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pokeexehasstoppedworking · 3 years

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Love Doesn’t Do Encores Ch10 Battle Gym Leader Nessa

(Will have a reference to Pokemon Twilight Wings Series.)

You slept well that night. The hotel wasn't too far from the Hulbury stadium so it wasn't a very long walk from where you four left the light house and stationed yourselves for the night. Not before dishing out the rations between the four of you. You were a lot lower on food than you thought and surprised you hadn't noticed earlier. A month's walk drained almost all of the food you had aside from a few packets of dried fruits. Thank goodness for restocking. The next morning wasn't anything too different. Gloria and Hop of course wanted to stop by the stadium and get one of them that spot to battle Nessa before another trainer took it. Huh. You wonder how the battle between her and Bede went the other day? Victor mentioned wanting to go back towards the Hulbury Aquarium and offered for you to come with them but you had other plans for the day.

"Hey, Y/n. Since Glory and Hop's going to be busy all day considering would you like to come with me to the aquarium?, Victor offered after the two of you had dug through your rations for breakfast. Your Sobble tiredly yawning on your shoulder rubbing at his eyes.

You shook your head. "No thanks. I actually wanted to check out that market down by the docks. I heard they sell all kinds of trinkets and stuff and it's been a while since I was able to go somewhere by myself and have some me time."

He nodded in understanding before smiling. "Alright then. You guys know where I'll be if you change your minds."

The two of you parted ways outside the hotel before you headed back up the road towards the docks. Already in the morning the place was all a buzz with ship horns blaring off in the distance and a few people walking around. It was a nice day with the salty smell of the ocean, the gently breeze, not being too hot but nice and warm, etc. It was a very nice day that filled your tired body with a happy feeling as you inhaled deeply. The small market place was past the restaurant and just across the docks past the convenience store you had visited the other day for supplies. It wasn't really big. There was only about five stalls set up alongside a concrete wall with one or two picnic tables a little bit a ways from them. A few people were already there looking at the stalls or sitting at the tables to eat or just to sit. Walking over you strolled up to the first stall that sold a few random things like flowers, dishes, and a couple clothes hanging up. The man handling it was talking up some of the flower pots but you weren't too interested in those so shortly after moved on. The other four were a fruit stand, someone selling records, another one selling random objects, but the last one had you notice something. Sweet smells of perfumes and spices wafted from it the closer you gotten to it. And it didn't take too long for you to find out why. A young lady was there surrounded by a bunch of incense. She smiled as you stopped to admire all the sweet smells and gave a greeting.

"Get a whiff of that fragrance! Doesn't it smell sweet?," she asked holding out some sweet smelling sticks that smelt of lilacs, "How about some incense for you, Girl? Good for meditation, yoga, relaxing, or just making a room smell nice. And it all natural so it's safe for pokemon too and helps them destress....As long as they don't eat it. Non edible."

"Destress huh?,'' you pondered looking at your sobble who seemed more interested in staring at the food stand with hungry eyes despite just eating breakfast a while ago. Considering how spooked this lil guy could be, it might be a good idea. "....What scents to you have exactly?"

You ended up using the twenty dollar bill you had saved forever now to buy some of the sea and rose scented incense and then later one or two apples at the fruit stand since your sobble kept jumping on your shoulder and chirping in it's directed until you finally did so. All of it costing almost half your money leaving you from twenty dollars to twelve dollars and some change. You found yourself wondering over until you sat down at one of the picnic tables so your sobble could sit and eat and give your poor shoulders a break from carrying it all the time. Granted Sobble wasn't really that heavy, about half the weight of a small cat, but it was nice to be able to stretch your shoulders and neck out without worrying about accidentally knocking him off. Lazily you watched it make happy noises as it greedily ate as if you didn't already give it a big breakfast about an hour ago. It was still pretty early in the morning so it you really hadn't anything to do other than just sit here and watch your sobble. But it was refreshing. With a sigh you closed your eyes and slowly put your head down on the table. The only problem with having a bunch of free time is that your brain slowly fills itself with thoughts you might not want. Like now. You had been gone for what must've been a little over a month now. How worried was your mom? She must've been worrying herself sick if you were gone for this long without any notice or clues or anything. And(tho you were HIGHLY doubtful now-) if this all IS some kind of dream universe it was certainly the longest one you ever experienced. Not only that, but you were SURELY not going to be able to start college just like you wanted. You'd have to wait another year just to start it and that's only if considering you'd be able to go home after this whole journey has finished. It was the only way you could think of that you could go back, once this is over. If it'll ever be-

"I can NOT believe this!," an angry woman's voice piped up. Startled you jumped up and blinked light rushing back into your vision.

"Calm down, Ness. Don't make a big scene in public." ....That voice sounded familiar.

"I AM calm. I'm just restocking my incense before I head back!" Now that you think about it, that angry voice sounded familiar too.

Blinking you turned around to look behind you, and your eyes widened at what you saw. Two ladies were at the incense stand with their backs towards you, one with bright orange hair and a coat you recognized and the other wore a black cap and shirt.

"First he said I should stop modeling and now he's breathing down my neck because I just happened to lose to his endorsed challenger!,'' Cap Lady growled out as she waved her hand. "I mean yeah, usually I'm busy so I cut back to one challenger a day! That doesn't mean I lost my touch as a gym leader!" She paused as the lady manning the stall held out a small paper bag of incense to her similar to the one you had. "Oh..Thank you. It just drives me up a wall just thinking about it!"

"Then don't think about it," Orange hair replied patting her friend on the back, "It'll only stress you out before your other gym match today."

Cap Lady sighed. "You're right, Sonia...As usual. It just ticks me off knowing he's in town just to see you too no less and buddy up with the crowd!! It makes me angry!"

"Sonia?"

The orange haired woman turned to you immediately as you stared back, her friend turning too and that's when you recognized the other woman too. She smiled. "Hey, Y/n! Fancy meeting you here! Haven't seen you in a while." She fully turned to you now and walked over her friend following.

You casually waved where you sat and gave a tired smile. "Yeah. Honestly wasn't expecting to see you here either. What are you doing here?"

She gestured to none other than Nessa next to her. "I was chatting with an old friend before she needed to go. Since you're here I assume Gloria can only be here as well."

You nodded. "Yeah. I'm pretty sure she's at the stadium right now." Your gaze slowly shifted over to nessa as you spoke and you waved again. "Hello again. Nice weather you guys have here."

Nessa smiled. "Yeah. It's usually warm and sunny here all year round being the coast and all. You should visit the beach if you ever get the chance."

You shrugged. "I might. I mean I guess my sobble could use the chance to swim."

"Well, that all depends. Is your sobble a freshwater or saltwater sobble?"

"There's a difference?"

"Hey wait a minute!" Both of you turned to Sonia who was looking between the two of you with a confused look on her face. "You two know each other?"

"Sort of. She helped me out with some stuff yesterday, I didn't even know she was the gym leader until someone told me," you explained with a shrug, "I just appreciate anyone who helps carry groceries."

"Oh. I see. What are you doing here if Gloria is I assume at the stadium?," she asked.

You gestured to your sobble as it spat out an apple seed. "Someone wanted more food. I'm telling you he's worse than a kid hyped up on sugar once he sees the stuff." Both of you jumped at a ....snort? Blinking you looked at Nessa and noticed her holding her mouth and chuckling.

"I-I'm so sorry," she giggled out, "That's just the funniest thing that I've heard all day while stressing out. U-U-Usually people don't say that about s-s-sobble care."

You blinked. "Oh yeah?"

Sonia nodded as Nessa's giggles slowly fizzled out. "Usually sobbles are....how do you say it?...Massive cry babies that'll cry at the tiniest things like a baby would. It happened ALL the time with my Granny gave a trainer their first pokemon." She groaned closing her eyes as if the memory gave her instant annoyance and headaches. "They don't get an extra snack? BOOM! Crying! They trip the littlest, I mean tiniest bit. Crying! You're too busy to pet them? Crying! Forget playtime? CRYING! And don't get me started on the amount of times I had to buy Sobble Eye Drops for all the stinging and headaches. It's like walking on eggshells until they evolve into a drizzile! It's why a bunch of trainers rather chose scorbunny or grookey than a sobble." She pointed towards yours who had finished eating and began crawling it's way over to you. "In fact, the sobble Granny gave Leon for the trainers he endorsed was the pokemon who stayed in our care the longest. She must've had it for at least since it hatched and was given to her. It was such a little wimp clinging to her all the time...I never really had mush patience for them."

You jolted when something tugged on your arm, calming yourself once you noticed it was just your pokemon. "...Really?"

With a frown Nessa sighed. "She's right. Sobbles are much better suited for older more patient people. They aren't exactly really popular pokemon among starting trainers who are eager to start their journey. Most end up for adoption to pokemon centers or abandoned to the wild because the person decides it's not worth it to have their eyes burning after every battle or basically raise what could essentially be a child in their eyes." Her eyes suddenly narrowed. "I remember once Raihan came all the way to Hulbury just to give me a sobble someone carelessly discarded at his gym after they lost. The poor thing was so confused and scared. It was a miracle I found someone who loved it. Much more than the thoughtless trainer who never gave it a second thought. Pokemon aren't just toys you can give away or leave lying around after you decided you outgrew them."

"THAT'S AWFUL!!,'' you shouted feeling an anger grow in you as one hand instinctly came up to grab your sobble who chirped in confusion at your actions, both women giving you looks of surprise at your shout. How could anyone DO such a horrible thing!? That's like the equivilant of someone getting a brand new puppy and then not wanting to deal with the work and attention that goes into it and then straight up abandoning it to the streets in your world!! "How could anyone do such a thing?! That's like...So not ok!"

"Well....That is very true. Its not ok. But it seems to be you and your sobble have a very special connection," Nessa said gesturing towards your sobble making Sonia take a double take at you as well.

"Huh. Now that you mention it he does looked rather relaxed. He usually never looked so comfortable before Granny gave him to Leon."

"Really?,'' you asked, "He seemed pretty ok so far. Cried like...only one time but that might be cuz he was pushed over by these rockstar wannabes."

To that the ladies seemed lightly surprised. "Really now? Well then you must have lots of patience then. Sobbles usually tend to work better with people who have lots of patience or a motherly personality."

"And considering you mentioned never having a pokemon before I'm kinda impressed too. You must be a natural babysitter!," Sonia joked. You huffed and rolled your eyes at her joke. Yeah. You sure felt like one sometimes during your journey so far.

"Oh, Scales!" You blinked backed towards Nessa as she now held up her phone to her face with a frown before looking back towards you and Sonia. "Hey. Sorry but I have to bounce. I have to stop by home then head to the gym really quick if I'm going to make it to that match on time." Turning with a smile she waved. "I'll see you later Sonia. It was nice seeing you again too, Miss. good luck with that sobble of yours."

As she walked away, the both of you waved as you watched her go before Sonia turned back to you. "Hey. If you're not really busy, would you like to come to the docks with me?" She held up a small clear plastic bag with, what looked like to you at least, dog kibble with a smile. "There's always a small school of chinchou everyone likes to feed there. I always like to visit whenever I come to Hulbury."

You paused considering her words for a moment. It would be nice to have more time with another person around your age before you had to go back for a bit and they wouldn't be expecting you for a while. So it should be fine. With a shrug you stood up. "Sure! I don't think I've ever seen a chinchou anyways."

Smiling she gestured for you to follow. "C'mon. We're pretty close anyways. I think you'd really like them."

She was right. The small market area was right across from the docks anyways, so it took less than five minutes to reach the docks. You followed her onto the pathways on the water and looked over the edge. The crystal blue water acting like a mirror letting you see your reflection and your sobble's as it blinked big innocent eyes at the water. You nearly bumped into her when she stopped and already had the bag open with her hand inside rummaging around until she pulled out a small handful of the kibble. With a toss they all went into the clear water sending small ripples as they floated and bobbed on the mirror water. That was until almost instantly bubbles appeared from under them and in a flurry of lightbulb antennas and blue skin tons of tiny little creatures swam to the surface and the floating kibble was devoured by the pokemon. You blinked as you watched them swim around. There must've been around ten of them all swimming about here. You blinked as the bag was suddenly held out to you with a smile from Sonia.

"Do you wanna feed them a little? This pokemon food is specifically made for water type pokemons' tastes," she offered.

"Yeah! Thanks!" You happily took some from her and a small blue hand tried to reach out for it too as you pulled away and gave your sobble a look. It stared at you for a moment before chirping and grabbing your nose. "*sigh* Fine." With a sigh and roll of your eyes, you silently held one piece of the kibble up to him and watched as he grabbed it from you and popped it into his mouth. Before tossing more kibble at the peeping lanturn fish like pokemon still swimming around. As before they began devouring it. "They sure are hungry huh?"

"Always are," Sonia replied tossing some more kibble to them. "It's a really popular thing to do around here if you aren't visiting the stadium or Aquarium or eating at the famous cafe up the road. Since there's a battle later today with Nessa I suspect that's why it's so vacant."

You smiled. "Yeah. I just hope everything goes well for them later today. Hop and her seemed pretty excited to go battling Nessa."

Sonia nodded. "I can't blame them. When Leon and I were they're age we were excited over battling the gym leaders too." She smiled at some distant long memory. "In fact, it seemed like it was just yesterday I was right here feeding some Chinchou and then Leon came out of no where and fell in the water! S-Said he d-d-didn't even know how he got there looking for the stadium." She giggled and you couldn't help but smile back.

"Oh. Is that anything like the time I heard he somehow ended up on top of a barn?" Sonia snorted. "Or the time he went out to catch a train and somehow ended up back in front of his house?"

"That happened?"

You nodded. "Oh yeah. He ended up waiting for me to thank me for the two's Slumbering Weild field trip after it happened. I have no idea how."

She chuckled. "Neither do I. Lee's always had a bad sense of direction just like his Da-" She froze. The once smile and cheery attitude replaced by a look of mild panic before she coughed and tossed some more kibble towards the chinchou. "Hey. Look at how cute they are today. They look like such healthy wild chinchou. Don't you think?"

It was her attempting to deflect away from what she already said. You knew that and personally you wouldn't really bother looking into it as 1. It was really none of your business and you hated budding into someone else's business and 2. you didn't feel up to making Sonia more uncomfortable than she already looked...But you couldn't help yourself since this was the second time this has happened. ...That's right. She did a similar thing at the Opening Ceremony when she asked you not to mention what she said to anyone. By now you had completely forgotten about that moment with everything that's been going on and at the time just brushed it off having more important things to worry about. But now....You looked at her and by the look in her eyes she knew what you were about to ask.

"That's right. I spent a few days between their houses and I saw their families. And I met their mothers. And Hop's grandparents." You fully turned to her with a raised brow. "And Hop's older brother. And Gloria's brother. But not have I ever once seen any of their dads nor had they even mentioned them. So that's begging the question of where's the missing link then isn't it?"

There was a pregnant silence between the two of you as you stared at her expectantly and Sonia stared back down at the water, seemingly trying to process the situation she found herself in. The only sounds was the boat horns from the docks, and the splashing around and noises of the chinchou as they still begged for more of the kibble Sonia held. And after more silence your expression softened and a guilty feeling bubbled up. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to ask. Even if you were traveling with them it was none of your business really. So you went to apologize.

With a sigh, Sonia finally seemed to find her words and turned to you with a sad but serious look. "I...understand if you're concerned or curious. I'd be too all things considering. But I really CANT tell you anything since it's not my place to say....By now you obviously noticed they just..aren't there and let's leave it as that."

You nodded. "Hey. I'm..I-I'm sorry. I know it's none of my business. I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable."

She shook her head. "No. To be honest you wouldn't be the first one to ask that question to Leon or anyone else and you probably won't be the last. But if you could do us both a solid and not tell anyone about this it'd be great."

"Believe me, I was about to ask you the same thing." You smiled. "Trust me. I won't tell us a soul."

"Thank you, Y/n. I'm glad you understand."

"Hey. Of course!"

So.....No fathers in the picture huh? A strange feeling settled into your guts that was something akin to feeling extremely guilty. And a....strange feeling of familiarity of it all for your own reasons...Then the reality hit you. In a memory of what happened back at the inn back in Motostoke. In the very slip up Sonia had made before that you had passed off until now-

"And thanks for taggin' along with the kids this far. I know we're practically strangers but there's just....I don't know....really good aura about you. I'm sure Lee appreciates it too. He's always so worried about Hop. He practically raised him after all-" All of a sudden it was like a switch flipped off in her mind and her happy smile went to a sudden shocked face. "Oh no. I didn't mean to mention that. Please forget I even said that."

You had pretty much pieced it together right after remembering that. For some reason, in one way or another, Hop and the twins had no fathers and Leon as Sonia said must've practically filled the role in which a father figure would fill. This would sum up a lot of the things you've bared witness too. Hop and Gloria's infatuation with Leon(especially on Hop's end), they're desire to climb their way up the ranks and make him proud-..Heck. Leon's behavior know that you think about it could've been summed up as brotherly...or fatherly. Sponsoring two (although it was VERY clear he was full on ready to just endorse Victor as well no questions asked if he hadn't made the choice of not competing in the Gym Challenge) kids for the challenge which as you came to know wasn't typical of a Galar Champion, buying you and them all those supplies and stuff, and with what Sonia said just set that fact in concrete. And....While that did make you feel guilty and sad for them...At the end of the day it really was none of your business. Any moment or day now you could wake up back home and none of this would have mattered, and you shouldn't really butt in between their business. Especially since you weren't planning on staying in the long run. Plus...you were trying NOT to uproot the game's progress as much as possible or no more than you might've already had done if at all with your actions. You might've not remembered how the game went entirely but you knew you were on the right track. For now at least. You continued to make small talk with Sonia about how her research was going and your trip over before deciding it was best to part ways there and bid her farewell before heading back towards the stadium. Nessa mentioned leaving to make sure she arrived on time. You wondered if Gloria was battling her right now?...Well you soon found out the answer to that question.

when you were just making your way up to the resturaunt your stomach grumbled. Making you wince a bit. Huh. Guess you were out for longer than you thought if you got hungry. Glancing up to the cafe you wondered how much a simple meal would cost? It was supposed to be famous for their food after all. With a shrug you decided on entering and seeing if they had anything your measly twelve dollars could buy. Fancy was the first word that came to mind when you entered through the double doors and a bell rung off. A woman at a front desk was the first thing to greet you along with some kind of pokemon you didn't recognize. It seemed the theme of the whole place was blue and white, giant tables lined the area with table setting and napkins fancily folded into boat like shapes, a MASSIVE window looking over the stadium, and a bar like area near the far right walls with another pair of double doors you assumed lead to the kitchen. The only other people there besides you and the lady was a man behind the bar counter who was talking on the phone with someone.

The woman smiled at you. "Greetings and welcome to the Hulbury Seafood Restaurant!" She greeted with a bow. "Do you happen to have a reservation or would like to make one?"

"Uh-..." You shook your head. Oh man. Was this one of those places where you HAD to make a reservation in order to eat? "Not exactly. I just heard your food was pretty good."

The woman still smiled. "Oh. Well then I'd be more than happy to seat you by the-"

"AHH!" Both of you jumped when a thud rang out which turned out to be the man in the chef hat slamming down the phone he was previously talking to.

"Chef, what on earth is the matter?," the woman asked.

The chef pointed to the phone scowl on his face. "My delivery boy just called. Apparently he's caught a cold and can't make it today! Out of all the days I need him most." The old man grabbed at his grey hair. "I have all these orders and no one to take them. The Chairman could show up any minute for his reservation but instead he's going to be present with angry customers calling for their orders and our reputation as Hulbury's greatest restaurant will be tarnished!!"

"Well...I could run out and deliver a few," the woman suggested.

"And leave your post!? OH no no no! That'd look even more bad if no one was here to greet them in while I cook!" He slumped forward. "This is an utter disaster! What am I to do?"

You looked between the two of them before slowly holding up your hand. "Um...If you'd like, I'd like to help."

Immediately the chef snapped his head up and blinked at you. Before a suspicious look came over his face as he looked you over. "You, Young Lady? You would please help us deliver some food?"

You nodded. "I mean..Yeah. It looks like you guys are pretty.." You gave a glance at the empty place. "-busy at the moment and I'd like to help."

After looking you up and down a few more moments the chef sighed before shrugging. "Why not? I have nothing else to lose in this moment anyhow." He reached under a counter and beckoned you to come over to which you complied before placing a small take out box onto the counter. "Thank you. I truly appreciate it. Tell you what. If you manage to deliver all the take out orders then I'll prepare you my famous 'Lucky Egg' dish as thanks. How does that sound?"

You mouth watered just thinking about free food. This just might be your lucky day after all. You nodded with a smile and took the box from him. "Sure! Sounds fair enough. Where do I deliver this one?"

He paused for a moment...before he rubbed the back of his neck. "Oh uh. Well as for where to deliver the food.....Sorry. We've been so stressed out for the Chairman's visit I forgot to ask for an address." You stared at him. .....WHAT!? "B-But I heard a clickity clack sound from the phone when I took the first order. Maybe that's a clue as to where to go?"

..........You sighed. "Yeah..Don't worry about it. I'll figure it out somehow."

"That's the spirit! Come back as soon as you're done delivering that one! And hurry please. Oh! And here. Take this notepad with you. They'll have to sign off on it so I can send the bill."

You had no idea what you had gotten yourself into this time. With a groan you exited the restaurant and spotted a peculiar sight to behold. There was Gloria standing just outside the restaurant as you approuched with her back to you and you soon saw what she was staring at. A little ways from her standing in the middle of the road was HIM. Mareep Head-..Er. I mean Bede who looked bored and in front of him was....It was her. The same woman from your dream and the Opening Ceremony as well. And in front of her was...No. It COULDN'T be!! In front of them was a group of about six to eight people, but with that group was none other than the CHAIRMAN himself!!...Tho he looked a little different than the other times you've seen him. You didn't expect to see Nessa outside of her gym leader suit, but you hadn't been caught too much off guard. The chairman however was a different story. Instead of that professional slim fitting suit he wore a baseball cap, slip on white shoes, sunglasses, .....a sweater that showed how chubby he was actually under his suit, and blue shorts with white polka dots to top it all off. You could only star at the man...Was this-....This COULDN'T have been the same professional high standing man that ran the whole Galar Region! He looked like someone's Dad on a lazy day. ...You chuckled which startled Gloria into giving a yelp and whipping around to see you and the box you held.

"Holy Magikarp, Y/n! You nearly gave me a heart attack!"

"Sorry....Hey. What are you doing all the way over here? I thought you were having a battle today."

She sighed. "We got hungry just waiting for Nessa so Hop suggested I go grab us something while he holds our place. What are you doing?" She noticed the box you held and pointed at it. "And what's that?"

"Long story short is that I agreed to be the fill in delivery boy for a bit." You nodded past her towards the group. "Hey uh...Gloria, is that who I think it is?"

She turned around and with a huff she crossed her arms and frowned. "Yeah. The Cottonee so full of himself he needs a garden hose to wash the ego from his brain!"

".....Uh..Actually I was talking about the chairman over there, but I guess Bede's here too yes."

"Oh...Well yeah. It's weird just walking around the corner and seeing him right that. Like..what the bloody heck are those shorts?"

"Y'know I was thinking the same thing." You two continued to watch in bewilderment as the chairman smiled and spoke with the small group of people, before the woman suddenly stepped in front of him as he was about to shake another person's hand.

She held up a hand. "Our sincerest apologies," she spoke with a calm and professional tone, "The chairman is quite busy at the moment. Everyone please disperse. Please leave now."

The crowd murmered but eventually slowly parted ways, one woman saying. "Ok. See you later, Chairman."

"Oh h-hey! No need to rush off! I can still do autographs!," the chairman called after them raising a hand, "I'll even give you my pokemon league card!" To your surprise no one really paid attention and kept walking besides you and Gloria...And you rose a brow. With a sigh he turned back to the woman. "we need the support of our fans to keep doing what we're doing. Chasing them off like that. Aren't you being a little too harsh, Oleana?"

"Fans are very important of course," the woman, who must've been Oleana explained, "That's why you need to keep doing your work for their sake."

"I promise to do everything in my power to assist you too, Chairman!," Bede butted in proud of himself. Huh. Maybe Gloria had a point.

The chairman gave him a look for a moment before raising a brow. "Oh. And you were?"

Maybe it was just your imagination most likely, but you could've sworn you saw Bede frown for a moment before he answered, "Bede, Sir."

"AH! That's right! Bede! I daresay I'm impressed how fair you've come since I gave you that pokemon all those years ago. Will you be the one to win the Gym Challenge? Or perhaps it will be one of the Trainers endorsed by the Champion."

"I will prove your faith in me was well placed, Chairman," Bede assured, "I won't lose to anyone. Anyway speaking of which, I'll be on my way now." He turned and began walking away, but completely froze upon seeing you and Gloria..Well more Gloria than you as the two of them made eye contact...And he suddenly pointed. "YOU!?"

"Hey Mareep Head. How's your Hatenna?"

"WHY YOU-....YOU- ..LITTLE-"

"AH! You!" Bede practically jumped out of his skin as the chairman was quick to push past him and walk up to Gloria with a smile, Oleana right behind him. Gloria practically just stood and stared as he approuched and you rose an eye brow. "Your name was...." He thought for a moment before pointing to her. "Gloria right? We were just talking about you!" Your brow rose more. That was a complete and utter lie. They were standing right there entire time in front of you but you shrugged it off as an awkward ice breaker.

.....Gloria exchanged a look with you before pointing at herself. "....Me?"

he nodded. "Yes! I admit I'm curious about Leon's reasons for endorsing you. Ah! I just had a good idea, as I tend to do!" Brag much? "You're going to face Gym Leader Nessa soon, yes?"

"Um...Y-Yeah. I was on my way back to the stadium actually-"

"Well if you get a gym badge from her I'll hold a celebration! I'd like to get to know you a little better after all." He smiled and you felt ....odd about it all.

"Um..Y-Yeah..I guess so??"

"Chairman, we should really be going if you want to keep that dinner reservation," Oleana stated.

The chairman nodded to her before turning back to Gloria. "Alright. Please do your best, for the sake of Galar's future."

"I Uh...Y-YES SIR!!" Gloria gave her best smile under the situation.

With a smile and nod he turned and walked past her and you not sparing you a glance and you followed him with your gaze brow raised...You weren't sure, but you had a funny feeling about him and it wasn't a good funny. When you turned back around you nearly jumped the box in surprise. The woman-!! Oleana was standing right in front of Gloria so close her shadow was literally blocking the sunlight from her. The poor girl frozen under the woman's studying gaze.

"The Chairman will be heading to this town's seafood restaurant." She stated monotonely, "Win the gym badge and join him there at once. Do not keep him waiting. Am I clear, Young Lady?" Gloria didn't say anything..and you looked at her. Eyes shooting to the size of plates. She was more frozen than a glacier. ...All that came out of her was a small squeak noise making the woman's eyes narrow. "Perhaps I wasn't clear. Do not keep the chairman waiting. Head to the seafood restaurant. The Captain's Table. Do you need me to repeat myself once more, Child? Or do you understand-"

"Too skinny."

Gloria jumped having probably completely forgotten you were there for a moment as she snapped to you and Oleana followed her piercing gaze to meet your glare. ....She slowly blinked. "I beg your pardon, Miss?"

"I said you're too skinny for that," you explained as they both stared at her.

Her brow flicked up as she studied you. "And I happen to be too thin for what purpose, Ma'am?"

"Well you're certainly not fat enough to be throwing your weight around not to notice you're being a jerk," you explained raising a brow back, "Obviously she heard you with how close you are. Maybe she'd answer if you weren't so close making her feel uncomfortable like that."

They both stared at you stunned. Gloria jaw dropped and Oleana had the same face but her eyes much more widened as she stared at you. It was so quiet you could've heard a pin drop as you joined this little three way stare down. HECK. It felt like an entire hour just staring at her before her face slowly contorted back to her original bored/professional looking one and she took a step back, spooking Gloria in process as the poor girl blinked.

"Do you happen to know who I am, Miss?," she asked like you should already know this.

"Somebody who's heels makes them so tall their head's in the clouds obviously."

This time her brows furrowed, her mouth frowned, and you noticed the way her hands gripped each other. As if she was physically holding back her anger. But before she could reply a chuckle seemed to interrupt you. Blinking you turned around only to find that the Chairman guy was looking right at you. Raising a brow and humming. You rose a brow and frowned right back.

....He waved a hand off. "Oleana, you're right. We'll be late for that reservation. Give the young trainer my League card and let's be on our way."

It's amazing how fast her aura and face changed at a moment's dime. "Of course. So you will not forget the Chairman's face, I will give you one of his League Cards." She suddenly held something out to Gloria who blinked but after a moment took it. "Chairman Rose is the kind of man who gets downhearted if he doesn't take care of things he needs to right away. Go to the seafood restaurant as soon as possible so as to not keep the chairman waiting." She glanced back to you and your eyes narrowed more. "...Good luck in your battle." With that she stepped around Gloria who followed her as she went and so did you with your frown. And after the Chairman gave another look to you, also turned and walked away.

....You sighed and turned back to Gloria, only to blink when she was staring right back at you. "....Uh...H-Hey. Are you ok there? You looked spooked." Shaking. Your eyes widened noticing her hands shaking. "WHOA! Hey! Are you ok!? She didn't scare you too bad did she?"

"Y-Y-Y/n..," She stuttered. Her hands slowly clenched into fists. "T-T-That..was..." Her face snapped up to you in a smile. "AWESOME!! SERIOUSLY!! Like! Yeah she gave off major scare vibes I swear she's worse than a gengar in the darkest room! My heart was pounding so fast! Then you were all well slayin' 'ere like a beast!!...Omg." She looked down for a moment realization settling in. "....My traveling partner talked BACK to the Chairman's right hand!! What's he going to think when I show up!? I mean it was amazing to watch don't get me wrong. But STILL!!''

"Hey, hey, hey!!" You caught her attention by grabbing her shoulder making her blink at your face. "Hey. Look at me." Once you knew you had her full attention you smiled. "That woman was making you feel scared, and that's not ok. So I did what I had to do. If anything I'll get in trouble. Besides, Im a girl standing on the sidewalk holding a delivery box. They'd probably think I was just a stranger going to delivery a pizza or something. Right now you should just worry about your gym battle."

It was like a record scratch went off in her mind as she suddenly paused, face going blank for a moment before her hands suddenly snatched the top of her head. "AH!! MY GYM BATTLE!! I COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT THAT!! BUT THE CHAIRMAN SAID IF I WIN TO SEE HIM!! IF!! IF!! WHAT IF I DON'T WIN!? OMG!! CAN I STILL MEET WITH HIM IF I DON'T-"

You shook her with the hand still on her shoulder. "Gloria! Get a grip on yourself! Of course you're going to win!'' You smiled. "If you could beat Milo you can beat Nessa too! And if you lose it's fine. I'm sure he'll understand, you can't let all of that overthinking stop you ok? Be more confident in yourself, and if you lose..." You shrugged. "Then it's ok. You can always try again tomorrow or any other day. You are going to be ok....Ok?"

She stared at you for a long moment before taking a deep breath and sighing. A determined look now plastered on her face. "You're right! I'm just overthinking this! I just need to remain calm and everything's going to be fine!"

You smiled. "That's the spirit...Hey. Isn't it gonna start like..right now?"

"GAH! Y-You're right! I gotta go!" With a wave she quickly turned on her heel and ran off towards the stadium. "Thanks, Y/n! You're the best!"

You sighed before shaking your head watching her go. Well...glad that went well at least, she was a brave girl so she should be ok..But then why did you still feel eyes on you? As you turned your f/c eyes met purple ones and Bede jumped having noticed you spotted him. With a jerk of his head the other way, he quickly sped walked away from you in the opposite direction leaving you lightly confused. But you shrugged it off. Right now you had bigger fish to fry like getting this fish you were currently holding to the person who ordered it. Who ever it was. That was the thing you had to figure out as you stood there in the middle of the sidewalk staring at the box in your hands like someone staring off into space. Good gosh the guy couldn't think to ask for an address? What were you supposed to do with a click clack sound? That could mean anything....Well what kind of click clack sounds were loud enough to be heard over a phone. ....Your head turned towards the train station back towards the stadium. Didn't trains usually make a noise like that? A train would certainly be loud enough to hear over a phone. With a shrug you started off down towards the train station and right up to the first house right by it since there was two. Knocked and waited patiently as footsteps approuched.

The first one was answered by a middle aged looking man and you smiled. "Hey! Uh...Did you order seafood?"

"No. I don't like fish."

"Oh..Sorry about tha-" You flinched as the door was slammed back shut in front of your face..before you frowned. "Well he was pretty rude wasn't he?" Your sobble chirped in agreement. "Couldn't have said it better myself," you mumbled as you turned away from the door and away from the first house to go to the second. The Stadium not too far away roaring alive now with cheers. Must be Hop or Gloria having a battle with Nessa. Shame you couldn't attend but you were a bit busy right now. Walking up to the second home, you knocked on the door and waited. After a moment footsteps approuched and a sweet elderly woman answered. You smiled. "Hey! Good afternoon! Did someone here order some seafood?"

To your delight, she smiled. "Oh, are you the one delivering my food?" She happily reached out and took the box from you. "Thank you for your trouble! This restaurant's dishes are full of seafood and it's so delicious if I say so myself. They are pretty well known after all."

"Your welcome! ..Oh wait!" You reached into your pocket to quickly pull out your notebook. "I need you to-''

"Oh of course! Your tip. "

"Actually I-" You blinked when a small bag of what looked like small jaw breakers was placed into your hand tied off by a cute little red ribbon.

"I've already paid the restaurant over the phone, so I'll give you candy as a tip. There's nothing like sweets to go along with a beautiful day. You have a nice day now."

You blinked looking at the small bag. "Hey wait! I need you-" The door closed leaving you staring at it. "..to sign this. *sigh*" You held up the overly cute bag and your sobble gave it a curious look over. "Well, it's not money but it's better than nothing I guess. Wouldn't you say?"

Your trip back to the restaurant wasn't anything unusual, still faintly hearing the cheers from the gym on your way there. The only thing that was a little strange was a small group of three or four people standing outside the place trying to peep into the windows. Your brow rose but you shrugged it off and just stepped inside seeing the same woman as before.

"Sorry. We're closed at the mome-..OH! It's you young lady,'' she greeted.

"Back again?!" You looked over towards the chef and he smiled seeing you. "Excellent! I wanted to ask you to deliver some food again. Is that ok? I suspect that the package was delivered?"

....You held up the bag of candy. "Yeah. Sorry I couldn't get her to sign it. But she tipped me in candy."

"Oh. That must've been Mrs. Wesley. Don't worry about her, she has a habit of doing that." Again he reached under the counter and brought up another box. "But right now I need you to deliver this next one as soon as possible!'' You walked over and he held it out to you before slightly nodding over towards the right. You glanced over and your eyes widened seeing the chairman and Oleana looking out of the window over the stadium, not seeming to notice you thankfully. "Since the Chairman's here we're doing our best to try and not upset the atmosphere. Since you're taking care of this for us it's really taking one less thing off our shoulders to worry about."

You sighed with a smile before taking the second box from him. The fresh smell of fish and chips wafting from it making your mouth water. "Hey. It's no problem. Where do I take this one?"

He paused. "Well....I uh...Haha. D-Didn't quite get the address for this one either?" You stared. "...B-but I don't know if this helps, but I think I heard a pokemon cry over the phone this time. Like....Swiirl...Or something like that."

"....I'll...figure it out I'm sure."

Figure it out indeed! How in the HECK were you just supposed to deliver a dang food order based off a pokemon's cry?? Whelp! There was only one way to solve this! ...Visit all the houses here until you came across the right one. So that's exactly what you did. You already delivered to the lady up by the train station and the guy next to her rudely stated he didn't so that was two houses you could cross off your list. So there you went starting from one end of the long, LONG street of houses one after another smiling and asking if they ordered a take out. Every. Single. One. Said. No. Or just didn't answer at all, and to be honest you were feeling justifiably annoyed at this point. What was the POINT of having someone deliver food if you didn't know where to send them!? It must've taken you at least fifthteen minutes of walking and asking until you FINALLY caught a break coming to the very last house on the block before the road split off between the train station and stadium. You knocked and waited patiently as footsteps approuched, and you smiled when a blonde man who looked to be in his early thirties opened the door.

"Hey. Sorry to bother you, but did you order some seafood takeout?"

"Oh, I can smell the ocean. You're from the restaurant aren't you?" You nodded and held the box up to him as he took it with a hum. "Ah! I'm starving! I've been drooling while waiting for the food! Than you for delivering the food!"

"Oh hey. Before you go." You held up the notepad. "Could you please sign for this?"

"Oh sure thing. Wait right here." He turned and walked back inside leaving you standing there able to see the inside of the home as the man handed off the food to two little girls who looked so much alike that they must've been twins. A pink pokemon looking like cotton candy swirling around them. "Stacy, Lacy. Food's here. And this time don't let Pinkie eat my share of it." You stood there awkwardly until he finally came back grabbing the note pad. "Sorry about that. You know how kids can be."

"Heh. Yeah. Sorry if it took so long. Had to go the long way around to get here."

"Well you get energy from food. If you need energy you should eat balanced meals." He handed you back the notepad with a smile. "Thanks again!''

With a sigh you turned on your heel and began trudging off back towards the restaurant. Your stomach rumbled again and by this point you were seriously wondering if this was even worth any free food for? If you had half a mind you would've just quite, returned the notepad, and then just go back to the hotel to just eat some of your rations or order the cheapest thing on the room service menu. But then again, you already promised to help and free food does sound better than spending your remanding money. Plus their food was supposed to be really good. So..You made the choice to go back to the very cafe you came from and waltzed back through the doors and up to the counter this time. The chef seemed very pleased to have you back as he had already placed the last box on the counter he explained. Only one more? Oh THANK goodness. You weren't sure how much of this mumbo jumbo you could handle. You took the last box from him not sparing a glance over your shoulder in the chairman's way.

"As for the address-"

"Let me guess. You forgot?"

"Actually. No. I remembered to ask." Your eyes widened. Was this finally gonna be easy? "Unfortunately I have no idea where it is.".....WHAT?! "The customer told me to look for a green roof, but I wonder if there is such a house in Hulbury. I've certainly never seen a house like this before but Im sure you're smart enough to figure it out like the other two!"

".......Right."

Of course it wasn't going to be that easy. It never was going to be easy for you was it? It seemed simple enough tho. Just look for a house with a green roof and that should be it right? Except..none of the houses you had asked previously had ordered anything and the ones that did couldn't have possibly ordered a second time in such short notice right after getting the first. Oh well. Green roof. That's all you had to go on......and the amount of time you had spent walking up and down these streets looking for any building with a green roof was exhausting. NONE of the homes here had green roofs and when you checked the few buildings around here that weren't homes (like the light house and pokemon center-) discovered surprise, surprise. No green roof either. Oh you hoped whoever ordered this didn't live outside Hulbury. Not having any luck where you currently were, you decided to go ahead and go back down to the docks where you first went that morning. You didn't remember seeing any buildings there but it wouldn't hurt to cover all bases before giving up. Your body ended up wondering back to the market place you were once in...And you were about ready to give up. There wasn't anything around here with a green-

"HEY! Young Lady with the sobble on your shoulder!," a male voice shouted. Blinking, you turned around to one of the stalls. the one with the green and white top. A man with brown hair waved at you. "You're delivering food?" You nodded. "Well hey! I'm the one who ordered it!" He was!?...You glanced towards the striped roof of his stall.....Oh. A green roof. Whelp! Might as well get this over with. he smiled wider as you approuched. "You got here earlier than I expected! It was easy to spot the green roof wasn't it?"

No. Not really. In fact it would've been a LOT easier if he just said he was in a stall in this marketplace but instead you forced a smile and handed him the box and notepad. "Please sign here."

He gladly signed it. "The tail curry of this restaurant has a unique flavor. I love it! Say hi to the manager for me!"

You quickly grabbed the notebook. "Have a nice day!" And then you quickly retreated. A groan leaving your tired body as you dragged yourself back the way you came for a second time that day. By the time you had gotten back close to the restaurant you were sore, tired, but most of all you were hungry! OH! The food had better be worth it or else you were going straight back to the hotel to-

"Y/N!!" Hey. You knew that voice! Sure enough Gloria was waving her arm at you with a smile as you proceeded to walk towards her. Despite wanting time to yourself today you were absolutely glad to see her. "What are you doing by the docks?"

"Finishing my role as a replacement delivery boy," you answered when you got close enough and pointed at her white uniform. "Why are you still wearing your gym challenge uniform?"

"Oh uh.." She sheepishly smiled with a chuckle. "It's a long story. On the bright side I managed to defeat Nessa! LOOK!" A flash of bronze went in your face and you blinked before leaning back. A badge with some kind of blue water pattern shown before you. No doubt the water gum badge. "Feast yer eyes! I thought I was a gonna when I lost the second round, but I managed to pull a turn around and win enough rounds to pass! Ain't it great?!"

You smiled. "Hey! That is great! I'm so happy for you! But where's Hop? I thought he was with you."

"He stayed behind to set up his own battle with Nessa tomorrow. Don't worry. He already knows where I am. Said he'll meet back up with us when we're done having dinner with the Chairman."

"...We?"

"Oh.." She slowly lowered her had back down to her side. "I just...thought you'd be coming too since you were there with me when he invited me.I-...I just thought since y'know...B-But that's fine! I won't force ya to come with me. Yer probably tired from running around all day anyways."

You paused. Yes, you were tired but you were heading back inside the restaurant anyways. And if Oleana was there...You smiled. "Hey! I'd love to come!"

Her eyes lit up. "REALLY!?"

"Yeah. I gotta go in to let 'em know I'm done delivering all these confusing orders anyways." You turned and nodded towards the doors. "C'mon. Let's go eat and see what he wants. Ok?"

With a smile of relief she nodded and the two of you went up towards the doors and went inside. The woman from before was there and upon seeing the both of you greeted you both with a smile. "Welcome to the Hulbury Seafood Resturaunt. Unfortunately we're not accepting any reservations or walk ins today but if you'd like to schedule one for a later or order take out you're more than welcome-....Oh! It's you again, Young Lady."

"Uh. Yeah." You held out the notepad. "Actually I was promised free food if I delivered everything and we were both invited to eat with the Chairman over there."

"Oh." She glanced to Gloria who looked nervous, seeming to realize she was a trainer. "Yes. I recall he said something about an extra guest trainer with his party today. Chairman Rose comes here incognito, but the word always gets out when he's here." She grabbed the notepad from you. "You both may go ahead to the Captain's Table in the back. I'll notify the chef you completed your tasks."

With a thanks you both took off towards the back where you saw the Chairman, Oleana, and..HEY! It was Sonia. Relief flooding in seeing another familiar face. This might be more tolerable then...Maybe you should take this time to apologize? You glanced to Gloria who still looked nervous. If this was someone very high up and important it wouldn't hurt to swallow your pride and just apologize, if nothing else but to keep the peace and show you're willing to be the bigger person. After all you don't want to cause trouble. The first to notice you two was the chairman himself as he turned his head from Sonia to you two and smiled.

"Ah! If it isn't the young trainer I met earlier today," he greeted with a smile and raised brow, "If you're here then I suppose it's safe to say you won against Nessa?"

You didn't miss her gulp before forcing a smile. "Uh..Y-Yeah. Piece of cake!"

He nodded. "I'm so glad! Gloria, come. Let's celebrate your recent victory! On me!" ...You felt eyes on you and you turned from the Chairman's face to Oleana's who was staring right at you. ...You frowned back at her- "And I believe I've seen you before as well, Young Lady." You blinked back to the Chairman's face as he was looking at you too now with a raised brow. ...AH CRAP!! "You were the lady back there who gave my assistant quite a 'roasting' as the young kinds call it nowadays."

...You blinked. Forcing up a smile. Here we go. "Uh. hehe. Yeah. Actually I wanted to apologize to you.." You gave Oleana a glance. "-and her for that. I just thought things were getting a bit scary back there."

To your surprise he chuckled it off with a wave. "Not at all. In all honestly Oleana can be quite intimidating to others. It's one of the reasons she's so good at her job. But there's no hard feelings. Right Oleana?"

The woman next to him inhaled before breathing it back out. "Of course, Sir. Apologies accepted and all's forgiven."

"Excellent! I don't suppose you know Sonia here? She's a wonderful person to have on the research team."

"Yeah. We do actually. Hi, Sonia."

"Oh. Were you invited too?," she asked surprised.

Before you could reply the chairman interrupted you. "You two know each other? That's great! Come now." He gestured to the table directly behind him. "Please be seated." And the three of you followed him and did so after you and Gloria exchanged a glance. She still looked nervous. The order of which you sat was Gloria sat across from the Chairman, Sonia next to Gloria, and you next to the Chairman. Naturally you would've preferred to sit next to either one of the other girls but you weren't about to let Gloria sit right next to a guy you had a funny feeling over. Strangely enough Oleana didn't seem like she was eating with you four and instead opted to stand silently next to the Chairman. How odd. You watched as he oh so casually picked the napkin off his own plate. Hmm...Guess he's been here more than once. "Now that we're all together. Gloria was it? Tell us how did your battle go?"

She shrugged. "Oh. Um. I-It was pretty good. Very thrilling. It was really nice to get ta meet Nessa. She's very nice." Sonia smiled at her.

"That's all very good. If you're as talented as Leon mentioned you then you should have no problem defeating the other gym leaders."

"Well I wouldn't say that. I-It was really hard to beat her. She's a tough gym leader."

"Hey. What were you talking about with Sonia?," you asked successfully steering the topic off Gloria for the moment as the Chairman smiled.

"Oh nothing really worth talking about. How her trip was so far studying around with the legends and the Geoglph in Turffield. The theory is that the two are somehow connected but I digress. AH! Our food has arrived." You looked over to what he was gesturing at and perked up at the lady from before who greeted you carrying two plates. One obviously being some kind of fish as it was placed before the chairman who happily accepted. "Ah! My usual. You always remember." And you were surprised when the other plate was sat in front of you. It was curry, smelt sweet, and had an egg smack dab in the middle of it. "Oh. It looks like you're a regular here too I presume."

"The chef asked me to give you his 'Lucky Egg' dish as a token of his appreciation, Miss," she explained, "I hope you're ok with sweet boiled egg curry. Are the rest of you ready to order?"

"Go ahead ladies. It's on me today."

"Mm. Just a salad. I'm not very hungry today."

"...I mean. The tropical curry sounds good," Gloria guessed.

You were too busy studying the dish in front of you to notice the lady leave. Instead staring at the massive egg just sitting in the middle of the darn plate. ...You weren't up to eating something that might've been a pokemon egg no matter how much your stomach rumbled at the sight and your mouth watered at the smell. Luckily it seemed like you had a back up plan because your sobble was crawling down your arm already on his way towards your food. You extended your hand to allow the small pokemon to sit on the table next to you and without really thinking grabbed the egg off your plate and held it out to it. He smiled and happily accepted your gift with a loud chirp before grabbing it and you watched as it bit it nearly in half with one bite. Goodness. Guess you weren't the only one hungry.

"Hulbury is a seafood town. Naturally if one is going to eat here the obvious choice is the local cuisine," the chairman said already digging in, "Everything on the menu is delicious. Oh, Sonia. By the way how is Professor Magnolia getting on? I'm quite indebted to her you know. She was the one who figured out how to unleash the power of Wishing Stars and use that power to dynamax pokemon. We would never have been able to create dynamax bands without her."

Sonia sighed. "*sigh* She was saying that there's still so much we don't know about dynamaxing. It's causing her some worry. She even made me take a power spot detector with me when I started traveling."

"A power spot detector?," he asked interested, "That's the device that allowed me to discover power spots. Locations that emit galar particles and allow pokemon to dynamax. I don't like hearing that Professor Magnolia is worried though. If only there was something I could do." You glanced at him again out the corner of your eye and rose a brow. Why were you getting a weird feeling in your gut from this guy?

Sonia shrugged. "Unless you can suddenly provide more intel on the phenominon then I'm afraid there isn't much, Sir."

He hummed.".....Sonia. It may be good for you to visit the vault in Hammerlocke. I believe the key to unlocking the secrets of the dynamax phenomenon lies in the history preserved there."

Sonia blinked. "Oh. You really think so?"

"We usually study history based on what was left on it from the past. Although mostly legends at this point you know they always say that every legend has truth to it. Who knows? It might even help tie in with the lengend you've been studying currently. Oleana can arrange a meeting I'm sure. Can't you?"

"Understood, Sir," Oleana replied monotonly, "I will arrange a meeting with Ms. Sonia."

"Very good. See? Nothing to worry yourself over about. Now shall we dig in?"

The rest of that dinner get together was a blur. Honestly you were too busy stuffing your face to talk but you didn't mind. You only watched and listened to the small talk. Gloria and Sonia's food arrived a short while after and by this point they were mostly done eating as well. His other questions didn't seem too out of the ordinary. Asking how their day was? How they were enjoying the challenge so far? Talking about some of his recent appointments involving some kind of arrangement with a Prince from the Pasio Region?? You weren't sure. But the sun was starting to set soon.

"So then I figured the best way to solve the matter was to set up individual warnings for the two of them and move one to a different department under Oleana. *sigh* Both are hard workers so it'd be a shame to just fire one or both. Don't you agree Oleana?"

"Yes, Sir. However I believe it is about time we get going, Chairman."

"Hm?" He looked at her. "But I've hardly had a chance to speak with Gloria." You rose a brow. You had literally been sitting her an entire hour.

"With all do respect, Sir. It's getting rather late. I'm sure the young lady is quite tired from her day."

...He sighed. "It's regrettable but I guess it can't be helped. If something needs to get done there's no time like the present after all!" He slowly stood from his seat as the three of you watched and smiled. "Truly though I'm glad to have had a chance to speak with you ladies today. So sorry if we couldn't have spent more time together. In any case I bid you farewell."

"OH! Uh..G-Good bye, M-Mr. Chairman. Sir."

You remained silent as the two left. Narrowed eyes watching as they went...Something about those two just felt...Off. Like it didn't sit right in your gut, but you had no idea why? Was there some kind of plot in the game with those two you couldn't remember?...Hm. In any case you were glad they were gone now so you and Gloria could rela- Your head perked up with at a sigh as Sonia rubbed her face.

"Hey. You good there?"

"Does he think he's doing me a favor? He's right that the vault would be a good place to look for the legends but..." She paused suddenly looking up and noticing the two of you staring at her confused. "UH!...Nevermind! You got the water badge right? Defeating Nessa is no easy feat!"

"Uh..Yeah. What are-"

"Nessa's a good friend! Perhaps I should drop in on her!," her chair screeched as she stood up all of a sudden giving a nervous smile, "Ahaha! Yes! She'll be so happy to see me! Until next time, Gym Challenger! Nice seeing you again, Y/n!"

Both of you stared as Sonia quickly sped walked away from you two and then out of the restaurant as if she was escaping something...

Gloria blinked. "What the world just happened?"

"Believe me I have learnt in this point of my life to just go with things. C'mon. It's free food. Let's finish eating and meet the others back at the hotel."

#pokemon shield #pokemon sword #pokemon sword and shield #pokemon swsh #pokemon piers #piers x reader #pokemon piers x reader #reader x piers #Piers #reader

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keelywolfe · 3 years

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FIC: Knick Knack Paddy Whack (BAON)

Summary: As far as Stretch is concerned, there's only one solution when you're addicted to thrift stores. Selling all the crap you bought so you can buy more!

Notes: Stepping outside of the main storyline for a moment, we'll get back to the aftermath we're all expecting in a moment. 😁

Tags: Spicyhoney, Established Relationships, Domestic Fluff

Part of the ‘by any other name’ series.

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Read it on AO3

Read it here!

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Stretch was a bonafide thrift-a-holic, he honestly was, and he knew it. It was an important thing to know about yourself, really, because certain problems arose from bad case of oooh-shiny-itis.

Sure, one ceramic zombie hand thrusting up from the dresser to hold his rings and change was an awesome thing to behold, but an entire collection of zombie hands was a tough sell to the person you were living with, especially if that person was Edge. Not that he’d managed to find a collection of zombie hands and if he had, that thrift store would have been on the weekly check list, for sure. But the same premise applied to ‘zombie hand plus an entire horde of other bizarre ceramics surrounding it’.

Stretch wasn’t bitter about the limitations when it came to his collection, nah, he got it. There were certain things you couldn’t ask for from the person you love, and a house filled up with weird tchotchkes that looked like they belonged to the grandmother of the chainsaw massacre family was a step too far. Plus, asking Edge for more space would be unfair. He’d either agree because he didn’t want to tell Stretch no, or he’d say no and feel bad about it. Nah, the set of porcelain dragons playing instruments in a rock band he’d found wasn’t that important, not if it gave Edge a case of the guilts.

Problem was, Stretch really couldn’t resist sometimes. How was he supposed to turn away a wedding painting of Yoda and Kermit the frog? Or a coffee mug with a penguin orgy on it? He couldn’t, that’s how, but his allotted space was filling up in the house proper and soon he’d started to amass quite the collection in his lab, too. It was when the overflow expanded enough to start infringing on his erlenmeyer flasks that he decided he needed a new strategy. Science waited for no one and definitely not anything with the word ‘taxidermy’ included.

That’s when Stretch came up with the plan. Okay, it wasn’t a plan, exactly, more like a flash in the pants of brief inspiration, but hell, he’d been flying by on those his entire life, why stop now?

One of the places he frequented was an antique mall, which was a fancy way of saying one rung on the ladder above actual thrift store, except they rented stalls for people to sell their stuff, so maybe it was more like a glorified garage sale. People carted in their junk for other people to buy and the cashier up front handled all the transactions. Minimal time, minimal effort, that was exactly what he and his kitsch needed, so Stretch went ahead and rented a stall of his own.

The not-exactly-a-plan worked out pretty well. He could buy something at the thrift shop and proudly display it for a while around the house, and then when it came time to replace it with a new find, he’d add it to his stall and whatever money came from it, he donated to the local kid’s charity that the Antique Mall supported. That meant he got in his kicks and joy without looking like a prequel to a Hoarders episode and Edge only had to deal with the octopus tentacle ashtray for a few weeks.

Seriously, it was a win-win all the way around.

A few things did take up permanent residence, of course; he couldn’t give up his zombie hand. But so long as it wasn’t a clown, (clowns were disposed of by Edge immediately and with great prejudice), he was allowed things like his nested Matryoshka dolls of Nicolas Cages for a time.

About once a week he went down to add new things to his stall, mostly during the weekday hours when the buses were on the empty side and he could take up an extra seat with his box of additions. It wasn’t exactly a secret, Andy came along a few times to help, but he never really mentioned it to Edge. Not until today when Stretch realized he’d let things go a little too long and he had some extra boxes to haul down.

Better to take care of it while he was thinking about it, otherwise it tended to turn into an endless cycle of ‘oh, I should do that today’ and him forgetting, but aside from the extra lugging required, it was also Saturday and the bus would be loaded. Hitching a ride would be required, plus a little extra muscle, and his husband was his favorite source for both.

He found Edge in the kitchen, sitting at their temporary table with his laptop and yeah, it was Saturday, time to drag him away from whatever bullshit work he was doing. Stretch put on his best wheedling face and asked, “babe? can you give me a lift today?”

“Of course.” Edge didn’t look up, what a total waste of Stretch’s beguiling charms. His gloved fingertips were soft against the keyboard as he finished whatever he was typing before glancing up at Stretch, and maybe his schmoozing wasn’t entirely wasted; the way Edge closed the lid on his laptop spoke of a guilty conscious for working on his day off. “Where are we going?”

“downtown,” Stretch tucked his hands into his pockets and rocked on his heels. “i need to hit up my junk and disorderly shop.”

That got him a pause, “Your what?”

“heh, you’ll see.” Stretch curled a finger at Edge in a ‘come hither’ motion that his husband didn’t follow, only watched suspiciously. “c’mon, i need you to help me carry some stuff.”

“This ride is starting to sound less like transport and more like a chore.” But Edge followed him to the basement for the boxes, and, surprise surprise, his willingness to help went up a few notches from wary to eager when he figured out what Stretch was doing. Eh, couldn’t blame him. At the top of the pile was a plush frog with the top hat that played ‘hello my baby’ whenever you pushed on its foot, something Red did every single time he walked past it, plus anytime he’d felt like shortcutting in for a quick press. Time to let it damage the sanity of another family.

The boxes were tossed into the trunk of Edge’s car, frog and all, and soon they were on the road, heading downtown. Truth be told, Stretch wasn’t sure what Edge would make of the place. He tolerated thrift stores well enough, but the antique mall was a different kind of beast. An entire building of obscure collections cluttered together into eclectic displays that others were trying to barter and sell.

There were stalls filled with milk crates of old records, shelves and shelves of antique glassware and dishes. Some stalls had vintage clothing, feathery boas mixed in with disco pants and ruffled aprons. Old instruments, rusty farm equipment, strange kitchen gadgets that looked more dangerous than useful, this place had everything and then some.

Plus, the mall had a certain sort of smell, a musty, dusty scent verging on decay that settled into the sinuses and hung around for a while. Stretch thought it was the smell of a life well-lived and he kinda liked it; after years of thrifting, he associated it with finding treasures, but who knew if Edge felt the same. His tastes in smells (heh) ran more to clean and green, not old-timey funk. Could be it reminded him of shower mildew.

Whatever his opinion of the odors, Edge kept it to himself. He helped with the box carrying and checked out Stretch’s stall curiously but didn’t say much. Probably recognized the stuff on the shelves as having once been on a table or Stretch’s nightstand, until the glee wore off and it ended up gathering dust in the basement. He wandered off at some point, heading into the depths of the mall, and left Stretch to restock his meagre wares.

It took longer than he’d expected. Since he’d opened up his stall, not everything Stretch found thrifting found its way into the house proper anymore. Some of it he bought as a straight-to-video option and he was getting pretty good at finding interesting doodads at the thrifty places that might sell better here, location, location, location, that was the ticket.

Stretch always priced his junk reasonably, usually not much more than he’d paid for it. Wasn’t like he needed the money, and besides, Stretch knew himself pretty damn well, therapy did that to a guy. At the end of the day, he knew what this was really about; all an elaborate scheme to satisfy the inner packrat in his soul that struggled sometimes with giving things away.

Bartering had been built in him before he could say the word; in the Underground, he’d gotten damn good at getting deals for what he could scrounge at the dump. This was the same thing, really, just with slightly different stakes. Dinner wasn’t riding on his latest stash of dvds anymore, always a plus, and these days he could simply look at the empty shelves, content in the knowledge that his Smeagol cardboard cutout had found a new home.

Hey, therapy wasn’t the only way to work out a few kinks in your internal lines.

When the last box was emptied, Stretch wandered up to the front desk to give the lady who ran the front register his new inventory list. That was when he heard it.

There was an old piano up front with a sign on it that said, ‘Do not ‘play’ if you cannot play’. Most of the time it sat silently but someone up there was giving it a good try today. The notes were slower, with obvious hesitations as the player searched for the correct keys, but the song was one Stretch knew. Gently melancholy, a match to the cautious playing.

His curiosity piqued, Stretch wandered over to watch and he wasn’t entirely surprised to see Edge sitting on the piano bench, his attention on his hands as he slowly played. It was a tough choice between watching him play and simply listening to the song and Stretch found himself trying to do both. The uncertain skill in hands he knew so well as they coaxed the music free.

When the last note faded, a faint smattering of applause came from the different stalls around them. Stretch waited for it to end before sitting on the bench next to Edge.

Quietly, Stretch said, “i didn’t know you played.”

“I don’t,” Edge said. He smoothed a hand over the keys, not pressing down, simply touching them. “Not really. I can’t read music, but I know a song or two by rote. A friend of mine pushed me to memorize them.”

Welp, Stretch didn’t have to ask what friend, now did he. An old friend back in another world, and people weren’t replaceable even if they wore the same face. He didn’t say anything, didn’t need to; Stretch understood in a way only a few people could, and he settled a hand on Edge’s leg, squeezing his knee gently.

“that was really good,” Stretch offered, “you have a good memory, babe.”

“Some of my memories are better than others,” Edge said. The words were more contemplative than sorrowful, and he didn’t look at Stretch, only touched the back of his hand briefly with his gloved fingertips. “You tend to feature in the best ones, love.”

He reached for the keys again and started to play. The song was more confident this time, bright and cheery, with only the occasional missed note. A handful of other people drifted over, some pausing to watch and some moving on, going about their day with a song to carry them along.

Stretch only tapped his toes and listened as Edge played, more than willing to let him go on until he was ready to stop. If Edge wanted to take a brief dive into the past, then the antique mall was a place for it, where memories and times past mingled with the present.

Besides, a new memory to take home was better than any knickknack.

-fin

Note: The first song Edge was playing was 'Clair de Lune' by Debussy and the second was 'The Entertainer' by Scott Joplin. In case you were wondering. 😁

#spicyhoney #papcest #keelywolfe #underfell #underswap #underfell papyrus #underswap papyrus #by any other name

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tomoonine · 4 years

Text

[scenario] nude model!jaehyun & artist!reader

Short story: Jaehyun as a nude model for Y/N's art class, with lots of fluff?? Maybe you can also add a scene where Y/N wants to paint on Jae's back :D Up to you whether you want them in a relationship or not

☽. this society wants pining so they are not in a relationship (yet) (★ ω ★) also, heads up for profanity ahead and i kind of went overboard with this, more than i expected at least. if you enjoyed reading this, please check out more in my masterlist! requested: yes; anon word count: 1.9k words

You curse yourself for deciding to schedule this so early in the morning. You’re not ready, no not at all. The drowsiness is one thing, but there’s something certainly more pressing that’s making you feel nervous.

You aren’t even supposed to be this nervous. You’re an art major for crying out loud, you should have nothing to worry about especially since you’ve been doing all sorts of ridiculous things for assignments almost every week. Besides, you have all of your tools and paraphernalia ready in front of you. You were able to restock on some paints before they got sold out, so you’re definitely prepared. And the last time you checked the calendar, even if you mess up today, you have extra days to cram everything again. So this should be no problem at all. Not at all.

But when Jaehyun is right in front of you, sitting at the base of your bed, dressed in a bath robe and jeans... You might lose your shit. In fact, you’re in the brink of backing out because you can practically hear your own heart ringing in your ears. If you look at your palms real carefully, you can tell that your quivering hands will make it hard to paint on his back later. However, with a face as handsome as his, you have some sort of assurance that if your painting goes awry, at least his breathtaking face will be able to make up for it and consequently pull up your grades.

Just as you were about to completely take back your request for Jaehyun to be the subject of your art project, he breaks your train of thought with a long yawn. It successfully snaps you out of your trance, and you turn your head to catch a glimpse of him. Basking the morning light that peeks from your window, Jaehyun looks unbelievably ethereal. His hair is kind of tousled and his eyes are still squinting from being awake at such an ungodly hour.

It’s an endearing sight, and it makes your heart leap a bit knowing how much effort he’s putting to be your muse for today. You doubt he’d do this for just about anyone considering that he’s a sought-out piece of ethereal beauty from the Management department. Still, it’s a far-fetched idea to think that he’d be doing so much just for you. You’ve done a lot of favors for Jaehyun so it’s rightful for him to be here when you need him. You’re friends after all.

“And friends help each other out...” You sigh to yourself, picking up the palette and paint tubes from the table top with one hand. Adjacent to those things, you grab the paintbrushes with your free hand and approach the man. He suddenly sits up alert at the sound of your footsteps, and Jaehyun is quick to grab his phone. “You need music, (Y/N)?”

“Yes, please.” You laugh, settling beside him and carefully putting down your things on the bed. “Do you have anything appropriate to play before I fuck up your entire back?”

“Nonsense.” Jaehyun rolls his eyes, unlocking his phone and scrolling away. “You’re good at painting. I’m just going to sit down here and let your magic hands do the work. And by the time you’re done, there’s going to be a beautiful something on my back and it will give you the best grade in the entire Art Department.”

“Your face is the one that’s going to save me from failing this project.” You scowl at him, and all he does is pinch your nose to get rid of the disdain on your face. Jaehyun grins at you, even after you smack his hand away from your face. “Your art will make me more beautiful than I already am. Now what was I supposed to do again?”

“Oh, right.” You mumble, fishing out for the make-up kit he handed to you a while ago. “To save time, I was hoping you could apply some of your base make-up while I work on your back. I’m going for something nature inspired, so if you can, I’d like it to be as natural as possible.”

“Gotcha.” He nods, taking the pouch off your hands to grab the foundation. “Anything else?”

“Music. Good music. One that fits the vibe and isn’t something by Taylor Swift.”

Jaehyun gasps and gives you a dirty look. “What’s wrong with Folklore?”

“Her music is good, but can’t we listen to something else?” You groan, as you ready the paint tubes. “I don’t want to be sad. Don’t you have anything chill that won’t make any of us come out of this room in tears?”

“Fine. How about... Zion.T?”

“Now you’re talking!” You quip, twisting the cap of the last paint tube close. You pick up the palette and the biggest paintbrush in your collection. “Ready, Valentine Boy?” You tease him, and Jaehyun scoffs in reply. He avoids your eyes as he fiddles with the strings strapped across his body. “This is really weird. Taking this off in front of you.”

“Why would it be? We’ve gone swimming already, as children and as college students.”

“You know this is different...”

Your eyes don’t move away from Jaehyun’s figure, although his head is still turned away from you. You notice that he started bouncing his leg anxiously, so you shift around the bed to turn away. “I’ll look away. Just tell me when you’re ready.” Jaehyun doesn’t reply, but by the sound of the bed creaking every few times you can tell that he started to take off the robe. The silence while you’re turned away feels unbearable, because now your heart is beating even stronger than earlier. It beats in time with the music that leaves Jaehyun’s phone, and the birds outside your window sound as if they’re singing along. You shut your eyes, taking in everything you hear to at least calm yourself down from what is to come.

“You can turn around now.” His voice sounds so pleasingly mellow despite the hoarseness from waking up this early. The sound just goes straight down to the pit of your stomach and you try to fight off the goosebumps crawling on your skin. When you finally turn around to face Jaehyun, you’re greeted by his broad back. It’s such a beautiful view, such a serene atmosphere when the music flows just in time with the moment you faced him. The sun is shining on his skin, making him look like he’s glowing under the morning light. Jaehyun has his head hanging low, his hands busy digging through the make-up pouch. As he searches, his back muscles constantly flex and relax, gracing you with a harmonious tandem of lines appearing and disappearing across the expanse of his back.

It irritates you that you have to mask it all in layers of paint. It irritates that he’s so effortlessly beautiful that you honestly don’t even need to paint him to make him look handsome. Despite all these, you can’t deny that you’re feeling privileged to be the one to be touching him so... intimately. It’s unbelievable, but as you mentioned, you’ve done a lot of favors for Jaehyun so it’s rightful for him to be here when you need him. You’re friends after all.

But do friends go this far to help each other out?

You desperately shake the thought away, remembering that if you keep on staring at him you’re going to be missing the most opportune time to take pictures in the garden. Carefully, you pick up your paintbrush and dip it in the paint. “I’ll start painting now, Jae.” You mumble, and slowly, your fingers bring the brush just below his shoulder blade. At the first stroke, Jaehyun shudders at the contact. But he recovers quickly, and he does as he’s told. Both of you work in silence after that, with you painting his back diligently and with Jaehyun applying base make-up on his face.

Sometimes he’d ask questions out of curiosity, and you’d answer him to the best of your abilities. While you carefully applied the details on his back, you would explain the concept of this project. Then after that, you’d talk about how annoying your professor was and Jaehyun would try to supress a chuckle so that he wouldn’t ruin your work. It doesn’t even occur to you that you were practically done with his entire backside since you’ve been talking to him all this time. You lean back to admire the vines and leaves that decorate his back, a smile finding its way to your lips.

“Are you ready for me to work on your face?” You ask as you crane your neck and back around to release the tension that accumulated around the joints. Jaehyun lets out a grunt in response, and he quickly turns around to face you. It’s even harder to keep a steady face when he’s looking at you eye-to-eye, but you have to be professional about this. Even Jaehyun can’t seem to keep his eyes on you, because as you reach out to brush his hair away from his eye, you see him chew on his lip and divert his eyes toward the closest window.

“What do you plan on doing?” Jaehyun whispers, just as you move closer to inspect his face. “Nothing too... extravagant.” You mumble back, reaching out for your paintbrush again. “I’ll paint only one side of your face up to the ear so it’s easier to wash off.” Both of you look at each other briefly, and looking at him up close like this feels so... oddly relaxing. But you snap out of your trance immediately, turning your head away from his gaze to check the side of his face. “How much make-up did you put?” You ask instead, gently reaching out for his chin to move his head around. “I actually like how you did the ears, didn’t expect you to put some tint on your ears but it fits the nature concept really well...”

“Oh.” He gulps. “I... I didn’t do anything with my ears. This is just...”

“Oh.”

You sit in silence, trying to find some way to remedy the awkwardness exuding around. Even if you try to look at Jaehyun, he won’t even look at you back. His ears have turned to a darker shade of red and his cheeks are starting to tint up. And if you try to look anywhere else, your eyes end up trailing low without even thinking. Your nails dig into the wood of your paintbrush, and you chew your lip in contemplation. Jaehyun, this time, takes initiative to break the silence by calling out your name. “(Y/N).” He says. “I’m ready.”

You nod wordlessly, finally reaching for your palette to begin painting again. At this point, you honestly thought you were going to be more confident in yourself. But as soon as the back of your hand brushes against his cheek, you accidentally let a squeak. Jaehyun cracks a smile and chuckles at you, and this time, the redness starts to paint across your cheeks and ears.

Both of you look like a reflection of each other, just as your heartbeats beat in tandem under the morning light. It all feels raw, it feels so genuine, and nothing can mask the bubble that threatens to burst when you see Jaehyun like this. Seeing him like this, so intimate, so domestic, you’d give anything to see this everyday. Not just as a friend, but as something more than that; and it’s a scenario you can clearly paint in your mind.

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nsheetee · 4 years

Text

vanilla latte | renjun

pairing: art student!renjun x barista!reader genre: coffee shop au | fluff summary: renjun finally finds his muse: a little coffee shop on campus. he thinks the building itself is what’s propelling his hand to finish all of his art assignments, but when you’re not the barista serving him when he walks in one night, he realizes that may not be the case...

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this is part of the moonlight cafe series — please read the preface before continuing reading

he has a sketchpad clutched to his chest, earphones in his ears, and bags under his eyes as he curiously checks out the store

the small, silver bell above the door jingles as he closes it, and to renjun it sounds like magic sprinkling down over him as he walks in

there aren’t many people in the coffee shop, some stragglers who are too busy with their work to notice him

and that’s the way renjun likes it

renjun hates his dorm room

he hates how loud his roommates play games into all hours of the night

it clutters his mind and makes working on his art hard

tonight, he was absolutely done with his shouting roommates and decided to pack his things and head out of the dorm

renjun had no idea where he would go

the library is already closed, and it’s not like any of his friends would be up at this time to let him come over

just as he starts mindlessly walking out of his dorm building, he notices a cafe further down the block

an open sign hangs on the door, and it’s enough to draw him in

you wait patiently while your new customer makes his way to the counter, mouth slowing dropping in awe as he takes in the ambience of the shop

you don’t blame him, the cafe has a certain aesthetic that everyone loves to hang out in during the day

and at night, it’s even more pleasing to the eye

the big windows that cover the front of the store let in the moonlight and the street lights from the park

the dark hardwood floors makes the open room feel less like a store and more like you’re at home

the far wall is made completely of red brick with some fairy lights attached across the top

“how can I help you?” you ask him when he comes close enough, finally making eye contact

he’s stunned for a minute as he looks at you, fingers fumbling to take out his headphones as he begins to speak

“oh. uh, can I get a medium vanilla latte?” he asks, his voice sounding as if he was lost his whole life, and just found himself when he walked through the doors

“sure-” before you can ask if he wanted any extra shots of espresso, he sits down, spreading out his drawing materials, and getting straight to work

you can’t help but peer at him from your spot at the espresso machine

he’s beautiful- you find him absolutely captivating

his brown hair is long and it grows more in the back, giving him a faux mullet

(you would never in your life think you could be attracted to a mullet, but here you are)

more than his appearance, you find his concentration on his sketchpad and the furrow of his eyebrows to be attractive

he looks so intense as he works, but you can tell he’s not stressed

renjun’s hand moves faster than ever before

and he realizes he just found his muse, his new inspiration:

this cafe

you set his vanilla latte down in front of him, careful to not put his drawings in harms way

“thank you...” he barely mumbles to you, still focused on his artwork

the young artist comes in the next night, and the night after that, and every weekend that you work

he always orders a vanilla latte, sits down at the counter, and draws until you’re sure his wrists hurt and his eyes ache

despite him sitting in front of you for several hours every night, you don’t know his name, and you haven’t talked much or seen any of his drawings

honestly, you’re too shy to ask him

maybe he doesn't want to show you what he has been working on?

renjun doesn’t remember the last time he was this energized and inspired

his hand moves faster than his eyes, his heart rate increasing every time his mind wanders out of him and into the cafe

every time he finishes his assignments, he reaches for his sketchpad and lets his muse drive his art

every time he cranes his neck up, his eyes immediately come into contact with the beautiful cafe

the way you effortlessly move around your side of the counter while making drinks, the backdrop of the multitude of paintings behind you as if you’re dancing on your own masterpiece

the way you smile at all the customers, no matter what time of night it is or how many extra shots they order, the soft yellow lighting of the shop shining down perfectly into every crevice of the store

renjun is so entranced by this coffee shop, he wonders how he didn’t find this place earlier

one wednesday night, renjun feels particularly stuffed by his small dorm room and decides to head to the cafe to clear out his clogged brain

when renjun walks into his favorite cafe, he immediately feels that something is not right

at the cash register, he’s greeted by an older man with a gaze so piercing that renjun is a bit hesitant to sit at the counter

“hello, what can I get you?” the man asks

“uh, a vanilla latte, please?”

all of a sudden, renjun realizes why the cafe looks so different

it’s because you’re not here

there’s something weird about not seeing the same barista that usually resides on the other side of the counter

renjun isn’t sure what this foreign feeling is that’s filling his chest

it’s something akin to the feeling of coming home and the place not looking familiar because of new furniture, or looking at yourself in the mirror for the first time after getting a major haircut

“can I ask you a question?” renjun reaches out for his coffee as the barista slides it to him on the counter, renjun notices his name is taeyong

“sure.”

“where is the barista that usually works here at night?”

“are you talking about our new barista? well, she only works friday, saturday, and sunday nights. why? is there a problem?”

renjun shakes his head absentmindedly and taeyong nods quizzically before going back to the cash register where another customer is waiting

renjun opens his sketchbook that he set down on the counter earlier, preparing his pencils and pens, gripping one and staring down at the paper

and staring....

and only staring

renjun waits for his hand to move by itself like it did all the other times he has sat in this exact same chair

he looks up in front of him, and frowns deeper when he sees taeyong sweeping the floor, and not you

he glances around the coffee shop, waiting for inspiration to hit him like a truck and send his hand flying across the paper

but it never happens

renjun becomes frustrated; why won’t this cafe all of the sudden not work its usual charm?

is it because it’s a wednesday night?

is it because there’s more people here than usual?

is it because you’re not on the other side of the counter, sending him your small smile when you hand him his coffee?

oh...

how could renjun be so dense?

he drops his pencil, picking up his sketchbook instead and flipping through the last several pages

the backdrop of the cafe is in all of them

and so are you

your figure repeatedly shows up in all of renjun’s drawings, and when he looks at the portrait of a person he’s been picturing in his mind for weeks, he realizes it looks like you

his head is dizzy with this new discovery

renjun cringes, yet blushes, at the thought of telling you you’re his muse

it’s such an intimate and romantic confession; he finds you so beautiful to draw pages and pages and pages of drawings of you

the next time he comes into the cafe, it’s a friday night

the place is swamped, you have your hair up in a messy bun and your cheeks blushed red from the exertion of moving around so much

renjun’s hand itches to grab his favorite pen and draw this moment into his sketchbook, but he forces himself to sit and watch you, hoping you don’t notice him gawking over your form

once the rush is over, renjun adds shading to the portrait of you as he finally orders his vanilla latte

he didn’t want to add to your hectic rush, so he waited until it looked like you calmed down and restocked a bit

he glances at you through his eyelashes, resting a hand on his cheek to be able to comfortably glance between you and his art

you set his cup down next to him, sending him that smile that he’s so familiar with

until you glance down at his sketchpad

although the sketch appears upside down to you, you can make out your features adorning the person on the page

the young artist hides his face from you, but doesn’t move to cover his artwork

you glance around the cafe; the number of people have dwindled down and the ones who remain don’t focus on what’s happening up at the counter

biting your lip, you walk out of your side of the counter and sit down next to the boy that has been occupying your mind (and counter space) every night you’ve worked for the past few weeks

renjun is surprised when you take a seat next to him, and looks up at you with slight fear and wonderment

“hi, I'm y/n.”

“I'm renjun.” he mentally pats himself on the back for not stuttering, but when you raise your hand to shake his, his gulps and his mind goes blank

your hand is soft, and even though you have espresso under your nails, they’re still the prettiest hands he has ever seen

“I thought that if you’re going to draw me, you might want to see me in a better light.” you give your weak explanation, and renjun laughs

“sorry, this might be weird for you, but every time I see you I just want to... draw.” renjun tries to explain the feeling of being inspired by you, but you shake your head

“you don’t have to explain. just draw, and I'll sit here for you.”

and renjun does

he draws until his wrists ache and he’s sure he’s memorized every mole, imperfection, and scar on your face

he draws until he has memorized the amount of eyelashes you have and how many stars sparkle in your eyes

and when renjun goes back to his dorm that night, he realizes it’s not enough

he comes back every night you work, draws into the oblivion until he’s sure he has run out of energy

and then he draws some more

taeyong saw renjun’s artwork of the cafe one night and bought all the artwork from him to hang up in the store

eventually, his drawings end up on the red brick wall, snuggly tucked into wooden frames and illuminated by the fairy lights

and in the top right corner of the wall hangs the portrait of you

it’s the only drawing without a frame, and the only one that renjun didn’t receive money for

he even pined it up to the wall himself, wanting to keep you in the cafe in some type of way as a reminder of this place and you, his muse

#renjun #nct renjun #renjun fluff #nct dream fluff #neowritingsnet #nct bulleted au #nct dream renjun #renjun imagines #renjun scenarios #renjun bulleted au #nct imagine #nct scenario #nct dream au #nct dream imagines #nct dream scenarios #nct dream bulleted au #renjun x reader

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oneoftheextras · 4 years

Text

Colour Changer | two

masterlist | tip jar

warnings: +18, jealousy, verbal fighting, alcohol, angst & bit o’ drama (also endeavour if that needs to be put as a warning)

word count: 4.4k

part 1 | part 2 |

Things were good with Keigo for a while, when you both had a day off of work you would spend hours watching movies and doing all the couplely things that you would roll your eyes to.

That was before he stopped turning up to your dates, before he stopped sitting at the bar during your shifts to help them go by quicker, and before he no longer replied to your texts.

It had been 3 weeks since you heard from him, his last response to you was “Yeah” and nothing else. You had called and text him multiple times since, but he stopped reading them in the first week.

It was exactly 3 days ago when you sent him one last text asking if you were over and he hadn’t responded - you could only take that as a ‘yes’.

The thought of something happening to him during a patrol crossed your mind, but you’d seen through social media and the news that he’d been going out to parties and had been seen recently. There was no excuse you could have given him, he was ignoring you.

Trying to savour the last of your pride, you blocked his number. You weren’t interested in anything he had to say.

At least you still had your job. You’d actually picked up more shifts at the bar since your ‘break up’ to try and keep yourself busy, there was something about spending time alone in your apartment that reminded you of him.

It hurt, you weren’t going to lie to yourself, it probably hurt more than it should have done. But this was the first time you had let down your guard for someone, and this was how they treated you.

You tried not to think about it.

It was your 9th consecutive shift at the bar and some of your regulars had started to notice that you were working more than normal, as well as your boss.

“You working more shift’s has actually improved our business, a lot of the customers are showing up more just because you’re here more often” they had said before the start of your shift, then they proceeded to slide your pay check across the table to you.

When you opened it up and saw that your pay rate had increased, you opened your mouth to ask if there was a mistake, you didn’t want them on your ass about it later down the line.

“You earned it” they said, giving you a pat on the back as they left the bar in your hands. It was a Thursday night, so you were in charge of a small team, mainly first year college kids trying to pay rent.

This shift was going on as normally as any other, when 10pm struck the normal crew of Heroes strolled in, probably wanting to relax from their hard day of patrols and fighting.

“Endeavour, you’re looking as happy as ever” you joked with the man sitting at the bar, he grumbled slightly as you instinctively started making his usual. “What’s got you looking extra gloomy today?” you asked him, just wanting some conversation out of someone over the age of 18.

“Paperwork” he mumbled before taking the freshly made drink from your hands and knocking it back, apparently it had really been a bad day. “Oh, ew” you tried to sympathise with him, “We’ve got this whole charity Gala coming up soon and for some reason it’s fallen on me to organise it” by the time he had finished explaining he had finished his drink.

Almost like a conveyer belt, as soon as the glass touched the counter, you had already scooped it up and started giving him a refill. “Actually that reminds me-” he said, wiping away the residue of alcohol that had fallen onto his beard “-are you free this Saturday?” he made eye contact with you, something Endeavour rarely did. You felt a chill go down your spine.

Mentally going through your calendar, you remembered your boss forcing you to take the weekend off, something about labour law and you not being legally allowed to work that many days.

“I might be” you side eyed him as you put his second drink down, “Why? Are you trying to get me alone?” you casually raised an eyebrow at him, it had been so long since you had flirt with anyone, the feeling was strange but not so completely alien to you.

To your surprise, a deep chuckle and a slight smile came out of him, “Someone else has organised the catering and they’re insisting they bring their own bartender”, as soon as he said the last word you knew where this was going, “I don’t trust them, I’d rather have someone I know is capable” he never broke eye contact with you.

Immediately you were trying to think of an excuse to say no, you wished you had said you were working “I-” you started but was interrupted “Hawks will be there-” now it was your turn to interrupt him by groaning “Please don’t talk to me about him” you rolled your eyes.

Honestly, it was the first time you had heard his name since everything, “I thought you guys had a thing going on?” Endeavour asked, yet again, finishing his drink - you had no idea where he put all that alcohol. “Yeah, well, so did I. Until he ghosted me” you weren’t exactly sure why you were being so open with the number one Hero, but here you were.

“I’m sorry” he sounded as though he actually meant it, if you weren’t already looking at him, you would have doubted it left his mouth. “I still need someone, and with you I’d know the event was going to be a success, I’ll pay you more than you get here” his tone was still soft, as though he was walking on glass, but he knew what he wanted.

Poking your tongue out between your lips to wet them before you spoke, you feigned cockiness “Actually, I just got a raise, apparently people come here to see me”, before you had even finished your sentence, he had raised an eyebrow as though you were insulting him.

“Whatever they’re paying you, I’ll double it” straightened his back as though now that he was talking business the niceties were gone. “Double a shift’s wage? That’s not worth-“ he cut you off, “Double your yearly, for one night” he folded his arms.

If you had been drinking something, you’d have spat it out, but instead your eyes flickered in disbelief and your mouth parted slightly.

Smirking, knowing he’d basically won you over already, he wrote down the details on a napkin and handed it to you along with 50 thousand Yen - before you could question it, he spoke up “It’s a black suit event so get something nice for yourself”.

He didn’t wait for confirmation before changing the subject, at least he kept you company for the rest of the night.

You’d taken Endeavour’s advice and went shopping for a new black dress for the Gala, you had to at least look the part even if you didn’t want to be there. The dress you decided on was tight and hugged you in all the right places, it was very flattering, you had debated on whether or not to go for a nice dress, but you didn’t want to waste the money he’d given you.

Before you could really prepare yourself, you were setting up your space in the huge Gala hall. You’d turned up early so you could add some finishing touches to your bar before all the Heroes started turning up, you’d be more efficient if you knew where every type of alcohol was.

You’d taken the liberty of bringing some of the cocktail shakers from your work so you were familiar with the tools, but they had already supplied you with enough for a small team. Although, when the clock rolled around to 10 minutes before the Heroes were supposed to turn up, there was no sign of any other bartenders.

If Endeavour had hired you and only you, he was going to get an earful, Number One Hero or not.

That was exactly what he had done.

At first you slightly panicked, wondering how the hell you were going to manage so many orders all at once, but there were about 30 Champagne Waitresses making their rounds on the floor that kept everyone away from you.

Not to say that you weren’t extremely busy, but you were able to serve the Heroes fast enough that you were able to put on a bit of a performance, doing your normal tricks of tapping the cocktail shaker and changing the liquid contents as it was being poured into people’s glasses.

Like normal, the onlookers were amazed.

It still befuddled you that in a world of crime-fighting Heroes, someone who could change colours was something to gape at. Your quirk was more for show than practicality really.

When the majority had some type of alcoholic drink in their hand, the speeches started, everyone had stopped what they were doing to listen to the grey haired man talk about the charity that this whole thing was for and give a list of thank you’s that seemed to go on forever.

Meanwhile, you decided to utilise this time to clean down your bar and restock some of the empty bottles, you weren’t quite sure what was going on with Gang Orca but he’d nearly finished a whole bottle of vodka by himself so you were keeping an eye on him. He seemed completely fine with no sign of intoxication, maybe his huge form was absorbing the alcohol.

You were sure as soon as this presentation had finished you were going to be swamped, even you were feeling the need for a drink, and oh boy were you right.

The moment the dim lights were brought back up and the music was turned back on there wasn’t a single space by the bar that wasn’t full. You expected people to start getting impatient because they were having to wait for their drinks, but strangely they were more than happy to wait and chat to you and each other, the amount of tips you were getting tonight would be enough to pay your rent for 2 months.

After the swarm of people were served and you had a second to breathe, you froze, golden eyes staring awkwardly at you “Shot of tequila” he bluntly said, he didn’t even have the manners to ask like everyone else was. You gave him a similarly cold response by just nodding and putting the shot glass on the metal surface with a little bit too much force and pouring the golden liquid into it, you also gave him a wedge of lime and gave him the salt shaker.

Without saying anything, he handed you the money and took his shot. You both seemed to breathe a breath of relief when the Number One Hero parted the line of people and approached the bar, you smiled maybe too much upon seeing him.

“Endeavour!” Hawks exclaimed when he saw his partner, “Have a shot with me!” he continued and you instinctively started preparing his normal tumbler of whiskey. Enji grumbled at the young heroes request, you would have died on the spot if you saw Endeavour do a shot.

After placing the his empty glass on the wood in front of him, you quickly washed your hands in the miniature sink the event space had provided you, dried them on your small towel, and scooped up three cubes of ice.

Both men looked at you with intent, you had served them enough for them to know this wasn’t your normal routine.

You allowed one cold cube to run down your palm and to the tip of your fingers, the second before it left your touch, you turned the white object into a gorgeous red. Uncurling your pinkie and ring-finger, you let the other two pieces do the same thing - changing the second one to orange and then the last one to yellow.

A small crowd of a few customers were ogling at what you were doing as though they had never seen it before, or it may have been because someone was paying attention to the Number One Hero despite everyone’s fear of him.

It was nice to see him smiling, but it was even better to see the faint grimace on Keigo’s face. Good, you thought. After the way he treated you, you wanted him to know what he was missing.

Endeavour reached out for the glass but before he could grab hold of it you slapped his hand playfully, you heard a few faint gasps in the miniature crowd that had formed, and a couple of terrified glances towards the Pro Hero on your behalf.

“Be patient” you smirked at him, you had to admit it to yourself, you were being very brave. You barely knew this man apart from his drink order, being so informal with him was a huge risk as you didn’t know how he would react.

He chuckled at your coyness, and your heart relaxed.

Cupping your hand in front of his face, you poured his favourite whiskey into your hand and let it run through your fingers, you held the bottle high enough so people could see the dark brown liquid flowing out of the nozzle and then quickly drizzle out between your fingers as a golden-yellow with bright red swirls.

Once you had poured the right amount into the glass, you pushed the tumbler towards him and washed the remaining alcohol off your hand before it became sticky.

“I’m surprised he let her do that” someone mumbled a little bit too loudly, then another voice piped up “It’s not very hygienic”. Endeavour was happily sipping at his drink while Keigo was doing his best not to make eye contact with you still, this was too good of an opportunity to give up, so you mustered up all your courage and said in the most confident tone you could “It’s okay, he knows where my hands have been”.

If you weren’t mistaken, everyone inhaled sharply at the exact same time, all but Enji who side-eyed Keigo and then put his eyes back on you with a knowing glint - something told you that he knew what you were trying to do and understood his role. Maybe your hands would stop shaking sometime soon now that you knew he was going along with it.

“Thank you for the dress by the way” you added, gently placing your hand on his arm for a second before going back to serving the line of customers you had, you felt as though there was enough of an audience to make your point, “It fits you nicely” was all he added, it was more of a response than you were expecting.

Deciding it was probably best to not push your luck too much with the flame hero, you turned your attention to the multiple pairs of eyes looking at you “What do you guys think?” doing a little twirl with what little space you had, of course the chorus of men erupted into whoops and cheers- you think you even heard Present Mic yelling “Hot” from one of the other stands.

Satisfied with the scene you had caused, you went back to pouring drinks, using all sorts of tricks you’d never been able to do before. You changed the whole bar to whatever colour the current customer wanted, even going as far as to change your own hair colour to gain praise from them.

Honestly, you were starting to feel like your old self again, that was until you saw something small and red weave it’s way through the different pumps and towards you.

Slamming your hand down on the bar and hard as you could, you crushed the delicate feather under your force, “If I see another feather come across this line-“ you drew and invisible line across the wood with your finger “-I’ll cut you off” you said bluntly, throwing the feather back towards it’s owner.

He opened his mouth to say something but you interrupted him, “Do you want to get thrown out?”, he chuckled to himself slightly and shook his head “Like you could” his tone was playful yet arrogant, “I don’t have to” you put the emphasis on ‘I’ and shifted your gaze toward Enji who had coincidentally caught your eye, he very lightly smiled at you and gave a small gesture that you assumed was a wave.

That was the last straw, Keigo’s tone shifted and he stormed away from the bar, the entire night passed and you didn’t see him again. A part of you was glad, you didn’t have to keep looking over your shoulder, but that pit in your stomach was back, and just as you had started to feel better.

On the plus side, you didn’t have to clean and close the bar, the venue had hired some cleaners to take care of all the mess after everyone was done. Thank God.

The walk home was quiet and lonely, it was about 3am and most people had gone to sleep hours ago, so the ominous hum of streetlights really put you on edge- that, and that nervous feeling of being watched.

You tried to hurry along the uneven ground as quickly as you could, not wanting to tempt fate too much; how ironic would it have been? To be attacked by a Villain after spending an evening with Heroes.

A gust of wind blew your hair into your face and blocked your vision entirely for a few seconds, it was quickly followed by a force connecting with your back and then wrapping around your front.

You felt your feet leave the ground and the harsh whistle of wind rushing past your ears deafened you - your senses were blocked off. The wind was too loud to hear, and your hair acted like a self-inflicted blindfold, you were so disorientated that you thought you were going to be sick.

When your feet finally touched solid ground and the force holding you ease up, you stumbled forwards and fell to your knees, hands spread out in front of you. “What’s going on with you and Endeavour?” you heard a familiar voice say from behind you, you could not believe this.

“What?!” you exclaimed, aggressively turning yourself so you were now half laid down on the floor, you saw Hawk’s standing in front of his open window with the moonlight shining behind him casting a silhouette. “You kidnapped me to ask me about Endeavour?” you vocalised how ridiculous the situation was.

Hawk’s folded his arms in frustration, “You seemed pretty cosy with him earlier” he said bluntly, “So what if I was?” you bit back, your emotions were high and you didn’t know which voice to listen to - you were pissed off beyond your control, hurt and mildly frightened.

You knew Hawk’s wouldn’t hurt you, but the amount of hate in his eyes made you question him for a moment.

“Is that how it is? You moved on from to my partner?” he sounded disgusted with you and to be completely honest you were glad, he had hurt you so much in such a short amount of time it felt as though he was getting what he deserved.

“What do you care?” you snarled at him and turned your head away, not wanting to look at him. “What do I-?” he started but interrupted himself by rubbing his hand down his face. “Of course I care!” he extended his arms towards you as you dragged yourself up off the floor and brushed the flakes of dust and dirt off your new dress.

“If you cared about me you wouldn’t have left” you mumbled to yourself, not intending for him to hear but it seems regardless of whether or not he heard, he wanted you to say it again “What did you say?!” he raised his voice, to match his aggression you raised your voice louder “If you cared about me you wouldn’t have left!”.

There was silence for a moment, no words, just the sound of heavy breathing as you both decided whether or not it was worth carrying on this subject.

“Take me home” you gave up, exasperated at the situation. All you had wanted for the last couple of weeks was to hear from Keigo, and for him to tell you that you were still together, but now that you were actually in front of him, you wanted nothing more than to disappear.

He took a few steps towards you, “No-” he forced the air out of his throat like a bullet coming out of a gun, “-Not until you admit it” he continued, his hostile tone never wavering. “Admit what?” you laughed dryly, “Are you fucking Endeavour?” he asked bluntly and your jaw almost hit the floor.

“Not that it’s any of your business, but no I’m not” you answered him honestly, folding your own arms and glancing around towards the front door, if he wouldn’t take you home you would have to take yourself.

“How is it none of my business?” he snapped at you, “Because you left me!” you shouted over the top of him before he managed to finish his sentence, “I gave you every part of me and you couldn’t even be bothered to send a goodbye text” you finally let out what you felt like you had been holding onto for your whole life.

Taking a deep breath in and then with a sharp exhale you said, in a calmer tone “I’m leaving”, without giving him the option to respond you marched your way towards the apartment door.

Before you could take hold of the handle you felt your shoulder being pulled around and your body being pushed against the door, the next thing you saw were two golden eyes staring back at you .

“Let me go” you said through gritted teeth, “Not until you’ve listened to me” he was talking in a hushed voice as though all the anger and upset had left him in that instant, “I don’t want to-” you started but it was his turn to interrupt you, “You have no idea how dangerous my job is, the type of people I’m working with-” he stopped mid-sentence to glance around the room as though he was being watched.

“I was there every night, I watched you walk home from work to make sure you were okay” his voice was starting to crack and you could see water starting to well up in his bottom eye lid, “I missed you so much, but I had to keep you safe”.

Watching him come undone in front of you, you felt a pit fall in your stomach as extreme guilt flushed over you.

Your body moved without you asking it to and before you knew it your hands were wrapped in his hair and your lips were against his.

The kiss started as soft and gentle, but as soon as the shock had left his system he cupped your face in his hand and started kissing you as though it was the last time.

Things got heated very quickly, Keigo pushed the hem of your dress up until it was bunched up at your waist and wasted no time shuffling your underwear down for you to step out of.

Unbuckling his belt like he wouldn’t live to see tomorrow, he let his jeans fall to the floor as he picked you up by your thighs and pushed you further into the door. His kisses became more erratic as he lowered you onto his cock.

The euphoria you both felt as the familiar sensation of him filling you again flooded to your brain, you gripped his shoulders tighter to try and stay stable. Instantly he started moving his hips, dragging himself in and out of you at a rapid pace.

The apartment was filled with a mixture of Keigo’s grunts, your moans and the door sounding as though it was on the brink of death. “I missed you so much” he mumbled against your neck as he dug his fingers into your bare thighs, his thrusts were ruthless and you could feel that you were getting close to your orgasm.

“I missed you too” you managed to breath out in between moans. You could feel the friction of your back rubbing against his door and you knew you would be waking up with a bruise. But you didn’t care.

Before either of you could say anything else you felt your walls clench down around him, emphasising every muscle and vein in his member, Ah, fuck” he growled, pushing himself even further into you as you let him pound you through your orgasm.

He grunted a couple of times and his mouth hung open, he moved one of his hands to hold your shoulder down as the pressure of his chest against yours held you in place. “I love you” he confessed, locking eyes with you, you were still panting from your own high so you weren’t able to respond, “I lo-” he started to say before he snapped his hips against yours and you felt him cum inside of you.

Flopping his head forward so your foreheads were touching, neither of you moved to allow the moment to last as long as it could- neither of you wanting your bubble of bliss to be popped.

“I mean it” he barely even whispered as he pulled his head away so he could look you in the eye, “I do love you” he repeated himself. Your heart leapt, your relationship hadn’t gone on long enough for either of you to have said the ‘L’ word yet.

But being away from him these last couple of weeks solidified how you truly felt, “I love you too” you smiled at him as he kissed your forehead.

Taglist:

@mylife-demonstrates-murphys-law @hereticpriest @enagmaticether @anxiousgoddest @kodzu-ken @moonnei @diesinspanishbcimhispanic

#hawks x reader #keigo takami #keigo takami x reader #colour changer #oneoftheextras

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naitiaclo960writings · 4 years

Text

Day 5 - Daydream

Castiel sighed for what seemed to be the hundredth time since he got back from his break. Don’t get him wrong, he loved that part-time librarian job he got on the campus of his university. Mainly because it helped him earn a little extra money, but also because this work pushed him to meet a whole bunch of different people in an environment that he liked.

If one had to stick to the classical patterns of students, Castiel certainly belonged to the nerds club. He was rather reserved and always immersed in a book, in his revisions or, why not, absorbed by a game on his phone. Fortunately, Castiel did not wear glasses and did not know how to recite all the decimals of Pi to perfectly fit the cliché, otherwise, he was convinced that he would have far fewer friends than now. That was the sad reality around here…

However, he continued to be greedy for new encounters, convinced that each person possessed a unique beauty that he longed to discover. All this, however, contrasted with his unrecoverable shyness, prompting him to babble in situations where he was under social pressure. Thus, this work was perfect for him: he did not have to go to others, it was the whole university that came to him. Some came to renew their student cards, others came to borrow books or ask for advice on their homework and the rest just liked to go to the library to have a quiet place to indulge in their extracurricular activities.

To top it all off, his work did not require too much effort. Castiel was mainly in charge of restocking, setting up new books and welcoming students. As a result, he had enough free time to get bored and start imagining the life of every person passing the threshold of the library. Austin Southwest Institute of Technology was not particularly large, but it had enough students for Castiel to have not yet managed to learn all the faces yet.

There was one person, however, whom he found himself waiting for impatiently every day. It was obviously irrational, this boy did not pay him any particular attention, only making small talks a few minutes before leaving to sit in a corner of the library with a headset shouting classic rock in the ears for hours. But whatever the nature of their exchange, Castiel was dying to see even the hint of a smile addressed to him on the wonderful face of Dean Winchester.

Castiel sighed with spite. Damn it, he was ridiculous. He was no better than those starry-eyed girls drooling in front of the school jocks.

…Was Dean a sportsperson by the way? It was clear that he looked pretty muscular under his over-sized shirts. One day when it was particularly hot outside, Castiel even had the privilege of seeing him in a t-shirt, his muscular arms exposed to the sun filtering through the windows and… Okay, Dean was definitely athletic. In fact, Dean seemed perfect in every way, which was embarrassing because he knew very little about the dude…

The first time he had met him—if you could call it a meeting—was three months earlier, at the start of the school year, when Dean came to ask for his library card. That smile in his voice had been immediately communicative and Castiel had stuttered like an idiot after each of his jokes. He was still blushing when he thought about it…

Talking about a crush might not be too much in this case, but Castiel felt so helpless in the face of this situation. If he’d been a little braver, he’d have asked Dean on a date a long time ago. Instead, he spent his days hoping to see him at the corner of a shelf and daydreaming about a potential early relationship with him, even if it was a friendly one.

Still, Castiel was sure that being friends with Dean wasn’t complicated. He always seemed cheerful and friendly, never out of conversation and above all, very devoted to others. Sometimes he would lean on Castiel’s desk to talk for at least fifteen minutes, talking about everything really until another student complained that he was making too much noise. These were undoubtedly the days Castiel preferred. Although Dean was very inconspicuous and attracted a lot of glares when he laughed at Castiel’s jokes — although he did not see why his words were funny —, Castiel could not bring himself to gently call him to order. His laughter was too captivating for that.

"Cassie?" A voice suddenly echoed behind Castiel.

This one was taken away from his delusions and turned around. Balthazar, another two-year-older student also working at the library, appeared and saw the absent look on his colleague’s face.

"Okay…" Balthazar sighed. "I’m not going to ask you what you were thinking about because the conversation is going to revolve around that Winchester boy and annoy me again. So…” He turned around to point to a wagon, ignoring Castiel’s jaded pout. "We received this week’s order. It’s your turn to put them in the shelves.

"It’s always my turn to put them in the shelves." Castiel deplored, moving towards the wagon, while rolling his eyes.

"Yeah, yeah. Don’t forget those on the reserve either." Balthazar gave him a mocking smile before coming to take his place at the reception, taking out his phone without any more consideration.

Castiel shrugged and set to work. Among the shelves, it was more difficult to have a view of the entrance to the library and therefore of Dean’s arrival. But after a quick look at the clock, he realized it was already past 4:00 p.m. Castiel pinched his lips, unable not to feel this hint of disappointment at the idea that Dean would probably not come today. Suddenly, his already boring day was turning into a really bad day.

He was still dreaming of everything he could have talked about with Dean today when his foot tripped over a piece of warped linoleum and made him fall to the ground in a big crash. The books he carried in his arms were scattered on the ground while Castiel grumbled, attracting the curious glances of several students. Great… When was the day supposed to end already? Shameful, Castiel began to rise slowly, his eyes fixed on the ground, before hearing a slight embarrassed laugh.

However, he knew this sound far more than any other in this library. Biting his tongue of apprehension, Castiel raised his eyes to the source of laughter. Dean had just knelt beside him, his own affairs in his arms and looking at him with uncertainty.

"You’re okay?" He simply asked, and Castiel could not help shaking his head foolishly.

"Yes, no, it’s okay." He blushed slightly, growling inwardly. "I was distracted…"

Dean hummed softly and put down his notebooks before he began to help him pick up the books. Castiel remained stupidly motionless for a moment before imitating him, swallowing loudly. What could he have done to deserve such a humiliation today? However, Dean did not make any more fun of him and Castiel allowed himself to relax gently, glancing at Dean from time to time.

"I hate this alley too." Dean went on with a compassionate smile. "I must have stumbled at least a hundred times on the damn floor. It’s a shame, the books are rather interesting around here, but it’s at our peril." He let out a little amused sigh.

Castiel smiled back, grateful to the reassuring tone of the other student. However, he did not have time to reply that Dean resumed.

"Oh man!" He exclaimed, bringing a book to himself before smiling at the cover. "They seriously wrote a whole book about the Pi value? Damn it, my little brother taught me at least the first ten decimals of this thing."

Castiel suspended his movement before raising wide eyes to Dean.

"Really?" He asked, in disbelief, while tilting his head slightly.

This time, it was Dean’s turn to appear embarrassed and, if Castiel thought that his smile was the most beautiful expression of his face, it was only because he had never seen his cheeks turning red before. Dean raised his eyebrows toward him and scratched the back of his neck distractedly before resuming his task.

"Yeah, he loves math…" He mumbled, avoiding his gaze.

Castiel felt a laughter rising in his belly without ever passing the barrier of his lips. Dean Winchester knew Pi’s decimals. He could not prevent a dumbstruck smile to come up his face.

"I think it's... cool." Castiel said after a while.

These few words had the effect of relaxing Dean somewhat, who smiled back at him after a shy look.

"Me too." Dean admitted, nodding. "He’s four years younger than me, but he’s got the brains."

Castiel lapped up everything Dean said like a thirsty man. Every detail about Dean mattered to him, and just the proud tone he used in speaking of his younger brother was enough to reinforce the emerging affection Castiel had for him. With a light heart, he lowered his eyes again to pick up the last books when his attention was drawn to a piece of paper flying close to him. Frowning, he intercepted it and nearly lost his breath when he discovered what was on it.

Some would have lingered on the beauty of the drawings before their eyes, the confident features and the shades of gray reflecting volumes to perfection. Some were wonderfully detailed and others more quickly executed, giving them a certain charm. Honestly, Castiel would surely have looked into all this himself if he had not immediately recognized his face on each of these drafts. He remained frozen in front of these miniature representations, his eyes jumping from one drawing to another. He recognized himself on each illustration: him storing books on a particularly high shelf, him bored at the desk or helping Jack with his human sciences’ homework as every Tuesday. The majority of the drawings appeared to be made from the same angle, but each breathed a surprising delicacy.

"Whoops!" Dean suddenly exclaimed. "I think that’s mine."

When he tried to take the piece of paper back, Castiel withdrew out of reach and continued to examine the sketches. Dean blushed more and more, biting his lip with mortification. Finally, in the face of Castiel’s silence, he let out an embarrassed little laugh that could not hide his anguish.

"I… Yeah, uh… My brother is more of a scientist, but… I prefer to draw." He muttered before swallowing with difficulty." "But I can assure you that I am not freak with a weirdo obsession!" Dean added in haste. "It’s just that… the light is super good here and… Uh…"

Castiel nodded slowly before turning his gaze of admiration to Dean. This one swallowed again, playing nervously with the zipper of his leather jacket. Castiel felt exhilarated, the fragile hope at the bottom of his chest never ceasing to send bursts of happiness into the rest of his body. When he offered Dean a big, hesitant smile, he saw Dean’s shoulders relaxing slightly.

"I find it very successful. No one had ever drawn me before." Castiel confessed, sincere.

Dean let out a deep sigh that amused Castiel a bit more.

"Okay, great, because I thought my heart was going to jump out of my chest." Dean joked, not without a look still somewhat shameful, like a child caught in the act.

The two of them gathered the rest of the books and Castiel returned his drawings to Dean. At this precise moment, their looks crossed and none broke eye contact, their fingers brushing around the piece of paper. Finally, Castiel carefully followed the ridge of Dean’s nose until he reached his full lips soon joined by a piece of pink tongue that slowly moistened them. Castiel took a deep inspiration to try to stay composed, having the unpleasant impression that it did not work at all in front of these green and piercing eyes.

"Do you know which other place has great light?" Dean suddenly asked, Castiel’s attention jumping instantly from his lips to his eyes.

"Tell me?" He replied, bending his head to the side again.

"Bobby’s café three blocks from here, on the main avenue." Dean smiled with a pout that twisted Castiel’s stomach in all the right ways. "Tomorrow, 5:00 p.m.? I think I really need to practice my shadows…"

And although Castiel wanted to contradict him on the quality of his drawings, he felt his throat tightening to Dean’s words. Was it a date? Because it sounded dangerously as such and Castiel could not wrap his mind around it right now. He was probably in the middle of another one of his daydreams, wasn’t he?

"Of course, if I can help…" The words left his throat by themselves and Castiel was almost sure to gain a few more colors.

"Great!" Dean exclaimed, his lips stretching out in another dazzling smile. "Wait, take this in case you can’t find the address."

Immediately, Dean took a pen out of his bag to come and scribble on the paper with his drawings. When he handed it to Castiel, he noticed a telephone number with Dean’s first name beside it accompanied by a smiling smiley face. Castiel remained foolishly in front of the paper, his body having apparently stopped consulting his brain to make him ridiculous.

"T-Thank-"

"Gee, I have to go!" Dean cut him off, checking his cell phone. He put a warm hand on Castiel’s shoulder before he started to walk away. "I’ll pick you up tomorrow after work, okay? We’ll walk together to the café. See you later!"

And just like that, he was gone. Castiel was still trying to figure out what had happened. Dean asked him out on a date, handing him his telephone number to give him the address before telling him that he would pick him up directly from the library. Dean who secretly drew him from God knows how long or even used a nickname at the end of their conversation. Oh and, also: Dean Winchester asked him out on a freaking date.

When the reason of his daydreams was definitely out of sight, Castiel looked again at the piece of paper before feeling a broad smile covering his face. He sighed before folding the paper and slipping it into his pocket. It was good to have dreams.

* * * @winchester-reload Some more tooth-rotting Destiel fluff for you, hope you enjoyed it!

You can find the whole series on Ao3

Tag list /!\ PLEASE TELL ME IF YOU WANT TO BE ADD TO (or removed from) THE TAG LIST so you won’t miss any updates.

@misha-moose-dean-burger-lover @styggtroll @thanks-tacos @petrichoravellichor @iamcharliebradburylevelperfect @ladywaywarddsc @hellfire37 @destiel-221b-sabriel @aloha-cowgirl @destielhoneybee @dysfunctional-destiel @ozonecologne @doofcas @castielrisingabove @zoerayne2426 @tibbinswrites @vicmc624 @thegirlofstarlight @berrieseveryday @staycejo1 @certaindeanwinchesterforcastiel @bab-spnfamily @lo-mindpalace

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tealin · 4 years

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Basler to the Beardmore 1: You See a Plane, You Take It

As always, the original post is up at the official blog – the formatting definitely works there, if you are having issues with it here.

When planning my research trip with the Antarctic Artists & Writers Program, I had to make a wishlist of places to visit. One of the more important ones was the Beardmore Glacier, the route by which Scott and his men climbed from the Ross Ice Shelf (or, as they called it, the Barrier) to the Polar Plateau. It's one of the largest glaciers in the world, but is hardly visited anymore so is rarely photographed, and despite the blessing of Google Image Search, I had too poor a sense of it to draw a journey up or down it with any confidence.

Setting foot on the Beardmore turned out be prohibitively demanding, logistically, but there are regular LC-130 flights between McMurdo Station and the Pole which traverse the Beardmore en route. The plan we made was for me to get on one of those, and snap as much as I could from one of the small windows as we flew.

November 2019 turned out to be a terrible time for Pole flights – if the weather was OK at Pole, there was a problem with the planes, or vice versa. However, the weather delays worked in my favour, because they affected not only Pole flights, but one particular season-opening flight, which had been bumped so many times that it still hadn't gone when I turned up. That meant I could get a seat.

The big flights ffor the USAP’s operations in East Antarctica – cargo and passenger flights on/off continent, and to major stations like Pole and WAIS Divide – are handled by the New York Air National Guard, and their fleet of enormous military airplanes, namely a C-17 and small handful of LC-130 Hercules. There are lots of smaller trips from McMurdo to satellite stations, and these are serviced by Kenn Borek Air, a Canadian company which operates out of Calgary, Alberta. At the start of every season, they fly their fleet of Twin Otters and Baslers down the length of North and South America, then leapfrog depots down the Peninsula and thence to various hubs including McMurdo. From there they move people and stuff where they need to go, and also restock those fuel depots. There was one depot flight that remained to be done, and it happened to be to a cache near the base of the Beardmore, so they agreed to take me along.

I was not the only extra job tacked on to the flight. After depoting the fuel, we were to scout out a camp in the Transantarctic Mountains which had been in regular use until a some fierce winds a few years ago had scoured great furrows in the landing strip. Was it landable again? What state was the camp in? We would find out. They also wanted to scope out a historic site that left no physical trace, to get updated intel on its condition. Then we would fly north again via the Beardmore and the coordinates for One Ton Depot.

As soon as the Basler had finished her more pressing engagements, we were put on alert for the depot run. Everything in Antarctica is weather-dependent, and that can change on a dime, so one is always on standby. Because they needed to make the most of the Basler's time, they would put two missions on for any given day, then the one with the best prospects would be activated. For five days I was ready to go – breakfasted, fully suited up, lunch packed, ECW bag to hand – at 7 a.m., in case my flight was the one that was going. Flight status would be announced on the screens at the entrance to the Galley.

For four mornings I joined the poor Thwaites Glacier team anxiously hanging on the screens – they were trying to get out to WAIS Divide (the high point of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, from which they would catch a flight to the Thwaites camp) where the weather had been abominable for a month. One of those mornings my flight was activated and I got all the way out to the airfield only for it to be called off at the last minute because of a change in forecast for the depot site. But finally, the fifth morning, it was all systems go!

There are two airfields that serve McMurdo: Phoenix, which is designed to take the massive C-17s on a packed snow runway where they can land with wheels, and Williams Field, of groomed snow, for ski'd aircraft. The extra special thing about Williams Field is that it's more or less where Scott's 'Safety Camp' was located – so named because it was far enough onto the ice shelf not to break up and float out to sea – so the view to Ross Island from there would have been very familiar to our explorers. On the day of my false start, while waiting to find out that the plane wasn't going after all, I got to take some good pictures of the view from there. It was also a good day to get a sense of the 'bad light' that obliterated contrast on the snow and made navigation difficult:

The Sea Ice Incident took place between us and the conical hill to the left! Wild!

Anyway, Try no. 5 was on a much nicer day. Here is the magnificent bird with her spanking new paint job:

It was a funny experience – I mean, besides sharing the fuselage with many hundreds of gallons of flammable liquid – in that it was an island of Canada amidst all the Americans. The crew all lived in BC when they weren't in Antarctica, and next to my seat were the usual set of flight safety brochures, in English and French, just as if we were flying out of Calgary.

Our pilot was named Steve, and I learned from him that, if you're training to be a pilot in Canada, you have to do your qualifying hours in the North. Most people put in their time and then get a comfortable job flying passengers between major southern cities, but Steve liked the North so much he stayed and stayed, until he got the job with Kenn Borek and ended up South. As much as I feel obliged to make a facetious quip about my flammable fellow passengers, I can honestly say I have never felt safer in an airplane than this one. This was just as well, as one of the first things we did once we were in the air was rather exciting.

The Basler is a workhorse, and one of the Antarctic planes (though I never found out if it was this one) had actually flown in WWII – they just keep going and going. However, the hydraulics that lift the landing gear were designed to lift just the landing gear, not the landing gear plus 650-pound skis, so in order to get them up we had to lose some weight. And we did this by climbing steeply up and then nose-diving, bringing us temporarily closer to zero G. We had to do this every time we took off, and it took 2-3 goes to get the skis up successfully. You'd expect someone with a history of nervous flying and a sensitivity to motion sickness to find this unpleasant, but it was just plain awesome.

This post is getting long already, so I will describe our errands in detail over the next two posts. I really must take the time here, though, to give my regards to Kenn Borek Air. I don't think anyone in Canada knows how absolutely vital they are to everything that gets done in Antarctica; their vermillion planes keep camps supplied and people moving around, and are the everyday lifeblood of the continent, in the most literal circulatory sense. Steve and the Basler may possibly have saved the Thwaites Glacier project this season – after a month of delays getting people and freight out to the field camps, it was reaching a point where they might have called off the massive international project for this year. But they allocated the Basler to the WAIS flights and Steve landed it in conditions that the NYANG wouldn't – the Basler couldn't fly nearly as much cargo as a Herc, but they got enough out there that some work could begin. I haven't seen this mentioned in any of the Thwaites coverage and I'm sure it hasn't been covered in Canada, but for a country that doesn't even have a national Antarctic program, they should be mighty proud of the central role their people play in making other countries' programs happen.

#antarctica #travel #airplanes #aeroplanes #beardmore glacier #mcmurdo station #usap #kenn borek air #basler #dc-3 #aviation #williams field #photos

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leejihoonownsmyheart · 4 years

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Click, Click

Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4 , 5 , 6 , 7, 8 , 9 , 10 , 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23

Chapter 24:

You did something stupid.

That stupid thing that you did being that you decided to completely avoid Jihoon instead of facing what sort of reaction he might have to the entire situation. You know, the situation you had entirely cooked up in your head.

Avoiding him, was pretty easy too, considering you guys didn’t really have any set plans.

All you did was pick up some extra hours at work, focus more on your schoolwork and avoid the hell out of any outdoor activity that you could possibly partake in. It was easy. You liked it better like this way anyways.

After all, if you didn’t see Jihoon you didn’t have to worry about looking good for him every day or what to say when you two were around one another or anything dumb like that. You didn’t have to worry about who was paying for who, or if he actually liked you or not.

No, all you had to do was avoid literally everyone in your life, and dodge any and all questions from your friends.

Easy.

Okay… Not, easy.

You were exhausted from all the overworking, all the lies, and you had only been at this for a few days at this point. You supposed it must’ve been liberating to no longer feel like you needed to hide everything in your life. To finally know that maybe people weren’t judging you and your every move.

Maybe that’s why it was suddenly so hard all over again whereas in the past it had felt so easy to do.

Or maybe it had always been this hard, and things had gotten so good that you had just completely forgotten what bad felt like.

You rolled over and looked at your phone. It was four in the afternoon- oh gosh not this again- had you really slept all day?

You ran your hand over your face in frustration, you had just gotten over this. You had finally pulled yourself out of that deep hole of self-resentment and self-pity only to let yourself fall right back down in it again.

You could feel your entire body buzzing, with what you weren’t sure and you weren’t going to take the time to find out. You’d missed class. You had work at six. You didn’t have time to lose yourself in your bottomless pit of thoughts. You unplugged your phone from its phone cord and rolled over to actually look up at the screen. You had three text messages sitting there.

Jongin: Are you avoiding Jihoon?

Jongin: Hey

Jongin: Jesus Christ you’re so stupid. Call me?

You turned your phone off. You didn’t really know why you had bothered looking at it when you were in moods like this. And honestly, you wondered why Jongin bothered texting you at all. If he knew anything about you- and he did- then he knew you wouldn’t respond.

You rolled up to a seated position and glanced across the room. Caitlin was sitting on her own bed, typing away at her computer. You thought that was interesting, but you didn’t have time to dwell on it as she caught you looking pretty quickly. She smiled up at you- granted looking a little bit exhausted.

“Good morning Sunshine,” she teased lightly. “Jongin came around asking for you, I told him you were sleeping and that you had work.”

You rolled around so that Caitlin couldn’t see your face, raising the tone of your voice so that you didn’t really sound as wrecked as you truly were.

“Thanks,” was all you let yourself say. You climbed down from your bed and turned to grab your uniform. You were lucky, you supposed, that Julia wasn’t around and that Caitlin was busy with her work because that meant she wasn’t really paying attention to you.

You found yourself able to take a shower and stare blankly into a bowl of cereal without being bothered at all before getting dressed and leaving for work for that day. The one thing you could look forward to.

The good thing about work was that you were good at it, and people were nice.

You went into work in a foul mood, and you could push it aside for a few hours. Restocking shelves and mopping floors could be a mind-numbing task and maybe that was all you really needed most days. All you had to do was clean, and count, and in-between that if the door opened all you had to do was smile and man the counter for your coworker when he decided he didn’t need to do anymore. (Mind you said it affectionately. You loved all of your coworkers but after all, they were all part-timers. You were just one of those people who took part-time a little too seriously.)

You found yourself easily able to smile and joke along with guests as the came in, no matter how awful your day had been to start with.

“Oh, I hope you don’t mind me coming so late,” a lady mumbled nervously as she rushed through the small store. You laughed and put down a cardboard box that you had been using to stock some candy bars and wandered back up to the front counter.

“There’s no rush, no rush at all,” you assured.

“Says you,” your coworker jested. “You get off within the hour.”

“Oh?” The customer popped her head up over the shelves of the convenience store. “Then that must be your boyfriend loitering around outside of the store?”

Your eyebrows rose in surprise at the earnest accusation of the older stranger.

“My boyfriend?” You asked with a laugh. “I don’t have a boyfriend.”

“No boyfriend?” Your co-worker, Jaehyun blurted. “You have like four boyfriends. That busking guy, that dude who sits on our counters, the one in the mask and hat all the time-”

“Mask and hat! That’s the one outside,” the customer said quickly. Jaehyun put his index finger on his nose and his mouth dropped open in surprised victory. The customer mirrored the look and you just rolled your eyes lightly.

“Guys, I don’t have a boyfriend,” you assured. Then quieter you added: “Especially not one who will want to see me right now.”

You liked to think you knew Jihoon fairly well and based on many different aspects you didn’t figure that Jihoon would be here. Not when you were pretty clearly avoiding him. He never really sought you out unless it was for one of your shows, and you didn’t see him as the sort of person to seek you out if he was even possibly upset with you or anything of the sort.

The customer walked up to you and smiled at you brightly, setting a collection of bags of snacks on the counter.

“Don’t worry dear your secret is safe with me.”

She gave you a wink as you rang up her items and you actually chuckled.

“No secrets here ma’am,” you said pleasantly. “Just potato chips.”

The customer laughed.

“Oh, you are all always so pleasant here,” she mumbled with a small shake of her head. She took her bag from you and beamed. “Alright, alright, I’m out now! I’ll tell your little boyfriend you’re excited to see him.”

You laughed and waved the lady goodbye. No matter what she said you really didn’t think anyone was out there waiting for you.

“Stay safe ma’am!”

Maybe that was why you were surprised when you pushed out of the shop, a wave over your shoulder to Jaehyun and you nearly bumped into Jihoon. He gave you a quirk of his eyebrow and a half-smile.

“Hey,” he mumbled. You looked at him for a moment too long, unsure of what to say exactly. You could tell by the way that he was looking at you that he knew what you had been doing, and you really didn’t like that.

“Uh, hey,” you mumbled back. You scratched the back of your neck. “What are you doing here?”

“Waiting for you,” Jihoon replied, just as rigidly. “It was suggested to me that I should talk to you.”

Your thoughts were running wild, wondering why on Earth Jihoon had been suggested to talk to you, but before you could get very deep into them he had looked away.

“I was worried because I haven’t seen you, and when I had lunch with Jeongin he seemed to be really surprised- though he tried to hide it and play it off as if it were normal. I could tell it wasn’t,” he mumbled. “So, I mentioned it to Mingyu, and he hit me and told me that you were clearly pushing me away because you were scared by… Well, I won’t use his words, and he told me to come talk to you if I cared about you at all.”

You weren’t sure what to say to that. You made a mental note to hit Mingyu the next time you saw him and tried to swallow the knot in your throat. You felt like crying, and you weren’t really sure why.

“I don’t know why you came to talk to me then,” was all you managed to say. Suddenly, you were the one who couldn’t catch his eyes. Your face only burned when you noticed his head whip up out of the corner of your eyes, his face red as well. God, how come both of your faces were burning? It was so cold outside, you should be freezing, and instead, you felt like taking off your jacket entirely.

“Because I…” He trailed off, a sentence that had started off so confidently, getting caught in his throat. “I… I care a lot about you.”

You hated the way that made you want to cry more. He was admitting that he liked you for crying out loud, trying to say more, you knew what he wanted to say, and yet it just made you want to curl up in a ball and scream.

“Why are you pushing me away?” Jihoon asked softly. He cleared his throat and pushed himself off of the wall, though you noted that he was just as uncomfortable as you felt. “What changed? Was it… Was it-”

“It’s just me being dumb,” you denied, shutting down Jihoon before he could even ask.

Was it me? God what a stupid question, how could it ever have been him? Didn’t he know how much you loved him? How much you simply counted on him being in your life. You needed him there all the time, how could he ever think that you were pushing him away because of anything other than yourself and your own damning thoughts?

“You’re not-”

“I am,” you interrupted. “Things got too good. I started to think too much about… This. I’m confused, god what are we? I mean it’s freaking me out.”

You risked looking at Jihoon, and honestly, it freaked you out more to see the way he was looking at you then it did to not.

“We kiss, and we hang out, and I hate being without you, but I get so scared to be called your girlfriend- and for what? It must be so frustrating for you. To have to deal with me all the time. To be with someone who doesn’t even know what she wants, who can’t even say that-”

“I love you,” Jihoon blurted. Your heartbeat so hard at his words that you genuinely thought it might beat out of your chest. You had to raise your hand up to rest it over where it was on your chest, your fingers burying into your shirt.

“W-What?” You asked.

“I don’t just care about you,” Jihoon replied. “I love you. You said it back in Japan and I said it then but that didn’t really count so, I’m saying it now. I love you.”

God, Japan. It felt like years had passed since Japan when in reality it hadn’t been long at all. Still, you remembered every moment so well. You could still recall the way the breeze felt on your skin as you sat there in front of that koi pond, and told a boy you didn’t think was listening that you were completely and totally in love with him.

You couldn’t believe he remembered that. You couldn’t believe he had heard that or that his response had been anything but a fever dream. You opened your mouth, but you weren’t really sure what to say.

His words were everything that you knew you should be happy to hear. You had never been freaked out before, by the aspect of someone telling you that they loved you.

In the past you had imagined it would be someone who simply didn’t know you well enough to understand that they didn’t actually love you. They loved this concept of you that they thought was you. You had imagined some amusing scenarios in the past in which someone would confess to you, and you would light-heartedly tell them that was ridiculous because your “hot crazy” scale was off, even though that never really happened.

Sure, you had been confessed to in the past. On some level. People told you they thought you were pretty and wanted to be with you, but they had always just liked you for this superficial version of you that you presented. No one had ever really liked or confessed to you before that knew enough about you for you to say that they might actually like you.

Maybe that was why this was so terrifying.

Jihoon knew you. He knew your insecurities and your deepest fears. He knew what you thought about the most, and he knew about your depression. He had seen you happy and acknowledged the sorts of friends you had and the busy life you lead to escape from anything that might even possibly be a problem for you.

He had never seen you at your best- not in person at least, and your best was something that you had always imagined would be your sole alluring feature.

So, if he had never seen that- The way you could smile and laugh and bring up the mood of everyone in the room- how could he possibly be in love with you?

Why was it so much more terrifying to think that he loved you for who you were, then it was to imagine that he could just love some idea of you?

“God, please don’t say that,” you mumbled miserably. Your heart was racing, your face was probably a whole other color, and still, all you could do was look at Jihoon desperately. “I can’t hear that- you can’t say that.”

He frowned slightly, his nose scrunching.

“What?”

“God, you can’t say that,” you repeated, your hand raising to your hair. You began to nervously play with it, worrying about what could possibly be going through your head to actually say that to him instead of just saying back what was so aggressively true.

You loved him, oh my god you were so totally in love with Jihoon you felt like it didn’t even need to be said and still, your mouth didn’t seem to want to say the words at this moment.

“Why not?” He asked. You couldn’t look him in the eyes again, dropping your eyes back to the ground. Jihoon didn’t luck that at all. He ducked his head a bit to grab your attention, and as he dragged your eyes up with his own eyes, he placed the hook of his finger beneath your chin. The contact sent a shiver through your body that you couldn’t control.

“Because I… I can’t ever,” you stumbled over yourself, unsure of what you needed to say. “Because if I let you convince me that you love me, it’ll be just that much harder when you leave.”

You paused, thinking you were going to let Jihoon say something at that, but after only a brief moment, you realized that you couldn’t let him say anything. Not to such an open-ended statement.

“I can’t go through a breakup Jihoon,” you insisted out of nowhere. It startled him a bit. His fingers left your chin for a brief second, but they returned as soon as he caught his composure. “I can’t trust someone one day and then pick up the pieces they scatter when they leave me the next. I’m not saying that the guy that I date- that I do this with has to be my forever guy, but, I-I-I just can’t-”

Jihoon surged forward before you could keep going, his hands sliding up to your cheeks, pulling you in close to him. His lips touched yours, and for once it felt more suffocating then it did relieving. You hated yourself for it, more then you could say, but you started to cry as he kissed you, warm tears streaming down your cheeks.

God you felt awful, had you always been so awful? When did people start feeling like they needed to comfort you? How long ago had it been since you were the one comforting others? Thinking about it now, it suddenly seemed like maybe it had been years.

Jihoon broke the kiss, pressing his forehead to yours. He didn’t say much at first, just ran his thumb through the streaks of tears that had left red lines down your cheeks.

“I don’t want to break up,” he murmured. “I don’t want to have to tell anybody else that I love them, I don’t want to write heartbroken love songs or anything stupid and sappy like that.”

You couldn’t help it, you snickered at the words that left his mouth, raising your hands up to place over his. He smiled at you too, his eyes meeting yours.

“I just want you,” he said. “Do you even know how scary that is? To just, I just I only want you and I kinda want the whole world to know it.”

You sniffled hard nodding a little.

“It’s so fucking scary,” you agreed. “I’m so scared of… The future, and just trusting that everything is going to work out, and yet it’s all I want to do.”

Jihoon let you move his hands down from your cheeks, and back to his sides. You were going to pull away as much as you could, but before you could manage it, his fingers were sliding between yours.

“We’re both going in blind,” he mumbled. “I’m scared too. We just have to trust each other.”

“I trust you more than I can say,” you replied. “It’s myself that I don’t trust.”

Jihoon snorted and pulled you close to him again, his hips brushing against yours as he wrapped his arms around your waist.

“Will you at least stop avoiding me?” He asked. “Give me a chance to do a stupid thing in the relationship?”

You wrinkled your nose.

“As if you-”

“You’re lucky that I room with Mingyu,” he mumbled back. “He literally locked me out of our entire unit to force me to come talk to you.”

You were silent as you stood there, unsure of what to add. It made Jihoon hum.

“Why did you start avoiding me anyways?” He asked you. “You haven’t really explained that yet.”

“Because of the busk,” you replied without missing a beat. You uncomfortably scratched at the palm of your hand, once again finding yourself unable to look him in the eyes. “I, um, Kwangsun told me he liked me and wanted to go out on a date.”

Jihoon’s grip on you tightened and you felt his whole body tense.

“I turned him down, and he said it was cool, but he like... Acts like we’re dating almost and it bothered me because of… you and I should’ve shut him down, or something but instead I just let it happen, and then performing that dance with him it felt like cheating.”

Jihoon didn’t relax, but you felt him shift. You knew he was about to say more, but you couldn’t let him before you were done.

“I know it wasn’t, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it and how you never even heard the end of that story and probably thought that I had kissed him and had cheated on you, and it was easier to just… Avoid you then it was to deal with the guilt of seeing you and thinking that I had hurt you just because I can’t open my mouth and just say no.”

Jihoon relaxed on you just a bit, and his lips pressed chastely to your forehead.

“You’re so silly you know that?” He asked you. You didn’t respond to him. You still felt dirty. Like you didn’t deserve his affection. He seemed to notice that and lowered his forehead to press against yours.

“Remember how I said earlier that we just need to trust each other? I trust you. Maybe I don’t like that you enjoy hanging out with Kwangsun but… If I can become friends with Jeongin of all people, I can deal with you hanging out with a guy like Kwangsun. I didn’t even hear him telling that story- honest- I was just so glad to be with you I wasn’t listening to a single word.”

You pulled away from Jihoon and studied his face for a long while, looking for any indication that he might be lying to you. You found none.

“Jihoon,” you murmured. “I don’t think I deserve you.”

Jihoon’s face settled into a solemn look.

“I don’t think I deserve you either,” he murmured back. You sighed and looked down. You really didn’t want to be alone right now. All you wanted was to be there with him and enjoy the moment.

But you knew that you guys should probably get off the street at some point.

“We should get going-” You murmured, but before you could continue too far, he took your hand.

“Come with me,” he mumbled softly. You looked at him hesitantly, squeezing his hand lightly in response.

“Why? Shouldn’t you be-”

“Well we are practicing tomorrow,” he murmured. “But I mean, how much trouble could we get in if you came?”

You looked at him, your eyes widening slightly.

“You want me to come to practice tomorrow?”

He looked shy to be asking you, which you thought was funny, because you felt like you should be the shy one being asked. Your heart did a small leap as Jihoon looked away, but only tightened his grip on your hand.

“Well, only if you want to.”

Of course, you wanted to go to practice with him. Who wouldn’t want to go to practice? A Seventeen practice? That was genuinely any Carats dream, even as just a dancer that was probably an incredible opportunity. Not that you would ever seriously call yourself a dancer. Ever.

“I feel like I would just get in the way or-”

Jihoon pulled you towards him without warning, an action that made you suck in a quick breath. He locked you under his gaze, his other hand coming up to grip your arm.

“Look at me,” he whispered, his voice soft but insistent. “I mean really look. My cheeks are red, I can barely manage to hold eye contact with you. I like you so much I can hardly stand it, you could never get in the way. I want you there, I really, really do.”

You were surprised by those sudden words. By the sudden force of what he was saying but… It was actually enough for you to finally relax.

“Sorry, sorry, I keep overthinking everything don’t I?” You murmured. He gave you a pleasant smile, you were surprised to find no irritation on his face. You didn’t think you could recall a time where anyone had ever been this patient with you. “I’ll come.”

His grip on you loosened a little bit.

“Okay,” he murmured. He let go of your arm, but he still held on to your hand. You both started to walk forward after that, strolling comfortably down the sidewalk towards Pledis. You laughed at the way he swung your hands back and forth, thinking it was somewhat amusing how he wouldn’t let go for anything.

“Why are you holding me like that?” You asked in amusement. He chuckled.

“Like what?”

“Like I’m going to run,” you explained softly. He glanced at you.

“You can’t tell me that you’re not thinking of running,” he stated back. It wasn’t really accusatory. He had a smile spread over his lips and was staring at you so fondly… Most of the time, if anyone had said that to you then you would have been hurt, you probably would’ve stewed in your own thoughts for a while, and mentally overreacted to a claim that was frankly true.

But when Jihoon said it, you could tell by the way he held himself, by the way he didn’t keep looking at you after saying it. He wasn’t trying to belittle you with his words.

“Maybe you should hold onto my hand just a little tighter,” you agreed softly, and let your head drop of his shoulder pleasantly.

Honestly, you were glad to be with him again. Being stupid was so overrated anyways.

Chapter Twenty-Five

#I might start to wrap this story up after one more plot line #It depends on how it goes honestly #we'll see we'll see #Click Click by leejihoonownsmyheart #Lee Jihoon #lee jihoon seventeen #Woozi #Seventeen Woozi #seventeen series #Seventeen Kpop #Kpop Fanfiction

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pigeontheoneandonly · 5 years

Text

Once More, With Feeling

I thought about waiting for Kaidan Week’s LI theme day ( @spectrekaidanalenko ), but I liked this one too much not to share. Inspired by @estalfaed’s post about Kaidan leaving for the Andromeda galaxy (with their permission).

Kaidan Alenko hunched over the bar in Kadara Port, picking at the label on his bottle. Nine years. 2194, in his bones, 2828 by the calendar, as much as calendars meant anything anymore. Certainly it meant nothing here in this bar, halfway through three days of mandated shore leave. His new C.O., some angara woman, took a certain delight in fussing over him.

“No family,” she’d cluck. “You need to live.”

Family was everything to angara, and he’d left his two and a half million light years away, to face a highly uncertain future. Kaidan got out of cryo early, in the first wave of military reinforcements ordered up by Pathfinder Ryder, and was stationed at Eos until they figured out he actually knew how to fight, at which point he was shipped here.

Kadara was a mess. He welcomed it, work, distractions. At least after the recent arrival of Ark Endymion, he could stop worrying about what happened back in the Milky Way. There’d been a massive war— even with the careful way he filtered news that much was unavoidable. And once he heard that, he couldn’t help but investigate the outcome. Reapers defeated. A little of his guilt lifted.

Not all of it. His mother wept when he told them he’d joined the Initiative. Begged him not to go. He didn’t know whether either of his parents survived, but for certain they’d died alone, at the hands of the reapers or age or something else entirely, while their only child traveled ever further away, lost in a dreamless dark.

Fear didn’t drive him from the fight. It was John. Of course it was. Because after almost two years of trying to get back to okay, nothing sounded better than a nice long sleep, and waking up someplace far away from every possible reminder of what he’d lost.

Sure. He picked up the bottle and drank. At least the beer was getting better, as less essential crops started coming in. Nothing like back home. But palatable.

Six centuries and for what? Maybe nothing here brought back old memories of his might-have-been life. But every moment, every fantastical sight, every novel experience, tasted just a little sour from his absence. John would’ve loved this. Exploring new worlds. Finding new fights, new friends. Forging a path on a real frontier.

The beer was more than a little sour itself, especially as it warmed. Kadara was hot as hell. And nothing obfuscated the persistent stench of sulfur.

Kaidan was so deep in his own morose brooding that he jumped ten centimeters when the six pack thumped down on the counter beside him. “You would not believe how much baggage allowance this cost me.”

The cardboard carrier read Molson Canadian Lager.

“And in stasis, too,” its owner went on. “That’s extra.”

Kaidan’s heart had physically stopped in his chest. A stabbing ache that left him breathless. He barely managed to raise his head.

John Shepard leaned against the bar, looking down at him with a smirk. “Miss me?”

So it had finally come to this. Enough pain and booze and loneliness, and he’d finally slipped over that last edge of insanity, and here was the hallucinatory proof. John was eleven years dead. Kaidan watched it happen, as the ship went to pieces over Alchera.

“What’s the matter?” the apparition asked, grin widening, as if pleased by his shock. “Cat got your tongue?”

Kaidan’s mouth moved. Nothing came out. Hand spastically gripping his warm beer bottle.

The bartender came over, and gave the six pack a very pointed look. “Anything for you, sir?”

John glanced away, distracted. “Uh, sure. Whiskey, neat.”

“You can see him?” Kaidan blurted out, garnering several odd looks.

The bartender huffed. “They’re really running you hard out there, huh. You haven’t had nearly that many.”

Then she took herself off to fix the drink. John slid into the next stool. Reached over and tentatively took his hand, solid and real as the simulwood beneath his grasp. “Kaidan, it’s me. I wanted to surprise you, not… I didn’t think it through.”

His hand closed on his fingers without thinking. Clinging so tightly the tips went white. He suddenly couldn’t look at him. Burying his eyes in his palm.

The barstool scraped along the floor. And then John’s arm was around his waist, warm and strong and exactly how he remembered. His chin on his shoulder. “Kaidan, it’s going to be okay.”

That broke him. Because nothing had been okay, not once. “How?”

Then, as John opened his mouth to answer, Kaidan turned into him and put his face in his shoulder, his own arms sliding around the man he knew he’d never touch again. “Never mind. I don’t care.”

“It’s a long story, anyway. Not a particularly happy one.” John’s voice muffled in his hair. “I destroyed the reapers. Then I got the Ark put together.”

“You—”

“How do you think it got done so quickly after the war?” Kaidan could feel John’s grin against his head.

It was infectious, cutting across his stunned disbelief. That cockiness was John all over. “And they didn’t make you their pathfinder?”

A chuckle. His chest tightened again at the sound. “I told them I had a different mission.”

Kaidan pulled back, searching John’s face, seeing it clearly for the first time. The flesh was cut here and there by orange cybernetic scars, their glow muddying his blue eyes. His hair still buzzed close to his scalp. He hardly looked a day older than Kaidan’s memories, but there was a heaviness in his expression, a weariness, an age, that spoke of things that could not be unseen. He stroked John’s cheek. “And how’s that going?”

“I think I’ll be able to report success.” He leaned forward and kissed him.

That was the last clear memory Kaidan had of the next several hours. John’s lips meeting his. Shepard was a hard man, but his touch was so gentle, and that above all else convinced Kaidan this was really happening. His whiskey went ignored. As did Kaidan’s next beer, and the small parade of drinks they continued ordering to justify their seats. They talked. Kaidan barely cognizant of what about even as they spoke, too caught up in a single circular line of thought: John is here, John’s alive, John survived Alchera and somehow he crossed dark space to find me again.

Somewhere in there he apologized. For leaving, for running so very far. John hadn’t said anything to that. Just kissed his cheek and held him a long moment.

But even on Kadara, bars closed eventually. They needed a few hours to mop up and restock. The pair of them staggered out into the street, drunk on each other, the only six pack of Canadian lager in twenty-four quintillion kilometers banging against his leg. Then John paused, leaning into him.

“There’s something else.” He cleared his throat. “I brought someone with me.”

All Kaidan could do was stare. John rambled on. “I didn’t want to wake her until I found you. I needed to know… well, there was a chance you’d died somewhere along the way, or something just as horrible, what with the rough entry your wave had to Heleus, and I had to know what to tell her before she came out of cryo.”

He couldn’t believe it. This was outrageous. “You brought a back-up plan?”

“What?” And John’s confusion was so genuine it took him several blinking moments to figure it out. “No. Goddamn it. What do you take me for?”

“Then what—”

“I brought your mother, Kaidan.”

Kaidan was still as a stone. Too stunned to move, his throat slowly closing up. John said, “Your father died in the war. I’m sorry. I found her afterward, told her what I was doing. She insisted. I thought she might. You told me she’d never been to space, and well, this was one hell of an introduction.”

He took John’s head in his free hand and pulled him down into a long kiss. “I can’t believe you. I honestly can’t believe you.”

“I couldn’t believe you just left. I know how important your family is to you.”

Kaidan rested his forehead against John’s. “I know, I know. I just… I missed you so much, I couldn’t stand it.”

John kissed him again. Light, lingering. “You won’t ever have to miss me again. Just maybe, this time, let’s skip the cryo?”

He laughed. He couldn’t believe he was laughing. “Deal.”

#kaidanweek2019 #kaidan alenko #john shepard #mshenko #shenko #broke my own rule to wait 24 hours before posting something i've written #fanfiction #pigeon writes

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vagrantblvrd · 5 years

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PreFAHC Battle Buddies where Ryan is an ER nurse & ends up treating his neighbor Jeremy when he stumbles into the apartment, bleeding & bruised. They end up going out for coffee when Ryan isn't dying & Jeremwood happens. Flash forward, Ry is the Vagabond & someone gets hurt, they're stuck at a safe house & he ends up treating the crew member & has a ~shockingly~ fantastic bedside manner. Just, some soft Jeremwood FAHC & breaking scary Vagabond expectations with soft ER Ryan, Jeremy & crew.

Okay, so like.

Jeremy’s got these cats and maybe some plants and whenever he’s on a job or whatever for a while he knocks on Ryan’s door and asks if he’d mind looking after them while he’s gone?

Just pop on over to feed and water them, play with them to keep them from wrecking the place? He’ll pay him and everything.

Ryan just, ahaha, because cats usually aren’t that fond of him but sure, sure, and no need to pay him because neighbors, right? Maybe return the favor with Ryan’s own bunch of houseplants when he’s working doubles or what have you.

This goes on for a while without incident, they give each other copies of keys to their places and it’s a No Big Deal for either of them.

Like, sure. Ryan sometimes comes across a set of knives or brass knuckles. (Every so often there’s something that looks like it could be dried blood, but it could be something else? Paint??? He’s certainly no an expert, hahaha.)

He finds a gun once or twice, all of them left out by happenstance, like Jeremy was just so damn tired from whatever it is he does he put them down and kind of forgot. Had to leave at a moment’s notice and forgot to put them away properly most likely, since the texts he sent Ryan asking to look in on things seemed a bit frantic?

Anyway, surely Jeremy isn’t up to anything untoward.

And then one day Ryan gets home from work later than expected, feels guilty because he promised Jeremy he’d look after the cats and plants for him while he’s out of town, right? Only it’s been a shitshow of a day, this clusterfuck that was on the news. Gang war or something and they were short-staffed to start with so he ended up working a – hell if he knows? He’s pretty sure he had a morning shift, but that was a day, two, ago maybe and everything between then and getting home is a blur.

He heads straight to Jeremy’s place because the cats have to be starving by now and oh, God, please don’t let them have gone feral. Wreck the place and destroy the plants and everything in their path because they’re horribly spoiled brats.

Ryan walks into a war zone, shit knocked over everywhere. Pillows shredded and bits of toilet paper trailing out from the bathroom because of course they’d go that that first. Plants overturned and somehow they they to the food, dragged the bags and containers out and tore into them, evidence everywhere and the cats?

Loudly making their displeasure known because the wet food has proven a most formidable foe, will not come out from their metal shells no matter how many times they get knocked off the highest of kitchen counters or batted into the wall.

“Jesus Christ,” Ryan mutters, because what even happened while he was at work?

He sets his bag full of important things like balled up jacket because summer and hot and too tired fold it like a human being. Tupperware for the lunch he packed however long ago and eaten who knows when. (Can’t remember the last time he ate, but surely it can’t have been more than a day?)

Bits and bobs and phone that’s at fifteen, maybe twenty percent charge left at this point.

Goes to get a brook and dustpan after he sorts out the food situation for the cats and does his best with the plants. (A little battered, sure, but they look like they’re going to survive.)

And then!

Just as he’s rooting around Jeremy stumbles through the door, all fucked up because reasons?

Bleeding and hobbling around and generally mini flesh wound injured a la every action movie ever. (Shot or stabbed, but only enough that it’s cause for worry but not cut scene death worry?)

Ryan comes out, broom and dustpan in hand – thinks at first he didn’t fully close the front door thanks to his exhaustion or maybe the cats are acting up again, but no, no.

It’s Jeremy standing in his living room looking like shit, gun out and aimed at Ryan who’s like, “Uh...” because okay, wow yes.

All that plausible deniability he’s been working on regarding Jeremy and his everything is kind of pointless now, you know.

Jeremy and this general feeling of well, shit because no way Ryan doesn’t turn him in or whatever after this.

Definitely no way Jeremy’s going to kill him because talk about rude, and also that hardcore crush he’s got for the guy, you know? A shame he’s going to have to move though. Go to ground somewhere until the cops stop looking for him and all that, that he won’t get to see Ryan anymore but it’ll certainly be the smart thing to do.

And then Ryan’s like, “You’re kind of bleeding. A lot.”

Jeremy’s aware of that, thanks???

Ryan looks at the broom and dustpan he’s still holding and just sighs, because he, too, has this hardcore crush on Jeremy and also the whole medical professional business?

“If you don’t shoot me I could do something about that,” Ryan says, and waits until his words register with Jeremy, Jeremy lowering his weapon to set the broom and dustpan aside.

Waits until Jeremy puts the safety on and sets his gun aside and gives Ryan this crooked little smile he takes for permission before he gets the first-aide kit he remembers seeing in Jeremy’s bathroom. (Big old thing, obviously gets used a lot. Because reasons?)

When he comes back out Jeremy’s got sitting at his kitchen counter, got the lights on and everything and Ryan heads on over. Notices the gun Jeremy’s set on the counter a little ways away and while it should feel like a threat, it doesn’t?

Jeremy’s oblivious though, busy trying to get out of his jacket, but his injuries and the whatnot make that a whole Process, so Ryan has no choice but to help at this point.

“Need a hand?” he asks, because the last damn thing he wants is to spook Jeremy, do something he doesn’t like.

Sure, sure, Jeremy’s pretty easy-going most of the time, right? Bright and friendly and just overall great kind of guy, but this isn’t the usual scenario for the two of them and all that.

Jeremy sighs and gives Ryan this pitiful look, and Ryan snorts as he helps Jeremy out of his jacket, this horribly purple thing and up to that point he’s not been thinking about Jeremy’s fashion choices, right?

But honestly, the purple and orange with this pop of yellow is all-over horrible and he may or may not say something to that effect.

Jeremy huffs, because rude, and also it’s a fashion statement. (What kind he doesn’t say, and Ryan chooses not to ask because he’s not sure he’d like the answer?.)

Jeremy watches him work, Ryan muttering to himself here and there, and Jeremy amused by it because Ryan is personally offended by some quick patch jobs Jeremy did himself that are in various stages of healing. Crooked, uneven stitches that are a goddamned mess and infected and other atrocities. Just grumbles as he goes about dealing with those once he’s got the newer injuries fixed up and such.

When he’s finally done he just sits back and looks at Jeremy, all annoyed because what incompetent asshole has been stitching him up before this? Ryan wants names.

Jeremy is just grinning at Ryan because dear God is he an adorable asshole.

“That would be me,” he says, and doesn’t explain that he’s maybe been in trouble for the past few days. On the run from some enemies he made a while back and kind of forgot about?

Patching himself up in some shitty little safehouse somewhere and then more running and hiding and shootouts before he got rid of them for good and stumbled on home. (Was totally involved in that clusterfuck that had Ryan at the hospital for forever going from patient to patient with no reprieve.)

Ryan eyeing Jeremy because he suspected as much and is just.

“Alright then,” and assuming Jeremy doesn’t just kill him makes a mental note to teach Jeremy how to piece himself back together properly.

And then it gets a little awkward because oh, right, Jeremy might just do that?

But Jeremy’s not reaching for the gun or one of his knives or anything along the lines. Is just looking at Ryan with this dopey little smile and Ryan isn’t sure what to do with that?

So.He cleans up. Packs the first-aide kit back up and puts it back where he found it after he scrounges up some paper and writes down the stuff Jeremy’s going to need to restock plus a few things he didn’t have on hand that he probably should?

And then he comes out to find Jeremy about to fall asleep and bullies him to his feet and puts him to bed because he needs it?

Stands there and stares at Jeremy after the idiot falls asleep, the cats popping up out of the woodwork to snuggle him. Sighs as he closes the bedroom door and finishes cleaning up the mess the cats made while they were both out.

Stares at Jeremy’s gun on the counter for a long, long moment – he really should call the cops, do something about finding out Jeremy’s a damn criminal, but he’s too tired to deal with all that at the moment.

Cleans around the gun and dithers for a bit before he digs through Jeremy’s freezer and transfers one of the tupperware containers of leftovers out of Jeremy’s freezer to the fridge to thaw so he’ll have that on hand whenever he wakes up along with a note telling him to fucking eat, only more politely worded?

And then he grabs his bag and locks up after himself to go to his place down the hall.

Plans to take a shower and all that? (He’s got the next few days off thanks to the clusterfuck and extra hours at the hospital and plans to use them to catch up on missed sleep.)

But he’s so fucking tired and just passes out the moment he stops moving. (Sits down on his crappy couch to get his shoes off and all and bam, lights out.)

Wakes up to a blanket draped over him and note taped to his glasses that are on the coffee table, simple little thank you and something about food in the microwave?

And when his brain is kind of in working order again he gets up to check and finds one of Jeremy’s many, many tupperware containers of food and a smiley face on a post0it note and is like, huh.

Has no idea what to make of it, but he’s starving and Jeremy’s an amazing cook and since he didn’t kill Ryan in his sleep they must be okay???

So he eats the food Jeremy left him and then take a shower and deal with dirty laundry and other everyday things.

Runs into Jeremy on his way up from the laundry room and it’s this awkward little dance in the hallway – that thing people do when they try to slip past one another and keep going the same way and all that.

Jeremy still looks like shit, but less so, and Ryan’s in old sweats and his dork glasses and it’s just.

Weird?

And then Jeremy is like, “So, about the other day?”

Ryan expecting a threat to keep his mouth shut if he knows what’s good for him, but nah.Because Jeremy just wants to thank him for fixing him up and it’s the most awkward thing ever?

Somewhere in there Jeremy blurts out a thing about getting coffee sometime? And Ryan is just “I’m not much for coffee?” because awkward, and Jeremy is like oh, thinking Ryan’s trying to let him down gently, but!

“There’s this new burger place downtown?” Ryan says because dork who loves his food, and he and Jeremy had this whole discussion about best places to grab a burger around town and anyway, anyway.

Short story short they go out for a lunch date a few days later and that leads to other lunch dates and dinner dates (coffee a few times, even) and then all sort of things.

First kisses and so on and both of them head over heels for the other. Ryan patching Jeremy up when he does something dumb or someone gets the drop on him. Finally getting around to teaching Jeremy how the patch himself up that won’t leave scars, or much of one anyway.

And, you know.

Some situation wherein Ryan ends up as the Vagabond.

(Someone at Ryan’s work or one of their neighbors ratting the two of them out and Ryan in a tight corner – has to choose and of course, or course he chooses Jeremy.)

The two of them going on the ~run, leaving whatever city they’re in until they end up on Los Santos and it’s Jeremy’s turn to teach Ryan a few things since he’s in Jeremy’s world now.

Jeremy used to take him to the shooting range before things went to shit on them, brought him down to the gym and all that? Wanted to be sure Ryan could defend himself if something ever happened, you know? (And of course there was the whole thing where Jeremy would pin Ryan, grinning down at him until Ryan cheated like a bastard and kissed him to put him off-balance, reverse the tables on him and all that. Sexy wrasslingand all that, both of them laughing like dorks and so, so in love. Those times at the shooting range where Jeremy had to readjust Ryan’s grip on his gun and so on, get all up in his personal space and both of them super aware of it? The whole shebang.)

But now it’s a bit more serious because if they’re not careful they’re going to get themselves killed and Ryan’s a good student. Fast learner, and while he thinks the dumb mask Jeremy gets him as a joke is overkill he goes along with it anyway since Jeremy’s got his own face mask and Rimmy Tim bullshit going on.

Everyone in Los Santos hears about the Battle Buddies after a while, this Vagabond character and Rimmy Tim.

Look at Ryan as the bigger threat because of the skull mask and never really seem to pick up on the fact he’s really not? Like sure, he’s good at his job and all, but mostly a disaster.

Rimmy Tim’s the one to look out for, but since he insists on the horrible fashion choices and friendly nature they see him as the bumbling sidekick, and honestly?

That’s exactly what Jeremy wants.Wants people to underestimate him because they won’t see it coming when he puts a knife in their back. Will be looking to the Vagabond and forget all about him.

And while he’d rather Ryan not be in that position? It’s easier to protect him, counter intuitive as it might seem.

The Fakes pick the two of them up at some point, and it’s an uneasy situation for the two of them at first.

Yes it means bigger, better opportunities for them, but it also means these assholes have the potential to fuck them over but good.

Learn about the two of them if they’ll be working together. Find their weaknesses and exploit them, but it also, also means better protection for them too. (Everyone knows the Fakes look after their own and all that, but the Battle Buddies are a bit on the paranoid side of things at this point, so it’s a whole Thing, them settling into the crew.)

And then!

There’s a botched heist and the Ryan going to ground in a crew safehouse with Geoff and Michael. Geoff’s a little bit stabbed and Michael's a little bit beat up and eyeing Ryan warily because the Battle Buddies are still kind of a mystery to the crew, you know?

Ryan who ignores the way Michael's watching him as he goes to patch Geoff up, all, “Looking kind of rough there, boss,” and “I’ve got some experience patching people up,” and “If you lose any more blood you’re going be super dead, but sure.” when Geoff insists Ryan fix Michael up first.

And since Geoff would rather not be super dead he’s just fine, alright, fix me up.

So Ryan does, you know? Ropes Michael into being an extra pair of hands and tells them what he’s doing every step of the way, patient as hell with both of them even though they’re idiots?

And when Geoff’s as patched up as he’s going to get he deals with Michael who’s all fluffed up like Jeremy’s cats when they bring the vacuum out and all, but he calms down when Ryan continues on without batting an eye. (They assume, because he’s still wearing his mask.)

After they’re both patched up Michael eyes Ryan again because the moron’s bleeding a little bit himself, and offers to fix him up. Won’t do as good a job as Ryan’s done for both of them, but better than nothing, right?

Ryan’s a little surprised at the offer, but agrees. Talks Michael through the more serious stuff while Geoff watches them, all hmm because the rumors about the Vagabond don’t match up with this side of him, you know?

And after they get back to the penthouse and things go back to normal the others start to see it too, realize he and Jeremy aren’t that bad.

Time passes and the crew realizes that okay, wow, Ryan is in fact a disaster of a human being and while Jeremy’s not quite so bad they’re both the crew’s kind of disastrous, and then, idk, shenanigans?

#deleriousfromcoffee #ragehappy #jeremwood #battle buddies #fahc au #prompt fills #not!fic #technically not a fic #vagrant fic

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pokeexehasstoppedworking · 3 years

Text

Love Doesn’t Do Encores Ch13 Onto Hammerlocke- I Mean Stow-On-Side

The two of you left. Heading off down the trail Hop directed you before rushing off to take on Bede and spend some time in the Wild Area as planned. You hoped Victor would be able to keep him out of trouble and from fighting with Bede. As much as you wanted to stick together and were honestly curious to see how that battle would play out, you couldn't just let Gloria skidaddle off by herself and she was dead set on heading to Hammerlocke whether you liked it or not...Well not Hammerlocke exactly. She wanted to go to the town of Stow-On-Side, to challenge with Fighting Type Gym, Hammerlocke just happened to be along the way. A pit stop of sorts if you will. And when down to it you were pretty curious now yourself about this place. From what Gloria was babbling about happily about it, Hammerlocke wasn't only just home to the famous Dragon Gym Leader and his gym, but one of the main power plants in Galar owned by the Chairman himself. Hey. Sonia mentioned something about the Chairman having to do something with the power supply of Galar.

"So how will we know when we get there?," you asked after you two had crossed Motostoke's bridge.

"Oh. It'll be easy. It's not as big of a place as people think and not a lot of people live there since it's mostly just a single stadium and power plant run by the Chairman so not a lot of people go in and out either. Raihan's usually on long trips this early in the year since he never battles anyone who hasn't obtained everyone else's badge. But usually barely anyone gets to battle him because Kabu wittles most out and it usually takes a long time to get that amount anyways. Sooo...We actually might NOT see him there if he's out n' about," she explained. Which also had you sighing in relief, from what she mentioned before you were a bit iffy about being flirted with by a video game character even if he was a real person in whatever reality you were in right now. "In fact...the Chairman's pretty strict when it comes to who gets in too. Only gym challengers who collected at least three badges are allowed in to visit even."

You rose a brow. "So, in order to battle Raihan you need all the badges from the other gym leaders, but in order to actually get into the city you have to get three badges? Seems a bit stricter than needed."

She shrugged. "It's supposed to motivate us to work harder I think. But we don't have to worry! I already got three badges so they should let us in. We'll know it when we see the place since it looks a lot like a castle!"

A castle? Well then that should be easy to spot at least. You had no idea how long it actually took to get there but you both soon fell into that familiar pattern of walking all day, pitching the tent, sleeping, then putting the tent away, and continue walking of course. You lost count after the third or fourth day of doing it as by now it had become a rather used to routine of yours. And of course eating your fill of whatever bland tasting foods you both had packed unless you were lucky enough to stumble upon another berry tree that your drizzilie eagerly climbed up and ate from. You were glad despite it's evolution that it's hunger hadn't increased too much, usually it would much rather sleep away in your pack as your walked or watched the world slowly go by. Tell you one thing, your back and shoulders sure weren't enjoying the new found experience of walking with even more extra weight added to yourself. Your body was easily more tired and sore by the end of each day and your sleeping was more deep, luckily Gloria now didn't seem to mind waiting and letting you sleep in now. Every new morning you found her outside the tent intently looking around the dirt roads you were following and guessed that she must've been waiting for her brother and best friend to catch up as they promised they would. You two hadn't seen or heard any sign of them in the days you've been traveling but neither of you were worried too much. You had a feeling you'd see them again if the game's story was being played out like it was, but you couldn't shake the feeling in the back of your head that something was going to happen sometime soon. You just wished you could remember what it was. Along the way the two of you passed one or two small towns on your way there and had momentarily stopped to restock your food replies but didn't find any sign of the two boys or motels to stay at. So you two kept on walking and camping as you got closer and closer to Hammerlocke according to that rotom inside Glory's phone. And then you two FINALLY saw it on the horizon, right after you managed to walk past a couple of trees that blocked your view of it.

Gloria pointed excitedly. "LOOK!! THERE IT IS!!" You glanced where she was pointed and even you had to blink, from far away it DID kinda look like a castle with what you could make out from some high walls and a few towers from your spot far away. She quickly grabbed your hand and gave a tug as encouragement to keep going. "C'mon we're almost there! I wanna see if the boys are there."

You wasted no time in complying in her request, after all you wanted to get there too and rest your aching feet thanks to mister water balloon lounging on your back. You were ready to just rest up for a while, but you persisted in increasing your pace for Gloria's sake as she seemed to gain a new and excited spring in her step at the promise of meeting back up with her crew. Well you couldn't really blame her for wanting to see them again. You yourself were curious about what happened between now and when you all left Motostoke some days ago. It took maybe one or two hours of you two walking to finally reach the 'town', and you had to say....it looked more like a giant building as far as you were concerned. The whole thing was MASSIVE and made from black and dark grey stones, the entrance literally being carved to look like some kind of dragon you had to pass through to get into the inner city. Gotta say. You were a fan of the design. It breathed the kind of Place a Dragon Type Gym Leader would live and work. As you two got closer (and noticed just how big it all was) you noticed that some man wearing the same white uniform and sunglasses as any other Gym Leader employees was standing in the shade of the steps leading up to Motostoke. His gaze laser focused on the two of you as you approuched. Shouldering up his body and holding out a hand towards the both of you as Gloria made it first to the first two steps of the Hammerlocke entrance way.

"Excuse me," he asked, "Are either of you two Gym Challengers? Only challengers with three or more badges may enter Hammerlocke for the duration of the Gym Challenge."

"I am!," Gloria confirmed before slinging that big old brown backpack of hers off her shoulders and you both watched as she opened and rummaged around in it. Presumably to get her badges for the man.

"Ah, a gym challenger. Allow me to check your gym badges, please young lady." he held his hand out to her expectantly and after a moment Gloria held out her badge circle to him containing the three badges she won and placed onto it so far. The man took them from her and you two waited patiently as he hummed and brought it up to his face to carefully examine. "Let's see here. The grass badge, the water badge, and the fire badge." After a moment longer he nodded and handed the circle back to her. "It's confirmed that you've defeated three gym leaders including the leader of Motostoke no doubt. You may enter. I wish you the best of luck in your future battles, Miss."

"Thanks!" She quickly took it from him and stuffed the thing back into her pack as the man looked back up.

"Oh, it's you!," he said, "The boss told me you were coming in today but I wasn't expecting you so early this morning."

"Naturally." Gloria froze at the voice and you turned around at the familiar male sounding voice. And your eyes widened as Bede just casually strolled up to the steps as well, "I'm never late to any meeting with the Chairman or the like. He doesn't like to be kept waiting-" He paused. Lavender eyes going wide as soon as he saw you but then went into a scowl as soon as Gloria turned around to scowl at him. "Oh, it's you...."

"Yeah?," she asked daring him to answer, pushing the lid on her pack closed and slinging it back over her shoulders. "Surprised ya ain't all frazzled like lint from Hop's battle with ya."

He scoffed. "Oh yes. I almost forgotten about him. You see...I doubt Hop will be coming. It's only natural."

She paused and even you rose a brow as Bede reached into one of the giant pockets of his. "....What are you talking about?"

"Ha! After such a humiliating defeat, there's no way he could look the Champion in the eyes. Here just look at the gym badges I've already won." He held up his own badge circle with coincidentally the same badges as Gloria up to the man who nodded at him. "I'm sure he'll withdraw from the challenge."

"Thank you, Challenger Bede. I can confirm you have the required badges."

"Anyway," He put the badge circle back into his giant pocket, "I have a meeting with the Chairman so I must excuse myself-" Bede leaned back as Gloria suddenly leaned forward at him with a glare.

"WHAT. Did. You. DO?," she demanded.

He blinked at her before scowling himself and (seemingly able to grow a more resistance to her anger from last time) brushed himself off. "I didn't do anything to him. I just simply beat Hop after all that confidence he spewed back at Motostoke."

"Oh no no no no. You did something else didn't ya? What did ya say to him?"

"The truth. Nothing more, nothing less."

"Why I-"

Gloria was suddenly pulled back by you with a confused yelp and even Bede paused when you gave him a glare. The type that a mother would a scold a child with that every kid could relate to seeing one time or another. "Bede." He paused wide eyed at you. "Go on to the Chairman. You don't want to be late." Gloria looked up at you even more confused at your calm tone but Bede made no time to waste as he snapped his head from you and quickly sped walked the stairs as they both of you watched. After he disappeared from your view completely, you let Gloria go with a look. "Hey. Are you alright?"

After a moment she nodded. "Yeah. But what did ya do that for? I had him right there itchin' for a battle."

"Remember what Victor said. You can't just pick a fight with him especially if the Chairman's here. I already had to apologize to him, so let's keep things civil. Ok?"

She huffed. "He's the bloody one who started it."

"I know. But let's let it go for now. Besides, if Bede could catch up to us this fast from Motostoke that means the others could too right?" You saw her perk up immediately at the propsition and you smiled, nodding towards the entrance way. "Come on. Let's go have a look around and see what's going on?"

She quickly agreed and together you two entered the darkened tunnel beyond the stairs. At the other end of the short tunnel was light and as the two of you exited, you gaped up in aw at the side before you. Before you was the biggest stone structure you had ever seen!! Surrounded by two other stone structures that looked oddly like wings in a way. It certainly screamed castle by it's magnificence. Everywhere you looked was a few houses and buildings all made from the same black-dark grey stones with some painted a bright shimmering gold in some places that reflected the sunlight to make it gleam. The place had it's OWN TOWN INSIDE OF ITS OWN WALLS and A FREAKING DRAW BRIDGE!!

".....I thought you said this place was just a stadium and power plant," you said after a moment to take it all in.

"I....guess they must've expanded from when Lee told me about this place." She looked around. "Where should we look first?"

"The Pokemon Center," you said without hesitation, "It's been a while since you had your pokemon looked at right? Plus it's a nice place to start that has seats and ac."

Luckily she agreed and it wasn't too long to find either since the center was literally right next to the entrance. The boys weren't there but you got to rest your legs for at least twenty peaceful minutes of relief, and Gloria was able to get her pokemon checked over. And Drizzilie as well since after what happened in Motostoke, you wanted to make sure that your pokemon was doing fine considering it's change, but the Nurse Joy assured you that he was totally fine and that it was indeed just normal Drizzilie nature to act like this. Thank goodness. You two (more like three after your Drizzilie noticed and repeated patted your shoulder until you gave in-) also got drinks from the man who was selling berry juice and such behind his counter at the center, tasted sour but it was nice at least. After that Gloria suggested you both walk around the town a little bit to see if you could spot the two of them. You didn't have any better ideas so you figured why not. It couldn't hurt to look around. Starting as soon as you two left the center, you both headed towards the right side of the town. There was around what you could tell was maybe about a good twenty or thirty houses that looked like the regular kind of space someone would live in so it didn't take long for you two to comb the streets of them with no signs of the two in sight. There was also the train station and when you went up a different path on the right side of Hammerlocke it lead to a dead end with a single school building and a giant statue of a pokeball.

You sighed aching feeling starting to return in your feet. "Man. They aren't here either are! ...Makes sense since I don't think they'd go to this school."

"No," Gloria agreed but perked up seeing the giant bronze statue of the pokeball and walking up to it, "Buuuut I heard a legend about the Hammerlocke Statue. They say if you touch it you'll be able to catch pokemon better. Can't hurt ta give it a wack."

You chuckled. "Go for it. You wouldn't have anything to lose after all." You watched as she smiled and with a giant grin slapped her hand down on the statue as it gave a soft thud sound where her hand made contact- "AH!?" You suddenly lurched forward from the force of your Drizzilie as it gave out the loudest sound of terror you ever heard coming out of it even when it was a sobble and scramble to hide itself into your pack completely. You nearly fell onto your face stumbling but by some miracle didn't fall down...before snapping your head around to your shivering back pack. "HEY! Drizzilie what's the big deal?!"

...Gloria blinked. "What just happened?"

You shook your head. "The heck if I know. He acted like he saw a ghost or something-"

"H-Hello there," a weak voice called out. Gloria yelped and whirled around behind her at the sudden voice and you also looked. ...Brows suddenly widening in surprise as a little girl who couldn't have looked older than six, seven, or eight years old tops shyly came out from behind the statue with something in her hand. But it wasn't that that surprised you. She wore an old fashioned little girl's dress you'd expected a little girl back in the 1950's to wear and short black hair, but what really had you staring was her skin which looked ghastly pale against her bright dress and dark hair. With bags under her very tired looking eyes, as if she was sick with a fever. "You look like someone I might trust." Her voice although small typical for a girl her age, sounded lightly raspy, and weak. Matching her sick appearance.

The two of you exchanged a look for a moment before Gloria knelt down to get eye level with the tired looking girl. "Hey there wee las." She said with a soft voice. "Are ye lost? What do you need help with?" Silently, she held up the thing in her hand which you finally noticed was a letter. A very OLD looking letter as the paper looked yellowed and the wax seal on it looked about as brittle as sand. She looked at it for a moment before slowly taking it from her. "What's this?"

"You see, there's I fancy and I....I...I've written him a love letter."

"....Aw! Did ye now?" She smiled. "That's so bloody sweet of you."

The girl nodded. "Do you think you might deliver it for me?"

Gloria immediately nodded. "Of course I will!"

"Really? Oh thank you thank you!," the little girl smiled brightly despite her tired appearance, "I'm so glad I found someone like you to help me!"

"By the way," you asked looking around. You didn't see any grown ups around. Where were her parents?, "What's your name?"

"My name is Paula. Here you go! This is the letter I want you to deliver!" She pushed Gloria's hand holding the letter towards her and you thought you saw Gloria pause for a moment blinking..Before she slowly stood up and held out the letter to you to look at. "Deliver it to Frank, won't you? Frank lives in Bellonlea. That's who you want."

You both gave each other a look as Gloria spoke. "Bellonlea? That's a long way from here."

You nodded. "Hey Paula. Where's your pare-" You froze. Absolutely froze. And when Gloria looked too she blinked...Before looking around. ..And you whipped around yourself. Paula. Who had just been standing in front of you less than five seconds ago. WAS. GONE. There weren't any signs of her leaving and no footsteps you heard. Gloria event stopped to walk around the statue but came out the other side alone...and the both of you stared at one another. ".....Where did she go?"

Gloria shrugged. "I dunno man." Her foot tapped the spot where Paula was just standing. "She was literally standing right here a minute ago. Her touch was so cold. Did ya see her leave?"

"No. Did you?" She shook her head no again. Leaving the both of you standing there with nothing but the letter in Gloria's hand as proof of her even existing.....Until you pointed back the way you came. "Come on. Let's go check the other side of town for the guys." You said hoping to get away from the awkward tention.

You two quickly left the area with Gloria slipping the letter into her pack as you did, and off to the left side of the town you went. Passing the center as you did. There was at least another twenty-thirty houses, an antique store, a small gym, a barber shop, a cafe, and a clothes store like back in Postwick. But still no signs of the guys. And then there was something called 'The Vault' that was being guarded by some men but you two didn't pay it much mind in the end as you searched. But still no signs of Hop or Victor anywhere.

"UGH!! This is useless!," Gloria gripped her hat in frustration. "We've been wondering around lookin' for 'em ALL DAY! And still ain't no signs of 'em bloody anywhere!"

You nodded looking around. Your Drizzilie had resumed it's regular position after a while of hiding thank goodness it seemed to be ok. "Maybe they haven't gotten here yet? Hop did say he wanted to stay a few days in Motostoke and catch some pokemon. We shouldn't give up yet."

"Yeah I guess. But they should've been here if the mareep head is. I wonder if I should call 'em-"

"Pst! Hey you!" Both of you paused...Another voice?? This time male and sounded around Gloria's age- Gloria whipped around quickly in expectation but the teen you were both met with wasn't Victor or Hop. Or even Bede. It was a red headed boy in a red hoodie, black sweats, and blue shoes. "You heard the rumor?" He asked the both of you.

....You both looked at each other bewildered for a moment before you shrugged. "...No?" Gloria slowly looked back to the boy. "I haven't. What rumor?"

"What? You haven't heard!?," the boy asked surprised, "There's a rumor if you give the one you like an applin, you'll be together forever!"

".....OH!! That old wive's tale!"

"....Applin?", you asked.

"It's a pokemon. The story goes that the first Queen of Galar's favorite pokemon was an applin and so her fiance gave 'er one as a gift on their weddin' day. Since then it's been tradition ta give one to a person yer romantically interested in when ya confess your feelings. Hop told me that story once," Gloria explained and the boy nodded.

"Actually the truth is, there's someone I like," the boy confessed looking down and scuffing his shoe on the ground, "She's gonna move over seas pretty soon...I've been searching for an applin so I can get my feelings across the right way. But I can't find one."

"Huh. Fancy that. You're the second one today who's told us they wanted to confess their feelings ta someone," Gloria chuckled, "But whatcha stop me for?"

"Well i-it's not just you two,'' he confirmed holding up a hand, "I've asked anyone here if they have an applin they'd trade me with. If you've got an applin, would you please give it to me?"

....You shook your head. "Sorry. But I've only ever had one pokemon and you're looking at him." Your drizzilie yawned in response.

"Actually," the both of you looked to Gloria smiling, "I do have one. While we was checkin' out that daycare back in Turrfield I adopted one from one of the random abandoned rotomi boxes. I think it's still in my personal inventory."

The boy's eyes widened. "Whoa! You mean you'll really give me an applin?!"

Gloria nodded. "Sure I will if it helps out your lady love!" She giggled before jamming her thumb behind her. "But wait 'ere for a sec. I gotta go get it from the center."

The boy nodded urgently. "Yes! I-I will! Thank you! B-B-But hurry! S-She's leaving tomorrow and I-I asked her to meet me later today!"

Gloria nodded turning quickly. "Don't worry! Stay right here I'll be back as fast as I can!" And she took off...You blinked and quickly made to jog to catch up with her.

"Hey! Whoa! You're handing him your pokemon just like that?"

She nodded as you caught up with her. "Yeah! I can tell he was bein' honest with me. 'Sides he's nice. Nicer than that mareep head anyways."

You nodded. Couldn't really blame her opinion on Bed-..........De.......BEDE!! "He's the troubled one!" You suddenly shouted and stopped. You must've caught Gloria off guard because she stopped just a few yards ahead of you as you stared at nothing suddenly....THAT'S IT!! THAT'S THE PERSON WHO YOU HAD THE BAD FEELING ABOUT!! BEDE WAS THE RIVAL WHO'D GET THAT LIFE CHANGING CHARACTER DEVELOPEMENT MOMENT!! .....But what!? ....GAH!! You couldn't remember what happens to him in game!! Your hand smacked your face in a face palm and you groaned. "UUUUUUUUHHHHHHHH!!!! GREAT!! Just my luck too!"

"....Yeah he's the troubled one." You slowly peeked your f/c eyes between your fingers to look at the confused brunette. "But whatcha goin' on 'bout now??"

....You shook your head. "Nothing." And looked up with a steeled face. "But Gloria. I NEED you to do something for me. And I need you to promise me to do it no matter what!"

Gloria must've been taken a back a bit because her face went concerned before she slowly nodded. "....Ok? What's it ya want me to do?"

She blinked as you very seriously grabbed her shoulders, looked her in the eyes, and spoke in a serious tone. "Gloria...I NEED you to apologize to Bede the next time you see him."

Gloria froze for a moment. Drawing a complete blank as if her brain was processing what you said with a reboot. "..............WHAT!? Are you crazy!? ME!? Apologize to the wooloo for brains for what he did!?"

"No! Not apologize for what he did to YOU. But apologize for what you did to him." She rose a brow and you sighed. "Gloria. I need you to apologize to Bede for yelling at him. And for calling him names like Mareep Head. That doesn't excuse his behavior and it doesn't make what he did ok, but I think he's about to go through something and I think it'll be better if there wasn't so much tention between you two. And after you apologise you shouldn't call him 'mareep head' or 'wooloo for brains' any more." You couldn't exactly tell her your reason why but you REALLY had a feeling whatever was about to happen was going to be big for him. And it'd be so much better the less tention there was between the rivals. And...with Bede being endorsed by the Chairman and all it'd be better for both her and Hop if most of the tention stopped. "You don't HAVE to forgive or forget what he did, and you DONT have to put up with him. But.....I can't explain why. So please as a friend just do me this favor."

Gloria stared at you for the longest time......before she sighed. Smiled. And nodded happily. "Ok."

....

.......

..........What-

"WHAT?!" You blinked. Hands dropping to your sides as she chuckled at your smackgobbed face. "A-Again?? Just like that!? You'll apologize to him??"

She nodded with a determined smile. "Hey. Victor and you already said I shouldn't fight with the mar-...Bede anymore! If apologizin' is what it's gonna take then I can suck it up and do it. After all ya apologized for me, so I can apologize for you just this once."

.......You breathed a long sigh of relief, weight lifting from your shoulders. "Thank you! I owe you one."

She shook her head. "Nah. Let's call it even. Kay? C'mon. Let's get that mate an applin before his lady love shoves off for a different region all together."

You nodded and with new found relief off you went towards the center. It didn't take too long for the two of you to reach it and immediately enter. Once inside Gloria made her way over to the Rotomi machine thingy than reminded you of an ATM and as soon as she pressed a button, the robotic pokemon on top danced to life as she worked it. Feeling slightly exhausted, you looked up feeling a tap on your shoulder and when you looked your Drizzilie pointed towards the man selling juice again. Before looking at you in question. With a sigh you nodded and went towards the man who was of course happy to sell you another cup of juice for your pokemon. RIP the rest of your money. You only had a few coins left from the change back as you stuffed them back into your pocket with a sigh and the man handed your eager pokemon a cup of reddish juice. It quickly jugged down the entire thing within a few seconds before giving a pleased chirp sound. You chuckled and rolled your eyes. Well at least someone was happy-...You paused..Blinking and turning around as a blur of pink and white fluffy hair walked past the center's window...No. It couldn't be! It would've been too much of a coincidence if it was...But still. You quickly moved towards the door as Gloria curiously looked up from the machine after your retreating form as you stepped out of the center, and looked around. ..No sign of him-

"Mr. Chairman!" You blinked at the familiar voice...before peeking around the corner and low and behold there the white haired boy was! Walking towards...you frowned. Oleana and the chairman who was...wearing the same weird outfit you saw him wear in Hulbury. Seriously, what was with the polka dot shorts?? Bede walked right up to the two who looked at him. "I've been both collecting wishing stars and gym badges as fast as I can. "

"Good work, Bede." Oleana complimented crossing her arms. "I'm glad you haven't forgotten that it was the Chairman who endorsed you." You instantly frowned. What was the deal with this woman!?

"If I gather enough wishing stars that'll help solve the problem that's been bothering you, right Mr. Chairman?" Your brows rose. So that's why Bede was collecting lots of wishing stars!? The Chairman was using them for something!! ...But why would the Chairman of an entire region need wishing stars that just Dynamax pokemon??

"Oh it's not just about me," the chairman clarified, "It's for the future of the whole Galar Region. And we'll need more than just wishing stars. We need a powerful pokemon trainer, too. Someone like the Champion."

"With all due respect, Sir, I was able to show Hop, one of the champion endorsed trainers, just how outclassed he was." You frowned more. Ok. You could see how Gloria and Hop could get mad at him. "I'm sure I'll be able to defeat the Champion. No. I WILL defeat the Champion."

"That's the spirit! It takes healthy competition to really keep the Gym Challenge Energized!" .......He called THAT healthy competition!?!?

Unknownst to you, Gloria had come out of the center and spotted you after looking around a bit, poke ball in hand which must've been the applin for the boy she promised. She walked over to you before blinking and looking towards where you were looking at, and pausing a moment seeing the same trio you must have.

"Challenger Bede, there is something I wish to disscuss with you. Do you have a moment?," Oleana asked.

Bede nodded to her and she silently beckoned him to follow her as she turned and began walking off with him and the chairman- You jumped as a blur rushed past you and it took you a moment to realize that it was Gloria. And the brunette was barraling right towards the white haired boy as he walked after Oleana and the Chairman. ....!? OH NO!!! You opened your mouth to shout at her to wait and stop if she was going to fight but even if you did she wouldn't have heard you, and it was too late!

"WWWAAAAAAIIITT!!! BEDE!!," She shouted at the top of her lungs gaining the attention of both Bede, and Oleana and of course the Chairman as all three stopped to turn around and see who could've been the one who had called his name. "I HAVE TO TELL YA SOMETHIN' IMPORTANT!!"

Bede looked stunned to say the least blinking purple eyes wide as he took in the sight of Gloria racing right up to him, as the two adults behind him looked slightly surprised. Before he scowled at her. "YOU AGAIN!? I don't have time to deal with you! If it's a battle you want it'll have to wait after my business with Ms. Oleana and the Chairma-"

As he turned to go away, Gloria had straight up grabbed his hand which had the dynamax band on his wrist causing him to turn back around to face the heavily breathing brunette who gasped for breath stunnded. .....Oh no!! Blinking out of your stupor you began jogging your way towards them hoping to stop any misreadings on the situation before it got out of hand. In the mean time Bede had paused blankly, stunned....Looking between his hand and Gloria for a moment before frowning and tugging his hand only to find her tightly glued to it.

"I-....I h-have a c-c-confession ta make to ya!," she wheezed out between breaths staring at him pokeball in hand.

"Well whatever it is it can wait until I'm finished!," he stated firmly tugging on his hand. "Would you please mind letting go of my hand?"

She shook her head. "No! I've been meaning to do this the moment I realized I should've done it after our first encounter in the mines!" She said apologetically and it made you slow down as you got closer...OH!! She was going to apologize! But Bede looked at her confused. "Bede...I.." Her lips pursed for a moment as her face almost gave a cringe. Before slamming her eyes shut. Grit her teeth. And blurted it out. "I-I'm sorry! I called ya names n' yelled at ya!"

That made everyone quiet as they stared. You in relief. Bede stunned confusion. Oleana.....Oleana. And the chairman suddenly looking interested seeming to realize who it was talking to Bede.

".....I-...*ahem* Well..." Bede tried to straighten himself obviously not sure how to handle the closed eyed girl gripping his hand apologizing.

"I know, I know! But somethin' recently came up that made me realize I had ta do this n' if ya did beat some one fair and square then there ain't nothin' I could do about it...but believe me t-this is a lot harder for me to do ..c-c-confessing in all." You smiled. Good, good. This was going well.

....That was until she peeked an eye open to Bede's expression as he stared...Eyes darting around for any way to escape this. "I Uh..." He cleared is throat righting himself into that usually serious faced person. "Well then. It's seems you truly and finally came to your senses enough to realize I..." His eyes landed on the poke ball still clutched in her hand...and suddenly that calm face went suspicious. He glanced between her and the pokeball. Before using his free hand to point at it. "And WHAT is that your holding??"

She blinked holding it up with a shrug. "Nothin' really. Just a lil applin."

A smack sound was heard as you AND your Drizzilie utterly face palmed HARD with the reality hit before you. Bede went once again into that wide eyed shocked mode Jaw dropped. Behind him Oleana's face went slightly wide eyed in surprise, the Chairman looked totally taken by surprise too before hummed and grabbing his chin with a thoughtful expression.

Bede looked between her face and the pokeball so many times wide eyed and sputtering strange noises that sounded like words he was trying to form as she rose a brow confused. "....A-Are...." He looked at her suddenly in the eyes. "A-ARE YOU SERIOUS RIGHT NOW!?" His eyes narrowed. "Like...Y-You're not joking with me or m-m-making fun of me right now are you!? I-I have y-y-you know I don't appreciate being toyed with, Girl!!"

She scowled. "OF COURSE IM BEING SERIOUS RIGHT NOW!! Y'know how hard it was for me to make myself run up to ya and say all that! And for your intel fancy pants! It IS an applin! I wouldn't lie 'bout the pokemon I have! I was gonna give it away after the lil confessin' I forced myself ta do." You wanted to die from second hand embarrassment from her obliviousness to the situation she unknowingly put herself in.

Bede went wide eyed before his face turned about as pink as the coat he was wearing. He glanced a couple more times between her and the pokeball. ...Before in one swift movement he yanked his hand out of her grip and turned away head down and hands shoved into his pockets. "I....I-I....*AHEM*...I-I appreciate what you have decided to tell me...B-But I'll need time to think about if I accept such outlandish words from you or not...It...It might be best if we go our seperate ways for a while to let me think on t-that."

Gloria blinked at him still oblivious...before nodding proudly of herself and satisfied with the answer she got from the obviously flustered boy. "I'm glad we agree on that. I don't think I need ta say anymore to get my point across."

"A-A-AGREED!!" He looked desperately to the older woman. "M-Ms. Oleana you wanted to see me??"

Oleana looked to the Chairman who chuckled after a moment and nodded before Oleana turned around and Bede quickly followed after him as you dared continued to walk up to her. She smiled as she turned to you. "Well I think that went better than expected!"

You shook your head with a groan. "Actually I think it could've gone better."

Gloria rose a brow and was about to ask what you meant when the two of you were cut off by a chuckle of the chairman....Oh shoot! You forgot he was here. The man waved a hand casually. "Not too worry. Bede will be fine. But either way I hope you were listening, Gloria." She looked more confused at him. "As you know, wishing stars are those mysterious stones that are even attached to your Dynamax bands. There's more to wishing stars than just making your pokemon into giants though. They hold far more energy than that."

".....There is what?"

He chuckled. "If you're curious, then you should head to the stadium. In fact, we should head inside right away.I'll even give you a lesson on how the Galar Region gets it's energy." He nodded to you. "And of course your friend is more than welcome to join us like last time. I'm interested in getting your opinion." Ah nuts he DID remember you.

"Mm....Sure I guess."

"Excellent." He smiled turning. "You ladies follow me and Ill give you the tour." The two of you looked at each other before Gloria shrugged and began following him as you sighed. How did you get yourself into these things?? But you also followed him. Mr. Rose lead you all across the draw bridge that lead into the main castle which had a giant red and black stripped rug and was lit by actual torches. As you both took in the darkness and barely light around you, you followed the Chairman as he walked. You followed him until you all turned a corner and were surprised to find the entrance to the stadium!! Well it was closed off with a few people and security around, and to no one's surprise found Oleana plain faced waiting for the lot of you. "As you know, Hammerlocke's stadium doubles as an energy plant." The chairman continued walking up to Oleana and holding up a hand. Immediately she handed him a tablet that was in her hands. "Now have a look at my tablet. I've got all the information you need on it." He held it out to Gloria. She took it, looking confused at it for a moment, before tapping the screen and what you would best call a diagram and a friendly looking picture of Mr. Rose himself popped up. "See? An easy to understand description of the energy plant! First, energy is absorbed from Hammerlocke Stadium's tower. Then it's changed into electricity in the underground power plant and delivered to people throughout the region!" He went on to explain. "Our lives and society require various types of energy sources, such as electricity, natural gas, and water. My associate groups aim to improve everyone's lives by harnessing the power stored in wishing stars!"

Both of you looked up obviously surprised by what he said before Gloria glanced back to the tablet raising a brow before holding it back out to him. "But I thought only Professor Magnolia's Dynamax bands could harness the energy, wouldn't ye need 'er help??"

He took the tablet back before handing it to Oleana. "That's what Oleana and my team is for. I'm hoping Sonia would join us after her travels and research is finished."

"....Why are you telling us this?," you asked, "It sounds petty important. Wouldn't you want to keep that info to yourself?" It was also suspicious just telling you two but then again Bede did say more than once he was gathering wishing stars for the Chairman so maybe this was just you being too paranoid...But still that uneasy feeling you got when you were around these two were back.

The chairman paused as if sensing your feelings before smiling. "Experiments with Wishing Stars is nothing new. Professor Magnolia has done it for years and look what she created! Other scientists are currently studying their properties other than just us, and I believe Sonia is looking into the history of the origin of their power. So it's not really private knowledge." ....You...guessed that made sense. "Besides. If Bede's going to become the next Champion perhaps having any strong trainers by his side might be beneficial to our cause." And that bad feeling doubled! Oleana leaned over to whisper something to him and he hummed. "...Oh. It's time for me to get to work. I should get a move on before Oleana decides to give me another earful." He chuckled. "Gloria, I suggest you head over to the vault next. Just head toward Route Six from the stadium and you should find the vault without any issues. If you ladies would excuse us. It was nice to see you both again." With that they turned and you both watched as they walked towards a guarded elevator and went right in.

When the doors closed behind them Gloria turned a brow to you. "Well that was weird ain't it?"

"Good riddance I say." You turned to her after a moment and pointed to her pokeball. "Hey. Weren't you supposed to give that to the guy?"

She hummed looking to her pokeball then jumped. "OH GOSH I FORGOT!!" She twisted on her heel and made a break for it. "C'mon Y/n! We got no time ta lose!"

You sighed but complied by turning and jogging off after her. It was going to be a long day you could tell. But still you two made a promise and you were going to keep it. And that's exactly what Gloria did. You were more tired than her jogging around and carrying more weight, so it would make sense by the time you caught up with her you were wheezing for breath and had a back as sore as it could get, doubling over and hands on your knees a few yards away from Gloria who offered the wide eyed teen the poke ball with a smile breathing heavily herself.

"S-Sorry it took so long, mate!" She handed it into his awaiting hands. "O-One applin as promised!"

"YES!!" He held the ball into the air. "WOW! I did it! I finally got an applin! Thank you! Thank you so much! Since you went through the trouble of giving me an applin I've got to tell her how I feel!"

Gloria nodded. "When is she coming anyways?"

The boy went to speak, but suddenly stopped wide eyed. Fumbling with the ball for a second and looking past Gloria who turned her head behind her as another teen girl with darker brown hair in a ponytail and a yellow shirt approuched with a smile. "O-Oh! Geez!! T-T-That's her now!!".....Gloria whistled turning on her heel and walked aways from the boy to you as she came over. Smooth. Too bad she wasn't that smooth when apologizing.

Nervous the boy rubbed his head as the girl walked right up to him. "Sorry I'm late" she apologized. "What was it that you needed to talk about so suddenly?"

He sputtered. "I....Er....H-How's your packing going?" You facepalmed for the third time that day.

"Pretty much everything's been packed. Since I'm moving away tomorrow."

"Yeah," he agreed with a sad look in his eyes before taking a deep breath, "H-Hey! Check out this pokemon here!" He stated holding the pokemon out to her.

Blinking she looked at the pokeball then to him before slowly accepting and holding his ball curiously. "..What is it?"

"It's uh!.." He looked down and rubbed his next. "A-A-An applin." She blinked up surprise suddenly gracing her features. "F-For you."

"Oh. An applin?" He nodded and she looked back to the ball for a moment silence falling over them. It continued on for so long you and Gloria exchanged a slightly worried glance feeling awkward watching the seen. Luckily the girl smiled before looking back to her blue eyed friend. "Amazing. Did you catch it?"

The blinked surprised by her reaction before he looked embarrased and shook his head no. "W-Well...N-No. Someone gave it to me. B-B-But NOT romantically gave it too me!" He clarified holding up his hands. "I-I traded for it! I-I..." He slumped arms to his sides. "I'm sorry. I really wanted to give you an applin that I caught on my own. But well...Ah just forget it. I can't give you this applin." WHAT!?

"You're right. I can't take it," she agreed handing it back to him. Double WHAT!?

"Yeah.."

"Even if we're separated and far away from each other, I'll still be waiting for an applin you caught yourself." She giggled at his sudden dumbfounded expression.

"W-Wait. Do you mean-?" He was quickly shut up when she out of no where kissed his cheek, and Gloria chuckled as his expression went as pink as Bede's coat.

"Ah! Um...I'll uh-....I'll see you later!," she said just as flustered and pink faced before she quickly turned on her heel and lightly squealing with joy ran off. Leaving the boy wide eyed and jaw dropped and you two as witnesses.

Gloria snorted and you gave a tap to her shoulder to get her to stop. The boy after a moment picked his jaw up off the ground and turned to you. "Say. W-What do you think that was about just now? D-D-Do you think it meant that-?"

"That she likes you back?," Gloria asked before nodding. "Sure does pal. Good on you!"

He chuckled nervously. "T-Thank you? Wait! Does that mean what I think i-i-it means!?" She nodded again at his wide eyed face. "Really, really!? I can't believe it!" He threw his hands up. "WOO HOO!! ...Ah...Sorry. I just never thought that we both felt the same way."

"Oh don't worry. I'm used to seeing that by now," you clarified.

"Right. Well, I'd better give this pokemon back to you." He handed Gloria back her pokeball and before reaching into his jacket pocket and pulling out something. "Here. Take this, too. Think of it as a reward for helping me take that first step." It looked to you two like some kind of coupons but you weren't sure. "I'm going to catch an applin myself! And then someday, I'm going to go giver her that applin. ...YEAH! I b-better get searching for an applin!" He turned with an extra bright smile on that face of his. "Thanks again, Mate! See ya!"

"Good luck!," Gloria called after him waving.

"Well...Today's been an exciting one," you stated stretching you back hissing as you did. "Looking around the castle town, seeing the chairman and his weird secretary, ...I guess technically apologizing to Bede, getting a letter from a mysterious girl, and helping someone confess their love. I think we've had enough excitement for one day. Does this place have an inn or a hotel we can stay at?"

"I didn't see one when we looked around."

"Camping doesn't sound too bad," a voice said with a chuckle.

"Yeah that does sound-"....You looked behind you and nearly had a heart attack when you came face to face with Leon himself! Jumping back and clutching your chest where your heart was as he gave a few laughs! "CHEESE AND RICE DONT DO THAT!!" You shouted your drizzilie chirped annoyed at him.

He chuckled a little more as you pouted at him and he shurgged. "Sorry. I couldn't help myself! I saw you just standing there and thought I should come up and say hi since it's been a while." Before you could say anything in response to that he was distracted by a happy squeal and turned to Gloria.

"LEON!!," she shouted jumping up to hug onto him.

With a laugh and smile he twirled around once cape flowing with her before planting her back down on her feet...And you couldn't help but shake your head with a smile. "Hey! Look at you, Gloria! You've groan exactly half an inch since I last saw you!" He fondly ruffled the giggling gal's hair. "Seems you're doing well collecting gym badges. I saw your recording of battling Kabu and I gotta say I'm so proud of you guys for making it this far!"

She beamed smiling wider than you had ever seen her before. "You are!? Aw. It was nothin'! Hop won his before I even did. He's the real one you should be proud of."

He nodded with a hum and you watched as he rubbed his neck like Hop. Family habit you supposed. "I am proud of him too! But Hop..." He suddenly looked down. "Gloria did something happen with him?" She blinked surprised. "He was acting really odd when I ran into him. He took one look at me and immediately was like "I'm so sorry, Lee!" It might be the first time I've heard him apologize for anything, and I have no idea what it was for. Maybe he's feeling down because he's had some losses in battle?"

"OH I KNEW IT!!" Both of you blinked to Gloria who scowled and huffed. "He lost to that challenger Bede! He was making fun of us and you and bein' a real pain in the tush!"

Leon stared at her for a moment before humming and catching her attention. "Well that would explain it. But he's got to learn sometime."

She blinked. "Whaddya mean?"

"Well...When you lose, you feel down in the dumps. But then there's no where left to go but back up! You've got to think on why it was you lost, though," he explained to her as she blinked.

"But...he lost before to Nessa and he didn't act like that when he did."

"Ah. I see. Well sometimes the reaction can depend on the person who you lose too. You said he made fun of you and me?" She nodded as he gave a thoughtful face. "I see. Well then if that happened he might be taking it a bit more personally. But we all have to handle people who don't like us on our journies. The important thing is to know that their words don't mean anything." He smiled. "Everyone's amazing in their own way, and someone else's hateful words shouldn't affect how you grow. So don't worry about him. You know that little brother of mine. I think he might yet become a surprisingly great trainer!"

Wise words. Wise words that seemed to get to Gloria as she nodded, "Yeah...Yeah you're right!" She smiled. "Hop's too smart to let that get him down anyways! He'll make it to the top guarenteed!"

"That's the spirit! Blast! And look at the time!" He scanned the sun real quick before groaning. "Nearly forgot my meeting with the Chairman! That Oleana lets me hear it when I'm late! Now only if I can remember which way to go-"

"They're at his power plant." Leon turned to you in question and you pointed back up the way you came. "Go that way to the pokemon center, you can't miss the thing it's the only thing here that's bright pink. Then turn left and he's inside his power plant last time we saw 'em."

He blinked before smiling brightly at you. "Hey thanks, Y/n. It was really good seeing you again. And seeing how that sobble of yours grew." He patted Gloria who smiled at him in return. "And it was so good seeing you too. You're doing a great job so far! Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Anyways, I'd say that you should go and say hello to Raihan while you're here, Gloria!"

You paused and Gloria's eyes widened in wonder. "HE'S HERE!?"

He laughed again and nodded behind him. "Yeah! In fact he was my ride back here. He's the greatest rival I've got and the final hurdle you'll have to face in the Gym Challenge. Besides me of course. He should be still at the vault if you hurry. It's down that way." He pointed directly behind him. "On the way to Route Six...At least I think that's where it is. I'm not too good with directions."

"OMG!! IT'S THE CHAMPION!!"

Leon suddenly looked behind him as a small group had already gathered. "Uh oh! I-I'll see you later girls!" With a final pat to Gloria's head he RAN!! And the crowd gave chase. "S-Say Hi to Hop for me when you see him again!"

In a moment you quickly grabbed Gloria and yanked her out of the way of the stampeding twelve people's way as the crowd gave chase after the running champion and you both watched as they passed you. "GEEZ!! Does that happen to him all the time?"

Gloria nodded grabbing your arm. "Way more times than I can remember. But come on!" With a smile she tugged you forward in the direction Leon pointed. "I've never met Raihan before! And even the Chairman said I should visit the vault!"

"Hey, hey, hey! Whoa there! I thought we agreed to find somewhere to rest for the night."

"But Y/n!!," she whined tugging you again sad frown on her face, "I'm curiously about what this vault is now! So we gotta check it out! And plus! This might be my only chance of meeting Raihan casually without havin' the stress of a battle on my shoulders! If he's as amazin' as Lee says then I gotta at least say Hi!"

Your frowned back. "Yeah. I'm kinda iffy about the whole flirting with me part! I've never been hit on before."

She looked surprised for a moment. "Really? But you're so pretty! That's hard ta believe."

"Thank you. I'm glad you think that but that's not the point. The point is I don't feel like getting hit on by a guy who takes selfies and by the looks of it is abnoxious!," You insisted. Plus he was in your dream too and you'd rather avoid anymore interaction with anyone from your dream outside Leon who was genuinely nice. You were getting flirty bad boy vibes by what you've heard and seen and that was not your ideal type of guy in mind.

"PLEEEEEAAAASSSSEE!?," she begged you tugging on your arm. "Please please please! I promise It'll be the only favor I ask ya! Please won't ya do it just this one time!!"

You groaned throwing your head back. Knowing her she wouldn't budge til she got what she was after. "....Fine! But at the first sign of trouble we're outta there!"

Immediately her face lit up and she squealed happily like any teen you knew from back home meeting a boy band they loved. "YES!! Thank you thank you thank you! You won't regret it I promise!!"

"We'll have to see about that," You mumbled but let her tug you along with a newfound skip in her happy step as you went. You were right. This was definately gonna be a LONG day!

You let her drag your already annoyed and sore self towards the way Leon had pointed out to you past the barber shop you two had passed by earlier and onto another draw bridge as you came across it. Brow raised as you passed by a second pokemon center, did this place really need two of them?? And past a few people as you went. At one point you duo passed a group of about four woman who were excitedly chattering at a blushing girl in the center who held a piece of paper in her hands red faced embarrassed as a person could guess....You had a scary sinking feeling you knew where they had just come from. And an even more scarier feeling when you found out you weren't wrong. Because all of a sudden Gloria stopped, making you bump into her, gasped wide eyed like she had just seen a ghost, grabbed your arm tighter, and pointed with the other hand in front of you both! Blinking you looked up...and suddenly wanted to curl up into a whole and never come back out. There he was. The third person from your dream. the undenyable orange badanna dragom gym leader of Hammerlocke himself, Raihan. He looked...Bored. Leaning up against two double doors, which you had guessed was the vault, and lazily scolling through his phone....But perked up when he felt eyes on him and glanced over in your direction. As soon as he made eye contact with you he smiled. AH HECK NO!! You turned to leave but there was a problem as Gloria still had a good grip on your arm so you yelped in panic when she went forward with a happy smile on her face, and Raihan leaned himself off the wall as you approuched. OH FRICK OH FRICK OH SWEEET BABY SOBBLES!!

"Oh. Hey there, Ladies!," he greeted a fanged smile sent your guys' way when Gloria dragged your wincing form right up to him. "Nice day for a walk. If it isn't the trainer endorsed by the champion. Let's see...What's your name again?" He hummed for a moment eye brow perked up in thought at the excited girl standing before him before snapping his fingers and pointing at her. "Ah right! Gloria! And if Leon himself recognized your potential then I guess you'll grow into quite the trainer."

You rose a brow. ...Well that polite compliment wasn't what you expected at first. But Gloria gasped finally letting go of your arm. "You know who I am!?"

He laughed this time. But not in a mean way, more of an amuzed way. "Are you kidding? All Leon ever talks about is you and your brother and Hop! And how amazing you kids are. All the same though, anyone wanting to challenge the mighty Raihan has to prove they're up to it by earning seven gym badges first."

...She blinked. "Oh uh..." Embarrassed she kicked her foot against the ground. "A-Actually I-I'm not here to challenge ya. I just wanted to m-meet ya in person and c-check out the vault of course!!"

"Ah so you're here to see our treasures are you?" Gloria nodded to him. "Gaining a better understanding of pokemon by studying history certainly isn't a bad idea." Your brows raised even more in surprise. "I like your spirit, Kid!" He nodded towards the doors laying a hand on them. "Follow me why don't you?" With a single push from his hands they opened and he went inside, well Gloria excitedly went in right after him and by default you too. Hey. He hadn't said a single flirty word. Maybe this would be tolerable. " The room he walked into was...Honestly very plain looking. There was two giant shelves covered in trophier, a few seats leaned against one corner, a staircase leading elsewhere, A woman manning a counter, and some kind of symbol plastored on the wall. Blinking back up when Gloria gasped. "I'll even spare you one of my league cards. Signed of course as for any fan." Now you realized why she gasped. He had just handed her one of his league cards and was smiling brightly at him which made him chuckle before lazily pointing up the staircase. "Now on you go. If it's the vault you want it's up those stairs there."

Gloria blinked for a moment looking towards the stairs then back to Raihan and smiled. "H-Hey Thanks!" Before turning and slowly walking her way towards the stairs, card in hand.

You sighed in relief. Thank goodness he kept it casual. You didn't know how you'd react if-

"And I didn't know Lee had such cute friends.~" Your eyes must've looked like those funny googily eyed stickers you'd buy from the store by how wide they looked when you snapped to him. And this guy just stared calmly with a polite smile...And. WINKED!! At you!

You stood there for a moment before your Drizzilie gave a loud warning chirp in his direction to which Raihan blinked at. Gave you enough time in his moment of confusion to BOLT your way to the stairs weight and aching pain be darned and scrambled after Gloria a weird feeling coming over you. "Remind me to give you a big dinner later as a thanks!" Your pokemon thrummed in approval and you made your way and into the..outside?? What the? You slowed down your pace as you got higher and higher. And dared to look down which was a HUGE mistake because you instantly felt a twisting feeling in your gut realizing how HIGH you were off the ground and without safety bars from just one flight of stairs alone. Swallowing the lump in your throat, you dared to continue up the stone steps towards a door at the top.

"Whatever happened to the sword and shield that drove off the disaster?"

You rose a brow as you walked forward more towards the familiar sounding female voice all the way towards the open door...No there's no way SHE would be here too! But alas when you walked right in. Your eyes widened. The room was MASSIVE!! High brick walls, giant windows, and four giant tapestries lined the front walls. One depicting two men under a light, the next the two men by what looked like a storm(??), the third them, the storm, and a sword and shield in the sky, and the last one of the two men as kings. Not sure what story it told but it looked heroic as in a fairytale. As your eyes trailed down to two women in the room one was obviously Gloria who was chatting with Sonia and the other. Was obviously...Sonia. You blinked wide eyed at the lady but was relieved to see her as you stepped in with a smile.

"Hey, Sonia!," You called out.

said red head looked at you and smiled as you walked over to her. "Hey! Y/n, I thought you couldn't be too far behind if Gloria was here." She paused seeing the little hitch hiker leaning on your shoulder that was your Drizzilie, as she pointed at him. "Hey. Is that who I think it is?"

You smiled and nodded. "Yep. Apparently he was closer to evolving that you guys thought. He ended up doing that when Gloria borrowed him for a battle. Still hungry as a snorlax tho." Drizzilie shot you a pouty look and you three girls ended up chuckling at his reaction. "Anyways what are you doing here? I thought you came here right after that dinner in Hulbury."

She waved a hand. "Well, yeah that was the plan at first, but I ended up staying with Nessa a bit to catch up and have some time with my friends." She sighed. "It's been so long since I saw them all. It was good catching up with her and everyone else again revisting our favorite spots. I lost track of time and ended up catching a ride with Lee and Raihan back here to see the vault." She turned back to the tapestries and you glanced up as she looked. "I-....Think I'm getting closer to solving the mystery behind the dynamaz origin but...the same thing happened to everyone else that researched this far into the story before giving up. Still too much mystery and not enough answers to fill in the blanks I'm afraid."

You nodded glancing up at the old things. "Yeah I get you. I'm trying to solve a mystery of my own too in a way." A mystery of how to get back home and helping Gloria finish the game's story plot was the one but you weren't about to admit that!

She looked at you. "Oh yeah? What kind of mystery?"

"The mystery of how long it takes before that guy down stairs decides to put the moves on me. Maybe he's like an an- uh pokemon and you have to play dead." She rose a brow. "Y'know that one saying. You have to play dead or else they'll pounce on anything that moves."

"PFFFT!!" Sonia Snorted. Snorted!! Before her hands flew up to cover her mouth as laughter shook her form and Gloria looked up from her phone confused. "I-I-I...Oh gosh! Ahaha! I-I g-guess you met Raihan??" She asked between small giggles.

"Met him!? I thought the guy was gonna try to make me a side dish for his next curry by how he looks at you! Does he flirt with everyone?"

Sonia giggled a bit more before shaking her head. "No! That's just how h-he is. He really is a sweet and caring guy once you get to meet the real him honest."

"Told ya," Gloria confirmed.

"Well I don't think I wanna be the 'princess' who gets kidnapped by the 'dragon' thank you. Hopefully he'll be too busy taking selfies when we go back to go Y/n hunting." That got Sonia chuckling again.

"I hear you, I was that way when I first met him too. I hope you find what you're looking for." She turned back to the tapetries. "I'm going to stay here and try to study these a little more."

You were not that lucky. Because as soon as you two descended the stairs and got back down to the ground floor, Raihan was still there ever present seeming to wait for you. Doesn't a famous Gym leader have OTHER things to do-....Oh right. Gloria said he usually had a lot of time on his hands this early into the challenge. You wanted to face palm yourself hard for forgetting so easily like that. Raihan however just smiled at you two and looked to Gloria.

"Well that was quicker than I thought it'd be?," he chuckled," Was the famous Hammerlocke vault to your satisfaction Lil miss?"

Gloria instantly nodded. "Yes! The tapestries are beautiful!"

He nodded in agreement. "And really old too. The tapestries in the vault depict the heroes of the Galar Region's past. I suppose if we've got any modern hero I'd have to be our Champion Leon." He hummed looking Gloria over a moment and you rose a brow at him. "...Hey. You want some advice from a Gym leader who's fought Leon for the Champion title lots of times?" Of course she nodded excitedly. "Then listen up, Gloria. Your goal is to defeat that superstar Leon. So go to Route Six and train yourself up along the way to Stow-on-Side. Bea's the fighting type gym leader, so the best way to beat her is to think like a fighting type trainer would. Train hard and I know you'll be able to do it!"

With a fist pump the brunette nodded. "Right! I won't let ya down Sir!"

He chuckled. "Now I see why Lee likes you so much. Ah. That reminds me." He turned to the door and pointed. "There was this lil man that looked a lot like you looking for you outside there. Maybe you know him?"

In an instant the girl snapped to the door, gasped, and ran off. "VICTOR!!" The doors slamming open as she flew through them with the speed and strength of a wild bull.

He laughed. "Ah. That kid has some spunk. I look forward to battling her soon." He then turned to you as you paused. "Anyways. I don't think I got your name Miss??"

"Y/n." you stated flatly, "And thank you for the compliments-"

"Ah thank nothing of it." He flashed a fanged grin at you, "I know how it can be sometime meeting me n' all that but it really is no big deal-"

"Oh you're right about that." He paused stopping, blinking wide eyed at your deadpanned face mouth agape in a smile as he processed what you had bluntly but politely stated. "You do seem REALLY nice and I really appreciate all the nice things you said to me and Gloria, but I'll have to stop you right there with the flirting, Mr. Raihan. No offense to you of course, and I don't mean anything by it." You turned giving the frozen gym leader one last look before you left. "You just aren't my type. I'm sure you'll find a nice person soon tho with your looks and charms. Have a nice day."

And you left, leaving the wide eyed Dragon Type Gym Leader standing there jaw dropped and the secretary at the desk who also looked shell shocked at what she had just witnessed. ....Raihan's rotom gave a loud pokemon sound of alarm when Raihan dropped his phone with a thud onto the floor. Meanwhile you had just gotten outside the vault and with a sigh looked around. Relieved THAT was over and done with. As you scanned you heard someone call your name and when you looked, saw none other than Victor waving an arm towards you. Smiling you happily made your way over to the equally smiling brunette boy.

"Hey! There you are! We've been running all over the place trying to find the two of you! And judging by the sun..We've been doing it all day too. Where were you guys??"

He sighed shaking his head. "It's...complicated, Y/n. We got here a little while ago, but we aren't staying. We're taking the night train tonight to Stow-on-Side."

You blinked. "Wow. Again? I'm gonna be up all day and night then-"

"No." He cut you off and made you pause, "Not all of us." He clarfied frowning and looking down. "Just me and Hop. He...has some things he wants to sort out."

"Sort out? What do you-" You looked around more. "Where is he?"

He pointed behind him down the ways towards Route Six. "Down that way. Gloria took off after him but I wanted to make sure she didn't forget you or anything."

You nodded patting his shoulder before beginning to walk off in the direction he pointed out with a feeling you knew exactly what this was about. Victor followed behind as you picked up your pace looking around for those two crazy kids-

"Then there's no point in us stickin' around!," A loud male voice cried out somewhere ahead....Both you two exchanged looks for a moment before picking up your pace and rushing forward, going around the corner and finding out exactly where the loud yell was coming from. You found Gloria and Hop alright. With their wooloo and raboot out and two of those weird Team Yell guys standing there by some snake looking pokemon. The man was the one who was yelling tho. "Let's get out of here! We'll make these bothersome kids holler some other day!" Was that a threat!? In an instant you began walking towards them again as the two make up caked clowns turned and ran off.

"Gloria..." Hop began turning and giving his friend a sad smile. "You and raboot were brilliant together!"

Gloria smiled holding up her pokeball to return said raboot. "Thanks! Wooloo n' ye have really gotten stronger since the last time I saw ya! Guess ya can say 'Woo hoo' to match your wooloo!" She giggled at her own terrible pun but....when Hop remained silent her giggles slowly faded as she looked at him...and she blinked. Uh oh. This couldn't have been a good sign. "Hop?" She questioned reaching a hand half way to him....He shook his head no looking down. "H-Hey. What's wrong?"

He remained silent for a moment. ".........Gloria." He began. "See..Bede really wiped the floor with me last time we battled." Oh boy you KNEW it would have something to do with that. "And don't get me wrong. I can take a loss. Battling means you've got to lose sometimes. ....But he said that I was dragging Lee's good name through the mud being so rubbish like I was..." WHAT!?

"WHAT!?," Gloria yelled out shocked. "HOP! That's not true! You've won every at every gym we've been too so far! Twice even before me. How does that make you any weaker than I am?"

"I know that!" He clenched his hands into fists at his side not looking up. "And I know what you said is true but ...I can't just let myself let my guard down and not improve. And I just can't get those words out of my head! If I'm weak, then people'll think Lee's weak too! But I don't want that! I can't let Lee get dragged down! He's the unbeatable Champion! I'm gonna have to take some time figuring this out.....I-I...Im sorry- AH!?" He blinked frozen as Gloria suddenly enveloped him in a hug...before his face broke up in bright pink from it...and he slowly hugged his friend back.

"Hop...You're NOT weak," she mumbled against where she hugged him, "You're smarter and stronger than ya think. And I don't want you givin' up."

"Heh. Who said I was giving up?," he asked with a chuckle, "If I just gave up now that would just prove Bede's point. And I came too far now to stop. I made a promise to you I'd battle you in the finals and I aim to keep that promise! This isn't me quitting, Glory. Just taking some time away to improve on some of my skills. That's all." She blinked as he pushed her away and gave her that bright smile of his. "If I'm going to beat you, then I need to prove that I'm a worthy rival. Alright?" ...She nodded eventually with a smile.

"Besides." Both of them snapped towards the two of you as you approuched. "If you ever really want to talk with us, you can call me or Hop on your Rotom phone at any time." Victor rose a brow as he crossed his arms and eyed where Hop was gently holding his sister's arms. "...Did I miss something?"

Hop blinked before instantly letting go beat red with a cough. "HEY! When did you-...*AHEM*" He rubbed his neck. "I-I was just saying see you around, Gloria!"

Victor hummed like he really believed him. "Rrrriiiiiggght. Anyways, Hop. It's getting close to sun down. If we wanna catch the night train out of Hammerlocke we should go now and wait at the station."

"UH!! R-Right!" He cleared his throat and turned to Gloria. "I-...I-I'll see you later, Glory. You can b-bet on that." Before quickly walking away past the both of you. "H-Hi Y/n. Nice seeing you again!"

Victor sighed and turned to follow. "Yeah. It was good seeing the two of you again. Don't forget. You have our Numbers, Gloria." He pointed back at her as he walked away. "Stay out of trouble! You hear?! And be prepared!"

"I know how to stay out of trouble ya loon!," she yelled back at him.

"Could've fooled me!"

Gloria stuck her tongue out at his retreating form and you chuckled. "What a loon. He's more chatty than a herd of hungry wooloo."

You shrugged. "I guess so..." You frowned a bit. "But on a serious note, are you ok?"

After a moment staring at where the two boys disappeared she sighed and nodded. "Yeah. Yeah I'm ok. There ain't really nothin' I can do about this anywho."

You suddenly had a guilty feeling come over you. "Hey...A-About what I had you do earlier with apologizing to Bede. I'm really sorry about that-"

She held up a hand to you and shook her head. "No." Her face a determined frown. "Nah you n' Victor were right. And so was Lee. I shouldn't make any trouble for myself by just pickin' fights. And Lee was right about there bein' people like Bede anyways. But I ain't gonna let his words get ta me. And I know Hop."...She smiled. "I cant explain it as anything but a friend's intution, but I know he'll be alright. He's too smart to let Bede keep 'em down for long. And Victor's with him. So I know he'll help him too."

You nodded smiling. Of course you knew Hop would be ok as well. "That's right. But hey. Victor told me they were heading to Stow-on-Side. We were heading there anyways, and there's some day light left. Why don't we drop by Hammerlocke Cafe for a quick dinner and start heading out before night fall?"

With a determined smile Gloria Nodded and pointed up. "Perfect idea! Let's eat! Then it's onto Stow-on-Side!!"

#pokemon shield #pokemon sword #pokemon swsh #pokemon sword and shield #pokemon piers #pokemon piers x reader #piers x reader #reader x piers #reader

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aliciam72 · 4 years

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Part 2 of “What’s in a name?”

Part 1

Over the next few weeks, Michael tried to fix things with Maria. Unfortunately, Maria decided he wasn’t worth forgiving. She told him she wasn’t going to be anyone’s second choice, that she deserved better than him. And a big part of Michael agreed with her.

During those same weeks, Alex tried to work on his friendship with Michael. He texted often and made sure to include Michael in the group dinners when it was his turn to host them. Things were still strained between then but he thought they were getting better. That’s why when Maria threw him a surprise birthday party at the Wild Pony he was confused and hurt that Michael was the only one who didn’t show.

After his sixth beer, Alex walked over to Isobel and Kyle and sat down. Isobel flashed him a smile. “Having fun, birthday boy?”

“Maria knows how to throw a good party.” He answered.

Isobel rolled her eyes. “She did an adequate job.”

Kyle laughed. “You’re just upset she wouldn’t let you plan the whole thing.”

Alex took a long drink from his beer. “Michael’s not here.”

Isobel and Kyle shared a look not sure if Alex had meant to say that out loud. Kyle cleared his throat. “Maybe he got caught up at work. I’m sure he’ll be here.”

“Yeah, maybe.” Alex looked across the bar to where Forrest was playing pool with Max. “I think I’m gonna head out. Thanks for the gifts, guys.”

Kyle waited until Alex was out of earshot before he turned to Isobel. “Your brother is an asshole.”

“Yeah, he can be. I bet he’s drunk at Saturn’s Rings hooking up with some trashy tourist.”

“With the way he’s been moping around I wouldn’t doubt it. I just honestly thought he’d be here for Alex. So much for cosmic love huh?”

Isobel leaned in and kissed behind Kyle’s ear. “Let’s get out of here and I’ll show you some cosmic love.”

Kyle’s eyes grew wide. He reached for his wallet. “Let me go settle up with Maria.”

***

Forrest helped a very drunk Alex into the house and watched him stumble to the sofa. “You okay, Alex? I mean I know you’ve had a lot to drink but this looks a little more than being drunk.”

“I thought things were getting better between us.” Alex slurred.

Forrest furrowed his brow. “When were things bad between us?”

Alex continued talking, not really hearing Forrest. “I tried to make it easier for him. I know it was hard to see me kissing you all the time but I thought we were becoming friends.”

“You’re upset about Michael?”

Alex put his head in his hands and nodded. “He’s never missed my birthday before. I guess he’s really over me.”

Forrest let out a pained sound and sat next to Alex. “Isn’t that what you wanted? I mean, you are dating me.”

Alex looked up at Forrest with bloodshot eyes, not even hiding the tears. “He said he’d never look away.”

“I’m not even sure I want to know what that means. Alex, I’m never going to be enough, am I?”

“Oh god, Forrest, I’m sorry. No, no, you’re enough...” Alex tried to lean in and kiss him but Forrest pulled back.

“You’re drunk and upset, I’m not taking advantage of you. Let’s get you to bed.”

Alex let Forrest pull him off the sofa. He stumbled and fell into Forrest’s arms. “I thought you weren’t going to take advantage. It’s nice in your arms.”

“It’s nice having you in my arms but you need to sleep. We can talk in the morning.”

Forrest helped Alex into bed and gently removed his prosthetic. He took off his pants and pulled the covers over him. “I’m going to get you water and some painkillers for the morning, okay?”

“Don’t go.” Alex’s voice sounded broken.

“I’ll be back in the morning.” Forrest assured him. He got a bottle of water from the kitchen, intending on leaving it on Alex’s nightstand. He stopped in the hall outside the bedroom when he heard Alex’s sobs. He left the bottle on the bathroom sink and stormed out of the house. Michael Guerin was an asshole and he thought it might be time for someone to call him on his childish shit.

Before he realized what he was doing he found himself outside MiIchael’s airstream. Not caring that it was after midnight, he pounded on the door.

Michael threw the door open and stared at Forrest. “What are you doing here?”

Forrest didn’t answer him. Instead he pulled him outside and punched him in the face. “You’re an asshole.”

Michael rubbed his jaw. “Yeah, I am but what did I do to make you finally realize it?”

“You missed Alex’s birthday.”

Michael narrowed his eyes at Forrest. “Uh no, I didn’t. His birthday is Monday. Unless I lost a couple days it’s only Friday...well actually it’s Saturday.”

Forrest shoved Michael. “Very funny, shithead. I know his actual birthday is Monday. I’m talking about his surprise party. Do you know he got very drunk and is now crying in his bed about you! How you said you’d never look away, whatever the hell that means.”

Michael’s face fell. “What surprise party?

“Oh don’t give me that, the party at the Wild Pony. Maria...organized it...oh fuck...she didn’t invite you?” Forrest felt sick when he watched Michael slump on the steps of the airstream.

“He thinks I didn’t go on purpose? That I...that I looked away?”

Something clicked in Forrest’s brain. “Oh my god, that’s your fucked up way of telling him you love him, isn’t it? You two are seriously communication challenged.”

Michael let out a laugh. “You have no idea.”

“No one mentioned this party at all? How is that possible?”

“I’ve been picking up extra hours so I could get Alex’s present. I haven’t seen anyone this week except Liz and Alex was with her. I knew DeLuca was mad at me but...”

“But this wasn’t about you and her. This was about Alex. I’m sorry I hit you.”

Michael shrugged. “Don’t worry about it. Look I’ll apologize to Alex in the morning. I’ll tell him I was drunk...”

“What? No. Tell him the truth.”

“No. I’m not fucking with his friendship with Maria. I already did that once.”

Forrest stared at him. “You know, you’re not the asshole you used to be.”

Michael laughed. “Thanks, I think. You can thank Iz for threatening me into therapy.”

“Maybe I will. You should go ice that before it really bruises.” Forrest pointed to Michael’s cheek before he headed back to his car.

Forrest wanted nothing more than to pay Maria DeLuca a visit but it was close to one in the morning and he didn’t know where she lived. He headed home fully intending on showing up bright and early before the market started to give her a piece of his mind.

He found Maria inside the bar wiping down the counters and restocking the alcohol. “Forrest! What a pleasant surprise!”

“If you say so.” Forrest sat on a stool in front of her.

“You look like you had a rough night. Sorry, should have told you Alex can be a handful when he’s drunk.” Maria set a bottle of water in front of him.

Forrest stared at her a moment, wondering how someone who claimed to be Alex’s best friend could hurt him like she did. “I punched Michael Guerin last night.”

“Good for you. He probably deserved it. That man could make Mother Theresa throw a punch.”

“Actually, he didn’t.”

“Didn’t what?”

“Deserve it. I punched him because I thought he missed Alex’s party because he was an asshole. But that’s not why, is it Maria?” Forrest watched Maria pick up the rag and clean an invisible spot on the bar.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Forrest let out a harsh laugh. “Oh really? You have no idea?”

“Look, I did you a favor. That man is a walking disaster. He kisses anything with tits and fights with their husbands. He would have caused a scene and embarrassed Alex.”

“Somehow I don’t think that’s why you left him off the guest list. Do you know Alex thinks he didn’t show up on purpose? That he wasn’t important enough to Michael to bother coming to his birthday party?”

Maria shrugged. “Maybe I just didn’t want to watch him stare at Alex all night with those damn heart eyes.”

“So you hurt someone who calls you his best friend because you’re still upset about what happened in the bar that day? Real mature.”

“He broke a dozen of my most expensive glasses because you were kissing Alex. He threw an alien temper tantrum. He's the one who’s immature, not me.” Maria threw her rag down.

“Wow. Just wow. I guess being human and having emotions is too much for you? Don’t say it...it’s not the point that he isn’t really human. You never gave him a chance to explain did you?” Forrest knew he should keep quiet but Maria’s attitude was making him angry.

“What would have been an acceptable explanation for his little jealous fit?”

“He wasn’t jealous. Okay, maybe he was a little jealous but he was mostly hurt. Hurt because for years Alex kept their relationship a secret. So secret in fact that you thought its was just a high school fling. Can you imagine how he felt seeing me kiss Alex, in the middle of a crowded bar surrounded by tons of locals who know who he is? Maybe it wasn’t the smartest thing he’s done but it wasn’t out of jealousy.”

“He never said...”

“You didn’t give him a chance! I saw you yell at him and throw him out before he could even get the words out. Look I already said too much. Your relationship with Michael isn’t my business but Alex is. What you did hurt him...again. So, maybe this time you stay away from Alex for a while.” Forrest pushed off the stool and walked out of the bar without looking back.

It was almost ten o’clock when Forrest knocked on Alex’s door with coffee and donuts. Alex opened the door and gave him a soft smile. “Hey you. Ooh, you brought me coffee.”

Forrest smiled and gave Alex a soft kiss. “Donuts too.”

Alex closed the door behind him and took the coffee from him. “Come sit down. I think I need to apologize for last night. I don’t usually drink that much...”

Forrest set his coffee and the bag on the table. “No need to apologize.” He noticed a guitar leaning against the wall. He walked over and picked it up. “Alex, this is a Martin D-15M!”

Alex grimaced. “Yup.”

“It’s the same guitar Brendon Urie uses. It’s beautiful.” Forrest ran his hand over the guitar.

Alex sighed. “And that’s why it’s not smashed into a million pieces. If you want it you can have it.”

“What? Why would you give this up?” Forrest asked.

“Because it was a gift from Guerin. An ‘I’m sorry’ for missing my birthday party, I guess.”

“He was here this morning?” Forrest guessed he didn’t tell Alex why he missed his party.

“Yeah, with a story about getting drunk and making out with some pretty blond at Saturn’s Rings.” Alex opened the bag and took out a donut.

“That’s all he said?”

“No, he also told me a tale about getting into a fight with her boyfriend. I guess it wasn’t a tale though because he had one hell of a black eye. Can we please talk about something else?”

“He lied.”

Alex chewed his donut and rolled his eyes. “What else is new?”

“I gave him the black eye.”

“What? Why? When did you see him?” Alex set the donut on the bag and gave Forrest his full attention.

“Last night you...uh...were upset that he didn’t show up at the Pony. You got really drunk and I had to take you home. And...” Forrest wasn’t sure how much of Alex’s drunken confessions he should tell him.

“And what? Did I say something to you?”

He took a deep breath and slowly let it out. “You told me he never missed a birthday and that you guessed he was finally over you. When I asked you if that was what you wanted you looked at me and said he promised to never look away.”

Alex’s hand flew to his mouth and his eyes grew wide. “Oh my god, Forrest, I-I can explain.”

“You don’t have to. I left you crying in your bed and went to see Guerin. I called him an asshole and punched him in the face. But he isn’t and I’m sorry I hit him.”

“Yes, he is an asshole. He’s a selfish, petty child and I’m sorry I said those things to you.”

“Alex...I think we need to talk about us.”

“What? No...whatever you think I meant last night, you’re wrong. I was drunk and saying stupid shit.” Alex walked to stand in between Forrest’s legs. He snaked his arms around his neck and kissed him.

Forrest groaned when Alex bit his bottom lip, coaxing his mouth open. He melted against Alex and kissed back eagerly. When they came up for air, Forrest gently pushed Alex back to look into his eyes. “Holy shit you are bad at communicating. No wonder you and Michael are pining for each other like two idiots.”

“We are not pining for each other.” Alex protested.

“Yes, you are and we need to talk about that but before we do I need to tell you the truth.”

Alex let Forrest lead him back to the sofa. He sat facing Alex trying to find the words to tell him what Maria had done. “Michael didn’t go to the party because Maria didn’t invite him.”

“What? Why would she do that? And why would he lie about where he was last night?”

“She’s still mad at him for the incident at open mic night. And she said she was tired of watching him make ‘heart eyes’ at you. Her words not mine. He lied to you because he didn’t want to mess up your friendship with Maria again.”

“Fuck. I told him I never wanted to see him again.”

“I’m sure you’ll be able to fix that when you see him later.” Forrest leaned back and smiled at Alex.

“I’m not seeing him later...”

“I knew you were still hung up on Michael when we started dating. I could practically feel your heart beat faster whenever he was around but I didn’t let it bother me because you chose me. You took me on dates, introduced me to your friends and made me feel special.”

“I did choose you. I wanted to be with you.”

“I know you did. You never once made me feel like I was second best but I am, aren’t I?”

Alex lowered his eyes. “No...”

“Please don’t lie to me, Alex. I’m not mad, maybe a little hurt but I get it. I really do. He walked away and moved on, you deserved a shot at happiness too.”

“But I am happy with you!” Alex insisted.

“You’re definitely happier than when we met but you’re not truly happy. Your heart will always belong to Michael. Staying with me isn’t fair to either of us.”

Alex felt his eyes fill with tears, damn his stupid emotions. “Are you breaking up with me?”

Forrest nodded sadly. “I am. You and Michael need to work this out. He loves you and you love him.”

“Loving each other was never the problem.”

Forrest laughed. “No shit. You two can’t communicate. You have euphemisms for everything from sex to saying ‘I love you.’ He doesn’t look away? That is both incredibly cheesy and incredibly romantic. Go talk to him and maybe try to use words?”

Alex leaned forward and took Forrest’s hands in his. “I could have fallen in love with you.”

“Maybe if you weren’t already in love with someone else.”

“I’m so sorry, Forrest. I tried, I really did.”

“I know and that’s what makes this so hard. If you were a jerk it probably wouldn’t hurt as much.”

“I’m never going to see you again, am I?” Alex tried to keep the hurt out of his voice.

“Hey, I still want to be friends. I like being with you and everyone else, plus I’m an excellent researcher...you guys need me.” Forrest pulled Alex into his lap and hugged him tightly. “You are an amazing man, Alex Manes. Don’t ever forget that. Now go find Michael and thank him for that gorgeous guitar.”

Alex wiped his eyes and slid off Forrest’s lap. “Do you need time before we see each other again?”

“Nah, I’ll be okay so don’t even think about bailing on dinner on Saturday. It’s my turn and I plan on dazzling everyone with my unparalleled barbecue skills.”

“You are one of a kind, Forrest Long.”

“Yeah, I am. Now go!” Forrest put the guitar in Alex’s hands, gave him his keys and walked him to his car. “I expect an invitation to the wedding.”

Alex shook his head. “Let’s not rush things. I’ll be happy if he agrees to be seen with me at the Crash Down.”

“Okay, I’m done playing your therapist. Get in your car and go figure it out.”

“I’m going!” Alex laughed and started his car.

Forrest waited for him to pull out of the driveway before he let the first tear fall. Giving up Alex might have been the right thing to do, but it hurt like hell.

Michael was head first in an engine when Alex pulled up next to the airstream. He stepped out of the car, guitar in hand and called out to Michael. “Guerin!”

Michael stood up and hit his head on the hood car. “Shit.”

Alex rushed to his side. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. C’mon Alex, I spent weeks earning the money for that, can we not argue about you keeping it again?” He motioned to the guitar in Alex’s hand.

“Oh, I’m keeping it.”

“Then why are you standing here with it in your hands?”

Instead of answering him, Alex brushed the curls out of Michael’s face and softly touched the bruise under his eye. “Does it hurt?”

Michael stilled Alex’s hand. “What are you doing, Alex?”

Alex shrugged. “Why did you lie to me?”

“Because everything I do seems to hurt you.”

“I almost smashed this against the wall after you left you know.”

Michael’s eyes grew wide. “Oh, I am so glad you didn’t.”

“Please don’t lie to me anymore.” Alex moved closer to Michael.

“I only lied because she’s your best friend. Don’t be too mad at her, I hurt her.”

“I really don’t want to talk about Maria right now.” Alex was so close Michael had to step back to look into his eyes. He took a shaky breath at the obvious look of desire he saw.

“Would you like to tell me why you’re really here? I doubt it was to dance around the fact that your boyfriend punched me for not going to a party I wasn’t even invited to.”

Alex grinned at him. “I’m here because I want to play you something and then maybe we could go for a ride...”

Michael’s eyes widened. “But what about Forrest?”

“We broke up. It seems I’m in love with someone else and I’m pretty sure that someone is in love with me too. What do you think?”

Michael pulled Alex close. “I think we’re going for a ride, darlin.”

#my fic #malex #roswell new mexico #alex manes #michael guerin #forest long #submission

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