Whispers in the Dark「Pokemon Fanfiction」

Eɪɢʜᴛ • "Pᴀsᴛ"

Chapter Eight: "Past"

"Celeana?" The silver-tressed boy's voice pulled her from the little world she had immersed herself in. "We've reached Verdanturf."

She gave an overenthusiastic nod, swallowing a little in embarrassment. She'd never even noticed that they'd been standing in a cement-overrun town for the past few minutes.

"OK," she replied, shifting her gaze to the one building that she was familiar with. The orange-tiled roof stood out like a sore thumb against the plain cream of the other buildings, a trademark design that any trainer would be able to recognise. "Is that the P—Pokemon Center?"

Ryou gave her a brief nod. "Yeah. We'll head there now to heal our Pokemon, restock our supplies and book a room. Is that fine with you?"

It wasn't as if she had anything planned, so she swiftly agreed.

She stepped into the large structure, a subconscious smile forming on her face as she was greeted by a pleasant, cold gale of air brushing against her skin.

Her companion walked forward, handling the conversation with graceful ease. The smooth, calculated tone he spoke with was a far cry from the lazy drone that she was used to. He spoke to Nurse Joy in a tone that seemed much too polite from his usual demeanour.

Moments later, he approached Celeana with a set of colour-coded keys in his hand. "Done," he told her. "You can go settle in, and I'll go get supplies."

She gave him a slight scowl—he was treating her as a small child, and she wanted to prove to him that she wasn't completely incapable of performing the simplest of feats. "I can get my own supplies, you know," the trainer sighed. "Stop treating me like a kid."

"Ah, I wasn't trying to make you feel bad," he chimed. "I was just thinking of what was the most efficient way to do things, you know." The teenager's words were logical enough, but they were layered with a hint of flippant nonchalance.

The coordinator said nothing, but bristled inside with disgruntled indignation.

"Well, you're welcome to buy the supplies if you want." Ryou raised an eyebrow at her reaction. "I'm not stopping you."

She replied with a half-hearted inclination of her head, leaving the silver-haired boy in the room and closing the door behind her with a soft click.

As soon as the trainer was out of her sight, she gave a small sigh, knowing that she was wrong—with her stammering and near-incapability of speech when she was nervous. She had told Ryou that she could do it, though, and there was no going back.

I've embarrassed myself enough today, she told herself in a grudging tone.

She exited the Pokemon Center, barely managing to spot the iconic blue roof of the Mart through the large crowd of people that combed Verdanturf's streets.

Celeana walked into the cosy structure, smiling as she saw the rack of Potions that her travelling partner had asked her to get. She grabbed a few of the colourful medicines off the shelf, struggling to balance the compact boxes in her arms.

Mumbling to herself in frustration, she seized a basket from the rack beside her, barely managing to dump the bottles into the plastic vessel.

Golden eyes scanned the rest of the shop's brackets, deciding to take some status-healing remedies and a few Revives—after all, she didn't want to be stuck in a situation if she lost a battle and had Froakie or Ralts faint.

"Right, Pokeballs," she reminded herself, and added a few of the red and white capsules to her ever-growing collection.

Finally satisfied with the basket of items, Celeana heaved the green receptacle onto the counter. The cashier offered her a kind smile, deft hands moving to pack the items into bags and handing them to her with a wide grin.