Ninetales
ooo
It is cold. It is also windy, which makes the chill even more apparent, and it is also wet because the air is filled with seaspray and a light drizzle of rain.
Gold doesn't really care about that right now. It is mostly because he has had too much beer; everything looks the same amount of wonderful and beautiful and exciting, even the grey sky and the grey sea. But it is also because there is Silver and there is Silver holding his hand (well – alright, it is more Gold holding Silver's hand and refusing to let go, but the general concept is the same).
"I am so not drunk, look at me," says Gold. "Look at this perfect straight line I'm walking, oh yeaahh."
Silver snorts and pulls him up when he stumbles. "You only had three beers, are you that much of a lightweight?"
"No," says Gold firmly. He sits down on the beachfront, towing Silver along with him. "I am so not drunk. Wait, um, I already said that."
"You're an idiot," Silver says, but he sits down anyway.
Gold grins. "Yeah, well, at least I didn't spill anything down a waitress's chest… or on Meganium… so what about you?"
Silver scowls, even though it is a bit too dark for Gold to see. The message gets through anyway. "That idiot waitress got in my way! And Meganium spilt that curry on herself, so it had nothing to do with me."
"Like your face!" Gold says triumphantly.
"That… didn't even make sense…"
Gold counts that as a win, because it meant Silver actually tried to decipher his pick-up lines – always an encouraging thought. "It did too," he argues. "Your face is so attractive that I wanna spill everything on it."
Silver closes his eyes, presumably in prayer for the gods to release him from this insanity. Gold turns to look at him, and wonders how far he can push this. It is nice, being a little tipsy – at least it does not feel so cold out here as it did earlier, for one thing.
"That's… awful. That wasn't even funny."
"Like your mum."
"I have no idea if she was," Silver says shortly. "If this wasn't a date I would punch you."
"Nah, it wouldn't work. I've built up too much resistance, it's happened too many times." Somewhere in the back of Gold's mind, the thought occurs that if he continues being an idiot then Silver will probably renege on the whole 'being a date' thing, and then he will have no excuse not to punch him, and that would be bad. Being punched is bad.
He decides to do something nice and not completely mortifying. (It is probably best, he thinks, to save his best sexy awesome flirting lines for later.)
"Are you cold?"
"I'm fucking freezing," says Silver, but doesn't move.
Gold fumbles around in his backpack and pulls out Ninetales's Pokeball. A flash of light later, and the Pokemon is staring at him haughtily.
"Some heating, please?" says Gold to her. She grumbles a bit, because she does not like the sea or the rain or the cold one bit either.
"What's she going to do, flamethrower us better?" mutters Silver.
Ninetales can resist a command but she can't resist a challenge. A moment later, and they have their own private column of hot dry air.
"You can go back if you want," says Gold to Ninetales, but she harumphs and sits down instead. Her warm glow is comforting.
"Thanks," says Silver grudgingly, as if his mouth is not used to saying that word. It probably isn't. "This… is much better."
"Like your face?" says Gold, who can't remember whether he was meant to save his best sexy awesome flirting lines for later or not.
Silver makes a vaguely angry noise. Unfortunately for him, Gold quite likes that noise.
"Definitely like your face," Gold continues. "Because it's so hot. And dry, and totally not wet or windy at all. No, wait, not dry, because dry skin kinda sucks. Like-"
For a moment Gold thinks, oh fuck me I knew this would happen because I literally thought this so why did I continue being an idiot because now I'm going to get punched again, and then he thinks (and says), "Ninetales save-". But he cannot finish that thought, because actually Silver is not punching him, he is kissing him.
It is quite nice. But kissing Silver is quite a bit more… angry… that Gold is used to. And quite a bit more… stupefying, because Gold's brain is feeling sluggish right now and can't quite process what just happened. What just happened?
"Man," he says, still very close to Silver's face. "I totally have the best sexy awesome pick-up lines."
Silver looks like he regrets not punching him.
(Ninetales is not impressed. Not even a little bit.)
ooo
Silver excuses himself and Ninetales stalks up to sit next to Gold.
"Why doesn't he just piss on a tree like normal people do?" says Gold, who really wants to get back to making out with Silver because that is a lot more fun than watching Silver walk (very slowly) off to the restaurant to use their high-tech indoor non-tree toilet.
Ninetales shrugs. She shifts a little closer to Gold; when he looks down and ruffles her mane, she growls and attempts to look inconspicuous.
Gold lets her. "C'mon, the sea's not that scary."
She growls louder and shakes her head proudly. "Trrrr."
Well, there is no need to make her admit it. Gold is content to let her stay there - it is clear he knows she is scared, and that she knows that he knows, and he supposes that that means that he knows that she knows that… okay, this was getting stupid. That fact is - it is a mutual secret that Gold is content with keeping.
"Nine…?" she says, watching his face carefully.
"He's really hot," says Gold, grinning.
She gives him the fox-equivalent of an annoyed elbow to the gut; a rather forceful shove. "Nrrine…?"
"I think he's a good guy," says Gold more honestly. "But I guess he doesn't really let anyone get close, so I dunno. What do you think?"
She shrugs dispassionately.
"Yeah!" says Gold, because Ninetales only pretends not to care about something when she is happy with that something. Unless it is something horrible and scary like endless acres of cold water, in which case she pretends not to care because, well, she would look like a fool if she made a fuss about fear. But Gold is pretty sure that she is not scared of Silver.
ooo
"I don't know how you do it," grumbles Silver as they walk through Cherrygrove, en route to New Bark.
"Do what?" says Gold, putting Ninetales back into his bag.
"How you… how you treat your Pokemon like that."
"Like what?"
"You know," says Silver, a bit annoyed. "Like you understand them, properly. It's… whenever you talk to Ninetales, you get her to do whatever you want - even though she's such a bitch whenever she says anything to me. How did you learn how to be so good with Pokemon?"
"That's just rude," says Gold, poking him. Silver slaps his hand away. "She's not a bitch! Although… she can be kinda annoying to train… what can I say? I'm just amazing like that."
"Humph," says Silver. "You…"
"I think," says Gold loudly, "that you know how to do it too, because you are. Dude, you have an Alakazam, so don't say you can't deal with difficult Pokemon. And a Gengar."
Silver pauses. Gold tugs his hand impatiently because he really wants to get to his mum's house before midnight.
"Hmph – so I suppose you know exactly how to get me to do what you want, too," says Silver, and Gold finds it hard to tell what his tone is.
"Well, what I really want you to do is me, but-"
"I didn't mean that in a nasty way," clarifies Silver. "I was just thinking out loud. Also, shut up."
"No," says Gold cheerfully, hoping that Silver is blushing in that adorable way that he does. It is a shame that it is too dark to check. "I won't. I will never shut up. You can't stop me, 'cos I'm just that good."
When Silver kisses him, Gold thinks that yes, maybe I do know exactly how to get him to do whatever I want. But then he thinks, actually maybe I kinda wanted a less angry and I-want-to-hit-you kiss because this is kinda painful…? Or maybe this is just a Silver-thing; being kind of pissed off all the time is basically Silver's default mode. Well, there's always room for improvement. He should probably hone those Silver-training skills.
But he is pretty sure that this is a good start.
ooo
My Ninetales is called Marasan. I... actually can't remember why.
clarification: this is set post-first-date (where Turning Points starts at), and Gold's pick-up lines are not awful because he has had more than one unit of alcohol. They are awful because they are always awful.