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Their first few meetings, Gladion always thought of Moon as a rival. Every time they battled, he would tell her that they weren’t friends. And every time he did, she had a strange look on her face, as if he were wrong about his statement. But he didn’t really pay it much mind.
But after everything they went through with infiltrating the Aether Paradise base, he couldn't help but appreciate her help. Mostly for what she did to help out Lillie, and their mother. Though he still saw her as his rival first and foremost. Not an enemy, but not a friend either.
After things had settled down, Gladion didn’t really know what to do. Lillie had gone to Kanto with their mother, but he decided that he would stay in Alola. He figured that someone had to stay.
One day, he had been pondering about what to do next. He had been thinking of doing the Island Challenge himself, to train his pokemon and become a stronger trainer himself. It seemed like a good idea, but he wasn't sure if he would do it, until Moon visited him unexpectedly.
"So you came..." He'd said, surprised.
"Well, I have been going around most places in Alola ever since I completed the Island Challenge. Sort of like a nostalgia trip. I figured I’d find you around here." She replied with her usual cheery smile.
He decided to entrust her with a Type:Null. As a gesture of appreciation and trust after all that she had done for Lillie. He also told her that he was thinking of seeing more of the world, maybe even doing the Island Challenge himself to check out the Pokemon League. Seeing her inspired him to actually go through with the idea. After all, becoming stronger than his rival was something that he had wanted to do.
As Moon was leaving, he'd looked at her with a smirk on his face, "I hear that Alola's got a strong champion."
So she looked back at him with a similar expression, "Looking forward to battling you."
Gladion thought that that particular meeting would only be one of its kind, but he had been wrong. During his journey through the Island trials, he'd managed to bump into Moon quite a few times - even as the champion she always seemed to have something to do out in the world.
At first it wasn't so frequent, they'd exchange pleasantries and maybe talk about the latest news in Alola. Though as time went on, they happened to see each other more frequently. She usually told him all about the pokemon she’s been catching, (“My pokedex is filling up with new pokemon all the time! I’m getting quite close to filling it up completely.”) the people who challenged her for the Champion position (“Hau is still determined to become a chamption, so I battle him almost weekly. One time, I had to battle Plumeria, which was certainly an interesting challenge!”) and how the Null that he had given to her had been doing. (“I think it'll evolve into a Silvally soon!”) Sometimes Moon told him about the letters Lillie had sent from Kanto, and he would tell her about the letters he had been receiving from her. On a rare occasion, he also shared stories about his own adventures on his way to the Pokemon League. Although he didn't want to admit it, he did enjoy the meetings they had. It had been nice to have someone to talk to.
After a long journey through the region and the long battles with the Elite Four, Gladion had finally reached his final destination - the Champion's Hall. Sitting in the Champion’s seat patiently waiting for him, Moon was ready for an intense battle. By then she had been a champion for a few years already, still undefeated.
The battle was long, and the outcome was very close with Moon’s Decidueye barely surviving an attack from Gladion’s Silvally at the very end, but Moon had managed to keep her position as a champion after all.
“I can see why everyone says you’re a strong trainer," he said after the defeat, "I’m glad I went on this journey. That I had a champion help me get stronger."
She looked at him with a confident smile saying, "For what it's worth, you've definitely been the toughest challenger I’ve had so far."
After Gladion's journey had come to an end, he'd mostly just hang around the Aether Paradise. With his family in Kanto, someone had to keep the place in check. But even though his journey of completing the trials had ended, Moon still kept visiting him from time to time.
During one of her visits, out of curiosity he decided to ask her, "Why do you keep coming here, anyway? Clearly you have quite a lot of things to do, and yet you still come to tell me all about it."
She seemed to be completely thrown off guard by the question. "Well... Lillie is still in Kanto, making her way through the Indigo League, as well as making sure Lusamine gets better, and Hau has started to train to become a Kahuna like his grandfather, so he's quite busy," she said after coming up with an answer, "I guess with everyone being so occupied with things, I figured, why not just talk to you? You’re really the one friend I have that is not too busy right now, so I get some company, and so do you. I'd say it's a win-win situation."
"Company, huh.."
Somehow, that conversation could not leave his thoughts. Even though he had told her many times during their encounters when she was on her own Island challenge that they're not friends, he realized that with how much they had been hanging out he probably can’t really say that they aren’t friends anymore. And maybe the said "company" was not so bad, either.
Their meetings had become practically weekly after a while. Moon would usually come by, and then they would go train their pokemon together or go around Alola taking pictures with Moon's Poke Finder. Other times they would just stay at the Aether Paradise talking, playing with the pokemon that inhabited the base. Gladion had really grown to like her, and was practically always looking forward to seeing her. There was a certain charm to every conversation he had with Moon that he couldn’t help but enjoy. At some point their talks had become not just telling each other what they're up to, but also sharing stories of their lives way long before they met, like how it was before Gladion’s father went missing, and what Moon’s life was like before she moved to Alola. Gladion was never really one to share details of his past, but somehow with Moon it was not all that difficult to do.
Lillie had sent Gladion yet another letter from Kanto to update him on their mother’s health, as well as various other bits about how she has been doing, which was basically what most of her letters consisted of. However there was one line that Gladion did not expect to see.
“You’ve been writing about Moon a whole lot in your letters lately! You guys seem to be close. Maybe even in a romantic way..?”
There was even a little heart after that sentence! Although Gladion knew that his little sister could be a bit of a romantic sometimes, he also thought she was insane for thinking there was anything going on between them, so he just wrote back that “There is no way our relationship is anything more than us being friends, and it probably won’t ever be.” Though after that particular line he also wrote about how much he enjoys spending time with Moon, and that it’s really easy to talk to her about basically anything. Even while writing the letter he had been subconsciously wondering about how she’s doing.
By the time he had sent the letter, he thought about how untrue his statement about his and Moon’s relationship was. He may have been denial about it, but he had really grown attached to Alola’s first Champion, but first and foremost the girl that helped out his sister – which he would always be thankful for. But what did she think of him? He thought that, surely, she didn’t feel the same way about him.
The next letter from Lillie had another line that captured his attention.
“Believe it or not, Moon also talks quite a lot about you in her letters to me. And even before I left for Kanto, I think she always looked at you in a certain way. Try to not be in denial too much, brother. I’m sure it’ll all work out.” With a cute smiley face at the end of the paragraph.
For Moon's 16th birthday, Gladion decided to visit her, instead of her visiting him like usual. He'd figured she would be busy on the big day itself, so he visited her the day before. He arrived at her house, and once she had answered the door, he offered to take her out for some malasadas out in the city to do something different for once. And besides, he wanted to do something nice for her upcoming birthday. Moon was pleasantly surprised by the sudden change of their usual get-togethers, but didn't complain about it.
They spent the day out in Hau’oli city, visiting almost every shop. Moon bought herself new clothes, (“They were on sale! I had to!”) and at the malasada shop Gladion bought two big malasadas for them both, and even though Moon complained that he wasn’t letting her pay at least half the bill, he insisted he would take care of it. By the end of the day, they were sitting on a bench outside the city looking at the sunset, enjoying the evening.
"Can you believe that it has been almost five years since we first met?" Moon suddenly said with a thoughtful expression.
"Has it really been that long? Feels like much less."
"You wanna know something?" she curiously asked.
"What?" Now he was curious as well.
"Back when I was still doing the Island Challenge, each time we battled and you told me we weren't friends, I always wanted to tell you that it wasn't true, but I never really did it." She sighed and continued, "Even though you only saw me as a rival then, I still thought of you as my friend. Maybe not the closest, but still a friend. I guess that is why over the last few years I've tried my best to become closer friends with you. With your family in Kanto, I felt bad leaving you all by yourself.”
With a bit of embarrassment, she added, “Besides, I always thought you were a bit mysterious, but also interesting, and I wanted to get to know you better. In a good way.”
Gladion was almost speechless. After gathering up his thoughts, he looked deep into her eyes saying, “It’s difficult for me to open up to people, but to think that you spent all this time trying to befriend me and never gave up on me, even though I might have been a bit less than friendly to you at times… That’s pretty amazing. You’re amazing. I just wish I had realized sooner that you were there for me this whole time. Spending time with you has been really great.”
Neither of them realized it, but they had come quite close as a result of the conversation - their faces were inches apart. Gladion leaned in, placing a kiss on her lips. After a few seconds, they pulled apart, smiling.
“I’ve enjoyed spending my time with you too, you know.” She quietly murmured, leaning her head on Gladion’s shoulder as he wrapped his arm around her.
They spent the rest of the evening enjoying each other’s company as always, and at the end of the night they both walked hand in hand back to Moon’s house. However, just before Gladion left, she demanded that he also come visit her the next day, - she didn’t want him missing her birthday, after all! Disregarding his own plans to leave her alone the next day, he promised that he would be there.
On what he thought was a peaceful day, Gladion was taking a stroll around the Aether Paradise, making sure everything was running as intended. Suddenly, he heard someone calling his name.
He turned around looking for the source of the voice calling for him, spotting Moon excitedly running towards him with a letter in her hand.
“What is it?”
“Have you gotten your mail yet?” She stopped right in front of him, heavily breathing from the running she had done, “Lillie told me in a letter that she has decided to come visit us later this week! We have to tell everyone the news!”
“All right, all right, calm down.” Gladion said with an amused expression. Moon’s happiness was always somehow contagious. Placing his hands on her shoulders, he continued, “How about you go and grab Hau as well, since I’m sure he’ll be happy to hear the news, I’ll go check my own mail, and then we can all meet up in Iki Town to plan what we’ll be doing when Lillie arrives. Does that sound good?”
“Sounds great! I’ll see you in about an hour then, okay?” Giving him a quick peck on the lips, she left with just as much excitement as she had when she arrived.
Gladion went over to the pile of mail he hadn’t quite gotten around to checking, and found a letter from Lillie. Indeed, she mentioned that she had some free time and decided to spend it by coming back to Alola for a few weeks. Their mother had recovered enough to not have to be in constant care as well, so she wouldn’t have to worry too much about that. At the very end it said:
“P.S. I told you it would all work out, didn’t I?”
Reading the last bit of the letter, he couldn’t help but smile. Of course Lillie had heard from somebody (most likely Moon, he figured) about their recent... relationship developments. He couldn’t deny that he was very happy about it. Frankly, he was quite content with his life for once, which was something he hadn’t felt in a long, long time. And a bit part of that was because of her. He was glad that it did, indeed, work out.
Later that week, the big day had come. Moon had planned out a great day for them all to catch up and have a good time. Hau was obviously very happy to help Moon with the plan from the very beginning. Gladion was excited to see his sister too, so he suggested some ideas here and there. But the best part of it all for him was seeing Moon so happy and determined to make Lillie’s visit the best visit she’s ever had.
Moon decided that since Lillie had become a trainer herself, she would give her Nebby. After all, Moon always felt bad taking the legendary pokemon, but since Lillie insisted she had no choice. Gladion wanted to show her how the Aether Foundation has been holding up while she was gone, and Hau was just excited to see her again and wanted to tell her all about his trainings to become a Kahuna and of course, have some malasadas to share with Lillie (and everyone else).
The three of them were standing at the ferry dock, patiently waiting for the ferry to arrive. Hau had even made a banner with “Welcome back to Alola, Lillie!” written in big letters for them to hold. Gladion never quite understood how Hau always managed to be so cheerful but he didn’t let it annoy him for once. After all, out of all of them, he was probably the most excited to see Lillie, and even though holding a big banner seemed silly to him, he went along with it anyway.
As soon as Lillie had made it to the dock, Hau ran right up to her to give her a tight hug. (“Lillie! I’m so happy to see you again!”) Moon went to join the hug not much later. Although Gladion tried to stay out of it, Moon managed to convince him to join their little group hug anyway, (“Come on now, Gladion, don’t just stand there all by yourself! Come join us!”) because, frankly, how could he resist her requests?
All four of them then went to Moon’s house to catch up. Moon’s mom had been out of town for a few days, so they had the house all to themselves. Lillie had many stories to tell about how different Kanto was compared to Alola, and how being a trainer is not so bad after all. (“But I always carry a lot of medicine with me. I still don’t really like seeing pokemon get hurt.”) while Moon, Gladion and Hau just told her all about the developments that have happened in Alola with the new Pokemon League while she was gone.
“Lillie, I have a gift for you,” Moon stated, digging deep into her bag.
“Oh, really?”
After a few seconds of digging, Moon finally found what she was looking for, - the pokeball containing Nebby. She presented it to Lillie, saying “I know that you insisted I keep Nebby, but now that you’ve become a trainer yourself, I think it’s only fair that I give it to you.”
“Moon... Really, you shouldn’t have,” holding the pokeball, Lillie managed to say through the tears of happiness that overwhelmed her, “Thank you so, so much.”
Placing a comforting hand on her shoulder, Moon was smiling, “You’re welcome. I always thought that Nebby should be with you. I’m sure you’ll take it on many great adventures back in Kanto.”
Later that evening, Lillie and Hau were off somewhere talking, while Gladion was trying to find Moon. Walking past the room where they were, he managed to overhear a little bit of their conversation.
“…you can tell that she makes him happy. They’re not really too open with their relationship in front of others, but whenever Moon and I hang out, he is basically the only thing she talks about.”
“Really? I’m so pleased to hear that it’s going so great for them both.”
Not really wanting to eavesdrop more, he went to the balcony where he found Moon looking at the night sky.
“There you are, I’ve been looking all over for you.” He said, “You all right?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just thinking about how nice it is to see Lillie again. Although she sends me letters constantly, it’s not quite the same as actually having her come back to Alola.” Sighing, she continued, “Too bad she’s not back for good yet. I bet the next few weeks will fly by like they were nothing and she’ll be leaving again.”
“True, I wish she could stay for longer as well. But hey, now she will have Nebby with her to always be reminded of us back here in Alola.”
Wrapping an arm around her waist, he asked, “How do you always manage to do it?”
“Do what?” laughing, she turned to face him.
“Make Lillie so happy… I mean, back when you were on your Island Challenge, she was always so happy looking up to you and so grateful for everything you had done for her, and now you’ve done it again with the gift. You’re the best person I think I’ve ever known.”
“Oh, please, stop giving me so much credit.” She sheepishly looked down, “I know that you have also worked hard to keep the Aether Foundation running and getting rid of everything that goes against the goal of the organization, just because you want Lillie to feel like it’s the place it once was when she is back for good.”
“Still, that’s not much compared to what you have done.”
“You really have to stop downplaying yourself so much.” Moon said, putting her arms around his neck and kissing him.
“It’s a bit difficult not to around such an amazing person, though.” Gladion retorted, leaning down for yet another kiss.