Parallel Heart Chapter 4

After the experience from the battle between Mega and Fast Star, buneary, eevee, and togetic decided to carry Mega back to the hideout. Eevee carries him by the back with her head, buneary carries him by the head with her paws, and togetic carries all the berries they've won from the bet they've made.

"Wow, Mega made us a berry fortune today," togetic said as she was counting all the berries in the bag she made with buneary's fluff a long time ago.

"No kidding, we're gonna feast tonight, girls," the smiling eevee says underneath the now sleeping pikachu.

"All thanks to him," buneary cheerfully shouts.

Mega begins to drool from the corner of his mouth and mutter in his sleep, "no, I don't like bitter food."

"Well, at least we're getting to know more about him while he sleeps," togetic giggles as she hears him mutter.

"Yes, I can make a good crispy berry with my Thunderbolt..."

"we better keep that in mind," eevee says as she licks her lips.

"Pecha berry juice tastes best when mixed with sitrus berry,"

"I've never thought of that," buneary states. She had mixed pecha berry juice with other stuff, but never anything sour.

"I thought you would," togetic responds to that statement.

Soon enough, they've reached the trees to their hideout. Togetic opens the door to it, but the bushes that are hiding it keeps being pushed along with the door. "we better find a better way to hide this door, or who knows what'll happen to us," togetic says.

"You're the smart one, so come up with something," eevee says rather fustrated about the statement.

"Why not just hang a tree banch against the door?" Mega mumbles in his sleep like as though he can hear the conversation.

"Why didn't I think of that?" Togetic ask herself as she face-palm her forehead pretty hard. It literally took a sleeping pikachu to find the answer they needed for the door.

They lay him down on the ground and had eevee stay to protect him from predators, "don't try anything funny," togetic warned.

"Relax I'm not gonna do anything," she answers back.

Content with the warning, buneary and togetic get going to find the bush Mega mentioned. Eevee just look at them and wait until they were out of sight, "finally," she says and pulls out a sitrus berry from behind a bush with her paw, "I was going to save this for a rainy day, but this will do for now," she then waves the sour berry over his nose.

"How about this one?"

"Not big enough."

"this one?"

"No."

"this one?"

"Yes, that's the one we're looking for," buneary grabs one end of the bushes, while togetic grabs the other end. Slowly, they pulled it carefully not to make it fall apart, but the bush doesn't seem to want to come out. The two gave up on the gentle pulling and try to pull as hard as they can.

The roots were as subborn as a fire-type pokemon taking a cold bath, but they manage to pull it out successfully, "well, lets take it over there," togetic exhaustingly said with buneary agreeing. They walk side-by-side with the bush between them, careful not to ruin it.

"Let's hope we don't see eevee doing anything to Mega that we don't approve," the togetic says as she's carrying the bush with buneary agreeing with her on the other.

When they got back, they couldn't believe what they were seeing, Mega was sitting and talking to eevee as though nothing happened to him. Still carrying the bush, they walk to the talking two, "Mega, when did you wake up?" they ask in unison, making it awkward for everyone.

"When I got a sitrus berry in my hands," Mega replies with a half-eaten berry.

They blink for a moment then look at the smiling eevee who just shrugs in response. "Let's get inside," Mega says to the three, "it's getting dark and I don't want to deal with nocturnal predators right now." Everyone else nods on that, and after hanging the bush on the door, they went inside.

"Where did you get these berries," Mega asks dumbfounded about the large amount of berries on the table.

"We bet on you against Fast Star and won," togetic replies with a cute smile.

"Yeah and after that me and buneary carried you here," eevee adds.

"And we heard you talk in your sleep," buneary finishing the story.

Embarrassed about the situation, he asks, "what did you hear?"

"Putting a big bush on the door, pecha berry juice advice, you making crispy berry, and you not liking bitter taste in berries." Buneary answers his question without hesitation, making Mega blush a little bit more than he should.

That changes when eevee walks up to him with a aspear berry in her mouth, "I like dry berries, especially when they're crispy, but I can never get it just right," she said with the dry berry still in her mouth, "can you make it crispy for me?"

Mega couldn't say no after hearing that, "sure," and takes it from her mouth, "Thunderbolt!"

The yellow mouse then unleashes the thunderous attack from his cheeks, through his body, to the aspear berry. He stops immediately and sees that the aspear berry is crispy just right, and gives it to the eevee.

At first she hesitated due to how he crisps it with electricity, but she takes a bite out it and begins chewing it. The crispy dry berry was mixed very well and there was still a little electricity, giving it more flavor and pleasure in the taste and then she swallowed it, "that was the best crispy berry I've ever tasted," she shouts and gives him a bear hug with her front paws, "can I have another, please?" She asks giving him sparkling eyes that even Mega feels uncomfortable with.

"uhhh, sure?" He questioningly answers the question and grabs another three aspear berries , "Thunderbolt," and does the same process as before.

Soon after, buneary came up to him and asks, "can you help me mix the berry juice?"

"Okay," he replies and get to the table and start juicing the berries into the cups that are available by squeezing the berries from top to bottom with his bare hands, then eating the juiced-out fruit afterwards. He then tastes the flavor of the juice mix, "hmmm, needs more sour tastes," he then grabs a sitrus berry and squeezes all the juice out of it, eating the remaining sour berry in the process, then giving one to the requested bunny girl.

"Mega's very helpful around the hideout, he's an even rarer cutie now that I'm getting to know him a bit more," eevee said dazing at him with the same sparkling eyes as before.

"Careful eevee, you don't want him to be uncomfortable again, do you?" Togetic asks as she looks at eevee's staring, making her stop and blush in embarrassment.

During the mixing, togetic decides to help him out and starts to squeeze the pecha berry over a cup, letting the juice to drip down into the cup. "Careful, you don't want to squeeze too hard or it'll end up getting in your eyes," togetic hears this and notices how hard she was squeezing the sweet-flavored berry. She couldn't help but blush in embarrassment.

"Thanks for the advice, I'll keep that in mind," she says and continues to the next berry and squeezes it more gently this time. Togetic has to admit, she likes having Mega around, especially since she feels more safe with him because all she knows is one move. She brought up the courage to look at the pikachu beside her, making him look back at her, and wink at him flirtasiously.

Mega sees togetic closes one of her eyes and asks, "did the berry juice get into your eye? Because you only seem to be blinking with one of them." The mouse pokemon didn't expect her face suddenly turns red and focuses back on squeezing the berries, making the pikachu think for a moment what just happened. He decides to shrug it off and finish where he left off.

After drinking a cup of sitrus-pecha juice and telling a few things about himself to them, Mega yawns as the fatique of today starts to get the better of him, "well, I'm off to bed, g'night you three," he says and waves to them lazily.

"Good night Mega," the three replies happily as he walks up the stairs to his newly-claimed room.

There was silence between the three as they look at the dimmed-lit giant crystal in the center of the living room, "so..." buneary says trying to break the silence, "what do you think of him so far?"

"Well to tell you the truth, my feelings for him didn't change at all," eevee replies first, "in fact, I think they've gotten even stronger than before."

"Yeah, who knew he was at the northern part for a year?" Togetic questions, "it must've been suffering."

"Actually I knew," the two look at the bunny pokemon for a moment, "he told me about it when we first officially meet," then she looks at a sitrus berry on the table.

"I don't think he's aware that we have romantic feelings for him," eevee says, making the others look at her, "I mean think about it: he's willing to help us out, he takes it as a compliment when we flirt with him, and he doesn't even notices when we lovingly stare at him." The eevee does have a point and they noticed it as well.

"Well I think it's because of the year he was there," togetic theorizes, making the other two look at her with a questioning look, "from what I learned from him, he was attacked by savage predators day in and day out with hardly any food or water in his body." She looks at the other two for a moment to see if they understand her, "all he can do is fight for his life, hunt for food, and wait for the opportunity to get water from the river there." Her eyes begins to water because she could imagine Mega's pain right now, "he couldn't even think of having a proper good night sleep, the pleasure of eating proper food, enjoy the water going down his throat, or even think about having a family someday," togetic couldn't finish because she was crying really hard.

Buneary knew exactly what she was going to say next and decides to finish her theory for her. "And the fact that he did all of that just to get stronger, he's truly devoted to his reasons, even at such a young age like us."

Eevee tries to comfort togetic with tears in her eyes as well. Buneary could feel the tears beginning to form in the corner of her eyes as well, so she let them run down her cheeks... she wonders if Mega cries at night as well, just thinking back to that very hell, but that's a question she'll keep to herself for right now.

"It's getting late, we have to wake up early tomorrow," buneary says after they cried out the pain for Mega, the others agree to this and went to their respective room. Togetic developed hic-ups from her crying so they let her have the last cup of berry juice.

Buneary was sleeping at one point of the night, until she hears footsteps coming from downstairs. "Who could be up this late?" she asks herself and stealthfully climb down the stairs, she sees Mega passing by the stairway to her room without noticing her and going through the door that leads outside. "What is he doing? He knows not to go outside at night," she says to her herself and follows him out of curiosity, careful not to be caught, she stays a certain amount of distance. She plucks up the rolled ear to hear anything from him, she follows him to the open lake and sees him just standing there, looking at the water reflecting the moonlight.

"Wow," buneary eyes sparkles from the beautiful sight and covers her mouth almost immediately and hides in a bush.

Mega turns to the sound and sees nothing, "must be the wind," he says to himself, much to buneary's relief. Seeing him like this is mysterious... why is he even here? Is he just here to enjoy the lake in private? Her questions are going to be answered when she sees something about to pop out of the ground next to him.

Out came a swinub from underground, her instincts tells her that it's male, "hey Mega," the swinub happily greets him.

"Hey Diggy," Mega greets back with a big smile.

"How was your training?" The now-named Diggy asks halh-knowing he answer.

"Hell," was all Mega simply said before crossing his arms behind his head, "yours?"

"Pretty well, I can dig through rocks now. "

"That's great, but what about his?" Mega asks concerned.

Diggy just shrugs, "not sure, I think he's still training."

"Do you think he'll be here in time?"

"I would be surprise if he does, he's always casually late." Diggy replies, then he gets excited, "I can't wait until our co-ed team leader comes back, then we can finally fulfill our dream."

"Yeah, me neither," Mega smiles at the enthusiastic swinub, "you should go over where he's training and tell him to hurry up, because time isn't with us right now." Mega looks over to the direction where the trees he's living in.

"Were you the one that made the hideout over there?" Pointing at the direction where the hideout is.

"Yup, I was the one who made it."

"Why did you leave it just like that?"

"I was training, and the buneary needed a place to live, so I gave it to her."

"That's something you would do, now that I'm living there, I think I should go back before anyone notices I'm gone," Mega ended the conversation as dawn is about break.

"Okay, I'll go and tell him to hurry up but I'll rest first," and with that, Diggy digs back underground.

Buneary couldn't believe what she's hearing: the fact that Mega knows the pokemon who gave her the hideout, there's some form of serious training between the two of them, and the fact there's more than one leader in this... 'team'. Yet all of this seems familiar to her... but why? Who exactly are they really? Her thought were interrupted when she hears that Mega was going back to their big home, she immediately hops as fast as she could there. When she eventually reaches there, the buneary opens the door to get in, then closes it behind her, hops to the stairs to her room, and pounces to her nest to pretend she's sleeping.

She then hears Mega coming inside and walking up the stairs to her room. "Why is he going in my room? Did he notice me?" She asks herself. Hearing his footsteps outside her door, she turns around and throws a piece of branch from her nest, "I didn't see anything," she shouts in defense.

"...What are you talking about?"

She opens her eyes to see a concerned pikachu right in front of her, "nothing... just a bad dream... why are you here?"

Mega was scratching his cheek nervously, giving her ideas, "I was wondering if you're busy today," she blinks for a second, "a little, why?"

"I was wondering if you'd like to meet a friend of mine." She was confused and wonders if it's the swinub she saw earlier. She doesn't want to make Mega suspicious about anything involving her spying, so she'll have to play along, "sure, sounds like fun."