tired was an understatement. it had been several months since the incident at the soiree, but after a more recent, strange visit from an old associate, bo’s concerns about rocket had only increased. additionally, it was a struggle to keep up with all of that was happening around hoenn. the temple, the giant pokémon, spontaneous mega evolution, the space-time distortions, the unown report people, enamorus, groudon, sea!hoenn, pokerus, illumina and shadow pokémon, and crystablooms.

he’d been busy—but she’d been on his mind anyways. that didn’t change.

finally, he had a day off, and he was going to spend it teaching willow battle hardiness for more reasons than he’d told her about. how could he tell her about the possibly looming predator, when there was a possibility that if he did, he might not be allowed to be around to protect them anymore?

over time, he was certain she would gain the skills to defend herself. she and roman wouldn’t need anybody else’s protection. then, it would be time to tell her and make her own decision whether or not she ever wanted to see him again.

they’d meet near a trailhead on the route. there were plenty of wild pokémon in this area, but he’d be using his own today. the spot had been chosen for the clearing. it was out of the way, and worn down enough by other battles that they wouldn’t disturb much.

as bo and thwackey approached, the green monkey at his side picked up the pace, running over to greet willow with branches clacking loudly in excitement and no regard for the sleepy foxglove in her lap. 

”hey!” bo waved.

”how’s it goin’—thwackey, stop dude...”

the clacking continued briefly, and when bo got close enough he dipped down and snatched the branches away smoothly. thwackey was too distracted by willow and her leafeon to protest.

”sorry,” he smiled at her her. ”how are you?”

willow atkins

☉

lus is some ways away under the watchful eye of camellia, horns digging into the side of a tree. he manages to drill two neat holes in the side; sap dribbles down his pronged horn. camellia flutters her wings and the two share a feast together. willow tries to imagine the pair of them on the field, listening to her barking orders.

she feels she'll be as good at this as she is the call of duty game she and bo got roman. (which she's not. at all. in any sense. she's blown herself up with her own grenade too many times to count.)

foxglove stirs immediately, leaves fluffing out at the sound of bo's thwackey making its obnoxious entrance. her lips curl back, exposing her teeth, and the leaf frill at her chest shivers, crackling softly in warning. she raises a paw, but willow catches it and flattens her ears with her other hand. 

"oh, hush, you. he's just playing." she chuckles when bo steals his sticks away and reaches out to scratch the mossy fur of his cheek. she has a lot of patience when it comes to the ape line, what with d.k. and roman constantly making as much noise as humanly and pokemanly as possible. 

"hi," she says, standing. she doesn't release foxglove, out of fear that the leafeon is still tempted to take a bite out of their companion. 

"thanks for making time. how are you?" tired. like i thought. she bites her lip. 

boruta maher

☉

thwackey watched as foxglove was hoisted higher, finding that suddenly, everyone else was too tall to play. there was a brief frown, before the monkey decided to latch onto bo’s pantleg and crawl all the way up his back to sit on his shoulder. as thwackey reached out with a paw for the irritable leafeon, bo reached up to gently intercept, pushing it back lightly.

thanks for making time.

”yeah, of course. always.” was that a weird thing to say? did it sound like bullshit?

”i’m good,” he nodded. ”workin’ a lot, but good… sorry i haven’t had more time.” a promotion had initially been great news. he’d been proud. he was still proud, but it meant longer hours, more responsibilities, and more stress. there was less of him to go around.

he looked at her a moment, his eyebrows pinching just a little bit atop his smile, as though trying to discern something.

”how have you been?” he tried again, rewording it a little. was she dodging the question?

willow atkins

☉

she doesn't mean to make him feel like it's not enough. like he has to stretch himself so thin. always. and she doesn't doubt that. not anymore. she doesn't know when exactly she stopped doubting it - sometime after roman unveiling what a monster he really is and him still not walking away? probably. 

how have you been? not great. doubting her self-worth? losing sleep? seems like no amount of help at the shop is enough to manage eleanor's deteriorating health or roman's new therapy appointments or managing this larger than life project with Greyson Connors she really wasn't ready for. 

but there's stress on bo's shoulders and in his eyes and she can't put any of that on him. 

"i'm good," she says. "working a lot but good." she laughs softly, looks away. 

to the matter at hand then. "so i...am nervous. usually i just let elisabet do all the work, but that's really just dealing with vermin on the property. i have a feeling battling's a bit more intense than protecting flowers from pachirisu."

boruta maher

☉

bo might’ve been gone for a while, and lately their times together might’ve been fleeting and limited, but the fact remained: he’d grown with willow through the hormonal, emotional years that all teens experienced. he knew her, even if she’d learned to hide things better as she’d grown older.

mothers were especially good at hiding their pain. he knew that much, and he saw it in the way she looked away. heard in her weak laugh.

”you deserve a break, y’know?”

a spa day. something. but he figured willow would scoff at the suggestion, and say she was too busy. he’d have to think of a way to surprise her, and ensure all other things would be tended to.

the conversation was steered away, and he decided not to press any further. his brow softened, his smile turning up again.

”i mean, a battle’s a battle. i’d count that as experience.” maybe it wasn’t much, but it was something.

”you got this. no need to be nervous, i promise. my pokémon are really well-trained. they’ll stop the second i tell ‘em too—and they’re gonna take it easy on ya anyways.”

he looked down at the gang of pokémon she’d brought along herself.

”so, who’s first?”

willow atkins

☉

despite her attempts at deflection, he still insists. it's sweet, really, but she can't help feeling annoyed with herself that she can't hide it better. she's not an open book by any means, but she should be strong enough to make sure he doesn't worry. to not make her problems his problems. 

lance broke up with me out of the blue and i don't know why it bothers me so much. she thinks about making the shapes with her mouth, but there's more than just stubbornness that stays her tongue. pride. a sin she's always danced the line of, but at least in the sense of her accomplishments, she deserved to feel it.

but admitting to bo that it didn't work out?

she shakes the thoughts away again and wills them to stay there. focus on the task at hand. get the work done. think about this later (later, later, later - the inevitable later that always exists and never becomes now). 

willow sticks a finger in her mouth and whistles loud. lus stops his prancing around the tree and flits over.

"lus is most excited, i think," she says, feeling not quite so excited herself. she shifts her weight and laughs nervously. 

"i feel ridiculous. he, uh, knows a lot of combat moves? mostly he uses them to get sap from trees, but..."

boruta maher

☉

maybe he would never truly know what was going on behind her dodging gaze. the best he could do was try to cheer her up. in bo’s opinion, there were few things more uplifting than the self-empowerment of training. the accomplishment of a battle won… even if this was just ‘self-defense’.

he had a feeling, maybe even a hope that willow would get bitten by the same bug that he had years and years ago.

he smiled down at the eagerly approaching heracross.

”hey lus. ready to learn how to battle?”

his gaze passed back to her and her transparency. nervous, like he had been, when he was three and half feet shorter and standing in his father’s shadow. he echoed old words spoken to him, which had become dissonant over the years, bringing them new life and tone, ”that’s okay. you’ll gain your confidence, i promise. just do your best.”

smiling, then, he turned. ”i’m gonna go over there. you guys stay right here, okay?”

he jogged away, and once he was satisfied with the distance placed between them, he turned again.

”thwack. you’re up.”

the branches he’d snatched away were tossed back to his companion, who held them high with one loud, resounding clack as it faced willow and her pokémon.

”lesson one: know your foe. thwackey’s at a typing disadvantage—but that doesn’t mean he’ll be easy. he’s good at using the space, and he likes to trip up and distract his opponents. lus’ll need to be vigilant and work hard to get close for a good hit.”

”you guys have the first move.”

willow atkins

☉

the heracross makes up for the enthusiasm that willow lacks. herein is the same reason she refused to get a controller for herself to play with roman and bo. she hates feeling inadequate. give her her comforts and her space and her habits and her wealth of knowledge about all she needs to know. 

but put her out of her comfort zone? absolutely not.

just do your best. she doesn't know when he got so gentle. so patient. and when he turns, she watches his walk. his broad shoulders, the gait of his hips. lus looks between the two of them and tugs willow's hand, breaking her gaze away right as bo turns back around. 

"thanks, bud," she says with a smile. the heracross' antennae twitch. "now, go on. let's try to do this."

typing disadvantage. really, she only knows the basics. fire? certainly not her friend in the greenhouse. all of her plants and her pokemon are susceptible to it. and she's known some of the grass-types to get fussy around her bugs - no one wants their leaves getting nibbled on. 

so to hear some of lus's bug-type attacks will give them an edge against thwackey is old information that she's only just now understanding. 

"okay," she says to herself, "i just have to think about how it all connects."

because sorting bouquets is just like battling, right?

she wracks her brain trying to thing of the moves lus knows. she'd written them down somewhere... but there's no time for that now. (and besides, the paper is on her kitchen counter.)

"lus, try pin missile!" the heracross' wings rattle and silver needles spray out towards the monkey. 

boruta maher

☉

he’d figured, from her experience in the greenhouse, that she’d know well enough bugs were strong against grass-types. not wanting to insult the know-how of a gardener herself, he’d waited for any further questions that ultimately didn’t come. still, he could see the gears turning in her head.

his smile curled when he heard the command left her lips.

”try to dodge it, thwack!”

thwackey didn’t need any commanding, but he said it aloud anyways. the monkey jumped up, cartwheeling through the air to dodge the first incoming PIN MISSILE. however, the second, and third hit true. Its ACROBATICS were cut short, and each hit hurt. Thwackey was grounded again, and there was their moment.

”stay on him!”

or else he’d be off, speeding around the heracross’s feet and jabbing at it with a PRANCH POKE.

willow atkins

☉

the heracross buzzes with delight when two of his attacks land. but both trainer and pokemon make the mistake of thinking that it's one and done. this is a battle. and bo wastes no time with ordering thwackey in on the offensive. 

thwackey comes in fast and lus is slow to defend. the attack may not be very effective against him, but that doesn't mean he still doesn't earn a nasty whack on his arm. he rattles and that buzzing noise gets louder.

she can't remember what else he knows, but it doesn't matter. her halfhearted cry for another pin missile goes unheard as lus stamps his feet and tries to ram his pronged horn into thwackey with an attempted brick break. 

boruta maher

☉

willow’s heracross was more enthusiastic about this than its trainer. that much bo could see clearly. a fighting spirit was important, but would it be able to learn?

still bouncing around, thwackey was about to evade the powerful BRICK BREAK that came swinging towards it. nimbly, the monkey leapt onto the heracross’s beak and then into the air, somersaulting to land behind its opponent.

bo might not have heard willow’s command, but he’d been watching. seen her lips move, without the power to project.

”louder, will. heracross needs to know who’s in charge. you gotta mean it.”

willow atkins

☉

frustration wells and she watches helplessly as lus continues to ignore her. not that he's really actively ignoring her because she's floundering and can't find the right words. her cheeks puff out. her brows furrow. she hasn't felt this bad since...

rather than go under, she sucks in a breath, takes bo's criticism in stride, and smacks her hands together. the clap startles lus, who turns right as thwackey lands behind him. 

lus is too slow, the thwackey too agile. but it's had to get close to land a hit.

she steels herself. "lus! stand your ground!" the heracross looks uneasy, but raises his claws, eyes narrowing at the thwackey. her voice still shakes as she calls out orders. 

and if thwackey comes back in for another hit, she'll order a close combat. 

boruta maher

☉

willow did not look happy—but that didn’t discourage bo. he knew that new trainers reacted to challenge and discomfort in a variety of ways when they were learning how to battle. getting angry and frustrated was hardly the worst. it meant she cared, at least, right?

when she finally found her words, bo grinned, calling, ”good!”

thwackey was still going without command, hopping around heracross’ ankles. one of its sticks was pulled back for a solid branch poke before it was suddenly flung out of its hand. the monkey gave a startled cry as the hits from close combat continued to rain down.

bo clapped despite his thwackey’s surprise and misfortune.

”keep going!”

thwackey struggled under the pummeling, unable to counter quickly enough.

willow atkins

☉