Notes: Written for a request submitted anonymously. The prompt was: "Characters: Red & Gold. Prompt: "Underneath the cloudy sky, Red finally meets his match." Thank you for considering!" Of course, I couldn't help but write Leaf and Green into this, too... I hope you enjoy this piece!

Characters/Pairings: Red/Gold (polishipping). Green/Leaf (oldrivalshipping) on the side.

Universe: Game. Post G/S/C, HG/SS.

Warnings: some language, more fluffiness than usual...

Disclaimer I do not own Pokémon, nor do I stand to profit from this story in any form. All mistakes are my own.

dynamic equilibrium

Red had sort of been hoping that he'd be able to get away with lazing away on the couch for a few more weeks, but when Leaf stomped into the house waving three tickets over her head like a madwoman, he knows that his luck has run out.

"Get up," she orders, hands on her hips. "Start packing. We're going on a trip."

"'We?'" Green says from his position next to Red on the couch, clearly stricken, "What do you mean 'we?'"

"We as in the three of us, Green," Leaf replies.

"B-but…" Green stutters, "I thought that it would just be… you and me. I wouldn't have used up a week of my vacation time if I'd known that we were taking him!"

Red blinks at them, unfazed, before taking the opportunity to snatch the remote control out of Green's hand when his grip on it loosens in shock. With a bored expression, the (former) champion punches in the number for the Discovery Channel, suddenly becoming interested by their special on the mating rituals of wild mankey.

"Bringing Red along won't change our plans one bit," Leaf is saying over the mating call (it's more of a shriek, Red decides) of a rutting male mankey. "We're still taking the S.S. Anne to Slateport City and spending a couple of days at the beach like we originally planned," as the cries grow in intensity, Leaf's voice does too. "And please, don't make me laugh—you have years of vacation time saved up! If it weren't for me you would never get out of the house!"

"Well, I do have a gym to run," Green grouses, arms crossed over his chest. "We can't all be 'free spirits' like you that sit around the house all day waiting to get 'inspired.'"

Leaf's voice is really similar to the females when she gets angry, Red notices. "Oh, yeah? Then stay here. I haven't called the hotel, yet. Red and I will just share the suite we originally booked. No problem! We'll have an awesome time partying every single night and have wild sex orgies in our room!"

Red's face wrinkles in disgust at the prospect; Green's becomes paper white as the blood drains out of his face at the thought of his girlfriend and best-friend-turned-rival-turned-sort-of-best-friend-again doing that with other people in Hoenn, of all places.

"Yeah," Leaf says, and Red is starting to wish that he'd decided to recover from Mt. Silver anywhere else but here. "And when we get back, you'll be sleeping on the couch!"

Before the situation could get any more out of hand, Red decides to step in (if only to make them shut up). "I don't want to go," he says, maybe just the slightest bit petulantly.

Abruptly, their heads swivel around to face him—Green's smirking in triumph, Leaf's in growing outrage. "See?" Green crows, pointing at Red, "He doesn't want to go. We can just leave him here while we go ahead with the vacation as planned."

But Leaf isn't taking 'no' for answer; after all his time up on the mountain, Red had almost forgotten how stubborn she could be. "Shut up, Green," she snaps, then turns a much more calm face on Red. "Look, Red. You've been sleeping on the couch for a little over a month now. I'm not saying it's bothering us—,"

"Speak for yourself," Green mutters under his breath, foot tapping agitatedly against the carpeted floor.

"It doesn't bother us," Leaf repeats vehemently, shooting a death glare at Green. "But don't you think it's about time that you got out of the house?" she asks, inflections of hope dripping into her tone.

Red just shrugs; Leaf lets out a colossal sigh.

"Okay…" she begins, rubbing her temples with her index and middle fingers in small circles. "I know it must be hard, but—," in the background, two mankey have just formed a mating pair and have started breeding, their violent cries filling the apartment; Leaf looks like she's about to have a coronary. "Would you turn the fucking TV off?"

From somewhere in the kitchen, Pikachu and Eevee squeal at the outburst, and Green snatches the remote back from Red, quickly hitting the 'power' button. With a click, the mankey and their cries disappear, leaving the apartment in a decidedly tense silence.

After a long moment of frenzied self-calming breathing exercises Leaf had learned in 'My Pokémon and Me Yoga' classes that first week before she quit (Ditto made it look so easy, she'd complained), she begins to speak again. "Listen. Green… we've been planning this trip since last year because you couldn't leave the gym without an 'appropriate period of notice,' so you are going on this trip. End of discussion. Understood?" Green nods, albeit with a disgruntled expression on his face (after all, he knows better). "Red. You lost! I get that it's tough since you've been Champion since before we all hit puberty and now you don't know what to do with yourself, but at least realize that I'm making an effort to try and help you out of your funk! So, no, you're not staying behind and moping on the couch with Pikachu! You are coming with us, you are going to enjoy it, and you will learn to deal with your emotions like an adult!" her tirade done, Leaf visibly sags, breathing hard. "Understood?"

Red really wants to say no, but in the end, he just nods. He, too, knows better, after all.

"Good," Leaf says with a self-satisfied smile that actually makes Red want to groan; Green actually does, "Now, start packing."

She heads off into the bedroom, presumably to do so herself, and Green glares at Red. "You just couldn't have kept being your insufferable invincible self for another month, could you?"

Red punches Green square in the arm, hard, then grabs the control back from him while his former rival yelps in pain.

The sound of mating mankey fills the apartment once again.

— . . . —

Despite his many misgivings, Red ends up on the S.S. Anne.

"See? Isn't this nice?" Leaf asks them when they stand on the deck, looking out on the wide expanse of azure before them. "It brings back a bunch of good memories, doesn't it?"

Green snorts. "Yeah, lots."

The trip is relatively uneventful, but it is anything but relaxing. Leaf had made sure to book the two-day trip that didn't involve competitive battling as one of the cruise activities, but at the sight of the (former) Kanto Champion, many a passenger walks up to them to demand a battle. Red turns all of them down by adjusting the brim of his cap to shield his eyes from them, effectively halting the rule, but the frequency at which they pop up, some even going as far as forcing Red to make eye contact, ends up causing quite a commotion. The try cornering him at the all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet, outside his cabin, on his way back from getting a bucket of ice for his room…

The last straw happens to be when Leaf is lying on one of the beach chairs by the on-board pool, Green spreading sunscreen on her back while grumbling about why no one challenges him, and a cocky-looking boy with purple hair strides up to them and loudly demands a battle.

Before Red can turn him down in his usual way, Leaf surges out of her seat, plucking Jigglypuff's poké ball from her bag.

"Hey!" the boy splutters at the sight of Leaf in her bikini, brandishing a poké ball threateningly. "I wanted to battle the Champion, not his girlfriend!"

Green lets out a cry of outrage, grabbing Eevee's poké ball and waving it around angrily, but Leaf simply holds up a hand to silence him. "Yeah, well, the Champion's busy, in case you haven't noticed," the boy looks pointedly at Red, who is sitting on his beach chair in full clothing (jeans, vest and all) with Pikachu on his lap. Leaf ignores this, "So you can just consider me one of his Elite Four! Beat me and you can battle the Champion!"

The other passengers seem to pipe up at this, staring at the two and reaching for their own poké balls at the news. The boy smirks and agrees. "Yeah, I guess you'll be a good warm up!"

Leaf smirks back, eyes shining mischievously. "We'll see…"

Jigglypuff wipes the floor with the boy's nidoking in under two minutes, leaving the crowd of onlookers a little more than intimidated. Pikachu cheers for Jigglypuff the whole time while Red squints into the sun.

"Anyone that wants to battle the Champion has to go through me, first!" Leaf declares over the boy's sobs. "Do we have any takers?"

The crowd disperses quickly, and Leaf lets out a sigh of contentment before recalling Jigglypuff and settling back into her beach chair. Green is smirking smugly when Leaf leans over to give him a 'victory kiss,' and Red sighs—how many days was it until he could get back to the couch, again?

— . . . —

Slateport is bright and sunny and crowded, and Red thinks he is about to melt in the infamous Hoenn tropical weather.

"That's what you get for living in frigid weather for too long," Green snarks at him while they're checking in at the hotel.

Red just glares.

After leaving their things in their rooms—for Red, 'things' consist of his old backpack (filled with two changes of clothes, a bunch of recovery items—just in case—and a bathing suit and beach towel Leaf had made him buy at the Celadon City Department Store on their pre-trip shopping trip), but he realizes that for Leaf this entails three suitcases and two purses, so he waits outside their hotel room for them to get everything in order.

According to Leaf, today they are going sightseeing, which Red supposes is more bearable than some of the other things she has planned for the rest of the week, like shopping on Slateport Boulevard… He fully intends to give Leaf and Green as much 'couple alone time' as he possibly can, and when Pikachu begins to pace the hallway impatiently, Red thinks that this may as well be as good a time as any.

He wanders out of the hotel and into the hot sun, squinting a little in the intense light and adjusting his cap to get as much of it out of his eyes as possible. After the reigning Hoenn Champion (a girl named May, Red thinks) defeated the region's criminal organizations and cleared them out, tourism to the area had improved tremendously, as evidenced by the throngs of people that made their way down the streets. Red feels uncomfortable with so many people around, accustomed to smaller crowds in Kanto, so he makes his way into one of the neglected-looking museums and relishes the blast of air conditioning when he walks in.

Fossils were always more Green's thing, but Red spends an hour or so killing time in the museum, at least until Pikachu starts nagging him for food. It is the early evening, and the sun has just begun to set, so Red is spared the intense heat. Trainer and Pokémon make their way to the nearest restaurant (though Red usually prefers eating out of the rations he keeps in his backpack), where he takes a seat outside and points out what he wants on the menu to the waitress, who giggles and comments on his eyes flirtatiously before delivering his order to the kitchen.

"Oh, wow!" a familiar voice calls, and Red freezes. "Is that… whoa, yeah, it's you! I can't believe it!" Red considers fleeing, but finds that his escape routes are blocked by tourists on their way back from the beach, so he grits his teeth and turns to regard the boy with an annoyed expression.

Sure enough, it's him. He isn't wearing that red hoodie of his, having enough sense to opt for a thin-looking t-shirt instead, but he's wearing that same yellow-and-black cap backwards over tousled black hair, golden eyes unmistakable, as if the typhlosion that follows him around wasn't telling enough as it was.

"Do you remember me?" the boy asks stupidly, and at Red's flat look, he blushes a little (though it's harder to tell now, his skin considerably tanner because of the sun). "O-of course you do… I mean, after a battle like that, how could you ever forget who I am," he pauses, seems to realize that what he'd just said could be considered offensive, turns an even darker shade of pink. "I-I mean… well… I don't think I'll ever forget you after that battle, so… I guess I thought maybe you'd feel the same way…?"

Red has never actually spoken to this boy, and he is beginning to wish that the situation had stayed that way. He regards him with a withering stare, but the boy sits down at the chair across from him obliviously, much to Red's annoyance.

"What are you doing in Hoenn?" the kid asks cheerfully.

With an inaudible sigh (he realizes that the kid won't leave him alone if he doesn't make small talk), Red shrugs. "Vacation," he supplies, voice monotone.

"Really? That's pretty awesome!" the kid exclaims. "I'm here collecting badges with two friends of mine, filling in some Pokédex pages for Professor Oak, you know… but vacation sounds pretty nice, too!"

Red shrugs again, and the boy goes about greeting Pikachu cheerfully, who gives him a small shock when he attempts to pet him. At the boy's yelp and Typhlosion's growl, the corner of Red's lips twitch upward a little.

"W-well… um… how long have you been here?" Red holds up his index finger. "A day? So you just got here?" He nods. "Hoenn's a pretty amazing place. It's so different from Johto and Kanto, you know?" He nods again, and then the waitress is back with his food and a small bowl of poké food for Pikachu.

"Oh," she says, disappointment thick in her voice. "I didn't know you would have someone else eating with you…"

He actually considers opening his mouth to tell her that no, he isn't eating with him, but the kid pipes up before he can. "Oh, sorry miss!" he says, scratching the back of his head sheepishly. "Could I get a menu?"

The waitress sighs and shuffles off, and Red suppresses a frown as he picks up a fork and pokes at his food. It seems that he won't be losing him for a while, yet…

— . . . —

The meal passes with the boy talking enough for the both of them and Red ignoring him, finishing his food quickly and staring at the scratched up surface of the table afterwards. As he goes on and on about his friends and how they've gone ahead to Maulville City (Silver this, Lyra that), Red wonders how someone like him could have been strong enough to beat him. He tries to remember himself at that age (how old is he, sixteen or something?), and all he remembers is being the same as he always was. Even Green and Leaf, with all their cocky posturing and eccentric tendencies, had known when to be serious. This kid, though, he looks like he's never had a serious thought cross his mind. If Red hadn't seen firsthand how when in battle the boy's golden eyes shone with an instinctual power that shines in his own crimson ones, he wouldn't believe that this boy was the Johto (and Kanto) Champion.

"Name," Red demands, tired of mentally referring to him as 'kid' or 'boy.'

The boy coughs as he swallows his piece of steak wrong, picking up his can of soda and taking a few long gulps before answering. "Um… I never told you before? Geez, I must have been too excited to ever…" he turns slightly pink again, "My name's Gold."

The former Champion nods, finally able to put a name to the face of his successor. "Red," he replies.

"Well, yeah… I know your name…" he says, pink growing more intense. "I mean…w-who doesn't?"

Red shrugs, not really used to such praise (Leaf and Green usually mock him, and the other trainers he meets tend to be too busy challenging him to talk about how famous he is). He went up to train on Mt. Silver to avoid situations like this, but then again, situations like this will start to simmer away soon enough once word gets around that he lost to Gold. He wonders how long it'll be before Gold secludes himself—it had taken Red about a year before he went up to Mt. Silver—to avoid being noticed and hounded, but something tells him that Gold is the kind of person that enjoys helping and saving others, unlike Red, who simply did what was thrust upon him. While Red fought the Rockets because they were literally obstacles in his path, he has the feeling that Gold had intentionally sought them out.

Maybe, then, Gold is much more suited to being Champion after all.

Still, that leaves Red on Green and Leaf's couch lazing his days away, and even though the thought sounds pretty nice to him right about now, he also knows that he can't do it forever.

"Ah! Look at the time!" Gold cries startling Pikachu and Typhlosion, who had just started to doze off. "The Pokémon Center is usually full by 6:00 and it's already close to 7:00!" he pushes his chair back, reaches into his pockets. "Sorry for leaving so soon, but I really have to get there in time!" he sets a wad of bills on the tabletop, "That should cover my half! I'll, uh, see you around!"

And then he is taking off down the street, lost in the crowds, and Red isn't sure whether to be relieved. Reaching into his own pocket, he pulls a few bills out and lays them on the table beside Gold's. When the waitress comes by, she takes the money and winks at him, though not exactly flirtatiously.

"The two of you make a cute couple," she says wistfully, taking off to wait on another table before he can correct her.

Red frowns at her words, though he is unsure as to why.

— . . . —

"Where the hell have you been?" Leaf demands when he makes his way back to his room—she is waiting out in the hall for him, sitting with her legs extended out to trip him. Red just shrugs in response, the frown from before still tugging at his lips. Leaf notices. "What's wrong?"

Red hesitates, but tells her anyway. "The challenger who beat me… he's here."

Leaf's mouth makes a small, surprised 'o' at his words. "Well… what happened…?"

"We had dinner."

Her brow furrows for a moment. "That's… odd?" she says, voice unsure. When Red reaches into his pocket for his room key, she considers. "Did you have a nice time?"

Red shrugs again. "Maybe."

Leaf stares at him for a moment before smirking knowingly. "Well… I guess it makes sense…"

Recognizing her tone of voice (it's the same one she uses whenever she's flirting with Green), Red scowls at her before closing the door in her face. Pikachu jumps off his shoulder and onto the extravagant-looking bed and Red makes to follow, but he can still hear Leaf's voice through the door, laughing.

"So I guess Green and I shouldn't expect to have you around at all tomorrow, huh?" she calls mockingly.

Red's frown deepens. Needless to say, he doesn't get much sleep that night.

— . . . —

Red has always been an early riser, so he makes his way out of his room before the sun rises and goes down to the beach, intent on letting Blastoise and Lapras out for a bit in the water before it starts filling up with people. As Slateport has become a tourist spot in recent years, its streets are empty at this time of the morning, the visitors unwilling to give up sleeping in on their vacations. Red had been counting on this, and is glad that he has this time to himself.

But of course, there's someone else on the beach this morning. Gold is lying there on one of the beach towels, curled up next to his Typhlosion, who perks up at the sound of Red's footsteps in the sand. Pikachu jumps off his perch on his shoulder to greet the flame pokémon, so Red follows him. At the sound of the boy's snores, Red finds himself grinning slightly as he grabs the poké balls holding his water pokémon from his belt. Tossing them into the ocean, he tips his cap to Blastoise and Lapras when they appear with a smile, happy to see them get out of their balls, for a change.

Below him, Gold makes small stirring noises, probably because of all the noise the pokémon were making. When the younger boy's eyes open and lock on Red, standing but a few feet away and staring out at the sea, Gold jumps to his feet with a yelp, heart beating erratically. Red observes him out of the corner of his eye, watching him smooth his shirt, adjust his cap, discreetly smell his breath…

"Did you sleep here?" Red asks quietly, eyes closed. The sound of the waves is soothing to him—at times like these, when there is no one else on the beach to ruin the atmosphere, it is quite nice, really.

"Er… yeah…" Gold mumbles self-consciously. "The Pokémon Center was full…"

Red just nods, watching his pokémon enjoy the water.

"Um… Red?" He hums in acknowledgement. "Do you think we could maybe battle again?"

He freezes, caught off guard by this request. Oh, yes, Red has thought about the possibility of a rematch. The thought had crossed his mind many times. But now that he is being offered the opportunity, he is not sure, so he says: "Later."

"Alright…" Gold replies.

When the sun rises and the tourists begin coming down to the beach, Red walks off to find breakfast. He is unsure of how to feel when he finds that Gold is following him, the waitress' words reverberating in his ears. Red isn't good at this—romance. In a way, he's glad that Green and Leaf got together while he was on Mt. Silver, because if they hadn't, it would probably mean that he would be with one of them. It's not that Red doesn't care for them (because he does, sometimes more than he thinks is normal). No, it's because he knows that he wouldn't be able to give them what they needed. He is cold and distant by nature, and while Green and Leaf know this about him, accept it, even, it wouldn't be fair to them to be with him in that way. Sure, Red has desires—he discovered the existence of hormones when Green had jokingly shown him a porn magazine on one of his supply visits to Mt. Silver—but he keeps them in check. This boy, Gold… he's strong, brilliant even, and maybe Red likes this about him, but he is also unsure of himself, insecure.

But there's a delicate feeling fluttering in his chest, rising up to his throat, and he's not sure if this is just part of being a teenage boy or a person who likes another person. Things like this always confuse him.

Much to Red's dismay, the restaurant they choose to have breakfast in—a little diner that reminds Red of the place the bikers on Cycling Road used to visit—is the one where Leaf and Green have decided to eat, too. As soon as they walk in, Leaf is calling to him from a booth, and when the waiter asks if he would like to sit with the young lady over there, Red wants to say no and get the hell out of there. Unfortunately, however, he has been caught again.

— . . . —

It's awkward:

Red stares at the table, occasionally reaching up to scratch Pikachu behind his ears. Leaf stares at Gold like a predator, smirking while she drinks a milkshake through a straw. Gold fidgets every so often, full of nervous energy. Green alternates between looking at Red and Gold, sometimes looking at Leaf, almost as if he suspects as if this were all one great big joke.

"So," Leaf begins, licking some of the chocolate shake from her lips. "Gold, was it? What brings you to Hoenn?"

"I'm collecting the gym badges here so that I can challenge the Hoenn League."

Green snorts. "Sixteen badges and two championship titles aren't enough for you?"

Gold flushes, and Leaf elbows Green in the ribs. "I think it's nice. Some of us," she stares pointedly at Red, "could stand to learn from you, Gold. There's always more to see and learn. It's good that you aren't letting the Champion thing get to your head and, say, stand atop a frigid mountain for a few years…"

Red sends her a glare across the table, and Leaf just sticks her tongue out at him for a moment before slurping at her shake. Green, always more conservative (it is breakfast, after all) takes a sip of his orange juice, regarding Red in amusement.

When the food arrives, Red eats it thankfully, hoping that it will bring about a lull in conversation. Unfortunately, he almost forgot that Leaf tends to defy convention.

"How old are you, Gold?" Leaf asks.

"I'm turning sixteen in two months."

Green coughs, though the sound he makes sounds suspiciously like 'cradle-snatcher.' Thankfully, Gold doesn't notice, looking bewildered and lost when Leaf and Green erupt in peals of laughter. Red ignores him when he turns his confused gaze onto him, acting as if he is very interested in his bacon.

"Do you have a girlfriend?" Leaf follows up, taking the opportunity to snatch a forkful of Green's hash browns while he wipes his tears.

"Um…" he blushes, red this time. "N-no…"

"Someone special, then?"

"Not really…"

Leaf smiles, then, readjusting her hat and sending Red another pointed stare. "Well, isn't that convenient?"

— . . . —

"You know, when Leaf came into our room last night and told me that you 'found someone,' I almost didn't believe her."

Red ignores the comment, reclining against the railing overseeing the ocean.

"I wouldn't worry if I were you," Green continues through his smirk, "A chatterbox like you? You'll charm the pants off him."

The punch catches Green in the stomach, and he doubles over in pain, his breath leaving him all at once. Red just regards him coldly.

"O-okay… maybe I deserved that…" Green admits when he's recovered. He hesitates, looking like he has something important to say, but is not quite sure how to. "W-well… I always knew that whatever girl—or, well, dude… whatever person you eventually chose would be pretty special. And, well, Leaf and I may be giving you hell over it, but it's only because that's how we express affection," a snort, "And it's pretty weird, seeing you with someone like that."

"It's not like that," Red says quietly.

Green gives him a look. "Well, do you want it to be?" At Red's roll of the shoulders, Green gives a shaky sigh. "Pal, the kid is practically salivating over you. He hangs off your every word, and since you're a guy of few words, that means he really, really likes you. Trust me. Don't ask me why, though. Even I can't explain away someone's poor taste."

Another punch, but Green catches this one. "Don't be a pansy, Red. Step up."

"Like you did with Leaf?" Red says, observing Green carefully out of the corner of his eyes.

Green flushes, crosses his arm over his chest—classic defensive posturing. "So sometimes the other person steps up before you do… big deal. I would have done it, anyway. Eventually."

Red smirks, unconvinced. "Right."

In the distance, he can see Leaf and Gold returning from the bathroom. They wave, and start walking over.

"How does the view from here compare to the one from Mt. Silver?" Green asks, and Red knows he's not talking about the ocean.

"It's… nice," he replies.

— . . . —

It's the night before the S.S. Anne departs back for Kanto, and Leaf insists on the four of them going to see the fireworks display at the beach together. Except by 'together' she meant that she and Green would run off somewhere to make out, leaving Red and Gold alone. Red imagines her laughing, think that she's an evil mastermind for tricking him into (vicariously) inviting Gold to watch the fireworks with him, and it makes him want to throttle her.

They sit together on a beach towel, Pikachu and Typhlosion darting about the beach, anxious for the show to start. Gold is silent beside him, and Red lets his mind go blank. When the first firework flies into the air and explodes, Red leans over and presses his lips to Gold's in a closed-mouth kiss. It's odd, Red thinks, and if this is what Green and Leaf are so enamored with doing, he has no idea why.

But then Gold kisses back, and moves his lips just so, and Red thinks, oh, that's why.

— . . . —

Later, it seems, has come.

The night sky is cloudy from the fireworks, and the beach has been cleared out, the observers tired, eyes stinging from the bursts of color that filled the sky. Red stares at Gold, and his feelings become clearer, he thinks. He doesn't quite know why this translates to having a pokémon battle, but Red thinks romance is stupid, and by the looks of things, Gold does too, because he looks like he's just as excited as he is.

"Don't hold back," Gold calls, plucking a poké ball from his waist.

You too, Red thinks as he extends his arm, Pikachu jumping onto the sand, pouches crackling with static electricity that lights the night."

— . . . —

It turns out to be a draw. Red doesn't know if this means that last time was a fluke, or if he can become Champion again, but he finds that he doesn't care.

Because under the cloudy sky, Red has finally met his match

— . . . —

"Your mind's made up?" Leaf asks over the blare of the S.S. Anne's horn.

Red nods. "You wanted me off the couch, didn't you?"

She laughs, though there are tears shining in her eyes as she pulls him into an embrace. Behind her, Green sighs, perpetual sarcasm having died down for the occasion of the farewell. Pikachu, Eevee and Jigglypuff say goodbye at their feet, but they seem to be faring better than their trainers.

"It seemed like it was just yesterday that you came down from the mountain… now you're running off again," Leaf says, voice thick with tears. "Take care of yourself, okay? You better visit us."

When Leaf lets him go, Green pulls him into another one. Red is usually uncomfortable with so much physical contact, but he supposes that he can make an exception for them, given the circumstances.

"Don't screw things up by being an idiot," Green advises. "And when it comes time to choose between the kid and the Hoenn Championship, really weigh your options. If it were for your first title, I would recommend choosing the Championship… but since it's for your, what, third? Yeah, definitely choose love and all that mushy crap."

Red sighs—some things never change. "I'll keep that in mind."

When the S.S. Anne departs, Red stays at the harbor, keeping an eye on his friends until they disappear into the distance. This time, he thinks, he won't wait five years before seeing them again. Yes, definitely.

— . . . —

The road to Maulville City is wide and new, and Red feels eleven again, just starting down Route 1 for the first time with Pikachu at his side.

"You ready?" Gold asks.

"Yeah."

The world seems new again, and it's not just because he accidentally-on-purpose keeps bumping hands with Gold as he walks. No, not at all.

— . . . —

dynamic equilibrium: (noun) A system in a steady state since forward reaction and backward reaction occur at the same rate. In a dynamic equilibrium, the rate of loss is equal to the rate of gain.

A/N: This was fun to write, if only because I (attempted to be) was rather humorous with this piece...

As always, thanks go out to the readers. Thank you for taking the time to read this piece! Reviews are always appreciated!

I hope you enjoyed reading it!