MATURE: - Ongoing 60 Minute Likodot Anthology

digitaldreams · Sep 21, 2025

Before I get into posting the actual fics, I want to give a brief explanation of what this thread is about. I do a lot of writing within the Pokémon Horizons community, and my oneshots are all part of an event run by my girlfriend called 60 Minute Likodot. The event is hosted once every two weeks or so, and participants follow a common prompt to make art or stories related to both the prompt and Likodot as a pairing. As the name implies, all entries for the event must be made in one hour or less, so they're all the product of anywhere from 20-60 minutes of work each. I have been participating in 60 Minute Likodot for a little under a year now, and I have written a lot of oneshots for it. So at my girlfriend's encouragement, I'm going to be posting them here on Bulbagarden! I have a backlog of twenty fics to get through, so you can expect quite a few until I'm all caught up. After that, posts will even out to come up once every two week to coincide with the release of new fics for new events.

Since this is essentially going to be a collection of oneshots, each one can be read independently. But since they are all oneshots, each fic is going to have different warnings that can apply to it. I have tagged this thread as mature since the heaviest fics in this series can be pretty heavy, but not every one is going to necessarily need the mature rating. Quite a few here are going to fit closer to teen or general ratings, but since some will be mature, I'd rather be safe than sorry and be overly cautious. I'll be marking out content warnings at the start of every oneshot along with their titles and other basic information about the fic like when it was posted, the prompt it was written for, and the word count. I will also ask for no constructive criticism on these pieces please. In the spirit of the challenge, they were all written in under an hour, and I'm not going to be going back to edit them regardless of any feedback because of that. Minor typo fixes are fine, but I do not want anything more than that.

My oneshots for this event generally fall into one of two categories: canon compliant and AU related. All of my AU fics are connected with another Horizons fic I have been writing for the last year or so known as "Free Fall." The AU is a split from canon as of episode 15 where instead of simply having her memories erased, Liko is kidnapped and brainwashed to become one of the Explorers under the name of Opal. Liko and Opal also have dissociative identity disorder (DID) in this AU because of this. If a oneshot belongs in the FF universe, it will be marked at the top alongside the content warnings. FF fics tend to be heavier than canon compliant ones as well. As of now, "Free Fall" is not up on Bulbagarden since I want to do a test run with my oneshots before I go into posting a much longer fic (FF is currently 241,000 words and still ongoing), so the following paragraph will contain a summary of what is necessary to understand the FF related stories. If FF goes up on Bulbagarden, I will provide a link to it on this post.

When Spinel brainwashed Liko to take her pendant, he kidnapped her too. He ran many "tests" to see if the pendant would activate, and this included him putting her in deliberate danger. Since Spinel continuously wiped her memory in between these near-death experiences, this led to the creation of Opal. Opal acts as Liko's alter in a DID system. Opal was in control for much of their time with the Explorers, but they have since been returned to the Rising Volt Tacklers. Now, Liko and Opal both suffer from violent nightmares of what they went through at Spinel's hands as they recover their memories.

I think that should cover the basics? The next post will contain my newest fic in the series for the prompt I wrote today. I'll try to upload new oneshots until I'm all caught up on my backlog. Also, you can click the button below to check out the 60 Minute Likodot website and learn more about the event! I hope you all enjoy!

digitaldreams · Sep 21, 2025

“warmth in wintry skies”

Prompt: Sweater - Post Date: 9/20/25 - Word Count: 3,019 - Rating: General - Content Warnings: None - Canon Compliant - AO3 Upload

Author's Note: This specific piece is not available on the 60 Minute Likodot website because it is a delayed post. I missed a handful of prompts and did not participate in their events the first time, and now, I am going back and filling them on my own for fun. They still follow the same rules as the challenge where I only have 60 minutes to write them. They're just coming out so late that they do not apply for the challenge the same way that on-time pieces do. The original event for this prompt was hosted on 10/12/24. With all that out of the way, I hope you enjoy!

~~~

Liko really shouldn’t have been surprised that a place called the Crown Tundra was cold.

The Brave Olivine was continuing its journey through the world, and now, the goal was to leave the region of Galar to set out for other lands. Liko had been beyond excited to have the chance to see what else the world had in store for her. When she learned that their path would take them above the Crown Tundra, she had been eager to see how the snowy expanses looked from overhead. She pressed her fingers against the windows of the observation deck and watched in wonder as the ground passed her by. Even from such a great distance, the Crown Tundra was absolutely beautiful, and Liko could only hope she was one day able to go down there and enjoy it for herself.

Unfortunately, there was a minor problem with her plan to look at the Crown Tundra and admire its beauty. Even in the observation deck, Liko wound up absolutely freezing. She was shivering as she watched the snow fall, and when her teeth began to chatter so furiously that she couldn’t even hear her own thoughts, Liko gave up on trying to watch the world. She needed to get somewhere warmer. Ideally, that somewhere wouldn’t have her surrounded by glass on all sides when said glass seemed to do nothing for her but absorb the frigid temperatures of the world around her.

So Liko retreated from the observation deck, rubbing at her arms and wishing she had been smart enough to stay in her room with Sprigatito, Hatenna, and Terapagos. She had offered to let them both come along, but in the end, they had turned her down. Sprigatito wanted to take a nap, and Hatenna was exhausted from the emotional happenings in Galar and needed a bit of extra rest too. And then there was Terapagos, and Liko decided that it was probably safer to leave the turtle behind given its inclination to get into trouble. The Crown Tundra was no place to end up in danger, and Liko wasn’t going to take any chances if she could avoid them.

Liko could have just watched the Crown Tundra from her room. There was a window in there, and she wouldn’t have wound up this freezing cold if she had settled only for that. But she had decided she needed something bigger and greater, and now, she regretted it. Liko tried to warm up her hands by expelling some hot breath into her palms, but it only halfway worked. If only she could apply that warmth to her entire body. At least she would be able to chase away the cold when she got to her room and could curl up under her blankets, right?

When Liko got back to her bedroom, she very quickly learned that it was not going to be that simple. She was so freezing cold that even when she slipped her way beneath her covers and tried to let the touch of soft fabric chase away the night’s chill, it did nothing to help her. She was still shaking from the cold, and her teeth were chattering just as loudly as they had been up on the observation deck. All of a sudden, Liko cursed herself for not making more of an effort to buy warmer outfits. She hadn’t ever needed it since the Rising Volt Tacklers hadn’t bothered to go anywhere that required them to wear winter clothing, and Liko had figured she would be able to handle it when it came up… But now, she was high up in the air with no way of getting anything warm unless she went down onto the ground where she was bound to be even colder. Maybe she should have thought through her lack of resources before she let herself get so endlessly excited about observing the Crown Tundra.

Liko was originally hoping that she would be able to warm up just by being patient. She pulled her sleeping Pokémon up against her, but none of them were large enough to really make a difference in her issues with temperature regulation. Liko whined quietly into the dark night of her room. She was going to need something else. Maybe there were a few blankets in one of the hall closets. Liko would feel bad snatching all of them up, but she would probably only need one or two to fix her problem. After that, she could take it back, and anyone else who needed it would be more than free to take the blanket and use it for the rest of the night.

When Liko’s impatience grew to be too much for her to bear, she slipped out of her room and began padding through the halls of the Brave Olivine. It didn’t take her long to find the hall closet she was sure Friede had told her contained blankets once… But when Liko opened it, she found that all of the blankets were gone. Of course they were. The rest of the Rising Volt Tacklers had already taken their own share of the blankets to make sure they didn’t freeze overnight, and since Liko had been up in the observation deck, she had missed out on her chance to grab one. She should have known. She really hadn’t thought through any of this once she started to lose herself to her own excitement.

Liko didn’t want to give up just yet though. Surely there was another spot where she could find a blanket that would save her from her freezing temperature that night. So she began a new journey through the airship, searching for yet another hall closet filled with other blankets that she might be able to take back to her room. Unfortunately, none of the closets contained what she was looking for. The closest she was able to find was a pile of towels, but that didn’t feel particularly helpful when compared to an actual blanket. Even the infirmary had no blankets to speak of. Had she really missed her chance to get a single blanket anywhere in the ship?

Liko sighed after her fifth attempt to find something warm ended in failure, and she charted a course back to her room. Maybe the towels would be fine. They had to be, right? If not, then… Then she could pile up her clothes all around her. She would just have to layer, and maybe it wouldn’t be the most comfortable thing to sleep in, but–

“Liko?”

Liko paused at the sound of her name, turning to find Dot standing in the doorway of her room. Dot was bundled up in a blanket that she had pulled around her shoulders, covering up her cardigan and the rest of her body almost completely. “What are you doing up so late?” Dot asked. “I’ve heard you shuffling around for the last half hour. Is something wrong?”

Liko opened her mouth to respond, but she was quickly silenced by yet another spell of chattering teeth. She pulled her arms in close to her chest and shook her head. “I was just trying to find a blanket, but I couldn’t find one anywhere, so… I was going to go back to my room and figure out something else to do.”

Dot stared at Liko for a moment before turning on her heel and tilting her head toward the door. “Come on in.” Her voice made it clear that there was no room for Liko to object, so she didn’t try. Instead, she silently trailed after Dot into her room, letting the door fall shut behind her.

Quaxly was already asleep on the edge of Dot’s bed, curled over himself on a small pile of clothes that Dot had yet to fold. She would no doubt need to wash them again to make sure she didn’t end up sneezing on stray pieces of duck down in the future, but that was a problem for a day when it wasn’t so bitterly cold. Dot sat down on her bed and pulled her blanket off her shoulders, positioning it across Liko’s instead. “How long have you been this cold?” Dot asked, something like worry creeping into her voice.

Liko hesitated before shrugging, though the motion was jerky and lacking in any sense of clarity because of her extended cold spell. “I don’t know… I was looking at the Crown Tundra earlier, but the observation deck is all glass, so I wound up getting really cold, and…” Liko laughed, but once again, the sound was stilted because of the chill of her skin. “I guess I could have planned for all of this a little bit better.”

Dot shook her head. “That’s one way of putting it.” She watched as Liko continued to shiver even after the massive, thick blanket was draped across her shoulders, and Dot’s lips tipped into a frown. “You’re still shivering… I’m worried you’re going to get sick if this keeps up.”

“I-I’m sure it’s going to be fine…” Liko tried to assure her even though she knew it was a weak excuse. Of course it was. How could she be certain that she wasn’t going to get sick when her body felt like it was trying to punish her for daring to look out over the Crown Tundra almost a full hour prior? “I just need to be patient for a little while longer, and–”

“No, I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Dot told her with a firm shake of her head. She pulled down the blanket, and Liko immediately felt the chill of the night rush in around her. Dot worked her way out of her cardigan, and Liko’s eyes went wide in shock. Dot never took off her sweater if she could avoid it. She ran cold nearly all the time, and she needed the extra bit of warmth wherever she was able to find it. “Put this on. You’re going to get yourself sick.”

Liko looked down at the sweater as Dot pressed it into her hands and shook her head. “I-I can’t do that… It would be wrong of me to take this from you when it’s cold for you too!”

“You’re going to give yourself a cold, Liko. Only one of us is shivering right now,” Dot reminded her, and Liko relented with a sigh. “I’ll be fine. Just do it, okay?”

Liko nodded slowly, hating that Dot had a point about this being seemingly the only way to keep her from coming down with some kind of illness. Liko maneuvered herself into the sweater, and she found that it was far warmer than she had ever expected. She couldn’t say for certain if it was the fabric of the sweater or if it was the lingering kiss of Dot’s body heat that made the cardigan such a perfect cure for her shivering, but Liko began to warm up almost immediately. Her teeth stopped chattering after a handful of moments passed in silence, and her shaking started to soothe as well. “Thank you, Dot,” Liko whispered when she finally had full control over her words again. “This was really sweet of you.”

“I’m glad I could help,” Dot told her, and Liko found herself squinting at her friend. When she looked closely, it almost looked like Dot was shaking too… But why would Dot give up her sweater when she knew that she was going to end up cold the instant she took it off? Surely she knew there was a risk behind it, and yet, she had done it anyway.

Liko didn’t understand, but she knew that she couldn’t let it pass her by if there was something she could do to fix it. Dot had been kind enough to help her, and now, it was Liko’s turn to try and help her. “You’re going to get sick now if you don’t put something on,” Liko said. “Do you have another jacket that you could put on? Or I could put it on if you want this one back. I don’t mind at all. You just have to tell me.”

Dot shook her head. “That’s the only one I have easy access to. The others are…” Her gaze dropped to where Quaxly was curled up at the edge of the bed. Sure enough, there was another pair of sweaters there, but Quaxly was perched firmly on top of them both. Given how dangerous it was for a duck to be left cold during extreme temperatures, Liko could understand why Dot hadn’t tried to dig them out yet. This was the best position Quaxly could be in until they were able to get away from the Crown Tundra, and right now, that meant Liko and Dot had only one oversized jacket to split between them.

“I see…” Liko nodded. She glanced around the room before her gaze fell on the blanket that Dot had given her to try and warm her up when she first arrived there. Liko gasped and then began trying to calculate how large the blanket was. It was decently sized, but it wouldn’t be the easiest thing in the world to share… Not that they really had much of a choice in the matter right now.

Liko picked up the edge of the blanket with one hand while holding tight to the other corner. She threw the first edge over Dot’s shoulders and then secured the other around her own. In order to remain under the length of the blanket, Liko and Dot had to press up against each other, their shoulders far closer than they would have been under any other circumstances. Liko didn’t know if she had ever been this close to anyone else before, and for reasons she couldn’t describe, it sent electricity racing beneath her skin. All of a sudden, the cold wasn’t a concern. She felt like the natural heat that came with embarrassment of proximity was more than enough to chase away any sicknesses she may have caught from the drop in temperature.

“Liko… I-I don’t know if we need to…” Dot tried to say, but her teeth had started to chatter in the very little time that had come and gone since she gave Liko her sweater. “I don't want to make you uncomfortable or anything…”

“And I don't want you to get sick!” Liko cried out. “And if you don’t do something to try and warm up, then all your worrying about me will be for nothing because you’ll come down with a cold! If this is our only choice, then… I guess this is what we’ll have to do.”

Dot nodded, but much like had been the case with Liko a few minutes before, the blanket wasn’t enough to fully chase away the cold of the night. Liko couldn’t see any other items of clothing that she could push onto Dot to help warm her up though… So she was going to have to get creative. Liko hooked her arms around Dot’s shoulders once again, starting to rub at Dot’s exposed arms with her hands. Dot froze immediately at the touch, and Liko looked away with a sudden burst of flustered pink across her cheeks. “I… I hope this is alright,” Liko said quietly. “I just didn’t know what else to do, and I don’t want you to get sick, so…”

Dot slowly but surely began to relax beneath Liko’s touch, and she nodded carefully. “It’s… It’s fine,” she whispered, suddenly oddly breathless. There were a million things she seemed to want to say, but Dot couldn’t find the words to express any of it. In the end, she gave up and simply let herself nestle into Liko’s grasp. The only thing Dot was concerned with was holding the blanket close around both of their shoulders.

Soon enough, Dot was positioned practically in Liko’s lap. Liko was rubbing up and down Dot’s arms to make sure she stayed warm enough to not get sick, and Dot was holding tightly at the blanket to ensure it didn’t slip off Liko’s shoulders. Eventually, the shiver of Dot’s skin and the chatter of her teeth began to slow. It ceased entirely about five minutes later, but Liko didn’t stop trying to keep Dot warm. It felt wrong to her now. She needed to be there soothing Dot in any way she could. It felt like the least she could do.

But at the same time, Liko found herself almost desperate to memorize the smoothness of Dot’s skin. Her fingers took in every tiny detail of the bumps on Dot’s skin from goosebumps to birthmarks, and Liko wondered if she would remember the texture each time she had to touch another person’s arm. She didn’t know if anyone would ever feel as sweet and perfect beneath her grasp as Dot did, and Liko wasn’t sure if she wanted the answer either. All that seemed to matter was that moment they were sharing, and Liko didn’t want it to end.

Around an hour later, Dot’s head began to droop, and her hair fell backward until it was pressed snugly against Liko’s shoulder. Liko nudged her gently, but Dot did not stir, her breathing evened out in sleep. Liko smiled and then began to ease Dot into a horizontal position. She never pulled the blanket away from either one of them, instead continuing to rub at Dot’s arms until she too drifted off into slumber.

When the morning arrived, they were out of the airspace above the Crown Tundra. They left behind the blanket they had shared throughout the night, but Liko found herself reluctant to let go of Dot’s cardigan. She hoped the smell of the other girl’s sweater would continue to follow her for the rest of the day… And she hoped that she was able to feel the softness of Dot’s skin even in her dreams.

Dot was much more beautiful than the Crown Tundra, and Liko knew it even if she couldn’t find the words to say it out loud.

digitaldreams · Sep 21, 2025

“of sun and snow”

Prompt: Comfort - Post Date: 11/9/24 - Word Count: 5,003 - Rating: Teen - Content Warnings: Talk of Near Death Experiences - Canon Compliant

Takes place after episode 65 of Horizons where Spinel traps Liko in the cave. All discussions of nearly dying are related to this specific event.

~~~

All she could think about was the cold.

Realistically, Liko knew she was safe. It had been a few days since she returned to the Brave Olivine, and she had been fine ever since then… But some things defied all rationality or reason, and she had come to find herself in a war of feeling and fear in the last few days. It didn’t matter how many times she told herself she was safe; she simply couldn’t believe it.

The Brave Olivine was much warmer than Glaseado Mountain. She didn’t have to bundle up in layers of jackets, scarves, and hats to keep herself warm enough to survive. Her regular blue cardigan and a pair of shorts was fine… But it didn’t feel sufficient now. She shuddered even in the warmth of her room in the Brave Olivine. Even with Floragato, Terapagos, and Hattrem resting all around her, she was still cold. She had piled as many blankets on top of herself as she could stand, but the chill ran far deeper than her body. It was in her bones and her blood, and something so determined to destroy her refused to be defeated so easily.

Liko hadn’t been able to stop thinking about the cave ever since she got back home. She had come out of it safe, but for a while, she had feared she would never see the light of day again. Liko had grown used to seeing her breath on Glaseado Mountain, but there was something much more sinister about seeing it puff up in front of her lips in that cave. If Amethio hadn’t noticed the wind leading out of the cave, they would have frozen to death there. That was what Spinel had wanted, wasn’t it? Spinel was the one who had led them into the trap, and he was undoubtedly the one who had trapped them there too. Liko couldn’t think of another explanation.

Liko had struggled to sleep many times after her encounters with Spinel. It felt like she always came too close to losing everything when she was around him. He had erased her memories, and it was only through luck that she managed to regain them before her lack of understanding ruined her. Spinel had come too close to hurting her and so many people she cared about, and seeing him was enough to leave her as a wandering insomniac for the next few days. Liko wanted to get up this time too and wander around the Brave Olivine, but she couldn’t do it. She couldn’t abandon the warmth of her bed. It wouldn’t follow her throughout the rest of the airship… Though she didn’t think the warmth was doing her much good anyway. If it was, then she would have found a way to sleep by now.

Liko had tried many times to remind herself that everything was fine. She knew realistically that she was as fine as she could have been given the circumstances… But she had come so close to not being fine. How could she breathe again with something like that weighing on her mind? She couldn’t do it. Everything was too much, but her blankets were too little. She couldn’t do this. She couldn’t keep on this way. Not anymore.

Liko stared at the space just in front of her lips and let out a thin breath. She didn’t see the air fog up around her mouth. She was warm. She knew that… But if that was really true, then why couldn’t she bring herself to believe it? Why did she feel like her guilt was killing her even though nothing had happened? Floragato would have stayed out of her Pokéball with Liko if she started to freeze. Floragato wasn’t good at handling the cold either, but she was determined to stay there anyway. She could have lost everything, and yet…

Liko didn’t realize tears had risen to her eyes until after they started to fall. No, her mind insisted. You can’t cry. Your tears will freeze. It will make you colder. She rubbed at her cheeks furiously with her palms, and for a moment, her hands felt like they were wearing gloves instead of plain skin. Were her fingers freezing? They had felt too cold even when she was wearing gloves to try and fend off the chill. Frostbite had occurred to her a few times, but she hadn’t let herself linger on the thought for too long. It had simply been too much when the threat was too real for her to ignore… But it could have so easily gone wrong. She could freeze now too, couldn’t she? If she wasn’t careful, then…

Liko let out a slow breath. She was fine. She knew she was… But if that was the case, then why couldn’t she believe it? Her body was in the Brave Olivine, but her mind was still in that cave. She feared it would never leave. Liko’s brain kept telling her to find Amethio, to huddle in front of the fire with him and Ceruledge. They would be safer and warmer if they stuck together. It didn’t matter that it would have been the first time he ever touched her kindly after trying to take her, the pendant, or Terapagos for months. Liko still needed it. She needed someone there with her to tell her she was alright.

But Amethio wasn’t there. Neither was Roy, and neither was Dot. Amethio was gone, and Roy and Dot… They hadn’t been in that cave. Coral and Onyx had been tasked with distracting them while Liko froze to death. Roy and Dot had both been terrified they would find her a corpse when they finally reached her, and Dot had almost broken down crying when Liko found them again. Liko saw Dot nearly rush in for a hug, but she held herself back at the last moment. Liko had tried to not think about it at the time, but she couldn’t escape the thought now. She wished Dot had done it. She would have done anything to be there with Dot now to ask her to hold her for just a few seconds and tell her everything was going to be alright.

Liko could have gotten up and gone to get Dot. She knew Dot stayed up far too late at night too, so chances were high that she was awake still… But if this was one of the rare nights where Dot managed to get to sleep early, then Liko would never forgive herself for waking her up. Besides, how much did she really need Dot to be there with her? She could be fine on her own. She didn’t want to bother anyone, especially not Dot, someone who she knew was dealing with more than enough as it was.

Liko knew Dot didn’t like to think about what had happened that day. How could she want to? Liko had come too close to dying, and Dot had always been incredibly protective of her. Dot had hated the idea of leaving Liko alone after she lost her memories and recovered them. Dot grew particularly defensive when it came to Spinel, and if Liko said she was struggling because of something Spinel had done… She didn’t know how Dot would have reacted, but she didn’t want to test her theories either.

She would be fine. She had to be. She was warm, and even if she didn’t believe it now, she would soon. She just had to figure something out. She could do that.

Even if it felt impossible now in a way it never had before.

Liko shuddered as she pulled her blankets as close over her face as she could stand.

~~

All she could think about was the heat.

Dot knew how she came off to most people. She seemed cold, distant, and uncaring. In truth, that couldn’t have been farther from how she actually felt. Dot didn’t know how to express her emotions in a way that was productive or meaningful, but her emotions burned bright and hot. They refused to be quenched, and not even all the water in the sea could calm her when she let something begin to spiral out of control in her heart. She didn’t think she wanted it to soothe her fears either. She just wanted to let the fire burn, and sometimes, she wanted it to consume her.

Dot had never been so desperate to let her emotions get the better of her before she met Liko. Back then, she had been fine to ignore her feelings as much as she could get away with it. She was better off if she focused on her work and all that came with it. She didn’t know how to express herself, so she gave up on trying. She didn’t know how she was meant to open up to the rest of the Rising Volt Tacklers anyway. She had been the only child on the ship for a long time, and while Dot hadn’t ever been great at interacting with others her age, she was even worse at talking to adults sometimes.

Everything had changed when Liko and then Roy arrived on the ship. All of a sudden, Dot wanted to connect with people. She had found them frustrating for a while, but everything began to change and fade the more she watched them. She found herself wanting friends more than ever before. All of a sudden, occasional correspondence with Iono felt overwhelmingly and scathingly insufficient. Dot wanted someone she could see and talk to face to face even if she was horrible at it. She wanted to know she was there with somebody else even if she was terrified of the vulnerability that came with touch.

One of Dot’s greatest regrets had been not talking to Liko about how she felt when the other girl lost her memories at Spinel’s hands. She remembered being completely consumed by her fear when Liko went missing, and it had taken every ounce of restraint in Dot’s body to not use her new Pokémon partner to rush after the Explorers and ruin them for all they had done. Seeing Liko face to face for the first time had been one of the greatest and most important moments of Dot’s life. She would never forget it, and she would spend the rest of her days knowing that she couldn’t hold out on her emotions forever. If she wanted to truly express herself, then she needed to come out and do it instead of letting her hesitation and fear get the best of her. She could do this. She just needed to give herself the chance to do it.

Dot had been slowly getting better about expressing herself since she came to be friends with Liko and Roy. Roy in particular was happy to wear his heart on his sleeve, and that made Dot feel like she would be able to do it one day for herself. Liko was much slower to talk about her feelings, but Dot could sympathize with that too. She would be able to open up one day too. If Liko had been able to do it, then she would find a way to do it as well. She knew she could.

Being around Liko and Roy had taught Dot a lot more about herself than she could ever hope to put into words. She didn’t ever want to go back to the way she had been before either. She wanted to get to the bottom of everything she had ever felt, and she wanted to find a way to express it to everyone she cared about too. She was determined to make it to that point one day. She had changed a lot, but she liked it that way. Dot wouldn’t have gone back to the way she had been for anything. This was how she was meant to be, and she couldn’t believe it had taken her this long to realize it.

Through her care for Liko and Roy, Dot had become intimately acquainted with every emotion she had ever tried to ignore throughout her youth. She was at peace when she was with them, and she felt like she could truly be herself for the first time ever. Dot felt understood, and she was happy in a way she had never let herself be before. It was beautiful and shining, and for the first time ever, Dot felt like she had stepped out into the sun.

But the sun did not only glow; it burned, and Dot could feel its heat beneath her skin now too. She had been prone to bouts of frustration at times in the past, but she didn’t think she had ever felt a rage so complete it tried to swallow her until she met Liko and Roy. After Spinel erased Liko’s memories, Dot had been angry in a way she hadn’t thought she was capable of. The heat had flared deep in her blood, and it boiled over until it manifested as screams of hatred directed at Spinel. The heat of rage had been foreign to Dot until that moment, but now, she doubted she would ever be able to forget it.

The hotness was uncomfortable, and it seethed with each breath Dot took. Her rage had only grown worse since Liko had another close call with Spinel. Liko had been separated from her and Roy on purpose, and Spinel had been planning to either hurt or kill her while she was alone. It didn’t matter that Amethio had been there to intervene and make sure Liko was alright; the effect had been the same as the day Spinel erased Liko’s memories to Dot. She hated Spinel more than ever before, and she didn’t think she would ever be able to forget it again.

Dot didn’t want to leave Liko alone after they got back to the Brave Olivine. When they were still on Glaseado Mountain, Dot had been sleeping in the same room as Roy and Liko each night. When they got back to the airship though… Dot had been forced to go back to her room as Liko and Roy returned to theirs for the first time since before the Terastal course began. For the first time in ages, they were separated, and Dot hated it more than she could ever hope to describe.

All Dot wanted was to be there with Liko. She wanted to be with her friend, and she wanted to make sure she was safe. Realistically, Dot knew Spinel wouldn’t be able to sneak onto the airship as long as the shield was up. Spinel didn’t even know where they were, and he wouldn’t be able to track them down for at least a few days after he set his sights on finding them… But that didn’t matter. Spinel was still out there, and that meant he was dangerous. How could Dot sleep at night when Liko could have been getting hurt in the time they were apart? If they were together, Dot could look after her. After all, Liko had only ever been put in significant danger by Spinel when she was on her own.

But Dot couldn’t just go to Liko’s room and demand to spend time with her, could she? Dot knew she was new to friendship, but she was aware enough of boundaries to be able to say that she would be crossing a line by asking so much of her friend. She couldn’t do that just yet. She didn’t know if she would ever be in a place to do that… But Dot also knew she couldn’t just sit there in the darkness of her room. Quaxwell normally ran warmer than her on account of all the miscellaneous problems with her body that led to her being cold… But right now, he was a refreshing chill against her skin. She knew the only way she would be able to cool herself off was if she was with Liko, but she couldn’t just do that… Right?

Dot let out a frustrated sigh after hours of tossing and turning. She couldn’t keep on like this. Something was going to have to change, and she was going to have to go and find Liko. She knew this was probably going to be horrifically inappropriate, but it was worth a shot, wasn’t it? Dot didn’t think she had any other ways of forcing herself to sleep that night, and she needed to rest. The search for the Six Heroes was ongoing, and Dot wouldn’t be able to help anyone if she was too caught up in her paranoia to sleep. There was a stake to Dot getting rest at night, and she needed to do what she could to fix the problem as soon as possible. If that meant going to see Liko, then so be it.

Dot shoved her paranoia as far down into her stomach as it would go and padded toward the door. She would be fine if she could just find a bit of cold to chill the rage beneath her skin. If she wouldn’t be able to go after Spinel and ruin him then and there, then the least she could do was find some ice to inject into her veins.

In the silence, Dot hoped that Liko–someone who almost always ran warmer than her–felt cold that night.

~~

Liko had lost track of how many blankets she had piled on top of herself by now. She had cuddled as closely to Floragato, Hattrem, and Terapagos as she could stand, but it didn’t feel like enough. Her three Pokémon friends were gathered off to her left closer to the wall, and she was pressed up against them, but it meant nothing. None of this was working, and she hated it more than anything. This was wrong. She knew it was wrong. She just wished there was something she could do to fix it.

A knock at the door jolted Liko out of her thoughts, and she found herself shooting awake. Someone was there. What if it was Spinel? What if he had found a way to the Brave Olivine and was there to take her back to that cave? He had failed the first time, but he wouldn’t falter a second time. No. She couldn’t go back. She couldn’t freeze again. Her heart was already frozen in her chest, and she didn’t know if she would have been able to stand it if her body followed suit.

“Liko? Are you awake?”

Dot’s voice was a sudden burst of warmth against Liko’s skin, and she let out a gasp. It wasn’t Spinel. It was Dot. She was safe. That was right. She was there in the airship, and she was fine. She wasn’t freezing to death. She was out of the cave. Her eyes finally seemed to believe what her logic had been trying to insist to her for the last few hours… But she would believe it even more if she was able to see Dot. She was going to finally feel at peace if she knew who was there on the other side of the door.

“Yes,” Liko somehow managed to choke out around the shaking of her voice. “You can come in.”

Dot shuffled in slowly, cracking the door as little as possible so as to not let in any spare illumination from the nighttime lamps of the ship. Liko smiled at the sight of her, and for the first time all night, she felt her shivering begin to subside. She was safe. Dot was there with her. She would be fine as long as she was not alone. If Dot was at her side, then she would be able to huddle for warmth. She would be alright. She had to be.

“Couldn’t sleep,” Dot explained softly as she sat down on the bed just beside Liko. “I guess you couldn’t either.”

Liko shook her head. “No.” She wanted to say everything that had been racing through her head for the last few hours. She was desperate to explain that she still felt like she was trapped back in that cave with no hope of escape, like she would never be able to feel the sun on her skin again. The skin wouldn’t have been able to thaw her frozen heart either. It was just too much, and she had no idea how to fix it.

Dot let out a slow sigh, and she stared down at her hands so she didn’t have to look Liko in the eyes. “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about Spinel,” she confessed quietly. “I’m still so… So angry about what he did to you. I can’t help thinking about… About what would have happened if Roy and I hadn’t found you when we did. What if Coral and Onyx had distracted us for long enough for you to end up getting hurt? I-I don’t know if we would have been able to…” She pressed her face into her hands and shook her head. “I want to punch him. I-I just want him gone, and I… I don’t know what to do.”

Liko felt her eyes go wide. Dot had been afraid of the same thing as her? She knew Dot had been rattled when they found each other again after everything was over, but she had hoped that perhaps Dot had been able to find some semblance of reason in it all… But apparently not. Liko wasn’t the only one who was haunted by what had happened in that cave, it seemed, and Liko wished she knew what to do about any of it. This was too much for her to bear, and she… She wanted to be there with Dot.

Liko’s chest burned with the first scrap of warmth she had felt all night. She didn't want to ask Dot to stay there with her. It wouldn’t have been right. Liko’s bed was a tight fit for her, Floragato, Hattrem, and Terapagos. Dot would be left on the very edge, and Liko wasn’t going to ask her to stay there with her… But the warmth of Dot’s skin, close but not yet hers, was too tempting for her to ignore it. She didn't want to be alone. She couldn’t stand to be alone. She needed someone there to talk to, and if Dot was right there…

“I-I’ve felt cold all night,” Liko found herself admitting even as she told herself to stay quiet and not say anything that would frighten her friend. “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about what happened in the cave. Everything is just so… So cold. I feel like I’m going to freeze even though I know I’m fine. We’re safe now. We’re okay. But…”

“You’re scared,” Dot finished, and Liko nodded the best she could from her place buried beneath her many blankets. Dot’s posture softened ever so slightly, and she slowly let her hand reach for where Liko’s face was peering out around the covers. Dot’s fingers were like furnaces against Liko’s shivering cheek, but she wanted the warmth more than anything else. She didn’t think she had ever yearned for something this much in her life, and that was saying more than she could ever hope to put into words.

“I’m scared too,” Dot admitted. “I don’t want to leave you alone ever again as long as it means Spinel might find a way to get to you. He… He has already hurt you so many times, and I just… I don’t think I would be able to stand the guilt of it if something else happened to you while I wasn’t there to take care of you. It’s just… It’s too much to think about. I should have been there for you when we were separated. I should have noticed you were gone sooner, and I… I should have been by your side. I wish I had been there. I wish I had thought to look around.”

“It’s not your fault,” Liko assured her. ‘I was the one who was distracted, and I should have been more careful about what I was doing and where I was. I don’t want you to blame yourself for anything when–”

“It’s not your fault either,” Dot cut in. “Spinel was the one who did it, and… If you won’t let me blame myself, then I won’t let you blame yourself either. It’s not right to do that when Spinel was the one who put you in that position.”

Liko nodded. She supposed Dot was right about that much. She let out another slow sigh, finding her cheek leaning over so it was pressed a bit closer to Dot’s fingertips. She didn’t think she would be able to sleep if Dot left to go back to her room. They needed to stay together. Liko needed her there. If they had the choice to stay there together, then they had to take it and run with it as much as they could. Liko couldn’t let her walk away.

“Do you want to stay in here for the night?” Liko found herself asking. Her mind screamed at her that she was being selfish, that she was asking for too much, but she didn’t take the words back. She didn’t want to no matter how much she knew she probably should have. “I know it’ll be a tight fit, but I… I don’t want you to leave.” Her voice had tapered off to a whisper by the time she was finished talking, but she couldn’t bring herself to care. Even if she sounded pathetic and like a small child, Liko needed Dot to stay. She couldn’t let her walk away if there was something she could do to ask her to stay.

Dot remained quiet and still for a long moment, staring down at Liko behind her bangs. Pink was starting to rise to her cheeks despite her best attempts to swallow it back down. Dot wanted to stay there too. Liko could see it in her eyes where they peered out through her hair even as Dot was doing her best to hide it. Dot had come there because she wanted to be told to stay. She wouldn’t have left her room if she wasn’t searching for something, and Liko had offered to give it to her despite her fears that she would fall short.

“I… I would love to,” Dot murmured. She pulled her hand away from Liko’s face to pull back the covers, and the chill of the night settled in around Liko once again. She shuddered as she moved closer to her Pokémon, going as close to them as she could without crowding them out of the space they rightfully deserved. It would be a tight squeeze, but Liko was willing to take the short end of the stick if it meant Dot would be able to stay there with her.

Dot settled in easily beside Liko, her body pressed up against her friend’s closely. Dot was warm, a stark contrast from what Liko was used to from her. Most of the time, Dot ran cold. She had a variety of chronic illnesses that left her body functioning at less than full capacity most of the time, and one of the symptoms was always running cold… But tonight, she was just warm enough to chase away the chill that had settled so deeply into Liko’s bones. It was everything she could have ever asked for. This was what she needed, and she loved it more than anything.

On Dot’s end, she felt the reverse was true. Most of the time, Liko was much warmer than her, and she had come to expect it whenever their fingers accidentally strayed close enough to touch (though Dot would argue that at least on her end, it was never as much of an accident as she wanted it to seem). Now, Liko was cold, just chilled enough to finally soothe the heat that had been tearing at Dot’s body from the start of this disaster. She was safe as long as she had someone there to cool her, and Liko was the perfect counter to the warmth that threatened to burn her from the inside out.

Liko felt warmth start to blossom across her cheeks as blush. She didn’t bother to stop it. Dot wouldn’t have been able to see it in the darkness anyway, but even if she could, Liko wouldn’t have cared. She needed this. If she was flushed in the cheeks from embarrassment or joy, then that meant she wasn’t red because of the cold. She would be safe as long as she knew this was her choice and not one that had been forced upon her to try and send her into an early grave. This was right. She knew it, and she loved it.

Liko’s eyes started to droop with Dot pressed against her, and for the first time all night, she knew she would be able to sleep. She would not be tormented by dreams of what it had been like to nearly freeze to death. She knew Dot would not fear facing her own inadequacy and shortcomings in sleep either. As long as they were together, they would be able to fend off any demon that came in their direction. Spinel would mean nothing to them if they were able to face him as a team. Liko was sure of it.

When Liko finally drifted off to sleep, she dreamed of warmth she could only find in the arms of her best friend.

When Dot finally fell into slumber, she dreamed of the chill of spending a breezy day with the person she treasured most.

Both of them slept better that night than they had in ages, and they loved it more than they could ever hope to imagine.

digitaldreams · Sep 24, 2025

“no sweeter safety”

Prompt: Nightmare - Post Date: 11/24/24 - Word Count: 6,021 - Rating: Mature - Content Warnings: Depictions of Abuse, Strong Violence, Panic Attacks - Free Fall AU

This piece includes heavier discussions of danger and violence than my previous works. The opening nightmare scene is the most graphic part. In it, Liko is threatened with a knife and briefly strangled by Spinel. Skip to the second part of the fic (after the italics end) in order to bypass this. The rest of the fic contains discussions of panic attacks and trauma in general.

~~

The world was dark.

For a long moment, Liko didn’t know if her eyes were even open at all due to how deep the shadows around her had become. She blinked once and then twice, hoping that would clear it up, but nothing seemed to convince the darkness to disperse. She felt like she was drowning in it, her lungs full of something foreign but painfully still all the same. She had been here before. She knew she had been. But if that was the case, then–

The glint of steel came from deep within the shadows, and in an instant, Liko understood. She was back with Spinel. She had to be. He had come after her for a second time, and he was determined to do all in his power to ensure she never escaped again. Liko knew she should have tried to run, knew she should have done all in her power to fight him off, but she couldn’t do it. Her body refused to move, and all she could do was stand there as the steel got closer and closer and closer and–

Liko felt something sharp press flush against her skin, and the world froze anew. The darkness parted just enough for her to catch a glimpse of that muted blue hair and the matching sinister smile that indicated Spinel had arrived. Her mind flashed with every image she had been slowly remembering over the course of the last few weeks, refusing to leave her be for even an instant. She remembered how peaceful he had seemed when she first found him in that back alley, how kind he had appeared for the short few seconds when they first met. Liko had wanted to believe he was good back then. She wanted to believe all people had something good deep inside of them, but now… She didn’t know if she would ever truly believe it again.

“Oh, come on now,” Spinel said softly, and Liko couldn’t tell if he was talking to her or to the pendant of Terapagos hanging around her neck. “There’s no reason to be afraid. You’re safe here… Or you will be soon.”

Liko knew the knife did not draw any of her blood. She had checked countless times for any signs of scarring, desperate to know for certain if she was safe or not, but she always found nothing. There was no blood, and there was no wound. And yet, none of that seemed to matter as she stood perfectly still and stared up into Spinel’s eyes. He was so much taller than her, towering over her and leaving her with few other choices but to quiver and tremble in his shadow. It was too much. Everything was too much.

Spinel continued to watch Liko for a long moment, and she stared up at him in return. Her body screamed at her to do something, to at least try and fight back, but she just couldn’t do it. Nothing was working the way she needed it to, and she had no idea how to fix it. She had to get out of there… But she didn’t care enough to fight back against him. She wouldn’t have been able to escape even if she tried. He was so much larger than her, and he had a Pokémon there with him. Liko knew Umbreon was hiding within the darkness even if she couldn’t see it at the moment, and she was just as painfully aware that Sprigatito was nowhere to be found. She was trapped in the darkness, and she was all alone. She would remain there for as long as Spinel deemed it to be necessary, and knowing him, that could have meant that she would be trapped for the rest of time.

Spinel held the knife in place for a few moments longer before he let out a heavy sigh. He pulled the dagger away, and Liko felt something like relief flood through her body… But she wasn’t safe just yet. Of course she wasn’t safe yet. She was still there with him, and that meant she was still in danger. There would be something else for her to fight her way through next. It was endless. One test always led to another, and Liko would spend the rest of her days holding the weight of what he had done to her. It didn’t matter how hard she tried to escape or how desperately she wanted all of this to stop. It simply never would, and she had to make her peace with that.

Spinel retreated into the darkness a moment later, and Liko caught a glimpse of him shaking his head. “How unfortunate,” he hummed. His tone was every bit as terrifying now as she remembered it, and she wondered how she was meant to run when he looked at her like she was an insect being pinned down for examination. He was right there, and he would not leave no matter how desperately she needed him to. It was too much. He was too much, and Liko knew she wouldn’t be able to go on like this for too much longer.

“Umbreon,” came Spinel’s voice a moment later, and Liko realized that she had lost her grip on reality again. That seemed to happen a lot more these days than it ever did before. It was all because of him. Spinel was the reason she was changing, and she wished she was able to keep up with it… But she never could. As long as he was there, she would only get worse, and there was nothing she would be able to do about it.

Liko heard Umbreon make some undefined noise from across the room, and she saw a streak of dark purple light soar toward her through the darkness. She stared into the light for a long moment, knowing it was the attack of a Pokémon but unable to truly bring herself to move enough to flee from it. She was going to die there, wasn’t she? Maybe that would be a mercy. If she was dead, then it would mean that she wasn’t forced to sit there and face everything Spinel was going to do to her. She couldn’t do this. She couldn’t keep on like this.

Liko’s body moved without her permission, and she jumped out of the way of the attack. She fell to the ground when her coordination failed her, and in an instant, her balance had been destroyed. Liko hit the floor hard, and she felt a bruise bloom across the outside of her left knee. Her shoulder hurt in much the same way, and her vision seemed to spin with the pain as it flooded her senses. The pounding started in those two bruises before slowly spreading outward, consuming every fiber of her being in a matter of moments. The pain ran far deeper than the two bruises on her leg and shoulder. It had been forced into her muscles, into her bones, into her flesh. She would never be able to escape it. She was trapped there in the agony forever.

The pain started off dull, and Liko knew her mind was trying to fend off its weight for her, but there was only so much it could do to fight away the crashing tides of agony. Soon, every part of her body was aching with a pain that could not be defined in any words she had ever known. Her body remembered that which she did not want to, and it would not let her escape without a fight. She had been hurt worse than this before, and she knew it bitterly well. There would be another incident to cause a pain like this again. She would never be able to outrun it. As long as Spinel was right there, she would be trapped.

And it wasn’t entirely exclusive to Spinel either. No matter how little Liko wanted to admit it, she knew this would haunt her for the rest of time. So long as some part of her remembered, the rest of her would not be able to forget. Unless she was able to claw those agonizing memories from her mind, she was as good as trapped. She would never leave the darkness of this room or the misery of what Spinel had chosen to visit upon her. He had claimed it was all necessary in the name of unleashing the power of the pendant, but Liko knew the truth. Spinel liked to see her struggle and suffer, and he would do anything to clip her wings and make sure she never learned to fly again.

Liko pushed herself to her feet slowly, ignoring the way every part of her threatened to collapse and cave in beneath her own weight. She wanted to give up, but she could still fight. She couldn’t let Spinel win. She wanted to keep living. There was still so much she hadn’t seen or experienced. She had to find her way back home. She had to–

Liko’s racing thoughts were silenced by the rough sensation of hands starting to loop around her neck. No. This wasn’t supposed to be happening. She was supposed to be safe… But she wasn’t safe here, was she? Where was everyone? Why weren’t they looking after her? Someone had to be there. Someone had to be able to save her… Right?

But there was no one waiting for her in the darkness of that forgotten room. There was only Spinel and his terrifying smile. It had shifted from soft to harsh, and Liko could see her own reflection in his eyes. Her feet had left the ground when he grabbed her, and all she could do now was stare at him. She was distantly aware of the fact that she was crying, but she couldn’t bring herself to stop it.

“I had hoped it would activate sooner,” Spinel said, his voice soft and rolling in every way Liko had learned to hate over the last few weeks. “But if this is what it takes, then I will do what I must.”

The pressure on Liko’s throat grew tighter, and she demanded her body to claw and fight and push with all it had. She could pry Spinel away… Right? Even if she was doomed to fail, she had to try. She needed to get out of there. She had to find a way to return home. She couldn’t die here. She couldn’t let Spinel kill her now. There was still so much for her to see and experience, and she couldn’t let him steal it from her. He had taken more than enough from her already.

The sensation of hands seemed to wander across every piece of Liko’s body, and the fight melted away in the blink of an eye. Even if she managed to fight him off this time, he would come back at her once again. He would find a way to ruin her in every little way he knew how, and unfortunately for Liko, Spinel’s favorite hobby was tearing her apart. Even if she managed to unhook his fingers from around her throat, he would hurt her in new ways. This was not the end. It would never be the end. As long as Spinel was alive, he would try to find her. As long as Spinel knew where to find her, he would be following her, and she would never be safe.

Something new rose in the corner of Liko’s vision. It was a miracle she saw anything at all around her racing tears and her silent sobs, but she would know that sight anywhere. Beheeyem came to levitate just beside Spinel, and Liko found herself clawing at his fingers a little bit harder. “No,” she choked out with the last bit of air she had left.

But there was nothing Liko could do to fight off the light forever. Beheeyem’s hands rotated with red then yellow then green, and the cycle repeated for as many dizzying times as it would take. Liko felt her body begin to drift away from her, and her mind drifted away even farther. It was happening again. No. She couldn’t let it happen again. She couldn’t do this.

“No!” Liko screamed, unsure of where she found the air to yell with in the first place. In the end, none of it mattered, and the white light consumed Liko’s vision once more.

~~

Liko shot up in bed with a cry still on her lips, and she let out countless shallow breaths into the silence that surrounded her. The whiteness of Beheeyem’s memory erasing attack had been replaced with darkness once more. Was she back there in the lab? Was she still being tested by Spinel? Was he still trying to activate the pendant? She fumbled for her necklace, desperate to find it and grasp it with every caution she had been forced to abandon when she faced Spinel…

But she found nothing. It wasn’t there. The pendant was gone. Spinel had taken it again, and if it wasn’t him, then it must have been someone else. Spinel must have erased her memories once again. She couldn’t remember anything. It was too far away for her to bring into focus, and she was too afraid to bother with forcing the memory into clarity anyway.

“Liko–”

Liko’s fingers found something hard, but it was not around her chest. Instead, it was the shining shell of Terapagos where the small turtle was curled up on the bed beside her. Liko looked down at Terapagos as soon as the texture greeted her palm, and she blinked rapidly into the darkness. All of a sudden, her vision began to clear, and she realized that she was not in the lab at all. She was in her bedroom aboard the Brave Olivine. Terapagos was sound asleep beside her, not at all disturbed by her nightmare or screaming. Terapagos had always been able to sleep through anything. Even so, Terapagos tried to comfort Liko even in sleep, nuzzling a bit closer against her hand after recognizing that it was her grip around her shell.

Even so, Liko couldn’t seem to convince her body to calm down. Her breathing was still rapid and dizzying in her chest, refusing to slow for anything. It didn’t matter what her eyes told her, she still felt like she was back in the lab. She could still feel Spinel’s fingers around her throat and everywhere else on her body too, both too gentle and too harsh all the same. He had nearly killed her so many times, but he never had. He wanted her to live with the pain of what he had done to her. He loved the power trip that came with forcing Liko through the darkness of misery, and he would have done it again and again for as long as he was able to. If he had access to her, then he would have still been doing it.

Liko was distantly aware of a small chirping noise trying to get her attention, but she couldn’t focus enough to make out what it was. She felt something soft ram against her chest, and Liko looked down to find Sprigatito headbutting her. Liko stared at Sprigatito’s shining eyes for a long moment, but it wasn’t enough to calm her fully. Liko’s breathing was still much too fast, and her throat hurt like Spinel’s fingers were looped around her neck and squeezing as much as they could without causing permanent damage. That had been part of the game for him, right? He was happy to hurt her as much as he could, but he needed to ensure he never left a true wound behind. That would only show her that something had happened, and Spinel would never give her a chance to uncover what he had done. The doubt was part of the thrill, and Spinel refused to give Liko even an inch in the struggle of miles of recovering her memories.

A sharp knock at the door cut Liko off, and she felt her entire body freeze. She had screamed loudly enough to wake someone up. She was bothering the rest of the Rising Volt Tacklers. Even after all of them vowed to help Liko however they could, it was never quite enough to make her believe it. She hated being a burden more than anything, and Liko knew how sad they all became when she talked about what had happened to her when she was still with the Explorers. She didn’t like having to discuss it because of the pain it brought to them, and if that meant she would suffer in silence forever, then so be it.

“Liko?!”

Dot.

Liko’s tears only redoubled their efforts at the sound of Dot’s voice. She knew how much Dot in particular worried about her, and it always made her feel miserable to remember how much she scared Dot. Ever since Liko returned from the Explorers, Dot had been doing all she could to help her find a way back into her old life. Liko loved having Dot around, but she didn’t know if she would be able to stand having to look into Dot’s eyes on a night like this. She would have to admit to what she had dreamed about, and that was simply too much. Everything was too much, and Liko wanted to curl up and sob about it until all of this bled away like the distant misery she felt it should have been.

Dot didn’t wait for Liko to answer after she heard her start to cry. Dot threw the door open, and Liko looked up at her with wide eyes. Hatenna stood just beside Dot, and Liko realized that was what the chirping sound had been when she first began to lose her grip on reality. Hatenna had been trying to calm her down, and when she realized she needed more help, she ran off to find Dot. New guilt washed over Liko’s chest at that, and she wanted to melt into the earth and wait until all of this was over. Maybe she would be hiding beneath the ground for the rest of her life. Somehow, that felt better than having to look Dot in the eyes.

Dot crossed the room as quickly as she could without sprinting. “Are you alright?” Dot asked softly, not sitting down on the bed but clearly wanting to be as close to Liko as possible. “Hatenna came to get me because she was worried about you, and…” Dot fell silent when a particularly loud sob shook Liko’s entire body, and Liko pressed her face as deeply into her hands as it would go. Dot’s entire body softened, losing every bit of tension and hatred it had held since she arrived. Dot finally sat down beside Liko and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her in close. “You’re safe now. It’s okay.”

Liko fell bonelessly against Dot’s chest. She knew she should have pushed back against her, tried to handle all of this on her own, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. She needed help whether she wanted to admit it or not, and as long as Dot was there to help her, Liko knew she had to indulge in it. Dot’s hands were familiar and friendly, a far cry from the brutality that Spinel had visited upon her so long ago. She was safe as long as Dot was there. She was not alone when Dot was by her side. They would be fine together. They had to be.

Liko let out a slow breath, falling into the same breathing pattern that Dot was displaying for her now. Liko’s head was pressed against Dot’s chest, and she could hear her friend’s heartbeat beneath her pajama shirt. The soft rise and fall of Dot’s chest was soothing, and Liko found herself mimicking it with everything she had. She was safe. Dot was safety, and Dot was there. She would be fine.

Liko didn’t know how long she sat there in Dot’s arms, crying and breathing through the agonies that seemed to creep up on her each time the darkness grew to be too much. All she knew was that her energy had melted away entirely by the time she ran out of tears to cry. Liko’s throat burned, and she couldn’t tell if it was because of her screaming, her sobbing, or the strangulation she had endured in her nightmare. All she knew was the pain, and it was too much for her to find a way to sort through on her own.

Dot started to comb her fingers through Liko’s hair, and the rest of the tension in Liko’s body melted away in an instant. There was something so soothing about the gesture. Mollie helped her this way when she had a flashback, but somehow, it was even nicer when Dot was the one doing it. Liko knew every tiny detail of Dot’s fingertips against her body, and she knew she would be fine as long as she had her friend there to root her to the present. Everything was fine. She was safe. She hated herself for needing this reassurance in the first place, but she was selfishly glad she had found it all the same. Liko didn’t know how long she would have continued to cry and hyperventilate into the darkness if not for Dot’s arrival.

Dot pulled Liko in a little bit tighter, and Liko found herself staring off into the middle distance beyond the embrace. Dot hadn’t even bothered to close the door when she came into Liko’s room, leaving the hallway’s light to spill in through the doorway. Liko knew that light, and she knew what it was illuminating too. This was the Brave Olivine. She was at home. She was not with the Explorers anymore, and they would not hurt her so long as she was there. The lab was just a memory.

It had all been just a nightmare.

“Are you feeling better now?” Dot asked softly, not wanting to scare Liko by speaking too loudly.

Liko found herself nodding without asking her body to make the motion. She did feel better, but she felt miserable even so. She hated that she needed Dot’s help to calm down from something as simple as a nightmare. She should have been able to handle this on her own, and yet, she had failed so spectacularly at something as easy as staying asleep. Liko should have been fine alone. Why had she fallen so short? What was wrong with her?

Dot hummed in relief at Liko’s small nod, and Liko pressed her head a little bit closer to Dot’s chest so she could hear her heartbeat in a bit more clarity. “Do… Do you want to talk about it?” Dot questioned next, fumbling for the words like she was afraid of what she was going to hear in response. “I’d be happy to listen if you wanted to share.”

Liko bit down on her bottom lip, only stopping when she feared she would accidentally spill blood. She knew she should have talked about it. If she didn’t explain what she was so afraid of, then she was dooming herself to fall right back into the nightmare as soon as Dot left the room. She didn’t know if she would be able to handle looking into Spinel’s eyes for a second time that night. The first time had been horrible enough, and she wasn’t strong enough for anything more. She was so weak these days, and it felt like hiding was all she was good for anymore. If she wasn’t hiding from Spinel, then she was hiding from the misery that he had left behind in her life as a parting gift. She couldn’t ever get away from him even in sleep.

Liko didn’t know if she wanted to talk about it though. Somehow, it felt like too much, especially with how much she knew it would scare Dot… But she wouldn’t be able to sit there in the silence for too much longer, would she? If she wanted to sleep, then she had to talk about it. But she didn’t want to scare Dot at the same time. Either way, it felt like Liko was betraying some part of herself. It was too much, and she didn’t know if she had ever been faced with a more miserable choice.

And yet, Liko found herself forcing air in and out of her lungs. She already knew she was going to speak before she knew the words were coming, but they weren’t entirely hers. Opal had been unable to calm her down even though Liko had heard her voice earlier in the night. Now that Liko was struggling to open up about what had happened, Opal was taking the initiative for her. “It was a nightmare about Spinel,” Opal murmured, and Liko found herself startled by the realization that her voice both sounded like and unlike hers. Opal’s cadence was much lower than hers, and no matter how many times Liko heard it, she never seemed to stop being caught by surprise by the shift in her tone. “I… We dreamed about what he did after we were taken in by him.”

Dot’s grip around Liko’s shoulders grew tighter, and Liko could feel rage starting to flare in her heart. “I’m sorry,” Dot managed to say, but Liko knew what she really wanted to say. Dot had been filled with hatred toward Spinel ever since she learned of what he had done to her friend, and that rage had not dulled with the passage of time. Dot would have done anything to tear him apart and ensure he never had the chance to hurt anyone ever again… But that was not an option at the moment. Spinel was far out of their range, and the only person Dot could find on that moonless night was Liko.

“You don’t have to apologize,” Liko forced herself to choke out. “You weren’t the one who did all of that, and… It’s not your fault. It was all because of him.” She knew she should have said Spinel’s name the same way Opal had a few seconds prior, but she couldn’t do it. Somehow, saying his name felt like she was inviting him to come and hurt her again. Opal was strong enough to say it, but Liko most certainly was not. There was a reason Opal had been the one to handle everything that happened instead of Liko. She would have crumbled beneath the weight of it all.

“But you shouldn’t have had to go through that at all,” Dot insisted. “You shouldn’t have been put in a position to suffer through something like that. I… I wish I could…” Kill him, Dot didn’t say. Somehow, it felt like an understatement. Dot wanted Spinel dead more than anything, but there was more to it than that. Kill was too soft for him. It was the worst fate she could have visited upon him, but it was still nothing compared to what he had done to Liko. Dot needed something more, and she would continue to search for as long as she had to until she was able to find the words that would truly drive him into the ruin he so dearly deserved.

“I’m scared,” Opal said next, and Liko felt her heart rate begin to spike. “I… I-I don’t want him to come back, and I… I can’t…”

Dot began to comb her fingers through Liko’s hair once again, and Liko pulled Dot in as tightly as she could. Maybe if she held Dot as close as she could, she would stop thinking about what Opal had said. Opal didn’t admit she was scared very often, and now that she had… Liko felt like the fear was going to come and kill her next. It felt inevitable, and Liko was simply forced to sit back and watch as her life bled between her trembling fingers.

“Can you stay?” Liko asked, only realizing it was her voice after she had spoken. “I-I don’t want to keep you up, but I… I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep again. Not after…” She swallowed dryly, trying to use the motion to convince herself that Spinel’s fingers were not creating new bruises across her neck. It only halfway worked. Nothing was enough to truly calm her down now, and she hated it more than anything.

“Of course,” Dot answered automatically. She didn’t even pull away from Liko as she started to shift their position atop Liko’s bed. She refused to let Liko and Opal go for a moment, so Dot maneuvered their blankets the best she could while still holding tightly to them. With Sprigatito and Hatenna’s help, Dot managed to find a place for them beneath the covers, and Liko pressed even closer against Dot’s chest. Her heartbeat was soothing, a gentle reminder that life still existed after all that had happened. Liko was alive, and so was Dot. They would continue to fight for each other for as long as they drew breath, and they would do all they could to ensure Spinel never touched either one of them again too.

Liko only felt her breathing truly even out once she was beneath the covers in full, and she felt Sprigatito curl up beside her. Liko stroked gently at the top of Sprigatito’s head, and the cat purred against her palm. Sprigatito always knew the best way to calm her down. Liko felt Hatenna bury herself into the hug she was sharing with Dot next, needing any touch she could get from her trainer to prove that she was alright. Liko smiled at the thought; she had a lot of people and Pokémon alike who cared for her, and they wouldn’t let her face this alone. She would be alright as long as they were there.

Something hot in her chest blossomed at the thought though, and Liko felt new tears prickling at the corners of her eyes. “I’m sorry for dragging you in here,” Liko murmured, the words slurring together in her exhaustion. “I know you were probably asleep, and–”

“Don't apologize,” Dot cut in. “I want to be here for you. You needed me, so here I am.” She pulled Liko in a bit tighter, and Liko closed her eyes against the soft harmony of Dot’s heart. “I won’t let something like that happen to you ever again. I promise.”

Liko couldn’t hold back the sob that pushed its way free of her lips. “Thank you,” she choked out. “I don’t know what I would do without you.”

“You don’t need to worry about it anymore either,” Dot reminded her. “I’m going to make sure everything is alright. I won’t let him lay a hand on you ever again.” Dot’s grip around Liko grew tighter, and Liko knew she was imagining every gruesome way she could ruin him with her own two hands. “I’ll kill him before he gets the chance.”

Liko nodded, biting down on her lip to try and restrain her next sob, but that didn’t stop it fully. It felt so wonderful to know she wasn’t alone anymore. Back when she was in the Explorers, it had felt like she was on her own even in a crowded room. Amethio had been there for her, yes, but he didn’t understand what she had been through, at least not in full. Liko had been left to face the weight of it all entirely on her own, not that she had the words to express it in the first place.

But she wasn’t alone, was she? Opal was there to help her however she could. Opal had protected her from the weight of what Spinel had done as it was happening. Liko had thought she would never survive this, but Opal had made sure that her greatest fears were not made real. Liko had been too panicked that night to truly hear Opal when she began to call out to help her, but she knew her other half was there even so.

Liko had others there for her too. Dot would stand by her no matter what happened from here on out. She would do everything in her power to reassure Liko through her darkest of days and scariest of nights. Liko was safe in a way she never had been when she was with the Explorers. There were people there who cared for her, and they would never let Spinel lay a hand on her ever again. So long as there was something they could do to protect her, they would do it, and Liko would be at peace.

At least, as much peace as she could have been at given all that had happened.

Liko didn’t know if she was ever going to be able to fully move past what she had suffered at Spinel’s hands. He had done so much damage, and he hadn’t cared in the slightest for what any of it did to her. Liko was nothing more than a toy to him, and she had become his favorite plaything in record time. She was still remembering flashbacks and echoes of everything he had done to her, and Liko was sure she would be for the rest of her life. Those days under Spinel’s thumb had changed her life, and she knew it had not been for the better.

But that did not mean she was doomed to a life of nothing but suffering. She had friends there to help her through thick and thin. Dot was there to make sure she was alright for example, and Liko knew she was not the only one. It was her own doubts that had kept her from leaving her room and seeking out help, but she knew she could ask for it if she truly needed it. She was not alone the way she had once feared, and she never would be again.

And it was all thanks to Dot that she had remembered that.

“Dot?” Liko found herself asking into the darkness as she lethargically pushed her eyes open.

“What is it, Liko?” Dot returned. Her breath was warm against Liko’s hair, a far cry from the cold brutality of Spinel’s touch. Dot was warmth, and she was love. She was everything Liko could have ever wanted and more, and Liko couldn’t have thanked her for it enough.

“I love you,” Liko murmured. Somehow though, love felt like an understatement. She didn’t know if there was a word in existence that would properly articulate the depth of her feelings toward Dot. She wanted to let her friend know that she was safest with her, that she knew she would always find a way to recover so long as Dot was there to help her stand up again. Liko was terrified of the past and everything that lived within it, but she would not let that fear control her forever. As long as Dot was by her side, Liko would rise again and continue to fight. She would not let Spinel control her forever. She would not let him win.

Liko could feel Dot smile against the crown of her head, and she felt a few warm tears fall onto her forehead too. “I love you too, Liko,” Dot whispered. She tilted her head down ever so slightly before pressing a kiss to the top of Liko’s head.

Liko smiled into the darkness, turning her head so she was no longer listening to Dot’s heartbeat. Instead, she met Dot’s lips in a gentle kiss. When the kiss ended, Liko pressed her cheek against Dot’s chest once more, and the harmony of her heartbeat lulled her off to sleep.

Liko suffered no more nightmares that night, but she did dream of the love Dot could provide her until the morning sun rose.

digitaldreams · Sep 27, 2025

“hope in your hands”

Prompt: Injury - Post Date: 12/08/24 - Word Count: 5,002 - Rating: Mature - Content Warnings: Depictions of Violence - Canon Compliant

Liko is injured while fighting the black Rayquaza during the first scene. Skip to the second scene to bypass it. The rest of the fic is injury recovery and hurt and comfort.

~~~

The Black Rayquaza was a difficult opponent.

Liko couldn’t say she was surprised to see that. She had known from the instant she saw it that it was going to be a challenging foe to defeat. Ever since then, it had lived up to its reputation and then some. Each encounter with the Black Rayquaza was just as threatening and unsettling as the last. Liko liked to think she was getting used to it now, but she doubted she would ever truly feel at peace with the way the sight of the dragon made her blood feel like it was bursting in her ears.

The Black Rayquaza had caught them all by surprise when it appeared in the skies overhead. The Brave Olivine had come to rest for a short while, and when it did, they were suddenly assaulted by the silhouette of pure black overhead. Liko didn’t know what to expect from fighting the dragon, but she knew she had no choice but to stand her ground. She was going to be alright. They all were. She had made it this far, and Liko wasn’t going to let anything get in her way from seeing the rest of her journey through, and that included one of Lucius’ Six Heroes.

Liko had her fingers clenched into fists as she looked up at the dragon towering in the skies above. Terapagos was a short distance away, trying to yell up at the Black Rayquaza to get its attention. None of its cries were being heard though. Liko wished she could have said she was surprised. Unfortunately, that had come to be expected of the Black Rayquaza recently. If Terapagos wasn’t able to get through to it the way it could communicate with the other members of the Six Heroes, then that meant there was only one other choice left: a battle.

Roy was far more prepared for this than Liko was. Even Dot seemed firm in her determination to see this through. Liko forced a stabilizing breath through her lips and let out a slow sigh. She was going to be fine. She could do this. The Black Rayquaza may have been dangerous, but it was not the end. One way or another, she would find a way to convince it to stand by her going forward, and if that started with a fight, then so be it.

The battle went largely according to plan at first. Fuecoco, Quaxly, and Sprigatito all gave the Black Rayquaza their all, though none of them even came close to knocking the dragon out of the sky. Liko couldn’t say she was shocked by that, but she found her own helplessness welling up in the pit of her body and threatening to smother her. She wanted to find a way to set all of this right, but it felt impossible. Liko simply wasn’t strong enough to do anything to hurt it yet. None of them felt like they were.

But if the others weren’t giving up, then Liko wasn’t going to either. She pointed up at the Black Rayquaza, her heart beating a little bit faster. “Sprigatito, use Magical Leaf!” Liko cried out. Beside her, Sprigatito summoned all of the leaves she could to create a massive wave of green. The wall rushed toward the Black Rayquaza in an attempt to catch it by surprise, but the dragon simply shook off the attack.

Instead, the Black Rayquaza turned its attention in a new direction. Liko didn’t realize the tides of the battle had shifted until she heard the whistle of an attack from her right somewhere. Part of her had almost expected it to be Amethio since he had vowed he would chase after the Black Rayquaza no matter what it took… But this was not Amethio. Instead, it was the outline of a few other members of the Explorers. The initial attack that had caught Liko’s attention looked like it had come from an Umbreon.

Spinel was there.

Liko found herself staring off into the distance at the Explorers, fighting down a new fear that flared deep in her body. She knew she was in danger around all of the Explorers since all of them wanted to get their hands on Terapagos, but when it came to Spinel… It seemed like there was something else far worse at play. Liko knew why; the day that he had erased her memories still lived on in her heart, and it likely would for many years to come. The Explorers were all dangerous, but Spinel was something special even among that threatening group.

The Black Rayquaza seemed to recognize that something had changed in the fight as well. Overhead, it called upon the power of a meteor storm that rained down from above. Liko’s eyes widened, and her heart sped its race in her chest. She would recognize the Black Rayquaza’s most devastating attack from anywhere. The Explorers showing up must have angered it enough to prompt that move.

Liko barely had the chance to register what was coming before the meteors began to strike the ground around her and the rest of the Rising Volt Tacklers. Dust kicked up in every direction, and arms were raised to cover eyes from the sudden rush of debris. Some of the larger Pokémon rushed to destroy individual meteors to protect the crew members. Liko didn’t know how they could do that though. She couldn’t see any of the meteors through the thick dust that had settled over the area, and the fog was starting to make it harder to breathe too.

Liko only realized what was happening when it was too late.

The silhouette of a flaming meteor appeared through the fog, and Liko looked up as she coughed enough to spring tears to her eyes. The entire world seemed to slow, and she became aware of a few horrible truths in the span of a few seconds. Terapagos and Sprigatito were too far away. Sprigatito wouldn’t even be able to destroy the meteor with the strongest Magical Leaf she had, not under such short notice. The meteor was coming right for her, and Liko wasn’t going to be able to avoid it.

Her body moved on its own, and Liko found herself running as far away from it as she could. She already knew deep down that she wasn’t going to be able to escape it in time though. She closed her eyes and braced for impact–

Liko heard someone scream. She realized too late that it was her.

Pain exploded across her body, sudden and brutal.

A few seconds of ringing agony later, the world went black.

~~

Dot couldn’t breathe.

She had one hand pressed to her mouth, and she struggled to keep air on a steady circuit in and out of her lungs due to the dust that surrounded her. Quaxly flapped his wings to try and clear up the dust, but it didn’t seem to do enough. Everything was simply too much, and Dot wished she knew how she was meant to fix it.

Dot peeled her eyes open slowly, trying to make sense of what was happening around her. Everything was moving too fast, and she knew instinctively that something had gone wrong even though she couldn’t see it. Dot wanted to scream out for the other Rising Volt Tacklers, to see if they were all okay, but–

The scream was loud and terrified, and Dot felt as if she had been pierced through the chest by that one sound. She would recognize that voice anywhere.

Liko.

“Liko!” Dot yelled, barely able to find the strength to cry above the dust even as it began to settle and then fade away entirely. She searched every direction, unable to figure out where the scream had come from now that it was gone. She was going to have to wait until the dust was gone completely, but how could she just do that when she knew that Liko was in trouble at that very moment? What good would patience do when Liko needed help right now?

By the time the fog had finally lifted, Dot’s heart was screaming loudly enough in her chest to block out her cries of Liko’s name. She could see the others trying to get Liko’s attention too, but she couldn’t register any of their voices. Nothing mattered except for Liko, and she was–

Dot felt the nausea hit her hard and fast when her gaze finally settled on Liko. One of the meteors from the Black Rayquaza’s attack had struck close to the ground where Liko had been standing. If Dot had to guess, she would have said the force of the blast knocked Liko back into a nearby rock structure. Liko didn’t look like she had any burns, and while Dot knew that was a good sign, it didn’t feel like enough as long as Liko was still hurt in other ways. Liko was unconscious, her head slumped over weakly as her chin touched her collarbone. Dot saw a small cut had opened across her cheek, and blood flowed gently down her face.

“Liko!” Dot didn’t realize how loud she was being when she called Liko’s name again, but she didn’t think it mattered either. She fell to her knees beside her friend, shaking at her shoulders with all the force she could stand. “Liko, can you hear me?! You have to wake up! Liko!”

Hands came down on Dot’s shoulders and gently pulled her away from Liko. She tried to fight to escape the grasp, but the hands were firm and kept her rooted to her new location a few paces away. “Dot, you have to give her space,” came Murdock’s voice from somewhere over her right shoulder. “Mollie will handle this.”

Sure enough, Mollie had appeared at Liko’s side, and she had called Chansey out of her Pokéball to examine Liko. Mollie’s specialty was in treating Pokémon, but she still had a bit of medical knowledge for people too, and that was crucial for her now. Dot found all the fight in her body abandoning her as Hatenna forced her way out of her own Pokéball. Hatenna and Chansey worked in concert to summon Heal Pulse after Heal Pulse. The move was intended for Pokémon most of the time, but who were they to complain if it would work on Liko now?

Dot barely realized she had started to earnestly sob until after the ugly noises had started to reverberate in her chest and then leave her lips. None of this was supposed to happen. It shouldn’t have been like this. The Black Rayquaza had only started to panic after the Explorers showed up. It was all their fault Liko had been hurt again. Why did it always feel like it came down to the Explorers to ruin everything the Rising Volt Tacklers had been trying to do?

Overhead, the tides of the battle were shifting once more. The Black Rayquaza had seemingly seen what happened on the ground, and in the blink of an eye, it turned tail and fled higher into the atmosphere. It was gone just as quickly as it had appeared, leaving behind nothing but a bitter memory and the imprints of its meteor attack across the ground. The fight was over one way or another, and both the Rising Volt Tacklers and the Explorers would need to wait until another day to face it once again.

Dot’s breathing had grown fast and rough since she saw Liko sprawled out on the ground, and she couldn’t seem to calm herself down now. Mollie was doing all she could to help her, but what if that wasn’t enough? Dot didn’t know if she would be able to stand the thought of losing her first friend. She and Liko had only just gotten to know each other. This couldn’t be happening. They were supposed to go on so many more adventures together. This couldn't be the end. Dot wouldn’t let it be.

Orla snarled under her breath as her gaze caught on the Explorers in the distance. “Spinel and his cronies are coming here for round two,” she declared. “We have to get Liko onto the ship and get out of here as soon as possible. Mollie, can we move her?”

Mollie waited for one more of Chansey’s Heal Pulses to reach its target before she nodded. “Yes. Friede, take her to the infirmary. I’ll take care of the rest there.” Mollie didn’t seem happy about having to pack up her healing job prematurely, but if they stayed there for any longer, then the situation was bound to get much worse. Right now, their only choice was to run and hope they were able to do something to heal Liko’s wounds on the ship.

Murdock steered both Dot and Roy toward the ship, and Dot was vaguely aware of the fact that Roy had started to cry too. Fuecoco and Quaxly were doing their best to calm their partners, but none of it was working the way they would have liked. Nothing had gone the way any of them had been hoping that day, and their only choice now was to hope it got better soon.

Dot wished hope wasn’t all she had left.

~~

Liko was going to be alright.

After the Rising Volt Tacklers got back onto the Brave Olivine, Mollie took Liko to the infirmary with Friede’s help. She finished up the rest of her work, though Dot hadn’t been there to see any of it. Mollie had insisted no one else come in while she was healing Liko to make sure nothing interfered with what she had to do. Dot knew why Mollie wanted privacy and space while she was working, but that did little to assuage Dot’s nerves. She felt useless just standing there outside the infirmary and waiting to be able to help Liko. There had to be something else she could do, but it certainly wasn’t going to happen as long as she was forced to wait.

When Mollie finally emerged from the infirmary, it was nearly nightfall. She had said that Liko would be okay, but she was still unconscious. Mollie’s theory was that the Black Rayquaza’s attack had struck the ground close to Liko, and while it hadn’t done anything to hurt her directly, the force of the blast knocked her back. When she hit the rocks, she significantly bruised her ribs. The pain was the reason she had blacked out. Mollie was glad to say that Liko hadn’t sustained a concussion from the impact, and Dot breathed a sigh of relief with the rest of the Rising Volt Tacklers. Liko was going to be fine. Mollie had done all she could for now, and their only choice in the meantime was to simply wait for Liko to feel well enough to wake up.

Dot couldn’t bring herself to go back to her room though. She didn’t know how she would ever be able to sleep in a situation like this. The rest of the Rising Volt Tacklers looked tired, so once they had heard the good news, they started to split up and try to get some rest. Dot doubted any of them would really feel ready or able to sleep that night, but they had to at least try. Liko would want them to get a bit of rest if they could.

Mollie was originally planning to sit by Liko’s side until she woke up, but Dot insisted she be the one to do it. Mollie looked completely exhausted from all she had already done to help Liko, and it didn’t seem like she would be able to stay up all night looking after Liko. Mollie seemed to want to push back against Dot, to insist that she had to do this for the sake of her patient, but she gave up on it when she realized that Dot had a point. Dot was used to staying up late like this, but Mollie was not. Mollie had already burned the energy she had left after the fight when she was trying to help Liko, and she would end up falling asleep on the job if she kept this up.

So Dot was left in the infirmary with Liko, sitting in Mollie’s regular chair and looking at her sleeping friend. Liko hadn’t stirred at all in the hours that had come and gone since the attack. Mollie had given her a bit of pain medicine, and supposedly, that would dull the ache in Liko’s ribs when she woke up again. Dot was glad for that. The last thing she wanted was for the first thing Liko noticed upon waking up to be pain. She deserved better than that, especially after all she had been through.

Dot let out a heavy sigh, leaning in a little bit closer. If she didn’t know better, she would have thought that Liko was simply asleep. Her face was so strangely peaceful, a stark contrast from the pain she had endured that day. Dot couldn’t see Liko’s ribs around the alternate clothes Mollie had changed her into, but she figured that was for the best. She was sure the injury was only going to make her feel worse, and Dot was miserable enough as it was.

Dot reached out and took Liko’s hand in her own. She didn’t know if Liko would be able to feel it, but she didn’t think she cared. She just needed the reassurance that Liko was going to be alright. Liko’s heartbeat was soft and sweet, and Dot found herself pressing her fingers against Liko’s pulse point so she could make sure it was still there. Dot lost all semblance of terror in the gentle rise and fall of Liko’s chest, and she let the sight dull the anxiety that had been rushing through her like a tidal wave since the end of the battle.

Liko was going to be fine. Dot just needed to be patient for a little bit longer.

It was a shame she had never been known for her ability to wake.

~~

Everything hurt.

Even before Liko opened her eyes, she could feel the pain pounding at every part of her abdomen. It took her a moment of summoning her will to pry her eyes open so she could stare up at the ceiling above her. Liko blinked a few times, but she still couldn’t stop the clipped groan that pushed its way free of her lips.

The pain in her body was getting stronger as she grew more alert. She felt like she had been slammed by a wild Tauros… Though even that seemed like an understatement with the strange agony rushing through her stomach and ribs. Everything was too much, and yet, Liko felt she knew too little at the same time.

“Liko! You’re awake!”

Dot’s voice quickly shook off the remaining cobwebs that had built themselves across Liko’s hazy mind. Liko slowly and agonizingly tilted her head to the side to see Dot sitting in the chair just beside her. Behind Dot, Liko could see Mollie’s infirmary from an angle she was not used to. She was on the bed looking up at the room, forced into the position of the patient for the first time since arriving on the Brave Olivine.

“Dot…?” Liko asked wearily, struggling to find the strength to speak. “What… What happened…?”

Dot didn’t seem to hear Liko’s question at all though. Instead, she was too focused on trying to hold back her sobs as they pushed a rough path free of her lips. Dot was clinging to Liko’s hand like it was the only anchor keeping her there at all, and her other hand was up by her eyes trying to wipe away tears. Dot’s entire face was bright red, and it seemed as if she had been crying for a long time. Liko felt guilt blossom in her chest like a brutal flower. Had Dot been crying because of her? What had happened for Dot to get this so upset? What could she do to fix it?

“I’m… I’m so glad you’re alright,” Dot managed to choke out, though the words took far more effort to muster than she would have expected. “I was so worried you weren’t going to wake up again, and…” Dot cut herself off with a sniffle and a shake of her head. “You scared me.”

“What happened?” Liko repeated, her voice a bit stronger this time. She was suddenly desperate to do anything and everything in her power to help Dot feel better, and the only way she could do that was by knowing what had happened.

Dot rubbed at her eyes once again, taking a moment to steady herself in the face of another wave of fresh tears. “We… We got into a fight against the Black Rayquaza,” Dot explained. “We got split up because of one of its meteor attacks, and one of them… One of them nearly hit you. Instead, it hit the ground, and you were sent flying into one of the rock walls. Mollie said you severely bruised all your ribs and that you blacked out from the pain.”

As soon as Dot finished her explanation, the memories came flooding back into Liko’s head. She had been distracted by the arrival of the Explorers and hadn’t moved to run until after the Black Rayquaza’s meteor was practically on top of her. She managed to avoid a full-on attack when she ran, but it hadn’t been enough to get her out of the line of fire entirely. Liko remembered her own screaming, flying through the air like gravity had abandoned her, and then… Nothing.

“The Explorers tried to follow us, but we got onto the ship and escaped before they could come after us,” Dot went on. Her words were slurring together from her teary-eyed fear, but she forced herself to keep talking. “I-I was so scared you were never going to wake up again, and… I-I’m so glad you’re alright.”

Liko felt tears rise to her own eyes at that, and she clutched even tighter at Dot’s hand. “I’m fine, Dot,” she whispered, fighting to make herself believe it as well. “I’m right here… And I’m not going anywhere.”

That was the last blow Dot’s defenses could take, and she gave up on dignity or decorum in an instant. Instead, Dot melted against the bed, pressing her forehead into the mattress and weeping openly. Liko squeezed at Dot’s hand a little bit more, and she forced her other hand over to Dot’s head. She stroked gently at the purple and pink hair there, and Dot looked up at her slowly. Liko offered Dot a soft smile, and Dot sniffled once more before rubbing her sleeve across her eyes. It would not help her much in the long run, especially since her tears would replace themselves again in a matter of seconds, but it didn’t matter. As long as Dot was looking into Liko’s eyes, she would be alright. She had to be.

Liko pulled her hand away from Dot’s head slowly before moving to push herself closer to the wall. “Come on,” Liko encouraged her. “Lay down next to me.”

Dot’s eyes went wide, and she shook her head. “Liko, I can’t do that. You’re recovering from nearly breaking your ribs. I’m not supposed to crowd you out. I-I should probably go and get Mollie so she can check you over now, so–”

“Please don’t go yet,” Liko pleaded. “Send Mollie a message on your phone if you have to. Just… Come up here with me, okay?”

Dot nodded slowly, and she began to clamber onto the bed beside Liko. It was a tight fit with both of them on it, but Liko didn’t mind it. The slight discomfort in her ribs was nothing compared to the warmth of having Dot there beside her. Right now, all Liko really wanted was to be held, to feel like everything was going to be alright. A little bit of pain was worth dealing with if it would bring her the emotional balm she needed so desperately.

When Liko squirmed a little bit on the spot, she felt warmth rush through her body. Before she had the chance to question it, Hatenna appeared in her periphery, jumping up onto the chair Dot had been in until a few moments prior. Liko cast Hatenna a smile, and her grin only widened when Sprigatito, Quaxly, Tinkatink, and Terapagos appeared on either side of the chair.

Hatenna was the first to jump onto the bed, and the other four were quick to follow her lead, though Terapagos struggled a bit in pulling up over the edge of the mattress. Dot helped it with the last little boost it needed, and all four Pokémon gathered around them. Sprigatito curled up just beside Liko’s cheek, and Terapagos settled down near her arm. Hatenna was just beside Liko’s stomach, ready to use another Heal Pulse at a moment’s notice. Quaxly and Tinkatink were pressed up against Dot on the other side. Because of the added space the Pokémon needed, Liko and Dot were forced to move even closer to one another, but neither one of them could ever be asked to mind it. This was where they were happiest, and this was what they needed more than anything right now.

“Does anything hurt?” Dot asked softly. Her lips were just beside Liko’s head now, leaving her voice as a comforting tickle against Liko’s ear. Normally, it would have made Liko flinch from the strange warmth on her skin, but right now, she loved it more than anything. She couldn’t have been asked to pull away for the world.

“A little bit,” Liko admitted. She didn’t know how her ribs couldn’t hurt after the major beating they had taken earlier in the day. It was going to be a while before she was back on her feet again, but she didn’t mind it. As long as she was there with Dot, she felt like she was going to be alright. “But I feel better now that you’re here.”

Dot’s cheeks grew bright red in the dimmed light of the infirmary. “I… I’ll stay here for as long as you need me to,” Dot assured her. “Even if that means I’m staying here all night, I’ll be here.”

“Thank you, Dot,” Liko smiled. She wanted to curl over onto her side so she could press even closer to Dot, but she knew it was a poor idea as long as she was in pain like this. Instead, Liko tilted her head a little bit closer to Dot’s, pressing it in the gap between Dot’s shoulder and cheek. The bandage across Liko’s cheek was a strange texture when it was pushed against her skin even more, but she couldn’t bring herself to mind it as long as Dot was there. So long as her friend was by her side, she would be fine. She knew it.

Dot gripped even tighter at Liko’s hand, clearly craving closer touch with her but knowing such a thing was not possible at the moment. Dot closed her eyes slowly, tilting her own head down so she could chase as much of Liko’s skin as possible. Liko’s smile deepened at the feeling. Dot wasn’t going to let anything bad happen to her. They would be safe as long as they were together, and Dot wouldn’t leave Liko for the world. Not right now. Not ever.

Dot’s Rotom phone slipped out of her pocket, darting over to the door at her command. It pressed itself against the light switch, turning it off and shrouding the room in darkness. Liko had been about to ask if they could get a bit less light in there so she could sleep better, but Dot seemed to be reading her mind. Dot always seemed to know just what to do even when she wasn’t sure of how to put it into words. Liko couldn’t have been happier for it.

“Thank you for being here, Dot,” Liko whispered as she began to feel her consciousness dipping in and out of her control. “Thank you for staying with me.”

Dot moved a little bit closer to Liko, though that wasn’t saying much because of how close they already were on account of their circumstances. Even so, nothing seemed to feel like enough. What they both wanted most was an embrace, but as long as that was a poor idea, this would have to do. “I’m not going anywhere,” Dot vowed. “As long as you need me, I’m here.”

“And I’m not going anywhere either,” Liko returned. Dot’s grasp on her hand grew tighter, and Liko could tell by the somewhat unusual grip that Dot was trying to feel for her pulse. Even as she knew Liko was there beside her, alive and breathing, Dot needed a little bit more proof to believe it. After the day they had both had, Liko couldn’t blame her in the slightest.

Liko felt her eyes beginning to droop more and more as the seconds crawled by. She couldn’t say for sure if she thanked Dot for her presence again or if she simply imagined doing it, but Liko knew that she meant it. The world eventually faded away between her fingertips, but Dot’s hand wrapped around her own never left her once. Liko could feel it even in sleep, and for the rest of the night, she dreamed not of the Black Rayquaza’s attack but instead of the comforting warmth of the girl beside her.

When morning came, the rest of the Rising Volt Tacklers entered the infirmary to check on Liko. When they arrived, they found Liko and Dot curled up together and their Pokémon gathered all around them.

And in an instant, all of them knew everything was going to be alright.

digitaldreams · Sep 29, 2025

“pumpkin perfection”

Prompt: Autumn - Post Date: 9/27/25 - Word Count: 3,037 - Rating: General - Content Warnings: None - Canon Compliant

~~~

“Wow… That’s a lot of pumpkins.”

Dot couldn’t help but stare slack jawed at the massive field stretching out before her. Roy and Liko stood on either side of her, each with smiles on their faces. Roy was the first to start moving, rushing out to investigate the nearest set of pumpkins with Crocalor hot on his heels. Dot was still too stunned to even think about running after him, left trying to calculate just how many pumpkins were in the area and finding very quickly that she probably wouldn’t be able to come up with the number no matter how hard she tried. There were just too many of them.

“It’s great, isn’t it?” Liko grinned, reaching out to take Dot’s hand in her own. “Have you ever carved a jack-o'-lantern before, Dot? It’s a bunch of fun!”

Dot shook her head. “No… I haven’t.” When she was a child, she watched Murdock do it once or twice, but it wasn’t always feasible for him to come by and visit for the autumnal season since his job often had him working at his bakery with Mitchell so far away. After he joined the Rising Volt Tacklers, it became even harder. Dot had seen him carve a pumpkin for her, but she hadn’t been able to do any of it herself. As far as she was concerned, that was probably still the case. Her arms were far too thin for her to be able to make much progress in digging out the innards of a pumpkin, and yet…

And yet, there she was anyway. Liko and Roy had both insisted on taking a break from the search for the Six Heroes when they heard of a pumpkin patch opening on the ground in Johto. They were more than happy to grab Murdock and Dot before dragging them both off to search for pumpkins, and so, there Dot was. She didn’t know the first thing about carving a pumpkin or even choosing a good one to make into a jack-o'-lantern, but there she was regardless. It was hard to say no to Roy and Liko when they let their excitement get the best of them, and Dot wasn’t going to be the one to break their spirits by saying they should try to figure something else out to do. If they were eager to do this, then she was willing to go along with it.

“It’s going to be great!” Liko beamed. “When I was a kid, my father would take me to the nearby pumpkin patch every fall. He would help me to pick out a good pumpkin, and then we’d go home and carve it. Since he’s an artist, he’s really good at designing what you should put on the front of it. I could tell him what kind of design I wanted, and he would be able to do it. He taught me how to do it too. I think I’m pretty good at it now, so if you want any help, I’d be happy to have it.”

Dot nodded slowly, her face setting into a soft smile. It was nice to see Liko so enthusiastic about something. Liko’s relationship with Alex could be a bit complicated at times simply because they didn’t quite know how to reach out to each other, so it was wonderful to know there was a fond memory like this between them. Liko deserved to have a strong relationship with her family members, and Dot would stand by that no matter what.

“Come on,” Liko went on, pulling on Dot’s hand enough to lure her into the pumpkin patch. “Before we can carve a jack-o'-lantern, we have to find the perfect pumpkin to do it with. Let’s get to searching!”

Dot yelped as Liko pulled on her arm a little bit harder, and she had to fight to keep her legs oriented beneath the rest of her body. She didn’t know what exactly made a pumpkin qualify as good or bad, but she was trusting that Liko and Roy would be able to help her. As far as Dot was concerned, they were all just… Pumpkins. Some of them were larger than others, but they remained pumpkins. Maybe Dot wasn’t cut out for this specific fall tradition. She really couldn’t say for sure.

“Here we are!”

Liko crouched down next to one of the pumpkins, finally letting go of Dot’s hand in the process. Dot found herself missing the warmth of Liko’s touch, but she didn’t let herself say it. She was just cold… Or at the very least, that was what she would tell anyone who noticed the sudden wave of sadness that had swept through her face. “I think this is a really good one,” Liko went on, holding the pumpkin out to Dot. “I can help you with carving it when we get back to the ship. You can take this back to Murdock if you’d like. I’ll find one more for us to carve, and then I’ll come back with you.”

Dot nodded, and her gaze dropped to the pumpkin in her arms. She really didn’t know what made a pumpkin good for carving or not. Like every other splotch of orange in the field, it just looked like a pumpkin to Dot. Still, she supposed that Liko was something of an expert in this sort of thing, so what did she have to complain about. Dot sighed and started to walk back toward the front of the field, but she found herself looking over her shoulder every once in a while to make sure Liko was still there. There wouldn’t be much of a point in going all the way to the pumpkin patch if she lost the two people who she had come with.

Luckily, Dot didn’t have to wait for long. Liko and Roy both came rushing out of the pumpkin patch a few minutes later, each of them holding a large pumpkin that barely seemed to fit in their arms. Dot saw now that Liko had taken mercy on her by giving her the smallest pumpkin of the trio that fit their criteria for carving. It was a sweet gesture, and Dot hid the lower half of her face behind her pumpkin to make sure Liko and Roy didn’t notice how embarrassed she was.

“Alright! We’ve got everything we need!” Roy exclaimed. “Let’s get back to the ship and start making these jack-o'-lanterns!”

Dot nodded, following after her other friends slowly. She still wasn’t sure of how she was going to do this or if she even saw the appeal… But at least she would be able to enjoy herself a little bit with the people she cared about. That had to count for something, right?

If it would make her friends happy, then it would all be worth it in the end. She was sure of it.

~~

Back on the Brave Olivine, Murdock helped to set the kids up with the necessary materials they would need to pull the insides out of their pumpkins. After that, he stepped out of the room to give them the chance to enjoy this together. If they needed his help, then they would be able to ask for it when the moment arrived.

As far as Dot was concerned though, needing his help was inevitable. How in the world was she supposed to gut a pumpkin? She could barely see into the top of the pumpkin when she stood on the small stool within the kitchen. She certainly wasn’t strong enough to be able to maneuver the scoop out of the pumpkin either. What in the world did she know about any of this? Clearly all of her reading about pumpkin carving before she went on this trip with Liko and Roy had amounted to nothing.

“Here. Let me help you.”

Liko tapped on Dot’s shoulder, and Dot stepped off the stool to give Liko the chance to claim it for herself. Liko and Roy had already managed to clear out their own pumpkins, though they positioned themselves on top of chairs instead of the stool. Dot bowed her head in mild irritation and embarrassment as Liko began to dig out the guts of her pumpkin with a scoop. When she grew concentrated, Liko’s tongue began to stick out the corner of her mouth, pressing itself between her lips. Dot couldn’t help but smile at the sight. Liko was adorable when she focused like this.

…Why was that Dot’s first thought when she saw Liko looking like that?

“And… There you go!” Liko declared as she stepped down from the stool. “Your pumpkin is all emptied out now. All that’s left is for you to decide on the design and then put it onto the side. From there, we can figure out how we’re going to cut out the sections and then make the design.”

Dot nodded slowly, and she realized a bit too late that she hadn’t thought at all about the kind of design she wanted to put on her jack-o'-lantern. That felt like quite the massive mistake to make in a time like this, but Dot was going to have to figure it out sooner or later. Maybe she would be able to draw a silly face on it and call it a day. That was what most of the pumpkins she had seen online tended to do. It was probably best for a beginner anyway, right?

“What are you guys going to put on your jack-o'-lanterns?” Roy questioned from his spot on the other end of the table. “I’ve already got mine figured out! I’m going to try and do a design that looks like Crocalor!” From beside him, Crocalor chattered excitedly, and that only made Roy’s smile wider.

“I… I’m not sure,” Dot answered. “I’ll probably just do something simple. I feel like that would be safer than trying to get too ambitious. I’m not exactly an artist.” And I’m certainly not a pumpkin artist.

“That’s alright! I’m sure Floragato will be able to help you out if you start to struggle with cutting through the pumpkin’s skin,” Liko said. “Her claws are really sharp, and I had her clean them just for this so that we can use her help with cutting the pumpkins apart as needed.” Floragato meowed her confirmation, holding up one paw with impressively sharp claws that practically gleamed in the light from how crisply clean they were.

Dot nodded once again. “Okay… That sounds a bit more doable.” With that in mind, she reached down and picked up one of the permanent markers sitting on top of the table before starting to draw. She wasn’t the most coordinated with this sort of thing, but at the very least, she could say she was trying. The others were just there to spend time with her, so she had no reason to get too caught up in her anxiety of what could have gone wrong. Everything was going to be alright. Roy and Liko were happy to just be around her, and if her pumpkin turned out looking awful, she could at least say she tried.

“What about you, Liko?” Roy asked next. “What kind of design are you going to put on yours?”

“Oh…” Liko’s cheeks flushed pink, and she shook her head. “That’s my little secret. You’ll be able to see it when it’s done.” As if on cue, she tilted her pumpkin a little bit more so that its face region was directed away from Roy and Dot. “I’m sure you’re going to love it though.”

Dot did her best to not stare at Liko’s pumpkin for too long, though it was difficult if she was being honest. She was simply fascinated by the idea of what Liko could have been making on the other side of the table… But she would have to figure it out when she was finished. If Liko wanted to keep it a secret, then Dot could wait. Until then, she had more than enough to do… Like figure out how in the world she was going to carve through the thick skin of her pumpkin.

Thank Rayquaza for Floragato, Dot thought, and she glanced over at the cat Pokémon. Floragato meowed and then walked over to Dot, pressing her claw against the exterior of the pumpkin. Thank Rayquaza for Floragato.

~~

The next hour and a half was, much to Dot’s surprise, some of the most fun she had had in ages. She had gone into this expecting that she would stumble her way through the process and then emerge feeling embarrassed with her decisions, but she was smiling by the time her jack-o'-lantern was finished. It was a relief that she had managed to turn all of this around. She had worried she wouldn’t have fun with it, and yet, laughing and joking around with Liko and Roy brought her more joy than she ever could have expected.

Dot finished up her jack-o'-lantern first. It was a bit on the wonky side, and the face wasn’t entirely proportional. Still, the lines were clean thanks to Floragato perfectly tracing the outline that Dot had left behind on the pumpkin’s skin. All that was left now was for a candle to be placed inside, and it would be perfect. Dot couldn’t wait to see how it looked when it was finished, and she couldn’t believe she was saying that.

Roy finished his second. His jack-o'-lantern was far from perfect, and while it looked a little bit like Crocalor, the resemblance was far from perfect. The face was a bit distorted and squished, but Dot was still happy to see Roy smiling proudly as he held it up for the others to see. Crocalor clapped excitedly even with his tiny arms at the sight of it, and Dot found herself excited to see what it looked like after it had been filled with a candle too.

Liko took the longest to complete her jack-o'-lantern, and she kept sticking her tongue out of her mouth slightly in her focus. Dot had to fight to not stare at her when she did it. Liko really looked adorable when she was concentrating like that… Not that Dot would ever be able to find the guts to say it. She would much rather shove her face into all of the pumpkin guts she had seen Liko pull out of her jack-o'-lantern than admit how she was feeling aloud. It was just too embarrassing.

Dot’s flustered silence eventually came to an end though when Liko gasped and stepped away from her pumpkin. “It’s finished!” Liko exclaimed. She set her carving tool down before reaching out to grab the pumpkin. “Are you guys ready to see it?”

“Of course we are!” Roy cried out. “What design did you go with?”

Liko smiled and then turned the pumpkin around. Dot felt her heart skip a beat. The face carved into the jack-o'-lantern was…

Nidothing.

“I wanted to make this a special day for you, Dot. Since you haven’t done this before, I thought this was the perfect way to give you a great first memory of making your own jack-o'-lantern!” Liko explained with a grin. “It took a while to get the details right, but I think it’s great.” After a moment passed in silence, she looked up at Dot shyly. “Do you like it?”

“Of course I like it!” Dot yelped. Her face was so red that she thought it was going to explode into fire at a moment’s notice, and she wondered if she would ever be able to cool off ever again. At this point, that was questionable. “This is… This is amazing, Liko! Thank you so much!”

“You’re welcome!” Liko smiled. “I’m really glad to see that you like it. I wasn’t sure if it would come across all that well once I finally got it carved into the pumpkin, but…”

“It’s perfect,” Dot assured her. “In fact… I-If you’re interested, I’d like to make a video about it. I can feature you in it if you want to be in it, but I could also just make it without you. I don't want to force you into anything you’re not comfortable with.”

“I’d love that!” Liko gasped. “Thank you so much, Dot!” She put the jack-o'-lantern down on the table before rushing forward, throwing her arms around Dot and pulling her in for a tight hug. For a moment, Dot was too flustered to move, but she somehow found the strength to return the embrace after a few seconds of hesitation. Dot buried her face in Liko’s shoulder, loving both the warmth of Liko’s presence and the fact that it let her hide just how flustered she was by how sweet Liko had been to her all day.

“We should take a picture of our jack-o'-lanterns together!” Roy suggested. On cue, his Rotom phone flew out of his pocket and began to settle into the air on one side of the table. Roy pulled his jack-o'-lantern across to the other side so that he was standing next to Dot. Liko did the same on Dot’s other side, and all three of their pumpkins were lined up on the table in front of them. “Say cheese, everyone!”

For the rest of the day, Dot found herself staring at the picture. After Roy sent it to her, it became the only thing she wanted to look at. Crocalor, Floragato, and Quaxwell were all positioned behind their trainers, and the excitement in the image was palpable. Dot didn’t think she had ever seen anything sweeter…

And yet, even in a picture that had a jack-o'-lantern of her online persona, Dot kept looking at Liko. As amazing as Liko’s gesture had been, Dot found herself most infatuated with the grin on Liko’s face. All of this felt like it was worth it just to capture a photo of the sweetest smile in the world.

Dot almost wished she could carve Liko’s smile into a jack-o'-lantern when the next year arrived… But she knew that it would be nothing when compared to the radiance of the real thing.

digitaldreams · Oct 4, 2025

“a sorrow shared”

Prompt: Sleepy - Post Date: 12/12/24 - Word Count: 4,502 - Rating: Mature - Content Warnings: Depictions of Abuse, Strong Violence, Panic Attacks - Free Fall AU

There is a focus on the aftermath of violence in this story, most specifically strangulation. It is all in past tense, but it is still intense and something to be cautious about.

~~~

Ever since her return, Liko had been struggling to sleep.

It was hardly a surprise. How could anyone find sleeping simple after what she had been through? Liko hadn’t realized it at first, but she struggled with both falling asleep and staying asleep because of the nightmares. Even if she didn’t remember something during her waking hours, her mind was more than happy to remind her of it when she laid down for the night. Memories that died away on her tongue when she tried to speak them were always there in her periphery, waiting for her to close her eyes before presenting themselves. Liko’s exhaustion had been growing stronger ever since then, compounding upon itself until she found it a chore to both stay awake and fall asleep.

In the end, the solution to Liko’s extended sleeping problems had been a simple one: having someone else around. Dot had noticed Liko was struggling to stay awake during the day because of her lack of rest at night, and she gave Liko a proposal. As long as Liko wanted her there, Dot would stay with her and help her to fall asleep. Liko hadn’t wanted to take her up on it at first, fearing she was selfish for pulling Dot out of her room at such ungodly hours of the night. Dot didn’t seem to mind it though. If anything, she was glad to be able to do something for Liko. She had been struggling with feeling helpless ever since Liko returned to her life, and this was the best way for her to resolve that tension. Staying with Liko helped them both; Liko would have an easier time of sleeping, and Dot would be able to help her friend in ways she had feared she would never be able to again.

As Liko slowly uncovered more and more of the horrors she had endured at Spinel’s hands, she found herself indulging in Dot’s kindness more and more. Dot was willing to sit there with her no matter what she needed, and Liko didn’t realize just how much she needed it until after she gave herself the chance to open up. Sleep was growing harder, but with Dot there, Liko felt like she could breathe. Dot wouldn’t let anything bad happen to her while she was asleep. Dot would protect her. Even if Dot fell asleep too, Liko was assured by the fact that she wouldn’t have to face the trials of the night alone. Dot was right there beside her, and she always would be.

Tonight, Liko and Dot were curled up in the former’s bedroom. All of their Pokémon were already asleep, scattered around the room on pillows, blankets, and cots that had been set up on the floor. Sprigatito was the only one on the bed with Liko and Dot, sound asleep and curled over herself by the two girls’ feet. Liko watched her partner snore with a smile she hoped looked satisfied. In practice though, Liko knew she looked wistful. She couldn’t seem to alter her appearance enough for it to mean something these days. She was getting worse at hiding things, and Liko had no idea if that was meant to be a good thing or not.

On one hand, Liko was glad to know she could rely on others. She had been struggling to keep her emotions buried after she returned to the Rising Volt Tacklers, and Liko knew she needed the support. She couldn’t keep bottling up everything and expecting her situation to change for the better. If she wanted help, then she had to be willing to reach out and take someone else’s hand so they could pull her from the darkness. Liko felt secure in the knowledge that her friends would be there to guide her out of the shadows of her memories no matter how deep or miserable they became.

But on the other hand, Liko hated that she was reaching out to others at all. She cursed herself for not simply being stronger and handling this on her own. She should have been able to do this, and yet, she fell short each time she tried. Her friends were going out of their ways to help her, and Liko didn’t know how she was meant to respond to any of it. She was glad to have them, but she was simultaneously resentful of her need to reach out at all. Why couldn’t she just carry this weight alone? Why did she need to share it with anyone? It was too much.

Liko’s eyes were droopy, and she found herself clutching tighter to Dot’s body. Over the course of this arrangement of theirs, they had grown more and more affectionate with one another. These days, it wasn’t uncommon to find them tangled up as a pile of limbs. Liko held Dot’s hand in the perfect way to feel her pulse between her pointer finger and thumb, and Dot always found a way to feel Liko’s heartbeat against her skin too. Liko hadn’t realized how much she needed that touch until after she had it, and now, she knew she wouldn’t let it go for anything.

If only that was enough to shake the guilt that threatened to swallow her whole. Even sitting there in Dot’s arms, Liko found herself hating every piece of her heart and mind that enjoyed this. Dot was a person too, and Liko was forcing her to stay with her even when she had other things to do. Dot always said she didn’t mind, but that did little to assuage Liko’s guilt. It couldn’t be easy being around Liko when she got like this. Liko could barely stand herself when she had to remember everything she had endured. She could only imagine how heavy the weight was when she was forcing it onto someone else’s shoulders.

Liko didn’t realize her eyes had started to droop enough to close until after her bedroom melted away. She couldn’t say for certain what she dreamed about or even when she had fallen asleep, but she could feel the jolt of energy that signified she was coming out of a nightmare. Liko’s lungs were tainted by the sharp intake of sudden breath, and the air was both bitterly cold and miserably hot against the inside of her body. Liko could feel the phantom sensation of fingers around her neck, and she couldn’t seem to chase it away no matter how much she reminded herself she was safe. There was no one touching her neck. There was no one trying to strangle her. She was there in her room with Dot. She was safe.

That wasn’t enough to quite talk her off the ledge though. Liko blinked away her tears before she even realized they were there, but they refused to be chased off so easily. Seconds later, rivers were streaming down her cheeks, and Liko was too tired to bother with stopping them. She wanted to be able to sleep. She wanted to feel at peace. She was tired of all of this. It was simply too much. She wanted to feel normal again, but all of that power had been stolen from her the instant Spinel put his hands on her.

“Liko?”

Dot’s voice pulled Liko’s attention away from her self-deprecating sobs, and she looked up to see her girlfriend watching her with concern. Liko could see the shine of Dot’s eyes even in the darkness, and the knot in the back of her throat seemed to swallow every ounce of strength she had ever held. “Are you alright?” Dot asked softly. After a moment of silence, she pulled Liko in a little bit tighter. “You had a nightmare, didn’t you?”

Liko wanted to say that she was fine, but she nodded her confirmation anyway. There was no point in denying it, and Opal wouldn’t have let her even if she wanted to. Liko tried to speak once and then twice, but she couldn’t seem to form the words. All she could think about was the feeling of hands wrapped around her throat. She wanted to feel for bruises, but she knew there was nothing physical there to find. When she was trapped in a maze of memories, there was nothing she could say or do to convince herself that everything was safe. That was one thing she had learned all too well since she returned to the Brave Olivine.

Dot thumbed her fingers through Liko’s hair, and Liko found herself melting against the touch. She was so, so tired, but that still felt like an understatement. This exhaustion went far beyond simply what her body knew to be its own. She was tired deep in her soul, and the ache refused to be chased away no matter how much help she sought. The guilt was yet another burden, a weight wrapped around her neck to make sure she never had the chance to breathe easily again. She shouldn’t have needed this. She should have been able to handle this without needing to rely on others. She should have been fine.

“I don’t understand,” Liko choked out, barely realizing that she had said something until the words left her lips. She was blurring slightly with Opal, and her voice was distorted as a result. “I feel like… I feel like…”

After a few seconds passed in silence, Dot stopped combing through Liko’s hair. “You feel like what?”

Liko swallowed, and the sensation was uncomfortable against the imagined touch of someone trying to choke the life from her body. “Like… Like this is all too much,” Liko managed to say. “I feel like the world should have just… Stopped.” Dot tilted her head slightly to the side in confusion, and that was the only cue Liko’s tongue needed to spiral far out of her control. “I can’t stop thinking about everything Spinel did to me. I can’t see the injuries, but I know they’re there. I can just feel something deep in my body that hurts, and it’s not even physical. I feel like my soul hurts, but… Everything aches. I don’t know why, but it hurts.”

Dot hummed thoughtfully, and she went back to combing Liko’s hair. There were no tangles to find there, but Dot found the texture soothing. She knew Liko did too. It was beneficial to them both in ways they could never quite put to words, but they didn’t need to describe it as long as they understood each other. “You feel like the world should have stopped?”

Liko nodded, the motion of her head moving both enough to pull her out of her memories and not enough to help her at all. “It feels like the world should have just… Ended,” she admitted. “I keep remembering everything that happened to me, but everything keeps… Going on. I don’t know how the world can keep turning. I feel like I’m going to be sick whenever I think about it, but… It’s just too much. All of it is too much.”

Dot hummed once again, the sound soft and soothing in the darkness. Liko’s eyes were tempted to slide shut again, but she couldn’t bring herself to let them close when she knew what would be waiting for her in her nightmares. She was going to dream about Spinel hurting her again. She was going to dream about losing anything and everything at the hands of someone who had hurt her so deeply. She was going to dream about all that he had stolen away from her. There was no peace to be found in dreaming as long as her dreams were haunted by the specter of the one she feared the most.

Beyond that, Liko was afraid of the night. It had been in darkness that she lost her memories and her agency, and when she sat in the shadows, she found herself fearing that it would consume her once more. How hard would it really be for Spinel to take hold of her and ruin everything she ever was? How long would it take for the darkness to grab her and refuse to let her go ever again? Ghosts seemed stronger in the darkness than they did in the light. Without the glow of dawn there to chase away her demons, Liko feared she would rot in the dark. The moonlight was not strong enough to keep her safe, and it never would be. If it was not enough to fend off her nightmares, then it would not defend her from reminders of Spinel’s hands or smile either. How could the world keep moving when it knew of the pain she had endured? How could time press on when it was time that had stolen so much from her and never left so much as a moment for breath or sympathy?

“If you ask me… It can be a bit comforting.”

Liko looked up at Dot slowly, and her throat grew stiffer than ever before. “What do you mean? What can be comforting?”

“The fact that life is going on,” Dot replied. “I know I felt that way after you came back.” She paused for a few seconds to gather her thoughts, and she pulled Liko in a little bit closer to her chest. Liko let her ear find the perfect spot on Dot’s chest to hear her heartbeat, and the dulcet melody was almost enough to convince her everything was going to be alright. Almost. “I didn’t know how the world could just go on after everything that happened to you. I didn’t understand how people could just… Live their lives when it felt like everything was over because of what happened while you were with him.” Dot didn’t speak Spinel’s name, instead spitting out a vague pronoun like it was poison. It was enough to send shivers up and down Liko’s spine anyway.

Liko’s guilt crashed against her as converging tidal waves once more. Dot felt the same way she had? Dot felt like everything should have ended too? Liko shouldn’t have told her about it. She shouldn’t have told anyone about it. If she had stressed Dot out this much, then maybe she was putting that burden onto other people too. They deserved better than to have to think about the things that haunted Liko in the middle of the night. Surely there was a greater peace for them to strive for than sitting there and listening to Liko ramble about the same old things. Dot deserved better, and everyone else who had ever been forced to listen to Liko speak about this did too.

“I don’t know why the world is still going,” Opal murmured, her voice slurring up against Liko’s again, though it was clearly hers this time. Liko hadn’t realized just how close Opal was until the pressure around her throat grew worse, and she fought to keep it down to the best of her ability. It was a failing effort, but at least she could say she was trying. “I feel like it should have all ended ages ago. If it wasn’t going to end when all of this first happened, then it should have ended when we started to remember it. I don’t know how I can go about my life after everything that happened. How can I just… Get up in the morning? How can I live on after what I know happened?”

Dot remained quiet for a few seconds more, and Liko felt her heartbeat grow a little bit faster in her chest. “I think it’s a good thing,” Dot reiterated. “The fact that everything is going on like this, I mean. It feels like a lot. I know that. But if life is going on, then… That means that we can find a way to go on along with it.”

Liko pressed her cheek closer to Dot’s nightshirt. “What do you mean?”

“If time keeps going on after everything bad that happens, then that means we can keep moving too,” Dot told her. “If the world keeps moving, then that means we can heal and move along with it. We don't have to be stuck in the moment forever. The moment will pass eventually, won’t it?”

Liko blinked once and then twice even though she knew Dot couldn’t see it from her current angle. Dot was right, wasn’t she? Liko had felt like the world should have caved in on itself after everything she went through, but maybe she was wrong to fear this was where everything was fated to end. Maybe there was something else out there for her to embrace. Maybe there was a peace greater than the disaster she had feared she would always be subject to.

Liko didn’t realize tears had risen to her eyes once more until after they began to fall. She sobbed softly, biting her lip to try and restrain the sound but only moving too late. “That’s… That’s really sweet,” Liko whispered. Dot was right. The world was going to move on even though it felt like it should have stopped. Liko felt like she was going to be left behind by it the instant she let her guard drop, but she was going to be fine. She was going to find a way to stand up again and follow the world to its new dawn. She was going to make a new place for herself. It wasn’t going to be easy, but nothing worth doing ever was.

“I’m glad you think so,” Dot murmured. “I was worried you weren't going to want to hear that.”

Liko shook her head. “No… It was exactly what I needed to hear.” Liko wasn’t going to blame herself for feeling like the world was on the verge of leaving her behind. She didn’t know if she would ever be able to shake the feeling of having to run to catch up with something others were able to follow effortlessly. Still, that didn’t mean she was going to be behind forever. Time marched ever forward, and Liko was going to try to keep up with it.

Liko had been so caught up in her fear that she hadn’t realized it, but she knew she was making progress even after everything she had endured. She wasn’t as lost as she once had been anymore. Liko may have thought of herself as selfish for reaching out to others, but she needed them there. She needed all the support she could get in a time like this. She hated herself for needing it, but Liko was the only one who felt that way. Her friends wanted to help her. Dot wanted to help her. She needed them, and she knew they would be there to reach back and help her to find her place beside them when she was ready.

After all, time did march on, but that didn’t have to be something she feared. Liko didn’t know if she would ever truly be free of the pain and trauma she had been forced to endure. It could remain with her for the rest of her life, and she wouldn’t know it until it was too late for anything to change… But that didn’t mean she couldn’t heal. Her wounds of the soul felt like they were bleeding all over the ground beneath her feet and the hands of those who tried to stem the flow, but they were getting better. It had to get worse before it got better, and Liko was making progress. She may not have felt like it, but she felt better today than she had the day before. It may not have been easy, but she was doing her best to make the most of it.

“Things are going to keep going, and that’s not something to be afraid of,” Dot went on. Her gaze had found the wall opposite Liko’s bed, and there was something dark yet shining in her eyes. Liko recognized a bit too late that the glow came from her tears, and moments later, water began to spill across Dot’s cheeks too. “We can find a way to keep up with it. Maybe you just feel like you’re surviving right now, but… That’s going to change one day. Life moves on, and we can move on along with it.”

Liko found herself smiling, but all that did was make her cry harder. She didn’t bother with restraining her sobs now though. This was exactly what she had needed to hear. She felt like the past was going to control her forever. Liko feared being a puppet, her strings still held by the one who had ruined her so many times before… But she was away from him. Spinel couldn’t hurt her anymore. Liko was in a better place now, and she was determined to keep fighting to escape him for as long as she had to.

After all, time went on. There would be more time for Liko to claim this life as hers, and there would be more time for her to escape the grip of the man who had made her into his plaything for so long. No matter how long or dark the night became, there would always be a new day to end it. The dusk would give way to dawn, and the sun would shine once more. Liko’s life did not need to be over simply because she feared she would never move on. There was still hope out there. There was still light waiting for her, and it always would be.

One way or another, she was going to make this life her own. Liko didn’t know where to start, but she was going to be alright. She didn’t need to feel guilty about burdening others with her problems. She needed help, and her friends would be there to help her through her trials and tribulations. Dot was one of many, but she was not the only one. When Liko was ready to look to the future on her own, then she could join them, but until then, they would be happy to guide her through the world. No person faced the world alone, and Liko didn’t have to either. Some days, she would resent herself for it, but she could never let her hatred for her humanity consume her entirely.

To be human was to survive, and Liko was determined to do just that regardless of what it took.

“No matter what happens, I’m right here, alright?” Dot told her. “You don’t need to face this on your own. I’m here by your side. I don’t… I don’t want you to think you have to do all of this on your own. I know you feel bad when you talk to the rest of us about it, but you don’t have to. We’re here because we want to be. You’re not forcing us to be here. We care about you. I care about you. And if you can’t see that yet, then… I’ll keep caring about you until you can care about yourself during all of this too.”

Liko’s sobs only grew louder with Dot’s words, but she didn’t bother with holding herself back anymore. Dot cradled her impossibly closer, and all Liko knew was the rhythm of Dot’s heartbeat against her ear and the sleepy streams of tears flowing from her eyes. Somehow, that was all that mattered. Liko was crying, but she was going to be alright. She had others there for her. They were going to protect her through thick and thin, and she would be safe as long as they were by her side.

“Thank you, Dot,” Liko choked out around the knot in the back of her throat. Now though, the sensation of something around her neck came from her tears, and that was vastly preferable to the phantom twist of fingers trying to rid her of life and air. This was Liko’s choice. This was Liko’s grief, and she had every right to share it with those she loved most.

Dot pressed a kiss to the crown of Liko’s head, and Liko melted against the gesture of affection. “You’re welcome, Liko,” Dot whispered, her voice soft and sacred in every way Liko had ever needed it to be. Dot adjusted her position a little bit so she could pull Liko in closer, and Liko let the melody of Dot’s heartbeat against her ear escort her to the safety she had always needed so deeply. “I’m right here… And I’ll be here whenever you’re ready to move forward too.”

Liko nodded, and she felt sleep starting to consume her once more. She didn't bother with fighting it. There was a chance her dreams would take her back to that dark room where Spinel had tried to destroy her and snuff out her light, but she wasn’t afraid of it this time. After all, Dot would be right there when she woke up. If Liko struggled to sleep, then Dot would be there to console her. If Liko rested well, then Dot would still be there to share her joys just as she had shared her sorrows. They were together, and they would remain safe as long as they were there in one another’s arms.

Liko knew Dot was right with everything she had said that night. The world was moving forward, and Liko didn’t have to be afraid of it. She had a right to face the future with a smile on her face. The past may have contained horrors unspeakable, but the future was going to be brighter. Liko would fight however she had to in order to make sure of it. Even if she felt her grip on the present begin to slip, she didn’t need to cling to it alone. Other hands would be there to guide her forward when she needed the help. Asking for help was not weakness; it was the greatest act of strength a person could ever perform. Liko needed help, but that did not need to be a source of guilt or grief. She was safe, and she would be for as long as she had others there to guide her path.

Liko did not remember her dreams when morning came. Her body offered her rushes of panic a few times in the night, but she did not let her fear consume her. Instead, Liko let the sound of Dot’s heartbeat block out the terrors that thrived in the darkness. She was safe with her friends there to guide her, and she would never be alone again.

When night fell, Liko and Dot would go back to sharing a bed late into the hours of moonlight. Liko knew it would be alright though. After all, they would be sharing their joys and sorrows too, and there was no greater gift she could ever ask for than the love of those who she loved so deeply.

digitaldreams · Oct 9, 2025

“holiday happiness”

Prompt: Gifts - Post Date: 12/21/24 - Word Count: 2,622 - Rating: General - Content Warnings: None - Canon Compliant

~~~

Holidays aboard the Brave Olivine were chaotic to say the least.

Liko hadn’t known what to expect when she first heard from Friede that they would be doing a group holiday celebration. As it turned out, the entire affair was hectic just as the holidays could be expected to be. Liko spent weeks running around buying gifts for everyone in secret, and she knew the rest of the crew was doing the same. It was tough to buy things for people who she had to share living space with so closely, and that was an understatement. Still, somehow, the fated day of the gift exchange finally arrived, and everything finally fell into place.

Liko was incredibly happy with the way the exchange had gone. All of her gifts had been well received, and she was given wonderful presents as well. Liko struggled to carry it all back to her room, and it was only with Florgato’s help that she managed to bring everything to her space on one trip. Liko had to balance a box with a new jacket, a few books, art supplies, and a scrapbook among other smaller things. Floragato was handling the largest box of the bunch–one containing a bulletin board for all of her various art pieces–but it was still somewhat precarious.

Liko was relieved when she arrived back at her room, and she set everything down with a heavy sigh. She brushed her hands off and smiled at the assortment of items. It had been tough to get everything back where it belonged, but she was beyond happy with how this holiday had gone. The Rising Volt Tacklers were like a second family to her now, and she was glad she had all of them to lean on. Liko couldn’t have imagined anyone better to spend the holidays with as long as she was away from her parents.

“That was a lot of fun, wasn’t it?” Liko asked of her Pokémon. Terapagos called out her agreement from her place in Hattrem’s arms. Hattrem offered a chirp of her own agreement, glad to be around people expressing positive emotions instead of needing to fight those who were too negative in her space. Floragato meowed at that before setting the box in her arms down and stretching her claws out.

Liko couldn’t help but laugh at the tired meow from Floragato, and she stepped to the side so she wasn’t blocking her bed anymore. “I guess we’re all tired after all of that. You can all turn in for the night if you’d like. I don't want to keep you up any longer than I already have.”

Floragato yawned before settling down for the night, and Hattrem jumped onto the bed alongside Terapagos. Hattrem delivered Terapagos gently onto a nearby pillow and laid down for herself. Liko smiled at all three of them before turning her attention to her gifts. She was going to have to organize at least a few of them so the boxes didn’t get in her way of coming in and out of her room.

Liko hefted her new books and art supplies onto her desk, and she propped her bulletin board up against the desk’s side so it was out of the way. She would have to do a bit of reorganizing to make sure everything else fit well in a place where it could stay, but she was fine with that. It would be a nice activity to keep her busy the following day.

But first, Liko had something else she wanted to do.

Liko reached into the bottom drawer of her desk and pulled out one last wrapped present. She could have technically given it to its recipient that night during the proper gift exchange, but it had felt wrong to do that in front of everyone else. Liko had only gotten one present for the rest of her friends, and she didn’t want to make anybody jealous by having a single person she had two gifts for. She figured it was best given when the two of them were alone.

Though if Liko was being honest herself, she was happy to have any excuse she could to be alone with Dot.

Liko examined the present for a few moments, a content smile on her face. She hoped Dot hadn’t already turned in for the night. She knew how overwhelming social situations like this could be for Dot, and Liko didn’t want to push her beyond her limits. Still, Liko selfishly hoped that Dot was still up for a little bit of hanging out. She wanted to give Dot her other present while it was still on her mind. It was a particularly personal one, and Liko was a little nervous about it, but she hoped it would be received well.

Before Liko had the chance to question herself too much more though, a knock came at the door. Liko turned with a smile, and she set the present down on her desk before darting to the door. When she opened it, her smile grew wider. “Dot!” Liko greeted excitedly.

“Hey, Liko,” Dot replied. Her cheeks were pink where they peered out from beneath her curtain of purple hair, and one of her hands was pressed behind her back. “Are you free right now? I have something else I wanted to give you… When it was just the two of us.”

Liko felt her eyes go wide. Dot had an extra gift for her too? Liko had thought she would be the only one giving Dot something that night, but it was clear now that she had been wrong. “Yes… Yes, I’m free right now!” Liko answered, her voice a little bit too loud. When Floragato let out another tired meow from her spot curled up on the bed, Liko pressed one hand to her mouth and laughed softly. “Though we probably shouldn’t do it in my room. Floragato and Terapagos are tired after the day’s activities.”

“That’s fine,” Dot agreed. “We can go to one of the rooms farther down in the ship. We won’t have to worry about being interrupted there.” She rubbed at the back of her neck with the one hand that wasn’t hidden behind her back. “Quaxwell and Tinkatuff were both tired after today too. I guess this is a lot of activity for the Pokémon.”

Liko laughed and nodded. “Floragato tired herself out on the scratching post Mollie got for her too. Just give me a moment and we can go.”

“Huh?” Dot peered into Liko’s room after the blue-haired girl darted back in to grab her gift. The box was large and flat, and Liko could only barely fit it under her arm when she had it resting at her side. “You… You have something for me too?”

“I do,” Liko confirmed as she slipped out into the hallway. She pulled the door to her room shut behind her. “I could have given it to you when we were with everyone, but I didn’t want anybody to think I was picking favorites. N-Not that I think they would, but… You know what I mean.”

“Yeah… I do,” Dot nodded. Her grip on the item behind her back tightened. “This is a little bit personal too, and I didn’t want to have to… Explain it in front of everyone, I guess.”

“That’s alright,” Liko assured her. “Now, let’s find a good spot to do this.”

In the end, they settled on an open area on one of the ship’s lower levels. It was the same area where Cap held his Pokémon battling ring sometimes, but tonight, it was entirely empty. The Pokémon were all exhausted after their days spent with the ship’s residents, and Liko couldn’t blame them in the slightest. She was tired too, but she couldn’t sleep until after she had given Dot her extra present.

Dot sat down first, and she finally pulled the gift she had been hiding out from behind her back. The box was small, barely bigger than her hands, and it was wrapped in festive green paper. “Do you want to give yours first, or should I?”

“You can go first if you want,” Liko replied, her smile widening. She set her box down beside her so it was between her and Dot. “It’s all up to you.”

“Okay. Here’s yours,” Dot said, pressing the box into Liko’s hands. “I… I hope you like it.”

Liko turned the box over until her fingers found a catch in the paper she could easily tear from. “Thank you, Dot.” She tore at the paper, widening the opening until a small wooden box had been revealed. Liko set the wrapping paper aside and then opened the box to find… “Oh, Dot…”

Sitting at the center of the box was a replica of the pendant that had once been Terapagos. The texture was smooth, and while it was slightly different from the feel of Terapagos’ shell, it was eerily similar. The pendant even seemed to catch the light the same way, and when Liko pulled the necklace out of the box, she found herself admiring it for far longer than she probably should have.

Dot began to rub at the back of her neck again, and the pink in her cheeks grew deeper and brighter. “I, uh… I noticed that you tend to put your hands around your neck sometimes like you’re reaching for the pendant,” Dot explained nervously. “Even though Terapagos is Terapagos now, you still do it every once in a while, and I… I thought you might appreciate having something to hold onto.”

“This is amazing,” Liko whispered in awe, and the pendant sparkled aquamarine in the light. “How did you even get something like this? There aren’t any other pendants like this in the world!”

“I had a lot of camera and video footage from when you first came onto the ship,” Dot explained. “I sent all of the reference pictures I could to an artist who specializes in jewelry, and they made a replica for me. I… I thought you’d like it.”

“I love it!” Liko cried out. She slipped the pendant around her neck, cradling it so she was looking at its reflection with a smile. “This is beautiful, Dot. Thank you so much. I don’t think I can say it enough.”

“You’re… You’re welcome,” Dot murmured, squirming from embarrassment beneath Liko’s positive attention. “Should I open my gift now?”

“Yes, please do!” Liko nodded excitedly. She had gotten so caught up in the beauty of the replica pendant that she had completely forgotten there was something for Dot to enjoy too. Liko slid the box across the floor until it was right in front of Dot. “I hope you like it. I was a bit nervous about giving it to you.”

Dot hefted the box onto her lap before starting to pull it open. Beneath the wrapping paper was a cardboard box, but the tape had been cut on one side. Dot opened that side of the box and pulled out a black frame with a picture inside.

The print was a drawing of Liko, Dot, and their Pokémon all sitting together in Dot’s room. Liko had drawn it herself, and the bottom left corner was even marked with her signature. The style screamed Liko in every way, and while it was far from photographic, it didn’t need to be. It was even more precious this way, and Dot found herself staring at it with a dropped jaw. She even pushed her hair out of her eyes so she could get a better look at it.

“I really hope you like it,” Liko said next, aware she was rambling but unable to do anything to stop it. “I was worried it was too self-indulgent or corny, but… I really love drawing, and I’ve been drawing you for a while, so… I decided it was time I finally gave you art that had you in it. I’ve been working on it on and off for weeks now so I could get it done in time. I was hoping that you could hang it on your wall or something… I-If you want to do something like that, I mean.”

“Of course I want to!” Dot exclaimed. “Liko, this is beautiful!”

“I’m so happy to hear that!” Liko laughed, pressing one hand to her chest in relief. “I didn’t want it to seem cheesy or anything, and… I put a lot of time into it. I was hoping you would like it.”

“I love it,” Dot reiterated. She slid the frame to the side before launching herself into Liko’s arms, pulling her in close. “Thank you, Liko.”

Liko gladly returned the hug, and the pendant around her neck rested just between them. “You’re welcome, Dot,” Liko returned. When she pulled away from the hug, she continued to hold tightly to Dot’s hand. “Happy holidays, Dot.”

Dot nodded eagerly, squeezing at Liko’s hand in return. “Happy holidays, Liko.”

~~

After Liko and Dot went their separate ways for the night, Liko got ready for bed. She sat down on her bed with a heavy sigh, one hand drifting up to her neck to clutch tightly at the pendant Dot had given her. She was going to have to take it off before she went to bed, but she wanted to enjoy its presence for as long as she could until then. Liko hadn’t known what to expect from her impromptu gift session, but she hadn’t imagined she would get a gift so heartfelt.

Dot was right. Liko did tend to press her hands to her chest a lot. She hadn’t realized it was because she was feeling for the pendant even now that it was no longer there, but it made a lot of sense. Now though, Liko would be able to hold onto it whenever she wanted. It wouldn’t just be a reminder of her friendship with Terapagos; it would be a reminder of how much Dot cared for her.

The second to last thing Liko did before she fell asleep was pull the pendant off and set it right next to her phone. It would be the first thing she grabbed in the morning, and she couldn’t have asked for anything better.

But first, she had a message to send.

~~

Dot stepped away from the wall to admire her handiwork. She had a single frame on her wall these days showing off her in her Nidothing suit after one of her first big events online… But Dot could find another place for that later. Right now, there was something else she wanted to see much more.

Liko’s drawing fit perfectly, and Dot couldn’t help but grin every time she looked at it. Her smile was bright enough to make her cheeks burn, but she didn’t care. This was the best gift she could have asked for, and she loved it. Each day when she woke up, she would be able to look at it and remember all the hard work Liko had put into it just for her. Dot loved it more than anything, and she would always treasure having a little bit of Liko in her room no matter the time or day.

Dot continued to look at the picture even as she walked backward toward her bed. Dot’s phone buzzed when she sat down on her mattress, and she pulled it out to check the notification. It was from Liko, and it read:

‘Happy holidays, Dot. Love you lots <3’

Dot couldn’t help but smile, and she keyed out a response as quickly as her fingers would let her.

‘Happy holidays, Liko. Love you too’

digitaldreams · Oct 16, 2025

“august fourth”

Prompt: Anniversary - Post Date: 10/12/25 - Word Count: 5,009 - Rating: General - Content Warnings: None - Canon Compliant

~~~

The date was August fourth, and Liko could not have been more excited.

Earlier in the week, Liko had been sitting in her room when she received a knock on her door on the Brave Olivine. She had jumped to her feet immediately, having memorized the specific pattern behind Dot’s knocks ages ago. Dot had requested that they take advantage of the next chance they had to stop on the ground and go out to dinner. Apparently, the ship would be docking on August fourth, and that meant they would have the chance to go out and enjoy their time together away from the others on the Brave Olivine. Dot had phrased it as a question, probing carefully to see if Liko would be interested, but she hadn’t needed to ask at all. Liko was bound to say yes no matter what, especially because of the date.

After all, August fourth was one of the most special days of her entire life.

Liko had done everything she could to prepare accordingly. She picked out her cutest dress, selecting one in a shade of pastel blue and twirling around her room with it on. Meowscarada and Hatterene had both given their nods of approval, and Armarouge and Terapagos were every bit as impressed with her choice. Liko’s smile felt so wide that it was going to burst right off her face. She couldn’t have asked for a better dress to wear. She had always been told that she looked beautiful in blue, but there was something special about the pastel color that she was certain was going to come out that night.

A knock at the door pulled Liko out of her thoughts, and she gasped. She paused in front of her mirror to check her hair before she went to answer the call. Her hair had been perfectly tied back with braids wrapping around her head before coming together at the back of her skull. A blue flower was pinned into her hair as well. Liko had looked up a tutorial to make sure she was able to do it right and then practiced all throughout the week. She needed to make sure she looked her best, after all, and there was no date that she could ever imagine would be as important for her appearance to be impeccable. It was a lot of work, but Liko knew it was more than worth the effort.

Liko had already known Dot would be the one waiting for her on the other side of the door, and sure enough, it was her girlfriend standing there when she pulled the door open. Dot was wearing the same shade of blue that Liko was, though she had opted for a suit instead of a dress. Liko was certain that Dot had asked for Murdock’s help to make sure it looked as perfect as possible, and Mollie had helped to tie her hair back too. Everything about her was precious and radiant, and Liko wondered if any pictures would ever be able to match up to the effortless light that Dot gave off when she smiled.

“Liko,” Dot breathed, the air seemingly knocked right out of her lungs when she saw her girlfriend. “You… You look amazing.”

Liko grinned and spun on the spot, showing off every angle of her ensemble. A series of light blue rhinestones sewn into the dress gleamed from the shift of her body. “I’m so glad you like it!” Liko cried out. “You look incredible too.” Liko leaned over and pressed a kiss to Dot’s cheek, and the other girl immediately turned bright red from the force of her embarrassment. Dot had always been the type to fluster easily, and that remained every bit as true now as it had been when they first met so many years prior.

“I… Thanks,” Dot managed to choke out. She shook her head and cleared her throat, willing her brain to start working again. She couldn’t seem to snap out of the habit of falling speechless when Liko was this affectionate with her. Even though they had been dating for years, Dot had never quite grown out of the perpetual pinkness in her cheeks when Liko was around. “We should get going. We want to be able to make our reservation at the restaurant.”

Liko nodded. “You’re right. Let’s get going.” When Dot stuck her arm out for Liko to take it, Liko accepted the invitation without a moment’s hesitation. Dot had reserved a spot for them at one of the fanciest restaurants in the town they were set to stop in, and Liko had to wonder if perhaps she had talked to the others about making sure they settled down in that city specifically just for this. It wouldn’t have shocked her at all, but Liko wasn’t going to say anything about it until Dot did first. The last thing she wanted to do was give up the game when Dot had worked so hard to make that night special.

And how could she not? It was August fourth, and that was a day to be honored.

By now, Liko and Dot’s Pokémon were used to staying behind on the ship when the two went out for one of their date nights. Meowscarada had insisted on staying close at first, protective over Liko regardless of the circumstances, but she had developed an understanding of Dot’s intentions since then. She was more than fine with leaving them alone so long as she was able to hear all about the date after it was over. Tinkaton was similarly enthusiastic when learning about what Dot was up to, and she even managed to keep Gholdengo under control long enough for Dot to be able to leave the ship without worrying about her rowdy Pokémon companion. It had been an arrangement of theirs for a long time, but the magic of it all never seemed to fade. They all understood each other, and the Pokémon understood to give Liko and Dot their space when they needed it.

Dot led Liko away from the ship and into the streets of the nearby town. The city was beautiful at night, and Liko found herself smiling at the way the glowing from the buildings reflected off the water. She had been looking forward to this all day, and she found that it was every bit as romantic as she had once hoped. Dot claimed to be no good with planning dates, often preferring to let Liko take the lead, but Liko thought that Dot always sold herself short with these things. Dot knew what she was doing even if she didn’t entirely believe that was the case, and Liko always trusted in her more than anything.

“Alright. Here we are.”

Liko pulled her attention away from the lake when Dot spoke up, and she realized they had arrived at their destination. It was a small restaurant that overlooked the water, and Liko could tell from the atmosphere that this place was beyond elaborate and fancy. Dot must have been piling up quite a bit of money from her escapades online as Nidothing in order to afford this… Though that was part of the allure of it all, wasn’t it? Something related to Nidothing was perfect to top off a night like this.

As Dot stepped up to the host’s stand to say that they had a reservation, Liko found herself staring at her girlfriend with a dreamy sigh on her lips. Dot truly was beautiful when she took charge of situations like this. She was able to handle so much more than she had ever thought herself capable of back when they first met. A lot had changed, and in Liko’s opinion, it was all for the better. Dot had struggled with her confidence in the beginning, but now, she could take charge of a situation like no one else.

In Liko’s mind, Dot was at her most attractive when she was assertive like this. Dot had never been able to figure out what she wanted to do with her life until she joined the Rising Volt Tacklers, but since then, she had come into herself beautifully. Liko loved everything about Dot, but she loved seeing her shout about who she was from the rooftops most of all. There was nothing as precious to her as seeing Dot express herself in the ways that she had once struggled with. Dot was beautiful in more ways than Liko could ever hope to count, and it shone through whenever Liko was able to see Dot do something she had once struggled with. Even a task as simple as speaking with the host at a restaurant seemed like it was worthy of swooning in Liko’s eyes. She really did adore Dot, and she needed the rest of the world to see the same things in her girlfriend that she did as soon as possible.

“Come on, Liko.”

Liko was so distracted by staring at Dot in her lovestruck haze that she hadn’t realized the host was trying to lead them to their table until after Dot tugged on her arm. Their arms were still connected from where Dot had offered to lead her into town, and Liko found herself loving the touch more than she could ever hope to describe. “Right. Of course,” Liko nodded. She trailed after Dot into the restaurant with a smile on her face. Even Dot telling her that it was time to go and sit at their table in the restaurant was attractive to her. Was there anything Dot couldn’t do?

Once the host had seated them and then walked away, Liko pressed her elbow against the table. She missed the touch of Dot’s arm against hers as soon as it was gone, and she reached across the table to try and take Dot’s fingers between her own. Dot gladly accepted the gesture, and Liko sighed dreamily while looking into her girlfriend’s eyes. Dot couldn’t handle the eye contact for too long though, and she shied away with a small frown. “Is everything alright, Liko?” she asked softly. “I hope you’re not feeling sick or anything.”

“Of course not,” Liko answered. Unless sickness because of love counted, though Liko didn’t think that was what Dot was referring to. “I’m just… Really happy to be able to be here with you. Sharing today with you is so special to me, and there’s no other place in the world I would rather be than right here across the table from you.”

Dot’s blush intensified and then some, and she began to squirm on the spot in her seat. Liko couldn’t help but laugh at the sight. It had taken her a while to get the hang of flirting with Dot, but she liked to think that she was something of an expert at it by now. For a long time, Liko had simply said what she thought was true about Dot, and it had embarrassed her girlfriend to no end. Dot hadn’t known how to handle Liko’s honest thoughts since Liko didn’t realize that her truthful opinions could be so embarrassing. She hadn’t realized she was flirting with Dot the entire time until well after they got together, and she still caught herself acting that way when she let her guard down from time to time. Being kind to Dot was like breathing to her; it was second nature, and Liko couldn’t have asked for anything else to become so effortlessly embedded into her soul.

Liko always grew more sentimental on this day out of every day in the year. It was special to them both for more reasons than she could ever hope to count. The first time it had come, it had marked the start of something new in their relationship. The second time it had come, they had been apart from one another because of the Rising Volt Tacklers disbanding. The third time it had come, they were just starting to grow comfortable with each other again. After that, it turned into something of a tradition for them to spend the day together. They were already naturally drawn to each other enough when August fourth arrived, so they figured they may as well turn it into something concrete. If they were able to enjoy each other’s company, then they couldn’t ask for anything better.

“So… How are you feeling tonight?” Dot asked, forcing herself to calm down after Liko had so thoroughly flustered her. “I hope you’re enjoying the view and all that… I’ve heard the food here is really good, so you should enjoy it.”

“I’m sure I will,” Liko assured her. She always loved her date nights with Dot, and even if the food was subpar, Liko found a way to enjoy spending time with her girlfriend. That was what mattered to her far more than any meal they could have eaten. “It’s hard to not enjoy myself when you’re here.”

Dot’s face was so red that it seemed less like skin and more like a sphere of flame. She buried her face in the menu as soon as their waitress came around and gave them the laminated booklets containing the offerings of the restaurant. Liko and Dot ordered their drinks with smiles on their faces before the waitress walked away, but Dot kept her nose pressed firmly against the booklet. Liko couldn’t help but smile, pulling her hand away to look at her own menu.

Once Liko was out of her reach, Dot’s fingers drifted under the table toward her pocket. She was fiddling with something inside, but Liko was entirely oblivious on account of focusing too much on her own menu. Their conversation was bound to pick up again as soon as they had both committed to what they wanted for dinner. Liko was sure of it. Until then, she had the daunting task of deciding what she was hoping to eat.

When the waitress returned, Liko and Dot both put in their orders. Liko decided to be adventurous in her choice of meal, opting for a swordfish as her entree of choice. Dot went for something a bit simpler and selected a burger. Dot was far less interested in expanding her horizons when it came to food. She liked trying the sweets that Murdock made for her, but meat was another story, and Dot clung to what she knew she liked without really branching out. Liko found it charming; she was able to order for Dot at half the restaurants they went to with this in mind.

Dot remained as embarrassed as ever even after the waitress took away their menus though, her gaze locked on her lap. She was still fiddling with the strange object in her pocket, and Liko frowned when she realized Dot wasn’t focused on striking up a potential conversation between them. “Dot?” Liko asked. “Is everything alright? You seem a bit… Distracted.”

Dot snapped out of her thoughts all at once. “I… Um… I’m fine,” Dot assured her, shaking her head in an attempt to change the subject. “How are you liking tonight? Is it fun for you? I hope you’re enjoying yourself, but if you’re not, then we can–”

“I’m enjoying myself just fine, Dot,” Liko vowed. She raised her head and looked out over the lake, gladly enjoying the breeze blowing through the outdoor half of the restaurant. “It’s beautiful here, and the weather is lovely too. I don’t know how I couldn’t be enjoying it here. You chose an amazing spot, and I’m sure the food is going to be amazing too.”

“Good… I’m glad,” Dot nodded, but there remained something nervous about her demeanor. Liko frowned at the thought. It seemed like Dot was almost keeping something from her… But that didn’t make any sense. Dot had no reason to be so nervous during one of their date nights. She especially had no reason to be nervous when it was an August fourth date night. They were there to enjoy themselves. They were having fun. Liko knew they were. It was impossible for them to not have fun on a night like this.

Back in the earlier stages of their relationship, Dot had been a bit insecure about talking to Liko at times. She feared that she wasn’t good enough for her girlfriend, but Liko had done everything in her power to put those fears to rest whenever they appeared. There was no reason in the world that Dot would not be good enough for her, and she wanted to make sure her girlfriend knew it. Dot had gotten over her fear years ago, or so Liko had thought, but she was back to acting like that again. It didn’t make any sense, and it was starting to frighten her. Was Dot struggling in a way that she wasn’t talking about? What could have been happening for Dot to have such a hard time tonight of all days?

When their food arrived, Dot gladly took the distraction for what it was and focused on eating her burger. Her mouth was a bit too small for her to bite it while it was on the bun though, so she took to cutting it up into smaller pieces and then smothering it with fries. Liko concentrated on her swordfish, occasionally sneaking glances up at Dot whenever she could find the chance. The anxiety in the air wasn’t going anywhere, and Liko could feel it starting to creep beneath her own skin. Was something wrong with Dot? Was she not happy with the fact that they were spending time together that day? Would she have rather done something a bit simpler with her August fourth?

Once they were finished with their meal, Dot asked for a slice of cake for dessert for them to share. She hadn’t asked Liko about it at all, but Liko went along with it. If a sweet treat was what it would take to cheer Dot up, then she had no reason to protest… But she couldn’t just sit there quietly so long as there was a chance Dot was upset. She had to say something. She had to at least try to get through to her girlfriend. Dot deserved better than to simply sit in her pain like this forever.

“Liko?”

Dot spoke before Liko had the chance though, and Liko looked up to find her girlfriend was watching her through a few threads of purple and pink hair. “I… I have something I want to say to you,” Dot began. “Is now a good time?”

Liko nodded. “Of course it is.” Her heart began to beat a little faster. Maybe this would be when Dot explained what had her so nervous. Surely that was the case. Dot couldn’t expect to just hide something like this forever. She had a right to talk about her feelings, and Liko was determined to hear her out no matter what she was afraid of. They were going to be fine. They had to be.

“Alright… Here goes…” Dot took in a deep breath, and she reached across the table to take Liko’s hand in her own. “Liko… The years I’ve spent with you have been the best of my life. For a long time, I never thought I would ever be able to explore the world beyond my bedroom. I was too scared to take the first step, but… But you showed me how to have courage. You showed me what it meant to enjoy life. You showed me how to become myself. I don’t know who I would be if you hadn’t come into my life, but I don’t want to think about it either. I’m really happy that you’re here now, and I… I need you to know it.”

Now it was Liko’s turn for her face to shift from its natural color to a bright pink. Dot wasn’t finished though, and she looked up at Liko with eyes full of vulnerability unlike anything Liko had ever seen before. “Ten years ago tonight, I told you that I was Nidothing. We had just managed to fight against Spinel, and… And it felt like everything was different. I could feel my life change that night. It feels like everything is before and after that day… That first August fourth we spent together. Since then… So much has happened. We’ve grown up so much.

“When we weren’t able to spend the first anniversary together because of the Rising Volt Tacklers splitting up… I missed you so much. I couldn’t stop thinking about how much I wanted to be by your side. I wanted to celebrate that day with you. I wanted to celebrate becoming a new version of myself with you by my side. And then when we were together again… I realized something about the time that we were apart. I realized that all that time, I had been in love with you. I couldn’t figure out how to say it, but that was why it hurt so much. I just wanted to be there with you.

“Every August fourth that we’ve spent together since then… They’ve been some of the best days of my life. Streaming as Nidothing and SprigatitoLove, staying in and watching movies, going out on dates… They’re all so important to me. I’m going to treasure those memories for my entire life. So… So that’s why I wanted to bring you here tonight.”

Dot rose to her feet, and she pulled herself away from her chair. She stood just beside Liko’s seat, tilting the chair so it was facing a blank spot in between the outdoor tables. Dot’s fingers drifted toward her pocket, and she sank down to one knee. Liko’s eyes went so wide that she feared they would burst, and tears began to rise to life for both of them.

“I want those memories to become a lifetime,” Dot confessed, choking on her own emotions in more ways than she could ever hope to articulate. “I want to spend the rest of my life with you, Liko. I want to be with you forever. I want every day to feel like August fourth. I… I want to be with you. So I just need to know…” Dot revealed the item in her pocket to be a small box, and she pulled the lid back to reveal a silver ring. It gleamed with shades of purple and blue, its twin gemstones pressed up against each other at the center of the ornament. “Liko… Will you marry me?”

Liko could feel her heart screaming in her chest, and her hands flew to her mouth. “Dot…” She couldn’t stop her tears when they began to flow freely down her face, but she didn’t think she wanted to either. If it would help her to hold onto this moment for even a little bit longer, then she had to lean into it. She needed this to last forever… Or at the very least, as long as it took her to commit the details of Dot’s smiling face to memory. “Yes! Yes! A thousand times yes!”

Dot reached up with her other hand as her features were washed by a tidal wave of relief. She pulled Liko’s hand away from her mouth and then left it to hang in the air between them. Dot slid a ring onto Liko’s finger, and it fit perfectly. Liko pulled her hand up to her face so she could examine the gleaming sapphire and amethyst resting at the heart of the ring. They were perfect matches for their eye colors, and Liko knew that was exactly why Dot had chosen them.

Liko couldn’t hold herself back for a moment more, and she launched her body down into Dot’s arms. They looked like a blur of limbs, but Liko was more than fine with that. They were both wearing the pastel blue color to match Nidothing’s costume. On the first ever August fourth they spent together, Dot confessed to being Nidothing after their encounter with Spinel. That had been the start of everything between them, and Liko had chosen a dress of the same color as Nidothing’s costume for that night to make sure Dot knew that she remembered every reason that date was important.

And now, it was important for a bunch of other reasons too. It wasn’t just the day their lives had changed for the better because they met one another; it was the day they had promised their hearts to each other too. It was the day that Dot had asked the most important question of their lives. It was the start of the rest of their lives, and they would be able to make every day afterward into memories they could admire and treasure forever. This was the start of something beautiful and the continuation of the love they had shared for a decade. It was everything Liko could have ever asked for, and she didn’t know how she would ever be able to stop crying now that she had started.

Liko pulled away from Dot with a sniffle when her girlfriend finally managed to lever her back onto her feet. This was why Dot had been so nervous about her liking their outing. This was why Dot had been so distracted all night. She was trying to plan out her words for the proposal. She wanted to make sure they were perfect… But Dot was perfect no matter what she did. In Liko’s eyes, she would always shine, and she was looking forward to them being able to shine together from that moment forward.

“I-I’m so glad this was what you were planning all night!” Liko cried out. “I was so nervous that you weren’t enjoying yourself or that you wished we were doing something else with tonight! I mean, it’s August fourth, and I didn’t want you to be unhappy!”

Dot shook her head, easing Liko back into her seat. Their fingers remained interlaced as Dot settled into her own chair, and Dot felt gently across the underside of the ring on Liko’s third finger. “No… I was just trying to figure out how to ask you,” Dot assured her. Red began to creep into her cheeks once again, and she looked down at Liko’s ring. “And… I was wondering if maybe next August fourth would be a good day for a wedding.”

“Of course!” Liko cried out. She couldn’t think of any better day for them to get married. They would honor the date they had first met as the date they slipped rings onto each other’s fingers, and everything would end in just the same way as it had begun. Liko already couldn’t wait for the next year’s August fourth even if there was a bunch of planning that had to go into it.

By this time the following year, they would be married. The thought gave Liko chills, but she knew it was the best sensation she could have ever asked for.

The waitress brought out their slice of cake shortly afterward, setting down a fork on either side of the plate for both Liko and Dot. After Liko and Dot had both thanked her, Dot reached down to pick up the fork. “How about some cake?” Dot asked. “To start off our new lives together?”

Liko reached for her own fork, hesitating when she had to pull away from Dot but knowing it would be fine in the end. She and Dot would be right back to holding hands again as soon as they finished off the first treat of the next chapter of their lives. “I couldn’t ask for anything better!”

After they finished their food, Liko and Dot paused to have their photo taken in front of the lake. They walked around for a while longer until the sky was completely dark and they had seen all they were interested in. As hesitant as they were to finish off their night together, they knew something else beautiful was waiting for them when they returned to the Brave Olivine. They would be able to fill in everyone else on the details of the night, and they could tell the details of their engagement to the people they loved most.

Engagement.

Liko looked down at the place where her and Dot’s hands met just in between them. Her ring glittered in the moonlight, and Liko couldn’t help the way she smiled at the mere sight of it. This was where she was always meant to be. Ten years ago, she never would have imagined that the girl on the other side of the door on the Brave Olivine would mean this much to her. Ten years ago, she never would have imagined that she would be spending the rest of her life with one of the people she admired most. Ten years ago, she never would have imagined that she would have such a beautiful life to treasure with someone she adored.

But a lot could change in ten years. After a full decade of August fourths had come and gone, Liko could say that she was the person she had always been meant to be. A lot had changed, and she had gone through more hardship than she could express, but none of that mattered. It had led her to that shining moment, and she knew it was where she belonged.

Liko leaned over toward Dot, tilting her girlfriend’s head toward her. Their lips met in a soft yet passionate kiss. When they pulled away, their foreheads remained pressed together, and Liko smiled into the tiny space between them. She could feel Dot’s breath against her lips, and she hoped she would be able to feel her there for the rest of her life too. “I love you, Dot.”

Dot squeezed tighter at Liko’s hand, and the ring around Liko’s finger pressed into both of their hands. “I love you too, Liko.”

digitaldreams · Nov 8, 2025

“amethyst and sapphire”

Prompt: Eyes - Post Date: 1/18/25 - Word Count: 2,510 - Rating: General - Content Warnings: None - Canon Compliant

~~~

Liko had never been the best with eye contact.

This was a weakness she was willing to admit freely. She was just awkward around it, never quite able to figure out if she was looking into people’s eyes too much, too little, or just the right amount. Liko had tried to get to the bottom of it many times over the years, but she always seemed to fail. She stared at the ground instead of directly at anyone’s face, and if she had to look up at somebody, then she would find something to look at over their shoulder instead. It wasn’t the best system, and she knew that, but it was all that seemed to work for her.

Since joining the Rising Volt Tacklers, Liko had almost given up on eye contact entirely. No one there seemed to mind that she struggled to conform to the rules of society. If anything, they were happy with her just the way she was. Liko couldn’t have said enough how grateful she was that they were willing to care for her even with her shortcomings. She rambled about it from time to time, and Liko hoped her feelings were conveyed even when her words came out jumbled and messy.

Out of all the Rising Volt Tacklers though, Liko felt she was best understood by Dot. After all, Dot seemed to hate eye contact even more than Liko, and Liko hadn’t even thought that possible. Dot wore her bangs low as if she was trying to make sure she never had to even think about meeting gazes with the people around her. Liko knew there was probably more to it than that, but that was likely still a contributing factor. Dot was shy, and she wouldn’t have to entertain the idea of looking at people if they couldn’t see her eyes. How would they know for sure that she wasn’t looking at them or not? If they called her out on it, then Dot could deflect to the best of her ability. She had a perfect system in place, and it would keep her safe from anyone who tried to push the point of her struggles with eye contact.

Liko and Dot never really tried to look one another in the eyes when they spoke. Even so, they knew the other was listening no matter what. Liko was always attentive to Dot’s words even when she knew others would call her out for not doing much to tune in. Dot was much the same, hanging onto every syllable Liko spoke even if it didn’t look like it. The two simply understood one another, and they were happy with the system they had worked out in the silence. They didn’t need to look each other in the eyes. They were more than fine with settling for this alternate pattern of theirs. Liko was more than fine with it. For the first time ever, she felt there was no pressure around failing to look at the others around her directly. For the first time ever, Liko felt like she was understood in a way that went well beyond words and directly into actions.

As time passed by, Liko and Dot grew closer. They still didn’t feel the need to look one another in the eyes all that often, but they didn’t have to. Their bond didn’t require such petty expressions of social conformity. Their friendship may have been strange to the outside eye, but what did they care about being strange? They were happy together, and others could judge them all they wanted as long as they were at peace.

Liko and Dot were both changing a lot now that they were on the road for their Terastal course, and Liko found herself smiling each time she thought of it. Dot had been growing stronger for a while now, but her spike of confidence since the start of the Terastal course truly was a sight to behold. Dot had once struggled to leave her room for longer than a few minutes even if it was just to dart to the kitchen to get some food and then return to her room. Now, Dot stood tall and proud alongside Quaxwell, fighting with everything she had. Dot was stronger of heart and spirit than she ever had been before, and it showed through her posture, her voice, and her personality. Liko found it beautiful, and she smiled each night when she remembered the raw strength of the friend resting just beside her in her sleeping bag.

But the most notable change to Liko had been that she started to see Dot’s eyes more and more often. As Dot picked up steam and determination, her eyes found a way to push through the curtain of her purple and pink hair more frequently. Dot had once struggled to look at anyone, including Liko, but now she was able to handle herself with a grace and confidence that she had never imagined. Liko loved being able to see it even if she was only standing on the sidelines during Dot’s battles. She knew this was the Dot she admired, and she was always going to be proud of the work she had put in to make it this far.

Liko couldn’t say when the thought first came to mind, but it was at some point after Dot fought against Larry for her Terastal course. Liko couldn’t seem to get the image of Dot’s determined smile out of her head. It was the last thing she thought about each night, but the most striking part of that grin was Dot’s eyes and the shine within them. Dot had gained a lot since the start of the Terastal course, and Liko was honored to have been given the chance to witness it. In some ways, she felt like she was seeing something personal that she shouldn’t have been there… But Liko wanted to be there for it more than anything. She wanted to see everything Dot could have shown her. She wanted to know her friend even better than before. She wanted them to smile at one another. For the first time ever, Liko wanted to look into the eyes of someone. She wanted to lose herself in those amethyst gems for hours upon hours at a time. Liko would have done anything to dive into Dot with everything she had and embrace her completely.

Liko only found the word to describe her sudden affection a few weeks after it began. She had been fond of Dot for a while, but Liko hadn’t ever put the word ‘love’ to it until after she started to dream of Dot’s eyes each night. This was love, wasn’t it? Liko hadn’t known to call it that at first, but now, she knew that to be the truth. She was in love with Dot, and it was a hopeless kind of romance. It was everything Liko had ever wanted, and it was so much greater than she could ever be on her own.

One day on the road to Roy’s second battle for the Terastal course, Liko and Dot were left alone in the camping spot they had set aside for themselves. The Pokémon were out playing with one another, and Roy was supervising them to make sure they didn’t get into too much trouble. Liko was staring out at the Pokémon with a smile on her face, but her gaze kept dropping down to where Dot was laying down beside her.

Dot was bundled up in her sleeping bag, trying to fend off the cold of the afternoon and only halfway succeeding. Dot was looking at her phone, and the device was floating in the air just above her head. Dot’s gloved fingers occasionally reached up to scroll down on the screen. Liko knew she shouldn’t have been watching her so closely, but it felt like all she could do.

After all, Dot’s hair had fallen away from her face ever so slightly, giving Liko the perfect view of her shining purple eyes. Dot didn’t even seem to notice that her eyes were no longer completely covered, so lost in her scrolling as she was. Liko felt like she was intruding on something private, but she kept sneaking glances down at Dot. She wanted to look into those eyes for hours on end. Maybe she would end up burning all the time they had together while waiting for Roy to come back, but Liko couldn’t bring herself to care. She just wanted to be there, and she needed it more than anything.

Liko hadn’t realized just how long her staring had grown to be during her current sneaky glance. Dot looked around her phone, and her gaze met Liko’s in the blink of an eye. Liko felt her heart stop, but at the same time, it started to race in her chest. It wasn’t as romantic as Liko had thought it would be, but it didn’t have to be. She was there with Dot, and she loved it. Maybe she was just yearning without an ending coming to any of it. Liko didn’t care though. Perhaps yearning was everything she needed now. Maybe that love was enough to consume her and leave her warm in the face of the snow that surrounded her. It certainly felt like more than enough, burning hotter and brighter than any fire could ever hope for.

“Is something wrong, Liko?” Dot asked. Her cheeks were pink, though Liko couldn’t tell if that was because of embarrassment or the cold closing in all around them. Dot’s eyes remained unchanged by the temperature though, instead staring into Liko’s sapphire irises with all the light in the world. It was perfect in a way Liko could never hope to put to words.

But she had to respond to Dot sooner or later. Liko tripped over her words at least three times before she was able to finally forge a reply. “I… I really like your eyes!” Liko found herself blurting out. She only realized what she had said after the words left her lips, and she clapped her hands over her mouth. There was no taking them back now, but Liko wished she had been a bit more tactful about saying it. She couldn’t just declare something like that out of the blue! What if it gave Dot the wrong idea? Then again, Liko supposed that it wouldn’t be the worst thing ever if it gave Dot the impression that she was interested in her. Liko had loved Dot for a long time, and she still didn’t know how to put it into words. All she could seem to do was offer declarations of her care for Dot and hope that it reached her friend’s heart. It wasn’t quite the confession Liko knew it should have been, but at least the kindness would make its way to Dot in the end regardless.

Dot’s cheeks went impossibly redder in an instant, her flustered embarrassment blending with the frigid chill of the air around her. She turned away, and her purple hair collapsed over her eyes again to hide them from view. Liko immediately missed them more than anything, and an aching sensation built up in her chest. “I… Thanks,” Dot managed to choke out, though the words were clearly a trying battle for her as well.

Liko did her best to not wince openly. She had messed it all up by commenting on Dot’s eyes. Now she couldn’t look at them anymore. Dot’s hair was in the way again, and it was all because Liko had gotten clumsy with her words again. Why couldn’t she just say what she meant? It would make all of this so much simpler, and yet, she could never figure out what needed to be said or when the right moment to say it was. Liko was a disaster through and through, and she doubted that would ever change.

Dot slowly turned over so she was looking back up at Liko, and her hair fell away from her eyes once again. Liko felt her heart stop when she realized that Dot was staring at her too. This was perhaps the longest they had ever looked into one another’s eyes, but it didn’t feel like enough. It would only be enough if it lasted forever. It would only be enough if Liko could find herself lost in a labyrinth of shining violet until her heart finally gave in beneath the strain of her affections.

Dot opened her mouth to speak once and then twice. She seemed like she was going to give up, but in the end, she forced herself to power through. “I… I think your eyes are pretty too.” Dot seemed for a moment like she was going to turn away out of embarrassment, but she didn’t do it, instead swallowing dryly and continuing to lose herself in pools of cerulean.

Liko felt her cheeks warm from the compliment, but she didn’t let herself look away either. “Thanks, Dot.” That name was everything to her in that moment, the most precious treasure she could have ever wanted. They belonged there together, and Liko wanted to prove it with each second she kept staring into Dot’s eyes. This was the best place in the world to Liko. The cold of the Paldean tundras was nothing when compared to the beautiful warmth that Liko and Dot could find in one another. Nothing could have ever been this special or bright.

Dot slowly began to shuffle closer to Liko, her sleeping bag making the movements hilariously awkward. Liko only fully registered what was happening when Dot’s head wound up in her lap, tilted up so they could continue to stare at one another. Liko could have sworn her heart stopped, but her desire to keep looking at Dot with such boundless love started it up again a moment later. Nothing mattered as much as being there with the girl she loved. Nothing could ever hope to matter that much.

For what felt like an eternity, Liko drowned in an ether of purple starlight. She brought Dot with her, and hand in hand, they dove into waves of indigo blended from amethyst and sapphire. Liko knew she was breathing, and she could feel the air rattling against her heartbeat, but she didn’t process any of it. All that mattered was sitting there and enjoying the presence of the person she admired most. The Explorers didn’t exist, and the troubles that came with them were long gone too. Liko didn’t even feel like a student in the Terastal course. She was just a girl in love, and she was more than happy to let that love swallow her and never let her go again. The best place in the world for Liko was by Dot’s side, and that would never change.

This was the best Liko had ever been with eye contact, and she would love it for the rest of her days.

digitaldreams · Nov 17, 2025

“screaming secrets”

Prompt: Secrets - Post Date: 2/1/25 - Word Count: 3,057 - Rating: General - Content Warnings: None - Canon Compliant

~~~

Contrary to what one might expect, Dot did not consider herself a secretive person.

It sounded strange when she said it out loud, but when push came to shove, Dot didn’t think she really hid all that much from the world. She was quiet and introverted, vastly preferring the company of Quaxly in her room than most of the people around her, but that didn’t necessarily make her secretive. There were very few things she went out of her way to keep hidden, and even then, Dot felt it was less about secrecy and more about a basic right to privacy. She had every right to hide what she chose not to share with the world. There was no reason for her to get caught up in her own head about it.

When Dot first joined the crew of the Brave Olivine, she was quickly found to be quiet yet expressive. Dot didn’t talk all that much, but when she did have an opinion on something, she knew how to make it heard. Back then, her temper could be explosive at times, an echo of racket from the other side of her closed door, but others still knew how to accept it. Dot wasn’t really hiding much of anything about herself. She preferred to stay alone in her room, but she wasn’t going out of her way to keep things hidden. What point was there to trying something like that? Dot had nothing to hide.

The only thing Dot could really say she kept secret was her identity as Nidothing. She did streams at odd times, and she just asked the rest of the Rising Volt Tacklers to stay away from her room when those streams popped up. Dot didn’t tell them openly that she was Nidothing, but she didn’t really have to. They would figure out everything they were supposed to, and that was all that mattered. Dot didn’t need to make sure they knew who she was or what she was doing. They didn’t feel entitled to her time. They could figure out whatever they were smart enough to figure out, and Dot could tell them the rest of it on her own time.

That was a decision she was willing to stand by too. Dot didn’t deliberately reach out all that often, but she wasn’t keeping much of anything hidden from the world around her either. If people were curious, then they could ask about it, and she could decide then if she felt like she was ready to share it or not. Nobody was going to pressure her into talking about things she wasn’t comfortable with, and she was happy that way. Dot had everything under control, and she felt like her secrecy and privacy were exactly what they should have been. Now that Blanca wasn’t looking over her shoulder all the time, Dot knew what she wanted to do with her time, and she knew that she had no reasons to bury things deep into the ground. Dot wouldn’t have ever said that she was necessarily open about how she felt, but she wasn’t hiding it either. There was a healthy medium somewhere in the middle, and Dot was glad to know that she could sit on it comfortably.

Somehow, the person who threw a wrench into all of Dot’s previous thoughts about herself was Liko. Liko was one of the newest members of the Rising Volt Tacklers, and she was every bit as eager for adventure as she was naive at times. Dot had come to find it a bit charming when she was first learning about Liko from afar. Even though Dot didn’t have much of a reason to leave her room, she sat in the darkness and watched camera footage from around the airship.That told her everything she really needed to know about Liko and later Roy. Dot hadn’t ever spoken to them directly, but Dot still felt like she understood them. They were bound to come around and try to understand her too, and Dot would handle that problem when it came up.

To say Dot was resistant at first would have been an understatement. She forgot just how bad she was at talking to other kids her age until she heard Liko and Roy talking outside her door. Dot regretted blowing up at them as soon as she had done it, but it wasn’t as if she was ready to leave her room behind to chase after them and apologize. It wouldn’t have felt genuine even if she had bothered with it. So instead, Dot just sat in her bedroom, endured Quaxly’s admonitions, and hoped that maybe things would get better soon.

And much to her relief, they did. It didn’t take too long for Dot to start feeling comfortable around Liko and Roy, and while she still spent a lot of time in her room, she was willing to go outside to visit the two of them every once in a while. Liko and Roy were warm and inviting, and while they were a bit overwhelming, Dot still enjoyed their company. For once, she felt like a normal kid, and she hadn’t realized just how desperately she had always been chasing that feeling until it was set right in front of her. This was where she was at her happiest, and she knew it.

Still, Liko and Roy were far from perfect… And there was no place Dot found that truth clearer than the time she tried to tell Liko that she was Nidothing. She really thought she was saying it obviously. How else could Liko interpret a picture of Nidothing eating a sandwich with the same setup that Liko had left behind for her when she went out on a trip with the rest of the Rising Volt Tacklers? Apparently, Liko thought of Dot as a Nidothing super fan, and she believed the costume she had seen on the airship was a mockup that Dot had made. It should have been obvious that Dot was the one and only Nidothing, but that was the last thing to come to Liko’s mind. Liko really thought that it was impossible, and the idea of Nidothing being on the airship never seemed to occur to her.

Dot had to practically scream it at Liko for her to finally get it. Dot’s cheeks were hot by the time she was finished with her confession, and she felt out of breath like she had just declared her love instead of explaining that she was an internet personality and influencer. Liko had been shocked by it, immediately understanding all of the hints that had been left behind for her. Dot had sighed in relief and shaken her head, not knowing how someone could have ever been that clueless in the first place. Liko was a special kind of charming, Dot supposed. Liko respected her a lot, and yet, she seemed to get too caught up in her own assumptions to really see what was happening. It was interesting to watch, though it made Dot cringe in hindsight.

Dot was glad Liko knew the truth about her being Nidothing now. Dot hadn’t ever really felt the need to hide it, but it had wound up as a secret from Liko anyway because she simply didn’t understand the situation. Dot slept easier at night once she had gotten the truth out of her head and into the air between her and Liko, and she hoped that would be the end of it. She had taught Liko that there was more to her than met the eye, and going forward, Liko would know better than to make any assumptions about Dot without investigating them.

That was what Dot had hoped.

Reality was… A lot more complicated than that.

As Dot spent more time with Liko, she found herself enjoying her company a lot more than ever before. Dot had always struggled with making friends with others her age, and she always seemed to get caught up in her head when trying to puzzle out a social interaction. Liko didn’t mind that at all, taking Dot for herself with a smile on her face. It was refreshing in a way Dot hadn’t expected, and she found herself feeling at peace with Liko in a way that no other person could ever hope to replicate. Dot admired Liko more than anyone, and she would have done just about anything to stay by her side.

That feeling quickly gave way to another revelation that hit Dot like a punch to the stomach. That wasn’t a normal way to feel about a friend, was it? If anything, it sounded more like the love confession Dot had felt like she gave to Liko the night she told her she was Nidothing… And that led to all sorts of other rocks of emotion tumbling down the mountain of Dot’s mental state. She wasn’t just a friend to Liko. She wanted to be something so much more.

And Dot didn’t think she was being subtle about it. Even before she realized her emotions for Liko and what they meant, Dot had been hopelessly devoted to Liko. She wanted to see Liko shine. She wanted to make sure her friend’s confidence grew stronger and greater as their journey continued. She wanted to watch as Liko became herself and grew into her own. Dot had always hidden her eyes from the world out of something like shame and embarrassment, but with Liko, Dot wanted to push her hair aside and see the light for what it was. She wanted to be blinded by the glow of the girl she adored most. She wanted to live in the light of the stars instead of the darkness of her bedroom, and Liko was the brightest star of all.

Unfortunately for Dot, her opinions on what constituted subtlety were very different from what Liko thought of the word. Dot felt like she was being as obvious as could be, and anyone with half a brain would be able to look at her and figure out that she was in love with Liko. Apparently, Liko had less than half a brain though, and she hadn’t figured out a thing. She still talked about Dot like they were just friends. Each time she said something about how glad she was to have Dot as her friend, Dot had to fight the urge to cringe. Was it really so unclear to her? Did Liko really not see what Dot was trying to communicate? Even Friede had picked up on it by now, and he had to be nudged in the right direction by both Mollie and Orla before he recognized that Dot had a hopeless crush. Friede teased her about it from time to time, and Dot’s cheeks always flared with pink as she told him to be quiet. Liko didn’t seem to realize they were talking about her, or if she did, then she chose to not ask about it.

Dot felt like her skin was getting ready to burst free of her skin when she thought about it. Today, she and Liko were sitting on the Brave Olivine and going through the supplies on the ship to make sure their inventory was in order. Taking care of so many Pokémon was hard work, and they needed to ensure they had enough food for everyone while fitting their specific tastes. Dot found the work simple, and while it wasn’t her favorite thing to do, she greatly enjoyed keeping everything in order. There was something fun to her about getting everything lined up in its perfect spot so that it would be easy to access next time a person came down to the interior of the ship.

Liko was reading off a list of everything she had to check off, murmuring the words to herself and checking the boxes off with a pen. About halfway down the page, she jerked the pen a bit too much because the airship jolted first. Liko’s pen went flying out of her hand, and it rolled across the floor toward Dot.

“Sorry, Dot!” Liko chirped, her cheeks going pink as the other girl grabbed her pen. Dot handed it back to her without any problems, and Liko smiled behind the clipboard in her hands. “Thanks. You’re a great friend.”

Dot really didn’t know what about it bothered her so much. She had been trying to be obvious about how she felt about Liko for ages, but it never quite seemed to read the way she wanted it to. Maybe she simply reached the end of her patience and had to scream her feelings out before they ate her alive. Maybe she had grown tired of dropping hints but never outright saying it. Liko had called Dot her friend many times before, and while it was true, it wasn’t enough. Dot couldn’t let that be the end of it anymore.

Dot didn’t think of herself as a very secretive person, and yet, Liko’s oblivious nature had prompted her to keep something this massive like it was a secret for months. Dot couldn’t do it anymore. She had to be honest, and she was going to make sure Liko understood her confession for what it was. If Dot had to practically yell the truth about her being Nidothing for Liko to understand it, then she was fine with yelling the truth about her feelings out now too.

“I like you, Liko!” Dot blurted out. She already knew how Liko was going to misinterpret it though, and she could see Liko moving to form the words that she liked Dot a lot too. “No, not as friends! I mean as something more! I don’t want us to just be friends anymore! I… I love you, Liko!”

The words came out a lot more aggressively than Dot had intended, and she realized a bit too late that she had started shouting the same way she had when she admitted to being Nidothing. Dot had thought the first time that it sounded like a bizarrely aggressive love confession to the outside ear, and she realized now that she was making the same mistake twice. The only difference was that this time, it actually was a love confession… Assuming Liko was able to see it as that.

And judging by the way Liko’s cheeks were being dyed brighter and brighter red, Dot could only assume that it had hit the mark. Dot found herself fiddling with her hair, desperate to hide her eyes just in case Liko looked up at her and decided to say something that embarrassed her. “I mean… If you want to be closer than friends, then I want to be too,” Dot muttered, the weight of her actions finally catching up to her. “You don’t have to agree to it if you don’t want to, and the last thing I want is for you to feel like you have to say yes, but–”

“That’s so sweet of you, Dot!” Liko exclaimed when she finally managed to get a grip on her words. She began to twirl a few threads of her hair around her finger, forgetting all about her pen and clipboard in her flustered state. “I… I think I feel the same way too…? It’s kind of hard to describe.”

“You… Huh?” Dot questioned, her eyes going wide. “You think you do?”

“Yeah!” Liko replied with a bright grin. “Whenever you’d say that you wanted to be with me no matter what, it really meant a lot to me! I always just thought you meant that in a friendly way though. I thought that was what friends did.”

Dot wanted to slam her face into her palms then and there, but she forced herself to keep her posture as straight as she could muster. “You… You thought I was just saying that to be nice?” she asked incredulously. “Why would I say that for the sake of being nice? Have you ever heard Roy say something like that to either one of us?”

That gave Liko pause, and she hummed before laughing. “I guess not. I just thought we were really special friends.”

Dot groaned under her breath. Somehow, she couldn’t say she was surprised to hear that Liko had thought that she was just trying to be nice. Liko really couldn’t see the forest for the trees sometimes. Of course all of Dot’s smaller comments meant something. Why would she say something like that just to be nice? What kind of friendship was Liko imagining in her head when she said that she thought this was what friends did?

“But…” Liko’s voice caught Dot’s attention again, and the purple-haired girl looked up to see her smiling. “If you want to be something more than friends, then… I’d be happy to be by your side from now on.”

Dot’s entire body seemed to short circuit, and she barely realized it when she nodded. “Yeah… I-I’d love that!” She didn’t realize that she had started to shuffle her way over to Liko until she took the other girl’s hand in her own. Liko’s palms were sweaty from her sudden burst of embarrassment, but Dot couldn’t bring herself to mind. Sweaty palms or not, it was perfectly fine with her so long as she was able to say she was enjoying time with Liko.

Dot and Liko quickly forgot about the inventory they were supposed to be taking, but Dot didn’t care about it at all. She was glad to finally have that secret off her chest… Not that she thought it was really supposed to be much of a secret in the first place. Maybe she had underestimated just how oblivious Liko could be sometimes. If it had taken this long for Liko to accept Dot’s words as romantic and not platonic, then it had to be worse than Dot ever imagined.

One thing was for certain though… If Dot ever decided to propose, she couldn’t go for a subtle confession. She didn’t know if she would be able to stand another hinting game ever again. Even if she wound up screaming again, that was fine by her.

If it would finally make Liko understand how much she cared, then Dot would do anything.

digitaldreams · Nov 18, 2025

“seeking your pyres”

Prompt: Snow - Post Date: 2/22/25 - Word Count: 3,008 - Rating: General - Content Warnings: None - Canon Compliant

~~~

Dot had made smarter decisions.

When the Rising Volt Tacklers returned to Paldea, they decided it would be the perfect chance to drop by and visit a few old friends they hadn’t seen in a while. For Liko, that meant planning to climb Mount Glaseado so she could challenge Grusha to another battle. She had come a long way since their initial fight, and Liko was determined to prove that she could beat him in a Pokémon battle. Even with the type disadvantage, Liko refused to let her previous failure be the end of it, and so, she bundled up warm and decided to push up the mountain.

Dot wanted to accompany her to make sure she was safe. It wouldn’t do if another tragic incident repeated on top of the mountain and Liko wound up trapped or hurt somewhere. Dot refused to leave Liko alone on the mountain, and so, the two started their journey up to Grusha’s gym together. Liko was eagerly awaiting the battle, and Dot was happy to be by her side through it all. No matter what, they were determined to reach the gym and then see this battle through so that Liko could prove herself to Grusha. Her relationship with him was nowhere near as strained as it once had been, and she was looking forward to challenging him for a second time.

Unfortunately, Liko and Dot had forgotten about one tiny detail: they were on a mountain. That meant they were subject to the whims of the weather, and Mount Glaseado was relentless. A sudden blizzard began to pelt them when they were about halfway to the gym, and they knew they wouldn’t be able to make it the rest of the way to their destination in weather like this. Instead, they decided to hide out in the cabin that they had used for shelter during their first trip up the mountain. It was far from ideal, but it was the best option they could think to turn to right now, so it would have to do.

Dot wished that she had worn warmer clothes. She remembered well just how cold Mount Glaseado could be, and she had even bundled up more than before to make sure the cold didn’t get to her. Apparently, that still wasn’t enough even with an extra layer or two. Dot was still shivering, and the snow outside absolutely was not helping. Dot would have loved to have the same enthusiasm Roy did when he was left out in cold weather like this. He loved playing around in the snow and embracing whatever adventure he could. Dot, however, found herself regretting ever leaving her bedroom when she was forced to face temperatures like this.

Liko let out a heavy sigh as she pushed the door to the cabin shut behind her. It had taken a bit more force than it should have on account of the heavy winds outside. The cabin had held firm through many other storms before though, and it would outlast this one too. “It really is coming down out there, isn’t it?” Liko asked Dot as she looked over her shoulder.

Dot had already taken to standing by the fireplace, trying to muster up the courage she needed to start the fire. For now, she was rubbing her hands up and down her arms in an attempt to warm herself up. “I think that might be an understatement.” The snow was not simply ‘coming down.’ It was pelting the earth at a nearly horizontal slant, and Liko and Dot would have been buried ages ago if they had stayed outside in it for any longer than they already had. Meowscarada and Quaquaval had already struggled to withstand the cold, and they had been forced to retreat into their Pokéballs when the snow grew too heavy.

“At least we’re inside now,” Liko pointed out, and Dot offered a shivering hum of agreement. Liko started over to the fireplace and began preparing to light it. Dot didn’t know how Liko was able to move with such precision during all this cold. Dot felt like she was shaking too much to even type on her Rotom phone, and there Liko was handling an entire fireplace without batting an eye. Dot had always known she was vulnerable to the whims of temperature, but she hadn’t realized just how bad it could get until she was faced with Liko having nowhere near as many problems.

Liko still fumbled a few times with the wood before she finally managed to spark the fireplace to life. “There we go!” Liko stood up and stepped back to admire her handiwork. It took a few seconds more before the wood was fully consumed by the fire, but Liko was fine with that. As long as the process had been started, she knew they would be alright soon enough. “We should probably check the heater to see if it’s on. If not, then we should turn it up.”

Dot waddled her way over to the heater and found that while it was on, it wasn’t all that high. If Dot had to guess, she would have said that the heater was only high enough to keep the building from being completely consumed by the ice. Dot tapped at the thermostat until the temperature in the cabin began to rise. It wasn’t enough to immediately stop her shivering, but it at least helped a little bit. Dot’s trembling began to slow, though it still refused to stop entirely.

“I don’t think we’ll be able to make it up to the gym tonight,” Liko sighed. She had strayed over to one of the windows, and she had her gloved hands pressed up against the glass. “The storm doesn’t seem to be showing any signs of stopping. We’ll probably have to spend the night here and then finish the rest of the journey up to the gym in the morning.”

Dot bit back a groan. She had been hoping that she would be able to get this over with as soon as possible. It would be warmer up at the gym even though the elevation was higher. The gym’s main building at least had significant heating, and that was all Dot wanted right now. The cabin had a bit of warmth to offer, but it didn’t feel like it was enough nor would it ever be enough.

Dot knew that this was her own fault. She was the one who had chosen to go along with Liko to visit Grusha and see the second battle between them. Dot could have easily left Liko to go on her own and trusted that Meowscarada, Hatterene, and Pagogo would take care of her. Dot couldn’t do that though, at least not in good conscience, so there she was. It was her own fault that she had made this choice, but Dot still wished things could have gone even slightly better. She was already sick of the snow, and she still had at least another five days to look forward to on the mountain because of the random storm stopping their progress.

“Oh, this is neat!” Liko exclaimed, and Dot turned to find Liko over in another part of the cabin. “They put beds in since we were last here. We won’t have to sleep on the floor this time.”

That was right. The last time they had been in the cabin, they had to sleep on the floor since there hadn’t been any beds. Now though, there were two beds tucked into the corner of the main room. Dot was glad to know she would have a better place to rest than a simple sleeping bag that night. After all, that was another reason she was looking forward to reaching the gym: sleeping on something softer than the ground.

“We should push these over toward the fire so that we’ll be a bit warmer tonight,” Liko suggested, and she began trying to maneuver the first of the two beds over in the direction of the hearth. Unfortunately, Liko was nowhere near strong enough to move it on her own. Dot darted over to her side, and together, the two were able to put their meager strength into something just sufficient enough to move the bed. Dot was out of breath by the time they were finished, but she didn’t get long to recover. They still had another bed to move.

Dot practically collapsed onto the mattress of the second bed once she and Liko were finished moving it. “I hate the cold,” she complained. Hate was certainly one way to put it, but Dot could think of stronger words. She wasn’t cut out for extreme temperatures like this. She never had been. Her weaker constitution fell apart like a piece of wet paper the instant she was put under any degree of strain from heat or chill. Dot wished she had just asked Orla to drop them off at the Glaseado gym when they were still on the Brave Olivine. She didn’t know how Orla would have maneuvered the airship to the top of the mountain, but Dot still felt she should have at least tried to ask.

“It’s a lot worse than we thought it was going to be, isn’t it?” Liko asked, and Dot offered little other than a groan of agreement. “I guess we should try to get some rest. We want to head out to see the gym as soon as possible tomorrow, and it would probably help us if we could get a head start in the morning.”

“Yeah… I guess you’re right.” There was one advantage to being asleep at a time like this: if Dot was unconscious, then she couldn’t spend all her time and energy thinking about how cold she was. In a perfect world, she would close her eyes, go to sleep, and then wake up to find that the snow storm was over. It would probably be harder to continue up the mountain in such cold temperatures, but Dot was willing to work with that. She would see this through. She didn’t like that she was out in the cold in the first place, but she couldn’t let it stop her when Liko needed her support.

Liko and Dot settled down into the two beds, letting the warmth of the cabin and the heat from the fire stave off the cold just outside the door. Dot pulled up the blankets on the bed as close to her face as she could stand. Her nose was still red and freezing from the frigid temperatures outside, and it wasn’t the only thing suffering. Dot’s toes were yearning for warmth even inside her socks and snow boots. Her fingers wanted anything hot they could find from their hiding place inside her gloves. Dot felt like Mount Glaseado had somehow gotten colder since she was last there, and she hadn’t even thought something like that was possible.

Even with the warm blankets on top of her, Dot couldn’t stop shivering. She fought to keep her teeth from chattering, but there was only so much energy she could dedicate to that before she gave up entirely. Maybe she should ask if one of her Pokémon was comfortable with coming out and trying to keep her warm. Dot felt selfish for asking that of them though. Quaquaval was a bird Pokémon, so he wasn’t going to get along well with the cold at all. Tinkaton would probably hate it too. Dot didn’t want to bother either of them, so she decided she would simply face the cold. She was brave. She had overcome far worse odds than just a cold night on a mountain. This was nothing. She could do this.

“Dot?”

Liko’s voice jolted Dot out of her thoughts, and she looked up over the pile of blankets on her chest in the direction of her friend’s bed. “What is it, Liko?”

“You seem really cold,” Liko said, and Dot winced. Of course Liko could still hear her teeth chattering even after all she had tried to do to hide it. “Is there anything I can do to help warm you up? I feel bad just leaving you there to feel miserable and frozen.”

“I…” Dot trailed off, unsure of how she was meant to respond to something like that. She would have loved it if Liko could do something to help warm her up, but she didn’t know where to even start. Nothing seemed to be working to help Dot feel better about the cold, and she doubted Liko would be able to change that unless she suddenly developed the miraculous power to make the blizzard disappear at the snap of her fingers. “I don’t know.”

Liko went quiet for a few seconds before she pushed her way out of her bed. “I have an idea.” She began to push her bed, though the process was slow and staggered since she was the only one doing it. The bed frame scraped across the floor on its way to its destination, and Liko had to adjust herself twice to try and get a better angle to push the bed from.

Dot stared at her in muted shock. “What are you doing?”

Liko somehow managed to get the bed just up beside Dot’s, and she finally considered her work finished. “A good way to stay warm in extreme cold weather is to share warmth with other people,” Liko explained. “If you can’t stay warm on your own, then we can just try to cuddle up together. If you’re okay with that, I mean.”

Dot didn’t think she had ever agreed to something so quickly or so enthusiastically. “That sounds amazing.” She watched as Liko slipped into her own bed, and soon enough, both of their blankets were spread across both of them. Liko and Dot were still bundled up in most of their layers, though they had shed their bulkiest coats when they laid down. It was the perfect way to fight off the cold, and Dot was beyond glad that Liko had suggested it.

The reason went far deeper than simple practicality though. Dot loved being close with Liko under any circumstances, and while cuddling for warmth may not have been the most ideal situation in the world, Dot couldn’t say she objected to it. In fact, there was a strange part of her brain that found this… Nice. She wanted to be there with Liko, and she wanted to spend as much time as she could cuddled up with her. Dot couldn’t say she would be this excited if she had received the offer from anyone else, but that didn’t matter. She was there with Liko. That was her reality, and Dot loved it.

Liko wrapped an arm around Dot’s shoulders and pulled her in a little bit tighter. “Is this helping at all?” she asked. Liko was so close that Dot could feel Liko’s breath against her forehead. It was every bit as thrilling and perfect as Dot needed it to be. Even if they didn’t need to huddle for warmth, Dot knew that she would have loved this more than words could ever hope to express.

“Yeah,” Dot nodded once she finally managed to overcome the knot in the back of her throat. She had fallen silent for a long moment, her embarrassment too much for her to push through. “This is helping a lot. Thanks.” Dot wrapped an arm around Liko’s body in return, and the two pressed against each other as closely as they could stand.

Soon enough, Dot felt the warmth of Liko’s body chase away the chill from the outside world. This hadn’t been how they expected to have to spend their evening, and yet, both girls greatly enjoyed it. Dot’s cheeks felt like they were on fire, and it had nothing to do with the simple practicality of the situation. She didn’t know if she had ever been this close to Liko before, and she loved it more than she could ever hope to say. Maybe Dot would have to come up with other excuses for them to do this even after the cold night ended.

Liko’s breathing eventually evened out to show that she had fallen asleep, and Dot knew that she would have to follow suit. She didn’t know how she was going to rest when she was this close to the girl of her dreams, but she figured she had to at least try. The journey up to the Glaseado Gym was going to be long and harrowing the next day, and Dot would need all the rest she could get.

When Dot finally drifted off, her dreams were filled with images and sensations of Liko. Even in sleep, Dot couldn’t seem to escape the warmth that Liko had brought to her, not that she would have wanted to anyway. All Dot wanted was to be there with Liko, and if she couldn’t enjoy it while awake, then her mind was more than happy to give her something to cling to in her dreams. Dot remembered her dreams that night in vivid detail when she woke up, and her cheeks remained on fire with warmth, embarrassment, and excitement for the rest of the day.

When Liko and Dot continued their journey up to Grusha’s gym the following morning, they bundled up in their warm coats and then took each other’s hands. They didn’t let each other go throughout the rest of the trek up the mountain. Dot let her face retreat into her coat and scarf so Liko didn’t see how embarrassed she was. She may have hated the cold, but she didn’t think there was any place in the world she would rather be than right by Liko’s side in that moment.

Dot had certainly made smarter decisions… But she thought that maybe this choice had been a smart one after all if it had given her a warmth like this.

digitaldreams · Nov 23, 2025

“dancing in the dark”

Prompt: Dancing - Post Date: 3/8/25 - Word Count: 4,007 - Rating: Teen - Content Warnings: Implied Past Violence, Panic Attacks - Free Fall AU

~~~

Liko could not have asked for a better night.

The last few weeks had been difficult for her in more ways than she could ever hope to count. She had been brought back to the Rising Volt Tacklers after living with the Explorers for over two months. After that, she learned that she was not the only one in her mind and body anymore. She had made contact with Opal, and the two were slowly but surely starting to learn how to work together. It had been trying, but Liko was doing her best to give the situation everything she had. She was determined to do everything she could to make her life a little bit easier, but it was hard work. She went to sleep exhausted more often than not, and she had grown used to struggling to keep her eyes open even when she got a full night of sleep.

Tonight, Liko was enjoying a relaxing night in. The Rising Volt Tacklers were in the air once again, flying to wherever they decided their next destination was going to be. It was raining outside, but the noise was dull and distant. Liko was looking forward to seeing what came of their next adventures. She was slowly working through her anxiety around being out in the world for the first time since she was freed from the control of the Explorers. Her spirit of adventure could not be dulled even by someone as horrible as Spinel though, and Liko was looking to the future with a smile on her face.

Since Liko had been struggling so much with… Well, everything recently, Dot had offered to let her spend time with her in her room. Sprigatito and Quaxly were out with the rest of the Pokémon, enjoying one of Cap’s scheduled matches between various members of the ship’s monstrous crew. That left Liko and Dot on their own, and they were more than happy to spend their time together. The two were sitting on Dot’s bed and watching a few videos together to pass the time. They hadn’t said much in the last few minutes, but Liko didn’t mind it at all. She was so glad to have someone else there for her that nothing else could have ever come close to mattering. Dot was happy to have her there too. They had enjoyed their entire night together up to that point, and a few times, Liko could have sworn she saw Dot smile at her with a brighter grin than she shared with anyone else. It was exciting, and Liko was glad to have this chance to just… Breathe for a while.

Liko was still struggling with everything that had started after she was brought back to the Brave Olivine. She got the feeling she was going to be struggling for a long time to come too. She was doing her best to look to the future with a smile on her face though. She wasn’t going to let Spinel steal her joy forever, and if there was something she could do to win it back, then she at least had to try. The Rising Volt Tacklers were doing so much for her, and Liko wanted to do everything she could for them in return.

After they got through another two videos, Dot had another suggestion. She began to change the input on her computer monitor which she had angled toward the bed so that it could be used as a television screen. “Do you want to play a few video games?” Dot asked. “I’ve got some that are good for two players, and… I haven’t ever had the chance to play them with other people in person before.” Her cheeks were dyed bright pink by the time she finished her explanation, and Dot had to fight to keep herself from looking away from Liko. It was an embarrassing thing to admit, and yet, it was intoxicatingly exciting too. Dot hadn’t ever been able to enjoy the company of another friend in person quite like this, and she wanted to be able to enjoy it with Liko before anyone else.

Liko’s face burst out into a bright smile. “I’d be happy to!” She hadn’t played too many video games over the years, but she was more than happy to play if that was what Dot wanted to do. She was excited to see what games Dot enjoyed most. Maybe they could come to be her favorite games in time too. There was nothing quite like sharing a bit of quality time with a person she loved, after all.

Dot’s smile grew bright enough to block out the sun, but since it was nighttime, it glowed bolder than the moon instead. “Great!” She immediately started to set up the game, and Liko found that it was a Pokémon themed racing game. Of course Dot would want to play a racing game that was themed around Pokémon. She loved them to pieces, and it was only natural that she brought that interest into her friendships with other people too.

Dot handed Liko a controller, and they started to work their way through the cups. Liko wasn’t any good at it, at least not at first, but she did her best to pick up momentum and skill as time went by. She slowly but surely improved her placements, going from averaging tenth in the races to closer to fifth. Dot, of course, won every single race, and Liko thought that was perfect. There was nothing quite like seeing Dot smile when she took home yet another trophy. Liko was fine with her poor placements in the races if it meant that Dot would be that happy when the cups came to an end.

They were getting ready to start their fifth cup when Liko let out a small sigh with an easy smile. She couldn’t have asked for a better way to spend her night. She had been struggling so much with living her new life since returning to the Rising Volt Tacklers, and she was glad that things were getting better. For the first time in ages, Liko felt… Normal. She wouldn’t have said that she felt like this was what life had been like before she was kidnapped by Spinel, but it was close. After all, she hadn't known Dot personally before then, and Liko was glad that had changed. She was glad she had a new friend to call her own. She was glad Dot had entered her life properly, and Liko had no plans of ever letting her go again.

Dot was getting ready to select the cup when an explosion of noise throughout the ship made Liko scream. Sirens were blaring, and the lights of the ship were flashing wildly. Liko dropped the remote all at once, clamping her eyes shut. She could still see the lights playing across the room even through her eyelids though. The light was just too bright, and it flickered brutally, fishing for her attention however it could get it.

The lights varied in color from red to yellow to green to blue. It was like every light in the ship had gone haywire all at once, and they were all screaming for someone to do something just like the alarms. Liko pressed her hands closely against her ears, trying to block out the noise. Everything was fine. The ship was still flying. She had to still be alright.

But in her mind she was as far from alright as she possibly could have been. Closing her eyes had been a horrible idea since it brought her back to the darkness that had started all of this. She was standing there in that terrible room, and Spinel was across from her. Beheeyem’s hands flashed with red, yellow, and green light. Blue was Umbreon’s color, and it raced toward her, and if she didn’t move, it was going to kill her and–

“Liko!”

Dot’s voice was distant, and Liko felt hands come down on her shoulders. Liko wanted to struggle and fight them off, but she couldn’t bring herself to move. Her hands pressed closer against her ears, and she realized that her control was slipping out of her grasp. Opal hadn’t done much throughout the night, but she couldn’t stay away for any longer now, and she was fighting her way up to the surface of their mind. Liko didn’t want to let go though. She had been having so much fun, and she should have been happy. It was supposed to be a happy night. How could she have messed everything up so badly?!

Dot’s hands drifted down Liko’s shoulders before settling closer to her hands. “Everything is alright, Liko,” Dot tried to reassure her, but Liko remained lost to the tides of her panic. That infernal noise was still piercing her skull, and it was going to rip her apart. If she really focused, she could swear that she could hear Spinel laughing at her. He had always found her misery so amusing, and all he wanted was to make her suffer more. No amount of pain would ever be enough for him. He was there. He had to be. There was no way Liko was safe. Spinel was going to take everything away again, and she–

The lights stopped all at once, and the room went entirely black. The game turned off when the power disappeared, and the flickering overhead vanished too. Liko opened her eyes slowly, but she found that was a mistake too. She felt like she was back in that room in an all new way, and Spinel had to be lurking in the darkness. There was no way he wasn’t there. He just had to be. She was alone, and Spinel was going to send her into hiding within her own mind again. Opal was going to have to step up and protect her again… Or Spinel would make someone entirely new. He would try to mold their sense of self for a second time, and they… They wouldn’t survive it if it happened again. They were going to die, and Liko couldn’t even bring herself to fight it.

“You’re alright,” Dot whispered, her voice suddenly loud in Liko’s mind. She looked over to find her friend watching her with a fearful expression. She had scared Dot by having a meltdown. Of course she had. This was supposed to be a fun night, but instead of handling the flashing lights and sudden noise like a normal person, Liko had broken down. What was her problem?

Dot’s hands tugged on Liko’s gently, and Liko found herself pulled up to her feet. Dot set one hand on her shoulder, and Liko looked into her eyes in confusion. “You’re okay. I promise,” Dot vowed. She began to sway slightly, stepping back and forth in a clumsy but beautiful rhythm. “Everything is alright. You’re safe. Nothing is going to happen to you. I’m going to take care of you, alright?”

Liko’s body moved without her giving it express permission, and she realized that she could feel Opal settling into place in her limbs too. Opal danced along with Dot’s swaying gently, following her movements and mimicking every step forward or backward. They didn’t have much room in the empty space at the center of Dot’s room, but they made the most of it, and Dot was careful to steer them away from anything they could have run into. Liko felt her fate fall into Dot’s hands, and she found that there was no one in the world she would have rather trusted with herself. Dot would keep her safe. Dot would make sure she was alright even if she felt like she was going to die.

Slowly but surely, Liko’s breathing began to slow. She wasn’t sure if it was because of the dancing or because of Opal’s presence at first, but the longer the dancing went on, the more she realized that it had to be thanks to Dot. Opal was afraid too, and Liko could hear a small whining noise in the back of her throat within the domain of their shared mind. Opal was slowly starting to calm down too, though it was taking her a bit longer than Liko. That made sense. Opal was the one who carried the darkest parts of what Spinel had done to them. Opal was the one who had protected Liko when she didn’t know how to protect herself. They would not be there without Opal stepping forward to take care of their body in its darkest hour.

Liko arrived back in her body a few minutes after she began to dance with Dot, and she began to notice a few things that she had not caught onto during her trance. It had started to rain outside, and the water was pelting the window relentlessly. She could feel every tiny shift in Dot’s fingers where they were grasped by her own, and Liko found herself wanting to hold her even tighter. Her other hand had wrapped around Dot’s midsection, and the small of the other girl’s back was perhaps the greatest thing she had ever touched. There was no better place for Liko to be than in the arms of someone she knew she could trust with anything and everything. There was no better person to calm her down from the chaos of her panic than Dot, and she knew it just as well as she knew her own heartbeat.

Speaking of her heart, Liko realized that it was racing in her chest. She knew there were multiple reasons for it. One of them was that she had just started to calm down from an episode of hyperventilating and screaming. The far more interesting reason to her, however, was that she was so close to Dot. Liko wanted that to be the only reason, and she yearned to cast her panic as far away from her as she possibly could have… Though she supposed that she wouldn’t be there in Dot’s embrace without it. Perhaps it wasn’t as bad as she had thought then. Maybe there was a silver lining to even the darkest of clouds.

Liko let out a heavy sigh as her legs turned to jelly, and she finally stopped dancing. Her head fell forward without her permission, and she realized that Opal was taking more control than she thought. “Thank you,” Opal whispered, her forehead coming to rest on Dot’s shoulder. “I… I really appreciate it.”

“I’m glad it was able to help you,” Dot answered, and Liko could hear the smile in her voice. “Are you feeling any better now?”

Opal nodded with a hum. “Much better.”

Dot slowly directed Liko and Opal over to the bed, and they sat down on it together. Opal remained close to Dot though, shifting her touch so that she was resting her cheek on Dot’s shoulder. Dot wrapped an arm around her shoulders and then took Opal’s hand with her other, rubbing circles across her knuckles. Even though Liko was not fully in charge of her body, she vowed to memorize every place Dot’s thumb touched across her hand. She wanted to make this memory hers. She wanted to reclaim it from the darkness that had consumed her when Spinel ruined her life.

The lights were still out, but Liko’s eyes had adjusted just enough to make out the details of the room around her. Lightning flashed outside occasionally, casting a white glow across Opal’s unnaturally pale face. Opal sniffled, and tears began to stream down her cheeks. She rubbed at them with one hand, and her face went bright red from embarrassment. “Sorry,” Opal whispered. “I didn’t mean to make you do that.”

“You didn’t make me do anything,” Dot told her. “I wanted to help, and… I’m glad I was able to do something. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to help you.”

Liko tilted her head slightly so she was able to look up at Dot. “How did you know that would help at all?” Liko asked. She had suffered through many episodes like that in the past, but she struggled to deal with them. Liko didn’t like to burden others with her panicking spirals, so she chose to try and face them on her own to the best of her ability. Opal was better at facing it than she was. Opal could at least keep her composure when Liko wanted to just scream and cry until all of that horrific fear and trauma had been purged from her body.

Dot’s cheeks went red, and she stared down at the place where her feet touched the floor so she didn’t accidentally look Liko in the eyes. “I… I’ve had a few panic attacks myself over the years, and… I find that trying to distract myself and focus on something else helps,” Dot explained. “It’s nice to remember that you’re in the present instead of… Wherever your mind thinks you are. I thought that dancing would remind you that you’re safe, so…” She let out an anxious laugh. “I wasn’t entirely sure if it was going to work, but I couldn’t just sit there, so I decided to take a chance.”

“It paid off,” Liko assured her, gripping a bit tighter at Dot’s hand. Dot stopped tracing circles across Liko’s skin, instead going still so that she could clutch at Liko’s fingers too. Outside, the rain continued to pelt the ship, and Liko closed her eyes. It sounded almost like a melody, and she thought it was perhaps the sweetest song in the world. It had to be if it had been the background tune to her and Dot’s dancing session.

Dot swallowed dryly after a minute or two passed in perfect silence, the rain and their heartbeats the only sound to pierce the air between them. “What… What happened?” Dot asked. “For you to panic like that, I mean. You don’t have to share it if you don’t want to, but…. I want you to know that I’m here to talk if you need it.”

Liko’s mind and tongue both suddenly felt like they were made of cotton, but she did her best to push through the uncertainty. Dot deserved to know. She would feel better getting all of this out of her head and into the rest of the world anyway. “I thought I was back with Spinel,” she admitted. “It was the light. It was red, yellow, and green, and…”

“It reminded me of Beheeyem,” Opal finished for her. Their body’s voice dropped in pitch accordingly the same way it always did when Opal stepped up to talk. “The blue light reminded me of Umbreon. Spinel, he… He ordered Umbreon to attack a few times during that experiment session. He thought that he would be able to force the pendant to activate, and… I couldn’t stop thinking about it once I started. I thought he was here, and he was coming to get me again.”

“When I get my hands on him…” Dot threatened. She didn’t finish the sentence, but Liko didn’t think she needed to. All of the Rising Volt Tacklers were more than familiar with Dot’s hatred of Spinel. All of them despised him for what he had done to Liko and Opal, of course, but Dot's rage was unlike any other. It burned bright and hot, threatening to scorch the skin off anyone who dared to get close enough to touch it. “You’re not with him anymore. You’re here on the Brave Olivine, and you’re alright. I promise.”

“I know,” Opal assured her. “I know that because of you though, so… Thanks. I appreciate it.” She leaned a little bit closer to Dot, letting one of her tears fall off her cheek onto the shoulder section of Dot’s cardigan. The water stained the fabric with a slightly darker color before beginning to fade and even out again moments later.

“You don't have to thank me for anything. I’m here for you no matter what,” Dot said. Her eyes grew glassy and distant, finding the window and the rain outside. Somehow though, Liko knew that Dot’s mind was on something very far from the storm. “I’m not going to let him hurt you ever again. I’ll do everything in my power to stop him. It might not be easy, but I… I’m going to do it. I’ll tear him apart myself if I have to. He’s never going to lay another finger on you. As long as you’re here, you’re safe. I promise.”

“I know,” Liko smiled softly. The grin was hesitant and tentative, and it felt wrong for her to wear it when her mind still felt like it was on fire, but she forced it to life anyway. She always felt like she wanted to smile when she was around Dot, and that was true now too. “Thank you for being here.”

“I’ll always be here,” Dot told her immediately. “No one will ever hurt you again as long as I have something to say about it, and if that means I always have to be by your side…” She let out a loose laugh. “Then I guess that’s just where I’m going to have to stay.”

Liko sniffled back another wave of tears, but before she could say anything else, she heard her and Dot’s phones go off. Liko reached out to grab hers, and she pulled up the notification that had just made the noise. She found out that it was a message in the Rising Volt Tacklers’ group chat. Orla had sent it out, and Liko read it silently to herself:

‘Sorry about the outage. The storm messed with the power system, and it freaked out and went into alarm mode. It turned off when it got hit by another blast of wind. I’ll try to have everything back online soon. Everything is alright.’

Liko and Opal breathed a sigh of relief, and it shook on its way out of their lips. “Bad night for a storm, isn’t it?” Opal asked, trying her best to inject whatever humor she could into the situation. She wasn’t the best at cracking jokes, but it felt like all she could do to cover for the embarrassment of her own vulnerability that night. Opal trusted Dot like no one else, but it was still hard for her to really express that she was struggling with something. She had been forced to hide it for so long when she was with the Explorers, and it was a foreign idea to her even now.

Dot laughed as well, though the noise was far from being happy. “You can say that again.” After a few seconds passed in silence, she tightened her grip on Opal and Liko’s hand. “Do you want to stay in here for tonight? We can go and pick up Sprigatito and Quaxly and then try to get a bit of rest together.” Dot didn’t say that she didn’t feel comfortable leaving Liko and Opal to try and rest on their own after their breakdown. She didn’t have to. Everyone in the room already understood it.

“I’d love that,” Liko smiled. She pulled her head away from Dot’s shoulder, finding that it was much heavier than she remembered. “Thank you for being here for me, Dot.”

Dot ducked her head in an effort to hide her blush, but a stroke of misplaced lightning illuminated anyway. “There’s nowhere I would rather be.”

Opal moved first, pulling Dot off the bed and onto her feet. “Can we dance for a little bit longer?” she asked, her voice soft and vulnerable in a way she very rarely let it be. “I… I really enjoyed it.”

A smile unlike anything else spread across Dot’s lips. She returned her hand to its place on Opal and Liko’s shoulder, and they in turn wrapped their arm around her hips. “I would love to.”

digitaldreams · Nov 29, 2025

“cerulean and silver”

Prompt: Timeskip - Post Date: 3/22/25 - Word Count: 2,531 - Rating: General - Content Warnings: None - Free Fall AU

~~~

Liko wanted to start wearing her hair differently.

Opal really should have seen this coming sooner. Of course Liko was going to want to change her hairstyle at some point. No one could expect a girl to wear her hair in the exact same way for her entire life. It simply made no sense. Eventually, Liko was going to decide that she wanted to look a bit different than she was used to. Opal should have known that things were going to have to change, especially when Liko decided that she wanted to start growing her hair out a little bit.

Liko had asked Opal first if she was alright with changing the way they normally wore their hair. At the time, Opal hadn’t wanted to be an inconvenience or a burden, so she shook her head and said that it was alright for Liko to tie her hair back. Liko had then tied her slightly longer hair up into a bun at the top of her hair, leaving a few threads of it to hang down on either side of her face. Since then, it had become their routine.

The problem arose when Opal realized that nobody could tell the difference between her and Liko anymore. No one could tell until she started to talk and her cadence was notably lower than Liko’s ever had been. That meant a lot of people saw her and assumed that she was Liko. No one but Dot, Roy, and Amethio knew how to pick up on the tiny differences of posture and demeanor between them, and that meant Opal kept getting called out as being Liko or vice versa.

For a long time, Opal indicated that she was present by tying her hair back in a low ponytail at the base of her neck. That was how she had always kept her hair out of her face when she was with the Explorers, and it was a habit she couldn’t break now. It was nice to have her hair up all the time, but it also took away one of the very few things that she could use to prove that she was alive. Opal couldn’t blame Liko for wanting to keep her hair back, and she wasn’t going to ask that Liko just stop doing that. She was going to have to find another solution on her own then. That was the only option.

Opal stood in front of the mirror in her room, staring at her hairstyle with a frown. There had to be something else that she could do with it. Maybe she would be able to pin her bangs out of the way with her hair clips. Surely it would just take a little bit of rearranging to push her hair away. That way, it would become clear that Opal was around if their bangs were tied back, and Liko was around if their bangs were framing their cheeks. When Opal tried it though, she found that the two hair clips simply weren’t sufficient to keep all of their hair out of the way. She was going to need more clips than that, and at that point, it would become unwieldy and difficult to wear them all at once.

Opal tried to shift the bun down on her head, but all that did was make it fall apart. She had been hoping that she would be able to make it so that the bun was down when it was her and up when it was Liko, but she couldn’t do that without entirely redoing the hairstyle. Opal didn’t know how Liko managed to get their hair all pinned back like that in the morning. She had never really needed to play much with her hair when she was with the Explorers. She had a uniform, and as long as her bangs were out of her face, then she was fine. That also eliminated the possibility of Opal trying to experiment with keeping her hair down. How could she untie her hair when it would drive her up the wall to feel it against the back of her neck?

Opal sighed as she pressed her eyes shut. She couldn’t blame Liko for wanting to change things up, but Opal wished that there was a better solution to all of this. Was there another way that she could indicate to the world that she was present? Opal opened her eyes and looked at her reflection in a bit more detail. Maybe she could change the side her bag was laying on. She could adjust it from one shoulder to the other. That would be a good indicator… But Opal couldn’t help feeling like it just didn’t fit her. Granted, she didn’t know what she would have said ‘fit’ her, but it just didn’t feel right for her.

A knock at the door pulled Opal out of her thoughts, and she looked up before calling for the person on the other side to enter. Opal already knew it was Dot; she had memorized the footfall of every member of the Rising Volt Tacklers ages ago. Sure enough, Dot slipped into the room, and she looked at Opal for only a moment before coming to her conclusion. “Hey, Opal,” she greeted. “What are you up to?”

Opal sighed and pinched at the bridge of her nose. “I’m trying to figure out a way to indicate to other people that I’m here,” she said. “I used to just tie my hair back and call that good, but I don’t know if I can experiment with this hairstyle well enough to make that work. I don’t want to just pull it down, but I can’t do anything else with it either.”

Dot hummed, coming to stand just beside Opal in front of the mirror. She looked all over Opal from head to toe, trying to look for anything else that would be a good detail to change. “How about the shoulder you wear your bag on?” she suggested.

“I already thought about that, but it doesn’t feel like enough,” Opal sighed. “What if people get confused about which shoulder it’s on for which one of us is out? That just leads to the same problem as before.”

“Right.” Dot’s gaze drifted down the rest of Opal’s body before they settled on her wrist. “I might have an idea for you.”

“You do?” Opal asked, her eyes wide. “What is it?”

Dot moved over to Opal and Liko’s desk, and in an instant, she found the small box they kept their hair accessories in. She sifted through it in search of something, pausing halfway through. “What’s your favorite color, Opal?”

Opal blinked. “Silver.” She didn’t think she had ever thought about it much. Opal knew that Liko’s favorite color was blue, but she hadn’t considered what hers was on her own. She was glad that Dot had asked in a way; she doubted that she would have ever come up with it if she hadn’t been prompted first.

“Right. Got it.” Dot continued to look through everything else in the box, eventually pulling it out so it sat on top of the desk instead of in a drawer. Her face lit up when she finally found what she was looking for, and she held up something to the light. “Here we go.”

Opal looked down at what was sitting in Dot’s hands, and she found that the girl was holding a blue scrunchie in one hand and a silver one in the other. Opal blinked once and then twice. “I already told you I won’t be able to do anything with my hair,” she frowned. “It would take up too much time, and–”

“You don’t have to put these in your hair,” Dot said with a shake of her head. “I mean that you can wear them around your wrist. You don’t have anything as a bracelet, so… Why not try this?” She gestured for Opal to give her one hand, and Opal complied quietly. Dot slipped the silver scrunchie around Opal’s wrist, and when she pulled back, she smiled softly at it. “There. That way, you can tell people that you’re here with the color of the scrunchie on your wrist. You can keep the other one in your bag to bring out whenever you’d like.”

Opal stared at the scrunchie for a few moments before turning her attention back to the mirror. The change was subtle, but the scrunchie was a notably different color from the rest of her outfit, and it was slightly shiny too. Opal’s eyes traveled to it naturally as a result. It was perfect proof that she was the one who was present at any given moment. The one that Dot had picked out for Liko fit her well too, matching the underside of her hair and the jacket they had come to wear. The difference between the silver and the blue was stark, and any one of the Rising Volt Tacklers would be able to tell them apart just by looking for what they were wearing around their wrist.

There was an extra bonus to it too: Opal and Liko could indicate when they were together if they both wore their scrunchies at the same time. It had previously been difficult to show the world when they were both listening in on a conversation since they could only have their hair up or down. With this though… All it would take was a single look for anyone to know that they were speaking to not only Liko or Opal but also potentially Liko and Opal. It was perfect.

“I… I love it,” Opal smiled, the grin tentative at first but quickly consuming the rest of her face. She looked at Dot through the reflection in the mirror, and the two locked gazes in the glass. “Thank you so much, Dot.”

Dot offered Opal a smile, and her cheeks began to bloom pink like the underside of her hair. “You’re welcome.”

Opal let out a slow breath, and confusion overtook her as she looked directly at Dot over her shoulder. “But how did you know to do something like that?” she asked. “I don’t know how you would have an idea like that unless you had tried it before.”

“Ah… That’s because I have tried it before,” Dot confessed softly, shifting uncomfortably on the spot. “That was back when Nidothing and I first started to talk to each other. We wanted to prove to each other that we were there when we struggled with talking about it out loud, and the scrunchies thing felt like a good way to do that… But it’s kind of hard for that to be an indicator when we’re always wearing long sleeves that cover up our wrists. So we decided to do the hair thing instead.”

“I see,” Opal nodded with understanding. “That makes sense… Speaking of that, are you guys going to keep doing the same thing to indicate that you’re around going forward? The hair thing?”

“I think I’m gonna take a page out of your book!” Nidothing grinned, taking control in an instant. “We can tie our hair back like you were before. We’re still getting used to the whole long hair thing, but I think that’s a good idea of where to start. We can figure out other details later on.”

Dot cleared her throat as she assumed control over her tongue once more. “I guess that doesn’t really help us with figuring out how we’ll indicate that both of us are around, but… That’s a problem for another time.”

“We would be happy to help you to figure it out,” Opal offered. “You’ve already done so much for us, and I feel like it’s the least we can do.”

“Yeah… We’d like that,” Dot smiled shyly. She moved in a single swift motion, pressing a kiss to Opal’s cheek. Opal was left staring at herself in the mirror in stunned silence. “But for now… Silver looks really good on you. It makes your eyes shine.”

Opal’s cheeks went bright pink in an instant, and she began to thread a few strands of hair between her fingers. “Thanks, Dot… I appreciate it.”

“She’s right,” Liko chimed in, and Opal realized a bit too late that Liko had been listening in on their conversation all along. “I think you’re beautiful like this, Opal. I know things are changing, and I’m sorry that we had to change the way you wear your hair, but…”

Opal shook her head. “I don’t mind it at all.” She accepted the blue scrunchie from Dot, slipping it onto her wrist right next to her silver hair tie. She looked down at the two scrunchies where they were pressed against each other on her arm, and Opal found herself smiling, the grin great enough to consume her entire face in an instant. “In fact, I… I think this fits me more than just tying my hair back ever did.”

“I think so too,” Nidothing agreed, throwing her arms around Opal’s body for a tight hug from behind. Opal was still unused to most physical contact, but Nidothing knew where her limits were, and she could tell that right now, Opal was open to a hug. “I wonder if Dot and I will be able to find something like that. Pink and purple go great together, you know.”

Opal found herself laughing quietly, thinking about how sweet it would be if they matched. Liko and Dot could be blue and purple while Opal and Nidothing could be silver and pink. “I think that would be a really sweet color scheme,” she murmured. She moved past Nidothing toward the desk once again, and she quickly found matching purple and pink scrunchies. She pressed them into Nidothing and Dot’s hand, and they accepted the gifts gladly. “I know they won’t be visible around your jacket sleeves, but… I think it would be sweet if you still did it. We can come up with something later, but…”

“We can match until then,” Nidothing grinned. “And it’ll be our little secret that we’re sharing something like that.” She put both scrunchies onto her right hand before moving her fingers up to cup at Opal’s cheek. “I love you.”

Opal smiled into Nidothing’s eyes, the rest of the world falling away. When she first realized the nature of her existence, she had feared that she would never be able to enjoy herself like this. She had thought that her entire life would be spent taking care of Liko. She was a protector, and she didn’t know what her purpose would be if she let her guard down for even an instant… But Opal knew that she could allow her composure to slip when she was around Dot and Nidothing. There was no one in the world who was safer to her, and they would always be by her side… And now, they would stand together, matching in a secret way that no one needed to know about but them.

Opal leaned forward to capture Nidothing’s lips in a kiss. “I love you too.”

digitaldreams · Dec 1, 2025

“forget me not”

Prompt: Flowers - Post Date: 4/5/25 - Word Count: 3,550 - Rating: Teen - Content Warnings: Dissociation, Depersonalization - Free Fall AU

~~~

Liko had always loved flowers.

For as long as she could remember, she had been fascinated by the little pockets of color that marked the horizons of Paldea’s flatlands. Her eyes would catch them whenever she passed by, and if she was out on a walk with her parents, she would toddle over to the blooms and pluck a few from the grass to present to them. Alex and Lucca were always happy to receive her gifts, and they would smile as they thanked their daughter for her kindness. Liko would always glow beneath their grins, unable to imagine anything better than the color of a soft flower and the light it brought to the eyes of those around her.

When Liko was in her early middle school years, she decided to take her love of flowers and dig into it as much as she could. She wanted to know everything there was to know about flowers, especially when she learned there was an entire language they spoke without the need for human words. Flowers could be a symbol of love and affection, and Liko wanted to know what all of the sweetest blooms to share with others were. That way, if she ever struggled to express herself in words, then she would at least be able to show her feelings through her actions, and the flowers would be the vessel for her communication.

One flower that stood out to Liko in the middle of her massive book about the language of flowers was the forget-me-not. It was a small blue flower that often presented with five petals. It had a yellow center, looking like the sky with a single sun pressed against the center. Liko had been drawn to the page from the instant she saw it, and she quickly decided that it was her favorite flower. It was her favorite color–blue–but it also had her second favorite color–yellow–right there at the center. What more could she ask for?

The forget-me-not had two primary meanings. One of them was remembrance for the departed. It was a promise that the person who had passed on would never be forgotten. They would be remembered for the rest of time by those whose lives they had touched. It was a bittersweet thought, and yet, it stuck in Liko’s mind.

The second meaning had always been more important to her. The forget-me-not could also stand for eternal love and devotion. The promise to always remember did not have to be given exclusively in times of death and grief. It could also be freely provided to those who were important to the person with the flowers. They could press the flower into the hands of the person they loved, begging that they always remember that they cared. The other person would receive it with a smile and promise that their love would remain strong and eternal too. Time would never be able to erode the power of memory completely, and there would be traces of a love so deep it entirely consumed a person.

As cheesy as it sounded, Liko always dreamed of having someone she could give forget-me-nots to. She wanted to fall in love and prove that she loved the other person by handing them a bouquet of her favorite colors. She hoped that when they looked at the flowers, they thought of the blue of her hair and the shining sapphire of her eyes. Liko even chose her outfits after the color scheme of the forget me not: blue and yellow with the occasional highlight of black and white. Even when she began to wear a green barrette in her hair, it was because it was the blend of yellow and blue, the two main colors of the forget-me-not. The flower meant more to her than she ever could have put into words, and she hoped that came across even when she didn’t have anyone to give the flowers to.

Liko had dreamed countless times of the day the forget-me-not would become the most important flower to her all over again. She would press it into the hands of the person she loved, and she would make sure that their wedding day was lined with the bloom too. Liko knew that she was getting ahead of herself, dreaming about the day she promised her heart to a person she hadn’t even met, but she couldn’t help it. She was a dreamer and a lover, and she wanted to give that piece of herself away to someone who would gladly receive it with a smile on their face. The forget-me-not was everything to her, and she wanted it to mean everything to her partner too. Selfishly, she wanted it to have that meaning because of her.

However, the years had not been as kind to Liko as she would have liked. The forget-me-not had transformed into something far darker over the course of the last few months, and Liko couldn’t seem to forget about it. Just as the flowers asked to never be forgotten, Liko couldn’t purge her memory no matter how hard she tried. She loved forget-me-nots more than she could ever say… But her relationship with them had grown strained and fraught in the last few weeks.

It had all been because of Spinel. He had found Liko in a dark alley and abducted her for the sake of using the pendant around her neck in twisted experiments. Liko didn’t remember much of what he had done to her, but she knew of the aftermath. Spinel had given her a new identity as Opal, a member of the Explorers, and he hid her face behind a mask. She was never allowed to leave the Explorers’ base without the mask hiding the upper half of her face. Opal’s identity had to remain hidden forever, and the mask was the best way to ensure she was kept a secret.

The cruelty came in the pattern of the mask. It glowed like gemstones under the right lighting, but when Liko looked closely, she could see the outline of forget-me-nots surrounding the eyes and the edges of the mask. Her favorite flower had been twisted and used against her in a cruel show of irony. Spinel had erased her memories, and just to shove the knife in a little bit deeper, he gave her a mask decorated with a flower that begged her to remember. As Opal, remembering was the only thing Liko could not do. The Explorers had fought to keep her past a secret even from her, and she only remembered when she was given no other choice. She had cried into the godless night when her mask fell from her face and her memories returned to her once and for all. The illusion of Opal had shattered, leaving behind a broken Liko to pick up the pieces.

Liko could barely believe how much things had fallen apart after she wound up with the Explorers. She had always known them to be cruel, but she hadn’t imagined it would go quite this far. She had loved the forget-me-not for so long, and yet, it had been turned against her. She could not remember the past, and the truth only came to light when her mask was tossed aside. Even now, Liko felt as if there was something she was forgetting that could have changed her life forever. She had managed to clear away most of the cobwebs left behind by her amnesia, but there were still a few things she managed to forget. It was miserable not being able to trust her own mind, but it felt worse knowing that something she had loved had likely been forever stained in her heart.

Liko sat at the front edge of the Brave Olivine, staring down at the mask in her hands. She had managed to keep it in her grasp after the battle against the Explorers ended where the truth of her identity was exposed. Liko almost wished that she had lost it, and part of her was tempted to throw it over the edge of the ship now so that it drowned in the sea far out of her reach… But if she did that, she would be throwing a piece of herself away. She wasn’t sure where that piece had come from or if she even wanted to acknowledge that it was there, but the thought would not leave her alone. She needed the mask, and so, she clung to it with shaking fingers on her most melancholy of days.

Liko still couldn’t believe that she had forgotten so much. What had happened to the meaning of the forget-me-not? She had promised that she would always remember. She had wanted to be remembered whoever she could too… But in the end, only the latter had been true. The Rising Volt Tacklers remembered her, but she had forgotten all about them. Liko had always loved that flower, but she had betrayed it. The world had forced her to betray it… And then it had used her beloved forget-me-not to hide her true identity and demand that others forget her too. It was enough to bring her to tears on a simple bittersweet thought, and Liko hated that she couldn’t seem to let go of that reminder of her horrible past.

“Liko?”

Dot’s voice pulled Liko out of her thoughts, and she wondered just how long she had been staring down at the mask sadly. She seemed to be losing track of time a lot more recently. All it took was a simple offbeat moment for Liko to lose her grip on reality, and all of a sudden, the sun had changed positions in the sky without her even noticing it. At least Dot had snapped her out of her trance this time. Liko knew that she hadn’t been so lucky in the past.

“Dot,” Liko greeted, trying to not sound too breathless. She was tempted to hide the mask, but she knew Dot would call her out on burying it, so she didn’t bother. “What brings you here? Did you need something?”

“I just wanted to talk to you,” Dot replied. She hesitated before sitting down beside Liko, and Liko moved over to make a little bit of extra room for her. There were only a few inches between them, but to Liko, it felt as if there may as well have been a wall of stained glass blocking them off. It seemed like there was always a wall keeping Liko away from the rest of the world these days. “You… You have the mask.”

Liko’s gaze dropped back down to the mask. “Yeah… I do.” She tried to leave it alone in her room as much as she could, not wanting to have to stare at it more than she had to, but she couldn’t abandon it today. She simply wanted it close. It hadn’t protected her at all, and yet, it felt like a shield to her. It was her saving grace even when she wanted to get rid of it and forget that she had ever worn it at all.

Dot studied Liko’s face for a long moment. “What’s on your mind?” she eventually asked, figuring out that she wasn’t going to be able to puzzle out Liko’s intentions on her own. It seemed like no one could get to the bottom of what Liko was thinking anymore. She barely even knew half the time what was going through her head. How could she expect others to do the same?

Liko swallowed dryly, suddenly feeling like her throat was trying to close up on her. “I…” Tears were rising to life in her eyes, but she forced herself to blink them away. Why was she getting this flustered over Dot asking what she was thinking? She was alright, wasn’t she? Liko was in a better place now that she was back with the Rising Volt Tacklers. She was safe from the Explorers, and yet… And yet…

Liko sighed, the breath shaky and rattling in her chest as she released it. “I can’t stop thinking about what happened when I was with the Explorers,” Liko confessed. “I can’t get it out of my head. I… I can’t believe that my memories were completely erased. It was like I disappeared entirely, and then… When I came back… When I remembered… It felt like I had missed out on an entire chapter of my life. I forgot so much, and I just… I don’t understand. How can a person just forget everything about who they are? I know that Spinel was manipulating me to make sure that I lost my memories, but I… I shouldn’t have lost it all so easily. I shouldn’t have forgotten it, and yet… I did.”

Liko’s fingers tightened their grip on the mask. If it was not made of a tough material, Liko was certain that she would have snapped it in half then and there. “I always loved the forget-me-not flower. I always thought that I would give it to the person who I loved most the day we got married. I wanted to use it to express my love, but… I couldn’t even remember myself long enough to get out of the Explorers. How can I be expected to remember someone else? I forgot about all of you, and you… You had to chase after me in order to make sure I remembered you. It’s horrible. I hate it. I shouldn’t have ever forgotten at all, and… And…”

Liko couldn’t hold back her tears for any longer, and she raised one hand to try and scrub them away furiously. “I don’t want to forget again,” she whispered, her voice coming out soft and vulnerable. It barely felt like the words were hers, and yet, she knew they had to be. It was her voice that was speaking, wasn’t it? But if that was the case, then why couldn’t she seem to make herself believe it? “I’m so scared that something else will happen and that I’ll forget everything again. I don’t want to lose myself like that. I… I don’t remember much of what it was like when Spinel erased my memories, but I remember the feeling of just… Losing myself. I can’t do that again. I can’t go through that again. I can’t let him hurt me again, but… What if I forget even without him? My memories are weak, and they’ve left me before. What am I going to do if they leave me again? What if I never get them back this time? I… I don’t want to disappear. I don’t want to lose everyone again.” I don’t want everyone to lose me.

Dot’s eyes were wide as she stared at Liko, clearly wanting to say something but unsure as to where she was even meant to start. She moved slowly at first, reaching out and taking Liko’s fingers between her own. She rubbed a gentle stripe across Liko’s knuckles, and Liko forced herself to look over at Dot even through the watery barrier of tears that had sprouted between them. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you again,” Dot vowed softly. “I know that Spinel scares you, and he honestly scares me too… But I’m not going to let him hurt you again. I’ll fight with everything I have to make sure you stay safe.”

“But how can you be sure it’ll even work?” Liko pressed. “You didn’t know it was happening the first time. No one did. How can anyone know that they can protect me when I didn’t even know to protect myself when he first took me?”

“I lost you once already, and I’m not going to let it happen again,” Dot went on, her grasp on Liko’s hand tightening to a squeeze. “I know you’re afraid of Spinel, but I… I’m angry with him. If he ever even so much as looks at you again, I’m going to tear him apart. I don't care how long it takes or how much I have to fight. I’m going to destroy him for what he did to you, and he’s going to pay for every bit of pain he put you through.”

Liko stared at Dot for a long moment, her eyes wide and her entire body frozen. She knew Dot could be protective, but she hadn’t ever expected it would manifest quite this… Overtly. Dot had come out of her shell after Liko disappeared because she was desperate to find her again, and clearly, Dot wanted to keep fighting to make sure Liko stayed by her side. Liko had been losing her faith in staying with Dot and the rest of the Rising Volt Tacklers for a while, but Dot wasn’t going to let her give up completely. Dot would believe in her even when no one else did.

“And… Even if something did happen to you to make you forget all about us again… I still wouldn’t let you go,” Dot vowed softly. “I don’t care how long it took or how much I had to fight. I would make sure that I could return your memories to you. I would do everything I could to find you and bring you back again. I know that all of this is scary, but I'm not going to let you face it again. If there’s something I can do to help you, then I’m going to try.”

Liko had been trying to restrain her sobs up to that point, but she couldn’t do it for a moment longer. She fell against Dot bonelessly. The other girl froze for a moment before she hooked her arms around Liko’s body and pulled her in tight to her chest. “I don’t want to forget you either,” Liko whispered. “I’m scared of what will happen if I forget about all of you again too… I want to remember all of you. I want to stay with you.”

“And we’ll do everything we can to make sure that you stay with us forever,” Dot promised. “I’ll do whatever I have to in order to stop Spinel and keep you safe. I don’t care what he tries to do to get to you again. I’ll make sure he never gets the chance to so much as lay a finger on you after what he did. You’re safe from now on. I’ll make sure of it.”

Liko hugged tightly at Dot, and in return, Dot pulled her in as close as she could. Liko could hear the gentle drumbeat of Dot’s heart in her chest, and it was an anchor in the midst of the storm threatening to tear her mind apart. No matter what happened to Liko, she would never be alone. Dot wouldn’t leave her to face the world on her own again. They had fought to make it that far, and they would fight to stay together too. Liko wasn’t going to let go without a fight. She was terrified of being forced to lose her grip on her family and friends again, but she was going to do what she could to keep that from happening, and she knew all of them would do the same. Liko didn’t know if she felt entirely safe, but she knew that she was better off with her friends than she ever would be on her own. They would be there for her. They would watch over her no matter what.

And if something ever happened for Liko to lose her memories again, they would make sure she remembered. Liko didn’t know what would happen if she lost her reality and her sense of self a second time, but she was sure that she wouldn’t be in it alone. Spinel could try all he wanted to hurt her, but he would not succeed. The rest of the Rising Volt Tacklers wouldn’t give him the second chance to tear her apart.

Liko looked down at the mask resting on her lap. She could just make its silhouette out in the shadows made by her and Dot’s united bodies. The forget-me-not pattern continued to shine even in the shadows, and Liko found herself smiling. The flowers had been a sign that she lost herself before, but now, she was going to rebuild them into something else. She would make sure she remembered from then on. She would give the flowers the best definition she could… And if she happened to find some the next time the Rising Volt Tacklers stopped off in a town, she would assemble a bouquet and give them to Dot. Even if she forgot, Liko would fight to remember. Even if she lost everything, she would do everything she could to get it back.

Spinel had tried his best, but he would not be able to take Liko’s love of flowers from her forever… And she was determined to reclaim the forget-me-not and make it hers so that it would never be his again.

“Thank you, Dot,” Liko whispered into her friend’s shoulder. “Thank you for remembering me.”

Dot offered Liko a soft smile that crept into her voice. “There’s no one I would rather remember than you.”

digitaldreams · Dec 18, 2025

“warmth chased, warmth missed”

Prompt: Plush - Post Date: 5/31/25 - Word Count: 4,001 - Rating: General - Content Warnings: N/A - Free Fall AU

~~~

Ever since Liko came back from the Explorers, she had been acting… Differently.

Dot supposed that shouldn’t have come as a surprise. She had known before Liko ever came back that things were going to be different when Liko entered her life again. Liko had been through a horrible trauma, and it was only natural that she was going to struggle when she tried to fit herself back into the life she had lived before she was torn away and forced into the Explorers. She was going to take some time to force herself to pull back into her old life.

But Dot couldn’t help but notice all of the tiny ways Liko had been struggling. Liko did her best to hide it when she could because she was terrified of inconveniencing others, but Dot could still see it. She could see the way Liko’s eyes went glassy when she was quiet for too long, memories starting to infiltrate on her mind when she let her guard down. Liko was struggling a lot more than she wanted to admit, and Dot could see it clearly. She knew the rest of the Rising Volt Tacklers could too, but none of them knew how they were meant to bring it up. How could they know where to start with this? Liko had been kidnapped and brainwashed into joining an organization that had tried to ruin her life countless times. This time, they had managed to succeed though, and Liko was having a horrible issue of trying to figure out who she was meant to be when she was no longer Opal.

Dot hadn’t wanted to push Liko too hard when she first arrived back at the Brave Olivine. She thought it was a bad idea to try and press Liko into opening up before she was ready. After all, Liko was struggling more than enough already, and Dot wasn’t going to make that worse if she could do something to avoid it… But she couldn’t help the desire to reach out and try to help. Even if she failed, she wanted to at least try. Dot couldn’t sit there thinking about how much Liko was struggling forever. She had to try and fix this. There was no easy solution, and Dot knew that, but she had to do something. Even if it didn’t entirely help Liko, it would at least get her out of her head, and Dot hoped that would be helpful in even a tiny way.

One of the many things Dot noticed about Liko after she returned to the Brave Olivine was that she was sleeping less. Liko did her best to try and mask it, but Dot could see it by the way the skin beneath her eyes steadily grew darker and darker. Sprigatito often meowed as a way of trying to remind Liko to rest when it was clear she was too tired to function. Sprigatito could only do so much though, especially when Liko had a chronic issue of hiding her struggles from the people around her. Someone else needed to get involved, but Dot didn’t know where to start. She had always struggled with an irregular sleep schedule too, and she didn’t have a solution to a problem like that. She especially didn’t have any solutions for something that seemed to be so heavily caught up in nightmares of that which no person should ever have had to remember or think about.

Today, the Rising Volt Tacklers had held a meeting in one of the central rooms of the airship, and they tried to figure out what they were going to do next. Liko had been going out on the occasional mission, but she still had to take care to not push herself too hard. It seemed like she was tired no matter what she did though, and her head always seemed to fall toward her chest as her eyes lost their focus. Dot couldn’t help but stare at her. The others all had the tact to not watch Liko exclusively, but Dot’s eyes were hidden by her hair, so she knew she had a better chance of getting away with it than the rest of the crew. If anyone was going to be able to watch Liko, then it was her.

But Dot couldn’t just watch forever, so when everyone else in the crew went their separate ways for the day, Dot decided to follow Liko back to her room. Liko didn’t seem to notice it at first, her eyes still hazy as she stared at the spot where her shoes met the floor of the airship. Liko’s hair swayed with each step she took, and Dot realized it had gotten longer since Liko was last there. Liko still hadn’t found the courage to cut it. That meant acknowledging what had happened, and that was the last thing any of them wanted to do.

“Liko,” Dot finally said when they arrived outside of Liko’s bedroom. Liko paused for a long moment, her hair falling around her face. She had been so out of it she hadn’t even realized Dot was there, and it was clear by the way her shoulders went tense. “Are you… Are you alright?” It was a poor question. Dot knew Liko wasn’t alright. If she was alright, then none of this would have been bothering her now. If she was alright, then none of this would have happened in the first place.

Instead, Liko let out a heavy sigh and shook her head, trying to prepare herself to put on her best smile. “I’m fine,” she tried to reassure Dot, but it was clear that she was lying. Liko had gotten so pale, and the skin beneath her eyes was dark enough to seem like it was going to consume her irises entirely. “I’m just… A little tired.”

“But you’ve been tired for ages,” Dot argued. “I know you’re having troubles with sleeping, and… I want to know if there’s something I can do to help. No matter what it is, I want to try it. Just… Tell me what you think will help.” Dot hadn’t realized just how desperate she sounded and felt until the words left her lips. She couldn’t bring herself to apologize or hold back though. Liko needed her, and Dot was going to rise to the occasion however she had to.

Liko seemed like she wanted to try and lie her way out of the situation again, but she very quickly realized there would be no point. Instead, she sighed, and all of the tension in her shoulders evaporated in an instant. She looked like a puppet with cut strings, a doll about to collapse to the ground the second someone stopped looking at her and giving her a reason to perform. “It’s stupid,” she muttered. “It’s really not anything you should have to worry about.”

“I’m already worried about it,” Dot told her. “I want to be able to help you, but I can’t do that if you’re pushing the rest of us away. You’re not sleeping, and I… I want to do what I can to help you. No matter how stupid you think it is, I want to hear about it.”

Liko sighed, and she opened the door to her room, leaving it open so Dot could follow her through it. Dot pulled the door shut in her wake, and she sat down on Liko’s bed beside her. Terapagos was asleep on her pillow, and Liko began to brush her fingers gently down the turtle’s back. “I… I had this plush when I was with the Explorers,” she murmured. “Amethio got it for me. It was a little replica of Sprigatito. It was… Really comforting to me. I had to deal with a lot when I was with the Explorers, but having that plush with me made it a little bit easier to face. I felt safe when I had it in my hands. When I was struggling with nightmares, I could cuddle with it.” Liko let out a soft laugh and shook her head. “Sprigatito isn’t exactly the best to cuddle with since she kind of loses control of her claws when she’s asleep. I’ve gotten a few small cuts from that before, and… She doesn’t like to be restrained sometimes, so…” Liko laughed again, but this time, it was self-deprecating and sad. “I told you it was stupid.”

“I don’t think it’s stupid at all,” Dot assured her with a shake of her head. “If it made you feel better, then I think that it was a good thing.” She was glad there was at least a little bit of comfort to be found in Liko’s memories of being with the Explorers. Part of Dot wanted it to be nothing but torment so Liko would never want to go back there, but at the same time, she was relieved there had been a little bit of peace in the midst of it all. Liko was going to struggle with finding a place to belong regardless of how she had been treated with the Explorers, and if that was the case, then Dot was glad she had been able to soothe herself even a little bit during those dark times.

“Because of how I regained my memories, I wasn’t able to get any of my things from the base before I came back here,” Liko went on. “So that plush is probably still in my room at the base, but I can’t exactly go back and get it again. I… I didn’t realize just how comforting it was until I started having nightmares. I can’t seem to sleep, and that plush made it easier for me to rest.” She let out a small laugh, but it was cut off by a sniffle. She rubbed at her eyes and shook her head. “I know I shouldn’t want anything from when I was in the Explorers. I should want to walk away from all of it. I should be glad that I’m back here. But… I just miss it.”

“I understand,” Dot told her. She took Liko’s hand in her own in a moment of boldness, and she gave it a squeeze. “I’m going to figure something out for you. If this is what you need to sleep, then I want you to have it. I’ll find a solution here. Promise.”

Liko looked up at Dot in surprise, her cheeks splattered with a few flecks of pink. “Are you sure?” Liko whispered. “I shouldn't want anything to do with my time when I was in the Explorers, but… You want to give me that plush again? I… I thought you would want me to move on and forget all about it.”

“I…” Dot swallowed and shook her head. “Part of me does want you to be able to forget about it all happening and think about other things. But at the same time, I can’t really deny you this if it’s what you need. If you need that plush in order to feel safe, then… I might not be able to get the original one back for you, but I can try to get you something that will help you to feel better here.”

Liko’s face relaxed into a smile, and Dot realized there were tears in the corners of her eyes. “Thank you,” Liko said softly, sniffling once again and rubbing at her eyes with the side of her hand. “I feel so ridiculous for asking for all of this, but…”

“It’s not ridiculous at all.” Dot squeezed at Liko’s hand. “If a plush of Sprigatito will make you feel safer, then I’ll get it for you. I promise.”

Liko laughed, and she pulled Dot into a hug. For a moment, Dot was too shocked to move, but she relaxed into the embrace and returned it seconds later. “What did I ever do to deserve a friend like you?”

Dot smiled and pressed the lower half of her face into Liko’s shoulder. “You were yourself.”

~~~

Dot took the jobs she was given incredibly seriously.

She operated at her best when she was told she had to accomplish something and was then left to her own devices to get it done. She didn’t hold back when she was told to take care of something, and she was determined to do her best work to ensure she was able to bring joy and relief to the person who had asked her for the favor. Dot had been on her own for so long, and when she was asked for a favor, it was something she knew she had to handle with care. Being asked for help with something was proof that she was there with other people, and she had to find a way to accomplish it as soon as she could. She had to give it her best to prove that she was reliable for her own sake and for the sake of those around her.

So when Dot managed to soothe Liko enough for her to take a nap, Dot made a beeline for her room. Quaxly sat down on her desk as she began to navigate her way through countless online shops that sold Sprigatito plushies. Dot shouldn’t have been surprised that Sprigatito was such a popular Pokémon to receive plush replicas; it was absolutely adorable, and it didn’t take much fabric to make a life size replica of the grassy cat. In other words, Dot had a bunch of options to choose from.

In the end, she found one she knew would be extra helpful for Liko. This specific kind of plush was the size of Sprigatito exactly, and on top of that, it could be heated up in a microwave. It grew warm when it was exposed to heat, and it could then be used as a comfort item to alleviate pain. Dot knew Liko tried to hide it from the rest of the world, but she also knew Liko was in more pain now than she had been before all of this began. Liko had been put through something horrible, and trauma of the mind could turn into pain of the body. Knowing the pain coming from her psyche did very little to chase it away. The best way to cure it, according to Dot’s research, was to treat it the same way as any other pain: with rest and appropriate heat to alleviate the ache. Liko could warm up this Sprigatito plush and then hold it to her chest when she felt her heart race from panic over her nightmares. No matter what, it would bring her comfort.

Dot hit the button to purchase the plush, and once it had been ordered, she was left to wait for its arrival. She sent it to the next town the Brave Olivine would be visiting so she could pick it up from the post office once they docked. Dot had to admit she was already growing impatient by not having the plush in her hands. Liko needed the comfort now, and Dot wanted to give it to her as soon as possible… But she would just have to wait for a little while longer.

If nothing else, Dot could say Liko was already starting to relax a little bit now that she had spoken about her struggles with sleeping. It wasn’t much, but it was enough for Dot to be able to notice the difference. Each time Liko cast Dot a tired smile, Dot reassured herself with the knowledge that she would be able to soothe all of these aches and pains very soon. She just needed to be able to wait for a little while longer so she could pick up the plush.

Needless to say, Dot was beyond impatient when the airship docked on the ground in town. She was the first one off the ramp, calling out an excuse over her shoulder that she had to go and pick something up. No one was able to question her as to what she was trying to get before she disappeared from view. Quaxly offered her a quack of assurance from her arms, and Dot smiled once she was officially out of the vision of the airship. She was going to get Liko the best gift she could, and it was going to be perfect.

The post office was luckily empty when Dot arrived there, and she picked up her package easily. She tore into it as soon as she was able to find a bench to sit on, and just as she had hoped, the plush was sitting inside. It looked just like Sprigatito, but instead of having the texture of fur, it was made of a soft fuzzy material that would feel simply delightful when it was warm. Dot couldn’t wait to see the look on Liko’s face when she received this.

Dot discarded the box in a trash can and returned to the Brave Olivine. Liko was still in her room, having not yet worked up the energy to go out into town. It seemed like Liko’s energy levels were much lower now than they ever had been before, and she had to fight her body to pry herself out of bed some mornings. Dot hoped her gift would make it even a little bit easier for her to get up. If it was helpful in any tiny way, then it would all be worth it.

Dot knocked on the door to Liko’s bedroom, and she pressed the plush behind her back. “Liko, are you in there?”

“Come on in, Dot. The door’s open.”

Dot opened the door with her free hand and walked in to find Liko spread out on her bed. She looked like she had barely slept the night before, but she wore a smile on her face anyway. “What do you need, Dot?” she asked. It was such a Liko question; she was struggling to find the energy to stand, and she was still asking for what Dot wanted and needed. She was too self-sacrificing for her own good.

“I have a gift for you,” Dot replied. That caught Liko’s attention, and she managed to sit up at the edge of her bed. “Close your eyes and hold your hands out.”

Liko nodded, and she extended her hands toward Dot. With a small breath, Dot dropped the plush of Sprigatito into Liko’s grasp, and that prompted Liko to open her eyes. Liko gasped at the sight of the toy, and she began to examine it from every angle. “Dot, this is…!”

“I thought you needed a new plush to help you calm down on nights when you struggled to sleep,” Dot explained. “I got a special one for you too. You can stick it in the microwave to warm it up, and you can put it anywhere that you’re having pain. I… I know you struggle with walking sometimes when you haven’t been sleeping enough. You just carry yourself gingerly when you haven’t gotten enough rest, so… If you want, you can press this up against spots that are bothering you, and it’ll warm them up.”

“Dot, I…” The lack of sleep from the last few days rushed forward to catch up with Liko in an instant, and she pulled the plush up against her chest. “I love it. Thank you so much.” Liko tried to stifle the sob that pushed its way free of her lips, but she couldn’t smother it entirely, and the sound echoed through the silence of her room. “I-I’m sorry for reacting like this… I just… I’m so touched…”

“You don’t need to apologize at all,” Dot assured her, sitting down on the bed beside Liko. She wrapped an arm around Liko’s shoulders, and Liko fell into her side without hesitation. “If it means a lot to you, then I think that’s a good thing. I… I’m glad that it’s making you so happy.”

“I love it,” Liko repeated, smiling as she pressed the plush impossibly closer to her night shirt. “I’m going to sleep with it tonight. And… I’m going to try and warm it up too. I’ve just been… Hurting a lot lately, and I think this will help me to feel better.”

“That’s the reason I got it,” Dot said. “If you’d like, I can go and warm it up for you now. That way, you can take a nap now if you’d like.” She didn’t say that she was certain Liko needed the sleep because of how completely exhausted she looked. That would have been rude, and the last thing Dot needed to do was put her foot in her mouth during such a touching moment.

“I’d really appreciate that. Thank you, Dot.” Liko entrusted the plush into Dot’s hands once again, and she eased herself back onto the mattress. Sprigatito curled up just beside her, and Terapagos did the same. They left the space just next to Liko’s left arm open though so she could hold the plush when Dot returned with it.

Dot wasted no time in running to the kitchen to heat up the plush, intently watching the timer as it counted down. When the microwave dinged, Dot pulled the plush out, finding it pleasantly warmed by the beans inside. She returned to Liko’s room before the heat could begin to rush out of the fabric, and she set the plush down just beside Liko’s torso. Liko’s arm curled around the plush to pull it in close, and the relief it brought to her body was instant, all of the tension in Liko’s chest rushing away at once.

“Thank you, Dot,” Liko whispered, her exhaustion catching up with her the instant she was given even a little bit of comfort. “This really means a lot to me… If there’s anything I can do to repay you, then–”

“Don’t worry about it. You getting the rest you need is more than payment enough for me,” Dot promised with a shake of her head. She approached the window, pulling the blinds shut upon seeing Liko’s eyes drooping. On her way out of the room, Dot flipped the light switch off too. “Sleep well, Liko.”

“Thank you, Dot.” Liko’s eyes slipped shut as soon as she was fully blanketed in the darkness, but the shadows did not distress her as they had so frequently since her return to the Brave Olivine. Instead, she focused only on the plush in her arms and the peace it brought her. The warmth was soothing, and it chased away every pain that seemed to want to rip her apart. She was safe there. Dot had proven she was safe there.

Over the course of the next few weeks, Liko finally found the sleep she had been missing ever since she was indoctrinated by the Explorers. She was able to relax for the first time in ages, and her smiles grew much more honest as her energy returned. Dot found herself looking forward to being able to look at Liko each morning to see her strength coming back to her. Each time, Liko smiled a little bit wider, and that was exactly what she deserved. At long last, Liko was at peace again, and Dot’s chest fluttered with warmth each time she remembered she was the reason for that relaxation.

Eventually, Liko was able to get the plush Amethio had gotten for her back from the Explorers’ base. She never traded it out for the one Dot had gotten her. Instead, she got used to sleeping with two plushes, and she treasured them both each time she returned to her bed. She would be safe so long as she had these relics of the people she cared for watching over her.

And her pains of the soul would be manageable for as long as Liko was willing to treasure the warmth of the gift Dot had given her.

digitaldreams · Dec 22, 2025

“pride and protection”

Prompt: Pride - Post Date: 6/15/25 - Word Count: 3,501 - Rating: Teen - Content Warnings: Sexual Harassment - Canon Compliant
~~~

Dot had never been a particularly prideful person.

Over the course of her life, she had come to see love between exclusively men or exclusively women as normal. Others may have had very few interactions with such a thing, but Dot had grown used to it through Murdock. He didn’t talk about his love life often, but Dot knew enough about him to be able to figure out that he had once had something of a relationship with Mitchell, the other baker from the old shop he used to work at. Dot hadn’t ever heard of Murdock having an interest in men, and her mother seemed to lean far more toward interest in women despite the fact that she had a daughter implying some history with a man.

In other words, it surprised Dot very little when she realized that she did not like men at all and only wanted to be in the company of other girls. The realization hit her when she was in elementary school and saw a few boys on the playground. It was as if she had been granted a revelation from Arceus himself: she did not like boys. From then on, Dot chose to spend time with the other girls in her class. Even after she began to shut herself away in her room as her social habits dwindled and faded, Dot knew that there was only one gender she would ever want to end up with, and that was a girl.

Dot hadn’t ever thought it would be Liko when the other girl first joined the Rising Volt Tacklers though. Dot had been interested in getting to know Liko in a vague sense, figuring it would be nice for them to get along as two of the only teens on the ship. Dot was happy to have another girl around even if it took them a while to get off on the right foot. The more time they spent together, the more Dot came to enjoy being in Liko’s company, and she found that there was no one else she would rather share her time with.

Eventually, this snowballed into something far greater as Dot realized that she was not just a friend of Liko’s: she wanted to be her girlfriend. The crush started off small, but by the time they reached the end of their Terastal course, Dot knew that it was catastrophically large. She wanted to be with Liko more than anything. She wanted to find joy in Liko’s eyes, and she hoped that Liko would want to return the favor with her too.

As it turned out, the answer was yes. Dot smiled each time she thought of her relationship with Liko. They had only been together for a few weeks, having confessed while on the trail to Entei of the Six Heroes, but Dot was more than happy to have Liko by her side. There was no one she would rather be with, and Dot found herself falling in love all over again when she remembered that Liko was truly her girlfriend. They were together. What better way was there for Dot to enjoy her life than by the side of the girl she cared for most?

The month was June, and that meant only one thing: rainbows were everywhere. Everyone who had any pride to speak of was displaying it loudly and in every place they could. Dot found herself almost jealous of the people who had the confidence to do such a thing. She knew that she had a right to join them, but she couldn’t ever seem to do it. That meant drawing unnecessary attention to her, and while Dot was getting more confident, she still didn’t know how she felt about screaming out to random people she had never met that she had a girlfriend. She struggled with holding Liko’s hand in public because she couldn’t shake the feeling that people were watching her. Dot knew she would get more comfortable in time, but for now, she hoped she would be able to get through each day without being stared at by everyone who passed her by on the street.

Today, Liko and Dot were walking through the streets of a town in Johto as they tried to pick up supplies for the airship. The Brave Olivine was docked at the harbor, and the members of the crew had been released onto the town to pick up supplies and enjoy the day out of the ship. Liko and Dot had been given a small list of groceries to get for Murdock since he wanted to make a rainbow cake. Dot had been hoping to keep her relationship with Liko low key, but Murdock wanted the opposite, and he wanted to make her the most extravagant sweets he could in honor of her new relationship. Dot couldn’t say no when she saw the excited look in Liko’s eyes though, so she agreed to help pick up the ingredients and then return to the ship.

“Hey there, gorgeous!”

Dot froze at the sound of the unknown voice, and she turned to look at whoever had called out with the words. Liko was carrying a few bags of groceries, and Dot had the list on her phone as she checked off what they had already gotten. Liko also paused and looked around for the person who had shouted, her gaze eventually settling on a boy who seemed to be a few years older than them. He looked close to seventeen, and behind her hair, Dot’s eye began to twitch. Surely the boy wasn’t talking to them, right?

As it turned out, Dot was wrong. The boy wasn’t talking to her and Liko at all; he was talking specifically to Liko, and he strutted over to her with a sideways smile on his face. “You shouldn’t have to carry all those bags by yourself. It’s wrong for a beautiful girl to have to handle so much weight. Here, let me help.”

Liko had been stunned into stillness by the young man’s words before, but when he reached out to touch her bags, she jolted away from him. “No, thank you,” she said hurriedly. “I’m more than fine with carrying them for myself. I appreciate the offer.”

“You don’t have to say no,” the young man pressed, trying to reach for the bags again. Liko swerved out of his way for a second time, her face suddenly pale from anxiety. “I’m volunteering to help you. Wouldn’t it be better if you asked a strong man to help you carry all of this back to your home?”

He wasn’t just trying to help Liko with the weight of the bags. He wanted to know where she lived. Rage flared in Dot’s chest at the thought. She didn’t know who the hell this boy thought he was, but she needed him as far away from Liko as possible. She wanted him to go away and never come back again. If he ever tried it, then… Then… Dot couldn’t say she was particularly great with physical activity, but maybe she would be able to repeat her stunt from the battle against the black Rayquaza near the beaches of Paldea. She had jumped out of the airship in the Nidothing suit, and it could have crushed someone if she aimed correctly. Maybe she could flatten out this smarmy boy and leave him as a pancake on the sidewalk. Dot thought he would look much more appealing that way than standing next to Liko.

“I’m really fine,” Liko tried to insist, backing up so she was nearly on top of Dot. “I need to get going anyway. There are other things we have to get before we can go back today, and–”

“And I can help you to get them!” the boy grinned. “If you really need help, then it would be rude of me to not offer it. It wouldn’t do for a beautiful girl like yourself to walk around the city by yourself. Boys should be tripping over themselves to do something to help you, but if they won’t see how good of a thing you are, then I’ll tell you for them. After all, I think I’m the best out of everyone in this town anyway.”

“She said no,” Dot cut in, stepping in front of Liko. “You know what that means. It doesn’t matter how politely she says it; her answer still isn’t changing, and you know what it means. Go away already.”

The boy’s eyes hardened into a glare. “Stay out of this. If you want a boyfriend that badly, then I’m sure I can get at least one of my friends to go out with you… But good luck getting anyone interested in you when you’ve got anger problems like that.”

Dot felt every thought in her mind grind to a screeching halt, and all she could do was snarl through gritted teeth. Who the hell did he think he was? He wanted to just walk up to a girl he didn’t know, declare himself the best thing to ever happen to her, and take her back to her home alone. It was absurd at best, though Dot could think of a lot of other, far more vulgar words to say about it.

“I appreciate your offer to help, but I’m really not interested,” Liko told the young man with a shake of her head. “I’m already in a relationship, and I would really like it if you would–”

“He doesn’t have to know about it,” the young man said, reaching out to grab at Liko’s wrist. “I can keep a secret… Or maybe I’ll be even better than he is, and you’ll never think about him again once we’ve spent some time together.”

Dot’s rage couldn’t handle being pushed down anymore, and she closed the distance between herself and the young man with two brisk steps. As soon as she was in range, she raised one foot and slammed it down as hard as she could onto the boy’s toes. He screamed in pain, recoiling and releasing Liko’s wrist from his grasp in the process. “She said no!” Dot took Liko’s hand and guided her as far away from the boy as she could without walking away from the conversation, continuing to shout at the young man with all she had. “Don’t you get it?! Not every girl wants to fall to their knees and date you! If you really want a girlfriend, then you’ll learn to take no for an answer!”

The boy somehow managed to wrestle his foot out from beneath Dot’s shoe, and he stared down at his undoubtedly bruised toes between heavy breaths. “Who do you think you are, coming in here and interrupting our conversation?!”

“I think I’m her girlfriend, and she’s much happier with me than she ever could be with you!” Dot snapped. “It’s not a girl’s problem to be nice to a boy who’s harassing her! You don’t even know what her name is! And you should know better than to just walk up to a girl, start tugging on her stuff, and then flirting with her! If you don’t knock it off, then I’m going to call the police! See how you like Officer Jenny chasing you all through town!”

The boy held up his hands defensively, but there was still rage behind his eyes, proof that he would not be walking away so easily. “You’re her girlfriend? I bet you can’t really make her happy. You barely look like a girl at all! What she needs is a real man like me!”

Dot would never be able to describe the feeling that swept through her body, but her limbs moved on their own, reaching out to take one of Liko’s hands in her own. Dot pressed her lips against Liko’s, and while Liko gasped in shock at first, she melted into the kiss seconds later. The rest of the world seemed to fall away, and Dot felt her anger start to simmer and soothe. It didn’t matter what this nobody said; Dot knew Liko was happy with her, and he would never be able to change that.

When Dot and Liko finally pulled away from each other, the boy was staring at them with red cheeks and clenched fists. “I wouldn’t want anything to do with you anyway… You’re out of your mind if you think I want to be with a girl kisser.” Dot would have laughed at how quickly the boy had turned around his opinions on Liko, but she never got the chance. Instead, he stormed off, disappearing into the crowd surrounding the trio.

Crowd?

Dot felt her cheeks flush as she realized that her yelling had attracted a lot of attention. A bunch of passersby were staring at her and Liko, and Dot hadn’t even noticed with how angry she had been. So much for not drawing too much attention to herself. Once the boy was gone from view, Dot heard a few people in the crowd clap, and she stared down at the ground. Had she really made that much of a splash just by telling a boy she wanted him to leave Liko alone?

Dot never got the chance to answer the question though since something else very quickly distracted her. Liko surged toward Dot and pressed her lips against the other girl’s in a loving kiss. Their roles were reversed this time, and Dot was confused for a split second before she reciprocated. When they pulled apart, both of them were red in the face from embarrassment, but Dot was certain her flustered expression would put Liko to shame any day of the week. “What… What was that about?” Dot asked softly.

“That… That might be the most attractive thing you have ever done,” Liko replied, and Dot couldn’t restrain the strangled yelp that pushed its way out of her lips. “Protecting me from a boy who wants to harass me… I don’t know what could be better than that.” She began to laugh, squeezing tightly where she was still holding Dot’s hand. Dot returned the gesture as her face continued to grow hotter and hotter. The crowd had largely moved on, but Dot could still feel a few eyes on them, mostly from other people who were clearly in relationships of their sort.

“I… I couldn’t just let him talk to you like that,” Dot told Liko quietly. “I couldn’t stand back and let him flirt with you. I mean, obviously, I’m your girlfriend and all that, but… I didn’t want him to disrespect you that way. It wouldn’t be right. I had to do something about it, so…” She looked down at the ground in shame. “I hope you’re okay that I just kissed you like that.”

“Of course I am,” Liko assured her with a smile. “That might be in our top five kisses of all time now. I really enjoyed it.”

“That’s… Good. That’s good,” Dot forced herself to say. She was still squirming from the weight of what she had just done though. She had shouted at that boy in front of an entire crowd of people, gathering enough attention that the people in the city had stopped to stare. She didn’t regret it since that had helped her to take care of Liko, but Dot had still been planning on laying low. She had wanted to keep herself composed so that she didn’t attract too much attention. She was getting better about it ever since her battle with Iono, but that didn’t mean she wanted to have to yell at a sexist boy in the middle of the street.

“You know… I think we should make one more stop before we go back to the ship,” Liko suddenly said, and Dot turned to look up at her in confusion. “I’m sure Murdock won’t mind if we get ourselves a little something extra with the money he gave us. Besides, we’ve only got a few more things to get, so we have the time. There’s a store that I saw earlier that had something I think we should get, so… What do you say we get the rest of the groceries and then backtrack a bit?”

Dot had no idea of what to expect from Liko’s suggestion, but she certainly wasn’t going to object to it. She wanted a taste of normalcy after she had just screamed at someone in public, and if this was how Liko wanted to express it, then Dot had no room to complain. “Yeah… Sure. Let’s do it.”

~~

Dot stood in front of a mirror in a small jewelry shop just off the main road. The groceries she and Liko had bought were leaning up against the nearby wall, and Liko was fastening a necklace around Dot’s neck. She had asked that Dot close her eyes while she connected the clasp, so Dot focused on the feeling of metal brushing against her collarbone. She didn’t wear jewelry all that often, but if this was really something Liko wanted that badly, then she wasn’t going to object.

“Alright. You can open your eyes.”

When Dot opened her eyes, she found that Liko was standing beside her. They were both wearing matching necklaces, the pendants split down the middle in a heart shape. Liko had the right half while Dot had been given the left. The pattern of the necklaces was what caught Dot’s attention the most though: they were marked with the orange and pink gradient of the lesbian flag. Dot hadn’t ever declared to the world that she was one, but she had hinted at it enough to Liko, and her girlfriend had put the rest of the pieces together.

“I thought it would be cute if we matched,” Liko explained, her cheeks dusted with a pale pink. “Plus… I don’t know. Maybe this can be our boy repellent. If we wear necklaces that prove to the world that we only like girls, then we might not have to deal with that sort of thing again.”

Dot knew realistically that most boys who wanted to truly harass them would not be deterred by a simple necklace. The boy from that afternoon had been more than happy to go after Liko even after learning that she was only interested in her girlfriend. Still… Dot liked the thought. She would never know it unless she tried. Beyond that, she wanted to have a piece of Liko there with her. Dot hadn’t ever expressed her sexuality openly, but this… This was something she could get behind.

Liko was so confident in everything she did, and she made it seem effortless. Liko didn’t know just how strong she was, but Dot knew it perfectly well, and she wanted to find a way to follow in her girlfriend’s footsteps. She wanted to be strong on her own terms, and she hoped that she would be able to stand by Liko’s side and say that they could be confident together. They deserved it. If this was a way for them both to keep pushing forward together, then Dot wanted to lean into it more than anything else.

“I love it,” Dot smiled. “It’s perfect. Thank you so much, Liko.”

“I’m so glad you like it!” Liko beamed. “And… Who knows? Maybe next year at this time, we’ll be able to go to a full on festival for pride! I know we’ve been tracking down Entei lately, but… We should try to set aside the time for something a bit bigger next year. I doubt the others would disagree. Maybe we could even get the adults to come.”

Dot had never been to a festival of that scale, and for years, she had thought she would never have the strength to go. It would be loud and full of people she didn’t know, and that was more than enough to keep her far away… But if she was going with Liko and the rest of the Rising Volt Tacklers, her family away from home, then the idea sounded appealing. Beyond that, it sounded like something she wanted to do deeply. She wanted to be loud and proud. She hadn’t known where she would find the confidence, but if she was able to tell off a boy for flirting with her girlfriend, then surely she would be able to handle a party meant to bring her joy rather than grief.

“I’d really like that,” Dot agreed. She reached for Liko’s hand and squeezed it tightly. Liko followed her lead a few seconds later. “But for now… I think I’m happy just being proud of the two of us.”

Liko leaned over, letting her head fall onto Dot’s shoulder. Dot mirrored the gesture, and her hair fell slightly to the side as she pressed her ear against Liko’s scalp. “There’s no one in the world I would rather be proud with.”

digitaldreams · Feb 21, 2026

“strife in the summer sun”

Prompt: Summer - Post Date: 6/29/25 - Word Count: 4,007 - Rating: Teen - Content Warnings: Sexual Harassment - Canon Compliant

~~~

Liko loved the beach.

There were many reasons for her love of the ocean, and the instant she was asked, she would gladly list them out. She loved being near the water and inhaling the deep, beautiful scent of the sea. She loved being able to take some time to simply relax and let the sun splash across her smiling face. She loved being given time to spend with the people she cared about, and there was no better place for her to enjoy their company than somewhere so fun for everyone involved.

Perhaps one of the biggest reasons Liko loved the beach though was because she loved swimming. She had always found it soothing to be surrounded by a vast expanse of blue, and she would gladly retreat beneath the waves to see everything she could find there. She felt refreshed after she swam, like her soul was being cleansed by the gentle waves of the ocean.

Swimming meant she had to dress up in a swimsuit, and Liko was always more than happy to look as cute as she could for the occasion. She didn’t fuss too much over her appearance most days, but she still enjoyed looking nice from time to time, and the beach was a perfect opportunity to get a little dressed up. Liko had chosen out a white and green swimsuit the first time she ever went to the beach with the other Rising Volt Tacklers, and it still fit her over a year later. Now, she was back on the seaside with the rest of her friends, and Liko couldn’t wait to see how much fun she could have there.

Beyond all of that though, Liko couldn’t wait to be able to share her beach day with her girlfriend. She and Dot hadn’t yet been a couple the first time their group went to the sea, but a lot had changed since then, and Liko wanted to be able to show herself off for Dot. She wanted her girlfriend to spend some time outside of her room, but selfishly, Liko also wanted Dot to look at her and think she looked nice. Liko knew there was only so much she could do to highlight her appearance when she was preparing to jump into the ocean for a day of swimming, but she still wanted to look her best for Dot. She wanted to be something beautiful for Dot to admire, and she hoped with everything she had that her girlfriend would enjoy looking at her.

Dot hadn’t ever been the biggest fan of showing skin, so when it came time for their beach trip, she opted to wear something far less feminine. She wore a thicker swimming shirt and matching shorts. The shirt flowed around her in the breeze, rustling the same way Liko’s skirt did. Dot had her head bowed so she didn’t look directly into the sun, but Liko could still see the dusting of pink on her cheeks from embarrassment. Dot was still getting used to things like this, and her year of isolation after the Rising Volt Tacklers temporarily disbanded had set her back quite a bit. If Dot needed support and encouragement though, then Liko was more than happy to give it to her.

“Alright,” Liko declared as she set down her bag on the sand. “Do you think this is a good spot?” They were a short distance away from the rest of the Rising Volt Tacklers, just far enough away to have their own sense of privacy while being in the easy to spot range of their friends.

Dot looked out over the ocean and nodded. “Yeah… I think so.” She set down her own bag, and Meowscarada planted their umbrella into the sand. Meowscarada was looking forward to enjoying a bit of sunbathing time even if she had never been too fond of the water. Quaxwell would likely choose to dive into the sea at the first opportunity, but Meowscarada would be there to take care of the rest of the Pokémon and ensure they stayed out of trouble. She could watch over their things too, giving Dot and Liko the chance to enjoy their afternoon of swimming freely.

Liko opened up her bag and pulled out Meowscarada’s towel, spreading it out on the sand for her partner to enjoy. Meowscarada gladly settled into place, and Hattrem followed suit. Terapagos babbled excitedly from the edge of the towel, but Quaxwell was quick to keep the turtle from rushing off into trouble. He delivered Terapagos right in front of Hattrem, and she offered a reminder to stay in place within the language of Pokémon. Terapagos understood, and it settled down on its town part of the towel seconds later.

Liko laughed at the Pokémon getting settled, watching as Tinkatuff nestled onto the other towel Dot was setting out. “I guess everyone was looking forward to this,” Liko commented. “I’m glad to know it wasn’t just us.”

“Yeah… Quaxwell has been really eager,” Dot confirmed. She slid her bag under the shade of the umbrella, and Meowscarada pulled it out of the reach of any other beachgoers. Liko mirrored the process on Meowscarada’s other side, going to zip up the bag. Her jacket was peering out of the top so she would be able to put it on when the temperature began to fall that night, but for the time being, it wasn’t necessary. The day was warm, and Liko was more than happy to enjoy it.

A whistle cut through the air when Liko went to stand up, and she turned to find a pair of boys standing behind her on the beach. She was facing away from the Rising Volt Tacklers, meaning the boys were coming from the opposite direction. Both of the boys were in only swim trunks, showing off their chests without a care in the world. “Don’t you look cute?” one of the boys called out with an overconfident smile. “How about you come and swim with us? I’m sure you won’t regret it!”

“Yeah! You look gorgeous!” the other boy agreed, and even though the words should have been a compliment, Liko found herself doubting they truly were. “Why don’t you come over here and spend some time with a real man? Must be more fun than that other boy friend you’ve got there. We’re much cooler than him.”

Dot moved before Liko even remembered to speak, pulling Liko’s jacket out of her bag and throwing it around her shoulders. Liko didn’t realize Dot was there until Dot was pushing her into her sweater and zipping it up, covering up her chest and the rest of the top half of her body. Liko yelped in surprise as Dot whirled around to face the boys. “Keep it moving!” she snapped. “And don’t come back! I’ll make sure you regret it if you do!” On the sand, Meowscarada offered a cry of agreement, sitting up just enough to snarl at the two boys.

The boys shared a single anxious glance before they decided it wasn’t worth the trouble, and they didn’t even give Liko or Dot a hurried excuse as they turned to run in the opposite direction. Meowscarada seemed to complain in her own tongue as she settled back onto the sand so she could enjoy the sunlight once again. Hattrem was practically fuming, only relaxing when Terapagos butted its head against her side. Hattrem forced herself to breathe at that, but it was clear that she had strong opinions she still had not voiced.

Liko looked down at Dot where her girlfriend still had her grip on the zipper of her jacket. Dot’s fingers were trembling slightly, and she sighed. “Sorry about that,” Dot muttered. “I didn’t mean to…” She turned away and sighed. “I just didn’t want them to talk about you that way.”

Liko hesitated before she shook her head. All of a sudden, the air on the beach felt cold, and she found herself wanting to retreat into the sand and never come back up again. “I… I appreciate you looking out for me, Dot,” she murmured. “I just…” She couldn’t seem to find the words she wanted to speak though, so she slowly started to reach up for the tag on her zipper. “Maybe we should get in the water. I think that would be better than… Than standing out here.” She didn’t say that the water would be able to protect her from any wandering eyes of nearby men, but she was certain Dot understood it.

Just as Liko had hoped, Dot knew exactly what she was talking about. Even so, she seemed hesitant to let Liko take her jacket off, and worry flashed in her purple eyes. “I… Are you sure about that?” she asked. “I don’t want to make you feel like you have to before you’re ready. We can go somewhere else. We could go back with the others if you wanted to.”

Liko shook her head. “No… Let’s just get in the water.” She watched as Dot slowly let go of her zipper, allowing her to work it down. Liko had only been wearing the jacket for a few minutes, but she was already suffocatingly hot beneath the fabric. She also felt like she was doing something wrong by removing it, like she was going to invite another pair of eyes she did not want and would never ask for if she even entertained the idea of showing her skin. Liko had been hoping to enjoy the day, and yet, there she was struggling to think about how she ever could again.

Dot watched carefully as Liko slipped out of her jacket, and as soon as her shoulders and stomach were bare again, she wrapped an arm around her girlfriend’s waist, desperate to hide as much of her skin from any onlookers as possible. “Okay,” Dot whispered. “Let’s go.”

Liko walked with Dot over to the shore, and while Liko normally enjoyed easing herself into the water slowly, she didn’t bother with it today. Instead, she waded in as deep as she could as quickly as possible. The chill of the ocean was a bit jarring against her warm skin, but Liko would much rather be surrounded with something cold than a subject of stares from men she did not know. The cold was something she was willing to deal with if it would grant her a little bit of peace.

Dot waded in just beside Liko, though she was far less skilled with swimming, so she had to stay in the area where her feet could still touch the sandy floor below. Dot ducked her head beneath the water once to soak her hair, and she pushed it out of her face once every thread was wet. She looked adorable there in the summer sun, her cheeks slightly flushed and accentuating the presence of her freckles. Liko thought Dot always looked beautiful, but there was something sheepish about her now, and Liko knew for a fact that it wouldn’t have been there if not for the calls of the boys from a few minutes prior.

Liko truly felt as if the atmosphere around them had changed from the harassment, and she hated it more than she could ever hope to put to words. She had wanted to enjoy herself at the beach and leave all of her fears behind. She wanted to forget about the misery that came with Exceed, Spinel, and the Strong Spheres just long enough to spend an afternoon in pure joy. Instead, Liko had wound up walking into yet another bout of suffering because the eyes of men simply could not be asked to turn away from her skin. Did random boys she didn’t know really care that much for the way she looked? Did they truly want her that badly from a single glance? Or were they hoping to control her by reaching out and asserting their power over a body they knew they would never be able to own if not through force?

“Liko, are you okay?”

Liko hadn’t realized just out of touch with reality she had become until after Dot spoke up, and Liko looked up to find her girlfriend watching her worriedly. “You… You’ve seemed a little bit out of it ever since those boys came up to us,” she began. “I-I’m sorry for the way I acted. I didn’t want them looking at you, and I thought your jacket was the best way to fix that. I know that doesn’t really solve the problem of boys treating you badly, but it was all I could think of, and–”

“You don’t need to apologize, Dot,” Liko assured her with a shake of her head. “I know you were just trying to look after me. I can’t blame you for that. I just… I don’t know. I feel like the entire day has been messed with now.”

“You didn’t mess with anything. It wasn’t your fault those boys decided that them wanting to… To do things with or to you was more important than you having a good time,” Dot told her firmly. “It’s not your fault at all, and I don’t want you to feel that way.”

“I know,” Liko sighed. “It’s just… It’s complicated.” She suddenly felt like she wanted to use her hands to cover up her chest as much as she could. Any piece of showing skin felt like an invitation she had never meant to send, and she could only hope she was one day able to rescind it enough to be left alone for a few minutes. Why did it feel like boys thought of her as something to be claimed? Why was she a prize to be won without ever signing up for the contest in the first place?

“How is it complicated?” Dot asked, something like insecurity coming to rest in her irises. “You can talk about it if you want, Liko. I don’t want to make you if you don’t want to, but… You shouldn’t feel like you have to hold back if you want to share how you’re feeling.”

Liko could already feel embarrassed and ashamed tears coming to life in her eyes the longer she thought about it. She hated that she had found herself in a situation like this, and the more she thought about it, the more upset she felt. Why couldn’t she just move on? The boys were gone now. She was safe. She couldn’t be bothered by them anymore. Why did it feel like it was still haunting her?

“I… I hate being looked at like that,” Liko confessed, unsure of where the words were coming from but unable to stop them all the same. “I hate that there are just boys out there who think they can say awful things and get away with it. I hate that they think they have a right to do things to me when I never even looked at them. I didn’t know they were there until they said they wanted to… To do things with me. I hate it. And I hate that it took Meowscarada threatening them to make them stop. I hate that the only thing you could think to do was use my jacket to cover me up. They should just know to not do that, but…” Liko was crying freely now, and she rubbed at her eyes, mixing her tears with the saltwater of the sea. “I don’t know.”

Dot nodded, and she ducked her head beneath the water just enough to hide her mouth from view as she considered her next few words. “It hurts to know there are people who look at you that way. I didn’t want them to treat you badly that way, and… It upset me a lot,” Dot whispered when she emerged from the waves. “I know that making you use your jacket to cover up doesn’t really fix things, and I didn’t mean to hurt you with that, but… I couldn’t stand to see you in a position like that.”

“It’s not your fault that you had to do that. I just… I wish you didn’t have to,” Liko sighed. “I… I really wanted to look cute for you today. I wanted to look nice so that you would enjoy looking at me. We’re girlfriends now, and… I like it when you look at me. I wanted to be cute for you, Dot. I don’t care what other people think about me. I just wanted you to like the way I looked today. I hate that now… Now I’m too scared to even look nice because I feel like it’s going to end with someone looking at me in ways I didn’t ask for. I wanted you to like the way I looked, but… I don’t even know if I like the way I look anymore.”

“I love the way you look today,” Dot told her, eyes going wide. “I think you look amazing, Liko! You always do, but… I… I’m honored you thought of me that way. I always love the way you look, and…” Dot’s cheeks grew impossibly pinker, and she looked down at the water just between them. “I think that swimsuit looks really nice on you. It really suits you, and… You’re really cute when you wear it.”

Liko felt her own cheeks warming up, and she swam toward her girlfriend. “Dot… Thank you,” she smiled softly. “That makes all of this feel worth it.” She knew that wasn’t entirely true since she still felt more than a little bit miserable knowing there were people who would stare at her in ways she never consented to, but if Dot liked the way she looked… That was a victory she was willing to take.

Liko sniffled as she took Dot’s hands in her own, finding them to be the comfort she needed in her moment of distress. “I… I honestly got scared for a moment that you didn’t want to look at me when you grabbed the jacket,” Liko confessed. “I know you were trying to take care of me, but… I didn’t want you to feel like you had to do that. You wanted to protect me, but I wanted you to be able to see me too. I dressed up like this for you, and… Hearing that you like seeing me like this means the world to me.”

“Of course I like seeing you like this!” Dot cried out, only realizing after she had yelled just how loud she had been. She retreated back toward the water again, but this time, she kept her lips above the waves so she could continue to speak. “I don’t know if I’ve ever seen you in a cuter outfit than your swimsuit, Liko.”

Liko couldn’t help the blush that exploded across her cheeks at that, and she threw her arms around Dot’s shoulders all at once. “I’m so glad!” she exclaimed. “I was so worried you didn’t want to see me after what happened before, but I… I really wanted you to enjoy seeing me today. I wish those boys hadn’t ever said anything so I could show you a little bit more, but…”

“Maybe later tonight we can get out of the water when there aren’t as many people around,” Dot suggested. “I don’t know if that’ll entirely solve the problem, but… If you want me to see you in your swimsuit, then I want to see you in it too. I… I was looking forward to today in part because of that, you know.”

“I’m really happy to hear that,” Liko smiled, pulling away from Dot so they could look each other in the eyes. “You’re the best girlfriend ever, Dot.”

Insecurity flared in Dot’s eyes, and she suddenly found herself uninterested with looking directly at Liko, instead staring at the water off to their left. “Do… Do you really think I’m a good girlfriend?” she asked hesitantly. “Those boys… They thought I was a boy too, and a bad one at that. I know I didn’t wear a girly swimsuit today, and… I don’t know. I guess it just worries me that I’m not enough of a girl for you.”

“Of course you’re enough of a girl for me,” Liko assured her with a shake of her head. “Nothing those boys said is ever going to change my mind on that. You’re my girlfriend, and I like spending time with you. I don’t mind how you dress at all. I think it suits you really well. If you’re comfortable in it, then it’s perfect for you. And… I think you’re cute in anything you wear too. That includes a swim shirt and shorts.”

Dot’s face turned impossibly redder at that, and she seemed ready to sink into the ocean so Liko couldn’t see just how embarrassed she was with the compliment. “I… I appreciate you saying that,” Dot managed to force out. “Thank you, Liko… That… That really means a lot. I love being your girlfriend, but I know there are some people who might not see me as… Enough of a girl, I guess. If you think I’m a girl though, then…”

“Of course you’re a girl,” Liko promised. “And the two of us are girlfriends. It doesn’t matter how we dress or what other people say about us. We’re girls, and… I think that’s what makes us so perfect for each other.” She leaned in and pressed a kiss to Dot’s cheek, feeling the warmth of it from how flustered she was through her lips. “We’re girlfriends, and we belong together.”

Dot was left sputtering in shock for a long moment, her mind seemingly short circuiting just as computers did sometimes. She couldn’t keep her head fully above water anymore from the weight of her embarrassment, and she sank beneath the waves. A series of bubbles rose up from her lips to the surface of the water, and Liko could tell she was saying something, but because of the waves censoring Dot’s voice, she couldn’t make out the words specifically.

When Dot didn’t come above the water to explain herself, Liko tilted her head to the side. “What did you say?”

That only made Dot’s embarrassment increase again, and she blew out the words as another series of bubbles. Liko shook her head to show that she had not understood, and Dot finally forced herself to resurface. “I said… I love you, Liko,” Dot choked out, though she was clearly embarrassed about declaring the words on the heels of such an emotional moment.

Liko, however, would never be embarrassed by anything Dot did, and she pulled Dot in for yet another kiss. This time, she was sure to press it against Dot’s lips. Dot tasted salty from the sea, and yet, Liko loved it. She loved everything to do with Dot. It didn’t matter how small it was; Liko still adored it, and she would for as long as she was able to spend her life by her girlfriend’s side. It didn't matter what rogue boys on the beach said about either one of them or their relationships to femininity and masculinity. Liko knew who they were, and she would reassure Dot at every chance her girlfriend needed it.

When Liko pulled away, she found that both she and Dot were smiling like they never had before. Dot’s embarrassment was still present on her face, and yet, Liko loved it the same way she loved everything else about Dot. The waves danced around them as Liko wrapped her arms around Dot’s body, making sure their torsos were pressed flush against each other in a tight and soothing embrace. That was exactly where Liko wanted to be, and she realized the only thing she liked more than swimming during a day at the beach was enjoying a summer afternoon with her girlfriend in her arms. “I love you too, Dot.”

digitaldreams · Feb 21, 2026

“a song of hearts and souls”

Prompt: Heartbeat - Post Date: 7/13/25 - Word Count: 4,005 - Rating: Teen - Content Warnings: Vague Discussions of Trauma and Fear of Death - Free Fall AU

The talk in this chapter is pretty vague, but it is still present. Liko talks about being afraid of dying and the trauma around nearly dying.

~~~

Liko could not believe she was still alive.

A few hours had come and gone since she arrived back in the cabin she was staying in with Dot, Roy, and the rest of their Pokémon. In that time, she had been forcing herself to remember how to breathe again to very little success. It still felt impossible that she was alive at all, and no matter how many times she tried to remind her mind that she was in one piece, it never seemed to listen. Nothing was enough to quiet the storm raging against the boundaries of her mind, and she didn’t know if she would ever be able to escape it again. Everything was simply too much.

That day had brought Liko through perhaps one of the worst events of her life. She had hoped she would be able to consider herself out of the reach of the Explorers once she had managed to escape. She thought the rest of the Rising Volt Tacklers would be able to protect her and ensure nothing bad ever happened to her again. Unfortunately, Spinel had other plans, and he was more than happy to haunt and ruin her even on the other side of the battlefield. She would see no peace as long as he was still out there, and Liko couldn’t believe it had taken her so long to figure it out.

He had lured her and Amethio into a trap that day, and they had been stuck within the frozen cave Spinel had planned to use as their tomb. Spinel truly had wanted them both dead for daring to interfere in his plans, and he had almost gotten away with it. Thanks to a bit of luck, they were able to pull through, but Liko dreaded to think of what would have happened if the circumstances had been even a little bit different. That could have been the end for her, and there wouldn’t have been a thing she could have done about it.

Her time in the cave that day had done something else horrible to her too. It wasn’t just a matter of her fearing everything that Spinel could have done in the present; it had dredged up every horrible memory of what he had done to her in order to bring her into the fold of the Explorers in the first place. Spinel wasn’t just a man who had decided he wanted to run her into the ground and ruin her life; he was her abuser, and he had done horrific things in the name of earning her compliance. He had molded her into a perfect victim, and Liko had been able to do little other than stand there and let it happen. Spinel had created Opal deliberately for the sake of making them both suffer, and the pain of it all had rushed in to snatch both Liko and Opal up the instant they saw his face.

Liko struggled to remember the finer points of what Spinel had done to them. She knew that was Opal’s way of protecting her. Opal cited herself as Liko’s defender, the only one who could keep her safe in a time when it felt impossible for her to escape the darkness that surrounded her. Opal did not want Liko to remember, and she had done as much as she could to make sure Liko didn’t uncover any horrific reminders of what they had been through together.

But there was nothing Opal could have done to keep Liko safe in full from what was waiting for them that day. It had all happened so fast, like a million tidal waves crashed into each other right on top of them. Liko had thought she was going to drown, freeze, or both. She had felt each panicked breath Opal took as memories rushed back to them both. They had almost died because of Spinel. He could have killed them countless times, and he had smiled as he did it. Nothing mattered as much as the pain he was able to bring them. Nothing mattered as much as the joy he was able to derive from each tear that formed in their fragile eyes.

The flashbacks had somewhat dulled over the course of the afternoon, and Liko no longer felt like the very air was trying to suffocate her… But the progress was small, and it didn’t feel like enough. Nothing would ever feel like enough. She wanted to escape from the world that contained Spinel. She wanted to hide out somewhere else, to wait until she was certain he would never lay a finger on her again. She couldn’t face him after what he had done. She couldn’t even bring herself to look out the window of the cabin. Every stretch of darkness beyond its walls felt like a threat, a promise of new violence that would tear her to pieces. Spinel had tortured her in the darkness too, and now, it was one of the things Liko feared the most.

The cave had been dark too. Perhaps it was because of the cold and the darkness–the symptoms of a coming death that she had experienced but never quite embraced–that she had started to unravel at the seams. Maybe it was the horrible environment that had made it so all of Opal’s defensive barriers and amnesiac walls came crashing down in an instant. Liko wasn’t entirely sure. All she knew was that she couldn’t seem to tear the sensation of Spinel’s hands around her neck from her mind. She couldn’t forget the way Umbreon’s attacks had soared through the air directly toward her. She couldn’t bury the fear that had come with feeling her sense of self drift further and further away each time Beheeyem moved to erase her memories of the torment.

Liko’s heart had been racing all day. She wanted it to calm down more than anything so she could take even a single breath in peace, but her body refused. Each time she found herself pressing her fingers up against her chest, the noise and the drumming was overwhelming enough to feel like it was going to destroy her. Maybe her heart was going to burst out of her ribcage then and there, tear her apart in an explosion of blood and bone, and she would finally be given the peace she sought. If the world would not be without Spinel, then perhaps it would be safer if she was–

“Liko?”

Dot’s voice nearly made Liko scream in shock, and she looked up to find the purple-haired girl walking closer to her. Dot was bundled up in her warmer clothing, not having taken well to the cold of the mountain in the slightest. Even when indoors, Dot couldn’t be asked to pull her coat off. “Dot,” Liko forced herself to say, though the word came out more as a wheeze. Her voice was distorted from her panic, but she could tell Opal wasn’t involved with it at all. This was all Liko. Opal had practically shut herself away when she began to recall the weight of what Spinel had done to them. Liko hadn’t heard from her in hours, and she was too tired and scared to try to reach out no matter how much she sought the comfort of her other half.

“Are you alright?” Dot asked, settling down on the cot just next to Liko. Her fingers came to rest just beside Liko’s cheek like they wanted to stroke across her face but could not find the confidence. “You’ve seemed… Out of it ever since you got back from the cave.”

That was certainly one way of putting it, though Liko thought it was an understatement. She hadn’t just been out of it since she returned; she wasn’t sure if she was ever going to be able to fight her way back to her body again. That seemed like an impossible task, and all she could do was acknowledge it with the kind of defeat that wanted to destroy her just like her treacherous heart. “I… I’ll be alright,” Liko forced herself to say. If she said it enough, then perhaps she would start to believe it. She needed to start believing it.

Dot was entirely unconvinced though, not that this particularly surprised Liko. They had grown very close over the course of the last few months, and Dot was desperate to do anything she could to take care of Liko, including noticing when Liko wasn’t being honest with herself or those around her. “It’s okay to say that you were scared, you know,” Dot told her, inching her fingers a little bit closer but still not committing to actually touching Liko’s cheek. “I was scared for you.”

Liko forced herself to nod, but all that seemed to do was make her heart race even faster. Dot had been terrified when they reunited, and she had wasted no time in throwing her arms around Liko to make sure she was standing there before her, alive and breathing. Liko had felt horrible for it though; she hadn’t meant to make Dot worry. She knew everyone had been concerned for her ever since she failed her test against Grusha, but Liko hated feeling like a burden. It was simply too much for her to bear, and it made her want to squirm and bury herself beneath the snow.

Dot finally decided to take Liko’s hand in her own, seeming to find it to be a suitable middle ground between stroking at her cheek and not touching her at all. There were a million words racing through Dot’s head, and Liko could see it, but she didn’t know how she was meant to coax the information out of her. It felt impossible, but then again, many things had felt impossible over the course of the day. “I was terrified we weren’t going to find you in time,” Dot whispered, her voice so fragile it seemed ready to break the instant even the slightest breeze made its way through the bolted windows. “I knew something awful must have been happening to you, and… Even though you’re okay now… It scared me. It really, really scared me.”

Liko squeezed tighter at Dot’s hand, and she felt guilty tears continue to rise to life in her eyes. She hadn’t meant to scare anyone, though she supposed there wasn’t much of anything she could do to help it. Spinel was the reason for all of this… But Liko still found herself aiming the blame back at her own mishandled emotions. She should have been more composed. Perhaps she wouldn’t have scared everyone if she had simply been able to keep a grip on herself. Maybe she would have been able to keep her friends safe if she was calmer. Instead, she had messed it all up. She had let herself get lost in her thoughts after failing her test against Grusha, and… And…

Liko didn’t realize she had started to cry until after she let out an ugly little sob that made her entire body shake. Suddenly, she was all too aware of how loud her heartbeat was, and the sound seemed to want to drown out every noise she had ever wanted to make in her life. Dot gasped and held Liko’s hand a little bit tighter like she thought that would be enough to save her. Both of them knew it was not the case. “Liko?” Dot asked, struggling with emotions even after all this time. She was getting better at it–she had no choice as long as Liko was battling so much–but it was still hard for her at times. How could it not be?

“I… I thought I was going to die,” Liko whispered, and she realized her voice was starting to distort and twist over itself. Opal had started to emerge from the dark sea of their mind, and their words were blending together the same way they always did when neither could figure out how to hand over control completely. When they were distressed, it was so much harder for them to find a middle ground. “I was so scared… I-I couldn’t stop thinking about everything Spinel did. There was so much of it, and… H-He could have erased everything at any moment. I had already lost myself once, a-and he could have done it again today. He could do it again any time I see him! He already did so much to me, and…” Liko’s fingers drifted up from her chest toward her neck. When she struggled to breathe on nights like this, she could almost swear his grip was still there, choking out every bit of life from her lungs that she had never been allowed to live. He had wanted to kill her, and he would have gotten away with it if he truly committed to it.

Dot’s other hand went up to Liko’s cheek, starting to brush away the tears as they streaked down her face. Liko was glad Dot was there to offer her a small reminder that warmth still existed. She had almost forgotten after everything she had struggled with in that cave. It had been too much for her to bear, and it haunted her even now. “You’re alive,” Dot assured her. “You’re still here with me. I promise.”

“But I almost wasn’t!” Liko exclaimed, but the statement still wasn’t particularly loud. She wasn’t breathing well enough to yell. “I-If things had gone even a little bit differently, then… Then…” Liko couldn’t restrain her next sob despite her best efforts. “I-I don’t want to die, Dot… I-I never did, but I… I feel like I… I feel like I died when Spinel first took me. I feel like I’ve been a ghost for ages.”

Liko could tell that Opal was starting to blur in fully now. For as long as she could remember, Opal had felt like she was a ghost, wandering the world out of some mercy from a higher power that could have been considered punishment rather than clemency. Opal had wondered if she had a right to exist at all when she never would have taken a breath on her own if not for the pain she and Liko had endured. They were there because of the trauma they had been forced to face by powers out of their control, and Opal did not know how she was meant to find a reason to live in a world that had tried so hard to make sure she died.

“I… I’m alive, aren’t I?” Opal whispered, her voice suddenly much deeper than what Liko was used to considering her own cadence. “I… I want to know that I’m still alive.” There was a desperation to her words, a pleading that made Liko’s heart feel like it was going to rupture then and there. Opal had thought for ages that she didn’t deserve to be alive, and yet, there she was, wanting to fight for a chance to take another breath. She wanted proof that she was there so that one day, she might be able to enjoy it. She wanted life, and Liko wished it hadn’t come to them only because they had come to fear death so greatly.

Dot nodded, and Opal reached up to take her hand away from their face. Instead, Opal directed Dot’s fingers down to her chest. Liko felt like their heart was still beating much too fast for them to bear, and she hoped Dot could feel it through her shirt. “That’s… That’s real, isn’t it?” Opal asked softly. “That’s my heart, isn’t it?”

“It is,” Dot confirmed, but she didn’t keep her hand pressed against Opal and Liko’s chest for long. Instead, she slid it down so that she could press her ear up to the same spot. Liko had thought it would restrict her breathing to the point of feeling unpleasant, but instead, it was exactly what she needed. She wasn’t feeling restrained at all; instead, she felt like she was safe for the first time since all of this had started. This was where she was meant to be, and she couldn’t believe it had taken her so long to remember it.

“Your heart is beating really fast,” Dot murmured, her voice slightly muffled by the fabric of Liko and Opal’s shirt. “I hope you haven’t been this worked up all day. You’re going to start acting like me if this keeps up for too much longer.”

Liko let out a wet laugh. Dot had always been prone to spikes in heart rate brought on by the various weaknesses of her body. She had struggled with climbing Mount Glaseado for a wide variety of reasons, but that was one of the main ones. Liko had come to find the sound of Dot’s heartbeat comforting too. Sometimes, they would take a break in their adventures to sit somewhere, and Liko would take Dot’s hand in her own. When she did, she would feel for Dot’s pulse between her pointer finger and thumb, and she would let the rhythm guide her through the most graceful dance that could have ever been performed: the waltz of love.

“It’s… It’s a nice sound,” Dot confessed after a few seconds of hesitation. “I know you’ve been scared all day, but… It’s nice to listen to. I like being here with you. I really do.” She swallowed dryly, and Liko could feel the way Dot’s head shifted from its place on her chest. “I was scared I wasn’t going to find you alive when we got to that cave. I was terrified, and… I think I needed to hear your heartbeat too. I guess I needed the reminder that you’re still alive just as much as you did.”

Liko nodded, and she felt another sob work its way up from the darkest corners of her soul. She was alive. She and Opal were both alive. They had thought they were going to rot there in the cave, left to corrode as naught but ash, but they were still there. They were still fighting. Against all odds, they had survived what Spinel did to them. Through the power of their union, they had made it through. Now, they were back with people who cared for them, and they would remain there together no matter what happened next.

“Thank you for being here, Dot,” Liko whispered, the words threatening to make her cry for another five minutes at least. It took so much effort to speak at all, much less to say something so profound and loving. “I’m glad I was able to survive the fight with Spinel since… Since it gave me the chance to come back to you once it was all over.”

Liko could feel the way Dot’s breath caught in her lungs at the kindness in those words. Dot tilted her head back so they could look each other in the eyes, and Liko could see tears glistening against Dot’s irises in a gap through her hair. Dot sniffled right along with Liko, and she pressed one hand against Liko’s chest again. Liko tightened her grip on Dot’s hand so she could feel that familiar harmony beneath her fingers, and she watched as Dot’s face moved ever closer to hers.

The kiss was a quiet one, something born of all the love they had ever wanted to express but had not been able to out of fear of the world around them. Liko sobbed as soon as it was over, and she pressed Dot’s hand a little bit closer to her chest. She was still alive, and the fact that she was there with Dot was proof of it. She had gotten through one of the worst and hardest days of her life, and now, she was laying in her cot with one of the most important people in the world by her side. She had survived for this. She had endured the pain of remembering Spinel’s atrocities against her so she would be able to see this beautiful sight again.

“Thank you,” Liko choked out despite the protests of her aching lungs. Her entire body felt like it was on fire now, a harsh contrast from the frigid winds that had almost destroyed her that afternoon. She was safe there in Dot’s arms, and she would be forevermore too. Dot wasn’t going to let anything happen to her. As long as they were together, they would fight to stay by each other’s sides, and Liko couldn’t ask for a better ally to have in her corner.

“Thank you for still being here,” Dot replied, and Liko felt another wave of tears rise up in her chest and then smother her in an instant. Before Dot arrived, Liko had been wondering if perhaps leaving behind all life, if walking away from the light that wanted to burn her to ash, was the only option. It had been a desperate thought, and yet, it was one that she couldn’t seem to shake out of her mind even now. For a brief moment, Liko had wondered if she wanted to die, and it horrified her.

But she knew now that the answer was no. It wasn’t easy to still be there. It wasn’t easy to keep fighting and living after everything she had been through, but she was doing it anyway. No matter how hard the battle became, Liko wanted to keep fighting. She wanted to push through all of the pain and trauma of her past so she could see another day. She wanted to survive any agony that Spinel may have pressed onto her in the future so that she could look the people she loved in the eyes and smile. She wanted to wake up in the morning and know peace because she was loved. There was too much for her to live for, and Liko was glad she had been given the reminder. She wanted to sit in that relief for as long as she could. She was alive, and she had every right to enjoy it even in a world that had tried to ensure the opposite came to pass.

“Will you stay here tonight?” Liko asked softly. She rubbed circles across the back of Dot’s hand with her finger, wanting to take in every tiny piece of her that she could. Everything about Dot brought Liko peace and ease, and she would chase after it with every ounce of strength she had in her body.

“You couldn’t make me leave for anything,” Dot answered, and Liko could see her smile even through the darkness of the cabin. Dot settled down fully off to Liko’s side, their heads pressed together. One pair of their hands remained overlapped atop Liko’s chest, and the other was laced together by their sides as Liko felt for Dot’s heartbeat. There was no better position to be in, Liko thought, and for the first time all day, she was at peace.

Slowly but surely, Liko’s heartbeat stopped racing, calming down to a steady pace that she could consider a soothing song. It was a cry for her survival, and Liko wanted to live more than anything. She was afraid of dying, but that was not her only reason for being. She wanted to live for herself and the people she cared about. It was not fear that was keeping her going; it was love, and Liko wanted to cherish it for every breath she took from then on. She had survived for a reason, and it was so she could sit in her own love and let it block out every pain that had ever threatened to kill her. Light would conquer darkness, and warmth would conquer cold.

She was alive, and Liko couldn’t have asked for a better way to be reminded of the drumbeat in her ribcage and the rise and fall of her chest.

digitaldreams · Mar 22, 2026

“as the sky sheds its tears”

Prompt: Rain - Post Date: 7/28/25 - Word Count: 2,007 - Rating: Teen - Content Warnings: Vague Discussions of Trauma - Free Fall AU

~~~

Opal had been acting strangely all day.

Over the course of the last few months, Dot liked to think she had gotten a good idea of what odd behavior from Opal was normal and what was not. Opal had always struggled a little bit with talking to people, and while she was getting better, Dot knew there were still those who found her off-putting outside of the Rising Volt Tacklers. Dot had worked to ensure she understood Opal as much as possible so she could soothe her in her darkest moments, and she was very used to her eccentricities by now.

But nothing could have prepared Dot for the way Opal had been acting that day. She was staring out the window of the Brave Olivine with wide eyes. She was up in the glass room that overlooked the training deck, but she refused to leave and actually set foot outside. Dot didn’t see what about it was so interesting to her. Opal wouldn’t take her eyes off the sky beyond the Brave Olivine though. Her lips had even fallen slightly ajar as she stared into the nothingness.

At first, Dot had been planning on leaving her alone. She didn’t know what was bothering Opal, but she figured it would be best to let her get through it without any disturbances. Opal was a quiet, introspective person, but more importantly, she could be a bit jumpy when she was approached out of the blue. Opal liked that which was quiet and predictable, and Dot didn’t want to disturb her peace. When Opal didn’t move at all for what felt like an eternity though, Dot knew that she was going to have to do at least something. She couldn’t just leave her there.

So Dot approached Opal and gently tapped her on the shoulder. Just as she had expected, Opal jolted, and Dot was certain that her staring at nothing had not simply been watching the world go by but a matter of dissociation. That happened often with Opal, and Dot had come to recognize it from her own habits too. “Hey,” Dot began carefully, trying to not speak too loudly so as to not frighten her a second time. “Is everything alright?”

Opal blinked a few times like she had to remind herself of what reality was supposed to mean to her. In the end, she nodded slowly, but the gesture was uncertain. “I… I think so.” She didn’t let herself watch Dot for long though, turning her attention back to the window after just a few seconds.

Dot settled in just beside Opal and watched the sky too. She didn’t think anything was strange about today. It was raining gently, but that didn’t really mean much. It had rained before, and Dot was used to that by now. It was a normal thing the weather did, but it was still the only strange thing she could think was happening at the moment. Surely that couldn’t have been what was so odd to Opal… Right?

Dot looked over at Opal, and she realized that this probably was odd to Opal. For most of her limited life, she had been cooped up in the Explorers’ base. The few times she had been allowed outside, the sun had always been shining. She hadn’t been out in the rain once. The ship had flown through a storm a time or two, but Dot distinctly remembered now that it had always been Liko fronting when it happened. This was Opal’s first time seeing rain. It had to be. There was no other reason she would look so hypnotized by the sight of water falling from the sky.

Still, Dot had to test her theory before she could commit to it. “Is this your first time seeing rain?” Dot asked, figuring there was no point in beating around the bush. Opal didn’t like mysteries after her time in the Explorers anyway; it confused her after she had spent so long struggling with the unknown.

Opal looked away from the window once again, something sheepish and shy in her eyes. She nodded slowly, seeming hesitant to have to admit to something like this. “I know what it is. I know Liko has memories of it, but I… I’ve never been out in the rain before.” Opal looked back to the window seconds later, raising her hand to brush her fingers across the glass. “There are a lot of things I haven’t experienced before.”

That was certainly one way of putting it, though Dot would have offered a few stronger words on the subject. Opal had missed out on countless life experiences, but it wasn’t her fault. It was all because Spinel had kidnapped her and then kept her hidden away from the world. Of course Opal didn’t have much experience with the outside world. She was still new to seeing it with her own eyes instead of glimpsing it secondhand through shared memories with Liko. Not for the first time and certainly not for the last, Dot found herself filled with rage at the thought of all Spinel had done.

But Spinel would not win today. The ship was docked and would be for a while, so Dot took Opal’s wrist in one hand and the handle for the door in the other. “Come on.” She pushed the door open as Opal gasped in shock at being touched. Dot pulled Opal out through the open gap in the glass, and Opal jogged for a moment to catch up with her.

The first few drops of water were refreshing against Dot’s skin. She had never been particularly fond of the rain, always finding it an inconvenience to be wet against her will. There was something special about it today though. This was Opal’s first time having the chance to feel the rain on her skin, and that was more than enough reason for Dot to want to stand outside with her. She was willing to change clothes and wash her hair when she got inside if she was able to give Opal something new to see.

Beside Dot, Opal was spellbound. She was staring up at the clouds with her shining blue eyes and gently parted lips. A few drops of water were aimed perfectly to end up on her tongue, but Opal didn’t flinch away. Instead, she blinked, her eyelashes fluttering as rain slid off them and onto her cheeks. “It’s… Wonderful,” Opal whispered, unable to summon any other words. She changed Dot’s grip on her hand so that her fingers were being held instead, and Dot was happy for the shift. Any time she could hold Opal’s hand was a wonderful time to her.

Opal continued to watch the sky for a long moment, and after what felt like forever, her shoulders jolted with a small sob. “There’s so much I haven’t seen before,” Opal murmured, the words so soft that Dot could barely hear them above the rainfall that surrounded them. “Because of everything that happened with the Explorers, I… I feel like I haven’t had the chance to live my life at all. With them, I didn’t even realize it was my life to live in the first place.”

Dot’s chest went tight. She was very familiar with how much Opal had missed out on because of Spinel. He had granted her life only to ensure it was full of pain because of his own sickening desires. There would be no joy in her days so long as he had something to say about it. If she had still been with the Explorers, she would have still been miserable at that very moment. There was no liberation to be found in the life that Spinel had forced upon her.

But Opal was still just a girl at the end of the day. She had been created from something horrific, but she remained just another person beneath it all. She had survived awful agony and terrible torture, but hiding under that mask was a teenage girl who had never been given true freedom before. Even with the Rising Volt Tacklers, Opal struggled to figure out what it was that she wanted to do with her life. There was so little for her to understand in a world that had never asked for her to exist.

And yet, she wanted to chase after all that which she did not know. Spinel had tried to destroy her in the name of his desires, but she had survived against all odds. A fire of curiosity burned in her eyes, freeing her from the prisons of the endless ocean she had described in her nightmares. She wanted to fight and live. She wanted to make this misshapen life of hers something she could be proud of. She wanted to enjoy taking each breath. She wanted something that was worth wanting.

She wanted to be alive, and right now, it all seemed to start with standing in the rain and staring at the clouds.

Dot squeezed at Opal’s hand gently, and Opal turned to look at her. Opal’s tears were mingling freely with the rainwater, but she still looked beautiful. Her eyes were already puffy, and her cheeks were stained with red tracks of tears, but she remained the most gorgeous girl Dot had ever seen. “It’s your life now,” Dot assured her. “And… If you want to find out how you want to live it, then I’ll be here to help you every step of the way. I promise.”

Dot could see a storm of emotions brewing in Opal’s mind in harmony with the rainclouds overhead, and Opal’s bottom lip twisted in toward her mouth with the promise of yet another sob. When she finally released it, Opal’s face fell into a smile. It was strained and pained after all she had been forced to endure, but it was a smile nonetheless. “Thank you, Dot,” Opal whispered, and Dot felt her heart soar with such a genuine display of love from a girl who had once feared herself incapable of it. “Thank you so much.”

“It’s no problem,” Dot promised her with a shake of her head. Now that her hair was wet, it was falling away from her eyes, leaving her amethyst irises to shine even in the misty gray of the rain shower. Dot hoped she still looked nice even when her hair was slicked against her cheeks.

Opal reached out with her free hand, brushing the strands of purple and pink away from Dot’s eyes so she had a clearer view of her face. Dot felt heat immediately rush to her skin both from Opal’s palm and her own overwhelming joy. The rain continued to fall around them, but the cold of the water did not matter to Dot in the slightest. It could have never matched up to the pure warmth that came from having Opal there by her side. They were both still alive. They were choosing to live together, and they would continue to remain together for as long as they were able. That was where they belonged, and they knew it was never going to change.

Opal leaned in close and pressed a kiss to Dot’s soaking lips, and Dot returned the favor gently. Now, the soft dampness from Opal’s cheeks was blending with the rain too, but Dot yearned for the sky’s tears to leave her be on that one spot. She wanted to remember this. It was the first time Opal had ever initiated such intense affection, and she hoped she would be able to etch it into her memory with the power of sapphire ink the same color as Opal’s radiant eyes.

They only looked away from each other when they chose to stare up at the sky instead. Dot did not think the rain had ever looked as beautiful as it did now, and she could have stayed there forever.

She could have stayed anywhere forever so long as Opal was by her side.

MATURE: - Ongoing 60 Minute Likodot Anthology

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