"Rise and shine, kids! It's time for breakfast!"
Jin groggily opened her eyes. The sun was barely beginning to rise over the top of the Hammerlocke Hills.. She could still hear the Noctowls hooting softly in the trees outside. Kollippo stood at the mouth of the cave, his chest proudly puffed up. The reeking smell of freshly-caught Feebas emanated from the dunlap bag he always carried around his left flipper.
"Dad, it's just barely sunrise." Jin mumbled, still half-asleep. "We can sleep for a few more hours."
The single hair atop Kollippo's ice-cube head stood up in disbelief. "Nonsense! The more time you guys spend awake, the more time I get to spend with my precious babies!" He waddled over to Jin's bed and gave her a light, playful, kick. "Now let's get up!"
A weary growl came from the other side of the cave. "This is ridiculous, Dad! We don't need to eat breakfast with you! We're adults! We can hunt food for ourselves!"
Kollippo tilted his head. "But doesn't the food that your father lovingly hunted for you taste better? Especially when you eat the food with him?"
With another weary growl, Chrysos sat up and let out a long yawn. His bright yellow fur was slightly matted, and one of his ears was bent over. "Yeah, but Dad…"
"But what, son?"
"But the food you get us isn't what we eat. It's what you eat. It's always the same fish Pokemon. And frankly, the fish that you catch aren;t even that tas-"
"Shut up!" Jin snapped at her brother. Chrysos blinked a couple of times, slowly coming to his senses, before quickly flattening his ears in shame.
"...Sorry, Dad."
Kollippo looked down at the ground and let out a sad sigh. "Well, I'll be near the Berry tree if you need me." he mumbled dejectedly before slowly waddling away.
Jin waited until Kollippo was out of sight before turning to her brother. "Why did you say that? You know he's insecure about his hunting skills! He's just trying to do something nice for us!"
Chrysos let out a whimper of shame. "Yeah, I know. I feel really bad about it. I'm just sick and tired of having to eat Wishiwashi and Barboach for breakfast every day when we could be getting better food for ourselves."
Jin glanced towards the cave entrance again, making sure that her father couldn't hear her. "I hate the food that he gets us too. It's way too salty, and it makes my breath smell like shit. But he's so proud of his catches. I just can't break his heart."
"Me too." Chyros sighed. Then he stretched out his arms. "Well, this whole situation did end up waking us up, so might as well have some breakfast while we're at it."
Jin stretched and shook off the dust coating her fur before she and Chrysos made the short trek to the Berry tree. Kollippo had already set out three large leaves with at least enough Feebas to fill the Lake of Outrage on each one. He was absentmindedly munching on one while staring off into the distance.
"Aren't you supposed to be making sure that no one steals our food, Dad?" Jin chuckled.
"AIIEEEEE!" Kollippo shrieked in terror as he flung the half-eaten Feebas at the "intruders". It hit Chrysos square on the snout. "OUCH!" he howled.
Kollippo's eyes widened when he realized what just happened. "OH MY ARCEUS! ARE YOU OKAY? DID I HURT YOU?!"
Chrysos rubbed his nose. "I'm fine, Dad." Kollippo squinted. "Are you sure about that? Maybe we should go find the nearest Indeedee, just to be safe." "I'm fine, Dad." Chrysos growled. Jin nudged him with her snout. "We're ready for breakfast, Dad."
Jin and Chrysos began to chow down on their breakfast. The Feebas were way too oily and salty. They were so small that Jin and Chrysos could swallow them whole and accidentally choke on them. Jin could swear that some of them had sand in their gills. They were horrible. Yet she and her brother gulped them down, one by one. They didn't want to put their father's hard work to waste.
After what felt like an eternity, the siblings' leaves were completely clean. After licking her lips to get rid of as much Feebas oil as she could, Jin turned to Kollippo. "Alright, Dad, we're done. We're going to go back to the cave now."
Kollippo didn't seem to hear her. He looked like he was lost in thought. Then, he began to chuckle.
"What's so funny, Dad?" Jin asked.
"Oh, nothing. I was just reminded of something that happened when you guys were still pups."
"Arceus no. He's going to tell more of his embarrassing stories." Chrysos groaned under his breath. Jin nudged him again. "At least nobody else is around this time." She turned back to her father. "Go on."
"It was a couple of weeks since your mothers had left you with me. You two refused to eat anything those first few weeks. Just curled up around each other in the corner of the cave whimpering for your mommies. So scared and confused."
The siblings' eyes widened. They had known for years now that their mothers had abandoned them with Kollippo when they were still very young. They saw their children as freaks due to their shiny golden color, Kollippo always said. But they had almost completely forgotten about their mothers and their abandonment. This was the first that Kollippo had brought up those first few weeks.
"Are you being serious?" Chrysos asked.
Kollippo nodded. "Completely serious. I didn't know what to do for those first few days. Quite honestly, I was still in a state of shock myself. One moment I was a carefree wanderer, doing as I pleased when I pleased. Then the next thing I knew, I had a daughter and a son. My life had completely changed." Kollippo stared into the ever-brighter morning sky, remembering times long gone. "Go on, Dad?" Jin asked.
Kollippo snapped back to focus. "Anyways, there you two were, growing thinner by the day. I poked and prodded, but you two wouldn't move. I was at my wits' end. I didn't know how to get you two to eat. But I had to find a way. To keep you both alive."
Chrysos leaned forward. "So how did you get us to eat, Dad?", he asked, his voice tinged with curiosity and shock.
Kollippo chuckled. "Well, when I was a little chick myself and I was being picky about my lunch, my father would strip my food into tiny bits, small enough to go down the throat quickly without me choking. Then he held my beak open and dropped each strip in."
"Wait a minute…" Jin was quickly realizing what Kollippo's solution had been. "So you did the same thing to me and Chrysos?"
Kollippo chortled even harder. "Exactly! Arceus, even that was a challenging task. You two just kept screaming like the world would end at that very moment. I had to be very careful when I held your mouths open, or else you would bite me. Your teeth were very sharp, even at that age! It took hours just to get one of you to eat half a Magikarp!" Kollippo was now having a full-blown laughing fit.
Jin and Chrysos were starstruck. Their father had risked injury in order to get them- two newborns who were dropped into his lap- to eat. The experience must have been incredibly stressful. Yet here Kollippo was, laughing like he had just told the punchline to a very funny joke.
After a while, Jin finally regained her ability to speak.
"Thanks for the story, Dad. Really. Me and Chrysos are going to take a walk now. Maybe search for some Raid Dens."
Kollippo finally finished his laughing fit and waved his children off with a flipper. "Be back before midday, now! And don't do anything silly!"
Jin and Chrysos began to head off into the wild. When they were far enough from the Berry tree, Chrysos turned and nudged his sister.
"What is it, Chrysos?"
"That story was… incredible." Chrysos spoke with a hushed voice. "No wonder Dad likes eating breakfast with us so much. He's reminded of that time whenever we do so." Tears began to well up in his eyes. "I'm never criticizing his hunting ever again."
"Are you crying?" Jin snickered. Chrysos quickly wiped the tears off and glared at his sister. "N-no I wasn't!" "Were too." Jin giggled. Chrysos continued to glare at his sister as his fist began to turn a bright silver.
"W-w-wait! Stop that!" Jin was barely able to dodge Chrysos's Meteor Mash. She stumbled back on her feet as fire began to form on her jaws. "I'm going to get you now!" she roared as she rushed at her brother, readying a Fire Fang.
"NO! Don't burn me! Please!" Chrysos began dashing off, desperately trying to outrun his sister. Jin laughed as she easily kept pace with him.
Little did they know, their father had been witness to the whole event. Kollippo sighed as his children bolted off into the horizon, the Sitrus Berries that he had intended to give them loosely hanging off of his flipper. "Those two… They really haven't changed a bit since they were pups." he chuckled. And with that, he waddled back down the hill, ready to begin catching more Feebas for dinner.