Pieces of Us (SatoGou)

Chapter 22

here it is, the final chapter :)
before I finish it, I wanted to share the short playlist of songs that inspired parts of this fic:

1. People You Know- Selena Gomez
2. Forgive Me, Friend- Smith & Thell
(those two gave me the initial idea)
3. Just Pretend- Bad Omens
4. Glimpse of Us- Joji
5. You Get Me So High- The Neighbourhood
6. The Beach- The Neigbourhood
7. You and I- PVRIS
8 . Atlantis- Seafret
9. Don't Delete the Kisses- Wolf Alice (the main song I associate with this fic, ofc!!)

I sit upright in bed, a horrible jolting feeling sucking me out of my dream and into reality. I recognize this feeling. It has my heart pounding against my ribcage so fast I feel like I'm going to burst. I throw the covers off and race out of the room, already dialing Goh, the door clicking shut behind me as I bite my lip hard. Come on, pick up, pick up-

"Ash?" Goh says, sounding fine. Relief floods over me, almost making me fall back against the wall. "Isn't it like, 3am there? Is everything okay?"

"I'm fine. Are you? Is everything okay?" I ask, trying not to sound too frantic but failing.

"Yeah. I was trying to fix a window and fell off a ladder. It didn't hurt, I just got a shock, I think. Did you feel it?"

I blow out a breath. I'm grateful that I'll know if he's ever in any danger, but I wish I wouldn't wake up in the night whenever he got a fright. It doesn't happen often- only a few times in the last couple months, whenever something's made him panic. He gets the same with me, though.

"Yeah," I say. "It woke me up."

"I'm sorry," he says. "You should go back to bed."

I know I should. I'm yawning, exhausted, and I have lectures at 9am tomorrow. Still, it's so good to hear his voice. Recently, we've only been able to talk when it's early morning there, and late evening here. With the time zones one of us is almost always sleeping while the other is awake. There are a lot of busy days where we don't get to speak at all.

"I miss you," I say.

"I miss you too," he says. My heart clenches painfully in my chest. It's been two months since I last saw him in person, but it's felt like much longer. Some days I feel fine, but others are harder than they were before we reconnected. It feels like I'm only half of myself, and there's that constant pull towards him, forever making my heart ache. I spend a lot of days fighting off depressive episodes.

The whole world knows about us now. I had a lot of confused texts and calls to answer when I got off the plane in Castelia after having no signal for the entire fifteen hour flight. In the time between me leaving Kanto and arriving here, it had spread like wildfire. It took me a whole week to get back to everyone, and explain to all of them what had happened.

My favourite nights are the ones where I dream of him. Sometimes they're vivid, lucid dreams that I can hold onto in the morning, and pretend they're real. I never thought one person could drive me so insane.

"Just another month," Goh says after a moment of silence. "Then you'll be home for Christmas, right?"

"Yeah," I say, smiling sadly. "I can't wait to see you." I don't tell him that I've literally been counting down the days.

"I love you, Ash. Now go back to bed," he says, laughing. I huff a laugh.

"I love you too. Call me tomorrow?"

"Obviously." I can tell he's grinning, even from across the world. "Goodnight."

I head back into the room quietly, trying not to wake Nate. I feel infinitely better from just hearing his voice. Still, every time I do, it adds a little bit onto the loneliness I feel here in Unova. I try to hide it, but it's really getting to me. I miss Goh, but I also miss Dawn, and Chloe. I miss our little squad. I feel like I was happiest in those final days, when we were all together. They are my family. Here, I feel torn away from them. They're all together in Kanto, especially now that Dawn has moved in with Chloe officially, and I'm stuck here, half the world away.