What the Cat Dragged In

by Shadow Oblivion

Nanu thought his night would be uneventful until he finds his Persian outside the station, and with it, an unconscious Guzma. Nanu was wrong; his night and the following days were going to be more eventful than he bargained for. Eventual Nanu x Guzma. [Additional character tags to be added later]

11. Chapter 11

When Nanu woke up, he found himself disoriented from some nameless nightmare. The dream had been a confusing mess of sounds and flashes of images that never quite solidified. It made no sense, as nothing connected to the past. The nightmare, however, had been vivid enough to jerk Nanu into a panicked wakefulness. Body taut and expecting the worst of whatever he had dreamed about caused Nanu to be on the defensive.

The shifting of someone or something nearby was cause for concern.

Nanu opened his eyes at the sound, trying in vain to blink away the bleariness as he attempted to make sense of where he was. But before that could happen, Nanu latched onto he fact that a tall shape was reaching out for him. Nanu reacted accordingly, because despite the state he was in, he wasn't going to allow anyone to touch him. Especially when he couldn't tell who it was or what that other person's intentions were toward him

Nanu acted without consideration to the fact that he was injured and weakened by poison. He saw what he believed to be a threat and therefore anything else was a moot point until that threat had been dealt with. A hand snapped up and seized the wrist of the hand that had almost touched him. Not giving the other person a chance to react, Nanu gave a firm pull to the wrist in his grasp. Nanu managed to catch his assailant off guard as the man fell over and onto the bed in front of Nanu.

Nanu didn't register that he was on a bed, nor the fact that he was, in fact, hurt. Instead, Nanu chose to continue to neutralize what he saw as a threat before doing anything further. Nanu moved, wincing a little when his body protested the movement, but gripped the nearest arm of the man and held it behind his back. Nanu needed to make certain to prevent the man from turning over toward him and causing further trouble. Nanu heard the Meowth nearest him letting out various meows of confusion, and that sound gave him pause. Normally the Pokémon would be joining in on stopping an intruder, but they weren't. Nanu hesitated, and that gave the other man enough time to get the leverage needed to upend Nanu onto his back.

Nanu flinched as his right side protested the sudden drop onto the bed. It was surprisingly difficult to figure out what was going on, as his senses still appeared to be muddled for whatever reason. Nanu attempted to maneuver himself up into a seated position, his mind still in fighting mode. He couldn't remain lying on his back in a vulnerable position. But trying to get back up caused a flare of agony to shoot up his side.

"Shit."

Nanu briefly stilled at the familiar voice, the rational part of his mind starting to take over the longer he was awake. Nanu began to piece things together, and knew that whatever he had been dreaming of had caused him to go on the defensive. The low burn of pain let Nanu know that he had not been terribly mindful of his wound.

The Meowth were still there, many of them now gathered around Nanu, and he could just make out a low growl of concern from Persian from somewhere nearby. Nanu blinked again and looked around. Was he…back in the police station outside of Po Town? That's right. He'd spoken to Looker and then Guzma before he had gone back to sleep. And since Nanu was in the station, then that meant that it was highly likely that the person he had caught off guard, and then been caught off guard in return was…

"Stop that. You're gonna open up that wound."

Two large hands seized Nanu by his shoulders and shoved him back down onto the bed, and the pain flared again, no longer a dull throb. The sharp agony brought Nanu's vision, if still a little blurry, into focus on the person holding him down. Being pinned to the bed by Guzma of all people, in what appeared to be an attempt to prevent Nanu from hurting himself further, was a rather sobering sight. Nanu blinked, trying to clear his vision the rest of the way as he stared up at the younger man.

"You awake now?"

Nanu was finally able to make out Guzma's expression, which was angry, obviously, but also maybe a little…worried? Nanu supposed he couldn't fault Guzma for being pissed off at him. It was Nanu's mistake for not mentioning that being injured tended to make him more paranoid and prone to lashing out. That if someone was trying to wake him up, they would have been met with a similar outcome as Guzma had just gone through. It had happened to Looker several times before and it was the reason why Looker took it upon himself to throw pillows at Nanu now until he woke up.

Nanu's attention was drawn to the present when those hands gripped his shoulders in a brief squeeze.

"What the hell was that for, old man? You wake up and attack people like that often?"

"Nightmare." Nanu supplied tonelessly. "Didn't know if you were attacking me or not, and I wasn't going to chance it."

"Wait." Guzma frowned down at Nanu. "You wake up fighting?"

"Sometimes." Nanu attempted an indifferent shrug but Guzma's hands pressing down on his shoulders prevented it from being more than a twitch. "Better to get your opponent under control instead of potentially getting hurt." Nanu grimaced when he tried to move his body and stilled, waiting for the pain to pass.

"Did you rip open the stitches?" Guzma demanded, crowding in on Nanu again.

"Could have." Nanu sighed, before he frowned. The Nihilego hadn't cut deep enough with its attack to prompt such a medical procedure, had it? "I needed stiches?"

"Yeah, the poison kept...melting the area of the wound so some of the skin needed to be...cut out." Guzma's frown deepened. "That guy from before had to cut deep, so yeah, you needed stitches."

"Doesn't feel like anything tore." Nanu said, after gingerly moving around beneath Guzma's hold. Nanu must have been more weary than he thought if he thought the hands felt nice there.

"You gonna check or what?" Guzma wondered, slowly moving his hands off of Nanu to allow movement. The younger man watched Nanu with something akin to suspicion, like he expected Nanu to throw a punch at him or something.

"I could take a look." Nanu sighed again, and didn't point out that now that the exhaustion had caught up with him, he wouldn't be doing anything too strenuous for some time. "But it's too much of an effort right now. It'll be fine."

"Tch. Don't be stupid."

"It's-" Nanu sucked in a sharp breath when Guzma unceremoniously shoved him onto his left side, and began to unwrap the bandages. "You don't...need to do that."

"Shut up and lemme take a look." Guzma snorted, sounding exasperated as he removed the bandages. "You're almost as bad as some of those punks that got stung by a bug Pokémon and acted like it was the end of the world."

"Some stingers are larger than needles." Nanu took slow breaths as he was moved around. He winced when Guzma got him to sit up to finish with removing the bandages. "And I don't think the world is ending, as nice as some quiet would be."

"You're so morbid." Guzma groused as he glared at the bandages. "And sure, those stingers are big, but only the stupid punks got stung." Guzma finished unwrapping the bandages, a few fingers brushing skin near the wound. "Huh."

"I guess the same could be said for the Meowth. You only get scratched if you don't heed the warning signs." Nanu presumed from the lack of reaction from Guzma that, apart from the dull throbbing, he had gotten lucky and hadn't torn stiches. Might as well look. Nanu chanced a peek down, but what he saw made his stomach churn briefly. Nanu knew that Guzma had said that his skin had been cut in to but Nanu hadn't expected to see that it had been deep enough to warrant a large line of close stitches nearly eight inches long.

"Better be careful so you don't lose more blood." Guzma traced a finger alongside the stitches again. "Don't wanna add fainting to your creaking joints and all that."

Nanu didn't miss the way the finger shook as it traced along his skin. Nanu held still when Guzma moved in on him from behind, the punk resting his chin on Nanu's shoulder.

"Breathe, cop. Or is that too much of an effort too?"

"I would prefer to continue breathing a while longer." Nanu held still at the muffled laugh, his breath a little uneven from the pain radiating from his side. Nanu wasn't quite sure what Guzma was up to but against his better judgment Nanu waited instead of shooing the younger punk away from him. He hadn't relalized he was a tad bit cold.

"Don't let your heart rate get too high either." Guzma rested more comfortably on the bed against Nanu's back, but he clearly felt Nanu tense again. "Damn. It's like you're expecting someone to attack you." Guzma seemed content to remain pressed lightly up against Nanu's back and continue to trace skin, though it had moved away from the near the stitches to idly pass across his stomach.

Nanu would have been amused at Guzma's actions if he didn't think that the punk thought anything of it but...

"So, when is this beatdown going to happen?" Nanu wasn't really interested in the response because he already knew the answer. Nanu knew that Guzma only said it to cover up what his actual intentions were. At least, that was what Nanu thought. "Or are you going to give up on that idea?" As soon as Guzma's fingers stilled against his stomach, and Nanu heard the younger man suck in a breath, Nanu had confirmation that Guzma hadn't actually been paying much attention to his actions.

"If I tell you my plans then it wouldn't be any fun." Guzma drew away from Nanu, as if realizing how close he'd been and covered up what appeared to be embarrassment as he went about rewrapping the bandages. "Stitches weren't tore so might as well cover it up again."

As the bandages were rewrapped around the wound, Nanu couldn't help but notice that Guzma seemed to be more careful this time around when he maneuvered him onto his back again, absently dragging pillows around to help Nanu prop himself up if he wanted to. Nanu wouldn't have pegged Guzma as courteous but he was rather distracted so that could have been part of it. Nanu turned his head to the side to watch Guzma rummage around on the table near the bed, and blinked when Guzma produced a small bottle.

The antidote.

"You're supposed to drink one of these. That trench coat wearing weirdo mentioned it." Guzma said, voice a little gruff as if it would cover up the fact he'd been so close to Nanu.

Nanu slowly got himself up into a seated position with help of the pillows, and nearly missed the sight of Guzma's hand twitching, like the punk had been thinking of helping him up but thought better of it. Nanu didn't say anything, and merely accepted the bottle, saying nothing of the way that Guzma had opened it up before handing it over. Nanu downed the content of the bottle, face flashing displeasure at the horrid taste.

"What? It didn't taste all that bad."

"You sure you weren't distracted by the idea of kissing an unconscious man?"

Guzma chose to ignore answering Nanu as he plucked the bottle out of the older man's hand and gave it a whiff. Guzma's nose wrinkled. "Guess it doesn't smell all that great. It kinda smells like a wet Lilipup."

Nanu shrugged, inwardly feeling grateful that Looker had not yet chosen to come back to the station. Nanu was not exactly up for a UB chat, but Nanu knew that it would happen eventually. Nothing was said as Nanu settled back in bed to doze, and Guzma sat on a chair to stare at him.

Intently.

Hours passed by in relative silence, well into the evening and throughout the night, the only breaks in the silence being Guzma waking Nanu up cautiously to take more antidotes.

By whacking him in the face with a pillow, which wasn't all that gentle.

Nanu rather appreciated the irony of Guzma being the second person to do that when unsure of the Alolan cop's mood upon waking.

-x-x-x-

When morning rolled in, Nanu was feeling the slightest bit better, even if he still felt as if he might topple over at any moment. The Meowth that had been absent before had fallen asleep around him again. The feline Pokémon were pressed in close, purring contentedly, MaryAnn included. Nanu absently pet the closest Meowth, quiet as he watched Guzma in the nearby kitchen of the station. Nanu hid a smile when a grumbling Guzma pressed a glass of water into his hands as soon as he had sat up in bed. Nanu watched Guzma go lounge on a nearby chair to stare at him, the same as before, with a very intent expression. Nanu watched a few Meowth hop onto Guzma, amused when Guzma allowed the Pokémon to stay there, and merely pet them absently. Nanu raised his head to meet Guzma's eyes and saw that the younger man as staring at him again, but not saying a word as he ran a large hand over one of the Meowth's backs.

"I'll be all right." Nanu smiled to himself as he drank some of the water, before lowering the glass and meeting Guzma's gaze. "I won't be dropping dead any time soon, so long as I keep up with the antidote."

"That's good." Guzma's tone was the same as before when Nanu had given him the reassure the day before. Guzma looked away quickly like he had been caught staring, which he had been. "I want to be the one to beat you down."

"You can leave anytime you want, you know." Nanu commented. Seeing the peevish glare, Nanu shook his head. "And covering up what you actually want with that threat is getting old. I asked you yesterday when this beatdown was going to happen and I'm fairly certain now that it never will happen." Nanu raised a brow. "Care to confirm my theory?"

"Dunno what yer talking about old man." Guzma shifted on the chair, not quite meeting Nanu's eyes. "And I don't really have anywhere to go right now." Guzma's expression darkened. "I ain't gonna go home, that's for sure. I'd rather sleep in the ditch."

Nanu remembered what Guzma had told him before. The drinking. The attempted suicide. Nanu was quiet a moment longer, before he ventured to speak again. "You could visit Po Town. Some of your former teammates are there. I'm sure they'd be glad to see you."

"I disbanded Team Skull." Guzma responded after a moment of quiet staring at his hands on his lap. "It wouldn't be the same." Guzma ran a hand through his hair absently. "'Sides, Plumeria is still mad at me for breaking up the team in the first place."

"Why did you?" Nanu asked. Ordinarily, he could have written it off as something as his duty as a cop to find out, but knew, asking Guzma then, that it was more out of concern for the younger man. "I didn't notice anything that would have indicated that you were done leading those punks."

"…turns out that there's some bigger and badder things than me in the world." Guzma said, the punk's voice quieter than Nanu had ever heard it. "Gettin' help from 11 year olds got me asking questions about my life." Guzma frowned again, his expression troubled. "I didn't want to break the team up, but after I came back from that…thing's home, I couldn't sleep. And when I did…" Guzma let out a hollow laugh. "Hearing yer boss screaming in the middle of the night isn't exactly the best way to feel safe yourself." Guzma's gaze flicked to Nanu's. "Guess you know something about nightmares." Guzma looked away and clenched his fists on his knees "I hate it. Feeling powerless. Not being able to wake up from the nightmare and stop from seeing it." Guzma appeared to be speaking more to himself now. "After gettin' back from Ultra Space it got...worse. Added to what was already there."

Nanu's suspicion about Guzma being abused when he was younger was back, based off of what Guzma had mentioned to him before, and now. About the nightmares that had been around apart from the Nihilego and their world. It wouldn't be surprising that Guzma didn't want to go home to bad memories. Bringing it up didn't seem to be the best idea right now, not while Guzma was still agitated.

"Hey." Guzma's voice broke into Nanu's thoughts. "You get attacked by those things before?"

"The Nihilego? No." Nanu closed his eyes. "It was a different monster." Even ten years later, the images were still with him, and it was best not to think of it lest he lose himself in a memory. It wouldn't do him any good, especially if he was supposed to help Looker hunt the beasts down. Nanu hadn't noticed Guzma get up off of the chair, but he did notice when Guzma sat down on the bed, expression assessing.

"There is a couch if you're thinking of resting." Nanu commented, "Or this bed if you'll wait for me to get up. I need to be ready to deal with Looker when he shows up."

"There's enough room on this bed for two people and several of your cats, old man." Guzma offered a hint of a grin. "And if you get up, then I'll have it all to myself."

Nanu turned onto his left side, and felt that perhaps he should have been thinking a little more clearly. Whatever had happened between himself and Guzma a year and a half ago still appeared to be in Guzma's mind, because before Nanu knew it, a warm body pressed up against his back from behind, breath tickling the back of his neck as Guzma spoke in a rather taunting voice.

"Are you gonna actually get up or you just going to go back to sleep instead?"

Nanu let out a put upon sigh, realizing that the warmth from Guzma's body was likely to send him back to sleep if the punk didn't move. "Are you sure you're not just trying to get me to stay here?"

"Don't know what you're talking about. Just get up and go."

Nanu considered, and then decided that he would rather get a little more sleep after all. Perhaps the rest would allow the antidote to do its work.

"You're not getting up." Guzma pointed out, still pressed a little too comfortably against Nanu's back.

"I'm more worn out than I thought." Nanu stated dryly.

"You're such an old man." Guzma teased, though there wasn't much force behind it. If anything, it sounded like Guzma had almost said it fondly.

Nanu closed his eyes after MaryAnn curled up near his head. Nanu felt that he might have been imagining it, but he could have sworn that Guzma had draped an arm over his waist, the limb shaking the faintest bit. Odd. Nanu couldn't imagine why, until he dimly realized that he was injured and that Guzma was, in fact, being careful to not rest the arm over Nanu's bandaged wound. Nanu eventually nodded off, but for how long, he wasn't sure, because the next thing he knew, he was awake, and cold.

Guzma wasn't on the bed anymore.

Nanu wasn't quite sure what to make of the faint disappointment over the fact. Nanu slowly sat up, feeling stiff and sore, his right side aching beneath the bandages. Absently reaching out to pet MaryAnn and another Meowth on the head, he noticed that Guzma was fast asleep on s nearby couch a short distance away. Nanu couldn't help but smile faintly at what he saw.

The punk was mostly on the couch, limbs sprawled out with his jacket draped over his chest as a makeshift blanket. Guzma was also covered head to toe in sleeping Meowth.

It made for an unusually cute sight, but the faint pick me up of a punk covered in cats and sleeping in a way that threatened to topple the larger man off the couch should he move to the side too much was dashed by reality.

Nanu opened his mouth to say...something, but was interrupted by a throat clearing.

"I have to say that it has been some time since I saw you smile like that."

Looker.

Nanu's expression shuttered.

"...it is kind of scary how fast you can school your expressions like that."

Nanu turned a worn out, irritable glare onto the speaker.

"Good morning to you too. How are you feeling?"

Joy.

Nanu wasn't even fully awake yet there Looker was to ruin a relatively pleasant morning. Not that Nanu hadn't expected it with the topic that was to be discussed. Nanu's gaze flicked to Guzma, whose mouth was slightly open before he looked back at Looker.

"If you'd get an antidote, I'll be ready to talk."

If Looker seemed confused it was likely for the best, even if the man went to do as asked.

"Where?"

"Kitchen." Nanu said as he moved to the end of the bed and ran a hand over his face, a little miffed to feel stubble. Damn. Had it really been that long since he'd shaved? Dropping his hand, Nanu carefully got out of the bed and went over to the couch. This was probably stupid of him, but he couldn't help himself. Nanu reached over and ruffled Guzma's hair, voice lowered so that Looker couldn't hear. "You could have stayed on the bed and not be drowning in Meowth." Nanu had not expected a snicker to rise out of Guzma.

"You missed an opportunity to say 'drowning in pussy' old man." Guzma said, eyes closed even as his lips twitched in a grin.

"Tasteful." Nanu sighed and shook his head, checking to see that Looker was still in the kitchen. "So you are awake." Nanu gave Guzma's hair a final ruffle before he moved his hand away. "If you're interested in eavesdropping, pretend to be asleep."

"I'd just listen from outside if I got kicked out anyway." Guzma kept his eyes closed even though a hand moved to pet a Meowth. "Thought for sure I would have gotten some kind of reaction out of you for the pussy comment."

"Those former Team Skull punks overdid it with the crude jokes within a few weeks of living in Po Town." Nanu commented blandly, cracking the faintest of smiles when Guzma peeked up at him with an incredulous look. "What? Didn't they ever mention how they pestered 'old man Nanu?'"

"No, they didn't." Guzma sounded a bit miffed to not get a reaction out of Nanu but he grinned some more as he freed a hand from a Meowth and motioned for Nanu to come closer.

Nanu let out a sigh but lowered himself down carefully. What he hadn't expected was for Guzma to pull him onto him while wearing that grin.

"Are you certain there's an antidote in the kitchen?"

"Yes." Nanu lifted his head to say, before he fixed his eyes on Guzma, who looked complexity shameless of the fact that he'd pulled the cop onto him. "And what exactly are you doing? I am trying to avoid tearing the stitches."

"I ain't gonna tear your stitches." Guzma said, one hand around Nanu's back. A grin. "Was just gonna do this."

Nanu hadn't exactly been prepared for Guzma to kiss him but then again little things here and there indicated that it had been a possibility. Not to mention the way that Guzma had been touching him yesterday and there was no way the punk could write it off as checking that the stitches were in place.

"Shut yer damn head off and kiss me Nanu."

Well then. Nanu hadn't actually expected Guzma to own up to what he wanted but really right now wasn't exactly the best time to...

"C'mon, don't be stingy, old man. You asked me what I wanted before didn't you?"

"Now you tell me? Why not before?" Nanu glanced out of the corner of his eye and saw that Looker was still preoccupied.

"I needed to do some thinking." Guzma said, as he curled his other arm around Nanu's back but was careful of the older man's bandaged side.

"If you're sure..." Nanu didn't want there to be any misunderstandings like a year and a half ago, and he certainly didn't want to take advantage of Guzma if the younger man wasn't thinking clearly.

"I am." Guzma scowled at Nanu.

"Fine." Nanu leaned over and kissed Guzma briefly before drawing away.

"The fuck kinda kiss was that?"

"The only one you're getting until I feel better." Nanu said, ire rising as he fixed his eyes on Guzma. "Be patient."

"Driving me crazy." Guzma grumbled but he didn't make any move to let go of Nanu.

A throat cleared, and Looker spoke, sounding a little uncertain.

"I found the antidote. Do you...want me to come back later?"

"No, let's get this over with." Nanu covered Guzma's mouth with a hand to prevent the anticipated protest. "I'll be a moment." After Looker went toward the front of the station, Nanu shot Guzma a look and instead of anger, he got something else.

A tongue to his hand.

"Really?" Nanu asked mildly.

Guzma let out a muffled sound and laughed as he teasingly dipped his tongue out against Nanu's hand again.

Nanu extracted himself from Guzma's loosened hold and stood up, but not before Guzma seized his arm and pressed his lips to Nanu's wrist with a smirk.

The change in behavior was a little off putting but perhaps it had to do with whatever Guzma had thought about last night.

Nanu swatted Guzma's shoulder when his hand was freed and the older man headed toward the front of the station. "Behave." Nanu said, as it was the only thing that he could think of to say.

"No promises."

Nanu said nothing about how those were the same words he had given Guzma before, though his own meaning had been different from Guzma's just now.

As soon as Nanu finished his talk with Looker, he was going to have to figure out what was going on in Guzma's head. If Nanu wasn't mistaken, the kiss appeared to mean that Guzma had not lost interest in whatever had been going on between them a year and a half ago. Nanu chanced a look behind him and stopped walking.

An insolent smile was on the punk's face as Guzma spread himself out on the couch, eyes open, and doing nothing to pretend to be asleep. Seeing that the older man was looking at him again, Guzma taunted him. "Don't strain that old brain of yours too much."

Nanu grabbed a pillow off the bed and tossed it with his left arm, pinging Guzma right it the face.

"Gonna get you for that later." Guzma's voice was muffled and then a curse emitted from the larger punk.

Nanu casually glanced over a shoulder and saw several Meowth hitting Guzma with pillows. Nanu offered a hint of a smile at Guzma when the punk locked eyes with him, and received a grumble in return as Guzma began fending off Meowth.

"Are you sure you don't want me to...?" Looker trailed off as a pillow flew through the air and smacked him in the face.

"It's fine." Nanu said as he sat down in a chair. "It'll keep him occupied so we can have out talk about ultra beasts."

"I'm not a fucking child, damn cop!" An unintelligible curse. "Hey, stop that!"

Nanu looked over his shoulder and saw that Guzma was now swamped in Meowth again. Even Persian had joined in bylying comfortably across Guzma's waist, its eyes squeezed shut in triumph.

"What?" Guzma grit out when he noticed Nanu's eyes on him as he tried to push the felines off of him.

"Looks like you have all the pussy in the station to yourself." Nanu said in a dead voice. A crooked smirk appeared in full force the moment Guzma realized what Nanu had just said.

"I knew you were a sarcastic bastard under all that doom and gloom!" Guzma said with a big grin, like he'd accomplished something monumental by getting Nanu to say something like that.

Looker appeared utterly confused and perhaps a little uncomfortable over the way Guzma started to laugh, and the way Nanu just looked away and appeared ready to discuss business with his next words.

"Now that you're here, Looker, if you would hand over that antidote, I can take it and then we can talk about those ultra beasts."

Guzma's laughter in the background continued for a time before it quieted as the topic at hand began to be discussed. No matter how amusing Guzma found Nanu cracking a joke was, it was clear the punk was interested in the ultra beast discussion.