A/N: This is my first shot at doing a series. My intention is to approach the ships obliquely, often through the eyes of characters not involved in the ships. The chapters will not follow strictly sequentially, but will only have marginal relevance to each other. Each chapter is more or less standalone. There is no overall plot as yet, but my suspicion is that as I write something that glue everything together will emerge, hopefully. I think you can guess the meaning of the title by now.

I will try to update as often as I can. It will contain Specialshipping, Oldrivalshipping, Mangaquestshipping, Franticshipping and anything I come across as I write.

The title of Chapter 1 is from a song by Yo La Tengo. Special and implied Oldrival shipping.

Your reviews are all I can ask for :)

I Heard You Looking

"You are acting strange, Green." A brown haired girl said to the spiky haired boy sitting next to her, stirring her cup of hot chocolate with cream. The teaspoon jingled melodiously against the cup.

They were sitting at a table outside a café in Pallet Town. Today was the day of one of the semi-regular get-togethers for the Kanto Dex Holders. The four of them shared a table as usual, but just now Red and Yellow had gone to get some pastry.

It had been two months since they returned to life from being stone statues and helped solve the Guile Hideout crisis. Since then things had been peaceful. After all the excitements with Team Rocket, Deoxys, petrifaction, rampaging Pokémon and all that, those two months felt almost anti-climatic.

Blue had moved in with her parents in Pallet Town. She was still trying to get used to the idea of having a real family, but she was coping remarkably well. It was only that sometimes her nice, law-abiding parents were a bit distressed by their daughter's… feistiness.

The sky was cloudy enough to only let sunlight diffuse through, but not enough to pose any real threat of rain. The result was a half-hearted hazy glow that was neither here nor there. Autumn coolness was picking up.

Green put down his cup of coffee (black, no sugar), a slight frown on his face. "What is it about this time?"

"Do you know you keep staring at people?" Blue said, "It looks kind of creepy, even from you."

"No, I don't do that."

Surprisingly for Blue, Green did not find fault with the last sentence, like he usually would. It meant he was really preoccupied with something.

"Yes, you do!"

"No, I don't."

"Yes, you do!"

"No, I don't"

A smirk appeared on Blue's face, "Then explain to me why every time I look at you, you are staring at either Yellow or Red."

"You are imagining things." He averted her gaze.

"Well, Yellow at least I can understand," she pressed her attack, "she is getting prettier every time I see her. Did you notice how long her eyelashes are? There is no way anyone would mistake her for a boy now, maybe except Red… Anyway, point is, I believe you realize that she only has her eyes on Red practically since day one? I'm sorry, but you just stand no chance."

Green stared at Blue vacantly, mouth gaping. He had never been so dumb-founded in his life. Mind you, it was a life with Red as his best friend, so that was saying something.

"It is one of you stupid jokes, right?" Green said flatly, "If so I have to tell you it is not funny at all to anyone but yourself."

"I am serious!" Blue put on an exaggerated, hurt tone, "I can't believe you think of me like that, after all we've been through together!"

Green muttered something under his breath, then said, "Yellow has always been a friend and a student to me. Maybe even like a little sister, but that's it. I've never dreamed of see her that way. And of course, I know she is in love with Red! I trained her!" Was it (more than usual) pride she heard in his voice? "Who doesn't know, anyway?" He paused.

"Except for Red." They said in unison.

Blue giggled as if she had just heard the world's funniest joke, and Green tried his hardest to suppress a chuckle. He almost managed.

At last Blue regained some degree of control. "Alright, I'll believe you for the moment." She said a little breathlessly, "But how about Red? You stare at him almost as much as you stare at Yellow. What do you do that fo- Oh my God." She covered her mouth in mock horror.

"You are in love with him!" Blue said in a very convincingly shocked tone, "That explains everything! Always hanging out with him, not showing interest in any girl, always looking like a stick is stuck up your arse… That's because you have a one-sided crush on him! Oh! Don't worry;" she smiled conspiratorially, putting a hand on his shoulder, "I'm cool with this kind of things."

Green planted his forehead firmly in his right palm.

"Oh, man." He growled. "You really are amazing, Blue. It's incredible how much crap you can make up. How does Silver and everyone stand you? I know I can't."

Blue resumed her uncontrollable giggling. "You are so adorable when you take a joke seriously."

Hearing her gleeful laughter, Green felt something in addition to the general annoyance at being teased. It was… an unease, or even slight panic, at being made fun of by her on romantic matters. He felt an irrational urge to clear things up, as if he did not want her to get the wrong ideas about whom he liked.

"I stare at Red because Yellow is staring at him!" He knew he sounded defensive and he hated it, "She is so obvious it's painful! They've always been like this, yes. Her looking at him longingly and him being an oblivious idiot. But it's getting worse since we came back from Hoenn. It's like she is getting… desperate. It hurts me to see a friend become so unhappy. It's been boiling in my head these couple of days. I thought you'd be the first one to notice."

Blue looked down at her cup. A faint smile formed on the corners of her mouth.

"Of course I noticed. I'm just surprised you care about these things so much. You always look so… indifferent."

Green was almost pouting, "Just because I am not gossipy like you, it doesn't mean that I don't care about my friends."

"Who would have thought?" Blue's smile widened, "Green "Iceman" Oak is worried about a girl's crush on a boy? People will think I'm crazy if I tell them."

"Pesky woman."

"Whatever you say." Blue said. He noticed her eyes are smiling. "So, shall we do something about it?"

"These things never end well if outsiders push it."

"But we aren't outsiders!" Blue said, "We are their best friends! And we aren't going to push things. We are just going to… nudge things in the right direction a bit."

Her eyes twinkled. He knew she was up to no good when her eyes were like this.

"I don't want them to get hurt."

"But you just said Yellow is getting hurt!" Blue sounded incredulous, "Don't you want to help them?"

"Of course I do. I just don't want to be rash."

"We just need to get him to notice. That's all"

"And how will we go about it?"

"Leave that to me" Blue winked.

Green rolled his eyes. "I know it's a tall order for you, but just don't do anything stupid."

Blue put on her deepest voice. "I find your lack of faith disturbing, Green."

Green grumbled something inaudible. He stared at her.

Blue matched his gaze, grinning

And then they both let out a chuckle.

Green shook his head slightly.

Instead of her usual ironic giggle, Blue laughed with genuine joy.

Neither of them took their eyes from each other.

Blue had never seen such tenderness in Green's eyes. It was as if a sensitive and caring soul was peeking out of its stoic mask.

Green was surprised to find such childlike innocence in Blue's voice. The little girl that had been hiding behind a mask, physical or otherwise, surfaced just for a faction of a second to let him see her face.

XXX

"Did something funny happen?" Said a cheerful voice behind them.

Green and Blue turned and saw that Red and Yellow had returned, each with a plate full of pastry in their hands.

"Took you long enough." Green said.

"No, Red" Blue said as cheerfully as Red, "We just thought of an idiot at the same time."

"Who is that?" Yellow asked, her eyes cast down, "You can't be talking about Gold, right?" Then she grinned guiltily as if she had just said something horrible about him.

"No, much worse." Blue said. Green would swear he could see honey dripping from her grin. "How long are you two going to stand there?"

When they were feasting on the pastry, Green took glances at Red and Yellow discreetly. At least, he tried to be discreet.

Blue, on the other hand, divided her time between watching Red and Yellow and watching Green watch the two.

There was no mistake. Yellow was getting desperate. Blue had never seen her eyes, always bright as the spring sun, look as downcast as they do now. Every moment Yellow thought no one was looking, she stole a glance at Red.

Yellow tried to act her usual self as best she could. She made an effort to laugh along with their jokes, or to join in their reminiscing. But that was what worried Blue. Her usual self did not have to make an effort to look cheerful.

Red, to his credit, at least noticed Yellow's melancholy and ask after her, to which she answered some barely audible "I'm alright." "Nothing's the matter."

"Yellow, there's a crumb on your face." Red caught the girl off guard at one of her many spacing-out moments.

He leaned over to take away said crumb. As the distance between the two closed, Yellow looked like she was petrified all over again.

Time slowed for Yellow. The half-second it took for Red to reach out to her stretched out infinitely, every Planck time becoming eternity. All was silent. Yellow could see every detail of Red's being, and nothing else. The dark red tinge of his iris. The worn out fingerless gloves. The callused hands that had saved her, held her so many times.

At long last the end of eternity came, and Red's fingers touched her face. Yellow could hear her heart stop. His touch was rough yet tender, like that of a careless but good-hearted child. That was what he was, careless but good-hearted. Even if this promise of heaven was false, Yellow embraced it with all her heart.

His finger left and time flowed normally again. All the sights and sounds that had been blocked out rushed back to her at once.

"Now, you look perfect again." Red grinned, satisfied.

Yellow blushed at this remark and caught Blue wink at her. She looked quizzically at the older girl, but only got a way-to-go grin as response.

Confused, she looked to Green. He simply nodded. But Yellow thought she saw the faintest hint of a smile on his face. Then the truth struck her like Volt Tackle.

They know.

Her cheeks flared up. She hoped she could curl up into a ball and hide under the table.

Yet at the same time, a warm feeling in her chest told her, in two voices, one deep and calm and one high and playful, You are not alone.

XXX

Post-chapter notes: I have a confession to make for anyone who cares: I am initially quite uneasy about Oldrival. I don't hate it as such and I actually find it cute. I just don't feel too convinced from the manga that the two do are attracted to each other. One "Pesky woman" per arc does not a convincing proof make. But as I write I feel better and better about it, I don't know why. Please don't flame me for this.