"Why do we even have to go hunting for this stuff?" Silver grumbled loudly as he bet over to pick up an orange rock.
"Aw don't be such a sourpuss Silver! Expedition hunting and digging can be very fun! And rewarding. We can take these back to the Lodge and synthesize some goodies." Ethan quipped back, as cheerful as ever.
"And then what would we make?" Silver snapped back. Ethan didn't have a good answer, so he merely shrugged. Silver groaned.
"The history in these ruins is incredible…" Kris was awestruck staring at the gigantic bell that had lodged itself onto the grounds of the ruins. "I really wonder who… or what, caused all this damage."
"It could just be the passage of time." Silver commented. "As for what happened between then, only Celebi could tell you. And Lyra isn't here right now." He continued to dig, while Ethan himself was excited to have found a set of Lodge Stones someone had left behind.
"Well, this is a pretty good haul so far, I'd think." Jasmine clapped her hands together softly, fingers interlacing one another as she held her hands. Still, there was something nagging at her. "Problem is, for all our discoveries, I think we've lost Whitney and Bugsy."
"These ruins are pretty labyrinthian in some spots." Kris added. "I hope they're not lost…"
"Aw I'm sure they're fine. There's no Team Break around here. And if there was, we'd hear it. Plus, they're Gym Leaders! They can handle their own in the meantime." Ethan chipped in.
"Tch. Whitney, probably. The bug kid doesn't do well around rocks." Silver smugly smirked, until he let out a small 'ow' as Ethan lightly punched his shoulder.
"Well, you three stay here. I'll go look for them, if anything happens I have Steelix and Celesteela with me. I should be fine." She waved at the three before heading off deeper into the ruins.
"Hello, Bugsy? Whitney?" Jasmine kept moving through the dilapidated rocks and walls, finding plenty of pebbles on the ground. Her intuition with rocks told her that these were recently kicked here, and definitely 'fresh', so to speak. She closed her eyes and listened intently. She heard… wetness? Almost like… smacking. She began to run, fearing that perhaps the two had been under attack by Team Aqua, perhaps!
She ran into a small area that looked like it was once a stadium. Perhaps even a colosseum of sorts. There was a giant pillar in the middle. She began to walk forward, feeling a sort of odd, airy vibe to the place. There used to be dozens of hundreds of people in the stands… and now, nothing. Not even Ghost-Types as far as she could tell. Oh, why oh why couldn't Morty be here? She moved closer to the pillar, and the wet smacking noise grew louder and louder. Now she was convinced this was something else, but with no Whitney nor Bugsy in sight, she persevered. She turned around the pillar, and saw…
"Whitney?! Bugsy?!" She gasped, and the two were clinging to one another. Whitney's eyes were closed before they shot open. Bugsy's hair stood on end and he yelped as he quickly turned to face Jasmine, heart racing and chest pounding in fear. Whitney held him close; her lips were wet and shiny, and there even was a bit of spit on her chin. She looked a bit sweaty too.
The two were very obviously just making out.
Jasmine let out an exasperated, annoyed, but ultimately glad sigh. "Oh my word, you two lovebugs couldn't have found any less scary of a place to make out?!"
Whitney giggled, adjusting her hair which had grown a bit frizzy from all of the action they were taking part in. "S-sorry! We just sort of held hands and wandered a-and here we are now! Ya found us, Jazzy!" She giggled, but Bugsy was very red in the face.
"...I…W-we…S-Silver is a big mood killer you know, and sometimes Ethan really likes to barge in, so we just wanted some privacy." Bugsy's face looked as sheepish as could be. Jasmine just groaned.
"...I mean I get that…but why did you two even come to the expedition if you just wanted to kiss each other the whole time?"
"Nice to stretch our legs." Whitney added.
"T-there's something romantic about this arena. I mean, look up."
The colosseum had no roof. The pillar was attached almost by a connecting shaft towards the curves of the upper part, but otherwise one can easily see the starry sky if they gazed up at this time of night. Plus, given how far away they are from the rest of Pasio's civilization, there was very little light pollution.
"O-oh wow…" Jasmine blushed as she was gazing upon the pretty sight. The night sky glittered and twinkled like Silverpowder. Here they were, so busy looking at the ground, when they really should've been looking up.
"...Well, I was worried for you two, and the others didn't know where you we-WOULD YOU TWO STOP IT FOR A SECOND?!" Jasmine showed a rare moment of anger as Whitney gripped Bugsy by her collar and went in for seconds. She pulled back with a guilty giggle while Bugsy's face was bright red, again.
The three began to trek back to safety, while Ethan was excitedly showing Silver the new items he had found.
"What do I look like, Steven Stone? Unless it's a Dusk Stone, it doesn't interest me." Silver's head was resting on his hand as he saw the three figures appear from under a stairwell.
"H-hey everyone! S-sorry for the hold up." Whitney apologized.
"Y-yeah. We…were doing things." Bugsy admitted.
"Figures." Silver stood up, about ready to leave. Kris and Ethan would join as well, with Jasmine just trying to pass the whole thing off as to not raise suspicion.
"Whitney, are you okay?" Kris asked.
"Mmm?" Whitney turned to face her, and Bugsy felt his heart sink just a bit as he realized something he had done.
"Your neck! It has a red mark on it! Did a Pokemon bite you there? It almost looks like a Leech Life bite."
Whitney, Bugsy, and Jasmine all brought a hand up to their faces in shock. To phrase it like THAT of all ways… Silver just rolled his eyes, uninterested in the conversation at hand.
Ethan was just happy to have some trinkets.