"H-Hey, slow down!" Axew exclaimed, running as fast as his stubby green feet could take him. His feet pounded down hard on the rocky road ahead of him as he attempted to chase after a certain orange lizard.

"Gotta be faster than that if you want to tag me!" Scraggy snarkily responded, not stopping as he held up his baggy pants while running.

The orange lizard and green dragon were having a frantic game of tag as Ash, Iris, and Cilan decided to stay at the daycare of Route 5 for another day. This was due to the fact that Iris wanted to stay for one more day in order to take care of some rambunctious Deino. Said Deino had been left at the daycare for a few weeks, with no sign of their trainer returning for the baby dragons. Iris felt that it was her duty to help take care of the Deino until their trainer, hopefully, returned.

Speaking of which, the Deino had wanted to join in on the game of tag, attempting to claw their way out of the purple-haired girl's arms.

"Aww, I know you boys want to play with the other Pokémon, but you're both a little too... extreme," Iris said, chuckling as one of the Deino began to cry a little. The dragon trainer then began to comfort the crying baby, rubbing his chest fur softly with the hand she was using to hold him back. The Deino slowly calmed down while his brother continued to try and escape Iris' clutches, thrashing around violently, failing to get out due to her strong grip on him.

From the distance, a certain green snake had been watching the whole ordeal, laying down against a tree that faced the daycare. Her eyes gazed left and right, watching Scraggy and Axew playing tag on one side while Iris was hanging out with the baby Deino on the other. The snake smiled softly at the sight, happy to see the running duo having fun and seeing Iris care for the dragons.

"Heh, rare ta see you smile," a gruff voice said from the side, causing Snivy's eyes to widen slightly and her smile to quickly fade away as she kept her cool.

"What are you talking about?" Snivy inquired, not looking over to see a smug Excadrill leaning against a tree with his arms crossed. The steel mole stayed in place as he responded.

"Oh, don't pretend with me, nothin' wrong with showing your emotions sometimes."

The snake crossed her arms, not moving her head as she looked all the way to the right to glare at Excadrill.

"What are you even doing here anyways, don't you have a battle to watch?"

"Nah, didn't feel like it. None of those flashy training sessions ever interested me," the mole scoffed, furrowing his eyebrows.

Ash would often pit his Pokémon against one another in battles to help train them, focusing on some of the weaker members of the group. They would usually end in draws or an easy victory for one of the Pokémon mattering on the matchup.

"Eh, fair point. It does get boring from time to time," the snake commented, agreeing with Excadrill.

The two stayed silent for a minute before the steel mole spoke up once more, getting up and off of the tree.

"Well, seems like you're done with this conversation, so I'll leave you alone."

With that, Excadrill walked off a short distance, stopping to look back at Snivy for a few seconds. Her stature and frown stayed the same, causing the mole to sigh before he continued walking...

Off in the distance behind the daycare, a creature could be seen high up in the air, shooting a huge surge of electricity that could be seen through the thick of the forest. The creature fell back down to the ground soon after the lightning quickly dissipated from it's cheeks.

"Nice job Pikachu!" Ash said, praising his best friend for the epic Thunderbolt.

"Pika!" Pikachu exclaimed, proudly putting his hands on his hips and giving a big grin.

Across from Pikachu was a fainted Oshawott, laying on the ground defeated with swirls in his eyes and his scalchop a small distance away from him. Ash walked over to him with a couple of oran berries in hand.

"Here, eat up Oshawott," the trainer said, crouching down to hand-feed one of the berries for the sea otter.

After eating the berry, Oshawott regained consciousness, and his eyes returned to normal. He looked around a little confusedly before looking down sadly once he realized he had lost.

"Hey, you did a good job Oshawott. Nice work!" Ash complimented the otter, handing him one more berry for him to eat. Ash also gave Oshawott a reassuring pat on the back before standing up and walking over to Pikachu with the remaining oran berries.

The otter sighed, standing up and walking over to his scalchop to pick it up. It was stuck in the ground, so Oshawott had to use a little force to get it out. After a little struggle, it was out, and the otter shook the shell to get the dirt and grass off before attaching it to his stomach where it usually rest.

"Hiya Wott, you handled that battle pretty well," Emolga seductively said, landing on the ground next to the water type. She had been lazily watching the battle up in a nearby tree.

Upon hearing Emolga's voice, Oshawott started to perk up, blushing slightly as he tried to be cool, putting a paw on his hip and giving a goofy grin to the flying squirrel.

"Hehe, thanks.~ Those Thunderbolts didn't even hurt much!"

Oshawott proudly banged his scalchop with the paw on his hip, causing Emolga to chuckle lightly.

"I bet... Hey, are you going to eat that?" Emolga asked, staring at the oran berry in Oshawott's paw.

"Oh, I was about to. Why do you ask?"

"Well, I'm pretty hungry right now, and lunch won't be ready for another hour... so could I have it?" The electric-flying type asked, a twinkle in her eye.

Oshawott's expression changed slightly into an uncertain one. "Um... you know, I would love to let you have this, but I need to... r-recover my... energy..."

The otter's sentence trailed off near the end, as he noticed Emolga staring intently at him, her eyes big and glistening. Oshawott blushed a bit harder, his eyes widening as his heart skipped a beat.

"...You know what, y-you can have it," Oshawott meekly said, holding the berry out in his paw for Emolga to take. The flying squirrel quickly grabbed the berry by the stem, avoiding contact with the otter's paw as her eyes returned to normal.

"Thank you very much,~" Emolga thanked the otter. She backed up a little before eating the oran berry whole, with one quick swallow.

"N-No problem..."

Oshawott's breath hitched slightly as he let himself relax, remembering to breathe.

Emolga's stomach growled a little, making her put a paw on her belly.

"Oh, you're still hungry, Emolga? I'll go and get some more food for you!"

Before the flying squirrel could respond, Oshawott ran off happily, wanting to get food for his crush. Emolga watched the otter waddle off, giving a devious grin in his direction.

"Man, this just gets easier with him! I'll never have to go out of my way to get food again!"

Emolga walked away, moving to sit against a tree as she waited for Oshawott's return...

The otter kept his head up high as he looked for any berries or apples in the trees' leaves or branches. He weaved in between many trees, and even after about five minutes of searching, there was no luck in finding much of anything. At best, there were some Joltik and Sewaddle hanging out in the trees, eating their stashes of berries.

"Ugh, no food for me to take without getting attacked... what am I supposed to do now?" Oshawott thought out loud, pondering the situation as he put a paw to his chin. "I can't just let Emolga starve... and she might go out on a date with me if I get her something..."

With that, the otter nodded to himself, smiling with newfound determination to find food.

Oshawott decided to go a bit deeper into the thick of the woods, hoping to find a fresh batch of berries or apples. Yeah, he should stay near the group considering he wasn't at his max health, but it would be fine, just looking for some food...

And lo and behold, there was a pristine bush full of pecha and oran berries, untouched by the wild Pokémon. Upon seeing it, the otter pumped his tiny fist into the air in triumph, beaming brightly as he finally found what he had been looking for.

"Haha, yes! This is perfect!" Oshawott exclaimed, rushing over to the bush.

The water type began to pick some of the ripest berries from the bush, humming to himself as he did so. Once he was done, his paws were holding a handful of soft pecha and firm oran berries.

"Alrighty, what should I say to Emolga when I hand her this..." Oshawott quietly mumbled to himself as he began to make his way back to the group.

"Hm... Here's some of the sweetest berries for the sweetest girl? Yeah, that's what I'll say," Oshawott concluded, nodding to himself as he decided on what he wanted to say.

The otter walked another couple of steps, before stopping to smell the air.

"Huh... that's weird. Smells kind of... minty..."

Oshawott's speech slurred at the end as the area around him turned a light green, dissipating into the air in front of him. The otter stumbled a few steps forward, his body tipping forwards, his eyelids slowly drooping, and some of the pecha and oran berries in his arms falling onto the ground. Finally, Oshawott fell down on his back, dropping the rest of the berries from his arms while squashing some of the berries he had dropped just a few seconds ago. His eyes were now fully closed, and the otter lost consciousness again...

"Hey, where's Oshawott?"

Snivy crossed her leafy arms, tapping her right foot as she waited for an answer.

"Eh? Last time I saw him, he lost against Pikachu during their training session," Tepig said, laying down lazily on the grass. "Didn't know you cared so much."

Snivy's eyes widened and she stopped tapping her foot upon hearing that. A small blush formed on her face as she glared at the pig.

"I-I don't care... I just want to make sure that we're all safe and accounted for. Thanks for the info," Snivy said, quickly walking off to talk with Pikachu before Tepig could say anything else. The snake recomposed herself, her blush leaving as soon as it came, before going directly over to Pikachu.

Her words weren't one hundred percent false, to be fair. Snivy was pretty protective of her teammates, and wanted to make sure they were all safe.

On the other hand, she did have a bit of a crush on the otter. Sure, he wasn't all that strong, and he was a bit clumsy and gullible, but he did have a good heart, was caring, and he was pretty funny. She made sure not to audibly laugh at his jokes around others though. It also helped that he was cute, and he had a certain charm to him.

Snivy pushed some of her incoming thoughts away as she slowed her walking once she made it to the electric type.

"Hey, Pikachu. Do you know where Oshawott went after your battle with him? I was checking to see how everything was with you guys, but it seems that he went off somewhere... Hoping you can shed some light on the situation."

"Oh, Oshawott? I saw him talking to Emolga not long after our session, and then he walked off into the forest... Might wanna talk with her," Pikachu responded, pointing over to where the flying squirrel was lightly resting.

Snivy looked over to where the mouse had pointed, as her anger started to boil a little.

"Thanks," Snivy huffed, uncrossing her arms as she made her way over to the electric-flying type.

The two weren't exactly on the friendliest terms, moreso at odds with one another for a multitude of reasons.

"Emolga. Where is Oshawott," Snivy said plainly, stating the question rather than asking it. The flying squirrel immediately tensed up, and her eyes shot open to look at the grass snake towering over her.

"Oh, hey Snivy. You gave me a little spook there," Emolga said, relaxing a little as she sat up straight.

"Cut the crap, where is he?"

"Hey, give me a minute, I just woke up!" Emolga responded, nonchalantly stretching her arms.

"Ah, Oshawott... he went into the forest to fetch me some food. And before you get snappy on me, he did it on his own accord. I think he went somewhere... that way," the electric-flying type playfully finished, pointing into the thick of the woods where Oshawott had waddled into. She looked back at Snivy and smirked, causing the snake's frown to quiver a little.

"I see... wipe that smirk off your face," Snivy said, letting Emolga off easy... this time, before running into the forest where the flying squirrel had pointed. Emolga put her arms behind her head and crossed her left leg over her right leg, still smirking as she watched the snake leave.

"Hehe, it's fun to make her angry..." Emolga said, stretching her legs out a little as she slumped back down against the tree...

Snivy looked around quickly, hoping to spot the otter as she went deeper into the woods. After running for about a minute, the grass type slowed down, noticing that the wild Pokémon were sleeping on the ground for some reason. Many of them were on their backs in awkward positions.

"...Need to keep my guard up," Snivy thought, quietly walking forwards as she began darting her eyes back and forth in rapid succession.

After weaving in between some trees, the snake made it to another small clearing in the woods, where she found the otter she was looking for... stuck underneath some thick roots that were producing green energy. Those roots were connected to an Amoonguss, who was sucking what little energy Oshawott had left out of him with a Mega Drain.

Snivy gasped audibly, accidently getting the mushroom's attention. The grass type shook her head, readying herself for any attack.

"Get your roots off my friend," Snivy said, glaring down the Amoonguss. They heartily laughed in response, releasing the weakened otter from their grasp. Oshawott stayed still on the ground as the Amoonguss hopped towards Snivy.

"If you want your friend, you're going to have to get through me!" Amoonguss exclaimed, shaking their hands as they used Poison Powder, filling the air with toxins. Snivy shielded herself as best as she could with her arms, coughing as the toxins started to surround her. She made sure to keep an eye open, watching the Amoonguss as the purplish-pink dust of the powder started to darken, cascading the Amoonguss. Luckily, the snake had a keen eye, so she was still able to see the Amoonguss moving despite her view of them being harder to see.

Snivy saw the Amoonguss approaching from the right, charging up a Solarbeam. She timed it so she would be able to dodge the beam without the Amoonguss being able to change their direction. She gracefully jumped up into a tree as the Solarbeam missed, destroying some of the trees and tall grass in its path while clearing up the Poison Powder the Amoonguss had used earlier.

"I need to grab Oshawott from up here..." Snivy tactically thought, forcing herself to not cough and give up her location. By this point, her entire body had changed to a slightly purple hue, as the poison started to take its effect.

The snake looked down at the Amoonguss, who was shocked to see that Snivy was able to dodge the beam.

"Where did you go!?" They angrily said, looking around frantically for the grass type. They decided to go back to Oshawott, hopping over while they looked around.

Snivy slightly smiled. "Good, they don't know that I'm up in the treetops... Gotta distract them."

The snake quickly racked her brain, thinking of what she could do to get Oshawott away from the mushroom safely and quickly. After a few seconds, she sent two vines out of the yellow prongs that protruded from her shoulders, slithering one down to one of the branches on the tree she was standing on. She quickly and carefully broke it off, unbeknownst to the Amoonguss. She moved the branch down behind the Amoonguss, along with suspending her free vine above the two Pokémon. She then tossed the branch towards the trees, quickly retracting that vine after she did so. The branch cracked against a tree, making a sound that attracted the attention of Amoonguss.

"How'd you get over there!?" They exclaimed, angrily hopping their way towards the noise. Once they were far enough away, Snivy picked Oshawott up with the vine she had suspended earlier. She sighed in relief, jumping down from the treetops to run back to the group.

She was able to run for about thirty seconds, until the poison started to really kick in, knocking the wind out of the snake. Snivy also began coughing a lot, and her vision started to blur a little.

"C-Can't let myself... f-faint," she mumbled in between coughs, trying her best to stay standing. Snivy felt that this was the perfect opportunity to check on how the otter was doing before attempting to move again. After moving him closer to her, she looked over his body, which was fine for the most part, minus some bruises. Of course, he was currently unconscious, his breathing was irregular, and black swirls had replaced his eyes. For the most part, he was okay though.

"He's fine..." The snake smiled for a few seconds before she started coughing again.

"I oughta heal him in case I can't make it back," The grass type thought, looking around for any oran berries nearby. Her eyes, although a little blurry, rested on a sleeping Joltik nearby, who was holding a partially eaten oran berry.

"It'll have to do..." Snivy sent out her free vine to take the berry out of the small tick's feelers. She also put Oshawott down with the other vine, laying him down next to her.

"Eat up," the snake said, putting the berry into the otter's mouth. On instinct, the water type chewed, coming back to his senses. His eyes shot open, looking up to see a poisoned Snivy.

"Huh? W-What happened?" He asked, looking around the area. He looked back at Snivy with a worried look, noticing that she was looking purplish.

"An Amoonguss attacked you out here... and they poisoned m-me. You shouldn't have g-gone-"

Snivy's sentence halted in its tracks as she began to violently cough, collapsing on the ground.

"S-Snivy! Oh geez..." Oshawott's eyes widened, and the otter started feeling scared for his friend's well-being. He went ahead and picked her up with both of his arms, carrying her bridal style. Thankfully for him, the snake was light, so it wasn't hard to pick her up or move around with her in his arms, even though his body was a little sore.

"You're going to be okay, Snivy..." Oshawott said, moving forward as fast as he could. Snivy wasn't able to hear the otter talking to her over her coughing and the new ringing in her ears.

By this point, the otter was in better condition than the snake, as her adrenaline started to die down, and she started to succumb to the poison. She ebbed in and out of consciousness, finally fainting before the two could make it back to the group...

Two hours later...

Snivy's eyes slowly opened, as the snake woke up to a bright light near her eyes. She groaned, using a vine to push the light away.

"Ah good, you're finally awake," a voice said from behind. Snivy's eyes started to adjust, and the snake realized she was laying down on a hospital bed. From the corner of her left eye, she saw an Audino walking forwards, with a nurse cap on their head and some sitrus berries on hand.

"Here, you should eat up," they said, handing Snivy three sitrus berries. "You'll be feeling better in no time."

"...Thanks," Snivy said, grabbing the berries with her vine. "How long was I out for?"

"Hm, you came in about two hours ago, but you were already fainted by then, so I'd say... three hours, give or take."

"Ah."

Snivy sighed, looking down at the berries in her vine. She wasn't really hungry right now, but she knew it was important to get her energy back up, so she reluctantly began to nibble on one of the berries.

"I'll go ahead and inform Nurse Joy and your friends that you're awake now," Audino said, walking away from the bed and out the door, closing it and leaving the snake alone with her thoughts.

"What was I doing again...? I was watching Scraggy, Axew, and Iris... I went to check on everyone else... it's all a blur after that... Whatever, I need to take it a bit easy... Just eat..."

Before the snake was able to keep eating, the door opened, and Nurse Joy, Ash, Emolga, and Oshawott walked into the room. Ash and Oshawott were both happy to see Snivy while Emolga was a bit bashful.

"Snivy! It's good to see you awake!" Ash exclaimed, rushing over to the snake's bedside. Oshawott also rushed over, jumping up onto the bed from the base of it to get a better look at the snake. "How much longer until she'll be ready to go, Nurse Joy?"

Nurse Joy chuckled a little at Ash's enthusiasm, taking a look at the clipboard she had on hand.

"It shouldn't be much longer, Ash. Snivy has been recovering extremely well. After she eats those sitrus berries we gave her, she'll be good to go. Feel free to stick around as long as you need to, though," she concluded, bowing her body before she left the trainer and Pokémon alone.

Ash sighed, beaming brightly at Snivy. "Well, you heard her, better eat up! Oh, and as you can see, Oshawott and Emolga wanted to see you. I'll be waiting in the lobby whenever you're ready!"

With that, Ash left the room, leaving the Pokémon to themselves. Emolga finally flew up to the bed, standing next to Oshawott at the base of the bed.

"Hey..." the flying squirrel awkwardly said, rubbing the back of her head embarrassedly.

"Hello," Snivy awkwardly responded, looking away before continuing to eat the sitrus berry she had been working on.

There was an awkward silence for a few seconds, before Oshawott cleared his throat loudly, and he nudged Emolga lightly on the arm. The electric-flying type sighed, her ears flopping down before she spoke up again.

"I'm sorry for letting Oshawott go off on his own to get me food..." She mumbled. Snivy looked at Emolga, staring into her eyes to determine whether it was a genuine apology or not. She may have forgotten what had happened, but Snivy could piece together the blanks with a little more info. She nodded slowly, accepting the apology.

"Thank you." Snivy looked back down at the berry, eating it more as Emolga quickly left the room, glad that Snivy didn't chew her out. That left only the otter and snake together.

"Hey, thanks for saving me back there. I would've been a goner if it weren't for you..." Oshawott said, smiling at the grass type.

"What do you mean? I seem to have no memory of what happened after a certain point..."

"Oh... well, the basic gist is that I went into the forest to get food for Emolga since she was hungry, and apparently I got attacked by an Amoonguss, and you came and saved me. You ended up getting poisoned and fainted before we were able to make it back to the group, so I had to carry you... Then we headed back to Nimbasa to go to the Pokémon Center to get you healed up completely."

"I see... Are you okay?"

"Heh, I'm fine. You always put others ahead of yourself, even when you aren't doing that well. How are you feeling though?"

Snivy blinked twice in succession, shuffling in her seat before answering. "I'm fine as well..."

The snake continued to eat, looking away from the otter as he moved a bit closer to her.

"I-I really do mean it... Thank you," Oshawott said, moving his right paw onto Snivy's left paw. The contact jolted Snivy slightly, causing her to almost accidently bite her tongue in surprise. She looked up at the otter, seeing his eyes were glistening as he toothily grinned at her, something he only really did around Emolga. Snivy blushed a little, pink forming around her cheeks as she allowed herself to smile back at the otter, causing him to grin even harder.

"It's no problem."