#even if kiawe is mortified about manon pointing this out to everyone alan still won't get it

[sage-nebula]

An idea that just occurred to me out of the blue:

Since I’ve pegged Alan at fifteen years old, and since I see Kiawe (and Lana & Mallow, but they’re not relevant for this post) at about the same age---

During the family “research trip” (read: vacation) to Alola, at some point Alan and Kiawe’s paths cross---or rather, more specifically relevant to this post, at some point Kiawe sees Alan and he just---he doesn’t even realize what happened at first. He has, up until this point, never really had feelings or attraction toward anyone, much less this tourist with a charizard, who has bright blue eyes and---it’s the tourist that has the bright blue eyes, Kiawe clarifies to himself, not the charizard, although come to think of it the charizard does, too---

And it’s not even really that---the eyes, that is---that catches Kiawe’s attention, no, it’s the way the tourist grips that half-moon pendant around his neck and says, “Key Stone, respond to my heart!” and the transformation that takes place as a result of it. Mega evolution, it’s called, when the tourist’s charizard’s scales shift from orange to black, when his fire turns white-blue and, in all honesty, turns a color very similar to the tourist’s eyes which were mentioned before---

And Kiawe really has honestly never had this happen before, where he can’t quite get his words to come out right, where it feels like his heart is betraying him when he shakes the tourist’s hand and when he very eagerly agrees to a race (a flying race, of course) between their two charizard (which he wins, because his charizard is older and used to the flight path, but it’s actually very close, probably at least due partially to the fact that Kiawe wanted to fly with the tourist and not ahead of him, but---)

The tourist has a little sister (at least, Kiawe thinks they’re siblings---they act like siblings, and he should know, being a big brother himself), and it takes her asking him saying things like, “hey hey, why are you looking at Alan like that?” and “Kiawe’s been staring at Alan a long time, hasn’t he, Hari-san?” and “if you help me get a date with Lillie, then I’ll help you have a date with Alan” for him to finally realize, oh, yeah, that’s definitely what’s going on, isn’t it (and nobody had better tell his little sister, and while you’re at it, don’t tell Mallow, either).

In answer to Alan’s little sister’s (Manon, Kiawe learns her name is) offer, though---as embarrassing as it is, as silly as it might be, as much as he knows that this is probably only going to lead to more embarrassment, and anyway, Lillie is one of his classmates, he shouldn’t be actively trying to set her up on a date with a tourist who is bound to leave in a couple weeks anyway (much less trying to date a different tourist who is bound to leave in a couple weeks anyway himself)---he just sighs, puts his burning face in his hands for a second, and then says beneath his breath, “Deal.”

“Yes!” Manon says, and high-fives her chespin.

((Note: In my headcanon Alan kept the Key Stone and Charizardite, albeit Professor Sycamore had them refastened into matching necklaces for Alan and Lizardon. So please don’t reblog with “but Alan can’t use mega evolution anymore!!” because in my headcanon, which was formed before the series ended, he can, and corrections aren’t necessary here. Thanks. ♥))