AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sup, my dudes? So as it would turn out, I tried to upload this chapter early this morning but technical errors with the site prevented me from uploading or editing documents! Better late than never, I say. Please Contact my Discord with questions or concerns: Lub™#8501
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With Dragalge back in tow, the trio set out for Meyer's house, catching a taxi to which Cilan paid for. The scenery was pleasant and the connoisseur found it comforting to re-see the sights he'd since forgotten, his last trip to Kalos having been brief. Clemont, on the other hand, was anything but comfortable. Even though he'd initially agreed to have Cilan over to meet his father, he was starting to have second thoughts. Playing with his glasses out of nervousness, he couldn't help but feel that something would go wrong. As the yellow vehicle parked outside his house, the feeling only deepened.
They hadn't even made it to the lawn yet when Meyer came bounding out the door, a huge smile ever growing on his bearded face. He'd seen the taxi from the window and he knew it could be none other than his beloved children. In his usual, fatherly manner, he hugs Clemont and Bonnie close the second they were in range.
"It's good to see you! How have my two favorite little ankle biters been?" He exclaims somewhat loudly, as though he wanted the whole neighborhood to know his precious angels were home again just for him.
Bonnie giggles and pecks her father's cheek affectionately while Clemont does his best to squirm out of his arms.
"C'mon, dad! Sometimes you're worse than Bonnie. You're embarrassing me in front of my friend." Clemont protests grumpily.
Meyer hadn't even noticed Cilan in all of his excitement. Letting go of his children, he offers the connoisseur a handshake in greeting. To his immediate delight, Cilan takes it. To Cilan's immediate distaste, Meyer's grip was anything but forgiving on his poor, delicate hand.
"I'm Meyer! I assume you're a friend of Clemont's? Good thing too- For a second there I thought he'd wallow in his room for a few more years!" Meyer looses a hearty laugh, his handshake still not ending.
"Hey!" His son pouts while Bonnie snickers.
Cilan does his best to keep a straight face and a normal tone of voice, though he could have sworn his hand was about to be crushed into dust. "Y-Yes! I'm Cilan... And Clemont and I are boyf- b-best friends. Sorry sir, but would you mind-?" His eyes dart down to their hands, looking back up hopefully with a polite smile.
Being the man he was, Meyer misinterprets the plea, shaking his hand harder with an even bigger smile. Looking back to Clemont, he says cheerfully, "I like him already! You sure know how to do your pa, proud. Now when ya gonna bring home that nice young lady we talked about?"
"Dad! Serena's just my friend. We've been over this," he crosses his arms.
"Oops! Embarrass ya there, did I?" He chuckles before loudly whispering to Cilan. "My boy here has girl troubles. Likely 'cos he doesn't have guns like these." Meyer flexes his well built biceps.
"I don't think that's why..." Cilan comments passively under his breath.
"OOH! Daddy, daddy!" Bonnie butts in, holding two pokeballs in her hands. "Look what I got today! Big brother finally gave me Dedenne and even helped me catch my very own pokemon and it's so cute!"
What looked like a mixture of pride and fear sweeps over her father's face in an unholy union, the uncomfortable mixture of emotions causing him to finally let go of Cilan's hand. "That's- Wonderful, Bonnie!"
The siblings weren't sure if it was his pride for his daughter's achievement or the knowledge of what that achievement meant that brought tears to his eyes. He likely would have explained it for himself had Cilan not been there. He liked to pick on his children every once in a while, but to confront them in front of a friend would be cruel, even with his superior dad authority.
There it was: what Clemont thought would go wrong. Though to his relief, it wasn't nearly as bad as he thought it would be. With any luck, nothing else terrible would happen! With a cautious hope, now would be as good a time as any to relay Cilan's explanation as to why he'd be gone a while.
"So, uh, dad... I won't be in town for a while," the inventor starts in a tone he hoped wasn't too nervous. He guessed it must have been anyway, because Cilan was quick to take over for him before Meyer could even ask why.
"He has a couple of serious job interviews. They're pretty widespread considering he met a lot of possible bosses at the science convention. I wish you'd been there, sir. It was a real hit! The science behind it was incredible and I would be lying to say I wasn't blown away by his fantastic presentation."
Clemont marveles at Cilan's ability to lie so fluidly, but then again, he was stretching the truth more than outright lying. At least the praise for his inventions was 100% truth, making him smile to dwell on it. It was just a good think Cilan hadn't elaborated on just far "widespread" actually was.
"Oh-" Meyer mumbles solemnly, swallowing a lump in his throat. "Well, I... Uhm. Why don't you invite your friend inside?"
The older man leads them through the door to the living room. Cilan settles down on the couch nearest to a window, Clemont sits next to him, and Bonnie cuddles into her brother's side while Meyer plops into his officially dad-approved arm chair.
With everyone in the house and the door closed, Meyer takes a breath before stating his opinion on the matter, being anything but thrilled by the current series of events.
"Look... Bonnie, you're still so young and you remember all the dangers there were when you went with Clemont on his journey, don't you? And you already went with him, so, technically, why should you go again, right? There's friends of yours right here in the neighborhood!"
Bonnie gives her father a look, standing up with a pokeball in hand, Dedenne momentarily startled by her sudden movements.
"I can do it! C'mon- Clemont didn't even get to decide everywhere we went and I rarely got to pick anything. I wanna go all by myself this time with my own friends and my own pokemon! Just look what I caught!" She tosses the pokeball in the air, a large Pokemon appearing in a flash of light.
The Dragalge from inside sways her head, the seaweed like growths moving with it in a graceful manner. Their narrow eye and slender snout point themselves at their new triainer's father in slight disapproval, looking back at Bonnie with a similar expression.
"They don't seem to like you that much..." Meyer points out unsurely, scooting back in his chair.
"That may be true now," Cilan interjects, "But you must understand that it takes time for a pokemon to care about its trainer. It used to live in a decently sized body of water and now it's expected to live in whatever conditions Bonnie brings it into. From what I've seen of her and Dedenne, I would say it won't be long at all before Dragalge warms up to her anyway."
Meyer offers no further comment, stroking his beard in thought while Clemont lets go of the breath he didn't even realize he was holding. The Dragalge in the room scoots its long body across the carpeted floor, observing the new surrounding with something close to interest. At her newest party member's motion, Bonnie smiles and hurries over to Cilan, climbing on the arm of the couch to reach into his bag for pokemon food.
"Oh my- Excitable, isn't she?" The connoisseur laughs goodnaturedly, shooing her hand away to grab a container of poison type food to give to her.
Clemont was just happy to see he wasn't mad about it. "S-sorry about my sister! She must really feel like you're part of the family already if she'd do something like that." He plays with his hair, shooting Bonnie a look.
She ignores him with ease as she offers the whole container to Dragalge. Her pokemon in turn deciding it would rather stare down Meyer than roam now that food was added into the equation.
"'Part of the family', huh?" Meyer questions, avoiding the judgmental gaze of Bonnie's pokemon as he spoke. "You two known each other for a while then, I take it? Where ya from, Cilan? Got yourself a home? I'd hope you do, given you're that nicely dressed!" He laughs at his own joke.
Cilan humors him out of his generally nice disposition, smiling as genuinely as he could manage. "I would hope so too! You're not just born into an outfit this delicious."
Bonnie snorts at his use of words and Clemont cringes. He'd never brought an eccentric home with him before. To know what his dad would think of one unsettled him enough to worry about. Luckily, Meyer still seemed alright about it, especially since Cilan was able to withstand his handshake and laughed with his not-that-great sense of humor, instead of at it.
"If you're ever in town, please know you're always welcome in this household." Meyer accepts him graciously, really liking the odd young man with his funny words and strangely perfect hair.
He would be a great friend to his son! And if he could bring more people in, he could worry less about his children wanting to go out. He knew he couldn't stop them from their eventual absences, but he just couldn't handle it to see them leave right now. They were his precious children, after all! His own flesh and blood.
"Oh, I'm almost never around, sir. I came here to visit with Clemont. You see, I'm an S-Class Pokemon Connoisseur and Clemont requested my services in evaluating him and his Luxray's bond. I would have done better with a battle, but it was late by the time an evaluation was brought up so I decided it was better not to mention it." Cilan explains patiently with his ever prevalent smile, always seeming to be in a good mood.
"Pokemon Connoi-what now? I don't think I've ever heard of one of those." Meyer would have leaned in closer to give more attention to who he hoped would become a family friend but the Dragalge's stare was merciless, seeming to see right through his overly friendly facade.
"Pokemon Connoisseur," he corrects, "I conduct extensive studies into the compatibility between people and their pokemon partners. The beautiful blending of flavors, some written down and expected, a combination long since appreciated and passed down like an heirloom throughout the ages. Others, like the startling bitterness of two incompatible tastes, somehow still loved and craved by the rare few who share the interest. You see, compatibility is an integral part of a trainer's experience with their pokemon and it's my job to help both parties grow closer and closer as time passes. It can only get better with age, like wines and cheeses. The creme of the crop is a wonderful thing to sample but one must have patience and devotion to the task to ever reap the rewards. As a Pokemon Connoisseur, sometimes we're also hired to recommend a good first pokemon for beginning trainers."
"Sounds interesting," Meyer says slowly, though he wasn't sure he understood half of what Cilan was trying to tell him. "But English would be much appreciated next time around... Can't say I've heard of a Connoi... Those guys, before. Where did you say you were from again?"
"Unova, sir. I'm also one of the three Gym leaders of the Striaton Gym. It makes sense you wouldn't have heard of the Connoisseur Association and it's members considering it's generally a Unova specific occupation."
"What?" The middle-aged father questions dishearteningly, having hoped Cilan would have been at least a Kalos native kind of friend and not someone who'd encourage travel among his children.
Sensing the newfound tension, Clemont pipes up in hopes to lessen the damage. "Y-yeah- From Unova. But his brothers are watching the gym for him so he has p-plenty of time to travel!"
"I thought we were-"
Clemont shushes the connoisseur quickly, needing his father to think he wasn't going anywhere.
"What was that?" Meyer catches his son's body language, deciding to put Cilan on the spot since nice strangers were usually quick to crumble under pressure. "Please, finish your thought."
Despite his initial expectations, Cilan was anything but the wimp he took him for.
"I thought we were going out to dinner, sir. We had a reservation at a nice restaurant. Very exclusive."
"You were taking my son... Out to dinner?"
"I was. He's been so kind as to pay for my plane ticket so I thought I'd return the favor," He lies effortlessly, though he intended to stick to it now that he'd said it.
It was a nice idea anyway. Clemont didn't seem to put off by it either. In fact, he was thoroughly impressed with Cilan's ability not only to save his own ass, but to set them up for a date all in one swing. Definitely not a character to underestimate.
"Oh- Well, that was nice of him. Though I don't know where he would have gotten the money from." Meyer mulls, his words being a legitimate question in Clemont's direction.
"Uhm... Serena made me take the money. I told her about the visit and she didn't want me to look bad," the blond fibs unconvincingly, knowing he'd get away with it so long as Cilan was here.
And that was true enough, until Bonnie said, "But I thought you earned it from a convention a few months ago. Didn't you take some commission for an artificial, internal compass for a Pidove. Some foreign trainer said he'd put in a good ford for you or something...?"
"Oh no-" Clemont mumbles hopelessly.
"You WHAT?" His father stands from his chair, the sudden boom of his voice causing the Dragalge to scoot away from him, Bonnie becoming upset with the shift of emotion in the room.
Meyer didn't even wait for an answer to continue, his voice sounding hurt and somewhat betrayed. "Clemont, you promised me you'd put off commission work for a while! You know that landing a serious job in the field you're hoping for could take you very far away from me! And what about Bonnie? She'll miss you if you leave."
"L-lets not jump to conclusions. I was just-"
"Just what? I can't just have you running off like this! I am your father and I deserve to know when you do things." Meyer demands, catching a slight glare from his son out of the corner of his eye, "What? Are you gonna run away with your Unova friend here too?"
His words were brutal and his tone lashing. In the back of his mind, Clemont knew his father hadn't meant to sound this upset, or even accuse him of things. He was just on edge. He had been for a while. But it was all the same to him. In this moment, Meyer was overstepping his bounds, and he wanted to get back at him in any way he could.
"You know what, Father? You say this every time like you care but I'm starting not to. I could care less if you know anything anymore because this is my life to create, not yours. So guess what? I'll probably never marry a girl. I'll probably never bring one home. Wanna know why? Because I already have a goddamn boyfriend. Stop meddling with my love life, and stop sticking you nose where it doesn't belong!" He yells at a decibel uncomfortable for everyone in the room, Cilan flinching at the sudden aggression ins his voice.
But Clemont wasn't done there. The look of surprise on his father's face just wasn't enough for him. He would prove it. Walking with heavy feet to the couch, he takes Cilan's face in his hands and forces him into a kiss, startling the connoisseur to a point of incredible discomfort. In an instant, the inventor was pushed away, the taller's hands grabbing his arms tightly to keep him in place.
"Clemont, look at me." Cilan gives the blond a shake, trying without success to bring him to attention as Meyer watched helplessly from his arm chair. "Look at me! This has gone far enough. This isn't what I'm here for. It's time to calm down..." He pulls him into his chest, keeping him there despite his struggling.
Cilan could feel his anger, the racing of his heart and the quickness of his breath. It didn't matter how much he squirmed, he would keep him still. Bonnie joined her father in the awkward viewing of the scene, returning her pokemon as Dedenne nestled under her arm in search of shelter from the ill mood, so thick and heavy, it threatened to crush everyone exposed to it.
The weight didn't seem to affect the connoisseur, though. As always, he was practically immune to everything, his strong nature pulling Clemont in with the promising temptations of giving in and settling down. It would be okay. He'd messed up, but it would be okay.
Even if it would be okay, that wouldn't excuse his actions. Realizing the gravity of what he'd just done brings tears to his eyes. Clemont's struggles stop as the sobs start, feeling awful for having used their relationship just to spite his father.
"I- I'm sorry- I..."
"Shh, It's okay. You were angry. It happens." Cilan strokes his hair tenderly, knowing he wouldn't leave his embrace anytime soon. "I apologize for his actions, Meyer," he continues with patience, "He was carried away, as were you. If you don't mind us doing so, I think it's better we save this conversation for later."
He stands up, guiding Clemont with him. The inventor would never cease to be amazed by Cilan's seemingly boundless maturity, Meyer appearing to share the thought in full in spite of the recent spat. If his son was going to leave, at least it was with something level-headed. He could draw comfort from that much at least, but that didn't mean he supported the thought of Clemont leaving with him. Especially not after what he'd just witnessed. Meyer could only see instability in Clemont, but what he didn't understand was that he had been the one who had put it there.