Guzma issued a weak burst of laughter in the short beat of silence that followed Nanu's words.
"Bet you've wanted to say that forever…old man." Guzma sounded exasperated, even if his voice was short. It was as if he were struggling to get his breath back. Guzma shoved a hand up against Persian's side despite the Pokémon's earlier growl. "…and get your damn Pokémon…off of me."
"Good job bringing him here, I guess." Nanu ignored Guzma in favor of Persian, though the officer's mind was turning over what could have possibly happened to the younger man to put him in this state.
Persian squeezed its eyes shut again, pleased with the praise.
"The smell didn't bother you, huh?" Nanu half smirked at the way his Pokémon rubbed its face against Guzma's with a purr, though the officer knew something had to be wrong. Guzma would normally have had no trouble fending off Persian's attempts to give him affection. "Guess he must have gotten really soaked with the rain if your nose hasn't fallen off yet."
"I'm right here, you know." Guzma said hotly, clearly not liking the way that Nanu continued to dismiss him in favor of a Pokémon. "And are you trying' to say I don't take showers?"
"Probably would have died in a ditch out there if you didn't bring him here." Nanu still spoke to his Persian as if he hadn't heard Guzma say anything. "Better to deal with a beaten up punk than a dead one."
"I ain't dead, geezer." Guzma bristled, some life coming back to him at the jab, and with it, some more breath. "You ever fall off a rocky ledge before, old man?" Whatever pain Guzma was currently in was clearly outweighed by the idea of Nanu continuing to dismiss him.
"Can't say I have." Nanu replied dryly. "Not that I'm going to go about traversing those ledges in the rain."
"Cause you'd…slip and fall over..." Guzma sucked in a breath, his body apparently reminding him to take it easy, as the younger man wheezed his next words out "...probably break all your damn bones."
"I'm not that brittle." Nanu frowned down at Guzma. "And exactly why were you even over by those ledges? Fancy yourself a flying-type trainer now?" Nanu highly doubted it; he'd mainly just wanted to confirm that Guzma was reacting normally, to rule out a concussion. The silent snarl at his words seemed promising. "Not looking where you were going, then?"
"Keep it up, old man and I'll…" Guzma started to threaten, though he had to take a moment to suck in a harsh breath before he finished, which lessened the effect the younger man was going for. "…I'll beat you down good."
"Not in that state, you won't." Nanu pointed out.
"Wanna find out?" Guzma grit out; the punk looked angry at the fact that Nanu had once again dismissed him, and as not a threat this time around.
"Are you done?" Nanu asked, stifling a yawn.
"Oh, I see." Guzma grinned, as if something had just occurred to him. "I get it." Trying to appear menacing even as Persian continued to rub its face against his cheek, the Team Skull leader taunted Nanu, "You're just scared of your boy Guzma here, yeah?"
"Not really." Nanu replied, completely monotonous, and added, just because he could, "It wouldn't be much of a challenge, anyway. I don't think a one sided fight would do either of us good."
Guzma looked on the verge of exploding, probably because of the way that Nanu wasn't even rising to the bait, but also because the older man seemed to be treating Guzma like a child that had misbehaved and was waiting for them to fix their behavior themselves.
Nanu's attention went to Persian, completely ignoring the evil look Guzma had fixed on him as the officer addressed his Pokémon. "I hope he was unconscious when you found him. I wouldn't have bothered with him if he was spewing out nonsense like this."
Persian gave Nanu what appeared to be a reproachful look, before it resumed grooming Guzma despite his continued tries to slip away.
"You lookin' for a beating?" The Team Skull leader bristled over the fact that Nanu wasn't even looking at him.
"I already told you there's no point to it." Nanu spared Guzma a glance then, red eyes bored, "Besides, in this case, you're the one who'd be beaten down. Not me." Nanu had a brief moment to be surprised over the sight of Guzma looking as if he'd been punched in the gut, his eyes wide and almost…fearful. The look was gone in an instant, to be replaced with pure, seething rage. Nanu thought that was an odd way to react, so he tucked the information away. Nanu figured he'd touch on it later, when Guzma didn't look like he wanted to throttle him.
"You're dead, old man." Guzma snapped, as he broke away from Persian and surged to his feet, a crazed look in his eyes. Though his breath was coming in and out raggedly, the punk still seemed intent on holding his promise of a beat down. Despite the pronounced limp in Guzma's left leg, he headed straight for the older officer, Pokémon battle be damned.
As much as Nanu thought that the younger man needed to blow off some steam, now was not the time for it, it seemed. Guzma was clearly more injured than he let on; if he swung his fists and connected with anything right now, Guzma would only harm himself in the process.
"You sure you want to do this?" Nanu asked mildly.
"Bring it, old man." Guzma wheezed in return.
Nanu looked resigned more than anything over the fact that he now had an angry young man to deal with, even if he had been responsible for baiting Guzma into that anger to begin with. As Nanu backed out of range of the first punch Guzma threw at him, the red eyed man wondered if Guzma had hit his head after all. Why else would the Team Skull leader think it a good idea to fight while he was already hurt? The sight of Guzma wearing what appeared to be an expression of surprise over not making contact with his fist caused Nanu to crack a crooked smile.
"You think I haven't been in a fist fight before, kid?" Nanu questioned, as he stood in the middle of the station without a trace of concern about the taller man attempting to rough him up. "I'd stop right now, if I were you."
"Stop me if you can." Guzma taunted, and, despite still breathing heavily and clearly in a lot of discomfort, threw himself across the room. It seemed like he intended to hit Nanu with his entire body this time.
Nanu side-stepped the charge, his expression one of indifference as he reached out and gripped Guzma's forearm. Pivoting, Nanu used the taller man's momentum to send him straight into the nearest wall.
"Shit." Guzma grunted as he hit the wall.
Nanu hastily pressed his body against Guzma's to keep the younger man from pushing away from it. The red eyed officer used a hand to wrench one of the punk's arms behind his back, as Nanu's free hand went to his belt for the handcuffs he'd thought to have on him that day.
"Get off me!" Guzma cursed a few times as he tried to shake Nanu off, but the officer was pressed close enough that Guzma couldn't get enough leverage to free himself. At least, not until Nanu rattled the handcuffs, which made Guzma strain to free his trapped arm with renewed vigor as he seemed to realize Nanu's intentions.
"Why are you carrying handcuffs on you right now?" A beat of silence, along with a few breaths. "You got a kinky side to you or something, old man? What gives?"
Then again, maybe Guzma was jumbled after all, even if the officer hadn't seen any sign of a head injury yet.
"You do remember that I am a cop in addition to being the kahuna, right?" Nanu sighed as he kept the younger man pressed to the wall. "What would make you think that I use these handcuffs for anything other than arresting punks like yourself?"
Guzma sucked in a breath and didn't respond, his body taut from where Nanu was leaning up against him.
"Do you want me to use these handcuffs in a different way? Get you to let off some steam without using your fists?" Nanu heard something that suspiciously sounded like 'perverted old man' though Nanu was a bit distracted when Guzma suddenly arched back against him in an attempt to force the officer away.
Guzma let out a little curse at being foiled when he didn't get the officer to budge.
Nanu ignored him, as he had noticed, with some trepidation, that after Guzma had taken a swing at him and right now, having him pinned there against the wall, that Nanu's body was becoming a little too interested in the situation. Which had not at all been Nanu's intention, nor had he realized that it was even a distinct possibility that he would ever react like this to the punk. Nanu knew that he'd waited a bit too long to subdue Guzma, because the younger man seemed to have gotten a second wind when a sharp elbow to his gut made Nanu abruptly let go of Guzma's arm as he doubled over.
Guzma turned away from the wall and followed up with another swing of his fist, but not before Nanu noticed the faint blush on the other man's face. Nanu hastily ducked back from the fist, though as soon as he straightened up, the older officer had to twist his body to the right in order to avoid another full bodied tackle attempt from Guzma. Nanu winced as his hip protested the action but didn't care as he was just thinking that he should have been quicker about subduing Guzma to prevent an extended fight. When the younger man was in a temper, the fight would likely only get nastier the longer Guzma stewed in his anger. Therefore, since the other trainer was on the floor again, Nanu needed to try and prevent him from making another tackle attempt.
"Are you done?" Nanu asked in a bored tone, as he rested a foot lightly on Guzma's chest when the younger man managed to turn over. It seemed like the brief tussle was over, as it appeared as if all the fight had left Guzma when he hit the floor.
"Damn, you play dirty." Guzma groaned, going limp beneath Nanu's light but steady press of his foot to his chest. "Who the hell uses the idea of sex as a distraction in a fight?"
"I seem to recall you bringing up the other use for handcuffs in the first place." Nanu commented, catching the quick embarrassed expression on the younger man before Guzma scowled and looked away. Nanu eyed Guzma critically for a moment before moving his foot away as he started to think about how best to get Team Skull's leader to cooperate with him. Nanu felt that he must have been getting a bit too old for one on one fights, because he should have known better than to drop his guard, as evidenced by Guzma's sudden breathless laugh.
"Gotcha." Guzma grinned as he rolled over and knocked Nanu's legs out from underneath him with a swift crack to the side of his nearest knee.
Nanu grimaced as he hit the floor and barely had time to move to one side to prevent the taller man from grappling his legs. Luckily for Nanu, he recovered quickly enough that that Guzma fell short of his legs, ending up face down on the floor with a curse.
"Since when do you have so much stamina?" Guzma grumbled against the rug before he managed to lever himself up to his hands and knees.
Nanu was breathing heavily by this point, but he knew that he needed to end this now, before his own body decided to give out on him. No matter how terrible a state Guzma was in, the punk was younger than him and fitter, to boot. If Guzma managed to pin him down, Nanu would be hard pressed to fight back at that point, and the red eyed man believed he'd likely give into fatigue before Guzma passed out from overexertion.
This night was most certainly turning out to be anything but boring.