Title: Trite
Author: Shadow/Phantomness
Pairing: Championshipping (Lance x Red)
Fandom: Pokémon
Theme: #36, “Never Give Up!”
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: AU, het, angst

She thinks it’s funny that there’s blood on her hands.

“Shh,” Her husband croons, and white-gloved hands close around her wrists. “I told you to wear the gloves, love. No matter how much we try to deny it, it will never wash away, so we might as well look pretty when we kill them.”

“But I don’t want to get my gloves dirty.” She pouts.

“Silly,” He chides her, almost indulgent in his cruelty. “You don’t even touch them. You can strike them with lightning from far away, can’t you?”

“Mm…” She feels pressure, and she submits, her lips parting slightly as Lance kisses her, the crystals on their chests winking in tandem, golden-yellow and silvery-blue, lightning and ice.

Their outfits are quite cute, armor pure white, shoulders trailing down to their hips, and then boots and greaves to protect their legs. Their arms have no protection though, save their pristine white gloves.

That is because they channel power through their hands always, and that is how they fight.

“It feels purer, if I do this.” She says, and Lance laughs.

“As you wish, Princess,” He pauses. “Now let’s go home before we catch a cold.”

So she nods, and allows Lance to sweep her off her feet and fly her home, and Lance’s wings are the glittering sheen of a smooth lake, or a broken mirror, jagged fragments of silversteel.

She doesn’t have wings. She’s the only one of the six Guardians that doesn’t. That’s because she isn’t really that much of a Guardian, but she is – was – a Princess, once upon a time.

Once upon a time, she and Lance were in love, but the past is past and now they have only the present.

It’s all right.

Life goes on, and they promised each other not to worry about anything else.

Red worries over him, and Lance watches over her, and somehow, it all balances out. What else can they do?

People are dying. They’re killing people, because they don’t know how to split the demons from their hosts. They don’t know how to take apart the virus that caused it, and they can’t break human and demon apart.

Misty died two weeks ago.

Red should care. Her best friend – one of her only friends – is dead and gone, but she can’t focus on anything but Lance.

Of course, now she understands why.

It hurts too much. Even he doesn’t love the rest of their Guardians, though Clair is his sister, Lorelei his cousin, and Sabrina and Karen will follow him into Hell itself. He has always been their Leader.

It’s just safer not to care.

In any case, it doesn’t matter much. Lorelei will take care of Clair, and Karen will take care of Sabrina, and the Guardians will all pair off because it’s no use caring any more. They have opposing elements that will balance each other. It’s mere coexistence, but it’s also a friendship forged from the depths of life and death.

What more can they do? Caring too much is dangerous.

They are all becoming cold-hearted. Karen blasted a baby whose mother just died from a demon attack, simply because it wouldn’t shut up.

Sometimes, Red wonders if what remains of the world when they are finished ‘cleansing’ it, is worth saving.

But she can’t give up. Someone has to hope after all.

… Even if she knows she’s not worthy.

“Shh,” Lance soothes her, and kisses her hands, bloodstained as they are. The other guardians appear behind them, all dark-winged. Black for the woods, White for the Snow, and Crimson for the blood that flows…

Karen’s wings are the most frightening of all. They’re perfectly clear and transparent. It’s as if they don’t exist…

Lance folds his wings against his back, bloody silversteel. “Shall we depart?” It is a rhetorical question. None would dare disobey him.

They vanish.

End Fic

Completed 8/30/06

Edited 9/14/09

Hey look, I twisted a perfectly cute and innocent prompt into this! Mwahaha! ^^

Set in the same universe as Theme #26

Yeah… someday I’ll write actual plotted chapter fic instead of vaguely connected drabbles on this…

Lance’s powers are ice. His wings are made out of silversteel, so they’re silver.

Red’s powers are lightning. She has no wings.

Lorelei’s powers are water. Her wings are white.

Clair’s powers are wind. Her wings are black.

Karen’s powers are dark. Her wings are clear.

Sabrina’s powers are body. Her wings are red.