First Date, Take Two

The two of us were panting, trying to catch our breath after such a strenuous training session. Leaning back to back, Lyra let her head rest against the back of mine, laughing for no apparent reason. I always enjoyed our training, despite its getting repetitive after a while—honestly, I was just glad to see Lyra whenever I could, even if it was only once a week. Though I hadn't always liked the girl, something about that big marshmallow hat and her goofy chuckle always seemed to get me.

"Hey, Silver," she started, and I felt her turn her head a little to see me. I turned my head towards her, our lips so close they could touch. Swallowing, I moved forward a little bit to put some distance between us—but Lyra just continued to lean on me. "Do you want to go out with me? To get some ice cream? I know the best little shop in Mahogany Town; they're famous for their vanilla soft serve!"

I sighed. Well, since I knew she would probably force me to go, anyway, I might as well agree now before things got crazy. "Fine. Why not?"

So, we walked over from the Lake of Rage—where we had been training—to Mahogany Town, stopping at the little ice cream shop and ordering two soft serve vanilla ice creams. It really was the best ice cream I had ever had; I certainly could tell why they were famous for it. But as we sat there licking our soft serve like our lives depended on it, I couldn't help but notice how sad Lyra looked. It was an unusual thing to see.

I didn't comment on it until after I had finished my ice cream. Lyra was still licking away with a glum expression on her face. Well, I wasn't the one who suggested this place! I thought the ice cream was good—if she didn't, then it was her fault for forcing me to come here in the first place! She didn't have to sit here like a bum!

"Hey! Lyra!" I called, and she glanced at me with the same sad eyes. Why me? I was not good at these sorts of things. Battling? Sure. Talking to girls about their problems? No. Just… no. "Why do you look like you just saw a dead Growlithe? Eating ice cream isn't really supposed to be a depressing experience."

"Why didn't you split your ice cream with me, Silver?"

Why didn't you—what? Why the hell would I split an ice cream with her? Where did she even get that idea? "Why would I? That's disgusting." I paused, seeing her stricken expression. Oh. Damn. I knew exactly what she was talking about. I had seen it on television once—a boy and girl shared ice cream on a date. "Uh, wait, did you think that was a date?"

Lyra giggled, the glum expression vanishing from her face. "Of course, silly!" She stuck her tongue out at me, stained white from leftover vanilla soft serve. "Of course, it was!"

"Oh." How else was I supposed to respond to that?

Lyra waved a hand at me, laughing some more. Somehow, I didn't see how this was comical. I was embarrassed, for crying out loud! She thought this was a date! Seriously, how could she possibly be laughing? Nothing about Lyra had ever made sense to me, but this was just going beyond the level of insane that Lyra began with.

"It was horrible. I get it. So, I have the best idea ever." Great. Lyra and 'great ideas' never mixed well. Like chocolate-covered dill pickles. "We're just going to redo the entire date from start to finish. Okay? So, I'll see you here tomorrow at six o'clock sharp, all right? It will be the greatest first date ever!"

"Wasn't this our first date theoretically?" I raised an eyebrow, looking at Lyra's amused expression. Since she considered this a date, it had to count, right? And wait—why did we even have to go on another date?

"Fine. First date, take two."

I waited at a table, watching people come and go with their ice cream, for over an hour. I was one-hundred percent sure that Lyra hadn't forgotten—she never forgot anything like this, and she would hound me if I had been the one to ditch. But I had no idea where she was or what she was doing, and as the minutes passed by, I was beginning to get worried about her. She could take care of herself, but she was a cute girl…

I was so distracted that I didn't even notice as Lyra stomped over to the table and smacked her bag on top of it. She was more dressed up than she usually was, much to my surprise, and I couldn't help but not take her anger seriously when she looked like that.

Well, that was just plain stupid; we were eating ice cream, not going to an opera! How could I take her seriously?

"Silver, we need to talk."

I winced. That didn't sound very good. But, then again, I was the one who was sitting awkwardly by myself at an ice cream shop waiting for my date… who showed up an hour late. If anyone needed to say anything, it was me.

"Um, yeah. We do. I've been waiting here by myself for an hour, Lyra. Where have you been?" I tried to control my tone, but I could hear my voice get louder and louder. Lyra didn't even look bothered. "Maybe ten minutes could be fashionably late, if that's what you were going for, but an hour is a little extreme."

"Yes, well, the only reason I am late is because someone never came to pick me up! I was waiting at the Pokémon Center all this time. And you never came!" Lyra snapped, putting her hands on her hips and staring at me with such cold eyes that I couldn't glare back.

"What?" I wanted to smack my head against the table. Maybe then girls would make sense. "You told me to meet you here at six o'clock! So, I did!" I put my hands on top of the table, twirling my thumbs to calm myself down, but Lyra reached out and ripped my hands apart. "And what do you mean, 'Pokémon Center'? That's literally right next door… why couldn't you just walk over here to see that I was already waiting?"

"Boys are supposed to pick girls up for dates!"

Oh. Of course. How could I not have known that? How dare I not pick her up when she so clearly said to meet her here at six o'clock? How rude of me to just walk by the Pokémon Center on my way to the ice cream shop and not pick her up—to walk four yards to the shop! How could I have been so cold?

"But you were right there. You made me wait an hour because you wanted me to walk you here? That's why you're so late?" I asked, completely in disbelief right now. First, the girl thought we were on a date when I clearly did not. Now, she wanted me to pick her up for our second try at our first date?

Women were so demanding.

"Well, whatever." Lyra waved a hand at me just like she had yesterday, and I sincerely hoped that she would just forget about this whole thing and leave. Was it too late to take back that thing I said yesterday? That I was glad to see Lyra whenever I could? "Let's go get some ice cream. Maybe this date will go smoothly now."

So, we waited in line (for fifteen minutes—an hour ago there was no line… Just saying) to order our ice cream, and when we finally made it up to the window, disaster struck.

"Two soft serve—"

"Silver!" Lyra sounded aghast, and I had to admit that I was tempted to start banging my head against the glass of the window. But I controlled myself, staring at her with an annoyed gleam in my eye (or at least I hoped so). "Did you not learn from yesterday? One vanilla soft serve. Not two."

I just looked at the man on the other side of the window, signaling to do whatever Lyra told him to. But no… the man had to speak.

"We do have low-fat vanilla soft serve, ma'am."

Silence. Seconds and seconds of awkward silence. I seriously wanted to punch that man in the face right now. Even I didn't know how to flatter a lady, but I knew never to mention the word "fat" when addressing one. Girls always seemed to be particularly conscious of their weight—even though Lyra was stick-thin, I couldn't imagine she was any different.

The silence continued, and after a moment the man just walked away from the window, returning with just one ice cream cone. He was clearly avoiding Lyra's eyes since he was staring at me with a frightened expression. Handing me the cone, he closed the window as fast as he could, leaving just a crack open for payment.

Good boy.

"You have to pay, Silver. You're the man." Lyra's voice sounded much darker than it ever had, and I wondered if I should have been scared for my life.

But I fished my wallet out without saying anything, grabbing some money and shoving it under the barely-opened window. He could keep the change, I figured—we just had to get away from him before Lyra started growling or something.

We sat down at the same table I had been occupying before, Lyra on one side of the table while I sat at the other. I held the ice cream closer to her, hoping that she would just take the thing and let me just sit here. But she eyed me as she began licking it, waiting for me to take a lick, as well—and her eyes had never looked so mean…

So, I took a lick, careful to stay on my half of the ice cream. But after a few minutes, the mound of soft serve was getting smaller, and my half was now her half, as well. I wanted to stop eating it, but she kept looking at me with those scary eyes, daring me to just try to stop licking it.

She finally let me stop sharing the ice cream with her when we got to the cone. I handed it off to her, and she finished it, wiping her hands and mouth off on a napkin when it was finally all gone.

"You know, you're supposed to talk on dates. We're not supposed to just sit here in silence and eat. It's called a conversation. So, I started talking… now, you say something in response to this. I can teach you how to be social!"

"I'm social…"

Well, sort of. Just because Lyra was really my only good friend and the only one I actually ever talked to didn't mean that I was antisocial. I just hadn't really met anyone that had interested me in the same way that Lyra did. Because, honestly, she was a very interesting person. Emphasis on the 'very'. It was easy to talk to her.

Lyra just smiled, the evil in her eye vanishing. "You're funny, Silver." Even though I was being serious. "Listen, you did very well back there with the guy. That is the perfect way to handle a situation like that. But I have to ask—why didn't you tell me that you don't think I'm fat? Do you think I am?"

Would it be awkward mid-date to smack your head on the table?

"Um. No. You're not. I didn't say anything because then the situation would get completely out of hand like it is now." I sighed, and the evil look was back in her eyes. "Either way, I'm screwed. Because somehow, saying, 'Don't listen to him! You're not fat!' would have been translated into, 'Listen to him! Lose some weight!' and things just get worse from there. I saw that happen on television once. So, I just chose not to say anything."

Lyra just blinked. "So, you do think I'm fat?"

Damn it.

All right. I couldn't contain myself any longer. I smacked my head against the table, looking back up at Lyra when I finished. Much better.

"I'll go throw out your trash," I said, taking Lyra's napkins away from her and getting up to throw them in the garbage. When I sat back down, one of her eyebrows was raised, and she was staring at me like I had five heads.

"Walk me home, Silver," she finally said after a few moments of staring at me.

"You live in New Bark Town. I am not walking you home."

She rolled her eyes, shaking her head. "No, to the Pokémon Center. Walk me to the Pokémon Center, okay? The guy always has to walk the girl to her front door at the end of a date, but since the Pokémon Center is right there, you can just walk me all the way there. And since you didn't walk me home last night, you can do it tonight."

All the way? It was a two-second walk. Probably shorter than a walk to the front door.

I just submitted, walking with her for approximately two seconds to the front of the Pokémon Center. She stopped right in front of the door, turning around and facing me so that we were only inches apart. I stepped back.

She stood, staring at me for a while, and I was beginning to get worried that someone was going to open the door to the Pokémon Center and whack her. I stepped back again, hoping that she would just go inside, but she grabbed my hand, pulling me back.

"You're supposed to kiss me."

I furrowed my eyebrows, utterly confused by this. "After the first date?"

She just nodded, and I rolled my eyes. It wasn't as though I really had a choice. If I didn't kiss her, she would just make me go on another one of these crazy things. And somehow, I wasn't sure I could survive another one of her 'dates'.

So, I leaned towards her, my lips just barely touching her when the door to the Pokémon Center swung open, and Lyra fell to the ground. The woman coming out looked at her, shocked, and helped pull her to her feet—apologizing a hundred times over for knocking her down.

"Oh, that's all right! Don't worry about it!" Lyra said, smiling sweetly until the woman left. Then, the smile vanished, and Lyra crossed her arms. "Sorry, no second chances. Once the kiss is interrupted, it's interrupted. Those are the rules." She pouted, stomping her foot once on the ground. "This date was also horrible. So, I have an idea!"

Oh, great. Not another one of those.

"Let's go out again tomorrow! First date, take three!"

Author's Note: Ha. Sorry, I TOTALLY had to write this. I don't even know what made me think of this. I was actually trying to think of something to write since I finished "Crushed", and this just popped into my mind. (I didn't waste any time, as you can see.)

If you're offended by Lyra's completely ridiculous idea of a date, I apologize. I'm a girl, too—and I know this is pretty ridiculous. Poor Silver had to suffer through that whole thing, and now he gets to do it again tomorrow! It's not that he doesn't like Lyra. He does. He just… isn't into the whole "dating" thing.

Originally, this was going to be in Lyra's POV. But I changed my mind when I started writing it. I didn't think it was nearly as humorous because you missed a lot of Silver's "Damn it" moments and his other very sarcastic thoughts about the whole mess.

I think the beginning is choppy… Boo.

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon!