Hello again.
I'm glad to see that I already have a couple of followers. Thank you!

This next chapter is significantly different from the first; now we're focusing on Silver, after everything has been said and done in Johto and Kanto. And, of course, the oddity that is Kris. I didn't think that it was as mysterious or suspenseful enough for the "Mystery" genre, so I stuck with "Friendship/Romance". But if you have any suggestions, feel free to tell me!

I feel that I only need to write one disclaimer at the beginning of the story, so there.
Chapter Two start!


Chapter 2
Submissive

No matter what, Silver always stuck to his schedule.

Hence, it was no surprise to him when he arrived at the Indigo Plateau Pokémon League at 12AM exactly one Sunday night—Monday morning. He strolled inside the tall, blocky building as if he had done it a thousand times. The midnight shadows behind him were shut away by the double doors, which appeared so formidably sturdy that they might be impossible to break down.

Inside, the florescent lights gave off a lifeless glow, shining dimly in the spacious lobby that contained both a Pokémon Center and a Poké Mart. Silver trudged toward the seating area, causing the stark yellow cushions to release a sharp hiss as he carelessly plopped down upon the closest one. He tried not to notice the annoying shade of pink that was the floor, but he ironically did so because the thought had crossed his mind. The pastel coloring was an ongoing theme for the entire building, inside and out. He absolutely loathed it at this point, because his schedule required him to be here every Monday and Wednesday from dawn until dusk. It made him wonder what was going through the minds of the flowery idiots that designed the place. From time to time he would have the sudden, unexplainable urge to paint the entire place a deep scarlet; perhaps even a dash of gold to add a sense of importance. After all, the Indigo Plateau was well-known for the Elite Four, the skilled Trainers who were housed here with the Champion, that irritatingly powerful Dragon Tamer Lance.

Or, should one say, he was the ex-Champion. For whatever reason, he was still called the Champion. At this point, Lance and the entire Elite Four were likely no match for the girl who had graciously defeated them fifty times; even more, since Silver stopped bothering to count after that.

Because if Silver could not defeat Kris, he figured no one could. No, he failed to believe that anyone—even the legendary Pokémon Trainer Red who had gone missing three years ago (or was it four years now?)—could defeat her.

The redhead crossed his arms, his neutral frown twisting into a scowl. But he soon relaxed his shoulders, deciding to think about his azure-haired rival the next time he saw her, which was bound to happen since she had obviously picked up on his training habits. It could be labeled as tradition for them to battle on Mondays and Wednesdays at the Indigo Plateau. One could even say he was waiting for her.

Her activity was often erratic, though. Sometimes he would not see her for what felt like months at a time, but she would always return, ready for a battle with him. Kris would not explain, and Silver, though he would be the one to speak, would not ask. That was often how their conversations went. She never talked to him, only observing him as he rambled on and on about how he would improve his training and get stronger. Her staring eyes used to make him really uncomfortable or extremely frustrated. He knew there was a spirit within those eyes, but for some reason that girl would not even utter a peep when she was around him.

Now, Silver had his reasons for hating her at first because he could not accept a loss. The same could be said from her perspective, too, if she had any contempt toward the way he used to treat his Pokémon back when they were traveling through Johto; which he was sure she did, by the way her eyes would flare in disgust. But he had learned his lesson, hadn't he? He tried and was still trying to make his Pokémon stronger while, at the same time, treating them better with respect and trust. He even shared his food with his Typhlosion on occasion.

But to this day, he had yet to defeat her. Even with all the hard training he had done, it seemed as though Kris was the only one getting stronger, and the gap between them stretched further each time they battled.

To make matters worse, she had lost her enthusiasm; at least, from what he could tell in her observant eyes. Kris used to have a certain kind of expectancy and cautiousness toward him, which sometimes even bordered on fear. As time went on, her posture relaxed and the intense stare remained, but now it seemed she showed little interest in him anymore. It was the most disheartening thing for some reason. What did he have left that he still needed to learn? Better yet, why couldn't she just tell him already? In fact, why couldn't she spare at least a word to prove to him that she wasn't mute?

Stories say that Red was the same way; that he was very much the quiet type, but somehow expressive in how he cared for his Pokémon...and that he was unbeatable.

Silver grabbed his chin in his hand and rested his elbow on his knee, glaring at the hot pink tiles below his boots. Though he had wanted to avoid thinking about Kris, it only caused him to think about her more. It was frustrating that she invaded his mind so often, since there should not be much to think about aside from his being unable to defeat her. However, he could not help it.

Kris was—or should be—a normal girl, but she was off in such a way that it bothered him.

Whatever. Quit thinking about her, the boy Trainer ordered himself. The lights shining over him flickered and seemed to brighten a little. Silver sighed. He doubted that she would even come that day, since she had been on one of her long absences again. No one knew where she was during these times...

The double doors promptly opened, and as though Celebi itself had listened in on his thoughts and decided to prove him wrong, the girl he had been thinking of walked in.

Silver looked up, genuinely surprised that she had actually arrived so soon; according to the clock on the Poké Gear in his free hand, it was around 1:30 AM (had he really been thinking for that long?). He could literally count on his hands the number of times he had met her this late at night.

At her usual even pace, Kris walked down the hallway where the Elite Four challenge could be taken. As she did so, she passed by the seating area and therefore Silver too, as if she had not even seen him. He snorted in discontent and stood. Unable to stand being outright ignored, Silver rebelliously caught up to her. Kris stopped a few steps away from the stairs and turned, seeming surprised at first. Silver smirked as he halted in front of her; either she had complete tunnel vision, or she purposefully ignored him just so she could lead him into the hall, where they had always done their battles.

"Hold it," he said, rather confidently. "You're going to take the Pokémon League challenge now?"

Kris's brief liveliness slipped away, and she gazed at him with a tired stare. Just what had she expected there, if anything?

He immediately frowned. "That's not going to happen. My super-well-trained Pokémon are going to pound you." He recklessly clenched the Poké Ball containing his Sneasel and pointed at her, his index finger inches from her nose.

She did not flinch, only yielding so much as a blink.

"Kris!" Silver barked her name, which was both an effort to intimidate her and encourage himself. "I challenge you!"

The battle felt even more one-sided than the last. At least, that was how it felt to him. Perhaps the downward spiral had stopped long ago, but Silver could not help but feel pathetic and inferior and weak. These feelings used to drive him up the wall, and he would go on seething over Kris for days, but over time the losses became less and less painful. He barely felt upset about losing to her once again; in fact, he managed a sneer as though he expected nothing more.

Had winning so often become boring for Kris? The thought had never occurred to him.

"...Okay. I lost," Silver finally said after he had recalled his last Pokémon. He glanced away from Kris and looked down at the Poké Ball in his hand.

He waited until he could not stand it. Kris, unsurprisingly, refused to speak.

"Darn...I still can't win... I... I have to think more about my Pokémon." His naturally narrow eyes ascended to the girl's porcelain face, which more or less returned the stare listlessly. For the first time, he noticed the rings under her eyes; rather than bored, she looked flat-out exhausted. It was a wonder that she had not fallen asleep during the battle, seeing as how her Meganium took out all of his Pokémon in six clean hits—even his Typhlosion. A fragment of immature anger arose in his chest, and he stubbornly averted his gaze, flustered. "Humph! Try not to lose!"

At that, he stormed past her, cursing quietly to himself. He had never won in the first place, at this rate he never will, and he had certainly been doing as much as he could to think more about his Pokémon. Why the hell did he even say that to her? Every time he faced her, he would forget what he had planned to say beforehand, so in the end he just said whatever came to his mind to stave away any awkwardness between them. It felt like he was saying the same thing over and over.

It was no wonder she might have been bored of him; he was just a broken record now.

As soon as he had stomped back into the seating area, Silver glanced over his shoulder, having to flick his head a little to prevent his crimson locks from obstructing his view. Kris had promenaded over to the other side of the pastel-colored lobby. He maintained his lingering scowl, deciding not to heal his Pokémon until after she left, which she systematically did moments later.

She did not look at him, and he did not bother to bid her farewell. Typical.


Though dissatisfied and eager to get back to the Dragon's Den to review his training, Silver nonetheless stayed at the Pokémon League for the rest of the day. It was dreadfully dull; the Elite Four refused to battle him for some reason, even though he had collected the Johto Gym Badges long ago, but it was all a part of his schedule and he would abide by it. This was called perseverance and tenacity, wasn't it? The kind of thing that Red and now Kris were so praised of having. He would not and will not give up until he got stronger, at least strong enough to defeat his silent rival (though a tie would satisfy him enough at this point).

Toward the last hour of his stay, Silver laid back on the row of cushion seats and glowered at the clock on his Poké Gear as the minutes ticked away, counting down when he would leave. Just because he was willing to be tenacious did not mean he had to enjoy doing it.

However, much to his surprise, at 11:30PM sharp the doors opened and footsteps echoed about the nearly deserted lobby. Hardly anyone had the ability to reach the Indigo Plateau, apparently, so visitors were scarce. Silver quickly sat up and turned toward the entrance—.

There he saw Kris once again, and he shook his head in a chilling sense of déjà vu as she headed for the healing counter. Slightly intrigued, he got on his feet and walked closer, keeping a good distance away. He strained his ears as the nurse asked her the classic rhetorical question.

"Shall we heal your Pokémon?"

It was a yes or no question, but he had to wonder if she would reply verbally.

Kris seemed to delay her response, but to his disappointment only nodded.

Once she had retrieved her Poké Balls, she turned and made a beeline toward the exit. She did not cast a glance at Silver, most likely not honestly seeing him. However, he had gotten a good look at her tired face, which was even more fatigued as compared to almost a day ago.

(Get some sleep already, won't you? You don't need to work hard; you're already strong enough...)

However, the azure-haired girl suddenly stopped.

Silver raised an eyebrow at this curious behavior, staring at her back and her peculiar twin ponytails that seemed to defy gravity in every way. In fact, her entire outfit was rather outlandish. She was an unusual blend of blue, white, pink-red, yellow, and black, but somehow it looked right to him after so long of seeing her in it.

The florescent lights flickered and dimmed. He sent a small scowl at the ceiling in response; how old was this building? Aside from needing a major paint job, it also needed renovations to boot.

"Oh, finally. I'm exhausted..."

The unfamiliar voice reached his ears, and he turned to see Kris stretching her arms. She released a yawn and sat down on the floor in the middle of the room. This was surreal in itself; speaking was one thing, but Silver had never seen her move around so casually. Kris always had perfect posture, as far as he knew. Most importantly, her voice, though slightly lackluster due to fatigue, was very sweet and youthful yet very much mature. It suited her perfectly.

Kris did not move after that. Out of sheer curiosity, the boy approached and peered down at her. She was sitting cross-legged with her hands in her lap and her head hung low, as if she were meditating. Even as Silver began circling her just to coax her attention (preferably with surprise), the girl did not budge.

After a while when he began to feel like he was the oddball of the two, the redhead stopped and partially knelt beside her, observing her soft expression with a frown. Was she actually sleeping, sitting on the floor like this?

Despite that, Silver decided to take the initiative as usual and called her name. "Hey, Kris."

She twitched, but seemed to ignore him, which only added fuel to his fire.

"Humph. I know you can hear me," he said. He reached out and grabbed her petite shoulder, which was covered by her white jacket.

Kris jumped skittishly at his touch. She turned to him with a bothered and drowsy expression, but upon recognizing the familiar face of her rival, her once-apathetic eyes popped wide open. In the few seconds following, she showed him the most variety of emotions he had ever seen on her before. She was the panicked mixture of confusion, surprise, liveliness, curiosity, and even fear, all of which were surprisingly intense. She was taken off guard to the point where she had entirely lost her composure, and it showed clearly.

This unpredictable reaction even made Silver gawk back at her. However, he was the first to recover.

"The world isn't your bedroom," he commented snidely as he stood. "You could at least use the benches over there instead of sleeping on the floor."

Kris's face had settled on dumbfounded for the moment, craning her neck to look up at him with her shining hazel irises. Hesitant, she searched around her for some nonexistent person before standing on her feet. She soon looked lost and insecure, even when her gaze settled on him and picked up a sense of courage—something rarely seen since there was nothing worth her being afraid of.

The boy smirked a little wider than he probably should have, for he could not help but feel amused at making her react so notably to his presence. Perhaps the whole apathy thing was just an act? He would not like to think so, but he could not deny how drastically different she was now.

"What, Meowth got your tongue?" he then asked her, teasing her with a sneer and a tilt of his head.

At this point, Kris stood her ground almost fiercely, nervously. She raised an eyebrow, but she still said nothing. All of her attention was on him, just like old times, and he basked victoriously in it. Who knew it would be that easy to get her to acknowledge him and act like a human being for once?

He calmed a little, letting his grin tone down into a frown. "You know, something has always bugged me about you. Why don't you ever talk? Do you think you'll look powerful like Red? That's stupid. You're good enough, aren't you?" She did not reply, a frown of her own fixed on her lips. Much to Silver's frustration, she was reverting back to her previous state, but she flinched as he abruptly snapped, "Well? Why don't you talk?"

She was beginning to look uncomfortable again, but she replied to him in a small, stuttering voice. It was obvious that her nervousness had gotten the best of her.

"Y...Yes...?"

"Yes? I'm asking you why, not if. I know you can talk, you did perfectly fine a little while ago."

"You... heard me earlier...?"

"It was kind of hard not to."

Kris nodded. What kind of emotion was on her face now? It was hard to determine, but by the rosiness of her cheeks one could guess she was at least embarrassed.

"Humph," Silver sighed. He thought the Olivine City Gym Leader was shy and socially awkward, but he never suspected Kris of all people to be the same way. Someone once said to never judge a book by its cover, but he had been too busy trying to figure out how to open the curiously unusual book that was Kris. Now, when he finally had the chance to pry it ajar, he might as well take advantage of it while he could. With a casual turn of his head, he stared at the rows of yellow seats behind him. He then glanced back at Kris, who seemed to have relaxed a little bit. "Why don't we sit over there and talk like normal people would do?"

Her emotionless frown twisted for multiple reasons, but she unwillingly nodded again.

Though they sat beside one another, there was a good distance between them. Silver felt like teasing her further, but seeing as how Kris was already uncomfortable enough as it was, he mercifully opted not to. It took him longer than it should have for him to come up with what to say, however. Like many occasions before, the ideas fled from him, but at least now he had the spare time to think. He glanced around, hoping that anything on the nurse's desk or the Poké Mart kiosk would spark his memory, but primarily observed the girl next to him. She seemed rather intrigued by the texture of the bright yellow seats, occasionally pressing down on a vacant spot with her palm to watch it revert to normal. Whenever her eyes wandered toward his, she would look away as soon as they made contact.

"The cushions...they're really soft," she managed to say without a glance at him, which made it even more difficult for Silver to think of a response. Shoot, she really was socially awkward.

Inevitably, Silver gave in to the easiest way to respond. "Humph, what? Of course they are. You act like you've never sat on them before."

Kris again went pink in the face. "I... actually haven't," she admitted.

He looked at her in disbelief. "Is that why you were sitting on the floor? For Celebi's sake, it isn't going to bite you."

She giggled. Though she tried to pacify it with her hand, she failed to silence herself. "What...What's with all these puns?"

"Puns?" he asked, more intrigued by the fact that she was actually laughing than why she was doing it.

"The Celebi one! And then the Meowth one, too... What the heck?"

Silver eyed her as if she had lost her marbles. "Don't you know? Those are common phrases. Everyone uses them. What's so funny about it?"

She gave him a semi-bubbly smile. "The fact that you're actually using Pokémon names for them. It's so..." Kris looked away, beginning to play with her hair as she finished softly, "Corny, I guess..."

"Do you have any better suggestions?"

"...No?" she answered, sounding uncertain. She had suddenly chilled out to the point of neutrality once again.

Because of the odd deliverance of her reply, Silver could only look away with a pointless, "Humph," to fill in space.

They were quiet once again. Kris no longer paid any mind to the yellow seats, and had interlaced her delicate fingers as she looked down at the flamingo pink floor. She was kind of a wonder; she was strong, petite and in no way muscular, like a perfect mixture between meticulous and casual, princess and warrior. Her form-fitting outfit did well to accent this with the exception to her jacket, which had long and baggy sleeves. A smile lingered on her face, full of warmth that was a novelty to both her and Silver.

"...I've never... really talked all that much, honestly," Kris again spoke. She glanced at him as if to make sure he was listening. "Everyone always talks to me, so I just listen... But sometimes people try to put words in my mouth. Someone once thought I asked her whether she had caught a Doduo, when really I didn't say anything in the first place. It's... weird." Feeling self-conscious, she stopped talking after this, her face reddening again.

Silver crossed his arms. "They're just trying to stay on good terms with you so they can battle and be 'friends' with you."

"Maybe... But this is the first time I've actually had a real talk with someone." Kris's grin expanded in a reserved glee, and she made the effort to make eye contact with him. "I had a lot of fun. Thank you, Silver. Really."

"Humph," he shrugged and looked away, "It's nothing. I only wanted to find out why you didn't speak to me. I didn't think you'd be so antisocial."

"I'm not antisocial. I just...can't help myself," she muttered with a pout.

This just caused Silver to smirk in return. "Anyway, who says we're done talking? We haven't even had a relevant conversation yet." For good measure, he reached into the front pocket of his black jacket, pulling out his Poké Gear again to check the time. He almost sprung to his feet; the phone in his hand indicated that it was 11:59PM exactly. It would have been a close call if Silver were not currently engaged in a somewhat intriguing chit-chat with his rival. "Oh. It's almost midnight."

Kris looked at his Poké Gear with pleasant interest, leaning in briefly to check herself. "It's almost time for you to go, isn't it? ...Tomorrow is Tuesday, so you'll be headed for the Dragon's Den?"

"Yeah, I normally would." Silver glared at her with a hint of suspicion. "How do you know that I leave here exactly at midnight?"

She did not reply for a few moments, looking at him innocently before giving a light shrug. "I know your routine, but I kind of wondered when you left. ...I just guessed."

Satisfied with the answer, the boy turned off his Poké Gear and stowed it away once more. "I'm always strict with my schedule, but I guess I can make an exception tonight."

"...You sure?" Kris asked. She seemed curious and even hopeful at the prospect.

"Why not? You don't look like you're going to crash anytime soon."

"Don't worry about that; I can function on very little sleep. A couple minutes can last me hours." The matter-of-fact tone she used was rather interesting, and the way she spoke was beginning to sound completely normal. The distant expression she had once donned seemed to be a far-off memory.

Silver stood and looked down at her daringly. "So can I. How about we see who falls asleep first?"

Interested at the idea, Kris cocked her head to the side and grinned, waiting a few seconds to think of what to say.

As she was about to speak, a clock somewhere in the lobby rung twelve times.

In that time, Silver had a sudden change of heart, expressing that he would rather go train at the Dragon's Den for the moment. Kris did not seem the least bit upset or surprised. She answered that she was honestly a little busy herself with completing her Pokédex, and that she would take up on his challenge the next time they met on peaceful terms. Silver nodded curtly and left. Neither of them exchanged farewells. It was just like them to do that. Not much could change in a single night, and Silver was not willing to break his habitual schedule all of a sudden. There was always time in the future to plan for something.

Even so, there was something in him that regretted leaving her like that. By the time he had come to this conclusion, he was already sharing a rice ball with his Typhlosion in the musty darkness of the sacred Dragon's Den. If Kris was not satisfied, she probably would have said something about it anyways.

Probably.