Author's Note: And here's one of my favorite pairings. It's one of those where there's not really anyone else I can see either of them with… It's TeaShipping! Bill and Daisy, otherwise known as hope for all us nerd girls out there. And, I suppose, nerd guys too.

Here goes. It's the cuteness.

Time Off

"After all, he was so different from her, and so similar!"

Daisy liked work. She was good at it, and it was something useful to do. As a matter of fact, she enjoyed being useful in general.

Days in the lab with her grandfather always had been some of the best times. Working with Pokemon was something that few people of her generation willingly did, and the opportunity to see how the amazing creatures reacted to her and her Chansey was irresistable. That must have been an Oak family trait – to love Pokemon unconditionally, sometimes even more than fellow humans.

So when she met a boy who was afraid of Pokemon, she wasn't sure quite what to think.

Bill, after all, knew technology. He knew how to take care of a computer and write a program and fix a database, or even hack a database, should the need arise. But at the same time, he didn't know how to tell when a Pokemon wanted to attack him or befriend him.

This caused him more harm than good.

"Have you ever been electrocuted before?" she asked, putting a moist cloth on his forehead. He was lounging on her living room couch, breaking out into a cold sweat and having several burn marks on his hands and arms. Half an hour before, he had arrived at her door looking both ill and injured at the same time. It didn't take the intelligent girl long to figure out why.

"No," he told her, pretty blue eyes rolling toward the ceiling and not meeting her own. He seemed out of it, to say the least. He couldn't concentrate his vision on any object in the room, least of all a pretty girl's face. He occasionally twitched in discomfort as well, his legs spasming upward.

She tutted gently with her tongue. "You really ought to stay away from Red's Pika," she said, smiling. For the seven years that they had known each other, neither had found the time or energy away from work to talk or get to know each other. Even worse, shy personalities made it nearly impossible for anything to happen.

He sighed ruefully. "I know," he confessed. "I just wanted to see if the electric voltage might reactivate my laptop; it's broken."

"Did it work?"

"Of course not; that was the first thing I checked. It's completely fried now."

More silence, and then Bill began breathing heavily. Fast asleep after his ordeal. Daisy checked his vital signs (pulse, breath, circulation) and then looked out the window nearby at the lovely afternoon in Pallet Town.

She thought about him.

After all, he was so different from her, and so similar! He did not dislike Pokemon, exactly, but he was no Oak. Then again, who was she to talk? She knew little about computers, and besides, such differences could be worked through.

Plus, he was also hardworking, quirky, a tad obsessive… they had too much in common to let their hobbies interfere.

She smiled at his messy hair, which was like a mixture of caramel and tree bark. It was like something awfully familiar, that she couldn't quite put a finger on. Like freshly brewed tea. She imagined that it smelled the same way, and resisted the urge to bend down and take a strong whiff.

Yes, she decided, they had some differences. But they could work those out, given time.

After all, if such opposites as Gold and Crystal could end up dating for such a long time, why not them? Why not them?

…

…

When Bill awoke, he was surprised to see wide green eyes and fluffy brown hair just darker than his own. "Have some tea," she said, holding out a cup and smiling sweetly. "It'll be a while before you can get back to work."

Author's Note: Yay for adorable-ness!

Hee hee. I just realized, I put in the line, 'She imagined that it smelled the same way, and resisted the urge to bend down and take a strong whiff.' Apparently, a scent fetish runs in the Oak family.

However, Daisy's sentiments on Pokemon made me want to write a new fic – CrocusShipping, or Lance & Daisy. It seems like that would fit. But not as much as I love these two.

And while we're on the subject, I went ahead and published the first of the AlexandrianShipping stories separately, since it turned out to be gameverse. It's very melancholy, so don't read it unless you want to feel apathetic for the rest of the day.

I've got a lot more requests, so watch out. It will be a while before I get to them all. Of course, I do them out of order, so it's just that much more interesting!