Unusual Hang-out (Hau X Gladion)

CandyKiss

Hau was sitting inside a dark cave, a cyan-colored water rippling under him. He was pretty sure this was a dream, though. Contemplating if he should dive in, he silently looked down upon it-and discerned a familiar figure. There was Gladion, his dear lover, plunged into the cold water. His eyes were closed, his skin appeared pale, and his body was lurching by the current of the water-although he did not have on any expression, Hau somehow thought he looked sad and lonely. So, after sucking in a large breath, he dove in without hesitation.

'Gladion...!'

With forceful strokes, he quickly approached Gladion's faint figure. Inside the light blue water, his white skin seemed to glow more than usual, making his face appear like that of a carefully crafted Japanese doll, or a figure his mother wished to build. Soon, Hau noticed that Gladion was being largely affected by his painful past-a past so cruel and unbearable for such a small child, a past of being controlled until the extreme and not being allowed any freedom.

When Hau finally reached him and touched his fingertips, he saw a vision-a dream that Gladion saw a few days ago. In that dream, Gladion possessed a fearful pair of eyes, and his mother approached him with mad eyes and reached-out hands that intended to cage him.

Feeling his intense emotional pain, Hau accidentally let go of Gladion's hands, being separated from Gladion. The waves washed Hau away, distancing the two-then, he eventually lost his breath, losing his consciousness.

"Phew...!"

After what seemed like ages, Hau opened his eyes again, this time in a room with a lot of framed pictures. When he snapped out of his fatigue, he took a close look at each of those pictures-and realized they were the memories of him and Gladion. The first picture respresented their very first meeting at Road 5-when Gladion forcefully requested a battle with him, and won against him. Then, and as their journeys progressed, Hau just thought he was just a rude, immature guy-until he approached him at the seaside. Gladion had consoled him when he was sad due to Lillie's departure, and numbed the pain of loss. When Hau got kidnapped by a monstrous pokémon, Gladion came to rescue him. In reality, he was a very kind-hearted person, it's just he always tries to conceal the fact. Remembering his loneliness and scars of the past, and seeing how far he has come in terms of character, Hau became strongly determined to rescue him.

"I know what I have to do now!"

As soon as Hau declared so, he was once more plunged into the darkness of cold water. With a fluent motion, he swam toward Gladion's pale body, grabbing him by the wrist. Pulling him over, he neared his lips to Gladion's, locking in. The cold water turned warm, the darkness lighted up, and Gladion's closed eyes opened.

Slowly, their lips parted after a short, sweet kiss, and they looked into each other's eyes. Hau smiled brightly as he embraced Gladion's frigid body, trying to warm him.

"Welcome back, Gladion!"

—

When they opened their eyes on the grass, it was already mid-day. The sun shone brightly high up in the sky, and they had been sleeping on the hill since the tumultuous night. They awoke similarly, peering open their eyes and staring into each other's face. In Hau's view, he saw Gladion's stunning face, which had improved in color compared to the previous night. Looking at Hau with his smiling emerald eyes, he gently stroke Hau's forest-colored hair with his fingertips.

"Thank you, Hau...my nightmare's gone. It's all because of you."

"That's not true!"

Hau jumped up to his feet, offering his hand to confused Gladion.

"It's also because you decided to accept my help! You didn't refuse my help, and that's why you could recover! Sure, I wanted to heal your scars and offer my warmth, but if you had completely shut me out, I wouldn't have succeeded!"

"...I guess that's true..."

Gladion still seemed surprised from Hau's abrupt change of positions, but he took Hau's extended hand and got to his feet.

"Well, Hau, that's behind us now anyways. We don't have to think about nightmares anymore."

"Yes, I agree! Wow, today's another beautiful day! We should hang out!"

"We were together all day yesterday, Hau," Gladion spoke.

"Yeah, but I wanna be with you every day for the rest of my life!"

Gladion turned his head so that he wasn't facing Hau anymore.

"Hey, why're you avoiding me! I said I wanna be with you..."

"I know, shut up. Please."

Hau could never notice at that angle that Gladion's face had become very red, just like a ripe apple.