Work Text:
“Look,” Akari marvels, gesturing, with a sweep of her arm, to the Fieldlands laid before and below them. “The way the wind blows at the tall grass—it’s making little waves, see?”
“Ooh, you’re right,” says Rei. The cedars that line Aspiration Hill rustle with a new gust, which seems to want Rei’s hat, too. He takes it off, holds onto it, before nature can grab it from him first. “Lugia’s sake, it’s a tempest today. Good thing we wrapped up with those Beautifly yesterday—if we were downwind of a Stun Spore, we’d be done for.”
“But,” Akari says, “I bet their Silver Wind would look lovely riding the wind, like this.”
“Always with the bright side, huh?” Rei gives her one of those half-grins that send her heart flying along its own airstream, and here, with the morning sun cresting the hills ahead, the crisp wind in her lungs, and her boy by her side, Akari feels like she could take off, then and there.
She stretches, sheds the last lingering of sleep. They’ll be heading home to the village, soon, to compare notes on the Fieldlands Beautifly population with those she and Rei had observed and caught in Hoenn. But, ah—what a waste of a windy day, she thinks. She’d rather stay a little longer, watch the fields of long grass become sea waves, the thick patches of wildflowers bend and sway like dancers. And then, like fire kindling ignited by a breath, an idea.
“Let’s run down the hill,” she says, twining her arm with Rei’s.
Rei gets that furrow in his brow, the one that means questions. “Why?”
“Because,” Akari answers.
“Because…?”
“Yes, because. That’s what I said.”
Rei dips his head, and his shoulders rise and fall with a laugh. “Okay. Just, you know, I figured there’d be more words behind the ‘because’.”
“Because it’s fun.” She nudges him, gently, elbow against ribs. “I thought it was implied.”
“What are you, a Wyrdeer?” He shifts his arm in hers, so that their fingers can fully lace. “Wanting to lope down a hill for fun.”
“Maybe they’ve got the right idea. Maybe that’s the key to total, complete happiness. Loping down a hill, against the wind.”
Rei shakes his head at her, despite his smile. “Alright. Well, it’s a little early for so much movement, if you ask me, but I can’t very well let you lope alone. Seems like a group activity.”
“I think that’s called a stampede.”
“No, there’s only two of us. Two’s a lope, three or more’s a stampede. In my very professional opinion, at least.”
“Ah. Makes sense.” Akari looks out across the Fieldlands again. The sun’s a little higher, now, inching ever upwards with the new day. The others back at the base camp will be up soon, if they aren’t stirring already. Aside from the night guard, they’re likely still lounging in their tents. It’s always that way here on Aspiration Hill, where there’s so little ground to cover between here and home.
(Home. The word is the wind, to her, now that it means Hisui. Her heart leaps to keep up with it.)
“Ready?” She squeezes Rei’s hand.
“Wait—like this?” He holds their entangled hands up. “What if one of us falls, and takes the other down, too?”
“Then I’ll take the bed in the Med Corps beside yours,” Akari teases.
“Well, now you’ve jinxed us.”
“Stop.” The word is stippled with giggles, punctuated by a snort. Then—another spark. She slips her hand from his. “Fine. Since I jinxed us. But—”
That furrow on Rei’s face, again, as he waits amidst the suspense she makes.
“Race you!”
And, against a fresh swelling of wind sweeping up the hill, she’s off.
“Hey!” cries out from behind her, followed by a second pair of sandals storming downhill. Akari steals a glance, and he’s hot on her trail, only a few feet of air between where the red streak of her scarf ends and boy begins. A laugh, spurred by joy and adrenaline, tears from her. “Sorry!” Once, twice, and again, the ground dips too quickly, and her stomach tingles with the split-second feeling of falling before her feet meet earth. She passes a Bidoof or two, brown blurs against the grass and dirt, and the wind squeezes around her, wants to push her back, but she has pushed against tougher things before and will not slow down, now! Above the pounding of feet, the grass and trees go shhhh, shhhh, shhhh… The Wyrdeer have it right, she thinks, as she tries to keep up with the flight of her heart and the thrill in her veins—
“Cheater!” Rei’s catching up, almost neck-in-neck, and the accusation (a fair one, but still!) is caught in the whirlwind of his laboring lungs and laughter. The hill begins to flatten into field, and after they’ve passed the big rock that marks the hill’s end, Akari slows to a bouncing halt and raises her arms victoriously.
“Aaand the champion is—!”
“The audacity!” Rei, who stopped a few paces behind, doubles over with his hands planted on his knees, catching his breath.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” Akari giggles, breathlessly, going over to him and planting a kiss on his head. “I’m no champion. Only a terrible cheat. My payment will be the guilt I carry forevermore.”
After taking some more moments to gather himself, Rei straightens and rolls his shoulders back, though his chest is still heaving a bit. “If it were any nearer,” he says on the long tail of an exhale, “you’d be going in one of those puddles in Horseshoe Plains.”
“You’d have to catch me, first.” The wind presses against her back, as if nudging her towards him, and despite her statement, she steps forward and drapes her arms across his shoulders. He reciprocates, holds her at the small of her back.
“I’d say you’re the one who’s caught me,” he says. Whether his cheeks are red from the run or the sappy words (as he’d call them), Akari can’t be sure. “Got me loping down hills before the sun’s even fully up… Not something many folks could get me to do. An angry Ursaring, maybe, but you know, I rather prefer your company to that.”
Akari tosses her head back in a laugh. “Well, I’m glad to hear that.” She butts her forehead against his chest, then turns, a bit, to take in the early-morning Fieldlands. The Starly are stirring and chirping in their trees, and there, below, the wildflowers, pink and white and yellow, in their windswept ballet. Behind, the river, where the Buizel will soon be playing. Beyond, the hills of Deertrack Heights rise, giving the horizon its creases and texture. Home in every blade of grass, in all of here.
…And speaking of home.
“Alright,” Akari says, the word riding the stream of a sigh, and she pulls away to hold Rei at his shoulders. “The others’ll be up, soon.”
“I guess. Best to head back, then.” A flicker of mischief, poorly concealed, dances across his face. “Unless you think we can nab a quick jaunt to Horseshoe Plains?”
It takes Akari a moment to catch on, and then, with a poke to his ribs, “No.”
“Alright, alright. Next time, then.” Rei nestles his hand in the crook of her arm, and side-by-side, with the wind, they start on home.