Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon or Pokemon Special

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon or Pokemon Special. If I did, I'd hook up Gary (Green) and Leaf (Blue) 3! But goodness me, I don't own them, either! :(

-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-

Older

Shut Your Window

-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-

"Aw, crap, no." Gary Oak fumbled through his drawers, pulling out pants, socks, shirts, boxers. "Crap, crap, crap no!" He slumped down against a dresser, knocking his head back against it rhythmically. "Think, Gary Oak. THINK." The recently seventeen-year-old teen was late for his birthday dinner with three of his friends. And boy, was Leaf going to make him pay. Especially if he turned up without it. How the heck had it even disappeared?? He wore it every day! Every. Single. Freaking. Moment. Of. Every. Single. Freaking. Day!!

Gary got up again, then lifted up his blankets and began shaking them for what seemed to be the hundredth time that day, hoping that the small green and yellow pendant would come magically tumbling out of the folds. When no pendant appeared, Gary threw down the blankets with an angry grunt and turned to the rest of his room.

It was a mess.

Of course it was. He had been up since eight looking for it, taking hardly any breaks, and now it was six in the evening!

'I am so screwed...' Gary fell back into the heap of blankets on his bed, his face in his pillow. He tuned out everything, trying to think of where the small pendant could have gone. 'Come on, THINK. Where could you have dropped it or put it without knowing you did it??'

"Gary?" Professor Oak called from downstairs. "Leaf on the phone for you!"

'RIP Gary Oaks on his seventeenth birthday, murdered by his best friend, Leaf...'

"Gary!" Professor Oak called again.

"Yeah, Gramps!" Gary yelled to his grandfather downstairs. Grumbling, he picked up the phone in his room. "Ello?" he grumbled into the phone.

'Oi. The birthday boy sounds unhappy. What's wrong with you?' Leaf said.

"Ehhh nothing."

'Really, now?' Gary could swear he "saw" Leaf smirking on the other end. 'Well, just hurry up. You were supposed to be here five minutes ago, okay?'

"Yeah, yeah," Gary grumbled. "Just give me a sec. I'm a bit preoccupied right now."

'And what, may I ask, is more important than dinner with your friends?'

"Mmrf." Gary wished she could hang up so he could continue looking for the necklace pendant.

'Oh, yeah, and don't forget to give me back my hat, which you so graciously stole from me yesterday,' she said.

Gary smirked for the first time in hours. "Well, it's not my fault you decided to go on a poking spree at me..."

Leaf giggled. 'Oh, now who taught me all the pressure points, O Mature One?'

Gary grumbled. "That was a long time ago, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Leaf laughed on the other end. "Just make sure you get here soon, alright?" Her tone softened at the end.

"Mmhmm. Bye."

'See you later, Gary!'

With that, Gary hung up and sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "I think I'm going to have to go without it," he sighed and made his way down the stairs.

"Hey, Gramps! I'm going, now!" Gary yelled as he stepped outside and closed the door.

-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-

By the time he had walked to the restaurant buffet where Ash, Misty, and Leaf were waiting, it was almost six thirty, and when he got to their table, which was a half circular booth, he found only Leaf sitting there picking at her mashed potatoes, alone. Leaf looked up and smiled. "Someone's late," she teased.

"Yeah, yeah," Gary said as he slid in to the left of Leaf. "Where are Ash and Misty?"

"Nooo idea," Leaf said as she put down her fork. "They've been gone a long time though," she smirked and winked at Gary. "If you get what I mean."

Gary smirked. "Ashy-boy's getting it on..."

Leaf suddenly poked Gary's arm. "Where's my hat?"

Gary smacked a hand to his forehead and groaned. "I knew I forgot something when I left the house...! Eh, I'll give it to you later."

Leaf pouted, then opened her mouth as if she were about to say something, then closed it again. "You'd better remember."

"Mmhmm..." Gary eyeballed Leaf's mashed potatoes. "Those look good... But I'm feeling too lazy to get any..." With that, he grabbed Leaf's fork, and dug into her mashed potatoes. Leaf watched him, rolled her eyes, and took a drink of her water. "Typical Gary," she muttered and nudged him, reprimanding him slightly.

"Those were good potatoes." Gary finished off the last of the mashed potatoes and leaned back onto the cushioning of the booth. Leaf stared, then began laughing.

"You dork," Leaf laughed, shoving him.

"Hey! They were!" Gary protested. The two laughed at each others' silliness.

Leaf suddenly stopped laughing and looked at Gary, as if trying to figure something out. "You look... different." She poked his nose with her index finger, which Gary swatted away nervously.

"What do you mean?" Gary asked, suddenly becoming tense.

"I don't know... Did you do your hair different or something?" Leaf asked, looking at Gary's dark brown spikes. She put a hand up to his hair and ruffled it, trying to figure out if there was anything different with it. "Hmm, doesn't look like it."

Gary wasn't paying attention. He was trying to figure out ways to make up excuses should she ask why he wasn't wearing the pendant.

"Oh!" Gary snapped back to reality, startled by Leaf's outburst. "I know!" Gary's heart started hammering faster. "You've been working out more!" Leaf devilishly grinned and started poking Gary's arm muscles, which were rather toned.

Gary reddened. "Leaf..."

She giggled. "Oh, don't mind me. I understand. At seventeen, guys have to work out to get the attention of girls. They have to make sure they don't have any flab!" she nodded, stretching out the vowel in 'flab.'

Gary put Leaf's hand back on her lap. "Now you're just being ridiculous." Gary said, rolling his eyes.

"Wait!" Leaf said suddenly, almost surprised. "You..." she whispered, putting a hand to the place on Gary's chest where the pendant usually rested.

'Oh, damn.'

"You're... You're not wearing the pendant..." she said, her voice barely above a whisper. "But why?" she asked him, almost pleading him to answer.

"Leaf, you see..." Gary struggled to put it in the right words. "I just sort of... I don't know..."

"What?" Leaf's voice had become dangerously steely, and she withdrew her hand. "What did you 'sort of' do?"

"... lost it."

"Gary Oak. What do you mean you 'lost it'?" Leaf said, her hands curling into fists.

"I seriously don't know what happened! I went to sleep with it on, and when I got up, it was gone!" Gary hurried through his explanation, hoping to not be dead before Leaf heard it all.

"Gary... Don't you remember how you got that pendant?" Leaf said, her voice begging him to remember.

"Course," Gary said, still wondering why he wasn't dead yet. "You gave it to me when I was seven. And I've worn it every day since," he said. "Well, except maybe this one," with a glare from Leaf.

Leaf sighed, then said nothing as she seemed to get lost in her thoughts.

"Wait!" Leaf said. "Did you leave your window open or something?" Leaf, concerned, looked at Gary.

"I don't think s—Oh my freaking... I remember now! My Skarmory! Aww, cr--!" Gary looked surprised as Leaf put a delicate finger over his lips.

"Shhhh, getting upset about it won't get you anywhere. I think it's my fault, anyways. I was the one whose Jigglypuff was stuck in the tree," she rubbed the back of her head, sighing.

"I know, but I should have known to close the window...!"

"Wait, let's talk about this later," Leaf said, nodding towards Ash and Misty, who were coming back with a slightly disheveled appearance: Ash's shirt was mussed up, Misty's side ponytail was crooked, and both looked extremely red.

"Oh, hey, Gary!" Ash said, still red. "Umm... Happy Birthday!"

-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-

After a fun and laughter-filled dinner, the four friends separated Ash walked Misty back to her house, and Gary and Leaf were walking back to Gary's house to get Leaf's hat.

Leaf was walking backwards calling good-byes to Ash and Misty in the night when she placed a foot in a crack and began tumbling backwards. She flailed her arms attempting to regain her balance, then, realizing she couldn't, she shut her eyes and braced for the impact.

It never came.

Leaf opened her eyes slowly when she registered the stop of the momentum, a hand in hers and another one behind her back.

"Clumsy," Gary smirked. He pulled a very red Leaf up.

"Th-thanks, Gary."

"Hn. Hurry up, though. Gramps might be wondering where we've gone off to," Gary winked. "We wouldn't want him to get the wrong idea, would we?"

Leaf reddened even more, if that was possible. "GARY OAK! YOU AND YOUR PERVERTED MIND ARE GOING TO PAY!!" And with that, Leaf chased Gary all the way to his house, where, in front of the door, they put their hands against their knees and panted.

"I've... got to," Gary panted. "give you... some... credit, I guess... You run a lot... faster than I thought you could..."

"Heh," Leaf said. "Well, you're... also pretty fast... You're still... hard to chase..."

Professor Oak opened the door. "Oh, there you kids are! I was wondering where you had gone off to," he winked. Gary and Leaf both looked at him, exasperated.

"It's in the genes, I tell you..." Leaf said, shaking her head before stepping inside the Oak residence.

"Eh, Gary?" Professor Oak looked at his grandson. "Did you do something with your hair? You look different..."

Gary smirked. "Nah, though it looks good, doesn't it?"

'Conceited dork,' Leaf thought.

"Wait a sec while I get your hat, okay?"

Leaf giggled and batted away Gary's hand. "Yeah, yeah."

After Gary had jogged up the stairs, Leaf wandered around the hallway area, then stopped to look at various pictures of Gary and his grandfather on a table. There was one picture of a small Gary and his Squirtle, and another that seemed to have been taken right after of Gary being squirted in the face by his Squirtle's water gun. Leaf giggled. It reminded her of one of his birthday parties she had gone to; Ash was still sore about how Gary had used water gun with his Squirtle model, though it gave the other two a good laugh when brought up.

Her eyes wandered across other pictures. One pictures was of a small Gary fishing with Misty, and another was of a thirteen year old Gary and Ash holding up their first badges. Leaf smiled. There was a picture of Gary and Leaf; seven-year-old Leaf had just opened her birthday present to find a white fedora-like hat with a red band encircling the top. Another picture of Leaf and Gary sitting back to back and smiling at the camera with their presents on was next to it.

Leaf smiled. 'Good times...' she thought. 'Well, I have to admit, they're pretty good times now...'

Leaf looked up when she heard Gary thumping down the stairs. "Here," he said, sticking Leaf's hat onto her head.

She smirked and adjusted the hat. "Thanks. You were up there so long I thought you almost forgot what you were up there in the first place for."

Gary scoffed. "I don't have that bad a memory..."

Leaf rolled her eyes, and the two stood in silence, looking around them for a while. Unfortunately, they didn't hear Professor Oak snickering and creeping over to the stereo.

He turned it on; it was already preset to the track he wanted to play.

"There's a calm surrender to the rush of day
When the heat of the rolling world can be turned away"

Professor Oak frowned. That wouldn't do. He could hardly hear it himself from where he was standing. Professor Oak reached over to the volume knob and turned the dial so that it was on the maximum volume.

"An enchanted moment, and it sees me through
It's enough for this restless warrior just to be with you"

He frowned again. He could still hardly hear it, and he was sure that Leaf and Gary wouldn't be able to. '...Oh, there's the problem!' Professor Oak reached over to the set of headphones that were plugged into the stereo and pulled it out, just forgetting for a split second that the volume was still blasted on maximum volume.


"
And can you feel the love tonight...?"

Gary and Leaf, at that moment, without even intending to, met eyes, and when they finally registered what the loud music was saying, their eyes grew wide. Both blushed and averted their eyes from each others'. "Wait a second..." Gary growled, realization dawning upon him. "GRAMPS...!" he roared and started off towards the stereo, and where he knew his grandfather was.

It is where we are, it's enough for this wide-eyed wanderer..."

Professor Oak muttered under his breath and turned the volume dial down so it was a more normal volume. "Phew!" he sighed and wiped his forehead. However, his peace didn't last long. He heard a bloodcurdling yell from the hallway and tensed. 'Oh, dear. I hope I haven't upset Gary... Still... Better to be safe...' he thought as he started running.

Leaf was still in shock when Gary started sprinting towards his grandfather, then winced as she heard crashes. She sweatdropped and thought, 'Maybe I should just... leave...'

"Okay! I'm going to show myself out now!" she shouted, hoping to be heard over the music and the sounds of both the professor and Gary yelling.

"Wait!" Gary magically appeared next to Leaf, startling her.

"Woah--! You do run faster than I thought," Leaf giggled, poking Gary on the forehead.

"... Well, thanks for coming." Gary said, opening the door.

"Nahh, no problem. I'm always with you on your birthday!" Leaf stepped out the door. The porch light was on, but the night was dark. "And besides," she said, turning towards him. "You always have to deal with my parties." Leaf giggled.

Gary rolled his eyes and ran a hand through his brown, spiky hair. "Yeah, yeah. So you want me to walk you home? It's pretty dark out."

Leaf turned her head, looking at the darkness, then looked back at Gary and smiled. "Nahh, it's all right. You've already done enough by getting my hat back."

"Yeah, well let me at least let you go home on Skarmory..." Gary said as he fumbled with his pokeballs, finally finding the one that contained his flying Pokemon. He released Skarmony; a white flash defied the black night and produced a steel-looking, large, and bird-like Pokemon; it stood in front of the porch and looked at the two people in the light.

Leaf and Gary made their way towards the large Pokemon. Gary helped Leaf up Skarmony, making sure that she didn't fall; Leaf smiled. "Thanks," she said, and leaned down towards Gary. She gave him a small peck on the cheek, and when he finally realized what had just happened, she was already in the sky flying towards her house.

Gary watched her fly off, then slowly walked back into his house, the place on his cheek where Leaf had kissed him tingling. 'Good thing Gramps didn't see that,' he thought, looking at the professor, who was currently under his desk, obviously hoping that Gary wouldn't see him.

But Gary was in a good mood.

He walked up the stairs and into his room, still slightly dazed. He lay on his bed with his back on the bed and his hands behind his head, his feet still touching the floor. Gary closed his eyes and thought about the many things that had happened today. It was an interesting seventeenth birthday, he thought. Although his close-to-heart necklace pendant from Leaf had been stolen by some idiot, he felt that him and Leaf still had a great relationship as ever. They weren't exactly boyfriend and girlfriend; just really good friends. Really good friends. 'Or is it more...?' Gary wondered, his eyes still closed.

A flutter at his window caused Gary to slowly and lazily open his eyes. 'Skarmory's back,' he thought. He opened his window and was about to call the steel-like Pokemon back into its pokeball when he saw a small glitter of a token in Sarmory's claws. 'No... Can't be...' Gary thought, his eyes wide as he reached out to the small trinket.

It was the necklace pendant.

There it was, just staring back at him as blankly as he was staring at it. The yellow and green paint gleamed in the light; there was not one dent or chip in the stone. Gary's heart jumped with joy as he fingered the pendant... "Umm is it too girly?" ... then put it over his head... "Nahh this is a cool present. Thanks, Leaf" ... and onto his neck. The strange feeling of the pendant not resting on his chest was gone now, and Gary felt at ease.

There was just one thing...

Skarmory was gently scratching the side of the house next to Gary's window, as if asking for attention. "Hmm, Skarmory?" Gary reached out his window and stroked the great Pokemon's beak. That was when he noticed the small rolled up note in Skarmory's beak. Gary took it from its beak and called Skarmory back to its pokeball, muttering, "Thanks, buddy." He unrolled the note and read it. "You steal your present, I'll steal mine. :P"

Gary smirked. He should've known.

Gary put the note on his desk, then walked across the room... and shut the window.

-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-

Wheee! That was the end... of chapter 2! Yayy Hope you guys liked it!

So if you didn't get it, Leaf almost literally planned out the whole thing:

It began with Leaf launching a poke attack on Gary. Then, Gary stole the hat from Leaf, and Leaf started plotting. She told Gary that her Jigglypuff was stuck in the tree and asked to borrow his Skarmory. She did so knowing that he would probably end up leaving his window open. xD And then she... stole it. oo Moral of the story? Don't mess with Leaf heh heh...

Oh! That AND Oldrivalshipping rocks your socks :D

Review and tell me how I'm doing please! :D