I know it's been a while since I last updated, but college has been swamping me with work. With spring break coming up, I hope to update more frequently. I definitely haven't forgotten this story, so thanks to all of you who have been reading! Enjoy!
Aurora's POV
As Aurora ushered Moon into her room, she felt almost amused by the whole situation. Both of Lusamine's children were infatuated with Moon, and seemed to be in a competition of sorts. Somehow, someway, Moon was none the wiser.
"What did you want to talk about, mom?" Moon's soft voice brought Aurora out of her reverie.
Aurora cracked her fingers and picked up two objects that she kept by her bedroom dresser for occasions just like this one.
A banana and two peaches
In this instance, she wouldn't need to bring out the second banana, for obvious reasons.
"Do you know what these are?" Aurora would start off slowly, gauging Moon's knowledge on the subject.
Moon blinked and raised an eyebrow, pointing at the fruits in Aurora's hand.
"Two peaches and a banana, mom." Moon stated as if it were the easiest thing in the world, "What about them?"
A loud sigh from Moon's rotomdex almost made Aurora lose her composure.
Almost
"Sometimes, in life…" Aurora began, pausing as she looked intently at the blank expressions on Moon's face, "Perhaps you should be taking notes, darling. These things can be hard to understand for beginners."
Moon shrugged, leaving the room briefly to retrieve a notepad and a pen before returning, sitting next to her mother on the bed.
"Ready!" Moon gave Aurora a wide smile, so the latter felt compelled to continue.
With a dramatic clearing of her throat, Aurora started over.
"Like we've already established, in my hands, I'm holding two peaches and a single banana." Aurora reiterated, watching in slight amusement as she watched Moon scribble notes furiously into her notepad, "Most times in life, peaches prove to be more…compatible with bananas."
For demonstration, Aurora took the banana and rammed it into one of the peaches, refraining from cringing as the juices from the peach dripped down her hand. Moon, nodding her head in understanding, continued taking her notes.
"Now, other times," Aurora stated, "peaches find that they're more compatible with peaches, even though the norm is peaches and bananas."
Aurora abruptly threw the banana behind her and smashed the two peaches together, creating even more of a mess. The rotomdex squealed in protest and turned itself off.
"Are you getting that so far?" Aurora asked Moon. She needed to be sure that Moon understood everything thus far before she complicated things.
Moon looked over her notes for a short while before nodding.
"Alrighty then." Aurora stared Moon straight in the eyes, "In life, sometimes peaches and bananas are blonde siblings who are the children of Satan herself. Sometimes, these blonde fruits fight over the Moon in a way that makes little to no sense to anyone else, but I'm here to tell you that none of it matters to me. As long as the Moon is happy, I'm happy. Do you understand?"
Moon scribbled down a few more notes before staring at her mother once more.
"Peaches can be compatible with peaches or bananas." Moon repeated dutifully, "Fruits can be blonde and spawns of a female Satan, and you're happy with whichever blonde the Moon goes for. Did I get it all?"
"Yes!" Aurora exclaimed, hugging her daughter closely before pulling back to look back at her once more, "So what do you make of that little analogy of mine?"
The confused look on Moon's face made Aurora's hope sink deep into her stomach.
"It's a fun story," Moon started slowly, pausing shortly before continuing, "but why'd you personify fruits? Is there something bigger you're trying to tell me here?"
Aurora fell back onto her bed, clasped her forehead, and let out a deep sigh.
This was going to be a long day.
Lusamine's POV
Having children could be a very rewarding experience. Having children who were love-struck fools was even more rewarding.
As she stood in the bushes and watched her children argue over who should get the privilege of courting Moon, she chuckled softly to herself. It was so comforting to know that she'd have grandchildren with the blood of the Alolan champion running through their veins. Sure, she'd let Aurora choose the names for the first child, but she had custody of the remaining four choices.
"Lusamine?"
Lusamine was brought out of her reverie by the sound of the malasada boy's – Hau's – voice. He'd managed to sneak up on her while she was thinking about how she'd raise her grandchildren in her perfect image.
"What is it child?" Lusamine snapped, "Don't you see I'm busy planning my grandchildren's futures?"
Hau raised an eyebrow at her and crossed his arms. The look on his face was one that Lusamine had seen many times of the faces of many people. The you're crazy lady look. Lusamine resolved not to let it get to her.
"Hau." Hau corrected, "What're you doing here? Shouldn't you be in an asylum…far, far away from here?"
Lusamine snorted.
"As if any institution could contain me." She sneered, "Now would you like to tell me why you're trying to get my daughter to be romantically involved with the one you call Moon?"
Hau looked as if he were struggling to contain his laughter, and Lusamine immediately felt indignance. How dare this boy be amused by her!
"Because they're obviously meant to be together." He said it as if it were the most obvious fact in the world. Right next to Lusamine being perfect, "Would you care to tell me why you're helping Gladion get with Moon?"
Lusamine was briefly taken aback before she composed her features. She wouldn't give this insufferable boy the pleasure of seeing her caught off guard.
"I don't have to explain anything to you." Lusamine frowned, her tone low, "Don't presume that we're on the same level."
Hau raised his hands in surrender and Lusamine felt as if she were being patronized.
"You're right, you don't have to explain anything to me." He shrugged, moving so he was standing directly in front of her, "But just know this. I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure that Lillie and Moon end up happily ever after and all that other sappy crap that happens in fairytales."
He paused.
"Because they deserve each other." Hau finished quietly, "I owe it to them to at least give them a fighting chance…and you do too."
With that, he walked away, leaving Lusamine with a lot to think about.
Rotomdex's POV
Rotomdex had never met anyone as dense as Moon in its entire life. She had been exposed to many people throughout her short lifetime, but she had never seen anyone as unable to pick up on social cues as Moon.
She thought that all the signs were pretty obvious. Lillie and Gladion were practically throwing themselves at Moon (Gladion more so than Lillie), yet Rotomdex's dense trainer couldn't take a hint. It was sad to see such a talented trainer be so…unaware. It was for this reason that Rotomdex slipped herself off of Moon's wrist and called a meeting between some of the most important non-humans in Moon's life – Decidueye, Bewear, Lunala, and of course, Rotomdex herself.
"I have called this meeting in order to address a grave concern of mine." Rotomdex started. The meeting was taking place in the backyard of Moon's house, away from the potentially prying ears of the humans, "Moon's density."
The Pokémon growled their assent. Decidueye raised a wing.
"This density has gone on for far too long." Decidueye chirped. It was a good thing that all parties present could understand one another, despite their varying dialects, "As a Pokémon that has been with Moon since day one, I know that she has the potential to be great. She's just been…"
"Stupid? Lackadaisical?" Bewear suggested in a growl, licking gently at one of its paws, "Completely unaware of the important things in li…"
"Hold it!" Decidueye screeched. The humans – Lillie, Gladion, and Hau – glanced briefly in their direction before turning away, probably assuming that they were just being normal Pokémon, "No bashing of the trainer! She's dense, but she still chose us. Show some respect fluffy."
Bewear rolled its eyes, grumbling something to itself about birds being peckish before turning its attention back to Rotomdex.
"You were saying?"
Rotomdex cleared its digital throat. They were getting off topic.
"We need a plan. A good one." Rotomdex added as Bewear hastily opened its mouth, shutting it swiftly with her addendum. With that being done, she turned to face Lunala, "Lunala. You've been with Lillie the longest before joining us when she went to Kanto. Is her heart in the right place?"
Lunala lowered its head solemnly, its wings enveloped protectively around itself. Though it was a legendary Pokémon, it still exhibited some of the reserved traits of its former trainer.
"In all my years, I had never seen Lillie care so much for another being as much as she cares about me…until she met Moon." Lunala murmured quietly, "I can assure you all that it is Lillie who deserved to be with Moon. Not Gladion."
There was an awestruck silence after Lunala's words. This was coming from a Pokémon who had seen all of Lillie's raw emotions, some of her greatest accomplishments and personal failures. If anyone knew Lillie, it would be Lunala.
The sound of a wolfish snort broke the group out of their reminiscing. There, strolling up to the group, was Gladion's Type: Null. The cocky Pokémon had an almost human-like smirk on its face.
"That's all really cute sentiment." Type: Null stated arrogantly, "But we all know Gladion'll be the one who ends up with Moon. Especially with Lusamine's involvement."
At the last set of words, Type: Null froze, as if he divulged information that he wasn't supposed to.
"What do you mean Lusamine's involvement?" Rotomdex asked slowly.
The air was thick with tension, and Type: Null seemed to realize that as he slowly started to back away.
"Just…don't worry about it." Type Null grumped before stalking off.
The group of remaining Pokémon was left in silence before Bewear broke it.
"That Pokémon's up to something." It growled, "And I don't like it."
If the rest of the Pokémon were honest with themselves, they didn't like it either.
Moon's POV
Contrary to everyone's belief, Moon wasn't as dense as she appeared to be. Sure, she wasn't the first person to figure out that both Gladion and Lillie liked her, but that didn't mean that she was completely dense.
After the enlightening talk about bananas and peaches with her mom, Moon decided to go meet up with Gladion, Lillie, and Hau. The last she had seen them, Hau was giving Lillie a thumbs up, Gladion was offering to let Moon lotion him, and Lillie was offering to lotion Moon.
As she approached the backyard, her gaze was immediately drawn to the congregation of Pokémon in the corner. She probably wouldn't have thought anything of it had Rotomdex not been straight in the middle of it. She definitely hadn't been missing the shade that Rotomdex had been throwing at her as of late.
Before she fully entered the background, Gladion's voice caught her ear, prompting her to remain hidden.
"Just give it up baby sis." Gladion was saying, "It's obvious that Moon's more into me. Give it a rest."
Moon could imagine Lillie bristling at Gladion's smug tone as her cheeks became enflamed.
"You don't control my life!" Lillie seethed, "If I want to pursue Moon, there's not a damn thing you can do about it. You hear?"
Moon internally clapped for Lillie. Though she didn't generally advocate for sibling rivalry, she was glad to see Lillie standing up for herself.
"I have mother helping me." Moon heard Gladion continue as Type: Null moved to his left side, "You have malasada boy." Moon could hear Hau's indignant yelp at the term of endearment (he hadn't gotten the memo about his nickname), "You have no chance."
"Why you –"
It was at this moment that Moon decided to make her presence known, clearing her throat softly as she entered the backyard. All parties involved turned swiftly towards her as all conversation ceased.
Keeping up her dense pretenses, Moon picked up the lotion bottles that the siblings had dropped earlier.
"I have a better idea." Moon grinned, holding a bottle out to each sibling, "Gladion, you can lotion me. Lillie, I'll be a good friend and lotion you. How does that sound?"
Moon hadn't expected her words to cause such a dramatic outcome. Blood came from Gladion's nose as he began to babble incoherently and Hau's mouth dropped open in shock.
"Moon –" Hau started before he was interrupted with a loud thud.
Lillie had fainted.