She had no clue how she was going to explain this to Ken.
Well, it wasn't necessarily a bad thing. But he most likely wouldn't be happy. Haward wasn't even happy about it! And he had learned enough English to vocalize such, though he was having a new sort of difficulty with it at the moment.
Nonetheless, the two or three curses she had managed to teach him behind her big brother's back were discernable as he stared out of the back seat window of her small, modern car. There was frustration in his red eyes, a glower permanently stamped into his features.
She was so doomed.
It hadn't even been her fault, though! It wasn't like she told her friend to do this… She hadn't even known that he could! It had never occurred to her that he had such a thing, and, even if she had known, she would have never thought that he would use it on a pokémon not his own.
She had given Ken her friend's phone number and address. Ken had even visited the gym he used a few every other session he had with Haward just to make sure that Haward was being treated well by the trainer.
She would tell Ken the truth, step to the side, and let him kill the trainer instead of the messenger.
Because this was definitely not her fault.
She looked into the rearview mirror and studied Haward, happy that, even though he was angry, at least he wasn't lighting up. His muzzle was shorter, and he was taller, though she wouldn't exactly say that he was tall. His eyes were larger, more mature, and his limbs weren't so pudgy.
She had seen him with his flames going on and, she had to admit, he looked more like a punk kid now than anything else. The thought almost brought a smile to her lips.
Then she remembered Ken.
Oh, yeah, she was so dead, messenger or not. "I'm going to guess that you don't want to go back for any training, huh?"
Haward stayed disdainfully quiet. The silent treatment was something he had learned from Ken.
Already feeling guilty, she accepted it.
With a deep breath, she slowed the car and slid into her parking slot. Before she could even turn off the engine, Haward had leaped out of the back seat and was racing for his front door.
He was eager to have her killed, she thought dully to herself as she took the keys out of the ignition and followed him, a sense of overwhelming dread dragging her shoulders down.
She heard the yell of surprise first.
Then, an instant later, a wild-eyed Ken stood in the doorway, blocking her way in. "Why is Haward evolved?"
"Well, you remember Derek, right? Haward's trainer and all? The one I told you was a good guy and you believed me?"
He slowly nodded his head, looking less and less pleased.
"He kind of… had a fire stone hanging around, I guess, and he, um, he wanted to…"
"Fi."
"Yes, big brother?"
"If you want to live, you'll go to your own house for a few hours. Haward and I need to decide what to do next."
She wanted to ask what they could possibly do. Short of a miracle or an everstone, there was nothing they could do.
Obediently, though, she went back to her own house and waited, without rest, for the next morning.
Exhausted, she dragged herself back to her brother's house at four in the morning, uncaring if he and Haward were sleeping or not.
Nonetheless, the door opened for her. Her big brother stood in the doorway, looking calmer, as if he had gotten a full night of rest, and stepped aside so she could come in.
"Pokémon who go under 'forced' evolutions usually have more difficulty learning new attacks or leveling up," he said in his best teaching voice, as if this wasn't something she already knew as a trainer. "Since I don't mind Haward at whatever stage of evolution he wants to be at and I don't need him to be a fighter either, we've agreed to just let what happen not bother us. If anything, it's made life easier for us now that he isn't so small, but isn't too big either."
He was rambling to her, as if he knew he had made her feel guilty and didn't want her to feel that way.
"What if it turns out that he can learn more moves?" she said, rather stupidly, and wished she could learn to keep her mouth shut.
Ken sighed. "Then he can learn more moves. But Derek is not allowed back into the picture. The next thing we know, he'll be using another evolutionary stone on him to turn him into a typhlosion!"
She nodded eagerly. "Okay, no more Derek."
Haward padded into the room on all four, yawning. He saw her and tried for a half-smile, though it looked more intimidating now than when he had been a cyndaquil. "Hi, Fi."
"Hey, Haward. No hard feelings, right?"
He thought about it for a long moment before he sat down and shook his head. "It surprised us both when he used the stone. You wouldn't have been able to stop it."
"Thanks, Haward." She crouched down in front of him and held out a fist. "Pound it."
He did and they both grinned.
"Now, could you please go?" Ken asked. "It's a Saturday today and I want to get in all the sleep I can."
"Sure thing. Yeah, you guys tuck yourselves in and I'll, uh, do the same."
She left, feeling better but not completely forgiven.
She had been the one to first suggest Ken get Haward trained. Haward wouldn't have been forced to evolve before his time if it hadn't been for her introducing Derek into their lives.
She got into her car.
It was the perfect time to visit the trainer. Too early for anyone to see her go in and too late for anyone to care on her way out.
:::
She noticed something throughout the next year and a half.
Ken and Haward were really, really good friends, weren't they? She had walked in on them grooming each other before, though their methods were different. Ken had a soft brush and a shedding brush that he used on Haward and Haward used his claws to straighten out Ken's short brown locks.
Not just that, but they did sleep together.
And then there was the fact that they ate together. Usually, they made the meals together. Sometimes, though, Ken would cook something especially for Haward. Other times, Haward would put his meager, but growing, skills in the kitchen to use and make something for Haward to eat.
They always seemed to be making each other's lunches for school. The one time she went to Ken's class on a visitor's pass, she saw them work the kids like magicians. Ken could handle his awestruck class easily enough by himself, but, with his talking quilava at his side, reading alongside his students, it really got the little kiddies into doing their assignments.
During recess, when the children would try to tug Ken one way and the other at the same time, Haward would charge in to distract them, knowing that Ken didn't have it in him to say no to any child. He managed to thin the crowd of children down by suggesting they play a ball game. Most of the boys and some girls chased after him as he stayed just out of reach, aiming for a soccer ball left out in the small field beside the playground.
By the time the school day ended, Ken was two stress levels less than he had been before Haward and the quilava had to turn down two children asking him to teach their younger siblings how to talk like normal people.
And then, at night, and she had only seen this routine once, completely by accident, Haward and Ken would retreat to the bathroom and, while Ken was in the bath, Haward would use a damp, hot sponge to clean himself.
That had been embarrassing to walk in on, but interesting to learn nonetheless.
They brushed their teeth together, each got a glass of water for the night (Haward's with a straw), and settled down on opposite sides of the bed. Usually, by this time, if she wasn't already gone, her big brother would kindly excuse her and she would leave.
By morning, though, she was back, and she got to see how they had switched positions in their sleep firsthand.
Sometimes, the quilava would be spilled across Ken's chest. Other times, Haward would somehow be on the very edge of the bed while Ken would be halfway to him as if, in his sleep, he still knew Haward was heading towards danger.
There were fewer times, though, that she walked in on and felt her heart squeeze with the sort of pain that felt pretty good.
Sometimes, she would hear Ken whimpering before she even reached the bedroom. And then, by the time she reached his door and opened it a crack, his fear would have already been wiped away, and she would be left with the sight of Haward hugging Ken's head to his small body, growling low in his sleep as if to ward off any opponents seeking to hurt his master.
It always managed to calm Ken down, somehow, when Haward did that.
Whether they knew or not what they did in their sleep, she never brought it up, neither did they, and they all lived with their decision to stay quiet about sleeping positions and bed buddies.
Nonetheless, she had been thinking of their friendship a lot lately, trying to estimate what level this would put them at. Friendship affected a pokémon's evolution – how much they loved their master, how well cared for they were… It wasn't the same as leveling up due to battle experience, and with Haward's one force evolution, it wasn't likely for him to level up from friendship, or 'Happiness', alone.
She had been hoping for it, though. Typhlosion's were big beasts and Ken could use something bigger to cuddle up to in his sleep.
Two days before Christmas, she was sitting next Haward and the collection of cookie cutters he had gotten the year before as he decorated chocolate chip cookies to look like stantlers, articuno, and cubchoos.
"Hey, Haward, do you… want to evolve into a typhlosion?" She raised a curious, innocent brow.
Haward paused, stared at his latest creation, and carefully put his stantler-shaped cookie cutter to the side. "If I were a typhlosion, I would be too strong," he answered mysteriously.
"What do you mean, too strong?"
He stayed stubbornly quiet.
"It's okay, you can tell me. Big brother's at the store, if that's what you're worried about." She smiled. "I can keep a secret."
His chest moved rapidly up and down and she felt fear for a moment, thinking he had adapted her big brother's anxiety attacks.
"Do you remember summer when your vaporeon went into heat?" he said in a sudden rush.
She had to sit there for a moment, trying to sort out his words, before she nodded her head, feeling not so sure about wanting to know his reasoning now if that was his opening line. "Yes… It was a difficult time for my pokémon."
They were back at her home at the moment, free to do as they pleased. She had gotten a large plastic swimming pool to fit in the basement a few winters back and, if they weren't up for a swim, she had left pokésnacks on the living room table. If they weren't up for that either, they were always welcome to follow her to her big brother's.
However, ever since Haward moved in, her water pokémon had been less certain about visiting. She was slightly disappointed in them for it, but understood nonetheless. When they were home, confrontation was the last thing they wanted, and her water pokémon hadn't known enough good fire pokémon in their time to see Haward as a friend.
That aside, she did remember Vy going into heat. It had been… terrible. Two of her stronger male pokémon, her blastoise and marshtop, had continuously broken out of their pokéballs to get at her. It got to the point where she had keep Vy in her pokéball. Somehow, though, she was still pregnant. She had birthed twin eggs and they were due to hatch in early spring.
She eyeballed Haward suspiciously. "You wouldn't happen to be the dad, would you?"
He shook his head, the insides of his ears blushing as well as his nose. "No… But I know who is."
She knew she wasn't going to like this, but… "Would you mind telling me who, then?"
"It was your quagsire… K-Ken."
That thickheaded, horny little – …
She would deal with him later. "Okay. Thank you for telling me that… But what does this have to do with anything?"
"They, they looked like they were having a lot of f-fun…" Something unexpectedly hot came into his eyes. Discreetly, he shifted his apron over his lap.
Horrified, she put a hand over her face and leaned into it. "O…kay… Thank you for telling me that. Are you saying that, if you were a typhlosion, you would be scared of mating?"
As soon as the lust had come, it was gone. Haward the quilava drooped into his seat. "Yeah."
"There's no reason to be scared, Haward! There are plenty of pokémon girls out there who would be able to take… whatever you think you can dish out." She told herself she had had more embarrassing conversations with her friends.
Somehow, though, she knew that wasn't true. Haward was still decently young in pokémon years, though older than his living years would hint at.
"I don't… want any pokémon girls, though."
"… Okay, listen, I can't believe I'm going to say this, but I've seen Vy handle some big pokémon in her time… She's experienced." More experienced than she would have liked. How did her pokémon always end up getting more action than her?
"I don't want Vy either."
She tried to make sense of what he was saying… "Do you want… Ken? Whoa, I didn't know pokémon could swing that way… But it's okay! There's nothing wrong with it, Haward. I did a little 'exploring' back in my day too." Memories carried her off for a short moment. Those had been really good times. Why had she stopped? Oh, right. The drama.
She cleared her throat, skipping herself off Memory Lane. "Ken's pretty… special. I imagine he wouldn't mind being with another male." She had seen him take off with a log before. She had been laughing herself silly even as she had been horrified at the log's expense. Later on, after he was done, she learned a wooper had been hiding itself in the log, and it ran away crying.
She had felt like a total loser after that.
Haward was staring at his paws in his lap. "I don't like that Ken either."
When the epiphany hit her, it nearly knocked her off her chair.
Her big brother's quilava wanted to mate with him.
Oh, Arceus, no.
Then she heard sniffling.
Oh, Arceus, no. She had just made her big brother's quilava cry. If Ken came back and saw that…
She wouldn't be invited to Christmas.
Haward lifted a paw and wiped away at a trail of fiery tears. "I know he'll never l-love me like I love h-him, but… I still feel it! And, if I were b-big and aggress-sive like a typhlosion, I'd h-hurt him. I know I would. B-because…" He sucked in a deep breath and looked up at her. She saw every ounce of courage it took for him to do so. "I want him. When we're sleeping together, sometimes… I-I kiss him."
Slowly, she reached out. He shied away, as if he thought she was going to hurt him. Instead, she wrapped her arms around him and brought him into her lap, holding him close.
"It's okay. You can cry. Just cry it all out, it's okay."
Okay, Haward loved her big brother. That changed a few things. That changed everything! She wasn't sure how Ken would feel about his quilava loving him in that way, but she knew he would take it better than if Haward told him he wanted him to mate with him, no strings attached.
Well, of course they would be strings attached. They lived together, learned together. It would be kind of impossible to separate them by now and she wasn't too keen on watching them break apart.
Haward cried into her breasts. Each tear burned like acid, but she let it happen, knowing that she would look pretty indecent by the time he would be done with his fiery tears burning her clothes. The pain didn't go away, though, no matter how she held herself against it. And, with his heart wrenching sobs and her own agony, she cried with him.
This happened to be what Ken came home to, and she couldn't stop the tears from flowing at his pale, horrified face.
"What's wrong? Did something happen?" He dropped his bags and charged towards them. "Talk to me, please? Fi? Haward?"
"I-I-I'm alright," she managed to whisper, a migraine building in the back of her head from the repressed discomfort of holding a fire-type, not-entirely-in-control-of-itself quilava. "H-he just got me going…"
He took her word for it, though there was still concern in his eyes as he took Haward from her lap and held him against his chest.
She wrapped her arms over herself so he wouldn't notice the real reason for her tears. He was going to find out soon enough if Haward kept crying on him.
Then, bitterly, she remembered that Ken was the only person Haward would never burn. That sucked.
"Haward, do you want to talk about it?"
Haward looked up once. She wasn't sure if Ken could understand the dozens of emotions that clouded Haward's red gaze, but she knew it startled him.
Then, weakly, Haward shook his head. "Christmas spirit," he croaked. "It got to me."
Ken obviously didn't believe him, but he didn't pressure him either. One thing he must have learned from his classes of mischievous children was that, eventually, the guilty would reveal themselves and their petty crimes if he pretended not to notice they had done anything bad.
At least, that was what she had seen in his class. Once those kids were in someone else's class, there was no admitting to who stuck the wad of gum on the teacher's desk.
"Since you two are so moved by the holiday," Ken suggested in a warm voice, going with their lie for now, "why don't you two help me wrap the presents I got for my students?"
Without any fight in them, they went to work.
She carried the burden of Haward's love on her shoulders as she looked over once and saw Haward leaning into Ken's side, a distant look in his eyes.
If friendship could help level up a pokémon, what did unrequited love do?
Most likely, it brought the pokémon's level down.
:::
Christmas day was spectacular!
She spent the first half of it over at her own house, gifts going around to her pokémon, giving them all equal parts affection. She would admit to having favorites, but when all of their faces lit up, she just couldn't get enough of any of them.
There was her vaporeon Vy, then Ken the quagsire by her side, being amazingly affectionate and even protective towards her and the two eggs curled against her side – two things she should have recognized as signs of impending fatherhood sooner – , Aqua the blastoise, Dale the totodile, Kyle the wingull, and Rush the marshtop.
They managed to drag her into the basement pool and swimming with them was like a stress reliever all its own from the holiday fever. Vy was off in one corner of the basement in a nest of blankets and shirts she had stolen from around the house. She pushed her lullaby-singing ball back and forth, eyes at half mast. Ken had settled down on the edge of her nest, having been slapped away by her tail enough times for even him to know he wasn't allowed to get any closer. He had already eaten his toy, like she had known he would, so she had made sure to get him something edible.
Blastoise was happy with the waterproof paint she had gotten him and was making messy scribbles on his shell, or, at least, Dale was at his command. Rush was on the sidelines, laughing as he mastered his new yo-yo.
Kyle was upstairs in the swing she had gotten him, taking a nap.
Close to the time she had promised to be over at her big brother's house, Aqua and Dale fought her leaving, trying to block her exit back upstairs. Aqua was big enough to give her pause, but she cheated and used his pokéball to call him back. Dale had, showing great wisdom for his age, retreated to the pool, far out of her way, and had pouted as she had left.
Well, the offer still stood that they could come over.
A few minutes late, she trotted up to her big brother's door, a beautiful snowfall distracting her on the way.
She swung the door open, quietly shut it behind her, and followed the Christmas Carols to her big brother's bedroom. The good smelling food was spread out on the kitchen table, untouched, and she knew Haward would be giving her dirty looks for making them wait before digging in.
He had most likely slaved over Christmas dinner at Ken's side, though she had helped with a few of the dishes…
She peeked into her big brother's room before slipping in. Okay…
This wasn't what she expected.
A CD player was belting out Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Stantler, while her big brother and Haward were on the bed, passed out cold. Ken had claimed center this time and Haward had migrated up the bed to replace the pillows. And Ken had always had a habit of holding onto his pillows like they were security blankets in his sleep.
She stepped back out of the room.
Christmas could wait, she decided. They looked like they needed the rest.
:::
She knocked on the front door.
Rocking back on her heels, arms secretively behind her back, she waited, grinning like a lunatic as she hummed tunelessly to herself.
The door opened and her confused big brother stood before her. "Since when do you knock?"
"Happy birthday!" She shoved a brightly wrapped box into his hands and shoved him back inside. "That was part one of my gift."
"Oh?" He looked down at the box. "Where's part two, then?"
"No, the knocking was part one. This is part two."
Haward padded into the living room, a spatula with a custom-made handle in one paw and his new blue apron on with it. "Hello, Fi."
"Hey, Haward." She patted his head on the way into the kitchen.
It had been five months since he had admitted his feelings about her big brother to her. Neither of them had spoken up of it again, but… it was still there, hanging in the air like the obvious secret it was. And it was so painfully obvious, now that she had been opened to the possibility of it.
Haward may never have said anything to Ken of his feelings, but his actions, how he revolved his whole world around Ken, should have made it painfully clear. It wasn't the, 'I love my master because my master is the greatest' kind of love, it was the 'My master has my heart and soul in his hands and I would do anything to keep him safe and happy'.
One was deeper than the other.
Frowning, she wondered, for a very small moment, if this could explain how Aqua acted around her.
… Most likely not. His was definitely the 'I love my master because my master is the greatest' kind of love.
"I wonder what it could be," Ken was saying with far less enthusiasm than she would have liked, weighing the box in his hands. "It's heavy," he shook it, "but not fragile. Is it a… book?"
"Well, Mr. Coalson, you'll have to open it and find out, won't you?" She shared a mysterious grin with Haward, who was smoking the slightest bit in anticipation. "We worked very hard on your gift, thank you very much."
Ken's head snapped up. "We?" His eyes went from her to Haward and then focused on the quilava. "I thought you said cooking my favorite breakfast was your gift."
"That was part one," Haward countered smartly. "This is part two."
"Your counting lessons have paid off," she chirped. Then she laughed as Haward gave her his most threatening glare. "Just open it already, would you? The suspense is killing me!"
"It's making me nervous too," Haward seconded.
"Alright, alright…" Looking a bit more excited now, he sat down at the kitchen table, having them following him in, and tore into the bright blue and red wrapping paper. At the sight of an actual cardboard box, he rolled his eyes towards her.
"What?" She smirked. "It's not a crime that the box is too big."
Shaking his head he opened the box and leaned over to see what was inside.
She turned her eyes away, feeling inexplicably nervous. This was a present she had never thought she would be able to give her big brother.
She focused on the stove. There were two pots on it, something smelling delicious, and she studied the silvery shine of the ironware for a moment. When the silence stretched on, she focused on the electric stove itself. It had coils that retained heat instead of using actual flames to cook food with. It wasn't as quick as a regular stove, but, then again, if her big brother had a regular stove, even with Haward at his side, he most likely would never use it. Haward was the only thing flaming he let himself get close to and she hadn't even heard the full story on that yet, now that she thought about it.
One day, she left. Another day she came back. Ken went from being completely terrified of a cyndaquil to teaching a cyndaquil named Haward how to read. There was a fairytale in there come true that neither Ken nor Haward seemed keen on telling her.
Then, finally, her big brother whispered, "My Arceus. It's a family album."
She released a breath she hadn't even been realizing she was holding. "Yeah, big brother, it is. It's from the, um, the time we all went on that picnic, remember?"
That had been on the first good day of spring and they had all gone to the nearest park to eat under the shade of a budding tree. Even her pokémon had agreed to come, though they had been noticeably weary of Haward.
It had been the day she had finally realized why none of her pokémon ever wanted to go to Ken's anymore – yes, it was indeed about Haward, but it was because of something Haward was doing on purpose. The whole time her water-types were in sight, Haward was rubbing himself against Ken's side, glaring at them.
And then, when Ken wasn't looking, he went to the opposite side of the tree they were leaning against so Ken wouldn't see him marking it as his territory.
Sneaky, possessive little Haward.
Other than that, though, it had been a great day. Better than that, even, since she had brought along a new camera she had gotten. It had been supposed to be used to catch pokémon wildlife, but… Well. She had thought that day more precious.
And then, with the mounds of pictures she had taken, Haward in the car with her when she went to go pick them up, a wonderful, dangerous idea had come to her.
"Hey, Haward?" she had said, drawing the quilava's attention away from the smiling face of Ken in one of the numerous photos. "Let's make my big brother his first ever family album."
Because their family had never been anything worth taking pictures of. Even their mother, who had cared for them, had never truly loved them. Or, if she had, her love for them had been easily overpowered by the love she had had for their dad. If their dad wanted to beat his son or try to control his daughter, she had never said a word against it, had even made excuses for him. Their dad…
Self-explanatory.
This, though, this was a family they could take pride in: her six water pokémon and his fire-type and each other… This was a good family.
Then, with another camera, Haward had secretively taken pictures of Ken at school with his students. When they had gotten those pictures back, they had sorted through all of them, deciding which ones were keepers and which ones had to go.
Haward had, when he had thought she wasn't looking, snuck a picture of Ken away from the pile. She hadn't said anything about it.
Ken laughed as he got to the section labeled, in big, goofy calligraphy, SCHOOL ROCKS!
"When did this happen…" It was a rhetorical question, though, because he didn't give them time to answer as he continued to flip through the pages of pictures of him interacting with his students, some of the students posing as Haward had let them in on the plan. One little girl had made a banner saying I 'HEART', and it was the literal, one-point-two-bumps heat, MR. COLSON.
"She spelled my name wrong," he choked out, still grinning. His eyes were unusually shiny.
Vy had her two kits at her belly, a proud quagsire leaning over them, giving the camera a peace sign in another photo. That had been a few weeks back before she had given the kits to trainers that she trusted.
In another picture, Aqua had one thick arm slung around her shoulders and was trying his best to smile for the camera as she laughed herself silly at his attempt.
She looked out of the corner of her eye at Haward. He was beginning to blow steam the closer Ken came to the end.
"You'll really like the last picture," she foretold cheekily, and Haward erupted into flames, burning through the ties of his apron so that it fell to the ground. He glared at his hind paws.
She had never been prouder of her big brother when he didn't even flinch at the sight of fire in the corner of his eye.
And then, second to last page, one picture had been enlarged to fit one whole sleeve. It was of her and her big brother only, taken in secret by one of her pokémon at her home. Ken had fallen asleep on the couch beside her during a horror movie marathon. Haward, for the sanity of her own pokémon, had stayed at his own place, though she had known that he was most likely blowing off a lot of angry steam over there by himself.
With him deeply unconscious, she had slung an arm around his shoulders, grinned at the camera Aqua was not so steadily holding, and had used the three-finger sign for 'I love you', with thumb, pointer finger, and pinkie extended.
Ken laughed and sobbed at the same time as he saw this at a slightly skewed angle. Just as Aqua had been taking the picture, the camera had started to fall out of his paws.
Then he flipped to the last picture.
It had been one that she had taken of him and Haward… while they were asleep. When Haward first saw it, he had tried to burn it to a crisp. It had taken a lot of persuasion on her part to stop him.
Ken was passed out on his bed, turned sideways in the center of it, and Haward was his living, breathing pillow. Ken had one arm wrapped under Haward, the other hand on his chest while his head lied on his belly, and he had the softest, slightest smile on his lips. Haward had curled around his head, a paw on Ken's forehead, and looked as peaceful as he had when he had been a cyndaquil.
Ken stared at it for the longest of times. Then, slowly, he looked to them. Neither of them could directly meet his gaze. It was just… too embarrassing! She shuffled her feet and Haward glared at a spot on the floor.
"I'm going to hug both of you," Ken said, "and then we're going to eat the breakfast Haward made. And then I'm going up to my room, with this family album, to cry in peace. Is that understood?"
If she hadn't known that he was going to cry for joy, it wouldn't have been. Since she did, however, she nodded slowly. Haward seemed more hesitant, most likely not wanting Ken to cry alone for any reason, but, at Ken's steady, watery look, he nodded too.
"Good." Ken ran a shaky hand over his eyes, upsetting his reading glasses. "Now, let's eat!"