[ Coinciding Ideals ]
requested by Bejeweled_Cookie

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"Welcome back everyone, to the Vermillon Beach Monsterwave-riding Contest! Every year, wave riders from all over the region gather here!" While the four-eyed master of ceremonies was still kicking off the event, no one would have ever thought that the race they were participating in would lead to the doom of their city. "As for the grand prize winner..."

"Perfect for long trips across the sea; a Pokémon that any surfer would weep for the chance to own!" The commentator continued, gesturing behind himself where a Dragonair as beautiful as it was prideful stood with its head high. Every competitor was in this showdown partially for the rare reward, but Yellow Caballero was eyeing the serpentine creature more intently than anyone else.

"And now for the opening ceremonies! We begin with a demonstration of the Dragonair's wave-riding abilities!" The man in glasses instructed the tamed dragon-type to dive into the water and put its skills to use. What wasn't planned was for the Dragonair to abruptly stop in its tracks as soon as it had distanced itself enough from the harbour. "Just a moment... something seems to be wrong—"

Screams of distress filled the air when the royal blue Pokémon began rampaging without warning, calling forth vigorous waves that were too much to withstand for even the most skillful of surfers. "What in the world is happening?! A whirlpool has appeared around Dragonair and it's pulling the contestants down!"

While everyone else was too preoccupied in finding something to hold on to in order to avoid drowning, Yellow attempted to understand the creature's unexpected violent outburst. But it seemed like the MC had beat her to it. "W-Wait! On top of Dragonair's head— Who is that?!"

"That's my business." Resounded a deep voice from atop the serpentine creature. No later introduction was drawn out of the red-haired man wearing a cape before he ordered a series of consecutive Hyper Beams to be executed. The attacks were all unimaginably powerful and chipped away at Vermillon City little by little until only rumble was left of it.

After further exerting dominance and not finding what he was looking for, the mysterious villain had no choice but to leave empty-handed and advance on his quest. Being the righteous Trainer that she was, Yellow couldn't sit back and watch the evildoer get away while twiddling her thumbs, and instead tailed him unnoticeably.

"Why have you followed me?!" The latter was unfortunately too perceptive for the blonde girl's plan to work. Despite various disadvantages, Yellow wasn't going to let herself be intimidated by this stranger, and was swift to shoot back a retort: "Why did you destroy the city?!"

"I was looking for something and the buildings were blocking my view. Pity it was a wasted effort." The dark-eyed male answered with no shred of shame lingering in his cold voice. His irrational actions had led Yellow to think that he was also part of the immoral organization whose members she had already faced in the past. "I knew Team Rocket used Pokémon for evil, but I've never heard of anything like this!"

"Evil? Well, well... Is that what I was doing? I had no idea." The caped man snorted, malevolent laughter following up right afterwards. "But look at it from a Pokémon's perspective. Would you want to be kept as a pet in some suffocating little city like that?"

The red-head claimed that any further conversation with someone who could never understand his grand aspirations to be a waste of his precious time, and so engaged in a battle with the Caballero. Not even the unruly weather conditions that the villain brought forth provided him with enough aid when he and the Dragonair he was controlling were hit by an unforeseen Thunderbolt.

With the thunderstorm still raging and their consciousness having been drawn out of them by Pikachu's prior attack, both the caped man and the serpentine creature were swallowed by the waves — quite ironic, as they had used them to raid the contest with — while Yellow and her Pokémon escaped to safety.

Unbeknownst to both sides, a herd of Dragonite was making its way to the site.

* * *

There were various reasons that drove people to detach themselves from the rest of society and lead their lives far away from it. Some would decide to do so out of their own volition, because they wanted to take a breather from the suffocating city life or because they were the loner kind of person in the first place. Others, like you, had no other choice but to distance themselves from others because they were outcasts.

One could even go as far and classify you as a special kind of outcast, obviously not in a good way. Taking part in a research project on the mythical creature Mew would sound alluring to anyone who harbored a deep interest in both mythology or Pokémon altogether, but you were a fool to have believed that pretense.

Team Rocket had used that camouflage to lure in a good amount of scientists and Pokémon fanatics in order to make them work on their own selfish plans that strayed so much from the reason you had joined the troupe to begin with. It was sadly far too late when you found out that your abilities were being used to conduct harmful experiments on innocent Pokémon.

You had already lost everything the moment you joined Blaine and his men in the Cinnabar Lab, so you thought you could make it up to those poor pocket monsters by not lending Team Rocket your strength any longer. That's precisely what you did by running away from the island entirely. Of course, Giovanni's underlings and the boss himself weren't too fond of your idea which led to you being hunted down.

It was on a stormy day when you attempted your escape via a sea route in hopes of shaking off the pestering Team Rocket grunts. Although you may have succeeded in that, owning no water-type Pokémon had turned you into a victim of the raging waves that felt no remorse when filling up your lungs with stinging saltwater.

It was a group of friendly Dragonite that had rescued your benumbed self by bringing you to their home: Dragonite Island. It was a place void of human presence and filled with the Dragon Pokémon's evolutionary family and brimming nature. Their peaceful way of living was irresistible to you, especially at the lowest point in your life — after having been betrayed and tricked into committing crimes — and you ended up settling in with them.

With the passage of time, a cottage was built to serve as both your and the Pokémon's refuge — one that was put to good use in winters especially. And other than receiving a few shipments of essential materials from the mainland, you remained true to the dragons' policy of staying away from the human world. The only connection they shared with people was during catastrophes when they would save humans' lives.

And almost on cue with that thought, you spotted the flock of Dragonite that had set out on their rescue mission not too long ago. It was evident that they were transporting something, but you could only identify it to be a man's body and a Dragonair when they landed on shore. You ran over to the orange creatures in a hurry and knelt right next to the person they had brought.

"Hey, can you hear me?" You shook the male's shoulder urgently yet gently, your voice coming out a tad desperate since you weren't used to tending to injured humans on this island. The coated man gave no signs of movement or life for that matter and you leaned your face down to his own. "Thank Arceus, he's at least breathing."

Times like these were the only times you were grateful for the emergency aid sessions at the Cinnabar Lab as you knew how to perform correct chest compressions. You were only hoping that none of the stranger's ribs would break during the process as you thrusted your hands against his upper torso, seen as providing him with the necessary medical care would be impossible here.

With the continuous lack of reaction from the still unconscious man, you were slowly starting to doubt your ability in CPR and grew uneasy. You didn't know if you could cope with the fact that a person might die in front of your eyes because of what you couldn't do for them, especially after having been the source of tragedy for a good amount of Pokémon already.

Switching the positions of your hands by bringing one to the male's face, you shuffled in the sand and leaned down again. Pinching his nose shut, you inhaled deeply and lowered your lips towards the stranger's in attempt to supply him with much needed rescue breathing. Just as they were about to connect, the man suddenly jerked his face to the side and violently coughed up water that was blocking his respiratory system.

You backed away accordingly and exhaled a big sigh of relief, the Dragonite that surrounded you imitating your gesture. "Are you alright?" The red-head was snapped back to reality by the concern that lingered in your tone and glared at you skeptically without answering you vocally. Assuming he was remaining quiet due to the shock or out of caution, you added: "You should change out of those wet clothes. Catching a cold way out here is never a good thing."

"Where am I?" His hoarse and signature manly voice caught you a tad off guard but not enough for you to ignore his question. "This is Dragonite Island. These Dragonite must have saved you from a thunderstorm somewhere and brought you here so we could treat you."

"I have never heard of such a place." The caped man retorted doubtfully, his furrowed brows indicating that he wasn't exactly buying your explanation. It was understandable — in his shoes, you weren't too certain if you would believe yourself either. "That's because the Dargonite have been concealing the existence of this place from the rest of humanity. You see those grey rain clouds all around the island? Those act as a barrier to separate here from the outside world."

"If that's the case, what are you doing here?" The lack of faith this male was displaying towards you seemed to irritate the Dragonite circling the two of you to the point that they wanted to growl at him — something they generally never did, given their gentle nature. "I was rescued and brought here by them, just like you."

"You don't need to trust me right away, but you're free to take refuge here until you recover properly." You had given up on helping him dry himself off since he seemed to be against it, but you still offered him an alternative, only to be leered at. "That's highly unlikely; I don't have a habit of trusting strangers, ever."

"In that case, I'm [Name]. Makes me a little less of a stranger, right?" Not knowing why you had even gone for some light humor in this situation, you couldn't help but chuckle sheepishly. The red-head's reaction was unexpectedly... not unpleasant, given his pair of widened eyes and silence.

He couldn't figure out why you would still try to act nice to a person who had behaved so scornfully — especially seen as he was still amongst the living only thanks to you and your dragon-type comrades. He cleared his throat to camouflage his bafflement as he averted his silvery gaze. "Lance."

"It's nice to meet you, despite the unfavorable circumstances." A smile ultimately crawled onto your lips after having finally managed to plant a crack in Lance's iron defense. The latter was certain upon hearing your comment that you really had no idea of his identity and of the gruesome things he had done on the mainland. "So, is there or isn't there a way I can dry my clothes?"

"Right! My cottage isn't far from here, and although I may not have a change of clothes for you, I'm sure we can figure something out." You answered, your thoughts already drifting to ways you could warm the young man up. Your eyes then fell on the Pokémon that had been accompanying him for a moment. "What about your Dragonair?"

"That— That's actually not my Pokémon." Although his vague statement piqued your curiosity, you weren't about to paint yourself as nosy and ask Lance for details. He had decided that the serpentine creature could fend for itself now that it had regained consciousness.

Without further ado, you led him to your humble home, one of the wild Dragonite tagging along just in case this stranger would try doing something funny to you. Once inside, you asked your partner to light a flame in the fireplace in order for the temperature to rise and facilitate the process of drying both Lance and his soaked attire.

"As I've said, I don't have anything that could fit you, but you can wrap yourself in this for the time being." You suggested upon grabbing a blanket and showing it to the ashen-eyed male. He nodded in approval and began stripping immodestly, causing you to snap your head in a different direction as a blush settled on your cheeks.

Even without checking, you could tell that Lance had taken off everything safe his underwear. In exchange for handing him the mentioned blanket, you were given his damp pieces of clothing as you knew best where to deposit them. You were quick to return to your bed, where he had seated himself.

Feeling a bit bold — maybe because Lance did the same when he disrobed himself — you even went as far as to dry his hair with a towel and surprisingly, your hands weren't slapped away at the contact. Although you were trying not to look at him directly, the urge was stronger than your will and your eyes even locked.

You felt your face heating up under his intense gaze and were driven to direct your own elsewhere momentarily. Some more time flew by in silence — silence that felt suffocating at first but merged into comfortableness not too much later.

Despite his somewhat twisted personality, he thought he would be unnecessarily unfair towards you if he were to continue with his distant behavior after you had helped him out so much — especially when his conscience began tormenting him by stating that you were nursing someone to full health who had just destroyed an entire city on a whim.

And so, Lance began asking you questions. Most regarded Dragonite Island and its mechanism, but some even happened to be more personal. With that kind of sudden initiative, you felt as though it was OK to inquire about himself as well. Expectedly, the both of you avoided telling one another about your crooked sides and pasts.

The red-head seemed to bear a genuine interest towards dragon-type and dragon-like Pokémon, Dragonite being his favorite of all, so you promised to show him around the island as soon as he had something dry to change into. In spite of that, you were expecting him to leave once he had seen what he wanted to, given his initial discomfort in being here in the first place. Lance went against your prediction, however.

He ended up staying on Dragonite Island for more than a month.

Neither of you had any means to keep track with what was happening in the rest of Kanto, but Lance was fairly certain that the other Elite Four members were carrying out their initial plans even without his presence. He felt conflicted about that in the start, but with each day he spent together with you, he couldn't help but think that none of the destruction mattered anymore.

If it meant that he could stay on this remote island alongside you and the Pokémon in harmony, he felt no need to dispose of the other toxic humans.

He had no idea that watching over a series of newly-hatched Dratini could be so enjoyable. Then again, the way you would laugh upon being tickled by the little critters' slippery skin seemed to make everything even more worthwhile. The same could be applied to whenever the two of you helped Dragonair figure out how to fly or assisted Dragonite in washing the body parts which they couldn't reach themselves.

What more could he possibly wish for?

You and Lance were just seeing off a herd of Dragonite that was embarking on their next rescue mission when an undesired thought started pestering the back of your mind. Growing attached to the caped young man was unavoidable in your eyes, and catching feelings for him came naturally with all the time you had spent in each other's presence.

Those factors made posing the following question much harder, but you weren't too fond of the selfishness that had taken form inside of you and asked it anyway. "I... don't necessarily want you to, but don't you need to head back? I mean, won't people be worried about you?"

"I doubt that." Lance knew that you were only saying that because you had his best interests in mind — that seemed to be your modus operandi anyway — so he attempted to rid you of any sort of guilty feelings that may have manifested due to his prolonged stay here. "I'm not a people person — I'm certain you could tell — but more than that, I don't like the way Pokémon are treated by people."

"And yet, you've been peacefully living on this island alongside these Dragonite for so long. You're... different from the others." He continued and finally took his gaze away from the sky and directed it towards you instead. It wasn't the first time you felt as though you could get lost in the beauty of those ashen eyes.

"I don't know if it's because your way of leading life coincides with my ideals so much or if the cause is something else entirely, but ever since meeting you, I've felt this strong connection to you." Unlike when he had first gotten here, his voice was much gentler, as if your presence had ground its rough edges.

Blood began rushing to your cheeks and you couldn't help but assume that his words had a deeper meaning to them, or even an ulterior motive. Your wishful thinking even interpreted his statement as some sort of confession, which drove you to grab hold of his calloused hand. "I... I feel the same way."

"Which is why I wouldn't mind— no, why I would love for you to stay here with us. To stay here with me." The confidence you were trying to display in those words contradicted the way you were shyly looking away with a visible blush plastered across your cheeks, but it was something Lance learned to cherish about you.

He gave your hand a soft squeeze and urged you to look back at him, only for your heart to almost beat out of your chest when he began to close in. Your eyes instinctively fluttered shut and your lips were finally met by the warmth of his own.

The first peck seemed to act as a confirmation, as something that allowed Lance to figure out wether it was alright to take things a step further or not. You had given him the answer he wished for by reciprocating the gesture and invited him for a deeper kiss by parting your lips slightly yet notably. That one led to yet another one, only to be followed by more — to the point where you had each other wrapped in one another's arms tightly.

It was no secret that both of your morals and ideals had been twisted by humanity somewhere along the way, but by finding each other, you were able to straighten those up and move on — together.

[ E N D ]

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My note to you:
Some of you may have noticed and some may have not, but this was a mishmash of the events in Pokémon Adventures volume five and Pokémon Journeys EP10. And not to toot my own horn, but I'm quite satisfied with how this came out (especially if you compare it to what it used to be before xD).

Fanart of the day:

Meme of the day:

Fact of the day:
Did you know that Draco Meteor was created as a result of a Japanese Pokémon competition in which the participants had to come up with a new dragon-type move?

Thank You for Reading!