Ruby and Sapphire were waiting for Emerald to meet them at the Slateport Harbor to catch their boat to Kanto. They were having a conversation they had all the time which always led to the same argument.
"I can't wait to see Red and Blue again!" exclaimed the battle crazed wild girl. "They've probably gotten a lot stronger since last time!" she continued, with unwavering enthusiasm to no one in particular.
"Ugh! Are battles all you care about? I can't believe you still don't care about getting your pokemon dirty." Ruby said to his best friend.
"How many times do I have to say it?" a now agitated Sapphire replied. "Battles are waaaaayyy better than your sissy contests ya big wimp!" she yelled at him not aware that people in the harbor were starting to stare at them.
"Are you kidding? Beauty over brawn any day of the week!" Ruby shot back.
"Oh for the love of god! GET A ROOM!" shouted a new voice standing a few feet behind Ruby.
"Oh, hey Rald," Sapphire suddenly came out of her heated debate that she had at least once a week to address Emerald.
"How much of that did you hear?" Ruby asked somewhat nervously turning around to see his small friend.
"Are you kidding? I heard you two flirting from the Pokemon Center, and I'm pretty sure the whole city wants you two to shut the hell up!"
A few onlookers silently agreed to themselves as they continued going about their business.
"We were not flirting!" Ruby said to Emerald. "How could I ever like such an uncivilized barbarian."
"That's not what you said four years ago during the Sootopolis battle!" she retorted.
"What are you talking about?" Ruby said, suddenly putting on a fake puzzled look.
"You know damn well what I mean!" she glared at him with her most dangerous look.
"Hey, is that our boat?" Ruby suddenly said, walking away with his luggage toward a docked ferry that sure enough, was their boat.
"You may have gotten away from it this time, but I'll get it out of you."
"Who the hell are you talking to?"
"Oh sorry Rald, forgot you were here," Sapphire said somewhat embarrassed, thinking she was only doing just that.
"Well I don't know about you, but I'm not missing the ferry," he said while carrying his bags toward the loading dock.
Sapphire soon followed her two friends toward their ferry, assuring herself that she would make sure that Ruby remembers her confession to him, and his to her on this trip. 'Maybe I can get it out of him with a surprise,' she thought to herself as she approached the dock. 'But what if he really has forgotten?' the thought scared her, but she was sure it was an act. Regardless of how ignorant and selfish he was, he was also strong and kind when it counted most. That was why she grew to love him over the past ten years of her life.
'Why does she have to bring that up all the time?' Ruby thought to himself on the boat, looking back into the harbor. 'Maybe I should tell her that I've lied about not remembering for all these years.' He looked to see Emerald and Sapphire following him towards the loading dock, tough she appeared to be deep in thought. 'I wonder what she's thinking about. Probably about ways to dirty up her pokemon by making them fight against the others when we see them,' He scoffed to himself. He turned to look at the sea ahead of the ferry, and admire its majesty. 'Some people just have no respect for the beauty of the sea.' He started to think about Team Magma and Team Aqua and how their schemes nearly destroyed such a beautiful world. He was broken out of his thoughts by his two friends who had joined him.
"Have you been to our room yet?" Emerald asked him.
"Uh, no, but if you're going right now could you bring my stuff with you?" Ruby said, gesturing at his luggage still next to him.
"Fine. I'm heading there now," the short blond replied. "Sceptile give me a hand with these bags," he said as he released his grass type partner pokemon. Sceptile grabbed Ruby's bags and followed its trainer.
"I'm going there too in a bit," Sapphire told Ruby.
"Ok, but do you want to call Red or someone to tell them we're leaving soon first?" he asked her.
"Yeah sure!" she replied, excited to talk to her idol again.
And with that, Ruby pulled out his pokegear and called Red, who picked up almost instantly.
"Hey Ruby, what's up?"
"Me, Rald, and Sapphire are on our boat, and we're leaving in about five minutes."
"Hey Red!" Sapphire piped up.
"Hey Sapphire, you'd better be ready for a good battle during this trip."
"Why just one? Huh? You scared?" she taunted.
"No way! It'll be great to see how much stronger you've gotten."
"Same here, I gotta go, but I think Ruby wants to talk to you. See you guys in Vermillion tomorrow," she finished as she headed off to their room.
"It'll take us about a day to get to you, but I just thought I'd let you know," Ruby explained to Red as he watched Sapphire walk away.
"Alright, Since you guys, Gold, Silver, and Crys will be arriving around 6:00, Green thought we'd all just stay in a hotel for the night and head off to Sevii the next morning."
"Sounds like a plan. I'll tell the others and see you tomorrow I guess."
"Ok see you then."
"Later Red," Ruby said as he hung up, and headed towards his room just as the ship started moving and leaving the bay. When Ruby eventually got to Room 3A, when he walked inside he saw Emerald trying to get onto the bed that Sapphire was standing next to, defending it like a mightyena.
"Come on!" Emerald whined. "I came here first so I should get the bed I want!"
"You should always be ready to defend your territory!" she growled with a smirk. "You couldn't, so I took it for myself!"
"But that's not fair! Ruby help me on this one," Emerald begged.
With a deep sigh, Ruby decided to test his luck. "Sapphire, he did get here first, so he should, theoretically have his choice of where to be."
"Awe come on!" Sapphire groaned as she realized she was outvoted. "I guess that means I'm sleeping with you on the queen size then."
"Wait, what?" Ruby said extremely surprised when he looked from the bed to Sapphire and back again. "Ok I guess," he said when he took another look at the couch on his right that looked extremely uncomfortable to sleep on, understanding why Sapphire didn't want to sleep on it.
"Haha! I got my own bed!" Emerald taunted Sapphire while jumping on his bed.
"Oh shut up!" Sapphire said and grabbed her pokeballs. "I'm going down to the gym to see if anyone is a decent match. Later!" she said as she left.
"She'll be lucky if someone accepts her challenge," Emerald said to Ruby.
"Agreed."
The two boys spent the next hour flipping through TV channels trying to find something to watch, but nothing good was on so they just left it on the news and proceeded to play games on their pokegears. While Emerald was deeply invested in his game, Sapphire burst into the room very angrily.
"No one wanted to battle me down there! I spent an hour walking around that gigantic gym looking for someone, but no one wanted to!" Sapphire proceeded to vent her frustrations on Emerald instead of Ruby for a change.
"Nice going Sapphire! I had Gold's high score beat until you barged back in here! Thanks a lot!" Emerald yelled at her, which proved to be a bad idea, as Sapphire grabbed his ankle and held him out the window threatening to drop him. "Ahh! Ok I'm sorry I won't complain anymore! Bring me back in!"
Sapphire did just that letting off some of her anger in the process. "Well I guess the only thing left to do is check out the pool before we order dinner. Whaddya guys say?" she asked them.
"No thanks. I'm ordering dinner in a few minutes. I'm very hungry," Emerald said, jumping back onto his bed.
"I'll go, but you have to wear a real bathing suit!" Ruby insisted.
"But I didn't bring any," Sapphire replied.
"Good thing I did!" Ruby said enthusiastically darting to one of his bags, pulling out a dark blue two piece he made for her.
"Awe come on!" Sapphire groaned after seeing it.
"Please! I made it to match your eyes," he pleaded with her.
"Oh alright!" Sapphire relented, grabbing the bathing suit, slightly blushing as she went to the bathroom to change. When she came out, Ruby stared at her in awe at how pretty she was.
"Quit it Ruby," she said blushing even more at this attention.
"Yeah Ruby control yourself. You two are sharing a bed tonight," Emerald snickered.
Ruby joined Sapphire in blushing and grabbed an empty pokeball from his bag and threw it at Emerald's head.
"Oww. Jesus dude, what the hell was that for?" he said while rubbing his head.
Ruby ignored him, grabbing another pair of shorts and storming into the bathroom to change, slamming the door. He came out a minute later grabbing a towel and a key just in case while keeping his hat on and dragging Sapphire out the door.
"Wow. Guess he can't take a joke," Emerald shrugged as he went back to his game.
"He really pisses me off sometimes," Ruby said still fuming about Emerald's comment as he walked with Sapphire down to the pool.
"Yeah, me too," she responded. "Are you seriously gonna wear that hat into the water?" she asked, pointing at his hat.
"Maybe I am!" he replied, a little agitated.
On any other day, Sapphire would've made fun of his hat and how ridiculous it was, but his aggravated response made her decide not to. They continued walking in silence all the way down to the pool, and didn't talk until they got there where they found an empty swimming area.
"Wow. Everyone must be having dinner," Ruby said, apparently cooled down from Emerald's joke.
"Yeah, I'm going in," Sapphire said as she handed him her towel and took a running start, jumping into the pool making a huge splash. Ruby set their stuff down on a chair close to the pool that didn't get soaked. He took off his shirt making Sapphire blush at his surprisingly built upper body. After setting his shirt down, without taking his hat off, he slid into the water next to her.
"It's really warm isn't it," he said to her after a few moments of awkward silence.
"Yeah, I like it this way."
"I didn't say this before, but you look great in that two piece," Ruby said while trying to hide his blush.
"Thanks," Sapphire said. "I didn't know you were that toned," she added pointing at his arms under the water.
"Well you're probably more ripped than me," he told her.
They then proceeded to have a conversation without arguing with each other for twenty minutes when they decided to go back up to the room and order dinner. When they returned, they found Emerald asleep on his bed with what looked like the remains of a giant bowl of macaroni and cheese on the nightstand. Sapphire changed back first, then Ruby, after which they called room service and ordered a large spaghetti meal to share, saying they'll come down and pick it up. The two then proceeded to quietly eat their meal which really was quite large. After they were done, they decided to get settled for the night, and Sapphire asked Ruby to put her pokemon in the healing machine along with his and Emerald's since she already lied down and was half asleep.
"Ok, just next time don't forget," he told her as he lied down.
"Mmm thanks," she mumbled.
Ruby chuckled and gave her a quick kiss on the top of her head as she drifted off. "Goodnight Sapphire," he whispered as he too went to sleep.
