Ruby finished his touches on his props for Mimi.

The calendar showed the 13th of August. A parade was coming to Slateport, and as a result, a contest was coming up as well. It wasn't a very big contest, but Ruby made it a priority to go. A bunch of important, experienced coordinators were coming from Kanto to enjoy the weather. He might as well get un der their radar. He wiped the sweat off his brow with an extra cloth - the harsh Hoenn weather was brutal in Littleroot, he was looking forwards toward the beach tomorrow.

Knock.

Ruby didn't answer.

Knock, knock.

He knew who they were.

Knock, knock, knock.

Ruby sighed audibly, getting up. It was no use trying to ignore them. She would continue knocking, and when she got irritated she would most likely punch through the wood.

He answered the door, and (to no surprise) he was greeted by an ecstatic Sapphire and a passive Emerald.

"Ruby," started a beaming Sapphire.

"I'm busy," interrupted Ruby. "What do you want?"

That knocked the grin off Sapphire's face. "Rude as always. You have no time for us anymore, Ruby."

"Anymore?" chided Emerald. Before getting snapped at, he added, "Sapph wants to show us somewhere special."

"Where is this special place? There seriously can't be many more quote un quote special places in Hoenn."

"It's secret," smirked Sapphie. Ruby turned to Emerald for help, who simply turned away. Either she bugged him to go, bribed him, or he simply was bored.

"Sapphire, you know there's a contest coming up. I don't have a lot of time."

"It's 8 pm, it's getting late, you're going to stop soon anyways. It's almost dusk, and it's going to be a lot cooler then, so don't use 'it's too hot' as an excuse."

Ruby blinked, he had a habit for getting lost in time. "Uh," he paused, "Okay, I can go, but we have to make it quick."

Sapphire beamed genuinely. He smiled back - he couldn't often do it, but when he did agree to their dumb adventures she really was happy to have him join. She looked the best when she was smiling, he thought. Maybe it was just his materialistic side coming through. "We're going through Petalburg woods, though." She added whilst grabbing his shirt.

"What? I can't do that in these clothes!"

Emerald tickled Mimi under her chin then trailed off behind the quarreling duo.

Ruby watched the sun slowly start to set below the tops of the forest trees. It didn't look like they were getting to their destination any time soon, as Sapphire was still bouncing ahead, occasionally peering around the clusters of branches. Ruby started to kick up patches of dirt, trying to get the burs off his shoes. "Are we almost there?" he called out.

"Uh," she paused, "Yeah. Almost." Emerald snorted ahead of him.

Ruby stopped to catch his breath. "We're lost, aren't we?"

Sapphire turned to face him, a mock offended expression plastered on her face. "Ruby, I can't believe you. I know these woods like the back of my hand. I mean, I can understand why you would think that we're lost, never setting a foot in forest areas, but..."

"It's not that. We're far off the original path, and it doesn't look like we're going anywhere." Ruby countered.

"Didn't you here me before? I know these woods, path or not."

"Sapphire," Emerald started, "We both know that we're lost. Stop that before you genuinely convince yourself that we aren't."

Sapphire stopped, rolling her eyes and turning away. "Okay, we're lost. Not my fault."

"How is it not your fault? You're the one who pulled us out here," Ruby said.

Sapphire turned away, as if not having a proper reply to that. She stared at the leaves for a good minute before replying, "As if I'm the only one with memory problems,"

Ruby blinked at what seemed to be the random reply. "Oh, what is that supposed to mean?"

"You know exactly what I mean," she snarled, turning on her heels and glaring. Caught by surprise, he started to glare back at her. "Oh please, of all the times you bring tha-"

"Oh, oh no. Are you guys really starting this, again?" Emerald snapped expasperatedly.

"Shut up, Rald," Sapphire growled below her breath, not taking her eyes off Ruby.

Ruby started to scoff. "Can we really, please, just not argue right now?"

"No!" she yelled, kicking up leaves. "We're resolving this, Ruby! Right now! I don't care!"

Ruby looked around the darkening area, night pokemon starting to awaken and even start to watch the trio. "Is this what this is all about? Did you really just drag me out here to yell at me for whatever I did that night?"

"Hey, I have no time for your bullshit baby arguments. If it was gonna come to this, I wouldn't have come. But I guess I really shouldn't be surprised," snapped Emerald, glaring at the ground.

Throughout the conversation, Sapphire was shaking more and more. "Really? Are you still trying to tell yourself that? You remember plain and clear!" she protested, eyes wide and lip curled, looking like she was a wild pokemon, like she was going to pounce on him like she did the first day the met.

Ruby shook his head, backing away from the other tense two. "No, no, I don't remember, honestly, Sapph,"

Sapphire closed her eyes, giving up. "Okay, you keep telling yourself that. Whatever, I shouldn't have brought it up. You can escort yourself out of this forest, bye." And with that, she started to run into the forest. Wide eyed, Ruby started to run after her, tripping a few steps out.

"Wait!" he called, lifting himself up, "Shit, she ran off. And I don't know how to get back." He sighed, talking to himself. He heard a bit of a shuffling to his right, a bit surprised to see the blonde boy still there.

"She's such a pain. I hate -"

"No," Emerald suddenly interrupted, glaring stronger daggers at him than Sapphire ever did. "Don't start this again. I'm not your pity party."

Ruby looked away, feeling a pang of guilt to bring him into this. He saw Emerald moving away from the corner of his eye, but he made no effort to try to stop him. It was dark, he was tired, he was lost, and his legs hurt.

And man, was he filthy.

Sapphire stomped, not really caring which pokemon happened to awake. It's not like this was any different than the last time they did this, or the time before. Or the time before that. Placing her head against the trunk of a tree, she started to question her continuing questioning towards the older boy. She just wanted some closure, that's all. After 2 years of remeeting with each other, she would think she would know him by now. Stubborn as always. Although she didn't see why he was being so stubborn towards this in particular - most arguments only lasted a few hours or days between the two, a week at the very most. He kept this up for a year. And she knew he wasn't being stubborn for the sake of being stubborn. He was afraid of the hypothetical relationship between the two if he admitted he remembered his confession. She didn't see why he needed to. It wasn't like they were going to magically start dating after they confessed. A bit of awkwardness between the two, sure, but she couldn't possibly imagine them not bickering and horsing around. This reminded her of her hidden crush on him, way back two years ago, before shit went down with Team Aqua and Magma. They were argumentative kids then, and just as argumentative now.

Not to say that there weren't changes between the two. Mostly in Ruby. Not personality wise, but little changes in his appearance. His shoulders broadened, and so did his chest. He grew at least ten centimeters. She could see his hair grow shaggier underneath his hat, and his voice drop, though not considerably. All of these were normal to notice, at least she thought so, but if you asked him he probably wouldn't even notice his own changes.

She heard rustling behind her, and turned to yell, but didn't as soon as she saw who it was. A considerably shorter boy was bright hair came out of the bushes. "What do you want?"

"I came to get you back, since neither Ruby or you seem to care enough," he responded.

"No," she replied, slinking down the tree. "I'm too tired."

"Don't give me that, you apparently carried an aron practically halfway around Hoenn." Emerald stated. When she didn't reply, he added, "You're gonna end up disoriented." Silence. She could feel him roll his eyes.

She heard a barely audible "Shit," and rustling towards her. Feeling him bend down, she uttered a "What-"

"Back. Get on." Oh. She took hold of his hand and climbed on his back. It was awkward, to say the least, with the size difference between the two, but he didn't seem to be struggling carrying her. She could tell he was at least trying to avoid stray branches their way.

"Uh, Rald?

"What?"

She coughed behind him. "Why did ya come back?"

"Well," he started, "I know that if Ruby didn't see you by tomorrow, he'd get worried, and then come after you. He'd lose his way, and you'd probably be at home sulking by then, and it'd just be a mess for the both of you."

"Oh."

That was another team. Their dynamic changed when Emerald came into the picture. He was bitter and snarky and even mean at times, but he understood loneliness and pain. And granted, he wasn't the worst person to hang out with.

"Emerald?"

"What?"

"I'm, uh, sorry,"

"What?"

"I mean, uh," she paused, "I mean, for putting up with all our arguments. And stuff like that."

"I know, I should win an award." He responded, not stopping walking. After a few minutes, she heard him clear his throaght, "If I didn't want to stick around with you two, I wouldn't."

She didn't respond to that, and watch the trees begin to thin and the lights of Littleroot come into view.

Ruby took a deep breath, looking over his pokemon that were groomed and prettied up to perfection. Zuzu cast him a sympathetic look, as if telling him not to be so nervous. And he wasn't nervous - at least, he didn't think he was. It must have been the normal pre contest jitters, or maybe the hot Slateport heat.

He turned to Emerald, who didn't agree to watch the contest, but did at least agree to see him off. Emerald looked apathetic as usual. Ruby guessed he wanted to talk about the previous night as much as much as he did, which was not at all.

"How do I look?" he asked Emerald, preparing for the worst.

Emerald looked at him up and down. "Blue's not your color."

Ruby didn't enjoy the contest as much as he hoped he would.

Ruby climbed up to the contest hall rooftop. It was a long day, and at least he won another hyper ribbon. It was sunset now. He never really did get to enjoy sunset much, but he was glad when he did. It was cooler out with a warm breeze, the sky was orange laced with cotton candy clouds, and the sun was reflecting off the vast sea. He watched people clear off the beach as dusk approached.

He then heard a cough and a muffled "Hey," behind him. Ruby turned to see Sapphire, just climbing up the top bars of the ladder. Her face wasnt exactly friendly, but it wasn't hostile either. She took her shoes off and started walking towards him. "Mind if I sit?"

"No, go ahead."

She sat besides him and said to him, "Rald's right, blue really isn't your color." He didn't respond, and they watched the sun set. Silence ensued for the next few minutes.

"So, how was the contest?"

He tried to place it simply. "It was ok. Nothing fancy. Pretty boring, honestly."

"Oh."

He hoped he didn't bore her. Usually he would tell her about one segment for at least ten minutes, at the minimum. "Uh, I think I might be taking a break from contests soon."

He could tell that took her by surprise. "Why? I thought you liked them?"

"No, I do, don't get me wrong. I'm just getting a bit bored of them, that's all. And I have a lot of ribbons, anyways."

"So," Sapphire replied, "Are you going to try battling, again?"

"I might. Just something new, for a change of pace. Maybe I'll even just stay low for a while."

The girl shuffled besides him, and really, he couldn't tell what she was thinking. "You never showed me your secret place."

"What?" Sapphire asked, turning towards him.

"You know? The place. The secret place you wanted to show me last night."

"Oh, yeah," she snorted, "It wasn't anything really special. We just found a cool lookin' hot springs near the edge of Petalburg woods. It was pretty, though. We thought you might of liked it. It's the kind of environment you just feel relaxed looking at."

"Maybe that's it. Maybe I should try relaxing more." Ruby stated, making sure his tone was light.

"Yeah, I agree. You're too wound up, Ruby." Sapphire countered, pushing on his side.

"I'm not wound up!"

"You're raisin' your voice at me!"

Ruby didn't try to argue back, only lift his head to watch the stars slowly . He wasn't sure if would ever fully stop coming to contests, just like he wasn't sure if their dynamic would ever change.

And really, he wouldn't have it any other way.