For the TrainerClavell au
If I read correctly, you guys talked about Clavell helping the kids with their nightmares and problems but what about Clavell having some really upsetting dreams about the professors :'D
Maybe it doesn't happen that often but when it does it's bad :'/
((ok now imagine Tyme comforting him🙂🙂🙂🙂))
SCREECHING. Ok. I had brain worms from this prompt. Enjoy a crazy spur of writing (it turned out way longer than i expected)
CW for: Nightmares, implied injury/traumatic experiences. Enjoy!!!! Hopefully this is a fun read lol
Clavell was huddled right outside the Zero Lab, a space cleared out for the scientists within when they needed an escape from the stuffiness of the indoors. There was no breeze so deep underground, but the caverns were still chilly, and Clavell regretted not wearing something warmer. Stuffing his hands into his lab coat pocket, he gazed at the peaceful scenery around him.
Area Zero, for all the inconveniences it brought, was beautiful at night. There were the glittering crystals, but also the Glimmora blooming to life, their bio-luminescent petals reflecting in the pools of water. The ethereal quality of the land only made Clavell feel even more homesick.
The Tera Orbs were well on their way to being finished, a project spanning years. Though the scientists had had designated breaks to leave the place, Clavell sorely missed the rest of Paldea's crowds, its food, the sights. Plus, he was tired, the numerous late nights of research wore down on even the most devoted academics. The wrap up of the greatest discovery in his career couldn't come sooner!
"Boo!"
Jumping at the sudden scare, Clavell became the subject of peals of laughter.
"Sada!" He grumbled, almost pouting. "I came out here for peace and quiet."
"Not my fault you make it so easy.” His colleague and dear friend flashed a toothy grin, taking a seat beside him even as she asked: “Care for some company?”
Even Clavell, for all his gentlemanly niceness, had his limits tested when it came to the brash and brazen Professor Sada.
“As if you’d listen to me.” he huffed, with faux grumpiness.
“True.” A third voice chimed in to gang up on Sada, to Clavell’s pleasure, even though he knew it’d be temporary.
Professor Turo, despite his quiet and less expressive demeanor, was a man who’d just as quickly strike jabs and jeers back in pettiness. At least he was too distracted by the three, probably scorching, cups of instant noodles in his hands to say anything. Yet.
“Turo! How could you!” Sada mock cried, dramatically wiping a shed tear.
Quietly, and with a smile on his face, Clavell passed her one of the cups, feeling his frosty fingers warm up as did his heart. Wedged between his friends who were complete opposites, he didn’t mind the badly cooked noodles, and the sadness from before was replaced by fondness for the two bright people beside him.
“Did you even put in the seasoning?!” Sada screeched.
“Um.” A cough. “Yes?”
“You put all of them into yours by accident, didn’t you?”
Dumbasses, both of them. Clavell mused internally, letting Sada tear at Turo’s terrible cooking for him.
As he ate quietly between them however, something began to feel wrong. Did he eat too quickly? Was the spice getting to his throat?
“Clave11, is that y0u?”
Suddenly Sada and Turo’s banter had turned cold, their voices beside him twisted and electronic. Worst of all, it felt laced with genuine hatred and scorn. Directed at him.
He was choking on his food, that was the only explanation for why he couldn’t breathe. In his seat, he was frozen, unable to look up at either of them, the warm bodies by his side now cold and metallic. Staring at his feet, the ground shifted from the rocky terrain of Area Zero and into man-made obsidian tiles. Gone was the soft glow of blue, dangerous red drowning everything around him.
[OBSTRUCTION TO TIME MACHINE IDENTIFIED]
The sounds of Pokemon at night were replaced by the blaring warning sirens, the whir of a machine drawing power, the rumble of vertical constructs rising from the earth.
[PARADISE PROTECTION PROTOCOL INITIALISED]
"H0w c0u1d y0u, 0ld friend?"
The cup of noodles he had been holding had been hot, but they'd become scorching in an instant, the pain allowing him to break free from his paralysis to look up…
… at the angry, inhuman, glare of his two friends.
[PARADISE PROTECTION PROTOCOL HAS INITIALISED BATTLE]
[P-R-DISE PR0TECTI0N PR0T0C0L HAS INITIALISED BATTLE]
[PROFESSOR TURO AND PROFESSOR SADA HAVE INITIALISED BATTLE]
As their voices echoed from all around, Clavell was too frozen by his terror to dodge the blur of red and blue speeding towards him. Even as his very being screamed to run, to hide, the monsters drew close enough for him to see their long claws, open maws and sharp teeth.
"Tra1t0r!"
He screamed.
“Clavell!”
He was trembling, clothes sticking uncomfortably onto damp skin, lungs desperately attempting to draw air. A strong and warm hand was on his shoulder, gently shaking him awake.
One moment he was in horrible pain and mind-numbing terror, the next he was lying on his back on his couch, blinking up at the familiar white lights of his office.
“You’re alright, Director, just breathe.” Blearily, he recognised the owner of the comforting voice, glancing up at Tyme's concerned expression.
How did he…?
"You were taking a break from the paperwork. We were going over the Academy budget for expanding student services." She helpfully explained, shifting slightly to allow Clavell's Houndoom to move forward and lick his hand, whining in concern.
His heart was still racing, calming slowly through Tyme's comforting words and instructions to ground himself in the present. Houndoom’s soft fur under his hand helped, too.
Eventually, he collected himself enough to speak.
“...Tyme?”
“6:00PM.” She joked, at her own expense. Fortunately, it drew a bewildered, if shaky, laugh from Clavell. “We had a lot of papers to review, remember?”
Right. They were going to approach Chairwoman Geeta with several new proposals for further funding. In particular, to expand the Academy’s student counseling services as well as mental health first aid classes. Especially after… the events of Area Zero.
The glitter of crystals, the whir of the time machine, Not-Turo and Not-Sada’s expressions twisted with hatred-
Unwillingly, he shuddered, tensing up at the memory of his nightmare/memory. Clavell’s Houndoom, sensing his owner’s distress, decided to lick at his cheek, prompting Clavell to readjust his non-existent glasses. A bad habit, really, for anytime he needed something to distract his hands.
“Here.” Tyme presses his glasses into his palm, nodding wordlessly as he whispers thanks. She stands, informing him she’d be back with a glass of water, leaving him some privacy to recollect himself.
Sitting up with his full vision, he absorbed the comfort and familiarity of his office, pointedly ignoring the lab equipment he had kept in memory of… them. He had hoped, once, that they’d return, with all of their fiery personality and quips he’d grown used to after spending years in the labs together.
But you never really knew them, did you? His vicious thoughts betray him, and exhaustion seemed to weigh him down even more heavily.
“Drink.” Tyme instructs when she returns, taking a seat on the couch as she hands him the cool glass. If it were eerily similar to his dream, Clavell didn’t comment.
“T-Thank you, Miss Tyme.” Remembering himself, he flustered. “I-I’m sorry you had to witness that-”
“Hush, you.” She sighs, shaking her head in what Clavell assumes to be exasperation. “Everyone has bad days, you’re only human. Do you… want to talk about it?”
Clavell winces, biting his lower lip. He was an adult, for Arceus’ sake, the director no less. It was highly inappropriate for his co-worker to be the bearer of his troubles… even if it was Tyme.
No, the real reason he kept tight-lipped was because of how much it hurt to speak openly of what he’d experienced, of the friends he’d lost.
“Take your time, Clavell.” Tyme cooed, patting his back gently. In lieu of a verbal response Clavell leaned into her side, appreciating the firm one-armed hug. “If ever you need a listening ear, I’m here.”
In the end, that was all the difference, between Tyme and the professors, wasn’t it?
Clavell’s grief and anger curled tightly around him, but just for that moment, he breathed easy in the comfort of a friend by his side.
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