Home Sweet Home

"Is that…it can't be…IT IS!" Red shouted in pure joy. A few feet away from him was the tool that he had been looking for ever since he entered the cave. He merrily ran to the tall, wooden ladder that led to the floor above, going through a small hole in the ceiling.

Red grasped the stiff ladder with both of his hands and placed his left foot on the first rung. He quickly began his climb up the ladder and soon made to the top in a matter of seconds. He pulled himself onto the second floor and collapse on the ground.

He looked around and saw that the new environment was similar to the area when he entered the cave. He got up and scanned the area until he caught sight of a bright light. He felt the strange urge to walk towards the white light like a Dustox that is attracted to a light bulb in the middle of the dark. He shielded his eyes as he got closer to the light source since his eyes weren't used to bright light due to being underground for a long time.

His eyes soon adjusted to the light and he soon found himself in the middle of a forest. The sun in the sky told Red at it was probably a somewhere a little early than noon.

A loud ringing soon broke the peaceful silence in the forest. A few bird pokemon hiding in the trees were scared off by the abrupt noise. Red began to panic as he felt something began to vibrate in his left pocket.

Red took out his Pokegear that he completely forgotten that he had it with him the whole time. The name 'Mom' was flashing on the screen informing him who was calling. Red immediately flipped the device open and tightly pressed the speaker to his ear.

Red soon regretted putting the Pokegear close to his ear because a few seconds after he answered the PokeGear an angry voice shouted at him.

"RED KETCHUM! WHY HAVN'T YOU ANSWER ANY OF MY CALLS!" an angry mother shouted at Red."YOU HAD ME WORRIED SICK!" Red was deaf after his mother was done screaming at him.

After Red regained his hearing, he replied. "Sorry Mom, I was in a tunnel so I couldn't get any reception."

"Don't give any of those excuses, mister. You are old enough to take responsibility for your actions," Red's mother lectured him. "So stop acting like a child and take responsibility."

Red sighed in defeat not wanting to get in an argument with his mother. "Okay mom I will. Oh and I'm coming home today to come visit you," Red said, wanting to change the subject.

Red's mother tone soon changed from furious one into the caring tone that he always heard when he was with her. "You're coming home today, honey. Oh my, well I better get lunch ready for you when you get here." Red was freaked out by his mother's sudden change of tone but he didn't dwell on it much.

"Well, I'll be seeing you there Mom," Red responded to his mother.

"Okay Red. Good-bye and I love you honey." With that being said, Red's Mother hung up on the PokeGear and probably went to start on the meal that she promised her son.

Red let out a long sighed, thinking on how his short conversation with his Mom went. His thoughts then wandered on how he was progressing as a trainer. He had won three badges and he now had a full team. He did a lot of training in Diglett's cave and since the only opponents were fast-moving Digletts and a few speedy Dugtrios, his pokemon had gotten faster since they had to keep up with them.

I think I'm doing pretty well for a rookie trainer Red thought to himself. Grinning to himself, Red continued on his way to the city that was close by. With a steady pace, Red walked towards Viridian City not wanting to tire himself out quickly since he had little energy left.


Once Red arrived at the city, which Red now thought was kind of small compared to the other cities he has been through, he quickly made his way to the Pokemon Center.

Red happily entered the Pokemon Center, happy to finally be in a man-made structure. He continued his way towards the desk but stopped when he noticed that a couple trainers were curiously staring at him. Thinking that something was wrong, he looked down to take a look at his body.

He immediately noticed that his clothes were covered in dirt which he probably got when he was in the tunnel he just got out an hour ago. The filth was very noticeable on his clothing since the dirt on bright colored clothes wasn't very hard to spot.

Damn, I'm such a mess was the first thing that went through Red's mind. I need to take shower and a change of clothes. Well, I guess I can do all of that once I get home. Pushing out the thoughts on how filthy he was, Red walked up to the front counter and placed all six of his pokeballs on the counter, which also had dirt on them.

The cheerful Nurse from behind the counter gladly took the pokeballs from counter, assuring Red that she wouldn't take long. Red watched as she carefully placed the Pokeballs on the healing machine as if they were fragile eggs. With the Pokemon in place, the Nurse Joy pressed the button on the machine that made the advance piece of technology come to life.

In a few minutes, the machine stopped with a ding sound to tell the Nurse that it was finished. Nurse Joy grabbed the pokeballs and handed them back to Red.

"Your Pokemon have been restored to their full health," Nurse Joy said with a smile. "By the looks of it, you seem as you had a tough training session with your pokemon. That's very good but don't push yourself to hard and take a day off once in a while."

"Thanks Nurse Joy and don't worry. I'm going to take the rest of the day off," Red replied with his own smile. With the conversation finished, Red placed the pokeballs on his belt and headed towards the exit. The trainers that stared at him didn't bother him this time because Red thought that his dirty clothes made him look like a rough trainer and he thought to himself that he should be dirty more often.

The warm breeze hit his face as he stepped out of the building and Red took in a deep breathe. The day seem as it was a great day to just lay back and relax, which was exactly the thing he was going to do today. With the warm sun still not at its highest point yet, Red made his way towards Route 1.

Red stopped briefly at the Viridian gym to see if it was open. To his dismay the gym still wasn't open as the closed sign on the door still represented that.

"Hello their young trainer! Let me show you a thing or to about catching pokemon!" shouted an old man behind Red.

Red froze when he heard the elderly voice and slowly twisted his head to confirm if the person was the man he thought. As soon as he caught a glimpse of the same old man that stopped him on his first stop at this Gym, he broke into a sprint. He ran towards Route 1, not looking back and didn't even slowdown when he got onto the pathway.

The old man left behind had a confused look on his face. "I wonder what got into him. Oh well he must have gotten a case of the Doduo Flu, which was common in my days," the elderly man grumbled as he began to slowly walk back to his house with his cane in front.

Red was leaning on a wooden sign as he tried to catch his breathe at the entrance of his home town. His sprint from Viridian City was quick but Red still lost a lot of energy from it. He managed to regain his strength and his breathe turned from gasps for air to a normal breathing rate.

He walked through the quiet, peaceful town, greeting a few of his neighbors, and made his way to the front steps of his house. He fixed his clothes a bit to look a bit less dirty but he knew that his Mom was going to freak out if she saw him like this.

Red was ready to knock on the door but a small piece of white paper taped to the door stopped him. Red plucked off the note in one quick swift move and examined the black ink on it. The beautiful handwriting that belonged to his mother was scribbled all over the note.

"Dear Red My Little Boy," Red began to read out loud, rolling his eyes on the last part. "I am not home right now because I left to get some from groceries from the store in Viridian. I was running low on supplies so a trip was inevitable so please make yourself comfortable in the house. I have the house key under the welcome mat so you can use it to get inside. Love you Red, Sincerely your Mother."

Red crumbled up the letter in his hand and placed it in his pocket as he bent down. He lifted up the brown mat that said "Welcome" on the top with a happy Pidgey in the middle so it would seem friendly and, as his mother said, the brass metal key laid under it. He took the key and used it to open the lock front door.

Once inside, Red looked at his home and felt a little different about being in his home. He felt like it's been years since he last step into this place and a bit of nostalgia for his youth years came to him. Pushing away the feeling, Red dropped his book bag on the coffee table in the middle of the living room and placed his pokeballs on the table.

After deciding on it, Red thought that he should give his pokemon sometime outside of their pokeballs. He grabbed the pokeball closest to him and pushed the white button to enlarge the ball to the size of an apple. The pokeball split open from the middle and fired a white light to the side.

Red's Charmeleon soon stood next to him with his usual posture. Charmeleon blinked his eyes and looked around to observe his new environment, giving his eyes a few rubs in the process. He looked up to his trainer as to get an explanation on where they were.

Red soon got the message. "This is my home, Charmeleon," Red announced to his starter in a jolly tone. "This is where I grew up as a kid." Red extended out his arms as if it will give Charmeleon a better perspective.

This is my trainer's home Charmeleon thought giving the living room one more look. A small, black T.V sat on a wooden table in front a beige-colored couch and all the furniture was standing on top of a dull gray carpet that covered the floor and felt soft under his two feet.

So, humans are raised in these kind places Charmeleon concluded. Figures, I was born in a cave but I was later raised in a lab. Charmeleon grumbled at this thought but he stopped himself from getting jealous and accepted his past life. Something caught Charmeleon's eye and began to walk up to it.

"Oh and don't burn anything with that tail of yours," Red warned his fire pokemon, eyeing the flame burning on Charmeleon's tail. Charmeleon replied with a grunt and got closer to the object that caught his attention.

Leaving his pokemon to his bidding, Red continued to release his pokemon one by one into the living room. Pikachu appeared on the table, Gible sat on the floor as he admired his trainer's house, Eevee cuddled in the soft sofa, Nidorino explored the new smells in the house, and Pidgeotto perched on top of the T.V and began to preen his feathers.

With that task done, Red smiled in satisfaction as he watched his friends explore his house. He was about to leave the living room when he noticed that Charmeleon was staring at one of his photos on a small table.

It looked like Charmeleon was in deep thought as he carefully scanned the photo in the picture frame. A small, young boy that looked no older than five-years-old had his arms wrap around a woman that looked like she was in her late twenties and both looked happy in the photo that captured that moment of happiness. He was startled when Red placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey buddy, I'm going to take a bath so I need you to make sure that the others don't do any mischief," Red told his Pokemon. It took a moment to take in what Red said, but Charmeleon replied with a nod. Red patted Charmeleon's shoulder once more before leaving.

Red walked up the stairs and walked into his room. He took out a clean pair of clothes from his backpack and a towel. He took these items to his bathroom and proceeded to take a bath.

He took his shower in less than five minutes. He would have taken longer but he was afraid that if he stayed in the shower to long, his Pokemon might break something in his house. He quickly changed in his clothes and dropped his dirty clothes in his room.

Descending down the stairs in his house, Red caught the scent of something burning. The smell made the trainer sped down the stairs and he made a left to go into the kitchen to discover his Pokemon were all standing in the kitchen. They were all facing the stove where his mother was standing. She bent down to pet the Red's Eevee who wanted the affection.

She lifted her head and noticed her son for the first. "Oh hello honey," she greeted with a warm smile.

"Umm hey mom," Red replied awkwardly. He looked around for the source of the burning and saw that it was coming from the pan on the stove. Red's mother stopped her petting, to Eevee's dismay, and grabbed the pan and scraped the burn food into the trashcan nearby.

"Oh my Red, your wonderful pokemon distracted me from my cooking," the mother giggled. "I see that you caught many Pokemon and especially this little cutie." She began to pamper Red's newest member and it was obvious that she was his Mom's favorite.

She soon went back to cooking and the sweet smell of her cooking drifted into the nostrils of Red's. The smell also pleased the team of pokemon on the floor.

Red smiled but he knew that the food will take some time to cook. He decided to visit Professor Oak to kill some time. "Well, I'm going to go visit Professor Oak," Red told his mother his plans.

"Okay but don't be late for dinner. I will try to finish it as quick as I can," she replied without turning back.

"Okay everybody let's go," Red ordered his team who were all reluctant to leave the kitchen. They followed the trainer outside and began to follow him through the small town. The town was empty except for few kids who were outside playing and stopped a while to look at the Pokemon that walked by them.

-"Hiya"- Gible greeted the kids with a friendly wave of his hand. The children just stared at him in wonder as the tiny dragon-pokemon walked by past them.

With the kids left behind, Red headed towards building that was larger than the houses that they had seen so far. Walking up to the front doors of the building, Red decided to knock on the front door.

After knocking on the door a few seconds later an Aide of the Professor's open the door. It was a female assistant that had messy blonde hair and her glasses were crooked on her face with bags under her eyes. Overall she looked like a mess like as she has been working non-stop.

"Can I help you?" the women asked with a small yawn.

"Umm, I'm here to see Professor Oak," Red replied trying to see behind her to see if he could find the Professor.

"And who are you?" she rudely asked.

"Well, I'm a trainer that received a Pokedex from Professor Oak," Red said, thinking that that will get her to show him where Professor Oak is.

The Aide immediately fixed her glasses to get a better look at Red. "So you're the trainer that kept me up all night with you capturing all those different kinds of Pokemon! I had to examine each one that you captured and you captured a lot and you caught a few repeated pokemon!" the lady began to yell at Red, blaming him for her excessive amount of work.

Red sweat dropped at the woman's sudden outburst. "I think you got me confused with my rival Blue. I am Red and I had caught only six pokemon so far," Red corrected the misunderstood aide.

The woman stopped her scolding and got closer to take a better look at Red. "Oh so your that other pathetic trainer that has barely gotten six pokemon," she rudely said. "Well, I'm sorry for yelling at you but it just that I haven't slept in two days. Well, come in and Professor Oak is in his office." She opened the door wide enough for Red to enter with his Pokemon.

The large room was full of busy workers and each were either caring stack of papers or s bunch of pokeballs. Red knew where Professor Oak's lab was so went to the back of the busy room and knocked on the door that said "Professor Oak" on a brass plate on the door.

"Come in the door is open," a gruff voice cried from inside. Red opened up the door to enter and found the old professor sitting at his desk with his aged eyes staring at the computer in front of him.

His eyes moved from the old computer to the young trainer. "Ah it's you Red," the Professor blankly acknowledged his presence and went back to his work on the computer. "What brings you here my boy?"

Red walked into the office with his pokemon close behind and closed the door after his team has passed. Professor Oak took a moment to examine Red's pokemon with curious eyes. He showed a little more interest when his eyes saw the Eevee and Gible in his office.

"You haven't caught many pokemon but I see that you have very rare pokemon, especially that chubby guy," Oak remarked, pointing at Red's Gible who stared back at him with a blank expression.

"Yeah, I guess I'm just lucky," Red sheepishly replied. "Well, Leaf told me to come here to see if you can tell me how this Gible got her in Kanto since it's from a foreign region." Red picked up his chubby dragon-type and placed him on the Professor's desk.

Professor Oak got up from his chair, making a low groaning sound, to better examine the rare Pokemon in front of him. He rubbed the giant fin on his back and scratched his chin. Gible began to laugh as if he was being tickled. The Professor stuck his head into Gible's mouth and took it out just before Gible sharply closed it.

"Hmm…" was all Professor Oak said as he scratched his chin. "There's something wrong here."

"What is it Professor?" Red asked.

It took a while before the Professor answered. "This Pokemon… isn't from Kanto." The conclusion made Red fall anime style.

"That's what I said when I got here," Red told Professor Oak.

"Oh well I'm sorry because I was lost in thought in when you came in here," Professor Oak said as he continued to examine Gible. "Well, this is a remarkable discovery and I believe I must contact my other associates from other Regions to help me on this case."

Oh that sounds like it could take awhile Red thought.

"Oh and will it be acceptable with you that I can keep your Gible for awhile here?" the professor kindly asked the trainer's permission.

Red bit his tongue as he thought if he should leave his pokemon with the elderly professor. Thinking that there was no harm in doing so, he responded, "Its fine, just keep an eye on him since he can cause a lot of trouble when he is left unattended."

"Excellent," the old professor exclaimed, showing some cheerfulness for the first time.

Probably was glad that he got an excited mystery to figure out, I would have gotten excited if I was in his place after a long day of work Red thought that was the answer.

Seeing that he didn't have anything else to do and the Professor's Lab, Red decided it was time for him to take his leave. He turned around to grab the brass door handle but he never got the chance to do so. In a flash, the hard, wooden door slammed into his surprised face creating a loud bang noise. The impact knocked Red onto the cold tiles of the floor.

A young girl entered the room and looked at the fallen trainer. A smirk appeared on her face when she saw the sight of Red on the floor rubbing his hurt face.

"That should teach you not to stand in front of doors," Leaf said to Red in a mocking tone with a small giggle. She walked up to the Professor's desk and dropped a large stack of papers that she was carrying.

"More paperwork for you Professor," Leaf announced with her cute smile. She then noticed the Gible that Professor Oak was holding. "Aww, it's Red's cute, chubby Pokemon," she said in a tone like any girl will say when they see something cute. She was going to reach out to grab him but the old man pulled Gible quickly out of her reach.

"Yes I know it's cute but I need to figure out where this remarkable specimen originated and figure out how it got here," Oak said sternly hinting that he wanted to be left alone. Leaf took the sign in nodded her head.

"Okay, well I have to continue doing my rounds, Professor," Leaf said turning around to leave the room. She walked by pass Red, who was already standing up, without a word and exited the room.

Wow, she was being rude Red thought. After all, she was the one who told me to come here in the first place. He exited the room into the world of tired looking assistants running around the lab with stacks of papers in arms. He had to make his way through the rushing aides with his Pokemon close behind him.

He managed to make it to the door without any incident. He turned around to see if would catch a glimpse of Leaf but she was nowhere to be seen. With that Red took his leave and now exited into the calm, cool outdoors.

The village breeze was relieving when it hit Red's warm skin. He took his time to enjoy the wind and kept on going when the wind stopped. He began to ponder on what else to do in his small town.

I haven't thought on what I was going to do when I got home. There isn't much I can do here…but I can train. Nah, there isn't any pokemon in a twenty mile radius that could be a good match for my pokemon Red thought and began to get a small headache. He was so lost in his thinking that he didn't noticed that he was in front of his house until he bumped into the front door.

"Oww!" Red shouted in pain as he hit the door in the same spot that he was hit by the door before and clamped a hand over that spot. Damn, I got to start paying attention to where I'm going Red thought trying to ease the pain in his cranium.

The door to his home opened up to revealed a cheerful mother. "Oh, back home already, honey," she said surprised to see her only son home already since he was gone for less than an hour. "Dinner is still not ready for awhile."

"Oh, well there is nothing else to do here," Red said with a hint of restlessness in his voice.

Red's Mom took a quick look at the sky which was clear except for a few stray clouds and the sun was high in the sky. "It's nice day today. Why don't you and your pokemon go to lake and find something to do there. I'll meet you there later and we can have a picnic near the lake," she warmly said. She didn't wait for an answer as she closed the door to get back to her cooking.

Red sighed and stood up straight to look towards the direction of the lake. He wanted some excitement so he quickly thought of something. He pointed in that direction and shouted," Last one to the lake is a rotten Tomato berry!" Before his Pokemon knew what was happening, Red took off towards his destination.

-"Finally some good action,"- Pikachu said with an enthusiastic smirk on his face, before sprinting off.

-"I'll just fly there,"- Pidgeotto simply said, extending his wings. -"See you guys at the lake"- with that said, Pidgeotto took off into the sky.

-"I'm not much for race but I will accept any challenge no matter how out match I am,"- Charmeleon proudly declared and began to run as well.

Eevee didn't know what was going on but decided to run as well since she wanted to catch up to her trainer. She quickly passed Charmeleon and channeled all of her energy to keep up with her trainer way ahead of her.

Nidorino, the only pokemon left behind, was the slowest to react. –"Hey, wait for me!"- Nidorino shouted after his companions, and started in a slow trot that soon turned into a sprint, as he desperately tried to catch up to his team mates.

Red laughed as he saw the lake come into view. He was getting close to the finish spot and so he picked up his speed a little thinking that he would win. He was still a good twenty feet away from the lake when he saw something yellow dart right passed him.

The yellow blur reached the lake in less than two seconds and stopped at the edge of the body of water. Pikachu turned around stuck its tongue at Red as his trainer let out a groan.

–"That wasn't even much of a challenge"- Pikachu smugly said. He stood there in a proud pose as Red finally reached him.

Red took a moment to catch his breathe since the running had him gasping for air. Some weight landed on his shoulders as Pidgeotto landed on Red's shoulders.

-"You dirty little mouse. You cheated since I saw you use your Quick Attack,"- the angered bird accused the yellow mouse.

-"Hey, there were no rules that prohibited attacking moves," Pikachu retaliated in a sardonic tone, mockingly wagging his finger. Pidgeotto responded with a grunt and made no further remarks.

"Eevee!" the baby pokemon cried, when she arrived at the finished spot and began to run in circles around Red. This put a smile on Red as he saw the normal-type pokemon run with high energy.

Soon, Charmeleon made it as well and was breathing heavily and Nidorino wasn't far behind. The poison-type pokemon slowed down when he arrived to the scene and went straight to the edge of the pool to drink some water to quench his thirst.

As soon as Red regained his composure, he looked out towards the lake. It was a small lake that was filled with clear water. It was a small town so there wasn't much pollution that could get in the lake and the people of his town also tried their best to keep it clean. He used to come here with his mother on sunny days to just enjoy a lunch and sometimes go for a swim.

Red grinned as he remembered his fond memories. He looked beyond the lake and saw a small river that was connected with the lake as well that stretched out and disappeared into the forest that lay further away. Red knew that the river lead to the ocean since he has walked along the lake a few times with his mother on days that they had nothing to do.

Red was snapped to reality when Eevee began to rub here small, brown body against his leg. Red smiled and scratched his pokemon behind her ear that made her give a small sound in happiness.

Pidgeotto left Red's shoulders to land on the ground to drink some water from the clear lake.

The young trainer examined his pokemon and saw the raw energy that burned in their eyes. He knew that they were all pump up for action so had to think of something to put that energy to use. Sadly, there wasn't much for them to do at the lake, but then Red got an idea.

"How bout we all do some training here?" Red asked his pokemon. His whole party agreed with him with eager nods. "Good, but there isn't much strong pokemon around here soo… we will have to break up in pairs to spar with each other. Okay, Charmeleon will be training with uhh… Pikachu while Pidgeotto will be paired up with Nidorino." The four chosen pokemon confirmed their partners and went to separate areas to begin their training sessions.

The only one left behind was Eevee who was sitting in front of Red with a wide grin. She looked up to Red with her big, black eyes waiting for him to join her in some kind of fun activity.

"Well Eevee, if Gible was here I would have you paired up with him but he isn't," Red began but was interrupted by Rattata that jumped out a pile of bushes that was a few feet away from them. The rat pokemon barred its teeth while it growled at Red with a menacingly look on its face. "Well, it looks like you will have a partner to fight with after all," Red remarked.

Eevee faced Rattata and made the most threatening face that she could muster but still looked cute in the end. She let out a small yelp at the Rattata which he took as her attack and began to run towards her.

"Eevee, get out of the way," Red ordered swiftly feeling the excitement of the battle rush through his veins. Eevee was slow to respond but still managed to dodge the speedy Rattata by jumping to the side.

The purple rat abruptly stopped and turned around to face Eevee again. It hissed at her once more before it broke into another sprint.

Red gritted his teeth as he strained his brain to remembered Eevee's moves. Suddenly remembering one of his pokemon's moves, Red shouted, "Eevee, Sand Attack!"

Moving quicker than last time, Eevee scratched the ground with her paw. Some dirt shot into the air from where Eevee scratched at and some of it fell right into Rattata's eyes. The dirt instantly began to irritate the pokemon's eyes as tears began to form in its eyes. That was enough to distract Rattata from continuing his assault and halted to a stop to try to get rid of the trash in his eyes by rubbing his eyes with both of his tiny hands. That only made it worse since he was rubbing the dirt even further into his eyes causing further annoyance.

Thinking quick, Red soon remembered the rest of Eevee's move. "Eevee, attack while you got the chance. Tackle it," Red told his young pokemon. Eevee accepted his command with a small yelp.

She jumped at Rattata and tackled the rat to the ground. Both pokemon weren't sent tumbling to the ground and Eevee was the first to get back. She shook her fur to get rid of dirt and tackled her foe again, who was barely getting up. This time she had better controlled of her body and managed to knock Rattata back down onto his back.

Rattata rolled onto his belly and struggled as he tried to get back up on his four feet. Red saw his quivering body signaling the battle was coming to a close and issued his last command.

"One more Tackle should do it so go for it, Eevee," Red cried with excitement. Crouching once more, Eevee tackled the Rattata one last time and her tackled was strong enough to send the pokemon flying into the lake.

With a small splash, Rattata landed into the lake and the cold water was enough to wake up the pokemon from its weariness and caused him to go back up to the surface to take a large gulp of air. It swiftly swam to the edge of the lake and quickly scampered out of the water. Having the water cleaned his eyes of any dirt, the only other thing he wanted to get rid of was the excessive water soaked into his fur that was easily dispatched by a few hard shakes of his body. Once he finished he took one quick glance at Eevee and his trainer before running off into the forest.

Red breathed a sigh of relief and got onto his knees so he could level with his pokemon. That battle reminded of me when I was beginning as a trainer Red thought as he hugged his furry champion. Eevee rubbed her against Red's chest, sharing her happiness on her first pokemon battle win with her trainer.

"Awww, you guys look so cute together like that," a feminine voice remarked at Red's closeness with his pokemon.

Turning to the source of the voice out of instinct, Red saw that it was only Leaf standing in front of him. She was smiling at Red as he gently placed his normal type pokemon on the ground.

"I never knew you had a sensitive side. I always thought you weren't much of a hugger or a guy that doesn't liked to show his true emotions too much," Leaf said in a surprised tone.

Red stopped to himself to ponder. She is right. I don't usually show my real emotions in front of most people. I guess being a Pokemon Trainer has… made me more likely to show my emotions Red thought. Thinking about it, you have to be sensitive in order to able to connect with your pokemon, Red realized.

"Well, I guess being with my Pokemon just brings out the warm side out of me," Red sheepishly said.

"Yeah, well don't get too in touch with your feminine side or you'll become a homosexual," Leaf warned Red in a mocking tone.

"Hey! I have no interest in becoming… that!" Red scoffed, crossing his arms.

"Calm down Red. I'm just messing with you," Leaf replied with a small giggle.

"Yeah, so what brings you here? Aren't you supposed to be at work?" Red asked who looked to his side to check how his Pokemon were doing in their training. Charmeleon was in a close range melee with Pikachu, both trying to get the upper hand by trying to strike their opponent's weak spot and it seem as Pikachu was going to get it first since he was quicker, but Chameleon did have good endurance so it was balanced. Pidgeotto and Nidorino's battle wasn't as intense as Charmeleon and Pikachu's battle. They were exchanging blows every so often so the battle was quit monotonous.

"Oh, I just got on my lunch break so I was heading to my house to make me something eat, and I just saw you fighting a Rattata with your cutie of pokemon Eevee," Leaf explained to Red. A gust of wind blew and made Leaf's long hair sway in the direction of the current of air. Some of it got in front her face, making it hard for her to see so she used her hand to pull the stray hair out of her face. "Well, I got to go since my lunch break isn't all that long and I still need to make me something to have lunch."

"Oh, dear you don't have to leave," Red's mom call out to her. Walking on the sidewalk was the mother carrying a rather large picnic basket. She approached the two with a warm smile. "I made lunch enough for three people so you are welcome to eat with Red and me."

Leaf was surprised by her offer but felt like she shouldn't accept it. "Oh that's nice of you Mrs. Ketchum but I also need to make some food for my pokemon as well-"

"Oh don't worry about that. I made a bunch of delicious food for Pokemon as well and there is more than enough for yours, I hope."

Leaf bit her tongue as he thought about it. "Well, I guess it won't hurt if I joined," she hesitated but knew she won't have enough time now to go home and prepare food for her pokemon and for herself.

Red's Mom seemed pleased by Leaf's offer. She took out the picnic blanket from basket and placed it on the grass.

Red turned towards his fighting pokemon and yelled, "Hey guys! You can stop your battles, it's time for lunch!" All four pokemon immediately froze at the word 'Lunch' and soon began to run towards the three humans with the promise of food being their main motivation. They screeched to a stop next to the picnic basket and filled their nostrils with smells of sweet smelling food that were similar to the smells that they smelled in their trainer's house.

Leaf took some pokeballs from her belt in tossed in the air. They snapped open to release the pokemon contained inside. Leaf's Ivysaur, Pidgeotto, Poliwhirl, and Vulpix materialized as well as a pokemon that appear was a green caterpillar-like pokemon that gazed at the world with bright, black eyes.

Curious about Leaf's new pokemon, Red took out his red pokedex at the worm pokemon.

"Caterpie, the Worm Pokemon. It releases a stench from its red antenna to repel enemies. When it grows, it sheds the skin, covers itself with silk, and becomes a cocoon."

Not too much interesting information for this pokemon Red dismally thought, pocketing his pokedex. He got some plastic bowls and placed them on the ground. His mom took out a big bag from the picnic basket that was full of brown pellets that emitted a strong sweet smell.

"Divide the food for your pokemon," the caring mother told her son as she began to take out more food from her basket. Red took the rather large bag and was overwhelm by the sweet smell.

"Where did you learn to make some good Pokemon food?" Red asked as he began to pour equal amounts of food in to each plastic bowl.

"Well, your dad did had Pokemon so I taught myself how to make some good Pokemon food that they his pokemon will enjoy. Thought, it did took me a few tries before I got it to taste right," she replied with a smile, handing another bag full of her homemade pokemon food and gave it to Leaf.

"Here you go guy," Red said as he handed out the pokemon to each of his pokemon. They eagerly entered the cooking with a ravenous appetite. Red grabbed a simple sandwich that from a plate that his mother took out and placed on his plate.

"I don't how I can thank you for this delicious food, Mrs. Ketchum," Leaf thanked Red's Mom grabbing herself a sandwich as well.

"Oh it's no problem, dear. I did make too much food so you are helping us by eating the extra. Plus, it's always nice to have some extra company," Red's Mom responded in her warmest tone. "Like Red's father always says 'the more the merrier."

Red took a bite out of his sandwich and slowly chewed it. He thought about a question that he wanted to ask his mother since his talk with his older brother Ember. He thought that he should probably ask now while the topic of his father being brought up.

"Hey mom," Red got his mother's attention, who looked at him with a curious look. "Umm…well I had previously met with Ember and he told about what happened at Mt. Silver.." The mother seem to be unaffected by what Red said since she just kept a straight face while Leaf ,on the other hand, had a shocked face at the news that Red had an older brother. "And what I wondered was that…was my father a Pokemon Poacher?" Red blurted out his question.

There was silence in the air after Red asked his question. An awkward silence that made Red uneasy. He waited for his answer and was going to give up after awhile but then his mother began to speak.

"I don't know what Ember has been telling you but I can assure you that your father wasn't a Pokemon Poacher," she rejoined with a warm smile but in a shaky voice. "Now that's over finish your lunch."

"Then what did my dad worked as before?" Red asked his new question, putting down his food.

She gritted her teeth as her son's question. "He had a normal job just like every other person in Kanto. Don't think about it too much since the past doesn't really matter," she replied.

Why is she trying to avoid the question? Red thought and tried to think the answer. And the way she answered my first question. I don't think she is telling everything.

Red opened his mouth to speak again but was cut-off by his Mom's own voice. "Let's talk about this subject until after lunch. Okay Red," she rejected any further questions and began to eat her own lunch.

Red sighed but he knew he couldn't talk about more since Leaf was there listening. He still wanted to talk about but he held his tongue.

"How bout you and Leaf have a small battle after lunch?" Red's mother suggested.

Red knew what she was trying to do but he went along with it. "Sure, how bout it Leaf?"

Leaf thought for awhile as she chewed her food. Swallowing her food she said, "Sure, why not? I have a few more minutes to spare before I got to return to my job."

Red smiled and began to finish his own food. He put on a fake smile but on the inside his curiosity was gnawing at the back of his mind. He took the last few bites of his sandwich and stood up to get ready for his upcoming battle with Leaf.