Hau.
Happy and warm, known to talk your ear off if given the chance, was sitting quietly in his living room. The ticking of the clock kept the men company until Hau's impatience finally got to him.
"Have you been doing well?"
It takes Gladion a quick second to react, a small "huh" escaping him, but Hau just shakes his head with a melrose chuckle as he leans back.
"Five years, dude," Hau states, his hands casually moving behind his head. "What have you been up to?"
"Nothing really…"
Hau scoffs, " 'nothing really' wouldn't keep you away from Alola for this long. Where'd you run off to? Kalos? Sinnoh?"
"Kanto" Gladion says curtly, but Hau doesn't take offense insteading responding with a long hum as his brain processes how to interact with the guy he once called his best friend.
"Well, I'm Kahuna now" Hau adds with a smile. "Lillie's still a researcher, although pressure has been rough. Sun's finally making money and…." his voice drifts off as the sensitive topic is brought up.
Gladion's swallows the lump that was now forming in his throat. His mouth opens and closes, once again unable to make words come out.
"She's good."
Gladion's eyes finally lock with Hau's, but the Kahuna just shrugs, acknowledging that the blonde wasn't going to ask what's been bugging him.
"Moon." Hau states again "She's good. Still sweet, still really strong, always stubborn," Hau's laughs at this point were just a way to fill in the silence Gladion responds with. "I'm not going to lie and say she's the same though. She's more...apprehensive. Protective."
Gladion winces at his words.
"I want to say she's fine right now...but that might not be the case since you two crossed paths, right?"
Guilt was swallowing Gladion whole as he refocused his gaze onto the table between them. "I challenged her at the League…"
If Hau had been drinking water it surely would've sputtered all across the floor. "You're joking right?"
When Gladion doesn't deny the claim Hau loses it. "Dude, y ou don't just waltz up to your ex-fiance's job expecting a grand welcome!" Hau's hands leave the back of his head and instead rub his face up and down in frustration. "And you were the smart one of this group!"
Gladion places his cup down. "I thought it would be easier to see her there…"
"Oh dear Arceus, no Gladion! What is going on in that blonde head of yours?"
"Guilt? Remorse? Shame? What do you want me to say Hau? I fucked up and I'm walking back to Alola like a Rockruff with its tail between its legs" Gladion showed his exasperation as his voice raised ever so slightly, but Hau felt himself grow upset.
The next sentence came without warning.
" This wouldn't have happened if you didn't leave. "
It was whispered under his breath, but Hau felt no remorse by adding fuel to the fire. He wanted Gladion to hear the disapproval in his voice.
He hurt Moon. He hurt Lillie. He hurt him, various families, friends, and everything they thought was perfect in their small region of Alola. His eyes bore into Gladion, but all Gladion did was shake his head, accepting the harsh words. So Hau asks the dreaded question everyone had been wondering about for years.
"Why did you leave?"
The blonde opens his mouth to speak, but soon closes it as his own mind runs a several miles per hour. Gladion leans into the couch as he tilts his head back, his fingers pinching the bridge of his nose to ease the stress building up inside of him.
It was now or never.
"Do you remember the day before the wedding?"
It was a memory far too clear in the minds of Moon's friends and family. A day before the wedding, per request of Looker and Anabel, she went into a wormhole. It was nothing out of the ordinary; just another mission for a Faller. A word that Gladion despised because he knew it was a farce. Merely a term used to cover up what a person like Moon really was: Ultrabeast bait.
But what usually took less than an hour, given years of experience, was approaching 5. Then 7. Then 12.
Lillie and Hau waited at the Altar while Gladion nearly lost his mind at the thought of Moon getting hurt, or worse, getting stuck in Ultraspace, but as he started demanding answers out of Looker and Anabel a sound could be heard from behind them.
Moon was collapsed on the floor in front of the entrance to Ultraspace. Her Solgaleo was nudging her slightly to no avail. Gladion ran up to her almost instantly in an attempt to see if she would respond at all. He held her in his arms for what felt like hours, but when she eventually came to she gave him her typical proud smile.
She was slightly disoriented, she mentioned capturing a beast, but then she said she got caught in a series of wormholes unable to escape.
The event was too much for Gladion to handle.
"I couldn't ask her to stop going on these missions…" Gladion's hands clenched as his eyes bore into the floor. "I ran away like an idiot, thinking I could be stronger so I can help her, protect her, but all I did was hurt her," Hau could hear the shakiness in the blonde's voice as years of being away caught up to him.
"By the time I realized this I couldn't come back. All I could do was run farther away."
Hau feels his own heart breaking at the revelation. Five years of thinking Gladion's departure was selfish. Thinking he fell out of love with Moon. Thinking he gave into cold feet.
All miscommunicated and misunderstood.
"Stupid," Hau exclaims, "You could've talked to us! You could've talked to Moon! All of this could've been handled differently!"
Once again Gladion hangs his head, but that was enough for Hau to calm down.
"but you came back and that's all that matters" Hau reaches a hand behind his head and scratches nervously. "I'm not happy with you, but I'll find a way to get you two to talk..."
Gladion was speechless at Hau's declaration, but the Kahuna only gives him a wide grin.
"although i can't save you if you take swing to the face in the process."
Gladion finds a weird sense of comfort in Hau's words. He knew that his return wasn't going to be easy or accepted, but to hell with all the consequences. He had things to set right, even if nothing returned to normal.
Moon hands Lillie a cup of tea without a word, but Lillie whispers a quiet 'thank you' as she takes the warm drink in her hands. Her words soon fade into the heavy silence that filled the space between them.
Questions were floating around them. Unasked and unanswered.
"How are you feeling?" Lillie chooses her words carefully as she watches Moon.
She clicks her tongue before collapsing ungracefully onto the couch. "I'm great" Moon says almost genuinely, but Lillie had observed all she needed to in a fraction of a second. Moon's eyes were puffy, her cheeks were slightly tear stained, her usually warm aura was more subdued and muted. Lillie wasn't going to push Moon farther than she needed to.
She tears her gaze away from the Champion and glances around the house. Most of Moon's Pokemon were napping, but Silvally was standing tall at the entrance, as if ready to defend the house from intruders.
"Is Silvally okay?" Lillie asks innocently, but Moon decides to sit up and beckon the chimera over. Silvally trots over and barks proudly before Moon reaches out and holds its head softly. "My precious baby here is keeping Sun out" Moon coos but Lillie's eyes widen at the announcement.
"Why?"
Moon gives her Pokemon a quick peck before looking at Lillie sadly, showing the true colors of her emotional state.
"You know very well Sun will tell me to stay away…"
Moon's statement was anything but alarming. It was a known fact that deep down Moon had been waiting for Gladion to come. Waiting for an explanation, to forgive, to move on, to possibly start all over again.
But even the hopeful and optimistic Lillie thought it was too much to ask. An emotional burden that has been weighing down on her best friend for years. "Moon…" she begins as she watches Moon pet Silvally.
"Do you still love him?"
The question was heavy to say the least as Moon stops her hand midair. Silvally lets out a small whine, sensing something was wrong, but the sad smile on her face said it all.
"Life would be easier if I didn't, huh?"