"... Oh. You aren't joking. Well then."
He tried shutting the door in her face, but Gendol stuffed her arm into the opening before the door could close.
"Wait! Ethan, please! I promise it's just for this weekend!"
Ethan sighed in defeat, realizing his sister would never stop bawling if he didn't do it. He nudged the door open to get a better look at the two.
"Why me, anyway? You know how terrible I am with Pokémon... Maybe you should just take her to a daycare?" He said, trying to persuade Gendol into getting someone else.
"I'm saving up all of my Pokédollars for Kalos, so you're my only chance.. Please do this for me.." Gendol pleaded.
"Ugh.." Ethan groaned, "Fine, but you owe me! Big time!"
"Oh, thank you! Thank you so much, Ethan, Thank you!" Gendol shook his hand vigorously, kissing him on both cheeks and then pushing Ethan inside, dropping a load of stuff onto the floor.
"Okay, so this is Meowstic's food, it's strawberry-flavored. You should feed her this three times a day because she's a person just like us! and then her fur brush, you should always groom her fur because nasty stuff always gets on her fur and she licks it off and it gets inside of her and gets all yucky.." she abruptly blurted out, somehow without even taking a single breath.
"Gendol, holy crap, slow down!" Ethan interrupted, barely managing to comprehend all the words that Gendol said at once.
"I'm sure I can take care of Meowstic without any instructions, y'know.. Can't really be that hard," he assured her.
"Well, okay, if you say so." Gendol shrugged it off, before walking off to the front door.
"I'll be back on Friday evening. Make sure that Meowstic stays well, okay?"
Ethan glanced at Meowstic, who was staring at him. The cat didn't have any particular expression on her face, and he couldn't tell if she had any emotions at all.
"I'll be sure of it," Ethan said hardly.
"Alright, I'm counting on you, Ethan!" His sister hollered as she pointed at him, "Call me if you need any help!"
"Yeah... I'll give you a call." he muttered.
Gendol left, leaving Ethan and Meowstic staring at each other. They stayed like this for a long while.
"Wow, really?" Nate's voice echoed from the phone speakers.
"Yeah, so I'm stuck with this white cat in my house..." Ethan sighed, looking at his friend's concerned expression on the screen.
"Hey, y'know, you're lucky, at least she isn't a huge brat."
"Well yeah, that's sorta true but..." Ethan glanced around, looking for Meowstic. He saw her still staring at him from the dining room.
"Something feels really... off about her."
"What?" Nate looked even more concerned.
"She won't stop staring at me," he whispered, "and it's like she doesn't feel anything at all.. Like she has no emotions."
"How do you know? Maybe it's just the way she looks-"
"Meow." Ethan looked up, noticing Meowstic's mewl.
"Oh, She's finally talking? What do you want?"
...
...
His questions fell on deaf ears.
"I wish I could understand you.." he whispered to himself, breaking a sweat.
"Maybe she's hungry? Maybe your sister didn't give Meowstic breakfast." Ethan realized that Gendol was in a hurry with picking up Lance, so Meowstic must've been really hungry. And he knew how frustrating the feeling could be.
"Oh.. I think you're right, Nate, I guess I'll get up to.. that?" He glanced at the stuff Gendol left him, taking note of the pink cans labeled with strawberries.
"I'll call you back." He hung up the phone.
Ethan stood up, heading to the kitchen. He picked up one of the cans, observing how it looked. He took a can opener and tore the can open within minutes.
"I wonder why Pokémon enjoy this. Looks like brown pieces of poop." he mused to himself, pouring out the contents into a bowl.
"Meowstic?" He called out, picking up the bowl. "I've got your f- WHOA!" He nearly dropped the bowl, startled at the sight of Meowstic right behind him.
"Meow."
Ethan steadied himself, before glaring at the Meowstic. Once again they would have one of their long staring sessions.
He finally sighed after a few minutes of silence, kneeling down and plopping down the bowl in front of Meowstic.
"Eat."
"Meow." Meowstic just stared at Ethan.
...
"Eat." Ethan insisted.
"Meow."
"C'mon. It's food. Food that Pokémon like you eat."
"Meow."
"Eaaat." Ethan nudged the bowl towards Meowstic with his foot.
"Meeoww."
Ethan figured that maybe Meowstic wasn't hungry.
He gave out a long sigh, looking up. He was reminded of how he was a horrible Pokémon handler even from a young age.
He opened his cupboard, grabbing some potato chips from his unreasonably large stash, walking off into his living room.
"Even releasing her into the wild would be better for her..." He dove into his train of thought, leaving his snack by his side.
Eventually, he snapped out of it. He turned the television on with his remote, and reached for his chips.
Only to feel nothing but the fabric of the sofa.
Ethan felt a slight fear build up in his chest, scrounging around the area where he left it.
He looked under the cushion, under the couch, everywhere, only to find nothing!
"Wait, where'd it go?!"
Ethan perked, his ears picking up a crunching sound emanating from the other side of the sofa.
He looked over to see Meowstic, perched on the side of the armchair, watching TV. It took him a minute of staring to process what she was doing.
She was eating his snack. One by one the chips fell into her mouth, much to the terror of Ethan.
"Meowstic... that's MINE!"
Author's Notes: Huge thanks to dominic0401 for reviewing and correcting my mistakes!