Chapter Text
Kuzuha has a simple goal in life: Build up a strong team, sweep the Sinnoh league, and retire into a life of luxury with his battle earnings. Elite Four offer? Nah. Champion seat? No, thanks. Media coverage? No way.
There are plenty of other ways to earn money, of course. Heck, the Lagusa family is one of the richest families in the Sinnoh region. There was no need for Kuzuha to go out on his own journey, but Kuzuha was not about to live the rest of his life under his parents’ roof leeching off their money. He wants to scream at games and buy merchandise without being questioned every damn time, thank you very much.
“Ah! Not that way, Aibou!”
Kuzuha lifts his eyes to the sky and resists the urge to claw his face off. Behind him comes the sound of Kanae searching through berry bushes yet again. Slumping his shoulders, Kuzuha turns. “Can’t you just put it in its Pokéball?”
“You know she doesn’t like that.”
Kuzuha knows. He just doesn’t care.
“Aibou,” Kanae calls. “Come out, Aibou. We can eat when we get to the city.”
Kuzuha sighs. Now, Kuzuha is not one of those assholes who decides a Pokémon’s worth by its appearance, okay? He’s not, but he will admit he’s picky about the ones he adds to his team (even though he has a tiny Noibat that his family decided to dump on him and that can’t win a battle to save its life). Kanae, on the other hand…
Kanae could have at least caught something useful.
A blur shoots from the shrubbery and lands scratching and hissing onto Kuzuha’s face. Alarmed, Kuzuha tries to whack it off while stumbling backwards like that helps at all. Unsurprisingly, he trips and braces himself for a painful impact with the ground. He’s caught midair instead.
“Aibou!” Kanae beams from somewhere above him.
The brown monstrosity on Kuzuha’s face stops. It presses its dirty paws into Kuzuha’s eyes and nose as it trots all over his face before finally hopping off. It climbs onto Kanae’s shoulder and squeals happily.
Great. Now Kuzuha has cheri berry gunk in his nose. Of course the little shit picks the spicy ones.
“You shouldn’t run off like that,” Kanae reprimands it as if Kuzuha isn’t in his arms and on the verge of tears from spice being stabbed into his eyes. Kuzuha shoots him a baleful glare, but Kanae only glances down at him and laughs. What a great best friend.
Pulling himself up, Kuzuha wipes his face with his sleeves and grimaces at the dark stains it leaves on his favorite jacket. He looks over at Kanae, whose light blue hoodie is completely free of stains. Kuzuha reaches up into his hair, growling at the mushy bits he feels.
“Don’t make those kinds of sounds, Ku-chan,” Kanae whines, hugging the little shit to his chest. “It scares Aibou.”
Yeah right. Kuzuha narrows his eyes at the creature preening in Kanae’s arms. It sees him glaring, and Kuzuha swears on its ugly buck teeth it looks smug as hell.
Oh, it’s on, bitch.