Summary: 2139-word Ambershipping (Gold/Yellow) friendship. AU where Gold wants to learn how to fish and Yellow fishes for a living.
Disclaimer: I don't own PokeSpe.
Yellow yawned. Fishing took patience – a lot of it, and though she'd fished literally a thousand times, after the first thirty minutes or so, her habit of falling asleep came in. Her uncle would often scold her when he caught her sleeping on the job; this was the only income they had after all. It's supposedly hard to sleep when you're worrying about how you'll be able to feed yourselves the next day, but not for Yellow. The lack of action made her bored, and in turn, made her drowsy. It wasn't that she didn't get enough sleep at night; her body could just naturally sleep at any position at any place.
She took off her straw hat and started to fan herself. She was glad that she had a boy's cut. She had liked her long hair that matched her name but it was too hot to keep and it took too much time. Back when it was still long, it was simply a disaster and maintaining it was just too much effort for her then 12-year old. She could never bring herself to wake up any earlier than 5 am which was practically the call time. Her uncle hated delays and taking care of hair that almost reached your butt took more time than taking care of hair that hardly reached your collar (not that Yellow wore collars).
"Yellooooooooooow!"
That woke her up.
She turned groggily at her uncle and was careful to assess his expression. Alright, he doesn't seem pissed.
"Yes, uncle?" Her voice was lower than you'd expect. It was husky and seemed out-of-place with her small stature.
Her uncle approached her and from what she could tell, she should stand up or something like that she guessed. "Some kid is coming here to learn how to fish. That's extra cash for you so make sure you smile even if it kills 'ya!" He shoved a fishing rod onto Yellow and then ruffled her hair.
Yellow frowned. She was always told that she wore her emotions at her sleeve. She hoped this 'kid' wouldn't hate her. She never got to talk to other children much. They were always either a lot older or a lot younger and she didn't feel like she fit in at all. Well there was this one older guy she sort of got along with. What was his name? Vance? Lyon? Mace? He was pretty ambitious and left the small village once he got the chance. He told her that they were alike and he hoped to see her again, she wondered if it was true.
Well there was other boy she met (she wondered why girls couldn't come? It would have been nice to meet a girl once in a while) around two years ago. He saved her from being bitten by a local grass snake. Her hair was still as long as her rod and she couldn't escape from the tangles of those dumb bushes. He just came out of nowhere and drove the snake away but had a lot of cuts and bruises. She pretty much fixed him up before his mother found him and left without even leaving his name.
Whenever there was someone, they would just disappear as quickly as they appeared. Yellow breathed slowly; there was no use in thinking whether the kid would hate her. Even if he or she did, that person would leave her soon as well anyway.
"Hiya!" A cheerful greeting came from behind her. It was a boy (she was a bit disappointed but he looked around her age). He looked cheeky and was just brimming with energy. His hat was worn the other way around, with the front part of the cap at the back. Yellow only ever had her straw hat which had no front or back and wondered if that was the trend with caps nowadays. If it was trying to hide his large black spiky hair, it failed. He wore goggles over his eyes but they didn't look like swimming goggles, more of elastic glasses, making Yellow wonder is she has not been in the city for that long. And he wore a jacket? Not the kind that was ideal for fishing. It was cold but she might as well tell him to fold his sleeves.
"Hey." She managed a smile and waved a little.
"So you're the one who's gonna teach me? How old are you? I'm even taller than you are!"
Yellow didn't know how to respond to that. Oh well, it's not like height mattered that much to her anyway.
"Uhm, I'm fourteen, and I've always been short or maybe you're just tall. Anyway-"
"You're older than me! No way!" She couldn't see his eyes, but they were probably wide open like his mouth.
"Uh well, anyway, I don't think you should be wearing a jacket, it might get wet. Or you can fold your sleeves since it's cold."
The boy inspected his clothes and started shoving his right sleeve up his arm. He did the same with his left and when he finished, he exclaimed, "Thanks for the tip! I'm Gold by the way, and you are?" Gold extended his hand to her.
"Oh! I'm Yellow; it's nice to meet you." She took his hand. It was warm (and soft, much softer than her calloused ones).
The boy chuckled. "We have matching names, huh? Yellow and Gold – I like it. It's official, we're friends now!"
Yellow felt a tug at her heart. She didn't know how serious he was but the thought of having a friend made her feel happy – very happy. The only thing was, she knew it wouldn't last long (it never did).
She simply smiled back at him. It's not like someone would become so good at fishing so fast anyway. She had time – they had time – to enjoy the lessons.
"The most important thing in fishing is patience. If you're not willing to wait, you won't get much of a haul."
Gold tapped his fishing rod. Man, this wasn't what he imagined when he heard that someone in the vicinity could teach him how to fish. He had wanted that big thrill of standing his ground and not letting the fish get away, but here he was, stuck waiting on a boat, for something even mildly interesting to happen.
"How'd you deal to be like this everyday?!" he moaned. Yellow sure seemed like a tough nut. Gold learned that the kid, only a few months older than he was and who looked much scrawnier, woke up everyday at 5 am to fish and only stopped when the sun set (Yellow even ate at the boat). He could never imagine himself doing that.
Yellow gave a small laugh. "You get used to it I guess after two years or so. And it's not like I have an alternative." She looked at the water and yawned.
Gold stared at her. "An alternative? Oh! Uh, I'm sorry." He felt pathetic and turned to the water. He was complaining about something he had barely learned when Yellow had to work because she had no other choice. ("I'm such a dumbass," he thought.)
Yellow looked at him twice and after seeing how dejected he was, removed one of her gloves off and patted his head (or his cap, you could say). "Don't worry about it. I get to still fish my quota while getting some extra money. It's killing two birds with one stone! I mean, I don't like the idea of killing birds with stones – or in any way at all! Oh my, the idea's quite horrible!"
Gold had the uncanny urge to hug Yellow at that moment. The older one's reaction about the quote was just...adorable. Instead he started to speak with a matter-of fact tone and looked,"Well, how about we say that you made two people happy with one joke! Or something! No! Never mind that's lame."
They looked at each other and started laughing.
"Lord, my stomach! It hurts!" Gold held his stomach and continued to laugh. They were so ultimately dorks. He couldn't remember the last time he laughed like this with someone else. He always moved town-to-town so quickly that people barely remembered him. He'd somehow always bring back home some unintentional trouble instead of playmates, and he was thankful that that never stopped him from trying to make new friends. It felt nice to get along with someone he just met and not giving the worst first impression ever.
Yellow's laugh wasn't loud like Gold's. It sounded much higher than her normal voice. It ended with a jerk when her rod suddenly pulled her forward.
"Whoa!" She managed to strengthen her grip again and pulled herself back. She held it tight and started to reel the fish in. Gold watched in amazement. With another big pull, a fish came out of the water and was held by Yellow's hook. She took the fish down and put it in a bucket that was filled with the other fish she caught before Gold had arrived.
"Wow! A fish! You caught a fish!" Yellow tried not to laugh again, after all, it was the most normal thing for a fisherwoman to catch a fish, but Gold had never seen anything like that before so she bit her lip to stop herself.
"Well, you'll catch one too soon. You just have to be patient." She smiled, somehow, she's been doing that a lot today.
"Still! That was amazing. I can't believe a fourteen-year old boy could do that! And so quickly too!"
"Ah? I'm a girl though."
"Huh?"
"I'm a girl?"
Gold blinked and tried to process. "Whoa! Oh wait! Ahhhhh! That makes sense! No wonder you're so short!"
Yellow frowned. There are tall girls, you know—she was about to say. "Not that there aren't tall girls or short boys! Man, that came out wrong. Sorry!" He tucked his rod under his left arm and put his hands together, turned to Yellow and bowed his head apologetically.
"...Gold, your rod!"
Gold looked up. "My wha-?!"
The rod was getting loose from his arm and Gold quickly grabbed it with his right hand. Just then, the rod jerked him forward, making his head fall on Yellow's lap. The line had been broken, and Gold could feel the bruises forming. His right arm hurt like heck from the impact of falling down while his left arm burned from the friction when the rod slipped off.
"Ow..." he managed.
The damage wasn't that bad. He had a few bumps here and there, nothing that ice couldn't numb. His one arm wasn't particularly strained and the other only had a light scratch (though Gold insisted it hurt too much for it to be just that).
"I'm sorry. I should have taken more safety measures! You were a beginner after all!" Yellow held her straw hat tight. She thought she finally made a friend but she just let him get hurt and it made her feel horrible, just horrible.
Gold raised his hand and placed it on her head (they were both sitting down, so it was easy to do that). He patted her like she did earlier and her expression seemed to have softened.
"I'm the one that should be apologizing," he moved his arm back slowly to his lap, "We just met today but I already offended you so many times. I'm sorry about all of that."
Yellow was silent, the atmosphere was heavy and it made her tense. She felt like crying.
"Guess that means I just have to get better, huh?"
"What?"
"I need to become a better fisherman – like you!" Gold grinned widely and it left Yellow all confused.
"I really am sorry and I need to make it up to you – so I'll be the best pupil you'll ever have!"
Yellow started to tear up and Gold started to freak out. "Hey! What happened?"
"I – I thought you'd hate me...I just feel really happy right now." She wiped away her tears and gave him a smile, with her eyes still closed holding back from crying.
Gold chuckled, "Didn't I say that we were friends? There's no way I'd hate you. If I did hate you, I wouldn't have lasted that long on a boat all alone with you, silly." He stuck his tongue out and they both started laughing.
"I really like you, Gold, you're really fun to be with." Gold's face flushed. He knew she didn't mean it that way but still, what an embarrassing thing to say. He's never heard anyone say anything like that to a friend before, he then realized that Yellow wasn't just anyone to begin with.
He smiled at her.
"Yeah, I really like you too."
A/N: I hope they didn't seem OOC huhu.
I made it more on friendship since I was thinking of making this a multi-chaptered fic but I didn't know what could come after this (presumably the first chapter) so I dropped the idea.
This is my first legit fic in years (by legit, I mean 1000 words) so I'm was sort of nervous while making it but I just couldn't stop writing.
Hope you enjoyed it! :)
