Stupid plotbunnies! I swear, boredom in Chemistry causes headaches…

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

Title: Sound of Thunder

Rating: PG-13

Manga AU, as we are assuming that Lance is in fact, dead

Summary: Red seems distant after Cerise. Yellow finds out why

Pairings: Championshipping (Lance x Red), One-sided Specialshipping (Yellow x Red)

Warnings: Yellow-bashing, AU, shonen-ai, character death, FMA references

Chapter 1

Red has taken to disappearing very often. Yellow knows that she should not worry, since he is Champion and the challenge letters he receives fill up the mailbox daily, but sometimes, as he tucks a few into his jacket and releases his Aerodactyl to fly off, she wonders about it.

And Pika simply smiles and chirps to try and cheer her up.

She appreciates it, but she is worried. After all, she feels that there is something off, and she wants to know why Red takes Vee with him, and not Pika.

Pika is not her pokémon, but right now, she is staying with Red. After all, it is better than living alone, and…

And he still doesn’t know her secret.

Red knows that he should not do this, but every few days, he still winds up on Cerise Island, circling the rim of the active volcano, and listening to the wind and the sea.

It reminds him of Lance.

The rational part of his mind knows that Lance is dead. Even if he weren’t dead, there would be no way of surviving a fall into the lava without his dragons.

Because Red saw his dragons, he did. The League tranquilized them and took them away, and they were in no shape to fight. He thinks that Gyarados and the Dragonair managed to get away, slip into the ocean where they could hide, but Dragonite and Aerodactyl could not. But Aerodactyl… what they took away… well…

It makes his heart hurt, and Aeroy looks sad, because he knows that Aeroy liked Lance’s Aerodactyl…

But they see nothing.

And Aeroy shrieks, and Red lets the tears fall because this is the only place he can cry in private, and the watch as the lava bubbles, so many feet below, and sometimes, Red wonders what would happen if he and Aeroy simply fell.

Would it hurt? Or would it happen so quickly he’d die painlessly?

But he shakes himself, and reminds himself that he still has his pokémon and they would be sad if he were gone, so he keeps a firm grip on Aeroy’s neck and does not let go.

“Where were you?”

He looks fine, but she sees the terrible blankness in his eyes and what looks like faint tear tracks running down his face, and his hands are shaking slightly.

She reaches out to him, but he brushes her aside and heads for the bathroom. She hears the shower running and she sighs.

It’s the same pattern. He goes out, battles, and comes home. And then he’ll go to sleep.

Only tonight, he does not. He fixes dinner for two in the kitchen and she’s surprised that he can cook, but when she tells him that he just smiles sadly, but the hamburgers he makes are really very good, and it’s almost like a date.

Except that he doesn’t know she’s a girl.

But the food really is very good, and Red takes a chocolate cake out of the oven and she can’t help but clap her hands in surprise.

It’s a very good chocolate cake. It can’t possibly be made from one of those boxed cake mixes.

Red accepts her praise with a smile, and she thinks he is finally getting better.

Valentine’s Day rolls around two days later, and he’s floating over the volcano again, but today is a special day because isn’t it a day for lovers? So he smiles, and he talks, as he watches his presents fall.

He brought roses so deep they were almost black, and the Swiss Chocolates Lance loved, though he would never admit it. He brought other things too, memories, and for a long while he just floated and talked.

It helped with the pain.

And finally, he began to talk about other things. About Yellow, and how he hated him, but he never showed it. About how he was becoming colder, though no one really noticed. About how he was glad Pika was gone, because he would have killed him otherwise.

Aeroy listens too, of course, but he never complains, and when Red stops talking, Aeroy sings for his mate. It’s not even a proper song with words, but it’s a howl of rage and pain and grief that Red can perfectly empathize with.

He does not notice that his red eyes are becoming cold and hard, and that his pokemon’s are reflecting the same illusion.

Yellow does not either, because she can be surprisingly blind at times, especially concerning her ‘hero’.

It is April when Yellow finally realizes that something is wrong, and that is only because she catches Red sneaking out of bed at 3 A.M. and that is not normal.

So she follows him silently as he releases his Aerodactyl and flies away, and she follows as quietly as she can on her Butterfree.

It’s not hard to do since Red seems to be lost in his own little world. He’s whistling an unfamiliar tune and he seems quite happy.

Yellow wonders if Red has been doing drugs. It is certainly a cruel assumption to make, but with the way he has been drifting in and out lately, she cannot be blamed for feeling worried.

As they continue to fly, she feels something tighten in the pit of her stomach, because she recognizes where they are heading.

Cerise Island! Why would he go there?

She watches as he dismounts, and he releases Vee, and she sees several pokémon drifting up from the water, and she gasps as she recognizes them.

They are dragons, a Gyarados and two Dragonairs…

What are they doing here?

Those are Lance’s pokémon, aren’t they?

Red is speaking to them, but she can’t hear his voice because there is wind blowing over the Island, and so, she stays in her hiding place, peeking over the rim of the boulder. The dragons nod for several moments, and then Red smiles and hugs the head of the Dragonair nearest him, and it nuzzles him with a smile.

They dive back underwater.

And she wants to confront Red, but something tells her to wait, so she obeys.

End Chapter

Completed 6/28/06

Finally wrote something! YATTA!

And poor, poor Red…