Chapter 8

Author's Note: This is word emphasis

-this is telepathic conversation-

Route 7/Celadon City:

Red is busy training Saur up while Citrine works with ChuChu and Espeon. Haunter and Misdreavus knew how to train themselves by this point, though Haunter was on guard duty at the moment. Citrine stiffens just as Saur evolves into Ivysaur, and then she hears it, the chiming of the Pokédexes indicating another one was nearby, just barely though. Citrine was at Red's side seconds before another girl around their age with brown hair and blue eyes approaches him. The girl narrows her eyes, her own gender was much harder to trick, " That was so awesome! " she gushes.

Citrine just cocks an eyebrow, " Really? That's piss poor acting, Sadly he would fall for it, but since I'm here, no dice. "

The other girl's hands clenched into fists, " My acting is not piss poor, thank you! "

" You're way over the top with the gushing, and the body language. Since I am female I do happen to know all the tricks of the trade to con boys into doing just about anything. I prefer not to however. Besides, I've been hearing rumors about a brown haired girl selling fake pokémon items, you, right? " Citrine states, buffing the nails of her right hand on her shirt while she watches the other girl.

Red looks at Citrine startled, he hadn't heard those rumors. Then again he had been pretty deep into his training zone with Saur. -Is she really conning people.-

-She is, but partly because of the way she was raised. She was raised to be a thief, do NOT mention your badges to her, Red. She will steal them. She has pretty good damned shields, all I got was from the surface of her mind.- Citrine states.

" Why whatever are you talking about? Do I really look like someone whom could rip people off like that? " she asks, batting her eyes at Red.

Citrine counters by leaning into him, and his left arm automatically wraps around her shoulders with Espeon twining through her feet currently. ChuChu took the opportunity to climb up her trainer's body, and settle on her head for the moment. Blue eyes narrow as they take in the actions of the blonde. Red was completely oblivious to the byplay between the girls, but the brown haired girl knew damned well what the blonde was saying without words, that the red eyed boy was HERS.

No way in Hell was Citrine allowing Red to fall for this girl's tricks so easily! The brown haired girl could pull off the innocent act, Citrine would give her that. She and Red continue on their way leaving the brown haired girl fuming behind them. Red uses Pika to battle a Pinsir that jumped out of nowhere at them, and ChuChu watches Pika as he battles. ChuChu was very much interested in breeding, and specifically with Pika. She was content to watch for the moment, besides, it was always better to let the guy come to you. Red opts to not catch Pinsir, though he does still have his arm around Citrine's shoulders. He honestly read nothing into the gesture, and Citrine wasn't going to complain. They were getting closer to Celadon City, and having physical contact with Red would anchor her more. Yes, her training had helped with her shields telepathically, but they still needed work empathically.

Espeon does all she can to help her trainer. Psychic humans had it worse until they got the control they needed. In Citrine's case she had to train her powers up individually. The telepathy had been focused on first because she knew she'd be getting into a psychic throw down with Sabrina at some point. For the moment Citrine just enjoys being with Red away from Pallet Town, and the small town busybodies that would have no end of things to say should they see them now. Especially if they were to learn of their sleeping arrangements in the Pokémon Center rooms, and when they camped out as well. Citrine could always been found curled up in Red's arms at night.

-'Trine, we don't have to go into Celadon City just yet.- Red says.

-The only way my empathic shields will get better is around people, just don't go too far from me.-

-I wouldn't anyhow, 'Trine. It's nice with it just being the two of us and our pokémon. Not having to worry about how things look to those outside our home. We're eleven, do they honestly think we're going to get up to adult games at this age?-

She could hear his frustration, that was something she liked about Red, he did happen to be intelligent, it's just he really shone when it came to Pokémon battles. Red wasn't completely oblivious when it came to interpersonal relations of any kind, he did notice girls after all. Citrine just knew that he was subconsciously measuring them all against her, and they all came up short. They were still young, there was time for Red to mature a little more and actually realize that what he felt towards her went far deeper than friendship. Most people would say they were far too young to even think about interpersonal romantic relationships, but their life experiences had matured them far more than some others their age. Red practically raised himself, and Citrine...her childhood sucked, no two ways about it.

-Adults are stupid like that. I love Pallet Town, but…- Citrine trails off hopelessly telepathically, and Red understands. He loathed the gossip that came with living in a small town. Pallet Town would always be his home, don't get him wrong, but just being on a journey with Citrine and their pokémon was peaceful. He hadn't been expecting her to catch a Pikachu in Viridian Forest though. Then again even specialist trainers had dual types, and more to the point like say Gyarados could actually learn several useful attacks through Technical Machines. It was easier to find Technical Machines that had been dropped in the wild, as they cost way too much otherwise, and some pokémon could learn useful moves through tutoring or breeding. Red did know things, it was how he was able to utilize his surroundings to their fullest after all. Playing the part of the idiot put people at ease, and that meant he could take them off guard should he need to.

Red keeps close as they enter Celadon City, meandering their way to the Pokémon Center, though he knew they'd be hitting up the Celadon Department Store, and possibly a Boutique as well. They needed some new socks, undergarments, toiletries...it was just a good thing they had both battled trainers on the way here, and Red did need to get a PokéGear. It would make keeping in contact with Blue so much easier. Citrine was back to being able to carry her own backpack, but her ribs hadn't quite healed up fully yet. She still had to take it easy for a little while longer. He knew Citrine would check out the books, magazines, and what not just to keep abreast of new discoveries that were constantly being made. He had switched to holding her hand, fingers twined together, which made it so Espeon was draped around her neck. ChuChu was still on Citrine's head, she preferred to get a higher up view than ground level. Pika was on Red's left shoulder, so ChuChu could unobtrusively watch him, and let him make up his mind about her.

Red was starting to hear the quiet complaints about the brown haired girl whom scammed people with fake pokémon items. Where they'd been training Citrine would have heard a lot of mutterings both vocal and not about the brown haired girl they'd met on Route 7. His awareness was much higher now, especially since he knew if he had been on his own that girl would have been able to con him so damned easily, simply by batting her eyes. He knew he had a tendency to not look for hidden motives, Red was intrinsically honest, so he didn't look for deception everywhere. He was starting to thanks to Team Rocket being active, and he knew to keep alert around the brown haired, and blue eyed girl Citrine had saved him from being taken in by. Red was self-aware enough to know that if he was plied with compliments in just the right way that he would have fallen for anything that girl had said to him, and be out of a lot of money.

Once they have their pokémon checked out at the Pokémon Center, and freshen up from the road they check in with Professor Oak, and then head out shopping. They hit the Department Store first where Red gets himself a PokéGear, they stock up on more healing items, and get more Poké Balls as well. This included the different varieties as well since the Store was having a MASSIVE SALE! Red may not be much into shopping, but even he could get behind saving money while stocking up on what would be needed on the road. He didn't spend nearly as much on the PokéGear as he thought he would have to. After that they hit the Boutiques to get the other necessities for the road such as socks, they also needed to get new shoes, as Red's were starting to get a little snug on his feet, and Citrine's were starting to fall apart. Thankfully they had them in the same style as the ones they had on.

Red did manage to buy a birthday gift for Citrine as well, since hers did happen to be coming up. She'd had Daisy Oak pierce her ears almost a year ago now, and Red had managed to find earrings that looked like Lunar Wings to go with the Lunar Wing Necklace that Cresselia had given to Citrine. She currently had the studs from getting her ears pierced still in her ears, as this was the first time since she arrived in Pallet Town that she had ever really left. Red couldn't really blame her for that either now that he knew the truth about her childhood, being constantly pushed to be the next premier ghost type specialist to the point where her basic needs were barely met. Staying off the radar as long as she did had been the best thing for her. He trained his pokémon as long and hard as he did to be able to protect her if/when the time came.

He watches as the tension eases from her slightly, her shields were getting better, which was a good thing. Telepathically they were strong, and she had Espeon test them daily to keep them that way, and make them stronger. Now that she knew how to build them telepathically doing so empathically was slightly easier for her. She still stuck close, though that was partly so they didn't get separated, and if she happened to slip her hand into his again...well, he wasn't going to complain. He was getting to the point where having a physical connection to her was a must. He honestly didn't know if he could go back to sleeping without her in his arms. If that meant avoiding Pallet Town until their hormones kicked in properly they could do that, or they could just stop giving a damn about what those busybodies would think.

Their chat with Professor Oak did yield them the information that Squirtle had been stolen from him. He was happy to see that Saur had evolved, and over the moon to see an actual Espeon, especially since Citrine had scanned her with her Pokédex. They had no way of knowing that the girl Citrine had kept from conning Red was the one that stole the final Pokédex and Squirtle...yet. The girl was actually watching them wander through Celadon City, and she notices that the boy did seem to have feelings of some sort for the girl, even if he had yet to figure them out for himself. His attention was never far from her, and his eyes took in everyone and everything that could potentially be a threat to her. She did, on occasion, see a Haunter pop out from the blonde's shadow as well. That was interesting, from the looks of things she'd had that Haunter for quite some time, most likely her starter pokémon so to speak.

The girl, her name is Green, had only stolen the PokéDex because she had found out she was originally from Pallet Town, along with Squirtle. She'd been kidnapped by some kind of bird pokémon around six years ago now, this had gifted her with ornithophobia, or fear of birds, understandable really. She twitches when she realizes the goons from the Game Corner were getting close to her again to get back what she had stolen from them. Like the experienced thief she happened to be she melts into the shadows while still keeping an eye on the red eyed boy, and the blonde holding his hand. Most people their age would be blushing up a storm holding hands like that. They acted as though it was the most natural thing in the world to them. Green was surprised to see that Espeon though. Most didn't know about the psychic and dark type Eeveelutions in Kanto.

Power Plant:

Blue smirks as he takes in his new Magneton, it had taken a lot of hard work to catch them as a Magnemite, and then all the subsequent battles to evolve them, but it was well worth it to have a pokémon immune to poison on his team now. He had picked up a PokéGear before he came here to train hardcore after catching Magnemite. He'd even caught an Elekid, though he hoped to hell he was out of here before Mama came looking for her baby. It was about time he make his way to Celadon City, check up on Red and Citrine. The only way they could safely trade numbers was in person. Even then they would only be able to talk about innocuous things with them, like where they would meet up, what they had been doing in the interim between meeting up, things like that.

Still, as long as Team Rocket was a problem being able to know where they were, and to get competent back up was a must. It was just better all around for them to have a safety net of someone knowing where they were going currently, just in case someone needed to mount a rescue. It would be nice if Citrine could get up to Teleporting herself and others that would be a massive boon. Citrine might want to look into getting a Flying Type though, unless she was going to be flying around with Red on Fearow. He wondered if either of them would think to get a specialty saddle to make that safer for both of them.

Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon or Pokémon Adventures.