Memories

Shupple

I probably looked really weird wearing sunglasses at night and a gray sweatshirt only over my tank top, but I needed to find Lux. I needed to know if he was okay.

When I took off my sunglasses inside the hospital and went up to Lux's room, he wasn't there but a new girl, I think a Ralts Gijinka, was sitting on the right side of his bed and I went over to her and gave a small smile.

"A-Are you looking for L-Lux?" The Ralts girl asked me and I smiled a little bit more.

"Yeah. Do you know where he is?" I asked her and she smiled a little.

"He's down in the glasses department downstairs," the Ralts girl told me and I turned around and went to the door. At least I could try and find the place. I looked back at the Ralts girl who was looking at her feet, embarrassed that she was probably just the messenger of Lux.

"Thank you," I told her with a smile and she looked up from the floor and just nodded with an embarrassed blush on her face.

"N-No problem," she told me and I opened up the door and closed it behind me. God, that room just seemed like a wreck. Did something earlier happen that I wasn't aware of? I hope Lux was okay...

I made my way slowly downstairs to where the eye shop was, which made me wonder why he was getting glasses. I put on my sunglasses on again out of worry and not wanting to get in trouble with the humans here since it was explicit on how they didn't really want Gijinkas here. It wasn't hard to find the ears of Lux in the shop though.

“Shupple?” Lux said, not even sure if it was me. I looked really weird I guess, in his opinion.

“Oh Lux there you are, I went to your room and you weren’t there. Only a Ralts girl who told me to look around here,” I told him with concern in my voice and he looked at me with excited eyes and just started laughing. What was so funny? I was really concerned...

“What? What are you laughing at?” I asked him but he didn't answer. Instead, he just went up to me and took off my sunglasses and my sweatshirt, which was a little awkward, and then pushed down my hood.

“There now you don’t stand out Miss Suspicious.” It was funny to him but not to me. I was really concerned. He was a really good friend to me. That's when I noticed a little boy in a hospital gown, though Lux wasn't, holding Lux's hand. Okay... That was a little weird.

“Who’s the kid?” I asked bluntly, just wanting to know. “Also where are the others?” I asked and I could tell that was a little bit of a problem for him. Where the others were was really a question...

“Well this is Cedric, he’s my master and buddy of mine,” Cedric took a nervous step forward with a bright red face. “As for the others, well umm-“

“CAN I CATCH HER?” Cedric suddenly blurted out with pointing to me and I was now absolutely confused. I looked from him to Lux and then back to Cedric, still completely confused, and took a step back.

Lux then bent down to Cedric's height, whispered something in his ear and then stood up again. What was he planning...?

“Lux, what are you planning?” I asked nervously with a confused smile and a stern look, really wanting to know. Cedric then suddenly pointed at me.

“I CHOOSE YOU LUXRAY! USE THUNDER SHOCK!” Holy what now?

“WHAT THE?” I exclaimed but Lux suddenly grabbed me and pushed me up against the wall and just started tickling me! What... was... hehe... doing? He tickled me in all of the places where I was ticklish, I moaning, yelping, and laughing as I tried to get free. I wasn't used to this.

”What…HA HA HA HA…are you doing….HEHHE HE HE HE….Lux?!” I muttered as I tried to retain myself from laughing but it wasn't working.

“That’s the way Lux get her now use thunderbolt.” And he continued to tickle me and tears started to come to my eyes, but I could tell he was just playing but why? He was using sparks from inside him to go around his back. He stopped tickling me for a few minutes to tell me something as I tried to catch my breath.

“Just play along okay?” Lux mumbled as he looked into my eyes. I couldn't resist them. “Please do it for him?” And now I understood he was just playing along with the act. I didn't mind, really. It should be fun, right?

I gave him a wink after showing a confused look and pushed him away, doing a fake cough and tumble over my own feet.

“Damn it, fine…Shadow sneak…” I used Shadow Sneak just to play along and only caught his shadow just a little. Lux did a fake hurt look and I want to laugh right then because of his face, but instead I just gave a small smile.

“ARGH….ack!!!" He tumbled around in a circle as he shivered before I used Shadow Claws and sent him flying backwards, but not hard at all to where I would actually hurt him. We both just decided to adlib it. People around us could tell it was fake and were actually laughing to themselves only because they could see the smiles on our faces. Even Cedric was laughing and seeing a little kid smile made me lighten up just a little.

Lux then fell down right in front of Cedric, struggling to get up, and coughed and I put a foot on his back just to have fun. I laughed an evil laugh, which wasn't hard for me at all, really.

“Foolish idiot. You dare take on a ghost with this weakling, you should have known better.” I grinned but I apparently scared Cedric a little bit too much. Cedric jumped in front of Lux and waved his arms around in circles.

“WAHHHH!!! GET AWAY GHOST!” I stepped back with arms crossed to show that I was upset, at least three feet so that Cedric could talk to Lux.

“Are…are…are you okay blue kitty?” Blue kitty? Love it. He was a kitty when he wanted to be, I had to admit.

“I’m….I’m okay master…” Lux pushed himself back up and faced me but he stumbled a bit and I rushed up to him and held him a little with my hands on his shoulders to where I caught him. “Ahh…sorry….” Lux said but I looked at him really concerned. Was this play fighting actually hurting him?

“Are….are you really okay?” I asked him and in his eyes, I could tell he was just a little but then Cedric's voice came back into view.

“Use Crunch Lux!”

Lux blinked and wasn't even sure if he should use the move, but I gripped harder on his arms so that we wouldn't disappoint Cedric. He was having too much fun and he could just probably make everything happy if he tried. Lux looked back at me with worry in his eyes but all I did was nod and wink and move my neck to the side a bit. It was just like a few days ago anyways...

“CRUNCH!” I felt his teeth just puncture the skin but enough to make a little bit of blood splatter and me fall to the ground in complete fake. Cedric gasped and before I hit the ground, Lux caught me. He brought his head up from what I could tell since I had my eyes closed and I opened one eye and winked with a smile. He gave me a smile back and Lux quickly whipped the blood off his mouth.

“Now Cedric use it.”

He just nodded and took out a Pokeball, which I thought was weird with how humans do things, and threw it directly at me, it hitting my forehead which actually hurt because it just gave me a headache as I made it not "catch" me. I was scowling as Lux opened up his eyes and looked at me, since I was annoyed that he even told Cedric to do that. My smile was just twitching.

“Did I catch her?” Cedric asked when I was glaring at the Pokeball in my lap because it was just a weird contraption itself.

“Yo Shupple…are you okay?” Lux asked with his head tilted and I knew I had to make the best and worst smile ever to tell Lux I was a little pissed at him, so I stood a little and bowed with a gigantic smile on my face, like the ones Banettes usually give off.

“Oh I’m fine, Lux and my young master!” I said with my bow and Lux understood my creepy smile immediately. I could tell he was a little scared as I straightened myself up, and looked at Cedric to see if he was scared too but instead, Cedric ran up to me and hugged me, which to me was really unexpected, and rubbed his cheek against mine.

“I caught two Pokémon!! I have a Luxray and a Banette!” Cedric cheered and Lux walked over to us, I still unsure what to do next because this was completely new to me. I wasn't used to playing with kids a lot because of my past. It was just a little weird to me...

Lux held out his hands to us and so I did take it, but bopped him on the head immediately once I stood up.

“….Dork…” It was the only thing I could come up with. “But….it was fun…” And it was. At least I had some fun... Lux rubbed his forehead as he smiled.

“Yeah, that it was,” Lux said and then Cedric suddenly grabbed both of our hands. Okay...

“Okays, now that you are both mine can we play back in my room? Pretty pretty please?” Cedric asked with giving me puppy eyes and I sighed and looked at Lux, wondering how he was feeling since he was still healing. I had to give into those puppy eyes. They were so cute. Lux just shrugged and smiled, which meant a technical yes.

“Umm…sure let’s go,” I told Cedric and we both continued to walk down the hall together.

What I had to admit was really cute was that Cedric kept on jumping and swinging in our hands, and I remember other parents doing this to their children, but not really my parents. We had a different way of communicating, I guess if you really want to put it that way.

That's when I looked at Lux and saw the confused look in his eye and the mixing of his aura with his thoughts was a little obvious. His heart seemed so broken with his eyes filled with grief and pain. It was so obvious, he kept on trying to hide it but why?And the state of his room kind of made me wonder if he was really okay...

“So what really happened here Lux? I can tell your heart is even more broken then before and your eyes are filled with grief and pain,” I asked Lux but he just smiled that was obviously fake and focused on the path in front of him.

“It’s nothing to worry about.” I sighed, knowing I wasn't going to get him to explain for a while, and I wasn't convinced at all. He was showing so much pain in the smiles he gave earlier while we were play fighting and when he saw me. Something was really troubling him... I just turned back to the direction we were going and decided to change the subject, since it was obvious that Lux wasn't going to talk.

“So now that you have caught us Cedric, what will you do?” I asked Cedric, looking down at him, still deciding to play along. I just wanted to be happy a little.

“I’m gonna be the Pokémon master! I’m gonna challenge the elite four with you and beat them till their poopies come out!” I laughed a little. Such dreams...

“Ha ha, really? Well you only have a party of two. Don’t you think you need a few more?” I didn't know much about humans and this whole Pokeball thing, but just seeing him determined so much made me smile a little.

“Yup, I does need a team of six. But but but! I saw a Glaceon earlier, and two Houndooms and a Ralts so that would make my team complete!” Cedric nodded, which made me smile. At least they were here earlier...

“Well then, we better catch them shouldn’t we? Right Lux?” That's when I turned to him and saw his face absolutely pale and his other hand twitching. His eyes seemed really unfocused.

“Lux?” That's when Lux fell forward and both Cedric and I bent down to him, tried calling to him, but his eyes closed. I put a hand to his throat and felt that he was still breathing. He just passed out. Idiot.

"What's wrong with blue kitty?" Cedric asked me worriedly and gathering as much strength as I could since there were no doctors around at all, I picked up Lux and swung him onto my back. God, was he heavy... At least one hundred pounds more than me... Good god, men are heavy...

"He just fainted," I told Cedric with a reassuring smile. "Wanna help me carry blue kitty to his room?" I asked him with a smile and that's when his frown turned upside down.

"Okay!" But that's when a woman came up behind me and smiled at me.

"I'm Cedric's mother. Was Lux playing with him again?" She asked and I smiled as best as I could with losing focus on Lux's heavy body.

"Yes, so was I. I'm Shupple. It's nice to meet you," I told her with a soft smile and she smiled back.

"It seems like you're really busy with Lux since it seems like he passed out, so do you mind if I take Cedric? He needs his medicine." Cedric's face grew sad.

"But Momma-!" Cedric's mom shook her head. She was trying to do her best for her son, even if he was sick.

"We'll visit him later, okay? You can say hi to Lux then, okay?" Cedric's smile grew a little bigger.

"Okay!" And Cedric grabbed his mom's hand and they went off, I waving to her as she waved to me. She seemed so tired... I guess I couldn't blame her though.

With thoughts on Cedric, I dragged Lux to his room slowly and once I did get into the room, the Ralts girl immediately got up and helped me, since she could probably notice how heavy he was too, and helped me put Lux carefully on his bed and put his oxygen mask back on him.

Without really asking if she should or not, the Ralts girl got up and started using Healing Wave after about an hour or two of Lux being passed out. During that time, I heard a knock on the door, got up from my seat reluctantly since I didn't want at all to leave Lux's side, and answered it. It was the doctor.

"I heard what you did for Lux. Do you mind if I come in and check on his vitals?" The doctor asked me and I relaxed just a little and stepped aside, then followed him.

He came in with a nod to me and the Ralts girl, I still not knowing her name, and checked on his heartbeat, vitals, the increase rate on how fast his organs were healing, which most of them were, and his muscles and ligaments, to see if they were still fine and not damaged at all in the least.

“It seems he just passed out from lack of sleep and being over-stressed. Give him a few hours and he should wake up. I can send a medical team in to help you two, or do you have it here?” The doctor asked and I looked at the Ralts girl and she gave me a small smile.

“We have it here. Thank you,” I told the doctor simply and he nodded.

“By the way, do you know about what happened here?” The doctor asked me and I narrowed my eyes and looked at him suspiciously. I shook my head.

“Well, when he wakes up, he should tell you. You seemed like a very worried friend,” the doctor told me with a nod and then left. What wasn’t Lux telling me? I was confused about all of this.

“U-Um… Y-You seem really worried about Lux... I-I can tell you what happened…” I looked at the Ralts girl with worried eyes. I was worried. He was my… best friend. One of my few best friends besides Hoom…

“Please,” I told her with a small smile as I stood beside her and she looked at me with some sad eyes but gave me a small smile and kept it that way.

“W-Well…” And she told me the story. I looked at Lux as she told me hesitantly, him breathing normally now and sleeping. I didn’t know what he was thinking, but I knew he was an idiot. Then she told me about the Thunder Punch, and I looked at her with wide eyes.

“A Thunder Punch into Hoom’s stomach?” I asked unbelievably and Raine, I finally found out her name, just nodded some and I still couldn’t believe it. Just how powerful was this lugnut? He needed to control what he had so that he would be able to stop right before he did something he regretted. Small tears grew to my eyes as he reminded me of myself. Not having any friends and being this untrusting does tricks to your mind and body. Your soul especially. What did Lux really know about controlling? It made me wonder who he had trained with…

Raine continued and my small tears dripped onto Lux’s shirt as I looked at him. After she told me the whole story, I knew the last of it, where I met up with Lux and that ended the talking bit of probably the whole night. We both decided on staying up all night, just in case he woke up and something happened, but not at all did Hoom, Hon, or Gil come back. I found it surprising, but I didn’t blame them. Lux was kind of horrible to them… but I needed to know what he thought on the subject. What wasn’t he telling me, really? He wasn’t awake but maybe this one technique would work for once…

I slowly put my fingers on Lux’s face and concentrated on my own shadow taking over his own. It wouldn’t mess what was going on inside his body or the Healing Wave Raine was using. It was weird, Shadow Sneak and using it to access his brain, but I was actually able to access his memory core in his brain. I closed my eyes and concentrated and found the fight, not looking into his past. I knew he wouldn’t like that, so I just tapped into the fight and watched it, I crying every part of the way, watching the fight, hearing every thought. He really thought he was alone this whole time, in pain and in his own body? How could he think like that?

Once I finished watching, I tapped myself out and just moved to the window, making sure everything was fine with Raine and just opened it, a light breeze and mist came in. I liked the breeze when I had to get darkness out of someone, I guess… I went back over to Lux and Raine and she continued to using Healing Wave, we both not getting anything to eat as we worked, Raine healing him on the inside and I taking out every part of darkness that I could from his chest, which was where most of it was gathered, and kept on going back and forth between the window and Lux.

We didn’t even notice how silent we stayed until it was morning and I heard the food cart going to every room. I wasn’t really hungry for anything of the sort, especially hospital food. I would rather just eat some kind of candy right now to keep me going… The nurse came in, nodded when she gave us the meal for Lux when he woke up, and went off. I guess she didn’t like Gijinkas much. Well, we are that way, I guess.

Right when it was getting to around lunch, I had eaten Lux’s food because he wasn’t awake yet, and I was hungry. I offered some to Raine but she declined easily. She wanted to keep working just as much as I did. She was interesting, I had to admit, but I was somewhat upset with Lux and the way he thought.

That’s when I heard a knock on the door and I stopped working and went over to the door, opened it quietly and automatically, somebody attached themselves to me with a hug.

“Hiya, Ghosty!” I smiled and looked down at Cedric. He was an early morning kid if he was one. And Ghosty? Wait till Lux heard that.

“Hey, Cedric!” I picked him up and propped him on my shoulder as his mom walked in. She seemed just as awake as Cedric was.

“Where’s blue kitty? Is he awake yet?” Cedric asked cheerfully, his smile wide but I shook my head. His smile suddenly widened as he jumped down from my arms and his mother sat down one of the couches.

“Is that a Ralts? CAN I CATCH HER?” Cedric asked, his whole body shaking with excitement and I smiled as I walked over to Raine and she looked at me with wide eyes and stopped using Healing Wave on Lux.

“W-What?” I just went to her ear and whispered,

“Just play along. He’s having fun. Please?” I asked Raine and she looked at me before looking back at Cedric and nodded. I backed up to Cedric and bent down to him.

“What shall I do, Master Cedric?” I asked with a smile, an actual one this time, and he pointed at Raine.

“Use Shadow Claw!” I pretended to use Shadow Claw, which made Raine back up, blocking it with a smile and then coming back at me with one of her own attacks.

“M-Magical Leaf!” She pretended to use magical leaf by going up to me and just getting leaves from a plant, which made me smirk a little.

“Use Shadow Sneak, ghosty!” I did so just a little and since I knew Raine and I had to get back to work, we decided to wrap this up quickly. Raine decided to swoon a little and fall to the ground and Cedric ran forward and looked at me and I smiled and bent down to Cedric.

“Use it, Cedric,” I told him quietly and he took out a Pokeball and threw it at Raine, this time instead of her forehead, it hit her arm. There was a small, red flash and then the Pokeball sat on Raine’s lap and Cedric looked at me.

“Did I catch her?” Cedric asked and Raine rubbed her arm as she looked at Cedric and smiled.

“Yes, Master Cedric! You did catch me!” Raine smiled and Cedric ran up to her and started to rub her cheek and hug her and Raine just laughed a little and that’s when Cedric’s mother stood up.

“Cedric, now that you caught the Ralts, why don’t we go get lunch and come back later tonight to see if Lux is awake?” The mother asked Cedric softly and Cedric looked back at her and smiled and nodded while picking up the Pokeball.

“Okay!” Cedric skipped back over to his mother and they both waved at us before they left. After that, Raine got up and we started working on Lux again until it reached about mid-afternoon. That’s when he started to stir a bit as I sat beside him, taking a rest. Finally…

“So you’re awake now?” I said as I stood up with arms crossed, looking at him. I was still pissed that I had to carry him all that way…

“Ahh yeah, apparently. What happened?” Lux asked as he noticed Raine using a Healing Wave on him and stopped suddenly with a step back.

“You fainted from lack of energy, over stressed, and being a total idiot. I had to carry you back myself and it wasn’t easy. You are heavy.” Mad at him, I hit him on the side of the head again.

“OUCH!” Lux growled. ”WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT FOR?”

“You really think I can’t tell what is going on huh?” I started off, and I knew I couldn’t stop now that he was awake. He had to know. “I’m not stupid Lux, I can sense it. I am a ghost after all. You are such an idiot sometimes. You think I wouldn’t have figured out what happened. I know what happened with Estelle and NOW you go and make it worse with Hoom. When were you planning on tell me huh?”

Instead, Lux just turned away with a glare at me, still not wanting to answer. Idiot!

“I don’t have to answer to you.”

That’s when I griped at him and gave him my death glare. Not many people saw it but in Lux’s eyes, as he stared into my red, glaring, upset eyes with my gritted teeth, he was growing scared. He never saw me like this. He deserved to. But instead of me saying something mad, I started to cry a little while I closed my eyes, remembering what he specifically thought and what he did. How could he ever, in his whole life, think that?

“I witnessed it all and Raine also told me. As you slept I placed my hands on your forehead and read your thoughts. You really think you are alone? Is….is that it? Because you’re not. Raine and I have stayed by your side for the last day now because…we’re your friends.” All he did was blink and point out the obvious.

“Wait, did you say last day... I’VE BEEN OUT COLD FOR AN ENTIRE DAY?” I was annoyed that he had to yell and that he probably only paid attention to that last part, and Raine looked like she was about to fall out of her seat.

“Yes. The doctor said you needed more rest and Raine here has been doing her hardest to heal you and might I add a wonderful job.” I had to compliment her. She did a lot of work, even if she didn’t eat at all. Her determination was really interesting… Raine gave a small nod and smile.

“And Cedric?”

“He came and visited earlier but he is with his mom, and he also caught Raine too, but she didn’t put up much of a fight against me.” I decided to play around a bit, hiding a few facts, but he didn’t seem to notice. I just grinned.

“Ahh no fair….you…you are a ghost so you have the advantage.” Raine tried to defend herself, but apparently, I had somehow won that over. I had no idea how though. “You’re just too strong….but…he was cute.” That’s when both Lux and I both heard Raine’s stomach growling and she turned bright red. “Umm will you excuse me, I am going to go get something to eat.” I guess she really was hungry after all. It was just really interesting, I guess… Raine hurried out of the room, completely flustered.

“She has been healing you so much that she forgot to eat. She is a strange one,” I told Lux. “A bit odd, but she does have a good heart.” I decided to tell him such, but not about what I had done with taking out his darkness. He didn’t need to know about that quite yet…

“Now Lux, why don’t you tell me what happened between Estelle since this is was the start of everything…” I needed to know, and it had been on my mind a bit of time. What had really happened with Estelle? Even if Lux resisted, I could just give him that glare again but he could see how worried I was and now that nobody was around, he finally started talking.

At some points, he hesitated, thinking it over of what he would tell me at some points and what not to tell me. I knew with what he did, I knew he would be upset and especially about Estelle. To forget all of her memories about him just like that… Even I found that surprising. He started to cry at that part but then slowly continued and told me what happened with Gil afterwards with the chasing through the house and somewhat destroying it, and then him committing suicide up on the mountain near the ocean. I continued to listen with small tears in my eyes, remembering his parents and what happened then, but he brought up what had happened while he was fighting with death.

“Memories? What do you mean?” I asked and he looked at me hesitantly, as if afraid to tell me.

“I think they were memories of everybody I knew. My best guess,” Lux shrugged and I just nodded.

“Who’s did you see?” I asked and that’s when Lux grew quiet. Wait…

“I saw some of dear Hoom’s, Gil’s, and yours,” Lux told me quietly and I looked at him with wide eyes. My memories? Of what? I grew a bit nervous.

“M-Mine? W-What of?” I asked him and he just closed his eyes, probably not wanting to look me in the eye.

“You were being chased by these two girls, them dragging you by the hair right after you were picking flowers. I-I couldn’t… help,” Lux growled and I closed my eyes for a moment, remembering that single moment when that happened. I was ten years old. Of course. That one moment, where the town went crazy but they had no idea what had happened. Of course not.

“Of course you couldn’t,” I said with a shaking voice as tears strung down my eyes a little and I opened them again. “T-That memory was from when I was t-ten. I… I was picking f-flowers for my mother’s birthday and the two girls saw me, the girls who usually bullied me, and they came over and I started crying once I heard their c-calls…” I shook a little as I remembered the taunts they gave me. The nicknames…

“… And they dragged me over to the river that was nearby and I noticed an old friend of mine… A Shiftray Gijinka. I called out to him b-but… he just looked at me, smirked and kept on walking… and as the girls were taunting me, I came up with a quick plan, but I didn’t expect it to work. I got out from under their grips… and choked them while they were underwater…” Lux’s eyes grew wide. “And they were found the next day by some fishers. The town was astonished but nobody was able to figure out what happened. My parents knew because I came home shaking that day and they comforted me but didn’t pry, didn’t do much about it. They couldn’t punish me because that was the first real thing I had ever done in my life, and they knew this was common and just comforted me. They didn’t do… a thing. At all,” I sighed and wiped the tears off my face. “Amazing what old memories do,” I chuckled slightly, but it was such a dead chuckle. That memory brought up a lot of things. Especially the Shiftray, Shift.

It took a while for Lux to speak up.

“Does Mear know that you were bullied?” That’s when my heart stopped. I knew Lux was worried, but did he really need to bring up Mear?

Everything paused and all Lux did was look for an answer in me with his eyes and it took me a while to speak. He didn’t know. Nobody did except for people that suspected it back at the mansion.

“Mear’s gone… He left the mansion… and me along with it. He broke up with me-“ I couldn’t look Lux in the eye as he stared at me. “-and he’s gone. He just left… and that’s final.”

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OMG 16 PAGES X.X *dead* Longest post ever... I hope that was okay with everybody and please tell me your thoughts! :)I hope that was okay with you, Iruka-chan and Kitty-chan! :) Took a while ^-^;; Gomen ^-^;;;

Yep, that's Shupple's past, somewhat ^-^;;; I have more on her world though :)

And I have a profile change for her on my world since it was the new year and I wanted to update it :) I hope that was okay with you, Otomi-chan :) ^-^;;;

Featured in this post: Cedric, Raine, Lux, Shupple, and mention of Mear

Around the Time of: Following up Iruka-chan's post and in the hospital :)

~Anime-chan

End