"Whoa whoa whoa," Lyra called, making her hands into a T symbol for "timeout". "Red, like THE Red? As in, the famous Indigo League Champion?"

Marina nodded. "Anyway, so then he-"

"Please don't finish what happens next." Silver almost begged, but had way too much pride for that.

"Oh come on Heart, lighten up-!"

"I said NO!" he stood up and stormed out of Lyra's room, stomping down the stairs. Marina shook her head.

"You know, Heart wasn't always like this.. it wasn't until Blue broke his heart that he became.. well, heartless." She chuckled awkwardly at all the "hearts" in the sentence. No one was laughing along.

"Is that why he doesn't go by Heart anymore?" Gold wondered.

"No. Same reason why I don't go by Crystal anymore. It's just something you either grow out of or grow into. Soon enough, we'll be calling you Ethan, and Lyra, Soul."

Lyra made a face. "I don't think that'll be happening anytime soon. I don't have a cool last name like you guys." She shrugged as she watched Gold go downstairs.

There, he found Silver with his back leaning up against the wall, his hands in his jacket pockets. Gold went to stand beside him. Silver slid down to sit on the floor, so it wouldn't have to be a constant struggle for them to look at each other, even though Silver wasn't meeting his gaze at all.

Then his words broke the not-so-silent air, as Lyra's TV was heard being clicked onto the Pokémon Channel.

"I dyed my hair red.."

"Hmm?" Gold couldn't quite hear.

"I said I dyed my hair red." Silver spoke up, much louder this time. "I didn't know what else to do. He left me for him. I thought that if I dyed my hair the color of his boyfriend's name, he'd want me back. Love me. Notice me. Something. It didn't work. So then I got snakebites, because he always talked about how much he missed the Arbok he traded away for his Haunter. Little by little, I changed my appearance, hoping he'd notice, all for a guy who didn't care about me in the first place.

"I looked stupid. But I felt stupider. Crystal had seen what I had done, and she tried to comfort me, but I just pushed her away. So she did the only thing she could think of. She dyed her hair blue. After that, I didn't stand out as much. Except, with the both of us, we stood out even more. But still, it was a nice gesture, and I still can't thank her enough. I can never pay her back for it. She's one of the two people in my entire life that have ever helped me out without expecting anything in return."

Gold unexpectedly played with one of Silver's lip rings. Silver made a face.

"What are you doing?"

"Who was the other person?"

"What?"

"You said there were two people. Who was the other one?"

Silver, in a bold move, instantly crushed Gold's lips with his, the metal on his piercings irritating Gold's sensitive skin as they collided. He kissed with so much force and urgency that it barely came off as romantic. But Gold felt it somehow, deep down, and he kissed back with equal enthusiasm.

When Silver released, he simply replied "You." And that made Gold so happy; he didn't even know what to do with himself. So he did the only thing that came naturally. He clung.