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“I want to meet this boy.”
Hau stops chewing his laulau. “Pardon me?”
Hala clears his throat and puts down his fork. “The one that you’re spending all your time with,” he says, as if it explains everything.
Which, it does, but Hau doesn’t want him to know that.
He keeps eating to avoid raising any suspicion. “You’re gonna have to explain more than that.”
“Hau, there’s only one boy you’re spending all your time with.”
“That’s not true,” Hau protests, pointing a fork at Hala. “On a pretty regular basis, I see Sun, Ilima, Gladion--”
“That’s the one!” Hala claims through a mouthful of food. “Gladion. The one you talk about all the time.”
Hau feels a patch of azaleas blossom on his cheeks and on the tips of his ears--a field of flowers tended to by Gladion, a boy that Hau was sure Hala knew nothing about. He even took care to avoid being seen with him on Melemele. And now, to find out that his gramps not only knows about him, but also knows his name?
“I-I don’t talk about him all the time,” Hau stammers, the heat on his ears apparently hindering his speech.
“Oh, really?” Hala chuckles. “You don’t always mention how he smells like ‘the salty breeze, when the waves are rolling and the sand is warm between your toes?’”
Oh my god, I said that?
“I never said that,” Hau protests, his neck burning up. “Not even Mina is that romantic.”
“Well, I guess you’re just one-of-a-kind, aren’t you Hau?” Hala chortles, closing his eyes. “Just like you say about that Gladion boy--”
“Gramps,” Hau whines, before crossing his arms and sitting back in his chair with a humph. “Fine. I might have a thing for Gladion.” And I might have been dating him for the past year or so, but you don’t need to know that. “I’m not gonna invite him over just so you can torment him!”
Hala crinkles his nose the way he always does when he disagrees with something Hau says. He takes a deep breath through his nose and sighs. “I won’t torment him. I just want to make sure he’s not a hoodlum. That’s all.”
“A hoodlum?!”
“Is that not what you kids say these days?” Hala inquires with a guffaw. “Delinquent? Wrongdoer? Punk?”
“Glad is an upstanding citizen, Gramps.”
“Oh, you have a pet name for him?”
“A nickname!” Hau blurts, making the silverware rattle as he slaps his hand on the table. “Glad--Gladion, if you prefer--is a perfectly fine human being!”
Hala hums and scratches at his mustache. “Now when you say fine--”
Hau groans, collapsing his arms onto the table and burying his head in the pocket he’s formed. If Sun is the one that got him on my case, I’m gonna throw him into the mouth of Wela!
“Dinner,” Hau finally mutters. “I’ll have him over for poke and malasadas. Then you have to leave him alone!”
“Oh, stop making it sound like it’ll be an ordeal, Hau,” Hala scolds, turning his attention back to their current dinner. He hadn’t touched it since he brought up Gladion. “I’m perfectly fine company.”
“Uh huh, you keep telling yourself that, Gramps,” Hau mutters under his breath.
“Oh, I will. I’ll make sure to let Gladion know he’s perfectly fine as well--”
“Gramps!”
Hau tries to stay optimistic in nearly everything he does, and he usually succeeds.
But when your boyfriend isn’t answering your calls and it’s two hours past noon, it’s hard to believe that dinner with your gramps and your boyfriend will go swimmingly.
The flight over to Aether Paradise is rather bumpy, and Hau feels bad for how hard he’s pushing his Charizard. But he knows this one can handle it. After all, it’s the same one that carried Sun around before he became the best trainer in the whole region. Knowing Sun, he probably had the poor thing doing all sorts of flips and turns.
“There, there,” Hau mutters, rubbing the neck of the Charizard as it beats its wings into the Alolan winds. “We just have to see if Glad can make it tonight, alright?” He thinks he hears the Charizard grunt its assent, but it’s hard to tell at the speed they’re going.
His landing is anything but smooth, but it makes do. Hau pulls out a malasada for the Charizard, which it chomps down happily before flying off. “I’m sorry about Sun!” he yells as it disappears from view.
Upon entering the complex, Wicke is waiting for him. She’s seen Hau around enough to know all about his relationship with Gladion.
“He’s still in his room,” she explains with an apologetic smile. “Hasn’t been out all day. I wouldn’t be surprised if he pulled an all-nighter again.”
Hau groans. “He never learns.”
“He’s just… trying to make amends, I think,” Wicke offers, adjusting her glasses as she aims her gaze at the floor.
“Well, that doesn’t excuse him from ignoring my calls this late in the day!” Hau argues before stomping off towards Gladion’s room. Without looking back, he adds, “I swear, sometimes I feel like his mother instead of his boyfriend!”
Hau stops in his tracks.
Shoot.
“Hau… Be gentle, alright?” Wicke implores. “He really is trying his best, especially after everything Lusamine did.”
“Yeah, I’m sorry,” Hau mutters, hanging his head. “That comment was in extremely poor taste.”
“I get it,” Wicke says with sad eyes. “We all do. Although, I do have to wonder what you’re in such a fuss over…”
Hau’s face twitches, and he sighs. “Gramps wants to meet Gladion properly. Over dinner. Tonight.”
Wicke giggles before waving him along. “Better get to it, then. Hala’s a hard man to please.”
“Don’t remind me,” Hau groans as he walks away again.
When he reaches Gladion’s room, Hau can’t help but smile at the door. Back when they were still little kids, traveling the islands carelessly, Hau drew pictures of everything he saw. He gave nearly all of them to Gladion.
Now they’re plastered on his door--memories of the time they spent together. At the time, Hau didn’t even know he felt how he did about Gladion. He supposes he should’ve guessed, though. Gladion is always drawn in more detail than anything else.
He knocks softly against the wood.
There’s an exaggerated groan. “Go away, Wicke.”
Hau chuckles. “Can I come in, Glad?”
“Hau?” Gladion mumbles in his sleepy state. “What’re you doing here?”
“I’m coming in,” Hau warns with a giggle.
Gladion’s room is, understandably, a huge mess. Papers lie stacked in haphazard towers, clothes hang from bedposts and doorknobs, and the one behind it all is balled up, bunched up, and hidden in a mass of sheets.
“Do you ever clean?” Hau says, frowning.
Gladion grunts his muffled answer through his blanket. Hau shakes his head before slowly climbing into bed next to the boy.
“Hau,” Gladion mumbles, turning towards the boy and burying his face in his shoulder.
“Glad,” Hau returns simply. “Were you planning to sleep all day?”
“Was considering it,” is his reply, his words vibrating softly against Hau’s chest, and Hau can’t help the giggles that bubble out. “You’re still ticklish?”
Hau hums a confirmation before brushing some of Gladion’s hair out his eyes. “I know you are too, so tread lightly.” As if to warn him, Hau prods Gladion’s sides with featherlight fingers, and Gladion squirms.
“Alright, alright!” Gladion grabs Hau’s hands to keep him from doing anything funny. “Now what was so important that you had to wake me up from such a good sleep?”
Hau frowns. “You’re not happy to see me?”
“It would have been better if you had just been with me already,” Gladion muses, closing his eyes and leaning into Hau once more.
“Don’t get too comfortable, I’ve got stuff to talk about,” Hau laughs. He leans his head into the pillow and sighs. “Gramps wants to meet you.”
Gladion sighs. “When?”
“Tonight, for dinner,” Hau adds. “Just, uh, you and me and him. A meet-the-family sort of thing.”
Gladion shifts onto his back and stares at the ceiling. “Just the three of us? Why so out of the blue?”
Hau takes a moment to answer that for himself first. Why does he want to have dinner with Gladion all of a sudden? He claims it’s to make sure I’m not hanging with a “hoodlum,” but is that all?
He starts thinking aloud. “I suppose I haven’t told him we’re officially dating yet--”
“Y-You haven’t told Hala we’re dating?!” Gladion sputters, turning to look Hau in the face.
“N-No? But I mean, I apparently talk about you a lot, so there’s no way he doesn’t know,” Hau defends, putting his forehead against Gladion’s.
Gladion suddenly takes on a deep red flush, and Hau wonders what he did wrong. “Hau, we’ve been dating for over a year. And you didn’t think to tell your grandpa?!”
“I’m sure he knows!”
“He’s having this dinner to evaluate me, oh my god,” Gladion moans. “When we get there tonight, the first thing you’re doing is telling him that I’m your boyfriend.”
Hau’s face lights up. “So you’ll come?”
The boy lying next to him sulks. “Yes, but only if you give me another two hours to sleep.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Hau mumbles happily before curling up into Gladion, his arms wrapped happily around the boy.
“Wait, you’re gonna sleep here too?!”
“You did say it would’ve been better if I had been here the whole time…” Hau coos, slowly closing his eyes.
Gladion sighs. Hau knows it’s a happy one.
“I look ridiculous.”
“You look great!” Hau protests, bringing his hands towards Gladion’s hair once more. “And you don’t have to keep your hair like this. I just think covering one of your eyes with your hair doesn’t help the not a hoodlum case.”
Gladion sticks his chin up, the ponytail his hair is styled in dangling like a loose thread. In the mellow tones of twilight, Hau’s home is illuminated with horizon amber and ocean blue. The wind smells of salt as it pushes Gladion’s hair.
“Don’t even say hi first,” Gladion mutters.
Hau lets himself fall into Gladion’s side. “Yeah, yeah, I’ve got it covered. Hi Gramps, this is Gladion, my boy toy, my slampiece--”
“Oh my god, do not call me either of those in front of Hala.”
“Right? Slampiece is so degrading; you’re much more than that sweetie--”
“Hau,” Gladion blushes, covering his face with both of his hands. “Let’s just… go inside, yeah?”
Hau shrugs before opening the door and stepping in. “Gramps, I’m home!” He steps inside, pulling Gladion in behind him and shutting the door. “I brought Gladion and malasadas!”
“I’m in the kitchen finishing up the poke!” he calls back even louder. “Just bring it to the table and have a seat!”
Gladion nudges Hau, wanting him to continue. His eyes tell him say it!, but his mouth says nothing.
Hau sighs. “Gramps?”
“What?”
“Gladion is my boyfriend. You know that, right?”
“I had assumed.”
Hau turns to Gladion, who’s so coated in burgundy, Hau’s worried about the amount of blood in his face. “See? Told you it’d be fine.”
“That was far from a statement of approval,” Gladion mutters, twisting his hands behind his back.
“Come on, let’s go sit down,” Hau says cheerfully, dragging Gladion as he nearly skips towards the dinner table. “You’re alright with poke, right?”
“Yeah, although I wouldn’t be surprised if your grandpa’s putting me on the menu for tonight,” he replies, rubbing the back of his neck.
Hau gives him a tilted smile. “First of all, you can call him Gramps. Second of all, he’s not gonna put you on the fire or anything! Jeez, you make Hala out to be much worse than he is.”
“Mm, but you still think I’m bad, hm?” Hala comments as he places a large bowl of poke on the table. Hau worries about how long he had been standing behind them.
“H-Hey, Gramps!”
“Gladion,” Hala continues, not missing a beat as he turns to the unfamiliar boy, “did you know that Hau bathes with his Pokémon?”
“I d-don’t bathe with them!” Hau stammers. He feels a fiery heat work its way through his skin all the way down to his bones. “Raichu’s ball just fell off the bathroom sink!”
Hala hums. “Mm, I suppose that might be true. Although, one might wonder why you brought the ball into the bathroom in the first place.”
Without looking back up at Hala, Hau turns to Gladion with a deadpan expression that’s rather unbecoming of the usually sunny boy. “I was wrong. He is as bad as you think he is.”
Gladion’s eyes go wide. “I don’t think you’re bad at all, sir!” he quickly protests, although it seems the damage may already be done.
The silence that follows is cold. Its tendrils wrap around Gladion’s ankles, slithering up his legs and torso to a spot around his neck, where it nearly chokes him. He keeps looking at Hala as if to gauge some sort of reaction from him, but it’s to no avail. The old man gives away nothing.
“Well,” Hala says, forcing the lull away. “Let’s eat, shall we?”
He certainly avoided that conversation, didn’t he?
Glad is so screwed.
The bowl of poke carves a circular path around the table--from Hala, to Hau, to Gladion--and the poi follows soon after. It isn’t the most traditional of dinners, but it’s certainly a tasty one in Hau’s mind.
Once the food has completed its trip, however, there is little change in the conversation, or rather, the lack thereof.
And that makes Gladion just the slightest bit uncomfortable.
“So, Gladion,” Hala interrupts, and Gladion isn’t sure whether he’s pleased or downright scared that Hala is talking directly to him. “Hau tells me you do research.”
“Y-Yes,” Gladion stutters, gripping his fork just a little bit tighter.
Come on, Glad! Be proud of it!
“He recently disproved a theory about wild Pokémon habitation,” Hau says matter-of-factly, all while chewing his poke. “It was a pretty big deal in the realm of science.”
“I suppose,” Gladion mumbles, bringing food to his mouth sheepishly.
Hala hums. “Sounds like your boyfriend is real egotist.”
Gladion chokes for a moment, and Hau quickly beats on his back, despite the fact that Gladion is shoving him away. He seems to be telling him to back off, but the garbled speech that comes out gives no indication.
“He isn’t egotistical!” Hau protests as he continues to beat on Gladion’s back. “I mean, I’m the one that just brought up his achievement. Not him.”
“Mm, but he agreed with you,” Hala muses. “That seems pretty arrogant to me.”
By now, Gladion has freed his airways and is hiding his embarrassment behind his napkin. He opts to never speak again in this conversation.
“No matter,” Hala finishes, wiping his face. “I suppose I was rather proud in my youth as well. Can’t judge him too harshly for it.” He claps his hands together. “So how long have you been together?”
“A year and three months,” they say simultaneously, before turning to each other and grinning.
“And you didn’t think to tell me until now?!”
Hau gulps. “But you said you had assumed…?”
Hala shakes his head. “I did, but that’s not the point. If Gladion even dreams of getting my blessing, he has to be more forthright with me.”
“B-Blessing?” Hau stammers, feeling the heat rise to his neck as all of his hairs stand on edge. “Gramps, we’re still teenagers. Marriage hasn’t even crossed our minds!”
“Are you going to sit here and say you haven’t thought about marrying my grandson, Gladion?” Hala inquires, staring at the boy, although Gladion feels like his eyes are boring into his skull.
He sits there, silent, unable to move his mouth to answer.
“Ah, so I guess he doesn’t love you that much yet,” Hala concedes with a sad smile.
“T-That’s not true!” Gladion blurts, standing up from his seat.
“G-Glad?”
Gladion runs a hand through his hair, feeling the blonde bristles that have become crimped from stress. “I love your grandson very, very much, sir. Marriage has definitely crossed my mind before, and while I don’t think we’ll be ready for it for a while, I do plan on marrying your grandson.”
Hau sits quietly, his sun-dappled skin washed in coral and crimson.
“And yeah, I can be arrogant sometimes,” he continues, and Hau looks like he wants to protest that point, but he decides not to speak up. “But your grandson helps me to better those parts of myself. He’s perfect in every way.”
“My grandson? Ha, I think you’ve got the wrong guy,” Hala teases, ruffling Hau’s hair with his calloused hands. “Sure, he’s kind beyond compare, but he hasn’t got an ounce of wit in him!”
“Hey!”
Gladion closes his eyes and smiles to himself. “I’d disagree with you on that--he’s the one that thought up the trainer initiative for all those displaced Team Skull members.” He smirks. “I dare you to find one fault in Hau.”
Hala grins. “Hau, could you go grab the malasadas for us?”
Uh… What are you gonna do while I’m gone, Gramps?
“S-Sure thing,” Hau mutters. “I’ll be back in a moment.”
He gets up slowly, not bothering to push in his chair as he traipses into the kitchen. But once he grabs the malasadas, he doesn’t bother walking right back in; he stands against the wall, his ear flush with the plaster as he tries to listen in whatever torment Hala is about to deliver.
“Gladion.”
“Sir?”
Hala sighs. “You realize how much Hau means to me, right?”
“Perhaps not as much as he means to me, sir.”
Hala laughs--a full, hearty laugh that beats out of his belly. “Perhaps you’re right.” He pauses, and Hau imagines that his face turns to stone. “Let me be frank. I don’t think you deserve to be Hau’s boyfriend.”
Hau hears his heart pounding against the wall.
Gladion’s voice comes out rushed, stressed, but it’s still polite. “Respectfully sir, I’d like to--”
“Let me finish,” Hala intones. “I don’t think you deserve him. But I don’t deserve him either. I don’t think anyone else on this island deserves him. And if you think he’s without fault, then you should be agreeing with me.”
Gladion coughs. “Well then, I guess I agree with you. But that doesn’t change the fact that we love each other.”
“Good,” Hala laughs. “Because if you ever hurt my boy--”
“I won’t,” Gladion declares. “I love him too much.”
Hau smiles, deciding that it’s time for him to walk back in.
“Who’s ready for some malasadas?” he asks with a giant smile, placing the bag on the table. Before he sits back down though, he walks over to Gladion and plants a kiss on his cheek.
“Thank you,” Hau whispers.
Gladion closes his eyes and leans his head onto Hau’s shoulder. “I should be the one saying that.”
Hala smirks. “You know, it took you quite a bit of time to find that bag, Hau. What took you so long?”
He smiles. “Oh nothing too important. I was just thinking about marriage.”