"Piers, hold on!"

Curious as to who would call out to him, the shorter boy stopped in his tracks and turned around, his Pokémon mirroring his gesture. He was greeted by the taller male who by then had finally caught up to him, a grin invading his lips as if it were always meant to be displayed there. "You dropped this."

Raihan extended his hand in order to show the other boy what exactly he was probably missing and Piers instinctively ran his small hands into his pockets to check. Indeed the card that was supposed to be there was gone, but he wasn't the slightest bit bothered about it. "Um, you can keep it... um?"

"Raihan! The name's Raihan!" The dark-haired boy exclaimed confidently, sticking out a thumb and pointing it at his chest as if to imply the fact even further. He then glanced down at the League Card, possibly reflecting if he should really accept such a present when a bolt of brilliance struck him. "In that case, you can have mine!"

Not even giving the pale young Trainer the time to consider it, Raihan had already found his own League Card and was holding it out in front of Piers. The latter felt like he couldn't refuse at that point, but at the same time a shy feeling of happiness invaded his stomach as he was given the taller boy's belonging. "Um, thanks."

"And thanks for the thing in the bathroom. Again." Piers battled against his timid persona as the words kept rolling off his lips and won in the end, even managing to flash a friendly smile at Raihan who had offered him such kindness despite having been a stranger. "Don't mention it!" Raihan waved him off, proceeding to rub his nose sheepishly until the perfect opportunity to put a stop to their somewhat too formal exchanges invaded his mind. "Hey, do you wanna have a Pokémon battle?"

"You'll have the honor of being my first opponent on my Gym Challenge!" Raihan proposed, flattering himself somewhat as if to make the deal seem more attractive. Piers couldn't help but giggle at the boy's enthusiasm, admiring his display of confidence and secretly wishing he could sometimes do the same. "Sure, why not?"

* * *

Since Piers only had one Pokémon to call his own, Raihan decided that it would be fair if he used only one against him as well, and so their Zigzagoon and Trapinch battled it out on one of Motostoke's spacier areas until only one creature was left standing. The couple that emerged victorious was Raihan and his Trap Pokémon which was quite easy to grasp given how the boy happily spun his orange partner in the air, showering it with words of praise.

Piers on the other hand knelt down and ran his tender hand through the rough fur of his Zigzagoon, complimenting his attacks and efforts overall. "You did well." As if powered by its Trainer's soft, genuine words, the creature recovered from fainting even if that meant not having much more energy in store. Piers understood that well, and picked it up, allowing it to get as comfortable as it wished in his arms.

"Our first battle... Hey Piers, let's snap a quick photo to remember it by!" Raihan was quick to get next to the shorter male, his Trapinch hanging on tightly on his head. Judging by his nature, Piers would have almost thought that Raihan was a person who liked to take pictures and his suspicions only materialized even more when the taller boy's Rotom Phone flew out of his pocket as if it was trained to do so at the mention of 'photo'.

Raihan then threw his arm around the shorter male's shoulders causally, pulling him a tad closer in the act and realizing just how fragile he actually was. With no hard feelings attached to his first loss on his Gym Challenge, Piers imitated the new friend he had made and sticked out two fingers to form a peace sign. The photo was snapped with the two boys grinning from ear to ear, their Pokémon portraying the same emotions as well as they could as their first memory together took on a physical form.

Once the two young Trainers had distanced themselves from one another a tad, Raihan admired the picture a bit longer before promising to send it to Piers as well once they had exchanged numbers. When doing so, the taller male couldn't help but steal more and more glances at the Zigzagoon that fearlessly stared back at him before comparing the creature to its owner. The realization finally hit him as he bumped his fist against the palm of his other hand. "Now I know what your hair reminded me of! A Zigzagoon!"

"I-Is it weird?" Instantly feeling self-conscious about it, Piers grabbed a strand of his two-colored hair and rolled it between his thumb and index-finger. Raihan had almost forgotten about the circumstances under which the two of them had met. He didn't register it until he had already blurted out his comment that perhaps Piers had also gotten bullied about his unusual hair in the past, but as fast as he was at thoughtlessly saying things, Raihan was just as flexible at trying to remedy.

"No that's not what I meant! It's kinda cute." Sure, the boy was trying to set things right again, but with the last statement that slipped out of his mouth before his mind had throughly analyzed it, he was beginning to think that he was only worsening the situation. After all, calling another boy 'cute' had to sound mocking, especially to Piers whose physique wasn't the manliest.

"Wait, no! I meant that it's kinda cute how you two match, not that you're cute!" The tall boy corrected himself, only to freeze seconds later once he suspected his statement of being a tad too harsh. Perhaps now Piers thought that Raihan didn't see him as someone good-looking which of course wasn't the case. "Well, you're cute too, but— Agh! Why am I suddenly so bad at this?!"

Raihan was ruffling his own hair in frustration, his tan cheeks rising with heat. He wasn't left to regret his decisions for too long though, because soon Piers lessened the weight on the taller boy's shoulders by laughing wholeheartedly. Raihan was a bit taken aback by the unexpectedly positive reaction — then again, seen how their exchanges had ended in a similar way in the bathroom, it wasn't that odd. Piers' chortles slowly died down and the boy felt as if the whole 'being insecure' thing had never happened when his eyes caught Raihan's turquoise ones.

"It's alright. Besides, you and your Trapinch match too, right?" Piers grinned, pointing at the orange headband that held Raihan's black hair in place perfectly. It was evident to anyone who tried taking a closer look to the accessory, but the two dark blue buttons and the two red ones hadn't always been where they were. They had been sewn in their respective positions by Raihan himself if Piers were to take a wild guess, and they represented the eyes and the cheeks of a Trapinch.

Raihan was very happy that his efforts had been noticed and didn't bother hiding his enthusiasm as he ranted some more about the matter. Piers could relate to the tall boy more often than not, given that he as well felt very attached to his first Pokémon. "Anyway, your Zigzagoon is really strong!"

"Hey, I know! Wanna travel together? It'll be more fun than going on your own!" The light brown-skinned boy did fear that he was coming on too strong in such early stages with a shy person, but for some reason, he really wanted to get closer to Piers. Something about his peaceful nature enticed him — perhaps because opposites really did attract — or perhaps it was his timid yet passionate cyan eyes.

The reason wasn't of big relevance because once Raihan had set his mind on something, he'd do anything to reach his goal, and even now he was willing to go as far as he needed to get Piers to join him on his journey. Though that wasn't necessary, because even if he showed it less outwardly, Piers felt a desire to get to know the tall boy better just as strong as the latter did.

"That does sound like it'd be nice... Alright, let's do it."

----------------------------------------------------

My note to you:
Double Update because — as mentioned — this and the last chapter were supposed to be only one part. ^w^

Thank You for Reading!