#neorocketshipping

Brock looked over at Gary, who was smirking at him. "How is this not awkward for you?"

"Me? I'm sixteen. I don't need to shackle myself down with some supposed endgame relationship right now," Gary stated while gesturing to Ash and Misty, Drew and May, and Dawn and Kenny in particular. "You, on the other hand, are twenty-one and have been dreaming of monogamy since you were at least fifteen. And you're the one who helped all these crazy kids get together. This must be killing you."

"N-No," Brock said, altogether unconvincingly. "I was the matchmaker here. I…I just want to see my friends happy."

"But you're not feeling bitter?" Gary asked. "Even a little bit?"

"I…" Brock's expression held firm for just a moment more and then he crumbled and, all at once, Gary knew he'd made a big mistake. "Gary, why can't I find love? Everyone else did, even Ash! Even Ash! Am I unloveable?"

Brock unceremoniously fell on Gary, his whole body going slack and surprisingly heavy. Gary didn't want to put his arms around the other man, but it was either that or let him fall to the ground. He might have liked to do the latter, but he wasn't heartless.

"Woah, woah there, buddy," Gary said as he tried to keep Brock upright. "Let's be reasonable here. There's nothing wrong with being single."

And then the wailing began. Gary was beginning to think that the only way he'd be able to get out of this was to prop the man up against a tree and make a speedy getaway, but they were in an open field—there weren't any trees nearby. None he could shuffle to with any subtlety, at least.

Then, suddenly, Gary spotted a girl standing awkwardly outside the kissing circle. He had no idea who she was, but she looked like she was about Brock's age. And he hated to do this to the girl, but…

"Brock, look over there!"

Brock managed to stop his blubbering long enough to look up and see the girl—long black hair, a stripe of bright red on either side. Pretty. His eyes bugged out of his head and Gary knew he'd been saved.

"Lucy!" Brock shouted as he ran her way and a second later he had her in his arms and was kissing her. Gary could have laughed. Getting Brock out of his hair was one thing, but seeing the other man get slapped would make the whole occasion worth it.

That's not what happened, though. The girl—Lucy—kissed him back, seeming to be equally as enthused, and Gary figured he must have missed something. Had he just accidentally matchmade? Matchmaker-ed? He shuddered at the thought. That wasn't his role. That was Brock's.

Just as he was getting over the strange feeling of being involved in Brock's love life—and become fully immune to the many kissing noises accosting him in surround sound—he felt a tap on his shoulder. Not eager to find what other surprises the day had for him that day, Gary slowly turned around, guard fully up.

"Babe!"

Staring at him was a girl with ash-brown hair and pale blue eyes. A portion of her face was hidden by choppy bangs and the brim of a hat that was halfway between boater and bucket. She was pretty as well. She also had a nametag on a blue tank saying "Leaf" and below that, written in tiny handwriting, "yes, really."

"Babe, I'm so happy I found you," Leaf bubbled, looking around at the scene. "And seems like I was just in time too!"

And then, just had Brock had with Lucy, "Leaf" leaned in to kiss Gary.

He stuck his hand out so that her lips met his palm.

As Leaf snapped back, cheeks flushing red with embarrassment, Gary said. "Look. I'll be happy to kiss you. Thrilled, even. But first—and this isn't always a prerequisite for me, but you called me 'babe,' so I just gotta know—who are you?"

Moral: Look, I've read a number of these stories where everyone is paired off in the end. Even liked them. Even loved them. And I know we don't necessarily come to Pokémon fanfiction for realism but…I mean, everyone ending up with the person they're gonna marry as teenagers? That's a hard nope from me. And I don't really have a solve for this, because, much of the time, this is the whole point of the story at hand. The best I can offer, other than trying to be a little more thoughtful and realistic is consider having your characters date other people? Or maybe include some characters having hope towards ending up together, but, you know, not everyone has to end the story in the honeymoon phase of a relationship? Even just diversity in the state of the relationships would be something!

Exception: Sigh, the exception is unless this is something you really want to do. Like, I said, a lot of stories are written with this being the whole idea and there's not a lot of other thought put in otherwise. Really, this chapter is just here to point out, hey, that's not super realistic/interesting/creative and there are a million other options out there.