The New Normal - 17-8

The New Normal – 17-8 – A New Life Together

Naturally, the ceremony wasn’t over just because I was sworn in. After formally accepting my new position as the Protector-Guardian of Sinnoh, I spent most of the evening mingling with the other guests in attendance as they congratulated me on my new position.

I spent most of that time speaking with many of the attending Gym Leaders that I hadn’t yet spoken to. Though I hadn’t been the closest with the Sinnoh Gym Leaders – Volkner was the only one that I regularly talked to – I vowed to change that now that Sinnoh was going to be my home.

And fortunately, they were also very interested in speaking with me, as many of them were asking questions about Regigigas and what they had just witnessed. I did try to downplay it as not much of a big deal, but they didn’t believe me.

Nevertheless, through our conversations, I confirmed that there was no ‘leader’ among the Gym Leaders in Sinnoh, unlike back home in Indigo or in Hoenn. For Indigo, Giovanni was easily the most influential among the Kanto Gym Leaders, while Clair and Pryce fought for leadership over the Johto Gym Leaders. And in Hoenn, Wallace was undisputably the leader.

However, in Sinnoh, there wasn’t really anyone who could take up that mantle. Volkner may be the strongest amongst them, possibly by a pretty sizeable margin, but he had no desire to be a leader. He was more concerned about his own research and engineering projects than politics.

Therefore, with Volkner unwilling to take up the mantle, Byron should have been the natural leader among the Sinnoh Gyms as he was the most veteran and experienced amongst them, especially since his own son was also a Gym Leader. On paper, he seemed poised to be the dominant force behind the Sinnoh Gyms. Except Byron was not very likeable, and he lacked any sort of charisma, so no one really wanted to listen to him.

As a result, the Sinnoh Gym Leaders were more autonomous than the other regions, and decisions were less unanimous here.

A part of me, the one that housed my ambition, saw this as an opportunity. I wanted to change that. So just like I did back in Indigo with Giovanni, I wanted to have a strong and friendly connection with a Gym Leader that would be able to wield significant influence over their colleagues – which in turn, would grant me that influence too.

Unfortunately, I knew Volkner well enough to know that he would never be that person. He was simply too uninterested in politics to take on that role. Therefore, my target moved on to the next best candidate in my eyes – Candice.

There were multiple reasons for this. One, her Gym in Snowpoint was directly connected to the Temple of the Titan anyways, so I would have plenty of reason to interact with her in the first place. Secondly, she was a close and trusted friend of Cynthia’s, so it was only natural for us to be friendly with each other too. Furthermore, despite her youth, her strength was on par with all the other non-Volkner Gym Leaders in Sinnoh. Her strength was solidly in the middle of the pack.

Overall, she was someone I was very eager to grow closer to, and that was what I did. For most of the ceremony, I spent my time getting to know her better and speaking about how we could cooperate in our new duties. Nothing too serious for now, but just enough for us to establish a good working relationship.

Cynthia must have realised my intentions as well, as she joined in to help facilitate our conversations.

However, after a few hours of solid politicking and small talk, the ceremony finally came to an end and we all returned home. And for the first time, I wasn’t heading back to my personal room at Celestic Town. Nor was I heading to an assigned room in a hotel at the Sinnoh League.

Instead, I was going to be retiring – with Cynthia – to our new home at Route 221, which had just finished being built. Not everything was done, of course, as we had plans for a further stable, swimming pool, and training area to also be built. But we had a rush job prioritised on finishing up the main building, which was all that was needed for now.

“Are you ready to see what our dream home looks like?” Cynthia asked me as we stood outside of our new home, her voice tinged with emotion, “I’ve only really been inside once, and that was before the furnishing was done. All I saw was them installing our beds, so I’m going into this basically as blind as you.”

“At least we won’t be sleeping on the floor then.” I joked, but mostly to relieve the tension. I was both nervous and excited to see what our dream home would be like.

Eventually, we both got over our hesitation and stepped into our shared house for the first time.

The first thing I saw was the dining and living room, since they were both one large connected space. It was both sizeable and ornate, giving us plenty of room to host any number of guests. Granted, I doubted that either myself or Cynthia were the type of people to frequently host people in our home, but it was nice to have in case we did decide to do so.

Meanwhile, the living room itself was also incredibly spacious. It wasn’t enough room for our larger Pokémon like Tyrant, Vordt, Smough, Garchomp, or Milotic to run around in, sadly, but there was enough space for our more medium-sized Pokémon. Which was good enough.

However, there was something I needed to point out, “I like the look of it – but don’t you think it’s a little too empty right now? Besides the dining table and television, there really isn’t anything else here.”

“The interior decorator I hired was only told to furnish us with the basics.” She explained, “I wanted to wait for you before we make further decisions on what other furniture we might need. So everything here is just temporary for now.”

“Ah, then it’s fine then. We can go shopping together later.” I nodded, “We can make it a date.”

“Sure. I’d love that.” She smiled back.

We also checked through the kitchen and the guest bedrooms and found nothing to complain about. Then we went upstairs, where our offices and master bedroom were located. The former were still empty for the time being, save for a single chair and table in each room. But the latter was what I was most interested in.

As I stepped inside, my eyes fixated not on the large king-sized bed in the middle of the room – which was more than spacious enough for two people – but the various decorations that had already been put up.

On one of the dressers, there was a framed photograph of myself and Cynthia, taken during one of our earlier beach dates. Next to that was another photo, this time of the two of us resting within the caves of Celestic Town during one of our earlier expeditions.

I remembered that moment fondly. At the time, we weren’t dating yet, but that was the moment I think I started to fall for her.

“So… this is going to be our life together.” I unconsciously muttered, “I won’t deny that I’m feeling a lot of different emotions right now.”

Cynthia patted me on the shoulder, “That’s understandable. I just hope you’re happy with all this.”

“Happy? I’m ecstatic.” I replied, “I just haven’t had the time to fully process or appreciate it.”

She smiled, “I’m glad then. I was worried you might be getting second thoughts.”

“No way.” I shook my head while I pulled her into a hug, “You’re stuck with me now.”

She reached up and gave me a quick peck on the lips, “And you’re stuck with me too. Now come on, it’s pretty late. Let’s both get ready for bed. We have a whole new future ahead of us now.”

As she slipped away to the bathroom and I had another look around the room, my thoughts immediately went to the ring that I had purchased for her. Karen had helped me find a jeweller in Sinnoh to make it, but I haven’t had the chance to go and collect it yet.

I realised that I should definitely get around to doing it soon. I didn’t want to wait any longer.

=====================

Sadly, I didn’t have time in the next morning to actually head to the jeweller’s – at least without drawing suspicion from Cynthia. The first thing I had to attend to was settling into all my new duties as the Protector of Sinnoh. That meant checking up with the Keepers of the Titan, organising our schedules, and handling any administrative tasks that required my attention.

To my horror, I learnt that there were many more administrative tasks that I had to oversee as the Protector of Sinnoh compared to when I was just an Elite Four member. As an Elite Four, I didn’t have anything specific that I had to manage, and most of my workload greatly depended on whether the Champion had given me something to do or not. And with Lance, outside of emergency situations and important meetings, he wasn’t the hardest slavedriver.

But as the Protector of Sinnoh, things were different as I had my own subordinates and ‘territory’ to manage. I spent a whole hour in a meeting with the head of the Keepers and the Snowpoint branch of the Sinnoh Police just to coordinate patrol routes. Then I also had to check up on the level of training of the Keepers – as they were a representation of my authority – and even though they were supposed to be comprised out of experienced and veteran members of law enforcement, I still wanted them to be even stronger than they already were.

Sadly, there was a lot of work to be done on that front, as I unfortunately discovered. The trainers that currently comprised the Keepers were all experienced, sure, but they were not familiar with fighting with each other or their new responsibilities as they often came from different backgrounds. Some had previously been members of the International Police, some were former Jennys, some were former Rangers, and others had been veteran Ace Trainers.

Therefore, despite being expert trainers, they weren’t the most experienced with the guard duty that they were now entrusted with. And neither was I. Most of my own experience consisted of fighting in League-approved settings or in a chaotic battlefield where I mostly just fought independently.

So this was something we really had to work on. If the Keepers were called to action, I wanted to make sure that they would be able to coordinate with each other during the battle and cover each other’s weaknesses. But the hard part about was the fact that, unlike the Jennys who all (mostly) had the same Pokémon assigned to them, my Keepers all had different Pokémon at their disposal – there was no uniformity in their teams.

Hence, trying to work all this out was going to be a difficult, but necessary, task.

However, even just trying to handle the basics took up the entire morning. Yet even in the afternoon I wasn’t freed up either, as I had to attend several Committee meetings to not only introduce myself, but to address any immediate concerns that the Committee members might have had.

It was only when the sun had set that I eventually had time for myself. Cynthia asked me if we wanted to have dinner together at our new home, but I lied and said that Volkner had called me for something, though I would be back for dinner with her right after I was done.

And with that, I rushed over to collect the ring that I had ordered. The jeweller looked very surprised to see me picking the ring up (Karen had helped me order it under a pseudonym), but he was professional enough to not comment on it as he helped me package it. Meanwhile, I just cared about the ring’s design – as that had been mostly designed by Karen and Elesa.

The main thing that we all agreed upon when we discussed the design was that we didn’t want something too ostentatious and gaudy. That wouldn’t match Cynthia’s aesthetic. Yet, at the same time, I didn’t want the ring to be something too simple, as that would imply that I didn’t care enough.

Therefore, in the end, we came up with the final design that I now held in my hands. In the centre was a modestly sized black gemstone, which was then surrounded by four smaller diamonds. I felt that it was a nice reference to her position as Champion and the four Elite Four members serving under her.

Overall, I was very happy with how it turned out, and I dearly hoped that Cynthia would feel the same way when she saw it.  

Thanking the jeweller, I made a hasty escape from the shop as I carefully pocketed the new ring in my jacket. I absolutely did not want her discovering this before I was ready, so I made sure to conceal it during our dinner together.

Though I only had to hide it for a day – I was planning to propose to her tomorrow. After all, I had already figured out the perfect place to do it.

====================

“…You know, I would consider Celestic Town to be many things, but I wouldn’t consider it to be a great date location.” My girlfriend said to me as we wandered around her hometown, “So I was very surprised to hear that you wanted to spend time here. I thought we’d be furniture shopping.”

“We can do that later. Besides, weren’t you the one telling me about the new developments that had taken place here over dinner yesterday?” I fired back, doing my utmost to deflect any suspicion, “So why wouldn’t I make a date out of it? We’re both free anyways.”

I was doing my absolutely best to make sure that my voice remained steady, but inwardly, I was more anxious than I had ever been in my life.

It was a pretty ridiculous situation to be in. Here I was, having been in a life-or-death battle for the fate of the world where I had to fight against a being that could wield the power of space itself, and I was now equally as nervous just waiting to propose to my girlfriend.

Maybe in a few months’ time I would think back on this moment and laugh about it. But for right now, the pressure was real.

I quickly snapped myself out of my thoughts as Cynthia responded, “I suppose, though why do I feel like you’re hiding something from me?” She shot me an assessing look, and I did my best to look nonchalant, “….Well, whatever. Let me show you around some of the new things we’ve been building. This way.”

She first gave me a quick tour around Celestic Town itself, pointing out all of the new homes and shops that have been built up ever since the Town became more popular. She pointed out that Celestic Town was aiming to try to replicate the architecture of Hisui with their buildings, hence why many of their new buildings were deliberately stylised to be that way.

“Our new motto for Celestic Town is that it’s going to be the ‘home of Hisui’.” She explained, “Ideally, we want to transform this place so that it represents a slice of Hisuian culture – that would make it really stand out compare to the other cities and towns in Sinnoh, and would hopefully attract more people to visit.”

“It does look very nice.” I agreed.

She nodded, “It helps that we’ve uncovered many documents that contained descriptions about how the old Jubilife Village used to look like, so we’re hoping that we can replicate their architecture with Celestic Town. So far, I personally think we’re doing a great job on that front.”

After that, she brought me to the Research Centre, and she was pointing towards the new wing that had been added to the building.

“This is the new gallery wing that we’ve built. Just like the rest of the town, it focuses mainly on displaying Hisuian culture and any artifacts that we’ve found.” She said, “It’s probably not too interesting for someone like you, but it serves as further promotion for our ‘Hisuian restoration’ theme.”

It was all very interesting, but once again, my focus wasn’t on any of that. Instead, the moment we finished touring around the Research Centre, I did my best to seem casual as I led her outside as we began to circle around the building.

We were here. This was going to be the place where I proposed to her. My fists almost clenched reflexively from how nervous I was.

And yet, before I could take that final step, there was still something I had to say. Something that I had kept a secret for all this time that I had to reveal to Cynthia – for she deserved to know the full truth.

Eventually, once we made it to a certain spot, I began.

“…Doesn’t it bring back memories, just us two walking about like this?” I said, causing her to turn her head my way, “It brings me back to the first time we met – you weren’t even Champion yet.”

“I remember those times. Back then, I was nothing more than your tour guide. Compared to you, I was practically a nobody.” She chuckled, “I had great ambitions at the time, but when we first met I hadn’t even gotten started on them yet. I didn’t even know if I would succeed. It was only right after you left Sinnoh did I begin to set things in motion.”

“And look where we both are now.” I said, “You, as Champion of Sinnoh. Me, as the Protector-Guardian of Sinnoh.”

I let out a wistful smile, “To think that we’re now finally able to be together after all this time – that we finally managed to overcome all those barriers and problems that previously barred us from being together. Who knew that my trip to Sinnoh would be so… life-changing for the both of us.”

Then I hesitated, “…And yet, there is something that I must tell you. Something that I’ve kept a secret from everyone. Not even my parents or Karen know about this. But I want you, and only you, to hear it. For you deserve to know.”

She shot me a curious look, “Go on. I’m listening.”

I took a deep breath, “Ever since I was born… I’ve had visions of a different life. A life where I was able to see a certain version of the world – a world without me in it. As a result, it allowed me to know things that I shouldn’t. The Fairy type, your potential to become Champion, Karen’s potential to become an Elite Four – I saw it all before it even happened. It’s why I was so hesitant to take full credit of these discoveries, because I didn’t think I deserved it when the knowledge was simply granted to me.”

There was a brief moment of silence as she processed my words.

“…So you knew who I was before you had even met me.” Cynthia said slowly.

“Yes, I did.” I nodded, “But I didn’t know everything about you. You could say that I was only able to get a very small glimpse of your life. I knew you would become Champion, and I knew what your team would likely be, but other than that I didn’t know much else. The same goes for many others – like Blaine, Karen, Lance, and so on. Yet my visions weren’t always right, or there were significant blanks left out in what I knew.”

“What do you mean?” She asked.

“Blaine is a good example of this.” I explained, “From the visions I was granted, he remained a Gym Leader and never retired to become a Professor. Likewise, I never knew Pryce was Champion, nor did I know that Karen was Agatha’s apprentice. The Regional Union never became a thing from what I saw, and the Fairy type was only revealed much, much later.”

“…I see, so your presence has changed things. Your visions weren’t set.” She muttered, “Do you think a Legendary gave you these visions? The same visions that allowed you to awaken the Legendary Titan?”

“I don’t know.” I said truthfully, “I’ve no idea how it happened, and even when I asked Regigigas, it didn’t know either. But it knew everything of what I just told you, and for what it’s worth, it approved of the things I’ve done. I just felt like I had to tell you this because you deserved to know. I didn’t want to leave you in the dark about this.”

There was a small moment of silence as Cynthia processed what I had just told her, and I grew increasingly tense as I tried to study her reactions, to no avail.

And as the silence stretched on, I felt more and more uncomfortable until she finally spoke up.

“…Then that’s all I really need to hear.” She said firmly, “I won’t pretend to understand why you were granted these visions, but what I’m sure of is that this doesn’t change the fact that I know that you are fundamentally a good person. And I know that for two reasons. One, if you weren’t, I sincerely doubt that you could have awakened Regigigas in the first place. And second, you could have just monopolised all of that information for yourself and only used it when it benefitted you directly, but you didn’t do that. Instead, you did your best to make the world a better place using that information. That is always commendable.”

“I am sorry for keeping it a secret.” I said, “I just didn’t know how I could reveal what I knew without sounding like I was absolutely insane. Especially since I didn’t know if my presence had already changed things from what I’ve seen – like it has done so many times now.”

“No, no, you have nothing to apologise for.” She replied, “In fact, I’m honoured you even told me to begin with. If I were in your position… I might have kept silent for the rest of my life.”

“I didn’t intend to tell anyone at first either.” I admitted, “But… it didn’t sit right for me to keep you in the dark like this – for you to not realise that my achievements are less impressive than they really are.”

“I disagree.” She frowned, “Yes, your visions may have made you seem more observant than you really are, I won’t deny that. However, like I said, it’s about how you chose to make use of that information that’s most important, and you chose to use it for good. Not only that, I doubt anyone is so selfless enough to not take advantage of a blessing like that. Sure, you were luckier than most, but you didn’t rely solely on that luck to get where you are today. You still had to work hard for it, visions or no, and that person is the person I fell in love with.”

I couldn’t help but smile when I heard those words, “You mean, nothing changes between us? Even after you heard all of that?”

“Why would it?” She gave me a strange look, “As you said – your visions only revealed a very small part of my life. I trust that, because I saw with my very own eyes that you had to learn everything else by spending time with me. And it’s not like you manipulated me into this relationship. It’s not like you were hiding your true personality from me. The person that I met all that time ago, the one that I brought cave diving with me, the person I fought against a Legendary together with, is still the same person I’m speaking with today. Our relationship was real, and you are still the person that I wholeheartedly trust. Therefore, everything we’ve been through, we went through together.”

She stared at me with eyes full of love, “You can tell me about the other things you saw in your vision another time. But for the relationship that we share together, my answer doesn’t change, John – I. Choose. You.”

Ah, I see. A wide and relieved smile spread across my face; I was truly glad to hear that. It meant that the last, and final, obstacle had finally been overcome. In that case, it was finally time for me to do it.

We were in the perfect spot. This was the place where we had both shared our feelings for each other all that time ago. It had to happen now, or never.

“In that case – if you’ve really chosen me – then I shall give you my answer too.” My hand slowly reached out to hers as I fell to a knee. I carefully took out the ring that I had prepared from out of my pocket, and revealed it like an offering to a goddess.

“Cynthia… will you marry me?”

Silence greeted me. And, for a brief moment, I was engulfed by an overwhelming sense of dread that she might reject my proposal.

However, when I stared into her eyes, her reaction was everything I had hoped for.

There was not as much surprise as I would have expected; implying that she might have already sussed out my intentions beforehand. I guess I wasn’t being all that subtle. But despite the lack of surprise, her eyes had quickly moistened as tears rolled down her cheeks.

They were tears of happiness, as a wide and beautiful smile bloomed on her face. Even though the afternoon sun was shining down on us, to me, her smile was brighter than any amount of sunlight.

“…Yes, yes, of course I will!” She choked out, “Oh John, you silly man. You don’t know how long I was waiting for this!”

Before I could respond, she had already pulled me up and crashed our lips together as she kissed me desperately and deeply, as if she was trying to convey all of her unspoken feelings with that single kiss.

And I made sure to receive every last drop of it. I wanted to savour every last bit of her affections.

Eventually, as all good things had to come to an end, we pulled apart and she took a better look at the ring that I had gotten her.

“…It’s beautiful.” She muttered softly, “Did you choose this yourself?”

“I had help.” I admitted, “I wasn’t comfortable relying on my own fashion taste – or lack thereof, in my case. Elesa and Karen helped me with the design.”

“I’ll make sure to thank them later then, because this is incredible.” She said, picking up the ring and openly admiring it, “Did you collect this yesterday? When you said you had something to meet up with Volkner?”

“I did.” I nodded, “I wanted to keep it a surprise. But judging by your reaction, I think you expected this.”

“Well I didn’t expect everything, and I definitely didn’t expect your revelations, but you were being pretty suspicious with dragging me out here.” She said, “This was the spot. You wouldn’t have brought me here if you didn’t have something important to tell me.”

“I guess I really can’t hide anything from you.” I said sheepishly.

“Mhm, but don’t worry, your proposal was still everything I hoped for.” She gave me another beautiful smile, before she extended out a hand for me.

“Put that ring on for me?” She offered, her cheeks red.

I did so. The ring slipped on as if it was always meant to be there.

And in that very moment, I felt like the happiest man in the world.

A.N. I know many fanfictions don’t often describe the proposal part of the romance. I was pretty conflicted about whether I wanted to write it out. But I wanted to challenge myself, and I felt like the moment was pretty fitting given John and Cynthia’s relationship.

Likewise, I felt that it was only fair for John to lay out the truth of his metaknowledge to Cynthia. This was another thing that I had debated to myself about whether to actually reveal (since this is often frowned upon), but in the end, I wanted John to be as transparent as possible. Personally, I didn’t think it would be right for John to propose WITHOUT telling her this. I felt like Cynthia (and likely only Cynthia) deserved to know.

Furthermore, I didn’t see Cynthia as someone who would be insecure enough to be overly worried about this kind of thing. Like she said, after everything they’ve gone through, she fully trusts John, so she had no reason to doubt the things he was saying. And their relationship together, regardless of his past visions, was still genuine. To her, that was all that mattered. Hope you enjoyed!