...Never under estimate the mind of a child. - A mother.
6.
Charm lived in luxury. He had his own bed again, albeit a small one, and food that came regardless of what he did (milktank meat, blech, couldn't stand it without thinking of his old friend) and his own constant companion who seemed to delight in just looking at him snore. Abraham was called, for short, Abra, but that was far from his favorite nickname. He didn't like being compared to the sleepy little pokemon, and as far as 'Charm' was concerned, no two creatures could be more different. Abraham was a spazz, but he was also the best friend Charm had ever had in this world. He gave unconditional affection, even thinking it hilarious when his 'pet' accidentally set fire to the expensive gold drapes in the master bedroom and knocked over priceless china from a shelf in a game of rough housing (he couldn't resist a good game, not after what he'd been through). His mother, and her maids, had not been so thrilled. He'd been given an ultimatum; he would behave himself, or else.
But, besides all that, as he dreamed, he met the dream child charmander again.
"Ouwwur name is Charm now? That's so confusing..."
"Let's get it straight, now. I'm not you. Now, I'll call you Leos since that's what you thought your name was before, and you can call me Charm or Charmander." he stated, a little more scathingly than he needed to with a kid. They gave a hurt look. "Sorry. I'm just stressed. This is your body, right? You can have it back now. Abraham will look after you, he's not entirely bad, certainly less bad than the other humans."
"You can't goes!" little Leos whined. "Pwease, I'm all alone. I donnu how to do anything and you dos."
"I'm supposed to be dead. And I'm never getting back to my world." he sighed. "Probably not, anyway. I accept this now. Everything has been hell for me, now that things aren't quite so bad, I should stop before I make your life worse. I'd just try to escape, and then what?"
The baby stared at him with big eyes, not understanding. "I'm you. I'll... I'll try to escape too if you would!"
"No you won't." he shook his head. "You deserve a chance to be your own person. To control your own body. I give it up." he closed his eyes and laid down...
...
And opened them once more. Crap. He was still in control. Perhaps he should have thought that through. Glancing, he saw Abraham's sister for a flashing second before giving an oof as feet planted into him and a small kid hugged him tightly and squeeled. "TEA PARTY! I'm inviting you Mr. Snooky!"
"Charm." he replied, annoyed. He preferred to be called Charm, dammit. The girl ignored this and got off, only to pull up a dress. "Woah I'm not wearing that!" he stared in horror, and leaped away to go hide under the bed. Innocently naive, she grabbed him by the tail and he had to suck in every bit of strength he had not to turn around and bite her in response to the sudden pain, and to not roast the whole room and everyone in it alive when she shoved a dress on him.
This was just humiliating.
Getting out a tea set, she poured tea for him and smiled sweetly. "Would you like more tea and crumpets?"
He stared. What the heck was he supposed to say? Oh, what the heck, he'd go along with it. "Char!" he bobbed his head yes.
"Yay! I mean, er, right away Mr. Snooky!" she giggled. "Or should I say Miss Princess Snooky?"
NOOO. His tail burned with humiliation. Princess? Oh, come on, he was obviously a guy, albeit wearing drag. Although, maybe that did make one a 'princess'. He felt such shame. His manlyhood... He watched her pour a cup of water, then add sparkly stuff to it.
"Drink up!"
"You do know that's plastic, and not edible, right?" he stared at the confetti infested water, before suffering a glare and nervously taking it in hand and taking a polite sip. He tried not to gag at how horrible it was.
"Let me tell you about my day, Princess Snooky. I think Prince, uh, Prince..." she glanced around. "Prince Table," Charmander snorted at this. "is gonna rescue my brother Abra, from, err, sock monsters! And he'll be so grateful he'll suggest Prince Table marry me so they can be brothers in law!"
He was sorely tempted to smack his head into the very royal table set before him. But that would spill his toxic tea.
It went on like this for only a few more minutes. Then he heard Abraham coming in from the door downstairs, back from school, and stared at the entrance to the playroom hopefully. They couldn't be too much longer, could they? He was disappointed to hear the boy come up, then grumble about homework and head off to his bedroom. Sigh.
One would think a little girl would get bored quite quickly, but it seemed like she had never had a playmate before, and soon she was making him play house. He actually started to enjoy himself a bit, despite himself, and if this was all he had to worry about these days then life wasn't so bad after all, although he still wanted to give back his body to its rightful owner. It was only just, after all.
Abraham stuck his head in.
"Abra! Please, you can be our neighbor Mr. Goody!"
Abra stared. "Charm, what in the world are you doing in that dress? Polly, what did you do to him?" he accused, narrowing his eyes like it was some heinous crime. To a little boy, it probably was.
"I'm playing! It's no fair you get your own pokemon and I don't just 'cus I'm younger, and you hog him all the time!" she shouted.
Looking for help, Abraham glanced at Charmander desperately. "Come on boy, you can't actually like this, right?"
Charm sighed, sat and shrugged.
"Ugh!" he threw up his arms. "She's corrupting your brain with girl cooties! You'll see, soon you'll like kissing or something!"
Charm laughed. He doubted he was in danger of that any time soon with this childish body and no other pokemon around except for an old Mr. Mime in the kitchen which he almost never saw. Perhaps he should write them an ode to cleaning? Still, he stood up and shook, grabbing the dress in his teeth and taking it off. He'd had enough for one day of that.
What he didn't expect was for Polly to start to scream at the top of her lungs. "YOU'RE GOING TO RUIN MYYYYYY DRESSSSSS! YOU MEANIE YOU NEVER WANTED TO PLAY WITH ME WAAAAAAAA!" After yelling and ranting about the unfairness of it all, she descended into pure bawling on the floor, and Abraham looking distressed as well started yelling too.
Ughhh, he clapped his claws over his ears. Spoiled child. A lonely little brat who could be kind of sweet, but a brat nonetheless. Where was their mother? Shouldn't she be in, watching them? Glancing at the clock, he realized she was still at work. Meh. Where was a maid? Finally, he heard some one come up, the butler. He was not allowed to spank or put in time out or punish the children in any manner, but he tried to calm the girl with words.
Finally, Abraham groaned and stomped out. "What ever! He's my pokemon, I bought him-"
"With mom's money!"
"And he's mine. So I have the right to take him back after you've been playing with him all day." he scowled, and waited for Charm to go out with him. Charm didn't really like being being treated as property, but hey, what could one do? He had no way to speak to them. He saw Polly looking about to cry again, and paused. Maybe there was some way to resolve all this. Stopping, he laid down in the door way. Polly looked confused.
"You wanna play with me?"
"No way, he wants to play with me." Abraham huffed. "Come on."
He rolled over and pretended to sleep, giving a fake snore.
"Hey! I want to play with you! You can't sleep!"
"I want to play with you too!" he felt someone shake him with a hand, and then heard footsteps, and another, smaller hand touching him. "Maybe he's sick!"
"Maybe you made him sick!"
"I'd never!" she sniffled. "Maybe you made him sick by giving him candy! Mom said not to and you did yesterday!"
"Did not!"
"Did too- hey!" Without warning, he shot off from between them and bolted out the door. Hehe, they'd have to cooperate to find or catch him now! Quickly, he jumped in the laundry. There was the problem of his flame, and he very carefully dimmed it and tucked his tail under his belly in a small little pocket of space. "Where'd he go? Charmander, Charmander! Where are you? Now you scared him off!"
He heard them argue some more, then finally some one got the bright idea to look at the lump in the clothes, and into his vision came the sight of the two staring at him. Quickly, he hopped out and darted down the stairs.
"I'll catch him!"
"No I'll catch him!"
It was just like a game of tag, only... they didn't realize it yet. He ducked inside a closet and waited again. The door rattled.
"I think I heard him." Polly spoke, but seemed hesitant. "But I can't get to him. If I tell you where he is, will you help me catch him and be nicer to me?"
"No!"
"Then I won't tell you where he is." He imagined her folding her arms here, and Abra debating it over internally.
"There's only one place he could be then where you can't get to! He's got to be-" Charm intook breath. "on the top of the refrigerator!" and had to stop himself from laughing and giving himself away.
Polly had no such compunctions, and laughed. "Ha! He's not there!"
"Then where is he?" Abraham sounded genuinely confused and flustered. "Up a tree?"
"No."
"In one of the cars?"
"Nope." Polly sounded gleeful now that she knew something he didn't, and was lording it over him. "Only I know! You'll never be able to guess. Now will you please help me?"
"Oh, fine."
"Yay! Okay, he's in the closet with the bad doornob. I think he accidentally locked himself in. I did that once when I was playing hide and seek with daddy..."
"Oh, that's easy to open. You just jiggle it like so..." the door swung open wide, and he stared at the two grinning siblings. They seemed much happier now, and he felt a strange sensation, like static shock in his limbs, making them move for a second against their own volition. 'Yay! What a fun game!' a familiar voice bounced in his head, and he was startled as Abraham hugged him.
'Leos?' he questioned internally. 'Was that you just now?'
'Yep yep! I'm learning to control my body!' No wonder it had been so weak. If Leos had never controlled his body before and didn't know how, how could he stand up against a fully adult being who knew what he was doing, even one who didn't want to be there? But this was good progress. And it showed Leos wasn't just a figment of his imagination. Probably.
'Good job.' he purred.
A/N: More of a comedy / stress relief chapter, slowly but surely advancing the plot. Here you go.