Quick note: italics means thinking

Chapter 2: Crystal x Green

Green had found Crystal one day sitting in the lab, tears pouring silently down her cheeks as piles of work lay in front of her, untouched. It was night time, and most people would have left the lab, except for the one crying girl, and the boy who didn't know what to do. He offered her comfort, made her a warm drink, lent her his shoulders and took her out to dinner after she had calmed down, her eyes no longer puffy.

They had gotten together not long after that, just weeks after Crystal and Gold had officially broke up. So Green pretends he doesn't know, that he had just been a convenient shoulder to lean on when Crystal needed it the most.

He doesn't doubt Crystal's feelings for him though. What he doubts is Crystal's feelings for them.

When was the last time we physically saw each other? Green wondered, as he gazed at Crystal through the computer screen.

They are both very similar people. That is a fact. It's the glue that held them together, it's what gotten them together, as they went from senior/junior, to friends and finally to a couple.

They spend most of their time in silence. Green isn't the romantic type, but he has his own way of expressing his feelings. And Crystal knows it. So they are content to spend the time together in comfortable silence, just enjoying each other's company, holding hands, leaning against each other. Perhaps their conversations are always centred around interesting things they came across or work related topics.

Eventually, Crystal is asked to head to the other regions to complete the Pokedex as well, a request by the Professor that she cannot reject, because it's her job and she's indebted to the professor.

She speaks to Green about this and he nods, agreeing, understanding that she has to do this, trying not to betray any emotions.

"We'll be fine," she promised, and Green only nods, not trusting himself to speak, letting himself believe in her words.

Crystal spends a long time in the other regions: Hoenn, Sinnoh and Unova. Maybe even Kalos in the future. Being the workaholic she was, she only allowed herself the weekends to take a break, spending the other days capturing all sorts of Pokemon. Which to Green meant video calls just once a week.

Initially Crystal didn't minded, and was always looking forward to seeing him on screen. She texts him occasionally - small snippets of information, things that happens to her, interesting sights she saw. But Green hardly replies her text, because he doesn't know what to reply, and doesn't have any interesting thing to share with her because he hardly see anybody else now that Crystal is not near him. So he chose to keep silent, believing that Crystal understands, trusting that they are strong enough to handle this. Wasn't she the one who promised me that everything will be fine?

Crystal however finds herself getting rather dejected from the silence. She knows it's not his fault, because that's how he has always been, and she shouldn't expect him to be any different now. But she doesn't know what she could do to remedy the situation. They update each other on their lives during their video calls, but beyond that there is nothing else to say, no common topic that could sustain a conversation, or a video call for that matter. They realised, that silence isn't meant for video calls, which only made it louder than it actually is, further than they actually are.

It's not like their physical silence moments, because even when you are physically not talking to each other, you can have physical interations - holding hands, stroking each other's arms, twirling around each other, smiling. It's just not the same.

Crystal eventually breaks the silence by confronting the issue that ought to have been done ages ago. "Do you think things have changed between us?"

Green looks at her, trying not to betray any hopelessness, well aware of the implications, but he doesn't know what he can do to salvage the situation. "Do you feel any different about this?"

Crystal bit her lip, not answering any of their questions.

This isn't what is supposed to happen.

"Let's break up."

Green looked up at her, trying to see past her eyes. "Is that what you want?"

"It's not what I want, but it's what I feel we should do."

More silence.

"Ok."

And that was the end of it all.

In all honesty, Crystal hadn't expect Green to agree so readily. She thought he might put up a fight. Or maybe she had wished he would do that. But to Green, it just felt right to end this now, before they end up hurting each other more. Isn't that why Crystal brought it up in the first place? he reasoned.

Green sat in front of his computer, long after their video call has ended. The relationship ends there, but you can't put an off switch onto your feelings. So he does the next logical thing he knows.

"Help me look after her," he instructs Silver over the PokeGear.

It was never meant to work out, simply because they were too alike. They needed someone who can colour their life, not someone who offers a mirror. So just like how they started, they ended off with silence.

Notes:

You will find that there isn't really any fixed timeline for this story. I don't intend to give a specific age. preferring to leave them all arbitary, though I do tend to envision them as being in a range of ages or having experience certain events as I write them. For this story, I see Crystal as being older than 16 (post-HGSS arc) when they first got together, and Green is just older in relation to Crystal. You would notice that the story spans a long time (again, an arbitrary amount of time, but at least a few years), so with regards to the chronological manner in which I plan the story, it is the most "recent" or "current" event that matters (which in this case, the scene where they broke up).

Hope that makes sense. Also, the each story also give hints/clues to other pairings/characters that are important in later chapters. For instance, we know from the previous chapter that Blue is rejected by Green, and from this chapter, Crystal had broke up with Gold. Also, a reminder again that shippings are not set in stone until that particular pairing has been written.

A/N:

And the ship has officially sunk. Have been writing on CrystallineJade (Crystal/Green) for the longest time so it's time for me to move on! To me, what ties Crystal and Green together are how similar they both are, but at the same time, their similar personality would also not work out in different contexts, which is what I am presenting here as opposed my other CrystallineJade stories.

The style of this story focuses more on the atmosphere, while based on a loose plot. Which I guess is why the stories end up quite a bit shorter. I do hope that the shortness didn't detract from the story itself, but that was how the story flowed for me. Again, let me know what you think about this by reviewing, or feel free to request for a specific pairing, and I'll see if I can work the pairing into the story if it hasn't already been written!