Chapter Five:
Partner

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon in any way, shape, or form. The only "ownership" I can claim are the personalities and my interpretation of how Pokémon look in a more realistic light, but other than that...yeah, I don't own anything on them. XD I do, however, own my original characters and writings, unless otherwise stated. In an exceptional case, a few special OCs belong to their respective owners, I'm merely borrowing them for the story that's to unfold. I'll point them out when their time to show up comes. :3

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"Wanna be my friend?"
"No, you scare me a little."
-House and Lucas, "House M.D."

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For once, she woke without feeling like she was caught in the iron vice grip of terror and confusion. Instead, she woke groggily, almost pleasantly, with a slight weight pressing down on her chest. At first it was barely discernable and she had thought it was merely her perception of the weight of her sleeping bag. But after several belated seconds of trying—and failing—to not focus on it, she realized she could feel bumps and contours through the material, that something was curled on top of her chest and abdomen, something alive.

She sprung up with a startled gasp, flinging whatever it was that had been sleeping on top of her into her lap, before it slid onto the ground beside her. Immediately, she found herself transitioning from alarmed to fuming. Blue scales, crimson back plates, yellow-red eyes—that damned Totodile. She found herself tongue-tied, too angry and shocked and—well, she wasn't quite sure about the rest, but she sure as hell wasn't expecting a sneaky little reptile to share her sleeping space.

When she finally managed to collect a few words, she did so with utmost care, enunciating each word so that nothing could be misunderstood.

"What…do you think you were doing?"

"Well, I was sleeping, until you so rudely tossed me onto the ground. Now I'm all dirty, thanks for that," he said in kind. He sounded just as snippy and cross, as though she were the sole offender in this. Lupin's tail bristled and her ears pinned against her head. The sun was barely up and she was already seeing it to be an extremely long day ahead of her. She didn't deem his response with one of her own. Instead, she decided it was too early to deal with this back and forth banter he was obviously expecting and hoping for.

She opted for the silent treatment, although she did shoot him one more nasty glare before getting out of her sleeping bag and began putting on her boots. Totodile eyed her from the spot he had landed on, quiet for once, but it didn't last long. He snorted, short and quick before pushing up to his hind legs and waddling over to the fire pit or what was left of it.

"The fire died and it was cold. You are…very warm. Warmer than any human I've met."

That had her pause, just as she finished lacing her second boot up and she glanced at him, admittedly a little surprised. It lessened her somewhat inflamed temper, bringing it down a few notches. Pursing her lips, she stood and turned toward the sleeping bag, brushing it off and rolling it up as she went.

"Yeah, well…I'm not exactly human, now am I?" She finally replied, giving her tail a purposeful swish. Totodile watched, and she swore she saw something flash in those yellow-red eyes, something akin to interest. She finished rolling it up and whirled the latches around it, snapped them into place, and loaded it back onto her satchel. Then she began fishing out food for the morning, along with a bottle of water, and some matches.

"You don't need to hide it today. I doubt there will be many humans on the road today."

Lupin glanced back at him, a frown tugging at her lips before she turned her gaze toward the main path, not too far from where she had veered from in order to camp. Her ears gave a few experimental twitches and she craned her neck to listen in on the direction of the other camp ahead of them. She gave a sniff, a plethora of scents rushing in and already, she deemed most unimportant, some interesting, and the rest of importance. Two trainers, young, both female, carrying at least two Pokemon each: one feline, two birds, a rat. Meowth, Pidgey, Rattata, her mind suddenly supplied and generic photos of them sprung forth, textbook observation photos from one of the many books in the lab.

She sighed at last, shaking her head.

"There're trainers up ahead. Even if we passed them, I'd rather not risk them catching up and…seeing."

Totodile snorted. "Doubtful. They'll probably spend the day bumbling about in the woods and tall grass, looking for more pokémon." He paused, as though calculating his next response before adding, "Although if they don't do that and continue down the road, I see your point."

She had a gut feeling that keeping things on the down low was the best route to take. She still didn't quite understand, but it was the only thing she had to go on, the only thing she trusted at this point. Understandably, she felt less inclined to trust her headspace with anything beyond daily activities. Although, for now, in this spot, she felt somewhat safe to keep things out for the time being. She managed to get things set up, the fire going, and air filled with the smoky scent of wood burning. Again, a sense of not-quite-familiarity-but-close wove its way into her, making her feel somewhat more relaxed. It was a constant, a comfort, and perhaps it was a mite more familiar than she realized. The sky grew lighter, and the air thickened with soft mist as the food cooked. Totodile sat on one side of the fire, warming himself up, and she on the other. It was, for once, a good kind of silence she was sharing with the reptile, surprisingly.

"You were whimpering in your sleep last night," he finally said, his voice quiet. Lupin twitched in surprise at the sudden intrusion of his voice stabbing through the quietness. She turned her head to look at him, although he kept his gaze locked on the fire. Smoke curled into the air and he watched it lift and disappear. She waited for more and was rewarded for her patience.

"I tried to wake you up. You…calmed down when I got on top of you. I don't know why. But you did. So I left you alone and stayed there, just in case. And it really was cold, so it was a win-win situation, I suppose."

Her breath caught in her throat and she wasn't entirely sure if it was from fear or trepidation—perhaps both, and more—because she wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing.

"Did…did I say anything? A name? A place?" She ventured, trying not to sound desperate for answers, although she was sure she failed. Totodile regarded her with half-lidded eyes, tilted his head a little, as though to view her better.

"What's in it for me?"

"Dammit, please!" She shouted, realizing too late how loud that had sounded. Nearby Pidgey fled from the treetops, screeching in surprise and annoyance. A few Rattata and Sentret barreled out of the grass and through the trees, squeaking in irritation as they ran away. She reeled in her temper, setting her jaw and inhaling slowly before adding, "Please. Just…did I say anything? I…I-I need to know. Please, just…for once, don't be such a brat. I'm letting you stay, aren't I?"

She didn't know if she had once been for pleading. Maybe, maybe not. But at this moment in time, she was. She didn't just want to know, she needed to know. If it gave her a clue of where to look, or even who to look for, it was better than having nothing to grasp at all.

They held one another's gazes for several long moments, she would even hazard to guess nearly a full minute, before he looked away first. It felt like a small victory, although she didn't savor it.

"All right, fine," he finally conceded with what passed as a sigh. "It was hard to make out, but…I think the name you said, it was something like…it sounded like 'Alastor'."

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A name. She had a name. And it was one she'd seen in her book.

The next hour or so passed in a blur as she flipped through the leather bound book, a pen out to mark each page she found that name in. Her errand was nearly forgotten and only a reminder from the sour looking Totodile had her grudgingly pack up. Afterwards, they started anew down the beaten path that led to Mr. Pokémon's house past the rural forests and cities in between.

During that time, she poured over the entries. She ignored the things about Rougarous, Wendigos, witches, kelpies, spirits, and vampires. She looked for the personal ones, the words that spoke of a life outside hunting strange monsters that seemed to have little or no influence in this world. A name. She had a name.

She flipped to the last page, already knowing there was no entry there, but she looked anyway, almost as though she was expecting some new entry to appear with all the answers she needed, wanted. The entry was the same as ever, no magically added ones tailing after it and she sighed. It was something about called 'kitsunes', magically endowed nine-tailed fox demons. Something of the like. It was detailed and interesting, but completely useless to her situation.

She sighed as she slipped back to one of the few dog-eared pages, rereading the entry, then flipped to another, and then another, before she came to the last entry involving this 'Alastor' figure. There wasn't much, but it was enough to paint her a vague picture that this was someone she knew personally, someone who knew her, someone who might be a good friend, or maybe family member. They were someone important to her, at the very least.

And I'm trying to remember them.

It was a sliver of hope, at the very least. But it was overshadowed by the fact that she couldn't remember dreaming about them.

She finally closed the book and replaced it back in her satchel as she walked, sparing a fleeting glance at the Totodile trotting beside her on all fours. He seemed focused on the trail ahead of them, quiet and barren and quite empty of any other trainers for quite a while. Lupin couldn't smell any others for miles, so she had finally taken off her hat, letting her ears stretch.

"Hey. We should stop."

She glanced at him, but didn't falter in her steps.

"Hey!"

Fangs sank into her ankle, piercing through the jeans she wore and into her skin. She let out a strangled yelp, both surprised at the attack and from the strength that flipped her down onto the ground. Her teeth clacked at the force in which she hit the ground.

"Get off, get off!" She tried kicking with her other foot, but she only met thin air where the sneaky reptile had been. Suddenly the weight she had felt earlier that morning where he'd lain on top of her was back again. A long, toothy snout and yellow-red eyes filled her vision, a snarl resounding in her ears.

"Let's be clear about something so that we don't confuse things in the near future. I am here not because I like you, it was because none of the Professor's other pokémon were willing to be around you for longer than necessary. They are afraid of you, whereas I am not. And that means while I am on this trip, I am not some mindless beast that will starve and march itself onwards just to make you happy for whatever reason that comes to your mind. We stop and rest because it will be our best friend in the long run, especially if we run into wild pokémon."

She stared, dumbfounded and speechless. She worked her mouth, but no words came out. She wasn't entirely sure whether to be offended, angry, or impressed that such a miniscule little beast could render her as such. Another delayed beat passed before she snarled back, and without really thinking about it, she flicked him away. It was barely a smack, a touch, but it flung him off of her and into the dirt a few feet away with surprising force. He shook his head, stunned and pulled himself to his feet, nostrils flared and eyes turning to mere slits.

Lupin twisted onto her side and leapt to her own feet, jaw set tightly. "And let's get something straight on my end: I am not your trainer, but I sure as hell won't have you bossing me around. You're a stowaway, and one thing I know about stowaways is that they don't get the nice little privileges that I've been affording you. So, the new regime around here is we stop when I say, we rest when I say, and we eat when I say. You don't make the rules, I do. I carry your pokéball, and I can just as easily leave you in there the entire trip and you definitely wouldn't starve then, or complain or bite or threaten me. If you want to stay out and stick around, I suggest you get it through your head that you aren't the boss."

This was a mistake, she realized. She should have taken him back and if the professor or Phillip refused, she could have just as easily left the pokéball on the lab's front steps. And this wasn't how she planned her trip away from the lab either. She needed privacy, instinct told her she needed to be alone when the moon was full. She couldn't afford the little blue pest to see…

Cue the secondary standoff of the day, one that didn't rely on her getting information out of the damnable reptile, but one that required saying who was in charge and who wasn't. She could see the gears turning behind those yellow-red eyes, although to what goal they were working toward, she wasn't sure. When he looked away at last with flared nostrils, she knew she'd won once more, but she wondered how many of these were left in either of them. How many more times would they bash heads before the end of the trip, fighting for dominance? She wondered if other people had this much difficulty with one of their pokémon. Then the thought was chased away when she reminded herself that she wasn't a trainer.

I barely have a license as a lab assistant. And that was brought on as a nicety, not because I'd earned it.

The thought brought on a bitter taste at the back of her mouth and she had to swallow it back down without gagging. Sighing, she glanced back down the way they were headed.

"One more hour. Then we'll stop and rest."

"The forest doesn't end in an hour. We're headed toward the haunted forest."

She stared at him, surprised and dubious.

"Haunted…forest? As in…spirits?"

"Ghost type pokémon. They make the passage through difficult. The professor told me about it before he put me in your bag. You'll need to find the guide's house and rent a pokémon from her."

"Why didn't he tell me this?" And why wasn't it marked on the map, for that matter…?

"He didn't want to overwhelm you. He said we should pass through it as quickly as possible, but we do need to rest before we start. It'll take the rest of the day to get through."

She studied Totodile, still somewhat dubious about his claims and suddenly angry with the professor. Why would he even ask her to go if he didn't trust her to get through it on her own? Why bother in agreeing to let her go it alone and then turn around and betray that? That urge to turn heel and march straight back to New Bark Town was strong, almost as though a burning coal was growing hotter in her chest at the indignation at the situation.

"He wanted you safe."

"He barely knows me."

"Yes, true. A bit stupid. But he believes in the good in people. He also believes that people deserve second chances. You got that the moment I pulled you out of the lake and he brought you to the lab. He could have kicked you to the curb or left you at the police station. Instead, he brought you to the lab and gave you a temporary home with a roof and food, and gave you a job, however meager it is. Don't throw that in his face." Totodile cocked his head to the side. "He trusts you enough to help him with this. He didn't want you going off alone, though. We've been lucky a flock of Spearow or a pack of Raticate hasn't attacked, but it's not too late. Maybe the ghosts will get you."

He laughed, shaking his angled head before motioning toward the side of the road. "I told you, rest will be your best friend. And you'll need it before the forest. After that, we'll reach Florando. We can rest in a pokémon center there, free room and board for the night. And all the hot chow I can get."

He seemed so sure and so…smug about it. It really grated her nerves, but she realized, he did have a point. She would have been overwhelmed by the information. To have someone to share that mental burden with, it was the slightest relief she was actually grateful for. Then a thought hit her.

"Wait. How did the professor know you'd get this information to me in one piece? He can't understand you."

"He knows you can speak to and understand pokémon." The answer was said rather bluntly, with a hint of 'are you really that stupid?' coating his tone. She resisted the urge to scowl.

"H-how…?"

"He's a professor. He's not a complete idiot, he does notice things, ya know. He hasn't gained that prestigious title for his charming people skills, I can say that much." He eyeballed her with a little more steel to his gaze, rattling laughter sounding off in his throat again. "He noticed it from day one when you first met us. He feigned ignorance for the time being. I told you before. You're a rarity in the world. Very few people can understand pokémon. Call it a gift, although in your case, it might be something natural to you, given your…inhuman status."

Totodile cocked his head, pausing ever so briefly. "What are you, anyway?"

The frankness and pure curiosity that bordered innocent threw her off, and it made her anger die down some. Uncertainty replaced it, filled her up and made her duck her gaze. Her hands, which had been clenched at her sides, loosened and she began to fidget with them.

"I don't…really know. I…I found a journal that had been in my pockets and in it, it has…things written and drawn pictures inside it. A lot of things inside, weird things, but one of the things I think I might be is a…a werewolf."

"And what, in Arceus' name, is a werewolf?" He gave her a dubious look now, inching closer. She was apprehensive to share, but she knew he wouldn't quit. Plus, she didn't feel like having his teeth sinking into her ankle again.

"…A monster. Something that…eats people. I'd…apparently turn into some sort of…wolf creature on full moons and go hunting. It…it explains the tail, the ears, the…stronger sense of smell, sight, hearing…everything." A lengthy pause enveloped them. She barely felt the breeze that began to pick up tickling her face and teasing her hair, nor could she feel the sun's warmth disappearing as it hid behind some clouds above. Totodile kept his eyes locked on hers, not daring to break away this time. Or so it seemed for a long while. His nostrils flared slightly, giving a faint nod toward the road, ducking his gaze.

"We should rest and eat now. We'll have plenty of time to bicker the rest of the trip." With that, he moved off the path and toward a spacious grassy knoll just behind a thin copse of trees. "C'mon, hurry up. Don't make me drag your tail over here like I did dragging it out of that lake."

She blinked at the sudden shift in his demeanor, at the casualness he'd taken in the news. She eyed his waddling backside a second longer before slowly following after him, hefting her satchel a little higher on her shoulders. Slowly, she went through the motions of getting things set up, even if it was only for some lunch. Cold cuts and some bread were quickly pulled out, along with a small wedge of cheese and some water. She handed out bits of cold cuts as she nibbled on her cheese, eyeing the blue-scaled reptile all the while. There was very little comfort in the way he'd abruptly changed subjects after her confession. It gnawed at her until she was nearly finished with her food and she finally had to say something, anything.

Putting down her bottle, she regarded Totodile before asking, "Do you…believe me, or are you just going to sit there quiet-like and pretend everything's all right and really think that I'm crazy?"

"The second one."

Lupin scowled. "I'm being serious."

"So'm I. Do you honestly expect me to believe that story? If you don't want to tell me, then fine, I'll play along for the time being. It's not like I honestly care, even if it is interesting. I told you before, and I'll tell you again. I'm not here because I'm concerned for you, I'm here because the professor had me come, and because you interest me and not in the happy, fuzzy way either. You are a strange case. You're neither human nor pokémon…maybe you're both. That's why you smell so strange."

He sounded so matter-of-fact, so sure, so…so smug.

Like he knew what it was already and she was too dim to catch on. It infuriated her, but she kept quiet for the time being in spite of herself. Instead, she put her focus on finishing the rest of her food, gathering the trash and packing up everything else. After checking the map, she traced the route they were on with her finger, then poked at the town labeled 'Florando'. She frowned, measuring the distance and mentally calculating the time it would take to get there.

"It's almost thirty miles away. There's no way we can make it by nightfall."

Totodile shuffled closer, sticking his snout close to the map and eyeballed the route. He snorted.

"We don't have to. We just need to make it through the forest. Here," he motioned with a clawed digit to a patch of green. "This is all haunted forest territory. The professor showed me. We just need to find the woman who loans out Hoothoots to trainers."

"Hoot…hoot?" She echoed, her brow furrowing in puzzlement. If Totodile had the ability to roll his eyes, she was very sure he would have done so. Instead he gave her that look that told her she was being stupid without actually saying it.

"Yes. Very good. Hoot-hoot. Powder puff feather balls that look like a gourmet meal with wings." She saw the hungry gleam in his eyes and she scowled, rolling the map back up.

"Don't eat the rental pokémon."

"I would never!" He replied in a huff of mock offense. "I would rather catch and eat a wild one. They look so plump; it's hard not to think of them as food."

"You do know that the feathers on birds make them look fatter than they really are, right?"

"Apparently, you've never seen a Hoothoot," he said, then motioned with his snout toward the road. "We'll be cutting it close with the forest. It's just another few miles down the road. Come on."

She stared after the waddling blue-and-red backside of the Totodile, his tail scraping along in the dirt behind him. Lupin glanced back behind her, down the road they'd just marched along before their impromptu stop to rest. The sky above was a clear and piercing blue with barely a cloud in sight, while the forest below was deep green and brown and gray with shadow, patches of wild tall grass making up large clearings beyond the road and trees.

Her ears twitched beneath her hat at the sound of Totodile calling to her. With a resigned sigh, she turned on her heel and grudgingly followed after him.

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