Only one

None of them knew what to say. It took a couple of seconds of staring at each other for Simon to fall to one side and lay down beside Mark.

“Are you for real?” Simon’s voice was tired. All of his anger floated away with the reveal. “You’re telling me that… all of this was because you have a crush on me?”

No response. Not like Mark could say anything at this point. The truth was out, no reason to try to come up with excuses.

“You could have just told me.”

“No, I couldn’t. And you know that.”

“You know me, Mark. You know I wouldn’t judge. We could’ve talked it out.”

“Stop talking.”

“What do you-”

“I said to stop talking.” Simon was confused. “At this point I don’t care if you say yes or no to what I feel. I’m tired, tired of everything going in my head. I’m not worth it, that’s why I didn’t want to tell you. I’m afraid of being rejected, but I’m also afraid of there being a thing between us because I know for a fact I don’t deserve it.”

“What do you mean you don’t deserve it?”

“Because all of this is my damn fault, Simon! Can’t you see it?! Or are you fucking blind?!” He rolled, facing the Squirtle directly. “I got all of you in danger! You shouldn’t even be involved in this!”

“Hey, no. You know this isn’t-”

“It IS my fault! Time is being repeated over and over because of me! I’m the one that can’t do anything by himself. I’m the one that the universe decided was the center of attention for some reason. I’m the one that got your sister killed!” He was screaming, panting between each sentence. Every single instance of his failures kept replaying in his head, like a constant reminder of why he felt so lost.

Simon, on the other hand, had his mouth agape. He had never seen Mark so angry at himself.

“And now, look at us! All because I failed at being someone you could trust. All because I couldn’t keep my mouth shut, and I couldn’t focus on what I had to do.” He covered his face. He didn’t want to be seen. “I’m useless at EVERYTHING I do… I don’t want to keep going, I just want to end all of this so I can finally be left alone… I’m too damn tired to-”

The sentence stopped there, as Simon had decided to jump in and hold Mark close. The gesture was enough to finally break the dam that Mark was trying so hard to keep intact. It was the same situation again. He was too weak to get a hold on himself. He needed support, and he hated that.

It was always someone else helping him, not the other way around. He felt like a kid that couldn’t do anything on his own, always needing to be told exactly what to do.

“Why? Why are you still here with me? Haven’t I proved enough how worthless I am? I’m a liability, you’re going to end up dead…”

“You say that like I care.”

“What?”

“If you think I’m going to abandon you, you’ve got another thing coming. You’re the only one I have left, Mark. My adoptive parents are dead, my sister is dead, I’ve been stuck in this world for years, and to this day I have no idea why. I have nothing. I only have you.”

“It’d be better to have nothing…”

“Can you shut up?!” Simon shouted. “You literally saved my life! You were with me every day while I was bedridden. You kept with me when I went running to save Rose. You say you’re useless, but I wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t because of you.”

He had no response there. Simon was right, but that didn’t mean anything in his eyes.

“Whether we get out of this as friends or as something more, I’m sticking with you. Because I know damn well that you would do the same thing for me.”

“Simon, don’t… I care too much about you to see you get hurt… You should’ve stayed in the guild…”

“Guess what? I would’ve gotten hurt anyways. Or do you not remember the attacks? If I had stayed there, I probably would have gotten ambushed again. And I’m not here only for you, Mark. Dialga brought me here, I deserve an answer too.” He pushed Mark a bit to look him in the eyes. “All I’m trying to say is, we’re a team. I’m here for you the same way you’re there for me. And that goes for every situation you can imagine.”

Mark closed his eyes. It was difficult to stop sniffling. All of his stress and fears he was bottling up finally surfaced. “I-I’m sorry Simon, I really am. I keep making everything worse and…”

“Sh… It’s okay, you’re doing all you can. As long as you don’t throw the towel, we’re going to be okay.”

And so he cried for what felt like hours. It was like the aftermath at Apollo’s Sanctum. He needed someone to lean on. Except this time, he wasn’t angry at himself for it.

“Mark?! Simon?!” The voice was distant, but it was recognizable enough.

“Rachel is looking for us.”

“She is.” Simon stood up. “C’mon, let’s go back. I’m sure you must be exhausted.” He gave a paw to Mark.

“Wait. You haven’t responded to… you know, my confession.”

“Right…” He looked to the side. “I never thought much about relationships here. I can’t tell you if I feel the same thing or not.”

“I get it… You’re probably not even into guys either, I don’t know why I had my hopes-”

“But…” Simon continued, interrupting Mark’s defeatist thoughts. “I’m willing to try. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t, but we won’t know if we don’t give it a chance, will we?” He gave Mark a weak smile, which the Cubone returned.

Mark grabbed his paw, clumsily getting off the ground. “Thank you, Simon. You don’t know how much this means to me.”

They hugged again, just in time for a distressed Rachel to catch up to them.

“There you two are! What the hell happened there- oh.” She chuckled. “So THAT is what was going on, huh?”

“You knew?” Simon asked.

“From other iterations, but yeah. If anything I’m more surprised that he confessed this time.”

“I kinda… had no other option.” Mark was blushing, thank god that nobody could see it.

“Wait, wait, wait. Is that what you were talking about on the way here? The whole ‘Oh, it’s not my place to say, he has to tell you himself.’.” Simon’s impression was spot-on, so perfect that Mark couldn’t help but laugh.

“Hey! I don’t sound like that.”

“You so do.”

“Ugh… whatever. The tent is already up, so c’mon.” She grumbled, but Mark could swear he saw a smirk on her face.

Mark started to walk, only to be stopped by Simon grabbing his paw. They exchanged looks for just a second, before smiling and going forwards together.

They got back to the spot they stopped at before. Luckily Rachel’s sense of direction seemed to be great, else they would’ve gotten lost between all the trees around.

“You got the thing?” Rachel asked.

“Oh, yeah! It’s in my bag, wait.” Mark rummaged around until he found the device Gren gave them. He dug it in the ground and pressed the button. A pink translucent semi-sphere enveloped them immediately. The funny thing, it was solid to the touch. “I will never understand this technology.”

“Heh. Psychic-types really are a mystery, right? I got used to them after being in this world for so long, but they still make no sense.”

“You can say that again. I almost screamed when Lily talked to me.”

“Oh, yeah, she does that sometimes. You should’ve seen me, I think I ran off the guild completely terrified, Rose had to run after me.”

Rachel chimed in. “You two are weird, is the human world really that different?”

“Judging by how strange all of this seems to me, yes, I’d say so.” Mark said, now eating the pastry that he left behind before. “Even without any memories I can tell that this feels like a fever dream.”

“Once you two get your memories back, you’re gonna have to tell me all about the human world, because I honestly can’t even begin to imagine how it looks.”

Simon laughed. “Deal.”

Some more moments after, they got in the tent. If it already looked big from the outside, it felt like twice as big inside. Definitely enough space for the three of them, and then some.

Even with all the tiredness, Mark was the last one to fall asleep. It gave him enough time to reflect about everything that had happened today. For once, he felt like everything was going to go his way. After all, he had Simon with him.

After so long, he managed to feel happy.