Chapter Text
It’s hard to imagine yourself growing sick of a color.
After all, the entire world is made up of a spectrum of countless shades and hues that give the world its luster. From the day you’re born to the day you pass, color is a part of your life– to the extent that many people forget to even so much as take note of it. It’s just… there. Like breathing, like blinking.
And yet Black found himself entirely sick of this boring white ceiling. He’d already hated hospitals, and this only amplified his disdain for them. How long had he been here? Four hours? The pale moonlight spilling into the dim room was his only way of guessing the time, really.
Admittedly, it was a little overwhelming to be back in the real world, but he’d had a few hours to readjust. So now, as he was trapped in this boring white room, he wished for nothing more than to run through Unova alongside his partners and relish his freedom. Instead, he found himself in a manner much too reminiscent of his imprisonment... except now he also had a stupid IV stuck in his arm.
Don't misunderstand, his friends were probably right to drag him here. After all, there were no known records of a human being trapped in the Dream World– much less for two years straight– so it seemed only logical to make sure he was doing alright. But the check-ups had passed, and he’d been left bored out of his mind in the uncomfortable hospital bed, with nothing to do.
For a moment, he considered closing his eyes to let the time pass even a little faster, the exhaustion of the day slowly whittling him down–
Until a thought crept into the back of his mind.
‘If I fall asleep now… who’s to say I’m not gonna wake up in the Dream World again?’
His eyes snapped open, refusing to give in to sleep's tempting lull. Not yet. Not again.
A shaky sigh left him, massaging the bridge of his nose as he wished his Pokémon were with him– but of course, they needed a check-up of their own, with specialized equipment. So all he could do to get himself out of this rut–
“AAAAAAAAH!”
–was to yell as loud as he could, pushing those stupid thoughts out of his head. It helped, funnily enough, until a knock at his door scared the living daylights out of him. “U-um, I’m okay!! Sorry, nurse!” he called out, regret surging in his chest.
The giggle from the other side of the door took him aback, his heart hammering away in his chest as he recognized its melody. Like spring’s song, it was a sonata of adventure, growth, and dreams. And it was a melody that, each and every day he spent apart from her, he grew more scared of forgetting. But now, there was no longer any need for him to fear.
“Don’t worry, it’s just me,” she replied, muffled by the heavy door. “Can I come in?”
Swallowing his sentimentality, he called out to her, quiet joy coloring his voice.
“Y-yeah, of course, Boss!”
With a small chuckle, she entered, closing the door behind herself. And for a moment, she merely leaned against its frame, looking at Black from across the room, her lips curled into a small, fond smile. “Hey,” she chuckled.
Black couldn’t help the embarrassment dusting his cheeks pink, feeling a little awkward as he remembered the hospital gown he was wearing. “H-hey…!”
Seeing her like this, he couldn’t stop himself from remembering the wave of feelings that crashed over him as they reunited in the Dream World. It left him a stuttering mess, devoid of all the words he’d dreamt of sharing with her. After such a long time apart, words like “I missed you,” or “I’m sorry” couldn’t possibly hope to convey even a fracture of his feelings.
But her embrace did.
It said everything they felt, and then it said more.
And now that they were alone again, Black had no idea how to process it. Even as she took a seat next to him, on the incredibly uncomfortable looking hospital chair… neither of them spoke. It was hard to say just one thing when there were millions on your mind.
“I–”
Both of them spoke at once, desperate to break the silence, to share their thoughts– and once they realized, they couldn’t stop themselves from laughing. And as their laughs ebbed down and only smiles remained, White was the first to speak, wiping a tear.
“You know, you shouldn’t be yelling in a hospital. You might have a private room, but it’s still the middle of the night,” she scolded him, the gentle smile on her face never wavering.
Black pouted in turn. “Yeah… I’m sorry. I’m just bored out of my mind! I mean, seriously… I’m finally back and the first thing I have to do is go to the hospital?! It’s so ridiculous! I’ve got so much to catch up on!”
She chuckled. “I’m sorry it took me so long to get here. The doctors were pretty dead-set on you needing to rest, but I managed to pull some strings. I just figured…” Twiddling her thumbs, she tried to compose herself, to find the right words to say. “I figured you… wouldn’t want to be alone right now. Not after… well, everything, really.”
Her sweet, understanding words forced a small melancholic smile onto his face, his exhaustion only now truly visible. She understood him so well, in spite of the time that had passed, but truthfully… At this very moment, he wished she didn’t. He didn’t want her to see how tired and lonely he’d been, how much being stuck in the Dream World ate away at him.
“...Yeah, you’re right,” he chuckled dryly, averting his eyes. “I think I’m done being alone for a bit. I mean, I still had my Pokémon with me, but… you know. I… missed you– uh– a-all of you. A lot.”
Embarrassed at his slip-up, Black palmed his face, wishing he could sink into the sheets and disappear… until White’s hand took hold of his, heat rising to his cheeks as his heart hammered away in his chest.
The smile she wore wasn’t merely one of happiness. It was that of… a reunion. A friendship torn apart, at long last blooming once more. It carried relief, happiness, and… something else he couldn’t pinpoint. The same expression she wore whenever she talked about the Pokémon Musical, or a high-profile gig she scored for the agency.
“I missed you too,” she whispered– and Black’s world stopped spinning at that very moment.
He’d thought about her every single day of his entrapment, wondering if he’d ever get to see her again. Pondering how the BW Agency had been doing, if she’d been eating well, if she’d recovered from the events at the castle. Every waking moment, she’d been on his mind. His dearest friend.
And as the two were alone, finally reunited–
He couldn’t stop a tear rolling down his cheek.
“Oh man,” he laughed weakly, his voice cracking despite himself. “I– I have no idea where… that came from. I mean, I’m… I’m totally okay. I’m okay, right?”
But the tears kept falling; even as he bit his quivering lip in a desperate attempt to keep a fraction of his composure, they refused to give in. And as White gently stroked the back of his hand with her thumb, his whimpers turned into sobs, his shoulders heaving with each one.
Hope was all that kept him going in the Light Stone, but even that had begun to fray, slowly whittling his sanity down more and more. Truthfully, he wasn’t sure how much longer he could’ve gone on, had he not escaped when he did.
“You are okay… you are,” White whispered, tears welling up in her own eyes as she pulled the boy into her arms. “I can’t… I can’t imagine what you must’ve gone through, Black…”
It was a lot. In that lonely world, two years felt more like an eternity. Loneliness consumed him, left him hollow and anxious and weak. Had it not been for his Pokémon… Black didn’t even want to imagine how terrible he would’ve felt.
And White had suffered, too. Drowning herself in work by day and searching for him like a frantic lunatic by night. Keeping her eyes on the target and telling herself that she could still find him was all she could do not to break down. It was that sliver of hope– that miniscule chance that bordered on a miracle– that kept her going.
But now, they were holding each other, at long last safe from the suffering the Light Stone had enforced upon them.
The tears White had hidden, telling herself that letting them flow would be equivalent to admitting that he’d truly been gone…
And the tears that Black couldn’t have shed if he’d tried, by virtue of those accursed limitations the Dream World placed upon him…
They finally let them flow freely, neither of them saying a word. They desperately clung to each other, fearing that if they let go, it would all start over… but even as time passed and the flood of their cries turned into an ebb of slow breathing, they remained safely in each other’s embrace.
Black was the one to speak up first. “Thanks, Boss… I think I really, really needed that.”
She chuckled, breaking the embrace to wipe her face with her arm. “Don’t mention it, I did too.”
“Still, I’ve got a lot to catch up on, don’t I?” he murmured, leaning back as his eyes drifted towards the ceiling. “I can’t believe Iris became the champion…!”
“Not to mention that Cheren’s a gym leader now.” White nodded, arms crossed in focus.
“CHEREN IS WHAT?!” he yelled, jumping out of the bed and grabbing his friend by the shoulders, shaking her in excitement.
“Black–! Relax, you’re gonna rip out your IV!”
It turned out that reacquainting himself with his body and senses was the easy part of returning to Unova.
The hard part?
The world had moved on without him. And if he wanted to catch up with it, he’d have to do it in a sprint.
…But at least he had someone to run alongside him.