A/N:
I have nothing to say for myself other than Hollow Knight, The Owl House, and freaking SPIRITFARER have taken over my life and then Legends Arceus came in with the steel chair.

"I swear, if you put maple syrup on those—"

"You'll do what?" The boy quipped, the smile audible in his voice. You groaned in frustration, your face wrinkled in anger. The boy laughed at your reaction.

"Just try them, before you ruin them with syrup, you jerk!" the boy paused, before shrugging. He tore a piece off of a French toast slice and popped it into his mouth. His face went blank, while chewing. It was if he was pondering the taste of the French toast. You didn't think you did that bad.

A few seconds had passed, before you decided ask if he liked the food.

"So.... What do you think?" He stared off into empty space, his face furrowed in concentration. Was he confused?

"It's... I don't know." You frowned at his response, maybe French toast wasn't his forte.

"It's okay, you don't have to eat anymore of it. I can make you something else—" You reeled back as the boy jumped up.

"No! No! It's not a bad thing! It's just.." the boy faced away from you, while scratching his neck, "I've never had this, 'French toast,' and... It. well.. took me by surprise." His face was still turned away from you, hidden by his jet black hair. You spotted the tell-tale crimson painted on his cheeks. Aw, he was embarassed. You leaned back in your chair, arms crossed over your chest.

"So... I am guessing, you want more?" You smirked, an eyebrow raised. Your answer was him piling more french toast onto his plate. You laughed as he shoveled it into his mouth

-

"So... Red, is there any other games you play, besides Pokemon?"

RED perked up from the book he was reading the back summary of. It was something called, 'THE TWO FACES OF TOMORROW.'

"Uh, no... I only play Pokemon," you raised an eyebrow at that, and sighed.

"...And I'm guessing it's only gen 1? Particularly the original Gameboy games?" RED perked up at your words.

"Uh... yeah, how did you know?" You groaned, before facepalming. God, this guy was dense.

"Um, the cosplay? It's not the FireRed and Leafgreen style??" You gestured to his clothing, "plus, I watched you walk into the used games section of Gamestop, the other day. On your way there, you were sneering at the new stuff. I know a genwunner, when I see one!"

If his pride wasn't on the line, RED's jaw would've dropped in shock. You knew he preferred the old games AND you knew the difference between the old and new games. While the word 'cosplay' irked him, you knew there two different Reds. You also, knew he hated the new games. What was a 'genwunner'?

"...What's a genwunner?" You groaned, while rolling your eyes.

"The term is used for someone who prefers the original original of their favorite series. Most commonly used for people who get mad when there's a new release, even if it's undeserved. It's a play on 'gen 1.'" You droned, eyes rolled. You made it sound like it was common knowledge.

"Yeah, well, maybe the originals are better than the new ones!" the boy remarked. You raised an eyebrow, before smirking.

"Yeah, to those who played or watched them... as kids!" you answered, before turning your back to him. Unable to witness his grimace of silent anger.

"Just because they are 3D.. or have color, doesn't mean they're better."

You froze, before turning to face him.

"But, the new games have a better story?"

"But, was it fun?"

You though for a moment, tapping your chin with an index finger.

"Yeah, I didn't feel like I had to spend hours grinding so I could beat one gym."

RED furrowed his brow. At that moment, he didn't look like a bratty kid or some dude who was way into the game boy games. He kinda looked more mature than that. He wasn't accusing the designs of being unoriginal or anything else, he was genuinely asking why you liked them.

"But did it feel as rewarding?"

You stopped, thinking back about the games. How you breezed through them. You being focused on the story, rather than the mechanics.

"No... actually, sure, there were mechanics for me to pamper and play with my pokemon... but..."

You thought back to your first playthrough on the one of the two. How you had walked through the trials with no difficulty. How only one of your battles with your rival, had surprised you, but it wasn't a difficult fight, either.

The only one that made you actually feel a challenge... wasn't even the champion. It was Lusamine.

You grew a severe hate for clefables after that.

"...but?"

You were snapped out of your thoughts by RED. Who happened to be sitting cross-legged on the ottoman in front of you, head tilted. His face held no smugness,  just curiosity.

Your shoulders relaxed and you took a deep breath.

"... I guess you're right." You smiled.

The red-eyed boy straightened in surprise, eyes widened. He then shook his head before giving you a perplexed look.

"Why though? You didn't answer my question."

Your smile faltered and looked towards the bookshelves.

"Well... the games were fun." You wrung your hands, figuring out how to word your thoughts, "but... it did feel like the game was holding your hand the whole way...." You walked over to your desk, fishing through one of the drawers.

You heard movement behind you, before seeing a shadow darken your view; your guest probably was curious.

You sighed and to pull out random stuff from the drawer; it must be deeper in there than you expect.  You pulled out random papers and folders. With a quick glance, you realized they were actually graded schoolwork from previous years.

It was then that you struck gold when you felt the familiar ribbed teeth and heard the clinkle of a zipper. You gasped and tugged it out of the drawer; it was heavier than you imagined.

RED tilted his head. He watched as you caressed the odd pouch covered in patterns. You zipped open the bag, and pulled out something similar to the weird portable device you were playing earlier.

Except this one was bigger.

It also had a weird black circle in the corner, instead of two in the middle.

You set down the weird device, before pulling out a couple of plastic chip... things. He watched you scrutinize each of them, face wrinkled into a pout. Before your face lit up into a big smile. You grabbed the weird black circle device with such speed and aggression, it caused him to jump.

'Wow, such scare. Very fright...' he could hear BEN say, if he was here. RED stifled the grumble attempting to surface.

He watched as you turned on the weird device. He shuffled over behind you to get a look.

The screen flashed white before opened with a mellow jingle as the words: 'Nintendo DSi' showed on the screen.

RED tilted his head at the name; it sounded way more serious to be a gaming device. Atleast 'Gameboy' seemed more casual.

You stiffened as the boy behind you leaned over your shoulder, his head perfectly adjacent to yours. He was practically an inch away from laying on you.

You focused back on the game console, trying not to let you brain drift too far into implications you don't want to think about.

You reached a hand into the game pouch and fished out a stylus. It was Legend of Zelda themed; it had the the signature shield on the side of it. You smiled as you thought about when one of your friends had gotten it for you. You had a knack for losing styluses like any DS owner. How fitting you got a pack of these Zelda themed ones and only had the one left.

You tapped the screen, send you to the DSi homescreen. You watch as the few games, you had bought digitally, showed up as well as the usual extra things, like the DSi camera.

Speaking of camera, you looked up at the top screen and gasped.

It was a picture of one of your pets. When they were still around.

You had to stifle the potential torrent of emotions. Now was not the time to break down.

You mentally noted that picture for later; you needed to save that picture onto a computer or print it out. Or any potential others you had of them.

You shook yourself out of your reverie and reached over for the specific game cartridge you were desperate to play. With a click, it locked into the slot of the console.

RED watched as you turned the device to its back and put the weird green sticker chip in. (Oh it's a cartridge... wow they're small. They must get lost easily.) He heard a plink noise sound from the device as you turned it back to the front.

There was a square on the bottom screen with a pink circle with a white ring around it, it also had a pair of white wings attached.

With use of the control pad you moved to that box. When you did, a speech bubble popped up with words. It said-

"Pokémon Mystery Dungeon... Explorers of.... Sky?" RED blurted out. What on earth had he missed. What was a mystery dungeon??

You jumped at his warm breath hitting your ear, weird sensation, before replying.

"Yeah, it was one of my favorite games growing up.  I had so much trouble defeating Primal Dialga, though." You scrunched your face saying that name. So many revival seeds you had saved up that just.... went down the drain. You fainted so. many. times.

RED tilted his head at the name. It must be a new Pokémon.

"When you said, 'was it rewarding?' It... kinda reminded me of these DS games. Or, mainly this one to be exact." You bit your lip before continuing, "and, yeah. The new new ones are fun... up until you're done with the main story* it's really just completionist stuff and nothing but battling previous champions." You shuddered at the thought of Cynthia.

You pressed the 'A' button causing both screens to fade to black before opening to the intro sequence. Younger you would have skipped past it many times after the first time awe wore out. But you hadn't touched this game or console in years. It was time to revel in it.

You had too many emotions that tears started to collect around your eyes; the intro song was very nostalgic.

RED was stupefied. He usually wasn't impressed with the new games, but... these weren't.... like his.

It looked like Pokemon in the setting of Zelda, to him. He had visited both BEN and Shadow Link's games, before. This game reminded him of those.

Bur he was surprised by the little snippets of gameplay in the intro. Showing two Pokemon face a bigger one that was roaring at them. Did you play as a Pokemon? He didn't see any trainers in the game.

The music sounded... okay. He wasn't jealous or anything.

The intro ended, coming to the menu. The background was a drawing of a pair of pokemon wearing scarves holding that same symbol he saw.

It was then that you decided to continue talking.

"I... kind of understand your view on newer games, now that you mention it. Yes, older games are a bit more difficult but that's the point. It's supposed to be difficult, that's why it's rewarding." RED perked up at your voice, listening intently. You continued, eyes focused on the menu screen, "but, I am also of the opinion that I like the newer ones because they have a story, not just about 'gotta catch em all!' stuff. I mean... I do like the games that just focus on that... But, there's a reason I love this game."

You reached into the bag, again. Grabbing a few of the game cartridges before grabbing the two you were looking for. You scooched back just enough to make eye contact with the boy without him being in your personal space.

You held up the two cartridges. RED looked at you and then looked at the cartridges, before getting a closer look.

"Pokemon Black and... Pokemon White?" RED perplexed.

You smiled, "yeah, these are the other games I like a lot. Not as much as this one," you shrugged the arm holding the DSi, "but it's for the same reason, regardless. It has plot, and it's well written."

RED's eyebrows rose.

"Uh, well, for a Pokemon game, at the very least. There are a lot of shows with better plot." You sheepishly shrugged.

RED gave you a look of disappointment. You sheepishly shrugged back, in response.

"But, uh, if you want, you can... play it." You looked over at the boy, offering him the device.

-

RED was conflicted. He did not like new games, but... the game looked like so much fun. It didn't look like any of his replacements. It was... different.

And he was curious

RED looked over at you. Your face wasn't judging or impatient. You just had a soft smile. Your head tilted as you held out the device even closer to him.

He reached out and grabbed it.

He brought it closer to himself. He looked at the menu, noticing that there was already a save file.

You leaned over his side and noticed the issue.

"Uh... oops! Uhm. I knew I forgot to do something... heh heh....." You scratched the back of your head, awkwardly.

RED continued to be silent; he was trying to process everything happening. You continued.

"Alright! So here's how you make a new save...."

A/N:
If the setting of this story took place in this current time. You know Reader-chan would be freaking over Legends Arceus. Also end-game spoiler PTSD, as well.. (you can't escape her, that's all I'll say.)

I'll try to write another chappie for you guys... I might draw some pics bc I am having Feelings™️ after reading the three previous chapters. I must draw RED getting comfort from Reader-chan-- 😩😭

*this is a friendly reminder that this takes place BEFORE Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon.