Chapter 4 - Arc 1 (Melemele Island) Love the Way You Lie

Warning for brief sexual content. You may skip the part by watching for the indicators "START" and "END." After the "END," there will be a short blurb explaining why it was relevant to the plot. (Trying to be inclusive to those that do not want to read that sort of thing, because I completely understand!)

"Why'd you have to go and make a comment like that? 'Is this a wedding?' Seriously, Elio?"

"I didn't think it was that big of a deal! I just thought he was telling us stuff, like Kukui was earlier," Elio defended himself with a cruel edge to his tone. He was thoroughly embarrassed. The deep sense of shame clawed at his chest and made him feel like he might cough up his heart. He hated that feeling so much. It was why he resigned himself to nothing more than jokes and probably why his sister was his best friend. Sure, back in Kanto he had plenty of people he hung out with, but he had discovered when he had gone to get their numbers prior to moving… he didn't really consider most of them friends at all. Even though he had their contacts, he hadn't spoken a word to any of them. Shaking away the angering thoughts, he muttered, "So, I thought…"

"This Island Challenge thing is clearly a big deal," Selene sighed, though she didn't look at him. "Like… I think it's more than the gym challenge was in Kanto. Like, the people here think you have to do it to honor the Tapus or something…? Whatever it is, it's clearly woven into their beliefs. We don't have to believe it, we just need to be nice about theirs. Nobody's exactly told us we can't believe in Arceus, after all."

"'Cause nothing's more honorable to your local gods than making two cute pokémon whack each other to the brink of exhaustion," Elio growled smartly. He looked down at the Litten curled up in his arms, asleep. "And the whole 'letting it choose' thing is stupid. They don't know that we're going to carry them from island to island and make them battle everything they say we have to, it's like a random draw to them—Arceus!" Elio jumped as the boy from the ceremony darted in front of them and halted, forcing Selene and Elio to pause to quit from running into him. He clutched the Popplio against his chest with one arm and waved the other animatedly at them.

"Hi! Name is Hau!" he exclaimed in awkward Galarish. It almost sounded like he was singing rather than talking. Elio raised a brow at him. This ought to be good. "Please, I know it is… um, out nowhere, but let us battle!"

Elio pursed his lips and flicked his gaze to Selene. She grinned widely back at Hau, putting on a show of a wonderfully inviting expression. It was so fake Elio wanted to gag. "Hi, there! I'm Selene and this is Elio," she said and gestured to each of them respectively, "and… maybe we can battle another time? We were just going home for the day to finish unpacking and stuff… We've had a long week." She forced a laugh. Even if it was fake, he had to admit, she was so much better at getting along with others than Elio was.

"Really, I promise I am good!" Hau insisted after a delay, in which he studied Selene's face. Elio assumed he was translating in his mind but felt like perhaps, even as lacking in Galarish skills as he were, Hau might have picked up on Selene's faked niceness. If he did, he didn't show it though, as he bounced in place eagerly. "Is a good way to get to know each other!"

Ah, yes, forcing two creatures at your mercy to beat each other up is how you get to know people. I wonder if people would feel the same if we beat each other up instead of one another's pokémon? He snorted in irritation and failed to notice the warning stare Selene tossed his way. "Really?" Elio pressed with a twinge of amusement. He found he was quite a good deal taller than Hau and easily pushed past the excited Alolan boy without much effort. His intimidating stature seemed to make Hau stumble out of his way. "Hmm. Didn't know all I had to do to get to know people was to beat them up."

"…Sorry?" Hau asked, crestfallen and confused.

"Elio!" Selene glowered at him and shook her head, making her dusky, gray-blue hair bounce over her shoulders. Turning to Hau, she smiled softly. "Don't mind him. He's just being a dick." She stuck her tongue out at Elio before she continued. "We just arrived to Alola recently and we're both jetlagged and whatever… Elio might start acting more like a person after he sleeps some more. We'd be happy to battle you another time!"

Elio ground his teeth and his arms tensed without him realizing it. The Litten against his chest hissed and leapt from his grasp, digging its claws in as it jumped. Cursing to himself in Kantonian, Elio grimaced at the tiny flecks of blood that dappled the white stripes of his shirt. "That's gonna stain," he whined. Angrily scowling at Selene and then Hau, he ground his teeth even more. We'd be happy to battle you another time… like hell I will!

"Well… okay," Hau responded slowly. He gave Elio a momentarily concerned glance, then seemed to decide asking Elio if he was alright wasn't worth it. He wrapped both arms around the Popplio even more tightly than before and giggled, the Popplio barking and blowing a small bubble in agreement. "We can battle tomorrow! At the festival!"

"That sounds great," Selene kindly nodded back to him. "See you, Hau!"

With that, Hau pattered away down the trail, back toward Iki Town. Elio didn't have long to watch him go before Selene was in his face. He set his jaw and glared back at her. He was not in the mood to be lectured by his younger sister. "What?" he asked cagily.

"What's wrong with you?" she asked. "For real, I'm actually lost. You're usually the one making friends with everybody. Most people know me as 'Elio's little sister' and not even by my name, so what's going on with you?"

"You thought I was popular or something?" Elio asked tauntingly. He bent down to try to pick his Litten back up, but the pokémon hissed at him again and darted just outside of his reach. What's your problem? Elio wanted to ask it. Instead, he sarcastically continued at Selene, "Look, I don't know. This whole thing is just rubbing me the wrong way. Can we just go back home?"

"Yeah," Selene groaned after a second of consideration. She trudged ahead of him and her Rowlet turned its head to give him a sad look. Elio felt another sharp, stinging bolt of shame fire up his body and he winced. Oh, how he hated that feeling and wished it would go away no matter what… He apologetically waved at the Litten and called for it to follow, and then slunk after Selene. He was glad when the Litten trailed him—at least he hadn't managed to ruin his relationship with this pokémon on their first day together—but he stared at Selene ahead of him sorrowfully. He hated fighting with her. He hated that he relied on her so much. As her older brother, he was supposed to help show her the way and give her tips and hints of wisdom, but he had nothing to offer her but nuggets of unfunny jokes and questionable sarcasm.

He truly felt like a clown and so, he often acted like one, and he hated it when the only thing he knew how to do somehow landed him in trouble. Like how he hadn't realized Hala was performing a ritual and he had interjected with a poorly timed joke… He just shook his head and kept a respectful distance between him and Selene.

Tomorrow would be better. Today couldn't be changed. He just had to do better tomorrow.

Perhaps tomorrow would or wouldn't be better for Elio and his sister, but on a pristine, manmade island in the center of Alola's waters, someone's day was about to go swimmingly.

In a quiet lab in the deepest depths of Aether Paradise, Dr. Faba hunched over a keyboard and scrutinized a spreadsheet with a frown. He was alone. It was far past the time most of Aether's employees checked out for the evening, but he was determined to finish this task before the night was through. A single, dim bulb overhead provided little light against the blindingly bright screen of his computer, which washed his glasses and face in a pale sapphire. His breath caught in his throat as he heard the door to the lab open suddenly. He wasn't expecting company. He had told everyone else to stay out for the evening.

"Leave, now," Dr. Faba bristled without looking to see who it was. There was no response and the door whirred softly as it closed itself. Then, the familiar clacking of high heels against a cold, hard floor sounded. He immediately forgot what he was doing and jerked his head to see Lusamine sauntering to him. He had expected her as soon as he heard the heels, but his face still lit up in an excited smile, nonetheless. "President Lusamine! I did not expect you. My apologies… I thought it was someone else at first," he supplied right away.

Lusamine brushed her long, straight hair out of her face and her chartreuse eyes glinted in the harsh light of the computer monitor. She smirked at him. "That's alright, Dr. Faba." Slowly, she drew her left hand up and placed it firmly against the researcher's right shoulder. He stiffened beneath her hold and felt his heart start to pound. With a sensual hum, Lusamine asked, "What's kept you up so late?"

"I think Dr. Wicke screwed up a column in this spreadsheet, it isn't making any sense," Dr. Faba groaned. He leaned back into Lusamine's touch just slightly. Scared of disappointing her, he quickly added, "Not to say I won't fix it, though. I am the great Dr. Faba, after all!"

Lusamine laughed to herself and shifted so that she was behind his office chair. She leaned down and wrapped her arms around his torso, drawing lines up his coat with her hands, her long fingernails plucking at the golden buttons. She rested her chin against his left shoulder, and he felt her hair tickle the back of his neck, sending shivers down his spine. "I'm certain it's excellent work, Dr. Faba. It's you fixing it, after all," she commented slyly and breathlessly.

START

Her warm compliments coupled with her roaming hands had his chest fluttering and his thoughts running wild. He loved all she could do for him with just a few waves of her hand or just by dropping her voice an octave or two. It had been more than a year since Mohn's incident and although Lusamine had lashed out at him at first since his science was behind the experiment, Dr. Faba hadn't intended for that horrible accident to occur… He reached a hand up to lightly touch Lusamine's face, rubbing her cheek gently. He had offered his sincerest apologies and groveled to Lusamine like a lowly Rockruff so that she wouldn't discharge him from the Aether Foundation's staff following that accident. Aether allowed him to express his genius in ways no other company ever had before. He had been terribly afraid of losing it. Mohn had been an unfortunate accident, but it wasn't like he had set out to hurt her husband.

Lusamine's hands finally latched onto the single, golden button keeping his labcoat on and undid the restraint. He rolled his shoulders and tugged at the fabric to send it cascading to the floor, all while she stepped away so that he could get out of the chair. Trembling in anticipation, Dr. Faba wasted no time in standing up and eyeing the president's beautiful body. He wrenched the protective glasses from his face, setting them to the desk, and cracked a knowing grin at her. Needless to say, his groveling had worked. Lusamine had not only let him keep his role in Aether Foundation, but she turned to him whenever she was in a time of need. When nightmares nipped at her psyche and she couldn't get Mohn off her mind, Dr. Faba made sure to be there, and within no time at all, she regularly turned to him herself. Sometimes, he had to wonder if Mohn's disappearance had been the best thing to ever happen to him… He had become keenly aware of just how glad he was Mohn was gone in recent times.

Lusamine approached and enveloped him in another hug, this time from the front. She stroked his back above his shirt a few times but then slipped her hands beneath it, teasing the skin of his back with those long nails. Dr. Faba did the same to her, though his touch was noticeably more frantic and uncontrolled. Oh, he knew it was bad. Lusamine was suffering in the aftermath of losing her husband and he had knowingly enabled her nasty behavior. He loved this new Lusamine that made him feel desired for more than just his brain and he didn't care who else was hurt in her wake, and he certainly didn't care about what her potentially deceased husband might have thought. He was gone, after all! More than that, Lusamine had turned on her kids and when they lashed out and fled, he had once again been there to pick up the pieces for her and be her shoulder to cry on (both times). He vocally agreed with her whenever she raved about how awful her children were, how ugly they were; whatever Lusamine thought or wanted, Dr. Faba agreed and did what he could to give it to her. It kept her happy and kept her coming back to him for more.

He gasped as her nails dug particularly hard into his upper back, hard enough to leave a mark, he was certain. He brought his hands up to her chest under her shirt and ghosted a hand across her bra, then squeezed the tender flesh beneath hungrily. He was panting lightly as he tried to speak. "Miss President… in the lab?" he coyly asked. "Doesn't Dr. Wicke have access to the cameras?"

"Not tonight," Lusamine answered seductively. "I killed the feed to this lab."

"Hmm, that doesn't leave much to the imagination if she knows you're down here, though, does it? With me?" he snickered and nipped at her neck. She shivered and grabbed a fistful of his shirt.

"If you care so much, perhaps I could find someone better," she taunted him. "Would you like that, Dr. Faba?"

He bit at the flesh on her neck harder this time, just enough to discolor her skin, make her whimper, and wrapped his arms firmly around her torso, pulling her taut against his body. He wanted no space between them. A flash of possessive anger ripped through him and he stood just that much taller, shuffling his feet so that he nearly stood on hers. "There is no one better than me," he growled to her. He breathed in the scent of her mild perfume, a pleasant lavender. "Whatever you want, President, I can do."

She gave a breathy cackle against his ear and then kissed his earlobe. "That's what I like to hear, Dr. Faba."

Lusamine easily slipped back into her clothes and did her best to try and smooth her messy hair. Long hair could be such a pain to maintain, she fleetingly thought. She tossed a smirk over her shoulder at Dr. Faba. He was sitting back in his computer chair and had the labcoat buttoned back over his shoulders, but if one looked closely, they could see that his shirt was nowhere to be found and his pants were still undone. He was still panting and huffing for breath, basking in the aftermath of their encounter. It amused her to see him like that. It amused her that he was even in this lab so late at night. In fact, Dr. Faba was an endless source of entertainment, better than any television Lusamine could have ever hoped to watch.

He thought that she was under his spell and that he had trained her to seek him when she was upset or in pain. He thought that she truly cared for him. It was just so funny. She couldn't help but giggle to herself as she started off for the door again. "Goodnight, Dr. Faba. Don't stay up too late," she warned playfully. Without waiting for his reply, she left the room and briskly marched down the hall to head for her own chambers.

Oh, Lusamine cared for Dr. Faba, but she cared for what he could provide for her, not for his physical features. He was her key to completing her collection of beautiful pokémon, from this world and the next. Although Lusamine didn't care for his body, she was in love with his mind and how willingly he would do whatever she asked. Again, it was just so funny to her that, by doing nothing more than offering her beauty to him, she could get whatever she wanted on a silver platter. He would work the endless nights. He would sort out all the errors his colleagues made personally just to ensure it was done correctly. He would answer to her beckoning day or night without complaint.

He thought he had trained her, but really, it was Lusamine who was training him… and oh, how easy it was to train a man. She snorted contemptuously as she reached her bedroom at last and flicked her keycard through the sensor. And like the good man he was, Dr. Faba was going to help provide her with what she truly desired from life—a collection of all the beautiful pokémon the multiverse had to offer. One day, she'd have them all…

Even the beast who the Ultra Recon Squad warned her would swallow the sun should it come to Alola. She didn't care about Alola's light. She just cared about her collection of perfect, beautiful creatures, frozen forever in their prime. One day, she'd have them all, and one day…

She would be whole again. Without Mohn. Without Dr. Faba. Without any man at all.

END

Lusamine has been using her looks to entice Dr. Faba to do what she wants, but has led Dr. Faba to believe she's coming to him for physical intimacy because she's a grieving widow in need of comfort. Dr. Faba, therefore, thinks he can use her vulnerable state to further his own career. They both believe they are in control or using the other (similar to the abusive relationship described in the song 'Love the Way You Lie' by Eminem ft. Rihanna, which is what this chapter is named after). Lusamine is shown to have a disdainful view of men following Mohn's disappearance and her motivations for her actions are to further her collection of frozen, "perfect, beautiful" creatures. It's suggested that she wants to add Necrozma to her collection and that's why she is working with the Ultra Recon Squad.