And now for something completely different! There's not enough sacredshipping in this world and the tumblr tag was so weak so I thought I'd try my hand at these adorable Johto goofballs. This oneshot is straight up just minor angst and PWP fluff to get me by for awhile. Enjoy!
"Eusine, wait up! You always walk so fast!" Morty called out, but not willing to hasten his pace to catch up.
It was Thursday. Morty's gym hours were done for the day in Ecruteak, and Thursday meant it was time for the polar-opposite long-time friends to be on their way to the café in Olivine to get dinner and work on their respective projects for the evening. Morty's League reports were due on Fridays, and Eusine had taken on some genuine research of Johto lore, so this had become something of a tradition for them. That being said, despite this being something of a tradition, Morty wasn't exactly the fastest walker, and in fact, was more for taking leisurely strolls wherever he went as fitting for most of Johto culturally, versus Eusine, who walked with a purpose, swiftly, intentionally.
"No, you just need to catch up!" Eusine replied, flashing a smirk over his shoulder towards Morty. He snapped his head back forward, his white cape swishing as he turned his head back.
Morty rolled his eyes to himself, as this was a common happenstance. "Come on Eusine," Morty groaned, the distance only increasing between them, "I hate it when you do this."
Eusine stopped walking, turned around, and put his hands on his hips. "You 'hate' me?" he asked cockily, raising an eyebrow.
Morty was able to catch up, closing some of the distance between them. He was perplexed. He didn't hate him, per say, but he didn't know exactly how to react. Eusine was standing there, just staring, waiting for an answer, with that cocky eyebrow raised. That cute, cocky eyebrow. He needed to stop doing that, before he couldn't handle it anymore.
"I don't hate you…" Morty fumbled, trying his hardest to look Eusine in the face without getting flustered, but it was difficult, them then standing facing each other directly, with the awkward gap between their stances, "I just hate some of the things you do."
"Well," Eusine cooed, taking a slow step towards Morty, knowing he had the upper hand, "If you hate the things I do so much, how can you stand to be with me all the time?" Now both of his eyebrows were raised, his hands still on his hips. He refused to lose eye contact, peering at Morty.
"Wha?" Morty started, slightly turning his head, but still looking at Eusine, taking a slight step back to renew the distance, but Eusine stepped forward again to close the gap.
"Uh-uh!" Eusine said. "You will continue to back up until you back up into a tree, because I will continue to follow you until you give me an answer!" he said, his voice laced with his usual snarkyness.
"Okay…" Morty attempted again, thinking this through, "two can play at this game." Morty imitated Eusine's stance, putting his hands on his hips, and raising his eyebrows. "Why do you want to know so badly?!"
Eusine paused. He was just being his usual difficult self, a persona he was just so used to putting on. He wanted to press on, but he was running out of ideas, as he'd been running circles around Morty for so long. Was now the time to let up on the self-image? Apparently, not just yet. "Because I just like to pester you!" he torted, thinking he'd won this spat.
"You and your ego." Morty pressed. "Why do you like pestering me so much?!" Morty wasn't going to let up. He knew that Eusine would probably continue to talk him in circles, but instead of being chill as always, that Thursday he would fight while he could. Because that night he was especially getting on his nerves for some reason. "What's in it for you?"
"What do you mean?" Eusine asked, his usual go-to filler question when he wasn't sure just what kind of a come-back to make just yet. "Come on, Morty," Eusine said, starting to turn to leave and continue on to Olivine, "this is ridiculous. We're going to cause a commotion."
"What?!" Morty almost yelled, almost an immediate reaction, and completely unlike him, a sign that he was nearly at his wit's end with the entire episode. He quickly walked up to the now leaving Eusine and grabbed his wrist to stop him and turn him back in his direction. "No! Since when do you, of all people, care about causing a commotion? You are Mr. Commotion! Mystery Man!" Eusine tilted his head down, still keeping his eyes up at Morty, but almost with disgust, and Morty continued anyway despite the disrespectful shift in Eusine's presense, "Why can't you answer me? Why do you always do this to me? That's what's ridiculous! Why do you get to be the one who ends the argument?"
Eusine quickly battled in his mind which route to take. Should he actually try to answer, or should he take the low road and piss him off more? Pissing Morty off was what he was good at…but it never accomplished anything. Sure, he'd laid off on the intrusive comments after Lyra beat Morty out on being Ho-oh's chosen one, but that probably had more to do with him not being Suicune's chosen one, either. On the other hand, Eusine knew he was good at assertively blurting things out, but not really ever completely thinking them through. Should he change for Morty…just this once?
"I…" he started with hesitation, unusual for Eusine, "I don't really know. It's just…what I do with you I guess?" he answered with a questioning tone, as if he wanted Morty to answer for him. Just where did he see things going with Morty?
"You guess?" Morty asked bitterly. This was getting him nowhere. At this moment he realized he was still holding Eusine's wrist, but instead of letting go, squeezed it harshly and said, "Whatever. This isn't even worth fighting about. Let's just go get dinner and get our shit done." And with that, he flung Eusine's arm aside and turned to start walking off again.
Eusine was stunned. "Alright, fine," he called out, letting Morty take the lead this time, "I see how it is. The one time I try to actually answer you, and you toss it out as if it isn't worth your time."
Shit, Morty thought, is he being for real, or is this just him being difficult as always? "Eusine, you know I didn't mean to-"
But Eusine cut him off. "Nope," he quickly said, as he suddenly walked past Morty towards the end of Route 39 into Olivine City, this time even faster than he was walking before, faster than the speed that started all of this.
Morty started to follow him. "Eusine, wait-"
"Nope."
"But-"
"Nope."
"Can't we just-"
"Nope."
They were finally approaching the café in Olivine, and Morty had had it. He jogged up to Eusine and grabbed his wrist once more, stopping him just before he could walk into the building. "Eusine, please," he said, "Can't we stop this pointless fighting and enjoy the evening?"
Once again, to his surprise, Eusine didn't know how to respond. He wasn't entirely sure why he always picked fights with Morty, he just knew it was something he did, part of who he was. It was his way of giving Morty attention, and making himself Morty's main focus. But how could he possibly say that without sounding completely weird and ridiculous?
"I guess I just," he started, his voice quieter than usual, and his eyes glancing down, almost shying away, "like knowing that I have your attention…"
Morty tightened his grip of Eusine's wrist at his words. He liked his attention? But why? "But why go through all the trouble of being difficult? Why be difficult all the time? Why not just show attention in another way?" Morty asked, needing to know. He needed answers and he needed them desperately. It was driving him crazy, how he treated him all the time, constantly starting unreasonable situations like this one, and at the same time, still always hanging around and being with him at all times. And then there was the fact that he was still holding his wrist.
"Because I don't know how else to act around you, okay?!" Eusine blurted out, now looking away more than ever. He could feel the heat rushing to his cheeks. Just why did he always pick on Morty? The more he thought about it, the more he tried to hide the ultimate answer from his thoughts. He didn't want to accept what he thought were probably his feelings for Morty, but he wasn't willing to completely deny them either.
And it was in that moment, that moment of Eusine being in that weakened and vulnerable state, when Morty used his free hand to grab Eusine's chin and to force him to look back at him. His cheeks were hot. His head went numb. He went with his instincts. Morty tilted his head, leaned forward, and went in for contact. Their lips touched, soft but sure, and Morty could've sworn he whited out for a second. Two seconds of dizziness later, Morty quickly pulled away, revealing Eusine's face, a cross of so many unreadable emotions and a face with color to match his cape's ribbon.
But one thing was for sure: for the first time in his life of knowing Morty, Eusine was completely and entirely speechless.
Not knowing what else to do at this point, and knowing he needed to make the next move, Morty simply smirked and said, "We've wasted enough time, I'm going to get to work on my League reports now," and turned to enter the café.
As he walked away, Morty knew we could walk away from this almost completely worry free. All he had done was won the fight, done something completely ridiculous that Eusine wouldn't know how to react to. Wasn't that the ultimate win? Leaving his opponent in confusion without an idea of their next attack? However, there was one setback that was going to play out in his mind for the rest of the night.
He could've sworn that Eusine kissed him back.