'Help Wanted.'

The sign had immediately caught his eye. He was running low on cash ever since he had arrived in Virbank City, having spent most of it on the hastily and slightly less than legally arranged ferry trip from Canalave. Of course it was necessary at the time, a large contingent of the Sinnoh police force were on his tail, not to mention his pursuer.

She had been relentless in chasing him, catching up to him in Jubilife Town while he was paying a visit to the Pokétech building (learning about the technology that went into the Pokétech as he had never heard of the device before). Next she almost cornered him at Lake Verity as he took in the picturesque view and snapping a few shots; if it wasn't for Espeon causing a diversion she would caught for sure that time. It was no surprise then when she turned up at the dock just as his ferry left for Unova.

He couldn't help but admire her; he hadn't met someone so determined in a hell of a long time, if ever, and he was greatly impressed with her battling skills. She was strong, perhaps a shade under the boy who had challenged him on his mountain, but unlike the boy she fought without any fear. Unlike the boy she didn't despair when her Pokémon had begun to get overwhelmed by his stronger Venusaur, she didn't just rely on brute strength, she used tactics and ingenuity to try and wrench back control. Not once intimidated by him, she had awakened something in him once again – the thrill of battle.

In a weird way he found himself being attracted to her. Obviously she was drop dead gorgeous, her long golden hair, her cute little nose and the way her grey eyes sparkled captivated him. But it was the way she moved and behaved in battle that really did it for him. With a steely determination in her eye, she gave confident and precise instructions yet somehow retained a grace and elegance in her movements. Alas, he knew it would never be. He chuckled to himself as he thought about it, him a criminal and her hunting him down, a relationship starting from that only happened in movies.

And speaking of movies, it seemed as though he had stumbled on a way to make some quick cash that could sustain himself till he found another gig or hopefully (but very much doubted) keep him afloat till he found away to get back to Pallet Town and get help from Professor Oak. He really should have written his bank details down instead of just forgetting them, being able to withdraw money now would have been a great help. Tearing down the flier from the sign post, he read the job description.

'Crew Hand needed. Must be able to move heavy props and film set equipment and available to work straight away. Salary determined at end of each day. Report to building B4.' He wasn't strongest guy in the world but he wasn't exactly week, plus he did have four strong Pokémon to back him up. He rolled up the flier and started to make his way north.

Naturally he had assumed that the flier was for a low budget B movie flick, what he hadn't expected to find himself in was Pokéstar Studio itself. He gawked at the massive Pokéstar studio sign on the side of the hill and promptly snapped up pictures of the foot and handprint hall of fame, the old movie posters and he even managed to find a replica of the most famous movie car ever, The Crobatmobile.

After spending an hour running around like a kid who had visited Lego Land for the first time he finally made his way to building B4. The woman at the building's reception looked at him quizzically before he showed her his flier. She nodded, buzzing him before returning to her gossip chat with the other receptionist. He made his way in and was greeted by a big burly man by the name of Dave.

"Here for the set work?" Red nodded.

"No offence kid but you don't look like you could move a two by four let alone some of the equipment we have here." He smiled and tapped four Pokéball buttons.

"That…That can work." Dave grinned as he eyed the four behemoths that had emerged.

The work was exactly how the flier had pictured it. The had to lumber around heavy lighting and film equipment and make sure all the set props were in the correct orientation, precise to the millimetre or face the set director's wrath. All in all in was tiresome boring work, but on the plus side he got to watch top class actors do what they do best. They'd just finished setting up next scene, a dark cemetery with a large square white gate in the background when the two actors walked in.

His eyes widened when he saw her. With her dark hair cut shorter and in that long midnight blue and purple costume she looked nothing like how he had remembered her, but there was no doubt about who she was. The first time he had laid eyes on her, he had been just a boy. Back then, she had equal parts mystified and scared the crap out of him, and that after he had gone up against Giovanni in a hellish battle. She had thanked him for help saving her city before granting him a gym battle, and what a battle it had been. She was unlike any other gym leader he had faced, giving no audible instructions and seemingly able to read his strategies the moment they popped into his head. It was only though a combination of luck and sheer iron will that had enabled he and his Pokémon to prevail.

He had met her again during one of the few League meetings he actually attended while he was still champion. She had been very shy and you could almost say that she was an antisocial, but this, this was very different. The way Sabrina carried herself was the complete opposite of how he had remembered. An air of polite confidence followed her around as she easily greeted and chatted with the film crew, honestly he still wasn't quite sure if they were the same person.

In his reminiscing, he hadn't notice the actors take their positions and the scene start filming. Quickly he snapped his concentration back to the two actors and watched them perform. It didn't take an expert to realise that the other actor, Nate, was at the top of his game, the way he spoke and moved dominated the scene. Despite his youth it was obvious he had been doing this for a long time. Sabrina on the other hand, though clearly talented, was not quite up to her colleague's level. Possibly as a result, the director called for a cut several times to instruct her how he wanted things to be done. This along with a lighting malfunction was getting on Nate's nerves.

They were in the middle of take nineteen when Red felt a sneeze come over. He could tell it was a big one and as he didn't want to disrupt the actors he desperately tried to hold it back. He pinched his nose, clenched his jaws and desperately tried to keep his eyes open. But alas the sneeze came and there was nothing he could do about it.

Immediately the room when silent, he could feel all eyes on him. Slowly he opened his eyes to see Nate staring furiously back at him.

"What the fuck is it with you? What don't you fucking understand? You got any fucking idea about, hey, it's fucking distracting having somebody sneeze behind me in the middle of the fucking scene? Give me a fucking answer! What don't you get about it?"

Red simply stared apologetically back.

"Fuck sake man, you're an amateur. McG, you got fucking something to say to this prick?"

"I don't think he meant it on purpose Nate." The director replied.

"Well, somebody should be fucking watching and keeping an eye on him. I'm trying to fucking do a scene here, and I am going: Why the fuck is he sneezing now? What is he doing there? Do you understand my mind is not in the scene if you're doing that?"

Desperately, he tried to apologise and that he had meant nothing by it.

"Stay off the fucking set man. For fuck's sake. Alright, let's go again."

"Let's take a minute." The director interjected

"Let's not take a fucking minute, let's go again. I'm going to fucking kick your fucking ass if you don't shut up for a second! All right?"

"Hey Nate. It's cool" Other members of the film crew tried to cool the actor down.

"I'm going to go. Do you want me to fucking go trash your teeth? Do you want me to fucking trash 'em? Then why are you trashing my scene?"

He tried telling Nate that he wasn't intentionally trashing his scene.

"But you are trashing my scene! You do it one more fucking time and I ain't walking on this set if you're still hired. I'm fucking serious. You're a nice guy. You're a nice guy, but that don't fucking cut it when you're fucking around like this on set."

By now both he and his Pokémon had had enough. Charizard started to growl menacingly behind him. Nate took an involuntary step back at the noise but to his credit kept the anger stance. Only after copious cooling down attempts by his agent did Nate allow himself to be moved away and off the set after which the director called for the crew to take a break. Red himself decided that he needed a break as well but just as he was about to leave he was stopped by who else but Sabrina.

"Hey, sorry about that. Nate's a fantastic actor but can be a bit highly strung sometime" Red smiled ruefully and waved his hand to signify he was over it.

"Let me make it up to you." His brow furrowed slightly, she had really changed since that gym battle, he definitely didn't remember her being this forward. She smiled cheekily, leaning forwards towards him.

"Besides it's not everyday that you meet the missing champion of Kanto." She whispered into his ear.

He dropped his Pokémon off at the Pokémon playground, (he had never seen one before and he thought that maybe his friends would enjoy it, and they'd more than earned a chance to have some fun on their own) before heading back to building B4 to wait for Sabrina. He fidgeted with his clothes while he waited and tried to fix his wild hair, living rough for the past few weeks had made him look incredibly scruffy and he wanted to be in some sort presentable appearance for this date. Well he wasn't sure if this was a date. He didn't exactly have that much experience in this field, and if he was being honest, none at all.

When a guy and girl went somewhere together it was considered a date was it not? Then again just because two people hung out didn't mean that it was date. Maybe a perquisite was that the parties were attracted to one another, he was dam sure he found Sabrina attractive but she did she find him attractive? If only one of the two members found the other attractive did that make the date not a date? He scratched his head, how did Blue do this so easily? Why couldn't girls and dates be as simple as training Pokémon? Perhaps this was a meeting, yes a meeting to get reacquainted with an old acquaintance.

"This can be a date if you want." Sabrina laughed as Red jumped with shock. As Red regained his composure, he took in her appearance. She had gone for a very casual look with white pants and pink top that brought out the colour of her eyes, which he had never noticed were pink themselves and were incredibly pretty.

"Thanks." She blushed. Red was confused for a second but then remembered, she was Psychic after all.

"Yeah, well remembered" she laughed, "I can read minds better the closer I am to a person or when a person's mind is cluttered or not focused and yours is definitely not focused." Red rubbed the back of his head slightly embarrassed.

"Don't be embarrassed. You're mind is definitely far more interesting than most other people's. Plus yours is actually quite hard to read as you have lots of trains of thoughts popping here and there. It's almost too cluttered." Red frowned, he wasn't sure if that was a compliment or an insult.

"I think its kind a cute." She smiled naughtily at him, "Plus it's completely different to when I battled you. You walked in all confident just after you'd saved my city from Team Rocket, (thanks again for that by the way) and certain you'd win a badge. Obviously I knew you were good, you'd taken down Team Rocket but I'd still have my advantage of being able to read your mind and your strategies. And yet I couldn't. Your mind was so focused, it was like an impenetrable fortress with not a single crack along the walls." Red smiled, if there was one thing that he could focus one, it was definitely battles. But wait, was she trying to cheat by finding out his strategies before he implemented them.

"Anything to win and like I said I didn't even get a chance to find out what they were." She smirked back. "Now come on, let me show you around." She took him by surprise as she swiftly grabbed his arm and dragged him away.

With her unrestricted access to everything in Pokéstar studios, Red got to see it all. Actors' trailers, the editing room and even where they made the actual awards, it really was what dreams were made out of. And once that was all done, Sabrina took him to the theme park to enjoy the numerous rides, delicious ice creams and just kick back and relax.

He really enjoyed hanging out with Sabrina. For someone who had trouble being around people almost his entire life, he found it easy just to be when he was in her presence. It probably helped that she could read his thoughts which meant they could communicate much easier, though it did land him in quite the predicament when she reached up to claim the toy they had won after playing the ring toss game. Needless to say, she was easily able to hear his thoughts while he stared at her behind. She hadn't let him live it down, teasing him throughout the day. But even then it wasn't the annoying kind, if he was being honest with himself he enjoyed it and teased her back when she held on a bit too long to his bicep after playing the High Striker. He really hoped he could repeat this again with her.

"Don't worry. I think we'll definitely have a second date." Sabrina smirked, cutting through his thoughts. He rolled his eyes, damming her very useful but at the same time very annoying psychic powers, before turning back to the food on his plate. She laughed again, leaning over to wipe a bit of food of his chin sending shivers down his spine as she did so.

"I'm just going to pop to the ladies. Don't mind do you?" He shook his head. "Cool, be back in a sec." She winked at him before taking her leave.

Red finished up his meal before taking in the bar Sabrina had selected for them. It was called the Devil's Dyke and was situated at the very top of the hill that overlooked Pokéstar Studios and the Pokémon playground giving them a majestic view of the place. Unfortunately that made the bar very popular. He was miles better at dealing with people and crowds compared to when he was young yet it still put him on edge being in a loud room with no escape plan. He would have preferred it had he and Sabrina had just gone to her flat or to his rented room in the Pokémon centre and had a simple dinner but he supposed this place suited her just as well. The people here were confident and out-going just like she was. Perhaps there was hope for him yet, if she could turn herself from a very quiet indoorsy sort of person to an out and about one, maybe he could get rid of his phobia of crowds.

"Here will this table do Miss?"

"Yes thank you very much."

He froze. That voice, he knew who that voice belonged to. He heard the waiter pull the chair out from the table behind him and heard the customer sit down thanking the waiter once again. A quick glance behind him confirmed his fears. His pursuer was literally four feet behind him. Escape plans raced through his head, each one less plausible than the last and without his Pokémon at his side he was in a massive pile of trouble. He was starting to feel very hot and sweat even began to form on his brow.

"Hey. You OK?" He didn't even notice Sabrina return, such was his despair.

"Don't look but the woman sitting behind us is after me."

"Who the blonde-"

"I said don't look!"

"Sorry, why is she after you?" she whispered. Red breathed in and recounted his story to her.

"You're a wanted criminal?" Sabrina laughed through her whisper.

"You're taking it rather well that I've been declared a dangerous fugitive."

"Haha, it's just so ridiculous."

"So my suffering is amusing to you?" Red asked in mock pain.

"Aww poor baby." She teased letting out another giggle.

"But it is pretty funny seeing what you've gotten yourself into. Plus you know how you could've gotten yourself out of it?"

"How?"

"Tell them who you are."

"But that defeats the purpose!"

"What purpose?"

"The… The…"

"The purpose of reintegrating yourself back into the real world and find your new calling as you think you've accomplished everything there is to training Pokémon but you're worried that if people find out that you're the legendary lost champion of Kanto then you'll be forced back into the spotlight, and into crowds of trainers who will swarm around you scaring you back to the hermit life away from civilisation once again."

"Er… Uhm… Yeah?" She smiled sweetly at him, staring into his eyes before dropping her gaze and running a hand through her hair and twirling a strand.

"I hope you don't go missing for years again." She muttered not audible enough for him to hear before perking up and smiling brightly at him.

"Don't worry I've got this."

"Got what?" she got up from the table and came around to his side.

"When the opportunity presents itself, get yourself out of here."

"What oppor-"

Soft and slightly warm lips crashed into his. A few strands of hair tickled his cheek. He coulc smell and taste strawberries blooming in the spring and before he could comprehend what was going on, she got up and walked away. Giving him one last wink before strolling confidently up to a waitress.

"Excuse me but do you know who the hell I am?"

"Yes Miss Sabrina."

"And you know I frequent this bar often don't you?"

"Yes"

"Then why on this green earth would you serve me this garbage piece of drink!" She shouted, tossing a glass of liquid all over the poor waitress.

Ref, finally gaining his composure, didn't waist any time. Swiftly and stealthy he left the bar while everyone else had their focus on Sabrina. Once out, he ran to the Pokémon playground to pick up his friends. His mind and heart rate finally slowed down to normal while sitting in the waiting area. A smile formed on his face as he realised what had just happened. His first ever kiss.

"Holy shit!"

AN: What this fic isn't dead? NO! No its not!

Does this mean regular updates? Er... No. Like I said previously work and hockey take up most of time, plus I'm in the process of buying a flat! (I'm actually might be growing up finally) So finding time to write for this is pretty hard but you guys who review, favourite and follow motivate me to find the time to go and do it.

So Thanks guys! You're awesome! (see you in another 5 months time or so :P)

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