"I'm not asking you to be in the interview with me, I'm only asking if you'll be in the studio with me while the interview happens," Wallace said with the hint of a sigh behind the words, "you'd only be there as moral support, that's all."
"You and I both know that's not what will happen," Steven responded, looking away with a roll of his eyes that he didn't quite mean, not with Wallace. "If I'm there, they'll pull me into the interview too. They're probably going to find some way to talk to you about me anyway." He looked out into the city, perfectly laid out in front of them from their vantage point.
"Big head?" Wallace asked jokingly, rubbing his hand on Steven's back. Steven smiled at him.
"More like I'm worried about becoming a target for all your fans. I took you away from them, you know," Steven said, "Once they find out, who knows what will happen to me."
"They never had any chance with me."
"Who has the big head now?" Steven asked. He's fairly certain that the grin on his face has been there for the entire conversation, and both of them knew that he would eventually cave to Wallace's request and go with him, even if it meant that he would have to be interviewed along with the coordinator.
Wallace laughed, a musical sound, and pressed a quick kiss to the side of Steven's mouth. "More like I was never interested in anyone else." Steven tried to roll with the sentimental comment, since Wallace was always saying things of the sort, but he knew his face had gained a bit of color. No matter how often Wallace said those things Steven could still be flustered by him.
Steven sighed and met Wallace's gaze, which hadn't left Steven's face for the majority of the conversation. "You know I'll go," Steven told him. Upon hearing him relent, the happiness showed on Wallace's face, as if it hadn't been obvious that Steven would go along with what he'd asked. Steven knew it was killing him not to be able to tell everyone that they were together - having only been together for a few months, and never having officially "outed" their relationship to the public, though most of the other gym leaders and elite already knew or assumed.
"Even though you'll most likely be pulled into the interview as well?" Wallace asked, as if Steven might still decide against going.
"I'm used to it by now, though I'd rather not be," Steven responded, "And it's hardly a disaster for the public to know that I managed to snatch you up."
"You say that as if there was ever a time you didn't have me," Wallace said coyly. Steven felt no need to respond to the remark, and really wasn't quite sure how to respond to it either, instead leaning against Wallace.
…
"Oh, Mr. Stone, it's lovely to see you here too!" the interviewer asked, projecting the friendly persona that she usually had on camera, which made Steven idly wonder if maybe she was always that chipper. "I don't suppose you'll be joining us on camera as well, since you're here?"
Steven looked over knowingly at Wallace, who at least has the good grace to look vaguely guilty. Steven laughed to himself and looked over at the interviewer with a smile. "If you want me to be up there, I can. I just assumed I'd be here for Wallace, though. He hardly needs anyone else on the camera with him, does he?"
"Given the chance, we will most certainly have you on our show!" she responded happily, "I'll just go run it by the hosts so that they can change the info for the public. We'll be ready in just a few minutes, so go ahead and take a seat on the couch over there. You may call me Diana, by the way." She said all of this quickly, and added the last part as a bit of an afterthought, before smiling at them widely and dashing off to go make the necessary pre-show arrangements.
The two of them looked at each other and did a mental shrug and moved over to the couch, which, poetically, was more of a love seat than a couch and required that they sit close.
"She called me Mr. Stone," Steven remarked quietly to Wallace, who managed a quiet chuckle.
"You are Mr. Stone," Wallace said with a hint of humor in his voice. Steven would have huffed if he'd been younger. Instead he just gave Wallace a withering look.
"Mr. Stone is my father. I'm not old enough for that yet," Steven bemoaned to Wallace.
Wallace would have responded, but that was about the time that Diana plopped herself down in the chair next to the couch and started mouthing something to the cameramen. She then turned to them and made a chipper "okay" symbol with her hand before suddenly they were live and she was making her introductions. That was around when Steven started to feel nervous, but he tried to clamp down on that quickly before it could get too bad.
The first portion of the interview wasn't really directed at Steven at all - it focused on Wallace's contests and his pokemon. Eventually she started asking Steven questions as well, which she had fairly obviously made up on the fly, asking him a few questions about the company and a few more about his pokemon.
That didn't last long enough though, and before long Steven heard her voice slip in the gossip-y tone, and he settled back a bit on the couch, trying a relax a bit. Nothing was going to happen while they were on air. If anything, it would happen afterward. He suddenly realized that Wallace's arm had been thrown over the back of the couch, so now he was leaning against him. While this did have a calming effect on him, it also sparked his nerves again..
"So, Wallace," Diana started out, smiling confidently at Wallace and Steven. "We've recently heard some rumors of a lucky lady, and you've mentioned yourself that you've had a few dates recently. You know we're all dying to know who you've decided was worth it."
Wallace smiled wide for the camera, and Steven was not for the first time struck with how calm he was about all of this. "Well, yes, there is someone," he responded, talking around the subject. They'd both decided that it would be fine to talk about it - he was just playing it up for the cameras now.
"I'm glad to hear it!" Diana responded enthusiastically, "Does that mean we'll ever get to meet this special gal?"
"Well, actually, you've already met them," Wallace said, "Everyone watching the program should already be aware of them."
"Oh, really? Does that mean that you are possibly dating one of Hoenn's gym leaders, or possibly another elite?" she asked, clearly excited by the possibility that she might actually be able to pull out the information from him.
"That is - well, possibly true," Wallace said with a laugh that came off to Steven as maybe a little nervous.
That was when Steven realized that Wallace actually was nervous about being the one to spill it. It would have been kind of adorable if it hadn't meant that they were going to continue this verbal dance for a while longer.
"Possibly true? Trying to be coy with us, then?" Diana responded, "Let's see then. It's not Winona, is it? We've heard rumors of your chemistry together. Or maybe it's Flannery, that would be a steamy relationship!"
Wallace visibly colored at the specific questions. "Oh, no, no. Winona and I are simply good friends, and Flannery is more of a sister than anything else."
Diana put on a playful face, clearly hoping to get an answer soon.
"Well, there aren't many options left, are there?"
"I never said that they were still held their position, did I?" Wallace asked, and Steven could have hit him for clarifying that specific point, and not the fact that the gender might possibly not be female.
"Ah! Someone who does not still hold their position. Who could she be…?" Diana asked, looking over at Wallace expectantly, who was now visibly nervous.
Steven laughed then, which called Diana's attention back to him, who might as well have been invisible for the past few minutes. He hated to call the attention back to himself, but he felt like he should take some of the toll from this.
"You laugh, does that mean… you two are close, aren't you? You know who he's seeing, don't you?" Diana asked, suddenly realizing that maybe she could tease the information out of him quicker.
"Yes, I do know who they are," Steven responded easily, looking over at Wallace, who was looking at him gratefully, "it might help, I think, in your search, if you considered the possibility that you are looking for a 'he' rather than a 'she'."
Diana's eyes widened at that a little and looked over at Wallace, who made no move to correct Steven. Diana moved past the fact that Wallace had just been outed on her program pretty quickly, trying to get to the heart of the matter - who it was that Wallace was seeing.
"Well yes, that does change the field a bit, doesn't it?" she responded, looking thoughtful, "I don't suppose we'll be playing 20 questions on this for a while, will we?"
"I'm sure it'd be easier to tell you, but it shouldn't really be hard to guess by now, really," Steven responded, leaning slightly toward Wallace in an uncharacteristic display of public affection. This seemed to revive Wallace from his nervous stupor, invigorating him.
"Yes, really. He, for they are in fact a he, used to be either a gym leader or elite, but no longer is," Wallace told her, ticking off the things that had been revealed over the course of the conversation on his fingers.
"Well there are plenty of men who were once part of the league and no longer are, I mean, Ste-" Diana stopped her thought mid sentence, looking over at them and comically taking in their arrangement on the couch, Wallace with his arm across the back of the couch and Steven leaning, if only slightly, against him.
"No!" she said conspiratorially, playing it for all it was worth. She looked over at Steven who gave her a gentle smile. "You?"
"You guessed it," Steven said bashfully, looking over at Wallace for perhaps the 20th time in the past minute. Wallace was back to his graceful, poised self, smiling happily at the camera and Diana. Steven hoped he didn't look as ruffled as he felt, but he knew he couldn't compare so long as he sat next to Wallace. He left it up to Wallace to field the majority of the questions about the relationship, since he knew it would only fluster him to the point of stuttering or being unable to speak. Some point after that he felt Wallace slip the arm down off the top of couch and around his back to rest on his waist. He felt his face heating up at the display, but smiled and tried his best not to look too awful.
He hardly even noticed when the cameras stopped rolling, though he did notice it when Wallace's arm slipped from his back and Wallace stood up. Steven looked up at him.
"Did you notice that the interview was over, dear?" Wallace asked, reaching out an unnecessary hand to pull him off the couch. Steven accepted it and was hardly surprised when Wallace kept holding on once they were both upright.
"I zoned out a bit there," Steven said sheepishly.
"I noticed," Wallace responded warmly, squeezing his hand. Behind him Diana was gushing over how sweet they were and how glad she was that they had come on the show. Wallace reached out to give her a one armed hug, and Steven stiffly gave her his hand to shake.
"It was a pleasure," Wallace was saying to her, and the conversation might have lasted longer if not for Wallace cutting it short with a flimsy excuse for them to be leaving already. As Wallace pulled him out of the studio he was saying "it wasn't that bad, was it?" to which Steven only hummed a response. Wallace stopped him a little bit away from the exit.
"Thank you for coming," Wallace told him, "really. It means a lot."
"Of course," Steven responded, "you didn't actually think that I was going to make you do that alone, did you?"
"You seemed pretty adamant about not doing it," Wallace commented.
"Just because I did it doesn't mean I wanted to," Steven said. Wallace was silent for a moment before pulling Steven up to him for a kiss. Normally, a kiss like this wouldn't have happened in public, but Steven supposed that didn't matter as much now. It took a second before he responded to the kiss, reaching up to wrap his arms around Wallace's neck while Wallace's hands settled on his sides. After a moment or two they both separated, almost as if they're decided before hand how long the kiss would last, both looking mildly embarrassed.
"Get it, coordinator bro!" shouted someone down the hallway, making both of them jump.
Both of them started laughing. "Maybe it's not going to be as bad as we thought?" Wallace commented.
"No, maybe not," Steven responded, leaning back up to leave a kiss on his cheek.