Author's note: Heyo!
Whew! Okay, fun fact time! Half of this chapter has been sitting on my laptop since the fic started, and I've been looking forward to the day when I finally get to use it! The other half was written a few chapters ago, and the last bits and pieces I just did recently. So it was pretty much ready to post! XP So... here it is!
I tried something new with this chapter, that I've never seen anyone else do either! So I hope you enjoy it! Coz it won't be the last time it's used!
Chapter Twenty-six: Mixed Memories
Molly the buneary excitedly left her burrow, her stomach grumbling in anticipation of its breakfast. Which berries should she treat herself to, this fine morning?
Perhaps something sweet? Or sour? Dry? Spicy? Bitter? Maybe a combination of two flavours! Maybe even more than two! There were so many possibilities, and all of them sounded delicious! If she could take a big pot and stir all the flavours into one big soup, she'd be in heaven.
... Ah, to heck with it! She'd just go out and find some oran berries! They were her favourite, after all! The perfect mixture of all five flavours! Though she often wished the flavours were stronger. If only mega oran berries existed. But alas...
Giggling to herself, she hopped around the bushes, searching for oran berries.
After a while of searching, though, she realised that she couldn't find any. She pouted to herself. Where were the gosh-darned oran berries? Had her neighbours eaten them all again?
"What?!" a feminine voice suddenly cried out. Buneary jumped in surprise. "No way!"
Was that a human? A female human? This early in the morning? Well, whoever she was, she'd just scared a whole clan of starly out of a tree! Not to mention, almost given Molly a heart attack!
She sure was loud, that was for sure. Hopping closer to the tall grass nearby, she peered over it, unfurling her rolled-up ear to hear better. If there was anything interesting going on, she wanted to be the first to hear about it! She wasn't a bun-ear-y for nothing, after all! The word 'ear' was her species' middle name!
She listened intently as the female human explained to her male friend - or boyfriend, she wasn't sure - that the scream had been because her hair was a mess.
... Really? That was it? Well, Molly could understand looking your best, but that was a bit much, wasn't it? The girl had probably woken up half the field with her shouting!
She shook her head. Alright, enough fooling around! She was hungry and really wanted to find herself some breakfast. Oran berries were out, so she had to find something else. If her neighbours hadn't eaten those, too.
Hmm, maybe sour! Sour was always good for waking her up!
... Now which berry was sour again?
Buneary smiled sadly at the pellet in her paws. That day had been an ordinary day. One like any other. Little had she known how quickly that would change...
Atop Ash's shoulder, Pikachu sighed to himself. Dawn had seriously woken him and Ash up for this? To complain that her hair was a mess? He'd thought May was bad with that, but she didn't remotely compare to Dawn, apparently.
He watched as Dawn told Piplup to use Bubble Beam, while inside her tent. It caused the tent to billow out in bubble shapes. Oh, just what was she up to now? Even Ash sounded confused.
"Do you think..." Brock asked from the nearby table, sounding amused, "that was to fix her bed head?"
"(Maybe!)" Bonsly replied.
Pikachu shook his head in disbelief. She'd seriously used Piplup's Bubble Beam to fix her hair? Well, she was certainly creative, if nothing else. Maybe that technique would help in her first contest. After all, May had used flying discs for her first contest.
"Please," Brock said, "do me a favour."
Curious, Pikachu turned to see him talking to Croagunk, who had a partially-peeled potato on the grass in front of him. The frog picked it up and stared at it. Without a single word, he threw it high above Brock's head in an arc.
Pikachu's mouth fell open. Whoa! Croagunk had one heck of an underarm throw!
He felt Ash walk backwards a few steps, probably hoping to catch the flying potato, but he crashed into Dawn, who'd been leaving her tent at the same time.
In the couple of seconds it took for Pikachu to process this, he leapt out of harm's way, deciding to catch the potato himself.
Pikachu mindlessly nibbled his pellet. It had been such a run-of-the-mill day. He, Ash and Brock had started travelling in a brand new region, even making a new female friend to travel with, and everything had seemed as normal as ever. He'd been looking forward to seeing new places and battling new pokémon.
There was one thing he hadn't been prepared for, though...
Molly stared as the pikachu soared upwards to really impressive heights, catching the flying potato in his paws. Her eyes widened in surprise. Wow! How did he do that? She was a rabbit with Bounce, but he wasn't! He hadn't even used a move!
The mouse apparently wasn't done, though, as he did a forward somersault. Then a second. Then a third! All as he was falling towards the ground.
Time seemed to move in slow motion. She placed her paws to her chin, and held her breath, utterly enraptured.
As the humans who'd collided with each other collapsed to the ground, the pikachu landed gracefully on his feet, still holding onto the potato.
"(Yeah!)" he said happily. "(Got it!)"
Her heart did jumping jacks in her chest, and she could feel her face heat up. Wow! Oh, wow! That had been so cool! If she was grading his performance in the Olympics, she'd rate it a perfect ten! Such style! Such grace! Such amazing form, right in her face!
She continued to stare at the yellow embodiment of perfection, her own fantasies drowning out the words of the humans. She could almost see sparkles surrounding him, reflecting the morning sunlight off his beautiful fur. She'd never seen such skilful acrobatics!
Oh, gosh... she could feel her cheeks redden in her admiration!
Buneary gave a light sigh through her nostrils. That day, crush number ten had rolled up, ready to be fawned over.
First, it had been a teddiursa, a growlithe and a sableye... then it had been a volbeat, a cacnea and a riolu-turned-lucario... followed by a spinda, a grumpig and a sneasel.
And then it had been a pikachu.
... Perhaps she should have taken heed from the previous nine, but she'd never been very good at learning her lesson.
Pikachu smiled proudly at the potato in his paws. Ha. Turned out catching this thing had made for some pretty great training!
Upon grabbing it, he could have simply dropped to the ground, but he'd decided to test his skills - to see if he could do something impressive - and he had! He'd managed three forward somersaults - with pretty perfect form, if he did say so, himself - and landed on his feet! Things were looking up for their first gym battle in Sinnoh!
... It was a pity that Ash hadn't seen it, since he was currently on the floor - due to crashing into Dawn - but hey. He'd managed it, and that was what mattered! He was pretty pleased with himself!
He gave the potato back to Brock, as Ash and Dawn pulled themselves up from the floor. Then Dawn talked about her 'pillow head', and how Piplup's Bubble Beam had fixed it. She offered to do the same for Ash's hair, but he refused, since he'd 'be wearing a hat, anyway'.
"(Not anymore, you won't~!)" Aipom chimed, running past with his hat clutched in her tail hand. Laughing, she put it on her head.
"Hey, gimmie my hat!" Ash called out.
She ran off, still laughing. "(You'll have to catch me first~!)"
... Okay, that was enough. Pikachu had hoped that Aipom was done with stealing Ash's hat, after doing it so much during the Kanto Grand Festival. Clearly not, though.
"(Get back here!)" he called out, chasing after her.
All Pikachu had wanted to do was catch Aipom, but fate had decided on other plans...
As Molly watched her golden angel run off after an aipom, she couldn't help but wonder where he was going. Honestly, she'd been too busy staring at his lovely visage to pay attention. It had been a while since her last crush, after all, and this one had been particularly amazing.
Not wanting to lose track of him, she decided to follow after him.
She hopped and hopped, trying her hardest to keep him in view. Just what was he doing? The aipom was wearing a hat, so maybe he was after that?
Suddenly, the pikachu sped up, going way too fast for her to catch up. Was he using Quick Attack? Dang, now she was regretting never learning that move.
Instead, she'd decided to learn her current three moves to impress boys, but never mind that now!
Ahead, she watched the pikachu snatch the hat right off the aipom's head with his teeth. She beamed, about to indulge in his magnificence some more, when the hat suddenly turned around and covered his eyes. As he landed on the dirt path, she stopped in place, still hiding in the bushes.
Then she heard it. Screeching tires.
Her heart plummeted into her stomach. Oh no...
Quickly glancing to the side, she could see the approaching motorbike. It was heading straight for the pikachu, and there was no way it would stop in time!
She couldn't let him get run over! She wouldn't let him get run over! He was far too attractive for such a fate!
Activating Bounce, she leapt over and grabbed him. "(I've got youuuu!)" she cried, using Bounce again to leap out of the way.
As she landed, well out of the way of the motorbike, she gently placed him down. "(There you go...)" she said tenderly.
After a quick breather from the near miss, he looked up at her. "(Whoa,)" he said. "(Close call.)"
His face. It was so close to hers right now. And his eyes. He had brown eyes like hers, except they were orangey-red and not chocolaty brown. Did all pikachu have eyes like his, or was it just him? She'd never looked at one close enough to know.
She couldn't help but stare slightly. "(Yeah...)"
The male human suddenly approached, kneeling down and surprising her slightly.
"Pikachu!" he said. "You okay?"
"(Yep!)" the pikachu replied with a smile. "(I'm fine!)"
"That was great, Buneary! Thank you!" He lifted his hat off the pikachu's head.
"(Oh!)" Molly replied, surprised at being addressed. "(No problem!)"
Suddenly, the female human approached, pulling out some weird pink thing and pointing it at her. "Hey!" she said. "It's a buneary!"
"Buneary," a robotic female voice said, "the rabbit pokémon."
... Wait, was that voice coming from the weird pink thing?
"When sensing danger," it continued, "it extends both ears as an alert and, when cold, it curls up and goes to sleep."
Molly stared at it. "(... Huh?)" she asked, confused.
The weird pink thing seemed to think she always did that when she was cold. That, if she was in the middle of the field, in the middle of the day, and the temperature got slightly too low, she'd drop into a foetal position where she stood!
Silly pink thing! She only did that at night, in her burrow! Then she'd curl up and use her fluff as a snuggly blanket!
... But wait, didn't all pokémon curl up when they were cold at night? To decrease their surface area and stay warm? Or was it really just her species that did that?
In that case, what did other pokémon do?
"Wow!" the female human said, as the male human stood up and put his hat back on. "That was awesome! The way you scooped up Pikachu like that?"
Oh, well, she supposed she'd been fairly impressive, saving this super cool guy next to her.
"(Yeah, thanks!)" the pikachu said, attracting her attention. "(I owe you one!)"
... Oh good lord, he was thanking her! And he said he owed her!
She stared at his face. His... strangely adorable face. It was glowing with happiness and was so cute and... gah, she was getting so bashful!
Her insides felt like they were going to burst from the warm, sweet, fluffy goodness that was filling them up. She wriggled from side to side, twiddling her fluff between her paws. So many sparkly fantasies were filling her brain right now, she could hardly stand it!
She wanted to ask him to hang out with her so badly! Then they could build a friendship, and maybe even more down the line!
"(Well... maybe you'd... consider...)"
Her bashfulness increased ten-fold. Oh, it had been so long since her last crush - back when she'd been living with her parents, even! - that she was starting to think she was getting a bit overwhelmed!
She yanked her fluff over her face. "(Noooo, I can't ask that!)" she continued.
"And look at that!" the female human said. "You're so cute!"
"(Nnnn, thank you...)"
The compliment was very nice, but she was seriously about to explode! She needed to get away and cool her head for a bit, then try again.
She began hopping away. "(Well, see you later, maybe!)" Still holding her fluff over her face, she crashed painfully into a tree trunk. "(Ow!)" She awkwardly slid down it. "(Owwww, my face...)"
Who'd put that tree there? Even more embarrassed, she hopped faster.
Heh. Buneary had made such a fool of herself that day. Well, what could she say? She'd always been - and kind of still was - an utter sucker for men who could do cool stunts. She'd always get so carried away with her fantasies.
Maybe... maybe it had been a tad shallow of her. Just a tad.
As Pikachu slowly climbed up Ash to rest on his head, he couldn't stop staring after the buneary that had just saved him from a motorbike. Just... what was with her behaviour just now? She'd been saying strange things and getting really bashful, so it had almost looked like...
He gave his head a hard shake. No. No, that wasn't it. She was just shy, that was all. It was nothing more than that. Yeah.
... It better not be anything else.
Lunchtime rolled around. Everything was quiet and peaceful in camp, until Croagunk suddenly punched the nearby bush. The buneary from before jumped out of it, surprising Pikachu.
What?! She'd been stalking them?!
... Why?
... It was probably because she was curious about the humans. Yeah, that was it. Ash and Dawn hadn't stopped talking about how they wanted to catch her, after all. Dawn wanted her because she needed a second pokémon for her first contest, and Ash wanted her because she'd saved Pikachu.
It was no big deal. Everything was fine.
He watched as the surprised buneary turned around and quickly hopped away. Ash and Dawn, both wanting to catch her, were in hot pursuit. Pikachu decided to follow them, as Ash may need his help catching her. Around him were Aipom, Starly, Turtwig and Piplup, also joining the chase.
"Quick, Piplup!" Dawn called out. "Use Bubble Beam!"
Piplup fired a stream of bubbles from his beak, striking the ground in front of the buneary's feet. Stopping in her tracks, she spun around in surprise.
"(What?!)" she cried. After a few moments, she frowned. "(Alright, fine, you wanna fight?)" She hopped up and down, making punching motions with her paws. "(Bring it! I can take you!)" She paused. "(Maybe!)" She seemed to lock gazes with Pikachu. "(No, definitely!)"
... No, she wasn't trying to impress him. Definitely not. It was just a coincidence that their gazes had locked. That was all.
It was nothing else.
Pikachu heaved a sigh to himself. That moment had just been the beginning of his troubles...
As the battle began, the piplup used Peck, which Molly effortlessly dodged. He then followed it up with a Bubble Beam, which she quickly froze with her own beam. Her Ice Beam!
Afterwards, the frozen bubbles exploded into a shower of icy sparkles. She had to admit, she'd outdone herself this time! It looked so pretty!
She'd certainly gotten a lot better at battling over the years, that was for sure!
... Sure, she'd done that to impress boys, too, but she wasn't going to think about that now!
"(Wow...)" the pikachu suddenly said in awe, now on the male human's shoulder.
She beamed. Oh, wow! Her crush had liked her attack?! Well, now she just had to show him what she could do! Maybe she'd even win him over! Get him to fall in love with her early!
... Okay, maybe she was getting ahead of herself, but still!
Lunging at the piplup, she used Dizzy Punch several times, right in his face. He fell over, confused.
Once she landed back on her feet, she spun around several times in a very showy manner, then made absolute sure to wink directly at the pikachu. His eyes widened. Oh, yay, he'd noticed! She felt giddy at the thought that she might be impressing him as much as he'd impressed her!
She hopped up and down again, her excitement building. Just as the female human was about to recall her piplup into his pokéball to cure his confusion, Molly used Bounce, knocking the penguin out.
Yeah! She was sure to look cool and impressive now! At least, she sure hoped so!
Landing, she did another twirl and pose, winking towards the pikachu. She was glad to see that he'd noticed again! Things were looking up!
... And sure, she'd only learned to dance to impress boys, but that could join the long list of things not to think about right now!
Heh. Seriously. Thinking back on it, it seemed that Buneary had learned absolutely nothing from her previous crushes at all.
Nothing about her being weird, or creepy, or just a general nuisance.
Her glasses had always been rose-tinted. Figuratively-speaking, of course, since pokémon didn't wear glasses.
Well, she'd probably look silly in literal rose-tinted glasses, anyway. Heh.
Nope. Nope. Just because the buneary had winked in Pikachu's direction, it didn't mean anything.
Nothing. Nada. Bupkis.
... Because, if it did...
Feeling his insides grow cold, he gave his head another hard shake, and plastered on a smile.
"Okay, Ash!" Dawn said, handing over the reins. "Give it your best shot!"
"Alright," Ash said, sounding confident. "Ready, Pikachu?"
Pikachu nodded. "(You bet!)" he replied.
Jumping down from Ash's shoulder, he landed on all fours in front of the buneary. He frowned in determination. He was going to help Ash catch this buneary, no matter what! It should be a piece of cake with his power!
"(Huh?!)" she asked in surprise.
"(You ready?)" he asked the buneary.
Her face suddenly red, she put her paws to her mouth and shuffled from one foot to the other.
"(Oh... gosh... I'm fighting you? Oh, I dunno...)" She pulled her fluff over her face and shuffled faster. "(I dunnooooo!)"
He blinked. "(... Huh?)"
After doing her weird dance for a while, she stopped, lowered her fluff and peeked over it. "(Maybe...?)" She pulled the fluff back over her eyes, and danced from one foot to the other again. "(I dunnoooo!)"
"I had a feeling before this was going on!" Dawn said from behind him. "Buneary's got a crush on Pikachu!"
Pikachu felt his insides freeze over.
Oh no.
No. No. No.
He watched in horror as the buneary sidled up to him, still covering her face.
"(Oh... um...)" she said, "(by the way...)" She did her weird dance again, swaying from side to side. "(That thing earlier... with the potato? It looked really cool...)"
... Potato?
Wait, she'd seen that?
She peeked over her fluff at him. "(And...)" She immediately hid her face again, dancing faster. "(You looked really cool!)" She suddenly leaned against him. "(Really cool...)"
Oh god, no.
"That's the real thing, alright," Brock said, now among the group.
No!
"Maybe Buneary likes electric-types," Dawn suggested.
No!
"You can't rationalise love!" Brock cried passionately.
"You think this is love?!" Dawn cried in shock.
No. No. No! Pikachu was about ready to shove the buneary away, and tell her to give him his goddamn space right now, but then Ash decided to interrupt.
"Love or not, I'm catching that buneary!" he cried.
"(Catching?)" the buneary asked. "(No way!)" She jumped away from Pikachu and used Ice Beam.
The group screamed as they were frozen in a giant block of ice.
Pikachu stood up on his hind legs, looking at the mess in front of him in disbelief. "(Did you just...?)" he mumbled.
He didn't get the chance to finish, as she happily grabbed his paws in hers and spun him around.
"(Did you see that?! I didn't even mean to do that! Wow, I'm so strong! Probably not as strong as you, though! Or as cool!)"
He yelped in surprise. "(Hey! Wait! Stop!)"
"(Your potato stunt was the coolest! You jumped up, and grabbed it, and did twenty million somersaults, and-!)"
Her spinning was getting faster, and now she was hopping at the same time. His stomach felt like it was in a washing machine. Oh, god, he was going to throw up his lunch at this rate!
"(It's like you had Bounce! Can you even learn Bounce? How high would you jump if you could learn Bounce?! Maybe you'd go all the way to the moon!)"
His temper was rising. He could feel it bubbling dangerously within him. His stomach was about to empty its contents, and this girl had really gotten a crush on him over a stupid potato stunt. Not only that, but she'd frozen almost all of his friends.
She was selfish, shallow, and oh god, he was about to hurl!
"(Put... me... down!)" he tried to yell over her.
With one final hop, she spun him down to the ground. Scowling, he yanked his paws away from her, surprising her.
"(What the hell was that for, you freak?!)" he yelled.
Her surprised look turned to one of shock. "(Fr... Freak?)"
He glanced in the direction of Ash and the others. "(I've gotta go dig my friends out, thanks to you. So you can take your stupid-)"
He turned back to her, about to comment on her crush on him, and how she could take it with her as she left, but he saw tears in her eyes. He yelped in shock, not expecting that.
He stared, speechless, for a few moments. He watched as her lip curled and her eyes got really watery.
... She was really about to start bawling, wasn't she?
Wow. He had no idea he'd upset her so much. It was only a shallow crush, after all. All over a stupid potato stunt that he'd done in the spur of the moment. It meant nothing at all, really, and she'd probably get over him tomorrow, so... why was she crying?
... Then again, maybe she was really sensitive. He had lost his temper with her just now. Something he'd tried to rein back in, since his early Kanto days. He thought he'd mastered that over the years, but apparently not. He still had some work to do.
Taking a quick breath to calm himself, he continued in a softer tone. "(Um... hey...)" He awkwardly reached over and patted her shoulder. "(M-Maybe that was a bit too harsh... Sorry...)"
She gave a slight sob, then turned away to bawl.
Jeez... now he felt like a scumbag.
Pikachu froze, a pellet halfway to his mouth. Wait. That thing he'd said to her in the heat of the moment. Calling her a... a freak. Why did it suddenly sound so familiar...?
... Wait. No. He remembered!
His eyes widened in shock and horror, the pellet dropping straight out of his grip. He stared at nothing as he went over it in his memory, to make sure he hadn't remembered it wrong.
... No. No, he hadn't.
That sentence... all of it, from start to finish...
... Harley's pikachu had said the exact same thing to Buneary in the battle.