A/N: We are going back through to edit some parts of the story. We have about eighteen chapters written, and stopped recently for exams, but now those are over we can continue to edit and write.

Anyway... Let some random crack commence.

10. Little shop of horrors with a side of dreams.

As the four continued on the road to Azalea town, they were confronted with an odd sight. They had released all of their Pokémon, ready to stop for lunch, when they stumbled across a fairly large building which had been put up in amongst the never ending rows of trees.

"Well, this isn't in the guide book," John said, confused.

John turned the book sideways and upside down, looking for a sign that a large shop was on their route.

"When was it written?" Flo asked, trying to get to the book. She had no luck as John was still waving it around.

"It has failed me," John cried dramatically. "How can I trust anything it says again?"

"Is this a guidebook or a relationship?" Kaida asked Nila, looking at John with a puzzled expression.

He had now thrown the book at Flo and refused to look at it as she tried to point out it was written two years ago.

"Me thinks they need some marriage counselling," Kaida muttered.

She nudged Nila in the back. Nila had been looking upon the scene in disbelief.

"Ah, right, you baby." Nila sighed. "It got one thing wrong and you are going to hold it against it for the rest of your life?"

"I guess not," John whispered.

He was still obviously hurt that his precious guide had lied to him. He grabbed it from Flo and held it close to his chest, as if giving it a hug.

"Um, OK... I'm going this way," Kaida said, quickly pointing to the building, desperate not to watch John and his guide book make up.

"Yeah, yeah I'll come with you," Nila said quickly.

Nila pulled a disgusted face at the scene before hurrying off after Kaida and her Pokémon. Flo was also not keen to see this display of affection and raced after the other two girls.

"Wow!" Kaida gasped as she entered the building.

"It's a shop?" Nila said, surprised, as she caught up to Kaida.

"You know what that means." Kaida grinned.

Flo watched in amazement as the grin was returned in equal enthusiasm by Nila. It was a strange, strange look on Nila's face.

"Shopping time!" they both squealed, jumping up and down.

"OK. I don't know just what happened," Flo said, looking deeply disturbed, "but I'm guessing it's not good for my health."

She poked and pulled her ears, which appeared to have been offended by Kaida and Nila's squealing. Nila gave her one last Cheshire cat type grin before running off into the store with everyone's Pokémon following her. Kaida laughed at her friend's madness before turning to Flo, but ended up laughing at her shaking figure.

"You'll get used to the smiles and weird faces after a while," Kaida said.

She gave Flo one last laugh before running into the depths of the shop.

The shop only consisted of two floors but they were both huge. Kaida wondered at the sight, there were a fair few shoppers in there, which surprised her as they were out in the middle of a route. After she had browsed for a while, she grabbed a basket and decided to find her Pokémon so that she could get some custom things for them. However, she found not a Pokémon in sight, even when Flo had caught up to her. She too had found none of their Pokémon.

"Maybe they are all with Nila?" Flo suggested, standing on tiptoes to try to see over the shelves.

This, Kaida thought, was pointless, as she had tried that tactic earlier and found she was too small to see and, since Flo was smaller then her, it definitely wouldn't work.

They found Nila in the food corner staring at the fridge. John already had a large basket full of food that he guessed would keep them going for a while.

"Would you just choose?" John moaned.

"But the choices," Nila whined at him.

"It is apple juice versus milk. It isn't which move to teach the ultimate Pokémon or anything," John groaned, slapping his head with the palm of his hand.

"It's not just apple juice versus milk," Nila hissed. She looked back at the choices with eyes so wide that she looked like a Jigglypuff. She continued, "It is organic apple juice versus vanilla milk."

"Hey, guys, sorry to break up the life or death decision," Kaida interrupted.

"No, please do, for the love of all that is Pokémon, please do," John begged.

"Right..." Kaida said slowly. "Anyway, do you guys have any of the Pokémon?"

"No, I thought they were wandering downstairs with you," John said.

John rubbed his head, unsure, before turning to ask Nila.

"Oh for the love of…" John exclaimed. "Stop stroking the fridge!"

"But they are calling to me," Nila said.

Her eyes were still massive. The proportions were freaky.

"Someone just kill me now," John cried, rubbing his eyes. "I'm stuck in a shop with a complete idiot!"

"She's not an idiot," Kaida argued. "She just likes milk a bit too much. She's, uh, a bit of a cat."

Flo nodded in return, but still edged away from Nila, who was now purring.

"Right," Flo said, clearing her throat. "Now let's go find our Pokémon."

As Nila still refused to budge from the food area, they had left her to finish the shopping. Armed with John's list, he hoped that she would at least move from the fridge to pick up everything else. John decided he would cover the rest of the upstairs to search for their Pokémon, while Kaida and Flo split up downstairs. Their mission proved successful straight away, as they found Wooper playing on the escalator. Standing on one step as it rose, then jumping down when it felt it was high enough. It looked thoroughly amused.

"Simple tastes, simple trainer," Kaida murmured to herself as Flo struggled to get through the crowd of people to get her Wooper.

Upon retrieving Wooper, Flo placed it in her basket, where it rocked happily back and forth.

"I hope they don't make me pay for Wooper," Flo pondered.

Kaida restrained herself from whacking the idiot girl.

A scream echoed across the floor.

"Ah, stupid, blinking Slowpoke," Kaida cursed.

Kaida tore towards the screaming to find Gastly terrorising women in the changing rooms. Kaida looked in horror as she saw whenever a woman came out to look in the mirror Gastly was the only thing she could see, pulling gruesome faces.

"Gastly." Kaida shouted. "Get over here now!"

She scowled as Gastly floated over, looking disappointed that Kaida hadn't seen the funny side.

After another fifteen minutes of walking around, they had found Totodile splashing in the water fountain, Mareep snuggled in a basket of wool, and Hoppip "splashing" around in a display of flowers.

"Where is my baby Cyndaquil?" Kaida whined. "I hope it's OK. What if he got lost?" She dropped her basket containing Totodile in horror. "What if someone stole him?!"

"Cyndaquil is probably fine," Flo assured her. "Let's just keep looking."

Kaida nodded.

Flo sighed, swinging her Pokémon lovingly. She continued, "Now apologise to Totodile for dropping him… And I swear I just saw something over there…"

Flo handed Kaida her basket before disappearing into the gardening area. Kaida, meanwhile, helped a dazed Totodile back into her basket, apologising for her sudden outburst, to which it just quacked in acceptance.

A yell was then projected over the shop. Kaida had to hold back the laughs as Flo reappeared with Weepinbell attached to her arm.

"Look, I have a Weepinbell for an arm!" she cried

"Maybe it doesn't like your arm warmers?" Kaida suggested, now trying to shush the manically laughing Totodile.

"Impossible!" Flo said, aghast at the very idea. She added, proudly, "No one can resist my lovely arm warmers."

She saluted with her free arm, showing off her bright pink arm warmer.

Kaida decided to ignore her. Instead she turned to more important matters.

"But I still don't have my Cyndaquil!" She stomped her feet. "Oh Cyndaquil where art thou Cyndaquil?" she sang loudly

"I am here, dear Kaida," a familiar voice said

"Wait… Cyndaquil can't talk," Kaida said, confused.

She turned around slowly to be confronted with her Cyndaquil in the arms of the one and only Matt. His Growlithe barked at her happily.

"Very right," Matt said, "they can't, but I guessed that would be what he wanted to say."

Matt smiled, handing over a wiggling Cyndaquil as it tried to get to Kaida.

"But how did you know he was mine?" Kaida spluttered, still in shock that he stood in front of her.

"Just a gut feeling," Matt replied. "I mean, I have seen it before once. Then I heard your lovely singing voice and I knew it had to be you. Moving on from nursery rhymes I see."

Kaida bent her head so that her hair covered her cheeks. They felt so hot that she thought she would burst into flames.

"So umm... What are you doing here?" she asked tentatively.

"You know, just shopping."

He pushed back his hair and grinned again as his fringe fell gracefully just above his eyes. Kaida almost melted on the spot. Unfortunately she was brought back to reality when Flo butted in.

Flo grinned manically. "Yeah we were shopping too, weren't we Kay."

Oh, she did not just call me Kay, Kaida thought, thoroughly annoyed that Flo was ruining her perfect moment. She shot one of her most deadly glares.

Matt nodded before turning back to Kaida. He had just opened his mouth when Flo interrupted again.

"Hey, you remember me," Flo said. "From Violet Town. We met a few days ago."

"Oh, umm, yeah," Matt said uncomfortably. "You were wearing a lime green Tutu? Fee wasn't it?"

"Flo actually," she said, unperturbed. "And, yes, that was for my dance act which was tragically ruined when my Bellsprout evolved!"

Flo waved the Weepinbell that was still attached to her arm.

"And," Flo continued, pointing at Kaida dramatically, "it was all because of her!"

"You evolved her Bellsprout?" Matt asked, half sounding amused and half sounding amazed at Flo's dramatics.

"It was an accident," Kaida pleaded.

Why, oh, why was Flo embarrassing her in front of Matt? What had Kaida ever done to have the universe hate her so much? Why was it spiting her this way?

"You threw a bin at me!" Flo howled.

Matt snorted. "You threw a bin at her?"

"She deserved it." Kaida folded her arms.

Matt laughed and joked, "So it is true what they say about redheads then." Then, more seriously, he added, "Did she insult Cyndaquil?"

Kaida grinned. He had only met her twice – and that was including this time – but already he knew her likes and dislikes.

"No, it's because I said–"

Kaida's eyes went wide. She couldn't let him know the real reason. Luck was on her side today though when Flo and Weepinbell were sent flying by a wide eyed Nila. Yeah, Nila could be all stoic and unimpressed until it came to shopping. Then her inner beast was unleashed and there was really no stopping the craziness.

"Look what I found!" she said happily, holding up a lacy black bra and knickers set "It's in the sale and in your size. Do you want it?"

"Nila! I'm a bit busy!" Kaida screeched, pointing at an amused looking Matt.

"Oh. It's you again," Nila acknowledged, before turning back to Kaida, thoroughly uninterested in the fact that the love of Kaida's life was less than a metre away. "But look, it's less then half price!" She then bent in and whispered, "Matt seems to like it!" before quirking her eyebrows suggestively.

"All right, fine" Kaida growled back in a hushed voice.

Nila grinned. Her persuasiveness had worked. She ran back to the clothing area.

"By the way," she called back. "They were having a sale on tampons so I picked us up a load. I know you are on soon."

"That's it! I'm going to kill her!" Kaida fumed.

They continued their shopping trip after John had freed Flo from the grasp of Weepinbell. He had found the remaining Pokémon upstairs, playing in the children's ball pit. Kaida thought she was in heaven as she walked around alone with Matt, their fire Pokémon trotting along beside them. She was even able to get Cyndaquil a new umbrella, which it was delighted with. That horrible Hoothoot wouldn't get it this time…

She also found Gastly its own personalised bowl, which was black with purple smoke swirls. Needless to say, she made it promise that it wouldn't try to eat the bowl again. Matt suggested she pick up an Everstone for Flo so that if she got another Bellsprout she could prevent it evolving forever. He himself lamented that he couldn't find a Fire Stone – they were in short supply in Johto for some reason – as he discussed the pros and cons with Kaida about evolving his Growlithe. Kaida relished in every moment but she knew it would have to end sooner or later.

As everyone met outside after the shopping was over, Kaida tried to summon the courage to ask Matt for his number. Cyndaquil stared up at her, confused to see its normally calm trainer – well except for the occasional outburst – bouncing on the balls of her feet and playing with her fingers. Nila, meanwhile, was ecstatic about her purchases (although her face had now returned to its normal grumpy expression much to Flo's relief) and was sitting on the grass with Chikorita and Mareep, making her way through a packet of large, soft cookies with the vanilla milkshake bottle sat beside her. John was talking to Matt about the best way through Union Cave as he had the latest copy of John's guide. Apparently they had finished stringing up the lights now so there was a direct and easy path to Azalea Town.

"Sooo," Flo trilled, dancing over to the frantic Kaida with a large grin on her face, the bin incident apparently forgotten. "What are you going to do?"

"I don't know," Kaida whined, pulling at the skin of her cheeks, giving her a strange appearance.

Matt was now saying goodbye to John and Nila. He was heading back up to Violet City – he had come south to look for a supposed of rare Pokémon – while they were going to continue their route towards Union Cave.

It's now or never, she thought, sighing. Flo danced passed Kaida to sit beside Nila on the grass, amused by what was going to happen. Nila was still too busy eating to comment, but she did watch the scene out of the corner of her eye with some interest. Kaida gulped. Matt was two steps away…

Here goes nothing.

"CanIhaveyournumberplease?" Kaida said, far too quickly, as Matt looked on, extremely confused.

"What?" he questioned.

"She wants your number, idiot!" Nila shouted, as she continued to pick out the chocolate chips from her cookie.

Kaida blushed, mortified.

"Oh sure," Matt said, smiling. "I was going to give it to you before I left Cherrygrove, but I forgot at the cafe and didn't know where you were staying."

Kaida had to stop herself from doing a victory dance. Lugia was smiling on her today.

As they were exchanging numbers, Flo put her hands in the shape of a heart and began to mime to a song that Kaida could guess she didn't want to hear.

"What's she doing?" Matt asked, bewildered.

"Umm. It's a sign for, er, good luck," Kaida lied, glaring at Flo.

"Oh right."

Matt smiled and returned the hand heart to Flo and mimed the words "good luck."

"Oh. My. God" Flo waved her arms like a bird. "I think he fancies me!"

Nila, who had been observing the scene, snorted.

"Yeah, what gave you that idea?" she demanded. "The fact he forgot your name or the way he hasn't taken his eyes off Kaida all day?"

Flo wondered briefly how Nila knew that Matt had forgotten her name before brushing this aside, deciding that Nila was just all knowing. She knew the answer to the questions...

"It's the arm warmers," Flo concluded. "No man can resist them!"

She held her arms out so that they could admire them. John quirked an eyebrow and muttered something about them being more of a man repellent. Flo remained oblivious.

"Bye guys!" Matt said. "See you again."

Matt waved before bending down to hug Kaida and whispering something in her ear.

"Bye, Matt," Nila, Flo, and John called back

"Bye, Growlithe," Flo added.

The dog Pokémon barked in return and then raced off after its master.

"Oh, Ho-oh, she's stuck." Nila sighed.

Nila was slightly amused by how still Kaida had gone. Her cheeks were now glowing so red that Nila thought they resembled Pokéballs. She would have to point that out later. Cyndaquil was tugging the bottom of Kaida's combat trousers, looking for attention, and probably believing her to have been victim to a horrible paralysing attack. After all, the last time it had seen Matt, Kaida had acted more than strangely…

"I'll get her," John said.

He raced over and picked Kaida up fireman-style, which she did protest loudly about, and he then proceeded to throw Kaida and himself down onto the grass in front of Nila and Flo.

"Spill," Nila ordered.

"He hugged me." Kaida sighed dreamily.

"Yes, I have eyes. I saw that," Nila said dryly. "But what did he say?"

"He said that he had fun today and to call him if I ever needed help or someone to talk to."

Kaida blushed as she remembered the scene and drifted off into a daydream about them travelling the world together.

John blinked. "Well, on that note, I think its time we set up camp for dinner."

John strolled on down the road. Flo tugged Kaida up and led her after him, amused by Kaida's daydream state, and pleased that she didn't get injured for once.

"I've eaten too much," Nila moaned. "Someone carry me."

But everyone continued walking. Unfortunately for her, Totodile had been behind her and, with one almighty kick, made her roll down the slope of grass.

"I'm going to strangle that thing," Nila snapped, as she ran down the road after Totodile and the rest of their, er, merry group.