Well, he’d said that, but finding a chance to talk to Minseok for any extended period of time alone was about as hard as he figured it would be, unfortunately.

            Usually, the only times he’d see the man was during dinner time, when they ate together along with Jongdae and Yixing in the brothers’ home. Of course, he could just disregard the promise he made to Jongdae and tell the other two upfront, but the dinner table hardly seemed the right place to do it. After all, that was the only time they ever got to see each other properly and just relax; he didn’t want to spoil that, for any of them. Each time he tried to get Minseok alone, though, his plans would fail, either because the man had work to do, or because Jongdae would stepping in and interrupting as though he knew what Luhan was planning to do. Besides dinner, Luhan would barely ever see Minseok, and the few times he did, the latter was always too busy to be pulled away. He had an entire reserve to run, after all—it’d hardly be fair if Luhan just dragged him from his work, even if it was for his little brother.

            Not like Minseok would’ve minded, really. In the three or so weeks he’d spent on the reserve, Luhan had quickly learned that the older Kim had more than a bit of a brother complex over Jongdae. It was kind of funny, kind of sad, to see just how much Minseok fussed over him, whether it be forcing him to put on more sunscreen or monitoring the amount of water he drank throughout the day. Just the other day, during dinner time, Minseok had nearly thrown a fit when Jongdae said he was full without finishing his whole plate. He’d nearly forced Yixing to check the younger boy to make sure he wasn’t coming down with anything, but Jongdae had expertly maneuvered himself out of the dining room amidst the chaos and avoided his older brother for a whole day until he chose to drop the subject.

            Luhan, naturally, ate the rest of the food from Jongdae’s plate.

            Sighing, he continued rolling himself down the path to the small cabin he was staying in. It was towards the outskirts of the Kim’s lands, and Luhan always liked to use the time it took to get back to it as a time to reflect about the day. Left alone with just the starry sky and the fluttering grass, he would let himself get lost in thought, and lately, there was only one thought that filled his mind: what to do about the poachers. He was getting too involved, he knew, but he’d never been the type of person to ignore terrible things happening around him. He supposed he understood how Jongdae felt in that regard, and even if he felt conflicted about the rashness and danger of approaching the poachers, he couldn’t sit back and do nothing. He needed to stop them, both to help the Pokémon, and to repay everyone here for their hospitality and help.

            A weak yowl pulled him away from his thoughts. Startled, he snapped his head around looking for the source of the noise. Eventually, his eyes settled upon a blur of blue hidden beneath rocks in the stream alongside the path. It took him a moment, but he soon saw the telltale swirls of white and black peeking out: it was a baby Poliwag.

            Cursing to himself, he wheeled himself over, only to realize that he couldn’t get close enough. This part of the trail was on a bit of incline from the stream, and if he were to wheel himself down, he couldn’t be sure that he’d be able to brace himself properly to keep from toppling over. He thought quickly, though, and immediately pulled out a Pokéball from his belt and chucking it towards the stream. In the beam of red, Abra materialized quickly as the ball landed safely in Luhan’s hand.

            “Abra, Psychic!” he commanded, and the Pokémon understood immediately, its eyes going light blue as the rocks and the Poliwag slowly began to shift. Luhan sighed in relief as the water Pokémon was safely lifted up, suspended in the air while Abra let the rocks fall into the stream with a graceless plop. His relief didn’t last long, though, because just a second later, a flash of white was covering his sight and Poliwag was gone. “Hey!”

            His eyes followed the figure moving down the river, and he immediately recognized it as a Dewgong. In its mouth laid the Poliwag, now unconscious, and even if didn’t look like the Dewgong’s teeth were biting into the baby Pokémon, Luhan still didn’t trust it. Growling slightly, he turned to his Abra and nodded his head.

            “C’mon, we gotta rescue that Poliwag,” he told Abra, and the Pokémon nodded back to him in affirmation as its eyes went blue again. Dewgong was quick, though, avoiding the Psychic attacks like the plague as it moved towards where the river disappeared into the forest. Luhan had the advantage, though, as the Pokémon was trying to go upstream, slowing it down significantly. He grinned as Dewgong stilled against its will, held back by Abra’s Psychic. “Good, now let’s get Pol—what the !”

            His success was short-lived, as suddenly, Dewgong was ripping itself away from the control, its body slowly but surely gaining control back and breaking apart Abra’s Psychic. Luhan cursed to himself as Abra instead felt the recoil, and he brought it onto his lap as he wheeled down the path heading into the forest. Luckily, this path would keep him by the river for quite a while, so he had the chance to catch the Dewgong before it disappeared.

            He barely noticed anything else but the chase. He didn’t notice how he passed the cabin he was staying in, didn’t notice how his arms were burning from his rapid wheel spinning, didn’t notice how the forest was shrouding over them until the only way he could see anything was by using the shimmer moonlight that peaked between the leaves. All he could see was Dewgong, was Poliwag, was the water and sand rushing past either of them respectively as they stayed neck-and-neck. What if this was one of the poachers’ Pokémon? Did poachers even have Pokémon? What was this Dewgong even doing with some poachers anyway? Why would it possibly be—?

            “Luhan?!”

            He froze in place as he came upon a familiar face. No… it couldn’t be…

            “M…Minseok?”

----

            “You scared the out of me there, I hope you realize,” Luhan snapped as he settled down on the slightly damp grass. The river had led into quite a beautiful lake, one that he’d never seen before, having never been this deep into this side of the forest.

            “Sorry ‘bout that,” Minseok apologized with a sheepish smile, his hands the Poliwag’s head from where it sat comfortably on his lap. “Didn’t think you’d assume I was a poacher, though. You looked about ready to murder me.”

            “Well obviously I was,” Luhan shot back, and Minseok just shrugged with a knowing look. Rolling his eyes, he looked back at Dewgong, who was watching the pair curiously from where it floated at the edge of the lake. “Sorry for attacking you, Dewgong.”

            The water Pokémon just chirped happily in forgiveness, and Luhan chuckled as he reached his hand out to pet its head lightly. It had taken a few minutes of coaxing, but Minseok had managed to explain the situation to him—explained that Dewgong went around the forest through the interconnected streams in it to find wounded Pokémon and bring them to Minseok. It was a pretty good plan, now that he thought about it—not only was it instinctual to head towards water when injured, but quite a lot of Pokémon ran the risk of getting injured underwater, or getting hidden underwater by poachers when injured. Between Dewgong’s runs and the townsfolk’s checks on land, they were able to find as many of injured Pokémon as possible.

            “Dewgong’s the one who saved you, by the way,” Minseok piped up, and Luhan’s eyebrows raised in surprise. “He was the one who led me to you and drove away all those Beedrills.”

            “Oh, wow…” he managed to mutter out in awe, turning back to Dewgong with a grateful smile. “Thank you, Dewgong. You really helped me out back there. You’re so strong; you must have been trained well!”

            “Hm? Oh, no, Dewgong’s not trained or anything,” Minseok clarified, smiling as Luhan made a confused noise. “Dewgong’s more… a partner. Ain’t that right, buddy?” The Pokémon barked in agreement, its short hands coming together to clap excitedly. “He’s been around for ages, helping my parents out around the ranch and playing with me and Jongdae when we were little. Now that I run the reserve, he helps me out, but I’m not his trainer or anything like that. Just… a friend.”

            “I see…” Luhan trailed off, laughing softly to himself as Dewgong splashed around playfully. It was late at night, yet he was still bursting with energy, and Luhan couldn’t help but mirror the sentiment a little. That chase had given him an adrenaline rush he’d yet to come down from entirely, and it was times like these that he really hated the fact that he was handicapped.

            “You okay there?” Minseok asked liltingly. “You keep shaking your leg—what, you gotta go to the bathroom or something.” Luhan rolled his eyes as he punched the other’s arms lightly.

            “Just a bit restless, that’s all,” he replied, and Minseok nodded in understanding.

            “Well, calm down a bit; we don’t need you doing anything rash again and injuring yourself even more.”

            “I’m not that reckless—”

            “Says the person who ran after who they thought was a poacher with absolutely no plan.”

Minseok raised an eyebrow in amusement as Luhan involuntarily pouted at the jab, but he couldn’t deny the truth behind it. He’d just let the heat of the moment get to him, the flurry of emotions override his rational side as he went off into a blind chase without any thought of what to do next or what he was getting himself into.

            “You and Jongdae are the same, I swear. Both of you do like this, it’s exhausting to keep up with,” Minseok added lightly, and Luhan’s eyes widened in shock at the words.

            “Wait, you know about that?”

            “…About what?” .

            “U-uh, nothing, forget what I sai—”

            “Luhan.” Right, brother complex.

            Groaning, he shook his head as he stared out over the lake. His nerves calmed down a bit as he his eyes scanned the scenery. Everything was calm, with practically no one awake besides them out there. The only sounds that filled the air was the light chirping of the sleeping Venemoths and their own soft breaths. Even Dewgong was quiet—or rather, wasn’t around, having disappeared off into the water while they were talking. Perhaps it was going to sleep, or perhaps it just sensed that this was a… personal conversation.

            “Jongdae, he… he tried to film some poachers the other day,” he started explaining slowly, not missing the hitch in Minseok’s breath. “He stumbled upon a couple, but they were about to kill a Nidoran, so Jongdae, uh, intervened, and ended up getting hurt. He’s fine now, though!” He ended his explanation on what he hoped was a high note, refusing to look over at Minseok.

            That was, until he heard the other curse out loud.

            “,” Minseok snarled to himself, fingers digging into the ground beneath him as anger and disappointment swirled in his eyes. “Why…?”

            “Y-you said it yourself, right? He can get reckless, doesn’t make the best decisions—”

            “But why did he tell you?”

            Oh.

            Biting his lip, Luhan scooched closer to the man, ignoring the pain that shot up his leg when he moved it wrong. Once they were sat hip-to-hip, he brought his arm around the other boy’s shoulders, letting that arm’s hand run up and down Minseok’s upper arm while his other one rested on his knee comfortingly. Or at least, he hoped it was comfortingly, but he wasn’t the best at this kind of stuff.

            “Because he didn’t want to worry you,” he said softly, and Minseok shot his head up to stare at him face-to-face. As their gazes met each other’s, Luhan realized that it wasn’t anger or disappointment that was in the man’s eyes at all—it was guilt, hurt, confusion. It wasn’t like Minseok was asking why Jongdae told Luhan the truth: he was asking why Jongdae didn’t tell him the truth. “You may not realize this, Minseok, but he’s constantly worrying about you pushing yourself too hard. He’s extremely grateful to you, and he wants to make it up to you on his own.”

            “He shouldn’t have to, I’m his brother,” Minseok protested weakly, and Luhan just chuckled and shook his head.

            “That may be so, but he still feels that way.” Everyone probably did, now that he thought about it. The townsfolk, for constantly handling their issues and taking up responsibility for the reserve even at a young age. The Pokémon around them, for keeping them safe and happy. Yixing, for letting him stay and work here. Luhan, for… everything. “He feels indebted to you. To him, he has to learn to handle things like this on his own, has to do things without expecting you to help him. It’s not that he’s trying to hide things from you—he just doesn’t want you to worry over him more than you already do.”

            Minseok didn’t respond, so Luhan just squeezed his arm reassuringly as a comfortable silence fell over them. It must have been a lot to take in, he was sure. After all, Jongdae was the only family Minseok had out here—not being able to protect him must have taken a big hit on him. Not to mention the fact that Minseok was more a person to worry silently rather than openly. He couldn’t even begin to imagine all the thoughts that must have been flying through Minseok’s mind, so instead, he just continued run his hand up and down the man’s arm comfortingly as he looked over at him.

            What he saw, however, made his breath hitch without him even realizing it.

            He’d never taken the chance to really look closely at Minseok, but from how they were positioned now, he could see every detail, every crevice and slope of the man’s face, even in the weak moonlight. In fact, it felt like the moon was only enhancing Minseok’s features, every bit of him glowing from within under the soft light. His eyes were narrow, covered by monolids, making him seem like he was constantly in thought, and his irises sparkled in the most unexpected way. Everything about his facial structure was smooth and soft, with high cheekbones barely peeking out from under the otherwise squishy cheek skin. His lips were light pink, saliva glistening off of his bottom one under the light while his upper one stood out just a tad bit more than the bottom. There, under the canopy of trees above them, Minseok sat calmly, deep in thought, and more beautifully than Luhan could’ve ever imagined.

            “Hey…” Minseok started slowly, snapping Luhan out of his admiration as a flush rose to his cheeks. , he thought, his heart racing miles per minute as he wondered where the all of those thoughts came from. But it seemed like Minseok didn’t realize how flustered he was, thankfully.

            “Y-yeah?” he stammered out, groaning internally. God what was he doing?

            “Do you think…Do you think you could teach me about Pokémon battles?”

            “Yea—wait, what.” Minseok chuckled weakly and shrugged. “Why do you want to learn about battles? Do you want to be a trainer?”

            “Not really, but… it may be better for me to learn, for the sake of the reserve,” Minseok explained quietly, and Luhan said nothing as the man continued. “I know the basics from the battles I’ve watched on TV and from what Yixing’s told me, but that can only teach you so much. Most people here don’t have Pokémon and if they do, it’s just as companions. No one really knows the ins and outs of battling—not even Yixing, since he quit being a trainer after his very first battle— but maybe it was about time I learned.”

            “Do you even have Pokémon?” Luhan deadpanned, and Minseok looked suddenly embarrassed as his eyes widened. He must not have realized that crucial part of the whole deal, and that little thought had Luhan’s face going red in what he would later call second-hand embarrassment.

            Because that was definitely what it was. Yep.

            “Gong!” The sudden exclamation was accompanied by a large splash of water, and had both Minseok and Luhan jumping as droplets sprinkled on them. They looked up to see Dewgong staring them down excitedly, and Minseok pursed his lips as he thought.

            “Do… do you wanna try Pokémon training, Dewgong?” he asked hesitantly, even as the Pokémon was anything but. Instead, Dewgong was eager, clapping his hands together as he barked loudly in agreement. Luhan grinned.

            “Well, if that’s the case…” he started, and waiting for the other man to turn and look at him. “I don’t see why not.”

            The water droplets felt cold against Luhan’s warm cheeks as Minseok beamed.

im rly bad at updating this consistently arent i
welp sorry bout that
anyway hoorayyy for xiuhan moments! minnie's a lot cuter in this story than i was expecting him to be but i couldn't resist blushy little lu with sparkly anime boy min is life ok