fic: The Proof Is In The Pudding
May. 2nd, 2012 06:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bonnefoisTitle: The Proof Is In The Pudding
Series: Pokémon
Day/Theme: 14. and i'm afraid it's you
Character/Pairing: Barry/Lucas, Dawn(/Cynthia)
Rating: PG
Word count: 1918
Author's note: follows It Takes A Villa. More. For Melly, because exams were being mean to her.
"I'm really jealous, that couch is amazing," Dawn said. She laid out on her stomach, rubbing her cheeks against the material and taking up the whole couch in the process. "We really have the same taste."
"I guess. I have to spray and wash it like crazy, though. Barry never remembers to take his shoes off," Lucas said with a shrug.
Dawn gave him a sort of I know a secret smile. She did that a lot, lately. Lucas still wasn't sure what secret she knew–or thought she knew.
"Hee hee, that's so cute!"
"Not really, I have to clean it up all the time. I should've gotten a brown couch at this rate," Lucas said with a sigh.
"It's really worth it, though, isn't it?" Dawn said. She pushed herself up and off the couch, apparently not even waiting for his answer.
"I guess," Lucas said, though she seemed to be barely listening.
Dawn was never one to sit back and wait to be served; she always made herself right at home. She opened his big overstuffed fridge, blinking into the light as she did.
"Um, why are there post-it notes on everything?" She said.
"Barry hates it when people eat his stuff," Lucas shrugged.
She lifted out a little pudding cup. The post-it note on this one said eating Barry's pudding will result in lectures and/or fines if he isn't distracted within five seconds of finding out.
She was getting that smile again. She leaned up on tiptoe to check the very well stocked cupboards, peering over the various post-it notes. There was the one Barry had written: touch Lucas's food and prepare to be hit with pillows. Lucas couldn't help but smile at the memory, Barry had gotten sharpie all over himself after they'd each gone for the marker and ended up scribbled on, and it took ages to clean off. Barry had Lucas was here on his left arm for quite a while, which had Palmer giving him some strange looks.
"You know, being with that special someone in a place like the villa is nice dream to have," Dawn said.
"If this is about Maylene and I, then you're mistaken, we're just friends," Lucas said. He was going to nip that in the bud. The memory of how spastic and strange Barry had gotten was still quite vivid.
"Oho, I wasn't talking about Maylene," Dawn said. She held up the little pudding cup. "The proof is right here."
"Proof?" Lucas said. "What does pudding have to do about it?"
"Honestly, you're horribly clueless sometimes," Dawn said. She tossed the pudding cup his way with a mutter of boys.
Lucas was left staring at the cup.
"Professor Rowan needed me to run an errand, so I'll be off. See you later, Lucas!"
"See you," he murmured, still staring at the cup like it would impart some divine wisdom. However, it was just a vanilla flavored pudding cup, and apparently not the type of imparting the meaning of teenaged girls and all their mysteries. The post-it note had fallen to the floor, and he bent down to retrieve it. Just as he was about to stick it back on, he noticed something else written on the back.
You're in love with him, idiot. in Dawn's familiar hand. When had she written it? Lucas could swear that Dawn could be as bad as a ninja kid armed with nothing but Zubats when it came to these things.
Lucas just blinked at the note for a while. Suddenly her I know your secret smile made a lot of sense. Dawn could be romantic and a little whimsical, so it maybe it wasn't a surprise that she thought he and Barry were–well, yeah.
P.S. Don't even give me that. There's a side on the bed which says Barry's side. You might as well put a note on your chest and go "Barry's".
Lucas was about to say something—a retort, a come back of sorts––and then he looked around to what his Villa had become. Barry's extra toothbrush was in the bathroom, and an extra towel out for when he came to stay. There were notes everywhere proclaiming Barry's ownership of food, chairs, and yes, even a side of the bed.
"Well," Lucas said.
It was an odd sort of feeling, like remembering something that had been bothering him for a long time, a word just on the tip of his tongue. There was a deafening calm within him, despite all the things he could be feeling. It was a realization, and a long breath and Lucas was sitting down with the pudding cup in his lap. He turned the cup to its side. Vanilla wasn't Barry's favorite, he was more an in-your-face rocking cherry kind, but vanilla made Barry nostalgic for the times when his dad would bring home vanilla pudding cups, so Lucas always bought a bit of both.
Maybe the proof was there all along.
Lucas flipped over the note and saw one last scrawl.
P.P.S.: Battle me, sometime! I caught some new pokémon, and I've got someone who said she'd just love to battle you both.
Lucas smiled. No, he wasn't surprised, nor repulsed by the idea. It was more the fact that Barry was always so close to him that he couldn't see the sheer depth of them, forest for the trees and all that. He traced his finger over the note, feeling a slight tremor in his heartbeat. A pulse, a quickening–
The memories of before, with Barry freaking out, his anguished declaration of...rivalry, a thousand subtle (and not so subtle) touches, suddenly it all seemed to clear.
*
Two days later, Barry showed up on his doorstep with leaves in his hair and a torn left knee. It was clumsily bandaged, and before even a greeting was exchanged, Lucas was pulling out the first aid kid he'd learned long ago to carry with him at all times.
He guided Barry to the couch, thinking and there's more spray and wash I'll need and bent down to take a look at Barry's knee. The bandage had already bleed through, and was haphazardly applied, and just barely sticking on.
"It's just a flesh wound," Barry said. "I can barely—OW that stings."
"That's what you get for not taking proper care of your wounds," Lucas said.
"I did, I really—crap that stings!"
Lucas peeled the rest of the bandages off in one stroke and Barry let out a shriek. Lucas bit his lower lip and began to rub peroxide over the cuts.
"You've gotta be more careful," he said, his voice going husky for a moment. He cleared his throat. "I mean, it could get infected—"
"Nah, I just got this today. I was running and then there was this big rock right in the path. I swear, I didn't see it at all," Barry said.
"Maybe it was a Geodude," Lucas said.
Barry shrugged, could be. He looked around, and Lucas could see the signs. He was about to kick up his heels, go do something else, switch the conversation. Lucas cleared his throat again.
"Hey, Barry," he began.
"Hmm?" Barry's attention was suddenly focused on him.
"So, I was talking with Dawn the other day, and she said something interested. She's ah, convinced we're a thing. She says we're in love, but too stupid to realize it. There's a note if you want to see."
He put the pudding cup in Barry's lap. Barry became utterly still, like he was molded in stone. Lucas had never seen Barry freeze like that. Even when he was sitting, he'd jiggle a leg, tab his foot, his fingers along the armrest. Barry was never completely still, even in his sleep. But he was now.
Some thoughts to how this might go included Barry laughing it off and saying good one, that's hilarious, now let's go visit Cynthia's villa–I hear she bought a new bikini! or a thousand other possibilities, but not this.
Barry's eyes were wide, and Lucas waited for the denial, the sputtering, or the point where Barry
Barry blushed. Beet red, down to the roots of his hair. He roughly rubbed at his cheeks, as if he could rub away the red.
"It's, it's—I'm fining you a million yen for making me like this!"
"Like what?" Lucas said.
"Like, well, you know!" Barry puffed out his red cheeks.
"I don't mind, you know. I mean...no, that's not what I mean. What I meant to say is that I do too. And. Um."
Lucas reached out to rest his hand on Barry's unhurt knee. He was used to playfully punching Barry and being punched, to nooging and wrestling, and patting him on the back or hugging him. But those were all friendship things, and he didn't know anything about love, or at least he didn't know anything about love that wasn't loving Barry in a thousand ways he never realized.
Lucas found he was blushing as well. Barry slowly put his own hand over Lucas's, drawing back once as if he'd touched a hot stove, instead of just the back of Lucas's hand.
"When I said I didn't want anyone else to be your rival, I meant I didn't want anyone to be like this. I didn't want you paying all your attention to them, going off and being married by punching bags and wearing the wedding dress—I wanted you all to myself!"
"Hey...don't worry. I mean, nobody's ever going to come close to replacing you, so—"
He was cut off as Barry was pushing him onto the floor, into something which was like a tacklehugkiss. This would be the moment to wax poetic about cinema kisses and how this was amazing, but honestly? Barry nearly broke his nose and knocked the wind out of him.
"Shuz, you all right, Lucas?"
"Just–Just give me a minute to catch my breath—"
"I'm that good of a kisser, huh? I always knew I'd be awesome on the first try," Barry said.
"You nearly broke my nose, and my ribs!"
Barry drooped a little at that. "Well, Crusher Wake would approve. Maybe I should've an armbar in there, and—"
Lucas reached up and cupped Barry's chin, and he turned quiet right away. Well, mostly quiet, other than the moaning sounds, because of course Barry couldn't be entirely quiet. The second kiss was soft and warm, if not clumsy and halting, and with the large bonus of not having the wind knocked out of him. Really, it was such an effective way of keeping him from talking and in one place. Lucas thought he'd have to use this new secret weapon whenever possible.
When they broke apart, with lips wetter and more swollen than before, they just sort of awkwardly looked at each other. Nothing had changed. Everything had changed.
"So, uh, you wanna have lunch?" Barry said. "I'm really starved."
Lucas grinned. "Sure, that sounds great."
And when he slung his arm about Barry's shoulder, just as they had when they were kids, in the days before this, there was only a slight edge of newness to an old comfort.
Series: Pokémon
Day/Theme: 14. and i'm afraid it's you
Character/Pairing: Barry/Lucas, Dawn(/Cynthia)
Rating: PG
Word count: 1918
Author's note: follows It Takes A Villa. More. For Melly, because exams were being mean to her.
"I'm really jealous, that couch is amazing," Dawn said. She laid out on her stomach, rubbing her cheeks against the material and taking up the whole couch in the process. "We really have the same taste."
"I guess. I have to spray and wash it like crazy, though. Barry never remembers to take his shoes off," Lucas said with a shrug.
Dawn gave him a sort of I know a secret smile. She did that a lot, lately. Lucas still wasn't sure what secret she knew–or thought she knew.
"Hee hee, that's so cute!"
"Not really, I have to clean it up all the time. I should've gotten a brown couch at this rate," Lucas said with a sigh.
"It's really worth it, though, isn't it?" Dawn said. She pushed herself up and off the couch, apparently not even waiting for his answer.
"I guess," Lucas said, though she seemed to be barely listening.
Dawn was never one to sit back and wait to be served; she always made herself right at home. She opened his big overstuffed fridge, blinking into the light as she did.
"Um, why are there post-it notes on everything?" She said.
"Barry hates it when people eat his stuff," Lucas shrugged.
She lifted out a little pudding cup. The post-it note on this one said eating Barry's pudding will result in lectures and/or fines if he isn't distracted within five seconds of finding out.
She was getting that smile again. She leaned up on tiptoe to check the very well stocked cupboards, peering over the various post-it notes. There was the one Barry had written: touch Lucas's food and prepare to be hit with pillows. Lucas couldn't help but smile at the memory, Barry had gotten sharpie all over himself after they'd each gone for the marker and ended up scribbled on, and it took ages to clean off. Barry had Lucas was here on his left arm for quite a while, which had Palmer giving him some strange looks.
"You know, being with that special someone in a place like the villa is nice dream to have," Dawn said.
"If this is about Maylene and I, then you're mistaken, we're just friends," Lucas said. He was going to nip that in the bud. The memory of how spastic and strange Barry had gotten was still quite vivid.
"Oho, I wasn't talking about Maylene," Dawn said. She held up the little pudding cup. "The proof is right here."
"Proof?" Lucas said. "What does pudding have to do about it?"
"Honestly, you're horribly clueless sometimes," Dawn said. She tossed the pudding cup his way with a mutter of boys.
Lucas was left staring at the cup.
"Professor Rowan needed me to run an errand, so I'll be off. See you later, Lucas!"
"See you," he murmured, still staring at the cup like it would impart some divine wisdom. However, it was just a vanilla flavored pudding cup, and apparently not the type of imparting the meaning of teenaged girls and all their mysteries. The post-it note had fallen to the floor, and he bent down to retrieve it. Just as he was about to stick it back on, he noticed something else written on the back.
You're in love with him, idiot. in Dawn's familiar hand. When had she written it? Lucas could swear that Dawn could be as bad as a ninja kid armed with nothing but Zubats when it came to these things.
Lucas just blinked at the note for a while. Suddenly her I know your secret smile made a lot of sense. Dawn could be romantic and a little whimsical, so it maybe it wasn't a surprise that she thought he and Barry were–well, yeah.
P.S. Don't even give me that. There's a side on the bed which says Barry's side. You might as well put a note on your chest and go "Barry's".
Lucas was about to say something—a retort, a come back of sorts––and then he looked around to what his Villa had become. Barry's extra toothbrush was in the bathroom, and an extra towel out for when he came to stay. There were notes everywhere proclaiming Barry's ownership of food, chairs, and yes, even a side of the bed.
"Well," Lucas said.
It was an odd sort of feeling, like remembering something that had been bothering him for a long time, a word just on the tip of his tongue. There was a deafening calm within him, despite all the things he could be feeling. It was a realization, and a long breath and Lucas was sitting down with the pudding cup in his lap. He turned the cup to its side. Vanilla wasn't Barry's favorite, he was more an in-your-face rocking cherry kind, but vanilla made Barry nostalgic for the times when his dad would bring home vanilla pudding cups, so Lucas always bought a bit of both.
Maybe the proof was there all along.
Lucas flipped over the note and saw one last scrawl.
P.P.S.: Battle me, sometime! I caught some new pokémon, and I've got someone who said she'd just love to battle you both.
Lucas smiled. No, he wasn't surprised, nor repulsed by the idea. It was more the fact that Barry was always so close to him that he couldn't see the sheer depth of them, forest for the trees and all that. He traced his finger over the note, feeling a slight tremor in his heartbeat. A pulse, a quickening–
The memories of before, with Barry freaking out, his anguished declaration of...rivalry, a thousand subtle (and not so subtle) touches, suddenly it all seemed to clear.
*
Two days later, Barry showed up on his doorstep with leaves in his hair and a torn left knee. It was clumsily bandaged, and before even a greeting was exchanged, Lucas was pulling out the first aid kid he'd learned long ago to carry with him at all times.
He guided Barry to the couch, thinking and there's more spray and wash I'll need and bent down to take a look at Barry's knee. The bandage had already bleed through, and was haphazardly applied, and just barely sticking on.
"It's just a flesh wound," Barry said. "I can barely—OW that stings."
"That's what you get for not taking proper care of your wounds," Lucas said.
"I did, I really—crap that stings!"
Lucas peeled the rest of the bandages off in one stroke and Barry let out a shriek. Lucas bit his lower lip and began to rub peroxide over the cuts.
"You've gotta be more careful," he said, his voice going husky for a moment. He cleared his throat. "I mean, it could get infected—"
"Nah, I just got this today. I was running and then there was this big rock right in the path. I swear, I didn't see it at all," Barry said.
"Maybe it was a Geodude," Lucas said.
Barry shrugged, could be. He looked around, and Lucas could see the signs. He was about to kick up his heels, go do something else, switch the conversation. Lucas cleared his throat again.
"Hey, Barry," he began.
"Hmm?" Barry's attention was suddenly focused on him.
"So, I was talking with Dawn the other day, and she said something interested. She's ah, convinced we're a thing. She says we're in love, but too stupid to realize it. There's a note if you want to see."
He put the pudding cup in Barry's lap. Barry became utterly still, like he was molded in stone. Lucas had never seen Barry freeze like that. Even when he was sitting, he'd jiggle a leg, tab his foot, his fingers along the armrest. Barry was never completely still, even in his sleep. But he was now.
Some thoughts to how this might go included Barry laughing it off and saying good one, that's hilarious, now let's go visit Cynthia's villa–I hear she bought a new bikini! or a thousand other possibilities, but not this.
Barry's eyes were wide, and Lucas waited for the denial, the sputtering, or the point where Barry
Barry blushed. Beet red, down to the roots of his hair. He roughly rubbed at his cheeks, as if he could rub away the red.
"It's, it's—I'm fining you a million yen for making me like this!"
"Like what?" Lucas said.
"Like, well, you know!" Barry puffed out his red cheeks.
"I don't mind, you know. I mean...no, that's not what I mean. What I meant to say is that I do too. And. Um."
Lucas reached out to rest his hand on Barry's unhurt knee. He was used to playfully punching Barry and being punched, to nooging and wrestling, and patting him on the back or hugging him. But those were all friendship things, and he didn't know anything about love, or at least he didn't know anything about love that wasn't loving Barry in a thousand ways he never realized.
Lucas found he was blushing as well. Barry slowly put his own hand over Lucas's, drawing back once as if he'd touched a hot stove, instead of just the back of Lucas's hand.
"When I said I didn't want anyone else to be your rival, I meant I didn't want anyone to be like this. I didn't want you paying all your attention to them, going off and being married by punching bags and wearing the wedding dress—I wanted you all to myself!"
"Hey...don't worry. I mean, nobody's ever going to come close to replacing you, so—"
He was cut off as Barry was pushing him onto the floor, into something which was like a tacklehugkiss. This would be the moment to wax poetic about cinema kisses and how this was amazing, but honestly? Barry nearly broke his nose and knocked the wind out of him.
"Shuz, you all right, Lucas?"
"Just–Just give me a minute to catch my breath—"
"I'm that good of a kisser, huh? I always knew I'd be awesome on the first try," Barry said.
"You nearly broke my nose, and my ribs!"
Barry drooped a little at that. "Well, Crusher Wake would approve. Maybe I should've an armbar in there, and—"
Lucas reached up and cupped Barry's chin, and he turned quiet right away. Well, mostly quiet, other than the moaning sounds, because of course Barry couldn't be entirely quiet. The second kiss was soft and warm, if not clumsy and halting, and with the large bonus of not having the wind knocked out of him. Really, it was such an effective way of keeping him from talking and in one place. Lucas thought he'd have to use this new secret weapon whenever possible.
When they broke apart, with lips wetter and more swollen than before, they just sort of awkwardly looked at each other. Nothing had changed. Everything had changed.
"So, uh, you wanna have lunch?" Barry said. "I'm really starved."
Lucas grinned. "Sure, that sounds great."
And when he slung his arm about Barry's shoulder, just as they had when they were kids, in the days before this, there was only a slight edge of newness to an old comfort.
no subject
Date: 2012-05-05 01:28 am (UTC)