Okay! Got to put in a warning at the top too! This fic is angst, and involves people actually sleeping around! There’s a lot of disturbing stuff you may probably not want to read, kk? Parents should also steer clear, since this is rated R…

Inspired by Midwest_Tales great series, “Keep Pretending”

Title: Deceptions
Author: Shadow/Phantomness
Pairing: Championshipping (Lance x Ash/Red)
Fandom: Pokémon
Theme: #14, Muscular Training
Rating: R
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: Het, implied shonen-ai, incest, Original Characters, sex, prostitution or at least heavily sleeping around, relationships falling apart

One day, Red realizes that perhaps he shouldn’t be sleeping with his Father, and so he tells him firmly that they should just forget the past.

Lance nods, and Red misses the glint of anger in his eyes. He pulls his pants back on, and misses the sadness. As he walks to the door without looking back, he misses the madness sparking to life in those golden depths.

When Lance sends Red away, he’s very careful about doing it. He slips the memory blockers into both of their drinks, and this way, no one will ever know what happened, because the only two people who ever knew can’t remember. Red drinks his first, and Lance carefully kisses him one last time while he’s out like a light and then drinks his own glass with a bitter smile.

Perhaps he should have realized that not all drugs affect people in the same way.

It takes Red a while to figure it out – at first he just thought he had something for redheads, and certainly, Misty is quite pretty when she’s flat on her back and he takes her, it’s quite fun, but really, they’re just friends and they know it.

She introduces him to someone else – a model for Pokemon Journal named Maya, and they hit off. She’s got interesting eyes – they’re almost gold, and he says they’re pretty as she giggles.

When they make love, it’s still wonderful, but when it’s over, he still feels empty inside, and his heart is aching.

Lance doesn’t know why he’s doing what he’s doing, granted, Red is his responsibility (and his son), but just because he finally got a date is no reason to throw a

temper tantrum. He’s supposed to more mature than this, so he leaves on vacation and heads to Whirl Islands.

His father is quiet, if not sympathetic, and feeds him drinks with enough ice in them to wipe out any lingering emotions, and even as he drinks there are tears running down his cheeks though he doesn’t. Know. Why.

Red likes long hair. Maya’s is pretty, and so the next time she comes around, she brings her roommate, Stephanie, and they all party.

It gets out that he’s easy – or at least he’s finally gotten a sex drive, thank goodness since we were all worried he was gay, and Red suddenly realizes the benefits to hundreds of screaming fangirls.

When his cell phone rings, Red shuts it off without even looking at the caller ID, because there is nothing more important than what he’s doing right now, and Katrina giggles while she leans on his arm and plays with his hair.

Lance feels quite frustrated, but until he can beat Red, who’s Champion, Red won’t listen to him. He spends three weeks feeding his dragons a special diet, and then challenges him to a match.

Red shows up with some giggly orange-headed girl in black leather, and loses spectacularly. Even that doesn’t snap him out of his shock. Afterwards, the girl named Jody just smirks and tells Red he’s already been Champion for years, and it’s not like losing once will really change anything.

Lance pretends not to notice how she’s feeling him through his pants on national television. When he goes home, he collects all the pictures of Red and burns them.

When Red finally decides to go home, since Yellow’s obviously pregnant and he has to marry her, he finds that his father has changed all the locks on the doors and he doesn’t have a key.

It deters him for a moment, before he calls home (a number he still knows by heart) and spends an hour yelling into the phone.

Lance doesn’t speak during all of it, and when Red checks his mail the next day, there’s a bronze key in his mailbox.

When Red sees his father at the wedding, Lance’s eyes are cold, so cold they’re almost white, and after the ceremony is over, he vanishes. Red doesn’t hear from him again, until he sees the dragons razing Kanto and Johto the ground.

His pokemon stare at him with sad eyes, and he doesn’t realize what happened until. It’s. Over.

And he cries amidst the rubble, because he has damned himself, and he knows it is all. His. Fault.

End Fic

Completed 9/8/06

Whee! Yes, well… I feel sorry for both of them, and they’re fun to play with when they’re broken!

You do not want to traverse the mental journey into the depths of Phantomness’s mind. Isn’t it wonderful how I can twist prompts? ^^ I mean, muscular training and I’m like ooh, sex involves muscles!

Red: *Cries*

Lance: Well, you’re certainly a slut in this fic

Red: *Glomps Lance and continues to cry*

Phantomness: I promise I’ll not write something like this again, unless people actually like it. *Shrug*