A/N: This is the first installment of my brand-new series, the Dexholder Drabble Challenge! I created it to get more friendship fics in this fandom as well as making content about characters that normally never get to interact, in canon or fandom. The rules are simple: I use a random number generator to pick two random Dexholders and a one-word prompt from a list I've created. Then, I write a ficlet featuring the friendship of those two Dexholders! If you'd like to try the challenge for yourself, message me here or on Tumblr ( mala-sadas) and I'll send you the document of prompts!
For this first ficlet, I got Sun and Platinum with the prompt "perform". It's a bit long for a ficlet, but I got a little carried away with the details. Without further ado...please enjoy!
"Pardon me," Platinum said, tapping the dark-skinned young man on the shoulder. He shifted the box in his arms so he could see her over the top of it. "Is Sun here?"
"Yeah, he's over there," the young man said, gesturing with his head to another young man with dark blue hair who was just putting a box down on the bed of one of the carts.
"Thank you!" Platinum replied with a polite smile.
The young man nodded and walked towards one of the other carts, while Platinum headed over to intercept the blue-haired young man before he could pick up another box from the deck of the boat they were unloading. She caught up to him just before he stepped onto the boat.
"Pardon me," she said. "Are you Sun?"
"Huh?" The young man turned around and looked up at her. "Yeah, that's me," he said, running a hand through his scruffy hair. "Who's askin'?"
"My name is Platinum Berlitz," Platinum replied, extending a hand to Sun. "My sister has told me much about you. She said I could find you here."
Sun shook her hand, but his brow furrowed in confusion. "Your sister?" he asked.
"Moon," Platinum supplied.
Sun's eyes widened. "Miss has a sister? She never mentioned that!"
Platinum could not say that she was terribly shocked by the revelation that Moon had never mentioned her to Sun – her little sister had always been fairly reserved, and she never liked to flaunt her wealthy heritage like Platinum did. Still, she was slightly disappointed that for all the time her sister had spent with Sun, not once had their family come up in conversation.
"So, Miss's sister, what can I do for you?" Sun asked.
"Please, call me Platinum," Platinum said, clapping her hands together and holding them to her chest. "I would like to join you on this delivery job!"
"I – I'm sorry, you what?" Sun spluttered. "I can't just – hire someone on the spot like that! That's not how this works!"
"Oh, I am not seeking to get hired," Platinum explained. "I just want to experience what being a courier is like! Experiencing something yourself is a much better way to learn things than just reading about them in a textbook."
"So, you just want – experience?" Sun said, eyeing her skeptically. "I don't have to pay you?"
Platinum laughed. "Of course not. I come from the wealthiest family in Sinnoh. I do not need your money."
"Wealthiest family in Sinnoh!?" Sun yelped. "But Miss never – man, what else did she never tell me?" Sun shook his head. "No wonder she's always so inclined to patch me up for free."
"Well?" Platinum prompted. "May I join you?"
"Uh, yeah, sure," Sun said. He glanced around from the carts they were loading up to the boxes remaining on the deck of the boat; there was a scant number of boxes left. "You got a Ride Pager?"
Platinum racked her brain, trying to recall what a Ride Pager was. She knew that she had come across the term in her research on the Alola region, but she was drawing a blank on what the item was. One thing she was certain of, though – "No, I do not have one."
Sun shrugged. "Guess I shoulda figured as much," he said, half to himself. "That's fine. We only have four carts, anyways. You can ride with me. Wait here while I go get a delivery slip from the captain, and then we'll get situated."
Platinum nodded, and Sun hopped onto the boat. She turned to watch Sun's three employees as they loaded up the last of the boxes. Besides the dark-skinned young man, there were a short, skinny young man and a tall, stocky one. The short young man was carrying a box that was more than half as tall as him, and Platinum watched with some amusement as he attempted to stagger to his cart and put it down without it – or himself – falling over.
"Right, we're all good!" Sun exclaimed right next to Platinum's ear. She jumped a little, startled. "Come with me!"
Platinum followed Sun to the farthest cart from the boat, which had a backpack leaning against one of the boxes on its bed. He rifled through the backpack, stuffed the delivery slip inside, and pulled out a green oblong electronic device. Platinum peered over Sun's shoulder to watch him press one of the buttons on it, causing the screen to light up and display a list of Pokémon names and actions. She only had time to read the first one on the list – Tauros Charge – before Sun pressed the white button on the bottom of the pager and it erupted in a bright light.
Platinum flinched and covered her eyes. When the light faded, there was a Tauros standing next to them with a strange harness on its body. In addition, Sun's clothing had changed into a skintight spandex body suit with padding on the chest, shoulders, elbows, and knees. He was also now wearing a helmet, boots, and gloves.
Suddenly, it clicked in Platinum's mind – that device was a Ride Pager, that Tauros was a Ride Pokémon, and Sun's outfit was Riding Wear. In Alola, they used Ride Pagers to summon Ride Pokémon, which were Pokémon specially trained and outfitted for carrying people, to help them with difficult tasks. The custom was known as Poké Ride, and it was one of the first things she had learned about Alola. She was disappointed in herself for taking so long to remember it.
"So first off, we've gotta hitch Tauros up to the cart," Sun explained, guiding Tauros around to the opposite side of it. "It's pretty easy since the Poké Ride harness is designed to work with stuff like this." He demonstrated how to tie the handle of the cart to the side of the harness so that the cart would stay straight and secure behind Tauros. "You wanna try attaching it on the other side?"
Platinum nodded and walked to the opposite side of the Tauros. It took a couple of tries and a few reminders from Sun, but she finally managed to hitch up the other side properly.
"Looks great! You're a fast learner," Sun said, grinning at Platinum in a way that reminded her of a cat.
"Thank you for teaching me," Platinum replied sincerely.
"Not a problem!" Sun said cheerfully, bringing his thumb and index finger together to make an okay symbol. "You need help getting up on Tauros?"
"I have ridden on Ponyta and Rapidash plenty of times before. I can mount a Tauros."
"Just thought I'd ask," Sun shrugged. He put a foot on one of the steps sticking out of Tauros's harness and used it to hop up onto the seat on Tauros's back. Platinum followed suit, needing to use more steps to climb up but making it onto the seat behind Sun just fine.
"Everybody ready?" Sun called, glancing over his shoulder. His employees all gave him thumbs-ups. He twisted back around and grabbed the handlebars attached to the harness. "Alright, let's charge!"
Platinum gripped Sun's shoulders, expecting the Tauros to jolt into action. To her surprise, though, Tauros accelerated slowly and gently, making for a smooth and mostly steady ride. Of course, there was still some bumpiness due to Tauros's gait, but it wasn't much different than riding on Rapidash.
"So, Sun," Platinum said, raising her voice so she could be heard over the clomping of the Tauros' hooves, "what exactly are we delivering?"
"A stage!" Sun answered. "They're having a free concert in Malie Garden tonight. This dude called Ryuki is going to perform. But he needs a stage for the performance."
"Malie Garden? But, if I recall, that's just–"
"Right here!" Sun exclaimed, bringing Tauros to a halt in front of an ornate arch that stretched across the cobblestone road.
On the other side of the arch sprawled a beautifully kept garden not unlike the garden of the Berlitz estate in Sinnoh – dirt pathways, running streams, wooden bridges, neatly trimmed foliage. The two biggest differences that were immediately apparent to Platinum were the bamboo trees scattered throughout and the people. There were people all around – children playing by the water, a young couple on a stroll, a small crowd in a little area that looked like a café – that gave the whole place a joyful, lively ambiance that Platinum had never experienced at her childhood home.
"Line it up behind mine, Kiawe," Sun instructed when the dark-skinned young man started to pull up his Tauros beside Sun's. "We don't want to block the entrance." Kiawe nodded and began to carefully turn his Tauros around. "Now, let's start unloading!" Sun slid off of Tauros and glanced back at Platinum. Noticing that she wasn't coming down, he offered out a hand to help her down. She accepted his hand, leaning some of her weight on him as she stepped down the rungs on Tauros's harness.
Once on the ground, Platinum shot Sun a puzzled look. "Is that all? You are being paid to deliver these boxes just…a few hundred yards?"
"Oh, no," he laughed. "We still have to bring these boxes all the way to the other side of the garden!"
"What?" Platinum exclaimed indignantly. "Why in the world did we get off of Tauros, then!?"
Sun pointed to a circular sign next to the arch – it had a red border and a red line striking through the silhouette of a Tauros head. "Ride Pokémon aren't allowed in the garden. Protects the landscaping and stuff."
Platinum's shoulders slumped. Sun pressed a button on his Ride Pager, causing his Tauros and gear to vanish in a bright light. "What about the carts?" Platinum asked. "Can we bring those into the garden?"
"Sure," said Kiawe, walking past them with a box in his arms. "If you have the strength to pull all those boxes at once, that is."
Sun cackled. Platinum glared at him. "Pardon me for trying to find a more efficient method of accomplishing this task."
"I've had worse," Sun shrugged, walking backwards so he could talk to Platinum and approach the bed of the cart at the same time. "I mean, it's our job, not yours. You don't have to help if it's too hard for you."
Platinum was surprised that Sun was going to let her off the hook so easily. After all, she was additional labor for him at absolutely no cost, and it was hardly fair for her to just sit here and let the four of them do all the work. Plus, she was here to learn about what it was like to be a courier. She could not learn anything if she did not participate in the work.
That was when she remembered that she did not have to let herself off the hook, even if Sun would.
She walked over to the bed of the cart and grabbed a box. "Where to?" she asked Sun boldly.
Sun blinked at her, but then a big smile spread across his face. "Follow me!"
They carried the boxes across a bridge, along a dirt path, past the café, across another bridge, and along another dirt path. Eventually, they reached the point that Sun said was the drop-off point for the boxes – the edge of a bamboo grove on the east side of the garden. Platinum's arms were aching by the time they reached the spot, and it took all her willpower to gently lower it to the ground instead of just dropping it. She spent a moment hunched over the box just so she could catch her breath.
"Finished already?"
Platinum straightened up to her full height, several inches taller than Sun, and looked down determinedly into his eyes. "Of course not," she declared. "We have only just begun!"
An hour and several trips across the garden later, they finally dropped off the last round of boxes. Platinum fell to her knees in sheer relief; her arms, back, and feet were screaming louder than an Exploud at a metal concert. Sun was talking to the man in charge of setting up the stage, and Platinum was amazed that he even had the energy to stand after carrying all those heavy boxes across the garden. When Sun approached her again, Platinum summoned all the remaining energy from every cell in her body and managed to get back to her feet.
Sun smiled fondly at her. "I think I get where Miss gets her determination from," he said.
Platinum smiled back. "I understand where her admiration for you comes from."
Sun ducked his head bashfully. "Aww, well. Um, did you have fun?"
"I did not enjoy carrying those boxes very much," Platinum said candidly. "But I greatly appreciated the opportunity to learn more about what you do. Thank you."
Sun beamed. "Thank you for the free labor!" He slung his backpack down over one shoulder so that he could reach in and rifle through it again. Then he pulled out a plastic bottle of water and handed it to Platinum. "One last piece of advice for being a courier: always stay hydrated," he said.
He pulled out a water bottle of his own before zipping the backpack pack up and pulling it back over his shoulders. Platinum began eagerly gulping down the water, feeling it restoring some of her energy with every swallow. They headed back through the garden, and by the time they reached the entrance, she had already drunk the whole bottle.
"This was our last delivery of the day, so we'll need to bring these carts back to our warehouse," Sun told Platinum. "You don't need to come with – it's a pretty long way away."
"Where is it?"
"Tapu Village," Sun said, the corners of his lips quirking up into that catlike smile once more. "It's a terribly inconvenient location, but the real estate's super cheap!"
He pulled out his Ride Pager and summoned a different Pokémon this time – one that she knew very little about aside from the fact that it was a native Pokémon to Alola, Mudsdale. Sun quickly hitched Mudsdale up to his cart, and behind her Kiawe and the other two employees were doing the same.
"I'll see you around, Platinum!"
"Wait, Sun, before you go," Platinum said, sticking out her fist.
He stared at it blankly for a moment before recognition lit in his eyes and he bumped his own fist into hers.
"Tell Miss I said hi!" Sun shouted as his little caravan clomped away.
And even though she knew he was already too far away to hear her, Platinum still responded. "Of course, my friend."
A/N: Reviews and favorites are greatly appreciated! If you'd like to read the next ficlet in this series, it's called "Partners"!