Valentine's Ficlets

etc etc, I don't own Pokemon, etc etc, don't sue.

Scenario 4: Moonlight cruise.  Two (N).  Nine (Barry).

Content Level: Fluff?

Warning: Age Differences

"There is nothing quite as refreshing in the world as the reminder of how majestic nature is, don't you think?"

N wasn't talking to anyone but himself as he leaned over the stern's railing, staring up at the moon they were sailing away from, cast low over the horizon.

"Pokemon on the moon... they must be free from all the ugliness down here."

"Hey, hey," Someone was tugging at N's shirt.  "Hey!"

"Maybe someday I'll go to the moon," N, of course, hadn't noticed, caught up as he was in waxing poetic.

"Hey, you.  N!" the young boy decided to get his attention by tugging on N's long green hair instead, and that got his attention.  N pulled himself and his wild hair free of the child's grip, and turned to face him.

"What!?"

Barry was grinning up at N, with an inflatable volleyball resembling a Pokeball tucked under one arm.  "You're the only one awake now!"

N stared down at Barry, the boy who was maybe half of the older man's age.  "So?"

"So, entertain me!" Barry bounced a little, clearly nowhere near sleep like everyone else on the cruise.  He held the large inflatable pokeball out in front of himself as he backed up, showing it off to N.  "Let's play catch!"

N only needed a moment to smack the inflatable toy clear out of Barry's hands, watching it float up in the air - and watching Barry scramble for it as it went towards the edge of the ship.  "Hey what--no, come back here!"  For a moment, N was confident as the ball went to sail over - then noticed Barry climbing up the railing at the side of the ship to reach it... and going clear over the side.

That was not what N had intended at all, and he stood stunned for only a moment before, without thought, he dived towards the railing and clear over it himself.  It only occured to him as he was going over the edge that if they were really the only ones awake, he might have just doomed them both.

Still, he'd hit the water, and had little time to think.  Once he got himself above the water, he didn't even stop to check and watch the boat sail onwards.  It would have been pointless anyway, and right now he had to make up for his mistake.  It took him only moments to spot Barry, who was flailing about in the water.

"Hold on!" N called over, starting to swim towards Barry - or he wanted to, anyway, and then realized he had very little idea how to do so.  In his splashing, he failed to realize he was not the one getting closer to Barry - rather, it was the other way around.  The energetic boy had swam himself over to N.

"Why'd you do that!?" Barry shouted at N, angrily.  "I just wanted to play catch!"

N blurted back with righteous indignation, "You shouldn't 'play' at enslaving Pokemon!"

"No, not like that!" Barry flailed in the water a little, about to start explaining when his mouth caught the ocean's water in it and made him cough; N had to grab Barry and hold him up so the other would avoid drowning - and it was at this point N realized how far away the boat was getting.  Also that they were stranded now, in the ocean.

"...I meant, like, I throw the ball and you catch it - didn't you ever play that kind of thing as a kid?  Hey, aren't you listening to me?" Barry was complaining something to the older man, seemingly completely unaware of their circumstance, until he followed N's gaze and realized the boat was getting away from them.

"...Oh crap.  Hey!  Heeeeey!" Barry shouted after the boat, starting to kick off to swim towards it - and N tried to keep up, only managing to tire himself out.  Barry didn't seem about to give up - at least, not until it became quite clear things were futile.

They were now quite separated, heads bobbing above the water, and N thought he could hear Barry calling for him.  "Hey, come on, we're gonna miss the boat!"

N wasn't sure he'd stay above the water any longer, and as he tried to move again he felt the weight of his soggy clothes dragging him down a little too much.  For just a moment, he slipped under the water, and eyes closed, reached to the depths for help.

The depths answered in the form of an approaching blueness that N first thought was death coming for him - then he was out of the water and atop a goddamn Wailord.

It took N a bit to realize it was a Pokemon that had rescued him - this thing was massive - and then he pointed towards Barry, out in the water.  "Let's go!"

Barry looked about ready to slip under the waves by the time they caught up with him, still seemingly convinced he could catch up to a cruise ship.  Both of them sat on the Wailord's back, clothes and bodies thuroughly soaked.

"You're really slow, you know that?" Barry was looking at him sideways, completely missing the point where N had perhaps saved his life.  "Using a Wailord's cheating!"

"Cheating at what?" N wondered aloud, but Barry didn't answer, instead, he was busy pulling his shirt off.  This thuroughly distracted N's thoughts.  "Hey, Barry, what are you doing?"

"It's not good to wear wet clothes, right?" Barry was dropping other clothes much faster than N was entirely sure he was comfortable with, until he was sitting there in just his boxers.  Barry didn't seem bothered - not at first, then he looked at N.  "What are you waiting for?" Suddenly he was much closer to N and tugging at the other's clothes.  "You too!"

"Wh...!?" N panicked, but didn't move to stop the kid who was busy getting him out of the wet clothes that were starting to chaff his skin.  At least, he didn't move to stop Barry until the boy leaned his body in a little too close.

"I'm bored," Barry announced to the older man, in a way that suggested that the age difference didn't matter to him.

"So?"  N realised only afterwards that acknowledging that question was a bad idea.

Barry answered with a voice that N could not misinterpret.  "Entertain me."

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Next Episode: Lucas wants to impress Red.  How does Lucas do it?