Chapter 3
A Darkened Pallet
AJ hadn't always hated her father.
In fact, as a child, she had all but idolized him. That wasn't all that surprising; being the child of a celebrity basically meant that everyone treated you like you were special based purely on the fact that someone related to you actually was. And when she was a kid, she drank it up. She may not have understood why people gave her extra attention, but with her mother always being so busy, first at the gym and then later with the Elite Four, attention had been something she'd craved.
As she got a little older, however, and as she began to understand more about the world, questions began formulating in the back of her mind. Questions about this man she'd never seen before, this man people called her father, this man they kept saying she would grow up to be just like.
Who was he, really? Why wasn't he there? Where had he gone? If he was really as special as everyone said he was, then why did he disappear without telling anyone where he was going? If he was really the greatest pokemon trainer Kanto had ever seen, how could he and his entire team vanish without anyone ever hearing about it? And if he wasn't dead after all, then… where did he go? Why did he disappear?
Once she became a teenager, she'd started connecting the dots on her own. He'd been a celebrity, he'd been one of the most famous trainers alive, everything had been going his way. The only thing that had changed for him in the months before his disappearance had been her.
Her mother had gotten pregnant and he was going to be a father. That had to be it then, didn't it? Her birth meant the end of his adventures. She was what drove him away.
But as a child, she still hadn't fully rationalized her way through that yet. As a child, she still didn't fully understand why, when the topic of her missing father came up, her chest would start to constrict and she'd start looking for excuses to run away. Why whenever anyone compared her to him, tiny pinpricks of irritation or resentment began to manifest. But they were small feelings back then. Quiet, dark impulses that chittered at the edges of her psyche like Zubat, out of sight, never fully addressed, never fully formed.
At least, not until she turned ten and her own pokemon journey finally began.
That was the day everything changed.
The way that a trainer starts their pokemon journey is different in every country AJ had visited. But in Kanto, a place mired in tradition, it was typical for ten-year-olds to gather in Pallet Town, at the central lab run by the Oak family, where they would take their final test for their trainer's license and, if they passed, receive a Pokedex and be given their very first pokemon.
True, you didn't have to do this - most cities would let you take the test either in city hall or at a designated testing center, and you could theoretically start your journey from anywhere you wanted. But starting your journey from Pallet Town was a time-honored tradition, something that you just 'did' if you grew up in Kanto, and while in later years AJ would come to enjoy and even prefer shirking tradition in favor of whatever felt right at the time, in those early days, it had been very important to her to start her journey off right.
She'd flown out the day before after saying goodbye to her mother and her aunt Daisy. Grandma Delia had picked her up from the airport up in Veridian, and she'd spent the evening with her grandmother being forced to listen to endless stories about how her father had started his journey and how he'd woken up late and nearly missed getting his first pokemon so she had better rest up and make sure she set her alarm properly or she'd end up just like him.
AJ hadn't needed any extra incentive to get up early. There wasn't a chance she'd be late to this. In fact, she'd gotten there too early and was forced to wait impatiently on a rickety bench outside the testing center for two whole hours, tapping her tennis shoes on the cold concrete and ignoring the nervous mutterings of her peers as they slowly trickled in behind her.
While some of the other kids were reviewing their notes or angsting pathetically about the test they were about to take, the most commonly repeated topic of conversation was about which pokemon they were going to pick as their starter. It seemed like everyone wanted to know what the others were doing, as if the opinions of strangers had any bearing on a decision this important.
In Kanto, like in most countries, you would be provided with a small selection of pokemon to choose from upon obtaining your license, assuming you didn't already have a starter prepared by a relative or close friend. And while the Oaks generally had a wide selection of young, safe picks for newbie trainers for their first partner, the selection always included Charmanders, Bulbasaurs, and Squirtles, and it was typically one of those three who newly-licensed trainers would end up leaving the building and beginning their journeys with. Again, tradition.
Unlike most of her peers, however, who had spent a considerable amount of time deliberating over the decision, weighing the pros and cons of each one, for AJ, there had never been any question. After all, she was the daughter of Misty Waterflower and had grown up in Cerulean City running around the gym and splashing in the pools. Her mother's love of water-type pokemon had soaked into AJ's bloodstream. In a way, this decision had been something she'd been born to make.
A Squirtle. Just the thought alone was enough to make her smile. She was going to pick a Squirtle.
Really, it was the perfect choice. Some trainers favored Bulbasaur, as it gave you a slight advantage over the first two gyms typically challenged along the traditional gym track that most trainers followed - though of course, you could challenge them in any order you wanted, so this line of thinking was mostly only applicable to traditionalists. Bulbasaur was seen as the safe pick and was sometimes looked down on for that reason, but any trainer with half a brain knew the power that a Venosaur could bring to the team. Bulbasaur was an excellent choice.
Others preferred Charmander for the opposite reason - they liked the extra challenge that confronting the Pewter and Cerulean gyms provided by starting with a fire-type and in her opinion were usually trying to show off. That didn't make Charmander bad by any means. Charizards were famous around the world - Lance had a Charizard on his team, and he was the Champion. That was all that really needed to be said about that.
And while she knew that both were strong options and had their own set of pros and cons, AJ had spent very little time actually considering them. Her heart had been set on Squirtle since she was old enough to think. There was no question in her mind about who she was going to pick. She'd even already spent some of the starting money she'd been given by her mom on quality food and vitamins specifically meant for aquatic reptilian pokemon so she could make sure it would grow up big and strong. She'd even planned out her future team completely around the Blastoise she knew she'd one day have.
She'd spent years dreaming of this moment, and now, finally, it was here. She couldn't wait. Before the day was done, she'd have her very first pokemon and would be taking her first steps towards destiny.
So imagine her surprise when, after passing the test with flying colors and being issued her very own trainer's license, she was pulled aside by one of the aids just as she was moving to join the queue of other successful trainers getting in line to choose their partners and was told that Professor Oak Senior had wanted to speak with her.
She'd assumed he'd just wanted to say hello and wish her luck before she left. He was sentimental like that, and while he wasn't actually her great-grandfather, in a way he was and had always treated her as such. She loved him a lot - he'd always made time for her when she was visiting, answering her questions about pokemon and the world at large and doting on her affectionately - but if she were being honest, she really didn't want to see him right now. Her Squirtle was right over there somewhere, just waiting for her. Couldn't she go see him after?
But she was pulled out of the queue and away from the room where the other trainers were receiving their starters. The aid led her down a long hallway, then up two flights of stairs and down another hallway before finally dropping her off inside a darkly furnished office where she found not the elderly Professor Oak but instead his actual great-grandchild, Sammy, standing against the wall and nervously fidgeting with the edges of his brand-name sweater vest.
AJ stopped at the threshold and stared.
Sammy was here today? She hadn't seen him downstairs; did he not take the test? Or did he take it earlier and already had his license? Did he already have his starter? If so, which one did he pick? Probably Charmander. He was full of himself like that.
Her and Sammy's relationship was… odd. In a way, she assumed that they were almost like cousins, except her actual cousins were six and two respectively and she loved them both like the younger siblings she never had. But she saw Sammy usually a few times per year when she came down to Pallet to see her grandma or if the Oaks were in Cerulean for whatever reason and the two had gotten on well enough when they were little.
But at some point, the knowledge that both of their fathers had been rivals when they were younger had cemented itself in AJ's head, and she had taken it upon herself to decide that she needed a rival too, otherwise, how was she going to be a strong trainer?
It didn't help that Sammy was so naturally confident and good at everything, or that being an Oak meant he got everything he wanted. Her belief that she needed a rival mixed in with unrecognized feelings of jealousy and resentment, and had created something of a strained atmosphere between the two over the past couple of years, and now they didn't really talk anymore. But that was fine. He was going to be her rival. It was better this way.
In later years, AJ would look back and realize that maybe it hadn't been so easy being for Sammy, living with the constant weight of the Oak legacy pressing down on him. That maybe he more than anyone could sympathize with what it was like when your father was a household name and everyone else was forcing their expectations on you. That maybe his constant fidgeting, the way he was always adjusting his clothes or his hair, was a nervous reaction from a boy not knowing how to process his anxiety and not the actions of a vain showoff trying to call attention to his appearance. Maybe his familiar crooked smirk wasn't supposed to be condescending but was instead a subconscious nervous reaction when he wasn't sure how to proceed - something she apparently brought out of him a lot.
But AJ had been ten then. Immature and blind to the way the world looked through any lens that was not her own. And Sammy was just her rival - nothing more or less than a measuring post, a convenient tool for her to use to gauge her progress and spur her onward. His thoughts and feelings barely registered to her.
Thankfully, she didn't have to make small talk with Sammy, because almost as soon as she'd arrived, Professor Oak Senior came shuffling up behind her, ushering her all the way into his office with an excited smile far too energetic for a man his age, carrying a small box in his hands.
"Well now, can you believe it?" the older man began, a genial smile on his face as he shuffled slowly around his desk, holding on to the filing cabinet for support. "The day has finally arrived. Feels like just yesterday that the two of you were born, and now…"
Great, he was rambling again. She didn't have time for this; what if they gave all the Squirtles away?!
"Did you need us for something, Professor?" AJ asked, doing her best to not let her frustration show through. Really, she did love the man, but he talked so much and she didn't have any time to waste here.
"I have a little surprise for the two of you," he said, positively brimming with excitement and anticipation as he gently eased himself down into his thickly-padded chair. "I know we're not supposed to play favorites, but I'm retired now so I can do what I want. And after all, the two of you, starting your journeys on the same day, just like your fathers…? Well, you can't blame an old man for feeling nostalgic."
There it was again, that uncomfortable tightening sensation in her chest. A foreign sort of anxiety was welling up inside of her, a sense of foreboding, like some part of her instinctively knew that something unpleasant was about to happen, but for the life of her, she couldn't figure out what.
Professor Oak Senior spared her from having to try to puzzle it out by setting the small plain box on the desk in front of him, turned so that it was facing them, and slowly lifted the lid upward.
Inside, nestled in pillowy folds of lavender, sat two glistening pokeballs.
"I have two special starters here, picked out just for you!"
Something in AJ's stomach knotted painfully together. It felt like her insides were being squeezed so tightly that they were soon going to form a dense, leaden ball.
No.
No, no, no, no!
A Squirtle. She wanted a Squirtle! She'd always wanted a Squirtle!
It didn't matter what was in that ball. It could have been a Gyarados and she wouldn't want it.
This isn't what was supposed to happen. It was supposed to be her choice! This isn't what she wanted!
"Sammy," Professor Oak continued, completely oblivious to the way that AJ was currently spiraling out of control. "You come first. Yours is on the left - ah, my left, your right. Your parents and I had this planned out for quite a while, I think you're going to be just thrilled!"
If Sammy felt at all betrayed the same way that AJ did about the senile professor and his parents taking this decision away from him without so much as a 'by your leave', he was doing a great job of hiding it. With only a second of hesitation in which he wiped his palms on the sides of his pants, he reached the desk in two steps and slowly reached out, pulling the pokeball out of the box with a trembling hand.
A moment later, he pressed the button and, in a familiar effusion of light, a small, fuzzy brown creature materialized on the desk.
Curled in a ball, clearly having been sleeping, it slowly blinked its large amber eyes open and gazed up at Sammy with a mixture of curiosity and uncertainty that perfectly mirrored his own.
It was an Eevee. He'd been given an Eevee. Just like his father.
The ball in AJ's stomach tightened even further. Suddenly, she could see what was coming for her, inevitable, like a train rushing down toward her from the other side of a dark tunnel.
Oak was still talking, but AJ was hardly listening. Something about Sammy's Eevee being the offspring of his father's Umbreon and his mother's Glaceon and how poetic and beautiful it was that they were going to start their journeys together.
Sammy hardly seemed to be listening either, but he'd reached out his hand tentatively towards his first-ever pokemon and seemed both surprised and delighted that it was letting him pet it, gently rubbing its head and its big soft ears against his palm, mewling affectionately. He didn't look so uncertain anymore.
Too soon, Oak was turning his attention to her, inviting her to come forward. She was lucky that he seemed to care more about his actual great-grandchild than her, because the way he kept glancing over at Sammy, who had scooped his Eevee up into his arms and stepped away from the desk to give AJ space, was distracting him from the way she was desperately fighting to school her features.
She couldn't let him see that she was upset. Professor Oak was a sweet old man, he really was trying to do something nice for her. She didn't want to disappoint him. She didn't want to break down in tears in front of him and Sammy because of what was about to happen. Because she knew exactly what was about to happen, and it wasn't fair.
She picked up the pokeball, barely registering the slight chill of the cool metal because her fingers seemed to have gone momentarily numb, and clicked the button on the front of the ball.
There was another burst of light. A yellow figure appeared on the desk, immediately beaming up at her with bright, curious eyes and a friendly smile.
It wasn't a Pikachu.
It was worse.
A Pichu? They'd given her a Pichu?! But it…! It was a baby! She couldn't start her journey having to take care of a baby pokemon! How was she supposed to battle?! How was she supposed to catch anything else to round out her team?! What was she supposed to do when she came up against Brock?! Why would they do this to her?!
The pokemon seemed completely oblivious to its new master's disgust and contempt. Her entire body had stiffened, her hand still extended, still holding its ball in white-knuckled fingers, and it had moved forward to sniff and then affectionately lick them.
She almost jerked her hand away but stopped herself. It wasn't its fault. It had no way of knowing that she didn't want it. That it being given to her had crushed a dream she'd cherished since she was small, ruined plans she'd been making for years. All because some senile old man felt sentimental. All because the people around her couldn't seem to let go of some dead man she'd never met.
Professor Oak was still talking, still rambling like always, completely oblivious to how thoroughly his supposed kindness had destroyed her. Pichu was greeting Sammy's Eevee now, who had hopped back onto the desk to say hello. Only Sammy seemed to be paying her any attention, occasionally shooting her unreadable glances out of the corner of his eye.
But she paid him no mind. She wasn't paying attention to anything. She had gone numb. All she wanted to do was run away to someplace quiet where no one could see her cry.
When Sammy had challenged her to her first battle, immediately after leaving the building several minutes later, if he'd been surprised by the fury that had shown on her face when they squared off for the first time, he didn't let it show.
And if he noticed the tears in her eyes when she lost, recalling her fallen starter and turning away without a word, trying not to let the others see her wipe her cheeks, he never commented on it. If he had noticed, he probably thought she was just upset at having lost her very first pokemon battle.
But honestly? That had been the furthest thing from her mind.
As it turned out, the trip from Cerulean City to New Bark Town in Johto was going to end up taking longer than AJ would have liked.
This was partially her fault. She'd intended to leave her mother's seaside mansion on the cape and fly straight to Saffron City, where they could catch the magnet train and be in Johto within a few hours, but she'd forgotten that Jade was still dolled up in her party dress and wasn't fit for a trek up a dangerous mountain. To say nothing of her team which she'd left behind at the gym in Pewter City; of the three, only AJ had her main team with her at the house, and they were easy enough to gather up since they were all still loitering around outside.
This meant that the trio was forced to make a detour westward, over Route Four and past Mt. Moon, in the complete opposite direction of Saffron.
This wouldn't have been a problem, except once you factored in the distance they'd have to fly from Pewter to Saffron if they still wanted to catch the train, and then from Goldenrod to New Bark Town, the detour would have easily tripled the length of their journey.
Still, there was no use in complaining. She was the one who had decided that they should go on this spur-of-the-moment trip with zero warning. Besides, it's not like they were in a rush, and the Kanto and Johto regions were relatively small, at least compared to places like Kalos or Unova. Heading west over the mountains would still take longer than taking the train, sure, but if they flew through the night, they could be in Johto by morning.
Her companions hadn't been as keen on that idea as she was.
"We are not," Jade said emphatically as they left her home in Pewter, heading south towards Pallet Town so Sammy could pick up a few things himself, "flying all night to Johto just so you can climb up some dumb mountain a little bit faster! Some of us need our beauty sleep! Sammy, say something. Talk some sense into her."
Sammy, who was riding on the back of his Corviknight, glanced over at his two friends sitting on Jade's Metagross, and shrugged.
"We can stay the night at the lab," he offered, his voice coming through the mic on his pokegear so they could hear him over the roar of the wind. "My parents won't be back for a few days anyway."
AJ sighed but acquiesced. She supposed expecting them to fly all night was a little silly… and it's not like the mountain was going anywhere.
Still, it was hard to curb the restlessness that had bubbled up within her ever since Sammy had mentioned this chance for one last adventure. Maybe it was anxiety about taking on her new role as Champion and all of the responsibilities that were bound to come with it, or maybe she just wanted something else to dwell on aside from how awful she'd been to her mother and how she'd ruined her party tonight. Whatever the case, she wanted to be at the mountain now - today, even though that wasn't possible. She just wanted to escape the world for a bit with the people she cared about most and pretend, even just for a little while, that they were naive, bright-eyed kids again with the whole world at their fingertips.
They arrived at the famous Oak lab in Pallet Town about an hour after leaving Pewter, which was pretty decent all things considered. It was dark out as they disembarked on the grass, the area almost completely silent save for Pichu leaping about energetically as he reveled in his freedom; AJ had been forced to keep a secure hold on him during the flight due to his tendency to take flying leaps into the open air and laugh uproariously as Metagross was forced to catch him with its psychic powers to stop the little mouse from being splattered across the ground below.
Aside from that, the trip had been great. Metagross could book it if it wanted to, and with its ability to encase its riders in psychic shields to protect them from being buffeted by the wind, the trip had been fairly relaxing. Almost like owning a flying car. Maybe she needed to get herself a Metagross one of these days.
The same wasn't true for Sammy. His Corviknight was faster and more agile than Jade's Metagross, but he'd been at the full mercy of the wind during the trip. As he slid down off of his pokemon's side, slightly bow-legged and taking a moment to pause and stretch his tired back, AJ found a playful smile growing on her face as she took in his disheveled appearance.
"Uh oh, watch out," she joked, stepping closer and reaching a playful hand up toward his head. He reflexively slapped it away, however, looking alarmed, and when she tried a second time, he did it again. This was followed by a tense pause as Sammy glared at her in silent warning and AJ responded with a gleeful, predatory smile.
A moment later, the two were engaged in a violent struggle as AJ tried to tousle Sammy's already windswept hair and Sammy desperately tried to fend her off, the air suddenly filled with the sounds of his annoyed grunts and her spastic laughter.
Jade, who had been seeing to her Metagross, turned around to the source of the commotion and stared.
"What are you idiots doing?"
"Jade!" AJ laughed, lunging again for Sammy's hair and missing as he dodged out of the way. "Quick! Call the fashion police! Sammy doesn't look perfect!"
Her childhood friend bristled at the age-old snipe, but all attempts to escape his smaller assailant were seemingly in vain.
"Will…! You…! Stop…?!"
Sammy's heel struck a rock in the darkness and he fell back, arms windmilling comically for a moment before he grabbed at AJ's hand in reflex as though she could somehow catch him. She obviously could not, being a head and a half shorter than him. Instead, he pulled her along into his fall.
She crashed down on top of him with a pained 'oof!' and lay still for a moment to catch her breath, inhaling both the scent of the grass and his cologne. Maybe he had done something to prepare for the party. When she finally pushed herself up on her hands, she took stock of his annoyed expression before spitting her hair out of her mouth and sending him a guilty smile.
Slowly, she reached up and ruffled his hair.
"Got you!" she said with a winded chuckle.
"Yeah, great. Now get off me."
AJ acquiesced, pushing herself to her feet and stretching, grinning ostentatiously, watching as Sammy brushed at the grass stains on his pants with a murderous glower.
"Can you two, like, stop flirting and let us inside? I have to pee."
Sammy pushed past them, stomping around to the front door of his parents' home-slash-laboratory, muttering mutinously under his breath. As always, AJ took his frustration to be a sign of victory.
"What was that about?" Jade asked, lowering her voice as she stepped in closer.
AJ frowned.
"What was what?"
"That. That right there. You know what I'm asking about."
She shrugged, looking away out into the darkness of the night.
"I don't know… I guess I am being a little too hyper. I just… Tonight sucked, you know? But I'm really looking forward to this trip and… I've missed you both, like a lot. I'm probably being a little too excited. And I just want to distract myself from my mom for a bit."
Jade stared at her, and for a moment, AJ felt like she was being x-rayed.
"Yeah, I get you," she finally conceded, turning away as Sammy opened the door and marched inside without looking back at either of them, though he left the door open in an unspoken invitation.
AJ moved to follow, but Jade suddenly brushed past her with a murmured, "Just be careful or someone is going to get the wrong idea."
She stopped, confused, but Jade kept going, entering the house without another word to AJ.
Wrong idea? About what? Her and Sammy? But nobody was there to see them but her!
Shaking her head, she followed her friends into the familiar house. Sammy's home was actually attached to his father's lab, but though you could freely move from one to the other, the two had separate external entrances.
Their living room was just as she had always remembered it; clean white walls decorated with fanciful landscape paintings that Leaf had carefully curated throughout the years, glimmering mahogany flooring that was always pristine thanks to their legion of maids. They had a pair of couches surrounding a heavy walnut coffee table that was perched atop a thick rug that featured stylized depictions of Pyroar on the savannah. Everything from the classy furniture to the gilded vases to the ornate chandelier screamed opulence. She teased Sammy a lot over the years about being a spoiled little rich kid, but… well, it wasn't a lie. He really was a spoiled little rich kid.
Said spoiled little rich kid was now ambling back in her direction, hands in his pockets and a lazy look having replaced his annoyance from earlier. That was good; she loved to tease him, but Jade was right. She probably needed to calm down.
"Well," he said as he drew near, "Her Highness has found the bathroom and peace has been restored to the world. You can put your stuff wherever, and you know where your team can sleep for the night. I'm guessing we're leaving bright and early?"
AJ nodded, meaning the response to be a yes to everything he'd said. Jade's attitude should improve now that she was liberating her bladder, and after years of visits, she knew exactly which artificial habitats were where so her team could sleep easy tonight. Well, aside from the two who would be staying with her.
"Wait, so where am I sleeping?" she asked, more for want of something to say than actual curiosity. She knew what the answer probably was.
"Couch," Sammy replied as he pointed across the room to his family's camel-back sofa, exactly as she had expected.
She couldn't stop the grin from worming its way onto her face, however, as the urge to tease him suddenly flared up inside of her once more. Something about his presence just brought this out of her. Jade wouldn't be happy.
"Oh?" she said, feigning an innocent voice and knowing she'd failed instantly as Sammy's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "We'll be out here? You don't want to have a sleepover in your bedroom for old time's sake?"
He scoffed, not even phased.
"What old times are those? You never slept over in my room. Ever. My dad would have killed me."
"Yeah, but he's not here now," she pressed, stepping closer and smiling up at him. "You could have two pretty girls in your room tonight. Doesn't that excite you?"
A look of legitimate horror crossed his face and he quickly stepped away.
"That sounds like a nightmare actually," he said, rubbing at his eyes. "Are you really so eager to sleep on the floor?"
"Oh, no; me and Jade would take the bed. You'd be on the floor."
"Couch," he repeated sternly, earning a laugh from her. He shook his head before turning to walk away.
"Hey, Sammy?" she called out before he disappeared down the hall.
He turned, lifting his eyebrows, looking too tired to respond.
"...Thanks. For suggesting this, I mean. I really needed it."
For a moment, he simply looked at her. The house was quiet, the lights soft and dim and warm. The expression on his face was completely lost to her.
Finally, he turned away.
"Yeah. You're welcome."
AJ awoke early the next morning to the dulcet tones of what any sane person might have assumed was a pair of Onyx engaged in a bout of professional wrestling.
Years of experience, however, had taught her that that was actually what Jade sounded like when she snored. And though she'd gotten used to it during their travels and had even gotten to the point where she could sleep through it, a few years of separation was enough to have desensitized herself to it completely.
Waking up meant more than dealing with her best friend's snoring, however. As the thin rays of morning light pierced through the gaps between the blinds, casting the room in slanting strips of burnished gold, the memory of how she had arrived in the Oak's living room came back to her with the dull thunk of leadened guilt dropping into her gut. She groaned in equal parts exhaustion and dismay, stretching her tired limbs and upsetting the couch cushions that had up until now cocooned her.
Great. Reality was back and now she had to face it.
She could try to go back to sleep, she supposed. It was still early, after all; no doubt Jade and Sammy would still be out for a while. But she knew herself well enough to know that if she tried, she'd end up just lying awake, stewing in regrets over how she handled last night. Might as well get up and face the day on her feet. Like a Champion.
She managed to extricate herself from her pillowy prison without too much trouble, though she took a moment to marvel at Jade's sleeping posture on the opposite couch; one foot up over the backrest and an arm draped across the coffee table with her head dangling off the cushion, she looked like a Staryu that had dried up under the summer sun.
As she crept around the eerily quiet Oak home on pink-socked feet, careful not to wake her friends or alert any pokemon who might be up and wandering around the home, she set off on a quest to satisfy her two greatest needs; taking a pee and a hot shower. Unfortunately, it wasn't long until full alertness brought along with it thoughts about her mother and how she was reacting to the events of last night.
She had to have noticed by now, right? Sure, maybe she went straight to bed after the guests had finally left and didn't come up to AJ's room to check on her - it was possible, though she doubted it, especially since the ever-meddlesome Daisy had still been around - but now that it was morning, she had to have realized that her daughter had run off in the dead of the night like some melodramatic preteen.
She was probably furious. And still hurt. And disappointed. Oh, Arceus, she really screwed up this time. She should probably do something… give her a call? No, no phones - not right now. She still needed time. Time to… work up to the apology she knew she had to give. Why was apologizing so much harder when you were apologizing to someone you actually cared about? She could apologize to randos all day; what did they matter? Her mom, though...
But her mom wasn't the only one who deserved an apology, AJ considered as she finished toweling off and studied her reflection in the foggy mirror. Grandma Delia did as well. Sure, she hadn't gone off at her directly, but… she'd been right there, she'd heard everything she'd said…
Maybe she could start by apologizing to her. That felt… easier. Like a stepping stone. Something she could do first to work up to apologizing to her mom.
But she still didn't want to talk to anyone right now, and Grandma Delia was almost certainly still asleep…
And so it was that, a few minutes later, after getting dressed and grabbing a slice of bread since she felt too guilty about helping herself to the food in the Oak's kitchen, AJ left the house and the still-snoring starfish and set off down the hill under the warming rays of the rising sun with Pichu riding about on top of her hat.
Her grandmother's house was just visible on the horizon. She and the Oaks were neighbors, technically, if only in the sense that they were the closest residences to one another. The Oaks owned a large estate on the edge of town, owing to their need to monitor acres and acres of land to let the pokemon owned by the trainers from Pallet roam free and get the air and exercise they needed.
Grandma Delia lived nearby not because she needed the space, but because she wanted it - and because at the time they'd moved in, the land had been cheap seeing as nothing else was nearby. The land was now considered prime real estate, but no one had ever managed to convince her grandmother to sell.
She had once asked her why. Her response had been that she always wanted her family to know where their home was.
The house was quiet when she arrived; the interior dark, no sound save for a gaggle of Oddishes traipsing about the well-kept garden. But AJ had expected it to be; Grandma was staying with her mom for a couple of days, she knew. That didn't mean the house was left unoccupied, however.
AJ took a moment to fish her keyring out of her backpack while Pichu ran about the yard scattering the Oddishes away. She almost never used her keys, seeing as she was rarely home, but she always kept them on her. She only had three; one for her home on Cerulean Cape, one for her aunt Daisy's place in downtown Cerulean proper, and one for here. She slid the key into the lock and gently pushed the door open, careful not to make too much noise.
Her plan failed when Pichu ran in between her legs, squeaking in obnoxious delight. Why did she even bother?
Well, may as well let him know she wasn't a robber. Though knowing him, if he was awake, he already knew exactly who she was.
"Hello?" she called, only slightly raising her voice. "Mimey? Are you awake? It's me!"
The sound of approaching footsteps plodding down the hall caught her attention, and she turned and smiled as her grandmother's aging Mr. Mime entered the kitchen.
The years were certainly taking their toll on him, but he smiled at her as genially as ever. His face was lined and wrinkled, his knees and elbows more knobbly than ever, and the tufts of blue hair sticking out from either side of his head had dulled to something that was more gray than not. Still, though his eyes were sunken and becoming a little milky, they still shone with familial delight at the sight of her.
AJ knew a lot of people who didn't like Mr. Mimes - Sammy included. They thought they were creepy. AJ had never been able to understand that, however. Mimey wasn't just a pokemon, he was part of the family.
She stepped forward and enveloped the pokemon in a warm hug, careful not to squeeze too tight. Pichu jumped up on her back, climbing around her backpack and ending up on Mimey's head, which was apparently his idea of a greeting; he was eight years old - nearly at half the life expectancy for his species - but he still acted like a child. She supposed that was a natural result of him never evolving.
He chittered happily for a moment before Mimey, scowling up at his forehead, gently lifted him with telekinesis and lowered him to the ground, where he promptly scampered off into the next room, exploring as though he hadn't been here a thousand times before.
Mimey pointed to the stove for a moment as though asking if she wanted breakfast before immediately hobbling off to get started.
"Ah - wait, you don't have to-!"
But he wasn't listening, already pulling green onions and imitation Farfetch'd eggs out of the refrigerator and pulling out a host of pots and pans.
Once he got started, there was no stopping him outside of challenging him to a battle and knocking him out. Instead, AJ found herself sitting at the kitchen table, awkwardly staring out the window and trying not to fidget.
He knew, she decided. Knew she'd done something stupid. Why else would she be here when her grandmother wasn't? Why else come here alone first thing in the morning when he knew the night before she'd been having a party way up in Cerulean? He was too smart for her own good. Psychic-types always were, but this one had watched her grow up and knew her better than almost anyone. He could have read her even without his psychic powers. Not that Mr. Mimes were particularly adept at reading minds, but emotions? They were scarily good at that.
No point in hiding it. May as well face the music.
"Bet you're wondering what I'm doing here, huh?"
He didn't respond. But then, he didn't have to. The question hung in the air like dust.
"...I had a fight with mom," she confessed, her voice low as she addressed the tabletop.
Mimey stayed silent, his hands moving deftly even in his old age as he puttered about the kitchen, but something in the set of his back had her opening up to him better than if he'd come at her with tongs and hot irons.
"About my dad, I mean. And I… I said some things that… I know I shouldn't have. And Grandma, she… heard all of it."
Here, she risked a glance up to find that Mimey was finally looking at her. He had an expression on his face that was… hard to describe. Bright eyes, gently upturned eyebrows, a soft set to his withered lips… Somehow, it seemed to be a reminder, firm yet not unkind, that her Grandma loved her - would always love her - and that there was nothing she could possibly do to change that.
She had no idea how she knew that. Maybe it was just wishful thinking. But then, she had always more or less understood what Mimey was trying to tell her.
"I know," she replied, letting her gaze fall back down to the table.
She did know. She knew better than most that her Grandma could endure just about any injustice and still find it in her heart to love. But that only made it worse.
She didn't want to be like that.
After a moment, she stood up from the table and left the room. She didn't go far, though. The house wasn't all that large, and the kitchen was directly connected to the living room, which held only an old recliner, a soft couch, several bookshelves, and an outdated television, with a staircase in the corner heading up to the bedrooms on the second story. She stopped in front of the mantlepiece and paused for a moment to look at the photographs.
In almost twenty years, they had barely changed. They moved through time from left to right like a roll of film. On the right were pictures of her; one of her and her friends, her with her mom, the day she got her first badge, the day she got her first pokemon…
Then there, in the middle. The day she was born. The first picture of her. The first picture without him.
The picture directly beside it was a photo from her parents' wedding. Her mother looked so young. Both looked so happy. But they couldn't have been. Not really. Not considering what happened next. Pictures were worth a thousand words, but no one ever said those words were true.
She shifted her eyes to the left, watching her father's life pass by in reverse for what felt like the hundredth time. Him finally becoming the Champion. Him with his friends, some she knew well like Gary or Brock; others she had only met in passing, like May or Dawn or Serena. Him getting his first gym badge. Him getting his first pokemon.
Then, finally, the first picture of him. The day he was born.
And there, standing beside Delia, holding her father in his arms…
Her grandfather. The first person to abandon her grandma. The person who had, perhaps, started it all. Their terrible family legacy.
But it would end with AJ. No one would ever leave her Grandma again.
AJ might be running, but it wasn't forever. She just… needed to get out for a little while. Get away and settle her head. It was different from what her father had done, what her grandfather had done. She wasn't disappearing without saying a word to anyone. She wasn't going off alone. She would be back. She would be.
It was different. It was.
Guilt had her retreating to the kitchen again. The silence with Mimey may be awkward, but it was better than stewing alone in a room full of pictures of her dad.
After a couple of minutes, she asked Mimey if she could borrow a pen and some paper. May as well do something with her hands to pass the time, and she had wanted to start her apologies with her grandmother anyway.
She hesitated, the tip of the pen barely inches away from the page.
What should she say? What could she say that didn't sound... insincere? Hollow? Flippant? If apologizing to her grandma through a letter was this tough, how impossible was it going to be when she finally saw her mom again face-to-face?
After an agonizing few seconds, she finally lowered the pen and wrote, her letters forming into shaky, hesitant shapes, 'I'm sorry. I love you. AJ.'
Well, that was exhausting. Six words should not be so draining. She moved to put the pen down until she realized that, out of context, that could almost sound like some kind of dramatic and ominous farewell. Especially to a woman who had already been abandoned by both her husband and her son.
Hastily, she put the pen back down and scribbled out a quick 'PS - heading to Mt. Silver in Johto with Jade and Sammy. Will be back within a month. I'll bring you a souvenir!'
There. That sounded better, and not like she was about to vanish from off the face of the world. Bet her deadbeat dad hadn't even done that much. See? She was better than him in every way imaginable.
She almost added a 'Please don't tell mom' to the end there, but stopped herself. That would just sound childish. Besides, no matter how mad her mom was, she wasn't about to pack up shop and tear off after her. Right?
For a moment, she considered adding it again, but stopped herself. Her grandma was more likely to side with her mom in this situation anyway.
She stuck around her grandma's place for a little while longer, catching up with Mimey and letting Pichu burn through some of his never-ending energy, but before an hour had passed she was already up and out the door, heading back to the Oak's lab.
The sooner her friends were up, the sooner they'd be on their way, and the sooner she'd arrive at Mt. Silver. And then she could just… put this all behind her for a while. Yeah. That's what she needed. An escape.
She ignored the voice in her head telling her that that's probably exactly what her father and grandfather had been thinking the last time they'd walked out Delia's doorway, too.