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Void.
All that surrounds Harmony is an endless void, sprawling in each and every direction. Somehow, she can still see, but there’s not a hint of light in sight. It almost makes her wish she can’t see, if only to pretend she wasn’t stuck in this endless abyss.
Her footsteps are muffled by the blanket of hum that resides over this place. There is no sound, not even the murmur of silence, or the pounding of her heart in her ears.
Swallowing every noise.
Her shouts leave her mouth, only to fade into silence. No matter how hard Harmony screams, no sound will leave this place.
At this rate, it seems that she won’t either.
She sprints.
Her reasoning is that, surely, if she continues in one direction, she will reach an end.
Soon, she will realise this is not true.
The void swallows all.
“Stay. . “ A voice pierces through the blackness, scratchy and raspy but somehow filled with warmth. As if a grandfather hadn’t drunk water for a very long time. Distantly, Harmony thinks it sounds like AZ.
“Hello!?” she shouts, but once again, she can only hear her voice in her mind. It doesn’t leave her mouth - it can’t, it won’t, it is not wanted here.
“Stay. . Away. . .” The voice murmurs.
Harmony stumbles forward, searching for the voice that comes from nowhere, and everywhere.
“Stay. . Away. .Stay. . Away. . “
It turns louder, and louder, thrumming in her ears. The racing of her heart accompanies the voice, as it turns deafening.
It sounds like Urbain, and her heart breaks a little.
It sounds like Lida.
“I’m sorry!”
Naveen.
AZ.
“Please! What did I do?!”
Vinnie.
Jett.
The voice is a mangled tangle of threaded voices that wraps around her as it chants the same thing. Over. And over.
STAY AWAY STAY AWAY STAY AWAY-
Black tendrils tug her down.
And no one is there to hear her scream.
—--
Harmony jolted upright, panting. The darkness surrounding her was not so encompassing and black - more of a dark shade of blue. She could clearly see the silhouettes of objects in the darkness - the bed posts, the curtains, the small round table at the back of the room. The smell of her air freshener filled her nose with a sweet scent that was welcome compared to the unnerving nothingness in her dream.
Harmony patted herself down. She was fine.
There were no slimy black vines wrapping around her legs.
There were no tangled voices screaming at her.
And as she frantically flicked on the lamp, warm yellow light filling the room, there was no blackness surrounding her.
She was not there.
It was a dream.
Thank Arceus, Harmony thought, lowering herself back onto her bed. A cold sweat covered her, uncomfortable in its dampness. Staring at the ceiling and focusing on the green wallpaper was all she could do to not focus on that.
Next to her, her lucario slept soundly, curled up in a ball. He let out little snores, unaware she’d woken up.
Knock.
Harmony sat up, gaze flicking to the door. Had she imagined that or-
Knock.
No. That was definitely real. But who was knocking at the door at 2AM in the morning?
Warily, she reached for the bat next to her bed. It’d been a new addition to her room after the Hyperogue Ange situation. Even though it wouldn’t do much against a mega evolved pokemon, it soothed her to have it by her bedside.
Harmony chose to ignore the fact that a burglar wouldn’t knock.
Bat in hand, she opened the door, raising it in case-
“WOAH WOAH WOAH HARMONY IT’S ME!”
She blinked, nearly dropping the bat. “Urbain? Why are you here? And at like-” she checked her watch, “2:05?”
He shrugged, rubbing his neck bashfully. His hair was tousled, as if he’d run a hand through it messily. He was in an oversized sky blue shirt, and white pants. Unanswered questions ran through her mind. Why was her boyfriend here? Usually, he was a really deep sleeper.
“I. . .It’s stupid. But I had a nightmare.” he said, stepping further into her room as she opened the door. He sat on the edge of her bed, fiddling with the edge of his shirt. “Can I sleep here?”
Harmony shut the door behind her, frowning slightly. “Of course you can. You don’t need to ask.” She sat next to him on the bed, intertwining his hand with hers. Harmony planted a chaste kiss on his lips, trying to reassure him. His fingers drifted to her chin when she kissed him, then slowly dropped down as she pulled back. “What was the nightmare about? Or do you not want to talk about it?”
“I. . .It was AZ. But can we not talk about it? Just for a bit?” he asked tentatively, wrapping his arms around himself. He looked so scared.
Harmony hated it. It was too similar to how she’d looked when he’d been trapped in the Lumiose Tower. She had been terrified that day.
Harmony thought she would lose him.
“Sure,” she murmured. She pulled off the covers, letting him get inside. He pulled their intertwined hands close to his chest, resting it above his heart. She used her other hand to trace his face, smiling as he closed his eyes peacefully.
Harmony gazed at him as he closed his eyes, carding a hand through his hair. He smiled as she toyed with his hair, humming softly.
“I should do this more often.” he mumbled, sighing happily as she scratched his scalp. “I mean, if I get free head massages. . .Then nightmares are worth it.”
Harmony scoffed, laughing quietly. “I’d do this for you without you having nightmares. Buttttt, it’s 30 an hour,” she teased.
“Aw. And after I made croissant curry for you last night? You’re an evil wom-”
Head scratch.
“I take it back, work your magic. My money is yours.”
That made her laugh. Her muscles relaxed, the nightmare she’d just had banished to the edges of her mind with him here.
Harmony stopped scratching his scalp, shifting to play with his fingers. She ran her index finger across the lines of his palm, fingers light as the tickle of a feather. He should paint his nails, she thought. Maybe a blue? Or a white?
A hand gripped hers and lifted it back up to his scalp. Urbain opened his eyes, peering at her through sparkling pools of blue.
“Please keep doing that? It feels nice.”
She resisted the urge to tease him about how clingy he was and instead obliged. His eyes fluttered closed with a ‘love you,’ and after a few minutes, light snores escaped him.
“Love you too, Urbain.”
Harmony smiled, retracting her hand and closing her eyes. It felt a lot easier to go to sleep with Urbain by her side.
Eventually, she drifted into a dreamless sleep.
“Harms.” someone said next to her ear. “Harms, wake up. Someone’s at the door.”
“Huh?” she yawned, before it registered. Urbain’s hand was on her shoulder, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. She glanced at the clock - 3:30. They’d only slept for a little bit.
Knock.
The knock itself was quiet. Timid. As if the person on the other side wasn’t sure if they should knock, and was halfway through bolting out of there. As if they’d raised a shaky hand to the door, and above their better judgement, knocked on it.
Harmony decided the bat was not necessary, and went up to go get it. She opened the mahogany door, looking around for the person who’d knocked-
And then her gaze fell on a small figure, hugging a small pillow to their chest.
“Ansha?”
Harmony’s voice came out surprised and a bit too loud - well, of course it did. You couldn’t blame Harmony. The last person she’d expect to see at her door would be the small figure of Ansha, intricate braids undone. Her hair ran down her back like a waterfall. Small fingers clutched at the pillow, fingers digging into the white cover.
She flinched slightly at Harmony’s shocked tone. “H-Hi Miss Harmony. I know it’s very improper of me to barge in at this time but. . .I - uh. .” Her voice trembled, fading off into silence, which was very unusual for the girl.
Harmony crouched down to her level, trying to soothe the spooked girl. “Are you alright, Ansha?”
Why would you say that?? Harmony screamed inwardly. Of course Ansha wasn’t okay - anyone could see that with one look at her! The girl was practically shaking, visible tremors racing down her arms.
“I - yes - no, I. . .It’s really quite a silly reason for a visit, if I’m honest. I had. .um. . “
Harmony waited for the girl to continue, as she nervously fiddled with her fingers.
“I had a terrible dream. What one might call a. . .Nightmare.” Ansha looked at the floor, eyes darting across the lines of the floor panels. Her fingernails dug into the pillow. “I was wondering if perhaps. . .I could stay here? For the night? Usually I’m quite good with handling these sorts of things, because my dear Mama says that it is good to be independent, so I strive to be the best for her. Hoopa usually helps too, though I don’t know where it is. It likes to go out during the night sometimes. I want to be independent for Mama but. . This dream was quite scary and I don’t want to be alone in my room at the other hotel.”
Harmony’s heart melted. And below the surface, a flash of anger flared up in her. It seemed like Ansha was used to nightmares - and dealing with them alone. She shouldn’t have had to be used to them - Arceus, she was just a kid.
She didn’t deserve to have to grow up so fast.
No one deserved to grow up that fast, yet unfortunately, so many things pushed them too.
“Oh, Ansha. . . Of course you can stay. Urbain’s in here too, if that’s okay. Would you like a hug?”
Ansha hesitated, squeezing her pillow close to her chest. She didn’t even have a proper teddy - Harmony could tell that was one of the pillows from the hotel. She made a mental note to get her a plushie of hoopa, if she could find one. If not, she’d get an eevee - something, at least so Ansha could have something to hold onto in the night rather than a hotel pillow.
“Yes please. A hug would be wonderful.” Ansha put down her pillow as Harmony squeezed her tight. She felt Ansha’s small hands wind around her back, and she looked to see Ansha smiling. Harmony stroked the girl’s long black hair, Ansha nuzzling into her neck.
They stayed like that for a while, before Ansha pulled back. “Are you sure it’s alright for me to stay? I would understand if it’s not. I could go back to Hotel Ris-”
“No, Ansha! You’re welcome here whenever you’d like. Especially if you’ve had a bad dream.” Harmony reassured her. She nodded for Ansha to come in. She came all the way from Hotel Risschime? What if someone hurt her?! Harmony reminded herself to tell Ansha to call them whenever she wanted to come, instead of wandering half the city with only Hoopa by her side. Harmony couldn’t stand the thought of someone getting their hands on her.
“Thank you,” Ansha said. “I was told bad dreams were childish. You don’t get bad dreams if you’re strong, and Mama said I’m strong, so I won’t have the,. You certainly wouldn’t have bad dreams, because you’re incredibly strong.”
Harmony’s eye might have twitched if she didn’t control her emotions better. Childish, my fucking ass. Whoever told a kid that nightmares were childish was - ugh. Harmony didn’t even have the words to express it.
“Everyone has bad dreams, Ansha,” Harmony said, instead of what was brewing in her mind. “I certainly have them. Did you know I had one today?”
Ansha let out a small gasp. “Really? You did? But you’re so-”
Harmony smiled. “Even strong people have bad dreams. In fact. . .Some of the strongest people have the worst dreams. Think of it as. . .A badge of honour! You’re stronger, because you faced your nightmare.”
“Even if I cry?”
“Even if you cry. You woke up, so you faced it!”
Ansha giggled, touching her sternum as if she expected a gold badge to appear on her pajamas. “I never thought of it like that. So I have a lot of badges?”
Harmony grinned. “Yeah. You do.” She interlaced her and Ansha’s fingers, guiding the girl into the room. “Urbain had a bad dream too, that’s why he’s in here.”
“I guess everyone’s having bad dreams today,” the girl said, letting out a small giggle again. She hid it behind her hand.
Ansha’s so polite, it almost hurts, Harmony thought, as a twinge of pity ran through her. Ansha should be able to laugh all she wanted without hiding it.
“I guess so.”
“Ansha?” Urbain asked as he sat up. His eyes scanned over her and Harmony, looking at Ansha’s bashful expression. “What are you doing here?”
Ansha looked at Harmony, a slight brushing pink across her cheeks. She was almost. . .Embarrassed?
“She’s had a bad dream, and wants to stay with us. That’s okay with you, right?”
Urbain nodded instantly, more shocked than anything. He patted the middle of the bed. “Of course! Ansha, come sit.”
Harmony smiled as Ansha politely got onto the bed, crossing her legs. Note to self: Make sure Ansha isn’t embarrassed about having a bad dream.
The girl was embarrassed for something that was completely normal. And whoever had taught her that it was bad oh Harmony was going to-
“Harms?” Urbain said. He was sitting cross-legged on the bed, snapping her out of her thoughts. “Whatcha thinking about?”
The amount of bad parenting in this worl-
“Nothing. Uh, Ansha, would you like us to tell you a story?”
Ansha, who was sitting on the bed, immediately brightened. Her dark brown eyes were blown wide. “A story?”
“Would you like us to?” Harmony asked, sliding to sit on the other side of Ansha. The green covers were plush beneath them. “Urbain’s pretty good with stories. And we’ve had a lot of stories in our lives.”
“Ain’t that the truth,” Urbain murmured, glancing up at Harmony.
Ansha fiddled with the sheets. “I would love to be told a story! Sometimes, Mama buys me storybooks to read, but she hardly has any time to. . .to. . “ Ansha’s voice faded off into silence. “To read them to me.” She lifted her head up. “But that means I’m a fabulous reader, thanks to Mama.”
Harmony glanced at Urbain out of the corner of her eye, who was clenching the sheets in his fists.
“Well, Ansha, I’m happy to tell you a story,” Urbain said, a smile on his face. The only sign he was disturbed by what the girl had said was the sheets in his fists and the slight twitch of his jaw. “Is there any story in particular you’d like me to tell you?”
Ansha thought for a moment, before answering. “Could you tell me about how you and Miss Harmony met?”
Harmony interjected. “Ansha, you don’t have to call us Mr. and Miss. Just call us by our names, it’s alright.”
Ansha opened her mouth to protest, then closed it. “I. . .If you’re sure.” She paused. “Harmony,” she added, testing the name out on her tongue. She turned back to Urbain with excitement lighting up her eyes. “Please continue M- I mean, Urbain!”
“When we first met. . .” Urbain grinned, looking at Harmony. “Now, that was a day. Wow, it feels like lifetimes ago,” he breathed, tilting his head back. Urbain looked back at Ansha, eyes sparkling like the surface of the sea. “I was filming an ad for the hotel, you see. I had three mons with me: a chikorita, a tepig, and a totodile. And I needed a tourist for my ad, so I was looking for any tourists.”
Harmony smiled at that. She could still picture that day, the way the sun had sparkled off the rooftops. It had all seemed so scary. And hey, look where she was now.
“And I had just come off the train all the way from Galar. I was going to be here for 6 months. My mum had just given me a bag, a few clothes, and some money,” she told Ansha, who was listening with rapt attention. “I’d barely stepped out of the train station when-”
Urbain continued on. “I saw someone out of the corner of my eye, looking rather tourist-y. A really beautiful girl, with a bag in hand.”
Ansha beamed at him, giggling. “Was the ‘beautiful girl’ Harmony?”
“Yeah.” Urbain looked up at her, winking. “She was.”
Harmony fought off a smile, instead running a finger through Ansha’s silky black hair. “Ansha, you have beautiful hair. Could I braid it?”
Ansha blinked. “Y-yes, please. That would be lovely.” She faced her back to Harmony so she could access her hair.
Harmony set to work, combing through it with a brush on her bedside table as Urbain continued the story. She worked through the little knots, careful not to hurt Ansha.
“-And then, Harmony’s bag was gone!” He made a big gesture with his arms. “Poof! Not a thief in sight until . . .” Urbain drummed on his legs, looking at Ansha until she joined in. “Drumroll please! We saw a pancham, scurrying off with her bag!”
Ansha’s jaw dropped. “No!”
“Yes! It was making off with her bag, so I, being the chivalrous soul I am, ran off to get it, Harmony following behind-”
“Excuse me?” she shot at him, raising an eyebrow. “I clearly remember you were the one who was chasing after me. Because you were - and still are slower than me Mr. Pocky Stick.”
He gave her a shit-eating grin. “Are we sure about that? Anyways, we chased after it until we came to where it stopped, and guess what we found?”
Ansha leaned forward. “What did you find?!”
“Two backpackers, and the pancham who’d stolen our bag!”
Harmony huffed happily as Urbain continued the story. Diverting Ansha’s hair into three parts, she began to plait it.
Side.
Side.
Middle.
Side.
Side.
Middle.
“-and then, as we were just nearing the hotel, three people cornered us. They had these huge pokemon. I think they had an aegislash, a-”
Harmony admired the plait, running a finger over the soft, thick sections, before realising Ansha didn’t have a hair tie. Harmony settled for holding the end of the braid in her hands as Urbain told her about floette’s Light of Ruin.
“Incredible. I didn’t know such a small pokemon like floette could be that powerful! She’s so-”
“Dainty?” Harmony suggested. Ansha nodded.
Urbain shrugged. “Well, on the contrary, dainty things can be dangerous. Like-”
“A teacup!” Ansha interjected, eyes gleaming. “Because if it shatters, it breaks into a lot of pieces. It’s quite dangerous after that, you can slice your finger on it.”
“Exactly,” Harmony said. She hoped the reason Ansha knew that it could slice your finger was because someone had warned her, not because. . .
“Ansha, do you have a hairtie?” Harmony asked, interrupting that thought. “I’m all done with your hair.”
The girl searched her pyjama pockets. “Oh. . .I’m afraid not.” Her shoulders sagged. “Sorry, Harmony. All your effort was wasted.”
Harmony shook her head, tucking a stray hair behind Ansha’s ear. “No, no, no. You can have mine!”
She took her hair out of its ponytail, tying the green scrunchie around the end of Ansha’s braid before she could protest.
“There,” Harmony said, settling back. “Now, if I’m not around, you’ll always have a little bit of me with you.”
Holding the scrunchie and braid in hand, a smile crept onto Ansha’s face. “I love it. It will be my most treasured item!”
Urbain watched them with a smile on his face. He yawned, stretching his arms above his head. “Well, we should probably go to sleep if we want to get some rest.”
Nodding, Harmony lifted the covers for Ansha to slide in the middle, between her and Urbain. The black-haired girl hesitated.
“Are you completely sure? I wouldn’t want to disrupt your sleep.”
Harmony smiled. “It’s more than alright, Ansha.”
“Yeah. You don’t have to worry,” Urbain said.
“Come on,” Harmony said, lifting the sheets again.
A smile tugged at the edges of Ansha’s lips. “If you’re sure,” she said, burrowing under the covers. Urbain settled on one side of her, and Harmony on the other.
“Goodnight, Harmony. Goodnight Urbain.”
“G’night Ansha,” Urbain said, pulling the covers up.
Harmony made sure the covers fully covered Ansha, setting a pillow under the girl’s head. “Sweet dreams Ansha. If you need anything, just wake me up, okay?” She kissed the top of her forehead. Ansha beamed, seeming to preen at the touch.
“Okay!”
Harmony flicked the lamp light off, only faintly seeing the outline of Ansha’s rising chest, falling and lifting softly. Not even a few minutes had passed, yet she’d already fallen asleep.
“You’re gonna be a great mom, you know that?” Urbain whispered, reaching over Ansha to brush some loose hair away from Harmony’s face.
She smiled, leaning into his touch. “Sweet dreams, Urbain.”
“Sweet dreams, Harmony.”