Title: Summer Brave

Author: The DayDreaming

Warnings: This is a game novelization, and even beyond that, it's an interpretation of my own! Characterization and content are subject to my whim, and some things may come off as different. Please don't be startled.

Summary: -game novelization- They had drunk time in listless summer days; but now that the world unfolds before them, it is a bitter drop that poisons the soul. "Why does it always feel like I'm chasing someone beyond my reach?" / Isshushipping, NxTouya

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arc one: Summer

Chapter 1: there's a black sheep in every flock

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I remember that summer.

It was like every other, lost in the daze of heat and hourless time passing.

I can just imagine it; the taste of hot air and the sweat coating my neck; the steamy shimmer of mirages in the distance, barely brushed by my tanning fingers.

It was dizzying in its nostalgia and heartless in its intent. Those summers we had spent together before meant nothing. Words we had written, of history and fights and the shade beneath trees, washed away each year from the pages of our youth.

We'd start again, and again, and again and never think more of it as we inhaled the melting sky and lost our minds to frivolity. We took risks and jumped into the ocean and laughed at nothing, and each was a promise to forgive any wrongs because we knew that another summer would come around again; faithfully, unerringly.

We were summer brave.

I wanted to believe it would last forever, those charming days hot and sticky on my tongue. But we had grown old and I had not realized that we had come apart at our tight-knit seams, bursting forth to separate and find our ways in the world.

When we parted, on that fateful afternoon, I did not know my way, and watched as the world folded around me, your backs fading into the dust.

Where was that summer brave soul that had sought the wind? I could not find it.

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Nuvema, like any other small town on the outskirts of Unova, is old, dingy, and forgotten. If it weren't for the fact that a direct road connects it to Accumula, a much more prosperous township, it would likely be passed by completely.

Its occupants reflect Nuvema's tendency towards the mundane, being steadfastly unchanging and as immovable in their ways and beliefs as the old evergreens surrounding their spit of land.

Nothing extraordinary ever happens here. No one extraordinary ever comes from here. There are fishermen with their leaky boats and businessmen with their dusty cars and Professor Juniper's lab, tucked into a corner and almost as unobtrusive as the rest of the town.

Touya remembers growing up and believing that there was no place beyond the endless oaks and pines, past the hills of flowers, or across the blue abyss of the ocean. As far as he could ever tell, there was only that one old road, unpaved and filled with the soft sand he'd throw in his sister's hair whenever she was being particularly bratty to him.

He knows better now; has read maps and watched the news and hitched a ride with Bianca's father to Accumula, where the usually stingy man had bought ice cream for everyone to celebrate Bianca's birthday.

But really, he had never cared to know. Life beyond Nuvema was unfathomable to him; his roots had burrowed deep into the ground and fed from the safety and surety of the thought, 'I will die here.' Touko had other plans, but she is Touko and Touya has always known that she is destined for greater things. She is her mother's daughter, after all; of the same breed as the city-slicker woman turned Pokemon trainer, whom had fallen in love with a fisherman that could offer her none of the excitement of a life abroad, but the insurance that she was loved.

He can remember the evenings spent against his father's knee, listening to his voice as he told him the story of a woman who had lost her way and fallen into the ocean. A boy had run to save her, but found that her Samurott had already propelled her back to the docks, where she was busy wringing out her hair. At that part, his father would wax poetic about the beautiful goddess that had emerged from the sea, her unearthly radiance making his heart stop—and then his mother would come around and smack her husband on the head, but smile and touch her face when she turned away.

Touko had told him once that she wanted to be just like mom, setting out to see the world on her own. He had asked her why, back then. Her eyes turned owlish and her mouth formed a tiny 'o' before she laughed at him, like he had missed out on some big joke, or, even worse, he was the joke. She always treated him like that.

"Just because it's what people do," she told him. He had wanted to ask more, or maybe hit her for laughing at him, but as quickly as she had appeared she was off again, running to Bianca and Cheren. He could see her laughing and telling them the entire ordeal. Touya spent the rest of the day sulking on his father's boat.

He had asked his mother once, but she had only smiled at him and replied, "It's been such a long time, Touya. I can hardly remember the reason why. All I know is the result."

Touya is older now, and doesn't ask so many questions. Perhaps he thinks them, but he bottles them away and accepts that he is not the one people talk to, let alone answer inane questions for. Bianca and Cheren are tolerable enough, though Cheren has a way of making him feel incredibly stupid, and Bianca always goes off-topic. Touko just shakes her head and sighs.

"Baby brothers," she moans to Bianca, who nods her head like she understands, even if her little brother is only four.

He bears his sister's discontent and walks away, because he knows it annoys her (he's grown beyond the urge of shoving her to the ground or putting rocks in her bed).

Life in Nuvema is boring and tedious, and the days shift like clockwork, always the same and always unchanging. Time passes by unnoticed, but shifts forward one tick at a time nevertheless. The days he had spent lounging on the docks or climbing trees had fallen into reading books to pass his Trainer exams and arguing with Touko about what starter pokemon is better.

They both agree on Tepig, though Touya has the distinct impression that if he wanted the Tepig that was sure to be offered to them, he would not get it; Touko always gets what she wants.

It isn't that Touya especially wants a pokemon, but just as his friends had slipped into the idea that they would all set off from their hometown together, so he followed behind them. It is always Cheren, Bianca, Touko and Touya. There is never one without the others, and frankly, the thought of being left behind frightens him more than anything.

They won't come back, he thinks silently to himself sometimes, staring quietly at the old, dusty road leading to Accumula Town. They don't care for the trees they carved their names into, or the creak of the boards at the docks; these are things that are givens in their lives, easily left behind in the wake of adventure. He dreams, and every now and then there are the startling images of walking down that road, watching as his friends run into the distance. He turns around and Nuvema is no longer there, nothing but a long path that falls into the ocean. When he turns back to look for the others, they, too, are gone; he is alone, as always.

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Touya turns fourteen on the summer solstice. But there are no cakes or streamers specifically for him, or any hugs that especially remind him that this is his birthday it's so wonderful you're turning fourteen. Instead, Touko buzzes around the house in fervor, looking for lost socks or the flashlight she keeps misplacing, while Touya stuffs his head under his pillow to try and sleep off his late night of packing.

Cheren knocking is the only thing that really wakes him. It's the same tap-tap-tap that has plagued his door since they were children, and Touya knows he has ten seconds before Cheren invites himself in and starts chiding him for sleeping his morning away.

Touya makes the difficult choice between sleeping and getting up.

Ten seconds later, Cheren opens his bedroom door and huffs at the lump beneath the blankets. "You could at least try to make an effort. Are you even dressed?"

The almost incomprehensible 'no' that slithers past the sheets has Cheren across the room and digging through Touya's dresser with the familiarity of one who has spent many mornings yelling at the other, whom has slept in and is once again late for school.

There had, at one point, been the belief that Cheren would one day ascend into the position of Touya's permanent housewife. The way he pestered Touya to eat all of his lunch (even the icky parts that no seven year old would ever want to willingly eat), wiped his mouth after meals, provided tissues when he sneezed, and brazenly dressed him every other day was the comedic oddity between the two that had sealed them forever as friends.

Touya is under the belief that Cheren is constantly competing with his mother, and the frightening way they glance at each other after they have provided a service for him has in no way diminished that belief. After all, Cheren had once remarked to him how, with the right application of force and pressure, a carrot could be used as a deadly weapon.

Cheren rips the old blue comforter from him and dumps all of his rummaged clothes atop Touya's head. When it's obvious that even this won't awaken Touya, Cheren starts to strip off the other's shirt, yanking roughly to pull the sleeves past folded arms.

"Cheren…," Touya sighs in resignation. Cheren doesn't do boundaries. "I'm up…stop. Please?" The other merely finishes pulling Touya's pajama bottoms down and steps away.

"If you'd just get up on time like everyone else, Touya," the same words he always says. They fall between each other like tumblers sliding into place.

Touya sighs again and begins the painfully slow process of pulling himself from his ruffled bed, sliding his legs over the edge, only to have Cheren attack them with a pair of grey trousers. He doesn't comment, and instead grabs the black shirt discarded to the side.

"Are you…going to miss…doing this?" he asks when they finish, brushing his wild hair into something semi-manageable.

"I don't know what there would be to miss in having to dress you like a toddler just to have some form of punctuality on your attendance record," Cheren had begun sorting his travel bag, sifting through the tightly folded extra shirts and the blue jacket hastily shoved on top of everything else. "Where are the berries I gave you?"

"Touko."

Because Touko likes taking his stuff with a casual, "Are you using this? No? Now it's mine!" Touya suspects that she does this when he's sleeping, and is very much too unconscious to answer back.

"I see. Well, I've given you three oran berries now. Be grateful."

"Thanks, dear."

"Professor Juniper has already been here, by the way," Cheren remarks casually, clipping Touya's bag's flap closed. "She dropped off the pokeballs. I suspect if we don't hurry, Touko will have gotten into them by now."

"Alright…hold on," Touya mumbles, following behind the other's retreating back. He notices Cheren walking into Touko's room, but he makes a detour to the bathroom. He can faintly hear what sounds like shouting as he washes his face. It gives him a sinking feeling in his gut, and he allows himself to shudder into the hand towel that covers his face.

Everything feels incredibly unfair. He knows what's happened. He doesn't need to open his sister's door to see that she's already made her choice; that they all have. There's a selfish part of him that thinks he deserves to have his pick first. It's his birthday, and it's only been his entire life that he's let Touko have everything. The blanket when there was only one, or his ice cream when hers fell on the ground; his homework when she didn't finish hers; the ring his father wore.

There are a lot of things she claims she can do because she's older, or because she's a girl, or because Touya is an idiot. Maybe he's bitter, but he doesn't like to dwell on it.

He pushes open Touko's door, only to step aside as two blurs tumble through the entrance and struggle fiercely in the hallway. One is most definitely a Tepig, whipping its tail fiercely at what appears to be a Snivy, its face contorted into an aggressive leer. He stares at the odd couple before letting his eyes wander into his sister's room, adorned in layers of red and magenta.

Her room, while usually slightly messy with books on the floor or the occasional shirt crawling out from beneath the bed, appears to have been slammed by a hurricane. The TV is tipping precariously on its stand, the bed has moved a good five feet from where it usually rests over the now misshapen rug, and a good smattering of tiny black footprints adorn her walls.

"Touko…how—?" "Not now, Touya!" she interrupts, the fierceness of her expression indicating that she's gone to that special place Touya dubs 'Competitive-I'll-beat-you-no-matter-what-la-la Land.' The urge to be the best has always been an unhealthy obsession for Touko; she would get into fights with people much older than her (a frightening number of them were physical, which she won, to Touya's amazement and horror); race between home and school; and had somehow managed to make playing house with Bianca competitive. (Needless to say, Bianca only played house with Touya for a long time after that; shamefully, he was not the husband.)

"Tackle him, Pepper!" she screams, making Bianca standing beside her cringe and try to call for the Snivy to dodge. The Snivy toddles back into the room, trying desperately to return to his trainer's side, only to have Touko's Tepig run it into the wall, leaving a dent in its wake as the Snivy slumps down in defeat.

"A-ah, come back!" Bianca squeals, recalling the Snivy back into its pokeball. She gives a little sniffle and pats the top of the ball. "I'm sorry, Ivy…I promise to get better…"

"Yes!" Touko pumps her fist. The Tepig, apparently named Pepper, gives a snort and mimics the gesture with a raised hoof. "We're amazing, just like I knew we would be!"

"Wooow…it's hard to believe that these little guys can pack such a punch!" Bianca bites her lip, glancing around the room. "Sorry, Touko. I didn't think it would get so messy."

"It's okay," Touko laughs, still riding high on euphoria and victory.

Cheren snorts, adjusting his glasses as he digs around in his pocket for some spare potions. "Honestly, Bianca. Even if they're still weak, you shouldn't be battling pokemon indoors."

"Yeah…," the absentminded reply makes it obvious that Bianca has long since tuned everyone else out. She looks happily at the pokeball in her hand, tracing the release button before pressing it. Ivy pops into her arms and clings to her blouse, giving Pepper the evil eye while the small pig snorts for another round.

"Touko," Touya finally breaks in, waving his arm to capture her attention. "What's…left?"

"Hm? I dunno," she shrugs. Cheren pauses in his actions of spritzing potion all over Pepper's body, coating the tiny scratches. He tries to say something, but shuts his mouth as Touya ventures over to the gift box Professor Juniper must have dropped off earlier.

The box is empty. Its lid lies off to the side, the green ribbon tied around it unraveled. He can make out three indents where three pokeballs must have once laid. He tips the lid up to see if maybe any stray pokeballs are hiding under it, but finds nothing but barren desk-top beneath. An indescribable feeling wells up in his gut, but he lets it slip out in a tiny sigh, almost inaudible if the room weren't deadly silent.

"There were only three," Cheren says. Touya nods and steels his lips. They are trying valiantly to show their quiver, but he tries to affect an air of stoic acceptance. He wants to scream.

He walks out of Touko's room, ignoring Bianca's small call of "Touya…" to instead search for his mother. He rages in his heart but tries to let it leak away, water down a drain. His father had once told him that getting angry never solved anything. But it's so hard. Everyone had waited a year for Touya to turn fourteen so they could all set out together. He had had to watch for months as his friends grew more and more anxious to leave Nuvema for the outer world, like it was a place that would disappear if they didn't get there fast enough.

"Mom?" he calls into the kitchen, where his mother is washing dishes. Normally she works in Accumula Town during the day, but she's taken today off especially for him.

"Oh, Touya! Good, you're up," she smiles, though it disappears quickly afterward. "I suppose Cheren woke you?"

Touko must get her competitive-streak from somewhere.

"Yeah," he mumbles. His tone gives his mother pause.

She bustles over to him, wiping her hands on a towel and placing a cool palm on his forehead. "Are you okay, dear? I don't feel a fever."

"Yeah…I…just," he sighs and flops into a chair at the dining room table. "Why…are there only three…why…"

Touya is not the most coherent of people. His speech is slow and measured, littered with unsure pauses that often have people yelling at him to hurry up. Normally this makes him fall silent, but his mother knows him well enough to understand.

She tsks, rubbing Touya's hair, "Touko got into the Professor's present, huh? They must have been too excited to wait for Mr. Birthday Boy."

He smiles at that, a bit watery. "Yeah. That's Touko."

She hugs him, almost lifting him out of his chair. Another trait she and Touko share: an insane amount of strength people of their frame and stature should not have. He clutches her and wonders what life without a mother will be like.

"It's okay, you know," she mumbles into his hair. "This isn't the end. The Professor only needed to give you guys three."

"What…do you mean?" Touya asks as she releases him and strides out of the kitchen. He waits for a few moments, straining his ears to hear his mother's paces as she moves through the living room and into her bedroom, and then back out again.

"Young man," she calls, carrying a box that she promptly sets before him. There's a slight layer of dust over the top, like it's been sitting in the closet for a while. "I have been waiting years to give this to you."

Touya stares at it, almost hopeful. It's definitely the handiwork of his mother, with the wrapping paper crumpled in the corners and the bow bent and crooked.

"Come on, Touya! Open it, before I do it for you!"

He smiles at his mother's enthusiasm and tentatively pulls at the sloppy bow, and then tears away the yellow wrapping paper. He quickly lifts the lid and smiles wider at the pokeball within. Its exterior looks a bit dull, probably from not being washed in years, but he can't find a reason to care.

He hasn't been forgotten.

He cradles the device in his hand, feels its weight. He's only ever held empty pokeballs before. Somehow, knowing what waits inside makes it feel like lead in his palm. He can understand why the others were so eager to receive their partners. Only the tap of a button separates him from his future; this will be his partner for the adventures and trials ahead, to a world beyond small, nostalgic Nuvema.

He hesitates for only a second before releasing his partner.

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Awkward ending is awkward. DX But I really don't want chapters to exceed 4,000 words. Once the chapters become too tedious to write, I often lose interest in writing them.

So, new story hooray! I'm terrible. But yes, I have finally started the game novelization. You will have already noticed that this….doesn't quite follow the game exactly. The fun thing with Pokemon is that you can interpret the characters any way you like, and give them any sort of backstory you like, too. I hope this chapter wasn't too boring; I just wanted to lay out some of the groundwork for character interpretation.

You all must be thinking, "Wow, Touko's a bitch." Eh, I didn't mean for it to come out that way, but having an older sister myself, I may have let some of my bitterness in. Touko isn't a bad person; she's headstrong, knows what she wants, and gets it herself. It's good to remember that Touya, whose perspective we'll be following for most, if not all, of this story, is not unbiased. We only see things from his point of view, so it's best to take everything with a grain of salt.

But honestly, my favorite characterizations this chapter: Cheren and mom. I don't know why but I love it. The mom is kinda like cool-mom-but-a-bit-fail-at-housekeeping. Cheren is entirely anal and bossy in my head. He loves sticking his nose in other people's business and telling them how it should be done.

Touya is a woobie.

Anyway, just so everything is clear: Touya is 14; Cheren, Bianca, and Touko are 15. The legal age to become a trainer is 14. (Because shit guys, 10 is way too young, and 16 and up is just way too old.) Therefore, everyone has waited a year for Touya to turn 14 so they can all set out together. Despite seeming like massive pricks in this chapter, it's actually very sweet of them.

As for other questions: I will probably get to them at some point in the story. Really. Please trust me, guys. I hope. ;-;

This is hopefully the last time this A/N will be so long. Sorry! Anyway, please drop a review and tell me how I'm doing! It would be lovely to get some feedback, since it's been a while since I've written like this. Hope it wasn't too disappointing!