Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon. Only my characters.

Chapter One

"Knowing someone your whole life is restrictive," Scarlet pouted, pushing the peas around her plate sulkily.

"Oi!" Came a man's indignant cry from the living room of the girl's home.

"Not you," she poked her tongue out in his direction in annoyance, even though he couldn't see it. "I have to deal with you- you're my brother."

"Thanks," He muttered bitterly, walking into the kitchen.

Joe, her older brother, sighed at seeing barely any of the thirteen-year-old's food eaten. "Anyway," She continued, pushing her plate away and slumping over the round, wooden, kitchen table. " I meant people at school. I don't want to travel with them."

"But they're your friends," Joe glanced at her speculatively.

She shrugged and looked away from him.

Being in his twenties, Joe recognised the stage Scarlet was at now; the pre-teens. He had dealt with it, and so had scores before him... nevertheless, he was glad she'd be leaving before he'd have to put up with her tantrums and door-slamming.

There wouldn't be any doors for her to slam in the woods.

He smirked, turning to do the dishes.

"Dori keeps bugging me," She confided suddenly, and he looked over his shoulder at her expectantly. She huffed. " Like, asking to travel with me... as far as Snowpoint City!"

Joe, finally, gave an annoyed whoosh of air and turned to face her.

She looked a lot younger than thirteen-almost-fourteen as she sat there; refusing to eat her dinner, and pouting.

Scarlet had always been too immature for her own good and, as luck would have it, she'd turned out to be one of those lucky girls that don't mature faster than boys. Instead, her body had started to mature, and she'd become something of a child in a ready-to-be-woman. She was petite, and small for a girl her age, but her hips had started to widen, and her attitude at certain times of the month told him she had definitely passed THAT hurdle... especially when Aunt Julia had had to be called in the middle of the night. That had been embarassing for everyone.

Be that as it may, she still looked like his baby sister; elbow-length, light brown hair, too-innocent, big brown eyes, a face that needed growing into, and a lanky body. "Have you ever thought that, just maybe, Dori is just trying to be friendly?" Joe gestured helplessly with his hands, never able to scold her for being ignorant. That wouldn't help.

"But..!" Scarlet exclaimed, looking off and to the left petulantly. " If I go with Dori, it'd be like going with you! And that would be boring!"

"Point taken," Joe rolled his eyes. He had been a trainer in his heyday, but he knew where she was coming from; travelling with a sibling would have sucked. "But Dori isn't me."

"Yeah, but you know what I mean," She said, ever articulate, and beginning to speak into her arms, so her voice was muffled. "If I go with someone I know, I won't be able to do knew stuff, because they'll have this whole, like, image of me built up already... or something."

So, that was the problem.

She wanted to be different than she was there, with him, in Jubilife, and at her little school in the south district. That made him a little suspicious but, as he watched her mope instead of blush, as she might when she was hiding something, Joe knew she just didn't know how to express herself too well.

Teenagers, he laughed to himself ruefully.

"Different how?" He prodded, turning back to the dishes in mock-disinterest.

"I don't know," She muttered, feeling awkward.

Maybe she'd said too much..

"Different... as in 'short-skirt-wearing, boy-liking, going-on-dates-instead-of-training' different?" He grinned, turning to pin her with his suspicious, dark-eyed stare.

She stared back, cheeks hot and face crimson.

"J-Joe!" She growled, sounding completely unthreatening and cute, like a baby growlithe caught playing with a dishcloth. "You're such an idiot."

And, with that, Scarlet ran from the room, and Joe raised a brow.

Well, maybe she wasn't as ignorant as he had thought.

Still chuckling, Joe turned back to the dishbowl, shaking his dark hair from his face and listening to- perhaps the last door- slam.

"Stupid Joe," the girl bit, stalking into her room and flopping onto her soft, cream duvet, hearing the birch door slam as she fell into comfort. "Stupid Dori making me bring up the stupid subject."

A snuffle by her feet, making its way up to her head, made Scarlet smile and twist to grab the little creature.

"What are you doing up here?" She thundered, grinning at the chittering, brown pokemon.

"Biii-dewww." It whined, squirming as she picked it up, holding it up, above her face so it looked down at her.

"Okay, okay," she laughed, letting it down for a squishy hug, the bidoof lapping at her chin and neck adoringly.

The bidoof, a not-so-recent addition to Scarlet's room, had been a present at school graduation from Joe. She had always been a hugging, cuddly sort of person, so Joe had bought her a pokemon that liked hugs as much as she did.

That was his excuse, anyway. What Scarlet thought was that he didn't want her to get lonely when he went to work during the day.

Well, she sighed, frowning to herself. I won't if Dori gets his way.

Dori wasn't actually called 'Dori' at all. In fact, his name was Theodore. Theo to his friends, and Dori to Scarlet.

She hadn't been joking when she said she'd known him all her life; he had been the first person she met outside her family, and he had been one year old to her three weeks. They'd been neighbours 'til she was nine, and then they'd moved to the other side of town for convenience. Nevertheless, Dori cycled every day to her house and gave her a ride to school so she wouldn't be late.

Dori was, of course, seen as a saint by Joe and their Aunt Julia, who lived in Floaroma City.

Scarlet, on the other hand, thought he was a jerk.

He constantly went around following her, pranking her, flicking stuff at her, making fun of her bidoof, and then wandering off with that big group of girls that always followed him around. He was a jerk, and arrogant, to boot.

He hadn't been like that before he went out to be a trainer.

Dori had always been really nice and, well, her best friend, really. If she was honest.

When he left, she'd been really upset because he left without even saying goodbye.

Well, Scarlet had known he was going, but she thought he'd have said goodbye. She even woke up early that day to see if he came to her house.

He didn't.

He left for a year. While he was gone, she'd been so lonely- always having depended on him- but then she met Jake. Jake was really good at art, and asked one day, out of the blue, if he could draw her.

Excited, she'd agreed, and it went from there. Now, she and Jake were really close.

Jake wanted to be a professional Pokemon artist, and they'd already picked out all of the best routes to take to see the prettiest pokemon, and marked them on their maps with highlighters. "Floaroma City first. Right, Bidoof?" Scarlet beamed, kissing the little pokemon's head gently.

Then the world, she thought to herself.

The next morning, Scarlet sat with Bidoof on the brick wall of their garden, eating a sandwich. Tomorrow she, Bidoof, and Jake would leave.

Scarlet's brow furrowed slightly, sadly.

Dori would be fine- he had loads of friends.

"Why do I care, anyway!" Scarlet grumbled, taking a vicious bite out of the ham and tomato sandwich. Bidoof, trundling back and forth along the wall's top, peered over at her. "It's not as if we're friends anymore."

Not hungry, she put the sandwich back on the plate, that rested on the wall beside her. The wall was high, just over half the height of their two-storey home. She had always liked sitting up there- not for the view- she hated Jubilife; it was too busy and bustling for her tastes- because when she was very young, she was told she would think clearer when she was higher up.

When sitting on the roof didn't go down too well with Joe and Aunt Julia, she chose to clamber up onto the wall.

Not very lady-like, but effective.

"You still do that?" Came an amused voice from behind her... below her?

Turning quickly, she almost unsettled herself.

He laughed up at her from the path, and Scarlet bit the inside of her lip.

"What are you doing here, Dori?" She groused, turning back around grumpily.

She felt, more than saw, him easily climb up to sit beside her. Her house was at the end of a row... but Scarlet knew he wouldn't care even if it was someon'e garden.

"Free country," He beamed.

"Get off my wall," She demanded.

"It's not your wall," He sang, leaning forward so their noses touched, making her glare. "You didn't build it."

"No, but I claimed it," Scarlet flapped, pursing her lips angrily. "So get off."

"Why do we always have to fight?" He sighed, slouching forward and across her lap. She stared at him, aghast as he sniffed at her sandwich. "You're acting like a persian," She scowled. "Do you like it?" He looked up, smirking.

"No," She said bluntly, and he laughed as she tried to heave him off of her. "Now get off me AND my wall!"

"You used to be such a quiet girl," He pouted, trying to poke her nose. She slapped his hand away. "What ever happened to you?"

"To me?" She cried incredulously, staring down at him.

Dori was an unusual sort of person.

Before he had left, he had had average-length blonde hair, and unmarred ears. He was 'clean-cut', as Joe had called it.

Now, however... He wore his hair long, falling into his blue eyes in layers, and in front of his ears, which were pierced; four times on each lobe, and twice on the top of his left ear. His lip had the scar of a piercing on one side at the bottom, and so did his thick, black, left brow.

Apparently, it made him look 'hot', 'cool', and 'dangerous' to the girls at school.

Scarlet, still, preferred the old Dori. The one that looked like this meant they weren't best friends anymore.

The one whose eyes were so clear that the little bit of grey was obvious.

Joe had said that maybe Dori was 'just trying to be friendly'... No, Dori and she weren't friends anymore.

"Whatever," She shrugged helplessly, finally pushing him upright, and jumping down easily. Bidoof watched her for a moment before doing the same and trotting ahead into the house through the open back door.

Dori, on the wall, frowned angrily.

"Where are you going?" He demanded, the red scarf about his neck whipping a little in a strong breeze.

"To pack," She called back. "Me and Jake are leaving tomorrow."

"The fuck you are," He shouted, jumping down from the wall and striding after.

That was another thing Dori started to do; curse, and Scarlet hated it.

"No swearing in my brother's house!" She shouted back, closing the back door before he could get to it.

"Scarlet!" He rumbled. "Let me in."

His voice had deepened while he was away, too.

"You can't claim everything!" He tried to joke, but she could still hear the annoyance in his tone.

"I don't have to if it's my house!" She yelled back. "That's kind of a given."

There was a pause and Scarlet froze.

Had he left?

Something powerful slammed into their back door and Scarlet had her answer.

No.

He hadn't left.

He was ramming the door.

"Hey!" She shrieked, pulling the door open viciously, knowing Joe would be angry if the door got broken.

To Scarlet, it felt like slow motion.

He hurtled towards her, his eyes opening in realisation as he collided with her. They stared into each other's eyes as he took her down. The moment felt like years, and Scarlet saw that... yeah... he does still have that bit of grey in his right eye.

Then they slammed down onto the kitchen floor, and Scarlet's shout of pain was smothered by something smooth, soft and warm.

She felt an urgent pressure pushed against her lips and she opened her eyes against the pain in her head. Dori's straight nose brushed against her small, slightly upturned one, and she gasped, pushing herself backwards, and scooting from beneath him.

He stared at her, and she knew that he was waiting for her reaction.

But, reaction to what?

The strength in his gaze made her frightened, and she knew that it wasn't just a reaction to that that Dori was waiting for.

Shakily, Scarlet realised she had just had her first kiss taken, and reached up to touch her lips.

Lightning-fast, Dori caught her wrist, kneeling before her, his eyes intense.

Looking down at her- an innocent, doe-eyed girl, wearing a jumper too big for her, and denim shorts- Dori felt himself love her all over again.

"Let it stay for a while," He told her, hushed and gentle.

Scarlet stared up at him, the pain in her head forgotten.

Want me to write more?

Love~