DISCLAIMER : ALL CHARACTERS AND STUFF BELONG TO NINTENTO (I guess) I IN NO WAY ATTEMPT TO CLAIM ANY OF IT AS MY OWN

"Damn it..."

"What the hell!"

"Alright, don't raise your voice!"

"Well why do you have a br-"

In the class, everyone was getting back into their seats, including Gold. On his way back he overheard these voices from the other side of the door. Instantly recognising the voices of his friends Ruby and Crystal, who sounded like they were bickering, Gold went to greet them and see what they were talking about. He opened the door.

"Hey guys what's going-"Gold paused as his eyes widened, utterly confused at what was before him.

"Huh? Where'd they go?"

Gold was sure he'd heard them bickering over something, it could just be his imagination. He just stood there for a while, looking puzzled. At the same time, Silver came strolling past, making no indication that he even acknowledged Gold's existence, that was until he spoke,

"You should remove that dumbfounded look from your face. It makes you look even more stupid than you already are."

Or course this lit the fire underneath Gold's short fuse. Gold was very easily provoked, and Silver, a boy with an inherent lack of sensitivity, was usually the perpetrator. Despite being guilty of setting Gold off, Silver had, as per usual, no intention of apologising. Silver also didn't take kindly to insults, and that's why they can often be seen arguing. Despite all this, they do often hang out. It was all very confusing to everyone else.

"Hey shut it Silver. Where have you been anyway, you can't just come strolling in here after lunch like some sort of...some sort of...err..."

Silver, who had stopped walking and turned to face Gold as soon as he started talking, decided now would be a good time to reply,

"Typical, you can't even think of a half decent comeback. Stop wasting my time."

"You son of a-"

The teacher's arrival killed off the argument before it had a chance to get into full swing. The class was quickly brought into line by the mere presence of Professor Elm, who didn't usually have that effect on people. His demeanour didn't really ooze with self-confidence, but he did have a tendency to dish out harsh punishments when ignored for too long. Elm paused, getting himself together. He glanced over the class,

"Where's Ruby and Crystal."

The class was silent.

They were in fact walking the opposite way from their classroom, after narrowly avoiding a run in with their teacher. Ruby's concern for being late disappeared when this new problem materialised.

Why is it so hard to keep this bra a secret?

He wasn't going to talk about this until he'd found a spot where they wouldn't be disturbed. He was adamant that Crystal would be the last person who'd find out about this. He couldn't afford the risk of someone else knowing and then spilling it out to Saph. He kept walking until he came across an empty classroom. Usually he wouldn't enter without permission but today would be an exception. With the door already slightly open, indicating that it was unlocked, Ruby ferried Crystal into the room, before letting go of her shoulders to turn around and close the door. He turned back, only to be met with a furious glare, probably brought on more so by the manner in which she was brought here rather than the whole Bra thing.

So Ruby faced his next challenge. Unlike Green, Ruby knew that Crystal would be after some answers. Being intellectually outmatched by Crystal (although that by no means meant that he was unintelligent) Ruby knew that tricking her would be no easy feat. Resorting to the truth was seemingly the only option if he wanted to leave without a positive outcome. He avoided eye contact as she stood forward.

"So, are you going to explain yourself? What in Arceus's name are you doing with a bra in your bag, and why did you think it'd be ok to just drag me off."

"First, you have to promise not to be mad at me. Also I don't want you to think I'm a bad person for what I'm about to tell you."

With her arms crossed and her left foot tapping, Ruby came to know what true fear actually was. No wonder Gold kept calling her the devil incarnate, as installing fear into Ruby was seemingly child's play. He wondered if this was a power all girls had over boys, because Sapphire could be really scary when she wanted to as well.

"The bra belongs to Saph. I stole it from her bedroom."

The silence was followed was unbearable, but in hindsight, it was better than what was about to come.

"YOU DID WHAT!"

"Let me explain." Ruby pleaded as the enraged crystal stormed towards him. Her face was right in front of his which just amplified the fear. Ruby could see every detail of her face, although it seemed like she wasn't intending to be merciful.

"I think you've made it pretty clear, PERVERT!"

"What? No I-"

"PERVERT!"

"Crystal, I didn't-"

"You know what Ruby, I expected better from you! We always thought of you as the nice guy of the group. But this... this is-"

"CRYSTAL!" The conversation came to a sudden stop. Crystal took a step back, the pair just staring at one another. She was breathing rather heavily, and she was seemingly calming down. Such outbursts were rather out of character for someone as mature as Crystal. Ruby was determined to make sure he didn't come out of the looking like a total perv, which is why he decided to restart the conversation.

"My motives were not so perverted, so if you just let me explain my problem."

"Problem?" She seemed sceptical, which wasn't surprising. She sat herself on one of the desks, her legs swaying slightly. Her curiosity had obviously replaced some of her anger. However one wrong move would return her to her former state, girls he knew tended to be very temperamental.

"Yes, problem. To cut a long story short, I have acquired-"

"By acquired you mean stole." Ruby really wanted to avoid using that word. The first time was probably the biggest mistake of his conversation, so far anyway.

"As I was saying I acquired Sapphire's Bra for a rough estimate of her...size."

The statement was clear enough to make Cyrstal blush ever so slightly, although she quickly played it off.

"If you're trying to make yourself sound like a total perv, then you're doing an excellent job."

"Y-you don't understand. It was for a dress. I made Sapphire a new dress, and I needed some sort of measurement to work with for the prototype."

He sounded sincere, so Crystal couldn't help but be a little warmed by this story. Ruby often designed and created clothes, but he'd never made a dress. She wasn't going to start forgiving him so soon. His actions still sounded unacceptable to her.

"Regardless of your motives, what you did was still despicable. However, if what you are saying is the truth, then I apologize for calling you a pervert."

"Thank you." The boy's relief was evident in his voice. "I'm trying by best to rectify the situation."

"You better hope Saph never finds out or else you'll never be able to fix this."

Ruby was about to agree with the girl, until he actually processed what she said, and more importantly how she said it. Her voice was grave and bleak as she spoke. She spoke as Ruby would imagine a person facing a life or death situation would speak.

"What do you mean?" Ruby feared to ask this question, hence the small smile to mask his true emotions. Crystal avoided looking at him, except for a brief glance. In that flicker of eye contact, Ruby felt as if he witnessed a flood of emotion. A chill ran through him that originated from Crystal. She seemed deadly serious and there were little flickers of fear and sadness in that brief look. Or at least, that's what Ruby saw.

"Trust takes years to build, but only moments to destroy." She mumbled.

"What?"

"Trust, Ruby." Crystal's voice was no longer fuelled by anger or disgust; rather, it lacked any emotion to carry itself. That lifeless quality to her voice made the words hang around Ruby's head, that is, after they passed through his very being.

"You did more than steal a bra. You broke the fundamental layer of trust that your friendship is based on."

"Hang on a sec, don't you think you're being a little too extreme about this?"

"Am I? Ruby, you went into her room, and took something from her without her knowledge. How could she trust you after this? No matter how much she wants to, it will be impossible to trust you fully. There will be a voice inside of her head reminding her that you were willing to steal form her for your own needs. The implications of this are more serious than I think you've given them credit for."

For Ruby, time stood still as Crystal spoke. His eyes were fixated on the empty space in front of him. He moved himself and sat on the desk next to Crystal. Could she be right? Was it all really this bad? After all, it's just a bra, and he'd always had the intention of returning it. Yet he couldn't shake off what Crystal had just said

Would Sapphire really be that mad at me?

The last thing Ruby wanted was a permanent scar upon his relationship with Sapphire. He'd yet to figure out just what his relationship with Sapphire really was and this threatened to damage it.

"You can't tell Sapphire about this. This stays between us."

He didn't look back at her and he didn't need to. He knew Crystal would be looking at him, and he really didn't want to see her reaction.

"Do you really think covering up this lie is the best option? Right now you should be thinking of the best way of telling Sapphire the truth. The longer you keep it from her, the worse it will be when she finds out."

"But if she were never to find out then-"

"Ruby that's terrible! You want to keep deceiving her? Have you not been listening to me?"

"I have, but-"

"No buts Ruby. She will find out eventually, I can promise you that she will find out. The only thing you can control is when she hears about this, and who tells her."

As she continued to talk, Ruby couldn't help but feel overcome with some new found irritation for this current situation. To Ruby, it was sounding like Crystal had no intention of even trying to help him out, but instead she was just lecturing him, scaring him into feeling really guilty about what he had done. He didn't need this. What he needed was to focus on the future, but all Crystal cared about at that moment was the past. He got up off the desk. He continued to ignore her glares that he could feel on his back as he made his way to the door.

"We're already really late for class, we need to head back. If you have anything else you want to say on this matter, say it now, because after this, I don't want this topic to ever come back into our conversation." His tone was lacking any emotion or energy, which made him sound harsh. He heard her get up as well; he heard a slight sigh before she began.

"Ruby, you're a nice guy, and to some extent I can understand why you would want to cover this up from Sapphire and everyone else. However this is entirely your fault, therefore you are to blame for any repercussions from this. If Sapphire gets hurt then you may just destroy more than one friendship. I want you to promise me you'll tell Sapphire about this. If you own up to this now, then you'll get the best outcome from all this, trust me Ruby, you will only make things worse if you don't confess. So can you promise me that?"

Ruby paused. He had never been good at comprehending the gravity of the situation like this, especially when it was a situation involving girls, but even so, he recognised that his reply could be vital to his relationship with Crystal in the future.

"I…I can't…I'm sorry. I don't know what I'm going to do about this yet. I need to think it over before I do anything. If I believe it's the best decision then I will take your advice."

He went for the door handle as she walked up beside him. Before he could step out she placed her hand on his shoulder, and almost as if it was involuntary, he looked at her. He expected to see anger, so he was surprised to see, what he could only imagine was disappointment in her eyes.

"I hope for her sake that you make the best decision."

With that she stepped out, ending the conversation. They walked back in silence to class for which they were already twenty minutes late. The only words spoken were from Crystal telling Ruby to let her handle the excuse, which he relented to, seeing as he'd not thought about what he was going to say to the teacher. Rather, his thoughts were fixated on the conversation he'd just had and what he was going to do. He still couldn't make up his mind on what Crystal said. He didn't think that this could destroy his friendship with Sapphire like Crystal was implying, but then Sapphire was definitely an emotional girl and therefore unpredictable. Sat back at his desk, Ruby tried to make up his mind on what to do. After all, he was going to her house after school, and that was an opportunity he couldn't afford to miss.

Chapter 4 is up! This chapter has the privilege of being the first chapter uploaded from my new laptop.

I can't say I like writing dialogue for female characters, I feel that it is one of my weaker points that I need to work on.

Please leave a review if you liked it, and if you thought it could have been better then tell me how. Feel free to leave constructive criticism via review and if you have any questions then hit me a PM.

~SlyRival