AN: [?] is a stand-in for a word Steve didn't understand. Also, thanks for waiting so long for this chapter. Please feel free to leave comments.
Elizabeth took it upon herself to go to the guild and confirm that the mission had been completed because she was nice like that and certainly not because she wanted to avoid talking to us.
Aza and Toz waved at us from the kitchen as we entered the home, so we assumed that everyone else was upstairs.
"Where's Elizabeth?" Aza asked. The incredible lack of arguing probably tipped him off that someone was missing.
"She's back at the guild," I responded, "but you will not believe what happened while we were out!" I walked over and leaned over the table for emphasis.
I spent the next few minutes recounting everything that had just happened, right up until I met Victini, when my story got interrupted.
"Wow. Wait- so you were in Victini's dungeon?" Toz asked.
"Yep."
"I wish I was there." He seemed disappointed in himself, slightly sinking into the chair as he spoke.
"You should have volunteered to go then," Tony said, and in that moment both Tony and Toz had a lot in common. And by a lot, I mean just being disappointed in Toz. "Anyways, Steve, continue." Tony invited me to sit down, but I declined.
I paused for a minute, standing in place as I gathered up my thoughts. A lot happened in that dungeon and I didn't want to paint myself in a bad light, so I chose my next words very carefully. Thankfully, they didn't seem to give a shit either way, as Toz still decided to interrupt me again mid-way through explaining the argument with Diana. Having been stopped just short of the part where I started screaming, I was happy to give him the stage.
"Wait. That actually does remind me, I had something I wanted to tell you all about Elizabeth a while ago, but I never got the chance to say it." I stared at him expectantly, waiting for whatever story he was about to tell to shake the world. "...Elizabeth let slip that she went to Diana's house after they got kicked out. I didn't think much of it, since they were best friends and all, but it seemed like she regretted saying it, so she gave me some money to stay quiet. I honestly would not have cared at all if she didn't give me any money, yet here we are."
Everyone went silent. Nobody knew what the hell it meant, but the ideas of what she could've done were terrifying.
Passing back over every memory I ever had with Diana, I knew I didn't have enough puzzle pieces to connect it all together, to figure out if she was truly evil or not. However, that was not the case with Elizabeth.
I could tell that every move, every action, every word out of her mouth was calculated for her own benefit. But since we were discussing it, she must have been terrible at math.
"I don't exactly have any unique stories about her that really stand out, but she is kinda nagging and annoying. Do you remember how we once voted to kick Diana out?" Aza shrugged. I most certainly had thought about it before, but this was the first time someone else had considered it out loud. It was only Aza, but I had a slight feeling that everyone else felt the same, too.
"True, we could do that, but Elizabeth is the only one who actually bothered to read all the paperwork," Tony pointed out. As much as I wanted to talk about my own experiences, I went quiet and slumped down into my seat, hoping I wouldn't get voluntold to read paperwork, exposing me as a human.
Just as things seemed to be getting quiet, there was a knock on the door. I was the only person still standing up, so I went to answer it, expecting to see Elizabeth on the other side.
'But why would she be knocking on the door to a house she lives in?' I asked myself, and of course I opened the door to see Diana on the other side.
"Oh. Hi Steve." She spoke first. She didn't sound angry. In fact, she was smiling.
Ian's muffled voice came from above. "I'LL BE THERE IN A MOMENT!" he shouted.
We stared at each other, waiting for Ian to show up. I didn't dare to speak while we stood there.
Ian rushed down the stairs so fast that it sounded more like he was falling.
As it turns out, he was doing both at the same time. As he reached the bottom, he truly began to fall. I moved out of the way just before he stumbled past me and tripped on the doorframe on his way out.
I barely had time to react before Diana's ribbons grabbed and pulled him back up to his feet and into a kiss. Ian went still for a moment, dazed and confused as to why he was kissing the Sylveon instead of the ground.
"...We'll be going now," he eventually said after he got his bearings. I stood there, staring wide-eyed at them. I tried to process what had just happened while they walked away together. I thought back to my run-in Diana at the guild, and how strange she was acting. She said she had somewhere to be, was this it?
Ian and Diana dating made a whole lot more sense than I would like to admit.
Once they both were out of sight, I closed the door before walking back to the kitchen. Everybody had kicked up a chair, pretending to be "normal" in anticipation of Elizabeth.
"So, Ian is dating Diana now," I relayed. The reaction was muted, as nobody seemed to care all that much.
"Good for him," Mark said from behind, scaring the shit out of me. We all stared at each other in silence. The air took on a certain stillness. It was unbearably silent, like a timer that was ticking down every second that we weren't talking.
"So, how have you all been?" I asked politely, but in reality I was really just asking to ease the silence.
"Eh. Could be doing better. I've been going out with some friends, but it's been pretty boring other than that," Tony said.
"Same here. Just bored out of my mind." Toz didn't seem particularly interested in conversation either.
"Gray's been… really quiet lately." Mark spoke in a quiet, sad tone. He approached the table and sat down. "He hasn't been this quiet since we met."
"Oh. Sorry to hear that." Tony dipped down, and the others in the room did the same.
"How did you guys meet anyway?" Toz asked.
Mark stopped for a moment, rubbing his chin. He seemed to run through every memory in his head, choosing his next words carefully. "You see, I used to-" Mark stopped just as quickly as he started, shook his head, and went back to thinking to try again.
After a long minute, he finally began.
"You see, I own a greenhouse; I've owned it ever since I was a child, and I still go in there as much as I can to check on it. I guess that it's just the natural order of things that I decided to become a Leafeon.
One of the most annoying things I have to deal with there is when someone would come in and try to buy a plant which wasn't for sale, and what made it even worse was when they wouldn't take no for an answer.
So of course, when I saw a Glaceon eying down [?], I prepared myself for another one of those days, and I did what I had to do. But then I told him it wasn't for sale and he didn't respond, I was sure I would be in for a rough time.
'Hey! That's not for sale!'
'I know. I just think it looks pretty.'
I breathed a sigh of relief. In reality, I was deeply confused. It was something nobody had ever said before, so I didn't know how to respond.
'Well, that's called a [?],' I sheepishly said.
'That's a nice name for it. It kinda looks like you, don't you think?'
It took me a minute to understand what he just told me. If he thought the plant was pretty, and then he thought the plant looked like me, then-
…No, that couldn't be it. A Glaceon? In a Greenhouse? What did he really want? Glaceons don't like plants. If he did, he would be a Leafeon, wouldn't he?
As I tried to parse these thoughts, I refused to accept it, until I looked at him and saw that smug smile plastered across his face. That bastard knew exactly what he just did.
Not knowing what to do, I let him be, and went to go help another customer. Good old Ninetails had been waiting on me to buy a flower, and-
Wait. Hold on. Pause the story.
Has anyone else noticed Ninetails acting weird lately? Ever since that newest dungeon popped up, he's been… distant.
…Really? None of you? Wait, what if he was buying a flower for someone he loved? Oh that would make a lot of sense-"
"Hey, get back to the story already!" Toz interrupted.
"Oh, right. Sorry.
When I came back the next day, the Glaceon was still there, but this time he noticed me immediately.
'Hey! My name is Gray! What's yours?' he asked, calling me over.
There's no good way to explain it, but the way he spoke to me made him seem so innocent, so sweet. So of course I told him my name.
'Mark, eh? Why don't you… tell me something cool about plants.' His opening was a bit blunt, but I guess it worked, because we sat there for hours talking about plants, every single day I could make it to the greenhouse. Eventually, I fell in love with him, but I didn't know if he felt the same.
Every day, I tried to tell him, but I just couldn't. I couldn't risk it.
Until one day, a letter arrived telling me that my house was too structurally unstable to live in, and that I had to move into emergency community housing for the time being. That's when I knew that this might be my last chance.
So that day, when I was talking to him, every moment that I didn't tell him I could feel regrets mounting, pressure building, and fear rising.
Finally, with only a few moments to spare, I told him. It was the hardest thing I've ever had to say to someone.
He went quiet, and I feared the worst. I thought that he would hate me, and that this would be it. Then he hugged me as hard as he could, and he whispered something in my ear that I will never forget.
'I love you too, Mark.'
That's when he pulled out the exact same letter that I got, and while he was trying to say his goodbyes, I was too busy laughing with joy to listen."
"And the rest is history?" Aza guessed.
"Yeah. The rest is history… Hey Toz, thanks for asking. Just talking about that really cheered me up," Mark concluded.
"You couldn't do it without me," Toz sarcastically replied.
After that, we spent the next half hour just talking about random things, and while it was nothing of substance, I still had lots of fun. Then it all came to a screeching halt when we heard a knock at the door. Of course, I was the one to get it.
Before I could even finish opening the door, Diana started talking.
"Okay, listen, Steve. I'm sorry."
"What?" I looked around and caught a glimpse of Ian watching from afar.
"I'm sorry for everything I did earlier. I regret doing all of it."
"Well, Diana, I stopped caring a long time ago," I admitted.
"Oh. So does that mean I'm forgiven?" I hated to rain on her parade, but-
"I'm not the only one to ask for forgiveness," I said, gesturing back to the kitchen.
"Hello-" Diana started, but she was quickly cut off by Toz.
"I don't care. I still dislike you, but everyone hates Elizabeth a lot more. Anyways, we were actually just wondering about something."
"...Oh? Uh, what?" Diana was clearly caught off-guard.
"Elizabeth mentioned something about going to your house right after you were kicked out of here, is there anything that you would know about that?"
"WAIT! MY HOUSE!"
