[attr="class","star1"]

[attr="class","star2"]

She could tell that he was confused. Who wouldn’t be? But there was something protective and safe in the curl of his arms. When was the last time she’d felt something like that. Really felt it? Maybe she never had. But it was so easy to let herself sink into. Or maybe that was just because it was Shinra who was holding on.[break][break]
“Twenty years,” she insisted, eyes pathetically wide. “I know it doesn’t make sense. But the mission I was on…I was gone for so long, Shinra.” She couldn’t explain it, that was the frustrating part. Blue knew how insane this made her sound. How could she rationally put two decades spent in an alternate reality to words.[break][break]
“A week?” she echoed, pulling back enough to look at him, though her fingers remained knotted in the fabric of his shirt. She was pretty sure they’d only been gone a day or so in that time lapse, but…right. It came back in patches. She’d been nervous to contact him. Not because she wanted to avoid him. It had just been nervous jitters. Anytime she’d looked at her phone, her face had turned red at the recollection of the last time she’d been there.[break][break]
Uncertainty of what it all meant. Where they’d been meant to go from there.[break][break]
That didn’t matter now, though, did it? It all seemed so silly in comparison to what she’d just endured. A small smile still crossed her lips at his words. “Yeah?” She watched him as he pushed her hair back, head leaning into the gentle touch. Something she’d never really expected from someone like Shinra. Somehow, that made it all the more special. One hand slid up to rest against his cheek. “It’s really you..” Maybe she was still in a daze, though she’d been back for a little bit now. No longer was she left with only her dreams and imagination, left struggling to recall the cadence of his voice with the passage of time.[break][break]
Blue leaned in again, forehead resting against his chest as the adrenaline wore off and the cold from the rain seeped in. Her skin shivered from it. “I can’t do it anymore. Rocket.” Her breath shook too. “I just can’t.”

[break][break]

---

[break][break]

Shinra Moro // m: post-goodbye galar

[attr="class","star3"][attr="class","rouxcredit"]♠

[attr="class","star1"]

[attr="class","star2"]

She realizes that she misspoke almost immediately.[break][break]
“Theo…that’s not what I—“[break][break]
Blue stops short, mouth clamping shut again. She doesn’t think he’s a coward, not really. She never has. The lash of her own temper simmers. It used to feel good, provoking anger or hurt from others.[break][break]
But to see it on his face makes her feel nauseous.[break][break]
“I want you to stay, too.” she swallows hard, voicing having dropped small again. She can want that all she wants, but she can’t control him just as much as he can’t control her.[break][break]
That’s how it works.

[break][break]

---

[break][break]

THEO BECKETT // post-gg

[attr="class","star3"][attr="class","rouxcredit"]♠

[attr="class","star1"]

[attr="class","star2"]
Okay. His agreement made her nod a few times, as she hadn’t really expected him to. Maybe because she wasn’t. This was unfamiliar territory. She was used to being needed for her skills. Not for just her. Whatever the nature of their connection was before, it had shifted into something else entirely now. Something that felt special.[break][break]
Made her feel special.[break][break]
“Bonnie,” she whistled lightly for the poochyena, who reluctantly peeled away from her new playmate to retreat to Blue’s side. Her tail wagged, though she looked up at her trainer with a quirked head. Confused by the strange display of emotion that was unfamiliar on her face.[break][break]
The door opened, but Blue continued to back out of it rather than turn away. Heat burned in her face, matching the red of her eyes. Chewing her lip, she nodded. Butterfree erupted in her stomach again at the sight of his smile. Unlike anything she’d ever seen on his face before. “You better,” she retorted, though it lacked any real force behind it.[break][break]
Then she slipped out of the door and back into the night. Her back pressed against the closed door for a moment, palms pressing to her face as she tried to gather herself. She didn’t know what to make of the bubbly, giddy feeling that persisted even after she’d separated herself. Blue made her way back to her bike, cheeks finally cooling in the evening air.[break][break]
But inside, she was still warm, warm, warm.

[break][break]

---

[break][break]

Shinra Moro // m: bond bridge

[attr="class","star3"][attr="class","rouxcredit"]♠

[attr="class","star1"]

[attr="class","star2"]

She won’t, is the long-short of it.[break][break]
“How do you know, though? What about everyone else we spent the last twenty years with—surely-“ She shakes her head, frustration continuing to build into the heat of maybe anger. Desperation? She isn’t sure.[break][break]
Her frown is sharp as she stares up at him. Shinra aside—[break][break]
“It feels cowardly.”

[break][break]

---

[break][break]

THEO BECKETT // post-gg

[attr="class","star3"][attr="class","rouxcredit"]♠

[attr="class","star1"]

[attr="class","star2"]

Her brows pinch together. “Why would I be throwing away my life?”[break][break]
She doesn’t get it, she doesn’t understand why he’d think that.[break][break]
“He’s not in Rocket. I don’t get it.”[break][break]
Again, she shakes her head. Frustration bubbles up to the surface, something pleading and desperate welling in her chest.[break][break]
“Why do we have to go away? I won’t. We can’t, Theo.”[break][break]
Beyond Shinra…it feels cowardly, even.[break][break]
And it’s scary, yes. Breaking ties with the organization is terrifying and it provokes an animal fear that wants to swallow her whole. But Blue is no coward.


[break][break]

---

[break][break]

THEO BECKETT // post-gg

[attr="class","star3"][attr="class","rouxcredit"]♠

[attr="class","star1"]

[attr="class","star2"]

“Shinra,” she repeats dumbly, frustration climbing in her voice. It’s not fair to be upset with Theo for not knowing, and she knows that, but she can’t, she doesn’t know how to—[break][break]
“He’s my—“ But what is he exactly? Blue hardly knows. It was something they’d only brushed the surface of before she was whisked away to life out another life.[break][break]
All she can grasp is that she’s carried a torch for twenty years of unextinguishable flame.[break][break]
“He’s— He’s just important. I can’t go.”[break][break]
Even if the thought of staying here—where the consequences of abandoning post are more glaring, sort of terrifies her.

[break][break]

---

[break][break]

THEO BECKETT // post-gg

[attr="class","star3"][attr="class","rouxcredit"]♠

[attr="class","star1"]

[attr="class","star2"]

In her acceptance of their lot while they were in Galar, Blue realizes that she never did explain her desire to go home. Maybe it was chalked up to homesickness that’s never really done right by her, she doesn’t know.[break][break]

Just that in twenty years, she’s never fessed to any reason. She’s kept it hidden, tucked away against her heart because it was the only thing she had that served as a reminder.[break][break]

Somewhere to come back to. A barren apartment in Slateport. Housing someone dear.[break][break]

Now, she looks at him with uncertainty. Scared that it will widen the tiny crack that returning has brought about into a bigger gap.[break][break]

But like most confessions, the name tumbles off her tongue before she can think to lie.[break][break]

“Shinra is here.”


[break][break]

---

[break][break]

THEO BECKETT // post-gg

[attr="class","star3"][attr="class","rouxcredit"]♠

[attr="class","star1"]

[attr="class","star2"]
The truth was that she wasn’t okay. Not by a long shot. There was a lot that she still had to sort through—even more so after the conversation she’d had with THEO BECKETT in the wake of their return. Nothing was alright. Half a lifetime had been lived and then uprooted again in the blink of an eye. She wasn’t sure how anyone could handle that with ease. Anyone who actually remembered, anyway.[break][break]
But right then, looking at Shinra standing in his doorway seconds before she collided with him, it felt okay. It felt like she could be okay. Something in her soul clicked back into place, her tilted axis balancing again. Twenty years of foggy memory was nowhere near as impacting as hearing his voice with her own ears.[break][break]
“Shinra,” she blurted, the only word she was able to babble out for a moment as she clung to him. Twenty years of melancholy and longing rose to the surface, constricting her throat. Everything in her sagged, knees going weak as she held on. There was no fight in her, only relief that he was real and whole, and probably confused as hell.[break][break]
“I’ve been waiting years to see you again.” She knew it probably didn’t make sense to hear her say. It didn’t stop her from saying so, though. It was true, even if it broke the conventional idea of reality. “I’m sorry, I was—I know I said I’d call. Work…kept me.” It wasn’t even a lie. He just didn’t know how long it had actually prevented her.[break][break]
Her arms slid up, clinging around his neck. She was soaked through to the bone, but she didn’t care. The last time, she’d shyly let go and she’d ended up regretting it for the better part of two decades. In her pocket, her phone buzzed with the alerts that began to roll in, unreceived by a signal that had been stuck in another world. “I missed you, so much.”

[break][break]

---

[break][break]

Shinra Moro // m: post-goodbye galar

[attr="class","star3"][attr="class","rouxcredit"]♠