It must have been hard on him to say the least.

The time traveling event had ended, and Ethan had already left to go back to his waiting parents. Kotone had been quiet and pensive, yet quick to brush aside her childhood friend's worries. "I'm fine," she did her best to fake a smile. Oh, how she hated lying , especially to him. "I've just got some things to think about. Just go home, I'm sure your mom's wondering where you are." Ethan wasn't convinced, he knew Kotone too well to be fooled, but he trusted her to tell him once she was ready to.

The sky was beginning to darken, but Kotone didn't feel like taking the trip to the pokecenter. She had healed her pokemon with spare potions she had in her bag, too lost in her thoughts to walk. If she tried, she would have probably walked into a tree. Instead, the young champion simply sat in the same spot she had gone and arrived from the trip, pulling out grass that was too long or too short. Kotone smiled and thought about the stray hairs which popped from her rival's head in the same way the grass did. She looked over to her meganium, who was on guard for any wild pokemon which could be a threat to his trainer. A tiny caterpie had cluelessly made its way to his neck and had started to nibble at his petals. The larger pokemon was obviously annoyed, but did not have the heart to shake it off.

The girl mouthed her rival's name, Giovanni's son, Silver. Then, she said it out loud. The meganium's antennae twitched and let out a barely audible growl, associating that word with a certain Typhlosion who got on his nerves far more than a shameless caterpie. Kotone sighed and stopped pulling the grass to look at the sky visible between the leaves of the trees. She thought of the rivalry the Viridian gym leader had with the Kanto champion and how he had talked about him. The trainer thought if maybe years down the road Silver would speak of her in the same way. Kotone frowned. Red and Blue were childhood friends and rivals. The way Blue spoke about Red was bitter, yet at the same time you could tell he was proud of his town for bringing the champion to Kanto. He was proud of himself for being the rival of such a famous trainer, but most of all, proud of his friend. The redheaded boy was certainly no childhood friend of hers, and the more she found out about him, the more she realized that she didn't know anything about him at all. Yes, she could try to picture what the life of Giovanni's son was probably like, she knew why Silver had hated feeling weak, she knew why his view on pokemon was so twisted, she knew why he was so hard on himself. But it didn't feel like enough, not nearly enough, for her. He was no Blue to her Red. In fact, now that she thought about it, he probably never had any friends at all. The girl sighed, and she felt her heart clench as she thought back to when she saw her rival training alone in the dark of Dragon's Den and out of breath but not out of pride. She remembered the last time she saw him too; a sunny Wednesday afternoon where he challenged her to a battle before her rematch with the Elite Four and Lance. He was cocky as he did so, as expected, but once she managed to defeat him, he… changed. Silver even apologized and told her to make sure she checked in with the pokecenter before running off, never looking straight at her. Probably out of shame, Kotone thought. She clenched her fists and wondered if she regretted, if she should regret, being so casual and laid back about defeating him now that she knew all his motivations and past. No, she concluded, letting him win would only have made things worse and her rival would have continued with his backwards attitude on pokemon. Lecturing him about it did nothing, the only thing that was able to open his eyes, though gradually, was consistent defeat.

Kotone sighed once again. Silver was definitely no longer the same boy who had broken into the Professor's lab to steal pokemon. Now that she understood him better, now that she knew just a little bit more about him, and now that he was no longer that same person maybe she should give him a second chance. It must be lonely training alone in Dragon's Den and maybe, just maybe, he could bite down on his pride just enough to let her become a friend. No, she must do it. No one deserves to be by themselves like that, not even Giovanni's son. It was settled, the first thing Kotone would do tomorrow is go to Dragon's Den to meet her rival. The girl once again muttered the boy's name, which was masked by Meganium's sudden growl at an oncoming light.

"What exactly are you doing here?"

Kotone's heart jumped knowing exactly who that voice belonged to. The boy who had occupied her thoughts for the past few hours approached her, accompanied by the typhlosion lighting up his unmistakable face. She noticed that, like at winner's path, Silver once again avoided looking at her directly in the face.

"I wasn't expecting you here. What are you doing in the forest at this time?"

Her rival groaned, and scratched the back of his head. "I could ask you the same thing, I happen to train here on Saturday nights. You're the intruder here." Kotone motioned as to invite him to sit next to her and to to her surprise, he actually did so.

"So late at night?" Even though right next to Kotone, Silver insisted on not looking at her. In fact, he seemed even less eager to do so.

"It's not as hot, the stronger pokemon come out, and I usually avoid running into annoying people like you. Why aren't you at a pokemon center? You came here to make fun of me didn't you?"

"Hmph. Don't judge me by your standards, Silver." Kotone couldn't help but feel offended every time her rival brought up the crazy idea that she would make fun of anybody, but at least now she understood his paranoia and fear. "I've been nothing but polite to you, in case you never noticed. I'm not like you, or Team Rocket, or… Giovanni." The girl immediately regretted bringing her rival's father up. If things weren't awkward and uncomfortable already, it just got a lot worse. Silver's fists clenched, and his eyes narrowed. Kotone gulped, not knowing if she had doomed any hopes for a friendly rivalry she had so set out to do. Seconds felt like hours when the redheaded boy finally spoke again.

"So you… How did you find out…?"

Silver had no idea how the girl beside him managed to figure out his background. She would have had to have done quite the research to even know Giovanni had a son, and Arceus knew how she found out it was him. The whole fiasco had been kept in hush-hush by the police, ashamed that the leader of Team Rocket was under their noses from the start and even more so when he had gotten away. The boy's own shame swelled inside of him and he cursed inwardly. Damnit, his rival was the very last person Silver wanted to associate him with Team Rocket. If she didn't respect him at all before, she definitely didn't do now.

"It's a long story, but I didn't stalk you or anything if that's what you're worried about. I won't tell anyone either." Kotone called her meganium. The pokemon had been giving the dirtiest glares to her rival's typhlosion and definitely looked ready for a battle. He grudgingly trotted to his trainer with the caterpie comically clinging to his petals for dear life. Meanwhile, his very own rival let out of a series of grunts which suspiciously sounded like "stupid hippie."

The girl's assurance pissed him off. Did she pity him? Was he that pathetic? Yes, what she said was true. Silver had gone throughout all his life either looked up at as the leader's son, or looked down at as a misguided thief. And ever since he became estranged from his father and mother all anybody felt for him was fear, disgust or pity. The girl beside him was the only one who actually saw him and treated him as an equal and he hated it. He hated how she never held back when they battled even though it was clear who would win. He hated that hers was the first true smile he had been given in years. He hated that she actually called him by his name instead of "you" or "red head boy" or "thief" or any variety of swear words. He hated that he had come to admire her. He hated that she had crushed all his hopes of defeating Team Rocket and becoming the pokemon champion and he couldn't even hate her for it. But most of all, he hated that what he looked forward to by defeating her was to impress her and how his heart pounded just thinking about it. The truth was that somewhere along the way, Silver had developed a crush on his rival. Of course, he was definitely not going to admit this out loud. The last thing he needed was to be humiliated yet again and by something as pathetic and stupid as a crush. Not knowing what to do or how to react, the boy stood up and called his typhlosion, who had been making faces at his rival's pokemon for the last few minutes.

"I guess I should leave, since it's pretty clear I won't get any training done with you around."

"Wait!"

Kotone had been quick to stand up and grab onto Silver's sleeve to stop him from running off yet again. "Hang on." This time, she wasn't going to let him do that so fast. Kotone felt herself blush, at the close distance she had realized just how much taller he was than her.

"Are you nuts? Let go!" What the heck did this girl want? A battle? But before Silver could snatch his arm away from her, she let go herself of his sleeve and…

Hugged him?

Apparently the pokemon were as surprised as the trainer was, as they had finally ceased to stop taunting each other in order to stare. The forest was surprisingly quiet, and the only thing that could be heard was the bug pokemons' persistent munching.

"Wh-wh-what the hell are you doing?" The boy could only be glad that the darkness was able to mask his face, which had gotten as red as his hair. Silver tried to push Kotone away from him, but she was surprisingly strong and it only got her to hug him tighter. It was only after a few seconds of hyperventilating was the boy finally gulped down his embarrassment and pride and decided to hug her back. Kotone was surprised at how tight his grip was on her. It was almost as if he was afraid of letting go. Eventually, however, he did.

Feeling ashamed of doing something so shameless, it was Kotone's turn to not be able to look at her rival in the face. "I just felt like you… I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that. I apologize for interrupting your training too, so we'll leave you alone now." The girl turned around to leave. But Silver stopped her by grabbing on to her wrist, his grip as tight as his arms and spoke to her in a firm voice, but his usual mocking tone was gone.

"Don't go. There's something… there's something I… need to talk to you about."