Chapter Nineteen — Blind Trust
"Hey Sapph!" Steven greeted the girl with a friendly smile and a wave.
Seeing his face, the situation with Ruby was at the back of her mind as she felt excitement filling in her heart again. Sapphire jumped and gave him a big hug as a greeting, and Steven wrapped his arms around her too, returning it.
Steven played the champion role in the Pokespe Dramas that Ruby's character, Brendan, always tried to beat. While being on the set, he became very friendly with both Ruby and Sapphire, and because his Pokémon battling skills were extremely good in real life, Sapphire looked up to him as a mentor figure. Ruby looked up to him as a mentor too, but more in the acting department. All three of them (along with Emerald who visited occasionally) used to be closer, but Steven played a super minor character in the drama and his popularity led him to be busy with roles in other dramas.
"What are ya doin' here?!" Sapphire inquired.
"I was here in Sinnoh meeting with an old actress friend of mine. She's playing the champion in the upcoming Sinnoh Pokespe Drama. When I was visiting her, she told me the newbies for the new drama was with you guys, so I thought I'd drop by and give you and Ruby a visit!" Steven replied.
At the mention of Ruby's name, she remembered what had happened and deflated, giving an attitude. "Oh, that prissy boy..." Sapphire grumbled to herself, her anger growing just thinking about it.
Steven's sweat dropped. "I can see your relationship still stays the same with Ruby, huh? You two are still fighting?"
"He's just— And like— I can't believe—UGH! Ya know?" Sapphire said, muttering a bunch of incoherent stuff that Steven didn't understand.
Steven gave her a nervous laugh. "Um, yeah, I guess?" he replied, not knowing how to respond to that. "Are you two down for dinner tomorrow? I'll treat!"
"I don't even want to see him!" Sapphire snapped, rolling her eyes. "It doesn't matter anyways! We're going to leave in the morning tomorrow, so I don't think we'll be in Sinnoh much longer."
"Aw, it's okay! We can hang out more when I come on set," Steven reassured.
At this, Sapphire beamed. "Really? Ya're comin' back?!" Now thinking about it, it makes more sense that Steven would come back for the sequel since he played an important role even though it's minor.
"Of course! The director is supposed to send me the script soon!" Steven replied, grinning.
"Man, I haven't finished reading next week's script yet," Sapphire told him, kind of embarrassed.
It took awhile for her to read and memorize the scripts, and with everything going on in her life right now, she just didn't have the motivation to do it. She promised herself she would try to do it during the trip, but look how that turned out.
"It's fine, you still have more time," Steven rest assured. "I'm excited for it! I heard they're going to introduce new characters for more rivals!"
"Really? That sounds great!" Sapphire exclaimed, her happy demeanor coming back again.
"Come in!" she insisted, gesturing him in. "We hafta catch up!"
Steven grinned and took her invitation. "Yeah, it's been awhile!"
Honestly, Ruby didn't know what to do at the time.
From listening to Sapphire's confession on a crumbling cliff to climbing a mountain in a snowstorm, Ruby didn't know what to do. He was grateful for the confession and flattered— really, he was, but he didn't know whether to accept it or not. He always viewed Sapphire as someone very bold and strong, a figure that shined brightly whether she was in front of cameras or in real life. Not only did she have her strength and her confidence, but her feminine side was something he admired when it rarely came out. Sapphire was really pretty, the ideal model for him, and her powerful personality made her appearance just absolutely stunning— beautiful, he might even say. Though they always bicker about their differences all the time, he really cares for her. He was always concerned about her appearance, how people thought about her, and checked up on her like a good friend. But was it really because he was a good friend? He didn't do it to other girls, but he just assumed it's because he shared a closer relationship with Sapphire than with other people. The question still remains on Ruby's mind the whole time. Did Ruby like her that type of way?
He didn't know.
Despite blabbing about fashion and other things on that mountain to Sapphire to ease the atmosphere of almost dying, her confession was on his mind the entire time. What if he said yes and said he likes her too? It would be mean if he didn't truly mean it. They could go out and break up too, and that'll be damaging for their relationship that he treasured deeply. What if he said no? Will their relationship still be the same afterwards? Obviously not, it'll be super awkward. He thought it would just be best to avoid it, and using the "falling off a cliff" excuse happened to pop up in his mind when Sapphire asked. He knew he was a jerk for doing it, but he thought it would give him more time to sort his feelings. Too bad Sapphire knew him so well to see through his lie.
"Hey, is it me, or do the girls seem pissed?" Emerald had asked his question once the girls came to meet them for dinner.
Oh yeah, and then there's that to deal with.
After being seated for five minutes, Crystal and Blue (Yellow was an angel) gave looks at Ruby. It wasn't really super obvious and was fairly subtle, but Ruby could feel the tension and hostility pointed towards him. It was obvious Sapphire had told them what happened, not that he blamed her, it's normal to confide your problems with friends. He just wishes they didn't make it obvious for the whole group to know his business. After all, he planned to talk with Sapphire about it when they're alone again and he gathered his thoughts. He didn't think she would ditch the dinner though.
"Really?" Red looked around, and after observing them, he decided, "They look the same."
Of course, Red didn't seem to notice since he was dense like usual. The more observant boys like Ruby, Green, and Silver kind of figured it out and knew something happened. Ruby knew because he was there of course, but Green and Silver just assumed it had something to do with Sapphire since she's gone, so Ruby was to blame for her missing appearance. Green also noticed Blue wasn't talking as much as usual, so he figured something was up. Gold, on the other hand, was too busy talking about something random to even remember Sapphire's absence or the weird atmosphere.
Emerald shrugged, not really caring to think about it since the girls are always mad or complaining about something. He was always on Crystal's side too. "Pass me the butter, please."
Crystal reached out and gave it to him. The meal continued to be quite silent except for maybe Gold's random comments.
"S-So," Yellow started, trying to ease the atmosphere. "I wonder what Black and White are talking about outside."
She already knew what they were talking about. On the way to dinner, White kept trying to force the brunet to give the news to Sapphire about the upcoming kiss scene, and of course, with the fear of being clawed or attacked, he rejected it. Now, they were just running late because they were arguing in the hall.
"Oh, yeah! I'm surprised they're not here yet," Red remarked, completely clueless. "I wonder what's keeping them."
"Well, there's always more for us!" Gold said, taking food off the plate everyone shared.
"Gold, I wish you would be more considerate sometimes," Crystal grumbled, shaking her head disappointingly at his manners.
"Ugh, don't tell me you're going to lecture me during dinner time too," Gold whined. "I bet that's why your mom doesn't care about her marill smelling like rags. It's because you lecture her too much, Super Serious Gal."
At this, Crystal was taken back, completely surprised that he knew about that again. "H-How—"
"—How do I know? It's because I know everything about you, Crys," Gold responded jokingly, obviously lying.
"You kept shouting about it when you were sleeping on the couch," Silver revealed his lie immediately, earning a look from the raven haired boy.
"You're no fun," Gold pouted.
Crystal seemed to be embarrassed by this fact, her face turning slightly red. She kept hoping that she didn't say any other embarrassing things while she was unconscious.
"W-What else did I miss?" she inquired, kind of nervous.
"Your sister came too," Gold informed. "She sold Silver some cookies. Kind of shady, y'know, even if she is our new neighbor."
"She didn't sell me cookies," Silver clarified. He remembered Soul snatching some cookies out of his hands after giving it to him. Very memorable experience.
"What?!" Crystal exclaimed. "You two didn't bother to tell me any of this? How long ago did this happen?"
"I think it was when you were sick," Silver informed.
"Ugh, I can't believe I missed so much while I was sick," Crystal mumbled to herself.
"It's a good thing you're better now," Yellow said, Emerald nodding his head beside her.
"Oh hey, I just realized why it's so quiet. Where's Sapph?" Gold said, bringing up the taboo nonchalantly.
When he asked this, the whole table just fell silent again. The boys didn't know what really happened (besides Ruby, but obviously he wasn't going to announce it) so they kept their mouths shut, and the girls didn't want to say it either.
"She's tired after the incident," Blue lied casually. Well, technically, it wasn't really lying since Sapphire was actually exhausted. "She went through a lot, remember? Gotta give the girl some rest!"
"Oh yeah! Speaking of which, are you doing okay, Ruby?" Red asked in concern.
All eyes were now on him.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Ruby told them anticlimactically, taking a bite off his plate. He knew they were watching him, so he wanted to act like nothing was out of the ordinary.
"Well, that's—"
"—Good evening, everyone!" Red didn't get to finish his sentence because Director Oak suddenly busted into the room.
"Grandpa," Green muttered, addressing him.
"Hello everyone! It's been awhile since I saw you guys! How are you all?" he greeted them cheerfully.
"We're doing alright!" Yellow answered for everyone.
"Why are you here?" Green interjected, finding his appearance suspicious.
Green knew his grandfather was up to something, something that probably involved him interacting with the others even more than he had to. He wouldn't just randomly visit them when they're together for fun, no, he had a reason for it. Green debated whether he should leave or not before his grandfather announced the reason.
"I thought since we're in a new setting, we should have a company picnic here!"
Anndddd... he knew he should've dipped.
Before they all shared a house, it was rare for all of them to be together as a group of ten. Sometimes, they'll support each other at movie premieres or parties, but that was the extent of it. Well, it would've been. Sometimes on a good day, he suddenly cancels their schedules and makes "company picnics", or so he calls them, despite no food being involved. These "company picnics" had bonding exercises, which the director makes them do to become closer in real life so they can act better. Usually, he would use excuses like changing the script to make them do weird things as a threat if they back out. Green thinks it's all trash and some stupid thing he made up since those dumb events always end up in fighting or greater distrust. The last one he made up was when he wanted everyone to catch each other to build trust. Obviously, it didn't and the majority dropped their partners for fun. Green thought he'd stop with these weird events once he made them live together and spend more time, but guess he was wrong.
"We've bonded a lot already," Emerald spoke up. He didn't really want to be a part of these events either and found them to be a waste of time.
"I mean, there's always more to know about a person! There can never be enough bonding time," he replied.
"I think I already know too much if anything," Green grumbled.
"Oh yeah? Gold! What's Green's favorite color?" his grandpa quizzed the boy suddenly.
"Easy! It's green!" Gold answered confidently.
"Wrong! It's gray!" he told the boy.
Gold turned to Green. "Your name is Green, why isn't your favorite color green?!"
"You act like I chose this name," Green growled.
"See? You don't know anything about each other! We'll have the company picnics tomorrow morning before we go to the airport! I've planned such fun things for you children!" he announced. "I'll leave you guys to your dinner! See you at six tomorrow!"
Before any of them could protest, he left the room quickly, causing a chorus of groans to go around.
"I wonder what he has planned," Blue said, her interest piqued. Even though they fight when the ten of them are together, she still thought whatever happened at these so called "company picnics" were hilarious. The sight of Sapphire letting Ruby fall onto the ground during the trust fall last time made her die of laughter.
Silver let out a groan. "Ugh, dumbass, this is all your fault! You made him start this again!"
"It's not my fault! What kind of person chooses gray as their favorite color?!" Gold argued.
"Guys, maybe it'll be more fun this time since we're more used to each other's company," Red said optimistically.
"Doesn't matter," Green cut in from beside him. "I'm not showing up."
"I hate all of you."
Green didn't know what was worse— the fact that they were in the freezing cold again, it was the second time in a row where they had to meet up at 6 AM for a dumb game or exercise, or the fact that this event was a company picnic. Green, of course, tried to ditch it, but then Blue didn't want him to miss out on the fun and told him something that made him come. Everyone didn't know what it was, and because it changed Green's mind made them super curious.
"He doesn't mean it," Red added.
"Yes, I do," Green muttered. Truthfully, he didn't hate everyone. He just didn't want to be with them again; he already had enough interactions at home.
"Hey! How come we have to come while the newbies don't?!" Gold questioned, finding it unfair that they had to go in the cold again.
"Because their relationship is already very close!" Director Oak replied. "Oh, we're here! This is where I want to do the company picnic!"
"What's the big idea you had in mind, Director?" Crystal asked once they reached the place where he led them to.
It was the middle of nowhere again. Well, it was called "nowhere" because they weren't familiar with the area and there wasn't anything else around but snow, trees, and the random stuff that the director put out onto the field. Most of them recognized the place near the area they did the scavenger hunt, and like yesterday, they were lined up like wishiwashis in a single file line, standing beside each other.
"I'm glad you asked! So recently, I saw a fun game on this show where the people did an obstacle course blindfolded!" he announced.
Some of them gave uncomfortable looks while others had a puzzled expression. He really wanted them to do a blind obstacle course in this type of field? It was hard enough to walk without your feet getting stuck in the snow.
The stuff the director had set on the field were very questionable too. The items were spread out about twenty meters away from them in a straight line and there were five sets in different colors. The first obstacle they had to go through was two sets of hurdles in a row, spaced one meter apart. The second obstacle was a hula hoop on a high stand that they had to carefully go through, and the third obstacle of the course was a bean bag with the respective matching color. When they asked about the bean bag, the director said they had to find the bean bag based on their color accordingly then go around the cones at the end of the course and come back the same way they initially went through it.
"What's the trust part?" Yellow asked, confused as to how it's a trust activity.
"Oh, here's the best part! Half of the group will be blindfolded, but they get instructions from their partner to guide them!"
"What the—"
"—Wow, that sounds so fun!"
Green gave Blue a look when she interrupted him. She saw the look and grinned a mischievous grin that basically said she was up to no good.
"I'm so glad you think so, Blue!" Director Oak exclaimed. "I decided to make it more competitive and fun too by putting a prize for the winners of the obstacle course!"
"What is it?" Yellow inquired.
"This!" Director Oak held the object in the air, pretending as if there was a shining light coming from the heavens above to show how glorious the item was. Of course, most of the cast didn't recognize the item since his hand was covering most of it, but it seemed to be two pieces of paper. "These vouchers are an all expense paid trip to the Alola region! The winners of the competition will be able to take a break for three days, any days they choose, and get to sight see the area. These vouchers also come with a tour and relaxation treatments for free. They'll even take you to one of the forests to meet new Pokémon!"
At this, everyone seemed extremely interested in the prize. They've been working hard lately that they haven't caught a break, or when they did catch a break, it gets ruined. By only dealing with one other person and being miles away from the others might give an opportunity to relax.
"Red is my partner," Green announced quickly, grabbing the black haired boy.
Not only was Red one of the few members of the group he could stand being with, he was also the closest to Green, and was also the most athletic and fastest. Well, Gold can arguably be athletic as well, but Green was not about to go on a vacation with him.
"What?! That's not fair!" Blue whined from the side, objecting. "I think Red and Yellow should be together! It makes it fair!"
Green knew she was trying to set them up like she always does. Usually, he would turn an eye and ignore it because he couldn't care less, but the vacation was on the line and he wasn't going to give it up for her dumb love schemes.
Blue raised her hand to get everyone's attention. "Director! I've been having so much discourse with Green lately that I'm so sad! I think pairing us up will unite us and create a better bond!"
"Pesky woman!" Green said, earning the usual glare from Silver.
"See? He's calling me all these mean names! I think we need to reaffirm our love for each other!" Blue announced, putting her hands together to create a hopeful look.
"You—"
"—Don't worry, my dear! I've already picked the pairings! This activity needs real trust because it's more difficult than just a simple trust fall. For that reason, I've picked closer bonds for the pairings," he replied. "First one is Red and Green!"
Green had a smug look on his face, very satisfied that he got the partner he wanted. Red went over to him and gave him a high five because he was also happy about the arrangement. Blue was different from the two, and she frowned, upset that she didn't get her way.
"The next one is Crystal and Emerald!"
Both Crystal and Emerald looked content about the pairing since they were good friends.
"Blue and Silver!"
Blue was still upset, but she did like the idea of being with her brother. Silver seemed to happy as well.
"Sapphire and—"
When she heard her name, Sapphire stiffened up. She knew she was going to get paired with Ruby. After all, he was the closest one to her out of the whole group. Ugh, why didn't she just listen to herself and not show up? When she was first told of the company picnic, she refused immediately. However, she started to think about the advice Steven had given her last night concerning mending her relationship with Ruby and how she had to properly confront him again. She decided she was going to make things not awkward and just show up since it was inevitable for them to meet. She didn't think she'd be in this type of situation though. Usually the pairings the director picked were random, and she didn't think she'd get paired with Ruby.
Sapphire glanced at Ruby, who seemed to be nonchalant as usual, acting like nothing had happened between them. The only difference in his demeanor was the fact he was quieter and said less compared to his constant complaints. The whole time they were getting to the place, he would just glance at her then turn away. She hated how he acted like this after all that happened. It made her doubt whether she should follow Steven's advice.
"—Yellow," the director finished, making the brunette drop her shoulders in relief.
Sapphire turned to Yellow with a toothy grin, and Yellow returned a smile, both elated with the pairing. Unknowingly to Sapphire, Ruby observed her reaction subtly.
"Woah! Hold up!" Gold yelled in protest once he realized who the last two were left. "You're putting me and fashion boy together?! We're not even close!"
At this, Ruby also raised his hand in protest. "Um, yeah, what is this arrangement?"
"I've realized that there must also be some bond building as well in these pairings, starting from the least closest," he responded. Truthfully, everyone just paired up and they were the last two left.
"That's not fair! You literally said it yourself! This activity needs already created bonds!" Gold argued.
"Don't fret, I've already leveled the playing fields. I will be the one who is picking the blindfolded partner so the playing field is fair," the director reassured. "Green, Blue, Crystal, Yellow, and Ruby will be the ones doing the obstacle course while Red, Silver, Emerald, Sapphire, and Gold give them instructions."
Hearing the arrangements, a bunch of complaints were voiced out loud.
"What?! I was going to make Red do the course!" Green exclaimed. He knew Red would give him trash directions or say stuff vaguely, so it wasn't the optimal arrangement.
Before he can properly explain to his grandson of why he picked that arrangement, Gold cut in again. "How is this fair?! Why is fashion boy doing the course?! He's probably the least athletic one out of the group besides maybe odd boy!"
"Yeah, I have to agree!" Ruby said, not wanting to run an obstacle course blindfolded with Gold of all people directing him.
"Trust the process," the director replied cheerfully, not caring about any of their complaints. "I believe in all of you."
Most of the group continued to voice their complaints again, but after a minute or two of shutting them down, the director forced them to just play the game. The blindfolded members stood beside one another with their partners behind them. Waiting for the signal to start the competition, everyone readied themselves.
"Go!" the director yelled, releasing the popper to start the race.
Immediately, all five blindfolded members walked straight with their partners shouting at them. So far, Green, Crystal and Blue walked about the same speeds, speed walking, while Yellow and Ruby were slightly slower, walking normally and more cautious.
"Green, slow down! The vault is coming up in three feet!" Red instructed.
"You too, Big sis!" Silver called out.
"Crystal! It's coming up!" Emerald yelled.
The ginger haired boy followed his directions and jumped over the vaults flawlessly, taking the lead. Blue followed close behind Green after she easily jumped the vaults as well. Crystal seemed to jump the first vault with ease, but she was stuck at the second one, nearly tripping over it in the process. She quickly recovered and followed the seniors. Yellow and Ruby were still behind them, almost to the vaults, with the blonde trudging behind slower.
"Aw man! Ruby is so slow, what the heck!" Sapphire heard Gold complain from beside her.
She stared at Ruby's back, having flashbacks of how she looked at it when they were walking up that mountain together. The whole time while staring at that back, she kept thinking about how to confront him about her feelings for hours, and in the end, Ruby just ruined the whole thing with that dumb stunt he pulled. Just remembering it pissed Sapphire off again, and she could feel herself get upset.
Stupid prissy boy, she thought.
Lost in her thoughts and feelings, Sapphire continued to stare at him. She didn't realize it, but her body was already moving on its own, building a large snowball. The others who happened to be on the non-blindfolded team glanced at her confused, or was too caught up in instructing to notice. Without warning, Sapphire readied herself and chucked the giant snowball she made. The snowball flew straight in the air like a baseball, catching the attention of the others who could see, and it flew down and hit Ruby who happened to just jump the second vault. With the force of the snowball, he fell down.
"What?! We get assaulted too?!" Ruby screamed on the floor.
Gold let out a dramatic gasp. "Hey, you wild gal! What the heck do you think you're doing?! That's totally cheating!" he scolded, upset that his chances got ruined.
Sapphire looked at him then turned a blind eye to the other way. "What are ya talking about? I didn't do anything!" she argued, acting all innocent.
Gold did not take this well because his vacation from work was threatened. He pointed an accusing finger at her and yelled over to the director who was on the sidelines. "Hey! Wasn't that cheating?! You saw that, right?!"
"What do you mean? What happened?" the director asked, completely puzzled. "Oh! One moment, Gold! I'm on a phone call with a very important person right now!"
Unfortunately for Gold, Sapphire did it when he was on the phone with someone and looking the other way.
"Oh yeah! Two can play at that game!" he exclaimed, building up a snowball himself.
"Hey!" Sapphire tried to stop him from throwing it and sabotaging Yellow, but she was too late and he had already chucked it.
"Yellow, duck!" Sapphire tried to warn the blonde.
"Wha—"
It didn't really matter though because Sapphire didn't notice that Yellow was at the vault and Yellow ran straight into it, falling back into the snow as a result.
"Yellow!" Red cried out from his spot. "Are you okay?!"
"Yeah..." the blonde muttered, getting up slowly. Sapphire kind of felt bad for forgetting about helping Yellow for her own agenda.
Even if Yellow didn't fall from that, she still wouldn't get hit. Gold's aim was so way off from hitting Yellow, the snowball ended up flying the other direction and hitting Green. Luckily, Green was pretty far ahead and Gold's throw wasn't as strong as Sapphire's, so he didn't fall down like Ruby. He was still pretty mad though.
Green whipped his head around. "Who did that?!"
Gold felt a chill go down his back as if Green was glaring his direction through the blindfold. "Silver! I can't believe you did that!" Gold exclaimed loudly, making sure it was loud enough for them to hear.
"Shut up, you dumbass!" Silver grunted, pushing him so hard the boy fell in the snow.
"Hey!" Gold got up and tried to shove the redhead back, and the two struggled with each other. It seems that Silver was the stronger of the two since he was able to push Gold down again. However, this time Gold had locked his fingers with his and he was able pull the redhead down with him... unfortunately on top of Emerald who happened to be there.
"Ugh! What the heck! Get off me!" the kid screamed.
"Ah!" Crystal let out a scream when she reached the standing hula hoop and tripped over the stand underneath, falling through the hoop.
"Crys— Mmmrg!" Emerald called, but his voice was muffled up by Gold's butt on his face.
"Guys, stop!" Red tried to stop the fight, yanking Silver off of Gold. The redhead continued to jump on him.
"Red! I need you to tell me where my bean bag is!" Green yelled once the directions stopped coming.
"It's—" Red began, trying to get his word out while getting Silver off. "—a bit up!"
"Be more specific!" Green yelled, upset with the vague directions.
"Go straight five paces and to your left, go about three paces!"
Green hurriedly tried to find his bean bag based off Red's instructions. Once he thought he felt some fabric brush against his fingers and that he had found the bean bag, it was snatched away from under his fingers.
"Hey!"
"Oops~? Is this yours?" Blue taunted, waving it around in her fingers in front of him even though he couldn't see.
Green reached for it blindly, and Blue pulled it away when she felt him reach for it. "Bring me instead of Red on the trip, and maybe I'll give it back! I'm much more amazing and fun to be around too!"
"You're such a pesky woman! There's no way!" Green replied, ignoring her offer.
"It's so not fair you two are leaving me behind all alone while you go on vacation!" Blue shouted. "What happened to our little trio?!"
"There's only two tickets! Stay behind! You're the one with the most scenes to do anyways!" Green responded, not caring.
"You're so mean!"
The brunette blindly tossed the thing in a random direction as far as she could, making Green's bean bag wound up near the beginning of the course where the vaults were. After she did that, she tackled Green down, hugging him and making sure he stayed on the floor. Green fought a furious blush when he felt Blue's body pressed up against his, and he tried to push her off by her shoulders.
"What are they doing out there..." Red mumbled to himself, wondering why Blue and Green were suddenly wrestling on the floor. Well, it was more like Blue was grabbing him while Green tried to pry the girl off instead, but from their distance it was kind of hard to tell.
Gold and Silver stopped their squabbles and turned their attention to the two. When Silver saw Green attacking Blue (or in his view it was), he shoved Gold off of him and rushed over to help the girl, not caring about the rules or the prize at this point.
"He's disqualified!" Gold yelled, pointing at him frantically.
Director Oak didn't hear Gold because he seemed to still be in a call with someone, turned away from them. Red patted his shoulder for comfort, seeing how the world is turned against Gold.
"Mmmmrg!" Emerald called out from under Gold.
Gold quickly got up when he finally noticed Emerald was under him, and the boy stood up and started to breathe rapidly, gasping for air. "Ya dimwit! Ya almost killed me!"
"It's not my fault! I was shoved!" Gold said, shifting the blame to Silver. He looked over to the field once he remembered the game. "Fashion Boy! Hoop jump is upcoming!"
"Not if I can help it!" Sapphire quickly got another snowball and socked Ruby in the head, making the boy fall over to the floor once again.
"Stop!" Gold told her, getting irritated.
"Stop what?!" Sapphire screamed back, equally getting annoyed.
"This! If you do it one more time, I'm going to—"
"—Sapphire!" Yellow called out to her, wandering around the field slowly with her hands out in front of her. "Am I almost there— Ah!"
Yellow was cut off when she reached the hoop and tripped over it.
"Yellow!" Red cried out, rushing over to help her. At this point, with all of the disqualifications, fighting, and cheating going all around, he didn't care anymore. He couldn't even tell Green directions because he was occupied with Silver and Blue at the same time.
Emerald spoke up when he noticed something, "Hey! Where's Crystal?"
Gold looked around the field. He was right, Crystal wasn't anywhere to be seen. When he noticed something moving in the distance far away, he squinted. "... Is she over there?!"
The blond kid gasped. "It's all your fault, Gold! I couldn't tell her to stop because you kept shoving your ass and sitting on me!"
"It's your fault that your face happens to be under my ass!" Gold argued back.
When the two were bickering, Sapphire took this chance to build more snowballs.
"Alright, kids! I'm done with my call! Did we get a winner—" The director stopped when he saw the chaos that went down.
At the start line where the instructors were, only three of the five members remained. Gold and Emerald were arguing about something, while Sapphire was chucking snowballs at Ruby to release her anger. In the middle of the course was Red helping Yellow get up after stumbling multiple times since Sapphire never really gave her directions. He can somewhat see Ruby on the floor near there, ducking for the snowballs and yelling complaints about wanting to go home. Farther down near the cones was Silver trying to rip Blue off of Green. The director didn't even know where the heck Crystal was.
He let out a sigh. "Guess it's another company picnic fail."
After a few minutes of trying to separate all of them and get Crystal back (he didn't know that she would continue passing the path until Emerald told her directions), the director decided that there was no winner, therefore none of them got to claim the prize and go on vacation. Of course, this resulted in many complaints and caused more arguments. While everyone was occupied, Sapphire took this chance to take another hit at Ruby. The boy fell over once again, and just laid there on his back. He felt like if he got up, he would get socked again.
Sapphire stood over body, hovering with her usual toothy grin. Their eyes met for the first time today and it seemed like everything was normal.
She put her hand out for him. "Ya really can't take a hit, huh, Prissy Boy?"
Ruby softly smiled and took the hand. He brushed the snow off his clothes. "Please, I bet the others couldn't either," he replied. "I'm so tired of the outdoors."
"Yer always tired," she remarked jokingly.
Sapphire's grin slowly faded away into a frown. It wasn't a mad one like she had yesterday, or a sad pouting one, but more of a straight face. "Ya know, I'm still mad at ya," she reminded, though her voice and expression was much calmer.
Ruby dropped his smile too, taking in the seriousness of the situation. "I know," he sighed. "About that, I'm sorry. I wanted to talk to you privately about it when we get home since this trip is too hectic to do it with the others around."
She let out a deep breath, feeling satisfied that Ruby owned up. "... I'd like that."
She was right to listen to Steven's advice to come and talk to him without anger. Sapphire didn't know whether it's because she used up all her anger throwing snowballs at Ruby, but she suddenly felt at peace for once.
"What? You kids were fighting?"
The director suddenly popped up in between both of them, scaring the pair.
"We had an argument, but it's fine. Sapph and I are going to work it out properly when we get back," Ruby reassured, Sapphire nodding beside him.
Director Oak let out a sigh of relief. "Okay, that's good! You two scared this old man for a second! I thought it'd be awkward when you two have to do the kiss scene!"
"THE WHAT?!" both of them screamed loudly at the same time, alerting the others.
The director shot them a look of confusion when he saw their reactions. "Your manager White didn't tell you about the kiss scene? She knew about it for a while now."
"Kiss scene?" Gold choked out, looking back and forth from Ruby to Sapphire multiple times. "No way! Wild gal and fashion boy are going to kiss?!"
"Gold, stop being nosy!" Crystal chided, hitting him on his shoulder.
"I mean, it was going to happen a matter of time now that I think about it," Red remarked. They were the only romantically involved lead roles who didn't do it yet. "I just didn't think it'd be this soon."
"White didn't tell us anything!" Sapphire clarified.
"Oh, she told me she would tell you two during the trip though," the director informed, frowning.
"SAPPHIRE!"
A distant shriek came from the direction of the hotel. Everyone looked over to see Black and White running towards them with their arms open and waved around. Once the two were almost near the group, Sapphire already started to voice her thoughts.
"White! I can't believe ya didn't tell me—"
"—SAPPHIRE!" White cut her off immediately, grabbing onto the girl's arms tightly and shaking her.
"What?!" Sapphire responded, trying to get her off.
"What happened between you and Steven Stone?!" the manager yelled, demanding an answer.
"Steven is here?" Ruby inquired from the side, arching an eyebrow.
"What are ya talking about?" Sapphire asked.
"Black!" White gestured the boy over, and Black followed. He held up his phone that showed a news report on the screen, and everyone huddled up to read what was on the small screen. The title of the news report read: 'STEVEN STONE WAS SPOTTED GOING INTO POKESPE DRAMA ACTRESS SAPPHIRE BIRCH'S HOTEL ROOM! IS THIS THE END FOR THE POWER COUPLE OF RUBY AND SAPPHIRE? WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?'
A/N — As I was writing this, I'm like wow, I want more drama but I miss writing the humor or playful interactions between the characters since I've been writing a lot of serious moments lately between the main couples, whether it's in this fanfic or in my other ones. I decided to do more a game scene I saw online with all the characters again because I thought it'll be fun to lift the mood XD Of course, I still had to throw some drama in there somewhere, sorry for giving my girl Sapph all this stress and scandals, but you know, like I said before, you gotta do what you gotta do! I hope I can still write more of Ruby's thoughts about the situation instead of just a glimpse since it's mostly one-sided on Sapphire's part, so maybe next chapter! As for ships, I've already planned the next chapter and I put more of the side ships for fun because I also miss writing other shippings besides super serious barely mangaquest (in my other fic) and frantic! Can't wait to write it hehe!
On another note, I want to write in the new dex holders that I've recently read because I haven't seen many and their personalities are super unique and fun, but of course, I'm afraid to start a new fanfic since I have 4 unfinished ones XD Well, l'll see how it goes regarding it! Anyways, enough of my babbling, as always, thanks for the lovely comments along with any new favorites or follows! Replies to the reviews are below! :)
Pocky (guest) — Haha, at first I wanted to do a requited confession, but I felt like Ruby wouldn't just straight up say it? I don't know? He was pretty sketchy in both RS/E and ORAS concerning Sapphire's love, so I made this more complicated than it had to be! Hopefully it won't be too much angst, but ya never know! XD Thank you so much for the review and nice words!
Chivan — I see him as the only reasonable one among everyone lol!
Theberybest — Yeah, I'm starting junior year haha XD Good luck to you too! Thanks for the compliment about my writing! So sweet! :)
Sakurainfinity0 — I surprised myself too when I came back randomly after 4-5 years! I'm glad you're reading the comics like me and thank you for reading it after this extremely overdue update! I hope I can finish this one at least, but I keep creating drama for the couple! Also, yeah, I kind of put Ruby in this position because he didn't want confrontation in the manga (whether it was from Sapphire or his dad), but he's learning I guess. Funny thing, I actually wrote Steven as the older mentor type who gave advice before I saw this review, so when you said it I thought it was amazing XD Regarding the other ships, I also wanted to focus more on them in the next chapter as well because I miss writing about them since lately the updates for this story has been 100% franticshipping focused. Hopefully, I can write more of the others! Anyways, thank you for loving this story and my other fanfics even after this long!