A/N: Written for the Diversity Challenge, E14 - write a fic with at least 80% dialogue. We took standard dialogue approach to this: Aiko as Green and Remi as Silver.

A Sort of Sibling Quarrel

"And off they go. I wonder who is worse at staying still, Gold or Red? What do you think?"

"Hmmph. You know Red better; you tell me."

"But you know Gold. You can probably give me all the juicy details, right?"

"He's annoying." He shrugged. "What else is there to say?"

"You had an interesting look on your face earlier." She smiled. "Almost a little… longing. It was cute."

"Cute?" He blushed, before rearranging his expression. "And I don't miss Gold in the least."

"I'm sure you don't. You aren't good at missing things, observant brother mine." A pause. "Except when it comes to yourself."

"Must you use the word 'mask'?"

"A word is a word is a word." Giggle. "We should make our own words."

"And I'm sure you'll be the only one to remember them."

"No, you'll think of some. Mostly to yell at people."

"Yell at Gold, you mean."

"So we're back to Gold now."

"What? No - I mean - "

"You're the one who jumped topics, not me." She patted the red hair just beneath her fingers, taking care for the injuries he was likely ignoring. "You're making friends. I'm so proud of you."

"Gold is not my friend."

"He went with you into the shrine. That doesn't count for something?"

Point to her. "Perhaps he thinks of me as a friend, but I assure you I don't return the sentiment. He is a foolhardy rival and nothing more."

"I wasn't aware you had time for rivals, Silver." She winked.

He almost growled. "He's a leech! I can't exactly help that."

"I don't see why you should want to. Friends are good, Silver."

He raised an eyebrow. "Like Red, you mean?"

""Hmm… yeah!" She giggled. "What about the girl? She seems attached."

"Crystal? I barely even know her. And that's beside the point. You stole his gym badges! How is that friendship?"

She kept her poker face on. "I gave them back… and saved his life. And helped Yellow save his life. That should count for something."

He sighed. "That sounds like a terribly butchered definition of friendship. Then again, that's just like you."

"I think my friendship is plenty sensible. At least I call them my friends. You just like to live in denial. They trust you. And you must trust them."

"Sure, trust the guy who accused me of stealing his bag."

"Well, he covered for you, right?"

"I...guess. Not that it accomplished anything."

"Well, you're not in jail. It counts for something."

"Neither are you, so I don't think that counts for much at all."

"No, no, I'm just clever."

Innocently: "But didn't you lose to that old Professor guy?"

Her eye twitched, then she smiled. "He knew how to play me. Never can say an Oak isn't smart."

"Is that why you play with Red? Because Blue outwits you?"

"He doesn't have much of a sense of humor. You two could get along if you were a little less spiky. Or if he was too, come to think of it."

"So now you're playing matchmaker? Is it even possible to get a rise out of you?"

Her expression turned oddly sober. "If you come chasing after me like you did again, I'll at least be cross, you noble idiot."

"Hmmph. Like I could help that."

"Yes, you could. I taught you better."

He didn't have a good comeback for that. "Not well enough, apparently."

She let out a hmmph of mild amusement. "More like you just didn't listen."

"Of course not. Half the stuff you say operates on exclusive logic."

She chuckled. "So you admit you're as impulsive as your friends?"

"No. I'm just saying your logic tends not to apply to the rest of the world."

"It doesn't?"

"I'm sure Red and Blue can tell you that."

"But it worked for Yellow!"

"Yellow is a special case. Even Lance agrees."

"... Should you be trusting Lance as a good judge of character?"

"Should I be trusting you? After all, we grew up with the Masked Man."

"It's a bit too late for you to worry about me, Silver. If I was a problem, you had plenty of time away to run." She winked.

He blushed. "That's not what I meant!"

"Well, that's how I took it." She reached and pulled him into a hug. "Is that a problem?"

He moaned. "I don't even know what we're talking about now."

"Isn't it great?" She hugged him tighter. "Come on, your face is bruised…"

"It doesn't hurt. It's probably because of trying to keep up with your crazy logic, anyhow."

"Don't make me use Blasty on them. The cold water would do some good."

"If my face doesn't get blasted in the process."

"Builds character."

"You would say that."

"Of course!"

"Well...I could have used Feraligatr if I wanted that."

"Would he have done it?"

"Probably. If I asked him to."

"Oh, right, he learned Return, didn't he? You do love your Pokemon, huh?"

"I respect them. Love is…well..."

"Well, Sneasel loves you."

"I'll be sure to give him a goodnight kiss next time and blame it on you."

"He'll know it's because you care."

He sighed. "He'll probably think that because you told him."

"You don't care." She looked down at him. It was fun being tall! "You're such a bad liar."

"Another thing you failed to teach me, apparently."

"Mm… you're probably too impulsive."

"It's never your fault, is it?"

"No it's always my fault in my head." She grinned. "But this is the outside world, people can't just see that. Not even you."

"Somehow, I don't think you should be grinning and saying that."

"Why not?"

"Guilt and grins don't really go together."

"Sure they do. They're an odd type of complimentary thing." She poked his nose. "I'm your big sister. Can't show you what's wrong, now can I?"

"Of course you can," he grumbled.

"Not when you have missions to do," she scolded. "You can't afford to get distracted from what you need to do."

"You should go give Gold some lessons."

"Is it easier than training you?"

"Why do you assume I know Gold that well?"

"You've fought, haven't you? Red and Blue know each other well and they fight all the time."

"Shall I assume I don't know you at all then? Since all our so-called fighting was you training me?"

"You could. But there's not much to know. It's not like either of us have hobbies or know lots of famous people. All that matters we both know."

"Or assume."

"Well, assumptions are all we have for now."

"This is where normal people would start playing twenty questions, you know."

"Are we all that normal, Silver?"

"That was my point."

"Oh. Well, us playing twenty questions would get boring considering we both know most of the same things. Well, I could show you how I caught the three birds… which took forever, so don't do that."

"Maybe you should show me how you got your Squirtle without getting caught. Of all the people I had to run in to…"

"I was caught. He just didn't go after me until it was public and he could confirm it. I missed one of his security cameras." She sighed. "Who would have thought someone would actually put one in a smoke alarm? I need to remember that one."

"...at least you didn't wind up with a stalker."

"Well, at least his stalking eventually led him away from you."

"Not with the way you're going on about him."

She giggled. "So what should I talk to you about instead?"

"...birds?"

Fair enough. "The legendary birds make you really glad you don't normally go after those Pokemon. Finding them is easy. Getting to them… anything but."

"Like the beasts were any better."

"Well, they came to you, really. They chose you."

"After Crystal chased one through a temple and up a mountain."

"Maybe she wasn't worthy at first. They had a cause, they wanted to make sure she could do it." A shrug. "It's like me somehow being worthy."

"Or maybe they just wanted to catch a ride with you. Didn't Blue and Red ride them too?"

"Yes, but that's probably because we defused them from what the badges created."

"Which has nothing to do with you being worthy."

"Not all legends run on an honor system. Otherwise that would mean Celebi wouldn't be very helpful."

"It wasn't. It brought Gold and old Masked Man back."

"Now who is going on about Gold?"

"...and you don't pick up the other half of that statement."

A shrug. "He's an old man, Silver. An old man currently bawling his eyes out on the ground. It will be a while before he can do anything. We can put him away before then."

"You know, you're scary when you talk like that. I can't work out whether you're pitying him or writing him off."

"Can't it be both? I can pity him and still hate what he's done. Even if he comes back wanting to write his wrongs, it's too late for us, and either way, he did it because of pain, so that's worth pitying." She shrugged.

"I...guess. That's pretty noble of you."

"Something like that. It's probably Red's bad influence again."

"Or Gold's."

"You're the one who talks to Gold. You're pretty obsessed with him."

"Am not."

"It's perfectly okay to get along with people, Silver."

"People, yes. Gold, no."

"Is he on a special level then? You aren't good at answering questions today."

He pouted; he had no good retort for that. "Hmmph."

"You're so cute. So." She tugged at her gloves. "You never answered my question. Who do you think is worse at staying still, Gold or Red?"

And they were back to where they'd started from.