AN - Request for Shiranai Atsune. Hope you enjoy.

Working Melodies

The gentle keying of notes on the piano allowed Crystal to focus on her job. While the first few days working under Prof. Oak had been enthralling enough to keep her focused at the task at hand, it was after the next few days that she'd realized how annoying the hum of the equipment was. The air whirring through the fume hood loudly, constantly made her question how it hadn't bothered her until now. Eventually, Crys took to playing music while she worked, plugging ear buds into her pokégear or while doing paperwork or turning the radio onto the classical music station when alone and running about the lab.

Currently, she was reading a paper about human invasion of pokémon habitats in the Hoenn region. It was an old paper, dating a few years back, but was still rather relevant to current events (disregarding Team Aqua and Plasma of course). She was getting lost in the arpeggios of Mazurka in A flat by Chopin, and her paper ("... forests led to the fleeing of wild pokémon into neighboring areas. The construction of Rustboro has thus...").

"...m interrupting someth-" Crystal jumped at the hand that touched her shoulder.

"GAH!" Turning quickly, she noticed the surprised expression on slate eyes and retreating gloved hand. "I- Silver, what are you doing here?"

"I was with Blue nee-san and she told me to give these cookies to friends because she watching her weight," he explained after a moment's hesitation. "I already gave some to Gold and thought you might want one as well."

Crystal looked at the cloth pouch in his hand, tied closed by an aqua ribbon. Smiling, at him, she took it from him.

"Thank you."

Silver's looked away, his face lightly tinted pink.

"Yeah, no problem." Another moment of awkward silence. "So... " Crys was unable to understand the following words. Realizing that her music was still playing and overpowering his murmured words, she removed her ear buds and placed them onto the table.

"I'm sorry, what were you saying?"

Silver cleared his throat.

"I was asking what you were listening to."

She was about to reply that it was Erik Satie's Gymopédie No. 1, as her previous song hand just finished, but she stopped herself. Gold already made fun of herself for being super serious and listening to "boring, old people music" would probably not help her case in the least.

"It's nothing. You probably wouldn't like it anyways."

"Oh?" Silver raised an eyebrow. "I think I'll judge that for myself."

After she had reluctantly handed him her ear buds, Silver listened to the current melody. It was pretty, almost melancholic in some parts, bittersweet maybe. They sat in not quite silence, as in spite of Silver being the only one to hear the music, the whirr of the fume hood could still be heard. As the final chord diminished, Silver calmly breathed out. He removed the ear buds before the next song began; from what he could hear, it was similar, but not quite as dark.

"So what did you think?" Crys inquired a tad anxiously.

"I really liked that," he replied smiling.

"I'm glad," she said, letting out a breath she did not know she had been holding. They sat for a few more moments in not quite silence. Silver played with the chord.

"I-" he started, "I mean would you mind showing me more of that kind of music? Well, when you're free I mean."

"Yeah, I'd love to," Crystal beamed.

"That's great. Thanks." Another pause. "Um, I guess I'll leave you to your work then," he said as he began to stand. He handed the ear buds back to her, but as he began to withdraw his hand, she grabbed it.

"Wait." He looked her at her. " I'm actually almost done. If you don't mind waiting a few minutes, would you mind walking me back to my place? I could show you a few more pieces on our way there."

"Yeah, sure." Crystal promptly began putting things in their place, reshelving books, and filling papers.

"You know, I also showed Ruby who in turned played it for Sapphire. I'm surprised that she liked it as well."

What came to mind, for Silver, was something about music calming the salvage beast. Crystal continued to pack things away and talked a little as she laid out food and water for any pokémon that were permitted to roam the lab. A few moments later, she locked up the lab and handed him one ear bud. Gentle melodies danced along with them on their way back.

AN - Terribly sorry for any inaccuracies about Hoenn as that region/those games are not my forte. Yeah, this is my first fanfic in almost 3 year. I'm sorry. I'm thinking of rewriting the chapters I have for Impossible Encounter before I continue. I'm not really sure yet. Anyways, please remember to leave a review and critiques are lovely.