Recommended Music: Green Green Opening. Just... don't judge me. I watched this stuff when I started getting into anime for real in middle school. Years after I can recognize that it was pretty much trash, but even now I like to watch some trash from time to time but I'm at the point where I put it on like 1.3-1.5 on VLC. But I digress. The song is good. It helped me get in the mood where I wrote the whole chapter in one sitting that's enough.


Pokemon Tales: Red Chapter 18: Am I Blue?

"I think I love you."

After hearing Blue's words, Red stood there for what he seemed to him like eternity. He couldn't move an inch and the girl's words completely jumbled up any stream of thoughts he was trying to follow, leaving his brain completely empty, essentially making him look like a lifeless statue for a good couple seconds. He was grasping at straws and unfortunately, the one he grabbed was the worst one he could pick at that moment.

"You... You shouldn't go so far with your jokes."

Before he could realize his mistake, Blue ran over to him an delivered a swift uppercut which sent the unprepared boy flying. He fell on his back and looked at the sky with confusion. He didn't really understand how he got on the ground and why his chin was hurting. Meanwhile, Blue stood over him, massaging her hand. She never had to hit anyone and wasn't suspecting how hard Red's jaw was.

"You hit me." Red spoke up while quickly sitting up, still not sure about what just happened.

Blue unconsciously felt bad about what she did so she kneeled down and grabbed hold of Red's face with her other hand and checked whether there was any damage.

"You'll be fine." she said after examining him.

"Con wyu lt go?"

"What? I can't under..." she stopped when she realized that he couldn't speak properly because she was squeezing his cheeks, and let go of his face.

After that, she offered help in getting him to stand up. Even though he didn't need it, he felt it would be better to go along with whatever she wanted for the time being in order not to get hit a second time.

"Do you understand why I hit you?" she asked while glaring at him.

"Well, that I understand..." he answered while lightly massaging his chin "...But the rest of it... I don't understand."

"I..."

"I thought that since we were friends, I could understand you, even if I couldn't tell what you were thinking sometimes... But..." he tried avoid eye contact since he felt bad about what he was saying "...After you said "that", I feel like I don't know you at all."

"Of course you know me!" the words came out louder than she intended to since she was scared by Red's reaction.

"Since when?" he asked.

"Since when do you know me?"

"No, dummy. Since..." he felt embarrassed by the thought of having to say those words "Since when did you love me?"

"I don't know." she responded without taking a second to think.

"Wha-? That doesn't make sense!" yet again he got the feeling that this could be some elaborate prank.

She waited a little before mentioning her suspicion since it wouldn't paint her in a good light "I realized it sometime after that whole hot spring thing in Mt. Moon." she said while using hands to cover her blushing cheeks.

"Pervert." Red said, although he didn't do it in a serious manner, but rather in a teasing tone which the girl well knew.

"It wasn't that! I've probably loved you earlier! I might have even fallen for you during our first meeting!" her shouting continued to get louder and louder.

Red felt shivers running over his body. He didn't know what kind of answer he expected but he was surprised nonetheless. He never once considered how attractive he could appear to females and even what parts of him were the ones that could make someone fall in love with him. It wasn't that he didn't have confidence in his own looks but he didn't put much effort into them. His personality was also nothing special, at least from what he could tell. He didn't really care to learn since it could very well be a case by case basis and it wasn't like it would help him in anyway, aside from maybe understanding Blue. But he suspected that even if he asked, it would be too problematic for her to explain what she liked about him.

"...rstand that!" was what he heard after being suddenly taken out of his thoughts when he realized Blue was still talking to him.

"Wha-?"

"The only important thing is that I didn't want it!" she shouted.

"What are you on about?" he asked since it felt like he missed an important part of the conversation.

"Gah!" she yelled out in anger at how hard it was to deal with this situation, after which she striked a pose while pointing at him with her right hand "I don't want to love youuu!"

Red looked past her finger which almost poked him in the eye, and at her face which looked passionate, satisfied and relieved at the same time. He pushed her hand to the side, took a step forward, quickly grabbed her face and delivered a light headbutt. It wasn't painful but she was so shocked that she stood there for a while, touching her forehead, and looking around while making unintelligible noises, as if she was hoping that the forest would hold some clue as to what just happened.

"Why are you acting like it's my fault?!" yelled Red.

"I'm sorry!" she responded, not sure whether she should feel bad about it.

The thing that made her calm down was the slight smile that appeared on Red's face right after that. He reached towards her head with one of his hands so she closed her eyes, prepared to receive any other punishment he wished to inflict upon her. Instead, she felt his hand lightly caressing her head.

"So you left me suddenly in Cerulean because you didn't want to deal with these feelings?"

She nodded in response.

"That thing I said earlier... When I said that I didn't know you... I went a little too far. Also, I feel like we're both to blame. We're friends, aren't we? We should be able to rely on each other."

"Can we..." she started while lowering her gaze in shame "Can we still be friends?"

Red didn't want it to seem like he was hesitating so he gave a quick answer "Of-Of course we can."

"You know... The reason why I left was because it would be hard... It's another thing if I had to fight my friend in the Pokemon League. But if it's someone I love... Could I choose between my dream and them? Could I go all out?"

"I have literally no idea." he answered nonchalantly.

"Gee, thanks a lot." she said in a sarcastic voice "I mean... I thought if I didn't see you long enough, maybe I could get over it and we could return to being friends one day..."

"Stop it! We're still friends!" he looked visibly angry while yelling that.

"Sorry." she looked saddened, disappointed by how she couldn't think of any way to deal with the situation, even with Red being there to help her.

Red wondered how to cheer her up, at least momentarily.

"Also, it's like you expected that I wouldn't feel the same."

"What?" she looked up while wiping away a tear that was forming in her eye.

"It just seems like you assumed the worst possibility. You haven't considered what would happen if I also fell in love with you?"

Her face instantly became red and she quickly escaped the hand that was still laying on her head.

"You're joking, right?"

"Unfortunately. I'm not sure what love feels like. I'm kinda disappointed."

"What do you mean?"

He decided to imitate the movements she did right before her confession. He walked around for a couple seconds before looking here straight in the eye.

"You said that you don't want to love me, yet for me, you're probably my favorite person in the world. It would be great if I loved you."

Blue fell to her knees and covered his face since she felt a rain of tears coming from her eyes. Red decided that it would be best to get her time to deal with it, so he sat down.

. . .

Several minutes passed. Blue was using a handkerchief to wipe the drying tears from her face. She started getting up, which didn't go unnoticed by Red who's been observing her during that time. Her two Pokemon, who remained quiet for all that time, walked up to her to give a helping hand in getting her on feet.

"How are you feeling? Red asked.

She was still a little out of it so all she could do was smile. She returned Tori and Bell to their pokeballs before signaling the boy that they should return to the camp grounds. They walked there in silence. They were landed farther from there than they thought, which probably helped them since people couldn't hear their shouts from that distance.

A couple people who recognized Blue walked over to make sure that everything was alright. Everything happened so quickly that they didn't realize where she disappeared to. Some of them tried searching for her but they didn't go far into the forest since it seemed impossible that she would get somewhere far away so quickly. One of them, a nicely dressed boy around their age, looked like he suspected Red of doing something bad to her, but the girl punched the air right in front of her face in order to stop him from starting a fight.

Afterwards, she explained that he's her friend who wanted to help her since she was getting swarmed by a crowd. It looked like a couple of them were ashamed by their previous behavior since they tried avoiding Blue's gaze. Aside from that, there was a pair of people who came over to give Blue their tickets. She estimated by their numbers that one of them would give her a fight fairly soon but the other would be for the next day since the sun would be setting soon. She wanted to give back the first one since she didn't feel ready to have a fight after the roller coaster of emotions she just went through but a voice interrupted her.

"Can I give it a go?" asked Red.

Everyone looked at him with surprised faces. People started whispering between themselves. Since he was Blue's friend, some of them wondered if he was anywhere as good as her at Pokemon battles, while others outright declared him as a waste of a ticket. Ignoring all the talking, Blue walked over and handed him the ticket with a smile.

"Good luck. Although you probably won't be needing it." she said.

"Don't say stuff like that. You'll raise people's expectations too much." he responded.

Even though there was still uneasiness, both of them felt relieved since at that point they felt like they knew each other perfectly. Even though only one of them was in love with the other, the bond they had was something even stronger. The crowd seemed to be getting hints of that since a couple people walked away, angry that they probably didn't have any chances with Blue after noticing how she and Red looked at each other.

. . .

About half an hour later, Red's ticket number was called out and the crowd parted ways to let him through to the front. He stretched his arms and legs as if he was the one that would be doing the fighting instead of his Pokemon. Snorlax arrived after getting some minor treatment after his previous battle, and it looked like he remembered the teenager. The Pokemon stopped as if it wanted to do a double take after which it smiled, feeling that there was something unusual about the trainer in front of it.

"Who should I choose?" the boy wondered while looking at the pokeballs containing Charmander and Pikachu.

Suddenly, a ray of sunlight hit his face. It was slowly going down but it gave him an idea about a simple strategy he could use in this situation. The only problem was that it was a one time trick. If it didn't work, he would most likely lose. Despite of that, he decided to give it a try.

"Alright. I choose you, Oddish!"

The grass Pokemon jumped out of his ball and landed on both feet while smiling cheerfully. He looked at the opponent, who was standing a good couple meters away, and assumed a serious face.

"Huh. It seems like you got a good rest today since you aren't asleep like usual." Red stated, surprised by his Pokemon's behavior "Well, the thing is simple..."

Red didn't get a chance to finish since he noticed that Snorlax was already approaching them, and much faster than one would expect of someone its size.

"Oddish, dodge!"

The grass Pokemon had little time, but it managed to avoid the Body Slam that was about to trap him under the opponent's body. The seconds it took Snorlax to wake up were their chance. Red pointed towards the sun which was going down in the direction of the bridge. Oddish ran over there and stopped right before the stone arch at the same moment his foe managed to stand up. Snorlax started running, unaware of Red's plan.

"Sunny Day!"

Since the sun was already there, instead of creating an artificial one, Oddish focused the light of the real one and used it to blind Snorlax who was already too fast to stop. The enormous Pokemon started to swing its arms in hopes of hitting Oddish by luck, but that was exactly what Red wanted. He knew that none of his Pokemon would be strong enough to beat Snorlax in a fair battle so he employed trickery.

"Grass Knot!"

When Snorlax was close enough, Oddish caused a bunch of grass blades to grow in length and wrap around one of the arms it was swinging. They were strong enough to lift the Pokemon and throw him as if they were an Aikido master. This caused Snorlax's other arm to hit the arch. It was at that point that the grass Pokemon realized his trainer's plan and ran away as quickly as he could.

Snorlax broke one of the columns which collapsed onto its belly when it landed on the bridge. Its weight caused the rest of it to fall in a similar manner. It became trapped under the rubble. It tried to stand up but couldn't. Besides the fact that its arms were under too much weight, it was also afraid of further damaging the bridge it was meant to guard. The group of caretakers gathered around the broken arch, some already calling in help in order to repair the bridge and free Snorlax. The woman whom Red met earlier looked at him with an awfully sour expression. Even though he didn't really defeat Snorlax, he took that as his personal victory.

"Come on, Oddish!"

The grass Pokemon went to its trainer and, after jumping into his arms, the two of them started making their way back through the crowd. The people looked at Red with dumbfounded faces. No one could tell if he was actually a good trainer or just somebody smart who wanted to have some fun. After some time, Red saw Blue who was waiting for him. It somehow seemed like the awkward air of the situation from before vanished. She even offered for him to stay in her tent since she wanted to talk to him about his journey after their parting.

She convinced him by saying that otherwise he would have to walk to the far end of the camping grounds, since there really wasn't any space for him to do one of his makeshift houses near her tent. It would also take too much time, going to the forest to gather materials and all. After accepting her offer, he offered to make some of her favorite food, but she stopped him and decided to show off the abilities she had to acquire in her lone journey. They talked until late into the night and even though Blue suspected that it would feel weird sleeping in the same tent, she somehow had no problem with it.

. . .

Finally, the morning arrived. As was usual during their journeys, Red got up earlier than Blue but he was surprised when the girl woke up only minutes after him. Seeing how well she was handling being independent, he felt relief at the thought of letting her continue on her own path. After eating a breakfast, this time food being prepared by him, he was ready to leave.

"You're going already?" Blue was trying to hide her disappointment.

"That's what you wanted, right?" he said.

Even though he knew that parting ways again would be hard, he wanted to make it as quick as possible, hoping that time would indeed help Blue deal with her problems.

"Yeah, but... Even though I don't want it, I can't deny that I still love you. Having you confirm that you didn't feel the same didn't change anything. It's not weird that I would like to spend more time with you, is it?"

"I suppose not. But you have to make up your mind."

"I will. I mean... I did. While you're travelling back to Vermilion and then who knows where, I'll stay here and focus on trying to take down the guardian. I don't feel like I could get rid of these feelings I have for you, but I think I'm capable of getting myself in the mindset where I'll be able to fight you in the Pokemon League without any hesitation." she said with confidence.

"That is if you make it into the League." Red responded, and the two of them started laughing, thinking about how maybe all of their drama was pointless.

Red was about to start walking away when he turned around to say one last thing.

"Remember that "date" I took you on in Pewter City?"

"Yeah. What about it?"

"Well... When the Pokemon League is over and if you still have feelings for me, granted that I haven't met anyone else, we could try going on a real one. I said it once already... I would love to love you."

He smiled before finally leaving. Blue stood there, watching him walk away until she couldn't see his back any more. From one of the other tents, appeared a girl who was one of the people who gave Blue a ticket the previous day. She looked at her with confusion, since she couldn't tell what the expression on her face meant.

"Hey, Blue. What is it? Are you sad?" the girl asked.

"Am I sad?" Blue repeated "Hmm. Hard to tell."


Stretches arms. This time it's definitely the last chapter of the year. I just really wanted to finish this storyline. "Finish". We won't be seeing Blue for quite some time and Red finally resolved his part of the problem. Now it's up to her. Will she be able to get over her feelings for Red? Does she need to? You'll see sometime in the future.

I was afraid of writing this chapter ever since I came up with the idea of Blue falling in love with Red since I knew he wouldn't reciprocate her feelings and I wanted to handle it in a way where he didn't seem like an asshole. I was also worried about myself. I like to put romance stuff into things I come up with but somehow females always get the short end of the stick. I have an idea for a space opera, not really based on anything, and after going through my plans for it, I realized that the main character would seem like a jerk to any female reader since he acknowledges that another person loves him, but decides to ignore it, but as soon as that person has another chance at love, he starts getting protective of her. Meanwhile there's like 4-5 other people who are attracted to him.

So I'm grateful that I managed to(hopefully) avoid that stuff with Red. People often like assholish characters but not really that kind.

Aside from that, there were supposed to be more Pokemon battles, but this stuff is already two chapters so I decided to just have the quick one with Snorlax. One thing I wanted to do was have Roger from Team Rocket try to steal Snorlax since he heard it was undefeated and then Red and Blue would protect it. But that would interfere with the flow of the chapter so I left it out. To any Roger fans out there, don't worry, I still have plans for him.

The title is taken from the Harry Akst and Grant Clarke song which I know thanks to that pig episode of Justice League Unlimited. That version still feels the best to me, but there's a couple other good ones.

The next chapter will be kind of a filler, in the sense that it won't contribute to the main story, but it could lead to something waaay further down the line. I've also been wondering if I should do a Green centric chapter. I have some kind of idea but unless someone explicitly asks for it, I won't bother, since chapter 20(or 21, depends on how it goes) will be the end of what I would call the first arc, so I want to get to it as soon as possible. Let me know what you think.

Red. Team: Eevee, Charmander, Raichu, Oddish, Magikarp.

Badges: 3

Green. Team: Ivysaur, Nidorina, Jigglypuff, Hitmonlee, ?.

Badges: 3

Blue. Team: Bellsprout(Bell), Wartortle(Tori), Zubat(?), Graveler(?).

Badges: 3

Alex. Team: Ditto, ?, ?, ?.

Angie. Team: ?, ?.

Peter. Team: Dodrio, Haunter, ?.