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Lyra was skipping through the Pasio marketplace when she spotted Ethan and Kris exiting an ice-cream parlor, double-scoops in each of their hands, chatting away merrily. Ethan’s grayish-navy eyes were widened, his lips curved into a perfect O-shape, while Kris’ turquoise eyes were crinkled at the corners, her ever-perfect smile curved upwards and a rosy blush on her cheeks. She had probably just told Ethan something shocking about her Pokemon research. Lyra stared, feeling a strange something flare inside her chest. Of course, she wasn’t one to get jealous over being the third wheel in their little Johto trio. Even if Ethan was her childhood BFF. Even if Kris was her ultimate crush for a bit over a year now. Even if she was so sure Ethan had taken a liking to the edgy mafia kid… (She KNEW his name was Silver, it just made the whole scenario sound much more dramatic!)
Hold on, speaking of which… Lyra whipped her head around faster than Red’s Pikachu (and believe her when she tells the story of how she fought RED, that thing was a MONSTER,) and grinned. Lo and behold, there was the world’s angstiest teenager (…should she count that blond emo kid from Alola in? Lyra discarded that thought for now) right behind her, hands in his pockets, scowling hard. He had the look of someone who had just seen something he did not want to see and was hurriedly attempting to move on to somewhere else. Lyra’s mood brightened for a moment. Not a chance, Mr. Silver Giovanni… Lyra walked to him in a oh-so-casual manner. Not today…
Silver’s expression when he saw her was, to say the least, unwelcoming. His scowl somehow deepened, and he even had the nerve to back away several steps upon seeing her smug expression.
“So!” Lyra started, stepping up to the redhead, who was at least six inches taller. “I see we’re in a similar predicament, Mr. Giovanni!”
Silver glared warily. “Don’t you – fucking – use my last name.” He put emphasis on the swear word. Lyra snorted. Typical Silver.
“Ah, but you haven’t denied my first claim yet, Silvy! You normally go to the beach to train Ho-oh, don’t you? But whatever important business could you possibly have out in the marketplace, to break your own schedule like that? Especially for an enormous introvert like ya?” Lyra wiggled her eyebrows. “Perhaps it was… to see if your crush was around here today?”
Lyra most definitely got the reaction she wanted from Silver with that statement. He sputtered, turned bright red, scrunched up his eyebrows, and took a few more steps back, all in the span of a few seconds. He seemed to be at a loss for which part of Lyra’s claim he should criticize first. In the end, he settled for a quiet “What do you want…?”
The brown-haired girl smiled sweetly. “We’re gonna stalk Kris and Ethan and see if they’re really dating.”
Silver’s violet eyes nearly popped out of his skull.
***
The first time Lyra met Kris was at the tender age of twelve, when Lyra was in her emo phase and refused to listen to anything but ‘Jackpot Sad Girl’ on repeat through her Hatsune Miku headphones. (She would also wear black eyeshadow every day, as Ethan always pointed out, but Lyra always shut him up after that statement.) Kris had been a new girl in the neighborhood, moving into New Bark Town from Goldenrod City, in which she’d been born. To Lyra, it should have been exciting. Finally, a new girl in the neighborhood after twelve whole years of enduring Ethan and all his rambling about Transformers and climbing trees to people-watch! (The one time Lyra climbed a tree, she fell on her butt from a meter high and wailed so hard that a panicking Ethan thought she got a concussion. That was also a topic Lyra made Ethan vow to never speak of.) But instead, Kris had been an enemy of love. For even with all his boy talk and stupidity, Lyra had had a teeny tiny crush on Ethan. Every time looking for Ethan, only to find him talking to Kris of all people about his new figurine collection, or to find Kris ‘infecting poor Ethan with her nerdy science blabbering’ truly pissed off Lyra to no end.
Which was why Lyra had used the Hostility Technique, which was just a fancy word to say she gave Kris the cold shoulder. For a whole year after the green-haired girl moved in. Only when Lyra realized Kris wasn’t in love with Ethan did she befriend her. (And by then, even Lyra’s own teeny tiny crush on her navy-eyed friend had burned out, leaving mere ashes and embarrassment in its wake.)
And so the three had stayed amazing friends throughout the years. Even after Ethan captured Lugia, even after confronting the son of the world’s most powerful mafia boss and subsequently befriending him, and even after arriving at Pasio! Lyra was totally cool with all of that. But when Ethan, Kris, and herself had gotten their sygna suits and strolled off to beat Silver’s dad’s ass, she realized something. Kris had let her hair down for the occasion, and she was wearing a floaty light blue dress, and the way she smiled at Lyra boldly as they were left to defeat the remaining Team Rocket Grunts (Ethan had run off to assist Silver in the final room) made her feel…
…an extreme warmth spread inside her chest.
Holy.
Hooooly shit.
She was down bad, wasn’t she?
And it was at that moment when Lyra realized she was bi.
***
“So how’re we – I mean YOU – going to stalk them?” Silver whispered frantically, as Lyra’s mind jolted back to the present. “It’s not as if they’re oblivious idiots!”
“Kris isn’t! She’s suuuper smart!” Lyra replied indignantly. “I’m pretty sure Ethan is, though…” Silver opened his mouth to give out a sharp retort, but Lyra beat him to it. “Ah – ah – ah! It’s simple, Silvy; we follow them ‘round Pasio, hide behind a buncha’ statues if they get suspi’ous, an’ try to find any e’idence for if they’re l – lovers…” Lyra stuttered at the end. After all, it WAS her gorgeous crush and her best friend here, and although she would totally root for them, she would also feel a bit despairingly devastated on the other side of her heart if they actually were dating. Silver rolled his eyes.
“Your Johtonian accent is coming through.” He pointed out. Lyra covered her mouth.
“Whoops! I guess it still does sometimes…!” she giggled, quickly returning to her bubbly self. “So, Silver, you in or not? Never mind, rhetorical question; I’m gonna drag your ass into this whether y’like it or not!” Silver rolled his eyes again.
“Fine,” he sighed. His purple eyes settled into determination. “…I guess we’re doing this.”
***
And so it began. The duo followed their crushes all around Pasio silently, taking note of their interactions, the places they went to, and what they bought.
“Is that a jewelry shop they just went into?” Silver muttered dejectedly at one point. “Is it their anniversary or something?”
“Nahh, they’re buying nothin’… Ohhh, wait, they’re going to a flower store though…” Lyra groaned.
The stalking went on for hours. Ethan and Kris would go into a store, play around, chat and laugh a little, before walking out of the store nonchalantly. They didn’t buy anything from nearly any store, except for when Ethan bought a package of berries from the fruit market and when Kris bought an adorable hat (which Lyra thought she looked incredibly cute in) from a small shop. Their shopping trip seemed to end at around sunset, at which Ethan and Kris smiled at each other in the streets and hugged fiercely, shopping bags dangling in their hands. Lyra wanted to cry. Or puke. Or maybe both at the same time. Her earlier thoughts were mistaken; no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t possibly feel happy about her damn unrequited love, even if it meant both of her friends were happy. She didn’t even realize tears were sprouting up in her eyes until Silver poked her in the shoulder.
“Hey, Lyra, I get it; I’m devastated too, I can’t believe that idiot would actually date anyone, let alone Crystal,” (Lyra couldn’t help but notice how Silver still called Kris by her full name) “but – hey – hey, don’t cry, you’re going to get us caught –”
Lyra burst out in huge, ugly tears; the type that would freak out anyone that were near her who didn’t know better, the type that most definitely caught the attention of Ethan and Kris, who were now staring wide-eyed at the bushes where Lyra and Silver were hiding in.
“Kris,” Ethan began slowly. “I think that bush just talked.” (Lyra resisted the urge to roll her eyes during her tear fest.)
Kris did roll her eyes though. “Yeah no shit,” she muttered, and strolled towards the bushes in question, ripping them apart to reveal a very tearstained Lyra and a very red-faced Silver.
“Um,” Silver made his best attempt at a pleasant smile, which looked like a cross between the Joker and the bear from Danganronpa, “Hi there.”
***
“So let me get this straight; you two stalked us just because each of you had a crush on each of us and were scared that we were dating each other?” Kris put her hands on her hips, cheeks a scarlet red. “You must be fuckin’ kidding me!”
“Language, Kris,” Ethan reprimanded. He sighed. “But I agree with her. That was really… uncool of you guys.” Lyra snorted. Silver glared at her. Ethan rambled on obliviously. “But you two really didn’t have to, you know? After all, we were going to – ” Kris frantically covered Ethan’s mouth with her own shopping bag-free hand.
“Ethaaaan…!” she whispered, her scarlet cheeks somehow becoming more prominent. “That was supposed to be a secret!” Ethan took her hand off his mouth gently and smiled.
“Yeah, but… they’ve seen us all around Pasio, shopping for a buncha stuff, haven’t they? I think they should know what we were up to.” Kris seemed to debate between giving Ethan a doink on the head or just spilling the beans to the very expectant Lyra and Silver. After what felt like hours (at least to Lyra,) Kris spoke up.
“Fine, we were actually trying to buy stuff to… give you two.” Kris sighed. Lyra blinked.
“But it’s not even my birthday yet! And Silver’s birthday’s in December!” Ethan smiled again sheepishly.
“It’s not supposed to be for your birthdays, silly…” Kris huffed, stomped up to Lyra, and went down on one knee. A collective gasp came from Lyra and Ethan. (Silver was too emo to participate in such a childish activity like a collective gasp) The turquoise-haired girl narrowed her ocean-foam eyes and thrust the bag with the cute hat in it at Lyra.
“Ly-Ly,” she started. Lyra blushed hard. Silver made a gagging sound that sounded a bit like a wounded Politoed. “Would you like to be my girlfriend?”
Silence. Lyra’s heart filled up with something that felt like warm honey goo and flower petals.
“Y – yes, of course! Of course I want to be your girlfriend!” Lyra finally exclaimed, hunching down and peppering kisses all over her new girlfriend (girlfriend!)’s pretty face. Kris giggled, a sound that was like tiny bells chiming to Lyra’s ears. She put the adorable hat on Lyra’s head, brushing back a few stray hairs as she did so. Ethan and Silver stared on at the new couple. Then they looked at each other.
“So,” Ethan started. “I shouldn’t make this drag on, I guess.” Silver nodded stiffly.
“Silver,” Ethan spoke up in a much deeper voice, “you will be my boyfriend.” Silver stared.
"Do I have a choice?” Ethan shrugged.
“Not really. Unless you don’t want to.” Silver’s eyes softened.
“Of course I want to, idiot.” And with that he gripped Ethan’s arms and hugged him hard.
The quartet would probably have stayed in their respective positions for much, much longer if it wasn’t for some ominous clapping, the loud, booming type, coming from across the street. The four jumped apart and looked over as Red, Blue, and Leaf emerged from behind a conveniently placed mailbox. A freaking mailbox. Lyra had absolutely no clue how all three of them managed to hide behind it, let alone one. Blue was wearing his signature smirk, clapping slowly as Red and Leaf stood on either side of him like bodyguards.
“Holy shit,” Silver whispered, seemingly petrified and amazed at the same time. “Were they stalking us this whole time?” Leaf giggled.
“Well, we saw Lyra and Silver looking absolutely green with envy and sorta decided it would be fun to see what our faaaavorite juniors were up to!” Leaf giggled again, pointedly ignoring Lyra and Silver’s protests. “So yeah! You could say we double-stalked you guys!”
Blue crossed his arms serenely, nodding in agreement. His eyes raked over the Johtonian trainers, suddenly serious. “Do you have any idea how infuriating it is to look at four pining, oblivious teenagers who can’t even figure out the other’s feelings even when fighting Team – fucking – Rocket side-by-side?” He closed his eyes dramatically. “That was a rhetorical question, by the way. Of course you idiots don’t! We even considered playing matchmaker for the four of you! Red had the cramped-closet-just-enough-for-two-people-to-fit-in and the half-price-if-you-kiss restaurants ready and everything!”
“I’m sorry, what-”
“-But now that you gay idiots have finally decided to go out - seriously, Ethan, Kris, why didn’t you two decide to confess earlier?” Blue rambled on.
“Today’s the day us four came to Pasio.” Ethan blushed. “Thought it would be kinda memorable…” Red rolled his eyes but didn’t say a word.
“Well then, since our job here is done,” Leaf continued, again ignoring Silver’s claim of ‘but you didn’t do anything except burst out of nowhere like a bunch of NPC’s!’ “Congratulations again to the two new couples! Unfortunately, we have to go do some important adult stuff now, so we gotta get a move on. Blue, Red, you coming?” Blue and Red nodded and began to walk away. “Smell ya later!” was the last thing Lyra heard before the three Kantonian adults disappeared from sight.
“Okay…” Ethan muttered, looking confused. “That was kinda weird, but at least they’re congratulating us! That’s good, right?” Kris and Silver, on the other hand, looked mortified at the fact that the four of them were, apparently, obviously pining for each other.
“Oh Lugia,” Kris mumbled. “Was I that obvious? Did I constantly send goo-goo eyes at Lyra or something? Dawn and May are never gonna let me hear the end of it-”
“Well, if my old man already knew about this, I can see why he named his new organization Team Rainbow Rocket…” Silver didn’t get to finish his sentence, as Ethan clutched his hand in a death grip and began to drag him towards the nearest café.
“C’mon, Silver, let’s go have our first date!” The redhead immediately blushed, but nonetheless complied. Kris and Lyra looked at each other and burst out laughing.
“Well then, Ly-Ly, would you like to have our first date right now?” Kris smiled her thousand-pokedollar smile. Lyra adjusted the new hat on her head and grinned. She really couldn’t believe this was happening right now.
“Of course, sweetheart!”
But she was ready to make the best out of it.