Chapter Text
You’d spent way too much time and put far too much effort into this. It was supposed to be a gag-gift for fuck’s sake.
Sighing and moving your hands away from your face you stared at your creation once more. A beautiful hand carved mirror, circular and about the size of both of your hands placed side by side. The wooden frame painstakingly carved to look like the petals of a camelia flower, all because Melli had let slip that his mother wanted to name him after the flower had he born a girl, but then stuck with it anyway because she could find a manly name that suited the cute baby he was.
Letting out a soft scream of frustration you let your head flop back into your hands and closed your eyes tight. This is so stupid, you thought as suddenly it occurred to you that if you gave him this there would be no denying that you had a crush on him.
For almost 2 months, you had spent almost every waking moment thinking about making this. A few days pondering the idea of one upping the smug warden by making him a sweet yet brutally sarcastic gift.
A few more days passed and you settled on the idea of a mirror, what a perfect gift for someone so self-obsessed.
A week and a small amount of theft, the wallflower may be missing some cutlery after your visit, and you had managed to source enough metal to make this half-assed plan a reality.
One day and a very suspicious clan leader and you had managed to find out where you could get a hold of some mercury.
Two days getting the mercury from the blacksmith and re-thinking your life choices.
Two more days learning as much as you needed and melting the metal and mercury into the shape you wanted before safely boiling the mercury away and handing it back to the blacksmith to store properly.
A week of pestering the local glassblower into teaching you the basics plus 2 days doing the man a small favour (read. Bribe) to get him to let you in his forge and use his equipment.
One day to blow the glass needed and cut it to size.
Three more days debating with yourself which wood would be best, ranked on how pretty it looked versus how easy to carve.
Three more days locating a tree in your wood of choice that had already fallen down. You liked Melli, but not enough to waste a whole tree.
Two weeks making sure the piece of wood you had hacked off, admittedly less than gracefully, had dried out properly before carving.
Four more days going back and forth on the design, practising on off cuts of the tree you brought with you in case you messed up too badly.
Finally, a whole 56 days later, you had finished the carving.
Looking back at your creation, you began to wonder if it was even worth it. Let’s face it you were no artist. You weren’t sure if anyone else could tell what type of flower it was supposed to be and you sure as hell weren’t going to ask them because then you’d have to admit you’d spent over a month overly committed to a petty act of “thoughtfulness”.
Setting the mirror, aside you opted to go to sleep; it was after all roughly 3am, your eyes were weary from all the concentrating and mood sour from over-thinking.
It took four more days for your mood to brighten again and for the “fuck it, why not” part of your personality to kick back in.
So here you are, finally, trekking up to the Moon View Arena silly little gift in tow. Excitement and adrenaline building again, you almost didn’t stop to feed the Magikarp by the waterfall but couldn’t resist their sweet little faces. It turned out to be a great calming exercise as by the time you were ready to set back off again you had collected yourself and felt almost normal.
At the summit of the mountain, you begin feeling nervous again though. Why had you brought a mirror all the way here? His tent was back at the settlement. I should have made a smaller one to fit in his satchel, you thought bitterly realising you could have saved yourself a lot of time if you had been a bit cleverer than you were. Would he hate it? That’s what you kept thinking most. Would it be one silly joke too far?
Deciding you weren’t carrying the thing back home you vowed you would just have to suck it up and give Melli the gift. Whether he took offence or teased you mercilessly for having such a big crush on him, today was the day and the quicker you plucked up the courage to hand it over the quicker you could leave.
Tucking the mirror out of view, you found him in his usual spot by the entrance looking as bored and entitled as ever.
“What do you want?” He muttered bitterly, rolling his eyes as you approached.
“Well damn, is that any way to greet your one and only friend?” Faking offence as is your two’s usual go to method of communication.
You were met with silence for long enough to make it awkward. Upon further inspection he did seem rather upset, cringing internally thinking you might have fucked this up way earlier than excepcted, you would have pushed further had he not resumed the conversation.
“Friends usually visit. It’s been a whole month since you came to see me here.” Folding his arms he turned his gaze away, lips pressed thin in anger but eyes betraying a sadness you weren’t expecting.
“I’m sorry Mells, I’ve been busy. Besides you see me at home all the time, your tent is basically right next to mine, remember?” It wasn’t, it was across camp but you were making a point, you had seen him every day since you fell from the sky in the highlands and they let you join the Diamond clan. Tutting and moving to tuck a strand of hair behind your ear as best you could while trying not to drop the mirror, you continued cutting him off when he looked like he was about to argue. “Anyways, that’s over now, I am no longer busy so expect regularly scheduled visits from now on!”
“Good! It’s about time you remembered that the great Melli is a priority and not a mere after thought” He never stopped pouting but at least this pout seemed to be mostly for the drama. Looking at you suspiciously, he appeared to notice you were hiding something behind your back.
“I can see you looking, Nosy! And yes, it’s for you. Now before I give this to you, you have to promise you won’t get all bitchy, this took way too much time and effort to make and if you don’t appreciate it, I will take it back.” Looking away and fiddling trying to get the mirror untangled from a thread on your tunic you didn’t register Melli’s mild panic at your words.
Thrusting the mirror into his hands a bit too quickly you looked back up at him expecting a smug face as he bragged about how you must recognise his flawlessness and great importance. Needless to say, you were more than a little stunned to see him blushing brighter than the sun; the red staining his face as he stuttered, mouth opening to speak then closing again in quick succession.
“Nice Magikarp impression, is that what you’ve been working on while I was away?” Not quite understanding his reaction you tried to play it cool although, by your own admission, failing.
Laughing nervously when you still get no reaction, you make a move to leave as all at once every negative thought you have had about doing this washed over you again.
“Okay, well, I’ll see you then. I should get back to the settlement anyway, I need to collect berries for dinner, I gave all mine to the Magikarp again. Tell Lord Electrode that I love him and I’ll visit again soon.” Clicking your fingers and shooting him the finger guns, you back away slowly before turning around very quickly and all but running until you’re out of sight of the arena.
Arceus, are you serious? Did you seriously let me make the awkward finger guns at him? WHY? I’m going die! I’m going to bury myself, in a hole, and I’m going to die! This went so much worse than I thought it would. I now have a grand total of no friends, zero.
Your journey back to your tent should have been a long one but in between all of your intrusive thoughts and fretting you felt like you got home in less than a blink.
Now you were almost home you could barely keep your eyes clear of tears, feeling them spill over and slide down your face as you walk through the middle of camp. People were staring at you again and though not for the first time, this time was definitely the worst it made you feel.
Wiping your eyes on your sleeves and trying not to look at anyone you made your way back to your tent, cringing again on the inside when you had to pass Melli’s tent. You think to yourself how differently this would have gone if you had just chickened out and left it by his door anonymously, but now you felt stupid and you had ruined the friendship and you knew it was your fault but you didn’t understand why it was that bad.
Closing the door to your tent with a loud bang you slid to the floor and couldn’t stop yourself anymore, you started to sob, thoughts spiralling trying to make sense of Melli’s reaction and your own emotions. Trying to calm down by rationalising that you’re only taking this so hard because of your crush on him, followed by more crying because you admitted to yourself you had a crush on him.
You confess, most of your feelings had been pushed to the back burner since you fell from the sky in a bid to keep yourself sane, this was just the final straw for you. Despite it only being late afternoon, you moved over to your bed and got under the covers, fully dressed with the exception of your shoes, and you cried yourself to sleep trying to process everything that had happened to you that you had been trying not to think about.
****
You woke early the next morning to sunshine and the chirping of bird Pokémon and for the first time in a long time, you felt lighter, a weight lifted off your chest.
Laughing at yourself and how dramatic yesterday’s events were, you wandered out of the house to collect the berries you had neglected to pick on your way home. Making a mental note to ask Adaman or Mai when you saw them if they thought your gag gift was a little too far. Sure, you could knock on Melli’s door and ask him but hey, you were feeling better, not brave.
As luck would have it, on your way home with the berries, Adaman found you. Leaving Melli’s tent, he spotted you by the campfire on your way back. Waving to get your attention, he jogged over, joining you on the rest of your journey.
“Hey!” you began, sounding a little bit too cheery for your own ears. Trying to dial it down as you carried on more than a little bit embarrassed still. Gesturing towards Melli’s tent you resume what you feel is going to be the start of a very long conversation. “So, I have a few questions, if you are free to help? I assume you know the basics but I’ll fill you in anyway. I think I fucked up but I’m not sure how badly.”
“Yes, so I’ve heard.”
You cringed outwardly at that. True, Adaman was smiling but his smile was a little too wide for this to be anything but embarrassing for you. Groaning, you nodded and began to recount the events of yesterday and parts of your thought process from the month before, hoping that Adaman won’t make fun of you or think you were being overly mean. By the end of the conversation, Adaman’s grin could only be described as shit-eating. He was barely keeping himself together, clearly clued into something that you were not privy to. You hated the feeling of someone knowing something you didn’t at the best of times but the longer Adaman went without commenting on what you’d just admitted to the more you wanted to hit him.
Finally, at the door to your tent after only around a minute of actual silence, Adaman met your gaze and broke down in a fit of laughter. Not that you weren’t expecting that, but it was annoying when all you wanted was a straight answer.
“Adaman!” You protested as he tried to catch his breath. “Just out with it already. What did I do and is Melli mad at me?”
Straightening himself and trying to be professional he took a deep breath before explaining, you groaned internally as he started to talk about the almighty Sinnoh thinking this was going to be some weird religious ramblings but the more he explained the more it started to slowly dawn on you what he was working up to.
“So, to summarise, Sinnoh controls time and time is precious to our clan and the fact that you gave a lot of your time to make him a gift means … well.”
“I think I get it.” You interrupted trying desperately to get this to stop. Your face felt flushed and burning hot and you were pretty sure you would never be able to look Melli in the eyes again out of sheer embarrassment.
“Just to be clear, but mostly because you’re pretty much my sister-in-law now and embarrassing you is fun, and I really want to hear you say it, please tell me what you did.” the grin still plastered on his face.
Mumbling as quietly as you could get away with and covering your face self-consciously, you finally acknowledged what you’d done.
“I proposed to Melli”.