Orre's Event Center

Suppressing a yawn, Krane approached one of the large containers that were scattered near the entrance of the lab. If everything had gone right, Cipher's snaggers should have deposited the specimens inside. All of them, if they wanted to avoid complaints. Ein didn't take kindly to incomplete deliveries, something that both the staff and the snaggers had learned the hard way. 

Right as Krane attempted to fish his keys out of his lab coat pocket, he noticed something nearby. Someone to be exact, quietly sitting on the still-warm ground and leaning against the container just around the corner. Alarmed, he reflexively jumped back, dropping his keys in the process. They fell onto the large stone tiles below, clattering loud enough to alert everyone in the area to his presence, and the figure turned their head, poking around the corner to look at him. Moonlight illuminated a pair of yellow eyes, almost unnaturally bright. 

"It's me, Reggie." 

Krane would recognize those eyes and voice everywhere. He let out a sigh of relief. "Eldes. My bad, I didn't see you there." 

"Sorry about that. I suppose I hid better than I thought." 

Right as Krane bent down to pick up his keys, he found himself face to face with them as Eldes offered them to him on the palm of his hand. He hadn't even seen the other man move to pick them up; he was frighteningly quick when he wanted to. 

Eldes smiled apologetically. Krane took the keys, only to feel a small sting of disappointment when his fingers brushed against metal rather than skin. Sadly, the moment of proximity was over before he could make up his mind and reach for Eldes' hand instead. 

Krane stood still, holding the keys, unsure how to proceed. He had a task to complete, however — as he eyed the man in front of him, he noticed how the vivid crimson of his robes was dimmed by a thin layer of sand and dirt and how a few strands of red hair were sticking to his forehead. The sunglasses he usually wore lay on the ground nearby, carelessly discarded. Eldes looked like he had either run through the desert by himself or, more likely, fought an arduous battle. Alarmed, Krane slipped the keys back into his pocket and knelt down next to him. 

"What happened to you? Are you injured?" 

"I'm fine," Eldes answered. 

It was the same answer he always gave. Krane resisted the sudden, inexplicable urge to check for injuries himself. Or brush his hair out of his face.

"What are you doing here?" he asked instead. 

"Father sent me to assist with some… issues. The dragon type specimens are… particularly volatile and prone to going into hyper mode." 

Krane groaned inwardly. Yes, he was, as was the rest of the staff, only too painfully aware of this issue. And it seemed as though, for all his callous disregard for everyone's safety, Ein had finally been convinced to ask for help until he was done recalculating and recalibrating the formula and its application for the shadowfication process. 

Sometimes, Krane struggled to decide whether to pity his colleagues guarding the holding cells or the Pokémon inside of them more. 

He then noticed that Eldes was staring at his hands that he neatly folded in his lap. 

"Are you okay?" he asked again, his voice softening. 

"Yes." Eldes' hands tensed, his knuckles going white as his fingers tied themselves into a tight knot. "Actually… no. Not really." 

"Can I help you?"

His nervousness was palpable, rolling off him in waves. Krane wanted to do something to fix it but didn't know what. 

"Just…" Eldes swallowed. "You can leave me here. I'll be back up in just a minute." 

Instead of accepting the unspoken invitation to leave and be done with his day, Krane sat down fully and made himself comfortable next to Eldes. What should he say? What should he do? Krane's thoughts were racing, too fast to be coherent. There was only one thing he knew for sure: That he didn't want to leave Eldes alone. Not when he was so clearly distraught. 

Krane looked around. Their outstretched legs, thighs almost touching, Eldes' still-tense hands, the flat, smooth stone below, the endless desert in the distance, the deep blue sky and stars above. His gaze settled on the latter. How long had it been since he had allowed himself to take a closer look? He didn't get to go outside often these days; not that the brutal heat during the day made it too much of an appealing prospect. But right now, before the icy cold of night descended, there was a moment of balance where the air was mild and the desert was quiet and the world was, for just a few precious moments, at peace. 

Reaching out, Krane let his hand brush against Eldes'. He felt him shrink away from his touch at first, fingers curling in on themselves even more tightly, but then — as if the fleeting sense of peace had passed from him into the man next to him, the tension melted away, and Eldes' hands finally let go of one another and relaxed. Emboldened, Krane placed his own on top. 

Despite all the battling, hours of desert heat and the long sleeves of his robe, Eldes' hands were cool. Smaller than one would expect. And soft. Unlike his brother Ardos, Eldes wore no rings on his fingers, nor any other accessories. 

Krane looked over at him, and Eldes quickly averted his gaze. Yet neither a quick turn of his head nor the darkness of night were enough to hide the blush on his cheeks. 

"Y-You shouldn't do that," Eldes mumbled. 

"If you don't want me to, then yes, I shouldn't. But do you?" Krane asked softly. 

Eldes froze for a second. Hesitated. Then slowly, shamefully nodded. 

"Well, in that case, I should do it." Krane took hold of his hand, slipping his own in-between the pair. 

It felt good. 

And it wasn't the first time they had gotten close and exchanged tiny gestures of affection. Krane had been admiring Eldes for a long time now; from far away at first, then slowly inching closer and closer. He was just one of many scientists Cipher had in its ranks, neither a fellow admin nor even the lab chief, yet somehow, he had managed to be in Eldes' presence and be noticed in turn. What drew Krane in wasn't just that the other man was pretty and strong in battle, it was also the unspoken understanding that they were alike. Lost and confused, finding themselves stuck in a place where they witnessed acts of hate and violence that horrified them, opposed their very nature. They were gentle at heart, taking no pleasure in the pain of others, with hands that preferred to mend, not break. 

They were what those around them called weak. But it was the very same weakness that Krane loved most when he thought of Eldes. 

He had tried to make it known. To show his love. And he could tell that Eldes wanted it, to let him in and express himself in turn, yet there was something in him — perhaps old trauma, perhaps crushing guilt — that forced him to withdraw time and time again. He felt like he didn't deserve it, Eldes had said once. 

It had broken Krane's heart. 

Today, however, it appeared that Eldes was too exhausted to deny himself the closeness he longed for. Krane felt him moving closer and leaning on him, breathing a sigh of relief when he settled into a comfortable position. 

"You were hurt today. All of this hurts you," Krane observed, feeling the full weight of Eldes' upper body against his own. 

"Others have gotten much more hurt. I don't get to… complain," Eldes said quietly. 

Krane shook his head carefully, mindful of the other man leaning on him. "Nonsense. It's not a question of whether you're allowed to be hurt. You just are. And that's no failure or wrongdoing on your part."

"I… maybe." Eldes sighed. "But yes, you're right. To be honest… I wish I didn't have to do any of this anymore. This syndicate, what they do to these poor Pokémon, being stuck with Father and Ardos all the time, worrying about them and the people they hurt…" 

"Me too. Well, you know, the first part. Ein is…"

"Insufferable." 

"Yes." Krane let out a small chuckle. He quickly stopped himself, worrying that it was out of place, but then he felt Eldes tilting his head, lips brushing against his temple and curling into a smile. 

He coughed lightly to mask the awkwardness and looked up at the night sky again. From the movement of his head, still resting against his own, he could tell that Eldes was doing the same thing. 

"But what if we could leave all of this behind us? And find a better place elsewhere?" Krane mused, half to the other, half to himself. 

"I can't leave. Not now, not ever," Eldes said solemnly. "They would never stop trying to find me. No one would be safe around me." 

He squeezed Krane's hand and placed his other on top, holding it between his palms. Slowly, warmth crept into his touch. "But you should go, Reggie. You're hurting too. And I could cover for you, make sure that nobody comes after you."

"I can't just leave you here."

Eldes let his head sink further down until it rested on the scientist's shoulder. When Krane glanced down at him, he could see the sadness in his smile. 

"You should. You must. Believe me, I deserve it." 

"No, you don't. What could you have possibly done to deserve it? You always…" 

Krane stopped when he felt Eldes first shaking his head, then burying his face in his shoulder.

"Enough. I've done enough. Whether I meant to or not, whether I regret it or not. Though please… Don't ask me what happened. Just take my word for it." 

"Okay. If you don't want to talk about it, I'll stop asking." Awkwardly, Krane reached over to place his free hand on top of their intertwined fingers. "But there has to be another way." 

"There is none." 

"I refuse to believe it. And if you make me leave without you, I'll find a different way to get you out of this." 

"Whatever you do, save the Pokémon first. They're suffering the most." 

"They will be free," Krane promised. "And once they are, you will be too." 

Eldes turned his head to look up at him. "I don't think I'll ever be free of this. I was born into it. But it's nice to imagine doing something else with my life… with you." 

It was pure instinct that prompted Krane to bend down and kiss him; and a rather odd angle. Still, it was enough for a tender brush of lips and the euphoria that came with it — until Eldes suddenly withdrew, nearly falling over as he attempted to sit up straight and regain his composure. His hands slipped away from Krane's in the process. 

"What's wrong?" 

"You deserve better, Reggie." 

"But I want this with you." 

"I…" Eldes lowered his head, burying his face in his hands. "I couldn't stop them. They kept hurting themselves and each other and your colleagues. I failed. I failed all of them…" 

Krane blinked in confusion. It took a moment until he realized that Eldes was referring to the Shadow Pokémon he dealt with earlier — the reason why he had ended up here, exhausted and disturbed, hiding from the world and what their own organization had done. 

"It's not your fault. You tried your best," Krane insisted; even though he hadn't been there to observe, he was confident in that statement. Eldes always tried his best, always tried to make things at least a little more right. And if even he, experienced with training dragon type Pokémon as he was, hadn't gotten their shadowed brethren under control, nobody would have succeeded. 

"My best would have been to never let this happen in the first place. If only I wasn't too weak to stop my father… and now my brother too." 

"I suppose in a perfect world that could have been the outcome, but you still aren't responsible for the actions of your family, let alone the entire syndicate." Krane fully turned to face Eldes who was still hiding his face and reached out to gently rub his arm. "Why do you insist on taking the blame for everything?" 

Slowly, Eldes let his hands drop. His eyes looked empty and hollow, staring at the endless dunes of sand. "Because it's my family who did all of this, starting with Nana and her gang almost a century ago. Because this has been my entire life from the first moment on. Because my very existence endangers people. I've sought power before, Reggie, and I put my Pokémon through a lot to achieve it. I may have done it to keep my loved ones safe and to make Father worry less, but I still did it. I've proven that I'm no better than the rest of Cipher. And I would be an arrogant fool if I thought that just because my intentions were good once, they will forever remain good, that I will never make a mistake, that I will never slip or snap." 

Eldes took a shaky breath. "Look at Ardos, Reggie. My own brother. My twin. I've known him my entire life. I know how he feels, why he does what he does, why he's like this… yet I'm also not blind to what he has become."

"I don't know Ardos very well — or the rest of your family, for that matter," Krane admitted, "but I would guess that, unlike you, he has never questioned himself or considered the possibility that he could be wrong. That makes you different, Eldes." 

"…I appreciate that you think of me this way. I really do." Eldes briefly closed his eyes, then turned to face Krane as well. "And I hope you're right about me." 

They locked eyes. Yellow and hazel, both filled with warmth. Krane placed both hands on Eldes' shoulders, elated when the other man accepted his touch instead of shying away, and raised himself up on his knees to be able to kiss his forehead. Then the bridge of his nose. Then his cheeks. Then– 

"You will still have to leave without me," Eldes reminded him quietly. 

Krane was close enough to feel the air move as he spoke, like a ghostly touch on his chin and lips.