The small stone cottage was filled with securely taped cardboard boxes. All of the windows and doors had been thrown open in an attempt to air the house, which hadn't been occupied for many months. Straightening up, and wiping a hand across her perspiring forehead, Rose heaved a sigh. She had just opened all of the boxes containing kitchen utensils, plates, bowls, cutlery, and pans, before realising that she then had to shift all these items from the living room into the kitchen itself. She moaned to herself in exasperation. She hated moving house.

"All right?" Morty panted from behind her.

He was carrying two cardboard boxes, one stacked on top of the other, and his face was pink from the exertion. Behind him came more boxes, carried by the Machoke they had hired to help them with the move.

"Since when do we own so much stuff?!"

Morty shrugged as he put the boxes down with a grunt.

"God knows – where's Jasper?"

Rose motioned towards the back door where their son was happily sat on the grass of their new garden with Raichu – his best friend.

"Cool," Morty nodded, "there're only a couple more boxes in the van – how about you start unpacking whilst I grab them?"

His violet eyes surveyed the mess and he frowned slightly.

"I guess we should start with the kitchen? We're going to need a good dinner after this…"

Rose closed her eyes and took in a deep breath, attempting to ready herself for the exhausting morning and afternoon ahead, before she began to shove the box full of plates and mugs into their new kitchen.

-o-

"No! I want it!" the blond child laughed, as Raichu held the toy Pokéball out of reach above his head, balancing it expertly upon his lightning-bolt shaped tail.

Jasper jumped, but, as was customary, Raichu flicked his tail lightly, causing the toy ball to fly upwards, away from the child's grasping hands. Jasper laughed harder, desperately trying to snatch the toy which had landed once again on Raichu's tail. The game continued, the child chasing the electric Pokémon around their new garden, still unable to reach the toy.

"Stop it Raichu," Jasper said suddenly.

Raichu's ears cocked towards the child; Jasper's tone had changed somewhat, his voice suddenly very cold and void of emotion, despite the fact that he was clearly issuing a command. Raichu could not recall ever having heard anything like it from him: either in tone or nature.

The Pokémon turned towards the child, confusion in his eyes. Jasper stood quite still on the grass, his bright brown eyes narrowed as he surveyed his friend.

"I want the toy, I said."

Still the voice was different…wrong somehow…but Raichu knew this game. They played it nearly every day. Waggling his tail playfully, Raichu bounced the Pokéball toy up and down, in an attempt to entice Jasper. But Jasper did not smile, and did not run towards Raichu. He held out a small hand, and Raichu merely stared at it. What was going on?

Before Raichu had time to consider the options, Jasper had lunged forward and grabbed the black portion of his tail in his small fist.

Raichu had fought in many battles alongside Rose, but never before had he experienced a pain such as this. It was a searing, burning shock, and it went right through the Pokémon to every extremity. Raichu yelped and jumped backwards in shock. The toy Pokéball rolled across the grass towards the child, who bent to pick it up.

Raichu's mouth fell open as he stared at the child once again. Gone was the coldness from his brown eyes, and once again an innocent, happy smile lit his face.

"Now it's your turn! Catch me if you can!"

-o-

It was an unusually hot July in Ecruteak City. Rose fanned herself fruitlessly with a sheet of paper, as she tried to make sense of the report on the makeshift desk in front of her. Although they had now been in Ecruteak for over a month, the new house was still in need of some organisation and decoration. Nevertheless, work had to begin. Overall, Rose had found her transference to Ecruteak's Pokémon Hospital very irritating indeed. The hospital was far smaller than the one in Tarragon City where she had trained, but Rose found that the smaller hospital was completely disorganised. For almost a week now, she had been looking through discharge reports dating from three months prior, because the junior doctors kept making mistakes when writing them. Now being qualified, it was Rose's responsibility to ensure that all of their paperwork was corrected…

She leant back in her chair, stretching her now stiff neck and back. Through the glass of the back door, she could see that Jasper was amusing himself by playing with the mud in the flowerbeds of the garden. Raichu, however, was nowhere to be seen. Rose got up from her desk, and wandered into the kitchen, better to see. It transpired that Raichu was in the garden, but he didn't appear to be playing with her son. In fact, the electric Pokémon looked rather sullen, huddled by the wall in the shade, watching Jasper play with…wary eyes?

"Are you all right, Raichu?" Rose asked, poking her brown curly head around the kitchen doorframe. Her Pokémon jumped, his round black eyes widening in fear and alarm. Not wanting to arouse suspicion, Raichu bounded through the garden into the sunlight, to sit with the golden haired child. Jasper shrieked in delight when he realised his friend had come to play again, and waved at Rose with small muddy hands, a wide grin on his little face.

Rose laughed to herself as she set the kettle to boil. She was pleased that Jasper was enjoying the new garden, for it was part of the reason she and Morty had decided to leave Sesame and their flat in Tarragon City. Moving to Ecruteak City in Johto allowed Jasper to have the sort of outdoor-focused upbringing that they had both enjoyed as children, and, of course, Morty had been keen to return to his hometown. Morty's cousin, Eusine, who had been the temporary Leader of the Ecruteak Gym, had decided that the time was ripe for another attempt at finding the legendary Suicune, leaving the Gym to Morty, its original Leader, once more. Ecruteak Gym wasn't as busy as the Gym that Morty had been running in Tarragon City, but he was looking forward to a less hectic timetable. Callisto, another of Morty's cousins and the Leader of Tarragon Gym, was returning from her travels, and so the whole operation transitioned smoothly; Callisto to return as Gym Leader in Tarragon, and Morty in Ecruteak. Only Rose was less than thrilled with her current position, however, she knew that once the paperwork was sorted she would begin to enjoy the job – both because she loved solving problems, and because once the paperwork was through, she could go back to practicing clinically…

Rose was jolted from her stream of thought by a commotion of sorts in the garden. Jasper screamed at the top of his voice and, instinct taking over, Rose raced to the back door. Jasper was crying in the flower bed, his shorts and hands covered in mud. There were tears pouring down his face, and, in the split second it had taken Rose to reach him, his crying had bordered on hysterical.

"What is it, Jasper?" Rose asked calmly, although she could feel her heart racing – Jasper never cried like this.

"H-h-he z-zapped me!" the child managed to gasp, pointing at Raichu with a grubby forefinger. The rest of the hand was closed over his wrist protectively.

Rose merely blinked, certain that she could not have heard him correctly. Raichu had never shocked a person, and he especially would not hurt a child. And Raichu loved Jasper, Rose knew he did.

She turned towards her Pokémon, and Raichu could see the conflict and disbelief in her eyes. It was obvious that she did not want to believe what the child was saying. Rose looked into Raichu's eyes, her mouth open as though to speak, but unable to do so. What she saw there did not make anything clearer, for there was definite guilt on the electric Pokémon's face - but there was a hint of defiance there, too.

Rose closed her mouth, and turned back towards her son, removing his hand from his wrist. There was a small, pink, blistered welt visible through the mud at the very base of Jasper's thumb, and he shrieked afresh as the cool breeze hit it, causing it to sting and smart horribly.

"Raichu, why did you shock him?" Rose asked quietly.

Raichu stared up into Rose's face, unsure how to answer. He loved Rose dearly; he had done for many years, ever since she had healed him as a Pichu. But the way she was looking at him now was making him feel very small and very sick in his stomach. She had never looked at him like that, with anger and disappointment in her brown eyes. But Raichu was not the only one at fault here. He had not meant to shock the child, he loved Jasper, but when taken unawares, Raichu had acted on impulse…

But nor did Raichu wish to incriminate the child. Yes, the pain had been dreadful when Jasper had struck him – not the blow itself, but rather the searing, incomparable pain that Raichu felt when Jasper's hand made contact with his fur. Raichu could not help but think, in his very confused state, that it couldn't have been Jasper…Jasper would never hurt him in such a way…nor should he be capable of it for that matter…

Rose could see the battle raging in Raichu's eyes. She was sure Raichu was concealing something from her. He had never hurt Jasper, hurt anyone before, nor had he shown a tendency of any kind to do so.

"Did you do anything to scare or hurt Raichu, Jasper?" Rose asked grimly, turning back to the boy.

Jasper shook his head as he continued to sob. Rose pursed her lips, at a complete loss as to how to deal with this situation.

"Right, well I think you've both had enough playtime for one day," she said with an air of forced calm, "Jasper, you come and sit with me and you can read your book for a little while, and Raichu…"

Raichu looked up at her once more, with mingled fear and resentment in his eyes. Rose did not look angry anymore, but there was an air of suspicion about her which saddened him deeply.

"Raichu, you can…can do whatever you like, okay?"

Raichu gave a curt nod and, turning away from Rose and Jasper, he bolted up the cherry tree in the garden, taking refuge in its heavily leaved branches.

-o-

"Raichu shocked him?" Morty repeated in disbelief, after Rose informed him what had happened earlier that afternoon.

"Yes," she confirmed very quietly, although Jasper was in bed and Raichu, most unusually, had opted to go inside his Pokéball, so there was no chance of them being overheard.

"But Jasper must have done something to him," Morty said logically. There could be no other explanation after all – Raichu was impeccably trained; he had never hurt a human, nor had he ever shown a desire to do so.

Both parents frowned. The troubling thing with the whole situation was that it was inconceivable that either Jasper or Raichu were to blame. Yes, Jasper was occasionally difficult, as were all four year olds, but he was never deliberately naughty, and Rose and Morty were certain he would never hurt or scare a Pokémon deliberately. Growing up alongside them had instilled in Jasper an understanding and respect for the creatures. On the other hand, Raichu was, and always had been, a fiercely loyal Pokémon. Jasper had spent the majority of his childhood climbing upon Raichu, pulling at his ears and his tail, and Raichu had taken it all on board good-naturedly, never once having shown any aggression. He loved the child, and was always willing to play with him…

"Jasper claimed he did nothing," Rose sighed in answer. She wasn't sure what to believe. It made her uncomfortable, firstly to think that Jasper had done anything to Raichu to cause him to retaliate, and secondly that the child might lie about it afterwards. It just didn't fit in with his character. He had always been a good little boy.

"But Raichu's acting very strangely himself," Morty mused, "when have you ever known him to opt going into his Pokéball?!"

Rose rubbed at her forehead with both hands in frustration.

"I haven't got a clue what's going on," she finally said with a yawn, "shall we talk to them both separately tomorrow?"

Morty shook his head slowly as he considered the options.

"No…but I think we should keep an eye on them both. If they're just feeling unsettled by the move, I'm sure this will all blow over in time…"

-o-

Jasper lay awake that night in his dark bedroom, the covers pulled up to his chin. Deep down, he knew that his big new bedroom gave him a funny feeling in his tummy, but he was normally so tired out from all of his playing and discovering new things, that he didn't have much time to dwell on it before sleep overtook him. But that didn't seem to be happening tonight. His brown eyes, which would normally be prickling with tiredness by now, felt as wide and as open as ever. The small burn on his wrist was stinging and smarting too, even though his mummy had put some special cooling cream on it. He wanted a bandage, because it had hurt dreadfully when he had his bath, but his mummy had said it wasn't a bad burn, and that it would get better quicker if it wasn't covered up…

Jasper sighed, and rolled onto his back, wincing as the burn dragged against his bedcovers. As he lay there his brown eyes began to fill with tears, but he wasn't entirely sure why. Sniffling, he tried to wipe them away, but it all became too much for the four year old. His wrist hurt, and his tummy felt funny, and for some reason, he felt that here in the darkness, he was not alone. He couldn't explain what made him feel this way exactly, but he somehow knew that he wasn't the only thing in his bedroom. Whatever he could sense, he didn't like it. It intensified the creeping, crawling feeling that was already present in his stomach, and all he knew was that he wanted his mummy or his daddy.

Jasper's tears came harder and faster and, before he was aware of it, he was sobbing loudly. Stumbling from his bed, he desperately tried to reach for the light switch, but his little hand groped at a bare wall. He remembered; he was in his new bedroom now, the light switch was in a different place, but he was too tired to remember where it was. The funny feeling in his tummy was getting worse. Sat on his cold, dark bedroom floor, Jasper somehow knew that whatever the thing was that he could sense, could now sense him too. Bawling now, his small hands pressed to his face lest he see something he didn't want to, Jasper curled up on the floor of his bedroom, his tears soaking the neck of his pyjama top.

Above his wretched crying, Jasper could not hear the footsteps on the stairs, and he hiccoughed in shock as his bedroom door opened, the room suddenly flooding with the warm, yellow light from the landing.

Morty gave a sympathetic smile as he saw his tiny son crying in the middle of his bedroom floor. He did not say a word, but moved through the room and lifted the child to his chest, using the cuff of his jumper to dry Jasper's eyes and nose. Morty sat back on the bed, still cradling the child to him, and pulled the covers over them both.

Jasper gave a small sniffle, and then sighed into the familiar smell and feel of his daddy's chest. His daddy was always so warm, and he smelt like clean washing, and toast, and cinnamon. Morty could not see from his position, but Jasper gave a watery smile as he continued to snuggle into his father. He was too young to explain what his father's presence meant to him at that moment, and he could not yet put into words the complexity of what he felt; that the unyielding hand that had been clutching at his insides, the strange, lurking presence of that other thing, was instantly gone.