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savebatsfromscratch · 6 months

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18. Blinded under painful tears.

Ao3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/50939629

Words: 1,256

Cws: Death, blood, torture, blood

Notes: Koya whump because I wanna check them all off. The squad gets cornered by some new strand of evil team. Hareta is immediately… dealt with, the rest get blindfolded and dragged off. Then, uh, torture I guess??? I dunno man, I’m not good at writing torture.

Prompt: No. 18: “I tend to deflect when I’m feeling threatened.” Blindfold | Tortured For Information | “Hit them harder.”

Koya’s feet tapped against the ground lightly as his group sneaked through the halls of the dark building. A shiver of hardly suppressed fear shot down his spine, and his hands hovered meer inches over his Pokeballs as he strained to listen for enemies in those musty halls. This was a total jackpot. For an opening into the enemy base that he and his fellow officers had been looking for for the past month, it was rather fitting that he would run into it with his dexholder friends instead.

He glanced to his side, watching as Hareta breathed in the dusty air, obviously searching for something that none of the others could get their minds onto. Beside him, Mitsumi calmly held a small camera, which Koya knew was going to be used as evidence the second that they got out of here. On Koya's other side, Jun was holding an escape rope with strong hands. (Though, admittedly, he had a bit of a “white knuckles” problem at the moment.)

Koya grit his teeth as yet another shiver of fear slashed through his spirit. He was literally surrounded by amazing Pokemon trainers, why did he feel so apprehensive? As far as trips into an evil building went, this one was pretty safe. (Hell, he couldn't even think of a single officer who'd ever beat a trainer at Mitsumi's level, and both he and Hareta were nearly on her level, and Jun was hardly far behind.)

So, if he was so safe, why was every bone in his body screaming for him to run right back the way he’d come?

The halls were dark and empty, and every locked door that they passed held nothing but empty cells and quiet lab tables. There were no distant screams, no echoing crashes or bangs, the place was nothing like any other evil base Koya had ever infiltrated. Nothing in there should have screamed so hard to alert him of danger, so what was wrong?

Hareta seemed to find the answer first, stiffening in a very un-Hareta-like terror before opening his mouth to tell the group something-

But it was a something that Koya would never get to hear, as a sudden BANG blasted through the relative silence and sent the group into scrambling fright. Mitsumi yanked out a Pokeball, Jun lifted his communicator to his mouth, but Koya only froze where he stood, unable to even grab for his Pokemon to battle, let alone for a gun of his own, which hung right beside his pokeballs on his belt. No, how could he reach for a form of defense while he was still grasping for recognition of what he was seeing in front of him.

Hareta had been standing there mere moments before. Hareta, bright eyed, intelligent, caring, everything Koya was not.

But now-

Koya felt his heart catch painfully in his throat as a scream of stunned rage echoed through the corridors. Horrible, guttural, genuine. A true reaction to the red that now splattered wettly against the gray concrete.

And the worst part, if any of it could be considered a “worst part”, was that Koya didn't even have time to decide which one of them the horrific sound belonged to before a stinging pain in his neck brought darkness to his eyes.

He hit the floor with a thump, and though his mind swam with memories, he could do nothing to fight the drug as he lost consciousness.

When he woke again, his throat still ached, but now his ears rang as though he'd just gotten wacked upside the head by a fighting class trainer, which was not exactly welcome as he struggled to control his panic as he came to.

A thin strip of fabric covered his eyes, and he felt some sort of rope wrapped tightly around his wrists and ankles. For a brief moment he wondered if it was more there to keep him from running, or if it was in an effort to keep him from fighting, but his thoughts were cut short by the sound of a door opening and shutting somewhere behind him.

He tried to swivel around to at least face whoever was in the room with him, but was instead met with a tugging of the ropes on his wrists and ankles, and only managed to incite a low chuckle from the evil that stood behind him.

“You should feel lucky, little officer,” the mystery person drawled, “At least you're not being used like an anatomy puzzle right now,”

Koya felt rage bubble inside him. Oh how he wanted to jump back with an insult of his own, still, he knew better than to further anger whoever had taken him captive. Anyone with the power to surprise and overtake, not one, but four high level trainers like that was no one he wanted to provoke.

Besides, he could do nothing so long as he was tied up, so what was trying even worth?

“What do you want out of me?” Koya managed, trying to remain as calm as he could as clicking footsteps began to circle around him. He strained to see past the blindfold, listening for echos and distant sounds, but the laugh he received in response did nothing to clue him into his location in the base.

“To be blunt, we need to know how much you saw of this place,“ the enemy sounded too giddy for that to be all that he wanted, ”we couldn't let you go if you knew our secrets, right?“

Koya shivered as he fought to keep his face neutral. His mind was going at about a million miles per hour as he tried to come up with a plan, but it was like he was in the middle of the Orre desert, he was coming up with absolutely nothing to help himself.

“So!” The man said, now very close to Koya, causing him to shrink back in surprise, “How much did you see?”

Koya didn't respond, how could he? If he admitted to seeing too much, he was sure he'd end up just like Hareta, but how could he know how much was too much if he'd only been awake for a couple of moments?

With a loud SMACK sound, Koya felt white hot pain exploding across his cheek, and he yelped in surprise as the blow sent him spinning in his bonds.

“I'll repeat myself,” the man whispered, deadly serious now, “How much did you see?”

Koya's chest heaved. What could he say? Certainly not the truth, he and his friends had been through at least twenty halls before their expedition had been cut short, and that had to be “too much,” didn't it?

Koya flinched as the man slapped him again, even harder this time, but he couldn’t draw up the words to defend himself. What had happened to all his training? Wasn't this exactly what he practiced for? Didn't he have the skills to talk his way out of something like this?

Slaps turned into punches, and soon Koya found blood dripping from his nose, but still he found that he could not speak. It was as if the words had been wrenched from him the second he'd heard the question. No matter how many times he was asked, no matter how much his hair was yanked, no matter how much blood splattered onto the floor, Koya could not find the words.

He knew he was totally fucked, so why couldn't he even find the strength to fight it?

#whumptober2023 #no.18 #Blindfold | hit them harder #fanfic #death #blood #gun #torture #blindfold #trainer koya #trainer hareta #trainer mitsumi #trainer jun #pokemon dpa #whumptober #my art #my writing #actual post

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savebatswingaus · 3 months

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Birds of a feather, um, are friendly forever?? - Hareta x Jun wing au

Fic bellow the cut and in the link in the title! :3

Summary:

Jun and Hareta are in love, and they also happen to have wings!

Notes:

Cws: Falling from a far way up, nothing bad happens and it’s not from his perspective, but I thought I should mention it. Also sorta dirty jokes. Words: 6,675 If this is out of character, no it’s not. (It- it is.) Also the pacing is… well it sure is something! I can tell you that much! Wing AU makes me happy. :) DPA makes me happy. :) Put them together and you get a big mess that makes me super ultra happy! :D (And I DO mean a mess. This thing might not make any sense at all lol.) Also if the ship is forced I literally do not care. I love these two and I don’t think they have ANY ship content yet. I tried to make the transitions between the POVs smooth but it might just be confusing, sorry!

Hareta was grinning as he floated above the trees, supported by the surprisingly strong tendrils of a Drifloon. “Take that Koya!” he thought, remembering a conversation he and his ‘rival’ had had a week or so ago, “I don’t need to be a fighted bird to fly!” Apparently sensing his positive emotions, the Drifloon trilled happily.

Hareta laughed and swung back and forth a little, his wings flapping uselessly behind him. “Are you having fun bud?” He asked, tilting his face upward to watch as the Drifloon nodded. (It’s eyes momentarily closed in an expression of joy.) “Not a lot of people like to take you out for a flight, huh?” Asked Hareta, sort of absentmindedly turning his gaze back to the ground.

As the Drifloon responded (jolting up and down a few times as it aggressively nodded), Hareta watched the far away trees. There were lots of flying types (including the normal birds and the more rare non-Pokemon birds), as well as a couple of people sitting around in the upper branches. Hareta removed one of his hands from the tendrils and waved down at them. (As he could clearly see some of their small faces tilted up to watch him.)

He zoned back into the conversation just in time to catch the gist of what Drifloon has been saying.“You like the exercise, huh?” He mused, putting the arm back in a slightly different position (hoping for a better grip on the Pokemon.) For a moment he paused, but quickly continued with a nod, “I mean, if I’m hanging onto you all the way up here, you must be getting quite the workout!”

The Drifloon trilled with laughter and Hareta found himself joining it.

“To be honest,” he admitted, referring to the constant tensing his arms had to do to keep holding on, “This is also quite a workout for me as well.”

The Pokemon nodded, and Hareta found himself bobbing up and down in the air. Even though the wings on his back were more akin to flippers than anything else, the wind felt oddly natural in his hair.

The Pokemon whistled a response to him, something about how fun a nice exercise could be, and Hareta found himself agreeing. “Finally!” He laughed, adjusting his arms once again, “Someone who gets it!” The Drifloon trilled once more, swinging itself in a little celebratory spin, clearly thrilled to be having a real conversation with someone who wasn’t another Pokemon.

It was fitting, then, that it was in the midst of this spin that Hareta spotted Jun flying up to meet them. (Hareta blinked as an odd fluttering filled his chest. Jun’s wings looked just as beautiful as ever.)

Pushing away the odd feeling, Hareta shook his head. “Hi Jun!!” he called, hoping that the Drifloon wouldn’t become too stressed and explode (it had happened once before), “Nice of you to join me up here!”

Jun laughed as he glided the rest of the distance. (Watching as Hareta whispered something to the Drifloon.) But he found that he didn’t have to wonder what the words had been as the Pokemon turned obediently, letting Hareta get a better view of Jun. “You tried catching that thing yet?” Jun asked, having to yell as to keep a safe distance from the highly volatile Drifloon.

Hareta shook his head and smiled up at the Pokemon, “He says he doesn’t want to have a trainer quite yet,” the Drifloon trilled and Hareta looked back at Jun, an oddly serious expression on his face, “He wants to wait until he to evolves on his own.”

“And how’s that going for you?” Asked Jun, flapping a little bit closer (but still minding his wingtips), “How close do you think it is?”

Hareta paused for a moment, looking up at the Drifloon and frowning slightly. The Drifloon looked back down at him, making a slight whistling noise like that explained everything. Hareta, of course, nodded like he understood it. (Which, to be fair, he did.) “Just a few more levels,” Hareta smiled in that particular way of his, “If it keeps carrying me around like this it could evolve any day now.”

Jun felt his face shift into an expression of surprise, but ignored it. “They can level up just by carrying you?”

Hareta swung back and forth a little bit. “Well, he’s not really supposed to be able to carry me right now,” he said, referring to the lack of ‘fly’ in the Pokemon’s move catalog, “So it’s just like working out!”

Jun shook his head, confused. “Drifloon… work out?”

The Drifloon trilled again and Hareta laughed like he had just been told a really funny joke. “This one does!” Hareta said, his smile oddly soft looking against the mess of his hair, “He doesn’t really like battling all that much.”

But right as he was about to open his mouth to respond to that, Jun felt a sudden gust of wind sweep through the sky. He squeezed his eyes shut instinctively, hoping not to have debris blown into them. (Unfortunately though, this came just in time to miss the Drifloon twirling just an inch too close-)

“Ack!” Hareta yelped suddenly, clearly seeing where the wind was taking him, “Jun back up!” Jun snapped his eyes back open, attempting to back up in the air.

But it was too late. (Drifloon were quite conscious of their space, which was to say that they didn’t much like other creatures touching them.) Hareta may be an exception to this particular Drifloon, but Jun was not, so when its soft purple body was nearly smacked out of the air by a stray wing flap, it reacted just like any normal Drifloon would. By exploding.

Immediately Jun slammed his wings against the air, aware that while the Drifloon would be okay, he might not be able to take such a close range explosion. Thankfully though, Jun’s wings were strong enough to just barely get out of the explosion range. (The scent of burnt tail feathers chased him as he tried to locate Hareta’s path of freefall.)

By now, the people in the trees were surely rushing up to catch Hareta, but Jun knew that it was unlikely for someone to catch him before the momentum of the falling boy would take them out of the air as well. So immediately when he spotted him, falling like a tiny comet towards the tree cover, Jun sprung into action. (Of course by doing what any flighted friend would do, he dived.)

In just a second the wind was whipping past him, tearing at his hair as he struggled to fold his wings into the proper position to dive. (He was a Staravia after all, which were not generally known for their diving skills.) Normally this sort of perfect form would take two or three tries, but in the terror of the moment, it only took a second.

Maybe it was that Hareta’s eyes looked uncharacteristically afraid, or maybe it was the terror of imagining him hitting the ground, but Jun dove at record breaking speeds.

Thinking quickly, he shot right past Hareta, swooping under him and bracing his wings for the impact that he knew was soon to come. (And, just as he expected, the back breaking thump nearly knocked him out of the sky.)

Hareta yelped like a kicked Growlithe, and Jun found himself just a hair away from spinning out of control. (It was just like him not to actually catch Hareta in his arms, instead opting for the entirely impractical and extremely dangerous ‘piggyback’ catch.) “Hold on!” He managed, barely avoiding another person as the two dexholders spun across the sky.

He felt just like a dragon type Pokemon in a drama movie.

His wings were barely doing anything to slow their fall (what with Hareta blocking most of their movement), and the spinning was beginning to make him too dizzy to properly aim the few wing beats he could manage.

But something made him hold it together.

If he was asked about it later, he would surely make a joke about all the pretty ladies watching him (just waiting for a ‘ride’ of their own), or make it a point about his own safety, but if he was being serious, it was something else. (And oddly enough, it didn’t even feel like saving a friend. …he hoped it didn’t have to do with that odd attraction he had begun feeling just a few days earlier.)

Either way, something (Jun couldn’t quite force himself to place it yet), forced him to straighten his wings into a glide, and something definitely made him feel all soft and warm when Hareta let out a quiet sigh of relief.

He geared up for an awkward landing, feeling Hareta brace himself against his back in the event of a crash, but managed to slow enough to dump his friend only slightly unceremoniously into the treetop. (Hareta managed to get a grip on a branch fine enough though, even with the slightly burned Drifloon in his arms.)

Out of the corner of his eye, Jun watched as a couple of trainers rushed to catch up to them (probably so they could ask if he and Hareta were okay), but Jun found himself not caring. “Are you alright?” He asked, choking on a cough in the second half of his question.

Not to his surprise, Hareta laughed. “Just great!” he responded (though Jun knew him too well to miss a crackle of pain in the edges of his voice), “Thanks for catching me!”

Jun forced a worried chuckle, and, not so subtly looking Hareta up and down for injuries, he answered, “Any time man.”

Hareta tilted his head and blinked at him, and Jun found himself wondering if those brown eyes could see right into his heart. He blushed slightly. He really hoped they couldn’t.

“I really am fine though,” Hareta said, pushing himself to a standing position on the upper branch of an oak and shaking the leaves out of his hair and piplup feathers. A worried expression flashed across his face as he glanced down at the Drifloon in his arms. “This poor guy might need a trip to a Pokemon center though.”

Jun nodded, but didn’t get a chance to respond as the other trainers caught up to them.

“Oh Arceus-!” One of them yelped, her hair blowing all across her face as she came in for a landing. (Jun recognized the blue and white wings of a Swellow bursting out behind her.) “Are you guys okay?!”

“Just fine, thank you,” Jun said politely. (Hareta nodding and grinning behind him.)

“That’s a relief!” The girl sighed, just as another couple of trainers swarmed them.

In the end, it took them over fifteen minutes to even get out of the treetops, what with all the people asking them if they were really actually okay. (It wasn’t like Jun didn’t appreciate the gesture, his brown and white tail feathers were quite singed, and his back did hurt fairly badly. It was just that Hareta was clearly very anxious about his Drifloon friend.)

“We have to take this Drifloon to the Pokemon Center,” he finally interrupted, gesturing to the Pokemon held tightly in Hareta’s arms, “If all of you could just back up a little bit…?”

The girl with the Swellow wings gasped like she hadn’t even thought of that, and scrambled back instantly. (And several of the others followed in her wake.)

“Thank you!” Hareta chirped, sounding like he was talking more to Jun than to the trainers as he dove under the leaves to get to the forest floor. So, after an awkward smile at those around them, Jun followed him. (Even if the branches caught quite painfully on his wings.)

- - - - - -

Maybe it was the awkwardness of almost dying a moment before, or maybe it was the fact that Hareta had just gone for a ride on Jun (albeit on his back), but the walk to the Pokemon center felt very long and very awkward. At least, to Jun it did. Hareta didn’t seem to mind very much. And so, with his calmness, it was very much to his amusement when the first words spoken were the all time classic, “...So… how’s that weather huh?” (Followed by a very very forced chuckle.)

Hareta laughed, happy to distract himself from the injured Pokemon in his arms, “I think it’s pretty good,” he answered, glancing at Jun out of the corner of his eye, “But I’m happy to be back on the ground.”

Jun cringed slightly, “Yeah, sorry it took me so long to get control,” He flexed a wing and Hareta watched as the brown and white feathers shone in the sunlight, “I’ve been a bit off my game recently.”

Hareta shook his head and shifted the Drifloon into one arm so as to pat Jun on the shoulder. “Don’t worry about it!” he smiled, trying not to think about the fact that he had to stand on tiptoes to properly reach Jun’s shoulder, “You still caught me right? That’s what really matters.”

“Yeah,” murmured Jun, looking down the path (the Pokemon Center was in view now), “I guess you’re right.”

He sounded unconvinced, like he really did feel bad about nearly dumping Hareta into the trees (a fall which likely wouldn’t have even scratched him). Hareta cocked his head to the side and stared at Jun, (hoping to Diagla that he would not trip over something while doing so.)

Normally Jun only paid that much attention to someone’s well being if they were a pretty woman… But maybe a pretty person could force him to amend that law a little bit.

Hareta felt his face flush and he snapped his head forward again. Now was not the time to get his mind all lost! He had a Pokemon center to visit, a friendly(ish) rivalry with Koya to finish up, and a Drifloon to evolve. (He had only recently felt the fluttering in his chest and realized that it was the product of a crush, and he honestly wasn’t very sure that he wanted it to be.)

It felt… odd.

Sure, he’d known Jun for quite some time now, and he had to admit that he was both a good Pokemon trainer and a very pretty man, but somehow it still felt strange to think about. He shook his head as the two passed the threshold into the town. It didn’t matter. He was still him, and Jun was still Jun, and they were still friends. And that was all they were.

He swore it.

…But he would have been stupid if he had thought that Jun wasn’t feeling a little weird too.

‘And why wouldn’t I be?’ Jun asked himself, sitting at a table at the Pokemon Center as Hareta took the Drifloon up to the counter, ‘Hareta’s my friend, and he nearly died! Of course I feel weird! That’s not a nice event to have to experience.’ He shifted his wings and turned to watch Hareta at the counter. He appeared to be in the middle of a ‘polite out’ with the nurse at the counter, and Jun felt his face flush.

‘Friend,’ he reminded himself, busying himself with preening his feathers instead of making his mind a mess and his heart super confused. (And hopefully not enough to hurt itself.)

He had only been preening for a few seconds (hardly enough to wipe his brain of the odd feelings it had been pushing onto him), before his plans were foiled. For, as he picked through his feathers hoping not to find too many burned by the explosion, he noticed Hareta walking over to him. He set his face into an uncharacteristically forced smile as he watched him sit down across from him.

“The Drifloon’s gonna take a few minutes to heal up,” he said, explaining why they were not leaving the Pokemon Center yet, “It hasn’t been caught yet so they can’t use the Pokeball healing machine for it.”

Jun nodded like all of that made perfect sense to him, and also like he hadn’t just been staring at Hareta instead of listening to him talk. (He felt like he was on the edge of a sexuality crisis, and he wasn’t so sure he was ready to admit that yet.)

Hareta sighed as he plopped down into the chair across from Jun, letting his light blue wings down at his sides, “I hope that he’s okay…” he murmured, causing Jun to pause in his preening.

‘Hareta never acts like this,’ Jun thought, folding his wings back up and stuffing a half burned feather into his coat pocket, ‘He must really be worried about that Drifloon…’

Hareta leaned back in his chair, and Jun watched as his wings squished out to either side of him. Blue and oily, they were perfect for a nice swim in an icey cold ocean, but nothing that could hold you in the air. (Not that it mattered of course, lots of people had lots of different wings, Hareta just happened to be a Piplup.)

Koya didn’t always seem to think so.

Jun bit back a growl, and regretted it the instant Hareta’s eyes fixed on him. They were pretty eyes, green and oddly bright, and Jun found himself profusely apologizing about the odd sound he had made. He hadn’t been growling at Hareta, he’d been just- annoyed about something! Yeah, that was it. Annoyed.

His heart stirred. Annoyance that was definitely not at all exasperated by other feelings.

But, dragging him out of the sudden embarrassment, Hareta just grinned at him. “Don’t worry!” he said, all too happily for someone who was worried just a few minutes before, “I didn’t think you were, I just wondered if I heard you right,” he laughed and twirled in his chair (which could spin apparently), “And I did!”

Jun smiled awkwardly, suddenly feeling slightly silly about his ridiculous excuses for the growl. Of course Hareta wouldn’t take it as a threat or an insult to him. They were great friends, and both knew that even though they were technically rivals, there wasn’t any bad blood between them. “Well, that’s good.” Jun said, leaning back in his chair and hearing a couple of joins complain loudly, “At least there’s that.”

Hareta nodded seriously and Jun felt a yawn coming on. Unfortunately though, Hareta (who was still spinning circles in his chair) asked, “Hey, Jun, are you okay?”

Jun blinked in surprise, his yawn half finished as he processed the question. (It had come quite out of the blue.)

Hareta stopped spinning to repeat himself, “You’ve been acting kind of weird all day,” he pointed out, “A-and you’re my friend, so I wanted to know if you were feeling alright…?”

He said it like a question.

Jun knit his eyebrows together and looked across the table to Hareta. He looked worried, and it really wasn’t like Hareta to stutter in the middle of a sentence, but that wasn’t what stuck out about the question to Jun. Instead, his brain was utterly short circuiting over the odd shift in tone when he had said ‘friend.’

Something about it reminded Jun of the way he’d been feeling.

A very long moment passed before Jun remembered that he had been asked a question, so he was left scrambling to answer in a way that wouldn’t seem odd.

Hareta blinked as Jun spoke. He sounded truthful, as he sputtered about how he was ‘really seriously totally feeling great’ and that he ‘must have been imagining it,’ but to Hareta, it still seemed like Jun was hiding something . (But he couldn’t quite place what that something was.)

He shook the musings away. “I believe you!” he laughed, interrupting Jun as he repeated himself again, “Don’t worry! I just wanted to check,” He smiled and watched as something in Jun’s eyes shifted. (That was weird, was he blushing?), “That’s what friends are for, right?”

Jun smiled, but it was slightly forced, and Hareta found himself inhaling rather sharply. Something about that was oddly… attractive? He squeezed his eyes shut and pushed his wings against the back of the chair. That wasn’t a thought he had expected to appear right then. Not in the slightest.

Fair as always (and clearly noticing what he had just done), it was Jun’s turn to ask him, “Right back at you bud,” he said, “Are you sure you’re okay?”

Hareta felt like laughing (or maybe just admitting what he had been feeling), but before he could give any sort of answer to Jun, he heard the nurse’s voice from the desk. “Wild Drifloon for Mr. Hareta?” She called, “He’s all healed up!”

Hareta gave Jun a polite (and hopefully not at all rushed) smile before hopping out of his chair and sprinting up the small set of stairs to the counter. He felt sort of bad about running away before he answered Jun, but he had not been acting very rationally near him recently, so it was admittedly expected.

“Thank you!” He chirped, taking the Drifloon from the nurse’s arms (and watching her small white Blissey wings flutter at the complement) “You’re a great nurse!”

She laughed and waved him away, “Just doing my job!”

He grinned at her before skipping out the door (he knew that Jun was following him, so it was okay to leave.)

Immediately as he pushed open the door, his face was simultaneously warmed by the sun and chilled by the cold Sinnoh air. He found himself snickering slightly as Jun made a cute brrr sound as he met the air.

But before Jun could adjust to the cold (or worse, re-ask Hareta the question), the Drifloon shot out of his arms and spun around him, chirping happily. Hareta laughed, “You sure are happy to be up and free again, aren't you?”

The Drifloon nodded and offered one of its tendrils out to him, a determined expression not misplaced on its face. Hareta grinned and grabbed on, but before the two of them could take off, Hareta felt Jun’s hand on his shoulder. (Which was fair, even if his plan had been to take off without saying goodbye.)

His heart fluttered at the touch, but also jumped like a Froakie into his throat. He turned to face Jun just as breeze found its way through the path, sending both of their hair into fits and the Drifloon into a struggle with the air.

“Hey,” he said, somewhat awkwardly, (like he had just realized something), “Would you mind if I flew with you?”

Hareta felt his ears redden, but he shook his head no as a way to hide it. (And the Drifloon trilled in a way that showed it agreed, even as it finished up the last of its fight with the wind.) “I think that would be nice…” he murmured, surprising even himself with his quietness before regaining his energy as he yelped, “-As long as you don’t bump into me again!”

Jun rolled his eyes and laughed, pushing past him to get to a better taking off spot, “You bumped into me, idiot,” he laughed, “And besides, I’d catch you if you fell.”

Hareta found himself laughing along with him (even if the words made his face redden a little bit). He grabbed the Drifloon’s second tendril with his other hand as he shot back, “I know that Jun! You just did it a little bit ago, you know.”

Jun rolled his eyes again, and Hareta felt his feet begin to lift off the ground as Drifloon floated upward, “Good luck catching us!” Hareta called, covering for the blush that he was sure to be wearing at this point (Jun’s feathers were seriously beautiful, even though they were singing at the ends.).

Jun laughed, and Hareta had to force himself to look away as he took the turning leap into flying. (He was half sure he would turn into a Tamato berry if he did.) He was very capable, and even if the rest of his body was as skinny as a green bean, Jun’s wings were strong . Hareta envied him, yes, but it was also so much more than that.

He knew it already.

He had a crush on him.

Duh.

Jun found his brain short circuiting as he took to the sky. Yes, he was still focusing on the whole ‘take off’ bit, but his brain was just a teeny bit distracted by the realization that had just reached him. (Though it had been taunting him on the edges of his mind for quite some time now.)

He was really nice and super smart and- (Jun looked up and found himself staring at Hareta’s arm, which had to be quite strong to hold him under a Drifloon as comfortably as it did) very attractive. He bit his lip and felt a shudder pass down his spin, reaching his wingtips as they beat awkwardly to catch up to the Drifloon. (Which had gotten quite far into the air at this point, what with his distracted take off and all.)

He hadn’t even considered the concept of finding another guy attractive until just a week or two ago (back when this whole shudder of feelings had started), and here he was, finding his friend (his rival) attractive. Was that a bad thing? It felt like a bad thing.

“Hey Jun!” Called Hareta, his laughing voice slightly muffled behind Jun’s frantic wingbeats, “I’m over this way?”

Jun spun around in the air, his face flashing with embarrassment. (He had, in fact, passed Hareta and the Drifloon quite some time ago.) “Sorry!” He called, gliding over to them in a way that he hoped wasn’t too shaky, “I wasn’t really focusing…”

Hareta laughed and swung back and forth on the Drifloon (and Jun had to try fairly hard to not stare at his arms). “Don’t worry about it!” He chirped, “We all make silly mistakes sometimes,” here his face shifted, and Jun could have sworn he saw a smidge of embarrassment pass over it. But the moment quickly passed as he smirked at him, “You just happen to be very good at it.”

Jun gasped in an over exaggerated way, beating his wings twice and soaring towards them, “How dare you!” He said, sarcasm bleeding from his voice, “And right after I save your life too!”

Hareta laughed again, urging the Drifloon to speed up as he called back over his shoulder. “Yeah, like I would’ve died ,” he wiggled his wings, which normally sat folded against his back, “I’ve got wings, remember?”

Jun laughed as he caught up with them (despite his best efforts, a Drifloon couldn’t hope to outspeed a Staraiva who’d been flying his whole life.) He knew that Hareta’s wings couldn’t help him with flying any more than his arms could. (That’s just what happened when your mother had passed on her Piplup genes to you.) “Yeah good luck with that,” He chuckled, keeping his wings extended fully as he swooped above Drifloon, but careful not to let them get any closer than they had too.

Hareta looked up at him, and orange eyes met green as a gust of wind seemed to wake a question from the very heart of his being. “Hey,” Jun stuttered, not thinking as the air threatened to rip his words from his mouth, “You wanna go on a date?”

Hareta’s eyes widened, and Jun watched as his face immediately flushed bright red, hands slipping slightly on the hold of the Drifloon’s tendrils. Jun’s face immediately heated up too. (Why had he said that? WHY in Palkia’s name did he think that would be a good idea.) He smacked a hand to his face, beating his wings and lifting a bit away from Hareta.

“Sorry,” he stuttered, looking to the sky above him even as the two sliced through it, “I don’t know why I said that, I just-”

Hareta cut him off, watching as Jun’s wings shook against the air, “No-,” he started, gently urging Drifloon to lift slightly even as his brain threatened to explode on him, “It’s fine I just-,”

“Don’t like me?” Jun guessed, and Hareta could see that he was not looking at him, not one bit. “Uh,” he paused, as if remembering their friendship, “any more than a friend anyway?”

It was a question, and Hareta’s chest seemed to fill with downy fluff as he stared at him. (Assumptions could be wrong, after all. The hard part came in admitting this wrong.) “No, I meant that I-,” he cut himself off, looking down and watching as the world drifted by below them, partially obscured by a low cloud, “I do like you,” he murmured, his voice strangely soft. (Really it was a miracle Jun heard him at all, what with the rushing air that bit through the conversation. But even if it was a miracle, it was a miracle that had come true.)

“You-,” Jun’s voice was suddenly full of shock, “You do?!” He glided dangerously close before seeming to recognize what he had done, “I thought that-,”

Hareta looked back at him, seeing that both of their faces were still bright red, “Didn’t think about it?”

Jun nodded shakily, he really hadn’t thought about it, had he? (The concept of crushing on another guy was still new to him after all, and he had honestly assumed that Hareta didn’t like anyone. Besides, it hadn’t mattered to him until just a few days ago.) “Guess not,” he muttered, feeling his heart beat like it was in the place of his wings. He snapped his head back to Hareta, voice loud again as he spoke, “Not that I really assumed anything, I just-,”

Hareta cut him off again (that was happening a lot in this conversation), “Well,” he said, his face still red as he attempted to get back into the causal swinging he had been doing before, “I take you up on your offer,” He looked at Jun bravely (Jun was the one who had previously been on a date before, after all), “I’ll go out with you.”

Jun made a strange strangled squeak that made Hareta want to ask if he was okay, but before he got the chance, his friend (date? What was even going on?) folded his wings to his sides and dove towards the ground. Shocked by the sudden rush of feathers that shot by him, Hareta froze (and Drifloon looked down at him anxiously. He was clearly unsure of what to do).

But a moment later, the fear was resolved as Jun shot his wings out to the side, powerful muscles just outlined under dark brown feathers as they caught him. Was he celebrating? Running away? Rethinking all of his life’s decisions? Hareta didn’t know. With a touch of one of his wings, Drifloon began to descend towards him.

“Are you okay Jun?” He called down, his feet reaching just a bit above where Jun’s wingtips reached up to at their highest arch (but the distance felt much farther as he continued to glide), “We don’t have to go on a date if you don’t want to-,”

Jun shook his head violently effectively shutting Hareta up, “No,” he said, looking up over his shoulder the best he could without going into a spiral, “I want to, it’s just,-”

“-overwhelming,” Hareta answered, keeping his voice somewhat quiet as he watched Jun’s wings work the air, feathers just barely missing his toes. Jun nodded, and Hareta found himself lifting his gaze to the horizon. The sun was going down and an orange blow bathed them all. (Drifloon included.)

“Yeah,” Jun said, his voice half swept away by the force of the air, “But it’s an okay kind of overwhelming,”

Hareta smiled, but before he could even open his mouth to respond, a sudden shaking began to take Drifloon.) “What-?” He asked no one, too surprised to think to ask Drifloon what was happening out loud, but already reaching out for its feelings.

Those feelings screamed a need to evolve.

“Uh, Jun?” asked Hareta, his voice peaking nervously at the end of his sentence as Drifloon’s tendrils began to shrink and glow, burning his hands with a sudden heat, “You think you can manage catching me again?”

“Why would I need to catch-?” Jun started, but when he looked up at him, he understood. Drifloon was glowing with a white energy, and by the looks of the steam rising from Hareta’s hands, was also heating up rather incredibly. It was on the verge of evolving.

“Jun?!” came Hareta’s voice again, slightly panicked now, “Do you think you can catch me? Please?”

Jun nodded, and with one beat of his wings, he was at the same height as Drifloon, now hovering in one place as its body began to morph. He reached out to Hareta, but his fingers couldn’t quite bridge the distance. (His wings kept him from getting any closer, because even if it was about to evolve, Drifloon was still very serious about its personal space.)

“Okay,” hissed Jun, stretching his arm as far as he possibly could as he beat his wings, “Reach for it!” Hareta did just that, giving one last swing as he lept off of the Drifloon and into Jun’s arms.

For a second they were falling, but it was a warm feeling.

Jun was caught off guard and off balance by the sudden weight in his arms (a bit of a warning would have been appreciated), but he caught himself quickly. His wings worked the air, and with half closed eyes the two watched as the glowing shape changed, morphing into a much larger (and much more topheavy) ball of light.

Hareta was shaking slightly, and Jun could see the slightest hint of fluffed feathers on his wings, even under the oil that all Piplups had there. (And when Jun snuck a glance down at his hands, they seemed to be burned, red skin peeling slightly in the reddest places. Which explained the shaking.) And, well, he was so distracted by Hareta’s well-being that when he looked back up at the Pokemon, it wasn’t a Drifloon anymore.

“You did it!” Hareta cheered, swinging forward and tugging Jun through the air a little bit as he congratulated his Pokemon friend. Catching Jun off balance once more, “You did it!”

The Drifblim (because that’s what it was, a Drifblim) twirled in the air, its new tendrils swirling around itself as it chirped happily! (And seeing how much the two of them were enjoying each other’s company, it almost didn’t hurt that Hareta had forgotten to thank Jun for catching him.)

“That’s really cool Hareta,” Jun smiled, watching as his friend somehow scrambled onto the top of the Pokemon (he had literally jumped out of his arms), “I’m happy for you.”

There was an awkward silence as the two humans remembered the conversation that they had been having before the Drifblim’s evolution had interrupted them. “Well,” Jun said, his face suddenly red as he backed away, “I’ll just, happily await our meetup-” He turned, beginning to fly away but stopping in his tracks as Hareta’s voice followed him.

“Are you leaving?” Asked Hareta, surprised as he took a moment away from patting the Drifblim’s head, “We’ve hardly done anything yet!”

Jun shrugged, looking back over his shoulder and forcing himself to ignore the dark flashes on his own wings across his vision. “You seem like you want to hang out with your friend right now,” he smirked, turning a bit more towards him and winking, “But we can hang out later if you want.”

Hareta’s face flushed red, and Jun took that as his cew to leave, diving away as quickly as possible and leaving his friend to eat his dust as he dove under the tree cover.

As soon as he was out of view though, Jun let out a whoop of happiness, punching his fist into the air as he staggered through his landing. (A nearby Lass gave him a dirty look, but he didn’t care about what her or her Jigglypuff thought of him. He was far too excited for that sort of thing.) He spun a happy little circle.

It hadn’t really hit him until now, but even though he had just landed, he felt the most weightless and free that he had ever felt. (As if the brown Staravia wings on his back were nothing more than decoration.)

Confident in his walk, he headed down the route, knowing that the nearest Pokemon center would serve well to rest him for the day. (Or, at least, until Hareta showed up looking for him. …or more likely until Jun went looking for him , given that Hareta probably hadn’t seen quite where he went.)

Speaking of Hareta, Jun was right.

He was extremely confused, and Drifblim seemed no less so as the two of them watched Jun expertly weave down into the trees. (It was almost like the branches weren’t even there, letting his wings swipe right through without a second thought.) Like a needle thrown into a stack of hay, he was gone, and with him went Hareta’s composure. He gagged slightly as his stomach fought to put on a sudden gymnastics show in his gut when he realized what had just happened.

For one thing, Drifblim had finally evolved (and did that make it his Pokemon now? Wasn’t that what they had agreed on?), and for another, Jun had just asked him out on a date and then dipped not even fifteen minutes later! Not even an explanation of when and where said date was going to be! Hareta planted his hands firmly on Drifblim’s head and craned his neck to look at the ground, hoping to somehow catch a glimpse of Jun through the leafy green cover.

But he would’ve been stupid to expect to see him. (He couldn’t see through trees, that would be really weird!)

Ah. Whatever. He would worry about what was going to happen later, he had a Pokemon to congratulate! But as he cheered for his friend (and spun in the wind as it twirled happily), he found himself unable to focus fully on the task at hand.

His mind would just not leave Jun! It was like being asked out had broken the floodgates open and allowed all his feelings and thoughts to flood through the nearest town. And of course, he happened to be the only person in said town. The incoming tsunami of feelings threatened to drown him as he struggled to fight his way above them. (Which was weird, considering he was normally very good at swimming.)

Maybe he just wasn’t good at feelings.

Yeah, that was probably the case.

(Who was he kidding? That was obvious .)

As Driftblim chirped and rose higher into the sky, Hareta snuck a glance at the trees below him as they slunk away into the blur of his vision. Whatever happened, next, he hoped that the blush on his face would be extinguished. Though, if he was being completely honest with himself, he doubted that love was something that got rid of itself over time. He clutched a hand to his chest and turned his eyes to the sky, ignoring the burn from the sun in the corners of his vision. His hair blew in the wind, and even a few of his oily blue feathers flicked out of place in the strength of it, but he did not feel cold. Not one bit.

How could he feel cold now? When the warmth of innocent love shocked his whole body into shaking with excitement? When his face blushed a red nearly as bright as his scarf, even when he wasn't’ here to see it?

He threw his arms into the air and let out as loud of a ‘whoop’ as he could manage.

He finally felt free! How could he freeze?

Notes:

Hope you enjoyed! I now have to write for this ship until their tag becomes real!

#pokemon dpa #trainer hareta #trainer jun #wing au #pokemon dpa wing au #fanfic #focused #flying #absurdlyclingyshipping

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