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Loser

"If you don't do wild things while you're young, you'll have nothing to smile about when you're old."

–Unknown

She realized quickly that silence was the only way.

This whole 'Noir thing' was causing her a lot of problems. Everything was totally different, but she had to hide that anything was different. It was hard and confusing and she didn't know how she was getting away with it. But somehow she was. It was nice, though, that she wasn't sick anymore, save for a slight cough, so that nothing could distract her.

For some reason, her mother and her sisters weren't able to see Noir. They would ask her what she was looking at and she would just say "nothing." It was the only thing she could think to say, since she didn't know why they didn't already know that it was Noir.

At first, Misty had been content to hide Noir on the far side of her bed, away from her sisters' vision and interest. To make hiding even easier, sometimes Noir would vanish even from Misty's sight. She didn't know to where or why, but she didn't think about it too much either. It made her lonely, but Noir always showed up again soon.

Then Misty realized that she was being dumb. If her mom and her sisters couldn't see Noir, then why was she even bothering to hide her? So, Misty began gallivanting around the house with Noir in toe and without a care.

That morning, Misty went downstairs for breakfast, followed closely by Noir. All was normal except for the fact that today was pancake day—one of Misty's favorite days. So she eagerly made her way to the kitchen, as did Noir, who had taken up a certain fondness for syrup.

Her mother was working at the stove, her back turned while Violet was perched atop a tall stool at the kitchen island, happily eating away. Until she wasn't.

"What the hell is that?"

"Language, Violet!"

"But Mom, look!"

"Oh, my goodness!"

Suddenly all eyes were on Misty. Or approximately one meter behind her. Misty could tell that they were resting directly on Noir. However, she turned anyway and saw how taken aback Noir was; clearly she was as confused as Misty.

Noir was frozen that way for only a second and then closed in on herself as though she was a shy wallflower. Suddenly a slight blue glow surrounded her form—a look to which Misty had grown accustomed.

"Misty, did you see that?" Violet asked, a slight tremolo to her voice.

"Uh…" She didn't know what the right answer was. "No," was her best guess, because that had been how she had been dealing with the situation so far, but now she wasn't sure. They had seen Noir? But they didn't see her now? How was that possible? "See what?"

"Why, sweetheart, it was right behind you."

Violet and her mother turned to look at each other, twin looks of puzzlement on their faces. "Was it, like, a Pokémon?" Violet asked. "I didn't get a good look, but it seemed like one."

Fleur chewed on the confusion, trying to think through it. "It…it looked like a Banette."

Misty wiped her palms against her shorts. She didn't like this. She didn't like this one bit. She should have kept Noir hidden. But why did they see her today?

"A Banette?"

"It's a Ghost Pokémon," Fleur explained. "I've never seen one before, but they're said to come from the Hoenn region."

"Spooky."

"Mom," Misty interrupted, "could I eat my breakfast in my room? I don't feel too good."

Fleur looked concerned, walking over to Misty and putting a hand to her forehead. "Really? What's the matter?"

Misty looked down, trying to veer away from her mother's hand. "I don't know. Nothing. I just wanna eat in my room."

Fleur took a step back and continued to eye Misty carefully. "Of course, sweetheart. But be sure to tell me if you feel ill."

"I will."

Misty picked up her breakfast, which was already heaped and steaming on a plate, thanks to her mother. She was careful to take a little extra syrup for Noir before scurrying back up the way she'd come. She closed the door to her room quickly, thankful that both Daisy and Lily were at sleepovers at friends' houses.

She set the food down unceremoniously on her bed and looked at Noir bewilderedly. "What just happened?"

Noir, however, didn't have any more of an answer than Misty did. But unlike Misty, Noir shrugged it off and reached for a pancake, dipping it lavishly in some syrup. Misty watched her do so, curiously noting that the glow that had been surrounding Noir's body for the last few minutes faded away.

"Noir," Misty started uncertainly, "why do you glow sometimes?"

Hesitating with the pancake, Noir threw Misty a confused look. "Nette?"

"You don't know?"

"Banette."

"Do you feel different?" Misty asked, trying another angle.

Misty could see that Noir was really thinking about it, but after a moment she shrugged her shoulders in a way that clearly said, "Maybe?"

Misty sighed. She wasn't getting anywhere and she hated not understanding. It made her feel left out. But she was frustrated and didn't want to deal with it anymore, so she took a pancake of her own, not even bothering to put syrup on it. She then took her anger out on the bread by ripping it with her teeth and a snap of her neck and chewing vigorously.

It was pretty pathetic, but it made her feel a little better until her jaw started to hurt.

But even as she tried to forget about it, she felt her resolve grow.

She was going to figure this out.

A few days passed, and nothing. No new discoveries but, thankfully, also no more drama. Misty had returned to hiding Noir until she figured this whole glowy thing out. But that also meant becoming quite the recluse. She mostly left the room for food and observing battling and training, and she rarely went outside.

"Misty, you don't have to be, like, always in our room," Lily said while Daisy did her makeup.

But Misty was sitting on her bed, looking down at Noir, who was crouched on the far side, keeping herself out of sight. This was what she had been spending most of her time doing when her sisters were home.

Never had she been so glad that her sisters chose to do a lot of things without her, outside their room and outside the Gym. Usually she felt left out but now it was a relief not to have to work so hard to hide Noir. Especially when she didn't know when she really needed to. Fortunately, they were getting ready to go out right now. Unfortunately, that meant that they had already spent an hour and a half working out what they were going to wear, their hair, and now their makeup.

"Yeah, you should hang out with the neighbors' kids more. Make some friends. Get out of the house," Daisy suggested, maintaining strong eye contact with one of Lily's eyes.

"Why should I?" Misty asked with a pout.

"You don't want to be a loser," Violet stated simply, flipping the page in a magazine.

"Vi, I was looking at that page!" Daisy hastily stole the magazine out of Violet's grasp and folded it back to the page she wanted. "Do you want me to make Lily look like a Jynx?"

Violet sat back in a huff. "It's my makeup," she grumbled.

"Seriously, Misty," Daisy said, returning to Lily's face, "if you act like this when you start going to school then you're not going to have any friends.

Misty frowned, clenching her comforter between her fists. It wasn't enough, though. She still felt a few angry tears heating up her eyes. She tried to blink them back; she would not cry in front of them. She focused her vision on a particular bubble on her printed bedspread, trying to ensure that it wouldn't blur any further.

Suddenly, her blue bedspread turned purple in her vision. She looked up and noticed that the purple had taken over the whole room.

"Ow, what is that?"

"Like, I don't know!"

Out of the corner of her eye, Misty noticed a red glow. Noir's eyes were glowing red. Like she was attacking or something. "Stop it!" she cried to her.

Abruptly the purple faded from the room and Noir's eyes returned to normal.

"Holy crap, what was that?" Daisy asked, holding her head. "Misty, are you okay?"

Misty looked at her sisters, who all seemed to be in some level of pain. "I'm fine. A-Are you?"

The three sisters looked at each other. "Yeah, fine, I think," Violet said. "But what was that?"

Misty didn't dare spare a look at Noir. "I don't know."

"Okay; well, we should go downstairs and see if Mom experienced any of that or if it was just up here," Violet said.

"See if the Pokémon are okay too," Lily added.

"Misty, like, scream if something like that happens again, alright?"

Misty nodded at Daisy, though she was pretty sure that it wouldn't happen again. Once her sisters left the room she finally looked to Noir. She had no idea what Attack that had been, but she was certain that it had been one.

"Noir, why did you do that?"

Noir huffed and turned away, crossing her arms.

"Why did you attack my sisters?"

Noir's eyes narrowed a little.

That gave Misty pause. Maybe she couldn't understand Noir's language yet, but she was getting really good at reading even little changes in expression. "Do you not like my sisters?"

She knew the answer as soon as she asked it. It was obvious; in fact, she didn't know how she had missed it before. Any time she mentioned her sisters, Noir's expression changed to the one that she was holding now.

"I know they're mean sometimes but you can't use Attacks on people. Any people, okay? It hurts them more than Pokémon."

Reluctantly, Noir nodded.

"Pinky promise?"

Noir extended her hand and the two of them partook in a pinky shake as best they could with Noir's tiny fingers.

"I love my sisters," Misty said quietly after a moment. "We always love our family. They were nice just now and they really are sometimes. Just watch and you'll see."

Her sisters would likely be back any second—assuming Noir's Attack hadn't spread to downstairs. Was Noir strong enough to do something like that? Wasn't she just a baby? Misty wasn't sure, but she had one more thought that she had to share with Noir before her sisters came back and she had to go back to the silence she was becoming trapped in.

"I don't know how we can hide forever but right now I don't know what else to do," she admitted. "We can't have anything weird happening or else you might not be able to be here anymore. I don't want that to happen. You're my best friend."

Noir's previously emotionally barren eyes filled with human feeling. She hopped up on the bed, taking a risk and joining Misty in a hug. Misty reveled in a moment of Noir feeling solid and real. Reluctantly pulling back, Misty smiled, saying, "Okay, now let's work on this glowy thing until they get back."

Weeks flew by and there was no progress with the glowy thing, which was causing Misty and Noir endless frustration. But Misty knew that today wasn't the day to worry about it; she had other things to worry about.

"Girls, it's time."

Ah, yes, time. Time for hesitation, time for waffling. Most certainly not time for what that pressing tone in her mother's voice was insinuating.

"Time to go to the beach!"

Ah, yes, the beach. A sandy haven of bliss and bliss-inducing creatures, once upon a time. Two months ago, when life had been so simple.

Ugh. Being a five-year-old was hard.

Suffice to say, it was not simple anymore. Now Misty felt like the poor rope in a vicious game of tug of war. Yes, she wanted to go the beach. Desperately. She hadn't been in so long that her body didn't know what to do. It was as though prior to the accident Misty had been living an amphibious lifestyle and now all of a sudden she was forced into a strictly terrestrial one and her body was completely rejecting it.

But…she was also afraid of the beach.

If she didn't remember what had happened to her last time—the dreaded last time—then who was to say that it wouldn't happen again?

Well, her mother and her sisters would be there—that was a good start. And they wouldn't know this, but Noir would be there too, keeping the buddy-system in play. Lastly, Misty was lucky enough that her mother was letting her bring Staryu along as well. Even though she was pretty certain that she wouldn't be going swimming today.

Really, there seemed to be very little way for something to go wrong. At least, as terribly as before. Which was why, after her mother's third call, Misty slipped on her baby blue swimsuit and leapt into the car before she could change her mind again.

It did change. Over and over again as she was in the car and looked out at the familiar sights. Her mind was flipping so much she felt a mental seasickness that made the idea of going to the beach even less appealing. Until they parked and she perked up.

The beach! Oh, how she had missed it.

As soon as her feet hit the cool sand, she waved up at the familiar Wingull and Pelipper, who squawked their returned greetings.

"Hold on, Misty." Fleur was struggling to haul out a cooler containing their water and packed lunches for the day. "You can't just rush out on your own; you have to wait for us to set up first."

Truth be told, Misty didn't want to wait anymore. She wanted to run around and explore. Maybe climb the jagged rocks or see how deep she could go into the water before she got too scared or too cold. But one look into the darkest blue of the ocean where it met the horizon gave her pause.

Right. Maybe she would wait.

Misty struggled with carrying the long umbrella that was handed to her. She let the wooden handle drag through the sand, adding a little zig-zag to her walk so that she could make a fun pattern in the sand. It also took some weight away from her arms.

After a few minutes they had set up a delightful home base. A large blanket under the umbrella for Fleur to rest under and three towels laying parallel for Violet, Daisy, and Lily to tan on.

Misty had Noir hide on the top of the car for the journey, latching onto the racks and enjoying the steady breeze. Now she was hiding by the car until she and Misty could make a break for it. Of course, Misty had to stay in the sightline of her mother, but that didn't mean that she and Noir couldn't be clever about hiding. And if worse came to worse they could risk Noir being in the open and just pray that she wouldn't be visible.

"Misty, why don't you go test the edge of the water? You can search for the shells and Sharpedo's teeth that you like to collect," Fleur suggested as she got settled in with a book.

Fleur then reached into her bag and pulled out a PokéBall, pushing the center button to release Staryu. Staryu formed right next to Misty and she joyfully took hold of its closest arm as best she could and pulled it to the water's edge. She stopped the second the sand turned hard and textured with the remains of high tide. It was closer to low tide right now, revealing a number of interesting specimens for her to pick up. Most were just pieces of common shells, but there were some in pretty colors and the occasional bits of sea glass.

The shore was fun. Not a ton of fun, but enough fun. And she wasn't going in the water. She shivered whenever it accidently licked her toes, though whether it was the chill of the morning water or the fear tickling at her chest that did it was anyone's guess.

Before she knew it, she had wandered a far ways away from where her mom and sisters were. They were still in her sights but she would have to yell pretty loud for them to hear her. But she wasn't breaking the rules. By now she had a pretty good collection of shells and stones and a couple teeth and was thinking about heading back to drop off her haul. But something caught her eye up ahead.

There were tall, jagged cliffs bookending this particular beach, leaving it pretty enclosed and pretty private when it wasn't prime beach time. It was still a little cold for the tourists to be swarming, so Misty's family was the only one around.

Or so she'd thought.

There up ahead was a boy sitting on a rock, jagged like the cliffs in the distance, but low. Low and sloped enough to climb up onto. And she still had her shoes on, so why not give it a go?

She carefully set her shell collection in a pile in the sand before hoisting herself up onto the lowest part and walking up the gentle incline on all fours for extra balance. Both Staryu and Noir joined her, of course. Misty kept her eyes on the boy the whole way. He looked like he was older than her but younger than her sisters. So maybe he wasn't too old to play with her? When she was just a few feet away she said, "Hey!"

The boy turned around, startled. "Wha-What?" he asked with wide eyes, his body now curled in on himself.

Misty smiled genteelly. "I was just saying hello."

"You…you can see me?"

Misty cocked her head. "Of course? Why wouldn't I, silly?"

The boy shrugged, his eyes sad as he looked back out at the ocean. "Nobody else can."

"Really?"

"Yeah," the boy mumbled into his arms as he pulled his knees to his chest. "My parents stopped talking to me and none of my friends want to play."

"Your parents don't talk to you?"

"They don't even talk about me anymore."

"That doesn't make sense," Misty decided with a frown. But soon her frown turned back into a grin and she took the boy's hand, taking him by surprise. "Well, you can play with me!"

"Really?"

"Sure!" Misty declared. "Do you wanna swim?"

The boy took his hand back and again closed in on himself. "I can't swim," he muttered.

"Really? But you're so old."

"I'm only seven!" the boy said defensively. "Lots of people my age can't swim."

"I'm five and I've been swimming for a long time," Misty said, puffing out her chest.

"By yourself?" the boy asked skeptically.

"Well…" Misty blushed a little, looking to Staryu and avoiding Noir, who was laughing at her. "I can by myself, but right now I'm not allowed to."

"Sure."

"I can!" Misty yelled a little too loudly.

"Misty, get down from there!" Misty heard her mother's voice from the distance. Her sisters were fast approaching. Misty started crab-walking down the rock, shooing Noir away to the other side as she did so. Staryu floated off and soon it was just the boy alone on the rock again.

"I don't see why he gets to be up there by himself without his parents," Misty grumbled to herself, crossing her arms in a huff as her sisters came over.

"Misty, you can't do stuff like that," Daisy said, putting her hands on her hips.

"Mom only said that I couldn't swim," Misty whined.

"Well, you can't climb rocks either. Feel this," Violet said, taking Misty's hand. She pressed Misty's open palm lightly against a rough side of the stone. "Feel how that pokes you? Imagine falling on that. You would get hurt."

"And it would totally scar," Lily added.

Violet and Daisy nodded seriously.

"Let's go back and, like, have a drink of water, okay?" Daisy said, taking Misty's other hand and leading her to where Fleur was.

"And, like, have you even let Staryu in the water?" Lily asked, looking at the Pokémon, whose jewel core was looking a little dim.

Misty looked at Staryu guiltily. It had been walking in the water but only the bottom few inches or so of its lower spines had made it into the water.

"You need to be more careful," Violet said.

"Here," Daisy said in a kinder tone, "how about we, like, play here in the water for a little bit and get Staryu all nice and wet, okay? Get you used to the water again too, hmm?"

Misty perked up, agreeing readily. If they just played like that then it would be more akin to running through a sprinkler than actually playing fast and loose with the ocean. "Okay!"

Suddenly, all of Misty's focus was on her sisters, Staryu, and the returning joy of the ocean, everything that she was dealing with before now forgotten.

A/N: Thank you C'sMelody, for being such an awesome beta that you aren't afraid to tell me when the tone is all wrong for 2/3 of the chapter. Hopefully. I improved it a little! Anyway, I'm stuck in a 10 hour rehearsal right now, so I thought I'd be productive and post this chapter! Hopefully you liked it!