Important note before reading: This is a purely gameverse fic. The rival is named Kanade, because he has no default name in the games. Silver is not his name, no matter how often others like to use it. Personally I don't care, though I don't like to be part of mainstream anyways. Kanade (奏) means to play/perform a musical instrument, and I thought the name fits with Kotone, which means the sound of harps.

Valentine's Day

Kanade would have secluded himself to the Dragon's den for the entire day, if it were not for the inconvenient fact that people (and pokemon) have a tendency to become hungry after training for 6 hours non-stop. It was especially becoming inconvenient now as his feraligatr smashed and crushed and shot jets of water with increasing difficulty. If Kanade was his older self, he would have kept it training until it dropped immobile to the ground. But he would not do that now, not after Professor Elm had at least put that much trust in him even though he probably didn't deserve it. On the other hand, Kanade really did not want to lose to her again, though balancing training and care was still a difficult task for him.

It was with the combined needs of the trainer and the pokemon that Kanade went back to Blackthorn city with Feraligatr in tow. The February air was crisp and frigid, as it was especially so in the mountainous regions. The boy shoved his hands deeper in his pockets. The Dragon's Den was perpetually warm due to the power of the dragons that reside there, so Kanade did not need to dress too thickly. But when he needed to go out of the cave for whatever reason, he made sure to finish his errand as soon as possible.

Being one of the more secluded cities of the Johto region, there were few people around even at the bustling dinner time. Kanade trudged past a couple flirting on the side of the road to his favorite take-away food shop for ham and cheese wrapped up in a hot pancake, and just ham for Feraligatr. The duo then headed towards the Pokemon center, their refuge from the cold outside. Along the way, they saw a few more couples laughing, talking, arms entwined. One pair was even kissing, completely unaware of their surroundings.

"What's with all these lovers today..." Kanade grumbled, but did not dawdle long on the topic as it was getting too cold to think.

The sky was already dark when they arrived. Kanade decided he would call it a day and leave his pokemon on the machines for the night.

Swish. A giant white hat with a red bow, two crescent-shaped pigtails, red shirt and blue overalls with hardly cold-repelling thigh-high stockings: the girl befitting such a description emerged from the automatic doors of the Pokemon center. She looked flustered, and was mumbling about something under her breath.

"Geez, where did that--"

She looked up at the same time that Kanade turned around to see where the gust of cold air had come from.

"AH!" YOU!" Both boy and girl exclaimed as they recognized one another.

"What are you doing here?" The girl, known as Kotone, demanded as she stormed up to the counter. Apparently, she was annoyed for some reason Kanade cannot grasp.

So he frowned. "Healing my pokemon...?"

"I-I knew that."

An awkward silence lasting a second passed. It was uncanny for either of them to meet up on an occasion that was not to battle.

"I thought you never leave Dragon's Den, you hermit." Kotone scorned at her rival.

"Well, I have to eat, you know." He retorted.

"Couldn't you have done that in there?"

Kanade wondered why the crazy girl was so insistent on him staying at Dragon's Den.

"I don't have to." He said simply, "What are you doing in this place, anyways? You've got the Rising Badge already."

"I...I'm taking a walk."

"On a mountain in February?"

"Yeah, got a problem?"

"You two."

"What?" They turned around at the same time to register a stranger's voice. It was a nurse from the center, with a very stern look on her face.

"If you want to flirt, go outside and stop annoying the other customers."

"We're not flirting!" Kotone protested. Kanade gave a scowl that indicated the same message.

"I don't care, you're too loud." The nurse replied curtly. "Out." A Blissey appeared out of nowhere from behind her and gave them a happy wave.

"I never knew Blissey could learn mega punch......" Kotone rubbed her aching tailbone where the blissey had landed the blow.

"So what were you doing at the pokemon center? I find it hard to believe you came just to argue with me." Kanade asked, also in the same condition due to the Blissey's attack.

"Same reason as you...'cept I can't go back now because you're so loud."

"Me? You were the one who--"

Kotone raised a hand to stop his further protests. "Shush. I just remembered something. Count yourself lucky you ran into me today, or else you would never have gotten one."

"Gotten one what?"

"Here." Kotone thrusted a package into his hands, if the lighting was better, Kanade would see that her face was slightly pink. The package was a little heart-shaped box with a ribbon glued on the cover. "Valentine chocolates."

Suddenly, Kanade realized why the atmosphere of the city had seemed so strange. He had totally forgotten it was the holiday for lovers today.

"They're just friend chocolates, so...so don't get any weird ideas!" Kotone explained huffily.

"I didn't ask for any chocolates." The boy said.

"Oh, so you don't want them. Give them back, then."

"No." Kanade refused, and before Kotone could protest or take action, he opened the box and popped one of the chocolates into his mouth. Hey, he was hungry.

A few seconds passed in silence between them as the boy savoured the morsel.

"Too sweet."

"What?!" Kotone cried, flustered and outraged, "You don't even like it! Spit it out, give it back!" Then she tried to reach up and grab the chocolates out of his hand, but their height difference rendered her attempts unsuccessful.

"Why are you so uptight?"

"I'm not uptight!"

"They're just friend chocolates."

"So? I made them myself and being underappreciated offends me!"

"Oh." Kanade felt a little twinge of guilt, but he was not about to apologize for anything. "Well, it doesn't matter what my opinion is, as long as the one who got your lover's chocolate likes them."

"Well..." Kotone looked away uneasily, "He...didn't like them, at least I think not."

"He's an asshole then."

"Yeah, a really big one." The girl said pointedly.

Kanade peered down at her from the corner of one eye.

"And I had to look all over to find him today, he wasn't even where he was supposed to be..." She crossed her arms and kept complaining. "He really is an asshole. Right, Kanade?"

The boy did not answer her question, it was rhetorical, anyways. He studied the brown confectionery in his hands; they were all heart-shaped, and decorated with tiny white chocolate swirls on top. That kind of detail was beyond his skill to make, so he was impressed that Kotone was capable of it.

"These are friend chocolates, you say?" He asked.

"Y-yes." Kotone answered. "And they were spare, too. See, I couldn't find uh, Eusine today. Suicune must have been feeling adventurous."

"I see." Kanade responded vaguely.

"So...I better be going, then." She fidgeted, uneasy at his curtness. "Happy Valentine's."

As she turned to leave, feeling the freezing air colder than ever on her thinly covered legs, something happened.

Kotone felt Kanade's hand close on her wrist, and her first reflex was to pull away. But his grasp was firm, and she sensed some purpose as he pulled her closer to him. Like the time when he asked her to team up with him against Lance and Claire, and that incident at the Goldenrod radio tower where he...she would rather not think of it now. In any case, Kanade probably has a good reason (of his own agenda) to grab her suddenly like this. He was not the type to make unnecessary skin contact, except when he wanted to show that he was the tougher one by shoving others...

The thoughts raced quickly through Kotone's mind, she was so preoccupied that she did not even notice Kanade's face was closer --much closer-- to her face that she had recalled. His breath, visible and brushing on her cheeks smelled sweet of chocolate. It had begun to snow; there were little clumps of it stuck to his crimson hair and his face, where they quickly transformed to tiny droplets. Kotone became highly aware that she could see these details (usually unnoticed due to the distance he kept from her), and that the air in the distance between them had warmed enough for her to not become too startled when he moved his hand so that it rest on her shoulder, close to her neck. Outsiders must be busy staring at them and getting the spectacular wrong idea, and Kotone felt a rush of warmth to her cheeks at this thought. Thank goodness it was Valentine's Day, and nobody cared to notice.

There was one thing that bothered Kotone; Kanade's eyes were inscrutable. What happened to the easily-read blushes and frantic turning-aways of faces and scowls? She could see none of that now. Just Kanade's face, now only a few inches away, with an unreadable expression.

Their lips were directly in front of each other's.

What is this?

Wait, it, it can't be?

Should I pull away? Should I push him away? Should I just stop him? Slap him?

Kotone kept her eyes open until all she could see was the color red --the color of Kanade's eyes, same as his hair--, then the tension became too great, and she squeezed them shut. She knew perfectly well what was coming, she wanted to struggle, wanted to say something. But the touch of his hand, now sliding up her neck to her cheek, she did not want that warmth gone. Nor did she want to miss the--

So she kept her eyes closed and waited. And waited.

And waited a few seconds more.

And it never came. His hand also left her skin, leaving a distant warmth where it had been.

Kotone's eyes snapped open, seeing Kanade there, with a smirk on his face. Instantly, she knew she should have slapped him.

"Well...what was that all about?" Suppressing the annoyance, embarrassment, and a strange sense of loss bubbling in the pit of her stomach, Kotone asked.

"A prank." He said. "For the lie you told me."

"What?"

Kanade turned back to Feraligatr, who looked as apologetic as giant crocodiles could.

"Thanks for the chocolates." He said over his shoulder.

She did not respond.

"Actually, I don't dislike them." He added.

And then the boy left with his pokemon.

Kotone was trying to decide whether she was angry or disappointed, and whether it was at herself or Kanade, and whether she really had wanted what happened a minute ago to proceed as it should have.

But the fact was, she had lied about the chocolates, and he saw through her. It was the one battle she minded losing, and she had lost.

Ignoring the townspeople, she turned in the direction he went and screamed as loud as she could through trembling body and scarlet face.

"Kanade...you...you...GIGANTIC. ASSHOLE!"

Around a block, Kanade heard the girl's anguished cry. Feraligatr rumbled, as if to ask "are you really okay with that?".

"It's fine." He said. "She's right, anyways."

As long as they still can't be truthful to one another. For the time, anyways.

"I'd better not do that again unless it's for real."

A low questioning growl.

"Because...maybe the prank is on me just as much as it's on her."

-end-