Author's Note: And here's my Valentine's MangaQuest! It has nothing to do with Valentine's Day, actually.

There's one thing bugging me a little… I envisioned Gold and Crystal to be about sixteen, but this is set when they should be more like fourteen at the greatest. So, I guess this is a bit AU. Oh well. Just read it, I guess. XD

Gold's POV. In case, you know, you don't get that from the first two paragraphs, haha.

Enjoy!

The Task at Hand

"Well, we'll always mess up some. That's just nature."

By the time I woke up, she was already gone. Figures. Super Serious Girl always was the more devoted of us. Or maybe she just didn't get discouraged as easily.

I threw on a shirt and walked out to the docks. The ocean sparkled in the early morning sunlight. Mornings always felt weird to me, since I was used to sleeping until noon.

But sacrifices must be made.

I ended up deciding to go for a run around the island. To blow off steam, you know, and warm up for the day's training. And, of course, I could mull over my thoughts.

I wanted to see Crys, to apologize. We'd fought. Again. It was ridiculous, really. I mean, we were supposed to work together, as friends, to rescue our seniors, as well as Silver. But once we got to Two Island to train, something snapped. And we couldn't even control our own damn hormones.

After all, what was it about Crys that made me want to run a mile? There were a lot of pretty girls out there. Not many of them intrigued me anymore, though. Ever since I met Super Serious Girl, it takes more than nice curves or a pretty face to turn me on.

Lost in my thoughts, I completely forgot where I was. Big mistake; the terrain around Two Island had a slick grade of rock, and the cliffs could be a bit steep.

Stupid me. I slipped crossing a rock ledge and went flying. "Ahhhhh!" I cried out as my body tumbled toward the ground. I knew it. I was doomed…

I hit the hard stone below with a resounding crack and a loud groan. Something hurt really bad in my leg, and there was a funny lump on my thigh. 'Broken…' I realized miserably, blood thumping heavily on my eardrums.

'I need help,' I thought to myself, pushing torso up on one hand. I searched blindly with my free hand, looking for my Pokeballs.

The last thing I took in before I fainted was the realization that the opening mechanism to Explotaro's ball had broken in my fall as well. I was stuck here.

…

…

I heard humming when I woke up. Slowly my eyes flickered open, and then I saw a very familiar face, hovering inches above mine.

"How did you know," I rasped, my voice as dry as bone.

"Some people have good observational skills," she remarked, but her voice lacked venom. For that I was grateful; I didn't have the energy for another fight. She drained me that way. "We're back at the cabin, by the way. Mega carried you."

I sat up. A bit too quickly, apparently, since the blood rushed out of my head with mind-numbing speed. I fell back down, dizzy. "I feel like I should apologize to you."

Crys looked away. "Of course you should."

"And I will."

"Good."

"Not now, though."

She looked back at me, and I cringed. Crys could be pretty scary sometimes. Silver used to laugh at me at times like this, saying something about Crys being more of a man than me. But I'd like to see him stand up to Super-Serious Girl at times!

Oh. Right. Silver.

Crys was saying, "When, then, Gold? Grow up. We're not twelve anymore, and the fights won't stop just because you break your leg."

I couldn't remember what I had planned to say. "Crys…"

She continued. "That sets us behind schedule. How do you expect to rescue our seniors if you keep acting like an idiot?"

"Crys."

"I mean, really! All you've done on this mission so far is mess up and put us back. And… What?"

"I'm sorry."

"And I forgive you. We just can't afford to mess up any more."

I slowly pushed myself up. I was still wearing the clothes from my failed attempt at a jog, so I felt grimy and disgusting in between the clean sheets. "You and me…"

She sat down, taking care to avoid my damaged limb. "Well, we'll always mess up some. That's just nature."

Heh, we weren't perfect, and it was comforting to know that Crystal knew it as well. "So where do we go from here?"

She smiled slightly, the evening sunlight casting a glow on her skin. She looked beautiful. "Wherever we want. The only thing… we can't let this thing between us jeopardize the mission any more."

I nodded. "Right. We should keep our minds on the task at hand."

The task at hand… we needed to rescue Silver and the seniors, and we could only do that by training like neither of us had ever trained before.

But as she leaned over and kissed me on the cheek, the task at hand wasn't what spoke in my gut.

As she turned to go, I spoke up, my voice trembling just a little. "Crys." She turned back, and I could see a little sadness in her eye. So I wasn't the only who was feeling what I felt. "After… after the task at hand ends…"

She bit her lip. "After we finish with this… we can try again. Until then, let's focus, okay?"

"Focus. Right."

Focus on the task at hand. I could do that. I could…

Author's Note: Since this was written, I have written some more MangaQuest. If you'd like to check that out, you can take a peek at my profile for 'Theirs Was the Garden', which is a 100 Themes challenge that turned out quite well. Or, if you would rather have some drabbles, try the one titled 'Loquacious', which is the MangaQuest part of 'Boxes of Chocolates'.

Also, I should have figured out a way to mention that Gold and Explotaro learned Blast Burn in record time after this incident with Crys.