You take, what is perhaps, the best shower of your life, even if it is somewhat filled with guilty thoughts of how worried Alana and Garret probably are. You try to assuage them by telling yourself you'll only stay as long as you need to. But, that's already a lie, isn't it? You could go now, couldn't you? But you wanted to make sure Guzma recovered alright. Yes, you tell yourself, you've got to do that, and so you must stay longer. Garret's a grown man and Alana wasn't a small child anymore; she's a teenager even! They'd be fine and what you're doing is fine. Right?

Well, at least the shower is right. You emerge feeling like a new woman, fresh clothes and all. You head downstairs to the kitchen, guilt assaulting you again as you admit to yourself that you already almost feel at home here. But that inner voice harassing you for being a terrible sister and (maybe, sorta) girlfriend is quieted when you open the double doors of the dining hall. You're greeted warmly by every member of Team Skull in there, all thankful for how you'd brought their boss back, saving him from being killed outside the border. You're a little perturbed at everyone's gratefulness over an act that you didn't even think twice about. If there had been other visitors in the past, what were they like if kindness from you is so praised?

You sit with Plumeria, who's reputation of being Team Skull's big sister you're beginning to understand more and more. And you certainly seem to have made it onto her good side. "Hey, girlie," she greets you. "You doing alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." You had sustained a few bruises and cuts from the activities of the night before, but you know that's nothing compared to what happened to their boss. You swallow before asking, letting the pause hang in the air, not wanting to sound too eager. "How's Guzma?"

"Well, he'll definitely be down for a while, but it's better than being dead, right? He's made it through the night, so he's out of danger I suppose. Luckily we seem to recover kinda quickly under this curse. But that was probably the longest he's ever been beyond the border so he was hurt pretty bad."

"Recover quickly?"

"Sorta, yeah. Faster than humans anyway. Doesn't mean it won't take some time, just won't take as long as it'd take someone not cursed. Going beyond that boundary? Leaves injuries both inside and out. Last time I saw someone hurt that bad, took about two weeks to fully recover. A human would probably die."

You chew slowly, taking this in. The curse does indeed seem to have a few benefits, even if its drawbacks are pretty severe. You find yourself wondering how many would come keep Guzma company while he recovers... and if he'd be ok with your company. You quietly curse your own uncontrollable curiosity. There's a lot within Po Town that you'd love to know more about, and despite previous misgivings, you find that you'd also like to better know the man at the center of the stories you've heard. "Um," you begin, wishing you could find a way to not make this sound weird and a little out of nowhere. "Could I - could I see him?"

Plumeria stops chewing and looks at you. "You... want to see Guzma?"

You feel a slight blush rise in your cheeks. "I mean, well, he did save me and all."

She starts chewing again, smiling. "I'm sure he'll be pleasantly surprised."

"Hey, she doesn't seem to hate me, right? So, that's a start," he says, finally clean, clothed, and resting in his room. He feels like hell, but he keeps remembering the gentle way she'd taken care of his wounds and he finds that it brings him some solace.

"Sure is, boss!" Liam tells him. Since Guzma's throne is currently vacated, Liam is sprawled on it. "Knew you had it in you!"

"Well uh, let's not get too far ahead of ourselves here." Guzma rubs at his undercut, feeling unsure. "Doesn't mean it'll go anywhere."

Liam shrugs. "Anywhere's always gotta start with somewhere."

"Yeah, it's so easy, huh? If that's right then how are things going with Ethan?"

Liam falls off the throne.

"That's about what I thought. You've been trapped here for how many years with him, and you think I'm gonna make progress with this girl in a couple days?"

"That ain't the same!" he says getting off the floor.

"Yeah, it sure ain't. 'Fall in love with this random girl, and get her to love you before your enchanted pokemon dies.' No pressure, right?"

"Feelings are weird, boss. Maybe you're overthinking it."

"Maybe you are too."

Liam sits back on the throne. "We ain't talkin about me."

"Well it beats talking about me," he looks at Liam more seriously now. "You ever gonna move past what happened?"

Liam looks away uncomfortably. "Dunno."

"That why you're hanging out here?"

"Hey, you're my pal, boss! Not gonna leave ya on your own. I know what that's like. Even if this whole thing turned out a little differently for you."

"Yeah, well, her coming back don't mean it's gonna turn out all that different," Guzma sighs. "Let's just forget about something like that happening, alright? It seems pretty unlikely and I don't wanna get anyone's hopes up."

"Ok, but just so you know, Plumes says she wants to come see you."

"You're shittin me."

You're starting to feel a little guilty over this too. You know what they're all hoping and you don't want to get those hopes up. That's not what this is. You just want to talk to him some more; get to know him. Make a new, interesting friend who just happens to lead a cursed gang, and is maybe kind of attractive, but also kind of an ass. No, this is nothing more than getting as close to this supernatural occurrence as you can. Because when else would you get the chance? It's one of your novels come to life and it's something that would never happen in Tapu Village. That's all this is. You're just chasing the magic you've lost.

Plumeria's leading you up to his room now, and she seems barely able to contain how pleased she is. She opens the door and reveals a bedroom with a large bed that Guzma's resting on. Behind him is a shelving unit with far too many empty bottles, making you wonder how often he drinks. But the most noticeable thing in the room is what appears to be a makeshift throne that Liam is currently lounging on.

"Are you serious?" you can't help but ask.

Guzma crosses his arms. "Hey, if you're gonna be boss, you might as well go all the way."

"Aesthetics," says Liam from his perch. "Shit's important."

Plumeria drags a chair into the room and sets it by Guzma's bed. "What's important right now is that you get out," she tells Liam.

"Oh, wait! You don't have to -" you start, but then both Plumeria and Liam are gone out the door and you're left standing in the room alone with Guzma.

You swallow, and then sit down in the chair, feeling uneasy. "I never meant that they had to leave."

"Yeah, well... you know."

You look at him confused. "Know what?"

"What they are, uh, trying to do." His nervous habit of rubbing the back of his neck strikes again.

"Oh." You feel a slight panic rising in you. You hadn't really expected this subject to come up. Then again, you also weren't expecting to be left alone with him. You cast your eyes anywhere but Guzma. Could this be any more awkward? "About that..."

"Don't - don't worry about it ok. Just forget about all of that. Seriously."

"Alright," you say slowly. If he's ok with breezing past the idea of the two of you getting together in any way, you were too. "So, how are you?"

"Eh, I've been worse," he says waving it off.

"Really?"

"Well, no. But I've seen worse."

"Yeah, Plumeria sorta mentioned it took someone else a couple weeks to recover after something similar."

"She's talking about Liam. Now that, was the worst I've seen."

"Liam?"

"That colony of Araquanid have been around almost as long as the curse. Liam had his own rescue mission go wrong with them and the border a while back."

"Rescue mission for who?"

"What, you think you're the first outsider to come here? Nah there's been a few over the years."

Right, other visitors. Well, you suppose the rumors of Po Town had to come from somewhere. And what exactly happened with Liam? You look at him expectantly.

"What - what you wanna hear about Liam? I'm not sure that I should - it's not really my -" he sighs. "Long story short: there was a guy who wandered into here. Him and Liam had a thing going, guy left, got attacked, Liam saved him, and he left Liam beyond the border to die. Me and Plumes dragged him back and we didn't think he'd make it."

You're a bit stunned for a moment. So that was why they acted like the fact that you came back and brought Guzma with you was so remarkable. It was a story that was almost played out twice. "And Liam's ok now?"

"I mean, he recovered. But uh, something like that kinda leaves marks you can't see, you know?"

You nod, and a thought occurs to you. "But if there's been other visitors, how come none of them broke the curse?"

"Things don't always work out how ya want them to, princess. I ain't exactly Prince Charming. It's not like we've had a ton of visitors, anyway. You're the first in a long time."

"Well, why not someone already in here? Plumeria?"

Guzma laughs. "Now that would have been too easy, huh? Nah, had to be someone outside of all the misdoings we've done. And Plumes? She's more like a sister."

You go quiet, partly wishing you hadn't brought up the curse again and it's implications.

He seems to notice your feelings of awkwardness reemerging. "But enough about that, right? You wanna entertain your boy for a while? Tell me about where you come from?"

So you tell him about Tapu Village, conveniently skipping over Garret, and doing your best not to feel guilty about the sister you're missing.

Guzma doesn't leave his room much for a few days, not even at night after the transformation. He rests, letting everything heal. Plumeria checks on him often, and Liam hardly leaves his side, but there's something that seems to happen to all the grunts at night after becoming Lycanrocs; some call of the wild that makes running around the town and outskirts irresistible. This leaves the task of checking on Guzma up to you.

He's often sleeping, as whatever accelerated healing they've been granted seems to require that, but when you find that he's awake, he seems... grateful for someone to talk to, so you stick around a while for conversation. You haven't talked about anything too serious since Liam and the curse were brought up, but instead your talks have been more basic. It's mostly been about likes and dislikes - they're the kind of conversations you have with someone you don't quite know well enough yet. But they're entertaining enough and, you admit to yourself, you greatly enjoy gently teasing him every chance you get. You're realizing that he enjoys it too.

The third night you stay longer than intended, and at some point become comfortable enough talking to him (even as he's in Lycanroc form) that you move to sitting at the end of his bed. You become drowsy as the night wears on, and eventually you fall asleep sprawled out near his feet. He passes out too, even through the transformation. You both stay asleep until the sound of the door opening wakes you.

"Guzma, you awake? I-" Plumeria halts when she comes upon the two of you sleepily looking at her. It's nothing even remotely suggestive as he's under the covers, and you aren't, and you're not even laying next to him, but your face reddens as if you'd been caught doing something anyway.

Plumeria's reaction doesn't help. Her face splits into a grin, and she closes the door, leaving you there.

You groan and quickly remove yourself from the bed.

But that morning leaves him well enough to come downstairs, so you decide to go down to the kitchen together. You wait in the hallway for him to get dressed, and then make your way to those double doors.

As is to be expected, the sight of the two of you entering the dining hall together causes quite a commotion. There's cheers and hooting and hollering from the grunts who've gathered to eat breakfast. Guzma looks just as mortified as you feel and he does his best to try and get the entirety of Team Skull to calm down, telling them that it's not what it looks like. But in the next moment they're practically mobbing him, asking him how he is and if he's going to be alright. You're impressed, once again, to realize how much they seem to care for their leader.

Eventually you make your way past the always overeager team, and into the kitchen, where you're faced with the enchanted pantry again.

"How exactly does this work anyway?"

Guzma shrugs. "Near as we can tell, it just seems to pick up on whatever food or drink you're thinking of." He closes the door of the cupboard. "Thinkin of something?"

You nod, and when he opens the door again, there are two steaming cups of Tapu Coco. One with a pile of whipped cream on the top and one without.

He looks at you, laughing. "Guess we both had the same idea."

"Tapu Coco is probably my favorite drink," you say, taking the cup with whipped cream.

"Hey, mine too!" He takes his cup and gestures to yours. "You can keep all that nasty whipped cream though."

"But this is what makes it!"

"It's what ruins it!"

"Who knew your poor tastes went beyond just your clothing choices," you tease him.

"Ouch, you always gotta go right for the jugular, huh?" he says, holding the door open to the dining hall for you. "You'd make a pretty good Lycanroc."

"Hey I'll keep my whipped cream, you keep your curse, Big Bad Wolf."

You find a table, and he sits a little too close to you, one of his knees grazing yours occasionally as you sit sipping your drinks. You're quiet, aware that many of the grunts are casting glances your way, or excitedly whispering at their tables. You look over at Guzma to catch him staring at you over the top of his Tapu Coco. He smiles, and you smile back, bringing your own cup to your lips. There's another brush of knees and you find that you don't mind the closeness at all.