It took Brennan another hour and a half to fall asleep after he let Mightyena in, and it didn't help that morning seemed to come quicker than it usually did.
( *BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP* )
The loud sound of Brennan's alarm clock rang throughout the room, causing him to halfway open his eyes so he could find the button to silence it.
After he smacked the button and silence the noise, he sat up. He looked towards the foot of the bed and saw Mightyena still sound asleep. He honestly didn't know how he was able to always sleep through the alarm. The damn thing was loud as hell.
Brennan shook it off before climbing out of bed and heading towards the bathroom to jump in the shower. He knew the water would wake him up.
He honestly wanted to go back to bed, but he was determined to find that Gardevoir today.
He jumped in the shower, allowing the water to run down his face and wake him up some more. That always seemed to help him.
He washed himself before climbing out, quickly getting dressed, and heading to the kitchen for some coffee.
As he passed through the living room, he saw Machamp and Blaziken were still sound asleep. He rolled his eyes before heading into the kitchen.
Making coffee first thing in the morning was a daily routine of his, so at this point he pretty much got everything going in one quick series of motions.
He got his coffee going before heading back to his room to grab his bag and hat. Mightyena was still asleep, but now he was sprawled out instead of laying curled in a ball.
"Hey, Mightyena?" Brennan said as he pet the sleeping Pokémon. Mightyena stirred and let out a groggy groan, but didn't open his eyes. "Hey, buddy, ya got to get up if you want to come into the city with me." He continued. Mightyena groaned again before opening one of his sleepy eyes "Wakey, wakey, buddy." He said before chuckling.
Mightyena forced open his other eye before sitting up and yawning. Brennan knew he was more than likely still tired.
"Come on, I'll make you some breakfast before we head out." Brennan said as he pet him on the head once again before heading back out of the bedroom, this time slowly being followed by Mightyena.
Once he got back into the living room, he saw Machamp sitting up and stretching.
"Good, you're up. Wake the others up and tell 'em to come to the kitchen for breakfast. We have something to do this morning." Brennan said, Machamp yawned before nodding.
Brennan walked into the kitchen with Mightyena following behind.
At this point, his Pokémon had gotten so used to eating human food, Brennan didn't even have to go out of his way to buy Pokémon food anymore.
Machamp and Blaziken hated it anyways, so Brennan figured just feeding them all regular food was fine.
They didn't all scarf down junk food all the time. Even though he knew they weren't supposed to be eating regular food, he did have limits for them.
He quickly threw some eggs on the skillet and some bread in the toaster before pouring himself some coffee. Mightyena sat next to the table staring up at his trainer, as he waited patiently for his breakfast.
As Brennan stood there cooking and sipping his coffee, his Pokémon started entering the kitchen.
"Mornin' " Brennan said as he turned around to face them. For the most part, they all still looked relatively tired.
"Blaziken?" Blaziken said curiously as he stretched.
"I'm sure you're all wondering why we're up so early. I'll explain everything after breakfast." Brennan replied.
The group of Pokémon took that as a well enough answer as they waited for their breakfast to be done.
Luckily, Brennan had gotten so used to having to cook for everyone every morning, that it didn't seem like it took nearly as long to do so anymore.
After there were enough eggs and toast for the whole group, Brennan fixed everyone's plates and passed them out before taking a seat at the table.
Brennan was usually relatively slow when it came to eating, but today, today was different. He wanted to get done and get into the city as fast as he could. He was excited. Nervous, but excited.
He was just glad it usually didn't take his Pokémon any longer than five minutes to eat.
He finished his food around the same time his Pokémon did, before gathering the plates and tossing them in the sink, telling himself he would get to the dishes later.
After breakfast, Brennan grabbed his things and led his Pokémon out of their apartment and onto the trail heading towards the city.
"Champ?" Champ was the first one to speak up, breaking the short-lived silence that had surrounded the group.
"Yeah, I do owe you guys an explanation." Brennan started "We're heading back to the mall, and we're going to look for that Gardevoir we saw yesterday." He explained.
"Slash. Sandslash?" Sandslash asked.
"I'm assuming you want to know why." Brennan said as he looked back at the Pokémon. Sandslash nodded. "Because I need to find a few things out." He said, not being too specific with his reply.
After, the group stayed pretty quiet. Brennan's mind once again wandering to that Gardevoir.
He looked down at his watch and saw it was now almost nine o'clock. It was pretty early when he got up, he didn't realize it had taken them this long to get to this point.
They were almost into the city. They could see it in the distance.
Once they actually got into the city, it didn't take them too long to get to the mall.
The mall itself had just opened. Opening at nine every morning. There weren't too many people there yet. Brennan figured the ones that were, were more than likely the shop employees.
Once the group got to the front where they had met Luna, Lane, and Frankie the previous day, he immediately looked over to where he had spotted Gardevoir. She wasn't there this time.
Brennan headed straight towards the forest, with his confused Pokémon behind him.
"Blaziken?" Blaziken said curiously.
"We're going to find Gardevoir." Brennan replied, not looking back as he did so.
The group stepped past the bushes and into the forest, with Brennan at the lead.
The first thing Brennan looked for was to see if the box of berries was gone. It was.
He was hoping Gardevoir found them, but honestly wouldn't be too surprised if she didn't.
"Alright, stay close. Keep your eyes open for Gardevoir." Brennan said. His Pokémon nodded as they broke away from each other to look around.
Brennan walked deeper away from the parking lot. He had never actually been this far into the forest over here, so it was kinda new.
"Gardevoir?" Brennan said curiously as he slowly paced through the endless trees and bushes. The only sound that could be heard was the grass crunching under his feet. "Gardevoir, uh-it's Brennan, the guy that left those berries. I just wanted to see if you got them." He called as he continued to trek through.
After he once again didn't get a response, he stopped and looked around. He saw nothing but the trees surrounding him. At this point, his Pokémon weren't even in sight anymore.
"Guys?" Brennan said curiously as he continued to look around. That's when he felt like he wasn't alone anymore.
Brennan quickly turned on his heels, looking in every direction. He knew someone... or something, was around.
"Who's there?!" Brennan called out.
"Swellow!" He heard a loud call. He quickly turned around just in time to dodge a Swellow that was trying to use quick attack on him.
"Hey! Calm down!" Brennan exclaimed as he quickly climbed back to his feet. The Swellow ignored him and tried to attack him again.
Brennan started backing up, until he backed into a tree. The Swellow quickly closed in on him and went for another quick attack. Brennan closed his eyes and gulped, ready to take whatever amount of pain he was about to endure.
But nothing ever came.
Brennan slowly opened one of his eyes, there standing in front of him, protecting him with a barrier, was non other than Gardevoir. A small smile crept onto Brennan's face.
"Gardevoir!" Gardevoir yelled. The Swellow quickly flew away.
Gardevoir watched before lowering her barrier and turning to face Brennan.
"It's you." Brennan said with a smile. "I've been looking for you." He continued.
"Voir." Gardevoir said.
Brennan stood there, taking in the Gardevoir's appearance. This was the first time he had actually seen her up close.
The first thing he noticed, even though he felt a little perverted, was the fact that this Gardevoir had breasts. They weren't huge, but they were breasts. None of the other Gardevoir he had seen had them. He blushed, as his eyes traveled down to them.
Besides that, she maintained the usual height and petiteness of a normal Gardevoir. He large red spike was still protruding from her chest, although it was smushed between her breasts. Her green hair covered most of her face, except her large red eyes and a small portion of her pale, white skin.
"I-I-I... wanted to see if you got those berries that I left. I got them for you, but couldn't find you to give them to you." Brennan said, quickly looking back up to her face. Gardevoir nodded.
"Gardevoir. Garde." She said. Brennan smiled. He was actually really relived that she got the berries.
"That's awesome. I'm glad you found them." Brennan said.
"Blaziken!" Brennan heard Blaziken yell. He quickly looked over and tried to stop him, but couldn't.
Blaziken flew towards Gardevoir using flare blitz. Gardevoir quickly teleported away to dodge it.
"Gardevoir! Wait!" Brennan yelled, but she was gone.
Blaziken landed and looked towards his trainer. Brennan narrowed his eyes at him.
"What did you do that for?!" Brennan yelled.
"Blaziken! Blaze!" Blaziken replied as he pointed to where Gardevoir had been standing.
Mightyena, Machamp, Sandslash, and Roserade all appeared together, more than likely do to the commotion.
"She wasn't attacking me! We were talking!" Brennan exclaimed.
"Blazi-ken!" Blaziken yelled defensively.
Brennan was mad. He stood there staring at his Pokémon. Furious with him.
He had managed to do what he wanted to do, and that was find Gardevoir. He's not talking to her for two minutes, and Blaziken shows up, tries to attack her, and makes her run off.
•••
•••
•••
Gardevoir had teleported away just enough to where she could still see the trainer. He was now arguing with his Blaziken.
She really wanted to go back over to him, but didn't want to get attacked again.
She saw four more Pokémon run up, she figured they must have also belonged to the trainer.
She had been on her way to the small lake that was nearby for some water. That's when she heard the trainer's voice yelling for her.
She followed his voice to find him. Once she did, she saw him being attacked by that Swellow. That's when she stepped in to help.
Gardevoir didn't know the trainer. She knew she owed him for the berries he left her. He didn't know her, but he still did something for her. She didn't help him because she 'owed' him, she helped him because she wanted to.
She stood there watching as the trainer and his Blaziken argued. She looked down towards the ground when she realized it was realistically her fault.
"Look, let's just find Gardevoir again. This time, don't try to attack her." The trainer said sternly as he looked at Blaziken.
She stood there watching as the group started looking around. She was hoping that the trainer would come her way, but the Blaziken did instead.
Gardevoir shook her head before walking off in the opposite direction. She didn't want to deal with Blaziken again.
She was so used to seeing all of the same grass and trees everyday, she knew exactly where she was at. She walked through the forest, until she finally came to the lake.
She did feel bad for leaving the trainer looking for her, but she wanted to see him, not his Pokémon.
She slowly lowered herself onto her knees in front of the water. She cupped her hands and lowered them into the cool, blue water. She scooped the water up to her mouth and started drinking.
She enjoyed it. The water was always so cool. She didn't know how it managed to stay so clean, but it did. Its not like she minded it.
As she drank the last of the water in her hands, she lowered them and let them rest against her knees. She stared at her reflection in the water.
Gardevoir had never really cared how she looked. She didn't think her appearance was anything special. She had seen plenty of human women when she would watch all the people from her spot at the edge of the forest, and she thought most of the women she had seen were beautiful. She was both sad and disappointed that she would never be able to look that beautiful.
She sighed as she stood back up and started heading back towards her cave.
•••
•••
•••
After searching the forest for almost another hour, neither Brennan nor any of his Pokémon had managed to find Gardevoir.
Brennan was still ticked off at Blaziken for scaring her away.
The group had met back up and headed out of the forest. Brennan had already decided that he was going to run into the mall and get Gardevoir another box of berries before they headed back to the apartment.
He trusted his Pokémon enough to stay put by the fountain outside, while he ran inside.
Brennan ran inside the mall and to the food court where he had bought the berries the previous day. He bought another box and was heading out of the mall, when he heard a very familiar voice call his name.
"Brennan?!" The voice exclaimed. Brennan stopped and turned around to see Luna, Lane, Delphox, and Sceptile approaching him.
"Oh, hey. What are you guys doing here?" Brennan asked.
"I was about to ask you the same thing!" Luna exclaimed.
"We're here returning something Luna bought for her Pachirisu because it was too big." Lane explained. Brennan nodded.
"Pachirisu is pretty small. I figure it would be pretty easy to be able to pick the right size for him." He said.
"I know, I know. Lane said the same thing. It's just, the little shirt was soooo cute! And I got in the smallest size they had." Luna said. "So, what are you doing here?" She asked, almost completely forgetting about the conversation they were just having.
"Oh, I needed to get some things." Brennan replied. Lane looked down and saw the box of berries through the bag he was holding.
"Let me guess, you bought those for that Gardevoir, right?" Lane asked. Brennan scratched the back of his neck nervously. "Dude, why are you still hung up on it?" He asked.
"I don't know. Honestly, I don't." Brennan replied, not really sure of the answer, himself.
"Where's Blaziken? I figured you'd have him out with you." Luna said.
"They're outside waiting for him. So I better get going." Brennan replied. Luna nodded.
"Okay. We'll talk to you later then." She said. Brennan nodded.
"Yep, you will." He replied.
"Del-phox." Delphox said. Brennan looked at her.
"I'll tell Blaziken you said hi." He said with a smile. Delphox smiled back.
After Brennan said his goodbyes, he headed back outside to his waiting Pokémon.
"Alright, I'm going to leave these for Gardevoir. I don't want you guys following me back in there, alright?" Brennan said, his Pokémon replied with nods.
Brennan headed back into the forest and to where he had left the berries the previous day. He looked around hoping to spot Gardevoir, but he didn't.
"I-uh don't know if you're around, but I brought you some more berries. Kinda as an apology for what happened earlier. I'm going to leave them where I left them last night. I hope you find them." Brennan called out before setting the berries on the ground.
He stood up and looked around again, again spotting nothing, before heading back out of the forest.
He didn't make it far before he thought he heard someone say "Thank you." He quickly turned back around to face the edge of the forest where he had just been, but still didn't see anything.
He shook his head, determining his mind was playing tricks on him, before heading back to his Pokémon.
•••
•••
•••
Gardevoir stood out of sight with the box of berries in her hand. She watched the trainer as he walked back to his group.
She smiled, thinking that the confused look on the trainers face when she thanked him was pretty cute.
She hoped that this visit wasn't a one time thing. She hoped that he came back. She hoped she saw him again.