Blue awoke bright and early the next morning. Well, not "bright," but definitely early. It had to be about eight-thirty when he finally got up. Silver was supposed to meet Blue and Bede at the Gym by ten, quarter after at the latest.

After getting dressed and washing up, Blue decided to make himself some coffee while he waited for Bede to get up. He had a feeling the kid was a late sleeper, and he wasn't about to start the morning off with an angry marshmallow shooting him daggers. But he would knock on the door come nine because he didn't want to deal with another mob of pissed-off Gym challengers.

Believe it or not, Blue had actually come up with a plan of what to do with Bede today. Firstly, he'd have him sit in on a few more battles with some analysis afterwards. He'd even gone and written up a little list of questions he would ask Bede about the battles themselves.

   Following that, he'd totally not use Bede's idea and quiz him on different Pokémon and what strategies would be required to defeat them. And if those weren't enough, he was thinking that Bede could actually have a hand at battling a few challengers himself (with their agreements of course). He would probably be sick of sitting around if he already wasn't.

Really, Blue was positive that everything he had planned was what the other Kanto leaders had done as well, but every Leader was different, they all had their own methods. At least that was what he told himself. And there was no real counting on Bede's cooperation, so it was like a Snipe Shot in the dark.

As Blue was finishing off his first cup of coffee, he heard the creak of a door opening. He was startled for a moment before realizing it was just Bede finally getting up, and he tossed a glance to the office door.

Bede stood in the mostly-open doorway, clearly still half-asleep as he was rubbing his foggy eyes. His hair was an absolute mess, sticking out every which-way and resembling a tangled, curly cloud... or unbrushed Wooloo wool. Silver had unfortunately won that one. But Blue wouldn't have thought that Bede owned pink pajamas. They actually looked like they would be pretty comfy, too.

"Uh, mornin'," Blue said. "I was actually gonna wake you up in a few minutes. Sleep well?"

Bede froze when he heard Blue speak. Any tiredness plaguing him vanished instantly as his eyes widened, and he looked at Blue. Their gazes met for a split-second before Bede slammed the door shut.

"Good morning to you too," Blue muttered, taking another drink. If that wasn't a good omen for how the day was going to go, he didn't know what was.

Minute after minute passed, and Blue had a feeling Bede wasn't actually going to come out of that room any time soon. He just decided to finish getting ready himself and went to get out some cereal. Even if Bede wasn't hungry, he sure as hell was.

Another fifteen minutes passed, and Blue startled when he heard the sink turn on in the bathroom. He hadn't even heard the office door open again, and somehow Bede managed to slip into the bathroom without him knowing. The kid was a damn Zorua! At least he remembered which door it was.

It wasn't until Blue went to get a second bowl of Applin Jacks that Bede finally made his real appearance. He was already bundled up in his magenta coat, his hands shoved in his pockets as he leered at Blue. His hair had been sufficiently tamed, and Blue could smell the hair gel he'd used from where he was.

"Lemme try this again. Good morning," Blue said. "If you're hungry, there's cereal on the counter, and milk's in the fridge. Hope you're not lactose intolerant, but I have a feelin' you aren't."

"You use the same brand of gel as me," Bede said as he went to the counter. "I don't know how to feel about that."

Out of all the things Bede could have said, and it was that. "Uh, me neither?" Blue said hesitantly. That just made him realize that he hadn't put all his hair products away before Bede was in the bathroom.

Bede soon came to the table with a bowl and a box of Lucky Chants, and Blue noticed that Bede wasn't frowning anymore. He actually looked somewhat... normal, even a bit happy. That all vanished the moment he poured the cereal, and few to none marshmallows tumbled out along with the dried cereal.

"What's this? Why is there only cereal?" Bede asked. Blue paused, slowly swallowing his mouthful of cereal. He wasn't about to say he went out of his way to pick out as many marshmallows as he could whenever he had Lucky Chants.

"No clue. I guess they skimped out on the marshmallows for that box?" Blue said innocently. Bede's gaze lingered on Blue a moment longer before he accepted his fate of having marshmallow-less cereal and just started eating. "Sleep well? Seemed like you had," Blue asked.

Bede's face flushed bright pink. "I refuse to answer that," he hissed through clenched teeth.

"Alright." Blue shrugged. "We're leaving in about ten minutes by the way, so keep that in mind."

Bede nodded, unhappily crunching away at his cereal. The lack of marshmallows truly seemed to be soul-crushing, and Blue felt a little bad for the kid. Then again, it was his cereal, he could eat a bowl of nothing but marshmallows if he damn well pleased!

"Are we actually going to be doing something today? Or are we just watching battles again?" Bede then asked. The slightest of smirks tugged at his mouth, like he was expecting Blue to not have an idea. Blue fought the urge to frown. Cut him a bit more slack? Blue was already having trouble with that.

"You looked like you were enjoying it, but yeah, we're doing somethin' different," Blue replied. "There's still gonna be some battle-watching though."

Bede sighed. "Thank Arceus." Blue could tell the sigh was a little too forced. He wouldn't admit how he really felt it, would he? Well, Blue wasn't about to push him.

They arrived at the Gym a few minutes late, thanks to Bede. He insisted on "touching up" before they left, which probably meant brushing out his hair again or something. Blue couldn't care less since at least it technically wasn't his fault that they were late. Silver could take it up with Bede, not him.

Blue wasn't surprised when he saw the group of Trainers waiting outside the Gym, but he was at how many there were. There had to be at least five as opposed to the usual two or so. Silver was standing off to the side messing around on his Pokégear, acting like he wasn't associated with the Gym.

"See, this is why we have a back door," Blue muttered, backing up.

"You can't face your challengers?" Bede scoffed.

"Not when there's five of 'em and the Gym's opening late." He ducked around the side of the building out of sight and pulled out his Pokégear, sending Silver a message. A moment later he got a reply, and all it said was "really???" Blue replied with a "yes" and entered the Gym through the back door.

Once inside the Gym, Blue quickly turned on all the lights, making it seem like everything was already up and running. Even if Bede and Silver knew otherwise, Blue at least wanted to have the appearance of a competent Gym Leader.

The moment he opened the door, the challengers swarmed in like angry Beedrill, Silver trailing in behind them while giving Blue a judgemental look. "Just take the first one and start battling..!" Blue urged with a forced smile. Silver rolled his eyes and divvied up the Trainers. With a death glare that came easy to him, he was able to keep them in line.

It turned out that the Trainers were one big group of friends that had been traveling together for their journeys. Blue never saw the appeal of traveling in a group, since himself and his Pokémon were more than enough. But that meant that the four other challengers were taking up bleacher space, forcing Blue and Bede to sit up higher.

"So pay attention to this battle, 'cause I have some stuff I'm gonna ask ya about it." And he'd also keep an eye out for a challenger who might be willing to take Bede on.

Bede regarded Blue with a raised eyebrow. "Take my idea into consideration? I hope so, because it's a fine one, if I do say so myself." Now Blue was tempted not to just because of that.

"You'll see," he answered, which was all but an affirmation in Bede's eyes.

A couple of hours passed, battles and in-between breaks flying by. One by one the challengers went down, each being frankly obliterated by Silver's team. Blue was shocked at how bad these Trainers were. It wasn't their teams, they were good and fought well, but the Trainers were just a bit... incompetent. More than incompetent.

"Did they just rely on brute force to make it this far?" Bede scoffed.

"Looks like it," Blue agreed. "I dunno how they think they can get past me, let alone the Elite Four. It takes real skill to get anywhere close to being a real Trainer."

Bede smirked. "Which is something they clearly don't have," he added. Blue let out a quiet chuckle while Bede exhaled a quick, sharp laugh. For a brief moment the veil of tenseness lifted between the two Trainers, and they watched the match conclude in comfortable silence. Silver crushed his opponent's last Pokémon, and another break began as he went to heal his Pokémon and let them rest.

"So how do ya think the challenger could've won that battle?" Blue asked.

"Again?" Bede questioned before responding. "What would I have done? Obviously I would have switched Slowking out for Nidoqueen, even if Magnezone could evade any Ground moves she would know. Slowking may have known Flamethrower, but sometimes it's best to rely on skill and chipping away damage than type-advantages. Also, Dewgong against Weavile was moronic, since Weavile was clearly faster."

This was the fourth time Bede had rattled off battle corrections so quickly, and Blue was impressed with Bede's knowledge. "Not bad," he said with a smile. "You're pretty good at this." It wasn't often that he spared compliments like this, and he felt Bede deserved one.

Where Blue thought Bede would respond with at least a "thanks," instead his lip curled up in contempt. "Of course I would know something like that," he huffed. "What kind of simpleton do you take me for?"

And there went the good mood. "It's good that you were able to think of a solution so quickly," Blue said. "Usually takes me a couple seconds to think of somethin' like that."

"Then that perhaps says something about you?" The innocent look on Bede's face was so forced it was almost infuriating. Blue took in a slow, deep breath, briefly lamenting the lost levity and trying to shove down welling irritation. What did this kid have against him?

"Hey, isn't that one of the Gym Challengers from last year? In Galar?"

Both Blue and Bede took notice of the voice, coming from where the other challengers were sitting. One of the females was looking up at the pair, pointing at Bede. Out of the corner of his eye, Blue could see Bede's eyes widen slightly, and he got a sinking feeling that nothing good was going to happen from here. The gazes of the other challengers turned to Bede as new mutters started up.

"He's Bede Bedivere, right? One of Victor Masaru's old rivals?" one questioned.

Another scoffed. "I heard he was kicked from the challenge because he ruined some historical site."

"But he crashed the Champion Cup," the first pointed out.

"Probably because he wanted to salvage his pride." The second snickered. "Of course Victor beat him down."

"There's no stopping the new unbeatable Champion!" the third said with awe.

Blue gave Bede a glance, concerned about how he was taking all of this. Bede's gaze was trained elsewhere. His lips were pressed into a tight line as his shoulders trembled slightly.

Silver had returned from the Gym office by then, and it only took him a moment to piece together what was going on. He tried to quell the crowd, sharply calling, "Hey, you all—"

"I'm not just 'one of Victor's rivals,'" Bede said abruptly, cutting Silver off as he stood up. "I'll have you know that I'm going to be the next Ballonlea Gym Leader," he declared loudly, putting a hand to his chest as he stared down at the group of challengers. "I can take all of you in a battle, and quite easily."

The oldest-looking of the challengers stood as well, glaring up at Bede, who met his gaze unflinchingly. "That's some big talk from a kid like you," he said.

Bede crossed his arms, and his face remained blank save for the slight narrowing of his eyes. "Because I know I'm right," he said matter-of-factly. "Try me," he said with a sneer.

"No wonder Victor saw you as his rival. You're one of those Trainers who doesn't know when they're outmatched," the older Trainer retorted. "It's almost a shame the chairman kicked you out, you might've actually been able to hold a candle to Victor in the Champion Cup."

In an instant the look was gone as Bede's face again fell blank, but with shock. It only lasted a second as a scowl twisted it. The malice behind it was plain to see. He began to descend the bleachers, gaze locked on the Trainer. "Say that again," he spoke with a deadly slowness, clenching his fists. "Go on, say it you—"

Blue was about to step in when Silver thankfully did. He rushed up the stairs and put himself between the two quarrelers. His harsh stare was boring into the older Trainer. "You, back the hell off. You," he looked at Bede, "don't get involved with the challengers." Then his gaze went to Blue. "Take him somewhere else for now. I'll let you know when we're done."

"Y-yeah," Blue agreed, getting up. Things were going downhill quickly.

Even with the intervention, Bede wasn't deterred. He tried to push past Silver, only stopping when Blue seized him by his coat collar and pulled him back.

"Hey, watch it," he warned carefully. Bede turned on him, eyes burning with anger. But he didn't say anything, just glared. If the kid wasn't shorter than him, Blue would've found him intimidating. But that didn't discount any chance of breaking kneecaps. He let go of Bede's collar but made sure he wasn't about to do anything rash. Thankfully he didn't, and Blue was able to leave with Bede in relative peace.

Blue had no idea where he was taking Bede, really. There was no way they were going back to his apartment, so Blue just decided they'd walk around the nearby park, somewhere not too far away. He always went there whenever he was frustrated about something, and if it didn't help Bede, at least the scenery would be nice.

Bede was surprisingly quiet as they made their way to the park, and Blue cast him a glance. While he tried to act like he wasn't, Bede was still fuming. Blue knew what Bede was going through, and it frankly hurt to know. Even if it was a bad idea, he felt he had to say something. "I know what it's like to be in the shadow of your rival," he said. "It sucks, majorly."

"Stop talking to me," Bede muttered.

Blue choked back something not-so-nice and said, "I'm just trying to help. You genuinely seemed upset back there."

"It's their fault I was riled up." Bede sucked in a deep breath. "While the events of my Gym Challenge frustrate me to no end, I'm trying to move past it," he said, letting his breath out in a huff. "I'm not just 'Victor's rival,' I'm more than 'the challenger endorsed by the chairman.'"

"But... you should know that you'll never truly escape it," Blue said. "Silver will always be Gold's rival, you'll be Victor's, and I'll be Red's. It'll follow you around for the rest of your life."

Bede was silent for a moment, like he was thinking. Then he said, "You really like talking about Red, don't you?"

Blue's brow furrowed as he shook his head. "I don't, but it's not like I can't considerin' how known we are. Even if it wasn't broadcasted like yours, people knew of mine and Red's rivalry during our Gym Challenges, and they'll never forget the results." He gritted his teeth as his irritation burned hotter. "Red beat me, and he'll always be known for that. He'll be on top. It's always 'Red and Blue,' not 'Blue and Red.'"

"'Red beat you.'" Bede closed his eyes, looking thoughtful. "Hm, you might be right that you can't escape your past, but I don't believe it." He looked back at Blue. "I'm going to try and move on from this, even if you aren't."

Blue paused, confused. "What?"

Bede shrugged, continuing to walk ahead of Blue. "You might be stuck on your rivalry," he stopped and swiveled back on his heels, "but I'm not, and I won't let you try and drag me down trying to reach my goal," he said confidently.

"Who said I was?" Blue asked.

"You did." Bede raised an eyebrow. "You won't admit it? Even I admitted that I lost to Victor during the Champion Cup. You didn't there. 'Red beat me,' not, 'I lost to Red,' or, 'I lost.'"

Blue had a hard time understanding what Bede was saying, just because of how outrageous it was. Was this kid joking? "It's literally just different phrasing."

"I don't believe that," Bede said. "Perhaps you have some issues of your own that you need to sort out, as well?"

The ire that had been building in Blue abruptly flared into anger. There wasn't a shadow of a doubt in his mind now that Bede was trying to instigate him, and he couldn't help but walk right into Bede's trap. "You're one to talk," he said coldly, and Bede grinned.

"At least I can admit when I'm wrong," he said smugly.

For a moment, Blue wanted nothing more than to wipe that look off Bede's face. "You know who you're talkin' to, right?" He leaned down so he could look Bede right in the eyes. "I'm the eighth Gym Leader of Kanto and the former Champion. I'm better than you could ever be."

Bede's grin faltered momentarily, souring. "Then perhaps you could prove it?"

"With a battle? That's fine by me," Blue stated plainly.

Bede's shoulders stiffened as he tensed, his brow furrowing. But then he relaxed. "Of course I want a battle, and I plan to prove you wrong."

There was the fire Blue expected, and it made him smile bitterly. If only he was seeing that confidence under different circumstances. "I'd love to see ya try, kid."