It's time for this Herculean Lucario to learn how to read properly.
I encourage all true Lucario fans to read on, enjoy, and review.
Chapter 8: A Reading Experience
A green book of history sat on the towering Lucario's lap, while he himself was sitting down on the living room's couch, with Chris sitting right next to him. The book itself felt a bit heavy, but for the Herculean Lucario, he didn't feel any weight bringing him down. If anything, his body was sinking down the couch deeper than the lighter person who wanted him to learn how to read properly.
The book, now, looked rather intimidating to Lucario. It had two-hundred pages. Each page had dozens of sentences. Lucario thought this was punishment for breaking two controllers through a very thrilling round of virtual boxing, but it wasn't. His eyes lessened the glare he always had with him, and Chris quickly picked the facial expression as a worried one. "I don't really know if I can do this," Lucario told Chris.
"I'm not making you read the entire book," Chris pointed out. "The important thing is that you learn how to read."
That took a huge imaginary weight off from Lucario's shoulders once he sighed loudly.
"But if you're struggling a lot, then that means you're reading a lot."
While the heavy weight returned with half of its girth, Lucario went back to look worried.
Chris shook his head. "You can do this," he encouraged. "You're a very smart Pokémon with the strength to destroy Mt. Everest in less than ten punches… If you're wondering, Mt. Everest is a huge mountain chain."
The encouragement made Lucario feel better. He smiled a bit to the teen. "All this is for me to become a Renaissance Pokémon, right?" Lucario asked.
"Exactly!" Chris piped up. "Your body is a weapon of mass destruction, but it'd be really nice if your mind was just as tempered… Well, I'm not really sure if you're mass destruction material, but your strength is incredible."
The Aura Pokémon chuckled with pride. He wanted to hear more compliments from Chris…
Wait, this felt wrong, Lucario thought. The compliments were nice, but he needed to stay focused and avoid the horrendous thought of subconsciously replacing his vague trainer for the teen. Hopefully, Chris wasn't going to catch on and figure out that Lucario was deliberately trying to shut him off.
Lucario got startled when Chris intruded his train of thoughts by grabbing his right hand with both hands. The Lucario was huge, and thus his body parts were equally big. Chris could barely make a ring out of his fingers around Lucario's big black paw. There were no dirty thoughts in the teen, Lucario could tell that much, so he waited for him to say something before jumping to hasty conclusions. "Flipping pages is going to be a lot of work for you," Chris said. "Your…three fingers are large. It takes five fingers of mine put together to cover one of yours…"
Lucario blinked. "Is this going to affect my reading lessons?" he asked.
"Not by much," Chris replied. "It's flipping pages that will make things hard for you… I guess you'll be flipping them one by one in case you become interested in reading something in particular."
"What could I get interested into?" Lucario wondered. He had seen many books around the house before, yet none of them caught his attention. Though he remembered Chris had quite a collection of gaming magazines that begged him to see what other video games there were out there…
"Once you learn how to read by yourself, you'll find something good," Chris said. "Okay, the lesson has started. Try opening the book."
Lucario had no trouble opening the book. The cover's edge was longer than the pages, therefore, an easy spot for his big hands to work. His fingers, though, took him twenty pages ahead. He looked down and narrowed his eyes…
Dear goodness, those were a lot of words. They were small and black, yet when grouped together, they looked like a foe Lucario would never dare challenge without prior knowledge. He was big, powerful, and extremely intimidating, and there he was cowering against something several millimeters big that laughed at how big he was. How that even made any sense, he thought.
"Uh, Lucario….are you sweating?"
Lucario gasped and quickly cleaned the small drops of sweat from his black outlines of his face.
"…Was opening the book really stressing?"
"N-no," Lucario muttered.
"…Alright…" Chris shrugged. "Hopefully, the amount of letters didn't scare you or anything, but that's kind of impossible to believe."
Lucario then realized, this teen did not need to have an ability to read minds or auras. He was a dangerous opponent. Lucario's face was his weapon. Irony was cruel today.
"Just to see if you can read a little, I want you to pick the beginning of this page right over here…" Chris pointed at the top of the page. "Here, start reading from this point. No matter what, read what you can pronounce."
"…"
Twenty seconds were enough to leave a big impression.
Lucario could read single letters just fine. He knew the alphabet, but he just didn't know the order of all the letters. Another fact was that Lucario didn't even know the ABC song for sure. Intently, Chris stared at Lucario's expression. He was struggling to say words that had more than one letter. Only "I"s and "A"s were read. The large text was largely ignored by his stressed eyes. It was a disaster, Lucario thought. He was greatly embarrassing himself.
It felt all the more embarrassing with a person who knew how to read looking at him.
"…" Chris was a bit speechless. "Uh, okay! There's no need to be embarrassed," he said. "You can at least spell single letters…"
Lucario hung down his head. "I'm a disaster…"
"N-no, you aren't," the teen said. "This is your first time. You will improve quickly… C'mon! Don't look so down…"
"…Fine," Lucario said. He put up a serious look. "Let us continue."
Chris smiled a bit. "I'm here to teach you how to read. Remember that," he said. "To make things go faster, I'm going to read the passage to you. What you're going to do is watch my finger hover each word as I say them," he explained. "Pay careful attention, though. Try to read in your mind as I pass over repeated words you heard me say before…you got all that?"
Lucario nodded. "I guess if you put it that way, it'll be easier for me," he commented.
The teen chuckled. "You'll see things aren't going to be as nasty as you think they are," he said, and then he put a finger on the start of the paragraph. "Ready? Here we go."
The Aura Pokémon found himself listening to the teen talking while the latter drew his finger over the syllables of the words he read aloud. Lucario's red eyes were narrowed, trying to find out what the pronunciation of the words. He sharpened his mind as much as he could.
Unfortunately, the many combinations of words confused him. When he remembered how to read "can", the word "couldn't" scrambled his thoughts and messed everything else he had recalled from muscle memory. The word "can" appeared many times over the text, but words that had the same starting letter were throwing him off.
Then Lucario let out a loud grunt.
Chris shuddered and looked up. "I-is something wrong?" he asked.
Snapping out from his intimidating noise, Lucario looked at Chris. "I…I'm okay," he said, calming down.
The teen looked concerned. "Look…" Lucario feared he was going to be lectured. "If there's something that's bothering you, you should speak up," Chris said. "You're very new to reading. It's understandable that you're getting very anxious…not to mention you're kind of quick to anger."
Lucario closed his eyes in shame. "It's the way I am… I'm so very sorry," he apologized.
Perhaps it was the ideal time to do it, Chris thought. After all, Lucario was a Pokémon.
Mustering up some courage, the teen stroke the Lucario's back. Startled, Lucario looked at the teen's arm moving up and down. The little massage on his furred back made Lucario feel awkward at first, but there was a soothing effect that made him forget about his stress. Smiling was very tempting, but he decided against it. He didn't want to give Chris the wrong, positive impression. "I know this is going to be the cheesiest thing I've ever said to you, but…I believe in you," Chris said, his hand still rubbing the towering Pokémon's back. "You can do this."
Inside Lucario's mind, there was a happy Riolu wagging his tail while sitting down. It was a representation of his subconscious submitting very easily to the massaging feeling on his back. The little Riolu raised his arms with glee, barking energetically. He wished to be groomed a little more. The Riolu had been there all this time. It was the enemy Lucario fought within his mind, even if the little Pokémon didn't mean any harm at all. That Riolu was oblivious to the severe implications that would be to accept Chris as something more than a friend, yet at the same time, the Riolu didn't have any memories of the past with another trainer. That alone was enough to make Lucario wary of him.
The only important thing was that the Riolu was getting a lot of attention. He enjoyed it very dearly. If only he could just jump at Chris and hu-
Feeling that it was enough, Chris pulled back his hand. Lucario didn't react angrily to it.
The Riolu trapped inside Lucario's mind looked sad as Lucario's conscience manifested as a tall Lucario looming over, looking down at the small Emanation Pokémon with a reprehensive look that hinted punishment. The Riolu felt guilty and cowered in fear.
"…I…I want to continue," Lucario said. His conscience was keeping his subconscious in check. He looked serious and nodded. "No matter how much you read, don't stop. I think I'm picking up a few words."
Chris forced a smile. "Okay, that's what I wanted to hear," he said before resuming reading.
Lucario didn't know that his conscience looked the other way from his subconscious. The Riolu leaned forward to look down in front of his legs, as if he had the green book of history. His tail wagged slowly, waiting for something exciting to happen.
Several minutes passed, and Lucario found himself not being able to keep his head at a fixed angle. He was getting bored. He wanted to sleep. Chris didn't stop talking. This was so boring, he thought. This was surely punishment for his reckless actions on Chris's controllers, he thought. He couldn't find out why it was so important to read if he couldn't manage to keep his eyes open.
Just a little shut eye… Lean your head forward and let your aura appendages rest against your back and shoulders…
"…And as ironic as it was, the Roman Empire…" Chris gazed up at Lucario. He fell asleep sometime during his lesson. He didn't want to wake Lucario up. "(Oh, he fell asleep…)"
There was a certain curious sight. Chris saw the Lucario was smiling. As his big chest puffed up with air, the Lucario was at peace. His eyes were softly shut. An air of tranquility was surrounding him.
"(…He kind of looks…cute,")" Chris thought, blinking and flashing a small smile. Carefully closing the book, the teen thought that Lucario deserved some rest… But then Chris committed a big mistake. His temptations won over, and now his hand was stroking Lucario's chin. The Aura Pokémon, however, did not react negatively. He growled within his mouth, but the sound sounded like he was pleasantly growling thankfully.
The Riolu inside his mind was at full throttle. Feeling very happy due to the stroking of the Lucario's chin, Riolu started running around, skipping happily over the cloudy mist. He rejoiced as he dove into a thick cloud of mist, falling on his body with a soft thud. Rolling around the misty atmosphere, the Riolu laughed. "More, more!" the Riolu shouted. "Don't stop!" He lay down on his belly, his tail wagging quickly to the sides.
Lucario growled as Chris continued rubbing his chin. The teen never told Lucario this, but he had a soft spot for cute creatures that weren't the usual animals found in his world. Lucario was obviously far from looking adorable, but his presence and overall attitude made Chris see a big Riolu who yearned for attention. That Riolu wanted a friend who could look after him…or rather, that Riolu was looking for a caring trainer. In turn, that Riolu would protect the trainer with his dear life and never leave his side.
The happy moment was short-lived once the Riolu yelled in a very happy tone, "I want you to be my trainer!"
"GUARGH!"
Chris had no time to react. Lucario snapped his eyes wide open and pushed the teen away to the other side of the couch with a swift hand motion. Panting heavily, the Lucario stood up at his full height and looked ticked off beyond words. When Chris rubbed his head and regained his senses, he gasped and backed off. The Lucario was looking sideways at him with a red eye that screamed absolute murder.
It was a very similar scene inside the enraged Lucario's mind. The Riolu sat down and covered his face, looking up at the same Lucario who was slowly approaching him with flaring fists of aura. His steps made the very mind shake violently, tumbling the helpless Riolu to the sides. The Riolu cried loudly as he begged him not to hurt him. The wild Lucario was enveloped in intense aura meant to kill instead of protect.
The Lucario in his mind was not the only one approaching his prey. The Lucario in the real world did the same, flaring up with thick cloud of aura that reached out for the ceiling and most of the living room. A small stomp of one foot caused the nearby furniture to shake slightly, even the heavy couch itself. Through cruel irony, the Riolu was Chris. The teen grabbed a nearby couch pillow and covered himself. Running away was not a wise idea. The Lucario could very possibly grab him before he could even scamper off. Chris's heart beat so fast that he swore he was going to get a heart attack. The heart attack would've been nicer to have instead of an extremely dangerous, super martial arts humanoid dog impaling one of his wrist spikes on his head.
Lucario stood next to Chris and hastily grabbed him by his shirt's neck, pulling him high above. The mighty Aura Pokémon pulled back a fist, and said fist looked like it was about to explode judging the aura surrounding it got awfully thick and big. Panting heavily, Lucario let out a terrifying growl.
His mind was clouded with rage. It told him to get rid of the human.
Crying was an option now.
"D-don't hurt me!" Chris cried.
The words resonated within Lucario, and the Aura Pokémon's intense aura dimmed down as he managed to get a hold of himself. As his shocked, wild eyes stared up at Chris, Lucario moved down his right fist as its aura disappeared in a flash. Horrified of who he was holding with the other hand, Lucario let go of Chris, and the teen fell back to the couch and grabbed his throat in pain.
The Riolu inside Lucario's mind went through the same. It was grabbing its neck, and it quickly ran away and hid within the mist, all the while exchanging nervous glances at the almighty Lucario staring his way.
Back on the real world, Lucario backed away in fear as Chris gazed at him with a nervous look. His aura emitted waves of fright and desperation. "W-what was that for?!" Chris cried. "I-i-is it prohibited territory to rub your chin a bit?!"
"I-I didn't want t-"
"SHUT UP!" Chris yelled, and he ran away to his room, slamming the door shut. As he did so, Lucario held out his hand, wanting to grab him in a less violent way. But Chris was gone, and an aura of sadness came out from the room behind its door almost immediately…
Lucario stared into empty space before he fell to his knees. He leaned down and supported himself with his hands, shaking his head with guilt weighting his back. When he looked to the left, he found the green book of history messily lying down on the floor. The pages didn't fall flat. A few had been folded over in a messy fashion. It fell down when he stood up for sure.
His ears could easily catch Chris's whimpers of fear. Lucario knew that it was his responsibility to patch things up, or else he was never going to feel fine. As he grunted to himself, he stood up and went after the teen's trail. When Lucario stood before the door, he tried to open it. It was closed on the other side. "What do you want?!" Chris cried.
Lucario held a grip on the doorknob. "I…I…"
"Say something!" the deranged teen cried.
"I-I want to apologize!" Lucario shouted. "I didn't want to hurt you!"
"H-how can I tell?!" Chris yelled. "You almost killed me over a very stupid thing! I just wanted you to enjoy your sleep, and this is how you repay me?!" He slammed his face into his pillow and muffled his cries. "You're insane!"
"I-I'm not, I swear!" Lucario yelled.
Somewhere along his fright, Lucario accidentally put too much pressure on the doorknob that he ended up pushing the locked door, completely tearing its nuts and bolts apart with his almighty strength. Gasping, Lucario put the door aside and entered the room without thinking that he had scared the teen even more. The Aura Pokémon knelt down beside the bed and saw Chris looking away. "Please, listen!" Lucario begged as he placed a hand on Chris's back.
It prompted Chris to scream.
Lucario recoiled and pulled back his hand. The teen was not available for any physical actions. "S-sorry!" Lucario said. "I'm not trying to hurt you!"
"You ripped my door apart!"
Ashamed, Lucario stole a glance from the broken door and looked back to the crying human. "I-I'm very sorry for that, too!" he apologized. "Please, just…just listen to me…" He was lowering the volume of his voice. "I didn't want to hurt you…"
Chris continued sobbing, not wanting to see the Lucario face-to-face. Lucario wasn't going to leave. He needed forgiveness so badly.
Seconds turned into minutes, and then minutes turned into hours. Neither of them wanted to move away. One wanted the other to go away, and that other wanted the first to forgive him. As four hours passed, it was now mid-afternoon. The two had skipped their meal for very good reasons. There was a nagging silence that unsettled them both. Lucario could still feel Chris's aura emitting waves of fear. Sadness was also there, and he wanted to change them both so badly. He was determined to do things right.
"…Are you still here?" a mildly composed Chris asked, his voice sounding angry.
"Yes," Lucario muttered.
"Are you waiting for an appropriate moment to grab me again?"
"No…" Lucario said ashamed. "I just…I just want you to…forgive me…"
"That's going to be really hard," Chris said. "I don't want to teach you anything after you nearly snapped out and tried to blow my head off. You're on your own. Go out to the world and get yourself hunted down by the people… There's no need for you to stay here any longe-"
"No!" Lucario shouted. Chris shuddered. "A-again, I'm very sorry…"
The teen grunted and turned around, giving Lucario a simple glare. Although the glare was pretty simple, it stabbed Lucario with a sharp dagger. "Saying sorry isn't enough!" Chris cried. His eyes were shedding tears. "Just teaching has the bad result of hurting me! How do you think I'm going to feel? You know how I feel, but I don't know how you feel exactly! What's your stupid problem?!"
Lucario looked away, his eyes looking guilty with worry. He debated if he should tell Chris that he feared to replace his trainer for him. "…I…I want to feel right at home…" Lucario muttered. "It's…it's my behavior that I need to work on…"
Chris turned away. "Oh, no kidding!" he said. "That sickening, unnerving glare of yours says a lot more than you think!"
"I…I guess it does…" the Aura Pokémon muttered in shame. "If…if you want, you could teach me how to…how to keep my rage under control…"
"…" Chris sobbed a bit and cleared his tears. He looked at Lucario over his right shoulder. "I don't have much confidence," he said. "B-but…but I want to give you the benefit of the doubt."
Lucario was given a chance. He needed not to screw it up.
The teen looked away. "Tell me why it was so wrong to rub your chin!" he demanded.
Lucario, startled, gasped and stuttered a bit. "T-there…there wasn't anything wrong with it," he admitted.
"Then why even snap out like that?!" Chris demanded louder. "You were smiling while you were sleeping! It just doesn't make any sense for you to get so angry and shake my house with your steps!"
Lucario could argue back that Chris didn't have any business to do that, but it was greatly discouraged to use that against him. He didn't want Chris to shut himself off. Yet, the Riolu in his subconscious enjoyed the feeling so much. "I…I know," Lucario muttered weakly.
"…In that case…" Chris turned around, looking hesitant, "…are you sure you won't snap out if I do it again? Do I have your word for it?"
The Aura Pokémon gasped. He looked away from the glaring brown eyes. "…Go ahead…"
Chris's shaking left hand slowly reached out for Lucario's chin. The Aura Pokémon looked sideways, and the teen pulled it back a bit. Lucario's eyes were heavily implying a feeling of worry, but it looked safe to proceed. Closing his eyes, Chris's fingers reached Lucario's chin and stroke it carefully and softly. The Aura Pokémon was looking down. "…S-so?" Chris asked. "Is something inside of you wanting to snap my neck in half?"
"N-no," Lucario said.
"Then let me in!" Chris shouted. "Tell me how you really feel!"
The Riolu trapped in his subconscious raised his head from the thick mist, looking around in confusion. When it felt the wonderful feeling of being groomed, the Riolu stood up and smiled a bit. Skipping on its feet, the Riolu beamed with joy as a careful Lucario stood next to him, watching him raise his little arms to the air. Seeing the Riolu barking happily, the Lucario managed to smile a bit, and suddenly a happy expression took over. A peace of mind had been achieved. There was rage building up, but somehow, the happiness was overshadowing it to the point the rage was almost nonexistent.
Outside his mind, Lucario's lips were a straight vertical line. The line then curved its two ends up, much to the surprise of the teen. Still feeling unsure, Chris asked, "S-so?"
"…" Lucario's eyes closed, but his eyelids hinted a warm welcome. "It…it feels good," Lucario muttered. He didn't care if his head was making sure that it got a suitable spot for Chris's fingers to rub with care. "It feels really good."
Completely dumbfounded that the Lucario had become submissive, Chris continued stroking Lucario's chin. The Aura Pokémon moved his head to the sides, hoping Chris would strike a good spot.
"Please, don't stop," Lucario growled in pleasure, "it's so good."
But Chris stopped, pulling back his hand. Both the imaginary Riolu and Lucario blinked in shock.
"What kind of fool do you take me for?" Chris asked.
"W-what?" Lucario shook his head. "I-I'm not taking you for a fool! I-I was truly enjoying it!"
The teen cleared his tears and looked serious. "No… No way is this being this easy," he argued. "It does look like you're ashamed, but… I'm sorry, but this is just too much."
Lucario's ears slightly drooped to the sides. "Huh?"
The teen sat up and embraced his body, shivering a bit. "It's going to take some time until I'm sure you're not…lying to me," he said. Lucario's jaw fell in complete disbelief. "We're…we're holding up any lessons for a few days…"
"Why?" Lucario asked. "Why are you doing this to me?"
"It's punishment," Chris said simply. "It's punishment for nearly trying to beat me to death!" he cried. Lucario bowed down his head.
More than a week had passed ever since Lucario came to the real world. A long week of nothing then followed.
Though that week was full of complete dullness that reminded Lucario about his overly stupid threat, there were some changes that weren't unnoticed. Chris was hardly talking to him. His aura expelled waves of anger and shame during silence, two feelings that Lucario constantly found whenever he thought it was the right time to strike a conversation. Moreover, Chris never let him eat anything meat-related. Lucario had vague options. In fact, his breakfast routine was a box of cereal. The first two days, the cereal was good. The next five days, it became boring to even eat it.
Lucario never stopped taking his usual routines. He still took a bath and cleaned his fangs every day. He wanted to prove to Chris that he could do it. The Riolu in him was desperately trying to reach out for the teen. Just one remark, the Riolu would say. Just one remark is all I need from you. I can't take this anymore, he would cry as they saw the teen stubbornly fix the broken door all alone. Luckily, the damage done to the door wasn't as bad as Chris thought, so he managed to use the right tools to put it back together.
Morning and evenings were equally as punishing as any other thing. Chris forbade himself to greet Lucario with a "good morning", and he would just say "morning" instead. Lucario would get lucky if Chris said more than thirty words in a single day before they would go to sleep, at which time the teen would just say "night" to him. Lucario realized he was sitting down in a different position. With his frontal body, he faced Chris, and the teen faced away from him. Just seeing Chris look away reminded Lucario that he would never sleep feeling fine.
Much to Lucario's dismay, a few more days passed. He was going to lose it if Chris ignored him any longer, and just when he thought he couldn't take it anymore one fine Monday morning…
"We're resuming your reading lessons," Chris said without greeting him.
Lucario's tail wagged a bit. He was pleased.
…
"Cons-ti-tu-tion," Lucario read dully.
"Good," Chris said. "Next words are 'is the most important set of rules that define our nation'."
"T-those are many words."
"Recall what I said syllable for syllable as I move my finger over each word."
"O-okay, but… Why?" Lucario asked, looking down at Chris. "Why do we have to be like this?"
"During all these days, I figured out that you're unsettled if I stand close to you," Chris pointed out. "So now, we're going to be sticking real close to each other without going too far with it. That feeling of unsettledness has got to go ASAP."
"B-but…you're practically sitting on my lap."
"I thought this was a thigh?"
Just like before, the two were sitting on the couch, or at least the bigger one was sitting there. The small teen was sitting on Lucario's right thigh as the latter held the book with both hands and Chris leaned back to his blue right arm, as if Chris was sitting on his father's lap. It wasn't the case, though. The stoic look the teen gave to the towering Pokémon meant serious business.
"This is very unsettling," Lucario commented. The Riolu in his mind was having a field day.
"Would you rather push me down?"
"N-no, I won't complain about it," Lucario quickly corrected.
"Good, now resume the reading."
Lucario gulped. He forgot the pronunciation already. Looking stressed, the Aura Pokémon tried his best to recall the words.
Suddenly, a hand was rubbing the top of his head with care. Shocked, he looked at Chris. He was forcing a small smile. "You can do it," Chris muttered. "I know you can."
The Riolu beamed with glee and tried to jump as high as he could. Outside his mind, Lucario felt Chris's aura transmitting waves of happiness. The Aura Pokémon blushed a bit, and he focused his eyes on the words. As he did so, he thought to himself, "(That aura of happiness is back at last… I can still do this right.)"
Lucario admitted that it was a very nice feeling being groomed by the teen. The aura of happiness that went all the way to Chris's hand calmly mixed up with Lucario's own aura, and the bountiful sense felt incredible and soothing. Lucario continued reading. His newly obtained optimistic attitude boosted his chances of reading by himself.
But still, the grooming couldn't just get out of his head. Chris would stop a few times, which greatly saddened Lucario, only for the first to rub his head once it was Lucario's turn to read. Subconsciously, the Riolu waited eagerly each time the teen would stop talking to pet him a little more. Lucario would also wait eagerly, his subconscious taking the better of him. Yet, this wasn't bad. It was a very good feeling. That was all that mattered.
His trainer would never find out, anyway…
Monday's night came, but it looked like the punishment continued due to the fact Lucario had eaten another boring bowl of cereal earlier that same day. But then, as he lied down on his bed, Chris turned to him and smiled. "Your punishment is over," he said. "Starting tomorrow, you won't be eating the same meals again. Also, you improved your reading a bit, but we're still going to be focusing on it for the next days until you get it right. Otherwise, you'll never enjoy the many things I want to teach you."
The statement was a good welcome, indeed. "Thank goodness," Lucario muttered. "This was just too much for me to handle…"
"Serves you right," Chris said, dropping the smile. "Whatever you're trying so hard to avoid, it's obvious you were snapping out for no good reason." Lucario was tempted to glare at Chris, but he didn't want to prove his point any further. "If you even dare do this again…it'll be far worse."
Mind reading was just as tempting, but Lucario held himself back. Chris was terrifying him.
Suddenly, Chris's hand rubbed Lucario's head. Getting a dreamy look, Lucario leaned to the bed and rested his head on his crossed arms. The teen's jaw fell a bit when the two were practically a feet or less away from each other's faces. Chris stopped and pulled his hand away. "You're…you're really getting into this being close to each other thing…"
"(…Aw, screw it,)" Lucario thought, giving up. He opened his eyes and looked away from Chris. The Aura Pokémon blushed as he asked, "…While I try to go to sleep…can you keep rubbing my head?"
"W-wha…?" Chris was astonished at the question.
Lucario blushed deeper. "It…it does feel really nice… I'm being honest," he admitted, hiding a smile behind his thick arms. "Your aura makes your hand soothe my own aura…and it puts me at ease…"
Chris grimaced. "Oh no, that better not mean you're falling in love with m-"
"NO!" Lucario shouted without moving. Chris blinked. "S-sorry, really… N-no, that doesn't mean that, I assure you…" He smiled again. "I just enjoy it very much…"
"…" Chris remained silent, but then he chuckled and rubbed the towering Lucario's head. "Good night, Lucario…"
"(He said good night! He did say good night!)" Lucario rejoiced. The firm bond had been restored. "Good night, Chris…" With a pleased growl, Lucario yawned and closed his eyes, letting the human rub his head. Soon, Lucario drifted off to sleep, and Chris then followed suit. The two were now sleeping, yet their sleeping faces were facing each other. At that very moment, Lucario would say that life was a nice…
…Unfortunately, not everything was right.
It turned out that Lucario's submissive behavior was a way for him to replace Chris for the image of his trainer doing the grooming and teaching. Through his eyes, Lucario saw Chris as his other trainer. Chris was not in the picture. Lucario's trainer was there instead. The Aura Pokémon was heading down through a treacherous path of lies that kept him sane. His consciousness was working on this very hard to hold on to the vague memories for dear life.
The Riolu could only look up at the Lucario and shake his head in shame. Things were not going to be okay. The consciousness that was a tall Lucario shooed the Riolu away. Whimpering, the Riolu stuck out his tongue and ran into the mist, promising to watch the Lucario very closely to convince him to stop lying to himself…
Chris was bound to suffer greatly if he ever found this out down the line.
Just when things look very okay for the two, Lucario has to snap at the worst of times. It looks like things are going to be okay…or are they?
BTW, a lot of "official" artwork for the singular chapters has been released over my DeviantArt and Colors accounts. You can see them all by going there manually or clicking the links at the top of my page here.
I encourage you all to review.