NOTE: So terribly sorry this took so long. It was a mixture of writer's block and procrastination. I didn't give up! But anyways, here it is.

Lyra walked alone down a street somewhere in Goldenrod City. A tall structure towered above the other buildings, casting a giant shadow over her. She felt the chill of the night settle inside her, as if a ghost walked through her body. "It's so cold." she thought, "Winter is coming. What a pain." As she continued on her way, she noticed something unsettling. Not far from her, a man stood gazing up at the radio tower, wearing a very familiar black uniform. At first, she felt an unbearable wave of exhaustion fall over her. Did she really have to go through this again? These guys weren't a challenge, just an annoyance for her and the rest of her friends. "But maybe I'm missing something here." she began to wonder, "That guy's probably not with Team Rocket. Maybe it's some sorta stupid dress up game." To be safe, she decided to ask a random passerby for their opinion.

"Excuse me miss." Lyra said to a young Lass standing not to far from her. "Do you know why that guy was wearing a Team Rocket suit?"

"Actually, I was wondering the same thing!" she laughed, "It's kinda funny. Team Rocket was abandoned when they were defeated by a young trainer a couple years back. I highly doubt they would get back together."

"Yeah..." Lyra lost herself in deep thought. Maybe he wasn't part of Team Rocket. But maybe he was. Maybe...

"People should really be careful. Dressing up like a member of a famous gang for no good reason can scare people." Oh yeah, Lyra had almost forgotten that she was in a conversation with someone.

"Well, I should go. It was nice talking to you." She tried to be polite. This girl was nice, even if she had been no help. Next time she probably shouldn't ask random passerby for their opinion.

"So, Silver and Lyra right?" Asked Touko as N grabbed her a soda from his bag. "I think it would be cute."

"From what I can tell, he's really into her. More than he lets others know."

"I did have a talk with Lyra about it, but from all we could tell it was only a slight interest." she took a sip of her drink and thought for a second. "How obsessed do you think he is?"

"Almost as much as me when I met you." N suggested, "But not quite that much. Yet."

"I see. Ferris wheel crazy?"

"We said we wouldn't talk about the ferris wheel! So, who else do you think would be a cute match?"

"I dunno. We're out of girls." Touko smiled to herself, "Ash and Gary. Ahh that's funny."

"Yeah, totally!" N giggled, "The new power couple!" Both of them remained silent for a moment as the idea sunk into their heads. The expression on N's face slowly morphed from amusement to seriousness. He suddenly sat up, as if shocked. "Touko!" He grabbed his girlfriend's shoulder and whisper yelled, "Ash and Gary!"

"Oh my Arceus!" Touko was whisper yelling too, "Ash and Gary! Do you think..."

"It could be. I remember Gary being extra protective of Ash in the well..."

"Protective? How?"

N gave Touko a look and lowered his voice even more. "He called Ash his play-thing." He whispered, "HIS play-thing. He made that part clear. He told me specifically, like he was trying to get me to back off."

"OH MY-" she stopped herself and began to think very deeply.

"What is it?"

"We need to test our theory." she said, "Like, conduct an experiment."

"Do you think that's right? For us to do that?" N asked nervously.

"Let's just say it's for the good of science."

"Oh, okay! Well then, what should we do?"

"Lets see... According to your story, Gary is uncomfortable with you getting to close to Ash, so..." Touko smiled evilly at N. He smiled back. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Darling, I have no clue." He said, shrugging.

"Ugh." Touko sighed, "I'm thinking that you and Ash start spending a lot of time together. We'll see if Gary gets jealous. If he does, then the theory will be proven."

"That shouldn't be hard." N said, "The kid has another question for me every five seconds. If Gary weren't here, Ash would never leave me alone."

"Then it's settled!" Touko squealed, "This is sooooo cute!"

"Hey! Silver! Silver! Silver!" Even when he thought he had found the most secluded place of all, she managed to track him down.

"What now sparkles?" Silver hopped out of the tree he had been sitting in, and walked over to Lyra, who was gasping for air.

"I think- I saw- a- ah-" she panted, "Give me a second."

"What have you gotten yourself into this time?" Silver sat down beside her underneath the tree. "You didn't get mugged, did you?"

"N-no." She seemed to calm down a bit, "I saw a man in a Team Rocket uniform standing outside the radio tower."

"You did? Are you sure?"

"Pretty sure. There was only one of them."

"Damn. Those guys are fucking annoying." he said, and thought to himself for a second. "Lets not do anything unless they cause trouble. We don't want to screw things up." Lyra was only half listening. She had run all the way from the radio tower to Route 34, and was exhausted.

"Tired..." She muttered, and rested her head on Silver's shoulder, making his cheeks turn pink.

"W-what do you think you're-"

"Shut up Silver." She put her hand to his face, making him even more nervous. "I wanna sleep." And in a matter of moments she was silently napping. Silver tried not to moved too much. If he woke her, this sweet moment could end all too soon. Then an idea struck him.

"She's asleep." he thought, "So she won't notice if I just..." cautiously, he reached over, and lightly touched her hair. "It feels like a furret!" He didn't know for how long, but he started to stroke her hair lightly over and over again. It took him almost five minutes to realize what he was doing. Shocked at his own behavior, he jerked his hand away. "I'm such a hopeless creep." Silver silently prayed that she hadn't noticed. His heartbeat was way quicker than normal, and he felt as if he was about to pass out himself. "What's happening here? Am I sick?"

Touko inspected the road for a sign of the couple in question. N had gone to his PC box and collected his favorite Pokemon from Unova. Specifically his Samurott.

"So, how serious do you think it is?" asked N, "I mean, if there's anything at all."

"I dunno. They couldn't be dating. It would be more obvious if they were."

"I think it's mainly just Gary's crush." N admitted, "Ash seems to act like Gary's annoying little brother, but Gary has some other sort of pleasure in bothering him."

"I've noticed that too." Touko agreed, "To be honest, I'm sorta cheering for this pairing now. I'm such a weirdo."

"That makes two of us."

"Shhh! Here they come!" Touko whispered, "Together!" she felt compelled to add. As if to have suddenly received ninja skills, the two switched from stalker mode into casual poses.

"Hey friends. How goes it?" asked Touko, not bothering to look up from the town map she pretended to be reading.

"Oh, you know." Gary said, disinterested, "Goldenrod is beautiful, so much to do, see all the sights. Same old."

"Actually, I'm glad you asked!" Ash was in somewhat a better mood. "I went to challenge the gym and I won!"

"You did?" N jumped at his chance, "Congrats!"

"I got the Plain badge way before he did." muttered Gary, but nobody seemed to hear him.

"Hey Ash, I got something to show you!" N withdrew his poke ball from his belt, "Come out, Samurott!" Ash watched in awe as the Pokemon burst from its capsule and landed on the grass in front of them. He was left speechless for a moment before bursting from excitement.

"THAT'S SO COOL! LOOK AT IT! IT HAS A SWORD ON IT'S HEAD AND IT'S BLUE AND-" as Ash ranted about the amazing Pokemon, Gary angrily twisted his necklace around his fingers.

"Just who does that N guy think he is? He thinks he can just show Ash a magical new Pokemon and win him over? Doesn't he have a girl? I thought I told him-"

"Gary?" Touko was now interested, "You doin' okay?"

"O-of course! Why wouldn't I be?" he defended.

"Well, for starters, you're little necklace is in a knot." she pointed at his necklace, which was now twisted in a mangled knot around his fingers. Touko smiled as Gary quickly untangled it. "I think Ash and N get along pretty well, don't you?"

"Do they?" Gary mumbled.

"Yup. They're such good friends, it's kind of cute!" Touko smiled pleasantly. Gary was biting down on his lower lip to keep the rest of himself from shaking. "So Gary," she called his attention back to their conversation, "what is your relationship with Ash exactly?"

"W-what!?"

"You know what I mean." Touko lowered her voice into a more serious tone, "You say you're rivals, but I don't believe that. Otherwise you wouldn't travel together."

"U-um." Gary struggled to find the correct words to get him out of his situation.

"Are you friends? Is he like your brother?" she fired the questions at him as if she were shooting bullets, "Or is he, you know..." She paused to take a look at Gary's expression. He was staring at the ground, looking extremely uncomfortable, and a bit worried. Touko decided that was enough evidence, and decided to let him go. "Anyways, it's just great that everyone gets along here! It was quite a different story with my friends in Unova." And just like that, she walked away.

Gary let out a sigh of relief once she had gone. That was too close. But he had managed to dodge the bullets she had fired. And yet, he couldn't help but feel a little wounded. He didn't want Ash as a friend, or a brother. The reminder of what he wanted had been like a shot to the back.

"So Ash," N said once Ash had calmed down, " You wanna go do something today? Just you and me, to celebrate your winning streak?"

"C-can we really?! I'd love to!" A new wave of excitement washed over Ash. Today he was going to spend a whole day with the coolest trainer from Unova.

Gary swallowed hard, and N decided that he was pushing his limits. "That is, if it's okay with you two." he gestured over to Touko and Gary.

"It's perfectly fine with me!" Touko smiled pleasantly. Gary remained silent. He was focusing all his energy on keeping his face free from emotion. Ash seemed to notice something was wrong, and he found that interesting. They were rivals, but he could tell whenever Gary wasn't being himself. How very strange.

"You wanna come too, Gary?" he asked.

"I-if I have to." Gary said rudely.

"You don't have to. I'm just being nice."

"I said I'm coming!" As the trio walked into town, a huge cheshire cat smile spread across Touko's face. This was by far the most adorable couple she had ever seen. The adorableness rivaled that of Silver and Lyra. She walked off into the underbrush of Route 34, fantasizing about the couple.

Lyra appeared to be asleep. She didn't snore, she just lay there quietly, like a sleeping toddler. Silver had placed his arms around her. A couple times he had thought about shifting into a more comfortable position, but decided against it. While she slept he let his mind wander, not bothering to restrict it from the random thoughts of affection it sometimes had. This meant that many small thoughts sounded off at once, making it hard to hear one specific idea clearly. But he caught bits of the conversation.

He heard things like,"How much do you like her?" and "Do you think you could be together someday?" "What would it be like to kiss her?" "What if you got married?" "Do you think she'd love you?" "How much do you want her?" Eventually he realized how dangerous it was to think deeply, especially about a relationship that didn't exist. But, she did like him, at least as a friend. Maybe that's where they could start and build up from there. Suddenly, a daydream popped into his mind.

Silver's Crazy Daydream:

He saw Lyra looking up at him, smiling. When she extended her hand, he reached out and took it. She pulled him down to her height and whispered in his ear, "I love you, so let's stay together forever, okay?"

Silver snapped out of his fantasy, realizing that he was extremely flustered. He could hear his own heartbeat in his ears, and panicked. What if she could hear it? He knew Lyra was out cold, but sitting next to her after thinking such things made him embarrassed and tense. Oddly, a wide smile broke out across his face. He tried to stop it, but he was already grinning from ear to ear. His cheeks burned from shame. "What the hell is with me!? I shouldn't feel like this after thinking what I just thought! What am I going to do if she sees?" And yet, he could do nothing but sit there while embers of emotion flurried inside him, burning the name "Lyra" into his heart. "What on earth am I gonna do?"

Lyra slightly tightened her grip on his arm. She had been awake the whole time, but she didn't to tell him that. Now she considered that Silver's slight crush was more than she had previously thought. She didn't know why, but the thought of him being with her wasn't so terrible. He was a huge jerk, but it seemed like maybe there was more to him than that. Lyra moved her arms so she held him in more of a cuddle, and took a peek at his face through her half opened eye. His whole face was a light reddish-pink. His expression showed a bit of tension, but also an odd look of satisfaction. "This can work." she thought, "But I'll have to take it slow. Very slow."

The three split up into a couple of Gary and Ash, leaving out N most of the time. He didn't mind, after all that meant he got to watch the cuteness. Ash, however, had detected something was wrong. "Gary, you're acting funny. Are you okay?"

"Of course I am!" Gary insisted, "What makes you think otherwise?"

"Well, you seem to be mad at N for some reason. Why?" Ash watched as Gary became flustered. "Something is obviously wrong. His grip is really tight." Ash pondered for a second before realizing something. "Wait! Is he-!" His face turned red at the realization that Gary was tightly grasping his hand. He glanced around the street nervously. No one was staring, except for N, who was smiling like a psychopath. Ash stared at him with a look of embarrassment and horror as he realized his idol was watching him hold hands with a boy. Help me! he mouthed. N shrugged and made his way over to them.

Instead of doing something helpful like Ash had hoped, N grabbed Ash's other hand, so now the three of them were holding hands in a line. Gary looked as if he absolutely loathed N. "What are you doing?" he growled.

"What? I thought this is what we were doing." N replied casually. "Since you two were holding hands, I thought we were doing some kind of friendship thing."

"AHH!" Gary released Ash's hand and turned away. "I'm sorry! I-" his face was completely red. Then, he suddenly turned on N. "You're such a jack ass!" he shouted before storming off. N didn't seem fazed at all.

"Oh no." Ash mumbled. "I don't think this is going very well."

"He just needs time to cool down." N said reassuringly. "It can be really stressful when you don't know your own feelings."

"F-feelings?!" Ash began to blush again.

"Yeah. Isn't that obvious?" N sighed, "Ash, you are one of my closest friends, but you can be so clueless."

"You think he..."

"Yes! Why do you think he's so protective? And he follows you around all the time, even though you two are 'rivals'." Ash was silent for a while, lost in thought. He remembered when Gary bought him that snack. And when Touko called them an old married couple... Admittedly, he did think about that too much for them just being friends. N decided that Ash had been quiet for too long.

"Do you have feelings for him too?"

"W-well..." Ash stuttered, "I think...What if I do!?" He seemed a little frightened and flustered at the same time. "I think I like him but, he's a boy."

"Don't worry too much." N was trying to comfort him, "It doesn't really matter who you fall in love with. We'll still be your friends no matter what happens."

"How do you know so much about this?" Ash asked.

"Lots of experience." N said. "And lots of internet research."