she walked inside the professor’s home, and upon being greeted, her first thought was i’m home.
hands were placed on her shoulders, and she flinched but only for a second – she still felt bad that that was still her initial reaction, but she was getting better at reacting. she didn’t recoil, didn’t cry anymore. in fact, coming from professor burnet, the touch was welcome, even if it didn’t seem like it at first.
after she parted from lillie, the younger started to smile. her own mother never treated her so kindly; when she first moved in with professor kukui and professor burnet, she had no idea how to react to their treatment. she thought there must have been something they wanted from her, that they were manipulating her and they would reveal their true intentions if she waited long enough – but that moment never came. they never expected anything from her other than for her to heal and get along like a normal child. she felt bad for burdening them, but they never acted like she was a burden. they acted like she was family.
instead of doing any of the things professor burnet suggested, lillie suddenly reached out to pull her in for a hug. she’s never really done this before; she’s only received hugs from her mother and maybe her brother once or twice. she’s not really sure if she’s doing it right, but professor burnet is warm and comforting and the mother she wished she could have. it was all she could do to hide her plan from the professor for just a little bit longer, to cherish this moment for as long as possible.
The hug was surprising, to say the least.
It takes a second for the tactile recognition to register, and another for her brain to catch up. The facts line up: Lillie has gone ahead and hugged her, pulled her forward just enough that her balance was nearly (not completely, thankfully for the both of them- what kind of warm welcome involved her falling on top of the girl?) thrown off, and even though the motion is performed with just the right amount of awkward to notice, the sweetness of it is more than enough to balance it out.
Well. Lillie has always been full of surprises, hasn’t she?
It was no secret (to Kukui, anyway) that the house had seemed that much emptier after Lillie had left. It was diminished in every way; the soft taps of her walking around the loft were replaced with the ambient noise of the ocean, the familiar sight of blonde hair was nothing but a ghost, filled in by empty space. Burnet liked to think she wasn’t quite old enough to fit the part, yet here she was, feeling like a heartsick mother Altaria whose little Swablu had finally returned to the nest.
She didn’t have any fluff or down; no great, gentle wings sprouted from her to wrap the girl in a cloud-like embrace as was the case with bird Pokemon. But what she did have were two perfectly functional arms, more than enough to wrap around Lillie’s back in a cotton-soft return of the hug and hold her there in it. Her arms are kept just loose enough to escape from if she wants; the urge is still there, to keep her close and safe in her embrace, but this is about Lillie, about her comfort.
Still, there’s no helping the curve of her lips into a smile, nor the glance down to reassure some subconscious cry that this wasn’t quite happening. Her quiet whisper slips out so softly even Burnet nearly misses hearing it herself.
❝ ...Welcome back, dear. ❞
