"Jones, is there a reason you're breaking into the school tennis courts?"
Alfred froze with his leg halfway over the top of the 10-foot-tall chain link fence. He glanced down and groaned. Of all the people at the school who could have found him, it had to be Arthur Kirkland! He was going to be in sooo much trouble.
"Uh, just doing some strength training," Alfred replied glibly as he flashed the student council president a grin. He wasn't sure why he bothered trying. His smiles always worked wonders on everyone else, but they never seemed to have much effect on strict, no-nonsense Arthur.
From his position near the tennis court gates, the student council president gave that statement the dubious look it deserved. "On a Saturday? In the middle of summer?"
"Yeah, well, what are you doing here?" Alfred retorted. He swung his leg over and finished climbing down the fence that surrounded the tennis courts. If he was going to land in trouble anyway, he might as well get what he had come for.
"I was handling paperwork for the summer reading program when I saw you wandering around the football field like a lunatic."
"Oh." Alfred grinned sheepishly, thankful that the dusky hues of twilight hid his blush. He hated looking stupid in front of Arthur, but it always seemed to happen no matter how hard he tried to make a good impression on the student council president. "I was looking for something," he began to explain. "See, there's this video game on my phone—"
Arthur rolled his eyes. "A video game. Why am I not surprised?"
"You collect Pokémon in the real world, and I really want a Snorlax." As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Alfred regretted admitting what an incredible dork he was. If Arthur even recognized what the hell he was talking about (unlikely), he was just going to complain that breaking into the tennis courts for a Pokémon was utterly absurd.
But instead of confusion, Arthur reacted with surprise. "There's a Snorlax here?" he demanded, eyes widening as he pulled his phone out of his pocket. "Oh my god, there is!" Then he did something that Alfred had never seen before. He glanced up at Alfred and smiled straight at him.
Alfred's heart thumped excitedly and he stood in shocked silence as Arthur climbed up and over the chain-link fence, moving far faster than Alfred had expected. The student council president occasionally dressed like an old man, but he sure didn't move like one.
After landing lightly on his feet, Arthur began moving back and forth across the tennis court with his eyes glued to his screen. "I'm not getting the pulse, are you getting the pulse?"
Ignoring his own racing pulse as he recovered from the shock of seeing Arthur act like a normal teenager, Alfred pulled his phone out of his back pocket and turned on the screen. The Snorlax was still at the top of his tracking list, but it was still three 'footprints' away. Whatever that meant. "Pulse?"
Arthur nodded and turned to walk the other direction. "Yes. Supposedly, if you're facing the right direction, the box 'pulses' to show you that you're going the right way."
"Huh. I was tracking it based on whether it moved up or down on the list." Hoping that Arthur's method would work better, Alfred joined Arthur and they tried walking along the court in various directions. No matter which direction they went, the Snorlax stubbornly stayed at the three-footprint distance. Even with his screen brightly lit, Alfred had trouble spotting the pulses.
Arthur sighed. "I don't think it's here," he finally replied.
"It has to be. I've looked everywhere else! It's not in the football field and it drops down the list if you head towards the parking lot." Alfred nearly dropped his phone as it started to vibrate. He glanced down excitedly and then groaned a second later. "Pidgey."
"Stupid Pidgeys," Arthur muttered as they both caught the incredibly common bird.
Creating further irritation, Alfred's app froze on the capture screen. He force-closed the game and then waited for it to reload. When it did, the Snorlax was gone.
"I still see it," Arthur said, briefly giving Alfred a moment of hope before snatching it away. "Damn, now it's gone from my list too."
As sad as he was about losing the Snorlax, Alfred couldn't help but feel a thrill from realizing that he had just spent ten minutes with Arthur Kirkland without a single insult. It was even exciting to hear the student council president swear. Almost as amazing as the knowledge that the uptight student collected Pokémon just like everyone else.
Determined to see Arthur smile again, Alfred quickly bent over and snatched a forlorn tennis ball from the edge of the court when Arthur wasn't looking. "Wait, there's something else!" he cried, his phone in one hand and the tennis ball in the other.
"Where?" Arthur demanded, turning to face him.
"A Wild Arthur appears!" Alfred yelled as he gently tossed the tennis ball toward Arthur's chest. It bounced off the student council president and rolled away.
Arthur snorted. "That wasn't very effective."
"I just have to keep trying!" Alfred shouted as he grabbed another tennis ball and lobbed it toward Arthur.
The student council president caught it and flung it back. "Not if I catch you first!"
The two chased each other around the tennis court in an energetic tennis ball fight until it was so dark Alfred could barely see the net in front of him. Gasping for breath, he declared defeat with a happy smile. He might not have found Snorlax, but he was beginning to suspect that he found something even better: a way to spend more time with Arthur.
"So… wanna meet up tomorrow to look for more Pokémon?" Alfred suggested, giving Arthur a hopeful look as they climbed back over the fence together.
"That sounds wonderful," Arthur agreed with a soft smile.
Unlike the tennis balls, it was super effective.
A/N: This oneshot is dedicated to that Snorlax I spent 30 minutes trying to track. Yes, the game crashed on me and then he was gone. Also, I still don't understand how the tracking system works. Anyway, I hope everyone in the UK is now enjoying Pokemon Go! Remember to read up on how you can get Pikachu as your starter Pokemon :D