"All right, guys! Eat up!" Davin placed three bowls of Pokemon food on the floor in front of the three. They happily began eating as Davin went to his backpack to get something. It was evening and they were at the Pokemon Center in Rustboro City.

Davin took out his badge case and looked at the Stone Badge. "My first Hoenn badge! One step closer to the other seven." He turned his gaze to his Slakoth as it was eating. "And it's all thanks to you, Luck." He poured another bowl of Pokemon food and placed it next to Luck's half empty one. "For winning us the badge, you get seconds!"

"Mud?" Ros looked up from eating in shock. "Mud Mudkip?" It questioned the boy.

As if he understood Ros's words, Davin replied, "I always give the Pokemon who gave me the win in a gym battle seconds for dinner. It's just a little reward to show how much I'm grateful."

"Mud..." Ros lowered its head sadly as it thought about the battle against Roxanne. It defeated her two Geodude with ease, but lost after getting hit with Nosepass's Zap Cannon twice. In truth, it wanted to do more during the fight, but it just didn't have the energy after the second blast.

Halo noticed its friend's sadness and crawled over to it. "Wurmple Wurm? (What's the matter?)" It asked.

"Mud. (Nothing.)" It replied.

"Wurm Wurm Wurmple Wurm. (There's obviously something wrong. I can see it on your face.)"

Ros sighed. "Mudkip... Mud Mud Mudkip. Mudkip Mud Kip. (I'm just... disappointed that I couldn't do more for Davin in today's battle)"

"Wurm Ple Ple. Wurm Wurm Wurm-ple Wurm Wurm. (But you did great. You told me you defeated two Geodude, right?"

"Mud Mud Mud-kip. (But that still wasn't enough.)

Their conversation was interrupted when the center's clock dinged 9:00 p.m. "Guess we'd better turn in. All right, guys, back in your Poke balls." Davin returned Halo to its Poke ball first before kneeling down to his Slakoth. "You can sleep outside with me tonight if you want."

"Slak-oth!" It nodded happily.

"Mudkip?!" Ros said in shock. Davin returned it before it could do or say anything.


3 hours later, in the rented bedroom, Davin was asleep with Luck on top of his chest above the sheets. Meanwhile, inside Davin's bag, Ros was in its Poke ball, wide awake, thinking.

"(It's not fair. Why is Luck getting special treatment just because he took out one Pokemon? I mean, I took out two of them. Where's my reward? I know that battles aren't about winning or losing, but... I just can't get this out of my head.) His eyes narrowed in anger. (Another thing: I was here way before Luck came along. He's the one who should be in his Poke ball and I should be the one sleeping with Davin! I'm the one who got him this far! He should be treating ME like that! WHY ISN'T HE?!)" Right then, the Poke ball opened by itself and Ros appeared next to the bed.

"(Fine! If he doesn't care about me, then I won't be around to bother him anymore.)" He nudged the door open and made his way outside with no one noticing.

As he walked across the streets, Ros thought to himself. "(Who needs Davin anyway? Sure, I was alone before he came, but I can make new friends just as easy now that I'm out of Professor Birch's lab. That way, Davin and Luck can be happy with each other and I won't be in the way.)" He continued thinking like that until he wandered into Route 116. "(Oh, perfect! I can start by making new friends here. It may be a late at night, but I'm sure it'll be alright." Ros looked around to see if he could spot any Pokemon or sleeping nests where they might be.

"(Hmm...)" He was getting annoyed from looking until he spotted four Whismur sleeping together while sitting up. "(Maybe they'll be my friends!)" He began poking them like a child would do to their parents when they wanted them to wake up. "(Hello? Wakey, wakey! Come on. Please? Wake up!)" He became frustrated, so he took a different approach. He fired a huge blast of Water Gun in their faces, waking them up immediately.

"(Finally! Hey, do you guys want to be friends?)" They didn't give him an answer, just angry looks. "(Hey, I know most Pokemon aren't night people, but come on. Wear a smile!)" Instead of smiling, all four began to glow while they grew in size. "(Uh... please tell me that's how all Whismur smile...)"


Meanwhile back at the center, without Ros's knowledge, Halo noticed his absence and it started poking Davin and Luck with the spikes on its rear.
"OWWWWW! WHAT THE-!" Davin sat straight up, holding his nose in pain. Luck rubbed its back as it stood up. "Halo! What's your problem?!"

The Wurmple crawled over to his backpack and took out Ros's Poke ball. It opened it to reveal that it was empty.

"Ros is gone!" Davin realized. "Where did he go?" Halo gestured for them to follow it as it crawled out of the room. Davin decided to not change out of his white t-shirt and blue boxers and followed with Luck at his side.


"Muuuuuddddd!" Ros screamed as he dodged a Hyper Voice attack. The Whismur were now Loudred and they were seriously ticked off at being woken up by a puny Mudkip. "Mud! Mudkip Mud! (Can't we work something out?)" He tried to reason. They ignored him and fired a combined Flamethrower attack, which Ros narrowly escaped. "(What was I thinking, waking up the pre-evolved form of a maniacal beast?)"

He ran until a tree blocked his way. The four Loudred surrounded him so that he couldn't escape. Out of fear, Ros ducked and covered his head as he shook slightly. They were about release a group Hyper Voice until...

"BRICK BREAK!" All four were swept off their feet by a single, glowing karate chop aimed low to the ground. Ros looked to see that it was Luck who had done this. He looked beyond to see Davin and Halo as well. When the four Loudred stood up, they turned their attention to the newcomers and prepared Hyper Voice.

"Halo, use String shot!" It shot out its silk and wrapped all of them in its sticky hold, making the immobile. "Now, Luck! Finish them with another Brick break!" It rushed to the side of the Loudred on the far right and struck it, knocking it into the others upon impact. Feeling afraid, they all hobbled away as fast as they could.

"Great job, you guys!" Davin knelt down and rubbed their heads. He walked over to the Mudkip. "Ros, what were you thinking? Why'd you go off by yourself like that?" Ros avoided eye contact, feeling ashamed.

"Wurmple!" Halo got Davin's attention and reached into its scales to pull out Davin's Stone Badge.

"Halo, why do you-"

"Wurm!" It silenced him. It crawled in front of Ros and began explaining while gesturing to Ros, the badge, and Luck. It took a while for him to put two and two together until he suddenly said, "Oh! You're saying Ros is jealous because I gave Luck more attention due to him winning me the gym battle, right?"

"Wurmple." It nodded.

Davin grinned a little and came over to Ros. He rubbed the back of its head as he said, "Ros, you silly Mudkip. You worked hard during that battle. Just because I praised Luck a little more than I should've doesn't mean I care about you any less."

"Mud..." It lowered its head sheepishly.

"Listen, I'm sorry I made you feel that way. I didn't realize you felt that you had to win all the time to impress me. Even though we met a while back, you should know by now that I love you all equally, just not at the same time." Davin held it in his arms. "But you know you're special to me because you're the first Pokemon I got in the Hoenn region."

"Mud!" Ros brightened and rubbed its head against his chest.

Luck walked over to Ros and held its hand out. "Slak Slakoth? (Are we still friends?)" He asked.

Ros playfully tackled him to the ground. "Mud-kip! (You know it!)" It smiled.

Everyone laughed, having had their friendships restored and small misunderstandings fixed.