Red felt his heart beat rather quickly as he waited in the lobby for Green to show up. Heck, he felt more nervous now than he felt the first time he went to Misty's gym. He sat at the couch, glancing at the hallway every so often wondering when she would come in. After what felt like hours, she walked in dressed in the same clothes she usually wore, yet she seemed more beautiful in them than ever. He quickly got up and ran towards her before slowing down and finishing his approach with a walk, blushing a bit at his overeagerness.

"So, ready to go?" she asked with a smile.

"Yeah," he said, offering her a hand which she took with a smirk. Why was she smirking? The question burned in Red's mind as the two of them walked towards the gym. The walk there was filled with an intimidating silence as Red had no idea what to say and Green just kept that smirk on her face. Eventually they arrived at the gym and Green let go of his hand.

"See you on the other side of the locker rooms," Green said with a wink before slipping behind the door. Red gulped as he went into the other locker room and began changing into his pokeball themed trunks. He stood up and approached the other side of the locker room and mentally prepared himself to open the door. He took a deep breath and walked out to see her standing near the edge of the pool dressed in her emerald green one piece swimsuit. There was a horizontal black stripe along each side of it and the one on her left side had a white Pokéball design attached at her waist. Her hair was tied back in a neat ponytail, which she normally did when she went swimming, but Red just realized how great she looks with the ponytail on. In place of her glasses, she was wearing a pair of prescription goggles. As he walked over to her she smiled and waved to him.

"Nice swimsuit." Red knew he was stating the obvious, but he wasn't sure what else he could really say.

"Thanks, there was an athletics shop nearby, thought it would look nice on me," she replied with another smirk. "I think you agree?"

"Y-yeah," he said, which caused Green to giggle rather cutely.

"So, ready to get swimming?" she asked as she held up her Pokéballs and walked over to one of the two pools. It was filled with all sorts of Pokémon swimming together. The two of them released their Pokémon into it before walking off to the human pool. Red hopped into the pool, and splashed Green from his jump. Green slowly sat on the edge of the pool and gracefully let herself drop in. "Wanna race to the other side?" Green asked with a grin.

"Are you sure?" Red asked, remembering the last few times they swam.

"Scared you might lose?" Green asked, getting up close to him. She definitely knew how to get him to accept.

"No, you're going down," Red said, getting competitive again. "How do we get a judge if Blue isn't here this time?" he asked curiously.

"Hey Misty! Are you busy?" Green called out, waving at the orange haired gym leader.

"Not particularly, you need something?" she asked, approaching the two of them.

"Red and I wanna have a race, mind starting us off and judging the winner?"

"I don't mind. How long is the race gonna be?"

"Two laps?" Red offered.

"Works for me," Green replied.

"Alright, line up, at the wall. Ready, set, go!" as the two set off, both swimming freestyle. Red was in the zone as he swam to the first end of the pool and was already beginning to swim back. He swam back towards the first wall and saw Green lagging behind him out of the corner of his eyes. He smiled as he found his hand feeling the wall and heard Misty call out the result.

"I know I'm not my brother, but did I at least put up a good fight?" Green asked.

"Yeah, I could still see you behind me the whole time I swam. It wasn't a total blowout," Red replied with a nod.

Back at the Poké Pool, Rika was swimming around happily. Her cheeks were covered by leaves courtesy of Rose to prevent electricity from spreading into the water and harming the other Pokémon who were swimming. Rose meanwhile was sitting at the edge of the pool, talking to Blaze and reminiscing about their time with Shellshocker as their unevolved forms.

"I wonder how Squirty is doing?" Rose said idly as she fished Belladonna out of the water with her Vines. The Oddish had tipped over in her sleep as she was drinking from the pool.

"You mean other than going by Shellshocker now?" Blaze joked, although he was clearly a bit annoyed at the mention of his rival. He still wasn't over how thoroughly he was taken out as a Charmander by his Bubble attack. "Well, he's a Wartortle, so I don't think he's switching back to Squirty as a name anytime soon."

"Oh? Does that mean you met up with him again? How'd it go?" she asked, interested. Gabriel, who had been flying nearby also landed next to Blaze, seemingly curious as well.

"Well, after cleaning up Gabriel's mess," he began, giving the Butterfree a competitive glance, "Shellshocker and I were finally face to face after so long. We traded blows a bit, but in the end the battle was a tie."

"Oh yeah, because that Bill kid interrupted," Gabriel said, playfully flapping his wings to make ripples in the water. "Blaze wouldn't stop talking about it until way after we met Belladonna." His words earned him a giggle from Rose and a glare from Blaze.

"I'd be probably mad too if that happened to me," Rika said, having swam up to the others. "Of course, I would have beaten him with no problem if I was his opponent," she said with a mischievous grin.

"Oh? Want to test that theory out?" Blaze replied, baring his claws out threateningly.

"Bring it on you overgrown candle," Rika replied, removing the leaves from her cheeks, ready to battle.

With the race over, Green was sitting outside the pool near Misty while Red was swimming some more laps. She watched him swim with a smile before looking over at the Gym Leader.

"Hey, could I ask you for a favor?" Green asked as she looked up at her.

"You're challenging him to another race?"

"No, ummm, could I do some research on your Pokémon?" she asked sheepishly.

"Oh, of course. What kind of research do you wanna do?"

"You know my Grandpa's Pokédex?" she asked as she walked with her to the Staryu and Starmie.

"Oh, your grandpa is that Oak?" Misty asked as she led her to the two of them.

"Yeah, I wanted to add to it with some more information," she explained as she began examining the Staryu.

"Like what?"

"Well... I've been curious about their regeneration... You probably wouldn't let me test that though..." she said awkwardly, her normal confidence dropping a bit as she processed the implications of her request. "Never mind."

"Yeah, I guess I can at least tell you something I learned about Staryu's regeneration," she offered with a smile. "You know the core in Staryu's center?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Well, one time when I was training with a Staryu, I got ambushed by a Victreebel and it used Razor Leaf on it. Staryu was cut up into tiny pieces, but because the core was unharmed, it managed to grow back like nothing happened. Of course I still rushed to the Pokécenter just in case."

"Did you tell anyone else about this fact?" she asked as she eagerly jotted down this information in her waterproof notebook.

"No, I guess not, why?"

"Let me credit you for this discovery then!" Green said with a smile.

"Oh? Sure, I guess," Misty agreed.

"Alright, and now to look into that core..." she said, watching the Starmie. It was currently pulsing idly between the 7 different colors. "If I could figure out the purpose of the glows..."

Red climbed out of the pool and saw Green was writing in her notebook again. He'd definitely ask her what she discovered once they headed back. Out of the corner of his eye though, he saw quite the scene. Blaze and Rika were fighting each other.

Blaze fired an ember at Rika, but she dodged and attacked with a Thundershock. Red rushed over to his Pokémon and quickly began giving commands. "Gabriel, Belladonna, Sleep Powder!" The two Pokemon began using their scales and spores respectively in order to quell the battlefield. Red saw Blaze shoot him a look of betrayal as he began falling asleep. Rika also fell asleep with what he could have sworn was a smug expression on her face. Red sighed with relief as he recalled his Pokémon. Green quickly rushed to join him and recalled Rika and Rose.

"What happened?" she asked, concerned.

"I don't know... they just started fighting. Pent up aggression?" he offered.

"Not sure, we should ask the other Pokémon what happened later," Green said with a sigh. "Well, I guess we should take those two to Nurse Joy. Feeling hungry?"

"Yeah, it's probably time for the lunch buffet by now." The two of them walked back to the Pokecenter together.

A/N That scene where the Pokémon were talking amongst themselves was really fun to write. If you guys enjoyed it too I'd love to write more of those scenes.