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Ash stands in the middle of the court yard, staring up in defiance of the blaring alolan sun to watch Mallow hang flower vines between the posts.
“Is it even with the others?” she calls out on her ladder.
Ash squints, and between the lack of sleep and increasing blurriness due to the brightest fucking sun he thinks he’s ever experienced on Alola thus far, he can’t tell the difference.
“Yeah, it looks great, Mallow!” he answers, continuing on his way to the classroom.
He passes Lana and Primarina, blowing up balloons while Sandy plays some kind of hot potato by itself.
She gives a wave which he returns, but leaves them be.
The atmosphere is light as ever, one doesn’t need to use aura to know that, but everywhere Ash goes he can sense the excitement oozing out of every living creature. It’s exhausting.
Pikachu still sits calmly on his shoulder, and Ash knows he already knows how grateful he is that he grounds him.
Samson Oak rounds the corner, noticing Ash coming his way.
“Ah! If it isn’t the Machamp-ion of our region, himself!”
Ash can feel Pikachu wince without seeing his face. “Hi, Principal Oak.”
“Are you Loud-ready for to-Morelull’s dance?”
“Sure am. Everyone’s worked so hard to put it on, I can’t wait,” he somewhat forces himself to say.
“Well-lord, I’ll seel you later!”
Ash searches the room’s energy before he arrives and is relieved to see that there’s only one presence, calm and consistent.
“Alola, Lillie,” he greets while Pikachu hops down to meet Snowy.
She looks up from her desk. “Alola, Ash. How are you?”
He goes and sits down in the desk next to her, setting Rowlet down on the table still in his backpack. “A little tired, to be honest.”
“I’m sure with as many battles you had,” she says, going back to what’s on her desk. Ash recognizes it as some kind of origami his mom sometimes made when she had nothing else to do. Her’s was always small and intricate, but Lillie’s is bigger with less folds, like the big flowers Ash passes by everyday on his way to school.
“Are those for the dance?” he asks.
“Yes,” she says, concentrating on her current flower. “Hobbs and I started last night, so there’s a lot more at the house.”
“Nice. My mom used to do origami like that when I was little.”
“Really? Is she still here?” She finishes the flower and grabs another sheet of colored paper.
“No, I saw her after the exhibition match, and then she left."
Lillie must have picked up something in his voice because she sighs and says, “Moms, huh?”
“Yeah,” he finds himself saying instead of something defensive.
Sophocles and Kiawe enter the room together, both of their hands painted in multiple colors. Togedemaru’s fur is stained a bright neon rainbow.
“Alola, guys.” Kiawe waves, practically collapsing in the desk in front of them. Sophocles sits down as well, breathing heavily.
“Oh come on, poster making couldn’t have been that hard,” Lillie says. The boys share a look and go back to unpacking their bags.
Mallow and Lana arrive a few minutes later, joining the crew at their desks. Everyone is worn out, but there’s still a buzz of anticipation that Ash deins he can make due with today.
He watches as Lillie helps Mallow pick out stray leaves stuck in her hair. She offers one of the paper flowers in place of the one currently in her hair. They both smile at each other. This is grounding.
“Alola, class!” Kukui announces when he arrives. They all greet him in return and Pickachu comes bounding back to Ash’s shoulder.
“I know you’re all working hard to put on tomorrow’s celebration, so we’ll do that later with the other classes. But for now, I want to do something else.” He takes the chalk and starts writing on the board. Once he’s finished, it reads “What is the most important thing you learned from the Manalo Conference?”
Kukui sets the chalk down. “As creator of the league, yes, this is somewhat important to me and the people who put it on,” he says, moving to sit down at his desk. “But this is for you to realize what you gained from participating, and how it might help you. So just write whatever comes to mind and come see me when you’re done.”
Hm.
Before Ash starts to think about what he’ll write, he watches the others.
They each spend some time considering the prompt, but Mallow and Lillie immediately begin scribbling on their papers. Kiawe seems lost in thought while Lana and Sophocles look overwhelmed with the amount of choice they have to choose from.
Ash moves his mind back to his own answer. It’s not the one he expected, but as of late, he’s been exceeding his own expectations of himself.
When he’s finished writing, he and Kiawe are the only ones left in the room. He hands his paper to the professor, who reads it over in an embarrassingly few amount of seconds.
“I like it,” he says finally. He meets Ash’s eyes. “You got a lot of perspective for a kid like yourself. But you probably already knew that. Even with everything else that’s happened, you’re still following your convictions honestly. Keep that up, and you’ve got good things ahead of ya kid.” He pauses. “But from the zombied look in your eye, I’m gonna say maybe you want to chill out first?”
“Yes,” he says flatly. Kukui laughs.
“Pull up a chair.”
Ash does as told and brings his desk chair to Kukui’s desk. Kiawe gets up and shows Kukui his response.
“You’ve grown a lot since you joined my class, Kiawe. Nice work, we’ll discuss it more later.”
He nods. “Thanks, professor.”
“Good luck on those posters,” Kukui adds with a wink. Kiawe sighs.
Once he leaves, Ash asks what’s up with the poster making.
“You don’t wanna know,” is all he says on that matter. “Could you help me cut out these tickets though?”
So, the two of them cut out fancy little tickets for entry into the dance. Kukui pulls out his box radio and puts on the local station, currently filled with dance songs inspired by the traditional sounds but obviously with more of a mainland R&B take on it. Ash only knows this because of how often Kukui will rattle off the entire Alolan musical history without even realizing it. But mostly, he just dances and sings along only a little off-key. Ash finds himself doing the same every once in a while when he hears a song he’s heard before.
They finish cutting as the lunch bell goes off, his friends slowly filing back into the class. Ash takes his chair back to his desk and starts putting the desks all into their usual circle. He slides his trade snacks to the center while they all start to sit down.
Kiawe raises an eyebrow at his offer of the bunch of berries in the center. “High rollin’, are we?”
Ash snorts. “I’ve eaten them almost every day this week. And I know Mallow has something in there better than them.”
“Not today,” She says, sitting down across from him. “I’ve been so exhausted, I just put the first thing I saw in the fridge in my lunchbox.”
“Well, I’ll get something.”
He ends up trading Lana for her sleeve of mainland cookies while the music of Kukui’s left-on radio plays in the background of their meal.
“So we’re supposed to wear something that’s been in our family?” Sophocles asks between bites.
“Yeah, sorta,” Mallow answers. “It’s not supposed to be new, so you don’t go out and buy something.”
“You’re supposed to borrow it from someone in your family, or anyone else.” Lillie adds.
“Oh, that makes sense. Do you guys know what you’re going to wear then?”
“My mom gave me a dress that I’m going to fix tonight, if I can keep Sarah and Harper outside of my room,” Lana says first. “But at least my dad’s old suit jacket fits already. He used to be really tiny, I guess.”
“Same, weirdly enough,” Kiawe says. “I’m wearing my grandfather’s suit since my dad was skinnier than me.”
“Olivia is coming back to the island tomorrow to drop off something for me, which is nice, because I didn’t really feel like going through all my mom’s stuff.”
“That’s kind of her,” Lillie says. Ash is faced with a certain surge of uncertainty coming from her, hidden by her tone of voice. She probably doesn’t want to ask Lusamine for anything.
Ash clears his throat. “Yeah, I guess I’ll have to ask the professor for something,” he says, looking straight at Lillie.
She looks a little confused, then mouths an oh and nods.
The conversation drifts between topics before lunch is over and they all go back to helping with the dance. Ash helps Kukui run errands around the school, finding a chance to ask if he could call Burnet.
He gives him his cell and goes away to find Samson.
“ Hey, Makoa, ” she answers.
“It’s Ash, Burnet-hakase,” he replies, mildly tapping his foot.
“ Oh, hi, Ash! What’s up? ”
“Well, I was wondering if you had anything for Lillie to wear to the dance tomorrow? I don’t think she wants to ask her mom.”
“Yeah, definitely! Have her walk home with you, hun. I’ll be there when you get there, I had to go to an appointment today.”
“Okay, I will. See you later, hakase.” He waits for her to say bye, then hangs up the phone. Something hits him after he puts the phone down, how different this day has felt in comparison to the past week. Not only the change of pace, but something else he can’t place his finger on.
–
Ash, Kukui and Lillie find Burnet waiting at the house like she said she would be, immediately dragging Lillie to her closet in excitement.
Kukui watches her with a sort of fondness Ash can only remember from their wedding day, which is weird, because he knows Kukui hates clothes and shopping and all that.
Ash takes Rowlet out of his bag and throws it upstairs, gathering his pokémon to go outside. “I’m going to train!” he yells to the whole household and then runs out on the beach away from the house.
He goes into a simple stretching routine because he knows they’ve all been worked to the bone. Helping Melmetal get the hang out it’s new evolved form, he lets the others mess around by themselves. Going from not a foot tall to a towering giant, he realizes in hindsight how disorienting it must have been. He remembers the exercises he used to work through it with Torterra, so he walks it through each of it’s moves multiple times to teach it control over its body and limbs. By the time Kukui calls them back for dinner, Ash can truly feel their connection back at the height it was before Melmetal evolved.
His pokémon trail into the house behind him, scattering about until their bowls have been filled. Melmetal peeks in through the window.
“Ash, hun, would you grab the plates and take them to the back?” Burnet asks, fishing out silverware from the drawer.
“Sure,” he answers, grabbing them and heading to the back door.
Lillie waits patiently at the patio table while Kukui is filling the bowls of pokéfood. Ash sets the plates down on the table and sits adjacent to Lillie.
Burnet holds the door open while all of the pokémon file out. Melmetal sits in the yard solemnly.
Kukui heads back inside as Burnet sits down with the cups and forks. He brings back fish and a pitcher of juice, sitting down.
“Alrighty, thank you for this meal,” he says.
The three repeat it back and they all dig in.
“So, what are you going to wear, Lillie?” Ash asks, shoveling in rice.
“Well, it’s a short lavender dress,” she describes.
“It’s from my first high school dance,” Burnet adds. “Speaking of which, Ash, you need to look at Kukui’s old stuff. I got it all out when I was looking with Lillie.”
“It’s going to have to be the stuff from my graduation, the other stuff is too small. But it’s still going to be a little big.”
“He can just wear those suspenders I found in the pile. Don’t worry, hun, you’ll look great.” She winks at Ash.
“How does everything taste, anyway?” Kukui asks. “You know, I tried something new with the barbeque…”
–
Ash awakes to the smell of something almost burning, an unfortunately common smell in the house.
Eyes still closed, he yells, “Are we on fire?”
“Only on the inside!” Kukui yells back.
“It’s grilled cheese,” Burnet adds.
He connects the fact that it’s lunch time, then, and he’s grateful they let him catch up on the sleep he’s been missing. He moves Pikachu, who's still sleeping, to the side so he can get up.
“Morning,” he says, taking a seat at the island.
“Afternoon,” Kukui corrects before sliding him a cut in half grilled cheese and a bowl of tomato soup.
“Thank you for the meal,” he says and then eats while Burnet and Kukui banter in the living room.
“The leave would be at the same time as ours,” Burnet says.
“So you get to use it after the leave, they can’t shorten it because of that.”
“Knowing her, she’ll try and guilt me into it.”
“Well, that’s too damn bad.”
“Makoa,” she says dryly.
He gets up and walks over to Ash, putting a hand on his shoulder. “It’s too dang bad,” he corrects as he winks at Ash. “Wanna look at your options?”
“Already?” Ash asks.
“Lusamine wants pictures with everyone, so we’re heading over there early ‘cause we have to chaperone. But Hobbs is going to drive you all there in the limo.”
Ash takes the last bite of his sandwich. “Okay, yeah. Let me go brush my teeth.”
–
He takes the slacks and dress shirt from Kukui and puts them on in the bathroom. In the mirror, he assures himself that the shirt is just a little too big and that he’ll need those suspenders to hold the slacks up when he moves.
Burnet and Kukui are waiting outside the bathroom door in anticipation when he steps out.
“Look at you, hun! You look great.” Ash somehow knows she won’t stop smiling anytime soon.
“I’ll be taking those suspenders now, thanks,” Ash jokes and then they’re both helping him with all the snaps.
They step back. “You need the tie,” Kukui states before walking back into their room.
“The tie?” Ash asks.
“The tie,” Burnet repeats.
Kukui comes back with a black bowtie in his hands. “The tie.”
Ash shakes his head. “The tie.”
Burnet nods. “The tie.”
Ash turns around while Kukui fixes it in the back, clapping him on the shoulder when he finishes.
“Perfect.”
“How do I look, guys?” he asks his pokémon. They all chitter excitedly in response. Pikachu clambers to his shoulders while Rowlet flutters to the top of his head and falls asleep.
“Guess that really means you can’t do anything to his hair,” Kukui says to Burnet.
“Oh, I guess it’s good in that boyish way.”
“Then how come you’ve never said that to me?”
She just laughs.
–
Pikachu and the three of them pile into the jeep while the rest of the pokémon wait in their pokéballs until the dance. Ash sticks his hand outside the window, watching the sea pass by while the alolan air is sharp on his hand. It’s grounding.
He catches Burnet staring at him in the rear view mirror. “Sorry, Ash. I was just thinking.” She turns to Kukui, communicating in the way Ash assumes married people just do.
Her face looks concerned, but Ash can feel the joy in her aura.
Kukui nods. “Go ahead.”
She turns around in her seat to face him. “Ash, there’s something me and Kukui want to tell you.”
“What is it?”
“We’re going to have a baby!”
“A baby? Really?”
“You’ll be a brother, kid,” Kukui says, looking at him warmly through the rear view mirror.
“Brother?” He furrows his eyebrows. “But I’m not–”
“Oh, don’t start with that. You know darn well how much you belong in this family.” Burnet’s tone is scolding but filled with love.
Ash doesn’t know what to say. “I–I’m so happy.”
“We are too.” Burnet smiles, taking his hand. “We love you, Ash.”
Pikachu jumps into the front seat, onto Burnet’s lap. Burnet laughs as he starts hugging her stomach.
“We love you too, Pikachu. We’re all one happy family.”