/jazz hands/ Happy birthday, Joonmyun!!!

Sorry for the sudden lack of updates, I was in Australia for 2 weeks. But I am back now and back to writing! Also this Pokemon AU is going to become a thing, with a few more chapters and more pairings. Because Pokemon AUs need to happen more often.

Chanyeol/Joonmyun : Fire and Water

Joonmyun wasn’t old by any means, but he felt like he was. He felt like he had raced through the last seven years of his life, without taking any time to actually enjoy what he was doing. And this was the reason he gave his fellow trainers when he announced his retirement from the Elite Four. His fellow elites had understood, having watched Joonmyun slowly burn out from the moment he took up his place in their gym, but the rest of the world was stunned. They hadn’t seen Joonmyun push himself behind the scenes, they didn’t see a young man who slept only two hours each night, who spent all his free time coming up with new ways to make sure he stayed on top. Joonmyun considered giving a better explanation, but he felt like he would sound ungrateful if he told the whole truth—being at the top just wasn’t fun anymore. In fact, it never had been.

So Joonmyun packed up his personal things and his pokémon, bid his three best friends goodbye, and set out for quiet retirement. But being a former member of the Elite Four meant that quiet was hard to come by. Even those who hadn’t known who he was knew now that his retirement had blown up every newspaper in the country. So Joonmyun found a tiny little town, isolated by mountains and lakes and hard to get to, and hoped that it’s remote location would deter paparazzi and fans. The town was home to a branch of Professor Willow’s research facility, and Joonmyun had known Professor Willow for a long time, so he emailed her and asked for an internship, even volunteering to take it on unpaid. She accepted, though she said payment could be arranged after a few weeks, and gave him the job of studying Vaporeon language. She wanted Joonmyun to bond with the two that she kept at her facility and record their vocalizations. Not all the time, but when he played with them or when he noticed them playing with each other, and whenever they were given food. There was already audio and video equipment set up in their pool, Joonmyun just needed to turn it on. It sounded simple enough, so Joonmyun took on the job.

But whatever hopes Joonmyun had for a quiet retirement were shattered when he met Professor Willow’s other research partner, Park Chanyeol. Not in the sense that Chanyeol was an adoring fan, though he may very well have been, he was just…loud. Both in volume and presence. Even if he was being “quiet,” there always seemed to be some kind of sound coming from his general direction. Only five days into the internship, Joonmyun damn near quit because Chanyeol was scratching his pencil so loudly against his paper that Joonmyun felt like his head was going to split open.

The only thing that kept Joonmyun holding on was the promise of a steady paycheck (which he sorely missed having) and the two vaporeon. Joonmyun had bonded with them faster than he had anticipated, faster than he had with any of his other pokémon, and he loved them dearly. He was also quite interested in Professor Willow’s research, and he reminded himself of all of this whenever he started feeling annoyed.

He guessed that he was a little too sensitive to Chanyeol, owing to a few things—he had been bombarded by reporters after announcing his retirement and he was feeling a little jumpy and claustrophobic, and even though the research lab was quite large, Joonmyun wasn’t used to sharing his training space. The Elite Four’s gym had been massive, and each trainer had their own space. Here, Chanyeol was able to look over to the pool and watch Joonmyun if he wanted to. And Joonmyun had never been one to enjoy having people watch him.

Chanyeol was nice enough, when he wasn’t humming along to his music, tapping his pen loudly against the desk, or laughing so hard he fell off his chair. He was quite helpful, always willing to give Joonmyun a hand, and he was great with his own pokémon. He specialized in fire types, but he seemed unwilling to go near the vaporeon enclosure. Truthfully that bothered Joonmyun a little bit, until one day when he caught Chanyeol staring at him as he came out of the pool.

“What?” Joonmyun snapped, a little harsher than he’d intended.

Chanyeol flinched. “Sorry, it’s just…I never learned to swim and…and you’re so good at it, and I’ve never been able to get near the vaporeon when they’re in the water because…because I’m scared that I’ll fall in.” He gulped. “It’s also why I’m not so good with water type pokémon.”

It was kind of cliché, the fire-type trainer who couldn’t swim, but Joonmyun’s heart broke all the same. “I’m sorry I snapped at you,” he said quietly. “I thought you were staring at me.”

Chanyeol’s eyes flickered between Joonmyun and the vaporeon, who were playing in the shallows. “I feel really bad for them. They’ve been so lonely.”

Joonmyun walked over to Chanyeol. “Do you want to play with them? I can stay with you, if you want.”

Chanyeol’s face lit up like the morning sky. “Would you really?”

Joonmyun smiled. “Yeah, absolutely.”

So Chanyeol waded into the shallow water, clutching Joonmyun’s hand in a death grip, and the vaporeon scampered over, squeaking loudly as they nuzzled Chanyeol’s legs. Joonmyun could only imagine how excited Professor Willow would be to receive these audio recordings.

“They’re more comfortable when you come to them in their own environment,” Joonmyun explained, “That’s probably why they’re not so friendly with you when they step outside of the water tank. But once they bond with you, they might come play with you like this more often.”

“I would love that,” Chanyeol said dreamily as he let go of Joonmyun’s hand to give both pokémon chin scratches. “What are their names?”

“They don’t have names,” Joonmyun said.

Chanyeol looked scandalized. “Then we should name them, right now! Help me pick—wait, how about Neptune and Trident?”

“They’re both female,” Joonmyun said.

“So? Those can be girl’s names!” Chanyeol said. “Well, it’s what I’m going to call them anyway.”

“Which is which?” Joonmyun asked.

Chanyeol considered them for a second. “The one with the black right paw is Trident.”

“Alright then,” Joonmyun said. “From now on, their names are Neptune and Trident.”

Chanyeol smiled, and Joonmyun felt like the wall between the two of them was slowly crumbling down.

Just as Joonmyun was hired to work for Professor Willow full time, with full time employee benefits, Chanyeol went on a two-week long trip to study cyndaquil at a breeder’s farm, and Joonmyun learned what people meant when they said “You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.” Where Joonmyun used to thrive in silence and loneliness, he now felt suffocated by it. He was only supposed to spend a few hours a day with Trident and Neptune, and he nearly spoiled the research by swimming with them all day. After a lot of thought, he made a long distance call to his old friends.

Jongin answered the phone and almost blew out Joonmyun’s eardrums with his delighted shout. “Hyung!!! We thought you had dropped off the face of the earth!!!!!”

Joonmyun laughed. “No, I’m still here, just…busy.”

“Not too busy I hope,” Came Yifan’s stern voice.

“No, no!” Joonmyun said quickly. “I’m taking it easy. I’m having a lot of fun.”

“Are you holed up by yourself?” Yifan asked.

Joonmyun sighed. “Only because my research partner left.”

“So?” Jongin asked. “Go outside, make some new friends.”

“It’s a small town, there aren’t many people my age. And I don’t know where they would hang out if there were any.”

“So ask around,” Lu Han said, sounding breathless. “Come out of your shell!”

Joonmyun felt a lump forming in his throat and tried to swallow it down. “I should, shouldn’t I? Maybe I will.”

“Are you okay, hyung?”

Joonmyun sniffled. “I’m okay, I just miss you guys.”

“We miss you, too,” Yifan said. “You can come see us, you know. You can even stay with us if you want, you know we have plenty of room. You didn’t have to leave.”

Joonmyun wiped his face on his sleeve. “I know. I will see you eventually. Are the press still parked outside of the gym?”

Lu Han huffed. “I told Yifan to send his Haxorus after them, but he said that it would be irresponsible. Tell him to do it, Joonmyun!”

“No,” Joonmyun said with a laugh. “Yifan is right. Glad to see one of you is still being responsible.”

“We’ll find some way to chase them off,” Jongin vowed. “Maybe we can get Jongdae to do it, you should see his Pikachu, hyung. It’s so powerful!”

“I’ll see when I come visit,” Joonmyun promised. “Say hi to him for me.”

“You can’t be hanging up already!” Lu Han wailed.

“It’s a long distance call,” Joonmyun said. “So I’ll say goodbye, and I promise I’ll email you guys soon.”

“Okay,” Lu Han said regretfully. “We love you, Joonmyun.”

“I love you, too,” Joonmyun said. “Bye.”

Jongin and Yifan said their goodbyes, and when Joonmyun hung up he found himself feeling more lonely than before. So he decided to take his friend’s advice and go outside. He called out his favorite pokemon, his beloved Furret, and they went for a walk to the town’s one restaurant. It was pretty empty, but Joonmyun got to talk to the owner and was told that the sunset on the lake was very beautiful. He and Furret went down, and Furret got to playing with a young Maril while Joonmyun spoke to it’s trainer. The sunset was indeed gorgeous, and Joonmyun took some pictures to send to his friends.

‘I should come down here with Chanyeol,’ Joonmyun thought to himself. ‘He would like it.’

When Chanyeol did return, he did so with two young Cyndaquil. Not even full grown, they toddled around the lab on their stumpy little legs, snuffling under desks and sneezing from the dust. They were almost unbearably cute, and Joonmyun was shocked when Chanyeol offered him one.

“I was going to trade it to you for swimming lessons,” He said, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. “But seeing how much you like them, I’ll just give you one for free.”

But Joonmyun shook his head. “I’ll teach you how to swim, really! I would love to!”

Chanyeol brightened at once. “You’re the best! Honestly I wasn’t even sure if you would like Cyndaquil, you seem so enamored with water types, but then I guess who wouldn’t love something so adorable, right? Oh, wait til you see them sleep, they lay on their sides and move their little feet like they’re actually walking, it’s so cute!”

Joonmyun laughed. “Oh Chanyeol, I really missed you while you were away. It was so dull without you.” He blushed and covered his mouth, but Chanyeol beamed at him.

“I missed you too. But I’m back now, and I’m famished! Want to go grab a bite to eat?”

Joonmyun agreed enthusiastically, and they went to the restaurant together. Chanyeol told Joonmyun all about his trip and the data he had gathered, and Joonmyun told Chanyeol that he’d started compiling the audio recordings of Neptune and Trident and had already noticed patterns in their speech. They lingered in the restaurant, ordering two rounds of dessert before finally leaving. The sun had already set, so they went right back to the lab, and just as they rounded the corner of the road, Joonmyun was nearly blinded by the light of a dozen camera flashes.

“Kim Joonmyun! Have you moved here permanently?”

“Does this mean that you’re giving up on training Pokémon?”

“Kim Joonmyun, have you in fact spoken to the other Elites about a possible return?”

“What is going to become of your battle team?”

Joonmyun covered his face, but he couldn’t make himself move. He knew from the volume of voices that there had to be at least twenty people surrounding him, there was no way he could hope to get by. He wished the ground would swallow him whole, he wished lightning would strike him, he wished—

“BACK OFF!!” Chanyeol roared. “This is private property on a private road, get the hell out of here before I send my Charizard after the lot of you!”

Joonmyun felt Chanyeol’s arm around his shoulders, and then he was being steered along, the voices fading behind him, and he heard the click of the laboratory door closing. Hands still over his face, Joonmyun sank to his knees and curled in on himself, tears spilling hot on his fingers.

He expected Chanyeol to question him, to react with confusion or even anger. Instead Chanyeol placed his hand on Joonmyun’s back and spoke to him softly.

“Can I get you anything? Water, maybe?”

Joonmyun shook his head.

“Is there someone I can call?”

“N-no,” Joonmyun stammered. “Not now.”

“Okay. Do you want me to stay with you?”

Joonmyun hesitated. “Yes.”

Joonmyun heard Chanyeol moving, shifting closer, and then he was pulled against Chanyeol’s chest. “It’s going to be okay,” Chanyeol said. “They can’t get to you here.”

Joonmyun sobbed and wrapped his arms around Chanyeol’s waist. “H-how did they even f-find me here?”

“Want me to go out there and beat it out of them?”

Joonmyun actually managed to laugh. “You sound like Lu Han…no, don’t, they’ll only drag you down too.” Then panic hit him and he sat up. “Oh god, did they hurt you?”

Chanyeol shook his head. “No, I’m okay.”

Joonmyun leapt to his feet and began pacing. “They’ll never stop, they’ll never leave me alone…maybe I should just go, just go back to my roots, back into the wild like a beginner, to the mountains, maybe they won’t follow me there…”

“And leave the research project behind?” Chanyeol asked.

Joonmyun stopped pacing and looked over at Neptune and Trident. They were watching him nervously, huddled together at the side of the pool. Joonmyun went over to them and bent so they could his cheeks and snuggle into his shoulders.

“How are we supposed to get anything done if I have that circus hanging over me?” Joonmyun muttered. “It would be better if I left.”

“Please don’t.”

Joonmyun let go of Neptune and Trident. “I’m a coward, so I probably won’t anyway,” He sighed, and he turned around and saw Chanyeol with tears streaming down his cheeks.

“Chanyeol, why are you crying?”

Chanyeol wiped his face on his sleeve. “I don’t want you to go. I would miss you so much, I feel like we just started getting to be friends, but I don’t want you to be hurt anymore. You must be so hurt, I can’t believe I didn’t see it before, and I’m so sorry that I didn’t even think to ask if you needed anything, if I could help you. I wish I had talked to you, really talked to you.”

Joonmyun started to cry again. “I should have told you that this might happen. Chanyeol do you…do you know who I am?”

Chanyeol nodded. “Kim Joonmyun, 25 years old, hates pickles on sandwiches, shy and soft spoken, but talkative once you open up to someone, loves water type pokemon…former member of the Elite Four.”

Joonmyun smiled again. “You know all that, huh?”

“I do. I didn’t even realize that you hadn’t told me about what you used to do.”

“You knew but never asked?”

Chanyeol shrugged. “It wasn’t my place to ask you.”

Joonmyun ran over to Chanyeol and hugged him tightly. “You have no idea how much that means to me. Thank you so much, you’re such a good friend.”

“No, I’m just a decent human being,” Chanyeol muttered, rubbing Joonmyun’s back. “But I’m thankful that I could make you happy.”

Joonmyun burrowed his face into Chanyeol’s shoulder and sighed happily. “It was such a good night, aside from this. I don’t want it to end on this note. If you’re not tired, could I talk to you for a little while?”

“Absolutely!” Chanyeol cried. “Come on, let’s sit.”

They sat by the pool so that Neptune and Trident could come sit with them and still be close to the water, but far enough away that the Cyndaquil babies felt comfortable sitting with them. Once they were settled, Joonmyun began to talk.

“I’ve always been kind of shy and introverted, and I think it only got worse when I started my Pokémon journey. I had studied battle techniques for a long time, and I waited until I had a good team before getting involved with any battles. When I did start going against gym leaders, I made a name for myself really quickly. I was the youngest trainer to be accepted into the Elite Four, I beat Wu Yifan by only a few months. And the spotlight stayed on me the entire time. I only ever felt like I was enjoying myself during a few moments, mostly the ones I spent with my friends and Pokémon team. That was why I decided to retire, to enjoy what I had. I liked being part of the Elite Four and I didn’t want to leave my friends, but I just didn’t see a way to keep going. I wanted to retire quietly, and I didn’t want the media following me, which is why I came to a small, isolated town.

Truthfully, I wasn’t sure if I liked you at first. You were…you had a louder personality than I was used to. But when I was able to look beyond that I saw that you were also genuine and caring, and gentle and understanding. Part of me was a little jealous of that. When you admitted to me that you didn’t know how to swim, and asked for my help…that was when I realized I didn’t have to avoid you. I’m sorry that I judged you so harshly at first. Even though you were different from what I was used to, I shouldn’t have let it get in the way of our friendship.”

“But we’re friends now, right?” Chanyeol asked, holding out his hand.

Joonmyun grinned and took Chanyeol’s hand in both of his own. “Yes, we’re friends now, if you still want to be.”

“Of course I do. And I admit, I’ve been told that I come on a little harsh to people who have just met me. Maybe you could help me with that? If there’s something I can do to make people more comfortable.”

Joonmyun thought about it. “Maybe…maybe pretend that you’re meeting a rabbit. Something with sensitive hearing, something that’s easily jumpy. Since you don’t know what people are like, if they don’t like loud noises or get startled easily, just approach cautiously. You can show how happy you are, just control your volume and motions.”

Chanyeol nodded. “Yes, that sounds manageable. It’s a good analogy, too. You know, you are kind of like a bunny. Big eyes, tiny nose, adorable…”

“Adorable?!” Joonmyun squeaked, ducking his head. “I am not!”

Chanyeol ruffled his hair. “You are, you are, you are~!”

“Am not!”

“You are!”

“I’m not!!”

By the next morning the paparazzi had cleared out, and the grass around the lab was strangely burned. Joonmyun glared at Chanyeol until he confessed that just before he had closed the laboratory doors, he had unleashed his charizard on the reporters.

“You shouldn’t have!”

“Marshmallow didn’t hurt anyone!” Chanyeol insisted. “He just scared them a little, that’s all.”

Joonmyun rolled his eyes, but as the days went by the town remained quiet, and there was no report of his location in the news or tabloids. He called his friends a week after the incident to ask if they had heard anything about it, and they admitted that Jongdae had friends in high places who had put a stop to the printing of the information.

Lu Han was especially ruffled over the whole thing. “There are laws about that sort of thing, did you know that? Ugh, I’m so pissed off on your behalf.”

Joonmyun laughed. “You don’t need to be, I’m okay now. Chanyeol took care of me.”

“When are we going to meet him?” Yifan asked.

“When you come visit me,” Joonmyun said. “I’m too new to this job to be taking time off right now.”

“No fair,” Jongin whined. “You should come here, we have more room!”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Joonmyun promised. “I have to go now, you guys take care, okay? I love you.”

“We love you too!”

Joonmyun hung up and caught Chanyeol grinning at him. He blushed and hastily said, “I’ve never…I’m not actually…we’re like brothers. Or well, I am to them, Jongin and Lu Han are actually a thing, and Yifan has a boyfriend too. I’ve never, with them…yeah.”

“I kind of guessed,” Chanyeol said. “It didn’t sound like you meant it romantically. I just thought it was sweet.”

Joonmyun felt his cheeks heat up and he pretended to be busy arranging some files.

“Do you want to go see them? I wouldn’t mind covering for you.”

Joonmyun shook his head. “I would want you to come with me. We can go in a few weeks, Professor Willow is almost done gathering data on Neptune and Trident. Once that’s done, we can go for a visit together.” He pushed the files aside. “Are we going to swim at some point today?” He asked, clearing his throat. “Maybe we should do that.”

They had been working together every day, and today Chanyeol wanted to try putting his face in the water. He was nervous, but not enough where Joonmyun was worried about him. It helped that they practiced in Neptune and Trident’s pool, and the presence of the pokemon calmed Chanyeol down immensely.

Joonmyun started him off with a kickboard, just to get him adjusted to having his face near the water. Then they bent their knees until their chins touched the water, and dipped their heads down to blow bubbles. Neptune and Trident joined them for that activity, and kept coming over to bump noses with them. Chanyeol was having so much fun that he ended up putting his face in the water on his own, without even thinking. Trident had her nose pressed against Chanyeol’s, and as she started to go below the surface, Chanyeol followed her, keeping their noses pressed together. He was only under for a second before he popped back up, but he came up with the biggest smile on his face.

“I DID IT!” He cried, “Joonmyun, did you see that? Did you see me?!”

“I saw!” Joonmyun said, clapping his hands and jumping up and down. “Good job, I’m so happy for you!!”

Chanyeol swept Joonmyun into a hug so tight his feet left the floor, and he threw his arms around Chanyeol’s shoulders. Chanyeol leaned back, his smile brighter than the sun, and Joonmyun leaned forward and pressed a gentle kiss to his lips.

There was a moment of silence in which Chanyeol looked utterly shocked, but then his smile was back. “Wow.”

“Wow,” Joonmyun echoed. “Um, was that…okay?”

Chanyeol nodded. “It was. It was really nice. Can we do that again?”

Joonmyun nodded. “That would be nice.”

Joonmyun had never imagined that when he came to a quiet little town in the middle of nowhere, he would end up being a part of one of the most groundbreaking studies ever attempted on Pokémon, or that he would end up finding his true passion. He certainly never imagined that he would manage to gain a boyfriend in addition to all that, but that was exactly what ended up happening. After having started this new journey wondering if he would ever be happy again, Joonmyun was now the happiest had been in a long time, and he was looking forward to many more years of such happiness.

For a list of trainers and teams, check this blog post