I'm sorry this chapter is so late. I had planned to release it before New Years, but the energy to write was something the holidays had taken away from me and the energy to live and breathe and not cough out my chest was hard to find this whole past week. I've only recently gotten back into a comfortable shape, and just in time to subject myself to the hell of classes once again when I wake up in like eight hours. It's pushed my schedule back so Betrayed's chapter will be written and uploaded later this week and push my whole schedule back by a week it had been planned. Sorry.
And this chapter started in a good place too. I had gotten so much Pokemon related items for Christmas that i wanted to share while the hype was around but now I'm two weeks later and crying at my unfortunate soul. At least I have my giant Slowpoke. Rest well Poko.
I think one thing that bothers me when I read and write is the wave of ideas I get from everything and the lack of time I have in my life to share it all. I want to write more stories, some short, a chapter or even a few more, but I have nowhere to fit them in comfortably enough to be with everything else. I can try to manage a few one-shots if anyone is interested, but I don't have any for this franchise. I have a story idea, but it won't be seeing the light of day for quite some time, if ever. I'm too invested in my other writing to give up now and ruin it all. Maybe I'll do something with the idea. Don't know yet.
I plan on putting something on my profile notes later, so if anyone is interested, you can look there to see and give me feedback in a review or a PM if you want. Until then, enjoy another look at the man and woman who run the show, as we make our way to a grand stage of battle.
2 Days Later
Red ran his arm along Lapras' neck, tracing his fingers down the scales on the back and earning a coo from the Water/Ice type. He smiled and leaned over, resting his masked face on the Pokémon's neck. You can make it the rest of the way, can't you girl?
Lapras let out a cheer in her tongue and picked up her pace, jolting Red slightly in his seat. A yelp from behind elicited a quiet laugh from his broken lips and turned his around to watch Yellow pick herself back up into a seating position. You okay honey?
"Warn me next time, will you?" she shouted back over the wind and waves, giving Red another deaf laugh as he worked his way back over the Pokémon's shell to his wife. Once she had seated herself back into place, Red locked here there with a hug. The blond woman sighed and leaned into him. "The least you could have done was warn me she was going to speed up."
She didn't say she was going to, he responded. Would have told you if I knew. Or just done this to save you from the trouble. Yellow let out a grunt of a response as Red worked an arm between her back and the bag on it to deepen the hug.
"Either way do not let me fall in the water. I will haunt you for the rest of our lives if I drop in the ocean, you understand?"
Yes ma'am. The legendary trailer pecked the mouth of his mask against Yellow's cheek to imitate a kiss. I would never let you go.
"Good answer. And if you're going to give me a kiss, make it a real one."
Red let out a static sound from his telepathy mimicking a chuckle before closing the gap between the two halves of his mask. He placed a hand over the jaw, and four cylinders jutted out along the jaw, clicking the mask out of the inserts he connected it to. His hand caught the material and lowered it down into his lap and shook his jaw side to side until he was confident the feelings in it were normal before lunging at his wife and planting a kiss on her cheek. She jumped at his speed, but the arm still around her kept the Pokémon professor from falling over again.
Like that, dear? Red asked her again, his lips pressed together in a small smile.
"Close, but," Yellow leaned in to her husband, placing her hands on his knees and her face in front of his, "could be closer." Her chin pushed forward until it met his and her lips pressed into his until they began to push back into the kiss.
The two sat still as their lips kept touch, the sound of the sea parting as they passed through playing over them. Slowly, Red's lips moved and open to take a breath of air, and Yellow did the same before he pushed into another kiss. His lips slid around hers, and his head tilted into the moment for the two to be closer. His hands reached forward, sinking his fingers into her pockets and pulling all of her closer to him.
Red placed her atop his lap, pressing the whole of her body against his until their lips parted again. The Pokémon professor looked into the rubies of husband's eyes, raising her hands until the brushed against the second part of his mask and asked an unvoiced question. Red complied, closing his eyes as the locks on the upper half of the mask pulled out and dropped the material to his waiting wife. She took it, lowering the metal and ceramic mask into his lap and atop its other half.
He didn't open his eyes when hers locked onto his face. When her thumb came up and brushed along the opening on the left side of his forehead. As it lowered to the one beside his eye. To the one where his jaw bent out. To the one just below the edge of his lips. And as it worked its way back up, slipping past the hole mirrored on his right. He did open them when her hand lowered to his chest and her lips pulled forward again, just so he could meet her half way.
When the kiss broke, his eyes met hers, and love and worry and care in her caramel orbs made his heart melt. "Are you sure everything will be alright?" Her voice came out softly, her breath brushing against his jaw.
Everything will be fine, he reassured her. I'll keep myself low and restricted so all I have to do is spend time with you. And I'll keep the mask on. It won't come off unless you allow it.
"And the champions?"
They can wait. Red lifted his lips to her forehead, touching down with a soft kiss. No reason to rush it.
"Good." The Kanto-based professor lowered her head atop the legend's shoulder, and his head fell softly atop hers. "You sure you're all healed up?"
Yes. The new tissue has reached the stage the rest of my body is at. And my energy has restored enough, I promise. No need to worry.
"You bleeding out on the bed gives me the right to worry. I'll worry if I want to, and I refuse not to when you need help."
I won't tell you to stop.
"Good." Red's chest bounced in silent laugher, jumping Yellow with it.
Fair enough.
Lapras gave a shrill of her name, catching the attention of the two riders atop her. The couple looked over Red's shoulder to the approaching harbor, its inhabitants, and the tournament grounds built of the occasion. Red reached down between his legs and pulled out the pieces of his mask, clicking them back together before reconnecting it to his face.
Seems we have arrived.
Red trialed idly behind his wife as she led the way into the Pokécenter. The dinging of the bell only alerted the attention of Nurse Joy at first, whose smile of recognition of the professor making stride to her was quickly overtaken by surprise and fear at the masked gentleman behind her. It wasn't her fault a yelp so soft sneaked through her lips but it was enough to catch attention of a trainer beside her counter who turned to the door and gave a much more dramatic response that garnered the attention of the rest of the room.
Yellow skipped in her step to the counter to greet the pink-haired nurse, leaving behind her partner to catch up under the watchful gaze of others, eying his dangerous and bizarre look. He returned their looks with simple turns of his head, the blood center of his eyes shining in the darkness of the mask's eyeholes. Each flinched back as their gazes met, but Red showed no show of reaction to their responses with the gleam in his eyes. Once he found no more trainers to judge, he arrived beside his wife at the counter, and turned his covered face down to look at the nurse with the professor.
"Hello, Nurse Joy," Yellow greeted in a cheery attitude that cut through the room's tension all the way back to the door. Joy tried her best to return the same attitude and emotion, shaking her smile while darting her eyes between the couple before her. "We're here to check in on a reservation he has for the tournament going on here in the next two days." She tapped her knuckles to Red's chest, turning his eyes down to her for a second before turning back on the nurse.
"O-of course," the nurse stuttered out in a chocked breath. "I'll just…need a form of I.D. to have you registered in for your participation."
Oh I'm not here to participate, Red responded, broadcasting his words so those around could hear him too. Joy flinched as his mask moved with his mouth, small links appearing over his upper jaw between the two halves of the mask. The trainer's hand came crawling out of his pocket, dragging with it a Pokédex, and set the device down on the counter between the nurse and the legend. I'm here under a special invitation.
The nurse gave a hesitant nod in acknowledgement, taking the dex from Red and linking it in to her computer. It connected and the trainer information was pulled up before the woman, freezing her in place as she read the data. Her eyes moved slowly, rolling back up to lock her gaze with the dex's owner looking down upon her. The Kanto/Johto legend winked when only she could see it.
My apologies for the mask. He kept his voice softer, directing it so it was only her who could hear. I wear it for reasons of privacy. I don't usually wear it out, but if I'm going to be here under my registered name, then it is imperative I keep my looks to myself. If you could keep this matter quite until it's announced publicly, I would be grateful of your cooperation and respect.
"O-of course, sir," Nurse Joy struggled out, shaking in her uniform as the Kanto professor and the region's mysterious fighter stood waiting. "Is there anything I can get you, Mr. Satoshi?..."
Refer to me as Red, please. I would rather my last name be kept down. And if you could, Red tapped a finger rhythmically on the counter, his voice now back to being open to the room, could you send a message for me to one of the present professors? Let them know that Professor Satoshi and I are on the premises?
"That won't be necessary." Yellow turned on heel at the voice booming across the room, while Red lifted his head and bounced his crazy black hair. "Officer Jenny had alerted the League of your arrival when you came to the dock on a Lapras. But an arrest has been called off, so you have no need to worry about that. They've asked me to guide you along."
Yellow beamed through the light that shone over the man of the voice's shoulder. "Professor Rowan!" she announced, taking steps forward to meet the older man's approach. It's been a while since we last met. How have you been?"
"Professor Satoshi," Rowan announced back with a smile through his mustache. Nurse Joy held her eyes in her head no matter how big they were, and shot her mouth agape back and forth between Yellow and Red. The trainer lifted a hand over his mask, raising a finger over the mouth to keep her quiet and purposefully leveling the rest of his fingers above one another so the ring in the middle of them stood out against the porcelain white of his mask. "It has been quite some time. I do hope everything on your end has been going as well as it has on my end."
"A little bumps here and there, and a few new trainers to send out, but nothing life threatening or career ending." The woman brushed a hand over her shoulder, fixing her hair in its ponytail. "Oak left behind quite a bunch for me to finish, but my progress has been successful in picking up where he left off."
"Yes, it is quite a shame he left so abruptly. I originally thought his son would take his place. How has he been fairing?"
Gary is settling in quite nicely as the Viridian City's new gym leader, Red cut in, offering a thanks to the nurse for returning to him his dex and turning to join his wife to face the Sinnoh professor. Proving himself to be a fair opponent, even for Blaine and Sabrina, last I remember. It's why he's usually the last leader most trainers face on their journeys.
"Ah, quite right," Rowan cheered, turning his attention away from his colleague. "I don't get to hear much on other region's gym leaders on my end, only my own and the Elites everyone has when something really big is going on." He let a hand out forward, pointed to the masked man before him. "And I've heard quite a lot about you. It's a pleasure to finally meet the man I've heard so much about."
Likewise. Red returned the shake, gripping the older man's hand evenly with the grip he felt. I don't get to meet Yellow's friends all that often, if at all. You're the first professor I've met outside of her.
"Is that so?" the elder professor questioned, raising his eyebrow. "I find that quite baffling-"
And I'm sure you do, Red cut in, stepping closer in the handshake. We can talk about it on the way, if it's all the same to you. I'm not too pleased doing this in front of a crowd.
Rowan fixed his mouth in a line, looking around and over his shoulders to the few trainers still around and paying attention to the meeting going on in the middle between two region professors and a masked stranger. "I agree," he muttered, releasing his hold of Red who stepped back beside the woman he came with. "Please, follow me. Everyone is excited to meet you."
"And I'm excited to meet everyone," Yellow spoke with a cheer, taking her steps first after the Sinnoh professor began his leave. "I don't think they actually knew I was coming."
Well then this will be a bigger surprise than it just being me, Red pitched in, joining his wife by her side behind the older man, following him out of the Pokécenter and leaving behind a baffled crowd and a hyperventilating nurse.