"I didn't realize that you had so many pillows in the station here." Looker commented as he held up the one that had struck him in the face.
"The Meowth like them." Nanu offered with a small shrug. "It's kind of a hassle if they want to always lie down on me, so I end up buying more pillows and beds for them."
"I am concerned that you let such small Pokémon dictate what you have in this place." Looker set the pillow down and waved a hand to the bowls of food as if to indicate the lunacy of allowing the Meowth to overrun the police station.
"They're not hurting anyone." Nanu carefully leaned over and wrangled a Meowth, which dutifully curled up on his lap. "They don't care who I am or anything. It's nice, to not have someone judge you for what you've done in the past."
"Nanu..."
"But we're not here to talk about my living situation. It's a talk that can be saved for another day, if necessary."
"Indeed...but still..."
Nanu lifted his head to silently meet Looker's serious gaze and gave a small shake of his head.
Looker frowned but dropped the topic and held out a bottle instead.
Nanu accepted the antidote and drank it down, shaking his head again as he watched Looker pace around. "Take a seat before I have Persian sit on you."
At the sound of its trainer's voice, Persian perked up from where it was sprawled over Guzma's waist. Persian looked at Nanu, and then turned its eyes on Looker. The feline Pokémon squeezed its eyes shut and began to purr, clearly liking the idea.
Looker hastily sat down on a chair and Nanu couldn't help but smile at his Pokemon's obvious disappointment.
Nanu rested his left hand over the side of the chair and offered the hand out for Persian. The Pokémon immediately got off a Guzma, drawing out a grunt from the punk at the suddenness of the Pokémon moving. A few Meowth took Persian's place, causing Guzma to grumble a few choice words even as he pet the Meowth anyway.
Persian went straight over to the side the plush chair and laid down, the feline Pokémon lifting its chin up to allow Nanu to rest his hand on its head.
Nanu gave Persian's head a pat and the Meowth on his lap a scratch behind the ear before he went back to studying Looker. "What do you want from me?"
"You know what I want. What I want to ask. It has to do with the Ultra Beasts, as I mentioned in my letter." Looker briefly settled his gaze on Nanu's bandaged side, "If you recall, we spoke briefly about Symbiont 01. Nihilego. The beast that gave you that wound."
"What about it?" Nanu asked, his hand resting heavier against Persian's head, which elicited a louder, rumbling purr from the Pokémon.
"I've had some reports on Nihilego's whereabouts before." Looker produced a small notebook and pen. "Anabel and I still haven't pinned down their exact location. That was why I had hoped that you would come to see me after receiving the letter. Or as soon as possible. When you didn't show, I decided to come look for you, in case you may have decided to act…rashly." Looker jabbed the pen in Guzma's direction, not batting an eye this time when Guzma began wrestling with the Meowth to try to get them off of him. "He was the one who had been carrying you out of that cave near the Lake of the Moone. He demanded that I get help once we reached the station." Looker shook his head at the way a Meowth flopped over Guzma's face, even if Looker smiled briefly, breaking the serious expression as he looked back at Nanu. "I still don't understand how you allowed that creature to get close enough to you to attack. Especially since you have good aim and could just…" Looker broke off abruptly, his discomfort making a reappearance.
It hadn't even crossed Nanu's mind to take his gun with him when he'd gone with Honchkrow to find Guzma. But in any case, Nanu felt that he couldn't give Looker a completely truthful explanation, because Nanu didn't want to bring up the likelihood that Guzma was a Faller. Even though Nanu knew full well that Looker wouldn't be fooled with an offhanded response, that was all the other man was going to get for now. Nanu gave a shrug and resumed petting both Persian and Meowth to distract himself from the pain that was radiating outward from his right side. Had he taken any pain medication? He couldn't remember.
"Nanu?"
"It has been ten years since I last saw one of those beasts. It would stand to reason that I wasn't fully prepared to deal with one again." Nanu said when Looker prompted him. Nanu didn't bring up their shared past, as he already knew that Looker had been thinking about it, and was the reason he had cut himself off before. Guns had been used in the past and it was always a rather dicey discussion. Some images that came to mind...Nanu would be quite happy to be rid of them. "But you're not here to talk about those Ultra Beasts right this moment. You're here to find out whether or not the International Police will find old Nanu of any use to them." Red eyes bored into gray ones. "Isn't that right?"
"Do you expect anything less?" Looker gave Nanu a hard stare, but let the sarcasm pass as he flipped a page in the notebook he held. "And yes, they may have mentioned something along those lines. Though they didn't say you were old. They just weren't confident... " Looker jabbed the pen at Nanu when he heard a derisive laugh. "Stop that. I see your sense of humor is still intact."
"They're not confident...which could be said for a lot of the people in the International Police." Nanu offered a half grin at Looker's harassed expression and waved his left hand idly.
Sighing, Looker continued to speak. "You know that it would be my choice and Anabel's to have you actually join us in this matter. As much as we'd appreciate support from the sidelines we'd rather you be directly involved in making choices on the field."
"I know that." Nanu briefly closed his eyes. "Such a hassle. It's that the higher ups aren't confident that I'm capable of what I used to be. That would likely be the motivating factor." Nanu let out an aggravated sigh. "I might have to agree with them for once. I'm not as good as I used to be. That last mission..." Nanu opened his eyes and turned his head to stare at Looker. "That mission...it wasn't good for either of us."
"They know you're good. I don't think they'd particularly care that your skills might be a bit rusty. They just had slight…reservations, about including you actively in the UB situation." Looker glanced down at the notebook. "Like you said, that last mission of ours together was not good, for either of us. And of course, their concern stems from what happened during the mission back then. And about what happened after the end of that hunt that prompted you to choose to go back to being a cop here in Alola." Looker was avoiding Nanu's eyes now. "I think they would have forced you into retirement if you hadn't left first. When they found out you'd almost...
"...I didn't know that they told you. But that's in the past now." Nanu interrupted softly. "Let's leave it there." Nanu was quiet a moment longer. "I had my gun with me almost two years ago and didn't feel any need to..."
"That's...good to hear. And you're right. Let's leave it in the past and focus on the now."
"How about you start with the reason why you're allowed to investigate the UBs when we both had been on the same mission?" Nanu offered.
"The only reason they let me in on this case was because Anabel didn't want to go with anyone else apart from me. Anabel knew that if she could get me to come along that it would be a near guarantee that she and I might be able to get your help without interference." Looker sighed at Nanu's glower. "Believe me, I'd rather not have either of us be dealing with these Ultra Beasts, but as we've both had first-hand experience with one, it seems better to go through with it then drag anyone else inexperienced in. Anabel is a great trainer, but she does not know much about the beasts apart from the reports."
"…are you sure that the higher ups aren't going to interfere?" Nanu asked dubiously. He wouldn't be all that surprised if the International Police chose to send other parties in to disrupt things if they caught wind that Nanu might choose to involve himself.
"No, they won't. They've only agreed to provide back up should we request it." Looker tapped the pen anxiously against the notebook. "The only reason for them to interfere would be if…" Again, Looker cut himself off, as if not trusting himself to speak. Nanu finished the thought for him.
"They'll only interfere if one or more of us ends up dead this time around, is that it?" Nanu shook his head again, this time in disgust. "They really are terrible, playing with lives like they're nothing so long as the mission is completed."
"I must agree with you, but there was either a choice of going into it knowing what to expect, or letting several new recruits handle it." Looker sighed, sounding tired. "I think you know I wouldn't stand for someone to go into this blind. Not with what these creatures are capable of." Looker stopped tapping the pencil, "Anabel and I do want to ask for your help in tracking down the UBs that have appeared in Alola because of Lusamine's actions." Looker glanced at the bandages wrapped around the older cop's side once more and frowned, worry overtaking the seriousness. "Considering how I found you, I think you understand why I am hesitant to ask you to actively join in the investigation apart from information gathering."
"It'll take more than an attack like this to keep me down." Nanu offered a half-smirk. "I was good at tracking the creature from before. If I knew more about what the other Ultra Beasts were like, I might be able to get some contacts I have to keep an eye out for anything suspicious." Nanu gently gripped Persian's fur in his hand. "Give me some time to recover, and I can look into things."
"Are you certain?" Looker didn't seem to be entirely convinced that it was a good idea. "If it might be too much for you, I'd understand if you'd rather…"
"Even if I don't want to get involved, I'm bound to anyway, being both an officer and a kahuna." Nanu moved his hands away from Persian's head and the Meowth's back. He had a terrible thought then, and Nanu jerked his head to lock a narrowed gaze on Looker, causing the other man to tense. "Anabel is a Faller." At Looker's prolonged and rather guilty silence, Nanu became irritable. Of course she was a Faller, considering the amount of energy coming off of her that pointed to her time in another world after he and Looker had found her. Nanu's wound was paining him, but all he could think about was how those idiots at the International Police were definitely fucking around with people and Pokémon lives again.
"What are they thinking, sending a Faller here? She could be killed by those things." Nanu glared at Looker, "You know that UBs are attracted to Fallers, thinking that that person is near a wormhole or can produce a wormhole that can take them home." Nanu didn't allow Looker to get a word in edge-ways, nor did he pay any attention to the sudden increase in displeased Meowth yowls. "Does she know?"
"No, she doesn't, but this assignment. She chose this assignment herself." Looker managed to say.
"Does she know that those beasts are attracted to Fallers?" Nanu reiterated, agitated now and ready to rise any second to grab Looker. How that would help, Nanu didn't know, but he needed some kind of an outlet right now. He couldn't think very wel with all of the dull aching pain, and this conversation was doing nothing to quell his old demons.
Persian let out a concerned growl and came around the side of the chair to press against his legs in reassurance.
Nanu wondered if his Pokemon was trying to prevent him from getting up and hurting himself. Nanu settled for eyeing Looker, as if willing an answer to come out of the man.
"No, she doesn't know." Looker shifted uncomfortably when he finally spoke under Nanu's withering stare. "If she asked, I would tell her…but…"
"I didn't think so. Of course they wouldn't let her know before letting her come here. Or for you to want to spill the beans." Nanu's jaw set. "I assume you haven't told her so that you can have her be bait for the UBs, and, when you figure out where they are, you make sure she is sent away from them, if they haven't found her already."
No response.
"What's your plan to deal with the Ultra Beasts?" Nanu left the method of drawing out UBs alone, for now. Nanu didn't bother to bring up the past, because he knew for a fact that Looker wasn't any more comfortable about having a Faller around than Nanu was. Even if another presence would help draw the creatures out into the open. As useful an ability that it was, it could be very dangerous for the Faller in question.
"We've been in contact with some visitors to Alola. They had been working with the Aether Foundation recently to create and develop specialized Pokeballs to capture the Ultra Beasts in. The plan is to give the captured beasts to these visitors to bring them back to their own world.
"Another world?" Nanu asked dubiously. It could be possible considering the wormholes but…
"These people. They call themselves the Ultra Recon Squad. They came to Alola on the back of a Lunala out of an ultra wormhole. Apparently, they had been in contact with Lusamine before, but the moment that she opened the portal, they cut ties with her, since she had lied about her intentions. These people have only recently started helping out once again."
"She went to the beasts world?" Nanu asked quietly. He vaguely heard several of the Meowth meow unhappily behind him, but his mind was on Guzma and the younger punk's encounter with the Nihilego. The suspicion he'd had in mind….
"There were reports that someone else went with her, but we haven't been able to figure out who that was. Lusamine has been taken to Kanto for treatment, so Anabel is the only Faller around. Apart from that mystery person. Oh, and Sun and Moon as well. They both went with a Sogeleo to stop Lusamine. Maybe I could ask..."
"No." Nanu forcefully interjected. "I've met them, Looker. They're only 11 years old. You are not going to use children as bait. Yes, their Pokémon could protect them, but what happens if the beasts get by their Pokemon? These UBs, as far as we know, can be incredibly violent. They won't hesitate to attack a human, or a Pokémon." Nanu waved away Looker's start of a protest. "Yes, Pokemon can attack humans too, but not to the level of violence we've seen with Ultra Beasts. Or rather, one in particular. Or don't you remember what happened to MaryAnn?" As soon as that last part left his mouth, Nanu felt like he may have gone a little too far. Looker's expression was as if the man had been punched roughly in the gut.
"I remember." Looker took a steady breath, clearly trying his best not to lose himself to that particular memory. "But perhaps Sun and Moon could..."
"Looker, no. Leave them alone. You are not dragging children into this." Nanu ran a hand down Meowth's spine, causing it to arch with a purr. "I won't allow it. They've already been through enough as it is. We can't risk the possibility of them getting harmed."
"But…" At a red eyed glare, Looker backed down, albeit reluctantly, "Should we at least warn them about the UBs?
"Only if necessary. Their Pokémon will be able to sense the Ultra Beasts. Sun and Moon must have already seen one of the beasts, so they should at least except the possibility for others."
"How many Nihilego did you see?" Looker asked after a moment of silence, leaving the topic from before alone.
"At least six of them."
"Do you remember anything after you were attacked? If they were still there?" Looker pressed, scribbling in his notebook.
"No, I couldn't say. The poison took me down quickly." Far too quickly, Nanu thought to himself, but didn't say that aloud.
"What about him?" Looker dropped his voice and motioned in the direction of where Guzma was.
"I'll ask him later." Nanu said, recalling how frozen up Guzma had been around the Nihilego. "I'd like to be left alone to think about things." Nanu added.
"I can come back in an hour or…"
"See if you can get a meeting set up with those people you mentioned before. The ones who supposedly came from another world." Nanu needed more time to think than an hour.
"They are from another world." Looker insisted as he stood up. "They came out of a warp hole."
"If they can develop a pokeball to capture those creatures then they may know about them more than we done." Nanu pointed out. "Expecially if they will share the technology for your mission and let you have use of those new pokeballs."
"All right, I'll see what I can do." Looker glanced past Nanu, sucked in a breath, and then hastily made for the door. "I'll be back later with more antidotes and hopefully a time to meet with those people, if they agree to a meeting."
Nanu remained seated on the chair, blinking a little in surprise at how hastily Looker had made himself scarce. Odd. The other man didn't usually get intimidated by…
A puff of breath tickled the side of his ear as Guzma spoke very close by.
"What the hell is going on?"
Unfortunately for Guzma, Nanu was keyed up after the discussion and did the only thing his mind allowed him to. He reached back despite the tug on the stitches in his side, grabbed Guzma, and pulled. The suddenness caused the punk to lose his balance and fall over the chair and onto the floor of the station on his back. Nanu let go when he realized what he had done, but in this case, Guzma merely laughed it off and got to his feet.
"Crazy old man." Guzma huffed before he grinned and decided loom over Nanu, hands on either side of the chair.
Nanu would have been against whatever the punk had in mind had it been a rickety chair, but it was a nice solid plush one that the Meowth loved. Nanu wasn't sure how to feel being trapped on the chair with a warm body close to him that wasn't a Pokémon.
"You are way too wired for an injured man." Guzma teased.
Nanu made a non-committal sound, and reached over to jab Guzma in the back of one knee, drawing a funny sound out of the punk, but otherwise not budging him.
"Gotta do better than that." Guzma said. When he merely saw an unimpressed look, the punk kept talking. "So, since you're not going anywhere, what the fuck is a Faller? It sounds kinda ominous."
"Didn't you hear everything?" Nanu asked, tilting his head up to meet Guzma's gaze.
"No, your damn cats were purring and hissing and meowing too much for me to hear everything." Guzma snorted. "You encourage that kind of behavior?"
"You're acting like one right now." Nanu pointed out, moving his hand from Guzma's knee to give the thigh a squeeze, drawing a funny sound from Guzma. Nanu blinked down at the limb, and his lips twitched in a half smirk.
"What is so damn funny?"
"You." Nanu said, and gave Guzma's thigh another squeeze. Muscle twitched in his grip, and before Nanu knew it, Guzma had freed his leg and flopped comfortably over Nanu's lap, legs draped over one side of the chair. Guzma crossed his arms behind his head and rested them against the side of the chair so he could look up at Nanu, obviously please with himself.
"Now I'm annoying you like one of your cat."
"Who said you were annoying me?" Nanu asked as he reached over to give Guzma's hair a ruffle. Nanu blinked when Guzma closed his eyes at the touch and seemed to lean in to it.
Well then….
It seemed like Nanu had found something to do to pass the time while he waited for Looker to return. But he also needed to address Guzma's earlier behavior toward him, and figure out exactly what was going through the younger man's head. Nanu's other hand joined the first in carding through Guzma's hair, and despite any teasing Guzma may have intended for the position he was in, the punk ended up closing eyes in an instant as if enjoying the attention being given to him.
Nanu was going to ask if Guzma was going to end up purring like one of the Meowth but instead got something he really ought to have anticipated.
A soft, barely discernable moan.
Nanu's hands stilled in the white hair, and Guzma half opened his eyes as he leaned into Nanu's hand with a muttered "Don't stop."
Nanu felt trapped again from what he had hoped would be a harmless gesture, but now realized was something that might be seen as reciprocating interest. Thinking about the kiss from before, among other things, Nanu let out a soft sigh and resumed lightly carding his hands through the white hair, finding it surprisingly soft.
That Nanu didn't do anything to dissuade Guzma from reaching up and hooking one of his hands in his to hold it against his chest was something Nanu wasn't sure what to do about. He wanted to feel less shitty. Wanted to be able to think clearly. Wanted to be able to make the right decisions. Nanu closed his eyes, his hand faintly ruffling Guzma's hair.
Most of all Nanu wanted to be in the right state of mind to respond to what appeared to be Guzma's new approach to getting his attention. Why Guzma wanted attention from Nanu of all people was just something the red eyed officer was going to have to ask Guzma directly when he was feeling less shitty and more put together for rational thought.
"Gonna fall asleep just like that, huh?"
Nanu hadn't realized that he had stopped trailing his hand through Guzma's hair, but Nanu was already dozing off again. Something else he wanted to hurry up and leave him. Nanu wouldn't be able to get anything done if his body continued to insist on making him sleep off the injury. Nanu felt the weight on his lap leave, and then something warm draped over him.
Warm, like a blanket. Nanu felt he had those lying around here and there. Nanu felt he might have wanted to move to the bed, or the couch, but where he was seemed comfortable enough, and more so when several purring Meowth surrounded him. Nanu cracked an eye open when someone bumped into the chair.
"Go to sleep, old man. You're obviously not up for anything strenuous."
Nanu felt he might have smirked at that, but who knew. Maybe he'd said something derisive in return, because he could have sworn Guzma had laughed overhead. Nanu was already asleep by the time he tried to remember, until he was rudely awoken some hours later by Guzma again acting differently.
Although this time, it was because the punk was angry, as apparently he'd just figured out what Nanu and Looker's discussion had been about. All Nanu had time to latch onto was were the Meowth being tossed off of him and the blanket being unceremoniously wrenched off. Then, Guzma's hands were on Nanu's shoulders, the grip unrelentingly tight, as if the punk were just holding back from shaking the half-asleep cop.
"Why the fuck would you want to track down those creepy things? What kind of idiot does that?" The grip, if possible, tightened. "You got a death wish, old man?"
This was not how Nanu appreciated being woken up. And despite the shape he was in, Nanu was certain that Guzma hadn't expected to find himself doubled over on the ground after an expertly aimed fist to abdomen.
"You're too noisy." Nanu offered at the angry look he received as he shook out his hand. That kind of hurt, but at least he hadn't broken a hand. Nanu gave Guzma a dead kind of stare when the punk got up and loomed menacingly over him like he was thinking of returning the favor with a large fist. Nanu closed his eyes. "Have at it. Just don't tear the stitches."
"Tch. You want to get hurt, don't you?"
"Not particularly, but if it's unavoidable, might as well get it over with." Nanu stilled when Guzma's hands landed on his shoulders again, but this time not so roughly.
"Your face says otherwise. You want someone to put you outta commission so you don't have to do anything."
Nanu didn't like Guzma being able to pick up on that. Reluctantly, Nanu opened his eyes and saw Guzma staring down at him curiously.
"Well?" Guzma asked.
"It's a hassle, getting involved, but I'd rather it be me that gets done in instead of someone else." Nanu sighed. "No one would miss a wretch like me anyway."
Apparently whatever he had said set Guzma off again. There was too much going on for Nanu to wrap his mind around, but it was apparent that Guzma wasn't going to leave him alone until they talked.
Wonderful.
Talking about himself was one of Nanu's least favorite activities but it seemed unavoidable. With a sigh, Nanu decided that he might as well get it over with before anything else happened.
Like Nanu punting Guzma out of the station for daring to wake him up as he did and tearing his stitches out in the process.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
A/N: Since there is no tagging here on ffn, I want to add that the next chapter is going to have Guzma getting lost in a memory that triggers a panic attack (about the Nihilego he had seen in Ultra Space). I thought I'd give a heads up on that.
And in case anyone was curious, I've written out about 95 (single-sided) pages of outline/summary and still have yet to write the last section of this fic (the climax/ending). As of this chapter I've typed out to about page 20. So yeah. This is gonna be a long fic and I'm going to have fun with it so hopefully those of you reading it will enjoy it.