Trial By Fire

Chapter 9- Flare

I stood in lone darkness as the rain pattered down the sides of my cheeks. I sighed as I wiped away tears and rain off my drenched face. My pelt soiled and my body weak, I feel myself cripple under the weight of my agony. I lost the one thing I wanted to fight for, the one thing that would accept me. Poor Yori, I couldn't bare to see his face ever again because my face would seem... so much different. A strip of lightning shocked behind me my a ferocious roar, I didn't even get startled. My insides were dead, I had nothing left to go to. My insolence from my past self was gone and I couldn't go back to that, but I couldn't go forward away from it either. Everything I do just adds to my problems as I slowly deteriorate from the inside, I was dead from the start. Closing my eyes I let out a deep breathe, I'm sor-

"Stop!" I heard a cry pierce the air, it was mixed with anguish and love. "Please... I didn't want it to come to this, I-I I can't lose anyone else not again."

I turned slowly, could it be? Taking a single step back I felt my last sense of reason fall from me as I, likewise, fell to my knees.

"Please.. Please, I don't hate you, you're the only thing I have." Yori crawled towards me weakly with tears streaming from his eyes.

I kneeled in disbelief as I felt my heart pound ackingly, I've never felt this sensation before. I let my arms hang loose as I watched Yori limp towards me, his body reflecting despair, but his face reflected relief and love.

"I love you, I can't think of anything else to say. I've never experienced someone as truthful, as caring... as as, amazing! As you." Yori choked out those phrases between a mess of tears and whimpers.

Crawling into my arms, Yori ran the side of his head against my chest as he whimpered softly. Putting an arm around him I brushed his back with my paw, he really did care. Closing my eyes I petted him slowly as the rain hailed down upon us both. 

"Ty, I mean... Flare, you aren't just a friend to me." Yori muffled as he poked his head out. Looking me in the eyes he let out a small smile as the rain and tears drenched his face. His words came out so genuine and so truthful that I broke, "Flare, You're my brother."

I couldn't feel anything as I held Yori; I just held him and brushed his head with tender loving care. The rain felt like nothing as we sat there in silence. Holding him as tight as I could, I looked down at his head wrapped into my chest. 

"Thank you little brother."

 And so we sat, a Typhlosion towering over a Cyndaquil as he protected it from the ongoing rain and a Cyndaquil protecting the crippled Typhlosion from himself.