Chapter Text
“Bzzt!” nudged Rotom gently. “Are you feeling any better, pal?”
Steven sighed. It was a Thursday evening, and he was sitting on the couch with his feet up. He was so happy to be home, especially after that horrible day at work today. Unfortunately, working at the university doesn’t guarantee that all of his fellow professors are going to be mature. Even Kukui, with his paper-thin Masked Royal disguise, seemed more mature than some of Steven’s colleagues.
“No, not quite,” replied Steven weakly. Beldum floated over with a sympathetic eye, and Steven reached over to hug it. “I’m still mad at the department chair for disrespecting me.”
It was a pattern that Steven noticed in academia - people had a hard time dealing with frustration in a positive way. The chair of his department had been constantly angry ever since the second week of last semester. At first, Steven thought he had been the one making the mistakes - after all, this was his first year as a professor - but as time went on, he realized that it wasn’t all him; the chair seemed to have a pattern of taking out his anger on others when they feel stressed.
And that, Steven noted, wasn’t his fault at all.
“Did you talk to him about thizzz when he calmzzz down?” suggested Rotom. “Maybe if he izzz less angry, he might lizzzzten to reazzzon, bzzt?”
“No,” replied Steven. “I tried that many times. It didn’t work.” Steven tried reasoning with him last semester, but it only made the chair angrier. Steven also noticed that the chair’s arguments were of much less quality when he was angry, but the chair didn’t care. “I understand that the chair is frustrated at something in his life. Whether it’s something work related or not, I do not know. But - did he really need to spend an hour yelling at me in his office? It’s not productive, and it doesn’t get stuff done.”
“That muzzzt be very fruzzztrating,” said Rotom. “If you want, pal, I could juzzzt happen to give him a little zzzzap when I float by his offizzzz the next time that I zzzzee him.”
“No, but thank you,” replied Steven as he hugged Beldum even harder. “I don’t want the department to ban you from my office. I already had to fill out a pile of waivers to bring Pokemon into school.” Steven sighed again. “Honestly, you and Beldum, as well as my family and my students, keep me sane in this world.”
“If I zzzap the chairperzzzon, he would learn a lezzzon, pal,” suggested Rotom. “Maybe he would think again before yelling at you in his offizzzz.”
“You’re suggesting that he listens to logic,” replied Steven. “He doesn’t. It’s all about feelings - and only his feelings, not the feelings of others.”
<< Maybe I can happen to fly into him when I approach him in the hallway? >> suggested Beldum to Steven through a Psychic Whisper. << He might be heavy, but I’m definitely heavy enough to knock him over. >>
Steven chuckled at the thoughts that Beldum had sent over to him. “That would be entertaining, but I’m going to say no to that one, sorry. Again, it would hurt me so much to have you banned from the building.”
“Does your wife know about thizzz?” asked Rotom.
Steven chuckled. “No, Wallace doesn’t know about today. That’s a good thing though.” He was glad that his husband, who was doing the grocery shopping at the moment, was not at home. “We don’t want a repeat of what happened earlier this week.”
“Wazzz that when you were in the park?” asked Rotom. “I think I wazzz recharging that time so I didn’t get to zzzee thizzz.”
Steven chuckled, along with Beldum. “Yes, this happened in the park.”
“Bzzzt-bzzt! You have to tell me what happened, pal!”
Steven continued to chuckle. “Do you really want to know?”
“Of courzzze, pal! Don’t leave me in suspenzzzz, bzzt!”
After a few more laughs, Steven told the story to Rotom. “I was talking Beldum on a walk in the park, the one where Pokemon battles are banned. Suddenly, some other person who works at the university comes way too close to me and called me a Sootopolitan brat - except he used ruder words, words that I can’t repeat here. Wallace just runs up to him and punches him the face.”
“Bzzt-zzt!” laughed Rotom. “That izzz perfect!”
“Okay, it was funny once,” said Steven over a few chuckles as Beldum nuzzled him. “I would rather not make it a pattern though.”
“How are you going to handle the chair and his inzzzults, pal?” asked Rotom. “You can’t challenge him to a Pokemon battle becauzzzze it’s againzzzt the school rulezzz, and you can’t reazzzon with him with logic becauzzzze he has rockzzz for brainzzzz, and you can’t just ignore it becauzzzze it will get worzzzz. You’ve already tried to talk to the authoritiezzzz, and they did nothing to help your zzzzituation. I think you’re running out of optionzzzz, pal.”
Steven heard a key unlock his front door. Wallace was back from grocery shopping. Steven walked over to him and helped him to put all the groceries away.
“Wallazzz! Bzzzt!” said Rotom as he nudged his trainer’s husband. “I think your huzzzzband needs one of your interventionzzzz. His department chair is harazzzing him again.”
“Oh no,” said Steven as he smacked his palm against his forehead. “Wallace, I’ll handle this.”