Chapter 7 - She Remained

X wakes up to the sound of his phone's blaring ringtone, and what meets him is his bland, ochre ceiling. He eyes it for a short moment, blinking away whatever sleep he had left in his eyes. Then he turns to his side, lazily reaching for his phone perching innocently on top of his desk. Wincing a bit from its backlight's glare accentuated inside his rather dark room, he reads out the caller ID.

Tierno.

X sighs for a second before pressing 'answer'.

"Yes, Tierno?"

"Hey, man, where the heck are you?"

X's brows furrowed as he sits up.

"I'm in bed…" X replies monotonously. He grabs his alarm clock, and gives it a disdainful look.

"Same as what normal human beings would do at 5:30 in the morning…"

"Wait, so you're not going? Again?"

X lifts his phone from his ear to give the phone and the caller ID another long look before replying.

"Going where?" He shakes his head in confusion.

"What?"

He could almost hear Tierno's eyes rolling from the other side of the line.

And Tierno was the most patient among all of them.

"Look, I'm sorry, alright?" he whispers, trying another approach. "I just woke up from what seems like the longest evening of my life and…"

Tierno sighs from the other line.

"It's alright," he says, his voice calmer now. "No need to apologize. I understand."

There was a pause.

"Heaven can only know what you're going through right now…"

X raises a brow. But he agrees with him nonetheless.

A weird Tierno is better than an angry Tierno. Always.

"Anyway, what were we talking about again?" he asks, finally lifting himself up from his bed. "Where am I supposed to go?"

"In Kiloude. Remember that we were supposed to hold Trevor's birthday today...?"

At that, X's eyes widens. He hurries to turn on the light and looks at the calendar on the wall beside the switch. Then he pulls down the page for the month of February, and true enough, March 1st was marked in red.

Trevor's Birthday.

"Shit," X hisses, running to his dresser, pulling out random pieces of clothing. "Oh God, I am so sorry. It must've completely slipped my mind…" He pulls out a pair of pants, examines it for a moment, and throws it away in disdain.

"What time's the party again?"

It took Tierno some time before replying.

"...Wait, so you're going?"

X pauses from rapidly folding his underwear with one hand to look disbelievingly at the direction of his phone.

"What kind of question is that?" Then he snorts as he pulls out one of his bigger bag packs from under his bed, wrinkling his nose at the dust that greeted him as he did.

Tierno seems confused.

"Ah, well, last year, you were…" Then he paused suspiciously, enough for X to once again pause from his rapid packing to stare at the phone ID another time to make sure Tierno was still there.

"Tierno?"

"You know what? Forget it," Shauna's voice suddenly chirps. X's eyebrows furrow once more, but he does not question.

"Hi, Shauna," he greets half-heartedly, slowly returning to his initial business of dumping everything into his bag. "Fancy hearing from you again, and from Tierno's phone, too."

"Hello, X, please move your ass a little faster please," was the girl's snarky reply.

"I would have if your boyfriend would stop being vague."

"Hah, such a riot as always, you darling piece of crap." Then Shauna's voice become a little bit serious.

"But, kidding aside, I must say I'm proud of you. Finally learned to stand up and move on? We're all thrilled for your sorry butt."

"I don't know what you're talking about…"

Shauna snorts. "Sure you don't."

X rolls his eyes.

He really didn't.

"Anyway, I'm dropping this call in hope that maybe you'd reach at least the final parts of Trevor's party," Shauna drawls.

X sighs. "Whatever."

He hears a small and soft intake of breath from the other line–Shauna was smiling.

"I think it's about time you start forgetting about Y..."

At that X, pauses, and looks at the direction of his phone, just in time to hear the 'click' that ended their call.

"Y?" he thought aloud to his phone.

"Who's Y?"

-...-

The voice from the train's PA system echoed across the whole carriage, loud enough to penetrate through X's earphones. With a grunt, he pauses the video he was watching on his iPad, looks up for a moment to catch a few words from the announcement, deems it irrelevant, readjusts his earphones, and resumes.

March 1–just like that, it's Trevor's birthday once again. X couldn't believe how fast the days have gone by. It seems like only yesterday when they all got together at Tierno's place to throw both a birthday and farewell party for their aspiring scholar friend, and now, here they were getting together once again to celebrate both Trevor's birthday and his second year anniversary of living in Kiloude.

For some strange reason, the last two years elude him. Like everything had happened without him knowing or noticing, but then, come today, all of a sudden, he's aware.

X had been feeling lost since.

The boy sighs as the video suddenly pauses. He steals a glance out the window as he waited for it to buffer.

Not that he wasn't engulfed in a feeling of disarray ever since the beginning. As a matter of fact, he's gotten so good at it, his friends had stopped worrying about him and his living alone for quite a long time.

And he greatly appreciates that. The last thing he'd need is to know that he's pulling other people down because of what he was.

X suddenly returns his glance to the video he was watching, and he realizes that it had ended without him knowing.

With a resigned sigh, he hovers his finger to where the replay button was, but stops himself immediately when he notices one of the suggested videos, and found a title which contained a familiar name:

"[THROWBACK SERIES] Putting the 'Y' in 'Fly': Youngest Pilot to Take to the Skies"

X thought to himself with recognition. Thinking for a minute, he clicks, and what plays before him was a relatively old twenty-minute documentary of a supposedly famous pilot. As he listened to the interview, he scrolls down to the video's description and some comments.

"Yvonne Gabena, nicknamed Hummingbird by fans and followers alike… Daughter of famous equestrienne, Grace no Gabena… Youngest pilot to have graduated from the Unova's Aviation Academy after pursuing an accelerated course of study under a lavish merit scholarship… Is currently a young professor and official regional consultant for aeronautics at the Kalos School of Aviation…"

X blinks at the giant wall of text with a hint of amazement.

"Wow," he mumbles. More scrolling.

"And, she's my age, too…"

The video was still playing as he went through even more of the comments, most of which were praises or flirtatious feedback from the watchers, and since he only half-listened, he could only pick up a few lines from the interview.

"...Wow! What remarkable achievement, and from such a young lady to boot!"

Childish laughter.

"Next question, Miss Hummingbird–"

"Please. Just call me 'Y'. That's my nickname!"

"...Y. Of course. Miss Y."

More laughter.

"Your mother, Grace, is an excellent equestrienne, and in earlier interviews, she's mentioned that her daughter was to follow in her footsteps and be her greatest rival. What made you suddenly shift into the fields of aeronautics, and how did your mother react?"

"Well, I'll be honest, my mother wasn't very pleased when she first heard of my choice, but it didn't take long for her to realize that not even words can stop me and my dream." A pause.

"Sorry, mom."

Laughters from the audience.

X, too, had to suppress a giggle.

"Amazing, Miss Y. Amazing. But do tell us this… Why Aeronautics? Of all fields to consider, why take on something… out of this world?"

More laughter from the audience.

There was a slightly long pause before the girl named 'Y' could answer. Long enough to make X scroll back up to catch the girl in the video smile one of the most charming smiles he's seen in his life.

"What can I say?" she says, half giggling. "I'm just that in love with the sky!"

"In love with the sky, and yet here I am taking the train to Kiloude… What bull..."

A giggle was heard from behind X's neck, and soon he was aware of a looming presence peering from his back. Shocked and frightened, he turned his head abruptly and backed away, only to find himself face to face with a familiar set of blue-grey eyes staring him down cheerfully.

"Hi, there," she greets, smiling. X could only blink at her, his body still growing progressively tense. He clutched onto his iPad warily and just watched her as she leaned over the back of his chair.

Again, the girl giggles.

"Sorry," she laughs. "I was sitting a few rows back and overheard what you were watching. I got curious and had to come near to verify if you really were watching that crap." She pauses to focus her stare on his iPad.

"Why are you watching that piece of crap?"

X still remains frozen, except that his legs had already felt the strain from staying in his position that he had no choice but to straighten himself. But still, he backed away from her for good measures.

The girl tilts her head a bit.

"Well?"

"I'm sorry?" X finally returns to his senses to manage a response. "You… 'overheard' what I was watching?"

The girl blinks at him innocently. "Well, yeah. Your volume was up that the whole train could hear you."

X's brows furrowed. He grabs hold one of his earphones and traces it down all the way to the other end of the wire, and true enough, the headset was not plugged in. That means he's been watching an hour's worth of animal documentaries with the audio on full blast, and for sure, the whole train now knows how giraffes reproduce.

The boy's hand sends itself flying to his face with considerable force.

Stupid.

"I am so sorry," he whispers with contempt, turning off the device as he eases himself back to his seat. He then dumps the gadget back to his backpack along with his earphones, and zips the bag close with disdain.

The girl stayed where she was, an amused look in her face.

"You're funny," she points out, walking to the side of his chair. "I like you."

X chose not to respond, and retains his embarrassed and irritated glare towards the window, hoping the scenery of Kalos speeding past him would ease away the nagging feeling. But his attention was soon reverted when he felt her presence loom over him. He makes a mistake of turning his head to her previous direction and finds that she's already clambered up to the empty seat next to him, and was already invading his personal space.

The boy presses himself against the glass window in fear.

"Say…" the girl begins, nearing her face even more. "You look familiar. Have we met before?"

X's eyes involuntarily darted elsewhere, to where his bag was placed. To where his iPad was placed.

He highly doubts her question. In his many years of existence, he swears he's never intermingled with any celebrity before.

Especially not this one whom he's only heard of two hours ago.

X returns his gaze to the girl, and found that she's still staring at him intently, her blue-grey eyes shining with sincere curiosity.

"I-I don't believe so…"

"Are you sure?" she presses, her face now contorted into confusion. "I'm pretty certain I've seen you before…" Then she backs away, giving the already breathless boy room to finally breathe.

Still she remained on the seat beside him, her two fists now perched on both sides of her waist, her face connoting that she was in deep thought.

"Could it be that I've seen you in television? I did watch a lot of random things growing up..."

To that, X's stomach sank.

He begins to shift uncomfortably in his seat, trying and awkwardly succeeding to regain his initial position before this girl just popped out of nowhere and scared the living hell out of her.

The girl notices his expression, and immediately waves the thought away.

"O-Oh, don't mind me!" she stammered. "D-Did that last statement made you feel uncomfortable? I'm sorry! I-I have this tendency to just spray things out of the blue. I think it's one of the many reasons why I'm still single... N-Not that that last statement was necessary, of course…"

Then she pauses, and starts laughing.

"Oh my God, look at me… Losing it at every cute boy I get to talk to… Cheeze and crackers, Y, you dork."

At that, X returns her gaze to him, catching that rare moment when a person's laughter dies down, and is replaced by a small casual smile.

X thought it was lovely.

Then a thought passes through him, and he immediately had to slap himself mentally.

You don't know her, X.

Again, he tries to grant himself another peek, and watches as she starts another series of rants, not listening to any word she's saying. He got a good look of her face, and the long, wavy blonde hair that framed it. They all looked too animated from where he sat, so far away from the rather coy features she's displayed in that interview.

It was enough to make him doubt if this girl really was who he thought she was.

The girl catches him staring at her.

"Yes?" she asked, an eyebrow raised.

To that, X's shoulders jolted, suddenly at a loss for words to say. He finds himself looking to his side, back to where his backpack was placed, and this time, the girl follows his gaze.

Then a look of recognition washes through her face.

"Yeah," she says with a grin, almost sheepish. As if she was embarrassed or something.

"I didn't feel so hot that day because I was eating myself silly backstage. Can you believe how good the food is in a production's buffet? I swear to God, those caviare and patte were peering through my dress! How embarrassing…"

X just blinked at her. To which the girl reacts with a plain smile and her hand stretched outward towards him.

"I'm Y, by the way…"

X looks at her hand for a moment before hesitatingly reaching for it.

"X…" he says, in a meek voice.

"Hi, X! I like..." Y chirped, suddenly breaking away from their awkward handshake to reach for his necklace.

"This ruby hanging around your neck…"

X again jolts in surprise. His hand flies to the said ruby, just in time for Y to pull hers away. She giggles, in the very same way she did in the video.

"I'm sorry. That must be important to you…"

X had to look away again, uneasy. Bad memories were beginning to plague his mind upon the acknowledgement of the plastic jewelry.

"I…" he begins, his voice soft and almost inaudible.

"This is nothing. I just got it from a cereal box."

"Well, it's gotta be important," she argues gently. "Otherwise, you wouldn't hold on to it like that." She drops her gaze to it once more momentarily.

"I bet someone special gave that to you."

X bites his lips to stop the quiver.

"Not really," he whispers. "It just… It just reminds me of something."

Y's eyebrow raises itself. "A fond memory?"

The boy gives her a short glance.

"No… Just a memory."

"I doubt it," Y counters, finally rearranging herself in her seat. "I mean, why would you keep it if it reminds you of unpleasant things?"

X's eyes turned grim.

You don't know me.

The sound of Y snapping her fingers calls back his attention.

"I bet you're trying to hold onto a fond memory but realized you can never bring back, so you hold onto that ruby, which is the next best thing, instead."

X just blinks.

"Nothing wrong with that, I guess," she goes on, leaning back.

"Though, based on experience, I can pretty much tell you that makingmore fond memories will always be better than holding onto just one." Y sighs.

"After all, memories are simply fragments of the fleeting present. If you keep holding onto the fragments,you might just lose track of the whole…"

She smiles as she reaches for the ruby again, letting it swing a little with a slight push from her finger. This time, X does not resist, which genuinely surprised him.

"Associate some new memories into that ruby, wontcha?"

X slowly reaches for his ruby again, this time not out of haste. He absentmindedly strokes the plastic edges, thinking for a moment.

Then, he finds himself smiling.

"Yeah," he whispers. "I guess you're right."

The conversation was left at that. Silence engulfs them both, as X feels his then tensed muscles gradually , he raises his gaze and sees her fidgeting with her fingers, eyes darting everywhere.

Just as he had thought.

This girl can't last long without conversation.

He had to suppress a chuckle.

But Y hears him nonetheless. She snappily turns her head to him, looking slightly offended.

"What's so funny?" she asked hostilely. The boy shakes his head, pressing his finger to his lips to prevent his laugh from escaping his lips.

And he was failing.

He looks up to her again. Y looked unconvinced.

"So," he begins, unaware that he just strayed away from his principle of never starting conversations with anyone.

"Hummingbird, huh?"

The girl's expression immediately changes. She looks enthused again. And slightly exasperated.

"I know what you're thinking," she says in a playfully accusing manner. "And I'm telling you right now, even I don't know the answer…"

X's face drops. "Huh?"

She laughs. "You know… Why 'Hummingbird'? You're not just a pilot–you're many things! And even if you're just a pilot, why hummingbird of all birds?"

"Oh." X needed to dart his eyes elsewhere again–there was something about her that made him not want to stare for too long.

Or perhaps it was the fact that he wanted to look at her all day that was making him resist.

"So you chose 'hummingbird' just because?"

Y seemed taken aback. She leans back once more, looks up, and then bites her lips, as if in deep thought.

"Actually… no." She looks at him.

"I have a personal reason," she says slowly, making X feel like it was something he shouldn't have asked.

But then again, this girl looked like the kind who, even for her own good, had no ability to keep anything for too long.

And true enough, she starts talking again.

"I had someone call me that when I was younger," she recounts, looking up. Her face looked like she was going through hell by trying to remember. X considered stopping her.

"It was so long ago, you'd think I'd have forgotten it by now." She giggles softly, and X watches as it faded away quickly. Like she was remembering something she wished she didn't.

There was a sinking feeling in the boy's stomach. He looked around for a moment, trying to muster up the courage to try and continue if not change the topic with a more positive tone.

Moments later, his voice finally returned to him.

"Did… that person ever tell you why 'Hummingbird'?"

The look in Y's face changes, but only slightly. Her brows furrow even further as her bottom lip is buried under her top lip. Then it disappears as she smiles again. Ruefully, this time.

"No, he never did," she says softly, her eyes softened and focused elsewhere, as if in deep thought. "He just said, 'hey, you're a hummingbird, you know that?' and then left it at that." Then she shrugs, now completely returning to her initial disposition.

"I don't know. Maybe I'm just pretty fast-paced and hopelessly noisy."

To that, X smiles.

"Not necessarily." He focuses his gaze to the floor for a moment before returning it to her.

"There's more to a hummingbird than being fast-paced and noisy."

Y's smile grows wider.

"Really?"

"Yeah. Did you know that a hummingbird is the only bird that can fly in reverse? It's actually one of the reasons why a lot of people find it to be one of the most interesting birds that exist."

Then, X stops himself, feeling embarrassed all of a sudden. That's the most words he's said in a sentence addressed to a stranger, and it worried him somehow.

But the look in Y's eyes scared away the anxiety, and replaced it with something warm. Something X was not quite familiar with.

Her eyes sparkled with the most genuine image of wonder and curiosity. X was overwhelmed.

"No," she whispers. "I never knew that." Then she smiles again.

"That's actually kinda amazing."

X finds himself smiling back. "It is." He hesitates for a moment, but after giving it some thought, he throws caution to the wind, and continues:

"When I was younger, I liked animals so much that I would read every existing book about them that I could get my hands on. But at some point, I stopped…" His lips part slightly as he tries to suppress the internal tremors that passed through the entirety of his being.

"Then, at this really unfortunate portion of my life, I came across another book: a whole photo documentary about hummingbirds, and though it wasn't technically as informative as my other books, it still struck me to know that there's a bird out there who can fly in reverse. It may seem like a simple feat, but for us people who have no choice but to fly forward… I think that ability is magical."

He turns to her and gives a small shy smile

"I think your name is magical."

Y's smile has softened, he noticed as he spoke. It was as if the explanation calmed her down as well. When he was done speaking, she lets her face conjure up another enthused smile before looking forward at nothing in particular.

"So that's why you called me just that."

X's brows suddenly furrow in confusion.

"Huh?"

"Arriving at Kiloude Station in three minutes. All passengers, please…"

"Oops, that's my queue." Y suddenly pulls herself up from her seat and starts walking down the aisle. X follows her movement with his eyes, confused.

The girl turns to her with a sheepish smile.

"I should be getting back to my manager," she says apologetically.

At that, X's eyes and his shoulders drop. "Oh."

"But it was nice meeting you, X," she smiles. "You, by any chance, live around Kiloude?"

X again hesitates, but nevertheless proceeds to shake his head.

"...No. I'm just here to visit a friend."

"Oh? How far have you gone?"

More hesitation.

"...Vaniville."

To his surprise, the girl suddenly cheers.

"Vaniville? Get out! I'm from Vaniville too!" Then she shakes her head good-naturedly, letting her blonde, soft curls ripple like curtains over her shoulders.

"What are the odds?"

Then her head turns to her left, a troubled look on her face.

"Uh-oh. Manager's giving me the look. I should really go." She flutters her fingers as farewell, and starts walking again. X watches her from where he sat, the way she strides so confidently yet elegantly along the almost empty corridor.

It was beautiful, but something about watching her back as she strode away made him hurt a little.

Legs shaking, he suddenly pulls himself up and calls out:

"Wait!"

The whole of the train, including Y, turn their heads to him. X shrinks back for a minute, but the expectancy in the girl's eyes made him a little brave.

"S-Since you live in Vaniville…" he begins, his voice unamusingly hoarse. X never hated himself as much as he did right now.

But Y's eyes connoted that she heard, and that again enough for him to continue.

"M-Maybe we could see each other again some time? Over coffee?"

Soft murmurs began to fill the train car and it made X want to sink somehow. His excessively sweaty palms gripped to his seat like it was his life, and his eyes fell to the floor. Now he regrets even saying anything.

But then the girl's giggle prevents him from falling into despair.

"If, when you go home, you still remember me..."

X looks up, and finds her smiling at him.

A sweet yet oddly familiar smile.

"...Maybe we can."

-FIN-

And that was Ruby Throated Hummingbird! Oh my God, this was the longest 6 chapters of my life. I can't believe it took me this long to finish. At least I'm finally done ^_^ I mean, yeah, it's a shitty ending, but I was never good with endings anyway, so…

Thanks so much for holding out until the end, guys! I hope to see you in the next stories to come! LoveLots 3