Hau shows up to the café the next morning with an extra skip in his step, humming a little tune to himself as he gets everything ready for opening time. He warms up all the machines, boots up the register, and heads back into the kitchen to pick out some malasadas for the front display.
"Someone's in a chipper mood this mornin'," Guzma grunts as he rolls out some dough.
"Ain't that his mood every mornin'?" asks another voice, and Hau notices Plumeria sitting on the counter in the back corner of the kitchen.
"Morning, Plumeria!" Hau beams. "You're here early!" Plumeria has a habit of stopping by the café on Saturdays to visit Guzma, which he doesn't have a problem with as long as she doesn't make Guzma fall too far behind in his cooking.
She shrugs. "Woke up early. Didn't have anything else to do."
"Well, you're welcome here anytime," Hau says with a smile. Plumeria doesn't smile back, but she nods in acknowledgement.
"So? What's goin' on, kid?" Guzma asks, glancing up at Hau. "I know you're gonna tell me even if I don't ask, so you may as well spit it out now and get it over with."
Hau laughs. "Guess you're right! I'm just really excited for tonight. There's a party at Moon's house to celebrate her returning to Alola, and we're…" He trails off and his eyes widen as a new idea pops into his head. "Hey, you guys should come too! It'll be fun!"
"I'll pass," Guzma says. "Little Miss Nursie and I ain't got the same idea for what a party should be."
"Somehow, I don't think she'd like it if I showed up uninvited," Plumeria says, leaning back on her hands. "But, if you get the chance while you're out there hammin' it up with Miss Poison… Tell her I'm sorry about the whole impersonation thing."
"Impersonation thing?" Hau echoes, puzzled.
"Yeah," Plumeria says. "She'll know what I'm talking about."
Hau blinks. "Well, okay," he says. "I can do that!"
"Now, what was it you were startin' to say?" she asks. "Somethin' else about the party."
"Huh? Oh! Moon and I are going to walk there together," Hau explains, a wide grin spreading across his face. "It's gonna be loads of fun!"
"Oh, that's cute," Guzma grumbles. "Are you gonna bring flowers, too? Or maybe a nice box of chocolates would do."
"I wasn't planning on it," Hau says, eyes widening. "Should I? She didn't say I needed to bring anything."
Plumeria raises an eyebrow, and a tiny smirk appears on her face. "Nah, you'll be fine. Just be yourself, and it'll all work out."
His brow furrows. "What do you mean? What'll work out?"
"Don't you have a coffee shop to be runnin'?" Guzma grunts.
"Oh – yeah, yeah!" Hau says, scrambling back towards the front. As the door to the kitchen swings shut behind him, snippets of Guzma and Plumeria's continued conversation float through.
"…can't believe…dense…as a pound cake…"
"…dummy…it's cute…"
That evening, Hau gets off the Akala Island ferry right on time and glances around the terminal for Moon. He spots her a few moments before she spots him, giving him a moment to appreciate how pretty she looks. Her hair is tucked up behind her head, leaving two long waves of hair framing her face; she's wearing a nice blue-and-white blouse with ruffled sleeves and a matching blue skirt, and a blue flower barrette holding back her bangs completes the ensemble.
"You look great, Moon!" Hau exclaims as soon as he reaches her.
She blushes and brushes some of the waves back out of her face. "Thank you."
He glances down at his own outfit with a hint of embarrassment. "Now I feel underdressed… I didn't know this party was going to be anything fancy."
"It's alright. You still look nice," Moon offers, shooting him an encouraging smile. "I can't imagine you wearing anything else."
She takes Hau's hand – sending a funny little tingle up his spine – and they head out into Heahea City, the setting sun at their backs. It glints off a sign displayed outside the Heahea Tourist Bureau that has a little cartoon pirate on it to advertise their current photo campaign. The pirate is wearing a bandanna around his head that reminds Hau of the one that Plumeria has taken to wearing, which in turn reminds him of the morning's conversation.
"I talked to Guzma and Plumeria this morning," he tells Moon. "I invited them to the party, but they weren't interested in coming…"
She snorts. "I wonder why."
"I don't know," Hau says earnestly. "But Plumeria asked me to tell you that she's sorry about the impersonation thing. She said you'd know what that meant."
Moon's eyes widen. "Oh," she says quietly, looking away.
"Um…what does that mean?"
She shrugs, staring across the bay to Konikoni City. "She disguised herself as me so she could try to hurt Miss Lusamine. Lillie, Mister Dexio, and Miss Sina were able to protect her, but Mister Dexio was injured pretty badly. If there's anyone she needs to be apologizing to, it'd be him."
"O-oh," Hau stutters. He knows, of course, that Plumeria did plenty of bad things while she was still part of Team Skull, but it's hard to reconcile the merciless admin of Team Skull with the young woman who hangs out in his kitchen every Saturday and tells stories with fondness about the ex-Skull Grunts that she's helping to find fresh starts. "Um…who are Mister Dexio and Miss Sina, again?"
That earns a tiny smile from Moon, and she explains briefly that they're researchers from Kalos who were investigating Zygarde's appearance in Alola last year. "I'd like to get in touch with them, if I could… It would be a delightful and educational experience to get to work with Kalos's Professor Sycamore."
"Yeah? What kind of research does he do?" Hau asks with a smile, happy to steer the conversation back towards happier topics.
"I'm not entirely sure," Moon confesses. "I only know it has to do with a special kind of Pokémon Evolution… He was a student of Professor Rowan's, a long time ago, and the professor mentioned it once or twice."
"Professor Rowan is the professor back in Sinnoh that you studied with, right?" he asks. Moon has mentioned so many names to him over the past week that it's hard for Hau to keep them all straight, but Rowan is one of the names that popped up more than once.
"Correct. Though, admittedly, my sister has worked directly with him more than me," she says. "Perhaps we could ask her tonight what she knows about Professor Sycamore's research."
"Awesome! I can't wait!" Hau grins. Moon beams back. "Hey…where is your house, anyways?"
"Oh, it's not too far from here," she says. "It's a beachfront villa just outside of Hano Grand Resort. My sister wanted to just buy the whole resort, but I talked her out of it."
Hau's eyes bug out of his head. "She – she wanted to buy the whole resort? You have enough money to do that!?"
Moon freezes, her cheeks reddening. "I – she – we – um…" She lets out a long sigh, burying her face in her hands. "There's no chance you could just…forget you heard that, could you?"
"Probably not," Hau says, putting his hands on his hips. "You're really that rich?"
"Yes," she admits. "I come from a very wealthy, distinguished family in Sinnoh, and my sister has always embraced our heritage. She's going to inherit the family fortune, after all. But I don't like talking about it for…exactly this reason. I don't want to put people off." She twirls a strand of hair around her finger, glancing away from Hau. "I weird people out enough already with my personality and interests… I don't need to give them another reason to dislike me."
Hau frowns; how could she think so negatively about herself? "I like you just the way you are," he says earnestly. She looks back at him, a soft smile and a faint blush gracing her cheeks. "But…does Sun know? That you're…"
"Rich enough to buy him a whole archipelago twice over? No, he doesn't," Moon admits. "I wasn't going to hand over a hundred million yen to a guy I barely knew when I didn't know why he wanted it. By the time I found out, he'd collected almost all the money he needed."
Hau frowns. "So you're not going to help him out at all? He's still saving up money to buy another island to build Poké Pelago on, you know."
"Hau, do you know how Sun managed to get back all the money that he lost at the Poni Altar?"
Hau blinks at the abrupt conversation change. "Uh, I think he said Lillie gave it to him? She gathered it all up and held on to it until he came back."
"Right, because it's so easy to collect thousands of tiny paper notes scattered about by the power of Legendary Pokémon," Moon says dryly. "She might have collected some of the money. But that's not where she got a hundred million yen to give to Sun."
"So then…where did it come from?"
Moon smirks. "Let's just say, not long after I got back to Sinnoh…the Aether Foundation received a very generous anonymous donation with specific instructions for its use."
"What kind of – oh. Oh. You were the one who…oh!" A big smile spreads across Hau's face as the pieces click together in his mind. "I had no idea! That's really nice of you to do that without him even knowing!"
She flushes a little. "Thank you."
They fall into a comfortable silence as they continue walking along the road. Hau makes sure to wave or say Alola to all the people and Pokémon that they pass by. One Trainer's particularly energetic Lillipup runs up to Hau and starts barking at him, and – with the Trainer's permission – he squats down and pets it on the head. Lillipup yips appreciatively and tries to lick Hau on the cheek. "Alola to you, too, buddy," Hau laughs, giving it one final stroke before its Trainer retrieves it.
When he straightens up, Moon is staring at him with a soft smile on her face. "What?" he says.
"Nothing," she says, shaking her head. "Come on, we're nearly there."
The road soon gives way to a beach, where there are several beach houses with staircases leading straight down into the sand. Hau wonders if one of these is Moon's villa – they're all pretty huge – but she tugs him past all these houses and onto a dirt path that leads away from the beach, towards an even bigger house. This one definitely deserves to be called a villa.
"Here we are," she says.
"Whoa!" Hau says, staring up at the villa. It's massive – three stories tall, raised up on stilts to make room for a garage underneath, and twice as wide as any of the houses on the beach. Each floor has its own small balcony except for the first floor; that floor has a porch that wraps halfway around the house and boasts several wicker chairs, a swinging bench, and a small hammock all with matching pillows propped up against them. A few of the chairs surround a glass table with a vase of flowers in the center; Hau can't tell from this distance whether the flowers are real or fake. Moon leads him up the staircase, past all the furniture, and opens the front door.
The house's interior is just as spacious as the exterior makes it appear; the entryway is about two stories tall, and while there isn't much furniture about, a small crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling illuminates the whole room. There are only two people standing in the foyer when Hau and Moon enter, but they both turn their attention to the doorway right away.
"Hey! Look who it is!" Mallow exclaims, racing forward to hug Moon.
"I was just wondering when the guest of honor was going to show up," Kiawe says, bumping Moon's fist. "What took you so long?"
"I needed to meet Hau at the ferry terminal," Moon explains, gesturing in Hau's direction.
Mallow and Kiawe turn to Hau as if they only just noticed he was there. "Oh! Hey, Hau. I didn't know you were coming!" Mallow says, greeting him with a hug as well.
"Moon just invited me yesterday," Hau explains.
"Yes, he didn't even know it was happening at all until I happened to bring it up," Moon says.
Mallow puts her hands on her hips. "Well then, it's a good thing you did! The more the merrier! We've got plenty of food and drinks in the kitchen, and desserts are in the dining room."
Hau perks up. "Desserts?"
She grins. "Yes, there are malasadas."
"Awesome!" he exclaims, bouncing on the balls of his feet. "Which way is the dining room?"
As soon as the question leaves his mouth, he glances at Moon; she ought to know her way around the villa, and he wants to know if she'd like a malasada, too. But she looks livid. Does she think he's ditching her for malasadas or something? "Uh…Moon? I'm gonna come back after I get some…"
Moon shifts her gaze to Hau as he speaks. She blinks, and her anger gives way to confusion. "What?"
"Huh?"
"Sorry, sorry," she says, rubbing at her eyes. "I was…thinking. What were you saying?"
"Um…where's the dining room?"
"Right through there," Moon says, pointing to the first doorway on their right.
"Awesome, thanks!" he says, racing towards the doorway.
"Hey, remember to leave some for the rest of us!" Mallow calls after him.
Seeing the dining room, Hau doesn't think that'll be very hard. The dining room table is at least twice as long as Hau is tall, and it's covered from end to end with every manner of sweets, from cakes to cookies to Rage Candy Bars. The tantalizing scent of warm malasadas guides him to the center of the table, where several boxes of malasadas lie open for the taking.
Hau grabs a malasada and takes a big bite. A contented noise escapes from his throat as the warm dough melts on his tongue, the sugary coating blending with the bitter filling to create a delicious, unique flavor. He doesn't scarf down the rest of the malasada right away, wanting to savor the taste as long as possible. But he can't take too long, since Moon is still waiting for–
Oh. He never did tell her that he'd bring her back a malasada, did he?
Well, that just makes it more important that he doesn't keep her waiting. He inspects the malasada boxes more closely and finds the label on each box that says what kind of malasada it contains. It looks like these are from the malasada shop on Royal Avenue, which doesn't sell the honey malasadas that she always gets from Hau's shop. They do have sweet malasadas, though, which are similar enough in taste even if the filling will have a different texture. So, he grabs a sweet malasada for Moon and a Big Malasada for himself, waves to Sophocles who just entered the room, and heads back into the foyer to find Moon.
She hasn't gone too far – she's in the living room, still talking to Mallow. He can't see Moon's face from his position, but Mallow looks a little annoyed.
"Nobody can keep in touch with all their friends all the time, Moon. You're making an underground tunnel out of a Diglett's nest – it's not that big of a deal."
"It is that big of a deal!" Moon retorts fiercely. "Because it means Hau is getting left out of everything and he deserves better than that!"
Something twists in Hau's gut, but it's alleviated by a warm, tingly feeling bubbling up in his chest. They're arguing about him…and Moon is defending him.
Mallow's eyes grow wide. "Hau!" she squeaks.
"Hi," he says.
Moon whirls around and stares at him, cheeks flushed pink. "H-how much of that did you hear?" she stammers.
"Just the last couple things…" He tilts his head. "You really mean that?"
She ducks her head and shyly meets Hau's gaze. "Of course I do," she says. "Hearing that you were left out of the loop about me and Sun returning from Ultra Space, me moving back to Alola, and then this party… It made me really upset. You don't deserve to be neglected like that."
Hau smiles. "Well, I'm really happy to have you on my side. Thank you!"
"Hau, Moon, Mallow," says a new voice – it's Ilima, walking towards them from beside the sofa on the other side of the room. "I don't mean to interrupt, but I've been listening to your conversation. And I believe I owe you an apology, Hau." He puts a hand on Mallow's shoulder and glances at the others in the room – Lana, Kiawe, Acerola, Sun. "We all do."
"For what?" Hau asks.
"Moon is right," Ilima continues. "Regardless of the reason, you've been getting left out of a lot of the things we do. As your friends, we ought to be making an effort to include you, but we've been slacking in that regard. For that, I apologize, and I intend to do better in the future."
After a few moments of silence and a few pointed looks from Ilima, the others chime in with apologies as well. Mallow is the last one to speak up. "I… I'm sorry that you got left out so much, Hau," she says. "I promise, we weren't doing it on purpose."
Hau grins. "It's okay! I forgive you!" He starts to put his hands on his hips, but then he realizes that they're still full of malasada. He turns to Moon and offers her the sweet one. "Malasada?"
"Thank you," she says, accepting the malasada and mirroring Hau's smile. They both bite into their malasadas at the same time, though Moon's bite is a lot smaller than Hau's. As they chew and swallow, conversations around the room begin to resume.
"So are you guys dating now or what?"
Hau nearly chokes on his malasada. Sun is standing beside them, his hands folded casually behind his head, glancing between the two like he expects them to be prepared for that question.
"Courier, what in the world are you talking about?" Moon demands.
He points at Hau. "You gave her your malasada." He points at Moon. "And you accepted it. Don't realize how weird that is for both of you?"
"But…we do this all the time," Hau says.
"The last time I asked you to share your malasada with me, you snapped at me like you were gonna bite my hand off!"
"That's different! That was my malasada!" he protests. "I picked this one up just for her!"
"Uh-huh," Sun says. "And if you only had one malasada, would you share it with her?"
"I – yeah, I would," he admits. He can't explain why, but sharing a malasada with Moon just feels different, somehow, than sharing one with Sun. And he wants to share his malasada with Moon more than he wants to keep it all to himself.
"Not that it matters, though, because she wouldn't eat it anyways," Sun continues, shifting his attention to Moon. "You hate malasada."
"I told you that in confidence," Moon hisses.
"Okay, and I'm saying it confidently, too!"
"You have no idea what confidence means, do you," she groans, rubbing her forehead. "I should've known better than to trust you with a secret."
"Oh. Well, you really should've been more clear about that," Sun says.
"You really don't like malasadas?" Hau asks, frowning.
Moon winces. "No? I'm sorry, it's just…they're way too sweet for me."
"Well, malasadas come in all sorts of different flavors. Sweet, spicy, bitter, sour, dry… I'm sure we could find one that you like," Hau says. "Why didn't you tell me? I could've given you something different – honey malasadas are our sweetest offering."
"You didn't exactly give me much of a choice," Moon says, twirling a few strands of hair around her fingers. "And you were always so eager to give me one, I would've felt bad saying no. And…when I let you keep it, your face just lights up…"
"Just kiss already!" yells someone from across the room.
Moon's face turns as red as the filling of a spicy malasada. Hau can feel his cheeks heating up too, but at the same time his heart is pounding with excitement. He starts to lean towards her, but she turns away. "Not here," she mutters out of the corner of her mouth.
She grabs his hand and yanks him forward, making him let out an involuntary yelp. He can feel the eyes of everyone in the room on them as Moon drags him up a nearby staircase, and he understands now why she didn't want to do this right then and there. Instead, she takes him out onto a balcony, where it's just the two of them and the stars sparkling in the Alolan night sky.
It's the best kiss that Hau has ever experienced.