4: A Little Help From Leaf

It was late evening, and Draco strolled the lamp-lit streets of Striaton City, once again at a loss for what to do. Having no money was proving to be a problem—one that he would have to solve as soon as possible.

It was still his first day in this strange world, and he had already been attacked by wild puppies and chipmunks, walked more than he ever had in one day in his life, been forced into battling twice when he did not know what he was doing, and that third battle... Draco did not want to think about that.

He had, however, finally managed to figure out how to work his pokédex during a break from travelling on Route 2, and discovered that if he pointed it at a pokémon and pressed the button in the centre, it gave him information about that pokémon's species. He now knew that the chipmunks were called Patrat, and the puppies were Lillipup.

Still, it was going to take a miracle for Draco just to survive in this place. He walked to the park in the West end of the city and sat down on the edge of a fountain, watching his surroundings, hoping for some sudden inspiration.

There was a child in shorts sitting on a nearby bench, feeding some sort of fruit to a Patrat, a girl wearing a white hat and pink skirt beside Draco, reading a magazine under a street lamp, then he watched a woman in a knee-length dress walked past him.

If the closest thing to wizards were those Team Plasma people, then Draco thought (even though his father would probably disown him if he knew) he would rather associate with Muggles, but he had not seen Cheren at all since he had left Nuvema Town.

The sky was darkening; it would soon be night—Draco needed a solution now. He looked at Snivy desperately, and would have asked if it had any ideas, but he did not want to be overheard discussing his problems with a pokémon, so he hoped that the pleading look in his eyes would communicate enough. Snivy slid down from Draco's shoulder and sneakily walked over to the girl sitting next to him and began cuddling up to her.

"Hey, little one," said the girl, her brown eyes shining as she petted Snivy on the head. "Yours?" she asked Draco.

"Yes," Draco replied.

The girl turned her attention back to her magazine, but then Snivy nudged her arm, and she looked back at Draco, more closely this time.

"Something wrong?" she asked. "You look like..."

"Like what?" Draco prompted.

"Just... down. Like you just lost to Palmer at the end of a 49-streak at the Battle Tower—believe me, I know the feeling—but considering where we are, I'm guessing it was only the Striaton Gym, which is pretty pathetic."

"Thanks, I feel a lot better now," said Draco.

"So you did, eh? You used Snivy against Pansear?"

"Yes."

"And got creamed?"

Draco's eyes narrowed. He did not want to answer. "Like you could do better," he sneered, a tiny amount of his old attitude returning.

"Do you want to battle me?" said the girl, sounding offended.

"No, I don't! Is everyone in this world a pokémon trainer?" At the prospect of yet another challenge that day, he had lost what little control he had left on his emotions.

Thankfully, the girl did not understand precisely what he meant, and responded calmly, "Pretty much. So, is Snivy the only pokémon you have?"

"Yes."

"Well, if you want to win, you should catch another pokémon. One that isn't weak to fire."

"And how do you suppose I do that?" The words were out before he could stop them; he knew he was about to find out that everyone in this world knew how to catch a pokémon.

"You don't know how to catch a pokémon?" The look on her face told him he was right.

"No, I don't. Are you going to tell me?"

She folded her magazine and shoved it into her yellow messenger bag, then said, "If you're going to be a jerk about it, then I won't."

"I'll figure it out myself then."

"Don't be so proud," said the girl unexpectedly. "It's okay to ask for help when you need it." He was about to say that he did not need help, but then she changed the subject, "What's your name, anyway?"

"Draco." The girl smirked.

"I'm Leaf, the Kanto Champion."

Champion? Draco thought. She could not have been more than a year older than he was. "You're the Champion?"

"From Kanto. Not here. Here, I'm... nothing special. How disappointing." She did not sound disappointed.

"I'm going inside to get food," said Leaf, standing up suddenly. "If you want my help, your welcome to come with."

He did not have an option; Snivy climbed up onto Leaf's shoulder and gave Draco an expectant look. Leaf shrugged and waited for him.

"Where are we going?" Draco asked after a minute of walking.

"I'm staying at the Pokémon Centre. There's a Mart right next to it, so that's where I'm going."

Muggles... how irritating. "Okay. So, how does one catch a pokémon, then?"

"You've got poké balls, right?"

"Just the one." Leaf looked at him as if she was fighting the urge to laugh.

"And that's for your Snivy? You'll need to buy a few more."

"I haven't got any money."

Leaf stopped dead and stared at him incredulously. She guessed his problem at once, "You can't be serious. How are you eating?"

Draco decided to answer honestly, "I've only been travelling since this morning. So far I've been lucky." Then he decided to forget about being entirely honest and employ Snivy's tactic, "A pretty girl bought me lunch. Not quite as pretty as you, of course."

Leaf was not buying. "So that's what you do, eh?" she said, stifling a laugh. "Get your Snivy to cuddle up to pretty girls and charm them into buying you dinner? Yeah, I definitely love a man who knows how to take care of himself."

"Well, what do you suppose I do, then? The only way I know of to make money is by winning gym battles, and that doesn't seem to be working."

"Why don't you just give up and go home? Do you even want to be a trainer?"

If only it were that easy... Draco did not know how to answer. He could not go home, but he couldn't tell her that. He couldn't tell anyone—who would believe him?

"Okay, I get it. You don't want to give up, but you're too proud to admit you need help."

"I don't—"

"You do. I'll buy you food, but after you win tomorrow, you're going to pay me back."

…

"You still haven't told me how to catch a pokémon," Draco said. He leaned against the bottom bunk of his bed.

"It's simple," said Leaf, sucking on the straw from a juice box. "You find a wild pokémon, battle it, then throw an empty poké ball at it. Doesn't always work though."

Of course, thought Draco. Could have figured that out myself. "And you seem to be under the impression that I'm going to win tomorrow when I still haven't got another pokémon, and have made it perfectly plain that I don't have any money to buy poké balls."

"Don't worry, Draco," she replied with a smirk. "You're going to win. I've got a plan."

"What's the plan?" asked Draco.

"I'll tell you in the morning."

"After breakfast?" He grinned innocently.

"During, I think."

"Great." He looked at Snivy, already curled up in a corner on his bed. "I'm going to sleep."

Leaf hung her hat on the bedpost of the bunk on the other side of the room, and began rummaging in her bag for her pyjamas. "Don't look," she said coyly to Draco, who had already removed his shirt.

"You're going to change right here?"

"So? You don't seem to have a problem with that."

"But you're a—" He stopped himself, for some reason not wanting to offend her.

"Girl?"

"Yeah, it's completely different."

"I grew up with boys," Leaf said. "Just avert your eyes for two minutes."

When it was safe to look again, he noticed the five poké balls that she had taken off her belt and placed on the bedside table; two of them were different. One had a blue top with two red stripes, and the other was a deep red colour all over with a black contour along the opening.

"Why are those two different?" he asked only after realising that Leaf had noticed him staring at them.

"The blue one is a great ball; it's just a little more effective for catching pokémon," Leaf explained. "The other one is called a cherish ball, but there's really nothing special about it." Her face contorted slightly when she spoke the word 'cherish,' as though she had tasted something sour. He decided not to ask for further information.

Never in his life did it cross Draco's mind that he might spend an entire night in the company of a Muggle girl, and he could not help but wonder... were Muggles in his world like this too? He had always been taught that they were stupid, inferior, filthy, like animals even... Now he was here, and without a wand, he was just as helpless as any of them.

But he had pokémon. If pokémon could really do the things he had seen in the lobby of the Pokémon Centre, on that rectangular thing that Leaf called a TV... it was just like magic. Somehow he could not see a difference.

A/N: In case it isn't obvious, Leaf is the female player from Fire Red/Leaf Green. I based her personality loosely on what I know of her manga counterpart, which is not a lot since I don't read the manga.