Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon.
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"We're going to hold the ceremony here." The professor said, causing the breeder before him to perk up and turn his head from his journal to the professor. "Why here?" He began, furrowing an eyebrow in confusion. "Isn't it traditional for it to be held in the Lab?"
The professor smiled warmly to the breeder, before speaking, "Yes; but I think it would be a nice change."
The breeder was a younger man for what breeders normally were. He was about six feet tall, and had dirty blond hair with brilliant green eyes. He was dressed in torn jeans with a yellow shirt that had the eyes and bill of a Psyduck on it. The breeder thought for a minute, before nodding with a smile of his own. He opened his mouth to speak, before being cut off by a feminine voice resonating from behind the little wooden door just behind him.
"Hun! Foedus is trying to eat some of the other Pokémon's food again!"
The breeder turned away from the professor for a moment to look at the door again before turning back to the professor with a smile. "Send them over tomorrow at ten." He said. The professor smiled as the breeder took his leave out the back door. Remembering that she too had business to attend to, took the breeder's lead and left put the front.
She had to make sure the kids knew where to go tomorrow.
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"Foedus! Stop! Others need to eat too! Remember when Atlas ate yours? You're doing the same thing!" The breeder pointed out, rolling his eyes at the sight of his wife trying to push the giant in front of her away.
Foedus was a very old, large, and retired Tyranitar. He was truly big. Nearly three times the size of the average newly evolved Tyranitar due to age and experience. He retired after his trainer did and now worked as the Day-Care guard or the Tyranitar in some of Pokestar Studios' movies. Several battle scars littered the giant's rock hard hide, and some of his many spines had been broken by super effective attacks in the distant past. The creature's once green hide had faded as it aged, but still had a nice gleam to show its health.
Despite his intimidating appearance and his species ferocity, Foedus was a very friendly and gentle giant and was stubborn at times. Not listening to the breeder's wife was a testament to this.
The giant rumbled slightly, acknowledging his best friend's request and lazily moved away, as if regretting letting the food go back to its original owner. As he did so, his wife fell over; not realizing the giant had begun moving away after being unable to move it herself. Once Foedus had move fully away, a little Glaceon scampered over to the food bowl, and began to eat once again, seeing the Tyranitar was now gone.
"Niiiiiiiiiick..." His wife moaned in mock irritation, trying her best to keep an unhappy face, but was unsuccessful and broke into a smile. The breeder grinned with his wife and sat down in the grass next to her. "It's funny," she began, looking up into the sky. "That such a big fella had bothered to eat from such a tiny food bowl."
Nick laughed at this, before joining in on her thoughts. "Jackie, next time just lure him away with the promise of more food."
Jackie was a beautiful woman who was just shy of being a year younger than Nick. She stood at a solid five foot nine, and had black hair and sea blue eyes. She had a fair complexion an wore blue jeans with a light blue shirt showing a Feraligatr, her starter, riding a wave on a surfboard.
The comment caused the woman to giggle, before she rolled over to look at her husband. "I wonder how our son is doing." She said rhetorically, changing the subject and looking to her husband. The breeder shrugged to the other, before answering. "He has Fey with her. He'll be fine."
Fey was Foedus' mate, a blue Gardevoir, with immense physic strength. Like all Gardevoir, she was very protective of her trainer. When she was retired, and when Nick and his wife had their child she was always within ten feet of him. Whether it was helping Jackie with him or watching him while they went out, she was there. When he was fifteen and done with his education (1), she accompanied him to make sure he would always be alright. While she and Foedus were not able to produce children, they did receive an abandoned egg, which hatched to be a female Scraggy. This scraggy went with his surrogate mother on Nick's son's journey as his starter.
Fey was happy, and Foedus was proud and lazy as usual.
Nick laid down in the grass next to his wife, who relaxed back to laying down with him and closed her eyes. Taking her hand in his, Nick spoke. "Retirement has been kind to us both. Early forties with enough money to last us." Nick said, to which Jackie hummed in response. "Living off my money and all."
Jackie's eyes snapped open, and she scoffed, mock punching him in the arm. "As if." She said, smiling. Both of them had been trainers when they were younger. Jackie lived in a different region and was a pure trainer for a while. Nick on the other hand went on to become a ranger halfway through his journey. He was relocated to Jhoto, where she lived.
It was a very different place than Unova, but he adapted.
When Nick met Jackie, she was extremely interested in him because of his Ranger Status. Always asking questions about his Fine Styler, which he received early, as he was already very experienced with pokemon. He asked her out, and they began dating.
Eventually he was called back to Unova, but they kept in touch using their Xtransiever and Pokegear, respectively, by calling each other everyday. When Jackie visited him in Unova, he proposed, and she decided to stay, having her stuff mailed to her in Unova.
Before they knew it they were married.
"The professor has given us the honor of giving the children their Pokémon here in our Day-Care... Should I allow Foedus to get into close proximity of them? I don't want to terrify them with the sight of a nearly twenty foot tall behemoth."
Jackie giggled at this, before sighing. "Hold there, cowboy.. Let's just show Gatr. I think a seven-foot tall water starter will give them a reasonable goal to live up to. Foedus might've been your starter as a Larvitar, but a giant of his size would make their parents fear for their house being trashed."
Nick turned his head in the grass to look at his oldest friend, who was currently laying down and sunning himself. It was clear that the gentle giant was fast asleep.
"Besides, Gatr's evolutionary line is something they can choose from."
"I wonder where the others are..." Nick said, sitting and then standing up, offering a hand to his wife.
"Probably on Atlas. That Torterra is big enough to pitch a tent on..." Jackie replied without a thought.
"Unless they're... In... The house..." Jackie said, the color draining from her face. Most of Nick's pokemon were fully evolved and very dangerous in more than one way if they wanted to be. They could be bulls in a china shop if they were in the house without supervision.
Nick looked to his wife with a smile, then turned to gaze at the house, before his own eyes widened at what she was implying, and he snapped his head back to her.
"Lets run, fast." He said, and Jackie nodded in confirmation, before they sprinted back to their home to make sure that it was still in one piece.
Every twist and turn of his life was leading up to these moments where he could relax in a field with his wife and simply enjoy the world. He didn't need to train like he used to, although some of his Pokémon still did. He didn't need to constantly worry about poachers. He didn't even need to worry financially.
He had finished his adventure, so he started a new one, which was living with his significant other.
His son was out there, looking for adventure, getting into trouble, then getting his way out of it, and meeting people along the way.
He didn't want to be the best like no one ever was. He was content with what he had.
And he was happy.
-:(===):-
"No, Foedus don't eat..." Nick's eyes opened groggily to see his wife was facing him in bed, but was still asleep, and was talking about the big armored reptilian teddy bear that they kept as a pet. "Nick... don't want sauce on my pasta..."
Apparently Jackie was having a very interesting, food related, dream.
He looked at her sleeping form a moment, before deciding it was time to get up. They had a show to run... or however the saying put it. He scooted over in the bed and wrapped both his arms around his wife, and brought her close into a hug. Jackie, who had awoken at the first feeling of being touched, was wide eyed at first, before realizing who was hugging her and returned the favor, squeezing the man who matched his Tyranitar as being a big teddy bear. "Good morning," Nick said, kissing her on the forehead like he always did in the morning. "It's time to get up."
Jackie groaned and turned away. "Moooooooooom... Five more minutes..." She said in a half serious half joking manner. Nick hummed in response, before getting out of bed. He normally slept with no shirt, but he did wear a pair or trousers. Jackie looked groggily to her husband, smirking slightly at his body. It was lean and predatory... like her Lucario. He wasn't like the muscle heads on TV who almost looked like Machokes or Machamps.
"Just get up before nine, alright?" Nick said, before walking out of the room. It was his turn to make breakfast today, so he would have to make do with whatever was in the kitchen.
And they had both forgotten to go shopping.
"Living with another person is supposed to make it easier to remember things... But I swear we're both about as responsible as a fourteen year old..." He said with a rueful smile. To be honest, it was why they had so much fun and were happily married.
He searched the pantries, finding some chocolate chips an some pancake mix.
"If this doesn't get her down... She can sleep for the rest of the day." Nick wagered with himself, before grabbing a bowl out of one of the kitchen cabinets and starting.
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"You have the choice between Chimchar-the Chimp Pokémon from Sinnoh, Totodile-the big jaw Pokémon from Jhoto, and Bulbasaur-the Seed Pokémon from Kanto." Jackie said, calling out each pokemon in front of the three teenagers before her. She was now fully dressed, and very full of pancakes; chocolate chip ones that were only slightly burnt.
"Graaaah..." A large bipedal crocodile behind Jackie hissed, remembering when it had been chosen.
"So where's the professor again?" One of the three teens, a girl, questioned. "I heard we would normally go to Professor Juniper for our Pokémon."
"You are correct." Nick said, coming out of the house, now fully dressed to match his wife and holding a cup of tea as he didn't drink coffee. He looked to his wife, then to the starters and concluded that she had already introduced them. Now they just needed to be chosen.
"Go on, take your pick. But don't take it lightly, as who you choose will be your best friend until the end of your journey." Nick instructed, walking over to stand beside Jackie.
"I choose..." The girl began, looking at the three. "Bulbasaur!" She said, kneeling down and opening her arms for the little seed Pokémon. The Bulbasaur galloped as fast as its little legs could carry it into the girl's arms and allowed itself to be hugged into her chest. Jackie smiled, and gave her the Pokémon's pokeball.
"In that case I'll take Chimchar!" the brown haired boy declared, grabbing the Pokémon's pokeball and extending a hand out for the chimp to take. To which it grabbed hold and climbed up to the boy's shoulder and sat down.
"Totodile's cool too." The final boy said, reaching out before reeling back as the little crocodilian tried to bite down on his hand. "Here's the pokeball," Nick said, walking over and giving the boy the red and white cylinder. "You might want to put a rubber band around its jaws until it gets used to you."
The boy nodded in thanks, and recalled the little crocodile. He turned, and saw the other two leaving. He had always been the third wheel of the group. It was no surprise that they were forgetting him.
Jackie looked to the other two leaving with slight distaste, before sighing. "I guess those two won't be getting pokedexes." She commented, smiling to herself at the sight of the boy's sudden mood change from moody to surprised.
"W-where are they?" The boy questioned, peering around Nick to try and get a look.
"We'll be taking a trip to the lab for that." Nick said, an ushered the boy out. "Can I trust you with the Day-Care until I get back?" He said, turning his head to look over his shoulder to Jackie. "Just go!" She replied, smiling.
"Ya know, kid, as tough as it might seem to believe now, you're gonna go places."
The teenager a question looked up to the breeder in question. "What make you say that?" He asked, hopeful and curious at the same time. "Big things come in small packages. You never know what to expect."
The teen thought for a moment, as if absorbing what Nick had said, before he spoke. "My name is Eric." He said, looking up to the man beside him.
"Well Eric, why don't I tell you a story while we walk. The professor's lab is a town or so away." Nick proposed, looking down to the boy who was now looking ahead silently. Taking this is an implied 'okay', Nick began talking.
"My dad once told me that climbing the mountain was the challenge, not sitting at the top." He said, unconsciously feeling the six red and white balls on his belt. "And I can see why."
-:(===):-
(1): In Unova, the youngest age one can start their journey is fifteen. Since I am a strong believer in education, I will say that they finish their education at the age of fifteen. The pokemon world is somewhat futuristic after all. Perhaps they've upped how fast they can teach children.