Helllooooo! So basically I was taking a break from studying AP Biology, and this is what happens! It's completely unrelated to biology- clearly- but anyway, I hope you enjoy! I might have gotten a little off topic and a little rambly, but I hope you enjoy it nevertheless :) Not my best work ever, so if you want to constructive criticism is always welcomed.

Disclaimer: I own nothing except a lot of neurons, several thousand muscle cells, and red blood cells that grow really quickly. And they say I don't do anything productive!

9 – Telephone
Gold has to listen to Green droning on and on about how busy Crystal is and how he really shouldn't be calling her during 'working hours', yet when he hears an indignant yell and the sound of a breathless Crystal going, "Gold?" into the phone, it's all worth it.

"Seen Crystal lately?"

Silver looked up, annoyed at the interruption of his chess game with Blaine. "No, Gold," he said flatly. "I never see Crystal anymore. How many times do I have to tell you this?"

"Sorry, just asking," Gold snapped back, flopping onto the grass. "It's just that-"

"-she never comes around anymore, I miss her, yadda yadda yadda yadda, I know the entire speech. Go find her, then. You know exactly where she is." Silver moved his pawn and then grimaced when Blaine gleefully confiscated the piece. "Aw, Mew's tail- Gold, look at what you made me do!"

"Oh, Gold, do stay here," Blaine smirked. "It's been such a long time since I last played chess, and it's refreshing to win once in a while."

"Gold," Silver warned as Blaine moved his bishop, "I will find a way to blackmail you. Or hurt you. Either way, I'm not picky."

The capped boy just waved his cue stick at the glowering redhead. "Silver, learn to be a gracious loser. It makes you look cooler." He ducked as Silver chucked a chess piece at him. "And learn how to be nicer in general! Arceus, you are just so twitchy these days- OW!" And he yelped as a chess piece hit him squarely in the eye. "No wonder you have no luck with the ladies- OW!" Another chess piece nailed him in the other eye.

If looks could kill, death would have found Gold an appealing companion. "Go find your girlfriend, Gold," Silver said through gritted teeth. "Before she has to come and find you buried in your family's grave."

Gold left nothing to chance; he was gone before Blaine could move another chess piece.

…

"She's busy." And Green closed the door in Gold's face.

"Come on, Green!" Gold yelled at the shut door. "Cut her some slack!"

"It's a big research project, Gold. Lot of work." Green's tone could still sound dreadfully cold through a thick door, Gold noted darkly. "But then again," Green continued, "you wouldn't know much about work, would you?"

Gold scowled at the door and mimed the stabbing of his heart. "That was just mean, Green. Maybe that's what I'll call you from now on. Mean Green."

"Rhyming insults fail to move me in any manner whatsoever," Green drawled from behind the closed door. "Go home, Gold. We're busy. I'm leaving now."

"Green!" Gold glowered at the closed door, knowing that if he broke it down Crystal would be mad at him, and then he would have to endure Green's wrath the next time he visited him for training at his Gym. Green's Pokemon weren't likely to go easy on his own Pokemon; they were exactly like their trainer, stoic and unchanging and prone to grudges. "Green?"

No answer.

Gold threw up his hands and stalked off, grumbling under his breath. "One afternoon," he grumbled. "Is that so much to ask? What are they researching, anyway? The effects of Zubat saliva on cuts?"

Well, he decided, if he couldn't get Crystal in person, he would just have to get her by phone. He knew Crystal often had her phone on her, even when she was working, but because it was often on silent mode it was sketchy as to whether she would pick it up. Gold shrugged, even as he turned into the path leading to his house. It was worth a shot, he figured.

His room, just as messy as it was when he left, revealed an extremely bored Ataro swinging from the rods holding up his curtains. It gave him a reproachful look, as though to say Where have you been?, and then swung into his arms, where it began to hit him repeatedly over the head. Gold yelped as his Pokemon smacked him; half-jokingly, he threatened: "Stop before I give you to Green for corrective behavior."

With a terrified screech, Ataro scrambled away from Gold, leaving the trainer standing confusedly in a pile of dirty laundry. "Well," Gold muttered as he reached for his PokeGear, "I'm glad I'm not the only one intimidated by Green…"

He didn't even have to look at the phone when he dialed; Crystal's number was memorized by now. He figured he could do it in his sleep, and he grinned, remembering when he had told Silver of that fact. The grumpy redhead had grimaced (though whether it was in response to his remark, or whether it was because Weavile had just nipped his finger, Gold was unsure): "That's creepy, Gold."

While the phone rang, Gold's attention turned to Silver, and how he had been acting lately. "You know, Ataro, I think Silver needs a girlfriend," he told the cheeky monkey. "Even Prissy Boy has a girlfriend, whether he likes it or not. Silver just needs a girl to lighten him up."

Ataro chittered and shook its head. Not a good idea.

"What are you talking about? It's a brilliant idea." Gold scoffed at his Pokemon. "You don't give me enough credit for these things. How about Jasmine?"

Ataro smacked its face. The last time you tried to talk to Jasmine, Volkner almost threw you all the way back to Goldenrod.

"Yeah, so? It doesn't mean she's not willing to give Silver a shot…"

You're suicidal.

"You just need to be open-minded."

Or sane, and you are neither.

"For a Pokemon, you're awfully cheeky," Gold muttered as the phone went to voicemail. He hung up and hit redial, rolling his eyes as Ataro swung across the room to open the door for Utaro, who lumbered in waving its arms.

The phone kept ringing, and Gold covered the mouthpiece as he leaned over to look at the Pokemon, who was nursing a burnt arm. "What happened to you?" he wanted to know.

Got a little too close to Explotaro, the Sudowoodo explained. We sort of got a little carried away playing tag…

"Did you burn anything down?"

No… well, not much.

"Is my mother going to freak out?"

She's never going to notice.

"Well, then, I guess we're not in trouble."

"Think again," a voice said on the other line, a voice that was as dry as sandpaper, and Gold jumped in alarm. "Crystal?" he said hesitantly.

"Does this sound like Crystal to you?" the voice wanted to know, and Gold sighed in exasperation when he realized the voice was distinctly male and annoyed. "Green, for Mew's sake," he said a little too loudly, "all I want to do is talk to Crystal."

"She's working, Gold," Green snapped. "Do you know how irresponsible it is of you-"

"You would have done the same thing for Blue-" Gold began.

"-a huge lab report that might change the face of Pokemon medicine as we know it-" It annoyed Gold that Green just kept on talking over him in the same monotone, as though he was ignoring Gold just because he could, so Gold talked even louder:

"-okay, maybe not Blue, but one day, Green, when you find someone you're actually happy with-"

"-and it's during working hours, what's so important that it can't wait-"

"-but then again you'll probably never date anyone because you're so isolated from the rest of society-"

"-she's busy, we're all busy, which part of that don't you understand-"

Gold was busy coming up with the best insults he could throw at the older Viridian Gym Leader when he heard a surprised yowl and mass chaos on the other side of the line, as though Green had just dropped the phone on the ground. And then the best sound of his life came filtering into his ear:

"Gold?" Crystal said breathlessly into the receiver. "What's up?"

…

"He did what?" And Gold gleefully envisioned Crystal glaring at Green, who would preferably be standing by with a visibly chastened look on his face. But knowing Green, he was probably bent over his research, ignoring whatever Gold was saying about him. Oh dear. The next trip down to Green's Gym was going to be so much fun.

"I'm not that busy that I can't go out with my friend," Crystal was saying to someone, her voice distant as though she was holding the phone away from her ear. "What do you mean I am..? No, I do my own work- look here, Green, your own grandfather told me I could take a break whenever I wanted… Green?"

There was a pause, and then Crystal came back on the line, her tone clearly exasperated. "He just walked out of the lab. That's great. But I'm really sorry about today, Gold. Of course I can go for lunch. Well… actually, dinner, now that it's so late in the afternoon." She paused, and Gold could see her tugging at her earlobe, pink suffusing her cheeks. "So, what time are we meeting each other?"

"Oh, I'll pick you up at seven," Gold said nonchalantly, as though he hadn't been thinking about this the entire day. "Say, Crystal, can I get your opinion or something?"

"Mmhmm?" And he could see her bending over another piece of a lab report, trying to piece together more information as she multitasked. He really did love that about her, how she seemed so efficient, so put together. Of course, there were her legs (and Gold thought briefly about how so very honest that was of him), but more than that, he thought her smile and her eyes and the way she moved her arms when she was talking was so captivating- he wondered how no other boy had fallen in love with her before.

But there were more things to worry about at the moment.

"Do you think Silver would work well with Jasmine?"

Ataro and Utaro sweatdropped, and Crystal just sighed. "Oh, Gold," she said into the phone, her voice tinged with exasperation and a slight hint of amusement- "You're an idiot."

He liked to think that that meant she was willing to tolerate him a little while longer- he allowed himself to hope that that meant he had a chance. Because after all, Crystal was tolerant, and he was pushy; she was a smart girl versus a hopelessly idiotic boy. In this case, he really hoped the theory that opposites attracted proved true.

Um yeah, the ending's a little choppy, I do think. But reviews as always- greatly appreciated.