Buneary stood in front of Dawn's mirror, admiring herself from all angles. She spun around three times, then stopped, fluffed up her fur, struck a few poses, and then repeated the process a few times over. With a final wink at her reflection, she turned and looked around the hotel room that Dawn and her Pokémon were staying in. Buneary hopped gracefully onto the bed just as Dawn came out of the bathroom, donning a pink dress with her hair perfectly styled for the contest today.
"Buneary!" the girl cried happily. "Are you ready?" Dawn looked brightly at the little Pokémon, grinning. "C'mon, we'll be late if we don't hurry!" Picking Buneary up in her arms, Dawn danced her way out of the room, humming a nameless tune loudly. Buneary thought quietly to herself. Today was going to be the day. She was finally going to tell her one and only true love her feelings about him. How she cared so much for him, how she longed for him to feel the same way she did. How he was all she ever thought about, and how her heart ached for his affection.
Not that she was obsessed, or anything.
As Dawn entered the lobby of the Hearthome Hotel, she saw him there, sitting on the shoulder of his trainer. She forgot everything - the only thing on her mind was him. The Pikachu that she wanted more than anything in the world, even more than to win the contest. She would give up ever competing in a contest ever again, even traveling with Dawn, her beloved trainer, would be forsaken if only he would return her love. After the contest, she thought to herself, I'll tell him. I'll make sure he and the rest of the world know!
She had dropped hints numerous times before. Buneary had even gone as far as dancing with him, running away from their trainers, just to be alone with him. She recalled that moment, one of the happiest of her life, in an instant. The smooth, perfectly in-synch motions of the two, gliding effortlessly through the air as they bounced through fields of flowers. It was at that moment she had been almost sure that he truly felt for her the way she felt for him.
Disregarding the fact he had made her cry right after that.
"Pikachu!" she cried out to him, and she saw him look up and cringe at her. Well, she saw him look up and conveniently overlooked the cringing part. He didn't answer, he just looked awkwardly away. "How do I look?" she asked him, jumping out of Dawn's arms, spinning and winking like she had in front of the mirror.
Pikachu looked sheepishly at the Buneary. Why? he asked himself. Why did Dawn have to catch that thing? Any other Buneary would have been fine. He used to like Buneary before that one had come along. He thought that they were cute little things, and he didn't mind watching them hop across the fields happily. That had been before he had met the one dancing in front of him, of course. One time, she had even dragged him away from their trainers, spinning him nauseatingly across annoyingly long patches of fields. When he finally managed to make her stop, he had yelled at her for taking them so far from Ash and Dawn. Initially, he had felt guilty because she began crying afterwards, but now, he was really considering doing something like that again, so that she might get the hint.
Dawn looked down at her Buneary, who was showing off and chattering away for Pikachu. Picking her up again, she said, "C'mon now, Buneary! We have to focus on the contest. Just think about that ribbon, okay?" The trio left for the contest hall, an identical grin on both Dawn and Buneary's faces. After the contest… Buneary thought, and her grin intensified.
"And the winner is…" the announcer said into the microphone, purposely drawing out the results and creating more tension. Dawn clutched Buneary tightly to her chest, squeezing her tighter with every passing second. Their appeal had been, if she did say so herself, very good, much better than their usual standards. The announcer made a great deal of opening the envelope that held the name of the winner, dragging it out as much as possible. "Dawn, and her Buneary!"
With a squeal, Dawn squeezed Buneary until her eyes nearly bulged and ran out to receive her ribbon, glowing with pride. After she had posed for a few pictures, holding the ribbon with an undignified happiness, she sprinted to meet Ash and Brock for more congratulations from them. Buneary looked up happily to face Pikachu, expecting a look of pure joy on his face because his true love had just won a ribbon. In her mind, that was what she got.
In real life, it was a haha–yeah–you–were–great–excuse–me–while–I–run–away–before–you–can–physically–assault–me–again kind of smile.
Taking that as her cue, she jumped out of Dawn's arms and beckoned Pikachu down with her. Pretending like he hadn't seen, he looked out to the Contest Hall, as though he had just seen something very interesting there. To his dismay, however, Ash noticed Buneary calling for Pikachu and placed him down onto the ground. "Look, Pikachu! Buneary wants to play with you!"
Had Pikachu been able to speak to humans, he would have unleashed an array of very colorful choice words, probably involving words that Ash was incapable of understanding in the first place. But being unable to speak to humans, he settled with a glare to him before being forcefully made to spin around just like he had that time before. Just when he was about to puke unromantically (which may have been a good idea, after all) on Buneary, he stopped.
"Where are we?" he asked he, fairly disoriented from their romantic dance.
"Amity Park," she replied in what she believed was a seductive tone. "Isn't it gorgeous here?"
No, he thought to himself, but chose not to answer her question anyway.
"I wanted to tell you something," she said softy. "Ever since we first met, the very first time I laid eyes on you, I knew,"
"Knew what?" he asked, instantly regretting the question. He was only fueling her love rant, which would probably end in more spinning. Not a good idea.
"That we were meant to be together," she said, suddenly unable to look him in the face. "Ever since then, you've been the only reason that I live. I love you, Pikachu, and I always will."
Pikachu thought quickly. What would his friends do? Bulbasaur would have told her gently that he would rather just be friend instead of having a romantic relationship. He had tried that, that hadn't worked. Squirtle, ever the ladies man, would have gone for it, perhaps even getting some action out of it (Pikachu cringed internally at the thought of him and Buneary…). Charizard, however, would have done the simplest thing possible – lied.
"I'm sorry, Buneary," Pikachu said, feigning a sorrowful look. "It's just that, well, there's someone else."
The look on Buneary's face, the wide-eyed, about–to–cry look was almost too much for Pikachu to bear. He hated making her sad, but he hated the "love" she tried to force him to reciprocate. "W-who?" she asked, struggling to hold back her tears.
"I met her back in Kanto." Pikachu began, and suddenly he thought of something else – his actual true love. "Ash didn't approve of our relationship, but we kept seeing each other anyway. We were meant for each other, perfect in every way. She completed me. But Ash was in a battle, and I was foolish. I wasn't paying attention, and in one fell swoop of a Scyther's claw, she was gone."
"Oh, Pikachu," Buneary said, tears falling freely from her face. "I'm so sorry! What was her name?"
Pikachu, his eyes too welling with real tears, managed to say, "Heinz, Buneary. Her name was Heinz."
Buneary's tears stopped suddenly. "Heinz? Isn't that the name of-"
"Ketchup, Buneary. Ketchup." With those final words, Pikachu left the park, consumed with overwhelming grief and guilt at the death of his love.
Buneary stared after Pikachu, confused and hurt. She had just been rejected by her one true love…for a broken bottle of Ketchup.
A/N; Because I hate Lagomorphshipping and love Piketshipping. Duh.
Also, I know Pikachu is slightly out of character. I just thought it fit the story better, so I went with it. As for Pikachu and Buneary's words being italicized – that was because they're not really speaking English, so that's a translation of their words, to show that the humans don't really understand them. Disregard the fact that that's pretty much a given.