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“...anywhere near that loser again!”Pikachu blinks, the inside of Green’s gym and his ball replaced by the walls of the house Red’s mother lives in, and his trainer’s raised voice. He stretches out his nap from his muscles with a yawn, electricity tickling over his cheeks, and there’s a soft mew somewhere below. Pikachu peeks over the side of where he’s perched, atop the long soft human seat: and there on the lower part sits Espeon, appearing just as drowsy. ‘Espy, hi!’ he squeaks happily. ‘What’s R—’
Bang!
He jumps, holding his position before looking over to the source, and spots Red standing where all the food and bowls and cups are stored, behind small doors. Red lowers an arm and turns sharply, heading where the tall white box sits—the fridge, Pikachu’s learnt that word—and sticks his head inside, grumbling and muttering the entire time.Pikachu looks back at Espeon. ’What’s wrong with Red?’ he tries again.Espeon’s fork-tailed is raised, curled yet stiff, and she mews disapprovingly once shaking off her agitation, padding over to the side of the long seat that’s farthest from Red’s antics. ‘ I don’t know,’ she replies moodily. ‘He’s mad and being loud. I’m still tired.’ She sets herself down, body tucked together. ‘That alakazam is a wretch. Wake me up when I’m ready.’ Her head lowers and eyes close, and Red’s aggravated babbling is left for only Pikachu to pay attention to. Which, well, he is more curious than sleepy now... so he does the best thing to do when you want to find something out, and goes to the source! He hops from the top of the long seat to the one of the smaller wooden ones, jumping quickly from there onto the table he got told off once or twice for standing on. But it’s close to Red, and higher up than being on the floor would be, and so he shuffles carefully and closer to his trainer.Red doesn’t seem to mind at least his high-up presence when he turns around once he asks, ‘What’s wrong, Red?’ “Oh, it’s just Green .” His mouth is doing that thing where it all comes together to one side and makes his cheek puffy (Pikachu’s tried doing it, but he doesn’t know if he ever got it right), eyes looking somewhere distant. His skin then flushes—turning from light to red, just like his name, going all the way to his ears!—and his face twists angrily. He looks back at Pikachu, upset and restless, and then turns completely away. “Oh, forget about it.”He shuts the fridge door. Pikachu hops to edge of the wooden surface, until he finds it safe to jump onto Red’s back and climb to his shoulder. Red pats the side of his cheek despite his mood, and Pikachu leans into it, cooing for him. It’s alright, whatever’s going on, it’s alright!“At least I’ve got you guys.” Red is still a tight of ball of energy with legs beneath him, but he eases some with that remark, and Pikachu chirps in agreement. He walks them over to the seating where Espeon is, whose brow scrunches at the bounce Red sits down with, but makes no noise of complaint when Red strokes her back.“We did fine without him or his gym. Who needs to go there? We can go anywhere,” Red says. “You know, we still haven’t finished checking out how the region’s changed since we were away. How about that? There’s the other gym leaders too.”And Red eases more, his voice relaxing with just a few rises; usually followed by a mention of him, that guy, or the more obvious Green . But Pikachu has lowered to his lap, and Red’s hand is warm and still on his spine, and it’s easy to fall asleep for just a moment, a moment! after all the fun they had battling Green’s pokèmon that day. But that doesn’t mean he’s forgotten all about the grumbling by the morning!Breakfast time with Red’s mother isn’t the same as it was between Red and them. They’re not bad!—but they’re unusual, compared to how they used to share breakfast. There’s more to eat now (so much more that even Snorlax couldn’t eat the bigger piles of food he got, but he’s been getting better at it!), but they eat in Red’s mother’s garden, and Red doesn’t always eat with them. Sometimes he sits inside, or he comes out with a bowl and sits with them. Actually, he does that a lot. Or comes to sit after he’s eaten.Anyway, it’s not bad , and all that’s just the long way of saying it’s one of those times Red eats with his mother first, and everyone else is still eating when Pikachu decides to wander off. Venusaur notices him, but it’s okay because they all trust each other, and she and they know he wouldn’t go far. And he doesn’t!He just goes through the metal door with all the holes down the side of the house, and comes out to the front: where, as the high wall separation the gardens lowers down, Exeggutor sits out on the small patch of grass outside Green’s house as usual, enjoying the early morning as they always do.
‘Hi everyone!’
There’s a near-chorus, ‘oh’, ‘ah’, ‘oh’s , and Pikachu jumps atop the white fencing between them, walking along the thin pointy parts to come into their view. ‘Oh, Pikachu!’, ‘Hello, Pikachu!’, ‘Pikaachu?’
‘Arcanine’s still eating?’
‘Yes,’ ‘Everyone is!’, ‘Looks like good weather today, doesn’t it?’
Their voices clash together, and it makes Pikachu giggle every time to listen to. He jumps off from the ledge and onto the soft grass in front of the three heads. They waddle on the spot, leaves wafting and making more noise than Venusaur’s ever do. Well, the Exeggutor’s have got more, and they’re a lot stringier! ‘Hey,’ he says, once they’ve settled, ‘did Red and Green get in a fight?’
‘A fight?, ‘A fight?’, ‘Don’t they always fight?’
‘I guess, but it sounded like they had a real bad fight last night!’
‘Oh no,’ ‘They did?’, ‘Well that won’t do.’
‘I thought since we were at his gym—’
“Pikachu! What are you doing over there?”Pikachu spins around to see Red coming out from the house, the door shutting behind him. He walks off the stone pathway and onto to the grass, stopping before the fencing, and Pikachu skips over to greet him happily, chirping, ‘I’m just talking to the Exeggutors!’ ‘Hello,’ ‘Hi’,’Did you have a fight with Green?’ they say, ask, coming up behind Pikachu with a noisy thump.“I should put a bell on you so I know where you disappear off to,” Red says, which isn’t an answer to them and disappointing for it. “Come on, let’s go back—”“What’s this, huh? Getting friendly with my pokèmon?”Red’s expression sours instantly. Green emerges from the side of Exeggutor, and on his other side appears Machamp, who gives everyone a friendly air and wave, despite the tension radiating between the two humans—or Red, mostly. ‘Hello, everyone!’ ‘Machamp!’ Pikachu starts, except—“Pikachu, come over here!”Red’s voice is sharp, startling him into complying, hopping from the fence and onto Red’s shoulder, who extends his arm when he wobbles off-balance. They’re then turning back to the house without delay or word, Green loud and mocking behind their backs.“Leaving so soon? Just like you, isn’t it? Running away?”Pikachu twists his neck around. Green stands with a smirk brandished on his face, arms folded and surrounded by his pokèmon. And as they’re about cross the threshold of the house, Pikachu spots her— Jolteon, coming the free side of Exeggutor, her black eyes narrow and piercing, even as she disappears from view. Jolteon… she’s super super scary!! Pikachu’s still shivering by the time they arrive to a gym, although the interior is more musty than cold. The entire inside looks like a cave, a maze of pointed stone and smooth rock climbing the walls, but Pikachu knows it isn’t one because he saw sliding doors as Red went in, and they’re still there when he looks back, just in case.There’s something familiar to it, but he’s been to a lot of caves, and this gym is more gym than Green’s is; the way Pikachu remembers them, anyway. There’s more humans around, although the younger ones look confused upon seeing him, and Pikachu starts to get self-conscious as the older human people do it too. Was there dirt on his face? Food?He tries to ask Red, but he just goes ‘hm?’, doesn’t even look at him! So Pikachu tries to ignore it, shrinking against Red’s neck as a nearby geodude gives a hefty chuckle. It’s not until he hears his trainer’s voice spoken clearly—and not in that low, hushed whisper that often makes Red stiffen—that Pikachu looks up—“Red? This is a surprise—it’s been a long time!”—and sees, and sees—an onix! A big onix (okay, all onix are big, but, you know!) peering down at their level. Pikachu leans out his neck as far as his grip will let him, to peer right back up.But it’s not the onix speaking human, but a human human, the onix’s trainer. Pikachu finds this out when introductions quickly turn into a battle, and he even gets dibs on a battle against the onix. Its body is like a high spiralling staircase leading to its head, which after the first iron tail turns into a trap—a command turns the stone shiny and slippery, and Pikachu falls off, straight towards a whirlpool of sand right under him out of nowhere!Or nearly; except Red calls for a quick attack, and Pikachu understands, using the force of the attack to propel his body from his fluid grave underneath to the unaffected ground. There’s brief reprieve, a call over the cheering of spectators bringing a rumbling and flying rocks that demand for his speed to continue, circling behind where the onix can’t aim its rocks, nor the tail it tries to thrash.But this time Pikachu is swifter, nimbler in his movements; he uses the speed from his quick attack to lead into an iron tail aimed into the onix’s lower body, the force and aim of the assault toppling the giant pokémon into the stone garden that crushes under its weight.Onix isn’t a sore lower; actually, he’s very nice. He has a low laugh when he speaks that sounds like a soft whistle going down the open mouth of a cavern, and Pikachu can’t help but be awed by the sound and his size. Sure, Snorlax, Venusaur, Blastoise, and Charizard, they make him crane his neck to look at them, but they can’t match with an onix! ‘This match went a lot differently from our first,’ Onix remarks cheerily in his wispy voice. ‘Our first?’ Pikachu repeats. ‘Wasn’t this our first?’
‘Don’t you remember? Hoh-hoh, your trainer was as small as you!’
‘Oh!’ It hits Pikachu then. ‘When I first met Red!’ The first gym battle they ever had together, and under a far more frantic pressure to win than today.Red spends time talking with their trainer (he’s called Brock!), bringing them over near to where other trainers are climbing a strange wall out of place with the others, colourful lumps going all the way up to the top. The humans and geodudes ascend upwards, wearing round, solid hats over their heads.Pikachu has to admit, he wants to try one too. But with his conversation partners having less than suitable heads themselves—Onix, a rhydon, golem, kabutops, and omastar; and another guy, whose head already looked like he was wearing one—the topic moved easily on when Pikachu asks: ‘Have you ever battled Green?’ ‘Green?’ asks the kabutops.
‘He hangs out with an arcanine, exeggutors, an electric jolteon like me, and a rhydon girl!’
‘Ohhh, the rhydon girl!’
He doesn’t need to add more from there. Most of the group continue ohhh ing the kabutops waving its blades excitedly and the omastar wiggling its tendrils, its voice even more wispy than Onix’s. Liquidy, too.
‘A strong lady… I liiike them strong!’
‘She would be better impressed with a hard shell like me!’ speaks up the golem, laughing as he tries to pat his boulder-like body. The rhydon huffs and snorts, scuffing a hard foot to the ground, and the pokèmon beside them—with a blue-head and plenty of spikes!—stamps on his feet and goes, ‘I’m impressive too!’ Pikachu’s eyes widen a little. She really had an impact on everyone! Maybe it wasn’t so surprising though; she was a quiet pokèmon, but also… ‘She’s really intense,’ he remarks, nodding to himself. Not a scary intense like Jolteon, or kinda-intense like Pidgeot. But still, intense!The rhydon in the room stomps a foot again, louder this time, and waves his arms up. ‘So!?’ he roars. ‘I can be intense too!’ ‘I’m intense too!!’ chimes in the blue-headed spiky pokèmon, becoming animated as they squaw excitedly. ‘Watch me, watch me!!’ The other pokèmon scramble with cries of ‘No, Rampardos!’ as the pokèmon gives a battle cry and ducks in its head and begins running—straight for the rocky wall being climbed and smashing right through it, making the entire structure wobble, and rain down surprised bodies from above.They leave soon after that, Pikachu not completely sure what just happened. Venusaur chortles when Pikachu retells the tale, saying, ‘That age, I guess,’ which he doesn’t really get.People really get worked up over nothing, don’t they? Especially when it involves Green, and you’re Red.They’re heading back home and passing through Viridian, and passing through Viridian means going in the direction of Green’s gym, apparently. If he wasn’t on Red’s shoulder but in his pokèball, Pikachu’s sure he’d still know which way Red was going. His whole demeanour changes, his inner cheery energy; it turns tight and red, fired up like Charizard’s flame.He doesn’t know why Red’s going that way, though. Red can turn his feet around and go back home, and Pikachu squeaks at him when he realises the direction, ‘Red, weren’t we going home?’; but Red keeps on walking, his frown setting deeper into his face the closer they get.This is familiar, too. Every time they used to bump into Green and the way everything would balloon before and after a fight, even after Green had long gone.They didn’t get a lot of that up Mt. Silver.Red stops once he reaches the gym, fixated, quiet, and—and something else. ‘Are we going in?’ Pikachu asks, but his squeaks go unanswered for the longest while; until Red finally turns, “You’re right, let’s go,” and moves a foot back to start walking.Except the sliding doors open and make them freeze, and out waddles Pidgeot from inside.He stops as he sees them, gaze zoning in on Pikachu in particular—he’s sure of it! So Pikachu grips his front claws tight into Red’s shirt, sensing the instinct to pounce or run; more the former than latter of course, since it was Pidgeot. He isn’t afraid, not of him!But Green comes out not a second after, and instead Pikachu feels Red’s stomach lunge up his throat, and it’s—it’s more of the former, now.“What’s this?” Green calls out. “Can’t keep away? You’re really sending some mixed signals here.”Green is as haughty-sounding as ever, no more, no less, while Red’s shoulder stiffens under his claws. It’s strange, these strong, confusing responses from his trainer. Aggravated wild energy, but worry, too—there, tangled up in a heat. They make Pikachu raise his tail and let some electricity crackle at his cheeks, a small warning, that Pidgeot responds to with a low coo and rustling wings.“I just went the wrong way,” Red says, hard and hitched.“That’s the excuse, huh,” Green responds drily, standing with folded arms for a good moment before he goes to where Pidgeot stands. The avian presents his back for his trainer, and Green climbs on.“Well, then?” he says. “Get going. Don’t loiter outside my gym.”They ascend, sending a strong billowing wind smacking Red and Pikachu in the face. Pikachu is coughing up the taste of dirt when he manages to scramble back properly upright, spitting out his tongue.
‘Grr, stupid Pidgeot!’
“Jerk!” Red bristles. “Like we’re gonna let him get away with that.” Agreed! But, he hadn’t really been thinking about what that would entail.It means one shopping trip and three hours later, the pair of them back outside the gym and Pikachu getting told—“Don’t let anyone see you, don’t glow too bright, alright?”Red is looking every which way, and Pikachu can feel it, even with him searching for somewhere to climb with the minimal lighting buzzing off his cheeks. They’re hot and itchy by the time he finds a pipe leading upwards, shuffling with difficulty up material not made to be clung to, just for a position that he might be able to jump onto the roof!He falls the first time. Does better the second.He scurries low until he finds where the front is, peeking over the edge to spot Red. But it’s interesting to see the world from above, how the pathway leading to the gym looks, the tall metal rods with lights at the top glowing like his light ball; and the steps leading over the hill, the barely visible flowers fluttering in the wind, the other buildings farther on— “Pikachu! Stop daydreaming!” The hissing comes with the clap of a small stone landing near and he startles, hurrying over to where he can see the top of a red hat. Red’s come out from behind the trees nearby, a tube of white paper in his hands, unravelling from the main roll.Red points to it, then points at him. Then, making the gesture he’s about to throw, he lobs it into the air—and a breeze rolls past, sending it back into his face.Next time he hits the roof but the side of it, and so the same thing happens again. That time is funny to Pikachu. Red chucks the whole lot into a bush beside the gym, and Pikachu jumps for his arms when he holds them out.“Alright, screw that idea,” he whispers furiously. “We’ll just decorate the inside.” Espy takes one look at the door, then back at Pikachu. ‘This is a bad idea.’ Breaking in takes more finesse than Pikachu can provide, but Espeon is less than thrilled by the back entrance they’ve found, Red crouched to their level and his bag of white roll close by. ‘But we can’t give up now!’ Pikachu protests. They’re not quitters! ‘We’ve got to get in!’ ‘You shouldn’t be encouraging him.’ Her fork tail stands upright. ‘I’m telling you—’ “Espy,” Red speaks up, “what’s the hold up? Don’t worry, it’s not a big deal; it’s just Green’s gym! Nothing’s going to happen. Just a little redecorating!”She stares at him doubtfully with her neck twisted, throwing Pikachu the same sort of look before she sighs, returning to the door. The gem on her forehead glows, and before long the handle breaks, silently and into pieces, that Red only needs to poke the door for it to open.They leave the remnants outside, and Pikachu sparks up brighter, happy to finally let his energy swarm out and around him like a giant light. Red’s shoes echo his footsteps down the passage unfamiliar to any of them, but somewhere at the back of the gym.Sure enough, they come to a door that opens into the main, vast hall. Pikachu scurries in first, climbing onto the strange blocks that make up the gym and nothing else. It’s still dark with all his light, eerily quiet; he squeaks just to hear it come back to him, and giggles, squeaking out a tune.“Trying out the acoustics?” Red laughs, and hums then, after him. “La la la la la—” Espeon doesn’t join in, the party pooper.He hops down from the platforms and leads the way for his trainer to trainer to walk. “Soon as we get some lights on in here,” Red says, chucking one of the rolls over the blocks in preparation and letting the paper drag behind them, “we’ll really start having some fun.”Pikachu has to say (or think!) that for once, Espy really is just worrying over nothing.Which is how it usually goes, and should’ve set off alarms the moment he thought it. What does set off the sirens is the magneton that bursts in not a minute after they flip the light switch, an alarm of itself, and soon after humans show up with large badges and force them out before they can make for an exit.They end up in some building, Red sitting straight in a chair with his head bowed, silently nervous; and when Red gets nervous, Pikachu gets nervous, and Espeon is mad and won’t look at them, and that makes him all guilty, and, and—! Pikachu stays curled with his ears drooping and buried into Red’s arm, completely miserable, until the humans finally say they can go. Because they like Red, they say, but also, there was something about Green telling them to “let Red rot there”, which just makes Pikachu feel infinitely worse! Red takes them to the pokèmon centre instead of to his mother’s home for the night, Espeon furious, and Pikachu a bundle of nerves, even inside his ball. They don’t feel any better in the morning, but it’s nice to eat breakfast with Red and the others.Red’s mother is upset when they finally go to see her, which they only do because Red left his bag at home. He’s adamant about them not speaking to any of Green’s pokèmon—a point mostly directed at him—but also with avoiding Green whenever they’re around Pallet or Viridian. The job of ensuring that goes to him, because he’s the sneakiest, and Espeon still isn’t amused after Red’s last plan.( ‘That’s what he gets for not listening to me ,’ she had said as they left Viridian. )Sneaking is easy, but it also feels useless, climbing over the back fence and peering into a window to spot Daisy’s pretty face on the other side. Why would they want to avoid Daisy, the nicest human around? It’s harder not to say hello to her, and Pikachu doesn’t resist when he should because come on, it’s Daisy!She welcomes him in with a smile and a laughter—”Don’t worry, Green isn’t home right now”—and gives him a delicious berry cookie. Arcanine’s there today too, but she’s nice, so he doesn’t worry when she spots him.
‘Did you come over to play?’
‘No, Red and Green won’t let us!’
‘Is that why Green’s mad?’
‘He wants Red to rot away!’
‘What? Rot? Rot’s no good!’
It’s hard though, to be upset over that while also being jealous as Daisy starts putting a brush through Arcanine’s fluffy fur! Lucky for him though, he gets to discard both of those feelings when Daisy promises to have a go at him next if he wants. And of course he does!Daisy pats him on the head when it’s finally time to leave, tying a bag of cookies to his back to give to the rest. “Tell Red to try a little better next time,” she says with a giggle.Red is scowling by the time he returns, which is only when Pikachu remembers the part about sneaking meaning quickly too, in this case . But it’s hard for Red to stay mad when he’s munching on Daisy’s delicious cookie, despite his best attempts.“Not s’pposed to fraternise w’th the enemy,” he grumbles over a mouthful. So Pikachu does… better! Next time.He doesn’t go into the house, and the weather’s really nice at the moment (better than snow ), so Arcanine likes to sit in the garden or the Exeggutors, or even Machamp! And they’re the friendliest of Green’s pokèmon, so he can go, ‘Hi, is Green around still?’, ‘Yes, he’s still asleep!’, ‘Okay, thanks!’, and be back to Red in no time.It’d be nicer though if he could spend some time with them. They used to get to battle nearly every day at Green’s gym, to the point they’d even been putting off travelling just to do it. It’s a whiplash too, where he gets to see their happy faces, then comes back to Red’s gloomy one, and remembering the horrible relationship between their trainers.Wouldn’t it be better if they could just get along? Wouldn’t it be better if they just went travelling, so he didn’t have to think about these things?Oh, but he doesn’t want them avoiding his friends forever! It just seems like there should be another way, when Green has nice team like those about three (or five!). Nevertheless on one afternoon, the garden is empty when he drops by. Pikachu hops down from the fencing, and quickly, there’s a flash. Pikachu darts, barely missing where Jolteon pounces where he had stood, but not her dark eyes that have already latched onto him.
‘You.’
It feels like a fight. Pikachu presses his hind feet to the ground, considers his surroundings without looking. Electricity is already circulating through him, ready.‘Keep your trainer away from mine,’ she says. ‘Or else.’ ‘Or else what?’ Pikachu says, not even thinking. It’s a threat, and he doesn’t like it. Jolteon—forget Rhydon, she’s the intense one. Always has been, since the day they met!She lets her silent stare speak for her, the tension of their furs prickling upward, anticipation keeping him alert. But she turns suddenly— ’Get lost’ —and heads inside of the house, leaving him with the desire for a fight, but no opponent. Ohhh!! That Jolteon! Fortunately (or, maybe fortunately?), he doesn’t need to do anymore sneaking around after that day. Red’s taking them overseas!—or taking Blastoise, because Blastoise hasn’t gone really swimming for a long time, and it’s easier to battle with Charizard or Espeon if they really need to fight, since Red sits on Blastoise’s shell. But it’s exciting to think of where they’ll turn up while he’s in his ball, surrounded by water every which way!And the place they end up is—cold.And okay, you know, that’s okay! Actually, it’s surprising how not cold it is, despite the way the winds try to really sweep the chill all over the place. Blastoise is quiet though once they go into the caves, nothing but ice in every which direction. Blastoise is always quiet, but you can tell when he’s being him and he’s in a mood quiet.Red gives him a slap on his shell with the back of his hand. “Don’t worry,” he grins at Blastoise. “There’s waterways down below. Remember? We’ve just got to get there.”Except— Except ‘except’ has been coming up a lot lately, and Pikachu really starts to think about this when the floor cracks under them and sends them down a route they lose themselves in for ages. The streams running through are only big enough for staryus and horseas, all of who are in a foul mood at their presence, and Blastoise isn’t smiling at all by the time they get to upper ground level.“This isn’t our week,” Red breathes, rubbing his gloved hands together.Blastoise snorts shortly in agreement.Still, it isn’t too bad. They end up bumping into someone before long, a man with no hair on his head except for this really long piece under his nose, and he’s loud, and fiery!His pokèmon too, which Pikachu likes the best.The man is setting machinery up around inside a cave, enlisting the help of Red for putting it together (“I don’t know anything about sound systems!”, “Boy, just listen to me! We’ll get this gym booming soon, ha ha!”). Which is to Red’s dismay, but Pikachu isn’t asked to do anything, so lucky for him! ‘Cold?’ Blastoise asks. Charizard—the only other team member taken out—glares at him, then turns away. That puts a smile on Blastoise’s face. ‘Having fun swimming?’ she mutters.The smile drops. ‘If this fails, we might be able to go back above ground,’ the rapidash from the man’s team says hopefully. The magcargos nods animatedly—or, as much as it can, more stony than molten.
‘Blaine has a lot of great ideas...but a lot of them blow up in his face too!’
‘Red’s too,’ Blastoise shares.
‘It wasn’t his fault we fell down!’ Pikachu protests.
‘How about getting caught wrecking Green’s gym.’
‘He wasn’t wrecking it,’ Pikachu corrects.
‘Cause he didn’t get to.’
That he can’t argue, probably. So instead he asks, ‘Why do Red and Green argue so much?’
‘I dunno. Hate each other’s shells?’
‘Huh? No!’ Except— wait, no! ‘But they were getting along before!’
‘Huh. Dunno then.’
‘Someone’s having an argument?’ asks Rapidash. ‘Just some humans,’ answers Blastoise. ‘Ohhh, juicy drama!’ chirps (chips?) the magcargo.
‘It’s not juicy! Red’s all mad and Green wants him to rot, and we can’t hang out and fight each other anymore!’
The two pokèmon chorus in their fascination, ohhhhhh , and start to ask him more questions, with suggestions of, ‘Maybe you should start dating Arcanine?’, ‘What about setting out more traps?’, ‘Do they have a blog you can read? Blaine reads blogs all the time, humans have such interesting lives...’
‘No, no! No, what? No!’
A screech splinters through the cave, then a booming laugh floods them entire, loud and human and old, rumbling the very ground under their feet. It’s the kind of interruption that’s an excuse you’re relieved to have happen later on at the time, or so he might’ve thought about it.Except the real interruptions comes when Articuno—such a long time since Pikachu’s seen them, he nearly didn’t recognise them!—bursts out from the stone floor underneath and throws the entire cavern into an ice storm for ‘ WAKING ME UP WITH ALL YOUR NOISE’. The old man slumps to the ground, the cave entrance broken in and waves lapping noisily at their backs.“My gym,” he mourns. “Again.”Red pats him on the shoulder, the two fire pokèmon standing nearby in comfort. ‘Can we do that last part again,’ asks Blastoise. And sometimes, Pikachu really agrees with him. They take Blaine back with them to Pallet Town, or Charizard does, who looks less pleased than usual once she lets the man off her back. Which might have done something with all his laughing the entire journey, and even once they touch ground. Luckily from there they split, with the old man riding off on Rapidash’s back. ‘Try getting with the arcanine!’ the rapidash calls out as they leave, and Pikachu sparks as both Charizard and Blastoise snort.He is not going to date Arcanine just because someone told him to!Red’s mother’s home smells nice when Red drags himself back inside, Pikachu riding the top of his shoulder. He drops his bag as soon as they get in—”Don’t leave your dirty things on the floor, Red!”, “Yeeeaaahhh”— and climbs the stairs for the both of them, while Blastoise hangs out in the doorway, grunting a ‘hey’ to Red’s mum.“The good thing about houses are baths,” Red says, opening the door to his room. Pikachu drops to the floor, walking in first with a chirp of uncertainty. The best thing, baths? The best thing was food, and noticing—And noticing everything is—white. Wrapped in white; the same kind Red had taken to Green’s gym. Pikachu chases after Red as he clambers back down the stairs with speed, “Oh, did you see Green’s—?” or something being said by Red’s mum, but they don’t stick around for her.They go the long way to the back garden, through the side metal door. Red rummages around in the grass, and then throws them, over at a window on the higher level of the house.
Tap—miss.
Doink— hit, but weak.
SMASH.
“Why does this keep happening to me,” Red mourns plaintively, picking at the white tissue paper from his furniture. Pikachu whines sympathetically, making just as much of a mess.They sigh in sync.
Espy sighs. ‘It’s not a curse.'
‘It has to be!’ Pikachu insists. ‘What else can it be? Green must’ve cursed him!’ Snorlax’s laughter bellows from his belly, rumbling both Pikachu and Espeon sitting on top in the process, louder than the ocean waves. Pikachu only hears Venusaur’s light laughter at the tail end, but at least her laughter isn’t so obviously rude! ‘A curse! Stupid! Why would he curse Red. He can’t curse Red. A curse!’ And Snorlax begins laughing again. ‘It’s not funny,’ Pikachu whines, but doesn’t hear himself over Snorlax. Stupid Snorlax! ‘Red and Green always disagree,’ Venusaur says, once the laughter dies down. ‘They’ll be alright.’ ‘But it’s not,’ he protests. ‘Didn’t you see Red? He was so down today! He didn’t even come to the beach with us!’ And was it the same without Red? Pikachu looked out to the waves that had swallowed Blastoise up earlier, but all he could imagine was Red in his bedroom, picking apart that white paper tissue from his blankets. Looking so sad, so anguished! Especially after he’d found a letter about a “bill for the gym door”. His face was as dark as his hair!Pikachu jumps onto the sand below, his body feeling so heavy. Venusaur extends a vine to his shoulders, slipping lightly across them. ‘Red is strong. You care too strongly, sometimes,’ she soothes. ‘Red talks to us when he needs us.’ He knows that, he does. But—but what if he doesn’t? Pikachu walks along the sand on his own, to think, and just to do something other than nothing. He thinks about all the things he didn’t get to bring up at the time, more than just the incident with Articuno and the gym; but would it have made any difference if he’d brought up Jolteon’s warning to them, if trying to explain the way Red’s been feeling won’t work?It isn’t like the others not to care about Red though. Is he wrong? But how could he be wrong?He climbs up from the sandy shore up onto the slanting slope leading up where the town sits, and a sparse forest he hasn’t really gotten to explore yet. Weeds tangle and small white flowers poke up their heads, and he takes a nibble of one, and then takes another for the journey as he searches for more wild plants. One bush is wide, so much so he has to climb above where it’s shooting out from. It’s not really that big, but the way that the tiny white flowers spread out takes up all the room, and it goes for a long time before the grass and dirt returns again!But there, bobbing their heads in clumps around the ledge are purple flowers up ahead, and pinks and creams.And Jolteon too coming out of the bush work, a trail of flowers in her mouth.Pikachu huddles back into the bushy flowers, just before Jolteon looks up, swinging her head around to search her surroundings, and then sits down, her flowers in her paws. She’s biting at them; or so Pikachu thinks at first, the sweet smell of the flowers above his head making his nose itchy and hard to concentrate, but he realises as he watches more that her fangs aren’t connecting on each side.She’s using them instead, to carefully—as carefully as she must be capable to—to untangle the wild pastel flowers and their stems.It’s not an easy task. Whenever she must feel a tug, she stops. She stops a lot, testing the resistance, and it must be hard, using her teeth! None of his teammates can deal with delicate things either, and even Espy has to use her powers to help her. He feels bad watching her, and thinks—he should help her, shouldn’t he?So he takes a step out—and sneezes and trips, both at once.He’s on his back, and Jolteon is hissing at him as he expects, but he doesn’t understand what she’s saying until he gets on his feet, shaking the dirt and dust out of his ears. ‘Why are you watching me,’ she growls. ‘I’m not!’ Pikachu shoots back defiantly. ‘I was just looking for flowers!’ He looks around him, and picks up the one he’d dropped, holding it out. Its head hangs from where the stem has bent slightly, and her eyes are still narrowed on him, which he meets stubbornly.Her fur then relaxes a fraction from its slick state. ‘Whatever,’ she says, and looks away.
‘Do you want some help?’
You know, he almost doesn’t ask, and definitely not right away; but then, he doesn’t want not to just because she has a bad attitude. She’s always had a bad attitude, and it’s not surprising when it rears its head quick, her eyes widening before she gives him an ugly and suspicious look. ‘Why would I want your help.’ ‘Because,’ he says, raising his flower as he starts to walk over to her, its head bobbing, ‘I can tidy your flowers easier!’
‘But— no—’
Except she can’t really stop him from walking, or doesn’t really try to, except glaring at him really really intensely, but he’s used to that. He plops down as she sits up straight, and he picks up a stem, making her hiss instantly, ‘Be careful with them!’ ‘I will!’ he sing-songs, and begins to unweave the mess. Wow; if he couldn’t see the flowers where they all still stood unpicked, he would think she really picked a messy lot. But they’re all messy!
‘What are they for?’
‘Why.’
‘Because I’m curious!’
‘It doesn’t matter to you.’
‘So?’
‘...Keeping.’
‘Well yeeeah, but—’
‘Just don’t ruin them.’
Pikachu huffs at that, giving in. She’d be like Char, if Char was mean and rude, but Char’s just quiet and shy. And clever. But also, she’d probably try untangling flowers all by herself too, just like Jolteon.Anyway, despite how the pile looks, it’s easy for him to get through. There’s quickly a bunch of flowers growing, the parts that are just weeds thrown aside, and she even leaves him for a while (but not very far) to come with a new clump in her mouth, placing it beside him.
‘These too.’
‘Will you tell me what they’re for if I do?’
She shuffles on the spot. ‘After,’ she finally says. ‘Okay! It’s a promise!’ Because there’s no reason she’s the type to lie, just because she’s rude!They’re down to the last three flowers when she asks him, his ears perking to her voice, ‘We’re rivals. Why are you doing this for me?’ That makes him look up. ‘Rivals?’ Her nose twitches, and her eyes tighten. ‘We were rivals. ’
‘We can’t be friends too?’
And her face twists more at that, but her gaze goes elsewhere, and she seems to be thinking over it, if uncomfortably. Or he’s imagining it, which he probably is.He sticks one of the petals of the broken flowers in his mouth, and the look goes as she snaps, ‘Don’t do that!’
‘But it was a broken one!’
‘I don’t care!’
‘What?! But that’s stupid!’
‘You’ll eat my flowers!’
‘No I won’t!’
‘Jolteon.’
They both startle, but Jolteon is the first to react, snatching the pile by the stems and scurrying back, away from Pikachu and the voice coming from the ledge above. Pidgeot stands there, and some part of Pikachu chastises himself. How did Pidgeot sneak up on them? What if he’d pounced at him?!Jolteon growls from below, and then darts all the way up to her team partner, growling again once, but stopping as the ends of her fur stand up. She lets the flowers sit on the ground and, looking down at Pikachu, warns: ‘If your trainer hurts mine in any way, I’ll make you and him pay.’ Pikachu scrambles onto his feet, electricity sparking at his cheeks as he calls at her; but she’s already picked up the flowers and gone, Pidgeot turning himself to leave.
‘I’m not going to let you bully us! I’m going to sort this out, once and for all!’
Pidgeot glances back, staring at him through one eye, and then takes to the sky, leaving him with Jolteon’s clutter and a renewed frustration. And he means it. He’s not going to let this go on anymore.He wakes up earlier than Red the next morning, forcing himself out of sleep at the first opportunity; before the sun has truly risen in the sky, but there’s light beginning to creep under the curtains. The door is the hardest part from there, but once he makes it through, the climb downstairs is easy, and there’s a window open in the kitchen for him to climb out of, into the garden.Venusaur, Blastoise, and Snorlax are fast asleep, and so are the Exeggutors when Pikachu climbs the fence silently, over onto the other side. Nobody is in the garden with them, and Pikachu has to hurry to hush them, as they each wake to his whispering right in their faces.
‘What?’, ‘Ohhh,’ ‘Green?’
‘Shh, quiet, quiet! I need your help!’
‘Pikachu?’, ‘I thought I was just…’, ‘You’re a funny Green.’
He climbs back into the window once he’s done, dropping silently on the kitchen floor and heading back up the stairs. ‘I wouldn’t do that if I were you,’ a voice suddenly speaks and freezes him, and he looks over to the long seat. Espeon sits there, curled, except for her head raised and eyes watching him.Espy has always had an extra sense for these things, he knows, ever since she evolved. But, at the same time… 'Everything’s going to be fine,’ he tells her, and climbs for the steps before she can try again to sway him.She’s not always all-knowing. Just more careful than the rest of them. And more often than not, you have to believe in yourself! Green stares at him from across the gym room.“What the heck are you doing here?”Pikachu steadies his heavy breathing to hear above it. Red is coming closer, and the timing couldn’t be better: There’s no one else but Green and his pokèmon, and the Exeggutors are in sight. He gives them a nod, and they start walking off to play their part.“Where are you going—” “ —Pikachu! ”Pikachu runs for the building blocks, swinging out of the way when Cloyster shoots a beam of ice at his feet, gurgling wet laughter as Pikachu ascends to the top. He can see Pidgeot on the other side, close to Green. He calls in warning, but only as a sound.“What is this, some kinda trick, Red?” Green calls out.“Trick?” The word barely makes it out over his breathing, hands on his knees. “What kind of trick’s this supposed to be?”“I dunno—you using your dumb thing to give you a reason to bother me?”“As if!”There’s a crashing sound, and the gym is enveloped by darkness. Or some darkness, with daylight still pouring in from the high windows in line with Pikachu, and the door at Red’s back.But then the light vanishes from there, as the Exeguttors return, Magneton following them inside—and the doors then pulling close by vines conjured up.They all stand in silence.Green is the one to speak up first. “Uh? Hello? Mind telling me what’s going on?”“What sort of training routine is this?” asks Red. “Training routine? What, where you ask your pikachu to trap us in here with the help of my pokèmon?”“ My pikachu? How do I know you’re not the one putting him up to this?”“Like I would.”“You would!”
‘What are you doing!’
The voice rushes with a wind, and Pikachu jumps, but doesn’t manage to avoid this time when Jolteon traps him underneath him, pinning him down. He struggles and she pushes down more weight, but he gets a claw free to dig into her leg, giving him the opportunity to squeeze out and tumble over the side, landing on his stomach.And he’s running, before he even sees Jolteon come for him again, out of the way of Arcanine and again from the shots of ice the cloyster throws his way, nearly hitting the side of the Exeggutors.
‘Oh dear,’ ‘Oh dear,’ ‘Oh dear!’
Red and Green have met in the centre, but Pikachu doesn’t have time to watch. He can hear them, and their loud bickering voices are some definition of comforting while Jolteon shoots electric after him, sending him flying over the top of blocks that he doesn’t know where the landing is on the other side; shocked by the long drop, or shocked by the sudden landing. All he can do is run from the death after him, until his feet skates under the first ice shot at him, and so does Jolteon, crashing into him. His scratch and slip to get up, desperation to get away—And she yelps, and so does he; and air blows as talons drag them off of the ice and onto less slippery ground, releasing them, with a few sparks clinging to Pidgeot’s body, but only making his squawk sharper when he tells the both of them: ‘Stop.’ They do, the both of them, despite the argument in Pikachu’s mouth ready to be released, it’s as if his lips have been sealed together. But he notices then in the silence, without their running around—the silence. Not even Cloyster is laughing. And so Pikachu looks, and sees Red and Green… Touching...faces? At least for a little while, Green’s shirt in Red’s fists, holding it tight even as he pulls away. His face is red to the ears, and he looks away the second they stop touching mouths.“Wow,” Green says, smirking his trademark smirk, leaning his head into Red’s. “You could’ve done that a lot sooner if you didn’t keep running off, you know.”“Shut—shut up.”“Weirdo. So, this means you do wanna go out?”Red’s face shoots up, “N—!”, but Green does that thing again, and Red shoves Green back as Green laughs. “Eerrgh!”Pikachu just stands, blinking.
‘What’s going on?’
‘I am not watching this lover’s tiff,’ Jolteon grumbles, turning her back to the scene and walking over to the Exeggutors, and snaps, ’ Open the door!’ The vines break without hesitation, and they waddle out of the way, Magneton hovering back too, to give her room to leave.And Pikachu looks back to the trainers, his eyes wide and large.They didn’t hate each other! It was—
‘It’s a lover’s tiff!’
He’s never been so happy to be so wrong before!
‘Stop. Stop making that face.’
‘Hey, does this mean we’re family now?’
‘No.’
‘We can hang out more!’
‘Hmph.’
‘And go on trips—’
‘No.’
‘But yes!’
‘...Whatever.’
‘This is the best, Jolteon!’
Jolteon growls into a low whine, turning her face away from him, and their two trainings talking outside their homes. Their homes! But also, his homes? Oh, he still had to tell everyone, there was a lot to talk about!
‘Just don’t slow us down.’
He nearly doesn’t catch her, but Pikachu looks back over, and sees her looking at him, standing straight and still. A little calmer now than everything considered before. Which reminds him to ask:
‘Why did you keep threatening me?’
‘...I thought you knew.’
‘Knew?’ he echoes, and oh— ‘I thought they had a fight!’
‘They did.’
Oh.
Ohhh!
‘Lover’s tiff!’
Jolteon huffs again, and proceeds to head to Green’s home, until Pikachu chases after her, hopping to join her.
‘By the way, you never told me about the flowers!’
She flinches, but he has the sense to whisper it, just in case! But she mumbles even lower, and he has to ask, ‘Huh? What did you say? Hey, what did you say!’ until— ‘To wear .’ He stops at the brick wall, and she gets up to the open doorway, looking back at him. Her face is—the same as Red making talking about Green, but without the colour to his face.But still; she looked cute making that face, didn’t she?
I bet you look really pretty wearing them.’
Even he has the better sense to dart off before she can get around, her ‘HOW DARE YOU’ lashing out somewhere far behind him, while he’s already thrown himself in Red’s mother’s—in his house. Inside, Espy sighs from the long seat.
‘I told him,’ she laments, before returning to her daily wash.