Fire and Ice

Eavesdropping

"Don't you ever talk about him like that!" 

He didn't mean to hear it. He'd just been on his way into the forest, looking for Hawlucha, when he heard raised voices coming from a grove of trees. Hearing Hawlucha's angry voice had stopped him cold. He wanted to move, but couldn't, and instead was forced to listen to the rest of the conversation. 

"Why are you defending him? He's your rival!" 

"So that means we can't be friends?" 

"Well-" 

"Not everyone is like you and Pancham, Chespin. Just because Greninja's my rival doesn't mean I'm not allowed to care about him. Our lives aren't all about battling and seeing who's the strongest, you know." 

"But why, though? Why do you care about him? He's so....I don't know, mean. He hardly ever talks to anyone. He's bitter and acts cold to anyone who tries to be friendly with him except Ash and you. I just don't understand what you see in him." 

"Greninja is not mean. He acts that way because of his past, which you know nothing about and yet you judge him anyway! It was hard to get him to open up to me at first, but he did eventually and I finally saw a side of him that he doesn't like to show anyone else because it makes him feel vulnerable. He's cold to others because he doesn't want to risk letting them in and then having them hurt him, is there something wrong with that?" Hawlucha wondered sarcastically. Greninja noted happily that he was rubbing off on him. 

"I just...I don't know, Hawlucha. Greninja's never been friendly with anyone before. How did you get to be friends with him? You two hated each other when you first met!" 

"I never hated him, we just didn't get along. But no matter how much he annoyed me, I never wanted to see anything happen to him. Because he's still part of the team at the end of the day, and we're both supposed to care for each other." 

Greninja couldn't help but smile when he heard that. He didn't need Hawlucha to say that he had forgiven him for his behavior back in their first double battle; his friendship was more than enough forgiveness. 

Maybe this was just Hawlucha's way of saying "I love him". 

Yes, I mean that last sentence entirely brotherly/platonically.