A/N: Yes, a 1:30 A.M. Friday update is a must. Monday will be Espeon's first chapter!

6: O.G.A.D.

Pikachu

The beach calmed everyone down by the time we got there, and we all agreed it should be only one pokemon each. Ethan most definitely wanted to play in the water instead while White completely agreed, declaring how much she wanted to see Blue's "long and flowing" hair. Red was indifferent about it, but I think he, too, wanted to see what would to Blue's hair happen if he was tossed into the water when I saw him smile again.

While we approached the mossy entrance, White and Red went through without hesitation and Ethan made a face of disgust before he followed them. "This is gross… and slimy," I heard him say.

Blue had the most trouble getting through as he followed us with a grunt of effort then stumbled out when he was free. "I'm not going that way again," he told us and White snickered as she led the way down to the beach again.

I jumped ahead and ran onto the beach, kicking up fine sand and dust in my wake. When I heard someone suddenly sputter, I glanced back and smirked as White tried to get sand out of her mouth. "Hey, get back here!" she snapped and started to chase after me.

I grinned some more and sprinted faster, making sure I was just fast enough to outrun her even though I heard Red's disappointed sigh.

"I see how it is!" White didn't even stop running when she grabbed a pokeball. "Serperior, catch up to Pikachu!"

I blinked and squeaked the instant I saw the giant snake pokemon tower over me. Immediately, I slid to a stop to let it lunge over me then turned right around and sprinted back for Red, nearly tackling him to the ground when I tried burrowing myself into his vest. I heard the humans burst into laughter and Blue said something about seeing me being scared for the first time or whatever. I scowled at him once I poked my head out. I was not scared of a stupid snake!

Red just smiled at me and patted my head gently to comfort me. He pulled me out of his vest and set me onto his shoulder, looking over as White and Serperior came over. "I'm sorry, Pikachu! I didn't mean to scare you that much!" she said but I glowered when she didn't stop laughing the entire time.

Red glanced down at me, raising a brow as if to say, Apologize to her. I grumbled under my breath before saying, "Sorry for kicking sand in your mouth." I snickered suddenly. "It was funny though."

Serperior didn't seem to be amused, letting out a soft hiss and his sharp eyes stared at me. "You kicked sand at her?" he demanded.

I huffed at him in objection. Now that he wasn't chasing me down, he didn't seem that frightening. He sounded like a jerk. "Yeesh, overprotective much? It was an accident! I said I was sorry!"

Serperior frowned but rose his nose up at me and looked away without another word.

I turned my own nose up at him in retaliation. Snobby pokemon, that one was.

"Please be nice, Serperior," White said with a sigh as Red patted my head a couple of times to try and get me to calm down, too.

He watched Serperior with interest as Blue whipped out his pokedex to scan him. "What pokemon is this?" he asked, mostly to himself as he read the details the old device picked up.

White then turned back to face us then motioned towards her pokemon. "This is Serperior." Then she turned to Serperior. "Serperior, these three are other champions from different regions."

Serperior finally eyed us all with a critical look, then his tail thumped onto the ground. "They seem tough to battle," he finally decided. Then he turned his gaze towards me. "Except for you, little mouse."

"Hey! I'm the toughest on my team!" I retorted.

"I highly doubt that."

I let out a few sparks and heard Ethan say, "I don't think they get along very well." His eyes brightened and he grabbed his pokeballs in both of his hands quickly. "I think you'll get along with my team though, Serperior!" He tossed out all of his pokemon and I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes when Typhlosion came out scratching his ear and flicking something off of his claw when he was done. "This is Typhlosion, or Ty for short."

Typhlosion glanced at Serperior and offered a smile but said nothing as Ampharos waved one of her stubby arms at him in greeting. "That's Ampharos, she's nice, don't worry."

"I wasn't," Serperior mumbled to himself.

"You don't have to be so rude," I scolded and went completely ignored.

"That over there is Sudowoodo, with him is Scizor then this giant teddy bear right here is Ursaring."

Scizor and Sudowoodo glanced towards everyone and offered a polite greeting when called while Ursaring studied Serperior although he was quickly bored and wandered off to sit in the shade of the cave.

The smallest on Ethan's team flew towards Serperior fearlessly and smiled brightly, offering a tiny arm for him to shake. "And I'm Togetic! It's nice to meet you, Serperior!" she said.

He paused for a moment and then tapped her arm with his nose in salutation.

I tried hard not to get jealous of the kind response he gave everyone else. Was kicking sand on accident at his trainer such a crime?

When Blue released his team, he was immediately trampled by Arcanine, who ignored his startled yelp when he knocked him clear off his feet. He then licked his trainer's face and ensured extra slobber covered his cheek while Blue tried to push the giant canine off. "Ugh, gross! Arcanine, get off!" he shouted and spat out fur that got in his mouth. The rest of his team didn't seem to care as if this was a normal thing and honestly, I wouldn't be surprised.

Arcanine laughed and obeyed. "It's what he gets for not letting us run around for a long time!" he said when Blue got up, wiping his cheek with the sleeve of his jacket. He then blinked when he finally noticed everyone else. "Oh! Hi, Pikachu!"

I grinned at him. Arcanine had always been friendly to everyone, even when he was a growlithe way back when. I jumped down to exchange a few sparks of electricity with Jolteon as Machamp and Alakazam wandered towards Ethan's team to say hello more quietly and maturely than Arcanine. Pidgeot stayed near Blue while Gyarados immediately went for the water, not caring much about meeting new pokemon as White and Red tossed out everyone else as well.

I heard Ethan tell his team to play nice with the other pokemon as he kicked off his shoes, fully intending to play in the water instead of doing any training like what we'd come here for. I couldn't help but roll my eyes.

Blue was right. Nothing was going to get done today.

When White released her team, Red was immediately curious about the different pokemon and went toward them without a word. I knew he shared that trait with his mother, unafraid of approaching new or wild pokemon without a single care in the world. That had landed us in trouble more times than I could count and to be honest, I wished he'd learned his lesson the first few times.

White seemed a little confused but she giggled as Red approached a tan and brown flying-type with a bone at the top of her head. "He's always had a fascination with new species, sometimes I wonder if he hadn't gotten into battling if he'd be a researcher," Blue explained and ignored a glare from Red.

"Mandi?" The strange bird tilted her head as Red opened one of her wings, looking confused then looked at White. "What on earth is he doing?" she asked, looking at me and I shrugged.

"He does this. He's weird like that," Snorlax answered with an annoyed sigh. He looked half-tempted to pluck him up into his paws to get him to leave her alone. "I'm sorry about him."

"That's Mandibuzz. I'm kind of surprised she hasn't pecked you yet for touching her wings," White said and laughed as Red quickly let go, not wanting to risk getting pecked. Mandibuzz simply glared at Red a bit more before flying off to perch in a tree overlooking the beach. A large Herdier look-alike barked happily, tail wagging as Ethan scratched his ears. "And that's Stoutland. He's a people pokemon."

"I love him already," Ethan immediately said and laughed when Stoutland instantly panted proudly and nearly pushed him over, demanding to be pet more.

A fourth pokemon went up to Red instead, his body a transparent green, and looked just as intrigued about Red as Red was about him. "I can understand why he is very curious, he has never seen anything like my kind before," he said and caused Red to jump. White laughed as Ethan and Blue also flinched, hearing his voice as well.

I just rolled my eyes. Oh great, another psychic-type.

"I am Reuniclus. I do apologize for scaring you three." He then leaned forward slightly to stare right into Red's eyes. "But may I ask: how are your eyes red? Surely, it is not a birth defect?"

Red stared at the pokemon before he shook his head and I laughed. Usually, he was irritated when someone asked him about his eyes but I guess since he was paying more attention to the new pokemon, he didn't care.

"No, his eyesight is perfectly fine," Espeon explained for our trainer, this time startling White. Red smiled a bit as White knelt to Espeon's level and pet her head.

"She's so cute! I love the color of her fur too; don't tell Black this but purple is my most definite favorite color in the world," she said to us all.

Blue suddenly grinned, making White slowly frown. "I'll be sure to tell him when I see him next," he said and her frown turned into a glare.

"Blue!"

"It's what you get for getting onto me about my hair!"

"What? It's true! Your hair is super spiky! Well, not Nate spiky, but still spiky enough! Spiky head!"

Blue was quiet for a while before he let out a long, drawn-out sigh then left us to go towards his own pokemon.

White looked proud of herself and then smiled as a pokemon walking on two feet shyly stayed next to her, regarding the others with only mild interest. "This is Mienshao. She's a bit shy. And that over there with your Ampharos is Zebstrika." She smiled as the black and white pokemon turned towards us when she heard her name then tossed her head happily in greeting before she resumed her conversation with Ampharos.

Red returned to the other humans to find a shady spot in the sand to sit as I ran with Jolteon, Stoutland and Togetic into the water to play, while Blastoise was already deep underwater to join Gyarados while Pidgeot, Mandibuzz, Scizor, and Charizard were in the sky for a race.

We were on the beach for hours with absolutely zero training completed and honestly, I couldn't complain. It had been an extremely long time since we had just relaxed with friends and played instead of battling each other.

Soon I heard Espeon chuckling alongside the other lady pokemon she sat with and she glanced towards Jolteon and I when we were running away from Stoutland and Togetic in a game of tag. "Pikachu! Jolteon! We need to form a plan, but we need your help!" she was saying.

I glanced at Jolteon. He shrugged before we wandered to the other eevee-lution. "What is it now?" he asked, sitting down beside her. "This is not another one of your grand schemes to get us into trouble again, is it? Last time, Blue was super mad at me 'cause you basically broke my pokeball."

"Nope, no grand schemes of trouble," she answered with a smile.

I felt a scowl form on my face and suddenly I was grateful that Jolteon was beside her and not me. That smile definitely said she was up to no good.

"Don't worry, it's nothing bad!" Ampharos replied with a smile.

"It's obvious now," Zebstrika said, grinning.

I blinked, looking at them in confusion. What were they talking about? "What's obvious now?" I asked cautiously.

Mienshao stood right next to her teammate and looked toward the humans. "Well, Hilda hasn't stopped staring at Red, for one," she answered softly.

"You call White by her real name?"

Mienshao gave me a minuscule nod and seemed to be instantly flustered, hiding behind Zebstrika's leg.

Jolteon glanced back towards our humans, seeing that White was arguing with Blue again and Red was poking at his pokegear. "It doesn't look like she's staring at him now," he noted.

"We need your help getting Red to notice her," Ampharos said with a smile and nod.

I scowled immediately, not liking where this was going. "And why do you need our help?" I questioned.

"Obviously, we are all close to our trainers. But we need Blue and Ethan to have some time to themselves, leaving more openings in Red's schedule," Zebstrika explained.

"Do you get it now?" Espeon asked.

I turned my glare at her when she started to innocently lick her paw. "I don't want him to get distracted! I thought we agreed to no dating until after the tournament is over!" I scolded her.

She turned her dark eyes at me, mischief radiating out of every single pour from her body. "I'm aware of that, but it takes time for someone like Red to at least notice White and that itself will be a chore. So, I changed my mind about the whole situation." She set her paw down, eyeing both Jolteon and I. "We have two months for them to go on a date. During that time, we need to build their feelings for each other! That's all we need to do!"

I frowned and let out an irritated snort as I thought. While our trainer was incredibly talented, extremely clever, and gifted at battling, he was completely dense when it came to things like this. I finally let out a sigh and without looking up, I knew Espeon was smiling. "I don't like this idea," I told her.

"I know. Neither will Charizard, but if for some reason it doesn't work out, he'll at least have made a friend, right?"

I glanced at her. "Okay, well, say that they do get together and say that they do like each other. What happens when the tournament starts and they have to battle each other? What happens when we have to go home?"

"I highly doubt they would let a relationship stop them from concentrating on battles. Besides, long-distance relationships are pretty common."

"Most of them don't work out, though," Jolteon told her.

"Have a little faith! Even if they don't end up liking each other like that, it would be good for Red to have more friends than Ethan and Blue." She looked at Ampharos and Jolteon. "No offense."

Ampharos chuckled. "None taken," she replied.

I let out a loud groan and gave in, throwing my paws up into the air. "Okay, okay, fine! I'll help you," I said.

Jolteon glanced at me with surprise. "Really? You're going to help them set the two up?" he asked.

"Yeah, and you're helping too, sparky."

Jolteon scowled but said nothing.

I heard Ampharos giggle something along the lines of, "Like trainer, like starter!"

"Are you guys even sure Red likes her that way?" I asked. "I haven't seen him give off any signs that he even likes her…" My eyes widened suddenly as Espeon gave me a smug grin. I remembered suddenly the night a couple of days ago when he had been too distracted to eat dinner for a long time. Was I right in my assumption that he had been thinking about her and not Blue? I opened my mouth to say something, but Espeon was speaking first.

"I may or may not have pried a little bit that night," she casually admitted and shrugged.

"Is that why you're so enthusiastic about this?"

"Maybe."

I groaned with annoyance again. Red had told her before not to read his mind but her natural curiosity would constantly take over and she would do the opposite of what he told her to do.

"A lady's intuition is far greater than any man's anyway," Ampharos stated, waving one of her arms back and forth.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Jolteon mumbled.

Zebstrika chuckled and said, "What she means is that Hilda is too shy to admit she has feelings to Red directly, so that's why she wanted to know him more by asking Blue and Ethan some questions."

"Even Ethan isn't that dumb. But admittedly, he does have more people skills than Red," Ampharos said with a giggle.

Espeon looked at Jolteon. "All we're asking for is for you to distract Blue while they distract Ethan. It shouldn't be hard to do, those two are easily distracted with silly arguments, right?"

Jolteon was quiet for a little bit, his fur bristling with electricity briefly. Finally, he gave in and said, "I guess. Blue once mentioned that Red would never have enough social skills to ever get a girlfriend if he stayed on Mount Silver."

"And Hilda spends too much time with Cheren, Bianca, Hilbert, and pokemon to even think about making new friends," Mienshao told us as she came out of her hiding spot.

Espeon got up to her paws and then smiled at us. "Great! But the first step to any sort of relationship—" She looked at me. "—or getting to know someone better as a friend, is a date. The only issue is that we made Red promise that he can't date until after the tournament is over so we just have to clear that up for him."

I glanced towards the trainers and eyed Red, who looked bored among the three other humans and stared off towards the sea, looking completely at peace.

Espeon continued. "We'll tell him tonight, right Pikachu? We have to tell the others, of course, but not right now. Tonight, if he forgets to let us out of our pokeballs, be sure to let us out. That'll be the only time we'll have to discuss this with each other, okay?"

I gave her an uneasy nod.

"I dub this Operation: Get A Date," Mienshao proclaimed happily and received delighted agreements from the other lady pokemon. Jolteon and I just looked at each other with nervous eyes.

We already knew Operation: Get A Date would be harder than it sounded.

-x-

As the afternoon dragged on, we began to goof around each other, and White and Ethan had to separate Mandibuzz and Togetic when they got into a heated argument about whether or not the red poffin was better than the green one. All of us were enjoying ourselves, though we hardly went into the water; everyone except Blastoise and Gyarados complained about how cold it was and didn't go any deeper than their ankles. Ethan had tried to shove Blue into the water and got a face full of water from a large splash by Gyarados in retaliation. Soaked from head to toe, he only laughed and said how happy he was that his shoes, socks, and sweatshirt were far from the water.

I was looking around for my trainer and instantly grew irritated when he wasn't near Snorlax nor any of the other humans like he had been before. I glanced at the rest of my team and called out, "Red did his magic trick!"

Charizard immediately let out a sigh and fanned his wings open to go search for our missing trainer. I heard some of the other pokemon from other teams tell us to lighten up but after spending so much time on a dangerous mountain top and getting into a few dangerous skirmishes with the wild pokemon there, we told ourselves to keep the young man in sight.

It didn't work out all the time and he would disappear just like this time.

After Charizard flew off, I shouted to the others that I would go search for him as well. Espeon was busy with the other pokemon playing a game with a seashell they found, Blastoise was still underwater somewhere while Venusaur and Snorlax lounged on the beach and both decided to be lazy and stay where it warmed their fur or scales. The two of them just nodded at me and went back to their naps. I scowled at them but said nothing as I took off. Could they show at least some worry about him? While Red was more than capable of taking care of himself and this place wasn't Mount Silver, it didn't mean he wouldn't get himself into trouble again.

He had a knack for finding trouble wherever he was, especially if he was alone. He was just lucky he hasn't gotten seriously injured by the wild pokemon back on the mountain. When we first arrived at Mount Silver, he would constantly wander into other pokemon's territory unknowingly and cause the defending pokemon to attack. I or another one of the team would hear the commotion, complain about it and then play a tiny game of rock, paper, scissors to see who was next to get Red out of trouble.

Blue was right, though. If he hadn't become a trainer, he would have been a field researcher since he constantly went back to the wild pokemon's territory just to see how the different species mingled with each other.

Sometimes, he would be down in the caves of Mount Silver for a few minutes, others for hours at a time. One time, he was gone for just about an entire day and it scared the living daylights out of all of us when we couldn't find him by sunset. We eventually found him in the lowest cave in the mountain, though instead of going to us, he told us to be quiet and pointed towards the nearly glowing pokemon that rested in its scorched bed.

During our journey, we had encountered and caught the three legendary birds and then released them after trouble had passed but I found something incredibly curious: Moltres wasn't there when we first arrived. Perhaps Moltres knew that Red was there and some part of me believed that the legendary made the mountain his home as well to keep an eye on our mutual trainer. Either way, he had been asleep and Venusaur was the one who had to drag Red away back up to the summit.

I wandered away from the other pokemon and all the way up and out of the tiny cavern space then headed for the woods at the top of the cliff. The forest seemed far more rugged and wild than what I was used to despite being close to the city.

I walked past a few pokemon and stopped to ask a small blue bug-type if they'd seen a human wandering around. With a shake of her head, she walked off and I groaned loudly. Where in the world did he go? He couldn't have gone that far!

I walked through the trees looking for my trainer and as the minutes ticked by, my annoyance began to build. Why would he even wander off and risk getting lost? He had no idea where anything was yet! Arceus knows we get lost enough back in Kanto with his horrible sense of direction.

Then my ears perked up when I heard laughter from pokemon nearby and I jumped over some mud. I ran towards the high-pitched voice the moment I heard them say, "This is great! He has the best poffins ever!"

I broke through a bush and shook the leaves out of my fur once I saw two four-legged pokemon happily surrounding my trainer, who in turn handed them both poffins he'd somehow gotten a hold of. He looked at me once he heard me, patted the smaller one's head and picked me up.

"Who are you?" the smaller pokemon asked, big brown eyes blinking curiously at me as her ears twitched. She was definitely a grass type and if the green fur didn't give it away, the flower growing from her head did.

The pokemon beside her was much larger, though he had many thick, green leaves on his thick antlers and stayed quiet. There was no doubt in my mind that he was the smaller one's father with the way he warily scanned me with his eyes and kept himself close to her protectively.

"I'm Pikachu. This is Red, my trainer. It's okay if you Headbutt him or something if he's bothering you." I shrugged and Red blinked as he tried to understand our speech, his face twisted with confusion.

"Then how come he doesn't talk?"

"Because he believes that you don't have to talk in order to get your point across. Like this, for example." With a tiny Thundershock, Red jumped in surprise and gave me a hard glare that I returned as I climbed out of his arms and up to his shoulder. "See? And you have got to stop running off! What if you really got hurt this time? Stop laughing!"

Red simply pushed my anger aside, laughing as if this was just a giant game and I sighed at him. He wouldn't have laughed this hard in front of the others, especially with White or Ethan around.

"He must trust you a lot if he just ignores a Thundershock," the larger pokemon said. "I am Sawsbuck, this is my daughter, Deerling." Deerling smiled up at me again, but she watched my trainer eagerly as Red pulled out three poffins, handing one to me and the two grass types. "I normally don't go near humans, but I must admit that your trainer is a wonderful chef."

I immediately accepted the treat and took it into both of my paws. I was sure that he wasn't the one who made them but I wasn't about to say that since he could make a decent poffin when given the chance. "He wasn't bothering you though, right? I'm sorry if he did. He has a tendency to go up to pokemon when he gets curious, no matter how dangerous they are."

Sawsbuck shook his head once. "No, Deerling was the one who found him; she said she smelled something good in his pockets. He was the one who was cautious when he saw us and he showed us he meant no harm."

At least he was finally learning, I thought.

Deerling, however, nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah! I smelled the poffins!" She suddenly hung her head a little and added sheepishly, "I accidentally tackled him though and got his shirt all dirty. I said I was sorry but he gave me one anyhow and even Daddy tried to apologize but he gave him a poffin too! They're super good! My favorite one's the super sweet one!"

Boy, did she talk a lot and she jumped on her hooves in her sudden enthusiasm for sweets.

I was glad that Red wasn't the one who bothered them, he probably didn't expect to run into any pokemon so close to the city. Meeting Sawsbuck and Deerling made me wonder if Red always had something on him to try and divert the attacking pokemon's attention. Honestly, it was good thinking for someone who wandered alone.

I managed to smile once Deerling was done talking at the speed of light and said, "I'm glad he didn't get you into trouble. We have to go back to the others, now—"

"The others? Oh! Are they like the ones from that world tournament thingy in the city?"

I nodded slowly. "Yeah, how'd you know?"

Sawsbuck tilted his head a little. "I heard from Accelgor that a bunch of foreign trainers came and are taking part in a tournament. Are you participating then?" he asked curiously.

I smiled and puffed out my chest. "Yep! We're competing in the champion bracket next month!"

Deerling looked amazed and she smiled widely. "A champion team! Daddy, Daddy! They're champions!"

Sawsbuck nodded to acknowledge her. "I met a champion once when I was a Deerling myself, I think his name is Alder, I heard he is going to be there too. Where are you from?"

"Kanto and yes, Alder is participating, but I'm sure we'll beat him, right Red?" I smiled at my trainer, who still looked lost at all the talking and remained quiet. I wished Espeon had come just so she could translate.

Deerling jumped up, turning to face her father. "Daddy! I wanna be a part of a champion team! Please, Daddy, can I? Ooh! Can we go watch some battles! Pretty, pretty please!"

Sawsbuck looked down at her, surprised. "Why?" he blurted.

She promptly took a determined step towards Red, stomping a hoof into the ground as she locked eyes with his. Then with a straight face, she shouted, "'Cause I wanna be the very best! The strongest Deerling ever! Like no Deerling ever was!"

Somehow, that sounded oddly familiar.

-x-

The trip back to the beach was mostly uneventful. Charizard had found us a few minutes later while Red was trying to show Deerling he was out of poffins and instead of being nervous around Charizard like her father was, Deerling pranced right up to him with innocent excitement that made me smile. She was young and naïve yet surprisingly brave for a young pokemon like her. She kept begging Sawsbuck to let her go with us back to the beach to play a little and finally he gave in, knowing she was safe with us.

He did make me promise him that she would be back when we were done otherwise he'd have my hide. Despite knowing I could take him in a battle fair and square, I didn't want to get on his bad side and just confirmed I would make sure she returned home safely.

Red didn't seem to mind the young grass-type as we walked through the woods back to the beach but Charizard was a different story. He didn't enjoy her company as she kept badgering him to say more than one-line responses and kept comparing him to Red on how much they talked (and didn't). She also mentioned how her father was taller than Red was because of his antlers and what seashell she found in a cave the other day. Annoyed at the smaller pokemon, he kept Red in between us all and walked on all fours with a scowl on his face.

Once we finally reached the beach, Blue spotted us all the moment we stepped into the sand and immediately walked to us. "Where in the world did you go? You can't always do this disappearing act all the time…?" he said, angrily at first but slowly his tone turned into one of confusion when he spotted Deerling racing beside Charizard. Without another word, he promptly whipped out his pokedex and scanned her.

White looked curious as well, smiling at Deerling as she ran up to her happily. "You did notice a wild deerling is following you, right?" she asked.

Red shrugged and sat beside Snorlax instead.

"But seriously, where'd you go this time? And why is Deerling flirting with Charizard?"

Red blinked and looked at Deerling when she tried to get Charizard to play with her.

I looked at Espeon, telling her what happened in the forest and she chuckled. When I was done, the gem on her head glowed and she said to the humans, "I was told she is following you because someday she wants to be a part of a champion's team. I believe it is an admirable goal."

I watched Deerling as she followed Charizard all around for a long while but she instantly pouted once he took off into the sky to get away from her. "And she seems to love Charizard," Espeon added.

Blue laughed as well and looked at Deerling when she trotted to Red. He patted her head and I laughed when she jumped when a loud noise suddenly went off in Red's pocket. "You're mean! It's not funny!" she cried.

"Yes, it is!" I replied through laughs. She was still young, she'd get over it.

Red was reading a message and typed something back. Ethan peered over his shoulder to peek at the message and he smiled suddenly. "Can I come, too? She makes the best meals ever!" he said.

"Go where?" Blue asked curiously.

"Red's mom wants to know when he's gonna be back so she can cook dinner. I'm tired of hotel food, I want real food!"

"Hotel food is real food," White said.

"Yeah, but it's boring and bland!"

"There's such a thing called salt and pepper," Blue told him, getting up to his feet.

"Doesn't make the food taste not boring!"

Poor Deerling was so confused, staying beside Red and me, tilting her head from side to side as she watched the other three teenagers. "What's going on? Why are they arguing so much? Do they not like each other?" she asked me.

I shook my head as the trainers began to recall their teams. "It's not that they don't like each other—they do. They just get into, erm, friendly discussions all the time. Especially Blue and Ethan."

She still seemed confused but accepted the answer with a nod then looked up as White knelt to her level. "We have to go back to town now. If you really want to become a part of a champion team someday, you need to work hard and find yourself a good trainer. It isn't easy and sometimes you'll feel like quitting but you just have to keep pushing on."

I noticed Red's eyes soften slightly when he listened to her, then glanced at me when I tilted my head a little at him. Had something she said affect him too? I know there were times we found it too difficult to do anything but no matter what was thrown at us, we always overcame it. I smiled and patted his head with a paw as I jumped onto his shoulder.

"No matter what, Deerling, never give up, okay?"

Deerling smiled and stomped a hoof into the sand. "Okay!"

Red scratched my chin when we turned around and headed to the mossy cavern exit.

I heard the others following us and even though Blue was complaining, he still squeezed himself through the tiny gap and up the hill towards town again. When I glanced back to the forest, I saw Sawsbuck waiting for Deerling at the edge of the trees and the little pokemon spun around with a quick farewell to go back to her father.

He gave me a brief nod before he turned around and walked back into the woods as Deerling sprinted right after him. I smiled at them when I watched them disappear. She seemed promising and her spunk would definitely help her find a future trainer. Maybe when she grew older, we would battle each other. For now, she was far too young to be separated from her parents for too long.

The walk back to the hotel was relatively calm as the sun started to set. Red and Ethan suddenly turned toward a supermarket before we even got near the hotel and confused, the rest of us looked between each other. "Where are we going? The hotel's that way," Blue said as he jogged to catch up.

My trainer pulled out his pokegear and turned it to the messages section and showed one to him. I tried to look at it, huffing when it was pulled away before I could even read what his mother had sent him.

"Gotcha. Fair enough." Blue turned to White. "We're getting extra ingredients for dinner; his mom makes the best fried rice I've ever had and she said she's making it for all of us."

White blinked and pointed at herself. "Me too?" she asked Red, who nodded. She smiled instantly. "Sweet! Thank you, Mom!"

Ethan laughed. "Yeah, thanks, Mom!" he quipped and ran ahead to help get the extra ingredients we needed to get.

Blue scowled. "Hey, don't run off by yourself! You don't even know what we need to get!" he scolded and ran after him.

White snickered. "Neither does he," she told Red, who rolled his eyes and shook his head. "You got a list?"

Red pulled out his pokegear and showed her the message his mother had sent him with a list of things she was missing and together, they went ahead into a separate isle to get what we needed for his mother to make dinner for us all. I frowned as I followed, jumping off of Red to walk behind the two of them.

He seemed to be far more relaxed with her than he had in the morning when we had walked with Brendan to the stadium. My tail swished side to side as I my thoughts built up again.

While I felt he and Leaf were extremely close, I'd never seen him act like this before. He was extremely patient as White spoke, telling him all about the different snacks we'd never tried and picked some up for us. If Leaf had spoken that much, he would have tuned her out by now or, more likely, leave her in the dust.

I huffed to myself as we went to the star-struck cashier and met with an arguing Blue and Ethan along the way. I noticed how Red stayed next to White and even carried the heavier items that she was going to buy for herself so she didn't have to.

What was this sudden act of chivalry I was witnessing from him? He wouldn't have cared if it was Leaf, he would've just let her carry it herself! It had barely been a couple days since we'd landed in Unova! Surely, he was just trying to become friends with someone! I watched the two some more as the cashier scanned their items for them and gulped my uneasy feelings down. There was nothing happening between the two of them, right?

…Right?

-x-

We reached the hotel before it got too dark and met up with Black along the way and gladly took some of the bags that everyone was carrying. He didn't even look phased at all of the unnecessary junk food, instead he grinned when he spotted a particular bag of chips. "Those are my favorite! You guys'll love them!" he told us as we all piled into the elevator.

Blue suddenly smirked, glanced back at White and then back at him as the doors closed. "Her favorite color is purple," he said to him.

Black looked at his twin and burst into laughter as Ethan pressed his floor number to put his things away first. "What? Really?"

White immediately glared at Blue as her twin laughed hard. "Blue! I told you not to tell him!"

"I told you I'd tell him! Not my fault for not believing me. Why is it such a bad thing?"

"I got a great story to tell you guys later," Black said and laughed some more through White's immediate and loud objection.

We stopped at Ethan's floor first so he could quickly shove everything he bought into the fridge and rushed out to squeeze into the elevator before the doors closed on him. White practically did the same thing and we were on our way to our own room.

I was ready for dinner and as soon as we entered the room, I was surprised to see Red's mother in the kitchen, getting everything ready. I wanted to know how she got in. We were the only ones with the key, weren't we? "Oh! Hello, everyone!" she said then smiled kindly. "I hope you all brought enough for everyone, Red can eat a whole buffet out of food."

Red scowled instantly as the others laughed.

"Yeah, we bought a lot," Ethan said as I jumped off of Red's shoulder and landed on the couch with ease.

"I can see that. Good thing you did, too, these empty cabinets were pretty sad." She then looked at Black and White. "You two are more than welcome to stay for dinner, consider it a Kanto special."

Black smiled brightly at the prospect of food. "That sounds awesome, I'm in!" he said and White nodded in agreement.

"As rowdy as these boys are, they're actually really fun to hang out with," she told Red's mother, who chuckled.

"Rowdy? I'm not rowdy! Explain that!" Ethan challenged.

She glanced back at him as she helped Red's mother gather everything she needed. "What is there to explain?"

Ethan looked puzzled, staring at her as he tenderly held the bag of chips Black had spotted before, in the middle of putting it away. Blue grinned, laughing as he said, "Don't hurt yourself, Ethan. I know thinking is hard."

Even Red was smiling as Ethan shot him an offended face.

"Hey!"

As they talked among each other, I glanced back at my trainer and sat down on the couch to stare at the blank television. I felt conflicted, I still wasn't on board to help Espeon and the others set the two trainers up, especially not this early.

On the other hand, getting them together might be a good thing. I ran a paw through my fur on the top of my head, glancing back at the humans. They didn't notice my internal struggle and I couldn't help but notice that Red and White were sitting next to each other as Black pulled out a deck of cards from his pocket.

I sat there silently for a long time before I grabbed one of the throw pillows on the couch and shoved my face into it to hide. I couldn't believe my own decision and I was sure I was going to regret it later.

Operation: Get A Date was a go.