Pokémon: The Original Shipping (RedxBlue)

Lv 11: What will Blue do?

After walking for a while, Red and I stopped on the side of the road for lunch. Normally I would have swallowed up all of Gramp's food, but couldn't help being on my best behavior all of a sudden. Red ate so casually, almost gracefully, that it made me nervous to even eat in front of him.

"You okay?" He suddenly noticed me, looking back at me with one eyebrow raised.

"Of course I am," I replied, quickly picking up a sandwich and stuffing it in my mouth.

But the look he gave me, a slight grin, caused me to nearly choke on it. In a hast, he ran up towards me with a Bottled Water. I had to Snatch it out of his hand before he got any closer to me.

"I'm fine! I'm fine!" I desperately cried out so he'd back off and wouldn't worry.

"Okay, just wanted to make sure." He laughed at me, rustling my hair playfully.

He then proceeded to stand up and stretch for a bit, while all I could do was sit there, completely immobilized. Things only got worse when he decided to stretch his arms up and his shirt lifted up high enough for me to get a good look at his lower abdomen.

I hate to even admit to myself how I couldn't help but stare when it happened.

"Hey, I'm gonna go over there for just a minute," he said pointing over towards a bottom of a nearby cliff and snapping me out of the strange trance I was in. "I'll be right back, try not to choke while I'm gone. Okay?"

"What are you going over there for?" I asked, trying to gain a hold of myself.

"Bathroom."

And that's when I nearly choked again. Fortunately, I had water with me this time to help. Red laughed as he disappeared into the distance, and I took the time to take a deep breath and cool off.

DAMN! I have to get a hold of myself. This is really bad. What is up with me?

The truth was I wasn't completely unaware of my newfound feelings for Red, it just took a lot out of me to even think about it. They weren't that new either, he was all I had thought about after we had gone our separate ways years ago. At first I figured I just hadn't gotten over getting beaten, but soon realized that it was way more than that. Eventually, I couldn't help but hope I'd run into him again, but like I said, years went by and I just had to move on.

But I've gotten over him, right?

"Ugh, this sucks." I grunted to myself, looking around to spot if Red was on his way back, though he was still nowhere in sight. "Odd, he couldn't still be going to the bathroom, could he? Blastoise, stay here and watch our stuff. I'd better go make sure Red hasn't gotten lost or something."

Walking around where I had last seen him, I found no trace of Red anywhere. Gradually, I began to panic inside.

"RED! RED! Where are you?!"

"BLUE!" I heard him cry out my name, causing me to run as fast as I could to find him.

A bit further down, I saw Red standing in some tall grass, cornered by a wild Arbok that had appeared. Idiot! I thought to myself as I ran up to him. Red, what are you thinking? You should know better than to go running into tall grass without a Pokemon!

With Blastoise back at our picnic area, I had no Pokémon either to defend myself with, but I ran into the grass regardless. All I knew was that I had to do something before Red got seriously injured. Without even thinking things through, I picked up a handful of rocks and started throwing them at the Arbok in hopes of getting its attention, and unfortunately it worked. Before I knew it, the Arbok had turned around, spotted me and come right for me.

I was a sitting Psyduck, standing there with no rocks, no bait, Pokéballs, or Pokémon to help. If Red hadn't jumped in front of me in time, it would have been me who had gotten injured on the leg by Arbok's Bite attack instead.

"Oh no!" I yelled out, grabbing a hold of Red's heavy body as he fell in front of me.

Fortunately for the both of us, Red still had some food with him. Tossing it far off to the side, the Arbok followed it and ran off with the food in its mouth. I quickly picked up Red and supported him as we hurried out of the tall grass, towards the shade of a nearby tree, before some other wild Pokémon appeared.

"Seriously Red, what were you thinking?" I started yelling at him, checking his wound to make sure it wasn't anything serious. "You should know better than to do something like that."

"Well, you know," he struggled to say, as he tended to his own wound, "I actually had things under control until you showed up and got yourself in danger."

"Don't blame this on me!" I replied with an angry and terrified voice. "You really had me worried back there."

"I did?"

Once again, the wrong words had come out of my mouth, but this time I didn't feel like taking them back. I was just relieved he was okay.

"Yes... you did."

I nearly broke out in tears, simply relieved that we were both okay, that Red was okay. He was wounded, but nothing that wouldn't heal. I was so relieved and shaken up that I almost didn't even notice when Red sat up to kiss me on the cheek.