Getting a hold of Silver was impossible.
It seemed like hardly a day had passed since their return from Hoenn before Silver vanished. Like a Gastly at sunrise, he was there one moment and gone the next. Calling Silver wasn't an option: he'd never given Gold the number for his Pokegear and Gold had never thought to ask. It wasn't until Gold had turned Johto upside down in an unsuccessful search for Silver did he realize that he had other options.
Contacting too-serious-girl was easy. There she was, working away in Professor Oak's Johto lab [i]like always[/i]. Unfortunately, she wasn't any help in getting a hold of Silver, shaking her head in reply to the question.
Contacting Blue was a pain, but still nowhere near as difficult as getting a hold of Silver. Gold had been forced to make a detour to Viridian City first, asking the gym leader if he knew of the woman's whereabouts. For once, Gold actually received an answer he could work with. Sure, it forced him to go to the Sevii Islands, but he actually had a destination! Things seemed to finally be turning up; Blue even gave him Silver's number without requesting anything in return. She wasn't quite so giving of her own number, unfortunately, but... Gold got what he was looking for, right?
It wasn't until Gold was on the ferry back to Kanto that he tried the number. In fact, he tried the number upwards of ten times, each attempt ending in an automated message informing him that the owner of this number was unavailable. Staring down his Pokegear as though this were some challenge, Gold made one final attempt.
"Hello..?"
Success!
"Silver! Finally! Do you know how hard-"
*click*
The line went dead.
"You bastard..."
At least he knew that it was the right number though!
It took several more calls before Silver answered again. Gold began speaking immediately, not intending to be hung up on once more.
"You hung up on me! What the hell was that for? Do you realize how-" Realizing Silver was saying his name, Gold paused in his tirade. "What?"
"If you call me when it's not 3 o'clock in the morning, I'll consider talking to you."
Gold blinked. Was it really that early? A quick look out the porthole of his cabin did confirm that it was dark outside, at the very least. Returning his attention to his Pokegear, Gold hummed in confirmation.
"So, where are you at right now?"
There was a groan from the other end of the line, though Silver must have acknowledged that he wouldn't be left alone until Gold was satisfied. "Viridian Gym... Helping Green... with... stuff."
Gold's first thought was that Silver sounded like he was on the verge of falling asleep mid-sentence.
The second thought was that it was kind of cute.
The third thought was that this was not what he wanted to think about.
It was Gold's fourth realization that he'd been at the location in question earlier in his hunt for the absent redhead.
"Good night, Gold."
Once more the line went dead. Further attempts to contact Silver resulted in the Pokegear not even ringing once before sending Gold to an automated message. Sighing, Gold fell back onto the bed he sat on.
"I hate you, Silver."