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He’d mostly stopped getting Dimensional Screams, but he did get some on rare occasions. Sometimes they showed him a client that needed a rescue, others a target outlaw gathering a group to attack anyone who came looking for them, and other things like that.
So, when he was walking through the crossroads outside the Guild, bumped shoulders with Surtur, and the world began to feel like it spun underneath him, Warlock was only mildly surprised. As the flash of light cleared from his vision, he saw… himself and Surtur, sitting in their nests in Sharpedo Bluff, evidently having just woken up. Other-Warlock had been kneeling with his face in his paws, but was just looking up at a very concerned-looking Surtur. Suddenly, and before his partner could say anything, Other-Warlock practically lunged forward and planted a firm kiss on the grown fire-weasel. Kissing wasn’t very common for pokemon, likely due to the wide variety of facial structures available for pokemon. Looking at Other-Warlock and Surtur, it was looking like they were discovering why kissing wasn’t common; their not-human faces not exactly meshing perfectly.
And then the Dimensional Scream faded with another flash of light. Warlock regained his balance and shook his head to try and clear the faint ringing that always accompanied a Scream. He could feel a hand on his back, and glanced over to see Surtur holding him steady. Warlock could feel his face warming slightly, and was grateful for the dark fur covering it.
“So, what’d you see?” his partner inquired, concern evident across his muzzle. Warlock turned and looked away from his partner’s muzzle, trying to disguise the motion as shaking his head to clear it. He did not need to think about that. He didn’t even like Surtur like that!
Oh, right; his partner was still waiting for an answer.
“Nothing specific…” Replied the human-turned-lucario, attempting to deflect. The attempt clearly didn’t work, as his partner’s expression turned skeptical. “We were, uh… just waking up in the bluff, getting ready for the day.”
“Were we talking about anything?” For some reason, that technically-true answer apparently only made Surtur more unsettled. “A mission, a client, an outlaw, anything specific?”
“Uh, nope, just, uh, just your usual ‘let’s do our best today’ bit.” Warlock did a little arm swing with his impression of his partner, finally able to look Surtur in the eyes. His partner stared back with his unimpressed eyes.
“I do not sound like that.”
“Yes, you do.”
The typhlosion took a deep breath, and then fixed Warlock with a very serious stare. “Neither of us was hurt in your vision? Nothing bad was about to happen to either of us?”
Oh. So that was why his evasiveness had been making Surtur wary. His partner had been thinking about how he’d been less talkative on the way out of Temporal Tower.
“No.” Reassured Warlock firmly, reaching out and putting a paw on Surtur’s shoulder. “It’s nothing like that. I…” he choked on the words a little. “I’m never going to leave you like that without saying anything. I promise, if I see something like that, I will tell you.”
Surtur didn’t say anything for a long moment, just searched Warlock’s eyes. Apparently satisfied with what he saw, he released a tense huff and nodded. Warlock pulled his paw away as if he’d been burned. He hadn’t, but Surtur did seem a bit warmer than usual.
“What’s the matter? Am I too hot to handle?” Asked the fire-weasel, clearly trying to lighten the mood. Instead, Warlock nearly choked on his own spit. “Are you ok?”
“Yeah, good,” Warlock coughed two more times, and then recollected himself. “Nah, you’re fine. But I am part-steel now. We’re weak to fire.”
“Really, you've got a weakness for me?” Smirked his partner. Warlock groaned. Yeah, no way was he actually interested in this dork.
The second time he saw the kiss wasn’t the next Dimensional Scream he saw; there’d been one in between that had warned them an outlaw had set up a monster house. However, this time was also a surprise; he couldn’t recall a time when he’d had two visions for the same event. This time, they were out on the beach after a mission.
It had been an escort mission, and the client. Would not. Stop. Trying. To fight. Every. Single. Feral. And it turned out that the girl he’d wanted them to rescue had, in fact, run into the dungeon by accident to get away from him. They’d made sure she got home without their clueless client following her.
So, both of them needed to wind down a little.
Taking a nice walk through Surtur’s special place at the beach was always a good way to do that. Neither of them was talking, because if one of them started ranting, the other would, and they’d both just get worked up again; which would defeat the purpose of coming down here.
So they walked in silence, just them, the waves crashing against the shore, the crabby blowing bubbles, and Dugtrio trying to work on his water resistance again.
Then Surtur reached out and put a paw on Warlock’s chest, likely because he spotted something, and the lucario’s world spun. The flash of light left him staring at their dwelling inside Sharpedo Bluff again; once more looking at another Warlock kneeling with his head in his paws. Other-Warlock let out a long, pained-sounding groan. Other-Surtur was looking at him, his face full of concern and worry.
“Warlock?” The other lucario slowly took his face out of his paws to look up at his partner, face clearly tired, resigned, and… possibly a few other things that Warlock couldn’t quite identify, even on his own face. Other-Surtur opened his mouth to ask something, and, as with last time, Other-Warlock lunged forward and kissed him, awkwardly. Honestly, watching himself kiss anyone from a third-person perspective was strange, especially his best friend.
His distinctly platonic best friend, of course.
Another flash of light, and then he was back on the beach where he’d first woken up, Surtur walking back over to him with a message bottle clutched in his paws. Oh, so that was probably what’d gotten his attention. His partner noticed his expression, and hurriedly walked back over to him.
“Another vision?” queried the typhlosion, his muzzle the picture of concern while the settling sun gave him the illusion of an ethereal glow.
Wait, why was he focusing on that?
Warlock shook his head to clear it, feeling most of his body involuntarily twitch along with the gesture. Sometimes being canine was strange. “Yeah.” he responded, before he could properly think about it. Well, now he needed to provide details. “We were at the bluff again. I think… I think I might’ve been sick or something?” He thought back, trying to recall his other self’s expression. Actually, that might’ve made sense. If he had just been cold because of a fever, and was trying to get body heat from his temperature-hot partner, that would make a lot more sense than kissing his friend like they were dating. Which they weren’t; because Surtur was just his friend, and he didn’t want anything more. He dropped out of his thoughts to see Surtur looking at him in concern. “I still don’t think it was serious! Nothing life-threatening, just… I sounded like I was uncomfortable and apparently tried to grab you for heat.”
“So, I’m your hot pack now?” The fire-type smirked and cocked his hip a little, letting the paw not holding the message bottle rest on his hip.
“Like you’d object.” Shot back the lucario, not even sure how that was a comeback as he said it.
“Not really,” Surtur shrugged. “You give nice hugs, provided, of course,” he reached out and tapped the metal spike sticking out of Warlock’s chest. “You don’t poke me with anything.”
Warlock frowned down at the spike. That was possibly the only annoying part of evolving. He’d heard some lucario either got it filed so that it was blunt and/or shorter, but it was… not very comfortable. There weren’t nerve endings inside it, but it was still connected to their chest. Besides, the supplies for it weren’t common. He’d finally decided to ask the Kecleon brothers about getting something for that a week ago, and they’d put in a request. He hadn’t heard back yet.
“I’m careful with this thing! Not like I’m intentionally jabbing you with it or anything!” He shot back as they turned to head back home.
“But really, if you start feeling weird, let me know. I’ll see what I can do to help.” His partner’s earnest concern made Warlock’s heart feel warm and fuzzy.
Both of them walked right past Dugtrio, who’d only clearly caught the last part of the conversation. Neither of the two graduates noticed him giving them both an odd look, not sure what to make of what he’d overheard.
The third time, Surtur wasn’t in a state to question him. He’d been hit with a sludge bomb on a mission and been poisoned. They’d used up the two pecha berries in the bag earlier in the dungeon (Warlock didn’t need them, being immune to poison), and Surtur had insisted on soldiering on until they’d gotten the client’s stolen gold ribbon back from the outlaw. Fortunately, (or unfortunately, since moving between floors somehow fixed poisoning) the outlaw was on the same floor. They’d taken her down and gotten the ribbon back to the ariados; but as they were about to head out of the guild, Surtur collapsed. Chimecho had looked him over and pronounced that it was a delayed reaction to the poison. At Warlock’s questioning, she’d elaborated that while leaving a dungeon usually cleared up things like poison, in very rare cases, the damage that it had done could cause issues a while afterwards.
He should be fine in the morning, but she was having him stay overnight for observation, just in case. The typhlosion had already been given a pecha shake from Spinda’s, and seemed better, but was still sleeping.
Warlock reached out and patted his sleeping partner on the shoulder, only for his world to abruptly tilt beneath him. For a moment he worried that the poison was somehow affecting him, but the flash of light dispelled that notion, and replaced it with a now-familiar scene.
For a third time, he saw the Other-Warlock kneeling, but this time he was looking up at the Other-Surtur. Other-Surtur was smiling at both Warlocks, excited about something; and, Arceus, was he just so… nice. He was a ray of sunshine, always there for Warlock… the former human didn’t know what he’d do without his partner. Other-Warlock looked at that smile, that pure smile; buried his head in his paws; and let out a long, pained, and frustrated groan. Warlock kind of felt the same.
“Warlock?” Despite the evident concern in Other-Surtur’s voice, Other-Warlock didn’t look up for a moment. When he did, his expression was… tired, frustrated, and… resigned? Warlock wasn’t sure. Or maybe he had some ideas, but didn’t want to consider them. Either way, Other-Warlock cut off whatever his partner was about to say by once more abruptly surging forward to kiss him. After a few seconds where Warlock had no idea how to feel about this, again, the second flash of light cut it out, and he was once more in the bedroom at the Guild, sitting beside his unconscious partner.
“Did you just have one of your visions?” Warlock jumped a little, not having heard Chimecho come back into the room while he was in the Scream. But only a little.
“Uh, sorry, I didn’t hear you…” Warlock said, not quite able to meet her eyes.
“Because you were having a vision? What are they called again?” She curled up her tail to tap her chin, thoughtfully.
“Dimensional Screams.” Provided Warlock.
Neither spoke for a moment.
“So, what did you see that’s got you embarrassed?” Asked Chimecho, out of nowhere.
“What makes you think I’m embarrassed?” quickly asked Warlock.
“You’re fluffed up.” She pointed at his cheeks, which, yes, were fluffing up. “Those of us who don’t have fur blush; but furry pokemon like you fluff up instead. Granted, you also do that when scared, but you don’t seem scared.”
Warlock stared at her for a long moment. She didn’t say anything, patiently waiting for him to respond. “Just,” he huffed a little, “an odd vision of the two of us.” He gestured between himself and his partner to indicate who he was talking about.
“Odd how?” pressed Chimecho, gently.
“We’re… doing something… I think it’s kind of a human thing, as far as I’ve observed; I’m not sure you’d know what,” he paused, not wanting to actually say what had happened anywhere near Surtur, just in case he was awake, “what it is.” he finished, glancing back at the still-sleeping typhlosion.
“Alright, come with me.” Chimecho could apparently read his hesitation, and waved for him to follow her as she floated out of the room. Warlock glanced between her and Surtur, patted his partner on the shoulder, and then got up and followed her out.
They went into another nearby bedroom, one that was currently unoccupied, but had three nests in it. She settled down into one of them, coiling her tail around herself, and indicating for him to sit in another one of the nests. Still not sure why he was doing this, he sat down, cross-legged, in the indicated nest.
“So, what human thing were you doing with Sutur in the vision that you didn’t want to discuss around him?” She dropped back into the conversation right where they’d left off.
Warlock looked away from her, and didn’t answer, or look in her direction for a moment. “It’s… I don’t know.”
“It seems like you’re pretty sure you do, you’re just not sure why you’re doing it.” supplied Chimecho.
“What makes you think that?” Warlock retorted defensively.
“First off, I think I know you reasonably well. I do talk to you pretty often with managing your rescues.” She gave him what on a human would’ve been a raised eyebrow. Since she didn’t have eyebrows, it was just a raised eyelid. “Also, I’m psychic-type. I’m not actively reading your thoughts; but I get a general sense of their tone.”
The human-lucario felt his ears droop and his fur fluff a bit, tail twitching awkwardly. After more silence to stall, he relented to her still-hanging question. “It’s a… affectionate thing. A rather… more affectionate thing. It’s called a kiss. Uhm…” He tried to gather his thoughts, not sure where to go next.
“We pokemon do have a few things called kissing, actually. Pokemon of the feline or canine variety, or some that tend to lack lips do that by licking; but those with more defined lips just press their lips to the other pokemon.” Warlock wondered if he was actually blushing now in addition to fluffing up, because his cheeks felt rather hot. “And I’m not surprised you wouldn’t know that, it’s generally reserved for pokemon you’re very close with, like family, or mates.”
“Y-yeah, well” he started, and then tried to swallow the lump in his throat before continuing, “That’s kinda how humans mean it too…”
Yet another silence entered the room, broken by the wind chime pokemon. “So, you saw yourself doing something to indicate you two were possibly mates at that time. Are you sure it wasn’t meant as a… familial gestu-”
“Yeah.” he interjected. “It was… definitely intended to be more… romantic affection.”
“Oh.” The familiar awkward silence settled back in as Chimecho considered this, and Warlock tried not to consider it and instead consider why he was still here. The silence got evicted again as Chimecho summarized what she’d been told. “So, you saw a vision of the two of you being mates, and you’re feeling a bit awkward and conflicted on this.”
“He’s my best friend! How would you feel if you got a vision of you kissing your best friend?!” He shot back.
She considered that for a moment. “Ok, seeing myself kissing Sunflora would be weird and uncomfortable.” She nodded in agreement.
“All of the visions I’ve seen have either been of the past, or things that eventually came true.” continued Warlock, “And, I haven’t done that already, so, this is… something I’m going to do.”
“...alright, matters of choice and fate aside,” Chimecho pressed, “this seems like more than just awkwardness about your apparent destiny to kiss your friend. Like I said, I’m not reading your thoughts, just the tone, but you feel a bit conflicted.”
Warlock shuffled in place. He didn’t want to admit it, but she’d hit the nail on the head. Ever since the first time he’d seen it, that kiss had been in the back of his head. And… he was starting to notice things about his friend. Things that had previously just been them teasing each other now sometimes made him aware of how unintentionally flirty some of them may sound. His eyes kept getting drawn against his will to his partner as they fought, watching him easily manipulating his powerful flames against outlaws and ferals. Or how Surtur would keep touching him. The typhlosion was a physically affectionate pokemon, giving him pats on the back, or hugging him, or grabbing his paws when he was excited… Or the way that he had this grand sense of wonder for the world.
Warlock still remembered Surtur pitching the idea to him of becoming an exploration team that day on the beach. The then-cyndaquil’s eyes sparkling with joy and wonder as he described exploring; 'hidden troves full of treasure and strange relics, uncharted territories veiled in darkness, and new lands just waiting to be discovered'… Admittedly, he’d only really joined because at the time, Surtur was literally the only non-hostile person he’d known in the world, and exploring seemed a good way to try and find anyone who might know him; but the sparkles in his eyes, the literal sparks of eagerness spitting off his flame-vents, and the excitement in his voice had done a pretty good job selling the career as well.
Warlock huffed in annoyance and tried to clear those thoughts away. That felt like a rather weird way to be thinking about his best friend. It could just be how friends worked (not like he really remembered all that much about having friends), but… well, he could probably count several of the guild members as friends, too; and this didn’t feel like the way he thought about them.
He again jumped a bit when he felt something settle across one of his legs. While he was lost in his thoughts, Chimecho had moved over and comfortingly draped her tail across one of his legs. “Emotions are complicated. You don’t need to try and answer why you feel like this today. But do think about it. Do you want him as a friend or something more? You owe it to yourself to try and answer that.” They stayed like that for a moment, and then Chimecho got back up and floated towards the door. “If you need to talk about things, I’m often available. Right now, I’m going to go check on Surtur. If you want to stay the night, there’s another nest in the room where he is.”
“What about him?” Asked Warlock, his brain getting out of its confusion and registering something with what she’d said.
Chimecho paused, not quite getting what she was being asked. “As I said earlier, he’ll be fine tomorrow, he just needs to rest now, and maybe get another pecha berry in the morning.”
“No, I mean…” Warlock gathered his thoughts together. “You said I owe it to myself to sort this out, what about him? Aren’t you going to say I owe it to him to sort this out?”
Her eyes widened in comprehension, and then she bobbed her head to the side with a little jingle, thinking. After a second, she replied “Do you think you owe it to him?” And then turned and floated out the door and down the hall.
Warlock was left sitting there, unsure what she’d even meant by that parting question.
He ended up staying the night in the other nest in the room with Surtur.
He didn’t get as much sleep that night as he should’ve, his head too full of internal screaming.
Two months later, he still didn’t have an answer to Chimecho’s question. It should’ve been easy. Surtur was his friend, and nothing more.
But.
But he somehow couldn’t find himself committing to that answer.
He woke up around the same time as Surtur did, nothing particularly special about that morning. They did have two missions in Midnight Forest that they’d claimed yesterday, but nothing really special about that particular day.
Warlock had been up a bit later than he should’ve been, Chimecho’s question resurfacing and keeping him up; watching Surtur sleeping like a weirdo while he pondered without getting any results. Blearily, he blinked his eyes open, and looked out over the reflection of the rising sun in the ocean waves.
“Morning, Warlock!” Said Surtur, chipper as ever. “Let’s do our best today, alright?” Still kneeling, Warlock looked over at his partner as Surtur did some morning stretches that were definitely not drawing his eyes to his partner’s form. “We’ve got that item retrieval and outlaw takedown in Midnight Forest today; gosh, it’s been awhile since we’ve been there.” He turned to Warlock, excitement making his eyes practically sparkle and small puffs of flame come out of his back. “It’s kinda spooky in there, but that just means there’s something interesting about it; maybe we’ll find some kind of secret in there this time, what do you think?”
Looking into those eyes, that smile, that… simple wonder for the world… Warlock broke.
He’d tried, so, so hard to deny it. But that… Arceus-damned smile, it broke him.
He let his head just hang limp, and brought his paws up to cover his face, and let out a long, pained groan.
It just wasn’t fair.
Why’d Surtur have to be so caring?
Why’d he have to be this adorable ray of pure sunshine?
Why’d he have to be so pure, and affectionate, and wonderful, and…
And hot.
Arceus-damned hot.
“Warlock?”
And there it was, that same question, that same tone that he’d heard three times already. Feeling like his head weighed much more than it should’ve, Warlock slowly lifted his head to meet Surtur’s eyes, full of concern and worry over him. Now, Warlock finally knew what he was feeling.
He was tired; both physically, and mentally with denying what he felt.
He was resigned; because something, something about today had broken his denial, and he knew that he could never go back.
He was frustrated; frustrated at Surtur, because why, why did his partner have to be so… so him. So… so someone he would love. And at himself, because why did he deny himself this? Why did he have to be someone who would fall like this.
(Not even he knew what he meant by falling like this.)
And he was in love.
Before Surtur could say anything, or Warlock’s nerves could get the better of him, he surged forward and captured Surtur’s open mouth in an attempt at a deep and passionate kiss. (Silently grateful that the steel-type treating kit had arrived, so his chest spike was now shorter and blunted; meaning he didn’t have to worry about impaling anyone with it anymore.)
It started just as awkward as it had looked from the outside the previous three times he’d seen this, but somewhere in there, it stopped feeling quite as awkward. Surtur did something to respond, there may have been some tongue involved, and they sort of settled on a less human kiss, and more of a deep hug with nuzzles and occasional licks.
After who knows how long, they pulled apart, both taking deep, steadying breaths. Neither said anything for a long moment, simply gazing into each other’s eyes. Warlock studied Surtur’s gaze, searching for a response to what they’d just done. Did his partner even feel the same way? The way he’d kissed back said yes, but now that they weren’t doing a surprise makeout session that he’d literally sprung on his partner, some nerves were creeping back in.
“So, uh…” Surtur broke the silence, even though he was clearly trying to figure out what to say. “Wow. That was, uhm, a bit of a surprise. And also, it kind of felt like something a long time coming? Have you been holding that back for awhile?”
“I, uh…” said Warlock, the picture of eloquence. “Sort of? I… may have been trying to… I don’t know, either figure it out or not figure it out for a while?” He glanced away sheepishly. “It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, either. But, uhm, I guess I sort of… do have these… feelings.” It felt like every strand of fur on his head was sticking straight up, and his cheeks were burning. He’d thought that moments like these weren’t supposed to be this…strange and nerve-wracking. “So, do you… also, feel… like this?” He could barely get the question out, his heart hammering away in his chest.
Surtur didn’t answer for a long moment, long enough that Warlock considered breaking their embrace, but couldn’t bring himself to even take his paws out from around Surtur. Slowly, he looked back at his partner to see the typhlosion apparently deep in thought, head tilted to one side as he considered the question.
And still considering, just with his head tilted the other way.
Alright, now Warlock’s nerves were fading in favor of annoyance. Yeah, he took something like six months and three premonitions to figure it out, but could Surtur at least give him an ‘I need to think about it’ right now?
“So… do you need time to think about it, or-?” finally asked Warlock.
“No, I… I think I do.” Surtur nodded, and Warlock felt his heart skip a beat. “I hadn’t thought about it but… you made me so much better than I was.”
“Not this again.” Warlock shook his head a little. “You give yourself too little credit. I didn’t make you brave or anything else that you weren’t already. You just needed a little help to bring it all out.”
“No, you definitely made me something I wasn’t: a partner.” retorted Surtur, a little cheesily. “And while I needed that push, you were the one who stuck around and gave it to me. You are what gave me the strength to keep going in that Dark Future, and when we were pushing through Brine Cave, the Hidden Land, Temporal Tower…” he took a steadying breath, and clutched Warlock a little tighter, clearly recalling what came after Temporal Tower. Warlock also squeezed back reassuringly; letting him know he was still here and not planning on going anywhere. They stayed like that, clinging to each other for comfort, for a moment, and then the typhlosion clearly came up with something to add, a slow smirk growing; with Warlock’s dread growing alongside said smirk. “And I guess you also made me one more thing I wasn’t before: a mate. Your mate.” Hearing his partner, his mate say that sent a pleasurable shiver down Warlock’s spine, and his tail began wagging.
“So, what do we do now?” He asked, feeling much lighter.
“Well, I believe we’ve got two missions in Midnight Forest to get through today, and then we can come back here for a nice, long discussion. Maybe we can work on merging the two nests in here into one big one.” Oh, dear. Warlock briefly pictured the two of them curling up together to sleep in one bigger nest, and, well, his fur wasn’t going to un-fluff any time soon. They disentangled and Warlock went to get their bag in order, check on what they might want to ask Kangaskan to pull out of storage for them.
As he was putting the bag on after finishing up, Surtur interjected with a thought that had occurred to him. “So, those Dimensional Scream visions that you were being evasive about; were those-”
“Yeah, those were about this. I saw the kiss, but never what your reaction was.” confessed Warlock, actually kind of relieved to be admitting to that, finally.
“Alright.” Surtur finished tying his power band on, and turned to his new mate with a smirk. “So, what do you say we go take care of some missions, and then we can have a discussion about sleeping together and what how hot I am means for that?”
Warlock, done with tying his silver bow on, slowly and silently turned back to his partner, tail twitching with mild annoyance. “Was that deliberately flirty, or…?”
Surtur paused, considering it. “Honestly, it wasn’t… but, since we are mates, I guess it could be?”
Warlock froze, ears up straight and tail frozen as he considered a different set of things they could do in the bed. “Alright, so, let’s get a move on, lots of things to do, let’s go, where’s the list of jobs?!” Warlock grabbed the two job descriptions and then walked off up the stairs, his laughing mate trailing behind him.
And somehow, he wouldn’t trade this for anything.
…And that was a rather appealing suggestion Surtur had made…