Two days later, during Friday...

Pearl clapped his hands together and rubbed them back and forth, trying to create some heat.

"It's freezing!" he muttered.

"The bus will be here any minute," Dia replied, taking a bite from a sandwich he kept in his jacket pocket.

"Oh hey, by the way," Pearl said, turning to Platinum. "How does it feel that you lost to Sapphire in the finals? It was really close!"

Platinum looked thoughtful for a couple of seconds, then smiled.

"She is a very good fighter, I learned a lot."

"The bus is here," Dia said. "Though I wish we could have stayed longer. It has been a good week."

"It has," Pearl agreed. "But we all have duties back in Sinnoh. You and me have to get back to practice, and Platinum has to help Mr. Berlitz with the science stuff."

"I am sure my father would not mind me having a few days off to spend time with my friends," Platinum replied as they entered the bus. "After all, we do not see each other as often now as we did back when we traveled together."

"We'd like that," Dia replied, smiling wide.


"Now that we are fewer left, we should redo the sleeping arrangements," Red said, flopping down on the sofa next to Yellow. "The Sinnoh trio are going back home, Green and Emerald back to the gym, Blue and Silver had something they needed to do for a while and Crystal is going back to Pallet Town to help Oak."

"In other words, that leaves the two of us, Gold, Ruby, Wally and Sapphire."

"Yeah."

"Me and Sapphire can easily share my bed," Yellow said, thinking. "But I only have two beds and the sofa for the four of you guys."

"Actually, Green left the two inflatable mattresses in case we needed them."

"Huh. No problem then."

"Guess not," Red said, giving her a tired smile. Yellow glanced at him, frowning.

"Red, is something wrong?"

"Probably not. I was just thinking about what Blue and Silver had to go do, they wouldn't tell me anything. It is probably nothing."

Yellow frowned, realizing she had been thinking about that as well. She had asked Blue if they could not stay for a while longer, but the older girl had just smiled and explained that the two of them had some business to take care of.

"Yeah, probably nothing serious," she agreed, shrugging and leaning back. Red put his arm on the couch backrest, behind her.

"Hey," he said, "at least now we can try to figure out what to do with our relationship without Blue hovering over us all the time."

He smiled at her and she laughed, feeling a bit better already. He was right, of course. While Blue had been there, it had been impossible to get alone time without her knowing, asking questions and trying to give advice. She meant well, but...

"Yo guys."

"Hey Gold!" Red replied, quickly removing his arm from behind her. She noticed from the boy's smirk that he had noticed something was going on, though. He sat down in the armchair next to them, putting his feet on the table.

"Can't we go get pizza or something for dinner?"

"Sounds good to me," Red said. "Yellow?"

"Well we didn't eat out as much as I thought while the others were still here, so I have money left that I did not expect... and it would be nice to not have to cook."

"Cool," Gold said, nodding. "The others are fine with it. Well Wally is, Ruby and Sapphire said they didn't care either way really."

"Where are they, by the way?"

"Well Wally was making some call... Ruby and Sapphire were fighting over something Ruby had forgotten, not sure about the details but it sounded complicated. Figured it was best to leave them alone, you know?"

"Yeah," Red said, nodding. Gold eyed him for a few seconds, then gave a short laugh.

"I didn't interrupt anything here, did I?"

Yellow turned bright red and tried to answer, but Gold just smiled and got to his feet.

"I'll go check if Wally is done," he said. "And if the other two are still fighting."

They sat there for a couple of seconds, then Red started laughing. Yellow looked at him, puzzled.

"W-what?"

"Gold can be really tactful when he wants to, huh?" Red said, smiling.

"I guess," Yellow said, smiling back. "Want to check what is on TV?"

"Sure."