AN: Its weird how when you're busy with some boring repetitive task your imagination starts toying with you. That's what happened to me today when doing some filing at work. Suddenly I get this weird idea, what if in the world of pokemon there was a massive difference between your upper-class and your lower-class citizens ,and then before I knew it I had the story all planed out in my head so here I am now writing it trying to get it out of my system. I don't own Pokemon Nintendo does.

My name is Blaze I'm a vulpix and this is a story of how I met an umbrion and how he and his family changed my life.

You know how people always say don't judge me before you've walked a mile in my shoes. Or how dare you judge me you don't know what my life is like. Well I use to be like that, the judge first and ask questions later type, but that all changed one rainy winter day a few months ago. I was sitting by the window overlooking the street as the rain fell outside. I was feeling rather sorry for myself right about then, mom and dad were busy and I didn't really have any friends. So there I was staring out the window, when suddenly a movement in the street caught my eye. As I watched an umbrion (whom I now know is named Shade) walked up the street, he approached our house and I noticed he had a bag in his mouth. He walked up to the garbage bin and as I watched he knocked it over and started throwing things in his bag, mostly glass bottles. Something about him fascinated me and so I continued to watch him, when suddenly he looked up straight at me and smiled before continuing with his task. I nearly fell over from surprise when that happened. But so I continued to observe him, when one of the items he took from the rubbish caught my eye. It was a scarf that my mom had thrown out because she claimed it was out of fashion.

When his bag was bulging and he was satisfied with his work, I watched as he put the bin upright and went about cleaning up his mess. It was at that time that something came to mind and I decided that I wanted to know more about this umbrion. So with that thought in mind I ran down the stairs and out the door. By the time I'd made it out the gate he'd already picked up his bag and started walking, so I decided to follow him and that's just what I did. If he knew I was following him he didn't let on, because he just kept walking at a steady pace. We continued walking for at least half an hour.

Suddenly out of nowhere I was slammed into the ground by a gengar, he pinned me to the ground and hit me with a shadow claw to the side of the face. I screamed as blood ran down the side of my face and a sharp pain shot into my head. As I looked up at him I saw he was readying a second shadow claw when suddenly something hit him from behind. The something turned out to be a dark pulse and it left the gengar smoking and angry he stepped off of me and turned to face the source of his discomfort. The source in question turned out to be Shade that had taken on a battle stance. The gengar threw a shadow ball but Shade mealy ducked letting the attack slide harmlessly over his head. He then retaliated with another dark pulse knocking the gengar to the ground. The gengar didn't try to get back up and it seemed like the fight was at an end, but just as Shade dropped his guard the gengar struck with blinding speed delivering a shadow claw right below his opponent's eye. There was a scream but not from the pokemon I expected. When I looked at the scene in front of me I gasped in shock. There was a trickle of blood running from below the umbrion's eye and the gengar hung limply, his throat clamped in the in the umbrion's jaws. He threw the now deceased gengar to one side and approached me where I was still lying on the ground.

"Are you okay?" he asked his voice surprisingly calm.

"Yes I think so" I replied as I tried to get up, but my legs felt like jelly and I staggered. I was about to fall, when suddenly he was at my side supporting me and letting me lean against him.

"What were you doing following me in the first place?" he asked with just a hint of annoyance. For a moment I froze, unsure how to reply.

"Um… I wanted to know… I mean I wanted to know more about you…" I said feeling like a fool, he just saved my life and there I was stammering like some two year old.

He suddenly smiled and said. "Well in that case welcome to the wild side of town, the names Shade and what might yours be?"

"Blaze, my name is Blaze" it was at that moment I realised I was still leaning against him.

I quickly stepped away from him. He chuckled at that and said, "It's okay I'm not going to bite you…"

With that I looked over at the gengar, "what's going to happen to him?" I asked with sadness in my voice.

"The scavengers will get him" he said, his face hard.

"Scavengers?" I asked with fear creeping into my voice.

"Yes scavengers…" he said "on the street there is only one rule eat ore be eaten, if you're dead you're food and if you're alive there is no guarantee that you won't also be someone's lunch."

I stared at him in fear. He smiled and picked up his bag as he spoke "There's no need to be scared, stay close to me and you'll be fine. I've got quite the reputation on the streets so there shouldn't be any trouble."

He walked a few paces and then turned to face me. "Are you coming…" he asked "there is somewhere I need to be." I suddenly realised I'd been standing in the same place for the last five minutes. "Yes, of course" I said as I rushed to catch up with him.

We walked in silence and I couldn't help but stare at him as a whole. He was thin, so thin that I could clearly see his ribs. His face was covered in scares and he seemed to be sneezing constantly. "Are you okay? I asked.

He turned his head to look at me as he spoke. "Just a winter cold, I'll be fine…"

I looked away feeling terrible, I've never had a cold in my life, hell I mean I've never even been cold long enough to complain.

"Must be sweet…"

"Hmm?" I said as his voice pulled me from my thoughts.

"Working in a restaurant, it must be sweet; I'd love to work in a restaurant someday as a chef." It is then that I realised we'd stopped in front of a restaurant, it was nothing special a small place with a few tables and chairs at the front.

"But I guess that is a fools dream…" he said as he started walking again.

"No I think you'd make a great chef" I said as I followed him.

"You don't even know me" he laughed as he turned down an ally. It was true I realised, I didn't know him, yet…

"I'm back!" He called to seemingly no one in particular when suddenly three balls of brown and white fluff shot out from a heap of cardboard boxes and nearly tackled him to the ground. "Easy you three" he laughed, "We have a guest, so please behave now."

"A guest asked one of the balls of fluff as all three jumped back, and I could see that they were evee's.

"Yes a guest" Shade said patiently as he turned towards me. "Blaze I'd like you to meet the rest of my family, the one on the right there is my little sister Rose, middle is Jake and left is Mike"

He turned to them, "guys I'd like you to meet Blaze"

For a moment everyone was quiet then Rose asked, "Is she your girlfriend?"

For a moment he stood there speechless, then he said, "Yes sis I believe she is, well in a way at least…"

"In a way?" Asked Jake seemingly confused.

Shade smiled at him, "Well yes bro, she's a girl and she's my friend…"

"Wait!" I interrupted, "you consider me a friend?"

He turned to face me confusion on his face, "Well yes of course silly, what else would I consider you as?"

I stood there stunned, so few people have ever considered me a friend and here is this umbrion we're of two different classes, two different worlds and he considers me a friend.

I was pulled from my thoughts when he suddenly stood next to me and licked my cheek where I had been hit by shadow claw. I stepped back in panic, "what do you think you're doing!?" I exclaimed. He looked at me head cocked to the side, "Relax I wasn't going to bite you, but we have to clean that wound, or it will get infected."

"And licking it will help?" I said doubtfully as I realised my cheek was still bleeding.

"What, your mom didn't teach you basic first aid?" He questioned.

"No, what do you mean?" I asked.

"Saliva has naturel healing property's" he said as he stepped closer and started licking the wound again. It felt weird but I resisted the urge to pull away.

After a while he stopped and stepped away, there you go all done. I smiled, "thank you."

"It's a pleasure" he said as he turned to face his family again "So guys want to see what I brought?"

"Yes, yes, yes!" Rose said bouncing up and down on the spot. Shade walked over to his bag and stuck his head inside, when he pulled it out he had my mother's scarf in his mouth.

Shame crept over me again as he approached his sister, as he did so he said, "this is for you sis." just then he started sneezing again and Rose shook her head, "No brother you should take it, you're sick."

"But I brought it for you" he said.

"Well then we share", she said defiance in her eyes daring her brother to argue.

He sighed, "very well sis you win…" with that he tossed the scarf up into the air and launched a night slash at it, and the scarf was cut neatly in half. He then jumped up after the now twin falling scarfs and one seemed to wrap around his neck the other he took in his mouth. He landed perfectly in front of his sister and wrapped it around her neck.

"There you go are you happy now?" he asked.

"Very", she said with a smile and hugged him.

He walked back over to his bag and pulled out a hat which I recognised as one of my father's hats. He tossed it to his brother and shouted, "Mike heads up!" The hat landed neatly covering the evee entirely. From inside the hat we heard "whao spacious, thanks bro!"

Everybody suddenly burst out laughing at Mike inside the hat. Well everybody but me that is, I was too busy holding back tears of shame, these pokemon had so little, they all seemed like they hadn't eaten in weeks. Yet they were so happy and playful, seemingly always laughing. My emotions must have been written on my face, because suddenly I was yanked from my thoughts when Jake suddenly hugged me and whispered, "its ok don't cry" I looked at him questioningly wondering if he knew what I was thinking, but he just smiled as Shade approached.

"Welcome to the family." He said, for a moment I was confused, but then I decided to just accept it. "Thank you" I said smiling.

"Well I think it's about time we get you home" Shade suddenly said right next to me. I smiled and nodded. So he picked up his bag and led me from the ally, but not before saying my goodbyes and promising to visit soon.

We walked the whole way in silence, when we came close to my street, I turned to Shade and said, "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure." He said smiling at me

"How come you're so happy..." I asked, "I mean you don't have a lot, yet you never seem depressed about it."

He looked at me, not saying a word and just kept on walking. We reached my house in silence.

"Thank you for escorting me home." I said

"It's a pleasure" he said as he turned to go.

"Wait!" I said

"Hmm?" he turned to me.

"Could you wait here for a moment?" I asked as I ran into the house, looking for the bag in which I kept my allowance. When I came back out with the little bag in my mouth he was still standing right where he was when I'd left. I walked up to him and hung the bag around his neck. "It's not much but I hope it will help" I said as I stepped back.

"What's this for?" he asked.

" For saving my life" I said as I looked at him.

"Well thank you" he said as once more he turned to walk away.

What happened next still puzzles me to this day, because the next thing I knew I ran up to him and kissed him on the cheek and stepped back quickly. He stood there stunned for a moment before regaining his composure. "What was that for?" he asked a little worriedly.

I smiled and said, "That was for everything else that happened today and I hope we can do it again sometime."

He smiled "It was a pleasure showing you around, and I hope so too."

With that he turned and walked away, but he didn't go more than a few paces before stopping and looking over his shoulder at me. Then he spoke and what he said remains with me to this day. "Blaze, the reason I'm so happy is simple. Just live, love and laugh and above all treat others like you wish to be treated."

With those final words he walked off into the rain, I watched till he disappeared from sight. Then I went inside to warm up by the fire. Knowing that I would not easily forget what I saw or learned today.

THE END

AN: Well this story took a lot longer than I had initially thought it would, but none the less I'm glad I finished it. If there are some of you who would like some more like this let me know, because I'm considering a few more adventures for the group although they will all be one shot's.

Oh yes one last thing, Shade's final words weren't just meant for Blaze. They were meant for anyone that cared to listen…

Well see ya!