Work Text:
“So, how do we do this again?” Xurkitree asked, staring at them. “My head’s covered in spikes; your head pops when poked with a really sharp stick.” He flicked his tail.
“We’ll figure it out.” They replied, “maybe you’ll just need to come closer slowly.”
“But I’ll still poke your head.” He shook his head, “it won’t work out.”
“Then how else are we supposed to do this?”
“I have no clue honestly.”
They both went back to thinking. They’d been sitting together by a lake for the past few hours, trying to figure out how to kiss properly. They’d only come up with the activity because Blacephalon had seen two humans doing it once, and it looked fun. But they’d both come to a roadblock: their head was prone to exploding at the slightest touch, while his head was prone to stabbing things by accident. Neither of which made a good combination.
“What else did you see the humans doing?” He asked, turning to look at them. He was sitting at their eye level for once, while they had to stand to be at his.
“I think they were hugging as well.”
“Maybe we could just hug instead.” Xurkitree replied, “then we wouldn’t have to risk exploding.”
“But then it wouldn’t be romantic enough.” They shook their head. “We want it to be romantic.”
“Maybe I can scratch some hearts into the trees and put our initials in them.”
“Do you even know our initials?”
“…not really.”
They both sat in silence again. It was much harder to problem solve than they’d thought.
“We could go on another date, that’s romantic right?” Xurkitree asked, “we could go to the beach or something.”
“If you want.” They replied, “maybe it’ll get our creative juices flowing!”
The other nodded, “yeah! Let’s do it!”
~
It was nearly midnight when they’d gone down to the closest beach. No humans were around, and all the little sand-creatures seemed to have disappeared.
“Look, one of the stars is falling!” Xurkitree pointed to a small shape in the sky, which seemed to be falling across the horizon slowly. “I thought they were stuck in the sky.”
“I guess they aren’t.” They watched as the star fell towards the ocean, watching as it splashed into the waves in the distance.
They both stood there for a moment, before he swiftly turned to them, “how big of a splash do you think I’ll make?” He said mischievously.
“A tiny one.” They replied, smirking, “I’d make a way bigger one.”
“I doubt it.”
They watched as the cable-creature began running at the water, before taking the most delicate of jumps into it. If it weren’t for the fact he landed into the water with all five of his limbs, the splash would have been miniscule.
They began to snicker, causing him to whip his head around, “what’s so funny?”
“You didn’t even try to jump.” They burst into laughter, watching as he annoyedly removed his tail and arms from the sand below the water, crossing his arms.
“I was making sure it was safe.” He huffed, “and, now that I have entered this treacherous water, I can tell you it is very safe.”
“Yeah right.” They shook their head, “let me show you how to make a giant splash.”
They began to run, before doing a backflip into the water, specifically spreading their arms out before swinging them to specifically splash him as they landed. They burst into laughter again as Xurkitree stood there, confused on what they’d just done and clearly unable to process being wet.
He began shaking himself off, spraying water all over them. Out of pure instinct, they flipped backwards, only splashing him with more water. This only caused him to continue.
“Now you’ve gotten me all wet too.” They glared at him.
He seemed to sneer down at them jokingly, “you splashed me first, so I took my needed revenge.”
“I’ll show you needed revenge.” They replied.
They jumped at him, pushing them both into the salty water. The began to chuckle when Xurkitree’s head resurfaced, light flashing in utter confusion as he pushed himself up. He stared at them, lights glowing dangerously.
“Oh ho ho, we’re playing that game now, are we?” And, without warning, he rolled forwards, tumbling them into the water. They flailed for a moment, before pulling up, glaring at him. Staticky-laughter greeted them.
“You look so funny when you’re upset.” He laughed, before shaking his head, “it’s adorable.”
“At least it goes both ways.” They replied, watching his reaction.
He stared at them for a moment, “nope! I would never, ever, look funny when I get upset. Nope. Never.”
“Uh huh, sure.”
“I thought you two were supposed to be ‘practicing kissing’.” They both turned around, to see Stakataka staring at them from the shore.
“How’d you get here?” Xurkitree glared at it, “and when did we ever mention that? We would never do that.”
“You do realise that you both talk incredibly loudly.” It blankly replied, “it’s much easier to follow two of the noisiest monsters around here, especially when they loudly scream ‘we’re going to the beach’ for all the world to hear.”
“I didn’t think we shouted at all.” They glanced at Xurkitree, who crossed his arms.
“Yeah! We didn’t shout one bit. You just like eavesdropping on us.”
“If that’s what you believe, then fine, I don’t really care.” Stakataka rolled its eye, “but I’d recommend you two begin the trek back to our current hiding location.” And with that, it slowly turned and trotted away.
They both turned to each other once Stakataka was out of earshot.
“So, before we go back, you wanna try that kissing thing? Maybe it’ll work.” He grabbed their hands gently.
“Yeah! Let’s try it!” They agreed, watching as he leaned down.
The second one of the spikes on his head even slightly touched their head, it caused it to explode, erupting their little hand hold into manic screaming. Xurkitree reacted to the eruption of light both by jumping back, but due to being close to each other during the detonation, it caused half the sparks to land directly onto him, causing him to combust into flames as he tried to put out the fire by splashing himself with water.
Blacephalon didn’t have any better of a reaction; their head reappeared, only for them to start screaming as they watched as the other was poorly trying to extinguish the flames.