Chapter 15:Names
"Looks like Team Rocket's blasting off again!" A certain trio shouted as they shot off into the distance, disappearing in a twinkle of light.
"Garchomp, return!" Cynthia commanded and Garchomp was recalled back into her pokeball. Cynthia blew out a sigh of frustration from her nose and turned around to face Ash with her hands on her hips. "This is really beginning to annoy me..." She growled, her irritation more focused on the three morons she had just defeated than Ash himself.
"Y-yeah," Ash agreed. "B-b-but I'm so-sort of used t-t-to it by n-now."
This had actually been the third time that month that Jessie, James and Meowth had tracked them down and attempted to steal Ash's pokemon. (They were lucky to have a brain cell between them and not try to take Cynthia's pokemon.) The key word in that last sentence being "attempted."
"I mean, how did they even find us?" Cynthia asked, gesturing to their fairly remote campsite.
Campsite may have been an overstatement actually, all it was, was a fire pit and a single tent (Long story, funny story, please don't ask.)
"Better question, how do they even survive?" Cynthia asked, sounding genuinely perplexed.
Ash nodded along again. "I have n-n-no c-clue, they a-a-always j-j-just sort o-of d-do." He shrugged.
He didn't really see the big deal, yeah, they were annoying and always showing up at bad times and yes, they did always try to take Pikachu and other pokemon, but still, they weren't THAT bad.
To be honest, he kind of missed them when he signed on as Cynthia's apprentice, they stayed away for nearly a year before they started up again and for the last four months they attacked at least once a week.
It was good to see them every now and again, they were like annoying cousins or something, in the same way that Professor Oak was a kindly and wise grandfather, Brock was the older brother that he could talk to when certain...issues...appeared. Misty was the older sister, that while a little punch happy, was always looking out for him.
May was like his twin, but younger, Max was the know-it-all little brother that bugged him, but was still funny and Dawn was the cute little sister he just wanted to protect.
And Cynthia... Cynthia was... Cynthia was Cynthia. Yes, that's about right, Cynthia was Cynthia. It was hard to define her, since there was no-one else like her, but he certainly didn't see her as a sister.
No-one should try to subtly smell the scent of their sister's magnificent mane of lustrous blonde hair as she straddled his waist, her eyes alight with energy, her chest heaving with exertion, a single drop of perspiration trailing down her elegant neck and disappearing into the gentle valley of her...
Nope, Ash definitely didn't see Cynthia as a sister. Oh, and before anyone gets confused, he was thinking about when they sparred, because Cynthia ended on top of Ash a lot when they did that.
It wasn't a dream or anything, not that he did dream of a sweaty, smiling Cynthia on top of him, her hair covering her body like some modern day Lady Godiva, her smiling lips puckered as they descended...
Yep, definitely not a sister.
Hmm, thinking about Team Rocket and somehow his mind still focused on Cynthia... That seemed to be happening a lot these days.
It had been nearly a year and five months since Cynthia had asked him to join her and the training, as ever, was tough. Right now they were camped near a small lake near Snowpoint City, not too far from Lake Acuity.
The thing though, was that this particular unnamed lake was at least five degrees below zero degrees celsius, in February. Ash honestly couldn't imagine what it must have been like in winter.
The reason they were here, in the cold and ice and snow, was because of what Cynthia called "Passive Type Resistance Training." Let's say that you have a grass/poison pokemon, such as a venusaur. Now, a venusaur is at a disadvantage when it comes to several other types, ice, fire and psychic types being thee of them.
The best way to get around these disadvantages? Build up a resistance. But how do you do that? Simple, spend enough time being attacked by these types of moves until the pokemon learn to shrug off the moves and they affect the pokemon less and less.
Obviously, with Cynthia's pokemon being much, much stronger than most of Ash's, but she told him the gap was beginning to close, and he felt so too, she couldn't order her pokemon to directly attack his with super-effective moves, because if his pokemon spent more time in the pokemon centre than training, then it was pointless.
So Cynthia thought of a way, if a pokemon learned to thrive in an area where they were at a disadvantage, then it was possible for them to learn to shrug off a super-effective more with more ease.
So, they were at this lake for that very reason, Venusaur, Meganium, Sceptile, Donphan, Gabite and Pupitar were buried up to their eyes in snowdrifts, learning to ignore the cold and focus on keeping themselves warm.
Gliscor, Butterfree, Pidgeot, Swellow, Noctowl and Staraptor were in the air, flying against the buffeting, icy wind with all their energy.
Typhlosion, Charizard, Torcoal and Infernape were being doused in the chilly lake water by Wartortle, Glalie, Floatzel, Crawdaunt, Lapras, Kingler and Croconaw, who were trying to learnt to ignore the chill and move faster in the cold water.
And finally, the pokemon that didn't have a disadvantage to ice or needed to learn how to handle the icy water better, were learning advance evasion tactics in snow filled environments from Cynthia's glaceon, the ultimate expert in that particular thing.
Ash himself had only recently gotten out of the frostbite inducing water himself and was now huddled in a blanket, shivering next to the campfire. Why was he swimming around the half-frozen lake, trying not to drown in the energy-sapping cold?
For Cynthia's sheer amusement, of course!
And before that, she had made him sprint around the lake twenty times while being blasted with jets of cold water, courtesy of Milotic, soaking his clothes and chilling him to the bone.
After nearly a year and a half beside her and seeing the things she did to herself and her pokemon in the name of bettering themselves and pursuing the ideal of being the ultimate trainer and pokemon, Ash considered running while his clothes froze to his skin, his hair turning into a black icicle and feeling his very soul turn to ice as "Cynthia taking it easy on him."
Cynthia was a monster through and through when it came to pokemon training, not so much bordering the line of sadism and masochism, than crossing back and forth over the line whenever it pleased her, but damn she got great results.
"Who do they are, interrupting such an important training session? It's like they're insulting me personally as a mistress!" Cynthia exclaimed fiercely. Another little interesting fact about Cynthia, insult her ability in anything, be it teaching or anything else, then you're gonna be insulted right back, and most likely hurt too.
Ash rolled his eyes- to make sure they weren't frozen to his eyelids. "I d-don't t-think they're going out of-f-f their w-w-way t-to insult y-you, you kn-know?" He replied. "They aren't th-the sm-smartest p-p-people in the w-world, b-b-but they aren't th-that stupid."
Cynthia relaxed her stance and sat down across the warm fire from Ash, her coat being more than enough to chase off the chill in the air. Lucky.
She pursed her lips. "I guess." She shrugged. "How are you holding up?" She asked in a much kinder tone than the minute before. "I don't want you getting sick, you know?" If there was one thing he liked about Cynthia it was her ability to care equally about everyone around her, be they human or pokemon. "You want to borrow my coat?" She asked, already removing it.
"No th-thanks, what w-will y-you d-d-do?" Not that Ash minded seeing Cynthia out of her coat, he just didn't want her to freeze to death as well.
Cynthia shrugged again. "I was sixteen before I was tall enough to walk outside my house in Celestic Town and see above the snow that fell the night before." She smiled. "You spend one winter in Celestic Town and you can run around naked in the North Pole and think "My, it's unseasonably warm for November!" She laughed.
Trying his hardest to not picture exactly that, Ash didn't notice when Cynthia started talking about Team Rocket again. "...even get that accent? I know it's wrong since he's a pokemon, but have you ever just wanted to drop-kick him?"
"Sometimes. More than a few times, really, but you learn to control yourself." Ash said, finally warming up enough to get his chattering teeth under control. The fact that all he was wearing was a pair of soaked swimming shorts probably didn't help the process at all. When Cynthia told him to pack them, he had really hoped that they were going somewhere warm, it was his own fault for daring to hope.
"And that woman! She should retire before she breaks a hip! What is she, sixty or something?" Cynthia exclaimed, sounded as pissed off as when Flint had used his rapidash to send a highly compressed and controlled Ember at the peanut-butter ice-cream cone Cynthia was eating, as a joke.
The smell of burnt afro and hysterical crying afterwards was unbearable.
Ash tilted his head and began to think. "Hmm, she was seventeen when I started my journey, plus eight... And I sent her a birthday card last month... Actually she's only twenty-five, so she's still pretty young." He really hoped that she liked the card and gift he sent her, the manicure kit was kind of expensive, but he was sure she would love it.
Oh, that reminded him, Heracross' birthday was coming up and after that, Dawn was turning thirteen. Heracross was easy enough, he just needed to go to Floaroma Town and buy all the honey he could find, and for Dawn... Maybe a turtwig and chimchar doll to complete the set with the piplup doll he got her the year before. Or maybe a dress, girls liked clothes, right?
Cynthia sighed in annoyance. "Yeah, I suppose some people could consider the early thirties as pretty young." Cynthia's words turned to heated muttering. "Where does she get off, acting like that towards you..."
"Acting like what?" Ash enquired. Jessie, James and Meowth acted the same way they always did. Motto, ridiculous plot, dumb pun, dumb pun, dumb pun, ridiculous plot fails, "Blasting off again!" Yep, business as usual.
Cynthia rolled her eyes. "Oh, you know what I mean." Cynthia's voice took on a husky, seductive tone that he certainly never heard in Jessie's. "Hand over the pikachu, twerp and nobody gets hurt." She purred. "Oh, what a cute pair of shorts for a shorty!"
Ash gulped from the tone of Cynthia's voice, which gave him an interesting reaction, despite the cold, that thankfully went unnoticed by the fuming Champion."Okay, I'll admit that was mean even for her... But other than that, nothing unusual." He told her, wrapping the thick blanket tighter around himself.
"What weirdo gives a teenage boy such a cute little pet name like that? Seriously, maybe a forty-year-old woman should try looking closer to her own age!"
Ash blinked owlishly, simply trying to grasp Cynthia's strange words. "Cynthia, wha-?"
Cynthia interrupted him. "Ash, I know you have some weird Stockholm Syndrome thing with those three, but as your mistress I need to know, did that creepy old woman ever try to touch you inappropriately?" She asked with a dead serious look.
"Huh? Are you serious right now?" Ash asked incredulously. Sure, in a completely objective sense, he supposed that Jessie was an pretty attractive woman, you know, if it weren't for the whole "evil" thing.
Cynthia crossed her arms. "I'm waiting for an answer, Ash, at the very least we can put them away for stalking."
"No, no member of Team Rocket has ever tried to touch my no-no place." Ash grinned. He guessed his theory was right, every Champion had that spark of insanity, because Cynthia must have been crazy to think that.
"Well, I'm only looking out for you," Cynthia returned, ignoring the sarcasm in Ash's voice. "You're mine, so I have to protect you, especially from that old woman who's three times your age!"
"Your what?" Ash asked with a raised eyebrow.
"My what, what?" She responded, bewildered.
"You said I was yours?"
"Yes, you're my apprentice." Cynthia nodded, turning her gaze to the grey sky.
"No, you just said I was yours." Ash repeated.
"Hmm, must have been a slip of the tongue." Cynthia told him, still looking up. It was almost as if she was deliberately trying to avoid his eyes...
"Anyway," Ash continued. "You really don't like Jessie, do you?"
Cynthia murmured something under her breath that Ash couldn't hear. "I think she's a bitchy slut who should go back to her home on Whore Island," She then raised her voice so it was audible to him. "I wouldn't go so far to say that I dislike her." More like hate than mere dislike.
"Alrighty then..." Ash gave up, trying to understand Cynthia's thought process always gave him a headache.
"Are you still feeling cold?" She asked, concern still strong in her eyes, the one he could see anyway. He assumed that her left eye looked just as concerned.
"A little, but don't worry, I'm fine." Ash instantly disproved himself with a body-shaking sneeze.
Cynthia clicked her tongue like a scolding mother. "No, you aren't. Scooch over and make some room." She told him, moving from her side of the fire to his and wrapping herself up in the blanket with Ash before he had time to protest. "This will help you warm up faster." She quickly explained. "We need to be close to share our body heat."
"Oh, thanks..." Ash muttered, a sudden rush of heat that had nothing to do with the fire coming to his face.
"It would probably work better if I, uh, you know..." Cynthia trailed off, sounding embarrassed.
"If you what?"
"If I were in my underwear too. Be-because bare skin contact would, er, it would-"
"Yeah, no, I get it!" Ash squeaked out. If Cynthia stripped down, then Ash wouldn't have to worry about freezing to death, he would be more concerned about the lack of blood supplying oxygen to his brain.
"So, uh, should I?" Cynthia asked fidgeting, with her eyes locked to the sky again.
Now Ash was presented with a golden opportunity, the chance to have Cynthia Shirona in her underwear cuddling him to stay warm. Any normal teenager would leap at that chance with any normal woman, nevermind Cynthia. But Cynthia wasn't a normal woman. Cynthia was Cynthia. She would go out of her way to face embarrassment and the biting cold and strip just to help him after a harsh day of training. Ash would not and could not take advantage of that.
While he would love her to be nearly naked, he would hate himself if he went through with it.
"No, I think I'll be fine, thanks." He responded, already half-cursing himself.
"No, of course, that was a weird question! After all, why would you even- You know what? Let's just forget about it, okay?" Cynthia laughed, sounding a bit too forced to Ash.
Both of them sat stiffly and with a small space between, despite Cynthia telling him to get closer. After a few minutes that felt like forever, probably due to their respective exhaustion, Cynthia had been training very hard herself, their bodies relaxed and moved closer together, both supporting the other.
Cynthia rested her head on top of Ash's and sighed a melancholic sigh. "Something wrong?" Ash asked.
"Not really, it's just that... This must be weird for you, right?" She replied cryptically.
"What's weird?"
"Us, under this blanket and me being a lot taller than you, it doesn't make you feel uncomfortable at all?" Cynthia asked, sounding almost... Self-conscious for some reason. But that couldn't be right, right? Cynthia was the most confident, self-assured person he knew.
"Why would it make me feel uncomfortable, Cynthia?" Ash replied, feeling thoroughly confused.
"Some people, guys mostly, feel a bit intimidated by me, I think. It doesn't help that I'm a lot taller than most women my age and that I dress in black from head to toe. I guess I'm a little scary to some."
Ash snorted. "That's ridiculous! Cynthia you're one of the greatest people I know! Yeah, you might be scary in battle, but outside of it, if any guy or any girl is afraid of you, then they're idiots!"
Cynthia glanced towards Ash. "You really believe that?" She quietly asked.
"Yeah, I do." Feeling bold, Ash grabbed her hand in his. "Cynthia, you're an amazing woman. Please don't forget that." Where the hell was all this coming from, Ash thought to himself. Sure, he thought it, but thinking something and having the guts to say it are two different things!
"Thank you, Ash... You always know how to make me feel better." Cynthia said, looking down at their intertwined hands. It felt kind of nice...
"Well, I just feel it's stupid for anyone to fear you or feel uncomfortable just because you're tall. You're Sinnoh's Sweetheart after all!" He chuckled.
Cynthia laughed along. She then turn her head to face him, a strange look of shyness on her face. "You know, you should really stop saying such nice things about me, Ash Ketchum." She said, her eyes half-closed with a smile.
"O-oh, and why's that?" Ash breathed, his throat locked up from the unfamiliar expression on Cynthia's face.
Cynthia leaned her face in slightly closer. "Be-because, because..." A devilish smile appeared on her face and she pulled back completely. "Because it makes you sound like a total dork!" She laughed.
"Dork?!" Ash exclaimed indignantly, trying to force the last moment's atmosphere from his mind.
"Yep! That woman calls you twerp, so I call you dork! You just got a nickname for life!" She crowed, her laughter and the cold sending a healthy flush to her pale cheeks.
"You have a terrible sense of humour." Ash huffed. As his mistress, shouldn't she avoid obliterating his confidence?
"What are you talking about? I'm hilarious!"
"No, no, you really aren't."
"Pshaw! You simply have no sense of humour, dear apprentice!" Cynthia then ceased her giggles. "But really, Ash, I don't know what I would do if I hadn't met you. Ever since we met, my life's been a lot more fun with you in it. So, thanks for putting up with me, even if I don't always express it, I'm not good at that kind of thing, I'm really happy that you're here beside me." She gently spoke, a soft smile on her lips.
"Me too, but you know what this means right?" Ash mirrored her grin from the minute before.
Cynthia raised her eyebrow. "Oh, and what does it mean, exactly?"
"It means... That I get to give you a nickname!" Ash smirked.
Cynthia smirked right back. "You can try and fail if you like."
"That sounds like a challenge, I like challenges." Ash thought for a moment. What nickname could he make up? "Thia?" He questioned.
"No, that just sounds weird." Cynthia shook her head. "Is that the best you can do, dork?" She asked, still smiling.
Ash glowered at her. "Cynth?"
Cynthia stuck out her tongue immaturely. "Ew, that somehow sounds worse!"
"Cindy?"
"What am I, five?" She said, expressing her displeasure at the childish name.
"Well, you act like you are! Your tongue is going to freeze like that."
"Yeah, yeah," She said. "Come on, keep going!" Cynthia playfully punched his arm.
"How about just Cyn?"
"Really?" Cynthia asked incredulously.
"Well, what's wrong with Cyn?" Give him a break, nicknames were hard. That's why he never nicknamed his pokemon.
"Cyn? Spelt C-Y-N?" Cynthia put on a slightly deeper and sultry voice. "Gentlemen, please welcome to the centre stage, dancing for your pleasure, Cyn!" Cynthia switched back to her normal voice. "It's a stripper name!"
"Okay, okay!" Ash put up his hands in apology. "Not Cyn."
"Definitely not Cyn!" Cynthia interrupted.
"Definitely not Cyn, then."
Cynthia playfully patted his head. "Good apprentice! Doesn't call his mistress by a stripper name!"
"Cyn-Cyn?" Ash asked in a last-ditch effort.
Cynthia narrowed her eyes. "Only my little sister can call me that. No-one else." She said quietly.
Ash looked at her. "I didn't know you had a sister?" Ash had met her grandmother before, in the Celestic Town Historical Research Centre, but he didn't know about any other members of her family.
"I never mentioned her? Her name's Emily, she lives in Celestic Town with my grandparents and she works as one of my grandma's assistant. You probably didn't notice her because she got most of Grandma and Grandpa's genes, so she's a tiny little thing, even shorter than you."
"I'm five-seven..." Ash grumbled under his breath. First Jessie, then Cynthia. Why did tall women always mock him about his height?
"Did you say something Ash? I can't hear you all the way up here!" See what he meant? "Hey, by the way, we should go find everyone, trainings over for the day."
"Yeah, okay. I'll get dressed and get everyone's pokeballs." Ash said, reluctantly getting out from the blanket's warmth and back into the biting cold.
"Uh, Ash?"
Ash turned back around to find Cynthia with her eyes glued to the sky again. He glance up to make sure there wasn't some kind of epic battle between Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres going on over his head. Seeing that there wasn't, he turned to face Cynthia. "Yeah?"
"If you really want to, you can call me Cyn sometimes. But only if we're in private! I don't want the world to know my apprentice calls his mistress by a stripper's name!" She added on.
"Whatever you say... Cyn."
"Good. Now hurry up and get dressed... Dork."
Both laughing, Ash entered the tent and Cynthia walked over to the lake to recall Milotic, both still feeling the comforting warmth of the other.