Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Amethio orders Soublades to break down the door to the facility, watching with contentness as it’s blades slash through the metal door. He’d heard this place deals in odd and eccentric pokemon, so he’s hoping to intimidate them into giving him information on Rayquaza, which he considers both odd and eccentric.

There’s some frantic shuffling and Amethio sees a panicked face peak out from behind one of the doors, eyeing him and Soublades before quickly slamming the door shut. He steps inside towards the door they slammed, but hears the sound of glass shattering on the other side. He opens the door and confirms his suspicion, the window is shattered and the figure is nowhere in sight.

“Cowards” he mutters, mostly to himself but also to Soublades. Not brave enough to face him head on? He turns his head and continues down the facility halls. There’s a locked door at the end, which looks both promising and important.

“Soublades” he says, stepping aside. He doesn’t have to finish the rest. His partner slashes the lock on the door, and it creaks open.

Stepping inside, Amethio holds back a gasp at what he sees. Cages of first-stage pokemon, too weak to defend themselves. He sees a blue Psyduck in one of the cages and a Frigibax in another. Poachers, then. He scowls. Whoever did this is going to-

“What are you doing here, young man” a stern voice calls out. Amethio turns his head, glaring daggers at the man in front of him.

“Are you responsible for this” he asks, waving his arm around the room.

“I am. Pretty neat, don’t you think? They’ll fetch a fair price, but you’re not supposed to be here” The man throws out a pokeball, revealing a Houndoom. Ah, classic poacher pokemon. They’re great and loyal partners, it just seems a lot of shady trainers want to take advantage of that loyalty for their own gain. It’s despicable.

With it’s dark typing, it’s immune to Pyscho Cut, though that’s an awfully risky move to use in here anyway, surrounded by so many pokemon. The other problem is that Houndoom often have the ability Flash Fire, and he doesn’t want to risk powering up his opponent if he hits it with Bitter Blade.

That leaves Phantom Force and Night Slash, both of which Houndoom resists. It’s fine by him, he doesn’t need a type advantage to win.

“Soublades, run forth” He calls, which is code for “Pretend to use Night Slash, then hit it with Phantom Force”

The Houndoom readies itself for the attack baring it’s teeth to counter with Crunch as Soublades runs towards it, then disappears before contact, quickly appearing behind their opponent to slash it.

“Damn it! Use Flamethrower”

It whimpers and turns quickly to attack Soublades, who dissapears into Phantom Force again, leaving the Houndoom firing a Flamerthrower at it’s own trainer.

“Stupid mutt!” the man shouts, stepping away from the attack and making a movement to kick his partner. Amethio narrows his eyes. Forget battle, he needs that Pokeball. He shares a quick look with Soublades, who nods in return.

Soublades starts rapidly disappearing and reappearing with Phantom Force, getting close enough to attempt to land hits but with the real goal of drawing their opponents attention away from him.

Carefully, Amethio puts his skills to good work. Growing up, the consequences for making noise were made clear to him, so he quickly learned to move silently. He’s scared Conia a number of times with this skill of his, but it now allows him to walk quietly and sneak up on the man.

He waits with baited breath for the perfect time to strike. The man shouts “ Use Crunch!” and waves his hand backwards, towards Amethio. The hand holding his Houndoom’s pokeball.

Quickly, Amethio grabs the man’s arm in a vice grip, prompting a startled yelp. He wastes no time in jamming his thumb between the man’s ulna and radius, causing the pokeball to fall out of his hand and onto the floor. Before the man can process or react to it, Amethio brings his heel down onto the empty pokeball, shattering it.

The Houndoom looks up at his trainer, who shoves Amethio off quickly. It stares at the pokeball on the ground.

“Woah now-” the man starts, waving his hands, “-you’re still my pokemon, so you better listen to me”

Amethio makes eye contact with the Houndoom and nods. It growls at it’s former trainer as Amethio steps back.

“I think it’s best you leave now” Amethio advises. The man looks between the Houndoom and Soublades, and swallows nervously. He eyes the pokemon in cages one last time, but quickly makes a run for it.

After he’s gone, the silence in the room is heavy. The Houndoom looks uncertain.

“You’re free now. I’m going to release these pokemon from their cages, you have no obligation to stay.” Amethio informs. He looks around, and finds what he’s looking for. Bolt cutters.

Carefully, he makes his way to each cage and cuts off the lock, making sure not to startle the pokemon inside. The Psyduck coos at him happily, and with its blue coloring, Amethio can’t help but think of Conia’s Golduck.

Thankfully, these are all pokemon native to Paldea. It would be a hassle to relocate these pokemon to the regions they came from. The Frigibax shies away from him when he opens the cage, so he gives it space.

Soublades calls to him from where it’s standing. Amethio walks over, and removes the blanket from on top of the cage it pointed out.

He almost does a double take when he sees the pokemon, as its looks so similar to Liko’s Nyahoja, but after a moment he realizes it’s very obviously a different pokemon. This one has a slightly different shade to its fur, but more notably, it’s eyes are purple and full of passion and rage.

“NYAAAA” it screams, slashing at the cage. Amethio feels a small smile start to tug at his face.

“You’re awfully ferocious, aren’t you? Go easy on me, I get scared easily” he speaks without much thought to it, just wanting to offer conversation while he cuts the lock off the cage. It eyes him while he clips the lock, but struts out of the cage confidently after the door swings open.

He moves around the room, checking every cage and looking under every blanket that might be hiding a pokemon. Once he’s content that the room is clear of pokemon, he motions to Ceruledge to open the door he assumes leads outside.

It’s blades make short work of the door, and it swings open to reveal the natural landscade of Paldea. The Houndoom heads out first, gesturing for the other pokemon to follow.

“You’ll take care of them?” Amethio asks. The Houndoom looks at him, fire in its eyes, “Thank you” be bows, then moves back into the facility. It’s a small place, but he won’t leave until he makes sure they are no other pokemon being held here.

Ceruledge breaks three more doors in their search, which Amethio thinks is a new record for one night. He’s not even checking if the doors are unlocked, these people deserve all the property damage he can offer.

Once he’s content that there’s no other pokemon in the facility, he heads out from the same door they first entered from, and he stares at the mangled metal in satisfaction. Though, they only make it a few steps away from the entrance before something draws their attention.

“Nya!”

Amethio turns to see the little Nyahoja from before running towards them, it’s tail is puffed up and it’s hissing at Soublades. His partner turns to face the little pokemon.

The moment it does, the Nyahoja jumps up and Shadow Claws Soublades directly in the face, activating it’s Weak Armor.

“Harsh. What’s got you so fired up, Bastard-san?” Amethio asks. It just hisses and uses what Amethio recognizes to be Trailblaze. Boosting it’s speed in return, then? Smart fighter.

Bastard-san lands another hit on Soublades, and Amethio nods to his partner, who knocks the pokemon out of midair and into the side of the facility with Night Slash. It tumbles onto the ground, then immediately gets up and fires off an impressive Leafage. That move sure is familiar.

It launches at Soublades again, and Amethio makes a slashing motion with his arm. Soublades meets it’s Shadow Claw with Bitter Blade, sending it crashing into the ground harder this time. The Nyahoja manages to stand up and hiss, but stumbles and falls down again a moment later.

It still hisses even though it’s unable to stand.

“You’re adamant, aren’t you” Amethio asks, stepping towards the pokemon. He reaches forward and flicks its ear gently. It eyes him, uncertain of the touch, but ultimately ruling him as a non-threat. He can’t imagine this pokemon has had a lot of pleasant experiences with people.

He wonders for a moment why Bastard-san had been so determined to fight Soublades, but when he sees the look in its eyes, it becomes clear. It’s looking up at Soublades the same way Amethio looks at Friede when they battle. There’s a hint of admiration, but more importantly, there’s an overwhelming desire for destruction.

“I see, you want to become strong enough to beat Soublades, don’t you?” Amethio asks, and Bastard-san meows loudly in surprise, quickly trying to stand up.

“I take it to mean I’m correct?” Amethio asks. Bastard-san stumbles over to where he’s crouched, and bites his hand. He blinks at it. The bite isn’t hard, nor does he think it’s really intended to cause him pain. He shakes his hand a little to try and dislodge the Nyahoja, but it doesn’t let up.

“Ah, you’re coming with me, aren’t you?” he looks down at the little Nyahoja biting him. Adamant motherfucker. He could order Soublades to remove it from his hand, but that feels unkind. He also doesn’t want to risk this thing actually biting him.

“Nyyya” it mumbles over his hand. Alright then.

With his other hand, he picks up Bastard-san and carries it so it can bite him comfortably, then starts walking back to base.

“Soublades?” his partner asks, following a few steps behind.

“I can respect Bastard-san’s fighting spirit. Besides, I think Conia would enjoy having another Nyahoja around” though, this one may be more aggressive than Liko’s Nyahoja. At least it’s easy to understand what Bastard-san wants.

“Nyaaaa” comes the muffled noise because the motherfucker still won’t let go of his hand, and a moment later he feels the Nyahoja start to . . . vibrate?

It has a little motorboat of a purr to it, and Amethio finds himself absentmindedly stroking the fur on the back of its neck with his thumb. It’s small and sharp, and full of a lot of homicidal urges. Amethio can relate to it in a way.

“Bastard-san, I don’t know if you’re fond of people, but there’s someone who’s really excited to meet you when we get back to base” Amethio explains. Bastard-san lets out a croaky “nya” that he feels against his hand. It’s endearing, though he’d prefer if it wasn’t biting him.

Chapter Text

Zir looks over when the door clicks open. There’s the sound of Amethio shrugging off his shoes before padding over to the kitchen were Zir is doing some late-night baking.

He’d gone out for “personal matters” earlier and Zir was waiting for him to return. Amethio is free to do as he pleases, but Zir doesn’t sleep well unless he knows that Amethio is safe and sound. Hence why he’s melting hershey kisses and M&M’s to pretzels at 2am instead of sleeping. You’d think Conia would be better off than him, but she’s currently tearing through her room in a middle-of-the-night cleaning frenzy.

Maybe they should try and work on getting a sleep schedule. Though, the three of them do prefer to travel for missions during evenings and at night rather than during the day.

“Morning Amethio,” he likes to joke when it’s past midnight, “glad to see you’re- why is that thing biting you?”

There’s a Nyahoja latched onto his hand as he supports it’s weight with his other hand. Zir knows it’s different from the once the girl has, partly because of personality and mostly because its eyes look different. They’re purple like Amethio’s. It’s awfully fitting for him. Speaking of Amethio, he doesn’t seem that bothered by the Nyahoja despite the fact it’s teeth are clearly digging into his hand.

“This is Bastard-san. It wanted to come with me” he glances around, “is Conia still awake?”

Their poor sleep schedules are common knowledge.

… did Amethio just say “Bastard-san”?

“Yes, she’s cleaning her room right now so she might be embarrassed by company at the moment” Zir answers, still pondering Amethio’s naming convention. He hasn’t nicknamed any of his other pokemon, and the first time he does, it’s Bastard-san. He isn’t even surprised by this.

Amethio hums in acknowledgement, strolling out of the kitchen with Soublades trailing close behind him. Zir turns off the oven and follows them, curious about where this is going.

“Coniaaaaa” Amethio drags out his voice in a bit of a childish fashion.

It’s something he only does when it’s later in the night and Amethio is experiencing critical levels of sleep depravity. Zir thinks it’s cute when he drops the stoic facade he always puts up. Though, his new priority is herding his teenage boss to bed the moment he’s done with this conversation. Amethio always gets really out of it when he stays up too late. It’s like his body can’t handle the lack of sleep and does a system reset on the poor kid.

“Yes?” Conia sticks her head out of her room, eyes landing on the Nyahoja immediately, “Oh my god, Amethio, there’s a creature in your hand”

Zir forgets she also experiences the late night rambling effect where her sentences start to make less and less sense after 1am. He’s living with amateurs.

“This creature,” Amethio moves the hand holding the Nyahoja and it decides to continue biting him and dangle from his arm instead of letting go, “is named Bastard-san”

“Devious. I feel inclined to pet it even though it bites.”

Amethio extends his arm to her, Bastard-san still refuses to let go of his hand.

“Be my guest”

Zir feels like he’s watching the scene unfold in slow motion the way Bastard-san’s ears pin back when Conia steps forward. Oblivious, she extends a hand, almost to the point of touching Bastard-san who starts to growl loudly and nope, this is not happening. Zir loops his arm around Conia’s waist, tugging her backwards before she can touch it.

“What? But it’s so pettable” Conia complains, evidently upset that Zir didn’t let her be maimed by six pounds of fury.

“Save it for the morning. I don’t want to dig out the first aid kit at this hour” he sets a consoling hand on her head. She grumbles and leans back. He turns to Amethio, who’s now gently petting the back of Bastard-san’s neck in an attempt to dislodge it,

“Amethio, you met your new friend on your mission, right?” he nods, “Maybe it’s hungry. Try feeding it to see if it’ll let go then”

Conia jolts up when he mentions feeding it, shoving his arm aside. It’s not like he’d been holding her tightly, but he should’ve known she’d get this excited after the last time she babysit a Nyahoja.

“I’ll feed it!” she offers, already on the move to the kitchen. Amethio looks at Zir blankly, processing the words. He holds Bastard-san to his chest gently, and oh my god he looks like he’s about to cry.

“Are you hungry, Bastard-san? I’m sorry. I should’ve realized.” it responds with a croaky “Nya”

Zir sets a hand on Amethio’s shoulder because he doesn’t know how to deal with 2am waterworks over a slightly hungry Nyahoja. What does Amethio need to hear right now? Uhhh, right, he’s got it,

“Hey, buddy, it’s okay. You just got back so there’s no time wasted. We’ll get the Ny-, I mean Bastard-san fed and then we’ll go to sleep. Alright?”

Amethio sniffles slightly, holding Bastard-san closer. He’s surprised the thing hasn’t maimed Amethio yet.

“Okay” Amethio speaks softly, trying to keep a straight face. Ah, the kid’s going to be a mess tomorrow, isn’t he? This is what happens when he stays up late. All the emotions he usually ignores bubble up and he doesn’t know how to deal with them.

Zir rubs circles into his back, letting Amethio lean his forehead against his chest and trying really hard not to freak out about the murder-muppet clinging to his hand which is now far too close to Zir’s torso.

It’s fine. They’re fine.

“We’ve got some feline-feast pokechow left over from the Skitty-sitting” Conia announces, walking into the room with a bowl of wet pokechow. The dry stuff is easier, but a lot of feline pokemon tend to prefer the wet food, and Conia tends to prefer spoiling feline pokemon.

She hands the bowl to Amethio who’s cradling Bastard-san against his chest with the hand it’s still biting. That thing is relentless. Amethio brings the bowl close to it’s face, letting it sniff the contents.

Curious, it finally lets go of Amethio’s hand, sniffing once more at the bowl before setting its tiny paws on the edge and digging in. Amethio still kind of looks like he’s going to cry, but at least it’s for a different reason.

He really needs to get the kid to bed. Speaking of bed-

Zir looks down the hall and just as he suspected, Conia’s room is in a state of complete disarray from her interrupted cleaning session. He eyes her staring at Bastard-san eating and already knows she’s lost interest in finishing cleaning. He could help her clear her bed, or he could take the lazy option and just drag her into his.

The lazy option works.

“Conia” he herds her towards the bathroom, “Go get ready for bed before you’re too tired”

It’s not like she needs a reminder to brush her teeth, it’s just that she’s not going to stop ogling the Nyahoja until someone makes her. She trudges over to the bathroom without protest, and Zir returns to the kitchen. His pretzel-chocolate things are cool enough to be put into tupperware so he packs them up and sets them in the fridge.

Zir made them a lot growing up, especially around holidays, and Conia really likes them. He’s seen Amethio eat a few of them before, so he’s gotten into the habit of making them whenever he’s bored. Anything to get the kid to eat more.

With those put away, he joins Conia in the bathroom just as she finishes brushing her teeth. He grabs his own toothbrush and toothpaste, running his brush under the sink.

“How do you feel about a little sleepover given your bed is a complete mess right now?”

“Ohhhh I forgot about that. Can Bastard-san join us?” Zir squints at her. He doesn’t want to share a bed with that thing.

“Maybe another time. Its Amethio’s pokemon, after all” he’s confident Amethio didn’t actually catch the thing but that doesn’t matter. Zir is willing to tolerate a lot, but he can’t stand the idea of having a tiny little, well, bastard, scratch his face all night.

“I guess so” Conia sighs sadly, leaving to change into sleeping clothes. Zir already changed a while ago when waiting for Amethio to return. He quickly brushes his teeth and goes to find him.

He’s not in the kitchen or hallway so Zir peers into his room.

“You in here?”

There’s a noise from his bathroom that Zir recognizes as a “come-in” grumble. He steps in, looking at the sight before him. Amethio managed to change into night clothes as well. He’s holding a sleeping Bastard-san in one hand and brushing his teeth with the other.

Spitting into the sink, Amethio rinses his brush and looks at Zir with sad teenage eyes. Oh no.

“It’s asleep”

“Correct”

“What do I do?”

“Also go to sleep?”

Amethio looks at him pathetically. He knows that look. That’s the “I want something but I don’t want to ask” look. Zir sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose before turning to address Amethio,

“Do you want to sleep with us tonight?”

He nods, putting away his toothbrush and walking over to Zir’s side before he can second guess himself.

Conia is going to be thrilled about sleeping in the same bed as the Nyahoja. Zir is dreading it for the same reason. The sacrifices he makes for this kid.

“Come on, then. I’ll let Conia know”

She’s already in the room when they step in. Her eyes light up when she sees Bastard-san and she looks at Zir excitedly.

“You win, they’re joining us tonight” there’s a silent cheer from her end so she doesn’t wake up the sleeping pokemon. Why can’t these things ever happen at a reasonable hour? It’s always in the middle of the night when Amethio comes back with something interesting, whether it be a broken nose, a relocated street sign, or a demon of a Nyahoja.

The street sign was a “wrong way” sign that Zir never asked how he acquired. It’s probably better not to know.

Tired and more accepting of affection than he usually is, Amethio quickly clambers on the bed and lays beside Conia. Which means that Zir is going to have to sleep next to him. Which is fine, he loves the kid, what he doesn’t love is the Nyahoja.

Deep breaths. He turns off the light and climbs on next to Amethio. He’s smart enough not to say anything about his discomfort regarding Bastard-san lest he scare Amethio off to sulk in his own bed.

“Hey Zir?”

“Yes, Amethio?”

There’s some shuffling before Amethio settles his head near Zir’s shoulder, continuing his usual habit of using Zir’s arm as a pillow. He tries not to think about how close the Nyahoja is. Thank god it’s still asleep.

“Your bed is softer than mine”

It is not. Zir knows for a fact it is not. They ordered all the mattresses at the same time and they are identical. He just says that because he prefers to sleep in Zir’s room.

“Goodnight, Amethio”