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Everything that Kieran had or wanted to have, Florian would eventually take from him. It was just something the Kitakamian boy accepted as a fact of life at this point.
Well, not really. Logically, the obsidian-haired lad knew that his Paldean rival couldn't possibly take everything he owned from him. Not his diverse team of loyal Pokémon- all 13 of them, including the Cramorant that, while he only used in battle one time, still made good company for him and his grandparents- not said loving grandparents, not his innate talent as a trainer. But it certainly felt like Florian could and did- it didn't help that everything he did take were things that Kieran had considered, or still consider, important and valuable to him.
First, Florian took the Ogre. Kieran had obsessed over the legend and took its side for years, only for what to happen? For an outsider (Carmine's words, not his) to walk into Mossui Town and catch Ogerpon for himself right under his nose? Of course he got jealous! Not helping matters was the string of loss after loss after loss, as well as being deceived by someone he thought could've been a friend- whatever good feelings he had about the Paldean at the time had rotted over and festered, leaving the pain of betrayal and seething hatred in its place.
Then, Florian took his Championship. By that point in time, Kieran had thrown away everything else he had in pursuit of standing at the top- so nobody would dare stab his back again without feeling the consequences. So nobody could walk all over him and take what was his anymore. Except, of course, that hadn't worked out either. He had neglected to consider the possibility that while he had gotten much stronger, so could've Florian- and had gotten humiliated in front of the entire student body of the academy as a result, left with nobody to stop him from sinking deeper into his power-obsessed mania.
Afterwards, Florian took the hidden treasure of Area Zero. Kieran had tried to resist and pull back with this one, going as far as to prepare his one and only Master Ball to try and one-up his nemesis with a Legendary Pokémon of his own. Only, in the process of pulling away from Florian, he had nearly dislocated his shoulders and died instead- not to mention nearly getting everyone else killed with him. It had naturally took Florian, maganimous as ever, to bail his sorry butt out of danger- danger that he caused, no less- and it was around here that the Kitakamian had realised his obsession to do Florian one better was ultimately destructive to himself and everyone around him. It was just better off to let go, and let Florian have his way. If he couldn't beat 'em, join 'em.
So that's what Kieran did. He let go of an impossible dream of chasing the sun, and simply resigned to basking in its warmth. He didn't even dislike the guy anymore- with a clearer head, it became clear as day that he had been in the wrong about the whole ordeal, even if there was always going to be the innate sibling urge to blame Carmine for starting it when she forced Florian to lie. Ogerpon remained with Florian out of her own free will, the lower League Club members had been treated extremely unfairly and harshly (oh Arceus, was that one guy's family okay?), and he had stripped Terapagos of its own choice to follow the brunet as well. Not only that, but he had forced it to battle after having freshly woken it up, followed by forcing unnatural amounts of Terastal energy into it; no wonder the tortoise had tried to attack him right there and then. Just being Florian's friend was okay, honestly- even with his inexplicable ability to get everything in the world he wanted, Florian was still a genuinely pleasant and compassionate person to everyone he knew. It was good to have someone who Kieran knew had his back, as the Pecharunt incident had proven.
Even if his streak of taking things from Kieran didn't stop with Terapagos.
In the process of taking Kieran's Champion title from him, Florian had also taken his Elite Four, and since his exchange term wasn't over they remained under his command for the time being. It wasn't hard to see that work ethic had been better under Florian's leadership than it had ever been under Kieran's; the perpetual wrinkles on Lacey's forehead from managing his tyrannical regime hadn't been seen nearly as often, Crispin could indulge in the battles he so enjoyed without interference from League politics or the perpetual threat of being removed from the Elite Four for being too weak, and Drayton...
Well, Drayton never really had any work ethic in the first place. It was something that Kieran disliked even without being blinded by his pursuit for strength. Heck, Drayton himself was someone that Kieran disliked without it, but even he could see that Mr. Toothpaste Hair genuinely behaved better without the person who overthrew him being in charge of the club he was in. On a good day, Florian could even get him to contribute to actual League Club work, though it was mostly limited to discussion since he always found a way to get paperwork off himself and leave it for someone else.
Most recently, Kieran had found out against his will that Florian had made away with Carmine too, via walking in on them making out in the League Club Room- he had tried to use a TM for Amnesia on himself after that. Granted, Carmine favouring Florian over her own blood brother wasn't a new development- he had already called her out all the way back in the Area Zero Underdepths, that she had been giving an outsider (again, Carmine's words) the attention and validation that he had craved from his closest family for a very long time. But even though his sister getting all intimate and mushy with one of his now-best friends was a thought he desperately wanted to erase from his memory like a Pokémon forgot an old move to learn a new one, this new revelation was still another nail in the coffin of Kieran's hopes to have good things for himself.
And yet, the Kitakamian teenager still didn't have it in him to be mad about it. Not even at this very moment, when he was sitting with the rest of his BB League social circle for lunch, and Florian and Carmine were being awfully, ridiculously gross and eating out of each other's food and all.
How could he be mad, when Florian was so blatantly beneficial for everyone and everything around him? He'd seen Ogerpon and Terapagos in the hands of the Paldean trainer (and later regional Champion, as he found out from one of the Paldean La Primera's visits), and the two Legendaries were obviously having the time of their lives. Both in battle, where they could fully showcase their strength under the trusted guidance of someone who brought out their full potential, and in leisurely downtime, where they could see the world's sights, eat the most delicious of sandwiches, and get pampered by someone who cared for them like his own children. Kieran doubted that he would've been able to give the two such fulfilling experiences- not when he mostly kept to himself and didn't go many places beyond what Kitakami and the Terarium had to offer. They were happier, the League Club was happier and members stopped quitting, and he was happier without all his awful thoughts about losing bogging him down- thank Florian introducing him to Nemona for that. Crispin hasn't stopped being good classmates and pals with him, but talking to Florian and Arven, if he was around, about cooking sparked a fire in him that Kieran had never seen- not even when they were watching Darkrai's Kitchen together and some "professional" chef inevitably enraged Siebold by making soulless, bland slop. The same went for Lacey and Drayton about cute things and... whatever Drayton was actually passionate about, he wouldn't know. Even Carmine, icky as she was around Florian, had a more pleasant, less egocentric demeanour since they started appearing in public together. Much more affable than what he was used to seeing.
So, yeah. Everything that Kieran had or wanted to have, Florian would eventually take from him. That was a good thing for all parties involved, so he let it happen.
"Are you well, Kieran? You are being unusually quiet, and you have stopped eating despite having consumed less than half your meal."
...everything, with one exception. One spectacled, timekeeping, Steel-type exception.
Now don't get Kieran wrong here- it wasn't that Amarys wasn't happier after Florian deposed him and took control of the BB League. She was, but it wasn't due to Florian's direct influence or friendship for once. No, it was simply because the Kitakamian himself had grown and changed as a person- putting his best foot forward, to paraphrase her words. He was the direct cause of it, not Florian.
"O-oh, nothin' much. Just... thinkin'."
"Is it about your tenure as Blueberry League Champion again? I continue to assure you, there is nothing that necessitates worrying about. Everyone who knows you well has already forgiven you."
"Thanks, Amarys. But that's not it this time. I'm, uh... rememberin' how we got here."
As Kieran responded, he tilted his head in the direction of his sister's boyfriend, who was taking a forkful of fried noodles from Carmine's lunchbox as revenge for her stealing the last prawn off his seafood paella. It was a scene he and the BBE4 were used to by now; the first few times had caused some concern, but they consistently managed not to spill or knock over anything during their faux-food-fights, so they just let it happen. Judging from Lacey clasping her hands together the way she did when something was particularly cute, as well as Drayton smirking, it seemed that the others even started liking it to some degree.
Eugh.
Amarys, for her part, simply stopped paying attention to the two after a few seconds and looked back at Kieran, the rare upturn of the corners of her lips present on her face. "I, for one, am simply glad that my dear friends are happy. In general, I am also greatly satisfied with our current state of affairs, and, of course, the fact that you are doing well." The last part of the sentence was completed with a light tilt of her head and a more pronounced smile- objectively still not a very large one, but coming from Amarys, he knew his stability meant the world to her.
Looking back in hindsight, the dark-skinned girl had always prioritised Kieran's well-being, hadn't she? He was too lost in his own delusions to recognise it, dismissing her attempts at scheduling his day for him as an insult on his maturity and thinking he didn't need to be treated like a baby when he most definitely did. All Amarys had wanted was just for him to get regular meals and sleeping hours, something he knew he absolutely hadn't let himself have during his conquest and subsequent dictatorship of the BB League. On the day of his monumental defeat at Florian's hands, his failure to defend his title as Champion, he distinctly remembered a lack of Amarys' voice as Crispin congratulated him, Lacey admonished him, and Drayton insulted him, in that order. Even when those three were all praising Florian for his victory, she had been focused purely on how to help him recover from his defeat.
Actually, now that he thought about it, Carmine had confronted him out of the blue, a day before he took on Lacey, the final member of the Elite Four at the time. Was that Amarys' doing too? He and Carmine weren't exactly on speaking terms after the return trip from Kitakami, and the talk his sister tried to give him had probably been a last ditch effort from both her and her closest friend to pull him out of his insanity. It didn't work, but now Kieran almost wishes it had. It would've certainly spared everyone a lot of headaches and heartaches.
Almost, because maybe he wouldn't be where he and everyone else were now, if things had went down differently. "I'm glad we're here too, Amarys!" He made his thoughts clear to his friend, grinning in agreement and hoping that he didn't have bits of lunch stuck in his bared teeth. She nodded in agreement, and the two remained smiling at each other for a few seconds. It would have went on for longer, but par for the course for Kieran, all good things must come to an end.
"Sheesh, ex-Champion, what a hypocrite you are. All that fuss about your sis and Florian for this? Knock Off yourself, you ain't any better!"
"Drayton! That's just not right! They were having a moment!"
"Exactly my point!"
Jolted back into reality by the dragon bozo, Kieran had the sudden realisation that four of the others at the lunch table were staring at him and Amarys. Carmine's smirk was nearly as punchable as Drayton's- it was never a good sign when the two agreed on something- Florian wore a rather awkward, lopsided smile while a sweatdrop comically rolled down the side of his face, and Crispin simply stared wide-eyed and uncomprehending, as he tended to do. Only Lacey, ever the responsible one, was trying to do some form of damage control, though that was limited to whacking Drayton on the shoulder with her signature crossed arms. All the attention on him combined with Drayton's insinuations meant that the obsidian-haired boy's face instantly turned as scarlet as his sister's name, and a quick glance told him that the Steel specialist sitting next to him wasn't faring any better, having essentially frozen up on the spot.
"W-WHA-WAIT- DRAYTON YOU- WE WERE JUST-"
"Aww, look at you Kiki! You grow up so fast~"
"Sis! Shut it!!!"
"Kieran-"
"Not you too, Florian! Be on my side for once!"
"But I am on your side! I just think you two are cute together! Lacey can back me up here!"
"This is clearly stressing him out! I will not comment!"
It was true. Kieran was never good with unwanted attention, and at this moment he wished for nothing more than for his Life Orb Adaptability Porygon-Z to Hyper Beam Drayton, then himself. But as he scrambled for something to save face, he noticed in the corner of his eye that Amarys was trembling. He did so with good timing too, apparently, because as soon as he caught the small detail, she immediately stood up from her chair, posture even more rigid and erect than normal.
"I apologise for cutting this luncheon short. I have. Forgotten. That I have Student Council matters to attend to in the next five minutes. Time for me to go, so long!"
Barely finishing her sentence and without letting anyone else get a word in, the Student Council president turned on her heel and marched- goose stepped, even- out of the League Club room, faster than anyone had previously seen her walk. A few seconds of silence passed, before Crispin piped up for the first time since Drayton's interruption.
"Hold on a second, Amarys never forgets her schedule!"
Kieran blanched. He should not have let that slip past him- the fact that Amarys was lying to get out of the room, despite knowing that everybody would see through her untruth, meant she probably felt incredibly terrible and absolutely needed to leave. Without a second thought, he declared "I'm going after her." and also ran out of the room- though not without shooting the dirtiest glare he could manage at Drayton. The nerve of that bozo...
Thankfully, the ex-Champion didn't have to go very far to find his friend(...?), who had simply turned the nearest corner in the corridor and leaned against a wall, breathing erratically. He quickly made his way towards her, though not without first waiting for her to acknowledge his presence. Kieran had heard from the others that Amarys had a sensitive streak underneath her ironclad exterior, but this was the first time he was seeing it in person, and he so dearly wished it was under any other common circumstance. Not only was her breathing uneven, he could also see some moisture behind her fogged up glasses. He mustered up the most basic of words and addressed her; he could think up something better once his heart wasn't also going a mile a minute.
"Amarys! You- are you okay?!"
"...I... sincerely apologise, Kieran."
Wait, huh? Why? Kieran had evidently made his confusion apparent, as Amarys kept talking as if prompted.
"I did not mean to... make you uncomfortable just then. I must have overstepped your boundaries."
"W-what? No! I- I didn't mind anythin' you said! It was Drayton bein' stupid... And sis..."
"Still. I allowed my emotions to get the better of me... and the result had, as Lacey described it, stressed you out-"
Deciding that he needed to get through to her as she tried him, the Kitakamian let himself do the unthinkable and initiate physical contact, placing his hands on his schoolmate's upper arms. Even if the situation was objectively nowhere near as dire, subjectively he thought otherwise- someone he valued's feelings were at stake, and that deserved everything he could do to fix it. It was the least he could to pay Amarys back after all her attempts at helping him, successful or not.
"Amarys, listen, please. It wasn't you at all, it was one hundred percent Drayton and his trash talk. His comment made everyone look at us- or, at least, we became aware of everyone staring after he pointed it out. So I blame him! Not you!... And, well, if those feelings are what I think they are..."
At that, the ebony girl turned away, seemingly in shame, or embarrassment, or...was that a hint of fear? As she opted to interrupt Kieran.
"About that. You referred to Drayton's words as 'trash talk'. Does this mean that his implications... that you see me the way Carmine sees Florian... aren't true?"
Oh. Oh dear. Kieran may have been socially awkward, but he wasn't dense- he had picked up some time ago that the steely Elite Four member had a particular soft spot for him, and there was a non-zero chance that it was romantic in nature. The other way round, though? He never really found the time to seriously sort out his thoughts and feelings, or whether he had a crush on anyone or not, since he was busy reconnecting with the team of Pokémon he left behind in his pursuit for power, apologising to people, and catching up on schoolwork after his brief retirement from Blueberry Academy altogether. But he needed to respond now.
"...I'll be honest, I... haven't given the subject of... love... much thought, so I don't have a concrete answer to that question yet. But know this, Amarys. I appreciate that you've been lookin' out for me even when I was too full of myself to realise it. If you gave me today the same advice you gave me three months ago, I'd follow it without hesitation. I appreciate having you in my life and Carmine's, I appreciate all the work you've done for the League Club, and as Student Council President as well. You're an amazing person, an insanely strong Elite Four, and I..."
Actually, scratch that bit earlier. He was dense, Kieran admitted to himself as a grin overtook his face.
"...well, y'know what, maybe I do have a concrete answer to that question now."
If yesterday's Kieran was asked whether he could see himself hugging anyone, he'd probably have laughed and said "no way". He'd also probably have the same reaction if asked whether he could see Amarys hugging anyone.
And yet, here they were just doing exactly that right now, holding each other and feeling the tension in the Steel trainer deflate.
Amarys had initiated it, pulling Kieran into herself after a second of figuring out what his roundabout confession meant. But even if it had surprised him, the boy found himself utterly unwilling to let go. Not even when he felt shuddering from the other and dampness on his shoulder; in fact, that had only prompted him to tighten his hold, patting his now-more-than-a-friend on the back. Eventually though, they needed to separate; the clock was ticking dangerously close to the end of lunch period, and they still had unfinished meals and a group of friends to return to. Though her face was stained with tear trails, Kieran had never seen Amarys happier in his life.
"Wowzers..."
"Thank you, Kieran. It fills me with immeasurable joy to know that my feelings are reciprocated."
"W-well, I gotta say that it also feels really nice for me too... that you care about me this much."
"...we should return to the Club Room. It would not do us well to be late to class."
"Yeah... besides, you probably want me to finish my meal, don't ya?"
"Indeed I do. Let us go."
Instead of her usual demeanour of ordering Kieran to come with her, Amarys took a more direct approach and simply chose to take his hand, towing him back to the League Club Room. He happily let her- he was no longer the person who wanted to be in control of everything. He already knew that Drayton and Carmine would never let him hear the end of it, and Florian would probably jab him a little once in a while too, but he decided that it didn't matter.
Florian could lay claim to the rest of the world for all Kieran cared, as long as Amarys stayed his.