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“Look down to the paws in your lap. To the hooves on your desk or the claws at your sides. Humans, it is said, lack these varied and wondrous limbs that us Pokemon have. Instead, humans are born with two five-fingered appendages known to them as ‘hands.’ Where we have warm fur or hardened scales, humans have fragile, sensitive skin that…”
“Hear that, Lucas?” Lumine gazes down at his sky-blue paw, at his pure white pads. He can’t even find it in him to care enough to lower his voice to a whisper—Mr. Farfetch’d is too engrossed in the textbook he’s mechanically reading aloud from to notice the entire class having conversations amongst themselves. “I might’ve lost my memories and left behind the life and family I knew, but at least my paws aren’t made of ‘fragile, sensitive skin’ anymore…”
“Yay…” Lucas groans with a roll of his eyes, blowing a quiet raspberry. He rocks back and forth in his seat in the grass, back and forth, back and forth—his chin is propped up with a paw, like Lumine’s. The long sigh he lets out feels like his hundredth in the past hour. And this is while he has a new best friend to talk to and stave off boredom—how in the world had Lucas survived these lectures before?! “I swear, if Mr. Farfetch’d says another word about hands, I might throw some hands his way…” The Alolan Vulpix lets out a chuckle.
“You mean, throw paws his way. If you don’t use the right terms, how do you expect to pass the test that’s coming up? You don’t want to fail, do you? Like last time?” He pauses and holds back a smile before slyly adding, “Although…a zero is kind of a fitting grade for you, I suppose. Round and empty—just like your head.” The poorly stifled snort that forces its way from Lucas’ nose is so loud, so guttural, that everyone in the class swivels as one to stare at him. Including Mr. Farfetch’d.
“Do you…have something to share with the class, Lucas?”
All Lucas can do is sit up straight as an arrow and sheepishly smile, his cheeks beet red. And it’s all Lumine can do to glare at him along with them, pretending that he wasn’t the one who caused it, biting his lip as he tries his absolute hardest not to let his smile explode into giggles.
“S-Sorry. I’m just, y’know, recovering from a disease, hehe…” Lucas mumbles, adding a few overdone coughs and sniffles for emphasis. “Just a case of my friend is an oversized Albino Rattata with a big mouth-itis. It was nearly fatal—breathing in his toxic stench every day is a major health hazard, you know.” There’s a spattering of amused snickers from the class, loudest of all from Pancham, who throws in a, “hear hear!” Lumine’s eyes widen ever so slightly; his amused gaze giving way to a steely glare with no real venom in it.
”Oh, I’ll show you ‘almost fatal’…”
“’Disease’ or not,” Mr. Farfetch’d begins with an exasperated sigh. Both boys turn to face him as he rubs his temples with his wing. “If you need to take a drink of water, be my guest, Lucas. Why not go with him, Lumine, to make sure he doesn’t cause any more trouble.” Lucas can’t help but let his smiling mouth fall fully agape at that.
“Wha- ME?! I’M causing trouble?! LU’S the one who-” But Lumine grabs his paw, silencing him before he can get another word out.
“Of course, Mr. Farfetch’d,” He puts on his best professional smile, giving a nod. “I’m sorry for Lucas’- for our behavior. We’ll make sure we won’t disturb the class again with our…cold. We’ll be back soon with some water—please excuse us.” And that’s all he says before he starts speed-trotting down to their hiding spot by the creek, a flustered, indignant Lucas in tow.
…
“S-STOOP! WAIT, I- HEE HEE! I’M SORRY, I’M SORRY!” Of course, despite Lumine’s pleading, Lucas doesn’t stop. His paws tickle and knead every part of Lumine’s midsection and underarms that Lucas knows are most sensitive, and gods, does Lumine hate that Lucas knows where he’s most sensitive. He can barely put a thought together; he can hardly breathe; he needs to get Lucas to stop, but…but how, when he isn’t even strong enough to break free when Lucas isn’t tickling him?
“Me too—I’m sorry I couldn’t do this in front of the entire class!” Lumine can just barely hear him cry. “That’s what you get, bringing up that fluke of a score when we swore we’d never talk about it ever again!” Lucas knows his friend’s pure white fur is getting dirty, writhing and rolling around in the dirt. He knows they’re both going to need a quick rinse in the creek before they get back to class. He just couldn’t possibly care less.
“LUCAAS! I SWEAR, I’M GONNA…I’M GONNA…” Lumine’s laughing so hard, twitching and resisting with all his might, that he can barely get his words out between his giggles. And Lucas is giggling right with him, laughing right with him. He’s lucky Lumine’s somehow even smaller than him, even lighter than him—they might be about the same height when they’re sitting down, but Lucas barely has to use any strength at all to hold him down. He barely even feels anything as Lumine’s flailing hind legs kick his chest. How ticklish and sensitive Lumine is definitely helps, too…
“Yeah? Say it! What’cha gonna do, Lu? Go ahead—make me just shiiiiver with fright!” He feels so warm, just tickling the poor Vulpix to oblivion, earning louder and louder laughs out of him. Every squeal from Lumine, every giggle and smile, makes waves and waves of bright, warm energy flutter through Lucas from head to-
“QUIT IIIT!”
Okay—maybe Lucas feels a little bad for him. Even if he did have it coming to him… ”Alright, alright—I’ll stop, I’ll stop.” He takes his paws off of him to let him breathe, watching as his kicking hind legs and arched back relax and fall flat on the floor. “You can have a rest, hee hee. Go ahead, say it—what are you gonna do?”
“Guh…I…I’m going to…” Lumine gasps, eyes as wide and bright as the clear blue sky. Lucas watches close as he pants and wheezes; he waits just a little longer— “I- AAACK! STAHAHP!” —and the moment before Lumine is about to speak, he tickles under Lumine’s arms with one arm and holds him down with the other.
“Sorry, come again?! You kinda- mmph- mumbled there!” He taunts, losing a bit of leverage as Lumine struggles with a second wind—but it doesn’t take Lucas much effort to wrestle him back under control. “How are you gonna answer Mr. Watchog’s questions next period if you can’t say what you mean? You don’t wanna fail, do you? Say it, Lu!”
The adrenaline and ecstasy within him keeps soaring higher and higher, and he’s having so much fun, so much fun. Lumine’s so warm and soft and fluffy to touch that Lucas doesn’t think he ever wants to let go! He can’t stop giggling; he can’t stop smiling—and, more importantly, neither can Lumine! He adores every moment of this; he adores seeing Lumine like this! The solemn, indifferent Lumine he knew for weeks is nowhere to be seen—Lumine’s so unguarded, so carefree; so flustered and so happy, and Lucas never wants this to-
“I-I’M GONNA FAINT! I CAN’T BREATHE, LUCAS!”
“Huh?!” Finally, that gets the Riolu to release him. Lumine’s left lying on his back on the riverbed, panting and gasping for breath. Lucas tries to do the same, kneeling over him and grinning like mad—until a pang of ice-cold worry strikes his chest. Did he…did he go too far? Did he get too excited and ruin things yet again? Did he hurt him?
Oh, no. No, no, no.
Lucas’ smile falls in an instant, and he watches Lumine like a Braviary as the Vulpix’s chest heaves and falls in a gradually slowing rhythm—as Lumine’s mouth, still spread wide in a huge smile, takes in as much air as it can. He…he doesn’t know if it’s appropriate to try mouth-to-mouth while Lumine still seems conscious, but…
“S-Sorry! I’m so sorry, I…were you really about to…?” There’s a pause, the sound of their near-synchronized breaths intertwining with the creek’s soft bubbling.
“Well…s-sorta… But...to be honest…”
Lumine suddenly stops panting, a single glittering eye shooting open.
“Not really.”
Without warning, he rolls onto his paws and springs onto Lucas, knocking him over so that Lucas is the one lying in the dirt this time. “OOF! W-What the…?!” The fur covering his wrists ripples as he conjures a generous clump of frigid snow in his paws, raising them over his stunned friend—
“What’re you- EEEK!” And he presses his icy paws right to either side of the base of Lucas’ neck.
“What’s wrong?” Lumine hops off of him with a quick jump backwards. With hardly a sound, he lands, lithe paws tapping softly on the dirt. He watches with an innocent smile, batting his wide eyes as Lucas jolts and writhes, trying frantically to brush off the slush Lumine left behind. “You asked me to make you shiver—is this not enough ‘shiver’ for you? And after I tried to make the snow as wet and heavy as I could…”
“I SAID ‘SHIVER WITH FRIGHT,’ you…REALLY not nice sneak of a Pokemon!” Lumine slaps a paw to his cheek, faking a gasp.
“Did you? Oh, I’m sorry… Maybe you were mumbling or something?” The Riolu cranes his head up to shoot a glare at him—and he lets it fall back on the floor with a sigh. “In all seriousness, though…be a little less merciless with your tickling next time, 'kay? So I can, y’know...breathe a little more?”
And despite himself, despite the leftover slush still chilling his shoulders, Lucas can’t help but let a grin spread across his cheeks at the idea of a “next time."
“...Sure thing, Lu.”