"Here." Falkner looked away, a blush barely tinging his cheeks. "It's…for you," he muttered, insistently shaking the package in his outstretched hand. It wasn't wrapped well, but obviously had been wrapped with care.
Morty took it, smiling gently at the other Gym Leader's hastiness. "Can I unwrap it now, or…?"
"Yes."
Trying his best not to tear apart the purple wrapping paper (his favorite color!), Morty detached the tape and took out the contents of the gift.
A blue scarf. It was beautiful, with lighter blue stripes, so close to being the same color that they almost were unnoticeable, going through the whole thing, only visible when the light made them shimmer. The recognition he had of what it actually was came a few moments after. A Fixation Scarf. Made for Pokemon.
So it was just a gift to help him in battle. Ah. Morty's heart sunk a little bit, but expecting it to have been for himself was a bit too ambitious, even for someone like him. Even for someone with an immense a crush as he had.
Despite that, his smile stayed in place, and he looked the other man in the eyes (eye?), saying, "Thanks, really. I'm sure it'll help in my next Gym battle."
What he didn't expect was how Falkner's expression went from satisfied to confused, his eyebrows drawing together. "In..battle..?"
"Yeah, this is an in-battle effect item, isn't it? If I remember right, it's supposed to make it so that you can only use one move, but you get a stat boost of some kind…Am I wrong?"
"N-No!" Falkner exclaimed, shaking his head so fast that it almost dislodged his bangs (and Morty wished it had). "You've got it all wrong, Morty! It's not a gift for your Pokemon, it's a gift for you!" And here his blush intensified, contrasting his whole appearance's oh-so-blue color scheme. "I didn't know it was a Pokemon item.. I just thought it was a pretty scarf, and I know you like wearing scarves, so I thought…" His voice trailed off and Falkner looked to the ground, seemingly too embarrassed to even continue.
Smiling even wider, Morty said, "Well, in that case, great. I've never been good at using items in battle anyways." And with that, he unwrapped his typical purple and red scarf, hanging it over his forearm, replacing it with the significantly shorter blue one. "Well? How's it look?"
"You- It- It looks great on you, really," Falkner replied, glancing up from the ground for just a moment before returning his gaze to it with an even more intense blush. Morty frowned a little, and reached out, ruffling the other man's hair a bit.
"Come on. No need to be so shy, Falk," he said good-naturedly. "I'll treat you to lunch, as a thank you for this present." Falkner looked up at him in surprise at the sudden use of a nickname, but smiled a bit and nodded.
"Why'd you get me a present, anyways?" Morty asked as they walked along the almost deserted streets of Ecruteak. The sun was setting, and most people in the city were too superstitious to stay out past dusk. So it was just them and the ghosts. Morty thought it'd make a good atmosphere, if worse came to worse (or better).
"Ah…It's your birthday, isn't it?" Falkner replied, looking away. "Whitney told me."
Morty frowned, thinking. It really was his birthday, wasn't it? He'd completely forgotten. It wasn't like anyone besides him would have any obligation to remember it, so he forgot it almost every year. But how had Whitney known? …Putting aside his questions for a later date, he said, "Yeah, it is. Thanks, Falk. You really made mine a good one."
Falkner ducked his head a little, smiling. "Yeah. Anything for you, man."
They walked in silence for a few minutes; Falkner watching the birds as they flew south to escape the nipping cold of winter's approach, Morty playing with the ends of his new scarf with one hand. Slowly, after pondering for a bit and throwing caution to the wind, he changed his distance from Falkner from a couple feet to a few inches, and said, "Hey, do you even know anything about this scarf?"
"No. Why?"
"Because sometimes," Morty stopped, "it's called a fix-" grabbed Falkner's hand, "-a-" twined their fingers together, "-tion-" brushed his forehead against the other's as Falkner stopped and turned to look at him, "- scarf." and sealed his lips in a kiss.
And their hands stayed linked all the way back to Violet City.
A/N: woow...my first fanfiction in a while.. this is one of my otps and not a lot of fics out there really do it justice, so i thought id try my hand. the item morty got is a choice scarf, but in japanese it's called a fixation scarf. i might turn this into a drabble series or something? i don't know, haha
