A/N: Yet another kink meme fill. I had a lot of fun writing this one, since Huntershipping is one of my favorite pairings. I'm not sure I got their characters down, but that's for the readers to decide isn't it? :)
Ethan was nervous. And not the 'Butterfree in your stomach' kind of nervous. It felt like there was a swarm of Beedrill buzzing around inside his stomach. Here he was at Cerulean Cape, one of the most romantic spots in all of Kanto, and he couldn't lift his eyes from the ground. It was as if his shoes were suddenly the most interesting thing he'd ever seen. He felt Silver shift next to him, and knew that the red headed trainer was losing patience with him.
"Why did you bring me out here?" Silver asked, the tone of his voice clearly stating how annoyed he was.
"I uh… I have something to say. To you." He added, cursing himself for sounding so nervous.
"This had better be good. I took a day off of training to be here." Silver said, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Okay, here goes." He took a deep breath. "Silver, I—"
A loud giggle interrupted him. "Oh, you're just too funny! I just—Oh."
They both turned to see Misty coming up the stairs with some guy. The guy ducked his face so it was hard to see who he was, though Ethan had a vague idea, judging by his unique hair style. Misty did not look happy.
"You again." She said to Ethan, frowning at him. "What are you doing here?"
"Probably the same thing you're here for." He said, glancing at Silver. He could feel his face get warm. "Could you go away, please?"
"Why should we?" She asked, planting herself firmly to where she was standing and looking like she wasn't going to be leaving anytime soon.
"Because we were here first?" He said, giving her a look that he hoped said 'I'm desperate, please give us some alone time'. Misty wasn't falling for it though.
"That shouldn't make a difference. You'll just have to deal with—Hey!" Her date started tugging her away. "What are you doing?"
"We can come back later." He said, and Ethan was almost sure he knew who it was. "Let's go."
"This isn't over you pest!" She yelled over her shoulder. "Just you wait!"
He sighed and turned back to Silver. "I'm sorry, I didn't know that would happen."
Silver raised an eyebrow. "She seems friendly."
"You know how it is with redheads." Ethan mumbled without thinking. He winced when he realized what he said.
"What was that?" Silver asked, his eyebrow twitching a bit.
"N-Nothing!" He said, laughing nervously. Silver rolled his eyes at him, but he didn't say anything else about it.
Ethan took a deep breath and started over. "Okay, so about what I wanted to tell you. Silver, I—"
A roar cut him off. When they turned this time, they saw Suicune bounding up the steps towards them. It stopped right in front of Ethan, turning its head back to look at the three people running after it. Ethan followed its gaze and slapped his hand over his face.
"Suicune!" Eusine cried, scrambling up the stairs as fast as he could. "Suicune, at long last I have found you!"
"Eusine, wait for me~!" Kris said, only a few steps behind him. "I'll catch it for you~!"
"Don't you leave me behind!" Lyra screeched, hurrying after the other two. She latched onto Kris's side when she reached the top, almost possessively.
"Can you guys please take this somewhere else?" Ethan said, giving them all the same desperate look he'd given Misty before. "I really need to talk to Silver!"
"I go where Suicune goes!" Eusine said, breathing hard. He didn't take his eyes off the legendary Pokémon.
"And I go where Eusine goes~!" Kris said, looking at the obsessed man with a look of obsession in her own eyes.
"And I'm not letting Kris out of my sight!" Lyra said, squeezing herself tighter to the blue haired girl.
Ethan ran a hand over his hair in frustration and turned to the legendary Pokemon. "Suicune, can you do me a huge favor? Could you please leave for a little while? And take those three with you."
Suicune looked at him for a long moment. Then, as if it understood him, Suicune turned and sprinted back the way it had come.
Eusine immediately took off after it. "Suicune!"
"Eusine~!" Kris cried, chasing him.
"Kris!" Lyra cried, losing her grip on her and running after her.
Once they were out of sight, Ethan sighed and turned to Silver. "I'm really sorry!"
"Why are you apologizing?" Silver asked, rolling his eyes. "Just hurry up and tell me what you wanted to say already."
"Right. Silver, I wanted to tell you that I really—"
"Oh no, Tim! Someone's already here!"
This is getting ridiculous! Ethan thought, looking at the young couple at the stairs. He knew them from a battle they'd had a few weeks ago, Tim and Sue.
"Oh Tim, what are we going to do?" Sue sighed, looking around sadly. "This was supposed to be where we had our romantic date!"
"It's okay, Sue! Any place will be romantic so long as you're there with me." Tim said, holding Sue close. "All I need is you!"
"Oh Tim, I love you!" Sue swooned. They leaned forward to kiss each other, but Ethan cleared his throat, interrupting them.
"Excuse me! Wouldn't you two rather do that in private?" He asked, his face heating up. He peeked at Silver from the corner of his eye, and saw that he looked a little uncomfortable too.
"No, they wouldn't!" A small voice said from below them. They all jumped and hurried over the fence that surrounded the hill.
"Damn it, you've alerted them to our presence!" Another voice came, this one deeper than the first one.
"Who's there?" Ethan asked, stepping in front of Silver protectively.
"It's no use hiding, they've found us out." Another voice else said. There was a bit of shuffling, and then all six of the Nugget Bridge trainers poked their heads above the fence.
"Hey there." They said, some of them waving, others just leering at them.
Sue shrieked. "Wh-what are all of you doing here?"
"We like to watch." They said in unison. Nothing else, just those four words. The way they said it though, made Ethan's skin crawl.
"Have you been here the whole time?" Tim asked, wrapping his arms around Sue and holding close.
"Sure have!" A girl said, grinning at the lovey dovey couple.
"We're getting out of here!" Tim said, leading Sue back down the stairs. The Nugget Bridge trainers lowered their heads at the same time. Ethan wasn't sure if they went to follow the young couple or stayed behind the fence to look at him and Silver. He hoped it was the former.
"Hey Ethan, this is starting to be really annoying." Silver said, crossing his arms over his chest. "Can't you just tell me whatever you wanted to say somewhere else?"
"I can't! It has to be here!" He said, hearing a whine in his voice and not caring anymore.
Silver ran his hand through his hair, his patience gone. "Why? What do you have to say to me that's so damned important?"
"I like you, Silver!" Ethan said, practically shouting it to the other boy. He bit his lip and turned away from Silver's questioning look. "I… I really like you, okay?"
There, he said it. He'd made his grand confession, the one that was supposed to win Silver over, and it was all wrong. He had wanted the moment to be perfect, so that maybe Silver wouldn't reject him afterwards, but now it was all ruined. Now Silver would never want to talk to him, or worse, even see him again! This was the worst day of his life, he never should have said anything in the first place—
"Is that all you wanted to say?" Silver asked. Ethan turned to look at him, surprised. "I already knew that, Ethan."
Okay, so maybe this wouldn't be the worst day of his life after all. "Y-You did?"
Silver shrugged. "You keep saying that you're my friend, so I just assumed that you liked me. Friends are supposed to like each other right?"
"Yeah but…" Didn't he understand? Oh jeez, was he really going to have to explain himself? "Silver I like, like you."
Now Silver looked confused. "Is that supposed to be different?"
Ethan could feel his face heating up. "Yeah. You know, the kind of like that can… that can turn into love, eventually."
"Love?" Silver was starting to blush too. "What the hell are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about how I feel about you." Ethan reached over and grabbed Silver's hand. "I really like you, Silver. And I want to know if you feel the same way too."
"Oh…" Silver's face was starting to turn the same shade of red as his hair. But he wasn't pulling his hand away, and that was a good sign, right? "I—"
"You get off my lawn you dang kids!"
They turned to see a little old man coming out of Bill's house, waving a cane at them. He looked angry, though Ethan had no idea why.
"Dang kids, thinkin' they can be all lovey dovey right in front of my house!" He yelled, more to himself than to them. "Go away and don't come back! Or I'll sic my grandson's Pokémon at you!"
Ethan sighed. "Guess we should leave before that happens. Look, I'm—"
"Me too." Silver muttered.
"What?" Ethan's grip on Silver's hand tightened. He wasn't sure if he had heard him right. "What did you say, Silver?"
"I said… I like you too." Silver said, keeping his eyes on the ground.
He swallowed hard, feeling his heart hammer in his chest. "Yeah? Do you really mean it?"
"I said it didn't I?" Silver looked up and frowned at him. "Why, you want me to take it back?"
"No!" Ethan grinned and threw his arms around him. "You've made me so happy!"
"Idiot." Silver mumbled, struggling against him for a minute. He gave in eventually though, and brought his arms up to hug him back.
"GET OFF MY LAWN!" The old man roared, throwing a Pokéball at them. It sailed over their heads and landed on the ground a few feet away. It opened up to reveal an Eevee, who squeaked cutely at them, chased its tail for a moment, and promptly fell asleep.
Ethan laughed and grabbed Silver's hand. "Let's go. I want us to spend the rest of the day together."
"Okay, but I'm not doing things like this every day. I still need to train." Silver said. He didn't pull his hand away though, so Ethan just laughed again and headed down the stairs.
