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“Galor romantic traditions” Kieran whispered to himself as he typed away on the league club computer. It didn’t take long for something to catch his eye. “In Galor, its traditional for people to give an applin to someone they have a romantic affection for and if they accept it means that you will stay together forever!” He began writing it down, but before he could finish a voice boomed from behind him. “Galor romantic traditions? Who do you know from Galor?” the familiar voice of a certain dragon type trainer pierced his ear drums. “Drayton, can you leave me alone for five minutes! And yes I know I’m in a public space, but you still could have some common decency!” Before Drayton could get a word in a flash of blonde hair entering the club room caught his eye. “Elijah!” Jumping at the chance to avoid this conversation with Drayton, although it WAS about Elijah, anything was better than continuing that conversation. “Kiki! I caught a bunch of foreign starter pokemon, want to see?” Kieran laughed at the sight of his best friend about to explode with excitement. “Duh! Which ones did you get?” As the two boys went to the couch and Elijah handed Kieran his phone so he could see, Drayton decided to leave the room to look for someone who always loved to have some sinistea spilled to them.
“Drayton! Get out of my room!” Carmine screeched as she hid behind her bathroom door. Drayton took a large bite out of an apple and just smirked. “I have some tea you might want to hear about, it involves your brother.” The slow blink he got as a response was all he needed to see and she slammed the bathroom door. It sounded like a herd of Tauros was in the small bathroom. Just as Drayton went for a second bite, the door slammed open. “Tell me!” The gleam in her eyes was bright. “Well, I caught Kieran looking up romantic traditions of the Galor region, I don’t know who that could be.” Drayton answered. “Galor? We have never been, I mean, the only person not from school that he has met was...” And that’s when it hit Carmine. “Is Elijah from Galor?”
“And then I caught this pink mudkip!” Elijah squeaked and as if on queue the mudkip popped out of its pokeball in between the two boys. “Kip!” the creature exclaimed and waddled over to Kieran and nuzzled his leg. “Awe aren’t you the cutest” Kieran smiled. He watched as the mudkip smiled and he looked up at Elijah and noticed he was turned away. This made Kieran frown a tad, so he went back to petting the mudkip, but little did Kieran Know, he wasn’t the only one with a crush. “H-hey Kiki?” Elijah asked. Kieran put a smile back on and looked over, noticing the slight redness on Elijah’s pale cheeks. “What is it Eli?” Just as he was about to speak, the league club door was slammed open. In came a storming Carmine, glaring at her younger brother. “Kieran, here NOW!” The crazed look in here meant Kieran KNEW she meant business, and even Kieran knew better than to try and fight it. “I-I’ll talk to you later Eli ok?” He couldn’t help but be amused by the look on Elijah’s face as he locked eyes with Carmine. “Ok Kiki, but if anything happens you better tell me.” The look of determination and just sheer intensity on the small blonde’s face was enough even to unsettle Carmine. “Nothing will happen, I don’t want to risk a losing battle.” Carmine sighed. Elijah smirked a little and waved to Kieran as he followed his sister out and before he knew it, Drayton was on the couch next to him. “So Elijah, I’ve been wondering, are you actually from Paldea, or did you just move there?” Elijah tilted his head to the side at the question, and before he could answer the league club doors slammed open again. “Where is my little buddy?” A familiar voice called out. “Arven?” Elijah got up and stretched a little and gasped as he was lifted into the air. “There’s our little menace!” Arven laughed as he put Elijah back down. “Don’t leave me out of that!” Another voice filled the room as Nemona ran in and pulled Elijah’s hat down, causing the two to laugh. “Hey guys! Where’s Penny?” Elijah asked as he looked at the door. “She had to help the league, something about someone hacking a psyduck virus.” Nemona answered. As the three friends were busy mingling together Drayton coughed, trying to get the group's attention. “I hate to ruin the moment, but are you from Galor Elijah?” Before Elijah had a chance to formulate a sentence Arven spoke up. “Yeah, he moved to Paldea from Galor” All Drayton did was raise an eyebrow. “Interesting, I’ll leave you guys to it.” Just as he spun around Elijah whispered in Nemona’s ear and the smile on her face spread. “Hey Drayton, I hear you are quite the trainer, I want to see that first hand!” Nemona was visibly shaking with excitement as Drayton tried his best to get out of it. “I, um, I can’t I gotta study for a test tomorr-” Nemona grabbed him by his sleeve and dragged him out of the room. “If Elijah says you gave him trouble I cannot WAIT for the chance to battle you, besides, you can study after!” Arven and Elijah both were cackling at the sight before them. “Poor Drayton, he has no idea haha.” Arven chuckled. Wiping his tears from his face Elijah turned to look at his older friend. “Um, Arven?” Elijah fidgeted a little and twirled a small piece of his blonde hair. “What’s up little bud? I know if you’re asking a question it must be serious.”
“What’s your deal! You can’t just storm in like you own the place!” Kieran complained as the siblings walked up to Kieran’s room. “I have literally been doing nothing besides schoolwork and I’ve apologized to everyone, what have I done!?” Carmine let out the smallest sigh. Kieran was right, and maybe she was overreacting. Kieran stormed over to his bed and Carmine let out one more sigh and shut the door. “Kiki....I”m sorry for everything I did....I want to prove to you that I care about you, I want you to be able to come to me with questions or just anything....” Kieran looked up in shock. “C-Carmine, did you just apologize?” The single tear rolling down her cheek was all the answer he needed and he quickly sprung up and gave his older sister a hug. “You may have no filter, be inconsiderate and push people’s buttons at times” He felt his sister tense up. “But, you’re my sister, and I would never want to change that for anything” Kieran felt the tears start to form, but a soft sleeve slowly and carefully wiped them away. “I guess you might be right” Kieran looked up and saw the tiny grin on his sister’s face. “And I wouldn’t trade you for anything either. I guess I should tell you what Drayton told me. Why were you looking up Galor romantic traditions?” The soft warm glow slowly spread across his face. “Do you promise not to tell?” Carmine shook her head rapidly. Kieran went back to the bed and sat down and did his best to relax. “Elijah is from Galor” Carmine just smiled. “So I was right! You have liked him this whole time!” Carmine jumped and swung her arm in the air. Kieran did his best to try and make his sister calm down. “Carmine! A little quieter please!” Kieran hissed, but it was useless. “When are you going to ask him out! God I can’t believe my own BROTHER is gonna have a BOYFRIEND before me!” Kieran just let out a long winded sigh and buried his face in his arm.
“What’s on your mind bud?” Arven asked as he was making himself and Elijah some lunch. Elijah fidgeted with his grass type hat as he watched Arven frying up the sausages for their lunch. “Have, um, y-hm, have you ever had a crush on someone?” Elijah asked as quietly as possible. “Absolutely, it was a long time ago, but what about crushes? Do you have a crush?” Without skipping a beat Arven flipped the sausages and fixed up the sandwiches, dressing up Elijah’s like it was nothing. “Before we go back to that topic, sausage, bacon, salt herba mystica, cheese, ketchup and to finish it off.” He whipped out a leafeon pick. “A pick that matches your partner pokemon” Elijah didn’t hesitate and grabbed the sandwich and took out a monster bite. “Dang Elijah, you’re about as hungry as a little munchlax?” Arven laughed. Elijah blushed a little bit and pulled the sandwich closer. “S-So what if I am that hungry?” And another large bite was taken out. Arven reached over and gave Elijah’s shoulder a pat. “I’m just messing with you buddy, but back to the main topic, who is your crush?” Elijah quickly scarfed down the rest of his sandwich and tapped on the desk. “You promise not to tell?” Arven nodded in response. “I, um, I like Kieran. And I want to ask him out, but with everything that happened, and it’s all just going back to normal, I just don’t know if I should ask him yet.” Elijah shrunk down in his seat. “I can see you two working, I mean, not gonna lie I always thought I was your best bud, but you two are inseparable! Did you have any idea how you would do it?” Elijah let out a giggle and got up and returned Arven’s pat from earlier. “You are still my best bud, Kiki is just in a different tier of best friend. As for how, we do have this one tradition back home.”
“So you just trade an applin and that's it,” Carmine asked. “That doesn’t sound that romantic. Why not try something else? Like just asking him out?” Kieran was busy typing away. Trying to tune out his sister the best he could, but it was a losing battle. “You don’t just ask someone like Elijah! He put up with me when I basically treated him like he was my most hated rival and I was so nasty to him. So this is how I’m doing it and I think he will find it cute.” Before he could go back to reading the laptop screen was closed. “What was that for?” Carmine grabbed his hair piece and yanked it out, causing Kieran’s hair to fall down. “If you want it to seem even cuter, you gotta go back to your old hairstyle. This edgy look really doesn’t fit you.” Kieran gasped and quickly lifted his hair out of his eyes. “Does everyone think it’s edgy? I wasn’t trying to go that route, so you really think I should go back?” Carmine just nodded. “I think your crush would really like to see that look back on you.” Kieran nodded and adjusted so Carmine could scoot behind him and help him revert back to normal.
“Have you found it yet? You have so many different pokemon in your pc storage!” Arven could feel him getting almost dizzy from all the scrolling Elijah was doing.”I know it’s here somewhere, I actually caught it for a time like this, my mom made me catch one, because this is how my dad asked my mom out. Oh no, I still have to tell my mom” Elijah’s face flushed bright red again. Arven let out a hearty laugh. “Wait, there it is!” Elijah yelped as he pointed at the screen. He quickly tapped it and hit add to the party. Elijah took his rotom phone and held it over the table and within seconds a red light shot out of the bottom, forming the pokeball right on the table. “Here he is, now, what should I do?” Elijah asked while hooking up applin’s ball to his belt. “Should I practice, like, pretending you’re Kiki or?” Arven shrugged and laughed in response. “I have no clue at this point, I’ve had a crush, but I, uh, never really went this far.” Elijah couldn’t help but let out a chuckle. “Um, I guess I’ll do it like how I approach most things in life.” Elijah locked his phone and grabbed his bag. “And how do you approach most things in life?” Arven asked with a single eyebrow raise. “I’m gonna wing it” Giving Arven a wink, the blonde headed towards the door, but like all day today, the club room door was flung open, colliding right into Elijah’s face. “Elijah! I’m so sorry!” The familiar voice exclaimed. “Owe....” Elijah groaned as he caught himself on the desk. “Elijah I really didn’t mean too!” After taking a moment to adjust himself. “It’s fine, is my face bruised?” He asked while feeling around his face. Carmine grabbed his soft chubby cheeks. “It doesn’t look like you are bruised. You have a soft face Elijah, these little chipmunk cheeks.” Carmine teased. Elijah sighed and went to adjust his hat, but it had fallen off. “They are munchlax cheeks thank you very much” Elijah stated and bent down to grab his hat. “Anyway, why were you racing like a wild pack of tauros in here? What a-” Carmine grabbed his hand and ran out the door. “Hey! What for me!” Yelled Arven, who was in hot pursuit of the two. Elijah was struggling to keep up with Carmine as she dragged him all the way to the terrarium, through the whole savannah biome, and finally stopping at a beach in the coastal biome. “Why did you bring me here? And can you let go of me?” Carmine was surprisingly apologetic . “I know, I’m sorry Elijah, just, please wait here for a few minutes ok?” Elijah nodded and plopped down in the sand. “You promise this isn’t some joke or prank?” Elijah questioned.
“I promise!” And with that, Carmine sprinted off in the opposite direction, leaving Elijah alone on the beach, the soothing sound of the water filling his ears. Elijah decided to place his backpack down and rested his head on it, allowing the breeze to relax him. After a while the soft sound of footsteps in sand graced Elijah’s ears, causing the blonde to sit up and stretch. “Who's there?” Elijah yawned and turned around. “Kiki, is that you?!” It was like they went back in time, it was as if they were meeting in Kitakami for the first time. “You like it?” Kieran tried his best to hide his reddening cheeks. “It fits you so well, I mean don’t get me wrong, the other look was good, but I like this” Kieran’s smile widened as he sat down next to Elijah and the two boys watched the water. They watched the water crash onto the shore. Kieran took a depth breath, because it was now or never. “Hey can we talk?” Both boys spoke in unison. They looked at each other and blushed. “You first Kiki” Elijah gestured. “O-ok” Kieran gulped and sat up. “Well, um, I wanted to let you know how thankful I am to be able to call you my best friend, especially after everything I did. You are the most amazing trainer and person I’ve ever met” Elijah felt his face stat to heat up. “It means a lot to hear that Kiki, um, to be honest, I was lucky to make some amazing friends when I moved to Paldea, and I feel like if they didn’t push me to be more outgoing, I might not have ever met you. You are so sweet, genuine, and one of the toughest people I know. I don’t know what i would do without you, actually, um I wanted t-I mean I ha-” “I have a pokemon I want to show you!” Both boys stopped and looked at each other. “I’ um, have been doing research into Galor, and I saw there was a tradition to trade an applin to someone thats very important to you, and I caught this for you.” Kieran reached into his pouch and pulled out a pokeball. And was greeted by Elijah also holding a pokeball. “I, um, caught this for you too.” And as if on command, the pokemon appeared and the two applins locked eyes and happily chased one another. “Um, Eli, um, w-would you go out w-” A peck on Kieran’s cheek stopped him cold. “Of course I do Kiki.” Kieran slowly blinked, a small stream of tears started to flow out, Elijah wiped his boyfriends tears. “T-thank you Eli, but you can’t cry either” Kieran smiled and wiped the tears forming from Elijah’s emerald eyes. “Do you want to go back to the dorms?” Elijah asked. Kieran nodded and the boys exchanged applin’s, each holding their new pokemon tightly to their chests with one hand, while they held hands the entire way through the terrarium.
“So Elijah confessed to you that he also liked Kiki!” Carmind squealed as she talked Arven’s ear off. “Yeah he did, I’m hoping they come back soon. I know they are strong enough, but even at night that terrarium can be intense.” Arven said while prepping another meal in the league room. “Elijah better not have lied to you and led Kiki on.” Carmine growled. “Shut it! You know Elijah would never hurt Kieran. Now let’s try to relax and enjoy dinner until they get back.” Arven growled back as he started getting plates ready. “What are you making Arven?” A familiar voice chirped. Carmine turned around and gasped when she saw it was Kieran. “Kiki! Thank Arceus you made it back, did Elijah lead you on?” Carmine grumbled. Kieran shook his head as right behind him was Elijah, both boys struggling to hold their excitement. “You better be treating him a lot better now Carmine, after all that's my boyfriend you are talking too.” The two got closer and hugged. “Wowzers that’s so cool to say” they giggled and went over to the couch. “Wait, Elijah and Kieran are dating?” Nemona gasped. “When did this happen? Did I really miss that much from battling Drayton and Crispin?”. Arven chuckled and shook his head. “Never change Nemona.” The whole gang let out a chuckle and Arven handed out plates and they all enjoyed a fine cooked meal. An hour passes and Elijah and Kieran are passed out on the couch, still sitting up, just resting against the other. Arven and Carmine observed them and Carmine had to take a picture. “Let me guess, blackmail for later?” Carmine giggled and tapped her phone a few times. “I’m not THAT evil anymore, sending that to our grandparents back home, figured they should know about their baby boy. So guess we bring them back to their rooms?” Arven agreed and carefully lifted up Elijah while Carmine did the same to Kieran.
One Month Later
“Are you sure about this Elijah?” Kieran adjusted his collar. “I’m just as nervous, but I mean my mom is going to love you” Elijah patted Kieran on the back. With one deep breath, Elijah unlocked the front door and they walked in. “Mom? I’m home!” The two boys took their shoes off and Elijah guided Kieran to the kitchen where his mom was busy making dinner. “Elijah! There’s my little battler! Who is this with you?” She gave Elijah a big hug. “This is Kieran, the boy I told you about from Kitikami!” Elijah’s mom gently pulled Kieran in for a hug, causing his face to blush a tad. “There is something I wanted to talk to you about.”
As the three of them sat at the dinner table, Elijah told his mom about everything that happened from the first visit to Kitikami to the Blueberry academy expedition and the pecharunt incident. “My goodness Elijah! Thankfully you are a strong trainer with equally strong pokemon! You could have gotten seriously hurt!” Elijah looked down. “I’m sorry mom” Kieran couldn’t help but feel guilty. “It wasn’t just his fault, I’m just as equal for the blame.” Kieran stepped in. Elijah’s mom walked behind them and ruffled their heads. “Neither of you boys is in trouble, to be honest, I”m a bit jealous of the journeys you two have already been on.” She smiled. Elijah turned in his chair and smiled up at his mom. “There was one more very important thing mom.” She gently cupped her son’s face in her hands “What’s that my little munchlax?” she smiled as she doted him. “Mom! Not in front of my boyfriend!” Elijah whined. “Wait, why didn’t you start off with that! My boy’s first relationship! I need to get some pictures!” she scooted off to her room to grab her phone when Elijah heard giggling to his left. “Little munchlax?” Kieran giggled. Elijah huffed and pouted in his seat. “I’ve always been a little soft ok? My whole family calls me that.” Elijah pouted in his chair. Kieran adjusted himself so he was facing the pouting blonde boy more. “I like it.” He smiled. “little munchlax.” He reached over and bopped Elijah on the nose. It didn't work the first time, but after a few a smirk slowly formed on his face. “Ok, I GUESS if you like it I can put up with it.” Elijah responded and gave Kieran a playful shove. Shortly after Elijah's mom entered the kitchen and took a few photos for Elijah's baby book. “So who asked who first?” She asked as they all cleaned up the table. “Well we kinda asked at the same time, but I want Kiki to tell you what we did.” This peaked her interest and she turned her attention to Kieran, who had a pokeball out. “Did you exchange applin’s?” She whispered. Kieran nodded and tears started to flow from her eyes. “That's how Elijah's Dad and I got together too. You are such a sweet boy Kieran, I know you will treat my boy well.” She gently wiped her tears and smiled at them. “You boys go relax and watch a movie ok?” They looked at each other and back at her. “Are you sure? We can help you clean up.” They said in unison. She gave them a nod and they carefully slid their chairs away. “Ok mom, love you!” They gave her a wave and bolted up the stairs and curled up on Elijah's bed. After watching a few movies it was midnight and Elijah fixed up a little side bed next to his and Kieran slipped under his covers while Elijah jumped into his own bed. Kieran’s bright yellow eyes locked with Elijah's bright emerald ones as they slowly drifted to sleep. “Good night Kiki” Elijah yawned. “Night Eli, don't let the joltik’s bite” Kieran stretched. A few giggles filled the room as they drifted off to sleep.