Caught In The Rain (Cilan x Reader)

Chapter 4 - The looming sky

As soon as you reach the front entrance of the Pokemon Center, the problem that didn't strike you at first becomes evident.

Even though the whole building is raised a few steps off of the ground, water is still lapping over the front steps, and people and Pokemon are desperately blockading the door with sandbags.

"Here," the Castelian man exclaims, handing you the sandbags. You stumble backwards under the sudden added weight as the man dashes off back to work before you can get another word.

"Erm, hello?" You say, glaring after him.

"Here," Cilan says, "Let me get some of those."

He leans in, lifting a couple of the bags out of your arms. You look up, and for a split second, you see a gentle glance of affection in his emerald green eyes. It resonates in you, like the single pluck of a violin string in the bottom of your chest. But the feeling disappears almost as quickly as it came, leaving another emotion; a small, pungent confusion you can't explain.

Suddenly, however, you feel something pulling at your leg. You look down to see Dewott with its jaws on the bottom of your trouser leg, and then you realise that you've just been standing there like a wally for 10 seconds.

"Thanks bud," you whisper down to your Pokemon with a somewhat embarrassed grin. Dewott grins and poses happily.

"Come on," Cilan continues, "Let's go and help."

You head over to the site where everyone is at work, and set down the sandbags, desperately trying to avoid the water. After that, you turn to shovelling silt and chucking it back into the water, even though it just keeps lapping back up again. Dewott digs with it front legs, using its scallop as a scoop. Its determination is unmatched by neither you nor Cilan.

Cilan himself looks especially tired, as he wearily shovels silt over the sandbag wall, until suddenly, his expression changes. He unhinges a pokeball from his belt and holds it in front of his face.

"This calls for special support!" He says looking at the pokeball in his hand, "Pansage!" He say, throwing the pokeball skyward, "I choose you!"

The pokeball flies upward, spinning wildly, and as it reaches optimal point in the sky, it cracks open, white light streaming out from inside, and a figure, 2 or 3 feet tall, begins to emerge. Cilan catches the empty pokeball as Pansage, a bright eyed and green haired monkey pokemon, lands on the ground.

"Pansage!!" It cheers, waving its stubby arms in the air.

"Alright Pansage!" Cilan calls to his Pokemon, "use dig to get the silt back into the water!"

"Pansage!!" The monkey Pokemon cheers again, shaking its fists, and dives into the water, swiping furiously at the silt. Dewott looks over its shoulder at the blinding stream of silt and the Pokemon behind it, and furls its brow. It slides next to its competition and furiously sets off again. But twice as fast. You and Cilan look on, impressed.

"Hang on," you say in a moment of realisation, "You're Cilan of Striaton Gym? Right? The one who's been away for months?"

Cilan says nothing; he just laughs. "You didn't recognise me?" He says, and then dons a sarcastic tone, "Am I not, some kind of celebrity?" He flicks his hair and grins.