Cerulean City experienced the nicest sunday in a long time. No cloud hung in the sky with pleasant summer temperatures from the early morning hours onwards. A day which made it hard to be in a bad mood.

One yellow mouse pokemon had no difficulty feeling pissed.

"Pika."

"Here you go, Pikachu. Take as much ketchup as you want!"

Misty handed Pikachu the large bottle nervously and the pokemon dumped a large heaping of tomatoey goodness over his morning toast. She had let him sleep all day yesterday to cure Pikachu's hangover, but he had to wake up eventually and was understandably furious for being left behind.

"Ka… Ka…" The anger radiated in suffocating waves from the pokemon and Misty felt the need to grab her kitchen table to keep herself from running away from every spark.

She was in disbelief how scary the little thing could look even while nibbling on soggy ketchup toast with full cheeks.

Ash was in for a lot of trouble if he returned.

"When he returned!" Misty scolded the negative thoughts away.

The reason for their argument sat opposite of Misty. Eating together with Psyduck had become a rare novelty like so many other things they used to share.

It started slowly at first, the pokemon getting quieter and less animated, until he completely stopped showing emotions a little bit more than a year ago.

He didn't say anything or did anything, just staring into empty space.

The condition of her Psyduck weighed heavy on Misty's heart. In her darker moments she put the blame on herself for treating him like a nuisance in the past.

Despite all the progress in pokemon care over the years, treatment of mental problems was still in early development and not officially certified.

"Psy…" Misty heard him say not more than a few inches away from her ear. Somehow Psyduck had managed to get up and stand beside her without her noticing.

The clumsy yellow duck could move like a silent assassin.

She looked down and saw a picture frame on the table with the glass side facing down. Misty picked it up and turned the frame to look at the picture. Her breath hitched as she saw herself with Ash in the nightclub, a newspaper clipping nearly trimmed to fit.

"Is that for me?" She asked the expressionless pokemon.

A slight twitch of his flipper and she remembered what Ash had done yesterday. Hastily, Misty put her hands in his flipper and squeezed to get three rapid twitches in return.

"You're still there…'

"Psy… duck." The duck said with obvious difficulty but a small wag of his tail.

All floodgates broke as the trainer hugged her pokemon in tears. She wanted to cry, laugh and scream all at once. Ash and his stupid magic touch with pokemon had done the impossible.

Even Pikachu was deeply moved and yanked out of his revenge fantasies for moment, until he heard something and cocked both ears.

"Pikapi…" The deep growl from his throat came with an almost manic grin.

Pikachu sped out of the kitchen and through the corridors, leaving the flabbergasted trainer and her pokemon to their reconciliation. Him and Pikapi would be fine again as soon as he was able to vent his frustration.

The electric mouse burst through the front door and saw Charizard landing in the courtyard with Pikapi on top. Their backs were turned to Pikachu and he could see his trainer hunched over.

Possible moves to dish out punishment went through his little head and he made the decision for a Volt Tackle. A perfect blend between shocking and physical damage.

The move ignited with static electricity in the air and Pikachu hit the ground running. Time slowed down to crawl as several things happened at once.

Charizard saw his attack first and laid flat on the ground to provide less of a target. Pikapi turned around and looked at him first with recognition then worry.

More than Pikachu expected.

Why that was, he realized when his trainer put his back towards him again and shielded somebody as much as possible with his body.

A smaller human.

His Pikapi was tough and could take a hit but a small child would get seriously injured from one of his attacks. The pokemon course corrected in the last second and overshoot his target, face planting on the floor and fizzling out like a firecracker.

"Piiiii…"

With a wounded face and pride, Pikachu laid there like a dead Magikarp. His ears twitched from approaching footsteps that were too light for his trainer.

Small hands picked up his body and turned him around. As soon as his nose pressed against the fabric of the shirt, Pikachu realized the person holding him needed soap and water desperately.

He made that abundantly clear by almost hacking up a lung through coughing.

"What's wrong with him?" A high and scratchy voice asked that grated on the nerves of the little electro mouse.

"I think he's trying to tell you that it's time for a bath." Pikachu heard Ash say and the hands holding him moved upward, so that he could stare this new menace in the curious face.

"Hi, I'm Leaf! Sorry for smelling bad."

The girl gave him a big toothy smile and set the grumpy pokemon down. "I have somebody who's been dying to meet you!"

She enlarged her pokeball and threw it. Out of it came the runtiest looking Rattata Pikachu had ever seen. It looked around cautiously at first, before focusing its gaze on Pikachu.

Like his owner, the Rattata went right into Pikachu's face and squeaked excitedly. Even as a pokemon, he had trouble understanding the barrage of sounds completely, but apparently the Ratatta was a huge admirer of him.

"Your Rattata could use a wash as well," Ash told Leaf, who saluted him in response to Pikachu's great confusion. "Pikachu, would you be so nice and show the two our bathroom?"

Pikachu glared at Ash so hard it felt like a pokemon move.

"I will explain everything at a quiet moment." Ash kneeled down and scratched Pikachu at his favourite spot behind the left ear. The pokemon tried to stay defiant, but a few moments under the heavenly treatment melted all resistance.

"I will make it up to you tenfold, I promise."

"Pi Pikapi chu chu!" Pikachu said, telling him in no uncertain terms he better be ready to make amends for ditching him. He pointed at Leaf and her still starstruck Rattata. "Kachu."

Leaf's pokemon followed first, letting the girl play catch up. They all passed Misty at the entrance and only Leaf took a second to greet her in passing. "Hi, I'm Leaf. We are going to take a bath!"

"I'm Misty and have fun?"

Usually, the Cerulean gym leader would not let total strangers into her house, but the lone man petting his Charizard had her full attention.

Ash was stalling for time, obvious through the irritated expression on the face of his pokemon. Charizard ended the charade with a quick slap of his tail against Ash's back, sending him tumbling towards Misty.

She caught him before he could fall on the stairs. They stood there, hand in hand, until Ash said the only thing he could think of.

"I'm sorry."

Misty tilted her head slightly, which was enough of a reaction to jumpstart the apology Ash had practised on the way back.

"Misty, it was stupid of me to meddle with your affairs. I need to learn to accept boundaries and don't put my nose where it doesn't belong."

"Ash shut up!" Misty interrupted him with force, stunning the young man under her stern gaze. She stepped up and hugged him as tight as possible. "You did the right thing with Psyduck."

Her voice turned raw and breathy, a telltale sign for the turmoil of feelings she tried to keep bottled up.

"My little duckling was more lively and expressive in the last two days than in the last two years. You have a gift with pokemon Ash, and my own feelings of inadequacy shouldn't stand in the way of helping others."

She let Ash go and sank instantly back into him, their foreheads touching. "But how about consulting me first before you do anything for me?"

Ash smiled. "Your birthday gifts might be a dull surprise from now on."

Misty smiled back. "Are you planning to stay around until then, Mr. Ketchum?"

"Only if you will have me, Mrs. Waterflower."

They laughed, a freeing and comfortable laughter that signaled things were back to normal between them.

Misty sat down on the stairs. "What's the deal with the little girl? Are you catching humans now too?"

Ash sighed and sat beside her. "She's a homeless orphan from Viridian City. At least that's where I found her. No idea where she's really from."

"What were you doing in Viridian City?"

"Reminiscing about the past mostly."

Ash decided to keep all the Team Rocket stuff to himself. It didn't really matter what kind of pretend play he was doing with Leaf to make her more comfortable. The whole thing felt like something private and special for only the two of them.

"Did you inform the authorities?"

"To do what?" Ash's tone became cold and bitter. "Stick Leaf in an orphanage that separates her from Rattata? She isn't going anywhere if she doesn't want to. Not on my watch!"

"Ash you can't do that! There are rules and laws for children! She can't even own a pokemon at her age!"

Ash voice reached the freezing point. "Who's gonna stop me? The Pokemon League? Let them try, I'm itching for a reason to let loose against those douchebags!"

Misty noticed the resentment towards the organization with every syllable. Her thoughts went back to the phone call with Mrs. Goodshow and how abysmal chances of reconciliation were turning out so far.

"Ash, there are still good people in the league."

Ash laughed loudly. "Like who?"

"Like me..." She put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Leaf can stay here for now and we will figure out everything else. Just try to stay open minded about things, okay?

"Sure… thanks Misty."

Pikachu really didn't like these newcomers.

The new girl splashing in the oversized tub with her Rattata was loud, grabby and overly friendly with him for no reason.

That is, when she didn't try to bury him under a pile of of her dirty clothes and he desperately tried to breathe through the eye-watering smell.

The little human had used a lot of those silly cans with chemical flower stink to mask her own musk and sweat, which Pikachu wouldn't have minded at all. The need of humans to hide their unique scent was a mystery to him.

For a while, even his Pikapi had used pungent water from a fancy bottle after shaving, until Pikachu couldn't take it anymore and buried the baleful object in secret.

But his silly trainer had kept buying them and an intense argument later, Pikapi agreed to stay away from the stuff.

This Leaf should do the same in his opinion.

The Rattata wasn't much better for his nerves. Even in the tub with his trainer, the purple mouse followed him everywhere with its eyes, analyzing every little thing he did with unnecessary scrutiny.

He was as annoyingly clingy and submissive as the stupid things called fans that Pikapi got in increasing number with his badges and trophies.

After their bubble bath, the two nuisances stood there wrapped in towels and stared at him with sudden sad looks. "We've seen eyes like yours before. They say we are unwanted and should stay away."

Without baggy clothes and smelly distractions, Pikachu had the first opportunity to take a good look at her. Are small humans supposed to be this skinny?

"It's okay though. Nobody likes us and we are used to it, aren't we Rattata?"

Rattata nodded sadly and the girl looked suddenly as frail as porcelain. Suppressed tears hit Pikachu like a sledgehammer and set him aflame with shame.

Pikapi must have had a reason for taking them in and he was too blinded by anger to see it up until now.

"Chu…" he stretched out his paws, signaling his willingness to be picked up by her.

Leaf and Rattata looked at him stunned for a moment. Slowly, she kneeled down and gently lifted him around the barrel, holding Pikachu close to her chest like a toddler and he buried his nose in the crook of her neck.

Without all the nasty sprays and deodorant on her skin, she smelled amazing through the odorless soap. A scent as earthy as Pikapi with a calming grassy undertone he could get lost in.

"Chaaa…"

He looked up at Leaf's serene smiling face and felt a sudden warmth radiating from his chest. On instinct, Pikachu started to groom her cheek with his tongue which caused uncontrollable giggling from the little girl.

"He likes us! Rattata, the pokemon of the boss likes us!"

"Pika?"

Leaf put him down and started to rummage through her backpack for the only set of fresh clothes left that weren't a crime to his nose. "You have to tell us what it's like to be a pokemon in Team Rocket!"

Pikachu was confused, until she pulled out a black trench coat and shirt with Team Rocket logos from her backpack.

"Don't worry about us spilling the beans to others. Ash trusts us and even gave us his uniform for safekeeping!"

She handed him the shirt to sniff and Pikachu froze as he smelled Pikapi on it.

"You are looking scary again. Everything all right?"

Pikachu forced a smile, but internally he was seething like a volcano.

Pikapi had a lot of explaining to do.