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It’s a cozy little hole, tucked away in the bedrock of the Fieldlands. Rei says he likes it better than his quarters, to anyone who’ll bother to come with him to it. There’s a big rock in the middle, flat on the top, like an approximation of a table or kotatsu. And right now, on that rock, there’s a knife.
“I always wonder what kind of Pokemon made this little hideaway,” Rei says amiably, chattering as he strips out of his Survey Corps uniform. “Where I’m from, we have a Pokemon called Diglett—loves to make holes and tunnels and things like that. But I haven’t seen any Diglett around here! So it’s really got me curious.”
A pause lingers over them, the air filled only with the soft noise of rustling fabric.
“… Are you sure about this?” Volo eventually says.
“Sure I’m sure,” Rei replies, lying down on the rock with his chest bare. “My visions are important to me, and I trust you.” He offers Volo the knife with a gentle smile. With unsteady hands, Volo takes it.
Rei closes his eyes as the blade reaches his chest, resting gently. “I do have to apologize to you, Volo,” he says softly. “I lied a little to get you here. I’m sorry.”
“What do you mean?”
“The vision I had of you wasn’t of us doing this,” he warmly intones, grabbing for Volo’s arm when he feels the knife lift from his skin. “It was of something else, something… that you’re planning for me.”
He hears Volo exhale shakily. “What kind of something?” His voice is a little uneven.
“Something that happens when we finish collecting the Plates.”
Volo flinches. Rei opens his eyes. There’s a strange, conflicted expression on the merchant’s face. The knife touches down again, and Rei releases him.
“If you know that much,” Volo says, “then… why would you let me do this? Why would you let someone like me have you so vulnerable?”
“Oh, a lot of reasons,” Rei replies casually, still smiling, “but it’s mostly selfish. I love you, Volo, and I want you to have what you want, but if you want to kill me, I want you to do it the hard way. If I’m in your way, I want you to be honest about it, and if I’m going to die, I want it to be here.”
The knife tracks down his chest, slowly. “What am I to do with you,” Volo breathes, low, “if I decide I don’t want to kill you?”
“Anything you want.”
Blood wells up from the cut, still shallow, in droplets.
“… But you haven’t decided yet, have you?”
Volo laughs thinly, but doesn’t reply.
“They’re all there in my satchel, you know,” Rei says casually, and Volo’s eyes blow open wide. “All the Plates you need are in here with us. You don’t need me for anything at all anymore. You can check if you want; I’ll wait.”
The knife falls from Volo’s fingers, cold metal flat on Rei’s chest. He chuckles to himself, folding his hands over it. Volo rifles through the satchel quickly, muttering to himself the names of the Plates as he goes.
“… They really are all there,” he turns back to Rei and says, a manic glint in his eye. “What’s to stop me from taking them and leaving you here alone?”
“Nothing, I guess.” Rei offers Volo the knife again.
The excitement drains from Volo visibly. He takes the knife and lunges in close, pressing it now against Rei’s throat, still light, shaking again. “What do you want from me?”
“Anything you’ll give me,” Rei mellowly replies. “But I do think it’d be nice to have your name carved into me.”
Volo recoils. Rei reaches for his hand as it retreats.
“Volo, do you hate me?”
“I…” He doesn’t get further than that. Rei runs his thumb over Volo’s knuckles, delicate.
“It’s alright if you do,” Rei says gently, “and it’s alright if you don’t, too. And if you just think I’m disgusting, that’s fine. But nothing made me love you more than that vision of you betraying me. I just had to do something about it.”
“Why?”
Rei laughs lightly. “Well, that’s a hard one, isn’t it? Why does love make people do anything?”
“Do you want to die?” Volo says disbelievingly, like he’s at the end of his rope. Rei closes his eyes again.
“Mm,” he hums, “not really. If I wanted to die, I would’ve done it four Nobles ago.”
“Then why? Why would you—”
“I guess I think it’d be sort of romantic to be killed by you,” Rei murmurs. He pulls Volo’s hand toward his body again. “If you’re going to destroy the world anyway, then I want to be special.”
A silence stretches out between them.
Volo puts down the knife. He inhales deeply. “Rei,” he says, “I don’t want to kill you.”
Rei smiles up at him. He picks up the knife from where Volo has set it down, and holds it out to him again. “That’s great, Volo!” He says warmly, sincerely. “But I still want something from you, remember?”
Volo shrinks back, as though Rei were pointing the blade at him instead of himself.
“Imagine it, Volo,” he breathes, “I belong to Arceus right now, but I could belong to you too. You could take me right out of God’s hands.” His speech becomes fervent, faster. “And I want you to take me from Arceus, Volo, I want to be yours so badly. All you have to do is mark it—right here—V-O-L-O. Please…!”
As Rei goes on, as he spills his heart and gets caught up altogether in his own feelings, a new emotion dawns on Volo’s face—recognition.
In one motion, Volo smacks the knife aside, swoops down on Rei, and kisses him fiercely. Rei grabs him by the collar, pulling for Volo to come closer, impossibly closer, sighing and whining into his mouth. One of Volo’s hands traces down Rei’s chest, smearing half-dried blood, but stopping halfway, as though he’s realized something.
They part. Volo holds Rei pinned by his shoulder. He pulls back just enough for his face to take up Rei’s entire field of vision. “What would you do for me, Rei?” He asks, voice low and careful.
“Anything,” Rei says reverently, unhesitating.
Volo, taken aback by the immediacy of Rei’s answer, recovers quickly. His expression hardens into something more serious. “Would you betray your village for me? Forsake your world for me? Would you fight? Would you kill?”
“Anything,” Rei repeats. Like a prayer, like a song, with all his heart.
Volo pulls away, sitting back upright, and laughs. “Ahah… hahahaha…! You really are hopeless, aren’t you, Rei?!”
“Hopelessly in love,” Rei agrees.