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They met for the first time at a League convention.
Diantha was not even a year into her champion title, still timid and unsure. The only person she really knew there was Malva, but the older woman had disappeared into a crowd of her own friends, leaving Diantha to stand awkwardly in the corner, her back pressed against the eggshell-colored walls.
With her vigorous schedule as an actress, and now the added weight of Kalos League Champion on her shoulders, Diantha didn’t have the largest interactive presence, leaving her a bit debilitated in the social interaction department. She felt very awkward going up and talking to people, which made her personal life a lonely place.
“You look lost.”
Diantha jumped at the sudden apparition of a new face. She’d been caught up in her insecurities, failing to notice a tall figure sidling up next to her.
The handsome newcomer couldn’t have been much older than her. He was a tall, slim, well-built figure with spiked, red hair and commanding eyes.
Although they’d never previously crossed paths, Diantha knew instantly who it was.
“Lance.”
“The one and only.” The Dragon Master responded. “But, I don’t believe we’ve met before.”
Diantha shook her head, conjuring up her confident facade. Speaking to someone as highly regarded as Lance was quite intimidating, but she’d never let him see it.
“I don’t believe we have. I’m Diantha, Champion of the Kalos League.”
“I see. I heard you gave Sycamore a run for his money.”
Diantha shrugged, playing off how much his praise warmed her inside. “He was a strong opponent. Being the regional Professor gave him a leg up in which Pokemon to use.”
“Yes, but his team was no match for your Gardevoir.”
Diantha’s hand instinctively reached for the keystone that hung around her neck.
“No. They weren’t.”
Lance gave her a sideways glance and smile. “I should like to battle you someday.”
She matched his gaze. “You’ll lose.”
It was meant to be a playful comment, friendly teasing between two Champions, yet something flashed in his eyes, a flicker of a memory, and his mask crumbled for only a moment before he patched it again.
But Diantha wasn’t stupid. She knew what she’d seen.
Self-Doubt.
Uncertainty.
Insecurity.
“We shall see about that,” he told her. “I don’t go down easy.”
While most would have played Lance’s response off as another inflation of his notorious ego, there was something about the way he said it that was unsettling to her. It almost sounded like he were trying to convince himself more than anyone else, as if in previous time, he'd been beaten down into an empty soul. Shaking herself out of her psychoanalysis, she granted him a pleasant smile.
“I’ll be looking forward to it.”
Then, with a final nod, Diantha pushed herself from the wall, retreating across the room to where Malva was waving her over.
She spent the rest of the convention shyly glued to Elite’s side, but she could feel the intense burn of a piercing stare boring into her back.
Lance’s eyes never left Diantha for the rest of the event, and she had to say that she didn’t necessarily mind.
The next time they would meet was for an exhibition match. Lance surprisingly reached out to her first.
It had been a shock to hear, when her assistant, Cathy, bustled into Diantha’s office, ranting about some extraordinary opportunity.
“Lance? We’ve only met once, at a convention.” The Champion pondered. “He said he’d like to battle me, but I didn’t think he was serious. And I’m not even sure that my schedule would allow it.”
“Regardless,” Cathy waved her off, “This could be a wonderful chance for you. If you beat him, then you’d truly establish yourself in the League. You know how much they underestimate new Champions, especially female trainers like yourself. The media is always waiting for you to make a mistake. I think you should go for it.”
“But, I don’t get it? I’m no match for an experienced opponent like Lance. Wouldn’t he be better off battling someone like Sycamore?”
Cathy shook her head. “Don’t be so hard on yourself, Diantha! He specifically asked to battle you! That must mean something, right?”
Diantha thought it over. Perhaps Cathy carried a point. And besides, a deal’s a deal.
“Alright. Let him know that I accept his challenge.”
A day later, it was Lance, instead of Cathy, who showed up in her office.
“Lance, welcome to Kalos.” Diantha greeted him upon his entrance.
The Champion of Johto sat down in the chair across from her, the white, wooden desk being the only thing that separated them.
“Thank you. I’m finding it very different from my home region.”
“Different in a good way, I hope.”
He smiled. "Of course. Each region has its beauty. Though for Kalos, that seems to reside in its Champion.”
Diantha immediately looked down at the compliment. Normally when people told her things like that, it was because they wanted something. But Lance’s comment was genuine, as though he actually meant it.
“Ah, please, forgive me,” He continued, “I did come here for other business than to embarrass you.”
Diantha laughed. “No, no, I’m not embarrassed at all. It's just, no one’s ever said that to me before…and actually meant it.”
She didn’t know what it was that allowed her to say the words out loud, but something about the Dragon Master told her, she could trust him.
His brows furrowed in confusion. “That’s a shame.”
There was a silence between them.
“Anyway,” Lance shattered the tension, “I wanted to invite you to lunch after our match, consider it a thank you for accepting my challenge.”
“Why wouldn’t I?” she asked.
He looked distant for a moment—the same way he had when she’d made that silly comment about him losing—and Diantha figured that it wasn’t just his ego prompting this battle. There was something else there.
“So, loser pays?” She drew him back to reality.
Lance made a face of agreement. “Why not?”
"Then I hope you brought your wallet.”
To say the least, she lost horribly, but he still paid anyway.
In the passing days from their match, Diantha and Lance became fast friends.
They’d kept in touch after he left, and even encountered each other a few more times, going for lunch or exploring different areas of wherever they happened to be.
But, it wasn’t until one of these evenings, that they stumbled upon the idea of each other.
Diantha had offered to show him around Lumiose City after a dinner over at Lysandre Cafe. Lance was back in Kalos to instruct a training seminar for Dragon users, and they’d agreed to meet and catch up.
She felt a strange gravitation towards him that she didn’t think would be leaving her body anytime soon, and he found her an equally interesting individual.
The two had been walking for a while, ending up wandering onto Route Four, and somehow, their exhibition match had come up in conversation.
“I do hope, Diantha.” Lance was saying, “That I didn’t damage your pride that day.”
The Kalosian shook her head. “No, of course not. Everyone suffers a loss from time to time. And besides, you’ve been Champion much longer than I.”
“Good. I would have hated to upset you.”
A new question crossing her mind, Diantha stopped in her tracks, causing Lance to halt beside her.
“I do want to ask you something though.”
Lance nodded in approval, “Go ahead.”
Diantha took a breath. “Why did you challenge me?”
The Dragon Master looked taken aback. “What do you mean? I'd said I’d wanted to battle you before.”
“I know, but that was some time ago. I can’t wrap my head around it. You’re stronger, and far more experienced than I am. Was it because I’m an easy opponent for you?”
Lance looked away, not denying the statement. Diantha wasn’t surprised though. From the way he reacted whenever a loss was discussed, she’d thought as much. She’d guessed it from the very beginning. There was something there that made The Dragon Master absolutely hate to lose, causing him to only publicly challenge opponents he knew he could defeat.
“It’s okay.” She did her best to reassure her friend. "I sort of knew you’d win. My Pokémon and I aren’t at your level yet. I guess I’m just curious as to why? Why did you need the victory?” She waited patiently for a response.
Finally, Lance looked at her again, sadness and lack of direction swimming in his gaze
“People aren’t always what they seem.”
They locked eyes for a moment, steel gray against pools of blue.
And then they met in the middle.
Diantha wasn’t really sure how it had happened. One minute she was summoning up an apology, and the next his lips were on hers.
She stiffened for a moment, the situation coming as a surprise to her, but quickly let go and melted into him.
What happened that night was never to be spoken in the open, they both knew this.
They had gone back to Lance’s hotel room where the inevitable release of the tension between them had occurred.
Diantha knew Cathy would be horrified if she found out, but in the moment she didn’t care. Right now, she had what she’d been longing for since the take-off of her career.
Someone to fill the empty space.
They spent the night together, lying awake in the aftermath, saying everything and anything that came to mind.
She told him of her life. How she felt lonely and isolated, never having the time to stop and breathe, or even make friends. She finally felt the security to grieve for what she’d lost, for what she’d never had, and he’d kissed every one of her tears away.
Lance told her of himself too. How he’d been second best to another trainer almost his whole youth. It wasn’t until his Championship, that he’d finally been seen as Lance, instead of a shadow.
“I know how that feels.” She whispered as his fingers brushed through her wavy, brown hair. It had fallen out of its normal, braided style, tumbling down over her shoulders. “To be seen by everyone else as something other than yourself. Most days I don’t even feel like myself.”
“You are always you, even if you sometimes can't see it.” He told her, muttering the words into the crown of her head.
Diantha allowed him to pull her closer, like a lifeline.
Because, that’s what they were to each other right now.
A sense of security.
It was fine in the beginning.
They’d set aside time in their schedules for each other, Diantha going on, “jobs that she agreed to last minute”, or Lance leaving for, “selective training seminars” that no one had ever heard of, when really, they were meeting in the middle, just like before.
Anytime they felt unwanted or unsafe, they’d fall back on each other like a golden crutch.
With each secret rendezvous, Diantha caught herself falling farther and farther for the Dragon Master, lost in a world where her heart only beat for him.
In the back of her mind, she knew that it would probably come back around to haunt her at some point, but it still shook Diantha to the core when her suspicions were confirmed.
It was three months into their secret relationship, and Diantha had taken a job filming a movie in the Johto region. Of course, the pay was good, but that obviously wasn’t the main reason she’d agreed to it.
There was a certain someone who resided in Johto too.
Lance, however, had no idea she was here. They’d never met in their home regions after that one fateful night in Lumiose City, as it was quite risky if they desired to remain a secret, but since Diantha was on an official job, she figured there was no danger to it.
So, once they’d wrapped up filming for the week, she’d called him.
“Diantha?” He’d picked up on the first ring.
“Hi.”
“It's quite late. Are you okay?”
Her heart warmed at the concern in his voice; it still felt a bit unreal that people could genuinely care for her.
“I’m fine. But, guess where I am.”
“Where?”
A small smile formed on her face.
“No, that’s not how it works. You have to guess.”
Lance sighed from the other end. “Fine, fine. Let’s see…I don’t know…home?”
“Nope. I’m in Goldenrod City.”
There was no response.
“Lance?” She asked, “Are you still there?”
“Why?”
“What?” Diantha was a bit in shock at the abruptness in his tone.
“Why are you here, in Johto?”
Lance sounded very unhappy with her now. What was wrong? Wasn’t he pleased that she was here? Didn’t he want to see her?
“Lance, I-“
“It was stupid of you to come. Someone could have seen you!”
“I was on a job, I-“ She tried to reason with him, but Lance wouldn’t have it.
He hung up the phone.
She stared down at the little device in her hands, dumbfounded for a moment.
She never would have guessed that, Lance, of all people, would yell at her like that.
Maybe he’s right, She thought. Maybe you are stupid.
Diantha curled into herself a little more and for the first time in a long while, she felt utterly alone.
It didn’t stop there.
After the incident in Goldenrod City, they’d of course made up, Lance explaining that he had just been taken by surprise, and Diantha, desperate to have any kind of steady constant back in her life, forgave him.
However, now they were wary of each other’s presence.
In public, Lance would act as though he didn’t know Diantha at all, and she, in turn, would pretend he was just another name in the phone book. At conventions and League gatherings, she’d attempt to talk to him, but he’d brush her aside, claiming that now was not the time or the place. Then, she’d pivot away and scoff like he was nothing but another challenger beneath her feet.
Yet on the inside, it was breaking the both of them apart.
Still, the cycle continued, over and over, putting more and more of a strain on their relationship.
One night, when it was just the two of them lying back on the bed, alone in an inn located deep in the gardens of Hoenn, Diantha finally asked the burning question.
“What is this?”
Lance turned to look at her, confused. “What is what?”
“This.” Diantha said again. “You and me, us.”
He simply stared at her, his gray eyes unmoving, empty of the answers that she once thought he’d held.
She looked down, unable to meet his gaze.
“I don’t think I can do this anymore.”
Diantha’s voice was no more than a whisper, but the words rang clear.
Lance sat up. “So you’re leaving.” His voice was flat, much like how it had been back when she was in Goldenrod.
“I don’t know.” She glanced up at him. “What’s to leave if nothing was there in the first place?”
Lance’s hand curled around the fabric of his sweater, a habit she knew he’d developed for when he was upset.
“You think there’s nothing?” he challenged.
“Isn’t there?” She threw back at him, sitting up now too. “We ignore each other to no ends until we come back here and pretend like we’re holding onto something precious. That’s not right, it's not healthy. It’s only hurting us. I know it, and you know it. I mean, do you even care?”
“Like you didn’t play a part in it too.” He sneered, retreating back into his facade.
Now it was Diantha’s turn to be upset.
“Of course I did. But we’re people, Lance, not toys.”
A cold silence swept over the dueling trainers.
Finally, Diantha gave in.
“We’re just...scared to be lonely…aren’t we?”
Lance didn’t respond. Instead, he got up and went into the bathroom, slamming the door behind him.
Diantha, realizing that she was no longer welcome, or wanted for that matter, did the only thing she could think of.
She left.
A month had passed since they’d broken things off, and Diantha had done her best to go back to normal. She put on a smile for the masses, over-planned her schedules so her mind would have no time to wander, and forced herself through the motions of life, hoping that one day, the pain would just go away.
But things were getting too much for her.
She was alone again, her only sense of security gone. She was falling farther down into the dark pit that Lance had once protected her from.
Or, that’s what she'd thought.
Looking back on her actions now, Diantha could see he hadn’t really protected her. She’d just been using him as a shield.
But, in her self-reflection, she’d come to the conclusion of something else. That she really had loved him.
Regardless of the painful pretending and the fights they would get into, there was a reason Diantha always came running back.
He understood her.
He didn’t see her as a prize on a pedestal, something to beat, another pretty picture on the cover of a magazine.
He saw her as her. Not Diantha the Champion or Diantha the leading lady.
Just, Diantha.
However, that was gone now, and with no sense of safety or motivation, the Champion of Kalos locked her doors.
No one was allowed in, save for her Pokemon, who worried endlessly for their trainer.
Today, she was lying on her bed, sprawled on her back, looking like an absolute mess.
Instead of her usual put together self, Diantha’s hair was left down, only half brushed, and she was in nothing but a large sweater and leggings.
Her eyes were trained on the ceiling, staring at the nothingness that had engulfed her, when a soft knock on the door broke her dying concentration.
“Not now, Gardevoir.” She said softly.
The intruder, ignoring her attempt at protest, opened the door, causing Diantha to glance in its direction.
Blue met gray, and the whole world stopped.
Diantha could have sworn that her heart froze, incapable going on beating.
Standing before her now, was the last person she thought she’d see.
“Lance.” Her voice was no more than a breaking rasp, as she had barely used it at all in the passing weeks.
Lance remained silent, crossing the room in a few lengthy strides, and slid down to the floor, pressed against the side of her bed.
Diantha returned her gaze to the ceiling, not knowing what to say. She was at a loss for words. The one person that she loved and hated the most was now back in her sights, and all possible reactions had just gone out the window. She finally settled for, “Why are you here?”
Her tone was emotionless, too tired to really care as much as she’d like.
“Gardevoir let me in.” He responded. “And to be honest with you, I don’t know.”
Diantha remained quiet, listening.
“I think…you were right. What we had, if it was anything at all, was wrong. And you of all people, certainly did not deserve that.”
“Neither did you.” She responded, knowing full well that she held some responsibility in the situation.
She finally looked his way. “So, did you come here to say goodbye? Now that we’ve settled the score?”
“No.” Lance seemed unsure. “I came here, because you were also wrong.”
Diantha sat up.
“I did care.” He turned to her, a wild mix of emotions evident in his intense gaze. “More than I was willing to let on.”
Diantha's heart lurched, the same warm feeling that she’d gotten when they’d first met almost a year ago, spreading through her again.
Very slowly, she slid down off the mattress and took the empty spot next to him on the floor.
They didn’t look at each other, only kept their gazes trained straight ahead at the snow-white walls.
Minutes ticked on as they sat in silence, neither of them knowing what to say to the other.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of uncomfortable silence. She felt a warm hand cover hers.
Lance was still staring far off in another world, but his hand had reached over to envelop her own.
She didn’t protest or move away; instead she allowed him to pull her into his side.
Diantha felt his lips softly brush the top of her hair, and she leaned further into his embrace.
“I’m sorry.” She whispered, her words rattled and shaken from the amount of emotion that threatened to flood through.
Lance rested his chin on top of her head. “It’s okay, I am too. I love you, Diantha. I’m sorry I couldn’t see it earlier.”
Diantha buried her face further into the crook of his neck and laughed.
“What kind of a pair are we?”
Lance ran his hands through her hair the way she loved so much. “Couldn’t tell you.”
And so they stayed—just as they had on the very first night, wrapped in each other’s embrace—molded together while the sun set in the sky, the darkness falling upon the city, silently vowing to never leave the other’s side again.