Vacation('s all they ever wanted) PT. 2
7k+ sequel fic to the canon-rewrite I did of the postgame Groudon mission!
Lunick and Solana finally take a much-needed vacation in Summerland together, where they get the chance to relax, enjoy the beach, and perhaps accidentally... confess their feelings.
Part 1 | Part 2 [You are here!]
Bringing Lunick back to consciousness was absolutely no small feat for the universe to pull off this time.
...That’s not to imply that such a task was ever to be mistaken as ‘easy’; the guy was absolutely one of the groggiest, heaviest sleepers in all of Fiore. Maybe even further. No alarm clock, no vibrating phone, no lights on a timer could ever wake that man up before he decided he was done sleeping.
(Well, except for one alarm clock. A particularly obnoxious one, with blue hair, that broke into his dormitory in the mornings and practically jumped on him like an overexcited kid until he got up and yielded to her wishes. But that was neither here nor there.)
Today, however, the poor dude had just straight up nearly died earlier. He deserved the nap. And so, even though Solana was awake before him, she’d simply spared him the trouble and let him rest.
Groaning to himself, Lunick rolled onto his back and pushed the hair out of his face, reacquainting himself with the world. He wasn’t in his bed back at the Ringtown Base dorms: ah, that’s right. He was actually on a vacation, for once. The humid air and the lazy salty breeze licking at his skin suddenly felt a lot more in place.
The gentle wind hadn’t only brought in the classic Summerland smell; it carried a quiet voice along with it from the open screen to the bungalow’s private deck, one he knew all too well. Smiling to himself, he hoisted up to a sitting position, swinging his legs over the edge of the bottom bunk bed to get them underneath him. He swayed a little as he walked across the wooden floors, still sleepy, and rubbed his eyes as he slid open the screen quietly.
Solana was on the phone out on the deck, sitting in one of the two chairs in the shade and facing out to watch the ocean as she chatted. Her legs were crossed and tucked up onto the seat of the chair with her- something both Plusle and Minun had apparently taken as an open invitation to curl up together on. Her hair was braided back into a ponytail that draped over the seat’s backrest, which Lunick crossed over to stand behind and absentmindedly combed a hand through as he cleared his throat to bring attention to himself without interrupting.
She immediately looked up at him from where she sat, a sheepish and apologetic expression on her face as she covered the microphone of the phone to address him instead. “Sorry,” she half-whispered, squinting in the bright sunlight of late afternoon. “Did I wake you?”
Lunick just shook his head, an amused huff leaving his nose. He practically mouthed the words since his voice was so hoarse and quiet: “Who you talking to?”
The teal-haired girl uncovered the phone, answering his question just by going back to her conversation. “Sorry mom, I missed that last bit. Lunick just finally rose from the dead.”
The comment got her ponytail a playful little tug, and he reached over her shoulder, taking the phone right out of her hands without asking and putting it to his own ear instead. “Hi, Mrs. Hinata,” he greeted, clearing his throat again in attempt to rid it of the groggy, gravelly texture to his voice. This was far from the first time he had ever talked to her parents; over the year and a half of he and Solana being inseparable at the hip, they’d most certainly become acquainted with one another. And she had mentioned earlier she had intent to call home- anyone from her hometown would absolutely lose their marbles at hearing the legendary encounters she’d had in the past few days. “You know, your daughter really, really saved my sorry ass today. Saved all of ours, actually.”
He took the phone and started heading back into their bungalow, having completely commandeered the call with her own mom for himself. Solana rolled her eyes and twisted towards him in order to protest that he had been the one to actually fulfill the Groudon capture, but Lunick had already walked back into the living room with her mother in tow, the two of them gushing like old knitting buddies on and on all about her. It was almost a little disgusting how long the both of them could go, boasting with pride over Solana’s achievements; she’d “unfortunately” seen it happen firsthand.
Rolling her eyes with an amused scoff, the 21 year old gently slid their two Pokémon back down to the wooden deck and stepped inside as well, both electric rodents bounding at her heels to follow. She made expectant hand gestures at him to surrender the phone back over- and he begrudgingly complied, a very pleased-with-himself look on his face as he watched her end the call. “Okay, okay. Yes, I will get that headshot of me sent over, okay…! Do not send my high school photos in to the Sootopolis papers…!!”
Lunick laughed a little at the intensity of which she stressed that point, admittedly a little curious just quite what Solana’s school pictures growing up must’ve looked like. He’d never been to Hoenn, much less the isolated caldera of a city that she was born and raised in, but going home with her one holiday just to see it all for himself was definitely on his bucket list some time.
“Okay. Yes, I’ll call Base and ask them to send my portfolio for you to give. … Alright! Okay!!” She gave a small laugh, amused at how excited her parents both were over hearing their daughter lived a part of their culture’s lore so intimately. “Mmhm. Alright, I’m gonna let you both go now, alright? I’m starving, and Lunick’s always an endless cesspool when it comes to food, so I think the two of us are gonna go get something to eat now that he’s up.”
He heard her parents reply something muffled, but didn’t make it out. It made Solana huff and blush, though, so he could extrapolate well enough that the comments and teasing had extended beyond the region of Fiore. “Yeah, yeah. I love you both too. Talk to you soon.”
She hung up the phone, and Lunick finally let out a prolonged groan he’d been holding in as he stretched down to scoop up his Minun. “Sleep well?” He asked Solana as he righted himself again, his eyes drooped already back to half lidded as he pressed a kiss to the top of the Pokémon’s head.
“Mmn,” Solana answered, punctuated with another yawn. “Yeah, but I’m still exhausted.” It meant a lot to hear her speak so honestly- with anyone else, Solana was always a go-go-go personification of the Energizer Buneary. “It’s like, lethargic, almost. I mean, I’m not quite sleepy anymore, but like, when I was out there on the phone, just staring at the waves… I just felt like I was sinking further and further into the beach chair.”
Lunick flopped unceremoniously onto the couch of the vacation living space they’d been allotted, smacking the cushion next to him twice to imply she should sit with him. Which she did, and nearly sunk in as soon as her body hit the seat.
Laughing to himself in realization, he shook his head. “Solana, you’re relaxed.” Giving her shoulder a lighthearted shove, he cornered himself against the armrest so he could face her more, propping his head on his elbow. “For once in your life, that is. You’re not used to living your life outside of a rigid itinerary.”
Based on the look on her face, he could tell that was quite exactly what she’d been planning to do. And before she could even say so, he cut her off, leaning forward as he caught it. “No. We are not making one, either.”
“... I don’t feel relaxed,” Solana protested, and her partner just shifted, putting a hand on her knee.
“You’re not used to feeling relaxed.” He corrected, a small toothy smile worming its way onto his lips. “You want something to do this week, yeah? Itching to be productive. I know.” Most of the time when he pointed out how much of a workaholic she was, it was via a means of dismissive teasing, but his words now were nothing but sincere and understanding. “How about this? You aren’t just bluffing off, doing nothing this week: you’re learning to take a good break. By the end of this week, I bet you’ll even be the master of vacationing, if you relax hard enough. That’s a better mindset framing for you, don’tcha think?”
The shorter girl eventually nodded, letting out a long exhale of giving in to his persuasion and collapsing onto his shoulder. “I meant what I said on the phone, you know.” She said, abruptly changing the subject, “I am actually starving.”
“And you meant what you said about me, too. I’m an endless cesspool when it comes to food, as you so eloquently put it, hm?” Lunick teased, patting her on the back reassuringly to let her know he was done harping on her unhealthy work ethic for now and allowing the topic to shift. “We should go out to eat at one of those touristy, on-the-beach sunset view restaurants. It’s almost sundown- I think that would be as good of a kick off to vacation as any, don’t you think?”
She agreed, and the both of them peeled themselves off the couch to do exactly that, spending the evening together lavishing in the gorgeous Summerland sunset over a delicious meal. When it was time to head back to their accommodations for the night, they enjoyed the tiki-torch-lit walk back on the beach, and both agreed to turn in for sleep quite early, still absolutely exhausted from the morning.
Unsurprisingly, Solana woke up the next morning far earlier than Lunick did. Bone-tired or not, early bird habits died hard. She wasn’t up quite at the crack of dawn as usual (and Lunick had insisted her alarm be shut off all week, if nothing else than for his sake while they were sleeping in the same room), but it was still probably at least an hour, maybe two before her best friend would rise from his slumber. She gently woke the Plusle up that slept on the pillow right atop her head, giving him a sweet head scratch before slinking down the ladder of the bunk beds she and Lunick had been sharing for the stay. He was a snoring, tangled mess within the sheets, all separated from the blankets and half dangling down onto the floor beneath them… And she couldn’t help but smile affectionately at it. Grabbing a post-it, she hastily scribbled down a note, just in case he were to wake up before she returned.
[Morning, sleeping beauty.
I’ve gone out on a run on the beach before the sun gets too hot. I’ll be back by 9 at the latest.]
It was a white lie, but what he didn’t know wouldn’t kill him. Changing into activewear, Solana grabbed her styler and holster and snuck her way into a small little clearing of underbrush that led into Olive Jungle. Her plan was to silently help the relief force and handle sectors of the jungle behind everyone’s back- so even though she wasn’t technically assigned the mission, she could at least contribute some sort of helping hand toward the restoration efforts.
And of course she did good work- albeit unwarranted, since there were Rangers actually assigned to do so that could have been perfectly capable to do the same once they fanned out far enough to reach the quadrat she was working in. But it was satisfying nonetheless. She’d lost herself in the hard work- using field moves to clear fallen trees from the quakes, capturing aggressive Pokémon and relocating them to safer areas, all the like. By the time she’d checked her watch, she realized she really probably should have started heading back by now, and hurried her way back out to the beachfront, unafraid to cut corners and take the nicks and scratches from the thick underbrush if it meant getting back quicker.
When she returned into the bungalow, not only was Lunick awake, but he was staring at her in a way that felt like he knew every last secret, and there was no use trying to hide. Of course, she still did try, but the disappointed mom vibes were very much still prevalent nonetheless.
“Oh, good, you’re back. How was your… beach run?” His tone of voice made it clear he was prodding, and he tried to play it off by grabbing them both bowls of cereal for breakfast, setting them down on the small table for two tucked away in the corner of the room.
“It was alright. You know me and my morning runs. Certainly even on vacation I can at least keep my routine, right?” It was punctuated by a half-nervous laugh, which was her fatal mistake. Now Lunick was certain she was lying.
“Crazy how you managed to even go on a run with your running shoes left here, you know. And miraculously, your work boots were nowhere to be found…” He huffed, turning to face her. Gingerly, he took one of her wrists, twisting it a little to eye up one of the scrapes her hurry back had given her. “You were out in Olive Jungle. Doing fieldwork, that you’re not supposed to be doing.” He accused, and the hand-in-the-cookie-jar embarrassment on Solana’s face was enough to confirm it.
Crossing over to the sink, he wet a few ripped pieces of paper towel for her to clean the new wounds, shaking his head. “That’s breaking rank, Solana,” he gently (but sternly) reminded her. “I know you’re not used to there being problems present and being told not to help… but this is not our problem. You’re even downright on administrative leave…!” He took her arm once again and pressed the wet towelette to it, pursing his lips in a thin line at frustration with her actions.
She pulled her arm back so it was no longer under scrutiny, huffing in indignance. “No one caught me,” she assured him, taking over and cleaning the few nicks she had herself. “I got in and out, completely under any radar.”
“I caught you.” Lunick corrected. “You’re lucky it’s me, because otherwise I’d have half a mind to report it.”
“But you won’t,” Solana butted in, more a statement than anything else.
“I won’t,” he agreed, and reached over to put his hands on her shoulders, tone turning more to one of pleading. “…If, you promise me you won’t do it again.” He gave her shoulders a squeeze. “…Please, Solana. I know being a Ranger fulfills you like nothing else on this earth, I know it’s been your dream for years now. But I also know you push yourself constantly without any rest. Please, just try to let yourself have this week off. And take this vacation with me.”
She was quiet for a short bit, digesting his pleas internally. And then she nodded, surging forward to accost him a warm, affectionate hug. “I’m sorry,” she apologized, even though he hadn’t been looking for one in the slightest. “… Thank you, you know. For fighting me so hard as you do to take care of myself.”
He gave a small grin, simply full of relief the small argument hadn’t grown into anything more. “Eh. What are partners for?”
Rolling her eyes at him discrediting his own efforts, Solana stepped back out of the embrace to sit herself down in front of one of the bowls of cereal he’d poured. “…Sharing breakfast with?” She lobbied, gesturing for him to take the other seat, which he complied to happily. And they did just that, the rest of the meal far less contentious than their minor altercation had been.
In return, Solana allowed Lunick to take the reins for the day and dictate their itinerary, which was really anything but: just a vague ‘we’re going to the beach!’ and nothing else as far as details.
Packing a bag of things they’d need after the breakfast, the two of them both changed into appropriate beach attire and hit the sand, as thankfully the walk to an open beach area was pitifully short at worst. It was an absolutely gorgeous day out today, too- albeit, very brightly sunny. But at least it wasn’t too sunny; compared to how the weather had been during the legendary beast’s rampage before they quelled it, this was nothing. And it wasn’t all too often that the both of them got to rock a pair of sunglasses, either, so it was almost a novelty.
Scoring a pair of public-use beach chairs already propped up on the beach, both Lunick and Solana claimed them by sprawling out their towels, which Plusle and Minun were quick to curl up on so they could snooze in the sun for once. Their conjoined beach bag went right behind the two Pokémon, and Solana was already rifling through it. “We should probably put on sunscreen,” she responsibly reminded, and pulled out the tube of the thick cream to share with him. “I’m gonna need assistance, if you don’t mind.”
“I’ll tell you what,” Lunick leered forward with a small smile, more than happy to do any favor for her, especially those where he got to both hold her and look out for her general health. He plucked the tube she was using to point at him right out of her hands, and waved it around himself to prove a point. “I’ll agree to help you- IF, you help me do mine as well.”
She laughed, and peeled off the oversized t-shirt she’d been wearing over her swimsuit as a coverup, balling it up in her hands and absolutely hucking it straight at him. “Deal,” she punctuated with a grin, taking the sunscreen back in his stupor to claw the shirt off his face, and squirting some out onto her hands to start the front side of herself, at least. “But do not draw on me or leave splotches, or else you will so pay for it.”
“Don’t threaten me with a good time, Sol,” he huffed right back without missing a beat, pulling his own shirt off over his head as well and kicking off his sandals. He turned towards her and patted the beach chair in order to invite her to sit on it, making grabby hands up to where she stood to tell her to fork over the sunscreen and let him take care of her back. “Gimme. C’mere.”
Solana snickered as she did as she was told, sitting right in the chair in front of him, his legs on either side of her as he allotted himself some of the lotion and gingerly began to swipe it across her back. His movements were so soft and tender as he covered her skin- and it wasn’t like he had never touched her back before, either, but the way every touch was just so caring… Solana felt herself almost leaning into him, very soon found the skin on her face and ears searing for an entirely different reason than the blazing sun above them. She was just grateful he wasn’t in the position to see it, and that she could smother it away with the stark white cream before he got the chance to even know it was there.
“All set,” he vowed all too soon, reaching around her in a back hug of sorts in order to smear the residual sunscreen that was left on this thumb onto her cheek with a playful smile. “Me next?? My turn?”
“Yes,” she agreed with a fake exasperated sigh, secretly very much enjoying his antics, even if she wouldn’t let on. She stood up and twirled her finger to instruct him to turn around, and he did exactly that, trying his absolute best to just focus on covering the front half of his torso and not panic at the way she so delicately did his back half. Coming on a beach trip was a very good idea after all, so it seemed, and he guiltily felt the sudden desire to make sure they were extra diligent in reapplying, so long as they kept getting to share intimate moments of just caring for one another like this.
Popping up to his feet, Lunick pushed his sunglasses on top of his head and spun to face his best friend- she was putting the cream on her face and rubbing it on, and looked at him expectantly. “Did I miss any?” Solana asked as she capped the tube back up, tossing it back into their bag haphazardly.
“Just a little,” Lunick told her candidly, then stepped forward. “Here, I’ve got it.”
What he did was the exact opposite of keeping her skin from burning: he cupped her face with both hands, and very lovingly swiped his thumb under the curvature of her eyes, evening out any white blobs that had been left. “There,” he said with a small toothy smile, seemingly proud of his work. “You’re clean now. Ready to go?”
He held out his hand for them to run into the surf together, but Solana’s mind was too frantic and panicky at the moment from the way he had just held her to do the rational thing. So, mid-shutting-down, she resorted to doing what she knew best: smacking his hand to leave it empty, juking him out to make it a competition. “Last one to the water has to pay for lunch!!”
Her movements had been so sudden that it woke up the Pokémon briefly, but they’d known her too well at this point to bother being fully disturbed from their cuddle puddle. And Lunick knew her too well at this point too to let her get away with it fully, charging down the hot sands after her.
Despite the fact Solana went on runs in her free time more often than he did, she was better at endurance. When push came to shove, he could certainly still catch up to her in sprints when he wanted to, and this was one such case. As she slowed to avoid falling once her legs were waded into the blue water, Lunick came surging from behind her with his full momentum, trapping her in his grasp by throwing his arms around the waist and picking her up into the air. “NOT SO FAST-!”
She let out a loud squeal as she kicked and splashed in retaliation amidst her laughter, but he was headstrong and unrelenting as he carried her deeper. “Let me goo!” She whined through the bursts of giggles, and even heard a snicker or two coming from him as they waded in, too. And as soon as they were deep enough to safely do so, despite all her desperate pleas, he practically threw her down into the water, dunking her hard.
She gasped for air when she resurfaced- part to show her feigned offense, and part just to be dramatic, as she clawed at his chest to try and return the favor.
“Oops,” was all Lunick said, with the most mischievous smirk on his lips as he stood, unwavering under her attempts to push him down. “Did you say it was the most wet who had to buy lunch…?”
Letting out a loud groan of frustration (that her best friend only laughed at even harder), Solana kicked her legs against his underwater and sent him tumbling into the waves with a satisfied grin, crossing her arms triumphantly when he resurfaced again. “I suppose I can be amenable to that change in ruleset. Looks like you’re still paying.”
He snickered at her wit, shaking his hair out of his face like a wet Herdier and slicking it back over his head, smiling at her as he settled in to bobble over the waves together and just chat. “Fine,” he agreed happily, especially since she had gotten him back fair and square. “You win. I’ve got meals today.”
Pleased with the surrender, and unable to help the way her coarse challenger attitude softened upon seeing how adorable he looked with his hair wet, Solana settled in up to her shoulders to float, too. The waves were only swells at best, and didn’t really crash at all, so they were able to just watch the shore together peacefully, swaying up and down as the ocean took them. “…You know,” she spoke up after a short while, plastering the wet hair back out of her face, too. “This is… kinda nice.”
“Good,” Lunick immediately answered, so fast that he practically hadn’t even let her finish her sentence. He looked over at her with a sideways smile and only through one eye squinted open in the sunlight, and though she didn’t see it, Solana could feel his hand seeking out hers under the water's surface as they floated together. Just to make sure the tidal currents didn’t separate them, of course. “I’m really, really glad to hear you say so.”
She flushed- even if just out of not knowing how to answer someone caring so deeply about her, and instead chose to watch the sand, where Plusle and Minun had awoken and begun to play together. They were just two little red and blue dots amidst the bright reflective tan from out here, but they were seeming to have the time of their life, happily chasing one another up and down the beachside.
Lunick’s eyes eventually shut- but he wasn’t sleeping, she could tell that much. He was just soaking up the sun, enjoying the peaceful waves and having her there right beside him. And so she tried to take a page out of his book, to upkeep the promise they’d made earlier, and mirrored him exactly, resting back into the water lazily.
And it was nice. Not only was it bewildering to be not running everything a mile a minute, but so relaxing to be sitting here so still with her favorite person in the world, doing the same exact thing, sharing that silence with her. Maybe he did have a point, after all. And maybe deep down, she understood all this time why he always drove it so far home whenever he brought it up.
When their hands became too pruny to hold anymore, they agreed to get out of the water, immediately feeling bathed in the warmth of the breezy, Summerland air. Back at the chairs, they agreed to split up for an hour or so- Lunick, to take a quick nap, and Solana to explore the wrack line and look for odd looking seashells. They reconvened after and gathered up Plusle and Minun to grab lunch (which Lunick did, in fact, pay for) then returned to the beach for the afternoon, finding snorkel gear rentals at a shack on one of the docks. The reefs just off of Summerland were breathtakingly beautiful, full of color and abundance of Pokémon they rarely got to see up close or in person since marine life wasn’t their typical capture clientele. And if they swam far enough, there was no one else near them, so they got to experience it alone together. It was incredibly nice for the both of them to get to wholeheartedly share their love of wildlife with someone who understood and felt the same outside of a work setting for once; plus, the way Lunick screamed into his snorkel excitedly whenever he saw juveniles of his favorite reef Pokémon was just too endearing for Solana to focus on anything else.
Once both were sufficiently tired out from being in the sun all day, they went home to their rented bungalow to shower all the salt and sand off, changing into cozy clothes and settling in together for a board game and a movie. Dinner was ordered as a delivery so they could stay crashed on the couch together longer- and when it was all said and done and time for bed, Solana clambered up to the top bunk first, and Lunick would sit out on the deck and stare at the stars reflecting in the water until he was sleepy enough to crawl into the bottom one and join her off in dream land.
And so, that became their routine. They’d wake up whenever (a foreign concept to Solana- so she would usually get up first and venture out to get breakfast for the two of them), head to the beach, spend the day there, and come home for the night to just hang around the rental. And there was some variation: some days they made sand sculptures, others they went out to eat for dinner somewhere fancy by the seaside, and even managed to score a charter boat past the patch reefs one afternoon to get to watch a whole herd of Lapras frolicking and breaching out of the deeper waters, singing their beautiful songs. All in all, it was only barely halfway through the week, and they’d already been growing to love the laid back, vacation life very much.
In fact, just earlier today, they’d mistakenly forgotten their water bottles back at the bungalow when they set back out to the shore for the afternoon. Lunick had graciously offered to go run back and get them himself, which didn’t take very long… and yet, when he returned, he found Solana sound asleep in a hammock hung in the palm tree lines’ shade, swaying gently in the warm, misty breeze as Plusle and Minun played in the bushes behind her.
It was an incredibly adorable sight, and one he feared he truly may never see again, so before anything else, he whipped out his styler and snapped a photo of her all bundled up and cozy, taking what might’ve been among the first afternoon naps of her life.
Evidently, the noise of the camera shutter was loud enough of a click to disturb her, and she groaned laboriously, her face all scrunching up into a dramatic display of not wanting to be awoken quite yet.
“Shh,” Lunick mumbled quietly with a wry smile, crouching to put the metal water bottle that he’d gotten for her within her reach on the sand in case she woke up dehydrated. “Go back to sleep. No need to get up yet.”
But to that she groaned even more disapprovingly, and her arm stuck out of her little cocoon and waved lazily in his direction, grappling at the air aimlessly and practically in slow motion until it finally caught purchase on what she’d been looking to grab.
Which was Lunick’s shirt.
Yanking on it, she practically made him fall right over her. And he would have felt guilty for the way his clumsiness shook and nearly flipped the entire hammock she’d been so peacefully snoozing in- if the entire ordeal hadn’t been surrounded by her fits of sleepy giggles, quite pleased with herself and how he fumbled so awkwardly in attempt to keep from disrupting her more. “Lay with me,” she demanded in a soft tone, only just now bothering to barely peek open one of her eyes from behind where the wisps of her teal hair had fallen into her face.
And after all- who was he to say no to that? In what world would he ever?
Dropping his own water bottle and straddling his way onto the swaying bed, Lunick crawled and flopped on into the hammock with her, letting out a satisfied hum as he collapsed down into the fabric and laughing at how his lack of gentleness nearly sent her tumbling right out onto the sand beneath them. Even now, the momentum was kept from the haphazard entry and they swung back and forth, both of them pinned to one another in the center where their shared weight dipped the sling the lowest. “Gracefully, I meant.”
Lunick laughed quietly as she looked up at him, his arm just falling around her out of instinct (and half to ensure she didn't get any bright ideas to shove him out onto the ground for being so rowdy) as he wormed in close, getting comfortable. “See, that wasn’t specified,” he snickered at the halfhearted wallop she’d delivered against his chest, knowing very well it was a bluff based on the way he could see her toothy, amused smile. “I’m honestly just still in shock to see you of all people taking an afternoon nap.”
She huffed in indignance at his tone, wasting no time to curl up into his chest and rest her head against him. “You’re a bad influence,” she accused, but it held no fire behind it with the way she was already half asleep again and practically slurred them together.
“And I’ll continue to be, proudly,” he promised over a whisper, closing his eyes as well and burrowing his nose atop her head to nestle in for rest. They napped like that together longer than originally expected- but hey. That’s the perk of the only rule of their itinerary being that there was no itinerary; it didn’t matter that they’d spent more time snoozing than intended.
As it turned out, the week they happened to have gotten the chance to spend in Summerland was an incredibly fortunately-timed one. Leilani had called, and let them know to keep their eyes peeled that night for the annual schooling and breeding season of Lumineon and Finneon. It was bound to be a fantastical display of colors and light from beneath the waves all around the island: something they even closed the beaches early for that evening in preparation for the natural phenomenon. Apparently, the start of the spectacle was sudden and breathtaking, and the both of them agreed to camp out on the deck they had over the water all night to watch it.
The event was predicted to begin some time between 8 and 9PM, but there was no certainty of exactly when. And Solana’s sweet tooth had gotten the best of her- there was an absolutely delicious homemade ice cream shop only two piers over from the one they were staying at. She knew she could make it there and back in time.
Lunick stayed watch on the edge of their deck- he’d slipped off his shoes inside, and let his legs hang down over the water’s edge to dip in it just barely as the last remnants of the sunset melted into a rich navy blue. All of the residents of Summerland agreed this time of year to keep all street lights off so they could enjoy the spectacle in its entirety, so the sky grew even richer with stars than it had been the nights before- a visual treat within itself.
“Did I miss it??” Solana’s voice came flooding into his ears, along with relief of knowing she hadn’t. Lunick shook his head in his awed daze, unable to tear his eyes away from the sky at first as she stepped out onto the patio to join him. Her hands were full as she’d been juggling to carry both of their cones, and took the liberty in licking the back of one of her hands where the sweet treat had started to dribble down it. “Good. Here, take yours, they’re melting.”
He smiled up at her, looking at her with the same amazed and awe-inspired gleam in his eyes that he’d had when he was staring at the stars, as she was no less beautiful. He let out a loud huff in amusement as he took the handoff of his rocky road ice cream, letting out a small laugh as she sat down. “You treated yourself to some of mine on the way back, huh? Was it tax for having gone and gotten them?”
“I did not!” Solana falsely claimed, her face growing as crimson as the red velvet ice cream in her own cone for having been caught in the lie so blatantly. And he just shook his head, biting his lip to keep in a snicker.
“It’s on your face, Sol.” Before he’d bothered to think about the consequences of his actions, Lunick leaned forward and licked the creamy chocolate smear right off of her face, just barely outside the corner of her lips. “Yup. That’s my ice cream,” his own lips came into contact with her skin and just barely grazed over it as he spoke, before he sat upright again. And quickly put the two and two together of what he’d just done, when he saw her reaction to that.
Solana was absolutely paralyzed in stillness. She was more flushed than perhaps he’d ever seen her, and her eyes were so wide he could see the whites on each side of her irises. In horror? In shock? It was unreadable, but Lunick was quick to backpedal hard anyways, mentally screaming at himself for having been so stupid to allow himself to fall victim to the easygoing, endearing past few days feeling almost as if he and Solana were a couple. To the point where he must have clearly overstepped a boundary.
“...I’m so sorry,” he breathed out all at once, shaking his head in his own panicked shock that rose in his chest. “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable, I got caught u-”
Lunick watched in practically slow motion how his best friend’s fingers loosened around her cone slowly, until it dropped right in the seawater around their feet with a punctuated plop. And as it turns out, his was quick to join it- he would never get to enjoy the rest of that scoop beyond the tiny taste he’d stolen. Because Solana very suddenly surged forward like a striking Ekans, using her newfound free hands to hook around the curvature of his jaw as she kissed him square on the mouth.
It had been the final breaking point. For months now, they had been fallen for each other, but never dared to act upon it. The feelings had only blossomed and grew all that time, despite neither knowing the other reciprocated them. And today, they finally came to light.
The dark haired man was caught so off-guard by it all that he forgot to breathe for a moment, and in that pause, Solana began to draw back, just in case it was now she who was making an advance unwanted.
But he didn’t let her. Lunick instead wrapped his arms around her waist tightly and put his hands firmly flush against her back, immediately chasing her lips as they tried to leave in order to kiss her back in fervent way- lest the moment be lost forever.
A bright flash of light from below was what made them tear apart. Both stayed holding the other close, but whipped their heads with mouth agape out towards the horizon, which had lit up aglow with the heart-stoppingly gorgeous teals and greens of hundreds of Lumineon, swimming and dancing and weaving around one another in the most breathtakingly graceful way. They both let out a quiet gasp at the sight before looking back again at the other with a soft smile each, the shimmer of the bioluminescence reflecting beautifully in both of their eyes. “I couldn’t take it anymore,” Solana confessed, and Lunick let out a bubbly laugh as he kissed her curtly again, just because the precedent had been set that he could. She looked up at him lovingly with no regard for the natural wonder surrounding them and knit her fingers into the hairs on the nape of his neck, twirling them gently. “You know, when I was looking for you in the Relic, I promised myself I would at least tell you before it was too late how I’ve felt about you all this time.”
Lunick’s exhale was shuttered as he stared at her, taking the words in as fast as his foggy, elated mind would let him process it. “All this time?” He parotted back in disbelief, his tone of voice so soft and full of love. “You mean, we’ve both been waiting for nothing…?”
She held either side of his face with a joyful smile, tears of happiness misting her eyes. “Waiting for the perfect moment,” she told him, the same thing she’d been telling herself for so long now whenever she even thought about bringing her feelings to light. “Which, in hindsight, I realize now would have been thirty seconds later than what I did.”
He laughed at her joke about the Lumineon, louder than he needed to with her right here so close to him. But he couldn’t help it- her humor and the way she could so effortlessly bring levity to an otherwise heavy conversation were two of his absolute favorite things about her. “Every moment with you is a perfect moment,” he promised, and she lunged forward again to throw her arms around him, practically on his lap.
“I want to be like this,” she told him, curling her head into the crook of his neck so she could watch the Pokémon glow from her craned position enveloped with him. “I want to be like we have been this week for the long haul, maybe even after our final contracts with the Union. I just want to be with you.”
His heart soared, and he was certain she could hear it thumping wildly as the blood rushed to his ears and cheeks at her words. He wanted it too; he wanted it so much more than he could ever tell her with words alone. He’d wanted it for so long of their existing relationship already, and to hear her express the same… he almost had to pinch himself to ensure this wasn’t a twisted fantasy dream he’d wake up from far too soon.
“Then let’s start today,” Lunick counter-offered her, one of the hands on her back rubbing in soothing circles of pure adoration. “Solana, there’s something I think I’d like to finally ask.”
She knew. She knew what it was. It was the words she’d always dreamed of hearing, and today, she finally got to. Peeling herself back from him to receive them properly, she turned how she was sitting on the deck to face him more head-on, her knees bumping into his as she nodded. “I can’t believe you’re actually going to beat me to it.”
Lunick snickered, and took both her hands in his, the entire right side of his face aglow in the blue reflection of the gorgeous sight. But her eyes were only on him: he was the view, as far as she was concerned.
“Solana- I, your best friend, Lunick Kazuki, would truly and wholeheartedly love nothing more on this entire earth than to be officially yours. And I’m saying this for real this time, not just in the eyes of others, not just to get a couples coupon, not just to fend off any weirdos hitting on the other… Would you please, please be my girlfriend?”
The teal haired girl laughed at his bumbling dramatics and nodded wildly, leaning forward to peck him on the lips at how adorably goofy he always was. “It would be my honor,” she whispered, breathless, and crashed right into him as he pulled her in to cuddle and watch the rest of the migratory patterns together.
So as it turned out, Spenser was right all along: the vacation to Summerland was well-needed, even if not for the reasons he may have expected. And it was surely one that neither Lunick nor Solana would ever forget.