AN: Feedback is good. Thanks to those who have left reviews so far. Also, this story is on just under 500 views, which is far more than I expected initially, so thanks to all those who have read it. On with the story!
Chapter 5 - Musings
Leaf slapped Red across the face, then ordered bulbasaur to vine whip him. In mild terms, she was slightly displeased with him. In real terms, she was extremely irked by his actions. Quite frankly, so was he.
"What kind of idiotic, half-witted, shuckle-brained son of a politoed goes wandering around at 1 in the freaking morning, with a single, tiny, mostly untrained fire lizard for protection and company only to nearly get his freaking head blown off?" shouted Leaf in one long burst of air, then paused for a few breaths before continuing on, "Why were you walking around at 1 anyway? You were fast asleep when I came out the shower, and I have to get up at this Arceus-forsaken hour to find your sorry ass missing from your bed and the sound of sirens disturbing my sound of silence! Do you have nothing to say? I'm so mad and disappointed and, and, and…"
She trailed off as she saw Red looking at her with a fiery expression, filled with a cold, hard rage like a mythical Balrog from the depths of the abyss.
Many believed that Tolkien had got the idea from watching a circus act involving an emboar and a charizard. After all, a creature from the depths of the abyss made of fire and rock, cloaked in the shadows of the deep was quite impossible; creatures that could make whips of fire simply could not exist, fairy tales at a stretch.
"Are you done?" Red asked quietly.
"Yes," she replied, meek as a new-born mareep.
"Good. Now shut up and listen. The man who died was the target, not me. The gunman was too far away, but he was professional; if I was the target, I would have died. Now answer me this: when can we leave here? We need to get back to Professor Oak as soon as possible." Red said.
Recovering quickly, she replied with her tone instantly back to a temperature that would have frozen an abomasnow, "8. That's when the 'mart opens. And you're still not off the hook! I should have bulbasaur hang you by your toes and torture you with leaf tickles, then put you down on a floor scattered with Lego! You're irresponsible, immature and – where are you going? I'm not finished yet!" she shouted.
"K," he said, closing the door behind him. Sighing, he rolled his eyes and began to walk down the hall. This was going to be a long journey.
"I was, in my younger years, and I use this loosely for lack of a better phrase, content with life," The eccentric man on the monitor said, "Ah, but they were golden years! The fame, the admirers, the fortunes! I had it all, except the girl of my dreams.
"Oh, but she was a beauty, lovely as the summer breeze: warm, tender and fleeting. She was married to another before me you know, yet such is the perversity of human nature that I hungered for what I could never have and dreamed of the impossible!" He said this with such passion that one could almost envision this man driven into a frenzy, a powerful young gentleman of noble stature who had lost his heart to another.
"But I wooed her nevertheless, and began to succeed in my endeavours, yet inside I -"
"This is all very well, professor," Red burst out, stopping the incessant rambling of the elderly learned man, "But how does this in any way relate to my question of what am I actually supposed to be collecting?" he said.
The professor put up a finger as if to begin a lecture on the exact dynamics of how his slightly shady past was tied into the package, with his face screwed up with the displeasure of having been interrupted, then just as suddenly he put the hand down and relaxed his expression.
"As usual, straight to the point Red. I see I was right to entrust you with this mission. You know Shi correct? Shi Taki, the clerk of the Pokémart? He is expecting you, so just show him you ID and he'll give you the package," the zealous professor told his less excitable student.
"Please be careful on the road back, Red," the professor said, adopting a serious look for the first time in the conversation, "After the news about that gunman and your involvement I'm almost regretting sending you out in the first place, but how else are you supposed to meet the world? Behind a text book I think not. Besides, I - luxray, you can't eat the cables! Just because I took you in doesn't mean you can eat anything you like. Stop -" the professor was abruptly cut off.
Red turned from the monitor, shaking his head in exasperation at the supposed man of science, only to see a sight which took his breath away.
Leaf walked towards him, her long raven hair plaited in a single line and hanging over her shoulder, glossy in the late morning light. She wore a simple shirt, light blue over her mature young bodice, accompanied by a short, pink skirt. A pair of sleek Victini running shoes adorned her feet, while a simple gold chain finished off her look of radiance.
Red stared silently as she stepped off the last step, her hair bouncing softly against her body. Just as he was about to comment on how she looked, she smiled and said "Almost forgot," before placing a summer hat on her head. it was as ghastly as, well, a Ghastly… just white.
He rolled his eyes and looked away. It seems not everything about her had been matured by puberty.
"Are you ready to go?" she asked him.
"I believe I should be asking you that question," he said, "But yes. Let's go."
"Kay kay. I like your hair today though, it looks nice when it's cleaned up," she said, then skipped out the door before he could frame a response.
Red could only echo the professor as he lifted his finger and opened his mouth to make a retort, before closing it and dropping his hand, shaking his head as he followed her out the door.
"Red! It's been too long! How are you? What are you doing so far from Pallet? And who is your beautiful friend?" asked Shi Taki, the manager of the Viridian Poké Mart, as he took Leaf's hand and planted a token of his appreciation for her beauty on her flawless left hand - her right hand was enclosed by a glove.
"It's good to see you too Shi. This is Leaf. Leaf, Shi. And don't fall prey to his charms, he's a blatant flirt," Red said, as Leaf hurriedly took her hand back, "I'm here to pick up the prof's parcel."
"Ah yes, I had it here somewhere. I swear I put it aside just the other day, expecting you to come and fetch it but then you were late and I left it and it all just got complicated…" he said while disappearing into the store room, his voice getting softer as he went further and further, knocking over bottles and boxes as he went, inevitably breaking some of the glass items.
Red winced, and could just imagine a glameow screeching like they have in the movies when people knock things over.
"Ah, here it is!" Shi exclaimed, before racing back to the store front.
"Excellent," Red said, "The professor transferred the P'dollars to you correct? Good," he said, not letting Shi do anything but nod. "Thanks again Shi. It was good to see you again," he said, walking out with the parcel under one arm and Leaf held in the other.
They hurried to the edge of town, back towards Pallet.
"What a strange man," Leaf said.
"You have no idea," was his only reply.
Well that got random. Oh well, 'tis but life and all its flippant fripperies that result in the bafflement that is my strange mind. Anyway, review. Please. Or not please. Whichever one suits your fancy. Meh.
