"An early bird gets the worm."

~Unknown

The morning came together with a rather thick fog caused by the moistness from yesterday's rain. The sky was cloudy and you could hardly tell it was morning since the light was so dim. The fog made Route 120 look like an abandoned ghost forest where you could imagine creatures like banette, haunter or duskull roaming. Yet somehow, at the same time, it held a rather beautiful and fairytale-like feeling. As if the time had stopped moving around the two traveling brunettes. The fog also seemed to eat almost all the color out of the scenery except for the flame-like leaves that wind had dragged all across the area and that spotted the trees every there and then.

Kyohei was the first sleepy-head to awaken. He was still slightly asleep when he sat up, scratching his head and yawning out loud. His brown eyes scanned the inside of the tent, looking for his cap as well as the silver ball of fur that he was supposed to take care of. He saw neither and he cursed, shoving the rest of his sleepiness aside by stretching and crawling out of the tent to see if the eevee and his cap were somewhere nearby. For a moment he couldn't see anything from the fog but soon enough he spotted something moving near a tree just a couple feet away from where he was.

For the brunette's great relief, the moving creature happened to indeed be the normal-type he was looking for. Kyohei sighed and crawled over to the ball of fur that seemed to be sitting on the root of the tree, looking straight up. He caught the eevee in his arms and the pokemon startled, soon relaxing though as it realized that it was just Kyohei holding her and resumed looking up at the tree. The rookie trainer gave the patient a confused look, rubbing his eyes a little before glancing up as well.

"What the...?"

What the boy saw there didn't make him particularly happy. Of course he was more than happy to see his lost cap hanging there but not the way it was hanging. It was in a creature's mouth. A small pokemon that seemed like a caterpillar with two, tiny white teeth sticking out and munching on the side of the cap. Its tiny yellow body was veiled by a bright green leaf and its button-like coal black eyes were closed as it happily tried to devour this mysterious thing it had found.

After a couple seconds of staring at the bug like a complete idiot, Kyohei murmured a couple swears and crawled back into the tent. Throwing a couple pillows and blankets aside, he found his bag and started quickly looking for his Pokedex. The racket, of course, woke up Touya who shot a grumpy glare at Kyohei for such a displeasing wakening.

"Stop throwing stuff on me", he growled, throwing the pillow the younger brunette had accidentally thrown at him back at the rookie. It hit Kyohei to the side of his head and the messy-haired trainer bit his lip.

"Sorry", he muttered, rubbing the back of his head. "but some pokemon got my cap and I need to identify it. Maybe then I'll know how to get it back."

"Why didn't you just say so?"

Before Kyohei could oppose, the older trainer crawled to the entrance of the tent and peeked out. After a short while he looked back in and faced the rookie with a still slightly sleepy look on his features.

"It's a sewaddle", he explained as he simply fell back on his pillows. The rest came out as a mumble from the midst of covers. "Part bug-, part grass-type. They're not mighty powerful but once they evolve, they're pretty useful. You should try catching it."

Kyohei blinked and thought about it, then digging an empty pokeball from his bag. He was just about to crawl back out when he froze, turning to look at Touya.

"...I still don't know how to catch pokemon."

He gained a slightly frustrated huff from the older trainer. The former champion sat up again and pouted.

"Fine. I'll teach you. Just wait until I get my jacket on. It seems like it might be cold outside."

Kyohei waited outside for Touya to pull on his jacket and get ready. He kept on glancing at the sewaddle, worried that the pokemon might ruin his cap if they didn't hurry. Luckily his mentor soon appeared outside, yawning and stretching his arms. The caterpillar in the tree opened its eyes, blinking and starting to observe the two humans standing below.

"Okay then", Touya started his advising. "You're going to have to weaken him a little before you can catch him. You have your tepig?"

Kyohei stared at the older male in utter confusion. The teacher facepalmed at his student and sighed deeply.

"You don't even know the basics... Arceus, how were you going to survive traveling on your own?"

"Shut up, you sound like my mom", the rookie muttered with an embarrassed blush on his cheeks. "Uh... is it completely necessary to use tepig?"

"It'd be easier", Touya said. "But I guess you could try using your eevee. That is if she listens to you."

Both of the chocolate eyes turned towards the silver ball of fur that was now scratching its ear with one of its paws. Upon being stared at, she froze and shot a suspicious glare at the two trainers. Kyohei knelt before the pokemon as if to get on the same height level with her before smiling a little and speaking.

"Hey", he tried cheerfully. "Could you help me out a little, buddy?"

The eevee kept on staring at the rookie. Hopeful to get some cooperation, he pointed at the bug-type in the tree.

"Could you get that down for me?"

The pair of sapphire orbs squinted half shut in a nearly annoyed manner. The eevee turned its head away from Kyohei, swinging its tail in front of the boy's face. The trainer pouted a couple seconds before smirking.

"...what, are you too weak to do that?"

He immediately got the normal-type's attention. It seemed to understand the words and it did not like them. For a while it only glared at Kyohei, annoyed, then turning around enough to quickly clamp his teeth around the boy's nose. The rookie cried out in pain and held the bitten spot, forgetting to follow what the eevee was doing. While the trainer was rolling on the ground on his stomach in pain, the silver furred pokemon walked to the tree in which the sewaddle was hiding and hit its head against the branch. The tree shook slightly and in a matter of second the caterpillar fell on the ground, stunned by the fall. The eevee then almost like smirked at Kyohei and brought the boy's cap to Touya, who watched this all with great curiosity and awe.

"...now that was rare", he murmured to himself, shaking his head and rushing to help Kyohei.

Luckily the rookie had already recovered. He took his cap from Touya and shot a grudging look at the injured eevee, then just rolling his eyes and turning towards the still stunned bug-type. He hesitated for a couple seconds before he at last threw the empty pokeball towards the sewaddle. It hit the side of the pokemon's head and with a small flash the caterpillar disappeared within the ball. There was a tense moment when Kyohei waited for the ball to stop nudging on the grass. As it finally stopped, Touya patted the boy's shoulder.

"Congrats. You caught your first pokemon by yourself."

That was when the party started. Kyohei let out a cheerful scream of victory, pumping his fist in the air and jumping up in the air. He rushed to the ball, grabbing it in his hand and dancing around in utter happiness, only gaining another facepalm from Touya doing so. Before Kyohei could stop himself, he had bumped his back against something. Or rather someone. That someone seemed startled by the sudden collision and nearly fell on the ground at the impact but luckily soon regained his balance and shot an angry glare at Kyohei. The rookie muttered a couple apologies and looked up at the person, whom he immediately recognized. That nearly afro-like, fluffy dark blue hair couldn't be mistaken.

"...Hugh?"

Hugh merely stood there, murmuring something inaudible grumpily and stepping further away from Kyohei. His scarlet eyes observed the rookie brunette in front of him, then turning to glance at Touya. He greeted them both with a nod, then turning towards Kyohei with some curiosity.

"You've already gotten this far, I see."

"Uh... yeah", the brunette replied. "As are you."

"I take it you just caught your first pokemon", Hugh then added. He frowned a little and glanced at the eevee that was now proudly sitting at the entrance of the tent. "...or am I wrong?"

"I'm just taking care of her", Kyohei mumbled. "Yeah, this is my first capture."

There was a short, tense silence.

"Then", Hugh suggested. "How about a battle to test out that new companion of yours?"

A/N: Ugh... I know I promised Hugh in this chapter but his screen time is yet quite minimal. xD I promise some more about him in the next chapter. Damn sewaddle eating Hugh's screen time...

Thanks again for being patient and for taking time and reading this fanfic. So far I've been pretty satisfied with how it's turned out and I hope it'll satisfy your daily fanfic needs as well~

Ah... and is it just me or does Blacksquareshipping/Tokyou get way too little love? D: