Down Time

Disclaimer: I do not own the Pokemon franchise, but I do own the characters and their situations.

One of my greatest pleasures in living within the Sinnoh Rescue League's Clan building was being able to help the nursing females with their young. I was slowly beginning to gain the acceptance of most of the mated females, and was now trusted to play with and even babysit their infants while they took a long earned rest.

At the moment I was currently being stalked by a trio of glameow kittens, their little tails curling in pleasure as they tried to bat at my long ears. Their mother, a kindhearted Purugly lay on her side several lengths away, an ear cocked in our direction as she napped.

"Hmm...too slow, Marbles!" I smirked, raising my head high and barely avoid his little claws.

"No fair!" The tiny glameow protested.

I laughed and crouched down, allowing them to clamber on my back for a ride around the play area.

"Mommy! Look at us!" One of the female glameow kits squeaked.

The Purugly opened one elegant eye. "That's very nice, sweetheart." She sighed and stretched luxuriously, then curled up and went back to sleep.

"Who here is hungry?" I smiled, having heard a little stomach growling. The last kit, a small female skitty, blushed.

"Can we have some berries? Mom says we don't need to drink milk anymore," she piped up.

"All right then. Hold on, I'm going to speed up a bit," I trotted at a faster clip, and soon reached a corner where fresh fruits had been set aside for use by the females and their offspring. The kittens settled down to share a Bluk berry while I chose to eat a Pecha.

The past few days were relaxing and uneventful. I decided to take Leader's decision to heart and make the most of my leave. I spent most of my time in the nursery helping to take care of the youngsters, and I absolutely enjoyed it. I still felt a bit reserved about looking to Storm for company. Despite our mutual respect for one another, I still held out hope that my Axel would one day come back.

The way his beautiful red eyes would gaze into my own...

I closed my eyes momentarily, imagining just for a second that we were curled up together in our own den. Just the two of us, and our kits when they arrived.

"And what do we have here?" A wry voice sounded a few feet away.

Opening my eyes, I saw a big male delcatty pad up to the three kittens, his hopeless expression comical as he stared at the purple juice stains ringing their maws. I groaned; of all times to forget that bluk berries stain very easily!

"It's my fault,"I said, lowering my tail in apology. "I should have given them something less...messy."

The Delcatty purred in amusement. "Speak nothing of it. They're kittens after all. And I do thank you for watching the little ones." He gazed fondly at his mate, who was still asleep. "I suppose I should go to her now. She's been very tired lately."

"Bye Onyx!" The kittens piped up as they followed their father away.

I waved my tail and watched for a few seconds longer, as the Delcatty settled by the Purugly's side and nuzzled her lovingly. The kittens scampered in front of them, completing the portrait of a typical happy family.

The scene was too much to bear; I turned and left the play area, letting my paws carry me until I reached one of the many training rooms the Clan building had to offer. It was empty.

The rubbery floor padding felt comfortable under my paws. I smiled, shoving all thoughts of the feline family aside. I may not have a present mate or kits, but thanks to Axel I was still a fighter. With that thought in mind I headed towards one of the special punching bags we trained with. I called it the Axis Bag.

The bag was set up so that if it was struck on one side, the other side would pivot on its axis and hit whomever was using it from a different angle. It was used mainly for reflex training-the harder you hit it, the faster AND harder it would swing round and hit back. It also worked so that if one side was struck from, say, above, the other side would hit from below.

Avoiding the return stroke was a bit tricky though-sometimes it swung too hard to dodge, and a lot of the time, if one tried to block it, the other side would pivot and hit back just as hard.

I crouched, getting into position, then spun on a hind paw and lashed out at the bag with the other. My paw connected with an audible thump, and the other side spun around, rapidly heading towards my head.

I gathered power to my paws and met the padded bag head on, Headbutting it before it could make contact.

I spun and blocked the backstroke with my paw, followed it up light, quick swipes. Lighter hits did not make much damage, but when done quickly and accurately, the damage could easily add up.

Minutes passed; I was getting so into it, I even used Iron Tail a few times for some variation. I loved training this way; it was perfect for situations in which I might find myself fighting a horde of enemies surrounding me.

The key was to build up enough endurance so as to keep fighting for as long as possible, and strength, to make each hit hard so I wouldn't have to fight each enemy too long. Axel was a fighting enthusiast; during the time we traveled together, I saw him utilize these very same techniques successfully on numerous occasions.

Eventually I stopped, laying down with my head on my paws and panting. Exhausted, but feeling accomplished.

"Your balance needs work, but not bad. For a first evolution." A gruff voice mewed behind me.

I stood and faced him warily. "What do you want, Lars?"

He curled his lip, baring long, white teeth. "Speak to me in that tone again and see what happens."

I sighed, forced my spiking fur to go flat. "I'm sorry."

Ignoring my apology, he continued in a softer tone:

"I hope you seriously considered what Leader was saying the other day. About the evolution stones."

"You want me to evolve as soon as possible," I pinned my ears back and shot him a surly glance. "Is that what this is about?"

"Smart woman." The luxio rumbled. "I just had an interesting conversation with Starks, and some of the other pokemon assigned under me."

"Is that so?" I said politely, though wary nonetheless.

"Starks senses that he is close to evolving again. Same with Flint, and Marsha." A Vigoroth and Marshtomp, respectively.

"And your point is?"

Lars sneered. "I will be evolving soon. I have held back my own evolution for a dozen levels now. After the next mission, I will return a Luxray."

I held back the urge to claw the arrogant grin off his face. "C-congratulations," I muttered.

"Yes. The other three may be evolving soon, meaning you will be left behind. And we don't want that, do we?"

"Who said I wanted to evolve in the first place?" I shot back angrily.

He sneered. "Don't give me that. I overheard you and Leader talking about the stones after our meeting. So tell me, which stone were you planning to choose?"

"I...I haven't decided yet. I wanted to wait a bit longer."

"Keep using that excuse and you'll still be in that puny body when we're old and toothless," Lars grimaced. "Well, make your choice soon. We don't have room in our team for someone who insists on holding us back."

My jaw dropped. "I never did anything of the sort."'

"Oh yeah? Well prove it. Enjoy your vacation," he tossed over his shoulder as he left.

I sat there, stunned. Was I really holding my team back? Did they really think this of me? Was I really so immersed in self pity because of my situation, that I was neglecting my duties?

"Lars, wait!"

"Hm?" he looked back at me.

"I want to go on the mission too. To take back the growlithe eggs." His eyes flashed, and I wondered briefly, irrationally, if I was landing myself in some kind of trap.

"And what brought about this change of mind?" He said, in a silky tone.

"Nothing in particular. I think it's time I saw the rest of the team again," I replied just as smoothly.

"That's what I like to hear."

"So this is Sinnoh. It's so...huge!" My companion exclaimed excitedly. I rolled my eyes, padding ahead of the annoying female vulpix. She noticed I had gone off and ran quicky to catch up.

"Hey, Axel! Are you going to tell us what we're doing here now? You haven't mentioned anything about the assignment since we left headquarters!" she whined plaintively.

"I have some unfinished business," I growled, irritated that of all the possible females that would latch on to me, this one had managed to linger around the longest. "And cut it out with the whole 'innocent' act, it's annoying."

"Oh, cut me some slack," she purred, stroking my side with her tails.

I rolled my eyes and kept moving. Truth was, I'd have knocked her out and left her behind a long time ago. But her unusual golden fur was intriguing, and so was her character. She trotted faster and bumped against me, nipping the base of my ear teasingly with her teeth.

I shook her off. "Not right now."

"Aww but we haven't played in a long time." She pouted. "You need to cut loose and have fun sometimes, Axel. You act like a grumpy old man."

"And you, Alumina, act like an overgrown kit."

She stuck her tongue out at me. I pretended not to notice.

In truth, I was very pleased that her flirtations were directed towards me. I'd toyed with the idea of taking her as a partner on more than one occasion. Her fur color would have looked stunning on my kits. Speaking of kits...

I frowned, thinking of the unborn kit I had left behind. He would have been around a year and three or four months old by now, if I recalled correctly. Just in case, I took along a pack of the finest pokeblocks and rare candies-he(or she!) was still young enough to have a fondness for treats. There was still the issue of his mother, though. No doubt she'd hold some kind of anger over the way he'd left and subsequently cut off communication. Knowing her, it would be a long time before she forgave me again.

It was worth the wait. She was shaping up really well the last time I saw her. Hopefully she taught our kit a thing or two while I was gone as well. And if she finally evolved... I curled my tail, thinking of how stunning she would look as, say, a flareon or a leafeon. Or an espeon...

The image THAT brought on was so satisfying I almost purred out loud. A mated pair of an espeon and umbreon would look good as a set. Very good. I trotted a little faster, eager to get back to my mate. If she hadn't evolved yet, I would try my damnedest to make sure she became that espeon.

"Wait up!" The vulpix huffed, trying to catch up on much shorter legs. "Are you trying to lose me?" She half snarled, looking genuinely hurt.

"I wouldn't dream of it, Lulu." I licked her cheek and walked ahead, knowing I'd caught her off guard with that one. We traveled a little longer through the dense bush, the vulpix much quieter. I sensed a glow of satisfaction about her now. Such a simple female.

She had been quick to assume we were in Sinnoh. While we technically were, we were in an area known as the Battle Zone. We still needed to hitch a ride to Sunyshore, and continue journeying from there.

We took a break after an hour or so of walking downhill. I unbuckled my harness bag and let it fall to the ground, shaking out the flattened fur and smoothing it down. Alumina did the same with hers. It always escaped me, why she felt the need to fill her bag with brushes and shampoo and other human care products. They weighed her down unnecessarily.

Finally free to run without hindrance, I padded into the undergrowth. Eventually my ears picked up a small, rapid heartbeat. I put on a burst of speed and ran down the unfortunate rattata.

I carried the prey back to our resting place, where Alumina was already munching a wepear berry. She wrinkled her nose in slight distaste at the sight of my catch, but knew better than to say anything.

We had a lot of ground to cover tomorrow. Hopefully, in two or three days, we would be able to catch a ferry to Sunyshore, where I had to meet up with an operative from work. Then, across the mountains and onward to Eterna...

I took a large bite of my prey, savoring the taste of flesh. It was good to be out in the field again.

Trying to shell out as many updates to my stories as possible. I'm afraid to touch the Naruto ones, but I'll have to eventually. I may be changing my name in a month or so, after I get re-established here. I apologize for any errors.

Please R & R !