UK lockdown 3.0 then i suppose! In order to keep my mind off of ~~everything~~, I’m gonna try and get some more writing done for this blog now i’m kind of in the mood for it again. I’m gonna check out some of the backlog of prompts i have in my ask box from /years/ ago and go from there, so keep your eyes peeled, guys <3
can I get lacewoodshipping with #1 please and thank you
I haven’t written fanfic (or anything lmao) for at least a year and a half now, and honestly I don’t come on tumblr much anymore either. It just so happened that I caught the email about this ask in my inbox, and I was just like... oh, I forgot about that blog. What were those prompts I reblogged way back when? So I came and had a look, and for the first time in months and months and months, I actually feel inspired to write. So, thank you! <3 and also I apologise if this is really bad, because… haven’t written in a year :’)
Lacewood, minific prompt #1: things you said at 1 am
“You’re beautiful.”
The tip-tap-clack of a keyboard was the only reply to Augustine’s hushed murmur, and he found himself part-proud, part-relieved, and part-disappointed that Serena was so engrossed in the work on the screen before her that she hadn’t heard his unintentional admission.
Part-proud, because as her mentor, watching Serena flourish into a fully-fledged Pokémon researcher absorbed in her work made his heart swell.
Part-relieved, because he hadn’t actually intended the words to leave his mouth, even if they had been the only thing circling his brain for the past two hours. (If he thought about it hard enough, it had actually been circling his brain pretty incessantly for the past two years.)
And part-disappointed, because this… thing between them, the strange will-they-won’t-they, their undeniable chemistry, and the way they just fitted together, had been going on for far too long in his humble opinion. In any other situation, he liked to imagine he would have just taken the plunge and made his feelings known, but this… this was Serena. It was different, too important to risk messing up in the event that he had really misinterpreted what the past two years of her soft smiles and lingering gazes really meant.
He sat back in his chair, putting a little space between them where he had been leaning forward, his elbow on his knee and chin resting in his hand, eyes entirely focused on the woman before him instead of the work he was supposed to be overseeing.
His eyes flick to the clock: 1am. He hadn’t even realised the time and had barely registered in the back of his mind that everyone else in the lab must have gone home long ago. His gaze falls back to Serena, and again his breath is snatched away from him as he’s struck by the same thought.
She’s beautiful.
Objectively she was, of course. Long brown-blonde hair, confident, charismatic, sparkling eyes that could make anyone weak at the knees. But it was now, in a dishevelled labcoat, hair slowly falling from its careless bun (and framing her face beautifully, in his opinion), sat in the dim Pokémon lab and illuminated by the light of the computer screen before her, that made Augustine’s heart skip a beat.
“Do you think so?” Her voice was so loud against the silence that had surrounded them, that Augustine had to try very hard to mask his surprised jump as a stretch. Once he registered her words, however, he froze, arms half-raised above his head.
Had she heard him?
“Uh…” he replied intelligently, heart no longer skipping any beats but instead going at a million miles an hour and almost threatening to give out.
To his relief, she cast him a glance and gestured at the report on the screen.
“This, here. Do you think I’ve framed the hypothesis well enough?”
Oh.
“Oh, yes, of course,” he leans closer and scans the last couple of paragraphs, not really taking any of it in at all. “Bon travail, very good job, Serena!” She grins at him and he moves back out of her way as she triumphantly clicks ‘Save’.
“I didn’t realise the time,” she says with a slight groan, unfolding herself from where she had been sat tense and rigid for far too long, and it was all Augustine could do to watch her stand and stretch her shoulders and neck out.
“Yes,” he manages before his enamoured silence becomes too noticeable. “I should not have kept you here this late.” She shoots him a look.
“Like you could have stopped me,” she laughs, leaning down to grab her bag and switch off the computer and merde, Augustine has to avert his gaze because that lab coat is a little too form-fitting.
“Okay,” she continues once she straightens back up and Augustine can make eye contact with something other than the ceiling tiles once more. “I should probably head home.”
Augustine suddenly remembers his manners and springs out of his chair, placing a hand on her shoulder and encouraging her towards the elevator.
“You should have been home hours ago, I am a bad boss for letting you stay hunched up at a computer until the early hours,” he laments dramatically (and he counts it as a win from her good-natured smile and shake of the head at his theatrics). “Do you want me to walk you home?” he offers, although with how tonight was going he was unsure if his heart would be able to survive seeing Serena lit up by the soft golden lights of Lumiose City at night.
“Professor, I travelled the entire region,” she laughs, “some of which, yes, required travelling at night. I will be fine. Plus,” she adds, patting the bag at her hip, “I have Fennekin with me.”
Augustine nods in reply. She’s right, she’s more than capable of looking after herself – just another thing he loved so much about her, really.
“You can come in late tomorrow,” he offers as the elevator arrives, the doors opening with a soft ping. Serena scoffs.
“Absolutely not,” she steps into the elevator and Augustine tries his best not to focus on how much he misses the warmth of her shoulder under his palm as his arm falls back down to his side. “I’ll see you in the morning.” She pushes the button for the ground floor and steps back to smile at him.
“Goodnight, Serena,” he says quietly, his voice tender. Her face softens into a small smile at his tone.
“Goodnight, Augustine.”
The doors begin to shut, and there’s a strange moment of hesitation where Serena seems to make a decision, and in one quick movement she suddenly sticks a foot in front of the doors to stop them from closing.
“Oh- and also-“ she stops for a moment, and her cheeks pinken. “You’re pretty handsome yourself,” she says in a rush, grinning at his stunned expression before stepping back and allowing the doors to close her off completely.
Augustine can only stare, mouth open at the elevator, a million emotions coursing through him and finally landing on horror.
I’m so happy you actually wrote this! When I had seen that you hadn’t posted anything in over a year I was worried you wouldn’t see it. But I told myself to shoot my shot and it worked!
can I get lacewoodshipping with #1 please and thank you
I haven’t written fanfic (or anything lmao) for at least a year and a half now, and honestly I don’t come on tumblr much anymore either. It just so happened that I caught the email about this ask in my inbox, and I was just like... oh, I forgot about that blog. What were those prompts I reblogged way back when? So I came and had a look, and for the first time in months and months and months, I actually feel inspired to write. So, thank you! <3 and also I apologise if this is really bad, because… haven’t written in a year :’)
Lacewood, minific prompt #1: things you said at 1 am
“You’re beautiful.”
The tip-tap-clack of a keyboard was the only reply to Augustine’s hushed murmur, and he found himself part-proud, part-relieved, and part-disappointed that Serena was so engrossed in the work on the screen before her that she hadn’t heard his unintentional admission.
Part-proud, because as her mentor, watching Serena flourish into a fully-fledged Pokémon researcher absorbed in her work made his heart swell.
Part-relieved, because he hadn’t actually intended the words to leave his mouth, even if they had been the only thing circling his brain for the past two hours. (If he thought about it hard enough, it had actually been circling his brain pretty incessantly for the past two years.)
And part-disappointed, because this… thing between them, the strange will-they-won’t-they, their undeniable chemistry, and the way they just fitted together, had been going on for far too long in his humble opinion. In any other situation, he liked to imagine he would have just taken the plunge and made his feelings known, but this… this was Serena. It was different, too important to risk messing up in the event that he had really misinterpreted what the past two years of her soft smiles and lingering gazes really meant.
He sat back in his chair, putting a little space between them where he had been leaning forward, his elbow on his knee and chin resting in his hand, eyes entirely focused on the woman before him instead of the work he was supposed to be overseeing.
His eyes flick to the clock: 1am. He hadn’t even realised the time and had barely registered in the back of his mind that everyone else in the lab must have gone home long ago. His gaze falls back to Serena, and again his breath is snatched away from him as he’s struck by the same thought.
She’s beautiful.
Objectively she was, of course. Long brown-blonde hair, confident, charismatic, sparkling eyes that could make anyone weak at the knees. But it was now, in a dishevelled labcoat, hair slowly falling from its careless bun (and framing her face beautifully, in his opinion), sat in the dim Pokémon lab and illuminated by the light of the computer screen before her, that made Augustine’s heart skip a beat.
“Do you think so?” Her voice was so loud against the silence that had surrounded them, that Augustine had to try very hard to mask his surprised jump as a stretch. Once he registered her words, however, he froze, arms half-raised above his head.
Had she heard him?
“Uh…” he replied intelligently, heart no longer skipping any beats but instead going at a million miles an hour and almost threatening to give out.
To his relief, she cast him a glance and gestured at the report on the screen.
“This, here. Do you think I’ve framed the hypothesis well enough?”
Oh.
“Oh, yes, of course,” he leans closer and scans the last couple of paragraphs, not really taking any of it in at all. “Bon travail, very good job, Serena!” She grins at him and he moves back out of her way as she triumphantly clicks ‘Save’.
“I didn’t realise the time,” she says with a slight groan, unfolding herself from where she had been sat tense and rigid for far too long, and it was all Augustine could do to watch her stand and stretch her shoulders and neck out.
“Yes,” he manages before his enamoured silence becomes too noticeable. “I should not have kept you here this late.” She shoots him a look.
“Like you could have stopped me,” she laughs, leaning down to grab her bag and switch off the computer and merde, Augustine has to avert his gaze because that lab coat is a little too form-fitting.
“Okay,” she continues once she straightens back up and Augustine can make eye contact with something other than the ceiling tiles once more. “I should probably head home.”
Augustine suddenly remembers his manners and springs out of his chair, placing a hand on her shoulder and encouraging her towards the elevator.
“You should have been home hours ago, I am a bad boss for letting you stay hunched up at a computer until the early hours,” he laments dramatically (and he counts it as a win from her good-natured smile and shake of the head at his theatrics). “Do you want me to walk you home?” he offers, although with how tonight was going he was unsure if his heart would be able to survive seeing Serena lit up by the soft golden lights of Lumiose City at night.
“Professor, I travelled the entire region,” she laughs, “some of which, yes, required travelling at night. I will be fine. Plus,” she adds, patting the bag at her hip, “I have Fennekin with me.”
Augustine nods in reply. She’s right, she’s more than capable of looking after herself – just another thing he loved so much about her, really.
“You can come in late tomorrow,” he offers as the elevator arrives, the doors opening with a soft ping. Serena scoffs.
“Absolutely not,” she steps into the elevator and Augustine tries his best not to focus on how much he misses the warmth of her shoulder under his palm as his arm falls back down to his side. “I’ll see you in the morning.” She pushes the button for the ground floor and steps back to smile at him.
“Goodnight, Serena,” he says quietly, his voice tender. Her face softens into a small smile at his tone.
“Goodnight, Augustine.”
The doors begin to shut, and there’s a strange moment of hesitation where Serena seems to make a decision, and in one quick movement she suddenly sticks a foot in front of the doors to stop them from closing.
“Oh- and also-“ she stops for a moment, and her cheeks pinken. “You’re pretty handsome yourself,” she says in a rush, grinning at his stunned expression before stepping back and allowing the doors to close her off completely.
Augustine can only stare, mouth open at the elevator, a million emotions coursing through him and finally landing on horror.
to anyone reading this (if anyone who followed this blog is still hanging around, i may actually just be talking to the void) I hope the year wasn’t too bad for you, given the circumstances
can I get lacewoodshipping with #1 please and thank you
I haven’t written fanfic (or anything lmao) for at least a year and a half now, and honestly I don’t come on tumblr much anymore either. It just so happened that I caught the email about this ask in my inbox, and I was just like... oh, I forgot about that blog. What were those prompts I reblogged way back when? So I came and had a look, and for the first time in months and months and months, I actually feel inspired to write. So, thank you! <3 and also I apologise if this is really bad, because… haven’t written in a year :’)
Lacewood, minific prompt #1: things you said at 1 am
“You’re beautiful.”
The tip-tap-clack of a keyboard was the only reply to Augustine’s hushed murmur, and he found himself part-proud, part-relieved, and part-disappointed that Serena was so engrossed in the work on the screen before her that she hadn’t heard his unintentional admission.
Part-proud, because as her mentor, watching Serena flourish into a fully-fledged Pokémon researcher absorbed in her work made his heart swell.
Part-relieved, because he hadn’t actually intended the words to leave his mouth, even if they had been the only thing circling his brain for the past two hours. (If he thought about it hard enough, it had actually been circling his brain pretty incessantly for the past two years.)
And part-disappointed, because this… thing between them, the strange will-they-won’t-they, their undeniable chemistry, and the way they just fitted together, had been going on for far too long in his humble opinion. In any other situation, he liked to imagine he would have just taken the plunge and made his feelings known, but this… this was Serena. It was different, too important to risk messing up in the event that he had really misinterpreted what the past two years of her soft smiles and lingering gazes really meant.
He sat back in his chair, putting a little space between them where he had been leaning forward, his elbow on his knee and chin resting in his hand, eyes entirely focused on the woman before him instead of the work he was supposed to be overseeing.
His eyes flick to the clock: 1am. He hadn’t even realised the time and had barely registered in the back of his mind that everyone else in the lab must have gone home long ago. His gaze falls back to Serena, and again his breath is snatched away from him as he’s struck by the same thought.
She’s beautiful.
Objectively she was, of course. Long brown-blonde hair, confident, charismatic, sparkling eyes that could make anyone weak at the knees. But it was now, in a dishevelled labcoat, hair slowly falling from its careless bun (and framing her face beautifully, in his opinion), sat in the dim Pokémon lab and illuminated by the light of the computer screen before her, that made Augustine’s heart skip a beat.
“Do you think so?” Her voice was so loud against the silence that had surrounded them, that Augustine had to try very hard to mask his surprised jump as a stretch. Once he registered her words, however, he froze, arms half-raised above his head.
Had she heard him?
“Uh…” he replied intelligently, heart no longer skipping any beats but instead going at a million miles an hour and almost threatening to give out.
To his relief, she cast him a glance and gestured at the report on the screen.
“This, here. Do you think I’ve framed the hypothesis well enough?”
Oh.
“Oh, yes, of course,” he leans closer and scans the last couple of paragraphs, not really taking any of it in at all. “Bon travail, very good job, Serena!” She grins at him and he moves back out of her way as she triumphantly clicks ‘Save’.
“I didn’t realise the time,” she says with a slight groan, unfolding herself from where she had been sat tense and rigid for far too long, and it was all Augustine could do to watch her stand and stretch her shoulders and neck out.
“Yes,” he manages before his enamoured silence becomes too noticeable. “I should not have kept you here this late.” She shoots him a look.
“Like you could have stopped me,” she laughs, leaning down to grab her bag and switch off the computer and merde, Augustine has to avert his gaze because that lab coat is a little too form-fitting.
“Okay,” she continues once she straightens back up and Augustine can make eye contact with something other than the ceiling tiles once more. “I should probably head home.”
Augustine suddenly remembers his manners and springs out of his chair, placing a hand on her shoulder and encouraging her towards the elevator.
“You should have been home hours ago, I am a bad boss for letting you stay hunched up at a computer until the early hours,” he laments dramatically (and he counts it as a win from her good-natured smile and shake of the head at his theatrics). “Do you want me to walk you home?” he offers, although with how tonight was going he was unsure if his heart would be able to survive seeing Serena lit up by the soft golden lights of Lumiose City at night.
“Professor, I travelled the entire region,” she laughs, “some of which, yes, required travelling at night. I will be fine. Plus,” she adds, patting the bag at her hip, “I have Fennekin with me.”
Augustine nods in reply. She’s right, she’s more than capable of looking after herself – just another thing he loved so much about her, really.
“You can come in late tomorrow,” he offers as the elevator arrives, the doors opening with a soft ping. Serena scoffs.
“Absolutely not,” she steps into the elevator and Augustine tries his best not to focus on how much he misses the warmth of her shoulder under his palm as his arm falls back down to his side. “I’ll see you in the morning.” She pushes the button for the ground floor and steps back to smile at him.
“Goodnight, Serena,” he says quietly, his voice tender. Her face softens into a small smile at his tone.
“Goodnight, Augustine.”
The doors begin to shut, and there’s a strange moment of hesitation where Serena seems to make a decision, and in one quick movement she suddenly sticks a foot in front of the doors to stop them from closing.
“Oh- and also-“ she stops for a moment, and her cheeks pinken. “You’re pretty handsome yourself,” she says in a rush, grinning at his stunned expression before stepping back and allowing the doors to close her off completely.
Augustine can only stare, mouth open at the elevator, a million emotions coursing through him and finally landing on horror.
Here it is! Prompts for lacewood week! August 13-19
Day 1: day/ night
Day 2: hand/ heart
Day 3: space/ time
Day 4: black/ white
Day 5: heroes/ villains
Day 6: near/ far
Day 7: free day
This year’s theme is opposites! Pick one, incorporate both, interpret the prompts however you like! Please tag with #lacewoodweek and I will be rebageling to this blog.
Thank you to anyone who’s read my writing!! I’m now officially finished with university (and now officially ‘unemployed’ instead of a ‘student’ so that’s also fun) so I’m hopefully going to have more time for writing!
For anyone who has enjoyed my lacewood fics and fancies supporting me a little, I’ve set up a ko-fi! My current income is purely from the ad-hoc cleaning I do for family members, and from my etsy sales (if anyone wants a D&D dice tray relatively on the cheap, my etsy is ArcaydeaAccessories, with more D&D stuff coming soon, hopefully!), so any ko-fi donations would be amazingly appreciated!!
the achievement is real omfg. I’ve never managed to keep to one of these before, baha.
This, as per the usual, became both wildly out of control, deviates totally from the prompt, the end is SUPER ABRUPT, and it was written between midnight-3:20am because what is a sleeping pattern.
If anyone wants to actually read something that does kind of stick to the prompt, I did actually do a series of alphabet oneshots, and G and H actually happened to be Goodbye, Hello, and bonus prequel Fight (to be read in the order Fight , Goodbye, Hello). I haven’t read any of these back because I’m far too tired to deal with my old (awful) writing skills, but if you fancy dealing with my old (awful) writing, go nuts!
I’d like to thank @monsycamour AGAIN for organising this lacewoodshipping week! It’s been amazing to throw myself back into writing for this ship, and in a week I hand in my final project thesis of my masters degree, and I’m free from uni! (at least until I get the PhD position I’m aiming for lmao lmao). Until I figure out what I’m doing with my life, I’m gonna have a load more free time (hopefully), and I 100% intend to finish rewriting my old fics! So, the Sinnoh series rewrite will be completed, Written Words is going to be re-edited, probably rewritten and completed, and I might even finish the alphabet drabbles (because I’m fairly certain I only made it up to like, H or I or something and I have like, half finished oneshots for the rest of the alphabet just hanging out in my hard drive). I also might expand on a couple of these shipping week oneshots!
HYPE.
Also, for fic clarification, I headcanon Serena as beginning her Pokémon journey around 19/20 (I know there was a little conflict with the ages of the player character ingame and such, but w/e, that was my age when I was playing so there we go lmao), with the main campaign lasting around a year or so, and her eventually becoming Champion around 20/21ish.
enjoy!!
---
The first time they meet, Serena is a strange mix of nervous and excited. It had taken some time, but she had finally made it to Lumiose City – and it was amazing. Even as she entered the city from Route 4, the atmosphere totally overwhelmed her – so many people moving confidently through the streets, the shops and cafes and attractions all begging for her attention. Still she resisted the urge, following Sina through the South Boulevard to the Sycamore Pokémon Lab.
“The professor can’t wait to meet you. You can find him on the third floor, so hop in the elevator!” the research aide grinned at Serena, clapping her hands together in excitement. Serena tried to smile back at her in return, though she’s fairly sure she only managed a slightly sickly looking grimace, before moving to the aforementioned elevator, eyeing the slightly rickety looking mechanics before gingerly stepping inside and pressing the button for the third floor.
She wiped her slightly sweaty hands on her skirt, straightening her clothes as the elevator rose to her destination. Heart jumping in her chest, Serena slid her way through the door before it had fully opened, gazing around the surprisingly bare room. Two desks sat before her, alongside a couple of bookcases overflowing into stacks of books on the ground, and what appeared to be a semi-temporary screen wall partitioning off a portion of the room into a more private area.
Before she could move more than a few steps, however, a figure in a lab coat rounded the partition wall – Professor Sycamore.
“So,” the professor grinned down at her, stopping a small distance ahead of where she stood and propping a hand on one hip. “We finally meet!”
Serena let out a faint laugh, tension ebbing out of her at the relaxed aura that surrounded the man. “It’s about time,” she agreed, remembering her manners and sticking a hand out in front of her. “Hello, Professor Sycamore. I’m Serena.”
“Oui, oui, fantastic!” He closed the space between them to grab her hand, shaking it up and down so enthusiastically, Serena was jostled by the force. “Come this way, won’t you?” He let go of her hand (turning away before he witnessed her shaking it in relief) and motioned toward the wall partition, leading the way around to where a slightly more grandiose desk (absolutely littered with papers) lay.
What followed definitely constituted as one of the more bizarre experiences of Serena’s lifetime. Being told she had a… what did he say? Je ne sais quois? Followed by a battle, being gifted a new Pokémon and some sort of strange stone, the rest of the ‘gang’ showing up, being asked to help with Mega Evolution… By the time Calem and the others had begun to head out, leaving Serena behind with the professor, Serena was more than a little overwhelmed.
“Everything alright, Serena?” the professor asked once he realised she had yet to leave. Serena nodded quickly, rearranging her bag on her shoulder and laughing a little.
“Yes, of course! Sorry professor,” she grinned, raising a hand in a small wave. “Goodbye!” He raised a hand in reply, but just nodded at the new pokeball in her hand.
“Take good care of Squirtle, OK?” A smile spread across his face. “Not that I have any doubt you will do a fine job,” he added. Serena nodded eagerly, before making her escape around the partition to chase after her friends, and maybe convince them to tour the city full of shops and cafes with her.
---
Since their first meeting, Serena and the professor had met a few more times throughout her journey – Courmarine City, Lysandre Café, their slightly heartwrenching conversation in Couriway Town after everything with Lysandre… Sycamore had been visibly shaken during that particular encounter. Even so, he departed with a cheery promise of a surprise (though Serena was convinced his cheer was mostly a façade ), and a hint of a treasure of his to be found in the town.
When she finally located the inscription at the train station, she squinted as she read it out. "To the person reading this,” she began, tracing her fingers over each word. “What are you like now? Did you become who you wanted to be? For starters, what was the person you wanted to become even like? I don't know, but it would be wonderful if you can boast that you're living each day to the fullest. To future Sycamore. From the Sycamore dreaming of the future.”
With a morose sigh, she let herself drop to slump on the bench next to the ‘treasure’, hand still pressed against the inscription as she thought of the conflicting emotions on Sycamore’s face during their last conversation. She was fairly certain the past Sycamore who carved a message into a train station bench certainly couldn’t have predicted the alarming events of the last few days.
“Am I becoming who I wanted to be?” Serena whispered to the ceiling, tipping her head back to stare up at the roof and pressing her fingertips against the words beside her.
She didn’t sleep well that night, plagued by dreams of what had happened within the Team Flare Secret HQ, ending with the image of a younger Sycamore – without the lab coat – staring back at her as the HQ crumbled around him.
---
Despite the questionable quality of Serena’s sleep now that images of the crumbling HQ plagued her at night, she somehow managed to beat Diantha, taking the mantle of Kalos Champion as her own. The parade at Lumiose was beyond unexpected – she might have bothered to actually wear something nice had she known she was going to be thrust into a spotlight the second she arrived in Lumiose as requested by the professor – but she enjoyed it nonetheless, allowing herself to relax at the afterparty at the lab with their closest friends and family.
As the night began to draw to a close, Serena held her drink close to her chest as she peered around the room for the one person she really wanted to talk to. The professor had presented her with the Honour of Kalos during the public ceremony, dark circles under his eyes that he had clearly at least tried to hide with some concealer. At Serena’s concerned look, he squeezed her hand lightly as he handed the award over with a quiet promise of “We’ll talk later.” However, though he had made another speech at the beginning of the party, Serena hadn’t seen him since.
Slipping away from the main body of the party, she summoned the elevator and stepped in – it still looked rickety, but she was more willing to trust it now she’d been in the lab as many times as she had. She didn’t even have to step out at the second floor, a quick glance around the room after the door opened told her that there was no one there.
Stepping out on the third floor, however, the temperature instantly dropped. Making her way around the partition to Sycamore’s desk, she found the doors behind it flung wide open onto the balcony beyond, the silhouette of Professor Sycamore leaning on the railing illuminated by the bright lights of the city. His lab coat lay abandoned on the desk, and he suddenly seemed smaller without it, less an imposing figure of authority and direction, and instead more… human.
“Professor?” Serena tentatively broke the silence, skirting around the desk and stepping onto the balcony into the brisk air of Lumiose City.
As if broken from a trance, Sycamore jumped at her voice, spinning around to face her.
“Ah, Serena, désolé,” he apologised, the bubbling liquid in the champagne flute clutched in his hand sloshing wildly with his movement. “I just needed some air, I can come back-“
Serena cut him off with a wave of her hand, moving to his side and leaning on the railing to mirror his previous position.
“Don’t worry, Professor. I could use some air too, I just wondered where you were,” she reassured him, letting her own (empty) champagne flute dangle by the rim over the edge of the balcony.
Sycamore reassumed his position, twirling the stem of his glass in his hand with a sigh and let the silence stretch between them.
“Professor…” Serena broke after a few minutes, shifting her gaze to the man beside her as the quiet tension finally became too much. “Are you… alright?”
Sycamore shifted uncomfortably, refusing to turn his gaze to her as he hung his head. “I…” he began, but trailed off, the silence pressing down heavily on the pair.
“I still have nightmares,” Serena blurted, and that made him look up at her. “Lysandre is there. So is the legendary Pokémon, and then… then everything is crumbling, and I’m running but I can still hear him behind me.”
“Serena…”
“You’re there too, sometimes,” she added, and his eyes widened in surprise at that. “You as you are now, or sometimes you when you were my age – or at least,” she glanced to the side, an embarrassed flush rising to her cheeks as she thinks maybe she’s said too much. “How I imagine you probably looked, anyway.” She met his gaze once more. “But I have them. Every. Night.” She hesitated for a moment, then balanced her glass on the railing and moved her hand to lay it on his forearm. “We’re allowed to grieve,” she reminded him softly. “And we’re allowed to hurt.”
Sycamore breathed in deeply, breaking their gaze to tilt his head back and stare at the sky above them, his eyes shiny. “You are wise beyond your years, Serena,” he chuckled, though his voice was tight, threatening to catch in his throat. Another moment of silence before he continued. “I keep replaying our conversations in my head, Lysandre and I,” he admits, his voice soft and quiet, an uncharacteristic change from his usual confident and strong air. “Trying to see if I should have noticed earlier, if I could have saved him from… his own delusions, I suppose.”
Serena tightened her grip on his arm, fingers digging into the fabric of his shirt. “No,” she replied firmly. “There wasn’t anything- if someone had any idea- this isn’t on you, professor.”
“Augustine,” he replied quickly, moving his wet gaze back to her face. “Unless you want me to start calling you Champion, I believe we are past the point of formalities. Especially talking about this.” Serena searched his face for a moment before nodding slowly.
“Okay. Augustine.” The name felt thick and foreign on her tongue, but a thrill of excitement ran through her, her fingers twitching slightly in their grip on his arm. “We can’t keep wondering what might have happened had we acted differently,” she added, her voice hushed.
Augustine sighed again, pressing his hand over hers on his arm. “Oui,” he conceded. “I know. Yet I still can’t help it.”
Serena twisted her hand to press their palms together, twining their fingers. The slight intimacy of the gesture felt strange, but the comfort it offered won over her hesitation.
“We need to support each other,” Serena squeezed his hand. “You, me, the others who were there. We don’t have to suffer alone.” She watched curiously as Sycamore balanced his still full glass beside her empty one, before pulling her into a tight hug, hunching over slightly to rest his chin on her shoulder.
“Thank you,” his voice was close, right beside her ear and she couldn’t help a slight shiver at the proximity even as she wound her arms around his back. “You’re the first… to really say anything. Diantha tried, but it was… too soon.” Serena squeezed him.
“You looked like you needed to talk,” she replied softly.
They both fell quiet, drawing what comfort they could, but neither moved from their position. At least not until a wolf whistle pierced the air from the boulevard below, followed by a chorus of laughs and jeers. Serena whipped back, scowling down at the group of guys stumbling along below them – clearly on their way back from some bar - and jabbing her middle finger up at them. A few more laughs, but they continued on their way without consequence.
“I apologise about that,” Augustine said nervously, his glass back in his hand and a respectable distance put between them once Serena turned back to him.
“Don’t worry about it,” Serena waved it off, jamming her freezing hands into the pockets of her skirt as the chill in the air finally began to register. Augustine still looked slightly uncomfortable, his gaze following the group of lads up the street. “It’s fine, Augustine,” Serena reaffirmed, moving to bump his shoulder with her own. “Though I really should head back to my hotel. It is late, if the bars are turning out, and today has been… exhausting.”
“Of course,” Sycamore grabbed her glass from the railing and motioned inside, moving together to shut and lock the balcony doors behind them as they moved back into the building.
“Thank you for everything, Augustine,” Serena bowed slightly as they waited for the elevator to arrive to take her back downstairs.
“Ah, do not thank me,” Sycamore laid a hand on her shoulder. “I am truly so proud of you.” He chuckled as her cheeks became pink at his praise.
“It’s all because of you!” She argued as the elevator door slid open. She stepped inside, slipping from his grasp and turning to face him, raising a hand to wave farewell. “Goodbye, Augustine!”
“No,” he cut in quickly, half-entering the elevator to grab her hand mid-wave and squeeze it lightly. “Not goodbye. That always seems so… final. And I think we’ve had enough finalities for a while, at least.” Serena grinned, but nodded in agreement.
“You make a fair point,” she conceded. “Not goodbye, then. See you later?” Sycamore smiled and winked, bringing her hand up to press a light kiss to her knuckles.
“Tomorrow, perhaps?” he asked as he released her hand to step back, out of the small elevator. “Allow me to buy you dinner in thanks for… everything. And as a celebration of your achievements, Champion.”
Serena grinned, her cheeks reddening further. “That sounds wonderful,” she agreed. “I’ll message you in the morning?”
“Sounds like a plan, ma chérie,” Sycamore nodded. “I look forward to it.”
“Same here!” Serena laughed, finger hovering above the button for the ground floor. “See you later, Augustine!” At his wave, she pressed the button, waiting for the door to close before clumping against the wall and pressing a hand to her pounding heart.
I’ve found these last couple of prompts much more of a challenge to write for!! It’s been super interesting, baha! I drew a super big blank for this one, so I’m not sure exactly how much it really sticks to the prompt, but I fancied writing from Sycamore’s perspective since most of this week have been more from a Serena POV.
Enjoy!!
From the moment they met – Serena, slightly older than usual for one to begin their Pokémon journey, and Augustine, relatively young for a Professor but experienced nonetheless – they had played solidified roles in one another’s lives.
Augustine’s role, initially more of a mentor figure than anything else, had slowly morphed over the few years they had been acquainted. From mentor when Serena’s journey began, to supervisor when she decided a career in research was really what she wanted, to colleague when Serena finished her study and was hired on as a research fellow.
So when Augustine looked at the girl who had begun as his apprentice, and had developed into a treasured colleague with research and analysis skills rivalling his own, he found it a little bizarre to find her ready to teach him some of her own skills.
“Serena, I’m not sure I really need-“ he began to say, but cut himself off at Serena’s raised eyebrow.
“Profes- Augustine,” she corrected herself, some habits so deeply ingrained she still slipped into them despite being far past the point of such formalities between them. “Not to offend, but your battle technique is…” she trailed off, her eyes gazing into the distance as she mulled over her words in her head before settling on the politest phrasing she could think of. “It’s interesting. Not… bad, per se, but…”
“Horrific?” Augustine suggested with a wry smile. Serena replied with an apprehensive laugh, shrugging her shoulders slightly.
“I mean you do keep getting beaten by ten year olds who have only had their Pokémon for a matter of hours,” she agreed, and he couldn’t help but wince at that – she wasn’t exactly wrong after all. “Plus,” she added, a cheeky glint in her eye that could only mean she was certain her next argument would work. “Becoming more in tune with your Pokémon will allow you a better insight into the mega-evolution theories, right?”
“Okay, okay! You’ve made valid points,” he conceded, raising his hands. “However you have heard the saying ‘you can’t teach an old Furfrou new tricks’, oui?”
“Come on, you’re not old,” Serena scoffed, taking her place at the far side of the open space in the greenhouse area attached to the labs. Sycamore felt a strange tightness in his chest as he watched her, confidently stood with a hand on one hip, the other repeatedly throwing a pokeball up in the air and catching it as she spoke. He brushed the feeling off as his own nervousness, shifting his gaze to look at Garchomp stood obediently beside him.
“We’re gonna just start with a battle,” she explained, raising her voice so he could hear her. “To assess where we both stand. I’m rusty, and you’re… you,” she grinned cheekily, laughing out loud at Augustine’s slightly affronted expression.
“Thank you,” he called back to her, motioning Garchomp towards the center of the ‘arena’ with a nod of his head. “Though may I remind you that you were technically Champion of Kalos, even if it wasn’t for long. And you were technically undefeated, considering you stepped down willingly.” Augustine shrugged. “How you expect me to even try and match that, I do not know.”
Serena laughed once more, releasing her Talonflame from its Pokéball. “I’ll go easy on you,” she promised, holding her pinky in the air for a moment before clenching her hand into a determined fist, the picture of a Champion in her element. The tightness rose in Augustine’s chest again, and a wave of dread washed over him at the realisation that it wasn’t nervousness. “Okay,” she declared, cutting through his thoughts. “Let’s go! Talonflame, Quick Attack!”
“What, already?!” Augustine yelled, taken off guard by the sudden start while he was mid-epiphany. “Non, wait! Garchomp… Sand Tomb!” Almost as soon as he spoke the words, Augustine buried his head in his hands. Ground type moves, of course, weren’t going to affect Talonflame.
“Talonflame, stop!” Serena cried from the far side, and Augustine peeked out from between his fingers to see the bird Pokémon hovering just above Garchomp, who had turned to stare at him.
“Désolé!”
“Augustine, you are a Professor!” Serena called across to him, exasperation clear in her voice. “I know you understand the theory behind type advantage, you’ve spoken quite in depth about it!”
“Oui, oui!”
“So what was that?”
“Panic, mostly!”
“You fight trainers every week!” Serena raised her hands in befuddlement. “And now you’re panicking? Just pretend I’m one of them!”
“Wasn’t panicking about that,” Augustine mumbled, now suddenly hyper-aware of his heart thumping in his chest as he stared at the woman across from him. “I apologise!” he managed to reply, raising his voice once more. “Let us begin again?”
“Are you ready this time?” she questioned, tilting her head to the side and beckoning Talonflame back towards their side of the makeshift ‘arena’.
“Oui!” Augustine waited a beat, and at Serena’s nod the match restarted. “Garchomp, Dragon Claw!”
“Gust!” Serena immediately responded, and Talonflame’s massive wings began to rifle up a strong breeze.
‘Merde,’ Augustine thought, unable to help his gaze from wandering over to Serena, suddenly unsure of how long he would be able to deal with this reversal in their roles. Her hair flowed out behind her in the wind and that familiar determined expression from the battles of her youth present on her face once more. ‘This is going to be more difficult that I thought.’
---
“That… wasn’t bad.
“You are too kind. That was… not my best showing.” Augustine sighed, elbows resting on the step behind him where the pair sat on the steps leading back up to the lab. Serena reached over and patted his knee comfortingly, and Augustine had to resist flinching in response as his chest threatened to explode. Why now did emotions have to make things complicated?
“And we’re going to work on that. I mean, I’m not expecting you to outright pulverize kids when they’re just beginning their journey with Pokémon,” Serena grinned, ducking her head a little to peer up at his face where his head slumped forwards. “Just maybe… a little more of a challenge.”
“Thank you,” Augustine raised his head slightly and shot her a smile.
“No need,” Serena argued, patting his knee a final time before hauling herself to her feet and holding out a hand. “I owe you for all you’ve done for me in the past. I want us to be even. Now. Will you join me for dinner?”
‘Bad idea!’ the rational part of Augustine’s mind yelled, but he ignored it in favour of allowing the warm tight feeling to take over as he accepted her hand to help pull him up. “I would be delighted, ma chérie.” He gave her hand a light squeeze before letting go, taking a small amount of pleasure as her cheeks turned a light pink in response.
If this battle training from his new mentor meant he was going to have more time to explore his feelings? It was certainly going to be interesting.
omg okay so, I am not at all happy with this one but I found it unreasonably hard to write something for a high school AU apparently!! My notes for this literally consisted of ‘absolutely no goddamn clue, it’s been too long since high school, what do high schoolers even do’ lmfaooo
So yeah, this is kind of not great, and is also totally not a semi-blatant rip off of that viral video of those two school teachers a few months back lmao lmao
enjoy!!
“Arno, Have you seen them? It’s so obvious…”
“Man, I’m not sure. Monsieur Sycamore maybe, but Miss Serena seems to get more exasperated with him than anything.”
“Yeah, but can’t you feel the tension between them? I bet they’re already dating.”
“Callie, you’re insane. What tension?”
“You know… like… ugh. Look, just watch them. It’s almost time for the joint session with Sycamore’s group now, and I guarantee that you won’t miss the blatant eyefuc-“
The sound of the bell cut Callie off, and she waggled her eyebrows at her friend as all eyes moved to the front of the room, where the two teachers stood beside one another.
On the right hand side of the whiteboard stood Miss Serena – a name she insisted upon, and no one seemed to know her actual surname (many had tried to find out, though no one had yet succeeded). She was relatively young but her positive attitude and inherently supportive nature had made her a firm favourite amongst most of the student body.
On the left stood Monsieur Sycamore, the charming teacher an object of many schoolgirl crushes. He was clearly older than Miss Serena, but his relaxed, laid back nature made him easy to talk to, and he would often launch into long, in depth lectures about the intricacies of evolutionary theory, somehow making even the most boring of subjects fascinating to listen to (and his delightfully low, accented voice was an added bonus).
“Okay!” Miss Serena stepped forwards first, clapping her hands together to catch the attention of the last few students. “The time for chatter is later.”
“Ah, the lovely Miss Serena is correct,” Monsieur Sycamore followed her movements, stepping forwards to fall in line beside her, their arms brushing against one another.
‘Look!’ Callie mouthed at Arno, who rolled his eyes in response.
“However,” Sycamore continued, glancing at Serena out of the corner of his eye before clearing his throat. “We do have an announcement to make before we get on to the exciting topic of…” he trailed off for a moment before plucking the clipboard from Serena’s hands.
“Hey, you give that-“ she began, reaching out to snatch it back but was cut off as Sycamore held it up high as he squinted at the words.
“The exciting topic of the impact of the Pokémon storage system on mating patterns,” he read from the page, pausing to digest the words before shoving the clipboard back at Miss Serena. “Marvellous!”
“Thank you,” Serena yanked the clipboard back with a laugh and dropped it on the desk behind them. “Glad to know you know your own curriculum, Monsieur.”
“Ah, but I get to hear more of your lovely voice if you lead the talks,” he winked at her, and a ripple of laughter ran across the classroom as she rolled her eyes in response.
“You were saying?” she steered the conversation back on course, flicking her eyes to the students.
“Ah, yes! The announcement!” Sycamore nodded, taking a moment to think about his next words. “Many of you - and I mean an obscenely large proportion of you – have asked if myself and Miss Serena are dating.”
Arno’s mouth fell open, and he could hear Callie try (and fail) to stifle an excited gasp from beside him.
“And the answer to that,” Sycamore continued, glancing at Serena as she stared resolutely ahead, focusing on a spot on the wall at the back of the room and doing her best to fight down her blush. “Is actually no. We are not dating.”
Callie was not the only person in the room to let out a mournful noise of disappointment, and Arno wondered just how many people had actually been concentrating on the actual content of these lessons instead of the dating status of their teachers.
Sycamore waited for the noise to calm down, raising his hands in surrender as some students shouted questions. “We appreciate your intense interest into our personal lives,” Sycamore chuckled. “And we are sorry to disappoint you.” He let the news sink in for a moment.
“However,” he continued, and everyone became deathly silent, freezing in place as the tension in the room became almost tangible. “We would like to inform you all…” he paused, and Serena’s gaze met his. They seemed to hold a silent conversation just through their eyes, before Serena continued his sentence without breaking their eye contact.
“… I would like to inform you all that I am expecting a baby,” she laid her hand flat on her belly and before the class could erupt into disarray, she continued slightly louder: “And that, two years into our marriage, Monsieur Sycamore and I can’t wait to welcome the new addition to our family-“
A deafening cheer cut her off, and Serena and Augustine couldn’t help the identical beaming grins that spread across their faces at the ensuing chaos.
“I told you!” Callie was yelling at Arno, jumping up and down in excitement. “I told you!”
“You told me they were dating! Not that they were married!”
At the front of the room, Augustine slipped an arm around Serena’s waist, pulling her in close and resting his own hand over hers on her stomach, nuzzling his face into her hair
“I feel like that went well, mon amour?” he cooed into her ear, pulling away slightly to beam down at her.
Serena laughed in response, yanking him down to meet her lips and smiling against his mouth as the cheers of their students grew impossibly louder in the background.
THIS GOT SUPER OUT OF HAND. I was intending to write a short 300-400 word oneshot, but here, have a 1150 word monster instead.
as per the norm, it’s 1:30am, I started writing this at midnight, and I’m up in like 6 hours to go to the lab, so any spelling/grammar/general failing in terms of sentence structure is due to the massive sleep deprivation I’m experiencing lmao!! I’ll go back over these and edit at some point!
enjoy!
Kanto will always hold a place dear to Serena’s heart.
It was where she grew up under the watchful eye of her mother, where she began learning the not only how Pokémon fought, but the theory behind their existence, their biological niches, what made them tick.
Enrolling in the Pokémon Academy in Viridian City at the very first opportunity had allowed Serena’s academic side to flourish, and after a short studentship alongside Professor Oak’s researchers, by her late teens she had already begun to develop a name for herself in the scholarly circles of the region – finding herself with the prestigious honour of an invite to the four-yearly Pokémon Researcher’s Conference in Johto’s Goldenrod City.
---
Though Johto bordered her home region, Serena had never visited the region prior to the conference. Barely able to contain her excitement at the sight of so many passionate researchers in one place, she almost found it too difficult to concentrate on the research being presented by prominent scientists from around the world.
Almost.
Professor Elm kicked off the proceedings with an explanation of his joint research with Professor Birch of the Hoenn region, looking at novel insights into the breeding patterns of Pokémon with distinct migration routes.
Professor Oak took to the podium next, explaining the research carried out by his lab into differences in trainer-Pokémon bonding based on the age of both the human and the Pokémon (and Serena’s heart jumped in her chest at the sight of her data analysis blown up in a gigantic font on the presentation projected high above the audience).
The final large presentation was headed by Professor Rowan of the Sinnoh region, flanked by two of what Serena assumed to be his research aides. One, an older man with slicked down hair and glasses, stood demurely to the side, hands clasped behind his back. The second, however, was a substantially younger man – perhaps a decade older than Serena at most – with dark hair that looked like it had probably defied any attempt to be controlled, springing up in loose waves that surrounded a face Serena thought would probably be more suited to being put in front of a camera instead of a microscope. Thought, she supposed, her eyes trailing over a bright purple shirt and down to where bright orange socks peeked out from under just slightly too-short slacks, perhaps the fashion world wasn’t quite where this man should be put either. At least not by Kanto standards.
Eventually dragging her eyes back to Rowan, Serena found herself utterly entranced by the theories being explained – Evolution. Nothing like her experiences thus far, learning about type advantages at the academy, or Pokémon-human relationships with Oak. No, Evolution was an intriguing new area, and Serena could feel her interest pique.
She said as much to Professor Oak when he asked her thoughts as the crowd of scientists swarmed out of the hall after the closing statements. Oak nodded thoughtfully, before sweeping her off to introduce her to Professor Rowan, at his insistence.
The wavy-haired research aide was at Rowan’s side when Oak and Serena reached them, and Serena could feel the heat of his gaze as he eyed her up and down. Resolutely ignoring him, she focused instead on Rowan himself, trying her hardest to make the best possible impression as Oak introduced her to his colleague.
Rowan’s gaze was different from his aide’s, less heated but instead intense in a way that left Serena feeling like he was trying to figure out how competent she was from sight alone. Finally, he asked what she thought of their work.
Feeling slightly like she was being tested – especially under the eyes of two high profile professors and a researcher – Serena stuttered through her reply, trying to describe how utterly fascinating she had found their talk, but couldn’t make her mouth work well enough through her nervousness to convey it properly. She felt her cheeks flush in embarrassment, her heart sinking as Rowan’s face remained expressionless, his aide’s eyes still burning into her.
Rowan nodded slowly, turning to face Oak and motioning to the side with his head. Oak nodded in understanding, and the two men ambled a few steps out of earshot. Serena covered her face with one of her hands, doing her best to resist the urge to yell into her palms at her embarrassing display, but was shocked out of his by a hand landing on her shoulder. Snapping her head back up, she was confronted with the sympathetically smiling face of Rowan’s aide.
“Do not worry,” the man said, and Serena was surprised to hear an accent that certainly wasn’t from Sinnoh colour the man’s voice. “Rowan’s not actually as scary as he might come across.” The man grinned down at her. Before Serena could reply, however, Professor Oak re-appeared at her side, suggesting that they go and find the rest of the Kanto group.
Rowan’s aide took a step back, removing his hand from Serena’s shoulder and bowing to the pair. “Of course, Professeur.” His eyes returned to Serena, and he managed a quick “Au Revoir! I am sure we will meet again!” before disappearing in pursuit of his own Professor.
After the conference had officially disbanded, and unable to forget her inability to control her nerves, Serena couldn’t wait to get back home to Kanto.
However, as strong as her attachment was to her home region, it didn’t stop her from ecstatically accepting when presented with an offer of a three year course of study in Sinnoh alongside Professor Rowan in a year’s time.
---
Sinnoh was a whole new adventure – a shiny new region to explore. Or at least, she attempted to explore when she could find five seconds spare from what had turned out to be an incredibly intense period of researching alongside Rowan. The young male aide from the conference had apparently departed by the time Serena had arrived, not that she had much time to even think about that fact with how busy she had become.
At the end of her three years in Sinnoh, however, Serena found herself older, wiser, and with a fresh new invite to the next Pokémon Researcher’s Conference – this time hosted by the freshly-appointed Professor of the shiny new Sycamore Labs in Kalos.
---
Kanto was Serena’s home, Johto was where her academic passion had been truly born, and Sinnoh was where it had been nurtured under the watchful eye of Professor Rowan.
Kalos, however, was where Serena’s heart truly lay. Specifically, it rested with the man with wavy dark hair and a face that belonged in front of a camera. And as Serena twisted the golden metal band around her ring finger, eyes glued to the matching band encircling the ring finger of Professor Sycamore of Kalos as he peered down at her report beside her, she was fairly certain that his heart lay with her as well.
Okay so I spent like 90% of this writing random unimportant background but OH WELL. I’m not a fan of the ending either, but it’s 1:44am and I have to be at the lab again tomorrow so!! sleep is needed!! Unedited, but hopefully I’ll have some time tomorrow to go back through and fix anything!
EDIT: FORGOT TO SAY! this is a carry on of the coffee shop AU from yesterday! set one or two years in the future, Augustine and Serena have been together for a while, she’s nearly graduated and he’s just beginning to establish his lab in Kalos!!
Enjoy!!
After a solid two days of travelling, Serena could almost have cried when she finally – finally – set her eyes upon Augustine’s form, waiting with poorly-contained excitement (judging by his earnest expression as he raised himself on the tips of his toes to search the crowd) for her arrival at Lumiose station. Yanking her bright suitcase along on its wheels behind her, Serena raised her arm in the air to try and draw his attention to her in the very center of the actual ocean of people that had swarmed out of the train carriage and carried her along in their wake.
The motion did its job, however, and Serena watched his entire face light up at the sight of her, before he pushed his own way into the crowd, fighting against the flow of people to make his way to her side.
“Ma chère,” he beamed down at her, ignoring the disgruntled grumbles as the crowd split around them where they’d stopped dead, eyes glued to one another. “There’s no words to describe how absolutely wonderful it is to see you. Properly, that is.” Serena laughed, but nodded in agreement. There’s only so much comfort one can get from long-distance holo-caster calls every evening.
“I could say the same for you!” she replied, resting one hand on her hip and tilting her head to the side as she surveyed him up and down. “The professor look really suits you, Augustine,” she declared after a moment, reaching forward to smooth down the lapels of his lab coat.
Augustine chuckled, pressing his hands over hers where they laid against his chest. “I’m glad you think so.” He cast an eye over her, and Serena was suddenly acutely aware of how rough she must look after two days of travel, with limited bathing facilities.
Just as the silence was beginning to become a little too much for her frayed nerves, Augustine spoke, his voice a low murmur as his gaze met hers. “You look absolutely perfect. You are perfect. Mon ange.”
Serena’s knowledge of Kalosian was limited, but she was fairly certain she could generally decipher Augustine’s extensive use of petnames. Her cheeks flushed a light pink.
“Oh, shut up. Charmer. At least that hasn’t changed,” she laughed, averting her eyes to the side and twisting her hands beneath his to twine their fingers together. “I missed you…”
“And I, you,” he replied, bowing down to press a chaste kiss to her lips before straightening up and taking the handle of her luggage in hand. “Come, see the lab. We’re still setting everything up, but it shouldn’t be too long before we can start actually researching!” Serena couldn’t help but be infected by his enthusiasm, willingly allowing herself to be pulled into step alongside him, their hands clasped together between them. “Though of course,” he continued, shooting her a sideways look as they left the station, now long behind the crowd that had come from the same train as Serena. “I am not expected to be there over the next few days. I told them that I had something very special to take care of.” Serena could feel her blush rising once more.
“Augustine if you need to be there-“
“Non,” he cut her off, squeezing her fingers in his. “Don’t be ridiculous. This is the last time I will see you in person before your graduation, and I will not force you to watch Dexio and Sina debate the best way to store microscopes for three days straight instead of exploring Kalos. I have plans for us, ma chère! You will experience this absolutely beautiful region!” With his free hand, he motioned towards the buildings that lined the streets – restaurants, cafes, designer fashion shops as far as the eye could see.
“Oh yeah?” Serena replied, excitement tight in her chest as she found herself unable to suppress her gigantic grin. “What might these plans be?” Augustine waggled his eyebrows.
“It’s a surprise!”
---
Augustine’s surprise it turned out, involved a whistle-stop tour of his brand-spanking new labs – his pure passion was evident as he led her around, and Serena’s utter pride in his success almost overwhelmed her entirely – before he grabbed a small travel bag of his own from his loft apartment above the lab, and piled the pair into a taxi.
Finally able to relax and feeling safe and warm with Augustine’s arm circling her, Serena found herself drifting off to sleep as they travelled, still unsure of their destination.
The next thing she knew, however, was the salty tang of the coast assaulting her senses, a warm hand cupping her cheek and Augustine’s soft murmur of her name reluctantly rousing her.
“…Where are we?” she managed, pushing herself back up where she had slumped during her nap, rubbing her bleary eyes and peering around. The taxi appeared to have stopped in a small coastal town, Wingull squawking way above their heads.
“Welcome to Ambrette Town!” Augustine declared, hopping out of the shuttle and waving an outstretched arm behind him. “Where amber dust dances!” Serena blinked at him, taking a moment to process the words as she accepted his proffered hand to help her to the ground.
“Amber dust?” she asked, finally settling on confusion in response to his statement.
“Oui!” he replied, hauling their luggage out behind them. “This town has an amazing collection of fossils. Plus, a beach!” He motioned to what looked like a sheer drop of a cliff behind him.
“Well,” Serena began, though his contagious excitement resulted in a large grin spreading across her face as she made her way to the safety rails to peer down at the sand far below. “I hope they have an easier way down than that.” Augustine rolled his eyes in exaggerated exasperation.
“Ah, I’m afraid that’s a condition, you must be willing to break a few bones to get down there,” he replied, trying for deadpan but failing entirely. “Or, we can go through the aquarium like most people.”
“Well where’s the excitement in that, Augustine? What’s life without a few broken bones, maybe a snapped neck? All in the name of a beach trip, of course!” Serena joked in return, before motioning at their luggage. “But why did we bring everything? We could have left this in Lumiose, I don’t know how well suitcases roll on sand.”
At her question, Augustine suddenly paused, his eyes darting to the side in… nervousness?
“Ah,” he began. “Well. That. I… didn’t want to presume anything but, I thought it would be nice to stay here, perhaps. I have heard great things about the hotel here, and it gives us more time to enjoy the area-“ He was cut off by a quick peck on the lips as Serena yanked him down to her level.
“It’s perfect. Thank you, Augustine.” Serena brushed her thumb along his cheek, cupping his jaw for a moment before pulling back. “Now. You said there’s an aquarium?”
---
Bathed in the bright blue light of the tanks, Serena knew her attention should be on the Pokémon poking inquisitively on the glass before them. However, she couldn’t help her eyes from straying to the man beside her, his hand clasped in hers as he animatedly explained the evolutionary advantages of the structure of a Horsea’s dorsal fin. His words washed over her – not because she wasn’t interested, but because she was distracted by trying to figure out exactly how she got so lucky.
It took a few moments for her to realise Augustine had stopped talking, and she blinked herself back into the present, where he seemed to have stopped mid-sentence, mouth slightly open and eyes wide as he gazed back at her.
“Augustine?” she probed softly, squeezing his hand lightly.
“… Ah,” he laughed quietly, rubbing his eyes with his free hand, but returning his gaze to her once more. “Désolé. I was… distracted, for a moment.”
“… So was I,” Serena admitted, ignoring the flash of pink from the tank beside her in favour of grinning back at her favourite person. “I was thinking about how lucky I am.” Augustine nodded.
“Great minds think alike, it seems.” A moment longer and they moved simultaneously, Augustine’s hand gently gripping her neck as they met in a deep kiss.
Behind them, unseen by the pair but watched with great amusement by the receptionist across the room, what seemed to be hundreds of Luvdisk gathered around the couple, surrounding their joined silhouettes in a bright pink glow.
It’s currently 1:20am, I’m up in about 6 hours to go to the lab, but I was desperate to write something for today and this is the result! I started writing about 12am and literally finished it about two minutes ago so it’s totally unedited but I’ll fix that tomorrow lmao. enjoy this mess!
“Go on!”
“I can’t! What would I say?”
“’Hello’ might be a good start? Or you could dive right in and just say how much you want to-“
“Stop-! Right there! Shut up!”
“Serena. You can’t just keep coming here to stare at him, we only have a few weeks left of the exchange programme!”
“Well I can’t talk to him!”
“With the amount you’ve been told off in class for talking, I am very certain that the one thing you definitely can do is talk.”
“Sure, about evolution theory! But this is not an evolutionary theory class, Shauna, I don’t want to be boring. What do I say to the most perfect-! …Shauna. Shauna!”
“What, Serena? Oh… oh! He’s moving! He’s coming in this direction-“
“Hide me!”
“You’ll thank me for this later!”
“Don’t you dare- Shauna!”
“Catch you later, Serena!”
Clambering halfway to her feet, Serena could only watch with her hand outstretched as Shauna neatly scooped up her bag from below her chair and make a quick escape out of the door of the coffee shop that had become their regular stop between classes. In part, it was because the coffee was amazing - a rarity in Kanto - but also due to the almost permanent presence of him. The man who was almost constantly set up at the back corner of the shop, half-hidden away in a private booth with hundreds of papers and notepads filled with an elegant scrawl spilling over the edges of the table, and a laptop glued in front of him as he worked away, day-in, day-out. He had the best voice, Serena had discovered a couple of weeks into her ill-advised infatuation with the stranger from the coffee shop. She had never seen him move from his spot before, however on this particular day she had managed to be around before he arrived. He had flown in the door – his stacks of papers clutched in his arms – and dumped his notes on his regular table before approaching the counter. Serena stopped mid-sentence in her conversation with Shauna as the man’s deep tones rang across the shop, blushing instantly in response. Shauna, of course, had found it utterly hilarious, but Serena had finally found out the man’s name – Augustine. A beautiful name for a beautiful man- and the fact he was absolutely beautiful was definitely a bonus, in Serena’s opinion.
Also of Serena’s opinion, however, was that Shauna was going to pay for this. Before she could delve too far into her options for revenge, however, that voice rang out from beside her table, and had Serena slumping back in her seat; her cheeks flushed a dark red as her gaze darted to the figure peering down at her – Arceus, he was tall.
“Je suis désolé,” he began, and Serena could have died. “I didn’t mean to interrupt, if you are leaving?”
Serena shook her head, and she’s fairly certain she managed to croak a small ‘it’s fine, I’m not leaving’, however she was entirely distracted by his face being so much closer than the usual entire shop floor away.
“Ah, in that case-“ he smiled, and Serena could have died again as he slipped into Shauna’s recently-vacated seat across from her. “Forgive me if I heard wrong, but I believe I heard you mention evolution theory?”
It took Serena a moment too long to get her wits about her once more, but she finally nodded, her voice coming back to her.
“Oh, uh. Yes… I’m studying it at Sinnoh University.” Augustine’s eyes lit up at her words, and he almost began vibrating in his seat with apparent excitement.
“You are! Are you learning under Professor Rowan?” Serena’s eyes widened.
“You know him?” she asked in amazement.
“Know him? He was the best teacher I’ve ever had!” He gestured back to his paper-covered table. “I’m working with Professor Oak at the moment, but Professor Rowan was the one that inspired me to follow evolutionary research!” Augustine beamed down at her. “It appears that it is a rather small world.”
Serena nodded, too taken aback to trust herself to form a sentence. A moment of silence passed as the pair just stared at one another, before Augustine suddenly jumped to his feet.
“Ah, I apologise, but I have been incredibly rude,” he began, and Serena could only stare as he bowed – actually bowed – at her, before straightening up and holding out a hand. “My name is Augustine Sycamore. I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but I believe your name is Serena? Your friend is… rather enthusiastic.” Serena nodded again, a small ‘yes!’ managing to squeak past her lips as she put her hand in his. Instead of the swift handshake she had been expecting, however, he brought her hand up to his lips and pressed a quick kiss on her knuckles.
Serena was now fairly certain she had definitely actually died and somehow ascended to some higher plane of existence.
Back on this plane of existence, however, Augustine had yet to let go of her hand, nodding towards his table. “Will you join me? I would love to talk with someone about this research. I will buy you a drink, if that would sway you?”
Serena was unsure what great deed she had completed in her previous life to be this lucky. “Of course!” she agreed, scooping up her bag and trying not to sound too enthusiastic – though she guessed she failed entirely based on the absolutely thrilled grin Augustine shot at her as he lead the way across the shop, only dropping her hand once they reached his table and settled down.
---
“- there has to be something about this link between trainer and Pokémon.”
“How would you investigate that? I suppose some kind of monitoring system, but would being monitored impact how the trainer and Pokémon acted?”
“That is a very good point, Serena, I hadn’t thought… Unless we could place the monitor without them knowing, but then – ah, the ethics are questionable- maybe-“
A short cough from the side broke Serena and Augustine from their conversation, both leaning back in their seats as they realised how close they had been leaning across towards each other.
“I apologise,” said the voice beside them, and they looked up to see the woman from behind the counter, a mop and bucket in her hands. “But we will be closing in a couple of minutes.”
Serena leaned around them to peer out of the window, mouth falling open in disbelief as she realised that it had become dark outside. She glanced back over at Augustine, who had a similar expression on his own face – clearly the pair had been too wrapped up in their discussion to notice how fast time had been passing.
“I’m sorry, of course!” Serena said to the woman, shimmying out of the booth to stand up straight. The woman laughed and waved the mop slightly as she moved away.
“It’s no worries! I wasn’t sure if you two realised, was all!”
Augustine laughed as he began to pile all his papers together from where they had splayed out across the table. “It appears time ran away from us,” he grinned at Serena, who laughed.
“It would seem so!” she replied, taking the pile of papers from him so he could pull on his jacket as the left the shop together, slowing to a stop outside. “Here,” she held the paper stack out.
Augustine paused, eyeing her for a moment before taking his papers back. As Serena went to retract her hands however, he grabbed on, holding it between them.
“Will you be here tomorrow?” He asked, tilting his head to the side. Serena stared at their hands, then at his face.
“I… can be?” she hazarded, willing her blush to stay down.
“Please,” he replied. “It has been a pleasure talking with you today. If you would allow me the honour, I would love to see you again tomorrow.” Serena was fairly certain that she was the luckiest person in Kanto.
“I think I can manage that,” she grinned in response, squeezing his hand slightly. Augustine beamed down at her, bringing her hand to his lips once more and pressing another kiss to it.
“In that case,” he declared, releasing her hand back to her and taking a step back. “It is a date.” He spun around, waving over his shoulder. “Have a good evening, Serena, and I’ll see you tomorrow!”
Serena watched him leave, her eyes glued to his retreating figure.
so I haven’t done any kind of writing outside of the academic variety since I last posted on here, which was... December last year. so a good 8 months ago. As such, I apologise for the quality of this lmfaooo. Also, it turned into less beach trip, and more... ‘vaguely beach related’ lmao
EDIT: I forgot to say!! but I wanted to thank @monsycamour for coming up with the idea for a lacewood week!! It was exactly what I needed to get out of the fic writing slump i found myself in! <3 <3 <3
“…”
“… Serena?”
“Augustine…”
“What’s wrong?”
“Are you serious?”
“Serena, I don’t-“
“What,” Serena began, her voice hitching in half amusement, half hysteria as she soaked in the sight before her. “Are you wearing?!”
It had to be a joke. He had to be pulling a prank.
He can’t honestly intend to go to the beach dressed like that. He knew she hadn’t seen him outside of his usual lab coat ensemble…
But…
He wasn’t laughing. In fact, his usual grin was nowhere to be seen, instead replaced by genuine confusion.
Serena could feel her gut sinking.
He was serious.
Augustine Sycamore, renowned across Kalos and beyond for his charm, style, and general allure – was an absolute fashion disaster.
Orange shirt, turquoise jacket (Jacket, Augustine? It’s Summer), cropped beige pants, and a dusky blue sunhat.
“You’re serious?”
She had to make sure. Maybe he had suddenly developed Kalos’ best poker face, and was about to burst into laughter at the absolutely horrified look on her face, and tell her it’s all a joke.
But…
But he was looking down at his clothes, brows furrowed in confusion. Genuine confusion.
“I don’t see what’s so ba-“ he began, but was cut off by a thump as Serena dropped the picnic basket she had been clutching, and clamped her hand hard across his mouth.
“Nope. I’m going to pretend you weren’t about to say what I think you were going to say,” Serena ground out, spinning him around and marching the pair right back into his room and forcing him down to perch at the edge of the bed. “Stay there,” she instructed, mouth a thin line as she turned to face his wardrobe. “And don’t speak. You are not wearing that to the beach Augustine. I need to see something. You must have something else you can wear.”
Clutching the handle, Serena took a moment to compose herself - surely it wasn’t all as bad as the disaster on the bed behind her – before yanking the door open.
… and finally allowing the bubbling hysterics to overtake her as she came face to face with an absurd amount of purple shirts, black formal pants, and white lab coats. Neatly lined along the ground were half a dozen identical pairs of loafers, each with a pair of bright orange socks laid neatly on top.
“Augustine,” Serena absolutely wheezed at the man between peals of laughter, clutching at her middle and leaning heavily against the wardrobe to stop her from outright sinking to the ground. “What in the name of Arceus is this?”
Augustine, to his merit, just looked mostly bemused at the scene before him, though his mouth began to quirk at the edge as he replied. “Serena… Correct me if I’m wrong but I believe you of all people should know the function of a wardrobe?”
“Augustine Sycamore you are going to end up a single man-“ Serena managed in a single breath before dissolving into giggles once more. “You’re Kalosian! I thought you were supposed to be some kind of fashion icon?”
At that Augustine began to laugh alongside her, abandoning the hat on the bed before standing to slip an arm of support around the hysterical girl half-inside his wardrobe.
“Now where you got that idea I don’t know.” He gestured at the neatly paired socks and shoes. “Orange socks, Serena.”
Tears rolled their way down Serena’s cheeks, her face flushed a delightful shade of pink as she tried to take deep breaths to calm herself. “Augustine. You are ridiculous.”
“Ah, but you are stuck with me unfortunately,” he declared happily, grinning down at Serena even as she laughed at his expense. Serena peered back up at him, eyes wet with tears of mirth, mouth stretched wide, and face flushed. A beat of silence passed between them before Sycamore spoke once more, his voice hushed. “Tu es belle.”
It took a moment for Serena to translate, her grip on Kalosian still mediocre at best, but her cheeks darkened further as his words struck her.
“Well,” she replied, rolling up onto the balls of her feet to press her forehead against his and curling her fingers into his hair. “At least you still have your charm.” A chaste kiss, before she pulled back with a despondent sigh as the ludicrous collection of lab coats caught her eye once more.
“You are coming shopping with me, Augustine. For clothes. That aren’t this,” she freed one of her hands from his hair to gesture at the contents of the wardrobe. “Or… that.” She waved vaguely at his current clothing choice.
“But the beach-“ Sycamore began to protest, but Serena shook her head.
“-will be sunny again at some point. Like in a couple of days. And we will be the best dressed couple there, but that won’t happen when you still have these on you.” She tugged at the atrocious orange shirt and bright blue jacket. “They need to be burned. Get them off.”
Sycamore raised an eyebrow at the instruction. “Serena?”
“Yes?” she replied sweetly, grinning up at him whilst slipping her hands under the jacket to push it off his shoulders.
“What are you…?”
“I am going to burn these. I’d rather not burn you in the process, so you need to take them off.” Augustine watched in amusement as she yanked the jacket down his arms and let it fall to the floor, hooking it on her toe and flicking it out through the doorway and into the lounge. “Tomorrow we will go shopping,” she continued, slipping her hands under the orange shirt and untucking it roughly, ignoring Augustine’s shiver. “And the day after we will go to the beach.
“For now, however,” Serena stopped in her mission of stripping her boyfriend of his abysmal fashion choices to stare up at him challengingly. “We have nowhere to go, and you have the whole day off from the lab.”
“I believe,” Augustine replied, his eyes matching the heat in her gaze. “I understand where you’re going with this.” Serena’s smile widened, deft fingers unbuttoning the garment in a fraction of the time it had taken Augustine to do it up, and it soon followed the jacket out of the door.
---
“Serena!” Shauna’s voice rang across the beach. “Come join us!”
Serena peered over her shoulder at her friend stood waist-deep in the ocean water, and held two fingers up. Shauna nodded with a grin, turning to swim out to the rest of their group.
Serena schooled her features back into unimpressed neutrality, surveying her boyfriend as he shifted uncomfortably in front of her.
