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Winters in Hisui were rough. That was what Irida had told him the first year with the Pearl Clan, and Ingo never forgot. Now, Iridas words were even clearer as the snow bit into his ears and finger tips.
So, when Akari and Rei presented him with a kit containing a mound of wax and a handful of string that they’d found in a Time-Space rift, he gladly took up the complex craft of handmaking candles for the Pearl clan to use.
The first had been… less then exemplary. Misshapen, never quite hardened enough to burn. The second try was a bit more successful, burning nicely but not really giving any real heat.
The third try, Ingo decided that he had progressed enough to make them in batches.
He hadn’t.
The following nights, the clansmen had complained to him about a weeping sound in their tents. Slowly as the week progressed, the clan members with the candles were restless, desperate for the ‘haunted’ candles to be removed.
Confused by the piling complaints about wax trails on the floors and unexplained crying, he collected the strange candles back from the clansmen.
Investigating his untested creation, he paused as one lit up with a purple flame. He deduced it down to the uninteresting looking string he’d used as wicks for the Pillar candles.
Something whispered at the edge of his mind about how familiar they were, despite the incorrect shape.
The lit candle slowly opened golden eyes, bringing Ingo back to the present world. He flinched as the candle started dripping more and more, and soon, the flame seeming to murmur and cry.
Seeing as how they were candle shaped, he dubbed them Litwicks.
After about a week, every surface in Ingos hut was covered in a thick layer of wax. Akaris visits before the Litwicks creation were few and far between, but one faithful night she had come at decidedly the wrong moment.
“Knock knock, Uncle Ingo are you here?” She asked the closed door, despite already knowing the answer. He soon opened the door, his pearl-clan uniform rolled up at the sleeves, a thick coat of wax covered his hands.
“Lady Akari! May I ask what you're doing at my station at such an hour?” He replied, opening the door to allow her in, never one to decline a guest. “I am afraid you caught me making some candles, the kit you found was quite useful!”
Akari nodded noncommittally, already squatting on the floor tugging her boots off. She looked around with a delicate gaze, afraid if she looked too hard at the purple flamed candles littering his work table and floor they would combust.
She had asked many questions that night, allowing for a lively evening of what would normally be sickeningly familiar weeping and whispering. Ingo was happy for the distraction as he worked, and Akari had made a few Litwicks herself, naming them Hitom and Moshi, their teal flames dancing in the darkened one room tent.
Ingo noticed how a few of his little candles indeed had teal tinted flames, but he simply chalked it up to the wick thread he used. Akari had somehow located two identical blue wicks, making identical twin candles.
That night had been a month ago, and Akari had kept visiting, making roughly 3 per visit. He had noticed how none of the litwicks looked like the other, no two candles the same. Ingo appreciated the little detail, carefully raising more and more from the wax filled cauldron on the hearth.
Soon however, his supply of the seemingly never ending wax mound was reduced down to a pitiful fistfuls worth, the stash having dwindled down significantly. Only enough to make one or two more before he'd have to ask Rei if there was any more.
It had been a few months since Emmet's Litwick kit had disappeared. It was verrrry suspicious, after he had spent so long saving up for it, for it to suddenly get up and walk away without a trace.
But, even though the kit disappeared, little weeping candles with flickering flames started showing up anyways. They looked beautiful, Emmet thought bitterly. Ingo would’ve loved them, each and every one of their smudged little faces.
They didn’t look like regular Litwicks though, they had a distinct pattern; tall and pillar-shaped. After counting the seven that showed up, four had the rare Flame Body ability. Indeed, Ingo would’ve loved them all.
Emmet did too, keeping at least one of the strange Pokemon in every room. It comforted Emmet to see them everywhere, their calming lavender flames brought welcome thoughts.
Until they didn't.
Emmet had messaged Elesa immediately when an eighth showed up, a twinkling sky hue on the unique little candle. Emmet carried the small candle to the Nimbasa Gym when Elesa didn’t come out, and together they cooed lovingly at it.
“Please Lady Akari, I do not see the point in—”a hauntingly familiar voice admonished, though there was no real heat in it. If Emmet didn’t know better, he would have called the tone loving.
“—talking to it, yes I see its blue, what do you want to name it?” The little candle echoed, his brother's voice whispering from the flame. Emmet felt a lump form in his throat, and he held the litwick closer.
Elesa met his gaze with tear streaked eyeliner, before she urged him to speak to it as Ingo seemed to have done.
That night, Ingo nearly broke his voice talking to the Litwick, who happily nuzzled into his Pearl-clan tunic as it and its twin communicated through Time and Space.