Beyond the Sun

I pressed the doorbell on my neighbors' house several times, which I decided a year or so ago would be my personal signal. I used to just walk inside—I was, after all, the one who got them the deal on this house, so it was clearly as much mine as it was theirs—but that had backfired on me once when I entered in on an X-rated scene. So, since then, I had taken to using the doorbell because I never wanted to see that again.

"Would you stop doing that?" my tall silver-haired friend demanded as he opened the door, rubbing his temple with his eyes squeezed shut. "You're giving me a headache."

I smiled, stepping up into his threshold and glancing around the foyer. "Ah, nothing changes, does it?" I asked, and Steven finally opened his eyes, only to glare at me. "Sorry, Stevie. It's been forever since I last saw you, and I have this jar, you see, that I've been having a hard time opening lately. And, of course, it's always imperative to ask your neighbor when you can't get a jar open…"

He inhaled slowly and loudly, and with an equally as dramatic exhale, he forced a smile. "All right, Nate. Let's see it."

I handed my jar of jam—my jam jar, as I liked to call it—to Steven. He held the base firmly in one hand and squeezed the lid in his other hand, the gold band on the ring finger of his left hand glimmering from the lights above us. He twisted, his face contorting as he used all of his strength to try to attempt to untwist the cap from the jar, keyword being "attempt".

"What did you do to it?" He tried once more, shaking his head with a sigh as he failed again. "You super glue this shut or something?"

"Of course not," I said, but then I remembered that I had been using super glue just the other day before eating my breakfast… but there was no need to say why. "Well, maybe, but I'm sure there's still some way to get this open. If you get a hammer, I can just smash—"

"Oh, boy, those are not words I want to hear first thing in the morning," a third voice interrupted.

Steven had the unlucky ability to go bright red whenever his fiancée—oops, wife, I should say, since they had just gotten married two weeks ago—walked into the room. I couldn't exactly blame him, of course. Even though she had been a mess when I first met her, considering she had been on the brink of death and dealing with some pretty serious psychological issues, she had come a long way in the two-and-a-half years since those mad genius days. In other words, she was pretty hot. (But at the risk of sounding like a dick, I should also mention that she was also the nicest and smartest person I had ever met.)

Sure enough, when she entered the foyer and stood next to Steven, my best friend's cheeks flushed pink. "May," he choked out, clearing his throat and smiling at her. "This numbskull super glued his jam shut. Want to give it a go?"

Steven held out the jar towards his wife, and she laughed as she took it from him. Even though it had been two-and-a-half years, it was always nice to hear her laugh or see her smile. "Really, Nate? Super glue? Did you miss us that badly while we were gone?"

"You know I did," I assured her, watching as she unscrewed the lid with much less effort than I would have expected. She handed the jar back to me, and I exchanged an amused glance with Steven. "Well, May, how was it? Was your honeymoon everything you expected it to be, even with this guy here?" I jabbed a thumb towards Steven, and he elbowed me.

"Even?" Steven demanded.

May just rolled her eyes, her hands on her hips. "You're something else, Nate." It was clear that she wasn't planning on answering my question, but—in actuality—I didn't really want to know, anyway. It was just the pleasantries. "Don't you have somewhere you need to be today? Maybe… with Lyra? What about Lyra? Where's she these days?"

I knew she was only asking to change the subject, but I humored her. "Lyra's good. She's… she's good. Busy."

May frowned, but Steven stepped in between the two of us and started waving me out the door. "I know it's been awhile, however, we need to take care of some stuff and do not have time to entertain you."

"Steven," May warned, and I raised my eyebrows. What was going on here?

I didn't get to find out. Steven spun me around and, with his hands on my back, pushed me outside before slamming the door behind me. And then it was just me and front door and my jam jar, all alone without a friend in the world.

I sighed, bounding down his few steps and heading back over to my house. Some friend he was…

There was nothing I would change about what had happened, although if I could have spared Steven some of the pain he had endured while trying to find May, I would have. But May was the happiest she had been in years, and so was I. Even though Steven wasn't the type to show his affection for others outwardly, he had been a good friend to me.

That didn't mean he couldn't piss me off. If Steven didn't display his affection easily, then I wasn't the type to act pissed off. I controlled it.

I went back to my house and threw the jam back in the fridge. For a little bit, I stared at the contents inside the fridge, decided I wasn't hungry, and fell back on the sofa in my living room. I never really got sick of Steven when we traveled together, but now it seemed he was sick of me after two minutes together here.

Fifteen minutes passed before my doorbell rang, and I stood up eagerly and raced to the door. When I opened it, I furrowed my eyebrows, having expected someone else. "Lyra?"

Wait a second… was May right? Did I actually have plans with Lyra that I forgot about? Was I the worst boyfriend ever? Or was Lyra psychic and knew that I wanted someone around right now, making her the best girlfriend ever?

Hmm… it was a toss-up. Maybe both?

She kissed my cheek and pushed past me into my house, dropping her bag on the floor. "Hey, Nate. You want to go somewhere?" When I laughed, she turned on me and gave me an evil glare. "Don't laugh, I'm serious. Something wrong with spontaneity? You don't think I'm capable of it, do you? Well, I'm here, aren't I?"

"You are," I agreed, laughing again, and she whacked my arm. "All right, all right. What do you want to do?"

Lyra looked thoughtfully at the ceiling, which wasn't that impressive, so I didn't see what she'd want to stare at it for. Then, after a moment, she snapped her fingers. "I've got it. Let's go ice skating."

"Ugh."

I had been ice skating once with the kids from the orphanage that Steven and I supported, but that had not gone over particularly well. My bottom was sore for the whole week following that, which made it a real pain in the ass (pun intended) eating meals. Even Steven had done a better job skating than me. Pathetic.

"Don't make things difficult."

"I hate ice skating."

Lyra smiled, wrapping an arm around my waist and squeezing me closer to her. "I know, I'm just kidding. But I'm here, so we should go out and do something, shouldn't we? You want to go to Nimbasa, go to the amusement park?"

"I love roller coasters," I admitted a little reluctantly, and Lyra grabbed my hand.

She barely gave me time to grab a coat before she dragged me out the door, and then we were on our way to Nimbasa. I liked to let her get a little ahead of me so I could watch her—Lyra was so graceful about the way she flew, and sometimes she would lean back a little and swing her arms out, and for a moment it was like she was the one flying.

Yeah, it had been two-and-a-half years, and I loved her. What started out as an improbable romance—what were the odds of this working out, anyway—became something the two of us worked hard to make possible. She was still in Johto, and I was still in Unova. We were lucky to see each other as often as we did.

I thought about marriage, but we were both free right now. I didn't want to ruin what we had, even if it might make it even better. Besides, I couldn't very well overshadow Steven yet, because we all knew that my wedding would be a party that never ended.

Lyra put up with me, anyway. She hated roller coasters.

"I don't want to go. Oh, no, don't want to go. Don't want to—" Her blood-curdling scream as the train dropped vertical down the track was like music to my ears.

We spent all day at the park, and I dragged her on all of the roller coasters while she forced me on the drop tower—the tallest in all of Unova—that I hated. I liked to think that it was a competition of who could make the other hate them most by the end of the day, and it was wonderful.

But by the time the sun set, neither of us had much of a voice left, and I had scratches up and down my arm from where Lyra grabbed me on the rides. It was fair to say that we could call it a day.

It was silent as we flew back home. Lyra decided she would spend the night at my place, which was obviously fine by me. But it was the darkness of Steven's house that surprised me as we landed in my front yard. I had been used to the darkness while they were away on their honeymoon, but it was a little early for them to be asleep—unless they went out. That was okay, but…

"I want to say hi to Steven and May. Come with me," Lyra said in her now-raspy voice.

"Doesn't look like they're home."

Lyra just grabbed my hand and pulled me towards their house. When she rang the doorbell, no one answered, and I shrugged. "See? They must've gone out."

"Their door's unlocked," Lyra whispered as she twisted the doorknob and pushed the door open. I made a face, and she rolled her eyes. "What? We're friends."

"I wouldn't. They could be doing the do in there."

Her eyebrows furrowed. "Are you twelve?" And then she disappeared into the dark foyer of their house, shouting as loudly as her raspy voice allowed, "Hello? It's me, Lyra! Nate's here, too!"

I didn't really want to go in, first of all because I really didn't want to see Steven and May having sex again and secondly because Steven had kicked me out earlier, and I was still kind of… you know. But I followed in behind Lyra anyway, though she had already vanished from sight somewhere. Didn't she know how to turn on a light?

I sighed, hitting the switch nearest me. I nearly screamed when I saw what was going on.

"Happy birthday!"

There was a large banner hanging from the second floor, and all along the stairs stood my friends—Steven and May and Lyra and Hugh and even Red, who I didn't think liked me that much, and a few of the gym leaders from Unova. They threw their hands up in the air and cheered, and I stood dumbfounded by it all.

And here I thought everyone had forgotten…

Steven walked down the stairs and put a hand on my shoulder, his smile finally genuine enough. "Sorry for this morning, Nate. May and I were just starting to set up when you came in, so we had to make sure you left. Lyra was nice enough to volunteer to babysit you for the day." When I knocked his hand away, he laughed. "I'm only joking. Happy birthday, buddy."

I turned away so no one would see my lip quiver. It was bad enough that I had been tricked, but they really didn't need to see the waterworks.

"This was all Steven's idea, you know," May offered when I finally looked back up at everyone. We began moving towards the kitchen where they had an ice cream cake waiting. "He said, 'May, we need to do something special for Nate's birthday. I've really missed him these past two weeks.'" Her voice dropped an octave as she imitated her husband. When I glanced over at Steven, his entire face had gone red.

"Stevie!" I cried, jumping towards him and hugging him. "I had no idea you felt that way."

"I never said any of that," he muttered angrily. When I looked at May over his shoulder, she scrunched her face, nodded, and mouthed, "He did."

Ah. I had the best friend ever. Even if he couldn't open a jar of jam, he was still the best.

I couldn't see him all the time, and I couldn't expect to. We were older now, we were alive again—even more so than before—and our futures were being shaped. If Steven was in my future for even just a moment, I would be content.

"Nate, come blow out your candles so we can eat this thing!"

Well, maybe more than a moment.

I needed someone to pick on.

"Okay, okay, but I have to make a wish that Steven never has to go a day without me again!" I shouted to an abundance of laughs, but when I looked over at my best friend, even he smiled.

Author's Note: So, here is the surprise I mentioned awhile ago for those of you who read "Across the Sun"—a little tribute to Steven and Nate's bromance, haha. Anyway, if you haven't read "Across the Sun", I totally recommend it (it's my favorite fanfic I've ever written, actually).

Hope you enjoyed! :) I'm on a roll today with updates, haha.