You’re already here.

“That’s true, I am,” he said, moving onto the drying stage of dish-washing and grateful Alexei hadn’t truly picked up on his not-so-secret plan to invite himself over. He supposed, if worse came to worse, he could invite Alexei over to his place-- but given that the last time his boy-- god damn it-- they’d rendezvoused at his apartment Alexei had been in deep, sunglasses at night cover. So probably not going to happen.

Thankfully he didn’t have to entertain that idea too long because he could almost feel the warmth radiating off of Alexei’s blushing form as he stumbled through his words.

“I don’t, in fact, have anywhere to be,” Memo said, drying his hands and looking over at Alexei with a wink. Yep, there it was. Red from ears to stern. Absolutely incredible, the blushing power in that man. “I actually can’t think of anywhere I’d rather be.”

Memo turned away to wipe up some stray droplets of water and to hide the grin that had broken out on his face like a sunbeam from behind thick clouds. There was an immense feeling of satisfaction that sprouted within him when Alexei got like this-- all stuttery and red and adorable. The fact that he could do this to someone-- that his mere presence could make an incredibly articulate and capable human being fall to pieces-- was dizzying.

He was about to turn around and say he’d love to stay the night when the room turned into a whirlwind-- literally. A pink-tinged wind snaked through the air, knocking over chairs and sending clean dishes clattering to the ground. Memo spun around and was pressed up against the counter by the force of the wind and he lifted a hand to cover his eyes against it so he could see what the fuck was going on.

The gale began to slack and Guillermo could move forward again, making it back to where Alexei was sitting in a few steps. He reached out a hand to touch the other man on the shoulder, making sure he was okay and noticed the grinning, blue orb stuck to the top of Alexei’s head. “What the--,”

Alexei’s Shaymin picked then to emerge from their evolution glimmer, casting a spray of sparkles across the floor as it burst into the air in Sky Forme. Memo gawked for a minute, then shook his head, and squeezed Alexei’s shoulder.

“You okay?” he asked, just then registering a dull pang in his stockinged foot. He must’ve stepped on a piece of broken plate or something.

Okay, that was an answer. Alexei didn't look injured, but Memo knew an imminent breakdown when he saw one.

“Hey,” he said, spinning Alexei to face him, with his aquatic hanger-on in tow. “It’s okay. We’re okay.” He squeezed Alexei’s shoulders-- he was looking up at him, even though Memo was the one standing. “We’re okay,” he repeated, standing straight and looking over at the changed Shaymin, who reminded him slightly of a fawn… a very coordinated fawn, with antlers.

“They seem fine,” Memo added, feeling the tension drain out of his shoulders. He’d been ready to leap into action but was finding it wasn’t necessary. “Nothing damaged but a few dishes. Where do you keep your broom?” He’d dropped his hands from Alexei’s shoulders and turned back to the mess of porcelain and glass on the floor.

“Never a dull moment with us, huh, love?”

“Gotcha.” He found it quickly and unclipped the dustpan, spinning it in his palm as he went to sweeping up the broken pieces of dishes and cups into a neat pile. He was extra careful given neither he nor Alex were wearing shoes. Just more evidence he’d be an excellent house husband-- take notes, Alexei.

He was about to chock up the weirdness with Alexei’s Shaymin as the post-panic funnies but he caught a blur of white and green out of the corner of his eye and turned to see exactly what Alexei had said-- his Shaymin had taken off. It was busy pulling loop-de-loops around their heads, bounding on the air as a deer would the ground.

“Well, I'll be damned,” Memo said, leaning on the broom and watching the ridiculous sight for a moment. "They fly." Then he shrugged, as if this was a completely normal occurrence, and started sweeping his pile of glass shards into the dustpan, as his own Shaymin, still very hedgehog-like, came over to investigate what he was doing.

“I guess that suits,” he said, dumping the broken refuse into the trash, “for a child of the skies.”

He remembered, vaguely, something that Lars said to him once about weird shit just happening here.

I have no idea why Hoenn is a magnet for these supernatural happenings, however I can advise you to always be ready.

From the Phione suction-cupped to Alexei's head, to the mystical shapeshifter doing pirouettes in the sky, Memo realized just how right his boss'd been. He scooped his own Shaymin up and held it close to his chest, watching the other Shaymin fly.

He set the broom back where he got it and turned to sit back against the countertop, arms crossed over his chest. Alexei was trying to pry the little blue Phione suction-cupped to the top of his head off, to no avail. He snickered, and Zelle looked up and met his eye with a devilish gleam in her own. “Ah. So this must be your Oona,” Memo said. She seemed about as destructive, in any case.

He held up his own Shaymin for the proffered snoot boop and then set the hedgehog back on the ground again. It went skittering off in chase of its compatriot, a little grin of glee all struck across its face.

The kitchen settled in to a kind of quiet that usually follows encounters of the unusually loud and incredibly close kind. Now that the panic had faded away, and everyone was ascertained to be in good health, there was a feeling of relief that was bordering on heavy. Memo stifled a yawn. His stomach was full and he was feeling nappy.

“Eh, maybe it's weird?” he said with a shrug, stepping a little closer. “I don’t know enough about Shaymin to say yes or no. But I think I prefer mine like this.” He shrugged again, an easy smile playing over his features. “But where’d you find this one?” he asked, gently taking Zelle’s fin in his hand and shaking it, like a proper gentleman.

It was very strange to think of Alexei-- bring the family over, we’ll let them run around Alexei-- keeping any of his Pokemon under quote-unquote lock and key. So Zelle must be capable of some serious shenanigans-- moreso even than making a weird, pink windstorm in the kitchen and morphing Shaymin.

Everyone recognizes when they see a little of themselves in another being, and the sparkle in the Phione’s eyes reminded Memo a little of himself. That and the cheeky way she laughed and grinned and refused to be removed from her parent’s side-- and, to his credit, he didn’t even bristle at the mention of her having another ‘parent’.

“First her, then Will, and now, me,” he said, leaning forward so he could rest his left elbow on Alexei’s right thigh and still look up at Zelle, with whom he was playing a peculiar version of one-handed patty-cake. He rested his chin in his hand and admired, not for the first time, the sheer size difference between himself and his partn--

--the object of his affections, sheesh.

“How many more troublemakers are you going to collect?”