Thanks for the happy birthday! My ideas for Payton are that he slowly warms up to trainers after, well, being one, and he eventually goes on to become a better person (a bit) over the course of the RP thanks to his Pokemon and fellow trainers alike. I realised after starting that he's a bit too off-putting though, which I'm not very used to. Then again, I like writing odd character combinations like Payton and Skipper, so I'm going to keep him as a grump for as long as possible. He's probably a better character for a fanfic, I think.
And yeah, there's definitely some hostility between Team Firefox and Payton, just because they have more reasons to dislike each other unlike the others I'd say. I guess I'll keep pestering Zachry a little when I see him, but unless one of the two really snaps at Payton he'll just stay passive aggressive and out of the way.
At some stage, I'm going to have to guide Payton towards the gym circuit… Maybe he can be tempted by prize money in battles, and decides to add being a full-fledged trainer to his list of side-jobs? If anyone's got a better idea, let me know. It seems too boring of a reason to me.