Autumn Fires | A Leafeon x Flareon college fanfic

Chapter 2

(edit for 16/7/23: same as chapter 1, changed a single instance of school to college)

The gymnasium doors squeaked as Aki opened them. Class hadn't started yet, so everyone was just standing around. She immediately started looking out for Rhys, eventually finding him sitting against the wall with Felix.

She had forgotten that her class was merging with another for a trial; that class just so happened to be the one Felix was in. She could tell by the look on Rhys' face that Felix had told another of his terrible jokes. Rhys noticed her and waved her over. Aki was still relatively flustered from Rhys pushing to find out who she was crushing on, so she walked slowly to give herself time to prepare for more questions. When she got to her friends, Rhys smiled at her, then looked up at Felix.

"Hey, Felix, you ever seen Aki flustered before?" He smirked mockingly, Aki just glared at him. She knew it was all in good fun, but she didn't want to be embarrassed by her crush again. Felix chuckled and floated down to the two eeveelution's eye level. "No, I don't think I have." Felix chuckled. "You should've seen her face; it was almost as red as me, wasn't it, Aki?" Rhys tittered as he nudged Aki. "Oh, piss off, Rhys. I wasn't that embarrassed!" Aki grumbled, her face starting to go red again.

Before Rhys could say anything else, there was the sound of a whistle. Everyone looked over and saw that, instead of the usual gym teacher, a Hariyama stood and cleared his throat.

"Good morning, class. My name is Mr. Cadell. I'll be taking over for Mrs. O'Cleirigh for a couple of weeks as she has come down with a severe case of the flu." Mr. Cadell spoke with a bold tone; the bass in his voice reverberated around the gymnasium.

"Mrs. O'Cleirigh has informed me of what you'll be doing in this lesson; you'll be practicing your moves in combat. There are regulations with this, however; you are not to use any form of biting, slashing, or stomping. You can use moves such as quick attack and tackle, but not giga impact. You may all begin once you've chosen a partner." With that, Mr. Cadell walked to the side of the gymnasium to observe the lesson. Rhys then turned to Aki, another smug smirk spread across his face. "Well, Aki, how do you feel about paying me out for making you so flustered earlier?" Aki thought for a second; she didn't want to hurt Rhys, but she did want to get back at him for flustering and teasing her.

After a while, Aki smirked back at Rhys. "You're on; no holding back?" Aki asked whilst sticking her paw out to Rhys. "No holding back; first to the floor loses." Rhys confirmed, and they shook paws on it.

They both got into fighting positions, staring at each other intently. Aki became distracted looking into Rhys' sparkling hazel eyes. In those few moments, Rhys tackled her, causing them both to tumble onto the floor. When they stopped, Aki realised that Rhys had her front paws pinned, and her face shifted into a deep red almost instantly, being very visible from under her tan-coloured fur. Rhys chuckled sheepishly and moved off of her. Aki stood up as quickly as she could, hoping no one saw them; it didn't seem that anyone did. She looked around to see if anyone was looking at them; no one was; not even Mr. Cadell seemed to be looking. Aki sighed in relief.

She looked towards Rhys; his luscious crimson fur and fluffy cream-coloured mane seemed more vibrant in the gymnasium lights; he looked better than perfect to Aki. Snapping out of her trance, she noticed that Rhys was blushing lightly. "Well, that was... awkward... to say the least." Rhys murmured. Aki could only nod; she was breathless from what had just happened. Felix was cackling to himself about the situation, but neither acknowledged him.

After a little while, Aki gained enough composure to speak. "S-so, do we go again?" Aki stuttered; she could see Rhys ponder over her words. "I don't see why not, you ready?" Rhys answered, Aki noticed that he had said it in a softer tone. She brushed it off as him still being a little flustered.

"Yeah, s-sure, I'm ready... I guess." Aki mumbled. The two eeveelutions stood awkwardly facing each other, neither getting into a battle stance. Time seemed to crawl at a slugma's pace in those moments for Aki, replaying the moment of her being pinned down by Rhys over and over again.

She tried to push it to the back of her mind, like she did with most thoughts she had of Rhys. This one, however, refused to leave her alone.

The two were broken out of their trance with the ringing of the bell, indicating the end of the lesson. Suddenly, Rhys spoke: "It's already been a-an hour, huh?" "Yeah, I guess it has..." Aki mumbled, still flustered enough to not make eye contact with him. "Listen, I'm... sorry that I a-accidentally, y'know, pinned you down and all." Rhys whispered sheepishly. This was the first time she heard Rhys speak like this. He was always peppy and jokey; now he was acting timid and shy.

"Are... you ok, Rhys? You're acting a little differently." Aki asked with a slight twinge of concern in her voice, Rhys took a couple seconds to reply: "Yeah... yeah, I'm f-fine." The two eeveelutions stood there for another few seconds, then Mr. Cadell's voice boomed from beside them. "Alright, you two, get going to your next classes. You don't want to be late and get detentions now, do you?"

The eeveelutions nodded and walked out of the gymnasium. Nether had classes with each other for the rest of the day, so this was the last time they'd see each other until lunch. Normally, they'd be chatting with each other, but both were silent as Tandemaus.

"Is Rhys closer to me than usual, or am I imagining things?" Aki asked herself internally. She glanced to her right to look at Rhys; sure enough, he was closer than usual. "Maybe he just hasn't noticed; it's best not to try and overthink it." Aki then shoved that thought to the back of her mind, which, at this point, was becoming quite crammed.

They reached Rhys' classroom sooner than expected, and he turned to look at Aki. "I'll s-see you later, Aki. Sorry again for... accidentally p-p-pinning you to the floor." He muttered, trying to keep quiet so only Aki could hear. "It's fine, Rhys. As you said, it was an accident." Aki smiled, slightly amused at how he was still embarrassed. Rhys smiled and walked into his class, waving to Aki as he went through the door.

Aki walked off to her next class as soon as Rhys was out of sight. The classroom was on the other side of the college, so she'd most likely have to walk quicker than usual to be on time.

She somehow reached her class early and sat in her usual place. After that, the next few hours turned into a blur. Aki couldn't concentrate on anything; her mind was starting to replay the moment where Rhys pinned her down in her head again. She tried to clear her thoughts in between lessons, but the moment never faded for long.

Lunch soon came, which is when Aki realised she didn't make herself a lunch—not that she had much food to make into a lunch—so she wandered outside and sat below an old oak tree. Not too long later, Rhys came along, holding a paper bag in his mouth.

Rhys tilted his head to the side slightly, seemingly observing her as he lowered himself to sit beside her. "Hey, Aki, did you forget your lunch again?"

Aki sighed in response. "Nah, didn't make one; not that there was anything I could even make with what little food I have at the moment." She said plainly. Without giving it a second thought, Rhys then rummaged through his paper bag and pulled out a sandwich, broke it in half, and offered part of it to Aki. "Here, have half a sandwich at least." Rhys smiled; it was one of Aki's favourite things about him: his unending kindness.

"Thanks, Rhys. What would I do without you?" Aki smiled back as she took the sandwich from Rhys. "Well, you'd be going hungry, for one!" He cackled wittily, eliciting a brief giggle out of the Leafeon.

In all truth, she didn't really want the sandwich; she had only taken it to make Rhys feel better about her not having food.

The pair sat and chatted as they usually did every lunch; oddly enough, Felix wasn't there with them. Aki shrugged it off as him being with his own friend group. Rhys was still being mostly silent, so Aki decided to address it.

"Something's definitely up with you, Rhys. You're never usually this quiet; are you actually okay?" Aki questioned. Rhys looked up at her but didn't say anything for a while; eventually, he answered. "Yeah, I guess, its just... the whole thing about pinning you down; I still feel sorta embarrassed about it, I guess." Rhys stammered.

Aki giggled to herself before responding. "It's fine, Rhys; no harm done." Aki looked over to Rhys; his beautiful, luscious, crimson fur glistened in the afternoon sun, rustling slightly in the wind. He looked almost like a figment of her imagination.

In all honesty, she felt like that wasn't really the case. Now that she looked back on it, he looked almost... shaken in a way? She didn't know how to describe it, but she knew it definitely was not embarrassment that was eating away at her friend; she felt that right now—when anyone could walk up to them and overhear them—wouldn't exactly be the best time to ask her best friend what was actually wrong.

While Aki was distracted with her own thoughts, Rhys spoke up suddenly: "So, uh... I-I'm going up the market later; do you want to come with me? You said earlier that you had no food, so... I thought that I'd help you g-get some." Aki snapped out of her trance and looked Rhys in the eye. "So, in other words, you want to take me down to the market and pay for my food." She smiled at Rhys, still looking into his shiny, hazel eyes. "Thanks, Rhys, but I can't let you buy my own food for me. It just doesn't sit right with me; I shouldn't rely on you to get my food."

"I need to get my own food too, so why not go together?" Rhys queried. Aki thought for a moment, then shrugged. "Sure, why not? We haven't really hung out outside of college at all recently, so let's change that!"

Rhys seemed somewhat relieved by Aki's answer. "Huh, that's... a little weird.." she thought to herself. She had a voice in the back of her head, screaming that this was a date, but it couldn't be. Who would ask anyone out for a date for groceries?

Before she could say anything else, the bell rang, indicating that lunch had ended. With that, Rhys stood up.

"Well, I guess I'll meet you at the gates later. See you in a bit, Aki!" Rhys called out as he walked away. "Yeah, see you in a bit!" Aki affirmed. With that, she got up and started walking towards her last few lessons for the day.

These lessons seemed to drag on, unlike the ones from earlier; maybe it was because she wasn't thinking about Rhys as much. Either way, she had buckled down and forced herself to focus on her last lessons.

She had managed to finish a little earlier than usual, so she walked slowly to the gates. When she got outside the main building, Aki heard someone shout to her right. She looked over, and she saw the little gang of edgelords marching towards her.

She audibly groaned; this was the last thing she wanted to deal with again. The Scrafty had a look of pure rage on his face. "Listen, plant, our business from earlier isn't over!" Stan spat, his face twitching in anger as Aki smirked. "What, you want me to give one of your goons an asskicking again?" She sneered mockingly. "Not like you did much last time, you only hit him once. No, you're fighting me!" The Scrafty smirked, a smug look on his face, the rage still burning behind his eyes.

"Sure, not that you'll stand a chance; that's why you send those lot to fight for you!" Aki jeered, and with that, Stan lunged at her and used head smash; this was exactly what she wanted. She stepped aside and let the Scrafty slam into the hard brick wall of the main building.

He staggered to his feet; a couple new cuts adorned his forehead, which trickled blood down his face. He glared at Aki. Without saying a word, he swung at her with Beat Up, hitting Aki four times.

"Well done, you hit me; do you want a medal?" Aki taunted, making the Scrafty even more furious. He ran at her and used low kick, striking her back left leg, knocking her to the floor. Aki got up almost instantly, without saying a word; she charged at Stan and used leaf blade, the Scrafty staggered backwards into a bush.

He got back up again, as she expected; she knew he wasn't going to give up until he had won, so she was going to use a move she hadn't used in years. She glared at the Scrafty and used seed bomb; the impact sent him flying backwards. He tumbled for a short while before stopping. Aki stifled a chuckle and walked off as the Scrafty's group rushed over to him.

When she finally got to the gates at the front of the college, she saw Rhys looking at her smugly. "Well, Aki, remind me not to ever piss you off unless I want to end up like Stan. Colour me impressed; you beat the ever-loving shit out of him and barely got a scratch on you!" Rhys admired, making Aki laugh sheepishly as a slight blush bloomed around her muzzle.

"I wouldn't say that; yeah, I beat the shit out of him, but most of the damage he did to himself." Aki said as she started to walk off. Rhys started walking too, before he noticed something. "You're limping, Aki." He stated, sounding incredibly concerned.

"Eh, it's probably fine." She shrugged before wincing as she put pressure on it. "Okay, yeah, it isn't fine." She groaned in pain and then promptly collapsed to the ground.

"You know what? I'll carry you home. It's not fair on you to have to walk with whatever you've done to your leg!" Rhys declared before crouching down.

Aki started turning red and laughed. "You're... not actually serious about this, right?" She laughed for a little while before seeing Rhys' face; he was completely serious. "Fine, you can carry me, I g-guess." Aki muttered before limping over to Rhys and climbing on his back.

The two were silent for most of the journey. Aki absentmindedly played with the fluff on the back of Rhys' neck; she was starting to feel faint as the adrenaline wore off. The world around her began to spin before she passed out; the last thing she heard was Rhys asking: "Aki, are you okay?"