In the Mountain Fog

Warning: Slight language and yaoi. HardenShipping. Not the best thing I've ever written... I feel like it's rushed >//< BUT I STILL WROTE SOMETHING SO THERE.

Maxie and Archie aren't mine.

~~~

Maxie sat atop the peak of Mount Pyre, letting his legs hang over the edge of the cliff as he stared out into the horizon. It was early in the morning, early enough that Maxie could sneak away from his base without notice and fly here on his own. He breathed in the cool mountain air, then sighed softly. This was where he went when things got too hectic. Somehow, nestled behind the stone pillars that held those all too familiar orbs, surrounded by the deep fog, Maxie felt calm. Safe.

He closed his eyes. It was nice to get away from the outside world. Up here, there was no work. There were no incompetent grunts to deal with. There were no annoying plans to concoct. No, up here, it was just him, the orbs, and the fog. And that was all he needed at the current moment, he thought with the smallest of smiles.

Maxie opened his eyes again. From where he sat, all he could see was ocean. Ocean, ocean, and more ocean. He frowned. Why was it that Hoenn was so incredibly overrun with water? He swore it took up over half the region. A large part of him still wanted to see it recede, to see the land he loved grow and expand. But his reason told him it wasn’t possible, at least not as he’d once planned, and therefore he had to find content in sitting and sending every large aquatic body he happened to cross a hateful glare. Not that all water was bad, no, but he still would have liked not to be seeing it constantly. So much water disgusted him, reminded him of his failures, made him think on certain rivals of his that he did not wish to think on. Tch. He took a small pebble beside him and tossed it gently off the side of the mountain, listening to it clink as it made its descent.

He shivered slightly. The only thing he disliked about this place was the temperature. He became cold so easily, but these brisk mornings were the only times he could visit this place alone. Maxie wrapped his arms around himself and slumped down a bit, still shivering a tad. His eyes drooped slightly, and he sighed, wishing he could take the fog and use it as a blanket. Half his mind told him to take a nap, but the other half, the annoying logical half, reminded him he only had an hour until the grunts began to wake up and he’d need to be back by then so as not to arouse suspicion. He shifted a bit, attempting to shake his drowsiness, but to no avail. Wasn’t the cold supposed to keep you awake? He ran his hand through his hair and blinked a few times. Maybe he was just sleep-deprived.

Moving more slowly than he would have liked, Maxie checked his watch. Would a fifteen minute nap really hurt? No, he told himself, a fifteen minute nap would not hurt; what would hurt was the fact that there was no way he’d wake up in fifteen minutes. Was it worth that chance? Maybe he could make something up to tell the grunts. A morning walk? Maybe that would work. He sighed and closed his eyes. He was too tired. He’d deal with things later.

Soft footsteps in the morning grass behind him caused his eyes to snap open.

Maxie all but jumped to his feet, so startled he almost fell. “Is someone there?” he called out, partially nervous and partially annoyed that he couldn’t take a nap at all now.

There was a brief silence, then a familiar voice through the fog. “Maxie? Is that you?”

Maxie felt a small moment of relief, but it was quickly overtaken by a wave of aggravation. “What are you doing here?” he spat, not bothering to step forward. After a few more footsteps, a figure began to form and eventually became clear as Maxie’s unwanted visitor walked through the fog.

Archie, jackass self-proclaimed pirate, leader of Team Aqua, and bane of Maxie’s existence, raised an eyebrow. “I could ask you the same thing,” he replied, placing a hand on his hip. “I didn’t think you were a morning person, Max.”

Face going red with anger at his childhood nickname, Maxie shot, “Well I am,” conveniently forgetting that it had only been a minute since he’d been sitting there, half asleep.

The annoying thing about Archie was how he brushed off animosity like it was nothing. “Oh, well, I’m not, actually,” he said casually. “I just couldn’t sleep at all last night, so I figured I might fly around for a little while to take my mind off things.” He smiled at the Magma leader, who in turn sent him a glare. “So now that I’ve given you my reason, why are you up here by yourself?” he asked, still unfazed.

“Because sometimes it’s nice to get away from terribly annoying people like you,” Maxie retorted, crossing his arms. He saw Archie roll his eyes, which only increased his desire to punch the pirate in the face.

“You’re always so harsh, Maxie,” Archie sighed, adjusting his bandana slightly. “It’s no wonder that you don’t have any friends.”

Maxie almost exploded. “I do so have friends, you arrogant sea-bastard!” he snarled, arms dropping to his side in rage.

Archie merely waved his hand dismissively. “Language, language, Maximilian. My, I’ve forgotten how easy it is to get you angry,” he sighed. “Such a disrespectful rebuttal to my simple factual statement!”

“Your statement was in no way factual, Archibald,” Maxie sneered back, dragging out Archie’s full name a bit because he knew how Archie hated it. “I have plenty of friends. More than you do, I’m sure.”

“Your employees don’t count,” Archie shot.

“I have more friends than them!”

“Who?”

Maxie hesitated a moment, trying to think back on the people he’d had any kind of amiable interaction with in the past month. The list was exceedingly small, and once Team Magma members were removed, it was exceedingly smaller. Archie sent him a victorious smirk.

“You shut up,” Maxie mumbled grudgingly.

“What did I say?” asked Archie with mock-innocence, smirk widening.

“I’m going to punch that grin off your face.”

“Do we remember the last time you tried that?”

Maxie looked down to hide his embarrassment. Yes, he remembered. His hand had been sore for almost a week.

Archie chuckled, causing Maxie’s face to flush even more than it had already. The Magma leader felt a sharp pain in his chest. He told himself it was because he was annoyed. “Look,” he said, trying and failing to dispel the color from his face, “do you have anything important to say to me, or what?”

The Aqua leader raised both his eyebrows and stuck out his lower lip a little bit, giving Maxie that annoyingly cute face that he made when he was disappointed. “We can’t just have an idle chat?” he asked. “Like, I don’t know, normal people do?”

“No, we can’t,” Maxie nearly growled.

“But Max--!”

“I said we can’t, Archie!” Maxie’s face was bright red now, and he was trying to ignore the uncomfortable feeling still sitting in his chest. “I do not want to chat with you,” he began, “and even if, by some unexplained phenomenon, I did want to chat with you, I can think of absolutely no subject we’d agree on long enough to constitute an idle chat. Did I make that clear enough for your limited mind capacity to understand?”

Archie’s face fell, and he glanced to the ground. “Well, geez, tell me how you really feel,” he mumbled. Maxie glared at the pirate, but felt something…a twinge of regret? Guilt? No, it couldn’t be. It wasn’t like Archie was genuinely upset anyway; he was never genuinely upset, right? That’s why he was so annoying!

After a brief awkward silence, Maxie tore his eyes away from the Aqua leader in front of him and turned to the side. “Well, seeing as there’s nothing more to say here, I must be off,” he said simply, reaching for his Crobat’s Pokéball. To be honest, he was incredibly anxious to leave; something about Archie’s presence was making him terribly uncomfortable, different than usual, and Maxie wanted nothing more than to go home and clear his head. As he removed the Pokéball from his waist, though, Archie suddenly straightened in an almost panicked fashion.

“W-wait, don’t leave yet!” he almost shouted, his voice taking a tone of desperation that Maxie had never heard before. Maxie turned back slightly to look at him. Hesitantly, Archie walked a few steps towards him, hands clasped together as if the Aqua leader was unsure of himself. “I…” he began, eyes glancing every which way except directly at Maxie. “I…I kinda need to talk to you about something, Maxie…” he mumbled at last.

Somewhat shocked by the soft, almost sad, and completely opposite from everything Archie was tone in the pirate’s voice, Maxie was left speechless, doing nothing but blinking in disbelief. There was yet another awkward silence, and Maxie was unsure of what to do, what to say. Archie continued avoiding eye contact, but he didn’t speak either. A chilling wind blew by, and Maxie, suddenly remembering his sensitivity to the cold, shivered almost violently.

Archie’s eyes widened, and he came even closer to Maxie. “A-Are you cold?” he asked, and Maxie, not even sure what to believe anymore, sensed genuine worry in Archie’s voice.

“I-I’m…” he started, but was cut off when Archie suddenly wrapped his arms around the Magma leader and pulled him into a tight embrace. Maxie was so shocked that he couldn’t speak for a second, but when he was finally able to, even he couldn’t understand what he was saying, it was so broken and stutter-filled and absolutely panicked. “Wh-what are you d-doing?! L-L-Let go of m-me this i-i-instant! A-Archie, wh-wh-what the hell is g-going on h-here?!” Softly, Archie pulled his face back a bit and looked at Maxie for a minute, eyes somewhat sad. Their faces were close, extremely close, far too close. Maxie felt his entire face go bright red, and the pain in his chest was becoming steadily unbearable.

“…can we sit down?” asked Archie softly, finally glancing away from Maxie.

The Magma leader had to take a second to recompose himself, and even then he didn’t recompose himself by much. “…Th-there’s not much I really can do at the moment, Archie,” he said at last.

“Oh…right…” With this, Archie slowly lowered the both of them to the ground, then almost reluctantly removed his arms from around Maxie. However, he let his one hand rest softly on Maxie’s hand, trying to play it off as casually as possible. Maxie noticed, but was too busy trying to regain some sense of stability within himself to complain. Plus, it almost felt natural there. Not that he’d ever say that out loud.

And so they sat there, neither really looking at the other. After about another minute of awkward, absolutely antagonizing silence, Maxie cleared his throat. “You…said you wanted to talk to me about something?” he asked softly, turning his head ever so slightly to look at his rival.

Archie glanced up at the foggy sky, a distant look in his eyes. “…I don’t quite know how to say it, Maxie,” he said at last. “I…I just don’t know…” He glanced back down, and his eyes narrowed. “I had this all planned out, and now I don’t know!”

Maxie watched him, growing even more concerned. “Archie…” Archie glanced up at him, and the pain in Maxie’s chest grew again. He flinched, but only for a second. “Archie, I don’t know what’s making you so upset, but…” He paused, trying to grasp the words he needed. “…you can tell me, alright?” he decided on at last. “I know I’m…always a jerk to you and such, and you probably think I don’t care, but you’re not acting at all like yourself, and it’s worrying me.” He sighed and looked to the sky. “I…It’s hurting me to see you like this. Tell me what’s wrong?” Secretly, he shocked himself with what he was saying, but he realized it was all true and therefore let it be.

“…I’m just…not sure how you’ll react, Maxie,” said Archie with a sigh, looking away once again. “…You’ll probably get angry at me.”

“I’m always angry at you,” said Maxie, smiling a little bit. “Haven’t you learned that by now?”

“Heh.” Archie smiled half-heartedly, but he still looked sad, and somehow, the sight of his sad smile made Maxie’s chest ache even more. “You…You have to promise not to explode at me, or anything like that, alright, Max?” said the Aqua leader quietly. Maxie could have sworn he felt Archie’s hand shaking.

He nodded. “I wouldn’t dream of it, Arch.” What was he saying? What was he doing? He was supposed to hate this man with every fiber of his being, and yet…The constant blushing, the pains in his chest, the ever-present thoughts of his rival, the sense of comfort from Archie’s hand on his…What was happening to him? To both of them?

Archie looked at him for a moment longer, a moment too long, before turning back to the fog-covered sky. “We’ve known each other for forever, Maxie…When we were little, I thought we’d be best friends our entire lives,” he said, voice still uncharacteristically quiet and serious, but a bit more confident, at least. Maxie looked down, not wanting to admit he’d thought the same. “Then came middle school,” Archie continued, “and junior high, and I just pushed you away. I destroyed our friendship, and look what’s happened to us.” He chuckled half-heartedly.

“I-I pushed you away, too!” interjected Maxie, suddenly feeling absolutely terrible, remembering those horrid middle school days. They’d been absolutely horrible to each other. “It wasn’t just you, Archie, it really wasn’t! I was terrible!” But Archie raised his hand to silence him, and Maxie slunk back, bright red and defeated.

“It was mostly me. I started it.” The Aqua leader sighed. “It’s my fault, and don’t try to argue it. It’s my fault and I know why.” Archie hesitated then, as if he couldn’t find the words he needed. “…I didn’t just push you away because you hated oceans and wanted to dry the whole world up, Maxie.”

Maxie felt like it wasn’t a proper time to correct the Aqua leader on his philosophy, so he just sat quietly and waited for the pirate to continue.

“I…I…I started…” At this, Archie let out an exasperated sigh and dropped his head, obviously angry at himself. Maxie stared at him for a moment, then, without even thinking, moved the hand Archie had been touching to hold his rival’s and gave Archie’s hand an encouraging squeeze. Archie seemed a bit shocked, but, to Maxie’s surprise, he squeezed back. “Thanks,” he mumbled softly. “I’m sorry…”

“No, don’t apologize, it’s fine,” said Maxie softly, ignoring the fact that the pain in his chest had spiked massively and that his face felt like it was on fire.

“But I need to!” Archie exclaimed, almost causing Maxie to jump in surprise. “I need to apologize because the reason I pushed you away was because I started to have feelings for you, Maxie, and I didn’t know what to do!” At this, Archie stopped abruptly, realizing what exactly he just blurted out at the top of his lungs.

Maxie simply stared at him, eyes wide. He opened his mouth like he was going to say something, but lost the words halfway through. The pain in his chest suddenly spread to his throat, and he couldn’t speak even if he’d known what to say. He felt Archie slowly and reluctantly remove his hand from the Magma leader’s grasp.

“I…I’m sorry, Maxie,” said Archie at last. “I just…I’ve been horrible to you, and I needed to tell you why…why I’m such a moron…and…” He looked down again, blushing slightly. “And that I still…I still have feelings for you,” he mumbled. “And I understand if you hate me, because I’d hate me, too…You just…needed to know, alright?” With that, he stood up, leaving Maxie sitting there like the dumb idiot he was being behind him. “We’re going to forget this morning ever happened, okay?” said Archie, voice returning to his familiar, commanding, slightly obnoxious tone.

Maxie shot up. “N-no, we’re not!” he all but shouted, suddenly rediscovering his voice. “W-we can’t, because I…I…” And then he lost his voice again, unable to form the words. Was this what it was? Everything pointed to it, but could he really…? Did he really…? For Archie…? He took a deep breath. Couldn’t he…just say it?

“…I…I l-love you…”

His voice had dwindled down to a whisper, but it was enough. Suddenly, Maxie felt Archie’s arms wrap around him once more, but this time less nervously, less anxiously. They pulled him close, and before Maxie had time to even comprehend what was happening, Archie leaned in and kissed him, slowly at first, then more passionately. After the initial moment of shock, Maxie closed his eyes and leaned into the kiss, wrapping his arms around Archie’s neck. It lasted both forever and not long enough, that kiss. Archie was the one who broke away, leaving Maxie breathless and staring at his rival with widened eyes. The pirate grinned at him, causing Maxie to go another shade of red. He moved his arms down to around Archie’s waist and then leaned his head on Archie’s shoulder, moving closer to him. He felt Archie run his fingers through his long-ish red hair and smiled softly. Archie began to rock back and forth, just enough to make Maxie remember how tired he’d been before this whole mess had started. The Magma leader closed his eyes and sighed, content with his place in Archie’s arms.

They stayed like that for a long while, longer probably than it felt, because Maxie couldn’t really tell whether or not he’d fallen asleep for part of it. Eventually, Archie pulled away ever so slightly and planted a soft kiss on Maxie’s forehead. “Hey,” he murmured, “how about we play hooky today? Let’s go out for the day.” He smiled. “How about brunch in Slateport? My treat.” Maxie looked at him with still somewhat sleepy eyes, smiling back ever so softly. “What do you say?” asked the pirate. “Unless you have, you know, important Magma-crap work to do, or something.”

Maxie thought back to his hideout. Surely by now some of the grunts were up, wondering where he was. In fact, Tabitha was probably panicking because of his absence. It was too late to go back now…so why go back at all?

“Work can wait,” he said at last, leaning in to kiss Archie once more.

End