He is the ghost of Mt Silver, a figment of imaginations that once was a Champion, still is but no one can reach him. He wears a shroud of ice and snow, makes a bed of rock and stone, and sighs an icy wind, waiting for the one to save him.
You are always smiling, golden eyes sparkling with mirth and determination, and you have bested them all, quickly rising to the top, and the people like their new Champion, Gold somehow so much more fitting a colour than silver or red, the champion's colour, but you never think that way.
You hear about Mt Silver's ghost, and smile, because you don't believe.
He is wasting away, surviving on nothing but air and snow, and his pokémon worry incessantly. He gives more care to them than himself, and one day, that will kill him.
You meet a worry-worn woman in Pallet Town, smiling sorrowfully as she speaks of Red, and you persuade the Professor of the same town to let you ascend the mountain, amid warnings that it may well kill you. And if it does, you think, you'll just become a true ghost of Mt Silver. But you don't plan on it.
Some days, the ice stops and he sees the sun peeking through the clouds, but he can count on his two hands the number of those days, and begins to forget how warm feels.
A thousand people warn you of the arduous journey, and you ascend the mountain as much to get away from it as your actual desire to find this 'ghost'. Your former rival sends a message telling you that he won't attend your funeral, but you just smile and laugh, because even if you do die here, it has been a short life well spent. But you won't, the same determination that pulled you through everything so far pushes you up this mountain, eager of the challenge.
The paths cross.
The air sparkles when you reach the top, diamond-dust swirling in the ever present winds, and it is an alluring prettiness, you think, even as you and him send pokémon out against each other, losses on both sides. A furious battle, between two equally talented people, and although it ends in a draw, neither is disappointed. You leave fairly soon after, respecting what you think is Red's wish to remain alone on the mountain, and tell the world below about a man on the summit, not a ghost.
Two months later, and your smiles are more fleeting, drowning in confusion because you still dream of Red, and want to see him, some kind of magnetism acting across nations. You don't even know, but there is an undercurrent within you, pushing you towards that mountain, whispering save him and make him happy, you know he's not, and you scale the mountain once more. Last time, you tell yourself, just to check. To ease your mind that he's still there.
And he is.
You battle again, as though it is a tradition between you, and you don't sense that he's fighting at his full capacity, so you forfeit, angry. 'Try harder!' you yell at him, missing his shocked expression as you storm back down the mountain, upset that he doesn't even treat you as an adequate threat.
You've changed. More accurately, he's changed you, and it bugs you, staying up at night glaring at that mountain, visible all across the two nations, as if he watches wherever you go. You train, wanting to beat Red to show him that you're good enough, that you're at the same level or higher. You ascend twice more, and it still ends in a draw and you shouting at him, confused and upset.
It's almost like you care about his opinion above all else.
You pass it off as that Red, being the only one to have drawn against you, needs to have a better opinion of you. It's conceited of him to think of you so lowly, you think, and it motivates you to train harder, determination lighting your eyes but in a scary fashion, a one-minded focus that makes people scuttle away with watchful gazes. You battle the Elite Four daily, Lance, Clair and Silver as much as they'll let you, battle every half-talented trainer to just improve and beat Red. Once you've done that, you think, you'll never go up Mt Silver again, you'll pretend the mountain never even existed, or Red, and you'll be back to your normal self.
Four months after your last ascent, and about a year after your first ascent, you scale it again. The last time, you say. It feels different, and you know that if you don't beat Red here, you never will.
It's close. It's so, so close, but Typhlosion just remains standing longer than his Pikachu, and you wait for the elation. For the joy of winning to overtake the exhaustion, now you know that you never have to see his face again, never have to reach the most stupid battleground you've ever known just to challenge him.
It doesn't come. You recognise with a bit of fear that you don't want to never see Red again like you thought you would, and Red approaches while you're still horror-struck and grasps your wrists waveringly. This close, you see how tired he looks, how lonely, and he just whispers 'Istay/I' at you, leaning onto you like you're the last thing he has in the world, and for some reason you put your arms around him, help him back to his cave.
Even when he falls asleep you hold onto him still, ignoring the smug look your pokémon and his send you, confused as hell.
You want this, and you don't know why.
He looks so elated to find you still there when he wakes up, embarrassing both of you, as you part, hurriedly starting to make breakfast while he tends to the pokémon, but you feel his gaze on you occasionally, though every time you turn around he is focused on the pokémon. (He feeds your team as well, you notice)
It's only when Silver phones you, shouting in a worried manner that's almost cute that you realise that you've stayed with Red for several days. (How did that happen?) Silver rants about how worried everyone is, why didn't you phone anyone, half Johto thinks that you've died and they'd send search teams in if they could, but they can't and get-the-hell down here you idiot so I can kick your ass. Red watches, half amused and half sad, (you've gotten a lot better at reading him during your time here).
And you realise that you don't really want to leave.
When did you get so attached to this mountain, so attached to Red? It just crept up on you while you were training to beat him, and you blink, everything seeming so simple yet simultaneously so complicated.
You want Red. You want to share your life with him, be with him.
And that scares you, you're only nineteen, Red's only twenty-one or something, it's too early to want to spend a lifetime with someone you think, and so you stand, quivering, and tell him you have to go.
You ignore the panic that crosses his face, nod at his request for you to visit again, and flee down the mountain quicker than you've ever done before.
You put on a smile for the media, family and friends, but behind closed doors you're falling apart, trying to figure what it all means and how on earth you fell for him, why you still want to see him, want to break the promise you made with the Professor to never go up there again (they all think you were injured, and you let them buy it. It's easier than telling them you fell in love with the ghost of Mt Silver).
But you can't help it. You tell yourself one more time can't hurt, you'll tell Red that you can't ever visit again and it will be finished, you'll be back to your normal confident smiling self and he'll... (still be there, waiting for you to save him)
Heart burning in anticipation, you reach the summit, find him staring out into the clouds, and you put a hand on his shoulder, he swivels around and looks surprised but happy, and so you lean in and kiss him.
You never meant to do that.
Words of parting are swiftly eaten as he grips your face and hair in need, desire and passion pressed back onto you but you don't yield, fighting just as much and you forget the confusion that plagues you, for that moment until you part, and Red looks a mixture of guilt, sorrow, and like his dreams has come true, he's even smiling, how can you say goodbye now?
God, Red... you say, but he leans his head on your shoulders and shakes, a chorus of don't leave now spilling from him, so you hush him and hold him tightly and you shake too, willing to give everything up for this fragile man who needs support more than ever, left behind by the world, and he needsyou, and you need him, yet it isn't as scary as before.
'Come with me, Red' you whisper, and he nods profusely, and it's all he ever wanted you to say.
I have just recently come to really like this pairing. It also occurred to me that Green would be unlikely to visit Red: even at the end of FRLG he still seems quite antagonistic towards Red. So Gold/another challenger who could make it up there would be the first person Red had seen.
But anyway. It made more sense in my mind, and I hope that you enjoyed reading it!