awesome opportunity

Standing before the ever popular Join Avenue, she dusted herself and stepped inside. It was bustling and filled to the corners with people shopping for every possible thing in existence, Mei had to force herself to walk in a straight line and not take any detours. It was incredibly hard when there were free samples and raffles on both sides of the room! She wanted to win something so badly. Looking towards the large clock on the wall, she decided one raffle couldn’t hurt. 

One raffle led to four more, and she was already fifteen minutes late. With a loud gasp, she had to make her way out before she really left Nate hanging. Emerging from the large shopping mall, she had both hands packed with goodies and a face full of snacks. That was when she saw him. It was Nate! And he was waving at her from in front of the station. 

Mei jumped up and down excitedly.

"Mh!!!" Wait a second Mei you have food in your mouth. Swallowing quickly she began to wave her goodie filled hand in his direction. 

Oof. Nate wheezed slightly, the breath knocked out of his lungs, and patted Mei on the back before he started laughing. "Missed you too, Mei," he said, too happy to see his friend again to be upset with her at all. Mei sat up and Nate got to his feet, holding out a hand and pulling her up as well. He noted the fistful of snacks she was holding and laughed again. "Couldn't wait until we got to the park to start on the sweets, huh?" he teased. That was so typically Mei--Nate would actually be surprised if she didn't have something sugary with her.

“Don't be sorry, dude! Can’t fault a guy for having good taste.”

He would have added that he was surprised he hadn’t see the Nate when he was there, but the region was large. With so many people, the chances of them seeing one another without coordinating wouldn’t have been high. If only they had known each others plans, perhaps they could have met up.

"Did you make friends with any legendary Pokémon?" Nate asked, only half teasing. If anyone could go on vacation and just happen to run into some mythical Pokémon, it was definitely N. "I read about their dragon-type legendaries... Rayquaza, right? And the other two that look alike." He paused, taking a second to try and remember their names, but nothing came to him.

"Reminded me of our trio," he said. They weren't really comparable, though; Unova's dragons were always going to be the best in his mind, especially Reshiram. He and the dragon had spent a lot of time together, and despite not being able to talk to it like N did, Nate still felt like he'd learned a lot from it. But eventually he'd decided to set it free. Keeping such a powerful Pokémon on his team, let alone in a Pokéball, wasn't really fair. Nate wondered if N would be disappointed to learn that they weren't together anymore, but he quickly decided not to dwell on it. Even though the dragon-type wasn't with him all the time now, Nate still felt a weird kind of connection to it he didn't really understand. He had a feeling that meant he was still Reshiram's chosen hero or whatever, but he didn't really have a way of knowing for sure and hadn't seen Reshiram again since they'd parted.

Thinking about the dragon brought back memories of the last time he'd seen N, and Nate recalled something the other trainer had said before they parted ways. Nate hadn't asked about it back then, but now seemed like the right time and bringing it up would be a good way to get his mind off of the self-doubt he'd started to feel.

With such happiness emanating from the younger trainer, N couldn’t help but return his grin as he replied. “It’ll be fun!” Nate was one of the few people N thought of as a friend or had won the approval of his companion, Zoroark. He was glad to see the trainer well and have this opportunity to talk to him again.

Nate waved his hand around to encompass their surroundings, and by extension the region as a whole. "--this," he finished, a bit lamely.

"But I'm back now! Travel is fun, until you start missing your friends and parents." He was living at home again with his mom, and he'd been on his way to visit his dad in Nimbasa before coming across N. Nate hadn't let his dad know he was coming, though; there was plenty of time for a ride on the ferris-wheel, especially on a day as clear as this one. The view was going to be amazing!

★ : If I saw a shooting star, what I would wish for over anything else.

"Something I would wish for, more than anything…" He wanted to create separate worlds for people and pokemon, because he thought it would be better in the end, but, "I would wish we lived in a better world… one where people and pokemon could coexist. In a place like that, a world with no strife, I wouldn’t have had to say goodbye to my friends."