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Lusamine taught them to be prim and proper. She showed them the merits of beauty and the horrors of mess. She gave them white clothes, and praised their blond hair. Telling them to never tan, to never change the way they looked for anyone but her.
She trained them to be beautiful.
All of the dresses were beautiful and formal. Lillie hated them so. They were so hard to wear, to many layers and far too hot for Alolan weather. Her hair was always down and always in the way. She wanted so desperately to cut it, however she knew the price of being so outrageous.
Gladion hated the perfectness of it. Everything in the Aether foundation was either gold or white. They shone so bright, a dazzle of perfection that made even the most skeptical inspector able to overlook what the “paradise” was doing.
Neither of them thought it was a paradise but they treated it that way.
Lusamine was sure to enforce the idea that a skinny body was a beautiful one. She never claimed health as a factor to why Lillie should have a small waist and Gladion should have tasteful muscles.
It seemed that their entire worth and ability revolved around beauty. If Lusamine aimed to teach them anything other than to hate themselves it was that beauty is pain.
Gladion was the oldest and lacked his sister’s feminine charm. Due to this he was well accustomed to pain. Lusamine made sure that he knew of that, he could never be muscular enough and just when he thought he was Lusamine would say that he was to brutish.
When Gladion was deemed unbeautiful he would be either have steroid forced on him or deprived of food. Lusamine would always go for his left hand, and told him that he was undeserving of marriage which she equated with happiness.
She tried to make sure he would always remember her. His hand would shake and burn when he battled or thought of her.
Lillie’s lessons did not involve poking or prodding. Lusamine believed that a girl with scars or muscles was ugly. She was taught to be silent and apologetic, to have no pride or honor. Lusamine, through speeches and insults, taught her daughter that the only value to her was beauty.
Beauty was defined by their outsides, by the strength of their muscles and the size of their waists.
They both hated their mother and yet, could not deny that she was beautiful.
~~~
When Gladion ran from Aether Paradise all he had were the clothes on his back and Type Null at his side. They hopped aboard a late night cargo ship and hid for a day in the smelly stinky hull of the ship.
When they got out they found themselves a real island. The colors were were so strange, they were natural and didn’t hurt him if he stared at them to long. He was amazed at how people dressed how they wanted to look. For the first time on the outside the though he might have found something beautiful.
The first thing he did was sell his clothing. He wanted both money and to remove all traces of Lusamine from his life. The clothes she chose for him always had some sort of gems or gold borders. That gave him enough money for two years of rent at a cheap motel to buy clothes.
He only purchased one outfit, a dark colored one with reds and blacks instead of whites and golds. Instead of soft edges and shine he chose something sharp and dull. If Lusamine had been there she would have punished him horribly.
She would have been disgusted with it, which was why Gladion purchased it.
Lillie stayed alone with her mother for many reasons. She had nothing to connect with, no Type Null and no brother to draw strength from.
Lusamine had more control over her, she was younger and easily mold-able. Gladion had been old enough to question his mother when he had run away. Lillie had been so young at the time Gladion left that she could not go with him.
She hated her mother, and then hated herself for feeling that way about someone who she thought cared for her. She believed that Lusamine was doing this so she could be beautiful, and this was how she showed her love.
Pain was beauty after all.
~~~
When Lillie escaped she took all the money that had been in her purse at the time, which had been quite a lot as her mother had planned to take her out shopping that day.
She ran and while she had enough money to buy new clothes, do up her hair, and wear anything more comfortable or convenient she didn’t. Lusamine had picked out the outfit for her, and even though she had betrayed her mother she still thought that without her mother’s guidance she was not beautiful.
When she found Gladion she was still in her white dress that was made to look like her mother’s one true love, an ultra beast.
She almost didn’t recognize him at first, his hair was cut unevenly and his clothes were dark and ripped. However when he showed his face to her she saw that he was her brother. Though she was afraid of team skull and the outside world when she saw him she suddenly wasn’t afraid anymore.
Black was not a good color on him, it made his pale face look even paler and the grime on his face was far more noticeable. His clothes were ugly, and he looked cruel and tired, but she wasn’t afraid of him.
Lusamine would have hurt him so for the rips and tears, let alone the rest of his clothing. He didn’t smile at her when he saw her. She was still prim and proper. She reminded him too much of Lusamine. He grunted at her, and she set her jaw. He had left her and she didn’t need to show him any kindness or understanding. If he really cared for her he would have stayed or at least taken her with him.
She didn’t understand that staying any longer would have killed him for to much for him to ever recover.
~~~
When he saw her next, it was her with her trail going friends. Hau and Selene were friendly with Lillie, and it seemed as if they would only get closer. Gladion couldn’t explain the pure fury that overcame them when he saw Lillie with someone to lean on.
He had been alone for all those years, he at least deserved someone to lean on. He had null but that was it, Team Skull didn’t like him or trust him and the only person he had ever really cared for was Lillie.
She was even more beautiful when she was really smiling.
~~~
They finally had time to talk after they took down Lusamine. Gladion and Lillie didn’t say much, not even asking the boring questions of how the other was doing. They had so much to say to the other each didn’t know where to start.
In the end Gladion settled for a simple statement. Not the “I love you’s” and “I miss you’s” he’d been saving up in all his time alone. The words were to hard to get out of his mouth.
“Your clothes are still in your room, you could change if you wanted to.” He remarked awkwardly. It was such a strange thing to say after all that had happened.
“Thank you, but I don’t see a reason to change. My clothes are perfectly fine.” Her voice was cold and reserved. It told Gladion that she had settled for the unfamiliarity he had presented.
“I just figured,” Gladion started hesitantly, not sure how to say exactly what he wanted to say. He wanted to tell her that she should try to stand up for herself more and become more than what her mother had wanted. He found himself to weak to tell her what he really wanted to say.
“You might have grown out of them by now.”
That was about all they said to each other that night, not able to find a way to bridge a gap that extended two whole years. The next day Lillie was wearing new clothes and had her hair up. She stood by her friends and smiled at Gladion as they waved him goodbye and left to go island hopping.
He stayed and tried to fix things, and in a way repent for leaving his sister.
~~~
The next time he saw her was during the celebration for Selene and her victory as the first ever Champion of the Alolan region.
He almost didn’t recognize Lillie at first. Her hair was a mess, not done up in neat braids but a quick ponytail with strands sticking out. Her clothes were boyish and comfortable looking, they suited her.
She was covered in dirt and scratches, clearly after having been active all day. She smiled big and wide at no one in particular and Gladion thought that maybe that was what beauty was.
Beauty isn’t pain. Beauty is exactly who and what you are and want to be.