Originally this was going to be just mainly Palmer/Byron friendship because there's next to nothing about those two on this site, but as I started to type, I realised that "damn, they're hard to write about". Seriously, Palmer has like, two lines of dialogue in the games and Byron doesn't have much more either. So I turned to the anime for inspiration and seriously, Palmer is a grown up Barry, it's hilarious, haha. Then this happened.
Rated T for a couple of swears.
New Shoes.
down in Veilstone,
they walk in new shoes stuck to ageing feet.
Palmer sighed, placing his forehead on the desk in front of him. He was not mentally, physically nor emotionally prepared for this meeting looming in front of him - he was tired and would much have preferred to be home sleeping or training or something. Pretty much just doing anything other that this. As if it wasn't bad enough, it was made worse by the fact that he didn't quite understand the point of it. Sure it was great to see all the gym leaders of the region and other frontier brains, but instead of all having to get together like this, couldn't they have just sent reports as to how they and their gyms were doing? It would save hours and he would get to avoid all this mindless chatter and waiting around which would be quite pleasant.
But no, apparently things had always been done this way and were not going to change any time soon. So every three months they'd have an official meeting (usually in Hearthome) and it would be boring, so of course today was no exception. He'd arrived painfully early as he thought the traffic into the city was going to be awful, but apparently they'd been doing road works since the last meeting and had improved it all, so the trip had been much quicker than expected. There wasn't really anyone to talk to either (Volkner and Flint were smirking in the corner, Maylene was talking to Wake loudly about something and well, no one else was here yet), so the time was passing incredibly slowly. This, he thought, was the only time in his life he wished he was stuck in traffic.
"Palmer," A gruff voice interrupted his musings and he lifted his head back up to find Byron taking a seat next to him. "It's been a while. How have you been?"
"I saw you three months ago," He replied. "That's hardly a while. But I'm keeping well, work has been busy but it's kept me on my toes and been a good opportunity to train. Yourself?"
"The gym has had quite a few challengers too, so it's been hard to find time to do much else," His big booming laugh echoed around the room. "But I've spent what time I did have on Iron Island, training."
"You're so predictable." Palmer sent a quick thanks to Arceus or whoever was up there that Byron had arrived and was thankfully sparing him the mind-numbing boringness from before. Believe it or not, the two of them were quite good friends and it wasn't just because they were around the same age and both employed by the League. They had met when Palmer had become the Tower Tycoon ten or so years ago (wow, was he really that old?) and had gotten along well. After a few of these meetings, they had struck up a camaraderie and often met up to train.
It certainly had helped that they were going through similar situations back then too, both were recently divorced and newly single parents. It was funny though, despite being good friends, their sons had never met until Barry challenged the Oreburgh gym those years ago. Apparently Byron had mentioned when he'd arrived at in Canalave that Barry had his son's badge and the penny had dropped, leaving him stuttering and gaping - 'You're Roark's dad?'.
"No," He was once again interrupted by someone, but this time they were quiet, almost inaudible and outside the room. He wasn't sure how he heard the girl actually, but she soon repeated herself a little louder. "No, I'm not going to come in with you. We're not even supposed to be here." Hm, he recognised that voice...
"Aw, come on! They like you, it'll be fine." Now, he definitely knew who that one belonged to.
Shaking his head, he couldn't help but think to himself that this was typical and he probably should have expected it to happen sooner or later. He started to count down from ten under his breath, but he got to about seven before his son barged in, striding over to him with a massive smile on his face.
"Hey, dad!"
"What are you doing here, Barry?" He answered, frowning slightly but standing up to greet him. Not that he didn't want to see his boy, but now wasn't exactly the time or the place...well, he didn't actually even care, it was just somewhat surprising (though, like he said before, he should have expected it). He quickly glanced around the room and noticed that none of the others had even looked up at the noisy entrance, granted there were only five of them here, but even still. He reasoned it was because all the gym leaders and other people of power knew who Barry was and what he was like, they'd been working with him for years, after all.
"Nice to see you too," He placed his hands on his hips. "Dawn and I were in Hearthome and then I totally remembered that you would all be here for this meeting thing, so since I haven't seen you in like, three weeks, I thought I'd come and find you." It was all said in one breath without stopping, so once he'd finished he exhaled loudly.
"Right," He nodded and out the corner of his eye he could see Dawn peeking in through the open doors. He motioned for her to come in, but she just shook her head and continued to wait where she was. "You should come up to the Battle Frontier tomorrow in that case, spend some time with your old man. We could even tag battle some of the challengers, really psych them out, you know? And if the League have an issue with it, they can deal with me."
Barry's face lit up and Palmer knew he'd done something right. The grin soon turned into a frown though and he kicked the ground dejectedly. "Can't, busy tomorrow."
"That's alright," He replied. "Come up anytime, you know where I'll be."
"I'm going to hold you to that, dad." The grin reappeared and Barry climbed onto the desk next to him, sitting on it and waving slightly to Lucian who had just entered the boardroom. The Elite raised an eyebrow and Palmer noted that he was the only one to have done so, but he waved back before finding somewhere to sit across the other side of the room.
But going back a few sentences, was it really true what Barry had said? That it had been three weeks since they'd seen each other last? Actually, it wasn't even just seen, they hadn't even spoken to one another in those three weeks. Something about that seemed wrong and he made a mental note to call his son more frequently because as much as Palmer tried to deny it, Barry was growing up. He was sixteen now and wasn't that little kid that lived in Twinleaf and went running into tall grass anymore. Well, he still went running into tall grass, but you know what he meant.
"You know, one day I'm going to challenge you." He remarked, swinging his legs absentmindedly and almost kicking Gardenia as she walked past.
"You can right now if you want, boy," Was his reply. "Well, not right now, but as soon as this meeting begins and ends."
He shook his head. "Nah, not yet. I'll lose if we battle now, and I don't want to lose."
He smirked at this; at least the kid was realistic. That was definitely a trait he got from his mother because as much as he was like him, he'd never really been that grounded. Not even as an adult now, let alone as a kid or a teenager. Or maybe Barry was just determined, that could be it too. "In that case," He smiled. "You'll have to do a lot of training, I'm pretty tough."
"You don't think I can do it?" The answer was short and sharp, impatient and even slightly wounded. But more than all that, he was issuing a challenge - not to Palmer, but to himself.
"I didn't say that."
"Yes, you did," He jumped off the table and squared up to his dad, looking him directly in the eyes. "And you know what? I can." He sounded slightly annoyed at his dad and Palmer wondered why. Well, he knew why because he'd said the wrong thing, but why did they often fight? Over the past few years Barry had been easier to wind up than usual and they often came to blows, both being incredibly stubborn and all. It was probably the teenage hormones. But that wasn't the most important thing at the moment, what was was that Barry could look him in the eyes now. He was what, two inches shorter than him? What had happened there? He had not been that tall last time they'd seen each other. Where had the time gone?
"Good luck." He ruffled his son's hair, still surprised by the height difference (or lack thereof) and couldn't think of what else to say.
"I don't need your stinkin' luck," He batted dad's hand away and poked out his tongue. "And I'm going to go train now because the more practice, the better." He turned and strode out the room in his awkward teenage gait. It looked like everything hadn't had a chance to catch up to his height yet, heh. He nodded at the few gym leaders and elites that were sitting around the desk and flicked his hand in some sort of a wave to his dad.
After watching his son depart, he settled back down into his seat. If he hadn't been so bewildered by the fact that his kid was the same height as him, he would have been slightly amused by what had just gone down. He may have been a lot taller and somewhat more mature, but Barry was still just as crazy as he had been when he was five (which kind of contradicted the mature thing).
"You can't half tell he's your kid." Byron said and promptly received a punch in the arm.
"He's also growing up so fast," He mumbled. It hadn't really hit home until now that Barry wasn't a kid anymore, he was a young man and he would have to treat him as such. But how? It was one thing parenting a young child, but a teenager? That was a whole different story. "You have a son, how did you do it?"
"Roark is almost twenty-four now...and geez, how old does that make me?" He placed his forehead in his muddy hands (had he come straight from the underground, Palmer wondered) and shook it. "Shit, I've been a parent for over two decades. But uh, I don't think we were in a much better situation that you guys are, so I don't know what to say."
"Come on, Byron, you're all I've got. You have to know something."
"Well," He shrugged. "Roark and I argued a lot and we still do now, so it's probably best if you don't take my advice," When Palmer was still undeterred, he continued with a sigh. "Just treat him like a young man and if he backchats you, whoop him in a battle."
"That won't work," He slumped over further in his chair. "He'll just keep challenging me until he wins." The weirdest thing for Palmer was knowing that next time he saw Barry, he would be taller than him. Not only that, but he could have sworn that it was only yesterday that they were playing make-believe battles in the backyard and telling stories about the gyms and legends of Sinnoh. But now his boy had seen all that and done it all too, for real. "Fuck, Byron, where has the time gone?" He finished his thought out loud and received an understanding nod from the other man.
"Come on, Dawn, we had a deal, remember?" He lifted his head up upon hearing Barry's voice again; apparently he was still standing in the corridor and had decided at this point to talk very loudly. "You said, 'Barry, if you go in there and don't fight with your dad, then I'll shout lunch,' and what happened?" His girly imitation was terrible and Palmer had to hold in his laughter lest the two teens hear him. What was funnier than that though was that he was completely unaware that every member of the Sinnoh League (the room had filled up as they'd been talking earlier) was listening.
"You totally argued with him! I heard you!" Dawn replied, unsurprisingly a fair bit quieter than his kid. "Buy your own damn lunch."
"Fine," He drew the word out. "But you at least owe me a smooch on the cheek." And when he heard that, Palmer was up from his seat and standing in the corridor, staring his son down. Barry may have been sixteen now, but he was still his parent. What he was greeted with instead though, was that the two of them were holding hands. Oh, this was new.
It was apparently very new to them too, because it seemed like an awkward gesture, something the two of them weren't used to. He stopped glaring at his son and smiled instead, feeling a sort of pride overcome him. Well, they were getting to that age. Also, a sort of it's about time too, it had been obvious to everyone besides Barry for a number of years that he'd been crushing on her, so it was great that he'd finally gotten around to doing something about it. But if Palmer hadn't been surprised about the height thing earlier, he certainly was now.
When Barry noticed that his dad was standing there, his face turned as red as humanly possible and he bit his lip nervously. He obviously hadn't been expecting him to come (which was stupid when you were talking at the top of your lungs) and catch them out. Dawn, on the other hand, didn't seem fazed at all and appeared to be quite entertained by his embarrassment. But after a few moments, he was still stunned and silent; so she stepped forward and yanked him with her.
"Palmer," She said, trying to break the awkwardness. "I'd like to ask permission to date your son."
He couldn't help but laugh here, but tried to keep it to a minimum to avoid further embarrassing Barry. "You have to beat me in a battle first."
"That's o-"
"On top of Mount Coronet in winter." Her face fell and she glanced over at Barry, who was still no help and didn't seem to be registering what his dad was saying. Being terrible at keeping a straight face, he laughed again and shook his head. "I'm just joking, of course you can."
This apparently is what Barry needed to hear and he broke out of his stupor to jump up and down. "Did you hear that?" He turned to her, still clutching her hand. "This is great! Let's go!" He nodded in thanks to his dad before running down the corridor and out the building, pulling Dawn along with him. Palmer watched on, amused at the antics of the teens and feeling a sense of accomplishment. If he'd managed to raise his son happy, healthy and a little hyperactive for this long, the rest would be fine.
I had no intentions of adding twinleafshipping in either originally, BUT DAYUM THEY'RE TOO ADORABLE NOT TO.