You Can't Hurry Love

Lance and I got to finally speak a little that night, as he helped me pack. He told me a little about his upbringing, as well as his hobbies. It was nice hearing the champion talk normally, people only see him as a saviour who watches over the region, and it was nice to hear about what he likes to do on his time ‘off’

At the same time, his upbringing was a lot different than mine. I lived in the big and cushy Goldenrod City and did everything normal: elementary school, high school and then University. A Dragon Clan in a tiny town on the other hand bought him up. It was good to compare and contrast our lifestyles and upbringings.

Today was the day of the camp. We were all meeting up just outside Blackthorn City, so Lance was coming over this morning to fly us back.

I woke up, and got ready easily enough. There was no point doing my hair, as it would get messy from the flight.

Soon enough, exactly on time the doorbell rang.

“I’ll get it!” I shouted, running towards the door to see Lance standing there.

“Hi.” He smiled, uncrossing his arms upon seeing me.

“Hey,” I smiled back “I’ll just get my luggage and go”

I went back into the house to get my bag from my room. In the hallway on my way out, mum stopped me.

“What are you and Lance up to?” Mum asked me.

“It’s a secret mission I’m helping him with. I can’t tell you. Sorry.” I awkwardly smiled at Mum.

“I see. Well, be careful. I’m sure Lance will protect you, and you’re probably safer with him than you are here. I’m your Mum though, and I worry.” Mum smiled at me, giving me a hug.

“Mum! Please! Don’t be so embarrassing!” I said, my face reddening as I saw Lance chuckle through the door.

“They say teens grow out of that phase of finding their parents embarrassing as they get to their late teens, but it doesn’t seem so.” Mum chuckled at me.

“They say your parents stop treating you as a little kid as you reach adulthood, but it doesn’t seem so.” I scowled, but then poked my tongue out at Mum to show I was joking.

“Have fun saving the world.” Mum teased, and I just smiled at her as I stepped out, and shut the door.

“Sorry about that haha, my Mum is a typical mother at times. It’s part of the job description to embarrass your kids in front of company and act totally different.” I joked, as we began to head off to the field where Dragonite would take off.

“So are you and your mother close?” Lance asked me curiously.

“Yeah, I guess so. But my Dad and me are too. You see it’s kind of stupid, but my mum and dad rarely speak these days. So I’m used as a buffer, or they talk to me because they have no one else. The only reason they don’t divorce is for convenience I guess. They don’t hate each other, so why ruin this life they enjoy?” I explained to Lance.

“I guess that’s your typical Goldenrod lifestyle, I’ve heard of similar things. Things are much different in my town…my clan, well I’m not supposed to tell you.” Lance said to me, as we reached the field.

He called out Dragonite, and helped me onto his back. He then jumped onto Dragonite behind me, and wrapped his arms around my waist to keep us both steady as he kicked off. I decided to continue our conversation.

“Don’t tell me things you don’t feel comfortable with. I like hearing about you because I care, not because I’m curious. Therefore I like hearing the things you wish to share.” I explained to Lance.

“It’s okay Emily. I trust you. We’re friends. Have you ever told a friend a statement or fact you were meant to kept secret?” Lance asked me.

“Yes.” I briefly replied. I wanted to ask the Dragon Champion how many friends he has had in his lifetime, but I knew it would be rude to do so, so I only answered his question.

"You did it because you trust the other person. I'm not sure whether it was a smart investment or a poor choice, but either way I trust you Emily. And there's things I've had on my chest for a long time that I'd love to tell a friend." Lance weakly smiled.

Lance was showing nothing but vulnerability right now, something not many people would have seen from him. Everyone assumes he's a superhero, and he is to an extent, but he's also human. I was one of the select few who got to see him in this state. I definitely feel privileged.

***

"Thank you for a coming to Tough Route's camp. We will be having an excellent time leaning about our wonderful organization and how we can all use Pokémon to everybody's advantage. But for now, we must discuss tent arrangements." one of the camp leaders boomed.

I was surprised and disgusted at the turn out. It was much larger than I expected, and every single person here was a target for Team Rocket to recruit. It was lucky Lance and I was here.

"I won't let you with that creep Emily. I'll make sure we share a tent." Lance said to me.

"Thanks." I smiled brightly. That was my only fear of this camp, and Lance had just made it go away.

"We are proposing to share your tent with someone new. A main focus of this camp is to meet new friends. We believe the best way to do this is to share a tent with a new friend." the camp leader stated, and at the end I saw her cringe secretly.

I gave Lance a look of panic, but he grabbed my shoulder lightly and gave me a reassuring squeeze before he raised his hand. Before even being prompted, he spoke up.

"Hi, I'm Lance. Yeah, like the champ's name but I'm cooler. Anyway I'm all for making friends, but I'd much rather stay in the tent with my friend Emily. Who wouldn't, she's gorgeous." Lance loudly stated, pointing at me.

I turned red at the attention. Lance was using a disguise for this operation, like last time he had a hat on to tuck in his hair, a baggy hoodie and baggy jeans, however he cheekily used his real name.

"She sure is, but that's not the purpose of this mission. It's to make friends, and Emily and I are friends as well, but I'd love to get to know her better." Jack loudly stated, walking over.

"My mum did make me promise to stay with him. Sorry, she's crazy and I bet she would somehow find out. I'd love to spend a lot more time with you during this camp though, if you'd let me." I quickly replied, using my rosy cheeks to my advantage.

"Well, who could say no to that. Of course it isn't an issue if you stay with your friend. That wouldn't be an issue, would it boss?" Jack asked the camp leader.

She glared at him for a second, but then looked around at everybody looking at her intently. It seemed everybody wanted to stay with their friends.

"Well if people would rather stay with their friends, what can you do?" the leader sighed, but then put on a faux happy voice "we can all make friends another way!"

***

"There, we're now safe from any bugs." Lance smiled happily.

When somebody says that in a tent whilst camping, you'd assume they meant insects. When you're on a mission, it means something completely different.

Lance said there was a good chance these tents were bugged with recording devices, so the first thing he did was grab some technical equipment from his bag and quickly set it up. He said it would block all radio frequencies from this tent.

"Won't they get suspicious when they can't hear anything from this tent?" I asked curiously.

"Ah, you're overestimating the Rockets. There are too many conversations to hear at once, so they're collecting data. By the time they try to review the data we will be long gone and this mission of theirs will have already been ruined by us." Lance winked.