- 01 -

"Photograph"

I like to see my life as a patchwork quilt. A patchwork quilt, with overlaying and oddly shaped patches that make up my story. They're different colors, different patterns, different events that have occurred in my life.

And don't get me wrong, a lot has occurred in my life. But those are stories for a whole different time, okay? Because this first adventure begins the morning of October 2nd.

October 2nd in Viridian City, Kanto, is usually a quiet morning. Some of the trees have changed colors, but the city still retains the green hue. I'm out on a mission, that day.

A mission that could change the world.

You see, I work with the Professor Oak. The Professor Oak of Pallet Town. I don't live there, per say, but I work with him. Well… I work for him. Under him. I work under him as an assistant to an assistant of his. And I was literally just running errands, but I took it as missions that could change the world.

First; I had to get a package from the Pokémart. Something special the Professor ordered, probably new parts for the latest version of the Pokédex. I wasn't a snoop and I didn't peer into it, I just placed it at the bottom of my bag and moved along. After that, I had to find a box of batteries, the batteries in the cameras at the lab died and they needed to be replaced.

Yeah, what an exciting day. Don't worry, it's coming.

As I was digging through the batteries to find the right kind (damn old things only take a certain kind), I heard a gasp somewhere in the store.

"Oh, Blue!"

"Gym leader Blue!"

Ah, yes. The Blue. Exciting, riveting, the gym leader himself, Blue Oak. He was wearing his usual gym clothes, his hair was a mess as usual and his green eyes looked down upon the trainers in the store with a bit of disdain, a bit of slyness, a bit of his usual attitude.

A small kid had run up to him, nearly knocking over the display of batteries I was digging through. "Mister Blue! Mister Blue!"

"Hey there, kiddo." Blue greeted. The small kid had a piece of paper held tightly in his one hand.

"Can you sign this for me?"

"Sure!" He carries a pen everywhere, of course. He must love getting stopped for autographs. Personally, I'd find it quite tiresome, but that's just me personally. He signed the paper with a sly grin and handed it back to the little kid. "Here ya go, kid!"

I could see the signature in my mind. His handwriting was terrible, and he signed his name under scribbles that were supposed to be his signature catchphrase- Smell ya later!. I know this because my friend has one. Not me, I don't know what you're talking about.

…Anyway. The kid had disrupted my digging through the batteries, so I had to start all over again. I did not want to go up and have to ask the person at the register if they had any of the batteries I was looking for. I already had to pick up and sign for the package in my bag. That's enough social interaction my anxiety would let me have for the day. And since I was quiet and unassuming, Blue Oak began chatting with the register person and didn't exactly see that I was there.

Or didn't care, but I felt invisible everywhere I went so it never made a difference.

"Has my order come in yet?" Asked the Gym leader.

"Hmm… No, not yet." They'd probably remember seeing something labeled OAK, BLUE in the storage room. "You ordered all those new lights for your gym, right?"

"Yeah. The lighting's been going haywire for the past year. It almost broke and fell down on top of me in the middle of a battle. The kid won, but only on that note, and she's been waiting to challenge me after its fixed so it's fairer or whatever." Blue shrugged. "I never expected to have to do this when I signed up for it."

The person giggled in response. "Well, you took over a gym that was only open for two days after years of being closed. So, it makes sense, at least."

Blue shrugged.

Finally! I pulled out the package of batteries I was looking for. It was the right company and everything! Breathing a sigh of relief, I grabbed the box and walked it to the register. Again. This caught everyone's attention and I flinched under their gazes.

I word it much too dramatically then it should be, don't worry.

"Hey. You work with my Gramps, don't you?" Blue pointed a finger at me.

I nodded, nervously. "Yeah, I do. Well, I work for him. I'm one of his assistant's assistants." Okay, too much, too much. I'm just a simple kid running errands, please don't attack me, Blue.

"How is the old man?" You wouldn't believe how often the Professor rants about his grandson. Either because Blue has broken the family tradition of researchers—his sister is interned somewhere in Hoenn under a professor—and his parents followed similar paths, his father working in Silph Co. in Saffron while his mother worked under Professor Oak until she had kids and became more stay-at home. And that he never completed the Pokédex. And that he couldn't be champion for ten whole minutes before Red showed up.

"…Good." I lied. He saw right through it. I'm a terrible liar, I know. That's gonna bite me in the butt one of these days.

"That man has never been 'good'." Blue rolled his eyes. "I'll believe you, as long as he's not overworking anyone."

"He's not!" My voice cracked too loudly. I cleared my throat. "I mean, not with me, anyway. I just take care of the Pokémon and get the pictures he needs." I turned to the register person, who had gone silent. "Just these, please." Please get me out of this situation. Please.

"That'll be 200 Poké." I handed over my cash and got the batteries, but Blue was still watching me. "Have a nice day!" They were cheery, but thus it comes when you have to work in retail.

As I grabbed my bag and quickly said, "Thanks, you have a good one too!", though it was more like "Thanksyouhaveagoodonetoo!", Blue stopped me.

"I'll walk you back." He offered. "Route 1 isn't dangerous, but it's not safe to go alone."

Oh, no, was an oversimplification of what I was thinking. "Y-You don't have to, s-sir! I'm fine by myself." I'm not just some random kid without a Pokémon who has to run errands, I was a seventeen-year-old random kid with a Pokémon that had to run some errands.

"It's fine. I ought to visit the ol' man, anyway."

Oh no just got amplified by ten. I'd never seen their interactions in person, but the assistants at the lab said I should consider myself lucky that I haven't. Giving into the gym leader who was definitely older and stronger than me (both physically and in my Pokémon team), I let him walk back to Pallet with me.

"Ah, Leo!" Mr. White, my 'boss' and the man I'm an assistant to, greeted me as I walked in. "You're back soon! And oh, Blue!'" His voice shook a bit at the end there, as did everyone who realized what was about to go down. "It certainly has been a while!"

"I was just walking the kid back. Is the old man around?"

I'm seventeen.

Mr. White nodded. There were visible balls of sweat rolling down his face. "Uh, yes, he's in the back. Leo, did you get what we needed?"

I nodded. I pulled the package out of my bag and the batteries. Mr. White took them and placed them on his deck. "Do me a favor and replace the batteries, will you? And here's the next list you've got." He handed me a list of assorted Pokémon. I nodded, taking the list and folding it into my pocket. My desk, which was just a small table off to the side of Mr. White's, had the camera I needed on it. I slung it around my neck.

This is what my job was, usually. Professor Oak would send my boss, Mr. White, a list of Pokémon. And he would give those to me. And that would be my job—getting pictures of these Pokémon. Sometimes I'd have to go to the routes and forests around to get pictures of them, other times it would just be in the yard.

"The professor is just out back. Leo will take you, right, Leo?" Mr. White looked at me.

I nodded, nervously. I think I was getting dumped to watch what apparently was not a pretty sight. Oh, joy. Making sure my camera was fully charged, I led Blue through the lab and out the back door. I'm pretty sure he knew the way through the place, he grew up in the lab, but it was a bit politer this way? I guess?

Professor Oak was feeding a group of Pidgey when we got out. He turned upon hearing the door shut, gave me a quick smile before turning to Blue. His face fell, turned stone cold. I'd known the professor as a bit kooky at times, a moody kind of dude who could get angry quickly if something didn't go right but was ecstatic the next moment when he learned something new, but I'd never seen this face before.

"Ah, Blue. It's great to see you again." The bowl of Pidgey food was set calmly on the ground. "I got your message. I assume that's why you're here?"

Blue nodded.

This is when I decided to take out my list and ditch Blue. I didn't care about what they were going to talk about, the list had a lot of Pokémon and there were only so many hours in the day and only so many times I allowed myself to run back into the lab and get another memory card. Taking too many pictures was never anyone really ever hated, but when it got chilly and the drafts started coming in and making the lab colder than it had to be, people got upset.

My first stop was Weedles. With photographing Pokémon, sometimes you have to stay out of sight to get the pictures. Especially with wild ones. Urban Pokémon don't mind getting their pictures taken- the two Meowth we have at the lab are absolute camera hogs. They love the attention. For a Weedle, you have to stay low and be calm, because any kind of jerky movement could upset them and you could end up with a poison stinger in your hand.

Click-click. Click-click. I snapped a few pictures of the bug-types, sitting comfortably close to them, trying to be gentle to not upset them. The conversation from Professor Oak and his grandson, unfortunately, carried through the yard. It wasn't as clear where I was, but I could hear some bits of it.

"…Is it true?"

"…Don't know… There was Johto a while ago… Could be back…Where's Red?"

"Who knows…he doesn't need to deal with this, anyway."

"But he…"

"…took down a criminal gang when he was twelve? Yeah, and…it messed him up. If they are back, the police can take care of them…"

"Gramps— "

"…None of us know where he is. Drop it, Blue."

I tried to focus (ha-ha! A photography puns!) but their conversation was a bit distracting. No. It was very distracting. I crossed Weedle off my list and moved on to the Rattata, which were a bit closer to the conversation.

"If they are back— "

"Hopefully they aren't." Professor Oak sighs. "If they are, we can only hope Red comes back from wherever he is and helps if the police aren't able to do their job."

It clicked what they were talking about. I got a few of the Rattata before the small Pokémon became more interested in me and began playing with the strings on my hoodie and the lanyard around my neck. A couple of years ago, when I was, like, barely able to walk and talk on my own, there was Team Rocket. This evil gang stole Pokémon and terrorized people with no end goal in mind. They disbanded after Red, the youngest Kanto champion at twelve, defeated their leader. And that was that. A few years ago, there had been a "Rocket Scare" in Johto, they got together to try and contact their leader, but the stand-in champion Lance and some kid named Crystal stopped them. And that was that.

Every few years there's a scare of Oh, no! What if Team Rocket is returning? But they never turn out to be true. Yet hearing it from Blue Oak, of all people…

Oh dear, it sends shivers down a person's spine just thinking about it.

You know what, though? It's not my problem, right? If it hasn't affected me directly then it should not be my problem. Snapping a few more pictures of the Rattata being just too cute, I crossed them off the list and moved onto the next.

A/N: Hello everyone and welcome to my Pokémon fanfiction, Patchwork!

Wait, what do you mean "you've seen this before"? Well, maybe you have...And maybe you haven't. To be honest, I used to have this fic up on my profile but I haven't updated it in forever, and in re-reading it after LGPE's come out, it renewed an interest in me to write it! (Plus I had to edit the outline, I messed up in it on accident, oops).

I've changed the name of the main character from "Theo" (my name) to "Leo" (not my name) because I don't want it to be too obviously a self-insert anymore, hahaha.

Keep reading this author's note if you want, this one is gonna get a wee bit rambly. I need to explain a few things, probably.

There will be LGBTQ+ content/themes in this fanfiction. I won't say anything too spoilerly, but there will be a nonbinary character appearing soon with they/them pronouns, so please don't get on my case about it! Also, if you couldn't tell, there will be a bit of Red/Blue (Oak, obviously), but it's not the big end-game ship. I won't spoil too much on that ;)

There will be a lot of my own headcanons, and headcanons I've adopted throughout tumblr in this story. More or less worldbuilding facts (especially concerning Team Rocket, and their relationship with pesky twelve-year-olds, though the main characters are 17-18), but there will be a few personal headcanons in this story as well, stuff about Pokémon biology, taking care of Pokémon, reasons why people might stop their trainer's journey, how certain characters may behave or act, etc.

Our main boy Leo is a bit of an unreliable narrator. It's written in a way to convey the feeling that Leo is telling the audience the story directly, not writing it down in a fancy-smancy memoir or whatever after his adventures are done. On the same topic of Leo, he is very anxious and awkward, and part of this fic will explore breaking down his comfort zone and making him realize that he has had a lot of people treat him like shit before, but also t here are people out there who would generally care for him.

Author's note over, Theo out~