A/N

Kia ora (it means 'hello' in Maori :D) my friends!
Welcome to the long awaited 5th chapter! WOOP WOOP!
I'm gonna stop blabbing so...
ENJOY!

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Gold's POV

A bitterly cold draft blew through the entrance of the cave as I sat there nervously fiddling with my PokeGear. I had only realised a while ago that it was in my bag and I was now trying to make a call, but with no such luck.

"Arceus!" I yelled out furiously and chucked the useless device onto my bag. "There's no reception up on this damned mountain!"
Red glanced up at me from the opposite side of the blazing fire in the middle of the cave. There was a look of questioning on his face and I quickly had to make up some excuse. He still didn't know the actual reason as to why I was on this mountain in the first place.
"Oh... I um... Was trying to call my uh... Mother. She's the only one who knows that I'm up here, but there is no reception so I guess that idea's out the window... Heheh..." I laughed awkwardly and rubbed the back of my head with my hand.

My hair was a complete mess. I really should brush it... wait. Since when did I start caring about the way I looked? I usually didn't care and just flattened it down with the hat that was pretty much always on my head.

Red just shook his head and looked away from me. We sat there in silence for about five minutes when suddenly my PokeGear made a little beeping noise. I quickly shuffled over to it, but groaned when I saw a message that I dreaded to see. LOW BATTERY flashed across the screen and I sighed.

"I'm running out of power." I said to myself quietly. All of a sudden, a cable was chucked into my lap. I flicked my head up and my eyes made contact with Red's. I looked away quickly and back down at the cable.
"It's a PokeGear charger." I said. "But what am I supposed to do with it? There's no electricity up on this mountain."

Red looked blankly at me and then took a pokeball from his belt and released the Pokémon. A small, yellow rodent appeared before my eyes. The Pikachu looked up at its trainer and tilted its head to the side in confusion. Red took the PokeGear charger out of my lap and gave it to Pikachu. He then took the PokeGear out of my hands and plugged it into the charger. He glanced at Pikachu and it nodded in understanding.
The mouse-like Pokémon suddenly let out a small burst of electricity. I flinched away, fearing getting zapped.
The electricity stopped coming and my PokeGear made another small beeping sound. I gingerly took the device out of Pikachu's tiny hands and read the new message across the screen. FULLY CHARGED it read.
I stared at it in disbelief. Red's Pikachu just re-charged my PokeGear!

"Oh wow. Thanks Pikachu!" I said and gave Pikachu a scratch under its chin. It let out a cry of happiness and then retreated back to its master. A red beam of light sucked up the little mouse-like Pokémon and I looked up at Red. "Thanks." I grinned at him widely but it soon went away as I came to realise something. "But I still can't use it. There's no reception up here."
Red blinked a couple times and then shrugged. Hey, at least he tried?

I put the now fully charged PokeGear back into my backpack, but as I did, my pretty much always frozen fingers brushed across something. I wrapped my fingers around it and gasped as I brought it out of the bag. It was an envelope with the name 'Red' written across it in neat cursive writing. It was the thing Red's mother gave to me just before I left. I still hadn't given it to him yet. I wasn't even sure that I could give it to him because he thought that only my mother knew I was up here. If I randomly gave it to him saying that it was from his mother, wouldn't he wonder why I was even talking to her? Maybe this was the time to tell him why I was up here? Or maybe I could twist the truth a little?

"Hey, Red." I said, trying to get his attention. "You know how I said that only my mother knew I was up here? Well... I kind of lied. Your mother knows to. So does Professor Oak."
Red's head snapped up and he looked at me with surprised eyes.
"When your mother found out that I was going up to Mount Silver through the professor, she requested that I come and get this from her." I hold out the envelope in front of me. "She said it was for you."
Panic spread across his face but he was quick to make his face impassive again.
"I'm pretty sure it's a letter. I know you haven't seen her in three years, so I don't blame you if you don't want to read it though."

He looked at the envelope with nervous eyes. I could tell that he was desperately trying to hide his fear, but I could see through his act.
Slowly and shakily, he took the white envelope out of my hand and rested his gaze on it. He looked at it for about a minute before standing up and walking out of the cave.
I sat there dumbfound, not believing that he just got up and left. Yes, I know that he needed his privacy and probably didn't want me sitting there watching him like a hawk, but he could have at least said something... wait. Never mind.

I sat there impatiently for a good two minutes. I turned my attention to the entrance of the cave. Maybe if should go and check on him...
My curiosity got the better of me and I crawled at a slow but steady pace towards the entrance.
I peered outside and shivered. As per usual, everything was coated in a thick powdery snow. To my relief, it was only snowing lightly so I shouldn't have too much trouble.

I heaved myself off the ground and took a few hops outside. I glanced around and saw nothing but white and boulders and rocks. I took my chances and started hopping towards the boulders.
My ankle was throbbing, but I chose to ignore it.
I came to the area where Red was training his Pokémon yesterday and saw decimated bits of rock lying discarded on the snow covered ground. Off to the side, there were many boulders which had escaped the destruction. My gut instincts told me to go over there.
Yet again, I hobbled across the snow. I saw a silhouette in the distance, and it appeared to be on top of one of the boulders. As I got closer, the silhouette took the form of a human and I instantly knew who it was.

I made my way over quietly, not wanting to disturb him. I crouched down below the rock he was sitting on and glanced up at him.
His eyes were frantically skimming across the letter, almost like he couldn't believe what he was reading. I looked away for a bit and wondered. What did his mother write in that letter?
I looked back up at him and saw that his eyes were starting to look glassy. If I didn't know any better, I would have thought that he was crying.

Feeling like I was intruding, I moved away quickly and quietly. But completely forgetting about my injured ankle, I went down yelling, face first into the snow.
I quickly flipped myself over and shook my head. My head snapped up towards the boulder when I heard shuffling. I saw Red jump down from the boulder and run towards me. I covered my face in shame when he stopped in front of me. Even though I couldn't see his face, I just knew that he was scowling, whether he wanted me to see it or not.
I felt his familiar arms hook themselves under my neck and knees, the usual place.
I couldn't believe that this had happened again. Me going outside when I'm not supposed to. Red finding me collapsed in the snow. Him picking me up and taking me back to the cave. This was really becoming a bad habit.

My thoughts were interrupted by a wet substance on my nose. I tilted my head to the side and dabbed my nose with my finger. I brought it up to my face. I took a closer look at it and realised that it was water. Or so I thought.
I peered up at Red and saw him looking straight ahead, not giving me a second glance. This scene wouldn't have been unusual if not for the tear tracks on his face. On closer inspection, I noticed a fresh one and I put the pieces together. So he really was crying after all?

I couldn't believe it. This was definitely the most amount of emotions I had ever seen from him. And not to mention the fact that he was letting out his emotions with another person only moments away. This was definitely a sign. I was finally getting through to him. Even though he probably didn't mean for me to find any evidence of him crying, I had still found it and it gave me hope. Hope that I could actually get him down from that Arceus damned mountain. And possibly get him to talk. Wait, no. That's going a bit too far. If he wanted to talk, he would...

"This is getting kind of ridiculous. This has happened way to many times for my liking." I joked as Red placed me back on my blankets by the fire. "If I don't start walking around soon, I'll become too heavy for you to pick up!"
Red quickly shook his head and I laughed.

After a while of sitting there in a comfortable silence (the usual), I saw Red put his face in his hands. His body started to shake slightly. I sat there in shock as the bizarre scene unfolded in front of me.

"Red?" I said, finally able to find my voice. "What's wrong?"
He slowly looked up at me and my breath hitched. The once dried tear tracks were now replaced with new and fresh ones. I couldn't believe my eyes as a single tear dropped from Red's eyes and fell to the floor of the cave. In the unbelievable silence, the sound of the tear hitting the ground was heard. Red's face returned to his hands.
My mouth opened and closed like a goldfish, trying so desperately to form words. I finally gave up and shuffled over towards Red and kneeled down in front of him, trying to keep my weight off my injured ankle.

I grasped his wrists and I instantly felt him go rigid. I removed his hands from his face and placed them at his sides.
His crimson eyes looked redder than ever. The skin around his eyes was now a little bit puffy and swollen. The scowl that was on his face made me believe that he was almost disappointed or angry with the fact that he was crying. And then it hit me. His mother said that he hadn't cried since his father passed away. So this was the first time he had cried since then.

I couldn't help myself. I wrapped my arms around him.

I heard a tiny gasp escape his mouth as I brought him into a protective hug. I felt him try to resist my hug, but he gave up after a while. He started to relax and soon the sobs that shook his body stopped coming.
It felt foreign to me, seeing him so vulnerable like that.

I leaned away from him and he looked at me with his big, red eyes. His tears were now all dried and they once again left stains on his pale face.
I lifted myself off the ground and looked down at him. "It's getting late." I said as I craned my neck to see outside. "We should be getting to bed."

I ushered Red towards the tunnel and told him to go and get changed. He obeyed without questions. Not that he would ask questions anyway.

I stood there and pondered while I awaited his return.
Was Red seriously just full-on crying in front of me? I seriously couldn't believe it. It came as a shock to me to find him outside crying by himself, let alone crying right before my eyes. What could have possibly been in that letter to make him so fragile? Fragile enough to make his walls come crumbling down around him?

My eyes shifted over to where Red had previously been sitting. The letter was sitting right there. Maybe I should have read it? No. That would have been an invasion of Red's privacy. My curiosity was killing me. But somehow, I managed to keep myself from reading it.
Red had only been gone for a matter of minutes, but I was already starting to feel lonely. That cave wasn't exactly what I'd call 'homely.'

I heard footsteps coming back down the tunnel and Red appeared right after. His usual outfit had been discarded and was replaced by his nightwear. I on the other hand couldn't be bothered changing. My ankle had been moved around enough that day.
I ushered him over to his own bed and once he was all snuggled in, I bent down next to him. I felt like he was ignoring me though, as his back was facing me.

"I'm so sorry, Red." I said, suddenly feeling a wave of guilt crash over me.
He shifted his body so that it was now facing me. He looked up at me with sadness in his eyes. This only made me feel guiltier. The sadness in his eyes was replaced with uncertainty.

What he did next caught me completely off guard.

"For what?" His croaky voice said.

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A/N

BOOM! CLIFFHANGER!
Heheh I'm so evil! :D

I am so sorry for not updating within the week like I promised! D:
It's just that I was completely out of ideas until this one hit me!
Just like Gold, it caught me completely off guard!
I'll be working on some of the next chapter tonight as well, so it should hopefully be updated again next Thursday :D
Hope you liked it!
VOTE/COMMENT/FAN!

Li xx