Chapter Three

Kaiba was up early the next morning, though truth to tell, he wasn't sure if he had actually slept or not; his eyes had that sandpaper-y feeling of having been open for a long time, but there was a gigantic stretch of time he simply couldn't remember.

He crept into the kitchen, starting a pot of coffee and watching the sun rise out the east window. Their treehouse was a tiny thing at the top of a tall pine of some sort, one of the more expensive ones because of the clear view of the surrounding forest.

And there, sleeping on the windowsill in a semi-ball, was a Wurmple. The Wurmple. One he was coming to think of as "theirs" because it was always waiting for them when they came home and because it never let anyone else pet it or feed it. Really, he was half tempted to catch it and train it, wondering what it would evolve into, if it would at all.

But for now, he was content to let it be free. It was nice to think that there was a living being that looked forward to their return.

On that thought, he opened the little fridge and dug an Oran berry out of the vegetable crisper. The Wurmple somehow heard it open through the glass pane and uncurled itself, raising itself up a little in its eagerness. Kaiba opened the window and set the berry on the sill, watching the Pokémon start munching on it happily.

"You could catch it, you know."

Kaiba whirled, startled but not showing it any other way. Raven was standing in the doorway, watching the Wurmple eat absentmindedly.

"It likes you. It wouldn't fight you; it may even welcome it."

Kaiba looked away.

No, the Wurmple wouldn't object. But he would.

He wasn't the warmest person; the geek squad could attest to that. But he had always liked animals. He hated seeing any sort of cruelty done to them, and when he first arrived, he had refused to become a trainer because of it.

He no longer thought of training in such black-and-white terms, but he refused to take any more Pokémon than he could care for, and he wasn't sure he was ready for a third. Wurmple seemed to be doing alright in the wild; if he caught it, it would depend solely on him for everything.

There were days when he thought he was crazy to have the two he had now. There were days when he wondered how the hell Raven coped with six, caring for them all equally so they evolved, training them so they could survive any situation.

"So how are we going to pull this off?" Kaiba asked, not-so-subtly changing the subject.

Raven snorted, but let it stand. "What do you mean?"

"You have six Pokémon on you already. Won't the Vulpix you catch go to the storage system?"

Raven actually stopped to think about that one. He pursed his lips, staring off into the distance.

It was a good question; and unfortunately, he didn't know the answer. He hadn't thought to ask any other breeders how they kept their Pokémon from being sent to the storage system.

"May might know," he finally said.

"Think she'll be up this early?"

"We can wake her up."

oO000Oo

"Do you two have any idea what time it is," May grouched, tying her bandanna in place.

"…time to go?" Kaiba snickered.

"Raven, you're hopeless!"

"It's a long way to Lilycove. Besides, we wanted to ask you something."

"What's this 'we' thing?" Kaiba fixed him with a glare.

"…"

oO000Oo

The sun was halfway to its highest point, and the three of them were still silent.

"You can get your license at the contest hall in Lilycove," May said finally. "But you would have to open a special storage account since you don't have a lot of space in your treehouse."

"That's really all there is to it?" Kaiba asked in disbelief. There was no way it could be that simple…nothing was that simple, he had learned that by hanging around with the geek squad for so long.

May yawned, stretching. "You do have to take a written exam," she admitted, "but that shouldn't be a problem. Right, Raven?"

Raven nodded slowly.

"So, it comes down to a test." Kaiba shook his head. If he were in Domino City, said test would probably be complicated by some maniac trying to take over the world by gaining a breeder's license…somehow…

But then, everything in Domino City became a life-and-death situation. It was just the way things were.

"So, Mt. Pyre." May looked off in the graveyard's direction, even though it was hidden by distance. She gave Kaiba a sly glance. "You're not afraid of ghosts, are you?" she teased.

Kaiba snorted. "There's no such things as ghosts, May." No matter what anyone said about spirits and reincarnation. "There may be ghost-types, but no ghosts."

"While I was in Kanto, visiting Lavender Town, I was told there was the ghost of a Marowak haunting the tower, you know. I went up there and I could have sworn I saw one." May shuddered. "It was really creepy."

"You saw a ghost or a Marowak?" Raven glanced at her, confused.

"A ghost of a Marowak," May corrected. "It was see-through and everything!"

"…you mean 'transparent'?"

"Shut up, Seto," she snapped, glaring.

"Or what?" There was no way he was passing up the opportunity to wind her up, it was more fun than screwing with the Mutt's head.

"Please don't fight," Raven sighed. "It's annoying. And if that's all you guys are going to do for the entire trip, you can both go home!" He glared.

"Whatever," Kaiba muttered, rolling his eyes.

"Help me find some water? I want to let Milotic out."

"Sure, I bet Seabiscuit could use a swim, too."

"So why'd you name your Horsea 'Seabiscuit'?" May asked, freeing her Beautifly. "Beautifly, see if you can find some water!" The butterfly Pokémon flew off.

"Because he's small and fast, just like the original," Kaiba called back as he walked into the grass. If he recalled correctly, there was a small lake around here somewhere…

Just then, May came running by at a right angle to him, following her Beautifly. "I think we got something," she shouted. Kaiba blinked and stared after her for a second before chasing after.

Raven was already there, watching Milotic splash around in the water, since her swim the other day was cut short.

It was a beautiful spot; grass surrounded the area, and the sun was only partially blocked by clouds. Kaiba took a seat next to Raven.

"Seabiscuit, come on out!"

"Hooorsea!" The little blue sea horse stretched, then dove under and zipped away, before Kaiba could say anything else.

"Why don't we free the rest of our teams?" May suggested, already pulling out her PokeBalls. "They could use the play time, I'm sure."

Neither man responded; they simply started freeing their Pokémon, Raven grinning happily at their excited cries.

oO000Oo

It was a while later before Raven and Kaiba had some time to simply sit. The three of them had been watching their Pokémon play, keeping an eye out for trouble; no one wanted a repeat of Milotic's near-kidnapping. May had seemed determined to stay with them, though, chatting about past contests and friends, trying to draw Raven into the competition to the point where she was (almost) cutting Kaiba out of the conversation entirely.

Kaiba had kept his place in the talks only because Raven insisted on asking Kaiba's opinion on things, as well. Even though Kaiba would have been content to simply listen, Raven seemed to be determined to include him.

After about half an hour of this, May had announced that she was going for a swim before they had to leave again. "No peaking," she mock-scolded—mostly directing it at Raven.

Then, a few minutes later, she dove into the lake wearing a sky blue bikini.

Now, they watched her swim with Milotic and Seabiscuit, splashing the water types playfully before diving under the surface and coming up in a different spot. Most of her attention seemed to be on Milotic, and she kept glancing back at them, as if making sure they were watching.

And poor Raven seemed utterly confused by the whole display.

"Well, she's a bit more obvious than Carol, isn't she?" Kaiba asked, straight-faced. He almost couldn't contain himself.

Raven gave him a puzzled look. "Carol wants to breed our Ninetales."

Kaiba smirked, swallowing his laughter. "Carol wants to breed more than her Ninetales, Raven."

The other youth merely frowned, as if trying to think of what else—and abruptly paled at the thought.

For a moment, they were both completely silent. Kaiba was starting to wonder if he had broken his friend with that realization when—

"Can we move to Pacifidlog Town?"

oO000Oo

A/N: Poor Raven. Now he wants to run away.

But you all get another update, so hopefully it's worth it! And I'd like to give a big thanks to jakefan for being my only reviewer—it's much appreciated, even if it is short…

And as I write this, I realize I have plot holes. Which I will edit to take care of soon, I promise. But probably not until after the main story's done.