"I hate you."
"I know that already, Maxie. You've said it plenty of times—"
"No, you cannot exactly fathom how deep my hatred is. No matter how many times you may have heard it, you will never truly grasp it."
That was how it was going to begin.
But wasn't that how it originally began, their rivalry, their fierce competition to outbest one another in their goals of expansion of the sea and land?
Truly opposites and constantly at one another's throats in their own way, it had all begun with a bitter hatred churned up by their disagreements.
And now, that was how it was going to begin a grueling period of time spent in a closet.
It was not quite fitting of the title 'broom', but nor was it quite at 'walk-in'—it was safe to call it a medium, right in between the two and leaving very little room for two grown men to shift, but plenty for them to be squished together and still remain alive.
Maxie, jamming himself as tightly as was humanly possible against the wall, leered at his closet companion, who leant up against the wall, looking comfortable in his sitting position while Maxie remained curled into himself.
"If you hadn't pushed me into here—"
"Me? Pushing you? You tripped and dragged me in here with you!"
Maxie, wanting to claw out Archie's eyes within this close proximity, rattled the door handle helplessly. Locked. How in the world was it locked when it had only shut behind them?
"Either way, we're stuck," Maxie announced grimly, as if this was truly the end. His facial expression said it all, his sinking despair of being confined to such close quarters with an imbecile. Archie, doubting Maxie's announcement, tried the handle as well, and then remembered.
"… It automatically locks," he realized, Maxie looking over sharply.
"What?"
"The closet—er, well, this is more of a storage unit."
Archie took a moment to evaluate the steel interior, the 'closet', or rather storage unit, currently vacated of what it had been holding.
"It had been holding some parts for the submarine and I didn't want them stolen, so it automatically locks itself when it's closed…"
Resisting the urge to bash his head against the wall until falling unconscious—far preferred over being in this situation—Maxie pursed his lips.
"And is there anyone who is around who could possibly get us out?"
Archie smiled sheepishly.
"When I found out you lot had invaded the base, I, uh, told everyone to move out."
He didn't know whether to laugh or cringe at Maxie's look of undiluted rage, for a moment thinking he really was going to be smacked when Maxie sighed, taking an incredibly deep breath and holding it for a moment.
Exhaling, long and slow, his eyes flickered back to the steel-enforced door, evaluating it.
"This space is too small for Camerupt," he muttered, thinking about the pokemon's Flamethrower. It could easily melt down the door, but even if the space was big enough, they'd be trapped in an inferno of heat. The consequences were worse than the outcome, so he discarded that idea.
"And despite your body-building fetish, you don't have enough muscle to take down this door…"
"Hey!"
Ignoring Archie's protesting cry, considering how unbeneficial it was to this whole fiasco, Maxie rapped his knuckles against the door.
Solid.
Even better, there truly was no escape, especially with there being no method of picking the door handle from the outside. The lock was on the exterior, obviously not planning ahead to any fools that may get themselves stuck.
Realizing that they were the fools, Maxie grimaced—it wasn't entirely his fault, it was mostly Archie's anyways.
He had been walking towards him, his foot had gotten stuck on the stupid grating of the floor, the closet was open, and, well, apparently Archie wasn't quite ready to brace himself when he was grabbed onto…
Folding his legs closer to his chest, Maxie sighed, figuring that all hope was lost, or at least until one of his grunts found them.
Hopefully his team was still scouring the vicinity. He had told them to look for any abandoned, vital documents to Aqua's plans, but who knew how long that would take?
Their base was considerably large and it was debatable whether they'd be found that promptly.
"… Maxie, look at me."
On reflex did Maxie look over at Archie, not necessarily out of response to the command, scowling at the Aqua leader.
"Looking at you isn't going to help us in this dire situation," he growled, his aggressive stance quickly switching to defensive as Archie leaned forward, Maxie leaning back in correspondence.
"Please tell me you haven't gone mad already from this small space," Maxie muttered, wincing as palms pressed tight to the sides of his face, Maxie feeling his cheeks squished under calloused skin as a rage began to boil up in his chest.
"If you do not let go of me in ten seconds…" he muttered darkly, his fury becoming only worse as a grin split Archie's face.
"You have freckles!"
Maxie blinked, baffled as to what Archie was talking about, and then-
"Y-you're seeing things!" he stuttered, quickly trying to swat away those much-stronger hands and cover up his face, squirming to get away, but alas, the closet was not bending and shaping itself as he would have preferred.
He was pinned, Archie's superior stature keeping him fixed against the wall as his face became brighter and brighter with humiliation, and Archie's delighted expression didn't help it.
"You have freckles and I didn't even notice!" Archie repeated, laughing hysterically as if it were the best thing he had ever discovered.
Were those tears Maxie saw in his eyes from how intensely he was laughing?
Feeling a mix of anger, humiliation, and sheer desperation to go hide somewhere, Maxie finally managed to push Archie away as his hands became weakened by his gut-wrenching laughter, Archie thumping back against his wall as he shook.
"Y-you, were you wearing make-up before to cover that shit up? I didn't know you were that self-conscious, Maxie."
He snorted, having difficulty even speaking as he choked out words around his giggles, the heels of his palms rubbing away tears as Maxie tried to push himself further up against the wall.
"I-I—I have never—you're just… you're just blind!" Maxie sputtered helplessly, his face feeling as if it were on fire as Archie's laughter simmered down to the occasional chuckle and then to nothing but a huge, satisfied grin.
"Maybe this closet thing has paid off after all. Never thought I'd get so close 'n personal with you of all people, Maxie," Archie snorted with a happy sigh, his mood lifted by his discovery as he wiped away the last of his tears of laughter.
"D'you always try to cover 'em up, or only when around me, huh, Maxie?"
Upper lip curling back, Maxie felt his hands pulse with the need to throttle Archie.
"When did you become so fixated on this topic?!"
"It's okay, Maxie, I understand now. You're trying to impress me, so you've been coverin' up! I'd want to impress me, too. I'm a pretty great guy."
Maxie could actually feel his eye twitching.
The surge of emotions, of the anger, humiliation, somehow had caused his eye to being twitching.
He would not live another ten minutes in this closet.
He'd find a way to end it all, whether it is his life, or Archie's. Preferably Archie's—he still had things to do.
"I'm—I've never been trying to impress you, you are the last person I would want to impress," Maxie fiercely corrected, Archie unconvinced, scooting closer.
"What, no, don't get closer I didn't—Stop that!"
Archie grabbed onto Maxie's shoulders and dragged him closer, pressing him to his side with an arm hugging him snugly.
Maxie, on the other hand, was pushing against him, fruitlessly trying to escape to the now vacated other side of the closet.
"That's so cute, you're even trying to deny it!" sighed Archie, Maxie staring down the hand on his shoulder, debating whether or not to bite it. "Did you start up your team to get my attention? You must have been really smitten when you had first seen me, all those years ago. Wow, that explains a lot—Christ!"
Archie's babbling ended in a pained yelp as Maxie sank his teeth into his hand, the Aqua leader snapping back up his arm as he gawked at the blood dripping down from the back of his hand.
"People don't bite the person they have a crush on, Maxie!" he wheezed, taking off his bandana to wrap it. He was more than willing to sacrifice it—he had plenty more back home.
"I do not have a crush on you, you egotistical idiot," Maxie huffed, grimacing at the metallic taste of the blood in his mouth as he crept back over to the side Archie had abandoned. Jamming himself up in the corner, he was tempted to spit out Archie's tainted blood, but he did not want to have to sit with it.
Begrudgingly, he swallowed, gagging a little in the process.
Disgusting.
Neatly ripped and tying a shred of his bandana around the teeth marks, Archie double-checked his knot before turning his attention on Maxie, who looked sullen sitting in his corner.
"… So you don't have a crush on me," Archie mused, Maxie glaring at him.
"You are an egomaniac if you think I do. Did you not hear me talk about how much I hate you?"
"I bet I could change that."
Blinking, Maxie stared at Archie, baffled.
"You can't just change how someone feels, especially someone who hates you—"
Archie seemed to just love cutting him off in the middle of talking, though this time Maxie went from huffy and displeased to terrified as hands slammed against the steel wall above him. He could feel the vibrations through his back, shrinking down while still trying to look confident as he peered up at Archie.
Hovering above him, he blocked what light there was from the single lightbulb above them, becoming nothing more than a silhouette as he dipped down.
"Give me a month," he stated, less of a suggestion and more of a demand.
"One month and I'll get you to change your mind on that."
Maxie blinked, though remembering the hand hovering above his head that could ever-so-easily smash down, he just huffed.
"Whatever. I don't care," he muttered, tensing as one of the hands did drop, expecting to be struck for his less-than-pleasing answer.
Instead, Archie's rough, worn fingertips brushed along his jaw, a shiver going down Maxie's spine at the sensation.
"Then it's a deal," purred Archie, his voice deepening, becoming strangely rich as he leaned in closer. Maxie had no room to flee, only able to stare wide-eyed as Archie gradually closed the distance between them, feeling his heart thump hard in his chest as the distance became a good ten inches, five, two—
"Boss?"
Maxie almost started weeping and praising all the gods in existence, looking over and seeing one of his grunts standing at the now open closet door.
The interruption caused Archie to also look over, providing Maxie the time to push him back and scrabble to his feet, darting out of the small closet space.
"Thank god you got here in time—this pervert locked me in there with him. I can only imagine what he might have accomplished had you not come in time," Maxie sighed in relief, shuddering towards the end as he looked back towards Archie.
Several more grunts were approaching, Maxie turning away dismissively.
"Dump him out in the ocean near Mossdeep, where he belongs," he ordered, and as he looked back with the satisfaction of having the control this time, he twitched, seeing Archie grinning back at him.
"I'll be seeing you soon, Maxie," he hummed, Maxie grimacing before turning away, hearing a grunt as he was knocked out and his body hitting the ground before he was dragged off to be dealt with.
He sincerely doubted he'd be seeing him again anytime soon.
And Maxie had been correct.
For a good few weeks after Archie had been dumped off near Mossdeep, as his grunts had been tasked with, he lived a relatively tranquil life. Well, as tranquil as it could possibly be while quarreling with Team Aqua and trying to further their plans, returning home almost every night exhausted and drained from the day's events.
Weeks ticked by, his mind no longer clutching as fearfully to the thought that Archie would find him and fulfill his promise, instead focused on the problems at hand.
They were nigh upon completing their plans, having discovered that the Blue Orb atop Mt. Pyre would be the key element in reviving Groudon—however, apparently, Team Aqua had discovered that as well, finding the information that the opposite orb, the Red Orb, would revive Kyogre.
Even with the urgency to get there first, they still needed more time.
They weren't ready quite yet to control Groudon, and even then, they would need to go to Mt. Pyre on a day of low visitation—someone would surely try to contact the police, and the fewer people there, the easier it would be to round them up and place them elsewhere while they accomplished their goals.
The premises of their base were primarily empty.
He had many of the grunts to scour and investigate Lilycove, figure out when Mt. Pyre was at its busiest and when it was at its lowest point in activity.
Left behind within their base hidden within Mt. Chimney, Maxie was weighted with the task of organizing the whole fiasco of invading Mt. Pyre—there was quite a bit of planning behind every movement.
It had to be done just right else they'd crash and burn, left behind with nothing more than shame and bitter defeat. It had happened before. But this time, he wanted it to go flawlessly.
Pacing down the corridor, the hallway brightly illuminated despite the lack of windows anywhere—they were, after all, hidden within the mountain itself, the only lighting coming from what they had brought in. Admittedly, the feeling of there being no escape to the outside other than the front entrance and a secret tunnel out the back made him feel claustrophobic, despite his strong affinity with land.
Even the thing you loved would kill you if given the opportunity.
Footsteps echoing against the polished tiles, Maxie paused, his stride faltering.
There was another set of footsteps, faster, too fast, and all he was doing was standing still—
Twisting around, all he saw was a flash of blue, and a shit-eating grin before the world went black.
His head was pounding.
The low, pulsating throb that went from one temple, straight through his skull to the other was enough to make Maxie grip his head the moment he awoke. While the pain was enough to distract him from trying to figure out where he was for a few moments, he managed to endure it long enough to open his eyes, dizzily surveying his environment.
Some bastard had managed to steal away into their base, and of course it had to be when he had been at his weakest point, when no one else had been around.
The fog that blurred his vision fading, Maxie finding himself with a sideways view of a… Living room?
Hands falling away from his head, they pushed against soft cushions beneath him, heaving up in confusion.
He wasn't in the ocean, or even better, some desert somewhere.
Instead, he was on a dark, navy-blue sofa in a casually decorated living room that was messy.
God, it was like he was in some twenty year old's bachelor pad—there was a shirt draped over the arm of the couch he was laying on, the TV was still running, an old beer bottle sat on the coffee table with no coaster, there were some socks on the creamy-white carpet, and—
"You're awake."
His internal complaints of how dirty the living room was were silenced, Maxie slowly turning, considering if he turned far more sharply, his head would only pound worse.
"You," he hissed, snarling at the sight of Archie, who was beaming at him, plopping down on the couch next to him. Jerking away, curling up against the arm of the couch while still trying not to agitate his head too much, Maxie sent him an accusatory look.
"You, you're the one who got into our base—how did you—you knocked me out—"
"Just payback for what you did you me," Archie dismissed with a shrug, shifting something he had in his hands. Maxie wasn't paying attention, his fury too great.
"Now we're even."
"We are not even! We will never be even! We will not—"
He stuttered to a halt as Archie got even closer, pressing a warm, wet cloth against his temple.
"Stop that—what are you doing?" Maxie hissed, flinching as Archie shifted into a far more comfortable position next to him.
"You got a headache, right? I know I did when I woke up from where your grunts ditched me," dryly Archie responded. "All I'm doin' is trying to help—I took a hot shower to help with mine, though I doubt you wanna do that, do you?"
Grinning at Maxie's mortified look, Archie chuckled, patting Maxie's cheek with his free hand affectionately.
"Yeah. That's what I thought."
Maxie, sputtering, could barely respond as Archie picked up his hand, placing it over the cloth as he took back his own.
"Hold that there," Archie ordered, Maxie only able to gawk as he stood back up, going back behind the couch. Maxie turned to watch where he went, seeing an open kitchen that directly connected to the living room. The entire house seemed spacious and interconnected—he could see the front door and another small room nearby that surprisingly seemed far less messy, and when he turned back around, there was a hallway.
He spotted a bedroom at the end of it, seeing a bit of a bed, but he went right back to following Archie with his eyes, not trusting him for a single second.
"Why am I here?" Maxie finally demanded, watching as Archie took out a pitcher of water from his fridge, pouring a glass.
"Mm?"
Archie perked up, looking over before he registered the question.
"You gave me a month. The month is starting now."
Maxie blinked, not sure he had heard him right as Archie headed back, sputtering as he sat down.
"N-no, that isn't how it works, I have plans, there are things to be done—"
"Mt. Pyre ain't goin' anywhere."
Maxie paused, looking slowly over at Archie, who boasted a devilish smile.
He could feel his throat tightening with his anger and frustration, wanting to scream, but nothing was coming out besides, "You—"
The glass of water Archie had brought with him was being forced into his free hand, the other still, strangely, holding the warm cloth to his head. It did admittedly feel nice, and even if it had come from Archie, he was only doing this for himself.
"Drink," chirruped Archie. "It'll help with the headache. And trust me—it is better to just drink that instead of arguin' with me."
Maxie leered.
"You drugged it."
"You saw me pour it."
"You drugged the entire pitcher beforehand."
By that point Archie's smile was gone, his face bored, not finding Maxie's bickering funny.
"If I wanted to do anything, I would've done it while you were conked out. It'd be a waste of my time just drugging you to do something—and trust me, that isn't very romantic, is it?"
Archie smiled again and Maxie, to swallow the rising scream in his throat, turned away, downing the glass.
"I'm drinking this because I want to, not because of you," Maxie added after half the glass had been chugged, having to stop to breathe.
Archie's smile was becoming annoying.
"I'm sure, Maxie," Archie hummed, Maxie's teeth digging into the edge of the glass as he polished it off, none-too-carefully hucking it back at Archie.
It was caught, though not before what remained spilled across Archie's pants—alas, he didn't seem that bothered, shrugging faintly before setting it on the coffee table next to the empty beer bottle.
Maxie felt like cracking the bottle over his head and bailing.
"I don't want to be here," he stated plainly, and Archie nodded slightly.
"I know."
"Then I'm going to leave. I have things to do."
Archie smiled, leaning back against the couch, his arms comfortably settled along the back.
"I brought you here so you couldn't do shit. I know you want to go to Mt. Pyre, and so do I—but guess what, you're gonna be stuck here. With me. For a month."
Maxie, swallowing his rage, tried to speak in level tones, pressing the cloth harder to his head as he looked at Archie.
"That is insane—you're crazy if you think you can just keep me here for an entire month of all things… What are you even thinking?"
Archie looked so cocky, leaning back against his couch, grinning as he always did.
Maxie wanted to dig his nails into the skin of his face, make him suffer for how arrogant he was, how self-confident he always was. It made his skin crawl, made so uncomfortable by his behavior.
"What I'm thinking?"
His ravings of how much he loathed every little thing about Archie stopped, the curiosity that plagued him demanding to know why Archie kept him here.
"I told you, I'd make you love me."
Twitching, Maxie scoffed, turning his head away as he looked at the TV, its low drone filling his ears.
"Impossible," he groaned, flinching where he sat when Archie leaned forward, suddenly serious.
"If you fall in love with me by the end of the month, you have to stick with me," Archie informed him as if it were factual, Maxie looking back to leer at him.
"And if I don't?"
"You can leave, go to Mt. Pyre, and we'll go about our business."
Maxie blinked, staring at Archie intently, searching out for the lie in his eyes.
"… You'll just… Let me leave?" he repeated slowly. "Do what I want? Take what I need from Mt. Pyre and not try to stop my team?"
Archie nodded confirmation, though his tone was warning as he added, "But if you fall in love with me-"
"Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm stuck with you. Seems easy enough."
Maxie pushed himself up so that his back rested against one of the couch pillows, looking back to the TV.
"Sorry to tell you, Archie, but you have set yourself up for failure. I hope you are ready for my rejection in a month."
Smiling, Archie got up, reaching out and letting his fingertips gloss over Maxie's hair, feeling the other man tense.
"You'll be surprised, I'm sure, love," Archie purred, walking away to put the empty glass thrown at him back in the kitchen.
He could feel Maxie's eyes burning holes into his back.