[FIN] Some Serious Storytime

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

“Eh?” The information broker paused to look inquiringly at Zacharie. “But isn’t that what you are? I was only trying to be respectful.” He tilted his head slightly. “What would you have me call you, then?”

When the younger man questioned Faleen shaving her head, Izaya’s expression became dark and grave. “It shaved her head,” he corrected, leaning forward in the chair. “I know my beloved humans from imposters and that wasn’t Faleen. It seems no one else noticed or thought it significant enough to note, but when Faleen contacted Team Rocket, she - it mentioned not being used to having hair. And with it deciding to shave it all off, it only supports my theory that something else is dictating Faleen’s actions and words.”

He sat back once more. “It knew all of our names and relationships with her, though, so I can only imagine she somehow let it into her mind. Maybe it got her to think it sympathized with her.” Izaya frowned. It annoyed him to think that he still hadn’t settled things with whatever it was. “Regardless, I took the bus to the address that had been on the pen. The sun had already set by the time I reached and the financial office had closed. Faleen’s Froakie was there to meet me, though. It behaved like it wanted me to follow it, so I did. But...call me crazy, but it seemed more...serious than usual. Like it didn’t like the situation any more than I did.” He shrugged, spreading his arms. “I mean perhaps I was simply attributing human emotions to a non-human being or projecting my own on the pokemon, but that’s what it seemed like to me.”

“It led me down a bunch of streets and then a side road that went to some alleyways and apartments. It was very isolated and quiet with no cars or people, but there was singing.” He met Zacharie’s teal gaze. “It was using her voice to sing. It was a particularly creepy song, too, about meeting at a hanging tree to be hanged at midnight, but what was creepiest was that it was Faleen’s voice singing it. I found Faleen lounging on an old, abandoned couch in the alleyway.

“Sure enough, she was bald. Smiling, though. It kept grinning at me with her face and acting like it was her, saying, ‘makes me wonder why I don’t sing more often’. It congratulated me on finding her but it said that it knew I would, one way or another. I asked it if that made it a psychic-type to be able to predict the future. It acted confused, saying that I was being rude talking about Faleen like she wasn’t there since it seemed determined to keep up the act that it was her. Then it asked me how much I actually knew about it - about Faleen, still referring to itself as if it were her.

“It tried to convince me with other things it knew that other people aside from my ex-partner couldn’t have, but I knew better.” He couldn’t mention his robotic eye directly in case Zacharie wasn’t supposed to know because it would have put them both in danger, but he figured the agent would be able to catch his drift. Izaya took a deep breath before continuing. He wasn’t really sure he wanted to elaborate on what happened next, least of all to Zacharie. The purple-haired young man worried too much and the ex-Rocket was concerned he would freak out upon hearing the events that followed because he knew Zacharie cared deeply about his teammates, especially himself and Faleen.

Zacharie was an agent now, though. He had to keep reminding himself of that. Even if he wanted to spare him the details, Izaya was in no position to refuse the Rocket higher-up. And Zacharie must have matured enough to have earned that rank, so he had to just trust that the agent would deal with the information he received calmly and professionally. That didn’t make some of the stuff Izaya had to relay any less embarrassing to him, though.

Before he went on, however, he was curious about something. “Agen - er, Zacharie,” he addressed awkwardly, “You know Faleen. You know playing a game like that with me isn’t her style. She wouldn’t waste time or be that inefficient; she’s direct and likes to get to the point. From what I’ve told you so far and the information you already have, what do you think happened to her?”  

[insidiousEnigma]

Zacharie was an Agent.

He wasn’t Izaya’s relative, his friend, his anything but for a superior. No matter what he wanted he was an Agent and Izaya was a traitor and that was how Izaya would treat things. “Zacharie is fine.” He scribbled absently in the corner of his paper, refusing to look up. Zachie-chan was also fine, but they weren’t friends.

Zacharie sighed softly before shaking his head, twirling his pen between his fingers, and returning to diligently taking notes. He himself had never heard Faleen sing, she had always been busy explaining concepts or just having a conversation with him. He couldn’t imagine her singing but that didn’t mean that in her private time she didn’t; but Izaya had known here much, much longer than he had and so he took what he said to heart.

“Pokemon have excellent instincts, trusting that they would know if something was wrong with Faleen or not isn’t crazy.” He murmured absently, head bowed to his raised knees as he wrote. Faleen’s pokemon were loyal and well trained, if she had merely decided to defect they would follow without hesitation; but if she started to act differently it would be something the pokemon would pick up on and question.

At the others question, the Agent finally looked up. “I agree with you, playing games isn’t like Faleen in the slightest. She wouldn’t waste time sending you around town when the main goal was to meet with you.” He nibbled absently on his pen as he thought. “It’s certainly out of character...I haven’t known her as long as you have but from what I know she is acting very strangely. I thought as much when I briefly spoke with her when she first contacted the base.” His eyebrows furrowed as he tried to gather what facts he had and put them into something coherent.

“Right before Faleen left there was an explosion in the robotics lab. A lot of people were injured but she had been released after a checkup with nothing more than a few minor injuries. I wasn’t in the medical department at the time so I don’t know what sort of tests they ran but that’s my next stop.” It shouldn’t be hard for him to get his hands on the medical charts and he could always ask around. “It’s possible that she hit her head and is suffering from trauma, which can alter personalities depending on the severity.” Zacharie paused and cocked his head. “Adam had been talking about possession...but there is no concrete evidence that there has ever been such an occurrence so it was quickly dismissed. I personally don’t think it’s impossible for a person or object to become possessed but without real evidence and facts there’s nothing to support that it can happen. So that theory is at a bit of a standstill until something of substance is discovered.”

He ran a hand through his hair, briefly tugging at the short strands as if to focus himself. “I do not believe that Faleen is acting in her right mind though. She wouldn’t…” He trailed off, obviously still upset about the whole situation.  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

“They probably would,” Izaya agreed, “but as they couldn’t tell me what they thought of the whole situation, I have no idea what their instincts were telling them. I just thought that Froakie was acting stranger than usual.” Then he realized that Zacharie was trying to comfort him. Or something. Let him know he wasn’t crazy. He glanced up at the ceiling idly.

Nodding at Zacharie’s declaration of his next stop being the medical department, he waved a hand. “I know what Adam said. I was there. I don’t know if that’s right, but I doubt it’s a medical thing because, like you said, she checked out fine. Not to mention the way she was acting didn’t add up. I don’t think a head-trauma-induced personality change or even schizophrenia would explain why she was talking about not being used to having hair.”

“You both know more about ghosts than I do, so I’ll leave the possession speculation to you. But there’s more. I told that imposter what I thought - that it wasn’t fooling me and I knew it wasn’t Faleen. It asked me if it was so hard to believe that she was Faleen and that who she was now was who she had always been. If it was that hard to believe that she was sick of everything." He shook his head. "It said I'd always been so smart but that it was a pity I didn't know how to use those smarts. And then it asked me what made it not Faleen if, hypothetically speaking, I was right."

Izaya chuckled lightly. "It got kind of philosophical. Said that a person is made of their memories and experiences, so if they were all there, what was to say that wasn't who she - Faleen - was? It said, 'people can change, can't they?' And if we're influenced by change, how was that change not her?" He took a deep breath and put his hand to his temple. "So I told it that change happens through instigation. At that point I thought maybe I might have been talking to the real Faleen, but I couldn't be sure. I said that all changes had catalysts and that with humans, natural change is gradual. Since Faleen's changes seemed to happen after the explosion in the labs, I didn't consider it part of who she was because she had too many simultaneous changes too suddenly.

"When I mentioned that although it was fooling many into thinking it was Faleen, it couldn't fool her friends, it laughed at me. It said anyone it - Faleen - may have considered a friend or more had back-stabbed, abandoned, and given up on her. That she didn't have any friends." He glanced at Zacharie's face. "And I told her I had been referring to her pokemon since I knew she didn't get along well with other humans as well as she did with her team."

He sighed. "More philosophy. She said I really didn't know her if I'd thought she ever considered her pokemon her friends because she thought of them as partners at most. Which is all she had wanted from me; someone to work well with while helping one another survive. So I asked her about her Umbreon and the time she had become emotionally distraught over its death because even if she considered it a partner, that still meant partnership had some sentimental value to her. When I asked what the difference between partnership and friendship was to her, she said when I put it like that, she guessed she couldn't really tell me, but that it didn't matter anymore."

"It said if what I was saying was true was the case, what could I possibly do to stop it? That if something was in Faleen's body and mind with her feeling everything she was feeling, that didn't change the fact that she had such a deep, bitter, biting anger for everything. She started speaking angrily. Said maybe there are a few things I should know about her before I tried poking around and that she would give me some insight for free."

The man leaned forward in his chair and steepled his fingers, resting his chin atop them as he stared off into space. "When I first came upon her in the alleyway, I noticed that she was wearing gauntlets and a glistening coat. Knowing Faleen, I figured they were some sort of technology, but I had never seen them before, so I couldn't imagine what. I don't know if she had built them in the labs or after she left, so you might want to look into that. But when she came up to me, I could vouch for the strength in those gauntlets myself.

“She told me that I was the last person she would ever let betray her again and the final reason she would never trust anyone again. She said that she hated more than anything that I...'couldn't get my head out of my a**' long enough to see what she'd done for me. That she hated that she wanted to trust me and that she once thought we could work together. She said she hated that I thought she belonged to me and that, most of all, she hated that a part of her still felt sad over losing me.

“Then she reached out to grab me by the neck, telling me that she...wanted me dead...so badly.” He forced another smile onto his face as if he found the whole notion humorous. “I suppose I should have run or at least moved at that point, but I guess I was confident enough to believe I could still talk her down.” A lie. Faleen had even stated he’d sounded like all his words were a final confession. “She said, ‘you know I'm not going to let you walk out of here alive tonight.’ Said that she thought I’d gotten enough out for the evening and that I sure do take a lot out of a person.” A mirthless laugh. “Which I know you can vouch for yourself. But…”

He’d been so scared. He’d been sweating bullets, his fear almost palpable, and Faleen or whoever it was pretending to be her had clearly enjoyed it. But Zacharie didn’t need to know that. Not all of it, anyway. “...it...the way it seemed to enjoy eliciting fear didn’t seem characteristic of the partner I’ve had for three years. It told me it...uh…” Izaya hesitated, unsure again how much he could tell Zacharie without getting them both in trouble.

“Um...I don’t know how much you know about this, but when I was deemed a traitor, they did something to me. The only way I was allowed to remain alive as a traitor was as a human experiment, so that’s what I became. They didn’t tell me exactly what they did and I’m not allowed to find out or ask or tell others, but basically they said they had a way to kill me in an instant if I stepped out of line by using a trigger word. Since Faleen happened to be head of the project regarding me as the experimental subject, she knew that word. So, of course, whatever shared her mind knew it, too.”

“It had fun taunting me with the fact it could kill me with just a word. But to toy with me some more, it said that it would allow me one final question that it would answer completely honestly before I died. I asked her - Faleen - if she would be happy once she killed me.”  

[insidiousEnigma]

“If you don’t think it’s a head injury, you don’t think it’s possession, what do you think is going on?” Zacharie asked, not entirely sure what else there could be. What, did he think Faleen had been cloned? Turned into a robot? ...Both of those could actually be a possibility. But if Team Rocket had cloned her or turned her into a robot they would be in control of the situation. Not desperately trying to figure out what was going on.

The Agent listened quietly, progressively turning more pale the more Izaya spoke. “You…” He swallowed thickly and stared wide-eyed at the other man. Obviously Izaya was well physically, it had happened at least a few weeks ago so whatever injuries were more than likely healed. “Izaya…” What should he say? What could he say?

How was he supposed to take this news calmly?

With way more calm than he thought he could possibly have at that moment, he set his notebook down, slid off of his bed...and then began to pace back and forth as aggressively as one could pace at a moderate pace. Faleen wasn’t so needlessly cruel. Izaya really could have died! He tugged at his hair with both hands, thoughts racing. “Izaya.” He abruptly stopped pacing but didn’t turn to face the older man. “I need you to do something for me. Not as Agent and subordinate but….just humour me. Do you think you could?”  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

“I don’t know. I don’t know what one might call it, but I think there’s something else in her head with her and she let it take control. I don’t know if you would call that possession because she was still there and I think she was aware of what was going on. I think she let this all happen willingly, too. But...there was also a point where she tried to stop it,” he added. “So I guess it doesn’t have full control.”

He looked up when he heard Zacharie call his name a couple of times, wondering what the agent was trying to say. His brow furrowed at the younger man’s question. “...I suppose that would depend on what it is.” In an effort to lighten up the situation, Izaya chuckled and asked, “Was it to shut up? I know I talk a lot, but you did ask for details.”  

[insidiousEnigma]

Zacharie shook his head, though he couldn’t help but smile just a bit. “No, you don’t need to shut up.” He said with a soft huff of a laugh. “What you’ve told me is really helpful, so thank you for that.” The Agent took a deep before turning to face the other. “Will you....” He paused, trying to figure out the best way to word it. “Just...don’t beat me up.”

Though he vaguely felt that Izaya wouldn’t...if only so he wouldn’t get in trouble with the higher ups.

He heaved a loud sigh as he steeled his resolve before crossing over to the trainee with a few brisk strides, dropping to his knees, and very carefully lowering his head until he could rest his temple against Izaya’s knee. “This really sucks.” He murmured though it sounded suspiciously like a whine. “Not being able to protect the people you care about…You, Faleen, Andre, Jerome…” He huffed as he stared blankly at his bookshelf on the opposite wall. “There’s just...a lot of stuff I can’t save you from...and it sucks.”  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

Izaya blinked, uncertain if he’d heard correctly. Zacharie’s request was for Izaya to...not beat him up? When the agent came over and got on his knees to rest his head against the older man’s own knee, the informant froze. He was silent for a time, not daring to move as he listened to Zacharie explain his emotions. Then he heaved a great sigh.

“That’s why I tried not to care,” he said, his tone tinged with sadness. “In this line of business, it’s only natural that we’re going to get hurt physically. So why would we want the pain of others to hurt us emotionally on top of that? We don’t need that extra suffering. No matter what we try to do, there’s only so much we can do to protect one another.” He paused a minute to swallow. “It seems like there’s only so much I can do to keep from caring, too, though, and I’m at my limit.” Tentatively, Izaya reached out, his hand hovering just above Zacharie’s head as he hesitated. Then he let his fingertips brush the top of his purple hair. A bittersweet smile appeared on his face. “I guess that’s what I get for joining an organization with the word ‘team’ in it.”

After a few more moments, Izaya cleared his throat and removed his hand. “I wonder if one of the reasons Faleen fell so deeply into her despair is she didn’t realize she had friends like you. I know I didn’t do a good job of letting her know I valued and respected her, but she should at least recognize people like you are there for her. Perhaps if you had been the one to come find her, things would have been different. Maybe they still can be.” He tilted his head, regarding the young agent leaning against his knee. “...Shall I continue?”  

[insidiousEnigma]

Zacharie could understand Izaya’s desire to remain unaffected, but look where it had gotten the older man. While he didn’t enjoy having this near constant worry...he couldn’t imagine what his life what be like without all of his friends. The hand on his head was a bit of a surprise...but he welcomed it all the same, though he turned his face into the others knee when he could feel heat rising to his cheeks. “I’d rather worry and fight for you all then go back to being alone.” He said softly before falling silent as he took the moment to just relax.

He could count the number of times he’d been this close to Izaya on one hand and while the circumstances weren’t ideal, he let himself enjoy the warmth of the others leg beneath his forehead while he could and inhaled deeply.

“Faleen seemed to want to keep to herself and I always respected that...I should have,” He released a gust of breath, frowning as the space between his face and the other’s leg grew warm and humid, instead lifting his head so his chin was resting on the trainee’s knee. “I don’t know...verbally expressed my sentiments. Let her know that she could rely on me if she ever needed to. But I selfishly enjoyed how low-maintenance our relationship was and didn’t stop to consider what she could have been going through alone.”

He hadn’t realized that he’d let his eyes close until he was opening them and staring at the others stomach. “But I’ll tell her after we bring her back safely; because we are going to bring her back safely.” Finally, he rocked back onto his feet before standing; stretching his arms above his head with a soft grunt. “Yes, me being sorry about the situation isn’t going to do us any good. Thank you for indulging me, Izaya.” He flashed the dark-haired man a small, shy smile before moving to flop back onto his bed. “I feel a bit better now.”  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

“Sometimes, I think, we’re not honest with ourselves about wanting to be close to others because we’re too afraid of getting hurt,” Izaya stated. “Since Faleen had become very close to Will before he turned out to be a traitor, I guess it makes sense that she would have tried to close herself off after that. Kind of ironic how the next person she ended up trying to get close to was someone she decided would never benefit Team Rocket and was thus labeled a traitor as well. But I imagine it couldn’t have been easy for her after all the resistance I put up. I guess I just never thought she would have a breaking point at which she would stop trying; that maybe she would be able to tolerate me forever.” He gave a bitter laugh. “And of course as an information broker with many enemies, I don’t get too close to anyone. But losing Aila just made my paranoia worse.”

The man shrugged. “You shouldn’t blame yourself. You can’t get close to people unless they let you no matter how much you care about them. There’s a lot of things we could have both done, probably me more than you, but there’s not much point in regretting the past when we can’t change it. You’re smart; rational. I know you know that, so don’t worry about it.” His gaze became distant. “There were a lot of things Faleen could have done, too; a lot that she just kept to herself. It wasn’t evident until whatever this was made her inner feelings clear to the rest of us, though. Silent, stoic types like her are naturally going to be hard to read.”

The ex-Rocket smirked at Zacharie’s thanks and shy smile. “I don’t know what you’re talking about~ I didn’t do anything,” he said. “But if nothing was all I needed to do, you’re very welcome.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Right...where was I...oh.”

“So I asked Faleen if she would be happy once she killed me because I thought in that case my death might have been worth something. I know I’m a pain, but after Aila used her life to save my worthless skin, I thought I might as well do the same for someone else if I couldn’t pay her back. I guess it wouldn’t exactly be saving a life, but I thought she could at least find some peace.”

“Faleen or whatever the thing was actually talked about Faleen in third person for a bit. Maybe to go along with my theory or maybe because it was actually a separate being; I’m not sure. Either way, from the look on its face, my question seemed to surprise it. It said... ‘Well, I’m already really happy. But to answer the real question you’re asking; no. I’ll probably never be happy.’ Maybe it was just trying to be cryptic but my guess is that the one who was already happy was whatever had control over her body and the answer to the ‘real question’ was in reference to the real Faleen.”

“Then, um…” He paused again, trying to think of how to word things. “She put on one of those sickly sweet smiles on her face and said, ‘Goodbye, Izaya Orihara’. But instead of word, she...she made a choked noise and grunted. Her grip on my throat tightened and she buckled forward, making more choked noises followed by a tense silence. Her body was straining so hard against something that she was trembling. Then she let go of me to grab at her own face because she suddenly had a nose bleed.”

Izaya shook his head. “I panicked. Again, it was ironic because before, I had told her that friends don’t let friends get killed and then she had told me that since she planned to kill me, she guessed not being friends would be the death of me after all. But I told her that it wasn’t me I was worried about dying if we became friends, it was her. So when she started bleeding, it was like everything I had feared and tried to prevent was happening despite my efforts. I had just divulged my deepest fear to her - that someone else would die because of me - and here she was making it come true. How spiteful.” The smile he wore flickered at the edges.

“It was obvious that Faleen was fighting against whatever it was for that instant to keep it from killing me. The effort she put into taking back control for that brief time had done enough harm to cause a nosebleed, however, and I didn’t want to consider what other internal damage that might have caused. I called out Celty to try to put Faleen to sleep, thinking maybe I could take her back with me to base and they could figure out what was wrong there, but again, I was so panicked I wasn’t thinking straight.”

“Faleen’s pokemon, though...and whatever was in Faleen...it told Celty to stand down. I’d forgotten that that being had threatened to act against Team Rocket if they did anything to her which included my attempting to put her to sleep with Celty’s Hypnosis. So all I could do was call Celty back and retreat. It was the only way I knew how to keep her alive because as long as she didn’t have to keep protecting me from whatever it was that was trying to kill me, she would have no reason to continue straining herself. Before I left, though, I heard that thing say, ‘Interesting’. It must not have realized she could do that.” He gave Zacharie a sad smile. “And then when I got back here, Bishop tried to interrogate me about the whole thing. We had a bit of a...disagreement, though, so he didn’t end up getting any information at all.”  

[insidiousEnigma]

It was a good thing that he had set up the recording device because he found himself so lost in his thoughts that he had forgotten to take notes. Just because Izaya had dismissed the notion that a head injury could be involved didn’t rule it out. Fighting against oneself, a nosebleed, it could be that Faleen had been attempting to straighten out her normal personality from this new one that she had adopted. Like a split personality disorder.

He felt a spike of anxiety as Izaya continued to recall the events of the encounter but with his new, hardened resolve he managed to keep it from spiraling into the panic he had felt earlier. Izaya wasn’t injured physically, the event had passed, there was nothing to be done about it now. “Retreating was the smart thing to do.” Izaya had said that she knew the word to activate...whatever it was Team Rocket was using to keep the dark-haired man in check. So not only would the team’s information have been compromised, Izaya would likely be dead.

Now that he had the entire story, where should he go from here? The infirmary was obviously on his list but they wouldn’t hold all the answers. He needed to go to where it started, talk to the people that worked with Faleen on a daily basis.

That’s where he would start.

“Can you think of anything else? What you’ve given me is...way more than what I had been hoping for, I really do appreciate you telling me.” He twirled his pen between his fingers before tapping the end against his mouth. “I won’t ask you to stop looking into this because that would just slow this down, but if you do find out something more please feel free to tell me...even if you think that I’ll think it’s annoying or whatever, I won’t. Everything you say is important to me.”

He paused, sputtered, and dropped his pen.

“Well I mean...about this...about Faleen. Everything about Faleen is important to me.” He shook his head. “N-Not to say that the other things that you might want to say to me aren’t important because they are...very important...uhm.” He leaned over to pick up his pen just to give himself something to do. “I mean...let’s try to work together to bring Faleen home.”  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

“Hehehe, she said that, too. Yelled after me as I ran off, ‘ah, you can be smart sometimes!’ After that I got a message from Bishop to meet him. At the very least, he told me that Faleen’s authority had been removed from everything so she wouldn’t be able to use that kill word for me again, but he said that didn’t mean she couldn’t kill me in other ways, so I should be cautious.” He rolled his eyes. “This coming from a man who, not long after, threatened to trigger the same system to kill me just because I was tapping my foot out of irritation. Talk about a control freak.”

Izaya raised his index finger to tap his chin thoughtfully. “Bishop started off by telling me how stupid the question I used was when she gave me the chance to ask any question that she would answer honestly. That was how I knew that he didn’t really care about Faleen’s well-being, wanting to argue about something as stupid as that when it had already been done and at that moment, Faleen could have been dying from internal bleeding. Then he spent the next half hour or so showing me who was boss by using whatever was put in me to shock my heart or something and knock me out cold. So I’m glad I could relay the information to someone who could actually use it towards helping Faleen.”

As the ex-Rocket listened to Zacharie speak, he was finding increasingly difficult not to giggle. “No need to be so grateful,” he laughed. “It’s weird being thanked so much when all the other higher-ups are usually threatening me within an inch of my life to get me to cooperate. It’s in my best interests, too, to find out what happened to Faleen and get her back home safely, so it’s not as though I’d have any reason not to be helpful. You’re being as much help to me as I am to you if not more.”

Grinning in amusement, Izaya stood and approached where Zacharie sat. “You’re hilarious, Zacharie-chan,” he commented. “Even as my superior, you’re so self-conscious. I wonder if that will ever change.” He stuck his hands in his pockets. “Thank you for caring.” He winked. “About Faleen.” Shifting his gaze to the floor, a small smile still lingering on his lips, he said, “Perhaps the next time I go out to look for her, we can go together. Maybe it’ll help her to know she’s not as alone as she thought she was if you tell her your feelings. I know you’re better than me at making friends and you’re braver at expressing your affection for them and their value to you. I didn’t realize how important that was until my last encounter with her.”  

[insidiousEnigma]

“I don’t want to threaten you.” Zacharie said, his tone obviously puzzled. “I have no need to be aggressive when you’re cooperating.” Though he didn’t think that he could be truly aggressive anyway. “So I want to express my gratitude for your cooperation and I hope…”

He trailed off as Izaya approached him, his face steadily growing redder the closer the other got. He had literally just touched the other, had been in his personal space, so why was he suddenly so embarrassed? It probably had to do with that fact that he had approached Izaya and had control of the situation. He stomach swooped and he briefly wondered if this was what people referred to as ‘the butterflies’.

Zacharie-chan.

Not quite as casual sounding as ‘Zachie-chan’ but it still made his heart pound. “Y-Yes! I would like to go out with you.” He made a rather embarrassing choking noise and raised both hands in a placating gesture. “I mean go to find Faleen, outside of the base, out…” He directed his gaze to the floor as well, desperately trying to just stop his damn mouth. “But also going out...with you would be nice. I mean-!” He released a nervous, high-pitched giggle, “I’m just...okay, I’m done now!” His voice was strained with embarrassment so strong that he was fairly certain that he would combust. “I-I know you don’t...just pretend that didn’t happen. I’m just tired?” It didn’t come out nearly as convincing as he had hoped. “Okay.”  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

That did it. Izaya burst into a fit of giggles. “‘Go out with me’? Ne, you have such a way with words,” he teased. “Must get it from your brother.” Shaking his head while continuing to wear a smile, he murmured, “You’re so intelligent and yet so naive. I don’t know what you see in me.”

The man headed toward the door. “Perhaps we can go out Faleen-hunting on our next day off, then. Unless you have plans with your brother, that is. I’m not sure he’d care to share if that’s the case.” He turned to bow to Zacharie before turning to face the exit once more.

“Oh...one more thing. I don’t know what Namie told you, but my advice is to take whatever she says with a grain of salt. She can be surprisingly manipulative for a pokemon.” Grinning to himself, the informant left.  

[insidiousEnigma]

Zacharie buried his face in his hands. Right now would be an excellent time for some natural disaster to happen; just to put him out of his misery. If he had even an eighth of the charm his brother had he wouldn’t be in this cripplingly embarrassing situation right now! The Agent just groaned, the mortification apparent despite being muffled. “Okay.” He said weakly, slotting his fingers the tiniest bit so the other could hear.

The moment he heard his door shut, he threw himself onto his side and tugged his blankets over himself. “God dammit, Zacharie.”