Lyra observes her boyfriend scowling and twiddling his thumbs with mild amusement. When one comes to observe him that closely, he becomes so transparent it was even rather funny.
"Falkner, it isn't going to be that bad." She said, with a reassuring tone. "It's just a hangout, you don't need to worry."
He scoffs, haughtily. "I'm not worried. Who said I was worried?"
The girl shakes her head. "I'm not entirely sure, I think it was you telling me you were worried over breakfast."
He grins. "I don't think that was me. I think that was someone else."
The prodigy Pokémon trainer laughs at him. "It's going to be okay."
The blue-haired boy sighs. "I'm meeting your friends today. I am on the understanding that this is a big deal."
Lyra turns to him, placing her hands on his arms, keeping him steady. "Falkner, they are going to like you. You're pretty likeable once you get to know you."
He raises an eyebrow. "I'm pretty likeable?"
She smiles at him, pulling him in by the sides of his blue kimono and gives him a sweet kiss. "Yes, you are."
He does not let her pull away. Instead, he keeps she pressed close, his hands tight on her waist. "You're sure?"
She hums. "Very sure."
He takes a deep breath. "You know what's best. Now, let's go, or else we'll be late."
Her answering smile is blinding, and in that moment, Falkner decides he would do absolutely anything for she as long as she smiled at him like that.
Taking his hand, she is pulled up onto the gym leader's Pidgeot, who shortly took off, heading southeast, towards New Bark Town. After years as a trainer and two championship titles, she still screamed her heart out when she flew. She did not care for heights.
Fifteen minutes later, they land in front of Lyra's childhood home, from where they could spot Ethan and May. His footsteps falter slightly as he sees her group of friends sitting by the shores of the bay that divided Johto and Kanto, laughing and joking without a care in the world.
Lyra may laugh and dismiss the concerns, but this meeting, their approval, means a lot to him. He was not this nervous when he was meeting her parents because (and he meant this politely when he explained it to her) her mother was not very invested on her life, much less was her overseas worker of a father.
Her friends, however, were a different matter.
The bonds of friendship between the three of them were strong. Ethan and May were vigilant and present on his girlfriend's life, even with the pigtailed girl living away in Hoenn. Falkner could not remember how many times one of their dates was interrupted by a call on the Pokegear from one of them.
If he messed this up, then he had very little hope for a cordial coexistence with the rest of his girlfriend's life.
He explained these fears to her, and she did her best to wave them away by talking them through. However, he knew that if her friends did not approve, he would take a step back rather than affect her friendships.
He does not realise he has stopped walking until they are there. She is putting a hand on his cheek and then she whispers that it will be okay. He nods, pulling her hand away just enough to press a kiss to the palm of her hand.
Ho-Oh, shine your light over me, the gym leader quietly muttered under his breath.
Despite his affinity with the Flying type and his traditional heritage, it is not often that Falkner prays. His mother hailed from an Ecruteak Rainbow Wing clan and was a very pious woman, but when she passed, when his father ran out from the gym, he fell off the faith.
However, he prays now. He prays that her friends like him, he prays for the stable continuation of his relationship. He knows he presents a tough exterior, and he knows of his reputation as serious and cold, but all that melts away to her feet, on a whim. He would give up his clan name, his leadership and whatever he may hold precious in the present or the future if it meant that he could live out his life with her.
He has been infatuated with her since the first moment he looked at her when she, as a naïve country bumpkin, stumbled over his platforms, and from that very moment, Falkner started to think of a future and he really liked what he saw.
The blue-haired man fell deeper and deeper in love with her successes, even as she climbs further above than he could ever fathom. He could feel the emotions, the electricity and all he wanted was more. He wanted more of her, and more of everything.
A tug on his hand brings him back to the present, where he realises that they have arrived next to her friendship group. The champion sat down in the grass with them, and he smiles politely as he folds himself down next to her.
She squeezes his hand in encouragement as he looks around the group.
It is quiet for a moment before the girl pipes up. "You don't need to look so nervous, Falkner. We don't bite."
Ethan snickers, mean-spiritedly. "Speak for yourself."
The three friends chuckle lightly. He, instead of joining in the laughter, ducks his head but says nothing more.
The gym leader did not have much experience with people his age. He spent his childhood helping at the training area and, as soon as he was seven, he received his first Pidgey and had began his studies towards a mastership. Not to mention his house chores. He had no opportunity to socialize, and it all made him anxious.
"It's okay, Falkner." She whispers, running her thumb over the back of his hand. This action not going unnoticed by her friends.
He brings that very hand up to his thin lips before letting it drop back down again.
"What are your intentions with our sweet Lyra, Falkner?" May took the initiative once more, an inquisitive twist on her lips.
He furrows his eyebrows. "I'm not sure I know what you mean."
"Is this long-term or casual? Are you going to hurt her? Is this some elaborate prank between you and Morty? A power play? Get the new boss to fall in love with you then break her heart?" Ethan suggests with a menacing sneer.
Falkner splutters. "What?! No! I would never do that."
"Guys, let's drop the interrogation, shall we?" Lyra says, frowning at them.
"We need to know, honey." May insists.
Falkner looks each of her friends in the eye as he says, "There is no prank. I have absolutely no intention of breaking her heart. I'm almost certain that I'm in love with her and if she happens to love me back then I would class myself as the luckiest guy in the world."
"Good. Because we'd really hate to hurt you." The brunette piped in with an acquired slight Hoenn accent.
"What?" The gym leader asks, with a slight edge on his voice.
The other man agrees, sombrely. "Yeah. May is a champion on her own right, and I have access to dangerous chemicals as a professor's aide."
Falkner's thin, blue brows furrows. "What do you mean?"
Ethan snickers. "We're a smart bunch, man. Combined, we most likely know over a hundred ways to kill a man without leaving incriminating evidence. We'd hate for you to be on the receiving end of it but if you break her heart then you just might be."
Falkner blanches at that comment. If he ever broke her heart, they would have to get in line behind the masses of self-hatred that would come with it.
Silence falls in the group, with the gym leader letting the very thinly veiled threat sink in.
Lyra has not said anything. She was too mortified at her friends' reactions to be able to think of anything to say.
Then, suddenly, her friends burst into laughter, while Lyra starts to curse them out.
"You both are morons. I am getting new friends." The local champion declared.
May laughed breathlessly, holding onto Ethan's shaking shoulders.
"You should have seen your face! You looked so shocked, Lyra!" The girl said, in between wheezes.
"You were threatening my boyfriend!" The trainer with the buns shrieked.
The laughter starts up again. It is a few minutes of that before anyone is calm enough to speak properly.
"Falkner?" Ethan asks, looking intently at their guest.
The gym leader's head turns towards the voice. "Yes?"
"Do you love her?" He asks, earnestly.
Falkner's hand tightens around hers as he answers the brunette. "Very much so."
The raven-haired boy nods, accepting the answer. He turns to Lyra, his eyes running over her face. "Do you love him, Lyra? Does he make you happy?"
She nods emphatically. "I do, and he does me."
The professor's aide raises his hands then, as if he has his answer. "There you are then. Welcome to our friendship group, Falkner. We're happy to have you."
A smile breaks out across Falkner's face; a matching is making its way across Lyra's.
"I'm very happy to be here."