Archive of Our Own ^beta

“Come on Alain! You’re too slow!” Mairin pouted as she ran ahead of him.

Honestly he didn’t know how she still had all that energy after the plane ride from Kalos to Unova, but he chalked it up to Mairin being herself.

After getting Chespie back, Mairin decided that a celebration was in order, so here they were in Unova hoping to get some Castilea Cones. And maybe Alain can find someone with a keystone so they can have a battle. Maybe.

The chances were slimmer here, after all.

After Mairin dragged him to the line, they had to wait. She was not good at that. She leaned on her tippy-toes. “How much longer?”

”Mairin, we just got here…”

Chespie jumped onto Mairin’s head, probably wanting to use Vine Whip to just take a cone for themselves.

”Oh no you don’t!” Mairin put it back on the ground. “I’m not that desperate. Plus that isn’t very nice.”

”Ches…”

-

Finally, it was their turn. Mairin stepped up to the counter. “Three Castelia Cones please!”

”Ches Chespin!”

The man smiled at them. “All right. That’ll be 9 dollars please.”

Alain pulled out the money and handed it to him. He put the money in the register then walked away to make the cones before coming back. “Here you are.”

”Thank you!” Mairin took hers and ran away to go find a place to sit, almost falling once before Chespie’s vines caught her.

Alain sighed. “Seriously, where does she get that energy from?”

”She kinda reminds me of someone.”

He jumped and looked next to him seeing…the champion of Sinnoh?

”Sorry for startling you, I’m just here for some ice cream. Even champions need a break every once in a while.”

”Yeah…”

She noticed they were holding up the line. “We can continue this conversation if you’d like. But you might wanna sit down, I may take a while.”

-

A while was an understatement.

Mairin and Alain had already finished their ice cream when Cynthia finally joined them on the bench. “I’m indecisive when it comes to ice cream flavors…sorry about that.”

”It’s fine.” Oh right, they haven’t introduced themselves. “I’m Alain.”

”I’m Mairin, Alain’s travel buddy! And this is Chespie, my partner!”

”Chespin!”

Cynthia smiled at them. “I’m Cynthia.”

Mairin’s eyes widened. “No way, the Cynthia? Sinnoh Champion Cynthia?”

”The one and only.”

”Woah, so cool! Now we know two champions!” She got up and spun Chespie around.

”Ches Chespin!”

Alain remembered something. “Oh yeah, you said Mairin reminded you of someone?”

”Wait I do?” Mairin tried to stop spinning but fell over instead. “I’m okay…”

Cynthia chuckled. “You sure do. Does the name Ash Ketchum ring a bell?”

Alain looked surprised. “You know Ash too?”

”I ran into him a few times, including right here in Unova. Last I heard he was in Alola, probably on vacation. Or, knowing him, looking for more trainers to battle.”

“Yeah, that sounds like him…”

She noticed his keystone. “You have a keystone, huh?”

”Oh, yeah. It’s for my Charizard.”

Cynthia started eating her ice cream. Mairin ran around playing tag with Chespie. “You battle?”

”Well, sometimes. I’m mostly looking into Mega Evolution and learning more about it under Professor Sycamore.”

”Interesting. Find anything out?”

”Nothing recently. I haven’t been doing it for long.”

”What did you do before then?”

He stared ahead at the people walking about. “I don’t wanna talk about it.”

Ah. Must not have been pleasant, then. Time to change the subject. “How do you know Ash?”

”I first heard about him from Mairin, then I met him during his journey in the Kalos region.” And he saved the world, but he wasn’t going to say that. It was still too…recent. “You?”

”Ran into him during his travels in Sinnoh.” And he also helped her save the world…funny how often that seemed to happen when he was around. Saving the world shouldn’t fall onto a child’s shoulders.

”I battled him in the Kalos League.” He can say that much at least. “He got second place.”

”He batted in the Sinnoh League as well, but another trainer beat him.” With those legendary pokemon…it’s amazing that Pikachu knocked one of them out in the first place. Though maybe that wasn’t a normal Pikachu.

”Alain, where are we gonna stay?” Mairin looked over at him.

Oh. Um…”I don’t know.”

”You don’t know???”

”You did kinda decide this on a whim. Next time we should plan better.”

Mairin pouted at him again. “I didn’t drive us to the airport.”

He sighed.

Cynthia decided to say something. “If I may…I have a villa if you’d like to stay there.”

”You do?”

She nodded. “I normally stay there when I come here every summer.”

”So cool! Can we Alain, can we?” Mairin jumped up and down.

He looked at Cynthia. “Are you sure? I don’t want to intrude.”

”It’s not an intrusion. Besides, I’d get to battle that Charizard of yours.” She showed him her keystone.

Alain considered it. It wouldn’t be for that long, maybe a day or so…”All right, I suppose we can stay.”

”Yay!” Mairin was happy.

”I’ll have someone pick us up. In the meantime, why don’t we show our Pokemon?”

Perhaps Cynthia wasn’t the only one who needed a break.