sleeping at last (pokemon fanfiction)

i.

"Blaise, wake up!"

He twists his shoulders, face against the pillow. Moonlight streams in thin ribbons across the ridges of his backbone, a vivisection of Blaise's body.

Body.

Blaise jolts awake in cold sweat, gasping. The girl next to him instantly leans away as if being burned by a hot fire. "Arceus, Blaise. Do you ever slow down for a second?"

He pauses. "What?"

"You were rapping in your sleep." The girl deadpans. He takes the momentary pause to examine her familiar features— deep red hair cut in a bob, ocean gray eyes. "I'm going to have to smother you to death if you make one more ridiculous verse."

"Well, I'm awake," Blaise replies bitingly, and the voice that erupts from his throat is so different than what he's used to that he nearly chokes on nothing afterwards. "What year is it, Nathalie?"

She says the year and his heart drops.

"I'm fifteen," he says.

"Yes, you are, you buffoon," Nathalie gripes. She yanks the sleeve of his pajamas and he stumbles out of bed, vision clearing. Her face is youthful, clear of any stress and scarring, save for some acne scars by the curve of her chin. "You knock your head when you were sleeping or something? Arceus." She mutters some expletives. "We're sneaking out, remember?"

Blaise gazes at the beds of slumbering children laid out like coffins, though not as dead silent. "Mum will have our heads."

"If she catches us, and she's not even your real mother," Nathalie retorts, tugging again. He yields this time, unused to the tangle of his limbs from a continuous growth spurt. "We're meeting them in the yard."

"The yard is the worst place." The words are as natural as a waterfall's descent, spilling out of his mouth. "Pick the garden instead."

"The witch doesn't sleep," Nathalie snorts. "She's always tending to her gardens, you idiot. Let's go."

They end up going to the yard, a square of dusty cobblestone and a leaking water fountain with a statue of three angels woven with ivy perched on top. Blaise still remembers the way the third angel crouching down has an eye of peculiar gold. It is, after all, a shrine to the three spirits— Mespirit, Azelf, and Uxie, personified.

"This entire place is just a cult," Blaise mutters, and it's not really a joke because he remembers what would happen a year from now. "We should just leave. Not sneak out for a night."

Nathalie pauses her praying by the fountain. "Who the hell are you and what have you done with Blaise? Your bravado is super chad, y'know? Not that I'm complaining, but we already have Jai, and..."

A white hot burn sears in his chest like a knife warmed over open fire. Jai. The person Arceus had forgotten. Quiet but resilient. Quiet and ambitious. Quiet and quite an asshole.

"What about me?" A voice punctures the murmuring bubble of the fountain, and Jai enters the vicinity, chained compass clasped in his hand. "You're talking behind my back again, Nathalie?"

"Call me Halie," Nathalie grumbles.

"Okay, Nath."

"You're goddamn deaf!"

"You want Mum to hear you?" Jai snaps back, and Nathalie's expression contorts into one of sheer irritation. She grumbles again, crossing her arms and resuming her silent prayer by the fountain. "Blaise. Fancy seeing you here."

Blaise shrugs. Despite Jai's unassuming presence, his appearance is the opposite. The moonlight gleams off of his hydrangea blue hair, pulled back into a short ponytail that Blaise knows will get him in trouble because the head of the orphanage hated long hair.

Hates, Blaise reminds himself, because this present had happened before— it was his past.

"Mm, new kid tailed you?" Jai continues, and Blaise swivels around. Though Jai's words send palpitations coursing through his body, and Blaise thinks he's prepared to see him again, he still freezes.

"You got me there. I just wanted to explore." Evan shrugs. His flaxen hair is more silver than gold in the moon, and his dark eyes are unreadable. "You surprised the new kid ain't crying?"

"Sure," Nathalie says unashamedly. There's a wicked glint of interest in her eyes as she leans backwards slightly, turning to look at the newcomer. "Swear on Arceus you're a cool kid?"

"I think showing you is more than some words," replies Evan, as equally blunt. "Hey, you there. Kid with the white streaks in their hair."

Blaise snaps to attention. "Evan."

"You know my name?"

Blaise bites back a curse. "Mum yelled at you for chasing some Mareep yesterday. You're acting awfully comfortable to a group of strangers. What if we were sacrificing something to Arceus like a cult? What if you end up as a sacrifice?" He steps forward, intending to intimidate Evan. Evan's countenance is serene. Blaise wants to whack it off. There's so much history between the two that hasn't happened, but Blaise still wants Evan to pay for it. "We're gonna kill a god tonight."

The words hang in the air. It feels so fucking good to say those words, especially since Blaise had technically done it before. And he knows how Evan will react.

Evan's mouth curves up into a smile. "I'll take you up on that offer."

Behind them, Jai and Nathalie shift, obviously confused.