Chapter 4: Carnival Couples
3 more days to deadline
"An amusement park?" Green asked incredulously.
Crystal and Green are standing at the gates of the Violet City Amusement Park, as crowds of teenagers, children and their families streamed past them to enter the park.
"Yup," she grinned. "Come on, you're going to love this!" she said, as she pulled Green into the premise of the park.
Green gave a sigh as he let Crystal drag him into the amusement park. When Crystal had said she wanted to plan the day, he had definitely not expected this from the usually serious girl. "Remind me why we are doing this again?" he asked.
Crystal stopped and turned to him, hands placed on her hips as she frowned. "Well, you allowed me to plan the day! I didn't complain when you plan the past few days so you shouldn't complained as well!" She puffed. "Come on, Green. We had been doing some rather serious stuff for the past few days. Coming to the amusement park ought to lighten us up! Besides, look around! This is the place to be for couples! We could learn to act more like them too!"
Green took a look around. Sure enough, he sees that no matter where he turned he could spot at least one couple enjoying a date at the amusement park.
"Amusement parks are fun, Green. Let's just enjoy our time here while we can okay? I haven't been to an amusement park for such a long time!" Crystal continued to pressed.
With a jolt, Green remembers that Crystal had said that she loves the feel of adrenaline. Guess that applies to being in the amusement park as well, he thought. "Alright," he said defeated, knowing that he would never win the argument.
"Yay!," Crystal bounced with joy, pulling his hand once again. "What do you want to do first?"
He sighed. "You can decide."
...
Green had been skeptical about having fun at the amusement park. Afterall, he had never been a fan of amusement parks since he was a kid.
But right now, as Crystal pulled him onto countless rides, he got to admit that he feels thrilled from all the adrenaline rush of taking the roller coasters and other rides. Heck, he nearly begged Crystal to go again on the Dragonite's Flight (the largest coaster in the amusement park) despite the hour long queue to get on because it was just so awesome.
"I told you you are going to love this place," Crystal grinned, as they jumped off the Dragonite's Flight for the second time that day. "Aren't you going to thank me?"
"O mighty Crystal, 'tis Green here thank the holy Arceus that a lovely lady as yourself has decided to grace her wisdom on lowly me," joked Green, which promptly earned him a light slap from Crystal as the two of them burst out laughing.
"Well, we are done with most of the rides here but there are still a couple of attractions we could go and take a look. There's the Pokemon Circus, where Pokemon will perform some tricks, and also some fun ones like the Haunted House, House of Mirrors and the boat ride," Crystal said, after the both of them regained their breath from laughing.
"Aren't there clowns in the Pokemon Circus?" Green asked quizzically.
Crystal gulped and seemed to freeze for a moment. "Forgot about them for a moment.. Thanks for reminding. Let's do something else then?" she asked sheepishly.
"Why are you so afraid of clowns?" Green wondered out loud, curious.
At this, Crystal really did stiffen. "You don't have to say if you don't want to," he said hastily when he noticed her reaction.
"It's nothing really, just a bad childhood memory.] I was about four or five at that time. There was this commotion outside the Violet City town square, and a lot of people were crowding around it. Curious, I squeezed my way to the front to see what the commotion was about and I saw this tall man towering over me, with red and white face looking straight at me. It was my first time seeing a clown, and I got freaked out by how he look and the way he looked at me," Crystal shuddered at the memory. "I've never been able to look at clowns the same way again. Sounds silly I know, to be afraid of something just by how they look."
Green thought about it for a moment. "Well, most phobias don't have a reasonable explanation."
Crystal smiled. "Thanks for the comfort, Green."
"No problem. Why don't we just walk around and see what catches our eye?"
"Sure."
They walked around the amusement park, looking curiously around them. Crystal had spotted a candy floss stall decided to get one each for herself and Green, plagued by a sudden desire to eat the sweet snack. As Crystal queued for the candy floss, Green looked around, paying particular attention to the many dating couples in the amusement park.
"You know, all of the couples here are holding hands or have some form of physical contact," he remarked casually, once Crystal returned with two candy floss in her hands. He doesn't really know what made him say it, but he guess that the whole pretending to date thing is rather interesting for him since it is really the first date he ever had.
"Oh mm," Crystal replied, flushing at the suggestion in his comment.
"We don't have to hold hands if you aren't comfortable with it though. We could try holding the arms? Daisy and I does that sometimes when we are out together. Physical contact should make the dating act more convincing to others," he reasoned, more to himself than to Crystal.
"Hmm we can try that later then? To get used to it," Crystal responded in a small voice, who was not looking at Green but looking interestedly at her candy floss.
Green couldn't help but grin at Crystal's response. Score, he thought to himself.
...
It had been awkward at first, to hold arms. It was the first time that Crystal had held anybody's arm, and she needed time to get used to it. Green though, doesn't seem like he felt the awkwardness, displaying his trademark impassive face. Eventually, Crystal grew to like the feeling of holding Green's arms, feeling the heat of his arms on her skin, and walking around in the company of a guy. She was still slightly embarrassed about it though, and the slight pink on her cheeks reflected that.
They didn't visit any other attractions in the amusement parks, but continue to wander around the park, stopping now and then to buy some snacks or just watch the rides roll by with their screaming inhabitants.
They had stopped at the carnival games too, and a simple comment from Crystal ("Ooh! That Meganium plushie looks so huggable!") had caused Green to try his luck at the games to win the plushie for Crystal. Green, it turns out is very talented at the carnival games, winning them the grand prize of a huge Meganium plushie after he was through with several rounds of ball throwing.
"For you," Green said as he passed the huge plushie into Crystal's hands.
"Really? Thank you Green!" she squealed, as she squeezed the oh-so-huggable giant plushie.
"Glad you like it," Green watched amusedly, as Crystal bobbed in happiness. It was the first time he had seen girls behave like this, with the exception of Blue, but this time, the term "pesky woman" doesn't seem to apply to Crystal. Her sheer joy at the plushie gift, the way she squeezed the plushie, how she is so easily contented, Green could only think of a word to describe her: cute.
"Why are you so good at the carnival game?" Crystal asked later, both hands hugging the Meganium plushie as they walked out of the amusement park.
Green shrugged. "Good eyes. I had to do target training back when I was training under Master Chuck. It's also how I managed to earn enough coins at the Celadon Game Corner to exchange for a Porygon."
Crystal's mouth formed an 'o', nodding impressively at Green's feat. "I had fun at the amusement park today, it's been a long time since I had so much fun playing. Thanks for accompanying me here, even if I had to persuade you to come along at first." she thanked Green.
"Well, I had fun too, so thanks for bringing me here." Green smiled back.
They parted ways after Green had walked Crystal home, stating that he needs to get some training for his Pokemon which he hasn't done much in the past few days.
When Crystal got into her bedroom, she carefully positioned the giant plushie on the table, as Mega popped out of his Pokemon to look at his plushie equivalent. "Cute huh," she asked as she petted Mega, "Green won it for me at the amusement park." Mega cried in agreement, as he nuzzled against Crystal, causing her to laugh.
Crystal spent the rest of the day looking at the plushie more times than necessary, constantly replaying how cool Green looked as he concentrated on the ball throwing carnival games. At night when she slept, she took the plushie with her to bed, hugging it to sleep thinking about how happy she was that day.
...
Notes:
This chapter links back to a few backstories that I made up in chapter 2: Crystal liking the rush of adrenaline, and being afraid of clowns. I had realised while typing this that Crystal owns a Mr. Mime, but a mime is different from a clown right? Besides, I think Mr. Mime looks cuter than any clown!
The Meganium plushie is of course a reference to Crystal's starter. It may seem a little starter-biased here, but I think it makes more sense than to have any other pokemon because well, the other pokemon are supposed to be more common and we are talking about a grand prize here.
A/N:
Green and Crystal finally held hands in this chapter! Well yeah, that's the main point of the chapter. And also, Green putting in the effort to win Crystal the plushie. It is quite cool to have a guy do that for you, I think. And I think my reasoning for him winning the grand prize is perfectly logical, seeing that he did win 9999 coins for a Porygon at the game corner.
Green might seem a little OOC this chapter, but I was trying to get him to open up a little bit more. And I couldn't resist typing out the part with him saying "O mighty Crystal".
A shorter chapter this time, but I didn't want to stretch it longer than necessary, or I would run out of ideas for the subsequent chapters. Don't want to add to the story without any purpose to the story line just for the sake of lengthening it!
I didn't check too thoroughly for this chapter, I will admit. A little less focused while checking so I might have missed out on some mistakes or errors. Let me know if you spot any! As usual, thanks for reading, and let me know if you like it or not (: