The almost silent trainer motioned towards the cave entrance calmly, though his expression seemed surprised by my unwelcoming composure. Still, the two of us scurried in, just small blips in the swirling snow so cold it burned.

In the shelter of the cavernous mountain, I shook the ice crystals formations from my hair and patted my hat out before facing back to Red, "I found a book," I hissed like the zephyr roaring outside. My face painted with a grave boredom as I held eye contact with him.

He swayed noiselessly with full knowledge he really would not have to answer.

"I was in the burnt mansion on Cinnabar. It was an observation journal by a scientist who tried to replicate an extinct pokemon. Though he came across a problem, he lacked the bare amount of DNA needed for the cloning process."

Once more, I was met with an eerie silence.

The wordless boy started an anxious bubbling in the pit of my stomach, "So he had to find a substitute to supply the remaining DNA to power cell mitosis. The problem was that it also had to be accepted by the original sample."

The emotionless mood in his Red eyes faltered; for a moment his soul was truly revealed.

It was shattered.

I knew it at that moment, yet I pressed to continue, "The scientist found one," Red suddenly looked older than he was. Most, he held an ambience of a child unbroken by the world. But not at this time, "His son."

"Stop," the dark tone vibrated the air, the hair on the back of my neck stood on end- frozen on point.

"It was you, wasn't it?" I shook away the mild fear and hurried with a negative excitement. "Red, your name was in the journal! What happened in the tests? What was the successful clone like? I need to know!"

"No, you don't Leaf. Now drop it!" his escalated voice was terrifying. My entire body shrunk back, but that wasn't the end of it. "The hell that I went through as a child should stay where it is! In the past! I tore those pages and spread them away for a reason!"

He was the one who separated the pages... Arceus, I never believed I could be so frightened of Red.

I took in a breath, suddenly finding my tennis shoes the most interesting things in the virtual world. "S-sorry..." I stuttered out. Good job screwing something up again, Leaf. My stomach plummeted as almost everything sat on my shoulders. "I'll--- I'll just go now---"

The voice I knew suddenly returned to its seemingly unbroken innocence, "Stay," steadily staring back up, Red was the one now angling his head away. "You can stay, if you want..."

To my hesitant response he pouted like a child trying not to admit they were sorry, still attempting to make it up.

I thought of Blue.

Was that wrong?

Whether wrong or not, the next person I thought of was Selphy. Her long, buffed out nails brushing against Blue's hand. The two inching closer and closer right before---

"Yeah, I think I will stay for a bit," I feigned a grin to the trainer whose temper simmered down. "I need to clear my head."

He nodded and went to tend to his pokemon while I decided to take a nap against one of the inner-cave walls. Gently snuggling myself into a ball I drifted off into sleep.

Nothing I dreamed about was really important. Just that I should never get into genetics because if I did I would re-create dinosaurs, except only the Tyrannosaurus Rex species. And one single clot of their DNA exposed to oxygen for a certain amount of time will cause them to mutate into their full forms. Which was how they reproduced. Just spit into the ground. They then burned the entire word, killing everyone I loved. Leaving me to sit there huddled outside of my former high school garden. Well, I was with my two "best friends"(a guy and a girl I didn't actually know but in the dream I acknowledged them as so). The one I loved in the dream was killed. It was by the first T-Rex I created. To keep preservation of myself and who I had left, I traded the Tyrannosaurus Rex a pokemon card. (Don't ask me, I think this world was getting to my head)

Then when I figured out how to destroy them, I did. Though it seemed too late, didn't it?

I really can't recall if there was a happy ending, my friend and I lived. That's good, right? But as long as a story goes on, there are no such thing as happy endings. Just where the story decides to stop, giving the illusion of one.

When I woke up I found myself lying close to the wall, I out stretched my limbs letting out a small mew as all my bones crackled. A smile sunk onto my face as my tense muscles unwound though soon it would vanish. My eyes widening to the size of the moon, pain inflaming my left shin. The muscles contracting yet swelling at the same time while the toe was forced to point out and down. My stomach spun as I cried out in pain, unable to form words.

Red turned to look at me with a sudden worry washing over while I writhed on the floor, currently now unable to bend my knee. The entire leg paralyzed, I wrapped both my hands around it shouting what I knew it was, "Charly horse!" The black-haired trainer rushed over to me and looked over me with a panic. A tear gently rolled down my cheek, "Muscle contraction in the leg due to dehydration and overstretching!" I squeaked as I continued to surge around.

The quiet trainer, not knowing what else to really do, sat down next to me and paced his large hand atop my head comfortingly. "Calm down..." He breathed as my tears welled up further. His words really didn't help anything.

"It hurts..." My voice cried weakly, Blue suddenly flashing into my mind, "Why does it hurt so much?" the cold of the cave trickled in, wrapping its fingers around my inflamed leg to take the pain away. But it hurt so much, not the leg. My lungs started to crush into one another as I imagined Blue walking hand in hand with Selphy. Smiling and laughing. Soon, the only pain I really felt was in my chest, "I should be happy, but it hurts. So badly..."

I really don't think Red understood what was going on, he just continued to pat my head as my tears continued to fall.

"He's my friend, I should be happy."

"Who?"

With one word I shot my face up to see Red's. His expression calm, like a docile Mareep. My bottom lip began to quiver before I let my body slouch against Red's shoulder. "Blue..." I whispered in a broken tone. "He's dating Selphy. I should be happy, right? So why does it hurt, Red? I see them, and I smile. But that hurts too. Why?"

Slowly, his arm rose to wrap around my back. Gently rubbing my spine in silence as I sobbed into his jacket. The seconds slithered by with minutes dragging out when he finally said in a slow voice, "You just love him. That's all..."

I took a big inhale, snot clogging my nostrils to make a sound like a Spoink snorting. "I don't want to. It is really agonizing and I don't get it. Why?" my head turned like a twisting cork back and forth while Red simply in the returning air of silence. My shoulders hunched close to my ears while I whimpered close to him. The sounds of the howling winds against the mountain would roll with the avalanches when his voice spoke again.

"That's... Love. Blue is just a player. But I bet he likes you too... So stand by him and his girlfriend. And when they break up..." Carefully, Red pulled me back. His hand which radiated a warmth pressed in softly at the top of my shoulders. His face painted with a genuine smile while his ruby gems of eyes lit up with a beautiful glow. "I'll support you."

Three words caused my stomach to knot up, the water double in my eyes. I really couldn't control myself when it happened. The tears that ran down my face tossed themselves into the cave air as I dove at him, my arms clutching around Red's torso with my chin tipped into his shoulder blade in a bear hug. I sobbed and sobbed until I could finally formulate words. "You're my best friend!" I cried out, holding him as tightly as I could. Yeah, he doesn't want to share his past. Who does? So I'll respect that. I still know his favorite color is actually yellow, his middle name is Herbert and when he first moved into Pallet Town he had a crush on Daisy. He knew my favorite movie was Titanic, that my favorite subject was math and my least favorite food was salad.

You can probably believe this, but since I had been a shut in for most of my life before the whole getting sucked into the game thing... I never had a best friend. Someone who bothered to get to know me. Who I bothered to get to know. Someone who would stand beside your decisions and vice versa. And because of that, I really didn't want to let Red go, "Thank you..." I crackled. Time spun on while we just laid there, our heat radiating off each other as the blizzard continued to roar just outside the cave walls.

But I spoke to Red as if there was nothing but sunshine high in the sky about what was probably pointless.

It was nice.

Just sitting with a friend and exchanging words so openly.

It was a beautiful nonsense, but beauty is delicate. It breaks so easily when you want it most to never end.

I didn't even notice it cracking in the beginning, "Leaf?" a voice of shock trembled in the cavern. I didn't move quickly, just at the right speed to raise and see Blue. The teen who shivered with a broken awe within his eyes, "What are you doing here?"