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By the time everyone parted ways, the moon had taken reign over the sky, its army of million stars surrounding the softly-glowing sphere.
Morty was quick to take Eusine's hand, tugging him along to the east, where the hotel meant for where the Gym Leaders stayed was built close to the beach. They both gave one last wave to Silver before their quiet murmurs disappeared into the distance, arms brushing close with a special kind of intimacy, their attention fully orbiting one another.
Kris bid him goodbye with a gentle hug, long enough to earn an amused huff from Silver but short enough to avoid making him squirm— it was a testament of how long their friendship lasted that she understood him this deeply. She released her Suicune and hopped onto its back, yelling out a promise for them to meet for lunch tomorrow before she disappeared to the west.
After another long day of running around Pasio on a wild shiny Suicune chase, Silver was very much ready to hit the bed for at least a good 10 hours of uninterrupted sleep. The hotel where he was lodged in— courtesy of Lance, really, when he was merely a speck of dust among the Champions designated for the 6-star hotel —offered a hot jacuzzi, and he was even tempted to take a dip inside to relieve his strained muscles.
Well, that was the plan until Silver's hand was carefully grasped by long claws.
"Sneasel?" Silver asked, head tilted aside as he watched his trusted partner chirp in excitement, pulling at his hand with one paw and frantically pointing south with another. As soon as he looked up, his eyes landed on a massive ice rink, one he undoubtedly missed after the chaos that was today. It was easy to put two and two together, but Silver still asked, "Would you like to skate?"
Sneasel's eager nod shook her tiny body, and it was enough to melt the exhaustion that weighed Silver down.
After the evolution of their bond to the next level and all the help that she did for the past two days, getting to ice skate was the least that she deserved.
With a smirk, Silver shouted, "Race you there!" before taking off with a head start, cackling into the tranquil night once he heard Sneasel's exasperated screech and the quiet, but quick pads of her feet.
All the running that Silver did back in Johto would never make him the winner in their silly game.
This late into the night, the visitors of Pasio have significantly dwindled. No one bats an eye at Sneasel for jumping over the ice rink's borders, and Silver was pretty confident that he wouldn't get into much trouble for breaking into the booth to borrow a pair of skates. Everyone was making their trek back to their boardings, slumped from either fatigue or alcohol, giving them both the perfect opportunity to enjoy the rink for themselves until their own bodies dropped, too.
Well, everyone had the same idea except for one person.
"Nice outfit you got there!" The voice yelled from above, shouted in utter glee, followed by a sad attempt at a wolf whistle that ended more off-tune than anything. Silver glanced up just in time to feel the brunt of a powerful gust blown from the skies, strong enough to sting his eyes and throw Sneasel's impeccable balance off. "I almost didn't recognize you from up here, Silver!"
Silver didn't have to fight the wind and see to know who was perched on top of the white, regal bird. No one ever said his name with such happiness, greeting him as if he was the sun that rose after a terrible, lonely night like Ethan always did.
For being a decently-intelligent battler, Silver couldn't dissect and unroot why exactly Ethan was different from everyone else. He was never able to crack the mystery back in Johto, and he was certainly nowhere near as close here in Pasio. There was no time to dwell and ponder about that or the sweat gathered in his hands; Ethan was now standing precariously on Lugia's back as the legendary circled the ice rink languidly from above. Then, with the same determination that he used to befriend Silver, Ethan ordered Lugia to lower one wing down to the rink, tipping them much like a plane that was about to change course, before sliding down its wing.
His body moved on its own before he realized. The next thing he knew, Silver had caught Ethan in his arms before buckling from their weight, slamming butt first on the solid ice.
Lugia had the audacity to cackle at them before taking off, heading for the sea, whereas Sneasel was undeniably snickering behind one paw as she spectated the fiasco from afar.
"Are you dumb?!" Silver groaned, the sound muffled with what he surmised— from the spikiness tickling his lips —as Ethan's black hair. "You could've asked your pet bird to land before jumping off of it!"
Ethan, the bundle of joy that he was, threw his head back and laughed, the melody in it tugging at Silver's weak heartstrings. The ecstatic teen made no move to entangle himself from the mess, saying, "We weren't done with our night flight yet, but I wanted to meet you! This was our compromise, you see."
"Yeah, I could totally see that," Silver grumbled, deciding to just give up and lay on the ice for a few more seconds, hoping that the chill would cool his flushed cheeks. "You're not a goddamn athlete, Ethan. You'd break your ankles with that poor attempt of acrobatics."
"Trust me, I'm starting to rethink and regret my choice now," Ethan sheepishly said, rubbing one hand on his nape and another to push himself up. Silver finally allowed himself to laugh at his friend's stupidity, but the chuckle was cut short when Ethan turned around, smiling with an energy that should be illegal this late into the night, offering one hand to him. He softly said, "Thank Arceus I have you as my savior, huh?"
The cold clinging onto Silver's cheeks disappeared as fast as it came.
"Whatever," Silver huffed, taking the helping hand to raise himself up. Standing back on ice was at least a grounding experience, distracting him enough from how snug Ethan's hand was in his, warm and strong against his cool and slender one. He was quick to pull away once his steadiness returned, and the longing for the missing touch felt foreign to him, especially when he was adept at skating.
"Anyway, the more important question here is when did you get a sygna suit?!" Ethan gushed, eyes twinkling like the stars. He bounced on the balls of his feet, which was a mistake to do on ice. One wrong move and he was wobbling on the surface, ready to be knocked over like a bowling pin by his own doing. Silver's hands captured his flailing ones right away, easily fixing his balance as he turned into an anchor for him. The yelp that was about to escape from Ethan's lips were replaced by a gasp instead. Astonished, he asked, "And since when did you skate?!"
Ethan swayed once more, and Silver tightened his hold in return, the gap between them a good breath away.
Since when did his words become as distant and elusive as the faraway galaxies, Silver wondered.
"I got the suit yesterday," Silver shrugged. Sure, it was a big deal to trainers of Pasio to be awarded with a sygna suit, but it didn't change much for him: he still aimed to become the strongest for Sneasel's sake, to be a worthy trainer for his trusted partner. Then, because he knew it would get a rise out of Ethan, he added, "Kris, Morty, and Eusine saw me wearing them first, though."
"What? No way!" Ethan whined, lips pulled into a pout. Silver realized just how grave his mistake was when the sight did nothing good for his staggering heart. It wasn't normal to have heart palpitations this frequent, right? Was he anemic by any chance? Ethan looked like he was cycling through the stages of grief at the speed of an Aerodactyl, and Silver imagined he didn't look better himself, what with the hotness rising from his neck. Then, just like the whirlwind that he was, he demanded, "And when did Eusine even get— you know what, that's not the top priority here! Ice skating, really?"
Sneasel thankfully saved the day by swooping in, skating close by to divert Ethan's attention. Like the sneaky show-off that she was, she turned to them as she glided away before facing forward, bracing and jumping high enough to do three turns, landing like a professional on one foot.
Ethan gasped for the second time tonight, and Silver smiled wide with pride.
"Incredible!" Ethan cheered, the surprise bubbling within exploding from his raised hands and his loud whoops. Silver's arms dangled along with the movement, but he wasn’t sure if he was still holding onto Ethan's hands purely for his friend's safety anymore. "I never saw a Sneasel skate before! How come?"
"Trust me, every professor in Pasio who passed by us when we skated was equally bewildered," There were no records of a Sneasel skating, after all— they were mountain climbers, and their agility spoke more of their cunning schemes instead of whatever this was. "Sneasel just saw an ice rink a few days after we arrived in Pasio and she… skated away. It comes to her as easy as scaling things."
"That’s amazing," Ethan mumbled, breaking into a grin when his compliment resulted in another triple axel performance from his smug Sneasel. He turned to Silver once she danced away, curiously asking, "But when did you learn how to skate?"
"Not long after I learned that she does. At first, I only did so to keep her company, but in the long run, skating isn't that hard for me," Silver replied, shying away from Ethan like he always did whenever he was subjected to his genuine admiration. Then, he added, "It's easy when you have a good teacher like Sneasel."
Ethan hummed, the gears in his mind turning. Deep inside, rooted so thoroughly within him that it became an instinct at this point, Silver knew that look— it spelled trouble all over it. Before Silver could snip the chaos in the bud, Ethan was already glancing around the rink to look for Sneasel. When he found the Pokémon, he shouted, "Hey Sneasel, do you think Silver's a good skating teacher?"
They got on like a house of fire, unstoppable forces that were both tempted to tie Silver in a bond of friendship, insisting on doing so no matter how much he denied otherwise.
Sneasel only gave a chuckle as a warning before she leaped above the ice rink's railings, returning moments later with a pair of skates that was suspiciously the fitting size for Ethan's feet.
Oh, hell no.
"No!" Silver denied immediately, heels digging away on the ice and desperately fighting to free himself from Ethan's iron grip.
"Yes!" Ethan urged, voice morphing into a teasing lilt, face shoved forward. It was a lost cause for Silver the moment he saw those pleading gray eyes and pouty lips, the adorable sight knocking down his self-restraint within seconds. "Please, Silver? We're already hanging out on an ice rink, so you might as well teach me how!"
No matter how harshly Silver glared at him, Ethan's resolve didn't waver. His friend's bright eyes only grew rounder as they silently begged, a super effective attack no matter how much defense he had prepared against it.
It was always a losing fight for Silver whenever it came to Ethan.
"Fine," Silver sighed, gradually skating away and pulling Ethan back to the entrance. Sneasel still had the gall to laugh at him from where he waited with the skates, Ethan giggling along with her. "I'm warning you though: you'll fall on your butt a lot in your first lesson. It's not going to be easy."
"Eh, I think I've handled worse," Ethan shrugged, throwing caution to the wind like he often did during their journey. Then, with the gentlest smile Silver ever saw from him tonight, he said, "To be honest, I'm not that worried. I trust that you'll catch me before I fall."
It hit him then, as they both stood under the lamps that outlined the rinks, hands carefully cradled in each other's warmth, that perhaps the missing puzzle to Silver's mystery has always been right in front of him all along. No one has ever learned of his grim past and looked at him with such an unwavering trust afterwards, and no one ever tried to befriend him when he was a prickly mess at constant times— well, everyone was smart like that, all except for Ethan.
Ethan, who determinedly challenged his every step, always ready to battle and guide him to the right path no matter how rude Silver had treated him before.
Ethan, who saw the slow building of Silver's improvement with his team and relentlessly cheered him on, becoming the rays of sunshine that convinced him with his brightness that everything would be okay.
Ethan, who followed him everywhere he went, never letting go and giving up on him no matter how often Silver pulled and ran away from him.
The answer came as Silver's lilac eyes locked with Ethan's sparkling gray ones.
He loved Ethan.
"Silver, are you okay?" Ethan asked, voice thick with concern, leaning up closer than he already was to squint at him. The realization that struck Silver was enough to make him falter, and he was slowly inching away from the rink's entrance if not for Ethan's steady grip, firm yet gentle at the same time. Then, Ethan dared to let one hand go to place it on Silver's forehead. "You don't have a fever, but you definitely look a bit dazed there. You don’t have to do this if you're exhausted, you know; I won't push again, I promise. We can do this some other time instead."
Oh, he truly loved Ethan, didn't he?
"No, I'm fine," Silver insisted, shaking his head. He further proved it by smirking, a challenging glint in his eyes, sweeping the world-tilting fact that he had just studied for now, willing it to non-existence. Ethan was waiting for him, and that was all that mattered tonight. "I don't want to miss a chance to laugh when you do fall."
As he watched Ethan grumble and, once more, nearly slipped backwards from the shake of his whining alone, Silver decided to tuck away his feelings and inspect them for another time.
Time, for once, was on his side. There was no greater evil looming above him, no crazed need to get strong so soon— in Pasio, Silver could take one step at a time, enjoying life all while striving for his goal.
For now, Silver continued to hold Ethan's hands and let the tingling warmth blooming in heart to wash over him. He could figure out where his love for his friend would fit in this world from here.