Fishing Lessons

The city seemed to be considerably emptier now than it was an hour ago when I arrived at the lab, I observed as we left the cab in front of the hotel. The bright, lively and crowded streets from the noon now carried the most eerie air, and not a living soul apart from Calem and I could be seen anywhere around us. I shivered to think about it, and felt quite glad that Calem had come to pick me up.

"So Shauna kept saying I was being silly, exaggerating... Uh... She also used the word 'overprotective'. She thought I'd only get you annoyed..."

My cautious feet knocking on the soft, fancy carpet produced a mute thud. My heart began to beat at a normal pace...

"And she said that... That she knew just what I was doing, and why." – His voice suddenly assumed a pensive tone – "What do you think?"

We had just stopped before the twin doors that led to each of our separate rooms. Though I had heard his voice, I only then realized that I hadn't listened to a single word, and only then did I face him, lifting my eyes from my feet and my thoughts from what had arrested them, whatever that was. I had no idea what he was talking about then, but a grave expression about his eyes demanded answer like a lost pet begs rescue.

"Do you think... Shauna's right?" – He repeated with sensible apprehension after interpreting my lag as uncertainty.

"I think she's... mistaken..." – I risked.

"You do?!" He sighed a relieved smile, and I stepped into the darkness of my room.

"It's good night then, huh, neighbor?"

"Yeah. Good night, Calem."

Looking cheerful again, he stood in the doorway and faced me in the dark for a while longer before actually deciding to let me go. When he did begin to leave, a hastened pace brought him back, and his words began to scrabble:

"Well, you know, about today... About... uhm... I'm kind of glad that Sycamore was just teaching you some weird mojo, because... Because deep down I thought that... It's stupid, but..." He laughed half-heartedly.

I grimaced, confused, and he sighed in defeat... or overtaken by a new, rash resolution. I would learn it was the latter...

"For a moment, I thought he would have done this..." – His semantics finally restored, he put his hands around my face and in a quick, surprising second, his lips touched against mine.

I felt his inexperienced lips explore nervously that attempt of a kiss, and then retreat, probably running out of the determination that started it in the first place. He smiled at me embarrassedly, and I didn't know what to say or do.

"Good night, neighbor!" – Fortunately, he didn't linger and wait for a response.

"Good...night..." I muttered, recollecting, when he had already closed the door behind himself.

I closed mine, crossed the room, dropped on the bed, completely astounded. A few hours ago, I had hardly an idea of what was the touch of a foreign skin against mine. Now I lay in suffocating confusion of sensations: the two events too close together, the contrast too great – The fresh, bold, stingy and consuming kiss the Professor had virtually forced upon me, arrayed in all the strange and unknown feelings it brought into me... The quiet, calm, quivering lips of Calem's attempting to overthrow the first.

Calem's was definitely a depiction of what a first kiss should be: the uncertainty, the youthful curiosity, his delicate, small hands holding me as if I could break, or fall, if he dared move a finger... but it wasn't the first. I had been gravely robbed! Sycamore's large shoulders encircling me, his large body pinning me down, his hands caressing me, moving me, running freely across the uncharted surface of my body, while his mouth so much as devoured mine in a burning and intimidating flame from which I couldn't pull away. A strangely pleasant mingle of fear and surrender, that disturbed and excited me in equally extreme levels just by calling back to mind. The unexpected, unasked-for wave swept me from the sweet summer breeze of a first-kiss pleasure, swept me from Calem's careful hands...

...and made them meaningless.

I turned to the side, hugged my knees, fixed my staggered eyes elsewhere other than the crimson-papered room. I deeply hoped I could find some sleep, for my thoughts tortured me.

The next morning, we were all – the five of us – defeating trainer after trainer in the Battle Chateau on route 7, waiting to see who could stand the longest. Although the pressure of competing stressed the life out of me, it did succeed in silencing the obsession my thoughts had been circling around all night, and also helped Calem forget there was ever a closer intimacy between us than that of friends and neighbors. He did snag an "Earl" title after all, and sure looked cuter wearing that medal as we crossed route 7 in the red sunset.

With the wind turning cold as a distant sea breeze found its way to us in our journey, it became easier to put behind the eventful evening at the Professor's lab the previous day... To forget the warmth of his touch, the scorching lips pressing against mine and the soft breath tracing my skin. It was all helped by the fact that none of us heard from him in a while, and none of us talked about him either...

...That lasted for two days.

I was distracted reeling in the line and loosing it again, having passed the point of being disturbed by not finding fishing as natural a sport as Calem did, who had already managed to capture three Pokémon that way. His parents were Pokémon trainers, I reminded myself, and continued to pretend I was in control of the situation.

It was funny, then, to realize that I was annoyed: It seems that Calem's rivalry was starting to rub off on me. I eyed him by the end of such thought, his face glowing in a tranquil pride... I couldn't help but smile at ourselves.

Trevor had folded up the hems of his pants and stood in the water holding out his Pokédex, waiting to be the first to register a Pokémon when one happened to be pushed out of the water – and he did so before anyone could even get a glimpse of it!

Looking over my shoulder, Shauna and Tierno played on the sand like the biggest beach cliché, probably building castles or something of the sort.

The sky was a big mass of grey clouds announcing a big storm to come, and the beach was a desolate, completely empty scenario under that atmosphere... but we were all managing to have fun, one way or the other.

Trevor sighed, bored by our lack of success in the last few minutes, and strayed his gaze returning it to the town. They fixed elsewhere, then, and his eyes grew wide... He jumped out of the water, running towards whatever had called his attention.

"Professor Sycamore!"

Trevor's scream seemed to awaken all of us from the paradise numbness that the lonely breeze had encircled us in. That name alone sent shivers up my spine. In some corner of my mind I wished he wouldn't be there when I turned around, for with him – and there he was, his peaceful eyes weighing down upon me and his conceited smile mocking my self-consciousness – came back all those unwelcome feelings assaulting my breast.

"Why, hello, children! Never thought I would run into you here!" He greeted as the entire group, with me as an exception, banded up around him.

"What are you doing here, Professor?" - Calem asked.

"Research, of course!" He answered directly, followed by a playful laugh that neutralized any former sign of rudeness "And you, my young lads?"

"What do you think?!!" Trevor asked joyfully.

I was starting to put together that the only times we saw Trev's emotions surface like that was either when he saw Professor Sycamore or when someone talked badly of him.

"I have registered 6 different kinds of Pokémon only here in Muraille Coast this afternoon!" – He boasted proudly – "Did you know, Professor, that some of the Pokémon found in the sea aren't even water-typed?"

"Did I?!" Sycamore laughed, petting Trevor in the head with an entertained laugh "Look at you, young man! You sound like a little professor yourself!"

Trevor blushed with delight.

"Most of the times he does so!" Shauna added "This one is definitely becoming a researcher just like you, Professor!"

"We just have to find him a new region, that's all..." Tierno remarked "Don't we, guys? After all, we don't want Trevs here stealing Professor Sycamore's job" And then he laughed, shacking Trevor's small structure with a heavy slap on the back.

"Whaaat?!" Trevor closed his fists in awe "I would never do that!" He vehemently cried as his face now glowed in a bright red hue.

Everyone laughed at such a passionate answer – Professor Sycamore closed his eyes to savor the joyous moment with his moderate laughter. When the comedy eased, he slowly opened them and spotted me – I felt myself freeze in place, but he... not even a slightly different shade shone across his blue eyes.

I blushed nervously, and prepared myself to answer his silly remarks, and defend my position away from him with the excuse of being busy, and think of any other way to repel his inconvenient – and, dare I say it, dangerous – friendliness, to escape the fact that he was willing to treat me as if nothing had happened!

...But he said nothing. His eyes lowered back to Trevor without even casting me a polite nod, just as calm as they were before noticing my distant presence, inquiring joyfully:

"So, why don't you show me those Pokémon you just registered?"

I resumed my fishing – or whatever it was I was doing there, holding the handle of the rod much tighter than the task demanded, trying to recompose from the angry fit brooding inside me and making my legs shake under the water. Their laughs went on – even mindful Calem forgetting, in the Professor's charming company, that I stood a few feet away, hard as a stone, facing the ocean and its lazy waves like a figurehead from a ship. And what a heart-breaking sad look that figurehead must have had then!! And all for what?!

The lulling movement of the sea was bound to soothe me – or madden me as I failed to emulate their calm. In any case, I would not look away – I would not turn around and join the collective joy, when he didn't seem to care...

After what seemed like long minutes – I dared not keep track of the time – I felt the line being pulled into the water. Until then, I hardly consciously remembered the fact that I still had a rod, and still was, so to speak, fishing. I looked down, blinking – my sight was strangely blurred from the reverie – and saw the buoy sinking, repeatedly pulled down. The rod began to bend, almost as if it could snap. It was a funny dance to watch as some invisible Pokémon pulled the lure under the water, and tried desperately to escape snatching the nosh. It might have pulled a small laugh or two out of me, out of pure boredom...

"I don't suppose that's quite how you fish, miss Anne..." He remarked, amused. The voice was soft, producing in me the similar effect that the touch of silk would, if the fabric ran through the skin of my face, gently circling it in a smothering attempt.

I turned myself to him quickly by the end of that thought, greatly disturbed by the analogy... But he stood placidly by my side – the freshness and beauty of his looks far from the menacing thing I pictured when he was away, and his smile as lovely as it could ever be, now that it was directed to me.

"Sycamore..." I sighed and, returning my eyes to the ocean, faintly returned "Please, just call me Anne."

"I shall, if only you'll call me Professor Sycamore one more time." He replied mockingly, and then gave me an innocent smile. "Excuse me, may I?" – His hand stretched out closer and a polite delay followed, then his fingers firmly gripped my hands and pulled them back in a swift movement, letting go of me half-air.

The buoy splashed back, gleaming drops of salty water hovered before my eyes as the line now danced freely through the air, free of its underwater oppressor.

"Ohhh... look at that: he got away!" He feigned a depressed tone in his cheerful voice, sounding all the more mocking, and flashed me one of those meek smiles that completely subdued the first impression.

I blushed.

"Maybe you should teach her how to fish, too, Professor!" Calem innocently observed as he passed by.

Sycamore turned his neck and followed him with a smile, then looked back at me from his height – his eyes now weighing a ton on my shoulders, as I felt that both our thoughts returned to the same subject. I angrily looked away.

But he said nothing on the subject, only laughed lightly to himself, innocent enough to resist the irony of Calem's unfortunate comment.

I sulked, firmly holding the rod and my eyes in front of me.

"I hope you can bring yourself to not hate me enough to join me for a cup of coffee on a future occasion, Anne..." The question played about his lips, taking its time as he watched the sea stretching into infinity. All the more, he looked and sounded completely untroubled by his own declaring of my hatred for him, and completely contrary to my sudden ill humor, though certainly aware of it. "This is a lovely town, and you wouldn't want to miss any of it... A Pokémon journey is about your own, individual experience as it is of your Pokémon, wouldn't you agree?" He pleaded, turning my way and closing his eyes in a cute smile. "And from where I'm standing, it doesn't look like you're doing much to enjoy the journey in itself."

His eyes traced back to the group, who now had fun on the sand, laughing and shouting at each other.

"I... I guess..." I replied in a failed attempt to look like I didn't care.

"It is a yes, then? Lovely!" – He retorted with a gleeful tone.

"What?! I..."

"How about brunch? 11am tomorrow, is that fine with you?"

He certainly knew how to be convincing... I awkwardly moaned a reply.

"I do look forward to meeting you then!"

Little after that, Shauna approached us, and, coincidentally or not, Professor Sycamore smiled me a goodbye, and quickly turned away to go:

"Very well... I'll talk with you later!"

I followed him with my eyes as he sought back the small group that Tierno, Trevor and Calem had formed on the sand, now comparing Pokédex numbers as if they were something else...

Shauna sighed, looking the same way I did:

"Stupid, right?! I wish the Professor wouldn't encourage them even more..."

Sycamore looked into their circle and gave praises, stirring up their competition. He looked quite graceful, quite tall standing between them... Made it hard to look away.

"Haven't caught anything yet?" Shauna inquired.

"Oh!"

Again, only then I remembered I was supposed to be fishing.