"I know this is quite sudden, but..." Delphox blinked, turning from the puzzle box she had found herself interested in to face her trainer. "I need you to babysit Ruby. Arvo's come down with a fever, and I need to take him to a doctor. Ash and Greninja are out helping Professor Pine, and you're really the only onther Pokémon who stays in the house full time, so I thought... Maybe..." Serena stiffened. "You're my partner, so of course I would trust you to watch my four year old. And I know you and Ruby don't really get along well, but I promise I'll make it up to you, so-" She was cut off when Delphox raised a paw. The Fire and Psychic type sighed. She made a few movements with her hand. To anyone else it would look like a failed attempt at ASL. Though Serena interpreted it to mean 'I'll watch the brat'.
"Thank you Delphox." She turned and rushed out of the room, and Delphox heard muffled talking. At one point, a squeaky voice could be heard say 'But mommy!' and Delphox sighed. This was going to be a looooong day. After a few moments, the little girl stepped into the room in a huff, and Serena could be heard calling after her to behave before shutting the front door behind her. Delphox sighed again, going back to her puzzle box. The minutes ticked by, punctuated by the ticking of the wall clock and the occasional click as Delphox fiddle with the box. Slowly, she became aware that she was being stared at. Quite intently too. She lifted her head and found herself staring into a pair of ruby red eyes.
"I'm hungry." The fox huffed, standing up and walking into the kitchen with the four year old in tow. About ten minutes later, the child was presented with a bowl of macaroni and cheese. A twinkle in her eye, the child grabbed the bowl and started gobbling the food. Delphox wrinkled her nose as she watched the toddler practically inhale her food.
'Yeesh. I can see how she's Ash's kid, but the only resemblance I can see to Serena is her facial features...' Delphox shook her head, huffing as she returned to her box. Oh how she wished she could just get out and practice for the upcoming Glacies performances, but then Ruby had to go and be born and put all of that on an indefinite hold...
Arceus dammit why is this puzzle box so needlessly complicated!?
"I'm boooooored!" Delphox jumped in her seat, seeing the child staring up at her with those annoyingly wide eyes. Delphox glanced over at the bowl to see that it was practically spotless. Not even a bit of cheese sauce to seen.
'Did she... Lick the bowl clean? Someone seriously needs to teach this girl some table manners.'
"I'm booooored!" The child repeated in her annoyingly high voice. Didn't help that her species had more sensitive hearing. "I wanna go up the mountain trail!" Delphox shook her head and went back to the puzzle box. "Come on! I wanna go and mommy says I can't go up there by myself." Delphox decided to ignore her. "Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-"
'Just ignore her, just ignore her...'
2 MINUTES LATER:
'Dear Arceus she hasn't even stopped to breathe yet!'
"-eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-"
'For the love of Arceus if it'll shut you up!' With a huff, Delphox stood and pointed to the coat rack. Ruby stopped, took a huge breath of air, 'Seriously!?' and toddled over and grabbed her purple winter coat, her blue scarf, her blue mittens, blue snow cap, and purple boots, all while Delphox was rubbing her temples, feeling the beginning of a migraine coming along. After bundling herself up, Ruby grabbed Delphox's hand and started dragging her towards the door, the fox not needing a coat due to her fur and typing. The girl led the fully evolved starter up the trail and into the mountains, though Delphox was more interested in her puzzle box. She did glance up every now and then to make sure the brat wasn't in any trouble though. So far so-
*PFFFT*
-good... Were Delphox's eyes not covered in snow, the twitch would have been fairly noticeable, though Ruby didn't seem to notice the growl that accompanied it as she hurled another snowball, this time nailing Delphox in the chest before rushing off giggling like Sinnoh schoolgirl. The snow on and around Delphox rapidly melted as her rage began to show itself.
'Calm yourself Delphox. Serena would never forgive for strangling her kid. Just ignore her antics until either she or Ash gets home...' She took a deep breath and went back to her puzzle box, briefly wondering why the hell she hasn't gotten the damn thing open yet. Oh the things she could hide in h-
"Delphox!"
...Motherfu-
"Look at this pretty rock I found!" Ruby squeaked, holding what to her was the find of the century up to try and show Delphox, who did not take her eyes of the puzzle box. "C'mon! Look at it! It's so pretty and blue and it's got a big snowflake in the center of it!"
'Ignore the kid, she'll give up eventually...'
"Come ON! Look at it! It's really cold too! It's like ice but it's not ice!" Ruby whined, stamping her feet as Delphox continued to ignore her.
'Ignore. The. Fucking. Child...'
"LOOK AT IT!" Ruby yelled. Delphox merely raised the box higher. If she had known toddlers would be this insistent and stubborn she-
A small pair if hands grabbed the box.
"I don't care about your stupid box! Pay attention to ME!" Ruby yanked, pulling the box out of Delphox's hands. The motion, combined with the box's weight, caused Ruby to tumble backwards as the box flew out of her grasp and over the edge of the trail, tumbling against the steep mountain face before finally smashing into pieces against a large rock. Ruby stood up, looking at the damage she had done.
"...Oopsie..." A haze of rage clouded Delphox's mind as the back of her hand met Ruby's cheek, the sound of flesh striking flesh echoing through the air as the force knocked Ruby on her butt. It wasn't until she looked at the small face, noting the large, watery eyes, reddening cheek, and quivering lip, that Delphox realized what she had just done. Ruby let out a shaky whimper, before full on bursting into tears, wailing loudly as Delphox kneeled down in an attempted to fix the damage that had been done.
"Nonono! Ruby, sweetie, please calm down. I-I didn't mean it!" She was full on shrieking at this point. "Ruby, please calm down before you cause an-"
*RUMBLE*
Delphox's pupils shrunk.
"-Avalanche..." The rumbling grew louder as Delphox noted the giant wave of snow crashing down towards them. The fox let out a small 'meep' before swiping up the crying child and bolting. People chose Fennekin as their starter for a multitude of reasons... Speed was not one of them... That was Froakie's strong point... But anyway, outrunning an avalanche with a screaming, crying child struggling in your arms was not easy. Delphox had tried a Fire Blast, but the sheer amount of snow easily overwhelmed the attack, and a few moments later, Delphox and Ruby caught along with it, Ruby's crying turning to shrieks as Delphox lost her grip on the child, being knocked around like she was in a dryer. It wasn't long before something struck Delphox in the head, and everything went black...
The world slowly came into view as Delphox slowly regained conciousness. Everything was mostly white, but that's to be expected in the Glacies Region. What wasn't expected was the blue creature leaning over her.
"Greninja...?"
"Are you ok? We saw the avalanche." Delphox attempted to sit up, though the sharp pain in her head and chest prevented that. She became aware of something warm and wet trickling down the side of her head.
"Greninja... Where's Ruby? Is she okay?" Greninja blinked.
"Wait, Ruby was with you? I don't see her anywhere!" Delphox's eyes widened as she forced herself up, despite how painful it was. With wild eyes she looked around the area. Snow, snow, trees, snow, a rock that looks like a dancing Zigzagoon, and snow...
But no Ruby.