Chapter Text
"And… Here it is!"
Only Wallace could still look untouched and stunning after climbing so many stairs. It was in his Sootopolitan genes, after all.
"Freaking finally," Sonia uttered, still trying to catch her breath.
"Guess we don't have to worry about you two being out late, with all these stairs who'd dare?" at last added Steven.
Here they were: at the main gates of the super ancient school Uva academy, where many other people of many ages were carrying all sorts of bags and luggage all ready to greet the eve of the first day of school.
Emily still couldn't understand fully why her dads decided to do this for both: why would they send them to a boarding school faraway from Hoenn, why they'd give a break to Sonia from her idol career and leave it in standby all of the sudden, why if Wallace suffered so much when Emily first adventured now he agreed to her adventuring on her very own in a distant region and being in charge of his other daughter on top of that?
She could understand why Sonia was here, why they wanted to give her education at some prestigious boarding school abroad, but what wasn’t clear to Emily was why she also had to be there if she was only adjusting to being back to Hoenn again after that trip to Alola that flipped her world upside down? She didn’t want to be ungrateful but she could barely see any use to her being here.
"Well, girls, we can take you both inside, walk you two to your room-”
"No, thanks, that'd be embarrassing," Sonia rushed to reply. “Barely anyone has parents walking them.”
At the grimace Steven gave them, Wallace was quick to add, "we don't have time for that anyways, we have to rush to catch up our cruise!"
Emily shook her head, "I can't still believe you two are dumping us at a boarding school just so you both can go on a second honeymoon."
Her Daddy motioned with his hand, "It's also business, Emi. Your dad here is just trying to see the good side of it."
She could tell they were partly lying, but at the same time she could understand they wouldn't admit out loud they wanted space for themselves as a couple and enjoy whatever remained of their youth, they were just getting older, after all.
"Besides, this is a high level school, many people would die to be here, be sure you two will learn lots and make new friends!"
She sighed, kind of feeling homesick already.
"Goodbye, Dad!" Sonia said, hugging Wallace first. "I'm going to miss you!"
"Ow," he cooed. "You won't, trust me. Enjoy your free time because as soon as you're back to Sootopolis we'll be training really seriously for that master rank."
Her little sister growled, "fine."
And then she shifted to hug Steven, "Bye, Daddy! Don't get lost inside a cave while we're not at home, would you?"
“I promise, sweetheart."
And now it was Emily's turn.
She hugged Wallace first and said, "I love you, Dad. I promise I'll keep you updated regularly."
"As much as you can, my dear," but at last he uttered. "But don't feel bad if you forget, alright? I'll manage, this time I really promise."
Wallace had actually stuck to his promise when she went to Alola so she could trust him in this one. Acknowledging this, Emily gave him a big smile before she went to meet Steven.
"Daddy… I'm gonna miss you. I love you."
"I'm going to miss you too! Please if you come across any interesting rock let me know right away!"
“Of course I’ll do, Daddy, promise to be back home with a bag full of interesting examples!”
This time around she was really going to miss both. Even if she had made bigger achievements already, for some odd reason being at a boarding school felt threatening enough to want to demand them to walk her to her room and stay there with her for as long as the school allowed them to.
But maybe this really was the situation right now and she had to see the bright side of it and hope people here were nice and that she’d end up getting something worth all this trouble by the end of this year.
Elisio couldn't understand why everyone looked so cool with this, and why everyone but him were acting like they knew the place already. He was sure they were getting a couple stares even, as the cafeteria was for students and teachers mainly and they were here, sipping on coffee like this was a Lumiose café.
"I've definitely tasted better," Dad uttered, grabbing a napkin ever so delicately.
"Same," mom agreed. "But if we are drinking it for the caffeine and for the morning gossip I think it will do."
"Who are we gonna gossip with, anyways?" Elisio rolled his eyes.
"Speak for yourself, nerd, you'll see by tomorrow I'll know every single gossip around here!"
He shook his head, "hopefully we won't have to attend the same classes."
"Come on now, I hope you both can learn to be good siblings and take care of each other while you're far from home."
Elisio still couldn't understand why he was being dragged to this; of course Lucinda was excited because she had seen enough teen movies to be into the idea of a boarding school overseas, but Elisio always was comfortable with the suburb life they had back in Kalos, just him and his best friends Antoine and Avril.
"Lys, I'm done."
"Me too," and he cleared his throat. "Do we escort you to your rooms?"
"Naw, thanks!" Lucinda didn't even finish her cup of coffee when she stood. "No need to make this longer. How am I going to get familiar with the place if you lead me anywhere? I'm going…! Bye mom, bye daddy!"
And kissing each of their cheeks, Lucinda went out of the cafeteria, stumbling with her two suitcases full of clothes all the way out.
Hikari sighed, "what about you, dear? Shall we go with you?"
Elisio didn't understand why so many kids would act like it was cringe having parents take them to their dorms, if he had the chance to have their company for as long as he could he wouldn't waste it.
"Yes, please."
It was even better because Dad would help him carry his luggage so he could take Leo out of his PokéBall and have him see this new place and get familiar with it.
They reached the boys’ dorms and searched for the number assigned, and when they were outside, certainly, neither had a clue of how to unlock the door.
"Silly Lucinda will have to ask somebody for help… This is why we don't do things alone!"
"I'm certainly ashamed of myself not knowing how to open this."
"Someone go ask how to do it," Mom complained. "Lys, you go."
Before they had to do it, some guy approached them, "oh, excuse me, I could help you. Here in Paldea locks are slightly different than in the rest of the world and every foreign student ever struggles with this."
"Hah, so it wasn't that we were stupid."
Mom had a blatant way to put down things sometimes… then she would complain about Lucinda doing the very same thing.
"Thank you a lot!"
"No problem!" This boy of long beige and brown hair replied. "My name's Arven, and I'm in the room next door, for whatever you might need!"
“Thank you so much, Arven! This is Elisio, I'm Hikari, his mom, and this one here's his dad, Lysandre! It is pretty nice to meet you and I hope you and Elisio can be good friends!"
Why was mom speaking for him? It was okay that he was sometimes too shy to talk to people but there was no need in having her making friends on his behalf. Maybe the silly one here was him and that was why Lucinda ran away from the scene as fast as she could.
"Say hi, kiddo, don't be rude! He’s helping us and you might as well introduce yourself while he’s at it!"
Feeling pretty embarrassed already, Elisio said, "hello, nice to meet you. I’m Elisio."
"Thank you a lot, Arven, for helping us," Dad replied. "Let's go inside already, Hika."
Dad could see through his expression, it seemed, as he got him out of this awkward situation.
"What a polite boy," Mom kept going on about it. "I'm sure his parents raised him well," and then, she interrupted herself. "Ah, look! You've got your own bathroom! That's already a plus!"
"I was thinking maybe you would have roommates."
"Thanks God not."
Mom shook her head, rolling her eyes, "come on, Elisio, don't be so bitter about it, you'll make many friends here!"
"I've already got my friends in Kalos."
He sat down on the bed, and at least it was soft and comfortable.
"You do, but your friends also have to travel the world and chase after their dreams."
"Besides," Dad placed himself by his side. "I gave you all Holo Watches so you can easily call and text each other! And you know you can ask me to develop or update any app you need for better communication with them!"
Mom looked proudly at him, nodding.
"I don't know… I'm just gonna miss my life in Kalos. I'm gonna miss you both."
The two of them cooed and hugged him by each of his sides.
"We'll miss you too, Elisio."
"I'm gonna miss you a lot, my boy," and Dad sighed. "However, your sister is a bit of a bighead and she's better having you around."
Was there anything else that could be done at this point? There was nothing left to do but to accept their apologies and get used to the idea of living in this foreign land far from the world he built for himself.
Maybe it hadn't been her most brilliant idea to run away from her parents in such a way: this goddamned school was huge. It would've been better to have Dad and why not her lovely brother Elisio helping her carry such heavy luggage throughout the entirety of the building.
However, somehow, and acting fancy at every moment, she made it into her room, room 318 from the ladies’ dorm. She somehow could unlock the weird Paldean lock without having to ask anyone for help, and once she got in, she obsessively started to fix everything up inside the room, emptying her bags and placing all her belongings in the bathroom and in the drawers and stands and placing her multiple clothes and shoes in the closet.
After she was done, she decided to go out of her room and seek some drink for the night, resisting the urge to go bug Elisio in his dorm since there were rules about girls and boys wandering in each other's dorms at certain hours, yes, even if they were related. So, she fished some Bubba tea from a coffee shop outside the academy, and on her way back, she saw two girls outside her room.
"I can't freaking believe this!” one of long black hair exclaimed. "How come we don't get a room for the both of us and on top of that they won't give us a room next to each other? I'm going to sleep on a floor different from my very own sister! YIKES!"
The other girl, of brown hair and a white beret, was shaking her head a bit embarrassed, and before she could reply anything, her sister spoke again.
"Did I say that right? Is the ‘yikes’ appropriate in this context?"
"Yes, Sonia it is!" and she growled. "You know you don't have to ask me every time."
"Emily… Please…"
"They said you can be next to me if the person next door agrees with switching with you."
After all the effort she already put into that room? No thanks.
…
For a moment she had to double check if she didn't say it out loud since the two girls acknowledged her presence, and instead of having the little sister asking frantically to switch rooms with her, they went silent and simply retreated.
And it didn't feel right. She felt it personal, as if they knew her and had judged her.
Why was it sitting so wrong with her, this little incident? Lucinda didn’t know. She expected to reject them, to have them begging and still being the one saying ‘no’, not to have them instantly ditch the idea just at the very sight of her.
However… She had no time to waste. Now she was tired and had to sleep because she had to wake up early to shower and do her skin care and her hair and iron her clothes and make sure she'd look flawless for her very first day. She had to show everyone in just a single shot that she was much better than they all could ever dream to be.
"Come on now, Sonia, what are we even doing?"
For someone who called herself so adventurous Emily could be a bit of a bummer sometimes.
They went out to have dinner at some of the nearby restaurants since Grandad Joey sent then money so they could enjoy Paldea better, and after they were done with those paellas which had more spices than they were actually used to, and received the sandwiches they ordered so they didn't have to make lunch in the morning, Sonia decided she wanted to wander around Mezagosa, and somehow both ended up way past Los Platos, lost past the lighthouse.
"We should go back. We are already too far from Mesagoza."
"Come on, where is that wanderlust of yours?"
"In the same place yours is at!" Emily growled. "If anything happens to you it's me who gets scolded. And I shall remind you I'm not carrying any Pokémon with me right now?"
"Dad and Daddy never let me wander around as freely as they let you. Please let me have a good time! It’s our first day in Paldea, don’t be a bummer."
Emily couldn't argue back against that line of logic, so she kept on following her, who wasn't really sure where she was heading and for sure not paying that much attention to any landmarks that could help them get back in case they actually got lost.
Probably because Sonia was so enticed by everything her eyes were registering at the moment: she couldn't still remember much of her past life, but somehow found herself amazed by how everything had changed so much, how technologic and new everything was, even, how different this region seemed from that lovely crater of hers she called home.
All of the sudden, she heard a cry, a loud cry, not so far away from where they stood.
"What was that?"
Emily frowned, "I'm not sure, but it sounded like a Pokémon."
"Should we go check?"
If Emily was hesitant still because now it was more obvious that they shouldn't be there, another pained cry roared and it was concerning.
"It can't be good. Maybe it's an injured pokemon," her bigger sister sighed. "Maybe we can have a look…" there it was, her wanderlust, that would casually pop in anytime some danger was sensed.
More cries followed, all leading to a cliff Emily looked so reluctant to peep at, as if she was completely disarmed without her usual team. Sonia couldn't complain much since she had never adventured on herself and she completely relied on Emily to get her off treacherous paths.
But then, her sister gasped.
"It's an injured Pokemon! Look, the poor thing is all curled on itself."
Indeed, the big, metallic-like creature was in a fetal position while it still howled. Sonia had never seen anything of its kind so perhaps this was an exclusive Paldean creature.
"I wish I had my Pokémon team with me right now, Icarus could led the way-”
The next whimper was so loud that the ground vibrated, and apparently the soil was so weak where Emily stood that it gave in and she ended up falling off the cliff, rolling all the way down.
"Emily!" Dang it, she indeed got her big sister in a treacherous situation!
Now se could only hope she wasn’t harmed since it hadn’t been a low fall, Sonia stared at her sister all lying all over the sand, waiting for her to move in confirmation that she was at the very least alive.
"Ouch!"
Noe Emily proofed to still be conscious there was no time to panic, she should be careful with her next step now for this to not end up worse.
"Are you okay?!"
Emily didn't respond, just stood back on her feet, shook her body, moved her arms, and at last uttered, "yeah, I think so. Ah!"
Sonia exhaled a breath she didn't even know she was holding; thank God this little stroll of hers didn't end up in her sister getting hurt.
She was already there, so Emily walked to the Pokémon’s direction and petted it carefully, “it's so cold. It's gonna faint soon."
"What about healing magic? Huh? There’s lots of water here."
Emily still didn't quite master it like Wallace did, but it was worth giving it a shot: she got by the shoreline to try and bend some water, many water drops dripping everywhere and actually leaving such a scarce amount of water to perform the magic and prayings.
"It doesn't seem like it worked."
Emily seemed disappointed in herself.
"Maybe it's because of its metallic body!" Sonia tried to cheer her up when she grimaced in such a way. "Ah! What could we do? Maybe… give it the sandwich we packed for tomorrow?"
"Sonia, this is serious!" Emily face-palmed but then shook her head and growled. "Why? Dang it, it could work, what do I risk if I'm already off this silly cliff?"
From her old messenger bag, Emily took out her sandwich and put it close to the nose of this creature if it had any, and seemingly it did since it lifted its head a little bit, and with a lot of effort opened its mouth to munch from the food pretty hungrily, since it took few seconds until there was nothing from that sandwich, and soon enough, it stood back on its feet.
"Hah! I told you so!" She chirped in a wistful tone. "I'm a Pokémon crack for real."
She held back the need to ask Emily if that was correctly used this time around.
Bit by bit, the strange Pokémon was able to stand straight, without losing its balance, even, it growled so loudly and changed its appearance for a bit, looking a lot stronger.
“What the-”
“Oh my gosh, what is this…?”
Then it looked at them with a brighter expression, to start walking, glancing at Emily.
"I think it wants you to follow."
She looked unsure, but Sonia could sense the Pokémon meant good.
"Okay…"
Emily then got inside a cave and yelled, "oh, yes, there's a way out from here!"
"So it wants to lead the way!"
“Hopefully it does!”
"I'll wait for you right here, Em!"
"Yes, don't move!"
For minutes on end she could only wonder what the hell was going on down there, since Pokémon cries and thuds and smashes would echo through the walls of the Cave and reach her to the cliff. It seemed like Emily was in trouble and she could only hope she was alright.
“Dang it, it wants to fight me but I haven’t got-”
“Emily, what’s going on?”
“Holy shit!” Emily yelled so loudly and scared, quite unlike her. “What do I do now? Leave me alone, I don’t want to fight you, I-”
Just when some Pokémon roared so loudly, Emily also gasped as the strange creature cried, and before she expected it, Emily was back with her, being carried by the violet Pokémon, who placed her back on the ground carefully, to then…
Shift back into its previous, weak form.
“Are you alright? Heavens!”
Emily gasped for seconds on end, trying to process what had just happened, “that was so freaking close! There was this Houndoum that was trying to battle me, I was about to cry, I swear to Rayquaza, but then… wow, you should have seen this little fella!” she exclaimed. “It was in this insane form… for a couple seconds, now
it’s back to being this puppy-like thing.”
“I’m sorry, Emily, I got you into a dangerous situation!”
At last, she shook her head, “I’m silly like this, there was no way I could simply ignore this little one.”
Glaring at the not so little one, Sonia cooed with pity, “I wonder whatever happened to it…”
“I also wish I knew.”
"So…"
The question was too obvious for it to need to be asked.
"Shall we keep it?”
Emily sighed, "I don't know? I mean, I don't even know what it is, I'm not wearing a Pokédex with me… nor any PokeBalls," she paused. "But… it's not like I could simply leave him here."
The purple Pokémon stared up at her with a faint smile, lowering the horns that were where his ears were supposed to go, looking up to her in some pleading way; definitely he didn't want to be left here all on his own.
“Do you wanna come with us?”
“Agias!”
"Maybe it is your Sootopolitans genes, Em, that make you so good with Pokémon!”
Genes neither actually had, in fact.
"So… shall we head back? I have an UltraBall in my luggage, I don't think an average PokéBall will be able to keep this one.”
"Yes, that sounds great. Maybe in the academy someone will know who this one with us is!" Sonia chuckled. "We should give him a name, don't you think?"
"What do you think he should be named?"
What silly name unmatched for a Pokémon of such size would do?
"Sprinkles!"
"Oh, Sonia, come on," Emily laughed as they started walking back to the lighthouse. "I don't think that is the best name."
"Why not?" and she turned her gaze to the Pokémon. "Sprinkles! How do you like it?"
He didn't seem too bothered by being called that.
"Come on, I won't be calling them Sprinkles in battle! How anticlimactic that's gonna be?"
"But Sprinkles likes it!"
And, the so-called Sprinkles chirped happily.
"Sprinkles is so cute!"
“Aren't you maybe wanting to snatch him to turn them into a contest st-"
All of the sudden, an alien voice cut them off from their happy talk, "hey, what are you doing here?“
Sonia was quick to defend herself, " I don't have to reply to questions asked by strangers!"
Even if that stranger in question looked pretty much Emily's age and, to be fair, was good looking.
"No, I'm not talking to you," he growled displeased. "What are you doing here, Miraidon?"
"Did he just call Sprinkles ‘Miraidon’?"
That earned them a desperate sigh coming from the boy, "Sprinkles?! Do you even know what this creature is?!"
"Even if we did, he liked the name Sprinkles! What's so wrong with that?" Sonia wasn't one to talk back at the first chance but surely she didn't get what was so bad here as to have the guy reacting in these ways.
"Well, since you don't seem to have a clue of what this thing is, it's a stupid name!”
"Hey," now Emily decided to interfere. "My sister picked that name and you won't be calling it stupid! Besides, who do you think you are to speak to us in such haste? To believe we should give you any explanation on anything?"
Any anger this guy could have had towards Sonia directed entirely to Emily; this was her, being all shy until something or someone got on her nerves and she couldn't help but say all that she thought. In the meantime, Sprinkles rushed towards the entrance of a little door beside the lighthouse’s main gate and whoever this boy was shook his head dismissing Emily on purpose and focusing only on Sprinkles.
“It's locked, you brute, you cannot go inside.”
“Hey, why are you being so rude to this poor Pokémon?”
Again, he was so pissed at her already that he was masterly ignoring her, just pretending she wasn’t there.
“... So I’m sorry, go get lost somewhere-”
Emily raised her tone, “hey, I’m talking to you!”
The boy rolled his eyes and sighed sarcastically, "yes, I'm hearing you, but I don't care! Who are you, anyways? As long as it concerns me I've got nothing to discuss with some rando."
And of course this poked Emily's pride, “my name's Emily Stone, you better remember it, because I don't put up with clowns!”
Emily couldn't be engaging in a back and forth with a complete stranger! Whatever was her problem? Wasn't she capable of fearing?
“Who are you calling a clown, Miss Rock?”
She gasped, offended, “Stone!”
“Whatever, you ain't that important, not to force me to listen to you and absolutely not enough to be carrying that Pokémon with you.”
“Oh, and you are?” Emily asked challengingly. “Nobody even knows you, clown! Don’t act like you were so special to boss us around and just leave us alone!”
He shook his head, drawing his hands to his waist still in such a dismissive way, “you're ignorant at best, pretending you can take this brute with you and raise him as a normal Pokémon,” he leaned forward a little bit, just so engaged in this random argument to try and play a daring role.
"For your information, I'm not taking him! He's coming by himself!" And if Sonia believed this would be over here, when Emily said, “let's go back to the academy-”
The guy gasped, "oh, no, no, no, you can't do that! I don't approve of that!"
She snarled, "who are you to approve of anything that I do or don't do? Get lost!"
Now Emily was getting really worked up about this guy, instead of just leaving the situation as it was she was down to a verbal row with him.
"Because you don't know what Miraidon is and I don't believe some rando like you is capable of carrying him around.”
And this was a direct hit to Emily's ego, since she perceived herself as, in fact, a very capable person, having gone through all sorts of dangers at such a young age already.
"You don't know? Because Sprinkles and I could easily beat you right here and right now! You don't seem pretty strong yourself.”
“Emily…!”
However, he smirked, "he does not have enough power to battle!"
Sprinkles lowered his head in a kind of ashamed motion.
“I’m sure that when I catch him in a PokéBall-”
“Oh, do you mean,” and he took it out from his pocket. “This Pokéball?”
Emily didn't even hesitate, as soon as the boy displayed it she basically snatched it from his careless hands, quickly brushing his fingers while putting Miraidon back inside that PokéBall and turning around.
"See?! Sprinkles picked us to be his partners so you can take the L!”
He couldn't be such a bad person if he held back from physically struggling with Emily who had basically stolen from him, or partially at the very least; that was thinking Sonia, evaluating this entire situation they suddenly were engaged in, while trying to figure out whatever ‘Taking the L’ meant.
“Hey! What’s wrong with you?!”
“Same question! Why do you care so much about him if you only mistreat him?!”
“Mistreat him?!” He grabbed his own head and gruntled. “That’s not yours! Give it back!”
“And what if I don’t, huh, what are you gonna do?!”
“I can’t believe such a stubborn and annoying girl can exist! Seriously, what is your problem? Just give him back!”
But Emily kept insisting, “what are you going to do? Gosh, you were so very ready to let this one get lost somewhere else!”
“I highly doubt you will be able to handle it whenever it-”
“Ugh, I'm already fed up with this moron!” Emily exclaimed loudly, her voice somehow quivering. “Let's go, Sonia, just ignore him!!”
“No, you cannot go with that!”
Before they walked really quickly back into the road to Los Platos and then to Mesagoza, Emily looked back at the boy of beige and brown hair and blue eyes, to very firmly exclaim at him:
“Leave me alone! If you dare to follow us I'm going to beat your ass! Got it?! Don't get close to me or my sister again, weirdo!”
Just as expected, luckily, he didn't follow them, no, he really didn't seem like the aggressive type one should be wary of but instead more like the rash type, giving Sonia the immediate hint that they were safe dealing with him, however, Emily remained so wary the entire road here, staring at every side and angle possible just in case this guy decided to take revenge on her, or most importantly, tried to mess up with Sonia as his newly met foe’s little sister.
"It's not necessary that you escort me all the way here, seriously.”
The older girl sighed, "just in case that freaking weirdo decided to follow us. I swear to God if I ever see him again I'm going to-”
"He didn't look like the stalking type, Emily, take my word in this… he just was really bad at expressing himself. And he matched your easily triggered energy. You weren’t acting any differently than him."
Emily knew she was speaking facts since she didn’t dare protesting against it, "whatever, he better not bother us anymore. There is such a thing as being so rude and childish and disruptive-”
This was the night now, Emily going on and on about this random encounter while also trying to arrive at a conclusion regarding this Miraidon they had here, whatever he was supposed to be. Just because Sonia wanted to go out and see a new world but didn’t want to go alone.
She realized this was the most free she had ever been ever since she got adopted and that it had been troublesome, that this was exactly why she needed Emily by her side. Maybe it was true and she still wasn’t ready to adventure on her very own, since just thinking of everything that happened was a little overwhelming, and imagining all the sorts of events she would trigger if she was to keep exploring new lands, was making her anxious.
Sonia could only hope everything would be alright and that, by the end of the year, she could look back and say wholeheartedly that all the trouble she was probably going to get into was worth it. She could only hope so.