Work Text:
You sat on your porch, overlooking one of the fantastic sunsets you’ve become accustomed to seeing in Alola. You try not to let yourself become a critic, but after seeing so many sunsets, you recognize which ones are your favorite. It’s become a habit of yours: eating dinner, cleaning up, and going outside to watch the sunset as you think about things. The things in question being Guzma, the mysterious skull team leader that terrorizes Alola with the help of his loyal followers. You knew he should scare you - and oh; he did. Just not the way he scared everybody else. The people of Alola fret about running into him on a bad day, him stealing their Pokémon, taking over their town, ruining their lives. You feared that he’d find out your dirty little secret.
It was a perfect disguise. Your body trembled, your face became red, and your shy demeanor was the most obvious of all. To the untrained eye, someone might have assumed that you were just as terrified of Guzma as the rest of the town. But in reality, you had the biggest, most embarrassing crush on him that wouldn’t go away. You tried to stay as far away as possible from Guzma. Both to keep your crush hidden from others and to attract Guzma into your life. You didn’t care what he threatened to ruin. In hopes of its destruction, you built a peaceful, organized life. You would gladly let him destroy it - if it meant getting close to him.
You felt it was so close to working, but then he had that falling out with Lusamine that traumatized him deeply. His mischievous and reckless nature came to a halt, and now you had to rethink your approach.
About fifteen feet away from your porch, hidden behind the side of your house, Guzma was also thinking about his approach. He had never actually come up and talked to you before, let alone asked you on a date. Maybe Kukui was setting him up for failure somehow, trying to teach him a lesson. He’d give it his best attempt, regardless.
You heard footsteps on your right, and turned to see the big, bad Guzma himself. Your heart skipped a beat, and you stood up from the rocking chair you had on your porch.
“Guzma?”
“Whoa, whoa. Hold your ponytas. You might not have heard, but Po Town is back to normal. I- uh… We cleaned it up and handed it back to Alola. I’m kind of going around town and apologizing to everyone I’ve wronged.” Guzma said.
“Why come here? You haven’t wronged me at all.”
Guzma looked curious, raising an eyebrow. “You haven’t had access to Po Town since you’ve moved here, Y/N. For the three months you’ve been here, it’s been nothing but moral turmoil and turf warfare.”
You smile at him. “I don’t think it’s quite that bad, Guzma. You’ve never once come over to my house, nor do you ever stop me when I come into town. I’ve also never had to enter Po Town, so I didn’t know what you were getting up to there.” You said. Before Guzma could speak, you spoke up again. “Wait. How do you know my name?”
“How would I not know your name? Everyone knows your name. Kukui never shuts up about how much you contribute to his research with your observations.” Guzma said, before a concerned expression took hold of his face. “Hold on. I’ve never actually spoken to you until now?”
You raise an eyebrow. “I think you’re mistaking me for someone else, because no. We haven’t spoken until now.”
Guzma looked embarrassed. “No, I remember. It’s just that… I guess being around you feels like talking to you, in a way…” He looks away from you for a moment. “That sounded stupid, didn’t it?”
You laugh. “No, that’s not stupid at all. I was actually hoping we’d talk at some point, but I figured you were busy with the whole… Po Town thing.”
He laughs genuinely, something you didn’t get to see often. “That’s for sure! Plumeria’s been helping me get the kids into something more productive. We even removed our tattoos and everything.”
“You removed your tattoos?” You said in a questioning tone. “Don’t you have to like, go back for multiple weeks in order to get the pigment out with a laser or som-”
“They were temporary.”
A silence hung over the sunset-lit backyard, before you released a snicker from your aching cheeks. Before long, it had turned into a full-blown hyena laugh.
“Oh, come on!” Guzma said, throwing his hands in the air in defeat.
“You, the big bad Guzma, had a temporary tattoo? I can- like- I can just imagine you holding the washcloth onto your arm…”
Guzma couldn’t help but snort before responding, “I’ll have you know - they airbrushed it.”
You laughed even harder. “Ok- ok… That’s worse. Oh, my god.”
“Wowwww. I didn’t realize that a part of reconciliation was being harshly judged of my choice in temporary tattoos.” Guzma said playfully.
You wiped the tears from your eyes before facing him again. “I’m glad you came to see me. Seriously, I mean that.”
Guzma smiled, the faintest pink blush coating his cheeks. “I- uh- I actually came to ask you something.”
“What’s that?” You ask.
“I was hoping… Maybe we could continue this very riveting conversation about my poor aesthetic choices… Over dinner sometime? Or coffee? No pressure.”
You looked back at him, blushing hard. You hadn’t needed to change your approach at all, he just needed to change his. “Yeah, I think I’d like that.”
Guzma tried to hide his excitement, but it wasn’t working very well. “Sweet! Uh- I’ll see you tomorrow then?”
You smiled. “See you tomorrow, Guzma.”
With that, Guzma giddily speed-walked back to the trail next to your house, pumping his fist in the air at his recent success.