Archive of Our Own ^beta

Cyrus stirs awake at the most god awful hours. It's been a little worse lately, but with the Darkrai situation resolved he thought that maybe he could have gotten at least a decent night's sleep for once. Apparently that's too much to ask for, as when his eyes crack open groggily, he's met with the shimmering moonlight instead of the morning rays of sunlight being reflected off of the water far below Sharpedo Bluff.

Letting out a small huff, he shuts his eyes and prays to Arceus that he can fall asleep.

…

Maybe now that he's befriended a few other gods, his pleads would be more likely to be listened to? Well, that's assuming that Arceus themself is still… Well, paying attention. The world's probably been in existence for a long time, and it's bound to get boring after a while, so maybe Arceus just got bored. Maybe he should ask Cresselia about it? Immortality is fickle like that. Time must pass by so slowly, and-

...Wait a second. He's overthinking it.

Cyrus shuts his eyes again in hopes of falling asleep.

…

…

…

...Yeah, he's not falling asleep anytime soon.

He slowly gets up, shaking the straw off of his dull and battle-worn scales from the beds below. With a short stretch resembling the common Meowth, he gets up on his hind legs, before casting a glance at his companion that's been at his side for so long.

Terry the Sceptile.

The way his scales shimmer in the moonlight is what catches his attention at first, before he quickly discards the thought.

Terry lets out a soft snore- has he always snored this much? It's strangely cute… But Cyrus quickly flushes at the thought, and dispels it from his brain quicker than the first.

With the thought shaken from his head, he quickly checks to make sure that Terry is fully asleep, and quietly sneaks up the stairs to the outside of the bluff.

Finally out of the inside of the bluff, Cyrus stretches some more. Going outside of the bluff to watch the waves crash against the cliffside as the moonlight illuminates the world around him was always calming. Though, the scratches he got from accidentally brushing against the bush near the entrance due to his stature was not as fun.

Sitting over the ledge carefully, as to not take an impromptu dive, he sits over the edge and thinks. Contemplation was always one of his favorite activities, other than… Well, talking with Terry… Adventuring with Terry… Guh, what else does he like to do…?!

His thoughts briefly drift to his past life. It's all a blur at this point, really. It's been around a few years since he's started team Gladiators with Terry. He chuckles quietly at the team name as he recalls the exact situation.

He was still a quiet and meek Totodile, while Terry was a childish, yet energetic and curious Treecko. Well, Terry's still childish, and energetic and curious to boot, but he's more mature, hardened with experience… He supposes that his personality is what made him agree to form an exploration team in the first place.

Anyways, where was he? The team name origin, yes… He always looked up to gladiators as a kid, well, from what little he remembers. He remembers seeing them in those hulking sets of armor, with their huge shields and even larger spears. He loved how they fought for honor, for pride, and rarely, for the people they wanted to protect, and all with a valiant war cry and a thirst for victory.

And that was why he pitched team Gladiators to Terry, because that was what he wanted to be, someone who fought valiantly, and with honor, all for the people who they wanted to protect. He supposed he ended becoming what he so desired to be.

His mind then drifts to Terry, and suddenly, his thoughts are a lot more messy.

He can't even explain his feelings. The warm and fuzzy, yet also strangling in a good way feeling in his chest. It sucked. But in a way, like how a bad joke is. It's like, guh, he can't explain it at all…

W-Why was he even feeling this way towards his best friend and sworn lifelong companion of all people…?! This would have been so much easier if he had these feelings towards like… Electivire or something! At least then, he could avoid them without suspicion and just wait until these feelings passed like all of his other repressed feelings…

But with Terry, it was… Different.

Every single exploration they went on together, he lead on with such confidence, it was enamoring, and the way he expertly and lithely takes out outlaws and feral pokemon with almost no effort at all, combined with his charming smile and infectious energy and the way the sun shimmers off of his scales and makes it look like he's glowing and how he's just so handsome and…

Gwah! It all just comes swirling together and it makes him want to just let loose a hydro pump or something- but he knows that he can't just expel it or anything like that. They're… Feelings, as gross as it is to say. Because he can't just push these feelings out like he usually does, it just keeps coming back, and every time it does, it keeps just getting stronger. Every smile, every laugh, every accidental brush of their hands against each other… It all just makes him blush and makes the burning, yet oh so nice feeling in his chest bloom even more.

As he's contemplating, a glimmer over the horizon catches his attention. He looks up, and sees the sun slowly rising.

"Ah… How beautiful," He mutters to himself. "I never get tired of this.

And that's the truth, every single time, every single sunrise, was always magnificent. It reminded him of that fateful day that Terry found him washed ashore, with the sunlight shimmering along the ocean, and the Krabby blowing bubbles oh so serenely. It's a memory he looks back on fondly.

Suddenly, a quiet rustle comes from behind him.

He quickly turns his head to see a green head
pop out of the entrance to their home, rubbing their eye groggily and yawning.

"Y-You're up early." Cyrus comments, quickly turning his head back towards the sunset to obscure the blush quickly blooming across his face from seeing the groggy Sceptile still managing to be so damn effortlessly handsome even while half asleep.

"Mn...? Oh… Yeah." Terry replies, still drowsy.

Terry strides over to Cyrus' side, and sits down next to him, and suddenly, the burning inferno inside of his heart reignites, and the blush across his face intensifies more.

"S-So, uh…" he hesitated, "P-Pretty sunset… Isn't it…?" The normally stern and gruff tone of his voice had practically softened down to a nervous schoolgirl's tone, and words refused to come to him. Oh Arceus, why was it so hard to speak to his best friend all of a sudden!?

"Oh... Yeah, it is! I rarely get to see it, huh?" Terry cheerfully replies, the sleepiness seemingly gone.

"I think that's just because you always wake up so late usually…" Cyrus banters, turning his head towards Terry to tease him playfully.

"W-What!? No way! I definitely always wake up bright and early and ready for an expedition!" Terry turns towards Cyrus, with half feigned anger, and half amusement.

"Heh, the fact that I always manage to wake up before you can doesn't really attest to that." Cyrus chuckles, quickly falling into the familiar and comfortable banter with Terry.

"Wha- No way! I don't know what you're talking about… Oh, anyways, why are you up here? Watchin' the sunset?" Terry asks, before turning back towards the sun gleaming across the water below.

"A-Ah, well, half that, and half just, er… Thinking." Cyrus stutters out, a bit embarrassed, before turning back towards the sunset as well.

"Hm? Thinking about what?" Terry questions, prodding for information.

"O-Oh… J-Just uh… R-Random things! Um… Nothing really important…" Cyrus stammers, suddenly feeling nervous.

"Really? What random things?" Terry prods.

Shit. What does he say to that…? His mind's a hurricane, he can't possibly talk about his feelings to Terry…! What if he hates him? What if they never see each other again? What if Terry tells all of their teammates about it? What if-

"Hey uh, Cyrus, are you alright?" Terry says with a slight frown.

Terry's words snap him out of his spiral.

"O-Oh, it's… It's nothing. I'm sorry." Cyrus apologizes quietly.

"No worries dude. Are you… Are you sure you're okay though? You seem kinda off… Are you sick or something? You can tell me anything, I won't judge, promise!" Terry encourages with a small smile.

That smile. Dammit, he's so weak to it. Everything seems alright when he looks at it, like all of his feelings and problems are gone, and when he just looks at him so earnestly, with the sun lightly framing his face, he just can't help but spill his feelings.

"I-I… I just don't know what I'm feeling. When I look at you, all I want to do is… H-Hold you close. I get all of these strange feelings in my chest and… A-Arceus above, I don't know what's wrong with me. It's just… I'm so scared. I was just so scared to say it." Cyrus gushes out, a torrent of emotion swiftly pouring out of him like a faucet, and he can't stop going on and on.

"..." Terry stares at Cyrus, maw agape.

"I-I-It's okay if… Y-You... H-Hate me. For these feelings. I-I… I understand. I-If you want me to leave, I-I can… O-Oh Arceus, why did I even say all of th-" Cyrus mutters out quietly, tears pricking at the edges of his eyes, before he gets cut off by Terry hugging him.

"I would never hate you, Cy. Truth is, I feel the same way… I never would have thought that you'd feel the same way too… And even if I didn't love you, I never could bring myself to hate you, especially over something like that..." Terry mumbles into Cyrus' shoulder.

And Cyrus breaks.

All of his repressed emotions come flooding out in the form of tears, and Cyrus sobs and sobs into Terry while hugging him oh so tightly, and he never wants to let go. And he doesn't.

After a while of sobbing and Terry slowly patting him on the back while whispering soothing things into his ears like a child, his tear ducts dry up.

"Hey, what'd ya say to going back to bed, huh? We can… Cuddle. I know it's a bit fast, but… I think it'd be nice." Terry offers.

Cyrus nods wordlessly, and they fuse their straw beds together messily into one large nest, and Terry lies down first, with Cyrus quickly following, burying his face into Terry's chest.

And for the first time in a long while, Cyrus felt truly at peace.