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Green loses his tired half-smile when Red asks if he’d like to visit Mt Silver tomorrow.
They’re on Daisy’s lawn, huddled after a dinner in which Green’s politeness had been played to its limits. Aside from the painfully vegetarian menu and the dizzying scent of herbal tea, he’d weathered a barrage of questions he had little certainty to offer.
Were they planning on settling down here? Eventually. When? No idea. Really? Yes, really, and for now the Viridian Gym seemed to be doing just fine without him and his overbooked calendar. If anything, he was considering abdicating once he found someone worthy of filling his shoes. He had standards, after all.
By the time he’s hit with Red’s question, it feels more of an ambush than an invitation.
A glint flashes in his eyes, surprise verging on annoyance, followed by nothing. It’s not like he wasn’t glad to see the end of the mountain. He figured by now, Red felt the same. All that climbing and sweating and fighting, not to mention the noticeable lack of washing machines. Or anything resembling human contact.
“Why?” he says, about as bluntly as Red might on the rare occasions he spoke.
Red squeezes his hand with such precision it stuns him. He suspects the speed of his heart being measured and frowns, but doesn’t push. Rather, he stares through him with a look of disbelief, ensnaring his fingers within his own.
“Don’t tell me you’re homesick. Or did Daisy’s cooking convince you to start hunting again?”
Red shakes his head, and Green inhales deeply. He knows he’ll receive no further explanation until they get there. He feels Red’s hands warm the sides of his arms, consoling him as though he might need it. In truth, he does. He can’t think of any excuse not to go. Not a reasonable one, anyway.
“Fine.” Green plasters on the smile he’d worn at dinner. If it’s good enough for his sister, it’s good enough for Red. “Guess I should feel honoured you want company this time.”
Red nods.
Smartass, Green withholds.
“Then I’m all booked in for your little field trip.”
He nods again, and Green senses a thank you.
Good, he reconciles, feeling the pinch in his brow subside. They’ll visit the mountain, wear themselves out, and crash at his apartment in Viridian City. Then they’ll be on the next plane to Sinnoh for their annual stage at the Battle Tower.
To seal the deal, Green laughs and wrenches Red into a kiss he hums into. The sound of his voice sets him on edge, as it so often does, until his alertness washes away in the brush of his lips. Along with any pressing questions he might have about why Red suddenly feels like revisiting the worst chapter of his life.
If only he’d see it that way.
Mt Silver isn’t quite how Green remembers.
In his mind, it was daunting, a colossus on the horizon admired most frequently from the Viridian outskirts or Indigo Plateau. Only a select few were permitted to step off the road and lay a hand upon the mountain. He and Red were two such people.
Up close, the peak feels understated, more sprawl than height with rolling foothills and skinny pines scattered around the base. A thin waterline twists down the ashy slopes, catching Red’s attention, telling Green it must be new, along with the dusting of wildflowers upon the lower plains. He’s sure they’re in for territorial Heracross or rarer evolved species like Tangrowth. All the more reason for everyone else to keep their distance.
“Tada. We’re here.”
Red mphs in acknowledgement.
Green unleashes a yawn and traces Red’s eyes to the summit. Knowing better than to put up a fight, he strolls ahead without a word. If they’re going to climb it, he won’t be the reason it takes longer than necessary.
They forego the cavern and take the path upon the mountain face, using the waterline as their guidepost. He can’t say he’s missed coming here. As they gather beads of sweat beneath the blistering sun and scale the cliffs without intervention from Charizard and Pidgeot, he remembers why.
Sometimes, Red was a pain.
He was moody, stubborn, and utterly impossible to convince without a battle. He had everything Green wanted and burned it away for a throne of rocks and snow. Worse still, everyone who’d puzzled over his disappearance was an idiot. It wasn’t until Gold thrashed his team tailored for the Viridian Gym that Green found the means to send him packing.
It’s not like he couldn’t have done it himself. He was just busy filling Red’s shoes and running a gym in a city he couldn’t wait to escape when he was ten. That’s all.
Before he can clench his teeth too tightly, he’s bumped out of his thoughts by Red’s elbow and one of his softer smiles. With a sigh, he stops and peers over the mountain ranges where Johto meets Kanto. As much as he hates the interruption, he’s unable to look away. What a place to call home, he thinks, forgetting to blink.
What a throne to keep.
Red pushes onward, and this time Green follows, watching as he strips the trees of berries, tears roots from the ground—recoiling when he’s offered a bite—and rigs some kind of squirming insect to his fishing rod. He lands a minnow before it’s devoured by a monstrously sized Magikarp and with a pleased huff, crams it into his pack. A moment later, he snags a second.
“Don’t tell me that’s dinner,” Green says, jutting two fingers against his forehead.
Red’s silence is all the dreaded confirmation he needs.
The higher they climb, the colder it gets. The air gnaws through Green’s clothes once they hit the clouds, and he tenses to keep his teeth from chattering. Red seems unfazed as usual. He breathes with his entire chest, showing no signs of slowing. Eventually, they ascend upon a ridge facing out towards the southern ocean. Here, Green traces Pallet Town to the small clearing of land at the tip of the peninsula.
The summit looms over their backs, but for whatever reason, Red has no interest in reaching it. Green isn’t sure why. It’s not like he’s bothered by the snow. He taps his fingers over his mouth, puzzling over Red as he inspects a nearby log, one of the fallen amongst trees bent and warped by the weather. Satisfied, he walks around and stops at another, deigning to give it a kick.
Venusaur does the heavy lifting, shedding old vines Red uses to tie the pieces together. He leans the frame against the cragged face of the mountain, and gathers swathes of pine needles, building a canopy for them to sit out of the weather. Charizard spits a fireball over the pile of dead branches he accumulates and retreats to its ball after a pat on the snout.
At last Red looks up at Green, gesturing for him to take a seat, and Green stares back at him, as if to say absolutely not.
‘Sit,’ Red signs, insistent.
“I see we’re living the rookie trainer fantasy.” Green chuckles despite how little he misses it, and with a shrug, finds one of the nicer rocks to lean on. “Y’know, I never did this sort of thing where I could avoid it. Made more than enough through battling to keep a roof over my head. Guessing you did too, not that you cared for it.”
Red grunts. Hotels and inns were nice, but so was building something from nothing.
‘Water,’ he signs, making a small circle over his chest.
Knowing he has Lapras, Green rolls his eyes and summons Blastoise, who co-operates with Red as much as he needs.
Before long, the air fills with the scent of salt-rubbed fish, gutted and descaled away from camp to deter any Ursaring from venturing too close. It’s bursting with sitrus juice and cut with wild radishes. Red holds it out on a stick, and while crude, Green’s mouth can’t help but water. He accepts it with only a slight grimace and nibbles from the top down.
Credit where credit’s due, he thinks. It isn’t awful. To say he could live like this is a stretch, but he doesn’t hate the view of the sunset or the feeling of Red at his side, smelling of all the mud and splinters that somehow refuse to stick to him.
Besides, there are worse things than feeling twelve again.
However fleeting it was for them both.
It’s late by the time Red goes for a perimeter check.
He skulks away from the fire and paces around the ledge, combing for tracks, scents, clumps of hair, anything to alert him to a Pokémon wanting to slam them down the mountain with a rockslide. Relieved to discover nothing unusual, he brings out Pikachu to keep watch, scratching its back with a tender gaze before heading back to camp.
He turns, inhaling sharply when he discovers Green there, propped against one of the rocks, arms folded and one leg bent at the knee.
“When you said let’s go to Mt Silver, I wasn’t expecting to spend the night out in the boonies.”
Red aims a look that asks if it would kill him after sleeping in caves and climbing up trees to taunt him for much of their childhood.
“It’s annoying when I know Viridian City’s only a stone-throw away.” Green sniffs in the direction of a sprawling light on the horizon, a pivot to his left. “Down there, in the land of the living. What’s your problem with showers and home cooked meals?”
His tone lifts the smallest of smiles onto Red’s face.
‘I did this for you,’ he signs, with an emphatic point at Green’s chest, whose brows furrow.
“You did this for me,” he copies, as though missing some information that would give sense to him being here. “Hey Green, how’d you like to go without all the perks that come with being a world-class trainer? Like room service. Or not having your face clawed off by Ursarings.”
‘You worry I’ll leave again.’
“You think I’ve got time to be scheming around that?”
‘No,’ Red signs, watching his eyes flit back and forth in the pause. ‘But that doesn’t stop you.’
Green’s upper-hand smirk drops away. He closes his eyes, heart spiking beneath the surface, unable to refute him as quickly as he’d like.
He’s never liked this mountain. In fact, he despises it. From the streets of Viridian, it was his daily reminder of the burden and sacrifice that entailed being Champion. He saw how it changed Red. How its winds filled his lungs and hardened him into something glacial. While he was certain it could never happen to him, it frightened him all the same.
Red hugs him close, and Green lets him, hating the cold. His fingers meet over Red’s spine, and at last, he opens an eye.
“Fine. Sometimes I think you’d be happiest living out here,” he mutters against his ear.
‘Often?’ Red checks, peeling his chest away.
“Yeah. Often.”
Green seethes at his own stupidity. He won’t tell Red he’s bolted awake in the night, plagued by the idea that maybe one day he’ll grow as tired of his company as he is of the spotlight. Is it rational? Perhaps not. But Red was never the easiest person to read.
“I’m happiest with you,” Red mumbles against his ear.
“So what’s this? Your big plan to convince me to move?”
He shakes his head.
“Then what? C’mon, help me out, we’re not all the most mysterious Champion in Kanto.”
Red wonders how to put it most simply. To say goodbye. To show him how much things have changed. To ensure that he never has the audacity to disappear again when he has someone who loves him so deeply behind several layers of snark.
“To show you there’s no need to be afraid,” he murmurs, finding his footing in the words.
Green’s lips tug into a smile before he kisses him.
“Maybe I’d have believed you if you’d just said it,” he taunts, more breath than voice. “But then I wouldn’t have you all to myself on this mountain, would I?”
A conflicted sound escapes Red’s throat. If anything, he has Green all to himself on this mountain.
‘There are many more mountains to climb,’ he signs, eyes brightening.
“You wanna make a bucket list?” Green scoffs, only half joking. “Mt Pyre. Mt Coronet. Mt Lanakila. And I’ll be there to drag you home every time.”
‘Yes, yes, yes.’
Green laughs, hoping he doesn’t come to regret this later.
Red pulls him by his hands back to their shelter, and without further argument, he follows. As they settle in for the night, Green leaves kisses on his neck that’ll stay with him beyond tomorrow, delighting in every shiver. They consume the last of the berries, snooze by the fire, and on the brink of dawn, climb onto Charizard’s back, hearts leaping in the second of free-fall they enter upon lift-off.
Red looks over his shoulder, and Green stares back at him with the sort of wildness in his eyes reserved only for battling.
He doesn’t hate Mt Silver half as much after that.