Chapter 15: One Big Sappy Family

"WHAT?!" Rio almost dropped the egg in shock, but he caught it and held it in both hands more carefully.

"It's an egg, you idiot! Why da Hell didja bring an egg from the Surrounded Sea?!"

"Well I didn't know it was an egg! I thought it was a gem!"

I took a deep breath and looked at the orange sky outside, "Alright, well we gotta take it back tomorrow. 'S too late ta do anything tonight."

Rio looked worried, "An egg all by itself? Isn't that dangerous?"

"We don't know that it was by itself. What if its parents're worried?"

"What if they're not? Maybe I did it a favor by picking it up. For all we know, it was abandoned."

I thought back to my own early life; left alone with nothing to my name but a scrap of fabric. I shook my head, "'S not about dat, Rio. As far as I know, all kinds o' Pokémon are left as eggs ta hatch in da wild. Ya can't just take eggs from their natural place." Wow. Just wow. Can ya spin around three times and say "hypocrite"?

Rio looked down, "All right… we'll take it back tomorrow."

I took the egg from his hands, "But fa now, I'll make sure it stays warm." Don't want him ta get too attached…

Later, when we went to sleep, I gathered up a bit more straw from my bed around the egg and curled around it. Before I was out, I had a weird feeling of déjà vu; like I'd seen another egg like this one before.

Meh, I'll have plenty of time ta tink about it after we take da egg back.

-The Next Morning-

Zzzzzz…

*bump*

Hm…? Whuzzat…?

*bump bump*

"Guuh… Five more minutes, Rio…"

"Whuh…? Meowth, I'm still in bed…"

I cracked open an eye just in time to be blinded by a flash of light right next to me. After it cleared up, I opened my other eye and saw a pair of round yellow and blue ones.

After looking around for a bit, they turned back to me and the Pokémon smiled saying "Hi…iiii~"

I remembered which Pokémon this was. It was the Pokémon that the pirate guy was after in Hoenn! What'd he call it? Manta? Marafai? No, Manaphy! Wait! Didn't one of these switch up our minds once?! Maybe I should keep my distance.

Lucky for me, Manaphy started toddling around and looked around the room.

Rio was sitting up in his bed, fascinated, "Wow! I've never seen a Pokémon like this before!"

The Manaphy giggled, and Rio laughed, "Ha! He's cute!" He leaned forward, "Hey, little guy. What kind of Pokémon are you?"

Manaphy tilted his head, "Poké?"

"I tink da tyke's a lil' too young ta understand what ya say."

Tilting his head again, Manaphy said, "Ya say?"

Rio crossed his arms, "What should we do? Do you know anything about this Pokémon, Meowth?"

I shook my head, "Just dat his name's Manaphy. But Chatot'll prob'ly know more 'bout him. He is da bookworm of da guild."

Rio nodded, "Well then, let's go see him." He reached down to pick up Manaphy, but Manaphy shied away and toddled over to me, hiding behind me. Rio looked hurt, "Is he afraid of me?"

I looked back at Manaphy, who was looking at me. Then it clicked; the same thing that happened with the twerpette's Togepi.

Oh, this is just be-yoo-tiful… I am never going to hear the end of this from Vlad…

I held Manaphy's hand-flipper in what I guessed was a comforting gesture and turned back to Rio, "Not in dat way. He must be a shy guy, but he imprinted on me, so right now, I'm the only one he's comfortable around."

Now Rio was confused "'Imprinted'?"

I sighed, "When baby Pokémon are born, they are either born alone and learn ta live by themselves (or die tryin', sadly), or they imprint on somebody. Somebody to take care of them 'til they can look after themselves." I could feel Manaphy start climbing up my back and winced when he pulled on one of my whiskers for support.

Rio's eyes widened, "So… Manaphy thinks…"

"Right…" I deadpanned. "Manaphy tinks I'm his mommy."

"…" Rio just stared at me with Manaphy hanging onto my shoulders.

Give it a second ta sink in…

Sure enough, Rio started shaking and trying to keep down a grin while his cheeks puffed with stored-up laughter, "Pff… Hmf…"

I started walking, "Just let it out now. I need you calm when we talk ta Chatot. Plus, I'm just going to get it worse when I tell the recruits."

Rio let it all out; all the way to the guild.

-20 minutes later-

Rio had calmed down now and we had told Chatot what happened. "So, do you know anything about Manaphy, Chatot?"

Chatot studied Manaphy, who was peeking at him from behind my head. "Hmm… Well, to be honest, this is the first time I've actually seen a Pokémon of this sort. But from what you've told me, this Pokémon is a Manaphy, as Meowth suspects. This youngster is an extremely rare Pokémon. There are only a few in the whole world. It's said to hatch at the bottom of a cold sea. It then travels over thousands of miles."

I aimed a raised eyebrow at Rio while Chatot went on, "I should emphasize that a Manaphy is very rarely sighted. As a result, little is actually known about the Pokémon."

Rio was fascinated, "Wow! So this guy's a rare Pokémon, huh?"

Manaphy smiled and sang, "Rare-rare~" I chuckled to myself. Cute little fella. Still getting da hang of talkin'.

"So, you two," Chatot said. "What do you intend to do with this youngster?"

I crossed my arms, "Well we were going to take him back to the ocean when he was still an egg. But then he hatched. And now-"

"Weh… Weh… Waaaah!" Manaphy started crying. Which wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't right in my ear!

I put Manaphy down on the ground and I dropped to one knee to look at Manaphy, "What's wrong lil' guy? Are ya hungry?"

"I would imagine so," Chatot added.

Rio said, "Right. What should we give him?"

Chatot tilted his head, "Hmm… I'm not sure, but because this youngster is a Water-type Pokémon… How about feeding him some Blue Gummis?"

I looked up and nodded, "Gotcha. We have some in storage."

Rio and I left for Treasure Town and I asked for two Blue Gummis.

Rio looked at me, "Why two?"

"So dat, da next time Manaphy is hungry, we have one handy."

We made our way back to the guild and Manaphy was still crying. Rio handed me a Blue Gummi, "He likes you best."

I hmphed and walked up to Manaphy holding up the Blue Gummi. He stopped crying and looked at it.

"Here. You'll like dis. 'S a Blue Gummi."

Manaphy tilted his head, "…Goomi?" He took it in his hands and nibbled a bit at the end. Then he perked up and ate the rest of it. He smiled and jumped up and down, "Goomi! Goomi!"

He jumped forward and hugged me, "Goomi~ Goomi~" I stiffened a bit and then awkwardly hugged him back.

Rio laughed, "So cute! Um, Meowth?" I looked over at him and he said, "This little guy is still just a baby… So how about we look after him for a while.

I thought about it for a bit. If we try to take him back now, he'd probably follow us back. Plus, da least I can do is look after 'im so dat he has some good memories before going on his own.

I sighed, "Alright, Rio, we'll do it."

Manaphy said, "Doodit~"

Chatot said, "I'm not sure that this is a good idea…"

Rio and I looked over to Chatot and he said, "This child is a Pokémon that normally would grow in the sea. This environment is obviously unlike the sea… Add to that, we know next to nothing about Manaphy… Who knows what could happen?"

Rio looked down, "But… It wouldn't be safe to just return the little guy to the sea. How about we look after him until he gets a little bigger. Okay?"

"Hmmm…" Chatot didn't look convinced.

"We'll take good care of him. We promise!"

Chatot sighed, "…Fine. If you insist."

Rio brightened up, "You don't need to worry! You can count on us! Right, Meowth?"

Manaphy started climbing onto my back again. Ow, that was another whisker. "Sure."

After walking Manaphy back to the bluff, I set up another bed of straw and set Manaphy down on it. I got down on one knee and said, "Alright, Manaphy. Fa now, dis is your house." I didn't want to say home, because he belongs in the sea.

"House?"

Rio nodded, "Yup. House. We'll look after you, little guy."

Manaphy smiled, "House, house~"

But Rio seemed unsure, "But, uh… What are we supposed to do?"

Manaphy hopped up and down, "Goomi! Goomi!"

I shrugged, "Well, dat answers dat question. How about you give one to him dis time, Rio? He'll get more comfortable around you."

Rio reached into the Treasure Bag and pulled a Blue Gummi out. He held it out to Manaphy, who took it while saying, "Goomi!" and nibbled on it slowly.

Rio said, "Is it tasty? Er… Goomi tasty?"

Manaphy looked at Rio, confused, "Tasty?"

Rio nodded, "Yup. Tasty?"

Manaphy giggled, "Tasty! Goomi tasty!"

I laughed, "The tyke's gonna grow up in no time at dis rate."

Manaphy's cheeriness suddenly died down. I tilted my head, "Sumpin' da matter, Manaphy?"

Manaphy let out a yawn and then curled up on his bed. Letting out a chuckle, I said, "Guess that he's full and wants ta sleep now. Sleep tight, Manaphy."

I stepped back and whispered to Rio, "Tell da recruits dat there aren't any missions today and dat I'll explain why later." Rio nodded and tiptoed out of the room and up the stairs.

-The Next Day-

I woke up with a yawn, "G'morning, Rio. Morning, Manaphy."

Manaphy smiled, "Hi! Morning! Meowth! Rio!"

Rio's eyes widened, "He's already learned our names? That's awesome, Manaphy!"

Manaphy threw his hands in the air, "Awesome!"

Rio turned to me, "Well, what should we do with him today? Eating and sleeping all the time doesn't seem to be healthy enough."

I thought about it for a bit, "How about a walk at da beach?"

Manaphy grinned, "Walk~" He stood up and floated up into the air. He stayed about two steps behind me as we made our way to the beach. As we walked by Spinda Café, I remembered what happened yesterday after Manaphy woke up from his nap.

*Flashback*

Rose looked at Manaphy on my back, "Oh my, he's so adorable!"

Rio nodded, "Yes, but we're going to be taking care of him until he's old enough to be on his own."

"So we're going to be leaving things to you guys for a bit," I added. "Ya can train, or, if ya wanna look up a mission ta do, ask Damus." Damus nodded and accepted the short stack of missions that I had saved up.

Rio raised his hand, "There are just a few more things. Savage, no swearing around the kid."

Savage crossed his arms and said, "Fine."

"Vlad," I added, "Your mission tomorrow is ta recon whatever place is on that gold-sealed mission and report whatcha find ta Damus so he can start thinkin' up a team ta go there."

"Sure."

"And, if ya so much as think about tryin' ta scare Manaphy, I will-"

He raised his hands in surrender, "I understand. No need to threaten. Besides, only scoundrels try to scare children. I prefer to wait until they're old enough to take a joke."

"But…" Cathy said, "Why do you have to stay? Couldn't you leave one of us to look after Manaphy and continue directing things?"

I shook my head, "Manaphy wouldn't like being left alone without me."

"Why?" Hogan asked.

I looked down, ready for impact, "Because… He thinks I'm his mom."

"…"

"…"

"…Pff!" Go figure it would be Dash who broke the silence.

Everybody except Rio, Rose and Damus spent the next five minutes laughing at me.

I shook off the memory after we turned to the beach. When we got there, Manaphy gawked at the ocean and floated over, laughing and looking at the waves.

"Manaphy, dis is da sea."

"Sea?"

I nodded, "Dat's right, sea. Dat's where you came from."

He jumped up, "Sea! Sea!" He floated around me "Meowth~" He floated around Rio, "Rio~" Then he floated in front of both of us, "Sea! Sea!

Rio laughed, "Manaphy looks really happy. I'm glad we brought him down to the beach."

Manaphy went back to the waves and said, "Sea~ Sea~"

We spent the entire day playing at the beach. It had been the first time that I'd ever just had a day of fun instead of worrying about tomorrow. At sunset, we went back to the bluff, had dinner and went to sleep.

Sorry that this chapter's a wee bit short, but I figured that this would be the best stopping point for now until the next chapter.