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teamflareTitle: We Double Down, We Do Not Fade
Fandom: Pokémon X&Y
Pairing: Professor Augustine Sycamore/Lysandre
Rating: G
Summary: "Lysandre, the second she looks at us she's going to figure it out."
Notes: Written for Writer's Month, for the prompt: comfort. Title from All Comes Crashing by Metric. Part 5 of the Bodyswap Saga.
AO3 Link: Here.
It was becoming increasingly difficult to explain why Augustine – or, as it stood, who everyone else thought was Augustine – couldn't come back to the lab in the foreseeable future. He'd tried getting a hold of Professor Oak, coaching Lysandre on what to say, hoping maybe he could get them in contact with Bill by citing that they had an emergency to deal with, but he'd told them that Bill was very particular about being left alone when vacationing.
As a last-ditch effort, Lysandre had attempted to use some of his old contacts from the tech world to get to Cassius, and even he had admitted that no one could talk to Bill while he was away like this. When he'd tried to ask Augustine what, exactly, he needed help with – in a tone that made it clear he expected a shady answer – Augustine had replied that it was none of his business, and hung up.
That was two days ago, two weeks after the whole fiasco had happened. They'd gone back to the lab twice, Lysandre making a passable impression of Augustine, so they could inspect the musharna again, but short of trying to wake her up – which seemed like it could invite worse consequences than the mess they already were in – there wasn't much more they could do. Lysandre had even tried to use Pyrrhus as a conduit to get her to tell him what she'd done to them, to no avail.
They were once again sitting in Augustine's living room – Lysandre at the table, Augustine on the couch – when the intercom rang, signifying that someone was buzzing for the door to be opened. Augustine glanced at Lysandre, who glanced back, his face very pale, and stood up to go and press the button that allowed their visitor to introduce themself.
Lysandre cleared his throat. "Yes? Hello?"
"Augustine, are you alright?" Diantha's voice crackled through the intercom. Lysandre grew two tones paler if such a thing were possible. "Sina called me because she was worried about you, said something about how you keep making up excuses not to come to the lab and that you're acting strange..." She waited for an answer, and when none came, she added, "Augustine, is Lysandre preventing you from going out?"
Augustine jumped from the couch, forgetting for a second that he was in the wrong body and nearly tripping over the coffee table. Lysandre pressed his lips together before answering, "Of course not. I'm buzzing you in."
With that, he hit the button that allowed the front door to open. Augustine gaped at him, his arms halfway up in the air, struggling to come up with words.
"What the fuck are we going to say to her?" he settled on. The novelty of hearing Lysandre's voice say the words hadn't worn off yet, though for once he wasn't in the mood to see the humor in it. "Lysandre, the second she looks at us she's going to figure it out."
"Then we let her," Lysandre grumbled. He walked past Augustine, to sit where he'd been a few minutes prior. "We can't keep this up. We need someone else to know and help."
"Great," Augustine gritted out. He ran his fingers through his hair, finding it much less satisfying than usual. "She's totally going to think we've had sex, just so you know."
Lysandre narrowed his eyes. "We haven't had sex."
"Well, we got pretty close," Augustine said, but before he could go on there was a knock on the door.
Seeing as Lysandre wasn't moving, Augustine walked up to the door to unlock and open it. Diantha's expression closed off as soon as their eyes met; he still hadn't gotten used to the way people behaved around him now that he was in Lysandre's body.
"Lysandre," she said, colder than a froslass' deadly embrace. "Good to see you."
Augustine smiled at her and she frowned, visibly perturbed. Looking down at her like this was kind of strange, but his new height was something he was starting to get more comfortable with, at least.
"Good to see you too!" he replied as cheerfully as Lysandre's voice could attain. She blinked. "Come on in."
Her confusion only seemed to worsen upon noticing Lysandre – who she thought was Augustine – sitting on the couch. He didn't try to smile at her or smooth his expression into something closer to what she would expect, instead staying exactly as he was, sitting very straight with his hands on his knees.
"Alright," she said, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "What's going on?"
"We thought you could try and guess," Augustine said, entertained by her reactions to the way he was acting as Lysandre. He kept smiling at her, his expression fully relaxed – after two weeks, he'd managed to wrestle with Lysandre's constantly tense state – and held up his arms as if inviting her investigation. "You should see the look on your face right now, it's really funny."
She frowned at him, her lips twitching. "Augustine?" she asked, unsure, glancing toward Lysandre.
"You're addressing the wrong man, I'm afraid," Lysandre said from the couch. She snapped back toward Augustine.
"What did you do?"
It was hard to tell whether she was more baffled or angry, though Augustine thought there wasn't anything to be angry about: it wasn't as if they'd done this on purpose.
"Sina brought a musharna to the lab," he started, rubbing the back of his neck. "She woke up somehow and knocked me out. When I came back to my senses we were in this situation."
Lysandre finally decided it was time for him to get up and join them. He kept his hands behind his back, looking particularly somber, which made Augustine's face especially frightening. He'd given up on shaving again after attempting it once, and as the days went by, Augustine was starting to think that maybe he should let his facial hair grow more. It made him look a lot less innocuous – though maybe that was just because Lysandre was in his body.
"I imagine this might be difficult to believe," Lysandre began, but she held up her hand in his direction without uncrossing her arms.
"I don't think you could play each other's role that well for a prank," she said, her eyes drifting back and forth between them. "Especially you, Lysandre, no offense."
He smiled at her, causing her to instantly avert her gaze. "None taken."
She let them lead her to the kitchen, where they could all sit at the table and Lysandre could busy his hands by making them coffee with Augustine's half-functioning coffee machine. He'd gotten better at using his new body, after a while – though he still dropped plates more often than not, and so had delegated all table duties to Augustine for now – and so his hands didn't shake much when he brought the cups to where the other two were sitting in somewhat tense silence.
"So," Diantha said after taking a sip. She chewed on her bottom lip.
Augustine shot Lysandre a look, but he was staring down at his coffee cup, stirring it lightly. "We've been researching solutions for the last two weeks. We can't get a hold of Bill–"
"Bill? The kantonian researcher?" Diantha quirked one eyebrow at him.
"He's been involved in an accident in the past, switching bodies with a pokémon," Lysandre said. "Although his circumstances had to do with teleportation, I believe, so we're unsure how much of a help he could be in our situation. I've also been looking up discussions regarding such a thing happening in the past online, with very few results."
Diantha's gaze once again flickered between the both of them. "I could try looking into it. I don't know if I'd find anything, but–"
"Honestly," Augustine sighed over his cup, "just you knowing what's going on is already comforting. Makes me feel like this is really happening and not just..." He gestured vaguely with his arms. "Some kind of weird, nonsensical nightmare."
"It is some kind of weird, nonsensical nightmare," Lysandre protested, putting his empty cup back down.
They exchanged a look while Diantha, too, finished drinking what was left of her coffee.
"I'm sure it's not all bad," she said once she was done. "You're really getting to know each other. In very many ways, I imagine," she added with a hint of a smirk on her lips.
Lysandre groaned, burying his face in his hands, at the exact moment as Augustine burst into laughter.
Fandom: Pokémon X&Y
Pairing: Professor Augustine Sycamore/Lysandre
Rating: G
Summary: "Lysandre, the second she looks at us she's going to figure it out."
Notes: Written for Writer's Month, for the prompt: comfort. Title from All Comes Crashing by Metric. Part 5 of the Bodyswap Saga.
AO3 Link: Here.
Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5 / Part 6
It was becoming increasingly difficult to explain why Augustine – or, as it stood, who everyone else thought was Augustine – couldn't come back to the lab in the foreseeable future. He'd tried getting a hold of Professor Oak, coaching Lysandre on what to say, hoping maybe he could get them in contact with Bill by citing that they had an emergency to deal with, but he'd told them that Bill was very particular about being left alone when vacationing.
As a last-ditch effort, Lysandre had attempted to use some of his old contacts from the tech world to get to Cassius, and even he had admitted that no one could talk to Bill while he was away like this. When he'd tried to ask Augustine what, exactly, he needed help with – in a tone that made it clear he expected a shady answer – Augustine had replied that it was none of his business, and hung up.
That was two days ago, two weeks after the whole fiasco had happened. They'd gone back to the lab twice, Lysandre making a passable impression of Augustine, so they could inspect the musharna again, but short of trying to wake her up – which seemed like it could invite worse consequences than the mess they already were in – there wasn't much more they could do. Lysandre had even tried to use Pyrrhus as a conduit to get her to tell him what she'd done to them, to no avail.
They were once again sitting in Augustine's living room – Lysandre at the table, Augustine on the couch – when the intercom rang, signifying that someone was buzzing for the door to be opened. Augustine glanced at Lysandre, who glanced back, his face very pale, and stood up to go and press the button that allowed their visitor to introduce themself.
Lysandre cleared his throat. "Yes? Hello?"
"Augustine, are you alright?" Diantha's voice crackled through the intercom. Lysandre grew two tones paler if such a thing were possible. "Sina called me because she was worried about you, said something about how you keep making up excuses not to come to the lab and that you're acting strange..." She waited for an answer, and when none came, she added, "Augustine, is Lysandre preventing you from going out?"
Augustine jumped from the couch, forgetting for a second that he was in the wrong body and nearly tripping over the coffee table. Lysandre pressed his lips together before answering, "Of course not. I'm buzzing you in."
With that, he hit the button that allowed the front door to open. Augustine gaped at him, his arms halfway up in the air, struggling to come up with words.
"What the fuck are we going to say to her?" he settled on. The novelty of hearing Lysandre's voice say the words hadn't worn off yet, though for once he wasn't in the mood to see the humor in it. "Lysandre, the second she looks at us she's going to figure it out."
"Then we let her," Lysandre grumbled. He walked past Augustine, to sit where he'd been a few minutes prior. "We can't keep this up. We need someone else to know and help."
"Great," Augustine gritted out. He ran his fingers through his hair, finding it much less satisfying than usual. "She's totally going to think we've had sex, just so you know."
Lysandre narrowed his eyes. "We haven't had sex."
"Well, we got pretty close," Augustine said, but before he could go on there was a knock on the door.
Seeing as Lysandre wasn't moving, Augustine walked up to the door to unlock and open it. Diantha's expression closed off as soon as their eyes met; he still hadn't gotten used to the way people behaved around him now that he was in Lysandre's body.
"Lysandre," she said, colder than a froslass' deadly embrace. "Good to see you."
Augustine smiled at her and she frowned, visibly perturbed. Looking down at her like this was kind of strange, but his new height was something he was starting to get more comfortable with, at least.
"Good to see you too!" he replied as cheerfully as Lysandre's voice could attain. She blinked. "Come on in."
Her confusion only seemed to worsen upon noticing Lysandre – who she thought was Augustine – sitting on the couch. He didn't try to smile at her or smooth his expression into something closer to what she would expect, instead staying exactly as he was, sitting very straight with his hands on his knees.
"Alright," she said, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "What's going on?"
"We thought you could try and guess," Augustine said, entertained by her reactions to the way he was acting as Lysandre. He kept smiling at her, his expression fully relaxed – after two weeks, he'd managed to wrestle with Lysandre's constantly tense state – and held up his arms as if inviting her investigation. "You should see the look on your face right now, it's really funny."
She frowned at him, her lips twitching. "Augustine?" she asked, unsure, glancing toward Lysandre.
"You're addressing the wrong man, I'm afraid," Lysandre said from the couch. She snapped back toward Augustine.
"What did you do?"
It was hard to tell whether she was more baffled or angry, though Augustine thought there wasn't anything to be angry about: it wasn't as if they'd done this on purpose.
"Sina brought a musharna to the lab," he started, rubbing the back of his neck. "She woke up somehow and knocked me out. When I came back to my senses we were in this situation."
Lysandre finally decided it was time for him to get up and join them. He kept his hands behind his back, looking particularly somber, which made Augustine's face especially frightening. He'd given up on shaving again after attempting it once, and as the days went by, Augustine was starting to think that maybe he should let his facial hair grow more. It made him look a lot less innocuous – though maybe that was just because Lysandre was in his body.
"I imagine this might be difficult to believe," Lysandre began, but she held up her hand in his direction without uncrossing her arms.
"I don't think you could play each other's role that well for a prank," she said, her eyes drifting back and forth between them. "Especially you, Lysandre, no offense."
He smiled at her, causing her to instantly avert her gaze. "None taken."
She let them lead her to the kitchen, where they could all sit at the table and Lysandre could busy his hands by making them coffee with Augustine's half-functioning coffee machine. He'd gotten better at using his new body, after a while – though he still dropped plates more often than not, and so had delegated all table duties to Augustine for now – and so his hands didn't shake much when he brought the cups to where the other two were sitting in somewhat tense silence.
"So," Diantha said after taking a sip. She chewed on her bottom lip.
Augustine shot Lysandre a look, but he was staring down at his coffee cup, stirring it lightly. "We've been researching solutions for the last two weeks. We can't get a hold of Bill–"
"Bill? The kantonian researcher?" Diantha quirked one eyebrow at him.
"He's been involved in an accident in the past, switching bodies with a pokémon," Lysandre said. "Although his circumstances had to do with teleportation, I believe, so we're unsure how much of a help he could be in our situation. I've also been looking up discussions regarding such a thing happening in the past online, with very few results."
Diantha's gaze once again flickered between the both of them. "I could try looking into it. I don't know if I'd find anything, but–"
"Honestly," Augustine sighed over his cup, "just you knowing what's going on is already comforting. Makes me feel like this is really happening and not just..." He gestured vaguely with his arms. "Some kind of weird, nonsensical nightmare."
"It is some kind of weird, nonsensical nightmare," Lysandre protested, putting his empty cup back down.
They exchanged a look while Diantha, too, finished drinking what was left of her coffee.
"I'm sure it's not all bad," she said once she was done. "You're really getting to know each other. In very many ways, I imagine," she added with a hint of a smirk on her lips.
Lysandre groaned, burying his face in his hands, at the exact moment as Augustine burst into laughter.