[attr="class","izrigidw"]

As Barnaby took his hands and placed them over Izzy's fists, it was like being hit with lightning. For a split second he wanted to push him away, to storm to the door, to tell him to fuck off and then leave. He didn't like to be touched like this - like care and kindness. It always felt fake, like it'd be taken away as punishment. Izzy didn't like people having that control over him.[break][break]

But it also warmed his hands and made his fists unclench just a little, and it forced him to meet Barnaby's eyes where he could read sincerity.[break][break]

"But..."[break][break]

Trust me.[break][break]

In truth, he couldn't. Not yet. But he wanted to, and that was enough for him to soften his grip, to sigh. Breathe. Push the anxiety back down, like he'd been doing for the past twenty five years, let it bubble away quietly until he could release it at home.[break][break]

"Alright." He nearly says sorry but bites his tongue, wriggles his hands out of Barnaby's warm grip and shrugs off his coat. Izzy hesitates again for a moment and then pulls his shirt off. He can't quite look Bee in the eye, not right now, but he does look down to his own chest and groan. Bruises - both new from the Arcanine, and old from various shady missions and shake-downs - dot across his torso, and the dried blood around the bite marks on his shoulder look bad, but seem ultimately superficial. He got off lucky, it seems - nothing a good clean, a little rest and some painkillers wouldn't fix.[break][break]

"What a fucking fuss all this shit is." He grumbles. "...Sorry for worrying you. I mean-- if... if I did"

[attr="class","izrigidw"]

Everything ached.[break][break]

Now that the adrenaline had faded, the pain began to set in. Izzy could ignore it when the Arcanine was right in front of him, but now that the immediate danger was gone everything just hurt. Not surprising considering he'd been bitten and slammed into by a giant mama dog.[break][break]

Barnaby was carrying him - unneeded and embarrassing, but it was kind of him all the same. While Izzy's legs hadn't been affected, his ribs ached like nothing he'd felt before, and there was of course the issue of the bite to his shoulder. It wasn't as if he'd had a chunk ripped out of his neck or anything, but the puncture marks from her teeth stung like a bitch. It was nice to just relax into his partner's arms for a moment.[break][break]

He took a look around as he did so, trying to focus on anything but the throbbing, and was pretty easily distracted by just how nice it seemed in here. There was real furniture, painted walls, literal art on the walls in pretty frames. Barnaby lived in the same shitty part of town as him - how did his place look like this? "This is... seriously your place?" He said, only half-loud enough to be heard.[break][break]

He's laid down on the couch and then takes a moment to sit up - he's not dizzy or anything, but just the pain of moving is frustrating. He'd had to deal with situations not too far off from this before, after getting in some nasty fist-fights or whatever else Rocket had needed him to do, so no matter how caring Barnaby was being, it felt wrong to just lay around like a broken doll.[break][break]

Take your shirt off.[break][break]

It was funny how anxiety worked.[break][break]

Because Barnaby was right, wasn't he? Izzy would need his shirt off to check injuries - that's how he'd checked himself over before. But now Barnaby was here, right there, looking at him so intensely. And in Izzy's mind, that was something he just couldn't do - he didn't want the fellow Rocket to see him shirtless and think him pathetic. Think him small or weak. Think him ugly. Even if he was bleeding out, he would have hesitated. His hands move to the bottom of his shirt and ball around the fabric, he looks down.[break][break]

"N-no, we don't- it's all fine, you can see the bites there, right?"[break][break]

It would be funny if it wasn't sad, that he feels such fear at the idea of being seen by another person who might judge him and his body, compared to standing strong against a raging Arcanine.

[attr="class","izrigidw"]

Do something.[break][break]

If Izzy had any energy left, his brain would've been shouting that at him too, but it took everything he could just to stand up and face down the still-heating Arcanine in front of him, as the flames around her body began to grow and swirl.[break][break]

He closes his eyes.[break][break]

It's not the impact he expected - Izzy expects to feel the white-hot slam of the Arcanine against him before everything goes black, but instead he feels someone's hands on him, lifting him up, and then hears Barnaby's voice shouting Slateport.[break][break]

"Wha--- Barnaby...?" He cranes a little to look up at him, and through the jolt of psychic energy that drags them from the route to Slateport, the older man looks a little like sunshine itself.[break][break]

They land with a thud on the outskirts of the city, and Izzy whines just a little at the impact, even when in Barnaby's arms. Admittedly, he'd had worse, and he'd had worse alone, but it felt so nice - if not a little guilty - to be able to let someone else take the reigns. It was nice, for once, to be cared for.[break][break]

"Where... ugh-- my place isn't too far, I can probably make it home-"

[attr="class","izrigidw"]

Whatever had crunched in his side and whatever had happened when he'd been slammed against that tree, Izzy wasn't going to lie down and revel in his own pain. He'd been in fights before - plenty of them having been with taller and stronger people - and he'd held his own. He could do this - no mama dog was winning over him today.[break][break]

His vision unblurs just enough to catch Barnaby wrapping his arms around a mama dog as tall as he is, just over half a foot taller than Izzy himself. What the hell was Barnaby doing? Izzy nearly runs over to intervene when Bee is also flung to the side, landing with a thud against the ground back where their stuff was. He shakes his head to re-centre himself, only for momma to come running back for round two.[break][break]

He balls his fists as everything swirls around him. Only someone who was fucking stupid would try and fist-fight an Arcanine with her puppies so close by, but Izzy supposed being stupid was one of his best traits. If Barnaby could just send out a pokémon - any pokémon, they could make it work. But until then... mano e mano, it seemed.[break][break]

The dog hit like a freight train, but Izzy was small and fast and dove out of the way just in time to avoid it's full weight slamming into him for the second time. He swung and hit the beast in it's snout, causing her to yelp and rear back. He might feel bad about punching her later, sure, but right now it was instinct and, honestly, kind of life-or-death. Arcanines weren't called "legendary pokémon" for nothing.[break][break]

There was a back and forth - her moving to avoid his swings, then leaping in, him jumping back to avoid her, and repeat. Occasionally one would get a hit on the other, followed by a yelp and growl or by Izzy cursing and groaning. Perhaps he was hurting, aching, and perhaps he couldn't see the blood stuck in his hair where he'd hit his head hard against the tree, but he couldn't feel a thing - adrenaline took over everything.[break][break]

But adrenaline could only last so long.[break][break]

He was tired, maybe, or trying to cut corners, not dodge far enough. She gets him in the side of his back with a great head-sized paw, throwing him completely off balance. While Izzy focuses on getting knocked to the floor, she takes her chance to really frighten him off, and sinks her teeth into his shoulder with a jaw so large it could easily fit his entire head in it.[break][break]

He cries out at that point, the adrenaline cut out by the sudden searing pain of the bite-marks left in his skin, the shock of agony from looking down and seeing his coat; the sweater and shirt beneath, and then indeed his skin, ripped and perforated from the Arcanine's great fangs.[break][break]

"Fuck-" He can't say much more while his mind is scrambled like this. He tries to push the creature away but the strength in his left arm is wracked with the stabbing sensation of being very hurt.[break][break]

Aware that he isn't fighting back quite as hard, she takes a few steps back and stares him down. Her wary eyes flick from Izzy to Barnaby and back to Izzy again. One more low, deep growl - a final warning. The pale mane around her head begins to smoke a little, and embers take root in the fur. One last FLARE BLITZ, one last leave my babies alone.[break][break]

"Barnaby, please--!" Is all he can manage, half bent over gripping his pained arm like a vice, and hopes his partner moves fast enough. Otherwise, he hopes Barnaby is kind enough to donate some money so he can at least have a nice funeral or something.

[attr="class","izrigidw"]

Izzy was cute as fuck, but he'd never believe such a thing. Compliments, no matter how much they warmed him up and set those butterflies in his tummy swirling and swarming, were practically impossible for him to believe. He was a good looking, fit, and healthy young man, but thanks to various forms of self-hatred, and a good heap of rejection-sensitive trauma, he never saw it.[break][break]

...It was nice having heard Vic say it, though.[break][break]

He finds it easier not to talk and to push away at that kind of thing, especially in comparison to actually having to think about and engage with compliments like that. But Vic is like a Labrador, following him happily, and not letting the silence sit for too long.[break][break]

Izzy looks up at him, a little shocked. "I- yeah? I mean, no - uh- that is, if you want to. Or whatever. I can't really afford anywhere nice though..." He cringes for a second at his own assumption that he was being invited somewhere nice, as though Vic were asking him on a date or something ridiculous like that.[break][break]

"Anyways, hey, look!" He slips out of the conversation as subtle as a brick, focusing their attention on a group of Snorunt gathering at the base of a tree, likely drawn out due to the chill in the air. He focuses on taking photos, so as to distract himself from thinking too much about Vic. Why was everyone so interested in interacting with him nowadays?! He was happy on his own! Plus when handsome guys didn't talk to him, it was much easier for his brain to not act like a hormonal teenager all the time.

[attr="class","izrigidw"]

"Sh, sh-" He waves his hand behind him. While Barnaby's tease would have been met with some grumpy quip usually, things felt weird. As the dogs gathered and the solo barker became a quartet, Izzy felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Call it a hunch, his gut instinct, but something felt very wrong. Like they were being watched.[break][break]

From behind them, back where he'd shrugged his bag off and left it laid in the grass, came the second snapping twig - deeper in sound, indicative of a stronger step, a larger twig. Izzy barely gets time to attempt to turn and grab Barnaby before the great shadow of a beast descends upon them with EXTREMESPEED.[break][break]

Mama Arcanine doesn't even snarl or growl before diving in head-first - the babies are still so young she's in full protection mode. Izzy has a couple seconds to get a single syllable called out - "Bar--!" - before feeling the full force of 340 pounds slam against into him. Izzy feels a crack somewhere around his ribs, and is launched further hard into one of the nearby trees.[break][break]

As the Arcanine turns around to face Barnaby she growls low and angry, pulling her lips back in a snarl. Izzy groans, just faintly, leaning on the tree he smacked against to give him the support to stand back up and shakily take a step. He reaches for his belt and a white-hot flush of oh fuck washes over him.[break][break]

His pokémon are still in his backpack.[break][break]

He whispers, not wanting to encourage the Arcanine to turn her attention on him again.[break]
"Bee... the bag..."

[attr="class","izrigidw"]

Barnaby makes some good points and all about being "patient", but Izzy hated being out in the cold wilderness, so the pout stayed firmly plastered on his face.[break][break]

He also makes some awful, self-serving points about being Izzy's favourite person and snuggling together. Even despite being used to his stupid comments by now, they still made Izzy's cheeks flush - a reaction he tried to play off by pulling his jacket further around him and acting like it's the cold.[break][break]

"Ugh. And here was me thinking it couldn't get any worse out here" He quips back, despite the blush and the downturned eyes. If he'd been someone else, he might have smirked at him, then. He shakes his head as Barnaby pats the free space beside him. "You're such a moron" - the insult in itself proof that Izzy feels more comfortable with him than he'd be willing to admit.[break][break]

As the tone changes, Izzy slowly turns and catches that same glint, following Barnaby's gesture.[break]
"Fuckin' finally..." He grumbles, and takes a few steps closer to get a better view between the trees. "Seems weird for it to be out there on it's own, though..."[break][break]

Izzy takes one more step, right to the edge of the trees. As he's about to stop, his boot finds a lone twig and snaps it with an audible crack. The sparkling fur in the distance stops moving, and suddenly it's barking towards the two men like a yappy little dog - still such a puppy-sounding bark.[break][break]

There's a pause, and then Izzy tenses. He doesn't move a muscle, but whispers back to Barnaby.[break][break]

"...Unless it's not on it's own"

[attr="class","izrigidw"]

The east side of route 103 wasn't the most comfortable place to spend a night camped out - at least not when you were a city boy like Izzy was. There'd been some word of a Arcanine traipsing around the area with a new litter of pups, one of which was sporting a shiny golden coat. Naturally, a shiny sought-after pokémon like Growlithe could make Rocket some big bucks, and so Izzy had been sent out to hunt the baby down.[break][break]

Also, Barnaby was here again, because apparently the admins had a bet going or something.[break][break]

Izzy sighs in frustration and shrugs his backpack down onto the grass, whining with the tone of a teenager who'd been dragged out on a field trip they hated.[break][break]

"How fucking long have we been waiting here for a glimpse of this piece of shit dog? It's starting to get dark and it's fucking cold. Ugh..."[break][break]

He may be in his twenties now, but Izzy was still kind of a stroppy kid in a lot of ways. Having to stay up all night lugging around a heavy bag of pokéballs was one of those things that brought it out of him.[break][break]

It helped, also, that he felt a little more comfortable around someone like Barnaby than he did the other rockets - but he was much less likely to admit that part.[break][break]

He was so busy complaining, in fact, that he was too distracted to notice the faint sparkle of a golden coat between the trees behind him.

[attr="class","izrigidw"]

The little Impidimp, well and truly got, seemed to surrender entirely. Maybe it was something about Barnaby's atmosphere that calmed the creature and stopped it from attempting to chomp it's way through the situation like it had with the decorations and gifts. The situated was sorted simply and easily enough, despite all the lead-up, and soon the little wily pokémon was tucked up safe in one of Bee's pokéballs.[break][break]

"Good job - still no fuckin' clue how it managed to get in here for long enough to cause all this fuckin' trouble, though"[break][break]

After all the hubbub, of course, came the tidying up. Admittedly, it didn't take hugely long, and Izzy was pretty used to tidying up after small pokémon that liked to make way more mess than they should physically be able to. Most of the time was filled with quiet, a few conversations - mostly at Barnaby's behest - and Izzy was ready to get sorted and head home for the evening - the idea of sleeping on the sub always made him feel dirty. Except...[break][break]

Let's go to my room real quick.[break][break]

Now, what in the fuck did that mean? It wasn't that Izzy was a hormonal young man who looked too much into that sentence and the fact that he was being asked into a handsome, flirty man's room in order to receive something, but it was also exactly that.[break]
"R-right, uh... right..." Despite his reservations, the pure implication of the situation forced his legs to follow the taller man through hallways and into, indeed, his room.[break][break]

The only place to sit was Barnaby's bed. The place that Barnaby slept. And sat in. And sometimes, Izzy was sure, Barnaby even lay there. So terribly embarrassing, so very scandalous! As Izzy sits and focuses on not letting his heart slowly atrophy due to constant panic-pressure, a gift is extended his way.[break][break]

"Oh, you...?"[break][break]

Izzy stares at the Luxury Ball in Barnaby's hand for a moment, then looks up and is utterly undone at the genuineness of the smile on the other man's face.[break][break]

"...This isn't a joke or anything?"[break][break]

It would almost be wonderful if it didn't hurt just a little bit too, to the young man so forced-comfortable with being alone that receiving a holiday gift felt like a cruel tease. With an uncertain hand, still unconsciously ready for the ball to be snatched away again, Izzy moves forward just a little to lessen the gap between them and take the gift.[break][break]

"A Gengar, huh..." [break][break]

Just like that, no strings attached. Supposedly, at least. It just might be the nicest thing anybody's ever done for him. Their eyes meet for a moment, and Barnaby is still smiling at him as though Izzy's never done anything wrong, isn't as guilty as he so obviously is. It's overwhelming, and ever the cornered animal, Izzy seeks to remove himself from it as quickly as possible.[break][break]

Half a moment later, and he's standing up and awkwardly fumbling the ball to his belt alongside the others, smoothing down his shirt and flushing bright red.[break]
"Right, w-well, that's great, I should head out - gotta head home, all that... kinda stuff" He heads for the door, doesn't even look back at Barnaby "Okay, so, right, bye, Barnaby, uh-- bye, s-see you-"[break][break]

He doesn't intend to run, but he speed walks away down the corridor all the same. He turns into disappearance, and his footsteps are covered by the whirring and clanking of the sub.

[attr="class","izrigidw"]

He receives a pat on the head and leans back on his hands, looking over his - and Anise's - work. Not too shabby, if he did say so himself. He raised a hand and gently patted the Steenee back. Interaction with pokémon was something that Izzy didn't have as early as some of his peers, but it was always pretty steadfast - they were generally much easier to deal with than people were, after all.[break][break]

I could tell, his gardening partner blurts out, far more excited about language than Izzy was used to people being. He had an accent you could pick up on, sure, but most people never mentioned it, and if they did, they never really took an interest. Luka buzzed at the opportunity, though, spilling out words about small tells, little mice and moving around.[break][break]

"Yeah, no... uh, no worries" - He wasn't the best at having conversations with more than one sentence involved at a time, but he tried, for Luka's sake. She seemed so confident but so nervous all at once, Izzy couldn't help but feel more at ease than he would usually. "Uh- it's Myszko. Don't worry about it, though. I... y'know, wouldn't have mentioned it if I didn't want to"[break][break]

Now it's her turn to go pink - cheeks as rosy as the hair on her head. Izzy looks away, as if granting her space. "That makes sense. I only ever lived in one place. Like, as a kid, I mean... in Castelia city. It was a real shithole." Said so bluntly, with a complete lack of care - why stutter and stammer when he absolutely meant it, after all? It was no home to him. "Must've been nice to travel"[break][break]

Watching her Steenee watch the tiny mounds where he'd planted his carrots, he speaks up again. "Me neither. Guess we both, like... learnt... stuff. Here. Today. Y'know?" Right back to awkwardness.[break][break]