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Adaman's hand settled between her shoulder blades, an unwavering display of protectiveness. Members of the Diamond Clan came out as though in procession as Adaman led her through the encampment. She remembered the look in Arezu's eye as Captain Cyllene led her to the gates of expulsion, and the look on Lian's and Mai's face as they refused her. Even Captain Cyllene seemed concerned for her wellbeing, though no one dared step between Akari and Commander Kamado.
No one, that was, except Adaman.
~
They hadn't allowed her the chance to change clothes before exiling her, and the Galaxy Team's insignia burned through her skin like a criminal's brand.
Adaman's eyes darkened when they fell on the symbol, and he deposited her in his tent like a Pokémon trapped in a ball for the sake of a survey. The comparison made her gut churn, and she regretted her past actions, and the ignorant callousness she displayed in completing the Pokédex. First chance I get, I'm freeing all the Pokémon I left behind, she swore with a vengeful desperation for she was not, nor ever would be, Commander Kamado.
The flap of the tent pulled back as Adaman emerged from the night sky. In his arms were robes of brilliant Diamond blue. Akari fought the urge to cry. They were Clover's, he explained; before she walked out on their clan, she had the decency to leave them behind. “I believe these are your size.”
Akari didn't have the words to say how grateful she was, so she simply looked at Adaman and hoped he could read what she wrote instead on her face. His own expression softened as he analysed hers, and he never looked more like a leader than he did then.
He cleared his throat. “I'll leave you to get changed,” he said before quietly leaving. His leafeon curled up on his bed, looking up at her with kind eyes.
Akari lasted two seconds before the tears started to fall.
~
Adaman offered her the bed.
“I'll take the couch,” he said.
Akari's frown cut into her skin; she could feel its sharp bite and tried not to wince. Adaman had already done so much for her, the last thing she wanted to do was cost him a good night's sleep.
“No,” she insisted as firmly as she could manage under the circumstances. “The bed is big enough for the both of us.”
He opened his mouth, no doubt to refuse once more, but Akari beat him to it.
“Besides, the couch would not provide a good enough night's sleep. Not when you're used to sleeping in your bed.” Her teeth tugged her bottom lip raw. “It would be a waste of time.”
Adaman sighed, acquiesced. “If you're sure.”
Akari had never been surer of anything.
Later that night, after he made sure she ate her fill with the other members of his clan, they performed the awkward dance of preparing for bed.
With the light extinguished, they settled back under the covers. Akari's eyes were trained on the ceiling, beginning to droop the longer she listened to the steady rise and fall of Adaman's chest.
“Is this alright?” he whispered.
Akari nodded before realising he wouldn't be able to see. Feeling like a fool, she whispered back, “Yeah.”
It took no time at all for her own breathing to slow.
~
The dark red sky was all that welcomed her in the morning. She turned her head to the side to greet her host, but the bed was impeccably made where she had seen him last.
The bed was cold to her touch.
~
Apparently, “Adaman does this sometimes,” Mai informed her when she saw her next – disappear without warning. “Letting people know his whereabouts would only serve to waste time.”
Akari swallowed back a suspicious lump in her throat. Adaman prized time above everything else, everyone knew this... so why did it hurt so much when it affected her?
It would seem she wasn't so good at hiding her expression.
"He is the leader of the Diamond Clan," Melli sneered. “He has more important ventures to tend to than babysitting a lost little bidoof who fell from the sky.”
Akari looked up at the red, and wondered whether Commander Kamado had the right of it after all.
~
Adaman returned in time for dinner.
That evening, they fell asleep in the same position they did previously. Yet when she awoke in the middle of the night, she was startled to find her head resting on Adaman's chest, his arm holding her snug to him.
Hiding her smile in the dark, Akari closed her eyes.
The next morning, there was a note left on the bed.
Gone to Solaceon Ruins. Will return soon.
– A
~
Volo found her not soon after, bringing news of mythical Pokémon and a chain forged in a red the colour of the sky.
When she told Adaman the truth of it, he turned contemplative.
“A red chain? Perhaps this is a chance to meet Almighty Sinnoh.” He paused, and she lost him for a moment to his thoughts. “Will you travel to the lakes then?”
When Akari nodded an affirmative, he announced he would accompany her.
“I'm afraid I cannot directly travel with you,” he said, grim and apologetic. “But I can meet you at the lakes. Just let me know which one before you go, and I'll be there.”
Akari was struck with the sudden impulse to kiss him. Thankfully, he continued before she accidentally willed her urge into being.
“Irida has asked what she can do to help. The Pearl Clan are indebted to you, also,” he added, and her face flushed at that. In all honesty, she felt she was unworthy of the attention. She did only what anyone else would have – no more, no less. “I have told her to keep an eye on Commander Kamado, see if she can talk him down out of any drastic action.”
Any former warmth quickly cooled in her stomach at the stark reminder of the commander's wrath. She felt Adaman's finger gently take her chin in hand and lift her to his gaze.
“No one will harm you,” he promised, eyes dark and serious. “I will not let them. You have my word.”
~
Under Adaman's watchful gaze, Akari passed each of the lake guardians' tests, and together they forged a red chain.
News of Commander Kamado's foolhardy mission to eradicate Pokémon forced their hand, and they made their way to the top of Mt. Coronet, reaching the summit in record time.
Throughout their exchange, it didn't escape her notice how rigid Adaman held his body, eyes fixed and trained on the Galaxy Team's leader. His hands turned to fists, a human evolution of rage. Nor did she miss how carefully he positioned himself, a direct buffer between Commander Kamado and herself.
Akari's cheeks grew warm at his fiercely protective display, and she remembered the vow he swore her.
That was the moment she knew she loved him.
~
Kamado fell at her feet, but the win tasted hollow. He asked for her forgiveness, and she gave it to him.
Dialga was the first to arrive, speaking only to Adaman – the greatest privilege. Palkia proved troublesome, and she had to go back and subdue it to calm the rage.
One good thing that came out of the whole debacle, though, was the newfound partnership between the Diamond and Pearl clans.
Adaman's hand rested protectively in between her shoulder blades, much as it had that very first day he brought her into his home.
~
As promised, the Galaxy Team threw a party in their honour. Jubilife was alight with festivities, a gigantic intermingling of teams and clans, of humans and Pokémon, all coming together in the name of their world: Almighty Sinnoh.
Adaman had never been one for celebration. Akari found him lurking off to the side, pleased to note his gaze was solely for her.
“Oh,” she said, reaching down into her pocket for the Pokémon she knew did not belong to her. “I think this belongs to you.”
Adaman frowned, a confused smile dancing along his lips, but he held his hand out at her request, and she carefully placed Dialga into his warm palm.
Wide-eyed, Akari watched his reaction, watched the breathless shock steal his need for words. In that moment he was time personified, and she revolved around him.
“Akari… ” he whispered. His mouth opened and closed, struggling a few seconds longer, gaze alternating between her and the tiny ball that held such strength, a being of utter reverence cocooned inside it.
She shrugged, putting him out of his misery. “It's okay,” she said, and then mischievously added, “Think he prefers you anyway.”
And then she reached up on her tippy-toes, pulled him in by the blue lapels of his coat, and pressed her mouth to his. Sweet and tender, the kiss was, lasting only for a scant few seconds before she let gravity ground her once more.
“I didn't want to waste your time,” was the breathless explanation she gave, suddenly too shy by her forwardness to look him in the eye.
She fled like an abra before he could overcome his shock.
~
She wanted to talk to him. Truly, she did. But then Volo came to her once more, this time bringing with him whispers of fabled plates and a potential meeting of Arceus.
Seek out all Pokémon.
Knowing deep within her soul this was what she was meant to do, Akari journeyed across Hisui– Sinnoh once more.
~
Volo lied, manipulated, used her. She trusted him, and it was he who brought chaos to their world; he who destabilised the mythical Pokémon; he who sought to meet their maker, but instead unleashed Hell.
Akari was forced to flee on foot in perilous lands because of him.
The ensuing battle was terrifying. Volo was a mighty competitor, and not at all what she was expecting. And when he fell, he called upon Giratina to finish her.
Giratina took no prisoners. Her team was a broken mess, but did not yield to the shadow deity.
Victorious, she stood. In her hand, she gripped its Pokéball tightly.
~
Emboldened by her triumph, she waited for Adaman to return from his own adventure, laying in the bed they shared.
His smile when he cracked open the door and realised she was there would live rent-free in her mind for years to come.
“Tell me,” she started, turning her head to kiss his palm, keeping her lips to the tender flesh there as she quietly asked into his hand, “What does a girl have to do to join the Diamond Clan?”
Adaman sank down to her level, his other hand coming to rest against her cheek. With such fragile gentleness, he pressed his forehead to hers and they breathed the same air. And for a brief, horrible moment, Akari imagined his answer no: because she fell from the sky– because she had interfered with his wardens' Pokémon– because she had given him his god back and now he had no further use for her–
“Marry me,” Adaman breathed into her face before sucking on her bottom lip.
~
Two years after their wedding, Akari fell pregnant with child, an heir to the Diamond Clan and a product of her and Adaman's love. Their son was born happy and healthy, and Adaman cried when he held him to his chest.
Dialga kept a watchful eye on their children, and later their children's children. For in the future, in a now-dead reality, Darkrai would sabotage the natural flow of time, and Dialga would revert back into his primal form. The human of that future, the human who would be tasked with returning to the past and collecting the gears of time to restore Dialga's state of mind, the human who would be transformed into a Pokémon in the process, the human who would one day save the past, present and future, would be their descendant.
And many years after that, when the heinous Team Galactic would plan to recreate the universe in Cyrus' image, a boy named Lucas would cross the land his ancestors called Hisui, forging lasting bonds with his Pokémon and alliances with those he would encounter along the way, and stop them, risking everything in the process.
(But those were tales for another time.)