Work Text:
“Harmony.”
“Yeah?” Harmony continued poking at her phone where she sat. She had taken up the habit of hanging out around the Rust Syndicate when she wasn’t busy participating the in ZA Royale, or hunting for shiny Pokemon, or filling out research tasks for Mable, or hanging out with her friends at Hotel Z... Lida, Urbain, and Naveen all questioned her sanity for it, but Harmony simply shrugged and told them that Corbeau was good company. Plus he occasionally had odd jobs for her to help out with around the city- those were a nice change of pace. Doing battles and catching Pokemon day and night got kind of tedious after a while.
Plus, Corbeau didn’t lie- the sofas were really comfy.
“I am sitting less than half a room away from you,” the leader of the Rust Syndicate huffed from his desk. His phone pinged again, beside his small mountain of paperwork and he sighed, annoyed. “If there is a video you want me to see, you can just walk over here and show it to me.”
Harmony hung her head over the arm of the couch, looking at him upside-down. “Yeah, but that’d mean I’d have to get up off the sofa…” She pouted exaggeratedly, sticking out her lower lip.
Corbeau stared blankly at her. “Well, we can’t have that,” he said, voice completely flat and monotone. Sighing again, he set his pen down and picked up his Rotom-phone. Harmony grinned as he opened up the video she had sent him- the sound of dog Pokemon barking letting her know exactly which vid he was looking at. Chortling to herself, she waited to hear what his reaction would be- especially once the voiceover of a woman screaming ‘BOOM SHACKALACKA! YES MEW!’ started up.
“Harmony.”
Smirking, she looked at him upside-down again. “Yeah?”
“What is this?” He paused the video, the barking stopping. “Why did you send me a video of pictures of myself?”
She laughed and swiveled around on the couch to face him better. “It’s a thirst post!” She told him with a grin. When he continued to frown down at his phone, she pushed herself up off the sofa and walked over to the side of his desk. She reached down and un-paused the video, grinning wide as the barking started up again.
“I don’t get it,” Corbeau said. Before she could say anything else, he asked, “Why the barking dog Pokemon noises?”
Harmony smiled at the way his eyebrows had furrowed together. “You don’t know what thirst-posting is? People like to bark when they think someone’s hot.” She asked a question of her own, before sort of answering his. He looked even more annoyed. It took all of her willpower not to poke the skin between his eyebrows. Bothering Corbeau was probably the best part of hanging out at the Syndicate. He was most often found in his office, usually working on paperwork and business deals, so it was easy to come by and pester him. At the moment, he was scrolling through the comments on the video, left thumb flicking up over and over again. But he still looked lost. Even all of the heart emojis and drooling emojis didn't seem to clear things up for him. Harmony stared at him for another moment.
“Corbeau… you know you’re like really attractive, right?”
Now he was outright scowling, turning his head away from his phone to look up at her. “What?”
Oh.
Oh, he really didn’t know.
She carefully moved a couple of things on his desk around so she could sit down on the corner. He frowned as she did it, but didn’t stop her. Once she was situated, she took his phone out of his hands, set it down, then took hold of his hands in hers. “I’m gonna hold your hand when I say this,” she said calmly. “Corbeau- you are super good looking and like half of the people in Lumiose city want to bang you.”
“Half?” He repeated, still frowning, just not as hard as he had been earlier.
She nodded. “Maybe more, to be totally honest.”
His gaze lowered- maybe to their hands, maybe to his desk, Harmony wasn’t sure. He hummed quietly for a minute, just… thinking. Eventually, his striking yellow eyes lifted back up to look at her face.
“Does that half include you?”
Harmony’s face instantaneously felt like it was on fire. She spluttered and choked, floundering for anything to say in response to that. “I-jus-if-I fuuu- wha- I jes!” She felt like a blubbering Wishiwashi.
The question itself was bad enough all on its own- who asks something like that!? Just fucking smacked her in the face with that one, didn’t he?
But… the way he was looking at her… He looked so… earnest. Like he was genuinely hopeful to hear her answer. It made her face feel even warmer than it already did. She was sure she must have been red as the top of a Pokeball by this point. He was even still holding her hands! Oh, Arceus, she was going to die right then and there.
Swallowing once- then twice- then a third time because she felt like she couldn’t get past the lump in her throat, Harmony looked away, cheeks pink, and muttered, “I-I mean, I wouldn’t say no if you asked me or anything…”
And, fuck, the way his face just lit up when she said that. She was absolutely going to die.
“Wonderful,” he said, smiling up at her. “Dinner, then. Tonight- I’ll let you go change back at Hotel Z, and someone will come to pick you up around seven or so.” He hummed happily now and squeezed her hands. Before the smile on his face turned downright vicious and the veins on his forehead bulged prominently. “But if you even think about showing me another video like this ever again, I will bury you in so much debt that you’ll wish you never even met me. Clear?”
“Haaaaah, Crystal,” Harmony half-said, half-moaned. She had to swallow again. Corbeau was especially hot when he was being intimidating.
“Good,” he said, letting go of her hands. Picking his pen back up into his left hand, he returned to his paperwork. “I’ll see you tonight.”
Getting up off the desk, Harmony nodded dumbly and made her way out of his office. Once closed behind her, she stood outside the door, just blinking for a few minutes, trying to wrap her head around what just happened.
Did she really just get a date with Corbeau?? Because she showed him a stupid thirst video???
“What the actual shit, man…”