A Flowery Anniversary
At last, Max and Bonnie are one day away from Cyllage. Well, they're about five hours away at normal speed, but because Max likes to stop at every open field and stare at pokémon for hours, they usually end up taking three times as long. Not that Bonnie's complaining, as it means that she gets to stare at Max while he goes into Observant State and train her pokémon up. As she does so, Max likes to write about the use of some of Bonnie's pokémon's moves.
Bonnie really wants to use Kirlia in her next battle, so she's been training her up more so than the others. Max, as promised, has come up with a plan for Bonnie to win the battle. But in order to test it, he wants to find a pokémon that uses Rock Tomb or Draco Meteor. So, the two spread out across the field in order to find one. As Max searches, he comes across a large clump of Indigo hair. Max squints at the clump before he recognises who it belongs to.
"Oh, hey Iris!" he calls. Iris was planting flowers in the field when Max calls her. She looks up and smiles at the pair when they approach. "Hi Max, hi Bonnie!" she says, putting a small basket down and waving to them. The two head over to her to see what she's doing. As Max had seen, she's planting flowers in a particular pattern, although neither of them can see what it's supposed to be. "What are you doing?" Bonnie asks. Iris chuckles a bit and rubs the back of her head. "I'm preparing something for Georgia," she explains. Then she bashfully adds, "Today is our two-year anniversary. We started dating this day two years ago."
Bonnie squeals with delight at this and immediately offers to help. Max would rather get back to training but at this point has learned that you cannot change Bonnie's mind once she's set on something. Max can relate to that, so he agrees to help as well. Iris thanks them and shows them her plan. Bonnie gets hearts in her eyes and exclaims how cute the idea is. Even Max had to admit it was a sweet idea.
So, Max and Bonnie went around the field, gathering up all of the flowers Iris will need. Iris is looking for four colours: red, purple, yellow, and pink. Red for Georgia's hair, Purple for Iris's, yellow for Georgia's hat, and pink for the ribbon in Iris's hair. Each time Max or Bonnie brings her one, she's quick to plant it in the right place according to her diagram. Soon, the message is finished. Iris thanks them for all of their help, then she releases her Dragonite from his ball. "I'm going to Cyllage to buy Georgia's present," Iris explains. "Thanks again for your help." Bonnie is about to ask if they can get a ride, but Max puts a hand on her shoulder. "You're welcome," he says. "Happy anniversary." Iris thanks him and flies off.
When she's gone, Bonnie turns around to give Max a questioning look. "Why did you stop me?" she asks. "We could be in Cyllage a lot quicker if I asked her." "I know," Max says. "But for one thing, don't you want to try out that trick I came up with?" Bonnie nods eagerly. "And for another," Max continues, "I have a plan for a surprise for Iris and Georgia." Bonnie perks up more at this and starts asking for more information. Max explains his plan to her, causing her to grow more excited. So, Max leads her to a nearby tree and they begin working on it.
Max's plan is a simple one, but it's quite clever. He wants to coat some berries in some of their repels, then wrap them in something, probably leaves, and fill them with Stun Spore. Then, when Iris flies Georgia over the message, Max and Bonnie will launch their makeshift fireworks into the sky, hopefully creating a pretty blast to make this night even better. With that settled, they get to work.
The two spend ages scouring the different trees, hoping to find berries that are the same colours as the flowers in Iris's message: red, purple, yellow, and pink. Once they find them, they separate them into four different piles, before gathering the biggest leaves they can find. They lay the leaves down and use some sticky honey Bonnie bought in Ambrette Town to keep the leaves together. Once they have eight large pads of leaves, they split their piles of berries into two smaller piles each, before putting the piles onto the leaves and covering the berries with repels. Then, they wrapped them up carefully, leaving a small enough hole so that they can get the Stun Spore into it later.
Leaving the makeshift fireworks under the tree they took the leaves off of, the two of them scour the field for a pokémon that can use Stun Spore. Max finds a Butterfree and catches it, promising to release it later if it helps them. Now, all that they have to do is wait for Iris to fly Georgia over the message. But Bonnie has an idea of her own. "What if we follow them to where Iris will take off?" Max looks at her quizzically. "It'll be easier to time our launch if we know exactly when they're flying from." Max laughs at that. "You just want to see what Georgia is doing for Iris don't you?" he asks. Bonnie goes slightly pink and rubs the back of her head. "Is it that obvious?" she asks. Max laughs harder.
The evening falls and Max and Bonnie wait on the route coming from Cyllage, the only one to where Iris's flowers are. Sure enough, they spot the couple coming up the road, and quickly scarper into some bushes. As they hide in the bushes, they listen in as Georgia stops Iris. "I know you want to show me something," she says, "but there's something I've set up that I'd like you to see." She adds a flirty tone to the end of her sentence, and Iris melts a bit hearing it. Too gay to speak, Iris simply nods and allows Georgia to lead her away from the path and up a hill. Max and Bonnie follow silently.
As they get closer to where Georgia is leading Iris, she puts her hands over Iris's eyes and guides her up to a cliff overlooking the field. For a moment, Max and Bonnie are worried that Georgia will see Iris's message, but thankfully it isn't visible from that cliff. Georgia is leading her to a campsite on the edge of the cliff. It doesn't have any tents, but it does have sleeping bags and a campfire, as well as a log on the side of the fire.
Georgia removes her hands from Iris's eyes and tells her to look. Iris gasps at the sight, then turns around and pulls Georgia into a tight embrace. Max and Bonnie's curiosity is answered when Iris says, "This is exactly like the campsite we set up on the night we started dating!" Georgia laughs and nods. "When you told me how you felt about me thinking I was asleep" she says, causing Iris to blush and Max and Bonnie to giggle behind their hands.
The couple sits down on the log and gazes up at the night sky, eating the food that Georgia had prepared, which is also apparently what they ate that night. Once they were done, Georgia fishes something out of her pocket. "This isn't the end of my surprise," she says as she pulls something out. "It took some time, but I managed to find this. I hope you like it." Then, she shows Iris a necklace. But that's not what Iris gasps at. Looking closely, Max can see a key stone embedded in the necklace. She also has the accompanying mega stone. "It's a mega stone for Haxorus," Georgia explains. "They discovered it recently." Iris is speechless, so she shows her appreciation with a kiss.
Once they separate, Iris goes fishing into her bag as well, before pulling out a bracelet. "I guess great minds think alike huh?" she says as she shows it to Georgia. Like the necklace Georgia gave her, this bracelet contains a key stone, and she has the accompanying mega stone. "This one is a recently discovered one as well," Iris explains, handing it to Georgia. "It's for Beartic." Georgia almost squeals when Iris hands it to her. The two put the pieces of jewellery on themselves, then sit comfortably for a bit.
After a few minutes of silence, Iris speaks up. "You know," she says, "this isn't the only surprise I have either." Georgia looks at her with anticipation, and Max and Bonnie get ready to instigate their plan. "What is it then?" she asks. At this, Iris smiles and stands up, releasing her Dragonite from his pokéball. "Hop on," she says flirtingly. "I'll show you." Georgia giggles a bit at that but does as she's told. When the two take off, Max and Bonnie spring their plan into action.
Max releases the Butterfree he caught and tells it to use Stun Spore on the inside of the makeshift fireworks. It does, causing them to float away one by one. Max grins, happy that it's going as he planned. Then, he and Bonnie run down the hill to near the message as quickly as they can. By the time they reach it, Dragonite is over the message, and Georgia will have seen it by now. A large heart made of flowers, half yellow and half pink. On the inside is written "I + G Forever" with the red and purple flowers. They're able to see it despite the darkness because Iris encircled the whole thing with pretty lanterns.
Once Dragonite has circled the message enough times, Max pulls out his Rotom phone and calls Iris. Iris picks up, sounding a bit annoyed at being interrupted. "Hey Iris, it's me Max," he tells her. "What do you want Max?" she asks. "Me and Bonnie have a surprise for the two of you," he replies. "Look at the cliff you took off from." Once he's sure they're doing that, he nods to Bonnie, and she orders Fletchinder to use Ember on four of the floating balloons while Max has Litleo use Ember on the other four.
As planned, the attacks fly up into the sky and connect with the makeshift fireworks. Just as Max was hoping, the fireworks explode, launching multicoloured smoke into the sky. Over his Rotom phone, Max hears Iris and Georgia gasp at the sight. Then, Iris says, "How did you manage that?!" "It'll take too long to explain," Max replies. "But did you like it?" "It's beautiful!" Georgia exclaims. "Thank you!" Max tells them to enjoy the rest of their anniversary, then ends the call.
Max and Bonnie watch as Dragonite flies back to the cliff where Georgia's camp is set up. Max contemplates setting up camp near them, but Bonnie will not hear of it. "If we do that, we'll totally kill the mood!" she explains. "When two people who are obviously into each other are left alone, you've got to give them space and let them be alone. Otherwise, the whole thing will be too awkward!"
Max goes red at Bonnie's words. "Hate to make it awkward," he says. "But are you aware of what you just inferred?" Bonnie also goes red and quickly corrects herself. "I meant in a crushing on each other sort of way!" she exclaims. "We're just friends! Arceus Max learn to read the room!" Max starts laughing at that. "I know," he says. "I was just messing with you." Bonnie punches him at that, then walks off to set up her tent. Little did the two know that Max hadn't actually ended the call, and Iris and Georgia could hear the whole thing. "Those two are hopeless," Iris says as she snuggles up to her girlfriend. Georgia laughs in agreement. "Beyond," she says. "You'd think that someone as into shipping as Bonnie seems to be would've noticed by now." Iris laughs as well, then the two fall asleep under the stars.
While it's easy for those two to fall asleep, Max and Bonnie are having a much more difficult time of it. They managed to get their tents up, then they wished each other a good night before closing up their tents. But neither of them is able to fall asleep, because of Max's words dancing in their minds. Unbeknownst to them, they're both having the same thoughts dance around their heads. What does their relationship look like to other people? Do people assume they're dating? Do they assume they like each other? But the scariest thought for both of them is, "Why do I feel this way about him/her?" This was going to be a long night.