Gold was just sitting there. On the side of the road. In the dark. All alone. He sighed and his hand instinctively went to his pocket to make sure everything was there before he took out his pokegear and checked to make sure he hadn't gotten any new messages.
Nothing, he thought to himself, and checked the time. It was eleven o'clock and he had been waiting since eight. Gold took one last look around before deciding to get up and go home, when he saw someone running towards him. His face lit up, because even if she was three hours late, she looked gorgeous with her hair down and that dress that fell right above her knees.
"I'm so sorry," Crystal panted, catching her breath after running that far in heels. "But I got held up at work and then my pokegear died so I couldn't tell you and there was an emergency at the orphanage, don't worry everyone's ok, but-"
She was cut off by Gold's cheery laughter, "don't worry about it! Hey, why don't we get some ice cream instead."
"Oh no, I made us miss the reservation!" Crystal said apologetically, "did you at least eat with out me?"
"Nah," Gold said as he took her hand and started walking. "I just sat there for a while 'til some guy kicked me out because I wasn't going to order without you." Crystal just looked away and said sorry again. "Hey, I said don't worry about it! Besides, I stared at that menu for a while and all the food looked gross and super over priced. So really, my wallet and stomach thank you."
"But if you didn't even want to go then why did you work so hard to get us a reservation there?" Crystal asked, she looked skeptical and not convinced he wasn't disappointed from not eating at the super fancy restaurant. But she was also just confused because most things Gold said didn't make much sense.
"Same reason why I do anything stupid or that I don't like, to impress you!" Gold said flashing her a smile. She looked back at him and they both looked a bit pink. Even though they both knew it, saying out loud (or hearing it in Crystal's case) was still embarrassing, but in a way that felt incredibly nice.
Crystal gave him a quick peck on the cheek before continuing their conversation, "you know you don't have to do that to yourself just for me right."
"Yeah yeah, but-" tonight is different, he continued in his mind.
"But what?"
"But I looooove you," he finished with a goofy grin and gave Crystal a kiss. She laughed and Gold mentally applauded himself for that quick save.
"Alright, but I haven't eaten dinner yet either so we should really get real food first, and then we get to have ice cream." They were approaching the ice cream store and Crystal realized she should at least try to be responsible.
"Noooo! We can dinner later but let's get ice cream now!"
"But Gold-"
"You're the reason we didn't have dinner so you don't get a say!" Gold dragged Crystal into the store and it didn't take long for Crystal to give in and she got a strawberry ice cream. Gold got cookie dough. Crystal offered to pay in order to make up for dinner, but Gold didn't let her, he had to look like a perfect gentleman tonight.
They left and found bench to sit on, by the side of a patch of grass and let their night be illuminated by the street lights and the stars. Gold knew he wanted to do it tonight, and started to work up the courage until he felt the cold ice cream start dripping on his hand.
"Crap, it's starting to melt. We should head back and grab some napkins." Gold licked the ice cream off his own hand.
"Oh, I think that they closed up right after we left, but don't worry, I grabbed some." Crystal reached into her bag and handed to napkins to Gold.
"This is why I love you ya' know" Gold immediately went to wipe off his hands.
Crystal giggled and rolled her eyes at him, "we should start heading back though, because it is getting late."
"Oh you don't want to be out and about late at night with a character like me?" Gold grinned and wiggled his eyebrows.
"No it's because if we don't start to head back now, you'll try staying out until all night and we'll both just end up super tired tomorrow." Crystal gave him a look and he knew she was right.
"Ok," he said and they stood up. "But wait before we go there's one last thing I need to do. Here can you hold this?" He gave Crystal his ice cream to hold in her other hand.
Gold closed his eyes for a moment and inhaled. Ok here we go.
He got down on one knee and saw Crystal's eyes widen. He smiled and took the small box out from his pocket and opened it.
"Crystal, will you marry me?"
She let the half eaten ice creams fall to the ground as she gasped coving her mouth with her hands. It only took a moment for her to get over the shock and she dropped down and threw her arms around him. "Yes! Yes! Yes! Oh my gosh, of course! Yes!" She kept repeating the word yes as she hugged him.
Gold pulled her close but let his grip loosen when he saw the ice cream on the ground. "Hey my ice cream!" He said a little bit disappointed. Crystal smiled and kissed him. "Well I was almost done anyway," Gold managed to say when they pulled apart.
They stood up and Gold slipped the sparkling ring onto Crystal's finger. Then he picked her up and spun around a couple times listening to her laughter. Gold was so happy she said yes. So happy that this was the girl he was going to marry. And overjoyed by the fact that he would get to spend the rest of his life with her.
They eventually started walking home, their conversation littered with promises of a large homemade dinner.
"Crys!" Gold exclaimed bursting through the front the front door. Crystal was standing in the kitchen and almost choked on the water she was drinking, and then almost missed the counter when trying to put the cup down.
"What?" She coughed, trying not to inhale more of the water. She looked very surprised and worried. Until she saw the huge grin across his face. Then it was pretty clear that hadn't been a distressed exclamation.
"Oh, you ok?" Gold spunkily walked over and patted her back gently until she nodded and asked him what again.
"Ok! But you'll never guess who I ran into in Goldenrod today!" He sounded super excited about this and that face-splitting grin hadn't left his face.
"I don't know was it-"
"DJ MARY!" Gold loudly interrupted, practically bouncing with excitement. "And she totally recognized me as 'That One Guy Who Helped Save Johto A Few Years Ago." He added dreamily. Crystal rolled her eyes but was smiling. Her fiancé's fanboy crush on DJ Mary never ceased to amuse her.
"So then what happened next?" Crystal asked with some honest interest in the story. But mostly just so he would keep talking, eventually recite the encounter word-for-word, and tell everyone else a couple times before letting it go. Gold really enjoyed being in the spotlight so everyone just kinda had to adjust to how fixated he could get on anything cool that happened to him, or he did, or something.
"Then she mentioned you! Because ya know, you were there too saving the region and she remembered Some one else with me," he continued with some over dramatic hand gestures while Crystal nodded. "Then I was like 'yeah that's Crys! We're actually engaged now!' And she thought that was cool so I showed her some pictures and stuff. But here's the best part! Remember that band we booked?"
That's when Crystal's face dropped. "No." She said her face went from shocked to very very stern and annoyed. As if she was a librarian who had repeatedly told some kid to be quiet for the twentieth time and he had just yelled a cross the room at his friend again. Gold was unfortunately in the position of the kid.
"Gold, I said I wanted a band. You said that was great. We already booked them for the date. The wedding is in a month. I don't care if she offered to pay us to preform, but Gold if you canceled that band I WILL LEAVE YOU!"
"What? come on Crys I would never do that!" Gold said defensively.
Crystal narrowed her eyes at him, "what happened?"
"Um, well she didn't offer to DJ the wedding," he scratched the back of his neck sheepishly. Crystal sighed with relief. "But what she say was that she was actually going to make a premiere as a TV reporter and was looking for the perfect story that would bring in a lot of viewers," Gold started grinning again.
"Wait Gold-"
"And she said what would be better than watching the heroes of Johto MARRY EACH OTHER!" Gold was practically yelling with excitement by the end of the sentence and grabbed Crystal's shoulders. "SHE WANTS TO PUT OUR WEDDING ON TV!"
"Hang on Gold, what did you say?" She looked at Gold with worry and confusion.
"Well she said she would talk to the station and call me back and I said I would talk to you, but you'll definitely be on board." He raised his eyebrows, "you are on board right?"
"I don't know Gold," Crystal started to sit down. "The wedding is already so close and it's already going to be way bigger than I originally wanted. And are you really comfortable with inviting the whole world to our wedding?" Crystal felt so overwhelmed and although she was glad Gold hadn't made the decision without her, she wasn't sure what to do.
"Well, duh," he said sitting down next to her on the couch. "I mean- it's ok if you don't want to, but they would just be standing to the side recording and occasionally taking people aside to talk to them, ya know! Just like those royal weddings or whatever."
Crystal couldn't understand how he was so excited over this, "but getting married is an intimate thing and having it broadcast like that just seems to take it all way..."
"Well if you think about it like that, but how I see it, I'm so glad to be marrying you that I want the whole world to know that I love you!" Gold tried to convince her but the doubt was still evident in her expression. "Plus it will all be recorded! So when we have kids we'll be able too show them what our wedding was like," he suggested.
That was the selling point for Crystal, and Gold knew it. He knew she still kept a diary and really valued recording things, especially important things, like a wedding. "But what if something goes wrong?" Crys said almost as a last resort, because either way she knew she'd say yes. "If something gets screwed up do you know how embarrassing that'll be! And it'll be there forever just to mock me!"
"You've been planning this since we first got engaged! Everything is ready to go, Crystal. And even if something does go wrong, it happens at all weddings. No one will even care," Gold smiled brightly at her, and Crystal knew it was time to give in. She had never been able to say no when it was something he really wanted.
"Okay, but they can't make to much of a fuss," she finally said after a pause. Then Crystal stood up, "I'll go send out an email or something to warn all the guests," she sighed.
"Really? Oh wow we're gonna have the best wedding ever!" Gold exclaimed and gave Crystal a kiss. "I'll go tell Mary! This'll be so much fun!" He skipped off. Crystal didn't know if it would be the best wedding ever. But it certainly will be fun. For her at least. Crystal smiled because she always had fun when she was with Gold.
Note: The first of many chapters is done. Next will be there wedding, and then kids and stuff. I'm thinking about some other prequel to this stuff but idk, feel free to suggest any significant moment in their relationship I could write.
