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It has been six weeks and two days since Ingo had appeared from the Gear Station tunnels with an explanation of amnesia, time travel, and a fifteen-year-old saving the world and befriending gods. The last one had made perfect sense to Emmet, considering how Unova had been during the height of Team Plasma. The second one wasn't too surprising. Emmet had done a lot of research. Time travel was one of the possible explanations for Ingo’s sudden disappearance.
The first one, though… that one had been enough to terrify Emmet worse than even Ingo’s initial disappearance. He had even been afraid to go into Ingo’s hospital room at first! Instead he had stood outside the door and remembered the doctor’s words. Ingo wasn’t the first to fall through a portal and lose his memories, apparently, and there was a chance he would never regain those memories.
How would Emmet have been able to explain twenty-seven years of being each other’s best friend and never leaving the other’s side? How was he supposed to explain two years of heartbreaking loneliness? How was he supposed to explain that they weren’t only twins, but lovers?
Emmet hadn’t had any scripts for a situation like this and no strength to open the door that could give Ingo back to him only to rip him away in worse ways. They could make new memories, true, but to always be mourning what was lost… it would hurt.
Then, of course, Emmet’s big brother had opened the hospital door himself, pulled him inside and into the hospital bed, and hadn’t let go until the doctors and nurses had to pry him out of his twin’s arms. Emmet was certain he hadn’t been helping at the time with how hard he was clinging himself, but! Ingo was back! And with every odd stacked against them he had remembered him.
All this to say, of course, that Ingo had been back at home for five weeks and two days and was nowhere inside the apartment after Emmet’s admittedly long shower.
It was their day off, there was a massive thunderstorm that had practically shut the city down, and Emmet knew he was buzzing worse than his Joltiks clinging to him as he tore through the apartment looking for him.
His frantic search, and impromptu search party of half the pokemon who lived in the house, ended when Chandelure bonked his head. It felt very scolding and Emmet tried to frown at her even as he was pulled, pushed, and guided back into the living room.
His attempts at a frown immediately vanished when a flash of lightning lit up the dark room and, by extension, his big brother — who was sitting on the balcony during a thunderstorm.
Marching over, Emmet paused a couple feet from the doorway, not interested in getting wet when he was wearing his comfortable loungewear. His impromptu search party, he had noticed, seemed content to go curl up in their nap spots. “Brother. You are dangerously close to the yellow line.”
“All safety checks have been performed and deemed secure,” Ingo called back, Emmet shifting around the doorway to see a glimpse of his expression that looked… peaceful. “I have quite the charming lightning deterrents should such extremes come to pass.” Lightning det-
“Hm.” Emmet stared at where his Galvantula was resting on the railing of their balcony, waving an arm back at him when she saw him. His Eelektross and Ingo’s Excadrill were also out on the balcony, the latter to no doubt act as a grounding force when needed. The Joltiks hitching a ride on him were all scuttling outside to curl up to his Galvanutla. “Traitors.”
“Darlings,” Ingo corrected immediately, the familiar complaints and rebuttals so familiar that Emmet lost his breath and had to sit down where he stood. Even doing his best to be quiet, Ingo, as always, noticed the change at once, looking back at him, “Emmet? Are you alright-”
“You are sitting outside during a thunderstorm,” Emmet interrupted. From the state of his clothes, Emmet could only assume he had been out there for a while, too. “Why?”
Ingo blinked at him, slow and steady before he shifted around to where he was facing Emmet. He was still in the downpour, absolutely soaked, but Emmet didn’t see so much as a shiver. “I suppose I find them… nostalgic. Reassuring.” Well. Emmet hadn’t expected that answer.
Scooting forward and sitting down on the floor properly, Emmet placed his hands on his crossed ankles and leaned forward. “Explain.”
“In Hisui, I’ve told you that our clan, the Pearl Clan, was settled in the Alabaster Icelands. My Lady and I guarded the Coronet Highlands.” As Ingo spoke, loud enough to rival the thunder and occasional flashes of lightning, Emmet felt that tension from earlier begin to unravel. He had missed hearing his brother’s voice. “Neither of these places saw frequent rain, and rarely did we get thunderstorms instead of the snowstorms that became common.
“It wasn’t until a number of years, once I was stationed in Jubilife Village, that I saw a thunderstorm.” Before Emmet could start to fret and spiral at the reminder that his two years was almost ten for Ingo, his brother was catching his gaze and smiling. Not the new smile he had come back with, but that quirked up little expression that Emmet had missed. “I’m here, Emmet.”
“You’re here,” Emmet parroted at once, the words having quickly grown familiar. Taking a breath, Emmet calmed himself down and then focused back. “Sorry. Jubilife?”
“It made me remember something when I saw the storm.” Oh. Oh! That was good! Ingo had mentioned that he had recalled almost nothing during his time in Hisui. The doctors were a little sure it was because there was no familiar stimuli outside of Pokemon battles. Emmet thought it was because the gods were fickle.
Shaking the thoughts off, Emmet scooted just a bit closer. The edges of his knees and socks were getting wet, now, but a few raindrops was nothing to be closer to Ingo. “What did it make you remember?”
Ingo grinned and somehow Emmet knew he was about to be embarrassed. “I remembered that my little brother was afraid of thunderstorms-”
“I am not!” Emmet shouted, forcing himself to not jump as he had been during the next crack of thunder. He wasn’t scared. At least, not anymore. “They’re just… loud.”
“And when we were teenagers?” Mm. Well. That may have been different. “Watching the storm reminded me of a memory from when we were on our League run. We weren’t near any Pokecenters so we decided to camp. We didn’t know a storm was going to come that night. The memory is more clear now, but when it first came all I remembered was that you were upset with me.” Ah… Emmet remembered this.
“I thought all your care of me was through the belief you didn’t think I was able,” Emmet said, unable to help the brief moment of embarrassment. When he looked back at it now, with the context he knew, it hadn’t been a lack of belief. Ingo believed in Emmet a ridiculous amount, if he was honest. No, Ingo had taken so much care of him because he loved him. Always. “I am sorry that was what you remembered.”
“I’m not,” Ingo said firmly, looking fierce for a moment before the expression lightened as a huff of breath escaped him. “Emmet, I remember you were upset, but then I remember the storm that happened that night.”
Ah… Emmet saw where this was going… They had been sharing a tent, but were on the far sides. Emmet had gone to bed angry — upset. He wanted to prove he could take care of himself. They had gotten into an argument. Then the storm arrived. Emmet wasn’t sure when the fear had developed, but at that age he had still been terrified of the loud claps of thunder. He had even been scared of the lightning, which was quite the embarrassment for someone with two electric types.
Emmet remembered one that sounded like it was so close, the lightning feeling like it was inches from them. It had sent him scrambling to his brother’s side and begging for comfort. He had been scared he wouldn’t get it. Instead, Ingo had dragged him in at once, tucking him close and distracting him with stories with a voice that was louder than the thunder.
“I was so happy to find out that my little brother still needed me — that he still wanted me to be there for him.”
“I’ll always want you.” That, at least, was an absolute truth. “You know that. Right?”
“I do.” This time Ingo’s voice was heartbreakingly soft and Emmet suddenly found he was only a half foot or so away. The front of him was steadily getting more damp, even with the slight awning they had over their balcony. “Emmet, that storm reminded me that I had a brother, a twin who I loved dearly and who I swore to always protect. It’s… hard to not enjoy storms after that.”
“Sappy,” Emmet finally managed to say, doing his best to not show he was emotional. He wasn’t going to cry, at least. He was pretty sure he was all cried out after the first couple of weeks Ingo had returned.
“In love,” Ingo corrected, Emmet making a whining noise because that wasn’t fair. “I suppose I love storms even now because they always remind me of the first true memory I regained.” This time Ingo’s smile was a smile, soft and warm and so wanting that Emmet felt his eyes heat up and, alright. He supposed he hadn’t run out of tears. How unfair. How verrry unfair- “They remind me of you.”
Emmet couldn’t quite recall getting up, but he was fully aware of the way he crawled into his big brother’s lap. He had perfect clarity as the rain, warm and humid as it always was in Nimbasa, seeped into his clothing and skin. He was fully present as he tangled his fingers in Ingo’s hair, cupping the back of his head and looking into eyes that suddenly turned as hungry and wanting as he felt.
“Ingo,” Emmet whispered, leaning in closer, as close as he could get, breathing heavy and in the same space as Ingo’s as he tried to bring him even closer. “Thank you for coming back to me, Ingo.”
The noise Ingo made sounded as pained as it did relieved, and, ah, how gratifying. Ingo hadn’t run out of tears, either, Emmet watching the way they welled up and mixed with the rain before he leaned in to gently lick them off with small flicks of his tongue that earned him a bruising grip around his hips that he never wanted to leave.
“Thank you,” Emmet whispered again, nuzzling closer and pressing kisses to Ingo’s face, clutching onto hair and wet skin and breathing in the moist air alongside Ingo’s gasps and whines and ah. Emmet knew what to say, here.
Because Ingo was still his big brother Ingo, the Subway Boss of Gear Station in Nimbasa City, yes. He was also his big brother Ingo, the Pearl Clan Warden of Lady Sneasler in the Coronet Highlands in Hisui. Emmet wanted Ingo to know that he knew that, too. The Pearl Clan valued and honored space — the physicality of it and how it interacted with the world, so…
“Thank you for the space you crossed to once again share mine.” Words were something he wasn’t good at. His actions spoke for him, but for Ingo? For his big brother he loved? He was willing to try.
Apparently, Ingo was willing to try and communicate through action because Emmet suddenly found himself on his back, gasping at the sudden jolt and sucking in warm rain before it was replaced by sharp teeth and hungry lips. He squirmed in surprise before he found his wrists pinned to the ground harshly, knees pressing in on either side of him to where he couldn’t so much as try to squirm away.
When Ingo pulled back, panting over him and keeping the rain off his face, Emmet watched wordlessly as lightning flashed through the sky, lighting up Ingo in a way that made Emmet remember he was here . “Ah- Ha, hey- Hey, Ingo?” He was laughing breathlessly before he could help it, the laugh turning to a groan as he felt a nip at his jaw.
“Yes, Emmet?” Ingo’s voice was lower and rougher than Emmet remembered it being before, but the tone of want and desire and love there was the same. That hadn’t changed at all.
“I think I love storms now, too.” Because he could more than deal with some wet clothes if it got him this. “Give me some more reasons to love them?”
“With pleasure, my love.”