Gladion had messed up.
His fantastical fail of shoplifting had ended with his hands tied behind his back with a zip tie and blood leaking in a steady stream out of his nose. He feels the burn of hunger eating away at his stomach, now with the newly added pain in his head.
His face burns as a mother and her kids walk out of the store, the kids pointing and the mom glaring at him. He looks back down at his feet and tries hard not to cry.
He had just wanted something to fill the constant aching in his stomach and he stumbled into the first store he saw on the outskirts of Malie City. He grabbed a bag of chips and went to get out quickly when he was stopped by the angry owner at the door. He attempted to make a run for it and managed to slip past the owner, but his freedom was cut short by the owner's Rydon. He ran face first into the rough-skinned Pokémon and his face had taken the full brunt. Gladion's once white shirt was now covered in both filth and blood.
Gladion sniffs, though it does nothing to quell the stream of blood dripping out of his nose. The sound of a car door slamming alerts him and he sees a tall woman walking over to the shop owner. Gladion flinches and curls into himself further.
"You got thief Rodney?" The woman asks. She looks over at him and gasps. "Did you hit him!?"
"Come on Luci, I don't hit kids." The owner says. The woman blushes and mumbles an apology quickly. The owner seems unbothered and continues. "Nah, this one was trying to escape and ran right into Reena. You should of seen his face! I zip tied him so he wouldn't run before the police came."
The woman frowns and crosses her arms, visibly uncomfortable.
"Are you sure he's okay?" She asks.
"I'm sure he'll survive Luci." The owner says, rolling his eyes. He reaches into his pocket and comes out empty. "Hey Yukio, get me my phone will you!"
A Salandit slithers out from behind the store and bumps the owner's legs with its head before slipping through the front door.
"So you're going to press charges? He's awfully young to get that serious don't you think?" The woman asks, she looks over at him with a worried expression and Gladion looks away quickly.
"Well since he won't tell me his parent's number I'll just let the cops take him home." The owner replies, laughing. Gladion freezes.
He can't go back home.
Null can't go back there.
"No no no you can't let them take me home!" Gladion shouts, his heart pounding in his chest. He attempts to slip his wrists out of the zip tie but only had the plastic cut into his skin painfully.
"Really kid, they won't be that mad, you'll get your poke gear taken away tops." The woman laughs, Gladion feels his chest tighten and panic seize him. He can't go home. "That's what you get for stealing, honey."
"No no no no you can't you can't make me go back there! I can't go back there!" Gladion says, his heart pounding and breaths coming out in gasps. The woman's smile drops and she looks back at the owner, who has his Salandit on his arm and phone in his hand.
"What was this kid trying to take?" She asks.
"Some chips, why?" The owner says. The woman's eyes widen and she looks over at him. Gladion's breath catches in his throat. If they figure out he was homeless they would take him home. And he had just. Gladion feels tears begin to drip down his cheeks.
"No no no…" He mutters. The woman leans over to the owner and whispers.
"You should really call the police-"
"Russel?" Someone asks, cutting the woman off. Both adults look over to the source of the voice, a girl with pink and yellow hair and a bandana around her head. She walks over and gives Gladion a quick look.
"You know this kid?" The shop owner asks, crossing his arms and narrowing his eyes at her. Her belly shirt and low waist sweat pants probably not giving him a very good impression.
"Yeah, our families are friends, I've known him since he was a kid." The girl says and Gladion blinks at her. He sniffs pathetically and watches the scene unfold. "What did he do? Is he okay?"
"He was stealing from me." The owner says flatly.
"He took some food. I hate to assume, but does he have issues at home?" The woman interjects.
"Ah, yeah," The girl says, she looks over at Gladion and lowers her voice. "His mom works as hard as she can but sometimes he doesn't get much to eat. I always tell him to come over if he's hungry but- well, he gets embarrassed."
The girl looks over at him and smiles. Gladion's eyes widen in realization. He wants to slap himself for not realizing what the girl was doing earlier. She was bailing him out.
"Oh my goodness." The woman says, giving a sympathetic smile over Gladion. The owner looks unimpressed but gives Gladion a quick glance.
"Look, I'll pay for the stuff he took, his mom would be devastated to know he did this." The girl says, taking her wallet out of her pocket.
"And you're not his little buddy bailing him out? Right." The owner replies, the woman gasps and elbows him.
"Rodney!" The woman admonishes.
"Come on Luci, you don't really believe her do you?" The owner says.
"Just let the kid go home Rodney, I'm sure he's learned his lesson." The woman pleads, the owner lets out a loud sigh and rubs his temples.
"Whatever, I don't even care anymore. Just get out of here and don't come anywhere near my store again." He says, walking into his store. The woman smiles at them and gives them a thumbs-up before running into the store after him. The girl laughs and throws a peace sign back. Gladion watches as the girl pulls out a pocket knife and motions with it.
"Here, come on, turn around." She says, Gladion stumbles to his feet and turns around. With a flick of her wrist, his hands are released and he turns back to the girl, staring. "Don't go break your back thanking me kid. I just have to get some chips at a different store now."
Gladion flushes.
"Ah- Oh, sorry, I- thank you," Gladion says, the girl snorts and waves him off.
"I'm kidding, I'm kidding, don't sweat it, kid. Oh yeah, I'm Plumeria." She says. "Anyway, you got anywhere to go?"
Gladion wipes his nose, which is thankfully not bleeding anymore and shakes his head.
"Come on then, I'll get you something to eat." The girl says, she eyes Gladion. "And maybe something not covered in blood."
She shrugs off her jacket and hands it to him.
"Put this on so you don't get the cops called on you with that blood all over you." The girl says. Gladion stares at the jacket and blinks. "You gonna put it on?"
Gladion nods and fumbles to put on the jacket. He zips it and he looks back to Plumeria.
"Come on then, let's get some malasadas or something," Plumeria says, starting to walk away from the store. Gladion grips Null's pokeball in his pocket and follows after her.
"Thank you..." Gladion mutters.
I wrote this way back when Sun and Moon first came out and I fell in love with Gladion and Nanu
I found this in one of my folders within a folder unfinished so I tacked on an ending and boom, first fic on this site since the disaster which was my Amazing World of Gumball self-insert fic. I guess it took me like five years to recover from that atrocity.
I always liked to think that Gladion left the Paradise basically as like a dumb kid and didn't know what the hell he was doing. Him knowing nothing about the outside world was basically Lusamine's way of forcing her kids to stay with her, she probably fed them lies. So Gladion wouldn't know to say, get a part time job or ask for help because he's been sheltered in such a way he doesn't know to. A bit of a contrast to how I grew up, basically being exposed to everything.
Uh, I'll update soon, but it'll probably be half a month or something, so follow thisstory if you liked it, bc there are like two more chapters I plan to write.
Also I think I was watching those shoplifters caught red-handed videos when I originally made this so you know my inspiration.
Leave critism or anything I could do better, I always want to improve!
Uh, peace?
-Lycanroc