ML54: Hi everybody!
Everybody: Hi ML54!
ML54: Well, here is our next chapter, and to save you all the trauma, I won't be doing surgery on it, but Bunnelby will do a disclaimer for it.
Bunnelby: Will I?
ML54: Yes you will!
Bunnelby: *Sighs* ML54 doesn't own Pokemon.
Bad Moods and Boredom
Fennekin awoke from a fairly uneasy sleep, images of the sharp stone impaling her friend's chest still fresh on her mind and the blood on her paws...both literally and figuratively.
She shook her head and glanced towards the peacefully sleeping frog, his frubbles expanding and contracting as he breathed in and out. A tear soon found it's way into her eye, but she quickly rubbed it away and jumped off the bed.
"I'm probably the last Pokemon he'd want to see right now..." She thought to herself, slipping out of the doorway and away from him. She just couldn't bear to see the anger or, even worse, the disappointment in his eyes.
"C'mon Piplup, it wasn't your fault." Cyndaquil said, trying to comfort his team mate. Piplup just shook her head.
"Of course it was my fault! If it wasn't for my little disco ball, none of this would've happened!" She exclaimed, holding her flippers on her forehead and resting her elbows on her knees. (Or the equivalent of elbows and knees)
Chikorita wrapped a vine around her friend's shoulders. "Hey now, you were focused on your performance. There's no way you could have known they'd be near the edge."
"Yeah...But if it makes you feel any better, you could apologise when Froakie wakes up. And hey, there's Fennekin now!" Cyndaquil continued, pointing towards the fire fox who was walking towards the exit towards the garden of the Pokemon Centre.
"...Yeah...I guess I should..." Piplup said, standing.
Before she left, however, she gave both of her team mates a hug. "Thanks guys. You're the best!"
"We try." Chikorita smiled as the penguin walked away. Once she was out of earshot, Chikorita cast a curious glance towards Cyndaquil. "Hey, I thought you hated Piplup?"
Cyndaquil recoiled a bit. "What?! I never hated Piplup! Sure, we argue a lot, but when it comes down to it we're still friends...very dysfunctional friends but friends none-the-less."
"Oh..." Chikorita blushed a bit in embarrassment. "Sorry..."
"Hey it's alright."
"Hey Fennekin!" Piplup called out, causing the fox to stop in her tracks. She turned to the Sinnoh starter, curiously.
"Um...Hi Piplup?" She said, quickly rubbing her eyes free of the tears she was sure were about to start falling. "What's up?"
"Well...I just wanted to apologize...If it wasn't for my disco ball, you wouldn't have..." Was about as far as she got before Fennekin growled at her.
"STOP IT!" She yelled, her eyes misting up again. "WOULD EVERYONE STOP BLAMING THEMSELVES! IT'S MY FAULT AND MINE ALONE! I SHOULDN'T HAVE EVER BEEN NEAR THAT LEDGE IN THE FIRST PLACE!"
Piplup, understandably, recoiled at Fennekin's loud yelling and backed up a bit. "Hey I didn't exactly help things by blinding you. I just wanted to..."
"WELL DON'T!" Fennekin snapped, before running away from the penguin, who was standing there, a little shocked about what had happened.
"*yawn* Piplup?" She heard from behind her and she turned to find Pikachu standing there, looking like he had just woken up. "What's wrong?"
Piplup pointing down the hallway, towards where Fennekin had run. "I was just apologizing to Fennekin for blinding her with my Whirlpool disco ball and she blew up at me and ran away." Pikachu nodded, now a little more concerned.
"Hm. I think I know what this is about."
"You do? What?" Piplup asked, curiously. Pikachu sighed.
"She's going through the same thing I felt when I got Oshawott hurt." He cringed as he thought about that old wound. "It was the worst thing I had ever done and I couldn't help but think about how it was all my fault and that I was beyond forgiveness..."
"But we did forgive you." Piplup replied, confused. Pikachu smiled a bit.
"Yeah you did, but at the time I didn't feel like I deserved it. That everyone SHOULD hate me for what I did. It was their duty to hate me after that..." Pikachu sighed, before looking at Piplup, fondly. "I learned that day that a true friend will always forgive you even if you make a mistake. That, in the end, nobody's perfect. We all have our faults...mine was jealousy."
"Yeah. You sure are scary when you're jealous." Piplup answered. "So Fennekin is pretty much thinking that she's beyond forgiveness...How do we show her she's not then?"
"The same way I found that I wasn't..." Pikachu answered, glancing towards Froakie's room. "She needs to talk to Froakie. I'll go find her, you go get some food, I think Buneary wanted to talk to you about something."
"Okay..." Piplup answered, about to walk away, before she grinned at him. "Oh and by the way. Nice hickey."
Pikachu blinked, before looking into the conveniently placed mirror beside him and saw that he, in fact, had a bright red love bite showing on his neck, just under his chin.
"Guess Buneary finally made you a man, huh?" Piplup grinned, teasingly at him while he blushed brightly.
"Sh-shut up!"
Froakie sighed as he stared at the ceiling in his room, waiting for someone to come in. One of the Wigglytuff had walked in earlier to give him his food. Luckily one of his arms had come out of the fall relatively unscathed, so he was able to eat his food himself. He did not want to be paw fed!
But now, with his breakfast consumed and everyone else apparently elsewhere, he had nothing to do. The room had nothing recreational in there and, even if it did, he wasn't likely to be able to get it.
"Bored...Bored..." He kept muttering to himself, trying to entertain himself by counting how many tiles the ceiling was made up of. "It wouldn't be so ba if the room wasn't painted the dullest shade of white there is!" He thought to himself as he initiated the counting.
"I'm sorry Ash but visiting hours aren't for another hour for humans." Nurse Joy had said, looking apologetically at the boy who had dark bags gathering under his bloodshot eyes. He was unable to get any sleep last night, extremely worried about Froakie's health.
"Alright..." Ash sighed as a yawn escaped his lungs.
"You should try to get a little sleep." She continued, to which Ash shook his head.
"No can do. Not until I see Froakie." He replied as he stumbled towards his friends, their Pokemon all at their feet except Pikachu and Fennekin. "One hour..."
"Ash you need to sleep!" Bonnie exclaimed, looking worried. Dedenne mirrored her expression on top of her head.
Ash sat down and waved her off. "I'll be fine Bonnie." He answered, leaning his back against the pillar behind him. Serena sighed and tilted his head forward a bit, slipping a small cushion behind his head, before he leaned back against that.
Dawn rose an eyebrow, to which Serena answered. "He's always falling asleep in funny places, so I just carry it around with me."
"Ah..." She replied, rubbing her chin, thoughtfully. "Maybe me or Brock should have done that..."
Fennekin sat on the cliff edge that Froakie and her fell off the day before, looking down at the massive drop before her. "It should've been me..." She thought to herself, replaying the events of yesterday over in her head.
The horrific scene of Froakie hitting the ground, breaking her fall and getting pierced in the chest by that rock. The blood...The blood that still painted her paws. She just couldn't bring herself up to clean herself up right now.
She didn't want to clean it off either. Didn't want to clean it and pretend that yesterday didn't happen. She couldn't fool herself into thinking that if her fur became as pristine as it usually was that Froakie would sit next to her, completely fine, telling her that the group was ready to move on.
She felt a presence next to her and turned to face...
...someone.
The Pokemon was a brown fox creature with a white mane and a big, bushy tail. "So...What ya thinkin'?" The Pokemon, female by voice, asked in concern.
"Um...I'm sorry, who are you?" The brown Pokemon grinned.
"Oh right, sorry 'bout that partner, Ah git a little carried away sometimes. Ah'm Eevee!" She answered in a southern drawl in her voice. Fennekin nodded, looking away and back down towards the ground.
"Fennekin..." Eevee glanced at her, then down the cliff, then at her again.
"Um...Ya ain't thinkin' 'bout jumpin', are ya?" She asked, now even more concerned. "Cause Ah ain't a whole lotta good at tha whole, negotiatin' thin'."
"No..." She responded quietly. As tempting as it was to 'take the easy way out', she couldn't make what Froakie did for her in vain or leave her trainer alone.
"This 'bout ya little Froakie friend then?" Fennekin turned, startled. "Yeah, Ah saw tha whole thin'."
"Oh...Um...Why were you watching?"
"Ah saw tha little light show an' Ah decided ta watch." She answered, bumping her shoulder into Fennekin's. "Ya got yerself an incredibly selfless boyfriend, ya know?"
"...Boyfriend!" Fennekin yelped, a little shocked. "We're not...I mean we aren't..." Eevee rose an eyebrow at her.
"...Wow. Why not?" Fennekin paused at the odd question.
"Uh...Because...We're just friends!"
"That ain't a reason." The Eevee grinned. "Some o' tha best couple Ah know started as 'just friends'."
"B-but...Why would he want me?!" Fennekin exclaimed, not even bothering to choose her words carefully. "I'm the reason he almost died! I ignored him while he was trying to keep me safe! He has NO reason to even be remotely interested in me!"
The Eevee stared at her blankly for a few seconds before her eyes became half lidded and she said, in a deadpan tone. "Yer kiddin', right?"
"W-what?"
"Sugar, Ah know Pokemon who have been together fer YEARS who wouldn't do fer their significant other what that boy did fer ya." She explained, pacing back and forth in front of her as if she were giving a speech. "Ah'd say, if he isn't in love wit' ya, that Ah'd eat mah own tail!"
Fennekin stared forward, past the Eevee as if she were seeing everything in front of her all at once. "It'd explain why he was so angry while I was ignoring him too..." She felt a bit of red stain her cheeks as the thought of Froakie suddenly appearing in there.
"Fennekin!" Pikachu called out to her as he skidded to a halt in front of her. He glanced at the Eevee and nodded in greeting. "Hey stranger."
"Howdy." She replied, smiling. "Say weren't ya with that guy with tha hat?"
"Um...Ash, yeah. Sorry, I just need to check on..."
"I'm going to go see Froakie!" Fennekin suddenly declared, proudly, before rushing back towards the Pokemon Centre. Pikachu hopped out of her way in surprise, gawking in her direction.
The Eevee laughed and poked him in the shoulder. "Took care o' it, now this is tha part where ya ask why Ah was curious." Pikachu shook his head and faced the fox in a look of both gratitude and disbelief.
"Um...Right, why did you want to know?"
"Well, Ah saw y'all trainin' a few times an' thought that ya looked like y'all were havin' fun. So Ah wanted ta know if'n he had space fer one more?"
Pikachu blinked before grinning and nodding his head towards the Centre. "I'm sure he does, but you'd better ask him yourself." He said, leading Eevee towards the building. Eevee spotted something and grinned, amused.
"Nice love bite, Romeo." Pikachu's eyes shot open and he rubbed the spot where Buneary got a little frisky the night before. "Shame yer taken, yer awfully cute."
"Sh-shut up..."
Fennekin raced off ahead of the two and towards the Pokemon Centre, dead set on seeing Froakie again. She couldn't shake the feelings that Eevee had brought up. "Does he really feel that way about me?"
There hadn't really been many incidents that Fennekin can think up to support the statement that the evolution Pokemon had made except a few subtle blushes that she noticed on him a couple of times. Such as the Bamboo forest when they all got separated from their trainers and he cleaned her tail for her.
She smiled to herself as she remembered that. It was a very nice thing for him to do for her, despite how little it mattered in the situation they were in. She didn't like being dirty at all, so to her he was like a saving grace.
She fought some red off of her own cheeks as she paused by the Pokemon Centre's pond. What was she thinking? She can't like Froakie like that...can she?
"I guess I never really thought about it..." She continued as she sat and stared at her reflection in the water pool. She hardly even recognised the Pokemon staring back at her though, as she had dirt staining her fur, as well as Froakie's blood and her cheeks were matted down with dried tears.
"I can't look like this in front of him!" She thought as she took a quick dip in the water and jumped back out to start rubbing some of the stains out.
After she had done that, she shook herself dry and started to lick her paw to groom herself before she paused. "W-wait! Why do I care so much about HIM seeing me like this?! Unless..."
Her eyes widened as she laid her paw against her chest. "U-unless I actually DO like him!"
She shook her head and ran towards his room. "No! I just think I like him because he saved my life!"
She was satisfied with that answer before another thought struck her. "But then...Why have I been thinking about him so much lately!"
See, her interest in the frog like Pokemon didn't appear out of nowhere. She had been looking at him differently ever since Professor Sycamore's Pokemon Camp when they made that Pokevision clip.
It was one of the first times she had seen him enjoy himself and have fun rather than training. Sure he might have fun training, but the big smile he had when they were running around and playing tag was refreshing.
Then she had seen him dancing. Admittedly, he could use some work, but he seemed to have fun. She then started thinking about maybe trying to dance with him at some point, but she didn't think anything of it, seeing that friends can dance together too!
She sighed as she leaned against the wall, noticing Froakie's room to her left. "I guess...I do kind of like him..." She muttered softly.
"I knew it!" She jumped, startled, and turned to find Chespin grinning and jumping like he had won some sort of bet. "I knew you liked Froakie!"
"Ch-chespin!" Fennekin exclaimed, covering his mouth with her paw. "Please shut up! Froakie is in there, not in Kanto!"
Chespin rubbed the back of his head, sheepishly as she removed her paw. "Hehe, sorry about that. But still, this is great!"
"Um...How so?" She asked, confused.
"It means Bunnelby owes me three oran berries!" He clarified, before rushing towards the waiting room. "He's all alone in there, by the way!"
Fennekin sighed as she walked towards the door before another thought struck her. "Wait...Chespin's not gonna...Oh Arceus no..."
"Really!" Dedenne exclaimed, excitedly, peering up at Chespin.
"Yup, heard it straight from the Ponyta's mouth!" He clarified, pointing at Bunnelby. "So a deals a deal!"
"Urg! Fine!" Bunnelby said, reaching into Bonnie's bag for his pouch and handing over the berries. "Happy now!"
"Very much so!" Chespin answered, eating all three of the berries in one go.
"So now what?!" Dedenne asked with curiousity. "Are they gonna get together or what?"
"I don't know...I guess only the future will tell..."
ML54: Til next time, read and review and constructive critisism only!