It had been an extremely long time since Maxie and Archie had last seen the two boys who'd beat them after their respective attempts at turning the world into more land or more water. That had a perfectly reasonable explanation, really- Maxie had been planning to blow up volcanoes and blah blah blah, probably was going to kill everyone in Hoenn, Archie tried to stop him while pursuing his dreams of a gigantic swimming pool or whatever, and those two had been caught in the crossfire.

Well, that was not actually the point of what Maxie and Archie had done, but the truth was something they'd get another life sentence for if they shared it.

Anyways, after finding out they all four were alive, they'd arranged, in the most covert way possible, to meet up and have a chat about the old days. Maxie had made some noodle thing -whatever it was, it looked spicy- and now they were sitting around a table. The younger of the boys (they were twin brothers, for future reference) set his elbows on the table, causing any noble-people within a mile radius to faint by the sheer waves of uncouthness, and steepled his fingers in front of his lips. Next to him, his brother was attempting to deal with the fact that he'd just gotten his mouth burned off. "You two have been holding up well. Has the Pokémon Liberation Front tried to contact you again?"

"Shush!" Archie hissed, hunching his shoulders as if in physical pain. They were in his hideout/safe house place. Everyone was relatively sure that the police had not found it yet, or else they would have arrested the two men, but one could never be completely sure that there were no listening devices, or, heaven forbid, spies.

"Oh, is that still a touchy subject?" the younger asked, still smiling in that sweetly demonic way he did. "I guess it would be, considering." He daintily picked up his fork, and waved it in the air to accentuate his point. "I mean, it did make you two break up, right?" Yes, this twin was very involved with gossip- when concealing one's true age, one has to keep up with the times.

"Shut up," Archie snapped. "I already explained that I don't date guys twice my age." With that, he almost decided to see it one could kill themselves by stuffing ultra-spicy noodles up their nose. Then he decided to suffer with the indignity of Maxie and the younger laughing at him in the nicest way, the older twin still choking to no one's notice.

Maxie cleared his throat. "Now that we have all the pleasantries settled on our side, how are you two doing?" For this answer, everyone looked at the elder twin, and they finally noticed.

"We should give him some water," Archie said. No, not because he was obsessed with water, but because he was the only sensible person in the room able to speak.

"Yeah," Maxie agreed.

They all stood there and watched for a while as the elder fanned his mouth dramatically, coughing.

After about a minute, he coughed up a noodle that had been badly lodged in his throat. "Jerk," he called his brother childishly, slowly getting to his feet and proceeding to slap his twin across the face.

"Now, were we talking about the-"

He was immediately quieted by a round of "shushes," because, obviously, this was not the place to talk about the Pokémon Liberation Front. And besides, even if it were, it brought back unpleasant memories for everyone.

The light-haired men (that is, the twins) glanced at each other, quieting for a long moment. "We- we appreciate your hospitality, ion your circumstances, but we can't." The elder twin was speaking now, and seemed extremely hesitant about his words. "We can't see it being wise to stay any longer. I don't believe there is anything we can do to help." He let out a nervous breath, playing with the end of his hair.

"Understood," Maxie said. "I agree that it might be best for you to leave now. You could be in danger from this." After he had given a somewhat unwanted hug to the twins, they departed, leaving both former Team leaders with forlorn expressions.

"That brought up some unwelcome questions," Maxie sighed, turning and beginning to clear the dishes. Archie watched him with an expression that seemed to suggest an opposition to his earlier statement about his dating habits. "What if the PLF does try to get our help again?" Maxie continued, oblivious to the lusty stare.

"No," Archie said with finality, closing his eyes and slashing one hand across the air. "We lay low. If they find up, then we refuse." He bit his full lower lip, trying not to think of what would happen then. Unpleasant images, heavily featuring physical and mental dismemberment, featured.

Maxie sighed, turning back to his friend. "And how long, really, do you think we can stand up against their psychic types? We aren't that strong minded, Archie. I'm afraid that if they do end up finding us, we won't get to stay our usual rebellious selves for long." He set the stack of dishes back on the makeshift table, covering his face with his slim hands and pressing on his eyelids. He looked fragile at the moment, and Archie set a hand comfortingly on his upper arm, which was honestly about the height of his chin.

"If that moment comes, we can get through it somehow, I'm sure. Even if it means turning ourselves into the police." For some reason, he couldn't even reassure himself that everything was going to be fine.