He dreamt about his parents.
Their eyes. Their voices. The feeling of his mother cupping his cheek. The way his father ruffled his hair. The deafening screech of the tire. The ringing in his head. The taste of iron in his mouth. The cold touch of their fingers brushing over his skin for the last time.
It all came in fragments and as it did he felt the fear rising in his throat. He clawed, reaching for air as he tried to let the scream out, to let it all out.
Then he woke up.
Green opened his eyes and felt the dampness of his shirt. He let out the breath he didn't know he was holding and gasped for some air, rolling to his side. It had been a while since he dreamt about them, about anything. He glanced at the clock on his bedside.
9:23 am.
In a second he launched himself upright then straight out of bed. He muttered a curse and went for his closet, pulling his shirt off of him as he did. He couldn't believe he overslept. He definitely had a long line of trainers waiting for him outside the gym by now.
When he had a clean shirt on him he headed for the door and swung it open, only to find Pearl standing right behind it. His hand was raised and looked just about to knock.
"Pearl, what are you…" Green breathed heavily, briefly remembering his dream. Then he caught himself and slowly recovered. "What is it?"
"I was going to call you to come down for some late breakfast." The Sinnoan explained, his eyes darting up and down his senior. "Why does it look like you fell out of bed?"
"I didn't." He felt worse, honestly. "Why didn't anyone wake me up?"
"Why would we?" Pearl answered back. "You needed the sleep. They wanted to wake you even later, but I argued you probably wouldn't appreciate sleeping in completely. It turns out I didn't even have to come up here."
Green stared for a second, confused until it finally hit him. He remembered the agreement he made with them last night, the multitude of phone calls and emails he had to send to people, and the way the four of them almost carried him to his room to go and sleep already. Green pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Right. Of course." He dragged his hand down his face and exhaled then set his eyes on the blond. "You sent all the emails?"
"Sent and approved." Pearl fished his phone from his pocket and flashed Green a screenshot of the reply from the PLA.
"Okay, thank you." Green nodded and took a step out of his room. "Let's have breakfast."
"Sure but, uh, Green?" Pearl pointed a finger downwards and Green looked down to see his bare legs. "Maybe put some pants on."
In his hurry he had tossed on a clean shirt and was ready to leave just wearing his boxers. The tip of his ears warmed up but otherwise, he remained collected. "Yeah. Give me five minutes."
Now fully dressed, he walked down the stairs and was greeted with a powerful aroma. He entered his dining room and on the table lay platters of pancakes, bacon, eggs, and sausages. He absentmindedly licked his lips and tried to contain the growl in his stomach.
"Good morning!" Gold greeted in a sing-song voice, entering the room with a plate of fried rice. "Well if it isn't our lovely senior! How you feelin' Sleeping Beauty?"
Green only raised a brow at him, looking unamused as he took a seat at the head of the table, yet Gold only laughed heartily at the response.
"Oh lighten up man! This is your first day off in, what? Two, three weeks? It wouldn't kill you to laugh a little."
"I would laugh if any of what you said was funny."
"Ooh!" Pearl entered as well, carrying french toast with him. "That must've hurt really bad considering how much you think yourself humorous."
"What's this I hear about hurting Gold's ever-inflating ego?" Black followed right after, a pitcher of orange juice in his hands.
"Oh har har." Gold placed his platter down and plopped into a chair on Green's right. "Yes let's make fun of the handsome guy. You know you're all just jealous of my devastatingly good looks and fun personality right?"
"Hey, what'cha talking 'bout senior Red for?" Sapphire was the last to leave the kitchen, a look of innocent curiosity on her face. Gold grunted. Black and Pearl burst out in laughter. Green couldn't help but smile.
Sapphire then placed a blue mug in front of him and sat on his left and beside Black. Green took a sip of his coffee after thanking the girl and felt a warmth spread over him afterward.
He sighed with content. He couldn't remember how long it had been since he had an actual proper cup, let alone one as good as what he was drinking.
Once the laughter and banter died down, Pearl cleared his throat. "Anyway, while we eat breakfast we're gonna discuss your day off plans."
"Plans?" Green asked, taking another sip of the wonderful brew.
"Yes. Although it'd been fine to just let you sleep and do nothing the whole day, we all thought it'd be better if we all went out and did something we wouldn't normally be able to do when you're busy." The blond explained and Green nodded in understanding. Though he would've loved to stay someplace quiet and read a book.
"We were thinking of something fun but not too exhausting. I mean the whole point is for you to unwind after all." Black told him whilst chewing on his bacon. Green gave him a stern look and the Unovan swallowed and quietly apologized. "We made a list of things to do, so all you need to do is choose!"
Pearl took his phone out again and handed it over to Green. He put his mug down and looked over his options.
Fun at the carnival, watch a 3D movie, fireworks at Vermillion Bay, hiking on Mt. Moon, a day at the Game Corner, visit the Safari Zone, perform at a contest in Viridian City, beach day on Cinnabar Island, trip to the Pewter City museum.
He had to admit, these were some fairly tame suggestions that they had given him. He eyed each of his four juniors as they hungrily ate their breakfast. Green wondered if there was a catch to any of this. If they had a hidden plan underneath it all.
He cleared his throat, catching their attention once more. "A trip to the museum sounds peaceful."
Gold's eyes widened and the blond beside him started smiling slowly. "Excuse me, what?" He turned to the Sinnoan. "I thought we agreed not to add that, it's too boring!"
"Well, only you agreed on the Game Corner and yet its still on the list. Besides! Green liked it." Pearl's smile evolved into a smirk which only made the older man growl.
"Oh come on Pearl! We may not have liked Gold's idea but that was still pretty underhanded of you." Black added and Pearl was silent for a second before leaning back against his chair, looking resigned.
"I'm guessing I have to choose another." Green looked back down at the phone. It wasn't a total shame. He'd been to that same museum well over four times. He'd thought they'd enjoy it though.
"Ohh I hope you pick what I came up with." Sapphire hummed as she took a large bite out of her pancake slice.
"And which would that be, I wonder."
"Take a wild guess," Pearl mumbled, still upset over the overruling of his idea.
Hiking and a trip to the Safari Zone were surely made by the outdoorsy girl, if not her then by the Unovan on her left. Then again, one of the options on the list did leave him curious.
"Were you the one who suggested we join a contest?" Just as he asked Sapphire choked on her pancake slice. Green patiently waited for her to finish downing her glass of juice and for her answer.
"Me? Suggest a contest? That's dumb. That's stupid. Why would I—how dare you…!" Green only slowly raised his brow at her fumbling and watched as the tips of her ears started burning red. He glanced at the other three, who were all suddenly overrun by silence and deep concentration over their plates.
"Calm down, Sapphire." Clearly she had an ulterior motive for that suggestion. Green wondered to himself about why the Hoenn dex holder chose to participate in a contest in Kanto. Maybe he just needed an excuse to see her. Maybe she actually wanted to see him. He took a sip of his coffee. "Fireworks doesn't seem too bad."
"Great! We can do that!" Sapphire agreed way too quickly, her cheeks still pinkish. The boys ignored the sudden outburst, either out of respect or from how used to it they were.
"But that's a night time thing, so we still need to decide what to do before that." Pearl pointed out.
Green nodded. "Staying at the beach could do."
"Then it's settled! A beach day we shall have!" Black announced, pumping his fist in the air. He might've been the one to suggest it.
"But wait, Cinnabar Island is a ways away from Vermillion. Will we have enough time to make it to the fireworks though?" Pearl argued, calculating the variables in his head. "Not to mention, we'd probably be a little tired to go all the way across."
"Tired? I think we can handle it!" Black responded. Pearl pursed his lips in uncertainty.
"Yeah I think that too but I'm talking about senior Green."
"Well, I wouldn't mind really." His answer seemed to surprise them since their eyes grew big at the positive response he gave. He remained undeterred by their expressions. "It'll only be a boat ride away."
"Alright then." Gold's mouth formed into one of his mischievous grins and he stood to loop an arm over his shoulder. "Damn, Green! You sure are compliant today. Blue must've thoroughly whipped you for you to be like this."
Green didn't even lift a finger when a slipper went flying and hit the Johtoan square on the face. Sapphire sat back down her chair, an animalistic growl forming at her throat and the flush of pink returning to her cheeks.
"You're disgusting." She hissed, arms crossed and glaring daggers at her immediate senior.
"What's new?" Pearl added nonchalantly, finishing the rest of his plate. Gold rubbed his nose and tossed the single footwear out the open window behind him. Sapphire stood up, yelling at him. Black tried sustaining the laughter that built up in his stomach. Pearl rolled his eyes and tried to keep them from devolving into a full-on fight.
Green leaned against his chair and watched the scene unfold before him. He reached for his mug, narrowly avoiding the girl's swipe of her jagged nails, and took another sip.
Hm, he hummed in thought, what a good cup of coffee.
I love Pokemon Special so much for how it gives its characters a past and story, but it doesn't usually do so with all of them. We know about Blue and Silver's hardships under the Mask of Ice and how Crystal suffered injuries on her arms when she was younger.
I wanted to give Green a past or at the very least some (dead) parents. You know how I love my angst.