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

-28-

The electric motor of the golf cart groans as Gladion accelerates down the cobble stone pathway of Aether Paradise's massive, outdoor garden.

My hair twists in the warm, sea breeze. I pull it behind my ears so I can get a better look at Gladion. Sitting in the passenger seat next to him gives me a fuzzy feeling inside.

He notices my excitement and smiles. The apples of my cheeks perk up as he places his arm across the back of the bench seat. I scoot closer until I can feel the warmth of his leg against mine.

Feeling bolder than ever, I place my hand on his upper thigh. A faint pink color fills his cheeks. He looks at me from the corner of his eye, inhaling sharply.

We slow, coming to a stop, as we happen upon a gardener.

"Stay here," he says as he hops down from the cart.

He catches the gardener just as he is about to jump in the driver's seat of a utility jeep. He converses with the man, I strain to hear the conversation, but they are too far away. He helps the man gather up a few tools from the back of the jeep, to my surprise they start loading them into the back of the golf cart.

"We're switching to the jeep," Gladion snickers. A mischievous grin grows on his face as he watches me head to the passenger door, locking the door with the remote as I reach for the door handle.

"Your hilarious," I groan sarcastically.

"You're driving," he says, tossing the keys my way.

"I told you that I can't drive, right?"

"That's why I'm going to teach you."

"Seriously?"

Saffron City was so crowded that I never bothered to learn, but maybe it will be useful now that I'm living in Alola. Still, the thought of driving makes me very nervous.

"For once there's something I can teach you. Please don't ruin this for me."

After a rough, lurchy start, I find myself finally getting the hang of it. I may have squished a few fancy rose bushes in the process, but overall, the damage was minimal.

Gladion snickers as I make a rather awkward and wide turn into the modest sized airway. He really seems to be enjoying himself for once. The sound of his laughter warms my heart, he really seems to be opening up to me.

A loud whining noise fills the airway as a shiny white helicopter starts up. Three Aether employees load it with kennels and a large duffle bag before boarding. I cover my ears as it blows over us, the chopping of the blades is unbearably loud.

Gladion chuckles at me from the passenger seat.

"I'll teach you how to fly one of those next!" he shouts, trying to compete with the noisy aircraft.

"Teach me? You mean you can fly one of those!"

"Of course! The puddle jumper is pretty fun to fly too!"

"Pull around to the back of the building, I've got something else to show you."

________________

"This place is really special to me," Gladion explains as we near a large set of glass doors at the end of the hallway.

"I always hid away in here to get away from all of the...the well, you know."

He types a password into the keypad and the doors slide open, the humidity dampens my skin as we enter the dark terrarium.

"Why is it so d-" the synthetic sky turns to daylight at the sound of my voice, "Woah! Did it just-"

"Yup. It's voice activated."