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“Woah! Did'ja see that? What an insane play!”
Otoya blinked open his eyes, staring up at the ceiling with still-blurry vision. Ugh, it was still as hot as it was when he had first drifted off. And was Karasu talking to him, or was he just yapping to his Pokémon? He hoped it was the latter, honestly.
“Eita. Are ya even watching?”
Oh, Karasu was totally talking to him. Oops. “What?” he asked and immediately yawned afterwards. Man, he really just wanted to sleep… It was summertime in Hoenn, which meant it was getting hot out, and that meant Otoya was getting sleepy. Normally he'd be chilling away from the heat in a nice hotel in Mauville City or checking out the hot swimmer girls and their water-type Pokémon at one of the region's many beaches, but instead they were currently holed up in their secret base out in the middle of nowhere off of Route 119 for a week-long training session. They had an AC unit at one point, but it accidentally broke due to a training mishap that was definitely not the fault of Otoya's Raichu and now they had to wait until they traveled back to a bigger city before they could buy a new one.
So long story short, it was just grossly hot right now and Otoya didn't have the energy to do anything. How Karasu was able to just sit around at his desktop computer and watch the current competitive Doubles matches going on in Galar for hours without sweating his ass off was beyond him.
Karasu harshly sighed before rolling his chair back so Otoya could see his screen from where he was lounging on the futon. “We're supposed to be studying up before our next tournament, but all yer doin' is fuckin’ around… This tourney's at top cut already, so you should actually be paying attention for once,” he chastised. Beside him, his trusty Murkrow squawked and cawed to try and get Otoya's attention too.
“Eugh…” Otoya groaned into the mattress and rolled around a bit. “We should catch an ice-type for days like this,” he suggested. He wasn't sure if Hoenn even had ice types, honestly. Maybe Glalie? He remembered their fellow tournament competitor Nagi had one, and that was native to Hoenn, right? But he didn't want an evil snowball on his team, actually.
“Okay, go out and find a Glalie or Walrein, then,” Karasu told him, and then shrugged as he spun his chair to face his computer again. “Not that a Walrein would help much. They aren't cold to the touch, actually, and huggin’ one ain't exactly super fun unless they like ya… Oh, I guess you could go out and look for a Regice, but good luck with that. Legendaries are a bitch to find, and even worse to catch.”
Otoya rolled his eyes as Karasu naturally was able to list off all that information with ease. What a brainiac loser. “Why can't Hoenn have more ice types?” he complained, rolling over onto his back and splaying his limbs out like a Staryu. “They should import some Vanillite over here.” That little ice cream Pokémon from Unova sounded perfect right now. Actually, being in Unova in general sounded like a dream. Driving around that huge city and eating some Casteliacones, and then living it up in Nimbasa… It would be amazing right now. If he was lucky, maybe Yukki would be able to invite him to his next trip there so he could meet that supermodel, Elesa. She was an electric-type gym leader too, right? Would she like his Raichu? Maybe he should find another electric Pokémon too, just for good measure.
“Eita… Eita!”
The visions of hot Unovan supermodel babes and Casteliacones poofed out of his mind, and suddenly there were little crows both crowding his field of vision and cawing in his ear. Karasu's Murkrow had flown over and perched herself on Otoya's chest, and she held her wings out as she crowed at him. Her talons poked at his skin since he had thrown his shirt off hours ago, but Otoya ignored it. What was annoying him more than that was Karasu's cranky self nagging at him about who even knew what at this point. Why couldn’t that guy tell that Otoya really did not care? This was such a drag. Why were they Doubles partners again?
Karasu tossed an empty Pokéball at Otoya, hitting him right on his temple. “Ha, headshot,” Karasu proudly murmured to himself, but then got serious again. “Really, though, all you’ve done all week is laze around and beg me for Pokéblocks that are supposed ta be for yer Pokémon. There’s no way we’ll win if ya don’t do something, y’know… I can’t be doin’ all the heavy lifting, ‘cause when the tournament starts I won’t literally be in yer brain to tell ya what calls to make. We’ll have to just somehow be in sync, and I dunno if we can do that without more practice.”
Otoya sighed. He really wished he was literally anywhere but here in this hot, humid base. Well, almost anywhere. Being in Mt. Chimney would probably be worse, considering it was a literal volcano.
“Eita, did’ja fall asleep again?” Karasu asked, sounding as frustrated as Otoya felt. “Murkrow, hit him with a Foul Play if he doesn’t respond in three-”
“I’m up, I’m up,” Otoya insisted as he shot up into a sitting position, which made Karasu’s Murkrow hop up into the air and fly back onto her special little nest seat on the desk that her trainer had spent way too much money buying her a few months ago. She was such a spoiled little princess, even if Karasu denied it whenever he was teased about it. He side-eyed both of them as he stretched. “I can’t believe you threatened to hit me with an actual move. Cruel, man, just cruel.”
As expected, Karasu ignored him. “Now that yer up, get over here,” he demanded, not even giving him another moment to wake up fully. “Remember him?” he then asked and pointed to the screen.
When Otoya actually stood up and walked over to the other side of the base, he leaned over and peered at the screen. Top cut consisted of single elimination best-of-three matches, and this one was on its third match. The person Karasu had pointed at was clearly familiar, both from his pretty-yet-sharp facial features and his long, red hair, but Otoya was surprised to see him in the top cut of this tournament. Last time he checked, Chigiri wasn’t active in Doubles circuits and stayed more on the Singles side of things nowadays. Who did he even partner up with?
“Check it,” Karasu said to him like he actually was in Otoya’s mind despite his earlier claims, and the camera panned over to get a better look at Chigiri’s side of the field, where he stood beside another familiar face.
“Mikage Reo?” Otoya raised his eyebrows, taken aback. Since when did Reo and Chigiri battle together? Weren’t Reo and Nagi the ones attached at the hip? They always talked about winning the World Champions Tournament together, so what the hell happened there?
Karasu was grinning now as he watched the match continue. “Mhm, ain’t that somethin’?” he said, looking pleased at finally having gotten Otoya’s attention on the match. “Word on the street – and by that I mean social media and the little chatbox over here – the Nagi & Reo dream team is kaput,” he explained, because of course he spent his time in between tournament rounds snooping around to find dirt on their former training buddies.
Otoya watched as Chigiri commanded his Liepard to use Taunt against the opposing team’s Smeargle, which prevented it from using Spore to send it to sleep. Beside the cat Pokémon, Reo’s Serperior’s eyes began to glow and a gust of wind kicked up around it. Green energy and glowing leaves swirled in the air, demanding the attention of the entire stadium, and when Reo yelled out for his Pokémon to attack it unleashed a powerful Leaf Storm across the field. The opponent’s Tyranitar was caught up in the onslaught, and when the storm settled it had fallen onto the ground. A whistle blew, and the referee announced that Tyranitar was unable to battle and must be returned to its Pokéball. At around the same time, Reo’s Serperior seemed to glow some more as it received a double stat boost.
Wait, didn’t Leaf Storm lower stats? Did it have some stat-boosting held item?
“Contrary,” Karasu suddenly said, supplying him with the information before even the tournament casters could talk about the attack. “Reo’s Serperior has Contrary, so stat drops become stat increases, remember? It’s not surprising that someone like him would have easy access to hidden abilities, especially at this high-level of play. I went through the open list of team sheets, too, and when I watched the matches I ran some calcs… he’s not running 252 EVs in Special Attack. He must have figured out a particular EV spread to live specific attacks, but I’m trying to figure out what they’d be.” He started muttering under his breath after that and he began to simultaneously shake his leg and bite at his lower lip, now completely overtaken by his own brain.
All the things Karasu was saying kind of went over Otoya’s head, honestly. It wasn’t that he didn’t understand why it was smart to train your Pokemon for specific scenarios, but Otoya preferred to just do training his own way; that was to say, he maxed out his team’s Speed and whatever form of attack they used and called it a day. But really, if Karasu wanted to fuck around and spend all week training both of their Pokémon so they could just take a super effective hit from a certain Pokémon under certain conditions, then he could be Otoya’s guest.
More importantly than that, though, he realized that Karasu had gone back to not caring whether Otoya was paying attention to the match or not. This was totally his chance to get out of boring match analysis talk for the next hour, so he ever-silently sneaked back over to the futon and lay back down. Before he closed his eyes again, though, he noticed that Karasu’s Murkrow was watching him a little judgmentally.
Without a word, Otoya put a finger to his lips and winked at the little crow Pokémon so she wouldn't alert her trainer to Otoya's laziness. She blinked at him, and it looked like she actually winked back. The scene almost made Otoya laugh. He changed his mind at that moment, too, because maybe that spoiled little princess wasn’t too bad. She was kind of a cute Pokémon.
Now if only her trainer was just as cute... It was too bad Karasu was just some lame nerd disguised as a badass Ace Trainer. Ugh.
–
The week continued to drag on as the sun bore down on the Hoenn region. Apparently they were in a heat wave, according to the news, but Otoya was seriously starting to worry that some dumbasses had accidentally summoned Groudon again. He was even debating changing his official favorite season from summer to winter, because he would do just about anything to make the temperature go down.
After his fourth midday-nap of the week, Otoya trudged out of bed and out through the entrance to their base, rubbing his eyes as he adjusted to the light. He glanced around, having expected to see either Karasu or some of their Pokémon, but there was no one to be seen.
Otoya furrowed his brows. No Karasu wasn't the most concerning thing, but where were his Pokémon? Otoya was a pretty chill guy most of the time and thought that leaving his team in their Dusk Balls all day was weird, even though he knew all kinds of modern Pokéballs were specifically designed to be comfortable and humane. He wasn't sure why he still felt weird about it, but maybe it was because he felt like he'd be bored if he was the one stuck in the equivalent of a bedroom all day. Like, where was the fun in that?
But right now he was kind of regretting not just having his team rest in their Pokéballs today, because the only one he was able to find after searching was his Ninjask. He tried asking the bug where his teammates were, but unsurprisingly didn't get a reply. It- wait, did Bug-types have genders? Otoya really didn't remember how that worked. Maybe it was a guy; it gave off total guy energy. So, he was one of the newer additions to Otoya's team, gotten mostly because having a speedy ninja cicada on his team sounded so badass despite Karasu's grumbles about it being “not competitively viable” or whatever. So what? If Karasu was such a good trainer then he should be able to make anything viable for tournament-level play.
Wait, what was he trying to do again? He couldn't remember now. All he was thinking about now was his partner and that guy's obsession with their training. It made him grimace a little as he sat with his Ninjask, who was hovering in the air in front of him. The bug Pokémon tilted his head at him, confused, and Otoya shook his head and stood up. Right, he was looking for the rest of his team.
“You can, uh, go hug a tree or whatever Bug-types do in their free time,” Otoya told the Ninjask, who chuttered and quite literally buzzed off. As Otoya watched it go, he started to realize how he lost track of the others. He totally let them all wander and didn't think to even check where they were going. Oops…
A loud, almost eerie caw from above startled Otoya out of his thoughts. He looked up, and perched on a manmade pole above their base was none other than one of Karasu's Pokémon: his Corviknight. When Karasu wasn't training with or tending to him, the large corvid was almost always keeping watch over their base either from the sturdy perch made specifically for him or in the sky as he did loops to scan for anything out of the ordinary. It was kind of annoying how well-trained the Corviknight was, but Otoya knew that this was the first Pokémon Karasu had raised from an egg. Maybe he, like, imprinted on Karasu or something? Otoya had no clue, since when he first met Karasu this Pokémon had just evolved into his final form.
The steel bird hopped off of the perch for once, landing on the ground before Otoya with a thud. He stalked over to him in a way that would be a bit intimidating if Otoya didn't know that that was just the way the Pokémon walked, and when he got close enough he cried out again. What was he trying to tell him? Otoya really had to get better at this human-Pokémon communication thing.
“Uh…” Otoya stared up at the Pokémon and couldn't help but think about how crazy it was that this thing was taller than both him and Karasu. Why couldn't he have cool, tall Pokémon too? All of his Pokémon were small compared to this thing. Maybe he should find a Gyarados or something. Karasu had told him there was apparently a red one in his home region, so maybe he could find it… Hm, that'd be pretty awesome if he rolled up to a tournament with that beast on his team.
The Corviknight just stared at him expectantly as he mused in his thoughts, and Otoya realized the bird was still trying to talk to him. “Do you know where my Pokémon are?” he asked, but wasn't really sure how he was supposed to get a proper answer.
Corviknight's stare somehow turned judgemental, which was annoying. Was all of Karasu's team specifically taught how to be little shits, or did bratty Pokémon naturally flock to the guy because they felt a sense of camaraderie with him?
“Listen,” Otoya said with a little huff, crossing his arms. He was not going to let himself be sassed by an avian hunk of metal. “I just got a little too chillax with them, okay? Just help me.”
For a second it looked like Corviknight wasn't amused with the demand from someone who wasn't his trainer, but then he walked around Otoya and nudged at him with his large beak. He continued to prod at his back as Otoya stumbled forward, but after a few more nudges he stopped and just nodded over in the distance. Then, he hopped up and flapped his wings, flying back over to the perch and settling there.
Otoya stood there for a moment, but then perked up a bit when he realized that Corviknight was telling him what direction to look in. He turned his head to thank the bird, who had gone back to ignoring him, and then practically ran down the little path to go find his Pokémon.
It was a little dangerous to be running through Route 119 without a Pokémon on him, but Otoya had spent his whole life doing stupid shit like this so he was easily able to use his stealth to sneak past any wild Pokémon who would have given him a hard time if they had seen him. And as he sneaked around Otoya tried to keep an eye open for his Pokémon, but he just couldn't see them. Did that Corviknight purposefully send him off to a dead end?
But just as he was about to give up and head back to the secret base, he heard a familiar voice.
“Easy now, I don't want to get suds in yer eyes… There, all done. Better now?”
With an accent like that, the person he was hearing had to be Karasu. Otoya had been curious about where his tournament partner had run off to without having left a note, so it was good to at least figure out one mystery.
But when he poked his head out of the bushes and thickets he was in to see what Karasu was up to, his other mystery was solved as well.
“Good boy, there ya go,” Karasu murmured to Otoya's Raichu as he gently patted down his fur with a towel, careful to not get shocked by giving it too much friction. When the electric Pokémon practically melted into his arms, kicking his leg out and smiling with his eyes closed, Karasu chuckled and scratched underneath the rodent's chin. “Now ain't you just a sweetheart when yer not gettin’ into trouble. Yer trainer just doesn't give you enough attention, does he? He's the worst, I know.”
What kind of propaganda was Karasu spewing to his Pokémon? Otoya was a great trainer! This was bullshit. How dare this guy steal away his team and be so… nice to them. Karasu wasn't a nice guy ever, so this had to be something he was doing on purpose as payback for Otoya slacking off too much.
Otoya continued watching, but took a moment to grab onto a branch and hop up into a tree so he could have a better vantage point to watch from. If Karasu heard the leaves of the tree shake, he probably dismissed it as a Zigzagoon rummaging around for food.
As Raichu practically fell asleep in Karasu's arms, Karasu turned his attention to the biggest traitor of them all: Otoya's Greninja. Seeing Karasu pat him on the head as the frog Pokémon handed him a bucket of fresh water made Otoya's eye twitch. That was his starter, and he chose to spend his free time with Karasu instead of him? This had to be premeditated because there was no way that his Greninja would do that to him, right?
“Thank ya kindly, little guy,” Karasu thanked with a smile that was way too sweet to be coming from someone like him. When Greninja didn't leave after that and hopped from one webbed foot to another, Karasu's eyes widened a little. “Oh, were you wanting me to…” he trailed off and pointedly looked at the bucket. The Greninja nodded and leaped in front of him, and he sighed and dipped his sponge into the water.
When he finished washing the frog Pokémon, this time without suds since they weren't very good for the amphibian's skin, he tutted and shook his head. “Jeez, yer really lookin’ for attention, too…” he murmured and briefly glanced down at the sleeping Raichu in his lap. “I've been tryin’ to tell yer trainer to put'cha to work like ya want, but he's such a lazy ass. I feel almost bad, but I'm a victim too, yeah?”
In what world was Karasu a victim? If anyone was a victim it was Otoya, who had to put up with his yammering about team comps and EV Training and tournament results all the damn time. Seriously, Karasu was the biggest brat of them all for complaining despite being the reason Otoya didn't wanna do work in the first place. It was so unfair too, like why was he being all cute and sweet with Otoya's Pokémon but not with Otoya himself? Maybe if Karasu acted cute like that with him sometimes then he'd feel more motivated.
Wait. Was it weird to think Karasu was cute? He wasn't a cute guy normally, really. It was just when he was being weirdly nice… Maybe when he was being all pouty, too, as long as he wasn't nagging into Otoya's ear too much… And maybe sometimes he was a little cute in the rare occasions where he was overtired and stumbled over his words and his accent made him a little unintelligible…
Ah, shit. It totally was weird for him to think like this, right? Damn.
Well, Otoya ignored whatever that meant and was about to hop out of this stupid tree to give Karasu a piece of his mind instead for absolutely slandering him to his own team, but before he could he felt a sharp peck at the top of his head. He wanted to yelp in pain, but he quickly covered his mouth to keep quiet and glared up at his attacker.
Karasu's Murkrow flapped her wings and then landed on the branch in front of Otoya, staring up at him with a look that was obvious. She was totally judging him for snooping around in a tree instead of just walking over and joining the group. And Otoya sat up and almost swatted her away, but then the little crow hopped forward and onto his thigh, now looking at him expectantly. What did she want now?
When Otoya didn't do anything, Murkrow leaned over and pressed her beak against his arm as she continued to stare at him. She waited patiently for Otoya to get with the program, and it took him an unfortunate amount of time to realize what she wanted.
“Oh,” Otoya said dumbly and lifted one of his hands up, patting her on her spiky head. He didn't want to mess up her feathers too much… How did someone pet a bird, anyway?
Once she got what she wanted, Karasu's Pokémon hopped back a step and then turned around and let out the loudest caw she could as her talons suddenly dug into his skin near his knee. What a bad day to wear shorts, really.
The surprise noise coupled with the pain made Otoya jolt and he lost his balance, falling out of the tree and landing on the ground below with an “oof.” Meanwhile, the prissy little Murkrow safely flew down and landed beside him, looking and sounding like she was laughing at his pain. She really was just like her trainer.
And speaking of her trainer, Karasu was obviously alerted to the scene considering Otoya had made so much noise just then. “Eita?” he called out in shock, genuinely not having known he had been in the area. The Raichu in his lap groggily sat up to see what was going on, and the Greninja stared as well.
Otoya pressed his palms against the grassy ground and pushed himself up, making sure to glare at the Murkrow as he did so. “I was looking for my team,” he tried to explain while he stood up and dusted himself off. “But your Murkrow's being a pain and she hurt me.”
Karasu looked from Otoya to his Murkrow before simply shrugging. “Uh, okay?” he replied. “I mean she likes ya, I dunno what to really say,” he then added and averted his gaze.
“She does not like me, dude,” Otoya insisted, because there was just no way.
“No, she-” Karasu then paused and frowned a little. Or was he pouting? “She does. But what I wanna know is why yer Pokémon are flocking to me like a bunch'a baby Togepi. I ain’t here to be yer team's babysitter.”
Raising an eyebrow, Otoya took a look at his partner and saw how Karasu was absentmindedly petting the Raichu in his lap still. “Uh-huh… You seemed really bothered about it before I showed up,” he commented sarcastically.
With a face flushing pink, Karasu sneered at him. “I won't be mean to a Pokémon, who do ya think I am?” he retaliated, holding the Raichu closer to him without thinking about it. “And clearly they were comin’ over to me ‘cause they see I actually give my team proper attention. Ya do know most Pokémon enjoy training for battles, right? Catch a Slakoth if ya want a lazy Pokémon to sleep beside all day.”
Ugh, there he went again with all the battling talk and complaining. Otoya was about to turn this conversation into a proper argument, but he happened to stare for a little too long at the image before him of his Pokémon all happy and cuddled up to Karasu. Suddenly, instead of voicing his own complaints, Otoya accidentally blurted out, “you're kind of cute right now.”
Karasu looked up at him with an unreadable expression. “What?” he asked, unsure of how to reply.
“What?” Otoya immediately repeated back like a Chatot and stared at his partner intensely, suddenly feeling frozen. Why did he say that? He cleared his throat, trying to figure out if there was a way out of this.
While Otoya was busy doing a bunch of nothing, Karasu continued to watch him. “You jokin’ around?” he questioned, but there was no teasing edge to his words. He didn't sound frustrated either, which was even weirder.
It took a few more seconds of silence for Otoya to decide whether his realization was a good or a bad thing. It was weird to think of his tournament partner as anything besides an annoying, bossy pain in the ass, but… well, it had been an embarrassingly long while since he got any action, so it could be fun to finally have some eye candy again while they traveled around and trained for their next big tourney. This newfound change in perspective didn't seem too bad, actually.
“Totally serious, dude,” Otoya decided to reply as he closed the space between them and knelt down on one knee. He gave his Raichu a little pat on the head and then used his other hand to grab the back of Karasu's head, curling his fingers into the rough, spiky hair. He knew what he was about to do next could totally ruin their whole partnership, but maybe the heat was messing with his head because he really wasn't that worried about it.
Otoya leaned in, and when he yanked on Karasu's hair to move him forward too, their lips met as both of their Pokémon watched on with varying looks of surprise. Otoya didn't give Karasu much of a chance to respond to the kiss before he pulled away and stared into the other man's wide, blue eyes. “You're cutest when you're nice, by the way,” he informed his partner, referencing the way Karasu had looked when he was taking care of the Pokémon. “I'm heading back to the base. Come find me if you want.”
And then, Otoya released his hold on Karasu's hair and was about to hop back to his feet so he could make a super cool and suave retreat that was definitely not actually him running away, but before he had a chance he was being pulled back in for a second kiss.
“And yer cutest when ya actually do as yer told, dumbass,” Karasu retorted instead of backing down. There was a hint of anxiety in his gaze, though, like he still wasn't entirely convinced that this wasn't some weird prank.
“So are you coming with me or not?” Otoya asked, trying to keep himself sounding chill. He didn't exactly have a game plan now and was very much treading in uncertain waters, but maybe they could have some fun with this?
Unfortunately, Karasu had recovered enough that he reverted back to his normal, minimally cute self. “Hell no,” he replied sharply and attempted to grab at Otoya. “You'd do anything to get outta doin’ yer goddamn training, wouldn't ya? We have actual things to do, so kick yer ass into gear and get working!”
Seriously? Otoya used his natural reflexes to hop up and out of the way, and immediately began to run out of the clearing and back to the path that would lead back to their base. He could hear Karasu eventually begin to chase him after putting the Raichu down, yelling at him all the way even though he knew Otoya would just outrun him.
When they both made it back to the base with their Pokémon following behind, Otoya whipped around and let Karasu accidentally barrel into him, knocking them both back onto the ground.
“What the hell?” Karasu pulled himself up on his palms so he was looking down at Otoya, who started back up with him.
“Ooh, you caught me,” Otoya replied, and then winked. “Like the view?”
Karasu grit his teeth. “Stop mocking me,” he demanded, apparently having misread the entire situation. That wouldn't do.
Otoya leaned up on his elbows so he could show Karasu he wasn't just joking around. As their lips met, Otoya pulled at Karasu's shirt so the other man could be pulled back down to his level, and then wrapped his arms around him. It was a little weird that Karasu's Corviknight was probably leering down at them right now, but he was a little too preoccupied to care.
But just as Karasu actually began to kiss him back, of course things had to get interrupted when they heard some unfamiliar voices in the distance.
“Are you sure we're going the right way? I think we're lost.”
“I mean… I dunno! Don't look at me like that, I think I heard some trainers talking somewhere over here! So don't worry, let's ask them for directions!”
Immediately, Karasu rolled off of Otoya and got to his feet, practically yanking his partner up with him and dusting him off. “Yer the worst, did'ja forget we're on a training route?” Karasu hissed, seething now. He was clearly embarrassed, too, which was honestly just funny.
Otoya gave him one of his signature deadpan looks. “Or did you forget? Seemed like you did,” he replied, feeling a little smug about having that kind of effect on him.
“Cheeky,” Karasu grumbled and turned around, begrudgingly deciding to go tell those lost trainers where to go. But before he left Otoya to his own devices, he made sure to give him a sharp look. “Go inside. We're not done here, got it?”
“Sir, yes sir,” Otoya said with a little mocking salute, and then ran inside of the base at a speed that he previously hadn't thought possible in this heavy heat. And when he sat down in Karasu's desk chair, he realized that his heart was beating faster than he had felt it beat before. He kind of felt a little giddy, and he didn't even care that Karasu's Murkrow had followed him inside the base and was giving him a bird's equivalent of a raised eyebrow.
Well, maybe the rest of their training season could actually be a bit fun. And for the first time in a while, he was pretty excited.