~Gold~

I was up too early, preparing the final touches before we would be heading to Mt. Silver for the next who knows how long. Swathed in my heaviest jackets and two pairs of socks under my boots I was still cold, and the more I thought about it the more I was positive Silver was on drugs for wanting to do this. We would both die up there… I wasn't sure if it was avoidable anymore.

Viridian City had frozen over with snow and ice during the night, not long after our battle. The distant clouds had released their white slush across the town and made water freeze while dripping from the rooftops. It was the kind of snow that would soak through your clothes and have you terrible wet within just a few moments. Not to mention the wind was blowing directly in the way you had to go, so my hood kept getting blown back and my face was raw by the time I walked across the small courtyard to the main pokecenter building.

I couldn't sleep well at all, so I decided that maybe the only other person awake in this region could help me keep busy. I wanted to talk to Nurse Joy about perhaps certain medicines to bring with us, and maybe some tips if she knew any. I wasn't too hopeful, but it would be better than lying away staring at the stucco ceiling.

Shivering with nearly blue fingertips—why didn't I grab my gloves?—I pushed open the center door and walked in. The room was warm and stuffy, smelling of hot chocolate and medicine. I couldn't tell if it was a good smell or not, but it wasn't unpleasant. No, the smell of ice on pavement was unpleasant.

I walked up to the sleeping looking Nurse at the counter. Her eyes were sagging as she read up on her pokemon care, an open highlighter in her hand, probably drying out while she dozed. MY feet were nearly silent as I approached her, so I cleared my throat a little to get her attention.

Her eyes jolted wide and she was scrambling to her feet. "OH yes! What—is it a pokemon? Hurt?" her hands and eyes searched for a potential injured pokemon. It took her a second to realize that it was me from earlier who was standing here. I guess if you never expected anyone to come in the middle of the night the only thing you could assume was that it was an emergency. Plus I had already been in here once earlier.

"Oh, Hello Gold, I'm afraid your pokemon aren't quite healed yet. Your Typhlosion really got hurt. You should learn to battle more carefully next time. And don't put weak types against the ones stronger than it! And why would you be battling in this cold anyways? Do you know how hurt you could have gotten? Or your poor pokemon!"

I flinched back at her retorts, thinking that it had to be because I startled her into embarrassment. Any pokemon Nurse was absolutely disgusted with the idea of sleeping on the job, so I couldn't blame her. But still…

My plan backfired then, and I knew I could never talk to her about going up to Mt. Silver now. In the turning point of winter when everything started to grow slick with ice and the temperature got well below zero. What a stupid little person it was growing inside of me. That old Gold that used to make rational decisions was being taken over by new Gold, stupid and arrogant and confused. I hated him, that little say so sitting on my shoulder. How dare he…

"I'm sorry Nurse Joy, I know… I know… I won't." I added when necessary and let her rant until she collapsed back in her chair, hand over her sweaty forehead and eyes closed.

"Sorry, I just hate seeing pokemon hurt in the winter. It's too dangerous. This town doesn't fair well in the cold."

I would have to agree with her, but I thought so silently. She was a fusspot.

"Nurse… excuse me, but umm…" a young girl walked up behind me and I jumped in surprise. When had anyone else come in? I took a step back from the counter, glad to have a way to get away from Nurse Joy's scowls and accusations.

"Who are you?" Nurse snapped, a little on edge. Maybe she was getting sick herself. The girl looked slightly taken back, but too much worry lined her face to mask the anger.

"Kira, I dropped off my Linoone earlier." She reminded with an edge to her tone. "You said she would be done by this morning."

"And look at the time, its only four. The morning here mean when the sun rises, ok? Come back in an hour or so." Joy turned her wheelie chair around and her back to us. I bit my lower lip as she turned on the ancient computer and started scrolling.

"Well that was rude." The girl, Kira, turned to look at me. She had the strangest silvery blue eyes, maybe even a little green. I couldn't tell. She crossed her arms over her sturdy but slight frame and started walking away. I assumed she was expecting me to fallow, since we had both been dismissed by the Nurse, so I took it upon myself to sit on the small uncomfortable couch across from her. She sat lazily in a love seat, her sand colored hair strewn out across the back of it and curling slightly as if it was humid—and it kind of was in here.

"What happened to your Linoone?" I asked carefully, not sure if she would be touchy about it.

"Addy?" she looked up at me. "Oh, she just walked under and icily at the wrong time… She isn't too hurt, but she's tired from battling in general."

"Oh." Was all I said, thinking it must be nice not to have to worry if your pokemon would even make it out alive or not. I sighed. "My Typhlosion was battling a Feraligatr and… it didn't end well." I left out the part about having battled my previous rival-maybe-my-sort-of-friend-now, and about how the Feraligatr was actually trying to kill Ty.

"Sounds pretty bad." She mused. "Don't you know not to put fire up against water?" her voice wasn't condescending, just mildly curious. I appreciated that, after Joy's rant. I didn't need people thinking I was that stupid in the way I battled.

"I've beaten that Feraligatr plenty of times with Ty." I said "But this time it was different. The Feraligatr wanted to kill my pokemon."

She looked a little repulsed at the thought. "I've never really had pokemon battles that are that tragic before."

"Yeah well you will." I rolled my eyes. "Are you from around here?" then politely as I could I reached out to shake her hand. "I'm Gold."

"Kira." She nodded and shook my hand with quite some strength. She was confident, I respected that in a girl. "And I'm from Kanto."

"Me too! Where in?"

"Cianwood."

"Oh yeah, sunny all the time, great weather for surfing." I smiled slightly. "Nothing like New Bark."

"I hear it's nice there too though." She raised an eyebrow.

"It's decent. The shores are rocky though, and in the summer when it's hot enough to actually go in the ocean Dewgong and Seal take over."

She laughed gently and smiled, raising the slight freckles on her cheeks. I realized just how tired she herself looked, and wondered if I was any better.

"So you're traveling then? Where are you headed?"

A stone seemed to drop into my stomach. I flinched and glanced back at Nurse Joy to make sure she wasn't listening before I answered. "Mt. Silver."

Her eyes grew huge. "Why?"

"I don't know… my… my—friend." The word felt strange on my tongue. Silver my friend? Since when? "He wants to climb it… but I can't let him go alone."

Her eyes turned warm. "Well I think it's very nice that you are willing to risk your life for your friend. Wish I had a friend that would do that for me."

I almost sighed with relief. Finally someone who wasn't trying to stop me with coherent reasons. The youth in her face provided knowledge of her being adventurous, independent, perhaps even a little on the wild side. And yet her perfectly beachy appearance shot down everything about that. I wanted to believe she was laid back, but she seemed all too inclined in the world around her. And at this moment it was me.

"Are you just friends?" she asked suddenly.

"Who?" had I missed something? Did I zone out for a second or something?

"I'm just curious… well… ok, so I saw you guys walking to your room together earlier. The red head, that's the one you're going with? I was just wondering if you two were JUST friends? You know what I mean?"

My eyes grew huge and I turned cherry ass red with blush. "No!" I flustered. "I mean—I mean YES! WE are JUST friends… actually we are barely friends at all! We're rivals actually. His Feraligatr wants to kill my Typhlosion because I picked him over him back in New Bark three years ago!" the words came in a rush, and this poor girl looked so confused. "We battled all the time and he—he didn't meant to, or i… I mean I don't know why but he just- took- the pokemon and it wasn't like I did anything about it! I could have told someone but I didn't I was just too… too concerned about the reason and we've always HATED each other. Do you understand?" I didn't realize until now that I was standing, hands at my sides shaking in horror at the idea of being anything other than friends with Silver.

And yet here I was, about to risk my life and go with him up a stupid mountain just to get him to trust me so that I could understand why he stole that Tododile so long ago. Honestly how DUMB could I be?

"You're blushing though." Kira pointed at my red face with a slight finger and blinked innocently.

And on that note I turned and whirled, shoving a hand through my messy hair and pushing it out of my face before yanking my hood up and storming out into the cold. How could anyone think that ME and Silver were anything more than friends? It was obvious how much he hated me, I could see that, so why didn't she?

My ego went to shit, and all I could do was turn and flee, heading back to my hotel room to hide and stare at the white stucco ceiling. I knew for a fact that any sleep tonight would be a joke. And to make matters even worse, as I was crossing the courtyard separating the hotel rooms from the pokecenter, I nearly slipped and cracked my head open on the hard flooring.

It was a good thing that they put benches around the walkways, and even better that this one had a tree perched above it so that the snow had gathered and left the stone rough enough to grip for support. I narrowly avoided dying, I presumed, but I could still feel Kira's eyes boring into my back as I made my awkward escape.

My hand gripped the door to the main hallway tightly and I flung it open with enough force against the wind to make it crash against the wall and send a pile of snow falling to the ground on a plant. That stuffy warmth hit me again, only now it was less inviting. I coughed hoarsely and scuffled around the corner, breathing too heavily.

And then I collided with someone, hard enough to knock their hotel room key from their hand.

"Sorry, sorry." I fumbled to reach for it, not realizing just who was right in front of me, and then looked up as they bent as well, shocked as I was.

We stared at each other in mock confusion, eyebrows raised, and faces flaring up even darker crimson. I must have resembled a fire hydrant by this point.

"Silver." I swallowed, thinking about what Kira had assumed. I yanked back and shoved the card key back at him with a nervous huff. I ran a hand through my hair again and looked down at me feet. "Sorry."

"Where were you?" he asked in a strange voice.

"Checking on my pokemon…" and getting my manhood stepped on, I added silently, not meeting his monotone eyes. I knew them well by now, they were gray and glistening as metal could be, and I hated that it was so easy to recognize.

"How is Typhlosion?" he asked, leaning awkwardly against the hallway wall. I could have pushed past him like an asshole, but I didn't want to seem so desperate to get away.

"Still recovering." I ran my hand up my arm and brushed some snow off my shoulder. "What are you doing up?"

He contemplated telling me the truth for a moment, and perhaps even opened his mouth to lie for a second before deciding it was just plain stupid. He sighed and the smell of mint toothpaste wafted past my lips.

"I couldn't sleep." He said. "So I was just going for a walk."

"Oh… yeah… Me—me too."

"I thought you were checking on your pokemon?"

"Both." I shifted from one foot to another and made a move to step around him, but I didn't get very far before he stopped me with my name.

"Hmmm?" I glanced back at him, stuffing my hands in my pockets so they wouldn't tremble.

"Do you want to come with me?"

I swallowed, perhaps blushing a little more, and thinking about what Kira said. Are you guys' JUST friends? And then pointing out my blush like it had something to do with it. I was blushing now too… my ego sinking further and further into that evil little Gold taking over my body lately. That new voice pushing its way out of my mouth and the new feelings managing to take over me. It all started three years ago too… but never until now did I realize just how much it was affecting me. I bit my lip and forced back the voice that wanted to say yes to Silver.

"No… I- sorry, I- I'm going to go try and sleep." I whispered before turning and nearly running down the hall to my room door.

And the worst part was, was that I knew Silver was still looking back at me as I fumbled with my own key and slid it into the lock. I threw open the door, startling Jolteon into sending sparks across the bed. It would be static filled all night now. I didn't care though, I flopped down on it anyways and buried my face into the pillows, hating everything for the first time in a long time.

Maybe the worst part wasn't that he was so obviously shocked by my choice… maybe the worst part was that I wanted—very badly—to say yes.