Hop and Marnie had been dating for... gosh, a while now. They'd gotten together first during the gym challenge, a good spell before Hop came out. After Hop took up her position as Professor Sonia's assistant, and Marnie became Spikemuth's new gym leader, they both had their hands tied with their jobs and would always have to plan things out thoroughly if they wanted to go on a date, have a good Pokémon battle, or just sit down together and have a good chat. Despite how tight their schedules got those times, though...Hop and Marnie always cherished their time together, and never felt a single minute was wasted. Marnie... Marnie was so mysterious, yet so straightforward at the same time! It was something Hop always liked about her a lot. She'd seem stiff and hard to figure out at first, but once you'd get to know her, you'd know she has her own way of communicating things that's pretty easy to learn. She'd never be truly stiff, just have a hard time showing her feelings. She was so, so pretty, too... Seeing her face made Hop blush. Hearing her voice made Hop's heart skip a beat. And though it would always make her a blushy, stammering mess, she loved Marnie's smile. It was the reason why Hop would sometimes make a fool of herself in front of that girl, and tell her the dumbest jokes she knew. She loved that smile. Hop...Marnie liked her because she felt so dynamic. Marnie was always learning new things about her. She always learning about Hop's different tastes, such as in music, fashion, and foods. She learned about the little quirks she had, like labelling her Pokéballs with her Pokémon's nicknames, doodling all over the planners she was supposed to be using for work, always putting spaces before punctuation in texting...Hop was just such a unique person, and every new thing Marnie learned about her was fascinating, as little as it would be. Hop was just... beautiful, too. Those brilliant, light hazel eyes, and the stars you could see light up in them when she was full of excitement. Her radiant smile... her buzzy, yet soft sounding voice... and the way she laughed. Her joy was absolutely contagious. Marnie always found herself at her happiest when Hop was excited about something. On this day in particular they'd made some plans to meet up in the wild area for a Pokémon battle, texting each other back and forth a little until settling on a specific area. >> Sunday, October 6, 2019 Hopz2it: where'd you wana meet up again ? near Motostoke or Hammerlocke ? M0rp3k0queenXx: either is fine by me. we could try meeting half way, maybe by bridge field? if that's okay with you. Hopz2it: sounds great Marn !!! i'll be there soon !!! M0rp3k0queenXx: i'll get a corvicab on over to bridge field Hopz2it: okay !!! btw Marnie i have something REALLY important to tell you !!! M0rp3k0queenXx: what's up? Hopz2it: i love you !!! <333 M0rp3k0queenXx: you goofball. i love u 2 x <3 >> As she said she would, Marnie arrived in the Hammerlocke wild area through a corvicab, payed off the cabbie, and waited in Bridge Field near the Pokémon Nursery. She didn't know what kind of transportation Hop would be using, so, figuring she'd have to wait a while, she sat on a tree stump and brought out her purrloin to pet and play with in the mean time. The little furry pokémon purred loudly as it sat curled up on her lap and she gently pet it's back. Soon, Marnie was startled by her purrloin perking up and hopping on her bag, attempting to get inside it. 'Oh,' she thought. 'He's smelling the food, isn't he?' Marnie had been trying out cooking recently, and though she wasn't terribly great at it, she still wanted to bring something she made on over for her girlfriend. Just as a little surprise for their "battle-dates", as Hop called them. What Marnie had made this time was just some simple pasta curry. Probably cold by now, but surely Hop wouldn't mind that. She slid the straps of her bag off her shoulders, stood up, and turned to face the little purrloin. "No," she said flatly, yet firmly. "No curry for you right now. It's for me and Hop. I have treats in my bag if you want those." The purrloin gave her a disgruntled look, it's ears folding back. It wasn't very happy with her words... "Kitty," Marnie said, zipping open a pouch on her bag. Out, she pulled a bag of little berry-flavored treats. "It's pecha. Your favorite." The purrloin snobbishly turned it's head aside, eyes closed and pouting. After she shook the bag a few times though, clicking her tongue at the pokémon to get it's attention, it opened it's eyes and, hesitating, sniffed the bag. With a cheeful meow and purr, the purrloin rubbed it's face on the bag, signaling that it did, in fact, now want the treats. Marnie opened the bag, poured some pecha pokétreats into her palm, and hand-fed the little purrloin, who eagerly gobbled up each treat she held. Once finished, the purrloin joyfully looked up at her and purred. Within at least the next minute, she was pleasantly surprised to hear Hop's voice from afar. "Marzy!" she called out. Marnie turned around and Hop was already running towards her, her arms spread out for a hug. Finally close to the other, Hop gave Marnie a strong embrace, nearly knocking her back. Marnie couldn't help but beam at the display of affection. "Marzy, heheh," Hop giggled, moving her hands to hold her partner's face. "I missed you so much!" Blushing, Marnie raised a hand and ran her fingers through Hop's soft hair. "Missed you too, Hopper." They gazed at each other thoughtfully for a moment, one of Hop's hands rested on Marnie's cheek, while the other was stroking one of her pigtails. Marnie's hands were rested on Hop's shoulders, as she looked up at her. Hop was a bit of a deal taller than her, but she didn't mind it at all. Slowly, Marnie rose up on her toes to be eye to eye with Hop, and the two embraced each other in a kiss on the lips. Separating, they smiled at each other, and, hesitantly, let go of each other. Marnie moved back over to her bag, and her purrloin went back inside it's pokéball. While Marnie fished through her bag, slowly Hop approached her again and gave her partner a hug around the chest from behind, resting her head on the other's shoulder. "Want to go in to battle now, or do you want to wait?" Finally finding what she was looking for, holding up the pokéball in her hand, Marnie replied. "Battle first, but I got a surprise for you waitin' after." With her free hand, she gently held one of the hands Hop had wrapped around her chest. "You're gonna have to let go if you want to battle, Hop..." "Aww, alright then." She let go of the other and backed up enough to give space for battle. "That makes two of us, by the way, because I've got a surprise for you, too!" She smiled as she shoved her hand in one of her pockets, grabbing a pokéball inside. "Can't wait t'see it," Marnie said as she turned around, still clutching her pokéball. Marnie threw her hand back, shouting, "Go get 'em, Ribs!" and out in a flash of light came her toxicroak, ribbiting. Out of her pocket, Hop pulled a Love Ball, studded with little hearts. Mimicking her brother Leon's throw perfectly, and with a yell of "Go, Marnie!", out in a flutter of pink hearts came a morpeko, with it's cheerful "Urara!" and rosy pink cheeks. Standing behind her toxicroak, Marnie's eyes widened, and her face went red. "H-huh?" "I caught a Morpeko, Marnie! One of your favorites!" Hop beamed at her, enthusiastically shaking her fists. Trying to process the moment, Marnie was frozen for a little bit. A morpeko, and...did she hear that right? What was it's name, again? "Hold on, now uh," she mumbled, face still red, looking down, and fiddling with the glossy metal chain on her jacket. "C-can we take a break? Like fer a few minutes?" ...After a moment's silence, Marnie remembered how far apart they were standing from each other when Hop cupped her hands around her mouth and yelled, "WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" She pat her toxicroak on the head. "Take five, Ribs. Battle's not gonna start yet." After, she walked up towards Hop to talk. "Can we take a break, Hop?" "Huh?" Hop furrowed her brow in worry. "Is something wrong, Marnie?" "Oh, no, nothin' like that, don't worry," Marnie shook her hands. "I uh... can I see your morpeko's pokéball?" Perhaps the label Hop put on it could confirm her suspicions. "Sure thing, love," Hop said, handing her the pokéball, still a tinge of worry on her face. Marnie inspected the ball. It was bright pink, covered in rosey red hearts. Yeah, Hop would catch a pokémon in something this cheesy. She rotated it, and...the label on the pokéball wrote "MARNIE" in Hop's small, bubbly handwriting. Her blush deepening, she looked up at Hop, who was blushing now, too. "Heheh... I named her after someone really important." Heart thumping, emotions flowing, Marnie looked to the pokéball again, and then back up at Hop, eyes sparkling. "Me?" Bashfully averting her eyes, her hands held back behind her head, Hop nodded. Looking back down at the pokéball, Marnie smiled warmly, tears of joy stinging her eyes a little. A pokémon named after her... caught in a cutesy pokéball covered in hearts...and to top it all off, it was a morpeko. The feeling was almost indescribable. Warm, unbridled joy... love and appreciation. Somehow she knew only Hop could make her feel this special and happy. She felt so happy it brought her to tears... which was something rare for her. Hop looked down at Marnie and panic immediately washed over her as she saw tears streaming down her partner's face. "Oh no no, Marnie! Marnie, you're not sad, are you?!" Marnie met eyes with Hop again and wiped her tears. "N-no! Not at all!" She sniffled. "Ah, 'm... really touched, actually. That I... you named your pokémon after me. I can't explain it, it's just... 'm really happy." Hop smiled, and pulled her partner in for a hug. "In that case, that's exactly what I was looking for," She said softly as she stroked Marnie's hair. "You mean a whole lot to me, you know?" Marnie embraced Hop back and sniffled. "Yeah," She rested her head on the other's shoulder. "Hop... I love ya so much. Yer amazin'." "Love you too, Marnz," Hop said back, her voice almost a whisper. Like before, there was silence between the two as they simply just...enjoyed each other's company and affection. Marnie loved the feeling of the fur on Hop's soft jacket and the sweet smell of her apple-scented perfume. Hop loved how soft Marnie's hair was, the feeling of running her fingers through it lovingly. The rosy smell of Marnie's perfume was always nice. Though she wasn't crying anymore, Marnie was still filled with so much love and joy. Hop was so loving and affectionate towards her... sometimes she almost felt like she didn't deserve it, being the dark and gloomy goth from Spikemuth she was. Hop and Marnie's long moment of affection was interrupted by the two of them hearing their pokémon cry. "Cro-oa-oak!" "Urara!" Ah, that's right...they were originally supposed to be battling. Back on with that, then. But walking back over with her toxicroak and starting the battle, Marnie made sure to give Hop a good peck on the lips for support. -- The battle was getting down to a close, Hop and Marnie almost at a tie, but Marnie appearing to be in the losing stretch. The whole name thing earlier had admittedly thrown her off, giving her a disadvantage in the battle. "Ribs, give 'em some venoshock!" Some vicious poison was shot out at Hop's morpeko, taking it's health down quite a bit, but it was still standing strong. Poisoned, the morpeko got back up, hangry mode engaged and ready to attack. "Marnie, use thunder shock!" The hungered morpeko followed it's orders, and a large shock was sent the way of the gym leader's toxicroak, taking a good chunk of health away from the pokémon. "Ribs, fight 'em back with some revenge!" The toxicroak lunged at the morpeko and attacked. Though morpeko was knocked down again, it was still going strong despite it's poison and low health. Back to it's full belly state, morpeko prepared another attack. "Marnie, go for aura wheel!" Oh... morpeko's special move. That wouldn't be good. The morpeko ramped up it's speed and sent a wheel of hot electricity towards the toxicroak, and that was the final move that ended the battle. The trainer Marnie's toxicroak fainted, the light from her pokéball bringing it back in to rest. Hop brought her morpeko back into it's cheesy, heart-covered pokéball, stuffed the ball into her jacket, and ran up to Marnie, showering her partner with kisses. Marnie was surprised at the sudden display of affection after battle, but smiled, not minding it much. Letting up on the smooch attack, Hop held Marnie's hands, beaming at her partner. "That's got to be the first time I've won against you, hasn't it?! That was a great battle, Marnz!" The dark gym leader looked down and blushed. "You threw me off my game with the Morpeko thing...I wasn't at my best." "Ah, malarkey! You were still so good out there!" She laughed, shaking Marnie's hands. "Oh, and uh," Hop looked at her, curious. "You mentioned something about a surprise you had for after battle? What was that?" "Bah, it's... nothin' compared to what you did, but I might as well," The gym leader said, releasing Hop's hands and walking back over to her bag. After some fishing, she pulled out a container of the pasta curry she'd made, and opened it, presenting it to her partner, with some silverware already laid down on the food. "I made it myself...for you and me t' eat. I'm not super great at cookin' yet, so it won't be all that good." Hop marveled at the curry, and without hesitating, pulled up a fork, and dug it into the dish, rolling up curry-covered pasta noodles around it. She shoveled the noodles on the fork into her mouth and was near immediately dazzled by the taste, her face lighting up with that lovely twinkle coming to her eyes. "WOW!" She put a hand to her cheek. "Marnz, th-this is amazing!!!" Marnie gave her a bewildered look. "...You're sure? You don't have to lie to me if it's not that goo-" "It's GREAT!" Hop interrupted, throwing her arms in the air. "Don't sell yourself short like that, Marnz! Even if you don't think it's all that great, it's fantastic to me!" "Why?" Marnie asked her. "Because you made it, and you're fantastic!" Hop yelled excitedly, shaking her fists. Marnie smiled, then snickered, laughing at corniness of everything her partner was saying. "Hop, you're more cheesy than one of them bad romcom movies." Hop folded her arms behind her head, beaming, pleased at herself for everything she'd done to make Marnie happy this afternoon. Seeing her partner happy always made her feel so warm and fuzzy inside. "I wouldn't have it any other way, you know. Now, let's go sit down and finish that awesome curry you made together!"