As Autumn took her place, Green looked down at Emerald, “Not yet,” He hissed, “Later. After this guy,” He jerked his head towards the priest, “Is done talking.”
Emerald glared at him, then moved off to the side. “Sorry, I didn’t know.”
With a small nod, Autumn moved to the left, and proceeded to walk down the aisle leaving a trail of flower petals behind her.
Emerald moved to the right of the aisle, then continued to walk up to Green. He looked at his senior out of the corner of his eye. “Here’s the rings.”
With one last glare, the young girl strode out into the main room. She glanced around nervously before looking back to Emerald, “A-are you coming?” She stuttered, her anger from earlier forgotten due to the sudden stage fright from the amount of people gathered.
Emerald nodded and walked in after her, ignoring all the people. He was feeling a little nervous as well, but he forced himself not to show it. “Okay, let’s go and get this over with,” he muttered.
Autumn folded her arms. With that action, a couple flowers fluttered out of the basket and slowly fell to the ground, “Kid?” She repeated indignantly, “Autumn has a name! And Autumn’s name is Autumn!” She had a glare on her face, one that slightly resembled her Daddy Prickle’s own grimace.
“Oh yeah, that’s what your name was… Okay, you go first then, Autumn.” Emerald stepped away from the door to let her pass. He wondered, not for the first time, why he had agreed to do this.
Autumn knew it was time for her to walk up the isle with Emerald, but… Something stopped her.
“Here.” She held out a handful of flower petals to him, a shy smile on her face.
Emerald looked at the girl and raised his eyebrows. “Thanks?” He took them, mumbling to himself before turning to the door. “You go in first, uh… Kid.” What was her name again? Oh well, it didn’t matter much to him.
Autumn was surprised to see another person at Auntie Crystal’s house. She was slightly let down when he ignored her for Auntie Crystal, but she told herself that it was because he came to see Auntie Crystal— not Autumn. He would great her later, that was for certain in Autumn’s mind.
When Auntie Cyrstal said the boy’s name— Emerald, she smiled slightly and thought of her Daddy Prickles. His real name was Green after all, and the gem Emerald was a shade of green…
It was then Autumn noticed the gem on the boy’s forehead, and found herself staring at it. Not a single ill-intended thought ran through her mind, instead she was thinking of how beautiful the gem was. It took her a few moments to snap out of the spell it had placed on her, and the only reason the girl came out of it at all was because of Auntie Crystal’s question, “Have you two met each other before…?”
The girl quickly turned back to Auntie Crystal, with one last glance at the gem on the boy’s forehead before responding, “Nope! Never!” With that, she turned back to Emerald and held out her hand, “I’m Autumn! It’s nice to meet you!” She looked down from the gem into his eyes, which matched his name.
When she heard Auntie Crystal speak next, she tore her eyes away from the boy and looked towards the young woman. Her hand still outstretched, she smiled, “That’s fine! Right?” She looked back to Emerald, the cheerful smile still visible on her face… The depression of a few moments ago had been forgotten.
Emerald looked at Autumn, then back up at Crystal. “No, I’ve never met her before.” He turned toward Autumn again and stared at her outstretched hand. Rolling his eyes, he took her hand and shook it- only being polite so Crystal wouldn’t scold him. “Yeah, nice to meet you too,” he grumbled. He let go of the girl’s hand, not comfortable being social with anyone besides Crystal.
Emerald nodded when Crystal asked if it was okay if they stayed the night. Although he didn’t really want to with Autumn there, he decided to keep quiet and stay anyway. The way the girl smiled at him creeped him out a little, and he glanced at her before he pushed past Crystal’s leg and walked inside the house.
Who was she anyway? She was really weird. Emerald decided not to worry about it right now and just sat on Crystal’s couch, waiting for her them to come inside.
Autumn had been a little upset when Daddy Prickles told her he was going to have a sleepover with Daddy Hairbrush and a couple of his other ‘friends’ for multiple reasons.
The first reason was because it had been a long time since she had seen her Daddy Hairbrush, and this was yet another missed chance. With how much time had passed, she was starting to wonder if he was avoiding her…
The second reason was because Daddy Prickles had only referred to Daddy Hairbrush as a ‘friend’. Autumn liked Mister Ellipses, but she wasn’t sure how she felt about him becoming Daddy Ellipses.
She was glad her Daddy Prickles was happy, but… At the same time, she wanted the three of them— Daddy Prickles, Daddy Hairbrush, and Autumn herself— to be together as a family.
“But Autumn can’t even get that…” She sighed as she lifted her hand and knocked on the door of her Auntie Crystal. Daddy Prickles had told her to go to Daddy Hairbrush’s fiance’s place while he was gone, oblivious of her feelings.
When he asked, she put on a smile and simply said, “Okay!” Autumn didn’t want her Daddy Prickles to realize her troubled thoughts, so she would do whatever he asked… Because it made him happy.
The door swung open, and Autumn quickly put on the best smile she could manage and spoke in a chipper tone, “Hiya, Auntie Crystal!”
Emerald smiled to himself as he walked to Crystal’s house. She had called him and asked him to come over. Emerald, of course had said yes, as he was always happy to visit Crystal. As her house came into view, his smile grew wider.
When he noticed Autumn standing at the door however, he blinked. Who was she? Why was she at Crystal’s door? He pouted, marching up next to the girl. Emerald decided that he should ignore her until Crystal said something about her. Looking up at Crystal, he grinned again. “Hi Crystal, I’m here!”
Emerald stared up at Crystal, the grin still on his face. “I was waiting for you to come home, but you didn’t. So I came here to look for you! Heh heh heh.” He looked behind him at the mud that he had tracked in. “…Oops. Sorry, I kept getting stuck in the mud.” He pouted a little at that, muttering something about how he hated how short he was.
He sneezed, shaking his head. “I’m okay Crystal, really! It’s just a little mud. No big deal.” He folded his arms, although he didn’t exactly have a problem with her taking care of him like that. “I’ll be okay.”“Well, it’s not like I’m going to go outside in this,” Crystal stated matter-of-factly, motioning toward the window. A frown creased her lips as she looked down at him. “And you shouldn’t have either, you know.”
She heard him sneeze and she arched an eyebrow. Had he caught a cold? He shouldn’t have gone after her like he had. She was most definitely grateful for his company seeing as the storm showed absolutely no signs of stopping whatsoever, but he didn’t have to sacrifice his own health for her. She never liked it when anyone did something of that manner.
She worriedly bent down and gingerly lifted him into her arms, trying to avoid staining her lab coat with the mud on his body. “Eme, you’ve caught a cold from all of that running around outside,” she mumbled, looking at him sternly. “That isn’t okay, at least not one hundred percent.”
Crystal walked to the doorway and peered out of it into the hallway. Emerald had dripped mud all over the place, and she sighed softly, knowing that she would have to be the one to clean it up. The room where she bathed the Pokemon was just down the hall—perhaps she could hose down Emerald there.
Emerald frowned. “I know… I’m sorry Crystal,” he mumbled, glancing away from her. Maybe he should’ve just waited. Then she wouldn’t be upset with him like this. He hated when she was upset with him.
He blinked when she picked him up. “Hey! Crystal, I can walk on my own!” Emerald pouted, squirming in her arms. He wiped his nose with his muddy sleeve, leaving mud on his face. “Pffft. Stupid mud!” Then he sneezed, and pouted more. “…Hmph. I don’t like storms.”
