#commonershipping

The wedding was beautiful. The sun shone above, hot and bright enough that the cold spring day felt warmed by love and lit with hope. (But not too hot that the wedding party was sweating under their black suits and dresses.) The wind wasn't strong enough to blow under their shade, but was strong enough for a light breeze to filter through the pine trees and bring their scent to the scene. The flying types above floated and wheeled, filling the sky with the magical site of Drifloon and Starly waking up for the springtime.

Of course they'd brought in magic of their own as well. White lilies and blue forget-me-nots lining the rows of chairs in a way that mimicked Platinum's beautiful white dress and Diamond's light blue tie. Little patches of ice in shady places had been put there by Mitsumi's Glaceon (even rich families could save a lot on wedding decor if you got your friends to help out), adding a shine of frost to the warm day. The battlefield, set up so that Diamond and Platinum could have their first Pokemon battle as wedded partners, was crafted perfectly for a fair fight, yet hidden between trees so that it wouldn't distract from the beauty of the ceremony itself.

The guests, invited from all over the region and beyond, were blinking back tears of joy as Diamond and Platinum shared their kiss. (It wasn't the first one by any stretch of the imagination. It made Pearl feel weird that he had seen the first and yet somehow this was the special one.) From researcher to scientist to comedian to chef to family members to dexholders to fellow fans of Diamond's favorite show, all were overcome by emotion. Pearl watched fellow dexholders from regions beyond Sinnoh (all of the Sinnoh dexholders had made their way into the groomsmen or bridesmaid lines) whooped and clapped inappropriately as battlers tend to do. Professor Rowan was… there, looking like he was more interested in the cloud of purple Driftloon in the sky than the wedding, but certainly still happy for his chosen dexholders. Diamond's mother sighed and wiped wetness from her eyes with one hand, the other holding tight to Diamond's Rotom in phone form, taking a video to remember and steadying herself more than the Rotom. Platinum's parents had taken a moment away from serious business talk with invited scientists to break down into proud tears and sniffles. Platinum's younger sister, Moon, had been sitting with her friend Sun and whispering about parts of the ceremony that differed from Alola before she'd gone up beside her sister as a bridesmaid.

Sun now looked extremely interested in what she had said to him, or maybe he was just looking to expand his courier business into other regions and targets. Pearl couldn't really blame him for the lack of focus. The Berlitz family- which he realized with a pang that he was suddenly very publicly and visibly excluded from -was extremely rich and could afford the largest wedding any of them had ever seen. Huge amounts of guests, the perfect battlefield, dresses and suits draped in gems and frozen flowers, food that was to die for, rings that the prices of would have killed him by heart attack if he had been the person in charge of funds. It was perfect.

He should have felt happy.

The tears running down his face should have been from joy.

Pearl had a flower of blue and of white in his suit pocket, but that tiny bit of inclusion didn't work when he was standing in the “best man” place rather than really beside them. His fingers were without rings, and though his suit was white like only Diamond's was, it felt like a formality because Moon had to wear a white dress too as her sister's bridesmaid. (They couldn't risk getting in trouble with the law.) The fact that he was performing an act with Diamond later didn't make him feel any better either. Them being partners in more ways than just comedy would be missed by most of the crowd, he knew it. Even the idea of promoting his show to so many important people didn't excite him. Nor did the idea of him getting a specific battle with Platinum. That too would be missed. After all, the entire wedding party was chock full of fellow battlers, many far far better than him. They'd probably all do a little sparring once the party bit of the wedding really began.

If Pearl had been the one in charge of Sinnoh's marriage laws, this wouldn't have happened. He wouldn't have had to get kicked out. He wouldn't have been put back to friend status. (He blinked hard to try and get rid of the tears. It didn't work.) He wouldn't have had to offer to be the husband without a ring or legal connection. Yeah, he knew that Platinum had technically only officially dated one or the other of them at a time, but suddenly there wasn't a chance that he would ever be the “official” one again. His partners were married, and the Berlitz family was very serious about that kind of thing. He was never going to be "the one" in the eyes of the public ever again.

They kissed and he felt numb, even though he usually liked the sight. The crowd whistled and cheered and he felt his eyes blur with more than just tears. The photographers snapped photos of the happy “couple” and Pearl had a feeling that he was getting cut out, despite the photographers being warned against doing so. This was a victory for the law, so long as him and his ringless hand stayed that way. Even well paid photographers could see that.

Platinum all but floated back through the watchers, and Pearl's triplet Jun elbowed him in the side about his luck when she smiled serenely over her shoulder at Pearl. But Pearl, usually so full of humor, couldn't find it in himself to smile back at all.

What luck was there in getting kicked out?

He knew that everyone who really mattered understood that he was as much a part of this as Diamond or Platinum were, but somehow, deep in him, he could not replicate the feeling for his own.

His mind wirred like a casset tape waiting to be flipped over onto the other side. (Or waiting to end with a crash.) Jun was still trying to hype him up, hopping up and down and blabbering something about wanting a girl (or guy) just as cool as Pearl's. (As if they were his.) Koya, a significantly shorter but much calmer groomsman, was looking at him with an odd sense understanding. But in Pearl's head he was just a police officer trying to figure out if the pay bonus of turning him in would be worth it. Pearl really hoped it wasn't that. The yearning alone should have been enough to shove him in a cell for life.

They were like him. Alone. Yet it was their rival Hareta, the last of Pearl's side of the wedding party, that reflected his feelings the most. The guy was practically sobbing, and though Pearl was almost sure it was because he was happy, the hand over his eyes and the shaking of his shoulders was… not that somehow. His teeth were grit like he was in pain, and the gap where his upper left canine had once been was prominently empty. Hareta had problems with understanding romance and weddings and why they were different from friendships, but Pearl knew he wanted to feel it. He knew that he wasn't as dense as he pretended to be. Both of them knew they couldn't get what they wanted, not really, and as a result Hareta was too strong a reflection for Pearl to turn away from, lest the mirror be broken and both of them stand out again.

Or maybe he just didn't want to watch his partners get married without him.

…

Numb. They battled, and though it was beautiful and amazing, he didn't really watch. Numb. He didn't really try when he fought Platinum either. This was her day, not his. Numb. He couldn't make his jokes land right in his and Diamond's performance, and he left feeling worse than before.

He took his seat tried his best to smile as the party goers chattered and congratulated him on the set. Not on the marriage that wasn't really his, on the set.

He tried not to cry again.

He wanted to be happy for Diamond and Platinum (usually he would have thought of them as more than just their names, but something about this situation made it feel... untrue somehow), but it was really hard. They had wedding bands now. Platinum's shiny new diamond ring sitting right by the other, leaving it unbalanced and odd compared to her single ring of pearl. Diamond's hand had never had a ring before. It looked right with it, but wrong somehow when Pearl looked down to where his own thin fingers sat on the perfect silk table cloth.

They were… empty. Shaking with emotion, yes, but completely bare. Maybe he should have just bought himself a ring. Maybe then he wouldn't feel so left out. Maybe then the gap in the chairs where his father had been meant to sit wouldn't look so glaringly empty.

He tried not to care about what Palmer thought. He wasn't a good dad, he'd never been a good dad, but it was hard not to care a little bit, deep down. But what Palmer thought was painfully clear. This was not something he had to come to because this was not the wedding day of his son, and it would never be. No matter how much Platinum and Diamond insisted it was and that he'd be included as much as they possibly could within the laws, it wasn't.

He had a feeling they truly believed him when he'd told him that he would like to be the odd one out in their relationship. His voice had wavered, but they'd never been good at tone. They'd known the practicality of marring the one with a family who would benefit more from it. They didn't really get when his offer was tinted with the itch of not really knowing if he meant it. He didn't protest when they missed that fact. He let them think he felt included.

He wanted them to be happy, and if he was upset they wouldn't be.

He didn't want to cry because he was sad, so when someone (his mind was so stuffed with nothing that he wasn't really sure who it was) asked if he was okay he just said that he was so happy for his best friends. But saying that hurt almost more than seeing them exchange vows had. Best friends. Yeah right. Was that all they were now? It certainly was that way in the eyes of the law.

The unknown person floated away, off to congratulate the happy "couple," just like everyone else already had.

Pearl stewed in the few thoughts his mind managed to dig up. How did Hareta do it? Pearl didn't want to end up like him, calling his partners his best friends and acting like that was it. Acting like it didn't hurt and that it was funny when they took offense to it. (He wasn't a good actor. Pearl could tell it hurt even him, and in Pearl's weak mental state Hareta was so much stronger than Pearl was that he imagined that the weight of that lie would grow to crush him.)

He watched Platinum and Diamond take their apparent first dance and he knew it wasn't. He knew it wasn't because he had been there for the first, just like he'd been there for their first kiss. Just like then it wasn't a faithful recreation of the moment, because he was five feet away instead of holding their hands, because the press was there and they couldn't get in trouble. He stayed away, knowing that they were happy, and that they thought he was, and that they were all safe from the law. Only when other dancers joined the floor did he finally get to twirl him and dip her.

By then nobody was really watching, but he still didn't get his "first" kisses.

The flowers in his pocket were wilting.

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