“You know that’s not going to work on me,” he began—however he couldn’t resist quirking the corner of his mouth into a faint smile as unsurprisingly, Frog his challenger for the day picked out a green pool noodle.

“On brand with the color,” he cackled a few moments later as he pulled a purple pool noodle (to nobody’s surprise either) and even his own Flygon was buzzing in the air around them.

“Now, you know I want to be all serious about the speech and shit, but I honestly—Frog, this is going to be so hard,” he giggled a few moments later.

Anyway!

“Alright, so. First to score three clean hits gets the thing. You know. Win or lose it wouldn’t matter since you know. They kind of screwed up how they consider badges for the League Assessment…”

He scoffed a few moments after that last sentence. Clearly the taste of disdain was still fresh on his tongue. Those sleepless nights he spent with Josh Devlin discussing their options only for them to be all for naught.

“You’ll… you’ll see what I mean when you get to watch the other battles I’ll be doing moving forward. Anyway!”

He pinned the purple pool noodle under his arm and then pointed over to where the ‘safety net’ had been strung up.

“You need goggles or no?” he asked, his own pair already perched in his hair. “Or can you fly without ‘em?”

As his own Flygon circled down for the landing, he then added, “Oh, and no Pokémon moves allowed! It’s only natural flight up there, and if you’ve got good aim or not.”

But even then he was blushing because… ‘good aim’…

[attr="class","samjermain"] “What? My effortless intimidation? Or my undeniable charm?” He struck a pose he though he’d seen in The Three Muskateers and then reached out and gently poked Alex in the cheek. “En garde, handsome.”

Alex had been morose about the restructuring of gyms since the announcement had gone out. Just another bone to pick with Dahlia’s government. Memo was more or less doing this for his boyfriend’s wellbeing, to show him the non traditional challenge was not as dead and cold and in the ground as he maybe imagined.

“Nah, I’m good.” He hupped up onto Nike’s back.

“Get that? No friendly fire,” he growled into her ear. If she tried anything and Alex got hurt, he’d never forgive himself.

He’d much rather have done this with Sibella, but she wasn’t up to flying, yet, and maybe never would be again. Pushing that horrible thought out of his head, he sat back and let her take flight, the hum of her wings echoing the pulse in his ears.

[attr="class","samjerpoke"]

“Maybe a little bit of both,” he chuckled as he took his better half’s ribbing in stride before slapping down the goggles that were perched in his hair down before getting on the back of his own Flygon as well, who hummed and buzzed his wings before following where the other Flygon had flown up.

Unsurprisingly, Jack was on the back of Idun the Pidgeot (seeing as this staff member didn’t have an avianid Pokémon of their own yet) and had the referee’s whistle.

“Okay, you two, first to three clean hits wins! I know Alex explain’d it to ya but can’t hurt to get a recap, eh?” the familiar voice drawled from astride the Pidgeot, who shuffled her head feathers before flying out of range.

“An’ GO!” he shouted, blowing one distinct blast before bracing himself and watching as, unsurprisingly, Alexei circled upward and was hanging almost vertical off his Flygon’s back and aiming for a clean strike to the top of his boyfriend’s his challenger’s head!

---

to score the first point, roll lower than the total of Alex’s rolls! Otherwise he gets the point.

[attr="class","samjermain"]The air around him warmed with the buzzing of Nike’s wings as the Flygon craned her neck and shot forward, Memo couched up over her shoulders, coming out of his seat.

In a blink, Alex was overtop of him, upside down from his Flygon, aiming a strike at Memo’s head.

Memo grinned so hard his cheeks hurt; one palm at the apex of Nike’s neck, he pushed himself up to a stand, brushed Alex’s noodle away, and pressed a kiss softly to the top of his head.

“Oh no, you got me,” he snickered, nose scrunching, as he sank back to a seat again.

[attr="class","samjerpoke"]

The point clearly went to him, however in a moment of sheer cheek, he felt the lightest touch of something brush the top of his head before he looked down and was like—

“Frog!” he hissed, although the blush was there. “You know I get the first point,” he followed up afterward, scrunching his eyebrows together for good measure.

The Pidgeot flew by, and the same voice snickered.

“Look, tha’s a point ta Alex, an’ ya know that!” the staff member guffawed, before getting out of range. “Ye might wanna use the noodle and try ta whack ‘im!”

“He’s right, Fro—you know. Try to win this and you’ll get something special from me later,” he lured his boyfriend, an attempt to sweeten the deal with a flustered, embarrassed grin on his face and a devious wink afterward as he then banked sharply to one side and tried to thwack his boyfriend the challenger once more!

---

to score the point, roll higher than the total of Alex’s rolls! Otherwise he gets the point.

Bird: 1
Frog: 0

[attr="class","samjermain"]Reclining so his back was almost flat against Nike’s, Memo grinned up at Alex.

“Oh?” His eyebrows rose, grin widening. “Well, now I gotta try.” Though in reality he could have just lived there, in that moment, possibly forever. It had taken so long to get Alex comfortable with public displays of affection. The success of it was like a drug.

He sat up with a hup, just as Alex came careening in, and Nike’s dropped a level straight downward, attempting to dodge Alex’s strike. Then, with a lash of her tail, she shot forward, arcing in a crescent opposite of Alex’s strike, as Guillermo reached himself to his fullest capabilities to try and bonk the gym leader ever so lightly.

[attr="class","samjerpoke"]

Mausika could only sigh, what the hell was up with his crazy human? He chittered in Nike’s direction, asking her if the two were really like this.

Of course, to the two humans they had no idea what their Flygons were talking about, and he felt the lightest thwack on his shoulder.

“Poin’ ta Memo, we even out now! First to three wins, ya got that?” he heard Jack’s voice keeping track of the score while riding Idun the Pidgeot, who squawked their way before the male Flygon decided to barrel-roll out of the way and suddenly drop in altitude… what was going on?

The plan became clear as this time he was beneath the other Flygon, before suddenly flying upward with a surprise sneak attack!

“Think fast, Frog!” he couldn’t help but shout, a peal of laughter escaping him.

---

to score the point, roll exactly one of Alex’s rolls! Otherwise he gets the point.

Bird: 1
Frog: 1

[attr="class","samjermain"]Nike responds to Alex’s Flygon with a high-pitched buzzing hum that suggested she was having a good time, so she didn’t much mind it.

They twisted and turned in the air, carving out crescent-moon grins around each other, and Memo felt like he was floating-- literally, physically, walking on air, instead of, you know, riding around on a giant dragonfly.

A second later and Alex’s was gone; then came the laughter and Memo was squawking in surprise as Alex’s pool noodle rammed up against Nike’s belly, causing the Flygon to pitch forward. Memo was unseated and rolled, slipping over her shoulder, falling for a split second before Nike zoomed around to catch him.

“Sneak attack!” Memo said, laughing breathless with the thrill of it. “You dirty scoundrel. I’ll get you for that. Charge!” And Nike zipped ahead, Memo coming up onto his feet to jump onto Alex’s Flygon so he could wrap his arms around him and pull him in for a kiss.

[attr="class","samjerpoke"]

Now of course he didn’t mean to hit Nike that hard, however the way that the Frog had gone momentarily mid-air made his eyes widen out of concern—and alarm.

“What the—?!” he barely had time to exclaim before the other had managed to recover and—

Right then and there a wheezing laughter came from the ‘referee’ of the match, while Idun the Pidgeot could only look on with incredulous shock.

“Really, guys? Righ’ out ‘ere in fron’a me?!” he wheezed before looking away—geez, it was no open secret among everyone who worked at the Sanctuary that these two were doing things behind closed doors.

(There was a betting pot between everyone who worked at the Sanctuary and mysteriously, Claire almost always won every single time. Gee. Wonder why.)

“Wha—hey,” Alexei on the chuckled quietly as his Flygon let out a surprised squawk at the sudden weight that joined theirs, and of course he was facing his boyfriend and—

Well, obviously they kissed. Only briefly, though, because he then gave the challenger his partner a quick noogie before hissing, “Look, just… try for me, okay? I’ll give you something later after this.”

The extremely mischievous twinkle in his eyes meant that something had recently arrived there and things were going to happen, yes.

But only if he got back on Nike the Flygon and finished the challenge!

---

:kekw: lol

Bird: 2
Frog: 1