Title: Kris
Pairing: Red/Kris (game verse)
Rating: PG
Summary: No one ever came for a second battle after defeating him.
Warnings: Unbeta'd but spell checked at the moment, proceed at your own peril. Mt. Silver has been muddled up to fit my little plot filled mind, the hot springs came from the manga but ended up inside the mountain because it makes my job so much easier, and because I wanted to. All mistakes are my own.
Author's Note: This came from playing a bit too much Pokemon over the years, the fact that Kris will always be my first Poke-gal (and that Crystal is the first video game I ever got), reading a few too many Pokemon fan fictions, and seriously wanting to show myself that I can in fact write fanfic. Sorry if it's weird, I haven't written much fanfiction.
He didn't talk during battles. Not any more. It was too cold up there on his mountain, to numbing, to even think of talking. He had taught his pokemon to recognize hand signals instead. They worked well and they saved his voice, his mouth, his throat from unnecessary exposure to the cold air.
He still talked, but not nearly as much as he used to, and only while he was alone; curled up with his Pokemon, in the warm air near one of the hot springs, no other humans around. He spoke softly to his Pokemon, telling them stories, talking about nothing, knowing that if he didn't he would forget. He would forget him self, his past, how to speak, and why he was here in this cold lonely place.
When she came this changed.
She said her name was Kris, but did not ask his name in return. She was obviously waiting for him to give his name in return. But that wasn't going to happen. His name was a secret, something only he should know.
He released his first Pokemon, ready to begin. Unlike the others who had come before her (those two boys, Silver and Gold came to mind) she did not push the point. She smiled, her eyes growing determined, and released her Pokemon as well, ready to start this battle.
As they battled, he found him self watching her, far more than the battle it self. His Pokemon knew what they were doing, they had done this many times before, and he wasn't too worried about them losing. He watched her eyes flash with concern, determination, happiness, and finally victory.
Her victory wasn't something he expected or even planned for. It just happened, while he was watching her, she'd won, his Pokemon had fainted, he lost.
He didn't stick around to see what she did next. He slipped away, quietly, not looking back as she celebrated with her Pokemon, or whatever it was she did when she won a battle.
Some time later, days, weeks, months, years had long lost their meaning in this cold dark place, she returned. This was strange. Trainers never returned for rematches against him when they won. As strange as it was he humored her and battled her once again, resolving to pay attention to the battle this time, not his opponent. In spite that resolve he found his eyes seeking out his opponent half way through the battle, just to watch her as their Pokemon fought between them.
She had grown since her first battle with him. She was taller, more mature, dressed far more sensibly for the cold of this place than before. Her bright blue pigtails were still in place, vaguely reminding him of a girl from long ago whose name he had long forgotten. But even though she had grown, even though time had past, her eyes, her expression, was still the same. Determination, laughter, and something else he hadn't caught the first time and didn't know how to name this time.
She won.
Her Pokemon were stronger this time around, he noticed as their battle came to a close. She was stronger too.
Her eyes sought him out, searching, wanting, as her last Pokemon was returned to its poke ball. But he turned around and walked away. He had already stayed longer than he usually did after a battle, mind swirling, trying to remember her name, trying to place that last piece of emotion he still couldn't name.
Her name came back to him a long while later. In the warm place where there was a hot spring. He liked to go there to talk with his Pokemon sometimes. He even slept there on occasion, a big warm pile of one scrawny human and six powerful Pokemon.
Her name came back in a warm rush; amplified by the fact that he was relaxing in a hot spring when it happened.
"Kris," He whispered the word foreign and warm on his lips. A pool of heat swirled in the pit of his stomach as that word, her name, brought memories of her to the front of his mind. Her long blue hair, creamy, soft looking skin, bright adventurous eyes, firm but gentle voice, and her body, unknown, barely glimpsed, wrapped in clothing, hiding from his view; all coming together to form a picture of her as he had first seen her, and how she had looked when she came again.
As he spoke to his Pokemon that night, as they all piled up, ready for sleep, in that warm, humid room, he told them about her, about Kris. He told them about how her name warmed him, causing heat to pool in the pit of his stomach as thoughts of her rushed to the surface and threatened to over take him. He spoke of his wish to see her again, to ask her why she had returned to battle him a second time, instead of never returning, like all the others before her had done. He told them about his wish to know just how long they had spent here inside this mountain, and just what it would take to make her his.
When they woke they returned to that cold place to wait for anyone wishing to battle. But as he took his place, Pokemon safely tucked away in their poke balls ready for battle; he noticed that there was something different about this place, about its smell. It smelled almost like her, almost like Kris had the last time he battled her.
His mind slowly worked over the possibilities, casting them aside and starting over when none of them seemed possible. So intent was he on thinking over all the possible reasons for this place to smell like her that he didn't hear the crunching foot steps of someone coming up behind him.
"So, what's your name?" Asked the voice of that person whose name he had only just remembered the night before.
He jumped whirling around to face her friendly, curious gaze. His heart began to pound, and the warm heat in the pit of his stomach became closer to a raging inferno as he stared into her cool clear eyes.
"Red," He whispered a monster raging in his mind, wanting to take her by the shoulders and kiss her so hard, so deeply, that they could forget where they were, who they were and fall into an oblivion of warm passion he hadn't felt for a very long time.
"Red," She said to herself, feeling his name play over her lips and tongue; a pensive expression on her face, as she committed his name to memory, looking away from him, bringing up a hand to hide her lips as she thought.
When her gaze returned to him, a smile sweeping across her face, he had to suppress a gasp at the beauty of it all. Her cheeks and nose reddened from the cold, her breath misting the moment it left her mouth.
His hands were reaching for her before he fully realized what they were doing. He blushed, not sure what his body was trying to do. His blush deepened as she took his hand in her own, stepping closer, her breath warm and most on his neck, on his face, her eyes on his hands trapped between her own.
There was a question he wanted very badly to ask her, but it kept slipping away has her warm, soft, bare, hands warmed his cold fingers and cupped both of his.
The question came back into view, as she moved closer, the heat of her body warming his own, her eyes meeting his, looking for a moment like clear, bright, shards of crystal filling his vision and his mind with nothing but her, and the questions he wanted to much to ask.
"Why did you come back?" He finally breathed. She was so close now, just another inch, just a twitch more and they would be kissing.
She smiled, her breath against his lips driving him half way to madness, and replied, "Because I wanted to see you again."
Before his already spinning mind could fully comprehend the meaning of her words, she slipped a piece of paper into his hands, gently kissed his mouth and left.
When he came to his senses he was back in the hot spring room, hands clasped around the little piece of paper Kris had given him, pokemon out of their poke balls doing whatever they pleased.
His Pikachu sat at his feet, looking up at him, a worried expression on his little yellow face.
"It's okay Pikachu." He rasped. He now remembered the real reason he didn't talk up there on his battle ground. He lost his voice when ever he tried. His stomach growled. How long had he been out of it? Looking down at the little yellow mouse, he decided it had to have been a while. "Let's get something to eat"
His Pikachu nodded fiercely and dashed off leading the way to their food stores, it hadn't stopped worrying yet, he noticed, but at least it wasn't hovering any more.
As the seven of them ate, his Pokemon had come to eat when they saw that he was alright, he unfolded the piece of paper Kris had given him.
It took him a moment to remember how to read, in between bites of the stew he and his Pokemon had made, and he was slow to remember the meaning of the symbols and the words they made, but he read it.
"Red, go home and visit your mother. See Green and what he's done with his gym. Find out what's happened since you've been gone. Then come find me, I've been told you're really good at finding things. –Kris"
After he read the note twice, once to gaze at the way she formed her words, a second time to understand what she wrote, he wondered how she had known his name. He had only told her when she came that last time, so how could she have known?
He decided to go find Green and ask him. Green always had answers for that sort of thing.
Three months later, when his mom would finally let him out of the house without her, and Green stopped showing up at his mother's house just to make sure he was still there. Red took a trip to Saffron City, hopped aboard the magnet train, Pikachu on his shoulder, and made his way to Goldenrod City.
It couldn't be all that hard to find her, after all just how many Kris' could there be in Johto anyway?