"Yep," Naruto continued, "It had happened somewhere on your island. So for about half a month, we searched all over the island for it. Every tree, every far view of the city, every opening we could find, but there was no sign of Ninetails. One evening, we decided to check around the shorelines."

"We kept searching when we found this little cave opening. At least that's what we thought as we tried to move the rocks that blocked it. As we pulled them out, we realized it was empty, but it was too late," Sasuke explained, "The rocks fell on top of us, pinning us to the sand and preventing us to move. That's when you came in and saved us, Thomas."

I blushed a bit when they smiled at me. Grinning as I rubbed my head, I couldn't help, but feel a bit proud of myself. However, if you recall the first couple chapters (which I hope you read and not be those who joined in halfway so far… I can see you), you'll remember that I was terrified at the time for even going near them. However, it wasn't just me who should have the credit.

"You should really thank Jirachi," I told them, "I was coming from a daily routine and getting ready to go into my house to call it a day. He spoke to me in my mind and convinced me I should check the alcove. And low and behold, I saw you. But there is something I don't get."

"What is it, Thomas?" Naruto asked as his ears perked up and Sasuke blinked.

"I mean, you guys now know why I was scared of you when I first met you. But how come you guys were as equally terrified of me as I was of you?" I asked.

"Well, Thomas, humans are legends in this world," Sasuke explained, "We had seen humans in the city, true enough. But you were the first one to actually make contact with us. I mean, you were the first human to touch us and even pick us up. We thought we were gonna die when you held us."

Sasuke giggled nervously as Naruto lowered his head. They thought THEY were gonna die? HELLO!? I THOUGHT I WAS GONNA DIE! I had never come into close contact with Pokémon like that ever since the Kilyla City incident happened. I thought they would attack me when I held them. Nevertheless, I kept this thought in my head and listened to them.

"But you were different than the legends," Sasuke said smiling as Naruto smiled and brought his head back up, "You actually cared about us and gave us food, a blanket, and you even helped by healing us. And then when you came back at morning, we followed not because of our mission, but we were interested in you and wanted to know more about you."

"That led up to meeting that nice Old Man Fellows and your friends from the schoolyard," Naruto said, wagging his tail, "We enjoyed being with you. But then… that schoolyard incident. We knew that Mr. Pepperidge wasn't the human from the legend, but he still scared us by trying to capture us. What frightened us even more was when you took that Hyper Beam for us."

"We cried, because we felt like we let you down and you were going to die because of us. But when you offered us a hug and said it was okay," Sasuke said, smiling and looking down with dreamingly eyes, "We cried because there was a human who actually cared about us. We decided that we couldn't trust anyone but you, your friends, and Old Man Fellows. So when you got home…"

"You were scared I was gonna leave you for the humans to get you?" I asked, knowing the answer.

Both nodded. Man, they really were depending on me back then. I never knew that they were that scared of humans. It was a good thing that the events following that happened.

"We were basically begging you not to leave us behind like that. We were so scared until you told us you would never do that and we could stay with you!" Naruto barked happily, "We were so excited and even more thrilled to be inside a human home!"

"Yeah, I could tell," I said with a blank stare on my face, "You guys do realize you broke ten things in my house the first day?"

(AND YES, IT WAS TEN; I DO REMEMBER AND KUDOS TO THE ONES WHO DO FOR READING THE THINGS THAT BROKE FROM THAT CHAPTER!)

Both smiled nervously and chuckled. I folded my arms and raised an eyebrow, exactly like I did when they broke the stuff. I watched as Naruto giggled more.

"Again, we're sorry about that," he apologized.

I shook my head and did a facepalm… er… or is it facepaw now that I'm a Pikachu? Do you know? Oh, well. Anyways, I covered my face with my hand/paw and groaned.

"I still cannot believe you two actually got away with it by giving me cute looks…" I muttered.

"What?" Sasuke asked, nudging Naruto with a grin, "You mean these?"

With that, both of them gave me the looks they did on the first night they stayed in my house; the cute faces that look like this ( :3 ) with sparkling eyes and their heads tilting, just smiling and staring at me. I smirked and shook my head, looking away.

DARN YOU, CUTENESS! I CANNOT DEFEAT YOUR POWER OF MAKING SMALL CREATURES LOOK ADORABLE!

Both the Buizel and Poochyena stopped giving me the look when I looked away and laughed. I chuckled at them, which actually made another question pop into my head.

"Speaking of your cute looks, I do have another question," I asked as they listened, "How come you guys are acting more mature now than when you were in the human world? Does going there affect your personality?"

"Not at all," Naruto said, sort of chuckling, "Truth be told, we kinda liked getting babied by you. It was fun and you seemed to enjoy it whenever we acted silly."

I blushed at Naruto saying that and then rolling on his back, panting at me. It was true; I couldn't help it. They did look so cute and they acted so funny when we were at my home. It was like two small furry toddlers; just to watch them be silly made me laugh and happy.

"Besides," Sasuke added, "Life's too short to be gloomy all the time. I hate the stereotype of young people being so depressed and dark. I mean, come on; you only get to be a teenager once."

The word caught my attention. My ears perked to his sentence. Did I catch that right? A TEENAGER? I made an awkward face apparently, cause I caused Naruto to laugh at me.

"Thomas, it looks like you've seen a ghost! Hahahaha!" he laughed.

"I can't help it!" I protested, "I can't believe what I heard. You two are honestly teenagers?"

"Yep!" Naruto barked and grinned.

"I'm seventeen years old," Sasuke said, "and Naruto is sixteen."

Seventeen…. And sixteen…. You have got to be kidding me. I slowly laid back with a blank expression and stared at the ceiling. I could not believe they were that old. It couldn't be. There was no way.

"Um… Thomas?" I heard Sasuke ask, "Are you okay?"

"You have to be joking," I responded like I was in a trance, "You two are both older than me."

I could not believe it; the Pokémon who I babied and care for were older than I was. My mind felt like it was shot; it was just so unfair! I can't believe these two, who acted like eight-year-olds in my bedroom, are actually young adults and OLDER than me! (And yes, I am stressing out my disbelief; as some people say, R U MAD?)

Sorry about that, I couldn't resist saying it. Back to the story…

I heard Naruto laugh and then saw his head come close to my left side. He walked over and looked at me.

"No fooling? We're older than you?" he asked happily and innocently.

"Yes," I nodded with a smirk, "I'm fifteen."

The puppy giggled and snuggled his face into mine. It made me smile as I let him rub his face all over my head. He backed up and sat down, allowing me to sit back up.

"That's funny!" Naruto said, wagging his tail with closed eyes, "I guess then that makes you our little brother."

Wait… did he just…. say… I widened my eyes as my face just froze. I couldn't believe what I had just heard. I struggled to find words to say; the impact of what you just heard Naruto say made me speechless. I looked down and was finally able to speak.

"Did… did you j… just call me…" I struggled to ask.

"Yes, he did," Sasuke said, smiling as I looked at him, "Thomas, our wish wasn't to make you into a Pokémon; our wish was for you to become our brother."

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