When We Were Younger. |Gladion X Moon|Pokemon Romance Novel|

-11-

I wake up in a pool of sweat, practically suffocating in the heat and humidity clouding my tent. I unzip the door and burst out onto the beach. I'm disappointed to find out it's not much cooler on the outside. Arcanine steps out of the tent, it's panting.

I reach my arm in to the stifling tent and dig around until I find my water. I hastily take a big drink, then fumble around for my poor buddie's water bowl. I also call Primarina out for a play date.

While my Pokemon play on the beach, I move my tent into the shade. I really hope tomorrow is a little cooler. I planned on doing some traveling today, but hanging out on this beach in my bikini sounds much better.

I slip behind a rock to change. It feels silly to hide; this beach is so secluded nobody would see me change - or so I thought. Primarina lets out a screech as I pull up my bottoms.

Across the beach, I see him blasting someone with an aqua jet. Focusing a little harder, it looks like Gladion. I rush over to apologize for my Pokémon's actions.

"Primarina! Knock it off!" I yell from across the beach.

Gladion pulls his hands down from his face and looks down at his soaking wet clothes in disappointment. He turns to me and laughs as he wrings water from the bottom of his hoody.

At least he's not mad.

"I'm so sorry! I don't know what got into her!" I say, giggling at his soggy clothes.

"I had it coming!" he laughs, "I didn't realize it was your Pokemon at first!"

He pauses for a moment, laughing at the situation. "I threw a Pokeball at her. I thought she was wild, until I saw Arcanine that is! On the bright side, I actually feel nice and cool now, I was dying in this get up."

We both laugh a bit. I can't let him get away from me this time.

"Well, since you're here, let's have a battle!" I say, hoping he might stick around to challenge me.

"Fine, but I'm not battling like this. Good thing I set my back pack down over there," he says before pulling the soaking wet sweatshirt over his head.

I give him a few moments to change inside my tent. I practically drooled over the way he took his shirt off. It's going to be hard to keep my cool.

I decide for our battle, I'll try out my new Pokemon, Skarmory. I'm anxious to see what it can do.

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Gladion zips himself into the tent. He notices Moon's phone flashing at the side of her sleeping bag. He knows she won't come in if she thinks he's changing, so, he decides to do a little snooping.

Scrolling through the texts, he laughs under his breath while reading about Joey. Next, there's texts talking about her crush, he's dying to know who it is. I wonder who french fry hair is? he thinks to himself. Finally, after several texts of gushing he sees his name pop up.

"Please keep an eye out for Gladion. If you see him, give him my number! It's driving me crazy that I don't have it!"

He goes back through the texts, knowing they were about him. His heart swells, not really believing that she feels the same way too. What does a girl like Moon see in me? She could have any guy she wants, but she has a thing for me? Too bad things are so complicated.

He laughs a little to himself, French fry hair.

Gladion sets the phone back down and pulls his soggy clothes off, changing into a pair of swim trunks. He gathers up his belongings and tries to wipe the stupid smile off his face before somebody sees it.