Chapter Text
The sun dipped below the horizon, casting long shadows across the small city of Striation. It was the eve of the end of the half-term holidays, and Emily found herself sitting on the porch of her family's cozy home, watching the colours of the evening sky change from vibrant oranges to soft purples.
The local Pidove cooed in the distance and the sounds of domestic Purrloin scrapping in the nearby alleyway made for quite the backdrop to Emily's pondering. She'd recently been having, memories. Her mom'd recently found one of her dads old Pokeball pendants whilst they both gave the house a spring cleaning and had given it to Emily.
Emily kicked a small pebble that sneered at her from her shoe's tip whilst watching Piplup bouncing up and down near the gardens gate. Upon further inspection Piplup was again trying to catch one of the local Sewaddle that liked to hang off of Emily's mom's various arches and bamboo poles, Emily had tried on many occasions to get Piplup to stop chasing after every Pokemon it saw like an angry Chihuahua but alas the message never sunk in, so now Emily just let it do whatever it wanted. It's not like it effected her anyway.
Emily looked around the garden, noting how well kept it looked, and mulled over how it was actually worth it not to see her friends, Mark, Max and Elara, for so long so that her and her mom, Lily, could keep the garden and house nice and clean. Emily did always love seeing all the Pokemon in the garden though she did miss her friends sometimes.
From an open window just beside Emily, Emily could smell the fruits of her mom's labour coming from the kitchen and realised that it must be dinnertime soon. She sighed and slowly picked herself up from the porch and gazed at Piplup knowing that her mom didn't like it when she kept it outside without being watched. "Come on Piplup, inside time." Emily called out, deciding to try and be nice to her Piplup.
However Piplup seemed to either ignore her or just not hear her and Emily kicked a slightly larger pebble. "Come on Piplup!" Emily called out again, this time adopting a firmer tone. However yet again, Piplup ignored her.
Emily sighed and glanced down at the Poké Ball pendant that hung around her neck. It was a keepsake from her father. Now that she thought about it she didn't remember much about her dad. Shew remembered that he had passed away when she was just a toddler, but that was about it.
"Emily, dinner's almost ready," Lily called from the kitchen.
Emily pushed herself up from the porch swing, and forced a smile onto her face. She had always loved her mother's cooking, especially her signature dish—vegetable stir-fry with fresh greens from their garden. Instead of calling out to Piplup, this time Emily just headed over and picked it up in her arms, absolutely lamenting how her mom insisted on not keeping it in it's Pokeball at home which'd make things so much easier.
Emily, Piplup in hand, headed inside and stepped through the red modern uPVC door and into the fresh smelling light brown hallway and laid her trainers on her mom's 'shoe rack' which was actually just a clutter of dead stinging nettles piled up in a corner. Stepping into the kitchen Emily stopped and leant up to smell the mouth watering smell of vegetable stir-fry. "Smells amazing, Mom," Emily said, leaning against the kitchen island, now with a genuine grin on her face.
Lily turned from the stove, her green eyes sparkling with warmth and affection. "Thank you, sweetie. It's your favourite, just the way you like it."
Emily smiled, noting how her mom had been making quite a lot of these 'your favourite meal' dinners over the holidays which did weird her out. Did her mom know something? Or was she just appreciative of Emily's help? Whichever one it was Emily didn't mind at all, she could eat these meals all day every day.
Lily soon filled up two porcelain plates with vegetable stir-fry and set them down on the wooden table and lit the same pine candles she always does at dinner time. Both Emily and Lily then sat down and Emily didn't even bother waiting and immediately dug in, taking bite after bite.
Lily laughed watching her daughter's hungry eating. "Slow down sweetie, you'll choke if keep.." As if on cue Emily started coughing and had to take a heavy drink of water to flush the food down her digestive tract and Lily gently patted her back to help her catch her breath.
"Thanks mom" Emily admitted with an embarrassed smile as she took another sip of water and hesitated before slowly returning to eating like her mother.
Deciding to change the subject, Lily switched to a more nostalgic tone."You know, Emily," Lily began, "I've been thinking about our family's legacy as trainers."
Emily looked at her mother, intrigued. She very rarely spoke about her past, let alone Emily's father, in fact she didn't even know his first name.
"As you, well.. Actually you don't know, do you?" Lily began in an almost wise tone of voice.
"Know what?" Emily wondered aloud.
"Your father was both a very talented and a very proud man." Lily began with both a tone of nostalgia but almost a certain tightness about her words.
"mhm." Emily encouraged her mom to continue.
"Well he had big dreams, he wanted to be a champion." Lily continued taking another pause for a deep breath. "And that's why he left..And well..Unfortunately he had an accident whilst training one day. But I.. I'm sure that he would um. Love for you too, too, follow, in his. Footsteps." Lily took another deep breath as if these memories, quite understandably, hurt her.
"Wow, I. I never knew. You don't have to say anything if you don't want to." Emily attempted to help her mom out despite her mind eating away at her from inside. How dare she be so sad over something so small when her mom'd been struggling with all this for years, how dare she be selfish.
"No sweetie it's fine." Lily reassured Emily with a patient smile on her face. "Well, your father was a grass type trainer too. In fact I remember visiting his grandfather once with him and his grandfathers Serperior was just sitting in the corner and I was so frightened of it I almost jumped when it moved." Lily forces a smile attempting to lighten the mood with humour.
Emily was amazed, her dad's side of the family were grass type trainers too. Maybe Emily could make it, just maybe she wasn't entirely hopeless as a trainer. "Wow mom, all my dad's family were grass type trainers too!" Emily nearly burst out of her seat thinking about it.
"Why'd you think we bonded so well." Lily stated with a slight giggle, exited that her daughter was happy about grass types but hesitated. She was technically a water type trainer, and possibly she needed to embrace it.
Lily decided that she'd approach that topic later, after all she had an announcement to make. "What if," Lily began again, "we took the next step in our journey together? I've been offered a position as a mentor at the Pokémon school, specializing in Grass-types. And I was thinking… I think this year you could really, flourish."
Emily's eyes widened in surprise. The idea of following in her father's footsteps had always been a dream, but it had seemed distant, almost unattainable. Now, with her mother's encouragement and support, it felt like a real possibility.
"That sounds amazing, Mom!" Emily said, her voice filled with excitement. "It's gonna be so cool! Lily and Ethan won't even dare touch me this year, and I'm gonna ace all my homework!"
Lily smiled, her gaze filled with pride. "I thought you might. We'll make a great team, Emily. Though don't expect me to give you A+'s just because you're my daughter." Lily giggled a little again.
"Oh come on." Emily whined, "But I'm your uber special totally awesome daughter who's gonna be champion of Unova soon!" Emily gives it a second try.
Lily smiled mischievously. "You won't learn anything if I just give it to you, though you might just earn some extra help for good behaviour."
Emily's eyes lit up, she was gonna behave perfectly if it meant that Lily was gonna help her with her homework. After all, who wouldn't want help with their homework for free.
Soon enough the stars began to twinkle in the night sky, casting a gentle light on their home. Emily couldn't help but feel that the future held something special, a new chapter in their journey together, and she was ready to embrace it with open arms.