Snow Warning
An LLS Production
A/N: Wrote this to welcome in 2017. Might develop into a new series, or a long fic! - LLS
"Viktor's not coming."
Yuuri, in the middle of nursing a baby Swinub, barely acknowledged the grumbling of his fellow Gym Leader.
"Oi, did you hear me, katsudon?" Yuri snapped back. He'd arrived in Sootopolis anticipating the usual contained snowstorm around its Gym. Instead, the skies were clear for the first time since Viktor's inception into the Sootopolis Gym
The Swinub whined.
"Shh, Vasya," Yuuri murmured to the little porcine, before he spoke marginally louder, "It's perfectly obvious. We wouldn't have such nice weather otherwise, Yurio."
"Don't call me that!" Yuri Plisetsky, the newest Poison-type specialist snapped. "That idiot couldn't have forgotten the regional Gym Leader meeting, right?! And why are you babysitting Viktor's Pokémon?!"
Yuuri hummed.
The younger Gym Leader straightened his back at the noise. "Oh no." Yuri took a step back.
"No wonder Viktor isn't here, you guys are-"
"I have no idea what you're talking about, Yurio. Maybe you'd like to take Vasya for a walk?" Yuuri's smile was completely insincere as he held up the Swinub which had now gained an air of otherworldly malevolence. "Vasya, make sure you don't lose Yurio, alright? Odour Sleuth and Tackle."
"Yuuri and Viktor had an argument! Run for your lives!"
Having paused mid-step, Ji Guang-hong barely managed to sidestep the mass of snow and Liepard print. "Oh, Yuri, hi- wait, what?"
Guang-hong's eyes widened as he saw a figure running towards him. It was too late- "Ow!" He exclaimed as Leo ran into the other Gym Leader just outside of the Sootopolis Gym, causing them to fall in a puddle of arms and legs.
Leo de la Iglesia groaned. The Pokéball at his belt burst open in a shower of red light. The freed Exploud that emerged from the light pulled him to his feet. "Thanks, Blues. The victory couple had an argument?!"
"Is it too late to get away from Sootopolis?" Guang-hong took a glance at the skies of said island city stuck in an extinct volcano. The clear blue skies did not look very reassuring. Right then, it looked like there was a chance of another eruption of comparable scale to Groundon being let loose onto the Hoenn region.
"Wait, this is Viktor's city." Leo counted on his fingers. "Yakov's still in Rustboro – got me to send a message – and Lilia has a contest to judge in Lilycove, so Mila is coming – and Mila should take over the Dewford Gym already, really. Since it's actually sunny here, doesn't that mean that there's no Pokémon with Snow Warning around? That means... well, that Viktor's not here, is he?"
Yuri acknowledged that point after thinking about it.
After a long revamp of the Hoenn Pokémon League, the current line-up started with Yakov. Yakov Feltsman was an ornery old grump who resembled some of the Rock-types he specialised in, who had taught Yuri himself and Viktor earlier in their careers to battle and get Pokémon. The road to the Pokémon League – if you were taking a Gym Leader challenge – was supposed to end with the conspicuously missing Viktor in Sootopolis, this very city. Yuuri Katsuki, the next Gym Leader of closest direct proximity to Ever Grande, was in charge of the Fairy-type Gym over in Mossdeep, having taken over from the Psychic twins that had previously held the Gym together.
Then a heap of snow fell on him, and Yuri's train of thought was lost. "Leave it, ice-pig! Go back to Mummy or whatever!"
The Swinub thrilled, dumping more Powder Snow onto and around Yuri, which caught Guang-hong and Leo as well. Drenched in snow-melt and watching the grumbling Swinub, the two boys glanced at each other before they watched Yuri pull a Salazzle – his very own, fully evolved Pokémon – against the baby.
"..." Leo coughed. "Guang-hong."
"Yes, Leo-kun?"
"Find Phichit. I'll stop Yuri from provoking Mt Chimney... again." Leo hissed back.
It was only in recent memory, but the Lavaridge Town Gym had specialised in Fairy before Yuri had moved in and set up shop by League mandate. It had been understandable why a Poison-type specialist had been put here. What seemed even more remarkable had been that, prior to Yuri moving into Lavaridge Town against his will – and definitely not because the hot springs helped Grandpa, nope – the Fairy-type Gym of Lavaridge Town had stonewalled him on his journey into the Pokémon League.
Stone.
Walled.
Him.
After he had somehow wrangled a badge – and seriously, the Ring Badge had been a milestone; barely a hundred of them had been released amongst the thousand challenges made to Gym Leader Katsuki in his five-year tenure at Lavaridge – and made it to the Ever Grande Conference, then the truth came out. The sudden change in personality in the Lavaridge Town Gym Leader had, apparently, been caused by a half-wild Shiinotic.
Phichit Chulanont, chronically social-media-addicted Gym Leader of the Mauville City Pokémon Gym, had brought the trouble-causing Shiinotic. He'd left it, along with some other Fairy-types from his native Alola region, with his best friend. The best friend being the same Fairy-type Gym Leader who had, after being heroically rescued by a travelling Ice-type specialist, had accepted a League promotion and fled from his hometown, across half the land and sea routes of Hoenn, to set up shop in Mossdeep City.
The choice to specialise in Poison-types seemed simple after that. Sure, there was a certain dearth of felines, but Shiinotic, being dual-typed Grass/Fairy, were also doubly weak to Poison... Plus, harassing every single challenger afterwards was so worth it. It definitely had nothing to do with an aversion to fungi Pokémon.
"Let me guess. Went to Kalos on a trip to Friseur Furfrou?"
Yuuri's smile became even more plastic as he produced the entire stack of paperwork to be covered in the meeting agenda. It towered to the ceiling, and the Abomasnow pushing the cart grumbled until two Mamoswine and an Avalugg came forward to help him out. The cart teetered in the confines of the staff-only Sootopolis Gym Leader's office, out of sight to the public areas of the Gym.
One wall had a giant blown-up photograph as its wallpaper. Viktor updated the wallpaper of the couple and their entire team every time a new Pokémon entered the fold. Yuuri did not dare to look at it, or draw Phichit's attention to it.
"That is a lot- Pii, selfie!" Phichit faked a shocked expression as a floating block of circuits and plastic possessed by the plasma Pokémon floated up and took Phichit's picture, having been pressed into service as a smartphone for the Electric-type specialist. "Oh, let's post it! Hashtag: Mt Paperwork!"
"Are you really supposed to use the PokéFinder like that?" Yuuri asked.
"Well, all's good except that Viktor ran from the Mt Lanakila of paperwork there," Phichit gave a thumbs-up that was aborted as a Raichu floated towards the pile, munching on a sweet Malasada. "Which leaves the next most senior Gym Leader to take the slack – you."
Said mountain of paperwork caused a small avalanche upon landing. The Sootopolis Gym Pokémon responded with squawks. A splash caused a Dewgong to rise from the waters that were supposed to run under the icy surfaces of the Sootopolis Gym in good-natured complaint.
Yuuri groaned, causing the other Pokémon under his care besides a baby Mamoswine to pat him awkwardly on the shoulder. "Don't remind me."
Phichit snorted, flicking through the selfies as the RotomDex floated back into his hands. "Kurti! You photobombed me again!"
The Mimikyu landed on Yuuri's head, its stitched smile bobbing.
"Y̞̐͒̚u͚̼̺̺̖̓̆̔͗ù̖̭̱̖̻̳̜̽̋̏̋ͭ̿̉̾r͍̖ͭ̄͑͛͗ȋ͓̟̺̠̰̼ ̭̙̩̯̓ͪ̀̒͑s̖̬̻̳̘̖̠̿̍ͅa̹̝ͪ̇́͆̽͂̌̚ď͇̫͚̝͖̥̣̚?̦̗̬̮͎̻ͩͪ͒ "
"I'm good," Yuuri automatically responded before it could make another offer. "Sorry, Phichit-kun, the meeting hasn't started and Viktor just... Who wakes up and just leaves a note that says 'I'll be back'?"
"You married him."
It was glorious. Phichit still had a hard drive specially reserved for the wedding pictures.
"Besides, now you have me to-" Phichit took a file at random, "-'open a forum of discussion with regards to the use of Gym facilities for Coordinator training'."
Viktor Nikiforov had been a Coordinator. No one could figure out why he had given up Contest Spectaculars for the more dangerous field of Pokémon battle – even if there were good arguments that both disciplines overlapped. There was, however, a general consensus that a former Fairy-type Gym in Lavaridge had some role in his sudden decision to switch to professional Pokémon battling.
"...Why is this being debated again?" Phichit directed the question towards his Pokémon.
"If you open the Gym to Coordinators, you need to provide a certain level of structural stability – which, in a volcanic region like Hoenn, means that Lavaridge Town, Fortree City, Rustboro City and Sootopolis City automatically don't qualify," Yuuri recited from memory. "Plus, the fact that there is currently no city that holds both a Contest Hall and a Gym together means that such an expansion of Gyms is an extraneous expense, as shown in the Mauville expansion project report."
"I'm in charge of Mauville, and I didn't read that report in depth."
"They mixed it up with the Mossdeep report."
"Oh, right~ The space centre."
"I filed them with Viktor's tax returns and the Sootopolis Gym's- can you believe that he tried to barge into the Cave of Origin? At least he's got the excuse that he's not a Sootopolis native, but-" Yuuri's eyes crossed as they tried to focus on Phichit's fingertip approaching his face. "Eh?"
Phichit pushed the bridge of Yuuri's plastic-framed glasses higher up the bridge of his nose. "Pii! Selfie!"
The RotomDex complied with a snap.
"Phichit-kun!"
"Hashtag: megane, hashtag: Yuuri Katsuki, hashtag: working for bae! Caption: Viktor's devoted husband!"
"Phichit-kun!" Yuuri leapt over the desk, but the cackling possessed Gen-7 PokéDex floated out of the way with a cackle. The Gym Leader of Mauville City beat a retreat from the confines of the Sootopolis Gym office, cackling with his sentient smart-device in tow.
"Iro, get that RotomDex with Psychic! No, Hyper Voice!"
The challenger's arena of the Sootopolis Gym had not been replaced since Wallace. It was composed of three puzzles composed of easily cracked ice-tiles. Challengers had to step on every ice tile to activate the stairways to the next level. If any tile was stepped on twice, the player will fall to a lower floor, where a barrage of Gym Trainers awaited unwitting challengers while the hapless trainer had to go back down and restart the climb up to the top level.
All of the ice-tiles cracked as the shiny Gardevoir appeared in a Teleport and started to sing.
"Stammi vicino, non te ne andare!"
Phichit's Raichu, an Alolan variant, responded with a Thunder that went wild.
The three who had just entered the Gym stared as the three successive ice platforms leading up to the Gym Leader's throne-chair at the top of the four-storey building's cavernous challenger arena started to crack. They stared as their two seniors fell down from the second floor – their falls thankfully arrested thanks to a shiny Gardevoir and an Alolan Raichu casting Psychic in time. Shards of ice fell in a staccato hail, and a few stray shards would have resulted in some nasty injuries if Yuri had not tossed up a Pokéball in time to free his Salazzle.
"Ira, Overheat!"
The ice shards melted, but the steel struts caught on fire.
"Oh, no, please no," Yuuri murmured as Guang-hong pulled his own Pokéball and threw it, freeing a Tangrowth.
"Tangrowth, Power Whip!" A heavy dent caused a break in the steel.
"Wait, Guang-hong!"
"Leo!" Yuuri flailed. "Leo, I've got it handled, please don't call-"
"Oh? I thought you were dismantling it?"
"Iro, Psychic please." As the iron beams were psychically raised away from the Gym Leaders of Mauville and Mossdeep, Yuuri dusted the diamond-dust from his jacket. "No, it was an accident, I... swear..."
His voice trailed off as a snowflake drifting in from the supposedly coastal and open ocean that surrounded Sootopolis.
"I...couldn't have..." Yakov blinked as the doors of the Gym fell down to reveal the carnage within. "...come at a better time. Yuri, were you setting fire to Viktor's Gym?!"
"I didn't do anything!" Yuri snarled back the moment his Salazzle belched a Sludge Wave. "Ira, ew!"
"Fire?" Mila started laughing behind Yakov. "Yurochka finally went through on that threat!"
"What threat- why is my Gym broken- Yuuri!" The missing Gym Leader of Sootopolis City's Pokémon Gym appeared in a slurry of hail and sleet, beaming. "There you are! I thought you were sleeping in today!"
"...Eh?" Yuuri gaped at the smiling silver-haired man.
"Well, you were exhausted last night-" and here Viktor shot them a wink that could not make his words any less ambiguous "-so I wrote a note saying that I'll be attending the Gym Leader meeting for the both of us! Then I ran into this lovely Articuno who gave me a lift after I told him all about my beautiful husband, but this Hoopa in the middle of the sea came along and tossed us off course, so I went to pick up Yakov and Mila before we made the flight back! (*´ `*) Now all eight of us are here!"
Mila broke out in hysteric laughter. Yakov, too old to follow her, shot Viktor a death glare that pretty much communicated his idea of press-ganging a Legendary ice bird Pokémon into service as a flying courier.
Yuuri blinked slowly, mentally calculating. Indeed, with himself included, all eight were present.
"But I didn't expect that not showing up would end with my Gym on fire," Viktor blithely continued. "We should hold it in Fortree next time! Winona's table should be around!"
Guang-hong squeaked, recalling his Tangrowth before rushing to hide behind Leo. Yuuri blinked, shook his head, and then stared back to the ruins of the Sootopolis Gym. "Er..."
"Well, let's get that boring update meeting started!" Viktor's hands descended onto Yuuri's shoulders with all the force of an Icicle Crash. "And when we're done, you'll have to fix all three floors on your knees, alright, Yuuri~?"
"I- I got it, Viktor! Wait, what do my knees have to do with-"
"Well, since my Yuuri isn't given to destructive impulses like Yurochka, I have to check for mushrooms."
A Mimikyu appeared behind Yuuri, right as the RotomDex floated over head and snapped another picture of Yuuri's rising blush. Phichit was extra quick to grab the RotomDex to check.
"Hashtag: happy reunion Viktuuri! Wow!"
In the background, the Abomasnow started to clap his hands together, sending showers of powder snow cascading down upon them all.
Critiquez, s'il vous plaît !