holy shit crashing chrome is the bane of my existence

341. rapture: the experience of great joy; ecstasy

Green hurriedly mixed in the sleeping powder to a glass of water as Leaf made an offhand comment about how swimming in the ocean would be a great way to ease her sadness. She was currently in a rapture describing the crystal clear waters of of the Johto coast and the sapphire blue oceans of Hoenn. She was dazedly listing off all the documented water pokemon in the world, and Green belatedly wondered why Leaf seemed to think Salamence was a water type.

342. contemplate: to look at or think about carefully; to consider as a possibility

Green coaxed Leaf to drink the mixture, and then contemplated how long he had before she'd hurl. Not long - she gagged a couple seconds later and Green sprinted for the trash can and just barely got it in place in time to save the lovely carpet from being scarred. He wrinkled his nose a little at the smell - although Leaf came to cry and drown in alcohol while he stared and promised to Arceus that he'd never drink more than a bottle, one really could not get accustomed to the smell.

Meanwhile, Daisy was bustling about to set up a futon in the empty guest room (she had been planning to transform it into a at-home massage room so that she wouldn't have to travel for work). As she slapped her hands together to get rid of dusk, she called out to Green in the living room. "Greeeeen! Did you eat anything yet?"

343. savor: to taste or smell, especially with pleasure

Green inhaled deeply and savored the smell of Daisy's fried rice. She'd used leftover rice and pieces of meat to assemble the meal, but somehow the very humble ingredients made him yet again appreciate Daisy's natural talent for cooking (he could only get food to work with him if he tried really hard). Her fried rice gave him a happy nostalgia, unlike the oily and spicy rice that of Celadon.

344. incontrovertible: impossible to dispute

Daisy was massaging Leaf's temples with a wet towel. "It was supposed to be a girl's night sort of thing since my husband left this afternoon on a business trip," she commented. "I wasn't expecting her to break down like this. I don't think she's ever broken down because of a romance."

Green wondered how Yellow could misunderstand Leaf's devotion. Heck, the facts were incontrovertible; Leaf had stayed in touch with Yellow for so long, and Leaf never stayed in touch with anybody except for the Pallet Town circle; nearly all the contacts in her phone had never been called or texted. Despite her gregarious and travel loving behavior, Leaf did not often make close friends, so just her and Yellow being so close already said something huge.

345. graze: to feed on grasses

After finishing his fried rice, Green washed his plate and the pot, trying to minimize clanging sounds to keep Leaf asleep. Daisy had rolled Leaf onto her side so that if she did puke, she wouldn't choke, and Leaf was still sobbing a little in her sleep. Daisy had placed a cool towel on her head and retire to sleep for the night, and Green did too after double checking that the doors were locked and the blinds shut, so that Leaf wouldn't go popping off into the ocean first thing when the sun rose.

Green collapsed into his futon, staring at the ceiling and recalling the days before he and Gramps had moved out of the house to give Daisy and her husband privacy. Insects called out, accompanied by nocturnal birds' hoots.

The sun stabbed his eyeballs the next morning - his room's window faced east, and the sun had no mercy for late sleepers. He grumpily got up to close the blinds, but stared out and rested his chin on his hands, leaning on the windowsill. He could see the ranch, and far away he could see the lab too - some tauros were already up and grazing. It was such a stereotypical scene of pastoral peace, that Green let memories wash over him.

346. coincide: to occur at the same time or be at the same place; to agree exactly

The early morning coincided with a memory from when he was five, and had woken up after a sleepover with Red to see the black-haired boy staring out the window at the ranch. At that time, there was only a ravenous flaaffy that kept the grass in check, and the flaaffy's doubtlessly powerful stomach was often subject to their discussion. Red was observing the pink grass eating beast in curiosity, and Green recalled staring at Red from his half of the futon and wondering what Red would look like when he was old and sun burned, with fluffy white hair... kind of like a flaafy.

347. portray: to make a likeness of; to describe in words

Green had startled Red with his proclamation that Red would look like a flaafy in fifty years (Red thought Green was asleep). Red just didn't get how old humans looked like flaafy. Green pulled out some crayons and tried to portray his mental image of Red's growth. He started with a picture of them together, small and holding hands. The next picture was when they were ten, and pokemon masters; the legs were a little longer, and Green was taller, but they still held hands. After that was twenty - they both had long arms and legs and Green was still taller, and the hand holding stayed. At last was them at fifty - Red had spontaneously transformed into a flaafy, and Green had turned into a mareep.

348. furrow: a trench in the earth made by a plow; a wrinkle

Red had smiled at Green's scribbles, and Green was laughing his heart out at the picture of them as sheep holding hands. Professor Oak ahd found them, and before telling Green to quiet down, he saw the picture and analyzed it. A furrow formed between his eyebrows and then as Green avidly explained his and Red's evolution, the professor had smiled broadly and scanned the photo, saving it onto his computer before framing it and hanging it in his office.

349. quaff: to drink quickly or with enthusiasm

The day before Green and Red were ready to start of their journey, Green had begged the professor to take down the photo. The professor had chuckled merrily before declining and quaffing his boiling hot coffee to start off the morning. Green had desperately come up with arrogant words to distract Red from turning observant eyes to the paper, and the distraction worked, but started a hostile rivalry.

After the battle at Indigo, Green had flown home to Professor Oak's empty office (the professor was out congratulating Red) and stared blankly at the image. He was tempted to throw the frame, glass cover and all, to the floor and watch it smash into a thousand tiny pieces. However, when he picked it up, he found a cute drawing of an Eevee and a Pikachu hugging on the back of the original drawing. It had been sketched neatly in pencil, and Green recognized it as Red's art style. As he turned the image under the light, he found a faded, erased image behind the Eevee and Pikachu - it was Green and Red, holding hands.

350. hierarchy: a ranking according to status or ability; a group having authority

That was the main reason Green accepted the offered position in Kanto's battling hierarchy. He would have outright declined the offer and gone into research without looking back, but had reconsidered after finding Red's picture. Maybe there was still hope in amending their relationship - losing to Red didn't have to mean the end of his battling career.