A/N:

If this story seems familiar to you it means you have read and remembered my very first fic on this site (should I be pleased with that or not) because that was a story about the pokespé crew going to the beach and here they visit a... lake. Details details. Also it's a fictitious place because I don't think there are any canon lakes in Kanto?

Anyhow, I myself was lounging near an Italian lake and inspired by the gorgeous scenery I wrote this when I wasn't busy swimming. Enjoy!

Summer Days

When Blue proposed they go to a lake she made it sound like fun even though it likely would be the opposite. Still, his water pokémon could use the extra training so he agreed.

Green had though that it'd be just them, Red and Yellow but turned out she had also invited Silver and somehow that also meant Gold ("it's a package deal," she said with a wink that was a little too conspiratorial to his liking).

And so they ended up with the six of them at one of Kanto's lakes. At the sight of the water they let out an excited squeal (Blue, foremost) except for Silver in whom he seemed to have found a silence companion. One did not always need words, after all.

They found a nice spot not too far from the water and with enough space for all their beach towels, bags and, let's face it, useless things that some people insisted they bring along with them like frisbees and strawberry juice. As soon as they'd settled down Green turned around to ask Red he battle his Golduck with his Poliwrath, but before he had opened his mouth Blue tapped him on the shoulder and wordlessly held out a bottle of sunscreen for him.

"You have hands of your own," he asserted, obviously grasping the meaning of this gesture.

"Ones that can't reach my back," she countered with irrefutable logic and with a sigh he accepted the bottle because otherwise she'd go on saying stuff like, 'that is what a responsible boyfriend would do,' 'do you want me to get a sunburn?' or 'I can always ask Silver' and in the end he'd give in anyway.

The sooner he was ready, the sooner he could train.

As Blue laid down on her beach towel he set himself to the task, or 'privilege' as she would have it. Predictably she had a self-satisfied smile on her face as he rubbed her back, so he said in a low voice, "If you try anything –"

"–like what?"

"Oh, I have a few ideas," he said darkly, moving on to her shoulder-blades. Her skin was soft under his hands.

"Honey," she said with another smile, "I'd gladly try something if we were alone."

And those were images he definitely didn't need. Not right now, anyway.

"As long as you'd always stick to that philosophy," he breathed to himself and then put back the bottle. "Okay, done."

"You haven't done my shoulders yet!" Blue protested.

"Your hands can reach those," he countered and then stood up to watch for Red. Of course it turned out that he'd disappeared during Blue's private massage session, together with Gold it seemed. Great.

Yellow and Silver stood talking together a little to the side, however. Perhaps he could train with Silver instead – not his first choice but once you forgot about the whole criminal deal he was a pretty okay fellow. And, more importantly, quite a decent trainer.

Yellow was not an option because he still remembered their training session. Vividly.

He walked over to them and said, "Silver, care to battle me?"

Not without satisfaction he noted that the younger trainer looked slightly taken aback or intimidated (the past may be the past but there was still something like seniority) yet with far more satisfaction saw Silver nod in agreement.

Great. So this day wouldn't be a complete waste after all, then. Plus, Blue would be thrilled he spent time with her favourite little brother which he supposed also counted for something.

Of course she would be less thrilled if he thoroughly beat said brother in battle, but that was a different matter altogether.

When Blue had finished her shoulders (her hands did a better job than Green's anyway, tsk) Yellow joined her. The girl sat down on her towel, depicting a beach scene with Slowpoke and Staryu bathing on the white sand that was cheesy and wholly fitted Yellow. She herself preferred her azure blue towel, and not only because they brought out her eyes.

"Did you already spray yourself?" she inquired. Yellow seemed the type to burn easily but always forget about it.

Yellow indeed shook her head, to which she replied with a grin, "Are you waiting for a mr. special to do the honours?"

Yellow (predictably, perhaps) turned scarlet and Blue thought how curious it was that a girl could face Lance's dragon armada without flinching yet lose it at the thought of a boy rubbing her back.

"Well, Red is MIA and I'm not sure you want Gold near you, but I'd let you borrow Green for a moment." She tapped her finger to her lips. "I can personally testify to his skilled hands."

To which Yellow turned bright red. Belatedly she realised that that could be taken entirely the wrong way. Oh well.

"Never mind that," she quickly said, "here, I'll help you instead."

And like a good friend grabbed the sunblock.

"Are you going to surf later on?" she asked as she rubbed her friend's back.

Yellow nodded enthusiastically. "It's been a while, Chuchu will like it."

"You should teach me," Blue prompted, "seems like a skill still missing from my vast repertoire."

"Well," Yellow responded with characteristic unsuspecting modesty, "it's actually not so hard," which made Blue think it probably was hard because Yellow had a knack for doing impossible things with ease and easy things with difficulty. Paradox seemed to be her middle name.

"Finished," Blue announced with flourish somewhat later and threw the sunblock bottle back in her bag. "That would have to be one mighty sun to still burn you because I daresay you're even better off in my hands than Green's, hohoho."

She looked sideway only to find Yellow... asleep.

Somehow somewhere that was probably a good thing.

The surprise was that the battle against Silver's Kingdra was quite engaging. The surprise wasn't that they got interrupted, right when victory was almost there.

After all, Red was unable to resist any pokémon battle and Gold seemed to somehow be unable to resist anything Silver (a train of thought he did not wish to pursue, thank you) and put together that meant an end to their battle, an annoyed Silver (actually, make that two) and the four of them floating aimlessly in the water.

"Let's do a match fast swimming!" Red suggested vigorously.

And all right, maybe he was unable to resist challenges because he smirked, "Bring it on," before he had even properly processed doing so. Regardless, it would be like a walk in the park because Red's stamina was the same as his inability to shut up, that is, it needed constant improvement.

"Let's make it four!" Gold suggested, ever the enthusiast.

Which was no problem for Red of course (his life motto seemed to be 'the more the merrier') nor for himself because it's not like it would change the outcome. As for Silver, he alternated between wiping wet strands of hair away from his face, giving Gold long-suffering stares and seeming vaguely embarrassed by it all. Understandable.

Green had just added the thought 'at least Blue is not here to mess things up further' when of course said voice called out over the water. Apparently she'd walked over to the water edge together with Yellow, whose straw hat was an almost comical match with her striped bathing suit.

"You guys having fun?" Blue called in a singsong voice. She clearly had. Blue loved all things summer, so that was a given.

"We're gonna hold a swimming competition!" Red yelled back.

Which Blue thought was an excellent idea, judging by the way she clapped her hands. "All right, I'll be the judge! The first one to cross this line – " she drew a line in the sand with her toe, then paused to think things over, or, more likely, for added dramatic effect, " – will get a kiss from either of these lovely ladies."

The reactions to those words were instantaneous and wholly predictable. Yellow faltered (rightly so: Blue needed to learn a thing or two about not making decisions for others); Gold was the very picture of excitement;Red looked equally flustered as fired up; Silver was eying the others but especially Gold with suspicion; and Blue seemed most pleased with it all.

Green sighed inwardly.

Maybe not so inwardly as Red reassured him, "Don't worry, I won't kiss Blue."

...as though that needed saying.

"Right, let's begin then," he spoke, unable to take another second of this aimless and weird floating around. He swum back a little, stopping at the imaginary starting line.

"We'll start here," he decided. He estimated the distance to the water edge to be about fifty meters. A sprint, then. No sparing of energy but immediately full-out.

The others followed suit and dutifully lined up next to him.

"At my sign!" Blue called.

Green braced himself.

"One... two... three!"

He sprang into motion, diving forward with his arms outstretched. After the first few strokes he fell into steady rhythm, not paying attention to the others next to him or anything else for that matter. He only focussed on his breathing: in and out, in and out, synchronised with the fast motions of his arms.

Exercise gave him strange clarity.

He noticed he'd almost reached the finish line when his knees bumped the ground. Rather messily he stood up, swaying a little as he did so, and then bridged the last shallow bit as fast as the water and his tired body allowed him, accelerating as he reached land and crossing the finish line in a sprint.

He was first.

He rested his arms on his knees and bended over for a bit, chest heaving. With his breathing still shallow he lifted his head to see how far the others were. But the one taking up his field of vision was Blue.

"I knew you'd win," she said smugly.

Green was unable to answer immediately because of light breathing problems but after a few deep inhales replied, "Right, is that so?"

At that moment Silver and Red also dashed across the finish line, shortly followed by Gold who seemed far gone and fell down on the spot, sprawled out. Yellow walked over concernedly and looked at Red, who was now leaning down on one knee and foot. She stretched out a hand to his shoulder but let it hover rather than touch. A faint blush bloomed on her cheeks, not attributable to fatigue but rather more likely the proximity of Red's naked chest in front of her.

"I'm okay," he reassured her with a smile as he looked up at her, ever the (not so tireless) noble hero. "I got second place didn't I?"

"Hmm I don't know," Blue mused, "Silver and you seemed pretty tied."

Silver looked up from inspecting whether or not Gold was dead (staring at him wasn't the fastest way to determine but probably seemed the most inconspicuous in his eyes) and nodded. "I think we were."

"But there's no argument about who the winner is," Blue said with her eyes cutting towards Green, "so let's move on to the prize."

"No need," Green answered, thinking that Blue should really start applying that wait-until-we're-alone rule. He had the sneaking suspicion she enjoyed the voyeurism aspect.

Actually, scratch suspicion.

"Every victory should have its reward," Blue declared in a voice that suggested she knew exactly what she was talking about and slowly began walking towards him, eyes trained on his face.

The answer 'victory in itself is a reward' died on his lips as she halted before him; placed her hands around his neck; brought her face close to his. There was a faint blush on her cheekbones from the heat. Her lashes fluttered as her eyes fixated on his mouth.

"I want to kiss you," she whispered – and then did.

Her mouth meshed softly against his, a faint layer of salt on her lips from the air, except no that was not possible, they were not near a sea; she must have eaten crisps. Those thoughts hit a dead end as she suddenly ran her tongue across his lips and he desperately wanted to give in but as it were he was accurately aware of the stares they were attracting.

He broke apart. Blue's eyes were bright as she opened them. Something stirred in him, copied from and by Blue and the way she seemed electric suddenly.

He promptly looked sideways. Red and Yellow immediately averted their gaze, pretending they had not been staring just a second ago(as if). Red scratched his wet head sheepishly. Gold was openly and appreciatively ogling. Silver stared pointedly at an unidentified spot in the distance, continuing his denial that he was in fact involved with Blue.

Whatever helped him sleep at night.

"I'd say I'm jealous but I'm still too tired to feel anything," Gold remarked from the ground.

"Shut up," Silver said, which Green thought should be nominated for comment of the afternoon.

"You know what?" Red spoke up and Green braced himself for more idiotic plans, "let's get ice cream."

Okay. Green could live with that.

There was an ice cream stand not so far from where they were standing. Gold, seemingly being revived by the promise of food, made a dash for it and Red of course followed suit.

Silver and Yellow walked amiably side by side. "I'd like something with lemon," Yellow commented, "it's refreshing." Silver's reply was lost to him as they walked further away from him and Blue.

"You know," Blue said as she looked him up and down, "you look absolutely edible."

"As long as you don't take that literally."

"Figurative would be fine?"

"No, because we've got company," Green said with emphasis. The sooner that was understood, the better.

"Oh honey," Blue grinned waggishly, "you're the one imagining things now."

And then actually slapped his rear.

Seeing as the lake was his only witness, dying of shame was not needed but still he hissed, "Will you stop it, pesky girl?"

"Sorry," Blue replied, looking the exact opposite of sorry. She twirled a lock of hair around her finger and smiled at him. "Like I said: absolutely edible."

"Is it your intention to make me feel like food?"

"Only if it's hot enough," Blue replied, batting her eyelashes, and Green groaned.

"I already have to endure puns from Red, don't you be starting too."

She laughed. "Seeing as you don't even have humour, I should think you're hardly in a position to judge, hohoho." She grabbed his hand then, swinging it back and forth. Green loosely intertwined his fingers with hers.

"And anyway, you're free to return the favour," she continued, gesturing a hand down her body, "so tell me I look incredible, hmm?"

Which of course she did. Her blue bikini matched her eyes – and yes, Green laughed at Blue's insistence that it was not deliberate. Actually, it made him sigh.

"And you wonder why people describe you as having a big ego," he said instead.

"Coming from mr. better-than-thou."

"At least I'm not superficial."

"At least I can appreciate the finer things in life," Blue countered loftily.

Their eyes met and simultaneously a small grin appeared at their faces. Green couldn't help it, it was infectious – the weather, their banter, Blue.

They were near the ice cream stand now. "By the way," he stated quite matter-of-factly but with something of a smile, "of course you do look like that." And extracting his hand from hers, he walked over towards the counter; enjoying the surprised happy look she shot him.

Later that day, after ice cream and more swimming and more (interrupted) training, they all sat down at their place, forming a circle of sorts. The temperature had cooled down now it was evening so most had pulled a shirt or dress over their swimming clothes.

"This is where we make a campfire and tell each other stories," Blue said excitedly.

"Isn't making a fire prohibited?" Yellow asked from the other side of the circle.

"Well I know something better," Gold grinned and then released one of his pokéballs. His Typhlosion landed in the middle of their circle, looking around curiously. His fur was shiny, Green noticed – it was obviously well taken care of.

"Show your excitement, Explataro!" Gold called, still with a large grin on his face.

They all shot back a little as large flames erupted from its back. Explosive indeed. Yet when Typhlosion lay down they could see each other over the flames and the fire felt warm and comfortable.

"Excellent!" Blue clapped her hands in approval. Even Silver had lost his semi-permanent scowl and smiled a little. The warmth did feel pleasant after a day of swimming. Gold threw some pokéblocks towards Explataro and it gobbled them happily.

"Hey Gold,"Red suddenly said as he turned to the guy next to him, "do you still have your Pichu with you?"

"Of course," Gold said and after another released pokéball the small yellow pokémon appeared. At which Red grinned and let his Pikachu out of its pokéball, after which of course Yellow excitedly released hers. And then suddenly it was a family reunion with high-pitched pika-pika's and affectionate gestures from the parents.

"So cute!" squealed Blue, "I wish we could take a picture."

"Let me draw it," Yellow said and already took her notebook from her knapsack.

As Yellow began sketching, Blue contentedly looked at the family picture with her head in her hands. She did love her happy endings. Quite understandably so. Her expression turned into something of a pout though when she commented, "Can you believe that those two Pikachu have more going on than me?"

Green felt his eyebrows going up as he looked sideways at her. "Is this some kind of subtle hint aimed at me?"

"Not everything I say has a hidden meaning, Green."

"I must have stopped paying attention when that happened," he deadpanned.

Blue was saved from answering (or pouting some more) when Gold said excitedly, "Can I tell my story now?"

Well. Green's personal experience was that he found most campfire stories laughably unbelievable (or unbelievably laughable when they were of the really bad sort) and did not think Gold would change that impression. Certainly not from the semi-scary expression he was already putting on in preparation of his grand story.

Silver seemed to share his skepticism."You are going to tell a scary story?" he said in a voice that suggested he thought Gold lacked certain qualities that were required for this kind of activity. Such as being scary yourself.

"Yes," Gold said confidently and then looked at him challengingly. "You can do your own version afterwards and admit mine was better."

Silver closed one eye and measured him up. "You're on."

When the challenged staring turned a bit awkward for those others present, Red hastily said, "All right then, let's start!"

Gold ominously opened his mouth, when Red interjected once more: "But can we get some marshmallows first?"

This evening was promising to be a long one.

An hour later the story telling competition was done. Gold won in the special effects department (ominous screeching sounds that turned out to be from his pokémon plus a whole range of almost comically scary expressions) but Silver won in the scary department simply by being, well, himself.

There was something distinctly eerie about a dead gaze and level voice when speaking of all things horror. Of course, it had cooled considerably since the afternoon: the more likely explanation for the chills on his arms.

Yellow had scooted closer and closer to Red as her drawing was finished and the story telling had progressed. Red for his part had eaten more and more marsmallows, to the point that Green suspected a sugar overdose was his way of coping with the more vivid details in the story.

Blue, predictably, had been enthralled both by the sugar provided by the marshmallows and the more outrageous parts of the stories. Her satisfied expression probably also had something to do with the way Gold and Silver had been squabbling since in urgent whisper tones and with long intense staring intervals that felt distinctly more married-couple than worst-enemy. Blue's biggest concern in life after all – apart from making sure she was the center of attention at all times – was ensuring Silver's happiness. And somehow that involved Gold.

Why was he thinking about this.

Right then Blue directed her smile at him. "See that this day has been fun?"

"It was not bad," he admitted.

She smiled victoriously and then moved closer to him; rested her head contentedly and somewhat sleepily against his shoulder. He put an arm around her shoulders.

Definitely not bad at all.