AN- One of my Fanfiction friend's birthday was a few days ago, so I wrote him this present! The concept was his idea, but the writing's all mine (and quite clearly, the characters are all Nintendo's). So, thank you, enjoy, and happy belated birthday to Paradigm of Writing! –Twilight Joltik

Monster Under the Bed

By Twilight Joltik

Lightning flashed across the sky behind the windowpane as rain repeatedly hit it. Ness quite liked this sort of weather, as it reminded him of rainy days inside, playing SNES games with his little sister. His roommate, however, seemed to feel otherwise, given how he seemed to jump every time thunder would crash in the distance. Heck, even when it so much as drizzled, Lucas seemed uneasy, and he noticeably underperformed whenever battling in the Distant Planet stage.

As much as he wanted to help his roommate feel better, it was next to impossible to get a word out of the guy. Since arriving, he'd said a total of maybe fifty words in all outside of fights, and Ness could sense his unease whenever anyone made an attempt to strike up a conversation with him. From the little information he could gather, it seemed Lucas's mother and brother had recently passed away, so Ness could hardly blame him for being closed off. It wasn't as if after the Giygas incident he didn't practically refuse to speak to anyone, and that wasn't near the personal loss that poor kid had suffered. It was frustrating to not be able to help, though, and he felt as if he wasn't doing enough to help somehow.

That same annoyance was in place that night, as every time he saw Lucas jump under the covers out of the corner of his eye, he just wanted to smile and tell him everything was fine, but he knew that would only make things worse. Ness tried to ignore it as best he could, reading a comic book in the light of the small lamp on the table separating their beds, but couldn't shake Lucas's panicked emotions at the edge of his senses.

A shriek banished his pretences of indifference, however, and swung his head to look at a now cowering pile of blankets. Lucas was absolutely terrified now, and Ness could gather quickly that it had something to do with the odd presence he sensed under his roommate's bed. "You okay?", he questioned.

"Th-there's something under there!", Lucas quivered, his hand poking out of the protective fort to point under his bed. "Some sort of monster!"

He could sense something there, true, but Ness didn't feel anything malignant. "I'm sure it's just a Rattata or something," he calmly assured. "I mean, with all the Pokémon here, something's sure to get out eventually."

"How would it have gotten in here?", questioned Lucas's muffled voice. "We've had the door closed for hours, and I only just now felt it."

That was a good point, and Ness's heart rate started to increase as he pondered that. He couldn't let Lucas sense that, though. If he thought he was scared, that wouldn't help the situation. So, he simply chuckled and thought something up. "It's probably a ghost type or something! They can get through walls, so it's not out of the question."

"Since when could we sense the undead? ", Lucas flatly questioned, and Ness felt his cheeks burn with embarrassment. That was a stupid bluff, and given that his lack of those powers led to him and Paula getting captured in Threed, he should have remembered that perfectly well.

Still, that was the excuse he'd chosen, and as his heart kept beating faster, he decided to stick to it. "Ah, er, ghost Pokémon aren't undead!"

Despite Lucas remaining firmly under the covers, he could almost feel his look of contempt. "Then what are they?"

"Uh, I don't really know!", Ness explained as quickly as he could, the beating of his heart pounding even above the distant roars of thunder. "It's really complicated and I don't get it. Ask Red to explain it to you sometime, o-?"

Very suddenly, a small noise came from under the bed, cutting him off. It was an odd whirring, and a strangely mechanical sounding one at that. Ness knew that Lucas could surely sense his unease by now, and frankly, with every beat of rain and thunder that passed, he cared less. There was definitely something under that bed, and it was starting to scare him.

"W-we should just shine a flashlight under there!", Ness suggested with the fakest of smiles. "That way, we can see whatever it is!"

The pile of blankets gave a shutter. "O-okay," he softly agreed. "B-but that's in the closet, right?"

Ness began to stand up and go retrieve the flashlight. "Yeah, it's in the clo-" He stopped himself mid-stride. If he stood on the ground, wouldn't whatever was under there see that as the perfect opportunity to strike? Quickly, he pulled his legs back onto the bed. "Ehehe, maybe we can just shine the lamp under there?"

He tried to grapple with the lamp to get in a position where it cast light under the bed, but only ended up unplugging it. The small bit of light vanished from the room, leaving it pitch black, save for the lightning strikes. One of them screamed, but Ness wasn't sure if it was him or not. Whatever that thing was, it could get them easily now, and he half felt its breath on the back of his neck.

Lucas was vulnerable, he was vulnerable, and whatever that thing was, he'd surely faced far worse. So, gathering all of his courage, he cried "PK Flash!" and jumped off of the bed, aiming his strike at where he sensed the beast.

A small, pitiful yelp came out, and Ness let out a small gasp. That couldn't be a monster, for it was far too, for want of a better word, cute. The lights suddenly flickered on, and he could make out a small star-shape laying under Lucas's bed.

"Starfy?", he questioned breathlessly, and the starfish Assist Trophy let out a weak cry of affirmation. He felt a hot flush overtake his cheeks. All this panicking had been for literally the least threatening thing possible. Lucas cracked the door open with a squeak, and Starfy quickly fled out of it. "Sorry I hurt you!", he cried back as it slammed shut.

Both sitting back down, the two psychics started laughing. "Wow, I got really freaked out over that, didn't I?", Lucas remarked.

"Yeah, and I tried to kill him!", Ness added. As they laughed, he realized something with a start. "Hey, this is the longest you've ever talked to me, isn't it?"

His roommate's laugher cut out. "I… suppose it is," Lucas mused. "I hadn't realized I'd been being so closed off, I guess. Thank you for defending me from the terrible monster despite my impoliteness."

"No problem!", Ness cheerfully cried, and he felt the tense guards Lucas had held around himself loosen. The two ended up being pretty good friends after that, but also seemed to get attacked a lot more by the Starfy Assist Trophy whenever it showed up.