(no subject)

[travelingcascade]

Who: Blue, Green.
What: Blue visits Smash Academy to hunt down some boys.
When: Uhhhh
Where: Green's Dorm


It had been a long time since she had seen the boys. She'd kept up with their exploits as best as she could while she was away, but it was admittedly hard to keep tabs the farther away she was. Eventually the information that she would get were things she already heard of and things of the past. Eventually, the trail trickled into silence, and it wasn't just the news that was silent. Every once in a while Red would reply to some of the messages she sent in his direction. Green hadn't.

Blue liked to think it was because she was often out of range, and his messages just never went through. But it wasn't like she was bothered. What did she care if he didn't care. That was fine. Telling her dragon that she was bothered by the silence certainly didn't mean anything. It didn't matter anyway, she was going home.

It had been even longer since she had been in Pallet Town. As small as it was, it certainly took a long time to play catch up with everyone. That's what happened when you traveled, you got all the stories to tell. If she stayed to tell all of them, she'd never leave! After talking to everyone, it seemed she had a new destination in mind already. They had all had their own stories to regale, and quite a number of them had to do with the act that Red and Green had gone off to a school. A school. Her boys in school. What was this even, and why hadn't it been mentioned before...?

The professor was kind enough to provide her with a map and a location. She'd probably enjoy it, he had said. It was certainly interesting when he had been there. Red's mother shamelessly gave her a delivery of clean underwear to be made, which was accepted with a leer. Daisy had been kind enough to alert Blue to the fact that Green had changed his number a while back, and maybe she should have his current one so that she could let him know in advance that she was coming.

A new number, huh. That explained a lot. Did he forget to tell her, or had she just not received the memo...? ... How many of her messages had been sent to no one at all?

Sure, she'd give him some advance notice that she was coming. She'd knock on his door before she walked in on his room. Just like she was doing right there and then now that she had appeared in FDC.

Knock knock knock.

Like any other day, Green found the entire idea of Giving A Shit to be overrated. Because of this, when any given student went looking for the boy, he would probably find the Oak progeny to be "absent". More likely to simply be ignoring the unknown knocks.

However, this just so happened to be a day where the RA door was thrown open with an annoyed huff.

He nearly choked at the figure standing in the hall.

"Kwhah?!"

So eloquent.

Truly a picture of elegance. Green was a model for all people to aspire to become, surely.

"That's certainly one way to say hello," Blue said with a slight curl of her lip, one hand planting itself on her hip. There was a bit of satisfaction in getting the jump on the guy that made a habit of appearing without warning on people.

Yes, that was an incredibly embarrassing way to react to anything at all, and Green knew it.

Despite the fact that he had known Blue forever, it was still pretty mortifying. He attempted to regain his composure.

"I just wasn't expecting... what, no call ahead? What if I was in bed with some girl?"

She continued to take some sense of pleasure out of it. It sort of made up for the fact that they hadn't been in contact for so long.

"Then you would have been out of bed pretty quick, wouldn't you?"

The little bit of a smile that she had quickly faded, and her free hand fished her phone from her pocket. "I haven't been able to reach you by phone for ages now. When did your number change?"

"I use a different number when I'm in FDC so it doesn't cost me anything more. Sorry."

He held open the door to allow Blue to walk in, eyes following her as she did.

"Where did you come from?"

"Ah."

That explained it, she supposed. Sure she still hadn't had it, but it was a long distance thing, maybe. That would make sense, wouldn't it? Right. Right. Yet she still didn't look very convinced as she walked into the room, starting to take in all the little details.

This was definitely a bachelor pad.

"I was back home for a little bit... But before that I was in Unova." Blue glanced back at Green. "The professor said you were there a bit ago?"

Green nodded, closing the door and shrugging.

"Yeah, he got me and the team tickets as a gift a long while ago. It was cool, it's a neat region. I don't think I've ever seen anything like Skyarrow Bridge.

It really was completely different." Nothing to connect Unova to Kanto. Everything was a fun new discovery, but Unova had held nothing he had been looking for in the back of his mind.

"I know, right? Everything was just so... big!" The cities. The forests. The bridges. Green. Blue suddenly realized that she had to look up more to see his face. He had gotten taller since she last saw him. The same probably held true for Red... She'd probably missed more than she initially thought she had.

"How far did you manage to get on your trip? Did you get much farther than Nimbasa?" That seemed to be where a lot of tourists ended up spending most of their time, after all, if they didn't get lost in Castelia.

"Mistralton." (probably)

Bulba wanted to see the vegetables. (probably)

"What about you? How far did you get? Please tell me I got farther than you." it was a good natured dig.

(Totally.)

Blue laughed a bit.

"Oooh, Mistralton was lovely. It's too bad you didn't make it to Undella or the White Forest. I imagine a few of your boys would have loved them... Which is to say, yes. You totally got farther than me. Congratulations."

"Don't feel too bad about it. I'm a born traveller, after all."

He scoffed in a very Green way, before a softer expression passed over his face for what seemed like only half a second-- blink and you would have missed it.

"... It really has been a while since I've seen you."

"I'm going to have to step up my game if I want to come out past the infamous Green of Viridian City."

She almost did miss it, in all of its brevity. But it was there and it was one of those fleeting instances that made one stop and wonder for a moment. Blue casually took to leaning against his couch for a bit.

"It almost sounds like you might have missed me."

He followed her to the couch, standing over her slouched form with a smile, a raised eyebrow, and a quiet tone.

"Stranger things have happened."

His smile became more of a smirk.

"What about you? Any lonely nights out there in the wilds of any given region where you find your thoughts drifting back to your green eyed, devilishly handsome childhood friend?"

It still bothered her how much more she had to look up at him now. It was almost surprising how comfortable this close proximity always seemed to be when it happened, no matter how many times either of them tried to rush ahead on their paths.

Blue nearly snorted at the slew of compliments he held for himself, playing out a coy little smile up at him instead.

"Who knows? Those are mysteries lost to the realm of dropped calls and missed texts. What a shame."

An exaggerated pout. Regardless of the flippant nature of his reply, it actually did dig at Green a little. It was a chain reaction of bullshit. Red never called anyone. Green never called Red, and Green never called Blue. Blue called as much as she could, but never got through. She was always getting the short end of the stick, but to examine his regret in his treatment of their relationship would be to dig up other stones better left where they were, at least for now. He batted his eyelashes at the girl.

"I'm sowwy, Bluebell."

If the remark made a dig, than good. It was supposed to. As much as Blue was wary to admit it to Green of all people with the nature of how their conversation was going now, there really had been nights where she had thought of him, though certainly not as a devilishly handsome specimen. She'd thought of them both and missed them, and selfishly wondered if they even noticed she was gone.

Blue blinked in obviously unsure surprise at the name. No one had called her that in ages. It was quickly followed up with another smirk as she knocked the back of her hand against his chest.

"Oh please, you don't apologize to anyone. And don't call me that."

Green made a show of stumbling backwards at the sudden contact, before moving back to stand over her, forearm supporting him on the wall above them. Sure, no one ever called Blue by her full name, but he had the sudden urge. Call it nostalgia, call it anything you wanted. Talking to the girl across the street made the school seem that much more familiar, if possible.

"Pff, sure I do. Only when I stand to gain something from it, obviously."

She snickered. "Riiiight. And what were you hoping to gain with that babu apology of yours, hm?"

He took Blue's hat off her head, and placed it on his own.

"Maybe to not feel like such a massive dill-hole.'

Green leaned in close, holding an index finger up in the space between their noses.

"Don't tell anyone, but you're still one of the only people on any assortment of planets who's opinion of me I actually give half a shit about. I'll deny saying that in court, though."

Oh what. She had started to protest when he stole her hat, because you just didn't go around stealing people's hats and then proclaiming that you didn't want to feel like a dill-hole. Those were two very opposite things, Green, didn't you know that.

But every protest died on her lips when he leaned in. Oh hello. His eyes were still just as vividly green as she remembered them.

"Thank goodness its not a whole shit, or we'd all really be in trouble." Despite what she was saying, Blue still looked a bit pleasantly flustered. It was a very Green way to say he cared. She'd have to take what she could get.

That included trying to get her hat back.

And her eyes were just as blue as he remembered. A deep, sky kind of blue. He tried not stare directly into them, and instead focused on the rouge arms the girl was waving around to try and reclaim her hat. Unfortunately, to be taller was to have the upper hand in this situation, and Green easily captured her wrists in each of his own hands, leaning just enough of his body weight into her to slide her backwards into actually sitting ass-down on the couch.

"You'd better believe it, sister. Might up and break the universe."

Blue slid with a startled sound, sitting with a plop. The pleasantly flustered was quickly turning to just plain flustered over how easy it was for him to get her down on the couch like that. She hadn't been expecting it, was all. Let her guard down. Exactly.

"And we definitely wouldn't want that. I heard they're so annoying to try and fix."

Trying to free her wrists was her next priority, and maybe a foot placed gingerly against his stomach would help with distractions.

It did help, though mostly by Green being relieved she chose to place her foot on his stomach and not on something lower. The option was still open to her though, so he had to be careful, choosing to release one of her wrists to place his hand on her calf as a precaution.

"Even Arceus herself would be at a loss."

Her thoughts froze for a few nanoseconds at the touch of his hand on her leg. Green. Green, no.

"Truly the darkest of timelines."

Though this one could perhaps be matched. It was unfortunate that the stomach move hadn't really done much to improve the situation on Green's end. It was unfortunate that Blue had a second leg and pretty decent aim. The one ray of hope in this bleak situation was at least she decided to do so with caution. She wasn't actually angry, after all. No need to completely destroy his future children.

All caution aside, it is never fun to have a kick aimed at your testicles. No exceptions here. The difference between "warning shot" and "nutbuster" is a large margin, but it still caused Green's lungs to exhale loudly, and his knees to buckle ever so slightly. He sunk to the level of the couch's arm, shakily bringing a hand up to take the hat off his head and toss it onto Blue's chest.

"You win."

"Of course I do."

She neatly placed the hat back on her head where it belonged. Very good. Now that things were back in their proper place, she leaned against the couch arm slightly and reached out to gently tousle his hair as if nothing had ever happened.

"You look better without a hat."

Another sigh, his speech slightly muffled by the couch.

"I know. Why do you think I've never worn one? I heard they're calling my haircut the new treasure of Viridian, you know."

"Really?" She asked, completely incredulous. Oh gosh. She was giggling a bit before she could help it. "The treasure of Viridian. This thing." Blue ran some more of his hair through her fingers as she questioned it, a very disbelieving eyebrow kept cocked at all times.

"What a dedicated fanbase you have."

Green closed his eyes.

"Sometimes too dedicated. I'm assuming you've never seen the fanfiction."

She had to pause in her administrations.

"Oh my god. You have fanfiction."

Pause.

"I'm going to read all of it."

Aaaand his eyes flew back open at this.

"Fuck. I shouldn't have even said anything. Don't even. You won't like what you find."

"Too bad. I need to see the price of fame with my own eyes. Do they make you kiss Red? They do, don't they."

"Among other actions," He growled.

"Ohhh nooooo, that's the worst thing I've ever heard!"

And yet she almost choked on a peal of laughter. What was even wrong with people, seriously. Blue pulled her hand away from Green's hair as she flopped over on the couch, sending a teasing grin towards the ceiling.

"Maybe I should get a data plan for my phone. Maybe there's enough out there that I'd never have to have a lonely night again, ubuuu."

Green pushed himself up onto his forearms, looking over at Blue from the arm of the couch.

"Few things more lonely than reading pornography involving your childhood friends, Blue."

A beat.

"You should still get a data plan, though."

"I'm pretty sure half the fun will be shrieking in misery over the idiocy of it all."

Her expression grew more thoughtful and she folded her hands over her stomach.

"... I'll think about it. The data plan, I mean. If I stick around in one place long enough, it might be doable."

Green stood, pushing Blue's legs in closer to her body so he could take a spot on the couch to sit.

"I know you were just back home, but did you spend all your time in Pallet, or did you venture outside of the suburbs? I owe you a tour around the new Gym."

She readjusted without a fuss, scooching up a bit for him.

"Mmm, I didn't get a chance to get out. I heard a lot of things have been changing around Kanto, but everyone was reluctant to let me go anywhere." Blue shrugged a little, smiling at him. "I'll hold you to that, though. I'd love to see what you've done with the place."

The trainer's eyes lit up at the opportunity.

"I've got one word for you: panels. What Giovanni had was fuckin' clown shoes. Just imagine glowing neon panels... everywhere. It's a thing of beauty."

Blue could already tell he loved his gym. It was definitely going to be a thing to see.

But oh geez. Panels.

"Everywhere..." She chuckled. "Is your plan to get everyone motion sick before they find you?"

Green laughed as well, spreading his arms out over the back of the couch.

"I like to call it 'home field advantage'."

"That's a positive way to put it."

She nudged his leg a little with her foot. "How does your team like it? Actually... they're here, right? How are they doing?"

Bulba and Char she knew well enough. It was hard to forget a cutie of a Bulbasaur and an ornery spitfire of a Charmeleon. Hers had some growing pains, but Char was in a whole other class of his own. The last name got Blue tilting her head, a bit confused by the sudden change of naming conventions.

"Nyx?"

"My Gengar. Oh!" He sat up, realizing that Blue had probably never met Nyx.

"I have a Gengar, now. When I got her, she was a Haunter. But, I guess I met her when she was a Gastly. Uh, she's Char's girlfriend, if you can believe it."

He pulled out his phone, and flipped to a picture of the three Pokemon, lounging together in one of the common fields outside the school.

He indicated Bulba and Char, "They've both evolved."

Blue's eyebrows rose quite high at that. His Charmeleon found himself somebody, and somebody in a totally different egg group at that. (Not that it was really that big of a deal.) "She must be quite the charmer, if she charmed that Charmeleon." Yesss photo time. Blue moved to crowd in close to Green, turning his phone a bit to get a better look at the picture.

Oh. Not a Charmeleon anymore.

"Oooh!" Blue pulled back a little to beam at him, patting him on the back. "Congratulations. They look like they've grown up wonderfully."

Green smiled at her, looking back at the photo of his Pokemon like a proud father.

"You can bet your ass. Oh, hey..."

He flipped to the next photo, a picture of the three monsters in a similar pose, on the couch in the common room. Only, this photo was of them in human form.

"Ever seen a Pokemon in human form before? That's kind of a thing, here. Handsome pack of bastards, aren't they?"

There was a moment of complete silence as Blue stared very hard at the mobile device in Green's hand. She lifted her eyes back towards him, as wide as they could ever be in very mysterious wonder.

"What?"

She couldn't tell if this was an elaborate prank on his part. No, no, that was a very sincere face. Blue looked back at the photo again, pulling Green's hand closer to study it. All the little details added up. The spots and the wings and the purple...

"The professor said I'd find thos place fascinating, but I think that was a bit of an understatement," she said quietly.

"Believe it or not, it's no photoshop. A large portion of both mine and Red's teams have learned the humanization HM. Makes communication a little easier, but... it does change your relationship with them a bit. I think in a positive way, though."

Green flipped through more photos on his phone, lingering on a picture of Bulba holding a big-ass cake. The photo after that was Char laughing and making a grab for the lens. Green chuckled.

"I think we look kind of alike, actually."

Being able to actually talk to her pokemon... Blue knew her bond with her team was close enough to understand them fairly well already, but a legit conversation was an entirely different level. She could see how that would change things.

The prospect was thrilling.

What would hers look like? Her imagination was firing off with possibilities as she rest her head on Green's shoulder, lightly tracing a finger over some of Char's features on the screen. "I can see the similarities. He's definitely got your smirk." Blue pressed a button to flip back to the boy that was Bulba. "... And he's got that smile you like to pretend you don't have."

Green slowly rest his own head on Blue's, a breathy laugh escaping at her quiet words. He cast his eyes downwards to look at the picture of Bulba, who was smiling at brightly as his nature commanded.

"I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about," He murmured, grin evident in his voice.

She heard it. She could see it without having to look. If they weren't the way they were, she would have liked to have actually seen it. Those smiles had seemed so rare after a while. Whether or not they had become more common was something she wondered about. It would have been nice if he had been able to loosen up a bit.

"Mm. Perhaps you don't," She teased very gently. "You're just going to have to take my word for it."

Blue absently kept hitting the next button on the photo, studying the images as they flicked into view.

He watched her hands move across the device, content to sit in silence. When he did speak again, he was still quiet.

"Can I ask you a question... ?"

There were more pictures of his team. Stupid odds and ends. Bits and pieces of a strange school that she had only just set foot on.

Blue continued to flip through these glimpses of Green's life as he spoke. Her voice remained soft like his, content to remain in the peace of the moment while it lasted.

"Mhmm?"

He relinquished control of the phone, bringing one of his arms to rest on the back of the couch, and the other to rest on his thigh. He continued with the hushed tone.

"What's the first word that comes to mind when you think of me?"

He turned his eyes to her face, trying to will himself not to flush from the somewhat out of the blue question.

That wasn't anything she would have expected. Blue blinked.

She spoke before she really thought about it, a distant memory of rain falling around her mind.

"Kind."

There were many other words, many not nearly as positive, that could have described the trainer, but at the heart of it... She'd known him for too long. Blue tried to look somewhere other than the green of his eyes, but found this to be a difficult task.

"Missed, if I'm allowed a second word."

Green tried not to let her choice of words act as a jackhammer to the chest, but the smile returned to his face. This time she could see it.

"Hm. You're still something, aren't you."

He pushed her hat back a bit, saying his next words slightly muffled by the bangs falling across her forehead.

"If I apologize with actual sincerity now, will it win me back any points?"

The smile was returned easily, showing him how much seeing it delighted her far easier than trying to say it would.

She had started to move a bit as he touched her hat, but whatever she had been doing came to a sudden halt as his touch lingered. The smile she wore softened, but there was a subtle spark of a challenge in her eyes.

"There's only one real way to find out, isn't there?"

Green placed his hands on Blue's shoulders, staring her directly in the face, looking determined.

"Dear Blue. I am very, very, very, very sorry for essentially falling off the face of the earth and continuing to forget exactly who I'm dealing with. Now," He laughed, "What do I get for that? Let me remind you that you already kicked me in the balls today."

"I suppose you're in luck, since an encore performance would have meant that was a very piss poor excuse for an apology."

This left a lot to be contemplated. "Dear Green. Your words have stirred my heart, so I suppose I'll let you off easy this time. You're still going to have to make it up to me though!" She was very serious.

"You can have your birthday present."

He raised an eyebrow.

"It will be made up several times over, as long as you immediately tell me what my birthday present it. You know I'm bad with surprises."

"Don't get your hopes up too much, you're probably not going to be very satisfied." Blue held up a finger and poked him in the chest. "You're not allowed to laugh or call it girly, either."

With that she wiggled off the couch, fetching her conveniently-appearing-bag from where she had left it somewhere in the room. She would briefly glance at him over her shoulder as she rooted through it, looking slightly unsure about it as she went. He was going to think it was silly. Definitely. This was probably a dumb idea.

When she came back to stand in front of him, she held out a vaguely sizable glass bottle. Inside there were some sparkly objects that weren't immediately identifiable at first as they mixed amongst each other. They only filled about a quarter of the jar. A pile of heartscales and star pieces.

"... You can tell which scales are from Hoenn since they shine the brightest. I think you'd like Sinnoh's stars better..." She trailed off.

Green was about to make a smart remark before the jar was placed in his hands. He blinked at the contents, and held the glass up to the light, watching as it glinted and danced around the scales and crystals. They made pleasant, hollow clink noises as they tumbled around the jar. He brought it back down to his lap, and looked up at Blue, giving her a look. If the apology wasn't sincere enough for her, he hoped his expression might make up for where he was lacking in that area.

"Gorgeous," was all he said.

...Maybe it wasn't all that dumb. Maybe it wasn't all that silly either. With this turn of events, Blue was fairly certain that she had gotten the better end of the deal. She blushed very slightly, apparently having not anticipated that many degrees of success or the small thrill that shot up through her chest at the sight

She sat back down on the very edge of the couch, sitting straight and proper for the moment.

"I'm sorry for missing so many of them."

He continued to turn the jar over in his hands, feeling all kinds of grateful and sheepish. He felt that unique spread of warmth, of familiarity, hovering in his chest. The kind that Blue seemed to carry with her like a duffel bag.

"Me too." Let's be better at not missing them, remained unspoken.

That was something that she could readily try to agree to. It was a wonderful thought, though there was a small voice in her mind that whispered how unlikely it would be if either of them listened to the natural demands of their restless feet. Maybe that would just mean that she could start to fill another bottle.

The prim and proper moment did not last for terribly long. Blue flopped back besides him with very little grace. The head back on his arm was very nonchalant.

"You can do whatever you want with them. They're really useful to have around in a pinch."

"I'll keep them on my desk."

He placed them there, as mentioned, and turned back to Blue.

"I must owe you more than a few birthday present by now."

To say she wasn't pleased by the motion would have been a lie.

Blue laughed and shook her head, waving her hand. "Hardly. No one owes me anything."

Green shrugged in a nonchalant way that wasn't doing a good job of masking how much he actually cared.

"I'm sure I must."

Blue gently patted her hand over his, shaking her head. "Then I'm afraid to inform you that you're sure of the wrong thing."

There was another beat and she glanced up at him. "...But that's assuming you've become a better listener."

He shot her a smirk. "On a case by case basis, I think."

"And my chances of this being one of them?"

"Chances are good."

She smirked. "Then I'll look forward to the lack of anything as was intended, Mr. Oak."

Though whether or not she actually believed him was another matter entirely.