Lillie sat up in bed with the light blue nightstand lamp turned on. The bulb had almost reached the end of its lifespan and flickered ever so gently, but still, it continued to dimly illuminate her pink, sweet loft as she sketched on her drawing pad. The strong scent of vanilla still lingered in the air from where her little vulpix Snowy and her caretaker's Rockruff had accidentally broken the vial of vanilla that Lillie secretly used for making her perfume. It was rather expensive in Melemele's marketplace, but she used her own money to buy the ingredients for her scent that everyone adored, making the townspeople ask what made her smell so good. She probably wouldn't be wearing anything at tomorrow's town festival thanks to the two mischevious Pokémon, but they were too cute to stay mad at for too long.
Lillie would flinch every time she heard a crack or a shout from deep downstairs in the confines of the basement. Her caretaker, Professor Kukui, was most of the time in his little world in his head. More times than not, the handsome man didn't care about the house's status or Lillie's sleep—he only wanted to research new moves for Pokémon. Lillie adored his admiration for the little creatures, but she wished she could only get a good night's sleep. She craned her head up over her lap desk that housed her sketchbook, and she looked to the large clock on the tall wall over the front door. 12:37 AM.
"Whoo, Rockruff, I'm beat! Let's pick this up tomorrow morning, 'kay? We can try to get it done and show Lillie—I'm sure she'd be happy to see your new trick!" She heard a few sweet yips of approval, and her eyes slowly traveled up to the beams in the ceiling as she listened to the silence.
Quiet.
Nothing.
Kukui's footsteps running up the stairs.
Lillie slid the sketchbook under her bed and put away the desk next to her nightstand before scooping the vulpix Snowy up in her arms and flipping over in bed with him. The mattress fell silent as she felt Kukui's presence quietly enter the room. "Hey, Lillie, you still awake? Or are you tired from that epic Masked Royal fight on TV?" Even though she wanted to laugh at his little ode towards the roughhousing match that he had inducted her into earlier, she didn't answer him and breathed ever so quietly as she heard him climbing the ladder. The man may have been silly and hyper, but he still had a fatherly soft spot that she had never felt at home before moving in with him.
Kukui quietly walked to her side and plopped Rockruff next to her in bed before he placed one hand over her and one hand behind her. She found him leaning down to kiss her on her blonde hair and couldn't help but smile just a little. "Sweet dreams, squirt." She could recite word for word the short poem he was about to tell her; "We'll play tomorrow when the sun is bright, masking over the pale moonlight. The guardian tapus will come out too, only if you know that I love you." He pulled her blanket up over her bare arms and rubbed her back for a minute before patting her arm. She listened to him leave and smiled as she let the warmth resonate through her. There was the sound of the faucet, a loud gulp of water, and finally, the man went back downstairs to sleep.
As soon as the door shut in the basement, Snowy squeaked excitedly. "No," she mumbled as the vulpix wiggled out of her grasp. "It's not time to play, Snowy." The Pokémon drew a little scowl before she grabbed the back of Lillie's tank top in her teeth, pulling tight. She rolled over to face the critter and blinked with heavy eyelids up at her. "What?" Snowy raised on her hind legs, and she tried her best to growl like a Lycanroc, but she still looked sweet and non-threatening. "Not tonight, Snowy, I might disturb him!" Lillie watched the vulpix mock her with little sassy squeaks as she twirled a few circles to lie down, and she sighed. "Fine. Better now than never, I suppose." Lillie threw the light blanket off of her and stood up gently, grabbing Snowy under her arm and tucking her legs in her hand. Ever so quietly, she crept to the end of the loft, and she slowly climbed down.
One... Two... Three... Four... Creak.
She had forgotten that the fifth bar of the ladder was loose, and she cringed as the groan of the rung resounded through the large house. She waited for just a second before placing the rest of the weight slowly on the peg, and she continued to climb down just fine. Lillie tiptoed as silently as possible to the end of the stairs, and she gently placed her body on the metal railing that went down the stairs to the door. With a little tip forwards, she slid down instead of using the creaky steps.
The girl landed on the concrete slab, and she so silently opened the heavy, weighted door to the "lab"—which was otherwise known as Kukui's bedroom. He was asleep in his king-sized bed, which had been shoved up against the back corner wall to the right. He slept right on the far edge for some reason, but it didn't matter because he had never fallen off. Well, he had never fallen off as far as Lillie knew. Next to his bed was his exercise equipment, and scattered all around the room was debris from both failed and successful attempts at teaching his Rockruff new moves and learning about them.
Lillie gently crept to the bed, where he slept in only his boxers. He snored loudly, and she was scared of figuring out if he was a light or heavy sleeper. Ever so slowly, she threw her right leg over his body and onto the other side of him. She lifted herself over him and nearly had her footing before Kukui shifted a bit. She gasped, but he remained in a catatonic state. She released her breath and felt a tickle in her nose. Any time but now, she thought, but it was too late. The tickle built up, and she held her hand to her face, letting out a cute, sweet, squeak of a sneeze. Kukui stayed asleep, but it startled Rockruff, making him start barking. Lillie panicked and lost her balance, slipping and landing hard on top of the man. The girl whimpered as she did so and prayed that she hadn't woken him up, slowly sitting up while perched on him like she was riding a Tauros.
He snored, and she breathed a sigh of relief.
She pushed herself up off of his chest, and as her hands were on either of his pecks, his phone gave off the tiniest ping. Kukui woke up in a bit of a panic to the sound, and Lillie went into fight or flight mode, holding her hand to his mouth as if he were in on the secret mission too. When he realized it was only her, she gently took her hand away and placed it back onto his chest.
"Lillie? What are you doing?" She looked down at Kukui with nothing slight of a shocked expression, and she looked down at her position.
"It's not what it looks like," she whispered, and he cocked an eyebrow. "I had a bad dream, and I wanted to sleep with you, but I had to crawl over you to get there."
"Oh, well why didn't you just wake me up instead of scaring me like that, kiddo?" He reached over to smack the empty side of the bed a few times with hollow thumping sounds. Lillie quickly flipped over to lie down next to the muscular man. He wrapped one arm around her shoulders, letting her use his bicep as a pillow, and she turned on her side to face him. "Night," he yawned, quickly going back to sleep.
Lillie felt terrible about the little white lie, but she quickly stifled her guilt and turned around the other way. She had found his secret files while making his bed when he was out one day, and she remembered where they were hiding. Ever so gently, Lillie pulled the folder out from between the bed and the wall, and the girl covered her head with the thick, weighted blanket that protected them both from the insufferable cold in the basement that was below sea level. She rummaged around in the pocket again and found his keys, using the tiny keychain flashlight to read the papers. Finally, she opened the manila folder.
"If the rocks around the neck pierce the skin, the thorns of the Rockruff has mysterious effects on their owner," she whispered to herself, feeling the fuzzy little vulpix wiggle its way next to her. She wrapped her arm around Snowy and let her look at the papers as well, taking in no account that Snowy couldn't read. She traced the words with her finger. "The human can turn into a horrible, mutant form of the Lycanroc on the night of the full moon. It is undecided if this is yet a myth, as there is no solidified proof." Lillie shook her head and turned off the keychain, peeking from under the blanket at Kukui. There was a significant, bloody mark on his arm that was the perfect size for Rockruff's collar of stones to fit in, and she could only glance in between Rockruff's collar and the wound. The walls were caving in on her as she began to panic, and she grabbed Snowy tighter.
"Oh no."
YOU ARE READING
Kukui's Curse
Fanfiction**I'm editing this story right now!** Lillie knows something is wrong with her caretaker, Professor Kukui. Sometimes he locks himself away in a hurry at bedtime, leaving Rockruff to occasionally sleep with Lillie and Snowy. Then, during those nigh...
