Pokémon AU: Dimensional Travelers

Chapter 8: Tag-Battle!

 Gladion guided her away from the crowds and into the gardens, where the Waning Gibbous Moon was reflecting against the ponds and all the plants. A few guests were wandering the gardens, but they were far enough away they wouldn't bother Gladion and Mitsuki.

Mitsuki was admiring the flowers and roses in the moonlight, and Gladion couldn't take his eyes off her. She sensed the relaxed, dreamy aura radiating off him. As she turned to face him, the cheesy grin spread across his lips made her giggle. He stiffened when he finally noticed she was snickering. "What?" she asked, willing her giggles to stop.

Keeping it smooth as silk and cool as ice, he replied, "Just admiring the most beautiful flower in this garden."

The blush spread across her face faster than she could react. She could barely script a return flirt to keep the tension up while still keeping it platonic. She was sure he was just trying to boost her confidence and nothing more--nothing deeper--but damn she'd be a liar if she said she didn't want it to mean more.

When she finally composed her thoughts, she adopted a slightly vivacious expression, skating over the flirtatious quips she reserved for that one overly-platonic friend. "Ironic," she smirked, though internally hoping that he would just find these flirty quips playful; it just seemed too early in their friendship to go any further, "you call me the prettiest flower in the garden when the Gladiolus is so breathtaking."

One of his favorites and his namesake flower. That flirt hit him right in the feels. Little did she know that flirtatious demeanor was less one-sided than she hoped. He knew he had to one-up her somehow, tell her she was wrong and no flower could be prettier but he couldn't decide which flower to use in his retort: Rose or Moonflower? He eventually landed on Rose, due to the color of her gown and its place in the language of flowers. "Oh really? Didn't know a Sword Lily could take the breath away from a Rose."

Comparing me to one of my favorite flowers, are we? Mitsuki thought, trying to collect herself. She tried to script a return flirt, but nothing came up. The more she thought it over, gazing into those piercing light emerald eyes seemingly glowing ethereally in the moonlight, the more her thoughts slipped away leaving her in a daze.

She was speechless.

Gladion loved it. "At a loss for words?" he teased, returning to the starting statement. His eyes flitted between her lips and her blue-green eyes, sparkling like a thousand stars under the moonlight.

"And what would you do if I couldn't find my words?" she asked, daring him to push the limits he'd set.

He wanted to say, "If you can't find your words, then perhaps you should walk away." But what came out of his mouth was, "Are you certain you know where you're going with this?" An equally good and well placed warning as what he wanted, but he didn't want to seem like he didn't like this. He wasn't trying to complain. Yet he wanted to be sure she knew what she was doing, since she surely didn't know what she was doing to him at that moment: being so close as to brush against his chest with hers at every breath, alone under the moonlight.

She scoffed, "I know what I said." She hoped she knew exactly what she was doing, especially to him, but she was too polite to intrude using her power: not after the lunchtime event.

That was it. Gladion gazed at her, his judgement clouded by the intensity, his resolve beginning to shake as he leaned a little closer to her petite height. It would be too easy to wrap his arms around her, to pull her close, to give in to the lust that was building in his heart, to break all the rules he'd set before him only days ago to not break what he considered a fragile friendship. An impatient, shaky hand rose, hovering mere centimeters from her waist. Shy but firm and delicate hands pressed against his chest, her blue-green eyes glowing entrancingly in the shimmering moonlight, inviting him to follow her unknowing craving: to break this unspoken pact she never knew they made.