Chapter Text
Another day, another tedious meeting.
If Lance had known ahead of time just how little being a champion involved battling and how much was paperwork, meetings, and various other bureaucracies…
He still would have strived to reach it, but maybe would’ve reconsidered accepting once Red had left the position.
No, that’s a lie. There wasn’t anyone else willing to take charge, and he couldn’t exactly risk the region going without a champion for much longer. Last time they tried, an entire criminal organization managed to take advantage of the lack of oversight and had taken several people hostage throughout Kanto.
Even with Lance being the champion, they almost managed to lose that stability if not for the lucky appearance of Ethan. So, no matter how agonizing it was to sit in the Elite Four’s office and lead the tedious meetings and discuss budgeting, rumors of groups like Team Rocket possibly emerging, budgeting, requests from the various gym leaders regarding safety concerns, budgeting, troublesome pokemon throughout the regions or more budgeting (Lance could feel his soul dying a little each time he listened to numbers being thrown around), he would do it for as long as both regions needed him.
This was all so much easier when he was just one of the Four instead of in charge. Lorelei used to do all of the math and make most of the decisions with barely any input from the others. Agatha would be the only one to argue with her on occasion, but it usually seemed like more of a formality as Lorelei could always be counted on to have everything running smoothly as soon as she put her mind to it.
Everything had happened too quickly after Blue and Red. Lance barely had time to process that he’d lost before Red vacated the position, and then Agatha had passed. At least Lorelei had been kind enough to wait for the open slots to be filled before she retired. If Lance had to find three new members of the Elite Four while also juggling everything else... Well, he’s just glad that didn’t happen.
Unfortunately, while the new members were great battlers and good people, they weren’t coming to him with an outline of a proposed budget with every potential need met that just needed a signature to go into effect. No, now they had to discuss and argue and Lance just had to get a migraine.
“So, has Blaine actually submitted plans for his rebuilt gym yet?”
“Well, he’s sent a new batch of questions for the quiz,” Karen said with a chuckle, moving a few papers to draw Lance’s attention to the questions in… question, “they’re much tougher than the last ones. Bruno was stumped.”
“You said you weren’t going to mention that,” Bruno muttered, arms crossed. It didn’t affect Karen at all, of course.
“You asked, I never said I would.”
Lance sat back in his chair, knowing that the lighthearted bickering would begin. It was an easy way to let out a bit of stress, which the group needed. Still, Lance just wanted to get back home. Clair had agreed to help Silver train while Lance was out, and he was curious to know how that would end up. He trusted both of them individually, but together they could be a handful.
As if in response to his thoughts straying back home, Lance felt his pokegear vibrate in his pocket. Since the others were distracted arguing, he decided to check it before getting the group back on track.
Hypothetically if I let your kid get crushed, how pissed are you going to be
I really hope you’re joking.
The next thing Lance knew, he received a picture of Silver being crushed underneath Meganium. She looked to be panicking and halfway through getting back up when the picture was taken. Silver, on the other hand, was just laying on the ground, face-down.
Clair, I told you to look after him, not send him back to the hospital.
Hes fiiiiiiine he’s standing up and yelling at me for sending you that picture
Lance’s gear vibrated again from a message someone else sent. This one came from Silver.
Clair is lying, I didn’t get in a fight with Meganium over a treat.
I see. And you definitely didn’t lose that fight.
She sent you the picture, didn’t she?
Without thinking, Lance snorted as he typed up a response, not noticing the way the room went quiet at that.
It looks like Meganium hadn’t meant to do that, at least.
No, she’s getting all cuddly now. It’s better than Clair laughing at me.
She tends to do that. Please try to survive the next few hours while I’m gone.
I’ll try.
When Lance finally looked away from his gear, he realized that his coworkers were all staring at him in amusement.
“What? What are you all looking at?”
“Having fun over there, texting during a meeting? So irresponsible, Champion,” Karen teased. She then elbowed Will and whispered something in his ear, causing him to look shocked. None of that was encouraging.
“It was just Clair keeping me up to date on what’s going on around the den, and I didn’t have much to contribute at the moment,” he deflected. The most the Four knew about Silver was that someone had fallen ill and needed to stay at Lance’s during his recovery. He’d never even told them that Silver was a kid, or that he’d been staying with Lance even before the incident. As much as he wanted to tell everyone about his kid and how proud he was of him already, Lance knew that he was pretty shy. He doubted Silver wanted many people to know about him, especially since the first question on anyone’s mind would be why Lance was looking after him. It felt like a safe bet to assume that Silver didn’t want anyone else to know about his homelessness.
“Has much been changing around Blackthorn?” Koga asked, completely stoic to anyone who didn’t know him. Lance, however, could easily read the glint in his eye that spoke of amusement.
“Yeah, you know you can tell us if something’s going on,” Bruno added, endearingly earnest.
It all made Lance more suspicious than when he heard the rumors that brought him to the Lake of Rage. He glanced between each of his coworkers with a glare, trying to figure out what was going on.
“Why do I get the feeling there’s something you guys aren’t saying?”
“Us? Now why would we be hiding anything?” Karen replied with a smirk. The others simply nodded, and Lance felt almost backed into a corner.
He looked at each Elite Four member in thought. Karen would only admit to something if she found it amusing. Koga was impossible to get information out of. Bruno, Lance could probably get the truth out of him eventually, but that would take time. Which left…
“Will, mind telling me what’s going on?” Lance looked at him with an eyebrow raised. Immediately, he could see Will start to sweat behind the mask.
There was barely time for the others to speak up before he was already blurting out, “Clair sent a picture of you and your son to the group chat and everyone wants to know why you didn’t tell us about him befor- ow!”
Karen glared at Will as she withdrew her foot from his shin under the table before giving Lance the sweetest smile she was capable of. So, he felt a little threatened but less than usual.
“My s- I don’t have… since when do you all have a group chat with Clair?!”
“She started it with Lorei after you passed out on us,” Bruno said.
“It was one time .” Lance could feel himself turning red at that. So he was a little stressed out when he first joined the Four. He never ended up in the hospital from overwork again. Mostly because Agatha was still terrifying even beyond the grave and her lecture about the dangers of working himself to death still haunted him.
Honestly, he wasn’t sure the old woman was truly gone. It sure didn’t feel like it sometimes.
“Uh, when did that happen?” Will asked, glancing between his seniors in a panic.
“Wow, I didn’t even know about that,” Karen said, smirking and leaning back in her seat, “I thought it was just for sending memes around.”
“Just because you don’t use it for its intended purpose does not mean there is none,” Koga muttered, sagely. Probably to cover for the fact that he didn’t understand a single one of those memes. Lance was closer to Karen and Will in age than him and even he barely understood them sometimes.
“That still doesn’t explain how she made you think I have a son when I very much do not.”
He did not appreciate the way the group stared at him as if in disbelief that he could be so foolish. Even Koga was clearly taken aback. Finally, Will handed over his gear with a bit of telekinesis, flipping it to the message in question.
Immediately, Lance could tell when the picture was from. It was of Lance sitting on his couch, Silver laying his head against his shoulder, bundled up in a familiar cocoon of blankets. Teddiursa was still there, sleeping against Silver’s chest. He could even see Charizard and Meganium in the corners. While Lance was clearly asleep, Silver was glaring at the camera (meaning Clair).
Clair had visited a lot when Silver was recovering from pneumonia, but he had no idea she took a picture. And sent it to the Elite Four no less. More surprising was that Silver was clearly aware that the picture had been taken and had perhaps even given his blessing to send it to the others.
He better have, or Clair was going to get an earful from Lance.
Underneath it, Clair had written, see? Lance is fine. Kid’s probably not stepping outside the house until next month
“We were a bit worried about that extended leave of absence,” Bruno admitted, scratching the back of his head, “you’re kind of the last person any of us would expect to miss work.”
“Okay, first of all, that makes me sound like some workaholic. If someone needs my help then of course I’ll focus on that. The kid had pneumonia, that’s more important than paperwork.” Was it really that strange that he’d found other priorities? He took breaks, sometimes.
Granted, the last time he took a break was to investigate the Lake of Rage, but still. It wasn’t explicitly the work of a champion.
Shaking off that annoyance, he continued, “secondly, that doesn’t explain why you think he’s my son.”
For some reason, most of the group was just looking at him as if he were stupid for even asking such a thing.
“Maybe because he obviously is?” Karen was the first to speak, pointing at Will’s pokegear as if it would hold all the answers, “you cuddle with all of the sick kids in the den?”
“That’s no-”
“But he also looks just like you,” Will interrupted, hands waving energetically, “I mean, the red hair, the grey eyes. Isn’t it obvious?”
“I- he’s not,” Lance faltered at that, realizing how it looked from the outside. It had never occurred to him before that Silver had many traits in common with him, if he were honest. Those weren’t that rare, were they?
Of course, it helped Lance to dismiss any similarities that he knew for a fact he’d never had a child. No one else could say that with as much certainty as him. Still, it was ridiculous.
“Other people have red hair, guys,” he said with a sigh before handing off the gear back to Will, “and grey eyes. I think I’d know if I had a child, alright? He decided he wanted to start training at the den, with no input from me, and needed a place to stay. You all know how dangerous it gets in winter.”
“Wait, are you serious?” Karen looked torn between disbelief and shock, “you just happened to find some kid who looks like a miniature version of you?”
“We don’t even have the same shade of red hair,” Lance retorted, “and just similar eye color and hair color aren’t that much to go on. We don’t have anything else in common, right?”
“Kind of hard to tell when he’s all bundled up like that,” Will said, staring at the picture as if he could find some evidence to prove Lance wrong, “but that doesn’t explain why you’re looking after a kid.”
“Yeah, Lance, I mean, I didn’t think you’re the type to have one, but that made more sense at least. Whose kid is he, then?” Bruno looked the most confused out of all of them, which Lance figured made sense. They’d been friends for longer than the rest of the Four. Lance knew that it probably came out of nowhere to everyone else, his sudden need to look after Silver.
“Look, he’s a kid who was in a rough situation, so I opened my home up for him. And I never mentioned it because it’s his life and I’m not going to make him uncomfortable by telling people his private business.”
“So, then what’s going on?” Will asked, nose scrunching up under his mask as Lance could see him try to come up with his own answers, “are you protecting him from something? Why’s he staying with you specifically? Do you need help?”
“Help with what? Listen, everyone, this really isn’t that interesting. He’s a kid, he might have gotten hurt staying in Blackthorn during the winter without a place to stay. I have a house, so he’s been staying there.”
“But that just leaves us with more questions!” Will sounded incredibly put out as he gestured to the others, as if to ask them to back him up. While Karen nodded, at least Bruno seemed to grow conflicted by the continuing interrogation.
Koga, Lance had no idea how he felt. He just kept staring at Lance in his enigmatic way. It was a little unnerving, he couldn’t lie.
“Perhaps, if you wish to settle the curiosity, we could just meet this boy,” the ninja finally said.
“You what? Where did that come from?”
“Now that is a great idea,” Karen said, clapping once and giving Lance a stubborn glare, “if this kid is so important to you that you took almost a month off to look after him, then we have to get to know him. Besides, if he’s a trainer, then who better than us to introduce him to? Maybe he needs some more mentors.”
“Yeah! I mean, Koga brings Janine over all the time, why not your kid too?” Will was practically bouncing in his seat. Was running the League really that boring to them that they needed any distraction?
“I doubt he’d wa-”
“Perhaps I should bring Janine as well, she could use some more friends around her age.”
The next thing Lance knew, his coworkers were already planning to bring both of the kids around and talking as if Lance had already agreed. It was so absurd that he couldn’t help but laugh.
“This is happening no matter what I say, isn’t it?” Obviously, he wasn’t going to bring Silver if he said no, but it seemed that he had no choice but to present the option.
It would be utter chaos, but that wouldn’t be new to Lance. He had been working with these people for quite some time now, so what did he really expect? For them to act normally?
Now that Will and Karen were distracted planning what they were going to do once Silver visited (and even Koga throwing out suggestions), Lance realized that there was no salvaging the meeting. At least they had gotten most of the important stuff out of the way. They could meet again to work out details later.
After declaring the meeting over, Lance stayed behind to clean up the papers spread in front of him. He could hear the others leaving and had assumed he was alone until he glanced up and noticed that Bruno was still there. Just as he opened his mouth to speak, Bruno beat him to it.
“Sorry about ambushing you with all of this, but it was kind of hard to resist,” he said, sheepishly, “I mean, I believe that he’s not really your son, but it just kind of feels like there’s something you’re not saying.”
In hindsight, Lance should have known that Bruno of all people would notice that something was off. Other than Clair, he didn’t know many people who could read him as well. Not who were still around, anyway. Years of working side-by-side in one of the most stressful positions in two regions had a way of bringing people together. Especially when everyone else moved on.
It was no surprise that Bruno could notice that his insistence that Silver wasn’t his son only meant biologically, not emotionally.
With a sigh, he let go of the papers he’d collected and shrugged, leaning back in his seat. “I don’t know what Clair’s been telling you, but it’s just what I’ve said. He needed a place for the winter and I had a room available. Clair’s just been all… Clair about it.”
Bruno just laughed and shook his head. “I can guess what that means. She had been complaining about some ‘project’ you’d been working on a while ago, that’s him?”
“She called him that? Of course she did,” Lance rolled his eyes which only caused Bruno to laugh again, “she really didn’t like him at first, but they get along now. I think they just needed to get used to each other. Well, they get along in their own way; anyone else would probably feel bullied.”
“Fits what I’ve seen so far; kid’s got a wicked glare. I’m looking forward to meeting the little guy.”
“Yeah, he’s a bit defensive sometimes, but there’s more to him than that. I think… it’s the way a pokemon might try to cover up an injury by snapping and attacking, even though they really need the help. But, emotionally, not physically. Just, the more time I spend with him, the more I can tell that he just needs someone to give him the space to grow.” He closed his mouth, abruptly feeling a little foolish. Where that tirade came from… well, he knew, but it was still embarrassing to just drop it all onto Bruno.
At least his friend didn’t laugh at him or anything like that. He just tilted his head, curiously, before nodding. “I believe you, and I’m glad you’re doing something to help out. Just remember that Clair’s not the only one you can lean on if you need help. You just need to call and I’ll be there, no problem.”
Bruno gave him one last look before excusing himself. Lance was left to stare down at his paperwork, feeling oddly scolded, despite how gentle the words were. And yet, comforted at the same time.