Seeing as I've been updating very slowly recently I decided I might as well post this thing I wrote back in January while procrastinating revision. This is also the first non-BT thing I've posted in 3 years, oops? (Still technically in the same universe, but all that really applies is the names of their Pokémon, and I guess this is some extra character backstory for some people? Also there's no spoilers so. yay)
This is also the first (and currently only) time I've written something in present tense, which is kind of ironic since it's, like, basically a hcanon history of Nate & Hugh's relationship. Also the title has almost no relevance other than I saw a descriptor saying analogous colours created "serene and comfortable designs" and that seemed like it fit somehow.
It was planned to continue on past what it does and include BT stuff but that also would be kinda redundant and spoiler-y so. Here you go!
Possible warnings: mentions of death/abuse & someone having a bad sexual experience (not written out, just Regret)
It's a few days after his ninth birthday when they first actually speak.
Nate was known for being one of the cheeriest kids in class, always offering answers to the questions even though most of the time they're incorrect, and he laughs along with everyone else at his terrible guess. There's always a smile on his face, even when he tries to hide the fact that he forgot how to tie his own laces again and trips over his own feet. He was a world away from Hugh, who can't help but snap back whenever someone laughs at his expense, lashes out whenever someone behind pokes him in the shoulder, glares daggers at anyone who reminds him he's a year behind everyone else. Perhaps that, he considers, is why Nate was liked so much.
Was, though, is the main word. One day, Nate vanishes, no longer showing up to classes, even though the teacher still calls his name on the register. A few pupils question where he might be, if he's gone on a really long holiday, if he's dead, and eventually to stop the questionable rumours it's revealed to them that he's in the hospital, and why don't they make him a 'get well soon' card?
So they do, and the whole class signs it, some of them even writing short messages. Hugh is not one of those people.
It's a long time before Nate returns to classes again, but he's different. Secluded. He no longer answers questions, recoils when anyone laughs loudly. He still can't tie his laces by himself, but instead of giggling when he trips in the hallway, someone laughs at him and he looks like he's about to cry. His old friends have moved on in his absence, they've found new people to play with now, and at break time he sits alone on the bench next to the building, a darumaka doll held tightly in his arms.
Hugh avoids talking to the other kids – and either they don't care to speak to him either, or they're scared of him. He's the kid who broke the principal's window, even if it was mostly by accident. He's the kid who was suspended so many times he has to retake a year, and not someone people want to be friends with.
For some reason, he decides that talking to Nate is something he should do.
Why? Well, he doesn't exactly have a well-thought-out reason for any of his other actions.
He drops himself on the bench, leaving a few feet of distance between himself and his classmate, although with how much the wood shakes from the impact there's no way he didn't notice. Nate doesn't react, though, other than slightly tightening his grip on the doll.
After waiting for twenty seconds, Hugh finally attempts to break the ice. "Hi."
He's… not very good at making conversation, either, for a nine-year-old.
Nate doesn't look at him, continues staring at the loose pieces of gravel on the ground, but he does say a word. "Hi." Apparently, whatever friendly charm he had before is gone too.
Hugh tries to think of something to say. He doesn't really know any games – he doesn't play with the other kids, because they tease him when he loses and it makes him angry, and his sister is too young to do much more than stack colourful blocks. Why would Nate want to play a game with him anyway? He probably thinks he's strange, or scary, like everyone else does.
"Did you forget how to smile or something?"
Hugh doesn't realise how insensitive his question sounds, but Nate doesn't seem to notice either. He doesn't reply, but does briefly look up at the blue-haired boy with a slightly lost, confused look, as if he has no idea what that's supposed to mean.
Perhaps Hugh doesn't really know either. He's not sure why he expected there to be a simple answer. When Nate moves his arm slightly, though, Hugh can see that there's something sewn into the back of the darumaka toy he's holding onto – writing, it looks like.
"What does it say?" he asks.
"What?" Nate looks even more confused than before, casting a quick glance over his shoulder to make sure he's not talking about something behind him.
"On your doll. It says something."
"Oh." The darumaka is released slightly from his grip so he can look at the cursive writing, but he soon shakes his head. "I don't know. I'm not good at reading. Mama told me what it said once, but I forgot."
"Can I see? I might be able to read it," Hugh offers, but that only prompts the thing being held tighter. Okay, maybe trying to take it from him is a bad idea. "Do you like darumaka?"
"I don't know." Nate replies simply, but his unsure response is changed within a few seconds. "Not really."
"You don't?" Hugh looks him with wide eyes, and it's probably the most emotion he's shown throughout this whole interaction. "But they evolve into darmanitan! You know that, right? They're really strong!"
"Yeah. I know." Nate scuffs the ground with his shoe. "Papa had one. He made it attack me."
Hugh is silent for a moment. This isn't something he's heard of before. "Wow. Your papa sounds really mean." Wouldn't it hurt to get attacked by a Pokémon? He doesn't want to think about it, but it does explain… "Is that why you were in the hospital?"
Nate says nothing; he just nods.
"I'm sorry." He doesn't know why he's apologising, especially when he rarely ever apologises for his own actions. Maybe because he's trying to imagine what it'd be like if his grandfather set his Serperior on him, possibly because he'd done something bad, but… the old man would never do something like that, and a Serperior wasn't as dangerous as a Darmanitan, at any rate. He can't imagine Nate doing something so terrible as to warrant a punishment like that, anyhow. So Hugh just… feels sorry for him.
"It's okay. Papa left."
"So it won't happen again, right? If he took his Pokémon with him."
"Right." Another nod, but this time Nate looks directly at him and gives a small smile. Just like that, a piece of him seems to have returned, somehow.
Hugh doesn't know why, but Nate sticks around him. Even when he seems to have mostly recovered from what happened, even when he's back to his old cheerful self and people treat him the way they used to, he hangs out with Hugh at break, sits next to him at lunch, instead of his old friends. Maybe they weren't particularly great friends, Hugh thinks, since they seemed to forget his existence after just a few months – but Nate is one of the friendliest kids in school, he gets along with everyone, so it's almost like everybody is his friend.
And yet, if given the choice of who to do things with, he chooses Hugh. Maybe that's not such a good thing for projects, because Nate borders on failing grades for most of his classes, but he's still more pleasant to work with than… well, anyone else, really.
Somehow, Hugh's grades improve. His parents and teachers are impressed, and honestly he's a bit bewildered and doesn't quite understand, until they talk to him about it and he realises that he actually kind of enjoys going to school now. It's different, actually being able to talk to someone, someone who doesn't mock him for his fragile temper just to get a reaction, someone who actually wants to have his company.
On Hugh's tenth birthday, his grandfather gives him a Pokémon. It's not too strong, a small Purrloin that's only recently hatched as an offspring from one of his team, and when Harriet gets jealous and pouts like the five-year-old she is, their grandfather laughs and tells her she can help look after it. The little cat definitely seems to prefer Harriet to Hugh, though, and she clearly loves the Purrloin a lot, so he's content to let her look after it, even if she's still too young to own a Pokémon so he's technically its trainer. Maybe when she turns ten, he can officially hand the Poké ball to her, or something.
He thinks about going on a journey, because now he's old enough to do so, but he doesn't really have a reason, and Purrloin – whom Harriet has dubbed 'Lily' – isn't strong enough, and doesn't have the desire, to go with him. Maybe someday he'll explore Unova.
When Nate turns ten, just under a year later, Hugh asks him if he wants to go on a journey like everyone else at school does. To his surprise, the answer is a very firm shake of his head.
"It's dangerous," he explains, and he's probably not wrong. "Besides, not everyone leaves the second they become ten, right?"
A few months later, when there's an accident on Reversal Mountain and the area is to be no longer accessible to the general public, when Hugh's grandfather is one of the victims of that accident, it's his parents who console him and Harriet at first, telling them that things will be okay, even though their mother is crying along with them knowing her father is gone.
It's Nate who feigns sickness when they learn about volcanoes in geography class a few weeks later, so that he gets to leave class for a few minutes and take another student with him just in case, as the school is slightly understaffed – because he can tell Hugh is about to start sobbing in the middle of the lesson, and it's a lot less embarrassing for him to do that in the school toilets where Nate is the only one who knows about it.
When Hugh is eleven years old, a group called Team Plasma parade through the town, shouting the word 'liberation' when really they just seem to be taking people's Pokémon. Hugh and Harriet, not making the smartest of choices, decide that it's better to try and fight these people off than hide, because they have a Pokémon and therefore they can beat them.
It doesn't go well, Lily gets taken from them, and when the two siblings try to fight the grunts themselves to get her back they're easily shoved aside by a fully-grown man. Harriet is crying because her best friend is gone and she scraped her knee when she was pushed over, but Hugh promises he'll get Lily back as he and Nate chase after the retreating thieves.
In what should not have been a surprise, though, the Pokémon thieves have Pokémon, and the two kids do not. A Watchog leers at them menacingly and snarls when Hugh tries to find a way past it; Nate is frozen to the spot and doesn't move until Team Plasma is gone and their Pokémon scampers after them, out of sight.
Then Nate break down into tears, apologising over and over again that he didn't do anything, that he just let them get away, and all the rage Hugh felt towards those people for stealing his sister's Pokémon disappears for just a few moments as he reassures him that it's not his fault, that there's nothing they, unarmed, could have done against that Pokémon. It's reassurance to himself that he tried his hardest, too, but it's frustrating to realise just how weak he is.
And so, he promises to get stronger, so he can find the people who took his sister's Pokémon and make them give Lily back.
Three years later, Team Plasma starts making the news headlines almost every day. They're active in the eastern areas of the region, they're causing widespread panic, their 'king' has awoken the legendary dragon, a young trainer who is just fifteen years old has awoken the other and defeated him, their boss is gone – it all happens so fast, and Hugh checks the news sites for days to hear if there's any news on the Pokémon Team Plasma has stolen, but there isn't. Whoever has Lily, they're still out there somewhere.
His grandfather's Pokémon – or at least, the ones that survived the accident – live in the wild now, but one day, while Hugh is pacing the edge of Route 19, Heidi the Serperior shows up, as she sometimes does. Today, she's brought something with her.
An egg. Apparently Heidi wants to give her firstborn to him. Thanks, Heidi. Still, the egg is certainly safer with a human than in the wild where predators roam. It's a smart move, and she probably only knows this because she was a trainer's Pokémon. Hugh promises to look after it for her, and the snake lets out a happy crone before slithering away into the undergrowth.
He doesn't really know how to look after an egg, but it appears to react somewhat to his walks across town when he brings it with him to see Nate – who doesn't seem to have any problem with eggs, just the Pokémon themselves – so he takes this to be a good sign.
A short while after he's turned sixteen, and is on his way home from Nate's, he sees both their mothers chatting outside the Pokémon Centre on their break from work. His mum beckons him over, and he asks what's up.
"Hugh, you want to go on a Pokémon journey, right?" his mother asks, grinning brightly.
"Of course I do!" he nods with a determined look in his eyes. He wants to get Lily back for Harriet. He wants to kick Team Plasma's ass in revenge. He wants to explore the region, too, he supposes.
"I definitely think it'd be good for Nate to have his own Pokémon," Marie, Nate's mother, says thoughtfully, and Hugh flinches internally thinking about how Nate might react to this, but she could be right. "You two would keep an eye out for each other, wouldn't you? You're very close."
He nods again.
The date when the regional professor plans to send the starter Pokémon draws near, and soon, the egg Hugh has been looking after finally hatches. It's a bright-eyed male Snivy, and he seems very poised and serious, so Hugh names him Sylvester. They attempt to train out on Route 19, which is difficult at first, but soon Sylvester is able to hold his own in a fight, as long as his opponent isn't too experienced.
Then the day arrives; the day they start their journey, or in Hugh's case, his mission. Apparently Juniper has sent her assistant out here, with the only description being 'someone with a green hat', and Nate holds the expression of someone who's getting teeth pulled rather than being given their first Pokémon.
After a quick search of the city, they find the professor's aid – Bianca is her name – at the outlook over the route. She smiles brightly, shows Nate the three Pokémon she has with her, and after realising the small creatures aren't going to attack him, he chooses the water-type, Oshawott, and names him Marth.
The one of the three which is super-effective against fire, Hugh notes, but Sylvester still has the type advantage as they have their first battle, although he hasn't actually learnt any grass-type moves yet. Apparently that makes all the difference, because despite this being the first time Nate has even held a Poké ball, he manages to win the battle. Marth looks very pleased with himself.
And thus, their journey begins.
Only a few hours later, they run into Team Plasma. Apparently they're still around, are trying to remake themselves, and Hugh has never hated them more in his life.
Still, he considers, this might make finding Lily easier, but he's never going to forgive them.
They travel, they catch Pokémon, and they get stronger. Hugh, in his impatience, tends to leave Nate behind a lot, and later feels bad about it because he knows Nate is nervous around Pokémon and maybe shouldn't have had to travel by himself, but he has Hugh's number and Hugh has promised he can call him any time if he needs anything.
Nate is surprisingly good at battling, though. He beats his first gym, the newly-opened one in their hometown, with the aid of a Riolu named Lucas, who seems quiet and nervous, and it almost seems natural that he's on Nate's team. Hugh manages to beat the gym also, probably with more trouble since he only has Sylvester still, but they make a good team.
It's a little more surprising when they catch up at the Pokémon Centre in Virbank, and Nate has a Growlithe with him. She clearly makes him nervous, especially when she tries to climb into his lap to lick his face, but Hugh can tell she won't hurt him. Apparently the only reason he caught her was because she was trying to steal his lunch and the poor thing seemed hungry.
Team Plasma shows up again, and they chase them to Castelia City, where Nate attempts to guide them through the sewers but really only gets them horribly lost, and himself on the verge of having an asthma attack from all the nasty things in the air. When they finally do track down Team Plasma, and the grunts run away and a guy with fancy hair tells them there's no point looking further, Hugh is more concerned about the fact that Nate looks like he's about to collapse than chasing after the criminal gang right that second.
He collects gym badges because they prove his strength; maybe one day he'll be able to face the league, but for now he's more focused on finding his sister's Purrloin.
They enter into the Pokémon World Tournament's first competition upon opening, which is only a small one, but Nate still manages to win. Apparently he learns better through experience than lessons at school, because his grades for the Pokémon classes have never been above a C.
They find Team Plasma again, and they have a base. Unfortunately, the base is a boat, so it's not set in one area. They infiltrate the ship with the help of Cheren, but just as he thinks they're getting somewhere, a triad with different outfits to the rest appear out of nowhere. Hugh hears Nate shout, he knows they've hurt him, and he wants to get angry and hurt these people back so they'll leave his best friend alone, but the next conscious thought he has is when he's blinking awake on the boardwalk, and the ship is gone.
Nate is injured, but it's only a bruised shoulder, and he promises he'll be fine as his new Zorua teammate sniffs at his arm with a look of slight admiration. Apparently, this Zorua – or 'Z' as Nate had taken to calling him, as his original trainer just went by the letter 'N' for a name – wasn't fond of Team Plasma either.
Despite his words, Hugh stays with Nate at the Pokémon Centre that night. Maybe it's a good thing he does, because after hearing a few gasps of pain, Hugh finds him stuck trying to get his shirt off with that shoulder injury, and ends up having to help him, despite his protests that he can do it himself when he clearly can't move his arm in the right way without it stinging.
He's… actually never seen Nate without a shirt on before, and he soon realises why.
A massive patch of skin across his chest and stomach is different to the rest, slightly pink and roughly textured. Hugh isn't even aware that he's staring until Nate snatches his pyjama shirt from the ground where he'd dropped it in his struggle, and Hugh looks away while he puts it on, as if that's going to change anything.
And he remembers what Nate told him, the first day they actually spoke – and he realises that Nate still bears the scars from it, and he feels so angry again that Nate's own father would dare hurt him like that, but whoever the man is he's long gone and there's nobody else to take his anger out on other than Nate, and he really, really doesn't want to do that.
There's an awkward silence between them. Nate self-consciously folds his arms over his chest, as if Hugh can see through his shirt, but he can remember what he saw so clearly that he doesn't need to.
"Sorry," Hugh eventually mutters, still staring at the slightly-rusted taps of the sink to avoid making eye contact.
"Don't worry about it," Nate says with a half-hearted shrug. "Chances are you were going to find out eventually."
"No, I meant…" Hugh looks at him at last, and Nate is smiling. He can't tell whether it's forced or not, but it probably is. "I'm sorry this happened to you."
He shrugs again. "It happened, like… many years ago. Before we became friends, even. It's in the past."
Nate dismisses his own bad experience like it's a papercut, and if he's actually bothered by it, he's a good enough actor to make it seem like he isn't. Pokéstar Studios hadn't tried to hire him on the spot for nothing, unless they were really just that desperate.
But Hugh knows it's had an effect on him, because that's why he's wary around Pokémon. That's why he's scared of Champ, especially now she's evolved and could easily give him an injury just as bad if she didn't love her trainer so much.
Hugh doesn't really know what possesses him to do this, but he ends up pulling Nate into a hug. Nate seems a little surprised by the action, but he doesn't protest against it or try to move away.
In that moment, Hugh finds himself wishing that he could keep Nate safe in his arms like this forever, so he wouldn't have to get hurt again.
Then he realises that's a… very strange thought, perhaps, and that's what makes him step away, maybe too hastily. Nate isn't weak. He doesn't need protecting. He can handle things by himself, he's getting over his fear of Pokémon, and Hugh hasn't been able to beat him in battle once yet.
Nate still looks marginally confused, but he soon gets over it and things return to relatively normal as they settle down to sleep. Marth, now a Dewott, is curled up at the foot of Nate's bed, and that's proof enough that he trusts his Pokémon.
Hugh's thoughts are a mess that night, and when he does eventually manage to fall asleep, his dreams are plagued with nightmares of losing his best friend.
Nate is a really good trainer. Hugh knows this from the start, but it's only when they're been travelling for a long time, and he battles Nate in Undella Town and his friend beats him with little effort, that he realises just how strong his Pokémon are. He's not wary of his own team anymore, not even Champ; and when the massive dog pounces on him after defeating Sylvester in one hit, all Nate does is laugh and try to push her muzzle away from his face, because dog slobber is kind of gross.
Hugh can't help but laugh at the sight, and wonders if he should consider trying to help him fend off his affectionate attacker.
Things turn serious soon after, as they track down Team Plasma again. They're using one of the legendary dragons to try and freeze Unova, they stole something from the Opelucid gym, and their boss is not happy when a couple of teenagers manage to infiltrate the ship.
The shadow people from before show up, and Nate defeats them – and one of them has Lily. They return her to Hugh upon their defeat, an evolved Liepard now, but she's barely even the same Pokémon. She snarls at Hugh if he tries to go near her. He has to fight to get her back inside her Poké ball.
He doesn't really know what to do with himself now, because he's achieved his mission, but it hasn't worked out the way he wanted it to, and in all honesty, it was Nate who did most of the work.
It's Nate who tells him to wait there, to stay safe, while he goes after Ghetsis.
It's Nate who nearly gets impaled on ice by a legendary dragon.
It's Nate who defeats a fusion of two of the most powerful Pokémon in Unova, as well as the leader of Team Plasma, almost single-handedly.
If it was anyone else, Hugh would be jealous of them – but it's Nate, and he can't bring himself to be bitter towards him, so instead it's directed at himself.
He returns home for a while, initially worried about how Lily will react to seeing Harriet again. The cat certainly seems wary of her, at first, but she's not nearly as hostile towards his eleven-year-old sister as she is to Hugh, and it might be that Lily actually remembers her. Harriet promises to give Lily lots of affection so that the Pokémon can be happy again, no longer used as a weapon by Team Plasma.
Hugh, with eight badges under his belt, now has access to Victory Road, and he's not sure whether he wants to go to the league or not until he realises that Nate is heading there, and he decides he wants to test him one more time. As usual, and as expected by now, Hugh is barely even a hurdle to his Pokémon. He decides, at that point, that he doesn't want to face the league, because if Nate can't beat it, there's no way he will – and if he can, his best friend who he's never been able to defeat in battle would become the champion waiting for him at the end.
And he does.
It's a strange feeling, watching your best friend get announced as the new champion of the region, especially when just a few months ago he'd been scared of his own Pokémon. He's sixteen years old, not quite the youngest champion Unova has ever had – he still has a year on Iris, the one he defeated to get the role – but the region is still impressed, especially since he cleared up Team Plasma once and for all. Nate always insists he didn't do it alone, that he couldn't have done it without Hugh at his side, and maybe it's true, but Hugh doesn't feel like he really made much of a difference.
He wants to make a difference, somehow, so he starts helping out at the Pokémon shelter in Dirftveil, which is run by members of the old Team Plasma. Rood is slightly wary of him at first, after the things he said when he showed up during his journey, but after Hugh apologises and admits he was wrong, the old man warms to him. The shelter houses wild Pokémon that have been injured, as well as ones that were abandoned by their trainers or 'liberated' by Team Plasma. It's always a good feeling seeing one of the stolen Pokémon returned to their trainer. Anthea and Concordia are friendly, albeit slightly scared of the outside world where people still judge them for being associated with Team Plasma, but it's not long before they feel almost like older sisters to him.
Hugh doesn't see Nate as much as he used to, though, and he knows it's because Nate is the champion now, he's busy, and he's usually on the other side of the region.
When Nate messages him and tells him that he's dating someone, a girl named Yancy, Hugh knows he probably shouldn't be surprised – but the news gives him a really weird, unpleasant feeling, like he's been betrayed somehow. Which is stupid, really, because he hasn't. Nate is his best friend; if he wants to go out with someone, so be it. He can do whatever he wants.
Somewhere, shoved to the back of his mind, Hugh has always known that the thought of being in a relationship with a woman didn't really appeal to him, that he's into men, but he's always been so focused on other things – on school, on getting Lily back, on training his Pokémon – that he doesn't really think about it much.
Now that things have settled down, now that the madness of his journey is over, he does. He hasn't said much to his parents about it, but they just seem to know, and his mother keeps making hints that he's eighteen now, and maybe he'll find himself someone soon, without specifying a gender. He replies with an absent "yeah, whatever", because it doesn't really seem like a pressing matter to him.
It's only a few months before Nate and Yancy break up, because apparently she's very busy and has to travel a lot and the two of them decided it wouldn't work. Hugh feels some sympathy for his friend, when they catch up a day later and Nate seems less cheerful than usual, but by the time he leaves he's smiling and laughing again, and Hugh gets a nice warm feeling just from seeing him happy and realising that he's the reason why.
And he realises that, Arceus dammit, he's fallen for his best friend – and remembering that one evening in the Pokémon Centre makes him recognise that it's been this way for a long time, he just never put the pieces together.
He doesn't say anything to Nate, though. A few times, it crosses his mind to try and subtly ask him who he's into, if it's just women or if it's men or others too – but he doesn't really know how he could do that subtly, and while sometimes things tend to go right over Nate's head, he might figure out why he's asking.
When he seems distressed about something the next time they meet up, Hugh has a feeling he has his answer, but he ignores it for now because Nate is clearly upset. Someone he knows – a guy called N, who Hugh recalls was the original trainer of his Zoroark – has just… vanished, and he usually lives in the castle but sometimes they meet up at the Ferris wheel because N seems to like the Ferris wheel but he hasn't been there for weeks and he can't find him in the castle even with Lucas's powers and what if he's been crushed by a rock slide or—
Hugh tries his best to comfort him. He doesn't know anything about this N person, other than that he was the trainer of the legendary dragon that fused with Kyurem and therefore probably involved in that battle somehow, but Nate definitely seems attached to him, if how worried he is gives any indication. Eventually Hugh manages to console him, because if N really is reserved enough to live in a destroyed castle, he might have just left without saying a word and not realise that there'd be someone there to care he was gone.
Things return to normal for a while, with no disasters or evil teams trying to destroy the region, and Hugh considers whether he should tell Nate about his feelings or not, but he decides against it for now, because they are best friends and he doesn't want to mess up and ruin that. He doesn't really have many other friends, besides maybe the people at the shelter, and his sister if she counts as a friend, and his Pokémon who can't speak to him.
Maybe he waits too long, because soon, Nate is going out with someone else – and it's Iris, someone who Hugh knows he's been friends with since becoming the champion, and the thought makes Hugh slightly ill.
Is it because he thinks they have a better chance of staying together, or because he's jealous, or because he's hung out with the both of them a few times, so he considers Iris somewhat of a friend and doesn't want to be resentful of her because of his jealousy?
He can't tell. So he ignores it, convinces himself that he just has to forget about his feelings for Nate, because what hope does he have anyway, and move on. They've remained best friends for this long, and that won't change, no matter how far away he is or who he's with.
Hugh tries dating, and it's… kind of underwhelming. He doesn't really feel a connection to anyone. Sure, some of the guys he meets are pretty nice, or attractive, or both, but he doesn't hit it off with anyone, he doesn't meet anyone he particularly cares about a lot, no matter how interesting their story may be. And when he thinks he does find a vague attraction to someone, when he ends up spending the night with him while slightly intoxicated – which probably wasn't legal, since it's still a few months before his twenty-first birthday – he's incredibly shaken up the next day, has to leave and hope to never see them again, because everything just feels so gross and wrong, and it isn't until he's showered twice and thrown up in-between that he starts to feel even a little better.
Of course, that's when Nate decides to call him. He can tell, he always can, that Hugh is upset by something, that something's happened, and he offers to head over to Aspertia to spend the day with him if he wants some company, but Hugh rejects the offer, tells him he'll be fine, that he's probably just got food poisoning from something Harriet made, because for once he doesn't want to be around Nate.
Except he does. He really does. He wants that more than anything else right now, but Nate is with Iris, and he wants them to be happy, and he doesn't trust himself in this state to not do or say something stupid that will ruin everything.
Harriet, probably having heard her name spoken, soon finds him and realises something is wrong, because Hugh isn't usually curled up in bed crying at two in the afternoon. She pesters him for a while, until he finally gives in and tells her everything – leaving out the details of what happened last night because, well, that's not something he wants to talk to his fifteen-year-old sister about – and she sits there and hugs him until he's calmed down and stops crying, like he did for her the day Lily was stolen. Any other time she might have teased him about having a crush on his best friend, and maybe she will later, but for now she can tell he's distressed, and she loves her brother and doesn't want him to be upset, and promises that he can tell her anything as long as she's allowed to complain about the boys – and girls – at school as well, and he finally laughs and nods.
He tries his best to forget his feelings for Nate, even though they keep coming back, but apparently attempting to date strangers isn't the way to go about it because it just convinces him even more that Nate is the only one he wants to be with.
Considering how close Nate and Iris are, Hugh is genuinely surprised when they stop their relationship. As with the last break-up, Hugh spends the day with him because he doesn't want his best friend to be sad, or think he's unloved, and Nate tells him the context of what happened. They were kind of pressured into going out together, with people constantly commenting on how perfect they were for one another, two of the strongest trainers in the region, so they'd decided well, why not? And although Nate and Iris did enjoy being together, it wasn't really in a non-platonic way, and doing anything romantic just felt… weird, she was more like a sister to him than a partner, so they'd eventually decided to officially call the relationship off.
Hugh knows that he could say something now, because Nate is single again, but he doesn't. He doesn't because he's worried that Nate might just agree because he wants a relationship with someone, and if that's the case, it wouldn't last.
Not to mention, the reason things hadn't worked out with Iris was because they were so close, because he saw her like a sister, and what if Nate thought of him like a brother after they'd been friends for so long?
He couldn't do it. He wants to say something, he really does, but he can't.
Before he leaves, he hugs Nate, and it's a little more amorous than he intended, and he has this vague feeling – and worry – that Nate might have noticed, and maybe that's why he hugs him back so tightly, but Hugh still can't say anything to him.
"You'll never know unless you tell him!" Harriet insists a few days later after he explains what happened, but he can't do it.
And he knows if he doesn't, if he waits too long, he might lose his chance again, possibly forever, but however much he wants to, he just can't do it.
A few months later, a new rescued Pokémon arrives at the shelter, a Sneasel with a nasty-looking eye injury whom Anthea has named 'Tyson' for now, because he seems to act really tough, but he doesn't seem to like people and wouldn't go in a Poké ball, so the trainer who found him brought him here instead. He seems calm at first, but apparently he's just in shock, because when they try to treat his injury he lashes out and gives Hugh a very painful trio of gashes on his left shoulder.
It hurts, a lot, but Concordia does her best to patch up the injury for him, because it's not that deep, and insists he goes home for the day instead of helping them and risking getting more 'battle scars'.
He's vaguely concerned when he wakes up the next morning and his shoulder hurts even more than it did yesterday, and he feels really hot, but he doesn't have much time to worry about it, because it's Harriet who's panicking when he collapses in the living room.
Of course, Tyson's eye was infected, so perhaps it shouldn't have been so surprising that the Sneasel wasn't the cleanest of creatures, and maybe Hugh should've actually followed Concordia's advice about taking some antibiotics to stop the gashes on his shoulder from getting infected, too.
Hugh doesn't really remember all that much about being in the hospital, just that he felt really awful for the rest of the day, and Harriet was there with him for some of it while trying to balance her homework book on her lap to write, and at one point Nate showed up, because of course he wants to make sure Hugh is okay after finding out he's landed in the hospital. He had a lot of things being put into his system, though, and his brain was a little muddled from painkillers, so the next day he can't really remember what happened, and it's not until his shoulder starts to sting again that he can even remember why he's in the hospital, but at least the infection is going away now.
When Nate shows up later that day, he sits with him out in the gardens because Hugh's starting to feel better now, so clearly the meds are working, he just nearly loses his balance a few times walking there. He wonders if Nate is okay, though, if something happened to him while Hugh was out of it, because he seems distracted and fidgety, and his eyes are distant as if he's thinking about something else.
"Are you okay?" Hugh asks him eventually, and he wonders for a second if the infection from a wound is somehow contagious, and he has a brief worry about Harriet, too, because she was sat next to him for most of the day except for the time when Nate was there.
"Huh?" He's definitely distracted, and almost jumps when Hugh speaks, but Nate still offers a smile. "Yeah. I should—I should be asking you that, really, you're the one in the hospital."
"Eh. I feel better than I did yesterday," Hugh shrugs. He doesn't smile, though, because he can tell that Nate looks a little flushed, and his brow furrows in concern. "Are you sure you're okay? You look kinda warm."
Nate sucks in a deep breath, and he places one hand on his knee because his leg keeps shaking and he wants it to stop. "Do you… remember much from yesterday? I think you were kinda… I'm not sure 'high' is the right word, but you seemed a bit… out of it, I guess."
"It's kinda fuzzy. Why, did I do something stupid?" Hugh isn't sure why he's bringing this up, and one of his first thoughts was that maybe Harriet had filmed him attempting to sing while he was all loopy and posted it online or something – because she's done that before, when he had his wisdom teeth out – but that wouldn't really explain why Nate was acting like this.
"Well, I wouldn't really say stupid, more like…" Nate hesitates, trying to work out how to phrase it. "You kinda… confessed your love to me? I think?"
Oh.
Oh.
Oh no.
Hugh can't work out right away how he should react. If he denies it, he'll lose his chance forever, but if he doesn't then Nate will know, and he starts to feel lightheaded again.
"I…" That's the only response he has, and he's pretty sure his face is the colour of a beetroot from how warm he feels. This wasn't how he was supposed to find out. He resorts to the only other escape he can think of. "Can… we talk about this later? When I'm not, like, in the hospital?"
Nate looks at him for a moment, then smiles and nods. "Alright."
Hugh hopes with all his heart that the smile is because he realises it's true.
He's let out of hospital later that day, but it's a few more before he feels well enough to go out, and he doesn't want to talk to Nate about something like this in his house, where there's a chance of Harriet or his parents eavesdropping. The outlook is somewhat secluded, but it's also a place where people tend to visit a lot because of the view, and when Hugh asks Nate where they should meet, he tells Hugh to go to the league, and it's partially because he has a challenger that morning and it'll take a while for him to finish the battle and get there.
Hugh's stomach is tightened with nerves as his Unfezant, Peter, carries him through the sky, but at least it's not the awful nausea he's felt for the past few days. It's almost a good nervous, if that exists, and there's hope in his heart, but he knows there's still the chance he could mess everything up, so he'll be on his guard for now.
Nate is waiting outside for him when he gets there, watching Marth groom the dust from his long beard-like whiskers after the battle which, judging by how proud of himself the Samurott looks, they won, unsurprisingly. When Peter lands and Hugh slides off his back, Nate hops up from the porch steps he was sat on and beckons him inside. Peter settles down next to Marth to preen, and the Samurott acknowledges him with a quiet snort before drawing his attention back to his whiskers. The two Pokémon can stay out here, they decide, since they seem pre-occupied with their appearances.
The champion house is really big, but Hugh has been here before and the awe starts to wear off sooner each time. Nate heads to the living room, and Hugh follows him wordlessly; Champ is splayed out across the floor, napping next to the sofa, and given how clean her fur looks she probably didn't even need to take part in the battle Nate had this morning for him to beat the challenger. The champion simply hops over his Pokémon to get to the couch, and pats the cushion next to him; Hugh, not really trusting his ability to do the same thing, walks around so he doesn't end up stepping on Champ by accident.
There's a long silence as they sit there, and it's… awkward, to say the least. They both know why they're here right now, but neither really know what to say.
Hugh is the first to finally find some words. "Sorry."
"What for?"
"For… you having to find out, I guess. Especially the way you did." His shoulders are tense, and his hands curl into the material of his trousers. He hates this, hates the atmosphere, it feels suffocating and he wishes it didn't. "I just—I didn't want to say anything, because you're my best friend and I didn't want to end up ruining that and—"
"Hugh," Nate interrupts him gently, and when he meets his gaze, there's a mildly anxious look in his eyes. "It's okay. You haven't ruined anything."
"… Okay." That's a relief, although he's not sure if he really feels it. "Just… forget about this, maybe. I'll ignore it." That's easier said than done, when he's been trying to for the past few years now.
"I mean," Nate starts, and there's a hesitation in his voice again, trying to find a good way to phrase his thoughts. "You don't have to." His words are met with a look of confusion, of vague hope, as he looks for a way to explain himself. "Like… okay, well… I dunno. When I broke up with Yancy it was like… I liked her, I guess, but I didn't really… feel much of a connection. And that was why I thought going out with Iris was a good idea, because like, she was my friend and I cared about her, but it just wasn't… like that? I guess? And… I dunno. I just." Nate pauses, staring at his hands, which he's trying his best to stop from shaking. "I thought about you, sometimes. Because, like… you've always been here, and I know you cared about me, but it was like, well, it's probably just because he's your best friend, and I… I dunno. I had my suspicions, but I'm… not that great at reading people, so I just sort of assumed…" He trails off, and glances at Hugh, who is only able to stare at him by this point. "Sorry. I, uh, kinda rambled there."
"N-no, no, it's okay, I'm just… wow." That's the only word he can think of, really. Wow.
Nate laughs at his response, and smiles brightly, and just like that the suffocating atmosphere seems to fade – because it's Nate.
It's Nate, who is attempting to say that he loves him.
His smile proves infectious. "Well," Hugh says, "if… if you want to be in a relationship, I'd be lying if I said I'm opposed to the idea."
"I have been wondering what it'd be like to kiss you," Nate jokes with a grin, which, knowing him, definitely means yes. And Hugh snorts with laughter, because that's actually not something he's thought of much before, but now…
"I guess you can find out now." Hugh tries his best to sound modest, but there's a reason Pokéstar Studios only tried to scout Nate and not him, and he ends up laughing part way through his sentence.
It's all the prompting Nate needs to climb across the sofa and throw his arms around Hugh's shoulders, and the direction of force pushes him over and they both end up in a giggling heap on the cushions. Nate, the one who actually has some experience in kissing, gently presses his lips to Hugh's, and it's not for long, but it's enough to make his heart soar, because after all this time, Nate is finally here with him, and he loves him so much.
And, well, apparently they woke Champ, who decides she wants kisses as well, and Nate's sat there laughing like a Sableye as Hugh gets a sloppy lick to the face from a giant dog.