Hi! This is my first ever fanfiction. I hope you like it!

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon.

It only took Bryce a few seconds after waking up to remember what day it was. As of today, he and Gloria were seventeen.

As his eyes fell upon his rather large and remarkably tidy room, and the view of Rustboro City out the window, he also remembered that he had no clue what presents he'd get this year, but that among them there was usually mostly things that he liked, one or two that he loved, and always one or two that he didn't want at all. For his and Gloria's twelfth, for example, the family had gone to Alola, and their parents just wouldn't let them off the beach. 'Don't be so bratty, kids! You might never be back here in your life, so experience all you can!' or something like that. But he'd never wanted to go there in the first place, anyway.

They had seen tons of trainers on the beach, too. Bryce's parents would go on and on about how he and Gloria would be trainers someday, and how one day they might even take on the Pokemon League. 'There's even a gym right there in Rustboro, less than two minutes' walk from our house!', they said. Bryce had never liked thinking about this, though, because he didn't really know how to feel about it. Did he want to become a Pokemon trainer? He didn't know. It sounded awesome, but he also wasn't sure if he wanted to leave the safety and familiarity of his home and his current life in order to go out on some adventure that, for all he knew, might crash and burn entirely.

Which led his thoughts to something else: There was one thing he knew he'd be getting. One thing that had initially slipped his mind, simply because he'd trained himself so well to not think about it.

He'd be getting a Pokemon, for sure.

Seventeen was the age at which one became eligible for the Gym challenge – unless you were Justin, the son of Elite Four member Drake, who was recently on the news because he somehow got his license at just sixteen. Daddy certainly pulled some strings on that one, but Bryce had gotten plenty of special treatment over the years himself, given his family's wealth, so he couldn't judge Justin too hard.

Since he'd made a concentrated effort to spend as little time thinking about this as possible, he also hadn't put much thought into what starter he wanted, besides the conclusion of 'definitely Treecko' that he'd reached when he was eleven. He hadn't really thought about it since then, and for that reason he figured he might end up picking Treecko, even though he may very well think differently now that he was older, if he just put some more thought into it.

But given his parents' extravagance, especially in the ways in which they spoiled their children, Bryce wasn't even sure if he and Gloria would be choosing from their region's starters at all. They might end up with some pseudo-legendaries, or some exotic Pokemon from some faraway region. This was another reason why Bryce hadn't really thought about which starter he wanted; for all he knew, all of that thinking and deliberating might end up being completely in vain.

Eventually, Bryce figured he had to face the beast known as the real world. He showered in his on-suite bathroom, dressed himself, and groomed himself, looking disapprovingly at his unkempt brown hair in the mirror. It wasn't short anymore, but it wasn't quite long either; it was in that awkward middle stage, where bangs were at their most annoying. Bryce figured he should probably get a haircut now, because he might not get another chance to for a while, if his suspicions about what he'd be getting for his birthday were accurate.

Bryce stepped out of his room into the hallway. The noise coming from the living room confirmed that the usual crowd of his parents' rich friends had been invited. As he waited in his natural hesitation to head downstairs, he heard a door open behind him. He turned around to face his twin sister.

Gloria hadn't taken too much time to glamour herself up either, aside from a simple ponytail and a bit of mascara, which Bryce knew was only there because their parents would kill her (metaphorically, of course) if she didn't look at least a little 'ladylike', whatever that meant, for her birthday party. She was just as averse to this sort of thing as Bryce was, especially considering she wasn't exactly great with people.

'Hi,' she greeted him in a quiet voice. Most of the time, their relationship was more like a rivalry than one between siblings should be, but this was a situation in which they were in the same boat.

'Hi,' he said, just as quietly.

'Any last guesses as to what we're getting?'

'You mean, besides Pokemon?'

Gloria snickered softly at that. They'd never spoken about it, but Bryce knew she'd thought the same thing he had, about them getting Pokemon. 'Yeah, besides that.'

'No idea,' Bryce said honestly.

'Me either.'

After what was only a few seconds but felt like forever, the two brown-haired, brown-eyed twins found the courage within themselves to 'face the music', so to speak, and head down the stairs.

'HAPPY BIRTHDAY!'

It wasn't really a surprise anymore, but it was so deafeningly loud that it was still impossible not to flinch. The twins were immediately smothered by their parents, several relatives, and a few who they weren't related to at all. Party hats were given to them, unbearable amounts of small talk was begrudgingly participated in, and eventually, candles were blown. The taste of the cake wasn't anything special, but it was something to focus on instead of the crowd and the noise, at least.

The small talk continued. Bryce was greeted by relatives who wanted to 'catch up' with him, even the ones he'd seen two weeks ago. A few of them asked him if he was excited about starting his Pokemon journey soon, which confirmed his suspicions; his extended family were never great at keeping secrets. At some point – he glanced at the clock, which said 10:45 am, but he then realized he couldn't remember what time he'd first stepped out of his room – he noticed a peculiar someone in the crowd of people, who looked about as excited to be there as Bryce was. It couldn't be… Pokemon Professor Birch?

The disbelief wore off pretty quickly; Bryce's parents had plenty of wealth and influence, to the point where small celebrities weren't too rare a sight in the house at parties, and considering what was about to happen, it should have come as no surprise that Professor Birch was indeed standing in the kitchen about fifteen feet away from where Bryce was. There was also a boy who looked maybe eighteen or nineteen standing next to Birch. The boy appeared to have white hair at first, but upon closer inspection Bryce saw that it was actually a rather peculiar beanie-like hat, and that the boy's hair was actually brown. Birch's assistant, perhaps?

'Okay, everyone,' Bryce's mother announced, and the noise died down almost immediately as she commanded the room's attention, 'let's introduce the birthday twins to our special guest!'

Birch's presence turned out to be another failed surprise. Bryce and Gloria again found themselves together, isolated, contrasting the vast crowd of guests, of which only Professor Birch's assistant was even remotely close to their age. Speaking of Birch's assistant, he walked with the professor himself to the front of the crowd, looking somewhat irked at how Bryce's mother had said special guest instead of special guests.

'Hello, you two! Call me Professor Birch,' said Birch as he greeted the twins. He then turned to Bryce, 'You must be Gloria?'

Bryce couldn't help but give a look that plainly said 'Are you crazy?', but the crowd behind Birch erupted in fits of laughter. That was a dad joke, wasn't it? Bryce mentally facepalmed, as he found himself as one of the only people in the room not cracking up, alongside Gloria and, to his inexplicable relief, Birch's assistant, who had given his mentor quite the same look that Bryce had. Still, Bryce felt rather out of place.

'Your parents have asked me to come here to give you a very special birthday present!' Birch continued once the laughter finally died down; Bryce couldn't help but notice that his speech sounded rather like he'd practiced it a fair bit. 'Brendan,' he turned to his assistant, 'you do have the Poke Balls still, don't you?'

Brendan, his name must be, reached into his bag and pulled out two Poke Balls. To Bryce, they seemed utterly indistinguishable from one another, but Brendan seemed to be able to tell some sort of difference between them.

'Very good. Let 'em out!' said Birch.

'Uh, sir, here?' asked Brendan, looking around. It was obvious that he'd never been in such an extravagant place before; Bryce figured he was worried the Pokemon might break something, but nobody else seemed to pay the possibility any mind.

'Yeah, here. It'll be fine, trust me!' said Birch. Brendan relented, and released the Pokemon.

Bryce immediately identified one of the two as a Ralts. The other was a small brown bunny-like Pokemon that Bryce had seen before but couldn't remember the name of. There was a chorus of 'oooooohs' and 'aaaaaaaaaahs' from the crowd.

This here's a Ralts. And this,' Birch said, gesturing to the other one, 'is a Buneary. It's native to Sinnoh!'

'Buneary! Buneary!' exclaimed the Buneary excitedly. The Ralts didn't say anything at all.

'Took a fair bit of effort to get these two, I'll tell you that…' Brendan muttered under his breath. Nobody seemed to take notice.

'But that's not all. Have you ever heard of IVs?' Birch asked.

'Uh…' Gloria started. 'Individual values, right? The part of a Pokemon's genetic structure that affects their battle performance?'

'Very good! You'll make for a great Trainer!' Birch said, sounding like he'd said it a million times to a million different people. 'There's one for each stat, and they range from zero to 31, in terms of how good they are. Now, guess the IVs of these two!' He gestured to the two Pokemon on the floor, who looked very overwhelmed but very restless at the same time.

'You've gotta be kidding me…' Bryce said, more to himself than to anyone else.

'31. In every. Single. Stat!' Birch exclaimed, and there was something genuine in his voice now, as though he really was proud of this. 'They're the product of countless hours, days of breeding, to produce the most perfect battlers these two species can possibly produce!'

Brendan flashed a hint of a smile at this, mouthing something to himself about 'overtime pay'. Again, nobody seemed to take notice.

'So, to my understanding,' Birch continued, 'you, Bryce, are getting the Ralts, and Gloria, you're getting the Buneary?' Birch turned to Bryce's mother, who nodded.

'Okay!' Birch said. He then gave the twins what turned out to be trainers' licenses, which had somehow already been made for them; Bryce surmised that it was part of the 'surprise' birthday present. Brendan then pulled two devices out of his bag. 'One for you,' he gave one to Gloria, 'and one for you,' he gave the other one to Bryce.

'Pokedexes!' said Birch. 'Possibly the finest invention mankind has ever produced! Point it at a Pokemon you find in the wild, and it'll give you information on it. Here, try it out on your new partners!'

Bryce did so, pointing the front of the device, which had something that resembled a camera lens on it, at his new Ralts. The device didn't do anything.

'Uh, do you have it...like, turned on?' Brendan spoke to Bryce, clearly trying his best to sound helpful and not insensitive. Mentally facepalming again, Bryce found the power button and turned the Pokedex on. Brendan smiled and nodded.

Now that he'd actually turned the thing on, Bryce again pointed the front of it at Ralts. Immediately, the device lit up with all kinds of information, and even spoke to him.

'Ralts, the Feeling Pokémon. Ralts is the pre-evolved form of Kirlia. It can use the horns on its head to read human emotions. Ralts rarely shows itself to humans, but may occasionally approach when it senses positive or happy feelings.'

'You can make it so it doesn't speak, if you want,' Brendan said, indicating to another button on the Pokedex. Bryce noted that he did so with a degree of silent enthusiasm; it seemed he was finally able to talk about something he was interested in.

'Oh. Thanks,' Bryce said, hoping he'd remember that for later; it seemed like it would come in handy at some point, if he was trying to be stealthy for some reason. He looked at the screen, taking in some of the information on it.

Species: Ralts

Gender: Male

Height: 0.4 m / 1'04"

Weight: 6.6 kg / 14.6 lbs

Type: Psychic/Fairy

Ability: Synchronize – Passes on status problems.

Moves:

-Growl

-Disarming Voice

-Double Team

-Confusion

He then decided he might as well check out Gloria's Buneary, too. He looked over at Gloria and found her doing the same to his Ralts, having presumably already looked at her own Pokemon. Bryce pointed the device at Buneary, and information came up again.

'Buneary, the Rabbit Pokémon. It is the pre-evolved form of Lopunny. Buneary perks up its ears at the first sign of danger. It tucks its head into its fur to sleep on cold nights,' said the voice. Bryce read the information on the screen, which this time didn't include its ability or moves.

Species: Buneary

Gender: Female

Height: 0.4 m / 1'04"

Weight: 5.5 kg / 12.1 lbs

Type: Normal

Bryce supposed that he could only see the moves and abilities of his own Pokemon.

'And there you go! Hope to see you in the Pokemon League soon!' Birch said, and the sense that he had said this a million times was back. 'I'd go train 'em up first; you don't want to go into Roxanne's Rock-type gym with only Pound!' He seemed to direct this at Gloria, chuckling to himself.

'And Fake Out,' she said immediately.

'Wait – what?' Birch said; he seemed genuinely surprised, and it was clear that this wasn't part of the plan. Bryce wasn't sure why this was so surprising, however.

'Oh, yeah, about that…' Brendan spoke up, somewhat sheepishly. 'Yeah, I noticed it had Fake Out when I first checked it for IVs, it must've picked it up as an egg move...I figured I didn't want to do another week's worth of breeding just to get another one that didn't have Fake Out, and also that it'd be an added bonus, y'know?'

Birch was surprised, and Bryce couldn't help but feel like Brendan was going to get a talking-to later, but on the surface, the professor took it well. 'Well, there you go! Don't you see? Pokemon are always full of surprises!'

Bryce soon realized that what irked the professor about this revelation was that this Buneary was actually worth more than he had thought, and that he could've charged Bryce's parents significantly more money for it. Everything was a business, Bryce supposed; he'd learned that pretty quickly, growing up in such a rich family.

Bryce and Gloria recalled their Pokemon into their Poke Balls, and the party soon resumed, as did the small talk, which had a renewed vigor now that nobody was trying to keep the twins' new status as Trainers a secret anymore. Birch and Brendan seemed unable to find a way out of the party, and while Birch was caught up in a conversation with some of the other guests, Brendan took the opportunity to say to Gloria, in a hushed voice, 'It's got its Hidden Ability, too.'

The party dragged on, as it always did. Birch and Brendan eventually managed to escape; Bryce realized this when he noticed about an hour and a half after he and Gloria had received their Pokemon that they were gone without a trace. It wasn't until well into the afternoon when the last of the partygoers had finally left.

'Alright, you two,' Bryce's mother turned towards the twins once Bryce's paternal uncle, the last of the guests, had closed the front door behind him. 'Get your shoes and socks on. We're going to the Poke Mart.'

As much as Bryce wanted to spend the rest of the day in his room recovering from such an arduous day, his mother was not one to be argued with, and so twenty minutes later, he was with his family, entering the Rustboro City Poke Mart. There they bought trainers' outfits, bags, extra Poke Balls, potions, Running Shoes, and everything else they'd need on their journey. They got some advice from a couple of men in their fifties who'd presumably been Trainers in their day, to start off by training in the Petalburg Woods; apparently there were plenty of weak wild Pokemon there to use for training, and that maybe they'd even find some worthy of catching. Bryce and Gloria agreed to go there tomorrow.

A few hours later, Bryce was watching the sunset from the comfort of his room, spending the last few hours of his birthday in peace. He decided to let his Ralts out; considering this – he stopped himself from calling it a thing in his mind – little guy was going to be his companion for possibly the rest of his life, he figured he should at least try to get to know it. He couldn't help but feel like he'd gotten the shorter end of the stick, considering that Gloria's Buneary had an Egg Move and its Hidden Ability, but he didn't want Ralts to know that.

'Uh…Hi,' he said, having no clue what to say, or even if Ralts could understand what he was saying. He felt rather stupid, all in all. 'I'm Bryce.'

There was an unbearably awkward silence, before…

'Yes. I know that.'

It took a second for Bryce to realize that it was Ralts who had said this. A talking Pokemon?! Bryce had never heard of any such thing before, but his Pokemon had definitely just spoken to him, and it was clearly in response to what he had said, so it could understand what he was saying, and maybe even converse with him, like a human could…

'You're surprised I can talk,' said Ralts, interrupting Bryce's train of thought. 'I know. I can sense what you're feeling. Didn't that device – the Pokedex, is it – tell you that? I can also sense disappointment, that you would rather have the Buneary – but not so much anymore...Yes, you're quite happy with having got me now…'

Bryce didn't need psychic powers to tell that Ralts was quite smug at this revelation.

And Ralts was exactly right – Bryce was indeed very happy to have him now that he knew he could talk. He didn't have to interpret all the different things a Pokemon could mean when all it said was its own name. Hopefully now it'd be much easier to get the foundations of a connection going.

'So,' Bryce said, figuring that he should make sure his Pokemon was up to speed with what would happen tomorrow, and in the coming days. 'Did you hear that tomorrow we're going to the Petalburg Woods to train, and maybe catch another Pokemon, and that we're going to challenge the Gyms?'

'Yes,' Ralts confirmed, 'I heard all that from inside my Poke Ball. Don't worry, I'm excited to start battling. After all, it is quite literally what I was born to do.'

First chapter done! Not sure how often I'll be updating this, but I'll try to do so somewhat often. I have a relatively clear vision for the plot.

Hope you enjoyed!