I went to visit Wallace to break up the monotony of working at Devon Corp.

I won't pretend that I was doing it because of business at all. I was missing him like crazy, and no amount of phone conversations could make up for seeing him in person. We were both still busy, but I was tired of all of that; being an adult didn't mean giving up everything you love in order to be responsible. Sometimes, being an adult meant shirking your work so that you can fly across the region to visit your friend who had only recently taken over your spot as champion.

When I landed in Ever Grande after the long flight, I was ready to collapse and I knew Skarmory was too. So I called him back into his pokeball and toughed it out. As I made my way in, the Elite 4 members recognized me and allowed me to pass by when I explained my desire to talk to Wallace.

When I walked into the champion's chambers, I came upon a very bored Wallace who appeared to be playing with his sleeve. He heard me walk up and started to rise and begin his speech to trainers, but stopped short when he recognized me. He promptly fell back into his chair and waved me over with a tired smile.

"I understand what you meant now, when you quit," Wallace said, not even questioning my presence here, "This job keeps you very busy, but at the same time not. I thought being a gym leader was annoying; now I only see the best of the best."

"Good thing I came to distract you then, huh?" I asked him. He blew upwards, shifting his bangs to the side.

"Definitely," he said, smiling but not moving out of his seat, "I would likely have died of boredom if not for your interference."

"I'm glad I stopped that, then," I teased, leaning on the side of his seat.

"Can't have this beautiful face go to waste, certainly. It's a good thing the valiant prince came to save the princess," Wallace joked back. I snorted.

"You are no princess," I responded, "A prince, maybe, but you are not a princess."

He was silent for a moment and we just sat there, me leaning lightly on his shoulder. I suddenly remembered something through the tired, happy haze.

"Oh, right!" I said, looking down at my hands. Wallace snapped out of his daze as well, looking over at me expectantly. I looked over the rings on my fingers until I found the right one, pulling it off.

"Here, this is yours," I said, dropping the ring into his hands. It was a silver-blue color, a bit prettier than the stones I usually used to make my rings, but it had made me think of Wallace, "Sorry I was wearing it, but I didn't want to forget it."

"What's this for?" he asked, curious. He was looking over the ring, and I was a bit unsure of what to think now that I had done it. I hadn't really thought this over much.

"It's, well, it's a promise," I said. He quirked an eyebrow at me.

"A promise for what?" he asked me.

"A promise that I will keep track of you and talk to you no matter how busy I get, or how busy you get. I'm tired of not seeing you, and I just want to make sure you know that I'm going to truly be keeping in touch now," I told him, then continued, "Which means I'm going to try dropping by more often, when possible."

Wallace looked thoughtful for a moment, and I wasn't quite sure what to think at first. I wondered if I'd overstepped my bounds, but then he slipped the ring onto his left hand ring finger. He looked up at me and smiled wide, and I realized that I hadn't seen him that happy in a while.

"Did you make this one?" he asked me.

"Of course," I said, putting my hand down on the chair. I noticed him looking at the various rings I wore, before looking at the one I had given him.

"It's nice," he said softly. "Thank you."

"Not a problem," I said with a yawn. I quickly covered it up, but realized it would be hard to stay up much longer, since I had already made a trip across the entire region.

"Did you come to see me immediately after getting here?" he asked with concern.

"Yeah," I said. He pulled me into a standing position.

"Go get some rest, goodness. You know where the champion's room is, take my key," he said, tossing it to me, "go put on some of my pajamas and go to sleep already. Your attempt at chivalry is appreciated but unnecessary."

"Good night," I said without a fight. He patted my arm and I turned around and headed back to what used to be my rooms, but were now filled with Wallace's things. The steel blue color remained, but now included various tones of Wallace's own things. I found some of his pajamas, which were much larger on me than my clothes were on him, and fell into the bed. I closed my eyes, but not before noticing the picture of us that Wallace had sitting on the nightstand.

Wallace was a good friend. It's a good thing he stuck around.

...

I flipped through the papers sitting on the desk, running through a couple of signatures that were required. I really had nothing to do today but flip through endless piles of papers. It was on days like this that I had the tv flipped on to whatever channel seemed least boring of the available ones at work. These channels tended to be the ones that featured Wallace in some way.

Right now I was simply using it as background noise to the crinkling of papers and scritch of pen on paper. Until I heard something that interested me.

"Wallace here is both the pokemon league champion as well as a master coordinator. Yet somehow he manages to balance both of these rolls, and even appears to have a love life! Who is the lucky lady?" I heard come from the screen. I looked up, seeing a reporter standing next to Wallace, holding a microphone up to his face. It appeared to be after one of Wallace's contests, and he looked a bit put off by the romance question.

"I don't- what do you mean?" he asked, still graceful even in his confusion. The reporter laughed.

"Don't think we haven't noticed the ring," she said, motioning to his left hand, "You can't feign confusion on us."

A light seemed to come on, and suddenly Wallace was noticeably nervous, at least to me. I'm sure he looked fine to the hundreds of adoring fans watching the same program. He held the hand up to the reporter and I could see that she was certainly referring to the ring I had given him. I felt a bit guilty for having put Wallace in this position, and also wondered how he would explain it away.

"This isn't an engagement ring or a wedding ring," he said simply.

"Oh really? You expect us to believe that a catch like you hasn't been snatched up by now?" she joked. He smiled his typical charismatic smile.

"Surely not, or at least someone should inform me if I have been," Wallace responded in the same joking tone. I could tell he wanted to talk about something else, but was having to deal with the vapid news report that this woman likely wanted.

"Are you telling me that you're-" the reporter gasped theatrically in a way that made me want to claw my eyes out "-available?"

"I don't think I would call myself that either," Wallace said offhandedly, obviously hoping the conversation would move on but knowing it wouldn't. I was intrigued now at what he meant by that comment though, so I was slightly grateful when the woman continued.

"What would you call yourself then? If not available but not taken," she asked, clearly happy to be the one getting this dish. Wallace appeared to consider the question for a moment, then answered.

"I am interested in someone, but I don't think this someone is interested back," Wallace answered, going for the simple route. I was confused though, and a little hurt, that I hadn't heard of this person before though. I'd known Wallace for almost eight years by now, and he hadn't mentioned being interested in someone else in all of that time.

"Not interested in you?" she responded, affecting an overly confused tone, "what kind of monster is this?"

"No monster," Wallace said, obviously counting his words carefully, "I think this person simply does not find me their type."

I noticed him skimming around pronouns and realized how much of a minefield this must be for him. I wished I could have been there with him when he dealt with this in the first place. Maybe my presence would have persuaded the reporter to talk of something different.

"Have you asked her yet?" she asked, oblivious to his word games.

"I have not," Wallace said, "but I can assume, from my knowledge, that there would not be any reciprocation."

"Assuming? C'mon, you're a hero, the great Wallace, you should be able to speak up," she said, leaning close to him, only for him to step away from her in a seemingly natural way.

"I don't want to ruin what we already have," Wallace said, "and I do know them well enough to realize that I am not their type." Wallace ended this statement with a note of finality that none of his other statements had carried. He was clearly done with this conversation; what's more, I could tell that he was not only nervous now, but also sad and upset. I wasn't sure how he came off to everyone else, but that's how he seemed to me. I also knew that I needed to call him, asap. I didn't even care that he hadn't told me at this point; anyone who would hurt him in such a way deserved a talking to.

The reporter seemed ready to barrel on and keep prying, and seeing as how this appeared to be a live show I knew that my call wouldn't be beneficial to just me. My phone rung for a moment to me before it started going off for him as well, on the screen. He seemed surprised at first, to see me calling him, then looked over at the reporter.

"I'm sorry, I need to take this," Wallace said seriously, taking a step back. Wallace pressed the answer button and suddenly his face was on both my tv and the phone's screen. He was already out of the shot by that time though as he quickly made his escape from the reporter.

"What's up?" he asked me, and I grinned at him quickly.

"Glad to be away from that reporter?" I asked him, and he looked surprised.

"I didn't know you watched this garbage," Wallace said, looking back over his shoulder to where the reporter must have been. On the screen I heard her talking about Wallace's upcoming match the next day.

"Wallace, this garbage is pretty much the only thing I do watch," I told him, picking up the remote and flipping off the tv. The reporter's voice suddenly stopped filling the room. Wallace smiled back at me.

"Is that the only reason you called, then? To rescue me from the horrible reporters?" Wallace asked me.

"Not really, no, it was just a convenient side effect," I told him, "I was actually wondering...who were you talking about on there?"

Wallace's face suddenly fell, like this was exactly what he didn't want.

"It doesn't matter," Wallace told me.

"Yes it does," I responded quickly, "Because this person has obviously hurt you and I really need to talk to him because anyone would be lucky to have you and he needs to know that."

Wallace started laughing then, and it was a sort of pitiful thing, really, even then, because it was laughter but it was also so sad. I was so bewildered and didn't have any idea how to respond when he laughed like that.

His laughter came to a stop and he looked at me. "I really don't think it matters," Wallace said, and before I could interrupt, he said, "Anyway, do you think you could make it to my next match, it's really short notice bu-"

"Yes," I said quickly, cutting him off. His face conveyed his surprise at my quick answer.

"Well, it's in Lilycove and it's tomorrow, so I'm not sure if you can manage it, since you appear to be a work right now and-"

"No, really, Wallace. If you want me there then I can be there," I told him, standing up and grabbing my jacket. It would be a long trip but I could make it if I left now and slept on the way. I was sure that Skarmory could handle it, as these kinds of trips were becoming standard procedure by now.

"Don't push yourself though, if you can't make it it's fine," Wallace said, and I snorted.

"Of course I can make it," I answered, walking out of the office space I was in. The workers in the area outside looked up when they heard me talking, but turned away when they noticed my phone. I dropped by my father's door and stepped in, telling my father what I was doing and that I didn't know how long I'd be gone. He didn't even blink an eye at my sudden leave, which probably told you something about how often this kind of thing happened. He only told me to be careful and I was out the door. Wallace was still on the line, so I told him I'd call him back when I was close to Lilycove, and then turned off the phone.

I released Skarmory once I was outside of the building. I put my hand on his side. "Okay buddy, are you up for a long trip? We're going to be going to Lilycove this time, and I need to be there by tomorrow, okay?" I told him, never quite sure if he understood or not, though it seemed to me that he did. He lowered a wing to help me up, and away I was. I knew it was likely that I would doze off on the trip so as to not be completely wiped out tomorrow, and I also trusted Skarmory to keep me from falling off. I'd done it before, and even if those naps were never quite restful, they still did the job.

I settled in for a long ride and found myself pondering over Wallace and his apparent love interest that I had never known of. At first I had been bothered by the fact that he hadn't told me, but now I wasn't quite sure what to think. Now it was like I wasn't upset that he hadn't told me that this person existed, but rather that this person existed at all. I would almost say that I felt jealous, but I didn't understand what the even had to do with anything. Was I jealous of the fact that he hadn't told me anything? That wasn't how it worked though, so I couldn't fathom at all what I could possibly be jealous of.

Somehow, I realized, Wallace had never told me about his interest in people. I knew that he preferred men, but I had never heard of a specific man that he had been attracted to. The closest I had come to hearing anything about what his "type" was, was when he jokingly flirted with me. But that was all a joke, and I had never really thought anything of it.

The only time I remember thinking much about it was when I had been talking to him on the phone while around some of the other workers at Devon Corp, that after we stopped talking the other workers asked me why I put up with his flirting. I explained to them that it was only a joke, and that it really didn't bother me, since he didn't mean anything by it.

But I'd never thought about what it would mean if he hadn't been joking. And in the moment when that thought first came to me I suddenly thought about the idea of Wallace being attracted to me. He had called me attractive before, but I had always assumed it was a joke. As I thought about what it would be like if all of that wasn't a joke, and I thought about it, I realized something: I wouldn't have really minded.

This realization caused me to jolt a bit in my spot on Skarmory, which caused Skarmory to twist a bit in the sky and let out a sound of annoyance. I reached forward to scratch his neck and apologize, promising him that I'll try to think more calmly now.

It seemed like there was someone out there who already had his attention, so this realization really came at the wrong time. Someone out there that he didn't want to ruin his relationship with, who he was sure did not find him their type... Who he refused to tell me who it was after I told him I needed to talk to him, tell him how lucky he would be to have Wallace... The laugh he gave after I told him that, sad all at the same time that it was supposed to be happy...

Oh.

...

Somehow I managed to get to sleep, though the sleep was fitful and I woke up several times during the trip. That was probably for the better, though, because it allowed me to reposition myself and not fall. When I found myself getting close to Lilycove I pulled out my phone and called Wallace, but pressed a button so that it only allowed sound. I wasn't quite ready to be seen, and the picture of me while riding on Skarmory was hardly a flattering one.

"Hello?" Wallace answered.

"I'm getting close," I told him.

"Don't want me to see you midair?" he asked with a laugh.

"I know how you are. You'd only chastise me for the condition of my hair," I told him.

"Only a little bit."

"At least you agree."

"Oh, well, it's getting close to time, so I won't be able to come meet you, but you can grab your pass in the front, they'll show you where to stand," Wallace answered my earlier question.

"Oh, do I get to stand on the floor this time?" I asked, impressed.

"Yes, I thought it'd be a better spot, and you usually have to try to navigate your way down to me after the contests anyway. There'll be a lot of people, so I thought we'd just skip that this time. You'll be over on the side next to the field. Hope you don't mind them talking about you, they tend to gossip about the people on the floor a bit," Wallace explained to me.

"I've got that covered. I'm the son of a company president, I've gotten a little bit used to it. So don't worry about me. Since I won't see you before, I'll tell you good luck now and that I'll be there in a few minutes," I said, ready to end the conversation.

"Okay, I need to go anyway now, so see you later!" Wallace said in a rush, hanging up the phone quickly as I landed Skarmory right in front of the contest hall. It was much bigger than the first contest of Wallace's I'd gone to, but that only goes to show how much better he'd gotten since then.

I called Skarmory back into his pokeball to rest as I walked into the hall, straightening my hair and clothes as I did. When I walked up to the front I said my name and the lady sitting there nodded and handed me a pass. She pointed me down a hall and gave me directions to where I was to stand. I thanked her and made my way down the hall, attempting to brush myself off a bit more.

When I came out to the light and the open area where the contest itself was taking place it was pretty easy to figure out where I was supposed to be standing. They had just started to announce the contestants in this match, with Wallace coming first. As he walked in confidently, I noticed him look over to the side. I hurried up so that he caught my eye as I rushed over to the spot and waved to him. His grin grew and he nodded his head at me, then turned and looked forward. His opponent was called out, and they were told to release their pokemon.

Wallace sent out Milotic, and the opponent let out a Ninetails. Even without a type advantage Wallace could have easily beat the other; however, that just allowed for him to focus more on his presentation. He hardly even had to try, but that's simply the way it always seemed like to me. And I realized suddenly while I was watching, I realized where all of his fans were coming from. I had always been one of his fans, and I had just never thought about it. Because he was amazing, he excelled in everything he did. He was the champion, and he could bowl people over with his abilities in contests as well. And he looked good while doing all of it.

The sudden realization hit me that he was attractive, and I'd just never thought about it. He'd called me attractive plenty of times, but I hadn't thought a thing about it. I recognized that others thought him attractive, but had never thought about it myself.

Not only that, but he was my friend. I knew him. I knew what he was like and I knew what he liked and what he didn't. I'd known him so long that I just couldn't fathom life without him. And I could remember my loneliness when I was wasn't with him or when I couldn't see him for a while.

After all of this thinking, I was hit with a desire to kiss him, to see what it would be like to kiss him. I tried to dismiss it, and tried to remember that Wallace probably didn't actually like me, and that I was probably only jumping to conclusions.

It didn't seem to matter to me.

Wallace came out victorious, of course. I had never been worried, and when it was over I could tell he wasn't surprised. But he carried himself with grace, walking over to his opponent and congratulating him on his performance. The opponent's friends ran over to him from the side and started trying to encourage him after his defeat. I felt awkward, standing over on the side, so I started to walk up to where Wallace had gone back to his side. He smiled when he saw me walk up, and I smiled back.

Before I knew it, I was right in front of him. I was again struck with the impulse to kiss him, and I looked up at him again. A billion thoughts ran through my head as I stood there, doubts and impressions and admonitions, before I finally decided my course of action.

Before I could think another thing, my arms were around his neck and my lips on his. I noticed how I had to go on tiptoe; never before had I thought about our height difference like this.

As soon as I did it, maybe even before, Wallace reacted. When our mouths met he made a very undignified squeaking noise, throwing his arms up next to my shoulders in surprise. This wasn't the immediate reaction that I had hoped for, so I pulled away quickly. I took a step back, almost tripping over my own feet.

"I-"I really didn't know what to say, scared now that I had read it wrong and that I had totally screwed up our friendship. So I just shut my mouth, afraid to screw it up even more. Wallace seemed to be over his initial surprise, or at least the surprise that made it hard for him to do anything. He looked at me, wide eyed.

"You..." he started to say something, but then must have noticed my dazed and afraid look. Because he then put his hands on my shoulders and leaned down, kissing me. My arms dangled at my sides this time, as he pulled away too quickly for me to react.

"When you were talking to the reporter the other day...you were talking about me, weren't you?" I asked him quietly, looking off to the side, completely unaware of the billions of eyes on us at this very moment. As cheesy as it sounded, I was really only thinking about Wallace.

"Yes," Wallace answered, "and you wanted to tell yourself how much of an honor it would be to date me. What-what happened?"

The stutter was my clue in that he was confused and unsure of how to act right now, for once.

"I thought some things over," I told him, aware of the fact that he had not moved his hands from my shoulders since the kiss, "and it turns out that I wanted to be the one you were talking about."

"You did," he said, a bit dumbfounded.

"All of this time, you weren't joking when you flirted with me," I asked, "were you?"

"I... thought you assumed it was a joke, so I thought it was okay to continue and hope that one day you caught on," Wallace answered, moving his hands off of my shoulders. I caught sight of the ring on his finger, and suddenly found myself smiling. I don't know what I had expected, but this really wasn't it.

"And I think we might be the center of attention," I said, suddenly remembering where we were and starting to step away from Wallace.

"Don't leave me alone now, they'll eat me alive," he said, catching hold of one of my hands as I stepped away. I barely thought it over before I stepped back. I would probably do anything that Wallace asked of me, like face crazy reporters or fly across the region in a day.

"I'm not leaving," I told him, as I saw the various people approaching to talk to Wallace about is win and, presumably, about the new line of gossip that had just unfolded in front of everyone there.

He squeezed my hand, and I was glad to be there. I was glad to be his friend. Most of all, I was glad I had finally come to my senses.

"Where are we going, Wallace?" I asked as he led me through the streets of Sootopolis, hand in hand. He looked back at me.

"You mean you don't recognize it?" he asked me as we continued walking upwards.

"Uh, no...I-" I started to say, but then it came to me. We were following the same path as we had when we'd first met, when he'd taken me to see the city. Since then I'd been in the city multiple times, and knew it pretty well; most of those times I had been with Wallace. When I followed him up the steps I realized that I hadn't really been paying much attention to where we were going that first time, instead focusing on the man I had just met.

Wallace smiled when the look of recognition came over my face and squeezed my hand as we kept going up. The lights passed and I could see the moon up in the sky, full, just like it had been that night.

When we got to the right spot, he released my hand and sat down. Looking up at me, I joined him quickly. Years ago we had sat in this very same spot, the first time we had ever really talked. Wallace smiled gently at me, putting his hand in between us. I put my hand over his and scooted closer than I had sat the first time. This only proved to make Wallace even happier, as he leaned close to me. We looked out to see the buildings of the city, the way it blended in with the environment and curved slowly upwards. The light reflected off of everything, making it easy to make out the city.

"Imagine, years ago, I met a boy, sixteen years old, who was here for the first time because of his father's business. For some reason, I found him intriguing, and couldn't quite let him escape my grasp. So I went and found where he was staying so that I could take him on a pseudo-romantic outing to see the city by moonlight," Wallace murmured, almost to himself, sitting so close that he needed speak no louder for me to be able to hear it, "And somehow, I managed to keep the boy's interest for long enough that we were able to become friends."

"And that boy wouldn't understand for the longest time why it was that he hated being apart from him even for short periods of time, especially not for the terrible amounts of time that he had to go without him," I rambled, not even quite sure if I made sense. I felt Wallace hum in response, so I suppose he understood what I meant.

We sat in silence for the longest time. I might have dozed off if not for the fact that I didn't want to miss a moment, so I sat there, content just to be around Wallace. I felt a kiss on the top of my head. We had already been so close before all of this, that it came as no surprise to anyone else and was not hard to shift into a more romantic relationship. I guess we'd just been falling into it without me even realizing. I looked forward to many more weeks, months, even years spent like this, around Wallace. Happy simply to be wrapped in his arms.

It had been a long process. But it had been worth it.

He had been worth it.