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Archie tried not to wince as the nurse quickly administered the shot. He's weathered worse, of course... though he's never been fond of needles.
“Just a precaution,” the woman had said. “The bites of certain Pokemon can carry potentially harmful viruses and bacteria.” Apparently Camerupt was one of those Pokemon.
The nurse was pretty, sea-green eyes with dark blonde hair. To distract himself, Archie tried to guess what scent her perfume was.
“Wild Pokemon?”
“Huh? Oh,” he nearly floundered, somehow not expecting the question. “Nah. Belongs to someone else.”
“Anyone you see on a regular basis?”
He laughed despite himself, settling for a simple “yeah” instead of explaining the absurd nature of their relationship.
“Does this Pokemon often show violent behavior? Any history of abuse? By previous trainers or...?” The nurse was hard at work disinfecting and bandaging his wound, rattling off the questions with machinelike efficiency.
“Abuse? Nah, nah. Nothing like that. Well-behaved all the time, 'til I try an' get close. Guess it just doesn't like me.”
Maxie's Camerupt's obviously hateful attitude towards him was always a source of some tension, but Archie didn't let it bother him- really. There were plenty of reasons for the Pokemon to dislike him, not least of which because his Sharpedo had trounced it in battle on more than one occasion. Heck, the Pokemon hadn't seemed to like him much before he and Maxie formally hated each other. It seemed to have a bit of a... possessive streak.
“Pokemon tend to take after their trainers. They're also remarkably good at picking up cues from them.” The nurse was disposing of the needle, now peeling off her gloves. “If the Pokemon feels threatened enough to bite, it may be time to burn bridges with its owner. It sounds like it's picking up on some serious hostility there.”
Archie's laugh was awkward and forced now. “Me and him haven't seen exactly eye-to-eye over the years, but...”
“Coworker?”
“Haha... somethin' like that.” Once. Sort of. Not for a long time and definitely not now.
“Well,” she finally looked back at him, beaming widely. “Keep your distance at least is all I can say. What did you say you did for a living?”
Archie stammered some nonsense about being an oceanographer before patting his bandage robustly (an immediate mistake) and excusing himself out of her office.
Returning to the house, he was almost surprised to find the offending Pokemon nowhere in sight. That was a rare occurrence indeed. The Mightyenas were both snarling and pacing around one another in the yard. They looked to be fighting, if you didn't live with them.
Archie closed the door warily behind him with a soft click. Maxie didn't even look up. He was hunched over a pot of something, giving it a concentrated stare as he slowly stirred, as if he were going to intimidate the contents into becoming edible quicker.
“All taken care of?” he asked disinterestedly, still focused on the stove.
“Yep.” Archie flopped down on the couch trying to get the nurse's unsolicited advice out of his mind.
“No chance of any infection, I trust...?”
“Nah.” He idly pressed buttons on his PokeNav, scanning his eyes over a mass-forwarded message from someone who used to be one of his old grunts, and was now the occasional drinking buddy. “Told ya I could have dressed it myself.”
Maxie just made a bit of a noise at that, somewhere between annoyance and surrender, and Archie tried not to lapse back into those thoughts. At this, he failed.
Theirs were special circumstances. You couldn't go from friends to lovers to worst enemies to some strange mix of all three without accumulating some seriously weird baggage along the way. The nurse couldn't have known all that. If she had, she would've nodded her head and understood. Surely she would have. Not that their relationship was perfect, or even that healthy (probably; just a guess). Maxie was a terrible partner, objectively: he was constantly distant, frequently cruel, and always weighed his own opinion more heavily than that of anyone else, stubborn to admit a loss, even now.
Even so, as long as Archie's heart felt as though he'd achieved everything he'd ever wanted- just from Maxie taking a seat close beside him and sighing, closing his eyes as he let Archie run fingers through his hair- he'd put up with just about anything. Therefore if there was something wrong with either of them, it was with himself, Archie decided.
He was brought out of his reverie by a steaming bowl being urged towards him. He looked up and saw Maxie looking impassively downwards, holding the soup at arm's length, impatience coming into his eyes as the seconds ticked by.
Forgetting his thoughts, Archie broke into an obnoxious smile. It was rare for Maxie to go out of his way like this. On nights where he bothered to cook, he would prepare for both of them at once, practicality over sentimentality. “Don't tell me you're feelin' all guilty now 'bout your Pokemon taking a bite out of my arm,” Archie teased, still unable to let an opportunity pass him by even after years of learning why it was a bad idea.
A look flickered across Maxie's face like he wanted to upturn the bowl and pour the steaming liquid all over Archie's lap. Instead he just shoved it into his grasp and rolled his eyes.
“I was cooking for myself, but the balance is off. You can have this attempt. I know your tastes are less discerning.”
Maxie's gaze flickered briefly to the fresh, sterile bandage decorating Archie's forearm, then he promptly turned away. Shrugging off Maxie's usual grouchiness, Archie started into the soup.
It was, actually, quite good.
(Especially for something Maxie had cooked.)
“Your Pokemon really hates me, huh.”
It was a strange thing to bring up while they both lay in bed together, mean-and-prickly daytime Maxie having given way to slightly-more-compliant and thus-less-intimidating nighttime Maxie. Archie, too, underwent a bit of a change this late at night. Unfortunately, he became more of a careless blabbermouth. This was probably not a good thing to be, with his face buried in Maxie's hair and his own crotch in easy kicking distance.
“It does,” Maxie acknowledged, not couching the truth in the slightest. “It's known you too long.”
Figuring this was a joke, Archie ignored it. “Just takes time, I guess. Others got used to me. This one will too.”
“Don't count on that.”
“Why?” Archie snorted, feeling a bit unhappy at how this was going. More to comfort himself, he snaked an arm around Maxie, which was allowed most of the time. “I mean, I know it hated losing so hard to me-”
“I'll see to it that you aren't bitten again,” Maxie cut in, sounding snippy although he was leaning into the additional closeness, “But all the same, you should give up on ever getting it to approve of you.”
“Why though?” Now he was really in trouble. Archie had never been able to stop once he'd gotten started on something; it had always been a boon in life, except where his relationships, past and present (and Maxie was both), were concerned. “I mean, that nurse today, with the nice tropical perfume, she said Pokemon get cues from their trainers. I've heard it before too. Bad people make for bad Pokemon. Also, they love and hate the same stuff as their trainer, out of loyalty and all that.”
“There's plenty of evidence to support that. Your Mightyena, for instance, behaves like a complete dunce, and has a rash weakness for uncooked meat.”
“Then why's your first Pokemon trying to kill me?” Archie groaned. “You've had that thing since around that time my dad caught me my Carvanha. It practically channels your emotions.”
“If it was trying to kill you, it'd have done more than chew your arm,” Maxie quipped, again completely missing the point. That was, to use an ironic figure of speech, the straw that broke the Camerupt's back.
“Forget that,” Archie growled, “You were sending it signals, weren't you?”
Maxie whipped his head around at this, looking utterly insulted. “I most certainly was not!”
“You were pissed at me for staying out all night with Hunt and the other guys. Your Camerupt's doing your dirty work!”
Maxie removed Archie's arm from around himself, handling it like he might a dirty rag. “If you're going to be completely absurd, I'll let him out right here and have you talk it out,” he snapped.
Archie heard plainly that Maxie was telling him to Frisk off, so he grudgingly forced himself to drop the topic. He couldn't let every argument end with some half-baked plan to destroy the world. That's what he frequently had to tell himself, anyway. And so they went to sleep.
The matter was forgotten for most of the following day, especially after a particularly and unexpectedly... pleasant morning, which had begun with him brushing the loose hairs out of Maxie's face as he lay sleeping and had ended with them exchanging some mild dialogue over how they would replace the lamp. Archie was in high spirits when he went to the shipyard for a day's honest labor.
Things were more normal now than he thought they could ever be again. That little scamp of a trainer- the league Champion, now- had apparently done some serious miracles for them, as far as the individual members of Team Magma and Team Aqua were concerned. The strongest consequence of the near-destruction of the world was ultimately a reinvigorated campaign towards getting people in Hoenn to understand the delicate balance of the environment... while the two teams that had nearly orchestrated it essentially escaped punishment altogether.
Maxie would be hard at work that night, so Archie felt no guilt about heartily accepting the invitation from Hunt and the other guys for a bit of drinking and chatting. Ultimately, this was the part of Team Aqua that he would've missed the most: the simple camaraderie of a tight-knit group working for the same goals.
“-five medals! Five! So much talent already!” Dewey, another close pal and an old team member, was gushing. It seemed like only yesterday the man had become a father, and now his little girl was already entering Pokemon Contests and sweeping them at a tender young age. Team Aqua had always been good with Pokemon, Archie thought proudly.
“A little champion already,” Archie laughed. “How long 'til she goes for Lisia's crown?”
“Well, we're not tryin' to pressure her, but we hope by the time she's seven years old she'll...”
Of course, Team Aqua's banter hadn't always been this... domestic. They'd all fallen into it so easily that Archie couldn't remember when exactly it had occurred. The Archie from five years ago would've been bored and had no time or use for stories about children or cooking or vacations. Something had happened in all that time more subtle than any evolution of Pokemon.
“What about you, Boss?” the affectionate nickname still stuck, and changed though he was Archie still liked to hear it, “What's the story with your arm? You and him fall into old habits?” A general laugh rang up, and Archie laughed with them. It was clear who was meant by “him” and what was meant by “old habits”. Archie had noticed after a while that none of his old teammates (although they never dared to speak against their relationship) liked to call Maxie by name. It was possible they were, on some level, still a little afraid of him.
It would've been the more graceful thing to do to make up a story. But Archie had a drink in his hand and a general policy of honesty, greatly fortified by the alcohol. “You remember the Camerupt?”
“Do I! That thing tore through my team at Mt. Chimney!”
“Yeah, I remember it.”
“'Course.”
“Thing took a big bite out of my arm.” Archie made a clamping motion with his arms for emphasis. “Still doesn't like me much. Guess old habits die hard, huh?”
“Make sure your Sharpedo returns the favor, boss,” another man, Chase, replied, a devious glint in his eye, the likes of which Archie hadn't often seen since they'd disbanded. “He'll get your revenge, and do him one better, sure enough.”
Archie laughed, heading for his drink again. “I think y'forget I do want there to be some left of him afterwards.” He didn't mention that his own Pokemon seemed to have no lingering grudges against Maxie whatsoever, and would certainly never bite someone without Archie's command.
Hunt slammed down his cup dramatically, sighing as if he had just retreated out of a memory. “Had this one girlfriend, back before Aqua... it was her Furfrou, man, the thing hated my guts. It actually Took me Down, knocked me flat on my face, thought it would finish me off. I covered my tracks so well, but her Pokemon, it's like it knew I was cheating on her.”
“There's none of that going on,” Archie said, “although I think I tried to foil his evil plans once. You guys remember that?” More laughter. Archie took another drink.
“Had something like that once too,” Chase said, “but she had a Charmeleon. I wasn't foolin' around, but she was stringing me along, with me only for the money I had at the time. She acted all sweet on me, but her Pokemon, the thing didn't respect me at all, always making me into some fool, and she didn't care enough to tell it to stop. Guess that shoulda been the warning sign.”
A strange feeling was coiling around in Archie's gut. As if his silence was damning, Chase was quick to speak again. “In your case it's the Magma-versus-Aqua thing. It makes sense.”
“Yeah.” Hunt.
“That's definitely it.” Dewey.
Then they segued into one of Hunt's long-winded stories about his trip to Lavaridge City, and Archie had never in his life been so glad to hear another man ramble on about his chronic back pain.
“Why are we here, Archie?”
“Quit askin' that over and over!” Archie grunted, on the verge of losing his mind, although one sight of the lake ahead of them, glimpsed at first only through the trees on the trail, was enough to restore him to full spirits.
It was a beautiful clear day, which should've been a good enough reason for anyone. With a swift motion Archie released Sharpedo from his PokeBall. The Pokemon, obviously delighted to be outside, happily swam in circles in the water, momentarily looking as harmless as a wading Ducklett. Archie quickly stripped off the clothes he had worn on top of his wetsuit (at Maxie's insistence) and hopped into a shallow part of the water, reaching out his arms as his Pokemon swam up to him and bumped him affectionately.
“Come over here, Max,” he called over his shoulder, wrangling Sharpedo in an affectionate full-body embrace, and Maxie had that same unhappy look on his face but still came to his side without complaint.
“What is it?”
“You haven't seen this guy in a while. Just thought it was time for you two to have some face-to-face time.”
Maxie's frown tightened. “That's what this is about? Fine, if it pleases you.” He sat on his knees near the side of the water and extended his hand in a halfhearted gesture near the water. Following Archie's motion, Sharpedo swam up to Maxie and gently bumped his hand. Maxie stroked the Pokemon's snout gingerly.
“Rough skin,” he murmured. “But it doesn't hurt.”
“Only hurts in a battle, remember? Here,” Archie tossed him something suddenly, and Maxie had to scramble to catch it. A Pokepuff. Rolling his eyes (though Archie thought his face had become much softer... if you knew him), Maxie held the treat over the Pokemon's mouth and dropped it, with Sharpedo happily devouring it in an instant. Its rows of bright, sharp teeth glinted in the midday light.
Suddenly, swiftly, Maxie withdrew his hand, shooting Archie a suspicious look. “You aren't planning anything, are you?” he demanded.
“What d'ya mean?”
“You don't have any payback planned for what happened with my Pokemon the other day? It seems sudden, you bringing me out here.”
Archie, realizing what he was being accused of, felt his blood begin to run hot. “Y'think I'd do a rotten thing like that on purpose? What kinda guy d'you think I am?”
“The same kind you think I am, apparently.”
His retort died in his throat. Couldn't really win that argument. It was true... he had basically accused Maxie of using his Camerupt as a weapon against him. “Your Camerupt's got blunt teeth,” he said finally, lamely. “If this guy bit you, you'd probably lose an arm.”
“True. I was just making sure you'd thought that far ahead. I would hate to be crippled because of your own lack of foresight in some petty revenge scheme.”
Archie forced himself to take deep breaths, to calm down. He didn't need them actually falling back into old habits. “...I brought you out here 'cause... I wanted you to remember how much this guy right here likes you, how comfortable he feels, even after we spent so many years on opposing sides.” He indicated towards his Sharpedo, which had headed out into the water to race around after sensing no more treats incoming.
Maxie followed it with his eyes, gazing out onto the water. “It does seem to have quite a capacity to... forget.”
“And, I guess I really am sorry for sayin' you made it happen on purpose,” Maxie was already looking unsatisfied with his apology, “...but I don't get how it doesn't bother ya, your Pokemon hating me like that.”
“I don't see why the affections, or lack thereof, of my Pokemon should concern you, provided there are no further incidents.”
Still struggling to articulate why, exactly, it bothered him, Archie hesitated... then deflated, letting his breath out. If he couldn't make him understand, it was pointless to incite him further. “It's just weird, is all.”
“As I told you, it won't happen again. I will see to that. And I had no part in it happening the first time.” Maxie raised an eyebrow, looking exasperated. “Is that enough for you?”
“...Yeah.”
Maxie indicated towards the water vaguely. “You can head out. I've brought some of my things.” He headed to the shade of a great tree (one of those big leafy ones that kids now were fond of making into their own little hideouts) and pulled his ever-present notebook out of his bag. Archie just watched for a moment, distracted by his failed purpose, but on perfect days like this one the water always called out to him, and he turned to the sparkling lake surface.
For a while Archie swam about near the shore. The water was a deep blue and as clear as glass; a few aquatic Pokemon could be seen darting this way and that. They scattered when his Sharpedo approached, and for a while they swam together, with Archie's Pokemon bearing his burden. The top speed they managed this way was exhilarating. As they jetted through the water they created a large wake, and whenever they came to a stop Archie could still see it dissipating in waves behind them.
The warming sun made him feel a glow under his skin. He was looking at Maxie, he realized. About 30 meters away he was, near the shore under that big leafy tree, and he was reading papers from a binder intensely but then he looked up and caught Archie's gaze for a moment as well. They watched each other for a moment before Maxie looked down again at his work. Archie tapped his Pokemon's head to indicate he wanted to return to land. They'd long worked out a system of communicating so that words were unnecessary.
When he hobbled up again on land, Archie's wetsuit was shiny with moisture and his hair was dripping wet. Maxie only glanced up a moment to acknowledge his presence, turning back to his reading material... until Archie abruptly kneeled down in front of him and roughly hooked his arms under Maxie's knees and shoulders before lifting him up in the air. The squawk he got for that was pretty rewarding.
“You're still wet,” Maxie sputtered, “What are you doing?”
Shifting the weight to one arm for a moment, Archie mindfully took the binder from Maxie's hands, although the way he dumped it on the ground was a bit less considerate. Then he ambled them both over in the direction of the lake. By this time Maxie had stopped struggling and had already accepted his fate, although he was clearly making a point to look displeased about it.
“If you drop me in the water, it will be the last thing you ever do,” Maxie warned, unsmilingly, sounding very much like the leader of Team Magma again. Of course, what it actually translated to was, I won't talk to you on the walk home. Archie gave him the most obnoxious grin he could, in response.
He- rather they- waded out into the water. Archie knew where the land sloped into the lake, getting deeper at a gradual rate before evening out to a flat area shallow enough to walk in. Soon the water was waist-deep. To Maxie's apparent great annoyance, he was forced to grab hold of Archie tighter to avoid getting some part of himself (such as the seat of his pants) soaked.
“This is deep enough,” Maxie announced.
“Yeah,” Archie agreed. Then, for a moment, they stood there.
The quiet moment didn't last long. Out of the depths Archie's Sharpedo emerged and swam in an arc beside them, playfully creating a wave. Thinking fast (and fighting his first instinct of rushing headlong into it), Archie remembered to turn away and was able to shield Maxie from the brunt of it. Of course the man immediately complained, but more out of principle than any actual annoyance. He even cracked a smile as he fished a piece of seaweed out of Archie's beard and made a joke about not wanting to be seen with some haggard seafaring ruffian.
“And to think none of this mighta been possible if things had gone your way, years ago.” Archie joked.
Maxie turned to him, the cartoonish, almost playful smirk on his face from before suddenly becoming somber and losing whatever humor it had. “I told you before I don't want to be reminded of that in my private life.”
“Sorry,” Archie said quickly, sincerely, feeling his reckless way of talking had damned him once more. They'd already talked through these things, thoroughly, years before, Archie lending a listening ear while Maxie worked through his own guilt; first in vague terms, as if he himself wasn't sure how to describe the feeling, then candidly and painfully. But it'd been years, and he thought it was safe. “Just glad things worked out the way they have, s'all.”
“Mm.” Maxie gave a brief noise of agreement.
For a moment they just looked out over the water in silence. Archie noticed a small group of Surskits on the other edge of the water, darting about on the surface, playing. A Beautifly was hovering just over the leafy plants on the shore.
“It would have been wrong.” Maxie was speaking now suddenly, “...I agree. As you well know. The balance would have been thrown into chaos. Places like this would have been lost. It would have been... a great tragedy.”
“If I'd succeeded, we'd all have been living in houseboats,” Archie said with a sardonic laugh, then indicated towards a Plusle and Minun pair who were nosing about in the grass on the shore opposite, “and those two would've been under the water now. Didn't mean to bring it all back up. Let's forget about all of that.”
He felt Maxie's head leaning softly against his shoulder, and when he looked down, his features were relaxed, his eyes closed. Oh. It was such a perfect scene that some impish impulse in Archie's mind wanted to drop him into the water just for the hilarious results.
The sane part of him was far stronger, fortunately.
He brought Maxie back to the shore, holding him high to make sure he didn't accidentally drag him in the water and ruin the good thing he had going right here. Kneeling down beside the tree, before Archie could set him down, he felt Maxie's hand on the back of his head, pulling him in for a kiss. Archie leaned into it, obliging.
Their lips brushed for only a moment, a sudden breeze brushing up against Archie's face in the interim, before he leaned back in and kissed him more thoroughly. Instantly Maxie pulled him in tighter, eyes still fluttering shut as he made a vague humming sound from the back of his throat.
Splash! Their attention was unexpectedly snapped back to the water at the loud sounds. When Archie turned to look, he wasn't sure whether to laugh or grunt with annoyance. His Sharpedo had found a Carvanha it was attempting to play with, but the smaller Pokemon was obviously panicked, uncomfortable around its (much larger) cousin. He hurried away to call his Pokemon back to the shore. It was getting late; the sun was beginning to edge out of sight behind the mountains.
When Archie returned to the great tree, Maxie was standing next to it, his bag already mounted on his shoulders, and he was giving him an expectant look. Archie tucked Sharpedo's PokeBall back into his belt with an apologetic smile and they began the walk home.
“Do I make you happy, Max?”
Maxie immediately ceased his writing and proceeded to simply stare at the page for a moment before looking up at Archie properly.
“Why are you asking me that?”
“Don't dodge the question, you sneaky little Servine,” Archie replied, in a half-joking manner, but his features were serious.
Maxie put down his pen with a heavy sigh, and sat back in his chair for a few moments before answering. “Yes, Archie,” he said at last. “You make me very happy.”
“Promise you're bein' honest?”
“I have no reason to lie to you about that.”
The answer cheered Archie somewhat (although 'sparing someone's feelings' seemed like it might be a good enough reason to lie; maybe Maxie just didn't see things that way). “Okay,” he said lamely, trying to gruff up his voice.
“Then I suppose I seem unhappy to you?” Maxie's attention was turned back to his papers, although he hadn't picked up the pen again.
“I guess I... I don't know.” Archie coughed, wishing he hadn't put them in this situation. He knew this was how Maxie was... or at least how he was now. “Sometimes hard to tell with you.”
Another lifetime ago, when they'd had their reckless affair in Team Rocket, Maxie had been effusive in his... affection. Enough to make Archie remember that time fondly, even though it had been obvious that Maxie saw him more as some kind of impressive and loyal pet. While Maxie had praised Archie's good qualities endlessly in those days, it had always been with the pleasure of someone appraising his own possessions. So he couldn't honestly say it had been better. But at least... back then... it had always been transparently obvious when Maxie was pleased or upset with him.
Perhaps Maxie just didn't know how to behave with someone who he was supposed to treat with complete equality.
“This is still about how my Pokemon bit you,” Maxie conjectured, bringing a hand up to his forehead as if he had a migraine.
“Yeah, it is, I guess,” Archie admitted, feeling defeated already. “I mean, my Sharpedo's known you just as long, and just a few years ago, it would have mauled you with barely a command from me, and now...” He shook his head, grunting in frustration. “'Makes me think your Pokemon's got this idea from you that it's still supposed to hate me, whether y'realize it or not.”
“Archie,” Maxie began, in a warning tone, but he was too far gone.
“I think my Pokemon only came to like you so much because it can see in my face that I love you.”
“Enough,” Maxie announced, standing up from his chair with a sudden motion. “We'll settle this right now.”
Before Archie could process what was happening, Maxie had let the aforementioned Pokemon, that hateful Camerupt, out of its PokeBall. As soon as it opened its eyes, the Pokemon, as if sensing his presence in the room, immediately turned its head and sent Archie a hostile look. Then it looked expectantly up at its trainer, all hatred gone from its eyes in a flash.
“What're you doing?” Archie demanded, afraid this was how Maxie was planning to expel him from the room. A dark part of him suspected that if they didn't figure this out now, they would start down the road to something they wouldn't recover from.
Instead of answering him, Maxie reached a hand down to stroke the Pokemon's head gently. He never roughhoused with his companions playfully as Archie did, but all the same Camerupt closed its eyes, looking gentle and peaceful as soon as its master touched its fur.
“I've been wrong twice now,” Maxie said quietly, obviously speaking to the Pokemon and not to him. “Do you remember what I said?”
In spite of the situation, Archie was spellbound watching as the Camerupt looked up at Maxie intently, its ears pricking up in response to the question. It was hard to believe in this moment that that Pokemon could react spitefully towards anyone.
“I said,” and here Maxie let his eyes flicker up to Archie's, who could only gape dumbly back at him, before turning back to his Pokemon, “that as long as I lived, I'd never forgive that horrible man who betrayed me.”
The Pokemon, its ears perked now in recognition, turned to growl at Archie again, making him flinch a little (Maxie hadn't seen, right?), but its trainer's annoyed huff brought its attention back. “I said many things to that effect,” he acknowledged, continuing. “And I enlisted you, and my other companions for that matter, in some fool's errand to destroy this world. If not for him, and another specific trainer, we might have succeeded.”
“Your Pokemon didn't know the full story?” Archie asked, amused. It was just like Maxie to hold back something that massively important because it hadn't become a personal nuisance to him yet.
“He does,” Maxie said coolly, not looking up at him this time when he spoke. “I'm reminding him of the first time I was ever wrong.”
“Okay.”
“And now for the second time.” Maxie stepped backwards and sat back in his chair again, looking fatigued, and the Pokemon plodded after him obediently, gazing up patiently. “I ranted every day about that man who dared to abandon me,” he muttered at length. “I was so angry and couldn't let it escape, in front of the loyal subordinates I did have.” Archie sat down as well, in an armchair in the corner of the room, feeling a bit boneless. “I wanted to string him up and leave him for having the gall to think his ideas could possibly counter mine. It drove me rabid, the fact that I could not have both the things I wanted.”
Archie watched him as intently as the Camerupt did. It was the first time he'd heard Maxie talk so candidly about their initial split almost twenty years ago now. He'd known at the time that Maxie would despise him for it, but as he'd suspected, Maxie had never let it show, never looking at Archie with more than casual disdain, even if behind his eyes Archie could see the contempt blazing.
“Years of listening to my bitter venting,” Maxie began again, “because no one else could be allowed to know.”
“That's why he hates me so much,” Archie realized, everything suddenly clicking into place in a big way. He'd never even suspected the extent of it. “All he knows is how bad you were hurting all that time.”
“Yes,” Maxie admitted, giving the Pokemon's head another casual stroke, “Of course it was the both of us at fault, myself and you, for developing such toxic ideologies in the first place. But Pokemon can be steadfastly loyal. Naturally I blamed everything on you and your intention to hurt me... hurt my pride... so that's what it believes.”
Camerupt looked like it was ready to drift to sleep at any moment. Archie had never seen it go so long without protesting his presence before. “But things have changed now,” Maxie continued, still moving his hand steadily. “And I should have made that more clear.”
Things really were different, even if some days it felt like they had never stopped feuding. He really was foolish for forgetting it, Archie thought to himself.
A quiet laugh suddenly broke the silence. It was Maxie, looking as though he'd remembered some private joke, just funny enough to curl the edges of his lips. It was such a strange sound that every other thought popped out of Archie's head. “What is it?” he asked, confused.
“When your Pokemon warmed up to me so quickly, it affected me in almost the same way,” Maxie said. His gaze had become glossy and unfocused. “I assumed you must have dealt with our... separation, in a much more capable way. The idea was... upsetting.”
It took Archie a moment to process what this meant. “Haha, you thought I didn't suffer for it at all? Heck no. Couldn't be further from the truth.” In the face of Maxie's startling honesty, his own bottled-up emotions came out freely. “Everyone on the team knew there'd been someone. Was real hard not letting it affect our operations. Arceus above, it was hard. Came close to spilling the beans every time there was some drink involved. Took just about everything I had to hold back.”
This answer seemed to satisfy Maxie immensely. “I see,” was all he said.
“Just a couple of bozos, aren't we?” Archie asked with a chuckle. “How long does it take us to have one conversation, anyway?”
“We're hardly normal people.”
“You're far from a normal person, Max,” Archie agreed, “but, s'what you always loved most about yourself.”
Maxie smirked, leaning back in his chair and folding his arms over his knee. “You should come over here and kiss me.”
Archie's eyes darting to Camerupt at Maxie's feet asked the question before he did. “That guy gonna protest at all?”
“No,” Maxie said easily, so Archie stood up and took the first few steps to Maxie's side.
He tried not to note exactly when he was within “biting distance”, but still, after drawing quite near he paused, watching. Camerupt lifted its head and watched him right back, drowsy, with some lingering suspicion. The Pokemon still didn't trust him, that much was clear, but for now it made no move to try and ward him off.
Archie braced one hand on the back of the suede-backed chair and leaned down, keeping his eyes open long enough to see Maxie's self-satisfied and half-lidded expression before he kissed him.