Specialshipping is the best! It's also hard to write about...
I'll be focusing on this story for a while, which is why the next chapter of Catch Her When She Falls hasn't yet been posted. I am working on it, it's just going to take longer...
Red is around 19 or 20, which makes Yellow 17 or 18.
They'll both be a bit (or maybe more than a bit) OOC, but that's purposeful.
This may or may not be AU, but please note that no Pokémon are mentioned.
Enjoy, and don't forget to review! Constructive criticism appreciated!
Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon
Red gazed blankly out at the swirling sea of colored dresses that stretched out before him. Laughter floated lightly in the breeze, as well as the faint smell of alcohol. Dancing couples twirled around to the hypnotizing murmur of the musicians' instruments, and Red thought he spotted the bright red hair of a familiar girl in the middle of the dancefloor, her head resting on a stranger's shoulder.
Another couple twirled in front of him, and he lost sight of her. Or maybe he had never seen her at all.
He was used to his eyes playing tricks on him.
Red marveled at his own lack of feeling as he thought about the girl he had dated for the last three years. He wondered if she felt the same way he did. Emotionless, that is.
He hoped so, because if she did, there was a chance that they might be friends again. But as he turned away from the dance floor, without looking back, he doubted it. Nothing would ever be the same. It hadn't been since three years ago, when one of his closest friends had abandoned him.
"Red?"
He turned to see the slender figure of Blue approach him. He sighed. What did she want? Hadn't she already taken enough?
"I'm surprised you showed up," she continued.
"You didn't exactly give me a choice. You never do," he didn't mean for the words to come out bitterly, but they did, and now he had to watch as a hurt look flashed over her pretty face. Even worse, he had to watch himself enjoy it.
What had happened to him?
Blue had been one of his closest friends. She wasn't the one who left, but she had been just as close. They had a lot of shared history. But ever since three years ago, they had begun to drift further and further apart. Now, they were barely more than strangers. To Red, Blue was just the girl who used to be his friend.
Red guessed it was his fault. Most of the things that had happened in the last few years were.
"I just…" Blue hesitated. Red knew she was trying to read the look on his face. He also knew she would be unsuccessful. Three years had changed him, and he had learned that to be an open book was to accept defeat. "I thought you'd want to know that she's back."
Red froze, the nightmare of his past suddenly fresh in his mind, "Who's back?"
He had an idea of who it might be, he just didn't want to be right. He didn't want to face the ghost of his past. He wasn't ready for anyone who still remembered him as the hero he used to be.
Blue stared at him for a moment, and for a moment, Red thought he saw something like sympathy in her ocean-like eyes. Then they hardened, and she was back to her cold self. She turned away, "Yellow. Yellow's back."
Red's first emotion was hope; maybe her return would bring him redemption. But it was soon drowned in despair. There would be no redemption for him. This girl from his past knew only the old Red. She didn't know this Red.
And if she didn't know him, she certainly could never understand him.
So why didn't he run?
Red knew he should've fled while he still could. He should've run far away so that he wouldn't have to face her. He should have tried to avoid the inevitable for even longer than he already had. But, for some reason, he couldn't get his legs to move towards the door that now seemed so very far away. Maybe that reason was fear. Maybe it was hope. Maybe it was just that he wanted to see her face again, if only for a brief second.
All he knew was that he was standing alone at the edges of a formal dance that he was not enjoying, and he couldn't get himself to leave.
And then he saw her.
Three years had aged Yellow of the Viridian Forest greatly. At least in appearance, she was no longer the tiny, innocent, young girl Red had known before. Yellow had become a woman.
She was much taller. That was the first thing Red noticed. She was probably even taller than Blue, now. Surprising, since she had always been so petite.
Her bangs, which were once untamable, had grown out and were tucked behind her ears. Her long, golden hair hung in loose strands around her shoulders, and Red was surprised to see that it curled naturally at the ends; he had never noticed the curls when her hair was up in its signature ponytail. Her golden-brown eyes, which had been so huge before, had become more proportional, though they were still big and doe-like, and her cheeks and lips were both ruby red.
He had seen her, standing uncertainly on the opposite side of the room, her eyes scanning the room in search of someone, anyone, she knew.
He had seen her, and now he knew he had to leave her. He needed to slip away into the shadows of the night before she recognized him. Before she realized what he'd become.
He started to back away, but for some reason, her head turned in his direction. Perhaps her eyes had seen his sudden movement? Or maybe it was fate? Red froze, a deer in the bright light of her golden-brown gaze.
She had seen him.
Her eyes were suddenly alight with recognition.
She started to cross the room towards him.
Each step was bringing her a little closer to him.
What was he supposed to do now?
He stopped for her. He knew, deep inside of him, that he had always wanted her to see him. Now that she had, he couldn't back away. He knew he would never forgive himself if he did.
And he refused to leave like she had, three years ago.
"Red."
She said his name and his crimson eyes swung up to meet hers. He hadn't even realized he had been staring at the marble floor until now.
"Yellow."
He said her name the same way she had said his. He said it like a promise that had been broken. He said it as if he were saying the name of a traitor.
They just stared at each other for a moment.
In her eyes, Red saw a bleak, expressionless landscape, so different from how they used to look. He remembered they used to be so full of life. And hope. Now, there was only blankness tinged with wariness.
Yellow had not just changed on the outside.
He wondered what she saw in his eyes. Perhaps a shrunken shadow of the man he used to be? Maybe someone who had broken long ago, yet had never mended? He was too entranced by the pure vacancy of her gaze to really care.
He hated to even think it, but it was nice to know he wasn't the only one who had changed for the worse.
"How was it?" Red knew he needed to say something, even though his voice sounded hollow, like he didn't really care. "Your trip, I mean."
She looked at him a moment, and for a second he thought that she would leave; that she would just give up and walk away. But eventually she answered, her voice clear and somehow musical, despite the song being a sad one, "It was… hard. I mean, being away from everyone I knew wasn't exactly easy.
She looked at him. He looked back. She wasn't going to get any sympathy from him.
"But it got better after a while. I got used to being alone. I even started to like it."
It seemed to Red that she trying to get him to understand something. He thought he already understood, "Yeah. I think I get that."
She looked at him, "You probably do."
Strangely, her words felt like a compliment.
It was then that Red had the oddest urge to ask Yellow something, "Would you like to dance?"
He didn't know why he had said it. He just wasn't able to figure himself out. But he went along with it and looked at Yellow questioningly, secretly wondering what her reaction would be, or if there would be a reaction at all.
Yellow shrugged, a little confused, but overall unpledged. Red guessed that she just didn't care because she could feel nothing at all. That was how he felt. Or, at least, how he thought he felt…
At that point in time, Red honestly thought he knew himself.
But back then, Red thought a lot of things.
"Sure," Yellow answered.
And that's how he found himself no longer on the sidelines, but in the center of the room.
He was twirling slowly to the eerie sound of the music, with Yellow's head resting on his shoulder, dangerously close to the heart he kept behind bars. He spun her around, and her blue dress swirled around her ankles, kind of like the ocean as the tide comes in. He wondered again what he was doing.
Thump, thump.
He realized he could feel his own heartbeat. He wondered if she could feel it, too.
Thump, thump.
She turned to look up at him and said something he wasn't expecting, "You used to be the only person I ever wanted to change for."
He said nothing in return. What was he supposed to say to a statement like that? But in his mind, he realized that when he had been around Yellow, he had felt like it was the only time he didn't need to change at all. Around Yellow, the old Yellow, there were no requirements or expectations. You didn't need to be stronger or better. Yellow had been one of those people who had just accepted and loved you for who you are.
It was one of the reasons why Red had missed her so much.
Now, for the first time, Red didn't miss the old Yellow at all. The new Red would have been one of the few things Yellow could never have accepted.
He supposed maybe it was a gift that Yellow had changed so dramatically.
He didn't get many gifts anymore.
The new Yellow continued to speak, "Thanks for that."
Red was at a loss for words, but his mouth didn't let him get away with silence, "thank you."
She didn't ask what he was thanking her for. Instead, Yellow actually smiled in response, a perfect, broken smile that was dim in comparison to her old one. It was nothing like what it had once been, before it was shattered by the harshness of the world's realities.
And yet it was the most beautiful thing Red had ever laid eyes on. He smiled with her, his bright smile just the same as hers.
A shadow smile, echoing everything it had once been.
It was then that deep in Red's soul, or at least, what was left of it, something stirred. It was dark and light and good and evil all at once. It was a blur of feelings combined with the blankness of the emotionless state he had been in for the last three years.
It was something he couldn't put a name to, and it scared him terribly.
It was the first thing he had really, truly felt in too long, and it was Yellow who had caused him to feel it.
That was why he ran from her.
This isn't over! Did you really think I'd end with that cliffhanger? There's another chapter on the way, but I'd really like some reviews before I post it...
Anyways, thanks for reading!
Update 9/11/18:
I just made the realization that this story still exists. I probably should have shared this a long time ago, but you've probably figured it out by now…over two years later. Yeah, this story is done. I was originally planning to have it be about 3-5 chapters long, but that was before my computer got stolen and the three chapters I had already written but had not yet uploaded were lost forever.
I know, alright? I'm being a bit dramatic. But it wasn't just this that I lost. All my original writing was gone, too, and I know it's at least partially my fault for not backing things up, but that didn't make it any less devastating. When all the time and effort you put into something turns out to be a complete waste, you just don't want to keep at it. Which is why I didn't bother rewriting the story I'd written.
It's been years since this happened, and it's over and done with. But for anyone who actually stumbles upon this, reads it, and for some reason ends up liking it (.5% chance, I know), I thought I'd at least tell you what happened.
Moral of the story: USBs are your friends.
Have a good life!
Indigo