#i FINALLY drew someone other than guzma!!

[r6bin]

i drew piers from pokémon sword n shield / journeys!

check pinned for rules | requests are open!!

[dandyshucks]

realizing i wanted to ask - how did u first fall in love w/ guzma (irl) ? :o (@dmclr)

ougghh (/happy) Clara you always ask such good questions omg 🫶

umm... okay so. i should give a general "abuse CW" label i guess fjfkdl but I'll keep it vague and to a minimum of mention! also putting it below the cut because I RAMBLED SO MUCH, SORRY IN ADVANCE

tumblr kind of went crazy for the guy when the anime finally introduced him in 2019 (it took SO long to get to him, over 100 episodes in the su/mo arc 😭) and at first i didnt think much of him rly, but then somehow eventually (a few months later) i found out through osmosis that he's got trauma going on and my ears kind of perked up a bit LOL

(underwater just to set it apart from the rest of the post so it doesnt blend in and get confusing fndkdl) screenshot of the post i rbed where i first mentioned liking him fdsjkl

around the same time, i was having some realizations about my own experiences with childhood and family etc, and there was some other stuff going on in my life (also. the plague started so uh. that too.) that was just kind of culminating in like. A Lot of stress and fear and stuff. so seeing this character who has experienced somewhat similar things was ... comforting in a way? shared experience or something, idk. plus I've always been a sucker for misfit archetype characters, especially if they make a little family out of other misfits :')

another big part of the intrigue (because my crushes always start with a sort of 👀 phase fdsjkl, I have to think somebody is interesting in some way and want to find out More about them, and then feelings develop from there) for me was just the fact that he was Angry. like... the way I've personally learned to deal w abuse has been to always be meek and fawn. so seeing someone who went in the opposite direction, to become angry and strong and defiant instead, was SO fascinating to me and I was very curious to learn more about him.

so I looked into him more, loved what i found, related to him a bit, accidentally by some random occurrence stumbled upon some bf audios of him somehow??, wished he were real so we could hang out, thought about how I'd act around him and started to feel a little flustered about it ... it's all downhill from there once u reach that point smh 😔😔 (/silly)

for a long time i didn't really fully step into s.elfship territory w him - i dabbled a little but he wasnt The Focus™ in my brain yet. also we (as a system) have had a host change since then, so there was a previous juno that was not Me (even though we kept the same main name between us two parts), and they didn't like the guy as much as Current Me does djfkdl - theres also some ... relatively significant personality differences between the two versions of Juno, so I think Juno2.0 (me) meshes with him a lot better now than Juno1.0 did in 2020/2021

and then last year, i found and joined the s.elfship community and um. I absolutely did not mean for him to become The Main Guy and never would've guessed he would be, but... well,, we dont always plan things i suppose, feelings just happen 😭

anyways. it maybe seems kind of messed up but his ~tragic backstory~ is what drew me in initially bc it helped me feel less alone and scared when i was Going Through some pretty major shit lol. and then after that, i just kind of took the character base that pkmn had in place and ran with it to build on it and sort of make my own version of him that I could be friends with and eventually fell in love with ^^;;

TL;DR it was a mix of timing, similar history of abuse, intrigue bc of our opposite reactions to the abuse, and um... the way he is like,, strong and builds a safe place for other young ppl who feel unsafe or not accepted in general society fdsjkl

i get embarrassed talking abt it bc ppl seem to really hate it when abuse victims are weak in any way and need help, but ... i do really like that he is strong in some ways and would be able to give me a sort of safe place to let my guard down and receive help and care (as shown by the way he provides a safe place for the grunts, all the misfits and outcasts of Alola) ^^;;;; honestly kind of a Big part of it for me (and for pretty much all my s.elfship dynamics) is that he is able to protect me and care for me, because I have not like. experienced that ever. at least not properly. when your parents are the ones being abusive, you not only do not experience protection and care but you're also being actively hurt in some way by the people who are supposed to keep you safe. so to be freely given care and safety is kind of crazyyyy to me LOL, that is something i like a lot about him :')

OKAY RAMBLE OVER. i really tried to keep this as short as i could but,, brevity is not a strength of mine (esp when it comes to him) LOL. THANK YOU for the question !!! its fun to look back at how it all happened tbh :]

[pocket-monsters-precure]

Chapter 19: Unstable Genetics!? The Most Dangerous Nega-Evolution!

(The Nega-Mewtwo drawing I commissioned from a friend, Melianthe!)

Wish and Starlight caught a violent swing of Nega-Mewtwo’s massive tail, skidding back as they did so. The mutated creature snarled viciously, nega-energy misting from its clenched jaw.

 “For a bony skeletal weirdo, it’s got some strength behind it!” Starlight grunted in annoyance, only to yelp as the tail flipped upward, throwing them into the ceiling. Nega-Mewtwo hurled a storm of shadow balls after them, rumbling the mountain’s very foundations with its sheer ferocity. It began to emit a long, low growl, as the two Cures fell to the floor and hit it with hard thuds.

 “We’ve been at this for a while now….” Starlight grunted as she sat up, “And we’re already tired from the first fight!”

 “I hope Rotomi’s okay…” Wish rose to one knee…she was shaking. Nega-Mewtwo was leering back at her. “Why…why does he seem to single me out…? Even before this…”

 “Maybe it’s because your powers are from Mew? It’s a clone of Mew, and hates humans, so…maybe seeing a human with Mew’s powers is something really, I dunno…infuriating to it?” Starlight frowned; it occurred to her that Nega-Mewtwo hadn’t made a move in that span of time. Starlight lunged forward suddenly, catching Nega-Mewtwo’s incoming fist to shield the unprepared Wish.

 “Back off!” she shrieked, while Absol lunged and unleashed Faint Attack. Though the swift, darkness-coated strikes showed to be affecting the psychic-type, Nega-Mewtwo didn’t back down, instead attempting to swat away Absol; its now larger size, however, slowed its movements.  Starlight jumped back and landed beside Wish.

 “Come on, let’s combine powers, like you did with Sunrise!” Starlight held out her hand. After a moment’s hesitation, Wish nodded and took her hand, as they reached their free hands forward. They each drew an arc of light in the air, then grasped each arc.

 “Scattered Wish Shoot!” They shouted, releasing their hands and making the motion of drawing a bow and firing arrows of light, swirling with pink energy. The arrows detonated against Nega-Mewtwo, causing it to stagger back, before it telekinetically broke off several stalactites and hurled them at the pair. The pair separated to protect themselves, as the mountain continued to shake with each powerful impact; when the dust settled, both girls were down to their knees, even closer to exhaustion.

 “Mewtwo’s legends always hailed it as one of the most powerful pokemon…” Wish panted, “How much longer are we gonna be able to hold on…?”

 Nega-Mewtwo began to slowly stomp toward them, unbridled malice in its eyes…

 PA-POW!

 Two powerful diving kicks struck Nega-Mewtwo, knocking it across the cavern as Sunrise and Willow landed nearby.

 “We made it in time…what a relief!” Willow sighed. Sunrise turned a bit to look at Wish and Starlight.

 “You guys take a rest,” Sunrise suggested, “We can continue this.”

 “I need a rest, too…” Rotomi dizzily floated up, before dropping into Wish’s outstretched hands.

 “Great work, Rotomi,” Starlight praised her softly. Sunrise turned back to Nega-Mewtwo, who was recovering from being stunned.

 “Don’t mind us…we’re just tagging in!”

 Nega-Mewtwo leered at the interlopers, digging its claws into the ground beneath it with minimal effort before swinging one in a wide arc at the pair; Sunrise caught it, hands sparking with electricity.

 “Wake-up Shock!” She shouted, forcing it to reel back as the jolt ran through it. A swirl of leaves twirled through the air, before sharpening and flying, cutting into the beast. A bell chimed in the air, as Willow’s Chronicle Bell slowed down time and she moved in to kick it in the chin, snapping its head upward.

 “I still feel bad fighting it,” Willow admitted as she stood back-to-back with Sunrise, “It’s a Nega-Evolution, but still, at its core it’s still a pokemon…sealed inside like that, probably terrified…I wonder if it can see out?”

 “I try not to think about it,” Sunrise replied, “We’re fighting to free it, and that’s what we’re gonna do.”

 Back with Starlight and Wish, Starlight was growing restless.

 “Break time’s over! Let’s go, Wish!” Starlight cried, rising to her feet and sprinting toward the others, Absol loyally following. Clefable pat Wish gently, as she got back to her feet. She watched the fight, Starlight joining in and firing off a shooting star at Nega-Mewtwo’s face, only for it to swat it away angrily.

 “You want a fight with the Precure,” Starlight declared, “You get to fight the whole team!  Come on, Wish!”

 Wish hesitated for only a moment, then nodded once, running toward the group, charging energy in both her hands. “Wish..Whimsy….!” she threw her hands forward, sending the two now-large orbs at Nega-Mewtwo. “Pop!” She clapped her hands together, the resulting explosion continuing to chip away at Nega-Mewtwo’s defenses and stamina. Both paws lunged forward to grab her, but Sunlight and Willow caught them.

 “I know you’re in there, you grump!” Starlight shouted, “You’re really gonna let Team Dysphoria make a puppet out of you!?”

 Nega-Mewtwo opened its maw, roaring directly in her face as she reached out, slamming a foot down on its lower jaw and grabbing the roof of its mouth with both hands.

 “You’re a powerful pokemon, alright…but that just made you a prime target for those creeps! You wanna make yourself useful!? Snap out of it and help the Precure!  The longer you stay like this, the more nega-energy that you’re feeding to them!”

 She pushed back, jumping away and joining the others; Sunrise and Willow released Nega-Mewtwo’s claws, as it suddenly pulled back, clutching at its head and angrily snarling.

 I…WiLl NoT bE EnSlAvEd…AgAiN!!!

 Its thoughts banged against the walls of their minds, distorted; fighting for supremacy.

 “Could it be you reached it!?” Rotomi floated over.

 “I figured it was worth a shot,” Starlight reasoned, “after Willow pointed out it might be able to see out, and I remembered how I reached Absol when she nega-evolved…and Guzma did the same thing with his Golisopod.”

 “While it’s struggling, we gotta act!” Sunrise turned to the others. “Let’s refresh it!”

 The group joined hands, as a new power seemed to flow through them. A righteous energy, as they put their hands together in the center, and a diamond of light formed beneath their feet…their finisher felt more energized than ever before.

 “Precure Quartet Refresh!”

 The diamond formed beneath Nega-Mewtwo and shot up, enveloping it and bathing the cavern in blinding light, scattering wild pokemon that had begun to creep out to watch the fight.

 When the light cleared, Mewtwo lay on the ground, its breathing heavy and raspy, eyes closed.

 “…we did it…!” Wish gasped, as the group jumped for joy and hugged. Rotomi zipped over to absorb the lingering nega-energy, then paused.

 “Hey, guys? It’s breathing kind of weird,” she called, “I don’t remember anyone who got nega-evolved being in this kinda shape when we saved them…”

 “…breathing weird?” Willow echoed as she walked over, kneeling by Mewtwo and putting her head to its chest.  She frowned.

 “The heartbeat sounds okay, but you’re right; that’s some really bad breathing trouble. It’s not even conscious…”

 “Is it…damage from when we fought it before it was nega-evolved?” Wish asked shakily, now wracked with worry.

 “I don’t know…but we can’t just leave it like this.”

 “Why don’t we take it to Dr. Pierce?” Sunrise asked, “She’s an expert on pokemon medicine, after all���maybe she can help?”

 “We’d have to warp it all the way to Unity Island from here…I’m sure Rotomi’s not able to handle that stress,” Starlight pointed out. “And if we try to take it out in the open, someone’s probably gonna see us with this fabled pokemon and ask questions…” “..why not just two of us?” Wish asked. “Rotomi could warp just Mewtwo and one of us directly to Dr. Pierce’s home, so we can explain what happened. The rest of us can take the ferry back.”

 “We can try that…” Rotomi agreed. “I think I can manage one more warp if it’s just one of you and Mewtwo.”

 “Wish, Starlight, one of you should go, since you were here from the beginning,” Willow reasoned. The pair looked between each other, and Starlight put a hand on Wish’s shoulder.

 “I’ll go,” Starlight said, “I know that thing freaks you out, and it seemed to really not like that you got your powers from Mew. Who knows what’ll happen if it wakes up before the rest of us get there?”

 Wish remained silent for a moment. Then, “No, it’s okay. I’ll go. I’ll have Dr. Pierce and Clefable with me, along with my other pokemon…I’ll be okay.”

 The other three looked to each other, sharing concerned glances. Then, Rotomi floated to Wish.

 “Alright…let’s do it.”

 ==

 She had been typing away at the computer for hours…researching, documenting, rearranging. Penumbra was asleep in Dr. Pierce’s lap, the umbreon’s ear twitching on occasion, as Hypno approached and placed a cup of tea on the desk.

 At the clicking of the ceramic on the wooden desk, Dr. Pierce finally looked over. “Oh…Hypno. Thank you. I left it in the microwave again, didn’t I?” She picked up the cup, noting it was still warm as she took a sip, and took off her glasses with her free hand, rubbing her eye with her knuckle. “I’ve been so swept up in all this Precure stuff my own work is starting to suffer. I need a balance…”

 A blip of pink light caught the corner of her eye. “…Rotomi’s warping here?” She looked over.

 CR-R-R-ASH!

 A blur of white and purple smashed into her coffee table, splitting it in two…Mewtwo lay there unconscious, as Fae and Rotomi landed beside it.

 “Dr. Pierce! Y-y-you have a patient!” Fae sputtered out. Dr. Pierce stared back, jaw dropped, while Penumbra had woken up in a panic and Hypno was waving its pendulum threateningly. Silence fell over the room, until the cup of tea slipped from Dr. Pierce’s hands and smashed on the floor.

 ……

 One hurried explanation later…

 “This is a lot to take in…” Dr. Pierce sighed, as Mewtwo lay on a small cot in the back room of Dr. Pierce’s home—a miniature medical lab, of sorts. The genetic creature’s breathing was still wheezy, and occasionally it shivered. “Help me strap it in.”

 “S-strap it in..!?” Fae gasped.

 “It’s just a precaution…we don’t know what it’s going to do when it wakes up,” Dr. Pierce replied, securing Mewtwo’s wrists. “So Mewtwo was nega-evolved while it was trying to challenge you!?”

 “Yes…” Fae looked down briefly, before anxiously moving to strap down Mewtwo’s ankles. “I don’t know what it was trying to prove…but it seemed especially hostile toward me. Naomi thinks it’s because I got my Cure Compact from Mew….I mean, it even pointed it out when it spoke to us. It said…it seemed weird that someone like me would be chosen….”

 “Could be a case of the clone feeling inadequate compared to the original…” Dr. Pierce put a stethoscope to its chest, “And since this guy was created to fight, it challenging you could be explained as it acting on instinct…”

 “Makes sense to me,” Rotomi huffed as she was flopped on a nearby desk, exhausted.

 “I…” Fae wrung her hands. “I…I don’t think it should just be explained away like that. Mewtwo seems really smart. It must have something it wants to prove, to challenge Precure like that…”

 “You may have a point,” Dr. Pierce nodded to her, smiling gently. “You know, Fae, you’re pretty nice…trying to understand Mewtwo’s side of the story.”

 “Ah-!” Fae stiffened up, blushing a little. “Well…all the things it was saying had logic to it…I guess I just don’t fully understand why it felt justified fighting us…is his condition because of the fight?  Or the nega-evolution? We’ve never had anyone in this bad of shape after a nega-evolution…”

 “Hmm…” Dr. Pierce watched Mewtwo shudder again. “It could be a mix. For one, it seems like it overworked itself and is both battered and tired. For another, Mewtwo’s body isn’t naturally occurring from centuries of existence, unlike other pokemon. Everything about it is something new and inorganic. It’s never faced something like nega-evolution before, and it’s unlike any other pokemon in existence, so it could almost be considered a type of anaphylaxis—“

 “Ana-what?”

 “—an allergic reaction. It’s a highly complex being right down to its DNA, so its body wasn’t quite sure what to do with the nega-evolution going on. Granted, this is all just a theory…it could very easily just be sick; after all, we don’t know what kid of natural immunities it might have or anything…but I’m digressing. I’d have to run some tests. There’s not enough information on its physical condition just yet for me to give a concrete answer.” She put a hand on Fae’s shoulder. “I’ll take care of it. You go get some rest and update the other girls. You can all come check on it tomorrow after classes.”

 “Okay…”

 “I’m sure I don’t have to say this, but don’t go around town saying that Mewtwo’s here.”

 “Y-yes, ma’am…!”

 ==

 “I still can’t believe we technically battled a legendary pokemon…” Naomi laid back in bed once Kailani and Fae had returned to the dorm; Asuka had taken a separate ferry back to Johto, as per usual.

 “It’s not a legendary!” Rotomi insisted from within the charging Cure Dex, “A legendary creature would be one that’s ingrained in folklore and legends!”

 “Oh, don’t argue semantics!” Naomi snapped back.

 “Are you alright, Fae?” Kailani asked gently.

 “Mm-hmm..” Fae nodded, hugging her pillow. “I just…feel so bad for it. It seemed to distrustful of humans, and so…full of anger.”

 “I don’t blame it,” Naomi replied, “Humans are the worst.”

 “I can understand where it’s coming from,” Kailani replied, “Created by humans who just wanted to make a fighting machine…what kind of life is that? Not one I’d wanna live.” She looked out the window. “Back in Alola, it’s ingrained in our culture to work alongside pokemon to achieve our goals. They’re not slaves or servants; they’re partners. The idea that someone would only see their pokemon as a tool to fight others, and create a living weapon to achieve that…it’s kinda alien to me.”

 “I mean, we fight pokemon in battles, but that’s just how it is…they’re our comrades,” Naomi mused, “Not tools. And definitely not slaves.”

 “…Naomi, if you had a pokemon that was clearly unhappy being captive,” Fae asked, “Would you let it go?”

 “Absolutely!” Naomi nodded firmly once. “Y’know that classic phrase, right? If you love it, let it go. I want my pokemon to be happy. Everyone deserves to be happy.”

 “Right!” Kailani agreed wholeheartedly. “Alright…we’ll all check on Mewtwo tomorrow. Maybe…he’ll even help us?”

 “Don’t get your hopes up too high, though,” Naomi muttered. The girls began to relax in their beds, while Kailani quietly stared up at the plastic stars she had placed on the ceiling above her.

 It was nothing like the beautiful night sky in Alola.

 ==

 “Hypno.” Hypno opened the door to let the girls in, closing it after them.

 “Doctor?” Fae called.

 “In the lab!” Dr. Pierce called.

 “Oh, my….” Asuka looked down to see Hypno had returned to its previous task—it had a broom and dustpan and was sweeping up broken glass.   There were cracks in some of the widows, and a few glasses had completely shattered.

 “What…happened here?” Fae wondered aloud, anxious.

 “Let’s go!” Naomi led the group in a hurried rush to the lab.  There, countless papers and binders were floating in midair, surrounding Mewtwo as its eyes darted from document to document. Dr. Pierce stood nearby, writing in a notebook while Penumbra watched it apprehensively.

 “Uh…what’s it doing?” Kailani asked, confused.

 “He. He asked for a male designation,” Dr. Pierce replied, “He’s going through gathered research and updating himself on the situation with the nega-evolutions…I’ve collected whatever I could access online and gathered up my personal notes for him. Isn’t it fascinating?”

 An annoyed grunt came from Mewtwo’s throat.

 “I mean, sure…” Naomi replied, “But what’s with the broken glass?”

 “Oh, that…well, when he woke up and realized he was restrained, he panicked a bit and had a small surge of psychic energy. But it seems he realized I wasn’t a threat and calmed down. Just a little outburst, that’s all.”

 “What do you mean, ‘that’s all?’” Naomi quirked an eyebrow. Fae watched quietly, then squeaked and flinched as Mewtwo glanced toward her. The papers floated back into a neat pile, as he turned to look at her.

 I will find out what my predecessor saw in you, he projected, but you may be at ease. I call a truce. If the Precure are what is necessary to stop this epidemic of nega-evolution, so be it. As for the doctor, she is…not as overzealous about my presence as I was expecting, so I suppose I am willing to work with her.

 “I’ll take compliments where I can get them,” Dr. Pierce shrugged.

 “This is actually pretty great,” Kailani reasoned, “We have a strong ally, and we can show Mewtwo that not all humans are bad, right?”

 “Hey, you’re right,” Asuka nodded. “But…what got him in such bad shape before, Doctor?”

 “I still don’t have a solid answer,” Dr. Pierce admitted, “But I gave him fluids and let him sleep and he seemed to recover based on that, so perhaps he was just exhausted.”

 “So this powerful pokemon got all tuckered out?” Rotomi huffed, only to get trapped in a psychic bubble and bounced around the room again. “AIEEE!”

 “…Oh, Rotomi,” Kailani sighed, catching her as the bubble popped. “Maybe it’s you who needs some manners…”

[conretewings]

-This Ends Now-

A short-ish fanfic based on my future headcanon where Guzma and Plumeria have Fern. They have to go to Melemele Island for some supplies and run into some people they neither expected nor wanted to… -Warning-lots of angst, implied child abuse and language ahead

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“We’re almost there, honey.”

“You talking to me or the munchkin, Plumes?”

“Both, I guess. Although she has been whining less than you about how long it’s taking.”

“Yeah Daddy! No whining!”

“Great, now y’all are ganging up on me. I have not been whining! I’m just hungry. …And I don’t like this ferry. Thing’s been makin’ weird noises.”

Plumeria rolled her eyes but gave Guzma a small smile, turning to show Fern the school of Alomomola that were leaping from the waves created by the boat zipping through the clear, bright waters as they all stood on the ferry’s deck among the other passengers.

The three of them were traveling to Melemele for the day to do some shopping for supplies that were out of stock at their usual stores back home. It was also a special day for little Fern, as it was the first time in her almost four years that she had left Akala’s shores. So excited had the toddler been that it was all she had talked about since they had told her the previous night.

She wriggled in Plumeria’s arms, counting the fish Pokemon before turning her head and gasping in delight, “Mommy look! Is that it?!”

Plumeria glanced up to see the mountains and other features of Melemele quickly growing closer on the horizon, “Yes, that’s it.”

“Daddy daddy hold me up I wanna see!” Fern cried, holding her arms out toward Guzma, who grinned and scooped her up, setting her on his broad shoulders.

Her small, golden eyes grew huge as she clung to her father’s head, trying to get herself as high as possible, “Woooooow!”

Between the balmy, perfect weather, the day’s adventure ahead, and the two people he loved most by his side, Guzma felt his spirits soar higher than the flock of Wingulls drifting overhead. He put his free arm around Plumeria and pulled her close, smirking at her, “Where to first, beautiful?”

“Well…” she smiled back at him, “Since you’re hungry, I guess we’ll grab some food before we start shopping…” her smile faded, “I’m actually surprised you were so relaxed about coming here, considering…everything.”

Guzma’s own smile dropped, realizing at last what she was talking about. Looking away, he was quiet for a minute before saying, “Whatever. Ain’t like anyone’s gonna remember me.”

-Once they arrived, after a bite at a local diner and shopping for several hours, Plumeria had taken Fern to the bathroom while Guzma waited outside. Leaning against a palm tree near the mall’s entry doors, he gazed out over the nearby beach, watching the tourists baking themselves in the sun, kids playing with their Pokemon, and the general bustle of the city streets. He had been right; not once since they docked had anyone seemed to recognize or treat him any differently. For this he was very grateful-the last thing he wanted was for today to be ruined by someone trying to start shit over things that had long past.

Letting his eyes fall shut, he was just thinking of texting Plumeria to ask if they had fallen in, when a wavering voice said his name. Eyes snapping back open, he whipped his head toward the sound, wanting to be wrong, but there she was, mouth half-open in shock, hands clenched over her chest.

He could scarcely breathe but managed to sputter out, “M-Mom?”

“Guzma-! I-we haven’t spoken in nearly two years!” she shuffled over to him, trying to hug him and he shrank away, but she didn’t seem to notice, “I…I’ve missed you, son! Why don’t you ever call? Talk to me please! Where are you now? What have you been doing? What-”

“Whoa, whoa! Mom, slow down,” he pulled out of her vice-grip of a hug and stepped back, trying to focus on all her questions when one suddenly stuck out, “Wait-I have called, like a dozen times but…he always picks up and I ain’t talkin’ to that piece of…” he stopped, rubbing his face hard and breathing deeply before looking back up, “Didn’t he ever tell you?”

His mother blinked in confusion, “No…I had no idea.”

“Tch! Figures…” Guzma spat, lightly kicking a nearby trashcan.

“Oh Guzma, it’s fine. He’s very busy with his job and I’m sure he just forgot to tell me.”

“Forgot to tell you that many times?” he retorted, “C’mon Mom! It was on purpose and you know it. He hates me and doesn’t want you talkin’ to me either! Face it, there is no way in hell that he didn’t pull-”

His voice seemed to catch in his throat along with his breath as his father rounded the corner toward them, “Petunia, you were supposed to meet me-” the man froze at the sight before him, then his gaze hardened, “Well, well. Never thought I’d see you around here…son.”

Guzma felt ill, all of the demons lurking in his mind and heart roaring to the surface, choking out his voice and sending him flying back to his youth, all the darkness there clawing at his senses until there was only raw, agonizing fear left. With great effort and picturing a tiny, gold-eyed angel beaming up at him, he wrestled those thoughts away, managing to bring himself back to the here-and-now and clenched his fists, grey eyes flashing with contempt, “Don’t call me that, you piece of shit.”

Petunia held her hands up, “Stop, please! Edgar,” she pleaded to her husband, “I haven’t seen my sweet child in so long! Please just be nice!”

He spat, “Nice?! After how he just spoke to me? After everything he’s done? I don’t see how you think that’s possible. Listen boy,” he jabbed a finger at Guzma, “I don’t know what you’re doing back home, but if you came crawling back here looking for help, you can forget it!”

Guzma threw his head back and barked out a bitter, cold laugh, “Oh, fuck you! Trust me, I wasn’t! I would never ask your pathetic ass for help! I’d rather eat shit than-”

It was then, at the worst possible time, he heard it; a sound that normally filled him with joy and pride now brought only horrified dread.

“Daddy! Daddy I found you!” Fern squealed, running up to him and latching onto his leg.

Gasping, her eyes filling with tears, Petunia reached a shaking hand out, “Oh-oh my goodness! Is she really-?! Oh Arceus she’s beautiful! We had no idea..! Honey why didn’t you tell us?!”

Guzma felt sick with dismay as he swiftly scooped Fern up, “I never-”

Suddenly coming around the corner, Plumeria sighed, “Sorry we took so long. She spotted a display of toys she had to play with…”

She stopped, startled to silence by the scene before her. From everyone’s position and with the trees and pillars of the nearby fence, Guzma had been the only person she’d seen until that moment. Leaping back into action, her instincts kicking in, she grabbed Fern and stepped back, turning her body so it was between them and her daughter. She had never actually met nor even seen his parents, but she could see it in their features, feel it in her bones, see it written across her husband’s face-she knew the stories, had seen his scars, and right now the only thing going through her mind was how to protect her precious girl.

“Guzma?!” she growled, and he immediately moved to place himself between them and his parents, mind racing.

“Plumeria, get her outta here. We’ll meet up-”

“Bah! So you got some girl knocked up. Why am I not surprised? It’s no worse than anything else you’ve pulled!” sneered Edgar coldly, “She may be related to me, but no bastard kid’s a granddaughter of mine.”

“Edgar! Stop!” sniffled Petunia.

“How dare you-!” Plumeria snarled, cutting herself off as she realized Guzma was moving in his direction.

Taking several strides toward him, Guzma felt nor heard anything but the blood roaring in his ears; not Plumeria telling him to back off, not his mother pleading for them to stop it. He saw nothing, not noticing the other people near them staring-the only thing he knew at that moment was the pure, undiluted rage that moved his feet and arms, making him ball his hands into fists, ready to beat down the pile of human garbage that had just derided the most precious thing in his life. He raised a fist, ready to strike, ready to take vengeance for all the blows he had suffered, all the agony he had been through-when one, small sound cut through the churning storm in his soul, a beam of light in the darkness.

“Daddy stop!”

He froze stock-still, hand still poised in mid-swing and slowly turned his gaze toward Fern. Her large eyes wavered with the fear and uncertainty of a child that doesn’t understand what’s going on, but nonetheless knows something’s terribly wrong. As he looked, she began to tear up, and it was then he realized something that made him even more sick than the man before him.

His own daughter was scared of him.

Squeezing his eyes shut, ashamed, he lowered his fist and exhaled, all the fury and energy leaving his body. Edgar snorted, “Go on, take a shot. I’d love to let the police know you did.”

Guzma drew another breath, opening his eyes and glaring him down, “I’m sure you would. But I’m gonna have to disappoint you one more time,” he walked back to Plumeria and Fern, looking down at the toddler and smiling gently, “Sorry, Cutiefly…Daddy promises never to do that again in front of you, okay?”

Fern nodded hesitantly, but as he leaned over to kiss the top of her head and ruffle her hair, she giggled and relaxed a little, smiling up at him again. He brushed a few stray wisps of her ink-black hair behind her ears, the same hair that graced his own head but he had bleached for years to try and distance himself from the man he now felt it was finally time to confront. He ignored the angry threats and tearful pleading behind them and to Plumeria murmured, “Head to the docks. Grab tickets for the next ferry home. If I don’t show up on time, leave anyway and I’ll grab the last one.”

“Mommy, daddy, what’s going on? Who are those people and why are we leaving?” Fern wondered, looking up at them with again tear-filled, confused eyes.

Plumeria kissed her, whispering she’d explain later, then took a quick glance at her watch. She bit her lip, “The next one will be the last one, at least that’ll take you anywhere near home.”

“Then I’ll swim! Or something. Just get Fern and yourself outta here. Please Plumes…just go.”

She nodded, then abruptly grabbed his collar, pulling him in so their faces were millimeters apart. Her gold eyes narrowed dangerously, “I don’t know what you’re planning, but take it easy. I do not need Fern to visit her father in jail. Am I perfectly clear?”

He glared back at her, stung, “For fu-for heaven’s sake P! You think I want that either?! You think I haven’t grown up, at least a little? Give me some credit, jeez…now go on. Get our kid somewhere safer.”

Plumeria let go, realizing she had been a little harsh with him, but knowing there was no time now to sort it out. So, she simply nodded and hurried away. Guzma watched them go, Fern twisting so she could see him. It nearly broke his heart to see her reaching one small arm out and calling to him before they vanished around a bend in the street. Petunia shuffled in their direction, holding out her arms, sobbing, “Oh no-please! Come back! I just…” she covered her face with her hands, “Why Guzma? Why can’t I know my own granddaughter..?”

He gazed at her, then momentarily flicked his eyes to his father, steeling his heart again for the confrontation he knew he was going to have to deal with, “Because of him.”

His mother wiped her face, slowly turning around and walking back towards her husband, then started to move past him. As she did she said, “We need to talk later…”

Edgar sighed and rubbed his forehead, starting to reply before Guzma said sharply, “Hey!”

Glancing at him with a mix of disinterest and annoyance, his father replied, “What?”

“You, me…” Guzma pointed to an empty area of the beach a short ways off, “We need to talk now.”

The peaceful sigh of the waves lapping the sand and gentle cries of circling Wingulls created a peaceful scene in stark contrast to the tense animosity that was Guzma facing his father. They occupied a small strip of beach well away from any prying ears, shaded by a stray cluster of palms near the water, the wind whispering through them only adding to the strange juxtaposition. Neither man had spoken for a minute, Edgar crossing his arms impatiently as he watched Guzma pace back and forth, hunched over and hands shoved in the pockets of his shorts.

Finally the younger of them turned and said, “God I fuckin’ hate you.”

“So when you said you wanted to talk, what you meant is you wanted to whine at me. I don’t have to put up with this.”

Guzma’s face split with an ear-to-ear grin, but the kind of wide-eyed, rage-filled, borderline psychotic smile that had used to send his grunts scattering and make anyone else step back in fear, “Oh no, I really, really think you do ‘cause you see…” suddenly standing to his full height, he strode over to his father, looming over him, “I got some shit to say, and for once, you’re gonna be the one who has to listen.”

Edgar’s eye twitched, refusing to let his son see that he was, for once, mildly afraid. He knew all about the things Guzma had done, the people he’d hurt for the smallest, if any, transgression, the lows he’d stoop to get what he wanted; what was to stop him from harming anyone, even his own father? His mouth was set in a hard line as he too stretched himself to stand as tall as possible, “Fine. I’m listening.”

There were many things Guzma wanted to say; so many things. He wanted to scream at him, rant, tell him what a worthless, vile excuse for a parent he was, to tell him just how much he hated him for everything he had done. He wanted revenge for all the suffering, the pain, the nightmares. He felt his hands involuntarily clench into fists, a part of him wanting to just beat the pulp out of the man-

But again, visions of an angel with black hair and an impish smile swam into his conscious.

Fists still balled but knowing he could control himself now, he silently thanked those thoughts and jabbed a finger in his father’s face, “I’ll never ask for forgiveness from you for all the shit you put me through, ‘cause I know damn well you don’t give a fuck. There’s only one thing I will ask-forget you ever saw my daughter.”

“I-wait what?” asked Edgar, genuinely confused.

“Forget. You. Ever. Saw. My. Daughter,” Guzma repeated, enunciating every word, his tone icy, “You said she was no granddaughter of yours, well, tch! You ain’t no grandfather to her. In fact, just forget about me and my family.  Don’t try to find us, don’t try to communicate with us, just leave us the hell alone.”

“And what if I refuse?”

“Then there ain’t no place in this whole goddamn world you can run where I won’t find you.”

Edgar glared, “Are you threatening me?”

Guzma leaned in closer, closer than he thought he’d ever have the mental fortitude and courage to, but even far away, Fern gave him strength he never knew he had, “I am fuckin’ promising you.”

“Fine! Whatever. Like I said, she’s no family to me,” turning on his heel, Edgar started to leave, throwing one last cutting look and remark over his shoulder, “As far as I’m concerned, you’re no son of mine, either.”

Guzma bent down and scooped up a rock, gripping it so tightly he was sure it’d crack in his hand, wanting so desperately to fling it at the retreating man’s head. His breath came out in great, stuttering gasps, his limbs shaking slightly, trying to decide what to do as his target moved farther away. Ultimately, he let out a roar of frustration, spinning and hurling the rock out into the sea.

-Plumeria stood on the docks near the ferry’s loading ramp, Fern in her arms and her usual stoic expression on her face. She turned to glance at one of the deckhands as he told her and several other passengers they were going to be leaving in exactly five minutes before looking back further up the bustling docks.

Fern wriggled and asked for probably the dozenth time, “Where’s daddy?”

“He’ll be here, sweetie.”

As she spoke, she saw several people stumble sideways, some dropping their bags or boxes and heard annoyed shouts, only to spy a tall head of white hair darting and dodging through the crowd, not always successfully. She couldn’t help but smile; destruction in human form, he was. Fern squealed with joy and held her arms out with an enthusiastic chant of ‘daddy daddy!’ as Guzma trotted up to them, panting hard.

“H-hey ladies-you need an escort for your trip? You know how sailors can be!” he smirked, earning a sour glance from a nearby seaman.

Plumeria raised an eyebrow and asked, “How’d it go?”

“Don’t wanna talk about it. Not now, maybe not ever. I dunno.” He scooped up Fern and held her tightly, burrowing his face in her hair-she smelled like her berry-scented shampoo and he sighed, already feeling his soul beginning to heal a little.

Plumeria nodded, knowing there was no point in pushing the issue and stepped forward to hold them both. They stood like this for a moment before she asked, “You okay, G?”

His eyes clouded, “Honestly? No. But…” he freed one arm to encircle her shoulders, soaking up the warmth of the two people he loved the most, “I think I’ll be alright.”

[vampirewalterskinner]

This is an old fic I started writing for @little-geecko a while back and never finished until now, based of of little-geecko‘s art and writing. I hope you’re okay with me writing for the au.

Petting Praise

A long yawn fell from Nanu's mouth and exposed his sharp fangs. His sensitive ears twitched at the sound of his meowth approaching, but he quickly waved them away with a flick of his tail. Normally he loved being around his pokémon, but in his current state he sometimes dreaded it. Every time he turned into this form, this tiny little meowth body with messy fur, his pokémon became insistent on grooming him. He could only handle that many sharp tongues for a brief moment. He also felt rather insulted by the fact that they seemed so eager to clean him. He didn't think he was that dirty. Nanu's eyes flickered open as he stared at his own paws. He stretched his toes under a sunbeam and watched as his claws slipped free. Tiny. He could kill a bird, easy, but forget taking down anything bigger than that.

A loud knock burst from the door and the meowth scattered in a panicked frenzy. Some ran to hide under furniture while others rushed to windows to peer outside. Nanu growled as he glared at the ones pulling at the blindes. He didn't have the money to replace them if they broke. Without warning the door flew open and bashed into the wall, causing Nanu and the other meowth to jump in surprise as a dark figure loomed in the doorway. Nanu growled as his ears laid flat against his skull. Now who in hell would be causing such a commotion?

Nanu opened his mouth to give the intruder a piece of his mind, but instead an irritated “mew!” tumbled from his tongue. Oh. Right. He couldn't speak in this form. At least, not any human language. The figure stepped forward and Nanu snarled in alarm. There was mud all over their shoes! They were going to make a huge mess!

“Old man! Yo geezer!” the young voice called out, giving a huff when he received no reply, “Where’d Nanu go? He almost never leaves this place.”

Nanu blinked. Guzma? What was he doing here? A smug grin stretched across Nanu’s lips as he snuggled back onto the couch while purring to himself. At least the boy couldn't bother him while in this form. Not that he disliked Guzma or anything. Quite the opposite. The kid could just be a handful, sometimes.

Guzma's grey eyes searched the police station before he sighed as his shoulders slumped. “I can't believe I missed him. Of all days,” the thug grumbled. He toed the door closed and shuffled over to the couch, causing Nanu to quickly lose his smug smile. Large hands reached toward him and Nanu screwed his eyes shut as he waited for Guzma's next move. Instead of being handled roughly, he was surprised when Guzma's big hands gently wrapped around his body and lifted him off the couch. Guzma took his place as he flopped down onto the cushion, slouching as he laid Nanu on his stomach.

“That guy always seems to go missing when I need him,” Guzma mumbled. His gray eyes stared at Nanu vacantly as he began to stroke the meowth’s head.

Nau stiffened at the foreign touch, but soon melted as fingers scratched the sensitive spot just behind the ears. His eyes slid closed as he pressed back into the touch, an embarrassingly loud and raspy purr vibrating through his chest. Guzma blinked at the sound before chuckling as he moved to scratch at the meowth's jaw and cheek.

“Y’know, yer a weird color for a meowth. You look more gray than the others do. Are you an old meowth?” Guzma joked.

Nanu's eyes snapped open as he growled at Guzma for the joke, then returned to enjoying the kind scritches. Nanu knew that later he’d be angry at himself for willingly letting the boy pet him like this, but that was a problem for tomorrow's Nanu.

Guzma snickered at the meowth's outburst. “Don't get mad at me, dude. You just look different. I’ve never seen a meowth with red eyes either. Although...they look kinda familiar,” Guzma mused. Without warning, Guzma took hold of Nanu's face with both hands and brought him close to peer into his eyes. Nanu's heart stilled from the close proximity. Guzma's young and handsome face drew far too close as he searched Nanu's eyes, making him fear that Guzma had figured everything out.

“Huh. I dunno why I find them so familiar. Weird,” Guzma said as he pulled back and released the meowth.

Relief washed through Nanu's small body as he laid down on the thug’s stomach, but it was short lived.

“Oh wait! Nanu! That's it!” Guzma cheered as he pulled Nanu close once more, “Your eyes remind me of Nanu’s! That's why I recognize them. They look just like his.”

Nanu grew nervous as he looked every other direction that didn't involve Guzma's nosey gaze.

“Your eyes are real pretty, just like his.”

Nanu blinked and stared at Guzma in shock. Surely the boy was messing with him. He had to have figured out his identity and was picking on him, right?

“No matter what kind of deadpan look the old man pulls, his eyes always have this kind of fire burning in them. They're just so vibrant and alive. Oh man, when he gets cocky, those eyes just light up like a burning star. They're amazing. I ain't never seen anyone have eyes quite like his,” Guzma murmured.

The kid liked his eyes? That was...surprisingly nice? Most people were freaked out by the red color. He's never had someone compliment them before. He hadn't even known the kid really liked anything about him.

Guzma's large hand stroked Nanu’s small back as he smiled softly. “I bet you like living here don't you, little buddy? Nanu takes good care of his pokémon,” Guzma said. His smile soon faltered and shifted into a frown, “He’s not exactly good at taking care of himself, though. He’s been looking a bit too thin lately. I hope he's not starving himself.”

Nanu was blown away. Guzma had noticed that? How could he even tell? No one else had noticed, not even Hala who he's known for years.

“Well, it’s not like I have room to talk,” Guzma said as he pulled his hand away from Nanu to examine the deep gashes on his knuckles, “Plums said I was lucky I didn't break my fingers from the last tantrum. To be honest, though, it wouldn't have been the first time they broke.”

So, the boy’s been losing his temper again. It had been a while since the last incident. Nanu thought Guzma had finally moved past it. A stupid assumption, of course. Anger management issues don't magically disappear, and he doubted Guzma would be the type to confront and fix his problems. Perhaps that’s why the boy was looking for him?

Silence overtook the atmosphere. The only sounds audible were of Guzma’s breathing, his hand stroking Nanu’s fur, and the embarrassingly loud purr rattling in the kahuna’s chest. It was a peaceful moment. A strange occasion for sure. Nanu wasn’t sure he had ever seen the boisterous young man every keep his mouth shut for more than a second. He had always wondered why the boy fought of silence with tooth and nail. The kahuna always figured it was for appearance, a persona the boy carried around to protect himself. Nanu could understand why. He was one of the few who knew about Guzma’s rocky childhood. A chuckle rolled from Guzma’s throat and pulled Nanu from his thoughts.

“You’re an affectionate little dude, aren’t you?” Guzma teased.

Nanu’s ears flattened as he watched the boy puff out his lips as his voice took on an annoying babying tone. Good lord. Why do people talk to felines like that? He hoped he never sounded like that when he spoke to his meowth.

A wide grin suddenly spread across Guzma’s face as he giggled, literally giggled, and a small cheerful blush dusted his cheeks. “Okay, your kneading is really cute and all, but those claws are sharp and the hurt and tickle at the same time,” Guzma snickered into his hand.

What in the world was he talking--oh good lord he was kneading the boy’s stomach. Nanu watched, horrified at himself, as his paws flexed and clenched over and over again on Guzma’s stomach. Well, this was highly embarrassing. He hadn’t even realized that he was doing it.

“O-okay, you seriously gotta stop, man. That tickles way too much,” Guzma laughed. His large hands wrapped around Nanu’s tiny body once more and pulled him up to lay the meowth on his chest as he sank deeper into the couch. “I bet you’re Nanu’s favorite. You’re pretty fun, and braver than the other cats. They’re all hiding,” Guzma mused.

I’m far from my own favorite; Nanu scoffed to himself.

Another wave of silence rolled through. This one lasted long enough that Nanu felt himself drifting off while curled up on Guzma’s chest. He found himself oddly comforted by the sound of the boy’s strong and steady heartbeat. Just as Nanu’s eyes slide closed and sleep began to overtake him, Guzma’s quiet voice pulled him back to reality.

“You mind if I tell you a secret?” Guzma whispered.

Nanu’s ears twitched in interest, but he refused to acknowledge the man. It wouldn’t be right for him to hear Guzma’s secret, whatever it may be. The boy had no idea who he really was. He thought he was just a meowth. Nanu really didn’t want to invade his personal life. Mostly because he hoped Guzma would treat him with the same respect, although this event has shown that Guzma holds no such values.

Long fingers massaged over Nanu’s head and firmly scratched down his back as Guzma muttered a confession, “I really like Nanu.”

Nanu’s ears stood tall and flicked towards Guzma, but he still refused to turn towards him. He really shouldn’t be hearing this. That didn’t stop the thousands of questions that ran through his head, nor the way his heart raced in his chest.

“I mean, I like him, like him. I-it’s not love or anything, I mean I don’t even know him well enough for that kind of thing...but, I think I might have, I dunno, a crush on him?” Guzma mumbled as a blush dusted his cheeks, “I dunno why. I mean he’s a nice guy and all, even under all that gruff ‘I don’t want to be here’ exterior he’s actually a really nice dude. Also, he’s a strong pokemon trainer, so y’know, it would make sense that I’d like that. He’s older than me and a kahuna and a cop, which are two things a guy like me is supposed to avoid at all costs but...he’s interesting. And one of the few people who treats me with respect that’s not based in fear.”

This can’t be happening. He had to be dreaming. A really fucking weird dream. He had to get out of here. Nanu stood up to leave, but was suddenly halted by Guzma’s massive hands pinning him to his lap and stroking his fur anxiously. “I know it’s stupid. Nanu would never like a guy like me anyways,” Guzma sighed.

Nanu released a short mew, and for once was glad that he couldn’t speak in this form. If he could, Guzma would have heard Nanu say very clearly, “You’re wrong.”

Nanu’s gut suddenly began to twist and bubble, causing panic to race through Nanu’s veins. Shit. Nanu struggled in Guzma’s grip as smoke poured from his grey fur, but Guzma didn’t release him.

“What the fuck?” Guzma yelped in alarm.

With a booming pop the room exploded with smoke. Guzma and nanu coughed in unison as the air slowly began to clear. Their eyes met and horror reflected on both of their faces. Guzma’s eyes widened, his face burning a brilliant red as a very human and very real Nanu now sat in his lap.

Guzma ripped his hands away from Nanu’s hips as his neck and ears began to turn pink. “What the hell!”

Nanu sat paralyzed, stricken with terror as Guzma continued to stare at him.

Oh, fuck.

[sappire-charizard]

OKAY so @sakuraxisxevil is in love with Guzma from SuMo and a) I ship it, b) she introduced me to the idea of a Pokemon AU where everything is old timey lords and ladies and princesses. Also probably real life animals replace Pokemon because why not?

This AU catered exactly to like... all of my favorite things, so in return I thought I’d try to write her a little thing?? It’s not very long, and I feel like it’s definitely missing something, but I wanted to get it out there for the time being as a present~ :D

Also I’m kind of tired so my proofreading probably leaves a lot to be desired and apologize in advance. ^^;

Guzma stood, hands bound with rope, staring down the noose that waved cruelly at him in the wind. The bags under his eyes were more pronounced than usual, evidence of the sleepless night he had spent in the cellar of his father's estate, and his hair was hanging damp around his ears from the nervous sweat even his stubborn pride had been unable to prevent. It was just as well it left him dehydrated, really- with his tongue sticking to the roof of his mouth he was less likely to try and make a scene. At this point he half suspected that was what they wanted from him; to prove before the town he was still a boisterous nuisance that needed to be silenced. The sort that no one would miss. He wouldn't give them that satisfaction. Finally, when the swinging rope became too much, he dropped his eyes to his bound hands, raising them so he could stare at his palms. He might have been bound to a post beside the gallows' platform and in front of the slowly-gathering crowd, but they had left him enough freedom to raise and lower his arms. Again, probably in hopes he would react like a chained animal and try to escape, making a show for the people.

In all honesty, he had never really attached that much importance to his life. He only existed so his family could say they had an heir. They had to have someone to put on display and then try to whip into shape when no one was looking, it was just that he had just refused one too many times to get into whatever shape it was they expected of him. Every disappointment he'd caused them had led to this- his final punishment for rebellion. Even now, he felt nothing when he thought of going through the ordeal ahead of him. Just one more son disowned by his family, destined for the chopping block so they could make room for another and use him as an example. But as his mind wandered further from himself, instinctively searching for some kind of emotion to feel so it wasn't left drifting in this sea of apathy, his fingers curled inward into fists. Erika. She had been his future. The one thing that had given him a spark of hope for something better down the road. He had told himself from the onset that nothing good would come of getting too close to her- eventually his father had been bound to intervene- but that hope had persisted. That terrible, lovesick hope that made him feel nauseous with loneliness when he was shut up in his own chambers. The rebellious ache in his chest when his father spoke to him at dinner about his family's plans they had set for him without his consent. The wonderful thrill of a quickened heartbeat when he found himself meeting her at three AM in the gardens outside his window.

His stomach tightened into a knot and he had to swallow a lump in his throat.

He wouldn't cry. He couldn't let his father think he had won. To show tears now would be to show weakness and fear. It would show regret.

He didn't regret the evenings when Gladion would buy out an entire inn and Erika and her group of friends would gather with him in the lobby to waste half the night laughing and joking as if for all the world they had no responsibilities. He didn't regret actually taking the time to live a little bit of life, even though he knew punishment came swift and painful afterwards to remind him of his place. He didn't regret the awkward flirting or the unbidden blush he had been so often suffered from.

He didn't regret falling in love with a woman that had actually made him feel like he was worth something.

His attention was drawn from his hands as the creaking of wooden steps broke through the whispering of the thickening crowd. As everyone fell silent, he looked towards the gallows again and saw his father now standing a few feet away facing the people, decked out in richly colored robes with a rolled piece of parchment in his hand.

He definitely didn't look like a father mourning the upcoming loss of his only son.

Guzma closed his eyes and hung his head as the all too familiar voice began to address the gathering. "Today we witness the execution of a punishment handed down from the local court..."

---

The dust rose in thick clouds as hooves the size of dinner plates flew over the the ground, covering the distance quickly not due to speed but solely because the length of the strides were twice that of another horse. Sappire had needed power and stamina over short bursts of speed, and her prized shire horse hadn't failed her in that department.

As she neared the edge of the town now, she tightened her grip on the rope she'd fashioned into reins and dared to draw her steed to a slow canter and then a trot, coming upon the pair that stood there waiting beside the road. Erika stood wringing her hands anxiously, looking as though her nerves were frayed beyond all repair, while Gladion was at her side, holding on to the reins of his own horse as if prepared to jump into the saddle at any moment. Sappire didn't wait for either of them to speak. "Where are they at?" Given Erika's state, it was Gladion who answered, voice tense. "Town square. They're bound to start any minute." Reaching one hand to the satchel at her hip, Sappire gave the reins a sharp slap against her horse's shoulders with the other, bouncing her heels against his sides to further illustrate her intentions. Javelin was not a horse that needed to be told twice, and he shifted back from fast trot to full gallop effortlessly, pausing only long enough to almost rear onto his back hooves to get a small hop of a start. He didn't know what was going on, but he knew his rider needed his utmost obedience- and he intended to give it to her.

A second later the two were lost in a cloud of dust again and the clattering of horseshoes echoes down the cobblestone street. By the time it had settled a little around them, Erika turned to Gladion only to be greeted with the sight of him in his own saddle, reaching down a hand to her. "Get on. You ought to be there, too." There was only a moment of hesitation- a flicker of doubt that perhaps they'd arrive too late and meet with a scene she didn't think she could face- but it faded as quickly as it had come and she took the offered hand with as much courage as she could muster.

They were going to make it in time.

They had to make it time.

---

Danie darted in and out among the crowd of people that now stood in silence around the gallows, listening to the long list of crimes Guzma had allegedly committed against his family. Where was Erika? She looked from face to face for her friend, desperately hoping to find her and determine what was taking so long. Sappire had said she had a plan the night before- she'd all but stormed out of the room upon hearing the news of the verdict that had come in near midnight. Whatever that plan was, it was already running late if it was meant to put a stop to this public hanging.

If Archie hadn't gotten himself locked up for trying to storm Guzma's family estate by himself... Bless his stupid little bravado-filled heart, but trying to determine the state of his imprisonment had caused Danie to run late herself, effectively leaving her out of the loop. Supposedly Erika had been left under Gladion's watch but... but oh, if she could just find her in the crowd-!

This thought process, as well as the reading of Guzma's apparently numerous transgressions, was interrupted by the crashing of hooves against stone, and everyone turned as one in the direction they came from. It didn't take long for everyone to realize that a very large horse was coming at a very fast gallop directly towards them and there were scattered yelps and screams as everyone scrambled to clear the way. Sappire barely managed to stop Javelin in time, and he slid to a halt mere inches from the wooden stage that Guzma's father stood on. Or, well, had been standing on. Nearly getting run into by a shire horse of that size had caused him to stumble backwards and trip, landing on his back and presently scrambling to sit back up. "A decree!" Sappire cried, barely waiting for the clamoring around her to settle as she whisked a gold-trimmed scroll from her satchel. "A decree and royal pardon!" Guzma's attention had been won the moment he'd heard the yells from the crowd and he looked over the edge of the stage to see what the fuss was about. Seeing Sappire unroll the paper in her hands, he felt his heart jump to his throat. A royal pardon? For him? Of all people, he considered himself the least worthy person in town to warrant any attention from the king, and yet...

A second set of hoof beats drew him away from his thoughts. Though Sappire had begun to read from the document she held, Guzma shuffled a few steps to the side- using up about all the length he had with the rope tying him to the pole- and his eyes widened as he saw behind her.

Approaching now (admittedly at more reasonable pace so as to avoid terrifying any of the bystanders further), Erika was clinging on for dear life to Gladion on the back of his own stallion. She peered over the duke's shoulder as they slowed their pace, and her eyes flicked to the empty noose for just a second before searching out the face of the man still bound beside it. Once she met the pair of wide, confused eyes she could only breathe a sigh of relief. They had made it. She barely waited for Gladion to come to a complete halt before leaping off the back of the horse to the street below. She stumbled at the force of her landing, almost falling, before gathering up a few handfuls of her skirts into her arms and running to the man who had only moments before been destined for the noose. Danie had seen her by now, as well as made an effort to call out to her, but it died midway when she realized it was pointless. There was no getting Erika’s attention at this point.

Guzma stared at her for a moment before speaking in a broken, hoarse voice hardly loud enough to be heard, let alone at the distance she was at. "Erika...?" Then, as she drew closer, he found his volume again. "Erika-!" By the time she had rushed up and thrown her arms around him he was only vaguely aware that his cheeks were beginning to feel wet with tears. He wasn't even sure when they had started. With his hands still bound by the rope all he could do was bury his face in the crook of her neck to return her embrace, but it was enough for him in that moment. Taking in a deep breath and savoring the familiar scent of her perfume, faded as it was from a night of pacing the floors with worry, he let it out in a half-sob. She was there. It was going to be okay because she was there. He didn't even care that he was crying on her shoulder now; if it ruined her dress he'd buy her a new one. He'd buy her a dozen new ones. All he had to his name was a pill bug and a stale piece of bread in his pocket, but he'd figure out how to afford them later. For now, he just needed to let everything sink in. He needed to let her presence sink in.

"... I love ya, lil' bug."

[mysidewriting]

Through the Storm

Note: Okay, so I'm just going to go ahead and post this now! Two chapters in one day! This one is much longer and a LOT more eventful than the last. So enjoy c: (Make sure you read chapter four before this! Just want to make sure thats clear since I'm posting twice in a day)

From the start --> Previous chapter

Chapter Five:

Of course my final day with Oak would be the most eventful, and not on purpose.

Another small team of researchers plus Oak and myself had gotten on a boat, going to check some small islands far off the coast. The salty smell of the sea, although much different than the scent of Alola's seas, was still refreshing to me. One of the younger researchers was horrified to see me hanging over the edge of the boat, brushing my fingers across the top of the passing water. I explained I was use to boat travel after spending nearly 3 years in Alola, I wasn't afraid of water whatsoever. If anything the deep blue scenery was comforting to me at this point.

Far over the horizon a small dot appeared. Oak was the first to notice it and immediately rushed to use one of the assistant's binoculars hanging around their necks, almost choking the woman in his excitement. He called me over to see for myself what crazy a chance this was. I respectfully took the binoculars from the woman, and gazed out at the dot.

In such close focus I could see the large flamed wings beating furiously hard against the opposing winds. An intimidatingly long beak stretched out before the large bird. I handed the binoculars back to the woman and asked if we could try to get closer to the rarely seen Moltres. Oak, aware of my peaked interest in the legends of the area, had already requested the boat to follow the bird.

We managed to steer up right beneath the large flamed beast. Many cameras snapped in the direction of the bird, excited chatter as people quickly took down notes of the appearance.

It gazed down at us, its eyes holding an intensity similar to the fire that spurted from its wings. Its beak opened to let out a booming loud screech and swooped away, moments later flames exploded next to the ship, plumes of smoke surrounding the crew.

The boat shuddered and every person panicked momentarily, the smoke clouding our view of where the Pokémon had went. I released Tsunami and it quickly disappeared beneath the surface of the ocean, I could see the long figure weaving through the waves closest to the haul.

The smoke cleared just enough to grant a view of the bird swooping back around to attack once again. Oak swore, remarking about how it was always dangerous to get so close to a powerful Pokémon.

I shouted that I would take care of it, if no one scared off the beast it was likely that the boat would sink.

I thought of Gladion for a moment, he'd be pissed when he found out what I did. Or at least planned on doing.

I readied myself, the figure beneath the water doing the same. Once Moltres was within five feet of the boat I leapt off the side, someone behind me shouted. Tsunami burst from the water suddenly, catching me on it's back as its form shifted and shimmered.

The newly evolved dragonite shot a plume of fire from its mouth on my command, nailing Moltres hard enough for it to redirect and ascend higher into the sky.

Tsunami followed, its wings beating just as furiously as the legendary in order to support my weight. My heart pounded painfully hard in my chest as we approached the angered bird. Waves of heat could be felt as we drew nearer. It screeched at us and attempted to swerve away from its approaching foe. Tsunami was ready though and quickly veered to cut off the bird's escape route. A dangerously powerful dragon's tail slamming the bird out of the sky.

I watched, worried for the Pokémon to hit the water... but it managed to regain its flight before making contact with the surface. It screeched again and flew in the opposite direction of the boat quickly, fleeing.

My legs shook as I slid off the back of Tsunami and to the deck of the boat. The large Pokémon let out a jubilant roar and everyone on the boat applauded both of us. Oak commended me for my bravery and I told him it was nothing in comparison to the things I'd done in the past.

Everything seemed uneventful after that insane encounter. The assistants asked me thousands of questions about Moltres, most of which I still could not answer. The islands we found had minimal Pokémon population, most of it being slowpoke unsurprisingly.

At the end of the day Oak handed me a pokeball. Inside was a newly hatched charmander - waiting anxiously to meet me. Oak explained that he had planned on giving me something else as a reward for all the hard work I'd done to help him, but after watching me bravely ward off the fearsome bird he didn't think anything else was appropriate.

I asked if I could borrow one of his old books covering legendary Pokémon and he agreed on the condition that I bring it back before I left Kanto. I obviously agreed and I made my departure from the office for the last time, at least in the context of work.

Daisy let me use the computer in the living room with no hesitation. I had been waiting for Green to get back from...where ever he was... so I could ask about our planned trip to Seafoam but he was taking longer than I thought he would. Hau wanted to have another video chat so I agreed, figuring it would pass the time.

I sat on the computer chair, my knees pulled up to my chest and the borrowed book resting in the crevice between my tummy and legs. The screen popped up, Hau's grinning face the first I saw before Lillie and Gladion came up as well.

"Lillie!" Hau shouted in a musical tone. "How was shopping?"

She giggled, shaking her head with a sheepish grin. "It went great."

Hau just laughed, seemingly excited by this small exchange. I'd asked Lillie if she'd been talking to Hau a lot after I forced her to text him a few days ago, apparently they talked nearly all day now. They both enjoyed it so I couldn't criticize all the attention on a screen. It seemed the both of them were heading in a good direction.

"Don't you shop too much?" Gladion asked, defiance on his face. "The last I saw your closet was overflowing."

She shrugged, "I like getting new clothes and I have the money for it so..." she laughed and I mentally applauded her for her own defiance to her brother - totally unmoved by his mildly offensive words.

Lillie's attention switched to me as she asked, "Moon, how was the last day with Oak?"

"It went well!" I paused, remembering the wind rushing past my face as I rode on the back of Tsunami. The heat of the huge legendary bird. I slammed my hands down on the desk, shouting "Oh! Something crazy happened!"

Lillie and Hau's eyes widened in suspense and excitement at my reaction. Gladion only rose an eyebrow and stated plainly, "What happened?"

I excitedly explained the events that had happened earlier in the day, how I'd faced off against one of Kanto's legends on the back of my newly evolved dragonite after nearly being killed by it. How I'd flown through the skies and felt the heat of the huge Moltres that was so rarely seen in the region. That dragonite and I had successfully scared the bird away from harming all of Oak's team and been rewarded with one of Kanto's most famous starters. Hau and Lillie reacted just as would be expected to my words, rising and falling with the tides of the tale.

Gladion just watched my face and I imagined he was gauging whether or not to yell at me for putting myself in danger. After I finished explaining I reclined back in the chair, letting my feet drop to the ground and nearly dropping the book that had been held up by my legs.

Hau and Lillie gushed their shared excitement. Hau exploded about the battle description I had given him and his jealousy of my new teammates. Lillie freaked about the appearance of a legendary she had read so little about and wanted to see for herself. I answered both their questions and tried my best to explain the Phoenix-like Pokémon.

Hau started going on about his own adventures of the day. He'd been working with his grandfather, training, and ran into former leader of team skull, Guzma. I watched Gladion visibly cringe as he heard the name and I passed him an understanding smirk that only he caught. Apparently Guzma had challenged Hau to a battle and completely wrecked him. The man had gotten much more skillful with his Pokémon recently, and cared more for them - or so it seemed by Hau.

"I kind of talked him into going to hang out with your mom, Moon." Hau said with a hesitant grin, tossing a hand behind his head and laughing with just as much hesitance.

My jaw dropped, "why would you do that?" I half snapped.

Hau shrugged, "I didn't really mean too? I don't think it'll cause issues."

"I hope it doesn't." Lillie said quietly. "Your mom has enough to handle already."

"Sorry." Hau said.

I shook my head and cupped my face in my hands, "I'll call her and warn her some kind of crazy guy is possibly going to visit."

"Did anyone tell Bub about all this?" Lillie asked, drawing a sigh out of Gladion and an annoyed eyeroll... likely in reaction to the new name she'd been calling him.

"I didn't." I said, "We had other things to discuss." I pointed a glare towards Gladion, referencing his drunken night.

I vowed to not poke any more fun at him when I noticed the dark expression that had taken hold of his face. "My parents are getting a divorce." I stated calmly, surprised to see his face lighten quite a bit - shock replacing the darkness.

The heavy wooden door leading outside slammed shut behind me and I twisted to see Green standing in the doorway, he met my gaze then with a face of disgust towards me before continuing down the hallway towards the kitchen. "Finally!" I mockingly shouted after him. He made loud fake gagging noises in response - drawing a laugh from my gut.

"Who is that?!" Hau asked, excited as a growlithe pup at the sight of a new person.

I was about to respond when Green's voice boomed from the kitchen. "Who said you could use my computer, kid?"

"Your sister!" I said with a sly smirk on my face, turning to look in the direction his voice came from.

He made more fake gagging noises and I rolled my eyes. "That's Green." I said in response to Hau finally. "And I've been waiting for him all day!" I shouted.

"He he he." He fake chuckled and wandered back into the room. He appeared behind me and folded his arms atop my head, pushing me down so he was in the camera too - a blank look on his face.

"Hi!" Hau said.

"Who are these people, eh?" Green asked.

"Friends." I moved so he stumbled and I burst out laughing as he quickly had to correct his stance. He flipped me off and wandered back out of the room.

"Are you ready for our trip tomorrow?" He called.

A grin burst across my face and I turned to face him in the hallway. "Yeah of course! When are we going?" I looked back to the screen and quickly apologized to them for stealing all the attention and conversation away. "I'll just go so you guys can talk."

"Finish talking with him and come back!" Lillie said with a smile, "I'm sure we'll still be on."

I checked the time, "I should probably get ready for tomorrow too though, I need to make sure I packed all my stuff." I shouted towards Green again, taunting him. "I'd hate to come back here again."

"Shut up, Moon." He snapped back.

"Just go." Gladion flatly assured, his gaze directed away from the computer screen and his face shrouded by those long bangs.

His tone was so... irritated sounding. My shoulders dropped and a frown creased my face. "Okay, talk later guys..." I waited for just a second to see if he'd see me off but he didn't budge so I just logged off.

Green planned to meet up with Red around one in the afternoon, we'd leave shortly after that. It would likely be an all-day thing since the caves were so confusing and hard to get through with ice. I made a quick request to bring someone along with me, even though I had yet to ask them if they wanted to come. Green shrugged, muttering that they'd be my responsibility but 'sure'.

So after making sure all my stuff was packed away and all my Pokémon were accounted for, I called Lillie. It had gotten pretty late and I doubted the guys would still be online considering the huge time difference between the regions. She picked up rather quickly.

"Hey, Moon. What's up?" She said, her voice cheerful as always.

"Hey! I was wondering if you wanted to come explore Seafoam islands with Red, Green, and I tomorrow. It'll be all day thing but should be super cool!" I offered.

She gasped, "Really? I can go? With the champions?"

I laughed, "yeah of course."

"Yeah I want to go! What time? When should I get to Pallet?"

"We're leaving around one so I'm sure you could come now if you wanted too? I'll check with Green for sure."

"You check with him and I'll fly right over!" Her voice dripped with excitement.

Two hours later Lillie was in my borrowed room, freaking out about some message Hau had sent that was super sweet and hinted at romantic and how her brother was being weirdly jealous about me. I listened to her go on and on about Hau and all the things they talked about and nearly teared up to see her so happy. It was so odd that all it had taken for this to start was forcing her to text the guy.

I remarked about this and her face turned so red I started laughing. She'd always been too hesitant to actually hold such long conversations with him, worried she would say something dumb. I questioned how she could even think she'd come off dumb but of course she didn't have a real reason other than fear.

As for the part about her brother, I figured she meant how he had acted right before I'd left the video call. "Yeah, what was that about... do you know?"

She threw her arms up in confusion, "All I know is that he was totally being a jealous baby."

"What does he have to be jealous about though?" I laughed, the sound was hesitant. Something twisted in my gut, an odd feeling of satisfaction about the situation settled in. Why would it be satisfying for him to be jealous...?

"Probably because of Green." She tapped a finger to her bottom lip. "Maybe he's jealous that you made new friends."

I shrugged, brushing the conversation off as though I didn't really care what he was jealous about. But the thought lingered at the back of my mind, waiting to be thoroughly mulled over.

The two of us stayed up far later than we really should have considering how grueling the exploration of the caves would be. She had so much to talk about - Hau, her mother, her brother, her Pokémon evolving, the research she did about the Kanto legends as well. It was eleven when we finally tucked ourselves into the shared bed. An hour of further chatting about her and Hau's possibility of dating passed before she managed to drift off to sleep.

G//Hey, Moon...?

I was shocked to see the text. He was staying up so late these days... I glanced at Lillie to make sure she was in fact asleep before responding.

M// yeah?

G//What happened with your parents?

Oh, right. I'd sort of bluntly told him my parents were divorcing without explaining anything. I'd been distracted by Green getting home and totally fell off the train of the call in general. Guilt punched me in the gut, why did I focus on Green when I was talking to my friends? I felt pretty shit about it.

M//oh yeah... well my dad was hanging around with some other lady while I was staying at his house... so I had to tell my mom. //obviously her natural response was divorce.

G//Wow. Your dad is an ass.

M//yeeeah... I didn't expect it at all...

G//You okay?

M// I think so? I don't know if I've fully processed it yet //my mom seems to be handling it fairly well though, so that's good. I'm the most worried for her being upset.

G//Well... if you need someone to talk too... you know I'm here.

Maybe I shouldn't have been smiling about that, but for some reason I was.

M//Thank you //I'm sorry for not telling you earlier... when I told everyone else...

G//It's okay. Apparently it was my fault anyway.

M//no it wasn't. I should have told you, I was just distracted and worried about you drinking.

G//Shit G//I'm sorry...

M//no need to apologize~

G//... G//It's late. Talk tomorrow...

M//haha okay. Night

I needed to tell him about the information I found about Mewtwo. He'd be interested considering his closest and most trusted Pokémon was also a manmade creation. Hopefully he was serious about talking tomorrow...

I drifted off after another twenty minutes, my mind spiraling off into thoughts of dangerous legendary and experimental Pokémon.

Seafoam was further away than we had expected. It took us a solid two hours to arrive on the shore of the massive chunk of rock. Green withdrew the abnormally large gyardos he had enlisted to transport us over the ocean with a thanks.

The caves were strange. Lillie had done some minimal research on them while riding here and apparently there were two separate areas where they broke the surface of the ocean and opened to the skies. One of the openings was harder to access and almost nobody had ever entered or exited through it unless flying. We both figured that was how articuno managed to get into the cave.

The other entrance was currently in front of us, a gaping maw of jutting rock and cold breezy air. I'd stuffed an extra sweater in my backpack this morning just in case and I was ready to throw it on already.

There was something unsettling about underwater caves. This fear that they would collapse out of nowhere. I tried to ignore it as we carefully entered the cave, avoiding the sharp, ice covered rocks near the entrance.

The further in we ventured the further the temperature dropped and the dimmer the lighting became. Lillie vice gripped my forearm in fear of sliding on a stray patch of ice on the floor. Large stalactites hung over head and flocks of zubat fluttered between them with strange chirping noises. Green entertained himself by shouting out random Pokémon names and listening to his own voice echo back at him in a strange octave. Red snickered at the noise, his pikachu that rode on his shoulders tilting its head in confusion each time the warped version of Green's voice met its ears.

Eventually the flashlights came out. Red's pikachu's cheeks released a small amount of discharge to provide some small light and it bounced around in front of us to guide the way. It made this adorable little noise as it hopped and skipped around large rocks, ice, and small pools of water. Lillie and I couldn't help but giggle at it, she attempted to imitate the noise quietly so the two guys with us couldn't hear - but she ended up laughing every time she tried instead.

After about twenty minutes of walking through tight, descending passages, the walls opened up to a larger space. The sound of rushing water coming from somewhere below us. Smalls bits of light flooded through cracks in the ceiling where thin trickles of water leaked into the depths of the cave. It was gorgeous, all four of us paused for a moment to take a good look at the scenery. Lillie snapped a few pics on her phone before tugging out her own extra sweater, the chill of the cave reaching me at the same moment.

I shivered and quickly pulled out my own sweater. Green noticed both of us pulling the fabric over our heads and laughed, "It's not that cold, ya babies."

Lillie pouted, her signature annoyed pout that was way too cute to have any significant effect on people. "It's freezing, you're just trying to be cool."

I laughed, she was right. Green rolled his eyes, "I'm not cold."

"You already have two jackets on though." I pointed out, which brought a snide grin to Red's face as well.

Green flipped me off and took the lead. Lillie, Red and I followed after. I fiddled with the double hoods, trying to get them to lay in such a way that it didn't feel like there was 10 pounds on the back of my neck. Then I realized what sweater I had grabbed this morning and my cheeks burned. I give it ten minutes at most before Lillie comments about this.

A loud screech stopped us in our tracks. A black figure dive bombing from the ceiling directly in front of me specifically. Stumbling backwards, my foot hit a slippery piece of ice and I landed backwards on my ass before realizing it was an oversized golbat that had assaulted us. It angrily lunged at me and I quickly tossed out lycanroc without thinking, having the Pokémon quickly blast the foe away with accelerock.

Lillie helped me up quickly as Kai danced around the golbat, another five zubat fluttering down from the ceiling in reaction to the disturbance.

Suddenly both Red and Green had their Pokémon out, knocking out the bats as quickly as possible. Lillie, Kai, and I raced to a lower level of the cave and hid beneath an overhang of rock where the bats wouldn't see us as easily.

"Those were really big." Lillie's eyes were wide and round, freaked out by the attack. "I've never seen them so big."

I shook my head, "me neither. It was freaky."

Kai had been bitten in the process of attacking the golbat and I quickly patched her up before the poison could set in. I gave her a tight hug and thanked her for having such quick reflexes. Lillie thanked her as well before I recalled her to her ball where she could rest. The noise of the battle continued on overhead, though it sounded as though it were dying down now. There are way too many zubat here.

Lillie tugged at my sleeve and my cheeks started going red before she could even open her mouth.

"So...why do you..." she started.

I cut her off, "He forced me to take it before I went up Lanikala that first time. I tried giving it back like twenty times but he wouldn't take it."

She giggled, "So two years?"

I nodded, afraid to make eye contact with her.

"I was wondering why he hadn't worn that old sweater in so long." She laughed again, "How strange..." Her words drifted off and I could tell by the expression on her face that she was lost in her thoughts.

I forced myself out of my own thoughts, out of the memory of running into her brother right before making the trek up to the league. The way he'd grinned at me that day was something that still plagued my mind once in a while... I bounced around on my feet to get everything out of my head and refocus on the task at hand. Lillie laughed at me and I locked gazes with her.

"Okay let's forget about the fact that I use your brother's emo sweater when it's cold and go try to find articuno!" I said with a fist towards the ceiling.

The whole zubat fiasco only took another ten minutes after that. We didn't run into any other rouge ones the rest of the way and Green jokingly remarked about knocking out or scaring all of them. Lillie made the mistake of agreeing with him and suddenly his arrogance was back in full force.

Before we could make much more progress through the stoned passages we had to clear out some larger boulders. Green had his machamp help us with that, though even the four armed Pokémon struggled to shove some of the massive rocks aside its self. As such the four of us plus the muscular Pokémon all helped with pushing the blockade out of the way. Beyond that point there was a lot of steep vaults that Lillie and I carefully shimmied down while Red and Green enjoyed themselves leaping across them as quickly as possible.

The rock was slick with water and ice and the two of them nearly fell a good ten times before the terrain evened out once again. They'd gotten so far ahead of us though that I'd decided to have dragonite help Lillie and I catch up with them, carrying us carefully down to meet up with them.

I wondered how we could had made any of the progress we had if Red, Green, and I hadn't had powerful Pokémon to help. The chances of other trainers reaching this point was extremely minimal. I tossed that idea out to the group and a strange atmosphere settled around us as we realized we could possibly be feeling out unmapped territory. Seeing things no one else had seen before.

Lillie was giddy to think she was experiencing something like that again. She released her ivysaur to have it experience the caves, letting it wander with us while the ground wasn't too treacherous.

We happened upon this room where the ceiling was completely made of thick ice. Light flittered through from above the ocean, casting strange reflections of the surface of the ocean across the glass like dome. Thousands of shades of blue rippled and flowed throughout the isolated bubble of air beneath the tides. The floor, completely covered in ice as well, was grounds for entertainment for all of us - started by Lillie's clumsy ivysaur that slid halfway across the room whilst chasing a passing school of golden beyond the ice.

Red, Green, and I tested how far we could slide across the ice without trying. It quickly became a contest of who could slide the farthest. Lillie recorded all of it, a soundtrack of our laughter filling the silence of the videotaping. Red ended up with the furthest distance of sliding and Green and I spent way too long trying to figure out why he could go so far.

It became dark once again as we descended even further into the chilled cave. That sound of rushing water becoming louder and louder until we reached what seemed to be the bottom. The floor was almost entirely submerged in deep water, small chunks of ice covered rocks peaked out over the top of the dark waves. The light coming from pikachu's cheeks was by far not enough to illuminate the cave, so Red released charizard who roared as it realized how dark it was in the cave.

A large pillar of fire shot from the dragon's mouth, the cave lit up in an orange glow. Ice reflecting the color across the ceiling and the water. It stayed lit even after charizard had stopped shooting flames, the ice somehow retaining that glow. Red and Green were just as awestruck as Lillie and I were.

In the center of the room a large bird stood, perched on the ice coated stone that jutted from the water. Its blue plumage seemed to emanate a frosted mist, the air around it somehow colder than the rest of the already freezing room. There was a darker blue crest on the forehead of the beast that was shockingly similar to the large icicles hanging around the room. Its tail feathers were twice its body length and shimmered with ice shards as though it were composed of thin sheets of diamond.

"So that's it, eh?" Green said, appearing behind Lillie and I and dropping his arms across our shoulders. "That's the legendary articuno little Moon here has been freaking out about all week."

The bird's eyes locked on us and I tensed, waiting for a scenario similar to what had happened yesterday to ensue. Instead, articuno only ruffled its sparkling feathers and coo'ed at us. My heart skipped a few beats as I felt its gaze meet mine, I ached to get closer, to feel its cold feathers.

"I think it likes you, Moon!" Lillie grinned.

The water was too dangerous to transverse on my own so I glanced to everyone else, "do we want to get closer?"

Red wordlessly tossed out another pokeball, releasing a lapras and inviting everyone to step onto its back. Articuno extended its wings to full width as we approached, it's strong flaps sent icy winds through the air directly towards us. I yanked up my hood as the frost nipped at my ears and combed through my hair.

"Moon." Lillie stage whispered at me. I span to look at her and noticed she had her phone held in such a way that she was clearly recording me. I grinned at her and turned to look at articuno once again, readying myself to step off the lapras once we got close enough.

Lapras cried out and articuno responded with a booming caw. My limbs tensed once again and I found myself carefully stepping off lapras's back without really thinking about it. I felt a hand grab my arm and lock me in place.

"What are you doing, kid!" Green shouted at me. "Are you crazy?"

I simply nodded and he released me, allowing me to approach the bird. Its wings folded back down and its head lowered so it could stare me straight in the eye. My body was shaking now, between the cold and the nerves - I found it hard to take each step. I held out my trembling hand and the bird tapped its beak against my palm.

My whole body locked up... couldn't move, couldn't speak. The bird's eyes pierced mine and the knowledge behind them made my stomach churn, it was trying to tell me something. I could tell by the way it gazed at me. A warning of some sort that I could only read through the ferocity and concern in the beasts eyes.

Nausea overtook me and I finally broke from the hold the bird had taken over me. I stumbled back a step and articuno reared up once again, its wings folding out and exposing its large feathered chest to me. It called out, this gorgeous song that sent a shiver down my spine... then it took off with a strong beat of its wings. It flew up through a small passageway in the ceiling that I hadn't noticed before - likely the location of the other entrance.

[dahlbombii]

Helping Hand

So my trashy ass wrote another OC x Guzma ficlet; they’re gonna kiss for real one of these days.

This time about Leda trying to fill her pokedex during one of her off-days; but Wimpod are hard to catch and you can’t catch Golisopod in the wild (Leda’s certainly not going to raise one herself). A certain ex-Team Skull boss gives her a hand.

Word Count: ~1800

Leda doesn’t like bug types, not really. She’s a bird girl herself, as if that wasn’t obvious by the ones she filled her team with. She just liked all their lovely plumage and their sharp beaks and their fast attacks. She liked that they were tough. However, due to this favoritism, she’s missing more than few entries in her pokedex. It was her day off, she was going to fill in more of these pokedex, if only to bring up those percentages that Rotom kept spouting off at her. (It was frustrating to know she wasn’t at more than 60% on each of the four islands.)

She’d been filling out most of Melemele’s dex for the last month or so, now she was over on Akala. The problem, however, was these damn Wimpod. Rotom wasn’t fast enough to scan them with how quickly they scampered away. She was going to need to coax one into a fight, but that seemed near impossible, they were far too scared.

The other choice she had was to physically catch one.

That was turning out to be a challenge too. A couple of her Pokemon were sitting on the sidelines; Orion, her midday Lycanroc, and Zephyr, her Decidueye, sat watching her scramble around. There was a touch of jealousy in their eyes as Leda dropped a handful of beans into the sand, then ducked behind one of the large rocks. Peeking around it, she waited for the Wimpod to sneak out again.

Fifteen minutes later, she was still waiting, cheek pressed against the sun-heated stone. Orion was laying down, paws padding in the sand, Zeph was preening his feathers. Both seemed as bored as their trainer was.

“Come on, come on, come on,” she repeated to herself. She lifted her head again to see the twitch of antennae coming out of me of the wall holes. A gasp caught in her throat and she slapped a hand over her mouth to keep quiet. The bug crept closer to the small pile of pokebeans. She was almost bouncing on her feet.

Finally, it reached the beans and Leda leapt out from behind the rock. Her shoes slipped in the sand, scattering it everywhere. The Wimpod’s antennae shot up, eyes widening. Hands outstretched, she scrambled to try and grab it. She was mere inches away when it slipped easily back into the hole. Propelled and feet slipping in the sand, Leda fell.

Her shoulder hit the wall, hands shoved roughly against the sand. She felt the little sand bits and rock shards dig into her palm and knees. She groaned weakly.

“What the hell are you doin’?”

Shit.

She moved to sit up, instantly regretting pushing her hand against the wall as sand pressed harder into her palm. Well there was a familiar face with a confused expressipn to match.

“Hey, y'know, just … relaxing on the beach?” Guzma just cocked a brow at her. She dusted off her hands, plucking a rock that was particularly embedded. She sighed, head dropping back as she leaned against the wall. “I’m tryin’ to catch a Wimpod. Not like catch with a pokeball, just y’know catch so I can get the stupid dex entry.”

“Ya never gonna get one like that,” he said. Of course he’d know, she’s battled that Golisopod of his enough times.

“What'dya suggest then, Guz?”

He took a few steps over to her, offering a hand to help her to her feet. She stared at him for a second, from hand to face to hand. If he dropped her, Arceus help him. She took his hand, staring at him warily. He rolled his eyes then just pulled her to her feet.

“C'mere,” he said, dropping her hand then grabbing one of the beans from the sand. He shook it off before grabbing her hand again to press the bean into it. She just stared at him, letting him pull her down into a crouch a foot or so from the Wimpod cave. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Orion and Zephyr move to stand, protective of their trainer at the sight the ex-Skull boss. Holding her wrist, Guzma pushed her hand out towards the cave.

“What are we-”

“Shh.” She frowned. A curious expression rose to her face as he started making soft clicking noises in the direction of the little cave. She felt stupid, crouching there with sand covered knees. His hand was still curled around her wrist, eyes focused forward. He made a few more clicking noises with his tongue and she saw the tips of antennae poke out of the cave.

Slowly, the Wimpod crept closer, staring warily at Leda. Guzma gave a small nod, another few clicks, and gave her hand a slight tug closer to the nervous Pokemon. It took another few steps and then gently took the bean from her hand. Surprisingly, it didn’t immediately race away. Even more surprising, Guzma reached out and easily traced his fingers down its back without so much more than a small flinch from the bug pokemon. What did almost make it run was Leda’s Rotomdex suddenly starting up as it leapt from her bag.

“It’s okay, buddy,” Guzma hushed as it moved to run. A few moment later, the dex popped up in front of her face to spit out the entry. Rotomdex’s screen lit up with the slowly spinning 3D wimpod figure.

“Wimpod; the Turn Tail pokemon. - bzzt - This Pokémon is a coward. As it desperately dashes off, the flailing of its many legs leaves a sparkling clean path in its wake. Its habitat varies from beaches to seabeds. - bzzt - A natural scavenger, it will gleefully chow down on anything edible, no matter how rotten.” With that, it shut off and popped away back into her bag.

When the Wimpod finally finished the bean, it looked between the two and then ducked away back into its hole. Leaning back on her heels, she noticed that Guzma’s hand was still curled around her wrist. She just smirked lightly, sliding her hand up to grab his hand. He looked at her confused for a second, but she just stood up, pulling him with her.

She expected him to pull his hand away immediately, but he didn’t. The champion just flashed a winning smile his way, tucking her free hand into her pocket.

“So…” she started, rocking on her heels, “Can I see your Golisopod for a minute? Y'know, tryin’ to fill the dex, don’t think I can find one of those anywhere.”

He looked at her and rolled his eyes, leting go of her hand to grab his pokeball. With a flash of red, the familiar (uncomfortably large) pokemon stood beside Guzma. Her face went pale as she had to lean back slightly to look at it fully.

“Why’s it so b-big?” she said, swallowing thickly. Guzma looked at her, brow raised a moment. Then he grinned widely.

“You scared?” he said, then laughed; the Golisopod just glanced between them. Her face flared red and she crossed her arms tightly.

“W-what? No! I’m not!” A complete lie. She wasn’t scared of all bug pokemon, just the really big ones, and the Golisopod stood more than an entire foot taller than her. Guzma just laughed again, louder. Her brows drew together in annoyance, frowning as she reached to grab Rotomdex out of her bag. She started him up, waiting for the Rotom to scan the giant bug. It dinged and the scanned Golisopod popped up.

“Golisopod; the Hard Scale pokemon. With a flashing slash of its giant sharp claws, it cleaves seawater – or even air – right in two. - bzzt - It battles skillfully with its six arms, but spends most of its time peacefully meditating in caves deep beneath the sea.”

Leda glanced up at the Golisopod. Well, those were two entirely different things. Is it a calm meditating pokemon or a skillful, likely very dangerous, battling pokemon? She frowned slightly. Guzma looked at her, mouth falling into a frown.

“He’s not gonna hurt you or anything, ya know?” He pet the Golisopod on the head as it leaned down. “He’s a big softie.” Leda just laughed, though it was half a snort. He looked back at her, confusion lacing his features at her sudden outburst.

“Like you?” She lifted a brow at him. He choked. She could swear she saw a glimpse of blushing on the tips of his ears. “Aww, big bad Guzma, you’re a real softie ain’t ya?”

“Am not!” She was the one laughing now, however she was interrupted as someone bumped up against the back of her thigh. When she glanced down, Orion had her bag in his mouth and there was a buzzing from it. Her phone. She leaned down to take it out, flipping it open. Guzma stared at her curiously as she flicked the phone open.

“Hey - uh huh - but I’m -” she sighed softly, “Okay, okay, I’ll be there. Gimme an hour to get back.” She clicked the phone closed, turning back to Guzma and his Golisopod. She gave a small wave with the phone. “Champion problems. Some trainer’s kicking up a fuss about me not being there.”

“Not an easy job, eh?” he said. Leda just shrugged, shoving her phone into her bag and taking it from Orion. She pet the rock wolf in thanks before putting him and Zephyr back in their pokeball.

“It’s not,” she said, but smiled anyway. “It’s fun though, battling trainers that are so powerful. Really makes you think about what you doing. It’s a real thrill.”

She hiked her bag up onto her shoulders, pulling her ride pager out. Charizard would be a good one, it’d certainly get her back quickly. Clicking in the choice, she watched the little orb light up. It was barely two minutes later when a familiar roar came from the sky and the Charizard landed in the sand.

She turned to look at Guzma once again.

One hand on his shoulder, she pulled him down a bit then leaned up on her toes before pressing a swift kiss to his cheek. She barely paused to look at him, or note the red flushing his face, before twisting on her heel to go hop on the Charizard’s back.

“Oh, and thanks for the help. With the Wimpod and Golisopod and all.” She flashed a grin back at him. He shoved one hand into his pocket, the other throwing up a small wave. She smirked then threw a two-finger salute in goodbye. “See ya around then, huh?”

Then Charizard took off into the sky, the girl’s blue hair flaring out behind her.

“Yeah, see ya around.” Guzma murmured, watching her disappear back to her mountain. He shook his head, fingertips touching the spot on his cheek she’d kissed. He looked at Golisopod and sighed, hands tucking back in his jacket pocket, “Let’s go home.”