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It was rare to have as many high level trainers in one place, but Pasio had an alure that attracted elites. It also made for a golden opportunity for trainers to socialize with those they wouldn’t normally have the opportunity to, which led to the weekly Pasio poker parties.
It started off as a way for Grimsley to stay entertained but morphed into a revolving group of the world's most fearsome Pokémon trainers.
This week, the host was none other than the most legendary trainer of all time, Champion Red. Well technically it was Green's villa. But after they got married, everything Green owned, Red now owned as well. Including the luxury villa on Pasio.
“Think we have enough drinks or should I go get another handle and maybe a few more cases of beer?”
Red tipped his hat in response. Green typically went overboard any time hosting duty fell on them. Red wasn’t actually a fan of the social aspect of the games, but as it turned out Red’s quiet and disinterested nature made him an absolute beast at poker. Green however was terrible, he wore his heart on his sleeve and his tell on his face.
“Okay I’m going to just go ahead and order them, I’ll have Gold pick it up. Here, eat these.”
Green brought over a plate of bacon handing it over to Red with a kiss on the cheek.
The bacon was cooked to Reds standards, Green as Red had discovered shortly after they had begun dating was a phenomenal cook.
The first time Green had cooked, Red thought it was a fluke, he hadn’t had home cooked food in such a long time anything would be good. But after each meal he had the more he was convinced that Green was the best cook, even better than his own mother.
Sometimes Green joked that Red only married him for his cooking… or his ass.
Nibbling on a piece of bacon, Red watched Green make preparations. Green hummed a tune to a song he vaguely recognized, Green always sang while he cooked.
“ Des yeux qui font baisser les miens.”
A can of plain tomato sauce was added to the bacon grease, then Green added fresh clippings of basil, oregano, and parsley, from his herb garden that venusaur and exeggutor had collected earlier in the morning. He chopped garlic and threw it in as well.
“ Un rire qui se perd sur sa bouche”
He set the stove to low, he turned to Red with hands on his hips and a smile on his lips
“ Voilà le portrait sans retouche, de l'homme auquel j'appartiens “
Green grabbed Red in his arms as he continued to sing the song, a half slow dance as Red wrapped himself around his husband. They'd been together for practically their whole lives in some form or another, but he constantly found himself falling deeper in love with Green.
“Quand il me prend dans ses bras qu'il me parle tout bas je vois la vie en rose il me dit des mots, d'amour, des mots de tous les jours, et ça m'fait quelque chose”
Green let out a hearty laugh and leaned up to kiss Red before pulling his apron off and hanging it up.
“Come on Mr.Oak, we’ve got a lot to get ready before tonight.” Red pouted.
The main problem with them hosting poker night wasn’t that Green spent a ridiculous amount of money each time, which Red usually won most of it back by the end of the night, but Green expected Red to help get the house ready. He did his share of chores on a normal basis, but when they had company Green turned into a monster.
Everything had to be double cleaned, nothing that made it look like they lived there could be left out, and it always took all day. Red had wanted to go see if there was anyone interesting to battle, or if he could convince Green to fool around on the beach, despite having a playboy reputation Green was a prude when it came to doing anything in public.
“Okay this has to simmer for a few hours, which gives us time to tackle the cleaning, this place is a mess.” Green said as he stirred the pot a final time, Red looked around, the house was already perfectly clean.
With an annoyed groan Red was led out of the kitchen and into the bathroom, cleaning spray and rags were shoved into his hand and a kiss placed on his lips before Green frittered off to clean another room. Red could hear the same tune from earlier from down the hall.
After cleaning for most of the day, Green finally deemed the house acceptable for guests and Red was allowed to shower while Green crafted the meatballs. By the time Red was showered and dressed Grimsley had already arrived and was setting up the poker table.
The house smelled of Green's famous spaghetti. Reds stomach grumbled expectantly.
As if right on cue the doorbell rang.
“Babe, my hands are dirty, can you get that?” Green shouted from the kitchen, Red did as he was told, silently welcoming in the first guests; Lance, Cynthia, Gold, and Silver all waited at the door.
“Hey Champ, ready to finally lose at something.” Cynthia said laughing as she playfully smacked Red’s chest. Lance rolled his eyes and handed Red a bottle of wine the pair had brought.
Red added the wine to the mountain of alcohol that Green had purchased. He mentally calculated the amount of money he’d have to win to cover the cost of the party, unless Steven Stone was bringing a literal chest full of cash, Red was sure they were going to be in the hole for the evening.
Upon returning to the kitchen, Red was greeted with the sight of Gold sitting on their counter sampling Green’s cooking, a task typically reserved for Red. Red resisted the urge to throw the younger man out of his house. Green would be mad, because for some reason Green was fond of the mouthy Johto champion. Red couldn’t really see why.
The door rang again, Red contemplated bringing a chair over to sit and wait for everyone, or just leave the door open, but then Green would complain about the AC bill, not that they couldn’t afford it.
As he approached the door, Red grew uneasy. There was extremely loud conversation going on outside. Upon opening the door he was greeted with several Galarian gym leaders and their brave champion.
“Hey mate, we brought beer.” Gordie said, pushing the case into Red’s arms before wandering in to grab a drink from Cynthia who had started acting as bartender.
Leon clapped Red on the shoulder as he and Raihan entered. Before he could close the door, Red saw several other people approaching their villa, Steven Stone, who wasn’t carrying a chest with money unfortunately, his husband Wallace, Nanu, Professor Oak, Clair, Shauntal, and Oliva followed.
Red greeted them all equally, with a silent nod. Most of them were more Green’s friends than Red’s. Not that Red didn’t enjoy the poker nights or battling with them, he just preferred solitude, well solitude including Green. After being apart for so long on Mt. Silver, Red would rather spend all of his time with Green rather than away from him.
The living room of the villa was lively with guests, Green floated through smiling and greeting people playing the good host. He was holding a beer in one hand and a glass of most likely expensive Kalosian wine in the other. He made his way through the crowd to Red where he handed the beer off with a kiss on the cheek before fluttering away to socialize some more.
Some poker nights had nearly 50 people, with multiple games lined up, people coming and going as if it were a casino. Tonight was a much smaller crowd, much to Red’s satisfaction.
Several people began to exit the kitchen with plates of spaghetti and Red knew that it was finally time to eat, typically these nights had dinner first then the games, usually snacks were available throughout. His mother had always told him that guests should go first when it came to eating but this was Red's home and it was his husband's cooking and his mother wasn’t anywhere in sight so Red headed to the kitchen to grab a plate.
Green was the one dishing up. It was mesmerizing to watch Green socialize, his smile was so wide and his eyes burned like stars. He always loved how animated Green was, he loved how easily Green took control of a room, things were different when it was just the two of them. When they were alone Green was much more subdued, he’d allow Red to take charge, but socially, Green was dominant.
The one person who Red wouldn’t mind sitting and chatting with besides Green was Leaf, and she was skipping the evening. Instead he worked his way over to where Professor Oak sat. They exchanged curt nods before digging into the food.
As soon as Red took a bite his senses were overcome with how delicious it was. He knew it was good but always forgot just how good it was until he was eating it. He glanced at the professor who had the look in his eyes he saved for when he ate Green’s cooking, apparently most of the recipes he used were his late wife’s. Red knew for a fact the spaghetti sauce recipe was the old professor’s favorite. He was always glad that Green could give him a small taste of something from someone he had loved dearly.
“All right everyone, welcome to poker night, thank you to the Oaks for hosting. Green as usual has outdone himself.” Grimsley said as everyone ate.
Red rolled his eyes, Green was overly competitive in everything, hosting included.
“We will have two tables tonight, this will be casino style rather than tournament style. May the odds be ever in your favor!”
People began to break off and head to the different tables, the two tables naturally separated themselves, one for novices and one for pros.
Red found himself at the table with Steven Stone. He mentally congratulated himself. He glanced over at Green, he was leaning up against the back of the couch with a glass of wine in his hand chatting with Shauntal. Because he was hosting he probably wouldn’t play more than a single round if that. Which was really for the best since he ended up losing most of the time. Green really just came to chat.
Grimsley dealt the hand out, Red glanced down at his cards, mentally he did flips, his face stayed as impassive and aloof as always. The round played out, Red took his winnings mentally talling how much more he needed to win.
When Red played poker, the rest of the world seemed to melt away. It was similar to when he battled. In the end maybe it was just competition that got his juices flowing. Tonight was no different at least until he heard Green shout, before blasting the stereo,
“This is my jam!”
Red flinched as the music poured out.
“ Well, I’m running down the road tryin’ to loosen my load” Green drunkenly sang, he’d since traded his Kalosian wine for something called a white claw, Gold jumped up, slinging his arm around Green’s shoulder, singing along. “ I’ve got seven women on my mind,” Red rolled his eyes, they were both gay, “ Four that wanna own me, two that wanna stone me, one says she’s a friend of mine.”
Red held in a sigh, the other problem with these nights was that Green always had entirely too much to drink and would pass out somewhere before the night was over. Despite acting like he was a man of Kalos, Green was a lightweight and after a few drinks was very very drunk. He also rarely drank, so it wasn’t a problem. If Red were to guess, Green was about to sneak out to go smoke a few cigarettes with whoever else had the nasty habit.
“Pair of kings, pair of tens.” Steven said laying down his cards, the impromptu drunken karaoke raged on behind them.
“Take it easy, take it easy, don’t let the sound of your own wheels make you crazy, come on baby, don’t say maybe ,”
Red laid his hand down, a pair of aces, and a pair of queens, Green shimmied up behind him, nearly shouting in his ear singing along,
“ I gotta know if your sweet love is gonna save me.”
He kissed Red’s cheek before swaying away, the chips were pushed towards Red. He added them to his ever growing pile.
The back door slammed, he watched from the window as Green pulled out a cigarette, lighting it, laughing at whatever Cynthia had said, Red hadn’t even realized she had left the table. His only real competition for the night was Steven and Grim. Everyone else was just background noise.
Green looked happy as he breathed out the gray smoke. Red would suffer through thousands of awkward social gatherings if Green would smile like that all of the time. Green saw him staring, he smiled wider, sending a wink. Red blushed. Green still had that power over him.
Red grabbed his chips, stuffing them in his pockets, he nodded to everyone at the table before going and grabbing another beer from the drinks. He walked outside to see Green leaning up against a tree, with another cigarette, his hands animated as he told a story.
He was so charismatic, it was no wonder people flocked to him. He’d garnered a small crowd outside, people laughing, drinking, smoking, or not smoking, just happy to listen to Green. Red himself was the same, he could listen to Green forever. He hoped heaven was him sitting and listening to Green tell stories forever.
“And then machamp decked him!” Green finished, the crowd’s laughter was thunderous. Green looked up, excitement filled his eyes when he saw Red outside. He bounced over, pulling Red in for a kiss, he tasted like booze and cigarette smoke, but Red didn’t mind. He was just happy to get whatever kiss he could.
The crowd began to disperse, forming smaller groups or going back into play more poker. Green smiled at Red, pulling him towards the tree to lean on.
“You winnin’ big, mister?” He asked, his Kantonian accent more pronounced while he was drunk.
Red found himself with a small smile, he nodded, pulling Green in for another kiss. Green wrapped his arms around Red’s neck,
“Wanna get outta here?” Green whispered huskily, Red shook his head with an amused smirk. This was their villa, where were they going to go?
Green pouted, but allowed Red to pull him back in towards the party. People had begun to pack up and go home, a few people came up and gave Green hugs, nodding to Red, or patting him on the back depending on the level of familiarity.
After the last of the guests had left, Green changed the music to something slow, he began to sing, holding his hand out to Red, Red took it, pulling Green close as they danced to the familiar tune.
Green sang along as he always did, Arceus Red loved his voice,“ And you can tell everybody, this is your song, it may be quite simple, but now that it’s done, I hope you don’t mind, I hope you don’t mind, that I put down in words, how wonderful life is while you’re in the world.”
They shared a kiss as the music faded away. Red's favorite part of poker nights was when they were alone again and he could hold his world in his arms.