"Come on! Who's ever last out the forest is a rotten egg! Remember! Trevor lost last time we went through this forest! Can you make it this time?" Shauna smirked down at Trevor
"Of course I can" he glared "I'm not the same little kid I was back then! I'm the Pokémon professor assistant for crying out loud!" So he's a professor's assistant? He's quite young as well... he must be pretty smart, seeing that he was very interested in what I told him and the rest about Z's abilities and my talent for figuring out the ability, it makes sense "I'll be fine!" He huffed and ran forward. Shauna giggled and entered the forest with Tierno. Calem looked at me staring at the forest entrance, trying to keep a straight face, but my body was shaking like a tree in a hurricane
"You okay?" Calem smiled joyfully, locking his hands together behind his back, mocking me
"N-nothing!" I numbed my body to at least try to make it stop shaking, but failed "I said nothing!"
"Nothing? I didn't ask what's wrong" he laughed "Why are you shaking?" I shook my head
"I'm not!" I shut my eyes "Just... shut up!" He laughed and offered a hand
"How about I give you a hand?" I slapped his hand away
"I don't need it" he only chuckled, putting his hand down
"There's nothing wrong with asking for help. I'm offering you my help, since I know you are scared of Pokémon" I looked at him in shocked "What? Is that suppose to be a secret?"
"I..." I looked down, wide eyed "I don't know what you're talking about" how did he figure me out so quickly? He knows I don't like them, but how did he find out I'm afraid of them? I know how to hide my expression really well!
"The others might not see it, but being a artist, I can see details in the expressions of others, even through body language" I looked at his serious face "I first saw it when we first met by the fences of your mom's farm. You wanted to touch the Mareep, but you couldn't"
"Stop talking like you know me!" I glared "I'm not scared of Pokémon! You're talking nonsense!" I shut my eyes, facing down "I'm not the one we have to be worried about. Serena..."
"Does Serena know about this?" I stood there, staring at his shoes "She wanted to give you Fennekin, but to lie to her and say..."
"I...I had too" I looked at my hands "I can't have her thinking I'm pathetic. I'm the strong, independent, and confident sister she always knew. To think she'll have to think differently if she found out" I glared at him "There's no hiding it from you, I know that" I grabbed his collar and brought him close to my face. He stared straight into my angry eyes "Mention this to anyone, and I'll kill you" he smiled, holding my hand that was grabbing his shirt to pull away. I was shocked
"Is that a threat?" I huffed
"You don't know me... It's a promise" he smiled widely
"I hope that's a promise" I blinked confused. He just shrugged his arms "but I still have things I have to do. How about we keep this secret to ourselves until we find Serena?" he turned to walk away, then turned back to look at me
"What? Why are you saying that?"
"You're going to have to tell her" my face fell in devastation. I don't want her finding out... I don't want her to think any less of me than I already am. I'm a terrible person, and she's the last person I want to find more bad information about me, especially if she finds out I lied to her about how I feel about Pokémon
"N-no..."
"It's going to happen" he looked forward to the forest
"No, it won't!" I shouted. He crossed his arms
"If you don't want her to find out, you better find a way to face your fear. If not, she'll eventually find out"
"What are you talking about? I swear if you tell her-" he shook his head
"It's Fennekin you have to deal with" I gasped. That's right... now that I'm in Kalos, we'll meet eventually and she might expect me to get along with the Pokémon she wanted to give me "Don't worry, we might have time. Depending how long it'll take us to find her. Poor Fennekin couldn't give much information, saying that everything happened in a flash, and the fact that it wonders about you" the computer data Z put into my laptop revealed what Fennekin knew about the disappearance, which wasn't much. All there was was the confuse state and the curiosity of why I didn't like it.
"It's going to have to wonder forever. There's no way I'm telling what's wrong with me" he chuckled
"You admit that something's wrong with you" I rolled my eyes "Well, you're going to have to explain to Serena then. I won't say anything, but will it make you feel motivated if I threaten to tell the others about this secret?"
"You wouldn't dare" I death glared him. That casual smirk of his was getting on my nerves. What calmed me down and confused me was that he offered his hand again
"Are you willing to get rid of your fear?" I lifted my hand slowly towards me, unsure how to answer that question. He's offering his help, even if I refuse help from anyone. There's no way I can help myself on this situation. H-how can I just do this? "The first way to get rid of a fear is to first admit to it" I glared at this
"Seriously? You've got to be kidding me" he took his hand away
"I guess I'll tell the others then" I flinched "I don't care if you kill me for doing it. It's not going to change anything" he offered his hand again "Are you going to admit to it, or not?" I bit my lips, shakily and slowly reaching for his large hand
"I'm... not scared" he came a little closer to me before I noticed. I couldn't move from my spot, shaking again in fear
"What lead to this fear?"
"M-My childhood..."
"Childhood?" His voice felt so relaxing to hear. It kept coming closer to my face "S...k...a" I flinched and looked back at him. I couldn't hear him as well. He shook his head "What happened in your childhood that made you so afraid? Wasn't Serena there to comfort you?"
"S-She doesn't know... because I..." I shook my head, shaking off the trance he put me through "Y-You idiot! What did you do!?" I almost told him! He chuckled
"You were relaxed by my voice, weren't you?" My cheeks felt like they were on fire "I guess you can say it's one of my skills! In order to calm someone, you have to be calm yourself. You have to act how you want someone else to act. You have to be patient and calm" I looked into his eyes that were staring into mine. He was... alittle close. Not too close, but close enough to make me feel like he can hear the drum sound coming from my body "You might hate me, taking that you are someone to hate anything that won't obey you, but I'm not your enemy"
"You don't know me... Why would you want to help me? What my sister thinks of me is none of your business" he sighed
"That's where you're wrong. I can be concerned with anything I want. It's not much of concern I have towards you" his eyes adjusted in a way that got me feel all shy for some reason "Well... I just happen to be curious about you" my body felt like it wanted to fail on me. The mysterious drum was beating so fast as if I was running a marathon
"T-there's nothing interesting about me, so you're wasting your time if you're that curious about me" he snorted, not believing it
"I'll be the judge of that" he walked towards the forest "Come on, we have to hurry now. Can't be wasting a lot of time" my body acted on its own "You'll probably have to follow me through the forest. It's a little messier than when we first went through it" my feet hurried to catch up to him "Are you sure you-" my hand reached out to grab his arm and held it tightly, terrified of being left behind in the middle of such a place. I couldn't move on my own. My fear was greater than my confidence. I was pathetic just holding on to a stranger like this
I heard him chuckle softly and begun leading me through the forest filled with vines and bushes in every corner. I'm sure he can feel how much I was shaking while hyperventilating. My feet stopped moving all together
"Calm down, Sophia" he said softly and calmly. I held down my scarf over my forehead to hide. He tried pulling away, but my fingers held on tight "Hey..."
"I hate how you have to see me this way" there were Pokémon everywhere. This reminded me so much of the time I...
"I don't care. I'm not going to see you any different than I already do" I chuckled a little
"It's funny... We don't know each other that much, but from how much Serena talks about her friends, it kinda feels like I already know you" I can see him smiling
"Hm... Same here. She talks about you a lot" he started walking us forward. I kept my eyes on him following the path "She always says how she admires you so much and how talented you are. You're a fashion designer, and you often send her clothes for her showcase. I've seen them. They truly are a work of art"
"They're okay" I looked down "I usually take inspiration of her fashion and personality. I'm simply the artist to captures it on canvas, I guess" he said something about himself being a artist too. It can't be that we think alike, do we?
"I like how you put it out that way, but even if you did capture the shot, you were the one who put it together. You don't seem to want to give notice to your own talents"
"They're only hobbies, which happens to be my career" I looked up at the leaves hardly showing the sky "I am a unknown artist, and I'm forced to wear my own designs to promote to Kalos. I hate to wear this, but at least someone famous took notice in them. I guess my agent's plan worked"
"Hm? Who took notice? Someone famous?" I tried remembering who the woman was in the airport. It was so long ago already
"Her name reminds you of a diamond, I guess" he stopped walking and looked down at me in shock
"You mean Diantha?!" I nodded confused "If a famous movie star notice your talent, why are you still thinking it's not what it seems!"
"A movie star?" I looked down to think "Well, even if she like the design, it's inspired by Serena. It's not my own design"
"Why don't you make your own designs then?" I shook my head, not wanting to talk about it. My actual style will not live up to expectations. It will not sale. The style of mine that I can only wear in private, the one my agent doesn't let me wear. It's dark, and is not remotely close to what Serena would wear.
Before trying to tell him to not ask such a stupid question, I nearly screamed when a small bug type fell from the sky. I gasped loud enough and hid behind Calem's back. He looked back at me for a second before looking back at the Pokémon that came out of nowhere
"It's just a Scatterbug. There's nothing to be scared of" he gently took the hand I was using to grip on his jacket "Want to touch it?" I rapidly shook my head "That's okay, we can take it slow" we passed the Pokémon without getting too close and begun walking the path again. I looked up to see him looking in all directions, like he was trying to keep a look out to see if anything will pop out on us again. I don't get it... Why is he protecting me?
Our walk was in complete silence, even if Shauna yelled out that she wanted to have a race like she had with her friends back then in the beginning, earlier. We were taking our time to go through this place that was too dark to walk through. I accidentally almost ran into a tree
"You know, you'll be able to see better if you looked up" Calem said
"Eh..." I almost tripped on my own foot
"See?" I glared at him "What are you trying to hide anyways? You seem pretty confident in yourself. Don't tell me your insecure about your looks" I ran into another tree, this time it was his fault "oops!" He chuckled
"You idiot..." I rubbed my arm "I feel like you're doing that on purpose. Don't worry about my insecurities. My looks don't bother me at all, and I don't need you assuming anything. Let's just keep walking so I can stop holding onto-" we froze and slowly looked behind us to hear the buzzing sounds of a few Beedrills looking angry
"Sophia..." Calem spoke to me carefully "Don't freak-" I automatically screamed without realizing what I just did. I put fuel in the fire. The Beedrills swarmed towards us, making us make a run for it as fast as we could
"Get away!" I cried. I tripped over a loose vine on the floor, making me fall on my forearms. Calem stopped running ahead of me as soon as he saw that I was left behind. The Beedrills were getting closer, and my body wouldn't move!
"C-Calem!" I cried, reaching out to his shocked expression "Help!" He jumped in front of me and threw out a Pokéball, releasing a large blue frog like Pokémon
"Greninja use smokescreen!" The Pokémon threw something on the ground to release black mist in our surroundings to prevent the Beedrills from seeing forward. Calem hurried to pick me up bridal style "Let's hurry before they get by!" He ran off with Greninja following us. I looked over at his face staring directly forward, sweating, seeming like he wasn't at all afraid
I looked behind his shoulder to spot the Beedrills already finding their way out the smokescreen and flew right towards us. I grabbed Calem's shoulder in panic
"They're too fast!" I shouted. There was a thud sound. Calem's body flew forward while his head went back. I slowly looked at Calem quickly falling with blood coming out the side of his forehead. Did he run into something?
Before we hit the ground, I noticed in our path that a thick branch was sticking out far. He must've not seen that he was going to run into it. My body landed on top of his in a instant. I was able to move off and gently take his head to put on my lap. His injury looks really bad...
"Oh no... All because he tried saving me" I gasped when hearing the Beedrills coming very close. The Greninja jumped up to attack with swiftly bubble beams, but failed to make a hit. I thought our lives were done for. I couldn't control the sudden water falling out my eyes. I was frozen at the spot
"Get away!" I shouted, holding onto Calem's head closely to protect him "Don't come any closer!" The memory of my younger self came into mind when I went into a route after skipping school and was nearly attacked by a Pokémon. My eyes visualized the memory of it about to attack me before something came to my rescue. As soon as my brain remembered the part, something jumped in front of us as if it was mimicking what happened back then. The little Fennekin Serena wanted to give me jumped out of nowhere and let out a large flamethrower at the bug types, making them panic from the flames and the fire burning the branches around them, and flew off
Greninja hurried to put out the fire while Fennekin hurried to see if I was okay. Even if it did save us... I backed away, trying to get away. It looked confused and came closer, only for me to cry out and shake my head
"I can't... I'm sorry..." it's ears lowered in depression. I send out Z and help me take care of Calem. His unconscious body was placed on my back and I begun to search for the exit with Fennekin quietly leading the way. I was strong enough to carry him, but my blood was racing so fast, I couldn't control my vision. Hearing the voices of Serena's friends yelling out to us, my body finally settled down and passed out right on near edge of the exit
~~~
I always leave my chapters in cliff hangers! I'm so sorry! Let me know what you think! Thanks for reading!