aroceu's ficGold’s breath comes out in little puffs. The cold bites at his skin, and typhlosion shuffles closer so that his pelt is a light blanket against him. Not quite so they’re touching, and burning Gold’s clothes off. But close enough.
The snow crunches beneath his boots. Gold says, through panting, “We’re almost there, aren’t we buddy?” Typhlosion makes a noise of agreement. His paw finds Gold’s shoulder.
Up ahead, a figure looms in the distance. Gold knows who it is before he can see him.
“Red,” Green had said, “the real Champion.”
Green’s voice had been cold and fond, and Gold had wondered how long they’d known each other.
Red’s eyes are hard, like he’s seen too many wars. Gold instinctively licks his lips; the biting air feels like a shell around his body. All he can actually feel, inside, is anticipation. Anticipation and heat.
He stops when he can see him through the billowing snow. Red eyes, shadowed face, skin bruised from the cold. Gold wonders how he hasn’t died up here.
He doesn’t speak first.
Red clears his throat. “Challenger?” His voice is raspy.
Gold nods.
Without a word, Red tosses out a pokéball. It’s a blastoise, roars within the howling wind.
Gold sends out his aipom.
*
Red doesn’t speak to give his commands. Gold can’t hear him, anyway; he’s the only one shouting over the whipping snow. He’s the one wearing a jacket, but Red doesn’t shiver once.
Blastoise faints. Aipom faints. Red’s lapras faints. Venasaur. Snorlax.
Gold manages to hold him off, pokémon by pokémon, until Red’s charizard knocks out togetic and typhlosion headbutts charizard to a faint.
Then Red has his last pokéball. Gold’s sweating, and the cold tries to pierce through his sweat.
“What’ve you gone through?” comes Red’s quiet voice, which is a surprise.
Gold shrugs.
“Team Rocket, and a ginger asshole whose dad was the leader of Team Rocket,” he says.
For the first time, Red’s face breaks from impassive, and his eyes widen.
“Go, pikachu,” he says.
*
Gold wins.
Red turns away. As Gold approaches, he sees that Red is barely older than him. Gold touches his arm, and a shock runs through Gold’s body – probably from the cold.
“Time to come home, eh?” he says.
Red is quiet. He’s turned away, facing the edge of the mountain.
“Dude,” says Gold, “you’re freezing.”
Red opens up his mouth. Gold has to lean in to hear what he’s saying: and then he realizes that Red isn’t saying anything.
He’s laughing.
Tears are trickling down Red’s face; some stream down into his open mouth. He wipes his eyes, which are crimson. He smiles.
Gold has only known him for the few hours length of their battle, but he swears he’s never seen anything brighter.
“Okay,” Red says. “I’ll go home.”
*
Gold asks him several times if he wants to see Green again, and Red says no. He asks if he wants to go back to Pallet, and Red says no.
“I thought you were from Johto,” Red says. He speaks more than he had during their battle.
Gold doesn’t know why he’d expected Red to be stubbornly silent. He says, “Yeah, but I visited Kanto. Got all the badges there.”
“That’s why you’re so strong,” Red muses.
Gold takes the compliment with a blush, and ducks his head down.
“At least go to a pokémon center,” he says to Red. “You could’ve died of hypothermia.”
“Charizard keeps me warm,” Red says, but doesn’t protest as Gold leads them back to Johto, and into Cherrygrove.
It’s evening when they arrive. Nurse Joy scolds Red, and urges him into a spare room. She tells them that Red is vastly undernourished and must stay in bed for at least two nights. Red doesn’t respond, but Gold can feel a disgruntled air about him. Nurse Joy doesn’t seem to notice.
She leaves and Gold stays by his bedside. Red says, “You ought to go now.”
Gold is startled. “What? Why?”
Red shrugs. “You seem to be concerned about checking up with people. You wanted me to check up on people.”
“Yeah, because when’s the last time you talked to them?” says Gold. “I call my mom every night.” He holds up his pokégear.
Red turns away. He’s looking out the window, at the sun in the distance. The sky is streaked with oranges and pinks. Above them, a dark blue hovers.
“It’s night now,” he says. “You should call her.”
*
Gold does, and when he comes back, Red is fast asleep. His pikachu had come out of his pokéball, curled up on top of Red’s hair.
Gold wonders when the last time the rest of Red’s pokémon had been out, all at one time when they weren’t freezing on top of a mountain. He lightly taps the buttons on the rest of Red’s pokéballs and they come out. They glower at Gold.
“I’m just here to help,” he says calmly, putting his hands up. “If you don’t do anything, I won’t do anything.”
Then charizard collapses on the floor, snorlax curls so that his arm stretches across Red’s body, and venasaur practically shoves its spores into snorlax’s face. Lapras nuzzles against Red and blastoise slings an arm across charizard, leg across snorlax. Gold stifles a giggle to himself.
They deserve the rest, he thinks.
*
Red’s awake when Gold comes in the next morning. He’s playing with snorlax, whispering to his giggling pikachu.
Gold smiles.
“Hey,” he says. “Feeling better?”
Red’s head jolts up. His mouth curves into a gentle smile.
Pikachu’s cheeks spark like he’s suspicious of Gold.
“It’s okay,” Red chastises quietly. And then to Gold, “I’m warmer.”
“He jokes!” Gold says jubilantly, making his way closer.
Red’s brow furrows. “That wasn’t a joke.”
“Well,” Gold says, and pulls up a chair to sit next to him.
Red asks, “Did you let my pokémon out while I was asleep?”
Gold nods.
Red says, “Thank you.” Then: “Where did you stay last night?”
“Here,” Gold answers. “And before you tell me to leave, I’m not going to even if you force me to. You think I’m gonna let you alone even though I’m pretty sure I’m the first guy you’ve said more than ten words to in like, a year? No way.”
When he stops, he huffs.
Red says, “I wouldn’t have asked you to leave,” and Gold’s not sure which one of them looks more surprised.
*
Gold tells him about Team Rocket, about Silver, about Lance as Champion and Green as Viridian gym leader. Red goes back to his quiet state, but his pikachu becomes less tense, like Gold calms Red, and a calmed Red calms pikachu.
He talks until the sun is high and Nurse Joy brings them food; they both turn to her, surprised, but she says, “Don’t think I don’t know who you two are.”
“Hell,” Gold says suddenly when she’s gone. “We’ll have to face the press after this, won’t we.”
Red’s mouth quirks. “It won’t be that bad,” he says.
“Why? Because you’ll be silent and I’ll have to do all the talking?”
Red lets his pikachu flick a biscuit into his own mouth.
Gold takes that as a yes.
*
They leave the day afterward, when Nurse Joy says she can’t afford to clear out an entire hall for another night. They thank her for her hospitality, and go down the stairs.
Flashes and cameras and microphones are everywhere.
“Tell us, where were you for two years, Red?” asks a reporter.
“How does it feel to be the Kanto Champion, but not be in the League?”
“You grew up with Green, right? What are your thoughts on him being the Viridian Gym Leader?”
“Gold, how did you get to know Red?”
Gold shouts over the hubbub. “Listen up, assholes,” he says, “I’m pretty sure all of your questions are none of your business. And seriously, if you’d asked, anyone could’ve told you that Red was just on Mt. Silver.”
“And how did you get him to come down?” someone asks.
Gold glances at Red. Red’s eyes are downcast. Gold remembers running into a woman at Pallet, who’d talked about being worried about her son, hoping that no news was good news.
“I asked him to,” Gold says simply.
*
Red’s pokégear rings like crazy, a few hours later. Red doesn’t pick up, nor does he check the caller IDs.
When they find a secluded space in the wild grass to rest, the pokégear falls out. Gold bends down to pick it up, and sees Green and Leaf and Mom flashing under MISSED CALLS.
“You don’t have to feel guilty, you know,” he says to Red.
Red’s face looks blank again. Gold can see that it’s a mask, now; or that it’s been a mask before, and Gold’s learned to distinguish it.
Red says sarcastically, “What’s there to feel guilty about.”
“I mean,” Gold says, “it takes time. You were in a war.”
“So were you.”
“It was easier for me,” says Gold. “Because of you. You think I haven’t heard the awesome things the legendary Kanto Champion did? Man, even Silver respects you.”
“Who’s Silver?” Red asks.
Gold doesn’t answer. He hasn’t heard anything from Silver, but hasn’t made any effort to call him, either.
He supposes he ought to ask Clair about it, sometime.
“You said you’d go home,” he says to Red, instead. “So why won’t you?”
Red blinks. This expression is confused, not a defense.
“I am home,” he says. “I’m not on Mt. Silver anymore.”
“But you’re not home,” Gold says emphatically.
Red says, “If that’s how you see things, then I don’t have one.”
*
They trek around Johto slowly. They double back to New Bark first, because Gold owes Professor Elm a pokédex update, and his mother a hug. Red glances away as Gold’s mother cries about having not seeing him for a month.
Travel time is nighttime to avoid reporters and gawking passerby; Red sleeps during the day for hours on end. The police don’t challenge them to battles once they recognize them. The nurses are kind, and let them rent out a whole floor for the day. They get accidentally forced into only one interview.
“Look,” Red says one morning. His voice is laced with amusement. “It’s an article on the first time the paparazzi harassed us.”
Gold grabs a newspaper from the rack Red had been staring at.
“‘Listen up, assholes,'” he reads. “I’m glad they put that in there.”
By the time they reach Mahogany, Red’s eyes are droopy with sleep. Gold feels it, too; Red’s feelings are contagious. But he says, “I’m going to the Lake of Rage, I owe someone a favor.”
Red nods and starts following.
Gold says, “You can go to the pokémon center if you want.”
Red shakes his head. Apparently the more tired he is, the less he speaks. No wonder he’d been near mute when Gold first found him.
Gold doesn’t ask him to stop, doesn’t ask why Red’s been by his side this whole time. They go to the Lake of Rage, and Gold whistles.
It’s quiet. Then the water starts rippling, and red scales emerge from the water.
Gyarados peers down at them.
“Hey!” Gold shouts, reaching into his bottomless bag. “Still angry?”
The gyarados stares. Then it slithers back down, until its head is eye level with the both of them.
“A friend?” Red murmurs.
Gold chuckles. “Hardly.” Then, to the gyarados, “I think you’ll like this guy! He’s patient, and probably won’t make you angry!”
Red lets out a startled, “What,” and gyarados’s focus turns to him. Red flinches as the gyarados moves in closer.
Then the gyarados’s head nods.
Red says, “But – I don’t have any pokéballs.”
“Here.” Gold hands him the pokéball he’d grabbed out of his bag earlier. His fingertips brush against Red’s palm.
Gyarados crows, and Red tosses the pokéball at it. It drops into the water, floats, and then fades to red as it transfers to the PC.
“What was that about?” Red asks, as they start back.
“That red gyarados has been restless for over a year,” says Gold. “I wouldn’t have had time to train it, but since you’re back, and you both have something in common, and you’re patient as hell – it’s good for the both of you.”
They reach the Mahogany pokémon center. Red asks, “What do we have in common?”
Gold smirks. “You’re both red.”
*
When they get to Blackthorn, Clair is surprisingly waiting for them there, even though it’s two o’clock at night.
“Don’t think I haven’t noticed your strategy,” she says before Gold can open his mouth. “We’re going to the Dragon’s Den.”
Red sends Gold a confused look – weeks ago, Gold would have attributed it to a glare – but Gold doesn’t know what’s going on, either. He shrugs.
They find Silver inside, sweating and hair sticking to his forehead. He jerks around when Clair steps inside.
His eyes find Gold’s immediately. “Gold,” he says.
“How’re your pokémon doing?” Gold asks.
Silver gestures to his feraligatr, who’s watching anxiously. “Better,” Silver says shortly.
His feraligatr tackles him into a hug.
Gold gestures beside him. “This is Red,” he introduces.
Silver nods, meeting Red’s eyes. Red shifts closer to Gold.
“What’re you up to?” Silver asks. He grabs a water bottle from a nearby table.
“Looking around again, nothing really exciting.”
“You two battle each other?” Silver wipes his forehead with the back of his hand.
“Why else do you think I’m back here?” asks Red.
Gold wonders, what if it’d been anyone else, what if someone else had beaten Red, what if Red were exploring Johto with someone who’s not him? But he remembers that he’d been the one who was strong enough to beat Red, to understand the battle of Team Rocket – who’d made it up Mt. Silver to defeat him.
Gold wonders if there’s such thing as fate.
Silver chuckles, and says, “Mt. Silver is too hardcore for me.” He ties his long red hair up. “I still go around there, though, to visit Giovanni.”
“He’s still in Tohjo Falls?” Gold asks, surprised.
Silver nods. “Still a bitter and sort of evil old man,” he says. “But still my dad.”
Gold sees that Red is staring at the ground.
*
They head south back to New Bark the next morning. Gold talks incessantly about how one day Red can get all of the Johto gym badges, even though he’s sure Red will get them with hardly any effort. Red makes noises of agreement, pausing to talk only when Gold asks him when he wants to stop and where he wants to eat.
It’s early morning when they reach New Bark and Gold suggests they kip for the day. Red agrees, and they go to Gold’s house.
His mother tells him that two weeks is the shortest he’s ever been away from home, and Gold grins. She hugs Red, too, and Red looks thrown off guard.
“You’re so cold,” she comments to Red, patting his cheek. “I’ll get you extra blankets and an air mattress.”
“I can sleep on snorlax,” Red says the same time Gold says, “We can share my bed.”
They glance at each other; Red turns away, cheeks flushed.
Gold’s mother chuckles and she says, “You two sort it out then,” and then leaves to the kitchen.
“Blankets,” Gold says. “You need blankets!”
Instead, Red grabs one of Gold’s hands and looks him boldly in the eye.
“I’m sorry for still being here,” he says. “If you want me gone, just let me know.”
Gold tears his hand away, because it feels weird and his skin is hot and tingling from Red’s touch. He says, “Idiot, if I wanted you gone, I would’ve sent you out on your ass ages ago! Hell, I would’ve left your sorry ass on Mt. Silver.”
Red smiles, but he looks tired – not so much exhausted. “I want to stay with you, but I’m not sure if you still want me around.”
“‘Course I do,” Gold asks. Then, he swallows and asks, “Why do you want to stay with me?”
Red reaches for his hand again. Gold doesn’t pull away this time.
“Because,” he says, and clears his throat. “I promised you I’d come home. And staying with you has been staying at home.”
Gold grins. “Oh my god,” he says. “That is so cheesy.”
“And I like you,” Red rushes to say.
Gold laughs; and because it feels natural, reaches for Red’s lips with his own. Red doesn’t even flinch, in fact leans in like he wants more. Gold does it again.
“Well I want you to stay around because I like you, too,” he says.
*
They sleep on Red’s snorlax that night and drag the extra blankets over each other. When Gold wakes up, his knee is pressed against Red’s, nose tucked into his hair.
“We’re going through Mt. Silver today,” he says as they get dressed.
Red’s reply is silence.
So the day’s journey is longer, because they encounter very few people and more wild pokémon. Red looks like he’s in his element, gesturing instead of speaking commands like they’re all psychic types.
Gold shouts, “Waterfall!” a couple of times to politoed when they’re up against a graveler. Red’s snorlax body slams the graveler into a faint.
“I don’t know how I defeated you the first time,” Gold jokes as they move along.
“You’re the one who’s stronger than me, not just your pokémon,” says Red.
Gold doesn’t know how to respond.
As they near Mt. Silver, the altitude changes. Gold zips up his hoodie, but Red’s wearing short sleeves still.
“I have more clothes,” Gold offers, but Red shakes his head.
Instead, he curls in closer to Gold until Gold naturally wraps an arm around his waist. Red relaxes and his shivering stops.
Gold says, “If you wanted me to do that, you could’ve just asked,” and Red just leans into his shoulder. He’s hardly taller than Gold.
They reach Viridian, and Red’s eyes linger on the sign that says GYM LEADER: GREEN. He doesn’t say anything about it, though, and Gold leaves him to his own thoughts.
*
Gold wakes up in the middle of the day to the sound of Red’s voice; he turns an inch and sees Red sitting on the floor, pokégear propped on his knees. He’s speaking quietly, and the volume on the pokégear is so low that Gold can only hear Red’s side.
“Maybe… I know, I’m – it’s kind of a situation. You’re the asshole of us, remember? No, that wasn’t a joke.”
“Hey,” Gold says, rolling around. The beds are too small to share, but they’d grabbed the blankets off another bed in the room and let out Red’s snorlax next to one so it’s like they’re sharing one big bed. Gold tumbles onto snorlax.
Red smiles at him in greeting before turning back to his call.
“We’re – you’re not the most important person in my life. Okay , o – maybe like second. Or third. Or fourth. Professor Oak. Well, Oak wasn’t a jerk to me for practically a year. No, I. Yes. Shut up.”
Red’s grinning now, and the last thing he says is, “I promise,” before he hangs up.
Gold asks, “Who was that?”
“Green,” says Red. He joins Gold back on his snorlax (who purrs in content), and doesn’t respond when Gold cuddles him. Red doesn’t push him away, either.
“What’d you promise?” Gold asks.
“That I would visit him eventually,” says Red.
“Eventually?”
Red nods. “I want to do something else first.”
Gold sits up to look at him.
“I want to go back to Pallet Town.”
Gold beams.