Disclaimer: I do not own, claim to own, or pretend to own the characters involved in this work of fiction. I am, however, responsible for the heartbreak.

Note: This fic will hint at the horrors of animal abuse, but because I don't detail any actual abuse it will be rated Teen. Hopefully I got the rating right.

Enjoy, su!

Chapter 1

The first time she hears it, she has to stop and listen through the rain that pounds a steady symphony through the hood of her raincoat. She thinks that maybe her ears are playing tricks on her, or that a Ghost pokemon is at least, and brushes it off. It's cold and the storm is terrible and she wants nothing more than to get to the pokemon center to dry off and warm up.

When she hears it a second time, louder than the first, she's closer to the edge of the forest. Now she knows her ears aren't playing tricks on her because it comes a third followed shortly by a fourth.

'What could possibly be out here in this rain?' she wonders and immediately begins searching for the source.

As she digs through the underbrush on her hands and knees, she realizes that it's getting closer, but also weaker; whatever is out here has been for a while and is slowly losing strength. It's deffinitely a pokemon, she decides, and a hurt one too!

Her hood has fallen from her head and her long brown hair is plastered to her neck and face by the time she finds it: a shivering, injured little ball of wet fur with large eyes.

She stares at it in awe. 'It's a cat!' her mind coos as she slips her pokedex from her pocket. It reads error and she becomes all the more entranced by it. 'I've never seen a cat-type pokemon like this in Unova!'

It takes her a moment to realize that the pokemon is dangerously malnourished and staring pitifully at her. "Hey there little kitty, it's okay now," she smiles, reaching for it.

With a hiss, it summons what may be the last of it's strength and takes a clumsy swing at her. She rears back in time to save her face, but her hand suffers the brunt of the damage and blood mixes with the rivulets of rainwater running down her wrist. The pokemon watches placidly as she brings the injured limb to her chest with a soft whine.

It takes a few moments of nursing the wound before she works up the courage to reach for it again. The pokemon swipes weakly at her and misses, giving her the chance she needs to scoop it into her arms; it bites, she winces, but stands with a reassuring smile and starts back toward the path into town.

She has several more bite wounds before she scurries into the Pokemon Center, the tiny creature having caught a second wind and thrashing to try and claw at her face. It yowls pitifully in protest, catching the nurse's attention before they can approach the counter; she's understandably appalled by the state it's in and she rushes to explain that she found it like that.

The woman nods and rushes the weak pokemon off to the ICU, cooing softly to soothe it while restraining it at the same time; the last thing she sees before the doors swing closed is it's wide, blue eyes staring accusingly at her.

End

This year's December project goes to Pokemon, and especially my favorite pokemon Meowth. I got Black when it first came out and I was mildly disappointed you couldn't immediately catch Kanto Pokemon (some of the new ones are, well, funny looking and uncute). So one night, while playing the game it came to me: Why can't White find one a-la Charmander? So I whipped this up and voila! Unfortunately, this fic will deal with some very real issues and I'll be including a few of my own personal experiences with adopting abandoned animals. So keep your hankies redy people!

Also keep an eyes out for some familar faces!

Reviews save lives. And help give pokemon loving homes.