Red felt fantastic. He didn't even know how else to describe this feeling, but "fantastic" did a pretty good job of covering everything that was going on inside of him right now. When had been the last time he felt fantastic? He didn't know. All he knew was that the tight knot in his stomach was gone, and that the anxiety he had been carrying with him for the last two years wasn't as bad as before. The most difficult part of his return was done. He still felt his heart racing when he thought about how he faced his mother, Green not giving him a chance to escape, and now he wondered how the hell he had actually brought up the courage to do it. Only two thoughts were preventing him from literally jumping in the air for joy: first, he had disappointed his mother and there was absolutely nothing he could do to make up for what he had done. And second, he still hadn't faced his biggest enemy: the media. He felt it lurking behind every corner, attacking him with their glearing camera lights and their inappropriate questions, making him feel the full force of disappointment in the form of stupid news articles. He was glad that no one had approached him yet, but then again, this was Pallet Town. No one was even outside right now. As soon as someone snapped a picture of him...as soon as they posted it online... there would be a storm coming for him, and he better get ready before that happened.

He took a deep breath. One obstacle after the other. Start out small, he thought. And the first obstacle before the paparazzi and the annoying fans was Professor Oak. Would he be disappointed? Or, worse, would he still act like Red was all that? Would he make Green feel small and insignificant for the sake of the Great Champion Red?

But these things, he concluded, were not going to ruin his mood. Not now. He was home, he had made it off the mountain, and that mattered. He looked around, taking the sight of his hometown completely in and took a breath of the fresh air. The small, comfy houses had never looked more beautiful in his eyes. One of them- it used to be white- was painted pink now. It didn't look good and fell out of line with all the other houses, but Red decided he liked it, and he also decided that he liked the owners. They were different, and they were okay with it.

The trees growing on both sides of the street made this a beautiful, natural looking avenue, and the air carried the scent of their leaves. Red had always loved that. Right before him, two houses were coming up that had been abandoned for as long as he could remember. They were derelict, but the town never got rid of them. The newsletter his mom used to read (or still read?) announced that the mayor of Veridian City and Pallet wanted to do something about it every single day, and Red used to smile and roll his eyes every time he saw the articles because he knew these two houses would probably stay here forever.

And he had always been happy about that, because the roof of one of the abandoned garages used to be Red's favorite hideout, and, after Green found it too, it became their hangout place. The roof was contorted because part of the house was connected to it, and there was a wall that protected them from curious stares. When they were still kids, they used to plan all kinds of shenanigans up there. One time, when they were six years old, Green had "moved" here because he was mad at his grandpa, and it was only thanks to Red who brought him food and water every single day that his friend held out for an entire week before the police finally found him and a panicked Delia for once totally lost it with the both of them. That had been the only time he had seen her furious. He smiled at the memory.

Just as he was walking past the old garage, lost in his memories, something landed on his shoe with a slosh and made him jump. He looked down at what it was; vanilla ice cream. He didn't even need to look up to know who had dropped it.

"Whoops! Sorry! How clumsy of me!", a voice above Red's head said theatric.

Red scowled while unhappily looking at the scoop of ice cream that was already starting to dissolve into a puddle. "You wasted some perfectly good vanilla ice cream just for that!", he scolded. "A miltank had to give up her calf just for that!"

"Ahhh, come on, Red, don't be that kind of vegan!", Green mocked. "I did you a favour; maybe now you can get rid of these ugly shoes you always wear and buy some good ones." Red looked up at him and shook his head disapprovingly. Green was casually sitting on the edge of the wall with an empty ice cream cone in his hand. That asshole had seriously thrown ice cream on the ground just to annoy Red. He didn't like it when people wasted food, especially not if that food was a pokémon product.

But he wasn't willing to dwell on that subject, especially because he now noticed that something was kinda off about his friend. He seemed cocky and chipper as ever, but looking closer, Red noticed the tension in his old rival's arms and a slight tremble of his body. He seemed...restless?

"What are you doing up there?", Red asked, ignoring Green's little jab and putting one hand over his forehead to protect his eyes from the sun as he looked at Green.

The auburn-haired man just shrugged. "Enjoying the view. At least I did, but then you came and ruined it all."

"Good one," Red deadpanned. "Can I join you?"

He was more than happy about being able to skip professor Oak and go straight to hanging out with Green like they used to. And it seemed like Green had survived the lecture, so that was something.

Green shrugged once again. "Whatever."

In his language, that was a "Yes". Nimbly and swiftly like a Pachirisu, Red climbed on the small wall in front of the garage and then pulled himself up, using the help of an old pipe.

When he let himself flop down next to Green, an unpleasant, sharp smell made itself felt almost immediately, and when he looked at Green, he saw little billows of smoke rise into view, coming from the hand that wasn't holding the now useless cone. He didn't know why it surprised him, but it did, and he absolutely didn't like what he saw.

"You're smoking," he said matter of factly, not quite sure what he was intending with this statement.

"I know, but thanks for the compliment anyway. You'd look pretty good too if you put in a little more effort," Green teased, but Red could tell he wasn't really feeling it.

He gave the cigarette a bewildered look. Green had never mentioned this. He had also never smelled like smoke. Usually he smelled like a walking perfumery because of all the millions of products he was wearing on his body every day to make himself look the way he did (seriously, Red had never seen such soft skin on a grown man), and while Red had never liked that smell, at least it had been...Green. Now he smelled hair gel, perfume and deodorant mixed with the stench of these cancer sticks.

Just like yesterday, he was stunned at how different circumstances could change people and relationships entirely. Red had barely been back in the real world for a day, and now his old rival's scent already changed.

Red decided he didn't want to accept this. Without a warning, he snatched the cigarette out of Green's hand and threw it on the ground.

"Hey, what the-...pfft. It's okay, I still have a whole pack." He showed it to Red as if to prove it and then lit up another cigarette.

"Since when do you smoke?", Red asked. Smoking was normal, it was just something that people did, and it wasn't as nearly as bad as drugs and alcoholism, so Red wondered why the hell this bothered him so much.

Back in High School, almost everyone in their year had smoked. But Green, Green hadn't.

"I don't know," he answered. "A year, maybe two? I stopped for a few months, but now I really need it. It relaxes me."

Red could tell Green was far, far away with his thoughts, and suddenly, he became worried. Was Green so stressed that he needed to rely on unhealthy methods to calm himself down? And what had stressed him so much to begin with? Did it have to do with...

"...your grandpa?"

Green took a pull on his cigarette, and when he sighed, a gust of smoke came out of his mouth and nose. It made Red sick. "Don't wanna talk about it."

"That bad?"

"Worse."

This wasn't the first time that Green was in a bad mood because of his grandfather and Red tried to cheer him up, but this was still different from how it used to be. Usually Green immediately started ranting and talking bad about professor Oak when he had the chance, but now he just looked resigned. That was when Red realized that Green probably wasn't the only one who had changed in these three years; professor Oak likely had, too. And maybe the way he treated his grandson had become worse.

"You wanna talk about it?"

"Nnnope." Green took a bite out of his cone and chewed it gloomily.

When Green Oak doesn't want to talk, you know something serious is up. Red bit his lip while awkwardly looking at his hands, not really knowing what to do or what to say.

He knew his friend, but at the same time, did he really? He had no idea how to deal with a silent Green because Green was never silent.

But he had to do something because his friend looked so tense, Red was scared he would bite his own teeth out. Or break his own knuckles. He hesitantly lifted a hand to give him a pat on the shoulder, only to put it down again before Green would notice. He didn't know if he would appreciate the physical contact. A terrible thought came to him suddenly: were him and Green truly friends anymore? Were friends really that awkward around each other? The Green that came to visit him on MT. Silver every day was an actor, someone masked happiness and whose only goal it was to get Red off the damn mountain. Now he was the real Green, still an actor because he was terrible at showing his true emotions, but with his own problems and worries, and Red didn't know how to deal with them, or him. Sometimes, he wanted to shake him and yell "Smile! Laugh! Cry! God damnit, do anything, just take off the mask you're wearing!"

He felt the guilt heavily sitting on his chest; Green always seemed to have a plan when Red had issues. And here Red was, not even daring to put a hand on his shoulder and on top of that being annoyed at the way his friend was handling his problems.

Some friend he was. He knew he needed to do better if he wanted to keep Green around, he needed to do something to cheer him up. But just as he opened his mouth, Green suddenly smiled that fake smile that Red hated more than anything in the world and asked: "By the way, how was the talk with your mom? You still seem intact, so I assume you fled the scene?"

He breathed out the breath he had taken to talk, silently cursing Green for interrupting him.

"You know my mom. She's not the type to chase after me with a rolling pin."

Although he did have to grin at the thought. Green did too. It seemed genuine, and Red marked it as his second biggest achievement of today. He had made Green smile. The guy had such a nice smile when he wasn't faking it. Why couldn't he just do it more?

"Too bad, I was kinda hoping for it," Green said. "Someone needs to punch you in the face."

"Why haven't you done it then? You scared of me?", Red taunted.

"Tsk. No?! I just don't want to get my beautiful hands dirty on someone like you."

Red laughed. He had to admit that Green's vanity was amusing to a degree.

"But seriously, how was it?", Green asked now.

Red wasn't sure if he really cared or if he just wanted to distract from his own issues. Either way, deep down he was relieved that he didn't have to try and cheer Green up now, and he hated himself for that.

Reading people and treating them accordingly usually came easy for him. He had spent his entire childhood not really talking that much and rather observing. His mother had once told him that his kindergarten teachers had adored 4-year old Red for his high social skills and his- for his age- high capability of empathy. But Green was just a different story. If being empathetic and cheering others up was a game, then all other people would be easy challenges, and Green would be the final boss. Which was weird because most other people were strangers to Red, while Green was his best friend, then his rival, and then his friend again. For seventeen years.

It was just that Green also had a talent that he had perfected ever since childhood, and that was deceiving people. The only one he didn't fool with his masquerade was Red, and maybe Red's mom, but their skills were only good enough to realize that Green was fake; not to see who the real Green was.

Again, Red had to question if they were truly friends if Green wasn't even willing to show him his true self.

"Hello?" The auburn-haired man snapped his fingers in front of his face. The cigarette was thankfully gone now, only the half-eaten ice cream cone was still in his other hand. "Someone home? I asked you something."

Red jumped a little. He needed to stop thinking so much when he was talking to people.

"You're weird, Red," Green said now. "That thing you always do, ya know, not answering and looking at nothing, it freaks me out."

Red playfully punched his shoulder, rolling his eyes. "You know what we should do?", he asked as he suddenly had an epiphany.

"So you're just gonna ignore my question?"

"Yes." If Green wasn't going to tell him what had happened at the lab, Red wasn't going to tell him what he wanted to know either. "Anyway, remember how we used to get into handcards and roll down the little hill in Chester's Street?"

"Yeah. It was dangerous as hell."

"I know! Let's do it again!" The more Red thought about this the more excited he was at this terrible idea. There were so many things he wanted to do and experience now that he was home, and also, this would be the perfect opportunity to spend time with Green and finally see him laugh again.

Green however looked at his friend as if he had lost his mind. "Red, we aren't six anymore."

"Exactly, that limits the risk! Makes it a little less fun, but still!"

"It seems like you missed out on this thing called growing up and common sense while you were up there. I can't just do dangerous shit like that, I'm a teacher, I need to be a role model."

Now Red looked at Green like he was crazy. "You're a Gym Leader."

"Red, do you ever listen when I talk? Gym Leaders also have the responsibility to teach classes of aspiring pokémon trainers and, well, training with them. I've complained about my students so many times now!"

"Ooooohhhhh." Red had to admit that he usually stopped listening when Green started complaining about his day (except when it had to do with professor Oak because that was important information), but now he remembered. Training pokemon was an extremely high responsibility and came with an extremely high risk, so the government had decided that absolute experts in training had to teach the kids the most important knowledge.

The stronger the Gym Leader was, the older was the age group that they taught because legally, you could only become a pokémon trainer if you were at least ten years old, only had unevolved pokémon that weren't bigger than 1,30 meters tall and an adult accompanied you (which was pretty lame, so no one did it). At sixteen years old, you could travel alone, but there were still certain pokémon you weren't allowed to have until you were at least eighteen and passed a test, so it made sense that weaker Gym Leaders taught the smaller kids with their smaller pokémon.

Now he realized that this was also a reason why him and Green were more famous than the other Champions: because they had managed to beat the entire Elite 4 with pokémon that weren't taller than 1,45 and only on the second stage of evolvement.

He really should have given himself and Green more credit because that was one hell of an achievement. It was just too bad that people only ever saw that Green lost a few minutes after winning the Championship, and not that he had done something that almost no sixteen year old could ever dream to accomplish without cheating.

"…typical, I talk and you don't listen, and then you…hey! You're doing it again! You're staring off into the distance! You're not listening to me while I'm complaining about you not listening to me!", Green ranted. For how long had he been ranting? He didn't care, he just wanted to go to the hill and roll down in a handcart like he used to, so he didn't say anything, just grabbed Green by his arm and pulled him along as he walked to the old pipe to climb down again.

"Did you hear what I just said?", Green complained.

Red smiled. "Yes. Let's go."

That's when Green exploded and Red grinned as he climbed down, feeling pretty satisfied with himself.

"Oh, gosh darn it!" Delia rummaged through the pantry. "Come on, seriously?"

Yep. Ever since Green had told her that Red was alive, she had made sure that she had all the ingredients for potato stew in the house every day. All the ingredients.

Except potatoes.

Frustrated, she slapped the empty shelf as if it was responsible for this. This day had been a crazy one, in a good and in a bad way, and she was just tired and annoyed.

Strangely, she was okay with that annoyance since a big part of her heart was fulfilled because of Red's return. Every obstacle life would throw her way today was insignificant compared to this. Yes, she was disappointed and hurt, but part of being a mother, she guessed, was loving your children no matter what they did. And for all she cared, Red could commit murder and he would still be her Red. She didn't know if that was an unprogressive way of thinking, or if it was right, but she didn't care; emotions aren't rational, and she would never ever stop being a mom.

So if now the shelf had to suffer a little because it dared not to have potatoes in it, then so be it. She'd have to go to the market to buy some new ones.

Red probably wouldn't be back for a while anyway. He would either spend some time with Green- she kind of hoped for that because Green really should have some company-, or professor Oak would start talking and talking and never let him go.

She sighed and searched for her keys and her wallet, then she left for the market.

As she had expected, all of Pallet seemed to be here. The little town was dead and dozy, but the market was always full of masses of people. She didn't even know that many people lived in Pallet, so a lot of them probably came here from Veridian City because they knew the products here were fresh and regional.

Usually she hated being here because every time she was, she felt people staring at her, the mother of the boy who had disappeared. But now that he was back, she didn't mind anymore.

Yeah, keep staring, she thought. I know something that you don't know...

She went straight to the vegetables, hoping she wouldn't have to wait in line for too long (of course she was wrong), when suddenly a rather tall man pushed her out of the way.

"Excuse me!", she yelled after him, but he just kept walking. Delia shook her head. Some people!

Red is back. Don't let this guy ruin your mood, your son is back and life is good.

With a frustrated sigh, she kept walking and, when she had finally made it through the masses of people, grabbed the desired potatoes.

That's when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She flinched a little while she quickly rummaged in her memory who this could be, and when she turned around, she couldn't believe what she was seeing.

A woman her age was giving her a wide, excited smile.

"It's really you!", she screeched with a voice Delia had always hated. A hug without consent followed that Delia didn't return because she was still too shocked. "I wasn't sure if I should approach you or not because how awkward would it be if you weren't the right person, but wow, you still look so young and exactly as you did back then!"

Delia took a breath to say something, but the woman continued. "What a coincidence that we're seeing each other here! I've been back in Pallet for a few days now, but I've been at the lab with my father-in-law the whole time! And guess what, I saw my son today! For the first time in like ten years! That boy has grown!" She sighed and looked like she was talking about a cute little puppy or something when she continued: "Can you believe it? Our boys are so big now! And my gosh, he's handsome and he has achieved so much, I am so proud. He didn't really appreciate me unexpectedly dropping in on his life again, but I'm sure he'll come around. Ahhh, but here I am, bragging about my kid like I didn't know what happened to your's! I'm so sorry Delia."

Delia took another breath, but was interrupted again. "It's such a shame! Your Red was a real prodigy. You're so strong, how are you dealing with this? Because if I lost my Green, I wouldn't be able to live on anymore."

Delia didn't bother taking a breath this time, and it turned out that she didn't have to. "I admire you! Really! But anyway, busy day! I wish we could talk and really catch up, but I still need to buy groceries, I want to prepare my baby's favorite meal for when he comes back! Send my best wishes to- oh, I'm sorry. Hope we can have dinner soon! Have a nice day, sweetie!"

She kissed Delia's left and right cheek despite the fact that Delia tried to pull her face away as far as possible in disgust, then she disappeared in the crowd of people, while the other woman just stood there, wondering what the hell had just happened, and if it was really real.

Then suddenly, her heart was aching so much, it almost wasn't bearable, and she really hoped now that Red was with his friend.

Oh, Green, she thought sadly. Poor, poor Green.