It was her birthday.

Grinning, laughing, she stumbled out of her living room, about to pee herself if she watched Aqua and Haward glare each other down for even another second. Aqua was grumbling something she couldn't understand and Haward was saying something back that Aqua obviously didn't like, but, somehow, she just couldn't get how serious the situation was for how ridiculous it was!

Aqua was big enough to step on Haward for Arceus sake!

She raced for the stairs, still laughing, when someone knocked on the front door.

"Uh, crap! J-just hold on a minute!" She stood there for a moment in indecision, shuffling from one foot to another.

"Do you need me to get it, Fi?" her big brother called from the living room. Unlike her, he didn't see anything funny about the situation and she could hear the stress in his voice. Most likely, he was trying to calm Haward down before there was a full-fledged war in her home.

She weighed the pros and cons of him leaving the 'heated argument', as she believed it was, unattended except for a large group of water pokémon who were most likely very fed up with Haward bullying them.

"No, I'll get it." Cursing to herself, she waddled to the front door, thinking she would just open it, say a quick hello, come in, make yourself at home, and then make a mad dash to the bathroom faster than a ponyta ever could.

The doorknob turned and she stared up into the aged, rugged face of a man she had wished on every shooting star she had ever seen since she had turned eighteen to never meet again.

"Hey… dad…." Suddenly, she didn't have to pee.

Life had been so good, she thought sourly to herself. She hadn't seen him since the birthday he had tried to force Haward on her. How long ago had that been? Four, five years now? Looking at him now, it felt like yesterday, and yesterday was far too close for her liking.

The argument in the living room died down to mute. Her pokémon knew what this meant, Aqua more than any of them, as he had faced the cruelty of her dad before she had been old enough to escape him.

More than that, though, Ken knew, and Ken was here and Ken had Haward and Haward didn't know. Haward had known their dad long enough to be told that she was his new master and she and Ken, as a rule, did not talk about their dad anymore than necessary.

"Happy birthday, baby girl." He smiled and tried to pull her into a hug.

Swiftly, she sidestepped it. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here for my little girl's birthday," he said matter-of-factly, as if he had always been a good enough father to come to every good thing in her life. Maybe that had made him a good enough father, that he hadn't come. Every good thing turned bad the moment he was a part of it.

"I don't want you at my birthday." And, as quickly and with as much strength as she could muster, she tried to slam the door shut on him.

But their dad, he had always been a big, muscular guy. Even as old as he was, he was as fit as a fighting pokémon. Before she could manage the lock, he had already twisted the knob enough for him to shoulder the door open with a mighty push.

It caught her by surprise and the doorknob smacked her hand against her hip as the slab of wood coming straight towards her sent her bouncing on her butt.

With a slight yelp of surprise from herself, their dad stood in the doorway, looking not so happy anymore and more like the hot-tempered man he really was.

"BLASTOISE!" The ground shook as Aqua ran to her defense, crouching protectively over her with twin rocket cannons raised towards her dad.

Her dad scowled in disgust at the water-type. "Alright, baby girl, where's the fire pokémon I gave you?" His eyes lit up. "He turned out to be strong, right?"

"Just FYI," she growled, "water-types are one of a fire-types greatest weaknesses. Not the other way around."

His expression was stormy. "Not if you train them right and make their flames hot enough. Where is the pokémon I got you? Has it evolved? Have you used it in battle?" His head shot up suddenly. The disgust in his face returned tenfold. "Oh. It's you." Then he looked down and the childish joy was back. "Look at you…. You've evolved into quite the quilava, haven't you?"

She looked around Aqua to see her big brother and Haward standing in the doorway. Haward looked confused, going between Ken's pale, drawn face to her fallen form, Aqua obviously in protective mode against this man who was their father.

Haward did the smartest thing he could have done. "Qui? Va? Lava?" He twisted his head towards Aqua as if looking for an answer before looking back into the living room towards her other water pokémon. She was able to catch a glimpse of them and knew that, if Aqua somehow failed to protect her, there would be five other pokémon rushing to her aide.

"Haward, go back into the living room," Ken whispered, voice cracking. "Fi and I need to have a talk with our father."

"And who do you think you are," their dad growled, "to order around your sister's pokémon?"

The silence was deafening.

Then she cleared her throat. She pushed one hand against Aqua's hard shell, letting him know she needed up, and he offered her a paw that she gratefully took. She leaned back against him, feeling a familiar tremor work throughout her body.

Their dad had never hurt her, unlike Ken. But she had still always been afraid of him. Maybe it was because, whenever she had done something wrong, he had turned his anger on her big brother. Or, maybe it was because, after their mom died, he started to look at her weird. He had never touched her in strange places, but there would be times when she would hear the door open while she was in the shower and she would close her eyes tightly because a cold draft would signify that someone had moved the curtains.

This man absolutely terrified her, and she put a hand flat against Aqua's hard underbelly, feeling the bone-like ridges and scars and taking some comfort from it.

"And who are you," she growled back as best as she could, voice trembling, "to try and tell him what to do with his pokémon?"

"He doesn't have pokémon!" Then he actually looked at who Haward was standing with, and it wasn't with her.

Their dad's eyes moved to her with the glittering intensity of a blade made from diamonds. "You… gave a fire-type pokémon to that sick little boy?"

"I gave a fire-type pokémon to my big brother!"

"Fi, Fi, let me handle this." Ken stepped forward, drawing their dad's attention to him.

At 'sick little boy', the confusion had melted away and Haward took that step with him, red eyes narrowed in absolute burning fury as his pores began to spew smoke and then, after a moment, blazing flames that were definitely higher than usual.

"No, this is my birthday, and I get to do what I want on my birthday!" Her voice rose without her meaning to. She swallowed thickly. "Just let me protect you this time, big brother." Her hands were shaking, a cold sweat breaking out over her skin and she clenched her fists on the wetness. "That's my birthday wish."

Before he could deny her, and she knew he was going to, their dad spoke up.

"Baby girl," his voice was low and dangerous, "do you want to know why everyone at school was really making fun of him? Why I really never considered him my son?"

"Don't," Ken bit out, looking panicked. "Don't tell her. You promised me that if I did what you wanted me to do, you would never tell her!"

But there was a cruel smile on their dad's lips that told her that all promises were forgotten in that moment. "Baby girl, your 'big brother', the man you adore, is –"

"Arceus, don't," Ken cried out.

"A fag."

Ken sucked in a deep breath and closed his eyes, shaking.

She just stood there, shocked beyond anything else. She looked down at Haward first, who was back to looking confused. She bet he had never heard that word before, and, clearing her throat again, she explained it to him.

"A 'fag' is, um, an offensive term for someone who's gay." First there was hope in his red eyes.

Then absolute fury. Because he knew what an offensive term was and that most likely did not settle well with him.

"Quiiii…" Haward gritted his teeth.

She looked up into her big brother's pale, withdrawn face. "Why didn't you ever tell me?"

Ken jerked, as if that wasn't the response he had expected. "W-what?"

"You could have told me you were gay! Arceus, you're standing there, acting like the world's about to end. It's not a bad thing, I swear. I mean, when I was younger, I had a few girlfriends and that was great."

He opened one eye first. "You… did?"

"Yeah!"

"Why didn't you ever tell me, then?" he whispered, almost brokenly.

"It never occurred to me to," she whispered back. "You were going through that phase where I couldn't even joke about my sex life with you, so I just never talked about it with you. I mean, come on, you've been scared of your sexuality all these years?"

"I want to get back to that part where you said you had a few girlfriends," her dad snarled as he slammed the door shut behind him.

Suddenly, she had a very angry man in her face, hands on her shoulders, shaking her. "You filthy little whore!" their dad roared. He raised a hand up high, palm facing her, and her mind went blank with fear.

"BLASTOISE!" Aqua roared back, using the brunt weight of one cannon to throw her dad to the side.

"NO!" Ken yelled out a second later, then nearly fell limp when he realized she wasn't in danger anymore.

Kyle flapped in from his swing and aimed his beak at her dad's face, going in for a vengeful pecking, before her dad raised a hand, caught the small flyer in his palm, and slammed Kyle to the ground.

She stopped breathing as Kyle stopped moving.

"If you want a pokémon battle, then, fine," their dad snarled.

"K-Kyle?" she whispered. The bird tweeted weakly in response.

"This is going too far!" And then Ken leaped forward and he grabbed their dad by the throat and he lifted him up. There was rage in his expression. "You're going to leave right now before we call the cops on you. That's pokémon abuse as well as breaking and entering and physical assault. Get. Out."

Haward was at his heels, growling to reinforce the command, fire spewing from his back and Mohawk.

"Who do you think you are, you little cocksucker? Don't touch me! You make me sick. The fact that you came from my seed makes me want to throw up every time I look at you." He shoved Ken back.

Ken, though tall and broad shouldered, was not nearly as strong as their dad. He had never gone to self-defense classes, never hit the gym, and only exercised enough to keep himself fit and healthy. It wasn't till Haward came into his life that he put any extra effort into it, and that was only to tire Haward out.

Their dad, though, hit the gym regularly. Always had, for as long as she could remember. One time, she had seen him challenge a hitmonchan and win.

If it came down to a physical fight between father and son, she had no doubt who would win, no matter how determined Ken was not to lose.

"Just go," she added on weakly, hoping that, somehow, her words would be more powerful and knowing they wouldn't be. She knew self-defense. On the road, she had had to learn it the hard way. She knew various forms of martial arts and she had used them before.

But this was the monster in the closet, the nightmare that wouldn't go away. Every little girl's fear, and this one was hers. She was four years old again, watching their dad backhand Ken across their small apartment kitchen. Four years old were too small to protect their big brothers… Four year olds were too small to…

Aqua huffed as he took a heavy, intimidating step forward. "Blastoise," he ground out, glaring at their dad. He wasn't the little squirtle her dad had tried to take away when she had been a preteen.

She stole a deep breath. And she wasn't four years old either.

"I want you to leave and never come back," she said more sternly. "Or my family will gladly escort you out."

Vy had weaved herself into the fray and had grabbed the weak and confused Kyle in her mouth. Just as sneakily, she had retreated and Kyle was now out of the way as Dale, Vy, Rush, and Ken stood in the entranceway to the living room, looking fit to fight.

Their dad gave her a weird look, as if he thought she had lost her mind. And then his hand went into his pocket where there were round little forms just visible.

This was going to turn into a battle and she wasn't entirely sure if she was ready for one in the mental state she was in.

"We're not battling here!" Ken reached out, shoved as well as he could to turn their dad towards the door, and tried to push him towards it.

Their dad sidestepped, catching Ken off balance as he was suddenly leaning against nothing, and then caught him in a chokehold as he stumbled forward.

"No!" she screamed.

It was out of the corner of her eye that she saw Haward breathing heavily, eyes going as wide as saucers. And then his mouth opened, sharp teeth, and the sound that emerged was definitely not a quilava roar, but something much larger and something much more threatening. "LET HIM GO!"

The last thing she saw before a bright light enveloped her house was her dad's shocked face.

Something reached out of the light and hit their dad with a powerful headbutt, sending him flying into the door and wrenching him away from Ken. Ken dropped to one knee, coughing, touching his sore throat and wheezing.

She ran to his side and wrapped her arms protectively around him as the pokémon who had headbutted their dad stepped in front of them, side by side with Aqua and actually towering over the blastoise by six, seven inches. An arc of flames danced across the nape of the pokémon's neck, rising viciously higher till she thought the flames would burn down her house.

It was a typhlosion. He was a typhlosion. Haward had evolved.

And he was furious.

"Get. Out." He took a step towards their dad, who appeared too enthralled by the speaking fire-type to realize the danger he was in. "Now."

Their dad didn't respond for a long time, long enough that she thought Haward was going to barbeque him. Then he slid up the door, blindly reached out for the door knob, opened the door, and… left.

Without a word or even a backwards glance.

Haward got down on all fours and stalked him all the way to his car, making sure that he left. He stayed on the curb till the small car disappeared from sight.

It was only once she couldn't hear the car anymore that she moved, and it was only to pull Ken tighter to her.

Ken was just breathing in her arms, not crying, not sobbing, not screaming, just a force of quiet strength. His arms came around her. "It's okay, Fi. He's gone now."

How could he say that? Wasn't she supposed to be the brave one now? Wasn't she supposed to be the one calming him down? Then why was she the one crying on him? Why was she cold and shaky? She released a keening wail of defeat and then sank her head into his shoulder.

She felt more than heard Haward come back to the house. His heat radiated, a sign of how angry he still was. The heat hurt, she didn't want it, and she cried harder into Ken's shoulder as he rocked her back and forth.

"Blast…" She was lifted away from her big brother into stubby, thick arms.

"Aqua, wait," her big brother's voice called.

"He knows what he's doing," came Haward's voice. It was deeper now, rougher, more mature and confident. "He's going to take her swimming."

Sure enough, they were heading towards the basement. Rush picked up Kyle and they and Dale, Vy, and Ken followed after them.

"Let's go home and leave them to it," was the last she heard of Haward.

Ken's unsteady reply was, "Okay."

It was, by the far, the greatest and worst birthday she had ever had.

:::

The next few days were busy. Not only because Ken had decided that they would give her birthday a second try, but also because he now had a typhlosion in his house. Typhlosions were reasonably larger than quilavas and that meant making a few changes.

"He's still going to sleep in my bed with me," Ken pointed out lightly. "But I'm thinking we might get an outhouse."

Haward's face screwed up into one of disdain. "Hah hah. You think you're funny, don't you?"

Ken swatted him away with a small smile.

She felt happy watching this like this. With a hum, she pulled out a loosely wrapped brown paper package from behind her back. "Here, Haward. I thought you would need this now that you're too big for your old apron."

"But we're still doing your birthday…" When she merely glared at him, Haward obediently took the package and shuffled into the living room. She and Ken followed after him.

"We haven't been cooking much, so there wasn't any urgent need to get him another apron," Ken reasoned. "But, thank you anyway."

She smiled coyly. "What are little sisters for?"

Loud, barking laughter erupted from the typhlosion, the bag on the floor and a black apron in his paws.

Ken gave her a weary look before reading what was on the apron's front.

Eat the cook

At the end of it, a small pursing kiss was apparent, except the red dripped off of them like blood and there were fangs peeking out from under the top lip.

Ken spun back towards her. "Fi!"

"Big brother!" She patted his shoulder. "Don't worry about it. I mean, look at Haward. He's loving it!" He had already slipped the neck ring on and was holding the two ties out for someone to do them up for him.

Seeing as how Ken didn't want to get near the apron, she tied them for Haward and grinned at the large smirk on his long face.

"You know, if you go to the pokémart in that, you will really freak some people out."

Haward growled appreciatively at the thought.

"Oh, no you don't! Haward, don't do that to innocent bystanders. It isn't right." Ken crossed his arms over his chest, looking for the world like the stern teacher he failed to be at school.

Haward's ears pressed flat against his skull.

She hid her grin behind her hand. Oh, yeah. He was pouting. And Ken could never say no to Haward's pout. Or, at least, he wasn't able to when he was a cyndaquil or quilava. She rolled her eyes to study her big brother's expression.

It definitely appeared that he couldn't say no to the typhlosion either and his shoulders slumped in defeat. "You can wear it once, okay?"

Haward grinned, showing off rows of sharp teeth that were definitely more intimidating than they had been.

She reveled in Haward's victory with him for a moment.

Then, unexpectedly, she dropped the pokéball. "So, big brother, what kind of guys do you like?"

Two male heads swung in her direction so fast and hard, she heard both their necks crack.

"W-what? What kind of question is that?" Ken asked. Haward was glaring at her, silently commanding her to shut up before he was forced to maim her.

"It's a sisterly question. I can't help you find the guy of your dreams if I don't have a clue what I'm looking for." Secretly, she was hoping the guy of her big brother's dreams was the one standing next to him.

Even though he wasn't technically a guy. He was definitely male, though.

Ken flushed darkly. "The school administration would drop me if they knew I had a boyfriend, Fi."

"You have tenure, so don't you dare try to pull that one on me." She walked around both of them and went upstairs, thinking that, if they had this conversation in his bedroom, Ken would be more comfortable.

Behind her, she heard the reluctant footsteps of her big brother and the heavier paws of Haward stalking after her.

"It's something I've tried not to think about," Ken clarified.

"Then think about it now," she shot back.

"He doesn't have to," Haward defended. On all fours, he turned his head up towards Ken. "You don't have to."

Ken struggled for a moment. She could see the fight in his eyes. Then he sighed and rested a hand between Haward's shoulders. "It's okay, Haward. She's not going to leave me alone till she has an answer."

"I can make her leave you alone," Haward added desperately.

Ken glowered at him. "No, you can't. It's okay, really. It's just… type-talking." He grimaced.

"Yeah, just type-talking," she repeated. "Like, my types big." She thought about that for a second. "In more ways than one," she added cunningly. "Or, if it's a girl, I like them smaller than me."

"In more ways than one, am I right?" Ken guessed sourly. She grinned and that was answer enough for him as he sighed and flopped back onto the bed. Haward climbed in after him, purposely shoving his body against hers and nearly sending her over the edge of the mattress. Now that he was bigger, there was hardly any room for a third person with both males stretched out, and Haward was obviously angry enough with her to not care to try and fit her in.

Ken hadn't noticed, though, as he had closed his eyes in thought, so, to be spiteful, she simply sat down on Haward's hind legs and refused to be thrown as they moved and jerked beneath her.

"Stop moving around so much, you two," Ken snapped. "I'm trying to concentrate."

Haward immediately went still and she grinned, victorious.

"I suppose he has to be good with kids," Ken eventually muttered. "And…"

"He has to be strong…" she prompted.

Haward looked back at her with wide eyes.

"He doesn't have to be strong," Ken grumbled. "He can't be a coward, though. Arceus knows I wouldn't be able to live with a man who hid behind me."

Haward was starting to catch on as to why she was doing this. It wasn't to get Ken to go out into the world and start looking for the guy of his dreams, it was to see if maybe the male of his dreams was already nearby. He looked back at her with fear and hope in his eyes, wisely not saying a word as to not disturb Ken.

"How about intelligence-wise?" she asked.

"I wouldn't want to have a conversation with a slowpoke if that's what you mean. I suppose, intelligence-wise, he would have to know his stuff." He shifted, getting more comfortable in creating his dream partner. "He'd have to be as tall as me or taller. I don't want to have to bend down."

Haward was roughly eye-to-forehead with Ken. So far, so good.

"This is just ridiculous, Fi," Ken interrupted himself. "I don't want to have to think about this."

"You're thinking about it anyway. How about sex?"

Haward shuddered beneath her. "I can kick her out whenever you want," he told Ken, voice low and husky.

"She'll just come back with force." Ken sighed. There was a definite blush to his ears and nose. "I don't know, Fi. I've never… Well. When one's gay and one doesn't want to admit it and also can't lie with a woman, there's a lack of experience."

Her big brother was a virgin. That was… surprising. Because, Arceus knows, she had heard enough about how gorgeous her big brother was when she went to his college graduation. Some of his graduating class had come up to her and asked her for his phone number, seeing as how he hadn't been the type to just hand it out. Others had tried to wheedle information from her.

None of them had succeeded, of course.

"Well, then, we'll just leave that box blank," she assured him.

"As your big brother, that shouldn't even be a question."

"I'm looking at this from a friend's point-of-view instead of a sibling's. What kind of eyes do you see when you think of the perfect male for you."

His eyebrows scrunched together. "I see…"

His entire face was painted red as he jerked out of bed and ran for the adjoining bathroom. The door slammed shut behind him and locked.

"Just go home, Fi!" he yelled through the door.

She blinked befuddled eyes at Haward, who, after a moment of confusion, glared at her.

"He knows I'm just going to keep bothering him till he tells me." He had already said as much.

Haward just growled at her. She had definitely pushed her luck.

Looking back into the bedroom, though, watching Haward trying to sneak up on the bathroom, she knew she didn't feel bad about it. Ken had realized something about himself.

Hopefully, it would be something involving Haward.

:::

She got two phone calls in one day.

The first was a friend calling her, asking for her water-type expertise a few towns over. He told her she might be stuck there for a few days, a week at most, but it was important.

So she agreed.

The second call was her brother. There were two things wrong with that:

One, they lived right next door to each other. She didn't even know her big brother's phone number for the fact alone that, even mortally wounded, she could crawl to his doorstep or yell and he would be at her side like a lightning bolt.

Two, he didn't use the video phone. So, instead of seeing him, all she could do was listen to his soft voice asking her in a low, desperate way to not drop by the house for a bit. He needed some time to think about… things.

She told him about the trip, feeling every word roll off her tongue with a sort of fear in her belly.

His reply was short. "Oh. Well then, be safe."

And then he had cut off the connection.

She had wanted to go over to his house immediately, but he had asked her not to and she wanted to respect that. Just this once, anyhow. Besides, it wasn't like he was alone. He hadn't said anything about Haward leaving the house, so…

Yeah, she had been pretty sure that he would be safe.

That happened to be three and half weeks ago, because, her friend, the idiot that he was, had ended up doing some screwy things that concluded in her longer stay away from home. The whole time, she had refrained from calling Ken, feeling nervous and out of her mind the entire time.

Her pokémon had been the only things keeping her calm as she awaited the day she could barge back into his house and bother him once again. It had been all she had been able to think about, even long into the nights as sleep evaded her.

She had almost regretted asking Ken his type. Then, with a steely will, she refused to. Ken had already gone so long without thinking about it, she hadn't wanted him to go the rest of his life alone! She was his little sister, she was allowed to look to his future happiness…

Didn't she owe him that little bit, at least?

It was with wheels on fire that she raced back home. In a fashion that she was becoming familiar with, she barged into his house before even touching her own doorstep.

She was about to howl "I'M BACK!" to announce herself…

Except a keening wail overrode her deep inhale and stole the air from her lungs. She knew that sound… That was a sex sound. That was… like… not something she needed to hear in her big brother's house.

She stumbled for the door, her immediate thought being that she could always come back later.

Randomly, a fact she had learned when she had been a young trainer flew through her mind. Mating season for fire-type pokémon takes place during late winter, early spring so that the newborn eggs will have the benefit of hatching midsummer when it is usually hottest…

Oh, Arceus, it was the beginning of February.

She heard another embarrassingly high-pitched cry. A feral roar made her heart stop.

She remembered vividly Haward telling her that, if he was a typhlosion, he wouldn't be able to stop himself.

This was bad. This was so bad!

She charged up the stairs. "KEN! HAWARD?"

There was a yelp of confusion as she swung open the bedroom door.

"Oh, ARCEUS!" she screamed. "MY EYES!"

"What are you doing in here?" Ken cried out, and then grunted.

She seriously did not want to know why. In the single glimpse she had caught, she had seen more than she would have wanted to, enough to give her nightmares, no doubt.

Haward's animalistic growls made her peek, though, and her heart leaped into her throat as she met ravenous scarlet eyes. The arc of pores along the nape of neck were spewing flames high enough to make her nervous but she seemed the only one concerned by it as her big brother wrapped both his arms around Haward's shoulders and pulled his upper body up to press his mouth against the typhlosion's ear.

She couldn't hear what he whispered, but she could see it calm down the lust-crazed pokémon.

If her big brother was a victim, she concluded hastily, he was a happy one. And she didn't need to be here to see this.

"I-I'm gonna… go now. A-and, um… Yeah. You two seem to know what your dick – doing. Doing. Yeah, doing." Crap, she needed to stop saying that. "Later!"

If she holed herself up in her house till the reported end of the fire-type mating season, that was no one's business but her own.

:::

"We really only have you to thank," Ken shot abruptly into the awkward silence. "Thanks, Fi, for everything."

She still wasn't quite ready to meet his eyes, seeing as it had taken two more days after the fire-type mating season was cooling down for her to actually come over again. This time, she had knocked, rather quietly at that, hoping they wouldn't hear and she could run away again.

Sadly, that hadn't been the case, and she had never dreaded more being in the company of her big brother than she did just then.

"I have no clue what you're talking about," she squeaked.

"If it hadn't been for you," he clarified slowly, finding great interest in the coffee table, "Haward and I… wouldn't be where we are."

She didn't want to know where Haward was, she didn't want to know where Haward was, she didn't want to know where Haward was, she didn't want to know where Haward was…

"Where is Haward?" she asked, mentally cursing herself.

"Sleeping."

It was on the tip of her tongue to make an innuendo, but… The conversation was already awkward enough. She shifted on the cough and cleared her throat. "So, uh, how did that romance begin? Did his mating instincts come on and everything just spilled out afterwards?" She winced.

That didn't come out the way she meant it to.

And that didn't sound right either! Someone, just shut her up!

Ken obviously agreed because his face turned red. "Actually… it began before his mating season."

"Tell me about it."

"When you asked me whose eyes I saw," he admitted slowly, hesitated, and then carefully continued, "I saw his. That unnerved me. Even in pokémon years, I'm still robbing the cradle!"

"What makes it worse is that you're a teacher," she pointed out and then winced again. Shut up, shut up, shut up…

"Shut up, Fi," her big brother sighed. "Then there was the fact that he's a pokémon. He's not human."

"No, he's not." She said the first smart thing that day. "But he still loves you like a man in love would."

Ken chuckled. "I suppose he does. After you left, we ended up having a very long talk and, when he told me his feelings and I tried to deny him – because he is a very healthy, young male typhlosion, I imagine he could do better than an older human male –, he put me straight on a few details. When I told you we need time to ourselves, it was so we could… test the waters."

"So to speak," she remarked.

"So to speak, yes."

"And… now?"

"I'm not carrying his eggs, if that's what you mean."

"I was going to get to that, but, no. I mean, how do you feel?"

Her big brother smiled at her. It was breathtaking. "I feel as if I could never be happier than I am right now."

"That's good. Great." She reached out and pulled him into a hug. "I love you, big brother. All I want in the world is for you to be happy."

He hugged her back. "You've always made me happy, Fi."

And that… was the happiest she felt she had ever been.

:::

The End.

Author's Note: I felt… semi-uncomfortable writing a poképhiliac story, but… I really want to do it at the same time! If you're offended by this material, chances are, you shouldn't be reading it.