Thank you for all the support!

chokes back tears

Nineteen Months Later…

Red woke up to Green's fingers tracing patterns on his left hip. When he opened his eyes, Green grinned at him.

"Morning," he said.

Red yawned. "How long've you been watching me sleep?"

"Few minutes."

Red snorted. "Creep." He pulled Green down for a kiss.

"I missed you," Green said. "Stop going up that mountain."

"Stop going to that university," Red replied.

"Learn to be a contributing member of adult society."

"Nah."

Green smiled and kissed him again. A slow, calm kiss that brought back memories of ones the opposite. Back when they hadn't had an unknown amount of time.

"What're you doing today?" Red asked.

"Class," Green replied. "I'll be back this afternoon. Around five."

"Good."

Because Green's university was in Saffron, sometimes it was easier for him to just stay there for a few days. Or, worst case scenario (exam season), weeks. Sometimes Red would go to Mt Silver to avoid how quiet Oak's lab was without Green there.

N often loudly wondered why they didn't just move to Saffron for a bit. N was still kind of an idiot, for a genius empath/Seer.

"I gotta meet N," Red remembered. "Wedding dress. Thing."

"Fitting?" Green guessed.

Red shrugged.

"Get up then," Green said, sitting up. "So you don't fall asleep again."

Red groaned. He looked at the pikachu shaped alarm clock Ash gave him last Christmas. 7:30am, June 26th, 1999. The 583rd day since he stopped being a horcrux. To put it mildly.

"Okay," Red sighed. "Let's do this."

He rolled out of bed.

It took Green a ridiculous amount of primping to get ready each morning, so Red started making breakfast for their pokémon. As usual, it made him remember the summer before their sixth year at Hogwarts, when they'd had to help look after the pokémon in the fields around Oak's lab. The pokémon were gone now, released or split up between Elm, Birch, Rowan, Juniper and Sycamore as appropriate, and Red wondered how they were. He also wondered if he should've tried to look after them instead of listening to Green saying, "I'm not gonna be here, we can't afford to pay the aides, and there's no damn way you can do it yourself, you'll spoil them."

Red fed Snor, Char and Saur outside, along with Steven's pokémon. He'd spent a long time over the past nineteen months earning their trust. Steven's cradily took particular effort. But they'd adjusted well to Pallet. It wasn't as sunny as Hoenn, but they enjoyed the trips up Mt Silver — especially Steven's metagross.

Saur had taken to wandering around the fields, following the sun. Char never went far from Red, and had accidentally set the house on fire multiple times in the process. Snor slept. Red often slept on Snor when he was trying to hide from Green how much he still slept.

Red fed Aero and Green's pokémon inside. Green's charmeleon was way less excitable than Char, so he didn't cause so many fires. His growlithe was a lot bigger and a lot friendlier, apparently loving the domestic thing. Red did too, kind of — something about seeing Green sitting on the couch, reading boring science books, while Growlithe lay across his lap (tail thumping against Red) and Umbreon sat at his feet.

Other times, Red found the domestic thing made it was too easy to remember the past. He'd gotten to the point where he could do pretty much any household chore without thinking. Which meant he'd remember.

"Okay," Green said as he stepped into the kitchen, "how do I look?"

Red wondered what it was with Green and purple shirts. "Fine, I guess."

Green rolled his eyes. "You're gonna be a big help with that wedding dress, babe."

"All I have to do is sit around telling N he's pretty."

"Maybe you should sit around telling me I'm pretty."

"I dunno," Red said, handing Green a bowl of miso, "wouldn't you prefer I actually mean it?"

Green snorted.

It was definitely weird to eat strawberry pancakes and miso for breakfast, but Green didn't complain. Red wasn't entirely sure Green noticed tastes any more, but at any rate, he was interested in how weird combos would have to get before Green would say something.

"Thanks," Green said when he was done. It was so fucking domestic. "How're you meeting N?"

Red shrugged. He found his PokéGear (okay, Umbreon found it for him) and checked the messages. "Apparently Black's sister's coming to get me…?"

"Red. Do I really have to remind you how many fucking Weasleys there are in the world?"

"Mei. The not-Weasley one."

Red tried not to think about how he'd only met Mei about twice, and one of those times was a Christmas where Ruby started crying about a jacket he'd been making Norman. (Red had never regretted asking Green to dispose of the Resurrection Stone more.)

"Red," Green said loudly, "I'm sure N will be with her."

Red nodded. "You're gonna be late."

Green shrugged (sarcastically), walked around the table to Red and hugged him tightly. Red wound his arms around Green's shoulders, pressing his face against Green's neck, reminding himself, he hadn't even been the Chosen One in the end. The prophecy was a total bust. Everyone'd believed in it because they wanted an easy fix where nobody got hurt (except him, one poor little casualty, and hadn't that been Wallace's thinking that started this whole thing?) and they didn't have to do anything. Or because they relied too much on magic to think rationally. Or because — any number of things that made more sense when Green and Black explained them, all amounting to, it's not your fault, as Gold always said.

Red sighed heavily. "I'm okay."

"You sure?" Green asked.

Red nodded. As Green pulled away, he kissed him on the forehead, where his scar had been.

"See you this afternoon," Green said.

Again, Red nodded, looking away as Green Apparated.

Sometimes it seemed like everybody else was moving on easily. They were living their lives and dragging Red along as best they could. But Red couldn't just, go follow his dreams. He didn't have any he wasn't already fulfilling. He'd given up on them when he was barely sixteen. He'd expected to die, he'd honestly believed it, he'd even looked forward to it in ways, how was he supposed to live after that? Why didn't he feel like being (for all intents and purposes) Green's househusband was enough any more?

Everything in the world looked different to him. Down to catching himself pausing and wondering if Gold, Black and N were lying to him again.

How could they move on like it was easy? They said they had them too, those moments when they couldn't stop remembering things, but they got on with their lives. Red didn't even know how to begin. Especially when he remembered the funerals, the trials, the two months after when he'd barely been able to talk…

Sometimes, Red went up Mt Silver just to escape all the noise.

Around 10, N turned up. Red recognised him first by the sharp, slow knock. He gave Growlithe one last belly-scratch before answering the door.

"I am extremely tired," N immediately said. "This romantic gesture is turning out to be a great deal of work."

"Is it," Red replied.

N sighed, "How will I survive another two weeks?"

"The power of love…?"

N nodded, taking him deadly seriously. "Okay. Let's go."

Red gestured at the pokémon before turning to them. "You guys gonna be okay? Or do you wanna come?"

Umbreon ran forward, rubbing against Red's leg.

"How long has Eevee been an umbreon?" N asked.

"Oh. Uh." He could remember the way Green's face lit up in confusion then excitement when Eevee started to glow after beating Snor late one night. "Three weeks?"

For a moment, Red felt N's alarm. N must've realised his panic quickly, because it was only a moment.

"We haven't seen each other for three weeks?"

Red shrugged. "It happens." He found Umbreon's PokéBall in the drawer of them (Green said it was supposed to be for cutlery, and Red said who cares).

N scowled. "Not if I can help it."

Red offered Umbreon her PokéBall. She nuzzled against it, disappearing in a beam of red light. N's scowl intensified.

"She chose to," Red urgently said. "They've told me all about what it's like inside, it's —"

"We're going now," N firmly interrupted.

Red called goodbye to Growlithe and Aero as they went. Aero had fallen asleep, clearly still tired from their time on Mt Silver. Next time Red wouldn't stay so long.

Outside, Mei was patting Saur on the head. Saur looked ecstatic under a thin layer of grump. Zekrom was flying above them, looking positively terrifying, and Char was casually talking to her like they were best friends. Typical.

Mei looked up at them, grinning. "Hi! You know, we should really have a battle some time, Red."

"Should we?"

"She's Champion of Unova," N said.

Mei smiled modestly.

"Oh." Red shrugged. "Maybe."

"You could do the Unova Gym Challenge easily," Mei said. "Gold was telling me all about how you guys did the Kanto and Johto ones last year."

That had been more for Gold's sake, really. Red didn't have anything to prove. And it had made it easier to survive while Green, Black and N were actually bothering to do Seventh Year at Hogwarts.

"I think that's more Yellow's thing at the moment," Red replied.

"Oh, yeah, she's totally amazing," Mei gasped. "She's starting the Unova Gym Challenge soon. I'm seriously worried she's gonna dethrone me."

"We need to go," N reminded them. "Ruby's meeting us there."

"Where's there?" Red asked.

"Viridian. It isn't far, is it?"

"Maybe an hour's walk?"

"I know," N muttered, "I was attempting to be rhetorical."

Before N could get much more irritated, Red confirmed that Char wanted to come, Saur was very much happy in the sun not being bored by Viridian City of all places, and Snor wouldn't wake up. He recalled Char as Mei recalled Zekrom, and they started walking through Pallet.

"This is such a nice little town," Mei said.

Red hadn't really thought about it for a while, but it was. Even if when he went to the beach, he remembered the Rockets attacking, and Mewtwo, and Ash, and sometimes just looking at Delia's house or restaurant made him feel sick, Pallet was nice. The grass, the pine trees, the sea, all melding into a sweet scent that looked equally as pleasant. Most people were friendly, always giving some acknowledgement, as though it didn't matter he'd been the weird kid shoved in a cupboard for ten years. It was always nice to come back to Pallet, and not only because Green was usually waiting.

When they went past the Ketchum's house, Delia was in the garden. Red hoped they'd be able to get past without her noticing, but she looked up as they were approaching and gasped his name.

"Hi Aunt Delia," Red reluctantly said.

"I was hoping I'd run into you," Delia said. "Ash wants to talk to you, you should call him soon."

"Okay. I'll call him tonight."

Delia very quickly added, "He sent me some pictures, mostly of your pikachu, if you'd like —"

"We're busy," N interrupted. "I'm getting my wedding dress fitted. Red's maid of honour."

"Oh," Delia said, looking confused and disappointed. "Well, good luck, and congratulations."

"Bye," Red said, starting to walk away as quickly as he could. The others quickly followed. Once they were out of earshot, Red quietly said "Thanks."

"What-ever," N huffed. "She's so thirsty for your forgiveness."

Red shuddered. "Stop using words Gold teaches you."

"You should definitely keep using them," Mei giggled.

They made it in time. Ruby was waiting for them outside the dress shop, wearing a very pink and sparkly dress that looked like it should be worn by a princess doll, not an actual person.

"Ohmygod finally," Ruby sighed. "I was waiting for like, two whole minutes."

"Red's stupid aunt talked to us," N explained.

"He's not being serious," Red quietly counter explained.

Ruby stared at Red flatly and deadpanned, "I am always serious about everything ever."

Mei laughed.

Ruby stared at her, muttered, "Oh. Hi," then quickly dragged N into the shop.

"Did I do something wrong?" Mei asked.

"Last time you met wasn't long after his dad died," Red replied. "He's probably just remembering that."

"Oh," Mei gasped. "I remember that, but, it's nothing to be ashamed of? Or is he just sad? Should I leave?"

Red shook his head. "Pretend you don't know, probably. He'll be fine. It just hurts sometimes."

Mei smiled. "You're way better at this than Black."

"Uh. Okay."

Thankfully, they were the only ones in the shop. Ruby had shoved N in the change room with a mountain of white fabric and stood impatiently outside, talking to the actual seamstress.

"I knew this was gonna happen, they're such idiot, so I started making it ages ago," Ruby was saying, desperate-to-seem-casual as he inspected his nails. "I'll need help figuring out what needs adjusting. I made it too big. I dunno, maybe I thought they'd suddenly go 'let's plan a wedding in a month' because N'd get pregnant."

"I can't get pregnant!" N cried defensively.

"You never know," Ruby called back. "You done yet?"

"No, I'm not, this — Red! Help me!"

Red found N struggling to sort through the pile of silk. He honestly couldn't see what N was struggling with, but he could see N was getting more and more upset.

"I can't get it on," N hissed quietly. "And if it doesn't work, I don't have time for a replacement, how does a dress not work, Red?"

Quickly, Red grabbed the dress from N. N didn't try to stop him; he sat on the bench and buried his face in his hands, groaning.

"Uh, what's —?" Red started to ask.

"Why did we decide to do this so quickly!" N cried. His eyes flickered to the door. In a quieter voice, he continued, "Who leaves Hogwarts then goes 'yeah let's just get married in seven weeks'?"

Red shrugged. "My parents, apparently."

N ignored him. "It's too much work to organise. It's stupid. Why didn't anybody tell us it's so much work?"

"They did," Red reminded him. "You said something about the power of love."

"Obviously, and that still applies, which is why it's going to be a huge success, the wedding I mean, obviously the marriage would be regardless, but —" N groaned again. "I haven't slept much lately."

"I can help if you want," Red said. "Gold too, probably."

N shook his head. "Gold's moping about Silver again. I don't like it when he projects his issues by being overly supportive. It gives me a headache."

Which was N for 'it makes me worry and I lose control of my empathy then feel his emotions, and thinking about others gives me a headache'.

"Well, I'll help," Red said.

N snorted. "You're not going to run away up a mountain again?"

"Not if I know you need me around."

N mumbled something non-committal. He was probably too grumpy to allow positive emotions.

Red started inspecting the dress. It felt very nice, and was sewn better than anything else he'd seen by Ruby. Which was saying a lot. The sleeves were sheer, floaty, probably not actually silk. Red followed them along to the back of the dress. As he did, he asked, "Why's Gold moping about Silver this time?"

"Because Silver is coming to the wedding."

Red frowned. "Last I checked they're friends again?"

N gave an irritated sigh. "He says that's the problem. The environment of love. Whatever, Black's dealing with it."

Red remembered the first time he and Gold had run into Silver, entirely by accident, in Vermillion City. Apparently Silver had also skipped finishing Hogwarts to go travelling with pokémon. Gold hadn't known that.

"We texted, a bit, but he didn't tell me about this," Gold nervously hissed. "Should we leave? Should we pretend we didn't see him?"

Gold'd probably been so highly-strung because Silver ignored him through every funeral or trial he'd turned up to. Gold went to pretty much all of them because Red had to go to pretty much all of them. It had been a very strange few weeks. Red didn't know how Gold mustered the emotional capacity to be upset about the funerals and Silver all at once. He could relate to Gold being so angry when Wallace was sentenced to just as long in Azkaban as Archer, Colress and Karen (and only half as long as Sham, Carl and Sabrina), though.

But, Silver had been about as friendly as Silver got. It was tense, it was uncomfortable, but Gold and Silver talked more after that. They ran into Silver a few more times. They didn't ever travel together, but they didn't avoid each other either. Sometimes Red wished they had, because listening to Gold and Silver talk about magical politics was exhausting. He didn't care who was Minister for Magic so long as it wasn't a Rocket, but Gold and Silver cared so much. It was no surprise when Gold said sometimes they met up on purpose, just the two of them. Though, honestly, Red sometimes wondered if that was true. He still couldn't throw himself back into believing everything Gold said.

Red hadn't told Gold (because Gold hadn't asked), but he'd seen Silver on his own a couple of times, too. Silver asked him a lot how he'd forgiven Gold, adding, "I want to forgive him too. I just can't. I'm too pissed off."

Red had gone from "He's my best friend" to "I wouldn't be alive if he hadn't" to "I don't think I can either."

He didn't think he'd forgiven Black and N, either. Yet he still loved them. He didn't trust them as much as he used to, but he still loved them enough to ignore it. Not out of effort, either. He just did it. It was a weird feeling.

Maybe if he was pissed off like Silver, Red wouldn't be able to ignore it. But then again, he'd had everything to gain from the trick. Silver was the only one who actually got hurt.

Red shook his head, focusing back on the dress. He'd found a tiny concealed zip down the back.

"Did you try unzipping it?" he asked N.

N looked up. And surprisingly, he laughed. "No. I didn't know it had a zip."

Once he had the dress on, N started crying at how beautiful he was. From there, Ruby and the seamstress took over. Red hung back with Mei, relieved the crisis was over. Then amazed that this, N not being able to find a zip to put on a fucking dress, was the biggest crisis he'd had to deal with in months.

It took two hours. Mei told Red all about her pokémon, Red told her all about his and Steven's, and they'd just moved on to how amazing it was that Yellow could do so much with a butterfree when it was all finally over.

Once they were outside, Ruby immediately declared, "I have to go fix this while I'm deeply inspired." He turned to Red, pointed at his hair and said, "Magically grow it before the wedding, I don't like that length on you. It's tacky."

On reflex, Red touched the back of his neck, feeling the end of his hair. "What's the rush?"

"Style, you horrible false messiah," Ruby sniffed. He turned dramatically away. "I have to go. It's too much for me." And he Apparated away.

"How long has he been allowed to Apparate?" Red asked.

"He can't legally," N replied. "We all know the lack of legitimate value in the majority of magical laws, though."

Some things never change.

"We're going to meet Black and Gold for lunch now," N informed them. "And Kyouhei, I suppose."

When he realised they were actually meeting Black, Gold and Kyouhei in a café, the normalcy of it made Red's head spin. He pretended it didn't, but even when Gold called out "Bro! Bro-in-law! Not-my-sis!" it felt unreal. Even when they were sitting down and talking, it felt unreal. Red kept expecting someone to say something about life-threatening danger, the return of Team Rocket, anything terrible, but there wasn't anything terrible. Or, nothing more terrible than figuring out how to send out so many wedding invitations without compromising an entire army of Flying-Type pokémon.

Red knew he'd get used to it. He just wished he could skip to that point.

Mid-way through lunch, Kyouhei started staring at Red. He suddenly announced, "I wanna play you in the movie adaption of the books about your life."

Red stared back.

"Hmm, maybe a HBO series would be better," Kyouhei mused. "I'm really good at shrugging and staring though. That's the point."

Red asked, "There are books about me?"

Kyouhei shrugged pointedly. "Eh? See? See?"

Black rolled his eyes.

"Anyway, no, there aren't books about you yet," Kyouhei said. "Maybe if my big brother were to write them…"

"Come on, little brother, that's not gonna happen," Black said.

Red shrugged. Kyouhei clicked his tongue, gesturing at Red with finger pistols. Red ignored him and said, "I don't mind."

"Someone's bound to do it sooner or later," Gold pointed out. "Or were you looking forward to Shauntal Sakkaguchi writing some smut-fest about our lives?"

"Obviously not," Black replied. "I figured Wallace would probably publish a bunch of books about it all from Azkaban."

"Oh yeah," Gold gasped. "And it'd all be so fake apology, like, long pauses to rant about how he thought he'd made the best choice given the political climate, the nature of fascism, whatever. The usual. And he'd like, send signed copies straight to Red and Alder."

"He's not that bad any more," Red muttered. "He's genuinely sorry. And he did a lot to help us."

"You wouldn't be alive without him," N said. "But none of this would've happened if he hadn't sold out your parents."

There was a long silence. They'd had the conversation a million times.

"So," Gold said, "looks like it's up to Shauntal, huh?"

"I could still star in an adaption of that," Kyouhei mused.

"No, you can't," Black replied.

"They'd smut it down for TV!" Kyouhei cried. "Right, Mei?!"

"I don't want anything to do with this weird dream of yours Kyou," Mei replied.

Kyouhei sighed thoughtfully. "If I'm in a sex scene, will Hue finally notice me?"

"Stop trying to make him jealous, you'll mentally scar us all in the process," Black said.

Gold grinned. "Yeah, what you should do is call him a slut and get beaten up then get engaged a few days later in a bathroom while he's throwing up."

"It's been six years, I think it's time for you to stop kinkshaming us," N said.

Black and N had to go sort something to do with a venue out. Red wasn't really listening. He knew N would call him if they needed anything, now that he'd properly offered. Kyouhei and Mei went with them. Gold hung back, looking nervously at Red.

"What's wrong?" Red asked.

Gold shook his head. "I dunno. Just been thinking."

"About?"

Gold smiled weakly. "What to do now. In general, I mean, not, at this exact moment."

Red stared. "Oh. I thought I was the only one."

Gold laughed nervously. "Why d'ya think those idiots're rushing through the wedding thing, huh? They dunno what else to do, but they don't wanna stop." He scratched the back of his head. "Actually, I thought, you knew what you were doing. Were doing what you wanted. Whatever. You actually know how to stop."

Red blinked. He hadn't thought of it like that. "I'm not doing anything. I just keep remembering everything."

"And I keep trying not to remember anything," Gold said. He groaned. "Aw, shit, Red, I had it easiest, I think, and the shit I saw with Silver was just — I knew how upset he'd be. I knew how upset you'd be. And I get it, I swear, I do, I always did, I used all this personal shit Silver told me to get what I wanted. Part of me hopes he'll never forgive me. 'Cos I'm not sorry. I don't regret it at all. So, what's that say about me?"

"I dunno," Red admitted. "Probably not anything as bad as you think."

Gold whined. "See, I did horrible things, so I don't wanna stop. If I stop I think and I remember. But I dunno what to do."

Red didn't know what to say.

"I kinda wanna go back to hunting down Rockets with Alder," Gold admitted. "I kinda wanna get away from it all. Maybe I should start a bakery with Dia?"

"Could you really stand to stay in Sinnoh that long?" Red asked.

Gold pulled a face. "Okay, point, and three-way PDA is the worst, someone needs to stage an intervention for him, Pearl and Platina. Unless I'm just jealous?"

"You're jealous."

"Aw, shit!"

Red shrugged. "You should help Black and N with the wedding. They're in over their head."

"Oh, dude, I know, Black almost started crying before," Gold sighed. "He's having nightmares, so N's having nightmares, y'know. Maybe it's a good time to be single, so I only have to worry about my own stupid dreams."

"I'll help too," Red said. "And then… I dunno."

"Maybe I should stop and think," Gold said.

"It's overrated."

Gold hugged him. "Thanks bro," he mumbled. "Sorry. I know that was weird."

Red wanted to say, How many times did you look after me? This is nothing. But Gold wouldn't want to hear that. So he said, "Nah. It's fine."

Gold pulled away. "Well. Guess I'd better go catch up to the lovebirds before they end up crying over, I dunno. Stationary?"

Red nodded. "I gotta call Ash before Green gets home."

"You two aren't gonna torture yourselves to get married, right?"

Sometimes Red called himself 'Red Oak' when he didn't want to bother with the Potter thing. Gold definitely knew that. "Why bother?"

Gold laughed. "Yeah. See ya."

"Bye."

Red took the long way back to avoid Delia's house. He let Char and Umbreon out for the walk. Char alternated between flying ahead and stomping along. Umbreon followed in his shadow to avoid the sun, but seemed happy.

Ash had finally left on his Pokémon Journey three months ago. It'd taken Red a lot to persuade Delia it was safe enough. He'd even had to hire bodyguards to stalk Ash. And Pika was almost instantly bored with the domestic thing, so Red asked if he'd go with Ash.

"I hate Ash," Pika replied.

Red shrugged. "You don't have to stay with me if you're bored. I like having you with me, but I don't want you to be bored."

Pika decided to go with Ash. Red missed him all the time. But Pika was happy and quickly decided he loved Ash. They were a better fit — Ash also never wanted to stop exploring the world. Red had seen enough.

Ash answered the phone with an excited, "Hi cousin!"

"Hey," Red replied. "How's it going?"

"We got our third Gym Badge! Right, Pikachu?!"

"I fucking hate that raichu," Pika cheerfully chirped.

Ash talked for a long, long time about the pokémon he'd seen, the people he'd met, and the thieves who kept trying to steal Pika. That made Red suspicious, so he asked to talk to Pika.

"Hi loser," Pika said.

"Hey. Still having fun?"

"Uh-huh. Ash is cooler than you," Pika said.

"I'm sure," Red agreed. "Have Jessie, James and Meowth been messing with you again?"

"Yes," Pika replied. It sounded like he was smirking. "They're fun to electrocute."

Typical. He and Delia hired them to keep an eye out for any Rockets that might attack Ash, and they kept playing Team Rocket. Red would never understand why such inherently good people tried so hard to be bad.

Pika mumbled something uncomfortable about missing him before throwing the phone at Ash. Red could tell he'd thrown it by the clattering and Ash's cry.

"Are you still there?" Ash asked.

"Yeah, I'm still here," Red replied. He leant against the kitchen counter. "Which Gym are you going to next?"

Ash didn't actually have a strategy for tackling the Gyms. It sounded like he was more into just kicking down the door of every Gym he happened to encounter and kicking their arses.

Red was so proud.

After Ash was all ranted out, Green came home. That was when Red realised he'd been listening to Ash for almost two hours. Crystal, Silver and Blue were with him.

"Hi," Red said, surprised.

"Yo," Green said. "Good day?"

Red shrugged. "N doesn't know how zips work and Black's little brother kept talking about playing me in a sex scene."

"Pretty normal then," Green concluded.

"Was Ruby okay?" Crystal asked.

"Yeah," Red replied. "Left pretty quickly to fix N's dress, something about inspiration?"

"He hasn't been as diligent about making clothes since Dad died," Crystal explained. "He was worried about not having your bridesmaid dress finished. Did he mention?"

"Nope. It's fine though."

"He'll get it done," Crystal said. "Professionalism is one of his better traits."

"So, Reddy's wearing a pretty dress to the wedding, huh," Blue said, grinning at Green. "How's that make you feel?"

"It's really not that weird any more," Green replied.

"They're less effort to wear," Red dismissively replied.

"And you look good in them," Green added.

Red nodded. "Don't hit on me again, Blue."

"I'm taking White, actually," Blue declared. "So if it happens it's 'cos we're bored. Nothing personal."

"I'm gonna show Crys and Silver something in the lab," Green explained. "Blue's just here to be annoying."

"How unusual," Silver said.

"You love it," Blue retorted. As Green led Crystal and Silver through, Blue asked, "Aren't you gonna offer me something to drink, like a good housewife?"

Red shrugged.

Blue smiled at him. "Actually, I was wondering if you knew that pokémon, what's it, Jirachi, came to visit White again."

"Nope," Red replied. He knew White was living in Unova (as were the triplets), which probably would've made the whole thing more interesting.

"Yeah, it wanted to check up on her," Blue said. "Is that usual? Yellow said it's supposed to sleep for like, a crazy long time."

"I think it wakes up way more than the rumours say."

Blue made a thoughtful noise. "It made her happy. So. I guess it doesn't matter. I'm looking forward to seeing her again. And the wedding being over and done with so she'll talk about things other than how excited she is for them."

"Always about you, isn't it," Red said.

Blue snorted. "What've you been doing, then?"

"Nothing."

"What a change."

She actually sounded sincere.

Silver came back in, looking apprehensively between them. Blue smiled reassuringly. "Got bored?"

"Yeah," Silver replied. "I don't care about that shit nearly half as much as Crys does."

Which, honestly, was probably why Green and Crystal became such good friends during their Seventh Year.

"Silver's latest little identity crisis is 'am I actually a nerd, or did I only care about learning stuff in case it helped stop Team Rocket'," Blue explained.

"Shut up," Silver groaned.

Red didn't know what to say. Luckily, Blue always had a lot to say.

"Red was just telling me more about whatever he was doing today with N," she said.

"I was?"

Blue nodded.

"Wedding dress fitting," Red said. "Black's little brother isn't actually doing porn. He just wants to make a movie about my life. Or a TV show, I think?"

"What a clever kid," Blue mused. "I bet I could do well on screen, you know. I'm pretty enough."

"Did you see Gold?" Silver asked.

Red nodded.

"Is he going back to Unova, or, wherever Alder is now?"

"Hoenn," Red replied. "And no."

"What is he doing then?" Blue asked.

Red shrugged. He didn't think he should say. "Why're you asking?"

Silver muttered. "Nothing. Just. Not so pissed off at him lately. Or something."

Then it probably wouldn't hurt for Red to say, "He's more pissed off at himself lately."

Silver nodded, and quickly pretended to see something interesting out the window. Maybe he actually had — Steven's skarmory came and went a lot.

Green and Crystal came back. Crystal tapped Silver on the shoulder and asked, "Ready to go?"

"I guess," Silver replied. "See ya, Red. Green."

As they left, Blue looked back at Red and mouthed: "Therapy o'clock."

Once the door closed behind them, Green quietly said, "Well. Crys would be pragmatic enough to make Silver try therapy."

"Are you gonna make me try it again?" Red asked.

"Meh. I think you're doing okay."

They always cooked dinner together. Green mostly got in the way, but Red didn't mind. It definitely made it easier to feed the pokémon — Snor was more awake in the evenings, and there was no way only one person could feed a hungry snorlax.

After dinner, they usually lounged around on the couch together. Red put the TV on and didn't watch it. Green read, or whatever nerdy thing university students masquerading as actual contributing members of society did. That night though, Red was tired, and remembering the day. Remembering what Gold has said to him.

Red lay down across the couch, so his head was in Green's lap. He looked up at Green as he continued to read, fingers running through Red's hair.

"Green?"

"Mm?"

"Do you know what you wanna do for the rest of your life?" Red asked.

"Pretty much, yeah," Green replied. "Why?"

"I dunno what I wanna do," Red admitted.

Green looked down at him. "I've pretty much always wanted to be a Pokémon Professor, what else would I do?"

Red frowned. "I didn't really want to be anything. Ever. Except not Red Potter, the Chosen One, destined destroyer of Team Rocket, partial horcrux."

"But you are," Green replied, "it's just over now."

"Then I dunno what to do next."

"Then think about it," Green said. "What's the rush?"

That was it, wasn't it? There was no rush. There'd always been a rush in the past. To destroy Giovanni and Team Rocket before they caused too much damage. To get the horcruxes. To figure out scheme after scheme. To figure out what Cyrus was up to. To win the Triwizard Tournament. To catch Alder when he'd thought he was evil. To close the Chamber of Secrets. To get the Philosopher's Stone. To do homework, exams, all that. To grow up and become a Pokémon Trainer just so he could leave the Ketchum's. To die.

Red didn't want to die any more. Not even a little. He wasn't scared of it, but he didn't want it like he'd used to. He really truly wanted to live, for his own sake, and it was terrifying. There was no rush, and there was nothing to stop him. He could do anything.

Smiling up at Green, Red asked, "What if I decided I wanna become Kanto Champion?"

"Then you'd kick their arses, duh," Green replied.

"What if I decided I wanna become Champion in every region?"

"Fine? You'd have a lot of paperwork and challenges to deal with, but whatever."

"What if I decided I wanna become an Auror?"

"I'd know you're messing with me."

Red's smile widened. "Pokémon Co-ordinator?"

"You'd need a lot of training with Ruby."

"Gym Leader?"

"I mean, you could, just doesn't seem very you."

"What if I decided I never wanna leave the house?"

"Then that'd be really unhealthy and I'd have to plan an intervention. I'm too busy to plan interventions, don't do that."

Red leant up and kissed him briefly before relaxing again.

"It's scary, isn't it?" Green said quietly. "Realising all of a sudden you've got the time and freedom to do anything."

Red nodded. "I didn't know… you too…?"

"Duh," Green snorted. "Why d'ya think I'm doing so much?"

"You're a nerd."

Green rolled his eyes. "That too. But no, I know, I wanna get Gramps' lab set up again. I wanna see the PokéDex completed. Except, I don't mind if it takes a while. University's just shit-easy, honestly, I wanna get it over with."

"I dunno what I want except this," Red said. "But I know I want more than this. Plus this."

"Is that actual ambition I'm hearing the start of?"

Red shrugged. "I guess."

"Oh baby, talk Slytherin to me," Green snorted. "C'mon. Let's go to bed."

Usually, Red wished things had turned out differently. He wished people who'd died were still alive. He wished Silver had an easier time forgiving them all. He wished everybody had an easier time living with everything. Sometimes he wondered about a world where Wallace hadn't given in to pressure and his parents had never died. But really, it was stupid to think about. He couldn't See it like N could, and Seeing it didn't make N any happier. And Red knew, when he'd processed everything better, he'd be happy. No, happier. Every day Red realised more and more, his entire life had been spent engulfed in love. No matter what happened in the future, Red was sure that would stay the same.

He listened to Green sleeping next to him and thought, This is a good start. Tomorrow I'll start training for the Pokémon League. Slowly. No rush.

Nineteen months later, and he was finally accepting there'd be hundreds more months to come.

Red closed his eyes. He was ready for tomorrow.

I have so many emotions right now, and will continue to do so for a very, very long time. I spent five years of my life on this fic, and I'm so glad for every moment. A lot happened to me in those five years. This fic was the only constant. I became so invested that this right now feels a lot like loosing a dear friend.

But a huge part of that feeling is you, the readers. I want to thank every single one of you. Especially those of you who took the time to give me feedback, support, ask questions, interact with me and this fic. But even those of you I never interacted directly with. I'm so grateful to you all. You kept me writing, and this fic kept me going through very hard times. The community and support behind this fic has been an amazing inspiration. Writing something that people would love and care about this much always felt like a distant dream. You all made it a reality. I can never express how much that means to me.

But I would like to extend very special thanks to two people:

Duelstrike, without whom this fic never would have been posted or completed. I'm not even sure if you know this, but it was in your room, looking at your PokéSpe manga, talking about the lack of Gold/Silver fics that suited our needs, that this first entered my mind. Maybe I mentioned it at the time, I don't remember. What I do remember is talking to you about it later, being convinced it was a good idea.

And second: my best friend. For all the long walks talking about this fic, for all the art she drew and sent me, for all the more recent art I found in her sketchbooks years after I thought she'd gotten sick of hearing about it. If I have one regret, it's never getting the chance to say: Thank you for always being my biggest fan. But if I'll learn one thing from that regret combined with this fic, it's that I don't need to be so afraid of love or my own dreams any more. Your memory makes me braver every day.

If I could choose one message for people to take from this fic (whether it's in the text or not), it would be this: cherish the people in your life while you can. Don't just love them; make them feel loved. Because if you can do that, no matter what you do in life, no matter what happens to you, I believe you'll have a happy one. I'll be doing my best to live that life. Which is exactly why this final note is the way it is.

Thank you all for everything.