When We Were Younger. |Gladion X Moon|Pokemon Romance Novel|

- When We Were Younger -

The thinning skin around my eyes crinkles slightly as I smile. It's been so long since the last time I looked at my maternity photos.

My fingers instinctively slip up the bottom of my shirt, tracing my faded stretch marks and scars.

In the picture, Gladion and I look so young, we were practically children ourselves back then! Time can be so deceiving, I wish I would have realized that when I was younger.

Sometimes, when I look in the mirror, I barely recognize my own face. Everything changes so quickly, even though we rarely see it in the moment. The past is the only thing that remains constant, unchanged.

Flipping through the pages of the old photo album makes my heart ache. Spending the morning reflecting on my journey is making it even harder to send my children off on theirs.

They might be nearly adults themselves, but sending them off into this unfamiliar territory worries me greatly. Now I know how my mother felt when we moved to Alola, all those years ago.

The sound of my bedroom door crashing open snaps me back into the real world. A time when I'm older than I'd like to be, and my children are just as naïve as I used to be.

"Arceus! You were an ugly baby!" Acacia gasps as she rips my precious photo album out of my hands.

"Well, at least one of us grew out of it," Edelweiss remarks, unenthused by his sister's jab. The green status light on the corner of his glasses flickers as his ruby eyes dart to the floor.

Acacia glares at her brother with her piercing, amber, eyes.

Suddenly, his glasses slide away from his face, zipping across the room to Acacia's grasp.

"Very funny," Edelweiss groans, his sightless eyes gaze in the direction of his sister's snickering.

"Give them back!" I growl, "If you break those-."

"It's a joke mom!"

Edelweiss holds his hands out and waits patiently for his sister to return his sight.

Acacia loosens her grip on them. The high-tech glasses float gracefully back to Edelweiss. He slips them back on and smirks. A small, puff of a laugh escapes his nostrils when Acacia jokingly presses her fingers to her temples, mimicking psychic characters from movies and tv shows.

I try my best not to discourage her from using her powers. Gladion and I have done everything we can to make her feel normal, but it just doesn't seem like enough sometimes.

She likes to assure us that she is comfortable with who she is, but I sense there is more under the surface. I truly hope this journey helps her to grow more confident. Perhaps she can finally embrace what makes her different.

"This is such a weird region," Acacia groans as she looks out the window at the snow-covered city. Her white, chunky highlights twinkle against the intense blackness of the rest of her hair.

"I was wearing shorts yesterday," Edelweiss adds.

"It will be melted by tomorrow!" Gladion chuckles from the doorway.

"Daddy? Can I get a PokeDex too?" peeps Daisy in her youthful, high pitched voice.

"Maybe when you're older," Gladion says, tightening her blonde twin tails.

"I wonder if the starter Pokemon are as boring as this region," Acacia groans.

I'm trying my hardest to be patient with her. I know moving is hard, but her attitude is wearing me thin. She doesn't seem to realize that Alola was my home too, and I miss it just as much as she does.