This is gonna sound so lame, but I've been so excited about this chapter for ages now! It's the first interesting thing that has happened in a long while. Seriously, the Vermilion City chapters were so dreary while I was writing them because I just couldn't wait for this one. Aw, now I'm sad it's over.

Gahhh, I made a massive mistake! When I first uploaded this, I had called Green Blue twice because I had him as Blue in my book. But now it's okay! I've fixed it :D

Chapter 14: Green

"This was definitely something that brought me back down to earth. It made me realise that I should be nice and not annoying whenever something didn't go my way, because things can just be gone from your life suddenly, and there's nothing you can do about it except look back and wonder," Green said.

Green placed his knee on the ground, and then the other so he was sitting on his knees. He ran his hand along the newly-laid soil that was covering the patch of ground in front of him. They'd done a magnificent job, him and Mister Fuji, and he was awfully proud of how it looked. If there was one thing good about this situation, it was that at least he had one of the better looking graves and that Raticate would go into the next life peacefully because of this. He was so vain, but he couldn't help it. Even in such melancholy situations, he cared for appearances.

Not his own, funnily enough. Right now he didn't give a toss that his face was smudged with dirt and streaked by tears, and that his hair was sticking up in all different directions from him running his hand through it so often. That was something Green did when he was nervous or unhappy, it was just a habit he had had since he couldn't remember when. The intention was to calm his hair down, but it always just resulted in it sticking up even further.

He squeezed his eyes shut to try and stop the tears from spilling out again, he'd felt a sudden wave of sadness wash over him as he had several other times today. "Raticate, I'm so sorry," He mumbled, placing his hand on the headstone. At first he had been angry at Red for injuring the poor creature so harshly. He had cursed him over and over while he was sitting in the Pokecentre, watching it as it was hooked up to all different life-support machines. But when it had finally passed on, he stopped blaming his friend. He hadn't meant for Pikachu to be so strong, they'd just been battling after all. No, it was his own fault. He knew he was pushing it a little hard for what it was capable of, but he did it anyway.

Green extended his quivering hand towards Raticate, placing it on its paw and stroking its fur. It looked so fragile, so breakable just lying there, struggling to breathe. He wished that he could do something to help it, but of course he couldn't. The nurses had done everything they could to try and help it survive, but this was the only thing that was working. At first they'd told him it would start to improve within the week, and should be just a little unwell by the end of it, but it had been four days and it hadn't shown any signs of improving. In fact, its condition was deteriorating. At first it had been tossing and turning slightly in the bed, but now it was completely still, and the beep of the heart monitor had been slowing down quite noticeably.

He was so worried, what if Raticate were to not make it? It was one of the first pokemon he caught, so it had been with him for the majority of his journey. It was a friend, one of his best friends even. If he were to lose it, he would be devastated. It wasn't fair! Why did this have to happen to him? It was Red's fault, if he hadn't used his stupid Pikachu then this whole thing would have been avoided. But no, of course it happened, because Red never thought of anyone but himself!

"Fuck you, Red," He cursed under his breath. "Fuck you, Red!" This time it was louder, and it felt good to get it out of his system. He attracted a few glares from people around him, but he didn't care. He needed to be angry.

"What did Red do to deserve you cursing him so loudly?" He looked up to find a face staring at him from across the other side of the bed. It was a girl around his age, and she didn't look angry at him from swearing, thankfully.

"You know Red?" He asked, a little bit irritated that his rant had been interrupted.

"No, but there must be a reason you're so angry at him,"

"Yes!" Finally, someone would listen to him. "He made my Raticate like this, he's just about killed it!"

She frowned. "How?"

"We were having a battle," His fingers on his empty hand begun tapping frustratedly on the bed and his leg was jiggling up and down, something that always happened when he was mad. He could never sit still, no matter what the situation was and especially when he was angry. But it just wasn't fair, nothing ever went his way! "And he has this Pikachu, and for some reason it had a really strong Thunderbolt and it knocked Raticate out cold! He probably did it purposely just to annoy me!"

"I don't think he did," She replied.

"What do you know?" He hissed, his tapping on the bed was becoming urgent. How dare this girl come and preach to him about what was right and wrong? His pokemon was sick and she was telling him off, the nerve! He looked back up and her, and she just shrugged, clearly unaffected by his words. What was with her?

There was a beep on the machine next to Raticate, and then a few more in quick succession. Green's heart lifted, was there finally some progress? But these beeps were followed by one long one, and when he looked at the heart monitor, he saw that the screen was empty. He let go of Raticate's paw and slowly placed his hands in his lap. He tried to blink back the tears, but they were persistent and rolled down his cheeks over and over. He sniffed and wiped them away, but it didn't really help.

There was a warm weight on his shoulders, and he looked up and found the girl had come around and placed her arm around him. "He didn't mean it," She mumbled, looking at Raticate and frowning. He nodded and placed his arm around her waist.

He heard footsteps behind him, and nervously stood up, not wanting to be seen so emotionally torn (again), that just wasn't who he was. He wiped his eyes and cheeks and straightened out his shirt. He turned around when he heard the footsteps stop. "Oh, hey, Red," He tried to grin, not wanting to burst into tears again. He couldn't do social right now.

'Are you alright?'

"I'm fine," He replied, unsure of the steadiness of his voice. He couldn't let Red know he'd been crying just a few minutes earlier, that'd just be embarrassing, and losing face in front of him was something he wasn't prepared to do. "Red, have you ever had any of your pokemon die?" It was a stupid question, of course he wouldn't have had that. But...if there was something Red could do well, it was listen, and that's what Green needed most right now.

Instead of answering straight away, Red just looked up at him with utmost sincerity, his eyes wide. It was a little unnerving and made Green wonder what he was thinking about. "No,"

Green's jaw dropped open in surprise and all his sadness and thoughts about Raticate disappeared for the time being. Did Red just speak? Like, actually say something? It must have been a really harsh topic for him emotionally if he was moved enough to answer with real speaking. Oh, wow. And he had a voice, he was actually able to speak. Green knew that Red didn't have any reasons why he didn't talk, but he still found it hard sometimes to believe that he could actually speak if he wanted to.

His voice was interesting. It was quite, yet hoarse. Probably monotone from never being used, but he couldn't really tell with just one word. It was as if it was in there, just waiting to come out. It made him think a little, this was something that was such little effort for most people, yet for Red it was a big deal. Okay, he'd better answer now, he was looking at Green expectantly.

"Well, I was just here looking for a Cubone," He laughed nervously. "But I er...couldn't find any,"

'That's a shame. I heard some people in town saying that one's mother passed away here recently,'

"Yeah," He ran his fingers through his hair. Was he going to speak again? Did he even speak or did he just imagine it? "I uh...have to go. Smell you, um, later!"

Red watched him turn around and sprint down the stairs. He touched his throat - did he really just say something? It felt warm and strange and was beginning to hurt from never being used. Deciding that it didn't really matter what just happened, he surveyed the room and found his position was right in front of a headstone. He stared at it, feeling a odd sadness wash over him for the poor trainer who had lost it. Red wasn't very keen on people, he found them a little frustrating and preferred to be by himself or just with pokemon, but he could sympathise well. He squinted at the engraving on the grave to read what it said.

Raticate

Trainer: Green Oak

Oh shit. The question Green had asked had actually been him trying to reach out for help, sympathy or anything, and he hadn't responded with anything like that. Green must have thought he was a horribly selfish person. Actually, it was Green's fault for not really telling him what had happened anyway. But his pokemon had just died, and that was awful. Red couldn't even begin to imagine the sort of grief he'd feel if Pikachu were to pass away, so he felt sad for Green. He'd have to be kinder to him next time they ran into one another.

He glanced at the headstone again and decided that he should at least try to help, he was probably in mourning after all, and he didn't want to appear like a jerk. He ran down the steps, taking two at a time and made his way quickly out the tower. He attracted a few stares from disrupted mourners, but he didn't care. He was solely focused on finding Green and making it up to him.

He stepped into the street and froze. There was no chance of finding him now, all the alleyways and streets were packed with people, there'd be no way he'd be able to spot him. He wondered why everyone was out, about twenty minutes ago there had been no one. There must be something happening, he didn't know the streets could get so crowded. He peered down the road, looking for that familiar mop of brown hair, but couldn't see anything. Disheartened, he turned around and walked back into the tower.