cerulean cave.

astcism

firedred

Red was good at many things.

Like pokémon training, pokémon battling, not getting in people’s way, doing as people told him to … amongst others.

But there was one thing he was never good at, and that was doing the right thing at the right time.

Just yesterday, Fire had made his art debut in an art magazine of some sorts, and Green wanted to celebrate the occasion by reuniting the Route Raiders in Unova. That sounded like a great plan, and Red looked forward to seeing everyone in the flesh. Especially Leaf – she was as elusive as wind. She came and went as she pleased, but that was how she was.

Green had handed him three things then: The keys to Fire’s apartment, a good amount of money, and reusable shopping bags for when he bought food and drink for the party.

Now, he had spent the money getting fried chicken, pizza, soda, and some sort of sparkling white grape juice that looked like champagne. He swapped the shopping bags all onto one hand, and turned the key to the apartment.

It was all quiet from the outside, so Red figured the big reveal wasn’t done yet.

He stepped into the apartment, and closed the door behind him with a soft click.

Oh hey, everyone was there already.

Leaf was just standing there with her fists clenched like always. Fire was napping. And Green was napping too, with a magazine over his face and his hand on his stomach. Maybe he passed out from hunger. 

Oops, was he late? That figures. He did get caught up at the pizza place due to a mixed-up order even though he’d ordered it prior to getting there.

Apologetically, he dropped the shopping bags and tossed his hands in the air in some sort of celebration.

“Guys …………………………. party time!”

Had Professor Oak been around to witness Red’s gross miscalculation of the situation at hand, he would have had an aneurysm.

Green dragged his hand down his face slowly, pulling the magazine along with it to fall onto his lap. He let out a small groan, from both the pain of the beat down and Red’s very accurate assumption of the situation before them.

“Impeccable timing as always, Red ol’ buddy.”

It probably wasn’t a good idea to stand just yet, not until Leaf decided to help Red or leave or just not stand in front of him with those fists of hers. He really wasn’t looking to get knocked down again. Gawd, was she an underground boxer or something, that actually, really, hurt!

“Mind if you could, uh.”

Wow, speechless for once?

it was probably the pain.

Definitely the pain.

He pushed himself up into a better seating position, moving the knocked out clock away from his lap, along with the magazine.

“Start us off, yeah?” 

He jutted a thumb over to Fire. 

“I don’t think that one is anywhere ready to be as much as a trendsetter as you just yet.” 

Leaf hadn’t hit him too, right?

His attention shifted the moment he heard the door jiggle, but who else could have had a copy of his apartment k–

“ … ?!?!”

Wait, Red is actually here right now? For him? It wasn’t even that big of a deal. Truthfully, it was all Green’s fault, and he should have known sending him all those journals of his would get Green interested in looking through and sticking his nose where it didn’t belong.

Actually, rewind. 

How did Green get his keys and how did he get enough copies to supply all of them with one? Leaf is one thing, but enough for even Red to have a copy? Just what was the leauge thinking. Even if they were all friends and all, it didn’t make sense for his door to be an open door to all of them.

Wait.

Don’t tell him that Red masqueraded as someone like him to get the keys.   

Leaf raised her dukes the moment the door swung open.

And then her mouth gasped in surprise and happiness, because it wasn’t every day that a girl got to see one of her childhood buddies. Especially one that she didn’t get to see all the time. It was Red, in the flesh! 

... but what on earth was he doing? Was there supposed to be a party? This wasn’t --

Her smile vanished.

Oh, she knew what was up now!! Green, goddamn Green, thought this was going to be a happy occasion and one to commemorate. Next year he’d plan the same thing again as an anniversary celebration, and Red would go along with it because it was what he did best! 

She glared down at Green, crackling her knuckles as she did.

“Green,” she hissed, “Did you seriously think this was going to go fine? What possessed you? You’re being uncharacteristically --” 

Leaf took a deep breath.

“-- idiotic!! A true idiot to every single last spike on your head!!”

She turned to look at Red, who still had his hands in the air as if waiting for some sort of cue to act. Like Leaf and Fire were going to drop everything and cheer with him.

Leaf wanted to pity Red’s poor soul, but someone who blindly went along with Green’s foolish plans probably didn’t deserve her sympathy. Yep. Red was getting none of it this time.

astcism

He expected a kick, a playful one like usual, something that he could easily catch, slide back a few steps, and be done with it. 

What he got was his back slamming against the wall and that stupid, plastic clock falling from its place in the ceiling onto his head as he attempted to recover. Seeing stars would have been a nice thing compared to how his stomach felt. At least she didn’t get him in the ribs. He needed that a little more. 

And he coughed, just in time to get hit in the face with the magazine.

It wasn’t blood that spilled, but he was thankful that he hadn’t eaten yet.

Still, the magazine was the last straw. The last bit that rendered him completely speechless for once in his god-damned life. He was lucky in that regard, anything thing he would have said would be likely purposefully anger her.

Green was completely innocent here! 

His intentions were entirely pure! There was nothing here that he’d lied about. It was just Leaf and all of her — Leafness — overreacting to every little thing. Come on, anyone would be thrilled to know they ended up in a magazine like that. It’s like modeling without the pay and the work but with all the fame!

At the very least, she could spare Fire’s feelings.

The poor guy, today (or yesterday?) was the big debut and his only copy of the magazine was beyond repair.  

As soon as he was let go, Fire could feel the air rush back into his lungs. Oh, sweet as it was, he knew he had to move away from the duo as quickly as he could. His room might not be salvageable, but he certainly was. He backed up against the wall behind Leaf, which was probably the safest place at the moment.

There wasn’t an inch of sympathy he held for Green’s treatment. Even he’d seen that was coming from a mile away, and there was no stopping a rampaging taurus like Leaf can be sometimes.

Hopefully, she’d stop soon.

Maybe it was due to how long she’d held him in her grip or his sheer inability to deal with these situations or maybe even both – either way, he felt very tired. His eyes were heavy, and he found himself leaning against the couch, still sitting on the floor. 

He closed his eyes.  

Maybe when he woke up again, he’d find it was all just a dream. He’d fallen into some pit of water and wake up in a hospital or in bed. All fine. Maybe the magazine wasn’t even a thing. Maybe he was still in the middle of a battle, dazed and lost by a pokemon’s attack. 

Leaf wasn’t even fazed by Green’s eventual response to her display of violence. As far as she knew, he deserved every single second of pain that he was going through. It was her own brand of justice, served piping-hot and just right. Fire had disappeared from view - probably behind her, huh? - but perhaps, it was for the better.

She knew where to direct her anger at. It wasn’t Fire’s fault that her face was all over a magazine with regionwide circulation. And as far as Kanto publications were concerned, they often made their way onto Johto shelves as well. That alone was something Green could never hope to atone for.

Had he even asked her permission?! No.

Had he asked Fire? Probably, but did he ever ask Fire which pieces were okay to publish and which weren’t? No. Green probably just scooped a couple of sketchbooks up into his arms and picked the single piece that Fire put most of his heart into creating.

A picture of her and Charizard mid-battle with her messy hair -- ARGH!!! Just thinking of it again renewed Leaf’s anger.

She took a deep breath before she lost it again.

Any more kicks, and Green would probably need a hospital. Right now, he could suffer as he was.

“Green. The next time you pull a stunt like this, you’re going down harder than you did today. And I’ll make good on that promise, you hear me.”

No more exclamation marks.

astcism

Sure, getting hit in the face with a magazine was slightly painful, but no more annoying than how she was acting. Just look at her. If she had actually paid attention, he hadn’t lied at all. 

She was practically a model! Just look at her figure. Definitely a teen girl’s ideal — at least, one they’d like to be. Yep. Who wouldn’t want to be portrayed as a strong, independent woman with a blazing charizard to match?

The fact it was all painted by her bestest best friend in the whole wide world made it even better!

That shit eating grin he was well known for only grew as she called his name. A normal person might have been just a touch scared, but him? Nah. They were friends, and she wouldn’t kill a friend.

He placed his hands on his hip, laughing. 

“You see? What’d I tell you? Your poster’s in a magazine at Fire’s place.”

Throwing his hands up, he continued, shaking his head. 

“Did I lie? Nope!”

Then he held his hands out towards the poster, palms upward. 

“There it is. Irrefutable proof!”

Why was he the one dragged into the middle of their fight? The way Leaf was shaking him has his head in a tizzy. As the collar tightens, so does the airway he has. Air’s becoming more and more like a dream and having it literally shaken out of him as Leaf’s agitation grows–

He just wanted to spend the day off sleeping.

Maybe sketching.

Or traveling outside with Pika and just enjoying what little time left before winter comes at full force.

Instead, there has to be this.

The sad part was, he didn’t even reach up to loosen Leaf’s grip. Fire let himself dangle there, pulled and shaken much like a toy caught in a lilpup’s jaw. He doubted that even Green’s arcanine was ever this terrible to his chew toys as a growlithe.

His teeth clenched together after a while as he struggled to get some semblance of normalcy in this … thing. Whatever it was. Battle of the green aesthetic.

“Leaf … I need to breathe.”  

Leaf would never kill a friend, but boy could she hurt them like no tomorrow. And hurt them physically she would, especially against someone as infuriating as Green Oak and his stupid shit-eating grin and know-it-all attitude and thinking he was smarter than her which was so, so unforgivable.

She yelled, dropped Fire, and rushed Green with the force of a great typhoon.

With her sights set on Green, nothing could stop her as she angled herself for a kick to his abdomen. Lea F. Wolfesbane’s kicks were backed by years of training. No piece of plywood ever stopped her cold. No door would stand after she was done with it.

Even Charizard knew better than to stop her when she threatened to kick him. Even Mewtwo once said if Leaf were reborn a pokémon in her next life, she would know BRICK BREAK.

No mere human would ever stand in her way.

THEY WOULD ALL GO DOWN LIKE BOWLING PINS.

Green was about to get himself wrecked for not checking himself.

She had always lightly punched him in good fun, but this was the first time he was about to get a kick. Not just any play-kick, but a real hard kick. 

“MY POSTER, HUH?!”

------ and then she kicked him.

“Try that on for size, Green! And take this with you!!”

“You’re gonna travel all over the world, places where I’ll never be.”

“Oh, don’t be depressing!” chided Leaf, playfully, “Anyone can go see the world. Anyone. I mean, it took me twelve years before I left little ol’ Kanto, so...” 

She peered into his eyes, trying to see if there was anything she could discern: Maybe a hint of an adventurous soul? Or someone looking to conquer the world under his name, the way trainers aspired to topple League champions? -- Any sliver of light in his eyes that would form a reason for wanting to travel the world.

astcism:

Aw, she’s all embarrassed. How cute. He knew she was always the tsundere type. Just look at her! With that kind of power behind her, she had to be one of the two stereotypes and — hey, Red and Fire definitely called the kuudere thing. Anyone who’s just met her, could probably tell she’s the “tsun” type all the way.

Just — look at her anger. 

It’s perfect.

“Well yeah, I mean –”

He stopped and stared at her for a moment. Those gears in his head came to a pause and then spun into over drive.

It still didn’t compute.

“Wait a minute.”

 His hands up and flailing by the time Fire (poor Fire) came into the picture, dragged by his own handiwork into their little misunderstanding or two. Or five? 

It was hard to keep track.

He looked down at her, trying to make sure if she was serious about this.

She was.

“You haven’t even looked at it yet?”

He dragged a hand over his face, pulling his hand downwards. What the heck, Leaf. Was she really this dense? How far into her thick skull did he gotta hammer down? And Fire, as sorry as he was for the kid, he’s and adult now. He’s gotta learn to stand up to her, even just a little or enough not to be literally dragged around by her.

“Geez. Do I have to do everything around here? Did you even look in the magazine? Maybe your poster is in there.”

He let out a half choking sound at the sudden movement. If it wasn’t for that, maybe, just maybe he would have said something about not being a rag doll. Just what was he doing here between these two other than getting caught up in their fight again.

Man, he wasn’t any better than a cub caught by the scruff of his back. He could barely move from her grip, wriggling seemed like a very bad idea at this rate, so he kind of just hung there.

Waiting.

Just drop him already, Leaf.

“… ?”

This poster that Leaf was looking for. Green couldn’t have mentioned which of the paintings he’s done. Just that he’d taken some out of his “journals” and gotten them published, and knowing how he was, he didn’t even check which Green had decided to throw out there.

He could feel his face heat up at the sudden realization.

It was her poster, so it couldn’t have been that picture, could it?

“ … … you didn’t …” 

He tried to reach for the magazine. To open it up or throw it out the window, he wasn’t exactly sure at this point which would be the better option.    

Look in the magazine for what purpose, exactly?! Green was in one of his dumb mysterious moments, like he was Tuxedo Mask or something. Actually, Tuxedo Mask was probably a good way to describe how he was acting right now. Dude did nothing except show up with roses and sparkling teeth and wave his stupid cape around against a fancy background.

Totally Green.

“You said I was supposed to look --” she took a deep breath, “-- for a poster!! Nothing, no mention of a magazine. How was I supposed to KNOW --” another deep breath, “-- that it’s in the Upcoming Mysterious Small Town Artist copy of so many other copies of magazines that is practically scattered around --” Leaf shook Fire by the collar, as if he would magically drop another copy of the art magazine out of his shirt, “-- THIS HOLE OF AN APARTMENT?!”

She seethed.

And then she grabbed the magazine off the couch, and flung it right into Green’s face. Right on the centre spread. Right where the headline off in the corner repeated what it said on the front page. Right at the page that had UPCOMING MYSTERIOUS SMALL TOWN ARTIST in block letters off in the corner.

Right where a familiar face was.

Her face.

Her goddamn face and wind-tousled messy hair and Charizard and the baby blue vest that she had three of but only worn two because she kept the third for very special occasions.

It looked up at her from the magazine that slid off Green’s face and landed face-up on the floor.

Leaf’s hand tightened around Fire’s collar.

astcism

Judging by the sounds going on inside the apartment, it was time for him to appear! The widely grinning intruder, gave the door a loud kick after unlocking and propping the door just a bit open.

“Hello, man on fire — and lea tornado!”

The brunet didn’t seem to see the awkwardness between the two, but he’d pieced more than two and two together. Their expressions explained everything he needed to hear as did the noises and the magazine in Leaf’s hand.

Oh! 

They must be so happy he’d taken that particular image of the fighting, power gal of their little band of (infamous) troublemakers. Coupled along with Fire’s art, Lea never looked any better.

After all, who can say they’ve gotten a painting of themselves plastered across an art magazine as a friend’s debut!

He gave the girl a big pat on the back. And another.

“What’d you think? Awesome right?”      

Palkia come and swallow him up right now. 

He wouldn’t mind getting swallowed by legendary from another region as long as it saves him from this nonsense. Just what in the world was going on? How did he even get the key here? Did the landowners just give it to anyone who claimed to be his friend at this point? Or did they just use their powers as hall of famers to get whatever they wanted.

Okay, maybe she didn’t need to do that.

She could just sniff out his melancholy and find him anywhere, but Green?

Don’t tell him that Red was somewhere around here too.

And then he just had to do that. Teasing her was one thing, but this? This was way too much — for both of them. It’s bad enough that she thought it was going to be some perverted thing, but.

Come on.

“ … …. …. eh. ” 

Leaf whirled around, all fangs and hisses as she glared at Green. How dare he walk in like he owned the goddamn scene. How dare he come in as if this was all an elaborately orchestrated scheme. Just seconds ago, she had been calling him out on his shit. He would have heard all of it.

Every single word of it. 

“What is your idea, huh?” 

She spat her syllables as she turned on Green, slapping away his hand on her back as she balled her hands into fists. The gaze that she shot at him was sharp enough to pierce through even Mewtwo’s barriers. 

“What’s awesome, Green? Your stupid idea of a treasure hunt, or your dodrio-dumb plan to hang out near Fire’s apartment until I found the magazine that doesn’t even have the limited edition poster I wanted?”

She would have kicked him in the abdomen right there and then if it weren’t for Fire. Green got lucky this time.

Leaf reached out, grabbed Fire by the collar, pulled him closer, and pointed to his face.

“This guy here -- had his house turned upside-down courtesy of me because you promised me he had the poster I was looking for. And what’s here? Nothing. Nothing but a box of magazines. Where’s the thing, Green? WHERE IS IT?!”

What a … persistently polite robbery attempt this was. It was almost confusing. Lance had to shake his head–both in mild disbelief and as a continued ‘no’ to the Charizard.

Lance shifted the stack of boxes in his arms, scanning for any sign of that elusive trainer. There wasn’t a soul about, that he could see, but the Charizard didn’t seem the type to stray too far. And considering how quiet he was being … perhaps his humans were in that house? In that case …

“Sorry,” he said again loudly, pitching his voice to hopefully be heard inside the building, “no pizza unless your trainer says it’s okay.”

(And hopefully said trainer wouldn’t say it was okay, because this was /his pizza, darnit.)

Harrumphing firmly, he shook his head at the pizza man.

Charizard was used to rejection by all the ladies in his life. Namely, his trainer and her mother. He was not going to go down without a fight. No. Never. Charizard wanted pizza. Charizard would get pizza.

He repeated the sentences over and over in his mind like a mantra. The one reason he was doing this hold-up as shown on TV was the pizza! No attempt to negotiate will be --

-- Oh. Oh no.

Charizard visibly gulped as he saw a familiar figure walk out from the front gates of his house, with something in hand. It couldn’t be! Not scary Ma Wolfesbane, but his trainer! She was taking out the trash!

Sure enough, Leaf started yelling the moment she saw something amiss: “... Charizard? Who is that you’re talking to? What are you doing out there in the middle of the street? You’re going to get the guy run over, for heaven’s sake!”

At this point, even a great, big charizard like him knew when to give up.

Oh. Is that an excuse? 

Green might have sent him stuff intended for Leaf (since the two of them blabbered on about their travels all the time), but he couldn’t recall whatever she was saying. That was kind of why he’d let her look through the box (not that she gave him a chance otherwise). 

He was half tempted to text Green to double check just in case that poster thing was real. She seemed pretty upset over it, after all. He’d better explain himself later.

Right now, he … was going to have to deal with her knowing about the picture thing.

He couldn’t help but find it so weird how gentle she was about it now compared to how she was earlier. A part of him half expected her to rip the magazine open and shove the images of his submission in his face.

It brought a wry, half-smile to his face.  

“You’d be able to tell if it was. It’s not wrapped up or anything.”

She hummed, and glanced off to the side without saying anything else. She didn’t want to look in the magazine now, especially not when Fire had that sort of look on his face. So he had seen it, then. If it were some sort of pervy stuff, Green would have shown it to her himself.

So, that left... Well, she wasn’t someone who enjoyed thinking. How was she expected to know?

Leaf held up the magazine, flipped it around so that the front cover and all its headlines were facing her, and read them. None of them particularly caught her interest, until she saw a small headline squished under a large headline that said, ‘Upcoming Mysterious Small Town Artist!’

She knew approximately one person who fit the bill, and it wasn’t Redmund.

“Green plotted all of this, and made me cry just so I can see this magazine in all its real glory? Why haven’t you told me about it, huh?! Why did Green have to go through all these elaborate steps like he’s manning some Rube Goldberg machination?!

“I demand an explanation!! All he tells me is that I’ll get a limited edition poster out of this, and I get to see a cool side of you, and he just... He just...”

She took a deep breath, stood up, and punched the wall they were closest to out of frustration.

The analog clock just some inches above where Leaf’s fist had made impact swayed dangerously.

She was making a weird face, but it didn’t look like she’d found whatever it was she was looking for. He’d expected some sort of bravo and some other exuberant behaviour than whatever this was.

It was weird.

He preferred her yelling like earlier than this.

He scratched the back of his head nervously, unsure what to say. (Not that he knew what to say half of the time around anyone, really.) 

“It’s a box of stuff I got from Green. … … That’s what you’re looking for, right?”

“Yes, and no. I mean, I really honestly came because Green promised me the limited edition poster, but...”

She didn’t like not having the right words to say. Green had told her about the magazine and what was in it, but she didn’t want to outright say that she was here to congratulate him over something like that. It wasn’t like Fire actually showed up to those events.

If he did, he’d do well to bring her along as his date, right? And she hadn’t attended any of those events, so it probably wasn’t that big of a deal.

Wait, what?

When he opened his eyes again, Leaf was — Leaf was crying? Just what in the world is happening here? She still hadn’t explained anything beyond looking for something, but if wasn’t in his magazines or his books …

He couldn’t imagine what it would be.

The random poster or whatever he’d gotten from Green was probably still in its box. He hadn’t had a chance to look through it just yet, not when he had intruders like this one coming into his room and tossing stuff around.

“Uh.”

He lifted a finger and pointed in the direction of the box, which had been tossed aside in the whirlwind, lying on its side.

“Maybe that … ?”

But ... she had gone through the box the moment she stepped into the room. That was the first thing she had thrown open in her frenzy, before she started exploring the nooks and crannies of Fire’s closets. There was no way it was in there, was it...?

Leaf looked at Fire. He did not look like he was lying, but ... if Green, the sore loser could lie to her, then it was...

... Nah! Not possible!! This was Fire.

Reluctantly, she turned her sights towards the box, and pulled it towards her. She rummaged through it again, putting aside unopened envelopes too small to hold her poster, until she found a neatly-preserved magazine right at the bottom.

Oh...? Hmm.

Ah, so it’s not that. That’s good. That’s good. 

He could finally breathe a little. Maybe that’s why he found himself sliding down onto the floor, watching Leaf do what she did best.

He might have had no idea what she was looking for, but at least it wasn’t that.

He closed his eyes and waited for the storm to pass. 

Leaf looked up from the magazine, and there were tears in her eyes as she looked straight into Fire’s.

“How could this ... how could this...”

The words wouldn’t come. She choked on them as she tried stringing them into a sentence -- she usually wasn’t like this, she knew that, but this ... just thinking about it made her want to throw a fit! And wreck the room!! (It was Fire’s, so it was fine to!)

Where was the limited edition poster, anyway? Green said there would be a copy in one of Fire’s magazines, because he never needed any dumb poster of some movie actor. Green said if she went looking through Fire’s stuff, she’d find it somewhere.

And yet...

“It’s not fair!! It’s gone!! ... Green said it would be with you, and he promised, and ... a-and...”

Dear Mew, his once decently kept room was now in uproar. Somehow she’d managed to uproot just about everything. He didn’t even know he had this much stuff in this little apartment.

Aside from the magazines, he had no idea what she would be looking for. Actually, even with them, he wasn’t sure what she’d be looking for. It wasn’t like Green said —

Oh, right. 

Green said; there inlaid the problem.

“… ha … haha.”

He lamely handed them over. It wasn’t like he would be recognized beyond the use of his actual name. He never attended any of their shoots or any of his debuts. They would have never gotten an image of him, and, most of all, it wasn’t really in any of Lea’s interests.  

There just — was no point in fighting when she was around. 

Leaf wouldn’t have accepted no for an answer. She took the stack of magazines and nodded at him once, before flipping through the magazines one after the other until she stopped at one copy.

Quickly, she opened it, and flipped to the centre spread, and --

She gasped.

“No way... No way!! Aaaaahhh!!”

“You can’t just barge into a guy’s room.”

He knew he didn’t look that impressive while he was holding that stack of magazines, but he refused to part with them. At least she didn’t look interested in them, but she was still scrounging around his room for something.

Just.

“What are you looking for anyways?” 

The sooner she’d stop messing with his stuff, the better. He could deal with the rest of whatever after that.

“You say that, Fire, but I just did!!”

She smiled at him, and proceeded flipping through his stuff in search of ... whatever it was that she was looking for. She nearly upended the coffee table as she went past it, and then she finally got to Fire.

Leaf looked him in the eye, then out of sheer procedure, proceeded to stare at the magazines he held in hand. She held out her hand.  

It went without saying that she expected them to be handed over for her inspection. 

    “You can’t just — Leaf.”

Yeah, there’s nothing he could do. At least his room wasn’t messy. How’d she even find what apartment he was even staying at this time? Did she have Green keep tabs on him? Or —

He quickly snatched a few magazines, hiding it from her view. She was getting too close.  

“I can’t just what, Fire?”

Leaf’s question hung in the air as she stopped moving for a bit, and stared straight in his direction. What was he holding? Magazines?

Good thing she wasn’t looking for a magazine, or she’d have kicked it out of his hands right then and there.

“I’m not leaving; I’d just arrived! And I’ll never ditch you, so you throw away your hopes and dreams of me doing so. ... Now... Where is that thing?”