During his Pokémon journey and first world tour, fifteen year old Steven stepped off the boat that had brought him back home to Hoenn. After spending a few months in Johto where he caught his newest partner, Skarmory, he was happy to see the familiar city of Slateport again.
Stepping off the boat beside him was his good friend and traveling companion Brawly, who stretched his arms dramatically and gave Steven a brotherly thump on the shoulder. "Hey, come on, you promised me a spar after breakfast!" His sky blue eyes gleamed with mischief and his long, spiky blue hair stuck out in more directions than Steven's.
Steven sighed in slight annoyance; sometimes his friend's energy was a bit too much to deal with in the mornings. "I said sometime after breakfast. Arguably, that could be any time before lunch."
Brawly made a face in response but relented with a grumble. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. What's on the agenda then?"
"Well I thought-" Steven's reply was cut short when his Pokétch prototype started beeping at him with the pager function. Since the device was still in the early stages of development, the screen merely blinked the name of the person paging him, which was reading"Dad" in big, bold letters.
Steven's heart sank in response. There were very few reasons why his father would be paging him. One of which was never good.
"What is it?" Brawly asked carefully.
"I need to call home." After running to the Pokémon Center and using the phone to talk to his father, Steven's worst fears were realized. He bolted for the exit, not bothering to hang up the phone, Brawly at his heels.
Since they were in Slateport, it would only take him a couple hours to fly back home to Rustboro on his new Skarmory. Releasing the bird Pokémon from his Pokéball, he hopped on and took only a second to glance back at his friend.
"Go!" Brawly waved at him urgently. The young martial artist didn't own a flying type yet, so he couldn't follow. "I'll catch up the long way."
Steven nodded gravely and urged Skarmory to take off. It wasn't their first flight together but they were still getting used to each other, and Steven had collected a fair share of cuts from the metal bird's sharp blades whenever he made any careless movements.
By the time he reached Rustboro and the mansion his parents owned, Steven couldn't decide if he was simply sick with worry or if he was sick of flying. Either way, his stomach was a mess and he barely managed to praise his tired Pokémon for his hard work before recalling him. "Thanks Skar, you did great."
Rushing up the stairs and through the front door, Steven was greeted by the family butler with a grim expression. "Thank heavens you've returned in time Master Steven. I'm afraid things have taken a turn for the worst."
Somehow, Steven managed to keep his emotions intact as looked around the foyer. "Where is she?"
"In the study, where she collapsed. The doctors say she shouldn't be moved."
Steven nodded and headed for the study with stiff but deliberate steps. He paused at the door and took a deep breath to steady himself, then walked in, regarding the scene in front of him with a creeping dread.
A small group of doctors and nurses hovered around the room while his father stood, motionless and clearly distraught beside a couch.
On the couch lay his mother, the person to whom all the activity seemed to be focused. Her long, dark blue hair was pooled around her head on a pillow and her equally blue eyes were foggy with delirium.
"Asenath,"one of the doctors addressed her gently, using her whole name instead of her more commonly used nickname, Sena. "Are you still feeling pain?" When she weakly shook her head no, the doctor nodded and gave her shoulder a reassuring pat.
Cautious not to get underfoot of the medical team, Steven moved to stand beside his father. "Dad, I'm here."
"Steven!" his father exclaimed in a hushed tone. "Thank goodness you made it in time."
In time? What did he mean by that? Steven knew things were bad, but did he mean-?
Before he could even process his father's implications, the older man was ushering everyone out of the room. "I'm sorry Joseph," one of the doctors murmured sadly and glanced at Steven. "There's just nothing more we can do but try and keep her comfortable. Her heart has simply given out."
Joseph nodded stiffly, with the most pained expression Steven had ever seen on his father's face. "How long?"
The doctor shook his head, seeming at a loss. "An hour, at the most."
Hearing those words, Steven felt like his whole world was crashing down around him, as if the very walls surrounding him were made of glass and had all simultaneously shattered in an instant.
He wanted to drop to his knees and scream out in agony, but he was frozen in place, anguished and confused. His mother had always had a weak heart for as long as he could remember, but he always thought that just meant she would be in a perpetually weak state the rest of her life, unable to do anything strenuous. He never thought she would be taken from him so soon...
"-ven. Steven!" his father was hissing at him pointedly, though he was clearly trying to keep the edge out of his tone for the sake of his mother. Steven shook his head and staggered a little when Joseph made to guide him towards the other end of the couch so his mother could see him.
"Sena," Joseph spoke softly, smiling despite the tears in his eyes. "Your son is here to see you."
Sena had closed her eyes after the doctor spoke to her earlier but at the sound of her husband's voice she opened them again and immediately focused on their son. "Steven, there you are," she called to him weakly, her smile warm and loving as her own dark pools began to fill with tears. "My precious boy with his timid heart."
"Mom," Steven groaned out with a mild, inconsequential frustration. He immediately knelt down beside her, fighting against the tightness in his throat and sting in his eyes. "You're the only one that says that."
"That's because I'm the only one that knows who you are, deep down." She reached out to cup his face with both hands and he in turn placed his right on her left, cherishing his mother's touch for probably the last time. "You might fool the rest of the world with that confident bravado of yours, but not me... Never me."
"You're wrong, I'm not timid," Steven insisted fervently, though the words he spoke were not the ones he meant to say. You can't die! He swallowed the thought along with a painful lump. "I'll be the Hoenn Champion one day, you'll see!"
"I have no doubt you will." Sena pulled him closer and touched her forehead to his, causing Steven to release a silent, agonizing cry and streams of tears. "But I think we both know I won't be around to see it."
"This isn't fair," he whined, feeling pathetic and small against such intense grief. "I didn't know... If I had known, I would have come home sooner!"
Sena hushed at him soothingly and pushed his head away enough to lock eyes with him. "That's right, you've been gone for so long." Her dark blue eyes were still cloudy but she spoke as though she were altogether present. She suddenly gave him a stern look. "You haven't been picking up any bad habits have you?" Before he could answer she added, "go on and remind me what I taught you?"
In an attempt to stifle his crying, Steven focused on her words and realized she was trying to distract him. Or perhaps she was trying to distract herself from her dire circumstances. With that thought, he decided to play along and sniffed as he put a comical lilt in his tone. "Don't talk with my mouth full?"
Still with her hands on either side of his face, she gave his head a little shake and smiled wryly. "Try again."
Steven feigned a bothered sigh but it came out as a ragged breath as he recited her most repeated lesson. "Treat all women with the highest regard, not disrespecting them in any way, nor belittling their lesser physical strength, for only bullies and cowards did those things."
"Good, you remember." With an approving hum she looked from him to her husband and back again. "In many ways though, we women are stronger than you men, you know." She spoke with a smile despite her condition, her eyes glistened with fresh tears as if seeing her son in a new light. "You men... That's right, you're a young man now,aren't you?"
Steven remained silent, attempting to memorize her face, her voice, her touch. How she seemed to make him feel a little better even though he was so torn up and miserable inside.
"You're suddenly so grown up and handsome..." Sena's voice cracked as she huffed out a small chuckle. "You probably already have a girlfriend don't you?"
"Mom," Steven grumbled with embarrassment when his father scoffed with amusement, despite the dire circumstances. With the expectant look his mother was giving him, the teen buckled, muttering. "I don't... Girls have been really annoying lately."
Chuckling again lightly, Sena passed a hand through his unruly hair affectionately. "You need to find a girl as tenacious as you are, a girl with a good sense of humor that's willing to put up with your restless nature."
"Please don't make unreasonable demands," Steven whined again, trying desperately to keep humor in his voice. "You know how I'll obsess over them."
Sena kissed his head tenderly. "I'm counting on it, dear one."
/o/o/
Steven woke up feeling chilled, the blanket he slept on not doing much to insulate him against the cold cave floor. Blinking bleary eyes, he could hear the sounds of dripping water nearby as well as the crackling of a morning campfire.
Grumbling incoherently at his unpleasant dream, he threw off his blanket and shrugged on his overcoat. He practically stormed out of the tent, as if getting as far away from where he had slept would somehow alleviated the deep sadness clinging to his heart.
He took a few seconds to scan the cave, noting Cynthia and Aaron by the campfire. Cynthia appeared to be as chilled as he felt, sitting as close to the fire as possible with her blankets wrapped around her like a cocoon.
She looked up to meet his gaze and they shared a nod of acknowledgment but nothing verbal. Cynthia seemed to understand that he wasn't much of a morning person, not before his first cup of coffee anyway, and least of all today.
Aaron on the other hand, was busy with his morning chores and didn't seem bothered by the cold, making Steven wonder if he was made of steel, or perhaps he had been a fire type in his previous life...
A spontaneous cough from the mouth of the cave briefly caught his attention, where Lucario was standing guard... Steven wondered about the timing but was distracted when Aaron voiced a greeting, an odd smirk on face. "Good, you're up. Breakfast will be ready in a bit, so perhaps you can get started with your training and get yourselves warmed up?"
Aaron, it seemed, either wasn't as attuned to the silent morning mood or he didn't care. "Right, I'll be back in a moment," Steven grumbled as he headed outside for his private morning routine, Aggron at his side as usual.
By the time he returned, Cynthia and Aaron were both dismantling the tents and Lucario moved to regard him. "I will take the others out to forage now." It wasn't a question but he still seemed to require approval of some kind. Steven nodded and waved his Pokémon along, causing the foursome to scamper out of the cave excitedly.
He briefly watched the avians take to the sky and the bipeds thump along behind Lucario, for once not bickering with each other as they searched for food.
He turned back to see Cynthia had finished with the tent and approached with her arms crossed and her overcoat wrapped around her. She seemed to attempt a smile but it looked more like a cold cringe, her breath fogging as she spoke. "Aaron says we're headed towards a colder climate, on top of winter just starting in."
Having suspected as much, Steven nodded, but then tipped his head quizzically. "Isn't Sinnoh generally cooler than most regions? Shouldn't you be used to the cold?"
"Just because I'm used to it doesn't mean I like to be cold." She mimicked his head tip, curious. "I could ask you the same. Since Hoenn's a warm climate, do you like the excessive heat or are you just used to it?"
Steven was briefly distracted by her expression, with her one visible ashen eye peering back at him so expectantly that it simply wasn't fair, reducing him to a stutter. "P-Point taken."
Ever since becoming Champion in his late teens, he had worked so hard to steel his emotions for any given situation. How Cynthia seemed to stagger him with just a simple expression was both mystifying and terrifying at once.
Belatedly realizing he was staring, he nodded when she suggested to start their training session with an amiable, closed eyed smile.
He followed her to the mouth of the cave where there was more room to move around. Starting in with their tai chi exercises, Steven tried to clear his mind of all distractions and focus on his exercises, but the problem with that was the fact that his number one distraction was standing only a few feet away!
It was hard not to glance at her when some of the forms basically forced him to look in her direction. His heart still ached dully from the aftermath of his dream and he would be lying to himself if he said he didn't want to confide in her.
In fact, there were a few things he wanted to discuss with her. Such as his mother's last request and how Cynthia seemed to so uncannily match those requirements. As well as their first meeting and how she had clearly made a bigger impression on him than he had on her.
He thought back on their first battle together and his smitten thoughts about courting her then and there, only for such thoughts to be preemptively shot down when their Pokémon had launched their toxic rivalry.
Now that said rivalry was currently... placated, he had suddenly found himself in a unique position. On one hand, here Cynthia was, traveling right beside him and playing the part of his temporary wife, which in no uncertain terms, sent his mind into a free fall of elation every time he thought about it.
On the other, he wasn't so sure about courting her now, considering everything else they were currently dealing with. Then again, there was always the chance that their Pokémon would go back to endlessly fighting by the time they got back home...
Such a conundrum was altogether maddening and Steven had to consciously fight off the desire to scratch at his head in sheer frustration.
"Steven?" Cynthia called, her gaze giving off a curious concern.
They had just finished their forms without him realizing it and he had apparently been staring at the ground with a contorted frown. "You ok in there?" she asked with a humorous lilt in her tone as she moved closer and raised a hand to brush some wayward strands of hair away from of his eyes. "You must have a lot on your mind."
You have no idea! Steven wanted to yell, instantly freezing at her touch and positive he had a look of shock on his face. Did she not realize how intimate her gesture was or was he just freaking out over nothing?
He tried to reassure himself that this was probably just her usual, caring behavior. But as he thought about it more, she did seem to flirt carelessly at times, and he wasn't sure if that was intentional or simply a spontaneous reaction on her part.
Either way, she was not helping him with his decision... Or rather, maybe she was and his fate had been sealed long before he had even realized it.
"Oh, sorry! Force of habit," Cynthia apologized with an awkward laugh; she seemed less remorseful for her gesture and more concerned about his stunned reaction. "You just looked so... lost for a moment."
I wouldn't mind getting lost more often if it meant you would find me every time, Steven thought to himself, realizing after another moment that he had been silent for far too long. "Ah, I just-" he tried to reply but finally had to clear his throat and blink the daze out of his head. "I'm fine. I merely had a bad dream last night and was having some trouble shaking it off, is all."
Cynthia nodded sympathetically and tipped her head curiously again. "You too? I had that problem myself yesterday."
"It could just be a result of excessive stress." Steven nodded back and brought a thoughtful hand to his chin in an attempt to mask his rattled nerves; Cynthia's feather-light touch had left a charge on his skin, as if he had the Motor Drive ability and she had struck him with a Thunder Shock.
"I really hate to interrupt," Aaron cut in with a guilty tone as he approached, offering them their wooden swords. "But we still have a long way to the next camp and very limited daylight to get there."
Steven couldn't contain the tired grumble that escaped his throat. "If we're that short on time, couldn't we just cut out the swordwork or sparring today?"
Aaron seemed to think for a moment, then nodded. "I suppose we could make an exception today," he conceded and glanced between them. "Which one would you prefer to skip?"
Before either champion could reply, the clamor of their Pokémon returning drew their attention. The foursome plus Lucario rushed into the cave and all of them simultaneously shook water off their bodies, eliciting yelps from their human masters.
"Looks like it's raining again," Steven sighed out with a sour glance outside.
"Which rules out sword training," Cynthia added. "Since any overhead swings are out of the question inside the cave."
Steven nodded his head in agreement, but Aaron huffed out a rebuttal, "I don't know. Seems like it would be two birds with one stone, since you did say you wanted a bath yesterday."
"Not at the cost of our health," Steven hissed out through tense, nearly clenched teeth, adding silently to himself, and my sanity, or what little remains of it!
Aaron merely shrugged and crossed back to tend to breakfast. "It wouldn't matter much, we'll be traveling in the rain regardless."
The debate was quickly dropped when both Steven and Cynthia curiously noticed Aggron and Skarmory move to offer Garchomp and Togekiss a small pile of berries, as if offering a tribute of peace.
"Well done you two," Steven praised as he stepped over to give them both a pat, feeling proud of them. "I'm glad you're all starting to get along."
Aggron regarded his master with a confused tip of his head but then grumbled and moved away, grudgingly. Skarmory merely squawked and ruffled his metal feathers in an indifferent shrug. Steven could only frown, puzzled with their reactions.
"That was very nice, wasn't it?" Cynthia spoke to her Pokémon with a smile. "You two be sure to return the favor next time, ok?"
Garchomp regarded her master with a quizzical expression and an incredulous yowl, while Togekiss simply chirped an amiable confirmation.
Realizing they had gotten distracted, both trainers returned to the mouth of the cave where there was more room but still shelter from the rain.
As they faced each other and offered their precursory bows, Steven had to steel himself for the onslaught of physical contact with her. When just her concerned touch earlier had sent his mind reeling, he truly needed to focus solely on his own movements and combat forms.
Not on her long golden hair that trailed behind her as she lunged, or her sharp, visible eye glinting silver in the slanted sunlight, and certainly not on her quick, precise movements as she braced her stance to strike.
After being forced to defend her initial offensive, Steven was thankfully able to find his rhythm, successfully blocking out all distractions as his competitive nature kicked in.
The majority of their bout turned into an inconsequential blur of just the two of them, reacting to each other's movements. It wasn't until his focused awareness was drawn from Cynthia to the cave wall and the dangerously low overhang directly behind her.
Completely unaware of the danger, she was quickly moving backwards in response to his earlier advance and he didn't have time to warn her as time seemed to slow.
Instinctively, he reached out to grab her arm with his right hand but she expertly deflected his arm as if he had meant to strike. Having expected that, he followed up by reaching with his left, successfully latching onto her arm since she had expected another strike and not a grab.
With her head mere inches from the overhanging stone, Steven pulled her away with perhaps a little too much force, but he had to account for her opposing momentum. His actions resulted in a surprised yelp on her part as she thudded sideways into his torso in a sort of haphazard embrace.
"Apologies," he mended quickly, before she could even register a quizzical look at him. "But you were about to brain yourself."
In the fleeting seconds before he took a respectful step back and gestured at the overhang, Steven's senses were completely overwhelmed with everything Cynthia as his nose practically grazed her temple.
From her warm body pressed pleasantly against him, to the smell of her hair and the faint scent of roses despite neither of them having access to shampoo for two days, ending with another electric charge passing between them before he finally broke contact.
"A-Ah, I see," Cynthia eventually replied, seeming both startled and dazed as she glanced at the overhang and brought a hand up to her head where she no doubt would have hit it painfully. "Thank you, Steven," she said, regarding him with an embarrassed smile. "I'll admit, outside of Pokémon battles, I am not always aware of my own surroundings."
Steven nodded cordially, desperately hoping his raging heartbeat was not making any physical manifestations. "Just like a fine stone, we all have our own weaknesses or impurities."
"Oh?" Cynthia tipped her head curiously again, a wry smile on her lips. "Even you, then?"
Especially me! Steven cried silently but managed to return her furtive smile. "Indeed," he replied vaguely and offered a slight bow.
"Hmm." Cynthia's hum was laced with a blend of amusement and dissatisfaction. "It seems unfair that you already know mine though."
You have enough advantages over me already, Steven wanted to argue back. He settled for flashing a mischievous grin. "Perhaps after a few more bouts, you might discover mine yourself."
/o/o/
AN: Head-canon time: I feel like Steven's mother was around for most of his young life, since boys/men tend to learn how to treat women based on how their father treats their mother. Anyway, points to anyone that can explain the meaning behind his mother's name. You will all be graded on this later... xD
/o/o/o/ Bonus scene: This one is just a shameless plug...
Steven: (Thinks Aaron must have been a fire type in a previous life)
Lucario:(cough-snicker) Master, is that true?
Aaron: Hmm,perhaps I was a Charizard?
Lucario: No,that doesn't suit you. I see you more as an Arcanine I think.
Aaron: Oh? And why is that?
Lucario:Because you are noble and loyal.
Aaron: That's a fair point I guess... How about Queen Rin then?
Lucario: Hmm,something elegant and beautiful? A Ninetales perhaps? Hey, together you would be a-
Aaron: (holds up a hand) Don't. Just don't.