Togepi back in its basket, and recalls Hawke. He takes a deep breath in and out as he looks towards Veilstone City, fires his Harley back up, and rides into the city.
Two hours later...
After she rented out a room, Dawn had sent Chris her location over the phone. She then sent him text messages to say that she got them both a two bed hotel room, and that she'd also ask him to cover half if they both wanted to spend the night in the same room after their dinner conversation. Her texts also indicated that she was going to pick out a restaurant, since Chris had offered to pay after he won their battle.
Chris managed to squeeze a battle into the time before he reached the hotel. He used his newly captured Elekid for this battle, and it ended up being the battle that proved café employee right. Elekid evolved into Electabuzz right before Chris's eyes. He even learned Thunder Punch in the midst of battle to secure the win. Knowing that he had two Electric-type Pokémon on his team at the moment, Chris decided to make a quick stop at the Pokémon Center to drop off his Luxray for the time being.
After having a brief conversation with Professor Rowan over a video call, Chris continued on over to the hotel that Dawn pointed him towards. Once he stepped off his Harley, he decided to let Togepi rest inside of his Poké Ball for the time being. The lobby of the hotel is relatively calm when Chris walks inside, so he walks right up to the front desk. The lady greets him with a warm smile, a far cry from how he was treated when he was checking out of the hotel in Oreburgh. "Good evening, sir. How may I help you?" She says.
"Hello." Chris responds. "A friend of mine got a two-bed room for the night. She said you'd have a room key for me."
"Is your name Chris Harper?"
"That's me. Dawn let you know I'd be coming?"
"Yes she did, sir." She hands him the key card, and looks down the hall. "Second floor, room 205."
"Thank you." Chris says with a smile, turning around to walk to the elevator. Little does he know that someone was listening to him check in.
An employee of the hotel, the janitor, walks up to him to cut him off before he can get to the hotel room. "Chris?!" The janitor says to catch Chris's attention. It takes one look into the janitor's eyes for Chris to recognize the man who adopted him. "You little loser. You actually came back to Veilstone?"
"A janitor calling someone a loser? Have you ever looked in a mirror?" Chris says to his "adoptive father", glaring at him.
The man sneers at Chris. "Two years away, and you still know nothing about respect boy."
"You aren't worth my respect. You aren't worth my time. You aren't even worth having your name said aloud, as far as I'm concerned." Chris goes to walk away from the man.
"Don't you walk away from me, Harper! Do you have any idea what you've cost me?! My wife left me, I got blacklisted from my profession!"
"You did that to yourself. You need to just consider yourself lucky I didn't keep punching you until you didn't move again."
"We're not done here!" The man grabs Chris by the shoulder, turns him around and sucker punches him. He goes to try to hit Chris again, as the receptionist starts to call the police, but Chris goes down to try to take the man down. The man stays on his feet by backing himself against the wall, as Chris is bent down and pressed into his abdomen. He begins to elbow Chris in his back, causing him to fall to a knee. He goes to knee Chris in the face, but Chris blocks the knee before delivering a jab to his stomach.
The man goes stumbling over back towards the lobby, but Chris knows better than to think that this is over. He follows up slowly behind his "adoptive father" to observe his next move, and doing so influences the man's next move. He turns around, taking two wild swings which Chris easily avoids. Chris then manages to trap his attacker in a standing guillotine choke, quickly having to drop back down to one knee as his attacker starts to fade. The police arrive shortly afterwards, putting Chris in handcuffs, then doing the same with his attacker as soon as he wakes back up.
The police keep Chris and his "adoptive father" a clear distance away from each other, as they take statements. While the janitor gives a statement that paints Chris in a negative light, Chris gives the truthful statement of what happened. The smoking gun ends up being the statement of the receptionist, who clearly doesn't care all too much for her coworker. She gives the full truth of what she observed, but since she couldn't see who started the fight, she allows the police to see the security camera footage. It works completely in Chris's favor, and he is immediately released from his handcuffs. Quite some time has passed at this point, he gets permission from the officers to step outside, so he can call Dawn to let her know what happened.
Finally able to get some fresh air, Chris at long last starts to decompress from the whole thing. He lights a cigarette to take a drag of it while he rubs at his forehead to calm his nerves. Whatever happened between the two people who adopted him, it seemed like no charges were ever filed against Chris. It was a relief, but Chris would've preferred to have lived in blissful ignorance.
Once he worked through all of his thoughts, he pulled out his phone to call Dawn. She had sent him the address of the restaurant she had chosen while he was in cuffs, and was worried that she might be upset with him. If she was, it wasn't reflected in her tone. "Hi Chris." She said calmly. "How close are you?"
"I'm still at the hotel Dawn." He sighed as he paused to take another drag of his cigarette."
Dawn seemed to realize that something was wrong. "Chris, are you okay?"
Chris shakes his head. "I'm not, no. Something happened at the hotel."
Right after Chris laid out what all happened, Dawn paid off the beverage she ordered, and rushed back to the hotel. For the trouble that Chris's "adoptive father" put him through, the manager of the hotel comped their room for the night. Chris and Dawn agreed to settle for pizza, preparing food for their Pokémon while they waited for the delivery. Chris laid out the timeline of events, from beginning to end, from why he left Veilstone City, to when she first saw him at Lake Verity. Once pizza arrived, and Dawn and Chris's Pokémon were busy eating, Chris spoke to Dawn about what had been on his mind.
"There's something you should know. I want to request that you let me say everything I have to say, before you respond."
Dawn nods as she looks into his eyes. "Okay."
"Before my parents died, we lived in the Kanto region. There was a family that was either right across the street, or next door... I can't remember for sure right now. They have a daughter named Danielle. She's six months younger than I am. And she was my best friend. We spent time playing together every single day. When my parents died, the foster system failed me. I was moved to the other side of Kanto at one point. Then Johto for a while. And then ended up here in Sinnoh five years ago."
Chris pauses to sigh, as there were some days where he couldn't believe what he was about to say was true. "And in all the time since I saw Danielle last, I've had a burning desire to see her again. Because I've always hated that the last time I saw her was when I was being driven away in tears. I don't know what kind of person she's grown up to be. But I want to know. And when I have the money to sail to Kanto, I'm going to."
Dawn nods at Chris, her eyes leaving his as she looks down. "Chris, I can understand wanting to have closure. But what if you don't like who she's become? Or what if she doesn't remember you?"
Chris takes a deep breath in and out before responding. "Then I'll learn to accept it, and move on. Only a couple of things have ever kept me awake at night, Dawn. One is the memory of how my parents died, and the other is the desire to see Danielle again. For all I know, I might be married when I see her again. Doesn't matter. I still want to see her again."
"Chris, I don't know if I could be with someone who's constantly thinking about some other girl."
As much as Chris cared for Dawn, her standpoint on this was something that he could never hold against her. "I understand, Dawn." Chris starts to rub at where he was punched, and looks a bit distraught.
"If you understand it, why do you look so down?"
"I... I never wanted to see that man's face ever again. Tonight's been an emotional one."
When he said that, Dawn realized that she had almost forgotten about what Chris had gone through tonight. She scooted up next to Chris on the bed, and pulled him into her arms. "It's over now Chris. You'll never have to see him again."
Chris closed his eyes to enjoy the moment, and exhaled softly through his nose. "I hope you're right."