Work Text:
Do you want to go out with me?
Aaaand send. Everyone had told him to be direct, so here he was, being direct! There was no way she could misunderstand a text that straightforward, right?
Emmet was about to set his phone aside when—
I’d love to! (´ ∀ ` *)
He was already typing a reply before the notification buzz stopped.
Really? That’s great! I’m so glad!
So glad!
。 .: ☆ : ･ '( ⌒―⌒ *)))
Then…how about we go on the Rondez-View? You’ve always said you wanted to see the city from there.
Oooh, yes, sure (°▽°) !
That big Ferris wheel, right?
Yep! Smack on the middle track at the amusement park!
It was a couples-only carriage, the Rondez-View, but now they’d be keeping to the rules to a T! If he hadn’t wanted to hug the living daylights out of Den a few seconds ago (those ‘kaomoji’ were always just too cute!), the mere thought of being a two-car train with her was enough to make his arms itch. But in the best way!
A tiny barrage of texts followed, setting the time, date, and location, lathered with a generous helping of exclamation marks and faces made from symbols. Not even Ingo could summon the heart to tell his vibrating, glowing brother that it was time to get back to work; Emmet was practically lighting up the whole office.
+++
He absolutely did not agonise for half an hour over what to wear. Good thing he woke up four hours beforehand just in case!
+++
“Den! Over here!”
Emmet jogged over, waving at the girl (his girl!) in question, her sundress flittering with the airy summer breeze. Den’s dark auburn hair was tied back into a fresh-looking ponytail, the colour of it matching her eyes and giving her a radiance that made everyone else blur into meaningless noise.
“Good morning, Emmet,” she greeted, inclining her head ever so slightly. When they first met, she’d been prone to doing half-body bows, which Emmet had ended up mimicking for a while. “You are looking quite spirited!”
“Why wouldn’t I be? I get to spend the day with you!”
A rosy blush spread on Den’s cheeks like falling petals on a spring day. Her next words came out soft, a bit of bashfulness cushioning her tone.
“Oh, please. We see each other so often; what is so special about today?”
“Well, we are together”—Emmet seized Den’s hand and laced their fingers, tugging her forwards—“and now we are going to go have some fun!”
In the face of that bright smile, what else could Den do but close her gaping mouth and nod, a lot happy, a ton flustered, and a dash confused? Besides, it was only through this that she realised…the spaces between her fingers were right where his fit perfectly.
+++
It was a whirl of overpriced theme park food, a dozen rides, and several rounds of carnival games that birthed the two hefty plushies Den was fated to hold onto. The one that Emmet’d insisted on winning for her (20 rounds at ring toss was nothing for this Doubles Battle master, but maybe not his wallet) was a very chunky Raichu, its shape closer to a Spheal than anything. The other was a poorly made Archerops, but it had the spirit, even if its wings looked more like fins.
That had been thanks to Den at darts. Pop, pop, pop, pop, and a neat, clean row of small balloons had been decimated thanks to her superb hand-eye coordination.
“Woah. Dancing is really a form of training, huh?”
“Haha, it is not that exciting. I…I can show you. Sometime. If you would like.”
“Please do!”
Emmet cottoned on some 10 minutes after lunch that 1. he hadn’t been able to hold Den’s hand since she was lugging around those two toys and 2. he probably should’ve offered to carry one instead of being uplifted at how cute a sight Den made dwarfed by them.
“Here,” Emmet made grabby hands for the Raichu. “I will hold that!”
“Alright.”
Den passed the plushie over and Emmet’s eyes grew wide at how heavy it actually was. How much fluff did they pack into this thing?
“I see you have realised,” smiled Den, a little mischievously. “And it will only get hotter as the afternoon goes on, you know.”
Emmet didn’t have to be told twice. The synthetic fur was already sticking to the bare skin of his arms. He shifted it around and around until he ended up with an ungainly, but arm-freeing tuck hold. Den watched his struggle, giggling all the while.
“Your Raichu is surely not this bulky, right?”
Den only looked at him without saying anything, still smiling.
“Right?!” Huge if true.
“Of course not, Emmet!” Den’s laugh trilled like bells, the sound quickly dissipating into the crowd. It was the sound of summer. “You are very…very en-dearing.”
She turned the syllables around in her mouth as she was wont to do, but there was another layer of hesitance to the sentence. Emmet hardly noticed, as his ears were now far too warm to hear anything beyond his own blood rushing to his face. His work coat would’ve been good right about now; that way he could hunch his neck in and hide his cheeks.
Oh man, she’s so—
“Okay!” Den suddenly shouted, clapping her palms together, startling them both. “I think it may be time to do the water rides, yes? Did you bring an exchange of clothes?”
She shrugged a shoulder, indicating the bag she’d packed according to their plans. The instant he nodded, Den seemed to puff up with unknown energy and she snatched up Emmet’s sweaty hand in hers, gripping too tightly and all but dragging him on. His grunt of surprise devolved into laughter, unaware of Den’s stolidly determined expression as she fought against her rising embarrassment.
+++
They were saved from the worst of the sun’s assault courtesy of the park’s excessively wet water zone. The afternoon had begun to slumber. As much as Emmet would’ve liked to show Den the city at night from the Rondez-View, he had work tomorrow and Den was getting peacefully fatigued. Thankfully (but also unfortunately), there were no lurking trainers around the Ferris wheel, probably driven into hiding by the heat.
“Have you ever been up here, Emmet?”
Their carriage was lazily clambering upwards. As expected of a couples-only ride, there was just the one row of seating, so here they were. Right. Next. To. Each. Other.
Raichu and Archerops were sitting pretty on their laps. Who knew what kinds of thoughts they were transmitting to each other.
“Nope!” Emmet popped his p with relish. “It would have been against the rules, since it’s couples-only.”
“Couples only?” Den tilted her head.
“Mmhm! But we are a couple already now, so everything is greenlit!”
Den was silent for a beat, then made an ‘o’ of understanding.
The conversation was soon overtaken by Emmet excitedly pointing out various landmarks, with Den contributing with those that she knew. They were able to find each other’s apartments and even caught a glimpse of the hazy mountains to the east. When the Musical Theatre came into view, Emmet began his usual Den-you-could-definitely-compete-there urging, never forgetting to mention that dancing was part of the whole schbang. Den always looked ambivalent about the topic, but this time, she seemed a lot more thoughtful.
The carriage reached the top and slowed.
Den cautiously stood up and edged to the glass, eyes taking in the city awash with the light of a waning sun.
“Thank you for inviting me, Emmet. The view is much better than from my window at home!”
“I should be the one thanking you !” Emmet followed her. They stood there, shoulder-to-arm, their stuffed Pokémon keeping their seats warm. “So? What do you think?”
Den hummed. A few Pidoves flew by, fleeting as a dream.
“Sometimes, I do miss Ecruteak. But I love Nimbasa as well. It is a very energetic, bustle-ing city,” said Den quietly, smiling as she pressed a hand against the glass. “So full of life and beauty.”
“Sure is,” agreed Emmet, eyes focused on Den. His heart fluttered. “Verrrrry beautiful. There is no better place to be than here.”
+++
Just like that, it was time to part ways. Well, Emmet wouldn’t be swayed from sending Den back home, so he bought a bit more time right till the front of her apartment. As she pawed around her bag for the keycard, he mentally implored the still-faced Raichu for moral support.
“Ah, here it is,” Den fished out the white rectangle of plastic and Emmet’s blood pressure spiked. “Well, thank you so much for today, Emmet, and for walking me back home. One day, we should go to Ecruteak and I will take you around. We have a famous Bell Tower there that I believe you will enjoy.”
“Everywhere is enjoyable as long as it’s with you, Den. By the way, can I kiss you?”
Den hadn’t even begun blushing from the first line when the next nearly floored her.
“P-p-p-pardon?”
“Yeah! You know, like a goodbye kiss at your girlfriend’s front door!” Emmet was unconsciously burying his hand into the Raichu’s belly, looking so earnest it bordered on a tad unhinged.
“G-girlfriend?!” blurted Den, and immediately, everything fell into place. “Oh! Oh, so that-the text-couples- togeth -oh, Emmet, I am so sorry, I misunderstood everything from the start! I, I thought you meant two of us and, and go out was—!”
As Den continued to blubber out explanations, Emmet felt the ground slip away from under his feet. A misunderstanding? That’s right, they spoke a different language in Johto, and he never explicitly said anything until now, he’d only assumed and you know what they said about people who assumed oh Arceus he made her hold hands with him without oh he’d fucked up —
“—met! Emmet!”
Emmet blinked out of his spiral, an unfamiliar heat behind his eyes. Den had grabbed his shirt, her expression ruddy with determination through her umpteenth blush. Before he could wibble out an apology, she drove over him with the force of a freight train:
“Yes, I will be your girlfriend, Emmet! And yes, you may k-kiss me goodbye!”
Subway Master Emmet, boss of Double Battles, and one of the strongest trainers in Nimbasa gaped dumbly.
“But next time, please be more direct!”
That set him back to rights. The irony was enough to make him burst out laughing.
“Okay then, how about this ?!”
And he swooped Den up into a proper smooch on the mouth, almost dropping Raichu in the process. His temples were throbbing from the mood whiplash, he felt like he might get a heart attack in five minutes, and he was sweating up a storm, but his chest was full of love and his arms were full of Den (and plushies), so everybody smile! Aim for victory!
Their combination was the best!