Pokémance

It was a warm summer day in Twinleaf Town. Everyone was happy today, because of one thing: it was the first day of preparations for the Twinleaf Town festival. Dawn's mom had once again been chosen to run the festival, so Dawn had to help. Since preparations began after lunch, she spent the morning getting dressed and having breakfast, before spending the rest of the day with her Pokémon. The 14 year old girl loved Pokémon contests, so she trained with her Pokémon to become a contest master, just like her mom was when she was Dawn's age.

A few years back, she had started her journey as a Pokémon trainer, choosing Piplup as her starter Pokémon. When she tried to capture a Pikachu, it wouldn't go in the Pokéball, so that Pokémon had to belong to another trainer. She spent time, looking for the trainer, until she came across a trainer from the Kanto region, called Ash. After returning the Pikachu, they became friends and journeyed Sinnoh together, Ash challenging gyms and Dawn entering contests, with one of Ash's friends from Kanto, Brock.

They sent Team Rocket blasting off many times, stopped Team Galactic from taking over the Sinnoh region and destroying the world, encountering many trainers and Pokémon along the way. They had a lot of fun on their journey. Before Ash went back to Pallet Town, they had fun with their friend Barry at one of the annual Twinleaf Town contest. Seeing Ash leave to go back home was almost heartbreaking for her, but she knew that one day, Ash would be back.

She sat down on a bench with her Piplup, removing her magenta silk scarf and placing it on the table in front of her. She looked at her happy Pokémon, hanging out in the garden: her Pachirisu was running in circles, her Togekiss was twirling and doing tricks as it flew in the sky, her Quilava and Mamoswine were sleeping and her Buneary was trying on her new coat. She stroked the petals of the flower in her hair as she looked down at her Piplup.

The water type penguin chirped happily as Dawn picked Piplup up. "Ready for some training, Piplup?" she asked, a look of determination on her face, her blue eyes beaming.

"Pip-Piplup!" Piplup replied, doing some sort of salute as Dawn put him down. Dawn whistled quickly, getting all of her Pokémon to gather round. She looked down at her Pokémon, who looked back at her with happy faces.

"Alright guys," she started, "now I know that we didn't win this time, but we came second, so we just need to push ourselves that little bit more and we'll win for sure! Now, how about some training?" Their response to this was a loud cheer of happy agreement. "Alright! Let's do it!"

Before they could start, however, they heard the sound of a plane coming by. Since there weren't any nearby airports, and Twinleaf Town was by the ocean, that meant it had to be a plane that could land on water. She saw the plane start to descend onto the water, the rotors sending a bit of water splashing at her and her Pokémon. When it landed, she saw one of the doors open and an inflatable slide coming out, which was positioned so that whoever exited that way would land in Dawn's garden. Before she could wonder who it was...

"Dawn!" she heard someone shout as 2 teenage boys and a teenage girl, one by one, went down the slide and landed in her garden. The first boy, who was wearing a forest green polo, onyx shorts and flip flops, landed on his feet. The girl, who followed after, wearing a red t-shirt, black shorts, sandals and a red bandana on her brown hair, landed on her feet, following it up with a somersault.

"Brock! May!" she cried, running over to her friends and giving them a hug. "I can't believe it. Is Ash here too?" Before they could answer, they heard someone scream. They looked back at the plane, to see a boy, sporting a red and black hat, a white t-shirt with a black and yellow sleeveless waist coat, blue shorts and barefoot, stumbling down the inflatable slide, before flying off of it and landing face first on the grass by May's feet, his legs hanging in the air.

"Does that answer your question, Dawn?" May replied, giggling whilst she looked down at her friend. Suddenly, a yellow ball shape landed on the floor, rolling up to Dawn. "And here's Pikachu!"

"Ash! Are you okay?" Dawn asked, helping her friend up off the grass.

"Like you say, Dawn," he answered whilst rubbing the back of his head, "no need to worry!" He dusted himself off, before he opened his eyes to look at his friend. "Well, you've changed a bit, haven't you?"

"Well, it's been a few years, Ash," Dawn replied cheekily, placing her hands on her hips, "it's not as if you're the same." Her face quickly showed a bit of concern. "That was some fall, though, are you okay?" Ash quickly nodded, before Pikachu ran onto Dawn's shoulder. "Hi, Pikachu!" She rubbed the mouse Pokémon's head, getting him to smile really happily.

"Pika-Pi!" Pikachu replied, hugging Dawn's shoulder, before jumping off and running towards her Pokémon. Pikachu was instantly greeted by a big hug from Buneary, which Pikachu blushed at, before reluctantly returning the hug.

"Aww!" May and Dawn cried. May turned to Ash and said "Ash, you didn't tell me Pikachu had a girlfriend!" Hearing that, Pikachu's face froze into shock, before falling onto his back and fainting. Buneary, sad to see this, helped Pikachu up, kissing him on the cheek. Seeing this, things went silent for a bit, a massive blush coming onto Pikachu's and Buneary's faces. A moment later, everyone but Buneary, Mamoswine (he fell asleep again) and Pikachu burst out laughing. This made Buneary very angry. She lay Pikachu down, before aiming at the other Pokémon and firing an ice beam at them. She turned around and did the same to Ash, Dawn, Brock and May, before hopping off to another part of the garden, madly.

No one got out of the ice for about 5 minutes, until Quilava's back flame melted the ice that surrounded him. He turned around, realizing what had happened, before using a flame thrower to melt the ice around the other Pokémon. The other Pokémon fell onto their backs, whilst Quilava freed the trainers with a flame thrower, who also fell onto their backs. They got up quickly and checked that everyone was alright, as Pikachu recovered from fainting. "Pika?" the confused electric mouse asked, wondering what was going on.

"It's a long story, Pikachu," Brock commented, slowly getting up off the floor, "but first, we need to get Buneary back."

"When Buneary gets angry, she goes to a little water fountain just outside the garden," Dawn added, looking Brock in the eye, "but only someone who hasn't irritated her can get her to come back." Then, she directed her attention to Pikachu. Realizing quickly what she meant, Pikachu ran behind Ash, determined not to get involved. "Please, Pikachu?" Dawn got down onto her knees. "For Buneary?"

"Come on, buddy," Ash said, moving out of the way, "she likes you. If anyone can help calm her down, it's you." May saw that Pikachu didn't want to do it, so she thought of the one thing that would get him to.

"If you do this," May reached into her pocket, "you can have some of my special Pokéblock!" She pulled out a piece of Pokéblock from her pocket and held it out to Pikachu. After a moment of resisting it, Pikachu gave in and munched happily on the candy from the Hoenn region. Dawn, satisfied that Pikachu would help, led the electric mouse to a bush and told Pikachu to go through it, which he did.

"Poor Buneary," May said aloud, Dawn making her way back, "she's in love, but Pikachu doesn't feel that way."

"Pikachu takes after Ash in that department." Brock commented, making Ash a little angry.

"What's that supposed to mean, Brock?" Ash inquired, leaning towards Brock in an interrogative manner.

"Let's sit down and talk," Dawn said, stopping the boys before things got out of control, "I'll get some lemonade and we can catch up." They agreed with this, sitting down at the table whilst Dawn got some lemonade.

With Pikachu

Too much shrubbery, Pikachu thought as he finally got to the water fountain. It was a little pool with a miniature waterfall, built into the rock. There were water lilies on the surface of a large pond. Pikachu saw Buneary, sat on a rock by the waterfall, crying. He made his way over to her. When he got close enough, she saw him.

"What do you want, Pikachu?" she asked in Poké speak. She had clearly been crying for a while, because her little black eyes were slightly puffy and her fluff was slightly damp.

"I came to see if you were alright," he replied, "Dawn and the others are worried."

"Ha! Yeah, right!" Buneary was doing her best to look away from Pikachu, but couldn't resist him for too long. "What's wrong with me, Pikachu?"

"What do you mean?" Pikachu let one of his ears droop as he put a hand on Buneary's shoulder. "What could possibly be wrong with you?"

"Well," she began to explain, but started to find herself tongue tied. She took a quick drink from the pond, before continuing. "You clearly have some reason that you don't like me. So, what is it? Am I ugly?"

"No, it's not that, it-''

"Am I too pushy?" She hopped towards him a little, making Pikachu take a step back. She was starting to get a little angry

"A little, but that's n-''

"Is it because you don't like my coats?" She hopped forward again, Pikachu now just a step away from the water.

"Look," he started, holding his hands out in front of him, "if you'll just let me exp-''

"Well, what is it?" she shouted. Pikachu, startled by the shout, fell into the pool head first. Buneary, realizing what she had done, helped Pikachu out of the water and onto the rocky land. "I'm so sorry, Pikachu! I didn't mean to do that, I swear!"

"It's okay," Pikachu replied, shaking off the water, trying not to get her coat wet, "just a little water. Anyway, the reason is..." Pikachu started to scratch the back of his head. Buneary blinked, wondering what he was about to say as she tilted her head.

"Come on Pikachu," she said, getting a little impatient, "don't you know not to keep a girl waiting?" She turned around, sighing and looking down at her bunny like feet. "Look, if you won't tell me, that's fine. I just thought that it was worth-''

What Pikachu did next would make anyone faint. He grabbed Buneary's shoulders, turned her around, placed his paws on her cheeks and pulled her in for a kiss. She was instantly shocked, her eyes about as large as 2 tennis balls, before she closed them and engaged in the kiss. They held the kiss for a few moments, Buneary not wanting to let go at all.

Oh my God, she screamed in her head, he's kissing me! I can't believe it!

I can't believe it, Pikachu thought to himself, face palming himself mentally, now I've gone and done it. Please, Buneary, please don't overreact...

Eventually, Pikachu pulled away from the kiss, turning around to stop her from seeing his blush. He was now so red that you could mistake him for a Charmander. They spent a moment in silence, both blushing redder than a stop sign, Buneary in slight shock.

"Okay," she started, breaking the silence, "this is just to make sure for me that what just happened did happen." Without thinking, Buneary quickly removed her coat and passed it to Pikachu, before dunking her head in the water. She removed it quickly, shaking off the water she pulled out with her. "So, what does this mean?" She looked back at Pikachu, a fairly wide smile on her face.

"Well," he replied, slowly since he was a bit embarrassed, "it means that there's nothing wrong with you. It means that there's nothing that stopped me from liking you, other than going back to Kanto and all that. While I do think you need to ease up JUST a bit, what it means is that I..." He couldn't find the words to finish it.

"Pikachu?" she asked, walking up to him. She placed a kiss on his cheek, which he put his paw to straight after. "During the festival, there's gonna be a lot to do. Want to... hang out?"

Pikachu smirked a bit as he removed his paw from his cheek. "Sure. Now, let's go back to the others. I'm sure they have an apology for you." He extended a paw out to her, which she grabbed as they walked back to the group.