"This is all your fault."
Mt. Pyre had never been well-known for its superb architecture. For an ancient cemetery dating back to the time of Hoenn's initial discovery by man, it was astounding that it had managed to endure so many centuries of no fixing of the many holes in the floor, the crumbling rock walls, and, well, that one particular weak spot in the floor that had caved beneath the weight of two men.
"Your too fat for this old place to hold you up—so this is all your fault that we're stuck down here—"
"Oh shut the fuck up, Maxie, before I jam one of these rocks into your mouth…"
Maxie snarled, teeth flashing in an indignant fashion as he leered at the man who he very well blamed for having made them fall down into the very pit of Mt. Pyre—or so he presumed it was.
They were surrounded by the headstones of pokemon captured by the woes of time, and luckily having not fallen on any of them, they were in relatively… Okay shape.
Maxie could speak better of himself than Archie—who had fallen on top of—in that he figured the most he suffered was an assortment of bruises and perhaps a sprained ankle, his left one specifically, which seemed to scream in pain as he tried to wriggle off of the Aqua leader.
"If you had not decided to run after me, then things would have been just fine. We wouldn't be at the bottommost level of Mt. Pyre, I would have the Blue Orb, and I wouldn't be stuck with you."
His hands reached out, fumbling with the neighboring headstone as he heaved himself to his feet, trying to tenderly dust himself off while mindful of his sore spots and especially his ankle, which evidently did not want to hold much of his weight.
Ignoring the eyes leering at him from the floor, Maxie did not make eye contact with Archie as the other man got up as well, grunting from the effort—and from how sore he was, being used as a cushion had not been pleasant—and bracing himself against another grave to keep himself from tumbling over. His legs felt a bit weak from being temporarily crushed by Maxie's weight, he was somewhat breathless from again being utilized as some sort of cushion for Maxie's landing, and overall he felt himself to be in a very foul mood.
"Did you really think I'd just let you waltz your ass up there and take what you wanted?" snapped Archie, Maxie huffing and picking off a bit from the broken floor from his shoulder, where it had been clutched to the fabric of his coat. "And it isn't my fault that this place has such shitty floors. You think I planned all this?"
Receiving no other response, Archie scowled at the back of Maxie, the Magma leader seeming incessant on being stubborn and ignoring him.
"I forgot how much of a god damn child you are," Archie grumbled, receiving a sharp glare as Maxie turned around sharply, one hand still clutching the headstone to keep himself steady.
"Well, if you don't mind me, I'm going to get out of here, find the Orb, and carry on with my original intentions," huffed Maxie, puffing himself up some as he glared challengingly at Archie as he started past him. "And you can't stop me—"
His show of bravado was painfully interrupted by his ankle, which was still not agreeable with his idea of movement as it seized up, the muscles around it tensing up in an inferno of pain as he yelped.
Within the short few seconds of falling forward, he had a split decision to make—grab onto the nearest object and keep himself from planting face-first onto the floor, or do as aforementioned and simply greet the ground with his face.
Within the milliseconds he had, it was an easy choice—hands flinging out, he grabbed onto whatever was closest, eyes closing tightly in reflex as he accepted possible doom of falling.
When there no longer came the whistling of air past his ears with the motion of falling down, Maxie tentatively opened his eyes, staring in blank, slowly developing horror at the fabric his fingers currently clutched onto.
A hand pressed itself against his lower back and he tensed, feeling his skin crawl as he heard Archie's disgusting, degrading purr, "What were you saying, Maxie, buddy o' pal?"
Of all the things to grab, he had to grab onto Archie, who he had just finished insulting and calling quite demeaning things, now clutching onto the front of his coat in desperation against falling.
"I hope you burn in Hell," muttered Maxie, writhing in protest when feeling strong hands grip onto his sides, righting him so that he was standing upright rather than leaning his weight heavily against Archie.
"That isn't something you say to your savior," mocked Archie, Maxie surprisingly light as he readjusted his position, much to Maxie's disdain. "Don't touch me!" he hissed, pushing back against the obviously stronger man, who sneered. "You're the one who started it."
Letting go, Maxie wobbled without Archie's support, his face turning a vivid shade of red as he braced himself, again, against a headstone.
"… I… may be having some difficulty… with walking, I suppose…" Maxie grumbled after a moment, his lips thinning unhappily as Archie grinned.
"And?" Archie encouraged, Maxie's face rivaling the color of his hair. Humiliation seared his veins as he ground his teeth together, wanting to claw off that beaming look of satisfaction off of Archie's face, the Aqua leader's mood obviously brightened by Maxie's injury.
"I need your help walking, is that what you want to hear?!" finally did he snap, throwing out a hand in an angry gesture. "So stop smiling like a god damned fool and help me—and if you tell anyone of this, rest assured, I will do something terrible to you."
Archie, waving his hand dismissively, retained his beaming look, reached out to Maxie.
"Oh shut up already, we both know you can't do shit. Might as well as enjoy my company, since I know you love me so much, Maxie."
The red-head didn't look agreeable in the slightest, only to tense in horror as strong hands grabbed onto him.
"What in the name of EVERYTHING THAT IS—" Maxie began to squall in protest, writhing as Archie's grip tightened, the ground disappearing from under his feet. Hands flinging out, desperate for something to anchor themselves to, he gripped onto the collar of Archie's coat as he was swung up into the other's arms, hands fisting themselves into the black fabric in terror as he peered down at the ground that felt very far away, in the case he was dropped.
"Put me down," he demanded in a flat tone of voice that edged near panic. "Put me down this instant, Archie, I swear to god—"
"Do you honestly think I'm just going to let you limp around, hanging off my shoulder?" scoffed Archie, humored by the color draining from Maxie's face as he held onto him tightly, obviously afraid of being dumped to the floor.
"This will be easier, trust me. Especially if you want to get out of here quickly."
Teeth gritting, Maxie glared at Archie's collarbone, tempted to dig in his blunt fingernails into his throat and show just how appreciative he was of this plan. However, reminded of his compromised position as he took another gander at the floor and the strong hands gripping onto his shoulder and thighs, he fell silent.
"… Fine. Be quick about it," he grumbled, Archie satisfied now.
"What, Maxie? Don't want to bond on a lovely stroll through ?" Archie teased as he weaved his way through the headstones towards the door, which conveniently seemed to be partially opened already.
"This is not exactly the most lovely place to take a stroll through," Maxie disagreed, his eyes cautiously darting about, surveying their environment.
"In fact, this is the last place I'd like to take a walk through…"
Archie ignored this remark, Maxie's negativity thus far unappreciated. Carrying on with his path, he nudged open the door with his shoulder, bidding the room they had fallen down into a silent farewell as he pushed on.
The following room was dark, too dark for comfort for Maxie, though Archie didn't seem nearly as bothered, stepping in as he tried to look for some sort of light source.
"This isn't too bad, I mean, it is a little dark but—"
"What the hell is that?!"
Archie scowled as he was interrupted, though he followed Maxie's panicked gaze to try and find what he was griping about now.
"I see nothing Maxie, you need to stop whining, good lord."
Glaring up at Archie, Maxie growled, "I swear on my own life I saw a pair of eyes, I mean—there they are again!" Throwing out an arm and pointing at the offender, Archie looked out and—a pair of floating eyes greeted him, glowing from the shadows with their milky irises fixated on the pair of men.
"It's probably just a pokemon, Maxie," Archie slowly began, inching into the room. The eyes followed as he tried to slink deep into the darkness, find some new door to head up to where they had dropped down from. "A very, very territorial pokemon just keepin' an eye on us, but if we're nice, we'll be juuuuuust fine—"
A woman's shrill scream filled the air and split his ears, Maxie slamming back against him in the instinct to flee, and Archie felt the hair on the back of his neck raise.
"Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope!"
The panicked mantra flooded out of his mouth fast and without hesitance as Archie suddenly realized that, wow, he really didn't want to be there.
And neither did Maxie, who swore violently under his breath as Archie ducked and weaved around headstones, nearly tripped over some, and overall staggered and stumbled to the other side of the room.
The eyes, widened in a presumably angry look, were following close behind, and catching up fast, obviously knowing the room far better than Archie did.
"T-there!"
Archie, who had simply been looking for a place to hide from the terror that followed them, looked over when hearing Maxie's sharp cry, seeing immediately what he was referring to. A sliver of light pooled in from what looked like an open door, someone out there obviously loving them as he redirected his path to the door.
He could almost feel the breath of whatever was in there breathing down his neck, wheezing, heaving, with the stench of flesh lingered with every puff of air—
Slamming the door behind them, his back thumped hard against it as Archie gasped for air, Maxie shaking faintly as they both silently listened to the sound of claws scraping against rock, and finally, disappearing somewhere else.
"… I don't think that was just some pokemon," puffed Maxie, Archie sighing.
"You're lucky I didn't drop you."
Maxie gave him a dirty look, not liking even the joke being dropped, and surprisingly, received an apologetic look.
"Sorry, that was just, not fun at all."
Blinking, Maxie waited for Archie to add in something snarky, to take back the apology, but he did no such thing.
"It… it's fine," mumbled Maxie, turning his gaze away as Archie took in a deep breath.
"At least this room has light. And looks like some people were here recently, a good sign," Archie noted in relief, slowly walking forward. There were fewer graves here, the room smaller—it had some cleaning equipment in one corner, a door leading to some stairs in another, and otherwise appeared to be a place of storage. A light switch was nearby, which Archie was mindful to leave alone, being quite done with creeping around in the dark, even if that had been a very temporary issue.
"That should head us back upstairs."
He nodded in the direction of the door and stairs, Maxie following his gaze to note the surefire escape route.
"Probably another floor or two until we actually get to where we were, though. We did fall down pretty far."
Sighing, Maxie had seemingly forgotten their rivalry for the time being, his head lolling against Archie's chest.
"Fantastic," he grumbled, staring down the door. "I can only hope there aren't any other monstrosities hiding on any of the other floors."
"We can always just stay here and—"
"No, I'm not going to just remain down here!"
Maxie leered back up at Archie, who shrugged, "We don't have to stay here forever, Maxie. But I'm, uh, kinda tired of running around with you already, and I wouldn't mind a break after falling down three floors…"
It was strange hearing his rival speak in a tone that seemed hopeful for a truce, Maxie staring at Archie in momentary confusion, baffled by his change in behavior. Perhaps it was because of how long they'd both been at each other's throats and now, in this moment outside of their realm of battling for land and sea, it didn't really seem like they had much to argue about.
That was, in fact, debatable—Maxie was more than capable of arguing every little thing if so challenged to do so—but the point remained that they were both exhausted, hurting some fashion, and had a kindred loathing of encountering any other hostile 'pokemon'.
Pursing his lips, Maxie glanced back to the door, and then sighed in defeat.
"Whatever, put me down, and we can just sit—"
Maxie gave a noise of protest when Archie just sank to the floor without even setting him down, squirming in fear of being dropped.
Instead, he found himself stubbornly held onto as Archie sat and leaned back against the neighboring wall, Maxie hissing.
"I said put me down," he snapped, glaring at Archie, who only gave him a weary look.
"How about," Archie began, Maxie tensing in caution as his head leaned forward. "We pretend, that we're not enemies, and fucking shut up for a second?"
Maxie felt every fiber in his being scream in protest as Archie leaned his forehead against his own, going wide-eyed and becoming mute from the out of the blue action.
"Can you agree with me on doing that?"
Blinking as Archie repeated his request, this time with no swearing involved, Maxie tentatively lifted his eyes back to those that were now far too close to his own.
"… Sure, whatever," he grumbled, and Archie seemed to take this as all the permission he needed, Maxie making a low noise of protest as he was held even closer, braced against Archie's body as Archie kept their foreheads together, closing his eyes.
The Magma leader, tentative and waiting for Archie to abruptly snap his neck during this time of weakness, was surprised to see nothing else occurred. He waited, and waited, and waited, but he was only met with the soothing rhythm of Archie's breathing. Eventually, he let his eyes gradually slip close as well, strangely comfortable in this foreign environment and in his rival's arms.
-
It took them five hours to get out of Mt. Pyre's ground floor.
Two of those hours were spent napping, one was taken up as they quietly talked, for once able to speak intelligently instead of spouting off insult after insult. Maxie wouldn't admit how relaxing it was to anyone, not even Archie, but he could sense that the Aqua leader felt similarly, even their bickering something low and rarely present as they spent the remainder of the time escaping.
Their teams had left, probably chased off by local police, and the cemetery was primarily empty by the time they got out.
Outside, night had fallen, the crescent moon glittering in its sea of stars.
"We're free!" Archie excitedly proclaimed, Maxie not seeming near as excited, in fact neutral on the matter. "And now you can finally set me down," Maxie began, the one thing he had been fixated on. Once or twice had he been allowed to stand, though never once had Archie permitted him to walk, constantly stating that he'd only further harm his ankle.
Squirming, trying to relinquish Archie's grasp on him to set his feet on solid land, he made a despairing noise as he was clutched tighter.
"You'll break your ankle trying to get anywhere—where do you live? I'll take you home, we just barely got to start talking…"