Sora the Scribe (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cinnamonicles) wrote2012-07-12 08:54 pm
cinnamonicles) wrote2012-07-12 08:54 pm
Entry tags:
Fanfiction - Bar Talk.
Title: Bar Talk.
Fandom: Luceti.
Pairing: Pao-Lin/Hubert, though it's quasi-incidental in this particular story.
Words: 6885.
Summary: One night alone at the bar, Pao-Lin is approached by an attractive older man who wants to get to know her better...
Rating: I for It's-Not-What-It-Sounds-Like.
Notes: WHATEVER, OKAY. I JUST GIVE NO FUCKS ANYMORE. :| Also, Malik. QED. I might've fudged a couple of canon details with him because I was too lazy to canon-review. HOPEFULLY IT SHOULD STILL READ OKAY. Aside from the fact that holy shit this turned out way talkier than I thought it would. Whoops. Better get some snacks from the concession stand, folks, because this is a bit of a doozy for the kind of fic that it is.
If there was one thing that Malik liked about Luceti, it was that the alcohol was free, plentiful, and (usually) good. The first two aspects fed logically into each other, he supposed, but their existence still confounded him, especially considering the kind of place Luceti was. But he wasn't going to question that blessing much, lest it be revoked as punishment for his lack of faith.
The third aspect could be attributed as much to the company as to the actual quality of the liquor. He cared for his younger cohorts and enjoyed their presence, but sometimes they were just too much for his old, creaky bones. While it was true that there wasn't an age restriction in place for the consumption of alcohol in the village, Good Spirits still had a primary clientele that was closer to his own age.
Which was at least partially the reason Malik was surprised when he walked into the bar one night and spotted a familiar teenage girl sitting in a corner, scribbling away in a sketchbook with a half-finished strawberry milkshake beside her. He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye as he took a seat at the bar and tossed off his usual order to the bartender. Pao-Lin was her name, he remembered. He'd met her not long after coming to Luceti. It was a quick, casual exchange, with very little in the way of substantial information about the girl herself. He did find out during that conversation that she was well-acquainted with his traveling party, at least, but beyond that, Malik hadn't given her a second thought.
Then Richard had tipped him off to Hubert's...involvement...with Pao-Lin.
It wasn't that Malik was a nosy person. Okay, well, he was. It was one reason he'd gotten so involved with the revolution in Fendel in the first place. But finding out that Hubert had shifted his attention from Pascal to another girl so suddenly (or so it looked to Malik) was part of what truly convinced him of Luceti's veracity. As far as Malik knew, he'd just seen Asbel and the rest of the group only a few weeks prior to being trapped in the enclosure, but a drastic development like that pointed towards a much longer period of time passing, as inexplicable as that was. If he hadn't already been seriously investigating Luceti and its history before then, that certainly would have been the impetus needed to goad him into it.
Faced with overwhelming evidence of something seriously strange going on, it seemed rather silly to also continue snooping in on the love life of one of his younger charges. But a man had to relax from all this dire kidnapping and experimentation business somehow.
Besides, Malik thought he was perfectly justified in wondering what the history was between Pao-Lin and Hubert. He certainly had a favorable impression of her the first time they talked, but he wouldn't have guessed that that alone would have caught the boy's attention in such a dramatic manner. He had a few other pieces of the puzzle, at least, but they were more like edge pieces, rather than the ones that showed you what you were supposed to be looking at. Malik knew from talking with Cheria that Pao-Lin and Hubert had known each other for a while already (something that Hubert had unwittingly confirmed about two weeks ago), and that Pao-Lin had died to save Hubert during a nasty scuffle last autumn. That act of selflessness combined with Pao-Lin's bubbly cheer made the parallels between her and a certain girl genius glaringly obvious. It was clear that Hubert had a "type", but that didn't shed any light on why he'd chosen this particular embodiment when he'd been pretty smitten with Pascal the last that Malik remembered. With such an easy opportunity to remedy his ignorance just sitting there, though, there was no question of what he was going to be doing tonight.
Once Malik's order was slid over to him, he snatched up his glass and strolled over to Pao-Lin. "I don't suppose I could have the honor of keeping the company of a lovely lady like yourself tonight, could I?" he asked, flashing a grin at her.
Pao-Lin glanced up at him, startled and curious. "Oh! Um...Mr. Malik, right?"
Malik chuckled. "I thought I asked you to drop the 'mister'. You're making me feel far too old for my tastes."
She laughed apologetically. "Sorry. It's just what I'm used to."
"No need to worry — it shows that you're a respectful person. Anyway, I hope I'm not bothering you. Or that you're not waiting for someone." He could just imagine how this situation would look to Hubert if he happened to run across them tonight. True, it'd be entertaining to see his reaction, but...
"Nah, I'm just here by myself." She gestured at the empty chair in front of her. "You can sit down."
"Thank you." Malik did just that, setting his drink on the table with a soft clink. "I must admit, I didn't peg you for the type to hang out in a place like this."
"Well, I like a lot of their non-alcoholic drinks. Plus, it's nice to be out late where there's people around. It makes the night feel less lonely."
Malik glanced at her sketchbook as she began doodling in it again. Up close, it was readily apparent that she had a knack for the skill. "I'm assuming you must be looking for subject matter, as well."
"That, too! There's lots of interesting people in Luceti, after all."
"I imagine you're not hurting for models then." He smirked. "Nevertheless, I am more than willing to offer my private modeling services to you, should you ever desire them."
Pao-Lin blinked at him. "Oh...thanks! That's nice of you to offer." She laughed. "I need more practice drawing older people anyway. Er, I mean, like adults and stuff! Not that you're...you know."
Wow. Not only did she completely miss the innuendo in his words, but she'd managed to work in a gibe about his age to boot. Not that Malik thought she'd done the latter on purpose. In addition to Pascal, Pao-Lin also rather reminded him of a certain student of his. So he really couldn't be truly offended by it, especially since she at least seemed contrite about her potential faux pas. And his age wasn't as big a deal to him as he liked to make it out to be, anyway. Most of the time. "You're certainly quite adept already. How long have you been drawing for?"
"Since I was a kid. But it wasn't until I came to Luceti that I had more time to do it."
"School must've been keeping you pretty busy, then."
She shook her head. "It was my job. I had to be out a lot, and whenever I came home I was usually really tired. Though my caretaker still made me do lessons and stuff."
"Working so young? What was your job?"
"I was a Hero with HeroTV. So...I helped arrest criminals and saved civilians along with other Heroes who had powers like me."
Malik tilted his head. Now this was intriguing. He wasn't exactly sure what the "HeroTV" part meant, but that wasn't really what had piqued his interest. "Someone with powers who arrests criminals and saves innocent people...do you mean to tell me that you were actually a 'superhero' back in your world?"
"Yeah, I guess, if that's the word you know. We're just called 'Heroes' in Sternbild, though."
"But you had a secret identity, right? And a costume to go with it?"
Pao-Lin nodded.
Hmm. "Does Hubert know?"
"Yeah. We've talked about it a lot before. Why?"
Aha — there was another piece of the puzzle. Amusing as it was, though, it was also a rather small piece in the whole context of things. Hubert wasn't shallow, despite his fixation on details. But something like this would have been enough to catch his initial interest, even if he denied it to Fodra and back. "Are you sure it's okay to discuss things like that so lightly? I thought superheroes were supposed to keep their identities secret."
Pao-Lin tapped her pencil to her cheek. "Yeah, but I don't think it matters in Luceti. HeroTV doesn't run here, and even if people from my world did find out, they wouldn't remember it if they got sent back to Sternbild. Plus, it's nice being able to talk about that kind of thing without having to worry about keeping my identity a secret."
"Makes sense. Keeping up a masquerade is tiring, after all. It must be easier to help people without having to maintain an alter ego."
"Definitely! I don't have to worry about earning points or making my sponsors happy, either. It's also good that a lot of other people here can fight, too. That means there's more people we can depend on if there's trouble."
"You're certainly a fine fighter yourself, judging from what I've seen of you in the Battle Dome."
"Ah — you've seen me there?"
"My apologies. I hope it wasn't too bold of me to admit that I've been peeping on you." The viewing are of the Battle Dome had become a favorite haunt of his as of late, perfect as it was for gauging the level and breadth of Luceti's reserve of combat talent.
"No, no, it's fine! I just didn't expect that, that's all. Though I guess I shouldn't be so surprised, since I watch people in the Battle Dome a lot too." She flipped her pencil around and furiously erased something in her sketchbook. "I try to see if there's anything I can learn from watching them."
"Are you self-taught, then?"
"A little bit. I started doing it 'cause I was watching kung fu movies and wanted to do the moves myself because they looked like fun. But then I almost broke my leg trying a flying kick, so my parents signed me up for lessons so I could do it right and not hurt myself. That was back in Hong Kong, though...I got too busy for lessons when I moved to Sternbild." Pao-Lin grinned proudly. "But I still keep up with training on my own! Otherwise I can't help people."
Malik chuckled with approval. "An excellent mindset to have. If only more students were like you."
"Oh, that's right, you're Asbel's teacher, aren't you? You're the one who taught him swordfighting." She reached out for another sip of her milkshake. "He must be really happy to have you in Luceti now, huh?"
"I suppose so." Asbel had been eager to get back into regular training with Malik, which made Malik happy despite the fact that he wasn't sure there was anything more he could teach him. "I've heard that you have your own student in Hubert — that you're teaching him your style."
Pao-Lin beamed. "Yep! He said he wasn't that good with fighting barehanded, so I said I'd teach him kung fu. He's learning really fast."
Malik threw her a sly glance as he downed the rest of his drink. "I imagine it's because you provide some excellent motivation for him."
She pouted a little in confusion. "Well...yeah, I hope so. I let him know when he's doing something right, and help him when he's doing something wrong. That's what teachers are supposed to do, right?"
"...right." Goodness, this girl really could rival Asbel for obliviousness. Malik set aside his drained glass before loosely folding his hands together on the table in front of him. "I have to say, I was pretty surprised to find that you two were dating."
Pao-Lin scratched the back of her neck sheepishly and simpered. "So you found out about that, huh."
"I did." He frowned as something occurred to him. "Was I not supposed to?" She hadn't even hinted at it in their first conversation, after all, even as she revealed that she was on friendly terms with the rest of the Ephineans.
"No, it's not that, it's just I didn't think I'd said...well, I guess someone in the house must have told you." She shrugged with a smile. "Hubert's shy about this whole thing, that's all. So I try not to talk too much about us unless someone asks."
Hubert, shy? Not exactly the first thing that came to mind when Malik thought of him. Though he'd certainly been bashful enough around Pascal. But that hardly counted: love could make a mushy puddle of even the most hardened warrior. "Does that bother you, having to keep things quiet?"
She thought for a moment. "Not a lot. I mean, it's not like he told me I had to or anything. It just seemed like something I should do for him, you know?"
Malik couldn't resist a wide grin at that. "You're a considerate girlfriend."
Headshake. "I just don't want him to feel bad."
"Of course not. How did you two meet, if I may ask?"
"Ah...well, for me, it was a few weeks after I came to Luceti. So that was..." Pao-Lin jotted down some hatchmarks in her sketchbook, counting. "Over a year and a half ago? Wow, I can't believe it's been so long. Anyway, I saw him training at the barracks, so I went over to ask him about his weapon. We sparred a little and then I think we went out to eat afterwards."
A corner of Malik's mouth quirked up. "A dinner date after only one conversation? Are you sure you weren't already going out then?"
That finally got a mild blush out of Pao-Lin. "N-no!" she insisted, waving her hands in front of her in defense. "I didn't like him like that at the time! It wasn't until the Valentine's Day experiment last year that I...well...thought of him like that."
"Valentine's Day experiment...that's the love experiment, correct?"
She nodded. "It made me and Hubert think we'd been dating for a few months already. Neither of us wanted to talk about it after the effects wore off." She slumped in her chair a little. "But I couldn't stop thinking about him afterwards."
"That's not surprising. It was an extreme change for you two. I'd be surprised if things weren't awkward for a little while after everything."
"I thought I'd get over it in like a week or something, though! But I was still weird about him a month later." She giggled softly. "Well, at least it all turned out okay in the end."
"I'd say so." The two had ended up together for real, after all, as astonishing as that fact was. "Still...do you mean to tell me that you had feelings for Hubert for over a year, and you're only dating him now?" Not that Malik hadn't seen this sort of glacial pace elsewhere or anything. But he'd been hoping it was an isolated incident.
Pao-Lin looked a bit ashamed. "I just didn't want to bother him, that's all," she mumbled. "I didn't think he'd ever think about me the way I thought about him. And then when I found out he liked Pascal, well...I didn't see the point of saying anything." She smiled, but this time it was tinged with melancholy. "Actually, I told him he should go out with her. But he said later that he confessed to her and she didn't like him back." She dropped her gaze. "That's probably the only reason he's going out with me now."
Malik furrowed his brows, surprised at the sudden spike of cynicism from someone previously so upbeat. "Well, now, I highly doubt that. Hubert's not that sort of person."
"I know, but sometimes I just..." Her sentence ended with a sigh. "Well, I guess he must think I'm okay at least, if he lets me talk with him and hug him and stuff."
Despite the grave turn of the conversation, Malik had to suppress a bit of a grin at the thought of someone as standoffish as Hubert letting someone cuddle him. It really must be love. On the other hand...was he really going to have to give Hubert another talk about paying more attention to his girlfriend? "If he's dating you, he should think you're far more than just 'okay'."
"I guess."
Hmm. The conversation had finally coughed up a piece of the Pascal portion of the puzzle, but Pao-Lin was clearly less than pleased by its appearance. Which was only to be expected, of course, but Malik had been hoping her chattiness would extend to this subject too. Well, that was fine. While he was fully at ease with gently teasing the girl (or attempting to, at least), he didn't want to truly upset her, which this particular turn of topic was threatening to do if he continued with it. This was likely something best discussed with the other half of this relationship, anyway. "Would you like me to get you a refill on your drink, by the way?"
Pao-Lin glanced over at the nearly-empty glass, then shook her head. "It's fine. I think it's almost bedtime for me." She simpered. "Sorry. I really enjoyed talking with you, though!"
Even after touching on such an uncomfortable subject? "The feeling's mutual," Malik responded. "I can walk you home, if you'd like."
She waved him off as she gathered up her things. "No, it's fine! You don't need to do that."
He grinned. "Oh, I know there's no need for it. But if you'd like to continue talking..."
"...oh!" She laughed. "That's fine, then."
After some minor clean-up, the two stepped out of Good Spirits and into the nocturnal spring air. Pao-Lin gave a slight shiver. "Ah, jeez, it wasn't this cold earlier," she muttered, clutching her sketchbook and pencil pouch closer to her as she attempted to wrap her arms around herself.
Cold? Malik thought it was rather warm, actually. Certainly this was summertime weather compared to what a typical Fendelian spring was like. "I'd give you my jacket, were I wearing one," he said. "As it is, I can only offer my shirt."
Pao-Lin shook her head. "I'll be fine! My apartment building isn't far from here." She pointed. "It's community housing seven — you can kinda see it from here."
Malik peered in the indicated direction. He made out the shadowy outlines of a tall building in the distance, with a few windows illuminated from within. "The proximity to the plaza must be convenient."
"Yep! That's why I decided to move there."
"Do you have any roommates?"
"No. I've lived by myself since I was brought to Luceti."
"Have you considered asking someone to live with you?"
A casual shrug. "Sometimes. But I like having my own place for once. And now all the other bedrooms have my stuff in them, so it'd be a hassle to have to move everything out for a roommate. Oh, but someone really wanted or needed to live with me, I'd definitely clean up and stuff!" she clarified. "But I like living on my own."
"What if Hubert asked to live with you? How would you feel about that?"
"I wouldn't mind it! But he hasn't asked and we've never talked about it. He comes over sometimes, though."
Malik arched an eyebrow. "Really, now. Should I ask why?"
Pao-Lin blinked up at him before tilting her head in a Sophie-esque manner. He was getting a lot of strange deja vu moments with this girl, it seemed. "To hang out. What else would we be doing?"
What else, indeed. "But you could 'hang out' elsewhere in the village, couldn't you?"
She giggled. "Well, yeah. He won't even let me hug him in public, though."
That nearly stopped Malik in his tracks. "What? Why not?"
"Um...he said that if I did things like that too often in public, I'd cheapen the deeper meaning and make people uncomfortable if they saw me doing it."
Malik clamped down on the urge to slap a palm to his face, though he couldn't stop a quiet sigh from escaping through his teeth. He really was going to have to talk to Hubert about this, wasn't he? It was one thing to prefer privacy, but actually mentioning that sort of reasoning for it out loud was worthy of at least a couple of angry words — words that likely never occurred to someone as innocently dense as Pao-Lin.
"Well, Hubert is a conservative person at heart, so it's understandable that he might be a little skittish about that sort of thing," he mused. "Still, this is a different world with different rules. He should loosen up a little."
Pao-Lin shook her head. "It's fine! I don't mind it, really. Sometimes I forget about it because I'm so happy to see him, but he doesn't, like, yell at me if I do. And we only talked about it once."
Malik found himself a bit surprised at hearing of Hubert's apparent lenience on the issue. Then he smiled, shook his head, and decided that maybe it wasn't as big a surprise as he thought. "Heh. I think you're a good influence on him."
"Huh?"
"Hubert's upbringing forced him to adopt a rather authoritarian approach to life, so he tends to sweat the little details a lot," said Malik. "But he seems to be more relaxed these days." Admittedly, that was like saying that one fire was a little less hot than another fire. It might technically be true, but both would still burn you. "I'm assuming that's due to your presence."
"You really think so...?"
"Sure. You're very easy to talk to, and if there's one thing Hubert needs more of, it's people he feels comfortable talking to about things."
Pao-Lin didn't seem convinced. "He doesn't talk to Asbel or Cheria?"
"He has...history with those two that complicates matters. Though it's getting better." Briefly, Malik wondered how much Pao-Lin knew of that history. "But sometimes an outside perspective is needed, as well."
She hunched her shoulders a little. "Well...I'm glad you think I'm helping him. Sometimes it feels like Hubert's always the one helping me, and I never do anything for him."
Malik hesitated before speaking his next words. "That's quite the thing to claim for someone who I heard gave her life for him a couple of months ago."
To his relief (and minor confusion), Pao-Lin just giggled. "Oh, yeah, that! Hubert was kinda mad with me for that one."
He frowned. "Whatever for?"
"He said I didn't have to do it because he'd been ready to dodge the attack that ended up killing me." She shrugged. "I actually don't remember too much about what really happened — it all went by so fast. I think I just saw him in trouble and ran in to make sure he'd be okay."
"That's honorable of you, but I'm not sure I approve of his reaction to your sacrifice..."
"Ah, don't be mad at him! I think he just felt bad because I ended up with a second death penalty just when I'd gotten my first one removed." Another shrug, accompanied with a carefree grin. "I guess I should've thought things through a little better, but...I'm okay with dying if it means I get to help someone, especially a friend."
Malik found himself torn between admiring her selflessness and being horrified that this wasn't even the first time she'd met her demise. She seemed so blithe about the matter of her dual deaths, too. But it was better than her being permanently shattered by the experience, he supposed. Malik started to ask about her first death, then thought better of it. It probably wasn't relevant to this particular investigation. "With that kind of thinking, I'm not surprised you're a superhero back home."
Pao-Lin shook her head. "It doesn't have anything to do with that. It's just the right thing to do."
"I rest my case."
Their conversation slipped into an amiable silence then, with Pao-Lin apparently not knowing how to respond to the compliment and Malik reflecting on what he'd learned so far. He was pleased to find no cause to doubt his initial positive impression of her as an individual, not that he'd really expected to find anything damning. As for being Hubert's girlfriend? Well, she was pretty solid there as well, he thought. Pao-Lin's spirited, honest nature complemented Hubert well, and it was plainly obvious she adored him and was willing to put up with him. Not that she seemed to consider it "putting up" with him, of course.
"Tell me something before you leave, if it's not too much trouble," Malik said as they stopped in front of the entrance of CH7. "What do you see in Hubert?"
A curious look. "What do I see in him...?"
"Yes. What is it that you like about him?"
Pao-Lin scratched lightly at her cheek. "Well, he's really nice, obviously. He's smart, too, a lot smarter than I am, and he knows about a lot of things so it's always interesting asking him about that stuff. And he's someone I can trust with almost anything."
"You don't find him, say, overbearing?"
"No, not at all!" Pause. "Well, I guess sometimes he's a little fussy. And I wish he'd smile more." She laughed. "Still, it's cool that he's so serious."
"Shy", "nice", and "cool". Malik was sure learning a lot of new things about the younger Lhant brother tonight. "You don't get bored with him for being so serious?"
"No way! I love talking to him. But I know he's kind of a quiet person, so it's fine if we don't talk, too. It's kinda relaxing, actually."
Was Pao-Lin even talking about the same Hubert he knew? "That's a good sign, I think," Malik said. "That you don't feel the need to keep up idle chatter with him. I imagine Hubert appreciates that about you as well."
She ducked her head bashfully, again rendered tongue-tied by a compliment. "Well, um, thanks for walking me home. It was nice talking to you, like I said."
"Again, the pleasure is all mine. And if Hubert ever gives you any trouble, just come to Uncle Malik about it and he'll fix things right up." Malik winked at her.
Pao-Lin burst out laughing at that. "Thanks, but I think we'll be fine! I'm sure we can just talk it out."
Oddly (or perhaps not so oddly), Malik found himself believing that, or at least believing it more than he might have before. He waved farewell to Pao-Lin, then turned and began to head back down the street to make for home. But he hadn't gotten more than twenty feet from the apartment building when he stopped.
"..."
He smirked.
"I don't think you have anything to worry about," Malik remarked, not turning his head. "I couldn't steal her from you if I tried."
Hubert stepped around the corner of a nearby house, his expression schooled and stern. "I was hardly worried about that," he said, striding smoothly from the grass and onto the cobblestone.
Malik did look over at him, then. "Oh? She rather enjoyed my company, you know. And judging from the fact that she's with you, she seems to have a preference for older men as well..."
"Captain, she is at least two decades your junior, that is not an appropriate relationship to be considering — "
"I'm kidding. Relax." Malik clapped a hand onto Hubert's back. "I just wanted to get to know her a little better. Since you refuse to bring her around the house."
Hubert glared sidelong as he fell into step beside Malik. "I shudder to think of the inanely invasive questions you would ask of her were I to do such a thing."
"I'm wounded to hear that you have so little faith in me. It'd be nothing terrible, I assure you. Just the same kinds of things you heard us talking about just now."
There was the barest bit of hesitation before Hubert responded. "I don't know why you're assuming I'd know what those things were, considering I've just returned from my mission."
"Right, of course. How was that, by the way?"
A dismissive wave of his hand. "Tedious and unproductive. I was tasked with sorting information relating to the history of a world called Weyard. I admit that it was, on its own, somewhat fascinating, but in terms of its usefulness in helping us find a way out of Luceti? Worthless. My movement was carefully monitored, as well. There was no way to do even the most cursory of explorations, and not much opportunity to talk to any other people within the facility I was in. I had better things to be doing with my time than playing backroom archivist for our captors."
"Like visiting Pao-Lin at her apartment, I imagine."
Hubert blanched. "Did she really — " He heaved a deep sigh. "Never mind. This is exactly as I feared! You're taking advantage of her trusting nature merely to satisfy your own puerile curiosity!"
"Now, now, she volunteered that information entirely of her own will. I'm surprised, Hubert. I thought you paid better attention to conversations than that."
"Once again, I don't know why you're assuming I'd know what you and Pao-Lin discussed tonight." He folded his arms. "I was on my way back to the house when I saw you two heading towards CH7. I figured that since our paths would cross sooner or later, it would be simpler to meet up with you once you were finished with your business."
"How very kind of you," Malik droned. "I don't know what I would have done if I had to walk home all by myself. Really, I'd expect for you to be more concerned about Pao-Lin. You could've let her know you'd returned safely from your mission."
"She was clearly retiring for the night. There was no need to disrupt that."
"I don't think she would have thought of it as a disruption at all. I think she would've been happy to have someone she cares about checking in with her."
Hubert's neutral expression faltered slightly. "Well...what's done is done. There'll be time and opportunity enough to talk to her later. How did you even end up talking to her tonight, anyway?"
Malik shrugged, but he was grinning. "I just couldn't leave a lovely lady like herself alone at the bar tonight, that's all."
"Yes. You could have." Hubert huffed, adjusting his glasses. "But I suppose this was as good a chance as any for you to poke your nose where it doesn't belong. I hope you're satisfied with what you've found."
"More or less. Pao-Lin's a nice girl; I like her a lot. She'll give you less heart attacks than Pascal, that's for sure."
"Hm. I'm surprised to hear you speak of Pascal that way, considering that you seemed to approve of my pursuit of her."
"Your pursuit of her, yes. Not necessarily Pascal herself."
Hubert gave Malik a quizzical look. "I...don't understand the distinction."
"Well..." Malik chuckled. "Let's just say that I didn't actually expect anything to come of you and her."
The quizzical look mutated into a glare. "You knew from the start that it would be a fruitless endeavor, yet you encouraged me to go on it?!"
He waved Hubert off. "I didn't know, per se. Miracles happen, after all. But — and you'll have to pardon the cliche — it's not the destination that matters so much as the journey. Love is like that, especially. Even if you don't end up with the person you think you want to be with, you learn things about yourself and about the world along the way. Besides, even if I had discouraged you from going after Pascal, would you have listened to me?"
"...the honest warning would have been appreciated."
"I did warn you, didn't I? Taming stray cats and all."
"Tch — sugarcoated with false promises. Hardly worthwhile."
"You yourself just essentially admitted you would've ignored the bitter truth at the time. But things seem to have turned out fine in the end, at least. You've certainly tamed a different sort of stray cat with Pao-Lin."
Hubert turned his head slightly, as if to hide a blush. "It was through no intention of my own, I can assure you."
"I wouldn't be judging you if it had." Though he would have been quite surprised to hear of it. "She mentioned that you were both caught in a love experiment here."
"Oh, yes. That thing." Hubert's voice dripped with disdain. "A week of laboring under the delusion that we were dating, despite the fact that we were only friends at the time and had at no time prior ever remotely considered romantic possibilities."
"But afterwards?"
"..." Hubert let out a breath, his eyes fixed on the path ahead. "The feelings...remained, though in a much more muted and muddled form. Not that I ever mentioned that to Pao-Lin." He snorted softly. "I certainly didn't expect similar consequences to befall her. She didn't strike me as the type to fixate on that sort of thing, and in the time following the experiment I didn't pick up on any signs that that particular trait of hers had changed. In retrospect, perhaps it was precisely because I didn't expect it that I didn't notice anything. As well, Pascal's presence was...distracting."
Malik nodded. "Understandable, on all counts. I'm curious as to what led you to actually start dating Pao-Lin, though."
"Isn't it obvious? Pascal rejected me."
"So I've heard. But it's one thing to be rejected by someone you're interested in, and another thing to actually start a relationship with someone else as a result." Malik narrowed his eyes a little at Hubert. "Unless you really do mean to tell me that the only reason you're going out with a girl is just to make yourself feel better about not getting your first choice."
"Do you take me for some sort of knave?" Hubert snapped, glaring at Malik. "Of course I wouldn't have accepted Pao-Lin's advances if I didn't care for her!" But his indignant fury fizzled out almost as fast as it had flared up, as something seemed to occur to him. "Though Pascal's rejection certainly made my choice much easier, as cowardly as that may be to say."
"There's nothing cowardly about choosing to walk through an open door after another one has just slammed shut." Pause. "I don't suppose you'd be willing to tell me who confessed to whom first."
"...Pao-Lin did." Hubert grimaced. "But I admit I may have...forced it from her."
Malik narrowed his eyes again. That didn't sound promising. "'Forced' it?"
"Once I finally noticed her strange behavior regarding me, I confronted her about it, which resulted in her admitting her feelings for me. Consequently, I decided it was time to talk to Pascal properly about my feelings for her. I'd been putting it off, but in light of things, I thought I owed it to Pao-Lin to clarify the situation once and for all."
"Heh. Sounds to me you'd already made your decision even before confessing to Pascal."
"What?"
"The only reason you decided to confess to Pascal was because you thought you 'owed' it to another girl? Somehow your priorities seem a little strange, there. At the very least, it suggests to me that your heart was not as set on Pascal as you thought it was. If it were, you would have turned down Pao-Lin outright. Unless you did turn her down the first time, and went back on it later?"
Hubert shook his head. "No, you're right. I didn't mention anything of my own feelings at the time. I was waiting to see Pascal's reaction. In truth, however...I think even then I knew she was a lost cause. It was only a matter of confirming it."
A quiet satisfaction hummed through Malik as he listened to Hubert talk through his thoughts, far more openly than he was used to. Seeing a young person grow and change like this was one of the things he liked about teaching. Hubert wasn't technically his student, of course, but Malik had mentally adopted him as one, feeling an obligation as a passably decent human being to at least try to compensate for seven years of Garrett Oswell's tutelage. But whether Hubert's epiphanies were the result of Malik's attempts at guiding him were unclear, particularly since Malik hadn't even been in Luceti when all of this had been happening. It didn't matter to him, in the end: it was gratifying regardless to see some of the damage being undone. In fact, it was arguable that it was even more amazing to see that change born from Hubert's own inner reserves of strength and agency.
"Say that Pascal had returned your feelings," he said. "Would you still have chosen to go with Pao-Lin?"
Hubert's mouth thinned into an uncomfortable line. "I honestly don't know," he murmured. "I wasn't even thinking in those terms then. I just..." A sigh. "She'd been so unhappy, when she confessed. I didn't want to see her unhappy anymore." He glanced at Malik then, the glint of an overhead street lamp temporarily masking the sudden uncertainty in his eyes.
For a moment, Malik was thrown by both the look and the sense of familiarity that it engendered. Then he recognized it: it was similar to how Asbel regarded him whenever he wanted Malik's opinion on something. Wanted to know that Malik approved.
Instead, Malik asked: "And you thought that confessing to the other girl involved would have fixed that?"
"It would have provided closure, whatever the outcome." Hubert closed his eyes briefly. "Pao-Lin is strong and resilient. She would certainly have been upset if I'd turned her down, but she herself said that she'd expected precisely that decision from me. She'd clearly prepared herself emotionally for an unfavorable resolution, and thus I have no doubt that she would have recovered if things had turned out differently than they did. Which is not to say that I would have felt any less regretful about rejecting her if it had come to that," he hastily added.
"Of course not. She was your friend either way. You'd feel bad about disappointing her."
Hubert nodded. And then — faint and brief, like the glimmer of a distant star — he actually smiled. "...I'm glad I didn't have to."
Malik, too, allowed himself the luxury of a full grin now. He patted Hubert's shoulder. "You should let her know that."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, she expressed to me a rather alarming level of ambivalence regarding your opinion of her. It seems she suspects that you are, in fact, only dating her simply because you were rejected by Pascal."
Hubert hissed a sigh. "I thought I told her to stop with that nonsense! I specifically spelled out her positive qualities when we agreed to this arrangement." He shook his head in wonder. "It baffles me how a — how someone like her can think so little of herself."
"It's just one of many strange things that love does to people. You could be happy as a clam with yourself beforehand, but once you fall in love, you suddenly worry about every possible way you fall short of deserving the person you desire. And that goes even for a confident, independent girl like Pao-Lin." Malik gestured. "Perhaps if you showed a little appreciation for her every now and again..."
"I sincerely hope you're not going to suggest I get her candy and flowers every week or some such tripe like that."
"Nothing so dramatic. I'm just saying that it might not, in fact, kill you to smile at her at least once a month. That's all."
Hubert frowned, but the edge was dulled with contrition. "...I'll see to the matter soon enough." His usual austere mask was back in place when he eyed Malik again, adjusting his glasses. "Anyway, that should be enough for you to chew on for the next century or so. Hopefully you won't feel the need to bother me about this topic any longer. I've certainly told you far more than you deserved to know."
"Maybe. But I thank you for your honesty." A laugh. "It's provided me with a good night of entertainment."
Hubert's indignance was on the verge of incandescence. "I don't appreciate the thought of my personal travails being the subject of your amusement, you know! Perhaps you should look into remedying the lack of romance in your own life here in Luceti. Certainly there's enough downtime to spend on such things."
Malik smirked. "How do you know I haven't already done that?"
Hubert grimaced. "On second thought, please don't inform me of your affairs. Merely stay out of mine."
"Fair enough." Yet Malik couldn't resist adding: "But only if you bring Pao-Lin home sometime for dinner with her future family."
"We are done discussing this!"
Fandom: Luceti.
Pairing: Pao-Lin/Hubert, though it's quasi-incidental in this particular story.
Words: 6885.
Summary: One night alone at the bar, Pao-Lin is approached by an attractive older man who wants to get to know her better...
Rating: I for It's-Not-What-It-Sounds-Like.
Notes: WHATEVER, OKAY. I JUST GIVE NO FUCKS ANYMORE. :| Also, Malik. QED. I might've fudged a couple of canon details with him because I was too lazy to canon-review. HOPEFULLY IT SHOULD STILL READ OKAY. Aside from the fact that holy shit this turned out way talkier than I thought it would. Whoops. Better get some snacks from the concession stand, folks, because this is a bit of a doozy for the kind of fic that it is.
If there was one thing that Malik liked about Luceti, it was that the alcohol was free, plentiful, and (usually) good. The first two aspects fed logically into each other, he supposed, but their existence still confounded him, especially considering the kind of place Luceti was. But he wasn't going to question that blessing much, lest it be revoked as punishment for his lack of faith.
The third aspect could be attributed as much to the company as to the actual quality of the liquor. He cared for his younger cohorts and enjoyed their presence, but sometimes they were just too much for his old, creaky bones. While it was true that there wasn't an age restriction in place for the consumption of alcohol in the village, Good Spirits still had a primary clientele that was closer to his own age.
Which was at least partially the reason Malik was surprised when he walked into the bar one night and spotted a familiar teenage girl sitting in a corner, scribbling away in a sketchbook with a half-finished strawberry milkshake beside her. He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye as he took a seat at the bar and tossed off his usual order to the bartender. Pao-Lin was her name, he remembered. He'd met her not long after coming to Luceti. It was a quick, casual exchange, with very little in the way of substantial information about the girl herself. He did find out during that conversation that she was well-acquainted with his traveling party, at least, but beyond that, Malik hadn't given her a second thought.
Then Richard had tipped him off to Hubert's...involvement...with Pao-Lin.
It wasn't that Malik was a nosy person. Okay, well, he was. It was one reason he'd gotten so involved with the revolution in Fendel in the first place. But finding out that Hubert had shifted his attention from Pascal to another girl so suddenly (or so it looked to Malik) was part of what truly convinced him of Luceti's veracity. As far as Malik knew, he'd just seen Asbel and the rest of the group only a few weeks prior to being trapped in the enclosure, but a drastic development like that pointed towards a much longer period of time passing, as inexplicable as that was. If he hadn't already been seriously investigating Luceti and its history before then, that certainly would have been the impetus needed to goad him into it.
Faced with overwhelming evidence of something seriously strange going on, it seemed rather silly to also continue snooping in on the love life of one of his younger charges. But a man had to relax from all this dire kidnapping and experimentation business somehow.
Besides, Malik thought he was perfectly justified in wondering what the history was between Pao-Lin and Hubert. He certainly had a favorable impression of her the first time they talked, but he wouldn't have guessed that that alone would have caught the boy's attention in such a dramatic manner. He had a few other pieces of the puzzle, at least, but they were more like edge pieces, rather than the ones that showed you what you were supposed to be looking at. Malik knew from talking with Cheria that Pao-Lin and Hubert had known each other for a while already (something that Hubert had unwittingly confirmed about two weeks ago), and that Pao-Lin had died to save Hubert during a nasty scuffle last autumn. That act of selflessness combined with Pao-Lin's bubbly cheer made the parallels between her and a certain girl genius glaringly obvious. It was clear that Hubert had a "type", but that didn't shed any light on why he'd chosen this particular embodiment when he'd been pretty smitten with Pascal the last that Malik remembered. With such an easy opportunity to remedy his ignorance just sitting there, though, there was no question of what he was going to be doing tonight.
Once Malik's order was slid over to him, he snatched up his glass and strolled over to Pao-Lin. "I don't suppose I could have the honor of keeping the company of a lovely lady like yourself tonight, could I?" he asked, flashing a grin at her.
Pao-Lin glanced up at him, startled and curious. "Oh! Um...Mr. Malik, right?"
Malik chuckled. "I thought I asked you to drop the 'mister'. You're making me feel far too old for my tastes."
She laughed apologetically. "Sorry. It's just what I'm used to."
"No need to worry — it shows that you're a respectful person. Anyway, I hope I'm not bothering you. Or that you're not waiting for someone." He could just imagine how this situation would look to Hubert if he happened to run across them tonight. True, it'd be entertaining to see his reaction, but...
"Nah, I'm just here by myself." She gestured at the empty chair in front of her. "You can sit down."
"Thank you." Malik did just that, setting his drink on the table with a soft clink. "I must admit, I didn't peg you for the type to hang out in a place like this."
"Well, I like a lot of their non-alcoholic drinks. Plus, it's nice to be out late where there's people around. It makes the night feel less lonely."
Malik glanced at her sketchbook as she began doodling in it again. Up close, it was readily apparent that she had a knack for the skill. "I'm assuming you must be looking for subject matter, as well."
"That, too! There's lots of interesting people in Luceti, after all."
"I imagine you're not hurting for models then." He smirked. "Nevertheless, I am more than willing to offer my private modeling services to you, should you ever desire them."
Pao-Lin blinked at him. "Oh...thanks! That's nice of you to offer." She laughed. "I need more practice drawing older people anyway. Er, I mean, like adults and stuff! Not that you're...you know."
Wow. Not only did she completely miss the innuendo in his words, but she'd managed to work in a gibe about his age to boot. Not that Malik thought she'd done the latter on purpose. In addition to Pascal, Pao-Lin also rather reminded him of a certain student of his. So he really couldn't be truly offended by it, especially since she at least seemed contrite about her potential faux pas. And his age wasn't as big a deal to him as he liked to make it out to be, anyway. Most of the time. "You're certainly quite adept already. How long have you been drawing for?"
"Since I was a kid. But it wasn't until I came to Luceti that I had more time to do it."
"School must've been keeping you pretty busy, then."
She shook her head. "It was my job. I had to be out a lot, and whenever I came home I was usually really tired. Though my caretaker still made me do lessons and stuff."
"Working so young? What was your job?"
"I was a Hero with HeroTV. So...I helped arrest criminals and saved civilians along with other Heroes who had powers like me."
Malik tilted his head. Now this was intriguing. He wasn't exactly sure what the "HeroTV" part meant, but that wasn't really what had piqued his interest. "Someone with powers who arrests criminals and saves innocent people...do you mean to tell me that you were actually a 'superhero' back in your world?"
"Yeah, I guess, if that's the word you know. We're just called 'Heroes' in Sternbild, though."
"But you had a secret identity, right? And a costume to go with it?"
Pao-Lin nodded.
Hmm. "Does Hubert know?"
"Yeah. We've talked about it a lot before. Why?"
Aha — there was another piece of the puzzle. Amusing as it was, though, it was also a rather small piece in the whole context of things. Hubert wasn't shallow, despite his fixation on details. But something like this would have been enough to catch his initial interest, even if he denied it to Fodra and back. "Are you sure it's okay to discuss things like that so lightly? I thought superheroes were supposed to keep their identities secret."
Pao-Lin tapped her pencil to her cheek. "Yeah, but I don't think it matters in Luceti. HeroTV doesn't run here, and even if people from my world did find out, they wouldn't remember it if they got sent back to Sternbild. Plus, it's nice being able to talk about that kind of thing without having to worry about keeping my identity a secret."
"Makes sense. Keeping up a masquerade is tiring, after all. It must be easier to help people without having to maintain an alter ego."
"Definitely! I don't have to worry about earning points or making my sponsors happy, either. It's also good that a lot of other people here can fight, too. That means there's more people we can depend on if there's trouble."
"You're certainly a fine fighter yourself, judging from what I've seen of you in the Battle Dome."
"Ah — you've seen me there?"
"My apologies. I hope it wasn't too bold of me to admit that I've been peeping on you." The viewing are of the Battle Dome had become a favorite haunt of his as of late, perfect as it was for gauging the level and breadth of Luceti's reserve of combat talent.
"No, no, it's fine! I just didn't expect that, that's all. Though I guess I shouldn't be so surprised, since I watch people in the Battle Dome a lot too." She flipped her pencil around and furiously erased something in her sketchbook. "I try to see if there's anything I can learn from watching them."
"Are you self-taught, then?"
"A little bit. I started doing it 'cause I was watching kung fu movies and wanted to do the moves myself because they looked like fun. But then I almost broke my leg trying a flying kick, so my parents signed me up for lessons so I could do it right and not hurt myself. That was back in Hong Kong, though...I got too busy for lessons when I moved to Sternbild." Pao-Lin grinned proudly. "But I still keep up with training on my own! Otherwise I can't help people."
Malik chuckled with approval. "An excellent mindset to have. If only more students were like you."
"Oh, that's right, you're Asbel's teacher, aren't you? You're the one who taught him swordfighting." She reached out for another sip of her milkshake. "He must be really happy to have you in Luceti now, huh?"
"I suppose so." Asbel had been eager to get back into regular training with Malik, which made Malik happy despite the fact that he wasn't sure there was anything more he could teach him. "I've heard that you have your own student in Hubert — that you're teaching him your style."
Pao-Lin beamed. "Yep! He said he wasn't that good with fighting barehanded, so I said I'd teach him kung fu. He's learning really fast."
Malik threw her a sly glance as he downed the rest of his drink. "I imagine it's because you provide some excellent motivation for him."
She pouted a little in confusion. "Well...yeah, I hope so. I let him know when he's doing something right, and help him when he's doing something wrong. That's what teachers are supposed to do, right?"
"...right." Goodness, this girl really could rival Asbel for obliviousness. Malik set aside his drained glass before loosely folding his hands together on the table in front of him. "I have to say, I was pretty surprised to find that you two were dating."
Pao-Lin scratched the back of her neck sheepishly and simpered. "So you found out about that, huh."
"I did." He frowned as something occurred to him. "Was I not supposed to?" She hadn't even hinted at it in their first conversation, after all, even as she revealed that she was on friendly terms with the rest of the Ephineans.
"No, it's not that, it's just I didn't think I'd said...well, I guess someone in the house must have told you." She shrugged with a smile. "Hubert's shy about this whole thing, that's all. So I try not to talk too much about us unless someone asks."
Hubert, shy? Not exactly the first thing that came to mind when Malik thought of him. Though he'd certainly been bashful enough around Pascal. But that hardly counted: love could make a mushy puddle of even the most hardened warrior. "Does that bother you, having to keep things quiet?"
She thought for a moment. "Not a lot. I mean, it's not like he told me I had to or anything. It just seemed like something I should do for him, you know?"
Malik couldn't resist a wide grin at that. "You're a considerate girlfriend."
Headshake. "I just don't want him to feel bad."
"Of course not. How did you two meet, if I may ask?"
"Ah...well, for me, it was a few weeks after I came to Luceti. So that was..." Pao-Lin jotted down some hatchmarks in her sketchbook, counting. "Over a year and a half ago? Wow, I can't believe it's been so long. Anyway, I saw him training at the barracks, so I went over to ask him about his weapon. We sparred a little and then I think we went out to eat afterwards."
A corner of Malik's mouth quirked up. "A dinner date after only one conversation? Are you sure you weren't already going out then?"
That finally got a mild blush out of Pao-Lin. "N-no!" she insisted, waving her hands in front of her in defense. "I didn't like him like that at the time! It wasn't until the Valentine's Day experiment last year that I...well...thought of him like that."
"Valentine's Day experiment...that's the love experiment, correct?"
She nodded. "It made me and Hubert think we'd been dating for a few months already. Neither of us wanted to talk about it after the effects wore off." She slumped in her chair a little. "But I couldn't stop thinking about him afterwards."
"That's not surprising. It was an extreme change for you two. I'd be surprised if things weren't awkward for a little while after everything."
"I thought I'd get over it in like a week or something, though! But I was still weird about him a month later." She giggled softly. "Well, at least it all turned out okay in the end."
"I'd say so." The two had ended up together for real, after all, as astonishing as that fact was. "Still...do you mean to tell me that you had feelings for Hubert for over a year, and you're only dating him now?" Not that Malik hadn't seen this sort of glacial pace elsewhere or anything. But he'd been hoping it was an isolated incident.
Pao-Lin looked a bit ashamed. "I just didn't want to bother him, that's all," she mumbled. "I didn't think he'd ever think about me the way I thought about him. And then when I found out he liked Pascal, well...I didn't see the point of saying anything." She smiled, but this time it was tinged with melancholy. "Actually, I told him he should go out with her. But he said later that he confessed to her and she didn't like him back." She dropped her gaze. "That's probably the only reason he's going out with me now."
Malik furrowed his brows, surprised at the sudden spike of cynicism from someone previously so upbeat. "Well, now, I highly doubt that. Hubert's not that sort of person."
"I know, but sometimes I just..." Her sentence ended with a sigh. "Well, I guess he must think I'm okay at least, if he lets me talk with him and hug him and stuff."
Despite the grave turn of the conversation, Malik had to suppress a bit of a grin at the thought of someone as standoffish as Hubert letting someone cuddle him. It really must be love. On the other hand...was he really going to have to give Hubert another talk about paying more attention to his girlfriend? "If he's dating you, he should think you're far more than just 'okay'."
"I guess."
Hmm. The conversation had finally coughed up a piece of the Pascal portion of the puzzle, but Pao-Lin was clearly less than pleased by its appearance. Which was only to be expected, of course, but Malik had been hoping her chattiness would extend to this subject too. Well, that was fine. While he was fully at ease with gently teasing the girl (or attempting to, at least), he didn't want to truly upset her, which this particular turn of topic was threatening to do if he continued with it. This was likely something best discussed with the other half of this relationship, anyway. "Would you like me to get you a refill on your drink, by the way?"
Pao-Lin glanced over at the nearly-empty glass, then shook her head. "It's fine. I think it's almost bedtime for me." She simpered. "Sorry. I really enjoyed talking with you, though!"
Even after touching on such an uncomfortable subject? "The feeling's mutual," Malik responded. "I can walk you home, if you'd like."
She waved him off as she gathered up her things. "No, it's fine! You don't need to do that."
He grinned. "Oh, I know there's no need for it. But if you'd like to continue talking..."
"...oh!" She laughed. "That's fine, then."
After some minor clean-up, the two stepped out of Good Spirits and into the nocturnal spring air. Pao-Lin gave a slight shiver. "Ah, jeez, it wasn't this cold earlier," she muttered, clutching her sketchbook and pencil pouch closer to her as she attempted to wrap her arms around herself.
Cold? Malik thought it was rather warm, actually. Certainly this was summertime weather compared to what a typical Fendelian spring was like. "I'd give you my jacket, were I wearing one," he said. "As it is, I can only offer my shirt."
Pao-Lin shook her head. "I'll be fine! My apartment building isn't far from here." She pointed. "It's community housing seven — you can kinda see it from here."
Malik peered in the indicated direction. He made out the shadowy outlines of a tall building in the distance, with a few windows illuminated from within. "The proximity to the plaza must be convenient."
"Yep! That's why I decided to move there."
"Do you have any roommates?"
"No. I've lived by myself since I was brought to Luceti."
"Have you considered asking someone to live with you?"
A casual shrug. "Sometimes. But I like having my own place for once. And now all the other bedrooms have my stuff in them, so it'd be a hassle to have to move everything out for a roommate. Oh, but someone really wanted or needed to live with me, I'd definitely clean up and stuff!" she clarified. "But I like living on my own."
"What if Hubert asked to live with you? How would you feel about that?"
"I wouldn't mind it! But he hasn't asked and we've never talked about it. He comes over sometimes, though."
Malik arched an eyebrow. "Really, now. Should I ask why?"
Pao-Lin blinked up at him before tilting her head in a Sophie-esque manner. He was getting a lot of strange deja vu moments with this girl, it seemed. "To hang out. What else would we be doing?"
What else, indeed. "But you could 'hang out' elsewhere in the village, couldn't you?"
She giggled. "Well, yeah. He won't even let me hug him in public, though."
That nearly stopped Malik in his tracks. "What? Why not?"
"Um...he said that if I did things like that too often in public, I'd cheapen the deeper meaning and make people uncomfortable if they saw me doing it."
Malik clamped down on the urge to slap a palm to his face, though he couldn't stop a quiet sigh from escaping through his teeth. He really was going to have to talk to Hubert about this, wasn't he? It was one thing to prefer privacy, but actually mentioning that sort of reasoning for it out loud was worthy of at least a couple of angry words — words that likely never occurred to someone as innocently dense as Pao-Lin.
"Well, Hubert is a conservative person at heart, so it's understandable that he might be a little skittish about that sort of thing," he mused. "Still, this is a different world with different rules. He should loosen up a little."
Pao-Lin shook her head. "It's fine! I don't mind it, really. Sometimes I forget about it because I'm so happy to see him, but he doesn't, like, yell at me if I do. And we only talked about it once."
Malik found himself a bit surprised at hearing of Hubert's apparent lenience on the issue. Then he smiled, shook his head, and decided that maybe it wasn't as big a surprise as he thought. "Heh. I think you're a good influence on him."
"Huh?"
"Hubert's upbringing forced him to adopt a rather authoritarian approach to life, so he tends to sweat the little details a lot," said Malik. "But he seems to be more relaxed these days." Admittedly, that was like saying that one fire was a little less hot than another fire. It might technically be true, but both would still burn you. "I'm assuming that's due to your presence."
"You really think so...?"
"Sure. You're very easy to talk to, and if there's one thing Hubert needs more of, it's people he feels comfortable talking to about things."
Pao-Lin didn't seem convinced. "He doesn't talk to Asbel or Cheria?"
"He has...history with those two that complicates matters. Though it's getting better." Briefly, Malik wondered how much Pao-Lin knew of that history. "But sometimes an outside perspective is needed, as well."
She hunched her shoulders a little. "Well...I'm glad you think I'm helping him. Sometimes it feels like Hubert's always the one helping me, and I never do anything for him."
Malik hesitated before speaking his next words. "That's quite the thing to claim for someone who I heard gave her life for him a couple of months ago."
To his relief (and minor confusion), Pao-Lin just giggled. "Oh, yeah, that! Hubert was kinda mad with me for that one."
He frowned. "Whatever for?"
"He said I didn't have to do it because he'd been ready to dodge the attack that ended up killing me." She shrugged. "I actually don't remember too much about what really happened — it all went by so fast. I think I just saw him in trouble and ran in to make sure he'd be okay."
"That's honorable of you, but I'm not sure I approve of his reaction to your sacrifice..."
"Ah, don't be mad at him! I think he just felt bad because I ended up with a second death penalty just when I'd gotten my first one removed." Another shrug, accompanied with a carefree grin. "I guess I should've thought things through a little better, but...I'm okay with dying if it means I get to help someone, especially a friend."
Malik found himself torn between admiring her selflessness and being horrified that this wasn't even the first time she'd met her demise. She seemed so blithe about the matter of her dual deaths, too. But it was better than her being permanently shattered by the experience, he supposed. Malik started to ask about her first death, then thought better of it. It probably wasn't relevant to this particular investigation. "With that kind of thinking, I'm not surprised you're a superhero back home."
Pao-Lin shook her head. "It doesn't have anything to do with that. It's just the right thing to do."
"I rest my case."
Their conversation slipped into an amiable silence then, with Pao-Lin apparently not knowing how to respond to the compliment and Malik reflecting on what he'd learned so far. He was pleased to find no cause to doubt his initial positive impression of her as an individual, not that he'd really expected to find anything damning. As for being Hubert's girlfriend? Well, she was pretty solid there as well, he thought. Pao-Lin's spirited, honest nature complemented Hubert well, and it was plainly obvious she adored him and was willing to put up with him. Not that she seemed to consider it "putting up" with him, of course.
"Tell me something before you leave, if it's not too much trouble," Malik said as they stopped in front of the entrance of CH7. "What do you see in Hubert?"
A curious look. "What do I see in him...?"
"Yes. What is it that you like about him?"
Pao-Lin scratched lightly at her cheek. "Well, he's really nice, obviously. He's smart, too, a lot smarter than I am, and he knows about a lot of things so it's always interesting asking him about that stuff. And he's someone I can trust with almost anything."
"You don't find him, say, overbearing?"
"No, not at all!" Pause. "Well, I guess sometimes he's a little fussy. And I wish he'd smile more." She laughed. "Still, it's cool that he's so serious."
"Shy", "nice", and "cool". Malik was sure learning a lot of new things about the younger Lhant brother tonight. "You don't get bored with him for being so serious?"
"No way! I love talking to him. But I know he's kind of a quiet person, so it's fine if we don't talk, too. It's kinda relaxing, actually."
Was Pao-Lin even talking about the same Hubert he knew? "That's a good sign, I think," Malik said. "That you don't feel the need to keep up idle chatter with him. I imagine Hubert appreciates that about you as well."
She ducked her head bashfully, again rendered tongue-tied by a compliment. "Well, um, thanks for walking me home. It was nice talking to you, like I said."
"Again, the pleasure is all mine. And if Hubert ever gives you any trouble, just come to Uncle Malik about it and he'll fix things right up." Malik winked at her.
Pao-Lin burst out laughing at that. "Thanks, but I think we'll be fine! I'm sure we can just talk it out."
Oddly (or perhaps not so oddly), Malik found himself believing that, or at least believing it more than he might have before. He waved farewell to Pao-Lin, then turned and began to head back down the street to make for home. But he hadn't gotten more than twenty feet from the apartment building when he stopped.
"..."
He smirked.
"I don't think you have anything to worry about," Malik remarked, not turning his head. "I couldn't steal her from you if I tried."
Hubert stepped around the corner of a nearby house, his expression schooled and stern. "I was hardly worried about that," he said, striding smoothly from the grass and onto the cobblestone.
Malik did look over at him, then. "Oh? She rather enjoyed my company, you know. And judging from the fact that she's with you, she seems to have a preference for older men as well..."
"Captain, she is at least two decades your junior, that is not an appropriate relationship to be considering — "
"I'm kidding. Relax." Malik clapped a hand onto Hubert's back. "I just wanted to get to know her a little better. Since you refuse to bring her around the house."
Hubert glared sidelong as he fell into step beside Malik. "I shudder to think of the inanely invasive questions you would ask of her were I to do such a thing."
"I'm wounded to hear that you have so little faith in me. It'd be nothing terrible, I assure you. Just the same kinds of things you heard us talking about just now."
There was the barest bit of hesitation before Hubert responded. "I don't know why you're assuming I'd know what those things were, considering I've just returned from my mission."
"Right, of course. How was that, by the way?"
A dismissive wave of his hand. "Tedious and unproductive. I was tasked with sorting information relating to the history of a world called Weyard. I admit that it was, on its own, somewhat fascinating, but in terms of its usefulness in helping us find a way out of Luceti? Worthless. My movement was carefully monitored, as well. There was no way to do even the most cursory of explorations, and not much opportunity to talk to any other people within the facility I was in. I had better things to be doing with my time than playing backroom archivist for our captors."
"Like visiting Pao-Lin at her apartment, I imagine."
Hubert blanched. "Did she really — " He heaved a deep sigh. "Never mind. This is exactly as I feared! You're taking advantage of her trusting nature merely to satisfy your own puerile curiosity!"
"Now, now, she volunteered that information entirely of her own will. I'm surprised, Hubert. I thought you paid better attention to conversations than that."
"Once again, I don't know why you're assuming I'd know what you and Pao-Lin discussed tonight." He folded his arms. "I was on my way back to the house when I saw you two heading towards CH7. I figured that since our paths would cross sooner or later, it would be simpler to meet up with you once you were finished with your business."
"How very kind of you," Malik droned. "I don't know what I would have done if I had to walk home all by myself. Really, I'd expect for you to be more concerned about Pao-Lin. You could've let her know you'd returned safely from your mission."
"She was clearly retiring for the night. There was no need to disrupt that."
"I don't think she would have thought of it as a disruption at all. I think she would've been happy to have someone she cares about checking in with her."
Hubert's neutral expression faltered slightly. "Well...what's done is done. There'll be time and opportunity enough to talk to her later. How did you even end up talking to her tonight, anyway?"
Malik shrugged, but he was grinning. "I just couldn't leave a lovely lady like herself alone at the bar tonight, that's all."
"Yes. You could have." Hubert huffed, adjusting his glasses. "But I suppose this was as good a chance as any for you to poke your nose where it doesn't belong. I hope you're satisfied with what you've found."
"More or less. Pao-Lin's a nice girl; I like her a lot. She'll give you less heart attacks than Pascal, that's for sure."
"Hm. I'm surprised to hear you speak of Pascal that way, considering that you seemed to approve of my pursuit of her."
"Your pursuit of her, yes. Not necessarily Pascal herself."
Hubert gave Malik a quizzical look. "I...don't understand the distinction."
"Well..." Malik chuckled. "Let's just say that I didn't actually expect anything to come of you and her."
The quizzical look mutated into a glare. "You knew from the start that it would be a fruitless endeavor, yet you encouraged me to go on it?!"
He waved Hubert off. "I didn't know, per se. Miracles happen, after all. But — and you'll have to pardon the cliche — it's not the destination that matters so much as the journey. Love is like that, especially. Even if you don't end up with the person you think you want to be with, you learn things about yourself and about the world along the way. Besides, even if I had discouraged you from going after Pascal, would you have listened to me?"
"...the honest warning would have been appreciated."
"I did warn you, didn't I? Taming stray cats and all."
"Tch — sugarcoated with false promises. Hardly worthwhile."
"You yourself just essentially admitted you would've ignored the bitter truth at the time. But things seem to have turned out fine in the end, at least. You've certainly tamed a different sort of stray cat with Pao-Lin."
Hubert turned his head slightly, as if to hide a blush. "It was through no intention of my own, I can assure you."
"I wouldn't be judging you if it had." Though he would have been quite surprised to hear of it. "She mentioned that you were both caught in a love experiment here."
"Oh, yes. That thing." Hubert's voice dripped with disdain. "A week of laboring under the delusion that we were dating, despite the fact that we were only friends at the time and had at no time prior ever remotely considered romantic possibilities."
"But afterwards?"
"..." Hubert let out a breath, his eyes fixed on the path ahead. "The feelings...remained, though in a much more muted and muddled form. Not that I ever mentioned that to Pao-Lin." He snorted softly. "I certainly didn't expect similar consequences to befall her. She didn't strike me as the type to fixate on that sort of thing, and in the time following the experiment I didn't pick up on any signs that that particular trait of hers had changed. In retrospect, perhaps it was precisely because I didn't expect it that I didn't notice anything. As well, Pascal's presence was...distracting."
Malik nodded. "Understandable, on all counts. I'm curious as to what led you to actually start dating Pao-Lin, though."
"Isn't it obvious? Pascal rejected me."
"So I've heard. But it's one thing to be rejected by someone you're interested in, and another thing to actually start a relationship with someone else as a result." Malik narrowed his eyes a little at Hubert. "Unless you really do mean to tell me that the only reason you're going out with a girl is just to make yourself feel better about not getting your first choice."
"Do you take me for some sort of knave?" Hubert snapped, glaring at Malik. "Of course I wouldn't have accepted Pao-Lin's advances if I didn't care for her!" But his indignant fury fizzled out almost as fast as it had flared up, as something seemed to occur to him. "Though Pascal's rejection certainly made my choice much easier, as cowardly as that may be to say."
"There's nothing cowardly about choosing to walk through an open door after another one has just slammed shut." Pause. "I don't suppose you'd be willing to tell me who confessed to whom first."
"...Pao-Lin did." Hubert grimaced. "But I admit I may have...forced it from her."
Malik narrowed his eyes again. That didn't sound promising. "'Forced' it?"
"Once I finally noticed her strange behavior regarding me, I confronted her about it, which resulted in her admitting her feelings for me. Consequently, I decided it was time to talk to Pascal properly about my feelings for her. I'd been putting it off, but in light of things, I thought I owed it to Pao-Lin to clarify the situation once and for all."
"Heh. Sounds to me you'd already made your decision even before confessing to Pascal."
"What?"
"The only reason you decided to confess to Pascal was because you thought you 'owed' it to another girl? Somehow your priorities seem a little strange, there. At the very least, it suggests to me that your heart was not as set on Pascal as you thought it was. If it were, you would have turned down Pao-Lin outright. Unless you did turn her down the first time, and went back on it later?"
Hubert shook his head. "No, you're right. I didn't mention anything of my own feelings at the time. I was waiting to see Pascal's reaction. In truth, however...I think even then I knew she was a lost cause. It was only a matter of confirming it."
A quiet satisfaction hummed through Malik as he listened to Hubert talk through his thoughts, far more openly than he was used to. Seeing a young person grow and change like this was one of the things he liked about teaching. Hubert wasn't technically his student, of course, but Malik had mentally adopted him as one, feeling an obligation as a passably decent human being to at least try to compensate for seven years of Garrett Oswell's tutelage. But whether Hubert's epiphanies were the result of Malik's attempts at guiding him were unclear, particularly since Malik hadn't even been in Luceti when all of this had been happening. It didn't matter to him, in the end: it was gratifying regardless to see some of the damage being undone. In fact, it was arguable that it was even more amazing to see that change born from Hubert's own inner reserves of strength and agency.
"Say that Pascal had returned your feelings," he said. "Would you still have chosen to go with Pao-Lin?"
Hubert's mouth thinned into an uncomfortable line. "I honestly don't know," he murmured. "I wasn't even thinking in those terms then. I just..." A sigh. "She'd been so unhappy, when she confessed. I didn't want to see her unhappy anymore." He glanced at Malik then, the glint of an overhead street lamp temporarily masking the sudden uncertainty in his eyes.
For a moment, Malik was thrown by both the look and the sense of familiarity that it engendered. Then he recognized it: it was similar to how Asbel regarded him whenever he wanted Malik's opinion on something. Wanted to know that Malik approved.
Instead, Malik asked: "And you thought that confessing to the other girl involved would have fixed that?"
"It would have provided closure, whatever the outcome." Hubert closed his eyes briefly. "Pao-Lin is strong and resilient. She would certainly have been upset if I'd turned her down, but she herself said that she'd expected precisely that decision from me. She'd clearly prepared herself emotionally for an unfavorable resolution, and thus I have no doubt that she would have recovered if things had turned out differently than they did. Which is not to say that I would have felt any less regretful about rejecting her if it had come to that," he hastily added.
"Of course not. She was your friend either way. You'd feel bad about disappointing her."
Hubert nodded. And then — faint and brief, like the glimmer of a distant star — he actually smiled. "...I'm glad I didn't have to."
Malik, too, allowed himself the luxury of a full grin now. He patted Hubert's shoulder. "You should let her know that."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, she expressed to me a rather alarming level of ambivalence regarding your opinion of her. It seems she suspects that you are, in fact, only dating her simply because you were rejected by Pascal."
Hubert hissed a sigh. "I thought I told her to stop with that nonsense! I specifically spelled out her positive qualities when we agreed to this arrangement." He shook his head in wonder. "It baffles me how a — how someone like her can think so little of herself."
"It's just one of many strange things that love does to people. You could be happy as a clam with yourself beforehand, but once you fall in love, you suddenly worry about every possible way you fall short of deserving the person you desire. And that goes even for a confident, independent girl like Pao-Lin." Malik gestured. "Perhaps if you showed a little appreciation for her every now and again..."
"I sincerely hope you're not going to suggest I get her candy and flowers every week or some such tripe like that."
"Nothing so dramatic. I'm just saying that it might not, in fact, kill you to smile at her at least once a month. That's all."
Hubert frowned, but the edge was dulled with contrition. "...I'll see to the matter soon enough." His usual austere mask was back in place when he eyed Malik again, adjusting his glasses. "Anyway, that should be enough for you to chew on for the next century or so. Hopefully you won't feel the need to bother me about this topic any longer. I've certainly told you far more than you deserved to know."
"Maybe. But I thank you for your honesty." A laugh. "It's provided me with a good night of entertainment."
Hubert's indignance was on the verge of incandescence. "I don't appreciate the thought of my personal travails being the subject of your amusement, you know! Perhaps you should look into remedying the lack of romance in your own life here in Luceti. Certainly there's enough downtime to spend on such things."
Malik smirked. "How do you know I haven't already done that?"
Hubert grimaced. "On second thought, please don't inform me of your affairs. Merely stay out of mine."
"Fair enough." Yet Malik couldn't resist adding: "But only if you bring Pao-Lin home sometime for dinner with her future family."
"We are done discussing this!"
Icon not exactly appropriate. XD
His interactions with Pao-Lin were so sweet, though...questionable comments aside. He would totally make the best surrogate father figure for her as well as the rest of Graces House. And it looks as though he needs to be there to make sure Hubert stays in line, because honestly, dude. What even.
It was fun to see him pull apart the relationship in an attempt to understand what it is, why it is, and how it came to be. It must have been a lot of fun analyzing your own OTP. XD
It was also sweet to see him looking after Hubert, too. The kid really needs help, and despite his own relationship problems, Malik is definitely the steadiest person from Ephinea to provide them.
...And, of course, Malik trolling Hubert is always amazing. Older men, indeed. XD And of course you just happened to be in the area, Hubert, and of course you're too polite to interrupt. Of course.
But yes! I really loved this one (not that I don't always love what you write), so I wouldn't be completely heartbroken if you decided to write more along these lines. Yup.
♥♥♥
EDIT: ...I hit post comment and "Mamoritai" from the OP starts playing. Nice timing, WMP!
Well, Hubert IS halfway to being a girl anyway, so...
NEGL, writing him here made me wonder if I should pick him up as a muse and app him to Luceti. Fortunately, laziness (and my desire for ALL THE GRACES CR, KTHNX) kicked that idea to the curb. XD But oh man, he is so much fun to write and a refreshing change of pace. (A troll-team-up with him and Richard? Lethal.) Pao-Lin really does play off him well, doesn't she? Actually, it seems she plays well off practically all of the Graces cast. That just might be a side effect of her being so outgoing and friendly, though. :|a...
Yeah, having to analyze this ship from an newbie outsider's perspective was...kinda tricky. XD I got a little self-conscious because I didn't want it to just be "yes obviously Pao-Lin is the only girl for Hubert, this are a fact, do not argue!!!11", so I really tried to look at things from a fresher viewpoint. I also did my best to work in stuff that shed a little light on the relationship between Malik and Hubert, because that's really compelling to me as well. Obviously Malik clearly exasperates Hubert, but...he's also the closest thing Hubert's had to a reasonable adult male role model/confidante in his life, so I think unconsciously Hubert gravitates towards that (and it helps that Malik was Asbel's teacher and thus has been sort of "vetted" in that regard). As for Malik, he likely feels pretty bad for the kid (as mentioned in the fic) and he might also be feeling the teacher's version of "empty nest syndrome" with the way that Asbel has grown and developed, so someone as messed up as Hubert would certainly be a good candidate for his next protege project, lmao. OH, HUBERT, IF YOU ONLY KNEW.
...right, yes, I was talking about Malik trying to make sense of Pao-Lin/Hubert. Some of his thoughts on the ship are also some of mine, I HOPE THAT WASN'T TOO BLATANTLY OBVIOUS, LMFAO. orz;;
Ummmm something something la la la. I have not slept from when I talked to you last night. o_o;; BUT THIS REVIEW HAS MADE ME ALL THE HAPPY.
So really this fic is lesbians?
XD I just bet it was hard to be at least somewhat objective about your ship. Lord knows I'd find it a challenge, too. But yeah, I would definitely love to see more of this mentoring thing between Malik and Hubert in your future fics. /hint hint
Also dude, I hope you got more sleep last night. Glad to make you all the happy, though! ♥