Chapter 2: The Second Day
Green was sitting up in bed rubbing his forehead with a yawn picking up the pokegear that was ringing beside him. He swore lightly under his breath as he answered it, "Hello, who freaking thinks 7 am is a good time to be calling me?"
"It's just me Green," Red's voice came through the pokegear toward him, "I was calling to see if you made it and saw Leaf."
"Yes I made it, Red," Green said with irritation in his voice, "Is that the only reason you decided to call me up at 7 am?"
He thought he heard giggling of a familiar girl as Red responded, "Well I just wanted to see if my little sister is alright."
"She's fine Red... May I ask is that girl your with, Lyra?" Green asked as he slid his legs out from under the covers onto the floor.
Red took a moment or two before replying, "Yeah, she might have been the one who told me the last time I saw her that Leaf really wanted to see you. You know she's been going up every other week bringing Leaf supplies since she defeated her."
"Yes yes I know," Green said with a sigh knowing he would have to talk to that girl in getting involved in other people problems, "Though why is she there and not in Johto with that red headed kid?"
"Eh I'll let her tell you herself," Red said quickly a note of jealousy in his voice had happened when Green had mentioned Silver.
Green heard shuffling in the background as he guessed Red was passing the phone to Lyra. He soon heard Lyra's voice, "Hey Greeny, I am staying in Pallet Town to help Professor Oak while your gone plus I wanted to come to Leaf and Red's birthday. Also about Silver, he is here too but he's still asleep. He insisted to come with me when I mentioned Red, I have no clue why."
"I see Lyra," Green said then a thought came to him, "Where are you and Silver staying? A hotel in Viridian?"
"Oh no, we are staying in Pallet. Your sister, Daisy, is nice enough to let me sleep in your old room while Silver is staying at Red's," Lyra said happily, "Red wanted me to stay at his house too but Silver quickly put a stop to that. He looked so worried, I need to ask him about that."
Green rolled his eyes, it was common knowledge to him that Silver and Lyra had feelings for one another but Lyra was oblivious to not notice Silver's jealous streak, so he just responded, "Yeah you probably should, thanks by the way for helping my grandfather with his research."
"I'm not doing much, Silver is the one who is doing most of it. I find it surprising with how well he is handling the research," Lyra said her voice was filled with a curiosity, "But your welcome still. I know Silver would just shrug off your thanks but I'll still tell him."
"Alright, oh tell my sister hi for me," Green said knowing he hardly ever talked to Daisy except for the occasional times he came back to Pallet to turn in research to his grandfather, "Now can you put Red back on the phone?"
"Yeah I got to go wake up Mr. Sleepy Head Silv anyway," Lyra said laughing softly, "We're supposed to be at the Lab at 8."
With that he heard the shuffling again as the phone was handed back to Red. It took a couple moments before Red's voice was heard in the background telling Lyra that he would see her later before the door closed. Red's voice finally filled the phone, "I'm back Green, is there something you wanted to tell me."
"I just wanted to tell you that you know your barking up the wrong tree by crushing on Lyra right?" Green said knowingly, "And before you ask, I know you are crushing on that girl because I could hear the jealousy in your voice when I brought up Silver."
There was several seconds of silence before a he heard a sad Red respond, "I know, Leaf tells me the same thing, Lyra is the strongest trainer out there plus she is obviously in love with Silver. It's almost as obvious as how Leaf feels about you, Green."
Green ignored the comment about Leaf for now not wanting to discuss his love life with the girl's own brother. Red didn't like to hear Green talk about that sort of thing and would often get mad at Green for talking about his sister. He just decided to stay away from that topic saying, "Yes I know, though I don't understand why you would be crushing on her? She is kind of annoying with her always cheerful self and always wanting to battle me when she comes around."
"Well she is strong willed, open minded, kind, sweet, and as I like that cheerfulness of hers," Red responded quickly. He had basically fallen in love with Lyra from the moment he met her.
"You know you just described your own sister right?" Green said quickly knowing that was what he liked about Leaf, "Well except for the cheerfulness, Leaf isn't always cheerful..."
"And Lyra isn't a shy girl who basically doesn't talk to anyone but her pokemon," Red interjected quickly into the sentence, "Face facts, Green, Leaf doesn't talk very often to anyone."
"I bet I can get her to talk to me more," Green said through the pokegear to Red, "She wasn't always like this, she used to be just as loud as us when we were 5."
"Yes but she has been since then," Red said through the phone, "And you know why too. She hasn't been the same since then. I was always hoping some day she would reopen up to us but she hasn't."
Green let out a sigh before saying, "Yes I know. I only know a little though of why... Grandfather and Daisy never told me much."
He knew why but just barely from what he could remember about what was told to him when Leaf went missing for 3 months when they were 5 years old. He remembered his Grandfather just telling him some very bad men had Leaf and that her father went off to get her. He remembered 3 months after she disappeared she came back silent never saying anything to them and her father didn't come back with her. He remembered a few days later going to a cemetery with his grandfather seeing Red crying holding Leaf close who looked sad but didn't shed a single tear. He never saw her cry ever after that, he couldn't help but catch himself wondering what had happened to her and her father.
"Professor Oak never told you the full story?" Red asked in shock through the phone.
Green leaned back against the wall saying, "No he never told me."
"Well then sit back and listen," Red said as he began to tell the story.
Flashback: 9 years ago
Leaf was outside playing by herself since Red was grounded for something he had done to the substitute they had that morning in Pokemon School and Green was helping his grandfather out at the lab. She looked up seeing a man dressed in black coming toward her. She noticed some sort of red symbol on his shirt but it was faded very badly so she couldn't tell what it was of.
"Hello, little girl," the man said looking down at her gently as another man came over wearing the same outfit.
"Hello, misters," Leaf said looking up at the man, her mother had always told her not to talk to strangers but she had always second guessed that rule since she had never met someone who would do her harm.
"She's perfect," the other man muttered under his breath kneeling down asking, "Would you like to help us with something, Little girl?"
"With what?" she asked curiously looking up at the men, "I'm not supposed to talk to strangers let alone go with them anywhere."
"We aren't giving you a choice," another voice was heard behind her as she smelled something looking over to beside her seeing a Gloom using Sleep Powder. She felt her eyes going dim as she fell to the side in a deep sleep.
When she awoke she was in a dark room on a very uncomfortable bed.. She sat up rubbing her eyes weakly. She glanced around noticing she was in an empty room that had nothing but a bed and a bookcase full of books that she would never read since they were all to hard for her.
"Ah I see your awake," A voice was heard from all around the room.
"Where am I?" Leaf asked tears in her eyes her small 5 year old body shaking in fear.
The door opened revealing an older man with black suit, an emblem over his heart that was the letter R, his hair was black and greased back, and his eyes were black as nigh. He smiled at the girl which sent shivers up her spine saying, "Your are at my head quarters, child. Or should I say Leaf, daughter of the Viridian City Gym Leader."
She gulped looking at the man asking, "What do you want with me?"
"I need a child, a pure soul such as yourself to help me find and capture a certain pokemon," the man said simply looking at her, "This pokemon is called Mew, it has long been a legend but I've found the place where I believe it lives."
"No I won't," she said hearing that the pokemon was Mew the Mother to all Pokemon getting up running over, "I won't let you harm the Mother of all pokemon."
"You have no choice child," he said slapping her across the face making her fall to the floor tears in her eyes, "If you won't come with us by choice, I will break that small will of yours."
With that he left slamming the door behind him leaving Leaf on the floor crying. She muttered hopelessly, "Please save me, daddy... mom... Red... Green."
Day after day were much like the first she slowly went from yelling back at the man to just being quiet not wanting to agree to what this man wanted her to do. She lost track of time as the days went by with her fighting with the strange man and her trying to read the hard books on the bookshelf getting better and better everyday.
One day though should couldn't take it anymore she wanted out of there so badly. She was in tears whispering, "Fine, I'll help you capture Mew just let me out of here."
"I knew you would come to my side eventually," he said as two grunts came in grabbing her arms carrying her out of the room down the all and outside. As the sun hit her face she had to close her eyes unused to the light. She was carried deep into the jungle of where ever they were left out there by a river.
It was worse out there then it had been in the empty room. She felt frightened all alone in the middle of the jungle as she started to wonder around trying to find something safe to eat. Though all she found was an angry Primeape as she tried to get a banana. She turned around running back toward the river as she was chased. She stared at the river knowing she couldn't swim but she had more chance with that then she had with the Primeape. She closed her eyes about to jump in when she heard a blast behind her.
She turned around seeing small pink pokemon floating there having sent a hyper beam at the Primeape scaring it off. She smiled at the pokemon saying, "You helped me."
The pokemon turned to her floating over and around her saying happily, "Mewwww Mew."
"So you're Mew?" she asked looking at the pokemon but screaming out as a net came down catching them both in it flying up into the tree. She hugged the pink pokemon tightly not wanting any harm to come to her new friend that had saved her life.
The guards who had brought her out into the forest cut them down pulling the pink pokemon from her grasp as they grabbed her carrying her and the pokemon off back toward headquarters. They both were thrown into a cage together. She looked at the little pink pokemon who seemed scared. It screamed out though as one of their captors pulled some fur off it's body.
"I can't believe your doing this," she heard a woman say off in the distance looking out of the cage toward the woman. She was beautiful with long red hair, emerald green eyes, thin framed glasses, and a long lab coat. She looked at who the woman was talking to. It was the man who had abused her everyday until she agreed to help him with capturing the cute pink pokemon beside her.
"Kidnapping a little girl, using her to lure Mew out, and now expecting me to try to clone it," the woman said in anger toward the man, "I'm not doing this."
"Honey, listen to reason," the man said looking at the woman, "If we had a pokemon as strong as a legendary we could spend more time with our son."
The woman sighed looking down in defeat at the mention of her 2 year old son before turning back around facing the man, "Fine, I will try to clone him but please let the girl go."
"I can't, she knows to much now," the man said simply before walking from the room.
The woman looked over at Leaf sadly coming over saying, "I'll convince him to let you go somehow little one, I promise."
She slowly reached in caressing Leaf's face gently and lovingly. To Leaf it felt like her own mother's touch tears coming to her eyes.
The next few weeks were worse the first few since Leaf was stuck in a cage with Mew except to go to the bathroom. There were only 2 things that was sunshine in her life one was the kind woman that was there occasionally working on this and that. She spoke with the woman about random things from the woman's son to what was happening in the outside world. The other was Mew, the sweet cute pokemon spent days with her comforting her when she needed it especially when she thought of home and realized she may never see her family or Green again.
It was late one night when she was woken up by sirens the signaled an intruder. She sat up looking around as she heard a roar outside a Tauros rampaging through the wall with a rider she recognized well as she yelled out, "Father!"
The man jumped off the Tauros running over his gray hair was a mess wet from rain and red eyes aflame from anger. He saw his daughter in the cage along with a small pink pokemon. He came over undoing the lock grabbing his daughter saying, "Leaf... I finally found you. Don't worry daddy's got you."
She cried into his chest holding onto his shirt as her father went through the wall where Tauros rammed through calling out his Fearow placing her on it as Mew flew over floating beside her. There was lots of noise behind her father who said, "Fearow get her out of here and take her home."
"Daddy?" she asked as the bird pokemon spread it's wings starting to take off.
"I will distract them, Leaf, tell your mom I'm sorry I couldn't come back," he said before running into the building as Fearow flew off into the sky Mew flying after her. She looked behind her tears in her eyes as she gasped as the place went up in flames. She closed her eyes whispering, "... Dad."
She looked back ahead her eyes narrowed as Fearow flew her home knowing she would get her chance to bring that man who captured her down someday. She told Mew to leave her and find some place safe far away from there. Mew nodded sadly as it flew off to who knows where.
End of Flashback
Green was silent as Red finished telling him the story of what happened to Leaf tears in his eyes his fist clinched shut as he took a couple deep breaths asking, "How do you know all this? Didn't she not tell a soul what all had happened?"
"I read her diary, she wrote down everything in great detail there," Red said simply, "She got pissed at me for reading it but I wanted to know what happened to my sister. You know her vocabulary went up a lot during her stay there, it must have been those books."
"I don't blame you," Green said sadly feeling horrible now, "You know I feel like an idiot for how I've treated her since we became rivals or whatever. Why couldn't you tell me all this before? I didn't even know that she had been kidnapped fully. I guessed it but grandfather only told me she was with bad people at the time."
"She made me promise never to tell you so I wasn't planning on it unless you brought it up," Red said into the phone, "You can never tell her I told you, you know."
Green sighed nodding to himself saying, "I won't tell her. It's going to take some time for her to come out to me but I will eventually get her to open up to me."
"Why are you so determined? I can't even get her to talk to me very often, she doesn't trust humans much even her own brother," Red said with a sad sigh, "I wouldn't either if I had to go through that."
'Because I love her,' Green thought before shaking his head responding, "I care about your sister and I've heard her talk a few times so maybe she is already starting to trust me more."
"Whatever you say," Red said through the phone, "Look I got to go, tell Leaf I said Hi. Talk to you later."
"See ya," Green said before hanging up the phone putting it over by his bag getting up going into the bathroom to shower before he headed up the mountain again.
Leaf woke up with a yawn getting up going over to make herself some hot chocolate while she waited for Green. He had told her the day before he would grab some eggs from Nurse Joy and bring them up for her. She couldn't wait as she petted Espeon when the pokemon jumped into her lap.
She stared at the entrance of the cave waiting for Green to show up. She was happy he was there for the whole week just to spend time with her. She grabbed her mug pouring the hot water from the tea pot onto the hot chocolate mix with a smile taking a sip from it as she waited.
Gengar came over looking up at his trainer seeing the smile on her face knowing that the emerald eye guy that his trainer adored must be coming back today too. He was glad since his trainer seemed so much more happier around the guy then she often did alone. He had spoken with Espeon about Leaf before and Espeon had just told him that Leaf gave off a sad aura that related to something in the past. He had always known about the aura but that aura seemed to brighten when Green was around. He hoped that Green was the one who could heal his trainer fully and get her to come down from this mountain she had taken refuge on from her duties, her feelings, and most of all her memories.
Green walked up the mountain again snow falling around him as he got closer to Leaf's cave. Umbreon decided to stay in her pokeball this time around since she didn't like snow much. He walked toward the cave smiling as he saw Leaf sitting there drinking something. He walked toward her saying softly, "Morning Leaf."
She looked up at Green with a smile nodding at him with a wave to tell him good morning too.
He came over placing a container of 6 eggs in front of her along with a thing of tofu bacon. He watched her light up and grab her frying pan starting to make the bacon and eggs happily. He laughed silently as he watched her cook so expertly over the fire. He then looked over to her bag asking, "Hey can I look at the photo album some more?"
She glanced over to him nodding looking at Gengar to ask him to get the photo album from her bag. Gengar nodded going over to Leaf's bag pulling out the photo album handing it to Green.
Green smiled opening it up again to the page after the pictures from Valentine's Day. It was pictures of a Christmas Party at his Grandfather's Lab. He laughed slightly looking at a picture where Daisy and Red were trying to push him and Leaf under the mistletoe together. He knew back then he had wanted anything but that. Now he knew he would jump at the chance to be caught under the mistletoe with Leaf. He looked at the Leaf in the picture who was wearing a red sweater and a black skirt with her hair up in a pony tail with a santa hair clip in her hair.
He smiled lightly glancing over at the girl beside him who was still hard at work cooking the eggs and bacon. He smelled the bacon his stomach growling slightly as he returned to looking at the pictures. He looked at another picture from that Christmas of Red, Leaf, and him playing in the snow outside throwing snowballs at each other mostly Leaf and him throwing them toward one another. He laughed remembering how pissed Red was since he said they were leaving him out.
Leaf glanced back at him poking his forehead tilting her head to the side asking him what was so funny.
"Oh just remembering that Christmas when we were all 10," Green said looking up at Leaf into her deep blue eyes trying hard not to get lost in them, "I remembered us having this snowball fight and Red getting mad at us saying we were leaving him out. We then both looked at each other before throwing all our snow balls at him."
Leaf laughed with a nod then glanced outside with a smile looking back at him to say that they could finish that game now if they wanted.
He looked outside with a smile as well saying, "Your on, Leaf. It won't be a draw this time. Though let's make it more interesting."
She tilted her head to the side looking at him in confusion.
"A bet," Green said looking at her with a smirk, "If I win I want to hear you to tell me out loud why you stay on this mountain."
Leaf thought about it before nodding before pointing at herself in wonder.
"Yes yes, if you win," Green said in thought then smiled lightly, "You can do any one thing to me to get me back for all those years I was a jerk to you."
Leaf smiled a small blush coming to her face as she nodded before dishing up the eggs and tofu bacon handing him a plate with 3 eggs and some of the bacon.
Green took it wondering what she would do to him if she won shaking his head quickly to clear the thought before beginning to eat.
As soon as they were done eating Leaf got up going over to her bag getting out Green's old winter coat and scarf putting them on.
He smiled looking at her asking, "You still have those?"
She nodded with a blush knowing she still had basically everything Green had given her over the years.
He laughed getting up looking into her face saying, "Come on let's go."
They both headed outside the cave onto the trail the snow was falling lightly at the moment so it was perfect. They both rolled up snowballs throwing them at each other missing terribly. It was on.
The fight lasted until neither of them had one and it was getting late.
"I guess we both get our prizes," Green said smiling curious what Green had in mind to do to him, "What do you want me to do?"
Leaf looked at him blushing a deep red whispering slowly, "I want you to stay the night with me in the cave... it will be like camping out when we were children."
His eyes grew wide as he looked at her gulping before saying, "I guess I have no choice, that was the rules. Let's go inside so we can get warm before you tell me why you stay up here on the mountain."
Leaf nodded before walking inside with him close behind. She called out her Charizard asking him to put the boulder in front of the entrance to keep out the snow since she figured it was going to be heavier that night. He watched as Leaf communicated with her pokemon silently telling it to push the big boulder in front of the entrance where it fit perfectly. He smiled watching her call the fire pokemon back. He looked around before down at the fire sitting down.
She went into her food storage coming back out with a bag full of marshmallows and two sticks handing him one as she sat down happily beside him.
He took the stick grabbing a marshmallow starting to roast it asking, "So are you going to tell me?"
She nodded as she grabbed her own marshmallow doing the same as him before taking a deep breath saying slowly, "It's peaceful up here. It allows me to escape from my thoughts that I always had back in Pallet. The memories good and bad, the feelings that were raging inside me, and duties that came with being champion... Everyone kept telling me that I was the strongest trainer in the world and I had certain things I had to do. It was too much, so I ran up here to hide from it all to clear my head. At first it was just to escape for a few days but I loved it up here. It was a place I could be myself with just me and my pokemon. I retired from my job as champion and escaped up here permanently. When Lyra first defeated me 6 months ago I was depressed but then for the first time in 3 years... I was free. I'm no longer the strongest trainer but for some reason I find myself still hiding up here away from everything."
He looked at her wide eyed, that was the most he had heard come from Leaf's mouth since before she was kidnapped. It took a few seconds for him to recover from the shock asking, "Is there any specific thing your hiding from?"
"Not really," she whispered with a shrug looking at him then away quickly, "Well maybe my feelings."
He nodded looking at her as he pulled his marshmallow from the fire blowing on it to put it out pulling it off the stick plopping it into his mouth. He felt warm in this cave with the fire going and the entrance shut off. It felt kind of homy especially with Leaf sitting right there beside him.
Leaf pulled her own marshmallow from the fire putting it out before eating it. She then scooted closer to him grabbing the photo album motioning for them to look through it together.
He smiled with a nod as they started too flipping through the pages him bringing up a memory for a few of them. He slowly felt something hit his shoulder glancing over seeing Leaf was leaning against him fast asleep. He looked at her sleeping face her eyes closed tight and her pink lips were inviting. He found himself leaning in slowly placing his lips on hers gently yet quickly before pulling away staring into her face breathing rapidly his heart pounding in his chest.
'I shouldn't have done that,' he thought sitting up carrying Leaf's sleeping body over to Snorlax laying her against the pokemon taking her blanket from the ground laying it over her.
He watched as she turned in her sleep hearing her mumbling about something. He smiled whispering, "Good night, Leaf."
He then turned around going over to his bag pulling off the big sleeping back laying it out and climbing inside keeping on his coat as he closed his eyes drifting to sleep as well.
