Fear - An Aureliashipping and Lonashipping Story

-9-

Readers: Who updates a book at three in the morning?

Me: *hears alarm and shuts it off* OH BOY 3 AM! *pulls out increased number of reads to feed off of*

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Click. Click. Sigh.

The mouse of Lillie's computer sang its quiet song as the girl browsed the web. Her newfound feelings for Ash had made her a hopeless romantic. Lillie's head sank to her desk as she stared at the screen, another sigh filling her room. "Why can't I have a love like Red and Yellow?" she complained, turning away from the window with a fanfic website.

"Pix?" Shiron said. The fox was amazed that Lillie could even stare at the bright screen at this hour. The house was dark and quiet, the moon high in the air. Hobbes had fallen asleep in his room, the Pokémon who had come to play on the playground outside were well on their way home. Lillie and Shiron were the only signs of life in the mansion.

"Shiron, what am I going to do? I can't tell Ash how I feel about him: i-it would make things so awkward!" she blurted out.

Shiron's only response was a twitching ear, not experienced with the ways of human love.

Lillie sighed. "He probably doesn't like me anyway..." she whispered, tears rushing to her eyes. "I'm just some dumb girl who's afraid of Poké-"

A quick but gentle headbutt to the gut cut Lillie off. She looked down to see Shiron gazing up at her, her face molded into a frown. The Vulpix's mesmerizing blue eyes got the message across: Lillie shouldn't be talking like this.

Lillie wiped her eyes. "You're right. I'm sorry for being overdramatic."

Shiron lifted herself on her hind paws to nuzzle Lillie's face. Lillie giggled, thankful for the bundle of fur in front of her. Shiron is getting so wise...is it time?

The fox Pokémon noticed her trainer's thoughtful look. "Vul?"

The girl stood up and walked over to her closet. After digging around, a white, sparkling stone appeared in her hand. She walked back over to Shiron. "Shiron..." she began to speak.

Lillie's voice appeared to get farther and farther away to Shiron as it gazed at the stone, mesmerized by it. The little Pokémon couldn't process the emotions that were rushing through her head as the stone called to her. Within the stone, she saw a yellow fox Pokémon get off a boat with its trainer in what appeared to be an older Alola. Soon, a whole group of yellow and small red foxes journeying through icy mountains, struggling to walk through the blizzard.

Shiron suddenly found herself in the middle of the group, gazing around her in fear for the Pokémon. However, one by one, the struggling fox Pokémon began to turn white, looking more confident as the transformation finished. A tall, white Pokémon walked over to the peak of the mountain and let out a piercing cry: Tails!

Shiron understood. She had just witnessed hundreds, if not thousands of years of adaptation in these Pokémon.

She witnessed the birth of Alolan Vulpix and Ninetails.

As quickly as she was sucked in, Shiron snapped back to reality.

"...S-so no pressure, I just think you're ready." Lillie stammered. She took a deep breath. "Do you want to evolve?"

The computer screen shut off, going into sleep mode. The moonlight filtering through the window was the only thing left, leaving the two to stare at each other in the night.

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Gladion was staring up at the dark ceiling. He and Moon had rented a room in the Pokémon Center. The girl slept on a separate bed across the room, her back towards Gladion.

Have things gotten tense. Gladion thought. He thought back to the conversation he had with Moon earlier.

~~~Flashback~~~

"Are...are we friends?"

"Huh?"

Gladion was completely caught off guard. Not only was the question random, but Moon's anxious face scared him. He had never seen her like this before.

"What brought this up?" he asked.

"I...I think you're taking advantage of me!" Moon blurted out.

Gladion was taken aback at her sudden mood change, but was interrupted as Moon continued. "You hate me, don't you? All you care about is me keeping your identity a secret!"

The boy's mouth was open in shock as the rage continued to pour out from the girl.

"If I'm just some dumb pawn, then maybe I'll just go! Don't worry, I won't snitch, I don't care!" Moon was about to run off until Gladion grabbed her hand. The girl turned to look back at him.

Gladion's felt guilty: some of what she said had truth behind it. She wasn't his favorite person, and he partnered up with her out of necessity. However...he didn't want to hurt her. She didn't deserve this.

"Look, I may be mean to you sometimes...but I'm not taking advantage of you. I want to be your friend." he began.

Moon let out a sniff and wiped some tears away. "D-Do you care about me?"

"Well, if you died it wouldn't be...good." the boy acknowledged.

Moon smiled and turned to face him. For Gladion, that was good enough. "Thank you." she said, a soft expression in her eyes and a big smile on her face.

Gladion almost smiled until a ding caused him to look away. The Pokémon Center's doors just opened after a little girl walked out with her Fletchling. "Well, we better head to the Center." he said, walking over. He turned to look at Moon. "You coming?"

To his surprise, the smiling face he saw already disappeared. Instead, Moon looked sad and...disappointed. "Um...yeah. Sure."

~~Back in the present~~

Gladion sighed to himself. Moon had continued to act strange for the rest of the day, and no apparent reason came to mind. He thought he reassured her with his talk. He wished Lillie was there: women could understand other women.

A lingering thought pounded in his mind: You didn't care about her at all at first.

I don't want to hurt her! Gladion tried to defend himself against the voice in his head.

Admit it. You would have rather never have met her if you had the chance until that talk, huh? What would Mother think? What would Lillie think?

Gladion couldn't think of anything to respond with.

That's what I thought. the voice continued as Gladion pulled a pillow over his head.

You cruel, heartless jerk.

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Hi, Royalty here! Sorry if this was uploaded at a weird time for you. This may sound dumb, but staying up late to write about Lillie and Gladion's late night conflicts gave me inspiration.

First of all, I want to apologize about last chapter. In a rush to get it out quickly, it was very poorly edited and there were a lot of mistakes. At one point I didn't even finish a sentence. This may have ruined the experience for some of you and I will try to do better next time.

Secondly, to tie in with my first note, I'm proud of myself for this chapter, especially Shiron's vision. It's probably my best writing ever.

Thirdly, we have passed 3,000 reads! Thank you so much for sticking with me this far. It really gives me motivation to continue writing.

Remember to vote, comment, and follow! Bye!