Keep in mind that the setting of the story is just like that of current day reality, just with Pokémon existing in the same reality. All technology is the same, with history being slightly altered to fit continuity.

I was staring at my phone, sitting bored out of my mind in my last lecture of the day. Calculus. I wasn't bad at calc, I was just way ahead of the game because of a class I took in high school. I chose to retake the class anyway, just for the easy GPA.

I was staring at my phone's background, a mash-up of the legendary dogs from Johto. They were very much real as they were legends, although the Johto Region was halfway across the globe. They were still my favorite legendary trio nonetheless.

I locked the phone, staring at the blank screen and the reflection it produced. My thick, dark brown hair was a mess from a strong breeze that blew across campus while I was walking to my lecture. I ran a hand through my hair as a makeshift comb. My brown eyes were drooping, sleep still lingering from this morning. I needed to shave. I made a mental note of that. My blue t-shirt was sitting crooked. Not that I cared. I just wanted to stand up and stretch, but I'd probably get rebuked for it. My professor was pretty strict.

Suddenly I heard the phrase I had been waiting for. "Well, that's it for today class. Have a safe weekend, I will see you back here on Monday," the professor said with a slight Eastern accent. I wasn't being stereotypical; he still hadn't lost his accent, even after being in the region for over 10 years. The whole class gathered up their stuff and tried to cram out the one set of double doors at the same time.

Just as I broke out of the cluster of students eager to start their weekend, I heard someone call from behind me. "Hey Alan, wait up for a second, will ya?" I turned around to see a medium height, well built guy in his early twenties walking briskly to catch back up to me. He had blonde hair longer than mine, but not as thick, green eyes, and was dressed in a gray tank top and gym shorts, even though it was only 65 degrees out. It was Ryan, an old high school classmate of mine. He was a year older than me and played hockey for the university, but he wasn't too good at math, and must have had to retake the class. I hadn't even noticed him this year because the class was so big.

"Hey Ryan, what's up?" I tried to give him a sincere smile, but I wasn't really that close with him. I had been in a couple of classes with him back in high school, and could carry on a decent conversation with him, but he wasn't really someone I hung out with often.

He looked exasperated after the previous class. He must have been writing down some serious notes or something. "Hey, could you do me a favor?" he asked.

"Yeah sure, what do you need."

"You know I'm not that great at math right?" he gestured at his textbook. "Well, I'm really trying hard to do well this year. Think of it as a little New Year's Resolution."

"Umm, it's the middle of the fall semester."

"Doesn't matter. Truth is I need you to take something off my hands. You ever have your own Pokémon before?" He took off his backpack and was digging around inside for something.

I eyed him somewhat suspiciously. "Yeah, my grandfather gave me a Growlithe when I was young, but I had to leave him at home when I got a dorm up here."

"Good," he said. He stood back up, finding what he was looking for. "Then you'll be fine for this." He held out his hand; in it was a Poké Ball. "This is a Pokémon I got when I first came up here. Her name is Thalia. She's a Glaceon." He threw me the Poké Ball, and I barely caught it, not expecting the casual throw. "She's just become a little too much of a liability with me in my education. I can't focus on her and grades at the same time. She should be fine in your dorm. She was staying with me for the past year, so it shouldn't be that big of a deal."

I thought to myself "You give me a Pokémon that you've supposedly been caring for, and say, 'Oh it's cool. Shouldn't be that big of a deal'?" Really dude? I guess it was just my own training methods kicking in. Back when I had my Growlithe, I spent entire days and weekends with him in the woods behind my pap's house. Must've just been a different way of thinking.

I snapped back to reality when I realized I was staring out into space. "Well, my roommate got switched into a different hall," I told him, "so I'll have the extra space. I can just lay down a blanket and pillow or two, right? I don't have a Pokémon bed just lying around my dorm."

"Yeah, she'll be fine. That's basically what I did for her back in my room," He said nonchalantly. I didn't want to judge his Pokémon-owning skills when I didn't know him that well, but I was beginning to get the suspicion he might have been more neglectful than he went on. "Here, if you need anything when it comes to her, just Skype me." He handed me a piece of paper with his screen name on it.

"Alright. Thanks man. I'll give you a call if it's necessary."

"Hey, seriously, thanks a ton for doing this for me," he said. I could tell he was sincere. "I really gotta straighten out my grades this year. My parents have had it up to here" – he brought his hand up to his neck for emphasis – "with me not taking school seriously. If I work out a rhythm, I'll take her back, but for now, she's yours." He turned around to walk down the hallway. "I'll catcha later, dude!" He called over his shoulder. And with that, he disappeared into the crowd of students.

I stared down at my hand, looking at the Poké Ball that supposedly held a Glaceon in it. I really hope I didn't get in over my head. At least it was a weekend, so I didn't have to worry about work on top of the new addition to my room.

As I walked back to my room, I wondered how this was going to work out. What was Thalia's attitude like? I was really hoping she wasn't a snobby, spoiled kind of Pokémon. Those were the worst. I also reminded myself to check with my RA, to make sure he knew I was going to have a 'mon with me in the dorms. His name was Sanjay - his family was straight from India - but he was pretty chill. He mostly stayed in his room and worked on electronics the whole day. I made a mental note to stop by his room before I stayed in for the night. The less surprises, the better.

I finally got back to my dorm room. It was on the first floor, so I didn't have to take any stairs. I took my key card out from my pocket, slid it through the scanner lock, and opened the door.

I always kept my room around 60 degrees, even in the winter. In hindsight, that was probably a good move if a Glaceon was about to move in. I loved my room. My old roommate had moved out the second week of the year because he switched majors, and no one else came to fill it, so I basically had the room to myself. When you first walked in, there is a small kitchenette, complete with a mini refrigerator and mini microwave above it. It also had a couple countertops. Beyond that, on one side, was a closet for extra clothes and jackets for when it got cold in the winter. Across was the door to my bathroom. I was placed in the nice dorms that had personal bathrooms for every room, one fact that made the whole no-roommate thing even sweeter. The rest of the room opened up into a bigger living space.

In one corner was my bed, lofted up like the top bunk of a bunk bed set, with space underneath it. I kept a futon underneath for the nights when I didn't feel like climbing up to actually get into my bed. Across from that was a simple coffee table with a 20 inch monitor on it. That was my TV. In the other corner of the room was my desk and gaming setup. I worked a lot with music, so my computer consists of a laptop, two extra monitors, and a wireless mouse and keyboard. I like to think of it as my own personal mission control. Lastly, on the outside wall was a window to the outside, the front lawn of the building just beneath it, for the days when I wanted fresh air blowing through the room.

I opened up the closet and got a few extra pillows and a big blanket, and arranged them at the foot of the futon as best as I could to resemble a Pokémon bed. It wasn't the best, but it was better than just sleeping on the floor.

I pulled Thalia's Poké Ball out of my pocket. "Now is just as good as any time, I guess," I said to the ball. "Check out your new home for a while, Thalia." I released pressure on the ball, and Thalia appeared in a brilliant flash of white light on the floor in front of me.

She was a lot bigger than what I was expecting. I was familiar with how tall most eeveelutions are, but her full 2'7" height was intimidating when standing right next to you. She could probably put her paws on my shoulders with no problem if she stood on her hind legs. My first thought was that I might need to make her a bigger bed.

At first, she looked around at the unfamiliar surroundings. "Gla?" she questioned. Her sweeping gaze found me, standing just inside the room. "Glaceon?"

"Hey Thalia," I said. It sounded dumb, but what else are you supposed to say to a Pokémon you already know, but they don't know you? "I'm Alan. Ryan gave you to me for a little bit while he works out some school stuff. You'll be staying with me for a couple days or so." That last part was a lie. I had no clue how long it would take Ryan to straighten out his grades. Maybe she didn't understand English anyway.

"Glaceon. Eon." She adopted a stubborn look really fast, and tried shoving her way past me to the door, but I blocked her. Great, apparently she understands human language fine.

"No Thalia. You can't just run around campus. I know you want to go back to Ryan, but he's got some business he needs to take care of first."

I forced her back away from the door, and she sat down in the middle of the floor with her paws crossed. "Gla Glaceon." She gave me the Pokémon equivalent of a glare.

Great. I got on her bad side already. At that moment, I felt my stomach growl, and I'm pretty sure I heard hers too. I looked at the clock on my dresser, which read 8:28. "Shit, I still need to get you food," I said aloud. I had totally forgotten to pick some Pokémon food up on the way to the dorm. Thalia just rolled her eyes, probably thinking I was an idiot. Which, at that moment, had some truth in it. "I'll be right back Thalia, I gotta pick up some food for you." I was halfway out the door when I heard her mumble something under her breath, so I took it she heard me.

Ten minutes later, and I was on the way back to the room with enough Pokéfood (quality food but still reasonably priced for a college kid) for a week and a couple of poffins for her, if she decided to lighten up a bit. I stopped at Sanjay's room on my way down the hall. I set down my bag outside his room and knocked on the door.

"It's open! Come in!" called a voice from within the room. I opened the door to find Sanjay at his desk tinkering with some electronic device. Shocker. That's an electrical engineering major for you.

"What's up Alan? Need anything?" he asked without looking up from his work. His glasses had slid so far down his nose they were practically falling off, but her hadn't noticed.

"Hey SJ. Just wanted to let you know that a friend of mine gave me a Pokémon to look after for a while, so she'll be staying in my room for a couple weeks." Again I threw around a random stretch of time because, at the moment, who knew how long she would be with me.

At the mention of a Pokémon in my room, Sanjay quickly lost interest in whatever he was working on. He turned to me suddenly. "Wait. You're gonna have a Pokémon in your room with you?"

"Yeah, is that a problem? I'm the only guy in my room, remember? I have the space for her." Normally Sanjay was pretty cool with these things. His reaction had me worried.

He got up from his chair and started rummaging through a pile of things on his desk. "No, I could care less about her staying with you. I just need a favor from you, that's all." He picked up a device no bigger than a Bluetooth earpiece.

I walked over to get a closer look at what he was doing. "What, you want me to spy on some frat houses or something? That thing looks like it came straight from the set of NCIS."

Sanjay chuckled. "Ha, no. This-" he showed me the device "-is a transmitter. A little invention of mine. It lets you understand Pokéspeech as if they were speaking like you or me. I came up with it for a audio class last year but didn't have a way to test it. So, no, no spying. But now that there is a Pokémon in your room, you're going to do the testing for me."

He threw me the device. I looked at it, and tried to put it on my ear like a normal piece of tech. "So, it just lets me hear whatever they are saying? Like tones and pitches too?"

"It's supposed to. Like I said, I haven't been able to test it yet. So you're on a frontier, bud. People have come up with stuff like this before, but nothing this small. What kind of species is this Pokémon?"

"She's a glaceon," I told him. "She's been a bit temperamental as of late, that's why I asked."

"Yeah, it should be fine. If you have any problems, or it sounds like she's a big black guy or something, just give it back, and I'll tune it a little more."

I grinned. Normal Sanjay humor. Glad to see he was in a good mood. "Alright dude, thanks for the help. I'll let you know how it goes."

He was already back at his desk, soldering something. I closed his door behind me, and walked briskly back to my own.

I was about to open my door, key card in hand, I heard a noise. I froze. I heard it again briefly, like fur rubbing against the door. That sneaky 'eon. She's going to try to slip right by me, I thought. I set the food down, had the key in one hand, and tensed.

Sure enough, as soon as the door was open a crack, she tried to run past me. I was expecting it, so I bent down and scooped her up by her torso as she tried to bolt away. I picked her up, flailing and struggling, and brought her back into the room. She was saying something in her language, so I powered on Sanjay's translator thing and hoped for the best.

"-can't believe that sonofa. Ugh. Better get his damn hands off my before I scratch the hell out of him-" she was complaining and running her mouth, while still trying to break free. I tried tossing her into the room, but all 57 pounds of her took its toll on my one arm. I basically just dropped her. She padded back in front of the futon and pouted again.

"You should really watch your language sometime, girl." I decided to try and talk a bit while preparing our food. I threw some ramen noodles in the microwave for me. Classic college dinner.

"Great, he picked up on my tone. I gotta watch it with this kid. He's smart." She was still giving me her little Poké-glare from the floor. I set down a bowl of food in front of her.

"Yeah I am kinda smart. It's why I'm here. Checking your word choice helps too."

She didn't have a witty retort for that one. She stared at me, at a loss for words. "I don't believe it. There's no way you understand what I'm saying," she said flatly.

"Well, you better believe it, cause I can hear every single word," I said, tapping Sanjay's translator. I'd have to tell him it works well tomorrow.

"Wow. That's incredible," she said, her haughtiness replaced with awe. It was like just being able to understand her improved her opinion of me tenfold. "I've never seen a human who can do that."

"Well, you must not get out much," I joked. I hadn't noticed until now, but when she wasn't pissed at me, her voice was really calming. It sounded just like a gentle fall breeze, cool enough to be pleasant but not too cold to be irritating.

Just then - BOOM - a clap of thunder exploded like a cannon outside. I looked out my window, and it just started pouring. "Well, not that we're going out right now anyway. Looks like plans for tonight are cancelled." Even though it was Friday night, nobody would want to party with a storm outside.

I walked over to the futon and sat down. It felt good to just lay there after being on my feet all day. I closed my eyes and relaxed briefly.

"Hey." I sat up to see Thalia nudging my leg. "I'm not sitting around while you decide to take a nap. Tell me more about why Ryan gave me to you."

"Well, basically, he caught up with me after my class this evening, and said he needed to take a break from some responsibilities to focus on others. He said he needed someone to care for you while he really tried hard to bring his grades up. He regretted it, but it was necessary. I guess he thinks I'm responsible or something."

"You better be responsible! I'm not going to stay with an idiot taking care of me," she yelled, the hair on her neck standing up.

"Hey, hey relax." I put my hands up in a "back off" gesture. "That was sarcasm. I'm pretty responsible. Ryan knows that. He knew me before just this year. We went to high school together. He trusts me with you. That should be evidence enough.

She calmed down a bit. "Oh, sorry. I'm not real good at the whole 'sarcasm' thing."

"Well, that's basically 90% of how I talk, so I'll have to teach you."

"Okay, teach me then." She sat down in front of me, back paws tucked underneath her.

I glanced at the clock again. 10:52. I yawned after seeing it. Boy, those 5:00 PM calc classes really wear you down. "Yeah, we'll start that tomorrow. I'm tired, your probably tired, so I'm getting ready for bed."

She gave me a mocking look. "Oh, and you're so responsible? You don't even have a box for me."

"A box? What are you talking about?" She stumped me on that one.

"A box for me to sleep in? What, do you think I'm just gonna sleep on the floor?"

"A box? I'm not that cruel. I set up a bed for you over there." I pointed to the makeshift bed I made earlier. "If it's too small, let me know, I'll get some more."

I left her to go clean up in my bathroom before bed. When I walked out, she was still staring at the makeshift bed, mouth open.

"What, am I really that bad at making beds?" I chuckled at my own dumb joke.

"No, it's just… Ryan never gave me this much for bedding before. Are you, like, trying to impress me or something?" she inquired.

"Umm… yeah, let's go with that. It's your first night, so you might as well be comfortable." I was starting to doubt Ryan's methods of Pokémon treatment.

She jumped right into the bed, stretching out and sighing with comfort. Points for Team Alan. I smiled, satisfied she was happy, turned out the light, climbed up into my own bed, and was soon fast asleep.

Well boys and girls, I'm back with a new story. No, it's not a one-shot lemon. I'm going for actual storytelling here. Probably going to be five or more chapters. There will be lemons later, though, but if you're not here for that, there will be warnings. Follow the story or me to get alerts when I motivate my lazy but to write some more. Hopefully it won't take all summer, but we'll see! Favorite if you liked it, review it and tell me if you didn't, it's the only way I'll get better.

Also, for those who have been following me for a while, or read my other stories, you may have seen someone from Critics United posting some crap in my one story's review section. Yes, I'm aware of it. No, I don't agree with their methods or ideals, and I could probably make an entire story based on a rant, but this isn't the time or place for that. Just know, in the event they delete my account, you can find me on inkbunny or FurAffinity under the same name as here. I'll re-upload all of my stuff there. On that note, until next time!