#allsc

Moon sighs, closing her gray eyes. When she opens them once more, he realizes that instead of the anger he's expected, he finds them drowning in disappointment, and that's so much worse than he could have imagined. His gut twists as he opens his mouth to say something else, before closing it; there's really nothing he could say that could make up for being six hours late to her sixteenth birthday.

She watches him and asks with a drop of her shoulders, "Do you want to come in?"

"Can I?"

Normally she might roll her eyes and laugh at his hesitance, but now she simply shrugs, turning to go back inside but keeping the door open for him. He has another chance to run, maybe throw himself in the ocean so he never has to face her again, but instead he steps into the dark house, following her to the kitchen. The remains of a birthday party litter the living room, and the kitchen holds leftover cake and dirty dishes. She puts on the kettle to boil, getting two mugs from the cabinet before turning to him and asking, "You want cake?"

He looks at the cake on the kitchen island, nearly demolished but still with copious amounts of frosting decorating the edges and a pile of candles beside it. "No thank you." Truthfully, he couldn't eat even if he wanted to with the way his stomach keeps twisting itself into knots.

Moon nods, taking the kettle off the stove once it starts whistling, disturbing the Meowth that sleeps in the corner. She makes two mugs of tea and holds one out to him as she leans back on the counter. "Drink up and start talking."

Gladion looks down at the present in his hands and fumbles a bit in putting it on the counter and crossing the kitchen to accept the mug. She hops up onto the counter behind her and blows on the tea to try and cool it; he lets his mug burn his palms a bit, leaning against the kitchen island, glad he doesn't have to face the half-eaten cake, but more nervous about facing the dark-haired girl in front of him.

She starts by giving him the benefit of the doubt. "Were you not feeling well?"

He hesitates, but shakes his head; he can't lie to her after everything he's done. Sure, part of the reason he didn't come was because he was anxious, but he tells her, "It was…something else."

"I see," she hums simply, taking a sip of tea and turning her gaze to the kitchen sink. He looks down at his own mug, watching the steam coil through the air. "Lillie said she couldn't find you when she was leaving, so she came without you." Moon takes another sip of tea, turning her eyes on him. Gladion drums his fingers along the mug to give his hands something to do besides sweat under her gaze. She crosses her legs, ruffling the skirt of her dress that lays gently above her knees. "Do you secretly hate me?" she asks, adding in a sarcastic drawl, "Have you been waiting for the moment to prove we aren't friends and saw your chance?"

"That's ridiculous."

"What's ridiculous is showing up at a girl's house with a present at two in the morning and not expecting her to be pissed."

"To be fair, I completely expected that," he counters, though it falls flat as he takes a sip of tea. He grips the handle of the mug so tightly that his knuckles become paper white. "I wanted to come," he adds, but immediately cringes when she narrows her eyes at him. This is going well, he thinks to himself with an internal groan.

Moon sets her mug down, crossing her arms as she tells him, "I know. That's what you said when I first told you about the party two weeks ago. And then when I double-checked if you still wanted to come the other day, you said absolutely."

"Because I did want to, it's just –" He cuts himself off and deflates, setting down his own mug as well and trying to calm his bad hand as it begins to shake. He's scared and annoyed and angry and he hates that he has such an easy tell. Realizing he can't bring himself to say what he really wants, he settles lamely on, "I don't do parties."

"Good to know," she mutters, deciding to start taking the pins out of her hair to avoid choking the boy in front of her.

Wrong answer, he chides himself, and watches her hair come tumbling down in messy waves. He looks over at the present on the counter, and then over at the clock on the microwave to realize that it's nearing 3 in the morning and he has nothing left to lose. Moon shakes out the last of her hair before running a hand through it to try and calm the mess. She looks at him with a sigh of defeat, admitting, "I know you, Gladion. I figured you didn't want to come, but –"

He waits for her to go on, but she bites her bottom lip and shakes the thought out of her head. As she takes a sip of tea and avoids his eyes, he raises a brow, prodding, "But?"

"Nothing," she snaps, setting down her mug and realizing that if she's going to avoid his intense stare she needs something to do. Moon settles on cleaning up the living room, hopping off the counter and brushing past the blond boy to start gathering up paper plates from the coffee table. "It's stupid. Idiotic. Asinine." Despite himself, Gladion smirks, a chuckle escaping his lips as he watches her clearing the coffee table. She scowls, looking up at him with her left hand on her hip, her right holding a stack of used paper plates and plastic utensils. "What are you laughing about?"

"Sorry," he says, finishing his last sip of tea to hide the smile that keeps threatening to tug the corners of his lips upwards. "It's just nice to know I'm not the only one who's nervous."

Moon bites her cheek, going back to the kitchen and disposing the trash in her hands as she mutters, "I'm not nervous."

"You turn into a thesaurus whenever you get flustered."

She spins on her heel, arms crossed. He feels his hands fidgeting from her gaze once more, and regrets not having an excuse to hold a mug; he decides to shove his hands in the pockets of his jacket. She bites her cheek, and he realizes that she's blushing from some unspoken thought, but before he can dig deeper her eyes land on the present on the counter. "What is it?"

"Not my head on a platter, which I'm sure is the greatest gift I could get you at this point."

Despite her nerves, Moon smiles, letting a chuckle escape, fueling Gladion's own lopsided smile. She walks over to the present, lifting and examining it as she mumbles, "Nice wrapping paper. Really hit the nail on the head with all the crescent moons on it."

"Admittedly tacky," he mumbles with a smirk, realizing that she's successfully derailed the conversation to avoid going into whatever's been really bothering her. He takes the few steps that put him next to her, saying, "If you're going to open my present, then can you at least tell me why you're nervous?"

She raises a brow. "Since when do you make the rules?"

"Not a rule," he amends with a shrug, "Just a request."

Her gaze is intense and searching, and after a short eternity she whispers with resolution, "Deal." And before he can get self-conscious and lower her expectations, she carefully undoes his wrapping and opens the box, lifting her gift up to her eyes. It's a simple silver key ring with a handful of keys dangling, along with a Mareanie keychain.

As her brows furrow in confusion, he explains timidly, "They're all for Aether. They're marked, but with them you have full access to all the labs, conservatory, and the offices. I know you're studying with the professor, and I thought this might help, and…" And you can visit me anytime, his thoughts fill in the blank, but Gladion instead nods as she twirls the Mareanie keychain in her hands. "And the keychain just felt like it fit."

Unable to miss the opportunity for a jab, even when she feels herself becoming overwhelmed with excitement, Moon retorts, "You think I sink poison spikes into my enemies?"

"You could if you would."

The two laugh before silence takes over the kitchen once more. She can't stop going through all the keys, her eyes full of wonder, and he can't stop watching her with a small smile. Her fingers settle on playing with the keychain as she looks back up at him, asking quietly, "You really trust me with this?"

"Of course," he scoffs without a second thought, noticing the warmth now taking over her features before adding, "Just like I trust you to hold up your end of the deal."

She frowns, but puts the keys back into the box all the same, steadying herself on the counter and closing her eyes. Taking a deep breath, Moon opens her eyes and looks up at him, and it's her turn to feel three feet tall tonight. Gladion tries his best to ignore the moonlight filtering through the kitchen window that seems to make her glow. "I know big loud parties aren't your thing," she begins slowly, deliberately keeping her expression unreadable and her voice as even as possible, even as she feels a blush spreading on her cheeks, "But I thought that you might make an exception for me. I waited all night for you to show up, and when you didn't, I felt like you stood me up. And I started wondering if you even like me at all, never mind if you –" She bites her lip to cut herself off.

Gladion feels his heart stutter to a stop. "If I what?" he asks, not sure if he's still able to breathe.

"If you've really been flirting with me like I've been trying to flirt with you for the past six months," she admits in one rushed breath, feeling her own blood run cold at the realization of what she's said. Moon refuses to break eye contact, though, even as the gravity of what she's said hits her like a tackle; in one sentence, she's broken the illusion that her feelings for the president of the Aether Foundation are anything but platonic, and she couldn't take the words back even if she wanted to.

His eyes widen and his mouth falls open slightly. "Y-you," he splutters, his brain scrambling to process her words through his shock, "You were flirting with me?" Gladion feels his head spinning as he looks down at her, to the point that he leans against the counter for support.

"Wait," she says, her own embarrassment disappearing in the blink of an eye when she realizes just how caught off guard he is by her statement. Moon raises a brow, and lets out an incredulous laugh as she asks, "You seriously didn't pick up on that?"

"I thought I did, but I wasn't sure, and I didn't –" He shakes his head, thinking to himself in his shock, She's been flirting with me and I've been trying to desperately hide my crush for a year.

Moon tilts her head. "Yes?"

Gladion looks over at the oven clock to see that it's four in the morning and he officially has nothing left to lose. He swallows the last of his pride and looks down at her, folding his arms as he explains, "I always thought you were too good for me. That maybe you were just being nice to me to humor me, or because I'm Lillie's brother."

"You think I would visit you on a nearly daily basis for years just to 'be nice'?" she scoffs, and she feels weight being lifted off her shoulders as she finally gets the chance to say the things she's been biting back for months. "Gladion, when you didn't show up tonight, I thought you'd realized that you're too good for me. You became the president of Aether when you were fourteen, for Arceus' sake!"

"You became the Alola Champion, captured a Legendary, and saved an entire region from Ultra Beasts when you were twelve," he counters.

"Yeah, but you saved Type:Null and survived on your own while –"

"Okay but you essentially dismantled an entire gang of –"

"Fine!" she shouts in exasperation, throwing her hands up in the air, "We're both too good for each other." They blink at each other, taking in the ridiculousness of the situation, and laugh, the final tension in the air being shoved out the window and into the night as it transitions to dawn. Once their laughter has died down, Moon swallows a lump in her throat, taking a half step closer to Gladion as she asks, "So now that we're at an impasse, what should we do?"

He feels his fingers twitch and takes a glance at the clock. 4:27. "Well," he says slowly, looking down at her with the smile and blush that's always been reserved just for her. "I'd like to kiss you." Her lips part slightly in surprise at his words, and he immediately backpedals, feeling himself growing nervous as he rambles, "Only if you'd let me, of course, and I don't –"

She cuts him off when she goes on her tip-toes and presses her smile gently against his lips, feeling his arms hesitantly wrap around her and pull her impossibly closer.

When they pull apart and look at each other, he finally lets himself breathe and relax, chuckling, "So, have I officially ruined your birthday?"

Moon smirks. "Absolutely. But combined with this turn of events and your amazing present, there's still something you could do to save it."

Gladion raises a brow. "And what would that be?"

Her hands go from his shoulders to cup his face as she mumbles, "Kiss me again."