N's POV
Touko and I finished playing after two exhausting hours of living in a world of make-believe. It was getting late, so I said my goodbyes and left. I walked to my new house with my hands in my pockets. I spotted the For Sale sign up ahead. I yanked it out of the ground as I walked by, tucking it under my arm. I threw open the front door to my new house and tossed the sign to the side. I would dispose of it in the morning. I walked up to my room and lay down on the old mattress. I fell asleep instantly, a smile on my face. I finally had a friend.
In the morning…
"N?! N?! Are you awake yet?!" I cracked open my eyes to see sun pouring in through the blinds on my window. I sat up and groaned. I rubbed my eyes with the back of my hand. I looked for the source of the voice, but nobody was in my room.
"Hello?!" I called out, the sound echoed throughout the house.
"N, you are awake. Get down here right away, mister. We have a surprise waiting for you" I heard a child's voice yell. There was only one person that I knew who could have that voice, Touko.
"I'm coming. Hold on" I got off the bed and stretched. I scratched my head afterwards. I felt hair. Where's my hat? I looked around the room before realizing that I left it at Touko's. I groaned for the second time today and trudged down the stairs. I was greeted by a kitchen full of people. Actually there were only about eight people, but still.
"Surprise!" everyone yelled.
"Huh?" I said dumbfounded.
"Good morning, Natural" Mrs. White said.
"Morning" I said confused. "What's going on?" I asked while eyeballing everyone suspiciously.
"Well, Touko here thought that we should throw you a house warming party" Mrs. White explained.
"Do you like it, N?" Touko said while coming up to me. She looked up at me with such big blue eyes and a cute face that I couldn't say no to it, even if I was a little uncomfortable with all the people.
"I love it. Thank you." I hugged the young girl. She let go of me and pulled something out from behind her back. It was my hat. She gently placed it on my head.
"Let me introduce you to everyone" Touko said. She grabbed my hand and dragged me towards a family.
"This is Bianca and her mom and dad" Touko said while motioning towards a young blonde girl about Touko's age and her parents.
"Nice to meet you" I said while shaking hands with the parents. "Nice to meet you too, Bianca." I grabbed the little girl's hand and kissed the back of it. She giggled.
"Bianca is one of the friends I was telling you about. She is eight just like me. Now come on let's go meet Cheren. He's my other friend." Touko took my hand again and dragged me to the other family of three, two adults and a young black-haired boy. "Here, this is Cheren and his parents."
"Hello" I greeted. I shook hands with the two adults and knelt down in front of the boy. "You must be Cheren. It's a pleasure to meet you."
"Yeah, I guess. Welcome to the neighborhood. I hope you enjoy it here" Cheren said in a bored like tone, rolling his eyes. He crossed his arms over his chest. Touko grabbed my hand and pulled me away from them. She motioned for me to come closer to her, so she could tell me something. I crouched down and leaned towards her so that she could whisper in my ear.
"Sorry about, Cheren. He's always like that. He would rather be at home learning about Pokémon or reading. I mean he loves to play with me and Bianca too, but he's not too thrilled about being here right now. He thinks that he's wasting his time" Touko whispered. "Oh, and he's nine."
"I see" I said quietly.
"He'll warm up to you. I'm sure we'll all be great friends. Bianca already seems to like you" Touko said happily. I glanced at the blonde girl, and she giggled and waved. I let off a small nervous laugh and waved back. "Don't let Bianca freak you out. She's harmless. I promise." I gave Touko a look that said 'I'm not convinced.' Bianca was giving me the creeps. I glanced back over at her, and she was creepily staring at me. I shivered. "Come on. My mom prepared you a special welcome breakfast. If we don't hurry, it will get cold." Touko and I walked over to the old rickety table, which I would need to replace, and sat down at one of the chairs. Different breakfast foods covered every inch of the table.
"You didn't have to do all this for me" I said completely embarrassed.
"No, we did. It's our 'welcome to our town' present" Mrs. White said. I just nodded and filled my plate with food. Everyone else did the same once they sat down. We told each other stories while we ate. The adults talked amongst each other while I listened to the kids as they told me stories. Cheren talked about what he wanted to be once he was older. Bianca said what she wanted to do too, but her father told her no afterwards. He must have been eavesdropping. Touko talked after her friends, but she didn't talk about herself or what she wanted to do. She talked about her father's journeys. Once everyone finished eating and talking, we cleaned up and then everyone left except for Mrs. White and Touko.
"So Natural? How about we go to the furniture store today? Do you have your driver's license?" Mrs. White asked.
"Yeah, but I don't have a car" I said.
"Right, silly me. I'll drive then. Come along" Mrs. White said while motioning for Touko and me to follow.
"Yeah! We'll help you pick out pretty furniture, N" Touko cheered. "But nothing pink, okay? Pink is for girls."
"Touko!" Mrs. White scolded. "Maybe N likes the color pink."
"No. No. It's okay Mrs. White. I think pink is a nice color, but I don't want any furniture that color" I said. She nodded and continued her walk to the car. Touko was close by my side. Wow, she has been really close to me. I swear that she likes me more than her mom. We all gathered into the vehicle and drove off towards the furniture store. We arrived there half an hour later. We roamed around the store looking at the varieties of items. We looked at everything from beds and couches to lamps and light bulbs. I bought everything needed for each room and when I mean everything needed for each room, I mean a lot of stuff. I bought everything needed for the laundry room, bathrooms, kitchen, living room, and bedrooms. This would cost me a fortune, but I didn't care. I was going to use the credit card that used father's money. This is just payback for what he did. I have my own credit card with my money on it, but I'll use that on cheaper stuff.
"Hey N? What are you going to use that extra room in your house for?" Touko asked me.
"I never thought about. Maybe, I'll use it for Pokémon. I mean I have eight of my own, and I used to help injured Pokémon. I can start doing that again. I can use that room to care for sick or abandoned Pokémon. Yeah, that's what I'll do with it."
"Wow, N. That sounds great. You must really care for Pokémon" Mrs. White said.
"Of course" I said like it was obvious. Touko and her mother blinked. I blinked too. Awkward.
"Anyway, how about you walk over to the clothing store next door? You can get some new clothes over there. Touko and I can walk across the street and get some groceries" Mrs. White suggested.
"Sure" I said. Touko's mother nodded and started to walk off. "Wait, here is some money for my groceries." I handed Mrs. White a wad of cash. She looked surprised but took the money and grabbed Touko's hand. She started walking towards the crosswalk. Touko struggled to escape from her mother's grasp. She broke free after they were a few feet away.
"I want to go with N" Touko whined while running up to me and grasping onto my shirt. She buried her head in my stomach. Touko's mother looked up at me apologetically. I waved my hand to tell her to go. I would watch Touko. She smiled and crossed the street.
"Okay, come on then" I said. I started to walk away from Touko, so she ran up to me and grabbed my hand. We walked into the clothing store and started to hunt for some clothes. We walked around and grabbed a few things. I bought the exact same outfit I had before, but I got twelve other sets. Now I had thirteen sets of the same outfit. Touko grabbed a few things and tried them on just to see what they would look like on her. I bought her a few things too, just to use up some more of my father's money. Wait, till he sees what I did. We left the store once we paid for our purchases. Touko's mom was waiting in the car.
"How'd it go?" she asked.
"Great! N bought some new clothes, and he got me some stuff too" Touko chirped.
"He did, did he?" Mrs. White smirked while raising an eyebrow. I let out a nervous chuckle and rubbed the back of my neck sheepishly.
"Yeah, some of the stuff I let her try on just looked so cute on her" I said sheepishly.
"Did she behave?"
"Yeah, she was an angel" I said. Touko squealed with joy.
"Good. We better get going. You got your furniture to be express delivered. The trucks might get to your house soon" Mrs. White explained.
"Right, let's go!" I stated. We got to my house in record time. Luckily, the delivery trucks weren't there yet. To pass the time, I asked Touko if she wanted to come with me into the woods. She said yes. I asked her to lead me to the spot she found me the day before because I left something there. It took a few minutes, but we found the small clearing. I searched for a tree with a hole under. I found it and stuck my hand in the hole. I felt what I was looking for and pulled out two items. In my hand, I held a white robe and a gold crown.
"What are those?" Touko asked me.
"This is the crown and robe I wore when I was King" I answered. She stared at the items with her mouth hanging open. I handed her the items to carry. We walked back home in silence. She just inspected my crown and robe the whole way back. When we arrived, two large trucks pulled up beside my house. I ran up to them to greet the drivers. We talked for a few short minutes before I directed them where to put my stuff. Four hours later, everything was in place and the appliances were installed. Mrs. White came over, once the men left, with my groceries. We placed everything in cabinets and in the refrigerator. Everything was finally in place, and I was officially moved in.
"This place looks brand new" Mrs. White complimented.
"Yeah and it's all thanks to you and Touko" I said smiling.
"Where is Touko anyway?"
"Ummm…."
"Please don't tell me you lost her" Mrs. White said with panic in her voice.
"I was with her a few hours ago outside. I haven't seen her since. Maybe she is still out there. Let's go check" I said quickly. I rushed out the door and quickly scanned the area. I didn't see her, but I did hear someone laugh. I rushed past a house and turned towards the direction the noise came from. I stopped dead in my tracks once I saw Touko sitting on the ground with Cheren and Bianca. Touko wore my crown while Cheren wore my robe. I ran up to Touko and embraced her in a hug. "I thought I lost you" I mumbled into her hair.
"I'm right here" Touko said softly while giving me a hug back. I ended the hug but still held her by the shoulders.
"Touko, you need to tell me or your mother where you go next time, okay? She's probably worried sick. We had no idea where you were."
"I'm sorry" Touko said. She hung her head in shame.
"It's okay. I forgive you. Now let's go. You didn't get to see my house yet." Touko looked up immediately and smiled. She asked Cheren for my robe back and said her goodbyes before following me back to my place.
"Touko, I'm so glad you're okay!" Mrs. White said once we stepped through the door. She wrapped he daughter in a bear crushing hug.
"Mom…can't…breathe…let…go" Touko said.
"Sorry" her mother apologized. I let Touko and her mother talk and explore the house, so I went upstairs and put my new clothes, crown, and robe in my closet. When I got downstairs, Touko and her mother were about to leave.
"Hey, N?" Touko said in her sweet voice.
"Huh?"
"I just wanted to say that I'm glad I met you. I really like you. Do you like me?" I blushed at what Touko just said. Nobody ever said that they liked me before. Nobody.
"Yeah, I do. I do like you." Touko's face turned red, and she buried her face in her mom's shirt.
"Well, see you tomorrow" Mrs. White said.
"See you tomorrow" I said back.
"Bye" Touko said meekly, waving in the process.
"See ya" I said. When I finished my goodbyes, both females walked out the door and left me alone in my newly furnished house. Why did I feel so sad to see both go? Especially Touko? I sighed. "I better make dinner."
A/N: Isn't Touko just so cute? Leave a review.