Connecting Heartstrings | Gladion

>>Chapter 9<<

The next day Gladion tried to talk to (Y/N) and apologise for screaming at her. He got to school early, hoping to talk to her before classes started. He started walking around school until he finally found her. She was walking fast, with her head down.

— "(Y/N) wait, I need to talk to you." — Gladion said, approaching her but she ignored him and kept on walking. Gladion took her arm and tried to stop her. She turned around to look at her arm and Gladion noticed the tears streaming down her cheeks and the redness in her eyes. He felt his heart ache at the mere sight of (Y/N)'s suffering, knowing well that he was the one that caused it.

(Y/N) pulled her arm from Gladion's grasp and continued walking without saying a word or even looking at Gladion. Gladion was mad at himself. Even though he was never kind to her, he felt the damage he had done was unnecessary, especially with (Y/N) always being so nice to him. As soon as she was out of sight, Gladion turned around and punched the locker right next to him out of sheer rage. He left a mark in the locker and everyone stared at him.

— "I'll pay for it!" — He screamed at everyone and left. He needed to right this wrong. Gladion started walking towards his classroom, and his thoughts started to drift away and back to (Y/N).

Gladion couldn't explain to himself why he needed to apologise. He didn't know if it was the guilt, or if he cared about (Y/N). He only ever cared about his family and his Pokémon and (Y/N) didn't fit into neither of those categories. Gladion had considered once before, months ago, calling her a friend, but he was a complete stranger to the concept of friendship and did not know if (Y/N) was his friend or not. After all, reciprocity was necessary in a friendship and Gladion didn't know how (Y/N) felt about him. Come to think of it, he had never even cared about that before. What other people thought of him. But (Y/N) was certainly different to other people he had met before. She was kind to him and whenever he started being sarcastic, she would play along. Nobody ever understood his dark humour before. People would normally get offended, which was the reason why he was mad most of the time. He felt misunderstood. Maybe now he was done being lonely. Since (Y/N) arrived to Alola, she always tried to get along with him. Being honest, it annoyed him at first, but once he got to know her, he realised they were more alike than he could imagine. She was lonely as well.

Gladion kept thinking about (Y/N) and came to realise he cared about her. He still didn't fully understand the concept of friendship and decided maybe he cared about her because she reminded him of himself. He didn't want her to be as lonely as he had been. He wanted them to be alone together. Gladion was mad at himself. First of all, for hurting the only person besides his sister to ever care about him, and secondly, he didn0t like feeling this way. Gladion thought he was better off alone and had always thought that way, so having someone just come and flip everything upside down annoyed the hell out of him. He was conflicted about his own feelings. He didn't want to care. He was furious at (Y/N) for making him care, even though she probably didn't know what she had done. After all, Gladion was always hiding his feelings, and he was good at it. (Y/N) probably thought Gladion hated her, which only angered Gladion even more. He didn't like the guilt, or the responsibility to make everything right again.

He opened the door to the classroom and noticed (Y/N) sitting in her spot right behind his, and Ilima was talking to her. He walked up to his seat and Ilima glared at him when he noticed his presence. Gladion decided to ignore him and simply sat down, ignoring everyone in the classroom. He was too occupied with his angst and emotional issues to be bothered with school, especially with (Y/N)'s friend trying to pick a fight. He decided it was best to leave (Y/N) alone for now, so he ignored her and stared blankly ahead.

The class started and Gladion never paid attention, not even once. He was trying to understand his own feelings. Feeling overall was new to him. After all, he was always told how to act and how to respond to everything. His mother strived for perfection and never let him have an opinion about anything. The closest thing he ever felt to love was thanks to his Pokémon and his sister, he deeply cared about them and wanted them to be happy at all costs, but (Y/N) made him feel something similar yet different. He felt at peace next to her. He felt understood and safe, even though he didn't understand why, Yes, they knew each other for a couple of months and spent most of their time together but come to think of it Gladion knew nothing about her. He didn't know about her past or her plans for the future. How can you care about someone you barely know?

Gladion didn't want to be attached to anyone. He was already too worried about his sister to even bother caring for anyone else. He slipped and let himself feel something for someone else, but he didn't need friends. (Y/N) would just get in the way of his plans. Yet he couldn't shake the feeling of guilt and the need to fix what he did yesterday. He could not sleep last night thinking how he let his anger get the best out of him. Gladion didn't like being emotional at all, yet he was frequently angry. Oh, the irony.

By the end of the class, Gladion had concluded that the reason behind it all was pointless and trying to understand the logic of feelings was infuriating. He cared about (Y/N). Whatever the reason was, that was a problem for future Gladion. He just knew he needed his friend back, and to make a real effort to not mess it up again. After all, he knew she would never hurt Lillie, she was her friend too, but he let anger take over and he felt deeply ashamed for that.

Before everyone left school, professor Kukui let everyone know there would be a school trip to Akala during the weekend. Gladion saw this as an opportunity. He needed a plan to make this right. Tomorrow was Friday so he had until tomorrow to plan it out and hope for the best.

A/N: please comment, I want to know what you think ;-;