AN - Look who's back with another one already! I'm finally doing a Feelingshipping piece! I've wanted to for quite some time, and have bounced around multiple ideas in my head, but this is the one that I sat down and let my fingers fly across the keyboard for. I'm pretty happy with it (although like everything I write I immediately change my mind as I go to post it. Ugh). Oh, just FYI, this takes place around FR/LG, Emerald time. Like, either before or after. Take your pick. Just so you know their ages, basically.

Meet Me Halfway

He finds her in the woods (she's always in the woods these days). He stops when she comes into his line of sight, taking a moment to look her over before she notices him.

Her boots are off, her clothes are dirty, and there are leaves in her hair – her ponytail is slowly coming undone, as well. Despite all this – or perhaps, because of it – if he strains his ears all he hears from her is a rather contented humming.

Green lets out a small sigh and runs a hand through his brown locks before approaching the girl who was once his protégé. She starts when he accidentally steps on a twig, shattering the silence (although really it's not silent at all; the sounds of nature are everywhere, and he's a little disconcerted by it), but when she looks back and sees him Yellow calms immediately, acknowledging his presence with only a small, warm smile before turning back to the matter at hand.

She's camped out by a small stream running through the heart of the forest (Green never knew of any streams in the Viridian Forest despite multiple treks through it to visit his grandfather and friends back in Pallet, but he'll never know it like she will, so it's not as surprising as it probably should be), fishing rod in her hands. Up close, he can see that her feet are just barely touching the water, although every so often the current sends the water splashing up onto her pant legs, which she hasn't bothered to roll up. He fights the instinct to frown disapprovingly (friend or no, it's not his place), struggling to keep a neutral face when he notices a mysterious dirt smudge on her face.

Although he highly doubts she's been out here the whole time, this is the first time he's seen her in nearly two weeks.

He only notices that her Pokémon are out when he takes a seat beside her. Raticate and Butterfree are off playing a few dozen meters away, and he can see the fuzzy outline of Omastar farther up the stream. Chuchu lies sleeping in her trainer's lap (lending credit to the theory, like trainer, like Pokémon), and the rest of Yellow's team is similarly dozing in the shade a few feet away.

Out of the corner of his eye he catches her glancing up at him, still smiling, as he sighs once more. Not knowing exactly how to start (or even what it is, exactly, that he wants to say), he waits a while in the hopes that the blonde beside him will start a conversation. A few minutes tick by and Yellow has yet to say anything (then again, neither has he).

Seeing as she's clearly content to enjoy the silence, he actually hesitates before opening his mouth – also, he knows before he's said it that he's about to ask a stupid question. However, he can't help himself from inquiring of her, "What are you doing?"

The silent accusation of, we live in the same small town, where have you been this past two weeks that you couldn't take five minutes to come visit me goes unspoken, and, indeed, unacknowledged in Green's mind. He discards the ridiculous thought as soon as he realizes he's had it, focusing only on the girl before him, who turns her attention from the water to him with a puzzled frown.

"Um," she starts eloquently, shooting her eyes between him and the rod she holds lazily in her hands, "I'm fishing?"

He gives her a flat look, and she reads the implied why, giving him a nervous smile and continuing, "I just needed to get away from it all for a few days. It's peaceful here, surrounded by nature and the sounds of the forest… I love it."

He starts a little at the "few days" and casts his gaze around, noticing for the first time a huge backpack located near her snoozing companions, doubtlessly containing a tent. He does not comment on this (or give into his petulant inner child and ask just what's so great about the "sounds of the forest" which just sounds like a lot of bugs buzzing too loudly to him. He sincerely hopes that constant drone in the back of his head is his imagination and not a swarm of Beedrill approaching because he is not in the mood), instead merely wondering aloud, "What's putting such a strain on you back in the city?"

Yellow jolts at this, fidgeting uncomfortably under his – harsh if her face is any indication; he attempts to soften his visage – scrutiny. "Well, nothing in particular. It's a perfectly nice place, and I've lived there my whole life, but lately it just hasn't felt like home. The forest has."

There are a lot of things he could say to that, many different words and emotions brimming just beneath the surface, waiting to be let loose. He reels them all back in and keeps his tongue in check, as a vast majority of the words he wants to say are unduly negative for selfish and petty reasons relating to himself that he's only beginning to comprehend.

He grinds his teeth and quietly admits to himself that his soft spot (unspoken of, but known by everyone, though perhaps only Blue knows the full extent of it as she makes it her business to know these sorts of things, curse her) for the girl is becoming a problem, because he cannot for the life of him bring himself to say anything unkind against her.

He coddles the blonde more now than he ever did when he was actually training her. Times were simpler, then. He could look upon her upset face without bias or sympathy, thinking only of what needed to be done. Now the mere thought of her being anything other than perfectly happy brings a strong, unsettling feeling of something to his chest, so he generally tries to – discreetly, in case someone were to get the wrong idea – ensure she's happy at all times these days lest he have to deal with his own feelings that he cannot properly label yet.

Given all this, the only words he actually lets escape his mouth are: "So… there's nothing you care for in the city anymore?"

He's more relieved than he should be when she shakes her head without hesitation. "That's not it; like I said, I grew up there. Viridian is my home, where my friends and family are. Well, I didn't actually have that many friends before becoming a 'Pokedex Holder' I guess, and you're the only friend who actually lives in town with me," she pauses to shoot a guilty smile at him, and he reigns in the urge to say, exactly! If you're ever lonely I'm always close by, so why not visit more often?

Not noticing his inner struggles, she continues, "And Uncle is really my only family, but I'm fine with that. It's just lately I've been more comfortable in the 'forest' half of my home than the 'city' half."

"In solitude?" he can't stop himself from asking, and hates himself for it just a little bit.

Again, she's shaking her head quickly, not a hint of doubt in her amber eyes. "But I'm not alone. You can hear it, can't you? This forest is teeming with life, and we're here in the heart of it. There are so many Pokémon all around us, all going about their daily lives and contributing to the very essence of the forest. Sitting here, I feel like I'm part of that process, too. Interacting with the Pokémon in the forest, I'm growing and changing just as they are, just as the forest itself is. It's a really meaningful experience…" she trails off and a light blush dusts across her cheeks, suddenly feeling embarrassed at her passionate outburst, "…at least, I think so."

Green stares at the girl just two years his junior in awe, mouth slightly open. She might be feeling silly about it now that she's done, but he can't help but feel as if she has bestowed upon him some small piece of significant wisdom – or at least a look into her psyche.

Try as he might, he cannot see the forest through the same eyes that she does (the constant buzzing is still annoying, the ground is hard, and as the sun slowly sets the breeze becomes steadily colder), but with this he can understand her attraction to it. He doesn't know without asking (nor does he want to know for certain) if this feeling, this intimate connection with the forest is something all the "blessed" children of Viridian have, or if it is something unique to Yellow. All he knows is that he can't fault her, or be angry at her, because of it.

Even as the temperature drops, a warmth is blooming in his chest, and he finds a smile spreading across his face unbidden. Ever-observant (especially when it comes to Yellow, not that he was quite ready to admit it), he notices the goosebumps on her arms before she does, and is shrugging out of his jacket and placing it over her before the first shiver overtakes her.

The blonde accepts the item unthinkingly, the blush that had just been starting to dissipate returning twice as strong, snuggling into the much-larger material's warmth unconsciously - Chuchu also stirs briefly, before similarly curling into the new source of heat. She stares openly at him, amber doe-eyes (in this light, he thinks he can see flecks of green in them. Or perhaps he's just projecting) large with shock.

The brunet clears his throat and for once doesn't bother trying to hide his fondness for the girl, as he stands to leave and looks down at her with the smile still wide on his face. "I'm not going to claim to understand completely. But if this is something important to you, I'll gladly leave you to it. Just… stop by every once in a while to catch up, okay?"

Green personally feels there's something symbolic about her clutching his jacket tightly with one hand, as if he represents the city as a whole right now, right here. Her other hand is still grasping the rod – never once has she let it go, even when focusing on him, and perhaps there is symbolism in that, too, as the forest will always be a part of her – comfortably, like it's the most natural thing in the world, but in this moment, her attention is fully on him.

He thinks that perhaps – maybe, just maybe – she feels it, too, as she buries her head for just an instant in the collar of his jacket (the tips of her ears are enticingly, intoxicatingly bright red) before showing him her face: There is an incredibly tiny smile adorning her visage, just the corners of her mouth peaking upwards, but he doesn't think he's ever seen a warmer, more meaningful look than this.

Eyes bright, she promises him, "Definitely."