Childhood Friends
Title: Childhood Friends
Category: Pokemon
Relationship: implied Bederia
Rating: T
Summary: Before Bede went into the orphanage, he was friends with Gloria. They had promised to always be friends, but Gloria moved to Postwick and Bede’s life fell apart. Years later, they meet again as rivals and it is only after Gloria becomes the Champion that she attacks Bede in a way she’s been wanting to do since the Opening Ceremony.
Author’s Note: Merry Christmas to everyone, especially to jane-plane and pkmntrashcan who makes some of the most awesome Pokemon fanfiction stories. Also, when I get into a new fandom/shipdom it takes me awhile to get used to writing them. So I’m sorry that this isn’t one of my best works in terms of characters.
Disclaimer: I own no rights to the Pokemon franchise.
~~Story Begins~~
Red.
That was all Bede could see when he saw Gloria enter the Pokemon League with another young boy who he never saw before. The kid claiming that he was the younger brother and the one who will defeat the undefeated Champion.
This kid claiming that Gloria was his rival with the brightest smile on his face. She looked so happy to be in the league.
“That’s okay,” Bede said to his Hatenna who seemed like it wanted to run away from her trainer. “I don’t need Gloria. It seems like she has moved on and so will I.”
~~
Gloria knew Bede the moment he pushed Hop and herself aside, but she did not know the person who he has become. He had always pushed her past her limits when they were younger with small insults that actually encouraged her to keep going, but he wasn’t cold or arrogant about it. He wasn’t the Bede that she knew and wondered if this change of attitude is why he stopped sending her letters.
Hop drags her out of the building before she can talk to Bede. She looks over her shoulder towards the challenger in the pink coat who locks eyes with her in an intense glare.
~~
Bede did not remember the reason why he’s in the Wild Area, waist deep in water as he glares at the tiny island. He knows he’s looking for a Gallade to add onto his team, but he doesn’t remember why.
Did Opal ask him to? Was it to try and keep his Gardevior and Hatterina from fighting? Would that even work? Would anything stop those two from fighting? Who knows?
Bede does know that if he takes one more step towards the island than he’ll have to start swimming which was not on his plans for today.
Why hasn’t he caught himself a water-type Pokemon for situations like these yet?
“Bede!” A female voice said from behind them. It made him flinch at first before he heard splashes behind him in a rapid succession. That caused him to spin around just as that other annoying voice yelled for Gloria to stop.
Once he turned around, he saw the familiar and old (why did she keep that old thing) green knitted hat on the shore and a blur of dark blue hair in his eyes. He felt their combined weight go backwards as the momentum pushed them to the deeper part of the lake. Arms had wrapped around his stomach with just enough room to wiggle his own arms free from the gasp as his eyes went wide.
A loud splash later with some disorientation, Bede found himself underwater as schools of Magikarps and Mantykes swim away. His white hair stuck to his head but he looked up and with the weight of a Champion who still clung onto his body. He kicked his legs upwards and took a big gasp of air as he broke through the surface.
“Why did you do that?” Bede said as he tried to push Gloria off of him with a glare while treading water. “I didn’t want to swim today!”
“I told you that I would get payback someday when we were children. This was my chance, but I didn’t know you was this deep in the water,” Gloria said.
“Whatever,” Bede said. “Let go of me so we can swim to the shore. I need to go home and change into dry clothes.”
“I can’t swim.”
“Gloria, Bede, are you two okay?” Hop asked from the shore.
“You still don’t know how to swim? After all of these years, you still didn’t learn how to swim?” Bede said in a scream. “Why did you think I pushed you into the lake the first time? Just to spite you? To make your day horrible?”
“I did get sick the next day, no thanks to you,” Gloria said back.
“And did I not apologize everyday when I visited you when I brought over your homework and soup?” Bede said with a huff. He took a look at the Champion who clung to him like a child.
Her brown eyes showed fear as her bottom lip trembled, her skin made her look like a human ghost and would have put Allister’s mask to shame.
“You’re still terrified of water, aren’t you,” Bede said in a whisper.
Nod.
Bede let out a sigh. “It won’t do me good to let the Champion drown then. Who else will give me a challenge?”
“Is it because of that and not the fact that there is a witness?” Gloria said with a chuckle as Bede moved her behind him and she wrapped her arms around his neck.
“That’s also a factor, a small through,” Bede said with sarcasm. A small slap on the back of his shoulder made him smile.
~~
Bede gave a skeptical look to Gloria as he held onto a Luxury ball that Gloria just gave him.
“What’s this?” he asked.
“An apology for yesterday. I didn’t mean to cause that much trouble,” Gloria said. “I also need to know something.”
“What do you possibly need to know?”
“Why did you quit writing to me?” Gloria said. “It was something Mom and I couldn’t figure out.”
“I didn’t. You quit writing to me. Once I went into the orphanage, I never received a single letter from you,” Bede said. “I sent letters begging for you and your mom to adopt me so I wouldn’t have to stay there anymore. It was horrible there and you just abandoned me.”
“No. We never received anything like that,” Gloria said with a shake of her head. “When Mom had heard what happened, we went to the orphanage to find you. They said you were already at the Trainer School because you were adopted by Rose.”
“Obviously, someone has lied to you then. That man never adopted me,” Bede said with another venom in his voice to make a poison-type Pokemon look tame. “He used me to achieve his desires and then tossed me aside.”
Bede expression changed from murderous to shock as he finally registered what she just said.
“Wait, you and your Mom were looking for me,” Bede said. “You didn’t abandon me?”
Gloria shook her head. “No. I wanted to hug you and cry when we saw each other at the Opening Ceremony because for the longest time I thought you were dead. Hop wouldn’t let me breathe from all of his excitement and then your were cold and arrogant. I didn’t have a chance to truly talk to you until now, but Hop wants a rematch and I really need to get going.”
Bede just raised an eyebrow.
“So, uhm. Mom would like for you to come over anytime. You can bring Opal with you. She misses you as well and it will give us some time to catch up.”
Bede watched as Gloria left the Ballonlea Gym. He thought the crush he had on her when they were children had disappeared. It just returned ten-fold and he knows for a fact that Opal will pick up on it within one minute of his next training session with her.