The boy himself was very sweet. He was gentle, kind, a bit shy and nervous. He had some confidence and socialising issues, but overall, he was a nice kid, and his pokémon reflected this.

Except his Talonflame.

When Hilbert first met Calem and his pokémon, they all seemed wary of him, but they quickly warmed to him, much like their trainer. Talonflame, however, kept its distance, glaring at the Unovan and squawking angrily at any attempt to get near it to try and befriend it. Not even a scolding from its trainer at its behaviour made it lower it's guard. And it only got worse once the two boys started dating.

If they wanted to cuddle up close, Talonflame would have to be in its Poké Ball, as it would be quick to break up the displays of affection in any way it could, much to the chagrin of both its trainer and his boyfriend, though the latter would at least try to joke away it's behaviour by laughing, "I guess he doesn't want to share you." Talonflame's response to this was to spread its wings wide, purposefully hitting Hilbert over the head with one of them.

Meanwhile, Calem would try to feebly reassure the other teen that Talonflame was just like this; "He just doesn't seem to like Serena either. He doesn't like a lot of people actually." At the time, Hilbert simply shrugged and said, "That's fine then. I don't really need him to like me, and I can't force him." However after a while of taking abuse - frequently being pecked, nipped and again, slapped by its wings - from the Fire/Flying type, he'd had enough.

It was while the two were spending the day in Lumiose City, specifically a small park near Prism Tower. They'd released their pokémon - including the dreaded Talonflame - to give them some fresh air and a chance to enjoy the sunshine. The two were sat close together in the shade of a large tree, watching their teams play together while trying to ignore the hostile glare, directed solely on Hilbert, coming from above them. Calem looked up at the sky and asked, "What time is it?" Hilbert dug around in his jacket pocket, discarded beside them along with their bags and Calem's own jacket, and said, having retrieved his Xtransceiver, "2:52. Why?" The Kalosian stood and grabbed a wallet from his bag, explaining as he did so, "The Galette stand on North Boulevard sells on a schedule 'cause of how popular they are. If I leave now and wait a bit, I can get us some." Hilbert's eyebrow arched as he asked with a small smile, "Are they any good?" Calem paused before smiling and saying, "I'd be willing to say they're as good as those Castelia Cones you seem to love so much." Hilbert laughed.

"I'll hold you to that!" he shouted to his boyfriend's retreating back. However, once the boy had disappeared completely from sight and the brunet had made himself comfortable against the tree again, a faint growling made his smile fall into an annoyed grimace. Glancing up, he could only just see the pokémon through the leaves. The pokémon glared back then growled again. Hilbert sighed.

"What even is your problem?" he muttered. As though prompted by this question, Talonflame suddenly burst out from the tree top and flew down to perch itself on the ground near the boy. Now grounded, it continued glaring at the brunet before letting out a loud squawk, attracting the attention of the other pokémon as well as some passers-by. His Whimsicott in particular, being closest to the trainer out of his team, hurried over to him and stood in front of him protectively, despite being at a serious type disadvantage. Hilbert quickly grabbed the pokémon and muttered to it, "Hey, don't you worry. Leave this to me." Despite this, the Whimsicott remained close, and the other members of his team drew closer, casting hostile glances at the Scorching Pokémon.

The boy took a few breaths before asking again, "Honestly, what is your problem?" Talonflame growled again, beginning to spread its wings open. The pokémon's open display of hostility had even attracted the attention of the rest of Calem's team, who had begun edging closer to the Unovan, out of concern that their teammate might attack him. Hilbert however just let out a frustrated sigh at the action.

"Yeah I get it, you're territorial or whatever. And I understand that you'd want to look out for your trainer." He then stood, causing the small crowd of pokémon to jump back a step from him, and took a step toward the Talonflame, prompting it to let out a low warning caw.

"But you need to back off and give him some space. Because frankly, I've had it with you butting in all the time, and I'm pretty sure Calem would tell you the exact same thing if you really pushed him far enough." Talonflame didn't respond to this, instead choosing to keep its eyes locked with the boy's. Hilbert continued, "Look, I don't care if you don't like me. Hell, the feeling's mutual considering. But me and Calem are in a relationship. That means we're gonna want to spend time together. And I think we'd both prefer it if you weren't constantly harassing me." The pokémon let out a growl in response, though it sounded unsure. It had also began taken steps away from Hilbert, as well as occasionally averting its eyes.

The trainer noticed its wavering agression. He kneeled down again and said in a softer tone, "You could at least look on the bright side; we live in different regions so we can't always be together. So he's pretty much all yours whenever I'm not here. And like I said, I don't care if you like me; all I want is a little respect." There was a pause between the boy and the pokémon, with the small group gathered behind him ready to jump to his defence should Talonflame decide to ignore his request and attack as it always did. However its only response, after backing up some more, was to screech loudly at Hilbert before taking off into the trees at the opposite end of the park.

"What's up with him?" Hilbert looked up to see Calem walking towards him, a galette in each hand and his eyes focused on the direction that his Talonflame had flown off to. Standing and taking the galette when offered it, he responded with a sigh, "I don't even know." Calem then frowned as they walked back to their original spot under the tree and asked, "He wasn't giving you trouble was he?" As Hilbert sat down again, his pokémon crowding around him, he shrugged and said, "Not really. I mean he was obviously being all tough, but he wasn't physical or anything."

"If you insist," Calem muttered, his expression still unsure as he watched the trees carefully for his troublesome pokémon, before he eventually took a bite from his galette. Suddenly reminded of why he'd been left alone with the nuisance, Hilbert did likewise, after a brief hesitation. And after a few slow chews, he swallowed and sighed.

"Yeah, I gotta admit, that's pretty good." Calem's frown turned into a small smile and, as he nudged the boy with his elbow, he chuckled, "Told you."

/mad laughter omg I finally finished something. And not just anything, I finished something for this ship.

Writer's block is a terrible disease children, but I fought through it to give you this! /fist pump

So yeah, I love this ship, and unfortunately, like my other rare pair, it doesn't have much going for it in the way of fanbases. Very little fanart and fanfic. Hell, I'm pretty positive that this is the first piece of fanfic for it on this site. Because I check. I freaking check.

Ahem, anyway, I hope you all enjoyed reading, maybe I converted you or maybe you just read it out of curiosity. Please do fave and review, give this ship a little love.

Thank you for reading!

Angel-chan x