Ruby and Sapphire
By Yui Kinomoto
Disclaimer: I don't own any Pokemon characters, or Pokemon itself… although it'd be pretty cool if I did… ^_^;
A/N: This is going to be a short romance fic about my two favorite Ruby/Sapphire gym leaders. Uh… If you don't know who they are, I'll put the links to pictures of them at the bottom. ^_^
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I looked out at the ocean, staring down into the water. There's something I didn't trust about that water… but then again, I'm not much of a water person. All of my Pokemon are Fire-types. You probably don't know me, let me introduce myself; My name is Asuna. I'm the Gym Leader of the Fuen Town gym, a small mountain town in the region of Houen.
At that moment I was pretty far from Fuen, though… I was all the way in Rune City, in a dance hall by the ocean. There was a party going on there; all of the other gym leaders had attended. Except for Tessen… He's not much for group gatherings, especially with a bunch of teenagers around.
Anyway, the party was progressing as the Houen parties usually do… Mikuri, the Rune City gym leader, was running around flirting with all the guys… He's so blatantly yaoi, but he's incredibly cute. Tsutsuji-san and I like to tease him by pretending to flirt with him, when we know he has no interest in females. Yeah… I saw him run off, chasing after some guy in a weird purple outfit… And Tou-chan was still standing in the corner, keeping to himself. As usual.
I let out a deep sigh. Touki… The leader of the Milo Town gym… He's a fighting trainer. He could beat me blindfolded… But if you blindfolded him, I wouldn't be able to look into his deep sapphire eyes. They match his sapphire-colored hair perfectly… Perfect. That's the best word to use to describe Touki. If only I could get him to talk to me…
I guess I knew why Tou-chan didn't speak much. He had trained in Milo Town his whole life… and Milo is almost completely cut off from the rest of Houen. He had always been alone there… So I suppose he was used to it. Still, I wished I was closer to him… I wished I could be considered a friend to him, someone that he could sit and talk to at these parties instead of standing around on his own.
Well… I suppose it was worth a try…
I slowly took my first step toward him, making my way cautiously. He looked up at me curiously… was that a smile? It was too quick for me to tell. I kept a steady pace until I reached him, when I leaned against the wall next to him.
"Konbanha, Tou-…ki," I said, correcting myself quickly before I called him by my usual nickname for him.
"Good evening to you too, Asuna," he said. It wasn't until then that I realized I'd never actually heard his voice up close until then. It came as a bit of a shock to me… it was sort of deep, but not really. His tone was really friendly, and I was happy for that. I found myself looking right into his sapphire colored eyes… They were so beautiful up close. They even sparkled like real sapphires. They were the exact opposite of my eyes; mine are red, like stained rubies. (Of course, they're not naturally red… but I do like the color.)
"Is something wrong?" said Touki, snapping me out of my trance. I blinked a few times, and looked away from his eyes.
"No, nothing," I said calmly. "I just wanted to come and talk to you. You looked a bit bored."
"Well, I guess I was… a little," he replied. After that, we stood and talked in that corner for at least an hour. I found out a lot about him… That his Makunosita had just recently evolved while training in the north Milo caves… And surprisingly, that both his mother and father were dead. I seriously almost broke down in tears when he told me that… not only because of the true sadness of the story, but because of the fact that he'd trust me with that information, when he wouldn't trust anyone else with a "hello". I guess I'm a bit too emotional…
He sat down, and I followed his example. Without really knowing why, I leaned my head in his lap and we kept talking; the DJ was playing one of my favorite songs, but I hardly heard it over the sound of Tou-chan's voice. I laughed at one of his comments, and he smiled down at me. He playfully ran his fingers through my ruby-colored hair… I blushed, but I couldn't look away from him. I sat up, bringing my face closer to his enchanting eyes.
"So, tell me one more thing," I said, smiling. "Why is it that you never talk to anyone?"
Tou-chan shrugged. "I'm not sure," he said. "I guess I was just afraid of being rejected by everyone… because I'm so cut off…" He looked up, staring at a certain gym leader in the crowd. "And just between you and I… I wouldn't talk to Mikuri, because I'm scared of not getting rejected by him."
I laughed aloud, not caring if the entire hall heard me. "Tou-chan," I said, paying no attention to the name, "I wouldn't reject you. I really like you…"
"Tou-chan?" he repeated, bringing a bright blush to my face. "That's a cute name."
"You… like it?" I asked, putting my hands on his shoulders. "Can I… call you that from now on?"
"If you want," he said, flashing me a warm smile. I smiled back, and fell into his embrace; I hugged him tightly, smiling… and I smiled even more when I felt his arms wrap around my back. His body was warm, and it felt nice to be this close to him. I backed up to take another look into his eyes… but my opportunity didn't last long.
His eyelids blinked shut and he moved forward, kissing me lightly. My eyes widened in shock, and I froze, taking in the full effect of the kiss. His lips were warm and soft… I felt his hand brushing against my cheek, and I shut my eyes hard, kissing him back. His other hand pressed against my back, pulling me closer to him, and my hands ran through his soft sapphire-colored hair. Finally I pulled my lips away from him, and stared at him. His sapphire eyes gazed into my ruby ones.
"You have no idea how long I've waited for that…" he said softly between heavy breaths. I stared at him in disbelief, blushing.
"You mean you actually… liked me before?" I inquired, almost silently.
"Like I said," he responded, "I couldn't say anything to you before. I was too afraid you'd reject me."
My eyes widened again, and I cocked my eyebrow. "That's insane," I said. "Like I said… I'd never reject you."
"That's a good thing," he said. "If you rejected me now, I'd be even more disappointed…"
I smiled, and leaned in for another kiss. I could almost hear Tsutsuji-san's voice in my head, saying "I told you to talk to him sooner!!"