LarryKabu fic: [Middle-aged Man] edged closer!

The first scar Larry saw was on Kabu's right arm.

Up until that point, Larry had only seen him in his athletic wear, his powerful forearms shielded behind sheer black fabric. It hadn't occurred to him to ever wonder about what Kabu's clothes hid, or to suspect that they were hiding anything at all. He didn't spend a lot of time pondering other people's sartorial choices - it wasn't any of his business, and it certainly wasn't one of his interests.

It caught him a little off-guard when it came up when he asked Kabu to dinner at a new place he'd found.

"I'll have to find something nicer to wear," Kabu said to him with one of those warm laughs of his. Kabu always seemed to be laughing around him, although thankfully never at him. Larry got enough teasing from Rika as it was.

Larry waited outside of Kabu's hotel room door that night, right on time, and when Kabu came out, he blinked several times. He was wearing tan slacks and a red polo shirt, as ordinary as could be, with a little Centiskorch emblem over his heart. Larry would have assumed that something so plain and simple would have looked wrong on someone so fiery and bright, but... it didn't. It fit him rather well.

That wasn't what really caught his attention though. It was the slightly lighter blotch across the skin of his right arm. Kabu seemed to catch him staring, and he laughed gently again as he held his arm out to give Larry a better look.

"It's a burn," he said with an easy smile. "When you train fire Pokemon, you're bound to get a few. I'm sure you have some scars of your own, don't you?"

Larry nodded. "Everyone does."

Kabu laughed, a short one with his mouth closed. "I don't know about everyone! But trainers our age... well. I think it'd be stranger not to have any."

Larry nodded again. "Probably."

"You'll have to show me yours someday," Kabu said, with something like a smirk, and Larry's heart picked up just a little.

"They're not interesting," Larry managed to get out as they began walking together. He felt just the tiniest bit flustered at the thought of Kabu looking at him.

"Every scar is interesting!" Kabu, of course, seemed unbothered. "They all have their own stories! And I'm sure yours do as well."

"Mm..." Larry was sure that his were not interesting at all, but he didn't feel inclined to disagree. Kabu was often interested in things about him that were, by all accounts, very boring and normal. It was something that often puzzled him, and that he kind of liked it only puzzled him further.

If they'd been closer in height, Kabu might have patted his shoulder. Instead, he patted Larry's upper arm. It was such a casual, familiar gesture. Nothing unusual here, just two middle-aged trainers talking and walking together, like it had always been like this.

It really wasn't a mystery why he'd been so drawn to him. Larry had a good sense for grooves, and just as natural a tendency to fall into one. There was one beside Kabu that felt like it was made for him. He just fit alongside him, and Kabu seemed just as happy with it.

Other grooves he'd fallen into, people kept trying to push him out of them. His attitude, his hobbies, his habits, his preferred Pokemon types... someone was always pushing or prodding him, forcing him out of his comfortable places to do some thing or another. At least he got paid for it, and he had to grudgingly admit that sometimes it did give him a new perspective that made him appreciate his groove all the more when he returned to it.

Kabu didn't push or question. He understood, like he was the other wheel of an axle. Larry didn't know it was possible to fall into a relationship that felt so natural with someone so easily. In that way, it was disappointing that it took this long for him to find someone he just clicked with.

That Kabu settled in next to him so easily, in spite of how passionate and determined he was... it still didn't entirely make sense to him, but did it have to?

He liked it. It was nice here.

The next scar he saw was yet another he didn't expect, the fact that Kabu had scars having already faded into the back of his mind. They were walking together along the edge of town at sunset, chatting idly about their Pokemon and admiring the view. Pasio really was a beautiful place, when he had the spare time to appreciate it. La Primera ran him ragged, but with Kabu as his friend now, he had a good reason to push back. She, strangely enough, didn't seem to mind.

"Oh, Larry!" Kabu stopped, looking to one side off the path. A patch of yellow flowers stood out against the wild grass, cast in a beautiful orange hue by the fading light. "Look at these!"

Larry had never been much for admiring flowers, but then again, he'd never had much reason to. Kabu was interested though, and as such, Larry was interested. Kabu ventured off the path to investigate and Larry followed dutifully behind.

"You have an Oricorio, right?" Kabu squatted down on his heels to take a closer look. "A yellow one? Don't they drink nectar from flowers like these?"

Squatting down hitched up Kabu's shorts past his thighs, closer to his waist, and it revealed more of his legs than Larry had expected. He knew he shouldn't stare, but his eyes were fixed again on another lighter blotch against his skin. It was uneven - it reminded him a little of a flame.

He tried to regain his train of thought. "They do, yes." Larry cleared his throat. "They can change form depending on the color of the flowers."

"I heard about that." Kabu looked up at him from where he was crouching, his legs still so awkwardly exposed. He looked interested and also entirely innocent of what he was showing him. Larry had no idea what to say about it or how to bring it up. Just wait until he stands up on his own. Stop staring. "They change type too, right? Have you ever changed yours?"

He shook his head. "No, I like her the way she is. She likes it that way too."

Kabu laughed, that one he loved so much that came with that lopsided smile that went up to his eyes. "Just like I thought! It's important to listen to what the Pokemon want too."

"It is." Larry nodded, and he still couldn't take his eyes of Kabu's impressive thighs and the scar marking its way across one. At a loss for what to do, he held out his hand to help him up. "I always try to listen."

"Pokemon are great companions, aren't they?" Kabu was still smiling, and he thankfully took Larry's hand and let him help him up. His weight pulled him down just a little. "They're always there for you."

Kabu had a way of putting words to things that Larry found hard to explain. His Pokemon were some of his only friends, actually. People always wanted things from him, they always expected more from him. He and his Pokemon, though, they understood each other. They trained at their own pace, in their own way, and they had no issue with having a picnic with him and doing nothing for a day while he tried to catch up on work. They'd nudge him into bed when he was tired, keep him warm when he was cold, curl up with him when he was lonely. They were always there for him.

As always, Kabu understood.

"They are," Larry said, with perhaps a little more warmth than he intended, and Kabu gave him a fond look in return. They set out on their way again, and Larry never did find a way to bring up the scar he'd seen.

Sometimes things progressed faster than he expected, or maybe it was that his pace was naturally slow. Either way, when Kabu invited him to the hot springs for the first time, he knew that if there was anything left to hide, it'd come out now.

Larry was looking forward to the relaxing and healing properties of the springs, and from Kabu's glowing description they sounded very nice, but still he felt a little uneasy as the day finally came. He hadn't really seen Kabu in a state of undress before, which left him feeling a tiny bit jittery, but also Kabu hadn't seen him in a state of undress before, and Larry found himself uncharacteristically dwelling on it.

Kabu was in amazing shape - even without seeing all of him, it was obvious how powerful and toned his body was. Larry was just an office worker. He had nothing impressive to show. Kabu would probably say something about how they just led different lives and that was okay, but Larry couldn't quiet his thoughts down. That tiny nibbling doubt that maybe Kabu would be a little disappointed at how he looked wouldn't leave him, and he didn't want to examine exactly why. With anyone else, he wouldn't have thought twice. Who cared what they thought about him? The only person's opinion that mattered was his own.

But this was Kabu. It was different. And this, he wasn't entirely sure he liked.

Larry hesitated just out of view of the spring, Kabu of course having gone ahead. This wasn't the kind of thing he cared about, and it wasn't something he should care about, but still, he hesitated. Kabu was going to see him, and he wasn't going to care, so what was holding him like this?

"Oh, this is wonderful," Kabu said, loose and breathy, just out of sight. "Larry, you have to come in. You won't believe how good it feels."

He was being silly. Larry shook his head and took those steps out into proper view. Even somewhat hidden below the shifting surface of the water, Kabu looked much like he'd imagined; in incredible shape for someone his age, and more notably, Larry could see another scar or two running across his chest. Before he could chide himself for staring, Kabu beckoned to him with that warm smile of his, and most other thoughts flitted out of his head.

No comment on his body, no judgment just as he thought. Kabu's unspoken acceptance again soothed the unease in his heart, and he eased into the water next to him and took a deep breath. The warmth of it started to soak through his skin as he tried to clear his head and relax.

"What do you think?"

"It's nice..." Larry leaned his head back with his eyes closed, trying to let go of the tension in his body and not focus on picturing Kabu's body. He sighed, then he heard Kabu laugh a little under his breath.

"I knew it, I knew you had some!" The water shifted near him, and when Larry sat up and looked, Kabu was facing him. "Now I can get a good look!"

Larry tilted his head with a questioning sound, and Kabu pointed to his right shoulder.

"Scars." Kabu smiled. "Where did you get those?"

Larry was so used to them, he'd almost forgot they were there. He touched them with his other hand, the faint raised lines just perceptible under his fingers.

"Oh... my Staraptor," Larry said, running his fingers across them. "When he was smaller, I mean. He used to be able to fit on my shoulder. He liked to perch there. Here too." Larry held up his forearm, where similar white lines stood out underneath a faint dusting of arm hair. Compared to Kabu's burn scars, they seemed like nothing, barely even the same thing. "They're not as dramatic as yours..."

"They tell stories just the same," Kabu said, with that warm smile that brought on that comforting glow. Larry wasn't sure what he had expected - Kabu to judge him for how small his scars were in comparison to his own? He would never. His opinion of him mattered so much, Larry still wasn't used to it. Constantly some fatalistic part of him kept thinking of wedges that could come between them, and constantly Kabu refused to let it happen.

"It's a pretty simple story..."

"I think there's more to it than that." Kabu kept his smile. "It just takes a while for your stories to get going, and your Pokemon can be quite the rascals."

Larry still couldn't accept the idea of him having stories or having the ability to "get going" with one, but Kabu didn't lie to him. He wondered sometimes about the Larry that Kabu saw, and how it could be so different than the one he saw when he looked in the mirror. "I suppose. They can have minds of their own at times."

"That's what makes training so rewarding!" Kabu's voice lifted, a light and bright energy filling him. Few things gave him as much joy as talking about Pokemon. It defined his entire life as far as Larry understood it.

He could be training right now, but he's here with me, a part of him said, a little matching spark of warmth at the thought.

"Everyone is different." Kabu turned away and leaned forward in a stretch with a faint hum, reaching out for his toes underneath the water. "If you don't understand that, you won't get anywhere with people or Pokemon."

"What's this...?" Larry, without thinking, reached out to touch a discolored patch across Kabu's spine above another more mundane burn scar. Kabu jumped, a little, at the contact, although Larry was too focused to notice. "You have a dark spot here."

"Do I?" Kabu sounded interested, not exactly alarmed but not quite confident. "What does it look like?"

"It's not that dark... it kind of looks like someone spilled something on you." It was a strange way to describe it, but Larry couldn't think of anything better.

"Can you trace it with your fingers?"

Larry didn't think much of the request, not until he started to fulfill it. He lifted his fingers to set them on the edge of the mark. Kabu's skin was soft, in spite of the solid muscle underneath. Had he been expecting that? The dark mark was entirely smooth all the way around, although Larry found himself taking more time with it than he intended. He didn't touch people very often, and touching Kabu... he couldn't say it was normal, because his heart was quickening just a little, but it wasn't as abnormal as it would have been with someone else.

Even now, he fit so well beside him, even as he thought of just how different they were. Larry's skin wouldn't feel like this he was sure, and it certainly wouldn't be covering muscles like these. Did Kabu's skin feel like this all over?

"Is that it?" Kabu said, although his voice was a little softer.

"That's all of it." Larry didn't look away from his back; the contrast between Kabu's normal skin, the discolored portion, and his own fingers against them was fascinating. He felt pale in comparison, which made sense. He spent most of his time inside.

At that, Kabu breathed a sigh of relief, something Larry could feel all the way down through his hand, almost further through his body like a ripple through water. "Oh, that's fine then. That's nothing."

"Nothing?"

"Doctors say it's a sun spot... just something the skin does when you're out in the sun too much." Kabu laughed quietly to himself, just a brief one. "It's nothing serious."

At their age, it paid to be careful about anything strange. Larry let out a relieved breath as well. He'd been concerned, he realized now, although he didn't want the shape of why to be any clearer. He didn't want to think about that, not now.

Kabu turned back around to look at him, smiling still although there was something softer in his eyes. "Are there any others you want to show me?"

"What do you mean?"

"Other scars." Kabu tilted his head. "Unless you have sun spots like that too?"

Larry shook his head with a soft, humorless laugh. "I don't spend much time in the sun."

"Not without that suit on, I bet." Kabu gave him what could only be a fond look. "You look nice without it."

Larry blinked. He hadn't expected that, knocked out of his comfort zone unexpectedly, but he couldn't say it was in a bad way. He kind of wanted to see where this was going, although he wasn't entirely sure how. Was this the kind of thing he could allow...? Was this even going to play out like he thought?

"There's a few more here." Kabu's eyes went back down to his body, prompting a little twinge through his stomach of some kind of nerves. Anticipation, perhaps, although he wasn't sure it was warranted.

"Oh..." Larry tried to follow his gaze, finding it fixed on some more shallow scratches on his left upper arm. "Those are from my Komala... she likes to cling to me sometimes."

"Does she?" Kabu laughed gently, with that quiet and genuine humor he never got tired of. "How cute!"

He reached out, slowly, towards Larry's arm, who stayed still for him. His heart began to beat faster... this was more intimate than he'd been expecting with this. Sharing a hot spring was fine, acceptable, normal... this was going a bit beyond that, although he couldn't say he was upset by it. Intrigued, perhaps, but he didn't want to get his hopes up. Larry was not the kind of guy to get his hopes up about anything.

Kabu's fingers touched him, warm against skin cooled by time outside the water, and Larry couldn't help a little jump himself. Kabu's hands were rough, but his touch was gentle. He traced along some of the little scars, slowly, slowly enough that a tiny shiver went through Larry before he could think to try and stop it.

Kabu looked up at him at that, watching him carefully, not quite smiling now but interested. People were not interested in Larry, not in that way. It wasn't something he'd ever thought about, not something he'd ever accounted for in his life or expected to see. He didn't really have a plan for it, and with most unexpected things, he just sighed and waited for a way to get out of them.

He didn't want to get out of this one, he was realizing.

Kabu traced his hand up his arm and across his shoulder, close to his neck.

"Are there any here...?" Kabu almost whispered. Larry couldn't look away from him, pinned down by a smoldering gaze.

"Maybe a few," Larry said, just as softly. The hot springs felt very warm now. "Flying Pokemon like to perch there."

"Do they?" Kabu said, his fingers curling around the back of Larry's neck as he gently pulled. It was just a nudge, a hint of intent. Something easily broken.

Larry didn't like being nudged, pushed, pressured, scolded or shoved out of his comfort zone. He knew what he liked, and he knew just how much effort to put out, and he refused to give any more. The world could rail around him to change, and he would not. He did his job, but you could never say he wasn't stubborn.

Kabu knew all this. He knew it, as he gently pulled at him. And, easily, with nothing but a tingle of anticipation, Larry obeyed. He let him pull him closer, down far enough for their lips to meet.

It was a simple, testing thing, an offering in its own way. Kabu, as usual, extending his hand out just far enough for Larry to complete the connection. And as Larry did so, there was no fear, no irritation, no sighing boredom at being forced to do something he really didn't feel like doing.

Kabu knew him, and he knew Kabu.

When they moved away from each other, their breathing slightly faster, they met each other's eyes once again. Kabu looked up at him with that same hunger, a promise of something much fiercer... if he allowed it.

Kabu tapped his fingers against the back of Larry's neck, gently, as he gave him a slow blink. Larry swallowed, with the sudden feeling that he should have his hands somewhere in return to reciprocate that tactile connection.

He wasn't sure how long the silence was, just that it didn't feel uncomfortable.

"Are we doing this?" Kabu finally whispered to him.

Perhaps under other circumstances the answer would have been obvious. As it was, it was a thoughtful type of warning. Larry was comfortable where he was, but if he went further than this... he could get burned. For all of Kabu's patience and understanding, it was entirely possible that if they got closer, the flames from the ever-burning man would devour him. Maybe Kabu would ask too much. Maybe Larry wouldn't be able to withstand it. Maybe he wouldn't be able to match up to Kabu's expectations. Maybe everything would change, and he hated things changing.

Was he too old for this? Could this ruin what they had? If they got closer, could their relationship combust into ashes, leaving them estranged and hurt? Could he take that chance? They'd clicked so well so far, but would going further be too much? Could they test the limits? Kabu was passionate, he knew this. The question was, how passionate would he be about this?

Larry swallowed as the realization came to him, slowly but rock solid. He wanted to find out. For once, he wanted to find out.

Larry nodded, slowly, and Kabu gave him a grin with more of an edge to it than he was used to.

"Are you sure?" Kabu's fingers tightened a little against his neck. "You might be in for quite the ride, you know."

Larry finally managed to get his body to move, got his arms to come through the hot water to rest on Kabu's sides. "I know."

Kabu hummed a quiet laugh to himself, as satisfied as any Staraptor with a successful catch. "I know."

He pulled him down to kiss him again, this time with more heat, and as much as Larry's heart may have begun pounding, as much as adrenaline began to flow through him as Kabu pushed him back against the side of the hot spring to straddle him, it wasn't from fear. Not with him.

He didn't really like trying new things, generally. Not unless it was a new restaurant.

This... this he wanted to try.