Hey, everyone! I want to say it has been one whole year since I became a member of this site and posted my very first story, which is not the one you're reading right now. That would be Spirits in the Air. Anyways, as my way of celebrating today, I posted this story here. I assure you that, although the main couple are the same kind of pokemon. They have their own personalities and the story's plot and setting is different. Most of the characters are different, too. Please enjoy all the same
Pokémon used in this story belong to Gamefreak, Nintendo, etc. If you're not 18 or older, then don't read this. Finally, words in italics are either a character's thoughts or words being stressed. It depends on the situation so pay attention as you read.
Don't Judge
Chapter 1 – Helping
"Not that I'm trying to sound rude but why am I doing this again?"
Annie, a Lopunny, was covered in various flowers woven together, as if they were jewelry. Despite the lovely arrangements and getting to wear them, she didn't want to look like she was dressing up. It caused the males around her to get the impression that she was trying to find a boyfriend, something the Rabbit Pokemon had no desire in doing. Annie already received unwanted attention for being a rather shapely rabbit-like Pokemon in soft, brown fur with large, floppy ears tipped in yellow, voluminous fluff.
"What do you mean, 'why am I doing this'? You agreed to model these flowers for me," Ronald, the Conkeldurr sitting next to her, argued. Ronald was covered in thick veins and tendons, highlighting his bulk and muscle. He lightly scrunched up the 'unibrow' above his dark-ringed eyes, which was a little tricky for Annie to see due to his large, red nose. The Conkeldurr stroked the gray goatee-like tuft on his chin thoughtfully. Then he cracked a mischievous smile. "Do you have any plans, Annie? With someone special?"
Annie immediately gained a flustered, red face and responded, "I'm not interested in something like that, Daddy Ronald! You should know that by now!"
"In that case, stop your complaining and go around looking as pretty as always with the flowers I've worked so hard to weave together. It's not easy with my type of fingers."
Ronald just finished a flower bracelet and placed it over one of the two yellow pieces of fluff around Annie's wrists. Then the Muscular Pokemon grabbed the two concrete pillars that were by his sides.
"I knew pink carnations would look beautiful on you! Didn't I say that, Ronald?" A Hitmonchan next to him asked, picking some Pecha berries from a nearby bush. He was a brown, humanoid pokemon, resembling a boxing ring wrestler, complete with red boxing gloves.
"Yeah, you sure did, Stanley," the Conkeldurr agreed.
Then the Punching Pokemon extended his glove-like hands, full of sweet, pink berries, almost touching Annie's mouth.
"Come on, eat them!" Stanley insisted. "They'll make your breath sweet-smelling! You want good breath, don't you?"
"Yeesh, settle down, Stanley," Ronald interjected. "I think you're making Annie uncomfortable."
"Thank you," Annie said. She took a Pecha Berry from the Hitmonchan and bit into it. After Annie gulped down the bitten piece of berry, she asked, "How does eating a berry help you again? I forgot."
The Punching Pokemon laughed and reminded the Lopunny, "You agreed to help me, too, remember? So all the pokemon of the forest would know of Ronald's amazing flower weaving and my tasty berries. I thought we could use more trading partners."
"Oh, yeah, now I remember," Annie said, nodding her head. "All I gotta do is walk around wearing these flowers and talk to some pokemon so they'll smell my breath, right?"
"That's right, our precious, little princess! That's all you have to do!" the Hitmonchan said happily.
"And remember, Annie," the Conkeldurr added. "Don't be afraid of getting yourself a male. But if he gets any funny ideas, give him what's comin' to his groin!" At that, he smacked a fist to an open palm.
"Right. Of course," the Lopunny replied before running off to show off the items up for trade. Over her shoulder, she cried out, "See you, Daddy Ronald! See you, Daddy Stanley!"
When Annie was far away enough, she let out a sigh. She wasn't looking forward to this. It was mainly because the pokemon of the forest, especially ones of the Lopunny's age, would whisper rude remarks about her family.
Ever since she was a baby Buneary, the Rabbit Pokemon was raised by two males who were in a committed and loving relationship with each other. They didn't have any shame in it but it wasn't something the family wanted to wave around like a flag. It did, after all, cause Annie a sizable amount of vexation.
Annie shook her head, getting rid of such thoughts while walking through the forest, in places where she was certain pokemon hadn't seen much of her. She even engaged in conversation with some of them. It was going smoothly, spreading the news of what was up for trade. There was a couple of boys who tried flirting with her but the Rabbit Pokemon managed to evade them.
Although, just as she was afraid of, Annie heard some whispering, no doubt about her fathers. The Rabbit Pokemon tried not to take any of it to heart, particularly when it came from a bully from her childhood, a Liepard, Purrloin in their younger days, named Layla. The two girls just hated each other, starting with Layla coming up to Annie and talking badly of her dads.
Deciding she had done enough advertising, and wanting to cheer up as well, the Lopunny went off to find her friends, eventually finding one, "Hey, Adrian!"
A labybug-like Pokemon was up in the air thanks to his translucent wings under the red flaps. He looked down with his big, blue eyes to where he was called, having heard the name Adrian. When he noticed Annie, Adrian waved one of his four hands in a hello gesture. Finally, the Five Star Pokemon swooped down to meet Annie eye to eye, "Hi, Annie! What's up? And what's with flowers? Not that you don't look nice."
"Thanks. I pretty much just have to walk around the forest, looking like this, helping out my dads and stuff. Putting that aside, I wanted to see if you wanted to hang out today. There's still time to hear a story played out by the storytelling Pokemon of the forest."
"Oh, Arceus, I'd love to!" Adrian was excited for a bit, but his shoulders soon drooped. "But I have to go to the forest's center trading spot and meet my family there. That's why I was up at this tree," The Ledian gestured to the tree next to him at the last sentence and continued. "I was looking for some unusual berries said to be growing on it so they can get us a good exchange."
"That's a bummer," the Lopunny said with a huff. "Well, see you later, then, Adrian. Maybe I'll have better luck with Nola."
"And Clover, too! You know how those two are often together!" Adrian added, not noticing the Rabbit Pokemon's soft groan of disapproval.
"Right. Clover, too. Have you seen either one of them today?" Annie asked.
The Ledian pointed to the left. "Last I saw they were over there. Hopefully, you'll find them."
"Thanks, Adrian. See you later!" The Lopunny took off yet again, waving bye to her Ledian friend over her shoulder.
The Five Star Pokemon waved bye and flew away.
Annie kept walking straight, occasionally asking Pokemon if they had seen either Nola or Clover. Eventually, she found them. However, the Lopunny was a little hesitant coming up to them.
Nola, the Audino, was her friend from childhood and had always stuck by her, even in her worst times. Nola had pink and cream-colored fur, her arms, sides, and the top of her head being pink while the rest of her body was cream-colored. The Hearing Pokemon also had a white, puffy tuft for a tail and ears with feelers attached to them. Nola suddenly turned around, her blue eyes shining and her smile growing wide as she dashed towards the Rabbit Pokemon.
The Grovyle who was left behind, however, didn't look as excited and walked at a normal pace behind the speeding Audino. Clover was green all over, except for her red underside. She had dark green leaves on her body, three on each wrist, two making up her tail, and one long leaf on her head. Clover had her eyes narrowed a little and her mouth twisted just slightly.
However, the shifting on the Grovyle's face didn't go unnoticed by Annie and she felt a little hurt. The Wood Gecko Pokemon just never seemed all that happy whenever the Rabbit Pokemon was around. Annie suspected Clover only tolerated her because they have a friend in common, which was Nola.
"Hi, Annie! It's so good to see you! You look so pretty today and your breath smells so nice!" Nola gushed, hugging the Lopunny tightly.
"Hey," Clover said, somewhat monotone.
"Hey, girls," Annie greeted. "Yeah, I'm helping out my dads by showing off these flowers and talking to some Pokemon so they can smell berries on my breath. So do you wanna hang out? I pretty much have a free day today."
"Oh, yes, I have some free time today too! I'll have to stop by home later to help Mom around our home but I can spare some minutes for you," the Audino insisted.
"What can we do for a few minutes anyway?" Clover asked.
"Oh, uuuuhhh… Oh, I know! We can look at the clouds and make out shapes from them!" Nola suggested to her friends.
"Sure. Why not?" The Grovyle shrugged.
"Yeah. That sounds like a good idea," Annie agreed.
The three girls soon found a space in the forest where no one would be disturbed, themselves included, as well as a space where they could clearly see the sky.
As they all laid down on the grass, the Hearing Pokemon asked the Rabbit Pokemon, "So, what do you see?"
"Well, I ssseeeee… a flower, much like the ones I'm wearing," Annie answered.
"Oh, really? A flower? The cloud I'm looking at right now resembles a Pinap Berry," Nola stated.
The Lopunny sat up and looked over at Clover, asking her, "What about you, Clover? Did you make anything out from the clouds?"
The Wood Gecko Pokemon didn't shift her eyes as she replied, "Something like a Spinarak, its hairy, little legs in several segments and arched up high."
"All right…" Annie trailed off, Nola looking at Clover with a blank kind of face.
The Grovyle, still unmoving, asked, "Annie, if you're looking like that, then I take it you're boyfriend-hunting?"
"What are you talking about? You know Annie's not looking for one and she's not planning to start!" the Audino cried out.
The Rabbit Pokemon, wanting to keep this from turning uncomfortable, cut in, saying, "Hey, we should go back to our fun watching the clouds."
"That's right, Clover, we were having fun looking up at the clouds in the sky! Let's continue doing that," Nola said, quickly agreeing with Annie.
Clover merely shrugged at that but the three girls still enjoyed spending the next few minutes cloud-watching. Eventually, they had to part ways and wave good-bye to each other.
When Annie was far away enough from them, specifically Nola since she's not the Hearing Pokemon for nothing, she sighed. The Lopunny had to deal with her family and a friend telling her to get a special someone in her life. However, the Rabbit Pokemon didn't want to go through what she did when she either dumped or got dumped by her past ex-boyfriends.
Getting sad from her dating-related memories, Annie decided then to go to where the storytelling Pokemon of the forest would act out another tale. As she was walking, however, the Lopunny was stopped by a Pokemon who called out to her.
The Rabbit Pokemon's eyes widened; this Pokemon was a Zoroark, a pokemon that was uncommonly found in this forest. He was covered all over in black fur, the upper torso covered in even darker-colored fur. He possessed a large, red mane, tipped in several places with black, seemingly held together by a small, light blue orb behind this Pokemon. He smiled, making the red marks and lines on his face become corrugated.
"Hey there. The name's Kody. I know I'm new here. Just moved. And you definitely got my attention, covered in all those flowers."
"Yeah, well, I'm just helping my family out by showing off these flower arrangements," Annie explained. "I'm not looking for a boyfriend so don't get any ideas."
"All right. I won't. Though I'm sure every guy around here's gotten some ideas," Kody remarked.
"Yeah. It's kind of bothersome."
"At least you seemed to have gotten used to it."
The Lopunny groaned at that.
"Sorry," the Zoroark apologized.
"Nah, that's fine but I was heading somewhere so…"
Annie was about to leave but then she looked more closely at Kody. Now that she noticed, there was something familiar about him to her, although, after a while, the Zoroark noticed the Lopunny looking at him.
"Is there anything wrong?" he questioned.
"Sorry. I just thought of a Pokemon I saw when I was a little Buneary. He was a Zorua and was black with some red like you, though he walked on all fours instead of hind legs," Annie explained.
Even though Zorua can evolve into Zoroark, Annie's not expecting this Zoroark to be the one she knew. Kody's not the only one of his kind in the entire world. He's not even the only one of his kind in this forest. Besides, the Lopunny had only known one of the Tricky Fox Pokemon for such a short time; he was chased out of the forest with his dad for something Annie couldn't remember.
The Rabbit Pokemon didn't have long to think about it cause Kody shook her out of her thoughts, "So you knew a Zorua before? That's interesting. I'd say I met a Buneary when I was younger, but Buneary are more common than Zorua."
Annie smiled, somehow finding this Illusion Fox Pokemon fun. Then she remembered about her earlier destination. "Oh, yeah, the storytelling Pokemon. I gotta get going so I don't miss them."
"Story telling Pokemon?" Kody wondered out loud.
"Yeah. There a group of pokemon who find stories and folklore they like so much that they act them out. The other pokemon like it, too, so they watch. I was heading over there before I started talking to you," the Lopunny explained.
"Then can I join you?" the Zoroark asked.
"Huh? Join me?" The Rabbit Pokemon questioned.
"Yeah. I wanna join you in listening to those storytelling Pokemon. I ought to make a new friend now that I moved here and this seems like a good chance to do that," the Illusion Fox Pokemon reasoned.
Annie was a little hesitant. She was covered in flowers, or carnations, as her father Stanley would say, and a guy wanted to spend some time with her. Yet the Lopunny didn't think Kody was asking her out. He didn't seem to behave anything like all the other guys who had hit on her.
As a result, Annie said, "Ok. Why not?"
Kody smiled and exclaimed, "Sweet! Thanks!"
At that, the Lopunny and the Zoroark started walking side by side, Annie a little ahead because she knew where to find the storytelling Pokemon. Along the way, the Rabbit Pokemon couldn't shake off the feeling she had just agreed to a date but she shook her head.
Don't be ridiculous, Annie told herself. I'm not looking for a boyfriend. Not now and not ever. So there's no way this is a date.