Green-eyed For Green Eyes
Even though Aaron is the weakest of the Elite Four, he is surprisingly the most popular, which makes Lucian jealous; though, not for the reasons people assume. EliteUnder, Lucian/Aaron

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It was just the perfect time of day to curl up in a corner of his room to read a nice novel, pretty much like every other day Lucian was waiting for a challenger. Though, he didn't mind the lack of challengers that came his way. Rather, he preferred not having to battle as he was usually more interested in his many books than a battle with possibly the future champion. Battles did interest him from time to time, though, but reading books brought him more excitement than any battle, any day.

With that, the peace and quiet looming around his room served him well. It was just what he needed to enjoy and get absorbed in his new nove—

"Kyah!" The feminine and high-pitched squeal made Lucian bring the new, shiny book in his hands down, pondering slightly on what exactly was responsible for that sound, even though it was evident it came from a young girl. Maybe she lost to one of the other three elitists? No, the tone sounded too happy, like she was overjoyed.

Meh, it didn't matter much to Lucian, as long as it didn't happen again.

Peace having been restored in his room once again, he raised the book back up to his face, burying his nose within the monochromatic pages, the smell of a new book flirting with his nostrils. Page after page was turned, and the silence lingered uninterrupted in his room—exactly what he wanted.

Though, it came to the moment when he was just about to finish the remaining last words in the last paragraph of whatever page he's on when he heard the same, obnoxious squeal he had heard before. However, unlike last time, it was louder and was definitely made by a group of girls—not just one.

The psychic-type elitist sighed quietly and slipped a fancy bookmark into the book, placing it gently onto the ground, and started walking towards to Flint, the fire-type elitist's, room, seeing as his was right next to Lucian's.

The redhead was lounging around his room, toying with his fingers in an effort to amuse himself, when he noticed Lucian come into his room, thus filling his brown eyes with newfound happiness and joy. "Yo, Lucian," the redhead greeted in his ever so-flamboyant nature, walking up to the purple-haired man to offer him a high five.

Lucian just nodded his head, completely ignoring Flint's lone hand in the air, and abruptly asked, "What was that noise?"

Flint's eyes fluttered in confusion, but when realization finally kicked in after a few minutes of cluelessness, he started laughing out loud and shot him his infamous, huge grin. "Ah, you mean Aaron's fangirls?"

Lucian looked dumbfounded. "Fan… girls?" The man had completely forgotten about the bug-type elitist's sudden popularity with the girls when he had joined the Elite Four, possibly due to his younger stature and cute, teenage dream boy features. Not that he'd notice at all.

"Yeah, fangirls! You can see for yourself!" Flint pointed his thumb towards his door, which lead to Bertha's room, but Lucian knew he was actually talking about going down to Aaron's room.

Lucian, however, wasn't going to do that. He twirled around on his heel and said his goodbye to Flint, though the redhead seemed persistent in proving to the purple-haired man that Aaron did have fangirls (even though Lucian already knew, but Flint obviously wasn't the slightest bit aware of that). Flint wrapped his arms around the purple-haired man's waist and hoisted him slightly above ground ("Ack, too heavy…!") using every single ounce of muscle he had in his body, and proceeded to his destination: Aaron's room. Surprisingly, Lucian didn't give much of a struggle and only commanded for Flint to put him down, but Flint was too paranoid that Lucian would've just ran away, so the energetic and persistent redhead mainly proceeded in his goal, slowly reaching Aaron's room with the heavy man in his arms, fully oblivious to an easier alternative of shoving Lucian into Aaron's room.

Once they were there, Flint began to heave out long pants from exhaustion, though that wasn't enough to stop him from talking with the same amount of energy as always. "See, see? Whaddya tell ya? Fangirls, and tons of them! Man, this dude's as popular as popular gets, y'know? Can't blame them, though. He's got that superstar flare to him, that cute kid."

Lucian glanced at the many girls—ranging from a variety of ages and sizes—forming a line in front of Aaron, who was signing pretty much anything they asked for happily. He seemed to like the attention, absolutely adored it, with the huge smile plastered on his face.

For some reason, though, Lucian couldn't help but feel his forehead burning. He smoothly and casually walked up to the bug-type elitist, looking at him sternly but calmly. "Aaron, this isn't the time for signatures. You're supposed to be waiting and accepting a challenge from a trainer, not inviting your fan… girls for a little meet and greet."

"Aw, Lucian, lighten up!" The young boy smiled lightly, letting his bright green orbs roam around the entire area of his room. "Do you see a challenger around here? Nope, not at all. Besides, it's so boring to have to wait for a challenger. Barely anyone ever makes it to the Elite Four, so I figured I should use this wasted time to please my fans." He turned his attention back to his fans, signing a girl's arm this time.

Lucian just looked on, clearly not impressed. His stomach was tightening an already-made knot, getting tighter and tighter by the second, and he was on the verge of scowling and clenching his fists, practically ready to brawl someone. He kept his cool composure, though, as to not show his bad side, and decided to just leave the bug-type elitist alone, no matter how it annoyed him to the brink of heavy violence at the astounding number of his fangirls.

He crossed his arms over each other and started to walk off when Flint called for him. "Yo, Lucian, what's the hurry?"

"I'd like to finish my novel now, thank you," he said quietly, not halting nor turning back.

Flint was rushing up to him, smirking. "Jealous much, huh?"

Lucian stared at him straight on, not showing any sign of having been affected by that comment. "That's preposterous. Why would I be jealous of a bunch of loud girls?"

"Well, just look at the guy!" The smirk on the redhead's face remained attached as he outstretched his arms in front of him, right in the direction of Aaron and his gleeful fangirls. "The dude's the weakest and least experienced of the four of us (no offense to him, of course) but even with that, he's the most popular! How can you not be jealous of that, dude, especially since you're considered the toughest of the Sinnoh Elite?"

"I don't care much for image." Lucian stole a secret look at Aaron and let out an unnoticeable and inaudible sigh. The truth was, he was jealous, but not for the reason Flint was poking him for. He wasn't jealous of Aaron at all; rather, he was jealous and fuming over his many fangirls. He wasn't about to let his secret affection for Aaron escape his lips, though, no matter how mad he was at the girls and yearned for the green-haired boy to pay more attention to him.

Flint just stared at him, shaking his head in disappointment. "Dude, you're in denia- Woah!" Flint's surprised but amused expression was aimed towards the bug-type elitist. Lucian turned around to see what the redhead was gawking over, and when he saw the scene that unfolded in front of him, it felt as if he was about ready to burst from bottled up anger.

Lucian, in an attempt to hide his angry demeanor, quickly left Aaron's room. Flint eyed the psychic-type elitist in suspicion before he left, asking himself what on earth the man's problem was, but shrugged it off, completely wrapped up in his astonishment of Aaron's natural gift of pulling in the ladies.

Apparently, one of the many Aaron fangirls were confident enough to steal a kiss from him—on the lips.

For some reason or another, things have been tense amongst the Elite Four lately. Lucian had been less social than usual, barely ever speaking to any of the other elitists nor the champion even, avoiding as many Elite Four gatherings as possible, and even skipping most of his meals. Aaron was pretty much always red-faced now and on the brink of despair with Flint never letting go of Aaron's newfound "girlfriend," though Aaron had always dejected that idea, explaining that it wasn't like that at all. Poor Bertha was pretty much confused at what was going on with the boys. Nonetheless, her suspicions grew about Lucian when he had been skipping their meals (he had never done so before) but she also found herself worrying about the purple-haired man at the same time. Cynthia, on the other hand, seemed oblivious as to what was going on until Bertha came up to talk to her about the problem with Lucian straightforwardly.

"Cynthia dear, a word, if I may?" Bertha's sweet and gentle voice echoed through the emptiness that was Cynthia's room. The blonde woman was on her laptop, researching about Sinnoh's history again. Though, the appearance of the ground-type elitist startled her, making her raise her head to meet her eyes.

"Ah, Bertha! What can I do you for?" She suddenly closed the laptop and walked up to the old woman, smiling that pretty smile of hers. The smile seemed to fade once she noticed the troubled look on the old woman's wrinkly face, though. The blonde knew something must've been wrong with her. "Are you okay?"

"Oh, yes yes, I'm fine, deary, don't think about me," the grey-haired woman explained, laughing mildly. "I'm just troubled over Lucian as all. Doesn't he seem quite off with you?"

The blonde woman frowned, contemplating on the subject. "I haven't really thought about it, but now that you mention it… he's been skipping out on all our meals, hasn't he?"

"Yes, the poor child."

"And I haven't talked to him lately. I mean, I remember usually having a casual conversation with him concerning history and the such, but I haven't talked to him in quite a while. I'm pretty sure there is something wrong with him." Cynthia half-smiled, knocking her head in a silly fashion. "I feel horrible for not noticing up until now. What do you suppose we do, Bertha?"

"Well, I've been meaning to have a talk with him," the old woman said quietly, hugging the puffy brown scarf wrapped around her neck, "but it seems that whenever I come into the room, he just blatantly ignores me! The same goes with Flint. That man's been trying to get Lucian 'to spill,' as he puts it, about whatever is troubling the poor child's mind. It's been unsuccessful thus far." She let out a sigh, frowning alongside Cynthia. "I was thinking you'd have a word with him, if you may, dear?"

"Of course!" Cynthia smiled and placed a comforting hand on Bertha's shoulder. "You can definitely count on me. After all, I'm his superior." With that, Cynthia made her way to Lucian's room with Bertha giving her the "best of luck".

When the blonde woman made it to the light violet room, she easily eyed Lucian tucked away in a corner, his face being buried in a book as usual. The scene made her chuckle to herself, but alas, her face grew serious as she stepped closer to the purple-haired man. "Lucian," she said sternly.

The purple-haired man didn't look up from his book, but surprisingly supplied a response anyway. "What is it?" His voice seemed off with Cynthia, as it sounded very monochromatic and unlike the Lucian she knew to come and love.

"Is something troubling you? As you may know, if anything's wrong, you have the four of us to talk to about it. Me, Bertha, Flint, and Aaron—we're all here for you." Cynthia smiled. She was determined to use a friendly approach first, and was planning on sticking to it, unless, of course, Lucian was being too stubborn (which, she thought, probably wouldn't happen, especially considering how long she's known him for).

"I'm just fine," he said solemnly, still not getting his face out of his book. "Now, if you may please leave me alone. I'd like to have some peace and quiet to read, thank you very much."

"Are you sure?" Cynthia asked, completely ignoring Lucian's plead for leaving. "It's obvious something's on your mind."

"As I've said, I'm just fine." Lucian took a quick glance at her and gave her a slight warning glare, then returned to reading his novel in a flash.

Cynthia was just about to crack from Lucian's stubborn attitude when she mentally slapped herself to be patient and stick with a friendly attitude. Sheesh, just when you thought you knew a guy…. "Then explain why you haven't been eating your meals lately? Really, you might just die if you keep this up!"

Lucian sighed. "I still eat, just not with the rest of our comrades."

That comment sank in Cynthia's brain. Her face grew happy at the thought that she may have found a plausible explanation to Lucian's sudden strange behavior, and hurried towards her room to inform Bertha.

"Bertha! I think I may have found out why Lucian's acting so strange!" The blonde seemed very giddy with her latest discovery, which was unlike Cynthia at all.

Bertha, though, seemed happy to see the champion full of glee. "Go on, dear."

"He says he still eats, but not with us looking. He's obviously upset about his weight that he won't eat with us anymore!"

The old woman found herself chuckling. "I don't think that's the case, dear. Though, I think you may be on to something, just not in the sense you put it. He says he still eats, but not with us?"

Cynthia looked puzzled, clearly not getting what the ground-type elitist was trying to say. "Yes, but…?"

"Couldn't it possibly mean that he's trying to avoid us, or one of us for that matter? Maybe he could've gotten into a fight with one of us, which could explain why he's been skipping the lot of our meetings, too."

"Of course! Why haven't I realized it sooner!" Cynthia nodded in approval, smiling at Bertha's most likely correct assumption. "The only question is, who exactly is he trying to avoid? This calls for yet another meeting!"

And, with that said, a sudden meeting was called for, with Flint and Aaron running towards Cynthia's room, perplexed as meetings out of the blue were very rare amongst them and usually signaled an urgent emergency to befall them.

"What's going on?" Aaron asked worriedly, walking up to the champion. Flint trailed right behind him, meaning to ask the same exact question if the bug-type elitist haven't beaten him to it.

"Have any of you boys gotten into a fight with Lucian at any time at all?" Cynthia asked, mostly directing it at Flint, who threw her a hurt expression for being suspected.

"Me?" Flint asked, his tone having a fake, hurt tone to it. "I admit, we did fight this one time, but it's because I was teasing the guy. It was a month ago, anyway."

"Why ask?" Aaron piped in, a worried expression emitting from his face. The mention of Lucian made him look around to search for the purple-haired man subconsciously, but the lack of him made Aaron's face grow even more worried. "Hey, where is he? I can't believe we just passed him on our way here!"

"Maybe you should ask your girlfriend," Flint suggested playfully in a sing-song voice, obviously bemused at the sight of the bug-type elitist's red face.

"Like I said, she's not my girlfriend! It's not even what you think!" He frowned, crossing his arms angrily. "What does this have anything to do with this, anyway?"

Cynthia groaned in disappointment, watching the red-haired man and the green-haired teenager babble on about nonsensical themes. "You guys… this isn't a time to fight!"

The blonde's words didn't get to them at all, though, as they were too busy throwing hurtful comments at each other to notice the champion's attempt to break up the useless fighting. Bertha was left to stare at them in shame, wondering how on earth a serious meeting could end up like this. Did all of them even forget what this meeting was all about?

Bertha sighed. Maybe it was a bad idea to get everyone involved, but even then the issue wouldn't have been resolved all by herself. Informing them would've been her best bet as to revert Lucian to his normal demeanor, but with the distraction of Flint and Aaron's feeble arguments and Cynthia's attempts to break them up, what is she to do but to stare on in silence? Even though she was the oldest of the five of them, she was only superior to Aaron, the bug-type elitist, in terms of placement among the Elite Four. It was hard to get Flint to listen to her sometimes with his constant argument of being "superior" to her.

Bertha sighed again, contemplating on the very matter in all seriousness. Placement, status, it didn't matter; Lucian was definitely troubled over something, and being the caring old woman she was, she wasn't about to let this go unresolved.

The old woman stepped between the fighting boys and separated them slightly, shooting them a scary glare that no one has ever seen before on Bertha's face. The two boys' rioting had stopped, and Cynthia was calm once again, smiling at Bertha's newfound confidence in controlling the two. "Now listen here, dearies, this meeting was ensued solely for the fact that something is troubling Lucian. The only thing is, we don't know what, and he doesn't seem to want to tell us."

Flint snorted, his hands planted on his lips. "The guy's probably still jealous about Aaron having fangirls."

"J-jealous?" Aaron felt like his face was beginning to pale. If anything, Aaron was the one jealous of Lucian seeing as he was the strongest of the Elite Four, with Aaron being the weakest of them all. To top that off, he was also the youngest and least experienced! There was no way Lucian could've possibly be jealous with the bug-type elitist.

Flint must be fibbing.

"I really don't think he's jealous at all, especially not at me! I know I've been training hard to strive for perfection, but still, he knows he can top me any time—"

"—except when it comes to having fangirls," Flint abruptly added in amusement. Don't get him wrong, he was worried about Lucian too, but the seriousness around here wasn't about to get to him. He needed to lighten up the mood at all costs, since, well, that was what he was here for. At least, that's what he claimed himself in doing.

Aaron didn't seem delighted at Flint's attempts to lighten up the mood at all, though. The green-haired boy's eyebrows knitted together midpoint in frustration as he turned his back on them, intending to walk out of Cynthia's room to Lucian's. "Look, I'm gonna talk to him, okay? See if I can find out what's wrong. We're pretty close anyway, so he might end up telling me."

"Oh, thank you, dear!" Bertha called after him, with Cynthia exclaiming good luck's to him and Flint still teasing him about the kiss he shared with the fangirl. Aaron ignored whatever Flint said, though; but was very appreciative of Bertha's and Cynthia's support.

The green-haired teenage boy walked into Lucian's room and spotted the man right away, running up to him happily. "Hey Lucian!"

The all-too-familiar voice of the boy's made Lucian smile, albeit small, but it was hidden behind his book. The smile, however, reverted to a frown when he remembered the event that took place not too long ago, which made him start to avoid the boy at all costs. But, now that he's here, right in front of him, with no escape seeing as he was in a corner, there wasn't anything that Lucian could do but to just ignore him, as much as he regretted it deep inside.

After a few minutes of just silence between them, Aaron protruded his lips in discontent, nudging himself a few inches closer to the bookworm in front of him. "Hello? Earth to Lucian?" After a few more minutes of just silence, Aaron sighed heavily and succumbed to kneeling down before the purple-haired man, waving a free hand in front of Lucian's face hastily. "Lucian?"

The close contact was fierce on Lucian's mind, even if it was only Aaron's hand that was really close to him. Surprisingly, it was just enough to make his cheeks flush a peculiar shade of red, but he quickly suppressed that blush in a fixed hurry and continued on painfully ignoring the bug-type elitist.

"Luc-ian," Aaron whined angrily, making small frustrated gestures with his hands. "I just wanna know what's going on with you!" The green-haired boy eyed the very object in Lucian's hands and scowled at it, letting his hand reach out for it unconsciously due to his sudden boiling mien.

In just a quick flash, Lucian found his hands clutching onto his new novel to his hands being completely empty, his face being revealed in the dim light that lit his room. Aaron chose this time to toss the book aside to examine Lucian's face, holding a tenacious stare at him that Lucian was forced to keep.

"Listen, Lucian, we're all worried about you," Aaron said grimly, his huge green eyes staring him on in a vulnerable aura. "Just tell me, what's wrong?"

Lucian kept his stare until his eyes involuntarily gazed down to the boy's lips, teasing his mind with its translucent and pure, only to remember that it was soiled by another pair of lips. The thing that kept eating at his mind that it wasn't him, and as much as he disgusted himself of thinking about it, his body surely wouldn't let it go as it craved to graze its own with the lips of the young child.

The psychic-type elitist shook his head out of the young boy's penetrating gaze and his terrifying crave for the latter, hanging his head down low. What was he thinking when he started to develop a small crush for the young boy, anyway? He wasn't thinking at all, that's what! It was just against his philosophy to do so, as he had trained himself to make decisions—no matter how trivial they were—based on his mind and wisdom, not anything else. That would've only leaded him to difficulties, such as he was dealing with right now.

Aaron quickly noted Lucian's withdrawal and let his hand rest atop Lucian's shoulder, sending electric pulses surging throughout the man's body—something Aaron was completely unaware of. "Please?"

Lucian wasn't too sure what had triggered his breakout to replying to the green-haired boy, but he swore it was probably due to the fact that the boy's puppy dog face—even if it wasn't intentional—that got to the best of him. Though, that still didn't mean he would supply a good enough response. "I'm fine. Nothing's… wrong."

Aaron's eyes beamed with happiness. Finally, he was getting somewhere! Now he just needed to pry out some more information from the purple-haired man, most specifically of the cause of his depression. "Is too! Something's been bugging you lately"—Aaron laughed at himself for the unnecessary pun—"and I'm determined to find out."

Lucian sighed, fixating the purple-tinted spectacles resting on his nose, even if it was perfect where it was. "If you really must know," he whispered lightly, his face now showing an aloof aura about it, "I'm green-eyed for a certain… green-eyed someone."

Aaron was sure what Lucian said was what he's been meaning to find out, but, being the naïve boy he was, he didn't get it at all. He presumed to check Lucian's eyes to see what color they were, but they weren't green at all, which even further confused the young boy. Still, he found what he needed, or at least what he thought he needed.

With that, Aaron stood up and shot a huge grin at the man, nodding in content. "Thanks, Lucian!" The young boy then skipped off to Cynthia's room once again, with the man's eyes gazing at the back of the bug-type elitist, sighing sullenly. He hoped that he didn't give off too much of a hint as to reveal his secret.

Then again, why did he exactly tell him such information? Ah, the unnecessary things you do for an unrequited lover….

Aaron made his way to Cynthia's room with ease (especially considering the fact it was right next to Lucian's room) spilling about his latest discovery on the reason behind Lucian's strange behavior. The way Aaron stumbled into the room averted everyone's attention to the green-haired boy, their smiling faces filling with hope at the boy's energetic composure.

"I think I found out why!" he exclaimed in a rush, displaying a triumphant pose in front of them.

Bertha felt a tinge of déjà vu coming her way, but she shrugged it off, smiling. "Go on, dear."

"He says he's 'green-eyed for someone,' which I really don't get at all," Aaron said casually, entwining his fingers behind his neck, "but I'm pretty sure he doesn't have green eyes. Anyone know what he's talking about?"

Cynthia and Flint nodded their heads sideways, signaling they had no clue. Bertha, on the other hand, stayed still and silent to contemplate on the matter. "What were his exact words, deary?"

Aaron placed an index finger on his chin as if in a deep thinking mode, and tried to recall as much of the conversation with Lucian as possible. "Um, I think he said 'I'm green-eyed for a certain green-eyed someone,' or something along the lines of that." The young boy wrinkled his nose in confusion, the sentence and its mystery still lingering in his mind.

Bertha nodded her head, thinking about it thoroughly, when her eyes suddenly popped open in an epiphany. "Green-eyed… that means he's jealous, and at someone with green eyes."

At that, two pairs of brown eyes and a pair of grey eyes landed on the same exact person: the green-haired, green-eyed boy standing before them. What Flint had mentioned to Aaron before finally clicked into his mind and was seemingly valid, what, with Lucian's obvious statement; but, there had to be someone else with green eyes that Lucian was jealous at!

"Look, I think you've got it all wrong!" Aaron said pathetically, shielding his hands in front of him in a defensive way. "Yeah, he's probably jealous, but I don't think he's jealous at me—"

"—but your fangirls?" Flint abruptly added once again, receiving a deathly glare from the bug-type elitist. Flint just rolled his eyes and quickly tousled the young boy's hair, receiving yet another glare paired with a scary growl. "Or maybe your girlfriend?"

"Like I said, she's not my girlfriend! It's not even like that at all!" Flint and Aaron commenced in an all-out brawl of words, and Cynthia was once again forced to break up the two bickering boys, albeit her failure to do so. Bertha, tired of all this nonsense, decided to just stand there and sigh, thinking why she ever came to the help of those two boys again in the first place.

Just when all tension was about to break loose in Cynthia's room, the door opened suddenly, emitting a silhouette of a familiar, tall figure. "It's past dinner. I've been waiting for quite some time. Now I'll have to accuse you all of having skipped a meal."

The boys' fighting, Cynthia's attempts of breaking up their fighting, and Bertha's still composure was broken as they all turned their heads to the man responsible for that statement. They were all relieved to see that it was Lucian, who, they presumed, managed to revert back to the norm by himself.

Though, that was only what they presumed; Lucian was the only one fully aware that it was going to take time to mend his mistake, but at least he wasn't too oblivious at the fact that keeping this up would not only hurt himself but everyone else around him—especially Aaron. Even if he hasn't fully recovered from the sudden… shock, he wasn't about to let this whole ordeal go out of hand.

The other elitists and the champion seemed more than happy to see their psychic-type elitist finally doing something more than ignoring them or giving them pity conversation. Hey, he was even waiting for dinner again!

Aaron and Flint became very teary-eyed at the sight of their companion at the door. They started to run simultaneously to reach Lucian in hopes it wasn't just a mirage, and luckily, it wasn't, as they both wrapped their arms around their favorite psychic-type elitist affectionately. Upon contact with Aaron, Lucian's face started to glow a promising cerise, though he tried to fight it off before anyone could notice.

Too bad for him Bertha noticed the odd coloring of his face, and she raised a grey brow in suspicion, assuming a deeper meaning in being "green-eyed for a certain green-eyed someone," as he put it.

Days have passed since the incident, and everything around the Elite Four has gone back to normal. At least, it seemed like they were back to normal.

Cynthia was back to being locked up in her room with her laptop in front of her, fascinating herself once again with researching Sinnoh's history. Flint had been going out again, searching for the potential trainers and visiting the Sunyshore gym every so often. Aaron was found almost always working out like before, apparently to strive for the perfection he craved for, just like he says his bug Pokèmon have. Lucian was seen in his corner, reading a good book, but he had been attending meals and meetings once again, a sign everyone took that he was okay.

Bertha, although she seemed to be back to normal too with visiting her sister in Kanto frequently again and going down to Veilstone to take advantage of her luck with slots, kept up her suspicion about Lucian. However, she kept it to herself as to not make a riot among the other elitists again. She only kept a good eye on him as to not pry too much into his business again, but, aside from that time, Lucian hasn't shown anything too peculiar and her suspicions began to grow weary.

Fortunately, to unknowingly pick up from her withering suspicions was none other than Flint, who, from the start, figured there was something wrong with Lucian—especially when it was something about Aaron. He assumed it was jealousy towards the green-haired boy at first, but could sense there was something more, and he was determined to find out.

Thus, that was the reason why he was sneaking around the rooms of the Elite Four to pry out some clues from none other than the psychic-type elitist himself.

The sounds of flip-flops smacking on the tiled floor of the purple-haired man's room signaled two things. One was Flint, and two was trouble; and apparently, he tried to avoid that at all costs. However, Flint was known to be very persistent and would stop at nothing to bother him about whatever it is, so Lucian decided to just go with the flow this time, sighing to himself in a manner of regret.

"Yo Lucian, ol' buddy, ol' pal!" Flint walked up to the man and grabbed the book from his hands, examining the black and white pages. "So, is this supposed to be an action adventure thing or something?" Upon further investigation, Flint's brown eyes stopped on a certain name starting with an "a" that made him smirk arrogantly. "Aha, I see the main character's name is Aaron."

Lucian, a flustered expression on his face, looked down, explaining in an apathetic tone, "Uncanny coincidence."

"Coincidence my foot!" Flint impatiently started tapping his foot on the floor, eyeing the purple-haired man. "Listen here, Lucian, and listen good; I know for sure that there's still something wrong with you. And what you said to Aaron, about being 'green-eyed for green eyes' or something like that? Don't think we're a bunch of idiots"—Lucian found himself softly chuckling—"because we're not! We know you're jealous."

"That's exactly what I meant by that. I admitted it there and then," Lucian said in a matter-of-fact way, digging his face into his book once more. "There is nothing bothering me, so I will return to my novel. Good day, Flint, and thank you for your worries, though they weren't needed in my case."

"Don't ignore me, Lucian." The purple-haired man's eyebrows rose wearily at the sudden change in tone of Flint's voice. Naturally, the redhead had a very energetic and happy tone to his voice. But, this… his tone right now was serious, as if Flint lost all of his joking senses. "I'll be serious this time, but this is for you and my little buddy. I know you like him."

Lucian winced. "Whoever are you talking about?"

"Don't play dumb with me! Aaron, dang it… you like him, got it? I've noticed for a while now; it really doesn't take a genius to figure it out."

"Of course I would like him, Flint. He's part of the Elite Four; he's part of our family. If I didn't like him, then it would be a very tense and uncomfortable atmosphere among us, now, wouldn't it?"

"What I meant by like… is actually liking him, as more than a friend…. Actually, you're right; my bad. Wrong choice of words." Flint bit his bottom lip. "Rather, you love him, right? You love the kid, and everyone knows. I bet even Aaron knows…. But, you know, I think he might… like… you too."

"That's completely preposterous, Flint. There is no possibility Aaron could 'like' a man like me. For one thing, we have an unattractive age gap. For another thing, we are both of the male sex. And, he already has someone else."

Flint smirked softly. "What happened to 'I don't care much for image'? Shouldn't this be the same? If you truly love someone, it shouldn't matter about any of this. And geez, man, I was just kidding about that girl. She stole that kiss from him; he was fuming after that, you know, saying that girl didn't have the right to do that. He said he was angry. Extremely angry."

"Well, I…" For once, Lucian felt that he was speechless. There was absolutely nothing he could say to Flint. He could've always denied his "love" for Aaron… but he was too late for that. He wouldn't be kidding anyone anyway; if Flint was telling the truth, everyone definitely would've realized his affections already, no matter how he tried to keep those raging emotions inside of him. It was close to impossible, because whenever he even thought of Aaron, he just couldn't keep his emotions bottled up. It was as if they were a caged animal; growling and scratching at the metal bars, yearning for freedom….

Flint noticed Lucian's deep pondering and flashed a toothy smile. "You should tell him."

"But… what if he doesn't reciprocate?" Lucian could've laughed at himself then and there; it was silly for a grown man to be scared of rejection. But, it was Aaron he was talking about; Lucian was truly scared of losing the young boy. He just could not stand the idea of not being able to see the boy. He would rather watch the young boy from afar with clandestine affection than to have him reject the older man's love. "What if… he doesn't like me back in that way? What if he hates me?"

"You can't just say 'what if' all the time. You need to take action, Lucian. People don't just get through life avoiding these 'what if's,' you know. Sometimes you just need to take a risk. And sometimes, you'll find that it's worth it."

"Flint… you sure are philosophical when the time calls for it." Flint laughed, simply responding with a "Thanks, man," as he walked off, giving the purple-haired man a thumbs up.

Lucian's face brightened up with a newfound confidence. He couldn't believe he was actually admitting to this, but Flint was right. There were just some risks you had to take. And at times, these risks were needed. You can't get anywhere without even trying, no matter how much pain you have to endure, right? After all, he didn't get into the Elite Four so easily… so possibly, he couldn't get into Aaron's heart that easily either.

With that, Lucian decided then and there that he would confess to Aaron about his jealousy, and the other sentiments he left barred in the depths of his aching heart…. Oh, how he was absolutely green-eyed for that beautiful green eyed boy….

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Woah. I found this in my old Fanfiction folder and it already had 5.6k words in it… and it still wasn't even finished. I was seriously surprised! And so I was determined to finish it ASAP.

Voila! Hope you enjoyed it! The next chapter will be up in a few weeks, maybe. I was actually deciding to make this a one-shot, but I guess I'll have to make it a two-shot. Possibly even a three-shot depending on where I go with this. :P