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Nothing on earth compares to the earth-shattering, soul-crushing desolation Gen is currently experiencing. He stares down at the rug in the front hall of Soushirou’s apartment, jaw dropped in abject horror. A grisly murder occurred here tonight. While the two of them were making dinner, something truly nefarious was happening in the other room. Now, the remnant of Gen’s beloved defense force zip-up lay at their feet, lifeless and savagely shredded into ribbons.
“To be fair, you probably should’ve hung it up.”
Gen blinks before looking up at Soushirou, wondering if he really heard that correctly. Surely, Soushirou wasn’t blaming Gen for this.
… Right?
“Skitty was probably confused,” Soushirou continues, doubling down. “I’ve never left clothes just lying around before. I’m responsible, I always put things away.”
Gen seriously can’t believe his ears. Is he the one being scolded right now?
“But I– I mean–”
He stammers, unable to get the words out. It’s a hoodie for crying out loud. What kind of psychopath hangs up a hoodie?
Soushirou sighs, finally seeming to realize that Gen is genuinely upset about this. He calls Skitty over and bends down to talk to it face to face.
“It wasn’t very nice of you to tear up Gen’s clothing,” he gently scolds. “We have to be accommodating to our guests.”
Skitty cowers, ducking its head in shame at the reprimand. Soushirou immediately reaches out and scratches behind its ear in a gentle, circular motion.
Gen feels his lower lip slip out into a pout. Skitty is the one that did something bad and yet its the one getting head scratches? What the hell? That should be Gen getting comforted by Soushirou right now.
Right before he can let out an angry huff, Gen catches himself. He’s being ridiculous. He’s not going to be jealous of a pokémon, even if that pokémon is currently being doted on by his boyfriend. Gen is more evolved than that, obviously.
“It’s standard issue, right?” Soushirou is still scratching Skitty’s ear, and Skitty leans into the touch with its whole head. “We can get a new one. I’ll put in the request myself if you’d like.”
Gen is back to pouting in an instant.
“But a new one will be all stiff and scratchy,” he complains. “That one was perfectly worn in.”
And it really was. Gen wonders exactly how many video game sessions and post-mission debriefs it had taken to wear the thing in, but he’s guessing the numbers are in the hundreds. He’d had the thing so long that it was softer than a damn baby’s blanket at this point. The fabric had grown just the slightest bit thin at the elbows and Gen had taken to fidgeting with the familiar frays inside the seams of the pockets.
The more Gen thinks about it, the more depressed he is about the loss. He’s opening his mouth to keep whining about it when Soushirou offers a solution.
“Just take mine, then. I’m due for a new one anyway.”
Gen lets his eyes go wide, both shocked and touched by the gesture.
“You’d really do that?”
Soushirou looks at him with a confused smile, tilting his head. “Of course,” he says, no big deal made. “Consider it yours.”
Gen doesn’t even bother to hide his smugness as Soushirou retreats into his coat closet to fetch the garment. When Gen wondered earlier who was insane enough to hang up a glorified hoodie, the answer of course was, clearly, Soushirou. So proper.
He’s about to tease him for it when a chill runs down his spine. Sensing something strange, he looks down and finds Skitty… absolutely glaring at him.
“Hey!” Soushirou calls from inside the closet. “If you think they’d get along okay, you should bring Cherrim next time!”
Skitty’s normally pleasant demeanor has soured, its soft mouth twisting into something resembling a scowl. Gen feels instantly unsettled.
“Yeah, maybe after you get Skitty declawed,” Gen mutters under his breath.
“What was that?” Soushriou asks, reemerging from the closet.
“Nothing! Nothing at all.”
Gen isn’t the only one who’s acting as if nothing happened. The second Soushirou comes back out, Skitty is flicking its tail back and forth contentedly, cheerful attitude instantly restored. Okay, weird. Gen tries to put it out of his head.
He grins broadly as Soushirou drapes the zip-up over the back of his shoulders and helps him shrug it on. It might not be as soft as Gen’s old one, but it smells like Soush, and that’s a major upgrade as far as Gen is concerned.
“This is pretty sweet,” Gen admits.
Soushirou smiles back at him, tugging both sides of the zipper together over Gen’s chest. “If you feel like returning the favor, I do have my eye on that long coat of yours.”
“My uniform?” Gen asks, horrified. “I don’t think I can– I’m pretty sure they won’t let me–”
“Kidding.”
With that, Soushirou dips in for a kiss. Gen can admit that he’d take that over a scratch behind the ear any day.
He finds his eyes drifting open, immediately locking eyes with Skitty, who is watching from the end of the hallway and is absolutely seething.
Gen closes his eyes as he deepens the kiss, wrapping a hand around the small of Soushirou’s back and rocking him closer.
Get used to it, cat, he thinks. I’m not going anywhere.
Cherrim is lounging in Gen’s lap, asleep and firmly in its overcast form, as Gen settles in for another several hours of gaming at his desktop before bed.
They’re both in overcast form, if Gen is being honest with himself. His hair is flat against his forehead and the blackout curtains in his room are pulled so snugly that he genuinely isn’t sure if there’s daylight outside still or not. It horrifies Soushirou to no end that Gen can live like that, but it’s better for the display on his games, and he gets plenty of sunlight when they drag him out of here to fulfill his defense force duties. He’s not about to die from lack of vitamin D, as Soushirou would like to suggest.
Almost as if he could sense Gen thinking about him, Soushirou’s name starts lighting up Gen’s phone. Gen gets him on the first ring and flicks on the speakerphone.
“Sup?” he asks.
His voice is casual, but his body goes rigid enough to disturb Cherrim’s sleep, who cocks an eye at Gen from beneath a smoothed down petal.
Gen is always half-expecting that he’s about to get called away for a Kaiju attack. Every once in a while, Gen and Soushirou are able to get in touch with each other about updates on that sort of thing before any of the assistants can.
“Nothing major, don’t turn your game off,” Soushirou says quickly. Gen immediately relaxes back into his chair, slakoth-like again within a second. “I do have a favor to ask, though.”
“Oh?”
“I’m getting called out of town for the next couple of days last minute, and I need–”
“Is everything okay?” Gen asks. If there’s a threat that warrants sending Soushirou to combat it, maybe Gen should consider coming along as well.
“Yes,” he assures. “It’s some nonsense my brother concocted to get me out there, but I can’t get out if it. Just another defense force captain on a power trip.”
“Captains are the worst.”
Soushirou lets out a sharp laugh. “Say that again so I can get it on tape for the new recruits.”
“Nice try.” Gen spins around in his desk chair, restless. “So what’s the favor?”
“It’s such short notice that the place where I usually board Skitty is full all weekend. I was hoping you might be able to look after him for me.”
“Oh,” Gen repeats, hoping he masked his reluctance well enough.
“You won’t have to do much,” Soushirou promises. “I’ll prepare his meals and everything in advance, so you’d just have to come over a couple of times to check up on him and hang out with him a little. You can even bring Cherrim, if you want.”
Gen looks down at his lap, where sweet, peaceful Cherrim has already fallen fast asleep yet again. Yeah, no chance in hell is he letting Skitty take a swipe at it. He imagines the petals won’t be as useful anymore if Skitty sinks its claws into them for sport.
“I normally wouldn’t ask,” Soushirou continues, “But Skitty has just gotten so comfortable with you lately.”
Oof.
It’s a testament to the truly bipolar nature of that Skitty that Soushirou thinks so, but Gen can’t really agree with him. The last few visits have gone just about as well as the first one did, sans the destroyed zip-up. No, Skitty had found other, more creative ways to torment Gen since then- everything from artfully stepping on the remote during the climax of movies to having accidents on the floor in the middle of make-out sessions- and its hatred for Gen hasn’t wavered for even an instant.
There’s no was Soushirou could know that, though. Skitty flips a switch every time Soushirou is looking, turning from the spawn of satan to an absolute angel at a breakneck pace. It would be impressive, if it weren’t so diabolical. No, Gen had long given up on the idea of him and Skitty getting along. At this point, he was just striving for basic coexistence.
Unfortunately for Gen, he was also striving to be a good boyfriend.
“Sure, why not,” he says, unenthused. “You said It’s just a couple of days, right? Easy.”
“Thank you.”
Gen feels instantly affirmed in his choice when he hears how genuinely relieved Soushirou sounds. He really must’ve been in a tight spot. Gen is happy to help, and hey, who knows. Maybe Skitty will start tolerating Gen once it starts thinking of Gen as someone who’s capable of feeding it.
“I do expect a good souvenir for my troubles though, of course.”
“Anything you want,” Soushirou promises. “Within reason,” he adds quickly.
“Just come back in one piece and we’ll call it square,” Gen tells him. “...And maybe some snacks wouldn’t hurt. Something exclusive to the region. The flashiest thinking you can find.”
Soushirou snorts. “I’ll try and find you something twitter-worthy. So you’re really okay with this?”
Gen hesitates for half a second. He’s really not cool with this, but what choice does he have? His boyfriend is asking him for a favor, and Gen earnestly wants to help him out. Soushirou would do the same thing for him without question. If they’re going to be partners, they need to be able to lean on each other for stuff like this- especially in their line of work.
“Absolutely. Just text me the details.”
It’s a strange feeling, taking on responsibility without kicking and screaming and whining about it first, but not necessarily a bad one. Gen feels remarkably mature. He should get a medal or something for not complaining about this even once.
“Thank you again,” Soushirou tells him. “Skitty will be absolutely thrilled to see you.”
Yeah, we’ll see about that.
When Gen gets to Soushirou’s apartment, the first thing he does is chuck his shoes and his coat into the closet and pull the door tightly shut. Skitty, while crafty, is not so good with doorknobs. Yet, at least. Gen does not doubt its ability to evolve in order to fully fuel its evil whims.
That being said, the last couple of days have gone mostly without incident, thankfully. He’d attribute that to his own carefulness than Skitty’s tolerance, though. Skitty hadn’t had many opportunities to fuck with him, even if Gen was certain it was on the hunt for one.
At the very least, Skitty seems happy enough whenever it’s eating, so Gen has that reprieve to look forward to. Still, the sheer amount of water glasses Skitty has swept off the counter with his tail is enough to have Gen counting the hours until Soushirou’s return.
It hadn’t been an easy couple of days. Not just for Gen and Skitty, but for Soushirou too, it sounded like. They talked for a while on the phone last night (on facetime, so Soushirou could check in with Skitty, who was, predictably, on best behavior once Soushirou was watching. Gen just knows it reveled in licking his Soushirou’s face on the phone screen till it turned slimy) and Soushirou had seemed utterly exasperated by his weekend out of town.
“Not that I’m wishing for a disaster or anything, but I’d take any excuse to be back in Tokyo right now,” he said over the phone. “At least I’ll get to see you both tomorrow.”
Gen took note of his arrival time so he could be here early and get Skitty all settled before his return. That way, there wouldn’t be any distractions once he finally arrived back.
Gen wanders into the living room, ready to perform his twice-daily ritual of staring awkwardly at Skitty for several minutes while Skitty sneers back at him, when he sees it. Skitty, sitting proudly on the coffee table, head cocked just so, and the absolute disaster in the background.
Somehow, Skitty had managed to jump high enough to disturb the large frame hanging at the center of Soushirou’s living room- somehow having mustered enough force to knock it clean off the wall. The result was catastrophic. The frame itself had managed to stay in one piece, but the glass hadn’t fared nearly as well. When it hit the ground it shattered into what must be a thousand little pieces, blanketing the entire floor on that side of the room in shards.
“Holy shit.”
Gen puts the rest of his stuff down and rushes over.
“What the hell happened?” he asks. “Are you okay?”
Skitty does not look quite so pleased with itself anymore as Gen draws closer. It looks more than a little affronted when Gen reaches out and, with a speed Skitty is probably not used to seeing from Gen, snatches him up off the table. It yowls and kicks, desperately trying to wriggle free.
“What, do you think I’m enjoying this?” Gen cries out. “No, I’m not, but if you stepped in any of that glass, it’s gonna be a problem!”
Gen does his best to inspect Skitty’s paws, even if Skitty is completely uncooperative with the effort. He looks as best as he can, but he’s guessing based on Skitty’s initial mood that it’s not in any pain. This is Soushirou’s pokémon after all. Of course it would be smart enough not to step on anything sharp.
Breathing out a sigh of relief, Gen finally puts Skitty down- on the far other side of the apartment.
“Stay over there while I clean this up, okay?” he requests, not really certain if Skitty understands or not. “The last thing we need is you—”
Gen cuts off abruptly. Skitty is fucking crazy, that’s for sure, but he wouldn’t be crazy enough to get hurt on purpose just to make Gen look bad, right? On the off-chance that really it is that spiteful, Gen decides not to put any ideas in its head.
“The last thing we need is for Soushirou to come home to a big mess when he’s already had such an awful weekend.”
That, Skitty seems to understand at least. It’s maybe the one thing they actually have in common- they both care about Soushirou.
Gen knows where Soushirou keeps all the cleaning supplies, so he gets the necessary equipment and starts sweeping up chunks of glass. The painting seems okay, at least. He’s not sure Soushirou will care either way. Knowing him, he probably bought this place already furnished and decorated. It wasn’t like any of them had time to go pick out art with their schedules being so erratic.
It’s a long, arduous process, but eventually Gen gets all the glass up. He props the frame up against the wall so Soushirou could decide what he wants to do with it later and calls it a day. Gen is a little flustered by it all, but at least he can admit that the important thing is that no one got hurt.
He feels a little guilty as he considers that maybe he jumped to conclusions. After all, he really couldn’t be certain that Skitty had done that on purpose. The painting could’ve been hung badly or something. It would’ve taken a lot of force to knock down. Maybe he’d been too harsh, automatically blaming Skitty.
Gen’s just feeling sorry for the poor thing, trapped up on that coffee table for god knows how long while it waited for Gen to get back and escort it to safety, when he finds Skitty sitting on the kitchen counter- sitting right next to the bakery box Gen had brought in with him.
A bakery box that was now empty.
“You didn’t,” Gen breathes.
Oh, but Skitty did, and the proof of it was smeared all over its ridiculous little mouth.
It was meant to be a nice gesture. Soushirou had had a famously bad weekend, and Gen thought he’d cheer him up by surprising him with a mont blanc from his favorite bakery to enjoy when he got back.
But Gen had broken a cardinal rule when he came in the door. He knew to always, always put his belongings out of Skitty’s reach unless he wanted them to suffer a terrible fate, but today he’d been distracted. He’d been so focused on cleaning up that glass that he’d dropped his stuff on the kitchen counter and completely forgotten about it.
“You little shit,” Gen whispers, stepping closer to examine the bakery box. The fucker licked it clean. “You’re gonna make yourself–”
Sick.
Now that Gen is a little closer, he can see that Skitty doesn’t look so good. Never in his life has he seen a pokémon that was so pink look so green.
“Shit.”
Gen doesn’t even think. He leaps right into action, scooping Skitty off the counter and dashing out of the apartment. He googles the closest clinic on his phone in the elevator and decides he’ll be fastest on foot. The second his feet hit sidewalk, he makes a break for it, sprinting half a mile and pushing his way through the doors of the place.
“Wait right here,” the nurse tells him after he’s explained the situation, something he managed to do in what felt like a single breath.
He places Skitty down on the front counter as he pants from the exertion and the panic. It was going to be alright, right? There were doctors here that could deal with this kind of thing. Skitty was going to be fine. Skitty had to be fine.
“Oh my god,” a young voice says. “Is that Captain Narumi?”
Gen whips around. Of all the times to get recognized in public, why would it have to be now?
“Sorry,” he says lamely. “Right now I really have to focus on–”
“Oh my god,” the tween girl repeats, voice now loud enough to garner the attention of the entire waiting room. “Is that Vice Captain Hoshina’s Skitty? What did you do to it? Oh my god, it looks so sick.”
“I didn’t do anything,” Gen retorts. “It just–”
Gen reminds himself that beefing with a child in public is not a good look for him. He knows this because he’s done it before, and twitter had a fucking field day about it (in Gen’s defense, he looked awful in the picture that kid wanted him to sign, and he would’ve been happy to provide a better one if the kid hadn’t decided to go and burst into tears about the whole thing). He doubts it would go over well if he got into it with this kid right now, and in a clinic of all places.
He plasters on the most cordial smile he can muster, the muscles in his face twitching with pain and reluctance.
“Have a nice day,” he says flatly. “But if it’ll make you feel better, Skitty is going to be just fine.”
With that, Gen turns back to face Skitty, who promptly projectile vomits half-chewed mont blanc chunks on to Gen’s shirt.
The distant thrum of the washing machine, Skitty’s soft snores from the other room, and the crisp bubbles exploding against the metal beer Gen just cracked open all perform a symphony that has Gen the most relaxed he’s been all weekend. Somehow, he and Skitty both survived the ordeal.
The next sound he hears should be just as sweet as the others, if not sweeter, but Gen’s stomach churns when he hears the door clicking open. By the time he and Skitty got home, Soushirou was underground on the subway. Gen had sent him a head’s up text about the painting earlier, but the more recent drama… that, he wasn’t up to date on yet.
“Hey,” he manages when Soushirou pads into the kitchen. He can’t imagine how he must looks right now- traumatized, tipsy and inexplicably shirtless.
Soushriou raises an eyebrow.
“Anything you wanna tell me?”
“Yes,” Gen answers. “I don’t even know where to start, but–”
Soushirou steps closer and lays his phone face-up on the kitchen counter, giving Gen a full view of what he was looking at when he came in. He goes and a beer of his own from the fridge as Gen gawks at the video: Gen, wide-eyed and covered in vomit, shuffling down the street like a zombie with Skitty tucked under his arm. When the video is done playing, Soushirou scrolls down the twitter feed, revealing the image version of the event- a still shot of the look of shock and resignation on Gen’s face as he totes the clearly sickly cat pokémon through the streets.
“Well,” Gen says calmly, “I suppose that would be a good place to start.”
It doesn’t take much to explain. The painting, the mont blanc, the truly impressive amount of throw up that Skitty expelled before the doctor deemed he was perfectly fine and would just need to be kept an eye on for the next few hours in case he got sick again.
“I know what you’re going to say.” Gen closes his eyes, preparing himself for the scolding of a lifetime. “I never should’ve left food out like that. I was going to put in the fridge, I swear, but–”
“Gen,” Soushirou. “This isn’t your fault.”
Gen’s eyes fly open. “Wait. Really?”
“Not at all. Skitty absolutely knows better than to eat human food like that. I have no idea what got into it. And the frame?” Soushirou puts his head in his hands. “I don’t even know where to start with that. I’m sorry you got stuck cleaning that up, you should’ve left it for me.”
“I didn’t mind,” Gen says quietly.
Soushirou offers a small, grateful smile, but sighs.
“I think I know what’s going on here,” he says.
Gen’s heart stumbles in his chest when he hears Soushirou’s defeated tone. So he finally figured it out. Skitty despises Gen, and this weekend was proof that the two of them would never get along. What if that’s something Soushirou can’t overlook?
“Yeah.” Gen’s voice is so small. “Skitty hates my guts. I’m sorry.”
Soushirou shakes his head. “I don’t think that’s it. At least, I don’t think it’s you that Skitty hates. I think Skitty hates that I brought home anyone.”
“What do you mean?”
Maybe it’s the glow of the beer Soushirou’s been sipping on, but Gen swears his cheeks are getting the slightest dusting of pink.
“Skitty’s never met anyone like this before,” he explains. “I’ve never… I’ve never liked anyone enough to bring them home until I started going out with you, so.”
To avoid saying more on the subject, Soushioru takes his largest sip of beer yet. Gen just stares at him, transfixed. Was that true? Gen was so special that he was the only one who’d even gotten to meet Skitty?
“I guess that makes sense, then,” Gen says softly. “Skitty probably isn’t used to sharing your attention. I guess I can’t blame it for hating me a little bit. I don’t like to share you either.”
He throws Soushirou a little wink, hoping to lighten the mood. This isn’t Soushirou’s fault, so he shouldn’t have to feel bad about it. Gen can tell he’s taking all this pretty hard, though.
“It’s just something we have to work on,” Gen adds. “Maybe if I start bringing Cherrim around, that’ll distract Skitty a bit, yeah?”
“You mean a night of cleaning up chunks of glass and throw-up doesn’t have you running for the hills?”
Gen shakes his head. “I mean, I’ll never look at a mont blanc the same way ever again, but you’re stuck with me. I mean, if you still want to be seen with me after that picture does the rounds on twitter, that is.”
Soushirou cracks a smile. “It’s great, isn’t it? You’re a meme.”
“I’d better not be.”
“It’s what you always wanted, isn’t it?” Soushirou says with faux-sweetness. “Last I checked, that picture had over two thousand retweets, and it was only posted ten minutes ago. You’re famous.”
“Infamous,” Gen corrects with a groan. “Of all things I’ve done, this is probably the one I’ll never live down.”
“I don’t know, that video of you yanking your photo out of that little boy’s hands and tearing it up was pretty bad.”
Gen’s jaw drops, but before he can threaten violence over that cheap shot, a little pink cat pokémon skulks into the kitchen from the other room.
“Finally come to greet me, have you?” Soushirou asks it. “Sounds like you’ve had quite the day.”
There’s an undeniable guilt to Skitty’s gait as it makes its way to Soushirou, but Soushirou scratches behind its ear just the same. No one’s going to deny the creature of a little comfort after the wild day it’s had. Gen can’t imagine it particularly enjoyed getting sick and being paraded around the streets of Tokyo this evening.
Unlike the times before, Gen doesn’t feel the slightest twinge of jealousy over the gesture, and Skitty doesn’t look up and make taunting eye contact with him as it receives Soushirou’s affection. That’s progress, right?
“I’m going to put Skitty on the bed and then I need a shower,” Soushirou says, scooping Skitty up. “Do you need to get back or do you want to stick around for a while?”
“I’ll stick around,” Gen promises. “You can tell all me about your weekend.”
“Oh I’m sure it was boring in comparison to this.” Soushirou looks over his shoulder at the fallen painting in the other room, and then back down at Skitty. “Thank you again for helping us out.”
Just as Soushirou is about to step away, Skitty throws its head back and lets out a little mewl of… agreement?
However begrudging, the look on Skitty’s face is one of undeniable approval. Soushirou’s eyebrows shoot up as he covertly gives Gen a look of cautious excitement that Skitty might finally be warming up to him. Maybe the two of them really are making headway.
As they head out, Gen thinks a little bit more about what Soushirou said earlier. Of course Skitty wouldn’t like Gen. Having to share his space and share his person for the first time was probably a huge change for it. It was going to take time to adjust- for all of them, probably.
Gen vows to be more sensitive from now on. It’ll just take a bit of grit and patience to get in Skitty’s good graces. Gen could handle that, for Soushirou’s sake. He’ll just think of it as a boss in a video game or something. Gaining Skitty’s trust was just another level he had to clear if he wanted to unlock a new area.
Speaking of, if Gen has a little time to kill before Soushirou gets back, he might as well play for a little while. His bag sits on the stool next to the counter, where it lies… unzipped? Had it been open his whole train ride over?
He reaches inside, frantically feeling around for his switch. If he dropped it on the train, he’d likely lose all his progress on several games. The panic drains out of him as he finds it sitting right on top of the bag, just where he’d left.
The relief he’d been feeling fades away when he turns it on and sees that something’s wrong with the screen. He brings it closer to his face, trying to figure out why it’s flickering and out of foucs. What he finds is two little puncture marks in the bottom corner of the screen.
Two little puncture marks that perfectly echoed the distance between a certain pokémon’s pointed teeth.
“Skitty!”