Chapter Text
“Here we are kiddos, home sweet home.”
That had snapped Victor out of his aimless gaze out the car window. He turned his attention to said “sweet home” that was to be their residence for who knows how long. It was quaint but certainly larger than he thought it was going to be. Their previous apartment in New York was only one floor so having an upstairs again is a market improvement.
“227 Postwick Drive!” His sister, ever the enthusiast, shouts from the back seat.
“Someones excited,” Victor deadpans as he turns around slightly to face her.
“Somebody’s gotta be mr grumpy pants.”
“I’m not grumpy.”
“And the sky is green.”
“And you’re funny.”
“I am-“
“Victor, Gloria, please, let’s not fight,” their mother has already heard enough of them since their flight landed in London.
“We aren’t,” they say in unison, their mom only rolls her eyes and laughs as she steps out of the car.
“Victor,” she hands him a key, “go put Mr. Munches in the house and come back and help your sister and I,”
“Sure thing mom,” he looks down at the cat in his lap, “come on fat ass, time to get up.”
“Language.”
“Yea yea, sorry mom.”
He makes his way to the front door and steps up the single step porch, fiddles with the key until it slots in correctly and opens the door. The inside is similarly small as he expected it to be, but it would suffice for two fourteen year olds and their mother.
“Vic move!” Gloria nudges past him rather aggressively, “quit standing around and grab your stuff from the car.”
“Right,” he places Mr. Munches down and makes his way back to the car.
“Here sweetie,” his mother hands him a box that holds the things he though were the essentials, most importantly his laptop, Nintendo Switch and various room decorations he didn’t have the heart to part with.
“Thanks.”
This process continues, he and his sister coming in and out of the house carrying boxes of things labeled accordingly to where they’ll be set, kitchen, living room, bathroom, hallway? Honestly it surprised Victor how much stuff they had managed to bring with them, but not flying commercially and instead flying aboard a C-17 military cargo transport gave them that ability. Although he didn’t get a ounce of sleep the entire seven hour flight, and was amazed Gloria was able to, at least the crew was nice enough to let him sit in the cockpit for a while until they needed to land.
“I think it’s cute,” Gloria remarked while unpacking kitchen utensils.
“What is?” Victor asks looking over his shoulder as he put dishes in a cupboard.
“The house dummy.”
“Oh, yeah it’s alright, little smaller then I thought.”
“Well ya’know what dad always says, everything’s always bigger in America .”
Victor laughs at his sisters impersonation of their father and Gloria smiles at being able to bring her brother out of his gloominess.
“It’s a shame dad couldn’t fly with us.” Victor adds, calming himself and returning to the dishes.
“Yeah, but he said he needed to be here before us to set things up at the base.”
“His promotion put him in charge of that base too remember,” the twins mother chimed in walking past the kitchen.
“How could we forget, we were at the ceremony when they stuck those pins on his uniform,” Victor retorted.
“Dad looked so happy that we were there too.”
“Yeah…” Victor sighs, “then he got assigned here.”
“Vic come on it’s not all ba-“
“Victor hunny can you come and help me with the TV,” their mother yells from the other room.
Victor shrugs at his sister and leaves her in the kitchen.
It takes a couple of hours to set everything up into their respective places but they manage it, now Victor can finally settle into his new room and assumes his other two family members are doing the same.
He sits on his bed and takes in the room he had claimed, it had a nicer view then the one Gloria got stuck with. It’s smaller then his previous room, he wonders if all his posters form various other places would fit… or maybe it was time to find new posters, after all, his old ones would just make him miss the states more.
His phone dings on his nightstand and he leans over to grab it and smiles at the notification.
Hugh: Soooo, how’s England? You meet the Queen yet?
He lays on his back and laughs before typing his response.
Victor: Lol no, it’s alright I guess.
Hugh: You’re homesick already aren’t you Vic?
Victor: A little
Hugh: You’ll be alright Victor, you got your mom and your sister with you.
Victor: Encouraging.
Hugh: And you got me too.
Victor: You’re half way across the world now, but you’re right.
Hugh: I always am. What was the name of the town you moved to again?
Victor: Galar, it’s north of London, apparently mom used to live here before she met my dad and moved to America.
There’s a few second wait until Hugh sends a picture of said town.
Hugh: This the place?
Victor: Yep, that’s it.
Hugh: They apparently have a pretty good school there.
Victor: Nothings gonna beat Unova’s.
Hugh: That’s right baby! LETS GO DRAGONS.
Victor: Lmao.
“Gloria, Victor, come help me with dinner!” His mother shouted up the stairs.
“Coming!” He replied, and quickly typed up a message.
Victor: Gotta go, talk to you later.
Hugh: 👍🏻 .
He bumps into his sister as he exits his room, which only gets him the usual tirade of how inconsiderate he is of her well being as they descend the stairwell.
Dinner was nothing spectacular, just chicken with pasta and a side of veggies he probably wasn’t going to touch, he wasn’t a big fan of green beans, but Victor always loved his mother’s cooking regardless.
“You guys talk to your friends at all?” His mother asked in between bites of food, she was somewhat hypocritical with her manners, always telling the twins to not talk with their mouths full to then do it herself.
“I called Bianca and Iris.”
“And I talked with Hugh.”
The two felt a slight tinge of sadness when talking about their friends half a world away, Victor especially remembers how bittersweet the little going away party their friends had put together the day before.
“I know you two miss them, but it’s not like you’ll never see them again,” she takes a sip of her drink, “besides, now you get to make more friends.”
“You said the same thing when we left Alola,” Victor whines.
“Vic’s still upset about leaving his Hawaiian boyfriend behind,” Gloria adds sarcastically.
“He wasn’t my boyfriend, and that was four years ago!” Victor raises his voice and glares at his sister.
“Still in denial,” she shakes her head mockingly.
“At least I didn’t try to make out with my brothers best friend.”
It was Gloria’s turn to get flustered and she now glared back at her brother, who for his part had the tiniest smirk on his face.
“Like you didn’t!”
“I didn’t!”
“Kids! Please,” their mother interjected into the shouting match between the siblings.
The pair sigh heavily and calm themselves, they resume eating their dinners silently until their mother brakes the silence.
“Either of you speak to your father?”
“Not since yesterday,” Victor answers.
“Same here, is he going to come see us soon?” Gloria asked.
“Don’t know…” their mother places her chin on her hand and puts her elbows on the table, breaking yet another rule she enforces, “but I’m sure he’ll make room for us in his schedule.”
Victor mentally rolls his eyes, he is well accustomed to his father’s extremely busy schedule, having not been present at a few of the twins birthdays and last Christmas. It was never his father’s fault and Victor never blamed him, he understood that what he was doing was more important.
The three of them talk a little longer until they’re finished eating, together they clean up diner and prepare to ready themselves to settle into the night. Their mother stops them before they run up the stairs.
“Remember, tomorrow we’re meeting with the schools headmaster.”
“Oh, headmaster? How fancy,” Gloria jokes.
“I think that’s what they call principals here,” Victor adds while tapping his chin.
“That’s right, now go get some sleep alright,” their mom leans in kisses both the twins foreheads.
“Yes mom.” The two responded in unison and make their way to their rooms.
Victor lays in bed staring at the ceiling, it’s not the most comfortable bed he’s slept on but with enough time he knows he’ll get used to it.
‘A new school… wonder if the kids will be friendly, the teachers too…”
He never had any trouble in school, often excelling in his classes regardless of subject. He chuckles remembering the only times he got in trouble in Alola’s school was because he kept talking to his friends Mallow and Kiawe, the latter being a distraction for other reasons his sister pokes fun at him for. As for Unova, he and Hugh were just massive goof balls, but his teachers always let him off the hook because he was a excellent student.
He sighs loudly, at least Alola and Unova were both in the United States, sure at complete opposite sides of the country but still in the same country… now he was half way across the world in a fairly large English town surrounded by strangers except for his family.
‘You’ll be ok Victor, just relax, close your eyes and try to get some sleep.’
He listens to himself and eventually dozed off into sleep, in a bed that’s not comfortable yet, in a house that feels strange and in a town he knows nothing about.