Chapter 38: The Berlitz Blitz Pt. 3

(A/N: Welp I don't really have a great excuse for this one guys. I finished moving to the west coast recently and have been adjusting to life here. Still, I do feel like I could have put out a chapter earlier than this, but just wasn't getting much inspiration/motivation. All that being said, here comes this chapter just in time for the incoming DP remakes.)

General

Red had never met a significant other's parents before.

Heck, he barely had experience meeting his friend's parents for that matter.

So when the realization that he was going to have to meet Platina's parents (even if it was under a fake pretext) in a romantic context hit him, his nerves started to escalate beyond their already frayed state.

Before he could psyche himself out even more, Platina had taken notice of his nervous state and decided that they should just commit to going over to the Grand Veilstone Hotel before his (and her) nerves overwhelmed them.

Platina signaled to Red that they should head to the left (while the rest of the team was going to turn right towards the former Galactic HQ), but he didn't seem to take notice as he was just staring blankly at Pika.

Pika was staring at him back, thinking that Red had decided to have a staring contest out of the blue.

While Platina and the others found this to be a cute moment, Platina decided she would burn the image into her memory and then proceed with the mission at hand.

Right before she was going to call out to him again, she realized that she could resolve the issue in a much more productive manner.

She walked over to him, and took his hand with only their palms contacting each other. She was still not emotionally ready to interlock fingers with him but she had wanted to do this for a while now.

So why not just go for it right now?

"Well we are going to be heading this way Red, good luck with your mission everyone! Red and I will handle the marriage talk and catch up afterward." Platina made sure to emphasize the nature of her mission to the rest of the team.

The team members were generally on very good terms with each other, they oftentimes shared tips on training, life stories with each other, and other intimate moment. However, all of those bonding moments seemed to be thrown out the window the moment Platina made her move on Red.

However fake the whole notion of the pretend fiancé might have been, the fact that she was already acting like a lover with Red when there were no Berlitz parental units in sight, was not giving her a lot of slack from the already envious competitors in the Red bowl.

Platina maximized her mental evasion and dodged all of the daggers being glared at her as she dragged the still dazed Red out of sight of the rest of the team.

Blue sighed after the duo were out of sight and mentally noted that she would get even with Platina later on.

For now, the mission was still the most important issue (if only by a small margin) so she put her professional face on and rallied the rest of the team to execute their part of the plan.

Meanwhile, on the marriage front of the battlefield, Red had finally gotten his wits about him again.

"W-wait, why are we holding hands Platina?" He managed to stutter out as he felt the soothing warmth of her soft left hand as it wrapped around his right hand.

"Umm, we're doing this so … my family's agents can confirm that we're not acting in case my parents cast any suspicions on us… yeah let's go with that…" Platina replied as she trailed off towards the end of her sentence.

Red could have sworn he heard something after she had said "yeah" but didn't have the mental capacity to dwell on it as his worries weren't being alleviated by the explanation.

In fact, the constant physical contact was increasingly hurting his mental fortitude.

"What if my hands are too sweaty and she gets grossed out?" He thought to himself as he tried to calm his nerves. In his experience, being nervous rarely helped with keeping cold sweat away.

Unbeknownst to him, Platina was sharing similar thoughts with Red right now and she considered separating hands with him for a bit to make sure she didn't have sweaty hands.

Still, this was a rare opportunity to have Red all to herself and while it wasn't a real relationship, she had read enough shoujo manga to know that this was a great chance to make this illusion closer to a reality.

As a result, she subconsciously gripped a little tighter to Red's hand, which also eliminated all chances of him slipping away.

After a moment, he sighed briefly and decided to do what he was best at. Focusing on the mission at hand.

"So… what are your parents like?" Red asked as casually as he could as he tried to do some research.

"My parents… where to begin…" Platina thought aloud and then decided to just give her honest thoughts since it couldn't hurt to be prepared.

"They're just like most parents anywhere so I don't think on a base level you should be too worried." She stated with a reassuring tone.

"Really? That's great to hear!" Red breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe super rich people weren't that different from regular people after all.

"They were pretty friendly with the few friends I had in the past… wait actually now that I think about it though… one time I got lost while playing with friends in the woods near our estate and they got pretty upset afterward." She recalled a distant memory from her childhood.

"What happened afterward?" Red asked apprehensively.

"Oh, I think it was just the normal stuff, they had all the maids and butlers search for us, they installed cameras on every other tree in the forest afterward and they just had my friends meet some friendly detectives to make sure that they didn't plan for me to get lost." She said as she thought back to the days when her parents would still let her hangout with other kids freely.

Red paused abruptly, which ended up anchoring Platina to the spot. His complexion was currently the opposite of his namesake.

"Platina, to be frank, I don't think I've ever heard of any of those steps being taken with any of my friends or acquaintances in the past." Red said in a worried tone.

"Is that so… I guess if I think about it seriously, it does seem a bit over the top… but wouldn't you say that most parents would do that kind of thing if they could?" She said this as she tried to cope with the fact that maybe her childhood was completely distorted by her parent's overprotectiveness.

"Um… I'm not sure they'd go that far to be honest. But they're not as protective these days are they?" Red said with a tinge of hope in his voice.

"Oh of course not! They did let me travel all by myself and participate in this mission too!" Platina said as she found an opportunity to alleviate some of Red's concerns.

"That's good to hear, sometimes it's just like that when parents are taking care of their young children." Red said as he felt like maybe there'd be some hope.

"Then again, they did only let me do this on the premise that I'd finally agree to the fiancé meeting that they had been asking me to go to for forever." Platina inadvertently let out the true reason for her parent's leniency.

Quietly to herself, she cursed her honesty and logic driven impulses as she clearly noticed that Red was on the verge of becoming a nervous wreck again.

She frantically thought about how she could assuage his concerns. Logically, there weren't many reasons for him to feel better when it came to her parents and how they could act when it involved herself.

Then she paused and realized that she had already subconsciously came up with the solution long ago when she had first started developing feelings for Red.

When it came down to it, because she was serious about him, she knew that Red had already checked off the boxes that needed to be resolved emotionally, while taking into account her position as the Berlitz heiress.

Red was objectively a very accomplished person, if her parents were concerned about the prestige of the family name, his competency, or his ability to match her high specs. There wouldn't be much need for concern, there just weren't many people in the world that were as accomplished as he was.

She had considered telling Red these things as a good argument for why he shouldn't be worried about this meeting.

But she stopped herself before she had said anything, because in her heart she knew that it was even simpler than the fact that he checked off the Berlitz accomplishment checklist.

"Red, I say this honestly, there is no one else I would feel comfortable bringing to my parents as a fiancé, even if it's pretend. If you just be yourself, there isn't anything to be concerned about. I know this to be true, because ultimately my feelings should matter the most to my parents. Berlitz or not, I'm still their daughter."

Compared to the rest of the conversation they had on this subject up to this point, Platina spoke in a steady and serious tone.

She didn't break eye contact with Red for even a moment and he could sense that she was being completely genuine here, without even a hint of flattery.

Although he was a complete novice when it came to these kinds of conversations, instinctually he felt that he could trust in Platina's confidence in him even when he wasn't sure if he deserved her confidence.

There was a slight pause as they continued to look into each other's eyes… Red gave a gentle smile as he regained the composure that was usually reserved for his serious battling mode.

"Thanks Platina, I think I really needed that… I should be ready now." He said with a much more confident tone than before.

Platina smiled too and they continued to walk in silence as the Grand Veilstone Hotel came into view a few blocks away.

As they were getting close to the steps of the hotel, it dawned on Platina that she had almost confessed to him just now!

There's… no way that Red would have caught onto that right? Platina fretted to herself.

Sure she was a bit more confident about meeting her parents and introducing them to Red, but now she had to figure out if Red had caught on to what the real meaning of her words were.

She stole a look to her left and it didn't seem like Red was acting any different from before.

That… should be a good sign right?

She wanted to confess to him someday… but she wasn't naïve enough to ignore that there were so many attractive and competent women around him all the time.

Even with the self-confidence she had, she wasn't very sure about how exactly Red felt about her.

All she was sure of, was that Red cared about her a lot. Unfortunately, he cared about the other girls in a similar manner, which was one of good traits to be sure, but made it really difficult for her to understand what she specifically meant to him.

Before she could continue to ponder the mysteries of Red's romantic inclinations, they had entered the Grand Veilstone Hotel.

At the front there were maids and butlers lined up to greet her.

"Welcome to the Veilstone Grand Hotel Ojou-sama." Her servants greeted her in a very professional manner, but it didn't escape her notice that they were stealing glances at Red as they were bowing down to welcome her.

Thank you everyone, it's great to see you all again. Platina took some time to say hi to each every one of them personally while Red awkwardly was still holding her hand and trying to figure out where to make eye contact. He resigned himself to looking ahead and trying his best to look presentable.

After Platina finished reconnecting with the maids and butlers, the duo were directed to elevator where a solitary butler was waiting to escort them.

He nodded at Platina, without even looking at Red (a consummate professional, Red thought to himself) and operated the elevator to the top floor where it read "suite" on the elevator button.

They exited the elevator and found themselves in a huge suite with a large table and couches on either side of it.

The fancy couches felt like something right out of a movie, which probably made sense since movies had to gain inspiration from somewhere.

Red didn't have much time to muse over it though as the two individuals dressed smartly and sitting on one of the couches said in unison

"Good to see you again Platina, who's the boy?"

(A/N: That's it for this chapter, hope y'all enjoyed it and didn't forget about my little story. I suspect that when I get to play the DP remakes, I'll have even more inspiration to write stories again. It has been a long time since I played one of my favorite generations of games so I can't wait to play it on the switch. Let me know what you thought of the chap in the reviews, and hopefully I'll see you all when the inspiration strikes me again.)