A misunderstanding
"Treecko! Where are you? Please come back!"
"Treecko! Your trainer is worried, won't you return?"
"Treecko?"
The calls came from everywhere: Bonnie, Laura and Max had split up to look for the little lizard. Laura had sent Swablu to look from above. So far, the search had been unsuccessful. It did not help that none of the children knew the city: several times, they had run into dead ends, and more than once Bonnie was not sure where she was. Fortunately, kind passer-bys helped her find her way each time, but not one of them had seen Max's treecko. The boy looked rather despondent as the three of them met again.
"Treecko could be anywhere," he sighed. "It's not a big city, but everything here is new to him, I hope he's not hiding somewhere scared."
"Don't worry," Bonnie said. "I'm sure we'll find him in the end. We won't stop until we do!"
"You know," Laura added, deep in thought, "I think if your treecko had been out in Cherrygrove at least one of the inhabitants would have seen him by now, even briefly."
"What do you mean? Of course he is in Cherrygrove!"
"Undoubtedly, but maybe not in the streets. We should search elsewhere."
From his expression it was easy to see that Max had no idea what she meant. Actually, Bonnie was not quite sure herself, but since her timid friend looked pretty confident for once, she decided to keep her mouth shut.
"Look, where do you go when you feel afraid, or sad?"
"What? What kind of question is this?" Max bristled, sounding pretty offended, but Laura did not even flinch from his tone.
"Never mind the macho posturing," she said urgently, "what kind of place do you prefer when you want to be alone? If you and Treecko are close, chances are he'll favor the same kind of hidey-hole!"
"Laura, that's brilliant!" Bonnie said admiringly, and the dark-haired girl blushed.
Max had lost his frown and was deep in thought. "I don't know if Treecko and I are that close, considering he fled, but... I guess I tend to retreat somewhere quiet," he replied after a while. "Someplace with few people. Someplace with nature around, but civilized, soothing, nothing too wild."
"Someplace like a park?" Laura suggested. "There's a big one between here and the airport, we passed it on our way to the city centre. It's a bit farther than where we've been looking so far, but not so much that your treecko coudn't have reached it."
"The place with all the flowers? We saw it too when we left the airport, even stopped there for a quick snack. I don't know how I didn't think about it sooner! Treecko really liked it." Max exclaimed excitedly. "Plus, he's a grass-type, he'd feel more comfortable there than in the town centre with all the paved streets!"
"Great, let's go then!" Bonnie said, bouncing on her feet.
The three children departed at a run, with Max puffing behind the two girls. Bonnie smirked, seeing that he was even more out of shape than she had been. But she restrained from saying anything about it, since Max still looked very worried about his treecko. She wondered what the argument between the two of them had been about.
xxx
"Excuse-me Madam, have you seen a treecko?"
They had repeated this question, or a variation of it, about a dozen times since reaching the park, without success. Some people did not even know what a treecko was, since they were so rare in Johto, but the explanation "a small, green, lizard-like pokemon" had not enlightened anyone. With each successive denegation, Max had become more somber, and it was obvious that he was wondering whether his pokemon even was in the park, or whether it had all been a bad idea. Bonnie and Laura were not sure what to tell him to give him hope, so it was a very silent group that was now roaming the paths of the Cherrygrove park.
"Why yes I did!" Answered the young woman on the bench. She was nursing a baby girl, while a ledian, next to her, was twinkling in elaborate patterns to amuse the child. "It went past us about twenty minutes ago, in this direction." She pointed to the rose garden. "I thought it weird that I could not see its trainer, but I was busy with my daughter, so I didn't pursue the matter."
"Thank you so much madam!" Bonnie said excitedly, while Max took off at a run in the indicated direction without as much as a by-your-leave! She ran after him.
"Sorry about my friends." Laura said to the bewildered woman. "We've been worried about Treecko, and they both seem to be easily excitable! Thank you again, have a good day! You have a lovely daughter!"
She followed Max and Bonnie, leaving the puzzled young woman behind. Just before reaching the rose garden, she heard shouts from both of them, angry ones.
"Oh no, what now?" She murmured, turning the last corner.
The scene unfolding among the pretty flowers had her gasping in surprise. Bonnie and Max had found his treecko alright. The little pokemon was perched on climbing roses lacing their way over an arch, out of reach. Just under it, an upset-looking Max was shouting at him to get down, while Bonnie had interposed herself between the two and seemed to alternate between shouting at Max and trying to calm things down.
"What happened?" Laura asked Bonnie, casting a wary eye in Max's direction.
"We saw Treecko directly," Bonnie replied, "but upon hearing Max call him he ran up there instead of coming to see him, so Max got upset."
"Treecko, get down here! Look, I'm sorry for earlier, but you shouldn't run off like this, I looked everywhere for you! Now get back in your pokeball where you belong!"
"Treecko, tree!" The little pokemon was clearly unwilling to comply.
Bonnie and Laura exchanged glances: as apologies went, this one did not sound very heartfelt nor very diplomatic. The Hoenn girl grimaced, but she also cast a worried look at Max and took a step back. Perfectly understanding that Laura was unwilling to put herself forward again, Bonnie decided to take things into her own hands. She forcefully gripped Max and got him to take a few steps back.
"Stop it, both of you!" She yelled.
Both Max and Treecko looked at her, momentarily jolted out of their two-sided confrontation.
"It's obvious that you're not going to resolve this on your own, so what is it all about?"
"None of your business," Max muttered.
"The hell it's not! We helped you find Treecko, didn't we? Come on, you can't keep fighting between yourselves! That's not what you want, do you? Do you?" The last was addressed to Treecko. Slowly, both boy and pokemon shook their heads.
"So, what you need is someone exterior to the conflict, someone who can judge the situation with neutrality. Someone like a referee. And I just happen to referee for my brother all the time." Despite her anxiety at the unstable situation, Laura had to hide a smile at Bonnie's outrageous assertion, but Max, eyes fixed on Treecko, did not see it. "Do you want me to help you out?" Bonnie continued.
She also looked at Max's treecko. The lizard looked at her, then Dedenne, who was making encouraging noises of his own, and nodded. The blond girl extended her arms to him, and he slowly went down the arch, then jumped on her shoulder. Max's mouth dropped.
"Ok," he said when he found his voice again. "If Treecko trusts you so will I."
"Good, now let's hear it!"
"Well, it's kind of complicated but I'll try to keep it short. We just arrived in Johto yesterday you see, and it's my first time travelling on my own, so I guess I was a little nervous. Nervousness tends to make me short-tempered, unfortunately. Anyway we found the pokemon centre alright, and this morning, I wanted to train with my pokemon. But Treecko seemed unsettled, and hardly listened to me. In retrospect I believe my nervousness had leaked unto my pokemon, and they were looking at me for reassurance, not orders and criticisms."
Max was not even talking to Bonnie anymore, totally reliving the scene and self-analysing it.
"After Treecko missed the bullet seed attack for the fifth time in a row, when I had seen him do it flawlessly in Hoenn, I lost my temper. Ghosh, I was horrible. I told him I wish I hadn't been saddled with such a contrary treecko! After the way we came together, he must have thought I didn't want him, that's why he fled!"
The boy's eyes were humid, though both Bonnie and Laura tactfully pretended not to have noticed. They were very curious about Max's last statement but decided not to interrupt. The black-haired boy turned to Treecko, who had jumped down from Bonnie's shoulder and looked as if he did not know whether to flee or stay.
"I'm sooo sorry Treecko, I never meant to imply that I didn't want you travelling with me! I've loved treeckos for a very long time, but that's not why you're with me, I swear. And it's not because Professor Birch asked me to take you with me either! I really liked you back at the lab, but since you and Torchic and Mudkip are supposed to be for beginners I didn't think I should ask Professor Birch if we could travel together. I'm sure he noticed, and that's why he asked me to help you develop your potential, not because he thought you were unsuitable for beginners or anything! I swear I'm telling the truth!"
"Treecko?"
"Of course I want you to travel with me! Will you?"
The green lizard looked at his trainer for a long time. Afraid to spell the spell, Bonnie and Laura were hardly breathing. Then, Treecko nodded, and cautiously, touched the pokeball in Max's left hand. A red light engulfed him and he disappeared inside. Max dropped to the ground, breathing heavily in relief.
"So you're a Hoenn guy," said Laura after a moment, trying to stear away from the heavy drama.
"Yep," Max answered gratefully, visibly glad to be on less shaky ground. "I come from Petalsburg City."
"Hey, that's not far from where my family and I used to winter over!" Laura replied. "We were in Oldtale Town."
"So you're from Hoenn too," Max said with a smile. "I wondered, since you had a swablu. What about you, Bonnie? With that dedenne, you must be a Kalos girl, right?"
"Right! Say, you must know quite a lot about pokemon if you know that, Kalos pokemon are hardly ever seen outside of their region. Or have you been to Kalos too?"
"No, I never travelled there. But I definitely try to keep informed, I love to learn about pokemon."
Max took a deep breath:
"Anyway, thanks a lot, both of you, for helping me find my treecko. I was getting a little bit anxious, I must say."
You were freaking out, actually, thought Bonnie. Aloud she said: "Hey, don't worry about it. It's normal to help our fellow pokemon trainers!"
"Max, you said you were at the Cherrygrove pokemon centre last night, could you show us the way?" Laura asked. "I'm getting tired, this has been a long day."
"Sure, follow me!"
xxx
"So what are your plans, Max?" Bonnie asked over dinner. "You said you just arrived in Johto, like us."
"I'm going to challenge the Johto gyms and take part in the Silver Conference," Max announced proudly.
"Whao, so cool! But why choose Johto?"
"Well, I've already travelled in Hoenn and Kanto a lot, a few years ago, with my big sister and some friends, and I wanted to see someplace new. My sister was in Johto before and told me quite a few nice stories about the place, so it made me curious. What about you? What are a Hoenn girl and a Kalos girl doing together in Johto?"
Bonnie told him about meeting Laura in Kalos, and about the two of them deciding to come to Johto for the circus contest. "As for me, I still don't know what I'll end up doing. Maybe I'll challenge the gyms too, and we'll be rivals!"
"Hey, that would be fun!"
"What is your sister doing? Did she challenge the Johto gyms too?" Laura piped up. The opportunity to wash and rest had done wonders for her tiredness, and she was contentedly munching on the very good pizza in the dinner next to the pokemon centre.
"No, she's a pokemon coordinator. A really good one too! She's participated in the Grand Festivals in Hoenn, Kanto and Johto so far. Twice she went to the finals, though she didn't win. And now, she's in Unova. They've just started with the contests, it's the first year ever it's been organised there, so she wanted to check it out. She's doing really well there too!"
"Whao, that's a cool big sister! She sounds as cool as my brother!" Bonnie exclaimed.
"Oh? What is he doing?"
"He's the Lumiose City gym leader. It's a really tough gym in Kalos!"
"Clemont is really good!" Laura interjected. "We were helping at the gym for a few days, and he only lost once in the entire time!"
"Your brother is a gym leader? What a coincidence, so is my father!" Max exclaimed.
"No way! What were the odds?" Bonnie replied, laughing.
"What about you, Laura? What does your family do?"
"Hmm, they have a circus."
"Hey, that's cool too! Is that why you want to take part in the circus festival here in Johto? Wait, you're from Hoenn and your family has a circus, and you wintered in Oldtale... are you by any chance from the Wondrous Wonders Circus?"
"Err, yeah, my parents own it."
"I remember it from when I was young. There were two boys just a bit older than me, one with a tropius and one with a torchic and... a numel I think? I used to think it would be great to do stuff like that when I was a trainer. So you all went to Kalos, that's why I haven't seen any publicity for the circus in such a long time!"
"Well yes, my family wanted to travel the other pokemon regions, but so far they've stayed in Kalos the past few years. I wanted to see something different, so here I am, with Bonnie."
Laura yawned.
"I'm sorry guys, I'm getting tired again. I'm off to bed."
"I'll come with you Laura, I'm tired too! We started so early in Lumiose City that it feels like it happened yesterday already! Good night Max! See you around!"
"Good night girls!"
END OF CHAPTER
So, my apologies for the wait, real life caught up with me and I was busier than I wanted to be. Plus, I wasn't really sure how to start the relationship between Max and the girls. It's harder for me to get inside his head, for the moment.
I'll let you in on a little piece of information for next chapter though: Max has brought one more pokemon with him to Johto, who do you think it is?
Thanks again to the readers who took the time to make a review. I may not respond to all of them, especially if doing so would reveal some of the plot(s), but I read and cherish all of them!
