Fire and Ice

Protect

It was a beautiful day in the Kalos region. The sun was shining, the Fletchling were singing, and the first blooms were just beginning to peep open. It was, if you were one to enjoy these things, a perfect day.

It made Greninja furious.

How dare the world look happy today? How dare it, when the most wonderful person he had ever known had been ripped from it. No one had any right to look bright and sunny when Ash was dead, lying in a cramped wooden box six feet under. He had half a mind to call on a Rain Dance and drown the entire planet in sorrow, even though one, he didn't know that move, and two, it would be physically impossible to perform a Rain Dance widespread enough to cover the entire earth.

"Greninja?"

"Leave me alone," Greninja hissed. He wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone.

"Greninja, it's just me."

Greninja turned his head to see his close friend, Hawlucha, taking a seat beside him. "Oh, hey," he muttered.

"Hey," Hawlucha answered softly, running a talon down his back. Usually Greninja hated it when Hawlucha used that tone with him, but today he didn't mind.

Either that, or he was just too miserable to care.

"This is so stupid!" Greninja spat, wishing there was something around that he could punch as a wave of fury and grief as he had never known washed over him.

"What is?" Hawlucha asked, sounding more than a little alarmed at his friend's sudden rage.

"This! Everything!" Greninja fumed. "Lysandre, Team Flare, the stupid bond phenomenon, all of it!"

"I don't-"

"We spent months working on that stupid form, and I couldn't even use it for anything useful!" Greninja continued his tirade, unaware that Hawlucha had spoken again. "I can use it to beat a Mega Abomasnow and a freaking Mega Sceptile, but I couldn't save Ash! I'm nothing but a useless, pathetic excuse for a Pokémon!"

"Greninja, please-"

"Don't you dare say anything, Hawlucha. You know as well as I do that it's true," Greninja said bitterly. "My other trainers were right to give up on me. If I was such a great Pokemon, I should have been able to protect Ash! The one trainer who actually gave a shit about me, and I let him die! It would be best for everyone if I were d-"

"Greninja, don't you even think about finishing that sentence!" Hawlucha shouted, jumping to his feet and grabbing the frog Pokemon by the shoulders. "You are not pathetic and you are not useless! You're one of the best friends anyone could ask for. None of this was your fault, you hear me? None of it."

Greninja blinked away tears. "But Ash-"

"-chose to sacrifice himself so you could live," Hawlucha said gently, stroking Greninja's head. "It had nothing to do with you being too weak. Nothing."

"What have I done to deserve his sacrifice?" Greninia asked dully.

"It's not about deserve," Hawlucha told him. "And personally, I'm glad you're still here. Who else would get annoyed with me all the time and call me an arrogant showoff?"

Greninja actually managed a small smile at that. Hawlucha seemed to hesitate for a moment before he gently wrapped him in a protective embrace. The water-type could sense Hawlucha murmuring comfortingly to him, though he couldn't make out what exactly was being said.

"What now?" Greninja asked quietly. Hawlucha paused for a moment.

"What do you mean?" the former forest champion asked.

"I mean, we're all wild Pokemon now. What are we going to do?" Greninja clarified. "I mean, sure, the rest of you could make it in the wild just fine, but I'm a starter Pokémon. I'm not meant to be able to survive without a trainer for very long. I could learn, sure...but even then I'm still at a disadvantage."

"You could stay with me," Hawlucha offered.

"But what if I put you in danger?" Greninja asked.

"Danger is a part of life," the fighting-type replied with a shrug. "And anyway, don't you remember what you told me back when Trevenant kidnapped Ash?"

Greninja frowned slightly as he tried to think back to that day. "Uh...'You're an arrogant piece of shit who doesn't care about anything except showing off?'"

"Well...yes," Hawlucha admitted. "But I was actually talking about something else. Here, I'll help you out. 'We're-'

"'-going to figure this out together, or not at all,'. Yeah, I remember now," Greninja said, nodding.

Hawlucha nodded. "Exactly," he replied. "Together, or not at all. That's still true, even now. And I'll be damned if I leave you to fend for yourself."

Greninja smiled and allowed himself to relax into his brother's embrace. "Thanks, Hawlucha," he murmured, yawning tiredly as the strain of his emotions finally took its toll on him. Closing his eyes, he felt himself drift slowly off to a much-needed sleep.

Hawlucha looked fondly down at his peacefully sleeping friend. "Always for you, Greninja," he whispered.