Notes: so this is a fic that's been sitting completed on AO3 for a while now. I meant to post it here in tandem but...didn't, for whatever reason. So I'm putting it up chapter by chapter now, mostly just to see what people here think. Not what the people who were already following me on this wanted to see, probably, but...eh. If you don't want to wait for me to post it here daily (assuming I don't forget), then just look it up on AO3.

"When Elio "Holtz" Holtzman first arrived from Kanto, Lillie was worried that she'd done something to make a bad first impression.

This boy had arrived from seemingly nowhere to rescue her Nebby from a flock of Spearow, so he was clearly a good person. Yet when it came to actually talking to her he was pretty standoffish. Had she come off badly?

It was only later that Lillie would come to realize that it hadn't been her doing, why he was so hesitant to connect. When she had been sent by Professor Kukui to pick Holtz up from his new home, she'd ended up having a short conversation with his mother, who admitted that the boy had been loath to let anyone in after the absence of his father. Lillie felt a bit apprehensive upon hearing this; she didn't want to know something so intimate without Holtz' permission.

This knowledge did provide a lot of context for the boy's behavior however. Holtz was openly affectionate to his mother and their Meowth, blushing bashfully when she referred to him as her "Little Sun", but once he stepped outside their home it was like a switch had been flipped. Holtz was always perfectly civil, if a bit snarky, but if one paid attention they'd see a pattern to his behavior; the way he would always shy back from Hau's hyperactive optimism, which came complete with a lack of personal space, or the way he'd visibly bristle whenever Professor Kukui called him "cousin", or the way he'd roll his eyes at the idea of the whole of Alola as one big family. He also seemed largely apathetic when accepting the island challenge, as if it were something he only agreed to as an excuse to have something to do.

The first time Lillie had even seen the boy smile was when he was presented with his starter Pokémon, and it was in that moment that the introverted young man and the hero who'd jumped to save Nebby reconciled into one person in her mind. Holtz was utterly smitten with the Litten he'd chosen, and it was only then that he seemed to treat the challenge ahead of him with any enthusiasm.

When Holtz left to introduce Litten to his mother, Lillie wondered for the first time why she had been so fixated on the boy. She wasn't normally the type to see people as puzzles to be figured out, but she couldn't help seeing Holtz as somehow fascinating. She shook her head, telling herself she had no right to bother this newcomer by making him some kind of object to be studied. It was best she just let it go.

The very next day, Lillie realized she wouldn't be letting it go. Hau had enthusiastically offered to battle Holtz before they both went on the island challenge, the fight dedicated to Tapu Koko itself. Lillie couldn't help but observe Holtz' lighter attitude. She couldn't tell if it was on account of having Litten with him, or his mother being their to cheer him on, but when it came time to battle it seemed like a spark was lit inside him.

"As long as we both have a good time," said Hau, "then I think we can call it a great battle, eh?"

Holtz' response was a playful snort.

"You're not wrong." He said, with a genuine smile that grew throughout the battle. Either Hau's infectious joy was finally getting to him, or Holtz had a natural affinity for battling.