Somehow I loved the way this turned out.

World – Manga
Characters – Wally, Ruby, Sapphire.
Genres – Drama, Angst, General
Notes(s) – Requested by Petit-Sapphire-Jai. Beware of angsty!Wally.
Disclaimer – Pokémon Special doesn't belong to meee.

Meadow-ing

Wally remembers he is hopeless. He can't run, he can't kick a ball hard enough, and he hasn't even breached the beginning of puberty – he still can't reach the top shelf of the cupboard. He can't skip rope because that will make him pant, and when he pants he needs his inhaler, and his feet will get entangled in the bewildering rope, leading to a fall flat on his nose. And his parents hoist him up carefully and hug him to their chests. They soothe him with gentle, hesitating fingers grazing lightly on his emerald hair. They whisper franticly, sorry dear, it was our fault, it was our entire fault, please don't cry, and that they won't try anything like that ever again. So his mother and father never do, they store the rope somewhere high on the shelf, and he bids farewell to his dreams of soaring over the clouds as he slides into bed and slips the plastic mask over his face.

Wally reminds himself that he has one talent – saying goodbye.

He learns this when he is seven.

So Wally is incredibly surprised when a boy he hardly knows, the one with crimson eyes and white hat, flings his arms open and latches onto him in a thankful, thankful hug. He gulps and clears his throat as he feels the warmth of someone – his parents have long stopped hugging him for fear of breaking him. He finds himself sighing in relief as his consciousness remains long after Ruby has released him from the unpredictable embrace. He is not as brittle as he assumes, and it makes his weak heart flutter for obvious reasons.

It is bittersweet, how Norman has plunged stinging arrows through his dreams of becoming a trainer, but his son wanders along and picks up the pieces with a genuine smile and a dazed Mudkip tottering at his heels. Ruby hands him a pokéball and lends him a Ralts named Ruru, one of the four Pokémon he has with him on his escape.

Wally envies and envies and envies.

He does not forget the year he turns ten.

Because the capsule encases the Kecleon inside it with a defined click, and his right arm hurts tenderly from the sheer force he used to launch the pokéball the required distance. The stunning combination of euphoria and spurts of pain attacking his sides is unforgettable in taste and texture. He hands Ruby his PokéNav, because he knows he must exchange one thing in place of the other. He does not mind giving away the device, this green camouflaging lizard in his shivering hand will suffice forever. And he has made a friend, and that is what matters, he claims.

Wally is rather sad when the earth faults and Ruby disappears. But it is alright. He knows how to say goodbye and how to be truthfully alarmed and frightened - before calming down soon after because parting is so natural and so predetermined, it isn't that scary anymore. He places a hand on Ruru and calculates the odds that he will have to return her someday. And somewhere, a small corner of his heart is eased at the fact that he will be able to care for the Ralts for the time being.

When he bids farewell to Petalburg and goes to Vendanturf, the air is fresher.

He asks if he can become a trainer.

His parents decline out of love and fear. Wally can see the two emotions combating in his mother's eyes, and he thinks he knows which one will win. He realizes and figures that he cannot be restrained by his parents anymore. They threw away that skipping rope a long time ago. So he hefts a sack on his frail shoulder and stumbles out of the window with Kecleon crawling cautiously on the trail he leaves behind.

This is one goodbye he doesn't entirely find sad.

His respirator snaps up into motion just before he inhales the thinness of the ozone. Never has he believed that he would be able to see a legendary Pokémon locked in slumber. He instantly discards all regret of running away from home. He wants to reach out a hand to touch it before it leaves, but Norman snaps his attention back to the presently pounding rain and the choppy seas below the Sky Pillar. He hesitates, wondering if he should listen - if he takes a hold of the beast, he will be able to soar in the clouds. Wally then remembers he will be celebrated as a hero if he survives; he turns distracted as he commands the green reptile at his side to launch the blinding attack.

When he pieces consciousness back together, he is drenched in the rain, lying on Flygon's back. Norman and Rayquaza are sailing in the distance. Treeko – no, Grovyle, is lost. He never comes back. Wally wonders if it is on purpose, because he wasn't even given a chance to thank the little creature.

It is hard to believe that he is barely eleven.

Wally becomes a full-fledged trainer. He is brimming with confidence and energy he never knew he has. He prances across cavernous mountains and seas and flowery meadows that remind him nothing of home and it is every aspect of beauty.

He learns to run, to kick a ball so hard it flies, and he inches past the top of Ruby's hat one fine afternoon in Slateport. He manages to scribble and remember strategic tips Sapphire graciously shares and he challenges seven of the eight gyms. He loses sometimes, but he almost always struggles and emerges the victor. His Pokémon never turn their backs on him, they gaze longingly at him and hold onto his broad hands and help him discard the unneeded green breathing mask into a nearby dustbin. In the end, he supposes he is feeling everything, if not fulfilled and complete and satisfied. Emotions are running high and he blows the candles on his birthday cake and plans how to journey to Sootopolis without a swimmer on his belt.

He will defeat Juan and challenge Wallace if he can, and he will finally be able to live his dreams. He's pushing his recovered body to its maximum capacity and he indulges in every minute of the sensation that his heart is palpitating in overdrive and his brow is soaked in sweat. It is almost addictive in quality, like a dream that is tangible and real, here and now.

Only when he is seventeen, does his body collapse in the middle of the ocean waves.

Norman apologises. It turns out that the special training did not solve his body's curse permanently, only stall it temporarily before ultimately giving way to the severe mental and physical stress.

Everyone, except Wally, cries.

Perhaps he's known this would happen all along.

When he is twenty-two, this is what happens:

His parents work overtime to pay the lengthening bills; they don't come to the room regularly anymore. Ruby stops visiting. He moves to Johto with Sapphire, they marry and live an almost happy life. They stop coming and Ruru doesn't stay behind. Emerald never bothers to return Sceptile to him because Treeko was never rightfully his, he doesn't see them again. Flygon takes off back to Norman in Petalburg because the man is too old to be driving around on a motorcycle now. Cacturne and Roselia die as ashes in the wind because they are but plants and they aren't meant to live as long as they have. He is told that the fire went completely out of control, and that there hadn't been any water Pokémon in the area. And it is okay because it was predetermined and natural but it was tear-jerking and horrifying at the same time. Only Kecleon remains, slouching in the corner of the pasty white walls, only visible as a thick pink zigzag hovering with melancholy in the air. He doesn't want to show Wally his face anymore, the countenance of a Pokémon who has spent years upon years sulking under the fluorescence of a pungent hospital ward. He does not want to display the bore and the gloom and the jaded spirit of a fighter who never was.

Wally smiles, the beating of the heart monitor ringing in his ears as he shuts his swollen eyes.

Goodbye.