Archive of Our Own

Raihan sees his first dragon type on Route 6. 

He spots it, a scared little thing he’s never seen before, being cornered by three much larger, much angrier Durants and it ignites a rage within him. 

He knows immediately that he has to protect this pokemon, has to save it from those mean Durants (doesn’t want to think about why he feels that way) and so, with all the strength he can muster, he tries his best.

Raihan’s only 8 years old, knows he doesn’t have a pokemon to fight for him, so he does the next best thing and scoops the strange orange pokemon up in his arms and starts to run.

The Durants chitter angrily and nip at the back of his legs and it hurts but he doesn’t stop, doesn't pause, just keeps running, the scared pokemon trembling in his arms. 

“It’s okay,’ he repeats to it, over and over, panting as he runs. “You’re safe, I got you.”

It’s not until he skids around a corner and bolts out of their territory like a noibat out of hell that he dares slow down.

He hides behind a couple of bushes and drops to the ground, exhausted.

As he catches his breath, he gently holds the pokemon and checks it over. It lets him, though it eyes him nervously the whole time.

“You’re hurt…” He frowns at the small cuts that litter the creature’s body and digs through his bag for the lunch his mom had packed. He pulls out a sandwich, a couple of berries, and a water bottle, offering them to the small pokemon in front of him.

“Here,” he murmurs, trying to be as nonthreatening as possible. “You can share my lunch, if you like.”
The pokemon sniffs at the sandwich for a moment before it gobbles it up in one bite.

“Hey!” Raihan frowns. “I said share !” 

The pokemon has the decency to look guilty, so Raihan ends up finding the situation rather funny.

“It’s okay,” He laughs, shaking his head. “You’re probably really hungry anyway.”

He ends up feeding the thing his whole lunch and can’t find it in himself to regret it, even as his own stomach tightens in hunger. At least he had a home to get back too.

He peers at the creature as it munches through his stash of berries and tries to figure out what kind of pokemon it was. It was a dull orange and looked like a bug, almost, except it had a large mouth with lots of sharp teeth. Its beady black eyes watch Raihan intently, but that nervousness from before seems to have completely vanished. It wags its tiny little tail when it notices Raihan watching it back.

“You’re really sweet,” Raihan croons, reaching out to pat the pokemon on top of its head. It trills at the sensation and Raihan grins. “I’d take you home if I could, but Dad doesn’t like pokemon. He thinks they’re bad. You’re not bad, are you?”
The pokemon trills again and buts Raihan’s hand, asking for more pets.

He laughs before his smile falters a little and he sighs.

“I wish I had a pokemon like you to protect me.” He mumbles. “Maybe then they’d leave me alone.”

The pokemon makes a sad noise and looks at Raihan, rumbling softly. 

“Hey, it’s alright,” Raihan soothes, scratching its chin. “I’ll be fine, you know. I’m strong like that.”

He says it as much for his ears as the pokemon’s.

He stands, wincing as the cuts across the back of his legs burn, and cleans up the rest of his lunch, putting it back in his bag.

“I should go,” He sighs, glancing at the lowering sun. “It’s getting late, and I promised Momma I’d be back for dinner.”
The pokemon clicks its jaws together a couple of times and starts to follow him.

“No,” Raihan scolds lightly, his heart not in it. “You have to stay out here.”

The pokemon doesn’t listen, continuing to follow him anyway.
Raihan gives up, eventually, and the pokemon trills happily as he picks it up and carries it the rest of the way home. Maybe Dad would let him keep this one, considering how much it wanted to be with Raihan. How much he wanted to be with it too.

So he picks it up, cradling it gently in his arms as he limps home.

“Oh, Radeyah!” His momma cries out when she sees him. “Where have you been?”
He deflates a little at the name but says nothing. He knows better.

“Sorry, Momma,” he mumbles, looking at his feet. “I got distracted.”
She sighs tiredly, before catching sight of the pokemon with a gasp.
“Where did you get that Trapinch from?”

“It was being bullied, Momma!” Raihan launches into the tale, excitement obvious on his features as he jumps up and down, still clutching the creature in his arms even as it trills along with him. He explains everything and, though she scolds him about the dangers of pokemon and being foolhardy, his Momma just looked happy that he was happy.

“That’s quite a story, habibi, I can see you two care for each other already,” She smiles that bright smile of hers and, after a moment, beckons the two of them inside. “But I’ll have to talk to your father about it before we can make anything official.” 

Raihan deflates immediately. He’d half hoped his Momma would let him keep it without asking his Dad, though he knew that the thought was far-fetched.

“Oh, don’t look so sad,” she soothes. “I’m sure I can convince him.”

Raihan’s father was a strict man, ruling their house with an iron fist. Anything and everything had to be approved by him or else there would be trouble. Raihan doubted his father would let him have a pokemon, knew that the man already disapproved of Raihan’s fascination with them. 

He sighs, and follows her into the house.

Later that night, Raihan sits in the living room, clutching his pokemon, while his parents fight in the kitchen. His father is loud, angry against his mother’s soothing tones. She’s trying to fight for him, Raihan knows, but he also knows it won’t be enough. So he holds his new friend in his arms and cries as quietly as he can. His father is spitting words Raihan doesn’t even know but they drip with malice and anger and then he hears the front door slam.

It takes a minute but his mom comes in afterward, looking tired. She sees him on the floor and lets out a shaky breath.

“I’m sorry, Radeyah,” she murmurs, scooping him up and into her lap as she sits on their worn couch. “I did all I could.”

Raihan whimpers and buries his face in her chest, shaking. Trapinch licks at his face, warbling quietly.

Once Raihan calms down enough, they go outside. He sniffles and wipes his nose but stays strong, not wanting to upset his Momma anymore. She looked so tired already.

He puts the trapinch on the ground and hiccups.

“You should go,” he mumbles, voice thick. “My father doesn’t want me to have you.”

The trapinch makes a sad noise and doesn’t move.

“Please,” Raihan feels tears drip down his chin again as the pokemon refuses to budge. “Please, I can’t keep you. You have to go.”

He’s crying again when the pokemon finally gets the hint and starts to waddle away, but it keeps glancing back at Raihan like it was hoping he’d change his mind.

Instead, Raihan throws himself at his momma and sobs, and she carries him back inside. 

He hardly sleeps that night.

Raihan’s at school a week later when it happens.

He’s not paying attention, eating lunch by the bushes, when he feels a hard shove at his shoulder and he falls to the ground with a yelp, skinning his knees on the pavement. His food spills onto the ground and he groans to himself.

He hears mean laughter and looks up, catching sight of Tommy and Jared standing in front of him with their arms crossed. 

“Hey look,” Tommy sneers. “Radeyah dropped her sandwich.”

Raihan stays silent and starts to pick up his lunch, steadfastly ignoring them.

The three of them had been friends, once. But that was before Raihan had told them he was a boy , that his name wasn’t Radeyah, it was Raihan . 

That’s when the bullying started.

Jared kicks his water bottle so it rolls farther into the bushes and laughs loudly, pushing Raihan to the ground again. 

“Sod off,” Raihan snaps, glaring at them. “I wasn’t bothering you.”
“Your existence bothers me,” Tommy laughs, pushing Raihan back down when he tries to get up. “And drop the attitude before I get mad.”

Jared jeers along with him, grabbing a fistful of Raihan’s carefully braided hair and yanking .

It’d been a year since his two ex-best friends had started bullying him and Raihan, frankly, is sick of it. So he stands up, clenches his fists, and says one of the things his dad likes to say when he’s angry.

“ Fuck you.” he snarls, and there’s a moment of stunned silence before Tommy and Jared are on him, fists flying.

Raihan fights back as best as he could, but it was two against one, and the other boys were bigger than him. He manages to get a few good hits in, but Tommy gets him across the cheek real hard and Raihan cries out.

A loud growling noise comes from the bushes and Raihan gasps as Jared starts to scream in terror, shaking his leg wildly. He realizes, with a start, that a trapinch had latched on to the boy’s ankle and was staunchly refusing to let go. His trapinch. 

Raihan takes the opportunity to deck Tommy with all his might, knocking the other boy onto his back with a thud. 

By that time, Jared’s screaming had alerted the teachers and Raihan, not knowing what else to do, grabs his trapinch and starts to run.

He ends up hiding behind a shed near one of the sports fields, gasping for breath and clutching his trapinch like a lifeline.

“I’m sorry,” he whispers, stroking the creature’s head as he starts to bawl, cheek starting to hurt rather badly. “I never should’ve let you go.” 

It takes an hour for anyone to find him, and surprisingly it’s Raihan’s favorite teacher that does.

“Raihan,” Mr. Haberthy sounds relieved when he spots him, voice soft and gentle. “There you are.”

Raihan always liked Mr. Haberthy the best, he was the only teacher to listen to Raihan and call him by the right name. He always helped Raihan when he was upset, and even allowed him to spend some recesses in his classroom, away from the bullies.

“You made a lot of people very upset, mister.” Mr. Haberthy says, but his voice lacks anger and he sounds rather….worried. “Why didn’t you come when we were calling for you?”

Raihan doesn’t reply, simply curls up into a tighter ball around Trapinch, and glares at the ground.
“Is that Trapinch your friend?” Mr. Haberthy asks instead of pressing further, sitting down on the grass next to Raihan. 

Raihan nods jerkily, still not looking up.

“It was very brave, protecting you like that.” Mr. Haberthy says. “I saw what happened. Those boys won’t bother you anymore, okay Raihan?”

Raihan sniffs loudly, starting to cry again.

They sit like that for a bit, both quiet, until Raihan’s calmed down enough.

“C’mon,” Mr. Haberthy stands and offers Raihan a hand. “You got a nasty bruise forming, let’s go get you all patched up, alright?”
Raihan blinks up at him and hiccups, tightening his grip on Trapinch.

“C-Can I keep trapinch with me? Please?” He asks, voice wobbly with tears.

“Can you promise it won’t hurt anyone else?”

Raihan nods quickly and Mr. Haberthy exhales, thinking it over.

“Okay.” He says after a couple of seconds, and Raihan relaxes, finally taking the teacher’s hand and standing up.

Raihan ends up getting suspended for a couple of days for the altercation, but with Mr. Haberthy’s account of what happened backing him up, he gets a much lighter sentence than Tommy and Jared.

He holds onto Trapinch the whole time.

His mom picks him up from the nurse’s office later and she’s angry. She yells at the principal for a good 15 minutes for allowing her child to be bullied before grabbing Raihan and storming out of the building. Raihan doesn’t ask to hold her hand on their way home, nervous that she was so mad, but when they get home and she sits him down on the couch, she just looks...upset.

“Why didn’t you tell me Tommy and Jared were being mean to you, habibi?” She asks, sitting down next to him.

Raihan curls into himself, Trapinch in his arms, and sniffles.

“I didn’t want to make you upset,” he tells her. She wraps her arms around him and squeezes .

“I love you, Radeyah. I just want you to be happy, baby girl.”
Raihan starts to cry.

“Momma?” he whispers, voice tiny. “I don’t like that name. I don’t want to be a girl anymore.”
His momma goes quiet for a second before she speaks again.

“Is that why one of your teachers calls you Raihan?” She asks softly, running her fingers through his braids. He nods, worried about how she was going to react.

“Well,” she pulls back, holding him by the shoulders and looking him in the eye. “You always liked boy stuff better when you were younger, even used to bite me whenever I tried to get you in a dress.” She smiles lightly at the memory. “So I’ll admit this doesn’t really surprise me as much as it should.”

She hums and brushes a strand of hair out of his face, warm and comforting.

“You’ll always be my habibi, you know that right?” she murmurs, pressing a kiss to the top of his head. “No matter what or who you want to be.”

Raihan swallows, feeling something click together in his chest. He starts to smile, big and wide and beaming. He feels like laughing and crying all at once.

“Did you pick out Raihan yourself?” His momma asks, and he nods again. “It’s lovely.”

Raihan squeals in delight and buries himself into her chest, grinning madly.

“I love you, Momma!” he yells, temporarily letting go of his trapinch to throw his arms around her neck and squeeze. “You’re the best Momma anyone could ask for!”
She laughs and hugs him back and the trapinch trills happily, drawing both of their attention to it.

“What about this little one?” His momma asks, and Raihan looks up at her, confused.

“What are you going to name it?” She clarifies, and Raihan can only stare.

“I thought Dad said…” he trails off as she shakes her head. 

“Well, I say it earned its right to be here by protecting you today,” she says, leaving no room for questions.

Raihan gasps and scoops the creature up into his arms, dancing around the room with it as he laughs delightedly.

“Mabel!” he decides, nodding his head. His mom smiles and nods.

“Mabel it is.” she smiles at him, and Raihan feels like he could fly.

Mabel turns out to be a boy as well, but the name sticks.

The two of them start training every day, wanting to become better, stronger.

Raihan cuts all of his hair off and gets in trouble, but he doesn’t care. He feels better without it.

School is easy, now. No one bothers him and he doesn’t bother anyone back. Mr. Haberthy asks him if he made any new friends this year, and looks a little concerned when Raihan tells him that he didn’t need any friends, that he had Mabel and that was all that mattered. 

He doesn’t invite anyone to his birthday party that year, or the year after that.

Raihan’s body starts to change along with his classmates, and he hates it. He hates it more than anything else, throwing himself into his training and homework so he doesn’t have to think about words like puberty and the fact that he was starting to look less and less like the other boys.

He turns unbearably lankly, feeling more like a newborn dear than an 11-year-old. His hands are large and uncoordinated, his momma telling him he’ll grow into them, but he doesn’t quite believe her. His first period is nasty and painful, with cramps so bad he has to stay home from school. His mom rubs his back and tries to soothe him, but it hurts , and he ends up curled in the fetal position for most of the day. 

He starts to hunch more, too, wearing baggy clothing to disguise the curves he’s growing into instead.

He overhears his dad complaining, a couple of times, about how he ‘doesn’t understand’ his ‘daughter’ and why ‘she always dresses so unbecoming.’ 

He learns to hate his father and how angry he gets. Learns to hate himself when he gets angry too.

They start to fight more, battling it out over anything and everything. Half the time Raihan thinks his father is doing it just to fuck with him, just to rile him up. 

His mom usually deflates the situation when she can, but she’s at the store when Raihan’s father bursts into his room, unannounced. Mable sits up, hackles raised at the sight of him.

He’s waving a piece of paper in the air and Raihan feels his stomach drop as he realizes what it is. His report card, which the school addressed to Raihan, not to his dead name. Fuck .

“Why did the school write Raihan ?” His father seethes, throwing the paper at him like he already knows the answer. 

Raihan watches the report card float to the ground and makes up his mind.

“It’s my name,” he says simply, turning back to his homework.

“Don’t be daft,” his dad sneers, and it reminds Raihan of Tommy and Jared, all those years ago. “That is not your name, Radeyah.” 

“Yes, it is.” He doesn’t rise to the bait, and that makes his dad even angrier.

“You must be delusional ,” The man laughs meanly, striding over to grab Raihan by the front of his shirt and hoist him up off the bed. “If you think I’ll let my daughter prance around Route 6 believing she’s a man .” 

Mabel growls and lunges for him, but his father smacks the pokemon away with a sneer. Mabel hits the ground with a whimper and Raihan roars. 

“ Don’t touch him!” He snarls, beating against his father with his fists, hitting anywhere he could reach. His dad just shakes him, temporarily stunning Raihan and dropping him back on the bed.

“Either stop this idiotic act of yours or get out .” 

The door slams behind him and for a long moment, Raihan just lays there, fighting back tears.

He gets up slowly and makes his way over to Mabel, checking if he’s alright.

He cradles the pokemon carefully, and in turn, Mabel licks at his cheek, signaling he’s good and asking Raihan if he was okay in turn.

“I have to leave,” he murmurs, hands shaking as he puts Mabel on his bed and grabs a backpack. “I have to get out of here.”
He’s strong enough to travel Galar now that he and Mabel had been training and battling hard for three years. He’s strong enough to leave.

He’s crying as he packs as much as possible into his beat-up old backpack, trying his hardest not to think. He grabs his wallet, thankful that he’d been saving up money for a special occasion, and puts on his ratty trainers. 

“C’mon, Mabel.” he murmurs, offering his arm to the rather sad looking Trapinch. “We should go before he comes back.”

Mabel squawks and hops up his arm onto Raihan’s shoulder, curling around the back of his neck as he heads down the stairs as quietly as possible. He raids the kitchen, stuffing nonperishables in his bag before he deems it enough to get him to the next town. 

Raihan freezes as the front door handle opens, his mom walking in.

Their eyes meet and Raihan is suddenly very aware of how he looks, dressed in his adventuring clothes, stuffing food into his bag with red, puffy eyes. He sees his mom’s shoulders droop and his heart breaks.

“Oh, Raihan,” she sighs, placing the shopping bags she’d acquired on the ground and walking towards him, wrapping her arms around his shaking shoulders. “Oh, habibi...”

He hugs her back, fierce and tight and doesn’t let go for a long time.

“I always knew this day would come,” She sighs and pulls away, eyes wet. “I just didn’t think so soon.”

Raihan opens his mouth to say something, anything, but she puts a finger to his lips and smiles. 

“I know it’s for the best. You can’t be yourself here and it’s selfish of me to want to keep you in this place. What can I say? You’re my only son, and I love you.”

Raihan feels his lower lip start to wobble, a tell-tale sign that he’s about to cry again, when she pulls away completely to dig through one of the kitchen cabinets.

“I wanted to give you this on your birthday,” she tells him over her shoulder as she pulls a cloth bag from behind some papers. “But today’s a good a day as any, in my opinion.”

Raihan peers at the bag curiously before turning it over with his long, shaky fingers. He gasps.

“Happy birthday, Raihan.”

He lunging forward, hugging her tightly, and sobbing into her shoulder as he grasps the brand new camping gear in his hands. 

“Thank you, Mom,” he pulls away just enough to kiss her on the cheek. He only has to stand on his tiptoes a little these days, and she laughs. 

“Of course, baby.” 

He makes a face at her, teasing even as he feels his heart break at the thought of leaving her behind.

“I know, I know,” she laughs, wiping a tear away. “My little Raihan isn’t so little anymore. You’re starting your own journey tonight and I couldn’t be prouder. I only wish I could protect you just a little longer.”

A door opens upstairs, the floor creaking as his father emerges.

His mother pales and grabs onto his shoulders, pulling him in for one last tight hug before hurrying him out the front door and into the yard.

“Go,” she whispers, illuminated by the porch light. “Do wonderful things out there, habibi. I’ll think of you every day.”

Raihan takes one last shaky breath and nods, Mabel trilling lightly, and then they’re off, Raihan running away from that house as fast as he can. 

His feet pound against the road towards Route 6 and he feels tears stream down his face as he hears his mother, in a rare moment of boldness, shout after him.

“I love you!”

------------

Raihan breathes a sigh of relief when the other trainer’s Growlithe goes down with a thud. Mabel lets out a cry of victory and Raihan is scooping him up in his arms as soon as he can.

“Great battle,” the trainer says, offering a hand to shake. Raihan takes it and grins.

“Same to you,” he nods. Money is passed over and Raihan leaves the area feeling a little lighter. He finally has enough cash to get some ingredients for curry tonight. 

Mabel licks his cheek and he laughs, scratching under the pokemon’s chin in return.

“You were so good!” He praises, earning an excited trill from Mabel. “How d’ya feel?”

Mabel whines and lifts his stumpy little leg up, revealing a rather nasty looking burn on the underside of his belly.

“Shit,” he curses, dropping to his knees to lay Mabel on the ground and rummage through his bag. “And I think I’m outta potions, too.”

He pulls out a cold compress and cracks it in his hands, feeling the gel inside already start to cool down. 

Footsteps sound behind him and he tenses. Shit.

“Hey, sorry, mate,” he doesn’t turn around as he attends to Mabel’s wounds. “I can’t battle right now.”
The footsteps stop right behind him but don’t turn away, and Raihan feels a spike of annoyance at that.

“U-Um,” someone says, and Raihan finally glances behind him, glaring daggers. It’s a boy, looking to be about a year younger, with medium length purple hair loose around his shoulders and warm, golden eyes. He wears a dark shirt that contrasts his skin tone, shorts and leggings, and a black snapback with a stylized Charizard on it. He steps back, looking surprised at the intensity of Raihan’s glare. “I-I saw your battle earlier, and, uh, thought you might want this.”

The boy holds out a potion and looks away, flushing red high on his cheeks.

Raihan stares at him for a moment, flabbergasted.

“I don’t need charity,” he says after a second, deadpan, before turning back to Mabel.

“O-Oh!” The boy sounds surprised. “I didn’t mean for it to come across that way, I promise! I just thought-”

“That I needed help?” Raihan scoffs. He knows how he looks, his clothes ratty and covered in dirt and dust from traveling. He doesn’t need this kid’s pity. “Sod off.”
“-that you had an amazing battle,” the kid sounds slightly annoyed now. “And that the other trainer didn’t give you as much as he should’ve. The nearest Pokemon center is quite a ways away, so I figured I’d give you this.” 

Raihan blinks, surprised. He sits up on his heels and glances warily at the other kid.

“Thanks,” he says after a second, swallowing his pride and taking the offered potion. 

Mabel drinks it happily and Raihan watches in relief as the burn heals up before his eyes. Mabel gets to his feet and wags his little tail, making happy noises. Raihan watches in surprise as the Trapinch sniffs at the other boy and trills merrily. 

“Huh,” Raihan murmurs. “He likes you.”
The boy grins down at the Trapinch and carefully shows him his hand. Mabel sniffs it for a second before bumping his head into the boy’s offered palm, warbling a song. The boy laughs loudly and Raihan feels his palms get a little sweaty. Weird .

“What’s your name, little one?” The boy asks.

“His name’s Mabel,” Raihan answers, bracing himself for the inevitable a boy pokemon with a girl’s name reaction. Instead, though, the boy just laughs and scratches under Mabel’s chin. 

“It’s a lovely name.” He says, and Raihan has to swallow the lump in his throat. The boy grins at him, all wide smiles and squinty eyes, and offers him a hand to shake. “I’m Leon.”

“Raihan,” he replies, taking Leon’s hand and giving it a shake. “Nice to meet you.”

Mabel trills and starts chasing his tail, causing the two boys to snort and snicker at the pokemon’s antics.

“So,” Raihan asks after a bit, when the boy shows no signs of leaving. “Where are you headed?”

“Motostoke!” Leon smiles widely, pumping his fist in excitement. “I’m gonna get my endorsement for the Championship Tournament!” 

Raihan blinks at him, surprised. In the three months since he’d left home, he’d kinda forgotten about the Championship. He’d just kind of been drifting, both physically and mentally, unsure of what to do with himself. That’s what he gets for avoiding most populated cities, probably. Outside of pokemon battles, this was the first real conversation Raihan had had in two whole weeks. 

He doesn’t want to admit to himself that he’s lonely.

“Wow,” he says, realizing he’s got to reply to Leon somehow. “That sounds really cool.”
Leon beams at him.

“What about you?” 

Raihan kinda blanches at the question, looking down and away rather quickly so he doesn’t have to see the earnest look in Leon’s eyes. 

“Um,” he rubs the back of his neck, awkward and off-balance. “I’m not quite sure.”

Leon’s quiet for a second, and Raihan doesn’t know what to do with himself. This whole conversation was throwing him for a loop and he didn’t know what to do about it- What to do about Leon .

“Do you wanna come with me to Motostoke?” Leon asks, and Raihan jerks up to stare at him, completely floored by the question. 

“What?” he asks, voice sounding far away even to his own ears.

“You don’t have to participate in the Championship, of course,” The tips of Leon’s ears turn dark red. “But it’d be great to have a traveling buddy, a-and I’m not very good with directions, see, but you seem like you know what you’re doing, and you’re battling from earlier was stellar , so…”

He trails off, turning redder by the second.

Raihan starts to laugh, clutching his stomach as he nearly falls over. Leon looks hurt for a second before Raihan claps him on the shoulder and grins, fighting back more peals of laughter. 

“Sure,” he smiles toothily, his snaggletooth catching on his lip, and shakes his head. “Sure, I’ll go with you to Motostoke, you weirdo.”

Leon breaks out into a smile so wide it nearly splits his face in two and Raihan has to catch his breath for a different reason suddenly.

Cute , he thinks, even as Leon bounds to his feet and demands they depart immediately, even as they get lost three times ‘cause Raihan didn’t take him seriously when Leon said bad at directions , and especially when Leon releases his partner pokemon (a Charmander) and swells with pride when Raihan oohs and aahs over it. 

By the end of the day, the two boys are exhausted as they set up their camp in a little clearing off Route 8. Raihan pulls out his curry pot and dumps the last of his ingredients in for dinner. Leon adds a leek he’d found earlier that day and soon the smell of bubbling curry wafts through the air, making their tummies rumble. Mabel and Leon’s Charmander (who he learns is named Chance , of all things) roll around on the dirt and generally cause a ruckus. 

Raihan and Leon sit by the fire and watch as the two pokemon play together as if they’d known each other for years. Mabel shakes his butt and pounces on top of Chance, and the two would’ve knocked over the curry pot had Raihan not put his foot out at the right moment, stopping them from rolling right into the fire. Leon laughs, and Raihan laughs back. It’s easy.

He could get used to this.

They all eat in silence, enjoying their curry immensely, and Raihan washes their plates in a nearby stream when everyone’s done. When he gets back, Leon glances up at him.

“Raihan, I’ve been meaning to ask…” Leon looks nervous, and Raihan feels himself start to tense. He knows where this is going.

“Yeah?” He prompts, emotionless, when Leon pauses for longer than he’d like.

The other boy glances at him out of the corner of his eyes and grips the fabric of his leggings tightly before blurting it out.

“ Whatpronounsdoyouuse ?”

Raihan blinks at him.

“Huh?” he asks, caught off guard. “Pronouns?”

Leon flushes and looks down at his hands.

“You know like….what people should use to refer to you with. I use he him pronouns. I’d like to know what you use, so I don’t get it wrong.”

“Oh,” Raihan says, surprised. “Um, he him too.”

“Okay,” Leon nods and smiles nervously at him, as if he’s afraid Raihan was mad at the question. “Thanks for telling me.”

“...Thanks for asking,” Raihan mumbles, feeling rather faint as he sits back down next to Leon. 

“Of course,” Leon offers him another smile, this one much more confident, and then they lapse back into a comfortable silence.

Raihan is reeling a little bit. All day he had that lingering fear in the back of his head that Leon wouldn’t want to be his friend if he came out to him, telling him that whatever happiness he felt with Leon was going to go away as soon as Leon asked the fateful question of are you a boy or a girl?

But Leon hadn’t asked that awful question. Instead, he’d asked for Raihan’s pronouns and nothing else, hadn’t assumed that Raihan owed him anything in ways of an explanation into his gender identity. To be frank, he was impressed. 

They call it quits not long after, dousing the fire and crawling into their respective tents. Mabel and Chance butt heads in their way of saying goodnight and Raihan laughs, crouching down to scratch Chance’s head.

“Goodnight, little one.” he murmurs, loving the way Chance preens under his attention. He pulls away and Mabel literally jumps into his arms, trilling sleepily.

“Goodnight, Leon.” he says, feeling the other boy’s eyes on him.

“Night, Raihan!” 

He can hear the grin in Leon’s voice and it makes him smile.

He settles down on his bedroll, Mabel curled up on his chest, and thinks about what a strange day today was. He thinks about his Leon and feels a warmth in his chest that wasn’t there before. Friend , he thinks. I want to be his friend.

Raihan falls asleep with a smile.

------

Despite everything, they make it to Motostoke. 

They even have a day to spare before the Sponsorship Match, thanks to Raihan taking control of the map finally. He doesn’t know why it took him so long to finally wrestle the piece of paper away from the clueless boy and start leading the way, but it definitely lost them a couple of days in the beginning. Which was fine, in the end, because they ran across (and beat) enough trainers to get money for two train tickets across the wild area. They even added some new pokemon to their teams- A Honedge named Roscoe for Leon, and a Torkoal named Oreo for Raihan.

The train ride from Hammerlocke to Motostoke was nice, even if Leon didn’t stop kicking at Raihan’s feet in excitement the entire ride.

Motostoke was...a lot.

Raihan had never been before, had never seen anything like the machines that blew hot steam in his face and made loud whirring noises that echoed inside his eardrums. He gets overwhelmed quickly and almost hyperventilates in an alleyway behind a fancy boutique. Leon holds his hand after that, as they gradually make their way towards the Gym in the center of the city, and if Raihan grips it a little tighter when they go up the strangest elevator he’s ever seen, well, that stays between him and Leon.

Leon gets them signed in while Raihan looks around in wonder. He’d never been to an actual pokemon gym before, so this was quite the experience. The ceilings were so high . 

“Okay, Raihan,” Leon leads him away from the desk, handing him a laminated card with his name and a number on it. “Here’s your challenger badge. They’ll call your number when it’s time for you to fight, okay?”

Raihan nods, at a loss for words. There were so many people around it was hard for him to concentrate. Leon, though, looked like he was in his element, even going out of his way to chat with a couple of girls who were sitting on the bench next to them.

He half pays attention, half stares at his ratty tennis shoes.

What if I fuck this up? he thinks to himself. What if I never see Leon again after this?

They hadn’t talked about after Motostoke, not yet at least. What if Leon had only wanted to travel with Raihan so he wouldn’t get lost? What if Leon didn’t want to be friends after this?

He feels someone touch the back of his hand lightly and jumps a little. Leon’s looking at him, concerned, and his mouth is moving but all Raihan can hear is a dull ringing noise in his ears and he has to leave, he can’t do this-

Leon grabs him by the wrist before he’s halfway out of his seat and Raihan stares at him, frozen. Leon doesn’t say anything, simply jerks his head in the direction of the exit and then calmly walks Raihan out of the gym. They find a secluded spot under a tree to sit at and Raihan’s shaking, decidedly not making eye contact with Leon. The ringing subsides after a few tense minutes of Raihan clutching at his knees and Leon simply sitting next to him, rubbing his back soothingly.

“S-Sorry,” Raihan croaks out, finally forcing himself to speak. 

“You don’t have to apologize for anything,” Leon says, firmly. “It’s a lot to handle.”

Raihan just nods, staring at the grass. He’s silent for a bit.

“What happens after this?” He asks abruptly, startling Leon.

“Well,” Leon thinks for a second. “We battle in front of a bunch of people to see if one of them wants to pick us to sponsor for the Championship Tournament-”
“No, I mean-” Raihan cuts him off, shaking his head. “What happens with us?”
“Oh,” Leon says, chewing his bottom lip. “I don’t know. What do you want to happen?”
Raihan exhales shakily. What did he want to happen?

He wants to be with Leon, that much was obvious. The other boy was funny and kind and he made things easier. He kept Raihan company whenever he was missing his mom, and he did the same for Leon in return. He wanted that, still. He wanted long nights by the fire and full tummies and laughing and smiling and wanting to be better. He didn’t want to go back to drifting around Galar anymore. 

“Can we….” he starts, swallowing. “Can we still be friends after this?” 

Leon looks at Raihan for a long moment before he throws his arms around his shoulders and tackles Raihan to the ground in a big hug.

“Oh, Raihan, of course! ” He cries out, delighted. “I’d love that!”
They laugh and lay there for a bit, relieved, Leon half on top of Raihan’s chest, his skinny arms wrapped around his middle tightly. 

The rest of the day goes by quickly, the two of them exploring Motostoke, and they retire to their hotel room for dinner once it starts to get dark. Raihan’s surprised to see only one card key in Leon’s hand after he checks them in.

“Are we in the same room?” he asks, padding after Leon towards the elevator, his bag hooked around one shoulder. 

“Y-Yeah, the hotel is running a little short on rooms at the moment, so I figured we could make their lives easier and share.” Leon glances at him nervously. “Is that okay?”
Raihan just nods. He hadn’t really been looking forward to sleeping by himself anyway. Leon looks visibly relieved and they make their way to the 4th floor in comfortable silence.

Occasionally, while they had been traveling, the two boys would pull their bedrolls out of their tents and push them together, laying next to each other so they could see the stars. They would always mean to go back to their tents afterward, but inevitably one of them would fall asleep, the other not far behind, and they’d spend the night like that.

Raihan was confident being in a real bed wouldn’t change that.

They fall asleep pretty easily after they’d eaten their fill, Leon already snoring in his bed when Raihan gets out of the bathroom. He chuckles at the way Leon’s face smushed into the pillows and turns off the bedside lamp, plunging the room into darkness.

He feels his way over to his own bed and is asleep before he hits the mattress.

He has a dream that night, of losing his fight so badly that he’s laughed off the pitch. Everywhere he runs, people laugh at him, and in Raihan’s panicked escape he runs right into the arms of his father, who laughs the hardest. 

You’re a failure , they all tell him, their faces closing in around him. You’re useless, you don’t belong here .

He curls up into a ball and starts to hyperventilate, eyes wide as the faces get closer and closer until- 

He wakes up with a gasp, hands shaking against the sheets as he sits up.

“Raihan?” He hears Leon’s voice, soft and sleepy, from the other side of the room. “You alright, mate?”
“Y-Yeah,” he whispers, fighting to force himself to talk. “Just a bad dream.”

He hears Leon shift in his bed, sitting up, and he sounds a bit more awake when he speaks.

“You don’t sound alright,” Leon tells him. "Do you need a hug?”
Raihan exhales shakily. 

“Yeah.” He says, very softly, and for a second he thinks Leon didn’t hear him. But then footsteps approach and Leon climbs into Raihan’s bed to wrap his skinny arms around his shoulders in a tight hug.

Raihan winds his arms around Leon’s middle and they sit like that for a very long time. His breathing is ragged, much too loud in the dark of the room, but Leon doesn’t pull away.

Instead, he taps his hand against Raihan’s shoulder and tells him scooch over , leaving no room for protest. Raihan does what Leon tells him too and soon the other boy is under the covers, arms still wrapped around Raihan’s trembling frame.

“Go to sleep, Rai.” He mumbles, sounding sleepier and sleepier by the second. “I’ll protect you.”

Raihan nods once, jerky and uncoordinated, and lets himself drift back to sleep.

---------

The Sponsorship Matches take about a week to get through, and Raihan and Leon end up sleeping in the same bed more often than not. By Friday, Leon crawls right into Raihan’s bed without prompting and since he’s too exhausted to really think about it that hard, Raihan lets him. 

He meets Leon’s childhood friend Sonia and ends up liking her a great deal, and though she wasn’t the best at battling, her spirit was amazing to be around. She was bright and chipper and had eyes only for Leon. And if that bothered Raihan, he made sure not to show it. He didn’t quite understand why he felt that way, and no one needed to know about it, as far as he was concerned.

Sonia stares at Raihan a bit too long when Leon introduces him as he , but whatever she was thinking, she quickly got over it, shaking his hand with enthusiasm. She ends the week with a 2-3 win-loss score, which she seems only a little disappointed about. 

Raihan and Leon, however, were two of only three challengers to win all five battles. 

There were enough people in the tournament that Raihan and Leon never got the chance to battle against each other, which Raihan was secretly glad about. In all of their practice battles, Leon had won each one, and Raihan hadn’t wanted to lose his winning streak to his best friend.

There’s a brief issue where Leon lays into one of the sponsors for referring to Raihan as a girl despite knowing his pronouns and, as much as it scared Raihan that he’s officially out now, he admits it is rather funny to see a 40-year-old man get yelled at by a 10-year-old.

In the end, the two of them each get their own endorsement for the Championship.

Leon’s ecstatic, of course. Raihan secretly is too, though he tries to remain cool about it.

Things start to fall apart when they get their schedules. Raihan looks between his schedule and Leon’s and sees it doesn’t match up for two months. 

Two months.  

Leon’s face falls when he figures out the same thing and they’re both quiet for a couple of minutes, trying to figure out what this means for their friendship.

“So what?” Raihan says suddenly, sitting up and glaring at the schedules in front of him. “So what if I don’t see you for two months, it’s not like it’s going to change how I feel about you! You’re my friend, and friends are still friends even if they don’t see each other for a while.”

Leon’s staring at him, mouth agape, and Raihan feels himself start to blush, even as Leon’s slack-jawed expression turns into one of determination.

“Yeah!” He crows, pumping his fist in the air, cheering. “We’re gonna be friends no matter what!”

Mabel starts to trill loudly along with Leon, Chance and Oreo stomp their feet, and Roscoe stares at everyone like they’re all crazy before making a couple chiming noises to join in.
They don’t stop until their next-door neighbors complain.

--------------------

For the next twelve months, Raihan’s life is a whirlwind.

He trains a lot and sleeps a little and trains even more and makes hesitant friends with the people he meets instead of shutting them out. He becomes close with fellow challengers Nessa and Milo, he grows some and then grows some more, his limbs finally starting to feel like they fit again. He misses his mom a lot, misses Leon as well, and adds new pokemon to fill out his team, Mabel and his Goomy Isabel both evolving into their final forms. The whole thing is strange, and a lot, but ultimately very good.

Many things happen during this time, the biggest of which being that Raihan turns 12 and gets a enough money to buy a used Rotom phone. The first thing he does with his new phone is call his mom. She cries when she hears his voice and tells him she’d been watching him on TV, how proud she was of him, how much she loves him. In turn, he tells her about how Mabel was doing, how he felt on the road, but most importantly, he tells her about Leon.

She tells him she approves.

Despite the hope in his voice as he tells him Mom about Leon, they see each other four times that whole year. 

Once at the fire type gym, when he’s leaving and Leon’s entering. They barely have time to trade numbers before they’re being herded their separate ways.

Once at the town of Ballonlea, where they manage to escape their responsibilities for a whole day to train together in the Glimwood Tangle. 

Twice in Wyndon, once in the city, and once during the Championship match while the two of them faced off against each other.

Raihan loses.

He’s disappointed, because why wouldn’t he be? He had worked towards becoming Champion for a whole year now, and to have it all be gone was….a lot to deal with.

But he couldn’t think of someone he’d rather lose to than Leon.

So he says as much in the post-Championship interviews and Leon texts him when it airs, wildly keysmashing to communicate just how happy Raihan’s comment made him feel.

They’re allowed two days of rest before Leon goes on to fight the Champion, and they spend every minute of it together. He’s surprised to find that even after all his growing, he’s still shorter than Leon, if only by an inch. Raihan still pouts about it though, flicking Leon on the forehead as if it’d make him shrink. Leon only shrugs his shoulders and laughs. He’s still lanky as hell, though, so Raihan hopes he has at least a little more growing to do.

He gets to meet Leon’s team outside of battle, and is nearly knocked over by Chance’s tackle hug. The Charizard wags his tail happily when Raihan coos and scratches under his chin like old times. Mabel is thrilled to see his old playmate again and even takes the time to introduce Isabel and his Duraludon Maxwell. 

The first night, they fall asleep on the couch of Leon’s hotel room and end up tangled together come morning. Things had changed, sure, but the good parts seemed to have stayed the same. 

A day after losing the Championship title, Raihan gets an offer to train under Hammerlocke’s Dragon-type Gym leader Sven as a potential replacement.

He accepts immediately and makes plans to fly out to Hammerlocke after Leon’s Championship match. As excited as he was for his new position at Hammerlocke Gym, he wasn’t going to miss Leon’s fight for anything .

Leon’s nervous, obviously, but above that Raihan can tell that he’s excited, too, and that excitement follows him even onto the pitch, echoed in the crowd that roars his name.

Win or lose, Leon was a challenger to remember.

And he wins, because of course he wins, there was never any doubt in Raihan’s mind that it would ever go otherwise. As soon as Leon is off the pitch Raihan rushes him, throwing his arms around the stunned boy and twirling him around. He doesn’t care about the cameras, the microphones being pushed their way, the interviewers barking question after question. It’s just him and Leon, laughing and holding each other. He pulls back after a second and grins widely at the other boy who beams just as brightly back. 

“I’m so proud of you, mate!” he yells over the din of the crowd, so happy he could burst. “I knew you could do it!”
And then he steps back and lets Leon do his thing, lets him make that ridiculous pose, lets him work the crowd, pleased that Leon can’t seem to keep himself from looking over at Raihan throughout the whole thing. 

They catch eyes again and again, and Raihan can’t stop smiling.

-------------

Raihan learns Sven is a good teacher, if not a little strict sometimes. He keeps Raihan busy, but never overwhelmingly so, and is always there when the 15-year-old swallows his pride enough to ask for help.

Raihan takes to running and is often spotted moving through the streets of Hammerlocke in the early mornings, Mabel in tow. He grows into his wild limbs and even gets muscles while he’s at it. Raihan’s not a health nut by any standards, but he learns to take care of himself.

On his 16th birthday, Sven gives him a binder and the keys to Hammerlocke Gym. 

Raihan’s not sure which one he was more excited about, to be honest. They were both amazing, but for different reasons. 

The first time he manages to finagle the binder over his chest and look in the mirror, he nearly cries with relief. He straightens up to his full height and laughs, bright and joyous.

He takes a quick mirror selfie and sends it to Leon, who texts back immediately.

from: Lee 

WOAH DUDE!!! :D

how does it feel???

from: Rai

feels good feels organic

dont have to slouch anymore

from: Lee

must feel good for your back

remember dont wear it for too long

dont wanna mess up ur ribs

from: Rai

aye lol 

n who r u, my ma?

from: Lee

one of us has to make sure u stay safe mate!

from: Rai

wanker

Raihan feels his heart warm in his chest as Leon sends him a ton of heart emojis back.

He spends the day texting Nessa and Milo, but Leon is pretty much radio silence from then on out. Raihan doesn’t mind terribly, he knows being Champion is a busy job, and he doesn’t need to be constantly texting Leon in order to know the other cares about him, as much as he wants to be.

Still, a happy birthday would’ve been nice.

Raihan pushes it out of his mind and focuses on the upcoming ceremony that would name him as Hammerlocke’s official gym leader. It all felt rather surreal if he was being honest. The week flies by, and before Raihan knows it, it's the day of the ceremony and he’s on edge. It doesn’t help that Leon still hasn’t replied to any of Raihan’s texts. 

He’s going through paperwork when Sven walks in.

“Are you ready for tonight?” he asks, eyeing his protegee.

“Aye,” Raihan nods, grinning up at him. “You ready to fade in obscurity, old man?”

Sven barks out a laugh and ruffles Raihan’s dreads fondly.

“I like the new hairstyle. Suits you.”

Raihan laughs, feeling relieved. It was a new look, he’d dreaded his hair and pulled them into a short ponytail, shaving the sides down to a close buzz.

“Thanks, Dad.”

He freezes for a whole minute before Sven pats him on the shoulder, smiling widely.

“No problem, kid.”
“Um,” Raihan says, elegantly. “I’m gonna go for a run.”

Sven just laughs as he stands rather quickly and runs out of the room, already throwing on his exercising outfit and rousing Mabel from his slumber. The Flygon trills curiously but follows Raihan out of Hammerlocke Gym anyway. 

It’s too late in the morning for Raihan’s usual route, so he heads to the Wild Area at a brisk jog. Mabel flies just above him, keeping a lookout for any wild pokemon looking for a fight. 

Raihan doesn’t know how long he jogs for, only that he stops thinking an hour in, which is exactly what he wants. It’s well past midday when Raihan finally slows to a stop, sweaty and panting. He’d stripped down to just shorts and a sports bra by this point, shirt and jacket folded neatly on Mabel’s back. He’s somewhere in the Dusty Bowl if the landscape was anything to go off of. He clambers onto one of the giant rocks and lets himself relax with a huff. Mabel touches down beside him and follows the same logic. The sun is nice and warm against his skin, and the two of them sunbathe, drifting in and out of awareness. 

Eventually, he hears the sound of a pokemon touching down nearby, hears Mabel look over and trill and knows immediately that he’s safe.

He doesn’t bother moving until a shadow falls over him.

“You’re blocking my sun,” he grumbles, cracking a single eye open to glare at Leon.

“Oh, so it’s your sun?” The boy looks down at him fondly, a flush high on his cheeks. “And here I thought you’d be excited to see me!”
“Sod off,” Raihan kicks him in the shin, grinning toothily as he sits up. Leon laughs and offers him a hand. 

“Happy belated birthday, Raihan.” Leon smiles down at him, and Raihan just melts .

They walk back to Hammerlocke, Flygon and Charizard in tow, chatting about anything and everything, and Raihan’s glad they’re not talking about anything important ‘cause all he can think about is how much he missed Leon.

“Did you come all the way out here for me?” He asks, elbowing Leon in the side.

“You bet,” Leon grins bashfully, blushing sweetly. “I wanted to wish you a happy birthday in person. Plus, I know how much this gym leader ceremony means to you. I want to be there when it happens. With you.”

Oh, I’m so in love with him . Raihan thinks, and the thought doesn’t surprise him as much as he thought it would. He feels like he already knew this, that it just happened to be the first time he was putting it into words.

“I appreciate that, mate.” He mumbles, turning a dark red and looking away in an attempt to save face. “Thanks for coming.”

When they get back to Hammerlocke and Raihan’s done taking a shower and changing, Leon pulls out a box.

“What’s this?” Raihan blinks at it.

“It’s your birthday gift, idiot.” Leon laughs and hands it to him. “Go ahead, open it!”
He’s excited, buzzing energy coming off of him in waves. It’s contagious and Raihan shakes his head fondly. 

He opens the box and gasps. It’s a dragon sweatshirt, dark blue with a golden chest, and fabric teeth around the edge of the hood. 

Raihan stares at it for a long moment, completely stunned.

“Do you like it?” Leon asks, nervous. “It’s a bit big but I figured it was fine since you’re still growing, but you can always return it and pick something else out if you don’t like the design and-”
He’s babbling, Raihan realizes. Leon only babbles when he’s really nervous.

“Leon,” He says softly, and the other boy shuts up, watching him with worried eyes. “It’s perfect.”

“Really?” Leon laughs in relief, relaxing slightly. 

“Really.” Raihan nods, not even trying to hide his feelings. “I love it.”

He wears it to the ceremony that night, despite Sven raising an eyebrow about it, because he likes the way Leon smiles when he sees him, bright and wide and full of happiness and pride.

He realizes he’ll do anything for that smile. 

The ceremony is short but there’s a dinner and dance afterward that takes most of the night. Every gym leader is there, and Raihan greets them all with grace and respect. Melony’s eyes are sparkling when she tells him he looks very handsome in his new sweatshirt. Kabu pats him on the back and gives him jogging tips. Opal pokes him in the ribs with her umbrella and asks him when exactly he was planning on asking that handsome Champion out. Raihan sputters at that, glancing around furtively to see if Leon was near enough to have overheard, and the old bat just cackles. 

Nessa and Milo were there too, both of them well on their way to taking over the water and grass gym, respectively. 

He takes Nessa out on the dance floor and complains when she nearly puts her high heel through his foot. She blames it on him, but Raihan knows it was because she was distracted by Sonia. He lets it go, though, cause she glares daggers at him when he brings it up. 

It’s nice, if not overwhelming, and Raihan only so much interaction he can handle in one night before he starts to freak out. 

The party’s winding down when Raihan finally gets his chance to leave, Leon tugging at his jacket sleeve and loudly complaining that his pokemon were getting restless. 

Raihan takes the opportunity and excuses himself, glancing thankfully over at Leon. Raihan hadn’t brought any of his pokemon with him so when Leon only releases Chance, it takes him a second to understand the implications. But by then, Leon had already straddled the Charizard’s back and was smiling down at Raihan in that fond way he does. 

“Well?” He asks, offering a hand. “You coming or not?”

Raihan huffs and hoists himself up onto Chance’s back, wrapping his arms around Leon’s middle to secure himself as the pokemon beats its mighty wings and takes off. 

Then they’re flying, and Raihan presses himself against Leon’s back, his cheek resting on the back of Leon’s neck, and he can think is that he’s warm . 

They get lost, because of course they do, and it takes 30 minutes for them to make a 5 minute trip. Raihan doesn’t find it in himself to complain. 

Leon’s flushed from the wind when they finally touch down and Raihan untangles himself slowly, hearing his back pop when he stretches and yawns. 

“Where are you staying?” He asks, eyeing Leon. 

The boy shrugs. 

“Some hotel Oleana picked out. It’s close by, so I should be able to find it.”

Raihan snorts at that, and Leon laughs, rubbing the back of his neck. 

“You wanna stay here instead?” Raihan asks, hopeful. 

“Yes,” Leon answers almost too quickly and he flushes a light pink, looking embarrassed. 

Raihan grins, relieved, and beckons Leon inside. 

They’re both larger now, with longer limbs and more mass, and Raihan’s bed isn’t the biggest, but they make it work anyway. Raihan sleeps curled up against Leon’s side, their legs tangled together, and feels at home. 

-----------

Raihan starts T the day he turns 18.

It’s embarrassing as hell, the first time his voice cracks, but it also feels right this time, like his first puberty had been a mistake and this one was the one he was always supposed to go through. His jaw sharpens, his face becoming more masculine, shoulders broadening, hair growing on his chest, and he feels wonderful . 

Raihan’s not ashamed to say that starting T made him realize what a wonderful body he had, curves and all. He’s tall now, almost ridiculously so, but he’s well built and his limbs were finally, finally proportional to the rest of him.

He’s started taking more selfies over the years, proud of this body of his and what it’s gotten him through. He’s not vain, not by any definition of the words, he’s just fond of the way he looks now and wants to celebrate that. Maybe even inspire some people to be more confident themselves.

He’d started cultivating a social media presence almost two years ago at this point, had well over 5 million followers on any given account, and posted updates pretty regularly. Mostly whatever nonsense was on his mind at that given moment, but most people seemed to like his random musings, so he kept at it. The publicity agent Raihan had gotten when he’d become gym leader had originally wanted the account to be managed by someone else, but Raihan had shut that idea down almost instantly. He didn’t want his image to be run by some impersonal team of people who didn’t even know him, not in a million years. He told her as much, and she dropped it.

Raihan’s scrolling through his twitter feed when his phone buzzes in his hand. he checks the message and groans. It was from an app he’d installed a while ago, one he uses to track his period, which was apparently due to start today. 

He heads to the bathroom and grabs a pad before moving into his bedroom to change into pj pants and a loose t-shirt. 

“Rotom,” he calls wearily, and the phone beeps in response, swirling around his head. “Cancel my plans for today.”

He crawls into bed, already feeling the ache in his lower back, and releases Mabel, who trills in confusion.

“Mabel, sweetie,” he groans, curling up under the covers. “It’s period time.”
The flygon nods in understanding, knowing the drill, and the bed dips behind him as he curls up around Raihan’s body, a literal space heater.

He sends out a quick tweet or two before he closes his eyes and forces himself to rest, knowing he’ll need it later.

Raihan @hammerlockegym:

period cramps r the worst lol 

Raihan @hammerlockegym:

someone come take care of me while i bleed out thxxxxxx

mary @dragongrl:

awww :( poor raihan…

leons tiny shorts @thebeastmaster4000:

he’s so dramatic LOL i love you king!

Nessa @hulburygym:

don’t die luv xoxo

rachel <3 @bunearyears:

omg raihan feel better soon!!! also lmfao at nessa’s response

lizzy makes art @mintyfresh:

@bunearyears ikr? i love their friendship soooo much

Leon @GalarChamp:

omw babe

tyson @toughboi61:

@galarchamp did…..did u just call raihan babe?

rachel <3 @bunearyears:

@galarchamp HELLO LEON???

jimmy eats beans @freshbabbie:

@galarchamp oh my arceus you gay bastard

neph @ursasing:

@galarchamp u really just straight up called raihan babe didn’t u

Leon @GalarChamp:

ah shit

------------

Raihan wakes to the sound of someone letting themselves into his apartment.

He doesn’t move, doesn’t feel the need too. Only two people have the keys to his apartment, anyway, and whoever it was was being pretty noisy, so he was positive it wasn’t a break-in.

Plus, he was in too much pain to care regardless.

The door to his bedroom opens and Mabel trills happily, lifting his head off Raihan’s shoulder to peer at their intruder.

“Raihan?” Leon calls out, sticking his head in. Raihan groans lowly in response, and he sees the other boy perk up at the noise. “Oh good, you’re alive.”

Leon steps inside fully and makes his way over to the pile of blankets Raihan was currently under and sits. Raihan watches him through squinted eyes.

“How you feeling, mate?”
“Like I’ve been run over by a car and then stabbed in the uterus a couple times.” Raihan groans. Leon makes a noise of sympathy and brushes a strand of hair out of Raihan’s face. His touch was warm and gentle, and Raihan feels himself lean into it unconsciously, eyes slipping closed.

They stay like that for a bit, Leon running his fingers through Raihan’s dreads soothingly. Slow and hazy, a thought occurs to him

“How did you know I was cramping?” he asks, cracking an eye open to stare at his friend with a frown. Leon flushes and looks away. 

“You tweeted about it, remember?” He murmurs, awkward, and Raihan reaches for his Rotom phone before Leon grabs his wrist. “W-Wait!”

Raihan frowns at him, surprised.

“I might…” Leon’s full-on blushing bright red now, and it’s traveling down his neck. “Imighthaveaccidentallycalledyoubabeontwitterandnowitstrending.”

Raihan blinks at him.

“Come again?”
Leon takes a deep breath and scrunches his face up in embarrassment as he drops Raihan’s wrist. 

“Just...check twitter.”

Raihan stares at him for a long moment before picking up his Rotom phone and opening up the app. The first thing he sees is a lot of notifications, way more than usual. He scrolls through them quickly, eyes widening before he starts to laugh. 

“Oh, Leon,” he snickers, dropping his phone on the bed and turning to his friend. “You’re ridiculous.”

“You’re not upset?” Leon blinks at him, tension in the set of his shoulders.

“Why would I be upset?” Raihan pokes him in the side. “It’s cute.” 

Leon smiles widely, looking relieved.

The metaphorical knife in his uterus twists and Raihan grits his teeth, groaning.

“Ugh,” he grinds out, curling up. “This sucks.”

Leon hums, rubbing his hand up and down Raihan’s back, soothing and warm.

“You’re warm,” Raihan mumbles, hazy and soft, scooching over and patting the mattress. “C’mere.”

Leon laughs lightly and lays down, wrapping his arms around Raihan, his hands coming to rest on Raihan’s stomach like a hot water bottle. Leon noses against the back of Raihan’s neck and curls around him, humming softly. Raihan can’t help his flush, thankful that Leon couldn’t see his face from this angle.

They were spooning , for Arceus’ sake.

Curse Raihan and his fragile heart.

------------

Raihan is 20 years old when he posts his first shirtless pics on twitter.

He’d sent them to Nessa first, of course, and she’d given it the thumbs up, said he looked good , that if Leon saw the pics he’d better jump Raihan’s bones immediately before his fangirls did it first. 

He’d also sent them to Milo, and though the grass gym leader’s reply was a lot less explicit, it was still very encouraging. 

It’s a few pictures of him from his most recent magazine shoot, shirtless and two months post-op, wearing only a pair of rather small running shorts that revealed his muscular thighs and some fancy sneakers. He had a smile on his face that showed up his fangs and a look in his eyes that spoke of power and confidence .

He decidedly does not send it to Leon.

It takes a few minutes for him to hype himself up and then he posts it and there’s no going back now.

It takes 30 minutes for him to get a video call from Leon.

Raihan picks up immediately and is greeted by his friend’s flushed face. Leon’s hair was a little bit of a mess and he was in his room by the looks of it, so Raihan assumes he was probably asleep when he posted the pics.

“Hey,’ he smiles, and Leon smiles back, looking relaxed.

“Hey yourself.”
Raihan feels himself melt at Leon’s fond tone. They talk about their days for a bit before Raihan brings it up.

“I got the photos back from that shoot the other day and posted them on twitter, did you see?”
He’s surprised when Leon turns bright red and refuses to make eye contact.

“Y-Yeah,” he mumbles, suddenly awkward. “I saw ‘em.”
Raihan raises an eyebrow.

“You okay there, mate? Looking a little red.”

“Sorry it’s just- You look really good in them.”
Raihan stares at Leon for a minute in stunned silence before he breaks out into a wide grin.

“You think I look good?” He teases lightly, and Leon gets redder , somehow, nodding jerkily. Cute .

Raihan hums, sitting back against the couch. Now or never, he thinks.

“What are you doing today?” 

Leon frowns at the change in conversation, caught off guard.

“Uh, today’s my day off...”

“Cool,” Raihan grins, smiling toothily. “You should come to Hammerlocke.”

Leon looks at him, frowning deeper, and Raihan leans forward, locking eyes with Leon.

“Hurry up, Champ,” he purrs. “‘Cause I really wanna kiss you right now.”
He sees Leon exhale shakily and nod, his eyes wide and focused solely on Raihan, and hangs up.

Almost immediately he texts the groupchat he has with some of the gym leaders in a panic.

Raihan:

oh my god i told leon i wanted to kiss him

Nessa:

deadass? good job king x

Milo:

congrats dude!!! 

what’d he say back?

Raihan:

uhhh

idk i kinda. invited him to hammerlocke and then hung up on him

Piers:

…

u complete wanker

Raihan:
sod off i wasn’t thinking straight

Gordie:

ur gay raihan u never think straight

Raihan groans in real life and throws his phone across the room, thankful that his Rotom knows his dramatics well enough to not hit anything before it flies back over, chirping.

It takes about 30 minutes for a regular person to make the trip from Wyndon to Hammerlocke by taxi, but if Leon was coming, and Raihan hoped he was, he would come on Chance’s back. Chance could make the trip in 20 minutes, but that was only if Leon didn’t get lost, which he would. Which meant that Raihan had anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour and a half to kill before he had to confront the fact that Leon was probably not coming.

So he cleans his apartment, does the dishes, changes into a fresh pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt and does not let himself think about Leon for a moment.

Someone knocks on his door after 46 minutes, not that he was counting.

Raihan takes a deep breath, steels himself, and opens the door.

Leon stares at him, flushed from the wind or maybe something else, and neither of them speak for a long time.

“You came,” Raihan breathes, and Leon nods, a determined look on his face.

“If nothing else, I wanted to tell you to your face that…” He trails off, searching for the right words, and Raihan doesn’t interrupt, lets him think it through. “I wanted to tell you in person that I think you’re stunning.”

Raihan feels his heart skip in his chest and he opens his mouth to reply but Leon keeps talking, going faster now.

“I think you’re funny and kind and compassionate and you’re the hottest person I’ve ever seen in my life, no joke. We’ve done so much together and I don’t know if what I’m about to say is going to change anything but I hope it doesn’t because I love you, Raihan . I know you invited me here to make out or something but I need you to know that I’ve been in love with you since I was 12 and I understand if you don’t want to see me ever again, I just really needed to tell you that.”
Leon takes a deep breath, harsh and ragged, and Raihan just stares at him.

Leon deflates, shoulders drooping, and he looks away.

“Sorry, I know that’s a lot to dump on you-”
“Oh, Leon,” Raihan cuts him off, grabbing him by the shoulders and hauling his ass inside the apartment. “You tosser, get in here. I didn’t invite you here to make out as friends , you idiot.”

Raihan shuts the front door with his hip and turns to Leon, an exasperated but fond look on his face. 

“I invited you here because I love you too .” 

It takes a second before Leon laughs, loud and clear and relieved, and Raihan has never heard anything so beautiful in his life.

“Arceus, that felt good to get off my chest.” Leon beams at him. “But...”

“Yeah?” Raihan tilts his head, smiling bemusedly.

“Is kissing still on the table?” Leon asks, shy and soft, looking up at Raihan through his long eyelashes, and Raihan laughs out loud but he’s never wanted anything more in his life.

He bends down and presses his mouth to Leon’s, cupping his jaw, soft and gentle and lovely and everything he never knew he needed until this moment.

Raihan had thought about kissing Leon a lot , but nothing measured up to the sweet slide of his lips against Raihan’s own, the scratch of Leon’s stupid chinstrap beard against his skin.

Leon sighs sweetly into his mouth, arms coming up to wrap around Raihan’s neck, burying his fingers in Raihan’s locs. 

They pull apart slowly, smiling at each other with dopey expressions.

Raihan brushes his thumb across Leon’s cheek tenderly and kisses him on the nose, on the cheek and his eyebrow, peppering his face with kisses until Leon’s giggling and pushing him away. 

“You’re cute,” Raihan murmurs, brushing Leon’s hair out of his face.

Leon raises an eyebrow at him and Raihan laughs.

“What? I wanted to tell you that for a while.”

“I come here to spill my heart to you, call you stunning and hot and you call me cute ?” Leon scoffs, teasing. “It’s quite rude.”

“Is it?” Raihan hums lowly and steps forward, placing his hands on Leon’s hips and walking him backward until he’s crowded against the wall, eyes wide and staring. 

“Y-Yeah.” Leon swallows hard, eyes flickering down to Raihan’s mouth. 

Raihan bares his fangs in a sly smile and Leon flushes down to his chest.

“Sorry ‘bout that, mate,” He grins, voice low and rumbling as he leans forward, oh-so-slow. “How can I make it up to you?”

“You can start by kissing me right the fuck now,” Leon all but growls, grabbing onto Raihan’s shoulders with a tight grip. 

And Raihan, ever the gentleman, obliges.

-----------

Raihan’s 24 years old, and everything is finally, finally settling down.

Rose is in jail, Hammerlocke well on its way to recovery, Zacian and Zamazenta sleeping happily in the pokeballs of two ten year olds and Leon-

Leon is doing better.

After Victor had become Champion of Galar, there had been a good deal of struggle. Sheilbert and Sordward aside, Leon clearly wasn’t used to loss and loss...Well, loss was something Raihan was intimately familiar with. So he helped where he could.

Leon’s fans were still his fans. Leon’s victories over the record-breaking ten years he had held the title of Galar’s Champion were still his victories.

He was still Leon, even after he’d lost his throne.

Raihan tells him this, and Leon cries into his chest until he falls asleep. The next morning, though, Leon seemed happier, and Raihan considers himself successful in Operation Cheer-Up-Boyfriend.

Things come together, after that.

Leon finds a purpose in cleaning up Rose’s mess, and after that, the Battle Tower. Raihan gets messages from young trans kids calling him words like inspiration and role model and feels like he can walk on air. Hammerlocke Gym fixes up nicely and everything falls into place.

Almost half a year later, Raihan’s sitting on the couch, watching a baking show and scrolling through his feed idly.

The door to his flat opens and closes, and Raihan perks up, peering over the back of the couch as Leon enters the room.

For almost 12 years now, Raihan’s life has revolved around and included Leon. From the very first day they’d met on Route 8 when Leon had given him a potion to heal Mabel because he’d thought Raihan was something worth investing in, to this exact moment. His greatest friend and rival, his boyfriend now, and Raihan didn’t want it any other way. 

“You’re staring,” Leon comments, laughter in his voice as he makes his way towards the couch.

“I can’t help it,” Raihan pouts, making grabby hands at the other man. “You’re handsome.”

Leon laughs for real this time and practically flops on top of him, sighing deeply, content, as he curls up around him.

Raihan cards his hands through Leon’s hair softly and kisses the top of his head.

“I love you, Lee,” He murmurs, gentle with how he holds his Champion.

Leon looks up at him and smiles a soft, tender smile, one that rockets through Raihan and lights up his chest, his brain, his whole world .

He loves Leon so much it aches .

Leon wraps his arms around Raihan’s neck and hums, pressing their mouths together in a kiss so loving that Raihan feels his fingertips get fuzzy. 

“I love you too, Raihan,” Leon murmurs back, pulling away just enough to speak. 

After everything they’d been through, every fight, every night they slept in the same bed, every pokemon they’d raised together, their hardships and their victories, so much had changed. Raihan was taller than Leon, now, had been for awhile. He talked to his mom regularly, and gave Mabel his love without question. He was a Gym Leader, had 15 million followers on his twitter, and was publicly out and happy as transgender. But Raihan loved Leon and Leon loved him back. That had never changed.

And that was enough.