500! 25% done! Just a little longer than usual to celebrate?


491. milestone: an important event

Lunch was a spectacular affair - probably quite the milestone in Red's social life (or lack thereof) while up the mountain. After washing dishes (leaving scraps of food was asking for a wild pokemon attack), it was gift unwrapping time. Green lugged his backpack over to the fire, but Leaf protested, wanting her gift to be opened first. She pulled out her scrapbook proudly, but as a couple photos fluttered out, she freaked out and shooed the boys away while she and Yellow rushed to fix it up. So Green and Red were sitting together in a heap of pokemon on the other side of the fire so they couldn't see.

"...How'd you meet Yellow?" Green had belatedly noticed how well and un-awkward the two were.

Red paused, before quietly murmuring, "Pikachus met in Viridian."

492. attain: to reach, get, or accomplish

Green made an almighty mental fist pump. He'd attained the goal of making Red speak a full sentence. However, he hid it all and smoothly continued the conversation. "I see. She's nice. And she likes Leaf: who likes her back, so it works out well."

Red nodded. The Leaf and Yellow were crouching at the opposite corner of the cave, huddling just a little closer than their work needed them to be. As if inspired, Red inched closer to Green just so their shoulders were touching.

493. tenuous: weak; thin

Green's face heated up a little at the touch. He'd thought Red was against being so close, after what happened earlier in the snow. He leaned a little closer, and after no negative response, he reached over and picked up Red's hand, and studied the fine lines of scars. Though thin and bony, Red's hands were not tenuous; there was lean muscle under the pale skin. Green traced a bluish vein gently, and Red shuddered. Green looked up and saw Red's eyes were downcast, and his cheeks were tinted with pink. Green smirked (he just wanted to sweep Red up in a hug and snuggle with him forever) and intertwined his warm fingers with Red's cold ones, and held on tightly.

494. recidivist: one who returns to criminal habits

At that moment, it was silent except for the small noises from the crackling fire and in the midst of snoozing pokemon, but Green's heart was beating so fast and loud he thought he might explode. He could feel sweat beginning to gather in his hand, but even though it was gross it'd be ok because Red was holding on too. Green didn't care if Red thought he was a recidivist sexual offender that made moves whenever he felt like it - he loved Red, and Red liked him, and he just need to show how much he wanted to be with the other. They held onto each other desperately, savoring the connection.

495. colt: a young male horse

The magic was interrupted by Leaf announcing her completion and storming over. Yellow tagged along, carrying Daisy's bouquet.

"Tada! This year's scrapbook!" Red let go of Green and reached out to take the scrapbook and opened it gingerly. It was a blue hardcover notebook with the date written neatly on the otherwise plain cover. Inside, there was a collection of polaroid film and home printed photographs. As Red flipped through, Leaf spouted out explanations to elaborate on the concise captions beneath each picture.

"So the first quarter is from my stay in Unova! Last time I went, I only got to visit the smaller eastern towns, cause I was there to help with excavations of the Abyssal Ruins, right? So this time I got to visit the major center cities - oh and I got a picture with Elesa before she left on a world tour with Skyla; look at her colt! It's a zebstrika, a native electric type, but it's actually closely related to ponyta and rapidash. Isn't it cute?" Each page had a centerpiece picture with more images of scenery and landmarks around it. With each image came another story, and Green got the idea that Red traveled vicariously through Leaf and thus never felt the need to go explore. Whether it was a good thing or not, Green wasn't sure, but Red seemed to enjoy it greatly.

496. elated: in high spirits; joyful

At last, they reached the last page: Leaf had taken a ton of selfies in Green's apartment, and had just one caption at the bottom reading: "enough room for one black-haired red-eyed tenant ;)" and Red's mouth twitched upwards. Green interpreted that as Red's (probably accidental) display of elation. His heart fluttered and Yellow chose to present the bouquet next.

497. languid: sluggish; lacking energy

Compared to his rapid flipping through Leaf's scrapbook, Red's gentle fingering of the flowers seemed languid.

"The bouquet's from Daisy - but the flowers are from Green, so hehe, aren't the Oaks such romantics? Uh, well Daisy arranged the white lilies and the big pink rose, I put in a couple apple blossoms for a little more pink. Oh, and I added some of my special garden mulch and Daisy added some Celadon brand flower food, so it should last for another two weeks before wilting. Um, I wrote up a manual on drying flowers in case you haven't tried preserving them before - it's attached to the ribbon." Yellow smiled at Red's slow perusal of each and every blossom. It was a beautiful arrangement of pastel pink and diaphanous white, and it almost seemed to glow in the overwhelming firelight. Red turned away to put it next to the tiny fake tree (the stupid thing with cards tied on the branches) and keep it further from the roaring fire.

498. adept: very skilled, especially natural talent improved by practice

He walked back to sit with everybody around the fire, holding a branch from the bouquet with a couple apple blossoms. Red nodded thankfully at Yellow, and then turned to Green. He adeptly grabbed a shoulder, then placed the small branch in Green's breast pocket. Promise. Green flushed, Leaf wolf-whistled, and Yellow clapped. Red's lips curved upwards visibly and his warm eyes twinkled.

499. lofty: very high; noble

Green put away his smile and embarrassment long enough to pull out the art supplies from the backpack. He laid the tools out and handed everybody a small canvas; he'd gotten a pack of 8"x12" and a couple more packs of 4"x6" canvases. Red's eyes widened.

"Uh, so, I know you like drawing, so I thought you'd like oil painting? I was thinking that we could all work on something quick this afternoon?" Red nodded eagerly. Leaf and Yellow looked at each other, whispered something, giggled, and picked up a couple of the brushes.

Leaf scooped up the blues. "Hey Green, we should each take like different color sets so each painting has a different main color, so they all look different. Also cause you know, this should be a individualish thing so we can't share paints unless we're right next to each other. Uh, I'll take blues and purples, you can take greens and the light blue, Yellow will take oranges and yellows, and Red will take reds and browns. Ok? And I guess we can share whites and blacks, since you got a gigantic tube of them anyway."

500. vie: to compete

Leaf took her supplies and wandered outside the cave to paint. Yellow followed her for a while, but returned to the cave later. Green tried to think of something nice, but ended up painting his own Gyarados and altering it a little so it turned into a blurry painting of the Gyarados that had splashed him (Green held grudges against unruly pokemon). Mixing colors was hard; and the paints didn't dry quickly, as acrylics usually did, so his tiny canvas turned into a messy sprawl of blues and greens vaguely resembling something serpentine with white whiskers. Although he wasn't necessarily vying for "most beautiful" piece, he had to admit that his splotches weren't exactly stunning.

Green tried to peek over Red's shoulder, but Red flipped it upside down and threatened to smash it if he peeked. Green backed off, surprised by the reaction - Red's face was pink and he was biting his lip in embarrassment. Green chuckled, raised his hands in surrender, and then went back to staring at his messy Gyarados.