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Gold knew that he was in love with Silver when he was fifteen years old, on the anniversary of the day he’d been crowned Champion of the Indigo Plateau. It was a sunny spring day, and Gold’s heart was warm and full as he finished out his day in Goldenrod City, scouting out apartments with Silver.
The apartment wasn’t for him, of course. His parents would kill him if he tried to move out, even though he had unofficially moved out years ago when he began his journey, and then was given accommodations closer to the Indigo League after becoming Champion. It was Silver who didn’t have a place to call home, and even though he, like Gold, rarely stayed in one place for long, it was about time he spent some of the riches he had accrued from years of Pokémon battling.
They’d been looking at apartments for weeks, always seeming to find at least one or two things about each apartment that were nonnegotiable red flags. Even though Silver insisted that he didn’t need to stay anywhere fancy, Gold was not going to let him rent a place with Rattata in the walls.
It was that day that they finally had luck. The apartment in Goldenrod, though pricier than the ones they’d looked at in Ecruteak and Olivine, was spacious, well-kept, and came with all necessary utilities. There was absolutely no reason why Silver should have given up the apartment, except:
“Um,” Silver said, looking down at his feet, out the window a passing flock of Pidgey, anywhere but at Gold. “I was actually hoping to find something a little closer to New Bark Town. Maybe in Cherrygrove, or even Viridian or Pewter.”
There could only be one reason for Silver’s choice of location, and only one reason for his new bashfulness over the subject. That day, Gold realized that he was in love, and then he and Silver flew to Cherrygrove City to look at more apartments. Quite the busy day, if you ask Gold.
That day is exactly what led to this moment right now, with Silver and Gold sprawled on Silver’s couch in his Cherrygrove apartment, with Gold seated comfortably in Silver’s lap and attempting to suck hickeys under his collar. Gold is probably lucky that Silver puts up with him when he gets into moods like this, but if the way Silver gasps and squeaks whenever Gold kisses him hard or slips his hands under his shirt is any indication, he’s not actually doing half bad.
“You’re so pretty,” Gold marvels, leaning back to admire his handiwork. He’s always thought Silver was attractive, and the passage of time has only done wonders for him. He looks up and down Silver’s body, finishing at the defined features of his beautiful face. Gold is, quite literally, obsessed with him. “So handsome.”
But Silver only grimaces. “Gold…,” he says. He ducks away from Gold’s wandering hands and hunches his shoulders.
Silver shying away when the attention is on him… Well, it isn’t exactly a rare thing. “You’re stunning,” Gold sing-songs. “The most beautiful boy in all of Tohjo—oh!”
Silver’s breath hitches and he catches Gold’s wrist with his free hand. “No, don’t,” he says, stuttering a bit, and Gold stops immediately, knowing when he’s pushed too far.
But… has he? With Silver, it’s sometimes difficult to tell. Gold is always respectful of his boundaries, listening whenever he asks to stop or slow down, but there’s often a difference between Silver being genuinely uncomfortable, and when he pushes the boundaries of his comfort zone.
Gold looks at him closely and tries to figure out which it is now. Silver hasn’t tried to move away, even though Gold is completely on top of him, and he’s avoiding eye contact, which is not what he’d do if he was mad at Gold for any reason. Gold surpasses a smile and leans in to kiss Silver’s forehead. Silver’s eyes widen, but he still doesn’t push him away.
“Let me do this,” Gold says, voice becoming deeper with tension. He kisses Silver’s sharp jawline, his cheek, his nose. Silver’s eyes flutter shut and he shivers, confirming Gold’s suspicions. “Please. You can stop me if you want, but… let me do this.”
Gold watches as Silver swallows hard, and then he opens his eyes. His gaze is piercing, even at moments like this. “Okay,” he whispers. It’s acceptance enough that Gold knows the weight of it, chest aching with recognition of the vulnerability Silver allows himself with him.
Gold draws Silver into a soft kiss, tilting his chin up and waiting just a breath away until Silver closes the distance between them. In the months since they started dating, he’s become more comfortable with physical affection. At first, he used to get tense whenever Gold touched him, unused to the casual way he treated skinship, and on a few occasions he’d even flinched, taken by surprise. It didn’t take him long to warm up to it, though, these days frequently seeking Gold out for kisses and, on the rare occasion, cuddles.
A lot has changed since the first time they kissed on the beachfront of New Bark Town, years after they had met in front of the lab for the first time. Silver was the one to make the first move—and this was the last time he did so, not that Gold minds when he eagerly accepts everything he has to give—despite having no previous relationship experience. His blush was a deep crimson as red as his hair when he pulled away, stuttering through a confession. It wasn’t Gold’s first kiss—that honor had gone to Lyra on New Year’s Eve two years ago, a simmering Silver standing to the side—but he hadn’t known it could feel so magical.
So Silver may only be the second person Gold has ever kissed, but he knows that Silver has a talent for it. Everything with him feels good, really, especially moments like this, when Silver kisses Gold back so tenderly, a gentle give and take with no sense of urgency behind it. Gold cups Silver’s face in his hands and tilts his head to kiss him better, and Silver lets out a soft sigh against his lips.
Gold forces himself not to smile so that Silver doesn’t feel it and think too hard. The best feeling is when Silver relaxes around him, and lets himself enjoy everything Gold has to offer. Everything he deserves.
Gold kisses the corner of Silver’s mouth before moving to kiss his neck. Silver tilts his head back and his hands find their way into Gold’s hair, tangling through the strands and tugging just a bit when he grazes his tongue and teeth over his skin. “You’re so good,” he says, appreciative of Silver’s easy acceptance of his touches.
“Didn’t do anything,” Silver grumbles. He turns his face away, avoiding eye contact, his cheeks rosy.
Gold frowns. “You are good. You’re the best.” Silver’s nose scrunches. “You’re perfect for me.”
He says nothing, brows remaining furrowed. Without much force, Gold leans over him and pushes his shoulders until he lies down. He takes Silver’s hands and pins his wrists down over his head. Rather than annoyance, like Gold would have expected, he only looks surprised, a dozen different conflicting emotions appearing on his face before giving in and letting Gold maneuver him however he wants.
Interesting. Gold kisses him again, more desperately now. He hadn’t expected the way Silver had submitted to him so easily and he also couldn’t have anticipated the heat with which Silver kisses him now. Gold licks into his mouth—kissing like this still isn’t really something he’s used to, but it feels good in an inexplicable way—and Silver only parts his lips and accepts it.
“Is this okay?” Gold asks when they separate an embarrassingly long time later. Silver grunts something unintelligible and attempts to hide his face again, pressing his cheek against the couch cushion. “Mm, I want to hear you say it.”
It’s a little awkward for Gold to talk that way, but knowing the way it affects Silver, he decides not to overthink it. And it’s worth it, because there’s no concealing Silver’s blush now. “…It’s okay,” he grumbles, slightly begrudgingly.
Gold decides to have mercy on him, letting go of his wrists so he can stretch. It’s amazing, Gold, you’re so sexy, would have been another perfectly acceptable answer, but maybe they can aim for that next time.
“You need to stop listening to all the bad things your brain tells you,” Gold says. He traces one finger across Silver’s lips and down his neck, where his blush has now spread. It’s funny, how Silver is often so liberal with his affection and doesn’t even blink when he flusters Gold so easily, or how he never hesitated when Gold had touched him as he wore far less clothes than this, but stutters when Gold pushes his shirt up to pepper kisses across his belly now. “You’re kind, and smart, and so intuitive. You’re always so considerate of those around you.”
Silver exhales a shaky breath, and he strokes through Gold’s hair again, maybe to stop himself from fidgeting as he had been a moment ago. Gold pushes his shirt higher and Silver twitches when he drops a constellation of kisses on his ribs. “You’re one of the most empathetic people I know. You always try your best no matter the odds or what anyone else says about you.”
Silver opens his mouth to speak, but Gold can practically hear the protest before it leaves his lips. “No, really,” he insists. He lifts his head and looks up at Silver, who has propped himself up on one elbow to watch Gold. He looks mostly frazzled, just a little debauched, and absolutely, wonderfully, Gold’s. “I know you don’t want to believe me, and I know it’s not easy to think the same way about yourself that other people do, but I wouldn’t say these things if they weren’t true.”
“Aren’t you biased?” Silver says. His lips are puffy and red from Gold’s kisses, and Gold is briefly distracted by watching the way they move as he speaks.
He shrugs. “Probably, but I know how to be objective. And objectively, you’re incredible.” He skims his hands along the waistband of Silver’s pants just to watch him squirm. “Objectively, you are deserving of all good things the world has to offer.”
Silver’s hands drop from Gold’s hair and rest comfortably against his shoulders instead. “That’s a bit…” He trails off, biting his lip, and huffs. Gold sits up, perched between Silver’s legs, and inches closer until he can count every one of Silver’s eyelashes. “You’re so…”
“You are deserving. You are worthy,” Gold says, with such conviction that he surprises even himself. “I’m proud of you.”
Silver inhales sharply, and Gold wonders if he’s ever been told such a thing before. Certainly never by his father, and perhaps not by anyone else either. He’s become close to others by now, Red and Blue and Kris, but to this day he’s never opened his heart up to anyone else like he has to Gold. He’s never trusted anyone else, even though Gold himself doesn’t even know if he’s deserving of that trust.
“I hope you can see yourself the way I do one day,” Gold says. He brushes his lips against Silver’s, a ghost of a kiss, and then pulls away to see the dazed expression on his face. “I love you because you deserve to be loved.”
“I love you, too,” Silver says back with no hesitation.
And that—that’s it, isn’t it? Silver has plenty of reasons to want to guard his own heart and close himself off from the world, but he doesn’t. He opens up more and more month after month, year after year, no matter how cruel the word becomes. Silver, of all people, could choose to be a loner, but he doesn’t. Even when he’d first kissed Gold and been scared of ruining the friendship they had, the one both of them worked so hard to build, he hadn’t run away.
“You love so fiercely,” Gold says. And Arceus, he couldn’t have expected the way his own words impact him, either, tears pricking in the corners of his eyes as he thinks about how much he adores Silver and how far they’ve come. “Me and your Pokémon and your friends. Even though it’s not easy for you to show, you never let us forget it.”
Silver closes his eyes and his nose scrunches. Gold realizes that he’s trembling, overwhelmed, and he sits back up. Silver follows him a second later, taking a deep breath, and he takes one of Gold’s hands, entwines their fingers, and squeezes. “I love you,” he repeats quietly. Everything he wants to say, and everything he wants Gold to know, encompassed in one phrase.
Silver presses their foreheads together, and they stay like that, breathing the same air, sharing the same conviction. The way they love each other is deep and boundless. There’s no need for any more words.