Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“What do you mean she told you to do it like that?! What the hell is the Trainers’ School teaching you?”

Cress rolled his eyes from his place on the couch. It had been maybe an hour and a half since Clove had tearfully brought her math book to Chili—arguably the worst person to come to for math help—and they still weren’t even halfway through the problem set she’d been given. Clove herself was looking down at her lap. Cress wasn’t sure if it was frustration over the problems or fear from Chili’s yelling, but either way she looked upset.

“Chili, they can’t have changed it that much—”

“Yes they did!” Chili held up the book angrily. “Look at this shit—”

“Don’t say that in front of her.”

“—this is bullshit!”

Cress decided correcting Chili’s language was useless.

“How the hell are they supposed to do that?!”

Clove looked up with that familiar scared-Lillipup expression. “They told us how in the—”

“Your book doesn’t explain shit!”

“Chili, this is fifth-year math you’re doing.” Cress gently took the math book from his enraged brother. “Give it to me.”

Chili reluctantly handed the book over without a fight. Clove mumbled out the number of the problem set she’d been given, and Cress looked it over. It was a normal set, mostly decimal practice and the like. Cress remembered similar from his own homework back in the day.

“Clove, come here.” Cress patted the spot next to him on the couch, and Clove got up. She snuggled up to him, as usual, her head on his shoulder as she peered down at the book. Chili collapsed into his chair at the table.

“They don’t need negative numbers and shit, it’s a fucking Trainers’ School!”

“I’m sure everyone there would love to hear your thoughts on the matter.” Cress shook his head, looking down at the first problem. They had a lot to get through if Clove needed to finish it by tomorrow.

Chapter Text

Cress usually slept in on weekends. The Gym and restaurant usually didn’t open as early anyway, and there was no reason to waste that time. He liked getting his beauty sleep in on the weekends, and this one was no exception.

And then something was crushing him.

Cress snapped awake, turning to see Carolina, who had apparently made the very unwise decision to jump on him while he was sleeping. The withering glare he was giving her didn’t seem to make her feel bad in the slightest. Carolina just laughed before running off, Scraggy at her heels. “C’mon, it’s snowing!” she yelled from down the hall, childish glee evident in her voice. Clove’s delighted giggling followed soon after.

Cress sighed and got up to look out his bedroom window. It was, in fact, snowing, and coming down hard at that. The wind blew the flakes around, and Cress wondered for a minute why ever Carolina would want to go out in that.

Oh, right, this was the same child who hung out outside for fun and ate berries right from the tree. Cress wondered sometimes how on Earth they were related. Arceus was laughing somewhere, he was sure.

Cress turned around to see Cilan smiling Mareepishly on the other side of his doorway. “I, uh… I might have told her we could all go outside once you woke up…”

Cress sighed heavily. Well, after he got ready for the day, it wouldn’t hurt to spend a few minutes outside. He looked around for his coat.

Chapter Text

There were never many occasions that required all six siblings to be present. Usually it had to be something monumental (such as the terrifying/disgusting possibility of Coriander dating again).

So naturally, everyone was a little surprised when Chili called them all into the kitchen… and his excuse was a broken coffee maker.

“So?” Chili looked at all of them in turn. “Who did it?”

“Cress did.”

Cress turned on Carolina. “You know I don’t drink that!”

“Chili’s the only one who does,” Cinna muttered. No one seemed to hear her.

“Come on now, I’m sure we can resolve this calmly…” Cilan looked around at his siblings as if begging them all to drop the issue. “Let’s just forget about who did it, okay?”

“No.” Chili shook his head. “I want justice, and I know damn well I’m not the one who did it!”

“You’re the only one who drinks it—”

“Quiet for a second, the adults are talking.” Chili waved his hand at Cinna, who glared at him.

“I think Cress did it.” Carolina grinned, knowing damn well what she was doing.

“And you know I didn’t.”

“But you could’ve.”

“Carolina—”

“Please just drop it,” Cilan begged, giving his brother and sister a pleading look. “Please?”

Carolina and Cress were both quiet for a moment.

“I really think we should—”

“CAROLINA!”

The girl bolted out of the room. Cress followed after, and the sound of crashing objects could be heard from the room they’d run into. Cilan winced. And here he was thinking things would finally be better.

Chapter Text

Weekends were supposed to be a relaxing time at the Striaton house. The girls didn’t have anything to do for school, the Gym and restaurant were closed early, and the promise of dinner was enough to keep all of them happy for the time being.

Cilan accepted a Sitrus Berry from Pansage, not even having to look up as he started slicing. It was his turn to make dinner tonight. Some might consider that a bad thing, but Cilan didn’t mind. He liked cooking, and besides, his Pokémon were always around to help.

As Cilan set the Sitrus slices aside, someone wandering in caught his attention. It was probably Clove; she had a habit of wandering around the house looking to be with people. It didn’t seem to matter to her who it was, as long as it was someone.

Just as expected, Clove came in and looked over the counter. “What’s that?”

“Oh, just something for dinner tonight.” Cilan moved the berry slices out of the way so Clove couldn’t get into them early. She’d ruin her dinner that way, after all.

Clove was quiet for a second, a comfortable silence setting over the kitchen. As Cilan kept at it, glancing at the recipe occasionally for help, a question finally broke it.

“Cilan?”

“Hm?”

“Who’s Ghetsis?”

The question nearly made him drop the wooden spoon he was holding into a pot. Cilan’s hand was shaking, and he tried not to look as worried as he felt. Where had she heard that name? What else did she know? There was no way she knew about him or Cress or Chili, but… no, she was only ten. There was no way she knew about the Shadow Triad.

“Where, uh…” Cilan tried to keep his voice from shaking. “Where’d you hear that? Was someone at school talking about him?”

“Mhm. Joey Tucker was yelling at his Purrloin ‘cause Cottonee beat it in a battle and Miss Wright yelled at him in front of everyone and said Ghetsis was right.” Clove rattled off the words like they didn’t mean anything. “Who’s Ghetsis?”

“Well, he, uh…” Cilan scrambled for the right words. How was he supposed to explain this? Sure, Clove would believe anything, but he couldn’t just lie to her. “He’s not a very good person. He’s the leader of a group that wants to separate people from their Pokémon.”

“Why?” Clove frowned, the idea apparently foreign to her.

Cilan was quiet for a minute. After deciding that he didn’t really want to explain Pokémon abuse to a ten-year-old (Clove was still figuring out “Coriander’s a bad person”), he finally settled on, “Some people just aren’t very nice to their Pokémon, that’s all. But that doesn’t mean no one should have them.”

“M’kay.” Clove idly played with her hair, braiding one little strand a few times over. “When’s dinner?”

Cilan nearly collapsed in relief. “In just a few minutes. Can you go set the table and tell everyone else to come down?”

Clove nodded, running off with Ralts and Cottonee in tow. Cilan smiled. She was so sweet. Part of him hoped she’d never find out what her brothers did after dark.

Chapter Text

Clove, Cinna, and Carolina Striaton were no strangers to sneaking around past bedtime. Not that it was a particularly strict thing in their house; their brothers seemed too tired to care as long as they were all awake on time for school. They seemed tired a lot lately, actually… 

Clove shook the thought out of her mind as she snuck down the hallway. All three of them were holding their breath, trying to sneak down the stairs to get a midnight snack. They weren’t actually sure if there was anything to hide from—the older three had told them about a League meeting tonight that was supposed to run late. Even so, no one wanted to take any chances at three in the morning.

As soon as Carolina’s socks touched the first floor, the front door opened. All three girls looked at each other in panic before bolting to the library all at the same time. They certainly didn’t want to be caught up at this hour, even if they knew they could probably get away with it.

The three each found their hiding spots, all of them holding their breath. The sound of heavy boots came from the living room, along with the familiar voices of Cress, Cilan, and Chili. They were talking in hushed voices, but Clove could pick up on snatches of conversation.

“…late night…”

“Mission…target…”

“…Lord Ghetsis…”

The last phrase made her freeze in place. All three of them had, the girls all exchanging glances of wide-eyed confusion. They were all familiar with the name; the incident with their battle studies teacher and their classmate had all but etched the name Ghetsis into the class’ collective memory. There were still whispers about that incident at the Striaton Trainers’ School.

A mutual confusion settled over the girls. They didn’t know much about Ghetsis, but the things they had heard seemed to paint him as a very bad person. But their brothers were very good people. What would they be doing talking about someone like Ghetsis?

The girls settled in their hiding places. They’d be here for a while.

***

“I hate these fucking things…” Chili muttered, removing the synthetic white wig with far too much enthusiasm for three in the morning. “They’re so weird.”

“Would you rather we get caught?” Cress shook his head, removing his boots.

Cilan gave them both a pleading look. It was too late at night for them to be arguing, especially when their sisters were asleep upstairs. He removed his mask, setting the piece of black fabric aside as the three kept whispering. That night’s target had been a rough one, and they’d been kept out much longer than usual.

“We’ve gotta catch a break eventually,” Chili muttered again as he took off his own mask. “This is going on basically every night, we can’t keep doing this forever.”

“We don’t exactly have much of a choice.” Cress sighed, the words unpleasantly heavy. The other two went quiet. They really didn’t; much as they wanted to leave this whole Shadow Triad thing behind, Ghetsis had enough blackmail to keep them under his thumb as long as he liked. If anyone ever found out, they’d be in prison for life if they were lucky. Realistically, they’d probably just go straight to death row.

They were terrorists, after all. Even if Ghetsis had taken advantage of them. Even if they were just three fifteen-year-old kids, angry at the world and looking for something bigger than themselves. And Ghetsis had manipulated that for all it was worth and then some.

Thud.

Chili froze, and Cress looked towards the sound. Something must have fallen off one of the shelves in the library or something. Yeah, that had to be it. The three of them walked quietly, making their way to the library with practiced stealth.

The source was clear as soon as Chili stepped inside. Even if he wasn’t trained in detecting people who were trying to hide, a Deino could have seen Clove hiding under one of the chairs and Carolina crouched behind another and Cinna pressed up behind one of the bookshelves. Smart they were, Chili thought, but they had a long way to go when it came to being sneaky.

“You guys can come out.” There was no harshness in his voice. They were just kids, after all, even if they were supposed to be asleep. “You’re not in trouble.”

Slowly, all three girls came out of hiding. Carolina stood up, Clove crawled out from under the chair, and Cinna stepped out from behind the shelf. Even in the dark, Chili could see the expression on their faces, the guilt reminiscent of Lillipup caught chewing on something they shouldn’t. Even Cinna seemed somewhat off.

“You’re supposed to be in bed.” It was the only thing Chili could think to say as he looked at each of them in turn.

Clove shrank back, but she was the first one to speak up. “Cinna had a nightmare,” she mumbled. “We were just getting a snack.”

Chili bit the inside of his cheek. “Did you guys hear us coming in?”

All three nodded, and Chili cursed inwardly. Fuck. Then they heard everything. He turned to Cilan and gave him a “help” look. Cilan was much better at this than he was; even if he could never tell the girls no and they knew it, at least Cilan was good at defusing situations.

Noticing the silent cue, Cilan stepped forward, a shaky smile on his face. Before he could get anything out, Carolina beat him to it.

“You guys lied to us.” She crossed her arms, scowling at all of them.

“Is that why you guys are so tired all the time?” Clove looked at Chili and the others, worry in her eyes. Damn it. They weren’t supposed to see that.

“That’s not something you need to worry about.” Cress shook his head. “You have your own things to think about, you don’t need to worry about us.”

Clove looked like she wanted to protest, but she said nothing.

“What are you really doing?” Cinna’s voice was a strange sound, familiar yet weird to actually hear. It wasn’t common to hear her speak; she mostly stuck to pen and paper when she wanted to communicate. Rarely, if ever, did she talk.

Cilan, Cress, and Chili exchanged a look. They couldn’t tell the girls the full story. They were too young, even if they were smart for their age. No kid needed to hear about things like that. After some quiet deliberation, Cress looked back at the girls.

“It’s a very long story,” he said quietly. “And I don’t think you three would want to hear all of it. It’s not something you should be hearing about, anyway.”

“Is everything gonna be okay?” Clove asked.

“Of course it will.” Cilan tried for a reassuring smile, though Chili could see the shakiness behind it. None of them really wanted to tell their sisters the truth, that there might come a day when they’d all be separated again—and this time by something much more permanent than Coriander’s lies. “I know it doesn’t look like it, but everything’s going to be fine. Promise.”

The girls were quiet for a minute. Cinna’s eyes were locked on a fallen book, probably the one that started all this. Clove was looking at the floor like it would tell her all the answers if she looked hard enough. Carolina was scowling. None of them seemed entirely convinced that nothing was wrong. Chili knew they’d at least heard about the Shadow Triad, if only through playground rumors at the Trainers’ School. Based on Cinna’s expression, they probably knew a lot more about the truth than they were letting on. Even so, the only answer was a quiet “M’kay” from Clove. She ran up to hug Cilan, who promptly returned the gesture.

Cress sighed. “Well, it’s getting late, and you three have school tomorrow. Go on.” 

As the three girls ran off upstairs, Chili sank into one of the chairs. None of the brothers said anything. What was there to say?

“We can’t do that forever,” Cress said quietly, shaking his head disapprovingly. “They’ll find out eventually.”

“They’re ten, Cress, they don’t need to know yet.” Cilan frowned.

“If something happens to us, they’re not gonna know what happened.” Chili picked up the fallen book, putting it back in its place.

The three went quiet again.

“Please don’t say that,” Cilan murmured. None of them particularly liked the thought of something happening to them, whether it be getting hurt while they were out on an errand for Ghetsis or them getting caught and arrested. It wasn’t the most pleasant thing to think about, their sweet little sisters finding out the truth without even getting to explain it to them.

“If we need to explain it to them, we will.” Cress sighed. “If we’re close to being found out, we’ll tell them everything, but not right now.”

Chili nodded. “Yeah. But we’re not, so we’re not thinking about that right now.” He glanced at the clock on the wall. “Look, it’s late and we have to open the Gym tomorrow. Let’s just go to bed.” Before the other two could stop him, he was already on his way up the stairs. Guilt and self-loathing swirled around in his stomach, a weighted blanket of everything he couldn’t say. The thoughts threatened to swallow him whole as Chili finally got to his bed and fell facedown on top of it.

If they’d just ignored Ghetsis, if they’d refused to listen, if they’d just stayed out of it… If they hadn’t gotten involved with Ghetsis, none of this would have happened. None of them would be in any danger, even if the girls didn’t know how much they were really in. Chili and his brothers wouldn’t be looking down the barrel every day, waiting every dreadful moment for the gun to go off.

But there was nothing they could do to fix it.

And that sucked worst of all.

Chili rolled over, lying on his back and facing the ceiling above him. He wasn’t sure when he fell asleep.

Chapter Text

Chili didn’t know what he did wrong. He didn’t know, he really didn’t! All he wanted was to play outside, he just wanted to play, it was so boring being in the house training all the time! Yeah, battling was important, but Chili had just wanted a break! And now he was out here, pounding on the door. His throat hurt.

“C’mon!” he yelled again, his little fist hitting the door. “I didn’t mean it, I promise! It’s really cold, I wanna come back in…”

The rain pounded down around him. It had already soaked through his clothes and his hair, now a shoulder-length red curtain in his face and eyes.

“Dad!” Chili yelled through the door. He knew his dad wouldn’t answer. He was the reason Chili was out here in the first place. But he was so cold and so wet and he just wanted to go inside. “Cress?” the boy asked in a quieter tone. “Cilan?” The final word was spoken in a whimper. He knew his brothers wouldn’t come either. If anything, their dad had threatened them into staying away from the door entirely.

No, Chili wasn’t going to cry. Boys didn’t cry, his dad had told him. He and Cress and Cilan had had that instilled in them as long as Chili could remember, and he wasn’t about to cry just because of a little rain.

“Chili?”

The familiar voice sent a rush of hope through the boy. He turned around as someone was running towards him, and even through the rain Chili recognized her immediately.

“Mama!” Chili ran through the rain, and before he knew it Clara had scooped him up into a crushing hug. She held him, and he buried his face in her shoulder as if that could shield him from the cold and the rain. He didn’t realize he was crying until Clara reached up to rub his back.

“Oh, baby… oh, my poor baby…” she murmured, pressing the occasional kiss to the top of Chili’s head. She unlocked the door and carried him inside, going immediately for the stairs. Clara went into Chili’s room and set him gently on his bed. She tucked a blanket around him, and Chili pulled it tighter around himself.

“What happened?” Clara said softly, brushing some of Chili’s wet hair out of his face.

“I just wanted to play…” Chili whimpered, his cries slowing down now that he was okay. “I just wanted to play outside and—and Dad got mad at me and—and he said if I was out there too long he’d lock me out and I lost track of time…” He swiped at his eyes, and Clara pulled him into another hug. Chili let her hold him, his face buried firmly in the shoulder of her dress. His Pansear chittered curiously from the corner, the Fire-type sitting on top of Chili’s dresser. Pansear jumped onto the bed, and Chili pulled it into a tight hug. Pansear didn’t seem to mind.

Clara sighed and brushed Chili’s hair back one last time. “You stay here and warm up,” she murmured, tucking the blanket around him. “Maybe get some sleep. I’ll get you something warm to drink in a few minutes, alright?”

Chili nodded, holding Pansear close to his chest. Something about his mother’s accent was strangely reassuring. She’d told him and his brothers stories about Galar before, and Chili wanted to visit one day, when he was all grown up and his dad couldn’t tell him what to do anymore. He couldn’t wait for that day.

Chili watched Clara leave, snuggled up in his blanket and holding his partner Pokémon close. Pansear chittered comfortingly, and Chili hugged it tight. It had only been a few days since their dad had given Chili and his brothers their first partners, but Chili and Pansear were already as close as could be.

The Fire-type gave off a comforting warmth as Chili tucked the blanket around them, and before long Clara had come back with a towel (which, despite Chili’s protests, she dried his hair off with as best she could) and something warm to drink.

She held him close as he waited for the drink to cool down, and Chili relaxed. His dad might be really mean, and he might hit Chili or his brothers sometimes, but at least he had his mama and his brothers and Pansear to make him feel safe.

Chapter Text

“How could you do that to me?!” Chili gesticulated wildly at the stack of cards in the center of the kitchen table.

“Because I can!” Carolina glared at him from her side of the table.

“Oh, come on, you little shit—”

“Chili—”

“This doesn’t concern you!” Chili gave Cress a mock-annoyed glare. Cress knew his brother didn’t mean it, of course; something about game night just… did something to him. Even when it was supposed to be a celebratory occasion—all the paperwork had gone through and Cress, Cilan, and Chili were, after what felt like a lifetime of waiting, officially their sisters’ legal guardians—Chili’s competitiveness would not be denied.

The argument continued to devolve, Carolina and Chili shooting verbal assaults at each other like a pair of particularly loose cannons. At a particularly aggravating remark from Carolina, Chili slammed his fist down on the table in barely contained fury.

“You’re adopted!”

“I know!”

Chili’s face turned a dark shade of red, and Cress raised his eyebrows. This was about to get violent. Not to a dangerous degree, of course, but the poor breakables in the house would probably suffer.

Recognizing the imminent situation, Carolina let out a high-pitched shriek of terror and ran off. Chili was right behind her, yelling obscenities a ten-year-old had no business hearing. No one made a move to get up. They knew Chili wouldn’t actually do anything, not to Carolina. Yes, they fought like Seviper and Zangoose, but everyone knew there was never any actual danger present, even with Chili’s short temper.

Clove giggled quietly from her place at the table, and Cilan reached out to pat her head. “I guess, ah, we probably won’t be seeing them for a while.”

“They’ll be at it for some time. Put their cards at the bottom, we’ll deal them in when they come back.” Cress looked up from his hand as Cinna dutifully took the abandoned hands of cards and put them in one small stack before putting them at the bottom of the existing one.

Cress smiled. Yes, life was chaotic, as it had been for a while now, but he wouldn’t have it any other way.

Chapter Text

Chili had always been the slowest to actually get to sleep among his brothers. Even as a kid, he’d always wanted to get up at random hours or go into his parents’ room to demand attention or whatever else kids usually did. He was fourteen now, but that hadn’t stopped the energy. Fuck, he needed a snack. Yeah, it was three in the morning, but that didn’t matter. So long as he didn’t make much noise…

Chili crept out of bed, slowly opening his bedroom door. Glancing out into the hall to confirm everyone else was in bed, he left his room quietly and stepped out into the hallway to head to the kitchen. Surely there had to be something in the kitchen he liked…

One of the doors behind him opened.

Chili turned around. He nearly jumped to the ceiling upon seeing a small pair of gray eyes staring at him in the darkness. The eyes approached him, and as she got closer Chili saw who they belonged to.

“Cinna…” he groaned, trying to be quiet. “Cinna, it’s three in the morning, what are you doing up?”

The three-year-old just looked up at Chili with a blank expression. Her gray eyes stared up at him, wide and unyielding, almost expectant. It was creepy, especially at three in the morning, but Chili knew better than to tell her that. She was three, she didn’t know what she was doing. She also made no move to answer his question, but that wasn’t abnormal either. Cinna rarely, if ever, actually talked, and she didn’t have the motor control to draw very well yet to get what she wanted. Most of her communication was pointing or gesturing at things she wanted, or the occasional (really messy) drawing.

One of those drawings was now in front of Chili’s face as Cinna held up the notepad they’d gotten her to communicate with. It took some squinting to see it in the darkness, but Chili could sort of make out the dark lines against the white paper. A small U shape with a squiggly line in the dip.

“You want some water?” Chili confirmed, and Cinna nodded immediately. Chili was tempted to pick her up, but he knew that wouldn’t get him anywhere. She’d just kick and squirm until he put her down and probably wake some of the others up in the process.

The two of them made their way to the stairs, Cinna holding onto the bars below the railing for dear life since she wouldn’t hold Chili’s hand. Once there, Chili went off to the kitchen and got one of the glasses from the cabinet. Yeah, maybe giving her glass wasn’t a good idea, but as long as she had a straw… besides, they didn’t have any other cups the girls could handle that weren’t breakable.

After giving his little sister the water and a straw, Chili got his snack—half a bag of chips from the pantry—and went for the kitchen table. Cinna climbed up into another chair next to him, though he had to help her get the glass onto the table. As she situated herself, Chili watched her carefully to make sure she didn’t knock anything over.

“Bad dream?” he asked as he made another small stack of chips to shove in his mouth. None of the brothers were sure why Cinna was having such bad nightmares recently, but it had become a problem.

Cinna’s expression was sober as she nodded, and Chili frowned. He reached his hand out, holding it above her in a silent question. At her approval, he patted her head. “It’s okay, Cinna. You know there’s nothing to be scared of, right?”

Cinna nodded. The two sat in silence for a few minutes. Chili wasn’t really sure what to say; he wasn’t the one the girls went to for nightmares and stuff. He was mostly the one playing with them and keeping them distracted when they needed to be. Emotional support was not his thing, but he still wanted to give Cinna what comfort he could.

Eventually Cinna finished her water, around the same time Chili emptied the bag of chips. As he went to put the glass away and throw the bag and straw out, Chili tried to keep an eye on his sister. She was just standing there like she was waiting for him, looking intently and expectantly as if asking for something else.

“What?”

Cinna held her hand up in a motion Chili recognized immediately. He took her hand, gently guiding her through the dark living room and hallway and up the stairs to her room. Once they were there, Cinna stood in the doorway, staring at her bed.

“C’mon, Cinna, you have to go to bed.” Chili tried to pull her further into the room, but Cinna planted her feet. Chili sighed. “Cinna, please.”

Cinna shook her head vehemently.

“Cinna…” Chili groaned. He really did try to be patient with his sisters, but Cinna was so much of a damn mystery it was a wonder they were related. “If I sit here with you until you go to sleep, will you get in your bed?”

Cinna paused and seemed to think it over for a moment. After some intense consideration (as intense as a three-year-old could have, anyway), she seemed to decide that was acceptable and walked over to her bed. As she crawled under the covers, Chili sat on the edge of her bed and tucked the blanket around her. He would have asked if she wanted a story, but he knew the answer by now. Cinna had never really liked the picture books that seemed common for kids her age, often gravitating towards taking Cress or Cilan’s books instead to look at the pictures. Hell if Chili knew why, but he wasn’t about to complain.

As Cinna’s eyes closed and her breathing evened out, Chili stood up carefully so he didn’t wake her up. He noticed the night light had come unplugged from the wall, another one of their many attempts to keep Cinna’s nightmares away for good. Chili plugged it back in, the soft light illuminating the room and his sister’s sleeping form. After ensuring it was working right, Chili left the room quietly and closed the door behind him. The night light hadn’t worked before in keeping Cinna from having nightmares… but maybe this time.

Chapter Text

Clara was not an angry person. She wasn’t violent, and she didn’t start conflict.

But right now?

She could rip Coriander apart with her bare hands.

It took all of Clara’s self-control to keep herself calm as she worked in the kitchen, the tea kettle going quietly in the background. She didn’t want to be too long down here, not when Chili was up there probably freezing.

At the same time…

“I see you brought him in.” Coriander broke the silence from his place on the living room couch. Clara seethed.

“He was soaking wet, Cori, of course I did. Did you really need to do that?” The question came out harsher than Clara had intended, but she couldn’t bring herself to care.

“A little rain wouldn’t kill him.”

“Hypothermia would have.”

Coriander snickered.

“I’m not joking, Cori.”

“Oh, please, you’re always so soft on them—”

“They’re seven,” Clara said through gritted teeth. “I wonder why.”

Coriander turned to glare at her. “You have no right to criticize me.”

“For putting our son in danger, I think I do.”

Coriander’s mouth twisted into a self-important, condescending smirk as he stood up. “He was hardly in danger—”

“You didn’t see him out there!” Clara knew she was yelling, she knew she should probably stop before Cress or Cilan got curious and came to see what was happening, but she couldn’t stop herself. “You didn’t see him, and don’t you dare tell me to—”

Crack.

Clara knew she’d been slapped. The stinging pain on her cheek, the sharp sound permeating the air even seconds after it happened. She knew it all too well by now. Clara brought her hand up to her cheek, eyes locked on the man who’d done it.

“Don’t ever,” Coriander said dangerously, “tell me how to parent them.”

Clara wanted to protest. She wanted to yell and scream, she wanted to tell Coriander exactly what she thought of him. He’d left their son—her boy, her baby—out in the rain like a misbehaving Yamper, and Clara wanted to kill him for it.

But all she could do was nod and swallow the words down like bitter tea.

As if by some grace of fate, the kettle started to whistle, and Clara took the opportunity to tend to the drink she was making. (She did briefly fantasize about throwing the hot drink in Coriander’s face, but she restrained herself.) With shaking hands, Clara picked up the drink and left the room. Things would go back to normal, she tried to tell herself. Things would be normal and Coriander would be the sweet, thoughtful man she married.

The words felt hollow even to her.

***

Cress could hardly breathe.

He stared at the empty space around the doorway at where his mother had been. Where his father had—

No. No, that couldn’t be right. His parents loved each other, they had to—

…right?

But people who loved each other didn’t hit each other. His father only hit him or his brothers when they were out of line, but his mom had just been trying to…

Cress didn’t want to think about it anymore. 

Something chittered behind him, and Cress turned around to see his Panpour. He scooped the little water monkey Pokémon up, holding her tightly. He buried his face in the soft blue fur as she chittered again in concern and pawed at his face.

Cress didn’t want to see his father ever again. He wanted to cry or maybe hit something himself, just to have some kind of outlet for the whirlwind of feelings swirling around his head.

Maybe not hit something, now that he thought about it. Cress didn’t want to be anything like his father.

As Panpour climbed up to his shoulder, Cress ran upstairs to his room and closed the door. Then, and only then, did he allow himself to cry.

Chapter Text

“Clove, no.”

“Pleeeease?” Clove gave Chili a look he was intimately familiar with, that sad-Lillipup look she always used to get what she wanted. She held the little makeup bag up. “Cress won’t let me, Cilan’ll get bad dismorphing—”

“Dysphoria.”

“—and Carolina’ll bite me and Cinna doesn’t like stuff on her face.” Clove tried again with the Lillipup eyes. “Pleeeeease?”

Damn it. Damn it, damn it, even with his eyes closed Chili could still hear the pleading in her tone. “Fine,” he eventually muttered, shaking his head. “Just a little, okay? Just so you can practice or whatever.”

Clove brightened instantly, and she threw her arms around Chili with a few enthusiastic “thank you”s before rummaging around in the little makeup bag. Chili sat back on the couch, bracing himself for whatever makeup looks a ten-year-old could dream up.

***

The end result was, somehow, worse than Chili had thought possible.

“What did she…” He brushed his bangs out of his face so he could see the thick layering of mascara Clove had put on his eyelids—apparently, an attempt at eyeliner. “Does she actually think you’re supposed to do that?”

“I’m not—” Cress covered his mouth with his hand, concealing a laugh, as he had been for the last five minutes. Thankfully, Clove was at a friend’s place and wasn’t around to hear it. “I’m not sure, but—” was all he could get out, turning away as Chili turned back to the mirror with a huff.

The kid had done a… mostly decent job. Granted, Chili knew jack about the finer points of makeup—his knowledge was limited to the light stage makeup he always had on at the Gym so he wouldn’t look so washed out under the lights, and the occasional general experimentation—but he got the feeling his cheeks weren’t supposed to be that red and there wasn’t supposed to be mascara on his eyelids.

Cress snickered behind him.

“What?” Chili turned to his brother. “You think I don’t look nice?”

“I didn’t say that,” Cress managed to get out, composing himself. “I’m saying you would make the Zigzagoon in Galar jealous.”

“Fuck off,” Chili grumbled, grabbing a washcloth and turning the water on. “I’m never letting her do that again.”

“Oh, but I’m sure it made her so happy.”

Chili took the washcloth that already had some makeup residue and threw it at his brother. “It’s those fucking eyes,” he muttered under Cress’ loud complaints of germs, taking the cloth back and rubbing it over one eye. The mascara smeared stubbornly over his face.

Still, Chili knew Cress was right. Yeah, he looked like an idiot (and maybe Cress wasn’t too far off with that Zigzagoon thing), but it was a small price to pay for seeing his baby sister happy.