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Nico is brushing Penny’s pink fur, trying to puzzle out exactly how to make the spots shine the absolute brightest in the slivers of sunlight that the morning throws through her seventh-floor apartment window when the buzzer goes off. She jolts up, and BeBe clacks his pincers together as she crosses the small bedroom, past the tiny kitchenette where her new Clamperl snoozes shell-down in the dish drainer like unburied treasure, and halts at the front door. She frowns at the dusty speakerbox as she hits the button to yell at the visitor. “Well? What do you want?”
“Let me in, let me in,” drawls the guest, a shade too complacent for 7:45 AM. Nico’s frown deepens into a scowl like a Slash, and Penny, racing about at her feet, barks shrilly, noise rising like a Chimecho on a sharp summer breeze.
“ Nozomi .”
**
Nozomi walks with none of the frilly grace Nico is used to - then again, Nico spends her time in Beauty Contest circles, where Coordinators and Pokemon alike raise the heel, point the toe, and swing the arms from the motionless shoulder blades at a perfect 45 degree angle. Toujou Nozomi ambles , but in a horribly lazy shuffle, with a magma-slow grin and big, dark lashes that conceal her little eyes more than that foolish straw hat she’s taken to carting around. She’s deceptively lithe, though, snatching Nico up in an Ursaring hug that shocks Nico more than any Thunder Wave; she falls limp instead of fighting it. Penny darts at Nozomi’s feet, Scratching weakly at the stupid denim overalls that she always throws on, whining with a drone that could rival Bug types in the summer at evening.
“Down Penny, I want you to get down ,” Nico complains, pretending she’s speaking to the Snubbull as Nozomi twirls her around, smelling of cinnamon incense.
“Your Pokemon is so big!” Nozomi says cheerfully as she graciously drops Nico into a pile of laundry, tactfully kicking her running shoes off onto the peach welcome mat - it was originally white, but maybe Nico spilled some Hyper Potion on it one time (ridiculous considering the crazy cash investment good medicine costs nowadays!) and got so stressed she bought Pecha Dye and went to town. “I haven’t seen you in months!”
Nico brushes her worn sun dress off with both hands and sniffs, ignoring the crick in her neck as she sticks her nose in the air. “You didn’t call ahead. I could have been out when you got here... did you lose my registration in your Pokegear or something?” Penny finally calms down, little paws pattering as she scrambles to sit in proper Contest posture, tail a-wag. Nico leans down to pat her rough head, and Penny whimpers, soft as a pup.
“No,” says Nozomi breezily, adjusting the single Pokeball attached cleverly to an overall strap on her right shoulder. “I know Saturday mornings, starting at 6:35 AM, are your ‘pump-up and watch reruns of A-Rise on Youtube’ days.”
“...Right.”
“So I knew you’d be up, dressed for the day. Is that Pokemon new?” Nozomi points into the kitchen, where Nico’s Clamperl still sits, heavy blue shell resolutely sealed. Nico sighs.
“He’s being rude, honestly. I adopted him from the shelter yesterday and haven’t given him a name, just got some Berry mash into him and he went straight to sleep.”
“That was real swell of you, Nico,” Nozomi coos, and Nico can’t tell if it’s exactly meant to come out in that lazy, sweet way or if it’s actually sarcastic as hell, “are you going to move closer to the sea if it evolves?”
Shit, Nico hasn’t considered that yet, but then again... “I can just move my Everstone from Bebe,” she says, and jabs a thumb over her shoulder at the Skorupi like she’s trying to take out an eye.
“Not much room for a Drapion in this apartment,” says Nozomi critically, and Nico just scowls.
“You come into my house ,” she starts, but Nozomi snort-snickers, holding her hands up in the traditional surrender position like she’s waiting for a bull to charge or lightning to strike down her sins, and Nico waits. They haven’t moved past the dim entryway.
“I... I met someone,” says Nozomi after a pause, voice leaden like she’s admitting to joining up with Team Rocket.
“Yikes,” says Nico, before she can stop herself.
“She walked into my life after breaking through my superior’s bramble fence at the pastures,” says Nozomi, dialing up the drama in her voice. “Ayase Eli, an angel; with eyes like an Altaria and a level 14 Piplup.”
“What the hell are you saying?”
“I’m going to visit her later this morning, after breakfast in Goldenrod,” rushes Nozomi, and puts her hands in her baggy denim pockets almost guiltily, rocking on her toes in a motion like little pulses of ocean waves, “and I wondered if you’d like to come meet her. Come with, and meet... Eli, I mean.”
Nico has known Nozomi for years , since they decided to stay in school after turning ten and Nozomi splattered salad dressing on Nico’s feet accidentally-on-purpose during lunch after Nico had loudly derided monotype Psychic trainers, and Nico has only seen Nozomi so serious three times before this moment: when she was reading Nico’s fortune for the first time; when her parents handed her a baby Eevee; and when the tsunami three years ago had hit and they’d gone outside and looked on in wordless horror at all the beached, dry Pokemon in the clear daylight the morning after. Nozomi had spent hours gently sliding her long fingers under the vermillion scales of gaping Magikarp and crying Wailmer, cradling them back to the sea.
Anyway. She’s got the same set sweep to her curling eyebrows that suggests this person she’s met, somehow, has the same magnitude of importance to her. “Sure,” says Nico carefully, and heads into the kitchen to grab her Pokeballs, bare feet slapping the tiles like shots in the silence. Bebe scuttles after her and runs headlong into Penny, colliding into an unfortunate pile of baby pokemon and an upsetting mixture of heads, tails, and pincers.
“Thanks,” says Nozomi, relief and admission in her single-word gratitude as she picks up Penny from the mauling in both arms. “Eli’s not a League competitor, so I brought Hanazono in case we get challenged sometime during the day.”
“Good thing I’m the better Trainer,” says Nico confidently, barely restraining herself from striking a superior pose. She mentally pats herself on the back for her excellent impulse control and striking self-esteem as she tosses things into her backpack and hunts for a cardigan.
**
Nico is a Coordinator, not a Trainer, but she jumps in with Nozomi for a double battle to beat the absolute tar out of some smartass twins, two students from the Ecruteak training academy who thought their cute Plusle and Minun combo could distract from the fact that they look about twelve.
Hanazono’s level is in the late twenties, perfectly respectable for someone who has only two badges and doesn’t even actively participate in League work. Nozomi’s deceptive, sugary smile (God, she puts on that dumbass country charm thicker than a layer of jam) hides the fact that she’s an Ace trainer born and raised into a battling family, and even with underleveled Pokemon, uses a combination of status
conditions and field-based loopholes to pound opponents into the dust. The Gengar seems to smirk as the Plusle sinks into the grass, exhausted.
Hershey, Nico’s Shiftry, is actually her mother’s and is a solid level fifty, which means he ignores almost anything Nico commands, but as the Minun continuously lashes him with wimpy Thundershocks, he seems to frown slightly, and thwaps the tiny Pokemon across the grass with one solid backhand of a branchy arm, sending it skidding through the lush field of tall grass. It faints, anticlimactically.
“Great,” says Nico brightly as one of the twins bursts into tears and Nozomi divies up the pennies they’d handed to her as compensation for the win. “How far are we from Eli’s?”
“Not too far,” says Nozomi, pocketing her section of the change. She taps a bit on her Pokegear, biting her lip. Nico searches her face, finding traces of jangling nerves before Nozomi notices and smoothes out the lines into her casual head tilt, smile lines gridding her expression.
They trek through the rest of the Route, sneakers flattening the tufty grass that springs up immediately as they pass. As they come up to the gates to Ecruteak City, Nozomi swings them right, into a copse of low-slung Berry trees and a ring of a few shabby houses with a dirt path.
Eli opens up the door as Nozomi’s fist comes into contact with the faded beige wood - Nico raises and eyebrow, caught up in a swell of instinctive, immense disgust of how adorable it is that Eli swirls a hand into Nozomi’s hair and kisses her, fast and hard, before noticing Nico and breaking apart with exceptional awkwardness.
“This is Ayase Eli, delivery girl extraordinaire,” sings Nozomi, and sticks her hands in her pockets, ducking her head, sunset blush decorating the tops of her round cheekbones.
Nico looks at Eli, who waves her hand woodenly, clearly trying to hold down mortification. “Hello. Ayase Eli.” She’s almost sickeningly gorgeous, standing there on the dusty stoop in paint-stained athletic shorts and an ice-blue tank top like a Smeargle gone swimming. She’s tall and tan, perfect face with model lashes; the optimal package of curves and edges in a shrugging blonde girl with hunting-bird eyebrows. How in the actual hell ...
“How’d you meet?” she asks, ignoring the fact that she feels like an overgrown preteen in a pink cardigan and a sundress. Why doesn’t she have any damn heels? Eli is so tall .
“Long story,” blurts Nozomi, and Eli side-eyes her. Nico reads Are we not telling her? in the look, and Nozomi blinks slowly, saying Not now . Whatever. Nico tamps down the grumpiness that rises in her just from looking at Eli. She’s here to support Nozomi, not get eaten by a green-eyed monster.
**
They decide to take a tour at the Ruins of Alph. Nobody says much on the half hour walk - Nico is busy wrestling with her automatic hatred of how naturally lovely Eli is, and Eli keeps looking at Nozomi, who is pulling Cherrim-fruit from one of her impossibly deep pockets and spitting the seeds to the side of the road with pursed, plush lips; the picture of a perfect farmer meandering along the paths. Ridiculous. When they get to the Ruins, Nico is the one who sticks her head into the low-slung caves first, mouth wide and irascibility temporarily forgotten as they take in the glowing crystalline walls studded with charcoal-thick lines of archaic runes, Unown revolving mysteriously in gliding patterns about cracked statues and glass cases of finds from the ruins.
Nozomi immediately unleashes Hanazono at an Unown shaped like a “L” - it zooms off into the distance, the strange ringing drone of its call echoing through the twining halls an ancient, mechanical hum. The Gengar swoops after it, bony teeth the only spots of true light in the dim walkways. “Be right back!” says Nozomi, and darts off, surprisingly lithe. This leaves Nico with Eli; neither have particularly enthralled expressions for their sudden bonding time.
“Are we... allowed to capture Unown here?” asks Eli after a moment, bony fingers flipping through her hastily grabbed tourist pamphlet. “I wouldn’t want to, um, desecrate a national historical site.”
“Whatever,” says Nico. “Nozomi knows what she’s doing.” She looks pointedly at Eli with arrow-hard focus and folds her arms tight around herself. “Usually.”
Eli, wrapped in the faint blue light from the cave’s ambient crystals, makes a face like a kicked Lillipup. “Excuse me?” Instead of echoing in the caves, their voices are muffled, blurred by the brief surreality of the hazy Ruins.
“What are you doing with Nozomi?” Nico says, aware of exactly how accusatory her tone is, but unable to stop; the words are pouring forth like Waterfall. “Why are you...”
“It’s not complicated,” says Eli clearly, an icy look rising to her eyes like new winter. “All it took was meeting her.” Nico frowns, this new face to Eli is sharper than knives, edged in silver and solid like Steel. It’s intimidating; sleek. “She’s caring, clever, and real . I’ve never met someone so genuinely kind - but she’s also got a wicked sense of humor; she teases me and tells me secrets, and keeps mine, and she calls me every night to tell me about weird things that happen to her - Yazawa Nico, why do I have to explain why I love her?”
“Oh, you love her now? You’ve known her for how long?”
“I didn’t mean to say that out loud, but I don’t see how it’s your business!” They have reached an impasse. Nico is aware, suddenly, of how she pounced on Eli and attacked her relationship within thirty-three minutes of meeting her. While it holds with her usual patterns of attack, she’s almost ashamed of this one.
“Look who has herself an Unown!” Nozomi skids back from around a corner, a huge, shaggy grin on her wide face, Pokeball in hand, and catches the mood immediately. She makes a face like she’s about to sneeze. “Uh.”
Eli blinks, slow, like a Noctowl. “I don’t know.” She is perfectly blank, which makes Nozomi scratch her head.
“I caught the L Unown!”
Nico rolls her eyes, throwing her introspection out the metaphorical window, determined to have a good time. “Let’s keep moving. Maybe we can solve the hundred-year-old puzzle.”
**
Aggression aside, Nico actually enjoys herself for the rest of the afternoon in the gloomy caves even as Nozomi and Eli trade glib commentary on the Ruins, holding hands in the hot, closed space, and giving the other quicksilver smiles that somehow annoy and please Nico at the same time, like a Contest judge jumping on Nico’s insecurities only to praise her improvement.
After an hour or so, Nozomi sends out Hanazono to scare Unown off the walls, gleaming, diffused blue outlining his royal purple fur in shimmery spikes as she chases down an “I” Unown. “You’ve already got one of those already!” yells Nico as the farmer sends her a cheerful backhand wave and vanishes cleanly around another corner. “Come on ! What a waste!”
While Nico stomps around, 100% done with Nozomi’s antics, Eli peers at the crumbling edges of the glassed-in wall tile formation, a deep frown of concentration carving lines through her fair forehead. Gold baby hairs are plastered to the back of her neck as she squats down and thinks. “A hundred years since the discovery of the ruins, and never solved,” she mutters under her breath, and Nico heaves a sigh at a bas-relief of a Suicune carved into an off-branch of their tunnel - caught up in the mystery, Eli hasn’t noticed Nozomi isn’t here, so they don’t have to Headbutt each other again.
Do they have to fight at all, really? Nico taps her foot in the hard packed dirt; thinks about Nozomi’s shy grin and Eli’s slim hands tangling up in wild hair when they had kissed. Maybe Nico’s just looking out for one of her oldest friends, even if they haven’t chatted much recently, or maybe she’s jealous of how utterly sanguine their expressions are when they lock eyes. It’s more disgusting than that time a Persian used Attract on Hershey. After a few more minutes of Eli gazing intensely at the preserved puzzle, stumped as all throughout history, Nico pulls out her Pokegear and starts tapping aimlessly at the screen, now feeling awkward about her confrontation but damned if she’ll let healthy communication get in the way of her usual bullshit. So she’s overly-defensive about her friends - who cares? It just means she highkey loves them. Against her own wishes, Nico makes a face as the realization occurs. Nozomi pads back half a beat later with Hanazono gliding behind her like a fat purple cape, and glances between the two women, who are not-interacting so hard the air feels thick as heavy summer.
“Hey guys,” she says, looking almost wounded, and both Eli and Nico jump. “Should we... head out?”
“Sure,” says Eli gratefully, and takes Nozomi’s offered hand with a pronounced relief; an inhale after drowning.
“I guess,” says Nico with a withering stare at the wall.
**
They’re not far from the entrance when Nozomi stops them again to grab a third Unown.
“Bro, c’mon, you’ve already got two of those now, do you really need- okay, yes you do, apparently,” Nico says, interrupting herself as Nozomi tosses the gleaming Pokeball, a strange metallic purple in the cave’s reflective light.
“Yes!” cheers Nozomi, and clutches the three new Unown in her hand. Hanazono spins a celebratory circle around his Trainer, stubby hands grabbing excitedly at her long hair.
“Are you... capturing Unown of the letters of my name in English?” Eli asks, and everyone in the trio freezes as realization steals through them like a rippling Silver Wind.
“Oh Hell no,” snarls Nico, blaring through Nozomi’s opening commentary and slashing her hands through the air in a hopeless effort to waylay the emotional electricity. “This is enough .”
“What?” say Nozomi and Eli together.
Nico flounders her hands at them, filled with a heart-wrenching revulsion. “You cannot be serious at how cute you two are, this isn’t normal! I’m gonna baby-barf!”
“Um,” says Eli, wracking a hand through her hair.
“Heh,” says Nozomi, standing loosely with wide eyes as she hooks the Pokeballs onto her overall straps with easy motions.
“You two are so adorable together it makes me gag,” complains Nico. “It’s so sugary sweet that I have three cavities and gained ten pounds-”
“And yet none of that was in height,” says Nozomi sadly. Eli high-fives her.
“Shut up , oh my GOD.”
“Listen, Nico, I’m sorry,” says Nozomi, finally with the grace to look embarrassed. “I don’t mean to rub anything in your face, and I realize now you might have felt very third-wheel.” Nico, suddenly aware of how immature she’s acting, Clamperls up. Nozomi continues, face heartfelt and sweet and open like only Nozomi can pull off, sometimes. “I did... I did try to leave you guys to talk a little bit. I’m afraid I’m not a very good mediator, and it’s kind of important to me my longtime friend and my girlfriend get along.”
Eli’s eyes widen, but Nico, because she’s more important, rolls right over the girlfriend part and says, “Nozomi, of course we’re friends. I just... I didn’t know what you were trying to do here, except maybe make me uncomfortable with the seemingly perfect relationship you’ve crafted?”
“No!”
“But that’s fine,” Nico continues, thinking out loud. Her hand crumples the edge of her dress as she thinks, moving her gaze to Eli, who has that same blank, imperious stare on as earlier, but Nico is aware of the awkwardness in her stance; those long legs posed to maybe make a break for it. Too much drama for a daytrip. “I think you’ve got something special going on here. Maybe.” To Eli, Nico addresses her apology: “Shouldn’t have jumped on you like that, though I got a nice info-dump from you on your relationship, whew . You’re fine, I guess.”
“Thank you Nico,” says Nozomi, so genuinely that Nico has to fight hard to keep her lip from curling up in delight. Eli hesitates, but nods briskly after a moment. “And, Eli? Don’t you think this is cute?” Nozomi sends out all three Unown, which uncoil in the burst of sunset energy and swirl into a line to form a graceful E-L-I. It’s revolting.
“It is cute,” hedges Eli, and curves one flawless edge of her lip up in a doting smile as the three Unown float serenely in the air before Nozomi, who spreads her hands out as if to say ey?! , “But maybe you should put them back. I mean, you don’t battle often and they’d probably be happiest in the Ruins.”
“You’re right, as usual,” says Nozomi, and gets busy with the releasing program in her Pokeballs. Nico strides over to Eli, who side-eyes her in a careful, ready way.
“Let’s get a group photo,” says Nico impulsively as the free Unown hover around them, impishly ganging up to fly into Hanazono and sending him careening through the air like a doll. “Eli. Seriously, my bad.”
Eli relaxes, melting into spring, and flashes Nico a look like early morning sun, all freshness and eager possibilities (Nico’s favorite time of day, not that anybody but Nozomi knows that). “I look forward to seeing more of you, Nico.”
They gather almost awkwardly in the very first chamber of the Ruins, Nico in the middle with NozoEli behind her (Nico decides she will call them this at every opportunity, just to needle delicate Eli. HA!), and Nozomi flips her Pokegear around so the camera faces them. Nico fluffs up her hair; she can feel Eli moving behind her. “Everybody say Alph !”
**
After changing into pajama pants, Nico bustles around the kitchen, putting together the usual dinner for her Pokemon while listening to the radio - there’s treated Pokefood for Penny and Bebe, and Hershey gets fresh Berry mash. As a new song plays - it’s swanky, slow, but with plenty of synth and a good vocal purity - Nico puts her hands on her hips and considers the Clamperl still hanging out in her dish drainer. He’s raised his shell up and is in a direct staring contest with her, little pink self observing the world with clear eyes. He still must be named.
Nico’s Pokegear beeps - a new media message. She unlocks her gaze, ending her noiseless battle with the Clamperl and crosses to where she’d thrown her gear on the floor when she’d gotten home in the rush to apply her cream to her sweating pores. It’s from Nozomi. Thumbing over the screen, she opens the message, nail clacking to the beat of the radio.
It’s the photo from the Ruins. They’re bathed in that stunning pseudo-blue light of the halls, Nico in the center, the best-posed and the cutest, with her shining ponytails and luscious wink, but also Nozomi’s serene smile with the half-lidded, idle glance at the camera. There’s Eli’s dumb, almost wooden posture, but her eyes are directed at Nozomi, and her expression has everything in the world to do with Nozomi, and Nico can’t fail to see this fairy tale bullshit. It’s love.
“That’s love right there,” says Nico with annoyance as pure as a rainstorm, and Penny raises her head from the food bowl and seems to send her a Snubbull type of smile, fangs and a little bit of drool. This is fine. Nico goes back into the kitchen, and the Clamperl chimes gently at her. Okay. Love. Cool.
“I’ll call you Lovely,” she says.