Moon was paler than she had been when she disappeared.
Red had never noticed just how much the Alolan sun contributed to the healthy tan he had always associated with the young champion. Being shut away in a stuffy castle and reading books had taken its toll on her complexion.
Not that she looked terrible, per say. Just different.
Her hair had grown past the bob-length she preferred. Red didn't know why she hadn't gone to the salon; it wouldn't have taken long to have a haircut. She had a better excuse with her clothes, which had gotten too small as she had grown at least two inches. Her jeans were pulled over her kneecaps by necessity rather than by any fashion trend of the week. Even her eyes, once pure liquid-blue and full of admiration for him, were older.
'Her tastes haven't changed,' he thought wryly as he watched her stick a translucent plastic spoon into her dish of ice cream. Lemon-lime, with an unholy amount of gummy worms on top. Moon never cared that the candy got cold and too chewy to consume properly. He could have sworn she liked to be contrary with her eating habits.
He watched her twirl one of the candies around the neck of her spoon. Moon hadn't looked up from her dish since she bought it. He doubted that she was completely focused on playing with her food, but he didn't know why she would be so standoffish.
Granted, he hadn't really spoken to her beyond basic greetings, but Moon had started their conversations for as long as he had known her. She always knew how to approach him, what topics to avoid, how to get people to laugh, and everything that he never got the hang of.
What could he possibly say to her?
"How was school?"
That got her to laugh—a short huff more than anything, but still a laugh—and she met his eye the first time that day. "Don't say that. It sounds weird."
"Going to school is weird?"
"Going to a school for children when I've already graduated is weird," Moon said, plucking one of the candies from the top of the mound and biting off its head. "Learning about ancient spells and curses as if they are as common as maths or spelling is weird. Helping an escaped innocent convict and capturing a murderer that had posed as your friend's pet rat for years is weird."
"And you have an issue with 'weird' events?"
"It's different than what happened here in Alola," she said. "I couldn't solve all my problems with a pokémon battle."
"Did you try that?" he asked, taking a bite of his caramel ice cream.
"Yes, actually," Moon said, twirling her spoon in her fingers. "I ended up hospitalising a werewolf that wanted to eat me."
"Good for you."
Her lips quirked upwards. "After that the Ministry dragged me over and had me list every pokémon I had on me. Wasn't going to risk that again for a few silly arguments."
"Never thought someone deserved a Thunderbolt to their head?" he said, smirking himself.
"Sometimes," she answered, the smile on her face fading away, and his following soon after. The younger champion took another gummy worm between her fingers. She held it there, not moving to eat it or drop it back into the pile. She merely stared.
"I have an older brother."
The statement was so sudden and quick that Red missed seeing her mouth forming the words. "Pardon?"
"My dad had a wife and a son before he ended up here," Moon said. "I have a half-brother who's a full twenty years older than I am. His name is Remus Lupin."
Red blinked. For a moment, he forgot to breathe.
"Did you have a chance to meet him?" he asked slowly. He wasn't sure how to approach the subject; it should be a good thing that Moon had a brother, right? The idea shouldn't paralyse him and steal his sense.
Moon rolled her eyes. "He was one of the professors at school. I could hardly miss him."
He gave a little smile in spite of the bitterness welling up in his chest. He should be happy for her.
"What did you think of him?"
"He was… nice, I guess," she said, finally biting into the candy she had been fiddling with. "Smart. Had a pretty wicked sense of humour, too; he had one of the other students conjure another professor in drag during class." The other half of the gummy worm disappeared into her mouth. "Sort of an idiot sometimes. Ignored me for about a month when he realized we were related. Also quit right after he heard his former best friend wasn't a murderer and was in the hospital. Said he needed to make sure his friend was okay. Don't know why he couldn't do that if he was employed…"
He watched her stab her spoon into the scoop of ice cream, his mind cataloguing every bit of information she had given him. It didn't sound like they were close. Moon sounded fond of him, but that was just Moon's way; showing everyone she knew some form of affection and attachment.
The bitterness lessened, but remained twisting and turning against his ribcage.
The conversation turned to another topic, but Red merely listened and nodded at the right times, letting the younger champion relay her entire adventure at Hogwarts to him without interruption. Watching her eyes light up when she described the feasts, her smile growing as she recalled her performance at a gala, and the way her hands gestured when she was telling him about the eventful evening at the Shrieking Shack settled the thoughts swirling around his mind.
Remus Lupin might have been her older brother biologically, but Red had been in Moon's life for far longer than him. It was Red who knew Moon better. It was Red who first met Moon at the Battle Tree, seeing her as a powerful trainer the minute he laid eyes on her instead of seeing her as part of the crowd. It was Red who she went to for guidance, for advice when she was left reeling. He had never turned his back on the girl who had looked him in the eye and challenged him to a battle, and he never intended to.
Remus Lupin shared a parent with her, but Red was certainly more of an older brother to Moon than he would ever be.
Red acting as Moon's protective older brother is one of my favourite ideas.
