"Way to be subtle!" Green scolded as Blue pouted and stuck her hands in the pockets of her sweater. While exploring the house earlier, she had found an old the pullover that had proven quite useful in the chilly, mountain cabin. At her feet, Red's Wartortle and Oddish followed her.
"Sorry," she said as they walked down the stairs to the sofa. "I just didn't want him to like, rub his socks on a rug and use the static electricity to go nuclear again."
Green rolled his eyes at the girl as he flopped on the sofa, Blue following suit. Across from them sat Blaine, the old Cinnabar Gym leader and a blonde girl around their age named Yellow. The blond was quiet, but Blue could tell she was naturally good with Pokémon, as Red's instantly jumped into her lap from the stairs. Adjacent, Green's Aunt Daisy was sitting at the kitchen table, going through a clipboard of everyone's medical notes.
"Good news, Green," said the boy's aunt. "Your arm isn't as bad as I thought. If you rest it for a week or so, you should be fine, but nothing is broken or fractured."
"Well, that's a relief," Green said, looking down at his arm in the splint. "Can I take off this thing now?"
Daisy turned to her nephew as he waved his arm, trapped in the splint so he looked like a penguin.
"Hmmmm," said the doctor, tapping her pen against her lips before it curled into a smile. "Wait until tomorrow."
Blue couldn't hold back her giggles as Green's face fell, obviously he had expected a different answer. He waved his unbendable arm in the air, annoyed.
"Y'know, you haven't been able wash your arm since we got here," she teased, pinching her nose with her forefinger and thumb. "It's gonna rot off eventually."
"Oh," Yellow said, her voice tiny as she gently pet the Wartortle and Oddish in her lap. "I didn't know that could happen."
Green's ears grew red as he turned to Blue, sending her a look. Knowing that Green could never really stay mad at her, Blue stuck her tongue at him, teasingly.
"Yellow," Blaine said in his low, gravelly voice. "What do you call someone who believes it when someone else calls them gullible?"
The blonde shrugged, her face blank as if uncaring on whether she learned the answer or not.
"Gullible," the man answered and from the kitchen table Blue could've sworn she heard Daisy snort.
The small talk was interrupted by a loud cracking noise from the backyard. Yellow and Blue turned, and Blaine shrugged it off.
"It's probably Mr. Boss Man coming in," he said and quickly the door opened, revealing a dark-haired man in a red hat. His face was red from the cold weather, and he quickly opened his bomber-jacket to reveal the tiny, light yellow fur of his Pikachu. Shaking off some stray snow, he picked up the aging Pokémon and placed him on his shoulder.
"Hey guys," the man greeted with a smile before turning to Daisy. "Anything new?"
"Yes," the woman said, getting up from her seat to walk over to the man. "For one thing, your son is awake."
Blue watched as the man's eyes narrowed, his brows furrowed slightly with a nod. Daisy continued talking, though her voice so low that Blue couldn't make out anything. She has only met Ash Ketchum 48 hours ago when he had swooped into the Cerulean Gym with Blaine and Yellow to scoop the three of them out of danger, but there was something about the man that was inherently intriguing, asides from his twelve year long absence.
His dark eyes and messy hair reminded her of Red, and a huge part of her felt uneasy about the whole situation. Blue had only heard about Red's father from a mix of heroic tales when they were kids to angry one-sentence jabs as they got older. It was a complicated relationship - if it could even still be called that after over a decade of no communication. Blue's eyes traveled to Green, should they have warned Red in advance that it was his father that saved them?
There was a crash and within seconds the stomping noise of Red running down the upstairs hallway and towards the stairs echoed through the cabin.
"Guys! Guys! Guys!" he shouted as he turned the corner and stood at the top of the stairs, in his usual red hat and borrowed clothes he was unaware belonged to Ash. He looked down at everyone below, "Something weird is-"
Blue felt her heart jump in to her throat as she saw Red's face slowly drop at the sight of his father. His arms slacked enough for Pichu to jump from his hold, instead hopping over to snuggle between Green and Blue on the sofa.
Ash turned away from Daisy, making eye contact with his son. He smiled, his brown eyes sad as the Pikachu on he shoulder turned and sniffed the air. Blue figured he was probably remembering Red's scent - could it have changed in twelve years?
"Hey son," Ash finally said after what felt like an hour of everyone just staring at each other in heavy silence. "Hope you're feeling better."
Blue saw Red's eyes flicker with an emotion that she had only seen a few times in their lives and within a second he was running back up the hallway, slamming the door behind him. Instantly, Blue was on her feet, running after the boy until she reached his bedroom door. Unsurprisingly, he had locked it behind him.
"Red!" she ordered, pounding on the door with a balled fist. "Open up!"
Though she wasn't sure what she was supposed to really say to a guy who just saw his estranged father and probably also figured out he had super-zappy powers, Blue knew that locking yourself in a bedroom wasn't the best means of handling the situation.
"C'mon!" she yelled again, banging on the door with her fist. In the corner of her eye she saw that Oddish, Wartortle and Pichu had lined up on the stairs, worried about their trainer. "Red, please!"
There was still nothing, and Blue took that personality.
"All right, loser," she said, backing up to the end of the hallway, getting herself prepared in a running position. "If you're not going to come out, I'm just going to have to break down the door!"
Letting off like a rocket, Blue's feet pounded against the hardwood floor until she felt herself clotheslined as she was scooped up by a strong arm. Almost losing her balance, she felt the arm tighten around her and she looked up to see that it was Green.
"Woah woah," he said as they stabilized, leaning against the wall across from Red's door. "Listen, breaking doors down won't do anything. You gotta just let him, you know...figure it out."
Blue sighed, leaning against the boy's arm with a pout as she stared at the locked door.
"Fine," she said softly, turning away from Green. "Just keep your smelly arm away from me."
The rest of the night went by as uncomfortable as one would think after that. Blaine and Yellow cooked a small dinner which everyone ate like a strange, dysfunctional family with a big pink elephant in the room. Green had gone up to Red's door to ask him if he wanted anything to eat, but was replied with only silence. After dinner Blue would see him wrapping up leftovers to put into the refrigerator.
"You know," he shrugged when Blue asked. "For when he gets hungry later."
Daisy left soon after, giving Blue and Green a warm embrace as she left.
"Don't worry, honey," she said to her nephew, who was a good head taller than his aunt. "You guys will get everyone back, and I'll finally be able to give your father the physical he's been putting off for ten years!"
Green laughed uncomfortably at Daisy's strange sense of humor (though Blue wasn't sure the woman was entirely kidding) before she left the snowy top of Mt. Silver on her Altaria, heading back to her private practice in Goldenrod City.
After going inside, Blaine stretched with a yawn.
"Okay, kids," he said, turning to the three teens. "What has four legs that you can climb into but never ride?"
Green ignored the old man, choosing to instead take a book to read at the kitchen while Blue and Yellow sat on the sofa in thought. Ash took a seat next to Green, watching on in interest.
"A table?" Yellow asked and was disheartened when Blaine answered with a buzzer noise.
"Nope," he said, his gray mustache moving with his smile. "You can't climb a table, but you're on the right track. Blue, what do you think?"
"A chair?" she offered and was also answered with an annoying buzzer noise. She wondered if there was a way for Blaine to be less obnoxious about getting a question wrong.
"It's a bed," Green said finally, his eyes not leaving the book. "A bed has four legs and you climb into it when you go to sleep."
The two girls exchanged looks before looking at Blaine who erupted into laughter.
"Marvelous!" he laughed, turning around in his seat to look at Green over his sunglasses. "Nice one, Green!"
Green shrugged, his face still in his book. Next to him, Blue saw Ash smile slightly before turning to his sleepy Pikachu that had taking refuge on the table.
"Yes, Oak," Yellow said, her voice as even as always. "You're surprisingly clever."
At the (sorta) compliment, Green's blush wasn't just in his ears but had traveled to his entire face. Leaning so close to his book that Blue was sure he could smell the pages, Green attempted to hide his bashfulness.
"It's whatever," he managed, and that seemed good enough for Yellow who turned away from the boy to ask for another riddle.
Soon, Ash and Blaine went to bed before being followed by the teens. As they climbed the stairs, Blue paused by the Red's door, which remained closed. She wondered if Ash had done the same thing before following Red's Pokémon into Yellow's room to sleep on the floor.
Blue didn't sleep, though Yellow made it look easy as she and Red's team were all out the moment their heads hit the pillow. On the floor, Blue tossed and turned until she eventually gave up on any hopes of sleeping. Quietly, she made her way to the bathroom next door, but stopped when she saw Red's still locked door across the hall. Her bare feet rapping against the wood flooring, she lightly held the doorknob to see that it was still locked. Exasperatedly, she rested her forehead on the cool wood of the door.
"Stupid, jerk," she mumbled.
After Pewter, her relationship with Red seemed more complicated than ever. The awkwardness that instantly sprung between them made Blue feel even dumber about her feelings. To the point that when they finally had a moment to talk she completely rejected any idea of them being together at all. It seemed like the easier choice at the time, but all Blue could do was replay Red's look in her head and wonder...
She was torn from her thoughts when she heard a noise coming from the kitchen. Slowly, she made her way to the top of the stairs to see Green sitting on the kitchen counter, desperately trying to remove his splint with a knife.
"Hey," she said deviously as she took a seat on the bottom stair, her head resting in her hand. "Whatcha doing, Green?"
Startled, the knife in Green's hand nearly flew from his grip. Once he processed that the girl on the stairs was only Blue, who was currently in a fit of giggles, he relaxed.
"You shouldn't do that to people with knives in their hands," he scolded, as Blue rose from her seat and hopped onto the counter next to him.
"You're right, my bad," she smiled as she tucked a leg under her and adjusted the oversized T-shirt she had worn to bed. "What are you even doing?"
"Trying to get this stupid splint off," Green frowned, as he went back to hacking away at the hard plastic with his knife. "I don't care what my aunt said, I can't deal with it anymore. Do you know how itchy this shit is?"
Though Blue knew that she shouldn't laugh at Green's misfortune she couldn't help but smile at the green-eyed boy. Green usually always played by the rules, so it was refreshing to see him at least trying to color outside the lines.
"Here," she said, taking the knife away from him before he sawed off his entire appendage. "Let me help you."
Twisting her long hair to throw over her shoulder, Blue's slender fingers traveled across Green's arm, until finding the small plastic fasteners that held the contraption together. With a flick of her fingers, it was lose, popping opened like a clamshell.
Then came the smell.
"Ewwww!" Blue hissed, as she jumped from the counter holding her nose. "That's so freaking gross!"
Green puffed his cheeks, holding his breath comically as he ran to the kitchen sink to wash the stench from his skin. Still holding her nose, Blue grabbed the grotesque, used splint and threw it into the garbage, slamming the top for good measure. Green shushed her between chuckles, turning off the water as she handed him a dish towel to dry his newly freed arm. It only took a few seconds of silence for both the teens to erupt into a fit of giggles again.
"That was disgusting," Blue said, hopping back to her perch on the counter while Green leaned against the sink, still drying his arm.
"Yeah," Green smiled, looking up at the girl. "At least I can finally shower like a normal person now."
The two fell into a comfortable silence that was broken when Blue turned her attention to the staircase.
"He still hasn't come down, has he?" she asked and Green's face fell into its usual serious look.
"Not that I know of," he said, his eyes fixated on the sink. "I've only seen him like this once before."
"When?"
"When his dad first left."
Blue nodded, looking down at her feet dangling from the countertop. She had moved to Cerulean City shortly after Ash's disappearance, and since her house was right next door to the gym her first sight of the young boy was when he was sitting on his bedroom window sill, searching for his missing father.
"It's like I said before," Green said, bringing Blue back to their situation. "You just need to let him figure this out."
"But what even is this?" she said, motioning to where they were. "We're sitting in a cabin on top of Mt. Silver doing what, exactly?"
"It's the Underground," Green said, his eyes suddenly filled with sadness. "Or what's left of it anyway. During the days of Team Rocket's resurgence Red's dad, my dad and a bunch of other people gathered together to take them down. It seemed to be working until about twelve years ago when things got more...intense."
"Intense?" Blue echoed. "Why?"
"For something called the four Conduits," he explained. "People who could harness the powers of Pokémon - it was only seen as an old Johto legend until someone in Hoenn actually popped up with the power to harness Pokémon energy. But him and his sister were killed in a battle at the Cave of Origins and the Underground went into action to find the other three. They're saying one is the leader of Team Plasma, whoever that is, and the other one was killed by Team Rocket twelve years ago. That was the battle where my mother was killed."
Green stopped for a moment and Blue reached out a hand to touch his damp arm. He shrugged it off with a smile.
"No, it's okay," he said, clearing his throat before continuing. "Afterwards, me and dad moved to Pallet to take over Oak Labs and Red's dad left. I don't really know what happened or why, but him and my dad kept in contact. They've been trying to find the last Conduit."
"So...you knew?" came a voice and Blue and Green both turned to the staircase to see Red, his hat pulled low and covering his eyes. "And you never told me?"
"Red, please," Green said, backing up. "It was more complicated than that."
"It seems pretty simple to me," Red growled, storming down the stairs and getting up in Green's face. "You either knew or you didn't know."
"Red back up," Green said, growing annoyed and pushing Red away. "Get out of my face."
"No, answer the fucking question, Green!" Red shouted, taking the boy by the shirt.
"Get off me!" Green shot, and soon the two boys were tumbling around the tiny kitchen, hitting chairs and walls as they went.
"Hey!" Blue called, sprinting from her seat. "Knock it off, you two!"
The boys ignored her, as Red finally pinned Green to the wall nearest to the front door.
"How?!" he shouted, spit hitting Green right in the face. "How did you fucking know, asshole!"
"My...dad told me," Green spatted, trying to break out from Red grasp."Because unlike yours, he actually gave a shit about me!"
It was something Blue knew Green didn't mean, but in the heat of the moment, with them all just locked in a cabin in the middle of who-knows-where, he dug deep and hit below the belt. And of course, Red took the bait and both boys broke.
"Fuck you!" Red screamed, his voice breaking as he grabbed Green by the arms and flipped it into the door, breaking it open and letting in the cool mountain air.
The two boys feel to the ground, in the cold snow as the two of them fought for dominance. While Red had speed, Green had pure strength and managed to kick the other boy off him, sending him flying into the snow. Blue saw him reach for his arm, which was probably re-injured in the tackle.
"You're the worst friend in the fucking universe, Green!" Red screamed, taking a handful of snow and throwing it at the teen. "I fucking hate you!"
"I'm the worst friend?" Green called back, taking his own handful of snow to chuck. "I gave you everything ever since we were kids - God, I even gave you Blue!"
Blue's heart skipped and she watched as Red's face scrunched up in another painful yell as he got up for another tackle, which Green rolled out of the way for. Behind her, Blue heard the hurried footsteps of the other housemates, but she didn't turn around to face them.
"All you care about is yourself," Green shouted finally, standing up from the snow and turning around to go back to cabin. "You're such a fucking brat, Red, that's why nobody wants to deal with your bullshit."
Green marched back to the door, leaving Red in the snow alone. When he reached Blue the two of them made uncomfortable eye-contact before he moved passed her to lock himself in his own room.