#and instead here he has a oops I've accidentally pushed my gf away during this rough time

[peachypede]

Not Replaced

A little Emmet x Pecha thing I've been mulling over for a while. It's set after Ingo disappears and they find themselves in an uncertain point in their relationship.

tw: Emmet almost dies but he's alright.

Six months, twenty days, and 3 hours. That’s the amount of time that Ingo had been missing. Pecha would know, since Emmet always glances at the calendar app to figure out how long it’s been. She’s been by his side for all of it. 

The first day, or night, Ingo never came home. The next day Emmet had found he had left his entire team and house keys back at the office. Police were reported. No sign of a struggle, no evidence of Ingo ever leaving the station was caught on the security tapes. He had literally vanished as if he had been teleported. 

First week. Police asked for volunteers to scour the subway tunnels for any trace of Ingo. Emmet shut down all trains for the day. Pecha searched by his side. Nothing. 

End of first month. Police searched water reserves near the Gear Station. Emmet was adamant that Ingo was alive, pacing after he got news of this. 

Second month and already searches were dwindling. Emmet kept trying to have a weekly search on the weekends, but less and less people showed up. He made a big bulletin board of all the evidence in his living room. Pecha helps him sort through all the news and text messages that might be of importance. 

Third month. Awful rumors are starting. Pecha and Elesa did what they could to stop Emmet from hearing it but it’s hard when people ask him to his face if he killed his brother. After all, who knows the subway tunnels better than him? Pecha wants to plot her own killing with the gossipers. 

Fourth Month. Emmet is looking thin, and the theories are getting more and more out of hand. If it isn’t murder, it’s straight up running away. This theory seems to affect Emmet more and no matter how much Pecha tells him Ingo would never leave him purposefully, she can still see doubt in his eyes. 

Fifth Month. Pecha has started to bring breakfast, lunch, and dinner for Emmet daily. He’s starting to unravel and she sees it. She tries to tell him that he needs a break. Emmet insists that he needs to “keep his engine moving”. 

By the sixth month is when it happens. Pecha is working when she gets a call from Elesa that Emmet almost fell onto the subway tracks due to his exhaustion. If his Archeops hadn’t acted quickly and pulled away, he would have been run over by an oncoming subway train. The news makes Pecha’s heartbreak. 

It’s what finally makes her tearfully ask him to take a break when gets released from the hospital.

“Please…Please, for me?” She almost is on her knees beside his bed, trying her best to make sure her tears don’t fall on him. Both of her hands clasp one of his own.  “I know this is so hard, but baby, I can’t lose you…” 

His own water pipe bursting, Emmet sniffs as he nods slowly. 

“Work just…makes it easier. I am Emmet. I am not used to being alone. It’s so quiet at home…”

“What if…I moved in?”

There’s silence for a minute. Emmet looks conflicted and Pecha backtracks. 

“I’m not trying to replace Ingo in your space, sorry, I just…I don’t want you to have to feel alone. If I can stay at your place, work from there and everything, then um…you know. You never have to come home to an empty apartment.” Her voice is soft. Almost a whisper. “I’ve been thinking about asking for a while now I just, um…didn’t want to pressure you.”

Another silence, but this time it soon gets filled with a deep breath in before a shaky sigh of relief. Emmet finally lets himself sink into Pecha’s shoulder. She rises to meet him, sitting on the bed and hugging him close. The comfortable quiet between them settles and Pecha lets it linger for as long as Emmet deems fit. 

She gets the answer eventually.

“Please. Yes.”

It takes a week. Pecha sleeps at Emmet’s place, helping him clean up for the day that she moves in. With all his stress, the apartment has become a bit untidy. The kitchen, his room, and the living room are the dirtiest. They tidy away the conspiracy board and all the books Emmet had gotten to study for now. Pecha suggests putting it in Ingo’s room. 

“He wouldn’t mind seeing that, I think. He probably would be very touched that you put a lot into this. And also that way nothing will be messed with if company comes over.”

“...Yes. Yes, that is a good place for it…”

Trash is tossed. Ingo’s Garbador, Daffodil, eats most of it. Pecha actually gives her a lot of it for a treat. She deserves it. Luce, Ingo’s Chandelure, is very helpful at being a temporary clothes hanger for all the clothes that Pecha picks up from Emmet’s floor.

Pecha never spent this much time with Ingo’s Pokemon, but she can tell that even for them it’s good to have something else to do then wait for their owner to come back home. Pecha mostly is glad that her Pokemon are getting along with them. 

She’s surprised when the day before she moves, she finds Emmet rearranging the train models that Ingo and him built together. They were on the shelves of a black modern bookshelf in the living room. He even places some in a box that he had pulled out from the closet. 

“Oh! Emmy, you don’t have to do that. We only really needed to clean out the trash and stuff…” 

“I am Emmet and I am making room for the bug figurines you have.” He responds, looking hard at two models in his hands as if determining which one will get boxed. 

“Wha- huh?” Pecha’s chest flutters at the thoughtfulness, unsure of how to respond. All this time she was only focused on him. It makes her realize that…yeah. She’ll bring a lot of her own collections into this apartment, huh? “Thank you. I forgot that I’m literally moving all my things here.”

Emmet smiles. A soft, but genuine smile that Pecha hasn’t seen in months.

“Yes. I was thinking you might have.”

And make room Emmet does. He moves all the furniture in his room so Pecha can have space for her work things. It’ll be a squeeze, but Pecha can make do. Posters are taken down and put into boxes as well for Pecha to hang her own up. The boxes that he has lovingly put everything into are placed into Ingo’s closet. 

“He…wouldn’t mind them being here.” It’s said as a statement, but Pecha can hear the doubt in Emmet’s voice. He knows his brother best but it’s obvious he needs reassuring. 

So reassure him she does. 

“I don’t think so. When he comes back, we can move them if he wants.” 

The next day it’s official. Pecha moves in with the help of Rawst and her dad. They get pizza as a reward for pushing Pecha’s very heavy desk into Emmet’s room. It’s a lively night for the first time in forever at the apartment, with Cal chatting happily with Emmet about Joltik breeding. It’s so nice to see that smile on Emmet’s face again. 

Emmet takes a couple weeks off of work to rest. He’s had so much vacation time built up from years of being a workaholic. With a bit of encouragement from Pecha, he starts seeing a therapist as well. It’s so nice to spend time with him. So many walks with their Galvantulas, late nights where they binged shows, and waking up late in each other’s arms. 

And of course…life eventually has to move on. And Emmet goes back to work. Pecha usually worked from home anyway, so she’s able to give some company to the Pokemon Emmet isn’t able to squeeze onto his team for the Singles or Doubles Trains. 

“I am Emmet and I am glad that I don’t have to feel too bad about leaving them now.” Emmet says one day as he watches Luce float happily around Pecha. The Chandelure is very happy with being a ribbon and thread holder for the fashion designer. “I think Luce prefers to stay home with you, actually…”

“Well, she still needs to get exercise.” Pecha responds as she pats the fire ghost on the top of her head. 

Sedi, Ingo’s Crustle, also seems to also like being home now especially since Pangea, Pecha’s Crustle, has brought along her sandbox. It worries Pecha though. She might have to expect Dwebble eggs soon with how cuddly they are getting. Now she and Emmet will have to find homes for both baby Joltiks and Dwebble. 

Seven months, Five days...and Pecha isn’t sure how many hours. Emmet seems to have stopped checking so frequently. It’s not that he doesn’t care. Fridays are the update days where He and Pecha look for any leads and update the board as needed, but Emmet isn’t obsessing over it to the extent he was at the beginning. 

Ingo isn’t forgotten or replaced. Instead, he’s being waited on.