It was odd, in a way. Robb had had many dreams of escaping reality over the course of his life, as had many people, he was sure. The desire to truly free himself of the confines of Earth, to explore the worlds of fiction and fantasy that had helped shape him as a child… There was just something unexplainably calming in that train of thought.
What would it be like to run as a ninja in the Leaf Village of Naruto? How technical could he get as a duelist in Yugi-Oh!? What sort of mischief could he bring about as a wizard going through schooling in Hogwarts, or perhaps as an empowered hero of the Marvel Comics? Just as children often did, Robb envisioned himself in scenario after scenario, and even occasionally wrote them out, though never to such a degree that it could be considered fanfiction.
Hell, Robb even knew how he would focus his efforts in those sorts of scenarios. Money. Having never been wealthy, Robb wanted to live the good life. He wanted to enjoy those fantastical lives to their fullest, to gain power and prestige and notoriety all, a task that felt only possible when enough money was thrown at the problem.
But those were thoughts that were only considered acceptable because he was a child when they came about. Playing pretend was a way to expand the imagination and creativity of the child in question, which helped them become more established adults in many ways. But when an adult did it? Robb knew loony bin's had open beds for a fact those few times he'd visited his father during transfers.
And yet, here he was. Transposed from his reality, into one of fiction, one that he knew, if only by the purple dinosaur thing snoozing by right next to him.
The world of Pokémon.
Genuinely, it was beyond mind boggling. Robb couldn't understand why it happened, but when he finally came to accept the reality of his situation, when he realized that he had been turned into a baby and that monster that stood over his cot was a Kangaskhan doting on her own baby, who happened to share a crib with Robb, the why of the matter no longer mattered.
Only the How.
Really, it took Robb an embarrassingly slow amount of time to catch on. Kun ran him over with a truck.
Kun. Truck.
Truck. Kun.
He had been bloody isekai'd after being run over by truck-kun.
It was so fucking stupid.
Robb wasn't what one could call a traditional nerd, those sorts that obsessed over varying forms of media and were unbending in their love for the franchises that made them up, sometimes to the point of being violent. Robb liked what he liked and enjoyed involving himself in media to relatively nominal degrees. That said, he dabbled around in a bit of everything. All for the sake of entertainment.
He read the occasional fanfic before bed. He played his Switch and phone games when he chose. And, more relevant to his current situation, Robb enjoyed booting up his cheap-ass laptop and reading the occasional manga. It was that final guilty pleasure that explained why he even knew what the term isekai even meant.
Being run over by a truck only to be sent to another world was such a cliché in modern day Japanese media that Robb was more surprised it had happened in rural America than anything. Oh sure, he was beyond stumped that the trope was real, but it was just confusing that it would happen there. It didn't make sense.
But none of this made sense, at the meat of the matter, and once the confusion had passed, once the reality of his situation settled in, once Robb truly understood the ramification of his circumstance, one thought came to mind.
If I'm here, what about my mom?
Robb remembered Kun's words clearly. "Your mom was on the list for one of my coworkers." He said. "And you don't seem to have any attachments here. So, I'm gonna do you a solid. I'll set you up in the same spot that she was. Call it a birthday present."
If this was the same spot she was, if his mom had truly been sent to the Pokémon world when she died, then the only thing he cared about in his former life was already here. Robb had been just about ready to carve out something for himself, but now… Well. He recognized the opportunity presented to him the moment his mind latched onto the possibilities available.
Had his body not been infantile, had he been able to move it according to his own wants, Robb was pretty sure he'd be dancing an embarrassing sort of jig, damn whoever watched. He wanted to laugh and scream and cry, wanted to share his elation with the world, but was forced to tamp it down due to the restrictions of birth.
Instead, he shat himself.
The stink was obvious to his still-developing senses, and it unfortunately brought tears to his eyes and forced an uncontrolled scream out from his throat, which awoke the Kangaskhan next to him, who then joined him in screaming. As a nurse stumbled into their room and quickly fixed his mess, trying to calm them down all the while, Robb felt embarrassment and shame pool through his core.
But even through his shame, he felt happy.
Time passed seemingly in a blur. Robb remained in his cot for a long while, though he was uncertain as to how long that while was. All he knew was that the Kangaskhan kid had been taken away at some point, his vision and hearing had seemingly gone back to normal, and doctors got a little fussy with him.
Robb learned the reason why quickly following. His birth was not without complications. He was a preemie. He hadn't been born horribly early, his mark being seven weeks from the intended due date, but it was an early enough birth for hospital staff to keep him under close observation. They would regularly inject vaccines into his body and feed him the slurriest of formula foods and milks around, but eventually, in the haze that was time, he had been weened away from hospital assistance, wrapped in a bright blue blanket, and handed off to his new family for the very first time.
Naturally, Robb was wary to meet them. His previous familial situation did not bring about an easily trusting sort of person. Thankfully, there wasn't anything worth being wary about. Robb's new family seemed like good people. Kind and courteous and stoked to have him in their lives. He knew it could have been worse.
As an extra bonus, they were all fairly attractive folk. Robb felt that boded well for his future.
His new mother was a beautiful woman, of that there was no doubt. Her name was Catelyn. With a heavy mane of auburn red hair and the deepest blue eyes Robb had ever witnessed, she was an eye-catching woman to say the least. She had a calming nature about her too, the type that people felt totally relaxed around, like what Robb would suspect made a good therapist. But her pallor was quite pale, and she didn't seem able to walk all that easily, relying on a wheelchair pushed by her Chansey for assistance. Robb's premature birth had apparently messed up her body composition something fierce, though she seemed happy to have a son regardless of the pain it caused her. Her second child.
And wasn't that a kicker? He had a sibling. A sister! Whitney was her name, a rambunctious girl of eight. With bright pink hair, reddish-brown eyes and a healthy tan, she looked every bit like a happy-go-lucky child high on life, and further met the description of a certain character that Robb recognized of from the Pokémon series: the Gym Leader of Goldenrod City.
Honestly, Robb was a little stumped when he understood who Whitney was. Or who she would become, in any case. Was there any significance to her being a gym leader? Was there a purpose to her being made his sister? Did his being her brother even matter? Could he take advantage of this? Should he?
The questions kept creeping up, and the more that came, the less that were answered, thus leaving a mess of scattered thoughts bouncing around his noggin. In the end however, Robb came to a simple conclusion: he would deal with it when it came up. Whitney wasn't a gym leader yet. She wasn't really much of anything yet, just as Robb himself wasn't. She was just a little girl at the moment, his sister, and that, more than anything, was all that mattered.
Robb's father came next, and looking at him, Robb understood how Whitney's colors came in. From the perspective of a painter, at least. She was literally a fusion of this man and their mother's coloring. Edward was his name, a tall, musclebound man, with a shock of white hair and red eyes, though he was no albino, for his skin was tan in the way a farmers would be, a sign that he worked and lived his life in the outdoors. Genuinely, he was a striking looking sort. The kind that you couldn't help but sneak a second look at, just to make sure you saw things right.
Or that's what one would have done on Earth.
Here? In this world?
Not so much.
The colors and pigmentations available to humans was astounding, as was the lack of care. When he'd been carted out of the hospital in a stroller, finally permitted to live without their oversight, his family chose to walk back to their house rather than take a vehicle, citing a need for fresh air and exercise. In doing so, Robb experienced the diversity of Fuchsia City very early on. Peoples of all races walked together in concert alongside their Pokémon companions, with hair and eye colors that would have given a graphic designer a heart attack. Pinks and blues and greens galore, with reds and purples and teals not far behind.
Oddly enough, it seemed as if the standard hair colors of Earth, being blacks and browns and blonde heads of hair, with the occasional ginger thrown in, were the rare ones in these parts.
At the very least it made his own appearance a bit less horrifying. But only a bit. Robb shared most of his features with Whitney, save for one. The only difference was that his eyes were blue like Catelyn's, though lighter in color. One would think he had grey eyes rather than blue, were the sun not to be out to make it clear.
Still. The eyes weren't the problem. Nor was it the skin. It was the hair. Robb had been cursed with a tuft of pink hair atop his scalp, an almost scaldingly neon color that begged for attention.
He feared for what his private parts would look like once puberty started to kick in.
Regardless of his disappointment in the hue of his hair, Robb and his new family trekked to their house without any real delay. He fell in and out of sleep during the walk, his infant body requiring much of it, but when they arrived, he felt quite content. His family lived in a quaint two-story townhouse sat next to a public park, bordered along three more similarly styled houses. There was a small yard, a single car garage, a fenced in backyard, and a patio on the outside. Inside, there were three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a workable kitchen, and a cozy living room.
Robb's childhood home was very similar to this, from the time before he and his mom started with the van. Startlingly similar, actually. But this house was better than that one in a multitude of ways. It was well lived in, well loved, and well kept. There were signs of life all around the house. The kitchen had dirty dishes showing that cooking was done in there, rather than takeout food being the norm. The floors had a mix of silver-tan and sleek-black fur all over, meaning animals, or Pokémon, as Robb suspected to be the case, were regularly about. There was a corner by a bathroom doorway with Whitney's height markers from over the years. It was the little details in this house that made the difference to Robb.
A house was a place where people lived. A home was a place where people could be themselves.
This was a home.
This was Robb's home.
"You ready sweetie?" Edward asked, kneeling next to Whitney, with Catelyn sat nearby on a cushioned chair, her Chansey by her side. They were all cloistered in the backyard patio, enjoying a lazy weekend day together. Whitney was holding Robb in her lap with heavy concentration, a very serious big sister dutifully bearing the task of not dropping her baby brother.
"Uhuh!" Whitney sounded, rocking Robb in the process. The jostling agitated him for a moment, but he settled quickly thereafter once it stopped.
Edward reached down by her waist and withdrew a pokeball from her belt loop. Expanding it, he held it at Robb's face, catching his attention. Releasing the Pokémon inside next to Whitney, a pink and black spotted cow standing upright took the stage.
"Miltank!" it announced. The Miltank looked around the patio with a confusedly happy grin, before zeroing in on Robb. It squealed joyfully at the sight of him, hopping up and down, its heavy body rattling the deck and Whitney in such a way that Robb grew quite uncomfortable rather quickly. Unfortunately, as a baby, even one with the mind of an adult, he had just as little control over his emotions as he did his muscles.
As a result of this, Robb was not a willing participant in the mewling cries his mouth started to let out.
Whitney began to panic as the baby in her arms started to wail. "Ah! What do I do daddy? He hates me!"
"He doesn't hate you, sweetie." Edward chortled, gently taking his son from her arms. He rocked Robb gently and consistently and Robb felt even more mortified that it worked so well to calm him down. "Miltank was just a bit too excited. Baby humans aren't like baby Pokémon. They can't handle being moved too much very well yet. That's why the Pokémon have to be extra gentle with him, and why we're having them meet him now. The faster Miltank learns how to handle Robert, the faster you two can play with him."
"Miiii…" Miltank said, ears drooping in depression. Whitney seemed to mirror her Pokémon, pouting her cheeks out as she stared down at the floor.
"That's not fair," she whined, sinking low onto her knees, the very picture of an overly dramatic child.
Edward smiled down at his daughter with fond exasperation. "You've just got to be gentle. Here, I'll hold your brother steady so you can introduce Miltank to him. How about that?"
Bouncing back up, Whitney's face shone with enthusiasm. "Okay!" She bent down and whispered something in Miltank's ear, slowly perking her 'mon back up.
As Edward held his son steadily forward, Robb considered how he got here. Having lived with his family for a month now, and after having finished his last checkup with the hospital the other day, his pediatrician had deemed him fit enough for the standard activities expected of a totally healthy infant of his age, being three months old.
Which, in the Pokémon world, more often than not included the creatures it was known for. In some capacity, at least.
It wasn't like Robb hadn't yet met any of the Pokémon in the house. He was very familiar with Catelyn's Chansey, the ever-optimistic provider of hugs and healing and eggs, and he was also quite happy to be around the Kangaskhan pair, the younger of whom (who Robb just called Kang for the sake of simplicity) had seemingly decided Robb was a very interesting yet fragile toy. Robb knew that whenever they interacted with one another, pictures were often taken in the process. He didn't mind. Pictures were expected when infants were involved and Kang did a wonderful job of making a boring day of sleeping, eating and shitting his nappies a little more eventful.
But he'd yet to meet the other Pokémon, and now that he was given the approval of his doctors, it was jointly decided by his family that it was best to just rip that bandaid right off and make an afternoon of it. Whitney had begged and pleaded to be the first one whose Pokémon was introduced, and neither Catelyn nor Edward seemed to have a problem with it, especially considering she only had the one Pokémon as of yet.
And an egg apparently, though that didn't count yet.
"Right!" Whitney said, pointing a finger at Robb, her other hand jutting along her hip. "Listen up baby bro! I want you to meet Miltank! She's the bestest Pokémon in everywhere! She's the baby of our mommy's Miltank, but she's a year older than you, so watch out! When I go on my Journey she's gonna be my Starter and we'll take over the world together!"
"Miiiiiil!" Miltank echoed, pointing a hoof at Robb, posed in just the same way as Whitney. "Tank!" The Pokémon paused for a moment, then nodded to herself in smug satisfaction, crossing her arms as she breathed out a visible snort of air from her nose.
Robb, eloquently, responded with a heartfelt, "Guh."
Satisfied with his Shakespearian repartee, Whitney beamed Robbs way before motioning for their mother to go next. Catelyn rolled her eyes lightly at the exuberance of her daughter, before standing with some difficulty and taking the center of Robbs attention, Chansey right by her side. Though Catelyn had healed somewhat from the birth, no longer requiring a wheelchair to get around, she was still quite weak in many other areas, and had taken to having Chansey always available to her, even when it was unneeded. Especially when it seemed unneeded. Catelyn was the type to overprepare for anything and everything in her power, Robb had learned.
Interestingly enough, Robb had also learned that she was an apocalypse prepper of the highest order. The pantry beneath the basement staircase had so many super-sized cans of a variety of foods, ready for any long-term loss of power or infrastructure destabilization or hordes of zombies brought about from an apocalyptic virus. Whichever came first.
But that was irrelevant in the here and now. It was Pokémon time.
"Since you already know Chansey here…" Catelyn began, tapping at her chin.
"Chansey!" the 'mon in question cheered, waving a stubby hand towards Robb. With struggle, Robb returned the wave, earning him a happy cheer from the egg-bearing 'mon.
"…I suppose I'll start with my own Miltank then, while its still fresh in mind thanks to your sister." Catelyn smiled Whitney's way, enlarging a great ball. Releasing the Pokémon inside, a Miltank that stood much larger than Whitney's took form.
"Tank!" declared the Miltank. Catching onto the situation quickly, the female cow was quite delicate as she approached Robb, bending down so she could snuff at him. Robb felt her large tongue graze over his scalp, leaving a literal cowlick of pink, before she stood back up in full and backed away, a content look on her face. "Miltank tank," she said in what Robb could only assume to be approval, before she made way to her daughter and started to graze at her scalp. The younger Miltank delighted in the attention.
"Next," Catelyn said, pulling out a standard pokeball. From it came a tan furred panther, with slit red eyes and a spherical gem on its forehead. "Is Persian."
Persian immediately stretched its body out long before buffing its body against her leg, purring when Catelyn scratched at the base of its tail. Chansey chirped at the large cat, and Persian growled happily
Somehow, Persian was able to twist its face in such a way that it looked downright aggravated when its eyes focused on Robb. It was a funny look on a cat, and Robb barely was able to tamp down his giggles at the sight. As Persian languidly eyed the giggling Robb up and down, the big cat let out an irritated tch before walking into the house and laying down on a couch, supremely unimpressed.
Whitney moved to sit next to Edward and bent down to Robb's ear. "He's mommy's Starter," she whisper-said, much louder than she likely intended. "But he's been reeeaaaal mad that mommy made him stay in his ball so you could get better. But he's always been a grump, so it's fine."
From inside the house, Persian hissed at Whitney. Catelyn shot him a warning look, and he just huffed, closing his eyes, intent on ignoring the world.
Catelyn rolled her eyes, before grabbing a third pokeball, this one meshed with camouflage. A Lickitung came out from the sphere, the beady eyed pink blob of flesh licking its own eyeball dopily. "This is Lickitung."
"Tuuuuung," Lickitung sounded, blaring out an obnoxiously high-pitched voice reminiscent of a rubber chicken. Without moving a single step from where it stood, the Lickitung's overly long tongue shot out and flopped over Robb and Edward alike. The tongue didn't move at all once it lay over their bodies. It merely was.
Sighing, Catelyn returned Lickitung to its ball with a flash of red light, leaving only a trail of saliva that languidly rolled down the bodies of the boys in her life in its wake. "Sorry hun, you know how he is."
"An idiot?" Edward sniped, shooting a meaningful look his daughter's way, jutting his head towards Persian. Whitney seemed to catch on to what he wanted and rushed into the house, past Persian, into the kitchen, returning with a pair of hand towels at the ready.
"Yes, well…" Catelyn started, coughing. Her cheeks were tinted a little red. "You know I didn't capture him for his intelligence."
"I know, I know," Edward said, carefully patting Robb down before moving on to himself. "The chance of a lifetime. I remember when you caught him all too well, we were on a hiking date in the Safari Zone when it happened. You were gushing about how stupidly rare Lickitung are. How many are there again?"
"Less than two-hundred exist in Kanto, both caught and wild alike, and it is presumed that there are less than one thousand worldwide." Catelyn said. "We don't know how they breed, how they communicate with their own species, or how they do much of anything, really. When I came across Lickitung in the Safari Zone, I knew I had to have him. It was the perfect chance to be a part of something truly groundbreaking."
"And what actually happened?" The man asked leadingly, smirking all the while.
She pouted. "I captured an idiot that eats his own poop."
"There you go," Edward teased.
Whitney and the Miltank pair giggled at the byplay, and Robb found himself joining his sister in delight. He even clapped his hands! Woo! Motor control was starting to come back!
"On a much happier note is my last Pokémon." Catelyn said, releasing Kangaskhan into the grass. The Parent Pokémon gleefully roared out her release, and from the pouch over her stomach, Kang squealed when catching sight of Robb and struggled to get down from her mother's pouch. When the indigo skinned baby escaped her matronly captivity, she bee-lined towards Edward and pushed her stubby arms towards the sky, the universally accepted signal for Up!
Compelled by the nature of her cuteness, Edward scooped up the smaller Kangaskhan right next to his son. She snuggled into Robb's side, earning a giggle from the baby, and a coo from all that were watching. As always, when this sort of scene occurred, Catelyn was quick to pull out her phone to snap a few pictures. It was an honestly adorable sight, one that had to be immortalized.
But all good things have to come to an end.
"I've got to let them down now," Edward said to Catelyn, straining a bit. One baby was one thing, but a second wasn't all that easy, especially when considering the weight differences of a human to a Pokémon the likes of a Kangaskhan.
"Daddy!" Whitney complained. "They're fine!"
"But I want to show off my Pokémon too, sweetie. Robert hasn't met any of the yet."
"They don't matter!" Whitney protested. "They aren't Normal types!"
And wasn't that a doozy of a statement? Ironically, not only had Robb been named Robert again, so too was he a Stark once more. Robert Stark II he was, apparently named after his maternal grandfather. And with the name Stark came a certain expectation.
Stark, a word with a definition meaning bland or simple, was the surname of a mother and daughter pair who were proud specialists of Normal-type Pokémon and always ready to rave about how special they were. Catelyn was all in on it, seemingly unable to not speak about her preferred type, and Whitney had drunk her Kool-Aid with gusto. Robb, also a Stark, was set to begin the indoctrination process early on.
Only Edward hadn't followed along, but considering he was Catelyn's longtime boyfriend rather than her husband, and ergo was not a Stark, he had an easy out.
His Pokémon were more generalized. Apparently, that meant they weren't as cool for Robb's big sister.
"Whitney," Edward stated, his voice turned firm. "All Pokémon matter. All of them. Don't let your favorites cloud your judgement. Is that understood?"
She pouted adorably at the admonishment, puffed up cheeks and all. "Yes sir."
"Good. Now help me out with these two. I'll show Robert my team and we can all play. Okay?"
Whitney huffed. "I'll do it myself! Don't move!"
Before Edward could retort, Whitney swept over and stole his ball belt from his waist. Holding it overhead, as if a merit-worthy trophy, she ran back to her claimed spot surrounded by a pair of Miltank, unfortunately tripping quite hard in the process. Whitney faceplanted with an audible smack, the pokeballs in hand falling to the floor, and as she started to cry and hiccup in distress, the Pokémon she had been carrying all released as one.
Though the Stark home was of a reasonable size, with a backyard able to support many souls, it was not big enough to let any Pokémon out willy-nilly. It was lucky that Edward did not own any particularly large Pokémon, his team consisting of a Meganium, an Aipom, a Quagsire, an Umbreon, a Hitmonlee, and a Fearow, but them coming out all at once brought about a chain reaction of unfortunate events.
Fearow, an avian Pokémon well known for its aggressive tendencies, let out a vicious crow upon its release, spreading its wings wide as a show of dominance. In doing this, Fearow tipped the droopy Quagsire over, who, rather than catch its body with its arms, instead just fell flat like a brick, lazy as it was, directly onto Aipom's tail. Aipom let out a furious shriek at the unexpected weight, the sound of their teammates distress startling Hitmonlee and Umbreon into instinctively summoning a respective Focus Blast and Dark Pulse, as they had been trained to do.
When two attacks were formed in the proximity of her baby, Kangaskhan immediately went into berserking rage to try and protect her child, accidentally shoving Chansey away in the process, who had been trying to reach the sobbing Whitney. Persian raced out of the house with raised hackles directed at Kangaskhan, intent on defending the healing 'mon, of whom he shared the closest bond with among Catelyn's roster.
Just as chaos was ready to unfurl on all sides, as the house appeared ready to implode on itself, vines circled the bodies of every Pokémon in the vicinity, save for Miltank duo, the baby Kangaskhan and the downed Chansey, and lifted them high into the air. More importantly, and impressively, the vines lifted them away from one another. Whilst they struggled to fight through their bonds, a sweet-smelling fragrance swept over the yard, calming combatants down and settling nerves in a surprisingly peaceful manner.
Meganium, Edward's starter, the most powerful Pokémon on his roster, settled everybody within a moment. "Mega," she said to the Pokémon in her vines, twisting them around. "Meganium ni me-um megani!"
Her words were indecipherable to Robb, but the disappointed tone was very recognizable, and seemed to halt the hostilities long enough for Catelyn to reach her daughter and return her Persian and the rest of Edward's team, save for Meganium herself. With the danger gone, Meganium brought down the only remaining Pokémon that had been in her grasp, that being Kangaskhan, who immediately barreled over to her child, scooping Kang into her pouch with a worried lip. Catelyn returned them to their ball the moment Kang settled in place.
A collective breath of relief pooled from the house, though it did not seem to last long. Catelyn swiftly rounded on her daughter, face furious.
"Grounded," she declared.
Whitney, red faced, tear stricken and nose leaking blood, looked genuinely shocked. "Wha- No!"
"Grounded." Catelyn repeated, looming over Whitney.
"But!-"
"Groun."
"Tha-"
"Ded."
"MOM! It's not fair!"
"I don't care. You know better than to steal things, particularly from your father when he's holding your brother and especially when Pokémon are involved. You. Are. Grounded." Catelyn said, hands on her hips. "No training with Miltank for the next two weeks. No television during that time either. And if I see anything lower than a B on your next homework assignments, your grounding will be extended."
Whitney burst into tears anew. "I HATE YOU!" she screamed, before sprinting into the house and up the stairs, her bedroom door slamming behind her. From her window, a line of red light sucked her Miltank away, the mother cow moaning in surprise at the loss of her daughter.
Catelyn slumped with those dreaded words every parent hated to hear, idly returning her own Miltank back into her ball. Edward stood carefully, being mindful not to jostle Robb overly much, and tried to comfort her.
"I just don't know what to do," Catelyn admitted, leaning into Edward's side.
"She's at that age," he responded. "She doesn't know right from left, let alone right from wrong. We were all the same at one point, in some ways."
"I never took Pokémon from people's belts without their permission!" Catelyn groaned. "And I definitely didn't release them all at once! Think of what could have happened!"
"She tripped. It was an accident."
"An accident that could have hurt her brother! Could have hurt us! Eddie, think about it. She could have destroyed the house. We've barely even started on the mortgage. Ugh, I just– I don't understand. The most I ever got up to at her age was sneaking treats to my dad's Snorlax so she'd let me use her as a bouncy castle."
"Hah!" Edward laughed. "I never knew that about you. So Whitney gets her ballsiness from you, then?"
"Please," Catelyn rolled her eyes. "You're a multi-region Pokémon Ranger, one of the men responsible for calming some of the most vicious wildlife in the world and stopping dangerous poachers from making their mark. You're an adrenaline junky personified. She gets it all from you."
"Call it 50/50?"
"Hmmm," Catelyn hummed, tapping her chin, lips quirking into a sly smile. She booped him on the nose with the finger that had been tapping her chin. "No. It's all you."
"Well, we'll see about that when she goes on her own Journey," Edward huffed, unwilling to accept the full blame. "I bet she beats us both."
"That was a given. She's barely eight and already doing better with her Starter than I was at twelve. You were right, by the way. I don't say it often, but you were absolutely right. Giving her Miltank really did make a difference. I'm glad you convinced me not to sell her to the farmers. She's so much more vibrant with her in her life."
"I think this guy helps with that too," Edward said, bouncing Robb up and down. "Remember how excited she was when we told her she was gonna be a big sister?"
"She begged for a girl." Catelyn reminisced. She took Robb from Edward, tickling him under his chin with a long nail. "She kept asking for Robbie to be a Roberta. But I know she really wanted a brother, tomboy that she is."
"I'm pretty sure her being a tomboy is why she wanted a little sister so badly, dear. She wanted to spread her ways."
"I've got a gut feeling she's going to try and spread them regardless of gender." Catelyn retorted. She looked down directly at Robb. "You won't let your sister corrupt you, now will you baby boy?"
"Guh!" Robb replied, doing his best to settle her fears.
"That's right. You'll listen to your mommy and be a good boy that does all his homework and doesn't worry me half to death on the regular. Yes you will, yes you will!"
Edward laughed at the baby talk, and after a bit of doing, convinced Catelyn to let Robb meet his team once again, this time with him at the helm. It went much smoother than the previous attempt.
Meganium, having been there the whole time, was the first to make contact with the baby, happily cooing over him, vines offering gentle prods that had Robb going into giggling fits. Aipom came out next, and once the three-armed monkey saw that Quagsire had not been let out, he chittered up onto Catelyn's shoulder and offered its hand-tail as a toy for Robb. Fearow was released next, once more letting out its crow of dominance. Edward smacked the bird in the belly, cutting the screech off at the middle. Fearow spared his trainer a side-eyed glare at the interruption, before focusing on Robb. He leaned his neck down and stared the baby down, as if expecting Robb to do something interesting. When Robb did not perform as expected, Fearow let out a huff and voluntarily returned himself.
Edward returned his Aipom in the same moment that he released his Quagsire. The beady-eyed water type was still lying on the ground, and rather than stand, it instead rolled over to look at Robb from the floor. Opening its mouth, a cloudy-white puff of something rose, enveloping both Robb and Catelyn's bodies, dissipating into the air soon after.
Catelyn sputtered, waving her free arm around. "Damnit Quagsire! Why Yawn? I inhaled that! It's not nap time yet!"
Quagsire looked honestly offended at her words, a particularly funny look on such a dopey Pokémon. "Quag!" he denied. Robb inferred that to mean "It's always nap time!"
Edward returned it with a sheepish look. "Alright, so I take back what I said about Lickitung. He might be dumb as a box of rocks, but he can't help that. At least he isn't as lazy as Quagsire. That's all on purpose."
"It doesn't matter." Catelyn groaned, her eyes starting to droop. "Bring Hitmonlee and Umbreon out while Robb still has the energy to be awake. Damnit, his sleep schedule is going to be so messed up!"
"Whitney's got screwed up all the time too, remember?" Edward said, releasing his last two 'mon. Umbreon barked happily at the sight of her master's child, whilst Hitmonlee actually knelt subserviently towards Robb.
"Yes, hello Umbreon, hello Hitmonlee. Eddie, Whitney never got messed up because of one of our Pokémon though. It was always us."
"They're a part of us," Edward said, rolling his eyes. He returned his Hitmonlee and Meganium back into their balls and made for the house, holding the door open. Catelyn and Umbreon followed in, Chansey doing the same whilst hovering over her trainer, and unanimously, without needing to speak their intentions, they all made way to the master bedroom.
Flopping on the bed, Catelyn and Edward positioned themselves with Robb between their bodies. Umbreon hopped up and curled protectively around Robb, letting out a throaty purr. Chansey took a dainty squat in a love seat facing the bed, grabbing a half-finished knitting project.
As Robb felt his consciousness slip, his eyelids growing heavier and heavier with each second that passed, he grabbed one of Umbreon's thick ears and used it like a body pillow.
All in all, today had been a good day, and Robb was excited for the days to come.
This is the second of three chapters that will be coming out over the course of this week. After that, all chapters will be uploaded on a 1-2 week period.
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