#averagebianimenerd

Part-proud, because as her mentor, watching Serena flourish into a fully-fledged Pokémon researcher absorbed in her work made his heart swell.

Part-relieved, because he hadn’t actually intended the words to leave his mouth, even if they had been the only thing circling his brain for the past two hours. (If he thought about it hard enough, it had actually been circling his brain pretty incessantly for the past two years.)

And part-disappointed, because this… thing between them, the strange will-they-won’t-they, their undeniable chemistry, and the way they just fitted together, had been going on for far too long in his humble opinion. In any other situation, he liked to imagine he would have just taken the plunge and made his feelings known, but this… this was Serena. It was different, too important to risk messing up in the event that he had really misinterpreted what the past two years of her soft smiles and lingering gazes really meant.

He sat back in his chair, putting a little space between them where he had been leaning forward, his elbow on his knee and chin resting in his hand, eyes entirely focused on the woman before him instead of the work he was supposed to be overseeing.

His eyes flick to the clock: 1am. He hadn’t even realised the time and had barely registered in the back of his mind that everyone else in the lab must have gone home long ago. His gaze falls back to Serena, and again his breath is snatched away from him as he’s struck by the same thought.

She’s beautiful.

Objectively she was, of course. Long brown-blonde hair, confident, charismatic, sparkling eyes that could make anyone weak at the knees. But it was now, in a dishevelled labcoat, hair slowly falling from its careless bun (and framing her face beautifully, in his opinion), sat in the dim Pokémon lab and illuminated by the light of the computer screen before her, that made Augustine’s heart skip a beat.

“Do you think so?” Her voice was so loud against the silence that had surrounded them, that Augustine had to try very hard to mask his surprised jump as a stretch. Once he registered her words, however, he froze, arms half-raised above his head.

Had she heard him?

“Uh…” he replied intelligently, heart no longer skipping any beats but instead going at a million miles an hour and almost threatening to give out.

To his relief, she cast him a glance and gestured at the report on the screen.

“This, here. Do you think I’ve framed the hypothesis well enough?”

Oh.

“Oh, yes, of course,” he leans closer and scans the last couple of paragraphs, not really taking any of it in at all. “Bon travail, very good job, Serena!” She grins at him and he moves back out of her way as she triumphantly clicks ‘Save’.

“I didn’t realise the time,” she says with a slight groan, unfolding herself from where she had been sat tense and rigid for far too long, and it was all Augustine could do to watch her stand and stretch her shoulders and neck out.

“Yes,” he manages before his enamoured silence becomes too noticeable. “I should not have kept you here this late.” She shoots him a look.

“Like you could have stopped me,” she laughs, leaning down to grab her bag and switch off the computer and merde, Augustine has to avert his gaze because that lab coat is a little too form-fitting.

“Okay,” she continues once she straightens back up and Augustine can make eye contact with something other than the ceiling tiles once more. “I should probably head home.”

Augustine suddenly remembers his manners and springs out of his chair, placing a hand on her shoulder and encouraging her towards the elevator.

“You should have been home hours ago, I am a bad boss for letting you stay hunched up at a computer until the early hours,” he laments dramatically (and he counts it as a win from her good-natured smile and shake of the head at his theatrics). “Do you want me to walk you home?” he offers, although with how tonight was going he was unsure if his heart would be able to survive seeing Serena lit up by the soft golden lights of Lumiose City at night.

“Professor, I travelled the entire region,” she laughs, “some of which, yes, required travelling at night. I will be fine. Plus,” she adds, patting the bag at her hip, “I have Fennekin with me.”

Augustine nods in reply. She’s right, she’s more than capable of looking after herself – just another thing he loved so much about her, really.

“You can come in late tomorrow,” he offers as the elevator arrives, the doors opening with a soft ping. Serena scoffs.

“Absolutely not,” she steps into the elevator and Augustine tries his best not to focus on how much he misses the warmth of her shoulder under his palm as his arm falls back down to his side. “I’ll see you in the morning.” She pushes the button for the ground floor and steps back to smile at him.

“Goodnight, Serena,” he says quietly, his voice tender. Her face softens into a small smile at his tone.

“Goodnight, Augustine.”

The doors begin to shut, and there’s a strange moment of hesitation where Serena seems to make a decision, and in one quick movement she suddenly sticks a foot in front of the doors to stop them from closing.

“Oh- and also-“ she stops for a moment, and her cheeks pinken. “You’re pretty handsome yourself,” she says in a rush, grinning at his stunned expression before stepping back and allowing the doors to close her off completely.

Augustine can only stare, mouth open at the elevator, a million emotions coursing through him and finally landing on  horror.