farawayplace | In the turning, flowing wind, I sing alone

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In the turning, flowing wind, I sing alone

There’s a little girl, dressed in a light, summery dress, with matching white sandals, arriving on Stardust Beach, blinking at the sunlight and feeling the coastal wind on her face and tasting the salty sea-scent of the air.
For a time, she’s absolutely stunned, daring not to move (has her imagination ever been this strong?!), then, without really meaning to, she’s forced to take a few steps (the wind is so strong!), that she steps into wet sand and realizes she couldn’t just be imagining this. It’s a little too soggy and gross. She decides, then, maybe it was the last few years that were a very bad, very long, and very strange dream (although she liked the Pokemon…), and this was reality! She giggles and takes off her sandals, putting them higher up on dry sand (hot, hot!), before rushing back to the wet sand to play.

She twirls and spins and laughs, but when she turns back around, searching the beach, she cannot find her mama or her papa.

“… didn’t we go together? We’re at the beach now…”

Wasn’t the car crash and everything else a dream? She couldn’t have gotten here on her own! It’s true it’s not the same beach she knew and even the people looked a bit different, but maybe they just went on a very, very long trip!

Question 1: Vacation?
Ai decided to ask around on the beach, gently tapping shoulders and tugging on sleeves.
“Excuse me, have you seen my papa or my mama? Um, papa’s hair is much more wavy than mine, but grey, and he has a nose this long…”

Question 2: Heaven?
She had to find her parents! They had to be here, right? Because if they weren’t… then the car crash and these past years weren’t all a dream… then, maybe she’s just gone on ahead to Heaven? So she decided, in between asking about her parents, she’ll also ask some people if this place were Heaven!
“Excuse me, is this Heaven?”
Ai thought this was a very clever way to find out more quickly, than if she had only asked everyone one question, then started all over with the next one. She should find her answer quicker this way!

Sand

Ai had never seen sand that looked like this before! It was so pretty and mysterious. Almost like konpeito! But she knew better than to try and taste it… although she really did feel tempted to. It looked so pretty… she sat down and held grains up to the sunlight and wondered if the stars fell down and turned to sand or if the entire island was one very big star broken up into many little stars… oh, but it wasn’t hot or shining, like the sun, were they stars that went out, like switched-off lights or snuffed-out candles? Ai kept wondering, while rolling the little grain between her fingertips.

Whatever they were, they were pretty, so Ai wanted to collect some sand, along with seashells and bits of seaweed and anything else.

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Listening, she began to calm down somewhat, but was still sniffling a little bit and shedding tears.

“A Professor…?”
This seemed to get Ai’s attention and she raised wide, tearful eyes to look at Gold. “I’d like to meet him…”

Maybe he might have heard of her father? She sighed, breathing starting to return to a more relaxed pace.

Whew, she's calming down. Gold gives her a smile.

"Yeah, we can go see him! Just, uh, go wash your hands and face first! You got, you know, sand and stuff."

There's probably a place to wash sand off near the beach somewhere, let's say public bathrooms? Gold points at them.

"I'll wait outside, so we can get going when you're done."

She nodded and did just that, but perhaps spent a little bit longer than needed, as she was just so amazed by the faucets and clear water. It’s so clean and clear, so different from the murky and dark culture medium! He might hear splashing and even giggling.

Well, she’s very little!

But, she’ll be out soon enough, all cleaned up!

“The water is so clean and pretty!”

Gold waits patiently, and smiles to himself when he hears her giggling and splashing.

When she comes out he walks up to her with a smile. His smile stills a little bit at her words, but he keeps it up. Is she easily amused, or is clean water that unusual for her? Is this how other people feel when Gold says something worrying?

"Yeah, it is, huh?" he says cheerfully. "Now let's get going! This way, to Route 1!" He announces it dramatically with a point, before starting to walk. "The Professor's house is right by the beach further this way! Wanna walk on the beach all the way or do we take the grassy path?" He gestures at the grass between the beach and the city.

She giggled at his theatrics. "You're funny!"

At his question, she brightened considerably!
"I want to walk on the grass!" Ai said excitedly, eyes sparkling.

She hadn't seen or felt grass in so long!

She grabbed Gold's hand, excitedly pulling on it. Let's go, let's go!

"Thanks, I try!"

He's a little surprised to get his hand grabbed, but lets himself be pulled along. Well, he might as well forget about whether this kid's got a dark past and just show her all the cool stuff he can think of along the way. It's cute seeing her so excited!

"Grass it is, your highness! Hey, what's your name anyway? I'm Gold!"

Oh, she didn’t introduce herself! She stopped, feeling embarrassed, cheeks flushing, but being called “your highness”… she let go, stepped back, and did a very clumsy little curtsey.

“I’m Ai! Fuji Ai… forgive my rudeness. It’s a pleasure to meet you, your majesty.”

Are they royalty now? Playing pretend is fun!

Gold does a fancy bow in return.

"A pleasure to meet you too, your highness, princess Ai of Fuji! I, Gold of the house Drum, shepherd of the Miltanks, am at your service!" he states foppishly as he does so, then looks at her and grins. "And I guess I'm a king too?"

Ai can't help but laugh at Gold's introduction and self-given titles.
"Do you really work on a Miltank farm? They look so gentle! I've never seen them in person..."

"Shall we?"

Walk on the grassy path, she means!

"Yup! I'm a Miltank farm part-timer! The farm's in Gilterrace Town, maybe you can come by and see them someday!" Gold announces proudly. He decides not to talk about his dad's Miltank farm back home since home seems to be a delicate subject.

"We shall!"

And with that, Gold begins marching along the grassy path, making sure to keep his pace manageable for Ai. There are plenty of sights to see along the small path, like the windwheels in the city, the flowers on the side of the road, and the Wingulls flying above.

"I'd love to!"

Ai drank it all in, watching in absolute amazement and wonder at everything, the sky, the soaring Wingull, the motion and colour of the pinwheels, and she even crouched down low to admire the flowers, brushing her fingertips across the petals very, very gently... at times, the wide-eyed wonder gave way to an almost nostalgic, wistful smile that looked out of place on such a young face.

Gold takes it slow and stops whenever Ai does to look at whatever's got her interest. He feels like he's seeing it all for the first time. But when he glances at Ai, that wistfulness feels too old for her. ...Well, not his business.

"Oh, that's the Professor's house over there," he says once they get close enough, pointing at the red-roofed hibiscus-covered house, with some grass-type Pokemon hanging out at the yard.

"What a lovely place!" Ai pauses to admire the outside of the house, before approaching slowly. "Do you still live here too? And you're sure I won't bother him?"

They hadn't asked permission before arriving, maybe it was too short notice?

"Yeah, I live here. I used to worry about bothering him too, but he's like, uhh," Gold wonders for a moment how to put it, making vague gestures with his hands, "super nice. If there's a way to bother him I haven't found it."

Gold heads for the front door with no hesitation. The door's usually not locked, sometimes even when the Professor's not in, so he opens it and steps in, holding it open for Ai.

"Come on in," he tells her, then turns to look inside and cups his mouth to call out "I'm back! I brought a guest!" in case Banyan's inside.

“He sounds very kind!”

Ai watches Gold call for Banyan, but no response comes.

“I think he might be outside… or maybe he just didn’t hear you.”
She takes a hesitant step inside, but watch closely for Gold, hoping he’ll show her the way. She’ll take her shoes off too.

"Yeah, he's probably outside," Gold says, scratching his head as he looks around. "I guess the house is ours for a while! Lemme show you around."

And Gold leads her around and shows her the basics of where the bathroom, kitchen, living room and so on are.

"And that way is the Lab side of the house, I don't usually go there unless I gotta talk to the Professor while he's working. And upstairs is my room, and some unused rooms too! If the Prof lets you stay, and he probably will, one of those is gonna be where you sleep," he explains. "And I guess that's basically everything! Anyway, you hungry?"

"Oh, I forgot all about hunger!" Ai says, eyes wide, but then she realizes with embarrassment she said something strange.

"I mean... I didn't need to eat for a long time, it was, um, all in the fluid..."

That isn't making it sound much better, is it? She just gives Gold an awkward, kind of pleading smile, hoping he'd ignore the weird things she'd just said.

Gold just blinks a few times, caught off-guard. But after Ai's spoken, he's only silent for a second before he catched himself, then just nods and smiles.

"Huh, sounds like it sucked!" he says with a cheerful face. "I guess any kinda food would be good after that. Let's raid the Professor's fridge!"

And he heads for the fridge, opening it and checking what's inside. He's giving up on understanding what Ai's been through. He doesn't get it, so he'll just take whatever she says at face value. He stares at the fridge, trying to find something to snack on, but it's mostly ingredients.

"...You're not hungry right away, right? I could whip up some Yago Chanpuru if you wait a bit," he suggests.

(The fact that Yago Chanpuru might be too bitter for most kids' taste, or the fact kids Gold's age should probably not be making stir-fry without an adult present, don't even pass Gold's mind.)

"Oh, if it isn't too much trouble," Ai said, gently. "... maybe I could help!"

~~Or they could just eat unprepared ingredients, that's always an option, kids!~~

Would he let the girl who's probably about eight join in, too, or is she just a bit too short to want near hot, frying oil?

"Could you?" Gold asks, looking over Ai, considering. "Have you ever cooked before?"

~~Eating uncooked ingredients would be fine for Gold but he wants to feed this kid good food!~~

Letting Ai near frying oil is a bit much, but Gold has no problems handing a knife to a small child if she can use it!

"I decorated cakes and, um, licked the batter off bowls and the, um, mixer and stuff..."

That's a no, Gold.

"Oh, that sounds like fun," Gold says. "But for this kinda food all you gotta do is cut the ingredients, fry them in oil and season them, and I'm not supposed to let smaller kids do any of those if there's no adult helping out."

~~But Gold himself, as a ten-year-old, is apparently fully qualified to do all of that...~~

"So you should just sit and wait! But I guess that's boring. You can watch TV if you wanna, or there's pens and papers in the drawer by the TV if you wanna draw... Anyway, just leave the cooking to me!" Gold grins, then starts taking out all the ingredients and tools he needs.

Ai nodded as she listened. "I guess that makes sense..."

TV or drawing... it might be fun to try drawing again after a long absence! She smiled at that idea and went off to draw! Besides, she also had something important she wanted to draw...

"Thank you, big brother Gold!"

She could make a little poster of what her parents looked like, so she could ask about them! She went straight to work, drawing her family.

Gold smiles, even if being called 'big brother' has him kind of reeling mentally. It's a sudden kind of panic, which he pushes down, not even sure himself why he feels that way.

He muses on it as he starts chopping vegetables, trying to analyze what he's feeling. Big brother Gold... It's a common enough term for kids to call older boys, back in Johto. It shouldn't bother him... But it does.

Was it the family thing? The same thing that bothered Gold about Banyan calling him family? That had to be it. Gold already has a sister, and a dad, and he doesn't need any more of those. But Ai probably didn't even mean it in the family sense... Should he tell her not to call him that or not? It's not like she's done anything wrong...

While thinking about all that, he cooks Yago Chanpuru, just like Professor Banyan taught him to. Enough for three people, in case the Professor comes back soon. Soon, the scent of fried vegetables and meat wafts through the house.

"It's finished!" he calls out to Ai. "Let's set the table!"

It's fine if he asked her not to! She wouldn't mind at all.

Ai was very carefully drawing her family portrait, sticking her tongue out in concentration, when she smelled the delicious scent wafting in! She quickly put down the colours and, when Gold called, she eagerly hurried over.

"It smells great!!" she cried in excitement, then looked curious. "Oh, where do I find the dishes and things...?"

She'd gladly help, but she needed to know where things were, first!

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[*Gold is adorable* and this thread’s adorable]

[Ai is even more adorable!]

[they're BOTH adorable, he's cracking me up so much]

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[at best, maybe he'd just think she was really sick or something? : D;;;]

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[if I had a nickel for every time Gold and a muse of mine attempted to cook together... :D;;]

[cooking for people is apparently Gold's love language!]

[he's a sweetheart ;_;]

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[sorry for the delay o/]

[Gold is adorable and this thread’s adorable]