41: menial: lowly or servant-like
Red was surprised to see Moltres on Saturday morning when he was shoveling snow away from the cave entrance.
After exploring the mountains' caves, about a year ago, he'd found one with especially scorched and blackened walls, and had entered cautiously to see the fire bird sleeping, its tail surrounded it with a defensive circle of fire. It cracked open an eye to look at him, before tucking its head back under a wing. Intrigued, Red stepped closer and sat a good five feet away from the circle. He could feel the warmth even from that distance, and dozed a little. And since then, they'd become good friends.
So when Moltres saw him, cackled a little, and melted nearly all the snow in the cave entrance with one carefully aimed fire blast, Red suddenly found himself free of the menial chore of shoveling. His shirt was a little singed, but he suddenly thought of a great idea.
42. montage: a composite of elements; especially pictures, placed closely next to one another
Charizard turned out to be even better at controlling fire than Red expected. Red began with having him practice making the smallest flamethrower possible, and in only two hours they were able to reduce the powerful attack to a thin stream of flames no more than a foot thick. Red drew dots in the snow for Charizard to aim at, and after a while, had Charizard melt a smiling face. Satisfied, Red concluded the training session.
Charizard flew out to practice, and Red realized that the flames that looked randomly fired at the snowy canvas eventually turned out to form an enormous smiley-face. After drawing the smile, Charizard roared happily, wheeling in circles.
That evening, as he sat to watch the sunset, Red did not fail to take notice of the montage of smiling faces scattered across the otherwise pristine snowy slopes.
43. drastic: extreme; severe
Though he would never admit it, Red was a little nervous to see Green, especially after his indirect confession two weeks back. So while Charizard was busy toasting the mountain, Red went to talk to the Golbats. He spoke with Pikachu in halting phrases, and Pikachu chattered to the Golbats, translating. Red wanted to play a little prank on Green. The Golbats were all for pulling off some mischief. Hopefully that would stop Green from making the situation more awkward than it needed to be. It was a little drastic for an icebreaker (pun?), but hey, Green pulled plenty of tricks on Red when they were kids. Just revisiting a little seven year old grudge.
44. acumen: quickness and accuracy of judgment or insight
Early Sunday morning, Red found a comfortable ledge with a good view of the paths winding down the mountain, where the ambush would unfold. Settling down with Pikachu, he curled up to wait for Green. Red was about to nod off when he heard some indistinct shouting.
Green was clawing at a Golbat that had wrapped its leathery blue wings around his face, effectively blindfolding him. A couple more grabbed the edge of his jacket and flapped their enormous wings, and the brunette soon was pedaling his legs comically as they lifted off the snow and flapped, swerving in the air as Green struggles to get free. They were relieved to drop their burden in Blastoise's waiting arms.
Blastoise caught Green and placed him on his back. The Pokemon lay down on its stomach, retracting its legs into its shell. Seeing Blastoise, Green began to realize that Red was involved in the whole trick (one didn't need great acumen to guess who was involved; what were the chances of being tossed to a wild Blastoise in the middle of Mt. Silver?). However, coherent thought left his head as he clung on to Blastoise's cannons for dear life as Blastoise pushed off and sped down a slope.
45. cosmopolitan: having worldwide scope
When Blastoise reached the bottom of the hill and swerved to a sudden stop, Green screamed (in a manly manner, definitely not a high pitched shriek), lost his grip, and was subsequently tossed into the soft snow. After going on a ski trip with Leaf to Snowpoint north in Sinnoh one winter, Green had felt fairly proud of his mastering a black diamond course in three weeks. Leaf had taken to sledding with local kids after getting sore thighs after the first two days. Unwilling to just ski alone, he'd wandered around the city, and decided to try out the gym. After he battled Candice, she'd volunteered to teach him various snowboarding techniques. When Green returned to Kanto, he'd been fairly sure that he'd become a pretty good cosmopolitan snow person. But now he just felt a little sick. And really cold, since the soft snow had infiltrated every opening in his coat and proceeded to melt on his skin.
46. obtrude: to push forward; to impose (oneself or ideas) on others
When Red got over his silent laughter and came down to check on the unmoving Green, he was a little worried to see Green lying in the snow, staring at the sky, teeth chattering. Red, seeing Green's coat dusted with snow, stepped a little closer to pull him upright. Green grasped his hand, groaning as he pulled himself upright out of the snow.
"Hey. Did you plan this all out?"
Reds eyes twinkled.
"Y-you little..." He grunted. "I'll save complaining for later... Right now, I really need something warm cause I'm pretty much so numb I don't even feel cold anymore. Mind if I obtrude and use your bath?"
47. paroxysm: a sudden convulsion or outburst; a fit
Blastoise plodded over to pick up Green and followed Red, who walked surprisingly quickly up the slope. They arrived at Red's cave in less than twenty minutes, and Green was deposited gently beside Red. Green had never even noticed the sheltered corner branching off from the main "room," where Red had a white bath tub and a large basin, both which looked extremely clean and out of place surrounded with the craggy cave walls. Blastoise aimed a cannon at the tub, and cautiously shot out a smooth stream of water. Charizard poked a head around the wall that partially separated the "bathroom" from the larger area where the other pokemon lounged. Charizard aimed a flamethrower at the bottom side of the tub, and after about a minute of steady flames, the water began to bubble. Red nodded appreciatively to his pokemon, and the three left Green, rounding the small rock wall and giving him a little privacy.
After Green overcame his initial awkwardness and popped in the tub, he forgot any shame as the warm water heated his frozen limbs. The water was so intoxicatingly warm that he even began to nod off. So when Red poked his head around the corner (a pretty good Charizard imitation), Green had a paroxysm of surprise and nearly jumped out of his skin.
48. monolithic: massive, solid and uniform in appearance
Red brought over some folded towels and clothes and set them beside the tub, taking care to avoid eye contact. Green thanked him and tried to muster the courage to leave the warm tub.
Green tried not to notice the overwhelming smell of Red and grass that enveloped him when he dried off and put on the black shirt and jeans. Both were a little worn but in surprisingly good condition, considering that Red probably only had a few changes of clothes to go through. He rubbed his damp hair vigorously with a towel, and emerged to see Red setting the stuff from Green's backpack out to dry around the fire. His pokemon were busy in the cave entrance, building a monolithic snowman (snowpokemon?) of Blastoise, who modeled proudly. Venusaur, a little uncomfortable in the cold, sat further in the cave and occasionally ventured out to add loose leaves for scales to cover the snowpokemon's back.
49. approbation: official approval
Green glared a little at Red as he dug out his pokemon and released them to join Red's in playing in the snow. He then searched for the box of macaroons, but began to panic a little as he couldn't find them in the damp mess of supplies his bag had become. Red, seeing Green become increasingly distressed, coughed, and held up the box, already half-eaten. Green turned to look at Red, and then facepalmed.
"You ate them already?"
Red raised an eyebrow. They weren't for me?
Green bit his lip, refusing to let himself be embarrassed once more (not like he could stop from blushing anyhow). "...Leaf made them," he lied uneasily. "Are they good?"
Red gave a nod of approbation. Green bit his lip harder to stop the corners of his mouth from rising into a giant smile.
50. heyday: a time of success or popularity
Green sat close to the fire and leaned back on his hands, watching his pokemon frolic with Red's in the snow. Snow. "...what was that whole attack for? The Golbats and Blastoise? The ride down the hill was ok," at this Red smirked a little, recalling Green's shriek. "But why Golbats?"
Red shrugged.
"Wait, how did you even get them to help you? Those vermin are awful, in darker caves you can't go two feet with the whole gang of them getting pissed and attacking you." Green shuddered. One time, he got lost in Mt. Coronet and then had took a nap in exhaustion, only to wake up to a huge Golbat charging at him, its mouth wide open.
Red shrugged again, and popped another macaroon in his mouth.
"I hate Golbats."
Red nodded, savoring the sweet treat.
"...you knew that and you still got them of all pokemon to blindfold me and toss me around?"
Red looked at Green. Amused eyes met frustrated ones, and Green ran a hand through his drying bangs and sighed. In his heyday, defensive fangirl trainers followed (stalked) him and fought off all the wild cave pokemon trying to ambush him...