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Entry tags:
fic: Catch You
Title: Catch You
Series: TF2(/Pokémon)
Character/pairing: Scout/Miss Pauling, ensemble
Rating: PG
Word count: 2334
Summary: Pokémon AU. Scout may be an elite member of Team Fortress, but he routinely fails at being a villain.
Author's note: I wasn't going to write this AU, but I ended up finishing a snippet because the notes I had for Miss Pauling's pokémon team were cute.
Continues on where Catch Me let off. I didn't intend to make this universe a thing, but I was trying to finish up Omega Sapphire for Sarah and got inspired, I guess.
For Sarah.
The darkened 'borrowed' auditorium still had an old banner hanging down from the wall. The letters had faded with age. The lighting system was barely hanging up, and spider webs and dust were everywhere.
It wasn't exactly Kalos level fashion and grace, but as for secret meetings, it did its job. The Main Nine stared back at her. Most of them with disinterest. And Scout shifted in his seat, hanging on her every word. He wore a brown coat, and kept fiddling with the zipper.
Heavy towered above them all. His arm was protectively behind Medic Heavy didn't speak much, but he took his job as bodyguard of Medic very seriously. Medic blatantly ignored her in favor a book. He pushed up his circular glasses as he flipped another page.
Everything about Medic was very blatant, especially his disinterest.
Engineer, the one in charge of all their electronics and a whole lot else, had one buckle of his overalls undone. His gloved hands worked some kind of cube. It looked like a complex Rubik cube.
Miss Pauling reached up. The backdrop for the projector was just out of reach. Miss Pauling tried to mentally question which would be more embarrassing: asking for help, or dragging out a chair in hopes she could reach it.
But before she could make that choice, Scout sensed the situation, and--quite literally--leapt to the stage. He tugged the projector screen down.
"You're pretty handy," she said softly.
Scout grinned "Hey, I live to serve. You, anyways."
Miss Pauling cleared her throat as she pointed up to the large projector. Eight of the main nine looked on from the few bleachers in the auditorium. Sniper yawned and pulled his hat down.
She hadn't even started, and already her audience was falling asleep. Great.
"You need anythin' else?" Scout said, in his version of quiet. Which wasn't very quiet at all.
"No, I'm fine now. Thank you. So..."
Scout smiled, and hopped off back to the seats below.
"Recently in my research, I've come across some startling news," Miss Pauling began.
On one slide was a secret base. Next to that was assorted grunts from various teams.
"Every 'Team' has had a Secret Base, or more, at one time."
She flipped to another slide.
"As you can see, there's a marked correlation between being defeated by ten years olds with a Jigglypuff, and a secret base. I like to call it the 'Treehouse effect.' Ten year olds, according to my research, love things like secret bases. Thus, they'll be drawn to one, like a Persian to catnip."
Sniper nudged the stage with his boot. "Ask Scout, he'd know. Spends all day playing sports with little kids."
Scout scrunched his nose. "It's called bein' a mentor. I'm registered and everythin'. You should try it sometime. Like Little Billy? I caught him a pokémon and taught him how to throw a ball. His dad never came back from his pokémon journey." Scout's voice choked up at this.
"It is very understandable, and scientific. After all, it is only common sense to want to spend time with peers who share your maturity level," Medic said.
"Yeah, what Doc said---Waiiit a minute..."
"He's just doin' what he always does. Some pick up scheme or other," Engineer said.
Scout crossed his arms. "Not anymore. I mean sure I did some flirtin' before, but Miss Pauling is all I have eyes for now. Besides, it sucks to have a dad go off and disappear on you. I know how it feels."
"Ahem, if we can get back to the subject, I think concentrating all our efforts in a place that says Do Not Enter draws in precocious little ones," Miss Pauling said.
"So, where should we go?" Scout said. "I mean, takin' over sports stadiums would just draw 'em more. And even the places kids wouldn't go, like a gamblin' den and a storage place got totally destroyed."
"Personally, I suggest abandoned schools. As a bonus, some may be haunted and come with free pokémon," she said. "After all, many children will be repelled by the thought of essays and required reading."
"Then we'll just attract nerds," Scout said.
"We'll purposefully misspell something!" Miss Pauling said, full of determination. "That way the nerds will run away!"
"Wouldn't it just bring on those people who can't stop correctin' you're grammar?" Scout said.
Medic scrunched up his nose. "Even without you speaking out loud, I can tell you used the wrong term. You're is a contraction of 'you are.' For example, 'you are an idiot.' Now your, that's possessive. As in, Miss Pauling, he's your idiot."
"Not gonna lie, I can't even be mad, because Doc can practically read sound waves or somethin'," Scout said. "Also, my point right there."
"Hmm, he's got a point. We could accidentally attract severe grammarians," she said.
"All we gotta do is go live in some desert that nobody wants. Ain't goin' to be no children runnin' around the desert," Sniper said.
"A secret desert base in the desert? That's actually a good idea," Miss Pauling said.
"Actually? You don't gotta make it sound like a surprise," Sniper muttered.
"All right, I'll petition the Administrator to put our bases in the furthest reaches of the desert," Miss Pauling said. "Oh, and, meeting dismissed."
Scout broke into applause. He opened up his coat to reveal a hidden message across his red shirt. She wasn't sure when he'd gotten that special Miss Pauling is the Greatest t-shirt. Considering the messy paint splatter, it was quite likely he'd made it himself.
She was about to say oh, stop, but this was Scout here. He was never going to stop doing big dramatic things for her.
So, instead, she just softly said thank you.
*
The meeting dispersed, until only she and Scout remained.
Scout broke into a big grin as he came closer. "It's been ages, Miss P! How you been?"
She chuckled. "It's been two weeks."
"I know, right? Like years."
"I've been busy. And it looks like you've been, too."
Scout puffed up at the praise. "Yeah, I been everywhere. Crossed the whole world about three times at least. Probably broke some records, I should check my gear to see, I got all the best apps to check that crap out. Speakin' of which. I got somethin' to show you. Well, not just show you, got you somethin'." He grinned, unable to keep his excitement in any longer. It must've taken quite a bit of self control to keep from blurting it all out.
Instead, he'd listened. She smiled to herself. He'd really grown since he'd first come to Team Fortress, a gangly boy barely out of his teens who couldn't stop bragging to anyone who would listen.
"Okay, but for this surprise, you gotta trust me. All right?" Scout said.
"I trust you," she said softly.
He gently pulled off her glasses. For a moment, she was sure that the surprise would be his lips. But his hands covered her eyes. They took steps in synchronization. The echoing steps of the building gave way to the crunch of gravel, and then, something softer.
"Careful now, don't trip."
"Are we almost there?"
"Just a liiiitle bit closer," he said.
She could only trust him to catch her if she fell. With each step, she felt grass tickle her ankles. A birdsong was high above her. She could hear the rustle of leaves in the soft wind, and the soft glance of shade across her cheeks.
But it was the scent that was most potent. So many flowers that she couldn't even begin to tell them apart.
Overwhelmed for a moment, she sneezed.
"Oh crap, you ain't allergic, are you?"
"Pollen overload, I think. Er, I didn't sneeze on you, did I?"
"Nah, you're good. And we're here! Surprise!" He pulled his hands away from her eyes, and gave Miss Pauling her glasses back.
As she slipped them on, all the bright colors came into focus. Miss Pauling gasped at the sight laid before her. There was a whole field of grass pokémon there. Several Sunflora lifted their yellow petals to the sun, while Roselia and Bellossom pairs spun around like ballroom dancers. Oddish peeked their green leaves at the edges, and severely Beautiflys and Butterfrees drifted on above them.
A Cherubi nuzzled shyly against her heels, as a whole group of Liligants danced together.
"Who needs a bouquet of flowers when you got pals like these?" Scout pronounced "bouquet"" somewhere between "fuck it" and "bucket."
"Scout, they're beautiful! Are they really for me? Wait, these are from different regions. You're telling me you went all across the world in just two week's time to get me a giant living bouquet?"
"Is baseball the greatest sport ever? Is the Pope Catholic? Do bears shit in the woods? Is Tom Jones the best singer around? Are you the cutest and best girl in the world? The answer to all of those and more--is yes, by the way."
"Weren't you on a mission?" Miss Pauling said.
"Yeah, a mission to make you smile" Scout said.
"Well, it certainly worked... though, I'm not sure I have enough food for them all."
"They're plants. They eat like, rocks and dirt and crap."
"Well, technically plants photosynthesize energy via sunlight, water and carbon dioxide, but these are plant pokémon. I'll have to research if they don't require anything else--"
"Eh, just let em in a cow field. There was a ranch back there and they just loooved jumpin' all through those cow patties. It looked like they were havin' a rave."
"You walked around with a whole herd of grass pokémon? The national limit is 6," she said.
"Miss P, we're Team Fortress. The rules don't apply to us. Hell, our catch phrase is Fuck your rules."
Actually, that was Scout's personal motto, not Team Fortress', but Miss Pauling didn't say that.
Scout continued on. "I didn't even have to wound them. I just went up to wild pokémon, told them they were goin' to meet the prettiest girl in the world, and they all hopped on this conga line! See, look at them groove. They're totally stoked to meet you. The Beautiflys and Butterfrees? They just saw the party and came along. I didn't even have to talk them into it."
The pokéballs at her belt started to shudder. One by one, her Eevee and Liepard popped out, only to leap ontol him, covering him with kisses in their bid for attention.
"Ladies! Control yourself! I know I'm a stud, but I got someone I'm into!" Scout laughed as the whorl of grass pokémon, all arrayed in the biggest bouquet she'd ever seen came closer.
Someone he was into? Her hands momentarily clenched at her sides, full on teeth grit. The mere thought that it could be anyone else made a little sliver of jealousy form in her heart. Even with the obvious, giant declaration before her--when it came to him, something within her got a little irrational.
When her pokémon had finally settled down to curl up around him, Miss Pauling could finally gather her thoughts.
"This is the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me," Miss Pauling said.
"I'll top it by next Thursday," Scout said.
"I know," she said.
"Hey...Miss Pauling." Scout cleared his throat. "Um, I really like you. I mean, really like you. I stopped goin' around flirtin' with girls, because you're the only girl I wanna flirt with. ...Do you ever think about me and you?"
He rubbed at the back of his neck. A deep red blush was across his cheeks. "Bein', you know, romantic like?"
"Honestly? All the time," she said.
"So, if I were to ask you out--ask you to be my girlfriend, you'd say--?"
She bent down and pulled out one of her clipboards. On the to-do list, she wrote out an answer, and handed it to him.
Scout tilted his head as he looked it over. Math never was his strong suit. "YES...2?"
"That's Yes squared. Yes times itself...I'm not sure the value of Yes, but it'd be very high. Three letters, so at least in the hundreds. And times itself, that would make it... Oh, I'm going off track." She flipped open her black leather bound planner.. "Now, I'm pretty busy, but I'm always free for an hour at lunch. Plus, if you came along with me on jobs, then we could spend more time together.
"--You're brilliant!"
She smiled. "I try."
He pulled her into his arms then, right beneath the leaves, and in front of most beautiful display she'd ever seen. His hands gently rested below her shoulder blades, and he made no move to move his hands lower. For all his roguish reputation, he was being a downright gentleman to her.
"Wait, do I got to wait until second date to kiss you?" Scout said.
"No, I don't think so," she said.
"Good, because I really want to kiss you. Technically I wanted to kiss you a long time, but you know..."
"Me too, actually," she said. Her cheeks turned as bright red as the parade of flowers around them.
"You know, Miss Pauling, I got a cure for that," Scout said.
She had to admit, Scout had some great ideas.
Series: TF2(/Pokémon)
Character/pairing: Scout/Miss Pauling, ensemble
Rating: PG
Word count: 2334
Summary: Pokémon AU. Scout may be an elite member of Team Fortress, but he routinely fails at being a villain.
Author's note: I wasn't going to write this AU, but I ended up finishing a snippet because the notes I had for Miss Pauling's pokémon team were cute.
Continues on where Catch Me let off. I didn't intend to make this universe a thing, but I was trying to finish up Omega Sapphire for Sarah and got inspired, I guess.
For Sarah.
The darkened 'borrowed' auditorium still had an old banner hanging down from the wall. The letters had faded with age. The lighting system was barely hanging up, and spider webs and dust were everywhere.
It wasn't exactly Kalos level fashion and grace, but as for secret meetings, it did its job. The Main Nine stared back at her. Most of them with disinterest. And Scout shifted in his seat, hanging on her every word. He wore a brown coat, and kept fiddling with the zipper.
Heavy towered above them all. His arm was protectively behind Medic Heavy didn't speak much, but he took his job as bodyguard of Medic very seriously. Medic blatantly ignored her in favor a book. He pushed up his circular glasses as he flipped another page.
Everything about Medic was very blatant, especially his disinterest.
Engineer, the one in charge of all their electronics and a whole lot else, had one buckle of his overalls undone. His gloved hands worked some kind of cube. It looked like a complex Rubik cube.
Miss Pauling reached up. The backdrop for the projector was just out of reach. Miss Pauling tried to mentally question which would be more embarrassing: asking for help, or dragging out a chair in hopes she could reach it.
But before she could make that choice, Scout sensed the situation, and--quite literally--leapt to the stage. He tugged the projector screen down.
"You're pretty handy," she said softly.
Scout grinned "Hey, I live to serve. You, anyways."
Miss Pauling cleared her throat as she pointed up to the large projector. Eight of the main nine looked on from the few bleachers in the auditorium. Sniper yawned and pulled his hat down.
She hadn't even started, and already her audience was falling asleep. Great.
"You need anythin' else?" Scout said, in his version of quiet. Which wasn't very quiet at all.
"No, I'm fine now. Thank you. So..."
Scout smiled, and hopped off back to the seats below.
"Recently in my research, I've come across some startling news," Miss Pauling began.
On one slide was a secret base. Next to that was assorted grunts from various teams.
"Every 'Team' has had a Secret Base, or more, at one time."
She flipped to another slide.
"As you can see, there's a marked correlation between being defeated by ten years olds with a Jigglypuff, and a secret base. I like to call it the 'Treehouse effect.' Ten year olds, according to my research, love things like secret bases. Thus, they'll be drawn to one, like a Persian to catnip."
Sniper nudged the stage with his boot. "Ask Scout, he'd know. Spends all day playing sports with little kids."
Scout scrunched his nose. "It's called bein' a mentor. I'm registered and everythin'. You should try it sometime. Like Little Billy? I caught him a pokémon and taught him how to throw a ball. His dad never came back from his pokémon journey." Scout's voice choked up at this.
"It is very understandable, and scientific. After all, it is only common sense to want to spend time with peers who share your maturity level," Medic said.
"Yeah, what Doc said---Waiiit a minute..."
"He's just doin' what he always does. Some pick up scheme or other," Engineer said.
Scout crossed his arms. "Not anymore. I mean sure I did some flirtin' before, but Miss Pauling is all I have eyes for now. Besides, it sucks to have a dad go off and disappear on you. I know how it feels."
"Ahem, if we can get back to the subject, I think concentrating all our efforts in a place that says Do Not Enter draws in precocious little ones," Miss Pauling said.
"So, where should we go?" Scout said. "I mean, takin' over sports stadiums would just draw 'em more. And even the places kids wouldn't go, like a gamblin' den and a storage place got totally destroyed."
"Personally, I suggest abandoned schools. As a bonus, some may be haunted and come with free pokémon," she said. "After all, many children will be repelled by the thought of essays and required reading."
"Then we'll just attract nerds," Scout said.
"We'll purposefully misspell something!" Miss Pauling said, full of determination. "That way the nerds will run away!"
"Wouldn't it just bring on those people who can't stop correctin' you're grammar?" Scout said.
Medic scrunched up his nose. "Even without you speaking out loud, I can tell you used the wrong term. You're is a contraction of 'you are.' For example, 'you are an idiot.' Now your, that's possessive. As in, Miss Pauling, he's your idiot."
"Not gonna lie, I can't even be mad, because Doc can practically read sound waves or somethin'," Scout said. "Also, my point right there."
"Hmm, he's got a point. We could accidentally attract severe grammarians," she said.
"All we gotta do is go live in some desert that nobody wants. Ain't goin' to be no children runnin' around the desert," Sniper said.
"A secret desert base in the desert? That's actually a good idea," Miss Pauling said.
"Actually? You don't gotta make it sound like a surprise," Sniper muttered.
"All right, I'll petition the Administrator to put our bases in the furthest reaches of the desert," Miss Pauling said. "Oh, and, meeting dismissed."
Scout broke into applause. He opened up his coat to reveal a hidden message across his red shirt. She wasn't sure when he'd gotten that special Miss Pauling is the Greatest t-shirt. Considering the messy paint splatter, it was quite likely he'd made it himself.
She was about to say oh, stop, but this was Scout here. He was never going to stop doing big dramatic things for her.
So, instead, she just softly said thank you.
*
The meeting dispersed, until only she and Scout remained.
Scout broke into a big grin as he came closer. "It's been ages, Miss P! How you been?"
She chuckled. "It's been two weeks."
"I know, right? Like years."
"I've been busy. And it looks like you've been, too."
Scout puffed up at the praise. "Yeah, I been everywhere. Crossed the whole world about three times at least. Probably broke some records, I should check my gear to see, I got all the best apps to check that crap out. Speakin' of which. I got somethin' to show you. Well, not just show you, got you somethin'." He grinned, unable to keep his excitement in any longer. It must've taken quite a bit of self control to keep from blurting it all out.
Instead, he'd listened. She smiled to herself. He'd really grown since he'd first come to Team Fortress, a gangly boy barely out of his teens who couldn't stop bragging to anyone who would listen.
"Okay, but for this surprise, you gotta trust me. All right?" Scout said.
"I trust you," she said softly.
He gently pulled off her glasses. For a moment, she was sure that the surprise would be his lips. But his hands covered her eyes. They took steps in synchronization. The echoing steps of the building gave way to the crunch of gravel, and then, something softer.
"Careful now, don't trip."
"Are we almost there?"
"Just a liiiitle bit closer," he said.
She could only trust him to catch her if she fell. With each step, she felt grass tickle her ankles. A birdsong was high above her. She could hear the rustle of leaves in the soft wind, and the soft glance of shade across her cheeks.
But it was the scent that was most potent. So many flowers that she couldn't even begin to tell them apart.
Overwhelmed for a moment, she sneezed.
"Oh crap, you ain't allergic, are you?"
"Pollen overload, I think. Er, I didn't sneeze on you, did I?"
"Nah, you're good. And we're here! Surprise!" He pulled his hands away from her eyes, and gave Miss Pauling her glasses back.
As she slipped them on, all the bright colors came into focus. Miss Pauling gasped at the sight laid before her. There was a whole field of grass pokémon there. Several Sunflora lifted their yellow petals to the sun, while Roselia and Bellossom pairs spun around like ballroom dancers. Oddish peeked their green leaves at the edges, and severely Beautiflys and Butterfrees drifted on above them.
A Cherubi nuzzled shyly against her heels, as a whole group of Liligants danced together.
"Who needs a bouquet of flowers when you got pals like these?" Scout pronounced "bouquet"" somewhere between "fuck it" and "bucket."
"Scout, they're beautiful! Are they really for me? Wait, these are from different regions. You're telling me you went all across the world in just two week's time to get me a giant living bouquet?"
"Is baseball the greatest sport ever? Is the Pope Catholic? Do bears shit in the woods? Is Tom Jones the best singer around? Are you the cutest and best girl in the world? The answer to all of those and more--is yes, by the way."
"Weren't you on a mission?" Miss Pauling said.
"Yeah, a mission to make you smile" Scout said.
"Well, it certainly worked... though, I'm not sure I have enough food for them all."
"They're plants. They eat like, rocks and dirt and crap."
"Well, technically plants photosynthesize energy via sunlight, water and carbon dioxide, but these are plant pokémon. I'll have to research if they don't require anything else--"
"Eh, just let em in a cow field. There was a ranch back there and they just loooved jumpin' all through those cow patties. It looked like they were havin' a rave."
"You walked around with a whole herd of grass pokémon? The national limit is 6," she said.
"Miss P, we're Team Fortress. The rules don't apply to us. Hell, our catch phrase is Fuck your rules."
Actually, that was Scout's personal motto, not Team Fortress', but Miss Pauling didn't say that.
Scout continued on. "I didn't even have to wound them. I just went up to wild pokémon, told them they were goin' to meet the prettiest girl in the world, and they all hopped on this conga line! See, look at them groove. They're totally stoked to meet you. The Beautiflys and Butterfrees? They just saw the party and came along. I didn't even have to talk them into it."
The pokéballs at her belt started to shudder. One by one, her Eevee and Liepard popped out, only to leap ontol him, covering him with kisses in their bid for attention.
"Ladies! Control yourself! I know I'm a stud, but I got someone I'm into!" Scout laughed as the whorl of grass pokémon, all arrayed in the biggest bouquet she'd ever seen came closer.
Someone he was into? Her hands momentarily clenched at her sides, full on teeth grit. The mere thought that it could be anyone else made a little sliver of jealousy form in her heart. Even with the obvious, giant declaration before her--when it came to him, something within her got a little irrational.
When her pokémon had finally settled down to curl up around him, Miss Pauling could finally gather her thoughts.
"This is the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me," Miss Pauling said.
"I'll top it by next Thursday," Scout said.
"I know," she said.
"Hey...Miss Pauling." Scout cleared his throat. "Um, I really like you. I mean, really like you. I stopped goin' around flirtin' with girls, because you're the only girl I wanna flirt with. ...Do you ever think about me and you?"
He rubbed at the back of his neck. A deep red blush was across his cheeks. "Bein', you know, romantic like?"
"Honestly? All the time," she said.
"So, if I were to ask you out--ask you to be my girlfriend, you'd say--?"
She bent down and pulled out one of her clipboards. On the to-do list, she wrote out an answer, and handed it to him.
Scout tilted his head as he looked it over. Math never was his strong suit. "YES...2?"
"That's Yes squared. Yes times itself...I'm not sure the value of Yes, but it'd be very high. Three letters, so at least in the hundreds. And times itself, that would make it... Oh, I'm going off track." She flipped open her black leather bound planner.. "Now, I'm pretty busy, but I'm always free for an hour at lunch. Plus, if you came along with me on jobs, then we could spend more time together.
"--You're brilliant!"
She smiled. "I try."
He pulled her into his arms then, right beneath the leaves, and in front of most beautiful display she'd ever seen. His hands gently rested below her shoulder blades, and he made no move to move his hands lower. For all his roguish reputation, he was being a downright gentleman to her.
"Wait, do I got to wait until second date to kiss you?" Scout said.
"No, I don't think so," she said.
"Good, because I really want to kiss you. Technically I wanted to kiss you a long time, but you know..."
"Me too, actually," she said. Her cheeks turned as bright red as the parade of flowers around them.
"You know, Miss Pauling, I got a cure for that," Scout said.
She had to admit, Scout had some great ideas.