Work Text:
“Quit laughing,” Volo snapped without any true heat, trying to move as little as possible while his wife cackled merrily at his misfortune. “I’d like to see how you deal with being —”
“— burned to a crisp?” Akari finished with false sweetness. Volo sighed and rolled his eyes, not bothering to fight her words. It wasn’t as though she was wrong either. Maybe he should’ve listened to her and used the higher SPF sunscreen she adored so much but, in his defence, he thought it’d be fine! He’d gotten sunburned before and it’d been fine — a little bit annoying, perhaps mildly painful, but ultimately easy to brush off.
Today was… not like that.
It felt like his skin had shrunk several sizes, stretching and pulling uncomfortably with each movement. He already knew his skin was painfully, embarrassingly red, radiating heat like a furnace. With each breath it felt like his skin pulsed, tight and impossible to ignore. Lāhainā indeed, he thought with resigned amusement. It was lucky they had only been at Hano Beach and could easily walk back to their hotel room — Volo dreaded to think about what it would’ve felt like trying to wear a shirt in this state. He dreaded the next several days, in fact, where he would have to wear a shirt. “Pride goeth before the fall, I suppose,” he sighed, wishing he could touch his face without feeling like he was rubbing sandpaper over his sensitive skin.
He could practically feel the smug glee radiating from Akari at his words. “Well, it’s not the first time your pride has bitten you in the ass,” she chirped, “but at least this isn’t, oh, I don’t know, the consequences of an attempted annihilation of all life on the planet. So at least this is fairly easy to treat!”
Volo groaned. She loved to tease him about the folly of his youth now that their relationship was one without so many emotional landmines to navigate. “That was over a century ago,” he complained. “Can’t you find some new material already? It’s getting a bit stale, my dear.”
She snickered and pressed a kiss against his still-damp hair before returning to her battle with the safety seal on the bottle of aloe gel. His shower earlier had been… interesting. Painful in new, fascinating ways. Not something he wanted to experience again but knew that he, regretfully, would be forced to endure until his sunburn healed. Thankfully Akari had gone down to the QRS Store in the lobby while he was busy hissing and cursing at the innocent showerhead and bought a bottle of aloe gel to help soothe the pain. Part of him was amused that a hotel as high-end as the Hano Grand Resort had a QRS Store amidst the glitz and glamour, but for the most part all he could feel was relief that a solution was readily available.
Part of him still clamoured to just go out and cut some aloe leaves himself and apply the sap directly to his skin, but Akari had already gone and bought a bottle so there wasn’t really a point. Besides, a lot of things had changed since the last time he’d been on ʻĀkala. Who knew if the aloe plants were still where he remembered them? No, he decided. It was better not to risk making an even greater fool out of himself. Akari let out a triumphant shout behind him. Presumably she’d finally managed to get the seal off.
He could feel the weight of her stare against his back as the sounds of a cap being screwed back on reached his ears. He hoped she hurried up. It felt like his skin was about to tear apart. “You are… so red,” she giggled. Even without seeing her face, he knew exactly what kind of expression she was making. “I think you might even be redder than a shiny Clauncher!”
“Will you please just help me already?” he grumbled. “Tease me all you want but —”
SLAP!!
Volo couldn’t help but scream as Akari’s palm suddenly smacked against the raw, sensitive skin of his back. Fire raced through his nerves, starting at the place of impact before radiating outward until his entire torso felt like a live wire. It was enough to steal the breath from his lungs. Even the slight cooling sensation of aloe gel smeared across his back did nothing to alleviate this new, sudden pain. His wife howled with laughter as he turned to face her, betrayal written clear across his face. “What was that for?!” he screeched, heart pounding erratically in his chest as he tried to breathe through the shock.
Tears streamed down her face as she continued to laugh, unable to catch her breath. “I’ve never heard you make a noise like that before!” she crowed, practically staggering with the strength of her laughter. “Volo — Volo, your skin turned white when I hit you, oh, oh Arceus that is —” She fell into another bout of hysterical laughter at her own words.
Volo just stared in disbelief. “You,” he snarled, brandishing an accusing finger at her, “are such a brat.”
Akari fought to get her breathing under control, wiping the amused tears from her eyes. It was impossible for Volo to hang onto his anger when she was so overjoyed from such a simple thing — even if it did cause him momentary, blinding agony. “I’m sorry,” she apologised, voice still wavering with suppressed laughter. “I’m sorry, I just — I had to do it, you’re so red, Vo, I couldn’t —” She giggled, pressing her hands over her mouth in a paltry attempt to stifle the sound. “Sorry, I’ll put the gel on nicely. I promise. I won’t slap you again.”
He sighed but decided to trust her words. “You better not,” he warned as he turned to face away from her again, “otherwise you’re going to get it.”
“I would never go back on a promise,” she assured, voice sugary sweet and utterly untrustworthy. Volo silently rolled his eyes and hoped she meant it.
Akari noted the aloe had a strong, but not unpleasant scent as she squirted more of the gel onto her waiting palm. It still tingled lightly from the smack she gave Volo — she really put all of her strength into that blow. Even though she felt a little bit bad about it, the opportunity was simply too good to pass up. Though she truly didn’t plan on slapping him again, it had been funny to hear Volo make such an uncontrolled, uncharacteristic screech. Besides, what was a relationship without a little bit of harmless mischief? Certainly not one she had any interest in.
“Alright, I’m going to put the gel on — seriously this time, no slapping involved,” she said as she smeared the gel on both of her hands, getting a grunt in reply. She rolled her eyes at his lacklustre response. “Fine then, see if I warn you next time,” she muttered and gently placed her hands on his shoulders. Volo flinched slightly but quickly relaxed with a sigh of relief. Akari wasn’t all that surprised by his reaction. His sunburn really was terrible. It covered the entirety of his torso, turning him an awful shade of red. She could feel the heat radiating off his skin against her palms as she carefully rubbed the gel into his shoulders. “Wow, this must really hurt, huh?” she remarked.
She could practically feel his disdain for her comment. “Oh, no, not at all! It doesn’t hurt one bit!” he replied with false cheer, sarcasm dripping from his voice. “Nope, it certainly doesn’t feel like my skin is about to peel off! Nothing of the sort!” Akari rolled her eyes and poured more gel onto her hand before moving lower down his back.
Volo let out small little sighs and hums as she slowly but surely coated his skin in the cooling gel. Over his shoulders, down his spine, tracing familiar muscles with her hands — in another context, Akari could see this being at least somewhat sensual. Unfortunately, with Volo so clearly suffering, she couldn’t really see this as anything but helping her husband out. Ever so slowly, she could see the relief setting in as his muscles slowly began to untense beneath her feather-light touch. She smiled softly. It was… nice, helping him like this.
Seeing his back was now fully coated, Akari got up and moved to sit in front of him. It took all her strength to not cackle at the way his sunburn vibrantly outlined where his sunglasses sat while they were at the beach. “Eyes closed, please.” Volo dutifully obeyed her orders, not even making a token protest. As she applied the gel to his face, he seemed to relax even more. He really must’ve been in more pain than she thought. It made her feel just a tiny bit bad for slapping him, but not enough to truly regret it. He had done worse things in Hisui after all: leaving her stuck in the mud in Gapejaw Bog, laughing at her as she tumbled into a hole in the Bonechill Wastes, watching her from the shores of Sand’s Reach as she tried to swim back to Basculegion without lifting a finger to help her… the list went on and on. Honestly, giving him a little slap on the back was nothing in comparison to that.
Now that Akari had finished with his back, Volo could very well apply the rest of the gel himself, but… Akari found herself reluctant to stop. Even though she could touch him as much as she pleased in the privacy of their bedroom, there was something oddly intimate about just… helping him with this. Her hands were gentle as she rubbed the gel over his chest, travelling down to his stomach until her fingers brushed the waistband of his shorts and then moving back up. Volo seemed content to let her do as she pleased, trusting her despite his earlier grumbling. It was such a far cry from the bitter, prideful man that shoved her away at the Temple of Sinnoh that it made her heart flutter even after all this time.
Her hands ran over his warm arms, one after the other, before deciding she had done all she could. “Alright, I’m done,” she said cheerfully as she closed the bottle with a quiet snap of the lid. “Do you feel any better now?”
Volo slowly blinked his eyes open before smiling. “Quite a bit!” he said, rolling his shoulders slightly as though testing his range of motion. “Of course, the relief is only temporary, but I’d rather apply this several times than just suffer while trying to tough it out.” His smile softened, so fond it almost hurt to look at. “Thank you, Akari.”
It would be so easy to melt into the soft atmosphere, but… Volo had given her an opening to tease him, and no matter how much she cherished these moments — more common than they used to be but still as precious as the first — she just had to take it. “Well, if you had just used better sunscreen, you wouldn’t have to do this at all,” she said slyly, laughing as her husband groaned in annoyance.
“You’re such an incurable brat,” he sighed. “We were having a moment! We were having a nice little moment and you just had to ruin it, didn’t you?” Akari simply batted her eyelashes innocently, as though she didn’t know what he was talking about. Volo went to put his head in his hands before pausing and thinking better of it, choosing to simply glower at her instead. “Go shower, brat,” he said, gesturing in the direction of the bathroom. “The sooner you’re clean the sooner we can get some food because I don’t know about you but I’m starving. I could eat Arceus, that’s how hungry the beach made me.”
Akari laughed, loud and bright. “What, you don’t want me going out in my swimsuit?” she teased, striking a playful pose to show off her Togekiss-print bikini.
Volo just rolled his eyes. “As much as it, ah, suits you,” he said, “I doubt you’ll want to sit down and eat in it. I’ve heard it’s very uncomfortable to spend too much time in a wet swimsuit.”
His concern made her soften, just a little bit. “Alright, I’ll go shower and get into some clean clothes.” She headed off towards the bathroom but stopped just before the door. Turning around to face him, she could feel the impish smile tugging the corners of her lips. “And while I’m doing that,” she said sweetly, “you can figure out what shirt you want to wear to dinner!” With the sound of Volo’s cursing ringing in her ears, Akari laughed gaily and closed the door behind her.