Tia and Aidan experience a shared nightmare with a surprise ending.
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
“I can’t believe you talked me into this, Aidan.” Tia said, glaring at him.
Aidan shot her an innocent look. “What, a vacation?”
“I should have started writing up my dissertation this week, not spending it doing nothing!”
“Come on, Tia. You needed a break.”
“Visiting my parents six months ago was a break!”
“You needed a longer and better one.”
Tia and Aidan were on Knot Island, also called One Island, in the Sevii Island archipelago. They planned to spend a week’s vacation together, exploring the islands. One week, without the distraction of work.
Tia was currently unpacking her things and getting more and more agitated. She pulled out a shirt from her pack, and a lone Dream Ball popped out and tumbled to the floor.
Aidan saw the Dream Ball, and frowned. “Tia…”
“It’s only a Poke Ball!”
“You agreed. No work, no writing, no Poke Balls!”
“Can I say they just appeared in my pack, and I have no idea how they got there?” Tia smiled at him sweetly.
Aidan stared at her for a moment, seriously, then laughed. “Rest,” he said, picking up the Dream Ball and putting it back in her pack, “and relaxation. No work-”
“No writing, no Poke Balls, I get it!”
“In return, we get to go to the beach, explore ruins, maybe battle some Trainers-”
“Oh, so YOU get to work, while I do nothing!”
“Doing them alone is work,” Aidan said pointedly. “Doing them with you, however, is not.”
Tia looked away from him, her face reddening. Another reason she was not-quite-upset: They were on vacation together. Alone. Just the two of them. Tia was secretly thrilled. She wondered if Aidan had some ulterior motive in inviting her to come with him. Maybe he didn’t, and was just inviting a good friend to spend time with him. She didn’t want to spend the entire time wondering.
“Come on,” Aidan spoke up, “Finish unpacking, and we’ll figure out what to do first!”
They spent the day at the beach, searching for treasure, and spent the other days island-hopping. On Day 3, they went to Three Island and camped out in Berry Forest.
“Are you sure you want to camp out here instead of going to the Pokemon Center?” Aidan asked, “Remember what the locals said about Hypnos-”
“If they use Hypnosis, it wouldn’t matter – we’d already be sleeping!” Tia interrupted, pitching her tent.
“But if they’re hungry and find us sleeping,” Aidan put in, “they’ll use Dream Eater and feast on our dreams!”
Tia stopped dead, then whipped her head to face him. “You must be joking.”
“Nope!” Aidan said cheerfully. Then he smirked. “If you’re scared, I can just share your tent; I don’t mind!”
Tia turned beet-red and turned away, focusing on pitching her tent. “No thank you. Put up your own tent!” Aidan laughed.
The sun sank low in the sky, soon becoming night, and the two settled down in their tents to sleep.
Later, Tia opened her eyes… and found herself in the middle of a cornfield.
“What…? She looked around, expecting to see forest and trees. “Where am I?” She started walking through the field. “Is this a dream? Nothing looks familiar…”
The cornfield abruptly ended, and Tia saw a small cottage in the distance. She jogged over to it, then stopped, feeling a jiggling in her pocket. She reached in and pulled out a handful of Dream Balls. “Weird. I don’t remember putting these here…”
She opened the door. There was a single room, with nothing but a table and chair in the middle. Both were empty. She stared at them for a moment, until she felt a soft touch on her shoulder.
She jumped back, startled, then relaxed. “Aidan! Don’t scare me like that!”
“I’m glad I found you,” Aidan said, “I was getting worried.” He looked around. “Where are we?”
“Dreaming, probably,” Tia answered.
“Together?”
Tia shrugged. “Why not?”
Aidan stared at her. “Oookay. You’re just accepting this situation, then. This must be a dream – otherwise you’d be all over this mystery like white on rice!”
They exited the cottage and walked over to where a river was flowing. Tia spied a line of stones across the river and crossed, hopping from stone to stone.
“Where are we going?” Aidan called out.
Tia gave him a brilliant smile. “Anywhere!”
Away from the river, the landscape gradually became covered in fog. The temperature began to drop. Aidan finally managed to catch up with Tia and took her hand.
“I think we should go back,” he said, “I’m not liking this at all.”
Tia looked at him for a moment, blankly, then nodded. “Okay.”
They turned around, only to find a thick wall of fog. The river, the cottage and the cornfield had disappeared.
“Hang on to me,” Aidan said, agitated. “I don’t want to lose you in this fog!”
“Weird…” Tia mused, “The last time I saw fog like this, I almost saw the Glitch…”
The distorted cry of a Nidoran sounded in the distance, and the fog thickened in front of them. A faint, rectangular shape emerged, covered in static and waves of electricity.
Aidan’s mouth fell open. “MissingNo…?”
MissingNo let out a distorted cry, and electrical waves shot out from it. They barely missed Tia and Aidan, and the attack was enough to bring Aidan back to his senses.
“Let’s get out of here, Tia!” he shouted, grabbing her hand and pulling her. They ran a few paces, then Tia suddenly stopped.
“Wait!” She let go of his hand and turned back.
Aidan looked back at her fearfully. “Tia!”
“This is a dream, right?” Tia asked, pulling out a Dream Ball. “If the Glitch is a Pokemon, it can be caught…” She expanded the Ball. MissingNo quickly approached them, hovering a foot above the ground.
“...and this Ball will make sure of that!” Tia fearlessly threw the Ball directly at MissingNo. “Go, Dream Ball!”
MissingNo disappeared into the Dream Ball. Tia and Aidan watched as the Dream Ball wobbled once, twice, a third time… then clicked shut.
“It worked…?” Tia asked faintly.
“It worked…” Aidan repeated.
“IT WORKED!” Tia shouted, and jumped into Aidan’s arms, hugging him. “I can’t believe it,” she said, laughing. She looked into his eyes and noticed the tender expression on his face. She reddened, and meant to pull away when he suddenly pulled her close and kissed her…
Tia opened her eyes. She slowly sat up and looked around at the familiar surroundings of her tent. Her hand moved to her mouth, and remembering the last thing she experienced in her dream, she lay back down with a groan.
The movement dislodged a small, round something that fell from her sleeping bag and onto the ground. Tia picked it up and examined it. It was a Dream Ball. Before she could wonder more about how it got there, she heard a rustling in front of her tent.
“Tia? Are you awake?”
Tia exited the tent, and she and Aidan sat down to talk. As they talked, Tia methodically set up her workstation and plugged in the Dream Ball.
Hypno
Level 30
Gender: Male
Status: Dreaming
Capture Rate: ∞
“I can’t believe you brought all that with you,” Aidan said, shaking his head.
“It’s all for nothing anyway,” Tia answered, her brow furrowing. “With a capture rate like that, there’s no way I’m adding this to my research!” She smiled. “At least we’ve proven that Dream Balls show up in dreams and you can use them to catch Pokemon without fail…”
“To ourselves, anyway,” Aidan agreed. Then he smirked. “And I was right in the end – a Hypno would have feasted on our dreams if you hadn’t caught it!”
Tia hit him playfully, and they smiled at each other for a long moment.
“Aidan?” Tia asked softly, “What was the last thing you dreamed about?” The kiss lingered in her mind like a cherished memory.
Aidan looked at her for a moment, then answered, “You catching the Glitch, and us hugging.”
“That’s all?”
“That’s all.”
Tia’s face fell. “I… see.”
Aidan looked at her, concerned. “Is something wrong?”
“No,” she said a bit harshly. Then her voice softened. “No. Nothing’s wrong.” It was just a dream, after all, even though most of it was shared. Not all of it, apparently. She got up and turned away, heading back to her tent. “Good night.”
She was stopped by Aidan suddenly grabbing hold of her hand. She turned back toward him, a questioning look on her face.
“There was one other thing,” Aidan murmured. He drew her close, his hand caressing the side of her face, and pressed his lips to hers.
Tia’s eyes widened in shock, then slowly fluttered closed. Her arms tightened around him. When he tried to pull away, Tia held on to him and pulled him back to her, kissing him back.
“How long?” Aidan asked softly.
“Since the cave-in at Cerulean Cave,” Tia answered, sighing. “You?”
Aidan smiled against her cheek. “Since the beginning.”
He kissed her again.
So. This is the longest piece I've written for this series, and my first time writing a romance. Yikes. I hope it turned out all right!