Loving Him Is Pink -- Bede x Avery (A Pride Month Pokemon Short Story)

Caved In -- Avery

The next morning, we woke up bright and early. Immediately after clambering off of my bed, I was waiting for some snarky comment from Bede. I was surprised—and strangely disappointed—when, after five minutes of silence, there was nothing. Not even a grunt of disapproval. Slowly climbing down from my bunk, I slowly crept into the bathroom to get ready for the day. I was the first one awake, and I didn't wish to wake the others.

When I emerged, everyone was awake and moving; Gordie was packing a large backpack with snacks, and Raihan was impatiently waiting for his Rotom Phone to charge. Piers was laying on his bed, texting his sister from his communicative device. Everyone else, I assumed, had already left to go to the dining room.

Striding out of the boy's dormitory, I was surprised to find everyone finished with breakfast and waiting with large backpacks on. I rarely ever slept in, and I knew I had woken up well before everyone else.

Bede spotted me and we made eye contact, but he soon looked away and ignored me. I was expecting him to make some snappy comment along the lines of, 'Couldn't you have been more on time?' or something like that, but there was still nothing. I was starting to get a little suspicious.

"Avery! Glad to see you up and moving," Honey called to me cheerfully. "We're all getting ready to explore the Brawler's Cave and do some spelunking! Go get a backpack, and be sure to bring plenty of snacks." That caught me off guard.

Honey usually had a planned itinerary down to the letter; she usually wasn't one for spontaneous adventures when it came to a limited time frame. And exploring a cave with our guests had most certainly not been on her list. Now, I was definitely suspicious. What really sold it was the nervous look on Klara's face.

"Klara, does something about today's plan seem a little off to you?" I asked once I got her cornered. "Nope!" she said a little too quickly. "Nothing's wrong. Miss Honey just wanted to squeeze in something fun for our guests! That's all!"
"Klara, if you think you can Trick me into believing nothing's wrong, then you are sorely mistaken."

"Hullo, everyone!" Mustard greeted us all, giving Klara a window to escape my interrogation. "Today you're all headed to Brawler's Cave to do some exploring! Hope you all have a great day~"

**********

Two hours later, and I was almost certain everyone was playing a prank on me. On the walk to the caves, Klara kept fiddling with her headband or twirling a lock of hair around her fingertips. The people around me kept shoving me towards the front of the pack, and I didn't even notice how far I'd gone until I bumped shoulders with Bede.

I tried to move back into the crowd, but Raihan and Gordie hemmed me in so I had nowhere else to walk but next to him. Sighing in annoyance, I trudged back into position by him. Flicking his eyes to me for a split second, he then turned and acted like I didn't exist.

For an extra hour, we explored the caverns, which I'd been through on multiple occasions and memorized the layout by memory. Bede still wasn't talking to me, and everyone else was silent on the walk, which was a definite red flag that something was up. Until Marnie couldn't take the silence any more, and finally spoke up.

"These sure are some big mushrooms," she whistled, pointing to a cluster of Max Mushrooms sprouting from a rock formation. "It's pretty rare for them to grow all the way out here," Klara smiled, jogging over to them to inspect them. As soon as the silence was broken, everyone took it as a go-ahead to start their own little side conversations. But, as per usual today, Bede was quiet as a Whismur.

"Why are you so quiet?" I asked Bede with a snarky edge to my voice. He still kept silent. Frowning, I nudged him with my hand. "Hello? Are you trying to put a Barrier between us?" Still nothing. "Will you look at me when I'm talking to you?" I finally lost my patience and grabbed him by the chin.

"You know, it isn't exactly easy to be nice to you when you're invading my space," Bede hissed through gritted teeth, shrugging his face out of my grasp. What? I thought, confused. Bede? Being nice to me? I was about to retort with a snappy comeback when I was cut off by the cave starting to move and shake.

Shrieking at the top of her lungs, Klara leapt back from the Max Mushrooms, which had been crushed by a boulder that had landed just where she had been two seconds ago. Marnie was clinging to her brother for dear life, and he was towing her towards the mouth of the cave. "It's collapsing," Raihan shouted the obvious, and without thinking I tackled Bede out of the way of a falling rock.

"Gerrof," he grunted, shoving me off him with an arm.
"My Extrasensory powers just saved your life-" I started to retort, before jumping up and dragging him out of the way before another rock crushed him into oblivion. It took me two seconds to realize that I hadn't dropped his hand after pulling him out of danger, but there was no time to be bashful.

Still keeping a tight hold on him, I dashed across the cavern trying to reach Klara, changing the course of boulders with my mental powers. She herself was barely dodging the falling rocks, yelping every time a sharp stalactite fell and pierced the stone floor near her. Just before a jagged mineral fell and pierced her skull, I stopped it with my mental abilities and flung it aside.

"Avery, what's happening?!" she shouted over the groaning of the cave.
"I have no idea," I yelled back, pulling her back before another jagged stone landed on her head. "My Future Sight did not predict a rockslide on a hike!"
"Forget your Future Sight," Bede ripped his hand out of mine. "Focus on what's happening now, and get us out of here!"

Squinting through the masses of scrambling Gym Leaders and falling debris, I noticed the mouth of the cave hadn't been covered by debris yet. "There," I shouted, pointing. Klara's eyes immediately hardened with determination, grabbed us both by the arms and dragged us towards the exit. But, just before we could escape, a huge rock groaned and fell into our path.

"Avery, can't you move it?!" Klara asked desperately.
"I-I don't know," I panted, winded from running in zig zags all around the tunnel. "I've never lifted something this big before....what if-"
"Avery, if you don't move this boulder, so help me Arceus, I will hunt you down in the afterlife and kill you for letting us die by crushing!" Bede growled, grabbing my shoulders and forcing me to look at him.

"Okay," I sighed, focusing intensely on the giant rock. Whenever I lifted objects with my mind, it required more energy the heavier they were. Usually, I could carry my Pokeballs for hours with ease, but if I had picked up something heavier that day, I always had a migraine when I woke up the next morning. But this...oh, Arceus, it felt like my skull was splitting down the middle.

Biting back the pain erupting in my head, the boulder started to slowly rise off of the ground, shedding light into the cave once again. "That's it Avery," Bede murmured, watching the boulder with hope. "Nice and steady."
"Yahoo!" Klara shrieked, startling me and breaking my concentration, which in turn caused me to drop the boulder in surprise.

"Klara-" Bede started to chide her, but he stopped when she shoved him out of the way of a falling rock. And, before I could register that she had done the same to me, we were both trapped in a tiny cavern, and our exit was now blocked by a giant pile of boulders.