Notes: I'm back again with a new chapter. It's good to finally get it up. When I originally sent it to my editor, we both agreed it wasn't very good. So after some days of rewriting, here it is. Who's got X or Y? I have y, and have to say, it's fantastic. Anywyas, thanks for the patience. Expect Chapter 10 in the next two or three days, unless needs massive rewrites. Quality first.

Chapter 9

"…are you alright?," the voice called out, cutting into the darkness of sleep Meri was in. She opened her eyes, feeling some painful stiffness in her body, and some blurriness was still in her vision. "Meri?"

That was Serenity's voice! But why was she trying to get Meri's attention. She looked around for a second, then realized she was on the ground in a bathroom stall, lying in a pile of clothes. In an instant, she remembered what had gotten her in here. She was back to being a Pokémon. There was no way she could let Serenity see this! What if she tried to capture her? What would happen to her then? Meri, turned back into what she now knew to be a Zorua, looked around, panicking. There was a window that she might be able to get to, but it was really high up. Even after she climbed onto the toilet, it was still a pretty high jump.

"What's wrong, Meri? Why are your clothes on the floor?" Serenity's voice had gotten closer now, the worry in her voice only becoming more evident. It's not like Meri could respond in this state. "I'm going to see if you're okay, but if you don't want me to look, say something."

Damnit, Meri had to do this quick if she didn't want to be seen. She crouched, bunching up her muscles in preparation. Her friend's footsteps were getting even closer. With that, she put everything she had into the jump. She barely made it; her front paws were on the ledge, so she had to pull the rest of her body up, which was not easy, but the adrenaline helped to get her up and over the ledge, and onto the ground, where she landed awkwardly. Her back left leg hurt when she landed, causing her to yip from the pain. It didn't feel broken, though, so she tried to ignore it and figure out what her next move would be.

The only way to change back to being a human would be the Nomel berries, but those were all the way back at the Pokémon center. But how would she get there without being caught? She had the feeling that she had learned something that would help when she read about it Zorua in the Pokédex a few days ago, but couldn't figure it out. All that Meri could think of to do was to try and sneak her way there. But then, Meri heard her naming being called, in great distress. Locating the source moments later, she saw Serenity running in the general direction of the Pokémon center. Maybe she thought her friend had gone back there.

That meant there was no time for Meri to take it slow and easy. She would have to get there as fast as she could, and hopefully be completely transformed when Serenity stepped into the room. There were so many things that would have to go in her favor for this to work, but it looked like there wasn't much choice in the matter. She took off at full speed, which ended up not being that fast since she was limping. Every bit of pressure on the leg hurt, especially when she had to make quick turns, but it had to be done. There were a lot of quick turns, since she had to try and run in-between people, causing them to shout and yell at her in annoyance. But Meri just ignored them, focusing on her goal.

Soon though, she noticed that someone was following her, chasing her with an Electrike. It was gaining on her, too, giving her no choice but to step on it. It hurt even more now and she hadn't gotten as much of an increase in speed as she had hoped. Now Meri would have to try and get them lost. There was an alley behind the strip club her and Serenity had passed by on the way to the restaurant. It looked narrow, but she had to hope it would allow an escape if she was pursued into it.

As she approached it, she weaved her way through several sets of people's legs, and when she thought she couldn't be seen by the duo trying to catch her, she jumped into the alley, and ran behind a dumpster towards the back of it. Meri poked her head out just enough to see the street, and saw that her plan had worked: the Electrike, and then the trainer, had run right past. Now she was all clear to head to the Pokémon center.

"Hey, what's a cute thing like you doing in a place like this?" the voice caused Meri to jump and spin around to look behind her. Standing there was a Poochyena, smirking at her. "You know, normally if I found someone in my territory, I'd be really upset, but for a pretty fox like you, I think I can make an exception…"

This was making Meri nervous. "Yeah, sorry, I've gotta go, I really have to get somewhere right away." She took a step back, but ended up against the dumpster.

"…if you don't mind keeping me company for a little while," his teeth were showing as he took a step toward Meri. Without another word, Meri took off again in the direction of the street. "Hey, get back here!"

Meri could hear his footsteps coming after her as she escaped from the dark into the bright lights. She got back on the path to the Pokémon center, still navigating her way through the crowded streets to try and lose the dog now after her. It wasn't very successful though; it was clear that he had had quite a bit of prior experience out here, running through all of the foot traffic with ease. It wasn't long before there was little separation between them.

Even worse, as he was getting on her heels, the trainer was back, sending his Pokémon after her as well. Meri was nearing where she needed to get to, but her chances of reaching It were looking more and more bleak.

When she reached the home stretch, she realized she wasn't sure how to get in. Should she try and go in through the front door, or should she try and find her room and hope that one of them had left the window open. She'd have to go through the screen if it was, but she had claws to deal with it. If she had the proper mental map, her room would be on the backside of the building, towards the side she was closest to.

The Pokémon center was in sight now, so she decided to make mad dash straight for it. It was risky since she would be exposing herself into the open, but it would also mean she could build more speed. To her fortune, it worked out even better than expected. She heard fierce growling behind her and the trainer shouting angrily. A quick glance revealed that the Electrike and Poochyena were in a writhing ball of green and gray fur, trying rip each other to shreds while the trainer stood by trying to separate the two so he could catch the rare Pokémon he'd miraculously spotted on the streets of Rustboro.

It was precisely what she needed, and she took advantage of it, giving a last little burst to her sprint. When she got behind the Pokémon center, she began jumping up to look in the rooms. The first one didn't appear to be it; it looked empty. The second wasn't it either; she could a couple having some fun inside it. Third time was, in fact, the charm. However, the window was closed. Now what? Serenity had to be close to getting here by now.

It was low enough that she could and then jump into it, but that wouldn't be enough to break through both a screen and glass. Maybe an attack would work. But what did a Zorua that was probably at a low level know? Meri racked her brain as she stood their panting from her exhausting trip here. I think I might be able to use Pursuit, she remembered that they learned it fairly early on. But that just raised another question: how is it that Pokémon perform their attacks? Fuck! Why does this have to be so complicated?

Maybe if I think really hard about it and try to focus on using it…? She did just that, closing her eyes and bunching up her muscles. Nothing seemed to happen at first, but in just a few seconds, something began to well up in her. A cool heat was the best way she could think of to describe it. Meri opened her eyes to see that there was a very faint purple aura surrounding her. It took her completely by surprise, "Holy shit, I can't believe that actually worked!"

But there was no time to waste. Meri shook her head to snap herself out of the temporary wonder and back into the task at hand, or paw. Whatever. Taking a few steps back, she got ready to make the jump. She didn't have much room, so Meri only got a few steps to build up speed before crashing into the window as hard as she could. It was very clearly solid, she found out after hitting it. But it did break. Meri landed on the ground less than gracefully, rolling a few more feet after hitting the ground and getting nicked by shards of glass along the way. The cuts weren't deep though, so the pain could be ignored for now. Hopefully it would all heal when as she transformed back into a human.

Her backpack was just a few feet away from her landing spot, at the foot of the bed farther away from the window, so she walked over to it. Then it hit her, Right, no hands. I can't open it. And Oshawott was clipped to my dress. It may not have been fashionable, but she couldn't leave her Pokémon behind. She now either had to wait for Serenity to get back and try and get her to open the backpack for her, thereby exposing her secret. But that would have made sneaking in here to keep Serenity from finding out about her secret and going through all the trouble with the Pokémon pointless.

"Meri, you in there? What's the matter? I'm really worried," Serenity's voice came from the other side of the door. In a panic reaction, Meri dove under the bed just as Serenity walked into the room. "Meri?!" Meri guessed that her friend had seen the window. Her thought was confirmed when her friend ran over to where the window was. "What happened?!" A few seconds later Serenity moved away from the window and walked over to the bathroom. A few seconds later, the door opened again. "Please be okay…" Then the door was closed, and the footsteps getting farther away.

Guilt was overwhelming Meri now. While she had been freaking out herself, she hadn't thought about how Serenity was feeling or what she was thinking. Hearing the anxiety in Serenity's voiced pained her. I'm really sorry…I wish I knew how to explain this. Poking her head out to make sure she was definitely alone, she stepped out after confirming the coast was clear.

Now she had to think of what to do. It looked like Meri would have to run all the way back to the restaurant, but Serenity did the perfect thing by bringing Meri's clothes back to the room. They had been placed on her bed, neatly folded, with her heels set to the side and Pokéballs on top. I really, really owe you after tonight, she silently thanked Serenity.

Without anymore hesitation, Meri jumped onto the bed and pressed her nose in the button in the center of the Pokéball to expand it, then knocked if off of the bed in the hopes that it was Oshawott's. Her guess was correct; the shape of him was forming in red light, and then in no time at all, he was fully formed and standing on the floor.

After a few seconds of looking around, his eyes settled on the Zorua on the bed, startling him. "It happened again, huh?"

Meri nodded. "Yeah, while Serenity and I were eating at a restaurant. Looks like Rawst berries have the same effects as Watmel berries," she said with a sigh. "She didn't see me as a Pokémon, but I have to change back really quick and try and convince her I'm not insane."

"What did you do?" Oshawott asked, clearly worried that his trainer had done something really bad.

"I ran to the bathroom, and left my clothes there, but Serenity brought them back here. She already left," then she used her muzzle to point to window. "Oh, and I broke the window too."

Her Pokémon's eyes grew wide, "Uh oh."

"Yeah, exactly. She probably thinks I'm running around Rustboro naked and screaming right now," Meri faced him again. "So, I need you to open the backpack again really quickly so I can go find Serenity and let her know I'm okay."

"Right," he nodded then walked over to the backpack and opened the pouch that contained the healing berries. A few seconds of digging later, and he had the bag with the remaining berries in them. They were really bruised and wouldn't survive much longer, which could spell extremely bad news for her later, Meri realized, suddenly feeling a pit in her stomach open up.

As Oshawott opened the bag, Meri hopped down from the bed, landing a little painfully on the floor, but not so bad this time. Just as it was being opened, she stuck her face right in and took a bite of the first one she felt her nose press against. They did not smell good at all, especially after being sealed in a tight space for so long. It burned her nose and then her tongue as the pulp squished in her mouth. She shivered from the horrible sourness before the pain of transformation began. It spread over her body and she shed, just like the first time. It was less painful this time, but it was taking too long. There was no way for her to move in this state, so she had to wait until it was done before she could do anything. This time, Meri didn't waste any time lying on the ground; she put her dinner clothes back on and ran out the door with Oshawott in tow.

When they got out to the streets, Meri began asking people if they had seen a white haired girl the same age as her with big boobs. Some of them were confused when they said they were the same age, but Meri ignored that part so she could find her friend. They pointed her in the direction of the restaurant. After ten minutes or so of asking, then running, then asking, they found her, calling out Meri's name.

"Serenity! Over here! Serenity!" at the last call of her name, Serenity lloked over and saw the girl she'd been running around looking for her.

Immediately, she ran over and tightly hugged Meri, crying in joy that she'd finally found her. "Meri, you're safe!" they stood there in silence for a few seconds. "Where did you go? What happened? What's wrong, Meri?"

Meri scratched the back of her head, nervous and not really sure how to answer without sounding insane. "It's kind of hard to explain. I don't really want to talk about. But I'm fine, I swear," then she added, "And I'm not crazy! I know I left my clothes at the restaurant, but seriously, I'm doing totally fine!"

Serenity contemplated this for a second. "Are you sure? You've been acting kind of weird since we met up back in Petalburg City. Tonight was really scary, you know."

"I know. I'm so sorry about doing this to you, especially after took me out to dinner tonight. I wish I could…" she trailed off, sighing in sadness. "Let's go back to the room and get some sleep, alright?"

Serenity nodded and gave one last squeeze around Meri before they headed back for the night. The walk there was filled with painful awkward silence that neither of them knew how to break. Meri couldn't help but get the feeling the Serenity kept her gaze on her the whole way back. When they do back, Serenity noticed that the Nomel berries, including the one with a bite out of it, were on the floor. Jokingly, she asked "Did you have a sudden craving for Nomel berries?" She laughed a bit forcefully after that.

"Uh, yeah…" Meri responded sheepishly, unsure of what to say. "Something like that." She began undressing so she could get into her pajamas.

Serenity was doing the same, but stopped when she got down to just her underwear. "Do you know what happened with the window?"

Meri froze for second. "I was…being clumsy. I accidentally threw Wurmple's Pokéball through it," there was no way her friend would believe that; it was obviously a lie since the hole was there before Meri had the Pokéballs.

There was a pause before Serenity spoke again, as she thought about it. "Okay! You usually have better aim. We should probably go tell one of the Nurses, though."

"Okay, but let's do it in the morning," Meri suggested. "I'm really tired, so let's just get to sleep." She quickly got into her bed, closing her eyes and facing the other way, breathing a near silent sigh of relief when Serenity didn't insist. The light was turned off a moment later, letting Meri pretend that she was asleep and temporarily staving off potentially another onslaught of questions she really didn't want to have to answer.

It wasn't quite so simple as she'd hoped, though. After tossing and turning for quite some time in her bed, getting tangled in the sheets in the process, she realized it would take a little while to get to sleep tonight, as much as she needed it. Her next move took her by surprise, even as she spoke, "Hey, are you awake, Serenity?"

"Yeah," she turned over in her bed despite the springs in her bed protesting underneath her. "Couldn't get to sleep, either?"

"Nope," Meri said sort of shyly. There were several moments of silence before she continued, "I was wondering…"

"Mhmm? What is it?" Serenity seemed eager to talk, if a little sleepy.

Meri was taking her time with her words, knowing she would have to say it carefully to avoid hurting this girl's feelings. "Could you tell me some stories? Of like…when we were younger? And about some of the best times we've had together. I want to reminisce."

The question clearly left Serenity in surprise since she didn't answer right away, but soon the room was again dancing with her lively voice. "Sure! Hmm…where to start…" she pondered over it before starting. "Well, I don't remember it very well, only parts of it, but my mom tells me about it sometimes. When we first met, we were four years old. Our parents thought it would be a good idea to get to know each other since neither of us had a good friend at the time. We were playing with dolls at some point, and we got in an argument. You started pulling my hair. My screaming got my mom's attention from upstairs, and she came down to separate us. She said we were fighting over who had the prettiest doll," she laughed there, and Meri joined with short, nervous chuckles before Serenity continued on. "But I guess we made up at some point. I remember having a really good time when we said bye to each other, and you were smiling, too. That was ten years ago! I'm really glad we're still friends, Meri."

"Me too," Meri replied. As far as she felt, they had only been friends for a week or so, but that wasn't something she'd dare say out loud. "Can I hear more? I'm not tired yet."

Serenity yawned, "Yeah, okay," she finished yawning before going on. "Well, I'll never forget the first time we kissed, and all we've done since then," A feeling of curious dread filled Meri to the brim. "It's been a couple years since then, but it was such a nice surprise! We were having a sleepover at your house. Your mom had gone to sleep. We were playing a Pokémon Game on your Game Cube. We were making bets for when we won. It started out with silly things like running around your room with a lamp shade on the loser's head, or putting up their hair funny. But then, you said if you won, you wanted a kiss-!

Oh God, it was me who started it!

"-You won, and then you kissed me. You said it was your first kiss, that you had lied about kissing a boy, so you could look cool. I told you how it was my first one, too. I liked it so much I made the same bet, and when I won, we kissed again," she was grinning now. "That was it for that night, since we were kind of embarrassed about it. But a couple weekends later, we did it again. Except this time, after losing, we took our clothes off, too. After we had our shirts off, you jumped on me and took my bra off, and our chests were together…" her voice was so breathy as she said it. "We made out for the first time that night. It was so incredible. I'd never done that before. We just went further from there. The first time you sunk your fingers into me was magical. You were so nervous! We slept without our shirts on that night too, and your mom almost saw in the morning, but we were deep enough under the covers I guess "Last year, do you remember the first time I went down on you?" Meri could tell this was an especially fond memory. "I was so surprised at how much I liked the taste! You begged me to keep going and I did for so long. It was so amazing. I loved it just as much as you did. I still really like doing it…"

Meri could just see the piercing blue and white of Serenity's eyes as she stared at Meri's silhouette. She sheepishly looked away, not sure how to react or what to say, but Serenity filled the gap with her giggles.

"You have the same look right now that you did that night. You're still as adorable as ever when you blush," some more giggling bounced its way over from the other bed.

Oh god, am I blushing? But then Meri realized as she was touching her face, that even though she was blushing, it had to be too dark for Serenity to see.

"Because I remember just how you acted afterwards. That's how I know you're blushing," she spoke softly.

They were really close to each other… It was really interesting to hear about it all. The two of them stayed up a little while longer, Meri letting Serenity doing all of the talking; telling more stories about what the two girls had done together in the past. There was a little nagging guilt pulling at her stomach and it was getting increasingly difficult to push it away.