#professor sycamore is the only dad alain needs in his life it's fine

[em-exceeds-change-zearu]

Just realized: you mentioned Lana being annoyed Ash didn't say he was related to a Lugia, just imagine their classmates' reaction when Ash also mentions Alain won the League. Ash is related to a League Champion from another region, who's ALSO a Legendary Pokemon?! / Alain: To be fair, we didn't know we were cousins until my dad barged in a couple of months ago/ Ash: Uncle still feels awkward at Thanksgiving now that Alain has our address / Alain: Is my eyeliner still on? / Ash: Needs a refill.

i can’t believe that post-alola they’re both regional champions that are half-legendary and also have scientist dads

true cousins for lyfe

#tbh alain never actally gets to see jericho face to face because the dude's a coward #ash actually doesn't speak to uncle jeri for a WHOLE LONG-ASS TIME because he's smad #its like he already saw what bert's neglect did to ravi-niisan and now it's happening again? with alain #why are legendaries so bad at raising humans they need to take a page out of that one zarude's book #anyways ash forces them to meet at least Once but they never acknowledge each other as father and son and never want to #professor sycamore is the only dad alain needs in his life it's fine #and jericho definitely don't need to catch shade from his wife and silver #maybe that's a filler episode in alola season. maybe #the closure for alain i mean #golden boy au #golden dad au #pokeani #pokemon #ask shenanigans

[kalosstarters]

One-shot: Alain is a supportive dad, part 2

It’s Amelia’s turn to get some support after she returns home from a failed league challenge. (She’s like 12-13 in this?)

“Alain, have you seen Amelia? She never misses her meal or spends this much time alone in her room...” Mairin asked her husband who had just finished his dinner. 

Back when all their kids had still been living at home, the Moreau family had always eaten their dinner together, but Mari was now working as a Pokémon ranger somewhere near the seaside, and Alex was studying in Alola, so Amelia was the only child who was currently at home. But even so, she usually always showed up in the dining room when she sensed the smell of fresh food coming from the kitchen.

“No, I haven’t. This isn’t like her,” Alain too admitted. “Maybe she went out? You know, she has all those friends...”

“Right. It’s just...” Mairin took a break to think of how to form her question. “Do you think those people really are her friends? They seemed awful lot more interested in her stories about her trip and her Pokémon than in Amelia herself.”

She had been watching her daughter playing with other kids, mostly younger than her, the other day and even though Amelia participated in all the things and talked and laughed and showed the others some of her Pokémon, somehow the young girl had seemed like she hadn’t been there. 

“I wish I knew. You know, I think we should talk to her,” Alain answered, and decided to go check if Amelia was somewhere near after all. 

The brunette girl wasn’t in her room, but Alain found her sitting on a tree branch on their yard. Her eyes seemed cloudy even from afar and she wasn’t smiling even the tiniest bit when she saw her father, which was very unusual for her. She loved her parents and they had always had a close relationship, but after her return from her journey it seemed like something had changed.

“Amy!” Alain tried catching her attention by yelling her nickname that she allowed only her closest people to use. She claimed the name was way too common, and asked her friends to call her Lia, if they had to use a nickname in the first place.

“What’s up, dad?” she asked in a tone that indicated she definitely didn’t want company right now. 

“What’s up with you? It is not like you to sit alone here and not have dinner with with us when you know it’s time for that.” 

Amelia’s voice was challenging when she asked: “Do you really want to know?” 

“Yes, I do.”

“Why do you even care?” she suddenly got angry. “You are living in a perfect world with a perfect job and perfect Pokémon and perfect wife and two kids who are doing perfectly fine in everything they do. I’m just an inconvenience.”

Alain nearly lost his temper at Amelia’s angry outburst, but suddenly it struck him that he himself had been in quite a similar situation in his earlier life.

“A M E L I A  O L I V I A  M O R E A U. Don’t ever say such things. You are not an inconvenience, you never have been and never will be. And no one lives in a perfect world. There’s still so much you don’t know. Come on down and let’s talk about this.”

“No,” was the girl’s simple answer.

“I refuse to leave until you tell what has made you feel that way, and until I have told you something I probably should have told you a long time ago. That’s what Papa Sycamore did to me.”

“What? Are you saying that your life hasn’t always been perfect?”

“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying. Actually, my life was far from perfect for a very long time when I was about your age and a bit older. I had very self destructive thoughts back then, but I was lucky enough to have some very good people in my life who saved me. But I don’t want to talk about it if you are not ready to collaborate. Come here.”

Amelia had a hard time believing that her father would have had any issues similar to hers in his life, but her curiosity won and she gave up. 

“Fine.”

Alain pointed towards a bench on the terrace of their house, and they went to sit there.

“Please, Amelia, tell me why do you think you are an inconvenience?” Alain asked then in a serious and concerned tone.

“Because I am! You are like the smartest doctor in Kalos, and mum is an amazing trainer, and Mari is so good with Pokémon and everyone loves her, and Alex is super smart too... But what am I?  I am dumb. I can’t learn a shit.” 

”Amelia!” Alain warned her, but she continued like she hadn’t been stopped at all.

“I can’t dance or bake or anything so I can’t participate in showcases. I can’t battle. I can’t get that cursed eighth badge! Mew, I can’t do anything! I don’t have any great plans for my future and I’m just sitting here watching my so called friends who don’t even care about me go on their journeys and achieve great things. Oh, I’m also clumsy and ugly and I’m pretty sure everyone, including my Pokémon, hates me,” she finished, her face red from her outburst. “So now do you understand what I’m feeling?” 

“That is a lot for one person to carry inside them. But you are wrong. We, as in I, your mum, Mari, Alex and your Pokémon, all love you. And you can do a lot of things. I only have take a look at your Pokémon and I know they are taken care of very well and they share a strong bond with you. I know these things, you just said I’m the smartest Pokémon doctor in Kalos.”

Amelia puffed her cheeks at Alain’s attempt to lighten the mood, and for a moment she looked so much like her mother when she was younger. And she was just as insecure as she had been, Alain realized. He made a mental note to ask Mairin to tell Amelia about her insecurities when the time was right, and continued:

“Just because you are not good at something doesn’t mean you don’t have your strengths. Even though you are a bit self centered sometimes, you are also extremely kind hearted, passionate, caring, hard working, and you get along with everyone! And you are not dumb, you just have dyslexia! That is not something you can affect. You wouldn’t be you without your flaws. We all have them."

Amelia was slightly moved by her father’s words, but then she remembered: “You promised to talk about your flaws and problems earlier, so it’s your turn.”

“Fine. This is not something many people know, and there’s a reason for that.” 

He took a small pause to consider how to start the difficult topic, and asked:

“You have heard about Team Flare, right?” 

“Of course. Weren’t they those dudes in red who tried to destroy the world?”

“I guess that’s one way to put it... But... what you don’t know is that...” 

Alain took a deep breath, because remembering all those things that happened in the past was still hard.

“... I was a part of them.”

“WHAT? Dad, no way? You, who save Pokémon’s lives? Tried to destroy them all?”

“No, Amelia, it’s not like that. I never, ever would have helped them in any way had I known about their plans. But you see.. I was young. And stupid. And desperate. And manipulated and emotionally abused. And also very alone. I lost my biological parents when I was very small, only a toddler. After that I had like 10 different foster families, but none of them cared about me, claiming I was a difficult child. But then professor Sycamore found me and took me into his lab. For some reason I still don’t quite understand he had taken a liking to me, but he sort of adopted me and let me help him in his job. At one point I decided to go to my own Pokémon journey, to learn more about mega evolution. But then I got this idea that I needed to become stronger in order to be able to protect the ones I love, so mostly the Professor and my Pokémon during that time. And I met dir.. Lysandre, the boss of team Flare. He offered me the Charizardite X and I of course took it, because it meant I was one step closer to being the strongest.”

“Oh, dad...” Amy whispered, having completely forgotten about her own problems for a moment.

“The bracelet he gave me collected mega evolution energy ‘for research’, I was told. And it just so happened that pretty soon after I got it, I met your mother.”

“You have never told about that! How did it happen?” Amelia couldn’t hide her interest anymore.

“Well, she saw me battling someone with a mega Absol, and wanted to learn more about mega evolution too... So she started tagging along even though I didn’t exactly let her. But I’m glad she did follow me because otherwise I wouldn’t be here now,” he said with soft eyes and turned his head slightly to see Mairin cleaning in the kitchen.

“Ah! But what happened then?” 

“Well, we traveled together for several months, and saw some interesting things for example in Hoenn... But I decided I couldn’t keep letting her tag along with me anymore because she wouldn’t be safe with me. And she didn’t believe me. So, I yelled at her and lied to her, and because of me Chespie fell into coma.”

“What?”

“It wasn’t directly my fault, but because of me he was running around in the Lysandre labs and was hit by some experiment... Lysandre claimed that by collecting more mega evolution energy we might be able to heal it, so of course I was eager to do it. I also helped him to capture a Zygarde core. But none of the things he told me were true. He was planning on using the core and the energy I collected for his plans to destroy the entire world, and when I found out, I was devastated. I had only wanted to help... And he, someone I trusted, had used me, so he could destroy everything.”

He felt chills going down her spine, and his throat felt weird, but he was able to continue:

“Thankfully Ash, a friend of mine, snapped me out of my shock, and together with several other strong trainers we managed to stop their plans and I got Chespie back and healed, like I had promised to your mother. But to this day I feel so much guilt about it that sometimes it is hard to live with it. I also doubted if I could ever repay for all the harm I had done. After the Flare incident I could have challenged the Elite Four and Champion of Kalos, since I was the Kalos league victor, but I didn’t do that either, because I was afraid. I was scared that if I got the power of champion, I would become someone like Lysandre. But your mother and Professor Sycamore were there for me the entire time, and they eventually managed to convince me to forgive myself.”

“Wow. I can’t believe. This is a lot to take in... But I don’t understand, what does this have to do with me?” Amelia asked, not able to connect the dots.

“What I tried to say is that even though my struggles were and are different than yours, they still exist. And I messed up in a much more serious way than you have or ever will. It could have led to things I don’t even want to think about... But for some reason I was still loved even after all that... And I eventually got over my self hatred. Well, it’s not completely gone, but I learned to live with it.”

“So Amy, while I know I can’t magically cure you from those poisonous thoughts, I hope that this makes you understand that you are loved, with your flaws and all, and no one is expecting you to be perfect. That is what your smart mother taught me, and that’s what I want to teach you. Please. Just be you.”

Something about Alain’s words had opened Amelia’s emotional walls, and she was now crying against his shoulder.

“Papa... I don’t deserve...”

“You do. You absolutely do. You have done nothing wrong. And screw that eighth badge. I never liked that guy anyway.” he reassured her, rubbing her back.

After he said that, Mairin came out and found her daughter hugging Alain tightly, still sobbing. She joined the hug and gently kissed Amelia’s forehead, and even though Amelia’s struggles weren’t over yet, during her bad moments she always remembered this one, and it helped her to carry on, with a smile on her face.

#my fics #marissonshipping #alain #mairin #amelia #sorry about the extremely late posting time #i just wanted to get this done bc i most likely won't have time tomorrow #(also sorry i only read it through once)