Chapter Text
Aurélie wasn’t sure what to expect once she pulled into Canalave City’s harbour. But after several weeks spent on the open ocean, wholly subject to the capricious whims of the winds and the waves, she had never been more happy at the prospect of touching land again.
Hatterene was of much the same mind, having told her partner as much through many expressions of psychic energy. Her eyes were narrowed in displeasure, even as she dispelled the salty spray of the sea with a psychic barrier she'd casted around her body.
Sensing her discomfort, Aurélie reached out a hand. Hatterene's periwinkle hair moved as though it had a mind of its own, winding itself around her partner's wrist, as they'd done hundreds, if not thousands of times before. Steadying and grounding each other into the present. A reminder to keep their eyes forward on the present, instead of drowning in the tides of the past.
Aurélie raised her free hand to her browline to block out the sun, scanning the docks for her parents, who had promised they'd be there to welcome her back home. She saw her Maman almost instantly, standing tall with her back perfectly straight, looking as regal and elegant as she always did. Her dad was beside her and also had a hand to his forehead, squinting at the incoming ships through his thin-framed wire glasses.
When Dad spotted her, his face broke into a brilliantly wide grin, and he eagerly raised a hand and pointed at her for Maman to see. Her angular features searched for her along the horizon, her lips pursed in a pout, but her features softened once their eyes met.
Aurélie leaned over the railing, about to wave to them, only to suddenly realize that her parents weren't the only ones waiting for her.
Roark and Riley. Her childhood friends.
Oh, Almighty Arceus above.
And behind them was a whole crowd of Pokémon, anxiously shifting about as they awaited news of their beloved Trainer’s arrival.
Her.
The one who had abandoned them after she'd left Sinnoh for Alola, allowed them to languish in Canalave City for years and years. The only indication she'd still been alive and thinking about them were the postcards and homemade Poffins she'd sent in the mail.
A wave of guilt washed over her, as potent as the day she had decided to run away from it all, with only Hatterene and Applin by her side. She turned away, unable to bear to look, the agony of her past failures nearly overwhelming her as they took hold.
Hatterene’s hair squeezed her wrist once—a warning to relax, was followed by a feeling of deep concern, pouring through their psychic bond. Aurélie shuddered reflexively at the intrusion, but it had worked. Her mind had stilled somewhat, no longer at war with her past self.
Then, an achingly familiar voice from below caught her attention, forcing her gaze back towards them.
“Auri!”
A flash of a grin, wild and exuberantly waving arms as the boat came to rest beside the dock. She hadn't heard Roark's voice in nearly four years. It was deeper than she remembered.
Riley joined him, tipping his hat back and raising a hand to greet her. He too, wore a grin as wide as Roark's, and even austere Lucario had the beginnings of a smile curved on his snout.
At last, came the cacophony of equally-familiar calls as her Pokémon joined in. All of them were there, each of them celebrating her return in their own way.
Tyranitar’s open jaws formed a happy, lopsided smile, entirely at odds with her terrifying appearance. Slow-going Torterra and independent Sirfetch’d made for a strange sight, the smaller Fighting-type perched in the branches of Torterra’s tree. Aegislash was as stoic as always, floating away from the rest, but his ribbon arms were swaying gently around his steel-clad body. Even abysmally shy Ampharos, prone to shocking whichever strangers dared to venture too close to her personal space, was there, clinging to Goodra and Arcanine like they were the only reason she was still a part of the world of the living.
But there was one missing, and a twinge of disappointment coursed through her body. She hadn't seen him anywhere yet…
The residents of Canalave City rushed to clear the area as a bellowing roar shook the concrete that surrounded them on all sides. Aurélie felt her heart soar as Gyarados took a flying leap into the air. His serpentine body twisted and flailed as he turned to look at her, and he landed back into the ocean with a thunderous splash, spraying up a massive arc of water as he landed.
They were all there, every single one of them, the ones who loved her deeply and had supported her for her entire life.
They still loved her, even though she had abandoned them.
How in the world could she bear to face them all again?
So much guilt. So much regret.
If only she could hide away forever and never have to face the people and Pokémon she had left behind.
But no. She had already made up her mind weeks ago. She couldn’t run away, not this time.
And so, taking in a deep breath that seared her lungs in the salt of the ocean and the sand from the coastline that she used to call home, Aurélie Whitehall stepped ashore to whatever fate awaited her.
Riley wasn’t sure what to expect when Aurélie pulled into Canalave City’s harbour. He spied her off the starboard bow, the wind whipping fiercely around her and kicking up her signature Ponyta-tail, the one she'd always worn as a child and teenager. Hatterene stood beside her, cutting an imposing yet serene silhouette with her massive hat, her voluminous hair motionless in the breeze.
He was glad to see they were still glued together at the hip. Even if Aurélie was no longer sporting that gravity-defying hair ribbon that had made her appear so much taller than she actually was.
In fact, that was his primary concern at the moment—where in Distortion was that Key Stone of hers? The one she had painstakingly discovered in Kalos nearly a decade ago? The one she had placed in the middle of her hair ribbon as a point of pride? The one she used to show off to anyone who would listen?
But there was still a hint of pink around her hair. He squinted, honing and focusing his eyes through a subtle infusion of his Aura, and then he realized what he was looking at.
That pink bandana she was sporting was her old hair ribbon, but she had turned it inside out, revealing the darker pink silken lining.
There was a faint pulsing of energy emanating from the nape of her neck.
Ah, so that's where it went.
Her Key Stone rested behind her, likely looped through the ties of her bandana. Hidden to all of the world by her high and bobbing Ponyta-tail.
But not to Riley.
Because he could sense the minute sparks of life that pulsed within the gemstone, that showed him she still had remnants of her past resolve and determination. Those emotions were steeped into her very existence, and nothing could take them away.
“Auri!” Roark's voice boomed to bridge the gap, and he waved wildly, exuberance plastered across his face, woven into every movement he made.
Seeing such an enthusiastic reaction from his other best friend was enough to melt his tough exterior at last. Turning his gaze upwards, he tipped his hat backwards and held a hand up to greet her, a grin on his face. Lucario shifted beside him, his energy changing, becoming more open, more joyful than his usual self. He rubbed at his partner’s head affectionately, and the Steadfast Pokémon let him.
The truth was that he missed Aurélie. He had missed her deeply, the younger sister to his older brother, the one who was always coming up with ridiculous schemes and ideas for the three of them to try. The one who got them into trouble and back out of it with the ease and grace of a Glameow. The one who wasn't scared of anything.
That was the Aurélie he had known and remembered so fondly.
He hoped Alola hadn't changed her. He hoped she had been able to move on from her loss at the Lily of the Valley Conference.
But from the way that a faint shadow had touched at the edges of her faces, coupled with an erratic humming in her Aura signature that had only been dispelled through another wave of psychic energy on Hatterene’s part, Riley couldn't help but wonder if she really was still the same Aurélie Whitehall who had left them nearly half a decade ago.
Roark wasn’t sure what to expect when Aurélie pulled into Canalave City’s harbour.
It had been years since they’d last spoken face-to-face, and he was a nervous bundle of energy as he waited on the docks with her family and Riley. Did she remember him at all?
What an absurd thought, he reprimanded his brain. Of course she hadn’t forgotten about him, about any of them.
Besides, it wasn’t as if they never talked at all anymore. She still texted him via Pokétch, whenever the spotty Alolan signal had allowed for it, though the frequency of their texting varied greatly. Some months, it would be a constant stream of updates and nonsensical photos and inside jokes. The next week, it would be radio silent, quieter than the upper floors of the Hallowed Tower.
Eventually, he had realized that the frequency of their Pokétching had everything to do with Aurelie’s mental state. More texts meant she was doing well. Fewer meant she was suffering. He had received none at all for the first six months of her absence.
Riley nudged him lightly with an elbow, his eyes flicking over to a spot near the front of the ship. He spotted her at the railing, leaning over, her eyes already locked on Éloïse and Peter. She hadn’t spotted him yet.
There had been a pain in his chest, ever since the day she had left Canalave City on her Trainer journey. His hurt had lessened over time, fading to a minor ache that ebbed and flowed. No longer debilitating, but painful nonetheless. An Aurélie-sized hole torn from his chest, one third of his heart left gaping in the wake of her absence.
Then her eyes slid over to the side, to his face, to Riley's face. To her Pokémon partners, who were spread out behind them.
He saw the way her shoulders stiffened, how she turned away from them in a rush, as though she couldn't bear to see them like this.
The thought of her still not having been healed through time, that the final traces of guilt she still carried within herself at having run away were only just beneath the surface, gnawed at him and refused to let him go.
But she was there, right in front of him. He felt a sudden pang in his chest, as though something was being fit back into where it should have always belonged.
After all this time, after so many days he’d spent thinking about her, concerned about her wellbeing, hoping that Hatterene and Applin were doing well on a foreign shore, so far from home, she had returned.
He couldn't help it.
He couldn’t contain his excitement anymore, and so her name burst out of his mouth in an instant. Anything to show her that they all still cared so deeply about her, no matter what had happened between then and now.
“Auri!”
Her head snapped to him, her eyes slightly widening slightly as she took in the sight of him, waving wildly, at Riley raising a hand up to greet her, at her parents and her Pokémon also celebrating her return.
Then she was smiling back, a warm fondness softening her face as she did so. But there was a hesitancy to it, like she was no longer sure how to properly act in front of them. Like she was overwhelmed by the attention they were showering her with after she’d been gone for so long.
It didn't have to be awkward, though. Arceus knew he was usually the one making it that way.
He missed her a lot. He thought about her nearly every single day, always hoping she was doing well. And she seemed to be, at least on a surface level. She was wearing her high Ponyta-tail again. That had to mean something.
When she turned away from the railing with Hatterene, ready to disembark the ship, he caught a glint at the back of her neck. He turned to Riley with a question in his eyes, and his best friend, his mentor, gave him a tiny nod.
“It’s her Key Stone, Roark.”
Her eyes had purpose, had life shining within them.
She was back.
And Roark couldn't be any happier to have his other best friend returned to him at last.