Pieces of Us (SatoGou)

Chapter 11

okay so I was trying to think of what I imagine Ash looking like older and I think if I had to pick another anime character to compare him to it'd be guren ichinose from seraph of the end, but with Ash's eye colour and a bit more of his character in the face,

but really handsome like him basically lmao

song: you get me so high- the neighbourhood

"You two are so cute," Chloe says for the third time, making a strange squealing noise. We're in Spikemuth, but we're not staying for long. The plan is to travel Route 9 to Hammerlocke and stay in a hotel there for the night.

Chloe and Dawn were standing at the end of the truck when my eyes fluttered open this morning. They were watching us- Dawn in glee and Chloe in awe, because we were still in the same position we fell asleep in. Luckily, I woke up first, and had time to move away before he noticed I'd slept with my head on his. They hadn't said anything, my glare likely stopping them, but both of them have been glancing my way all day, looking like they're trying their damnedest to hold back giggles, much to my annoyance.

Now that Chloe and I have split up from them to buy supplies while they find food, she's relentless, constantly chirping about it. Apparently, Dawn had kept my secret, and she had no idea about my feelings for him. I'd just assumed she'd know.

Now that we're alone, I finally have a chance to ask her about Tokio. "Do you believe him when he says he never loved Tokio?" I ask casually, scanning the aisle of the run-down store we're in. Dawn's idea of 'supplies' was mostly candy and chocolate, and so I head for that aisle.

"Hmm," Chloe hums behind me, thinking. "Yeah. I kind of always got that impression anyway."

I pick up a bunch of random things I think that Dawn will like. "It's weird, right? That I have feelings for him?"

She tilts her head. "Weird how?"

She follows me as I carry everything to the counter to pay. "I mean, it's been eight years, and we've only just met again."

"I don't think it's weird," she says. The lady behind the counter passes a bag back over to me, and I thank her, starting to walk out. Chloe is frowning up at me. "I think... I think you may have had these feelings for longer than you've known."

I pause outside the shop. The streets are almost entirely empty, the overhead lights flickering incessantly. Chloe pauses too, and I bite my cheek, wondering how much I can tell her.

"I'm scared," I admit, nails digging slightly into my palms. "I think I like him a lot."

Chloe's lips twitch up at the corners. "I don't think you have anything to worry about."

But I do. There's only a few more nights of this trip, and then we'll all go our separate ways again. I'll go back to Unova and carry on studying. Goh will be in Kanto mostly, and wherever else Project Mew or his other projects take him. I don't even have his phone number yet. We'll lose contact again. We'll never go back to how we were. A horrible realisation is settling in, that I either have to make a move before the end of the trip, or potentially lose him forever. Because there's no way we can build ourselves back up when we're literally oceans apart. We won't have reasons to call each other or visit each other all the time, even if we're both smiling and calling each other 'friends' by the end of the trip. We'll fade back into strangers.

"You two have been speaking again for less than a week and you're already cuddling each other to sleep," she jokes, laughing. "You just can't stay away from each other."

"We weren't cuddling," I cut back. "And it was all me, anyway."

"He got in there with you, didn't he?" She raises an eyebrow.