The day that his father walks back into his life, is the day that he finally has off from working at the Center.
It is really, really unfair, he later thinks.
The morning begins as it always does. He makes breakfast with Chansey while Kyle does his best Slaking impression. Chansey dashes around for the usual pans, and he gathers the ingredients needed for a meal for two.
Kyle, who is supposed to be getting their pokemon's breakfast together, stays slumped over the table while Noctowl flies around doing the actual work.
He's learned that the Ace trainer doesn't move until a plate filled with food is shoved under his face and even then, usually has to be prodded to eat.
He only manages to set the plates down before there is a knock on the door. He shares a surprised look with Kyle.
People don't knock, he thinks, not here in Johto.
It was a hard thing to get used to, but if you don't want people to open your doors without warning, you eventually learn to lock everything.
He opens the door to find himself staring into familiar purple eyes. It takes a moment to realize why. He blinks and slams the door shut.
"Who is it?" Kyle slurs from the table.
"My dad," he says blankly.
A crash comes from the table, but he can't focus on it because that infernal knocking starts back up. He debates on whether or not he should lock the door.
Shoulders slumping, he opens the door against his better judgement.
"Hey, Dad," he greets bleakly.
"Don't be so rude!" His dad bellows.
His father, who is much taller and muscular than him, all but knocks him out of the way to get into the house. Before he can get so much as a word out, his father claps him on the back and starts the scrutinizing.
"Not as bad as I was thinking," his dad says looking around. "Still got that Chansey?"
"Kind of have to for my job," he replies dryly.
Upon recognizing its name, Chansey jumps from behind the counter with a chirp. He feels a smile tugging at his lips as the pokemon waves both its arms cheerily.
"Don't you want a different kind of job?" His dad asks with an appalled expression.
Just like that, he feels the smile leave him.
"It's what I want to do," he says stiffly.
His father looks like he wants to say something, but something behind him catches the man's attention.
"Who else is here?" His dad asks.
He looks behind him to the table only to see it empty. Two plates, still full of breakfast, seem to sit there mocking him.
"Oh, well," he fumbles, "just a friend."
"Oho! A friend, huh," his dad says with a wink.
He can feel his face heating up even as the feeling of mortification washes over him. This isn't going to go over well.
"Is she cute?" His dad asks, wagging his eyebrows.
"I'm very cute, thank you."
Kyle walks out from the hallway, fully dressed and pokeballs on display. There's a glint in the Ace trainer's eyes, and he knows this will end in fire.
He closes his eyes in resignation.
"Dad, you know Kyle. Kyle, Dad," he says crisply.
"You—you!"
He risks a peek towards his father. The man is turning red and is trying to murder Kyle with his eyes. He glances over to Kyle only to be greeted with a razor sharp smile.
"Hey-o, Daddy-o," Kyle practically sings, "been a while since your last batch of death threats."
"What are you doing here with my son?"
"Being awesome," Kyle deadpans.
His father looks from the Ace trainer to him and back again. His dad is probably waiting for an explanation, but his throat seems to have closed.
"You're supposed to be gone," his dad finally says.
"Just like you're supposed to be gone?" Kyle asks dryly.
He has an entire explanation ready to go, filled with small lies and embellishments. He can't seem to remember any of it.
"You tried to ruin him," his dad says through gritted teeth. "You're going to ruin him."
"Like how you tried?" Kyle shoots back.
"I did not! Don't try to turn your faults on me!" His dad roars at the Ace trainer.
"I'm not the reason Jace hated pokemon as a child," Kyle replies bitingly.
"You don't know anything! You're just leeching off of my son, you little—"
"Stop!" He shouts. "Stop picking on Kyle already! He lives here okay? This is his house too! We live together, we've always lived together, and we're probably going to keep living together!"
He feels winded. His heart feels like it's beating too fast. The tension in the room is thick, and he just wants it all to stop.
"You're like that," his dad utters.
It's said with so much disgust that he feels sick to his stomach. He wants to deny it just as much as he wants to ask, "Why should it matter?"
"He's not," Kyle interjects before he can say anything, "but I am."
The Ace trainer takes one step forward, head tilting challengingly.
"That a problem?" Kyle asks dangerously.
He tries to think of a way to diffuse the situation, but everything is so maddeningly blank. All he can do is watch the scene unfold in front of him.
"Stay away from my son!" His dad all but yells.
Kyle gives the man an unimpressed look.
"Nope, don't wanna."
"You're doing things to him, aren't you?" His dad accuses.
"What, like giving him haircuts?" Kyle answers obtusely, "Because I do give him haircuts. Saves a small fortune really."
"Jace, stay away from this, this—" His dad sputters.
"Incredibly smart, good-looking person?" Kyle chimes in.
"GAY MAN!"
Absolute silence fills the room. He thinks he can hear Kricketot in the distance.
"I'm not gay," Kyle spits with as much venom as possible. "I'm demi-sexual, thank you very much."
Kyle always was touchy about that, he thinks from far away.
"You're a freak."
He can't do it anymore. It feels like something is smothering his head, and he can't breathe.
"Get out," he wants to say.
"Go away," he tries next.
His tongue won't respond to him, and he's left staring at the man he calls, "Dad." He just can't do it, he finally realizes.
He turns on his heel and walks to his bedroom. Slamming the door behind him, he collapses onto his bed, head in hands.
The door opens up a moment later, and he holds his breath until his brain recognizes the blue hair and red jacket. Kyle gently closes the door behind him before leaning against it.
"You alright?" Kyle asks softly.
He should be the one asking that, but he can't. He shakes his head in reply.
"You need me to take care of him?" Kyle asks, frowning.
He thinks about it for a second before reluctantly nodding.
"Just—Just take him away," he manages to rasp out.
"Gotcha," Kyle says darkly.
The Ace trainer takes a deep breath before yanking the door open. Kyle moves with a purposeful step, and he can't help following after.
He doesn't know what's going to happen, and he doesn't really want to see it. But…
His father stands in the middle of the house, still visibly angry. Kyle walks over to the door and slings it open pointedly.
"Out," Kyle growls.
His father puffs up in response.
"I'm not going anywhere!"
"Yes, you are." Kyle disagrees, releasing all his pokemon at once.
Arcanine and Noctowl are released outside, but the familiar form of Snorlax appears in their living room. Snorlax rises to its feet, head almost hitting the ceiling.
"Show our guest out, Snorlax," Kyle orders.
His father reaches for his own pokeball, but Kyle's Snorlax is ludicrously fast. The pokemon almost breaks the coffee table throwing the man out the door. He tries to breathe.
Kyle strolls out the door, leaving him with Snorlax. The big pokemon is attempting to lie down without crushing anything, and he's trying to get it to remain standing to no avail.
He gives up when Chansey taps his arm to let him know the pokemon is there, and he restrains himself from crushing it in a hug in desperation.
"Hey-o, Daddy-o," Kyle sings menacingly, "we're going for a little walk."
"I'm not going anywhere," his father repeats, wiping dirt from his face.
"Yeah? You don't have a choice," Kyle says.
Faster than his father can react, Kyle grabs ahold of the man's shirt as Noctowl clutches onto Kyle's shoulder. They both disappear in a flash of light, and he feels like he can breathe again.
It's a long while before he hears anything. He takes the time to move the furniture around Snorlax, so the pokemon can get comfortable without destroying anything. He eats as much of his cold breakfast as he's going to before feeding it to said gluttonous pokemon.
He fills the pokemon's bowls up and washes the dishes. He starts sweeping the floor afterwards.
He does everything he can to avoid thinking about anything.
He ends up waiting for Kyle outside with Chansey and Arcanine. He's playing a clapping game with Chansey when someone finally shows up.
Only it isn't Kyle.
His father shows up in a flash of light, lip bleeding and livid. He gets to his feet, but Kyle shows up in another flash of light before anything can be said.
"Sorry, couldn't get him to understand 'Don't come back.' " Kyle apologizes, rubbing his face.
It brings something alarming to his attention.
There's a bruise on Kyle's face.
It's not that he doesn't notice the worse shape his dad is in. It's not that he doesn't realize Kyle is fine or that it's his dad who probably needs medical attention.
It's that there's a bruise on Kyle's face, and it is definitely his father's fault.
His father, who has already tore open new and old wounds, has managed to hurt his best friend.
His best friend that has been in his life far longer than the old man.
"Chansey," he tells his pokemon blankly, "Fire Blast."
Chansey follows his instructions without hesitation, and a ball of fire is sent towards his father.
"Jace!"
For a moment, he sees his father swallowed up in a wave of flames. For a moment, he realizes what he's done. Then Kyle's Arcanine is there, not even blinking as fire consumes it.
He doesn't understand at first.
"Jace, I did not give you that move to murder people with it!" Kyle shouts, angrily pointing at him.
"No, you gave it to me to get rid of the ghosts haunting me," he says, glaring back.
Kyle takes a moment to just huff, seemingly at a loss for words. Arcanine stands in front of his father protectively, who keeps still as a statue.
"So much like your brother," Kyle mutters, scratching the back of his head irritably.
The Ace trainer turns on his heel and places his hands on his hips.
"Look, you need to go," Kyle tells the man hiding behind Arcanine.
His father remains still, face pale. Kyle walks over to the man, making sure to keep neutral body language.
"Leave now. I'm only saving your hide because I know Jace will regret it, but if you happen to end up dead? No one will ever find you. I promise you," Kyle says, voice low.
"You," his father begins shakily with wide eyes, "you did this to him."
Kyle smiles mirthlessly.
"No, you did this. I don't see Jace trying to murder me," Kyle says wryly.
"Also, his brother may have had a hand in it too," Kyle adds on as an afterthought, "considering he raised him."
Kyle crosses his arms and leans against Arcanine. The pokemon doesn't move and continues to block his father from sight. Chansey glances at him for instructions. He scowls but doesn't say anything.
If the man ignores Kyle's offer, there's always another Fire Blast waiting for him.
"Jace," his father tries, "you don't want—"
"Old man," he interrupts irritably, "send out your pokemon like you always did when I misbehaved. See what happens this time."
It's all bubbling to the surface, this anger, this resentment. He used to believe he deserved it, deserved all of it.
Thanks to Kyle, thanks to Chansey, he knows better. He knows he has the right to be angry, and now he revels in it.
So many times he reached out, tried to patch things with his father.
No more, he thinks. This was the last straw.
"Get out of here and never come back," he's finally able to say. "If you hurt Kyle again, there won't even be ashes."
His father leaves shortly after that.
He doesn't remember Kyle slowly walking over to him, or the Ace trainer calmly herding him inside to the kitchen table.
So lost inside his own head, he doesn't even realize he's sitting down until Chansey hands him a mug filled with tea. The pokemon chirps at him in a comforting manner, and it's all he can do to give it a grateful pat on the head.
Kyle sits beside him with a mug of hot chocolate. They don't say anything for a minute.
Then—
"You good?" Kyle asks.
"No," he says immediately.
He thinks about everything that happened.
"I hate him," he finally says after a long moment. "I hate him more than I hate my mother."
Kyle leans forward, but doesn't do anything else.
"I used to think he'd come back if I could only get over my fear of pokemon. I used to think the reason he avoided me was because I was a disappointment."
He snorts,
"I guess I was right."
"You might be his disappointment," Kyle says, "but he's yours and your brother's disappointment. Your mother's too, probably."
"Everyone's just everyone's disappointment then, right?" He laughs bitterly.
"You're not mine," Kyle says quietly. "Or Chansey's. Or the boys entering the Nurse Joy program. Or Roger's."
He opens his mouth to argue that last one.
"Roger always—"
"Roger," Kyle cuts him off before he begins, "was his own disappointment. He wanted to be his father, but he's since realized what that actually means."
"You are the best thing that has ever happened to him," Kyle says fiercely, "and to me."
His tongue feels unresponsive again. He's left staring at the table.
He's not going to cry, he's not.
"I'm calling your boss. You're not going in tomorrow."
He makes a noise in the back of his throat.
"We're going," Kyle chokes slightly, "we're going to your brother's to—to—"
"Have dinner?" He guesses, voice equally tight.
"To hang out," Kyle says with heavy revulsion, "and probably spend the night."
The Ace trainer's expression is laden with so much disgust and loathing, he can't help it. He lets out a small "Pff" that quickly escalates into full blown laughter after Kyle makes a face screaming betrayal.
"Oh come on! You remember this is the guy who decided to chase us down with a sword! Only it turned out to not be a sword. Do you remember when—"
Tears do end up falling from his eyes, but it's from laughing so hard.