Gold's POV

"Nice of you guys to show up," I greet my three friends who enter the Lily Village Pokemon Center.

I get up to meet them before wobbling and losing my balance. Forgot I was on a lilypad. Yea a lilypad.

Lily Village is built completely on massive sturdy lilypads, with smaller ones in between so you can traverse the village. Despite being strong enough to hold a building they're still soft and sink a little with each step.

Otherwise the village is beautiful with pink glowing lilies lighting up the village that is enclosed by a mossy rock outcropping. Every building is open concept with very few solid walls, creating a friendly atmosphere because everyone who passes says hi.

It's been nice just sitting here and talking to people.

"Ha ha," Green rolls her pretty brown eyes. "Don't make me push you into the water, It's quite easy here."

"I'm still not used to this," Serena picks up her leg cautiously before setting it back down into the lilypad. 

"It's so cool," Ash awes per usual. 

"A lively bunch eh?" A woman walks up to us. She has long grey hair tied into a ponytail and hip waders on that cover her overalls underneath. 

"Sorry," Serena bows. 

"Didn't say it was a bad thing," The woman laughs. "I'm Meredith, I take care of Lily Village."

"So you're who we need to talk to," Green says. "We were wondering if we could have a makeshift Pokemon contest here? Serena is a real pro and-"

"Oh I know," Meredith grabs Serena's hand. "You were wonderful in the Hoenn Grand Festival dear. The whole town was cheering for you."

"Thanks," The honey blonde blushes and Ash smiles at the girl.

"It would be an honour to have you perform," Meredith says excitedly. "President Triton actually recently informed us that we could have Pokemon Contests again for the village folk."

"You were banned?" I question and then receive a sharp elbow to the gut from Green. "Of course they were banned everywhere so that makes sense."

"Exactly," The elder woman nods. "Tomorrow we shall have a contest!"

Green drops her smile and looks wide-eyed at Serena.

"You better get practicing," I nudge her before receiving a much harder nudge back.

"You too military recruit," Meredith looks me dead in the yes and I feel my smile drop this time. "If want to go any further than Lily Village then you must demonstrate you care about bug types."

"Yes ma'am."

Oh no ma'am.

Serena's POV

"Serena!" Ash shakes me awake.

"Ugh," I groan, clutching the blankets tightly. 

He chuckles and picks me up. "To the water we go."

"Ash no!" I start flailing as he walks to our room's porch that gives us a nice view of the water.

"I'm joking," He lets me down on his bed that was closer to the porch door. "You better get going though if you don't want to miss the contest."

"I forgot!" I exclaim and start rummaging through my bag for my contest dress. "I was up all night training with Green trying to get our Pokemon to evolve. Her Silcoon did but I couldn't get Spewpa to. We tried and-"

"Serena," He holds my shoulders, staring deeply with those cursed auburn eyes. "I know I was there."

"Right," I sigh. "I forgot how worked up I get."

"You're gonna be amazing," Ash smiles.

"Thanks," I sigh, my head a foot away from his chest. I wish it didn't take a near death or emotional experience to get a hug.

Ash runs his hand through my presumably messy hair and it feels too good to focus on anything else. "But you should probably get ready first."

I snap out of it and take my stuff into the bathroom, putting on my favourite red and pink performing dress. It still has the big red bow and is cutoff at my knees. I tie my hair back with the blue ribbon and admire myself in the mirror.

"You can do this Serena," I mumble.

I step out and Ash mumbles something I don't pick up. Weird he never talks quiet.

Green's POV

What's my reward for surviving a night alone in a room with Gold? A competition I've never done before against a professional and a town of fanatics.

And worse yet, it's getting broadcasted.

A large lilypad is currently empty, with surrounding lilypads crowded with people from the village. The people competing, including myself and Serena, wait together on one behind the stage lilypad.

Everyone is dressed in beautiful handcrafted dresses that are clearly made with the help of bug type Pokemon and have so much charm. There's some boys competing too and even they have some sort of handmade kimono.

Then there's Serena in her pretty dress.

And then me in my normal clothes. I've already noticed some side eyes from people walking by. These people have been waiting forever to compete in a contest again and here I am treating it like a normal day.

At least Gold is also in his usual maroon jacket and black pants. He did take his hat off and is letting his hair breathe in the crisp morning air. 

"Welcome everyone!" Meredith steps out onto the "stage". "I hope you're ready for an exciting day of Pokemon coordinating!"

The crowd cheers, some bug type Pokemon in the crowd giving their approval as well.

"This isn't an official contest so today is just about the appeal round," She continues. "But whoever gets the loudest cheer has a prize in their future! Now without further ado, welcome our first coordinator Serena!"

The girl nearly jumps out her shoes before stepping up. She looks nervous so that must mean I should be even more nervous.

Serena releases Spewpa in the centre of the lilypad, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath.

"Harden and String Shot!"

Spewpa's white hairy body blows, a mix of red and yellow light emanating from the spots of colour on its body. Suddenly, string shoots upwards before splitting off into a fountain of web.

The strings swirl as Spewpa spins in a circle, falling around the Pokemon until creating a white sticky cone. Almost like a cocoon.

"Poison powder!"

The cone starts to turn purple as the poisonous particles emanate from the web, dancing in the air. Suddenly, beams of light shoot out of the cone, tearing apart the strings and revealing a new Pokemon.

"Vivillon," I mutter. "She really did it."

Vivillon flies up into the air, sparkles dropping like dust off its pristine white wings.

"Ta da!" Serena declares with a smile on her face and arm high up in the air. Vivillon lands gracefully on her hand, its bug eyes glistening from the sun.

"Wow," Seeing Serena in person has literally taken my breath away. I watched her catch that Pokemon less than 24 hours ago.

It really shows how different of a level professional coordinators and performers are on from regions that have contest circuits. I don't know if the dedication and talent for that is in me.

"Tough act to follow," Gold finds me on the waiting area lilypad.

"No kidding," I agree. "I don't think we can do this."

We watch one of the townsfolk perform and they also put on a dazzling display. It lacks some polishing and things compared to Serena's but was still very good.

"Speak for yourself," He winks. "Crustle and I got this."

"Crustle?" I give him a disapproving look.

"It's my only bug type," He shrugs while laughing. "Serena that was amazing!"

The honey blonde joins our circle, her cheeks flush from the adrenaline. "Thanks Gold."

"I agree," I awe. "You just caught Vivillon."

"Vivillon was born to perform," Serena smiles up at the Pokemon that is still out and resting on the trainer's head. "I'm going to go find Ash so I have a better view to watch you two."

"The best view of Green's will be when you're facing the other way," The navy haired trainer smirks but smartly backs away a couple steps.

Serena giggles while I roll my eyes. "Sshh," The professional says to Gold. "Green you're going to do great. At least someone practiced."

"Yea Gold you practiced right?" I smirk.

"Ash gave me some great tips," He puffs out his chest. "On battling."

Serena and I nearly fall to our knees.

"Good luck," Serena shakes her head and hops away on the lilypads towards the stands.

After a few more performances the event coordinator finds me and ushers me to the stage lilypad.

I step out and wow that's a lot of people. Multiple large lilypads with bleachers on them are filled with excited contest fans. They're all cheering and the gentle bobbing of the lilypads is making me seasick.

I release Beautifly who takes a second to get settled in the air.

"String shot like we practiced!"

Beautifly spins upwards while spitting out the silky white web move, creating a spiral through the air. It blows gently in the breeze but holds the spiral shape fairly well.

"Stun Spore and Poison Powder."

Orange and purple particles blow off of Beuatifly's yellow, red, and blue butterfly wings. As they fall they stick to the web that Beautifly is still hanging onto.

This creates an orange and purple spiral that sparkles in the sunlight. "Now Morning Sun!"

A ball of light appears from Beautifly's glowing wings. It rises above it and shines down on the stage like a spotlight.

This looked a lot better at night since it made more of a difference. But the colours are still a bit brighter from the move despite it being daytime.

"Finished!" I bow my head and allow Beautifly to hand on my head like Serena and Vivillon. The crowd claps loudly and I feel a smile creep on my face.

"We did it!" I cheer and let Beautifly rest on my arm. "You were great Beautifly, thank you."

Beautifly flaps her wings excitedly and does a quick flip in the air. She obviously loves to perform.

"Not bad," Gold claps as soon I get back to the waiting lilypad. 

"I know you're impressed," I flip my long brown hair dramatically.

"I am," He smiles with those pearly white teeth. "So what did you think of being a coordinator?"

"It was fun," I take a seat on the ground to give my legs a break. They were shaking pretty bad earlier. "I don't know if I can ever be as good as Serena."

"She has been performing for a couple years," He reminds me. "You'll have to do another one."

"I will," I nod and I mean that. "I wouldn't say I feel an instant connection to coordinating but I definitely would do it again."

"Awesome," He says. "Now go get a good seat so you can watch me blow everyone out of the water."

"If you do we'll have to call you the Princess of Elemente," I giggle and run off to find Ash and Serena.

It doesn't take long to find the couple staring longingly into each other's eyes. Okay they weren't actually doing that but in my dreams they were.

"Good job Green," Serena smiles and makes room for me beside them.

"I loved the colours," Ash compliments.

"Thanks guys," I blush. "Just wait until the next one when I have more experience."

"I will," Serena gives me a confident look. "I'll have to bring you to a real contest in Hoenn and we can compete."

"Maybe," I laugh.

We continue watching the contest appeals. I wonder if my mom is watching, she would love this. Except that means she watched my appeal and is probably going to give me her couch-coordinator opinions later.

I should call her.

"And now for our last performance," Meredith announces. "Military Recruit Gold!"

We start to cheer but are quickly overwhelmed by the boos. We glance around at all the people booing the poor boy who's trying to get his footing on the stage lilypad. Eevee looks equally uneasy from beside him.

I join in with the booing.

"Why are we booing?" I eventually ask.

"Military," A young woman answers. "They're allowed to go around battling but we can't have real contests."

"Also he isn't using a bug type," Another woman chimes in.

"Fair enough," I shrug.

"You can do this Gold!" Serena yells above the boos.

He finds us in the crowd and gives a thumbs up.

"Why would he use Eevee?" I think out loud. "He told me Crustle."

Before we get an answer, Eevee starts to dance around the lilypad.

As much as I love Eevee, she's not the most graceful dancer. But it's still cute watching the brown fox jump around.

The sky doesn't agree.

Dark grey clouds fill the sky and soon enough it starts to downpour. "This is great," I sigh as we get drenched.

Gold definitely isn't winning over the crowd with that Rain Dance attack.

Eevee continues dancing, the splashing of water adding a nice effect but I don't think it makes up for the soaked crowd. Gold even joins in a bit, his clothes drenched and sticking to his skin. His messy navy hair starts to dangle in front of his eyes.

"Rain dance is rare for an Eevee," Ash says.

"Yea I've never seen one use it before," Serena nods.

Gold gives the next command and Eevee jumps up with a big spin. She launches shining gold stars into the low-laying clouds. A huge burst of them disappear into the sky.

Eevee waits a moment before the stars start shooting back down like meteorites. The stars splash into the lilypad, shooting up a cloud of sparkling glitter water with each impact. It's darker because of the rain so it lights up the stage while Eevee continues to dance around.

The spinning stars start to increase in frequency, making it near impossible for Eevee to dodge them all. With each near-miss the crowd gasps.

Eevee starts to glow a faded green colour before shooting out what looks like a Pin Missile attack. Can Eevee learn that?

Glowing green seeds strike the falling stars, creating a firework effect of green and gold. The colours go beautifully together and captivate everyone watching.

How fitting.

The explosions start happening faster and faster until Eevee is hidden by a cloud of colour. 

Until it settles and Eevee is no longer there.

Instead a new Pokemon sits beside a smirking Gold who gives a bow. Eevee's new form looks like she took the armour of a Scyther. Her back is covered in lime green plates, with two new bug wings off her back. Her head has a plate similar to Scyther's head but the addition of two brown claws. 

Her brown eyes shine from the clearing sky, clearly enjoying the moment.

The place goes silent, reeling in the discovery of a new bug type which I'm sure is a big deal to these folk. But then they erupt in applause.

Everyone gives a standing round of applause with lots of cheering and yelling. Gold waves to the crowd and makes sure to wink in our direction. I pretend not to cheer but can't keep the smile off my face. 

The Princess of Elemente somehow stole the show.