Riolu Martin's Point of View
I hear the glass breaking, a purple blur darts past my vision, there is screaming and fire all around me. It grows closer, hotter, until it becomes unbearable, but I can't move. I wake up screaming, I am crying, I knew it was just a dream, it still terrified me. Why am I uncomfortably hot still, looking around Anastasia has a worried look, guilt is welling up inside her. She goes to touch me, but pulls back her hand. Even though there is only a little light in the room (coming from mainly appliances' standby lights, for example the TV), I can still see somewhat well. My eyesight as a Riolu must be better than a human's in the dark.
"Are you ok, I didn't mean to wake you, I normally have better control over my body. Does your body hurt anywhere?" Asks Anastasia
I dry my eyes on my fur.
"No, why are you worried, I only woke up from a nightmare. I do feel very hot though." Martin says
"That is a relief, the way you screamed I thought I had burned you. I unintentionally raised my body temperature in my sleep, the sheets are designed not to burn, but that doesn't mean you aren't."
Trying to comfort her, I go to hug her, but she backs away.
"Didn't you hear me, I might still be a bit hot?"
"I know that, you didn't burn me before and if it gets too hot I will move away. You are sad, I want to help, you helped me."
A bitter smile moves across her face.
"You are the sweetest thing you know that right? I almost accidentally hurt you and instead of being scared, you try to comfort me. Just wait until I cool down a little then you can cuddle me all you want."
Looking at the clock it is 2:24am, a few more hours worth of sleep would be nice. Feeling thirsty I grab the sippy cup and start drinking. I expand out my aura field, that weird feeling runs through my body again. Apparently Rebecca didn't wake up, she is still calmly asleep. Anastasia gets up and leaves the room, to go blow off some steam I guess. Feeling my diaper it is, but feels like it could absorb a few more wettings so there is no need to change it.
Anastasia comes back in a few minutes, lays down and I bury my face in her boobs, while I cuddle her. Who said I can't enjoy myself a little too. I try to reach out to her, will my aura and send all of my happy feelings to her. Eventually I feel the tension leave her body as we both fall back asleep.
It is 6:30 am by the time I wake up again, the sun is shining through the curtains a little. Anastasia is still asleep, so I wiggle my way out of her grip and head out to the kitchen. Rebecca is up at this point, making her lunch for the day I think.
I know I shouldn't have dropped the small child act yesterday, but that would have gotten exhausting quickly, it just was not viable in the long term. It is best if I act a bit more like myself, that way it is not as fake and I am less likely to slip up again like yesterday. Will try to hide my intelligence a bit and just play more heavily into the things I don't know.
Rebecca's Point of View
Martin comes walking down the hallway with his fur all over the place and in a clearly wet, sagging, diaper. Anastasia must not be up yet.
"Did you sleep well, Martin?" Rebecca asked
"It was ok, Anastasia got a little hot under the collar earlier, but it was not too bad." Martin signs
A cheeky smile spreads across his face, and a sense of glee starts to invade my body. The emotion must be coming from him, I didn't find it very funny, did he forget to make his emotional barrier this morning?
"Was that your attempt at making a joke?"
The smile disappears as his shoulders slumps and sighs.
"Yeah, never was the best at them."
"Do you want a hand grooming yourself, Anastasia said you weren't very good at it. I will have to change your diaper at the very least."
"That would be nice, as long as I don't make you late for work."
"You will not come on."
He follows me to my room and while changing his diaper, he doesn't enter that trance-like state Anastasia mentioned. I wonder why, he did it 2 out of 3 times she did it. That other time doesn't even count as he just fell asleep. As I do up the taps Martin signs.
"You are not used to changing diapers are you? It feels a bit loose."
"I guess I must be out of practice, yours' is the first I have changed in a long time."
Before I have the chance to correct my mistake, Martin signs.
"Don't worry, I can fix it myself, you will get better."
He processes to adjust the tapes and the diaper while laying down like he has done this many times before. I am completely dumbfounded, he is what at most the human equivalent of 2? Guess this goes along with the other oddities about him. His speech far outpaces what it should be, even when he was purposefully making it sound worse. It sounds like I am talking to a ten year old, minimum. His signing is perfect for the most part and his understanding of Kanton is passable for a basic conversation.
From what Anastasia understands his knowledge of self care is low, but elsewhere it is high. Is he closer to 26 months instead of 14, that would make his speech a bit less of an outline. Yet at the same time he would be mostly toilet trained by then, he would be taller and would have a better idea of how to care for himself. Most importantly he would know how to control his emotions better, that is by far the strangest thing, if he is so smart why can't he.
"Do you ever change your own diapers?"
He must have noticed that something was wrong as I feel his emotions grow weaker as he creates his emotional barrier.
"Maybe once or twice, but I do adjust them sometimes as some people can never get them right. If you notice that I forget to create my barrier in the morning can you please tell me, I am pretty bad at it."
I know I cannot fake emotions around a Riolu so I don't bother. I wanted to across a bit less crabby.
"Yeah, of course I can."
We progressed to brush his fur, with me doing most of it, and we headed out to the kitchen to have breakfast. Only 20 minutes passed, that was quicker than I thought it would take. Martin had fruit and yoghurt, while I ate my cereal. Another weird thing Riolus typically hate diary products, but he is enjoying them. After finishing, Martin asks.
"Can I watch TV please?"
"Well it is a little early, but I guess it is ok."
I turn on the TV for him and change the channel to a child friendly one. Martin is now laying down on the couch.
"Can I watch something else, this looks boring."
He did show a disinterest in his toys yesterday. I guess he dislikes shows made for babies too.
"What channel do you normally watch?"
"Don't know the number, can I just go through the channels?"
It isn't something I should allow, but it is early in the morning, so there shouldn't be anything too graphic on. If there is, it will be fine, I will be keeping an eye on him before I go to work.
"Ok, just don't want anything you shouldn't."
With him nodding, I handle him the remote. As he starts flicking through the channels, I go to finish preparing for the day and then sit in one of the nearby chairs and start reading. The first channel he settles on is one of the many news channels, not what I was expecting, ok I guess. I start focusing on my book, and after 15 ish minutes, I look up again, he has changed it to a geographic channel. This one is a documentary focused on the Primeape like Pokemon (basically anything that are like Monkeys), it is one I have seen a few times. Also I notice the subtitles are on, did he accidently do that?
"Do you want me to turn the subtitles off, I am sure they are no use to you?"
He signs without even looking at me.
"No need to, put them on purpose, I want to try to learn to read better, this might help."
There is no way he can, but I will check as well.
"Do you know how to read in Kanton?"
"A few words at most, I think, just trying to match up words to symbols."
He is using this opportunity to try and learn. Is this why he is so smart, because he tries to learn at every chance? He is just a bit too strange. I really need to get a second opinion on him, hopefully Mr Fuji is willing to organise a playdate. Khione (He-io-ne) under normal circumstances would be too old, but I want to see how he interacts with her. She will definitely bring out a unique reaction from him, I don't think he has met anything like her.
After another half an hour Anastasia is up and it is about time for me to go to work. I talked with Anastasia a little bit before leaving. With it being Friday hopefully I can organise the playdate for Saturday or Sunday.
Riolu Martin's Point of View
Watching TV is not the best way to learn about the world, but it is the only one I got for the moment that is inconspicuous. Hopefully Rebecca bought my lie about the subtitles, it is actually the other way around. I am using them to try and improve my understanding of the spoken version of Kanton, or should I say Japanese. My reading is still pretty sub-par compared to a native speaker, but between anime and learning it at school, I can understand most words. I only understand maybe half of what Rebecca is saying and the rest is guess work. Like for example I didn't know the word for subtitles, that was just a guess. If I had to speak instead of sign, it would be a nightmare.
Anastasia and I exchange morning greetings, then she starts making her breakfast. I hear the garage open as Rebecca heads off to work, speaking of which, what is her job? I stand up on the couch as I look towards the kitchen.
"Anastasia, what does Rebecca do for work?"
There is a moment's pause before she answers.
"She works at Bunnellings as a department manager."
"Bunnellings, what do they sell?"
"All sorts of stuff, like gardening supplies, paint, tools, some furniture etc. Anything for DIY jobs around the house and a bit more."
So it is basically Bunnings with a few extra letters, to be original I guess?
"Ok."
"Have you had breakfast? We will be leaving for the shops around 9am, so if you haven't you might want to now. We will be out for a while."
"Had breakfast earlier, don't want anything else right now."
I lay down and continue watching my show until we leave, Anastasia doesn't bother talking to me further. No idea why, when Rebecca was changing my diaper it didn't feel as nice as Anaastasia. Is it because she is a Pokemon, or maybe Rebecca lacked that motherly touch.
Delphox Anastasia's point of view
When I tell Martin it is time to go he doesn't put up a fuss, that is not some I would have done at his age especially in the middle of a show. I grab my hand bag, along with his bag (mainly diapers and some food in it) and quickly grab a few more things we might need. He turns off the TV, and follows me out to the car. He appears to be quite surprised when he sees it. How did he expect us to get to the shops?
"Have you been in a car before?" Asks Anastasia
"Of course I have, I didn't expect you to be driving one." Martin replies
"Well of course I can, what would stop me from driving?"
He grows flustered.
"I just never saw Prince drive, so I didn't think he was allowed."
"Well I am not sure about Unova, but in Kanto there are a few Pokemon species that are allowed to drive. As long as we are similar in build to humans it is ok. Not many cars exist to accommodate different body types. Prince might have just never needed to learn."
"That makes sense I guess."
I opened the door for Martin, put him into the booster seat, my bag next to him and got in the driver's seat. Starting up the car, I drive off to the shops, Martin is surprisingly quiet. Checking in the mirror he is looking out the window at all the passing people/Pokemon. He probably hasn't seen a lot of these species before. Once we get to the shops I get him out of the car and we head inside. Not too many people are here this early.
"I want you to stay close to ok, hold my hand until I put you in the trolley."
"I understand, don't want to get lost and don't talk to strangers."
"Is that something Samantha told you?"
"Yeah, she told me to be careful, not everyone is as nice as they appear."
"I guess it is better to be safe than sorry, but I don't want you to be rude. If I am closeby it is fine for you to talk to them, if they start a conversion. Just don't let them try to grab you."
"Ok, will not be rude."
As we get to one of the grocery shops I put him in the trolley and we start shopping. Martin asks me questions about some of the Pokemon he sees. For whatever reason he starts to feel tense as we continue moving through.
"What's wrong?"
He is starting to sweat a bit and at this point I am getting nervous.
"Head hurts too many people around, getting a little overwhelmed." Martin says between gritted teeth
"Do you know how to stop it? Can you stop feeling others' emotions?" Nerves seeping into my voice.
"Don't know how, I was never taught."
Looking around, there is no one here who can help. Finally I remember his Pokeball is in my bag.
"I could put you in your Pokeball if you want?"
He looks at me with fearful watery eyes, pleading.
"No, anything but that please, don't like the feeling of being trapped. Rebecca rarely put me in one."
Did Rebecca keep it in locked mode, that is usually only used for more aggressive Pokemon.
"It is not that bad, I promise. I will keep it in unlocked mode, if you can't handle it you can just come out."
"I will try to tough it out." he says shaking his head
Others are starting to take notice. I have to try something.
"Do you know how to focus on a single person's emotion?"
He timidly nods.
"Yes."
"Ok focus on my, hopefully that will make things a bit better."
He closes his eyes, for a few seconds as I feel a link similar to yesterday's being formed. Some of the tense leaves his body as I feel his emotion mixing with mine.
"It's a little better, not sure how long I can keep this up, this will be getting tiring soon."
"Ok, I want to see if something works, but I need you to let me enter your mind. I will be as gentle as possible and stay for as little time as possible."
"No, don't want you too." Martin whines
"Well it is either that or the Pokeball, I am sorry but I need to finish my shopping today and those are your two options. Please, I don't want to make you any more upset."
He sits there for a long moment, as I am about to lose my patience he talks.
"Will let you in mind, but please don't stay in for any longer than needed. It is my place."
"Of course I will be gentle too."
I put my forehead to his, one or two humans have stopped to watch but I don't care, I have to make Martin feel as comfortable as possible. His mind is a weird one, he is thinking in a language I can't understand instead of common, but I can't explore it. If I do, I will lose his trust.
"I want to try something similar to when I try to shield another's mind from a psychic attack, ok, I will guide you through the process. No need to talk, whatever you think I will hear."
A memory starts to play as he represses it. Fear runs through our bodies as I say that, what he is so afraid of, is it an irrational fear of me trying to hurt him in his mind? He continues thinking in that language I can't understand.
"You need to think in common or else I can't understand you, whatever language that is I don't know it."
Some of the fear leaves, as he thinks at me in common.
"Sorry, didn't mean to, will listen."
It takes some adapting on my end, it is not quite the same, and a bit of practice from him, eventually I think we get it. I leave his mind as the emotional connection breaks too.
"That wasn't so bad now was it?"
"No, but I can't feel others' emotions, it's a bit like a Pokeball. Not feeling as scared though, you're still here."
I see him pause for a second as he suddenly goes quiet. Quickly I make a low level psychic connection with him. He feels content, safe and warm. He blinks as he breaks the blissful silence.
"What wrong, you are looking at me funny?"
"Why did you get so quiet for a second there?"
"What are you talking about?"
I feel the front of his diaper, it is warm.
"You wet yourself, is that what made you go quiet?"
He looks shocked.
"I did, didn't notice. Did I really go quiet?"
He appears to be lost in thought, he mumbles under his breath, so I decide to leave him to himself. How did he not notice that? We continue grocery shopping for a bit more. I buy him a few things I know he will like, based off the way he was looking at them and he starts growing grumpy as I buy things that are clearly for him. Then move on to a bit of a quick toy shopping that doesn't go to plan.
"Why aren't you telling me what you enjoy playing with?"
"Don't want you to spend any more on me, feels like an unnecessary burden. No way to pay you back."
"They aren't though, you pay me back by spending time with me, at least let me buy you one thing."
"No."
He looks away at me and starts pouting. Why is he being so unreasonable? Before I get the chance to continue, he speaks up again.
"I will just make do with what is in the house already, the toys I have might be boring, but they will entertain me for a little bit."
"Fine I will just buy you those weights, at least they will be useful. That toilet seat is already in the trolley for you."
"Yeah that is the only thing I wanted you to buy, so don't have to repeat yesterday as much." Martin says, just a bit too loudly for my liking.
He mustn't like pooping his diaper at all, a lot of toddlers like doing it, he appears to enjoy wetting himself. It feels natural and safe to them. That is why so many fight toilet training. Speaking of which he is squirming a bit.
"Don't tell me you are trying to hold one in now, you know there is no point in fighting it? There is not enough time to make it home and given how much you are squirming, I doubt you could even make it to the toilet here. It will feel better if you just let go."
"Really don't like it, please can we just find a toilet?"
"The only one I know of is in the food court and that is at least a 10 minute walk, that is not including paying for the stuff we bought here. Can you last that long?"
It was a bit of a lie, I know of one in the store, although his face goes red, he is reaching his limit. I don't want him holding it in too much, it is good that he has some level of control, but I don't want him to get constipated.
"There are times you will have to poop your diaper, especially when we are not home. I am sorry, but you just don't have enough control yet. How about this, you be a good boy for me and I will only buy you two more things. One of my choice and one toy of yours. After that I will not bother you further until you ask for something. Those weights I mentioned don't count."
He doesn't even answer me, as his face relaxes, followed by feelings of relief, a hint of happiness and then overwhelming shame. I so badly want to delve deeper into his mind, I want to know why this bothers him so much. Kids his age, at least in my opinion, typically don't feel this way when it comes to such things. Tears build up in his eyes. I picked him up, holding him close to my chest. I go to the changing tables in the store to clean him up straight away, pushing the trolley with one hand. I hate it when he gets like this. Avoiding the toilets that are close by, I don't want him to see them. On the way he cries into my shoulder.
Slowly he stops crying once he is a clean diaper. First he picks out a big box of lego, not suitable for someone his age, although he is clearly not normal. As for me, the box of lego didn't give me very many clues, so I go with the safe colouring set. I get him a pair of ankle weights as well, apparently they help build up strength in the long term.
Even at this age there is no danger of fighting types doing heavy exercise, it will not damage their growing boys, it is actually needed. The rest of the weights I ordered online last night should be arriving after lunch. I may have gone a little overboard. Hopefully Martin doesn't freak when he sees it. A Riolu his age should be able to lift at least double their weight without using Chi. For him that would be around 25 kgs, with the use of Chi he could probably lift me, but it would be very awkward due to the size difference. I find it crazy the difference in weight between some Pokemon species, he is only 50cm tall and 12kg, while I am 155cm and 51kg. The rock types get even wilder.
After paying for everything we head home, hopefully the rest of the day goes a bit more smoothly.
Arthur's Note: Some of you may have already noticed, in between the release of chapter 4 and 5. I have rewritten all of the earlier chapters. No major story changes have been made, only some small details I wanted to add and now they should read better, less stilted at least. Hopefully I have shaken most of the rust off. The last time I did any level of story writing was in school, that feels like such a long time ago.
I will be changing some stuff, about some Pokemon also. For example a delphox who is 1.5 metres tall and weighing only 39kg sounds crazy to me, but I will try not to be too wild about it. Some changes will be for world building, my personal tastes, or just convenience.
