They found her in Oldale, curled up next to a tree with what April was pretty sure was a Snivy tucked in-between her pelt. Calvin took up the task of wondering exactly why was there a Snivy nesting on Aggie's fur while April proceeded to coo over the ultimate demonstration of cuteness.
"Do you have a camera?" She asked, whispering as to not wake up the sleeping pokémon. "Please tell me you have a camera."
"I-"
"Nevermind, I'll just use my phone."
April giddily took out the device, touching the 'Photos' icon with eager anticipation. She raised her cellphone up to the adorable pair in front of her to take a picture...
...only to be met with the face of an utterly unamused Absol.
"Oh, come on!" She complained, not letting up the whispering lest she wake up the still-dozing Snivy.
Agatha snickered silently. April had no doubts she was happy to have ruined the experience.
"Can't you just pretend to be asleep?" April pleaded. "You looked so cute together!"
Her pokémon shook her head, defiant.
Maybe she deserved this. The pen thing had been a bit petty.
"Fine." She relented before her brow furrowed in worry. "Hey, are you okay? I'm sorry about the pen."
Aggie shrugged as best as she could with a hatchling on her lap, pointing with her head to what she now realized was Calvin's pen, a few inches away.
So, that problem was solved. "How'd you do it?" She wondered.
A muzzle pointing at the Snivy and the fast whipping of Aggie's tail told April all she needed to know. "Huh. Well, that explains it."
They stuck around for a little while longer on April's insistence that 'He looks so peaceful!' and 'He's probably almost up - five minutes tops!'
In the end, it took half an hour for them to get going. They would most likely have stayed longer if some guy in a lab coat hadn't entered the town searching for a lost Snivy. April supposed the man had been presentable before, perhaps in the morning, but now, with his disheveled hair and stained clothes, he looked anything but.
April sighed. "He's looking for ours, isn't he?"
"Yup." Calvin frowned.
April looked at Agatha, who seemed just as pleased at the prospect of leaving the little guy as she was (which is to say, not at all).
Let's get this over with, she thought, kneeling over to give Agatha the unavoidable pep-talk. She couldn't help but notice her friend was averting any form of eye-contact. "Look, I like him too," She started, to which Agatha scoffed (as if it was preposterous to simply imply that she cared about the scaly snake), "but if he's got an owner, we can't very well take him from them, can we?"
Her Absol grumbled something akin to a 'whatever'.
Good enough for me.
April took the bundle of sleepy loveliness out of her starter's lap and crumbled slightly under the unexpected weight. She got up and made her way to the nervous little man, making sure not to look behind at her traveling companion even though logic dictated the kid couldn't possibly be wise enough to know she'd almost fallen over a pokémon with a weight of fewer than eighteen pounds.
Just keep walking, just keep walking...
Oh. There's the guy!
"Is he yours?" Asked April, hoping against all odds that the Snivy wasn't his.
Of course, she never had any luck when the odds were with her, much less when they were against her, which seemed to be always.
"Why, yes! Yes, he is!" He smiled brightly, looking for all the world as if Delibird Day had come.
April wonders whether he'd be cute if he was her age, before pushing the weird thought away.
"I've been looking for him for ages!" He told her. "Tell me, is there anything I can do for you? After all, you did help me out."
Oh.
Well...she didn't really want to use up the man's favor. The Snivy had come to them, not the opposite. If she accepted, she would feel like she owed the guy.
She hated owing people.
"It's okay, really. It's not that big of a deal..." April tried to wave him off.
It didn't work.
"But I insist!" He said, with a face so determined she knew it would take more willpower than she currently had to bring him down.
"Okay." You conceded. "Um...are you a pokémon professor?"
If you ignored the unidentifiable stains and the messy hair, it sure seemed like it.
The man grinned. "How'd you guess?"
April wasn't sure whether it was a rhetorical question or not, so she shrugged to cover it up. "Do you have any...you know...starters...available? Because I'm starting a journey and I need - want - a little more fire power." She explained. "I...I mean, it doesn't have to be a fire-type, just, you know...a pokémon..." Her voice lowered to barely a whisper on those last words and she kicked at the ground beneath her feet sheepishly, like asking for a starter was an act of shame.
The professor smiled brightly, either unaware of or ignoring her sudden drop of confidence. "That's wonderful!"
April saw Agatha cock her head in confusion, almost picturing the doubtful 'It is?' that was sure to have come from her mouth.
She echoed her starter's question. "Really?"
"Of course!" He nodded, ectatic. "As you must know, pokémon professors are in charge of giving out starters to young - new - trainers. It just so happens that this little guy -" He said, raising the sleeping Snivy up to her face "- is one of the starters I received as a gift from the Unova lab!"
April cringed when the man mentioned her not-so-young age before her face lit up at the possibility of keeping the Snivy.
"S-so..." She began, making sure that the scaly bundle of cuteness was really theirs and that she wasn't setting herself up for disappointment.
"It's yours!"
April smiled as she mouthed a silent 'Holy shit'.
This was great! Her first day and she'd already gotten a teammate and a starter?
She should probably look into all the ways things would go wrong. It was extremely unlike karma to give her so much, especially after the stunt she'd pulled on Agatha.
Whatever.
"Did you hear that, Aggie? We've got ourselves a new pal!"