Author's Note:

Well, I think it's time that I say that I don't usually have much to say here in the Author's Notes, aside from the obligatory "enjoy the chapter", besides the following:

Trivia: Larvitar's nickname is a feminine twist on "oscuro", the Spanish word for "dark". Quite fitting, given the typing of the species' final evolution, hmm?

Shout-outs to NightmareTheFoxWitch for the Follow, Favorite, and review, joycewu333 for the Follow and Review, and Karxrida for the Follow. And in response to those two Reviews:

'Tis appreciated, Nightmare, though you could definitely stand to be a tad less vague (no offense).

Well, it took an entire minute of digging through Google Translate, but I believe that it's a decent nickname, as well. And to answer your question, joycewu:

I've no idea. I suppose that you'll have to forgive this teen-aged mind for not think of every minute detail. I could give the bull-crap excuse relating energy to matter, and that Pokémon are primarily energy whilst they're eggs, but there are so many holes in that train of thought that it wouldn't be worth keeping its engine on in-story.

… Did that come across as condescending and/or angry? Apologies if it did…

And lastly: I'll be in Florida 'till next Friday, so don't expect an update until a couple days after that.

Disclaimer:

Pokémon and any other referential materials found in this story do not belong to me. They belong to their respective owners and subsidiaries, and I claim no ownership of them.

Of Children, Men, and Monsters

Chapter Three: Learning Curve

Marza sighed as she got off the bus, feeling a not-so-inexplicable sense of dejá vú

'Just because the previous afternoon - as well as this morning - were nothing short of extraordinary hardly means that school will be affected. Really, why did I think it'd be any different than average?'

She opened the door, fully expecting her parents to greet her, but was mildly surprised that they were nowhere in her immediate field of view. A note was on the counter, and it read as follows:

As you know, Marza, this is one of my usual days off from work. However, there was an abrupt business meeting called today, so I'll likely be home by the time you are asleep. So will your mother, in fact; she has an urgent surgery to assist in, so she might be home even later than me. I've already made your supper; it's in the fridge. Do remember to warm it up!

Your loving father, Julius.

"… He is aware that this isn't actually a letter, that I can guess that it was him that wrote this, and that it was just that one time, right?" she asked of no one in particular. She checked in the refrigerator, and, true to her father's written words, a meal was sitting right at the front of the second shelf from the top. She hummed appreciatively at Julius' work before closing the door to her family's refrigeration unit, walking upstairs to her room to check up on Oscura and organize her things.

Considering the Larvitar's age and subsequent curiosity to what is likely everything, she fully expected to be greeted with a mess when she walked into her room. She was pleasantly surprised, however, when she discovered that only a few small things were out of their original positions. She spotted the Larvitar sitting on her bed, messing around with a collection of comically large letters. A box rested a few feet away, tipped over. Marza remembered this box and the large letters from her childhood; her parents noticed that she had a tougher than average time learning, so they got the idea to give her a bit of additional education at home, which involved learning the alphabet with these physical representations of the English characters. Marza probably would have thrown those things away long ago, but Julius and Erise had insisted upon keeping them. "For memories' sake," they had said.

Well, it hardly had anything to do with sentimentality, but she certainly wasn't regretting keeping those things now!

Oscura was evidently having a tough time attempting to piece together the alphabet, which begged the question: "If you can understand me, then why can't you understand the alphabet?"

The little monster's head shot up in her direction, thoroughly surprised at her appearance.

"Oh, did I startle you? Sorry about that. Were you so caught up in your learning that you forgot to check the clock every now and then?"

She giggled softly at that train of thought, and the girl almost doubled over when Oscura's cheeks darkened with red. Said Pokémon gave an indignant "Taaar!"

"Sorry, sorry! It's – it's just too adorable!" she almost gasped out, with the Larvitar glowering at her. It hardly helped his image in terms of cuteness, however, and this time she actually did hunch over.

'This… actually feels kind of nice,' she thought as she began to recover from her fit of laughter. 'I don't really get too many opportunities to be like this, do I…?' She got up and sat on the bed next to the Pokémon once she was done with her giggling, and began to assist the Pokémon on learning the English characters.

"I can see that you're trying, but you've got it all wrong. The first one is "A"…"

And so she tutored the Rock Skin Pokémon for the next few hours, going through the alphabet – as well as decent amount of basic math – until it was half-past seven. Marza was startled in equal parts by the alien's patience (she wasn't even two days old, and yet she can sit still for so long!?) and aptitude for learning; only around four hours of learning in, and she had already memorized the alphabet. She couldn't say the actual letters (Marza would make a mental note to ask those of her species why they couldn't say more than their own name, or at least chunks of it), so Marza instead opted to teach the Pokémon how to write when she had mastered the alphabet to its fullest.

Seeing as how it was now a few minutes past 7:30 (as the clock and the grumbling of their respective bellies indicated), Marza decided to grab supper for the both of them. While her own food heated up in the microwave, she went outside to grab a small pile of pebbles. Like before, she stuffed them into her pockets 'till she felt they were about to burst. The lass filled up a few glasses of water for herself and Oscura in the kitchen (she would take the bowls down on her second trip to grab her food; Oscura was very clearly an intelligent being, and she hardly liked giving her sustenance like an animal), and, after grabbing her plate of food, sat down next to the Larvitar on her bed. Asking the little alien to be careful with her water, she ate her food rapidly; her hunger was more prevalent than average, as the school's lunch food on that particular day was even lower than its usually bad quality. Marza was startled at how quietly the Rock Skin Pokémon ate; the only things she could her from her mouth were a few quiet crunches of broken rock. She awkwardly looked away when Oscura noticed her stare, and the other female cocked her horned head.

"Nothing, nothing. It's just that you eat with surprisingly little noise, especially considering that you eat rocks." The little Larvitar's eyes widened a bit before she managed a shrug. Marza reciprocated the action with a shrug of her own.

Half an hour passed. Marza sat down on her computer for the next hour, finishing up on some homework. The Larvitar, meanwhile, was working on assembling together various words that her makeshift teacher had given her as a learning assignment. Oscura cheered every time she made a word correctly, and Marza gave her the occasional words of praise. Just as Marza finished up on her own work, the Larvitar did the same. The human gave the Pokémon a few pats on the head for her well-done deed before stating that it was time for sleep. The Larvitar joined her in bed as she oriented the large amount of blankets to cover herself up, as well as the red-eyed Pokémon.

The young woman gave the even younger alien another couple of pats on the head as it snuggled up to her before she closed her eyes, entering a deep, peaceful sleep…