Pokemon One-Shots and Headcanons

What You've Made Me

The worst part of it was that she still loved him. And even more insistent than her love for him was the knowledge of just how impossible it was.

He loved someone else. He wanted someone else and-loathe as she was to admit it-that someone else wanted him too, loved him as though it were as natural as breathing. That someone else made him laugh, and dear Arceus, the way his eyes lit up when he was with her...

His happiness with someone else would always, always haunt her.

He said he didn't like her.

That had been what he'd told her, all those weeks and months ago, right? Sylveon couldn't remember very well. He'd made his opinion on their friendship very clear, after she'd chosen to follow Serena when she and Clemont betrayed Ash. They were over. Done. Finished.

She'd lost any chance she'd ever had with him, and now it was so easy-so infuriatingly simple-for Buneary to close in.

Sylveon watched from the shadows as Buneary took a tentative seat next to Pikachu. The crisp, cold winter air was blowing gently throgh the trees, making the leaves rustle softly. Pikachu was staring off into space, as he often did whenever he was thinking. She wondered what he was thinking about, but of course he couldn't ask, so she just stayed where she was.

"Hey, Pikachu," Buneary said, in that tone she always seemed to use around the electric mouse. Sylveon could have sworn she saw Pikachu's mouth twitch as though he were going to smile.

"Hey, Buneary," he replied.

Was he-Sylveon frowned at the thought-was he teasing her? Teasing was an awful lot like flirting, and flirting was an awful lot like...

But he'd said he didn't like her. That had been what he'd told her, right?

No, Sylveon shook her head, no, she was wrong. She'd asked him about any girls in his life, just as a joke at the time, and he'd mentioned that there was a Buneary that had a crush on him and had made some flippant remark about how awkward the flirting got sometimes. He hadn't said one thing about his feelings for her.

Shit. Fuck. Damn it.

"How have you been?" Buneary asked.

"Fine, I suppose," Pikachu replied with a shrug. "Looking forward to all this being over, though."

Sylveon felt her heart sink when she heard that. She knew what "this" was-it was her. Well, maybe not her specifically, but everyone who had betrayed Ash. And since she had chosen to follow, that put her right in the mix. He couldn't wait for her to be away from him. And now here he was, sitting right next to Buneary.

How the hell had this happened?

Buneary nodded. "Yeah," she said. "I get that."

They were quiet again, and the silence very nearly killed Sylveon as she watched it settle in the small space between them. It was a heavy silence, weighed down by things neither one of them were saying, but she had to acknowledge their existence.

There was something there-something-and maybe it didn't mean anything right now, but....it was still there.

Sylveon turned away from the scene and hurried away. She couldn't watch anymore. She couldn't keep watching as Buneary grew closer to Pikachu, as he let her into his life, taking the place she could have had herself.

She'd apologized, she'd begged, she'd tried to make it up to him, and for what? So he could effectively shut her out of his life, so he could more comfortably settle himself with Buneary like he so obviously wanted to? Of course, it had only been a matter of time before he cut her out, all for the sake of that stupid rabbit.

Sylveon felt the bitterness as it surged its way through her veins, making her blood boil, sending her heart on such a rapid-fire pace that it was sure to burst out of her chest and leave her for dead. She didn't try to stop it.

She should have seen it coming. Despite everything, she'd seen the way his eyes gleamed just a little more when he talked about her. He'd said he didn't like her, and yet whenever they talked, she always managed to come up in the conversation. But she'd ignored it, instead choosing to believe every last one of Pikachu's lies, all his fabrications, about how uncomfortable Buneary's flirting had made him.

He lied.

And she loved him anyway.

It was a Saturday, a nice Saturday afternoon, at about two-thirty p.m.

They were outside-lots of trainers and Pokemon were, basking in the glory of a rare day of sunshine in the Hielo region. Fallen leaves danced their way over the golden blades of grass, skidding across the cobblestone of walkways and courtyards. Flying-types swooped overhead. Friends laughed.

It was idyllic, almost, if you were the right sort of person for that kind of thing.

Sylveon watched from a secluded area as Pikachu and Buneary laughed by the river. She could see it in the way his shoulders shook. They seemed to be having some sort of private conversation, and it only made the pit in her stomach grow deeper.

There was a sudden yell of surprise, and Sylveon looked up to see that Pikachu had been thrown into the river. She watched as he resurfaced, soaked and spluttering, but smiling anyway. He was obviously freezing. Water cascaded down from his fur, curving around every countour of his jaw and neck and shoulders.

His smile split his face in two, and Sylveon felt her heart go the same way. It always had. It never stopped, her heart, it never stopped breaking around him and that heart-wrenching smile.

But that smile was for Buneary now, and his adoration was for her-just for her.

Sylveon knew it. She could tell. He was lit up from the inside, and it was Buneary who did that to him.

And Buneary was smiling back, all adoration and awe and the delight that she was about to get what she wanted-what she'd ached, pined, and starved for, what she'd dreamed about in her sleep and fantasized about in her waking hours.

She was going to get everything, and-as a consequence-Sylveon really was about to lose it all this time. Everything, in one fell swoop.

"Buneary, you complete twit!" Pikachu shot at her through that smile. But there was no real anger in his tone, and she knew it-anyone could see it.

And he just kept...looking...at Buneary. In that way. That way.

Sylveon was losing it.

"You love me!" Buneary said.

He does. It was making him glow from the inside, like a paper lantern that had been so lovingly crafted by Buneary with her own two paws, the paws that would pull him away from Sylveon forever.

"Nope," Pikachu laughed.

He's lying. Why was he always lying?

"You want me!" Buneary tried again.

He does. It was practically raining down from his eyes, crashing out of his bone structure, how badly he wanted her.

"Getting warmer," he allowed. But it was so clear-so obvious-that Buneary had already hit the mark, dead center, right in the heart that Pikachu always wore so openly. For her. All for her.

How had this happened?

"Say it, Pikachu," Buneary prompted, but she already knew. She had to know. "I want to hear you."

No, no. Arceus, please, no.

If he didn't say it, maybe Sylveon could ignore it. Maybe it could all be stopped before it started, because once it started it would be too late for good. Maybe his heart could go back to where it belonged, away from Buneary, because he couldn't-

Don't say it.

Don't.

But he smiled again, and he was adorable, and it was all for her.

"Fine," he laughed. "You win. I love you."

Meloetta_AshGreninja here it is.