So the original prompt was to write about my own goals at the ages of 5, 10, 15, and finally 20. But I honestly can't say what my goals were at 5 or 10. Even 15 is a little iffy. So I changed it to writing about a character's goals at those ages and the first character who came to mind was Green. Frankly, I found it way more interesting this way. Enjoy!
When Green was five years old, he and Red were taught what the word 'goal' meant. They had overheard Daisy and her friends talking about their goals for the future and the two of them were curious about what it meant. From what they heard, everyone's goal had been different.
"It's something you want to do or be in the future." Daisy had explained later that afternoon, some time after her friends had left and Red was feeling more comfortable to come with Green and ask.
They had been confused at first. "But I thought that was what a wish was." Green said. "Like when I made a wish on the candle at my birthday."
Despite pointing out the illogic in her statement, Daisy just laughed at him. "Well, you're not wrong there." She replied. "They are both things you want in the future. But wishes are more things you hope will happen and goals are things you have to work at to make happen."
Daisy sat down on the couch, patting the cushion beside her. Green sat down with Red leaning close to him. Daisy grabbed an magazine that she and her friends had been looking at earlier and opened it up.
"See?" She said, pointing at some pictures of older boys and girls in fancy outfits. They were striking poses and all had at least one Pokémon with them that wore hats or ribbons that matched with their trainer. "I want to be a Pokémon coordinator when I grow up. I can wish to be a Pokémon coordinator, but just wishing won't make that happen. I have to train and practice so I can become good at it and win contests. It's a goal I want to achieve, which I'll do by working hard."
"Huh."
"Do either of you have any goals for the future?" Asked Daisy, carefully putting away her magazine and turning back to them.
They had both thought about it. Red eventually shook his head no as he had everything he wanted. Green couldn't decide on a goal. He wanted to be a professor like his grandpa, but he also thought it would be fun to run a restaurant like Red's mom did. He wanted to travel to cool new places and make lots of Pokémon friends and to be able to eat the rich, fancy dessert his mom brought home one time and get to stay up late like Daisy and-
He got off track.
Daisy laughed at him as he listed off a bunch more things. "Well, there's no limit to how many goals you can have." She said. "But for now, maybe just focus on finding one thing you really, really want in the future."
Green had spent the next several days after that thinking over what Daisy had said. If grown ups all had goals, he wanted to have one too. Red didn't say anything about wanting his own goals after their conversation with Daisy, but Green knew he that had a tendency to think about a lot of things yet not show it. Unless Green asked about something specific, Red may just never reveal his thoughts.
As it happened, it was during recess one day that Green decided on his first goal.
He and Red had wandered away to the furthest corner of the playground where there was just a few trees and bushes. The trees were too tall to climb, but the bushes were big and leafy. The prefect place to hide when they wanted to be left alone so Red and Green made use of it a lot. Except on this day, another group of kids had had the same idea.
"What are you two doing over here?" Asked an older kid. Red and Green recognized the boy and his two friends as being from Ms. Emily's class. At eight years old, they were a few grades above them. But despite being older, these three had a tendency to bully younger students sometimes.
"We're playing." Replied Green. The three boys looked down at Red and Green. They each had a toy Pokémon and had been pretending to be trainer and were having a battle. Before either of them could do or say anything else, one of the boys grabbed Red's Charizard toy. "Give that back!" Yelled Green, standing up and making a grab for the toy. The older boy just held it up higher out of his reach.
"Why should we?" He asked.
"Shouldn't you have learned how to share by now?" Asked another.
The three of them laughed at the two smaller boys. Green glared at them while Red stood quietly next to him. So softly that the group of boys couldn't hear, Green head Red whisper, "My Charry."
Red was small and quiet. He had a hard time getting along with the other kids. They thought of him as unfriendly or weird. But Green knew better. The red eyed boy might not seem very expressive at first, but that was just because other people didn't know how to read him. Red had a lot of the same interest as Green and they lived so close together that they got to play together every day. So Green knew how upset Red really was even if his face didn't show it very well.
Green was gonna get that toy back. But he knew that he couldn't actually get in a fight with the other boys. They were bigger and there was more of them. And because of that, they wouldn't expect Green to do anything more then threaten to tell a teacher or cry or something. As the older boys started discussing what to do with their new toy, Green made a sudden run towards them and jumped. Even jumping, he could reach the toy itself, but that wasn't his plan. He grabbed the front of the boy's shirt and they both fall to the ground. Quickly, Green grabbed the toy and Red's hand, and made a run for it across the playground.
A few minutes later, they were hidden from view in a new area. It around near the side of the school building where they weren't supposed to be. If they were found by a teacher, they would be in trouble. But hidden in the shadow of the school tool shed and being so small as they were, it was easy for them to go unnoticed.
Panting, Green handed the toy Charizard back to Red, who took it and held it tight to his chest. There was a small smile on his face.
"Thank you, Green." He signed.
Green smiled back. He had left his own toy behind and he was sure that he wouldn't see it again, but that was fine. He could ask for a new one for his next birthday. And even better, Green found his first goal.
He wanted to get bigger and stronger. Enough that people wouldn't steal from them or hurt them. He was gonna be friends with Red forever, so someone needed to look out for him and Green was gonna do that.
During the next five years, Green changed a lot from how he had been when he was only five years old. His parents had died in a car accident just after he turned seven and he and Daisy went to live with gramps full time. His parents passing was hard to move on from and even now, Green wasn't completely sure if he had or not. There were still nights were he just lie in bed and cry as quietly as he could so as not to wake up Daisy or Gramps. He missed them so much.
What's more, he and Red weren't really friends anymore.
At first, things hadn't changed very much between them after Green and Daisy's parents passed away and they went to live with gramps just a few streets over. They still lived close enough to play with each other daily and they still went to the same school, although they ended up in different classrooms. But when he was nine years old, Green started to notice something change with how gramps treated him. It started when he had gotten a new batch of Pokémon for that year's kids starting their journeys in a few weeks. Everyday, he let Green and Red play with the Pokémon to help make sure they were well socialized, but one day one of them had started acting strange. It was a Bulbasaur and she was hiding away from everyone underneath tables and chairs. If anyone tried to get close to her, she would make an angry sound at them and runaway. Neither Gramps nor any of his assistants could understand what had caused her to act this way, especially since she had been just fine the day before.
"I might need to send her back to the breeders if the Pokémon center can't help her." Said gramps sadly. "For kids just starting out, you really want their starter to have the right temperament or things could end badly."
Green watched as the Bulbasaur currently hid underneath one of the assistant's desk. "But she was fine before." Said Green. "What could have happened?"
"I really don't know." Replied Professor Oak. "But you know, you're good with Pokémon. Want to give it try and see if you can coax her out?"
Green was only a few months away from his seventh birthday. He wasn't sure if he was ready to calm down an angry and scared Pokémon. But now gramps and several of his assistants were watching him and he didn't want to disappoint them. Beside, with so many adults around, what was the worst that could happen?
Very slowly, Green walked towards the desk. The Bulbasaur made another angry sound and tried squeezing herself even tighter into the corner. When he was just a few feet away, he got down onto his knees to be a little more level with her. It didn't seem to be helping right now though.
"It's okay." Said Green, trying to make his tone as calm and comforting as possible. "We just want to help." He slowly reached out a hand, not close enough to grab her, but just close enough to make it easier for her to smell him and hopefully sense that he didn't want to harm her. She stopped making loud, half angry/half upset noise and instead just dropped to a low growl like sound. She edged just ever so slightly towards him. Green was just starting to think maybe this would work after all when suddenly a thin, vine-like appendage suddenly whipped out and struck him across the hand. Immediately one of the assistants were grabbing him and pulling him away from the Bulbasaur who just curled in tighter around herself from the sudden increase in noise and movement.
"Ow!" Yelped Green as Gramps examined the red line running across the top of his hand.
"Hmm." He said. "It'll sting for a little while, but it probably won't bruise. The strike definitely didn't break the skin. We'll spritz it with a numbing spray and just wait for it to heal on it's own."
"I really didn't think that would happen." Mumbled Green. He had had some wild Pokémon make angry noises at him before, and one memorable time was chased by one all the way back to his house, but this was the first time ever that a Pokémon had actually hurt him. "She hasn't acted like this at all before now." Thought Green. "What if she got hurt and no one noticed? Or got sick from something she ate?" Green's thoughts were interrupted as someone suddenly started yelling.
"Red!" Yelled one of the assistants. "Come back from there!"
Everyone looked over to see Red squatting in the same spot as Green had been in a few minutes ago, staring intently at the Bulbasaur. She was making even more noise then before. Another one of the assistants slowly started making his way over to Red to pull him away too, but was stopped in his tracks when Red suddenly turned to glare at him for a brief moment. When it became clear that the assistant was not moving any closer, Red turned back to the Pokémon under the desk.
She continued to make upset noises, but after a few minutes with the room in complete silence, the noises slowly started to die down. Eventually, she went almost completely quiet. Red continued to stare for a little while longer before he slowly reached out his hand towards her in a similar fashion to how Green had done it. Green flinched when Red's hand was suddenly struck just like how Green's had been, but Red didn't move at all. If it weren't for the very slight grimace that spread across his face for a split second before Red willed it back to an expression of calmness and composure, Green might have thought that Red hadn't even felt the strike at all.
It took a few more minutes before very slowly, Red moved even closer and eventually, wrapped his arms around the Bulbasaur. She was a bit heavy for him, but he managed to carry her over an empty seat and set her down.
"Here." Spoke Red, gently placing his hand near where the Pokémon's head and back met. Professor Oak leaned forward to examine the area and his eye widen in surprise.
There, stuck right between where her back and the unbloomed flower bud met, right behind her head, was a small, jagged rock. It's location made it almost impossible to see if you weren't looking for it, as well as making it extremely difficult for her to remove herself. Quickly, Professor Oak set his assistants about removing the rock and treating the small wound it had made. While they were absorbed in their task, he turned back to Red with a pleasantly surprised look on his face.
"I'm really impressed, Red." He said, crouching down to look Red in the eyes. "How did you know what was wrong?"
Red shrugged a little. "It was just a feeling." He signed.
"I see." Replied Professor Oak. "And how were you able to calm her down enough to be able to move her?"
Again, Red shrugged and supplied no more answers. Professor Oak didn't look disappointed though, but instead, very intrigued.
"Well, Red." He started. "I think you have an amazing intuition when it comes to Pokémon. One that's on a whole nother level compared to most people." At this, he paused for a moment, a huge smiling spreading across his face as he reached up to pat Red on the head. "I think you'll be an amazing Pokémon trainer someday."
Red didn't respond other then to nod before making his way back over to Green. He pointed at Green's hand and signed, "Are you okay?"
"Huh? Yeah, I'm fine, but Red! That was so cool! Can you teach me how to do that too? So I can help Pokémon too?"
Red smiled. "Sure, let's try." He signed again
But after that day, gramps always paid extra attention to Red whenever he came over. Green wasn't sure what to do at first. He would try to ask questions and take part in the conversation, but each time he was ultimately shunted off to the over side of the room as gramps taught Red about Pokémon and how to train them. He even brought more Pokémon to the lab for Red to meet and interact with. Green follow along because he wanted to meet and play with new Pokémon too, but his grandpa would just say, "I don't think you're quite ready yet. Maybe when you're older, okay?" And then he was sent somewhere else until they were done.
It got to the point where Green would always try to meet Red at his house to play instead and avoid having him come over. This worked for a little while, but then gramps called Delia and told her about Red's potential and how it was important to start teaching him about Pokémon and how to train them now instead of waiting until he was older. One day, Green even found that Red had started coming over without ever even saying anything to him about it. No hello or even an invite to come along. He had went to ask gramps for some help with his homework and found gramps instructing Red in a mock Pokémon battle with one of the lab assistants. Green had so caught off guard that he just stood there for a moment before turning around and running away.
"How come you don't let me do that too?" Half asked, half yelled Green later that night. "Red is my friend and we're the same age so why are you only letting him meet and train with Pokémon?"
Gramps had just sighed and shook his head. "You just aren't ready yet, Green." He said. "Red truly has a special gift when it comes to Pokémon that I've rarely seen before. He might still be a few years off from becoming a real trainer, but it'd be a waste of his potential to not start teaching him now. You just don't have the same gift or potential."
Green had been shocked into silence and his gramps took that moment to wish him a goodnight and leave.
Green stopped going by his gramps' lab and started avoiding Red. Avoiding the lab was easy. Gramps made no mention of his sudden avoidance of the place or invite him back to it, but avoiding Red hadn't been so easy. Their schedule often aligned without them even trying, but Green couldn't help but feel somewhat betrayed. It had been one thing with getting to meet and play with new Pokémon, but Red never mentioned that he was getting to do mock battles already. Most kids didn't have any sort of real training or practice before they got their starters. Why hadn't he mentioned it?
It hadn't helped that Green was feeling so alone at home too. Daisy was busy with her coordinator training and was entering her first contest soon. She was too busy during the day to talk to and was too tired at night to have a conversation with. Gramps refused to budge on letting Green come train and learn at the lab with him and Red. He shut down any conversation that went in the direction of Green getting to train, even when Green pointed out that his tenth birthday had just passed and was therefore only a year away from starting his own journey. He didn't even mention how gramps had totally missed his birthday. Gramps had just waved him off before when he said something about.
Green was broken out of his thoughts as someone tapped on his shoulder. He turned around in his chair and found Red standing behind him. "Are you okay?" He asked in Kanto sign language, looking a little concerned.
Green did not want to see Red right now; he still felt angry with him and gramps. His thoughts might have shown on his face because the look of concern on Red's changed to one of shock and surprise. Immediately, Green stood up and started grabbing his bag and school supplies from his desk.
"I'm fine." He said curtly. He was trying to keep from looking straight at Red, but it was hard to do. Green had trained himself for as long as he could remember to always watch Red since he primarily communicated through sign language and wasn't very assertive when it came with dealing with others.
"It's time for recess." Continued Red. "Did you want to go and-"
"No!" Yelled Green angrily. He immediately felt bad for doing that, but didn't apologize. Instead, he averted his eyes and quickly started walking away. "I need to study so I want to be left alone. Go play with someone else, okay?"
He didn't wait or look for any kind of response from Red. He pretty much ran away to the school library, refusing to look at anyone. He marched inside and headed straight for the table in the furthest corner of the room. As he set out some paper and pencils and grabbed every book on Pokémon training, behavior, history and psychology that the small library had, he reminded himself of his new goal.
"I need to learn and train so I don't get left behind." He thought.
Red and Green went on their separate journeys once they turned eleven.
As soon as they got their starters and before they parted ways, they had their first official battles with each other. Green had insisted on it as soon as they left the lab. He had spent the last year constantly study and practicing anyway he could. He read every book, watched every match in the Indigo League, talked to every trainer who came to town. He had to see if all the work he put in for the last year had actually amounted to anything, or if Red was too far ahead of him regardless.
Surprisingly, Green won. He played it off as though he knew he would, but inside he had been so uncertain.
Despite the win, Green was kind of left feeling numb. Red wasn't impressed, nor was his gramps who Green saw watching the battle close by.
Green won a few more times as they occasionally ran into each other, but each win was harder to get; the battle a little longer to finish. Green fought every challenger he encounter in order to keep gaining experience. He spent every dollar he won from battles on the best food and medical care he could get for his Pokémon, made sure they got plenty of rest and knew how much he appreciated them for their hard work. He may have been largely ignored by gramps once he realized that Red possessed an intuitive connection with Pokémon that Green didn't have, but Green was not gonna do the same to his Pokémon. He loved every one he caught, regardless of whether or not they were easy to train or had a natural talent for battling.
Eventually though, Red beat him. And then he did it again right after Green had won the title.
Green felt even worse after that. He had spent so much time trying to make sure he was good enough, for Red and for gramps, only for all of his efforts to not even see him through the final, most important battle.
Green didn't stick around for gramps' speech about Red after he won. He left, got his Pokémon healed at a center and set up camp deep in the woods so he could be left alone.
Much to his surprise as Green found out later, it seemed Red didn't plan on sticking around for long either. Within a week of winning the title of champion from Green, Red vanished without a trace. No one knew where he had gone or even exactly why he had left. Green was too absorbed in his own mind to really care. But only a month into his stay in the woods, Lance tracked him down and offered Green the position of Gym Leader for Viridian City since they no longer had one after Giovanni had been defeated by Red.
"It can just be long enough until we find someone else, if it's not something you want to do long term." He had said. Green hadn't ever thought about being a gym leader before. But they were desperate and Green ultimately took it. He didn't feel like traveling anyways and he really didn't want to return home to gramps and Daisy. This way, he had a source of income, a place to stay and something to keep his mind off of his own failures. He hired all new staff, renovated the gym with his own money and did as much of the work as he could do himself. He went through all the books, created a training schedule for the gym's new trainers, and oversaw everything from ordering new supplies to personally reworking the gym structure so that trainers were challenged but wouldn't find the gym impossible to defeat.
The work was long and difficult, but Green slowly found that he liked it. He grew close with the gym trainers and then with the citizen of Viridian City. He explored the city and found much about it that he loved. He even made new friends. He met Blue, a trainer who had originally born in Kanto but moved away to another region when she was still pretty young. She had breezed through his gym just to challenge him on her self guided tour through Kanto and once in Viridian City, had just decided to battle with one of the strongest trainers there. He met Gold and Silver a year later, when during hike outside of town one weekend he came across them and their Pokémon. Everyone had been severely injured, but they had refused to tell him what had happened, not even years later. He became good friends with all of them and before he knew it, Green was turning 15.
He originally didn't have any plans for his birthday except for maybe taking the day off and lounging around at his apartment, but one frantic call from one of his trainers had Green running to the gym just as the sun was setting. He was surprised when he arrived and it appeared that there wasn't anyone else there though. Still, he unlocked the door and went inside to have a look around, just to be sure, when suddenly all the lights came at once.
Several people yelled surprise and happy birthday at once as the gym was reveal to have had a slight makeover done to it. It was now covered in streamers, balloons, confetti and even a large banner that read, 'Happy 15th Birthday, Green!'.
"What?!"
"Are you surprised?" Yelled Gold in excitement.
"Based on the look on his face, I would say so." Commented Blue, grinning at her phone screen. Green had a sneaking suspicion that she had probably been recording him the moment he entered the room and he was willing to bet his next paycheck that the video would be posted online before the party was over.
It was a great party. It was obvious that Blue, Gold, and Silver had clearly spent a lot of time planning preparing for it and quite a few people attended. Daisy had taken time off work to come. All of the gym trainers were there too. Even Lance was in attendance. The party lasted a few hours as food was served, presents were opened, and music and games were played. A few hours in and the party was winding down. Some people had left, but Blue, Gold and Silver still remained to help clean up. Green stayed to clean up too, even though several people had tried to convince him to leave it to everyone else since it was his birthday. As Green swept up tore streamers and crumbled confetti off the floor, there was a question on his mind.
"I'm not trying to sound suspicious or anything." Started Green. "But why did you guys decide to throw me a party?"
Maybe this was a weird question to ask because all the others gave him a slightly strange look. "Because it's your birthday." Said Gold.
"And because we have all noticed that since meeting you, none of us can remember you ever doing anything for your birthday. You just kind of let it pass without much acknowledgment." Explained Silver.
"Basically," Said Blue, "We wanted to help you have some fun on your birthday for once, Mr. Workaholic. I swear, have you ever really celebrated your birthday before?"
Green glared at her, but Blue wasn't intimidate. She never was. "Of course." He replied.
As the conversation drifted towards other topics, Green couldn't help but think back to the last time he really did actually celebrate his birthday before today. The last was probably his ninth or tenth birthday, back when he still lived in Pallet Town where Daisy, gramps, Delia and Red where always come over for it.
Green quietly stopped sweeping as his mind wandered to Red. He hadn't seen or heard from the other teen since he won the title four years ago. Was he celebrating his birthday too, wherever he was? Was he keeping in touch with his mom? Last time Green talked with her, she hadn't known where he had gone anymore than anyone else, but she had gotten a single letter from him. He had written to reassure her that he was alright so there was no need to worry. Short and to the point.
"Someone should have told him that wouldn't work." Thought Green. "Your mother is one of the most kind and dedicated people I have ever met, of course she will worry!"
Did Red even live near other people? Probably, not. Otherwise his location would likely have been leaked out by now. He was probably hiding out somewhere deep in nature, where he was the only human around for miles. He never cared for more then a small handful of people's company anyway.
"One of those people used to be me." He thought. "At least until I turned into a jerk."
Thoughts of Red had been running around Green's mind more often lately. He had matured a lot in the last few years and he had come to realize that how he had acted towards Red before hadn't been fair or right. Green actually would have liked to apologize, although if Red never returned from where he was hiding, he would never get the chance.
"You okay, Green?" Asked Blue. Green was completely startled out of his thoughts at Blue's sudden appearance next to him. She looked at him in a mix of concern and amusement.
"Yeah, I'm fine." He said. She did not look like she believed him. Maybe it was because it was his birthday, or perhaps is was due to the fact that it was very late at night and she was too tired to get into right now, but for whatever the reason was, she didn't call him out on it. As Green turned back to finish the last of the clean with his friends, he declared to himself his newest goal.
To find Red, no matter where he ran off to, and bring him home.
After that, Green did everything in his power to track down Red. After every battle with a challenger at the gym, he would ask the other trainer if they had heard any rumor about Red's location or maybe even if someone had seen anyone like him. The answer was usually no or just the usual theories that floated around about him. But over time, there had been a few potential leads. One girl had sworn that she had seen a young man with black hair and red eyes deep in the forest that her town bordered. Green used up a week worth of his vacation time searching the forest from top to bottom, only to find the the person the girl had seen was a few years older then Red and had very dark blue hair rather then black hair. He did have red eyes, though they were just a shade or two lighter then Red's.
One young man had seen a trainer with a Snorlax and a Charizard training in a valley he flew over during his journey. He had only see the trainer from afar, but they did appear to have black hair. Since Red had both a Snorlax and a Charizard on his team, Green decided to take the chance and investigate. As it turned out though, it was a full grown woman with a short haircut who was training with the Snorlax and Charizard. Green couldn't explain the giggle that escaped him and ended up having to have a full out battle with the woman. He lost, but he did end making friends with the woman.
It wasn't until a few months after his 17th birthday that he finally found him. Or rather, Gold found him.
"I'm telling you!" Gold told Green and some of the gym trainers one day after he had returned from a several month's long trip. "Red's on Mount Silver and I beat him in a battle!"
"Mount Silver is practically impossible to live on!" Argued one of the gym trainers. "Even Champion Red couldn't do that!"
"I'm not making this up!" Argued back Gold. "I heard about a strong trainer up there and went to check it out myself. He's the super strong trainer. You believe me, right Green?" They all turned to Green who had remained silent for almost the entire story. He was just staring ahead, a look of disbelief on his face. "Green? Dude, are you okay?"
"I...I gotta go." Mumbled Green, running out of the room, out of the gym and straight for his apartment. Once he got there, tore through the entire place, grabbing the warmest and most waterproof clothes he owned from the closet, packed whatever food he had that was lightweight and full of nutrients as well as potions and Pokémon food. Even with him running around like a madman, it still took much too long to prepare and it was actually a few hours later that he was leaving town. The last thing he had done was submit a form for emergency leave and informed his gym trainers that the gym was closed until further notice. It took him a full day travelling on Pidgeot. He felt bad for pushing him so far, but Green didn't want to take the chance that Red would move on to some place new. In fact, it was completely possible that he already had.
When he got as high as Pidgeot could take him, Green returned him to his poke ball and continued the rest of the way on foot. He wasn't sure how long it took to reach the summit. It was definitely several hours, maybe even a full day. But eventually, he reached the summit. The entire mountain was just covered in snow while a harsh wind seemed to blow constantly.
"Footprints won't last in this environment." Thought Green, trying to look around. "The constant snow and wind buries them so quickly."
Such a condition effectively hides most signs of life. How was Green supposed to find Red here?
"Green."
The brunette spun around so quickly that he almost made him dizzy. Behind him was tall young man, with deep black hair and red eyes. There was a Pikachu on his shoulder and behind them a small ways was a Charizard.
Green didn't respond for a moment and the two just stared at each other. Red's expression stayed aloof the entire time. Or at least it did until Green started crying.
Ten minutes later, Red and Green were settled in a nearby cave, sitting next to a large fire that light up the entire cave and filled it with warmth. All around them was Red's Pokémon. Some were resting while others stood guard, but almost all of them were watching the two trainers carefully. That made sense, they rarely got visitors up here. It was another five minutes of silence in the cave before Green finally found his voice to speak.
"I'm...so sorry."
Red's face took on the same startled expression it had when Green had started crying a little while ago.
"I know that you probably don't want to hear it from me, but I really am. I never should have turned my back on you when we were kids." Red didn't say anything, but Green hadn't really expected him to and continued. He didn't know how long Red would let him stay and had to get through everything he needed to tell him before he had to leave.
"I got jealous of how much gramps paid attention to you and all the things he let you do. All the new Pokémon he brought to the lab just for you to interact with, the mock battles he let you do with the assistants despite not even being 11 or having a Pokémon yet, all the advanced education. He would never let me come and learn with you guys no matter how many times I asked. He always said I never had the same potential as you but I wouldn't listen-"
"He was wrong."
Green was stunned into silence and looked from the fire where he had been staring. Red was looking at him too, his eyes fierce and his expression determined. It was also at this point Green realized that Red was actually taller then him now. Before, he had always been a little taller despite them being the same age. When had that changed?
"You were always so talented at many things; like making friends, getting good grades and with Pokémon. Honestly, I was envious of that." Red signed, instead of speaking this time. "When he noticed that I had a talent with Pokémon too and wanted to help train me, I jumped at the chance because I had always wanted to catch up with you."
That...that didn't seem quite right. Sure, Green was better at dealing with people, but they had each excelled in their own subjects in school and Red had definitely been better with Pokémon. He didn't get to voice this thought though as Red continued.
"You were always protecting me from the other kids when we were young and I always wanted to get stronger to do the same for you some day. The idea of becoming a great Pokémon trainer seemed like a good way to achieve that. When the professor started training me, I had asked about why you weren't being included, but he had told me that if I wanted to be a great trainer some day, I had to be able to do this by myself because you weren't always going to be there."
Green supposed that did make some sense. He couldn't be a buffer between Red and the rest of the world forever. But gramps could have tried explaining that to him instead of ignoring him or shooing him away all the time.
"He had also said that you had your own things to take care of and that us being to gather all the time would just burden you with more work."
"What the fuck?" Yelled Green in disbelief. "I liked being with you! The way he said it makes it sound like I was bothered by being friends with you or was just doing it out of some kind of obligation." Green ran a hand through his hair and then just held his hand there for a moment. "I wanted to join because I also wanted to become a great trainer. But he implied that it would be a waste since I wasn't talented like you were."
"You are talented."
"Yeah, you...mentioned that before." Green had heard people say that before, many times in fact, but somehow hearing it from Red struck differently. But Green would look into that later, but right now he had one thing he wanted to ask the other.
"Hey, Red?"
The red eyed teen gave him his full attention and waited for him to continue.
"Can we be friends again? Or I mean, at least try?"
For a single moment, Red just stared at him, but then a small smile spread across his face and he nodded.
After that, Green arranged regular visits up the mountain to see Red. They slowly rebuilt their friendship as they told each other everything they did and went through over the last several years. They talked about how they felt and what they were thinking starting from when they first started to drift apart, through their respective journeys, and everything that happened afterwards.
Green heard about Red's run-ins with and eventual defeat of Team Rocket and Giovanni in a detailed way that Red had never done in any interview (but he had only ever gave like two interviews so maybe it was more that he had never gotten the chance to in any interview). How winning the title had filled one goal but left him feeling further then ever from others and how he came up Mount Silver only intending to stay a short while and ended up just never leaving.
Red listened as the green eyed teen went deeper into how he had felt alone and betrayed and even unworthy. How he surrounded himself with people at every town but was still isolated from others to how after losing the title he became a gym leader. How he made new friends, grew up and matured, and worked through his feelings to see his past actions and the reasons behind them in a new, honest light.
It took another year, but Red eventually did leave Mount Silver. It helped that since Gold had won the title, he could return without the expectation of duties of being the current champion. Red and Green both agreed that Gold was definitely more comfortable in the limelight then Red had ever been. That hadn't meant that they didn't end up with reporters waiting outside of Green's apartment in the hopes of interviewing the elusive former champion who had finally returned to civilization. They got one interview and after that, Red refused to engage with them. Perhaps it was because there was a new, willing-to-talk-to-reporters champion around, but everyone stopped trying so much after that. Red returned to Pallet Town to spend time with his mom and became good friends with Blue, Silver and Gold as well. Which was great because when their 19th birthday came around, they each got to help with planning the other's party.
After their 19th birthdays, Red started feeling restless and while he didn't say anything, it was clear he wanted to travel again. Green himself had been feeling bored and even a bit unfulfilled with his position as gym leader. Green thought about it for a long time and decided he wanted to leave the gym, much to the sadness of the gym trainers and even the city as whole. Apparently, Green was seen as the trainer who restored Viridian City's Gym honor after Giovanni had sullied it's reputation throughout the city. That had made Green laugh a little and point out that Red should really get to share in the fame, since he was the one to actually got rid of Giovanni. Red had responded by saying that Green could keep the all of the attention for that achievement; he hadn't been the one to essentially rebuilt the gym and didn't want the attention after finally escaping the limelight.
As Red and Green approached their 20th birthday, they received invitations to join some kind of 'battle tree' set up in a new region gaining worldwide attention called Alola. It was just starting it's own officially recognized Pokémon league and had a wealth of new Pokémon neither of them had ever seen before. So many islands to explore and brand, new Pokémon to meet and the whole battle tree idea just guaranteed strong trainers to battle. Green submitted his resignation, Red promised over and over that he was not going to vanish for several years with almost zero contact again and they made all necessary preparations to move to Alola.
It was about a month into their new positions in Alola that their 20th birthdays came, Green's first and Red's less then two weeks later.
There wasn't Daisy or Blue or Gold or Silver this time or even any kind of party really. Green ordered a small cake and he and Red took an extra day off to just spend hanging out with each other and their Pokémon. They had found a small section of beach with no one else on it and spent a good portion of the day there, letting every Pokémon each of them had out to run around and play to their heart's content.
Green was sitting back on a towel on the beach, enjoying the sunset when Red sat down next to him.
"Green." He said out loud.
Immediately Green turned to him.
"There's something I want to talk to you about." He signed.
The calm mood Green had been feeling vanished a bit. Red had such a serious and tense look on his face. Everything had been going so well over the last two years that Green couldn't think of anything that would set the other on edge so much so suddenly.
"Okay, what is it?"
Red took a deep breath and continued. "I wanted to talk about...us."
That confused and worried Green even more. Had he said or done something to upset Red? Well, there was only one way to find out. "What about us?" He asked.
"There's something that I haven't told you. I always admired you when we were kids and even after we had our falling out, part of you always stayed on my mind. Honestly, I didn't know why. But since we've reconnected, I've started to realize that my feelings for you aren't completely...friendly."
Fuck, did part of Red still resent him? Maybe he hadn't done enough to apologize and Red wasn't feeling comfortable with continuing to be friends again? Before Green could launch into another apology, Red kept going and Green fell silent.
"I feel something stronger than just friendship. I've been feeling jealous of how close some of the people here get to you, I've been wanting to grab your hand and hold you close, I've been wanting to learn even more about even though I already know you better than anyone else. I've especially been wanting to just spend more time with you and it doesn't matter what it is that we're doing. I've been...thinking about how nice it would be if we could continue to get closer and the idea of spending the rest of our lives together makes me feel so happy and excited."
By now, Green had come to realize that when Red had said his feelings weren't completely friendly, he meant in the opposite way that Green had first thought. But Green still had to ask, just to be absolutely sure before potentially making a fool of himself.
"Red, what are you saying exactly?" He asked, his voice barely above a whisper.
"I'm saying that I really like you, love being with you, and would like to try dating, if you're interested?" Finally finished, Red waited for Green's response. Green just stared in surprise for a beat, making Red feel even a little more nervous before suddenly he felt arms wrap around his neck and he fell backwards into the sand, Green lying on top of him. Red reached up with a hand to hold Green's side, making sure he stayed steady.
"Fuck, do you really mean that?" Asked Green, his head tucked right next to Red's. Since there was no way Green would be able to see him sign anything, he nodded his head yes as best he could and just to be sure, said out loud, 'Yes'.
Green tighten his arms a little while one of Red's hand brushed his side and patted his back.
"I would love to date." Answered Green, a huge smile spreading across his face. Both of Red's arms wrapped around him and tighten Red's own hold on him.
As the next few days flew by, Green thought about his new goal.
To love Red and be loved in return for as long as possible and to face whatever came in the future together. And this time, he thought as Red's hand found his and held in a tight yet still gentle hold, he had someone to help him with this goal.