Chapter Text
His grandfather called him back home, which was weird in and of itself. That never happened. Ever. Not since he moved out at least ten years ago. But it wasn’t really his grandfather’s fault, Blue supposed. He did completely ignore any and all phone calls from the number he’s had memorized since he was in preschool. His sister used to call him and complain to him about how his grandfather would be upset for never being able to get through. Honestly, he couldn’t really care less.
Apparently Gramps finally got the common sense to not call from his office phone, as he always did. When Blue got a call from Daisy, he picked it up like he normally would, expecting her to chatter his ear off about whatever customer said what or something else he didn’t really care about but listened anyway because she was his sister. Instead, he got the rushed and old voice of his grandfather cracking through the speaker of his phone. He almost flung it at the wall.
“I have a surprise for you,” he said, as if Blue was five years old again. “Interesting information. Things that need to be discussed in person. You understand.”
He didn’t, really. Anything that could be said in person could be said over the phone. He shrugged and sighed into the phone. “…sure, Gramps. Whatever. I’m kind of busy.”
“Sooner rather than later, Blue. This is time-sensitive.”
“I—” Blue dragged a hand over his face, staring down at his stack of paperwork. “Gramps. I have work. I’m working. Can’t you just—”
“There’s someone here who wants to speak to you,” he interrupted, and Blue was ready to strangle him through the phone. “Just…as soon as you have the time, come back to the lab. It’s important.”
“Gramps—”
“Thank you, Blue, I’ll see you soon.” And silence.
Shocking.
The next day, Blue hung up the “closed” sign he hardly ever used these days, texting his trainers and telling them they didn’t need to come in today. It felt…weird. He hadn’t closed the gym in a while.
The trek back down Route 1 was a quiet one. It was early enough in the morning that no kids were running around in the tall grass, trying to catch a Rattata or something. A Pidgey cooed from a tree next to the path. It felt surreal. A little unnerving, actually.
Pallet was quiet, too. Unsurprising, since it was about seven in the morning and most normal people would probably be asleep. It had been a while since he had actually been in town. Not since Daisy got really sick a few months ago and he stopped by in the evenings to check up on her. The lights in her house were off. Unsurprising, considering the time. The lights in Red’s old house were out. Also unsurprising, considering no one lived there anymore.
And the lights were on in the lab.
Unsurprising.
He pulled open the heavy glass door and looked at the receptionist. She looked…familiar. Maybe. He wasn’t super great with putting names to faces. “Is Professor Oak in?” He asked, frowning at how weird that sounded coming out of his mouth. That’s something he hadn’t said in a long-ass time.
“Of course he is, Blue. You know how he is,” she said, typing away on her computer. “You know your way around, right?”
He gave her a thumbs-up and peeked over the desk as he passed by, glancing at her nametag. Monika. That…sounds right. “Thanks, Monika.” She nodded, and he pushed his way through the doors that led deeper into the lab.
As he passed by interns and workers, he felt even more out of place. He used to be a part of this world, but…that dream was given up a lifetime ago. (Not totally his fault, he had to remind himself.)
He knocked twice before letting himself into Oak’s office, slamming the door behind him. “Alright, Gramps. I’m taking off of work for whatever—”
He felt his heart jump up into his throat and he choked on his words, staring wide-eyed at the pair of men sitting in front of him.
“Blue! Great, I wasn’t expecting you to be here today, or this early, actually—”
“What the fuck are you doing here?”
Red looked away from his glare and Blue felt his face flare up. Oak frowned. “Blue, watch your—”
“What the fuck is he doing here?”
“Blue!”
“Why the fuck are you here?” Red kept his eyes on the wall behind Oak, his hands balled up in fists and gripping tightly on the hem of his shirt. “I’m fucking talking to you, the least you could do is fucking look at me—”
“Blue! ” Oak slammed his fist on the hardwood desk, the mug of probably cold coffee jostling and spilling over a bit. Red’s eyes switched over quickly from the wall to the mug, watching carefully as the coffee started to seep into and stain the desk. “I didn’t invite you here to fight. The least you could do is pretend to be a civil human being.”
“He’s the one who’s been fucking around who knows where doing who knows what for who knows how long! Why the fuck is he here?!”
Oak sighed and slowly sat back down in his chair, taking a pained sip of his coffee. “You two can deal with your problems after I’ve finished saying what I called you here to say, Blue. I’m sure you want to get back to work at the gym as soon as possible.”
At the mention of the gym, Blue saw Red glance over at him out of the corner of his eye. Probably confused. That’s what you get for not being in touch with society since the nineties, you fuck. “...sure. Whatever.” He stayed standing at the door. The only open chair was right next to Red, and Arceus be fucked if he was about to sit next to him.
“Well, have you heard of Alola?” He started, flipping over a little booklet and holding it out towards Blue. “Tropical region made up of four islands, about ten hours flight from here. They’ve recently gotten their League finished, actually. It was a big to-do, all over the news.”
He snatched the pamphlet out of Oak’s hand and flipped through it. It was all pictures of beaches and sunsets. A couple of pictures caught his eye, mainly the one of the Aether Foundation and one of some kind of party. (Wasn’t that called a luau or something?) There were tons of exotic Pokémon in the picture. “What about it?”
“Well, that region’s professor contacted me about three months ago, talking about his plans to build the league and whatnot. About a month ago, he called me again and started talking about a battle facility he wanted to make. I think there’s something in the flyer about it, actually.”
Blue flipped back through the pages until the words Climb to the top! Battle Tree were splayed on top of the page. “What about that?”
“He wants champions to help out.”
Blue paused and stared hard at Oak. “Champions?”
“Yes, he told me he already contacted the champions from Sinnoh and Hoenn about it—”
“I’m still considered a champion?” He felt his lip twitch before he broke out into a grin. “They still consider me a champion? Really ?”
Oak hummed as he took another sip of his coffee. “Well, of course. Even if it was short-lived, your name is still in the Hall of Fame, Blue—”
“Fuck yeah!”
“And that would explain why Red is here, I hope,” Oak stated sourly, giving Blue a judgmental look. “You’ll be leaving next month, and he didn’t say how long you all will be staying there. Probably a while. Until it really gets running, I believe he said. Lance already knows, so don’t worry about the details of the gym—” he flipped though more papers again— "Ah. Here.” He held out two plane tickets, one to both Red and Blue. “Your tickets. Take heed of when they leave, please. You’ll only get the one ticket.”
Blue stared at the ticket in awe and almost crumpled it up in his excitement. “Alright, sweet! Is that it?”
“Well, yes, but—”
“Alright, great, see you in a month!” Blue spun around and swung the door back open.
As the door closed, Blue felt like throwing up and started his quick walk out of the stuffy lab. When he heard the door close again, he almost felt like fleeing. He spun around and watched as Red froze in place, looking like a complete stranger. “Well.”
Red said nothing.
Unsurprising.
“What do you want?”
He looked at Blue for a moment, glancing between his face and his shoes. He started to lift up his hands but paused, choosing instead to just shrug.
“Great. Well, you can keep fucking around for all I care. I don’t know how he got you to come home, and honestly? I don’t really give a shit.” As he turned around, Red made a noise. It sounded a bit like a croak, and it made him flinch. He looked back at Red.
We need to talk, he signed slowly and shakily, obviously unpracticed in his signing. He probably wasn’t using it much on whatever mountain he was on. It’s not like Blue was any better. He hadn’t needed to truly use it for years. It took him a bit digging around in his brain to figure out what Red was saying.
“If I read that right, you said we need to talk. Right?” A nod. “That’s funny. And I don’t have anything to say to you.” He splayed his hands out in front of him, shrugging. “You’ve been gone for…ten years? At least. If you really wanted to say something you could have called.”
Red looked offended before Blue really understood what he said. And he knew he was being a dick. A major one. As Red lifted up his hands again, Blue opted to shut his eyes, sealing his fate as the world’s worst asshole. “Sorry, can’t hear you. Speak up a bit?”
Blue heard the palm smacking across his cheek more than he felt it, and his eyes flew open to see his fist flying towards Red’s nose. “You don’t get to hit me! You don’t get to do that! You’re the one that’s been gone for more than a decade, you don’t get to hit me!” Punch after punch flew at Red, and they were on the floor and Red was trying to curl up on himself and block his face and Blue could barely breathe anymore. “Don’t fucking hit me, you don’t get that privilege!”
“S-sss-s-s-st-t-t-op-p!!” Red stuttered out, his eyes scrunched up in pain. “S-s-stop-p-p!”
“Fuck you!” Blue spat out, feeling nothing but hot. “Fuck! You! You dropped off the planet for fifteen fucking years! Me being rude doesn’t even equal you being dead to the world!”
His fist swung back down over Red’s face and he froze as his grandfather rushed down the hall. “I-ii-I-I-iii—”
“Blue!”
Oh, he was fucked.
He sat fuming in his grandfather’s office, glaring hard at the wall. He felt like a kid again, and that wasn’t a good thing. He looked down at the drying blood on his fist and bit his lip, huffing a sigh. He couldn’t even look at Red as his grandfather yanked him off of him, but he sure heard him crying. Did he feel bad?
Barely.
Red deserved every punch, in his mind. And damn, did that feel good. To an extent. He hadn’t fought anyone since elementary school. All of his pent-up rage towards Red must have burst when he saw him sitting in Oak’s office. Like he had been there for his whole life. Like he hadn’t vanished off of the face of the earth for years and years and years and years.
Oak walked in the office and slammed the door behind him. Blue kept his eyes on the wall. “Blue, I sure hope you have an explanation.”
“Why?”
“You—” His grandfather’s face turned red. Blue hoped he had a heart attack. “You’re–you’re twenty-five years old, for crying out loud! You can’t just—you just beat someone up! As if you were a child!”
“First, I just turned thirty. Second, he fucking deserved it and you can’t tell me otherwise.”
“How am I supposed to say good things about you to people?”
“When have you ever said anything good about me?”
“Blue—”
“I’m leaving.” He stood up and felt nauseous. “Thanks for the plane ticket. I’m not coming back here ever again.”
As he walked towards the door, Oak grabbed out and snatched his wrist, tightly gripping it in his hand. “Stop acting like a child or I’ll treat you like one.”
“When have you ever treated me like a child?”
They stared in each other’s faces for a hot minute. Oak shut his eyes and sighed tensely through his nose, letting go of Blue’s wrist. “Get your attitude in check before you spend a month in another region. I don’t need any calls or emails about you as if you were still in preschool.”
“Fine.”
“And you’re going to apologize to Red.”
“Nope.”
He calmly fled the room as fast as he could.