A/N: The first few chapters might be a bit boring since they're about how Aria meets her team and partners, and about the type of person she is, but it should pick up later. :D
The little girl looked up at her father, violet eyes wide as if she could hardly believe it. "This is for me?" she questioned shyly, her grip tightening around the ball of brown fluff she cradled in her arms.
"You can't start your training yet," he said with a smile, "But it's never too early to start building up a friendship. Oh, and you're not getting any pokeballs yet, you might lose them." She stuck her tongue out at him but he only grinned wider before continuing, "So you're just going to have to keep a careful eye on her." The small brunette nodded eagerly, showing that she understood before dashing toward the front door on her way outside, she wanted to try training right away! However, her father's voice instantly caused her to change direction.
"Hang on Aria, did I mention that you only get to keep her if you figure out what kind of pokemon you're holding?" The look on her face clearly said he had not. "Well, you do. You've got until this time tomorrow or she's mine. Got it?" At his words Aria sprinted towards the small library her modest house held, almost crashing into a wall as she executed a sharp turn and slammed the door behind her.
The older man laughed aloud as he watched his daughter. She definitely had the spirit needed to set off on a grand journey in just a few short years. A crashing sound followed by a squeak caused him to raise an eyebrow. Well her heart was in the right place, but she needed more years of experience before he would even consider letting her leave home. Ah, his protective parentness was finally showing. He shook his head and set off to find someone who could cook dinner, if he tried then they'd have to move and buy a new house. Again. The last time had been an accident with his arcanine, but that was another story.
A few hours later, Vincent pushed open the large doors to the study and paused in the doorway at what he saw. There were large books everywhere, some open some not; they were strewed all over the floor and windowsills leaving barley any room to walk. There was also a large pile of books that looked like they had fallen off the shelves and no one had bothered to put them back. Another pile, this time of already used books, was right next to the little girl as she laid on her stomach quickly flipping through the pages of yet another large volume like she was on a mission.
The poor little pokemon was currently wriggling to break free of a mountain of bound pages that had fallen on top of her; a minute later she had freed herself with only her fur slightly ruffled. She looked towards Vincent, who was just standing at the door holding two trays of steaming food, before nudging Aria to get her attention. The girl ignored her, completely focused on trying to decipher the index to figure out where to look next. Not pleased about being ignored, the brown pokemon shoved herself under Aria's arm and came to rest on top of the book she was currently reading. Aria blinked.
"What is it?" she questioned, finally looking up.
"Dinner," her father responded, motioning to the plates he was still holding that had cooled down somewhat. Her stomach growled, causing her to look down at it, almost as if she had just noticed how late it had gotten. Vincent shifted one of the trays to free his right hand. He pushed aside several of the books that had been abandoned on the only desk there to make room for the food which he then set down. Aria and her new friend both rushed over eagerly.
The brunette was about to shove a spoonful of mashed potatoes into her mouth, but paused. She looked up at her father and innocently asked, "Did you make this?"
He feigned hurt at her skeptical expression and exclaimed, "I'm not that bad of a cook!" She just kept staring at him. "Alright maybe I am… Don't worry though; I got Marley to cook it." Aria frowned at it slightly, but ate nonetheless.
As the conversation carried on, the pokemon was pawing her own food as if to test it. She then sniffed it warily. Finally she decided that it was worthy and began to eat. Her large ears twitched as she kept them focused on what the humans were talking about; it wasn't the most entertaining of conversations, but she figured it was a good idea to get to know the people she would be living with. The little one was being no fun, she hoped this would change later on- after this bought of studying anyway. The old one seemed okay, but it didn't seem like he did anything exciting anymore and that would just be boring.
It didn't take long for her to finish eating. She pushed her plate aside and curled up: belly full and eyes drooping. However, she refused to fall asleep; if the little one was going to spend the night searching through books for her sake then the least she could do was stay up with her. Once the brunette had finished eating as well, the brown pokemon stretched herself out before hopping down from the desk and trotting over to the book they had last been looking at.
Vincent watched her for a moment with a grin before gathering up the dirty dishes and heading to the door. "I'll leave you alone now, don't stay up too late." With that said he closed the door behind him. Aria plopped herself back down on the floor and resumed her reading.
Vincent stifled a yawn. He reached for the remote and turned the TV off, wondering what time it was. Through the window it was pitch black; it must be late. How was Aria doing? Had she drifted off with her head in a book? That would be a cute sight; he smiled at the thought and headed back down the hall to see how she was doing. Quietly he stuck his head in to make sure not to wake her if she was sleeping. She wasn't. She was yawning every few minutes, but her spirit wasn't dampened in the slightest.
Aria shut the latest book with a thud and grabbed the next one. She quickly scanned the table of contents before flipping to around the middle of the book. Somewhere a clock chimed; they counted twelve chimes. The little girl looked up from the page she had just flipped to, shocked, "It's midnight?" She shook her head and with renewed determination started to read. She paused shortly thereafter. Her eyes went wide and she rubbed them to make sure her sleepiness wasn't causing her to hallucinate. "I found it," she said softly. The pokemon's ears twitched and she lifted her head off her paws to look up. Her father strained to hear what she was saying.
She repeated herself, ecstatic, "I found it! It's here!" The pokemon sprang to her feet and stared at the page. Sure enough, another one of her stared back. Aria swiftly stood with the book in hand and was ready to wake her father up if necessary. There was no need however, since he was once again hovering by the door.
"Dad!" she exclaimed, "I found her!" She flipped the book over so the pages faced him and happily pointed to the small picture. "She's an eevee!"
"Correct!" he told her, a wide grin gracing his features. "She's yours now, take good care of her. I'm sure you'll be great friends with your new eevee."
"It's Midnight," Aria corrected, placing the book down.
"My god it is late isn't it? Come on, we need to get some sleep; I'm sure you'll be very busy tomorrow," he said as he turned to leave.
"No," Aria said.
He paused and looked back towards her. "What do you mean "no"? You said it yourself, it's midnight."
The little girl shook her head. "It's Midnight. Her name. Her name is Midnight!"
Her father laughed. "What a way to name your pokemon! Well whatever works, but how does she feel about it?" The newly dubbed Midnight wagged her bushy tail; the name sounded just fine to her. "It's settled then! Welcome to the family Midnight!" Said pokemon gave a short and happy yip. She trotted up to both humans and gave a huge yawn before tilting her head slightly in a questioning manner.
"True enough; it is time for bed," he said. He stepped forward and picked up his exhausted little girl. She shifted to get more comfortable against her father's broad chest. Midnight made a noise of indignation; she looked up at them. Aria smiled sleepily and opened her arms; she took the invitation and jumped up.
Vincent looked down at the two girls in his arms and smiled softly as he trekked upstairs to tuck them in.
Over the years the two grew close. As Aria got older she found herself to be sort of a night owl: staying up late into the night and sleeping most of the day. Her eevee had little choice but to alter her own habits to match her owner's which led to an extraordinary event.
Aria grumbled to herself as she brushed aside yet another low hanging branch. She had planned on using a less travelled route as a shortcut but that proved to be a bad idea almost right away. Sadly, the first part of the route had been a muddy downhill slope that proved impossible to climb back up: not that she hadn't tried for a good half hour. Night had fallen almost an hour ago which was the reason behind the brunette's brisk walk right now. Her eevee was trotting alongside her, her fur was tangled and had twigs and leaves hanging at odd angles, but there was no time to fix it and make her more comfortable.
The girl let out a groan and plopped down on one of the, only slightly wet, rocks. The bottom of her black shorts became damp but she didn't care at this point. They were on a deserted forest route in the middle of the night so wet pants were the least of her worries. Now that they had finally stopped to rest after trekking through the woods for hours, Midnight took the time to paw off as many twigs as she could reach: her bushy tail was the worst.
The flashing of her digital watch brought Aria's attention to her right wrist. The red lights told her that it was currently 11:25pm. Instantly the girl jumped to her feet, startling her poor pokemon. "We have half an hour before the bridge goes up!"
The eevee gave her trainer a "I thought you said you were going to keep a close eye on the time" look, before taking off at a sprint to lead the way out of the forest they had been wandering in. Aria took off after her.
They leaped over logs, ducked under low hanging branches, and even sidestepped some unlucky pokemon that were taking a late night stroll. Aria's breath came in pants and her legs burned from the obstacle course they were forced to run, but if she stopped now they'd have to wait a month before the bridge was lowered again. A quick look at her glowing watch told her that they had less than twenty minutes left. They weren't going to make it; even at full speed they had yet to traverse half the distance needed. Midnight was ahead of her trainer but even she wasn't going to be fast enough; her small legs weren't made for speed. Thanks to the heavy rainfall the area had gotten in the last week the ground was still muddy which made a full on sprint all the more difficult.
With only five minutes to go, Aria found her legs give out from under her. She contacted hard with the ground and let out a cry of surprise more so than pain. She had slipped in one of the many mud puddles. Midnight made a motion to stop, but her trainer's voice forced her to reconsider, "Don't stop! Just make it to the bridge! Do whatever it takes to stop them from raising it!" The small pokemon looked back at Aria for a moment longer before continuing on.
Aria did her best to pick herself up as fast as she could. It was rather tricky considering she kept sliding around, but she eventually managed to stand back up. Ignoring her aching muscles and now uncomfortably muddy clothes, the brown haired girl started running again. It took her another five or so minutes to finally make it out of the forest. The sight before her was not encouraging; the large metal bridge was currently being raised. It wasn't even halfway up yet so there was still a chance! She almost tripped out of fatigue, but righted herself and kept going.
Before she could even reach the control booth however, the bridge began to lower itself again. Taking it as a sign of good fortune the brunette slowed to a jog until she came to a stop a few meters from the little room. Midnight had done it! If she wasn't so tired she would have jumped up and down in celebration.
A disgruntled employee backed out of the building with his arms raised in a peaceful gesture. Under the pale moonlight it took him a moment to make out the figure of a young teenage girl. "You," he said after taking notice of her, "Is this your pokemon?" He motioned into the control room. Aria nodded, figuring he was talking about her little eevee since she couldn't see into the dark room. "Well call it off will you?!"
At his words the girl titled her head to the side in a questioning manner. "Call her off?" she repeated. That didn't sound like her eevee, she was normally calm, a bit reckless at times but definitely not the type of pokemon that others would be scared off.
"Yes!" he cried, "Now hurry up!"
"Err…." She hesitated, was he really talking about her pokemon? She shrugged, figuring it couldn't hurt to try. "Midnight, that's enough. You did a great job." The man grunted in response but Aria ignored him, "Come on out."
A bark responded to her words, but it didn't sound the same as usual. A lean figure emerged from the doorway. Large red eyes became visible, followed by several glowing yellow rings. "Midnight?" she questioned. The black pokemon repositioned her large ears and did a motion similar to a nod. Aria was at a loss for words. "You-," she started, trying to process everything, "You evolved!" Midnight gave a bark of approval and walked over to her trainer.
Aria dropped to her knees and hugged her new umbreon. She was ecstatic as she wrapped her arms around the evolved eevee who barked at her; apparently she had been squeezing her too roughly.
"I'm happy for you, really," the man said, not sounding happy in the least, "But can you hurry this up kid? I need to raise the bridge tonight and I'm already behind schedule." Midnight growled at his words. "Uh… of course that's after you two cross."
"Thank you so much!" Aria said, beaming at him as she stood back up.
"Yeah, yeah," he brushed off her thanks looking somewhat uncomfortable. "You've got half an hour before I start raising it again, make sure to be on the other side by then unless you want some practice running down a 90o slope." The brunette nodded her understanding and took off, her umbreon followed closely behind.
"You know…." Aria started, twirling the straw of her drink absentmindedly, "I can still remember when you were an adorable little eevee." Midnight lifted her head off her paws to look up at her, wondering where her trainer was going with this. "I could hold you in my arms and I always had people telling me how cute and well behaved you were." She had a smile on her face as she reminisced about the past.
"And now…. Well now frankly you frighten people. Her smile had morphed into a smirk as she talked. The black pokemon nudged her disapprovingly. She laughed in response. "Oh don't be that way! You know that I love you!" To prove her point she reached down and petted her head. Midnight took the opportunity to grab the BLT that was resting, uneaten, on the table.
Aria blinked. "Oh now that's just mean!" she whined, "Where's my share?!" As a sign of good faith Midnight dropped the last bite of the sandwich into her outstretched hand. "Gee… thanks…" With a shrug she popped the food into her mouth and swallowed.