"Tears of Blood; Heart of Steel" Steven Stone, the former champion of the Hoenn Elite Four, mused to himself. As he gazed vacantly to the walls of the cold chamber in Meteor Falls he couldn't help but grunt a little.

"What could it possibly mean? Why would that lead to the appearance of Jirachi?" Jirachi was a powerful legendary psychic/steel dual type which only appeared when certain prophecies were fulfilled by two people of legend.

Always; ever since he was a child Steven had been fascinated by the tale. Even his father took part in supporting his sons love for the legend. Picking up the letter from days before; he read it out loud to himself for the tenth time. It wasn't from his father, but from someone else he had met a while back..

"To Steven Stone,

I went seeking more books on the subject of Jirachi. Apparently one of the only books on the subject appears to be destroyed in the eruption that happened on Cinnabar Island. One of the locals who perished in the firestorm owned the book. Sorry I couldn't be more useful. I should be leaving Kanto for Hoenn pretty soon. Hopefully I will be back in time to see you before you hide again.

Ruby"

Steven secretly hoped Ruby would come back soon, the young trainer had spent two months helping him look for the lore of Jirachi; Steven was almost completely certain that Ruby would rather have looked for his own legendary pokémon favorites. Most certainly that was the case. He leaned his head back to look up to the stalactite's hanging down from the cavern's roof. Letting his Metagross out of its Pokéball, he laid down on the blanket he had set up the day before. Fighting to keep his eyes open in the darkness he stared at his Metagross which looked back at him; but eventually Steven had closed his eyes and drifted to sleep.

Upon feeling something furry in his face followed by a brisk licking of his face; Steven opened his eyes. It was most certainly a Skitty; it had a blue collar on. Evidentially Metagross didn't think it was a danger so Metagross was still floating in the air carefree.

"I was starting to wonder if you were dead, you weren't responding to me shouting at you at all." The voice had startled Steven who sat straight up, causing the Skitty to run right in between the legs of it's trainer, who was unveiled as Ruby as soon as Steven looked up.

"It's so good to be back in Hoenn, why have you been hiding out in this dingy cave? Don't you think you should be at home in Mossdeep?"

"I've been training, and looking for a Bagon…"

"I didn't think you were much of a dragon person? Anyways; I have been thinking of trying to take the Elite Four challenge in Ever Grande. Do you think I could beat Wallace?" Ruby put his finger to his lip in thought, Steven just blinked;

"How would I know if you could beat him? Does it look like I watch Wallace all the time?" His sudden outburst made Ruby back up several steps away from Steven. The silver haired young man stood up and looked straight at the young pokémon trainer;

"Sheesh…Calm down Steven. I just asked a simple question, considering you are close friends with Wallace."

"Not so much anymore, in fact that's one of the reasons I have been doing some soul searching..."

Ruby tilted his head to the side in a quizzical manner; walking closer to Steven;

"What happened between you two?"

"Nothing, you wouldn't understand until you're older anyways."

"It's not like I am a kid. I'm sixteen, almost seventeen….Now tell me before I drag you out of this cave and right to Ever Grande; TO WALLACE."

Steven looked away from Ruby nervously, he wasn't sure how Ruby would take this; Hell he wasn't even sure if Ruby would approve of this or not.

"I used to be in a relationship with Wallace, it fell apart…"

"You-wait-what?" Ruby slumped over like a Neanderthal knuckle walker,

"Just what I said, I-"

Ruby nodded;

"Looks like Sapphire owes me twenty dollars now."

"What did you just say, Ruby?"

"Sapphire and I had a bet; she said you loved no one. And I said you were gay and was in love with Wallace. Looks like I won this bet. But now here comes the next one, since…"

Steven backed up yet again nervously until he was backed up against the wall with Ruby still face to face; Ruby now placed his hands on the wall with Steven's head right in-between them. Steven was blushing almost like a teenage girl at this point.

"R-R-Ruby what are you-"Ruby took things into his own hands at this point and silenced Steven with a kiss…