A/N: Please enjoy this chapter!

Flint had been in a mood all week.

Lucian thought he first started noticing a change in Flint over the past two weeks. He'd been less talkative, frustrated easily, and lost focus more often.

They've recently begun to have breakfast together almost every morning in Lucian's quarters.

Usually Flint was all smiley and humming to himself when not engaging Lucian in conversation. But lately, he's been eerily quiet and had a rough set to his jaw.

Lucian didn't know what was wrong, but he was for sure going to find out.

At one of their shared breakfasts together, Lucian decided to ask what was on Flint's mind.

Both of them were sitting on a fairly large couch in the sitting area in Lucian's bedroom. While Lucian was drinking hot chai, Flint was drinking a cold frappuccino.

Despite enjoying the meal between them, Lucian couldn't help but notice the frown between Flint's eyes that seemed to have made a permanent home there.

"Flint," said Lucian, broaching the subject carefully, "What's been going on with you lately? You haven't been acting like yourself."

Flint's shoulders fell, "Is it that obvious?"

"Well, you weren't really being subtle."

Flint sighed.

"What's wrong?" questioned Lucian, "Is there anything I can help you with?"

"It doesn't really have anything to do with League business."

"I can still give a listening ear if you would like one."

Flint looked at Lucian; like really looked at him.

Lucian had never seen Flint so serious since he met him. To see him like this over something really pulled at Lucian's heartstrings. He hoped he could alleviate even a little bit of Flint's discomfort.

"You know, my mom's Hisuian, right."

Lucian just nodded his head, encouraging Flint to continue.

He didn't know that Flint was a hafu, but he couldn't say that he was surprised. While Flint did look it, many indies had some Hisuian blood in their lineages (and not in the name of love).

"I've never met that side of my family, but my mom was really close with her parents and her siblings. When she started dating my dad, she kept it a secret for a while. You know back then, it was kind of taboo for Hisuians to date indies. But when they started to get serious, like my dad proposed to my mom serious, she decided to tell her family about them."

Flint sighed again. It was really hard for him to talk about this kind of stuff. While he wasn't as close to this issue as his mom, it still really hurt him too. To know that his mom was hurting but also to know there was a side to his family he would never really get to know.

Lucian took Flint's hand, "It's okay. You don't have to tell me if it's too hard."

Flint gave a slight smile, "It's fine. I want to tell you anyway. I'm tired of keeping it in."

Flint took one more steading breath before he continued.

"After my mom told her parents, they immediately estranged her from the family. It really hurt my mom. She was really close to them."

"I'm sorry," Lucian whispered, squeezing the hand that was in Flint's.

Flint just nodded.

"I've never seen them or ever interacted with them."

Flint started to have a hard edge to his voice and his frown started re-appearing on his face.

"My mom has tried since forever to reconnect with them and get me and Buck, my younger brother, to get to know them. She invited them to my high school and college graduations and many other important days, but they never came. She never even got a response from them."

"That must have been hard for you."

"I feel like it was hard watching my mom hope over and over again and nothing came of it. To this day she still tries to reach out. I'm not sure why she does it to be honest. I would have stopped trying ages ago."

"Has that ever caused problems for you and your family?"

"Never," said Flint shaking his head, "She may still try to reconnect with her family, but she's 100% loyal to my dad and my grandparents. She even learned Paldean while my parents were dating so that she could communicate with my dad's family."

"That's really sweet of her."

"Yeah, she's the best."

"So what's been bothering you," Lucian gently pushed, "Has your mother been sad lately?"

Flint shook his head.

"No, I … lately I've been getting some strange phone calls. They haven't left any voice messages; so I had no idea who was calling me. But they've been persistent. I was about to block the number one day when I saw they left a voice message. When I listened to it, it shocked me when they introduced themselves as my grandparents. They said they wanted to meet me."

Lucian's eyes mentally widened. That was quite the shocker. Flint' grandparents, who he's never met, wanted to meet up with him. What were the odds?

"How do you feel about that?" asked Lucian.

"I'm not sure," said Flint "Shocked, surprised, but angry too. I talk to my parents everyday over the phone and my mom hasn't brought it up, not even once. I don't think she knows that they have tried contacting me."

Lucian didn't even know what to say. This was a hard subject to talk about, and it needed to be handled delicately. Instead of trying to say all the right words, Lucian really focused on maintaining a space where Flint felt comfortable to speak.

"And maybe at any other time, I would have been fine with it. Maybe even happy. But I can't help but be angry at what's happening."

Lucian just kept holding Flint's hand and rubbing his back to provide him with as much comfort as possible.

"They've had plenty of time to reconnect with me, Bucky, and my mom. But instead of all the millions of chances they had, they contacted me now. After I've become a member of the Elite and not even a single word to my mom. It feels disgusting. Like, the position I earned was high enough to cancel out the disdain they have for the fact I'm an indy."

Flint's phone started to ring again. When he saw the number, he slumped down on the couch and hit the side button on the phone to mute the call.

"You don't have to answer them if you don't want to," said Lucian, "You don't owe them anything. They're practically strangers to you."

"I know," sighed Flint, "And while I really don't want to, this could be the only chance I have to reconnect with them; even if the timing seems suspicious. I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet. But I at least want to talk to my mom first before making any decisions."

Lucian nodded, "Take your time. There's no rush."

Over the course of the next week, Flint's agitation only grew.

His grandparents started to call more often now, almost every hour except during the night, and it was tiring him out.

His agitation grew so large that it spilled over into those around him.

Since he was around Lucian the most, it mostly spilled over to him. Though Lucian was so kind and patient with him. Flint felt so bad about blowing up on him sometimes, but he almost didn't have control of his emotions. He felt like an exposed nerve ending. Everything became overwhelming.

Flint tried not to let what was going on in his personal life affect his work life, but sometimes he couldn't help it.

He got into a massive disagreement (if you could call it such) with David Lee, the Minister of Education.

They were just chatting over one of the sponsored League lunches one day. Flint was mostly quiet since he couldn't trust himself to engage in conversation when he was so emotional. He mostly was making small talk here and there; trying to pretend nothing was amiss. But sadly, Minister Lee caught on.

Flint and Minster Lee ended up making a huge scene to the point where Flint had to leave over how outraged he was. He knew he would have a big miss to clean up later but he just wanted to run away.

Flint settled on going to Lucian's suite. He's been going there a lot lately; even when Lucian wasn't there. Lucian's room just felt safer and warmer than his. Unlike Lucian's, Flint's room was mostly barren except for all the essentials. He didn't have enough time to really make the place feel like home. Especially since he was so busy and already had to decorate his manor in the city. Lucian's felt much more homey. It had pictures of his family and friends. He even had letters from family, friends, and fans hung over his room (in an organized fashion of course). It just felt so much more lived in than his.

Flint and Lucian had given each other a key to their suites and their manors as well. It was really just about making their lives easier than anything. Lucian would sometimes clean Flint's suite or his manor when he was away or was too busy. It was no hassle for Lucian since he had the extra time anyway. He usually asked for a key to Flint's place before he left. Flint would bring Lucian food to his living quarters whenever he cooked, and any documents that people conveniently gave him to give to Lucian. Since they were constantly going in and out of their rooms anyway, they just decided to exchange keys. They both trusted each other so there was no problem.

Flint was lying down on the couch with his Flareon, Ember, across his chest while he was on his phone.

Lucian usually kept two of his own pokemon wandering around at all times. His Espeon, Hikaru, and his Umbreon, Obsidian. The two were currently sleeping soundly in Lucian's canopy bed.

An hour or so later, Hikaru got up from the bed and sauntered her way towards the front door. Immediately, Lucian came through the entrance.

Lucian pet Hikaru and gave her many soft words of praise for a while before he headed into his sitting room, locking eyes with Flint.

"Hey, are you okay?" asked Lucian, "Everyone's talking about your argument with Minister Lee."

Flint sat up from his previous position and put Ember into his lap instead.

"Yeah, just really embarrassed," blushed Flint, "Hopefully I can come back from this."

Lucian maneuvered himself to sit beside Flint on his couch.

"You can, but you will need to put out a statement, at least one for the League. Minister Lee is making it seem as if you assaulted him. Though many who witnessed it are correcting him."

"Ugh!" Flint yelled, "This is so frustrating! I didn't mean for things to get this bad but he was saying some really messed up things about me and my culture."

"What was he saying?"

"At our table, we were talking about professionalism, and how to instill that value in our youth since it seems to be not seen as important as before. Minister Lee was saying how would I be able to speak on professionalism since I lack so much of it."

Lucian frowned at that. Minister Lee was definitely one of the few ministers that liked to push boundaries, but he always tried to straddle the line. He never wanted anything to be said that could incriminate him.

"He then went on to talk about my hair and how I dress. But what really got me heated was when he was talking about my wrist and neck cuffs. He started saying how unprofessional they were and then went on to say some weird sexualized comments about them. He was even making insinuations about my sexual preferences and saying I was promoting BDSM because of them."

Flint's face had a scowl painted upon it. His hands were also clenched so tight his knuckles were turning white, but Ember was nosing and licking at them to remind him to unclench them. Flint eventually did and then ran his hands through Ember's fur in thanks.

More than feeling angry about what happened, Flint felt stupid. He knew that the Minister was luring him into a trap; especially since Lucian wasn't there to run interference. Now, all he did was confirm the deep rooted stereotypes that people had towards the Vulcanites (that they were aggressive and dangerous).

Lucian, seeing the deep emotions in Flint's face, leaned in to give him a hug.

"It's going to be okay. We'll get through this."

They both just sat there for a while like that. Flint soaking up all the comfort Lucian was willing to give.

"Let's help you think about something good for a minute," said Lucian, "Tell me about the story of your cuffs and why they're so important to you."

Flint let out a deep breath and leaned back on the couch. He had a small smile on his face.

"I'm not sure how much you know, but every Vulcanite wears these cuffs on our wrists and our neck. When we were considered children, we didn't have them. Around the age of five, we are gifted a pokemon. Mine was Ember here."

Flint laughed while petting Ember.

"Back then, she was just an Eevee. We are meant to train with our pokemon and become in sync with them. The year that we turn thirteen, there are these huge coming-of-age ceremonies around the prefecture. In order to become an adult, we jump over a pit of fire with our partner that was raised with us.

I remember it just like it was yesterday. I was so excited that I think I burned through whatever nervousness I had. I was so ready to become an adult. I had been practicing with Ember for months; so I knew I could do it. Even my father and grandparents coached me on what to do. My mom was so scared that I would be severely burned. She almost didn't let me participate, but my grandparents convinced her to let me do it.

After you successfully jump over the fire, you are gifted five cuffs; two for each wrist and one around the neck. Each cuff has our name and the date of our ceremony engraved on them. When we get married, we exchange two wrist cuffs, one on the right and one on the left, with our partner.

When my parents got engaged, my dad not only proposed with a gorgeous engagement ring, he also presented my mom with two of her own cuffs so they could exchange them at the wedding ceremony. She still wears them to this day. "

Flint seemed so happy and at peace. A complete 180 from how he was a few moments ago. Lucian was so happy to see his friend like this. He missed this Flint. While he will happily help Flint deal with whatever issues he has, he's glad he could at least bring out this side of Flint while he is going through a lot.

They both ended the day eating junk food and binge watching a few movies before waking up and starting the day all over again.

Flint had been putting off calling his mom for weeks. But now that it's been a month since his grandparents had been trying to contact him, he definitely felt like he should hurry up and have this conversation.

It's not like he doesn't want to talk about it at all, but it never seems like a good opportunity to do so. But he guesses those are just excuses to prolong the inevitable hard conversation.

So on one of his off days, Flint decides to be proactive and call his mom.

*Ring Ring Ring*

"Baby! It's so good to hear from you. If I knew you were going to call I would have prepared a bit more."

Flint's mom loved to get messages from Flint's family and friends to rely back to him when they talk. Flint really appreciated it. It was like opening a present every time his mom called.

"It's okay mom, I really just called to talk to you instead of hearing from others."

"Oh, what about? Anything specific?"

"Um, well . . ."

"You can talk to me about anything, firefly."

Flint blushed. Usually he wasn't so shy when speaking with his mother. He talked to her about everything, literally. He's just so worried about how this conversation would go.

But he takes a deep breath and tries to broach the topic.

"Grandma and grandpa have been trying to contact me."

"Have you not been able to contact your Abuela and Abuelo? Usually they tell me when they can't reach you."

"No mom… Your parents have been trying to contact me."

"Oh"

"Yeah"

"What have they been saying?"

"I haven't answered them yet. I wanted to talk about it with you first."

"Thank you. That's sweet of you, baby. But you don't need my permission to talk to them."

"I just wanted to let you know. And make sure you were okay with it. And see what you thought. I know this is all over the place, but I'm not sure what to do, and I didn't want to do anything until I talked to you."

"Ah, well … You can talk to them. If they don't want to hear from me, you can talk to them. I don't want to prevent them from having a relationship with you. I want you to be happy, firefly."

"I am happy, mom. I'm happy with you dad, Buck, and our familia."

"That's good. I never wanted the problem between me and my family to bleed into our family. I hope you never felt less than. You don't need their approval."

"I don't, and I never have. I'll admit that I always wondered who they were and what were they like since you talked so fondly of them in your stories. But I never needed them to feel whole."

"I'm so happy you said that. Do whatever you want to do though. Follow your heart. Don't worry about me."

Flint's phone call with his mom ended shortly after, but he was still feeling confused on what he should do. While he was happy he was able to talk to her about it, it's not like there was a definitive answer. Oh well, he'll just keep postponing it until he has some sort of revelation on what to do.

It's been a few weeks since Flint has talked to his mom, and for the most part, he's kind of forgotten that his grandparents had been trying to contact him. Sort of … They still call all the time and leave voice messages, but he largely ignores them. Which was quite easy to do when one was so busy and had so much to do.

That being said, one day he received a weird message from the League's front desk secretary. It wasn't weird in content, but he couldn't really wrap his mind around it. The lady at the front desk said that his grandparents were here to see him.

That in and of itself isn't the weird thing. His Abuela and Abuelo visit him all the time. But they usually tell him in advance because they always bring either his brother or a few of his cousins with them. But maybe they were just busy and couldn't give him a call.

So, Flint goes to the front desk instead of letting his "grandparents" come back to meet him like he usually does. And when he gets to the front desk, the nice secretary points to two old Hisuians and tells him that his grandparents were here.

These Hisuains were his grandparents?

And then it clicked for him. These Hisuians were his mom's parents! His maternal grandparents!

Flint did everything in his power to keep his jaw from dropping, but he was so shocked he could hardly talk.

And really, they just stare at each other awkwardly for a long time (or at least a long time for Flint), but before Flint was able to give some sort of greeting, someone walks over to talk to them. And not just anyone. It was Champion Cynthia!

"Oh Flint! I didn't know you had family coming in to visit you," said Cynthia very sweetly.

"Yeah… these are my grandparents…"

And Flint would have given the names to Cynthia if he even knew them himself. He vaguely remembers what they could be but he doesn't want to make a massive mess of this weird situation.

"I've been meaning to meet with your family since they come so often, but I always just miss them. Why don't I give you guys a tour of the place!"

"That sounds so lovely, deary! We would love to go on a tour of the place."

"Excellent," Cynthia clapped, "Let's go! I love giving tours. I try to give one to regular visitors at least once a week to show face. But I especially enjoy meeting all of our Elite's family."

Cynthia was elated and so were Flint's grandparents.

Flint couldn't believe what he was seeing. He couldn't believe what he was hearing.

They would be going on a tour of the League. Would he survive this? He sure hoped so.

Cynthia was a great tour guide. She took them all throughout the League, literally. She showed them the battlefields, the kitchens, the stands where people could sit for public battles, the restrooms, the grand ballroom, their offices, even their living quarters.

However, progressively as the tour was going on, Flint was getting more and more frustrated.

His grandparents supposedly came here to see him, but they haven't said a word to him since they got here. Even when he tried engaging with them in conversation.

It didn't make sense to him. Were they purposefully ignoring him or were they just so engrossed with Cynthia's tour that they couldn't even pay attention to him.

As the tour was winding down and everyone was just saying their goodbyes, Flint and his grandparents were left in one of the private visitor rooms.

His grandparents were still just looking at him with a sort of smile to their faces.

And in that moment, Flint knew what his decision was.

Before any of them started to speak, he decided to say the first words.

"Hey, thank you both for coming to visit me," Flint said with a bow, "But I don't think that this is the right moment for us to start getting closer. I appreciate you reaching out to me, but from this moment. I've decided that I'm not sure I want you in my life. The way you contacted me was very disrespectful, especially since you did not speak to my mom about any of it. My mom who has been trying to reconnect with you for years. I'm grateful for this opportunity to see you in person for the first time. But I think that the timing is off. Let's look to reconnect in the future if that is still your wish."

And with that, Flint immediately left the room without waiting for a response.

He even decided to finally block their number. If they wanted to get to know him, they would have to go through his mother first.

Word Count: 3,914

Date Published: Sunday, December 24, 2023

Status: 2/5

A/N: Thank you all for reading the latest chapter of this story! I really appreciate all of you. I'm hoping to finish this story before the year ends; so it will really be in overdrive or me.

Please feel free to leave me any comments 3