3: The Twins

Pikachu

When morning came and the sun hit me directly in my eyes, I uncurled myself from my comfortable, warm position and looked up and around, blinking the sleep out of my eyes. For a moment, I wondered where we were. Why weren't we in our room back in Pallet Town? Then I remembered the extremely long plane ride and relaxed.

The others were just starting to wake up as well while Red remained fast asleep, the thick and suffocating blanket wrapped tightly around him. There was a lock of his raven hair sticking out from underneath and although it was difficult to see, his chest moved up and down slowly in his sleep. At least he was still breathing even with his entire head under the blanket. I stole a glance at the alarm clock sitting on the bedside table and saw that it read 6:22 A.M. It was still early and knowing that Red wouldn't get up for at least an hour, so I let him be.

I jumped off of the bed and stretched each leg on my way towards the open door that led into the living room. Espeon was cleaning herself on one of the loveseats while Snorlax was uncharacteristically wide awake already and he had found some of the pokemon food stashed in the kitchen and was currently helping himself to breakfast. Venusaur's flower on his back was wide open to absorb all of the sun's nutrients and made no move to wake anyone else up.

Charizard was curled up in the corner between Red's bedroom door and the wall, both of his eyes closed but I knew he was awake. Blastoise was messing with the television remote, flipping through the channels until he was satisfied with a cooking show and sat down on the floor in front of the couch, gently pushing the coffee table back so he wouldn't hit it. "Good morning, Pikachu," Espeon said with a smile.

"Why is everyone up so early?" I asked, jumping up onto the other loveseat.

She shrugged, going back to her morning bath. "I always get up this early."

"I got hungry," Snorlax admitted, stuffing a handful of pokemon food into his mouth.

"You're always hungry," I told him.

"You know that's not all for you, right?" Blastoise scolded.

Snorlax was about to reach into the bag for another pawful of food when he paused and turned to Blastoise with a pout on his face. "You said you weren't hungry!"

Blastoise returned his pout with a scowl. "Not yet, I'm not! Put it back, the rest of us need breakfast too!"

With slight hesitation and a sigh, Snorlax begrudgingly set the large bag of food back into the cabinet where he'd found it.

"Why do you even like that stuff? It's not even that good," Espeon told him.

"I like it," Blastoise admitted.

"It's not bad, although I, too, prefer berries over processed food," Venusaur said.

"Junk food tastes good," I said with a nod.

Charizard just snorted. I couldn't tell if he agreed or not.

Espeon rolled her eyes at us and then sat up. "I, for one, enjoy the finer things in life. Poffins are delicious, so are pokepuffs—"

"Both are junk food, too," I pointed out. "But keep going, I'm listening."

She pointed to the cupboard with a paw. "But it's better than that!"

"I agree but we're talking meals, not snacks."

"We get it, Espeon, now shush so I can listen to the show," Blastoise interrupted us.

We sat there for an hour, watching and fighting over what show to watch next until hunger finally began to gnaw at my stomach. Impatience was beginning to creep into me and I wanted to jump into the cabinet with the food stashed away and help myself just as Snorlax had however it vanished for a few moments when I heard a knock on the door.

I turned my head towards it in time to hear Blue's exasperated voice say, "Go away, Ethan! Just because you beat me in a gym match once does not mean we are rivals!"

"I never said we were rivals!" answered a new voice, and Espeon groaned in annoyance. "I only said I need you to be in tip-top shape so that when I beat you in the tournament, it'll give me that much more of an advantage over Red! Besides, he's my rival, not you!"

I heard a loud noise of objection come from the bedroom beside the living room we were all in. Glancing towards it, I could see Red open his eyes barely enough to look at the alarm clock and narrow his eyes dangerously at it. There were a few things that Red didn't enjoy, and that was being woken up before his alarm, even if it was only fourteen minutes early.

As the two voices bickered some more behind the door, Red got up and suddenly passed by the couch, an irritated look set on his face as he approached the door. A quick look at the oven time told me it was exactly 7:46 A.M., a time that Red was never known to be up for. Fourteen minutes of lost sleep was still fourteen minutes he could have stayed in bed for and he would make sure the two people at the door would know about it.

He opened the door without a word but a single glare that looked like it could kill anything.

While Blue was immune to his death glares, the shorter boy beside him looked intimidated. He tried not to let it bother him and grinned up at him. "Good morning, Red!" Ethan said as cheerfully as he could.

As soon as he stepped aside, they promptly let themselves in. Red sighed and ran a hand over his face as he closed the door, already done with them.

Ethan was shorter than Blue and Red by a few inches, but since he was three years younger than them, it was to be expected. His golden eyes landed on me and he smiled wide, too happy this early in the morning by anyone's standards. "Hi, Pikachu! Me 'n Ty are ready for a rematch!" he declared suddenly, pointing a finger directly at me.

Before I could even think to shock him, Blue huffed. "A rematch? Wait in line, I'm first for any kind of rematch!"

Ethan pulled his hand back as if he could sense an impending Thundershock for sticking his finger in my face. "You live in the same region as he does! I bet you guys always battle!"

Blue glanced at Red with a slight shrug, but my trainer didn't seem to care. "Well, not often. But we haven't had a legitimate battle for a very long time! Not in front of other people or referees!"

Ethan huffed at him. "We haven't battled in ages! I've only fought him three times my whole ilfe! Three!" He held up a hand with three fingers to make sure we all knew what the number three was. "And those were all on a stupid mountain! During blizzards!"

Blue rolled his eyes. "Your fault plus you lost all three, short stack."

"Hey! I'm not short!" He tried to go on his toes to prove a point, but failing when he nearly tripped over himself. "I almost won once!"

"Still three losses."

By then, Red had gotten bowls out to feed us and gave Snorlax a knowing look, who returned the look with a sheepish smile and rubbed the back of his head guiltily. After giving us all our breakfast, he then disappeared into the bedroom to get ready, realizing he wouldn't get any more sleep with the bickering that was going on between the other two boys.

I looked up from my meal at the two visitors when Red's door closed and the unmistakable sound of the shower turned on. Ethan was an incredible trainer even by my standards. It wasn't often another trainer could get us to a single pokemon left and nearly erase our spotless and undefeated record.

We met Ethan for the first time in a pokemon center near Cerulean City after we had been recently crowned champions. At the time, we were going after Zapdos, who had been extremely elusive and we were relieved when we found out she had a nest at the power plant. All we wanted to do was complete the pokedex and she was one of the last entries we needed. Naturally, she didn't make the task easy for us.

On those missions, as Espeon liked to call them, we often used the pokemon centers that weren't busy to get a room for a night or two if the media didn't catch wind of us. At one of these stops, we met Ethan, who was traveling to Cerulean to fight Misty for her badge. He hadn't known Red was the champion so he treated him like any other kid staying the night at a pokemon center. It was honestly a relief to be treated like a normal person for the first time in a long while.

We parted ways the following morning with the promise of a battle in the future.

We didn't have that battle until after we had made our way up to Mount Silver, where we often stayed for weeks on end. The look on Ethan's face when he finally arrived, I dare say, was priceless. With eyes as wide as saucers, he'd stuttered something along the lines of, "I knew it! I knew you were the kid who beat Team Rocket! I knew you were the champion! You're that kid from Route 9, aren't you?!" Promptly after that, we battled.

The outcome was a close call, I had fainted after Typhlosion collapsed although it still counted as a win since Snorlax and Blastoise were still up and able to battle. The next thing I knew, we were in the pokemon center in Viridian City and Ethan was arguing with Blue just like he had when he and Blue arrived today.

As the two continued to bicker, Red had enough time to finish his shower, take the dirty bowls we'd used and put them in the sink, recall the rest of the team, and both of us flopped on the couch to wait for them to stop.

Ethan suddenly spun to Red, who blinked when he pointed a finger into his face but it was instantly replaced with one of his famous death glares. "Red! Even though Johto is going against Kanto, I'll team up with you and beat Blue for you so that we can have a re-match!" he declared.

"Hey! I just said I challenged him first and you can't take that challenge away!" Blue retorted.

Ethan spun on his heel to face him so fast, I was anticipating him to fall. Instead, he took a single step forward and jabbed his thumb into his own chest. "Pretty sure I'm the better trainer here, seniority rules!"

"I don't think you know what 'seniority' means," Blue drawled, unimpressed.

"Yeah, well, I don't think you know that I'm a better trainer than you! You can go wait with your fancy, spiky head of hair of yours somewhere else!"

"Fancy, spiky head of hair? What kind of insult is that?"

By then, I'd had enough of their fighting. Red glanced at me with a single nod and I was all too happy to oblige with the silent command. With a weak Thundershock, I shouted at them, "I swear the next person who starts to argue will get paralyzed!"

The other two boys yelped, more startled than anything as they spun towards us with looks of betrayal. "Hey! That was uncalled for!" Ethan said. "Even Ampharos doesn't electrocute me!"

Blue got over the shock faster than he did, glancing at him. "Ethan, why don't you go hang out with Lance or whatever, I saw him last night on my way back here," he told him. "Or even your gym leaders, I know they're around here somewhere."

Ethan groaned and rolled his eyes. "But they're so boring!"

"So?"

"Oh, Arceus, enough already!" I whined and looked to Red, who sighed when he also realized the two of them wouldn't stop.

Ethan continued as if Blue hadn't said anything. "Morty was pretending to curse the plane to scare Jasmine the entire time!" He suddenly flexed his arms to show off his nonexistent muscles. "Chuck was all, 'hey look at these awesome muscles!'" I couldn't help but think, You have none. "Clair was doom and gloom the entire time 'cause Lance is here and they had some fight again! Then Whitney was going on and on about her freaking Miltank and Bugsy was trying to convince Falkner that he was actually a boy and not a girl even though he already knows this and Pryce was just chilling in the back of the plane! Literally just freezing the seats for fun!"

I could only stare at him by the time he finished his rant. How in the world did he manage to say all of that in just a few short breaths? Of course, he spoke so fast I was convinced he didn't even stop to take a breath that entire time.

"Well that's your fault for traveling with your gym leaders," Blue answered after a brief moment of silence, save for a few heavy breaths from Ethan.

The younger trainer paused and looked up at him. "Wait, did you two come by yourselves?"

He rubbed his nose with a smug grin as he gloated, "We even got first class tickets."

He gaped at him with his mouth wide open in incredulity. "What!? That is so not fair!"

I jumped onto Red's shoulder as he stood up and headed for the door. He briefly paused to make sure he had the room key and stadium pass on him and pulled his hat on as he opened the door.

"Right, we should get going if we want to be on time for the meeting," Blue said with a nod.

"Wait, what about breakfast?" Ethan asked, jogging after us.

"Go have breakfast, then, I already ate and Red hardly ever eats breakfast."

Red gave a nod of confirmation.

"Well, that isn't healthy, Red. My mom says breakfast is the most important meal of the day!"

So does Red's mother, but does he listen? No, my good friend, he does not.

Instead of stopping at the cafeteria that was just as extravagant, if not even more so than our own rooms, we headed outside and started to make our way to the stadium. We hadn't explored the city yesterday—we didn't even do the night training Espeon detested in favor of catching up on sleep. Seeing everything during the day was completely different than at night. I could see all of the strings where the lights had been hung everywhere while food and souvenir stalls were even busier and the cheers coming from the stadium were louder.

I was honestly surprised no one recognized us and let us walk around freely. If this were in Viridian City, we wouldn't have been able to take a step out of Blue's gym before we would be bombarded. We all wanted to stop and look around but when Blue mentioned that the director of the tournament was hosting this meeting was a stickler for timeliness, we decided it best to look around after it would be over. I could only assume he knew the director through his grandfather.

When we got close to the stadium gates, a blue pokemon in white karate gi and a security guard immediately recognized us. They led us away from the front doors and to another set of doors for us to scan our passes and enter the brightly-lit hallways of the stadium. The guard seemed to be too awe-struck to say much but he did direct us with, "Take the stairs to the top and the meeting room is on the third door to the right."

Ethan was a ball of boundless energy, easily clearing the stairs in a few short minutes while Blue and Red lagged slightly behind. I kept my seat on Red's shoulder, trying not to laugh as Red's face fell at the sight of more stairs. "We live on a steep, rocky mountain. How are just a few stairs so scary?" I teased, knowing full well he couldn't understand me.

Eventually we all made it to the very top and Ethan stopped to wait for us, staring out a window. He turned when he saw us and grinned. "Took you long enough, you slowpokes!" he said. He laughed as Blue scowled and then turned back to look outside. "Look! They're battling down there!"

Red and I went to the window while Blue seemed uninterested, wandering off to find the door we were supposed to go. Way down below, easily a few stories below, a battle raged on as a blond boy sent out a rapidash against an arbok. While I wanted to see what would happen as the two battled, Red turned around and went to follow Blue.

The room was large and had four long steps in the middle while seats stretched out across the room. I felt like we were going into a university classroom despite the muffled cheers outside the door and hall. There were a lot of people inside already and I instantly recognized Lance, red hair, cape and all and he sat beside a blond woman, the two of them chatting away while a girl in a white hat sat next to her, staring down at something around her wrist and swiping through different screens. Blue sat in a chair off towards the back and not feeling comfortable enough to sit next to anyone else, Red wandered to take the seat beside him.

Ethan had come in and his eyes lit up the instant he saw everyone and ran down the steps to greet Lance. "That lady next to Lance is Cynthia, she won last year's tournament," Blue said to us suddenly. "Said to be the strongest trainer around, but that's before I got invited to this year's tournament." I followed his eyes toward the blond woman. Something about her made me feel like she could easily give us a challenge just like Ethan could.

Speaking of the devil, he suddenly came back to us and sat next to Red and I. "Weren't you just with Lance?" Blue asked with a scowl.

The youngest shrugged as he answered, "Yeah, but he's also boring and is super mature so all he talks about are boring things. Besides, I get to sit back here with you guys!"

"Wonderful."

I looked around at everyone in the room. It felt different than being in a room of other trainers, the various champions came in all ages and sizes and it felt like everyone here was strong in their own way. I was so ready to begin our tournament right here and now, but it wouldn't happen just yet.

I stretched out across Red's lap as an old and slightly larger man dressed in a navy blue business suit descended the stairs. Once he reached the podium at the bottom of the stairs, he turned around and smiled from behind a bushy white mustache. "Good morning, champions!" he greeted.

There were a few murmured responses, however a couple of the younger trainers cheerfully answered a quick, "Good morning!" Others, like mine, stayed silent.

It didn't seem to bother the man at all, who clapped his hands together once. "I won't waste any of your time, since all of you are probably extremely busy but to start things off, I want to wish all of those who are not from around here a very fond welcome to Unova! Currently, we are hosting the Trainer's Circuit Semi-Finals today, while the finals will be held tomorrow. There is a final prize of fifty thousand pokedollars—" I already knew that was a lot of money and even Blue seemed to be impressed, letting out a soft whistle. "—and whoever wins the final match will claim that prize plus an unofficial match between any champion of their choice that will be held Friday afternoon, so you must all be ready to be picked at a moment's notice!"

He took a remote out from his jacket pocket and clicked a button, allowing a screen to slowly drop from behind him. "This is our schedule starting this Friday. Friday morning, the champion introductions to the public will occur and at the end, the winner of the Trainer's Circuit will choose the champion of their choice to battle against at three in the afternoon. On Monday starting at ten A.M., six weeks of non-stop battles begin! The gym leaders will be competing against each other for top Gym Leader status in the Gym Leader Circuit."

He clicked another button and I could feel Red already growing bored as he scratched my head. Not that I minded, all this talk of battles we weren't going to be in was boring.

"Each region will be competing against each own first and will take three rounds, or three days. The final round—or the third day will also be the next region's first round and so on. Randomly selected, Hoenn is first, followed by Kalos, Kanto, Sinnoh, Unova and last but not least, Johto. Week four will be three days of all region winners competing against each other for the most points, the rules can be explained later if you wish." He smiled at everyone again. "But you guys need to know your schedules, and that's why you're all here."

He clicked another button and I watched the screen change to a completely different schedule. "We realize champion battles may last more than an hour, as proved by the match between Champion Cynthia and Champion Lance last year." He motioned towards the two named with his free hand. "When we get closer to the day, I will call for a short meeting the day before the competition starts and you will all find out who you are up against."

I could tell Red was tuning him out completely when he started to massage my cheeks and I melted right into it. It felt really good, and by the time he started playing with my ears, both of us glowered at Blue when he suddenly jabbed him hard in the side with his elbow. "Pay attention, Red!" he hissed quietly into his ear.

Red said nothing but gave me an apologetic look before pretending to be interested in the talking man. While they listened, I took a look around at the other trainers. I had no clue who most of them were, like the boy with a red visor on that sat beside a girl with extremely long pigtails and a young man with silver hair who had his full attention on the one talking. There was one other trainer who sat next to the boy with a black hat who looked just as equally bored as my trainer. She seemed like she was struggling not to fall asleep but the boy next to her, who looked eerily similar to her when I looked closer, was just like Blue and nudged her to keep her awake and pay attention.

When I looked away, the man in the front was finally done speaking, glancing around the room to see some of the other trainers starting to stare off into space. "Remember: if you want to watch the matches, you are free to use any of the viewing boxes on the second floor. I won't bore you anymore, have fun!"

"Thank Arceus we're free," Ethan instantly said and shot to his feet. "Well, that was boring, anyway the most important thing now is lunch." He glanced towards Blue and Red. "So, what are you two up to? We should all go together and find an awesome burger joint."

Red's stomach instantly agreed, making Blue laugh as Red pointedly looked away from them.

Blue tapped his chin. "That actually doesn't sound bad. You want to go, Red?" My trainer nodded once and my stomach also confirmed it. Even though I'd already had breakfast, listening to an old guy talk for two hours made me hungry. "Now the hard part is where to find one. I've only eaten at the hotel."

Ethan shrugged. "We just have to explore and see what this city has to offer. Maybe we can ask someone who's been here before where a good place is."

"You guys are looking for somewhere to eat?" asked a new voice and we all turned.

The older champion was standing on the stairs next to our row, his red and orange hair tied loosely to keep out of his face. "My name's Alder, I'm one of Unova's former champions." He jabbed a thumb behind him towards a group of trainers Red's age heading up the stairs and out the door. "I know just the place! In fact, some of us are going there now, care to join us?" he asked cheerfully. "It isn't too far from here and they're fairly priced."

Ethan beamed immediately as he nodded and said, "Then be our guest and lead the way!"

I rolled my eyes as Ethan bounced up to walk next to Alder, acting like he'd never been fed before. As Alder laughed, I knew they would get along just fine. Ethan was a social butterfree, it didn't surprise me that he could make friends so easily.

Alder led the way, chatting merrily away with Ethan, who asked a million and a half questions to the patient veteran trainer while Blue followed silently with Red and I. In a stark contrast to the youngest of our trio, Alder thought about each answer, careful with his words but enthusiastic about everything he spoke of. It made me realize that he, just like a great deal of trainers including my own, cared a lot about us pokemon.

As we neared the central city, we passed by a long strip of different restaurants. The hundreds of different smells—good and bad—hit me at once and my mouth drooled as a distinct barbeque smell filled the air. Unova food smelled so good!

Alder kept walking as Ethan looked around with the curiosity of a meowth and Blue had to keep him from running into a wall and Red yanked him by the back of his shirt to avoid falling into a ditch, though the third time it actually did happen, Blue laughed as his face smashed into a metal light pole. I laughed hard enough to hold my sides and even Red smiled at Ethan's whining.

We eventually came upon a small place called Striaton Delights, and a strange pokemon barked in greeting. "Welcome back, Alder!" he said cheerfully, his tail wagging as Alder bent down to scratch his head.

"Well, hello, Herdier! Where are Cilan, Cress and Chili?"

Herdier barked again and led the way inside. Alder walked inside while the rest of us followed eagerly. The inside was fancy, not as fancy as our hotel, but the modern hanging lights illuminated the many tables and benches. "Alder! Long time, no see!" A man with bright, flaming red hair approached him and smiled in greeting, shaking hands with the champion. "The others are already here. Right in the back," he said and glanced at the rest of us. "My name is Chili. I'm one of the gym leaders in Striaton City."

Blue looked confused. "One of them?" he asked.

Chili nodded. "Yep. Depending on which starter the trainer received from Professor Juniper, they battle myself if they chose Snivy, Cress if they chose Tepig or Cilan if they chose Oshawott."

"That sounds like fun," Ethan said and nodded in approval.

"We also have a dine and battle menu as well. Patrons can eat and watch trainers challenge the gym! You should all drop by someday!" That sounded like my kind of thing. Food and battles? Thinking about it though, Snorlax would probably just sit off to the side and eat. Maybe it wouldn't be such a good idea, after all.

Chili led the way to a table that already held six people, though he had no problems dragging another beside them. "Alder and three others have come to join you," he told them bluntly.

Alder sat down and Ethan sat beside him though Red and I sat at the end of the table, ensuring we didn't have to sit next to anyone we didn't know. "Hi! My name's Rosa!" the girl with the overly large pigtails exclaimed. "This is my brother, Nate!"

The boy with messy hair and visor waved with a smile, his other hand holding a cup of soda.

"My name is Hilbert, but I go by Black," said the black-hat boy. I wondered if that was why he was called Black.

"My real name is Hilda. Hate that name, so call me White instead," said the ponyta-tail girl. She looked at us with mild curiosity, but she smiled anyway. "Your pikachu is so cute."

I puffed out my chest. "Damn straight I am," I told her. Despite the language barrier, it made a couple others laugh and Red patted my head to get me to sit back down.

The girl with darker skin and extremely thick, long hair at the other end of the table shot a hand up. "And last but not least, it's me! I'm Iris, dragon master in training!" she declared. "All of us are from Unova, and now that we've introduced ourselves, what are your names and where are you from?" Oh, Arceus, she reminded me so much of Ethan.

Ethan grinned, instantly excited. "My name's Ethan, I'm from Johto," he replied, his voice full of pride.

"Oh! I've heard of you! You're really powerful, right?" Iris exclaimed. She shot up to her feet. "I want to battle you!"

"Sit down, Iris," White scolded. The girl instantly obeyed, but her smile never dropped.

"Well, I already got a challenger waiting—"

Blue interrupted him with a greeting of his own, ignoring Ethan's betrayed look. "I'm Blue, this is Red, and you already know Pikachu. Both of us are from Kanto," he said in a matter-of-fact tone and I added a quick, "Pika!"

"Are you two rivals because these two are mine," Iris said and motioned towards Nate and Rosa while looking between Red and Blue.

"We're rivals now?" Nate asked curiously and Rosa shrugged.

"Well, we fought all the time when we were kids," Blue said. He had explained this to several different people before, so I'm pretty sure he was bored of answering the same question over and over again. "We figured out that hating each other was getting boring, so we decided to grow up." He jabbed a thumb in Red's direction, who blinked. "But after his stupid ass went to Mount Silver to train for like seven years, I got pissed at him when he didn't come back down for my birthday after he promised me he would go to the Safari Zone with me to catch a chansey."

Red rolled his eyes with a look that said, You're still on about that? He then looked down at the menu in front of him to decide what to order.

I remember that argument. To be honest, we had completely forgotten about it and time on Mount Silver went by so fast, we hardly had any time to ourselves since we were training most of the day.

"Mount Silver? Isn't that the most dangerous mountain in the world?" Alder asked, a flash of concern on his face. I nearly laughed and spotted the smirk Red was hiding behind the menu. It should be and was still dangerous if we weren't careful, but we learned how to survive in the harsh environment.

Ethan shuddered. "I go up there sometimes to battle him but every time I make the journey, it's so hard. I don't know how he lives up there with a t-shirt and a vest with sneakers and calls it good," the Johto trainer added.

Red pointedly tried to keep his eyes on the pictures on the menu, tired of the sudden attention. "That one," I said to alert him and pointed at one of the pictures showing a platter of fried magikarp. It looked amazing and I was starving. He gave a nod and set me into his lap to put the menu down and scratch my chin. I wasn't sure how, but whenever he did scratch my chin, it felt amazing. I heard myself let out a soft, "Chaa…"

Rosa set her menu down, having already decided what to get. "Doesn't it get cold on Mount Silver?" she asked and Red nodded once.

"Does it bother you at all?"

Another quick, single nod.

She was quiet for a while and Black asked for her, "Do… do you talk?"

Blue chuckled. "He'll talk if he has something to say, but he gets bored easily," he informed them, pointedly elbowing him again just like he had at the meeting. Red shot him a glare and rubbed his side. "Anyway, what about you guys? What's your story?"

"We're two sets of twins," Nate said and grinned as Ethan gaped. "People call us 'The Four Twins.'"

"That's so cool," Ethan admitted, earning a laugh from Rosa. "I don't have any siblings. I'm an only kid."

"I mean, we argue all the time," White said with a shrug. "Sometimes he just gets on my nerves."

"Hey!" Black exclaimed.

"What siblings don't?" Blue answered, huffing. "My sister and I argue all the time."

Just then, a man with green hair came over to us calmly holding a pen and small notepad. "Are we all ready to order?" he asked politely, a green monkey-like pokemon sitting on his shoulder with his own bowtie and apron on.

"What do you suggest, monkey face?" I asked, earning an annoyed look from the green pokemon. I smirked but winced when I felt a sharp pinch on my cheek. Snorlax told me that Red knew when I would cause trouble and was always quick to stop any mischievousness.

I still don't know how he knew whenever I was up to no good.

-x-

I never thought I would say it, but I did. I wanted a difficult training session. I wanted to go outside into the wilderness and do training so tough I would tire myself out to the point that all I would want to do was sleep when we were done.

But no, that isn't what we did for almost two and a half hours.

For two and a half hours, Ethan and Blue had gotten into another argument as Iris, Alder and Nate laughed about it, White rolled her eyes and Rosa tried to stop them from arguing while Red and Black completely ignored them in favor of their food.

When we were finally done eating and left the restaurant, Rosa, Nate, and Black left to wander somewhere, both boys looking distraught when she mentioned shopping while Iris and Alder went to go train with White somewhere in the city. Blue and Ethan walked off arguing back towards the hotel and Red let me walk next to him as we wandered around, trying to find someplace quiet in the bustling city.

We walked for a long time before I saw the same fountain we'd passed by before. I glanced up at Red, not surprised. Red got lost easily and when he stopped to look around, I knew that was exactly what had happened.

He scratched his head then looked down at me as I shrugged. I had no idea where we were either, and without a map to guide us, I was sure we'd have to get Charizard out to fly us back to the hotel.

"You look a little lost there," a voice said from behind us.

We turned and saw White standing there, smiling as Red shook his head. Leave it to him to be stubborn and refuse to admit that he was lost.

"I know you don't like to talk, but if you want, I can show you where I train," she offered. "I know that look and walk when someone wants to be alone. Trust me, I can only handle Alder and Iris together for so long. Come on, I'll show you and then I'll leave you alone. Deal?" She turned around and started walking without another word.

Red hesitated before glancing at me. I shrugged at him, leaving the choice up to him. He was always so indecisive when it came to dealing with new people. He hesitantly followed her through the busy streets of the city.

We walked for a good twenty minutes as the traffic slowly grew quieter, the buildings becoming far and few between before White stopped in front of a rocky wall covered in green moss and then looked up at Red. "We're almost there. Through here, there is a tunnel that leads to the beach. I hardly ever see anyone there, so that's why I come here."

The small gap between the rocks made it look difficult to squeeze through, but when we saw her go through without any issues, Red followed. Thankfully he was able to pass through, but I heard him grunt softly, the space a little small for him. I was sure in a few short years he'd outgrow this crevice we squeezed through.

We followed her through a short tunnel on the other side of the gap that led to a sandy white beach. I grew excited and suddenly wanted to play in the sand instead of train. It wasn't often we got to go to a beach this clean and quiet. The city noise was drowned out by the lapping waves and wind hitting my fur.

She stopped at the sand, motioning towards the ocean that was close by. "The tide comes up quick and it'll fill the tunnel before dinner time so I suggest when it's five or six at the latest, head out. In the morning, the water should be down again and there'll be fresh moss to help you squeeze through if you want to come back."

She gave us another smile. "I'll leave you alone now. If you want to ever train with me and Black, we always battle in the morning!" True to her word, she opened a pokeball to release a strange bird that grabbed her shoulders with a loud, "Mandi!" then flew off.

Red glanced at me as I jumped off of his shoulder and landed in the sand. "Chu! Chu, pika!" I exclaimed. I wanted him to understand that I wanted to play before we trained. He sighed and nodded, grabbing the other five pokeballs. Once the others were out, I pointed at the ocean and exclaimed, "Look! Red said we can play before we train!"

Charizard snorted at the moist air though Blastoise looked like he would have the time of his life, wading out into the water instantly while Snorlax was content to just sit on the beach and let the sun warm his fur. Red sat beside him and watched Espeon run back and forth with the waves like I did as Venusaur opened the flower on his back to absorb the light while standing in shallow water.

Eventually, we were all in the water playing and splashing, though Charizard had opted to go flying with Red. I glanced upwards at the sky; I could see the small orange dot in the sky circling the beach and practicing various fire- and flying-type moves.

Noticing that as well, Venusaur got up and waded out of the water. "We should start our training as well. Red wouldn't be happy if we just played."

I nodded and followed suit while Blastoise and Snorlax were the last ones to group up with the rest of us. I shook the water out of my fur and yelped when Espeon shook right beside me, gave me a mischievous grin, and laughed as she dashed away to avoid my Thundershock.

I could hear Venusaur and Snorlax having a mock battle with each other shortly, though Espeon was doing her best to use her psychic abilities to lift a very large boulder that was stuck in the sand underwater. She gritted her teeth before pushing more and finally, there was a shwoop sound as the ocean water quickly filled the empty area and the boulder was lifted out of the water. She then put it on the dry beach, where I charged a Volt Tackle and let it shatter.

We trained for a while until Charizard and Red landed, though just recalled the others and I jumped up onto Charizard's back before we were flying away from the beach. I glanced at the water, watching the tide rapidly rise just as White had said it would. I could see why it wasn't a popular beach, though. If we went too far out in the water especially with the tide coming in, someone could get caught in a riptide. I shuddered at the thought of getting caught in one.

Charizard was panting when we reached the hotel, ready for a break. Whatever training he and Red had done, I could tell he was exhausted since they had been up in the air the entire afternoon. On top of that, Red wasn't as light or short as he used to be when he was ten. He was lucky that Charizard was rather large for his species and could still carry him for such a long time.

Once Charizard was recalled, we hadn't even reached the doors when Blue was walking out. "Oh, hey, Red. Where were you all day? You smell like salt," he said bluntly as Red nodded. I almost laughed at his suddenly worried face. "At the beach? Isn't it full of people though? Weren't swarmed by paparazzi?"

Red shook his head with a smile, waving as he went inside.

"Whatever," I heard Blue mumble. "By the way, White asked me and Ethan lots of questions about you."

We paused and glanced back at him with a shared confused glance. Why would White be asking questions about Red? I tilted my head, curious. She seemed to be a nice girl, smart enough to know that we had wanted to be alone. What in the world could she have asked about?

I understood the moment Blue smirked and added, "I think you caught someone's eye."

My train of thought suddenly froze.

Oh.

Oh no.

Red's brows furrowed together as he tried to figure out what he meant by that.

"Seriously, Red? You're not that clueless, are you?" Blue laughed, waving as he walked away towards the gates to go wherever he was headed to and left Red to stare at his back in pure confusion.

There was one thing Blue was wrong about: my trainer was and always has been clueless, especially when it came to emotions.