Wish I'd never grown up
I wish I'd never grown up

They both remembered the day Leaf became Champion.

It had been a long and gruelling battle, neither side refusing to give an inch. This was not just a Pokémon battle, the trainers were battling each other just as hard.

"Charizard, buddy, come on. I know you can stand up. Just two more seconds."

"Blastoise. Get up there! You can't let her beat us. This is what we trained for."

Just as the referee was about to call a draw, Charizard lifted his head and let out a might roar.

"The victory goes to the challenger, Leaf Green, of Pallet!"

Leaf squealed in excitement. She ran to her friend, Charizard, and embraced him.

"Thank you Charizard. You were absolutely amazing."

She returned him to his Pokéball, and looked up in time to see Gary wipe a tear from his eye, murmuring quietly to his Blastoise.

He walked over to her, and held out his hand. "Congratulations, Leaf. You achieved your dream. You're the new Champion."

Leaf could hear the pain in his voice as he uttered those words.

Yes, it was true. She had achieved her dream, but it was at the expense of Gary's.

"You won because you have such a great bond with your Pokémon. I could only hope to achieve that."

"Gary…"

"No, Leaf. You earnt this. You can take my title."

She was silent. Gary was so upset, yet he was keeping such a brave face. For her. He knew how much this meant to her. Then why did she feel so terrible?

"I don't want it. You can have it."

"Leaf, I don't understand. You beat me."

"But it doesn't mean as much to me as it does to you."

The referee came over. "Excuse me, Miss Green. We need to get you initiated."

"I'm not the Champion," Leaf stated.

"But… Miss G-"

"That's my final decision."

And with that, Leaf walked out. She held her head high, although on the inside, she could not understand what she had just done. She bet Gary could not understand it either.

Pokémon

"Oi! Leaf, wait up!"

Leaf ignored him, walking faster.

The river was flowing fast beside her. When she heard the sound of a Pokémon being released, she knew she stood no chance of escaping him.

Sure enough, soon Gary was beside her, riding on his Blastoise.

"You want to join me?" he asked, holding out his hand.

"No thanks," she murmured in reply.

"Come on Leafy. Why are you avoiding me?"

"I'm not avoiding you Gary." The way she looked down at the ground, and refused to look him in the eye proved to him she was lying.

"Bull."

Leaf cracked a smile. "Fine. I am. But you are busy as well."

"Busy doing your job."

"It's not my job. I turned it down."

"I know. Why did you do it?"

Leaf shrugged, and looked to the sky. "It meant more to you than it did to me."

"I know that already. That's not what I'm asking."

His voice was soft, delicate. He really wanted to know, and Leaf had no idea what to tell him.

"You wanted to prove yourself, Leaf. Become known. You had the chance and you turned it down."

"Dreams change, Gary. I guess mine did when I won."

She sat down on the grass. It was slightly damp from the spray of the river, but it did not bother her. Distracted as she was, Leaf took no notice as Gary came to sit next to her, putting an arm around her as he did so.

"What's your dream now, Leaf? You can't wander throughout Kanto for the rest of your life."

A wry smile crossed her face. "I can try though."

He chuckled, "Now tell me."

"I just wanted to prove myself. It wasn't about being the best. In fact, I don't think that was what I ever wanted. Whenever I battled you, and you would win, it didn't worry me."

"Then why did you try to become Champion?"

Leaf was silent for a while before responding, "That's what everyone else was doing. It seemed to be the best way to get where I wanted. But now I've done it… I don't know."

"I think I do."

Leaf leant against him and shut her eyes. "Would you mind telling me? This is tiring."

"You've never wanted to be in the limelight, but you didn't want to be in anyone's shadow either. Everyone's always pitied you because your mum died, and then you were bullied, so you wanted to change that. All the battles we had, you knew they didn't matter. There was only one you needed to win, and then you won it."

"So now I've proved myself to myself, but not to anyone else."

"Right. So that begs the question. Do you want other people to know what you can do?"

"Apparently not."

"Well, when you make up your mind, you know where to find me."

With that, he got up and hopped back on his Blastoise.

Leaf wondered where the arrogant preteen that she first began her journey with went. He had been replaced with a thoughtful, knowing young man. His arrogance was still there, but he could be serious when he wanted to.

Leaf liked that.

They had both matured over their journeys. Leaf was more confident now, in herself and her abilities as a trainer. Gone was the shy girl that had avoided a battle.

In fact, she loved battling. So much so that she had no desire to be couped up on Indigo Plateau waiting for challengers.

As she thought this, Leaf made her decision.

Surely, if people knew she could have been Champion, they would want to battle her. The strongest people would want to battle her, and they would not think her a pushover.

Decision made, Leaf called out her Vaporeon, and followed Gary down the river.

Pokémon

Crowds had been following Leaf for the past few weeks. News had very quickly spread of her decision to turn down the role of Champion.

But that was the decision Leaf had made. She had chosen to make her win public, and it had to be expected that people would not understand her decision.

But they respected her, and that was all she dreamed of.

"Do you remember when we were young, and we could do whatever we wanted and no one cared?"

Gary was sitting with her in a small coffee shop in Pewter City.

"Yeah, I wish we could go back to those days sometimes."

"Why can't we?"

Gary looked at Leaf strangely. By her face, he could tell she was serious. Her eyes were lit up, and her cheeks looked a little flushed.

"What do you mean?" he asked cautiously.

"We're still kids, as much as everyone else would like to think. We're only thirteen. Why can't we go out and have fun?"

"Fun at what? We have duties."

"You have duties, I don't," she corrected.

"That's beside the point. What are you getting at Leaf?"

"Let's go into the forest. Explore a little bit. No one's going to be there to stop us. I'm sick of acting like an adult all the time."

She was dead serious, Gary could tell. The more excited she got, the faster she started to talk. And she was talking very fast.

When Leaf was this way, Gary knew there was only one option. Besides, it had been a while since he had seen Leaf happy.

"Fine. Let's do it."

She stood up. "Let's go now. Show the people what their Champions are really like."

So that was how the pair spent their day. They chased Butterfree, ran from Beedril, found a waterfall and swam in it. By the end of it, they both had sore stomachs from laughing, and flushed cheeks from running.

No one had bothered them. It was perfect.

Now the sun was setting, and they had found a cliff overlooking the city. They sat at its edge, in silence.

"I know what I'm going to do now, Gary."

"What's that, Leaf?"

"I want to go to other regions. Hoenn, Sinnoh, Johto. They have all kinds of different Pokémon, and their own Leagues."

"But you don't want to be Champion."

"No, I don't. But if they can accept that here in Kanto, they should in others. Just because I don't want to be Champion doesn't mean I can't compete in the Leagues. I just want to be able to meet new Pokémon and become friends with them, until settling down and actually figuring something out."

Gary looked at her. He was happy for Leaf, he really was. But a part of him was sad at her news.

"You will come back won't you? Between regions. You can't leave me behind like that."

She looked at him and she smiled. The wind had messed her hair up, and her cheeks were flushed. Dirt covered her face, but that just made her eyes stand out more. It was weird, but Gary thought she looked the prettiest, and happiest, Gary had ever seen her.

"I could never leave you behind, Gary."

Pokémon

The sun was setting over the ocean. Leaf and Gary were standing on the dock, preparing for Leaf to depart. Professor Oak stood a little behind them. He had to say goodbye to Leaf as well.

"Leaf, this is for you. It is an updated Pokédex, and contains all of the Johto Pokémon. Good luck on your travels."

He stepped forward and gave Leaf a hug, before stepping back, giving Gary a chance to say goodbye.

The pair stood awkwardly. Stiffly, Leaf hugged Gary, and he hugged her back.

"Don't be gone long."

"I won't be."

"Keep in contact."

"I will."

"I'll miss you."

Leaf felt a tear slide down her face. "You too."

The ship honked as a signal to the passengers it was about to depart.

"I.. I should probably be going." Leaf smiled apologetically, wishing she could have said goodbye to Gary better.

She turned and began to board the ship, tripping on the dock. A pair of hands caught her. She turned around and hugged Gary, unable to contain the rest of her tears.

She felt him wrap his arms around her, and she could feel his fast heartbeat.

"I'm going to miss you, Leaf. I really am."

"I won't go if you keep talking like that."

"Yes you will. You can survive without me. You don't need me to protect you anymore."

They separated, and Leaf wiped her face.

"Thank you, Gary. For everything. I promise I'll come back soon."

This time when she boarded the ship, she did not trip. As it pulled away from the dock, she waved to Gary, watching his grandfather put an arm around his shoulder, as he too, waved.

The two kept waving until the ship was long gone.

"Why does she have to go, Gramps?"

"You know she wants to keep moving, Gary. Would you choose to stop her?"

"I guess not."

"Just keep doing what you're doing here, and let her do her own thing. Live her own life. She'll come back soon, just like she said she would. You two are never apart for long."

"Do I have to be Champion, Gramps?"

"What do you mean, Gary?"

He looked up at Professor Oak. "It's fun, but one day, Leaf and I went into the Viridian Forest. Just like we did when we were little. I miss it."

"You're not going to get a challenger every day, Gary. And, there's always the chance you could get beaten."

"But everyone expects me to be responsible. That's part of the reason Leaf is leaving Kanto."

"Ah," Professor Oak began, "you think if you had never become Champion Leaf wouldn't be leaving. Gary…" He trailed off and embraced his grandson. "I know it's tough, but you have to know that everyone's going to grow up. Some just have to do it sooner than others. Even then, you get adults who are still kids at heart."

Gary nodded, and shrugged his granddad off. "Thanks, Gramps. Come on, we should be going. No point waiting here anymore."

Professor Oak watched Gary walk off towards Pallet Town. It was true, Gary did have to grow up fast, and Professor Oak was sorry that he had to.

But it would all get better. Eventually. Having Leaf with him would have helped, but she needed to do what she had to do. They were both struggling at the moment, but there was one thing he was certain of.

They would always be kids to him.

Oh I don't wanna grow up, wish I'd never grown up
I could still be little
Oh I don't wanna grow up, wish I'd never grown up
It could still be simple

Pokémon

I have no idea if this makes sense. I am so tired at the moment. I'll just apologize now, but I really felt like writing this. A few more GaryxLeaf moments in this one.

Thanks to Zhiarlah who reviewed and to Episodes of Pain who favourite. Also to pants the musical and megadracosaurus who alerted. :) Thank you so much.

I changed the title and summary for this, because I've decided to continue it for fun. Even though it's not very popular this helps me come up with plots and scenarios for future stories.

Thanks guys!