Sunny-Side Up


Inyssa had never before felt so guilty over her desire to drop-kick a small, newborn creature into the sun.

"IAAAAAIAIA!"

"Barry, Lucas, I swear to god. Either you to get her to shut up, or I'm having omelet for breakfast tomorrow."

The three of them stood over Inyssa's bed. Over said bed, the little Togepi Auri was crying her little lungs out, the horrifically deafening sound bouncing off the walls and into their brains with extreme force. It certainly didn't help that Inyssa was over-sensitive to loud sounds.

"Just… hang on a second, okay?" Lucas knelt in front of Auri, looking from her to his Poketch over and over, brow furrowed. "I'm trying to figure this out… Barry, you did feed her, didn't you?"

"Of course I did!" Barry complained, crossing his arms. "I was gonna give her some leftover pancakes from this morning but Niss convinced me to buy her some baby Poke-food."

Lucas paused at that, frowning. "Barry… babies don't usually eat pancakes."

"Well I did."

"That…"

"Explains a lot, yes, we know" interrupted Inyssa. "Now chop-chop, get back to investigating. I get little enough sleep as it is, thank you, I don't need to exacerbate that any more."

Barry made a shocked face. "N-Niss? I don't… think we needed to know about what you do at night."

"What?" she turned sharply at him, then a second after realization dawned on her. "Oh, wow. That's not what that word means, dumbass."

"Oh."

The sound of Lucas tapping on the screen of his Poketch was almost as loud as Auri's crying now.

"Just… give me a second, alright?" he asked, frustrated. "There's a million points of data on Togepi here, it's not exactly easy to sort through it."

"Well that's just wonderful," she muttered under her breath.

"You know," said Barry. "I gotta give it to mom. She always told me how hard it is to have a kid, but I never imagined it would be this hard. Parenting sure is tough, huh."

She shrugged. "Well you're doing better than my dad did, if it's any consolation."

"…But you don't have a–"

"Anyway, I always knew kids were little shit-spawns of the devil, but at least now I'm justified in never wanting to have one of my own."

Barry shot her an offended look. "We were kids."

"Excuse you, I was born an adult. It just took seventeen years for my body to catch up."

"Keep telling yourself that," Lucas whispered to himself.

Barry held the back of his head with his hands, letting out a tired sigh. Dark bags had started manifesting under his eyes, which, while they did look rather attractive on him, Inyssa wasn't a fan of someone cramping her style.

"I do wish Sarah was here, though," she said.

"Yeah… she was a mom. She'd know what to do for sure."

Inyssa opened her mouth, closed it, then turned to him.

"What do you mean was? Unless you've somehow gotten yourself killed and then brought back to life as a corporeal ghost, I think she still is."

"Oh stop being so pedestrian, Niss."

"Pedantic," Lucas corrected him.

"Yeah, that. You know what I meant; she doesn't have to look after me anymore."

She scoffed at him. "Yeah, that's my job now."

"Right. Says the girl who gets herself hospitalized every month."

"Hey how about you suck my d–"

"I GOT IT!"

Lucas stood up like he was a spring, the joy of victory on his face. Both her and Barry approached almost desperately, looking over their shoulders at the boy's Poketch.

"I think I found the reason she can't stop crying!"

"Thank Mew," sighed Inyssa. "If I had to listen to that noise for another fucking second…

Barry turned to her. "Niss? I was about to say, I don't really appreciate you using that kind of vocabulary close to the baby."

"WH–! SHE'S A POKEMON! SHE DOESN'T UNDERSTAND WHAT I'M SAYING!"

"Actually…" Lucas made a face. "That's… kind of the reason she's crying, I think."

They both turned sharply toward Lucas. He shivered at that.

"Er… Y'see, I discovered that food isn't the only thing Togepi need to grow healthy and strong. They also need… well, happiness."

Inyssa muttered incomprehensibly for a second before finding her words. "H…Happiness."

"Well, she is called the Happiness Pokemon," said Barry.

Lucas nodded. "It says here that Togepi should grow up under a trainer with a positive, happy attitude about them in order to be healthy. Good thing it was Barry who hatched that egg."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" snapped Inyssa.

"O-oh! Nothing, it's just… Well, she's clearly picking up on… Er…"

"Yeah…" said Barry, avoiding her gaze. "No offense, Niss. It's just… You're not really the most peppy of…"

"Oh fuck off, both of you."

Barry sighed, letting his shoulders fall. "Come on Niss, don't be like that! We need you to get cheery and in a good mood if we want Auri to stop crying!"

"Oh suuuure," said Inyssa, voice thick with sarcasm. "Because being sleep-deprived is very conductive to good moods. Tell you what; I'll pull out of my ass this magical button I have that sends endorphins to my brain every time I press it. That should solve our problems!"

Barry frowned. "Why would you want to send dolphins to your brain?"

"God DAMMIT Barry that joke doesn't even make sense if we don't know what dolphins are! Stop being meta you fuck!"

The both of them glared at each other for a moment, until Lucas spoke again.

"Wait! I think I have an idea."

Then he approached Barry and whispered something in his ear, which only served to piss Inyssa off more. She stood still, angrily tapping her foot against the wooden floor.

"Hm?" said Barry, tilting his head in confusion. "I don't see how that'd help."

"…Wow. You're being serious," said Lucas, shaking his head. "Just do it, okay?"

"Okay, I guess."

"What are you two…?"

Then, out of nowhere, Barry walked up to her, pressed a hand against her shoulder and gave her a soft kiss on the cheek. All thought ceased for Inyssa. She froze completely, eyes so wide they could've passed for saucers.

Auri immediately stopped crying. She looked up at everyone of them, smiled wide and then let out a big yawn.

"It worked!" exclaimed Barry, throwing his hands up in the air.

"Told you so."

"Oh my gosh, thank you so much Lucas!" He gave the boy a pat on the shoulder. "Alright, I'll take her to my room so she can sleep well. Sorry for keeping you two awake!"

Inyssa barely registered the door closing or him disappearing past the hallway leading to his room. She was still somewhat paralyzed. After a few seconds, she brought one hand to the cheek Barry had kissed, and a tiny smile unconsciously formed on her lips.

Then she noticed the smug grin on Lucas' face, and immediately came back to herself. The boy shivered at the look she gave him.

"One word of this to anyone and it's your funeral, four-eyes."