Uhhh... got a lot of interesting comments on the first chapter. Don't worry yo, I have thick skin. If someone tells me that my story is trash because I don't ship Advanceshipping, like, I don't know how else to say this, but I'm sorry that this pairing matters so much to you that you feel the need to let me know I am apparently writing an inferior story.

Let me write my inferior story, bub xD

To Guest and OMG, thanks for the reviews! I appreciate it lots!

Sorry about the surprisingly late update. I'm trying to upload once a week, but unfortunately, due to fun college circumstances, sometimes it doesn't be like that. Let's hope the lucario makes up for it, haha.

Chapter 2: An Elusive Lucaro

We're up bright and early, packing up our meager encampment from behind the pokemon center, because why would we sleep inside of it. I feel like Nurse Morrow eats people's dreams while they rest, their bodies absolutely powerless in her center of total and utter emo energy—and I sense a chill along my spine when the thought crosses my mind—so, clearly, that is exactly what she does. Maybe she's a horrifying hypno in disguise... waiting for the perfect moment...

Or a musharna, squeaks Lup who for some reason knows about pokemon that not even I know about.

I ask, ever the dull in comparison to this ridiculous bird, Oh, gee, what's a musharna?

Lup shrugs, clinging to my leg in that... clingy way of his. They're like volcanoes, except pink and marshmallow-shaped. They eat dreams, but they also can turn dreams into mist. It makes no sense. Ah, yes. That sounds like pokemon logic to me.

While I'm standing still, waiting for Layke to brush off the leaves around his head and pull himself to his feet, Lup climbs up me and sits himself down in that weird squishy spot between shoulder blades, his flippers situated at the back of my head. His head, eclipsing the edge of mine, has tilted slightly to watch my best friend struggle better. I don't know why you just ditch him. Oh wait, because you are a lovestruck loser.

I am only slightly lovestruck and slightly a loser, is all I can manage in response. It's not like he's entirely wrong.

If nothing less, I am his helpful stepping stool, and I double as a lookout point. So he has no reason to shoot at me without reason at this time.

Lup whispers, What's his deal anyways, and I can't see them, but I sure feel his beady piplup eyes gouging the back of my head, judging me through my hair.

Shuffling the leaves out of his shoes, Layke has finished stuffing my sleeping bag into his knapsack—he ditched his own after deciding that he must become one with Turt's nature-family. "Hey, you ready yet or what, Niri?"

"Oh, ha ha ha, how funny." I let my arms sag at my sides. "I should be asking you that. We gonna fall down another mountain today?"

Layke titters, shaking his head while his soft brown cheeks flush. "You know... maybe. It all depends on happenstance."

Seriously Niri, what is his deal.

I scowl and mutter, C'mon, Lup, it's personal business. You don't have to be so nosy.

But of course he does, and so his pestering continues, a buzzing in the back of my head.

Talking to pokemon is only cool until it turns out they're just as cool as the rest of us.

"We're gonna be sooooo tough once we scale the way to Oreburgh." Layke's hand brushes by my side when he strides past me, taking the lead. It is definitely not distracting. We head east, towards the sun, only marginally blocking bright-hot sword-shaped rays by the peaks of craggy hills that are supposed to keep us out—and yet, for whatever silly reason, it appears we will be in. Somehow, eventually, at least.

He's cute and it's annoying, and I try to distract myself by playing telepathy tic-tac-toe with Lup. It's a game we made up entirely on our own, and it's basically what anyone would expect, but there's no paper and we do it all in our heads. We are both monstrously terrible at it.

X on the top-left sqare.

Lup scowls. You can't do that. I already O'd that spot.

No you—No you didn't.

Yeah, well, whatever. I think I already won.

Lup, that is not how you play a game.

He's a sore loser, and that is how most of these sorry games end.

I keep up the pace until my feet inevitably slip and I slam against Layke's back. My goobery best friend plucks me back into place, then tugs my hand securely in his grip. "No falling yet~ We've got a whole day of falling to go, you." His fingers, while longer, are thinner—and he traps me like a snare. His warmth hits me like a punch to the heart.

Rain boots are not the greatest footwear for climbing up cliffs, but they are all that I own, so I guess we are still trying, stubbornly, to make it work. The whole rain gear ensemble is practically reeling off of me in putrid waves.
What can I say? You can't be a pokemon trainer without some weird gimmick. Everyone's seen the Ash Ketchum show: Brock is girl-crazy. Cilan is food master. Ash is... a little too energetic.

We take our first steps into busted rock, fragments crackling beneath our toes. Layke's hand digs into my skin. I hold as steady as I can, which turns out to be not very steady at all—we shudder, we tighten our grips on one another, we stay. For now.

"C'mon c'mon, it's not gonna take all too long..." He urges us ahead, his eyes dipping back to the northern path, the not-mountain path, the right path, where we're supposed to be; they shy away again. "It's just a whole up-up-and-down, right? Right." His voice has lowered, softened, weak.

A shadow crosses over our narrow, shimmying path, and Layke yelps. "Who's—"

We look up simultaneously, into the figure on the level above us, and stare into the amber gaze of a freaking lucario.

"LUCARIO!" I cry out, shuffling around in my slicker's pockets for a poke ball. It is entirely unlikely for this pokemon of all pokemon to be out in the wild without a trainer—but if this is my chance, then this is my chance. I slap a red orb into my hand, letting go of Layke's fingers—my first mistake—before chucking the ball at the jackal's face.

A black-furred fist blocks the ball, and the pokemon's eyes, trained upon me, blaze. Then they falter. "Ah—This is yours, right?"

And then I fall. Then I skid badly, crumpling, slipping, my rain boots making absolutely no resistance and slapping me onto the craggy earth below. A singular bush attempts and fails to catch my fall.

The pain manages a dull throb. Lucky me, I have yet to break a bone or something far more pertinent to my very existence.

As I squirm on dry soil, glaring into the heat of the steadily rising sun, a shadow spreads across me. Layke's brown face squints, attempting to make me out over his own cast shade. "Ah, Niri. You okay there?"

"D-Did you not hear the lucario?" I squeak, and then he turns around.

"Oh, wait. You heard that too? So I... didn't just imagine it?"

Shoot. I bite into my lip. "I-I-I-I guess not."

We're both staring at the lucario, as Layke helps me back up and we awkwardly make our way back onto the rocks, only to realize that the lucario is staring back. "I ahh... I still have your poke ball, human. And may I ask what the two of you are doing, climbing up these rather dangerous cliffs? Are there not signs warding off the traverse of these very cliffs?" His surprisingly human-flavored voice, husky and soft, directs our attention; then he points at a couple signs wedged into the ground just beyond our pathetic attempts. "I do not read very good humanese, but I would presume these are telling you not to take the mountain trail."

Layke swallows, then nods implacably. "Yes yes yes of course. How silly of us." Then he drags at me until I scoot forwards, and he half-pushes me up a scraggly trail in the efface, perhaps made by my scrabbling footwork.

Once we have reached a footing more or less equal with the inexplicable lucario, he utilizes his aura powers to send my poke ball sailing through the air and into my hands. Lup, still miserably tied around my neck, snatches it. You distract, I throw, he offers, but I snort and shake my head—

And then, of course, the lucario meets Lup's gaze with his blazing amber eyes. "Please do not. I have been dodging such paltry throws ever since my early childhood, and I would greatly appreciate it if you would cease. Let me just make this clear now: I won't allow myself to be caught." With his hands—I mean paws—raised and facing us, casting little shadows over our faces, his sleek indigo fur and slim yet powerful body cannot be overlooked.

"How do you speak, Mr. Lucario?" Layke blurts.

I scowl at him and elbow his side; for a second his balance shatters, but he's still got my hand. He utilizes this fact in order to reorient himself.

Mr. Lucario's gaze falls upon us in an uncomfortably hot wave. "It is not entirely... speaking. Well—I mean—I guess it is, in the sense that my voice flows outwards and allows the likes of you to comprehend it. That is... ah, speaking, in the meaning of the word... but... it is my well-trained aura. I have learned how to present myself in such force that the intents of my words transcend my own body and seep into your minds; then these very smart human minds of yours do most of the work, transcribing my message into humanese. Clever, is it not? It does as well help that I have picked up a few phrases, when my aura does not quite do the job I was intending.

"Ah, and—no need to call me... Mister Lucario? No no. Mister Lucario was my father." Layke snorts hard, and I almost push him off the cliff. "My name is Lucaro."

"Luca..." My best friend swallows whatever laughter nearly spews out of him like a freaking idiot-geyser. "Lucaro. That's, uh, that's quite the name."

"A very nice name," I throw in.

Lucaro shoots me an oddly grateful look, his eyes far too emotional and feeling to be anything other than a reflection of the humans he speaks with. Is he not sure he's learned much more than he thinks? "Yes, that is what I thought as well. So many pokemon allow humans to label them, but with a name as fine as my own, I doubt any mere human will ever think to alter it!"

"Ohhhhh my goodness—"

"Laaaayyyke—" I shoot him a warning, squeezing his hand tighter than needed.

He releases a pent-up breath: "Okay okay okay okay okay... whatever you say, Niri..." Then he sags into me.

I roll my eyes. "Gee, thanks, buddy."

Then Lucaro. I face Lucaro. Lucaro, the freaking... talking lucario, who refuses to be caught by my paltry poke ball. "Dude, you... probably have to deal with these sorts of misunderstandings all the time. Why bother with the human world? Why don't you go live somewhere secluded or... something? Like where all the lucarios live?" Iron Island, was it?

Layke chuckles back to life. "Yeah! Like, like that picture book! You know? The one with all the riolus, and the one lucario dad who's super chill and also a terrible parent, and all the kids go on an adventure to see the world and one of them gets caught by a trainer? And the message, it's like, being with a trainer is great because it means being safe in a poke ball and getting to be stronger! And uh, friendship. And... uh... stuff."

He grows quieter the longer Lucaro stares at him.

"Wh-What is this... humanese propaganda?"

And he's silent again. I get to answer for him. "Don't mind Layke. He has no filter on his brain."

Lucaro frowns, his brow scrunching, then very slowly nods. "I see." Then he redirects his attention to me. "You asked, human, why I am here, facing people such as yourselves, when I could be living somewhere sacred and untouched by human hands? That is a very good question. I've thought upon the topic greatly, and I have much to say about..." He draws off. "I suppose this wasn't an invitation to, ah, bore you with my words.

"I used to live with my own kind, yes, but I... lost my way when I was young. I made some idiotic decisions and... ruined my mother's life. I don't know where she is today, just that she must be with a pokemon trainer... somewhere." His words sink into the well of my soul like well-aimed rocks. All I can think is, well, shoot, how did I invite this conversation. "I managed to escape, when the humans found us, but...

"I do not know how much of my home still stands, and I am afraid to go see it once again."

Even Layke is left without words. We share a horrified look.

He's obviously not going to volunteer it, so I step in front of him and ask: "Hey, uh... Lucaro. You really, uh, you're really giving off these nonchalant wanderer vibes. If... you'd like to avoid being caught by other pokemon trainers... would you like to... come... with us? On our journey?"

And the way the light hits his face—dazzling, somber, soft, yet overflowing with an incredible warmth...

"You... would let me, human?"

Layke opens his mouth and I beat him to it. "Yes! Of course! And ah—My name is Niri. You don't have to call me human anymore than we should call you lucario."

Beneath my voice he's muttering "heeeey Niri we just met this weird lucario guy are you sure we should be offering to let him stay with us" but screw him and his inability to do anything. Screw his utterly self-absorbed thought process; clearly this lucario is hurting, and it is in our powers to help him, and, besides, guess who knows how to climb the cliffs: the lucario, Layke.

...geez, has he always been this obstinate?

Lucaro... shudders. "I—I would like that greatly, human... ah, I mean Niri." He closes his eyes, relaxing slowly, allowing however many years of lonesome traveling to ease out of him. "Thank you. You... are a trainer, yes? I've been meaning to ask for some time, but how does one become a trainer?"

There is a pause. Layke kind of stares at me out of the edge of his gaze again, while my voice again fills the silence. "It's sort of a self-proclaimed thing, Lucaro."

"Ah... then—I would like to be a trainer as well."

Finally my best friend squeaks something else out of his filter-less mouth. "Y-You're gonna train... pokemon? That's uh, is that wrong or someth—"

Lucaro's face flashes a violent purple. "No! Never! I would like to be a pokemon trainer... who trains the pokemon... that is me!"

"Oh!" I cover my face. Something about the sparkling in his eyes and the way he addresses his chest is... cute? Like, like cute in a pokemon way, except he can speak freaking humanese, so I really can't tell where he stands in the scope of humanity. I am not attracted to the lucario.

Lup snorts from where he stands, now atop my head. Well thank goodness for that.

Shut up, buddy.

Lucaro watches our snarl of a conversation with interest. "You have been attempting to climb up these cliffs, yes? I presume to Oreburgh town, where the cliffs generally lead to?" For once, Layke's face alights at the prospect of Lucaro doing something with us. "Here, I can... with my aura, I can try to keep you from falling, or at least from falling very easily." He turns tail—literal tail, his long blue tail wagging but the freaking slightest—as he leads us up a rocky trail of sorts that appears less rocky than its surroundings.

We steadily make our way forward. I manage to move closer to Lucaro, lengthening my gait, and his eyes follow me—then he speaks. His words float upon the clouds before landing upon me.

"Niri... what is the reason for your excursion?"

The little turd he is, Lup shakes to wake himself, gripping my hair with his puny piplup flippers. "I, ahh..." I draw the curtains of indigo that crowd around my head back, and I glare at the strands through my outstretched fingers. "It's a whole... personal thing. Layke just—he gets anxious easily, that's all. It's kind of a, uh, long story."

Lucaro's eyes widen. "Well, we have time." He pauses to flex his paw—his aura catches me as I trip over a rock. "Ah—Wait. That is a human phrase, correct? It means you do not wish to speak on the topic."

"I—yyyeaaaah." The lucario draws back a polite distance, keeping watch over my lagging behind loser of a best friend while I squander what few steps I can manage before my shoes threaten to slip me over the side of the hill and upend me on some poor tree's miserable existence.

As the sun rises, shrouding our backs in sweltering heat, I begin to catch glimpses of metal and structure ahead. The cliff turns and reveals, beyond the efface, the scattered mining town of Oreburgh, intermingled with the outcropping where buildings crouch beneath shade, sootied and smudged with the honest labor of their inhabitants. Crazy to think that a little old stone-age looking place like this hides behind the sprawling metropolis of Jubilife City.

Too bad my best friend is too afraid of people—yet too stubborn to admit it, uh? Could've gotten here a whole lot faster, with a whole lot less rocks in my feet.

I hate the gentleness of his expression, the way his eyes search for me when I turn around, the way his hand encloses my shoulder as he helps me down. A few passerby watch us make the awkward transition from cliff to ground level, and when Lucaro waves, they turn back, muttering all sorts of things beneath their veiled hands.

A kid waves back, and Lucaro's tail wags, slapping against my leg in the scruffiest freaking way that I have to stop myself from reaching over and patting his dumb Lucaro head.

"So ah... now that we have arrived..." Clenching his paws, Lucaro allows the aura so dispel from our sides. His charged gaze meets mine. "What is a pokemon trainer to do?"

"Ah!

I take his side and point out the outcropping towards the back of the town, where a trail dips into the flickering, damp lights of a dark cavern. A helpful little sign cheers: OREBURGH GYM BELOW! "We face the gym."

Lucaro stares at me with these wide, unknowing eyes. "Gym..?"

"You know! The... oh, I forget what it stands for. Being a gym leader means you have the honor of facing newbie trainers who wanna get the recognition and fame of a total winner."

"Ah... so it's a competitive term."

I shrug. "Yeah, that's fair."

Layke returns to my side, eyeing Lucaro. There are these annoying burrs in his hair from the climb, and I reach over to pluck one out of his head. He makes a squished-up face. "Luca... yeah, uh. Gyms are General User Mastery something something, not completely sure how the letters work out. When you're certified, it means you're the best in some field or another.

"Roark is the cool boy we're lookin' for up here. Apparently he makes you freaking fight in the dark."

I squeak. "Wait, then why are we doing his first?"

"Uhhhh..." My best friend pokes my shoulder. "Because it's the closest to home, and I don't feel like walking all the way back when we get the other badges?"

"When we—" I cough. "Oh, yeah, sure sure sure..."

Lucaro's brows raise. "I am appalled that you do not believe within yourself, Niri! Of course you shall win! You have the brave piplup by your side, as well as myself and your friend here cheering for your victory!"

"I—uhhh, yeah, sure thanks..." Flushing behind a hand, I swallow the notion. "Well, don't be disappointed when we lose, that's all."

"Nah, you gotta get your chin up, Niri. It's a fight... in the dark..." Layke's face scrambles to form this twisty little grin. "Like hide-and-seek to the death."

So apparently that means we're gonna win?

"Well... sun's still out, so I guess we might as well go for it." Get this over with, and all.

The boys follow me as I make the precarious journey to what could most likely be a very bad end.

Niri, chill out.

Oh, not you too, you freaking penguin...