Ok, here we go. This was originally posted on Ao3, but I wanted to bring it here too... 10 chapters in. I'm trying to make sure everything has been brought over correctly, but my formatting got a little messed up. I think I caught everything, but let me know if something seems off. WARNING for descriptions of past abuse as well as explicit sexual content in later chapters. Looking forward to hearing what you guys think!
Hau'oli city is perfect. You had considered moving closer to the Pokemon League on Mount Lanakila, or at the very least, to the same island, but you just couldn't leave Hau'oli behind. So sure, maybe the commute to work could take a while, but it was worth it to be able to stay in a city you'd fallen in love with. You liked your little apartment that being champ paid for, you liked living near friends you'd made, you liked the city, and you liked it's peacefulness despite being the largest city in Alola.
But that peacefulness was gone today. You'd gotten back from defending your title, and were going to heal up your pokemon at Hau'oli's Pokemon Center, but you could tell something was up as soon as you dismounted from the Charizard that brought you there. People seemed to be in a bit of a rush to leave the building, some looking angry, some looking concerned. There was commotion coming from inside and a small crowd was starting to form. The gathering crowd gasped and scattered a bit as one of the center's windows shattered, the appendage of a pokemon now punched through it. An appendage you recognized; the giant claw of a Golisopod. Was it his? Wouldn't be a complete surprise to find him causing mayhem. What was it he called himself? Destruction in human form?
You have your answer when you hear Guzma yelling from within the building, "Buddy! Buddy, please, I'm begging ya, get back in the ball!" With your suspicions confirmed, you move closer, catching passing conversations as you go.
"Fucking criminal," says a man to your left. He spits on the ground. "He should be locked up." You try to ignore the murmurs of agreement this gets him.
From your right you hear two women talking. "He shouldn't have those Pokemon. He can't even control them," one says.
The other crosses her arms. "Take them away and see how he likes it. Probably doesn't treat them right anyway."
"Who is he?" you hear one child ask another.
"Guzma," the other answers. "My dad says he's," the kid lowers his voice, but you still hear it, "a worthless asshole. Mom says to stay away from him. I'm not allowed to talk to him."
Guzma certainly hadn't made any friends since disbanding Team Skull. You couldn't exactly blame the locals entirely for the way they felt. As the leader of a gang, he had done his fair share of misdoings. Still, you couldn't help but feel a small fire building in your belly as their venom reached your ears. You'd once felt similar to them, but you'd noticed a change in Guzma after his return from Ultra Space. He'd clearly been knocked down a peg and it seemed as if that peg was shaky anyway. It wasn't too hard to tell there was more going on with him than what he let on. And, maybe your attraction to him made you have a bit of a soft spot. Regardless, you felt he deserved some forgiveness.
When you reach for the door of the Pokemon Center, someone recognizes you and shouts, "Hey, the champ's gonna set him straight!"
There's yells of agreement and encouragement. Someone tells you to "kick his ass!" Another says to "Run him the fuck out of here!"
"No no," you start, but you don't know what to say and you just want to get inside to help. The crowd has become too loud for you to really get a word in anyway. There's another loud crash inside and a woman's scream. You give up on trying to explain yourself to the crowd out for Guzma's blood and go inside.
The place is utterly wrecked. Furniture is soaked, damaged, and toppled. There's gashes opened up in the walls and floor. The PC by the nurse's station is obliterated and smoking. Water drips down from the ceiling. And in the middle of all the madness, you see him. He's standing between Golisopod and a cowering nurse, his hands pressed into the giant bug, trying to push him backwards. "Relax, big guy! She's not doing anything! It's fine!" he shouts, but his pokemon seems resolute on getting to the nurse. Guzma slowly reaches into the pocket of his large black hoodie and pulls out a Pokeball. "You've gotta go back!"
Golisopod slaps the ball out of his hand. It hits the ground and rolls toward you. You inhale, gathering your courage, and pick up the ball. "Hey! What exactly is going on?"
All three heads snap towards you. They'd been too preoccupied to notice you standing there. Guzma rolls his eyes, hands still holding back his pokemon. "Oh, just fucking perfect," he says.
The nurse looks wild and panicked. "Please! Fight it! Something! Anything!"
"No, it's ok!" Guzma yells. "Don't make him fight. He doesn't know what he's doing. He's just... scared."
The nurse is sobbing. Clearly more terrified than the pokemon trying to get past its trainer.
Guzma reaches up with one hand, and gently pats the bug on the head. "You're not gonna hurt anyone, right buddy?"
Golisopod roars. The nurse screams, falls backward, and becomes even more of a sobbing mess. Guzma resumes pushing against the creature as hard as he can.
You start to sweat. Ok, so he doesn't want it to fight. But do you have a choice here? Maybe if you could just distract it with something. You fish around in your bag and take out a handful of pokebeans, silently praying that this'll work. "Hey!" you shout again and throw a bean.
Golisopod turns away from Guzma and the nurse and watches the bean fly, landing a few feet away from them. There's an intense few seconds where it just stares at the bean, antennae twitching. Then it moves for it. You toss another. And another. The bug seems like it's calming down.
The petrified nurse gets to her feet and moves to the nurses station. You throw Guzma Golisopod's ball. He's still marveling at how you managed to distract it, and almost drops the ball. He quickly returns his pokemon, places the ball in his hoodie pocket, and starts looking around at the damage. He looks surprised and kinda sheepish with a hand rubbing the back of his neck and his shoulders slumping.
You approach him. "What happened?"
"He sicced his pokemon on me!" The nurse yells and points before he can answer.
"I did not!" he yells back, looking past your shoulder at the nurse's station.
"You did! I told you that you can't stay here anymore and your vicious bug attacked!" The nurse is furious.
"Stay here?" you ask Guzma confused.
He's back to looking sheepish. "Yeah, I mean, I dunno. I was sorta staying here. Trainers stay at Pokemon Centers all the time."
"Children!" The nurse shouts. "Children taking their island challenge stay at Pokemon Centers, not deadbeat gang leaders!"
"Hey, hey, that's former gang leader, ok? I don't do that shit anymore," he says, trying to turn a table back over.
"Don't bother trying to fix anything! Just leave! Get out! Do not come back."
Guzma's arms drop to his sides. You're honestly surprised he's not more angry. Had this been before Ultra Space, you're sure he'd be arguing with her more, but right now? Right now he just looks so... defeated. He sighs and glances at you, looking embarrassed. "Yeah, yeah, ok," he tells the nurse. "Lemme just get my things." He walks off toward the trainer quarters.
"Thank you." The nurse says to you. She sighs in relief and composes herself. You approach the nurse's station and wonder if it would be too much to ask that your pokemon be healed. The machinery for that still seems to be in working order.
You pull out your pokeballs, and before you can say anything, she smiles at you and takes them. Her hair is disheveled, her makeup is ruined from tears, and her uniform is torn at her shoulder. You're not sure she wants to talk about him, but you risk it anyway. "So, uh, how long has he been staying here."
She places your pokeballs on the machine, and rolls her eyes. "A couple weeks. I should have kicked him out far before that."
"But, why is he staying here? Don't his parents live on Route 2?"
She shrugged. "Guess they kicked him out. Wouldn't you?"
You don't respond and she continues, "He came in looking pretty rough though. He was probably getting into fights and they didn't want to deal with the trouble." She huffed, "Doesn't mean I have to deal with it." She hands you back your pokeballs. "Anyway, I'm sorry you had to help with this. If you wanna go, it's fine. I'm sure the champion has more important things to deal with than his dumb ass."
You shuffle nervously, placing your pokeballs back in your bag. As you do, your hand brushes against a dawn stone. It's the one Guzma gave you after you beat him in a battle on the beach a few weeks ago. "I ain't never gonna ask you to forgive me, so don't get it twisted" he had said. "This is no apology! But shut up and take this! I got it for my first ever victory, and it's always been like my lucky charm!" You were incredibly touched that he'd given this to you, and carried it with you everywhere. And it certainly didn't seem to help the small crush you were developing on him.
Running a thumb over the stone, you tell the nurse that you're gonna wait for Guzma. She raises an eyebrow at you but says no more.
Guzma reappears with a bag slung over his shoulder. He stops when he sees that you're still in the Pokemon Center. "What? What do you want?" he sounds a little angry and maybe even ashamed, as if none of this spectacle was anything he wanted you to see.
"Where are you gonna go?"
He bristles. "It's none of your business, Miss Princess Champion," he says, eyebrows furrowed and his usual glare on his face.
He starts to walk past you and you grab his arm. He freezes. "Guzma."
He looks you in the eye and then looks away. He gently pulls his arm out of your grip. "Don't worry about it." He continues walking.
Your pulse picks up a bit as you panic. You ball your fists, wishing that you had more time to think and determine if what's about to come out of your mouth is a good idea. But he's reaching for the door now, and there's no time to overthink it. "You can stay at my place!"
His hand drops from the door and he turns around, surprised. The nurse behind you audibly huffs disapproval. Guzma looks at her, then looks at you. His face becomes screwed up in confusion. "What? I- Are you... sure about that?"
"Yeah!" You try to sound confident. "It's just a little apartment here in the city, but I've got room, if you've got nowhere to go."
He puts a hand behind his head again. Rubbing the back of his undercut seems to be a nervous habit. He goes back to scowling. "Yeah, sure, whatever."
You release a breath that you were unaware you were holding until then and walk toward him. He gives you a sarcastic lead-the-way gesture and you both leave the wrecked center.
The crowd is still there and they fall silent when they see Guzma emerge. His scowl deepens and you two begin to make your way through the crowd.
They cast him the nastiest looks imaginable. The man who spat on the ground earlier breaks the silence. "You should be fucking ashamed of yourself!" he yells at Guzma's back.
Guzma's hands become fists, but he just continues to look at the ground and walk. Definitely not the same Guzma he used to be.
"Do you hear me, boy?!" the man continues. "You are good for absolutely nothing. You're human garbage."
Guzma whips around now, enraged. You need to get him out of there. You need to deescalate this. You gently grab his arm and pull. But Guzma doesn't move.
The man continues. "You need to get the fuck out of this city. Look what you've done to this Pokemon Center!" he gestures behind him and the crowd murmurs agreement.
And Guzma does look. He sees the broken window and the wreckage beyond. His face falls for a second and then becomes resolute. "Fuck you!" he yells at the man. "I didn't do this shit on purpose. Fuck all of you."
You're pushing him now. This cannot end well. The crowd is growing louder. Guzma's resisting your shoves. People are coming closer and he's pulled himself up out of his typical slouching posture to his full height, trying to look as tall and big as possible. You tell him to ignore them, but he ignores you.
"You're not welcome in this city!" the man yells. People are now cheering in agreement. You reach into your bag and get out your ride pager.
"You wanna get beat down?" Guzma screams.
People are still drawing closer when a Charizard drops from the sky, causing them to backoff. You get on, and reach out a hand to Guzma. "Let's go."
He looks up at you, looks at the angry crowd, then turns back and takes your hand. You help him on, though he's rather heavy compared to you, and he settles in behind you as the ride pokemon takes off.
He's warm, and you're hyper-aware of every movement he makes. The saddles aren't exactly big and there's nowhere else for him to grab, so he's awkwardly holding onto your middle. Of course, it's not far to your apartment, so it's only a few minutes before the Charizard is landing on the roof. Guzma gets down first, and you feel a little embarrassed that you already miss the physical contact. You dismount and the pokemon leaves.
He's breathing heavily, still raging. He seems to be looking anywhere but you.
"I'm sorry," you tell him. "You didn't deserve that."
Your heart breaks as he slumps a bit, stares at the ground, and says, "Yeah, actually, I kinda do." He used to be so cocky, or, at the very least, he was good at pretending he was. What exactly happened to him?
Wind whips up around the roof and you shiver. "Let's talk about this inside," you say. "Over Tapu Cocoa?"
He still wont look up at you. He just shrugs his shoulders.
You both exit the roof and go inside the apartment building. You're quiet as you walk down a couple flights of stairs, and down a hallway until you reach your apartment door. You unlock it, and let him inside. As you're closing the door, you still can't believe you now have the actual former boss of Team Skull staying with you.