A cool breeze blew through the trees, rustling the leaves and scattering them to the wind.
It was a pretty nice day in Viridian City. On the outside anyways, in the heart of the city the people were bustling with noise and excitement. Word of a tournament had been roaming throughout, and today those rumors were to be settled. Upon a colorful stage stood an odd man dressed in purple formal clothing, speaking loudly onto a microphone, telling people to gather around for his announcement.
One of these people is our hero, Toby. He stands in a gray shirt with a black sleeveless jacket and jeans with dark green sneakers. He has black shaggy neck length hair with brown eyes. With him is his partner, Eevee.
"What's this…" he said as he approached.
"STEP RIGHT UP, STEP RIGHT UP!" the announcer shouted.
"FOR THE MOST AMAZING TOURNAMENT THIS SIDE OF MOUNT MOON HAS EVER SEEN!" he continued. This caused the people to begin chatting among themselves, either in disinterest or curiosity as to if this really is the best tournament they've seen.
"Tournament huh, hey Eevee do you want to sign up?" Toby asked before taking a sip of lemonade, Eevee yipping in response.
"THE VIRIDIAN CITY TAG TEAM TOURNAMENT TO END ALL TAG TEAM TOURNAMENTS!" the announcer momentarily concluded to let the people react. Toby reacted with a spit-take.
"TAG TEAM!? YOU MEAN WE HAVE TO FIND SOMEONE ELSE!?" he wondered aloud, only to have the announcer point at him.
"DON'T YOU WORRY LITTLE BOY, THIS TAG TEAM TOURNAMENT IS TOTALLY RANDOMIZED. JUST ENTER YOUR NAME AND WE RANDOMLY PAIR YOU UP WITH SOMEONE." The announcer answered; Toby and Eevee sighing in relief.
"STEP RIGHT UP, STEP RIGHT UP, AND COME AND SIGN UP FOR THE VIRIDIAN CITY TAG TEAM TOURNAMENT" the announcer concluded and pointed to the table with pen and paper that was next to the stage. People quickly began filing into a line behind the table, while Toby headed in the opposite direction, to the poke center.
Toby had just arrived in town from Route 1 and Eevee was tired from battling. After a quick stop at the poke center, the line had cleared down dramatically, and so Toby walked in.
Or, at least he attempted to. Upon walking into the line, he was knocked over by a fast traveling person. "Ow! Hey! Watch where you're going!" both said simultaneously. Toby rubbed his head in slight pain, and then took a better look at the person.
The person, now revealed to be a she, wore a light purple polo shirt and jeans with brown boots. She had long red hair and blue eyes hidden behind thick glasses.
"I...um...sorry" she said quickly before looking down at the ground.
Toby raised an eyebrow and replied "Uh, no problem miss…"
"Ruby" she interrupted "My name's Ruby."
"Ruby…" Toby repeated "My name's Toby."
"It's nice to meet you Toby" Ruby said.
"Nice to meet you as well Ruby" Toby said as he stood up, then took her hand and helped her up. "So, are you entering the tournament too?" he asked.
"Yeah..." she replied solemnly, still steadily staring holes into the ground.
Toby's POV
I wanted to ask her if something was wrong, but something told me I shouldn't intrude any further. We waited in line together, both of us probably just hoping to quickly get to the front. While we waited the people started gathering up again, causing us to be pressed to one another by the shoulder. I groaned in annoyance at them, 'Everyone will have a turn people, can't you just wait a while' I thought. While I was mentally complaining, I felt a shiver on my shoulder, but it wasn't coming from me. I looked over at Ruby, she was steadily facing the ground, her eyes closed tight, and biting her lower lip.
"R-Ruby what's wrong?" I asked with alarm. She shakily sniffled and looked at me with teary eyes. "I-I don't do too well around so many people" she said quietly. I quickly tried to think of a solution, mostly because I can't stand seeing people cry, especially women. "Well, how about we come back la—"I started.
"NO!" she interrupted quickly, making me jump a bit and take a step back. "No…I just want to get it over with now."
I nodded and held onto her "Well, I'll be here with you" I said reassuringly. She blinked at me "R-Really?" she said in disbelief. "Yeah, I want to get this over with too, plus I can't just leave you here like this, that'd just be rude" I explained, she nodded and stayed close to me. "Eevee" said a voice emanating from my shoulder. I looked over at Eevee, who had now snuggled onto my shoulder and was sniffing Ruby's hair. I was about to point him out, but I figured he wasn't doing any harm and let him continue.
Once we got to the front, I noticed there was a woman moderating the clipboard, probably to make sure no one made off with it and the like. Her eyes opened up a bit more in interesting upon seeing us for some reason. "Ah…" she started to say but stopped herself quickly and smiled. I blinked at her and tilted my head while Ruby was signing up. "Oh my, is a young couple signing up for the tag team tournament? How sweet!" the woman said with a big smile, apparently no longer able to contain herself.
"What-NO" Ruby and I said simultaneously, glaring at the woman. "Ah…my mistake then" she said with still laughing to herself. I gritted my teeth in embarrassment and waited for my turn to sign up. While waiting I noticed Ruby hadn't looked at me since the woman said that, I could only guess she was more embarrassed than I was.
"What did we do to make you think we were a couple anyways…?" I asked with slight irritation. "Oh, nothing really…" The woman said and looked down. I was still pretty confused till Eevee chipped in "Eve!" it said from my shoulder. I looked over at it again, it was pointing with its front paw to my hand with a slight smile on its face.
I looked down at my hand, and, to my surprise, Ruby and I were holding hands. I looked up at the woman then at Eevee, both of them were giving me sly looks. I looked at Ruby, but she was still looking at the clipboard. I After some debate in my head, I figured it was fine, I did tell her to stay close to me after all and this was the easiest way of doing so.
"I-I um…I'll sign us both up, what's your last name" Ruby asked. I waved it off, "I don't have a last name" I told her. "You don't have a last name?" Ruby and the woman said. I nodded with a sad smile "I'm an orphan, but I was raised by the people of Pallet Town" I answered. They both nodded and Ruby stood back up.
"I guess we're all signed up then" Ruby stated. The woman nodded "Yup, now you just wait till we pair up the teams and ready the stadium" she explained "and I'll put in a good word with the judges to put you two together" She said with a smile.
"WE'RE NOT A COUPLE!" Ruby and I repeated.
"Yes, I know, but my instincts tell me you two will be a good battling pair" The woman said more seriously.
I halted in my complaining and quieted down, "You…may have a point" I agreed. She grinned and nodded "Of course I do, now run along, I have a long line of others to take care of" She said and leaned back in her chair, we nodded and walked out of line.
"So…now what" I asked Ruby, she slowly let go of my hand. "Well…I'm sure my parents are wondering what's taking me so long, I think I should go see them…" she said with hints of sadness in her voice. Noticing this I tried to cheer her up "Um, well, don't worry, we'll meet again! We're both in the tournament, right?" She nodded slowly then walked off waving, but never looked at me.
"Hmm…so, what do we do Eevee?" I asked it, but he responded by keep grinning at me with a sly glint in its eyes. "Oh quiet you, let's just go train for the tournament" I responded and started walking towards Route 22.
"Eevee, look for an opponent" I asked, making it jump off my shoulder and run into the tall grass, I followed behind closely.
"…tata..."
A voice from behind, I spun around and faced the opponent. It was a small Rattata, looking up at me with curiosity. "Hmm, alright, Eevee, let's face this Rattata" I said to Eevee, who quickly ran over and stood in an attacking position in front of me.
Rattata…that reminds me…I wonder how that one is doing?
