Sarah’s New Friend

Sarah stepped off the subway and breathed in deeply. This was her first lungful of Unovan air, she was excited to finally visit her birthplace. She exited the subway station, greeting the lone subway master, and took a look around the busy Nimbasa City. She gave Sparkle, her shiny partner eevee, a pet but returned her to her pokeball. The city was no place for a little eevee.

While she was wandering around, she wasn’t paying much attention to the other people around her. Maybe the tall buildings and busy streets weren’t something she was used to, growing up on the quiet streets of Vaniville Town and Postwick. Suddenly, a person ran into her and knocked her off her feet.

“Out of my way!” She glanced upwards at the person and had two immediate thoughts.

 

The first: She was losing her mind. What was happening? Why was it happening? She was flipping out. Who was this boy and his edgy looks and messy hair? Why was she losing herself over a guy she had never met, never even seen before?? Was this love at first sight like Chloe talked about (a lot)??? 

The second: Snap back. When someone yells at you, you yell back. Louder, if possible. That was something Chloe tried to teach her, most likely because they both barely yelled. Was that a good philosophy? Probably not.

 

“Hey! You’re the one who ran into me!” She sprang to her feet and glared at the boy.

The boy scowled at her and clenched his fists, ready to fight. He grabbed her shirt collar and pulled her extremely close, their faces almost touching. Sarah kicked him hard in the shins. She would have kicked him again, as he didn’t let go of her, but then they both noticed how many people had stopped to see what they were doing. 

The stranger released his hold on her collar rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have snapped. There’s just a lot going on for me right now.” He apologized and scowled at the crowd until they dispersed.

“I’m sorry too,” She held her hand out for a friendly shake. “Let’s start over. I’m Sarah, it’s nice to meet you!”

The boy shook her hand. “Hugh.”

Hugh still looked a bit guilty. “Is there anything I can do to make that whole incident up to you?”

“I’m guessing that you’re a trainer? A battle would be awesome!” She always had a sparkly look in her eyes when battling was brought up.

“I was hoping you would say that!” Hugh’s face brightened. “Follow me, I know the perfect spot for a battle.”

 

“What. In the name. Of actual Arceus. Just happened??”

Chloe swore profusely from the trash can she was behind. “You guys saw that too, right?”

Ash and Goh just shrugged. 

“Ugggghhhh, you guys are so unobservant. Anyways, what are we doing here in the first place? Can either of you remind me why we followed, basically stalked, Sarah to Unova?”

“We’re her friends right? Well, she headed off to Unova alone and it’s our job to make sure she does okay by herself.” Ash grinned at her scowl. That was flawed logic if Chloe had ever seen it.

“I can’t believe how forgetful Ash is…” she muttered under her breath. “Sarah’s fine on her own, don’t you remember that she was alone before we met? And she still had so many friends that it’s a little scary. Like, every Galarian gym leader? I doubt she’d have problems making new friends, or being alone again.”

“Anyways,” Goh stepped in to change the conversation. “What's so odd about what just happened? It’s good that she made a friend right?” He grinned sheepishly at the end of his question.

“Did we see the same thing? They were both so angry and then they just shook all the anger off?”

Ash interrupted the conversation this time, not seeming to care about what the other two were saying. “Can we follow them? Cause’ if we’re gonna stalk Sarah then I at least want to see their battle.” 

The other two trainers just sighed as the trio walked out from behind the random bench and trash can, receiving a few odd looks from strangers passing by.

 

“Serperior, use leaf storm!”

“Solstice, dodge it and use dark pulse!”

The snake pokemon summoned a huge tornado, angled towards Sarah’s umbreon. The moonlight pokemon, who usually had no problems dodging attacks with her nimble body, couldn’t avoid the blow and took a decent amount of damage. 

“This. Is. So. Awesome!” Ash’s eyes did the same sparkly thing that Sarah’s were currently doing, Chloe noticed. It probably had something to do with being battle driven. “This is one of the coolest battles I’ve ever seen!”

“Didn’t you see the match between Iris and Cynthia like a week or two ago? Wasn’t that way cooler?” Chloe deadpanned.

“This is different because they’re two people I know well!”

“You literally traveled through Unova with Iris. Also, you’ve never spoken to Hugh before.” Goh added in, glancing at Ash in a concerned parent sort of way.

Ash appeared to not have heard him, maybe choosing to ignore the other two trainers.

 

“Go, Mnemosyne!”

Sarah sent out her powerful hydreigon as Hugh released his eelektross. Both pokemon flew high in the air and used dragon rush and wild charge respectively, trying to ram into each other and missing terribly.

“Hey, Hugh,” she glanced at her opponent. “Did you see that flash of pink over there?”

He glanced to where she pointed but there was nothing. “It must have been some random pokemon. I wouldn’t worry about it.”

Mnemosyne had swapped to using dragon pulse while eelektross used flamethrower.

Immediately, the pink thing reappeared. “Hugh! Behind you!”

Hugh whirled around immediately and stared in awe at the Mew floating behind him. Before either of the trainers could react, Mew made a motion that Sarah recognized as using some kind of move. Metronome? Before she could react, Sarah realized she felt a stronger gravitational pull on her feet and watched the Mew giggle before teleporting away.

“Hugh! I think it used gravity!”

“What’s wrong with that?”

“‘Gravity enables flying types or pokemon with the levitate ability to be hit by ground-type moves for five turns. Moves that involve flying can't be used,’” She quoted the pokedex. “Do you know two pokemon with the ability levitate who are currently flying?!” Her question was followed by a huge crash behind him. 

“I’m assuming ours?” Hugh looked over at the battlefield they had stopped watching for a while. Sarah dashed over to her fainted dragon and used a revive on her, tossing her opponent one so he could do the same. They both returned their pokemon to their respective pokeballs.

“Well, I don’t know if that counts,” Sarah grinned and shook Hugh’s hand vigorously. “But good game either way! You’re ace at battling!!”

Hugh was smiling too, and he looked almost as excited as her. 

Hugh grinned sheepishly. “Anyways, do you want to battle agai-” He was interrupted by a loud growl from Sarah’s stomach.

“Sorry. My stomach finds it hard to do anything without food.”

(“She’s just like you, Ash!” Chloe whisper-yelled.)

Hugh grinned. “Don’t worry about it.” 

His excited smile was quickly replaced with a more embarrassed one. “Would you join me for lunch or something?” 

Sarah’s smile somehow got wider. “Of course!”

The two started walking off together.

(“So, what does ace mean?”

“Good. I was saying you’re good at battling.”)

It was Goh’s turn to rage.

“How?! What?!”

Ash put a hand on his boyfriend’s shoulder to calm him. “Goh, relax. It’s alright.”

“It’s not alright!! First, Mew just appeared! My dream is to catch Mew but it never appears! And when it does, it’s for a pair of random trainers and just to play a mean prank!! Not even for a good reason!”

“Maybe it’s because Mew thinks they’re a good couple?” Chloe shrugged. “I mean, legendaries always appear for you and Ash.”

“You know, that makes a lot of sense too.” Ash smiled widely, squeezing Goh’s shoulder a little harder. “Didn’t Cresselia appear for you and Dawn too?”

Chloe smiled at Ash, which rarely happened. “Yeah, it did. But I think it’s possible that Sarah could have also met Mew before. I mean, she’s about as experienced as you, Ash, so we don’t know where she’s been or what she’s done. Come to think of it, Hugh could’ve met it too.”

“Well, he also just asked her out! Do you know how long it took Ash to ask ME out?!”

“You’re jealous of Sarah getting asked out?” She laughed as Goh grumbled and Ash patted Goh’s shoulder guiltily.

The red-haired trainer sighed in defeat. “You’re right. That is pretty ridiculous. I think I’m just tired of this stalking stuff.”

“Go get something to eat. You deserve it.” Chloe grinned at her friends.

“You gonna keep watching?” Goh grinned slyly at her. He recovered quickly. “Typical Chloe. Being concerned about her friend’s love lives.” Chloe grinned wider in response. 

“Just go, you guys.”

Chloe could hear Sarah’s rambling from miles away.

“Hey did you know the champions Cynthia and Diantha are dating? And Leon’s dating Raihan, of course. Steven’s dating Wallace- oh and Ash is dating Goh!”

Her brain was probably running miles a minute, which Chloe remembered it only did when she was really, really nervous. Of course she talked about pokemon battles on a date.

“I don’t know if Iris or Lance are dating anyone, or Alain for that matter. Maybe they’re aroace…” She frowned and tapped her chin thoughtfully. “Man, I’ve gotta meet those three someday…” She continued muttering random things to herself.

Hugh grinned at his companion’s rambles. “Hey, how do you know so much about the masters 8? Like, private stuff.”

That was a sensible question from Hugh, Chloe probably would’ve asked her the same thing in his situation. She liked him more and more by the minute.

“Well, Ash is one of my best friends, I’ve met almost all of them in person before, like I just said, and,” She grinned proudly before the third part of her sentence. “I was almost in the masters 8!”

“You’re joking.”

“Top 10 in the world!” She showed her friend the app she still had downloaded. Chloe could hear them walking away, so she hurried onward.

(She couldn’t believe that Sarah still had the app downloaded solely for the ranking, it just seemed like a waste of phone space. It was also scary how much she always showed everyone, she’d had seen it at least 4 times this week. Sarah’s need to send a screenshot and brag was really unnecessary.)

“I can’t believe it’s the masters 8 and not the masters 10! Doesn’t 10 make more sense, Hugh?”

They were eating lunch (some very tasty looking ramen- one of Sarah’s favorite meals, Chloe remembered) and Sarah had been talking about the masters 8 for, like, the past half hour. Hugh seemed to be listening attentively, which confused Chloe. He could have easily pretended to listen and just nodded whenever a question was asked. That’s what she did with her friends, if she was being honest. Wait, what was happening with Sarah? Chloe had to stop herself from naturally tuning her out, like she always did.

“Hey Sarah, would you like to ride the Ferris wheel together?”

“Course I would!”

What did she miss?!?!

While the duo were walking together, Sarah sub-consciously grabbed her friend’s hand. She was totally oblivious to it, of course, and she missed how flustered Hugh was. (Chloe cackled in the bushes, but immediately slapped her hand over her mouth afterwards.) She turned to grin at her friend, and then bumped into a purple haired, ponytailed girl.

“Oh my Arceus, I am so sorry!” Sarah helped the girl up and her mouth fell in shock when she saw who it was.

“Iris?! The champion?! Here? Right now?!” She was so excited she was shaking Hugh’s shoulders a little.

The champion grinned and laughed. “It’s always great to meet a fan! And Hugh, it’s good to see you as well.”

“You’re friends with THE Iris?!” Hugh grinned sheepishly.

“More like acquaintances, but sure.”

She noticed the other girl holding out her hand and shook it vigorously.

“Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you Iris! My name’s Sarah.”

“Good to meet you too, Sarah! Anyways, what brings you two here?”

Sarah looked at her friend, who shrugged. “Spending quality time with my mate?”

“Awww, that’s sweet.” The girl then grinned, “Wait mate like the Galarian term or-” 

“GALARIAN.”

Iris laughed as Sarah flushed red, Hugh only looking up questioningly.

The champion then turned around, as if she was looking for someone. “Anyways, Ash messaged me and told me he was in town so I was going to meet up with him. He told me he’s bringing Goh, but I can’t find either of them…”

Chloe sweated nervously. Iris was going to give her away!

“Oh I saw a snack stand while walking around! You should check there.” Sarah gestured back towards the buildings.

“That’s a great idea! Thanks!” Iris waved goodbye to her new friend and darted off. She was pretty far away, but Iris turned and Sarah heard her yell “We should have a battle when we next meet up!”

“You know we will!” She yelled back.

Sarah turned back to Hugh, who was standing to the side somewhat awkwardly, smiling fondly.

“Come on! You wanted to ride the Ferris wheel right?”

(“Hey, now you can cross one of those trainers off your list.”

“Oh, you’re right! I still don’t know how I’ll meet Lance or Alain though.”

He patted her shoulder. “I’m sure you’ll figure it out. Or maybe randomly bump into them, like you just did.”

“You’d be surprised by how often that happens to me,” she shrugged. “Just last week, when I was back in Galar, I bumped into Gordie sneaking out to go on a date with Milo.”

“The internet celebrity?”

“And gym leader. He hasn’t come out to his fans yet, I think.”

“And you’re telling me of all people?” He laughed.)

Chloe let out a huge sigh of relief. She was still safe, unless Ash and Goh gave her away. But at that point it wouldn’t really matter right? Because Iris was no longer with Sarah and Hugh? She decided none of that mattered anymore, as it was getting late. Maybe she could stalk follow Sarah and Hugh again tomorrow.

A new day. It was already off to a great start, as she met Hugh early for breakfast and they took a walk around the marketplace. She bought him a charm with a galarian ponyta (which he loved because “it reminded him of her,” and Chloe laughed loudly when Sarah almost combusted) and he bought her a hydreigon pin (Sarah wondered how he knew hydreigon was one of her favorites). She then asked him for a tour of the Unova region, and they both flew off on Wyvern, her aerodactyl. She asked her large friend to fly high and Hugh, who was gripping her quite tightly, pointed out various locations.

“This isn’t what I thought you meant by ‘tour’.” He grinned nervously as his eyes drifted downwards.

“Is this not how you get around?” When he shook his head she frowned. “You don’t have corviknight taxis here?”

“What’s a corviknight?”

“Ah, I see.”

Chloe was stuck watching them from the ground. It wasn’t that bad, she could see them decently well, but she couldn’t hear a word they were saying. She did have to admit that seeing Hugh nervously cling to Sarah was pretty funny, though.

“Oh boy, here we are again.” Goh sighed.

“More stalkery shenanigans?” Ash grinned cheekily.

“Please don’t call it that.”

“Hey, what’s that?”

“That’s Humilau City, I think.”

“Can we stop there? There’s that tube thing there, right?”

“Yeah,” Hugh relaxed his grip. “That sounds good.”

“Oh Arceus, they’re gone.” Chloe frowned up at the sky.

“Nothing we can do,” Got shrugged nonchalantly. “We should go catch some Unovan pokemon.”

“Yeah!!” Ash immediately agreed with his boyfriend.

“You two really share one brain cell…” Chloe muttered. She followed the boys as they ran off, but still kept her eyes to the sky.

The following days were a blur to Sarah.

The walk in the marine tube was nice. She thought. She couldn’t remember anything about it because Hugh decided to take off his jacket. The shirt he always wore under it was a cropped, tight, sleeveless black turtleneck that showed off his muscles way too well. Long story short? He was extremely hot. (Why her???? His abs could’ve graced anyone else on the planet and Arceus chose for her to suffer????)

The day after, they entered a multi-battle tournament together in Undella Town. She and Hugh easily beat everyone, she thought their teamwork was next level. Maybe they were reading each other’s minds?

It was the next day that she really remembered, though.

She and Hugh were walking along Route 19.

“You know,” Hugh had smiled at her as they walked. “Ever since I met you, you’ve seemed like you have good instincts, Sarah.”

“Same for you,” Sarah laughed. “That didn’t stop us from fighting though.” 

He grinned and continued. “I’m glad I was right. About your instincts, I mean. You treat your pokemon with respect and you’re always getting stronger!”

He placed a hand on her shoulder and could feel her heart pounding in her chest. “I’m lucky that I met someone besides my partner pokemon I can trust!”

Sarah was silent for a few minutes before flushing, then turning around and walking backwards. Her eyes never left his face. “Wow… I don’t think anything I could ever say would live up to that, but I’ll try,” She fidgeted with her dynamax band. “I’m glad we met, and I want you to know that you’ve really changed my life.”

“That’s… really sappy.” Hugh was also blushing, but also grinning like mad.

“Hey! Yours was crazy sappy too!” She kept walking backwards, surprisingly not tripping, but soon bumped into something.

“I’m so sorry,” She quickly apologized, but when she looked at Hugh’s awed expression she turned around. She fell slack jawed when she saw what she bumped into.

“I can’t believe you caught Cobalion.”

“It wasn’t hard,” Sarah tossed the ultra ball up and caught it with her other hand. “He just wanted people to show them respect, and I did.”

“Don’t you think speaking in Medieval English was a little dramatic?”

“I don’t know,” She shrugged. “I figured he was probably most comfortable in medieval times,” She hesitated for a second. “And I might’ve panicked a little…”

“You’re amazing, you know that?” She blushed and said nothing, instead choosing to toss the ultra ball up in the air again.

“Cobalion, come out!” When the legendary sword of justice stood before her, she spoke to them directly. “You’re free to go, buddy. I don’t know what you want to do, but my friend Goh caught suicune and let them roam. I don’t want to force you to do anything you don’t want to do, so I’m just going to let you leave.”

The blue pokemon gave a terse nod, slowly walking away. “Don’t forget to visit from time to time!” She called after him. Cobalion turned back to her, his mouth upturned, before leaping away.

“So…” Hugh trailed off. “You thought of a nickname yet?”

“Hendrik.”

“That guy from the game you like? The knight?”

“Exactly. You know me so well!”

It was a week until Chloe could catch up with Sarah again.

A full week of tailing the boys as they did many ridiculous things.

When she finally saw her again, she and Hugh were standing together at the Castelia docks, watching the sunset. She snuck closer to hear what they were saying, but she soon realized she wasn’t the only one watching them.

“What’s the twerp doing here?! I thought we were on vacation and getting away from him!” A nasally voice complained.

“That doesn’t matter. We could use this opportunity to get some powerful pokemon for the boss!” A female voice excitedly whispered.

“Isn’t that the twerpette from Sinnoh?” Another male voice pointed out.

The three voices drowned out anything Sarah and Hugh were saying.

She turned and glared at Team Rocket. “Can you guys shut up?! They’re on a date and I’m eavesdropping!”

The three immediately quieted and peeked at the duo, eyeing the spiky haired trainer. “The twerp is cheating? What happened to the red twerp?” Meowth glanced at the other two trainers. They then exchanged a few looks and collectively decided that they should jump out from behind the bench.

“PREPARE FOR TROUB- oh.”

(rewind to before chloe arrived)

“You have a younger sister?” Sarah and Hugh watched the sunset together, standing close to each other.

“Yeah.”

“Her purrloin was stolen right? By Team Plasma?” She winced when Hugh’s smile started to falter.

“Right…” He then turned to Sarah. “I told you about my goals, right?”

Sarah shook her head, gesturing for him to continue.

“I’m gonna stop Team Plasma from ever stealing another pokemon and save purrloin!” He clenched his fists tight. “I’ll never stop chasing them. I don’t care how long it takes.”

“I’ll help you.” Hugh turned to Sarah instinctively. “I want you to know that you can lean on me. I’ll lend you my strength anytime.” She smiled. “We’re rivals, friends, and partners right? We have to do this together.”

Hugh placed his hand on her shoulder, then hugged her out of nowhere. “We’ll find purrloin together. We’ll stop Team Plasma together. As a team. I’ll count on you, and you on me.” They stayed close for a few minutes before separating. 

They were both silent until Hugh suddenly asked, “I know you have a sister, what’s she like?”

“Well,” Sarah grinned. “She’s annoying, but she is caring and sweet. Sometimes. I guess…” Sarah shrugged, “She’s weird.”

“Does she have any pokemon yet?”

“Just a skitty I caught for her.” She was silent for a few seconds. “You know, I just realized how perfect skitty is for her.” When Hugh looked at her confused, she stifled a laugh. “Because of how catty she drives me.” She burst out laughing as Hugh chuckled.

“You’re so bad,” He soon was laughing with her. “Just shut up.” 

“Make me.” She didn’t seem to realize what she said until they both fell silent.

She then blushed bright scarlet and glanced at Hugh, who was pink.

“…Do you want me to?” His voice was so quiet, she thought that sentence was imagined.

She didn’t say anything right away. “…Yeah. I do…”  She stepped closer to him, as he cupped her face with his hands. Her hands were soon buried in his hair. He leaned closer and shut his eyes, Sarah following suit. She felt the slightest touch of their lips before a shout made them jump apart.

“PREPARE FOR TROUB- oh.”

The four trainers and meowth stared at each other awkwardly, as Chloe came out from behind the bench too.

“I’M SO SORRY, I tried to stop them and-”

She was interrupted by an actual growl from Hugh.

“Do you know these people Sarah?!”

“I know all of them, but Chloe’s mi amigo.” She pointed at the girl, who waved guiltily. Sarah then grinned wickedly. “I’ll help you beat Team Rocket.”

Sarah heard Hugh mutter “They’re going to feel my rage…” as he sent out his bouffalant. She tossed out her lucario, Anubis, and was prepared to mega evolve him.

“Come on, Team Rocket! Call down your weird gacha machine already!” 

James and Jessie shared a look. They seemed to be debating what to do telepathically, but their pelipper flew over dropped the machine anyways. They inserted meowth and called out their pokemon, tyranitar and hydreigon.

“You’re gonna use my own pokemon against me?” Sarah grinned. “Now you’re really in for a fight!” She unclipped the key stone from her bag and held it high. “Anubis, mega evolve!”

She then commanded her pokemon to use a drain punch on the hydreigon and knocked it out in one blow. “Tyranitar is all yours, Hugh!” The trainer in question grinned.

“Bouffalant, close combat! Give it all you’ve got!” His partner charged towards the opposing pokemon and knocked it out quickly. The two pokemon were recalled and Team Rocket looked really nervous now.

“Oh, would you look at the time,” James grabbed his two teammates, ignoring their protests, and started running away. “Neither of you are twerps so we’re gonna go, goodbye.”

Hugh almost chased after them, but Sarah stopped him. “They’re not worth your time.”

“You’re not going to do any of that to me, are you?” Chloe stepped back nervously.

When everything calmed down, Chloe said she was going to regroup with the boys. “I’ll leave you guys to what you were doing before.” She teased the two mercilessly, and seemed like she wanted to stay longer, but soon was gone too.

“So, what were we doing again?” Sarah returned Anubis to his pokeball, after a quick fist bump with the jackal pokemon.

“We were about to… y’know…” Hugh blushed, his face reddening even more when his bouffalant gave him a playful headbutt towards Sarah. “You too?” He scowled at the buffalo, who seemed to laugh, before returning the pokemon to his pokeball.

“So…” Sarah fidgeted awkwardly. “Do you want to continue… that… or was the moment ruined?”

“It was definitely ruined.” Hugh then took her hand (the gloveless one) and placed a gentle kiss on it. He was definitely contradicting his own statement.

“But I do owe you one,” He was fiddling with the collar of his jacket. “So how about we find purrloin, then work this out?”

Sarah took a minute to respond, stunned by his action. “Okay. Wow. Now you’re just motivating me to find purrloin faster.” 

Sarah then remembered something.

“Could you wait a second? I have something for you.” At his nod, she dug around in her bag pulling out a white disk, a pokemon box link. It separated in two and revealed rows of pokeballs. He watched her pick one and hold it in her hand as she closed the box link.

“Do you know the Galarian tradition?” Sarah didn’t look away from the pokeball, which he now noticed was a love ball. She then released the pokemon and held it out to him.

“I don’t.” He took the pokemon gently.

“You give an applin to someone you want to date. So, Hugh, do you want to-”

“Yes!” He immediately blurted his answer.

Sarah just laughed as his face burned, tossing him the pokeball for applin.

“Here, take this too.” She gave him a greenish apple. “If the little guy wants to evolve.” He returned applin to his pokeball and pocketed both.

“Thank you,” He smirked flirtatiously, “I really owe you now.”

She blushed furiously, “Just shut up.”

“All in good time.”