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That freak N was in Black’s dreams again. Or was it that Black was in his dreams? It didn't matter, it was just a weird thing to happen every other night for three years.
N was leering at Black from on top of a skate ramp. Black usually found him perched there, in a creepy room filled with toys, with a badly painted sky full of clouds looming over them.
“Another nightmare,” N said, “what have I ever done to deserve this?”
Sometimes, it was just easier to ignore N’s melodrama. When he didn't, they usually ended up in a series of circular arguments that went nowhere until one of them woke up. Sometimes (okay, often) Black was in exactly the mood for that. But not tonight.
“Don't you ever get bored of this room?” Black asked.
N’s glare intensified. “Are you trying to lure me into some Trainer trap?”
Black rolled his eyes. “You told me you don't leave your house because you're scared of Trainers.”
N bristled. “It is in fact a castle , and I don't leave because I'm not yet ready to dismantle the tyrannical system of oppression enforced by people like you. I almost am, but I need further preparation.”
“Cool,” Black replied. N had been saying ‘almost but I need further preparation’ for two years. “Guessing you've never seen stars?”
“Of course I’ve seen stars,” N huffed. “I lived with pokémon for the first several years of my life.”
Black knew that, too. He wasn’t sure if he believed it. Honestly, he wasn’t even sure if N was real. Still, he thought it was sad, that N was cooped up in one room, restrained to one view, until whenever some other person decided it was enough.
“I live in a small town, near the sea, so it’s really easy to study the stars here,” Black said. “I could probably chart them in my sleep.”
N’s eyes flashed. “Is that another one of those things you so persistently call ‘jokes’ and ‘funny’?”
“Yeah, N, it’s a pun, nicely spotted.” It would’ve sounded sarcastic to anyone else, but N didn’t interpret it that way. Which was good, because Black really did mean it.
“I’ve studied stars,” N dismissively replied. “I don’t see what relevance they —”
“Oh come on, don’t you wanna see something different?” Black asked. “Or, at least, see more of the world before you dismantle it?”
Usually N would shout at Black for interrupting him. Instead, N faltered, before sliding down the skate ramp. “I… don’t see what you could do?”
Black shrugged. For a while he’d been thinking, if he was lucid enough to be aware he was dreaming when he was with N, surely he’d be lucid enough to change the dream? Instead of explaining that, he decided to just try it. He pictured the edge of Nuvema, overlooking the sea, leaning against the rail and hearing the crashing of waves, the cries of wild pokémon, smelling the salt and grass and pine trees, feeling the cold bite of the rail and the smooth chill of the wind, while the stars sparkled.
N gave a surprised gasp. Black opened his eyes. The scene had changed around them. N was sitting on the ground, not the skate ramp, and Black was now hovering uncomfortably near the rail.
“Come on,” Black said, jerking his head towards the sea.
N stood up. He looked very different in the dark, but Black could still make out his wonder as he approached the rail.
“So,” Black said, “you see that bright one there? That’s Arceus’ star, and if you follow it over to —”
Black kept talking, but he got the feeling N wasn’t listening. It didn’t matter. The point was, it was different. Black wasn’t leaning against a wall dryly interrupting N’s lectures. And as Black talked, N leant more and more against the rail, still staring up at the sky.
“So,” Black said finally, “what do you think?”
N quietly replied, “It's very…”
Black waited, but N didn’t say anything. So he prompted: “Very what?”
“...pretty.”
Black looked at N and smiled. “Yeah.”