Black woke at 4AM, eager to get started on his journey. Groggily he sat up in his plain red bed and rubbed his yes before glancing outside the window into the dark night. It was still in the middle of summer so a feint light could be seen on the horizon, even at this hour. He had always been a morning person, along with Cheren and Mei. Bianca always slept moderately and woke up at fairly reasonable times while White would sleep until midday or later. He sighed as he recalled all he had been through with his friends.

Looking through his memories he saw the time when he, Nate and Cheren would go out and battle with sticks or fling leaves and dirt at each-other calling out popularly known Pokemon names and moves. The time when Cheren had used his knowledge of Pokemon to distract some seriously pissed off pidoves with bait so that he and Bianca could escape. (White was still asleep and May and Nate were trying to wake her up at the time). He snickered as remembered the time Nate and White had gone "swimming with the fishes" after Bianca had tripped and fallen, while they were walking along the bank of the lake, and crashed into Nate, who, in turn, flailed wildly grabbing on too White's black jacket before they both tumbled down the hill into the water. Amazingly after all that Bianca had kept her balance and joined in with his and Mei's laughter.

Snapping out of his dazed state Black felt around for the light switch in the dark room. He adjusted his position until he sat on his knees facing the wall and stretched his hand outward finally colliding with the wall. "Strange, it's softer than I remember" he observed silently as he pushed down. Black moved his hands along the surface and finally found what he thought was the switch. He poked the switch forcefully only to be kicked in the stomach and flung out of the bed onto the floor. After groaning in pain for half a minute the light flickered on and he saw a cute thirteen year old girl wearing plain white nightgown glaring angrily down at him. The girl pulled out a notebook from Black's bag and began scribbling furiously in it.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?" the note read as she shoved the book into Black's face. Before he could respond the girl tore out the note, smashed it into a ball with her fists and threw it at him before scribbling the words "SCUM! JERK! BUTTGRIME!" and repeating the same process.

"What am I doing!? Wait buttgrime, what the-" he managed to shout as he jumped to his feet and dodged the notebooks and pencils that were sailing though the air. "I was just trying to turn on the light, and what are you doing out of your pokeball!" he grimaced as the tip of a pen struck his forehead leaving a long blue line across his face. Finally she stopped throwing the contents of his bag and giggled pointing at his face.

"You poked my nose, and it hurt!" she wrote on another not pad before tossing it aside and bursting into hysterics as the wet ink on his face dripped down causing him to look like a victim out of some ax murder movie.

Black gave an exasperated sigh. "Come on return to your normal form, what if my mom walked in and saw-" he began until he was interrupted by a gasp from the opened door behind him. "What are you doing up so early mom?" He asked before completely understanding the situation, "wait! It's not what you think!"

"The half naked girl, the disheveled bed, the books all over the place, and what is that on your face... P-please don't mind me..." Black's mom spoke her voice rising in pitch after each word. She then slowly walked out of the room backwards with a stunned and VERY fake smile painted on her face. As soon as the door clicked closed Black heard "HOOOOONNEEEEEY! OUR LITTLE BOY WAAAAAAAA!" and lots of loud stomps and thumps. Black turned his glare to the girl beside him, who quickly turned back into a zoura, and averting her gaze.

"This is your fault!" Black glared accusingly at the small zoura sitting in front of him, trying desperately to soften his uncomforting glare with the puppy-dog eyes. "That's it! From now on you're called Trouble!" The small creature shrunk itself down and whimpered. Black immediately regretted it. "Okay okay, you're only Trouble when you're in trouble." he said folding his arms and glancing down at the cute dark type. Zorua yelped and jumped up snuggling her face into Black's shirt. Suddenly the door burst open.

"Look our little boy has become a man!" Black's mom cried as she held up the X-transceiver so that his father (who was on the call) could see. Black sighed and began to mentally prepare himself to explain the situation to his parents as "Trouble" hopped quietly back into her pokeball.

After eating breakfast Black sprang out of the front door. It was already nearly 9AM when the others would be waking up so he decided to wait for them. Surprisingly he saw that Mei was already up and was jumping around with her fennekin next to the professor's lab. All the events that had happened the previous day came flooding back into his mind causing his face to turn a dark shade of red. He still didn't quite understand what had happened and why Mei had kissed him. after a few moments of pondering he decided he would just ignore what happened yesterday and treat Mei the same as usual, after all this sort of thing was new to Black and he knew it would be easier if he talked normally.

"Mei! How's it going?" Black called as he jogged towards her finally feeling a little more calm and collected

"Eeeek!" She yelped "What should I say, What should I do?" she thought and panicked as she saw him drawing near. After a few deep breaths she managed to compose herself and face him.

"What was up with that squeal?" Black laughed as he reached her.

"Y-you surprised me, that's all!" Mei shot back defensively while reaching down to scratch behind the fennekins ear. The fox Pokemon grunted and yelped its approval. "Otherwise I'm fine and having lots of fun with Fennekin here" she replied to his first question in a softer and more jolly tone. "How's your zorua?

"Better than ever apparently." Black replied in a sarcastic tone, "are all first Pokemon this much trouble?" He directed the question more to the sky than to Mei. Black released Zorua from her pokeball, while Mei turned around to face him with her fennekin now sleeping on her lap while snuggling up to her leg. Zorua climbed nimbly up Black's shirt as he sat down and made a nest for herself between Black's neck and collar. Black smiled and rubbed the head of the little fox Pokemon.

The other trainers soon arrived and joined Mei and Black in their Pokemon cuddle-fest. (Except for White, who was still sleeping). Nate with his snivey, who was much too cool for cuddling, and would only allow Nate to rub its head. Bianca with her munna which (as usual) according to her, was sleeping on her lap and Cheren with his tepig. Cheren and Tepig were not sitting but training. The others sat and watched as Cheren attempted to teach his tepig how to dodge attacks effectively.

"Awww, Mumu is just sooo cute!" Bianca squeaked, "even though it sleeps almost as much as White does." She giggled and Nate let out a snigger. This of course set off the whole group, even Cheren managed an amused smile, while everyone cracked up.

Woken by the noise White shouted "quiet! I' trying to sleep up here!" She yelled. However because of her bed-head and tiredness the group just laughed all the more. Deciding she would not be able to sleep anymore White cleaned herself up and walked outside, releasing her Pokemon as she did. The little oshawott jumped around White's feet hopping and chirping happily. After picking up Oshawott White headed over to the group grumbling but now in a good mood thanks to her Pokemon.

After about an hour of talking and laughing they all were ready to start their journey and took their first steps outside of Nuvema Town. And as they stepped out Black surveyed all his friends emotions and dreams. He saw Bianca blushing as Cheren (who was also noticably red) took her hand and Nate's for their first step. Following suit Black took the hands White and Mei oblivious to the bright red faces of the two girls.
Finally they had all begun their journey.