When that day Gold had called Silver for a battle, obviously Silver hadn't thought of it as anything suspicious. Since Gold was the only one who even came remotely close to his skill level he had agreed to battle every so often and become his so-called rival. This time Gold had told him they'd meet on Route 39 and so, Silver had his Murkrow fly him there as soon as he'd prepared his Pokémon for battle.
"Hiya, Silver!" Gold waved excitedly when he saw the redhead arrive on his Flying-type.
Silver got off his Murkrow, returned it to its pokéball and said calmly: "You won't be smiling when I'm done with you."
"You say that every time but you still have to live up to it," Gold said smiling broadly just to annoy Silver.
"Oh, by the way, I suggest we do a one-vs-one battle, no items, to make this more fair." Even though Gold loved the idea of two amazingly strong Pokémon like Explotaro and Silver's Feraligatr having an epic battle this served a completely different purpose. He was sure Silver was going to use Feraligatr as it had a type advantage over Explotaro but that was about the only part of his plan that couldn't fail.
"Like I'd need that to win. But if you insist, I'm not going easy on you!"
Gold let out his Fire-type and as he expected, Silver released Feraligatr. Immediately, Silver commanded it to use Ice Fang but instead of mindlessly following the command, the Pokémon looked at his master angrily. Gold burst out laughing.
"What the hell is this? And why the heck are you laughing?"
"It – haha – seems like it doesn't – haha – want to attack – teehee – Explotaro." Gold managed to blurt out.
Silver watched in awe as Feraligatr rubbed its head against his rival's Typhlosion. It seemed oddly... affectionate toward the Pokémon. Wait it wasn't... in love, was it?
"You knew this, didn't you!" Silver snapped.
"Aww, c'mon, it was a funny joke," Gold said, still not fully recovered from his laughing fit.
Silver walked over to Gold and slapped him in the face; not hard, but enough for it to hurt and keep aching for a few minutes.
"Auch! I gues I could've expected that." Gold rubbed his cheek, by now colored vivid red.
"Shall I treat you to a drink at Olivine Café to make up for this?" Gold offered with a gentle smile – meaning Silver still hadn't kept his 'promise' of sorts.
"Hmph, I guess I'll take advantage of your stupidity."
"That's called kindness."
"Whatever."