Title: To see the sky
Author: Shadow/Phantomness
Pairing: Championshipping (Lance x Red/Ash)
Fandom: Pokémon
Theme: #70, Breathe
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Pokemon belongs to Nintendo and Shogakukan Comics. This non-profit, non-copyright infringing fanfiction belongs to me under international copyright laws and taking it is plagiarism. Thank you. *Phantomness bows*

Notes: <> for telepathy, ** for thoughts, italics if a pokemon talks

Warnings: Shonen-ai

It hurts to breathe.

She takes one breath, two, struggles, but her belabored lungs pump readily enough, enough oxygen to keep her alive a bit longer. She pushes herself to her feet before reaching for her poke belt, satisfied to find the Ultra Balls are still there. Her vision blurs when she stands, but she’s alive.

That’s enough.

She doesn’t quite know who arranged this little tête-à-tête, but she has her suspicions, and she glances around the wreckage of the cafeteria, wondering how the others are doing.

Bruno grunts as he brushes grit and dust out of his eyes. The training machine he was using is broken beyond repair, but at least it saved his life. He heaves himself out with tremendous effort, trying not to get cut on sharp metal, and glances around to find that his pokémon are all buried under piles of rock. He sighs and recalls them.

Lance hisses as he looks at Red. “Are you all right?”

Red nods, a bit pale, but otherwise all right. His Jolteon snapped up a barrier of Protect quickly enough, and now, they just wait and watch. It’s going to take quite a lot of energy and time to move all the debris off, and Jolteon’s the only thing protecting them right now.

Lance releases his pokémon, carefully, cautiously. Dragonite is strong and can help, but his two Dragonair can’t. It’s a good thing there’s still a good supply of air.

Red cuddles next to Lance for comfort, watches, and waits as Dragonite moves boulders, before realizing that he can help.

Charizard and Lapras move in, and soon, they are free.

Agatha is waiting in the living room, which has remained unscathed. Lorelei is off at the hospital getting her broken ribs fixed, and Bruno has relocated to the mountains, not wanting to be around while the builders make repairs.

Red thinks that that is a good decision, and perhaps he and Lance can vacation in Mount Silver for a bit.

That will make them both happy!

Two hours later, they are sitting next to a pond, listening to the wild Poliwags sing, and breathing in fresh mountain air. Agatha can help with the repairs – after all, she helped design much of the original structure.

Who knew she had a degree in architecture?

Now, though, things are absolutely, positively fine, and no one was hurt too badly, and he and Lance are free, so!

He’s kind of selfishly glad the earthquake happened.

End Fic

Completed 6/15/07

I like Lorelei – she’s more suspicious, so I think she’d think of bomb threats… but it was just an earthquake.