Sleepless nights - set after Rhyperior Superior battle

[crazy_d_healing]

[Content Warnings: Responses may contain reference to major injuries, death and bombs, as well as spoilers for character canon. Please note if any of these should be minimized in responses. Thank you]

It has been days since he’d slept. He’d passed out a few times since the attack, but that didn’t count as sleeping; he could remember the doctors explaining as much when he’d ended up back in the hospital days after release, too exhausted to even sit up. A state of unconsciousness did not actually rest the mind or body, they had said. At least now he recognized when he was getting there... not that it made the act of sleeping any easier.

Falling asleep had been hard, every time his eyes shut he heard some imagined sound that sent chills up his spine. Explosions that couldn't have been real, or a faint click that had once heralded pain in so many forms. It was after a few times of this he felt a steady weight and warmth on his chest, and glanced down to see the Furfrou with his head settled there. The comfort and warmth from that was enough to lure his eyes to closing, slipping into sleep finally.

Until he woke up mid-scream, a terrified cry in the shape of his best friend's name strangled from his throat thick with tears. He stared at the world above him, clinging to his bed as if it would fly away without the hold, tears slowly working their way down the sides of his face to soak into his messy, unstyled hair. It took all of his strength to muffle his sobs under heavy breathing. The Furfrou was beside him, giving small cries and nosing his cheek gently, trying to comfort him, and after a moment he settled it.

Slowly he rolled over and got to his feet, reaching for his jacket on habit, and heading away. Normally at this point he would go look at Okuyasu's house, the feeling of it being lived in still enough to soothe the fears running riot on his mind. But there was no old, decrepit looking mansion that held his best friend here, there was no seeing him in the morning to share a laugh and a smile with... There was no reminder that his survival wasn't just a fever dream born of pain, blood loss and desperation. 

So he walked... he didn't have a goal, he just needed to move, maybe to run from his nightmare, maybe chasing the hope that whatever date had dropped him here would do the same for his best friend. As he walked he heard the soft steps of the pokemon walking beside him, and set his hand on its fluffy head. "Hey buddy... You've stuck around a lot... You looking to be my friend?" He asks, smiling softly. "You want a nickname? Cause if you're with me, you gotta have a cool name." He points out with some soft cheer. Letting his mind drift, he walks down to the beach and after setting his socks and shoes up on a dry area, with his pants rolled up, he steps out into the water a bit, to stand and watch it, as it reflects the night around him.

After a few moments he starts to cry, soft tears that he has no strength to stop, as he stands there in the moonlight, on the beach.