Arden sighed contentedly as he looked out at Johto stretched beneath him. Gimpy merely yawned and rubbed his nose with the back of one hand, unimpressed by the view from the top of Mt. Silver. Arden smacked him on the head. "Hey," he said sharply. "Be more reverent!"
"Blaaas," mumbled Gimpy, flattening his ears.
Arden turned to Dixie who was yawning into one hand. "You, too!"
"I'm sorry," said Dixie, rubbing his eyes. "It's really early for mountain climbing. Why did we have to come up here so suddenly, anyway?"
"Because, this is somewhere I always wanted to go," said Arden, putting his hands on his hips. "And because today is the five year anniversary of when I got my first pokemon."
"Blastoise?"
"Yeah you," said Arden flatly. "Who else?"
"I see," said Dixie, crossing his arms. "Has it really been so long as that since you became a trainer…? Well that is something to celebrate, isn't it?"
Arden took a deep breath of the fresh mountain air and pointed. "You see that yellow patch way off over there?" he asked. "That's Ecruteak. We should go there and see the Kimono Girls dance."
"You say that every time we're in Johto…"
"I like them," said Arden. "My dad used to take Gaius and me there to see them every time he came home."
"He was gone a lot, right?"
Arden nodded. "He was a Pokemon Ranger," he said. "He died almost five years ago, now, too…"
"I'm sorry," said Dixie. "I didn't mean to make you sad. You were so cheerful…"
"No, it's alright," said Arden quickly. "I'm not sad—I was just remembering."
"Since we're in Johto," said Dixie, putting his hand to his chin. "I think we should go see Felicia."
Arden groaned. "You know I don't get on well with her," he said.
"But she's such a nice girl," said Dixie.
"You only think so because she's got a crush on you," Arden said, crossing his arms. "You could at least try to tell her you don't swing that way or something."
Dixie smiled. "But then I'd be afraid she'd treat me as meanly as she treats you," he said. "I've been punched out by one of her pokemon before. It hurts."
"Anyway," said Arden. "It's not like I know where to find her, even if I wanted to."
"Why do you have a pokegear if you never use it…?"
"I never use it because I'm usually in Kanto, anyway, and I don't get any reception in Kanto."
"You could call her now," said Dixie.
"I don't want to."
"Blaas," said Gimpy.
"Stop dog-piling on me," said Arden. "This is dog-piling! Why am I getting complained at from every side?"
"Fine, fine," said Dixie, rising up his hands. "I'll drop it."
"Good," said Arden. He looked to Gimpy. "And you?"
"Blast."
"Good."
Dixie glanced down at the scenery. "It is very beautiful up here," he said. He patted his jacket and frowned. "Urgh. I seem to have forgotten my camera."
"It's alright," said Arden. "We'll come back some time and you can take a picture then."
Dixie sighed and leaned back. "It's a shame, though," he said. "This is such a hard spot to get to—especially with this leg of mine."
"Blast-oise," agreed Gimpy.
"I forget that about you guys," said Arden, rubbing the back of his head. "Sorry—I should've thought first."
"No, no—don't worry about it. It's not that bad. Besides, it's beautiful up here."
"Mm." Arden nodded. "By the way, I called Gaius when we got into Johto and told him we were headed up here. He said he'd come up and meet us, but I'm not sure when…"
"Oh, is that right?" asked Dixie, fishing into his pocket. He pulled out a pack of cigarettes and opened it.
Arden glanced sideways at him. "You forgot the camera, but remembered your cigarettes?" he said.
"Hey, I'd quit if I could, but I just can't," Dixie said with a shrug. Clenching his unlit cigarette in his teeth, he dug around in his coat pockets for his lighter. Arden stared at him flatly.
"And here you are, blaming your leg for why you had a hard time climbing the mountain," he said. "It's that dirty habit of yours—your lungs are half tar by now, I'm sure."
"I've only been smoking for about six years," Dixie said. "That's no where near long enough to turn my lungs to tar."
There were footsteps on the trail behind them, and Gaius' deep voice rang out, "Ho there!"
"Gaius!" said Arden happily. "Where's Quenelle?"
"Eh, Quen's somewhere back along the path. He should be up in a minute," Gaius said, pulling the still unlit cigarette from Dixie's mouth. "That's a very, very disgusting habit, you know."
Dixie smiled weakly. "Well," he said. "I suppose it is, yes…"
"Give him his cigarette back," said Stanislaus, coming up the path behind Gaius. "It's not your lungs, after all."
"All men's lungs are my concern, babe," said Gaius. Stanislaus rolled his eye and stuck his hands in his jacket pockets. The blue armband sewn onto his leather jacket marked him as part of Gaius' gang. "It's an act of charity, making people quit smoking."
Stanislaus plucked the cigarette out of Gaius' large fingers and handed it back to Dixie. "Here," he said.
"Thanks," said Dixie. "But I guess I won't light this. I've been meaning to quit any way."
"That's a good choice," said Gaius. He turned and looked down the path. "Ah, here comes Quen! What took you, bud?"
"Taur-aur-aur-auros!" said the tauros as he came up the path. On his back, Felicia was riding sidesaddle, holding a large picnic basket.
"Dixie!" said Felicia, leaping off Quenelle's back. She shoved the picnic basket into Stanislaus' arms and ran to Dixie, throwing her arms around his middle. "I haven't seen you in forever!"
Arden looked at Gaius flatly. "You brought her along?"
"She's family, Arden," said Gaius. "Of course she should come!"
"Besides that," said Felicia, still hugging Dixie tightly. "I made sandwiches for every one. But I guess Gimpy gets yours since you're so ungrateful."
The blastoise's ears perked up. "Blast."
"Hey, that's not fair," said Arden. "I want a sandwich."
"Too bad—guess you should've been nicer," said Felicia.
"Dixie," said Arden. "Aren't you going to stand up for me?"
Dixie smiled. "I was actually hoping to stay out of it," he said.
Stanislaus opened the basket and peaked inside. "Urgh, liver?" he said, scrunching up his nose. Gaius pulled back the strap of Stanislaus' eye patch.
"Hey," he said. "I like liver sandwiches. They're delicious."
"Yeah, well if you're going to eat that, keep your mouth away from me for the rest of the week," Stanislaus said. "There are other sorts of sandwich in here, right?"
"Of course," said Felicia. "I mean, the only person I've ever met who actually likes liver is Gaius. I don't know how he can possibly stand it. And don't you know, Gaius, that if you eat too much of that you're going to end up with gout?"
"But it's so good!" said Gaius, laughing.
"Did you make peanut butter and jelly?" Dixie asked.
"Of course!" said Felicia. "Strawberry jelly and peach jelly."
Arden stuck out his tongue. "Who eats peach jelly with peanut butter?" he asked.
Felicia ignored him. "Well," she said. "Let's lay down the blanket and we can eat."
Stanislaus pulled a large, thin blanket from the blanket and, together, they found a good place and laid it out on the ground. With Johto spread wide beneath them, they ate lunch. Gimpy and Quenelle sat beside their trainers, just off of the blanket, having a conversation between themselves while the humans laughed and chatted.
"It's so beautiful up here!" said Felicia, her arm locked around one of Dixie's.
Across from her on the blanket Stanislaus and Gaius sat close together. Gaius took a bit of his liver sandwich and, grabbing Stanislaus by the shoulders, pulled the other man into a kiss. Stanislaus pushed him away, coughing and sputtering. "Urgh! Liver!" he said, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand as Gaius laughed. Stanislaus punched him in the jaw. "That was disgusting! Stop laughing! Urgh, the taste is in my mouth now!"
Dixie chuckled softly and Arden looked at him. "It doesn't bother you?" he asked quietly. "Seeing them together?"
Dixie shook his head. "No," said Dixie. "All I want is for the people I care about to be happy. To be very honest, he never looked half so happy when we were together. So I'm glad, seeing him happy, because that's all I want. If the people who matter to me are happy, what right do I have to complain or lament that I'm not the cause?"
"Um, Arden," said Felicia, leaning forward and looking at her cousin.
"Yeah?" asked Arden unenthusiastically.
"I wanted to make amends for Prometheus," she said, pulling off the girlish plush backpack she was wearing. "That was a cheap trick, trading you a rare pokemon for one that was too afraid to battle."
"Yeah, it was," agreed Arden.
"So, I got you something," she said, opening the backpack and reaching inside. She pulled out a pure white pokeball which she held out to him. "I'm sorry that it's so long after the fact, but it took me a while to realize just how cruel it was of me, and then it took me a while longer to track this down."
"What's this?" he asked without taking it.
"It's a charmander," she said. "A charmander that's colored differently from other charmander—just like Icarus is colored differently from other ninetails. It's only fair, I thought."
Arden blinked. "Felicia," he said. "I can't take that."
Felicia scowled and said, "Like hell you can't. Do you know what kind of a pain in the ass it was to get this? You're damn-well going to take it or else I'm going to use this pokeball to beat your skull in."
Arden raised his eyebrows and looked sideways at Dixie. "I think you should take it," Dixie offered up helpfully. Arden frowned and took the pokeball.
"Thank you, Felicia," mumbled Arden.
"What's that? A thank you?" said Felicia. "Oh my, I must be dreaming! But, Arden—why, pray tell, couldn't you say that loud enough for everyone to hear it?"
"Why do you insist on making it hard for me to like you?" asked Arden flatly.
"Her name's Artemis, by the way," said Felicia, gesturing to the pokeball. "Because you shouldn't be allowed to name pokemon, ever. You give them weird names. I mean, you pretty much just call them what they are, and that's a little strange."
"And Artemis isn't a strange name to you?" said Arden.
"Oh, I said I was sorry!" laughed Gaius, wrapping his arms around Stanislaus as the other man tried to push him away. "Let's kiss and make up!"
"Get your liver-mouth away from me!" said Stanislaus, breaking into laughter as well.
Felicia laid her head on Dixie's shoulder and sighed contentedly. A soft breeze rustled by them, traveling down the mountain side. Arden pulled his knees to his chest and looked down at the greenery so far below them. Far distant, he could see the root tops of Goldenrod—the department stores and radio tower and game corner all stretching upwards toward the sky. He could see, somewhere beyond that, the stoic light tower of Olivine town, where his cousin had swore never to return and still hadn't—and he thought, in a way, that light tower was like her. Just like Felicia, it was casting its light into the darkness, always fearing disaster. Somewhere north of that, he could see the beautiful and ancient towers of Ecruteak, surrounded with a mane of golden-leafed trees, as though the entire city were suspended in autumn.
Arden turned his face the other way, and there he could see Kanto, green and full of meadows, just visible. He could see the little settlement of Pallet town—a mere blemish among the scenery from where he sat now—where, five years before, he had set his life in motion. South of it the ocean spread its arms wide, and he could see Cinnabar island floating serenely in it. He couldn't see the old mansion on the side of the volcano, but his mind went first to it when he thought of Cinnabar. He thought, then, of that old shell of a building where, five years before, everyone had been at each others throats and everything had looked so bleak. There, in that ruined place which was as if it had been built to see only tragedy, he had come to understand the true nature of love—a nature which was so seldom spoken of. Before that, he had always thought that love was some distant feeling, which was gooey and sweet and possessed of no power of its own. After that he knew that love was the reason you kill or die for those around you—or the reason you sacrifice your own desire to revenge some wrong, so to make someone you love happy. That was the place, Arden thought to himself, that they had all learned to break from their paths toward destruction.
Arden wrapped his hand around Dixie's and turned toward him. "I want to go travel," he said.
"Travel where?" Dixie asked.
"I don't know," said Arden. "The world, I guess. I want to see all of it. I want to go to every place I've ever heard of and see all the towns there and meet the people and catch the pokemon—Hoenn, and Sinnoh, and… America, where ever that is. I want to go the places I've never heard of, too. All of it. The whole world. You, and me, and our pokemon traveling across this whole world. That's what I want."
Dixie smiled. "That sounds wonderful," he said.
"Hey," said Gaius, standing up. "I want to get every one together for a picture in front of this glorious scenery!"
"Okay!" said Felicia.
Gaius reached into one of the pockets of his coat. "Let's see… I definitely had a camera, somewhere around here—"
"Breast pocket, love," said Stanislaus.
"Oh, right," said Gaius. He pulled out the little camera and turned it on. "Let's look here… Ah—over there. Everyone get close over there. Oy, Gimp—do you mind takin' this for me?"
"Blast," said Gimpy, taking the camera in his stubby hands.
They stood all in a line, with Johto and the ocean at their backs—Felicia clinging to Dixie's arm, Dixie holding Arden's hand, Arden standing beside Gaius, Gaius hugging Stanislaus close. They were smiling and laughing as Gimpy snapped the picture and then, there it was—a moment of absolute happiness forever preserved in the form of a picture. And in that moment, despite everything, they were all truly happy. In that moment, they were hedgehogs who had learned to cut their spines down—hedgehogs whose spines would grow back and, though they knew that, because of that, some day they'd hurt each other again, for that moment they were able to huddle together. For that moment they were warm.
Happy.
A/N: And there we reach the end of our tale. Seventy-five chapters, and over one hundred thousand words—thank you for sticking with me to the very end. There are no words for how happy I am to be able to tell you this story. Thank you for reading. You are all beautiful—the most beautiful people in the whole world.
As always, criticism and general thoughts are muchly appreciated, though I'm happy to have just had the pleasure of you all reading this from end to end. If you're confused about any part of it, or have any sort of question about something not explicitly stated, feel free to leave your question in a review (signed or with your e-mail) or PM me with it, or use any of the other ways you can utilize this to ask me, because I will certainly answer.
If you want to see a picture of the five of them at the end here, it is up on my DA account, and the image is in a link on my profile, as before.
Once again, thank you deeply for reading. I love everyone one of you (even those of you that leave homophobic comments because, even though I vehemently disagree with you, I figure I must be doing something right if you kept on reading despite your squicks and qualms with the sorts of love presented in the story). You guys have brightened every one of my days by reading, and have inspired me to finish my original novel. Thank you all.