Footprints

The days spin by in a flurry of scarves and adventure and the rhythmic crunch of snow as it is trodden underfoot. What a wonderful world it is, Hikari thinks, dazed.

Her heartbeat races erratically, and her surroundings seem to sway around her, in time. Hikari must take a moment, step back to catch her breath. She is a dreamer, a fighter too, but she knows her limits. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Jun. She would love nothing more than for him to stay with her, to slow down and inhale the sweet, heady scents of Floaroma, or stop to have a steaming mug of cocoa with her in the cafe in Jubilife. As the clock ticks on, she can't help but miss him more.

But Jun wouldn't be himself if he wasn't always speeding ahead, eager to get to the next checkpoint. Hikari tries not to resent him, for the fact that he's always one step ahead of her, no matter how fast she runs. It's truly difficult not to, she realises, after years of watching him slip away again and again. He is too headstrong, too stubborn to ever fall in step with another.

She knows that he has big, big plans for the future, the motivation to become great. Maybe even the Champion of Sinnoh. When Hikari finally sets her sights on the same goal, she cannot defend herself from the sudden clutches of fear.

There are two of them, but only one Champion. In her head, it doesn't ever add up, and each time she's fighting back tears as she wonders when it will all make sense. So she finds solace in distraction, seeking comfort in the journey.

They both take their humble beginnings in Twinleaf Town and run. The question is: who will run the fastest? In time, exploring together is left behind in favour of spontaneous challenges, and the hours they used to whittle away lying underneath the clouds together are spent training apart so that the next time they meet, victory can be claimed.

Every night, she prays to Arceus that Jun won't hate her, if one day she does overtake him.

When Hikari defeats him again, Jun immediately decides that his training regime will become ten times tougher.

Only, it doesn't really, and when he sees his Monferno sagging with exhaustion, scratched and bruised, he relents and with a huff, tells him that he'd better go take a break. Monferno complies with a relieved chatter, clapping his hands together happily as he goes to join the rest of the pokemon.

Jun slumps onto the ground, cross-legged. His eyes slide shut and his arms fold over his chest.

So, where to go from here?

Three badges already sit, nestled in the velvet of his badge case. It isn't even a valid question, he realises: the only way to go is forward. Every step was one step closer to his father; and when he moved in the right direction, Hikari would be sure to follow.

He nods to himself. Right, forward it was.

The town map, creased and hastily shoved in his pocket was pulled out and unfolded on the grass. In bright, thick red marker, the Sinnoh League was circled crudely.

That was the goal, if perhaps not the finish line. He glanced over at his pokemon, greedily guzzling on poffins that he had bought earlier today, and he stops to watch them squabbling over the last one. Monferno flickers a playful, but undeniably destructive flame at Roserade, who calls out in indignation just in time to watch the last poffin be swiped.

Jun's head droops slightly, and he sets his gaze back onto the map. He follows the winding lines of roads and rivers as they loop and interweave, sprawling in every direction, and traces a finger over them lightly. There's a suspicious burning smell in the air, followed by a horrified squawk. Jun almost has a heart attack when he realises that his Staraptor's on fire.

He leaps towards his pokemon at once.

And, as Buizel panics and frantically douses them all with cold water, he thinks that maybe the journey is worth something too.

Just off Route 208 lies Hearthome City, resplendent in its wide paved roads and buildings of pale grey stone. She sweeps the gym first, hearing whispers in the dark, of the blond haired boy who had rushed in at dawn today and tore through them all like a cannonball through paper.

She supposed that meant that Jun was well on his way to the next gym now. She tries not to dwell on it too much. All her pokemon are called out to sightsee. In Hearthome, there is a park to walk her Prinplup, a house where she can make poffins, and a huge Contest Hall. Hikari is overjoyed. She bounds around town, delighted, sampling streetside food as she goes.

In the house, next to the pokemart, she bakes and burns poffins, touched when her pokemon eat them happily anyway, and spends the rest of the day chatting to the pokemon fan club and walking round Amity Square with Prinplup tottering beside her. When she garners enough courage, she goes up to the Contest Hall and signs herself up as a contestant for a super contest a few weeks from now.

It's almost evening when she finally decides to leave, which is why she's so stunned to see Jun, leaning against the gate wall while he casually fiddles with his poketch. He should have taken off hours ago, after taking on the gym.

His eyes light up when they catch hers, and her heart takes flight as she suddenly realises that he stayed for her. He rushes over to her, demanding a battle. She's honoured to accept. She'll give him everything she's got.

After all, she's kept him waiting.

It's around a month later that Jun recieves a call on his Poketech just as he's flying up Cycling Road on his brand new bike, pedalling with incredible energy and application. Without thinking, he slams down on the answer button and demands what they want from him.

As Hikari's laughing voice quickly rises to his ears, his wide eyes quickly dart downwards to his wrist, where a miniature, smiling Hikari has materialised on the screen of his Poketech. A second later, he crashes into a brick wall and ends up sprawled across the road.

His bike is battered, at a glance unsalvageable, and he informs Hikari that she owes him ten million pokedollars, but he cannot bring himself to care too much. Instead, he jumps to his feet, dusts himself off and peers at his Poketech curiously.

Hikari, in the screen, tells him that she thought she'd check up on him, to see how he was doing. Jun immediately proceeds to chastise her- first, he's not a little kid! -And second, rivals aren't meant to check up on one another: what happened to the burning clashes and unquenchable one-upmanship?

She just giggles and tells him that he'd always be her friend first. He has no answer to that.

She blithely continues to ask him questions- any new pokemon, any new badges? Jun flushes with pride as he displays his shiny set of gym badges to her. She claps her hands together, pleased for him, and he beams stupidly.

Recognition from the gyms through acquisition of a badge is one thing, but the impressed smile lighting up his best friend's face is something else.

It's terrifying how much that one grin can do to him, through a poketech no less, because he quickly feels his head fill, like a balloon, with an almost delirious happiness. He chalks it down to pride because of the whole rivalry thing they've got going on, though he, like Hikari, knows that the term rivals barely begins to describe their relationship.

Regardless, he asks to see her badge case, and is thrilled to discover that she has one less badge than he does.

Hikari takes his gloating rather lightly, and asks him what he's planning to do now. Of course, his answer is move forward, through all the gyms, then to the Sinnoh League and beyond.

Hers?

She says that as long as her and her team are together, any road they took would suffice.

Jun is taken aback by her response. What kind of a plan was that, he demands to know, but Hikari gazes at him, all fourteen megapixels, and tells him patiently that no matter which path she walked, she will keep on growing stronger. He could count on that.

Jun scoffs, though he has been thinking the exact same thing in recent months, and informs her that he would also become stronger, much stronger than her. She playfully raises an eyebrow, citing their current battle record, to which he responds by telling her to get over it, because the next time they met in battle, he would win for sure!

She'd expect one hell of a battle in that case, she says. He nods, grinning. He can do that much for her.

Then she gasps as she looks at the time, tells him that she must go, it's time for lunch. She waves at the camera and hastily offers her goodbyes.

The screen goes black.

Jun stares at his poketech for a while, before picking up the remains of his bike and continuing the long journey to his next destination, with a grin that he can't seem to wipe off his face.

Hikari is amused, but not entirely convinced, when Dr Footstep begins blathering on the psychology of footprints. It tells much about the people and pokemon who make them, he claims.

You can read their innermost thoughts, their deepest desires. He arcs a thick eyebrow over piggy eyes, asking her if she is sceptical. No, she lies, not at all, but he can tell. She can't refuse when he demands to see her pokemon walk in front of him, right then and now.

Empoleon does so, and Dr Footstep examines the footprints, oohing and aahing. Hikari peers over curiously. She sees no hidden missive in the trail Empoleon's webbed feet have left in the sand.

But Dr Footstep apparently does, as he turns to her with watery eyes and tells her in a wavering voice that he is incredibly impressed by the bond shared between trainer and pokemon. Empoleon looks relatively dispassionate, maybe a little confused too, but the Doctor has a hand clutched to his heart, as if something in his footprints within the sandbox had touched him like poetry on a page.

Hikari thanks him hesitantly as he tacks a ribbon in the shape of a footprint on Empoleon's chest. It was true- her and her starter pokemon were particularly close. But how could he know, just by looking at his footprints?

As she steps out of Dr Footstep's house, she re-reads the sign outside. Footprints reveal all! is engraved boldly in stone. Hikari wonders.

When she is sure that she's out of sight of any travelling swimmers, she experiments by tracking footsteps across the sandy beach. They run, one after the other, all along the shoreline. She stares at them for a few minutes, as if waiting for some secret message to unravel before her, but they remain footprints, insignificant imprints in the sand, and nothing else.

Heaving a sigh as the waves begin to lap the footprints away, she turns away and continues on her way.

Jun defeats the Canalave gym leader before Hikari has even arrived at the city. He casually asks Byron if he's battled an azure-eyed blunette recently, and when he hears the reply, Jun very quickly decides to extend his stay.

There is a definite spring in his step now; one that had not been there before. He and his pokemon were closer than they ever had been, one single, powerful unit, bonded irreversibly together by their time and travels together. He will defeat Hikari.

It has been weeks since they had last met, and Jun had found his thoughts meandering to her more and more often. As he was drifting to sleep, or when he awoke, and even at the most inopportune moments such as those in the heat of a battle.

Her face would materialise from nowhere, and he would have to shake his head to rid himself of the thought. It was disconcerting, to say the least.

So when he crashes into her, and they both go flying to the ground, he feels a strange sort of relief flush over him. Maybe he'd just missed her. He leaps to his feet, demanding a challenge with bright eyes.

She meets them with a smile so determined that he almost feels proud. The smile soon fades a little as the battle commences, but it does not leave her face. Maybe, he thinks, and banishes the thought as soon as it crosses his mind, she missed me too.

He calls his Infernape's next move with twice as much energy.

It's a close battle, an extremely close battle, down to both their last pokemon, Empoleon and Infernape. Both trainers are now sweating as they passionately yell commands.

A crowd has gathered. Now this was a battle to go down in history. Fire and water rage around the two pokemon, clashing with jarring power.

The pokemon cry, and charge.

Amidst the cries of the spectators and the hissing of water turning to steam, Jun hears a single call: you can do it Empoleon! I believe in you!

It is in that moment that he realises the battle is lost. Fire cannot defeat water, no matter how hard it tries.

Jun meets defeat with a smile, and revels in the fact that Hikari is taken aback with his composure. He thanks his fainted pokemon, and then tells her with a glint in his eyes and a strong smile still on his face that he will face the Pokemon League and become the champion for sure, so she'd better watch out.

Despite the crowd, she steps closer and pulls him into her arms in response, murmuring that it was one of the best fights she's ever had, that she'd missed their battles. Which was basically code for her saying that she missed him. He flushes pink and pushes her away hastily, crossing his arms. He refuses to meet her eyes. Doesn't she have a gym leader to challenge?

She does, of course she does, and when she is gone, he goes to bring his pokemon to the pokemon centre, face still burning bright.

Hikari defeats Byron, feeling energised for some reason. Perhaps running into Jun had passed some of his general enthusiasm for life to her. Either way, she's in a remarkably good mood, and leaves the gym with a grin on her face and a new badge in her pocket.

She's expecting Jun to have already up and left, but she is pleasantly surprised to see him again, a couple of hours later. He congratulates her on her new badge, then drags her off to the library, in a way only he can.

The demand for an explanation dies on the tip of her tongue. He's tugging her along, a warm hand firmly clasping her wrist, and so she allows herself to follow, whimsically imagining him taking her flying on a Drifblim or perhaps on a ferry ride across to Iron Island, just as she had once imagined as a child.

It soon becomes apparent that this was no time for such frivolous dreams. Kouki is in the library, sitting silently at a table while the professor paces around.

They both turn as Jun loudly declares their arrival. He is quickly shushed by the librarian.

Hikari takes a seat next to Kouki, who smiles at her kindly. A moment later, Jun shoves a chair down between the two and promptly moves to be seated, without so much as a hello to the the professor's assistant.

Odd occurrences, they are quickly informed, need looking into. They are told to each investigate one of Sinnoh's lakes. The professor looks part agitated and part excited, too, as he explains what is happening grimly.

Hikari herself is fascinated. She thinks of those strange pokemon that supposedly frequent the lakes, wondering if such legendary creatures truly exist. In her mind's eye, she pictures the emotive, hypnotic eyes of Mesprit described in countless storybooks, the steely determination of Azelf, and Uxie's endless knowledge.

She began to think of Lake Verity then, the lake that she and Jun spent their childhood playing at, before a thundering explosion that rattles the library in its frightening intensity tears her from her daydream. She clutches the table, eyes squeezed shut. When they open, all is still, and the air is silent. She glances over to the others, and though nobody is injured, all seem a little unsettled.

When they stumble out of the library, a sailor informs them that the explosion came from Lake Valor.

It was settled, and there was no time to lose. The three would split ways here. Kouki offers a grim smile to Hikari, while Jun rushes off, as per usual, but not before he squeezes Hikari's shoulder firmly.

Her resolve hardens, and she commands Togekiss, with soft, clipped tones that don't reveal the trepidation lurking underneath, to fly her to Lake Valor.

She's swept off her feet a moment later, and as she soars into the sky on the back of her Togekiss, she spots a speck of orange below, dashing eastwards. She breathes in against the rushing air and lets courage flood into her lungs.

He fights and fights, but it's still not enough. It's so bitterly cold up here at Lake Acuity. He feels his feet freezing and the wind whipping ruthlessly at his face.

He's stronger, it's true, but still not strong enough.

The woman in front of him mocks him freely. Calls him weak, a loser. Scorns, then grinds her heel into his dreams. Usually he would have a thousand scathing responses to offer, but today, his fighting spirit is dampened, almost snuffed out entirely.

His pokemon are heavily injured, now returned to his pocket. There is nothing in his chest but hollow breathing and a still heart.

When Hikari arrives, shame floods his chest instead. Not even burning shame, but a dull, throbbing shame suspended by severed heartstrings. Jupiter lets out one final, cruel laugh, and escapes amidst the snow.

Hikari stands there for a minute, watching him with uncertain eyes, saying nothing. He is on his knees in the snow, staring dully at the snow-laden ground. She tugs her coat around her tighter, lips pursed against the cold. He blankly wonders how he should look here, on the ground, pathetic, broken. Finally, his name leaves her lips, quietly. So quietly.

He rises to his feet. His hands instinctively reach into his pockets and his fingers furl around his pokeballs.

Suddenly, like a missing piece falling into place, it occurs to him that there might be a better reason to fight than for pride alone. Hikari takes a step closer towards him, voice laced with worry.

There are many reasons to fight. Perhaps... he had been fighting for the wrong ones.

Jun cannot meet her eyes, so he gazes to the white sky above as he vows to become stronger, solemnly. Hikari is taken aback.

Then he walks away, each slow step a painful, blunt jab in his chest. He savours the numbing chill on his flesh and bones, and tries not to look back when he hears her desperately calling his name.

Hikari's simple journey is soon blown up into an adventure of epic proportions. Foiling an evil organisations' terrible plans, and saving the world from certain damnation had not been on her to do list.

Yet, there she stood, at Spear Pillar, ready and raring to confront the monsters who had committed nefarious crimes, including kidnapping innocent pokemon, conspiring to destroy the world as they knew it, messing with the order of nature, and perhaps worst of all, crushing her childhood friend's spirit into the ground.

She was breathing shallowly, her eyes unfocused in white-hot, sparking anger. How dare they?

Two women, both older than herself, turned to face her with cockiness splayed over on their faces. Perhaps their confidence was not entirely unwarranted, either: there was no way that she could ruin their leader's great plan. Hikari and her pokemon heave with exhaustion from the journey, and she's only one girl against what seems to be the entire world.

She prepares to fight, though her chances look bleak, but before the battle begins, there is the familiar sound of light, speedy footfalls. She knows who it is before she even glimpses the green scarf and blond, dishevelled hair.

Her breath hitches in her throat as she sees him rush towards them, the fire reignited in his eyes. She had been surrounded, but now he takes his place, his back against hers, and she knows that they can win this.

Together.

There is nobody that she trusts more than Jun. Silent reassurances are exchanged as the two glance at one another, and their battle cries soon rise up into the still, cold air.

They fight with every ounce of their being, for the beautiful world they have only begun to explore, for the people and pokemon they have met along the way. For words left unsaid and races left unrun.

They'd been battling against one another for so long now, when they should have been battling together, back to back. When they fight together, a small town girl and her small town friend, she feels indestructible. Like she can do anything at all.

Jupiter and Mars' pokemon fall one by one as they are relentlessly attacked by both Hikari and Jun's pokemon. Hikari can see the agitated confusion on Jupiter's face as she realises that Jun is no joke- he's become stronger, stronger than her by far. Hikari can see the change clearly, and she allows herself a second of admiration for her long-time rival.

Only Jun could fall apart, then put himself together again, piece by piece and better than before. He refused to be defeated. Hikari decides that she, too, would not be defeated.

A gushing stream of ice hits Jupiter's Skuntank, the impact throwing him off the ground entirely. Jun's Heracross charges, horn first, and deals a devastating blow before the he has a chance to regain his balance.

The victors are clear. Skuntank lies defeated on the snowy ground, and Mars' Purugly is struggling to stand.

And amidst all the destruction, the rage and the terror, she hears his breathless cry of victory, and she knows that she's not alone. When she glances back fleetingly, she sees two sets of footprints in the snow, side by side.

She's never been alone.

The days spin by in a flurry of scarves and chaste kisses on the cheek and the giddy peals of laughter that rise up and ring on the breeze. What a wonderful world it is, Jun thinks, dazed.

And the best part of it all is the girl who's always at his side. They travel as two champions, both having defeated Shirona, sometimes journeying with each other and sometimes apart. Tackling this wild, wide world- it's not so hard when they do it together. There is no first nor last anymore; no winners, no losers, only Jun and Hikari, two rivals who share a story and a friendship that has crossed time and space itself.

Could I ask for anything else? Jun wonders, as Hikari leans into him and he subconsciously inhales the faint, fruity scent that lingers in her hair and on her skin. Her Lapras skims gently over the ocean's gleaming surface as they dangle their bare feet in the icy water, but the sun is warm and Hikari is warmer, so he doesn't mind much. Around them, islands rise, taking form behind hazy mists as they near. They see rivers and hills, valleys and forests, majestic against a blindingly blue sky.

Hikari giggles when cool water sprays over them. "Look at all these places, Jun," she murmurs, breath warm on his cheek. "The world really is huge, isn't it? There's no way we could see it all in one lifetime." Her eyes are bright and her smile as wide as the world itself, and at this moment, he has never loved anyone more.

Yeah, he agrees silently, a lazy grin on his face. But we'll try anyway.

His hand quietly catches hers, and he has no intention of letting go.

The end!

I honestly loved writing this- in fact, it's the easiest thing I've written, I believe. A bit of a slow start, but at least it picks up momentum near the end. I hope you enjoyed this, Twinleafshippers, wherever you've all gone.

Thank you for reading!

~Mizily