Moon's chin rests on her palm as she idly swipes a finger across her Pokedex's screen. It was a month until Valentine's Day and since she wasn't in a relationship she resorted to mindless task of online dating.

Well, the swiping part at least.

It was a hectic afternoon in the restaurant she was currently loitering in. An untouched glass of water was placed next to her as the condensation fell on the surface of the bar counter. Small murmurs of "nope, nah, hell no, oh arceus no, and maybe," escape her lips, much to the restaurant staff's entertainment, but Mallow had enough.

"Hau, this is the 5th time this week" Mallow says in a hushed cry, her eyes peer behind him to make sure Moon didn't overhear, "she's your best friend! You have to deal with her."

"Mallow, look at her! She's looking for love and causing no harm" Hau responds cheerfully, only to have her sigh in response.

"I love Moon and all but I can't let her continue to mooch off our free wi-fi and water! Others have already started copying her!" the exasperation in her voice was evident as she pointed to a couple of tables with said copycats, but Hau decided to give her wide pleading eyes at the end of her rant.

"Hau..." Mallow begins, but he becomes more insistent; adding a pout to the mix. "Nu uh, I ain't Lillie, that's not going to work."

Hau drops his act almost immediately and shrugs, "hey, it was worth a shot," he grumbles, but Mallow shakes her head before pointing at Moon.

"Ay, ay Manager Mallow," Hau says as he lifts a hand to a forehead to mock a salute. Mallow rolls her eyes at his antics before he turns on his heel to make his way towards his mission.

Hau knew Moon was an open book who wore every expression on her face. So when he saw the furrow in her brow it was a dead give away that her adventures on the app were not going well.

"You know, when people are at a bar at 1 in the afternoon their either heartbroken or really like alcohol…" Moon tears her eyes away from her screen and sees Hau leaning against the counter, "and you my friend, are neither."

Moon narrows her eyes, "at least if I was heartbroken I wouldn't be this desperate."

"Chin up Moon! There's plenty of Magikarp in the sea!" Hau says happily as he lifts himself up to sit on the counter; an act that gets Mallow riled up from across the way, but luckily Kiawe and Lana were there to hold her back.

Moon scoffs at his generic sentence. Hau had a girlfriend, he had no right to give her a pep talk, but maybe he had some insight.

"What do you think of him?" Moon asks as she pushes her pokedex into his face. His eyes cross in an attempt to see the screen from up close, before giving up and just grabbing the device from her.

"Ill-ima? Ill-i-mia? I-lima? Isn't he that model on the billboards everywhere?" Hau asks as he swipes through the profile.

"To be honest I'm not entirely sure how to say his name" Moon says before reaching for the water cup to take a sip, "but he's cute."

"And full of himself," Hau adds when he finishes with the description. "Prince of Alola? Really?"

"I figured it was a way for him to be funny," Moon sighs as she takes the phone back, "I just really don't know what to do Hau. This is all so risky, what if I end up murdered?"

Moon's dramatics were typical, but when it came to love and dating it was like she was the star of an Alolan soap opera. Always over the top, and not at all close to her usual confident aura in everything else.

Hau lets out a laugh, before noticing that Mallow was now serving a table, extremely close to them. He pushes himself off the counter in one smooth movement.

"Hey Moon..." Hau begins awkwardly, a single hand reaching behind his head to scratch nervously.

Moon tilts her head slightly, a frown plastered on her face, as she waits for Hau to continue, "what if you host all your dates here?"

That was not what he wanted to say at all and Mallow nearly dropped all the dishes in shock, but the way Moon's eyes lit up made it seem like he gave his best friend a million dollars.

"You have a few weeks left, and in this day and age you can't be too careful with random strangers."

Moon jumps out of her seat before wrapping Hau in a big hug.

"But Moon, promise me you'll order something during them or else Mallow will be serving my head as her special next week!" he adds on to which Mallow starts nodding furiously in agreement from behind him.

"Yes, yes of course! Sorry about that Mallow" She says happily as Mallow continues to do her job. It is then when Moon pauses to look at Hau carefully, "wait, you don't work evenings though."

Hau waves a hand vaguely around, dismissing her worries. "Lillie has a brother who works here. I'll make him keep an eye out for you instead."

Moon and Lillie were friends, but definitely not close enough to have engaged in conversations about family.

She was a sweet girl with a warm and welcoming charm about her. So when Moon walked into Mallow's restaurant (promising to order something), she was looking for someone along the same lines. Tall, blonde hair, of course, and probably looked like a doll, but when Mallow noticed Moon's confused face she pointed across the room to the bar.

"That's Lillie's brother: Gladion."

Yeah, Moon was way off the mark.

He exuded aloofness, as he took people's orders swiftly and effectively. Multiple piercings graced his ears as the silver matched the black on black attire of choice. His blonde hair was cut choppily across his face, and his face, although not doll-like, was definitely model-like.

She internally swore at the siblings' genepool, but her jealous quickly faded once she arrived at the counter. Immediately intimidated by his presence, she was already thinking of the ways she could avoid the situation, but her feet stayed planted.

If this was going to be the guy that made sure she wasn't kidnapped or killed she was going to have to say hi.

It wasn't long before he moved his attention to her, a quirk of an eyebrow signaling that he was waiting for an order.

"You're Lillie's brother right?" Moon asks, his face staying painfully neutral as she waited for a response. Someone makes an order right at that moment, forcing him to multitask while dealing with her.

"You must be the project Hau told me about," was his simple response as his hands got busy making yet another order.

"Oh dear Arceus, he made me sound desperate didn't he?" Moon replies with a grimace and a silent promise to yell at Hau later. But the blonde gives her a half-hearted shrug as he passes the drink to the other customer, before tilting his chin in the direction of an empty table.

"Hau said to make sure you didn't die and I have a pretty good view of that table right there," Gladion takes the tip that another customer slided over to him before he directed his attention to Moon again, "it's going to be a busy night, what should I look for if you need help?"

His voice was just so nonchalant about the whole thing she had to wonder what kind of dirt Hau had on him.

"A look of complete panic?" Moon squeaks out, unsure if he would know what that meant, but he only nods in solidarity.

"I've seen my fair share of those. If it's not me I'll send someone else to come get you…." his voice trails off acknowledging the fact that they didn't exchange names.

"Moon" she says with a small smile as she reaches her hand out, he shakes it, albeit quickly before being called by yet another customer.

Ilima was gorgeous but he was exactly as Hau predicted: self-centered, vain, and more in love with himself than anything. And boy could he talk. At first Moon thought it was interesting; a well traveled man who found a career in modeling, but then he started to go and on about his escapades and how he just had to 'turn women away because of his charms.'

Moon fights back the groans that wanted to escape her.

It was about 30 minutes in when Ilima finally stopped talking at her and instead tried to engage in a conversation. "You know, you have a pretty face, but your personality needs work. It's like I have to fill in all the space!"

Moon takes it back, she wanted to be talked at again. So she puts down her utensil with a clank and twists her torso to face the bar. Panic was not the expression, it was anguish. Gladion had to look at her for a second as he poured a drink before recognizing the symbolic white flag.

Save me now.

So he nods and calls over Mina, the main hostess for the evening. Ilima's voice, now just background noise as Moon watched the staff members talk. Gladion casually pointed to her and her table but Mina shakes her head defiantly. Gladion clearly offers something in exchange and soon Mina grabs her clipboard hastily and makes her away over.

"Ilima? A group of girls are waiting outside for you" the girl interrupts his tirade, but that was enough to get him to stop talking and to start moving. He hands Mina his credit card and winks, "you know what to do" and suddenly he's gone leaving Mina and Moon in appalled silence.

Mina opens her mouth to apologize for the disaster, only for Moon to thank her instead.

That was enough to get a chuckle out of the taller girl, "Don't thank me, thank Gladion" and just like that she walks away humming a happy tune ready to finish the job.

Moon walks to the bar with dropped shoulders when Gladion notices her approaching.

He passes her a freshly made drink, "hey, at least you didn't die."

"Shut up," Moon mumbles before downing the drink not noticing the smirk growing on Gladion's face.

(This became a common occurrence between the two.)

The next date pissed Gladion off.

Moon, who was not at all deterred by the last disaster, showed up about an hour early to tell him about the new guy.

"His name's Sun" she mentions as she leans on the counter in front of him, a chuckle escapes him as he cleaned the glasses.

"Sun and Moon. You two must be a match made in heaven," the sarcasm laced his sentenced so she responded by pulling out her pokedex to show his profile.

Gladion's eyes scan the picture, "I never thought I would find someone's face so, punchable."

Moon retracts her phone right away to stare at the image, "huh, you're right."

But none of them expected the punching to actually happen.

When the two finished their meal Moon excused herself to use the restroom. That's when Gladion noticed Sun quickly packing up his things and slithering his way to the back exit.

Gladion left his post in a fraction of a second and waited outside.

"You should've seen his face," Gladion said triumphantly.

"Before or after you punched him?" Moon asked with a laugh as she pressed the ice onto his throbbing hand.

The next date was to never be talked about again.

It was earlier than Moon's other dates, and Gladion was just clocking in when he saw Moon standing in front of a table.

Seated was a young boy, Sophocles, who was forced to catfish someone for a bet. The tears in his eyes showed complete remorse and the sobs that came out were as loud as a kid who couldn't buy candy.

"I didn't know you liked younger guys," Gladion comments as he walks up to Moon but his joking stops when he could see that she was not comfortable with the situation at all.

"You don't have siblings do you?" Gladion asks and as expected Moon wordlessly shakes her head. He pats her shoulder reassuringly before walking up to the kid and squatting down to meet his eye level.

Moon couldn't help but to feel her heart warm at the exchange, but it was short lived when Gladion told her to take him home.

"I did not come here to babysit" she whispered in Gladion's direction, but then she felt a tug on her shirt.

Sophocles was looking up at her with big tear brimmed eyes, "I'm sorry" he muttered before a small sob sputtered up again. That was enough for Moon to grab his hand and head out to the proper island.

She came back a few hours later, much to Gladion's surprise.

"Can you screen my future dates?" Moon pleas leaving Gladion speechless as a customer tried to gain his attention. It was a busy night and Moon was not a paying customer at the moment, so he quickly whispered "wait a second" before he continued to focus on his job.

A second turned into hours, but Moon found a seat and scrolled through her social media feeds as she waited.

And waited.

Until Gladion cleared his throat pulling her away from her screen, now noting that she looked exhausted.

"I'm not one to do unnecessary things" he grumbles as he holds his hand out for her pokedex, "but this should work as an apology."

Gladion's choice was a man named Guzma and this time the date was on a slow Wednesday night.

The date lasted 5 minutes.

He was attractive in a sense, but Moon panicked when the first thing out of his mouth was how he wanted to get married and have kids soon.

Moon could hear Gladion cracking up, the glare she threw at him did nothing to cease his laughter. He clenched his stomach as the laughing got harder to control, much to her chagrin.

Guzma eventually left and with a sigh she returned to her post-date spot. Waiting there was her typical drink order and Gladion looking at her with his trademark smirk.

"Explain to me Moon, how can a girl like you end up dating all these losers?"

"You picked this guy" Moon scoffs as she picks up the glass, but as she brings the drink to her lips she stops. "Wait, what do you mean a girl like me?"

Gladion shrugs, avoiding the question completely.

The last date made things interesting.

Kiawe, was a coworker of Gladion and Hau. A friendly guy, that was for sure, and girls definitely swooned, but there was something about how nicely he treated Moon that made Gladion angry.

She was laughing at his jokes, she was impressed with his passion for dancing, and for once she didn't throw a desperate gaze in his direction.

But there was a small hiccup in the date when Mallow came by to hand over the dessert menu. Kiawe looked at the manager with longing as she walked away.

"You're only on this date with me to make Mallow jealous aren't you?" Moon says without missing a beat.

Kiawe stumbles with his words eventually uttering an apology until Moon gives him a sincere smile.

"C'mon Kiawe, tell her how you really feel." That's all he needed to hear in order to yell out Mallow's name.

It was at that moment Moon looked at Gladion for the first time that evening, the shrug and smile she gave him did nothing to calm his muddled emotions.

It was a day until Valentine's Day when Moon decided that the only way to find true love was to ask the happiest couple she knew for advice.

"Are we just one of your dates?" Lillie giggles as she puts a spoonful of cake in her mouth, but Hau looks at her with a heartbroken expression.

"Lillie are you breaking up with me to date Moon?" he asks completely seriously and Moon swears if he wasn't her best friend she would've slammed her head into the table by now.

"This isn't a date, guys" Moon says with an aggravated tone, but that's when she notices Gladion coming in. A beaming smile shows up on her face as she waves at him.

Lillie and Hau turn in their seats to see who she was greeting so happily and were completely surprised at the result: Gladion waving back, with a barely noticeable smile on his face, although when he noticed them the smile dropped almost immediately .

"Gladion?" Hau asks in surprise, "I thought you usually had Mondays off!"

Lillie doesn't miss the subtle glance her brother threw at Moon. "I needed the extra hours" he says nonchalantly before leaving the three to their conversation.

Moon crosses her arms as a pout makes her way to her face. "Weird, he usually talks to me more before going to work" she mutters before dismissing the stray thought. "Anyways, guys. Nothing seems to be working! All these dates have been flops."

"Maybe you just haven't been looking in the right place" Lillie states matter of factly as she looks at her brother across the way. She knew Hau assigned him to make sure nothing bad happened to Moon, but he was watching her even when he didn't have to.

"I'm going to suggest you look closer too" she adds on before she realizes her brother was now scowling at her. The cheeky grin on her face told him that she caught him in the act.

Hau stabs his fork into Lillie's cake while she wasn't looking, "what kind of guy are you even looking for anyways?"

Moon puts her elbows on the table and places her head on her hands, a long hum fills the air as she processes the question.

"Someone unexpectedly sweet who can match my sarcastic ways with their own. Has to have Pokemon, for sure. Of course I have to find them attractive. Tall. I always liked green eyes..."

Hau stops the fork from reaching his mouth. "You literally just described...

That's when realization strikes the blonde girl who had been silent for the past few minutes. "Moon give me your dex."

Moon gives her a confused look as she hands it over, unsure of what she was going to do until she saw the all too common motion of swiping left endlessly. It took a few minutes until she suddenly stopped.

"I knew it," she murmurs before flipping the screen over for Moon to see. Unsurprisingly open was the dating app, but what made Moon speechless was the smiling picture of Gladion and his Pokemon, Silvally if she remembered correctly. This, however, wasn't any ordinary picture, it was his very own profile.

The heat rose to Moon's cheeks in an instant. "No, no, no, no no. HE'S YOUR BROTHER" she says in a hushed whisper, obviously trying to avoid the eavesdropping ears of the very guy in question.

"And you like him" Lillie smugly whispers back, and Hau just begins smiling as he starts to look back and forth between Gladion and Moon.

"I-do not..." Moon begins to protest, but by then Lillie was convinced Moon had found her match.

"Just go!"

For the first time since the dating adventures started Moon felt her stomach fill with Butterfrees. The hesitancy was written all over her face, and with one final glance back at her encouraging friends she knew it was now or never.

Sure, Hau was kinda, maybe, right in the fact that she described him, but that was a fluke!

A mere coincidence that he matched the very description of her ideal type.

A sigh escapes her as she shakes her head. Who was she kidding?

Gladion was perfect, and her accepting this made the walk up to him all the more nerve wracking, but that's when she remembered, she didn't have to try to impress him like all the other dates. He already knew her.

"Gladion, 26, Bartender, 0 miles away."

Gladion lifts his head towards her approaching voice, watching her read off her screen

"7 pictures, 1 with your Pokemon, 1 with your sister, several of you looking angsty yet intriguing. None of you just smiling" she looks up "and definitely none of them with you this flustered."

"I-don't know what you're going on about" he says quickly before distracting himself with some menial task. His face turning away so she couldn't pay attention to the red gracing his cheeks.

A tsk escapes her as she stops at the counter. "You don't even have a description. How will I know you're not a murder?"

"Moon..." he begins when he looks up at her, completely ready to make up an excuse or some other reason for his being there, but the words get caught in his throat when he sees her dex lifted next to her face, a single digit pressing his profile.

She swipes right, the buzz could be heard in his pocket almost immediately.

Moon takes a deep breath in as determination fills her eyes. "Are you free tomorrow, on Valentine's Day?" Moon blurts out, louder than she wanted to as she tried to ignore her racing heart, and the heat rising to her face. She could hear Hau and Lillie snicker at her smooth ways.

No wonder everyone does this online now.

Gladion sighs dramatically before giving her an apologetic glance, " I have to make sure this one girl I know doesn't get kidnapped..."

"I think she'll be fine this time around" Moon says all too happily as she leans on the bar counter and that's when Gladion smiles, genuinely for once.

"Then it's a date."

"So how'd you end up on the dating app anyways?" Moon asks cheekily the next evening as they left the garden they were in.

The blush on his face made it seem like he got caught red handed, and his downcast eyes said it all before he even had to speak,

"I lowkey hoped you would stop dating losers," he grumbles, but that was enough for Moon to stop them in their place. He quirks an eyebrow at her to ask her why they stopped, but Moon decides to kiss him on the cheek instead.

It left Gladion stunned as she continued to walk ahead of him, her airy laugh filling the space between them.