Her voice is honey sweet – on par with the small smile already forming on her lips. She tilts her head quizzically, hums as if to gourd the absolute stranger into answering her question. The stranger – a soft-faced, glistening eyed young adult. She takes pity on him; maybe it wasn’t everyday that someone got to view such a majestic, fearsome Dragon type. Especially not one as powerful as hers.
But the more seconds pass, the more Zinnia’s patience is tested.
She’s nothing wrong with what she’s doing after all. Perched atop her mighty Salamance in the middle of public, it’s no wonder that she’s already caught the eye of several passerby. Was riding your Pokemon around not normalized here, after all? It was already customary practice in the Draconid Clan back in Meteor Falls, though…
She strokes the top of her Salamance’s head.
Gemino purrs.
❝ Weren’t you ever taught some manners? ❞ Zinnia sneers.❝ When someone – ‘specially a pretty little lady like me – is asking you a question, you gotta answer it.
Nimbasa City continues to be a hub for people to come and just have a fun time. Unlike Castelia City, this place is more for entertainment, whereas his birthplace is one of Unova’s stronghold in terms of businesses. While he’s pretty much accepting of Castelia now, it’s not his first choice if it doesn’t involve a visit to his dad’s place. As such, when he has a relatively free weekend up and he doesn’t have anything planned beforehand, the teacher finds himself in the bustling city.
Honestly, you don’t really have to go far if you want to find something to do here. It feels like there’s an activity to be enjoyed by just about anyone who enters the city. There’s the famous amusement park and its Ferris wheel, where he has yet to have a chance to ride. If you’re collecting Gym Badges, Nimbasa is the home of the electric queen Elesa and her runway facility that doubles as the Gym. Either you’re there to watch a battle or ogle her donning the latest fashion.
If that’s not your cup of tea, there’s the stadium where you can watch a variety of sports during game day. Near to those facilities is the Pokemon Theater, another place for people to subject their Pokemon through cruel and unusual punishment. Sure, they look good but he swears there’s a cry for help in their eyes. And if that still doesn’t appeal you, there’s the Gear Station, where you can catch a train ride to just about anywhere in the region and also battle in them. Screaming metal death trap to happen anyone?
Of course, there’s also the occasionally happening that doesn’t necessarily fit what they already have but still draws on a huge crowd. This time, it’s some concert held by Christoph, the sensational idol that Harley privately thinks looks quite young to be in such a business. He doesn’t go to the concert, though it does show on the television in the diner he’s eating lunch in. As he takes a bite of his burger, he lazily watches the song and dance performed by Christoph.
He stays until he finishes his meal, then leaves to just wander around the city for a few hours. By the time he feels hungry once again, the sun’s beginning to set. Harley contemplates on what to get for dinner before he opts for some ramen at a stall he passed by a few streets behind. With that in mind, he turns around and heads back, a cigarette between his lips and his hands stuffed in his pocket. Both of which nearly flies out when something below knee height crashes into him, almost causing him to topple.
Harley manages to avoid a face plant and turns around once he finds his balance. There’s an annoyed look on his face that smooths out into mild surprise upon seeing the small blue elephant. The teacher takes out the butt and flicks it into a nearby trashcan.
“Now what are you doing out here all alone, little one?” he asks, kneeling down to look the Phanpy in the eye, ignoring the slight throb where the tyke’s body slammed into shin with all his 74 lbs weight behind him.
They’ve been together for quite some time now. The exact date is fuzzy, but only because he feels like it doesn’t quite measure up to this feeling of wonder that he gets everyday. Harley still can’t believe that he’s with this wonderful person– that he can call Wes his boyfriend and feel stupidly giddy about it. They take things slow, to learn each other’s boundaries, know what they like and dislike. That’s more than fine with him.
Harley knows that Wes has went through a lot, so he’ll do anything that he can to make him feel comfortable. He only ever gently initiates things, backing off if it’s not well accepted with a soft apology. It’s all about consent in this relationship. Harley will never force Wes to do anything that he’s not comfortable with. They might fall behind on how ‘traditional’ couples would act, but that’s fine. So long as he gets to be together with Wes, he’ll be content with anything.
That being said, it does throw him for a bit of a loop when one day, after a lazy lie in bed, Wes invites him to take a shower together. Harley blinks, needing a second to process that.
Now, while it involves them seeing each other naked, it’s not an inherently sexy action. Harley learnt that it’s always better to see things neutrally and not fall for typical expectations. And that proves to be the right course of action, when Wes follows up with a mention of how his nest of a hair could use a good wash.
Harley lays back down, sighing with a small smile. Right. They’re just taking a shower together. That’s it.
Roughly half an hour later, they found themselves in his shower. It’s not cramped, but it’s not like he’s ever shared it with another person before. It was… surprisingly easy to see Wes in an undressed state, though he can’t help but notice the collection of faded scars littering his body. Harley doesn’t stare at it for long, nor does he comment about it. There’s a story behind them, and it’s already a huge show of trust that Wes even allows him to see them at all. He’s not going to betray it.
He too sports his own collection of scars. A few slices here, a bullet wound there– both of them were not physically unmarred, so he hopes that it can be considered as his own show of trust. Not a lot of people sees what he hides underneath suits and Pokemon themed hoodies, after all.
Harley faces the shower while Wes has his back to it, and he turns on the water. The initial stream was cold – enough to elicit a noise of surprise from Wes, to which he apologized for – before it reaches a comfortably warm temperature. His usual showers were often in extremes; icily cold or searingly hot, so this was a nice change of pace.
The water trickles down his skin from the curve of his neck all the way down to the length of his legs. Harley sighs, enjoying that uniquely calm lull that only comes from being in the shower. It’s only when he feels a touch on his arm that he remembers. Right, he’s not the only one in here. He changes the setting on the nozzle so that both of them could feel the spray of water.
Eventually, his hair sticks to the side of his face, and he has to swipe back the bangs that covers his eyes. He sees Wes eyeing his hair, a look of contemplation even under the stream.
“Have you been washing it properly?”
“Of course,” he replies, a little grin to his lips. “You’d think you’d wanna cuddle together with stinky hair?”
“True.” A beat of silence. “Do you want me to wash it for you?”
Harley swears his throat got a little dry at that, but he doesn’t let the shock settle in for long. Mustering up the same grin, he gestures at his basket of products. There’s a citrus scented shower gel, a bottle of shampoo and hair conditioner, among others. “Have at it.”
He goes to turn off the shower, then leans down a little so Wes can slather his hair with the shampoo. Really, it’s far from the first time that he shampooed the thing, but never has anyone wash his hair before.
It’s similar to the time when he petted his hair, but it’s an entirely different sensation. Wes digs his fingers into his scalp with the intent of thoroughly washing every strand of hair. A circular motion, then his thumb slides back before his fingers grips in. Harley can’t stop the shiver that trails down his neck at the sensation, but he remains silent.
He thinks that, up to this point, this is one of the most intimate things he had ever experienced. It’s nothing hot or heavy, far from the realm of intimacy that his exes would think of. It’s just his partner washing his hair, and damn it, it feels really good.
His eyes remains shut throughout it all, but the lack of sight is more than made up from how deeply he can feel the fingers that dips behind his ears. Harley doesn’t know how long it’s been, until the the jet of water mats his hair down once more. The suds were slowly wash away, no doubt the different angles was from Wes manually handling the hand shower.
Harley gets to open his eyes after everything has been washed off. Wes was smiling a little at him, perhaps pleased with his work. He wants to kiss him at that moment, but refrains.
There’ll be plenty of chances after they’re not at risk of slipping and cracking their heads open. Not a romantic moment, he reckons.
They continue their shower in silence until it’s time to head out. Harley steps out first, hands Wes the extra towel before he goes to dry himself up. Once sufficiently dried, he wraps it around his waist, then went to the sink to brush his teeth. After a gargle of mouthwash and a nice floss later, he steps out of the bathroom.
Harley goes to put on his slacks first but before he can grab his shirt, Wes calls out to him.
“Hmm… now that I look at it, your hair has gotten pretty long,” he comments. Harley shakes his head from side to side. Hmm… it does feel a little long. His bangs has completely covered up his ears and it’s gotten a little past his neck at the back.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. Been awhile since I went to a barber.” Harley looks at his boyfriend, grinning. “Can you cut my hair for me?”
Wes hums in reply. “You’d trust me with a pair of scissors to your hair?”
He laughs at that. “Of course. You won’t give me a bad haircut… would you?”
A snort. “I could just give you a bowl cut without you realizing.” But he asks where he keeps his scissors and comb anyway.
For the second time that day, Harley ducks his head to give access. He’s sitting on a chair on the deck in the backyard – thankfully, it was a warm day – with an old tablecloth tied around his neck. It feels like he’s in the barber shop, though it’s never this nice and pleasant.
Wes’ fingers this time are gentler but no less firm. He could hear the snipping noises, feel the bits of hair that falls by his side. With his hair still damp, it’s easy for the comb to run through and straighten it out. Harley finds his eyes sliding shut once more, merely listening to the sounds and relishing the touches. At some point, Wes broke out the hairdryer, blowing streams of hot air around his neck and hair. And then he was done.
A small hand mirror was handed to him. “I took the liberty of giving you an undercut. I think the style looks good on you.”
Harley examines his reflection. His hair is a little shorter but still has volume. The area around his ears were thinned out, making the poofier parts stand out even more. Like before, he gives his head a little shake, watching how his hair shifts with this new hairdo.
“Well, do you like it?” Wes asks after he puts down the hand mirror.
Instead of answering, he twists in his seat, rising just a little to give him a kiss on the lips. Noses brushing, Wes can probably feel the smile he wears at the second peck.
“I love it,” Harley replies, then goes in for a third kiss. “And I love you.”
Momo rolled his eyes at those words. Why did his trainer care so much about things like ‘good behaviour’ and ‘not being a jerk’? He wasn’t being a jerk at all! This was just how a famous Pokémon should act, and maybe his trainer should take an example from him! Though she did say that he’d get bad publicity if he was seen being mean to others one more time...
Momo patted his cheek pouches with a determined huff, before departing from Elesa’s shoulder in the search for his playdate business meeting.
“Heeellooooo!! Where are you? It’s not nice to keep a celebrity waiting, you know?” Momo chittered as he glided through the air, hoping to catch a glimpse of Sweetheart nearby.
spark couldn’t say for sure what he’d been expecting. at first, he was just playing along with green’s joke ( he hadn’t expected the victim of the whole scenario to be, well, curtis ) and from there, things had just somewhat messily fallen into place. it must have been a good deal of coincidence, of course—the fact that curtis’ phanpy wanted to say hello wasn’t planned; their shared interests couldn’t have been anything to count upon. but, well, they ended up here, and he couldn’t say he was complaining.
nimbasa city was an important part of his life in one way or another, but despite that, he’d never seen it in person, and it certainly was a beautiful sight. especially now that the sky was turning dark and the lights of the city were now illuminating his field of view.
“ it’s amazing, ” spark breathed after a few more moments of admiring the city around him, finally turning to face curtis once again. “ did i tell you i was born here? it’s where my parents met; my dad lived here when he was a kid... i can’t believe i never travelled out here to see it. ” you’d think he would have, by now, but... he supposed he just hadn’t gotten around to it. it had fallen to the wayside, secondary to his pokemon and his work, and, well, everything. life, as it had a habit of doing, had gotten in the way.
“ you’re from unova, right? so i bet you’ve been here a lot. ” ... maybe? he wasn’t sure how much time curtis spent in big cities—it didn’t seem like somewhere the other would feel at home, but then, maybe he had to be there for his work and all that.
he found his eyes trained primarily upwards, glancing back and forth across the streets as they wandered. goldenrod was a big city, too, but it felt so small in comparison ( which only made everywhere else he’d been seem TINY ). “ so, what’s here that’s really worth it to see? ”
While she was in Unova, Leaf frequented a specific family restaurant. The staff was absolutely amazing and they had the best coffee she’d ever had. The only thing that wasn’t amazing, however, was this guy who’d always sit next to her at the counter and talk over her. Whenever a waitress would come and talk to her, this guy took it upon himself to pop into the conversation and all but block out Leaf. She could never figure out why he did it, but after the fifth time she didn’t particularly care. One day, this guy seemed to do everything possible to make sure he eclipsed her. Fed up with being shoved aside, when he got up to go to the bathroom, Leaf dumped the entire salt and pepper shaker into his food. Then she got the hell out of her. To this day, she hasn’t gone back into that restaurant and has no idea how he reacted. Frankly, she doesn’t want to know.
Rui is a known face in the Orre region. Between her projects and frequent appearances in the nightlife, there seemed to not be a single person in Orre who didn’t know her name. Well, all except for one. He was a new bartender at Sal’s. In all fairness, Rui didn’t look like she belonged in the crowd, but the second she started chumming it up with the usual crowd, the guy should’ve known. Instead, he had the audacity to yell across the bar,
“You sure you wanna be here, Sweetie? It’s a rough crowd out here,”
Rui almost ran over and punched the guy right then and there. Miraculously, she didn’t. She didn’t want to cause any drama for Sal, he’d always been there for her, but this guy had to go. Instead of punching him, Rui waited until he left the bar unattended for a moment. While he was gone, Rui went and changed the labels on all of the taps. She loved Sal, but he was cheap. He didn’t have custom taps for each beer, but just labeled them with notecards for the bartender. She made sure they were completely wrong, switching Light and Dark Beers, Hops for IPA’s, anything and everything. She waited until he came back and gave someone an incorrect drink, and then left. Sal called her the next afternoon and told her he knew what she’d done, but after the new bartender got his fifth complaint that night, the guy decided bartending wasn’t his thing and walked out. Rui couldn’t say she was too upset about it, but she did feel bad for Sal. She helped him find a new, much less judgemental bartender.
Five Things People Don’t Know About My Muses
Leaf:
1). Leaf’s parents make sure to call her once a week and check up. They ask her about everything from her travels to the new foods she’s tried to how Red and Green are doing. She always sets aside time for the call and looks forward to it.2). Aside from her Mom, Leaf’s biggest female rolemodel is Cynthia. Cynthia is intelligent, poised, talented, and unashamed of herself. She’s everything Leaf would like to be in life. 3). Due to growing up in a bakery, Leaf isn’t the biggest fan of sweets. She’ll eat them if they’re there, but she doesn’t go out of her way to get them. If she ever goes out with someone for pastries or ice cream, she’ll get something small and with minimal sugar. 4). Leaf worries about the health of her Pokemon a lot. She’s especially worried about Bulby in his old age. While he deserves rest, and she has no doubt that he’d be able to battle if she needed him, she’s worried about his health declining at any moment. He’s always been a part of her team and at her side, and Leaf isn’t willing to think of a future without him. 5). Leaf will sing to herself when she thinks no one is around. It helps get her mind off of things and bring some background noise to whatever task she’s doing by herself.
Rui:
1). While she talks big, Rui can’t actually hold her liquor. She knows her stopping point and never strays past it. She wants to be in control in case something bad happens. However, that doesn’t stop her from going out whenever she pleases. 2). Rui sometimes regrets not being able to have a normal education. Due to the constant chaos, Orre never really had a great school system. Ever since she’s become a sort of representative of Orre, she sometimes wonders if she’s not up to par with other notable leaders. She’s just a girl who had some weird things happen to her. She’s not super intelligent, and she doesn’t want that to hinder the growth of Orre. 3). Rui secretly loves pop music. She’s a giant fan of cheesy pop but will deny it to anyone who asks. She loves Adele.4). Rui has never travelled outside of Orre for any reason other than business. She needs a vacation and she needs one bad. However, she doesn’t have time at the moment and keeps putting it on the back burner. 5). Rui’s aura skills aren’t nearly as developed as she’d like them to be, but she had no measure for how developed they actually are. There are no other Aura users in Orre for her to reference. At the moment, she just wants to continuously grow and discover new abilities. One day, she’ll find someone to teach her.
