WARNINGS: Uh, none. Homosexuality in later chapters, though, so...BEWARE.DISCLAIMER: Lol at you thinking I own the Pokémon franchise. You silly.
—s—t—a—r—t—c—h—a—p—t—e—r—
The day was just like any other, really. Lucas woke up, staggered to his bathroom to brush his teeth, went downstairs for breakfast only to be forced to fetch the mail first, fed his trusty Luxio its favorite pokéfood, watched an episode of his favorite anime on the nice TV with his father, ascended the stairs once more to his room, changed into his day clothes, made his bed neatly, and turned on his own TV to play some video games. Quite the standard Saturday morning, all things considered.
But when Lucas went to draw the curtains back from his window to let in more light (playing games in the dark was bad for his eyesight, he would think), he saw something rather surprising. The nice two-story house next door, which had been vacant for quite some time since the previous owners had moved out, was now in the process of being reoccupied; a big moving van was parked out in front of it, and a few people stood outside watching the movers haul miscellaneous pieces of furniture into the place. An older man, an older woman, a little girl and a boy that looked to be about his age-fourteen.
Lucas watched them for a few moments before shrugging and turning his attention back to his game. Grabbing the controller and hopping onto his bed, he turned the console on and began where he'd left off last time he'd played. A little pink ball one assumed control of as the main player character appeared on the screen, and Lucas began mashing buttons expertly.
After a while, though, his mother came calling for him. "Lucas?" she half-asked, half-sang. "Honey, come down here. I want to introduce us all to the new neighbors and give them a little housewarming present!"
Lucas rolled his eyes, but he couldn't lie to himself; he'd known this was coming. His mother strived to be the town's nicest woman and mother, was was admittedly quite good at it. Thus he paused the game and slid back off his now-warm bed, walking to the door and slipping his shoes on before trudging down the stairs for the second time that morning.
He spotted his father still reading the newspaper on the sofa in front of the TV, and Luxio dozed lazily on floor next to said chair. His mother stood next to the front door, a plate of oversized chocolate chip cookies in her hands. They smelled delicious, being his mom's special recipe and all. She beckoned to them both. "Come on, you two! The mover's van is already leaving!"
Lucas' dad sighed and folded his paper. "Honey, you act like this will be our only chance to say hello," he pointed out, standing up and wincing as his back popped a couple of times.
"He has a point, Mom," Lucas agreed, walking toward her nonetheless. "They just got here. Maybe they don't wanna socialize?"
She huffed. "It's important to make a good first impression, you know," she retorted simply, opening the door. "And you're right, Lucas, maybe they don't want to socialize. But we can just introduce ourselves and get it out of the way, right?"
Lucas just shrugged in response. There was no winning an argument with his mother.
As they marched across the lawns to the other house, Lucas looked up at said house and gave it a bit more attention than he had in the past. It was two stories tall, like theirs, but it was painted a lighter brown than their own. The front lawn had a couple trees lining the sidewalk leading up to their house, and the plant beds lacked care, if the wilted flowers were anything to go by. The grass itself was quite tall and weeds were present, giving the place a slightly gruff exterior. The previous occupants had been a crabby old couple who didn't take much pride in their curb appeal, though, so it was expected. They'd been gone for months.
The new residents, on the other hand, appeared to have already gone inside. So the formed a triangle of sorts in front of their door with mother in the middle, father on the left and son on the right before they rang the doorbell. Lucas mustered up his best smile.
There was a few seconds pause before shuffling could be heard on the other side. When the door opened, a middle-aged woman with shoulder length curly brown hair opened the door and smiled warmly at them. "Oh my, visitors already!" she exclaimed, though not necessarily in a bad way.
Lucas' mom laughed. "Yes! I'm sorry if we're too soon, but I figured we could stop by and greet our new neighbors," she explained, bowing a bit.
The woman waved her apology away. "Of course, that's wonderful! Just let me call the rest of the family down." She poked her head back inside. "Everyone, get down here! We've got company!"
A few seconds later a substantially larger man with tame blonde hair appeared in the doorway, looking curious before he examined each of them and mirrored his wife's expression. "Why hello there! You must be our neighbors," he observed.
As they stepped out onto the porch, a couple pairs of jogging feet could be heard a few seconds before they were seen. Then there were two more new faces; the children of the family. One was a little girl no older than ten or eleven, and the other, taller child was a boy Lucas' age, though he was a bit shorter. They both had blonde hair, the girl's shoulder length and wavy and the boy's short. His had a few unruly tufts on either side of his head, though. And they both had the prettiest amber eyes Lucas had ever seen. The girl's were wide and adorned with long eyelashes, but the boy's glowed with energy and life. Lucas found himself staring inadvertently as their parents introduced them.
"It's nice to meet you all!" Lucas' mom gushed. "I'm Martha, this is my husband Brett, and this here is Lucas," she said, gesturing to her respective family members as they were mentioned. Lucas started when his name was said. He waved his hand a bit sheepishly at them all, giving them a soft hello.
The other woman nodded at all of them. "I see! Well then, I'm Linda, this is Palmer, and these two are Barry and Cassie," she introduced them in return. Palmer held up a hand, and Cassie giggled and waved cutely. Barry locked eyes with Lucas for a moment, expression blank, before his face broke into a smile and he waved at them as well. "Heya," he said. His voice was actually a bit deeper than Lucas had expected, but still higher than his own. That and his teeth dazzled Lucas with their pearly whiteness.
"Lovely to meet you!" Lucas' mom repeated, holding out her plate to them then. "Here's a little welcoming present from us. Welcome to Twinleaf!"
When Barry's mom took the plate, Cassie gasped. "Wow! Thanks miss! Mommy, can I have one? Pretty please!" she begged cutely, clasping her hands together and elongating the last word.
She laughed. "Oh, Cassie. Not now, darling, we've still got company!"
Martha giggled at the girl's antics. "Oh, that's fine. Besides, I'm sure you'd like some time to settle in a bit! We'll be going now; just wanted to say hello, that's all." She, her husband and Lucas all bowed more or less in unison again. "Have a good day!"
"Please, feel free to stop by anytime, we'd be happy to have you! Thank you again for the cookies!" Linda responded just as sweetly, her husband chiming in as well. They closed the door slowly, and Lucas' eyes wandered to meet Barry's right before their gazes were broken completely.
As they trotted back to their own home, Lucas' mother gushed. "They seem like such nice people. They've even got a son your age, Lucas!" she observed aloud. " I'm sure you two will get along well."
Lucas nodded his head a bit. "Yeah, I bet." Honestly, Lucas was a little glad about his new neighbors. There weren't any other teens that lived in Twinleaf, leaving him rather lonely as an only child. His only source of adolescent interaction came in the form of Dawn, his good friend whom lived in Sandgem, the next town over. She came to Twinleaf often to chat with Lucas about the new pokémon or other things she'd learned about as Professor Rowan's assistant.
Back inside his own house, Lucas kicked off his shoes before receding back into his room. The screen of his TV had gone black because of how long he'd been away. Yawning, the dark-haired boy picked up the controlled and hit a button, lighting the screen up once again before continuing on his merry way. Absently he flew and ran and ate his way through the level, having mastered the controls long since he'd begun the game last week.
He came to a mini boss a few minutes later, the creature consisting of yellow fur and a pair of beady brown eyes. When Lucas landed his first hit on it, the eyes bulged in a cartoon-like fashion as the damaged animation was played. And suddenly enough, Lucas was reminded of that Barry boy, with his messy blonde hair and vivid amber eyes. All the while, Lucas beat the boss down with ease and entered the door that opened up for him.
He wondered if Barry liked video games.
—e—n—d—c—h—a—p—t—e—r —
A/N: There'll be more, and it'll be longer and more interesting, I swear. :C So I freakin' love this pairing. Started playing through Platinum a few days ago and I was like, "Oh yeah, this pairing is like the best thing ever." And so I felt compelled to write a fic about it. Might not be long, might not have much plot, but nevertheless I hope you liked this enough to stick with it. I feel like I'm late to the party. Does anyone still care about this pairing? xDD well I do and that's ALL THAT MATTERS. Leave a review telling me whatcha liked, didn't like, things I can improve on, etc etc. It makes me very happy, and I'd appreciate it! :D See you with the next chapter. C: