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Lana and Mallow sat side by side in the shade of the tree in the Ketchum house’s side yard, their bags packed and ready close by. They and Ash were going camping in a nearby forest, and the two girls were just waiting while Ash helped his mom with something inside.
Lana sat against the rough bark watching as Mallow stroked Applin's eye stalks, to which he warbled delightedly. It’d been just about a week since Ash had gifted him to Mallow and the two of them officially became a couple, somewhat to Lana’s surprise. She’d always been aware of their chemistry, and she supposed it made sense that they would develop proper feelings once they started spending significantly more time together, after Mallow moved into his mom’s house, it just hadn’t been something she expected.
“Are you going to give him a nickname?” Lana asked her girlfriend.
A slight pause, and then she answered, “No, I don’t think so. He seems to like just going by ‘Applin,’ so I don’t see a need to change it.” She lifted him off of her lap and stroked the sides of the fruit with her thumbs, “Don’t you, Applin?”
“App!” the Pokemon responded cheerily, poking the rest of his head out of the apple that made up its home. Mallow brought him to her face and nuzzled him with her nose, smiling widely as Applin made delighted noises.
Lana smiled in turn. It’d been a long time since she’d seen Mallow this happy; not even when she had confessed her own feelings to her.
Mallow’s energy shifted, and her smile faded a bit. Lana took notice, and asked her, “Mallow? You okay?”
“Yeah,” the green-haired Alolan said, a touch of sadness in her voice. She lowered Applin back onto her crossed legs and continued, “I just… started thinking.”
“About?” Lana queried. She sat up so she could look Mallow in the eye easier.
“Well, now that Ash and I are, y’know… and I know it’s silly of me, but. I can’t help but feel like I’m stealing him away from you, a little bit. After you waited so long to tell him how you felt, and I even helped you do it.”
“I love him, I do. I just… can’t help but feel a little bad about it,” she finished with a quiet laugh.
She turned her eyes to meet Lana’s and balked. The dumbfounded, and a little angry, expression on Lana’s face obviously hadn’t been what she expected.
“Mallow,” the bluenette started, the bluntness of her tone beguiling her frustration, “If anybody is stealing him away, it’s me stealing him from you. Which is still not true, by the way.”
“Huh?” Mallow said.
Lana positioned herself to fully face her girlfriend, “Honey, I thought we talked about this? Thinking about yourself.”
“I- I am!” Mallow stammered, her face lightly flushing in embarrassment, “It’s just-!”
Lana cut her off, “Did you see Ash get upset, or think I was being ‘stolen away,’ when literally ten minutes after we started dating I kissed you?”
“...No?”
“Exactly!” Lana exclaimed. She cupped Mallow’s face in her hands and kept going, “Mallow, I haven’t seen you this happy in years! I love that for you! For us! I love that Ash makes you so happy, the way he makes me happy!”
Mallow stared into Lana’s eyes as she continued, “And I know he would say the same thing in my place, because he loves you. I love you. It makes me happy seeing you happy, and I don’t want that to change because you think you’re coming between me and him, you’re not. I promise you’re not.”
She pulled Mallow in for a kiss, which she reciprocated. Her lips tasted sweet, as though they’d been dipped in honey.
The Water type specialist released Mallow from the kiss, and removed her hands from her face; she slid her fingers between Mallow’s resting on the ground between them. “No more of that,” she almost commanded, “Please?”
Mallow flushed again, sweetly this time, and replied, “Okay. No more.”
Lana smiled. “Thank you,” she said.
The two stared lovingly into each other’s eyes for a moment, before the silence was broken.
“There’s my girls!” a male voice cried. The two Alolans turned to see Ash, striding towards them with his bag slung over his shoulder. “You ready to get going?”
Lana was already slipping her bag onto her back as she stood to meet him. “Mhm,” she said enthusiastically. She reached down and grabbed Mallow’s things from the ground next to her.
Mallow began to get up as well, before Ash offered his hand to help her up. She took it, and the Kantonian boy yanked her up.
“Whoa…!” she exclaimed as she collided with his chest, her hand still in his. Ash cracked a toothy grin, then kissed her.
A brief moment of surprise before she melted into him, kissing him back passionately. Lana watched with a small smile on her face.
The two broke apart, and Ash wrapped his arm around Mallow’s waist with her at his side, then pulled Lana in to do the same as he said, “Let’s get going!” The trio left the shade of the tree side by side, laughing as they set off from the house and on to their own little adventure.