Work Text:
The horizon was a bright orange as the colors above shifted from a feint magenta to a dark blue: A sign the sun was beginning to set. What little light it had left to offer shone upon the west coast of the Paldea region, and not far from the great Casseroya Lake, a new light was being ignited. Clack, scrape, chunk… A young man who looked no older than 18 would scrape and clash two rocks together over a small pile of wood, until a spark flew from one of the collisions and fell onto the pile. The scraps of tree he’d collected up north from Socarrat Trail would come ablaze into a small yet sizeable flame, and as he’d stare at the fire, its heat would give warmth to his face. Or most of it anyway, as his left eye and cheek were covered by his long platinum blonde hair, which bore streaks of brown in some places.
By the way his eyes narrowed while gazing upon the flame before him, one could tell he was becoming lost in his own thoughts, but his train of thought was cut off by a nudge at his leg. The young man recognized that feeling anywhere, and he looked down next to him to see what he expected: a familiar dark brown dog-like pokemon looking up to his faithful trainer. With a smirk and a light chuckle, said trainer reached down to pet the silver locks atop his head.
“You must be pretty hungry after all that hiking, huh?” He started, walking over to the picnic table he’d set up close by. “Don’t worry, bud. Dinner will be ready for us in no time.”
Despite the campfire he set up giving light to most of the area, it didn’t give the kind of light he needed to see what was on his table, so he’d turn on an electric lantern he kept with him to get a clearer look at his workspace. Afterwards, he’d take from his large yellow backpack everything he needed to make a couple of sandwiches with, when suddenly he heard feint footsteps from a distance.
Feint steps would tread from the grass, and soon enough they’d stop. ‘It must be a wandering pokemon of some kind.’ He thought, dismissing any other possibility. At least until those footsteps started again, only becoming more frequent, and louder, and… oh goodness-
“Arven!” A familiar voice shouted as two hands slapped onto the picnic table, rattling everything that was on it while miraculously not knocking anything over.
“GAH!!!”
A shriek of surprise would escape the young man as he stumbled back and whipped his head up to look to the other person. As his eyes came back into focus, he’d come to recognize those hues of orange and those tan freckled cheeks, both of which were slightly obscured by a couple locks of green hair.
“Very funny, Nemona.” His eyebrows furrowed, in which his hands rested upon his hips with a sigh. “Very funny.”
“What? I just thought I’d say hi!”
“And what? Give me a heart attack too?”
“There’s nothing wrong with a little surprise.”
“Yeah? Well, if you ask me, I’m not a fan of surprises.” He paused to let out a sharp exhale, whereas he returned to where he was stationed and rested his own hands on the table. “But you’re not the kind to ask these kinds of things, are you?”
“I mean…” The girl started, looking off to the side as her shoulders would slump slightly, and her gaze would shift down while her lips pouted with slight guilt. “I can’t argue with that.”
“I figured as much, student council girl.” Oddly enough, his cheeks would turn a little pink calling her that for once, and it’d be just barely noticeable thanks to the lantern’s light. In any case, Arven would begin to make one of his sandwiches while mentally contemplating a couple of things.
“So, what brings you out this late, huh?” Nemona asked while tilting her head ever so slightly, in which the locks protruding from her hairline and her ponytail would sway slightly from her movement. “It’s not often I see other students outside at this hour, let alone you of all people.”
“I…” The young man stammered a bit, stopping what he was doing to think about that question. What was he doing out here? This was the first time in a while he’d bothered to camp out in the open like this, especially since he didn’t have the Herba Mystica to look for anymore.
“It’s kind of complicated, really.”
“Complicated? How so?”
“You see, it’s just… It’s for an accumulation of things, I guess.”
“Does it have anything to do with your d-”
“No.”
A momentary silence came over them as Nemona blinked a bit from Arven’s abrupt response. From the way he cut her off before she could even finish her sentence, she could tell it must’ve been a touchy subject for him still. Despite this complication, however, that didn’t seem to stop him from continuing with her.
“. . . Okay, maybe a little bit.” The male let out a gentle sigh while his eyes lidded shut, a sense of slight anxiety running through him while he confronted himself… “I just wanted to take an evening to get some fresh air and spend some time away from the academy for once.”
“I see… Well, you wouldn’t mind a little extra company, would you?”
Arven blinked a couple of times. He wasn’t a fan of how she more or less invited herself to spend the night with him, but at the same time, he didn’t want to just throw her back out into the wilderness. She must’ve been hungry and in need of rest too, right?
“No, I don’t think I would.”
The male replied, and in a rush of excitement, the girl would clasp her hands together and shut her eyes with joy, letting out a giggle as a grin spread across her lips. He’d seen her happy like this before, but never with him in particular. Usually, he’d find these little bursts of excitement a little annoying, but this time, it actually made his heart flutter a little as if he actually enjoyed her reaction.
“So, what do you want on your sandwich, huh?”
“Hmm… Surprise me!”
The girl bore a confident smirk on her lips as her eyes looked his way with a glint of passion in them. It felt as if she wanted him to make the best sandwich he could make for her, and seeing her have that kind of faith in his skill… it meant something to him.
“I’ll see what I can do for you then!”
The tomboyish student’s enthusiasm was clearly more infectious to him than before, as even he was starting to smirk while going to work on her sandwich. First, he’d start with some lettuce, before topping that with a few tomatoes, then some chorizo, and to add a little kick to it, some hot sauce. As the young man would carefully craft her sandwich to perfection, Nemona would look on with wonder watching him work his magic. Soon enough, he’d top it off with the other slice of bread, stick it all together with a green pick, and hand it all over to the girl before him.
“Here we are: an Arven-Original sandwich with veggies and chorizo, with a little extra spice if you will!”
Those hues of orange lit up with joy as she took the sandwich into her hands, and while nodding to the chef who made it, her lips parted into a sweet grin.
“Thank you, Arven! I’m definitely a fan of spice, so I’m sure this will be the perfect sandwich for me!”
“O-Oh! Sure thing, Nemona!”
That definitely flustered him a bit. He had no idea she was that into spicy foods, only that he’d seen her put a little hot sauce on her sandwiches in the cafeteria. As the girl went to sit by the campfire to eat her food, the male looked down to the table as his face was practically glowing with red. Eventually though, he’d go to work on his own sandwich, and occasionally he’d drop a small piece of meat down to Mabosstiff to feed him a little. Once he was done, he’d set one half of his sandwich in front of his trusty partner before going over to take a seat by Nemona.
“So, what brings you out here anyway?” He asked before taking a bite into his sandwich.
“Eh, I just wanted to train up some of my team since I heard some of the wild pokemon out here can be pretty strong.” She answered with her mouth partly full of food.
“I see… I can’t be surprised, really. There’s no rest for the ol’ battle whiz herself, huh?”
“Hey, don’t think I was just gifted with that kind of skill! I’ve worked hard to become as strong as I am, ever since I started attending this academy!”
“Alright, alright. Geez, I didn’t mean to strike a nerve or something.” Despite that his eyebrows furrowed; a slight look of concern was present in Arven’s eyes of teal.
“No, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have blown up on you like that.”
“Don’t sweat it, Nemona. I know things can be a little tough for you too, and… I’m sorry if I’ve made them tougher for you in the past.”
“I…” She was taken aback by his generosity, as he was the last person she expected to be that understanding of her struggles. Perhaps there was more to him than his passion for sandwiches and his stoic yet stubborn outlook, like there was a softer side to him deep down…
“…Thank you, Arven.”
“No worries.”
“It’s just… I hate it when people assume I’m just born or gifted with these kinds of things just because my family is full of those kinds of people. It’s part of how my dad was able to become part of the Rotom Phone Company’s board.”
“I get how that feels, I guess. Reminds me that some people expect me to excel in math or science just because my dad so happened to be one of the smartest minds in the region.”
“Awh, I’m sorry…”
“I’m sorry you were treated the way you were, too. It’s not fair at all, because like… just because we’re related to people who have a lot doesn’t mean we have as much as they do.”
Nemona would nod with agreement to what he said, as they both continued to eat their sandwiches. After a little while of silence between them, Mabosstiff went to rest by Arven’s feet, which he reached down to daintily pet the dark type. This reminded the girl of something she wanted to ask him.
“By the way… You said that Mabosstiff was hurt badly in the crater a while ago, right?”
“…Yeah, what about it?”
“I was wondering. Why didn’t you talk to anybody about it? What led you to try and heal him yourself?”
“Nobody knew how to help him. Whatever that thing was that attacked him and I, it wasn’t like any other pokemon I’d ever seen, and with how ruthlessly strong it was… it’s hard to tell if it even was a pokemon, so it was nothing that any Pokemon Center could heal.”
“That must’ve been scary for you, huh? Especially when that happened to someone who means as much to you as Mabosstiff does…”
The young man would finish what was left of his sandwich, and while taking a stand, he looked into the fire with his eyes lidded partway.
“Very. I was lucky to find the answers in my dad’s book though, because something told me that if those strange pokemon from the future were real, like the ones I saw when looking for him in Area Zero, the Herba Mystica must’ve been as well.”
“Heh, clever how you pieced that together…” Nemona started, in which she then stood up and looked his way with her brows furrowed. “But why didn’t you tell anyone? I didn’t even know until recently!”
“Because I didn’t want to make it anybody else’s problem, okay?!” Arven’s head turned as he glared in the girl’s direction, his face bearing a look of grimace and annoyance. This shift in his tone made her step back while her expression went to one of frustration to one of concern and remorse. After a brief moment of silence between them while their hearts pounded from the tension, another sigh escaped him, and the male eventually looked down with his eyes shut.
“It’s not like anybody would’ve believed in me anyway. Nobody thought the Herba Mystica was real, let alone knew what it was, and I wasn’t about to go begging for someone else’s help when they’d probably figure I could just do it myself when I couldn’t.”
“Then why didn’t you say it was for Mabosstiff?”
He looked back up to her, but this time with a softer look in his eyes as he took a second to think about that. Why didn’t he say that? What was it that made him so reluctant to tell the truth?
“That’s… That’s a good question, Nemona.” He mumbled, looking back towards the fire while collecting his thoughts. Thinking about that dark point in his life again was far from the most pleasant thing for him, as he could feel his body tremble slightly recalling how alone he felt, being reminded of the guilt he was riddled with deep inside.
“I… I-I think it was because I was guilty.”
“Guilty of what?”
“Guilty that I was a bad trainer, a bad student…” His sentence would be briefly interrupted with a slight sniff. “A bad son.”
“Arven.”
“I knew not to go into that stupid crater, and yet I did anyway because I wanted to see my dad again so badly even though he told me to stay put. I knew the risks I would face and I put my best friend in harm’s way despite them!”
“Arven..!” A visible look of concern was washing over Nemona’s face. She could feel her cheeks ache just seeing him so upset with himself, ripping his own character to shreds because of his past desperation.
“It was because of my stupidity that Mabosstiff got hurt as badly as he did, because I did everything I was told not to do! Because I wasn’t strong enough to face whatever was down there! All because I’m just a stupid and desperate fai-”
“Arven!!” His self-depreciative rant would be cut off by the girl yelling his own name, and when he turned to face her, he was met with something he hadn’t felt in the longest time: a tight, warm, and caring embrace. All he could see was the darkness upon the horizon, and a couple locks of green out of the corner of his eye as he glanced to the side. He could feel his eyes begin to ache, and his cheeks begin to dampen as tears began to roll down them.
“. . . N-Nemona, I-”
“You’re not a failure, and I know you’re not stupid either…” As her words echoed through his mind, his own arms would tenderly wrap around her waist. “Maybe you were a little desperate, but I’ve been there.”
His eyes began to well further with tears, as if he was relieved to feel truly understood for once in his life, as if an emotional weight was taken off of his shoulders. He’d rest his chin upon the girl’s shoulder as a couple of sobs came from him.
“I really do care about you, Arven. It hurts me to see you tear yourself down like this.”
“I-I’m sorry…”
“It’s okay. You’re okay…” Her words were a bit muffled from how close together they were, but he could still understand her clear as day. Nemona’s arms would remain snug around his body, keeping him nice and close as she could feel his heartbeat pound against her own chest. “Just don’t let your mistakes define who you are, okay?”
“…O-Okay.”
With one last sniffle, he leaned back a bit and looked over to her face, and to help dry his face, the girl reached her left hand up to brush his hair away from his face and wipe off his cheek. This would reveal to her a red cut-like scar that ran along his right cheekbone, and while she didn’t seem especially shocked by the revelation, her thumb gingerly stroked along the length of it as her eyes bore a soft look in them.
“This must’ve been from your first trip down there, no?”
He felt a slight chill from having that scar treated so gently and carefully by someone else for once, but it was a good kind. He could only nod to her question.
“It’s a shame whatever attacked you had to go for such a handsome face like yours, too.”
Feeling his spirits lifted from that comment, his cheeks turned a rosy red as a snort came from him.
“Really? THAT’S your takeaway from that?” Despite his sarcastic tone, he was flattered deep down that she saw him that way.
“I mean, it’s not a bad look on you, I guess! It certainly doesn’t ruin it for me.”
“Yeah, sure it doesn’t.” He smirked in spite of himself, and after leaning his cheek into her palm, he couldn’t help but ask while both of his teal hues gazed into her’s of amber. “Do you really think I’m handsome though?”
This elicited a blush upon the girl’s freckled cheeks, but with a smirk spreading across her lips and a slight nod, her eyes gazed back into his.
“Of course I do, dummy.”
“C’mon, be serious.”
“I am!” She said before bursting into a fit of giggles, which only made a warm smile spread across the young man’s pale cheeks. “You don’t need to be so silly about it.”
“Hey, if you’re serious, then I might as well be, too.”
“Oh yeah? Then tell me something serious right now.”
“Okay, well…” He had to tell her something in lieu of being called such a thing by her of all people! He’d been having all sorts of thoughts about her since they started talking again, after all… “I seriously think you’re the prettiest girl I’ve ever met.”
“You really mean that?” Came with a sarcastic tone from Nemona, as her lips curved into a smirk.
“Yeah! I like the way you smile at me, I think your freckles are adorable, I think your hair looks nice, but I’ve always wanted to see what it’s like out of that ponytail, and let me tell you… you have the most beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen.”
“Dios mio… A-Arven, you really mean all of that?” She stammered, gazing at him earnestly.
“Every word of it. You don’t think that’s weird of me to say, right..?”
“…Eh, maybe a little bit.” His heart sank for just a moment, and his expression reflected that as his eyebrows arched and his lips formed a frown. A chuckle did escape her lips though, and her eyes lidded partway as her hand remained on his cheek. “But I think it’s very sweet of you, and super cute, too!”
Her sentence would be followed with a soft giggle before she leaned in to press her lips up against the scar on his cheek, kissing it gently before leaning her forehead into his. From her actions, Arven’s face lit up with red, and his embrace on her grew just a little tighter.
“Shucks, Nems…” His lips curved into a warm smile once again, and with one of his hands, he reached up to cup one of her cheeks as well. “You’re a sweeter girl than I ever would’ve thought.”
“Oh, Arvie… Just kiss me already you big dork.”
“With pleasure.”
Without further hesitation, the male leaned in to take her lips into his own, lidding his eyes shut while he held her in a gentle yet passionate kiss. His lips would press and caress hers as softly as he could, and while her eyes shut with bliss, her own lips moved with his while her hand moved to stroke through his wavy long hair, mixed with both of his parents’ hair colors. Eventually, they’d part from their kiss and open their eyes to gaze at each other once again.
“Not bad, handsome.”
“Same to you, beautiful”
“You did say you wanted to see what my hair was like down though, right?”
“. . . Yeah, why?”
Not long after he asked, she moved her hand away from his hair to her own so she could undo the ponytail it was tied back in. Her dark locks would then fall behind her shoulders, and her bangs would move back into place along with her two locks of green.
“So, how does it look?” She asked with a warm smile on her face.
“Nemona, you…” The hand that was on her cheek moved to stroke through her smooth long hair, in which he leaned in to kiss one of her freckled cheeks before whispering into her ear. “You look breathtaking, mi amor.”
The girl could feel her heart burst with joy as he called her that, as her cheeks turned a deep red with blush while her hand returned to his hair to stroke through it. They’d embrace for a little while longer, until a soft yawn escaped Nemona’s lips.
“What a night it’s been, huh?” She asked, looking back his way with a soft look in her eyes.
“You could say that again.”
“Think this would be a good time to get some rest?”
“Definitely. I’m sure Mabosstiff is probably pretty tired to, eh bud?” Looking down by his feet to his partner, the dog pokemon would sure enough be curled up happily while seemingly tired. He could only chuckle at how adorable he found the sight of it.
“You did at least bring a sleeping bag or a blanket with you, right? I’m sure you have everything in that backpack of yours.”
“Yeah, I definitely have a couple sleeping bags and a blanket in the tent I set up earlier.”
“Geez, I didn’t think I’d be right.”
“Expect the unexpected, they say.” Arven said with a chuckle before letting her go, albeit a bit reluctantly for how much he enjoyed her being close to him, and he’d then guide her to the tent and unzip the entrance. Sure enough, there was a sleeping bag laid out, along with a blanket and a spare sleeping bag rolled up next to it. “I’m sure there’s enough room for both of us.”
“I sure hope there is! Otherwise I’d have to sleep on top of you.”
“Yeah, you’d like that wouldn’t you?”
“Maybe~” She teased with a little chuckle as he laid out the other sleeping bag, and after taking his boots off, he went to his bag and patted the other, inviting her to join him. Nemona felt a little flustered about this, yet excited at the same time. She’d never slept with someone else before, much less someone she had the kind of feeling that she had for Arven, but she didn’t seem against it either. The girl eventually came into the tent as well after taking off her shoes, slipping into her bag while leaving it open.
“Aren’t you gonna get cold like that?”
“It’s still summer, so not really.”
“Fair enough.”
“Besides, it’d make it easier to snuggle you!” She said before pulling him into another embrace, nuzzling his face while snuggling him close. He definitely had to get used to that, didn’t he? Like hell he was complaining though, as his arms eventually wrapped around her as well, chuckling as he enjoyed her comfort.
After the fire eventually died out, Mabosstiff came into the tent and curled up next to the newfound couple, falling asleep while the two trainers enjoyed each other’s company a bit longer.
“Hey Arven?” Nemona asked.
“Yes Nemona?”
“Te amo.”
He could feel his heart melt with joy when she said that, and being no stranger to his native speak, he knew exactly what she said. In turn, he leaned in to kiss her nose and press his forehead into her’s once more.
“Yo tambien te amo.”
As both their eyes lidded shut, the young couple would fall asleep together in each other’s warmth and company. As the stars would shine down upon the west coast of the Paldea region, a new light would’ve ignited between the professor’s son and the student council president that evening. A light called love.