Title: If You Had Eyes to See
Author: Shadow/Phantomness
Pairing: Championshipping (Lance x Red/Ash)
Fandom: Pokémon
Theme: #93, Eyes
Rating: PG-13
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: Fanon references, implied shonen-ai

Sometimes, Ash sees things, scary things that nice, normal trainers aren’t supposed to see. He’s brushing Pikachu’s fur, and he sees – one split second – a ghostly Pikachu-like figure, with wings. Then it clears, and he’s looking at Pikachu again, who’s blinking at him in surprise and wondering why he stopped.

He picks up the brush again, and smiles, and tries to concentrate.

That’s actually one of the better ones. It’s cute-looking at least, and he wonders how you’d breed to get a pokémon like that.

Sometimes, when Ash is walking down the road, he almost – almost sees someone else walking with him, a girl with long dark hair, but then it’s gone and there’s no one there but Misty and Brock. Misty will ask why he’s spacing out, and Brock will chuckle, almost as though he knows something.

It makes him confused.

He’s met girls with long dark hair before, like Sabrina, but this is someone else, and for some reason, he thinks he should know her, but he doesn’t.

Besides, he’s pretty sure he never had a girlfriend before.

Misty’s annoying, sometimes, and when he sees flashes around her, they’re never nice ones. He sees black shapes all the time, wavy tentacles like her favorite pokémon Tentacruel, and they make him go cold inside.

He doesn’t understand why, though, and it makes him frustrated. He notices, however, that nothing ever happens to Brock, which is good.

Somehow…

Ash sees other flashes sometimes, out of the corner of his eyes. A lot of time they’re just pokémon, faint afterimages, and he decides it’s his overactive imagination, because he hasn’t encountered any pokémon that looks like those wolves, or the strange dolphins, or even that cute Eevee-like thing with wings.

Still, it makes him confused, and when he meets Lance for the first time, the flashes only get worse.

It was hard for him to concentrate at Lake of Rage. When Lance came in on his Dragonite to save the day, he was relieved, but for a moment, he saw something that almost made him freeze.

It was a sword… a bloody sword, superimposed over Lance’s body…

But then it was gone, and Lance was brilliant, beating Team Rocket back with his Dragonite’s attacks, and later, when Lance held him after Gyarados had blasted him with a Hydro Pump attack, he felt something different, almost nice, giving him enough energy to continue.

But… but he still felt something, and when he waved goodbye to Lance, he felt cold inside, as if this was the last time he would see him.

Impossible!

When the Dragon Master saved him in Houen, he was relieved beyond relief, but there had been something missing. Lance’s smiles seemed forced, and his voice was too soft. Ash almost – almost wanted to see a smirk and brilliant golden eyes, but he squashed the feeling, bewildered.

Impossible…

Lance left then, and Ash felt sand slipping between his fingers, and threads unraveling, and feathers on his cheeks, and didn’t understand any of it.

It was dark that night, and he saw Lance return, and this time, he saw the full picture, the Dragon Master’s clothing replaced with brilliant silver armor, wings outstretched behind his back, and a bittersweet smile before he clasped his hands in front of his chest and called the Sacred Sword…

And he cried, tears running down his cheeks, because he realized just what he had missed.

End Fic

Completed 3/8/07

If you caught all the fanon references, you are a true Phantomness fan! ^^V. If you didn’t, well, sorry!