Chapter 2: Of questions and understanding
5 more days to deadline
Crystal makes her way to Green's house in Pallet Town after she had made her rounds at the orphanage. She feels a little light-hearted for solving what she thought was a impossible problem though a part of her feels slightly guilty for dragging Green into this admittedly ridiculous situation because of her stubbornness. But Crystal is determined not to back down to Gold this time, and show him that she isn't as annoying as he made her out to be.
As Crystal approached Pallet Town on her Xatee, she feels slightly nervous, not knowing what to expect from today's first session with Green to become a "couple". She doubted if Green has dated anyone before, and wondered if the two of them would be able to pull off this act successfully. Crystal instructed Xatee to land at the edge of the town, returning her to her Pokeball before making her way by foot to Green's house. As Professor Oak's assistant, she had went to the Oak residence several times to help Professor Oak get his misplaced files and research documents.
Within ten minutes, she was at the front door, and took a deep breath before she knocked on the door. In a few seconds, Green stood at the doorway, dressed in his normal going out clothes. "You're punctual," he commented as he allowed Crystal into his house. Crystal stepped into the house, and saw that the living room was much neater than it normally was when she was there to pick up Professor Oak's documents. It was obvious that Green has been waiting for her to arrive for a while.
"It won't be nice for me to be late when you are the one offering me a favour. I see that you too have been awaiting my arrival for a while," voiced Crystal, as she gestured to the neat state of the living room.
Green gave the tiniest of smile said, "You're sharp, no wonder Grandpa always praises your work. Take a seat in my living. I'll get us some drinks and we can start."
When Green returned with two cups of drinks, he saw that Crystal had seated herself on one of the longer couch. He placed the drinks on the coffee table ("Thanks," Crystal had said) and sat down on a smaller couch directly opposite Crystal.
"So," began Green, "our task here to be pretend we are a couple in front of Gold next week, and we have five more days to make this work convincingly. I spent the rest of yesterday reading up some relationship advice books-"
"You what?!" blurted Crystal, mouth agape as she tried to confirmed if she had heard Green wrongly. Green had read relationship books because of this?
Green raised an eyebrow at her. "Don't tell me that you didn't read up on anything before coming here today."
At those words, Crystal flushes and immediately closed her mouth. "I just can't imagine that you would read up on those books for this," said an embarrassed Crystal.
"I promised I would help and I'm not going to help halfheartedly. Since we have both read up on this issue and none of us have any prior practical experience in this, let's start by making notes and exchanging the information we have." continued Green as a matter-of-factly.
Crystal was amazed at how prepared Green was at this, even more so than her when this is her problem. She is grateful though, for Green to put in so much effort to help her and doesn't hesitate to began exchanging information with Green.
"Seems like most books calls for more communication between the couple," commented Green as he pored over his already-made notes.
"Hmm, then maybe we should start with that? Seems like communication strengthens the relationship by fostering understanding between the couple. So we should start by trying to understand each other deeper," replied Crystal as she looked up from her notes and looked directly at Green. "Why don't we try by asking each other questions about each other? We can take turns to answer them. There's a list of questions in one of the books I brought that is supposed to help you understand the other person," suggested Crystal.
"Sure," shrugged Green. "You can start first then."
"Hmm let's start with something simple. What's your favourite colour?"
"Green."
Crystal nearly snorted. "If I didn't know better I would think you are narcissistic," she joked. "Mine's blue. Ok your turn," she continued, as she passed the book to Green.
Green took the book and spent about a minute looking down the list of questions. "Do you collect anything?"
"Um. I capture Pokemon so I guess I collect Pokemon? If that counts as a collection," laughed Crystal. "But Pokemon are living things so perhaps it's not too appropriate to say I collect them... Maybe Pokeballs then? I have all sorts of Pokeballs that allows me to capture Pokemon."
Green pondered about this for a moment. "I've never used any specialty Pokeballs before. What kinds are there?"
"Really? You are missing out! Kurt makes the best Pokeballs around. There are seven kinds of Pokeballs that Kurt makes. There's the Level Ball, the Lure Ball, the Moon Ball, the Friend Ball, the Love Ball, the Heavy Ball and finally the Fast Ball. The Level Ball is used for ... " rattled Crystal, while Green listens attentively.
"You sure do know Pokeballs at the back of your hand like a Capture Pro," said Green approvingly, as Crystal finished explaining what the different kind of specialty balls do.
Crystal beamed at Green. "You aren't that bad yourself too isn't it. I heard from Professor Oak that both you and Red each managed to complete half of the Kanto Pokedex by the time you entered the Pokemon League."
"Last I checked, you managed to collect data for both the Kanto and Johto Pokedex in an even shorter time," retorted Green, slight annoyance evident in his tone.
Crystal couldn't help but let out a giggle. "I never imagined that you of all people would be jealous of me," she teased.
"I am not jealous. Tsk," huffed Green.
"If you say so," smirked Crystal. "Do you collect anything then?"
"Books," shrugged Green. "I have a small shelf where I keep books I would like to read again."
"Not surprised there," said an amused Crystal.
And so, Crystal and Green continued asking each other questions and got to know each other better. Green now knows that Crystal has a fear of clowns, absolutely dislike spicy food and loves the rush of adrenaline. Crystal now knows that Green actually prefers Dexholder gatherings to being alone, has a lovely singing voice, and would confront people who are doing unethical or immoral things.
...
It was Green's turn to ask a question, "What's your favourite time of the day?"
"Morning?"
"Why?"
"I like the feeling each new day brings. It rather invigorating. Besides, I love how bright the children's smiles at the orphanage are every morning," smiled Crystal. Thinking about the children's smiles brought a smile to her face too.
Green appears to be deep in thought as he listened to Crystal's words. "I like dusk the most," he said finally.
"Why?"
Green pauses. "It's quieter at night when activities usually die down." Another pause. "It's also the time when I get to spend time with Daisy and Grandpa."
Crystal looked at Green, who seemed deep in thoughts. She felt something stir inside her and decided to stand up to sit beside him.
"I don't get to see my mum often when I was younger too," spoke Crystal. "She was always busy working, and I would spend most of my time with the other children at the orphanage. She would fetch me from the orphanage every night, and tired as she is from work, she would spend time with me before going to bed. I used to resent my mum a little when I was smaller, for not spending enough time with me. But as I got older, I understood why she had to do what she did, and I started to treat the orphanage as a second home."
"I think it's normal to feel that way about spending so little time with your family. But ultimately isn't the love and care of the family the most important thing that we have despite not spending so much time together?" continued Crystal.
The two of them sat in silence for a while, thinking about their own memories and emotions, while the words that were just said hung over the air.
Green was vaguely aware of the warmth emitted from Crystal sitting next to him, but what he felt more acutely was the warmth that is spreading from his heart to the rest of his body. "Thanks," he finally said. "And sorry for breaking the atmosphere."
"It's not a problem," smiled Crystal. "Isn't this what the whole exercise about? To understand more about each other. Right now, I can positively say that our whole session was a success, don't you think?"
At this, Green let out a smile too and nodded his head. Trust her to come up with something so positive in this atmosphere, thought Green. But she is right, it was a rather successful session at understanding each other better.
"Well I guess we have spent quite a long while asking each other questions," said Green as he glanced out of the windows. "Let's end here today and continue tomorrow."
"Oh you're right, the sky is getting darker. I didn't even realise so much time has passed. I'll get moving then." Crystal said as she got to her feet.
Green paused for a moment. "I'll send you back. Riding on Charizard should be more comfortable than hanging from your Xatu. Besides, what kind of a 'boyfriend' am I if I let you go all the way back to Johto by yourself." stated Green firmly.
"Well, if you insist then." said a surprised Crystal, as she thought of no good reason to refuse.
...
Later that night when Green reached home again, he couldn't help but think of how enjoyable the day had been, just sitting around and asking each other questions. He felt comfortable doing these relation building exercises, perhaps because he had never tried them with anyone before. She might be starting to grow on me, thought Green wryly.
Notes:
Made up backstories of Green and Crystal.
- I made their favourite colours the same as their eye colour.
- I thought Crystal would like the rush of adrenaline because of her experiences of Pokemon capturing and also how she seem to enjoy amusement parks in the GSC arc.
A/N:
Well this chapter marks the start of a budding relationship between Crystal and Green. I imagine both of them will research the things they have no experience in, which in this case won't be being in a relationship. Also, taking it slow because I don't think it is practical to just have them so suddenly falling in love without some sort of trigger.
In this chapter I tried to imagine how they could understand each other better through asking questions, and also having the other person reveal more than superficial answers. The understanding come from piecing all the answers together to form a personality. Hope that makes sense to you and that you enjoyed it, even if the pace is really slow.
Also, I thought I should warn you that this isn't going to be some dramatic story, but more down to earth, like how real life is. I don't really believe in dramatic stories because they don't happen to everyone.