A/N: This fic is a remix of Windsong's To Breathe (find it on her profile), who kindly let me use her fic for pokeprompts' prompt 007: remix. The title, however, is a reference to Vienna Teng's Feather Moon.
To get the full experience, I'd suggest reading hers first, then mine, since mine is a companion piece to hers, from Green's POV. Also, please forgive the disgusting soppiness of it. I wrote it mostly while I was sick and uncompletely unable to breathe, so I am not responsible for my actions.
Characters/Pairings: Green/Red
Disclaimer: Pokemon is not mine.
"He can hear the city around him, a hundred people breathing, weighing down the silence with their dreams. A moth whirs around the porch light, banging into it with a hazy rhythm. He's not sure he'll be able to sleep under bedsheets and night sounds, surrounded by too many people and not enough air." -Windsong, To Breathe
Exhale and Inhale
Red finds him halfway up his climb, and (when Red falls, he) knocks the wind out of him.
o-o
It would be a lie to say Green liked routine and consistency, because thats not quite right.
What Green is likes measured preciseness. He likes knowing that every word or action will elicit an expected response. Like how if he pads into his small kitchen any later than seven in the morning to make breakfast, Eevee will somehow make her way in there, and twist and twine around his ankles, unintentionally trying to trip him, until he feeds her first.
Green hums the chorus of a current pop tune as he plates the toast, glancing back every few seconds to check up on the eggs that are still sizzling in the pan. After setting the plate on the table, he turns to the clock. Thirteen minutes til eight.
Green tries to think of an appropriate wake-up call as he walks towards the bedroom, but his smart comment dies on his lips when he opens the door to find Reds bright and focused eyes staring back at him.
"You're awake," tumbles out instead, and Red nods. Green has to pause before walking towards him, suddenly feeling too-large and out of place his own room with Red in his bed. "Breakfast is almost ready."
"It can wait," Red mumbles and pulls Green down to meet his lips. Its a little clumsy, just like how their words to each other always are, but to Green it feels right. As he tumbles onto the bed, Green catches a flash of yellow follow Eevee into the bathroom out of the corner of his eye, and reminds himself to do something about it later.
Later, though, Green merely purses his lips as he and Red eat his less-than-perfect (burnt) eggs. Green cant tell if that hitch at the bottom of his throat is annoyance or his heart.
Green doesnt necessarily like predictability - but he likes feeling like hes in control of the situation. And Green has the sneaking suspicion that what Red likes is to throw that all to hell.
o-o
"I didn't know you could cook," Red says, and Green frowns.
"Nothing tastes right after you haul it up a mountain," he settles on, and turns back to weeding his garden.
"No, I just thought -" Red trails off, and Green turns back to look at him. "I thought you bought all that food." Maybe Greens reading too much into it, but Red almost seems kind of regretful.
Green stands up and brushes the dirt off his hands, wiping the rest on his pants. He takes two steps, lifts his hand to grabs on to the side of Reds arms - right above his elbows, and presses an open-mouthed kiss onto Reds lips. It shouldnt be a surprise, but Green almost finds himself amazed that Red doesnt taste like ice and snow or even charcoal and burnt like that mornings eggs.
o-o
Green shows Red the apartment. Hes never been too conscious of its size before, but with Red and Pikachu there, its become claustrophobic and too crowded to fit all their lofty dreams.
"Its a nice place," Red comments when they finish their tour, and he tugs on a curtain to let in a little more light. Green lets out a breath he hadnt known he was holding - as if Reds judgment on his apartment would somehow determine whether it was livable or not.
He loses it again the next moment, however, when the light thats filtering through the window catches Red just the right way.
o-o
Red has taken to lying on his kitchen floor. Green rolls his eyes and vacuums around him.
"What are you doing, anyway?" Green snipes.
"Practicing," Red answers in his usual infuriatingly detached way.
The lights flicker once before going off completely, and Green doesnt even blink this time. "Pika, chu chuu," Pikachu apologizes again, but Green just shrugs it off and sets aside his now-unpowered vacuum cleaner. The candles are already out, but instead of going to light them, Green head towards the limp Red-shaped form on the floor.
"Move over," Green says, nudging Reds leg with his foot.
"Dont you have work to do?" Red asks, but shifts anyway.
"Nothing important." Green lies down on the (clean) floor next to Red, breathing quietly next to him as he waits for their eyes to adjust to the lack of light.
"I put stars on the ceiling," Green says a few minutes later, pointing in the direction of the soft glow from the plastic glow-in the-dark stars so Red could see it. "In case you missed looking at them."
"Couldnt see stars through the blizzard," Red replies dully, and Greens arm goes out to smack him and lands on Reds chest with a fwop.
"Well, I missed looking at them," Green says anyway, letting his arm rest on top of Red. Hed put them up when hed first gotten the apartment. "Besides, why bother practicing if theres nothing to look towards?"
Red hums before moving his hand to clasp over Greens palm. He presses it softly against his chest so the back of Greens hand is just over Reds beating heart.
o-o
At night, Green is careful not to push Red off his bed. At first, hes tense when he slides under the covers, but then he realizes that, somehow, they both manage to fit perfectly. Green breathes out all his tension in one exhale.
"You don't know how many times I've thought about this," he says, glad that Red cant see him flush up to his ears in the dark. "Us, like this, like we are right now." Before Red can reply, though, Green moves to cover Reds body with his own.
Its so strangely normal and ordinary, trying to figure out how they fit together, how to make room for Red in his life, but it may also be the hardest thing Green has ever done.
o-o
Greens greatest failure has always been his inability to be anything but extraordinary. But lying down next to Red, arm thrown carelessly over his waist as he exhales into Reds black hair, he dreams that it wouldnt be so bad to try.