Take My Hand
The streets were lit up with colorful lights and torches as music filled the air with a warm invitation to join the festivities happening by the waterfront of Melemele Island. Hau stood there in his normal attire as Lillie shifted from side to side standing next to him. She had come back from her journey in the Kanto region by his request in his last letter to her and she was wearing a white dress with a small rose pattern.
"I'm glad you were able to come back for this festival Lillie!" Hau exclaimed as they made their way down the street. "It was a long shot considering you're with your Mom."
Lillie smiled at him. "I had some time to kill anyways, my Mother is being treated right now by Bill at his lab and I can't be with her while he's running tests and diagnosis on her condition. So I'm glad I'm back home for a while."
The stalls around them were filled with fun games and delicious food that made Hau's mouth start to water. In his range of vision, a Malasada stand was making fresh goods that made him grab Lillie by the hand and lead her over there.
"Why if it isn't our most popular customer! I hope you're enjoying the festival with your Girlfriend here." The girl behind the counter giggled as Lillie's face blushed at the remark.
Hau desperately tried to conceal the blush on his own cheeks as he laughed off the remark, looking down at the freshly made Malasada in front of them. "This festival is awesome! I'm glad you're back selling Malasada again this year."
"Do you wanna eat right now Hau?" Lillie asked, finally managing to get the blush off her face. "We can take it with us to the waterfront docks to eat. The music is kinda getting to me and I'd like a little bit of peace while we eat."
Hau gave Lillie his beaming smile and nodded his head. "Sure! We can get some of these babies to go and head down. We'll take two Dry Malasada's to go please!"
"Not a problem, here you go! Have a fun time at the festival!" The girl behind the counter told them as she handed over the freshly made Malasada.
Hau and Lillie made their way to the docks where it was lit up with smaller white string lights and the lamps were shining with a soft glow. They sat down at the bench and Hau handed out the Malasada to Lillie to eat. It was delicious to say the least, but freshly made food is always delicious in Lillie's opinion. But knowing Hau, he would probably go on for an hour talking about how amazing it is to eat freshly made Malasada hot from the kitchen. When they had finished eating, they sat there for a while and to Lillie's surprise, Hau didn't want to go back to the festival right away like she thought he would have wanted to do.
"Do you wanna head back now?" Lillie asked him, stretching out her arms with a yawn. "There are a lot of cool stalls we can go play at tonight!"
Hau said nothing at first but then gently grabbed Lillie's hand and got up to face her. "I thought we could spend a little alone time together. If you didn't mind that is."
"I-I don't mind." Lillie told him as she felt the warmth of his hand fill her entire being with a newfound fuzziness that she couldn't explain. "We haven't seen each other in so long, it'd be great to catch up with each other again."
Hau nodded his head in agreement and rubbed his thumb across the top of her hand like she was a piece of the softest silk in the world. "I missed you Lillie."
"I missed you too Hau." Lillie responded in a small voice, she didn't know why her heart was racing in her chest as she said this. She knew him for so long that it didn't make sense to her why she was feeling this way.
Even though they were a little bit away from the main festival, the sound of music continued to fill the air. In that moment a slow love song came on and Hau knew that this was the beginning of the couple's dance. So he did what his Father had done for his Mother countless of times in the past and took a step away from Lillie so he could give her a proper bow as he offered his hand to her.
"Wanna dance with me?" He asked in a small voice, he waited to hear her response as Lille stood there with a deep blush on her face at his sudden bow to her as he felt her slip her fingers through his. He leaned back up and led her to the middle of the dock, knowing full well that his face probably looked like he got sunburned.
But he couldn't back out now as he gazed into Lillie's eyes. They sparkled in the moonlight and he could feel his own heart starting to race inside his chest. He brought her close to him and wrapped his hand around her waist as she put a hand on top of his shoulder. At the same time they started to move in small circles as the music made the atmosphere surrounding them feel like something out of one of the old legends of Alola. Like they were a pair of lovers meeting in secret from their respective families that only wanted to be by each other's side.
"You're just full of surprises tonight aren't you Hau?" Lillie giggled as she continued to look into his eyes with a smile. "I didn't know you had these types of dancing skills."
Hau chuckled and rolled his eyes at her statement with playfulness. "Hey! I have a lot of skills you probably don't know about."
That's when he noticed how soft Lillie's looked in the moonlight and a thought suddenly shoved past everything he was thinking to point out what a perfect moment it would be to kiss her. But he fought back the urge since he was just happy she was back home even for a little while to be with him.
"Hau, are you OK? You've gone really silent." Lillie questioned, looking at him now with concern.
Hau shook his head, trying to get the thought out of his mind, and nodded. "I'm fine! I just spaced out for a moment there."
"You haven't changed. It feels like a lot hasn't changed for the both of us even though we haven't seen each other in ages." Lillie commented, stopping to look up at the stars with them still closely bound together. "I wonder if that's a good thing or a bad thing..."
Now it was Hau's turn to be concerned as he took his hand off Lillie's waist to bring up to her cheek, cupping it gently in his hand. "Hey, you've grown a lot since I last saw you Lillie. I think we both grew up a lot more than we give ourselves credit for."
Lillie smiled at him for a little while until she made a move that Hau didn't expect in a million years: Lille leaned forward and kissed him gently on the lips. His eyes widened at her sudden advancement he thought about making on her not too long ago himself and he felt his mind go blank as it was replace with nothing but warmth and thoughts about her. Hau finally kissed back and it was Lillie's turn to feel the same way Hau was feeling as the warmth of his lips took her by surprise and his skin was softer than she thought for someone who was a Pokémon trainer.
They parted and the first words to come out of Hau's lips were, "Where did THAT come from?"
"W-Well I didn't really know how to word how I was feeling so I thought actions would speak louder than words. As the old saying goes..." Lillie answered, their faces still intimately close to each other.
Hau couldn't help but laugh as he rubbed his nose up against hers. "You wanna know something? I was thinking about doing the same thing."
"You were?" Lillie asked with a small voice.
Hau leaned forward again and kissed her lips softly. "Yup."
A huge boom sounded above them as they looked up and realized they were starting the fireworks show and to the couple standing underneath it: nothing could be better in that moment.