That's what makes you beautiful
In a small house on the outskirts of the Viridian forest, the dex-holders of Kanto had gathered at the request of the youngest of the four, Yellow. She had implored her friends to spend more time together as a group, so once they finally found a day where everyone was free (Green in particular), they agreed to come visit at her house. Currently, Yellow was in the kitchen making tea while Red and Green were playing a game of chess in the living room with Blue lounging on the loveseat, rather bored by the slow-paced game unfolding before her. Quality time, you know. Red advanced a pawn.
"Say, Red, you phoned me the other day saying you wanted to talk about something, and here we are. So, what did you want to talk about?"
"I did?" Red put a thoughtful hand to his chin and looked up from the game. "Oh yeah, so I did. Um, actually, do you think we could talk about that later?"
Blue raised her eyebrows and grinned as Green moved his knight into position, shaking his head. There was no way Blue would let it go now, Red should've known better.
"What's the matter, Red? Could it be that you don't trust us?"
"No, it's not like I don't tru-"
"Or maybe it's related to one of us, since we're obviously all so close." Blue emphasized her point by sliding to the other end of the loveseat, closer to Red's chair. Red glanced over with an uncomfortable frown as he attempted to threaten Green's knight. Green casually moved his knight past the pawn and into position then sat back and observed Red. Clearly he was too preoccupied to notice Green's plan. Blue also continued to push her advantage.
"But if you have a problem, why not just talk to Green about it? Unless," she grinned in anticipation, "it's something you thought I would be better to ask about. Now, what might that be?"
Red stared at the board in silence, refusing to say more in hopes of salvaging the conversation. Green continued to watch Red with a slight smirk, feeling fairly confident by now that his opponent was off his game and very beatable.
Blue leaned back and looked over towards Green.
"What do you think it is, Green?"
Blue smiled at him innocently enough, but he could see the mischievous twinkle in her eye. With a shrug, he decided to oblige her with the answer she sought.
"Could be about a girl, I guess."
Blue beamed at him in delight before turning back to Red.
"You're right, it could be!"
"Hey, what are you talking about?"
Red's head snapped left to see Yellow standing in front of the table holding a tray with tea. Fervently hoping she hadn't heard anything, he accepted the offered tea cup with a thanks and turned his head away to hide a slight blush. Unfortunately for Red, this meant turning towards Blue, who saw his blush and grinned rather wickedly.
Yellow moved around the table handing everyone their tea before sitting down next to Blue, who in turned supplied Yellow with an answer to her earlier question.
"Oh, Red was just telling us about a problem of his."
Yellow put her cup down next to the board and looked to Red with concern. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing." Red occupied himself with his tea.
"Check." Green had moved his knight forward and caught Red open, essentially winning a free rook.
Red sighed, moving his king forward out of check then looking up to see that Yellow was still regarding him skeptically.
"Don't worry, I'm fine. Everything's ok," he assured Yellow.
"Red, you can tell us anything. You don't have to hide." She smiled at him encouragingly while Blue chuckled quietly into her tea.
"Hmm… Say, what's for dinner?" Red countered, hoping she would allow the subject to drop.
"Oh! I was hoping we could eat outside since it's so nice, what do you guys think? Plus, all our Pokémon can join us!" Yellow looked so hopeful and enthusiastic, how could they say no?
"Sounds good to me! You got a grill?" Red finished off his tea with a gulp as Green persisted with his attack.
"Yeah, I think we have one out back, although I don't ever use it. Wanna help me light it and cook the food?"
"Yeah, that sounds fun!" Red started to stand, more than happy to abandon both the previous conversation and the chess match, which had also rapidly been turning against him.
"Hold on," Blue interrupted. "Green, why don't you help Yellow light the grill? I'd like to talk to Red a little more." Yellow looked at Blue a little confused.
"Don't worry, we'll join you outside in just a moment. Alright, get going you two!" Blue ushered Green out of his seat.
"Hmph. I suppose you can take over, he's basically on the ropes anyway," Green quipped. "Alright, let's get this grilled fired up." Green and Yellow exited out the back door as Blue took Green's seat and rubbed her hands together eagerly.
"Ok Red, where were we? Wait I remember, you wanted to talk to me about how you're in love with Yellow!"
"First of all, I never said that. Second, can we not talk about this here? Yellow is right outside." Red stood up and made to put his jacket on and join the others.
"Hold on just a minute there, Red, I've still got to finish your chess game for Green. In fact, why don't we make things more interesting?"
Red paused, one arm in the sleeve of his jacket. "I'm listening."
"If I win, you tell me what it is you like about Yellow, right here and now."
"And if I win?"
"You won't."
Red narrowed his eyes and took his arm out of his jacket. "If I win, you have to help Green clean his gym and exercise his Pokémon tomorrow in my stead."
"Fine by me, that doesn't sound so bad anyways. Not that it's gonna happen."
"Fine." Red tossed his jacket onto the couch and retook his seat.
"What do you have against helping Green, by the way?"
"Nothing, it's just that Yellow wanted me to go fishing with her tomorrow." Red began trying to corner the marauding knight from before.
"Ho ho, sounds romantic~ If I didn't love winning so much, I might let you have this game just so you two could have your little date together."
Red frowned. "It's not a date, we're just spending time together. We go fishing almost every Sunday." He moved his bishop out to claim the troublesome knight.
"Call it what you want, that doesn't change the nature of the affair. When two people who like each other go out to spend quality time together with just them, most people call that a date, myself included." Blue moved her queen forward into an aggressive position.
"So if it were just you and Green tomorrow in his gym, would that be a date?"
"That's different, doing chores doesn't count as a date."
"By your definition, it sure sounds like it." Red moved his knight forward.
"Quality time, Red. In what world is doing chores considered quality time?" Blue took the knight with her queen.
"We've all had fun together before while doing chores." Red moved his own queen forward.
"Most things can be fun when you're doing them with people you like and care about, you should know that. Check."
Red moved his queen in position to defend, but was displeased when Blue proceeded to take his queen anyway at the cost of her own.
"Trading pieces when you're down? Tsk tsk, Red. For the battler you aren't too good at this game. But I suppose it's more about strategy and thinking several steps ahead then it is being able to react quickly." Blue moved her bishop forward to grab a free pawn.
"Hey, are you guys coming out," Yellow called from outside.
"Be out in just a minute," Blue called back.
Yellow poked her head around the doorframe from the kitchen, a package of hotdogs dangling from her hand. "I'm gonna start cooking some food, don't take too long, ok?"
Blue gave a thumbs up as Red continued to study the board and Yellow left to go back outside.
"Your Yellow is waiting for you, Red," taunted Blue. "Why don't you just give it up?"
Red rolled his eyes. "She's not my Yellow and I'm not giving up."
"She could be though, I'm sure she likes you." Blue moved forward to claim another pawn.
"Huh? Did she tell you she likes me?" Red couldn't help but smile at the thought that his feelings might be mutual.
"It's so obvious, she doesn't need to say anything. Everyone can tell, everyone except you, apparently. Check." Yellow had, in fact, told Blue about the subject matter, even if it was true that she had already known. Red didn't need to know that though.
Red was forced to take out the offending knight with his rook, which was swiftly claimed by a bishop.
"I'm still not sure though, if there's even a small chance that you're wrong, I don't want it to mess up our friendship. We've got a good thing going, why ruin it?"
"Well Red, sometimes you've got to take a chance so you can get ahead." Blue slid her rook into position, leaving her bishop open as bait. Red was quick to take the bishop with his own. Blue smiled.
"Check." Her rook had moved forward to where Red's king was trapped behind his own pawns. He could shield it for one turn with his bishop, which he did, but he knew it was over.
Blue slid her rook over and took the bishop. "Checkmate. Now then, about that wager…"
Red closed his eyes and exhaled deeply before blurting out, "I like Yellow because she's sweet and kind and she's always caring towards Pokémon and really pretty but so humble she doesn't even know it."
Red opened his eyes to see Blue holding her hand over her mouth, trying hard not to laugh.
"What's so funny?" He looked over and saw Yellow standing in the doorway again holding a pair of tongs now, her face red and her mouth slightly open. Red face-palmed.
"Hotdogs are ready." She turned around and walked out fairly quickly.
"Nice confession, Red," Blue chuckled as she got her shoes on.
"Why didn't you stop me? Oh man, it's gonna be so awkward now."
"I like to get the ball moving, it didn't seem right to interrupt you. Hmm, it might cheer you up to know that I've decided to take over for you tomorrow anyways so you can spend time with Yellow. Plenty of chances to figure things out then, eh?
"Actually, that does cheer me up, thanks." Red sighed as he put on his own shoes and grabbed his jacket.
"Well, can't hide forever, I guess. Let's go join our friends, shall we?"
Post-notes: What up ffnet, hopefully a couple people will read this story and maybe enjoy it as well. If not, that's ok too. In either case, I would really appreciate reviews letting me know what you think could use some work or what you liked. Yes, the title is taken from that one direction song. I have no strong feelings one way or another towards the group, but whenever this song would come on it always made me think of Red and Yellow. Anyways, thanks for your time.
-Meowth
Meowth