AN: Updates will come almost daily

A Boy and His Leaf

Chapter 3

It's A Secret

Red backed away from her, separating their lips and stared at her. "Who are you…?" he asked nervously, breaking the silence.

She approached him and held out her hand, smiling. "Leaf" she simply said as if she was expecting him to know it. Red carefully shook her hand and then made his distance again.

"Are you the one that sent me that message on my Pokédex?"

She nodded with a shy, cute grin on her face.

Red took out his Pokédex and looked at it. "How did you do that?"

Leaf walked up to him and leaned in, nearly biting his ear and whispered ever so softly "It's a secret, darling."

"Why do you keep calling me darling?!"

Blue walked up to him and patted him on the back. "Well, well buddy, you never told me you had a girlfriend!" he teased.

Red pushed him off. "She's not my girlfriend! I don't know who she is!"

People were beginning to stare, looking at them like they were a wild freak show. Red pulled Leaf aside and talked in a hushed voice.

"So, thanks." Leaf said, kissing him on the cheek.

He pulled away again. "For what?"

"For coming when I call!"

"Why did you call me here?" he asked.

Leaf giggled. "Well, I wanted to see you and these people need your help."

Red looked around in confusion and then he looked back at her cute, smiling face. "My help? It looks like you and your Pikachu took care of everything."

Leaf shook her head and sighed. "No way, Team Rocket wouldn't just give up that easily. Pikachu is strong but… They have their ways, Red. Always remember that?"

"So you've seen them before then?"

Leaf beat around the bush to answer the question. "You could say that" she giggled.

Red looked over at the Pikachu sitting on her shoulder and smiled. "So where did you get your Pikachu? I've always wanted one of these. Can I hold him?"

Leaf looked up at Pikachu and smiled. "Sure, be my guest! And by the way, that's a secret, darling."

Red reached out and carefully picked up the little Mouse Pokémon and began holding it. Pikachu seemed to melt into his arms, snuggling into his chest and squeaking happily. Red got a weird feeling, like he somehow knew the Pikachu and gave him back to her. Leaf returned her Pikachu and sighed.

"So where are you from?" He asked her.

"That's also a secret, darling" she smiled again.

Red sighed. "Oh come on, tell me please?"

Leaf turned away and hung her head in deep concentration and sorrow. "I'm sorry, but that's against the rules" she sighed and took out a journal from her backpack. "So, where are we? Have we done Celadon City yet?" she asked as she sat down on a bench. Red sat down next to her, confused.

"Excuse me?" he asked.

Lea giggled again. "Oops, too early. How about Mt. Moon?"

Red looked at her sort of funny as if she was crazy. He had literally no clue what she was talking about and he had never seen her before in his life until now. She looked up at him and saw this look of sheer confusion and somewhat fright on his face. He even kept her distance from her, which she thought was very unusual.

"Oh my goodness…" Leaf looked into his burning red eyes with her soft, green eyes that were becoming filled with sad tears. "Look at you, you're so young! You're younger than I've ever seen you!" she said as she stroked his hand down his cheek and smiled, trying very hard to hold back her tears.

Red reached for her hand and took it away from his face, placing it back on her lap. He began to feel uneasy and frightened, scooting away from her even more. She could feel her anxiety rising, her breaths getting more and more staggered, and her heart beating faster as she asked the question she had been fearing to ask all of her life. "Red," she looked at him with eyes that longed for his touch, but knew she would never get it. "Please tell me you know who I am…"

Red looked at her again with that look of panic and fright on his face. He breathed heavily and asked "Who are you?"

Leaf slowly looked away from him, staring down into her lap and just sat there completely motionless, paralyzed by shock. Suddenly, something caught Red's attention as he stood up and started frantically looking around.

"Something isn't right here… It's too quiet…" Red thought to himself. He ran over to the doors and tried to open them. The second he placed his hand on them, a massive amount of volts of electricity shocked him like a lightning bolt. He fell over in pain and screaming, curled up and trying to breathe steadily. Everyone ran over to him and Brock hopped over the receptionists' desk. He logged onto one of the computers and gasped.

"It's Team Rocket! They've got control of the museum's security system!" he yelled.

Blue helped Red up to his feet. "Is there any way to fix it?" Blue asked.

Brock shook his head and sighed. "This stuff is too complicated for me to understand. The only way we'd be able to get control of it is if we had the receptionist here."

Everyone began desperately looking around for the receptionist but she was nowhere to be found.

"She must have been a part of Team Rocket…" Red pointed out. "No one had time to escape when they broke in except them, so she had to have been a double."

Brock roared and smashed his fist on the keyboard. "Well great, now we're trapped here!"

The sound of those heels clicked across the museum floor as Leaf walked over to the crowd. Red quickly hopped behind the desk and started playing around with the computer with Brock hanging over his shoulder.

Blue approached Leaf and nudged her shoulder. "Hey tiger, how's it goin'?" he asked her.

Leaf looked up at him and sighed. "Well, it could be going better."

"So I heard you and Red talking over there… You know him, don't you?"

Leaf held back her tears. "Yeah, I do. Me and that boy, we go way back."

Blue chuckled. "Strange, he never once talked about you."

"Well, that's because he doesn't know me" Leaf said.

Blue groaned. "Quit hiding things! Do you or do you not know Red?!" he yelled in frustration.

Red turned over at them and shushed them. "Blue, shut up, I'm trying to crack this."

"Yeah, yeah." Blue blew him off and continued talking.

Leaf suddenly looked up at him and broke her sadness with a big smile. "Oh, you're Blue?!"

Blue popped his collar and tipped his shades at her. "The one and only" he said with his signature smile.

"Well, I do know Red, but in his future. We're meeting backwards. His past is my future." She said with a slight hint of sadness in her voice, but she had gotten used to explaining this.

Blue scratched his head. "So you two are meeting out of order? What happened?"

Leaf hung her head and sighed. "I can't tell you, it's a secret."

"How many things are a secret?"

Leaf groaned. "Everything is. I sent him a message to come here, but it went wrong and he came too early. This is Red before he finds out who I am. But that boy… Let me tell you, he's amazing."

Blue took a look at Red and nearly puked. "That kid? Amazing? Pfft, no way."

"Oh yes way! That boy, in the days he knew me, was the most feared thing in Kanto. He could terrify entire squadrons of Team Rocket and send them running with the mention of his name."

Blue looked at him again and pointed at him. "That kid over there?"

Leaf smiled. "Yeah, that kid over there. I know it shouldn't hurt because I've known this day was coming… But when he looks right through me, it kills me inside. He treats me like a complete stranger and it feels really rough…" Leaf took a deep breath in and out.

Red banged his fists on the keyboard. "Ah! I can't break this stupid code!"

Leaf hopped over the counter and reached for it. "Here, let me give it a try!"

Red blocked the keyboard with his body and growled at her. "No way, you know too much about Team Rocket for me or anyone here to trust you. Just go stand over there or something." He pointed to a random exhibit and tried to push her along. She slapped his arms away and then slapped him in the face. Red held back his hand from slapping her and instead rubbed his cheek.

"Look Red, someday I'm going to be someone you completely trust… But I can't wait for that day right now, so I'm going to whisper something in your ear. And I'm so sorry for doing this, really I am."

Red backed away a little bit, but she grabbed his hand and pulled him close as she leaned in and whispered something in his ear that left him standing in a cold sweat. He could feel the walls of his reality crumbling around him as his very mental state was shaken to its very foundation of sanity. The sweat poured from his face like an overflowing waterfall and his hands shook like wet Lillipup shaking the water from its fur. His heart flew up into his throat, making it hard for him to breathe. He was left there, staring into the eyes of a girl that he barely even knew, but knew him.

"Red, are we good now?" Leaf asked.

He couldn't bring himself to answer. His mouth literally wouldn't make any sounds or noises as he tried to open it.

Leaf touched his face and started to feel her anxiety rise when she felt how cold his skin was against her hand. She brushed it across his cheeks and sniffed. "Red, are we good?!" she yelled this time.

Red slowly nodded his head in agreement and put his hand on hers, somehow knowing that he could trust her with his life after what she just told him.