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Guzma shifted uncomfortably in his seat, his sister - Alpinia, had just had a baby, and the whole family was here to celebrate. Guzma had mostly been ignored, and he only came along because his parents made him, and he dreaded to think what his dad would've done if he argued. He didn't mind, he just watched whatever game show was on TV while his relatives cooed over the new baby.
Sunflower- if he remembered correctly, was the kid's name, his family had a tradition for flower themed names, Guzma's own name was short for Guzmania.
After a few hours Guzma started to get really fidgety, most of the family had settled down and was watching whatever new movie that had come out, something about a kid taking on Hoopa. Sunflower was fast asleep, and Alpinia was cradling him in her arms, Meowth and her newly captured Eevee (A present for Sunflower from Guzma's mom.) lay by her feet. Guzma almost envied her, she looked so at home, at peace, he had never really felt like that, not at home, at least.
It was just when Guzma wondered if he should just skip dinner and go to bed, when he realised his big sister had been standing in front of him for a good five minutes, looking at him expectantly with her baby in her arms. “...Huh?” Man, he was not good at paying attention to what was going on around him. She rolled her eyes playfully and repeated what she had just said. “Can you hold Sun for a second? I should really go get dinner on.”
Guzma barely had a chance to respond before Sunflower was being gently passed to him, Alpinia left after she made sure her brother was holding him right, and Guzma was left extremely lost and confused, he wasn't good with babies! He was known to make kids cry if he so much as looked at them funny! He was tall and scary and definitely not the kind of person who should be holding a two month old baby.
He stayed completely still, so he wouldn't shift and hold Sunflower wrong, he prayed he wouldn't wake up, he didn't want him to start crying or something. He let himself relax a bit after a few minutes, as Sunflower didn't seem like he was waking up any time soon, he wasn't gonna lie, it was kinda nice holding Sunflower, he didn't really get the chance to do this with his Pokemon, Bug types weren't exactly the most cuddly things ever.
He felt shifting in his arms and was snapped out of his thoughts, he looked down and Sunflower had woken up, oh no. Guzma braced for the tears, but Sunflower didn't do anything, just stared up at him, Guzma let out a sigh of relief. He sorta half smiled at his nephew, who smiled back as best he could and reached up with his tiny baby arm, trying to grab Guzma's hair.
Guzma's hair was mostly black, mostly being the key word because, even though he was 17, his roots had flecks of white in them. He couldn't really explain why it was happening, he once joked that it was stress to Kukui, but he was starting to wonder if that really was the reason.
Guzma let the baby grab his finger instead, and he felt his heart melt when he actually realised how tiny Sunflower's hands were? Tiny hands, his only weakness.
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Guzma was there when Sunflower had taken his first steps, he tried to see his nephew as much as possible, he liked being away from home, Alpinia liked the company, and Sunflower was fond of Guzma's Bug Pokemon, especially Wimpod. But Eevee was his favourite, Mom picked out a good Pokemon, he thought to himself a lot.
Despite the fact that Sunflower was walking fine, he wouldn't speak, but Guzma didn't know if that was normal in 4 year olds or not. He shrugged it off, he seemed happy enough as he was, and Guzma guessed that was really what mattered.
He had been there for his nephew until he was about 6, his visits got less and less frequent as he was earning a lot less money and getting into more and more trouble. He felt bad, but he was sure Sunflower didn't need a bad influence like Guzma around.
He was still a very quiet child, the last time Guzma visited him he was trying to get him to say his own name, but the kid just wasn't having it, and Guzma gave up eventually, ruffling his hair and sending out Wimpod for him and Eevee to play with.
Sunflower had a way with Pokemon that Guzma had never really seen before, he won Guzma's own Pokemon over without saying a word, and Guzma's Pokemon enjoyed playing with him, they wouldn't stop whining for weeks when he told them they weren't going back to Kanto that year.
He caught himself in his mirror after feeding his Pokemon some Pokebeans one day, and he could swear he looked more tired every day, his hair also hadn't gotten any better, it was now a patchy white and black, and he kept getting looks from passers by, he hated it.
He glared at himself in the mirror, “Why can't you just be normal for once, Guzma?” He hissed as he grabbed one of his beanies and tugged it over his head, covering up the white.
Sunflower liked the white, he never said, but he always liked playing with it. Guzma joked that maybe he'd have white hair when he was older, too, and Guzma had to calm his nephew down before he burst with excitement.
He still didn't know why this was happening to him, but he doubted it was a genetic thing, as his older sister didn't have it, neither did any of his family except for the older ones, but Guzma was 23, not 70!
He shook his head and tugged at his beanie, he pushed the thoughts back, save the self hate for later, Guz. Calling his newly evolved Golispod back, he climbed out of his window to meet up with Plumeria.
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“Let's see it, Guzma! Show me your moves and prove you aren't just all talk!” Kukui, his old friend and rival, challenged. “If you really can, that is...” The Team Skull boss hissed and stepped forward, very ready to prove his old friend wrong, but Kukui turned towards a kid he hadn't realised was there before.
“Right, Sun? Don't you agree?” And Sun just nodded, Guzma blinked, he recognised this kid from somewhere, where, though? He regained his composure, pushing it to the back of his head, didn't matter, he'd probably never see him again, anyway.
“So you're one of the kids on his island challenge? You don't look like Hala's grandson.” Before Sun - that name was really bothering him, could respond, Kukui introduced him. “This here's Sun. He just moved to Alola recently.” Kukui said, practically glowing with pride. “Discovery! New experiences! Adventures! He's loving every minute of it!” Sun still didn't say anything, and Guzma wondered if he was just trying to be polite.
“Sun and his Vaporeon can unleash some real powerful moves.” Said Vaporeon was sitting on Sun's shoulder - how strong was this kid? and had been staring at Guzma intensely since they had arrived, it gave Guzma goosebumps, thing had a real powerful stare. “So if you think you're the strongest trainer on these islands, Guzma, why don't you battle him?”
Guzma smirked, “Tch! This move fanatic is getting me all riled up!” He looked at Sun, and noticed the Z-ring he had on his wrist. “You've got a Z-ring, huh, kid? Why even bother with the island challenge? What's the point of it?”
Sun shrugged, and Guzma snorted. “Ha! You don't even know why you're doing it. Watch closely, Kukui. Someday I'm gonna destroy you. But first, I'll destroy everything you care about!” He folded his arms and stood up straight, trying to look as menacing as possible. “Wanna see what destruction looks like? Here it is in human form – it's your boy Guzma!”
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It was... an embarrassingly quick fight, but not for Sun, he absolutely destroyed Guzma's team, and didn't even say a word during it, he pointed and that was all his Pokemon needed to know. It frustrated Guzma, extremely.
“Guzma!!! What is wrong with you?! Now's the time for your vaunted team to let loose and destroy everything!” He yelled, running his hands through his already very messy hair, Sun looked slightly taken aback, but continued to pet his Vaporeon anyway.
“It was Sun, right?” Sun stopped petting Vaporeon and looked up, nodding slowly. “I'll remember you... as someone I'll be happy to beat down anytime!” He huffed and barged past them, his Grunts following suit soon after.
The walk back to Po Town was silent for the most part, the Grunts were whispering to each other and halfway through Guzma suddenly blurted out, “Keep an eye on that kid for me, you got that? And unless Lusamine says otherwise, keep him away from Po Town.”
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“Goli, where are my sunglasses?” He asked, interrupting Golisopod playing with Masquerain, Golisopod clicked irritably, obviously annoyed that Guzma had interrupted his playtime.
“Yeah, yeah. Enough of the sass, where'd you put my sunglasses?”
Golisopod tilted his head and clicked again. “They were on my bed and you were in my room last, so if you didn't have 'em then who did?” He needed those things, they were the only things keeping his hair from falling in his eyes, it was hard to look threatening when you looked like an emo kid.
Golisopod ignored him, distracted by something Ariados was doing, and Guzma gave up. Storming back to his room for a good search, Goli liked to hide stuff in his wardrobe from time to time, he decided there was the best place to search.
He rummaged around for what felt like hours, and found his glasses at the very back, on top of a thick book that he vaguely recognised.
Oh, it was the family album he had stolen from his parents when he ran away. He forgot he had this, why did he have this? He flicked through the pages, trying to trigger any memories of why he'd take this, of all things.
He snorted at old pictures of himself, it felt like so long ago he had black hair, he looked weird. His hair never stopped getting white, and at the age of 28, he had a whole head of white hair. He didn't hate it as much as he used to, he thought it kinda suited him.
Something fell out of one of the pages as he flicked through, and Guzma picked it up, it was.. a card? Why was there a card in here?
It was blank on the outside, but inside there was a badly drawn picture of Guzma and his Wimpod, standing next to a kid and his Eevee, with the words 'TO THE BEST UNCLE EVER!!!!!!” printed above, and “- SUNFLOWER” and a paw print printed below, and suddenly everything made sense.
Sun, the kid who had beat him down and who seemed very familiar, of course! What an idiot, how could you not see it before, Guzma?!
Sunflower.
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It was a week later when Sun had suddenly turned up at Po Town, dressed head to toe in Skull Grunt gear – or, as close as he could get to it, and went to go see Guzma, asking to join. Even Vaporeon was wearing a mini version of the Skull necklace.
He made a mental note to scold his Grunts later, but first he had someone to deal with.
Sun walked into his room and they stared each other out for a while, Guzma trying to intimidate Sun and Sun just not being affected, he looked pretty positive.
He pulled out a notebook, which Guzma supposed he used to communicate properly, and before he could even read what it said - because he already knew what it was, he interrupted him.
“No.”
Anyone else and Guzma would've said yes, but this kid? He couldn't let him join. Not in a million years. Sun frowned, writing something down in his worn down notebook.
-Why?-
Guzma didn't know how to answer, 'oh yeah forgot to mention that you're my nephew and I don't want you getting hurt.' Yeah, he couldn't say that all of a sudden. “'Cause, Team Skull ain't... um, ain't good for a trainer like you! Uh.. yeah.” Guzma was a terrible liar.
Sun raised his eyebrow, he didn't look entirely convinced, even Vaporeon looked unimpressed, he wrote something else in his notebook.
-The truth.-
“I.. I am tellin' the truth! Y-..you should be heading to the Pokemon league, not hangin' around here!”
Sun looked increasingly more frustrated as Guzma spoke, and tapped his notebook again. Vaporeon looked just about ready to use scald on Team Skull leader if he didn't cooperate.
And Guzma lost it.
“Because.. 'Cause I don't want your mother to lose you too, Sunflower!” Guzma yelled. And there it was, he couldn't back out of this now. He rubbed his eyes, which were suddenly very wet, and looked at Sun for a reaction. Sun looked... broken. He looked like someone had just pressed pause on him, it worried Guzma, extremely.
“Oh, no.. Uh, kid..?? You- you doin' okay?” He waved a hand in front of his face, and Sun, albeit very slowly, blinked and shook his head, trying to process what had just happened. Guz breathed a sigh of relief, glad that he hadn't actually broken his nephew. Nephew, didn't sound right.
Sun mouthed something, eyebrows furrowed, and quickly scribbled something down.
-How do you know my real name?-
“I'm, uh.” How was he gonna explain this? “– You're.. my... um- My nephew, I think. I tried to keep it under wraps, kid. So you wouldn't.. Like, treat me differently, or something.” He sniffed, rubbing the back of his neck. “Sorry for keepin' it from you, probably shoulda told you earlier.”
Sun mouthed something again, and something must've clicked in his head, because Sun was staring at Guzma in a completely different way now, even Vaporeon looked taken aback, almost like they recognised him.
Vaporeon shrilled and jumped onto Guzma's shoulder, and he didn't know how Sun could have this thing on his shoulder constantly, but he appreciated it, by the way Vaporeon acted, he doubted it did this to just anyone.
“Grew up, didn't he? Last time I saw him he was just a little Eevee!” He laughed, petting Vaporeon's head, Sun was quiet – well, quieter than normal, and Guzma was about to look over to make sure he was okay, but Sun answered that question in the form of a hug.
Guzma wasn't sure how to respond, he wasn't exactly the hugging type, but he wrapped his arms around Sun in what he hoped was an affectionate way.
Sun pushed away after a few minutes, and lightly punched Guzma's shoulder, as if he was scolding him for not visiting him all those years ago.
“Yeah, I missed you too. Sorry about that, kid, Your ol' uncle Guz was gettin' himself into trouble.”
Sun rolled his eyes jokingly, and then stopped, like he just remembered something. He grabbed his notebook off the ground and wrote down one word.
-Dad.-
And Guzma suddenly felt really uncomfortable. “Kid, I don't think I should be the one to tell you about your dad, it's not really my place, I don't know a lot about it, either.” Sun frowned, and added something.
-What you know.-
The Team Skull leader sighed, alright. “All I can tell you was that he and your mom, they were part of rival teams, I don't remember the names, something to do with water and lava, but they fell in love and had you. But your dad disappeared shortly after they had you, no one knows where he went, y'know?”
He gave Sun a while to process this, Vaporeon climbed back onto Sun's shoulders and rubbed his cheeks with it's head, trying to comfort him. “Sorry, I really think your mom should be the one to properly explain, don't mention this to her, 'kay?”
Sun nodded, crossing his heart and then writing something else down.
-You won't leave again, will you?-
His immediate response was 'No, of course not!' but Guzma remembered what he'd said to Lusamine, months ago, about finding Cosmog and leaving to Ultra Space together, the way she had said it, voice rich with want... need... It sent chills up Guzma's spine and blood rushing to his face.
And, oh man did it hurt, but he lied to Sun, too scared of what Lusamine would do if he disobeyed her.
“No, not again.”