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lord knows it would be the first time 2:23pm , rocky cliffsides, pasio
"Haven't you thought of giving up a dream you can't reach?" Silver cocked his hip and spat with an accusatory tone. He certainly had.
It was a sunny day, as summer peaked its head through the vast canyons and bathed what it could reach in its dry glory. Trainers flocked to the beaches that lined Pasio in droves, giving Silver ample room to breathe in a valley so often populated by hikers and rangers.
On such a lovely day,–as Lyra had celebrated in the group chat Silver both muted and checked daily with far too many sun emojis–Silver was considering giving up.
Not on life itself, he was still hot on the trail of destiny, chasing with evenly paced steps, but on the dream that haunted his subconscious for months following Eusine's hunt for Suicune.
Months after he defeated Lance and claimed victory, months after he found himself on the next goal of his life mission.
Months of nothing and nothing, because he was uncharacteristically cowardly to take the first step.
He had to tell Ethan how he felt. Whether the response was a surprised, yet gentle rejection, or a rift of silence that would stretch forever between their friendship, he had to do it.
Silver wasn't deluded enough to plan out what would happen if his feelings were mutual, he knew what the answer would be. Perhaps that was why he'd procrastinated this for so long. It was useless to prove knowledge he already knew, and he'd just be wasting energy that could be put into something useful, like training.
Speaking of training… Silver was on autopilot as he watched his Tyranitar and Sneasel trade blows. They'd gotten to a point long ago where orders were no longer needed to train amongst themselves, leaving Silver to fill in the time with his own, personal training.
Most trainers built stamina throughout their journey, that was a given, but Silver knew that he'd need an edge most trainers wouldn't think to build. He wasn't muscular by any means, as his gangly limbs felt more like thin tree branches than defined muscle, but there was a strength to him that most wouldn't think was there.
His favorite activity, despite his 'plant your heels and raise hell upon them' strategy when it came to challenges, was running. Short distance, long distance, whatever the length, Silver would tackle the race one day.
Unfortunately, running and steep valleys did not go together. One wrong step and he could plummet into a maw of fangs ready to swallow him whole. That didn't mean Silver didn't try. He paced around with a light jog, slowing to a crawl around sharp turns and lengthening his stride when the path widened.
He'd made it halfway around the twisting pathways and cliffsides before he almost ran into someone. Shoes scraped against rocky ground as he wobbled forward dangerously, only to be steadied by firm arms wrapping around his upper arms.
"Looks like someone's got somewhere to be!" Ethan grinned, barely reacting when Silver pushed him away–lightly, because he wasn't about to get charged with manslaughter by pushing him off the cliff–and scowled.
"Are you here for a battle?" He demanded, mostly because that was his natural reaction to seeing the boy. Unsurprisingly, Ethan shook his head 'no', and pulled his bag off his shoulder.
Silver shifted on his feet, visibly confused as he rummaged through it. After what felt like hours (less than thirty seconds), Ethan lifted a box from his bag and shoved it into Silver's chest, forcing the redhead to raise his hands and catch it.
Looking down at the plastic container, Silver realised it was a lunch box.
"You don't have to eat it, if you don't want it." Ethan rushed to explain, grin pushing into nervous territory. Rightfully so, when so many of the offers extended to the boy earned a frustrated scoff in response. "I just made too much food and I didn't want to waste it, so I thought maybe you could use it–"
"Thanks–" Silver tried to cut off his yammering, but Ethan mustn't have heard him.
"Even if you don't like it, some of your team might, since all the food I cook is made with Pokemon-safe food–"
"I'll try it." He said, even louder. Ethan stopped with an audible click of his teeth clacking together. Blank shock gave way to an earth-splitting grin. The exact smile that Silver loved so much it made him do the stupidest things, like this.
"Are you doing anything else today?" Silver tilted his head minutely, a quirk he'd annoyingly picked up from Kris. He mentally kicked himself after, because he was supposed to be training, not suffocating himself with the presence of the other.
Ethan shrugged. "Nothing important."
"Nothing important" from Ethan was much different than those words from others. Ethan considered everything important, even down to 5 minute tasks. Silver knew–and he hated that he was so familiar with the deeper meanings of the boy's words, but Ethan was his rival and he needed to know so he could use it to his advantage–that this meant his entire day's schedule was empty.
If Silver was any more stupid, he'd allow a delusion of hope to manifest. Ethan cleared his schedule out with the intent of bugging Silver regardless of his response to the offered food.
Silver was smart enough to realise that his imagination loved to run amok when left unchecked.
He was also so out of tune of how functional teenagers emotions and feelings worked that he didn't stop to think about how that was exactly what Ethan would do.
"Do you want to train with me?" Silver blurted out, clutching the box in his arms a little tighter.
Please say no. Please say no. Please–
"I don't have anyone to train right now, Ambipom ran off earlier to climb the cliffs, Typhlosion's taking a huge nap and Lugia wanted to take a solo flight–" Yes! "–but I'd love to watch one of your training sessions! Your methods are so interesting!"
Flattering, yet Silver couldn't help but scowl. A wasted offer, because there'd be no training achieved on this occasion.
"Okay. Follow me."
He got thirty minutes worth of training before he couldn't concentrate any more. Ethan mock cheered like a rowdy crowd watching a battle, and called out several times with advice Silver would never have thought of on his own, and it was throwing him off more than it should be.
He gave this energy for all of his friends–strangers even!–yet this time felt… different. It felt genuine, like Ethan was truly excited to watch his progress.
The day was waning, dousing the mountain in soft pinks and sharp shadows. They'd climbed up onto a flat peak, giving them a view of one of the coasts of the manmade island. Dotted figures began to disperse on the shoreline, no doubt retreating before the bite of the cold twilight reared its ugly jaws.
It had gotten later than he realised, and by the time Silver took a seat on a rock beside Ethan, he was exhausted.
"Snack time?" Ethan grinned, lifting the plastic container and giving it a little shake. Silver just nodded, because his brain was too jumbled to form full responses.
At least his Pokemon looked happy, as Sneasel continued to wrestle with his Feraligatr with as much energy as when they started. The berry pouch in his bag looked suspiciously empty, too. Where he would have hissed and ordered for hours more training mere years ago, Silver just sighed and looked away. He'd given them food and water throughout the day, but he couldn't blame Sneasel for wanting more. She'd always been sneaky like that.
Silver looked back at Ethan, blinking twice because his mind was lagging behind a second late.
"Do you have anything?" He muttered,–well, sneered, but there was little malice in his tone–making Ethan duck his head with a sheepish grin.
"I've got some energy bars in my bag."
Silver raised a brow, took the box from Ethan's hold and opened it. Inside were several different things, sectioned by neat dividers that kept each food sealed. One corner, the smallest, held a densely packed collection of greens, dotted with sliced tomatoes, cucumbers and some white chunks of…
"It's got tofu in it." Ethan chimes in, as if that'll help Silver. He eyed the squares with distrust, which made Ethan giggle into his hands.
"It's not gross, I promise."
Admittedly, the salad looked…unappetizing. He wasn't the biggest fan of tomatoes, preferring the similarly named berries more.
Lavender eyes slid from the salad to the next box, which contained a curry rice with chopped up Tamato berries mixed in. Spicy curry rice…His mouth watered at the sight. Suspicion grew stronger as he shot Ethan a side glance.
Ethan couldn't handle spice. He started sweating at the smell of Tamato berries. Silver loved spicy things, however. He could eat several of those berries without breaking a sweat. Suddenly, the chance of Ethan just so happening to make extra lunch, out of ingredients he didn't like, and running into Silver by accident slid into beyond coincidence.
He made him food. Ethan made Silver lunch, with his favorite meal. A real, homecooked meal made with love. If Silver was a weaker man, he'd tear up.
"You alright?" Ethan leaned closer, his shoulder brushing against Silver's own gently. His face was pinched with worry, and Silver hated how pretty he looked in the soft pink lighting.
He couldn't help but stare at his lips and–
"Silver?" Ethan prompted, snapping Silver from his reverie.
"I'm fine." He gritted his teeth and pulled his head away, eyes stinging. "The spice stung my eyes."
A lazy excuse, but Ethan bought it with zero hesitance. That naivety would be his undoing one day.
Not today though. Not as long as Silver was around.
"I didn't make the caramel slice." Ethan hummed, pointing at the third box and forcing Silver to focus. Indeed there was caramel slice. Four slices, to be exact.
Silver didn't know what this was either. He never indulged in sweets like others his age did, and even now that he had a stable enough home and more money than he knew what to do with,–thanks to Geeta, Lance, and his Tyranitar–Silver abstained from the sweets shops that Lyra dragged the other three Johto trainers to.
Silver picked up the utensils–a fork and spoon, both wooden and susceptible to snapping at the lightest forces–and passed the former to Ethan.
"Wh–" The boy began, tilting his head like a lost Houndour.
"You can have the salad. I don't like tomatoes."
Ethan couldn't help but grin–and Silver was so used to the sight yet still so caught off guard every time–at the other's offer.
"Thanks, Silv' " He mumbled, and scooted even closer, which pushed Silver to move across on his rock, so there was enough room for the both of them to sit on the same rock. Thighs brushed against each other as Ethan made himself comfortable, and he pressed himself into Silver's side, truly stretching the limits of what the boy was willing to put up with today. He was already sweaty from the day spent in the sun, and though he'd stripped his jacket and revealed a plain tank top beneath, Ethan's proximity was still enough to make him feel hotter than the sun.
They ate in silence, for the most part. Because Silver was too uptight to admit out loud that the food was really good, and Ethan was too focused on stabbing the dull wooden prongs through more than one leaf.
The silence continued, stretching from a minute to five, to ten, to twenty and further to thirty. It's the longest Silver's seen Ethan be quiet.
The sun was even lower in the sky now, just barely peeking out from the horizon. They sat in the growing darkness, watching as the golden glow sunk further and further into an ocean so vast that it could stretch on for years.
"Thank you." Silver muttered, snapping the lid back on and placing it by his feet. The caramel slice was still packed inside, but Silver wasn't keen on sweets so soon after a meal like that.
He didn't want to move from where he sat, pressed up against Ethan in a rare display of kindness, but the sun was sinking further into the horizon, and the night was growing colder.
"It's nothing, really. I'm glad you liked it." Ethan smiled. Soft and round and private, a smile reserved only for him at this time, and this moment. He can't stop staring, staring at his eyes then moving to his lips, back to his eyes and desperately anchoring there so he didn't keep looking at his lips like a creep.
"I know you made it for me." Silver said, mostly to distract himself. He looked away, eyes settling on the now-empty beach far below them.
Ethan giggled, leaning into his hand as his shoulders shook.
"How'd you figure that out?"
Silver raised a brow, and that was all Ethan needed for an answer. He collapsed into a fit of giggles into Silver's side, fingers curling around his arm for support, so he wouldn't fall off the rock. It wasn't funny, but Ethan was laughing so merrily that it was a disease. Airborne, terminal, sickening.
"If we're talking about something you want to happen, no matter what..."
Silver has never wanted to kiss someone more in his entire life. Which, admittedly, he had a rather low pool to gauge the most from, but the point was still there. He looked so soft, so kind and carefree and unburdened by the world around him.
Silver was tarnished, unpolished and scratched up. He was the rot and decay and everything wrong with the world, yet Ethan shared his life with him, he kept up with his pace and pushed for him to reach further.
Ethan made him lunch, he cheered him on and what has Silver done for him?
Before he could stop himself, Silver surged forward and wrapped his arms around Ethan. The other boy let out a squeak of surprise, muffled as his face was pressed into Silver's tank top.
"Thank you for everything." Silver mumbled into the crook of his shoulder, as his arms tightened further around Ethan. Weakness like this was never something he allowed himself, but with Ethan, it felt like it was just another part of him.
He thought he hated Ethan for the longest time, but he really just hated how Ethan made him feel.
Ethan wrapped his own arms around Silver, as tight as the other's hold and maybe tighter.
"You've come so far." Ethan hummed, shifting his head so that his chin rested on Silver's shoulder. "I'm so glad I got the chance to watch you grow."
"I–" His voice caught in his throat, and he tried to swallow down the lump forming in his throat. Ethan pulled back, his hands falling from where they bunched into his shirt and instead weaving themselves together with Silver's fingers. He stood up, pulling the somewhat confused Silver with him. The redhead stumbled on shaking legs, but Ethan wrapped him back into a hug and swung him around lightly.
"Thank you for being a thorn in my side." Silver muttered, hating how weak he sounded. This weakness was not something the world would ignore politely. Hungry Mandibuzz stared and waited for the right moment to sink their claws in. Ethan chuckled and the birds scattered, leaving a still beating heart in their wake.
The redhead pulled back, or maybe Ethan did, or both. It was hard to tell when his brain was working fifty miles a minute. Hands slid from Silver's back to his upper arms, and Ethan looked up at him with a wide grin.
If Silver was baring his heart for the world–because Ethan was his world–to see, what was one more confession. His lips parted, words blooming on his tongue and coating it in acid.
"Can I kiss you?" A voice whispered, and it took him a second to realise that it wasn't his own. Ethan looked as surprised as Silver felt, like he didn't even realise it was him who said that. Before the glimmer could dull with rushed apologies, Silver reached forwards and cupped Ethan's face.
"Can I?" Silver muttered, tilting Ethan's head up and towards him. The boy nodded slightly, and Silver closed the gap between them with a firm kiss planted onto his lips. It was short but sweet, and it was obvious to the both of them that they were amateurs at best. When Silver pulled back–he realised he was leaning down to match Ethan's height–a gasp broke the silence between them. It was Silver's, and he knew because the inhale that followed was sharp and stabbed his lungs.
He didn't apologise, because Ethan had asked him in the first place and he wasn't sorry for how much he enjoyed it, but he felt such shame at the fact he enjoyed it that it pierced his heart–
"Wow." Ethan exhaled, face splitting into a giddy grin. He began to rock on his heels, vibrating at a frequency that grew exponentially to the point where it was invisible to the naked eye. "Can I–That was– Oh my gosh–"
He kept stumbling over his words, starting a sentence only to abandon it after a few words. His grin was blinding and Silver hated it and he hated Ethan and he hated everything. A blushing mess, breathing uneven and tight and painful–
Silver wasn't sure if he was describing himself, or Ethan.
"Can you do that again?" The shorter boy finally spat out, grinning up at Silver. His eyes sparkled in the moonlight–Silver didn't even realise it had gotten so dark out. Kris and Lyra would probably start looking for them soon–and Silver couldn't refuse the offer.
He kissed Ethan again, this time longer and much more confident than before. When he finally pulled back once more, Ethan giggled and pushed forward, burying his face into Silver's chest with a tight hug. Silver curled around the boy, resting his face in the crook of Ethan's neck and allowing himself a moment of thought.
If this was a dream–which it certainly felt like–, then Silver didn't want to wake up.
"Do I look like I'd have something like that?"
Eusine had once asked him if he had a dream, and Silver was quick to snap and deny it. But, as he closed his eyes and squeezed Ethan tighter, he knew he had been lying.