"Silvally use multi attack!" Gladion commanded. His Silvally surrounded itself with grass-type energy.

"Silvally, multi attack as well!" Moon mirrored. The opposite Silvally encased itself with fire-type energy.

Both Pokémon ran at each other, Gladion's striking first, then Moon's.

The fire type, of course, took less damage than the grass type, who was knocked down and struggled to get up.

"Let's finish this! Silvally dragon claw!" Moon commanded.

Just as the opposing Pokémon got on its feet, it was knocked back by the dragon claw. The grass type was slammed against the wall. It had fainted. The remaining Silvally roared in victory.

Gladion turned to return his Pokémon.

Silvally's aggressive attitude melted away as it barked in happiness and ran to its trainer. Moon hugged her Pokémon as it licked her face. Moon realized Gladion watching them.

"Good battle" she said, smiling.

Gladion gave a small smile and shook his head, "Always so optimistic aren't we?"

This was the second time Gladion had come to challenge her at the league and the second time he lost. Moon loved seeing him come to challenge her. She thought she maybe was making progress with him. Maybe, she thought, she could be his friend.

"It's easy to stay optimistic with a Pokémon like Silvally" Moon chuckled. Her Silvally acted like a Lillipup. Always running around, always happy, and curious about everything. She remembered the first time Silvally had seen grass and laughed to herself.

Gladion put his hands on his hips, "Your Silvally has quite a personality"

Silvally was pawing at a spot of rainbow colored light on the floor. Moon laughed.

"I think it's cute. Don't you?"

Gladion shrugged. Moon noticed how bright the light from the glass ceiling made his hair. She realized she was staring and looked away. She felt her face heat up. Why? Why is it whenever he was around she got Butterfree in her stomach?

"D-do you want your Pokémon healed?" Moon asked, not making eye contact.

Gladion shrugged, "Sure"

Gladion let out his Pokémon and Moon did the same thing. She wanted to heal her Pokémon too! Her Lycanroc growled at the sight of Gladion, like he always did. Her Silvally dug through her bag for a sitris berry. Once it found one, it ran over to Gladion's Silvally and gave it the berry. Moon took out medicine from her bag and began healing all the Pokémon in the room.

Once she finished she returned all her Pokémon, and Gladion mirrored her actions.

"Thanks" he said.

"No problem" she muttered.

"I should be getting back to Aether" he said, turning to leave.

"Wait!" Moon called. Gladion stopped and faced her.

"H-Hau and I are going to hang out and get malasadas tonight. Do you wanna come?"

Gladion's face displayed shock for a split second before returning to normal.

"Maybe" he said simply, walking out.

Moon stood there, frozen. Did he say "maybe"? Was she making progress? Was he open to being friends? Moon squeaked in delight. She had to tell Hau!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Gladion was debating on whether or not he should go. He really didn't like Hau, but he didn't mind Moon. Sure she seemed just as happy as Hau most times, but she wasn't nearly as bad. She wasn't bad to look at either...

Gladion shook away his thoughts. He wasn't doing this because he wanted to! Surely he was doing this because it would make Lillie happy. It would make her happy to hear he was making an effort to tolerate her friends. These were her friends, not his. He didn't have any friends.

Gladion made his way to Iki town, since he heard from Lillie that's where Hau lived. He assumed Moon would be there. Lillie told him to go towards the back of the town, and Hau's was the only one there.

Simple. He thought. It really was the only one around. Gladion cautiously knocked on Hau's door, only to have him answer.

"Wow she was right, you are here" Hau said, surprised.

"Where's Moon?" Gladion shot back.

Hau smiled and rolled his eyes "She's in the bathroom"

The boys stood in the open doorway, waiting for Moon. After what seemed like an eternity, the girl appeared behind Hau.

"Gladion!" Moon cheered.

She looked happy that he was here. Why was she happy?

She pushed past her friend and greeted Gladion with that smile of hers.

"Oh no guys it turns out I'm busy, I can't go bye" Hau said quickly, closing the door behind the two and locking it.

Moon looked angry. She muttered words under her breath and sighed. She grabbed Gladion's arm and pulled him away from Hau's house. He tried to shake loose, but she refused to let him go. Only after they left Iki town did she let go, which felt like an eternity.

"What now?" Gladion asked. He didn't know. He never had any friends to "hang out" with. Moon pondered this for awhile. Her face lit up a couple seconds later. She grabbed his wrist and ran down route 1 in the direction of Melemele meadow. Where was she taking him? And why was he okay with it?

They entered Melemele meadow. Moon took a deep breath in and exhaled before letting go of Gladion and spraying a repel.

"This way" she said, walking through the flowers. Gladion hesitantly followed her. They came upon a mountain with a small hole at the bottom of it. It looked like a person could fit through it.

Moon sat down on her knees, ushering Gladion to do the same thing.

"You're not telling me to go in there are you?" Gladion asked, even though he knew the answer.

"Yep" Moon responded. She crawled through the opening.

"Come on!" He heard her say. He sighed and crawled through. Once inside, he stood up and brushed the dirt off of him. The cave was huge and complicated, but Moon lead him through it like she'd been here dozens of times.

The cave finally opened up to a bay. The moon's light reflected off of the water.

"Isn't it pretty?" Moon stated more than asked.

It was. Gladion was surprised he had never seen this place before. He looked over at Moon. She had a light smile on her face, and the moonlight bounced off her dark hair. She seemed to be thinking of something.

"Gladion...?" She whispered. He might not have heard her if he hadn't seen her lips move.

"Hm?"

"I know we're not friends or anything..." she began. She seemed to fumble with her words as if she was nervous. He never pegged her as the nervous type, so it seemed out of character for her.

"B-but do you think...maybe..."

Gladion held his breath waiting for her to finish her sentence.

"Maybe we could be? Ya know...friends?" She looked at him. She gave a small flinch as if she hadn't expected him to be looking at her. The boy searched her eyes for any sign of untruthfulness. Finally, he nodded. A huge smile grew on Moon's face. She lifted her arms as if to hug him, but recoiled. She seemed hesitant to touch him even though she had already dragged him here.

Gladion sighed, outstretched his arms, looking away and feeling his face heat up. Moon threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around his torso. He slowly wrapped his arms around her as well.

"I always thought you needed a hug" she said into his chest.

They stood there for what seemed like forever. Oddly, Gladion was okay with it. Maybe, just maybe, he could get used to the whole "friendship" thing.