Bayleef's Reward
by K.M.
9-19-2007

Pokémon created by Satoshi Tajiri
Copyright 1995 Nintendo/Creatures Inc./Game Freak Inc. 1995
Copyright 4 Kids Productions Inc. 2002
Trademarked by Nintendo

This story was originally written for nonprofit entertainment only, please don't sue me.

Italics Pokémon Speech

Note: This fic is going to operate by English dubbed standards, so humans will speak English.

Since the Pokéworld seems to be another reality altogether, with completely different named regions on the planet, I feel that there is no necessity to conform to the characters speaking Japanese in this fic.

Chapter 2:

Awakenings: Bayleef wakes

Bayleef slept peacefully as she dreamed of a pleasant memory with her beloved Ash.

In her dream, Ash had gotten himself turned into a Pikachu a day ago due to a silly human's failed spell. Thankfully, the spell was likely to wear off in a few days tops.

Though he was a little embarrassed at the prospect of yet more of his Pokémon seeing him in this state, Ash had decided to show his current form to a few of them at a time. And after giving it some thought, Ash had decided on Bayleef being the next one to reveal his new form to, as he felt that she would be the least likely to make fun of his current state.

He was correct in this assumption, however he quickly began to regret his decision. Bayleef did not laugh at him, in fact quite the contrary, she ADORED him in his new form and had been fawning over him non-stop.

Both his human and Pokémon friends found great amusement over this, with Misty and Brock even going so far as to call Ash 'Bayleef's own little Togepi'.

Ash eventually got a little used to the teasing, as well as Bayleef's excessive attention, who was showing herself to be a lot more protective of him in his now much more diminutive state, and quickly went back to enjoying his visit to Pokémonhood.

After a busy day as a Pikachu, Ash had finally tuckered himself out and was now fast asleep lying against Bayleef's side.

Bayleef herself was lying down on her stomach while adoringly looking down at the sleeping Pikachu lying against her. She had greatly enjoyed both watching, and watching over Ash this day. She had thought that Ash had looked particularly cute when he tried to get Pikachu to teach him some electric attacks, but much to Ash's dismay, he wasn't able to make more than some very minor sparks. Though Ash was determined to improve before he changed back.

No matter what his form, she had loved seeing that look of determination on his face.

Bayleef carefully extended one of her vines and gently stroked the side of Ash's sleeping face. A part of her wished that they could stay like this forever. Ash may not have been a Bayleef, but she still felt closer to him while he was like this, and he did make a very cute Pikachu. But she knew that Ash was only able to enjoy himself as much as he did because he knew that his current form was only a temporary state. And she also knew that he would very likely be saddened if he found himself stuck this way for good.

She idly wondered if that human girl's spell could make her into a human. It wouldn't be easy giving up her Bayleef form, but she would be more than willing to sacrifice it if it meant the chance of truly being with Ash. But it was little more than a dream, as the spell was only temporary, and what she'd heard of the girl suggested that she wasn't overly proficient in the use of her magic.

"Just a dream." Bayleef thought to herself as she continued to look lovingly down at Ash, "Just a dream."

Slowly the images began to fade as Bayleef found herself returning to the waking world.

Bayleef slowly began to open her eyes, only to close them again in an attempt to blink the sleep out of them, and to adjust to the morning light in the room. As she lie there with her eyes closed for a bit longer, her still waking mind took note of the soft surface that she was lying on. It was very comfortable, and she took a moment to try and recall the previous night before she went to sleep.

Okay, they weren't camped out in the forest, and her still waking mind recalled briefly seeing a room when she had cracked her eyes open.

That's right! They had stayed in a Pokécenter for the night! Did Ash get her a Pokébed? As the fog in her mind slowly began to evaporate, she could have sworn that she remembered going to sleep on the floor last night.

Once more, she slowly opened her eyes. As her eyes slowly began to adjust to the room's light, she took note of the fact that she seemed to be lying on her side and that her head was lying on a pillow. Turning her head upwards, it took her another moment to realize that she seemed to be in the lower half of a bunk-bed.

While she had no arguments of having slept in such a comfortable bed, she couldn't for the life of her recall as to how she had gotten there.

Did Ash put her in this bed? If so, then why? It's not like she wasn't used to sleeping on the ground, so what was so special about last night?

As she continued to try and figure out the puzzling scenario, she began looking about the room and stopped when she caught sight of another Bayleef that was sound asleep on the floor across the room from her. She began to wonder who this Bayleef was when her eyes went wide as she looked more closely at it.

That Bayleef was her!

Bayleef sat up with a start, "What in the..." she began, but quickly stopped as she absently took note of her position. She realized that she hadn't actually stood up, as she'd half expected herself to do, as she could clearly feel herself still seated on the bed. In fact, she began to realize that her overall body felt 'off' somehow.

She slowly turned her head to look down at her body, causing a small gasp to escape from her mouth as she did so.

She slowly moved her front 'leg' up in front of her face, and gazed at its 'foot' in wonder as she began to move the strange digits on the end of it back and forth. Her rattled mind briefly wondered if her body had perhaps undergone some sort of odd evolution while she was sleeping that she wasn't aware of Bayleef's being able to achieve. Right now her appendage looked more like something that you might find on a Mr. Mime, or maybe a Jynx, or a...

Her thoughts slowed for a moment as she took in the coloration of her appendage. Looking further down, she carefully pulled back the sheets that were covering the lower half of her body, thus revealing her new legs to her.

"A... a... human?" She wondered.

After continuing to stare at herself for a while longer in disbelief, she finally took note of the fact that she was wearing clothing. Upon further inspection, she realized that it looked familiar somehow. Once more, her eyes widened as realization dawned on her.

Carefully, and quietly, she then turned her legs to hang out of the bed. While still sitting on the edge of the bed, she took a deep breath. Finally she pushed herself up from the bed and stood on her new legs for the first time.

She then took a few steps. As strange as it felt to now be walking on two legs, she found that she wasn't having all that much difficulty in doing so. While the lack of difficulty was a little curious, she didn't dwell on it too much since most Pokémon usually gained new physical instincts when they evolved anyway.

She looked down beside the bed she was just in and saw Pikachu and Togepi fast asleep in front of it. She then recalled that Ash, Brock and Misty had been particularly tired last night and that she and Pikachu had agreed to watch the still very awake Togepi for them as both her and Pikachu hadn't been all that tired either.

Bayleef then caught sight of Misty's bag and vaguely recalled an item that was usually kept inside of it. Walking over to the bag she began to open it up only to stop midway. Once more she moved her new hand in front of her face and looked at it curiously. Walking on new legs was one thing, but this was the first time that she had ever had hands and fingers, and she was a little surprised at how natural using them seemed to be to her at the moment. Finally, she pushed her wonder aside and finished opening the bag and pulled out the object that she had been looking for.

Holding the mirror that she had taken out the bag in her hands, she slowly pulled it up in front of her face and looked into it.

As she had already begun to suspect by now, Misty's reflection looked back at her. Bayleef just continued to stare blankly at the reflection, blinking every now and then, as if she expected something to happen. She half expected the image to vanish and her true image to appear, or maybe suddenly find herself waking up again only to find that this was all just another dream.

The last thought definitely had merit, as she had previously had dreams before where she was Ash's human mate, but this all just seemed so real.

She then began to daydream of her and Ash being together like this, causing a beautiful smile to creep across the face of the reflection she was staring into.

She turned her head in the direction of Ash's bed to find him still fast asleep. Putting down the mirror, she then quietly walked over to his bed and lovingly looked down at him.

"Ash." she whispered quietly to herself as she watched him sleep.

After a moment of this, her brow furrowed as she finally seemed to take note of something. She paused for a moment before speaking again.

"Ash." she whispered again to herself while listening closely to her voice. Her eyes then went wide as she noticed for the first time that she was speaking in English and not in any Pokémon tongues.

She smiled brightly as she realized that she could not only be with Ash now, but she could talk with now too. Really talk with him!

She didn't care if this did all turn out to be just a dream, she was going to make the most of it while she could, just in case she did end up waking up later.

Looking down at the clothing that she was wearing, she decided to change into some clothing that was more like what she had often seen Misty wear in the daytime. Quietly looking through the room, she quickly found a change of clothes and went into the adjoining room. She recalled seeing her human companions go into these rooms to change clothes before, and felt that she might as well do the same.

As she wasn't used to dressing, It took her several minutes to get changed, but looking into the bathroom's mirror, she was finally convinced that she looked like Misty did when she dressed.

Well, except that her hair was still down like it was when she had woken up, but Bayleef decided that she liked how it looked that way anyway.

Walking back into the bedroom, Bayleef quickly went over to Pikachu and quietly shook him awake.

"Pikachu." she whispered.

"Pika? Pikachu?" Pikachu tiredly replied as he wiped the sleep from his eyes.

This caused Bayleef to pause for a moment as she realized that she couldn't understand what Pikachu had just said, but she quickly brushed this aside.

Once Pikachu was finished getting the sleep out of his eyes, Bayleef continued.

"Pikachu, I'm going to see if Ash will go for a walk with me. Could you look after Togepi for me until then?"

"Pika!" Pikachu happily replied.

"Thanks Pikachu." Bayleef replied gratefully. She thought with some amusement that this really must be a dream if Pikachu wasn't going to get in the way of her and Ash for a change.

Bayleef then quickly moved over to Ash's bed and began to shake him a bit.

"Ash. Ash, wake up." She said quietly.

"Hmm? Misty? What time is it?" Ash groggily replied.

Bayleef bit her lip and chose to ignore the question.

"Ash, I'm going for a walk, would you come with me?"

"A... walk?" Ash yawned, "What do you need me to come for?" Ash finished, his mind still struggling to decide wether or not to try and get up or to go back to sleep.

"Please Ash!" Bayleef pleaded.

Bleary-eyed, Ash looked up at the pleading look on "Misty's" face and relented.

"Okay," Ash sighed, "just let me get changed first." He finished with a yawn as he got up and headed to the bathroom to change clothes.

After a few minutes, Ash exited the bathroom looking a bit more awake, but only slightly so. Bayleef quickly told Ash that Pikachu would be watching Togepi while they were gone and that they should just let the others sleep.

"We'll try not to be gone too long Pikachu." Ash said, though Bayleef was hoping that they wouldn't be back too quickly either.

A bright smiled adorned Bayleef's face as she and Ash left the Pokécenter and began their walk. This was like a dream come true.

Next Chapter:

Awakenings: Misty wakes

Author Notes:

Sheesh! I'm still not having much luck in finding any time for hobbies I'm afraid, I just hope that the next update won't take too long (especially as much of the action starts after Misty wakes up).

This chapter wound up being longer than I had intended, but it would have been FAR longer if I had had Misty wake up in this chapter as well.

As you can probably tell from the start of this chapter, I'm a fan Ash in his Pikachu form. I've actually had an Ashchu fic that I started quite a while back, but I've never gotten a chance to finish the 1st chapter of it.

I'm so sick of never having time for anything.

As always, Comments and Suggestions are always welcomed.

And thanks to everyone who's reviewed so far :)