aiko's otter den

for a squall and an outside starry sky - Cerulean Cave supposedly has a monster in it, a powerful pokemon said to level buildings. That is not what Khun finds there, or is it? LGP/LGE AU

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6. People Make Choices

People in the outside world are kind.

At least, mostly.

Bam has met kind people more than unkind people. The unkind people were related to stars, yes. He didn’t get to look much at them, and the hole in the cave wasn’t big enough for him to enjoy them. Mi-mi’s memories were better. They were clearer and stronger and aged slowly. He could see everything through her if he tried.

“He’s still in the cave,” xey tell him. He nods.

It’s late. Bam knows he should probably go to him. He owes Viole that much. He wants to hug his brother and apologize.

But shivers run down his spine at the thought of going back to that cave. His stomach lurches.

Mirai rubs her wet nose against his cheek. He smiles. Mirai is full of power and wonder. She’s brave and strong and tells him everything she can.

He’s so happy that he’s allowed to be here outside, to have her as his friend.

A weight presses down. He doesn’t mean it. Bam always knows when he means it. He’s looking. He’s trying to take Bam away.

Bam closed his eyes and thinks long and hard.

“You made me wait,” he says. “Alone. In the dark, with no food, no friends, no bed, nothing. If I’d just had you, and Rachel too, I’d have been okay. But you chose not to stay. So. I don’t want to go back. I don’t forgive you. You… You have to make things right.”

Viole screams in his head. Bam, this time, slams his mind shut and shoves with all he has.

The records always say that Mewtwo is the strongest pokemon of all. But Bam isn’t all of a pokemon, or much of a human, really. He’s just a person in the middle, and Mewtwo was made because of him. Power isn’t everything.

Still, he shoves back with all of his will, and the pressure eases from his shoulders. Slowly, Bam slumps back down against the tree. He feels… lighter. Not free but lighter and so exhausted.

Slowly, Mirai’s fur flattens down and she purrs. “You love psychic things, don’t you?” he murmurs, and she purrs louder. “I bet you tell the other pokemon a lot and they think you’re silly, but you know, don’t you? You know everything.”

Mirai nips at him but she’s churring. Bam giggles as footsteps move closer to Bam looks to his right to see Khun. Mischief dances in his eyes. He always seems happier when he’s doing something. Despite the sternness of his face, Khun is very much an open book. Bam decides not to tell him so.

“Are you better now, Khun-ssi?” He’d left to do a long violent training session and even longer shower in the bathroom after Hatz had… threatened those reporters. He remembers mother threatening reporters. She was much quieter, much kinder, but it was scary all the same.

Khun snorts at Bam, who giggles. “I’m just fine. What do you mean?”

“Nothing, nothing,” he promises, giggling again. Altair, comfortable on her perch on Khun’s shoulder, rolls her eyes. Mirai bats her own eyes at the older pokemon, who waves a dismissive paw.

“Uh-huh.” Khun follows his gaze towards the cave. “Thinking of going back?”

“No!” Bam protests. ‘I couldn’t. I’d miss you too much!’ Bam pauses. “And everyone else. But I want to repay your kindness.”

“Not even to see your family?” There’s an odd tone in Khun’s voice and Bam smiles at him, more and harder than he means.

“I think… I think I’m better off if i don’t see them.” Bam looks away from the sky to Mirai, who is purring in his lap again. “There’s something they want from me I can’t give or, well, I don’t want to.”

“What happened to your mother?” Khun looks like he’s torn between being astonished at his own rudeness, and deathly curious.

Bam looks up at him, thinks of all the blood and viscera, the way the man had looked at her, the way she, for an instant, had thought —

I love you —

“Jahad did,” he says quietly and doesn’t go on.

“Fuck him,” Khun says with vicious glee. Bam hums. He doesn’t understand what procreation has to do with anything, but the sentiment is nice.

They stay in silence for a while more. Then Khun grins again, alight with a possibility to cause problems. “Want to see something cool?”

---

Khun strokes Corona’s big scaly head. “Good work, get some rest.”

The charizard chuffs and obediently disappears into the ball. Khun glances at Bam, who looks around Fuschia with wonder again. It’s a sight, especially after seeing his reaction to Cinnabar. The cherry blossom trees aren’t as beautiful in the light of the streetlamps, but their petals blow anyway. A few land on Bam’s hair and nose. Khun says nothing and files the image away for the sake of his mental health.

Yes, it’s cute, sue him.

“This way,” Khun says, and directs Bam to the safari zone.

He stops at the exhibits first. They’re always here, and likely have just been fed, so they won’t be as grouchy as they usually are. Bam follows him, watching the exeegutor. “They look like real tall palm trees in Alola,” Khun tells him. “There’s an entire island full of them and they’re dragon types.”

“Why are they dragon types?” Bam pauses and waves goodbye to a chansey, who has plopped down for a snooze.

Khun shrugs and keeps walking. “Something to do with the tree the egg seeds grow from when they hatch. The trees here are different, I guess.” He scoots behind the pokemon center to the enclosed lake. It’s not the ocean that he’s wanted to give them, but it’ll do.

“Glacier!” he calls. “Tundra! Are you awake?”

Bam lets out a confused noise, holding Mirai’s ball gently in his hands. The cave at the end of the manmade lake is dark for a moment. Then a familiar tickle brushes over Khun’s mind, like his raichu during a warm storm. It retreats in seconds, but he watches Bam’s hair stand on end and his eyes gleam with familiarity. Joy.

“Sea-traveller, you have brought a guest.” Tundra’s voice is soft and teasing. Tundra-who-remembers-winter is older and stronger and kinder than most humans, but she has a tendency to bite when crossed. Glacier-which-never-melts is in contrast, impulsive and ridiculous, hence why he’s already stuck his snout in Bam’s face. To his credit, Bam takes it in stride and strokes the side of his scaly neck.

“I like this one,” he says, and Khun snorts. Bam simply hums and closes his eyes.

Tundra chortles, a dinosaur’s song trilling low out of her mouth. “He is of the old star gazers.”

Bam opens his eyes and then says, in a low trilling song. “That would make two of us.”

Khun blinks. He knows the song because his mother has known it. She’s raised lapras from youth and so has he. It’s probably the psychic abilities.

Glacier stiffens and Tundra laughs. “As you say. I remember your face. Silph told me to teach you.”

Khun doesn’t have the money to tear down Silph Co, or the connections. Yet. There’s a part of him that feels like it doesn’t matter and he should try anyway out of principle.

Tundra continues. “I like you better like this, with a smile and light in your heart. Thank you for bearing it for me.”

Khun is dying to ask what she means, what they endured, but the way Bam’s eyes water and he rubs at them tells him it doesn’t matter. It’s too soon. It’s Bam’s business and he shouldn’t ask.

But damn if he wonders.

---

Bam’s exceedingly grateful now that Khun-ssi had thrown his champion earnings at him now, because the blue and white egg in the incubator pouch should be much heavier than it is. But he focuses on his footing because the Safari Zone is uneven and busy. Everything in it has a sound, a noise. The manmade preserve is so alive it hurts and for a moment, he wonders how happy they are. He wonders if it’s better here, safer away from humans who will break the law and poach them. He wonders if they’re happy.

Khun clears his throat and Bam hurries to catch up to him. He’s standing by another lake. A few rhyhorn snore in the grass. A chansey bounces an egg. “Uhm,” Bam starts. “What are we doing?

Khun reaches into his bag and pulls out a fishing rod. It’s fancy and Bam feels poor just looking at it. “You’re going to fish until you find a pokemon. Put down your bag.”

Bam does, mindful of the egg. “Uh… why?”

“Because you can get dratini in this area, and I’m pretty sure they belong to the Blackthorn Village, but also because there are poachers who keep stealing them for the Rocket Game Corner. They know what I look like. They may not know you. And dratini grow up into some of the most loyal powerhouses on earth.”

“So I’m bait?”

Khun smiles. “Pretty much.” The expression doesn’t really touch his eyes, but Bam relaxes.

“I appreciate the honesty, but I’ve never used a fishing rod before.”

Khun shows him and Bam casts. The night breeze lifts his bangs.

Time passes. He mostly fishes up magikarp, who he tosses back. Khun watches him for a while, dozing with Altair in his arms. Bam doesn’t mind. Khun has probably been exhausted and not able to rest. So Bam says nothing, and fishes.

The moon slowly drifts through the sky. It’s the longest Bam has been under the stars in his life. He can almost see why Rachel likes them.

Something tugs on the fishing rod, harder than any magikarp. Bam squeaks out a breath and reels in. He scrambles to his feet when Khun’s arms, steady, practiced, wrap around his waist. “Easy does it,” he says. Bam nods. “Definitely a dratini. I’ll hold you, send out Mirai.”

He does and the two of them tug until a gleaming pink serpent darts in the air, wiggling frantically on the line. It’s barely a foot long and isn’t prepared for Mirai to slam into it like she’s been battling her whole life. She chomps down on it. It squeals and whines and all Bam can hear is the pokemon equivalent of swearing.

He throws the safari ball, so he doesn’t have to explain. It clicks shut after a lot of squirming and bouncing.

“Work,” Khun says. “Looks like you caught a toddler.”

Bam sputters and Khun laughs. It’s the freest expression Bam has ever seen on another face.

He kind of wants a picture.

Then the Safari Zone quiets. It’s a familiar unearthly stillness that Bam has known his whole life.

Bam turns and gently nudges Khun behind him. “Hi Viole,” he says. “Are you sorry?”

His brother doesn’t say a word. He simply projects absolute loathing and utter betrayal and raises a hand with bulging fingers.

The key stone around Bam’s neck glows as Bam lets out a deep breath. “Fine,” he huffs out. “You’re always bad at listening, so I’ll make you.”

But before he can do anything, Khun twitches, then convulses as psychic power lifts him up and up. His hands drag themselves towards the pokeball, any of them as Viole pulls Khun away. He kicks and jerks, resisting.

He just keeps flying up and up. For a moment, Bam sees fear in those blue eyes. And he snaps.

“No!” Bam shouts and purple light explodes out and out. He won’t lose Khun-ssi. Not his friend. He’ll die before that happens.

The mewtwo’s violet eyes glare. So be it, they say.

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