...I don't even, you guys. I'd almost apologize, but I'm actually reasonably happy with how it turned out. I finally got around to catching a Basculin in my White version, and I read the Pokédex entry, and... this happened. As a side note, I have no idea how I convinced myself blue-striped Basculin were less prone to violence. I thought I'd read it somewhere, but apparently not. Oh well. It's now my personal head canon. I guess because red is more associated with anger and violence, and the red ones are spikier and their eyes are crazier.

I wasn't even sure if I should post this, but I figured, why not?

Anyway, don't take this too seriously. It's just a fun little random one-shot. I hope you like it, though!

Enjoy! :)

An Aquatic Love Story

Red and blue Basculin usually do not get along, but sometimes members of one school mingle with the other's school.
-Basculin's Pokédex entry, White version

Few things ever changed beneath the sea. Day in and day out, the large school swam all over, never settling or getting too comfortable. Occasionally they fought with their similar-looking counterparts, and once in a while a member of their group was captured by an ambitious trainer. They never mourned. It was best not to get attached when life was so uncertain.

They bred out of necessity, occasionally interbreeding with another school when the opportunity arose. They never formed relationships and they never grew attached to their offspring, only caring for them until they could do so for themselves. Though they travelled in a group, essentially it was everyone for themselves.

It was a rough, lonely life. But that's the way it had always been.

And that's the way life continued for a typical school of red-striped Basculin.

For the blue-striped Basculin, life was more or less identical, besides picking fights less often than their red-striped cousins. As with all schools of Basculin, this one was led by the strongest of the group, and the others followed him wherever he went. No one questioned his orders or his choices. Occasionally one of the others fought for leadership- male and female both- and life continued on the same way, whatever the outcome of the battle.

One day this particular school of blue-striped Basculin happened to pass a particular school of red-striped Basculin, and though the blue ones generally avoided confrontation when they could, the hatred they all felt for the group of the opposite colour was so ingrained into them from the time they were born that it was impossible to do so in this case.

The two leaders began the fight, charging fiercely into battle with teeth gnashing and blade-sharp fins flailing. It didn't take long for the rest to follow suit.

One of the red-striped Basculin- we'll call him Red, since Basculin don't give their offspring names- had long since grown tired of this life. He felt alone in the crowd, and more than once had attempted too lure a trainer into capturing him. There were stories of what trainers did with their Pokémon- some good, some gut-wrenchingly terrible, all told infrequently as the Basculin conversed with each other very little. In fact, most of what Red had picked up came from other Pokémon he'd spoken to during one of their stops.

So during this battle, identical to all the others he'd fought in his life, Red found himself swimming away from the group. He skirted around them, close enough so he wouldn't seem suspicious, and landed a hit once in a while so if anyone saw him it would look like he was contributing. Even though they all mostly disregarded one another, it was the ultimate insult to your school to stay out of a fight and was grounds for immediate expulsion from the group. As much as Red hated being part of it, it was all he knew, and it was better than swimming the ocean alone.

On the other side of the fight, a blue-striped Basculin- Blue- was experiencing similar feelings. She was discouraged by the pointlessness of it all. Her life didn't mean anything. She clearly recalled the moment when it had occurred to her that if she simply swam away, in full view of the others, no one would question her. They wouldn't try to stop her or ask where she was going. She meant nothing to them. The revelation had been crushing.

However, she didn't avoid the battle, charging in and clamping her jaws onto the perceived enemy. From the corner of her eye, she could see a particular red-striped Basculin doing his best to avoid confrontation, and immediately released her hold on her opponent and swam over to block her new target.

"Where do you think you're going?" she asked, teeth bared and gleaming. "You can't avoid a fight."

To Blue's surprise, the red-striped Basculin didn't rise to the obvious challenge. "I don't want to fight," he said. "I don't see the point. I can't live this way anymore."

Blue's eyes widened and she immediately backed down. "You, too?" she asked, feeling a strange excitement bubbling in her stomach. Maybe she wasn't as alone as she thought.

Red looked shocked as well, and was just about to respond, when suddenly he was pitched forward by a weight slamming into him. He spun through the water before coming to a dazed stop. He shook himself and turned back around to see an angry blue-stripe confronting his new companion.

"What are you doing?" the newcomer demanded, seething. "Don't converse with the enemy." Without waiting for a response, he shot forward to deliver another blow to Red with his fin, then clamped his powerful jaws onto the injured Pokémon's tail. Swinging himself around, he slammed Red into a large rock, then delivered a final swipe of his fin before swimming away to find another target.

"Are you alright?" Blue asked in alarm, making her way over to Red who leaned heavily against the rock, wincing in pain.

"I think so," he said, voice straining.

Just then the battle ended and the two groups began to disperse, swimming off in opposite directions. The red-stripes came toward them, and Blue backed off to avoid starting another fight. Several of the red-striped Basculin, including the leader, looked at Red as they swam by. Not one of them stopped to help their injured member, perfectly content to leave him there in his distress.

"You're not going to help him?" Blue quietly asked one of the red-stripes as she passed by. "None of you? You're just going to leave him there?"

"Help him?" the red-stripe asked. "No, we're not going to help him. If he's not strong enough to follow, he can stay there."

And that, Blue mused as she slowly followed after her school, was what their entire existence boiled down to- at the end of the day, they were all on their own.

Blue followed for only a short while before she came to a decision. She slowly drifted to a stop and watched as the others continued on, not one of them noticing that she was no longer with them. She wasn't as scared as she might have thought to be leaving them. Instead, she felt only relief and, for the first time in her life, something that might be called happiness.

It was a bizarre twist of fate that had brought two like minds together. As unlikely as it was, she chose not to question it and instead, embraced it wholeheartedly. She watched as her school continued on without her.

Finally, eager and determined, she turned and swam. She never looked back.

It didn't take her long to arrive back at the rock where Red had been left. He was still there, lying flat against the rock, moaning faintly in pain. He looked up as she approached, his face fearful; it looked as though he was expecting someone to come and finish him off. He relaxed when he noticed who was nearing him.

"Oh, it's you," he said. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm leaving," Blue said confidently. "And you're coming with me."

"Coming with you where?" Red asked, confused.

"Wherever we want to go," Blue said. She helped him off the rock and they began to swim off together. "Wherever the current takes us."

So Red and Blue spent their days drifting from place to place, never staying put for too long- though this time by choice. There was so much to see, even beneath the waves, and they had spent far too long missing out on it.

They once they passed Red's former school, and they were none too pleased to see their former member. The leader, larger than the others and sporting an ancient scar along his jaw, was particularly incensed.

"Get out of my sight," he growled. "You're a traitor. Look at you, swimming around with one of those blue-stripes. You're a disgrace."

To Red's credit, he didn't back down, instead looking his former leader right in the eye and replying, "Being a disgrace is the best thing I've ever done. You'll never know what it's like to be happy. I almost feel sorry for you."

Red turned tail and swam away with Blue following closely behind, leaving a dumbstruck school of red-striped Basculin in their wake. He never looked back.

Red and Blue remained together for the rest of their days. They were eventually joined by other Basculin who had gone through similar epiphanies, both red and blue, and they all swam together in a big, happy school.

Our heroes had five children together- four boys and a girl, three red and two blue. To finalize their rejection of their old way of life, they named their offspring: Finley, Pearl, Tad, Gil and Peter. They each grew and went on to have children of their own, and the school Red and Blue had founded continued to grow and thrive.

And they all lived happily ever after.