Work Text:
“This is just as hard as I was expecting,” he says, turning his pokeball over in his hands.
Juliana places a comforting hand on his shoulder as she leans in, “Kieran, we don't have a lot of time, we-”
“I-I know! I know. Give me a sec.”
His voice breaks pitifully as he cradles Hydrapple's pokeball in his hands one last time.
“I have a lot to thank Hydrapple for. He's always been by my side, always cheered me on. He loved me and grew with me.”
Kieran pauses as the wind outside howls fiercely. No doubt the typhoon outside was picking up.
“H-how are you still ok, Julie?” He lifts his head and meets the other girl's expression. As always, she was impossible to read- a trait that frustrated him endlessly in battle.
“I'm not,” she says simply. Closing both of her eyes, she inhales to calm her nerves as the building quakes around them, “I don't know how to describe it, but at moments like this, I always feel like I'm in a dream. I want to cry but I can't.”
“You can't? Don't you care about them?”
Juliana's voice shrilly cuts him off, “Of course I do!”
Thunder roars a low warning, a reminder that their little time was too precious to spend on arguing.
“S-sorry.”
“Say what you need to hydrapple. I'll give you two space,” Juliana begins to make her way to the exit, where the evacuation shuttle awaited them. Almost as an afterthought, she adds quietly, “I'll cry later.”
Now that she was out of earshot, Kieran raised the pokeball to his face, pressing it reverently to the bridge of his nose. In battle it was a practiced move, usually a silent blessing on his part. All of his hopes and dreams rested in the trust he had with his pokemon partners. This moment of reflection usually provided him with the courage to see something through.
“I have to go,” he mouths, “I'll come back to you. Juli and I- we-”
Kieran works past the sob in his throat, “Without you, we never would have gotten so close. You gave me the courage to battle her, to keep trying, to become her friend. I have so much to thank you for.”
There's another rumble and the steel structure of the pokemon center whines around him under the duress of the storm. It was oddly fitting, he thought, the storm outside felt as inescapable as the storm he felt within.
“I don't know who I am without you,” he says finally, “But I'll figure it out. For you. For me. For Juli.”
Kieran places the ball within the waiting pc and it accepts his last submission with a cheery chirp. As the sliding door whirs close, the lights flicker but whatever emergency power system the pc was on never faltered.
He presses his face against the glass as the system's laser scans across the ball.
“Hydrapple,” it confirms, “Warning. This is your last party member. Would you like to store it?”
Kieran's hand hesitates over the affirmative option. He still had one last confession for hydrapple- an important vow. He glances behind himself to make sure Juliana hadn't returned.
“Sleep well, Hydrapple,” he says, “Next time we see you, I promise you, I'll be introducing Juli as my bride.”
With that, he sent through his final confirmation and set off for an uncertain future.