Lillie
There is a girl in her room.
Lillie contains a scream ( Mother will come and— ), and peers from the frame of her bedroom door.
She seems Lillie's age? Or at least she's her height. She is wearing a cute pink beanie, and her black her falls down to her shoulders. Lillie squashes a feeling of jealousy when she sees her slightly arms, the way her face is perfectly round.
All in all, the girl is cute.
Oh, also, she is asleep, sprawled on Lillie's bed.
She tiptoes closer, until their arms are nearly touching. What does she do now? Does she call her mother?
No. Just—no.
Gathering all her courage, Lillie weakly shakes the girl's arm.
The girl startles awake, and Lillie scrambles away until her back is touching the opposite wall.
"I—uh, what?" the girl blurts, looking around. Then, she spots her, and... beams? Nobody beams when seeing her. "Alola, Lillie! I was looking for you! But I have fallen asleep, haha."
"How do you know my name?" Lillie asks, honestly a little scared. She can't see her face, but she's sure she's as white as a sheet. "Mother has never made me public!"
"Oh, sorry!" the girl exclaims, scratching her nape. Well, more like stage-whispers, as they've been this entire conversation. "I forgot to introduce myself: my name's Moon, and I've come to get you out of this place!"
...What?
Lillie shakes her head frantically, covering her ears. "You can't."
(Her brother ran away, and Mother has never been the same.)
"Lillie—"
"You can't you can't you can't—"
A hand grips her arm. "Lillie," Moon says, firmly and softly at the same time. She is smiling, and it seems like the one she sees when she looks at the mirror—fragile and sad.
"I—"
"We're gonna get you out of here, okay?"
Lillie sucks a breath. "Okay."
Moon's smile gets a little happier, and, after letting her take some of her favourite books, she drags Lillie by her joint hands all the way to the exit, not even bothering with stealth. Lillie's heart is in her throat the entire time, but surprisingly they don't encounter anyone; not a guard, not Wicke, not her mother.
No one.
"How?" Lillie whispers, clutching her books nervously. She feels like she's in a fairytale and the girl beside her is the fae who has come to grant her a wish.
"What?"
Lillie loses a bit of confidence with that. "We haven't bumped into anyone…"
"Oh, that." Moon averts her eyes, and scratches her cheek. Why does she scratch herself so much? Is she itchy? "Fun story, actually. You see, coming here, I encountered lots of trainers. My bad luck, y'know? So I kinda defeated them all..." Suddenly, Moon's black eyes meet Lillie's. "Including your mom."
Lillie gapes. What is she?
(She has always thought Mother was invincible.
And now she goes and is defeated by an apparently-nine-year-old girl.
Lillie wonders if she could have done it too.)
"Yeah, yeah, I know. Impressive," Moon says. She looks uncomfortable—does she not like to brag? The part of Lillie's brain that is not still reeling can relate. "Uh, one thing. Stay here—I gotta do one thing."
"Eh?"
"Don't worry, you won't get hurt!" Moon says, already running off.
Lillie stands there, alone, doing something that, if Mother caught her, she would not give Lillie anything to eat for weeks .
She fidgets.
When Moon comes back, it is with an armful of cloud-shaped pokemon.
"This is Nebby," she says, shoving—it? into Lillie's arms. "Your mom's current experiment—well." Moon's grin turns manic. "Not anymore, now it's yours."
Lillie takes the pokemon, not saying anything.
All she has gathered during this meeting is that Moon is a force of nature. Really, what can she do but follow along?
Gladion
Gladion stares.
"Alola!" the beanie girl greets, doing that ridiculous gesture. "I'm Moon!"
His little sister, behind her, tugs at her hat. He turns to look at her, expecting answers. "Um," she says. "Surprise?"
"Surprise?" he echoes, disbelievingly. "What are you doing here? Where is M—Lusamine?"
"...I ran away." Lillie looks down, but, after the girl gives her nudge, looks up again, meeting Gladion's eyes a little fearful, but determined.
And it's true: Lillie is better than ever. She no longer seems ready to die of inanition, and she walks a little straighter, a little more proud.
"I thought you were going to stay trapped in her clutches forever," Gladion does not blurt. Lillie flinches, and as if that was not enough to deduce what happened, the girl steps before her, protective.
"Hey, don't be a jerk," she says, a slight frown marring her face—really, she looks much better smiling. "We might've come to get you out of Team Skull, but that doesn't mean you have to like the process, so. Take care."
"Huh?"
"Yeah!" the girl says, lifting her chin. "I have a plan and everything; Lillie made me get one. Listen—"
"I have to be in Team Skull," Gladion interrupts, scoffing. Really, what does she think he's going to eat or sleep or get intel if not here?
The girl tilts her head. She probably thinks the gesture is cute. "But you don't like it."
Oh, great, an immature brat. "Sometimes you have to do things you don't like."
"This isn't one of them," she affirms, shaking her head.
"Don't be ridiculous—"
"Gladion," Lillie interrupts, and, wow? Last year she would not have dared interrupt someone. "Please, let her help. You won't regret it." She sounds certain, but you still don't buy it. She knows you don't, and she pulls her secret weapon: the puppy eyes.
...Gladion folds like wet paper. He sighs, letting them both know how much of a bother this is. "Okay."
"Great!" the girl punches the air. "Let's go!"
She takes his hand, and even though he tries to swat it away, she does not let go.
Two hours later, Team Skull is no more. Gladion would be impressed, really, if he was not trying really hard not to cry.
Moon is walking ahead of them, her Venusaur out of her pokeball, complimenting her team for a job well done.
"Wow." He still can't assimilate it all.
"I know," Lillie says, with the wisdom of a thousand lives. She sighs, but she is smiling slightly. "Believe me, I know."
He smiles, too. His face feels weird, and Lillie has a hand over her mouth to cover her giggles.
Maybe he can start doing more regularly?
Kukui
"Hey, professor Kukui!"
A childish voice he doesn't recognise calls him from across the beach. Kukui glances to the place it comes from, and is graced by a brown-skinned girl scrambling to meet him, followed by two blond kids, probably siblings.
"Alola, kids!" he says back, doing the greeting dance. The two girls do it back, one more clumsily than the other, but the boy looks like he has swallowed lemons. Kukui grins—he lives to embarrass kids. "What brings you here?"
"Oh, y'know," the brown-skinned girl answers, flapping a hand. "Just wanted to tell you we're gonna live in that empty house, the one in the Hau'Oli Outskirts? That one. Sooooooooo, we're your new neighbours!"
Kukui blinks. Honestly, he's seen much weirder things, but. These are (probably) eight-year-olds. "Don't you three have parents?"
The blonde girl tugs her hat down, and the boy's hand twitches. Before he can apologise for touching a nerve, the other girl interjects, "yeah, but they're back in Kanto."
Kanto, huh? The place where a new child Champion debuted last month?
...Kukui has a feeling he knows who this is.
"Kanto?" the boy says, disbelievingly. "You're from Kanto? No, wait, now that I think of it, you have the accent. A more pressing question: you have parents?"
"Uh, yeah? That's a pretty weird question."
The blonde girl smiles sheepishly. "We thought you were a fairy."
"...I see."
"Not that this isn't cute and all," Kukui interrupts. The kids' attention turns back to him, and he meets eyes with the brown-skinned girl. "But are you Moon, the Kanto prodigy Champion?"
They all three gasp, in varying degrees of surprise.
"How did you know? Am I that obvious?"
" Champion ?"
"Just a feeling." Kukui shrugs. "You have an…" He makes a vague hand movement, "air."
And she does—the impressing number of six pokeballs in her belt, calluses in her hand that can have only come from training, little things normal trainers don't have. If she had wanted to hide her status, she wasn't doing a good job.
Moon pouts, and Kukui has to physically restrain himself not to burst out laughing—she is ignoring her friends' confusion. He has a feeling they'll be great friends in the future.
"Well," he starts, suddenly remembering something. "If you want to live there, you'll have to ask the Kahuna, it's his decision. But don't worry," he says, when he sees the blonde kids pale, "he's a nice man—won't leave kids out sin the open, that guy."
"I know," Moon says.
"Oh, you've met him?" Now he feels awkward for giving that speech.
She shrugs. "Kinda."
Kukui doesn't comment—kids' fantasies, am I right? If he told anyone what he dreamt about when he was her age…
Who is that pokemon?
"It's Nebby," the blonde girl squeaks, trying and failing to get the pokemon into her bag. "Get! In! Here!" she whispers, agitated.
Nebby—is that the species name or a nickname?—ignores the poor girl, and instead it goes flying right at him. "Alola, little guy!" he says, laughing.
"Now that the Meowth is out of the bag, or should I say Cosmog?" Moon says, grinning at her joke. "There's another question: can you help us with, um, strange pokemon? I can guarantee you you've never seen them before, but we need a bit of professional help."
"I assume this is one of them?" Kukui asks, running a hand through Nebby/Cosmog's fur.
Moon nods earnestly. "Yeah."
"And the other…?"
There's an awkward silence in which both girls glance at the boy. He ignores them, but when his resolve wavers, he graces them with a long-suffering sigh and takes out a pokeball of his pocket.
"This is Type: Null," he says, carefully not looking at anyone, and opens the pokeball. A weird pokemon appears, and it raises its—axe? defiantly. Kukui can't see himself, but his eyes are probably shining.
"Amazing!" The boy's eyes, who were previously clenched shut, widen. Kukui may not be a very observant man, but he knows trauma when he sees one. so… "It's the most beautiful pokemon I've ever seen! What a graceful axe! And the colours! If it weren't yours, I would catch it in an instant!"
Type: Null looks ready to bury himself, and the boy is blushing up to the roots of his hair. Kukui grins—good action for the day? Checked.
"I told you it was beautiful, Gladion!" the blonde girl says, looking at the boy, apparently named Gladion. "See, see?"
Moon subtly mouths 'thanks', and grins. Kukui gives her an enthusiastic thumbs-up.
"Well, it's getting late," Kukui says, looking at the setting sun. "You should get going to meet the Kahuna if you don't want to sleep on the sand!"
Moon blinks, as if surprised at how quickly time passes. "Oh, yeah! Bye, professor!" She waves, and keeps waving until she's no more than a dot in the distance, her friends gone with her.
Heh, what a weird kid. Kanto Champion, though… Kukui scratches his chin.
He may have an idea.
Hau
"Alola, Moon!"
"Alola, Hau!"
They both did the greeting at the same time. "Yeah!" They high-five, grinning. Behind Moon, Gladion facepalms.
Hau and Moon, sometimes with Gladion and Lillie too, have been meeting regularly for as long as they have known each other—namely, two weeks.
As the only ten-year-old kid in the town, Hau was happy to have another one to play with. Especially if they knew so much about fairy-type pokemon like Moon!
(Townspeople look at him and Moon strangely, like they expect something of them and they're not doing it.
"Jealousy," Gramps says, when asked. "You were the only one here, the spoilt child, but now there's someone here, more knowledgeable, more… experienced than you, and you're not even a bit jealous."
"That doesn't make sense," Hau answers, tilting his head. "Why would I care she's better than me? What matters is enjoying yourself, and she is pretty fun!"
Gramps throws him a funny look, and mutters something unintelligible.)
"Eoooooo. Hau?" Moon waves a hand in front of his face. Has he spaced out again? Whoops. "You there, man?"
"Hehe, sorry," he grins sheepishly. "Spaced out. Anyways, a new shop's opened in Hau'Oli, so we could go there! They're selling malasadas—I've never tried them before, but Gramps said they're—" Here he imitates his Gramps voice—"'Alola's most delicious delicatessen'."
Moon's mouth twitches, "I know what malasadas are."
"Whoa, really?!" he gasps. "I thought you were Kantosian! Are they good?"
"I'm Kantosian," Moon agrees, nodding. "And, yeah, they're pretty good." She is smiling slyly, though. Hau doesn't know what that means—he hopes she's not pulling a prank on him, that would suck.
Well, doesn't matter. Hau treads an arm with Moon's, and the other with Gladion, who swats him off with a "no, thanks." Hau pouts, but still guides them to where he knows the shop is.
...Or, at least, he thought he knew.
They're surrounded by tall grass, in what is certainly not a malasada shop. Hau doesn't think they even passed civilization.
Whoops.
"Where are we?" Gladion the grumpy guy grumbles (say that quickly ten times!), crossing his arms.
Hau shrugs, looking around. "In an adventure!"
"We're in Route 1," Moon says, looking amused. She points to whatever direction. "It's that way."
"Aww, Moon," Hau whines. "Ad-ven- ture ."
She laughs, and starts walking to where she pointed. "Sorry, sorry. I'm just eager to eat malasadas again."
"Oh, yeah, malasadas! I forgot!" He grabs Moon by the shoulders and starts pushing her, so they walk faster. He doesn't take Gladion's hand this time because he's a jerk, hmph.
Hau's sure Gladion's one of those types to hug you when they're scared suddenly, but then they realise they hugged you and step away, blushing and making excuses. He doesn't understand people like that—who wouldn't want to hug a friend every time they can?
What if you don't see them anymore? Hau's sure he would regret it if he couldn't see Moon anymore and he hadn't given her a hug as a goodbye.
Knowing that, he reaches to take Gladion's hand, and this time not intending to let go.
"Hau~," Moon sing-songs, catching his hand before he can do anything. "You're spacing out again."
"Sorry."
Huh, they're already in Hau'Oli? How fast! Hau tries to go to where he knows the malasada shop is, but Gladion steps in his way, and says, "not this time. Moon, guide us."
"'Kay," Moon answers, and takes them to the malasada shop. They order a sweet malasada each, and pick a seat near the window.
The waitress comes what seems a second later, and deposits their orders in the table. Moon is already comfortably munching hers, so Hau takes his, reassured this isn't a prank.
He bites it and—
And it's the most delicious thing he's ever eaten! It's no wonder Gramps says it's a delicatessen; if Hau knew words so big, he'd be calling that too!
He waves his arm to call the waitress again, and orders twenty-seven more. She throws him a funny look, but goes away, hopefully to bring the delicious, delicious sweet malasadas to him.
"Have you got enough money to pay that?" Gladion asks dryly, raising a brow.
"Uh," Hau does mental maths, but he's never been too good with them. Instead, he takes all his money out of his pocket and slams it one the table—two coins roll, and fall quietly. "Nope!"
Gladion groans.
Moon dramatically throws money on the table too—only hers are two 2500 bills. "And Moon saves the day again!"
(Really, why do people think he should be jealous of her? She buys him malasadas!)
Hau grins, and his grin turns dopey when a big plate of malasadas is left on the table. "Thanks!" he says, already eating.
Mother
Her Moon has been weird lately.
It's not that noticeable; just new sudden tics, longing glances when she thought she wasn't looking… Things like that—but Stella is a mother, and mothers are bound to notice those things.
She was willing to let it go, though, but one day, Moon, her seven-year-old daughter, came to her with the, pardon her French, oddest fucking request she's ever heard:
"Mom, I want to go to Alola. " She takes a deep breath. "Permanently."
"That's nice, sweetie," Stella agrees absentmindedly, and continues washing the dishes. "In like three years, I'll buy you a pokemon, 'kay?"
"What? No ." Moon shakes her head enthusiastically. Stella turns to look at her, and… she looks anxious —when has her child ever been anxious? "I mean, like, right now? Uh, yeah."
Stella's first instinct is to wrap Moon in blankets and never let her go. She forcefully shallows it down.
"Why?"
Moon hesitates, but her words betray none of that. "I have friends there. They need help."
Stella stares. She knows that can't be possible—Moon has never been in Alola. But…
But.
She has a theory.
"...If you can win the Kanto league and demonstrate you're capable, I'll let you."
Moon's face lets her know she wasn't asking for permission, but is relieved by the affirmative. "Thanks," she whispers, coming to hug her. "I love you, Mom."
(Has she missed watching her daughter grow?)
"I love you, too."
Stella presses a kiss against her daughter's forehead, and holds tightly.