Sorry for the lateness, hope you enjoy!
Valen didn't waste any time after his presentation of Titian's Ceasefire a couple of days ago—his laptop's playing footage of contest he entered the day after. He's watch the footage with Melanie, who's casually resting her arm around his neck. Apparently, this is what happens when you're considered a giant Te-Ursaring bear. Ursaring bear sounds cooler than Teddiursa bear, so at least him be a giant Ursaring bear.
His opponent in the finals of the Battle Stage was a popular performer from Kroonstad in the Alkmaardam region. The performer's female Pyroar and Slowking, dazzled the crowd with a magical display of their burning passion. This is one of the coolest things about being a coordinator—the arts are a connector that knows no borders.
Heh, look how cool his Pokémon and him looked. The soigné king sending a warrior and his stallion into battle. They're at the moment where Gengar and Salamence are about to combine Dragon Rush with Phantom Force. Here comes the chant.
"Rulers of the shadows and master of the skies…join forces set yourself upon those who oppose us! Superior ride to victory with Draconic Disaster!"
Gotta have an overdramatic chant to rock the house. Sure, a giant phantom, serpentine-like dragon can rock the house by itself. Having your Pokémon using it like a mech definitely will. But alas, catchphrases are too much fun for him to resist. The attack fusion clinched the win for him and his Pokémon family, but his opponent took it in stride. Hilda and Rosa had a race to see who could jump on his back first. Hilda came out on top.
Melanie and him get onto their feet and step away from the walnut table. This time, she slides both other arms around his neck and plops a kiss onto his forehead.
"I'm proud of you," she whispers in a chimelike tone. "Keep it up."
Valen places one hand on Melanie's back. "Thank you." He strokes Melanie's long, black hair. "Thanks for dropping by too."
"Anytime, big guy." She stares deep into his eyes with the gleam she's had since age five. "Friends forever."
"Thank you, Lady Obvious." The forehead flick's obvious too.
There's another contest coming up and he's definitely entering that one too. First, they should probably let go of each other…except their synchronized minds are preventing that. Not that he minds, but it doesn't mean he's cute.
"Look what you made me do." Melanie laughs and lets go. "Stop being such a Teddiursa bear."
"I'm still a Teddiursa bear?" Valen sighs and lowers his head. "Why can't you let me be an Ursaring bear instead?"
"Because I said so." Melanie flicks his forehead again. "Deal with it."
Rosa's giggling travels down the staircase and through their years. She's in her painting studio on the third floor, painting a portrait of Melanie on Valen's back after said contest. Hilda's out and about with Lisia—they're looking to pass along the Pokétopia Park and Battle Frontier project to somebody that can pull it off.
Hilda's also considering her successor, just in case she does step away from the BW Agency. He's proud of her for handling the matter the way she did—it shows how much she's grown since her teens and the early years of the agency.
"Where's the broody duo?" Melanie asks. "You scare them off or something?"
"Not this time, they're out back." Valen shrugs. "Said they wanted to test themselves."
He was hoping Leaf would come over too, but she had to take a rain check. At least they've been hanging out more, as evident by a bunch of pictures.
As far back as his early teens, he always seems to befriend bubbly and sassy girls the most quickly. Rosa and Melanie definitely played a huge role in that, but they all share at least one trait with mom. Mom enjoys reminding him, his balls of fluff, and the squad that "she's on the 'gram."
The sun bathes the backyard in with an ocean of rays, the swaying grass sparkling underneath. Several of the Pokémon happily scurry to trees that glisten with berries. Waterlilies have been added to the makeshift pond, as per Madame Rosa's decree. The vivid plants and bright water makes this portion look like a Caldre Monet painting.
Rosa's Milotic is apparently trying to strut it for his Salamence, her elegant figure illuminated by the sunlight. She fluttering her eyelids like her trainer, and Salamence is…trying to pull a Silver? He's trying to cloak his feelings in a veil of denial, but the blushing is obvious. Maybe he's looking away because Rosa's Hydreigon offering to be his wingman.
All it takes is a kiss from Milotic to shatter Salamence's fragile shield. The tri-colored dragon's given up on cloaking his feelings and is now trying to act mysterious and cool for his girlfriend. If this was a cartoon, Milotic would have hearts in those sparkling eyes of hers.
"You might want to take a look at this, big guy."
Even if Melanie didn't say that, the battle cries would've caught his attention. He has too many questions that he can't even put all of them into words.
"What."
He loves a good presentation of raw drama, but a Caravaggio painting this isn't. Why are Silver and Gladion having a battle with plastic swords, and why are they screaming like Champion Leonidas and the Cyralians? Did extraterrestrials replace the real Silver and Gladion with these overdramatic clones, or did their past rivalry resurface? Clearly, it was extraterrestrials.
His dumbfounded expression is mimicked by Melanie and every single Pokémon, with Gardevoir being the dissenter. She's leaning up against the wall with her arms folded. Her eyes are tilted and her grin's lopsided. Guess she's really amused by this. Silver's Feraligatr and Gladion's Obstagoon shrug at him and decide to play along by bopping each other on the head.
Melanie nudges Valen with her elbow. "Pssssst, take a closer look at their outfits." Her grin's faint and mischievous. "This is incredible."
Why are these ding dongs dressed in attire from three different centuries? Not that he minds if they wear the clothes he wore in various films he took part in at PokéStar Studios and Sunset Studios, but at least get it right. He's got no idea how to react to their musketeer hats or their Victorian era trench coats so he'll let an expert handle this.
"Time to get serious." Melanie places her hands on her hips. "As the squad's fashion queen, I demand that you two explain yourselves."
"We took a peek at one of Valen's books." Silver tries to strike Gladion his plastic sword, but Gladion is quick to defend with his own. "We read about a guy who challenged a critic to a both a wooden sword duel and a Pokémon battle."
"We wanted to see who has the better action movie skills." Gladion pokes Silver with his wooden sword, snickering at the grumbling. "Loser buys lunch tomorrow."
"I'm playing Emile Manet, Gladion's playing the critic."
"Like I told you before, I have a better chance of finding the lost island of Atlantis than your cover stories actually working."
"Y'all are stupid, but-" Valen plops himself onto a contour chair and flips open his book on Neolithic and Bronze Age Kasmenestian art. "Gladion's almost right."
Silver's eyes widen and his face reddens. "What?!"
Gladion's smile contorts into a wide grin. "I've won again."
"Manaphy and Phione sightings are most common in an area believed to have had an island long ago." Valen's fingers rub on the page's texture, causing a smooth rubbing sound. "Could be coincidence, could be that supposed natural habitat." He secretly gestures towards somebody in the house. "Recently, they found some underwater ruins."
"No, he's not trolling." Melanie takes a seat and crosses her legs. "I was there when he learned of this."
"This is ridiculous!" Silver feels Butterfree in his stomach. "This is madness!"
"…Madness?" Gladion furrows his brow and raises his plastic sword. "THIS IS CYRALIA!"
Gladion's charge is halted by Hilda's Braviary, who sits right in-between and causes Gladion to trip onto the grass. The avian's smugly grins as he makes himself comfy.
"And what you're doing is called stupidity."
Valen intentionally avoids eye contact, but his devious grin grows as Hilda'z white tank top and black waistcoat comes into view. Melanie's following his lead, or maybe he's following Hilda's lead. Synchronization does that sometimes. To be fair, they're looking at a person who radiates massive amounts of sunshine. Hilda approaches with her hands on her hips, but she briefly smiles and gives Valen a kiss to the top of his head.
She stomps closes and Silver and Gladion back up. The duo frantically waving their hands in front of them as Hilda folds her arms. Her Glare attack conjuring up a paralyzing trepidation in their minds.
"I go to the agency to check up on everybody and I come back to see this? You two couldn't even get the eras right—they're literally sorted by time period."
An awkward silence blankets the backyard, minus the fact that Valen's playing an Old West movie soundtrack on his phone and Melanie's trying not to laugh. Even the Pokémon are waiting in suspense, but Hilda's Starmie and Valen's Gengar lean too far forward and faceplants the grass.
"You two are something, that's for sure." Hilda closes her eyes and shakes her head. "The looks on your faces were priceless." Her mouth contorts into a devious smile. "If you two want to act like this, you've got to enter a play." She rubs her hands together. "Oh yes, you two are going to look great in Shakespearean theatre."
"NO!" Silver and Gladion's eyes widen and their faces flush. "We don't want a repeat of last time!"
"Should've checked yourselves before you wrecked yourselves." Hilda cocks her head and places a hand in front of her mouth. "Try not to fall off the stage again, okay?"
Valen snaps a few photos and sends them to Plumeria with a joke request for help. Upon seeing Plumeria stating that he's got her sympathy with the eye roll emoji, he smirks and shows Melanie. That sassy laugh will always be a pleasant tune.
"Don't put me in a romcom play as the male lead," Silver grumbles with his teeth clenched. "I won't get fooled again."
Enter a play, Lyra said. It would be fun, Ethan said. There's no mistletoe at the holiday party, Leaf said. ...Humph, unrelated nonsense. Nothing happened at that party to begin with, much like how Gladion can never be the noble edgelord he just spoke of. At least it made Hilda laugh more.
"Hehe, now I want to do it even more!" Hilda folds her palms while hopping up and down. "Don't forget that my favorite hobby is to spend time doing everything that's interesting and fun!"
Gladion crosses his arms and cocks a brow. "What about our fun?"
"What about your fun?" Hilda titters and leans closer to Gladion's right ear. "Don't you want to troll Silver even more?"
"….Fine, you win."
"I heard that." Silver directs his gaze towards Valen. "Aren't you going to say something?"
Valen flips to the next page. "Nope." His eyes meet a photograph of a jug from around 2500 BCE. "Your theatre and Kris woes aren't my problem."
"Hehe, I knew it." Hilda looks behind her to wink at Valen. "Maybe my favorite hobby is spending time with a certain someone, hm?"
Valen shrugs. "Dunno, seems unlikely." He gets up and approaches her. "But one thing is for certain."
"And what would that be, hm?"
"That everything about you is amazing.~" Valen wraps his arms around Hilda's midsection and hoists her upwards. "And I want to say it again: I'm proud of you for how you've been handling the park situation."
A burst of light emits from Hilda's eyes. Those words are so precious to her that it makes her even more determined to resolve the matter regarding her future with the agency.
He puts Hilda back down and they share a kiss. She resumes trolling Silver and Gladion and he returns to the contour chair.
He texts Leaf, Ragnar, and Jacques about this amusing situation and Leaf responds at the speed of light. Much like Rosa and Hilda, the response is happy emojis galore. Leaf follows it up with a promise that she come over again soon.
Ragnar and Jacques are roasting the brooders, but Wes interrupts with a plea to save him from the "walking nightmare." No can do, plus Rui's already caught wind of this. According to her, Wes will go to the arcade and he will like it.
As for Melanie, she's now snapping her fingers to a recently released tune by Hilbert. He's about to text Skyla when Melanie wraps her right arm around his neck and makes her bob with her.
Even after all these years, silly gestures like this remains one of her primary ways to remind him that they're stuck with each other. He never says no because it's technically a free platonic hug or cuddle. Depends on how one looks at it.
Two can play at that game, so he wraps an arm around her waist and pulls her closer. However, Melanie's tilting her head towards the back door. It takes only a few seconds later to see why.
"Here's Rooooosa!"
Her hair's down and she's donning her white Guzmani jacket. She kisses him on the lips, then she whips out her phone. She stands next to Melanie, who's more than eager to be in these photos. Even though he can get flustered by surprise pictures, he's cool with it.
"I'm here too!"
Valen was hoping Rosa and/or Hilda would bring Lisia along. She waves at him and calls out her Altaria. Salamence and his dragon bros happily road to welcome the star.
"I've got a request for you, Valen." Lisia makes a peace sign and spins. "But it can wait!"
A request, huh? He wonders what that's about, but he'll find out soon enough. He's just happy that she came over again.
Back in the house, back to being shy about his voice. Why's he so inconsistent, especially when he's come to trust Lisia as if he's known her personally for longer? Who put the print of Jorgel van Eyck's Singing Gardevoir directly in his line of sight? Who moved the recently restored secrétaire desk with the marquetry depicting Classical architecture? …Oh…oh yeah…Gardevoir and him moved that one out of Hilda's gaming room to make room for another shelf.
The living room isn't awkwardly quiet thanks to Rosa and Lisia, but Hilda seems to have taken off like a rocket. Melanie's rocking her feet, her gaze alternating between the antique furniture and him. As they wait, Silver and Gladion have their eyes on the replica of Gianluigi Bernini's The Anguish of King AZ and the ceramics that surround it.
"Heeeey, snap out of it!"
Hilda didn't thwack him this time, what a plot twist. He may as well try-she just thwacked him with a rolled up poster for the umpteenth time.
"Come on, you've got a good voice!" Lisia stands up and lifts a foot and a fist. "There's no reason to be shy when you're now besties with me!" she spins. "Show me what've you got, hun!~"
Deep breaths, take deep breaths. There's nothing to be nervous about—give that negative distortion a beatdown. Doubt can't do nothing to Team Skull's Valen—he's a straight rider and a fighter. He can…no, he will do this.
"Imagine being with somebody who values your inner beauty too, your personality is why I wanna spend eternity with Rosa and you.~" He kisses Rosa and Hilda on the lips. "Imagine me watching the sunset and kissing you, ain't nobody ever made my heart sing like you two.~"
…No shyness? No dorky him? This keeps happening and it's consistent…it's a rather strange sensation.
"You did it!" Lisia locks her fingers under her chin. "That was A-MA-ZING!"
Valen blinks, then smiles again. "Huh, guess I did."
"Keep on trying and that shyness will vanish!" Lisia makes a peace sign and high fives Melanie. "We'll keep on trying, then we'll try some more!"
"To stay together and find a place worth fighting for!" Hilda pulls out her phone and snaps photos of herself. "We're on the road!"
"Tee-hee, follow Rosa rooooad!"
Valen's attention has been diverted towards Gladion telling Silver to take notes, while Rosa's mind overflows with the philosophy of beauty.
Rosa's proud of her looks, but why have some people overlooked her affinity for the arts in favor of her looks? Why do people try to look like you but don't follow the good examples you're trying to set? Are the two locked in a perpetual cycle of superficiality?
Rosa's eyes meet one of her self-portraits—she painted herself as a elegant Renaissance princess. It's been placed next to a reproduction woodcut and watercolor by Dürer that feature a Serperior and a Hydreigon respectively. Her inspiration was Dürer's Self-Portrait as Critias, Dürer being among the artists she's studied most extensively.
Dürer was a big influence in why she practiced in different mediums, much like how Rembrandt influenced her experimentation with oil paints. Dürer's prints are a treasure chest for artists looking for models and she's no exception. These facts serve as examples of she wants people to ask her about and there's a person who's been doing that since their childhood friend days.
She wanted to be with somebody that she could have deep, thought-provoking discussions about art and history with. Somebody who values the beauty that's inside of each and every noble soul. Somebody who appreciates the beauty of the creative human mind that has conjured up a plethora of marvels throughout history. On her first romantic date with Valen, they had a deep discussion about Altomare's artistic history.
"I wanna be the very best and make your girls jealous!~" Valen wraps an arm around Rosa's waist. "I'll travel across the land cuz you're so intelligent, gorgeous, and zealous!~"
"Oh shut up." Rosa blushes and waves a hand. "You've already won."
"Oui." Valen kisses Rosa's right hand, which makes her giggle. "C'est un grand honneur d'être à tu, déesse."
"Hehe, Val-Val swooned you again." Hilda cocks her head with a hand over her mouth. "Betcha he can't get me a second time."
"Ah, mais n'êtes-tu pas une déesse aussi?"
"Oof, that's too powerful." Hilda waves a hand like she's sweating. "The Kalosian makes me evolve into a Charizard every time." She cups Valen's face with her hands. "You're right about me—that's why you're a lucky boy." She winks and blows a kiss. "Buuuut I'm luckier, right?"
"Oui."
"Silly boy." Rosa kisses his forehead. "Our favorite silly boy, that is."
Rosa runs a hand through her untied hair, which flows down to her lower back. Sorry boys, you've got nothing on Valey so this queen's forever taken. Why would she leave a sweetheart who values their inner beauty just as much, if not more?
Hilda had a similar desire to hers—she's enthralled by the cultures of the world. She wants to learn new things all the time, and she loves it when somebody lets her express her hobbies to her heart's content. One time, she nearly sent Valen tumbling from her excitement over a video on the Arctic cultures and their art. Tee-hee, that was soooo funny!
Rosa's gaze locks onto the portrait of Valen and Hilda that she painted a few years back. The pitch-black background was inspired by the portraiture of Jorgel van Eyck. She loves to take photos but she also loves spending the time, effort, and heart required for immortalizing somebody via portraiture. It's why she's painted nineteen portraits of Valen or with Valen included.
She slides her hand over Valen's right hand. All Hilda and her had to do was look next to them to find their soulmate. They'll return every favor he's done for them. They'll do anything to show how much he means to them.
Oops, she should poof back into the fun conversation. She's soooooo silly!
"Melanie, can I ask you about romance?" Lisia folds her hands on her lap. "I've heard you aren't—"
"Don't worry about it." Melanie's gaze moving towards Valen then back to Lisia. "He got lucky and found two amazing people who are more than okay with our intimate friendship." She high fives Rosa and Hilda, then around her bestie it goes. "But my exes couldn't handle that, but it's their loss."
"I like your spunk!"
Melanie gives Lisia a high five, then she gives Valen a fist bump. "Why should I end a friendship with somebody who treasures my personality, and has done so for the last seventeen years?"
The chime of the doorbell briefly halts the conversation, and Valen's already off to open it. He doesn't know why everybody else's smiling or smirking, but that's fine. He already has a good idea of who's on the other side of the door.
"It's awesome to see you express yourself, airhead." A sassy voice he knows by heart enters the house first. "Bet you weren't expecting me, huh?"
He may be calmly stepping aside bur he's jittering with excitement inside. He doesn't get to hang out with Skyla in person as often as his other close friends. When he does see her, they waste no time in sweeping each other into a hard embrace.
"Right on time." Valen pats Skyla's back. "I didn't think you'd make it—the next contest two days from now."
"Neither did I, buuuut the desire to see my friends in Calvana helped me with against the Elite Four's latest challenger."
"Do I still owe you friend cuddles?"
"Yes, but we'll discuss that later."
Not that he'll ever say no but he's still not cute. Also, they should probably head towards the loving room.
"I know you were watching that presentation, but how'd you know about—"
"I can read you like a book." Skyla stops and pokes Valen's nose. "I also have reliable sources."
Valen returns to his seat while Skyla sits next to Melanie and Lisia, the former having already scooted over. Silver's looking in his direction like he's got a question. Valen wouldn't bat an eye were it not for the wholesome atmosphere. He may be a dunce, but he's not that big of a dunce.
Resting on the walnut table closest to him is a book on the nude in art. Silver's gaze is swerving between him and the book. Silver won't have to do that anymore because he just picked up.
"Why does art have so many nude people in it?" Silver inquires. "I've seen it in classical antiquity, in Renaissance paintings, in nineteenth-century paintings, what's the scoop?"
"Good job on using the correct terminology this time," Rosa teases. "I'll let Valey handle this one."
Yep, just as he suspected. Silver may act like a broody grump but he's gained a big heart over the years.
"Your voice matters too, sweetie." Rosa caresses his cheek. "I could explain it with ease, but then I wouldn't see the beautiful gleam in your eyes."
"That's why she tends to remain quiet, Val-Val."
"…Aright." Valen straightens out his posture. "The nude in art is a representation of what the ideal human form is."
Unbeknownst to everyone, Valen's Luxray is listening in. In fact, he overheard everything by chance. Did he hear Valen show his singing voice without getting shy…or did he imagine it? The entire team have had the mental image of Valen shedding all of his shyness.
Either way, it's great to see Valen—Hilda's Umbreon's coming! Act cool! …Oh, she just wants him to join the other Pokémon in the backyard. He still has to play it cool, so he'll just shut his eyes and pretend to brood. Um…he only cares about his cheese puffs and the trainer he deeply loves! Can't forget his teammates and he'll show humans how to ball!
Umbreon blinks and looks around her. There's no ball here, so she asks Luxray what he's talking about. Luxray smirks and says he's extensively studied human slang, which makes Umbreon's eyes sparkle like her trainer's necklace.
Oh no, Umbreon winked at him! She's so cute! Don't break character—you're a proud feline! Agh, not her smile! It's too cute!
Listen up, you silly Luxray…silly him…just listen! If she asks if you love her, tell her "only partly." He only loves his teammates and his trainer, he's sorry. Umbreon fawns over broody Pokémon to begin with, plus she loves a challenge. Even if she does get adorably shy.
Agh, he's been spotted by Skyla! He's glad to see her too, but he's not a cute kitten. He's an edgelord, so she should be calling him an edgelord kitt-feline. And only foolish humans pet edgelord felines, and no human in that room is foolish. Therefore, he has concluded that they shouldn't-no "pspsps" allowed! Anything but that!
Oh no, she's swooping in for the pets! He's become so numb, he's too edgy for pets! So don't you dare pet his belly or head! He's a proud feline so become more aware!
...Wait, he just contradicted the requirements for petting him. Whatever, he'll just take a seat. He loves seeing how happy Valen gets when Skyla's around, plus her pets feel nice. Skyla can pet him if she wants to.
Silver's Zoroark grins over all of his friends enjoying their time in Valen's backyard. He's about to join Valen's Luxray, Hilda's Umbreon, Melanie's Absol, and Gladion's Sylveon for a brooding session, but why isn't Gladion's Hisuian Zoroark saying hello to him?
Instead, Hisuian Zoroark turns away and snarls. No matter how many times he says hello, Gladion's Hisuian Zoroark will not give Silver's Zoroark any attention. It's not like she missed him or anything, idiot. No, she's not blushing. Muk off, Silvally. Don't brag because you defeated Brandon's Regirock.
Gengar vanishes and appears to flop onto the vibrant grass. He rolls over and stands up, letting out a nonchalant cry. To his left is a table, currently the site of an arm wrestling match between Gladion's Obstagoon and Valen's Golisopod. To his right, Hilda's Emboar and Beartic cheer over a touchdown while watching Unovan football. Melanie's Swampert and Silver's Feraligatr seem to be confused by the humans in the glowing box. Gengar can relate, for he too doesn't get why those humans are using Tackle attack on each other.
Close to the Unovan football fan duo, Melanie's Dragonite and Silver's Kommo-o are using a giant basket for an makeshift basketball hoop. Dragonite isn't flying out of fairness, but he still's packing a mean slam dunk. Here comes Gardevoir with the cupcakes. She's pleased to see that everybody's enjoying themselves. They'll be even happier when they see-huh? What's going on?
Gardevoir blinks, double checking to make sure what she's seeing is legit. She narrows her eyes and scowls. The cupcake container, was full less than ten minutes ago.
Gardevoir folds her arms and scans the area for the culprits. If the cupcake order saves both of them the trouble, she might be merciful. ...Nobody wants to fess up? Whatever, it's no big deal. She's now officially on a cupcake hoarder hunt and she knows how to weed them out.
Melanie's Scizor is pointing at Luxray, but Luxray…doesn't mind? He's feeding them to Umbreon so she'll let that one slide. Where's the other cupcakes go, though? Luxray never grabs more than one-bingo. The cupcake caper is Gladion's Houndoom. The dragons are roasting Houndoom—she also had no idea that Houndoom could evolve into a Snorlax.
Luxray uses the chance to ask Gardevoir about earlier, for he could've sworn he hear Valen really overcome his shyness and-huh?! Is that…that Valen humming?! There's an instrumental playing too! But he usually he gets flustered whenever that comes up!
Luxray and his teammates look at each other with shocked expressions. Quick, he'll lead everybody to the back door!
"Already rockin' a suit so I know my game's proper, I hope she remembers that I'm a super smooth talker.~"
Valen's melodious tone rings through Luxray's ears. That's it, that's the exact way he asked Rosa out when he was seventeen! Right after a contest!
As Hydreigon, Milotic, Garchomp, and Umbreon join them, memories of that joyous day come flooding back to Luxray. Valen was so shy earlier that day…just like he was shy recently. His boost in self-confidence…it's beautiful…incredible…amazing…all the words.
Oh no, his eyes feel watery! Oh no, oh Muk, oh gosh, oh cupcakes, oh cheese puffs, hurry up and brood! Brood brood brood brood! You're a proud and edgy Luxray, don't you dare cry!
…No…proud…edgy felines…don't cry….sniff…sob…hush, Gengar! Water got splashed into his eyes! He's not crying, you're crying!
No Salamence, you're crying! Stop trying to show off, Goli-oh. Golisopod's already let loose the tears...Typhlosion and Gardevoir have already lost this battle.
…And there goes Gengar and Salamence, thus making this an awkward moment for him. He's the only one among the team that's not crying, but he…can't…contain…he's…so…proud. Fine, here are his happy tears! He's not a cute kitty, Obstagoon!
Hearing the continuation of his trainer's melodious and high-pitched tone makes Luxray relents on hiding his purr. Salamence's buried his face into Milotic's body, and she's wrapped herself around him in a tender embrace. Her Hydreigon teammate, plus Hilda's Garchomp, Melanie's Dragonite and Silver's Kommo-o, drop by and pat his head.
Valen's now stopped, but the five dragon bros are now performing karaoke with Lisia's Altaria, Rosa's Hydreigon is doing his happy dance, and Valen just gave him a great idea. It's time spring into action like the cool feline he is. Instead of an edgy rock instrumental, he must use the backyard's stereo to play a smooth, slow beat. Not too loud, for a proper feline must be polite.
Gardevoir's offering a rose for his smooth venture, and he'll gladly accept it. The rose's clenched in-between his teeth, and now it's time to quote his trainer to a certain extent.
Luxray walks closer to Umbreon and bows like a proper gentlemen feline. He's already starting to make her blush, but her face becomes that of a Flareon when he kisses Umbreon's front left paw.
Luxray calls Umbreon "the cutest Pokémon I've ever seen," which makes Umbreon's black fur jolts up and her head in-between her front legs. He follows it up by calling her "Miss Umbreon" and purring for her paw on the dance…backyard? Not quite a fancy human room but it'll do.
Umbreon can't believe it, is this really happening? They shared a friend dance at that musical, now this handsome feline wants a second dance. He wants to call her his baby. It would make his heart purr "yeeeeeah?" It's…not a dream…is it?
…It's not a dream….IT'S NOT A DREAM! KYAAAAAAA! Her crush asked her to dance!
Luxra wants to dance in a manner akin to what the humans call club dancing. However, his baby girl seems to want to add a pitch of what's called ballroom dancing. He doesn't really understand the difference but he's fine with it.
Huh?!
Luxray has to keep himself from screaming—Umbreon was holding out on him at the musical. Look at how graceful her movements are! He can't even hide his blushing but he could care less! Purr, he loves it when she do it like that. Girl do the twirl and bring it right back.~
As a token of gratitude towards the other's trainer, the lovebirds press their lips together and then stare into each other's eyes. They're becoming less shy about their feelings for each other, just like Valen about his voice.
Valen's Golisopod and Rosa's Serperior embrace for the same reason. Hilda's Beartic tries to join in but he trips over his Starmie teammate and faceplants. Rosa's Eelektross guesses that Beartic got the cold shoulder and she snickers over the ensuing groaning of every Pokémon. Except for Gengar and the dragons because they've been hurled into laughter.
Serperior still remembers that day like it was yesterday. Rosa wasted no time in screaming "yes" over and over again. Haha, she was blushing while debating if she should let her hair down or not.
Valen's right about human guys, but Rosa's face would always shine like the sun whenever she saw him. Even back when she was a Snivy who had just met Rosa, she felt how close Valen and her were. She thought his Gardevoir was the coolest Pokémon ever because she was so cocky in battle.
Valen would stay longer in Unova if Rosa had a gym battle coming up. He was present for five out of eight, with the other threw recorded at his request. He was present when Rosa entered her first contest and her first play, plus they entered their first Pokémon Musical together. He was present when Rosa won her first league conference and first Pokémon World Tournament competition.
One lingering questions remains, and it's never been properly answered. How and why Valen became shy about this is a mystery to her—that fancy food place was packed. Not to mention Rosa placed it in the glowing box place called EeveeTube. Maybe he felt a little embarrassed?
Humans can be pretty weird, but they're also fascinating beings.
Rosa's inner thoughts about beauty was, more or less inspired by a novel: The Most Beautiful Woman in Florence: A Story of Botticelli by Alyssa Palombo.
The real Manet really did challenge a friend who was a critic to a sword duel. I learned of it via Ross King's book, The Judgement of Paris: The Revolutionary Decade That Gave The World Impressionism
C'est un grand honneur d'être à tu, déesse=It is a great honor to be yours, goddess
Ah, mais n'êtes-tu pas une déesse aussi=Ah, but aren't you a goddess too