A golden beam caressed Marcus's face, awakening him gently from his slumber as he lay atop the blanket. The sun began its climb into the sky, blessing the Weald and its denizens with the gift of the morning as its amber rays lightened the black of the night into the warm orange of dawn. A group of Rookidee chirped through the woods, singing a delightful "good morning" to all those with the ears to hear it. Flowers began to bloom, their petals unfurling like arms slowly stretching outwards in preparation for the upcoming day.

Amid the tranquil scene, however, a twinge of panic tore through the young champion, a shot of adrenaline beginning to buffer urgently through his veins as the situation became increasingly clear to his half-conscious mind; they'd slept through the night.

Oh no… I've royally screwed up this time, he thought to himself. I never got her home last night. I hope she's not too upset with me when she wakes up… Piers is gonna kill me…

Anxious clarity gave his brain the leverage to begin sending distress signals to his arms and legs as his adrenaline continued to alleviate him of his drowsy state. He had to get up. He had to get ready to go. He had to get her home, and he had to do it now.

A feeling of peace suddenly quelled his thoughts, however, taking the form of a familiar and lulling voice and breathing itself through his being like a breath of the wind through the forest.

"Hey… g'mornin'."

Marnie spoke softly and sweetly as she laid curled up against Marcus's chest, her arms wrapped loosely around his torso. In contrast to Marcus, she remained remarkably serene, smiling warmly as she looked up at him with tender and tired eyes that gleamed like gemstones against the morning sunlight.

"Good morning", Marcus replied quietly, now somewhat more relaxed, but also slightly perplexed by Marnie's lax demeanor. "...what happened last night?"

"You conked out not long after our lil' chin-wag", Marnie answered with a breathy giggle. "Ya just looked so peaceful n' all, I didn't wanna disturb ya…"

"You should've woken me up", Marcus replied, a shallow guilt lingering behind an apologetic smile as he spoke. "What about getting you back to Spikemuth at a reasonable hour?"

"Marcus, the hour was already unreasonable as soon as we got out here", Marnie started with a smirk. "We both knew what we were in for." She paused briefly to exhale a quiet yawn, letting it out into the palm of her hand as she covered her mouth. "Sides, it was late; I was tired, you'd passed out, n' the Pokemon were startin' to nod off. Figured it best to not strain ourselves n' just hunker down for the night, y'know? Seemed smarter than tryina wrangle everyone n' make Corviknight fly us around again."

She studied Marcus's expression as she spoke, becoming aware of the remorse in his stare straight away.

"Hey", she began with reassuring tenderness as she placed a gentle hand upon his cheek and smiled warmly. "I'm glad we came out here… I'm glad we stayed." Her grin continued to widen as she spoke. "This has honestly been one o' the most amazin' times o' my life, n' I don't regret a lick of it, ya hear?" She pressed her index fingers at the corners of Marcus's mouth, pushing them upward and curving his lips into a more noticeable smile. "So stop lookin' at me all sad n' all, would ya? Else people are gonna start sayin' that maybe you need some ''practice'', if ya know what I mean."

The gesture was enough to bring out a genuine smirk and chuckle from Marcus - Marnie had always praised him for always doing and saying exactly the right things to make any situation better, but she seemed more than properly equipped to do the same herself. "Alright, alright, message received; I won't bring that day at the hotel up ever again", he chortled. "What about your brother? He's not gonna be mad, is he?"

"Why would he be?", Marnie asked. "I took on the Gym Challenge, traveled across Galar n' all. I can take care o' myself, n' if he's got a problem with that, he can tell me."

"Well, yeah, obviously. It's not you that I'm worried he'll be mad at", Marcus added with a titter, a smidge of nervousness hanging on his breath.

"Oh, relax, will ya?", she insisted. "Piers knows that I like ya n' all, n' he knows that you're always lookin' out for me. He knows you're good people."

"He's not gonna be worried that the big bad champion's coming to be a bad influence on his sister, or anything like that?"

Marnie sighed gently. "If you're really that worked up over it, we could just head back there now."

Marcus nodded in agreement. "Probably for the best… It took risking my career to help save Spikemuth to win whatever approval I have from him now, Arceus only knows what I'll have to do to get it back if I somehow screw it all up now", he chuckled.

"Alright", Marnie acceded with soft-yet-strained breath, "let's get goin' then."

"Yeah, let's…"

Another roadblock stood between them and their morning flight back to Spikemuth; neither of them wanted to move. Marnie, despite her agreement with Marcus on the matter, made no effort to raise herself from her place on his chest as she continued to rest peacefully upon him with the delicate heaviness of a weighted blanket. Meanwhile, Marcus was just too comfortable - for every signal being sent to the nerves in his limbs ordering them to move, it felt as if those nerves signalled right back in blatant refusal of their given directive. He knew what he needed to do, but lacked the mental capacity to actually force himself to do it.

A brief silence in their conversation was broken as Marnie let out another yawn. "Five more minutes?"

Marcus tittered. As need and want clashed for dominance in his mind, he found her proposal to be very persuasive. "...Maybe ten?"

She nodded with a delicate smile, her eyelids weighed down to a close by her drowsiness. "Ten is good…"

Marcus grinned to himself, allowing his eyes to fall shut and the nervous tension in his muscles loosen as he wrapped an arm around Marnie and let his head settle back down onto his bag, which he had been using as a makeshift pillow. "Fifteen it is."

The couple continued to lay in wordless tranquility beneath the woodland canopy as Rookidee continued to sing. Umbreon remained unconscious in peaceful repose at the feet of her two favorite people in the world. At the ruins of the shrine, Cinderace was fast asleep in a cross-legged seated position with his back against a wall, with Applin and Eevee sleeping against either side of him and Morpeko laying curled and unconscious atop his head - apparently, even they had their limits, despite the depths to which their wells of energy drew from.

The leaves of the treeline rustled along to a gentle breeze that drifted through the weald, the aroma of the blooming morning glories carried upon its tender breath.

As Marcus inhaled the gift of the dawn, another fragrance pervaded his senses. The sweet scent of Marnie's perfume, while having faded some since the night before, continued to persevere just enough to be noticeable, its fragrance persisting even amid the waft of the morning bloom. He smiled to himself as he lay there with her, feeling suddenly inclined to hold onto her a little tighter as his thoughts settled into, what was for him, a rare peace of mind.

In less than a day, the aroma had evolved into a memory, etched and ever-present in his mind and heart. One synonymous with a joy he'd never known before these past few hours. One akin to the happiness Marnie made him feel everytime he looked at her, or she looked at him, or they looked at each other. One that served as a ceaseless reminder of the love that he felt for her, and the love that she felt for him in return.

For once, Marcus was able to cast his pending concerns to the wayside; timelines, due-dates, and to-do lists were nothing more than muffled voices that faded into silence as he relished the moment, the realization that what was once mere reverie was now reality. And he smiled, his heart full and his mind at peace, knowing that in that moment, he was exactly where he needed to be.

"So, Marn?", he purred.

"Hmm?", Marnie hummed softly.

"...Good first date, then?"

She giggled. "It was perfect", she replied. "Although…"

Marcus raised his brow softly. "...Although?", he echoed.

"...Ya think maybe we could just call it a date right off the bat next time?", she asked. "If nothin' else, it'll gimme a better idea o' how I should dress."

Marcus tittered, firming his one-armed embrace around her as he leaned forward and tenderly kissed the crown of her head. "Definitely", he agreed. "And don't worry, we can just dress casual next time."

Marnie smirked softly and playfully. "Unless I don't wanna…"

He chuckled. "Whatever you say, dear…"

AN: Nothing warms my heart nowadays quite like a good ship. After three stories (and a one-shot thrown in the middle) building this one up, I'm happy to have finally been able to realize this one; VictorXMarnie is one of my favorites, and I hope that I managed to do it some justice.

I took the last few chapters to draw some parallels to previous material while also establishing some groundwork for potential stories. All in all, however, the central conflict was resolved in chapter 7, so the last three were centered more around Marcus and Marnie just "doing what couples do".

I've always had a suspicion that there's some underlying tragedy to Piers and Marnie's backstory. I made a brief mention towards that notion back in Umbra, but decided to keep the nature of it ambiguous - I wasn't sure if I could do the potential for a story like that any justice at the time, and it didn't seem like the story to try. I do have some ideas, though... would anyone be interested in a Piers and Marnie origin fic if I wrote one?

I hope you all enjoyed this installment of Marcus's story! It's been a lot of fun diving into some of these characters over the past few fics, and it's been really great and encouraging hearing back from some of you over the course of their publications. More ideas are in the works, and more stories are on the horizon! For now, however, I'm gonna take a little time to develop some of these ideas further and try to develop some storyboards. Before even THAT, however, I'm going to do what I'm sure many of you will be over the next few days and diving deep into the Crown Tundra expansion when it drops later tonight/early tomorrow. It might be a week or so before I'm back on the grid.

In the meantime, I am looking for more fics to read myself. Do you or an author you enjoy have a work you'd like to promote? Let me know with a PM, and I'll try to check it out! I'm looking preferably for stuff that's Pokemon Sword/Shield related, but I'll accept any suggestions you might have.

As always, thank you all so much for your continued support! If you enjoyed this fic, consider following me for future stories and updates, and share it with a friend if you feel so inclined.

Happy Crown Tundra Day! (I dunno, that's just what I'm calling it...)

-Avery