a/n: i was thrown directly back into pokemon hell with the two latest eps featuring misty, my namesake and my favorite character, so i ended up writing this
"H-hey, Parodia! Geez, it wouldn't kill you to listen to me for once." Kumiko stared down at the Bulbasaur stubbornly trotting a few steps ahead of her, its little feet pap-pap-papping across the hard-packed ground.
"Bulba," Parodia retorted. Kumiko let out a groan.
"'Pick a grass-type, Kumiko!'" she muttered, mocking, hands balled into fists at her side. "'It'll be just like taking care of those cacti you keep in your room!' Last time I checked, cacti didn't escape their Poké Balls and refuse to listen. God."
"Saur." Parodia plopped down on a soft-looking patch of grass and looked up at Kumiko with a daring look, smug as anything, and she let out a relenting groan.
"Y'know, if you're this lazy, you could just get back in the ball and let me carry you around." Parodia flopped over on her side, and Kumiko sat down next to her. "I have to get to Rikka City by sunset tomorrow. There's someone waiting for me there."
"Bulba?" Parodia blinked in confusion. Kumiko had to stifle a chuckle. Annoying as she was, Kumiko had to admit that Parodia was quite cute. Stubborn, and rude, and one of the worst partners anyone could ask for, but cute.
"I'm supposed to meet up with this friend of mine - here, I've got a photo of her." Kumiko held out her phone and let Parodia crawl onto her lap and look at it. One Natsuki Nakagawa flashed a peace sign at the camera with her scruffy Meowth held under her arm.
"Bulbabulba."
"She's already been traveling for a while, said that I need, uh, 'her expertise' to not get murdered by a swarm of Pidgey on my first day. Pfft." Kumiko scuffed the ground with her sneaker. "As if. You're strong, right?"
"Bulba!" Parodia lifted her head proudly.
"Great. C-could you get back into the ball, then?" Parodia shook her head promptly, and Kumiko groaned. "You're impossible."
"Who's impossible?" Kumiko nearly jumped at the sudden voice, and she whirled around to come face-to-face with a girl her own age, an Absol at her side.
Crap, I'm gay. The girl looked like she'd been out on the route for a while - empty water bottles poked from her bag, and dirt coated the Absol's paws - but showed no signs of even breaking a sweat, her long dark hair flowing elegantly down her back like she was posing for a shampoo commercial and her violet eyes sharp and mesmerizing.
"I said, who's impossible?" she repeated, with the voice of an impatient and slightly blunt angel. Kumiko blankly pointed down to the spot next to her feet, but Parodia had disappeared.
"Hey, where'd you go?"
"Buuuuulba." Parodia knocked the Poké Ball from Kumiko's belt and pressed its button with her tendrils, slipping back inside with one last smug look.
"That'd, uh, that'd be my jerk of a partner, just now listening to me after seven hours of giving me attitude! You're getting a stern talking-to as soon as you come out of there." The girl chuckled.
"You're a new trainer, aren't you?"
"How can you tell?"
"You're overprepared, your Bulbasaur won't listen to you, and you came right from Kitauji Town."
"Oh." Kumiko suddenly felt very self-conscious about the giant backpack hanging off her shoulders. "Wait, do I know you?"
"You might." The girl narrowed her eyes, stepping a little bit closer. "I'm from Kitauji Town, too."
"Sol," the Absol added. The girl patted its head to quiet it. Kumiko's chest seized up as she remembered - the glimmer of tears in her eyes, a stubborn wail of anger, the way she'd stormed off.
"Kousaka-san?"
"And you're . . . Kumiko Oumae?"
"Y-yeah."
"Well, you shouldn't stay out here alone after dark, especially not when you're . . . inexperienced. It's dangerous."
"I figured."
"Where were you headed?"
"Uh, Rikka City. I'm meeting someone there." The girl - Kousaka - appeared thoughtful for a moment.
"There wouldn't be much of a problem if I led you there, right?"
"I guess not?" Everything was moving at such a fast rate that Kumiko's head was spinning, and a very beautiful girl had offered to walk her to a town, and the ground felt like it was going to give out from under her feet. "T-thanks."
"Don't mention it." Kousaka started walking a few paces ahead, the Absol perfectly in stride with her.
"Hey, how long have you two been traveling together?" Kumiko pointed to the Absol, which silently continued along the path.
"Roi's been my partner for three years, now," Kousaka replied evenly. "He saved me in a thunderstorm, and we've been like this ever since."
"Wow, really?" Kumiko breathed. "That's amazing."
"I suppose it is." A hint of a smile crossed Kousaka's face, and Kumiko's heart thrummed in her chest.
"We're here," Kousaka announced, once the two girls had reached the gleaming metal gate proclaiming RIKKA CITY in slim capital letters.
"Thanks again for your help," Kumiko mumbled. Parodia had once again escaped the confines of her Poké Ball and now stepped onto the pavement with hesitant paws. "I probably would've died in there on my own."
"Is your friend around?" Kousaka held a hand up to her forehead to block out the sun, looking around, but there was hardly anyone on the street.
"I guess not."
"I'll wait with you."
"You don't have to do that."
"I want to." It didn't seem like there was any arguing with Kousaka, who planted her feet firmly on the ground, and so Kumiko just stood there with a very pretty girl and her Absol, watching leaves twirl in the wind. Rikka City really was very boring, for how much people liked it. Kumiko didn't understand the appeal.
Stupid town, she thought, and Parodia chose to spring up on her vines just then.
"What does she look like?" Kousaka asked after about ten minutes of stifling silence.
"I have a picture- crap, battery's dead." Kumiko paused, shaking the device like that'd turn it on. "W-well, uh, she's a little shorter than me, reddish hair, probably running around with a Meowth on her shoulder."
"I'll keep an eye out."
As it turned out, she didn't have to, as Natsuki came hurrying into view with Luce the Meowth clinging to her shoulder for dear life.
"Kumiko! Hey! I'm not late, am I?" she yelled, cupping her hands around her mouth.
"You're fine, Natsuki!" Kumiko yelled back.
"Great! I got caught up with some weird crap last-minute - there was this really cute girl and-"
"I think we understand," Kousaka cut through evenly. Natsuki skidded to a halt in front of Kumiko and seemed to notice Kousaka's presence for the first time.
"Who's this?" she asked, jabbing a finger in her direction. Kousaka tensed.
"Oh, uh, this is Reina Kousaka. She helped me back in the woods, haha."
"And I guess that'd make this cutie Parodia, huh?" Natsuki scratched the Bulbasaur in question under the chin, and Parodia flopped over in contentment.
"Yep. She's a jerk." Parodia gently extended a vine for Luce to paw at, smiling her little adorable fanged smile.
"I can see that."
"I suppose I should be on my way, then, now that you two have been . . . reacquainted." Kousaka started for the forest again when Parodia rushed to her side, wrapping a vine around her leg. Natsuki looked from her to Kousaka to Kumiko, who was blushing like a maniac, and to passerby it might've looked like a lightbulb popped on right above her head.
"Actually, where're ya going after this?" she asked. Kousaka tried to pry Parodia's vine from her leg, but she wouldn't budge, even with Kumiko's insistence that she let go.
"Nowhere in particular." She paused. "Home, probably."
"How would you feel about traveling with us?" Natsuki extended a hand, not quite oblivious to Kumiko's frantic gestures telling her to stop. "We're gonna try and collect all eight Gym Badges - y'know, the stereotypical hero's journey. You watched that show when you were a kid, right?" Kousaka's Absol nudged her warmly. "We could use someone like ya to help out."
"I think I'd like that," she finally said, firmly shaking Natsuki's hand. Natsuki glanced over at Kumiko, who felt like she might as well trip on her own two feet.
"Well?" Natsuki grunted. "We can't really be a traveling trio if one of our members doesn't join in the handshake." Kumiko reached out her hand to join the two of them, nodding, and as their three Pokémon started to circle each other, she got the sense that something much larger was beginning.
a/n: i might continue this if there's enough interest? all three of the pokemon referenced have names that signify something about their trainers.