Silver gritted his teeth. What the hell was he thinking? He looked into his crush's curiosity filled eyes for only a split second before looking away, but that was enough to make his heart bounce. What was the point of telling her about his crush? There was none. All it would do is make each interaction of theirs more awkward than it already was; Kotone wasn't the kind of spineless girl to crush on a guy who treated her like he had, and Silver was an idiot for thinking that she could. He would have to be… nice to her more before he could even have a chance at winning her feelings. Should he ask her out on a date? The boy mentally kicked himself. No, that'd be too obvious and he doubted she would agree to it. Then it clicked in his head. I'm an idiot, pokemon is how they met, obviously that could be a gateway too.

"What is it, Silver?"

"We should… battle more. Give me your pokegear."

Kotone sighed in relief. About time he'd ask! The trainer had always wondered if her rival would ever offer to give her his number, as he would always run off before she had the chance to ask. Silver quickly let go of the girl's hand, muttering something Kotone couldn't make out. Ignoring him, Kotone shuffled blindly through her bag in the dark until she recognized the cubic steel of the pokegear. "Here it is." The trainer daintily handed the gadget to her rival. The redheaded boy grasped it firmly, squinting his eyes at the bright light it emitted before noting down his number. He handed it back by stretching his arm and looking away, not saying a word. Hmph. Kotone knew it was typical of him, but he didn't have to behave like her pokegear was a dead rat or something. She closed it shut before putting it back in her bag.

"I guess I should really go now…"

"Hang on. You'll get lost, Typhlosion and I can accompany you to the pokecenter."

Kotone blinked, and then giggled. "You dummy. I have my own pokemon, remember?" Silver groaned under his breath, why did he always embarrass himself in front of her? Of course she had a fire pokemon around.
"Come back, Meganium." The grass pokemon stuck its tongue out one last time at the Typhlosion before being recalled. Kotone grabbed at one of her other pokeballs before throwing it up in the air. "Charizard!" How could Silver forget Kotone's rare black charizard? He couldn't help but admire it even though it decimated his team. The girl hopped on the black pokemon, which then spread its wings preparing for flight. "Thanks for the offer though, I'll call you sometime this week!"

"Al… alright." Silver looked down, unable to face the Johto champion. While Kotone had become the strongest trainer since Red from Pallet Town, he had wasted his time being cocky and cruel. It would take a long time to catch up to her, if he ever did. The red headed boy managed to put his hand up and wave, only looking up for a split second. He saw his crush smile and wave back and had to look away to hide the blush from his face. After a strong gust of wind, Kotone was gone and everything went back to being silent, the only thing that could be heard was the quiet whimper of the tiny caterpie that had been left behind, which was now being poked by the curious typhlosion. Noticing this, the redhead walked over to it, and kneeled down. He chuckled slightly, not too long ago he would have completely ignored the pathetic pokemon, but not anymore.

"Do you want to see your friend again?"

Almost as if to understand him, the caterpie spun around in a circle and jumped as if to say yes. Meanwhile, Typhlosion rolled his eyes. The pokemon always knew that his trainer had a habit of behaving strangely around that other specific human, but he couldn't understand why they couldn't just make an egg and get over it. But of course not, instead he had to stall around and wait for something to happen and obtain useless pokemon. Humans were so confusing and complicated. Typhlosion snorted and looked away, not being able to stand his trainer behaving the way he did.

"All right, if that's what you want." Silver reached into his pocket for a spare ultraball he had been carrying around and lightly tapped the caterpie on the nose with it. "It might be uncomfortable at first but…"