"Oh, Thomas! I can't believe I can see you again!" I heard a familiar voice say behind me.
We all turned around to see Zoey, the female Pikachu that I had seen a while back, with her team. There was a Buizel with a bit of fur hair with a Pansear and Bulbasaur behind him. The Pansear wore a blue bandana like the Buizel while the Bulbasaur wore a spike collar. Zoey was smiling at me and blushing (again) as she blinked.
"It's great to see you all here to take the exams," She said.
"Yeah, I'm nervous, but I'm ready," I said, smiling back at her.
"Marco, it's been a while, man," Sasuke said, smiling.
The Buizel slowly nodded to him with a slight smirk and said, "Yeah, you too, Sasuke. It's been a while since we've been in one place. So… this is your whole team? Really?"
"Yeah, I know it's different than when I said just me and Naruto…" my brother said, rubbing his head in a bit of embarrassment.
"I don't know whether quantity over quality is good, but it seems you're gonna pass with flying colors if you've got great teamwork," the Bulbasaur said.
"Oh, hi. I haven't seen you before," Sasuke said, offering a paw.
"Nice to meet you, I'm Leroy," the nice Bulbasaur said as he shook paws with his right front one.
"Might as well introduce all of us, for those who don't know us," Marco said smirking, "We're Team Lightgale. I'm Marco the leader. This is Zoey, Carter, and Leroy."
"Yo!" Carter said happily.
"Great to meet you all," Sasuke said, as Naruto slowly started to grin.
I knew what was going through his mind and frankly, I was NOT in the mood to deal with it. Because who knows what he would make the others think of me further by stating how I thought Zoey was cute and… ! Um, well, I didn't say she was cute. ! Not to say she isn't cute, but… urrrgh….
"Well, we're gonna go prepare, so we'll talk to you all later!" Marco waved to us as Team Lightgale started to leave.
"Bye, Thomas!" Zoey waved and said specifically to me.
"Um… bye!" I said, as we all waved (except Batsu).
As they all left, then Naruto gave me that wink again. I slowly deadened my gaze at him as I sort of growled under my breath. Sasuke looked back and sighed with annoyance as the other members raised an eyebrow at us.
"She's gotten cuter, hasn't she?" Naruto said, grinning.
"Shut up, or I will shock you," I growled.
"What are you two idiots blabbing about now?" King said groaning.
"Thomas secretely has a crush on Zoey," my idiot brother try to start something.
As the other three looked at me, I said with an angry look, "I do NOT. Naruto was teasing me and putting words in my mouth, making me say she was cute."
"Well, do you think Zoey's not cute?" Zev asked, folding his arms.
"Well, I technically do, but unknown to my brother here, just because you think someone's cute doesn't mean you're in love with that person," I explained, "There's a big difference between those two things."
As I looked at them, I was surprised to see all five, including Batsu, looking at me wide-eyed as if they've never heard such a thing. Was it because I said something that maybe humans only seemed to get? I mean, I mean no disrespect to Pokémon or humans who hold them in high respect, but I've never seen one that knew into depth about love before. So, I guess I could understand why what I said was a new experience for them to hear.
"R-Really?" Zev said, interested.
"I've never heard of something like that before," Sasuke said.
"Thomas, you've got me interested in this point. Can you explain please?" Batsu said, shocking me to see who of all people asked me to elaborate.
"Well… I mean, it's sort of going on how appearance shouldn't equal true love. I mean, I guess I can explain it in two points. First off, let's say for an example that a girl says I look handsome or attractive. They may think I look good, but that doesn't automatically mean she and I are gonna date or be future mates. And the second point really is a moral thing for me. I don't like girls who are just looks alone; I look inside of a girl and see what she's really like. I'd rather date the ugliest girl who is the sweetest and king person in the world than a girl who's beautiful yet is a total drama queen or rotten person," I explained.
King made an impressed face as he said, "Wow, pipsqueak, that was really intelligent and wise of ya."
Giving him an ignored stare of unappreciation, Naruto wagged his tail and said, "Well, I think that's awesome! I've never thought about love that way before."
"Naruto, when have you ever thought of love? You've thought of eating and rescue missions; that's it," Sasuke said, folding his arms.
"Heh, you don't know that much about me, bro. I might just surprise you," Naruto said, grinning to cause Sasuke to roll his eyes.
"Believing love in a complex meaning other than the outside and viewing the personality… I completely agree with this, Thomas," Batsu said, nodding to me.
"R-Really? Wow, I never thought something I'd say something that made you interested!" I said really and truthfully amazed.
"Hey, don't lose your focus, kid. We got an exam to pass," King said smiling.
It was then that out of the corner of my eye, I saw a little Pokémon hiding behind a corner of a building. He was a small Treecko who looked a little under my age, but had the old personality of mine: shy, timid, and cautious. I do have to say I really loved his Fedora hat. That made him look like an explorer. And it seemed that Zev knew who he was, because he actually sweetly smiled at him and then looked at Sasuke.
"Sasuke, I gotta go for just a second. I gotta check on something," he said, and with a nod from my brother, walked over to the Treecko and bent down talking to him.
Right as Zev left, I noticed a female Umbreon slowly approached from behind Batsu and advance towards the group. She was a normal colored Umbreon, but she had a bit of bangs near her ears. I watched as she slowly came up behind the Riolu and then rubbed into him. She slowly snuggled into him as she walked romantically around him. Batsu slowly closed his eyes and raised his head up, shockingly starting to purr a bit. And to make me surprised as heck, he started to smile! He snuggled back into her as she slowly brought her face to his cheek and then licked it gently. She then looked at Sasuke, who smiled happily at her.
"Lemme guess, Karine, you want to talk to Batsu quickly?" he asked.
Karine nodded and said, "If I could have a couple minutes, I'd like to."
Sasuke chuckled and nodded, "All right, you can. Batsu, we'll see you in a bit."
Batsu slowly smiled at Karine (who anybody could deduce now must've been Batsu's girlfriend) and walked with her to a spot so the two of them could talk. It was then that Zev had come back and the Treecko was gone. We all turned to him and he nodded to us.
"Sorry, if I took so long to come back," he said.
"It's perfectly fine, but," Naruto said, "I didn't know you knew a Treecko."
Zev smiled and waved it off, "Oh, that was Sorren, my little brother."
My brothers and King looked automatically shocked then as the Charmeleon said, "W-What!? You have a little brother!? When!?"
"What's such a big deal about me having a brother?" Zev asked, folding his arms.
"Well, I don't want to step on your toes about past things, Zev, but besides your father, I've never heard of other family relations you had," Sasuke said.
"Yeah, I really don't like to talk about it, but Sorren has been living with me for a long time. He's really shy and nervous around others besides me, so it's no wonder you've never seen him around at all," he explained.
Just listening to everyone else and seeing how many Pokémon loved them made me feel a bit sad. I mean, Sasuke and Naruto has the Ramen Shack and Kangaskhan Storage people to take care of them, Batsu has his dad and Karine, King has his brothers, and now even Zev has this Sorren guy. I mean, I had the old man, Tucker and the group, and even the principal, police officers, and the other trainers. But they were… technically dead in the past. So, I was really the loner here, but I couldn't get down. I have to give it my all for this exam.
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