This fanfiction was written by Yours and Mine and posted by Shadow/Phantomness with the author’s permission. It can be noted that neither of us own Pokemon, or are making any profit from this work of fan appreciation.
Deviation
The hospital was in a panic. Lance watched as two nurses rushed past him in a
hurry, exchanging information about intruders. With narrowed eyes, he watched
as they disappeared down a corridor, until the loudhailer tucked away in the
corner of the small room crackled into life. "Attention! Attention!
Trainers, patients, visitors -- please listen to this announcement carefully.
The hospital is currently under attack by intruders, all of which are pokémon
thieves! All able trainers with healthy pokémon are asked to move towards the
lobby to defend the hospital. Patients are asked to wait quietly until the
nurses come to move you to a safer area. I repeat --"
Pokémon thieves…
He scoffed as he turned
away and walked down the corridor, ignoring the elevator when he came to it, though
Lance lingered a moment longer to watch the dial rise and fall; seventh to
first, first to third, third to fourth, fourth down back to one again… There
had to be many trainers in the hospital, paying visits to wounded or sick
relatives, and all these trainers were willing to fight, to defend…
Red.
A sudden flash struck
Lance through his head --
A pokémon battle
consisting of many trainers. The thieves were on one side, and the trainers on
another, their back to the elevator, their pokémon out by their side, ready to
fight and to defend.
Red -- Red was there
as well, Charizard by his side, the large fire pokémon angered by what it saw.
But Red -- he had a look
of…
The idiot, Lance thought furiously. The
stupid idiot.
Red was the Champion,
but even against an endless onslaught, there was not much he could do. The
enemy's Cloyster had unleashed its hydro pump attack against the defenders, and
Charizard had to fly in order to avoid the water -- the other pokémon were
swept in the wave, and if they weren't, most of their trainers were.
Red stood strong in the middle of it all, but even the Champion had to fall.
Lance watched as Red fell
to his knees when his ankles gave way, and finally unable to take it any
longer, he moved. In a swift second, he ran and jumped out of the building,
landing on a well-placed Dragonite -- the very same pokémon who had transmitted
all the happenings on the lobby to him.
He nodded quickly, and
upon landing, Lance ran up to the automated doors, his presence opening the
doors. He waited as the water cleared out of the lobby, and smirked when the
confused thieves turned towards him. "Dragonite," he said fiercely,
when his eyes landed on the collapsed form of Red, "Twister. Now."
The thieves swept up in a
small hurricane created by his pokémon's wings, Lance ran past them, and into
the mess of trainers who were looking about for their pokémon. Charizard landed
beside him as he picked Red up and off the floor and glanced worriedly into the
other's ashen face. "Red," he said, swallowing. No -- the injury… It
couldn't kill, could it? "Red," he tried again, but there was no
response. "Shi-chan?" he asked.
"…st-stop
th-that…"
Lance smiled. The other's
voice was weak, but he was alive. He was fine… He gently placed the youth onto
the floor, and touched the other's wrists and ankles; Lance watched as the
parts of Red's body he touched glowed a slight white and fade into nothing.
"Feel better, Shi-chan?" he asked as he straightened.
Red sat for a while more,
but he nodded and accepted the outstretched hand that Lance had offered him.
"Yeah… Thanks, Lanc --"
"Wataru," Lance
said.
Red grinned. "Thank
you, Wa-chan."
"It's --" Lance
started, but gave up as the loudhailer in the lobby sprung to life and
announced that the thieves were defeated, and that everybody within the
hospital could stop escaping starting from now. Lance smiled again as he walked
out of the lobby, and gently touched Dragonite's snout, the pokémon snuggling
against his palm. Do you want humans to be destroyed, Dragonite?
The Dragon pokémon gazed
quietly at him with beady eyes and then he shook his head.
No.
§
The nurse was awfully
insistent that Satoshi stayed for a while in the hospital, just in case, and
she was glad to see that Wataru, the saviour of the hospital, make a choice to
stay with his friend. In her annoying tones, she proclaimed them to be the best
of friends she had ever seen, and then she had skipped off to check on more
patients.
Satoshi had giggled upon
her leaving, while Wataru had twitched, though he had not showed it out right.
It was about three days
later that both of them were discharged from the hospital, and it was about
this time that the paparazzi started to investigate into the saviour of the
hospital, and it was only after both Dragonite and Charizard had taken flight
from Cherrygrove that Lance heaved a sigh of relief.
"You scared?"
Red asked.
Lance scowled, but
couldn’t deny it. He was, in a way, scared; if Clair were to hear how a trainer
with Dragonite stopped the thieves with just one attack from the pokémon, he
knew the thoughts that would run through her head, and how she would then move
on and proceed to find him. Or who she thought was him, which was him. Instead,
he crossed his arms and pointedly asked, "How far is this springs that
would miraculously heal your wrists and ankles? We‘ve been in the air for
almost two hours now, and it‘s still nowhere in sight."
The other trainer
scratched the back of his head, a awkward look on his face. "I'm not too
sure, actually. Green said Charizard would know the way, so I…"
"You trust
him."
"Of course I
do!"
"Naivety has its
limits, Shi-chan."
"Well, Wa-chan,
he might be my rival, but we were friends long before that! And," the
youth added, "we still are."
Rivals… and friends…
Lance was silent for the
rest of the journey.
§
Charizard and Dragonite
landed about half an hour later, near the top of a mountain Lance had never
visited before in his life. He had often seen it from a distance, but still…
The Dragon Master frowned as he recalled Dragonite to his pokéball, and watched
as Red made his way upwards, into the cave and --
He had been worried, in
that battle. Worried and stricken that Red would die when the water triggered
his old injuries. No matter how he had tried - twice, now - he couldn't bring
away the pain that Lorelei had caused it, and it had pained him to admit that.
But why?
Why did he care so much
for somebody he had vowed to hate? Somebody he had vowed to avoid? Somebody he
needed to leave behind.
Red was not a able
trainer. Anybody who was injured, old or new, was not able. These much,
Lance knew and understood -- but Red had rushed forward to defend the hospital,
in spite of the knowledge that he would put himself in danger.
So much alike to Bruno…
There was a small bit in
Lance that admired Bruno, and the way the bigger man lived for pokémon, that
which was the true essence and ring to the words: pokémon trainer. Bruno had
been the first Lance had seen of his kind, and Red had followed not far behind.
The strength, the determination, the fighting spirit…
He drank it all in, like
a drug he needed.
He had been worried, more
than worried -- he had, somehow, in their entire stay at the hospital, started
to care for somebody.
Lance stared down at his
palms -- no. NO. He couldn't have… But there was no point in
denying the truth he had been trying to hide from himself, the truth Dragonite
was trying to help him see on that day when the thieves had come to try and
achieve their selfish wants.
He was starting to care
for somebody, that he was starting to open his heart to somebody -- Red,
Champion of the Ninth Annual Pokémon League Competition…The trainer of the very
same pokémon that had caused their downfall, his downfall.
The irony, once again,
struck a chord in him -- that he was falling in love with the very boy who
killed his dreams.
Lance laughed lowly, and
he only laughed again when Red turned back and started to walk towards him, a
look of concern on his face. He laughed a third time when he realised how blind
he had been not to see the signs - why he had been able to joke around with
Red, when he had not been able to with anyone else.
But Red…
"Lance?"
He raised his head, and
in one quick movement, shoved the other back against the cavern wall. Lance
didn't care that Red gasped aloud with the pain that must have ran through his
body upon contact with the rough rock as he inclined his head forward and
captured the other's lips in a kiss.
Lance could feel how Red
surrender quickly to him, almost as if the other wanted - needed - him.
Inwardly, he smirked as he broke the kiss off and let his hand wander
downwards. The moan that Red gave out only served to make Lance want the other
more -- contact. Contact. He snaked his arms around Red's waist, lifting
him(Lance frowned here when he realized how light the other was) so that their
lips were level, and he stole another kiss from the trainer who gladly let him.
After a few seconds, he let the other down without breaking the kiss; Lance
purred softly into Red's mouth when the trainer's arms found a place around his
shoulders.
And when he finally
withdrew, Lance let his smirk show on the outside when he opened his eyes and
saw the blush that had once more decorated Red's face. Breathlessly, he
whispered, "How long?"
Red, however, shook his
head, burying his face into his chest, and Lance sighed, one of pleasure. He
tried again. "How long, Shi-chan?"
"Uhhh," the
other murmured, incoherent in his words. "Hospital. You were sleeping
and…" His voice trailed off and Red lifted his head again. "I like
it," he said. "The kiss."
Lance chuckled, barely
able to stop himself. "That's good, Shi-chan."
"Red," the
youth said, a frown across his face. "Unless that means I can call you
Wa-chan?"
"I think,"
Lance said wisely, "after today, I can call you anything and you can call
me anything. Of course," he added silkily, "in private." He
moved his arms upward and ruffled the other's hair -- no, he thought
idly, not other. Lover.
It felt strange, to use
the term on somebody, but Lance supposed he just had to try.
"Waaaaaaa-chan”
"Yes?" Lance
asked, looking down, and he blinked when Red came at him and pressed their lips
together in a small chaste kiss, before the oth- his lover pulled away.
His.
He rubbed at his lips
with the back of his palms and glanced at Red, a silent question written in his
eyes.
"You'll wait?"
Red asked, smiling shyly as his arms traveled down to hang on Lance's hips.
"I'm going to go up there - the springs. You‘ll wait?"
Resisting the urge to
groan and act on his instincts, he answered with another simple kiss.
"I'll wait," he replied, a whisper into the other's lips,
"forever.
owari.
Notes: Originally, Deviation had been written to satisfy a friend's need
for Championshipping, as one whole long piece of fanfiction -- 17 pages in
Arial 10 -- thereby becoming the longest one-shot I had ever written. Then,
lamenting the lack of such a pairing on fanfictiondotnet, I decided to post it
up. :) And if you're reading this, you've just finished the entire of Deviation,
and if you enjoyed it, a sequel should be coming up soon, of which I am in the
midst of writing, since the words came out of myself while discussing fiction
with a few of my friends: It can't end there. Red and Lance have so much
more to go before they understand what love is, and how they truly feel towards
one another. And the sequel, I fear, might be much longer than Deviation,
unless the plot I have in mind speeds up quickly.
Thank you for reading.
(Posted on 6/20/06)