"Well, that was fun," Daisy said. Daisy and Nate, had a towel each, were both sitting on the sand. My fur was soaking wet and dirtier than when I had first entered this city. "Easy for you to say, you don't have hair covering your body," I pouted. Despite the fact that I could easily dry myself, it still didn't feel pleasant being soaking wet, and then having sand caked to under it as well. "Well, that means I'll have to get that sand off of you," the woman said. She stood up and beckoned me to follow along. On the very edge of the beach were a bunch of drinking fountains, which had hoses on them for some reason. Nate was quick to catch up with us, having sand stuck all over his legs and belly, he was likely having a worse time than I was. I had the luxury of being covered in fur, so at the very worst, it's uncomfortable, while Nate, had none at all. The tiny, sharp individual pieces of sand were likely very rough on his bare skin. "Alright Ninetales, do you mind if Nate goes first?" I shook my head.
The mother and son walked up to one of the poles, Daisy grabbed one of the hoses, and started hosing her child with it. Clearly the people who built this city also thought that sand god everywhere, and had installed these for people and Pokemon to use. Within seconds, Nate was hosed off, but I could tell he needed a proper bath afterwards. Daisy quickly also hosed off any sand that was on her, and whatever was on her and Nate's sandals. "Alright Ninetales, it's your turn," she stretched her hand out for me. Very carefully, I walked forward and came into contact with Daisy's hand. Just as gently as I had been, the woman hosed me off while working her hands through my fur to get what laid deep underneath it. Without missing a beat, she started working on my tails even more gingerly than she had with the rest of my body. Probably so I wouldn't curse her for tugging on them accidentally. Within a couple minutes, most of the sand was gone, but like Nate and Daisy, I would still need a proper bath to get everything off.
"Did I say you could touch my tails?" I said jokingly as Daisy pretended to be frightened. "Not this again!" The two of us laughed while Nate patted my head, then we went back to retrieve our stuff. I did what I could to help pack everything up, from using my fundamental telekinesis to fold the towels we used, to trying to carry the picnic basket in my mouth… before being promptly stopped by Daisy, who took it from me. "You'll break your teeth doing that!" She would tell me, which made me a bit upset at not being able to lend a paw with the basket, but didn't complain about it. It was such a nice day that I did not want to argue with Daisy at all today.
I woke up in Nate's bed, completely clean, piled up on top of the child that the bed belonged to. Considering it was the second to last day, the fact that I hadn't really cuddled with Nate at all, and that he would be home most of the day, I decided to spend it with the child. Today probably wouldn't be too eventful, probably just watch Nate drawl, lay on his lap, play with him, and that was something I am looking forward to. Nate was very much fast asleep, the smell of Daisy's cooking made my empty stomach growl, but I chose to remain. Nate had his arms wrapped around my neck, had his face buried under my head, and his body curled up around mine. My own body had curled up around Nate. The blanket that was on the bed the night before, had been disregarded and thrown on the floor. The child had opted to be covered by my body rather than the blanket. It probably would've been warmer to cuddle up with a fire breathing fox, than under a blanket.
Nate stretched his arms, before wrapping them back around me, he was still fast asleep. Clearly he was enjoying being crushed by a Ninetales, that he likely wished that I was truly his Pokemon. Thinking back to the first day I had ran into Nate. Being petted, hugged, and protected by this child from the trainer with his Mightyena. Thinking back to it, I had practically lied my way into this household, with me pretending to be scared. I played Nate and Daisy into letting me into their lives. I was a little weasel. I was worse than that, I had been so focused on not being captured, that I would've happily hurt this family by getting close to them and leaving right when they started enjoying my company.
I was an awful Ninetales.
I tricked a crowd of people when I first entered the city, I've tricked many more, just to remain as a wild Pokemon with the freedom to do what it wants, to be what it wants. Yet now, I am actually cherished by Daisy and by Nate. Two people that I have also grown to hold dear, yet I still had manipulated them. They even didn't seem to care all that much about how I had come into their lives, Nate was just happy to have me here, and so was Daisy.
Nate's alarm clock thankfully snapped me out of my thoughts, but didn't spare my ears. The loud beeps that were admitted made me shrink into Nate when he started waking up. "Good morning Ninetales!" How was this child not affected by the demons that lied within his alarm clock? The child quickly hit the button on top of the device, and then sat down in front of me. "Did the alarm clock scare you Ninetales?" Nate asked. "It hurts my ears." I whined as the child started to massage my ears. To my surprise, it felt even better than Daisy's ear massages. Why hadn't I let this child suffocate sooner? "I bet it does…. I heard in class that the Vulpix line have very sensitive ears a couple of weeks ago. After a while, you get used to it" Nate whispered to me. The two of us didn't utter a word, instead of continuing to rub my ears, Nate pulled my head into a hug. This felt heavenly, for this one brief moment, I felt extremely comfortable. I felt safe.
My ears quickly turned towards the door, it had been open by Daisy, who had started quietly watching her son cuddle with me. A small smile came to her face as Nate rubbed the back of my neck. "Nate, Ninetales it's time for breakfast," Nate snapped up when he heard that. "Come on Ninetales," He said. The child let me go and I tailed closely behind him.
Once again, in place of my bowl, there was a plate piled with food, Nate had took a seat at the table, and so did Daisy. The plate on the floor whiles piled with two eggs, a load of bacon, and a couple pieces of bread. Daisy just had to start spoiling me before I return to the wild didn't she? Another tear came to my eye, like it had yesterday, and I started to dig into my food. The taste was almost heavenly. The bread was nice and soft, the eggs were melty, and the bacon had a strong taste of salt to it. The mix of it came together to make a flavor I quickly started to love. Just as soon as I was enjoying it, I ate the last piece of bread, and quickly realized all the food that was once on my plate was gone. I'd eaten it all without even noticing.
After Nate went into the living room, I sat next to Daisy, watching her wash the dishes from this week. "Hey Daisy…" right now, I wanted to come clean, to let her know that I had manipulated her family at first. Of how awful of a Pokemon I had been. "Yes Ninetales?" Daisy placed the last dish in the drying rack, grabbed a towel to dry her hands with, and turned to me. "I have something to tell you." Daisy nodded and knelt down to meet me eye to eye. "I'm all ears, Ninetales."
"So… when I first met you and Nate, I was running from a trainer, remember?" Daisy nodded. "Well… when I started being scared, I truly was not. I wasn't scared at all..." Daisy nodded. "I just wanted to say, I manipulated you and Nate. I pretended to be scared just to get away from a trainer. Not because I trusted either of you at first. I do not deserve the love and care you and Nate have been showing me this past week…" Daisy nodded again, intently staring at me. "I… am an awful Ninetales. I simply manipulated my way into your care."
"To me, it sounded like you were actually scared, Ninetales." Daisy said. "You didn't want to be that boy's Pokemon, correct?" I nodded. "You were scared of having a trainer again, and so you took any out you could find. It just happened that me and Nate were that way out…" Daisy brought up a genuine smile. "You're not a bad Ninetales, your previous trainer was awful, and so you grew to not like people. Then over this week you opened up to me, heck, you let Nate cuddle with you last night…" Daisy placed hands on my shoulder. "I know you deserve the love and care we gave you this week. You just wanted to be safe from being captured, and we happily gave it to you. Yeah, the way you went about it wasn't the best, but people can change. Pokemon can change. You're a good Ninetales, now stop worrying about what happened and how it happened. You aren't going to change that, alright?"
Daisy planted a kiss on my head. "Now go enjoy the day with Nate. I know you wanted to spend your last full day here with him." I nodded, holding back the tears building up, and went to join Nate in the living room.
Stop worrying about the past, that'll stick in me for a very long time.