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For a while now I’ve had this headcanon™ that, back when Gladion was just a kiddo and Lusamine had just started to go mental, Lusamine would basically force Gladion to act as a shield for Lillie, saying things like “if you don’t let me do X to you, it’ll be Lillie instead...” This of course includes the Nihilego-styled dress. she dressed him up and paraded him around as her good little “daughter”, and of course if he acted out not only would she punish him more later but there'd be the public humiliation of him being found out. Out of all the abuses this was the one that broke him, that he couldn’t stand after a few times and that he had to let ”pass on” to Lillie. Even knowing that such a thing wasn’t nearly as bad for a girl he still felt overwhelmingly guilty about not being able to perfectly “protect” her and blames himself for everything she had to go through, plus he has his own deep-seated trauma about the whole affair.
So of course in the present it’s up to Hau to help gently heal his heart by dressing him up all girly, giving him lots of affection and reassurance and then lovingly fucking him in the ass. It’s, like, exposure therapy man
