to live and let go / steven stone x reader

She was just a challenger. At first, she was almost nothing to Steven, but she kept coming back, again and again and again. And her determination made him like her.

She’d press the doors open in a way that was so undeniably her, and he’d feel his face lift up at her sight. This was the forty-sixth time she’d entered this room.

“Battle?” she’d ask as she walked to her usual place, and hold up a Pokéball. Every time, it was Swampert out first. And Steven always sent Skarmony after her.

The battles were fun, he would admit, but he knew that all of this will end sooner or later.

He wouldn’t mind if someone like her took his place.

After the sixty-seventh time, she stopped coming to the League. Steven first thought that she was taking a break, but then a month flew by without her, and he started to sense something wrong. He made haste to Littleroot, her hometown as she had mentioned once. And although it was late morning when he left Mossdeep, he arrived in the crack of midnight.

There were Kricketot sounds making the night feel much more eerie. Steven stood in front of her house, and even after checking the sign more times than twice, he still believed he got it wrong.

But he got it right. Five seconds after he knocked, the lights clicked on and she pulled the door open.

Her first words to him that night wasn’t hello, or a question of what he was doing. It was just, “Steven?” in such an accusing manner he regretted visiting her. But he wanted to know why she’d disappear and if she would ever come back home.

“Good evening,” he greeted her, and that made her squint even more. “Um, this is quite awkward…” he trailed off.

“It is,” she continued for him, crossing her arms. “It’s awkward, and creepy.” A sigh. “But I suppose you’re here to ask why I don’t challenge you anymore?”

He replied quickly, since he felt like he was being interrogated. “Yes.”

“It’s simple: I got tired. And I don’t know if I’ll ever go back, okay? There’s much more to this world than beating the Pokémon League.”

Steven nodded slightly. She has all right to stop, but he’ll miss her intensely.

A moment later, she shook her head out of the tension and ran a hand through her hair. “Well, since it’s so late…why don’t you spend the night?”

Steven slept in the living room, wearing nothing but boxers. She didn’t want him to go anywhere near the stairs, because apparently her room was embarrassing. He granted her wishes, but even if it was, he’d never be ashamed by her.

She stayed with him downstairs until two in the morning, when his eyes started to stay closed longer than usual as he blinked. She spoke about what she did over the month, visiting different professions, trying to find her forte.

“I met a detective on a coast a few weeks ago,” she said, sitting next to him on the couch, cradling a mug in her hands. “He didn’t remember who he was. I took him around town to help him remember, but he wasn’t a native and everything made him more confused. And then he saw the tiny Prism Tower in the middle of Mauville and remembered he was shipwrecked from Kalos.”

“Interesting,” Steven commented, although he felt a twinge of jealousy that it wasn’t him she was walking around the region with.

“I know,” she smiled at her tea. “He said his name was Looker and that he was always looking for a new mystery. He said that if I was ever in the area, I should visit him in Sinnoh and he’ll give me a few lessons on investigating.”

Steven froze in his spot, wrapped around in three blankets. He swallowed hard, struggling to get the words out. “You’re leaving?”

She didn’t notice his tenseness. “Not that I planned of, no.”

“Oh,” he let an airy breath out. “I’m glad. I would’ve missed you a lot, then.”

She stayed silent, not even giving a slight hint that she realised he was being so prompt.

The smell of breakfast woke him up. He rose slowly, rubbing the back of his head, disorientated to not seeing his collection beside him. The second thing he thought was how hot he was under three blankets, and the third was why he wasn’t wearing a shirt.

Then she moved behind the couch, and he saw her with her hair up and wearing an apron and he remembered. “Hey, Steven. Here,”—she threw him his dress shirt—“I don’t want to see you naked.”

“I’m not completely,” he murmured as she moved back to the kitchen, and he sat up straight and stretched. He pulled on the button-up, slowly fixing his hair back into a presentable state.“Why is it so hot?”

She ignored his question. “I know there’s a lot of people who would pay thousands see you shirtless, panting, and lying on their mattress, but I’d pay to not.” He heard something being put into a fryer. “And your pants are on the side table.”

Steven gave a yawn and stretched when he was all done putting clothes on, sitting at the spot on the dining table she set up for him. It was a weird feeling at first, but he felt like it was supposed to be part of his routine, waking up to her face everyday.

The thought was shaken away when he saw her pile waffles and pancakes and baked beans on a plate and head to the table. “I can’t believe this. The Champion of Hoenn came to visit me, spent the night, and now I’m giving him breakfast.” She placed the plate in front of him, a glass soon after, leaving and coming back to pour juice in it. Steven grabbed his cutlery, ready to eat. “You’re lucky I’m such a nice person, that I haven’t put poison in this.”

He felt a shiver go through him, stiffening his fingers grasped around the fork. These sort of jokes he had never handled well. “You haven’t, have you?”

“Of course not! I love you too much to kill you.”

It was most likely a joke, but he still felt his heart lurch in his chest.

He left before the strike of noon, waving her off from above on his Skramony. When he was gone, flying over the ocean. he felt a dull pain. His heart ached in a way he never felt before, and he knew why all the intrusive thoughts came through this morning. He knew that she was his forever.

It felt like floating in space. Terrifying, since you don’t know when you’ll land. Frightening, since you don’t know if you’ll ever get home. But extraordinary, having peace with such raw beauty.

And he didn’t want to land or go home.

The weeks that followed without her felt like torture. Steven would see her face in every challenger he got, shining in every rock he had.

He was thinking of how their next meeting will go on a rainy evening when he heard someone call his name. He was in Rustboro City that day, visiting his father to show him a new specimen he found. Turning around, looking into the darkness that the streetlight couldn’t touch, he thought he dreamed her voice. And then she walked into the light and he saw her perfectly.

“Steven,” she said softer this time. She didn’t have an umbrella and droplets were streaming down her face, but he could tell that she was crying. Maybe it was the way her face was scrunched up, but he took her in his arms right away even though she was soaking.

He brought her back to Devon, using his suit jacket to warm her up. He told her he’d stay with her until the rain stopped and he could fly her home.

She cried until she ran out of tears, and even then she was quiet. Steven added this detail to his long list of mental notes about her.

Then, sat beside him with her head leaned on his shoulder, she spoke to him for the second time tonight. “I’m not going back,” she said.

He was taken aback a bit, but didn’t want to startle her. “Home? Why?”

“Only for a week. I just need to get away from them. You know—my relatives.” She had her fingers stretched out in front of her, moving her hand in the air. “Usually, I’m not fazed by what people say about me, but when you have people who watched you grow up say you'll never have a life, it hurts. Really hurts.”

Steven curled his arm around her shoulders, rubbing her arm. “You’ll live a wonderful life,” and I want to live it with you, he wanted to add. But he didn’t. He pressed his lips together and didn’t say anything else, just smoothing her hair and hugging her tight.

It was either a spare room in Devon or at Steven’s house. He was so glad she chosen to stay at the latter.

She was silent for the first two days, much like the first twenty battles she had with Steven. She stayed in his guest room all day, only coming out for meals.

And then she opened up more, acting like she had when he visited her at her home.

She was on his couch now, her legs crossed, a cup of coffee in her curled hands, eyes pinned on his television. Steven sat next to her, although his gaze was on her instead.

Then she suddenly leaned side-ways and took the remote from the side table, muting the sound. She didn’t look at him, but he knew she was speaking to him—“I know what you’re thinking of now.”

He froze in his spot.

“Me and you, correct? But in a couple sense,” she said, staring into her coffee. “In a relationship.”

Bringing up his hand to rest on the back of his prickly neck, trying to stop himself from giving himself away. “No, I—”

“You are, Steven. You are,” she took a sip. “And what if I said yes?”

His face jerked up; he felt a bead of sweat roll down his cheek. “I wasn’t—”

The cup is soon left on the end table, and she’s leaning over him, something in her eyes that he couldn’t decipher. “Then take me on my offer,” she said in a whisper, the pads of her fingertips sliding on his arm. “Would you want to date me, Steven?”

There was a lump in his throat; he swallowed loudly, eyes widening. He didn’t know how to answer.

But then she sits back onto her old place, crossing her legs again, acting like nothing had happened between them. “So you were telling the truth. Ignore all of that, then.”

Steven felt his heart beat faster. It was a now or never moment, and he was on the edge of the cliff, holding on with just a single finger.

“Actually, you’re right.” He swallowed hard again, trying to push the nervousness away. “Is your answer still yes?”

She looked back at him, but now she had confusion on her face. “I, um,” she stuttered, and Steven realised that it was the first time he saw her so tongue–tied. A blush spread on her cheeks. “O–of course, I’d love to.”

He sat a bit closer to her after, his arm around her shoulders.

It started slow at first, their relationship. It didn’t matter that they were connected in that way of all—nothing between them changed.

He’d only see her once a week, when he either visited her home or she visited his. Although he found himself going to her more, and he was starting to think she’d forgotten when on one rainy day, she reassured him completely.

As her door swung open, Steven felt a tugging at the collar of his suit. Her fingers were clasped around his lapels, and her eyes bore into him, staring.

And then she kissed him.

Steven’s lips were frozen at first, but he slowly parted them and kissed back, resting his hands on her waist.

The door creaked shut as she pulled him inside, away from the droplets dripping on the shoulders of his suit. It creaked again as she kissed him even deeper, his back against it and her hands pushed his blazer off, undoing the cloth at his neck.

She was his first kiss. She was his first everything. And he was so glad that she was.

He left the next day with a trail of bruises on his collarbone, a smile on his face.

She’d then come over to his house every day she could, spending several nights with him at a time. She loved the beach in Mossdeep City, and he kept telling her to live with him so she could see it everyday. And each time he told her, she’d never reply.

It didn’t bother him. He’d wait centuries for her.

Passing their sixth month, he brought her to public events he was invited to, and she flourished under the eye of the media. Whenever she talked to a reporter or an interviewer about him, she looked happy, like she belonged, and he thought, She and I were absolutely made for each other.

Although today, they’re alone, no percent of the population of the world watching them. They were laid out on the beach on Mossdeep City, just like she liked it.

He felt peaceful next to her. Truly peaceful. He would stay there with her forever if time allowed it.

But time goes on, and even someone as important as him couldn’t stop it.

“I have something to tell you,” she said. Steven often thought that her voice was a medicine, healing all his wounds. This time, it wasn’t. It was toned cold, and it felt like a hammer shattering him. “I can’t do this anymore.”

He said nothing. He suddenly felt like he didn’t belong anywhere, sitting next to her.

“Steven? Can you hear me?” He still didn’t reply, and she sighed. “I’m breaking up with you, okay?”

He drowned in doubts, thinking repeatedly, What did I do wrong? Why is she—

She stood up, brushing the sand off her clothes. “I always hated it here,” she sighed. “I really can’t stand the ocean. How do you even handle living right next to it?”

Steven thought it was a nightmare. He begged it to be one. Everything—literally everything he knew about her was a lie. He stood up, his voice wavering in his speech, “But—wait, I t–thought we would get married and live together—”

She doesn’t skip a beat at all. “You were only ever temporary to me. This was all temporary.”

“But you cared for me,” he whispered, tears clouding his eyes and sliding down his cheeks. He wanted nothing more but to hold her then. “You cared for me like no one has ever done before.”

She didn’t mind, and if she did, she didn’t care. “I was just telling you what you wanted to hear.”

And she started walking away, to the opposite direction from his—and what he thought their—home. How she’ll get off the island, he didn’t know, but this proven that he knew nothing about her at all.

“I’ll be leaving now,” she said, pushing her hair back to place as she stepped away. “This is the last you’ll ever see of me.”

In the middle of the beach on Mossdeep City, he suddenly felt unclean, wanting to wash away all the marks she’d left on him and all the places she’d touch again and again, masking her scent gone. She was a fraud, using him for her own personal gain, discarding him once she’d got bored. And he fell unconditionally in love with her.

Steven sold his house on that island—It reminded him too much of her to even be bearable. He resigned from being Champion, his passion for geology dulled, and he spent his days staring at the walls in his old room in Devon.

Six months later, his body was found lifeless, in the heart of Hoenn’s landmass.