Title: Delivery
Author: Shadow/Phantomness
Pairing: None really
Fandom: Pokémon
Theme: #28, Deliver
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Pokemon belongs to Nintendo and Shogakukan Comics. This non-profit, non-copyright infringing fanfiction belongs to me under international copyright laws and taking it is plagiarism. Thank you. *Phantomness bows*

Notes: <> for telepathy, ** for thoughts, italics if a pokemon talks. Special-verse

Warnings: Angst, fanon references, implied shonen-ai and het

Yellow is home when Red receives the package. It’s a plain, dull thing, wrapped in brown paper, quite a large box, and for a moment, she wonders if someone sent Red a pokémon in the mail, but then it passes. They scatter packing peanuts all over the ground in blurry green, and Red gasps as he realizes what it is.

It’s a sword, Yellow thinks, with some strange sort of detachment. She’s never known Red to take an interest in weapons, but it will look good over the fireplace where the children won’t cut themselves. She moves to take it away from him, but he’s staring at it and his eyes frighten her – she’s never seen them like that before, even when he was frozen.

Red doesn’t say anything for a minute, and it seems like he’s lost himself, but then he forces a smile and tells Yellow that her suggestion is an excellent one. She doesn’t think there’s anything wrong, not until that night when she has a nightmare of Red leaving her and wakes up. She finds him downstairs, sipping hot chocolate and sitting on the couch, and shakes her head, reprimanding herself for being so silly. She heads back up to the bedroom, and misses the way Red’s eyes flash.

Red waits until he is sure she is asleep, before he walks up to the mantelpiece. He runs his fingers over cool metal, and he sighs. “Lance… I’m sorry…”

There is no response, but he doesn’t expect one. After all, Lance is dead and gone and he idly wonders who mailed the Sword to him. Maybe one of the pokémon…

He’s too far-gone to do his duty now, and all he feels is a hollow emptiness. All his happiness is in tatters, and he doesn’t know what to do, but he can’t die – not yet – because that would be selfish.

Still, he thinks of them dead for his sake, and he cries, because he is not worth their deaths, and promises he’ll do better next time.

What else can he do?

End Fic

Completed 3/13/07

Yes, Red fell for Yellow and Lance got depressed and called the sacred sword.