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Touko’s first love was the way the festival lights illuminated the Nuvema Town sky every summer, shining brighter than the twinkling stars overhead. Nuvema Town was small, certainly, no more than a research lab and a tiny residential district, but the summer festival was nothing short of legendary in the surrounding area, and it drew in people and Pokémon from as far away as Striaton.
During the day, Touko would ride everything she possibly could. She would drag Bianca and Cheren with her until the three of them were practically sick, the effects of their adrenaline high starting to fade.
At night, Touko would race between rows of brilliantly lit rides, the midsummer heat sticky on her skin as she brushed past strangers and neighbors alike, stopping only to admire the way the lights flickered and flashed in the dimming light.
And, as twilight painted the sky above in pastels, painting fields of lavender and pale pink roses and sweet orange slices among cotton candy clouds, Touko would climb into an empty ferris wheel car, camera clutched tightly in hand, and capture everything she saw from its peak in the camera’s lens.
:::
Touko’s second love was a Pokémon named Snivy, a tiny little thing that was as many parts arrogance and naivety as it was genuine affection, and Touko loved him more than anything immediately.
Pokémon cycled in and out of her team as she worked on competing her Pokédex, but her starter always stayed, even though Burgh and Skyla and Brycen’s gyms, constantly growing stronger, evolving to a Servine starting to come into his own before a Serperior that could be truly proud of his power.
She knew she would stay with him forever the second he appeared on her bedroom floor, blinking up at her with wide eyes, and it’s a silent promise she intended to keep.
:::
Touko’s third love was a boy named N, though, unlike her previous loves, she’d have no knowledge of that at their first meeting. Nor would she realize it during their first battle, or as N revealed his true intentions, championing an ideal that had never crossed Touko’s mind.
She’d only grasp absently for a camera that wasn’t with her as their car reached the ferris wheel’s peak, a tiny thought dancing through her mind that she should capture the way N looked, the blue lights of the ferris wheel illuminating him brilliantly against the dark night sky.
:::
Touko wondered when she did realize, looking back on it all. It would be simpler if her love was something she had always been aware of, like reading a novel and watching as the protagonist slowly fell in love, but unfortunately, she hadn’t exactly been occupied with romance at the time.
If she had to declare the moment she realized, the one where there was no room left for doubt- It would have to be the last moment, where N left with a half-declaration and Touko was too overwhelmed to make her own in return.
Touko sighed, leaned back against the cool wood of the Nimbasa Amusement Park bench, and looked up
at the stars glimmering faintly in the sky above, their number nowhere near how many she’d seen in one sky on her journey. A journey she’d been on for far too long, perhaps- chasing a figure that no longer wanted to be found.
“No, I can’t think that way,” Touko mumbled to herself absently, turning her gaze towards the main path across from her. It was occupied by passing children with ice cream in hand being chased by their exasperated parents, a young couple too caught up in each other to realize that they had already passed their destination- and the ferris wheel, the one that had started it all.
Touko dug around blindly in her bag with one hand, digging out a digital camera that she had bought a few towns back, and snapped a quick shot of the ferris wheel lit up in red, orange, and blue.
As she stared at the captured image, Touko vaguely recalled what N had said about his love of ferris wheels- about the motion, or the mechanics, his exact words blurred in Touko’s memory like the streaks of lights on the camera’s screen-
Touko deleted the image and wished that she could capture light in a picture as vibrantly as in real life.
:::
She went back to Nuvema Town that summer because she simply had nowhere else to go, no corner of Unova left to search and severely lacking the resources to chase N any further abroad than she already had.
When she passed through the gates of Route One into the illuminated Nuvema Town, Touko could only laugh- the festival. She’d almost forgotten.
Twilight was only beginning to grace the wide sky above, and Touko bought a stick of cotton candy at the entrance before going to wander through the familiar wide but perpetually crowded aisles.
Nothing about the festival ever really changed. A new ride, maybe, to replace an old one that no longer entertained, a rotation in the food stalls with the birth of a new business, waves of new faces as people grew older and moved out, had children and moved in- but nothing ever really changed.
Touko laughed into her cotton candy, a sudden rush of security, of relief, of home breaking over her head. She never noticed how much she missed Nuvema until she was there again.
If she turned the corner, she thought, whimsical and dreaming, maybe Bianca and Cheren would be there to scold her for not calling them and telling them she’d be in town.
It was an impossible daydream, really- Cheren was taking care of his gym and Bianca was at a conference with Professor Juniper- but Touko, for just a moment, couldn’t help but close her eyes and believe.
Touko turned the corner.
What Touko never considered was the possibility that she might bump into someone. It wasn’t her most well-conceived of plans, really, and Touko spared a second of panic before opening her eyes, hoping the slightly sticky cotton candy hadn’t stuck to the other person’s shirt-
It was N.
Touko closed her eyes for a long moment, took a deep breath, and opened her eyes again.
It was N. N, who was watching her with a bit of amusement tinged with surprise and something else-relief?- in his eyes.
“I can’t believe you’re actually here.”
N didn’t seem to know how to respond to that. Everything that Touko wanted to say threatened to spill out with his silence, every word she’d wanted to say, question she’d wanted to ask. Instead, she shook her head, motioned him to follow, and made her way over to the ferris wheel line, dumping the remains of her cotton candy in the trash on the way.
It was just coming to a stop, and within a few moments they were on the ride, seated across from each other and slowly circling to the top.
“I can’t believe you,” she finally said. He didn’t seem to know how to answer, and Touko didn’t know how to follow it up- she’d always been better in an argument when the other side put up a fight. So instead, she settled back, reached into her bag for her camera, and snapped a photo of a confused N. The lights were blurry and streaked and she took it before the camera was fully focused on N’s face- she saved it anyway.
“I can’t believe you,” she said again, standing in the small car and rocking it slightly with the motion. N reached out, unsure if he should stop her as she moved to sit beside him, relaxing into his side. “But I’m glad you’re here.”
“I’m glad you’re here too,” he replied, and he rested his hand on top of hers in the small space between them.
It was comfortable, the physical touch reassuring after so many years of chasing a ghost. “I missed you.”
“I also… I was searching for you, too,” N said as their car nears the bottom of the ferris wheel, ending the first loop.
Touko leaned closer into N’s side, rested her head on his shoulder. “We’re a total pair of idiots, aren’t we?”
N hummed softly, and Touko took it as agreement. They spend the next few rotations like that, quiet but together, content.
“Does this count as a date?” N finally asked, sending Touko into a fit of giggles.
“Seriously? Well, I guess it does. Though, is it too weird if our first date ends with me taking you home to meet my mother? I was planning on going back home tonight.”
“I’ve never been on a date before,” N replied, “Is that unusual?”
Touko took his hand as the ferris wheel drew to a stop and the attendant unlocked the car’s doors. “Kinda, N. Just a little.”
(She brought him home anyway. It was awkward and awful and no matter how much her mother would tease her later, she never let go of N’s hand.)