Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon. I do however own Alex, her parents, and this characterization of a member of the Darkrai and Mightyena species.

Chapter Eight:
Waxing Gibbous

-o-O~OOO~O-o-

Alex collapsed on her old twin sized bed with a huff, grateful that her parents had once again left the front door unlocked in their haste to study some Pokémon related phenomena. Sandgem wasn't an especially large town, and her parents owned a home in the more upscale neighborhood, so they never really worried too much about locking their doors—whenever Alex was left alone, though, she would wander through the house to make sure they were all locked before she could relax.

The trainer had reached Sandgem the day following the battle and subsequent forfeit to the younger trainer and decided to get settled back into her home before going over to the lab to meet with Professor Rowan and Mightyena. She had only half expected her parents to be home when she got there, and wasn't particularly bothered when they weren't. It had only been about two months since she was last there, after all, and her parents were busy people.

Alex sighed, recalling a dream she'd had last night. She was sitting in the front row of desks in an empty classroom at an elementary school staring at a blackboard covered in the footprints of Pokémon. The prints were arranged in the form of words and sentences, but Alex couldn't begin to figure out what they were trying to say. Darkrai hovered near the blackboard with a mortarboard on its head while patiently pointing to each footprint with a long wooden pointer and enunciating them carefully in its own language.

And Alex felt really stupid for not understanding any of it.

Noting that its pupil wasn't grasping the lesson, Darkrai floated over to her and placed its face about an inch from hers, searching deep in her eyes. The legendary's eyes widened in realization after a moment and it pulled away, moving around to hover behind her,sinking its claws into her hair and holding its head level with hers so that their cheeks were mere centimeters apart. Then it tilted her head just-so , and all the footprints on the board rearranged themselves into words.

Then Alex had woken up. She wasn't sure what the dream was supposed to mean—if it even meant anything at all—but unlike most dreams she'd had, she could still recall almost every detail of it.

The trainer stretched, yawning. It was still fairly early in the day—she could take a nap before heading over, and grab something out of the fridge… assuming it was stocked. The trainer sighed, setting an alarm and quickly drifting off to sleep.

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO
OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO
OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

Darkrai started inside its ball as a sudden flash of trepidation washed over the empathy link, replacing the previous relaxing hum of background 'noise' the legendary felt when Alex wasn't actively thinking about it. After a note of apprehensive consent, and more worryingly, directed apology, the dark type felt a tug on its essence and hesitantly emerged from the protection of its ball.

Once Darkrai had materialized, it found itself to be in a familiar place. Purple metal floor tiles covered the ground while banks of uniformly light blue computers and other machines lined the walls. A short red couch was pushed up against the side of some stairs that led up to a balcony area with a few large picture windows looking out to the sky taking up most of the upstairs wall.

More interesting than any of that, though, were the four humans standing side-by-side between it and the entrance to the room. Darkrai recognized two of them, one being Alex—still holding up its ball with a look of anxiety etched across her face—and the other being the older man that Alex had called 'Professor Rowan' flanking the two strangers.

The strangers, a man and a woman, looked somewhat like Alex—though older—and had identical expressions consisting mostly of fading disbelief and sharpening interest, focused by a keen intellect that was apparent in their eyes as they almost seemed to take apart the legendary with their combined gazes, studying its parts and setting them aside for further evaluation with some needlessly complicated machine covered in blinking lights and random buttons at a later date.

Unnerved, Darkrai turned to its trainer for an explanation.

Alex sucked in a breath, lowering the Moon Ball and turning to the strangers. "Mom, Dad, this is Darkrai, my… Pokémon." She turned back to the legendary. "Darkrai, these are my parents," she gestured to the two strangers, "and they'd like to examine you—if that's okay." Alex's parents broke their staring contest with the dark type to glance at their daughter in surprise.

Darkrai blinked at the familiar phrasing and asked, "Are you sure that's a good idea?" The last examination the legendary had had hadn't been particularly pleasant, and the two humans looking to rehash that process didn't seem to be half as respectful as the nurse had, at the very least, acted when Darkrai had come out of its ball for the first time with Alex.

Alex shrugged uncomfortably. "I won't let them if you don't agree—and I certainly won't berate you if you feel the need to flee at any point." The trainer glared at her parents, who were looking taken aback at the declaration. "It's my Pokémon; its needs come first, science second, if at all."

The mother was the first to speak up. "It's okay honey, we'll try really hard not to upset your Pokémon."

Alex was stone-faced. " 'Do or do not; there is no try.' "

The father decided to pitch in. "For goodness sakes, Alex! It's not like we're going to dissect it or anything!" Suddenly, his face turned frightfully contemplative. "Although, a biopsy from that Pokémon would be really useful."

Alex gaped. "Dad!"

The man in question blinked. "What?"

Darkrai snorted, drawing the attention of the room as it addressed its trainer. "Alex, can I attack them?" At the trainer's raised eyebrows, the legendary continued, "I'll try not to hurt them… much."

Alex might not have understood the words her Pokémon was using, but the tone came through loud and clear. The trainer put her fist up to her mouth to hold in her chuckles as she (correctly) assumed that Darkrai had just mock-threatened the people who brought her into the world.

Surprisingly enough, Professor Rowan also laughed. "I know they seem scary, but Mr. and Mrs. Annwn are harmless enough."

Darkrai gazed at Rowan doubtfully.

"It'll be fine." The legendary turned to Alex, who suddenly ginned. "And you have my full endorsement to do whatever it is you just said you'd do if they start trying to take pieces of you."

"Alex!" said trainer's parents chorused, aghast.

Alex blinked. "What?"

Darkrai snickered and Professor Rowan belted out a laugh.

Alex continued cheerfully, "Hey, don't upset my Pokémon, and it won't rend you limb from limb."

Jokingly though it was stated, Darkrai still felt a bit disheartened at its trainer's words—what did she think it had said?

Alex seemed to notice her Pokémon's sudden mood shift, and sent it a soft smile to show she was indeed teasing. "I know you'll use your best judgment here—and no one is going to make you do something you don't want to do," she locked eyes with her parents, "right?"

The mother nodded, "We'll do our best to respect its wishes."

The father followed, "Agreed."

"I think that's as good as we're going to get," Alex sighed, turning to Darkrai. "Your call."

The legendary eyed its trainer's parents again. They looked oddly disappointed by being made to promise to curb their enthusiasm, though there was still a sharpness to their gazes that set the dark type on edge. An idea coalesced in Darkrai's mind and the Pokémon turned to Alex and asked as clearly as it could, "Do you trust me?"

Alex simply nodded while her parents and Rowan glanced between the two, seeming lost.

Satisfied, Darkrai turned its attention back to the parents, nodding largely and saying as guilelessly as it could, "Yes, you may examine me."

Alex hid a smirk as she recognized its tone while Rowan frowned, sensing something was up but not knowing what. The parents, however, remained clueless with fake smiles plastered on their faces, trying for comforting but ending up with condescending as they strode forth, the mother holding a clipboard and pen while the father reached into the pocket of his lab coat and pulled out a measuring tape.

Darkrai waited patiently as the humans noted various aspects of the legendary's appearance. Then, as the father took the Pokémon's forearm in a firm grip—presumably to measure it—without asking first, Darkrai sprang its trap.

"HOW DARE YOU TOUCH ME, YOU INSIGNIFICANT WORM!" the nightmare king bellowed, rising off the ground while gusting an Ominous Wind through the room, letting the etheric tides catch its fur in a whirlwind as its eyes glowed blue in power. "YOU WILL PAY FOR YOUR INSOLENCE!"

The father tripped over backwards and scrambled away in a Krabby-walk as the mother shrieked in fright and dropped her clipboard, then screeched again as she backed into a wall. Rowan had frozen in some combination of shock and horror while Alex… well, Alex looked like she was trying very hard not to spoil the moment by bursting out in laughter.

Encouraged by its trainer's poor attempt at a poker face, the legendary continued. "NOW YOU DIE!"

"Holy Shit!" the father yelped as he ran out of floor to crawl away on.

The mother turned to her daughter and screamed, "Alex! Do something!"

Alex could take no more. Starting off with the loudest snort Darkrai had ever heard (from a human, at least), the trainer broke her 'petrified' silence and quickly dissolved into a fit of giggles, bending over at the waist to support her upper half with her hands on her knees as tears began to form in her eyes.

Darkrai let the wind die down as it floated back to the floor. "Alex!" the dark type whined affectionately, "You ruined it."

The trainer looked up at the pouting Pokémon and tried to regain enough breath to speak. "Sorry—I didn't… didn't want… Professor," Alex glanced over to Rowan, which proved to be a mistake as she began giggling again at the flabbergasted expression on the professor's face.

Rowan scowled, trying to to recover from the unexpected capriciousness of the legendary. "I hope the heart attack you nearly gave me was worth it."

Alex glanced over at her parents and grinned. "Yes. Yes it was."

Darkrai turned to its intended victims and assessed them. The father was still on the ground, blinking owlishly, but his face was slowly fading from terror to indignation. The mother, however, looked to be counting her blessings and coming up relieved. The legendary decided it liked her better. Either way, neither of them were looking at the Pokémon like it was a piece of meat anymore, so Darkrai considered its plan a success.

"As I was trying to say," Alex began again once she could breathe normally, "Sorry to rain on your parade, but I didn't want Professor Rowan to pull out the tranquilizer gun—I've seen him do that before, it's not pretty."

Darkrai turned back to its trainer. "I'm not sure what that is, but thank you."

"No problem." Alex grinned, ruffling the fur on its shoulder in a friendly gesture.

The legendary's eyes widened at the unexpected contact as Alex seemed to realize what she had just done and started to pull her hand back. Darkrai wasn't going to have that, though, and gently stopped her retreat with a talon. "You can touch me if you want, Alex. I don't mind."

The trainer blinked in surprise before her gaze softened, and she reached forward again to tentatively stroke the long fur on the Pokémon's shoulder.

Darkrai closed its eyes in contentment and didn't bother trying to put words no one would understand anyway to its bliss as it mumbled, "Krai krai Darkrai…"

Naturally, that's when Mightyena walked in.

The Bite Pokémon smirked as the legendary opened its eyes and focused in on the old dark type. "Enjoying yourself?"

"I was," Darkrai replied bluntly as Alex whirled around at the sound of her oldest friend's gruff voice.

"Mighty!" The trainer met Mightyena halfway across the room and knelt down to hug him. "I missed you!"

Mightyena rolled his eyes. "It's been eight days, cub." Darkrai decided not to point out that the older dark type had been counting.

"It feels like so much longer than that," Alex mumbled into his fur.

Darkrai hung back near Rowan to let them have a moment, turning to address the old human in an apologetic tone, "I'm sorry about earlier—you weren't my intended target."

The professor shook his head. "It's fine. And I know you weren't just having a laugh with that stunt." Rowan nodded to Alex's parents, who had recovered enough to confer with each other in a hushed babble over in a corner. "Most people—those that don't interact with Pokémon on a day-to-day basis—tend not to view Pokémon as intelligent beings. Oh, they know that Pokémon are sentient," the professor explained, "but they have the tendency to severely underestimate the intellect of Pokémon." Rowan nodded to himself. "Hmm, Pokémon do have a different psychology than humans, but that doesn't make them any less intelligent than us. It's a common misconception that Pokémon aren't very smart simply because they tend not to care about many of the things that we humans value."

Rowan continued on his discourse as Darkrai tuned him out, studying the interaction between Mightyena and Alex and pondering ways it could get the trainer to start petting it again.

Mightyena looked up from his trainer and spied the legendary watching them. "Get over here, kid—we're talking about you."

Paying no mind to Professor Rowan's long winded diatribe on comparative Pokémon/human psychology (which he had closed his eyes and held up a finger for), the younger dark type floated over to the pair sitting on the floor and settled into their impromptu circle.

"Managed to sneak away?" Alex giggled, reaching out with one hand to pet the legendary on the shoulder again while the other stayed on Mightyena's ruff.

"Krai-rai?" Darkrai leaned towards the trainer to give her better access to its fur.

Mightyena snorted, pointing his snout to Rowan (who had yet to notice his audience of zero). "The professor's a nice human—one of the few I've met that can actually understand us partway well—but he will ramble if you let him."

The legendary made a non-committal sound as it exulted in the feeling of Alex's hand sinking into its pelt. The trainer was warm in a way that had nothing to do with temperature.

"Let me guess," Mightyena said after a moment, "You weren't hugged enough as a child."

Darkrai blinked. "I was never a child." The legendary searched its memories for a few seconds. "I was never hugged, either."

The older dark type stared for a long time before turning to the trainer. "Alex, you must hug it."

Alex froze. "What?"

Mightyena gazed evenly at her. "Right now."

The trainer blinked. "I have no idea what you're saying."

"Then why are you blushing?"

"I like Squirtle, too."

Mightyena rolled his eyes and Darkrai huffed, prompting Alex to continue petting it.

The trio lapsed into a comfortable silence, over which could be heard the continued ranting of Rowan, who had finally realized that no one was actually listening to him and had apparently decided to instead dictate his thoughts into a recorder while Alex's parents were doing something with one of the many computers in the room. Suddenly, Alex's mother stood up and walked over to them, clipboard in hand.

"Alex? Dear? Would you like to help us take some measurements of your… friend?" she asked tentatively.

Alex frowned, standing up. "You do know that Darkrai was just playing around before, right?"

"Playing… yes…" The woman forced a smile on her face. "Well, your father is busy right now, and… Darkrai… doesn't seem to mind you handling it."

Darkrai lifted itself off the floor to hover at eye level with its trainer. "It's okay, Alex; you can touch me anywhere you'd like to."

Mightyena suddenly burst out laughing. "Oh Arceus, kid! Don't ever say that again!"

The legendary was confused. "But it's true."

The hyena Pokémon shook his head, still guffawing. "That sort of sentiment has connotations—ones you might not want to imply."

Darkrai frowned. "Is this another 'gender' thing?"

The older dark type hummed. "In a way. Who taught you about the birds and the Beedrill?"

The legendary recalled the strange phrasing from a few days ago. "Purugly."

Mightyena raised his eyebrows. "And she didn't go into extreme detail?"

"Ponyta was starting to look sick, so Purugly said she'd skim over the 'fun' parts." Darkrai was distracted as Alex, apparently coming to some agreement with her mother, tapped the younger dark type on the wrist. The legendary nodded in response to the unspoken question and let the trainer manipulate its forearm.

"Ah, that explains it." Mightyena snorted. "Well, it's probably better you hear it from someone who isn't going to embellish things." The older dark type paused, cocking his head. "Before that though, is there somewhere specific you don't like being touched?"

Darkrai nodded, watching as Alex gently pulled the long fluttering fur on its shoulders taut so she could measure it. "My underside, beneath my guard fur—also, the space between my head and my collar." The legendary felt warmth bloom in its chest as Alex let go of its fur and promptly got a face full of flapping fluff as it stretched in the gentle etheric breeze that naturally flowed from Darkrai when it was content, making her jump back and sputter. "I would let Alex, though. I know she'd be able to satisfy her curiosity without hurting me." The younger dark type thought for a moment, gears beginning to turn in its head. "Is there someplace I shouldn't touch Alex?"

Mightyena huffed in approval. "There are several. Now, listen close while this old dog gives you a crash course on the cans and can'ts of human contact."

-o-O~OOO~O-o-

Alex continued to listen to her Pokémons' conversation with one ear while she danced around Darkrai with a measuring tape. She couldn't begin to guess what they were talking about, but at certain points in the dialog, Darkrai would pause and look at some part of her anatomy with intense focus, so maybe it was better she didn't know.

The trainer refocused on the task at hand. She was having trouble measuring the legendary's longer fur—not only was it silky smooth and constantly in motion, making it hard to keep a hold of, it also kept changing length. Not too much—just a few inches at most—but just enough to make grasping the very end of it extremely vexing. And she didn't want to interrupt the conversation the two dark types were having to ask Darkrai to try and hold its fur still when she wasn't even sure if it could.

Sighing, Alex gave it up for a lost cause and reported to her mother, who was watching in amusement with her clipboard at the ready, "Shoulder fur varies in length from about one hundred twenty centimeters to about one hundred forty centimeters—though, I have personally observed it to change length dramatically when the subject is agitated, with estimated lengths ranging from merely seventy centimeters to over two hundred centimeters."

Her mother nodded, jotting down the information. "Excellent. Let's move on to the head and tail fur."

Alex hesitated. She didn't want to interrupt her Pokémon, but she didn't want to just start grabbing at Darkrai's fur without letting it know what she was going to do first. "Actually, I would like to make a note," Alex decided to stall.

"Oh?" Her mother flipped the sheet she was taking notes on over, pen at the ready.

"From personal observation of the subject, I have noted that the rate at which the longer fur flutters will change based on the subject's mood. When the subject is calm, the fur will drift in a lazy fashion, while agitation will bring a progressively more violent whipping motion as the subject's ire grows. The reverse of that is when the subject is asleep, or otherwise in a relaxed state, with the 'wind' the fur is blown by dying down to nothing as the subject falls unconscious."

"Fascinating." Her mother scratched away at the paper with her pen before turning the page back over to the front. "Let's start with the tail."

Alex sighed, gathering up the will to butt into her Pokémons' conversation in order to ask if she could, essentially, fondle Darkrai's tail. Sometimes she really envied her parents' ability to maintain an emotional distance from their test subjects.

-o-O~OOO~O-o-

Darkrai paused as Alex continued to mess with its tail, considered everything that Mightyena had told it, and came up with only one logical conclusion.

"Humans are weird."

Mightyena laughed. "But we love them anyway."

The legendary thought for a moment. "Is that why her face keeps turning red when I touch her?"

The older dark type nodded. "Probably. She's just not comfortable enough with you yet to enjoy that." Mightyena shrugged, tilting his head to one side and rolling a shoulder forward. "That kind of familiarity takes time—but if it's any consolation, I think she's almost to that point with you now."

Darkrai hummed as Alex stood up and absently stroked its shoulder fur while she talked to her mother. "That's good."

Mightyena cocked his head. "It's a little unusual for a dark type to crave human contact. Normally we try to avoid it."

"Really?" Darkrai was surprised. It seemed like every time the legendary's thoughts began drifting, they'd start working on a plan to get Alex to cuddle with it.

"Yes," the hyena Pokémon eyed the younger dark type, "Why do you want to touch Alex so badly?"

Darkrai blinked. "I'm not… sure. I just feel like I'm supposed to be close to her when she sleeps."

Mightyena frowned. "Where are you normally when she's asleep?"

"Right outside her tent, why?"

"Hey, Darkrai?" Alex spoke up, catching her Pokémons' attention. "May I—"

"Yes." the legendary interrupted.

Alex frowned. "I didn't even—"

"You want my permission to touch some new part of me," Darkrai stated primly.

The trainer was taken aback by its tone. "But I didn't say where—" Alex was cut off by a sudden tide of white fur flying in her face.

The legendary had shifted the direction of the etheric wind to blow in her direction, covering her with its snowy mane as the fluff shifted in the breeze. "Am I close?" Darkrai asked innocently.

Alex sputtered and ducked to the side, only to have Darkrai shift the wind at her again. "Gah! Stop that!"

"Why?" Darkrai pondered, confused, "I thought you wanted a closer look."

The trainer gathered the legendary's flying fur up in her hands and held it away from her face, glaring playfully at the dark type. "I'm so gonna get you for that."

The only warning Alex got then was the mischievous grin Darkrai suddenly sported.

The legendary shot a hand forward and snatched the trainer's wrists, holding them up as it shifted the winds again and tickled her exposed sides with the tips of its shoulder fur.

"Oh god! Stop it!" Alex shrieked with laughter, "I'll be Good—I swear!"

Darkrai let the wind die down as the trainer let go of its fur, then brought her in close for a hug.

Alex giggled breathlessly as the dark type nuzzled her. "What… the heck… did I do… to prompt that?"

"Nothing, Alex—you're just special." Darkrai replied happily, taking a look around the room to gauge the reactions of their audience.

Mightyena was literally howling with laughter while Alex's mother had a hand over her mouth, hiding a smile. The two men in the room had stopped what they were doing to watch in amusement (Rowan) and bewilderment (Alex's father).

Alex brought the legendary's attention back to her as she grinned and snuggled deeper in its fur, pressing her face into the white fluff on the side of its head and mumbling, "You're silly."

"Krai," Darkrai agreed, not wanting to waste any effort with words that could be better put to use taking in the moment.

Eventually, Alex pulled away. "What the heck am I going to do with you?" she asked softly, reaching a hand over the legendary's collar to gently scratch its head.

"Absolutely anything," Darkrai murmured, too low for even Mightyena to hear, "I'd follow you to the edge of the world and anywhere beyond, and bring you back home." Alex paused in her scritching to look at the dark type in surprise. "It's only what you did for me." The legendary suddenly wondered if Alex could actually understand its words and was only playing at ignorance before.

But she just smiled and said, "It's starting to get late—let's finish up here and head home."

Darkrai nuzzled her again and shifted its gaze to the huge windows on the upper floor, looking out at the gibbous moon taking its vigil for the coming night. So much had changed since that moon was new, all of it for the better. And for once in its life, Darkrai hoped that tomorrow would bring more of the same.

-o-O~OOO~O-o-

End chapter.

To my reviewer who gets distracted by my line breaks; personally, I think the line breaks that FF offers are ugly as sin, so I guess it's just a matter of opinion.
On the matter of Pokénip, the tradition is for the last Pokémon to join the team to prank the newest member, thusly, it's up to Darkrai whether or not to do that. And, considering both what Pokénip does (makes the user very affectionate), and how Darkrai first reacted to Murkrow, I honestly doubt it would keep up that particular tradition. Also, that's kinda like giving weed to a child, and for all the legendary's faults, it's not nearly that irresponsible ('ya know, after it learned what a child was).
As for Alex/Darkrai interactions, well, we'll be getting those, don't worry.

Oh, I've also made about three different non-Pokémon related references. One is very famous, two are extremely obscure. I'm interested to see if anyone can get all three of those :O

Questions? Comments? …Concerns? Well, not even Darkrai can read your mind (…), so if there's something you want to say, make sure to post a review to let me know. I welcome constructive criticism. I will never yell at you for stating your opinion—but please include a reason if you're going to flame.

Next chapter; one last bit of carefree fluff before this fic earns its T rating.