The Professor's Secret

37. The Professor's Secret

"Well?!" Shauna giggled "Is that it?! Let me see it!"

The golden gleam moved back and forth, reflecting the sun. I smiled, holding the delicate and precious token between my fingers.

"You've seen it long enough! It's my turn now!" Shauna screamed in a fit of impatience, stretching herself over the café's table to reach for me.

"Shauna...!" I warned, a little too late though, for the table had already begun to waver under her weight "Careful, or we'll...!!"

"waaaa...." She screamed as soon as she felt gravity move her.

My chair fell back, stealing my balance – Shauna held on to my arms and we both went down with table and chairs falling over us.

We stopped with our arms around each other to watch carefully as my badge hit the floor with a tiny "clink" noise – it bounced once, twice, then rolled through the asphalt, wringing a gasp from us... But luckily, it stopped before losing itself inside a gap or sewer entrance. Shauna and I sighed in unison...

Calem walked up to us and watched us from his height, mocking the silly scene – then he crouched, securing my badge and raising it to his eyes, smiling as he, too, examined the glow reflected in the metallic covering.

"Huh?!" Tierno exclaimed, jumping on Calem's shoulder and nearly knocking him down with his weight.

Before Calem could react with the annoyance taking over his expression, Trevor jumped on his other arm, pulling it down and stretching his neck to try and see it, too.

"C'mon, guys!!" Calem protested, looking at both of them.

"Is this the iceberg badge?!" Tierno moaned "Doesn't look like an iceberg at all..."

"More like a mountain" Trevor added.

"Get off me!!!" Calem struggled.

Shauna and I got up, then we stopped to enjoy a good laugh over Calem's irritation.

The day was bright, moved by a fresh breeze that shook the perfume off the flowers and onto the air. Breathing it deeply, one could not help wondering what a beautiful place Kalos was...

We sat ourselves back on Santalune's café and talked all day about how we all started and what we were going to do next. When the conversation died away, I watched the town's slow movement from my seat – and in watching it, in smiling as the children played around the water fountain, a pair of romantic lovers danced to no tune at all, and the artist daydreamed over a blank canvas, I inevitably spared a thought from the tranquil lot to dedicate it to Lysandre, and to whatever end met him in Geoseng Town as he chose to remain inside the ruins of his blighted plot – to die along with the future he had so twistedly idealized. I wished he could have seen his treasured beauty manifesting everywhere, like, at intervals, we all could; that he knew, at least now, that the flower that bloomed the prettiest did so even deep inside a ravine – that the thickest the shadows it grew surrounded by, the more its color impressed.

Every now and then I allowed myself to sigh for him. Every now and then, the beauty of the sun cast a distant, diffuse sorrow over my breast.

-x-x-x-

Five days after defeating the Elite Four and becoming the champion of Kalos' region, all of my friends and I received an invitation to a sunset ceremony in Lumiose where the five of us were to be honored for our bravery against Team Flare and for the protection of Kalos. Our Pokémon would be dignified for their iron determination and coordinated effort, and the love we each felt for them would be recognized and appraised. Don't get me wrong – the impact such honor brought on us was huge, but... unaffected children as we were, it didn't even occur to us we should have dressed up!