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Hurried steps rush into Po Town and look around the rainy town. The dense rainfall inundating the deserted road doesn't make things any easier, especially considering that Kartana might just be the smallest Ultra Beast she's had to deal with and it had decided to merrily run away from her.
Well, not only her, because Gladion is right behind her and he won't stop trying to start an argument that Moon has no time for.
"You've been lying to me all along!" he insists as Moon stops running, hands on her knees as she recovers her breath. Gladion is no short of breath. "You told me you were just doing fieldwork for Wicke and now– now it turns out you're doing this?"
He's been saying this since they left Malie Park to chase after Kartana; more accurately, Moon had spotted it hiding behind a bush and before she could sneak up on it and catch it, it had run away and Moon had followed suit, much to Gladion's confusion.
However, when he saw the bright blue, golden-rimmed ball she was holding, things began to make sense. Moon adores Gladion with all her heart but she wishes he wasn't as perceptive as this– nor as confrontational as he's trying to be now.
Moon's expression wrinkles in distaste, turning to him. "This isn't a big deal!"
"How is this not supposed to be a big deal?" he strikes back, taking an alarmingly tense step towards her. "You've been fighting Ultra Beasts behind my back! I told you over and over not to accept the Interpol's mission and you still did anyway!"
"It's my life!" she shrieks, crossing her arms as disappointment and anger burst in her eyes like a volcano. "I'm the Champion of this region, I'm supposed to protect Alola! How can you, of all people, not understand that?"
"Because you, of all people, should also know how dangerous Ultra Beasts are!" He makes a fair point that Moon refuses to admit. She juts her chin in another direction, much to his irritation. "You know what they did to Aether Paradise years ago, what they did to Alola, what they did to Lusamine! You should know better than this! Why are you doing this?"
That's as much as she's willing to take, and with a step towards him, she jabs her finger on his chest and damns the good inches he stands above her. "Because I'm the only one in this region who can do this! They're dangerous to bystanders like you, but I'm a faller, Gladion, and I'm not a damsel in distress." Gladion's eyes darken at her insistence, but Moon doesn't take a step back. "I went to Ultra Space once, I know what it feels like to be there. I'm the only one who can do this."
Seeing he's losing the argument and that she's beginning to retreat. His shaky hand clasps around her wrist. "You didn't ask for my help!" He sounds more betrayed than angry. "Even when I told you to please call me when you need help during field days. Even when I know you've been spending entire nights at the hospital– yes, Moon, Wicke told me about those. She can't stay quiet forever."
Moon grimaces. She should have known Wicke herself would eventually seek for external help when the Champion began to struggle with the mission, but she hadn't expected her to tell Gladion of all people that things weren't fine.
Wicke should have known better than to tell an Aether about struggles. They're compassionate and so, so stubborn to help. "How was I supposed to ask for help? This is– well, was a secret mission!"
"When did you start caring about confidentiality, Moon?" his eyes sharpen. "You never have. You know how dangerous this is and you still went on ahead without me!"
And that's exactly when Moon simply cracks.
And Gladion is the first human in Alola to see the Champion of Alola finally lose it.
"How am I going to ask for help when this mission is so dangerous?" She wrangles her hand out of his hold violently, watching him catch his own with fidgeting ire. "All of you are in danger because of Ultra Beasts, and I'm a faller! Being around me is dangerous! Just being here is dangerous! Do you think this isn't tiring for me? I hate it!" Moon gestures at herself, expression shrunken in disgust that Gladion feels looks wrong on her. "I hate feeling like this! I'm the bait, but that doesn't mean my friends have to become fodder for them just because I can't stand fighting them!"
He takes a step towards her. "Moon–"
She takes another back. "No! You don't get it. Nobody does! Nobody in Aether gets it, nobody in the Interpol gets it, and not even you get it!" Moon pushes her hands into her hair, turning around with a voice so distressed it's louder than the rain around them. "I'm just trying to protect all of you! Why can't you understand?"
"Because we don't want to see you get hurt simply because you're too stubborn to ask for help!" Moon's jaw squares at that. "We're more than capable to fight them too!"
"This is not about being capable!"
"Then, what is this about?" His eyes shrink to a well-measured glare. "Is this about ego, then? Is this about your pride? Can't you rely on me to protect you for just one second?"
A flash of hurt crosses her eyes and what was a wisp of worry and anger has now become a whole black hole. "How could you of all people say that? You're the one who knows best how dangerous these Pokémon are! You know better than to judge me for protecting the people I care about!"
"How am I supposed to be fine with you wanting to die for our sake?" he growls, noise wrinkled in hurt and frustration. "You're also human, Moon!"
"And all I want to do is protect you and make sure you're all fine!"
"Well, you're not doing a good job at that right now!"
That's when the argument dies down abruptly. Gladion has no time to register what he's said because before he can go back and look back, Moon's expression has grown into quiet, disappointed surprise. It looks as though he just slapped her twice and she hasn't recovered from it yet.
Gladion reaches out. "Wait, I–"
And Moon recoils from him, hesitant, but also firm. "No. You said what you had to say. I see how you feel now." Somber and nothing like the girl he's come to adore, she turns around quietly, taking out her Beast Ball once more. "Go home. I think our date is over. I can take care of this on my own."
She doesn't wait for him to say anything else and begins to walk away. Moon is aware of how sensitive Gladion is to this matter, hence why she didn't want to tell him about it. She didn't need him to worry about help that she didn't need and she didn't need him to know that being used as a bait by the International Police was draining her little by little.
Part of her blames herself for the flicker of fear she just saw in him. She blames herself for the vulnerability she should have seen coming, for how she's rejecting the hand he's so kindly offering.
She's been on the other side of the spectrum before.
She once offered him her hand and he rejected it over and over until, one day, he took it.
Moon doesn't know when she began to let go of his hand, but the thought alone feels terrible, and she didn't need him informing her of the fact that she's, indeed, letting go.
A heavy sigh rolls out of her as she steps into a small run-down garden with uneven bushes, muddy ground, and a broken fence, and the second she feels she's walked for long enough, she crumbles to her knees, curls into a ball and cries to herself.
Wicke once warned her that the pressure could get to her.
Moon takes a deep breath.
Wicke once told her that this was the kind of job one would think twice before taking.
Moon takes a deeper breath.
Wicke once said that she could get herself hurt while doing this; what Moon hadn't anticipated was that she would hurt Gladion by hurting herself, too.
It caves a hole so deep in her heart that when she cries, she can't get enough air and her throat starts aching. She's hoping nobody will hear her, if there's anyone left in this ghost town. She hopes the rain will swallow her cries and that no Pokémon will be disturbed by her presence. Her body rocks to the solemn rhythm of her cries, and she's no longer sure if her shirt is soaked because of the thin rain or because of her own tears.
There's a salty aftertaste on her lips and her body feels cold and clammy. She feels like she can't breathe, like she's suffocating and the only way to breathe is to die a little more inside.
Out of the blue, something creaks open, wet gliding over the rusty hinges of the fence, and a shadow looms over her before something warm falls on her shoulders and somebody sits right beside her.
"Never thought you were the type to cry to yourself quietly on a corner," Gladion murmurs, placing his sweater over her. "I have never seen you cry."
"I can't cry," Moon says, more to herself than him. "If anybody saw me cry, they would get worried about me and I don't wanna place that burden on people, I just– I can't do that."
His hands linger on her shoulders for a little longer as she's enveloped by his warm sweater, lingering and lost as to what he should do– but then, his arms come around her and Moon leans onto him as her body shakes a little more, tearing down the wall around her little by little.
"I didn't mean to say what I said back there," he murmurs into her hair, hugging her tight. "I'm sorry. I really am. I didn't want you to cry, and I didn't want our date to go this badly but Arceus, I… I don't want to see you get hurt, Moon."
It should be irritating for him to bring that point up again, but she's just realized that he's completely right. "I know." A relieved sigh escapes him, and Moon revels in that sound. "I don't want any of you to get hurt. If that happened I would never forgive myself."
"We can protect ourselves."
"One can never be too sure," she replies like the many times she has said this to Wicke in the past. "And I don't want to lose you because I was too much of a klutz."
"You're still upset that Guzma called you a klutz one time?" When she nods quietly, he presses a kiss on her forehead. "You get upset over the silliest of things."
"But you know this," she moves her hands to encompass the current situation, "is not silly, right?"
"Of course I know," he says. "I know better than anyone else does, Moon. I want to protect you just as much as you want to protect us. I just–" He sighs and looks at the angry gray sky, looking for patience. "I saw Lusamine become somebody she wasn't out of grief. I don't want you to lose yourself in a mission that you shouldn't be facing on your own. I can't lose you, Moon."
Him saying things so sensitive and so vulnerable when he's always so stoic and so cold to the world makes her realize that everyone around her is human and weak to what she's facing– but so is she. Everyone has their weaknesses and their fears, their demons, and their nightmares, and Moon has always taken pride in the many times she has helped people get along in life.
It's hard to see sometimes that people are trying to reach out to her again, so when he rubs her arm up and down to calm her down, Moon holds onto him and lets his voice serenade him to tranquility until, suddenly, she feels something shifting from under the sweater.
Her quiet sobs still the instant she hears a small, shy coo come from under his sweater, and lo and behold, a small Kartana peeks from under the black fabric, as though it's scared.
Gladion stares at it with wide, perplexed eyes. Moon blinks at it in wonder. "What… that's Kartana, isn't it?"
She nods numbly and the creature comes from under the sweater, floating towards Moon until it's nestled on her shirt and tucked into one of the sweater's arms. Moon lets go of Gladion's arm to offer the little creature a finger, and the Kartana wraps its arms around her finger with uncanny caution as to not cut her skin.
"It's so small," Gladion utters, more in awe than confusion. "I thought it was bigger when we started chasing it around."
"Wicke and Anabel told me they're a little bigger." When Moon tries to tug her finger away, the Kartana lets out a soft wail. "What's wrong, little buddy?"
The Kartana lets go of her finger and floats towards her other hand. "I think it's cold," Gladion says, and then looks at it again. "And I think it wants to go with you."
Moon only realizes she's holding the Beast Ball when the Kartana pokes it with its sharp arm, trying to lie flat on it as though it wants to enter the spherical device. Her fingers are wrapped so hard around it she can barely feel anything around her fingers.
Recalling all that Wicke had told her in the past, she realizes that it's raining and that Kartana deals terribly with this weather. "Oh, it must suck to be stuck in the rain, huh? Alola must be very harsh on you." The small Kartana gives her a soft coo in response. "Alright, I'll catch you. I will get you home once all this is over, okay?"
The Kartana happily wobbles away from her and lets her catch it, not giving her an ounce of trouble. When the Beast Ball clicks shut and the blue shines like starlight, Moon sighs and lets herself relax under Gladion, who has gone strangely silent after the fact.
He explains himself quickly. "I… I never thought Ultra Beasts could be that harmless." His voice is dry despite the rain. "I lived fearing that a Nihilego would come out of a wormhole and eat us alive, or that a Xurkitree would someday take us away from Alola and to its dimension. It's hard to see them as anything but a threat, sometimes."
Moon smiles to herself. "I know the feeling. They're very special creatures, to give them a name. But we'll figure a way around it, together."
That last word is what brings him to surprise. "Together?"
"I might have to talk to Anabel and you're gonna have to convince them to join the mission, but… I don't think you're known for being a bad trainer." She sighs into his shoulder as he tucks her deeper into the embrace. "Besides, I can keep a closer eye on you this way. I guess it's a win-win situation."
Gladion nods. "I can work with that."
"Anabel is very hard to work with, though."
"I've had it worse."
"Faba?"
"Faba."
She giggles. "That's a fair point." As she cozies into his embrace and they stay still for a few minutes, Moon can feel the ground getting wetter and colder. "I hope you weren't planning to take me anywhere nice tonight, by the way. I think our clothes are a little dirty."
"We can crash at my place and watch a movie." He pets her hair, running his hands up and down the wet tendrils. "I think we deserve it after today."
"Arceus, I love you."
And he just kisses her forehead and she knows the sentiment is fully, unconditionally reciprocated.