Pokemon Fan Fiction ❯ Fear the Quintet ❯ The Night Music ( Chapter 12 )

In which there is much love. Be warned. Ooh, and a cliffhanger.

*

Matthew and Scott were getting ready to battle. Kitty saw that there was little she could do to get them to stop and carry on to the town instead, so she opted for the far more pleasing idea of sitting and watching them kick the crap out of each other through their pokemon.

“Ok, Geodude, go,” Matthew said. The Geodude that he had caught in the cave and probably not trained once glided forwards and flexed his stone muscles threateningly. He had a severe advantage. Scott would have to be inventive if he intended to last through as much as a half of this battle.

“Go, Dakota,” he said. His Cyndaquil jumped up and growled, trying to seem as threateningly as the stone ball in front of him. Kitty could see that he wasn't afraid. Brownie point for him.

“Smokescreen,” he said. A good start. Dakota's mouth opened and smoke poured out and hung thickly over the battlefield. Geodude's eyes started to water.

“Rock Polish,” Matt said. For some reason he thought that extra speed was the way forward. Maybe he had a plan.

“Leer.” Geodude's defence fell.

“Tackle.” Now the real fighting began. Kitty hated fights with weak pokemon, when they only had status adjusting moves. It was so boring to watch.

“Leer again.” This was Scott's only hope. Geodude's Tackle missed. The smokescreen had come in handy. Matt's eyes narrowed.

“Defence Curl,” he said. Scott drooped a little, as if realising that it was a lost cause.

“Go on, Dakota!” Kitty cried, clapping her hands. Dakota `quill'ed happily.

“Leer and try a Tackle,” Scott said quickly, as if ordering fast would make the attacks fast.

“Fine. Rock Throw and Tackle,” Matt said.

Dakota leered at Geodude and the Rock Throw slammed into his side. Not a direct hit but a stinging one nonetheless. He whimpered, then galloped forwards with a Tackle, at the same time as Geodude. Kitty winced. A Cyndaquil colliding head on with a rock would surely not be a pretty sight.

Sure enough, there was a sickening crack noise as Geodude threw all of his stony weight into Dakota's skull. It looked like it had hurt him too, but hardly as much as it had hurt the Cyndaquil.

“Come on, Dakota. You can get up, right?” Scott said, getting fidgety.

“Cynda,” Dakota said quietly, then dragged himself to his feet and nodded slowly.

“Ok, take it easy for a second. Another Smokescreen, since it helped so much before.” The field got far more hazy and thick with smog. Kitty almost couldn't see the Geodude anymore.

“Tackle it,” Matt said. The Geodude threw its weight left and right wildly, but Dakota was safe.

“Leer.”

“Tackle.” A miss. Matt cursed.

“Leer!”

“Just one more Tackle and it's over!” Matt cried. It missed, though this time by almost nothing. Dakota dived out of the way just in time.

“Ok, now Tackle it with all your strength!” Scott called. Dakota pawed the ground, located the Geodude in the smoke, and ran as fast as its tiny paws would allow; leapt up, and slammed into the Geodude in midair. Direct hit.

It fainted.

“What the hell?” Matt yelled, putting his hands on his head. “Those were such cheap moves!”

“Worked, didn't it?” Scott countered. Matthew growled and returned Geodude.

“You won't beat her,” Matt told him, referring to Candy, as he ran a thumb over her pokeball.

“We'll see about that,” Scott said.

“Go on, Candy,” Matt said, and in a burst of orange light his Sandshrew appeared. “You show him what a real battle looks like.”

“Dakota, Tackle her.”

“Scratch.”

They ran at each other. Candy pushed her arms out in front of her and caught the Cyndaquil as it barrelled up, absorbing the Tackle with her arms, then brought them back and scratched him hard across the face. Dakota blinked a couple of times, then flopped to the floor.

“Alright, return,” Scott said. “You did an amazing job to defeat a Geodude.” Dakota was sucked back into his ball. “Go on, Vulpix. Finish the job.”

The Vulpix, brand new, shiny coated, and with a careful wide-eyed curious stare, looked around at the world outside her pokeball, as if realising that she was now a trainer's pokemon. What resembled a little smile appeared on her vulpine face.

“God, what do you know?” Scott muttered. “Flare Blitz!”

Immediately the Vulpix ignited, far more furiously than she had with the Grunts, and galloped up to Candy, who had a shimmer of fear in her eyes.

“Dodge it, what are you doing?” Matt panicked. Candy shook herself out of her trance and leapt out of the way just in time. Vulpix stopped, panting and staring at the Sandshrew.

“Jesus Christ, this thing's strong,” Scott said. “You'd better hope you can keep dodging.”

“Type disadvantage!” Matt bawled.

“That's true. What else do you know?” He thought for a while. “Ember.” The Vulpix blinked at him. She opened her mouth and a tiny tongue of flame appeared, but she shut it quickly, as if embarrassed. “Fine, um…” He chewed his lip. Flare Blitz hurt the user as well as the opponent. He knew he couldn't risk using it too often.

“Right, well while you struggle with your internal pokedex… Candy, show them your Poison Sting!”

“What?” Scott demanded.

“What?” Kitty cried.

“Oh yeah, I train,” Matt said with a grin. Candy leapt forwards and a little needle shot from her mouth and embedded itself in Vulpix's fur. “Poison, come on, come on.”

“Nope, no poisoning here,” Scott said cheerily. “Flamethrower?” Vulpix looked at her paws sadly. “It's ok, I'll think of something,” he assured her.

“Scratch her up,” Matt said. Candy obliged.

“Try to dodge,” Scott said, but not quickly enough. Vulpix was scratched. She winced at the pain. “Ok.” He chewed his lip. “Maybe you only know egg moves…” He racked his brains. “Heat Wave?” Nothing. “Damn.”

“Scratch again.” Candy's claws glinted in the sun. Vulpix's ears flattened against her head, and she locked eyes with the Sandshrew. Candy didn't move. Then, after a few moments, she fell onto her back; rocked a few times, and started to snore.

“What the hell was that?” Scott cried. Vulpix looked at him guiltily. “No, it's ok,” he said, “I just don't know what attack that was.”

“Hypnosis,” Kitty suggested. “I guess.”

“Yeah!” Scott said. “Ok, now let's try another Flare Blitz.”

“Vul!” Vulpix agreed, and then, in a ball of burning fire, slammed headfirst into Candy, who, still sleeping, skittered across the floor and stuck to a tree; her scales and the bark acting like Velcro. Matt swore loudly, ripped her gently off, and hugged her close.

“You are so sick!” Scott said, picking Vulpix up and hugging her. “I just need to find out what your attacks are.” Vulpix licked him happily on the end of the nose and he went back to Kitty with a huge grin on his face.

“Well done,” she said, smiling at him. “Shall we go now?”

“Onwards and upwards,” Scott said brightly.

*

Parum town was mediocre. Kitty read a sign at the front, which said:

“Parum Town; where expectations are met.”

Now seriously, what the hell was that? Surely it would have been better to say something about exceeding expectations, but evidently not. Apparently here meeting expectations was all that mattered. Funny, as `parum' in Latin meant `not quite good enough'. She looked around for a while.

Shops. Lots of shops. Restaurants. A theatre. Some pubs. A hotel that looked, surprisingly, quite nice.

“Let's check in,” Charlie said, already halfway to it.

“Are we staying here for a while, then?” Kitty asked.

“The second Gym is here!” he pointed out. Kitty followed his finger.

“Oh yeah! What type is it?”

“Water,” Charlie said with a grin. “We'll get to see all sorts of awesome water types there.”

“Yes, indeed we will.”

“I'll take care of it again?” Fred asked, gesturing to his Pichu.

“I can take it,” Adam said. “Grass is just as effective against water.”

“Alright,” Fred said, not exhibiting the slightest signs of… well, any emotion, actually. No surprises here.

“Fabulous. Who wants to train with me?”

“I'll battle you,” Matthew said, displaying just a bit of ferocity. Adam shrugged.

“Alright. I have an advantage.”

Matt's face fell. “Oh yeah.”

“Yay!” Adam said, flinging his arms in the air. “Come on, then.”

And they began to battle on the street. People flocked around to watch a Budew kick a Geodude's ass.

“Guys,” Kitty said, and the boys all turned to her instead. “Let's check in, hurry up.”

They entered the local hotel and gasped collectively. Though it was by no means big or overly fancy, it was beautiful in a polished, wooden, cosily warm way, and Kitty got a weird rush of inexplicable happiness, as she usually did when things were turning out just right.

“Can I help you?” the receptionist asked. Kitty smiled at her.

“Yes, we'd like…” She looked at her friends. “Um, two rooms, please.”

“How many in each room?”

“Four?”

“Ok, let me just…”

“Hang on,” Scott said. “Can we have three rooms instead?”

“Um, sure. How many in each room?”

“Three, three and two.” He glanced sideways at Kitty and her heart hammered. She swallowed.

“And how many nights will this be for?”

“Can we just leave that open-ended?”

“I'm afraid that would be at an extra cost, sir.”

“Fine, ok… um, two nights.”

“Brilliant.” The receptionist clacked about on a computer for a bit, tapped the last key with a flourish and swivelled around in her chair to pick up three keys. “Here you are,” she said, putting them on the desk. Scott picked one up and smiled. “Enjoy your stay at the Micle Hotel.”

“Ooh,” Kitty said, for no particular reason and to nobody in particular, as she followed Scott up to their room. He found the right door and let them in. The other boys had branched off on some other corridor.

“Here we are, m'lady,” he said. Kitty laughed and entered. “It's just you and me,” he said, his neck bent down so that his face was close to hers. He traced his hand over her cheek. “We haven't had much time together since we got here.”

“No,” she said, straightening herself so that she was just a little closer to his height. Just a little. “No, we haven't.”

He bent down just a little lower and soon she felt the warmth of his lips on hers. She let out a breath, as if she had been waiting for this for so long, and could finally relax into it; into him.

There was a furious knocking on the door. “Guys!” It was one of the boys. The knocking got louder. “Guys!” Scott separated himself reluctantly from her and swung the door open.

“What?” he demanded. Adam stood there grinning and holding up a bottle of vodka.

“They have Star Wars on DVD and the minibars are open,” he announced.

“Fab, bye,” Scott said, starting to fling the door shut again, but a foot stopped it.

“You're hosting the party, dude,” Matt said, barging into the room, seemingly from nowhere, holding a can of beer.

“Yeah, we're going out then,” Kitty said, taking Scott by the arm and leaving the crowd of confused boys on their bed. “See you later!”

“Where are we gonna go?” Scott laughed as she led him down the stairs, out the door and into the middle of the town again.

“I don't know,” she said, looking up into his eyes. “That's the fun.”

“Ok,” he said uncertainly. “Food?”

“Sure. Lead me to it.” She placed her hand delicately into his, and he walked her to the edge of the town, to a tiny portion of beach, and to a beautiful little restaurant. “Scott,” she whispered, after he confirmed that they needed a table for two, “can we afford this?”

He smiled, though not directly at her. “Why not? We beat a Gym Leader, and a few other trainers. We have loads of money on our thingies.”

Kitty nodded absently. Currency in Aerei was transferred through trainer cards and computer systems. They didn't have the comfort of money in their pockets, and knowing exactly how much they had. Hopefully it would be enough to order exactly what they wanted, even after the hotel bill.

“And we're going to beat a tougher Gym Leader tomorrow,” Scott reminded her. “So order whatever you like.”

“Ooh,” Kitty said, pointing at the menu. “Have you ever wondered what Krabby tasted like?” She looked up at him, and he met her eyes, and they both started laughing.

“Not as much as I've always wanted to taste… Mareep!” He gulped almost comically. “It says here that you can feel the electrifying sensation all the way into your stomach.” He looked up again. “Is that a good thing?” Kitty snorted.

“I'm ordering a garden salad.”

“Check if it's made out of Oddish.”

“Gross!” Kitty laughed.

“Ok, I'm getting a soup. It says vegetarian.”

“Does that mean it's not made out of any pokemon, or that it's just not technically meat?” Kitty wondered. Scott frowned.

“I'm going to hope that it's just not made out of a pokemon at all.”

“Can I get you your drinks?” a waitress asked.

“What would you recommend?” Scott asked, putting on the most upper-class, drawling voice he could muster. Kitty bit her lip to keep from laughing. The waitress made no comment, not that she would have been allowed to. Maybe she didn't notice.

“Well, we have a fine collection of mocktails,” she said.

“Is that a pokemon part?”

“What?” She laughed. “No. It's a non-alcohol cocktail.”

“Oh,” Scott said. “Clever. Alright.”

“Two of your most fabulous mocktails, then,” Kitty said with a smile. The waitress smiled back and then left them to it.

“So, tell me something about you that I didn't already know,” Scott said.

“Hmm.” Kitty tilted her head. “I think you know everything about me.”

“I know everything about you in the real world,” he said. “But here things are different.”

“Are they?”

“Well, I've been feeling more like an adult, I guess. More independent. I don't miss anything back home at all.”

Kitty thought about it. “Neither do I. It's like I belong here.”

Scott nodded. “Like nothing else mattered before we got here.” He reached his fingers out towards her, as if in slow motion. “I really want to spend more time with you.”

And so that was exactly what they did.

They ate their meals and drank their non-alcoholic cocktails, paid - they had enough, apparently - and went on their way.

“How long is Star Wars?” Kitty asked. Scott looked up at the darkening sky.

“They'll probably watch them all in a row if they can. That means it'd be like… I have no idea. Ages.”

“What shall we do, then?” Kitty asked, trailing a finger down his arm. It twitched, as muscles do occasionally, reacting to the softest of touches. Kitty wondered if it was the same reason as with horses: to keep the flies off. She smiled to herself.

“Let's go swimming,” Scott said, looking out at the crashing grey waves and the fine white sand on the beach.

“I don't have a costume.”

“Me neither.” Scott was already pulling off his shirt. Kitty laughed.

“It'll be freezing!”

“So?” he said, almost breathless, unzipping his jeans. Kitty got a little thrill that she attempted to hide.

“There are people around,” she hissed.

Scott looked around with a frown, hands clutching at his waistband. “No there aren't.” Kitty looked around too. There weren't.

“It's still cold, though,” she said sadly, as they reached the edge of the water. She stepped out of her shoes, pulled off her socks and dipped half a toe in.

“You've got me for warmth,” he said, wrapping his arms around her from behind. She felt his warmth, and very faintly the beating of his heart, and she leant her head back onto his chest.

“Why are you so goddamn tall?” she mumbled. He kissed the top of her head, lingering.

“I dunno.”

And then he, very slowly, as if he didn't want to offend, pulled off her t-shirt. She hugged herself, looking around again. He laughed softly. She bit her lip, then unzipped her skirt, and stood on the beach in matching plain black underwear. It wasn't as cold as she had thought. He let go of his waist and his jeans fell to his ankles.

“Ready?” he said, his voice almost a whisper. Kitty paused, then nodded. He picked her up in a swooping motion and she laughed as he waded through the water until he was waist deep, his boxers gliding along with the motion of the water. He let her down, and she flinched at the cold. He cupped her face in his hands, bent down and kissed her.

This time for a long, long time. The moonlight glittered on the surface of the black water, and in the distance a Wailord's tail flicked up and disappeared. Nothing else mattered. Right now, to her, there was only his body warmth, and their lips.

“I think we should go back now,” he said. She was starting to get goosebumps, but still reluctant, she nodded in agreement, and they waded back to shore. She sank down onto her knees on the sand, and then lay down on her back.

“Look,” she said. “Do you think they're the same stars?”

“As what?” Scott lay down beside her, holding his shirt in one hand.

“As the ones back home.”

“Maybe.” He turned onto his side to face her, head propped up on his arm. He traced a finger down the curve of her waist, wet, glistening and sandy. He half opened his mouth, as if he had something to say, but decided against it and shut it again. The sound of the waves crashing against the shore was so relaxing in the background. For some reason Kitty felt like she was about to cry.

“Scott?”

“Mm?”

“I love you.”

There was a pause. She turned and looked at him. He stroked her cheek with his hand and then kissed her neck softly. “I love you too.”

“Let's go back to our room,” she said, getting up slowly and brushing sand off her skin. She pulled on her clothes and waited for him to do up his zipper.

“Ok.”

When they got back to their room, it was empty. Both the actual room and the minibar. Scott laughed and shut and locked the door.

“I need a shower,” Kitty announced, and disappeared into the bathroom.

“Me too,” Scott said, and took off his shirt. There was sand all over the carpet, but he figured the maids would get it.

The shower was amazing. The right temperature, the right amount of water, and the soap smelt fantastic. Kitty scrubbed the sand away and watched it swirl down the drain. Then the door opened. She had left it unlocked, feeling particularly daring, and the fact that something she had imagined was coming true both terrified and excited her.

The curtain was pulled back, and she had a flash of Psycho, although she had never seen it, and saw her blood pooling in little circles on the porcelain and swirling down the drain, but it was just Scott. He looked embarrassed, but he still grinned. Evidently he was feeling daring that day too.

“Can I?” he asked.

“You can't come in with clothes on,” Kitty said simply, turning away to hide her smile.

She felt the heat from his body before he even touched her. He washed the sand from his own skin, and she watched, her heart hammering in her throat, and then he grabbed her and kissed her with more ferocity and urgency than he ever had before. And they had kissed many times.

“I need you now,” he panted. Her heart rate increased until she could barely breathe and all she could think about was how nice his body was, and that in this universe, Kitty didn't have to be a good girl. She could reinvent herself. Here there were no repercussions, she thought, although that made no sense. It was as if everything was a dream, swimming before her eyes and moments shot by before she could catch them. The only thing she was sure of at that moment was that she loved the boy in front of her.

“Take me, then,” she said.

So he did.

Then when it was over, she leant, panting on the bathroom wall.

“Bed?” he suggested. She wasn't sure whether he meant sleep or not.

“Sure,” she said, trying to sound casual. Inside every part of her was screaming, and not necessarily in a bad way.

“Can you stand?” he asked. He was teasing, but she wondered for a moment whether she could walk unaided.

“Carry me,” she said, looking up at his wide brown eyes. He hooked his arms around her and pulled her up, then seemed to decide against the bed after all, and pressed her into the wall with a firm kiss. Water dripped off his hair and down her cheek, cold and like a tear. Her chest rose and fell with every breath, and on every inhale she felt herself press hard against his body.

“I love you,” he said again, shaking his head as if he didn't believe it. She didn't feel like talking anymore, so she answered him with a kiss. He carried her to the bed and climbed onto it, still holding her, and moved on top of her. “Talk to me,” he whispered.

“What do you want me to say?” She was surprised at how breathless she sounded.

“Just talk,” he said, then kissed her neck. Licking off the water slowly and deliberately.

“Um,” she said, “where's Rocky?”

He stopped and looked around. “In his ball?”

“The boys probably have him,” she said. “Sorry.” She ran her hand down his wet back. “You have my full attention.”

*

Kitty was asleep in Scott's arms. She sighed and nuzzled his chest, up and down. Her leg was against his. She couldn't have been closer if she'd tried.

The window was open. A breeze rolled in and the curtains billowed silently but urgently. A message, or a warning. For a moment there were three people in that room.

Then there were only two.

Then there was just one.

Kitty woke up as a Taillow sang on the windowsill and light poured over her tousled blonde hair. She stretched and got up, remembering her lack of clothing and pulling the sheets up to her neck.

“Scott?” she said, surprised at how loud and alien her own voice sounded. Everything last night was a blur. A good one. “Are you in the bathroom?” She rubbed her eyes softly and rolled over. Something crinkled under her stomach and she moved to pick it up. A note. She blinked a few times until her vision was good enough to read.

I love you.

Don't look for me.

Scott