[attr="class","rapha"]Herbie found the Tatsugiri first, reaching out to pick up the little sushi, before getting blasted with a dragon pulse to the face.

“Dinnit know it was a dragon-type, huh?” Raph needled, picking up his Snivy and helping brush him off. “Maybe if you’d let me finish readin’ the list you’d know better.”

Herbie definitely swore at him in Pokemon-speak before using vine whip to throw the tiny ‘dragon’ skyward, and iron tail to bash it back down.

“Yeah, okay, okay, calm down, we got it. You’re big and bad. Jezus.”

Raph zapped the sushi with a Safari Ball.

[attr="class","raphatag"]catching tatsugiri - safari zone warden ticket 3/4

[attr="class","rapha"]They’d both been… fresher, at the carnival. First date jitters. Except it wasn’t a date; but still. You try and make a good impression on the other person. He’d had to tone it down, roll it in, see where Mint was in the grand scheme of things. Some people he’d gone out with hadn’t been ready, per se; for him, for what he had on offer.

Mint was.

“I know, mitt’,” he says quietly, reveling inwardly at how the back of Mint’s head fit in the palm of his hand, “I’ll try and make it worth your while.”

He brushed their noses together, gently, before lowering his mouth to Mint’s, his as of yet unoccupied hand coming to press down on the couch cushion beside Mint’s thigh.

[attr="class","raphatag"]mint frost
mission: tricking or treating

[attr="class","rapha"]Mint’s got this glass-skin thing where when he turns red it is really red, all the way over his cheeks and a little bit down his neck.

“No pressure, mitten,” he says, unsure of where the pet name came from but just knowing it fits. He gives Mint’s shoulder a gentle, grounding squeeze. “I did just come over to watch a movie, and I sleep just fine on couches, too.”

But Mint seems game. Adorably bashful-- his words are hard fought, with that slight waver that comes from really trying not to let your own tongue trip you up. “Ahh, so you’re a savvy buyer, huh? Wanna sample the goods before making the commitment. I getcha.”

He slips a piece of soft, blue hair between his fingertips.

“Can I kiss you?”

[attr="class","raphatag"]mint frost
mission: tricking or treating

[attr="class","rapha"]“Mud, blood, and Pokemon,” he says, half in agreement and half in thought, thinking about his own life and how frequently the three of those things swirled up into one chaotic maelstrom.

“Oh, I’m not much of a salesman, darling,” Raph admits, backs of his fingers stroking down the outside of Mint’s arm, “was never very good at lying. Buuuuut I can do plenty of other things with my mouth that are much more convincing.”

He leans in, just the barest brush of stubble against Mint’s hair, and then shifts back again, grinning.

“I’m also very good at back rubs, assorted house chores, and I make a mean breakfast.”

[attr="class","raphatag"]mint frost
mission: tricking or treating

[attr="class","rapha"]Raph settles back against the couch, fuzzy socks in place, watching Mint curiously as he explained his penchant for hosting get-togethers. “Are all your friends boring, or are you just the most interesting one in the room?” he asks, half teasing, half genuinely, horribly enamored. “What do your friends do where they get messy on the way over?”

He takes a swig of his beer while Mint finishes setting up the ambiance. When he goes to settle in, Raph leans to the side, dimpling the couch cushion in his direction so Mint’s small frame is pulled closer to him. He extends one broad arm around the smaller man’s shoulders.

“Seems to me, mitt’,” he drawls, leaning his head in slightly, “that to have me stay a second time, there has to be a first.”

[attr="class","raphatag"]mint frost
mission: tricking or treating

[attr="class","rapha"]“Okay, so, there’s this lil’ sushi guy,” Raph said, scrolling on his phone as he read up on the recent Safari Zone finds, “he’s kinda cute. And, well, Magikarp, because they’re like rats of the sea. Plus I already got a Feebas so might as well get the other useless one…”

Herbie made a bored face and let his head slump to the side, tired of his trainer’s shopping list and ready to take off into the unknown.

“Oh, I’m sorry, am I borin’ ya? Ungrateful rat.” Raph stuck his cellphone into his pocket and palmed for his cigarettes, before remembering the Warden had confiscated them. “Yeah, yeah, whatever. Let’s get goin, then. Chrissakes.”

[attr="class","raphatag"]safari zone warden ticket 4/4

[attr="class","rapha"]Raph chews one cheek in thought, wondering what, in fact, had made him want to watch a movie. “Dunno. That’s what normal people do, right?” he asked, trying half for humor and half for a genuine frankness not commonly seen amongst people trying to hook up. “When they hang out? Watch movies and eat pizza and shit.”

They don’t have enough people for cards, and they don’t have enough drugs for the kind of thing Raph usually did in his spare time. Besides, this was a nice change of pace.

“Oh, I like Scooby Doo. The zombie one always scared me.” He watches Mint disappear into the depths of his apartment with something a notch stronger than affection on his face, realizes it belatedly, and has to snap his neck back to the TV so as to avoid looking like a fucking goober. The socks knock gently against the back of his head, but he catches them on the rebound.

He’s pulling them out of each other went Mint leans over and Raph has to stop himself from breathing audibly because he does not think it’s fair that a real life human being should smell so nice.

“No, no, you are a perfect host. Eleven out of ten, would stay again.”

Once Mint is clear of his airspace and his brain can function again, he bends down to slide his own plain black ankle socks off and replace them with the purple fuzzy ones, trying not to imagine the other feet they’d been on, and, by extension, whoever else had been staying over at Mint’s place. That was not his business, it was not.

“You get a lotta guests?” he asks, mentally taking himself and breaking his own back over his knee, but managing to keep the tone conversational.

[attr="class","raphatag"]mint frost
mission: tricking or treating
manspreading

[attr="class","samcam"]

[attr="class","rapha"]He almost tripped over the little Snorunt, mistaking its permanent shivering for just more rolling snow. He stumbled back, thankful his lighter pocket had buttons on it, or else he’d have lost the damn thing in a drift. “Aw, lookit you, lil’ thing. Do you need--,”

The Snorunt dipped it’s triangular body and drove into Raph’s shin with a headbutt.

“FUCKSAKE!” he roared, cigarette falling from his lips as he reached down to grip his shin and bounce back. “Cage-- fuck-- do somethin’!”

His Elekid reared back and delivered a firm thunder punch to the Snorunt. Raph zapped it in midair before it could disappear in a snow drift.

“Christ alive, this place,” he muttered, staring sadly at the red light that was his smoke and fishing in his pocket for another. “Let’s get the hell outta here.”

[attr="class","raphatag"]solo wild - catch attempt snorunt

[attr="class","rapha"]This place always freaked him out. Forests of fir and spruce, all rimed with ice, locked into snow-dusted ground.

Like the world’s most macabre Pokeyule card.

“Eeyuck. Let’s just get somethin’ and get out,” he said to his Elekid, sticking a cigarette between his lips and flicking his lighter to feel the warmth on his hands.

[attr="class","raphatag"]solo wild - ice/steel

[attr="class","rapha"]Raph snorted, flexing his fingers around the neck of his beer. “No. The stupid birds just moved back in. In fact, it was louder, ‘cause I got all the house matrons screamin’ at me about being an idiot, and hospital bills.”

He’d hated that belltower with a passion, so much so he’d often dreamed of lighting it up and turning it into a giant chimney... it would have made a great fireplace. But with his luck, the rest of the orphanage would have burnt down around him.

“Hey now.” He raised one eyebrow at Mint’s attempts at copying him, but couldn’t hold back the smile on his face. He opened his mouth to say something clever at what Mint could do with that hand he was saving and then, in a move of surprising out-of-character wisdom, shut it again. “Yeah. Somethin’ scary. I’m taking requests ‘cause I don’t really watch movies.” He didn’t watch much TV at all, preferring to be working or passed out somewhere.

He’d toe-heeled out of his boots and felt a little self-conscious at putting his stockinged feet up on Mint’s good furniture. Maybe all the sense the orphanage matrons tried to beat into him hadn’t fallen out his ears. He put his pizza on the coffee table and leaned back against the couch, instead, stretching his wingspan wide and biting back a sigh of relief.

“Do you think socks for your tiny feet will fit my gigantic stompers?” he asked, on a laugh.

[attr="class","raphatag"]mint frost
mission: tricking or treating
manspreading

[attr="class","rapha"]Mint doesn’t seem in a hurry to pull away, but there is still a frantic sort of energy to him, like he’s balanced precariously on an edge only he can see. Raph, meanwhile, continues on his single-minded track to keep him here.

He trails his nose over the line of Mint’s jaw.

“Can I do somethin’ else for you?” he asks, indicating his intent with a splay of his large palm.

[attr="class","raphatag"]mint frost - firework flings
take us away kimmy