Part V: Bickering and Bedtimes
A low moan snapped me out of my little talk with my trusted Gani.
I looked over my shoulder and found my rival holding his gut and moaning as if he was in pain. Curiosity got the best of me and I ended up finding myself walking over with narrowed eyes.
"Redhead, what are you doing?"
"Nngh," Silver looked up with narrowed eyes, his face sweating and his eyes diverted to the ground. "I-I don't know...I just feel like I'm going to hurl and—" He suddenly took a sharp breath followed by a moan. I gulped as Gani looked between us with unease in his golden orbs. "My back is killing me!"
"Calm down," Those few words were more for me instead of him as I slowly made my way to his side. "You're makin' yourself sick." I mentally scolded myself for the slip of the tongue that made me sound as if I was a little ten-year-old again. I slowly lifted his right arm and slung it over my shoulder just seconds before his knees gave out below him.
Luckily, my many years of training experience gave me quite the reflex.
I just grabbed the back of his jacket and pulled him back up with only a slight grunt of effort. I looked up to find Silver's stoic Typhlosion giving us a bored stare as Gani's eyes never left us for a single heartbeat. I jumped slightly as to lift Silver back up and cringed in the low moan he released as he slammed into my side.
"Hey Gani, I could really use some help here."
My starter wasted no time in scrambling to Silver's other side and lifting his other arm over his neck. A low growl escaped his throat at the contact, the poor Herb Pokémon never enjoying any contact with my rival. He lifted him anyway and I gave his frowning face a smile to ease the discomfort. Silver's head just lifted ever so slightly as to look at his Typhlosion. The Volcano Pokémon's eyes suddenly gain a spark of humor and I just frown at the Pokémon's sudden look of amusement.
"Alright," I look at my partner and give him a nod. His gaze immediately sharpens into a look of utter concentration, just as he always gives me before a battle. His nervous quivering stops instantly. "Let's let him lay down so we can figure out what's wrong with him."
Gani nodded and with our combined strength, we managed to let the nauseous rival rest on the lone bed. Silver just groaned and rolled over towards the center of the bed as my mind began to panic.
Sure, I had taken care of him once when he was sick in Azalea Town's outskirts, but that was quite a few years ago. Besides that, taking care of him was so much easier when I knew what was wrong with him. This time, I have no clue as to what's making him sick and only a moaning rival to help me.
"So," I gulped down that nervous feeling and narrowed my eyes at him. "What's wrong with you?" He just let out a moan and rolled over as to not even look at me. I found myself glaring at him and shaking my head. "I can't help you if you're being all dramatic—"
Suddenly, a small eureka moment happened.
I now found myself grinning as I crept up to the bedside. Before either starter could interfere, I launched myself onto the bed. Silver quickly spun around and gave me a look of horror as I came towards him, laughing and grinning like a madwoman.
"Get away from me!" Silver just held me back with both hands on my shoulders and his feet pressing against my gut. "I'll puke on you if you don't get off of this bed right now!"
"Oh, really?" I grinned wider and tried to press my hands against his cheeks. "Seems to me your reflexes are just fine, Jerky!"
"Not uh!" He suddenly kicked me away and started to fake a shiver with red cheeks. He then weakly coughed into his elbow as I sat up on the hard floor and rubbed my sore behind. "See? I'm very sick and I don't want to make you sick, so leave me alone!"
I lifted a single finger with a smirk. "Sick people can't hold off their rival with only their hands and feet, dummy." I felt a surge of pleasure as he gave me a vicious scowl. "Next time, act weak, dum-dum."
"Shut your mouth, pest!"
I just rolled my eyes and stood up with a little help from Gani. "Aw, save it, red." I then let out a yawn and stretched, the eyes of my rival suddenly burning through me. I self-consciously pulled down my jacket and glared at the redhead on the single bed. "Now get your butt of that bed," He slowly smiled at me as I went on, "I'm tired and want to get some sleep. There'll be a mess of people here tomorrow, and I'll bet your cowlick Lance is gonna show up here."
We both cringed at the mention of the red-haired man in the black cape.
Oh sure, Lance and I teamed up to take down a Rocket Base in Mahogany Town a while back—a good year or so ago—but our friendship pretty much stopped once I went back on the road. Lance is a serious individual, always looking for order and perfection in everything around him. I'm more of the go-getter who'd rather travel around and take things head-on instead of wasting time with a plan or two—not that I never plan, that would be foolish. But thanks to the fact that I beat him in the League, he was automatically dubbed my new boss.
And I hope I don't have to explain that I don't do well with orders.
Silver...well, Silver's just a sore loser from what I've gathered so far. Which pretty much is dead-on looking back at our early battles together.
"Sorry, Marshmallow-Head." He waved me off and grabbed some of the blankets, wrapping himself up like a Kakuna. "I'm already on this bed and I'm not moving an inch." He looked over his shoulder at Gani and I and gave us a sneaky grin. "Besides, I always use this bed so it's basically mine. Go sleep on the couch or something."
"No way!" Gani and I let out a collective roar of disagreement as Silver's Typhlosion lumbered over to the foot of the bed and climbed up onto the mattress. The bed groaned under his weight but the Volcano Pokémon ignored it. "I've been walkin' around all day and I'm not gonna sleep on the stinkin' couch!" I ignored my childish voice and continued as Typhlosion shot me a grin. "You get your buttocks out of that bed and go sleep on the couch! I deserve that bed!"
"Typhlo ro lo phlo." Typhlosion just grinned at me as my arms dropped to my side and found a place on my hips. Silver sat up slightly and gave us a confused look as I found myself growling at the Volcano Pokémon.
"Of course I want the bed, Ty! Why wouldn't I want the bed?!"
The great Pokémon just gave me a serious expression and stated in the most formal tone he could manage, "Phlo ro sion ty."
The instant his words left his mouth, my face burst into a vibrant scarlet. Gani beside me let out a quivering roar of disgust as I did the same. "That's just gross! Typhlosion you're such a—ugh!" I just threw my hand into the air and walked over to the couch, diving face-first into the cream cushions. "Forget it, Jerky!" My voice was muffled by the soft surface, so I had to yell even louder. "Keep the bed! I don't even want to touch that thing!"
"What did he say?!" I looked up to find Silver giving me a harsh frown. "What did he say to you? I swear, if he's being inappropriate again, I'll—"
I just lifted my head, folded my arms and glared at the redhead. "He said I wouldn't want the bed because you've wet the bed before." Silver's face lit up a bright crimson shade and sputters leaked out, unable to form words. He gave his head a violent shake as Typhlosion just laughed at us.
"I have not!" His face was so red at this point, I couldn't tell what was hair and what was his face. "I've never, ever wet the bed! Only weaklings wet the bed, weaklings and old people!"
I just laughed and shook my head. "Nah, it's fine. You go ahead and take that bed that you've claimed and I'll just sleep on this nice couch."
The harsh sound of feet slamming against the floor made me smirk. Perfect, I tried to hide my smile as Silver grabbed my shoulder and spun me around to face him. He took the bait like a good little rival! Figures, he's always so touchy about his pride.
"Look here, Marshmallow-Head," His namesake eyes narrowed and I hid my smirk with a practiced pokerface. "You can say that I'm a jerk," He started listing in front of me, a finger for each claim. "You may call me Psyduck-Butt, you can ruffle my hair like I'm some child, you may even take me skydiving without a parachute," His eyes became furious slits as he finished, "But you cannot say that I wet the bed!"
I shrugged my shoulders. "I'll remember this conversation for later use, however I still think you've wet the bed."
He then grabbed my wrist with a growl and flung me towards the bed, earning a laugh from me and a furious roar from Gani. I landed oh so gracefully on my rear and just laughed as he stormed over. Gani closed in with vines at the ready to lash the redhead, but I just called him off with a simple whistle.
Luckily for me, I made the whistle sound similar to a flirtatious whistle, making my sensitive—yes, I'm taking about Silver here—rival blush like he's never blushed before. This of course just made me laugh, and pretty soon Typhlosion was guffawing and rolling on the floor, holding his aching gut and sides.
"Y-You quit that!" Silver snapped his fingers and pointed at me as if I was a Growlithe, but I ignored it. "I did not wet that bed! See?! It's perfectly dry!"
Just to amuse the flustered redhead, I rubbed my hands on the mattress and let out a small hum of judgement. "Hmm, it seems dry enough..." I slowly wrapped my fingers around the comforter and slipped my left hand behind my back. "And it seems quite comfortable up here instead of that lumpy couch..." I made a slightly saddened face at my rival, causing him to make a face of discomfort.
"Look," Silver gave me a harsh glare and pointed to the floor. "If it makes you feel better, you can let every single one of your Pokémon out to sleep with you." I grinned as he rubbed the back of his head and went on, "You did say that you enjoy letting them out of their Pokéballs at night and I'll let them keep you company."
"Really?!" I let my face light up with excitement—another trained trick of mine—and beamed at him. "Thank you so much, Silvy!"
"S-Silvy?!" He jolted at the nickname but he shook it off in time. Meanwhile, I tapped each and every one of my Pokéballs on my belt as to tell them to come on out.
What? A girl always keeps her Pokémon under her sleepwear just in case of a midnight battle or a situation that requires your Pokémon's assistance. ...Or, perhaps I'm the only one who'd ever think to do such a thing.
A blinding flash of light engulfed the room. Silver covered his eyes with his jacket sleeves and let out a roar of confusion as Typhlosion and Gani looked at me in confusion. Once the dazzling lights faded away, Silver lowered his arms and found a sight out of his nightmares.
My whole team was sitting on the bed with happy grins, eager to be out of their Pokéballs.
Mismagius floated above the bed for a few moments before flying around the room with a laugh, happy to see my rival and of course, the prospect of seeing his Gengar. She stopped in mid-flight to phase through my rival and laugh, earning a shiver and a stuttered complaint.
Skarmory was of course curled up on the bottom of the bed with his eyes trained on the lone Fire Type in the room. Even after meeting Ho-Oh over a year ago, he never trusted Fire Types. It actually made since, seeing as Ho-Oh got agitated and flung me off of his back and all.
My graceful Water Type, an elegant Milotic, slithered off the bed with a low coo. She was mostly looking for the best place to curl up and lay down. I never understood how she could be on land so often, but she seemed to be alright with land travel.
The newest addition to my team, a short blue Pokémon, was sitting in my lap with a grin. He was a species straight from Sinnoh, and quite the little fighter already. This little Pokémon was a Riolu, a special Pokémon that could sense the aura of those around him. He seemed not to care that a stranger was in the room, however, he just played with my pigtails-lacking hair.
The final member of my team was staring at my rival with a growl, utterly infuriated by the redhead's presence yet again. He let out a small roar of warning before nipping the air near my poor rival. Silver took quite a few steps back before giving Glaceon a scowl.
"Glace, Gani, Serene, Rilu, Skar and Magi," All of my Pokémon turned to face me within seconds of their names being called, making me smile at their vibrant eyes. "As you know, this redhead here is our little rival—"
"How are you calling little, shorty?!"
I simply shot Silver a look before continuing, "You are under strict rules as to not eat him in his sleep. Silver here is to be treated as an important guest in our presence, so don't go biting him and stuff while I sleep."
"Yeah," Silver quickly looked around and gave each and every Pokémon a glare. "You'd better not try anything, little pests! I'll be watching you all night as to make sure!"
"Silver," I lowered my voice and suddenly found myself yawning. Rilu gave me a startled look in my lap before I went on, "Why don't you let your Pokémon out?" He gave me a look of bewilderment as I tried to explain. "If everyone's Pokémon are out of their Pokéballs, they'll all be very happy. Besides," I shot him a knowing look and finished, "I already know that you let them out when you sleep."
Total shock flashed across his face as I let out a snicker.
True, I had caught my rival letting his Pokémon out in the middle of the night and then tucking himself in. At first, I was expecting evening training. After all, I'm pretty famous for my nocturnal training regiments and my sleep-lacking habit of staying up all night long with my Pokémon. In fact, I've held a record of not sleeping for more than four hours over a span of three days.
Although, going for so long without sleep was not my intention. Things were just...difficult at that time.
"You," I snapped out of my thoughts to find my rival holding the remaining five of his Pokéballs in hand. "Are one sneaky little pest. I'll have you know that if speak a word of this to anyone, I will make you life a living nightmare." I just shrugged and grinned at him.
"Well, let them out!"
He let out a magnificent sigh before hurling the capsules high. Every Pokémon in the room turned and watched as vibrant light lit up the shrinking space. Five Pokémon hit the floor with a snicker and a few mutters, some of them obviously just woken up.
Alakazam gave us all a glare of disapproval before going off to a remote corner of the room and crossing his legs. Suddenly, he began to float in the air with his eyes closed. Silver and I watched as his meditation turned into loud snores. I just tilted my head to the side and tried to hold in a laugh. Someone's grumpy!
Gengar looked around with excitement before floating over to Magi. The two Ghost Types exchanged a few words before slipping into the shadows inside the room and hiding from our sight.
Magneton, however, looked around with bored eyes before heading to the television and floating down to the floor. I couldn't really tell what he was doing, but I assumed that he was trying to sleep.
Crobat grinned before fluttering over to the headboard and gripping the wood between his feet and nodding off without even so much as a squeak.
Sneasel, being the tiny little trickster he was, immediately headed to Glaceon and started poking him all over his face and sides. My Fresh Snow Pokémon let out barks of agitation before spinning around and trying to nip the Sharp Claw Pokémon at every turn. Silver smirked and tried to hold in a chuckle or two as the crafty Sneasel just laughed at Glaceon and headed over to see me.
"Why, hello there, Snea!" I patted the short Pokémon just as Glaceon fell over from spinning around too much. Sneasel let out a few happy chirps and nuzzled my hand with a grin. "How have you been doing lately?"
He gave me a cheerful yip before pushing his way into my lap and sitting down beside Rilu. My Emanation Pokémon gave the Sharp Claw Pokémon a nervous squeak before squishing himself closer to me. Sneasel just chirped and patted the smaller Pokémon on the head.
"Well then," Silver looked around at all of our Pokémon and sighed. "That certainly made this room seem quite a bit smaller." He glanced back to me and frowned. "Why couldn't you have small and fluffy Pokémon like normal girls?"
"Because I just so happen to like what I like, Sir Judgmental." He gave me a look that basically meant 'you-can't-be-serious' before sighing once again. I gave him a hard glare before he let out yet another exasperated sigh.
"Just what is your problem, Silver?" I gave him a glare and shifted in my spot. "You sound like you can't breathe."
"There's nowhere to sleep, genius!" He pointed to the couch and I blinked as Serene's long body took up every inch of the couch—and then some. "Your 'beautiful' Water Type is hogging it all!"
"Umm," I tried to think of something just as Sneasel patted the space in front of me.
"Snea! Snea sel snea snea~"
I blushed at the Pokémon's smug idea and shook my head. Silver, being the Pokémonly-challenged person he is, simply blinked at us before pointing at his Sneasel.
"Alright, what was his big idea this time?"
I slowly lifted my head as I tried to calm myself down. My heart was beating a mile a minute right now, and it was all because a Pokémon said one little thing. Man, I'm getting really bad...
"Sneasel...well," I tried to find the words to say as he continued to glare and us. "He suggested that we share the bed and just call it a night." Our faces both lit up and I shook my head to prevent my mind from thinking too long about it.
"That's..." He tried to yell in disgust before he simply let out a sigh and threw his hands up. My eyes grew wide as he trudged over to the other side of the bed and flopped on the mattress. I scooted over a bit just seconds before he lifted his head and looked up at me with a serious expression, his hair shielding those bright eyes of his.
"Look, I know this seems stupid, but I'm too tired to do anything else. All that faking being sick made me feel like I was about to just conk out, so I'd just go with it for once."
"Are you kidding me?!" I found my voice to be a desperate yelp at this point. "What about your pride?! You never even so much as sit by me most days, let alone sleep next to me!" Silver just pulled himself up and narrowed his eyes at me. Sneasel jumped out of my arms and raced to his trainer's side. A few yips rang out and Glaceon jumped to his paws.
We both turned to find the Fresh Snow Pokémon growling with a dangerous glint in his eyes. Silver and I exchanged a nervous glance before turning back to the approaching Ice Type. Silver backed up a considerable amount and pressed his back against the headboard before turning to me with a glare.
"Don't just sit there, do something!"
I gulped down a bit of nervousness and held out a hand to my growling partner. "Stop it, Glace! Silver's a friend, not lunch!" Teal eyes snapped to my face before darting back to the redheaded rival beside me. I growled in frustration and shifted the sleeping—who must have fallen asleep some time before Silver got up here—Rilu in my arms and tried again.
"Glaceon, I'm letting him stay up here!"
Two sets of eyes blinked for a moment before slowly turning towards me. I frowned in a stubborn attempt at shielding my pride—which did not want to share a bed with my fluffy-haired rival—from this one event. I looked between a blushing rival and a confused partner before continuing on with my scolding.
"If you are concerned for my personal space—which I would be as well, seeing as he's been known to get grabby," Silver let out a few sputters of protest at my side comment, but I went on unamused. "You may sleep between us. The only rule is not to antagonize Silver or to bite him unless I say so."
Glaceon let out a howl of protest but I just shot him a firm look—as much as it hurt to do so. His tail drooped and a low sigh filled the room as the Fresh Snow Pokémon waddled up to the space between us and laid down. I smiled as he hid his nose behind his paw and lowered his raised scruff.
"Wow," I looked over to find Silver giving the Ice Type a wide berth and a look of amazement. "I never realized that you could take charge like that."
"Pah!" I laughed a bit and threw some of my hair over my shoulder with a smirk. "You think I became the Champion with just my good looks?" I batted my eyelashes at him before I went on, "I creamed every Gym Leader in Johto, tamed a great bird of fire, caught the attention of one of said great bird's messengers, kicked Team Rocket back down into the hole they crawled out from and finally, kicked Lance's royal butt and became the new Champion." He gave me an irritated look before I finished up my little show.
"In case you've forgotten, my thieving rival, I happen to be the strongest person in all of Johto! I take charge because I am in charge."
He just rolled those metallic orbs of his and pulled on the comforter. "Can we skip all of this chit-chat and go to sleep? I'm freezing cold and tired!"
"Oh!" At the mention of being cold, I looked to the window. Sure enough, we left it open to invite all of the frozen air inside of our cozy room in the Pokémon Center. "We forgot to close the window."
"So that's why I'm growing a pair of chopsticks right now."
"Oh, don't be so dramatic, Silv!" I just laughed and slipped out of bed. With quick feet, I reached the window and slammed it shut. The room gave me a few dirty looks of annoyance before I locked the window back up and headed back to bed. I stifled a laugh when I found Silver under the blankets up to his chin, Sneasel right beside him equally as cozy, Glaceon curled up between my indentation and the snoozing Sneasel and Rilu fast asleep right where I was moments before.
"There," My voice was barely a whisper as I gently lifted Rilu and crawled in bed. I snuggled up under the blankets, tucked Rilu in beside Glace and then turned to give my rival a pat on the head. An annoyed grunt proved he was still awake and I just chuckled and fixed the pillow I was going to share with Rilu. "That should do the trick."
"Yeah," A yawn cut between Silver's words as he rolled away from my side and presumably closed his eyes. "Whatever. Just don't keep me up all night, you nocturnal pest."
"And goodnight to you to, Silver."
With a heavy sigh, I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep.
Author's Note: Ah, what ever shall we do with these two? I swear, one minute they're perfectly happy and being really sweet, the next minute they're pulling these stupid things just to claim the bed. Well, now they have to share it. I'm certain Lyra would've let him share if he just asked for once...
So, we get to meet all of Lyra's team! She does own a Togekiss of course, but he's currently at Elm's place to allow a bit of research on his rare species. Elm's always been curious about Togi... Silver's team is the same despite Typhlosion instead of Feraligatr. (Don't worry, Big Blue! We all still love you!)
Side note: Don't have any idea how many times I said Pokémon in this chapter, but it's probably a new record.