Bill averted his eyes away from Sammy’s pout, laughing nervously as he did.
“I know, I know I’m sorry.” He grinned. “Don’t worry though, usually I’ll end up falling asleep at the desk if it gets to be too much.” He looked back at Sammy to see the boy smiling again, which was good. He didn’t smile too often, it was a shame.
“Then it’s settled, we’ll get going. But you’re not going anywhere without a coat.” He fussed. He worried about the boy sometimes, he had no regard for himself at all. Bill reckoned he wouldn’t realise he was ill until someone told him, and even then he probably wouldn’t believe it. That’s why Bill felt he had some kind of father-like duty towards Sammy. He wanted to look after him.
“Come on in, Eevee’s shivering.” He turned and headed back into the cottage, not bothering to take off his shoes at the door. He turned and waited for Sammy to follow, holding open the door.
“That’s not good for you though. Not at all!” Of course, Sammy failed to mention that he himself hardly slept, but he had always been like that! So surely that was okay.
Sammy sighed, knowing he shouldn’t really be arguing with Bill. He murmured his reluctant agreement about borrowing a coat…
Bill’s coat.
Suddenly his face grew slightly red. He was going to be wearing Bill’s coat. That meant it would smell like Bill, and that Bill would have worn it and—he stopped himself from getting too carried away. Bill was his mentor, not his boyfriend. Borrowing a coat meant nothing.
Sammy followed Bill up into the cottage, also not removing his shoes. He nodded his thanks and set Eevee on the floor, who ran inside and immediately curled up by the fire, warming herself. Sammy giggled then looked at Bill.
“Do I really need a coat? This is fine!” He waved his arms about in protest as he spoke, the sleeves flapping where it was too big for him.
Bill smiled as Sammy came running up to him. The joy on the boy’s face spelled nothing but good news.
“She did. That’s great! Well done Eevee.” Bill reached out and scratched Eevee behind her ear.
“Eh? Oh no, I’m fine. I’m just enjoying the view. Besides, the cold’s keeping me awake. I didn’t sleep at all last night.” He admitted, somewhat sheepishly.
“The sky really is beautiful like this isn’t it? What do you say we take a walk to Cerulean City? You can borrow one of my coats, because I refuse to believe you’re fine in just that little jacket.” He emphasised his point by taking hold of Sammy’s sleeve and holding the end between his fingers, demonstrating just how thin the material was.
“Come and bring Eevee inside and we’ll head out, okay?”
Sammy felt his cheeks growing red as Bill praised his Eevee. Even though he hadn’t said so, Sammy knew the praise was aimed at them both. After all, as Eevee’s trainer he was partly responsible for how well Eevee was doing.
“You didn’t sleep? But Bill, you promised you’d stop doing that, you um, you worry me.” He pouted, looking at Bill with an unamused expression. However his smile quickly returned when Bill mentioned Cerulean City.
“I’d love to! It’s been a while since I went without just passing through.” He looked down at Eevee, who seemed to be shivering slightly.
“Ah, yeah, I should bring her in…And I don’t want a coat! This is fine, really!” He tugged back his sleeve and held Eevee properly again.
The day had begun somewhat promising, with cold but calm winds nipping at people willing to embrace the winter to go about their daily lives. It wasn’t quite cold enough to freeze the stream passing through routes twenty four and twenty five, but by four in the afternoon the ice was thickset and strong enough to support curious Pokemon who strayed onto it.
Bill remained in the warmth of his cottage, sat at his work desk by the front window. He sighed and leant back in his chair, looking out of the window as he did. The sun was already setting, and the orange, sun-kissed sky was set alight by pink-tinted clouds that painted a truly spectacular picture. The PokeManiac smiled softly to himself, curling his fingers around the fur of his Vulpix as the Pokemon brushed against him. His eyes strayed across the view of the window; Cerulean Cape was almost empty of people for once, which meant the area was also quiet for once. Stretching his arms up behind his head, Bill fell back over his desk, forcing himself to continue writing up an email to Celio. His eyes itched from his all-nighter, however, and after spelling his own assistant’s name wrong countless times, he saved the email as a draft and closed his laptop.
Standing, Bill headed for the front door of his home, grabbing a coat as he opened it. It certainly was freezing out, as his breath began to mist and swirl before his eyes. He stood in the doorway, glancing about for his young assistant.
As it happened, Sammy was just finishing up his training at the far end of Route 24. The young Eevee that he’d recently received from Bill was quickly growing stronger, and soon should be ready for real battles.
“You did great! I’m really proud of you.” He told the Pokemon, who jumped into the boy’s arms and snuggled into his chest for warmth.
“It has gotten really cold, hasn’t it?” He commented, looking at how beautiful the sky looked right now. “Maybe we should head back.” Eevee purred her agreement, making Sammy laugh.
“Lets tell Bill how great you were today!” The teen smiled, cuddling Eevee close to himself as he began the walk back.
The months really had flown by since Sammy had moved into the Sea Cottage as Bill’s assistant. He hadn’t even meant to, but he was definitely grateful for it. Bill had been really kind to him, he’d taught Sammy so much, and even trusted him to do field work for him. Sammy was determined to make Bill proud of him, so he worked as hard as he could on every task Bill gave him.
As he neared Cerulean Cape, he saw Bill standing at the door to the cottage. Sammy grinned and dashed over, greeting Bill as he got to the door.
“Eevee did really well today! She can use Sand-Attack now.” He exclaimed, hugging Eevee tightly as he spoke.
“Um, why are you standing out here? Won’t you get cold?”
“Yeah, definitely,” he said with a laugh. Gold glanced around, then shivered a little. “Hey, it’s getting really cold, isn’t it? I probably shouldn’t stay out much longer.” He moved away from the pole, glancing around again. “So… You have somewhere to go, right?”
As if in response to Gold’s comment, Sammy shivered as well. He knew he shouldn’t have gone out without a coat. Why was he so dumb sometimes?
“Y-yeah it really is. I don’t like the Winter.” He pouted, shuffling his feet. He wouldn’t have minded talking to Gold a little longer, but it was getting very cold, and Bill would probably come looking for him, soon.
“Ah, yeah. My friend will be wondering where I am.” Sammy shivered again. “Well then, it was good meeting you Gold. Take care!”
With that the boy turned and headed up the street by the Game Corner, before disappearing completely round the corner, a smile spreading across his face as he went.
“Yeah she’s something alright.” Gold chuckled softly. “She also completed the Pokedex for Kanto, Johto and Hoenn. She’s a capturing expert you know.”
Gold stared at the boy, laughing at his reaction. “Yeah well, I am pretty awesome.” He didn’t want to bring up the fact that Silver was a better trainer than him, and probably always would be. “But you know, I’m too modest to let it get to my head.”
Sammy continued to stare in awe as Gold listed Crystal’s achievements. Not only was he awesome but his fiance was pretty amazing too? Suddenly he felt very inferior.
“That’s amazing, it really is. Ever since I first saw a Pokedex I’ve always wanted one, writing notes on paper just isn’t the same, ‘yknow?” As he spoke, Sammy removed his glasses and wiped the lenses on his sleeve. It was growing colder and the glass had steamed up, slightly.
Sammy wasn’t really sure how to reply. He didn’t want to accuse Gold of lying, but this guy clearly wasn’t modest. Then again, with greatness comes a pretty big ego.
“I can tell.” He said, simply, nodding in agreement.
“Yeah, I do.” Gold smiled to himself as he thought about her. “Of course, we won’t get married for a while yet, but… yeah,” he frowned slightly as he said this, then shook his head as though he was trying to forget something. “Her name’s Crystal, she’s an assistant to Professor Oak.” For a moment, he wondered what she was doing right now, then realized she was probably just doing work at her desk as usual.
He grinned. “Oh, me? Yeah I’m pretty good. I don’t mean to brag or anything but, I stopped the guy who reformed Team Rocket.” Gold laughed, then cleared his throat. “Well, you know, I had help of course.” He shrugged. “Oh but hey, don’t worry about it. A lot of people get annoyed by me for some reason.”
Sammy smiled as Gold did. It was always nice to see people who loved each other, and Gold obviously loved Crystal a lot. He noticed Gold’s sentence trailing off, but said nothing.
“Crystal? Hm, no I don’t know her, but wow if she works for Professor Oak she must really be something!” He grinned.
At this, Sammy’s mouth fell open a little. He looked somewhat unbelieving for a moment but something told him Gold wouldn’t lie about that.
“That’s…oh wow, you really did? Gosh you must be amazing! Unless that guy was a pushover..but I doubt that.” He gushed out his words without pausing to breath, just stumbling over syllables a lot. He’d found a pretty amazing trainer without even doing anything. Sammy wondered what kinds of Pokemon Gold had, but in his excitement didn’t think to ask.
“Yeah I prefer cities to towns mostly…” Gold glanced around as more people started to walk past them. “Study ‘em huh?” He looked at Sammy again. “My fiance does that too, although she’s also a trainer.” He leaned against a lamp post, putting his hands in his pockets.
“Me, I’m not much of a… lab kinda guy. It bores me honestly. The only study I do of Pokemon is through battling.” Gold laughed at this, then blinked. “Uh… It’s okay, you don’t need to get all embarrassed about it.”
Sammy blinked. Fiance? How old was this guy?
“You have a fiance?” He asked, looking back at Gold. “What’s her name?” It wasn’t that he expected to know her, but if she was a Pokemon researcher then he might recognise her name.
“I prefer studying them, I think. I’m not all that violent, and I hate seeing them get hurt. Maybe that’s because there’s a Pokemon fan club in Vermilion though and I grew up not so far from it.” He laughed.
“I really admire trainers though. At least, the amazing ones. So Gold, how good are you?”
“Sorry, people always say I’m too excitable, it annoys them too, I guess.” He replied, laughing nervously.
“Oh, that’s… cool I guess.” Gold shrugged. Kanto had never seemed all that interesting to him. He knew Red and the rest of his seniors had come from there, but other than that he couldn’t see anything exciting there.
Gold shrugged at the question. “Yeah, I guess that’s part of it. New Bark’s a nice place, but it can get kinda boring if you’re there all the time. At least for me.” He chuckled softly. “So Sammy, are you a trainer?”
Sammy just hummed his agreement, glad Gold seemed to have given up asking about him. The sky grew gradually darker and the street lights began to flicker into life, even though it was still too early to be called evening yet. But that was the nature of Winter, Sammy supposed. He just hoped it didn’t get any colder.
“Small towns are nice and quiet, but I know what you mean about being there all the time. I spent a few years in a pretty dead town, too.” He nodded his head a little in agreement as he spoke.
“A trainer? Well..sort of. I have Pokemon, but I’m not much good at battling. I know a lot about Pokemon though, I study them!” He exclaimed, a little too excitedly. His face flushed as he realised how loudly he had spoken the end of that sentence.
“Ah um..s-sorry.” He stammered, looking to his left to hide his face behind his hair.
![[ ooc: Credit for these sexy things goes to thiefofdick ]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lv2zaygFVn1r6mbfio1_500.png)
[ ooc: Credit for these sexy things goes to thiefofdick ]
