TWO AM | ridding partnerships or relationships of negativity
"I'm Green."
The boy turns away from his lumpy sandcastle, gives Green an uninterested glance, then turns back to his creation without a word.
Green huffs and puts his hands on his hips. Doesn't this boy know who he is? He's Professor Oak's grandson, directly related to the famous researcher whose knowledge and wealth will someday belong to Green. He's important. People will write books about him. It's what everyone says, or at least it's what it sounds like in his ears. Everyone is really nice to him when they find out he's in the Oak family. They take one look at the professor's ailing back and graying hair, then their attention is only on Green.
"My gramps is Professor Oak," he continues. "He's moving his lab down here. He knows everything about Pokemon."
The boy looks at him again, confusion instead of disinterest in his eyes this time. Green feels his breath catch in his throat. The boy's eyes are red, sharp, and dull all at once.
He speaks, barely a whisper. "Who?"
"Professor Oak, dummy!" Green almost can't believe his ears. "Haven't you heard about him?"
"No." The boy returns to his sandcastle, hand digging around the mass for a makeshift moat. "Sorry."
Green clenches the front of his oversized shirt. He's never run into anyone who had no idea about his family. He always has to brag about what he knows, hide behind Gramps' coat when the crowds become too much, ignore questions about his future and where the inheritance will go.
He sits down in the sand and catches a mound before it breaks off from the boy's castle.
"You need to add more water to make it stay! What's your name? How old are you?"
Red turns six several months after Green does. There aren't any other kids in Pallet to throw a big party for either of them, but Green is more than happy with only Red being there.
Unfortunately, Red's birthday falls on a school day, and they still have to wake up early and jump on the first ferry to Cinnabar. The morning fog is cold and the island is stuffed with weird tourists, but Green doesn't mind. He likes school, because he's going to be smart and famous like Gramps, and Red is here with him. His uniform is finely pressed and he wears it proudly; Red's looks a little rougher, and Green is starting to suspect that his household doesn't have as much money as the Oak household.
Unable to wait any longer, Green dives into his backpack the moment they're on the ferry. He knows he should wait until after they get back home and Red blows out the candles on his cake, but he wants to be the first to give Red a gift. Being first is always the best.
"Red, Red." It's hard to resist repeating that name. "I have your present."
Red stops picking at the threads on his shirt and stares at the brightly-wrapped package in Green's hands. Slowly, he takes it, fascinated at how the light shimmers against the wrapping paper.
"I wrapped it myself!" Green crosses his arms and nods. He had Daisy do most of the wrapping, or maybe it was all of it, but Green was there and that's all Red needs to know.
Red unwraps the gift in the most tedious way possible: breaking the tape on the back, plucking off the delicate ribbons, undoing all the hard work Green (Daisy) did step by step. Green's fingers dig into his jacket, desperate to simply tear the paper apart himself and get on with it.
Finally, Red frees the present and holds up a fat picture book. "Pokemon?"
"It's a picture guide for Pokemon!" Green grabs the book and flips through the pages, searching for his favorites. He already has his own copy with every page memorized to the word – well, the words he can understand. But this book is perfect because it's written for curious children like them, so Red should find it useful, too.
"It has all the known species right now," he babbles excitedly. "There's about a hundred, but Gramps is always finding out about new ones. There could be thousands. Bajillions!"
"That's not a number," Red explains flatly. Green waves his hand and turns some more pages. It'll be a number if he wants it to be.
"Gramps was a trainer, and I'm gonna be one, too." His fingers brush over the images of Lapras, Ditto, Eevee. "And then I'll find all the Pokemon in the world, and I'll be the best trainer, and I'll be the most famous person ever."
When Green closes the book and looks back, Red is staring out the ferry window, not having heard a word Green said.
Green turns eight and feels like he's on top of the world.
He's able to read through some of the harder Pokemon books and absorbs it all. Gramps is impressed with his knowledge and school grades and how fast he's growing.
Green just wishes that Red would think the same, sometimes.
"Who's gonna be your starter?"
Red ducks his head and scribbles sloppily on his homework. Green finished his own work not too long ago and munches on the cookies that Red's mother left out. They're much better than anything Daisy makes. He almost grabs the last cookie, but remembers to be polite and leave it for Red to eat.
"Who's gonna be your starter?" he repeats. Red only gives him a brief glance.
"Starter?"
"Your starter Pokemon, dummy!" His voice is more exasperated than teasing. Why isn't Red as eager as he is? Becoming a Pokemon master is their shared dream, in Green's mind. "When we get older and become trainers, we can get a Pokemon from Gramps. Who do you want as your first?"
Red shrugs and continues on his homework. "Don't know."
Green takes the last cookie.
He's ten and his grades are slipping. Gramps starts forgetting his name but remembers again only to yell at Green for something. It's not his fault he pushed those kids when they were in his way, or when he made that girl cry, or when he broke one of Red's games because Red was playing that more than seeing Green – when Red was helping up a student who tripped instead of walking along with Green – when Red started pushing back when Green shoved at him.
He's old enough now to understand when it's over. Gramps holds him back while Red's mother wraps her warm arms around her son, kissing away the bruise on his cheek and cut on his hand.
Green hates him for that. He hates how Red always seems to get everything he wants while Green has to work for it all. Green's going to become amazing and famous one day, but it's so hard to get there. He hates how difficult life suddenly became.
Most of all, he hates that he's crying his eyes out and shouting the worst filth his childish mind can come up with at Red, while Red stands still, eyes completely dry, and takes it all.
It's over forever, in his mind.
Red soon becomes ten, too. His grades are okay and his mother is doing really well, so she's able to afford more luxuries for the house. Daisy and Professor Oak drop off cards and gifts, but it's only him and Mom today.
She takes him to Viridian for a day, complete with any attraction he wants to see, lunch at any restaurant he chooses, and any one present he desires.
"Go on, dear," she urges when they enter the shopping center. Her fingers twist nervously around her purse strap. "Anything you like."
Red's eyes flicker between the shops. The fancy clothing in the displays stands out against their own outfits. He briefly stares at the toy store, packed with eager hands and desperate pleas. Noisy.
He picks the bookstore next to it and heads over to the Pokemon section.
The next few years are a blur for Green.
By the time he is eleven, he's on top of the world and crashing down his throne all at once. He feels numb until age twelve and then returns to the top, somewhat, as Viridian City's new gym leader. He nearly forgets his dream to become famous until all the papers stop talking about how little time he was Champion and start gushing over how incredible a Leader he is. By the time he's thirteen, many start talking about how handsome he is.
Many things happen when he finally turns fifteen, but the most important event is when some punk from Johto spins through his floor and sweeps it clean with Green's Pokemon. He's offended and flattered all at once, but this kid is incredible, determined–
Annoying–
"Stop. Calling. Me." Green growls into his pokegear. The clock reads two AM when he rolls over to glare at it, the numbers burning into his vision.
"Green! Oh man, how're doing? I know you said only to call on Sundays, but it's technically Sunday now anyway, right? I don't really know what time it is, so I tried to make a guess by looking at the moon's position and–"
Green drops his head back to the pillow, trying to drown out the constant noise that keeps coming out of Hibiki's mouth. His thumb sleepily tries to find the button to cancel the call, but misses when Hibiki suddenly cries out and Green's whole body jumps.
"Wait! I called for a reason! I was just on Mount Silver and there were all these hailstorms and these – er, I beat him, Green! I think I ran into Red and beat him!"
The call does accidentally end when Green sits up fast enough to send his phone flying across the room and smashing to the floor.
He turns nineteen today but he's still working, despite Gramps' protests. Green waves it off and promises he'll stop once Red arrives at the Oak labs – and even if he doesn't, Red will probably find a way to force him to stop. Red has to get his own way, after all.
Green is checking over data when he hears the doorbell ring. Red won't come for another few hours, so Green knows it's safe to answer the door in his lab coat, glasses and tie without looking like a total loser.
Except it is Red when he opens the door, so Green looks like a loser anyway.
"What the hell!" Green slams the door in his face and strips off as much geeky attire as possible before Red opens the door himself. Off with the lab coat, glasses, and tie, and he's just untucking his shirt by the time Red lets himself in.
Green puts his hands on his hips, feigning casual, but the look on Red's face says that he's not fooled in the least.
"Okay, fine, you caught me," Green says, throwing his hands into the air. "I'm doing work here now, too. Just part time. Part time. It's not like I wanna hang around with a bunch of scientists all day. I got enough dweebs in Viridian to deal with already."
Red walks past him and tugs down the brim of his hat, eyes skipping over to the lab coat and glasses thrown over the couch.
"You look good in that."
Green chokes.
"Oh, wow. I almost forgot about this."
Red brushes the strands of green ribbon down the quilt and wiggles closer to Green. The wrapping paper remains intact from Green's careful unwrapping of his gift, which makes Red glad; he can create something nice out of it for Pikachu and Eevee later.
His eyes droop when Green squeezes his hand. Later.
Green slips on his glasses and brushes his fingertips over the book's cover. "Is this your old copy?"
"Found it a couple months ago behind my bookcase at Mom's." Unable to wait, Red flips open the colorful cover and turns to the page about Eevee.
"I don't even know what happened to the copy I had." Green gives it a quick glance and then flips to the page about Pikachu instead. The page's top corner is folded, as he expected, as he hoped all those years ago when he wanted Red to memorize every word with him.
"So you did actually use this," Green laughs. "Nice to know all my effort wasn't wasted on an air-head like you."
"Thanks."
"Nah." Green sets the picture book on the nightstand and places his glasses on top. Red loses sight of him when the lamp goes off, but it's not long until he feels Green's hand on his shoulder and lips on his cheek.
"Thank you."