Work Text:
Liko was sitting in the observation deck– not on the cushioned seat, but on the wooden floor, knees drawn up to her chest and eyes staring blankly at her socked feet.
It was late.
Liko didn't want to go back to bed. Her mind wasn't being very kind to her tonight.
Sprigatito was still sleeping soundly in her bedroom, last she'd checked. It would have felt wrong to wake Sprigatito in the middle of the night, so Liko had gone to clear her head on her own.
It was probably obvious by the way she was sat curled up in a corner, but… yeah, that hadn't really worked out for her just yet.
Liko hugged her legs tighter, chin resting on her knees and heart fluttering with a lingering anxiety that had yet to fully disperse.
She loved being a pokemon trainer, and she loved being a member of the Rising Volt Tacklers, but sometimes– sometimes she just felt… scared.
She knew she shouldn't be– she had Sprigatito now– she was supposed to be brave now.
Except– except her brain was not always kind to her. Like now, where she couldn't seem to stop herself from thinking about what happened in Levincia.
Her pendant being taken, her memories–
There was a sound in the observation deck. It took Liko several seconds and a doubled heart rate to figure out it was just the elevator.
Part of her expected to see one of the Explorers– Amethio stepping out of the elevator to take her away, or maybe the man from Levincia, back to steal her memories for good this time.
Liko tucked her face into her knees. She didn't want to see who it was. She didn't want to be brave this time.
“Oh, Liko, there you are.” It was neither Amethio nor the new man, but Friede's faintly relieved voice that greeted her.
She could have looked up then. Could have jumped to her feet and made up some excuse where everything was fine and she'd just dozed off while looking at the stars.
Even though the thought passed her mind, no such efforts were made. She wasn't in the mood to lie, she just wanted her insides to stop vibrating.
“Liko? Everything… okay?” Friede asked, voice careful and quiet.
Liko swallowed around the lump of nerves in her throat, pulled her head in even more until her neck began to ache, and didn't answer.
She didn't know what to say to that.
She was fine, really. She wasn't hurt, everyone was safe, and the Brave Olivine was fit to fly again.
Everything was fine.
Something warm and solid settled down against her right side.
It startled Liko enough that she lifted her head to blink dazedly at Friede, now sitting on the hard, uncomfortable floor beside her.
Friede was watching her out of the corner of his eye. He looked like he was trying to keep a neutral expression, but worry still managed to break through, clear as day.
“Can't sleep?” He guessed.
Liko’s eyes dropped back to the ground as she gave a lackluster shrug.
Friede didn't seem too bothered by the minimal response, easily carrying the conversation by himself. “Well, whenever I can't sleep, I like to look at the stars. It reminds me of how much I still have left to discover and learn, you know?” he sounded so full of awe at the prospect.
It was inspiring. To know Friede stared into a reminder of all he didn't know and felt excited because of it.
Liko bet Friede was never kept up by being too scared to sleep.
She picked idly at the hem of her sock. “I had a bad dream,” Liko admitted, keeping her gaze resolutely on the floor as she said it.
Friede hummed sympathetically. “Did you want to talk about it? Might help you feel better,” he offered.
A slight frown pulled on Liko's lips. She brought her fingers together, entwining them to stop herself from fidgeting. “I don’t know, it feels dumb,” she mumbled.
“If it’s keeping you up at night, then it’s serious enough to me,” Friede assured her, like it was only natural that he’d want to hear about her worries.
It… was actually sort of reassuring to hear.
It took several seconds still for Liko to gather both her courage and her words. Mostly her words. “I just, um– it was about the Explorers. The guy from yesterday, he– I know this would never happen in real life, but because Amethio managed to board the Brave Olivine that one time, my brain just swapped them in my nightmare and now I can't stop feeling like he's going to show up and take away my memories of all this for good this time,” she confessed, voice straining under the effort to keep it steady and free of tears.
She felt Friede go rigid beside her. “He took away your memories?” his voice came out weirdly strangled.
Oh jeez, Liko was just realizing how bad that all sounded.
She was quick to sit upright and wave a dismissive hand. “Yeah, but I got my memories back around the same time Dot and Roy found me, so everything's okay now. Sorry, I thought I told you.” The second the last few words left her mouth, she snapped it shut with a note of quiet mortification.
That was the exact same thing Friede always said when he forgot to mention important details. Oh, that probably wasn’t the best habit for Liko to emulate. Oops.
Friede seemed to make the same connection as a complicated expression that started with regret and ended with acceptance flitted across his face.
His shoulders slumped forward under an invisible weight. “Jeez, kid. You've been through a lot recently, huh?” It was more of an observation than a question.
Liko shrugged, feeling a little awkward. “I guess so– but there's been a lot of good stuff too. Like getting to travel around, and meeting all of you guys! So… so I don't regret it, not even a little bit,” she stated with a firm nod.
Friede cracked a slight smile. “Well, that's good to hear. But just because this has been an overall positive thing for you, doesn't mean the bad stuff wasn't still scary, right? There's nothing wrong with being scared,” he imparted gently.
“But you never get scared of anything!” Liko blurted, louder than she'd meant to.
An incredulous look took over Friede's expression. “Huh? What makes you say that?”
Ah… Liko felt sort of embarrassed all of a sudden. “Well, you know, you just always seem so confident. Whenever something goes wrong, or the Explorers show up again– you’re able to smile and make jokes and you still manage to come out on top every time, so I just– I mean, that was sort of just the impression you gave off. Sorry.” She ducked her head slightly.
Oh no, she couldn't believe she just said all of that. She was probably being so presumptuous just now.
She chanced a glance up at Friede to try to gauge his reaction.
The man had developed a thoughtful frown. After a few lulling moments of silence, Friede responded. “Mm, sure, but that's not because I don't get scared. In fact, I might even say it's the opposite,” he countered with a self-amused smile.
Liko’s brain went blank. Huh?
Presumably noticing Liko's befuddlement, Friede chuckled quietly before elaborating. “By being cocky and annoying, I can keep the attention of people like Amethio and the other Explorers on me instead of you.”
Liko tilted her head quizzically. “So, you do all that because you're… scared?” She still wasn't sure she really understood what Friede was trying to say.
What part of any of that had to do with him being afraid? Was it the Explorers he was scared of?
She got so caught up in trying to figure out Friede's words, it startled her a bit when he started speaking again.
“Sorry, I guess I'm being too vague,” Friede acknowledged a little wryly, rubbing at the back of his neck.
Liko smiled sheepishly in return. “Maybe a little,” she agreed.
Friede huffed a noise just shy of a laugh, eyes warm in the soft glow of moonlight. “It's funny, I think we've been having the same bad dreams keeping us up at night lately,” he noted, continuing before Liko could even think to ask.
“Actually, the only reason I was up here in the first place is because I had a nightmare that the Explorers got you, and when I went to check on you after I woke up, you weren't in bed. I figured you were probably fine if Sprigatito was still happily curled up in bed, but man did it give me a heart attack to find you missing from your room,” Friede admitted with a strained chuckle, tipping his head back against the wall.
His voice was light, but Liko could tell it was forced. Beneath the conversational levity was an unexpected weariness.
Looking closer at Friede, Liko could see the tired lines etched beneath his eyes.
It was still kind of hard to imagine Friede being kept up by nightmares. Honestly, it was difficult to imagine any of the Rising Volt Tacklers struggling with that sort of thing.
All of them just seemed so… brave.
But at the end of the day, they were all just regular people, same as her.
Liko locked her fingers together, palms pressing against her shins. “Oh, I didn't realize that was something that worried you.” Her heart panged with guilt.
The whole thing brought forth a bittersweet sense of deja vu. She'd said something similar to her dad after he'd admitted to worrying about her.
If only she were a better trainer, maybe then people wouldn't be losing sleep fretting about how well she was faring.
Friede, almost like he knew what Liko was thinking, sent her a look one might describe as cautiously stern. “Hey, you're a part of the crew. And, as much as you've grown in the short time you've been aboard, you're still a kid. It's my job to worry about you and everyone else living on this ship,” he said with such sincerity it would be impossible to doubt.
It warmed Liko’s chest to be so casually included as part of the team. Not someone they’d been hired to protect, but just as much a member of the Rising Volt Tacklers as anyone else on the ship.
A smile snuck its way onto Liko's face, heart lighter than it’d been since everything that had happened in Levincia. She opened her mouth, gratitude on the tip of her tongue– but the only thing that came out was a yawn.
She rubbed her eyes, but it seemed a heaviness had taken over her drooping eyelids that couldn't be so easily brushed away.
Between one blink and the next, Liko found herself leaning against Friede, cheek smushed against his arm.
Another blink. She thought Friede might've said something, but the familiar low tone drifted through her fading awareness as little more than discombobulated noise.
Something jostled her, but Liko couldn't bring herself to pry her eyes open anymore.
She distantly realized she was being carried. The gentle sway of walking and the steady beating of a heart in her ear melded into a deep sense of comfort.
It was hard to think of a time she'd felt so steady.
Liko couldn't even remember the last time she'd been carried.
Probably when she was younger. Still little enough for her parents to pick her up. Maybe back when they'd been less busy with work (Liko couldn't remember a time where her parents hadn't been busy all the time– but she'd seen pictures of them all together from when she was only six, so it had to have happened at some point, right?).
It felt like living in a dream. The easy comfort and warmth, the way reality bended and flickered away from her grasp as easily as dappled light through trees.
She’d have to wake up eventually, but she knew the warmth it'd left in her chest would linger in the hazy moments before falling asleep for nights to come.
The sway of movement and beating heart were replaced with the soft give of Liko's mattress.
Her brows pinched minutely at the loss of warmth, but not a second later, a blanket was pulled up to her chin.
A hand brushed lightly across Liko’s forehead and just like that, she felt her face relax.
The hand drew back, but Liko wasn't alone, as she felt little paws and the familiar presence of Sprigatito wedging itself between her arm and her side. A faint purr started up, working its way through Liko's chest until every part of her was at ease once again.
With the parting murmur of a quiet voice as the door to her room clicked shut, Liko drifted off to sleep knowing that everything was going to be okay.
And this time, when she dreamed, it was of sunshine and picnics.