Sorry for the delay, everyone. I haven't abandoned this story, and I have no intention to do so. Also I haven't forgotten you ravengal and Dirty98, I owe you both replies!

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon.

Piplup POV:

I slowly woke up from my nap, feeling very relaxed. I did not want to open my eyes, as I was so comfortable. My soft, warm pillow and blanket were practically begging me to go back to sleep. 'Sounds like a plan' I thought to myself and turned on my side, snuggling my head further into the comfort of the furry pillow.

And then the pillow chuckled.

My eyes snapped open and my head shot off the pillow as I shot onto my feet with my flippers flailing around in shock. I lost my balance and face-planted into the sandy ground, the grainy rock fragments filling my mouth. I quickly scrambled into a sitting position and spat the sand out of my mouth. I heard snickering to my right and looked over to see Oshawott laughing, presumably at my clumsiness. My face heated up in embarrassment; I did not like being laughed at!

"Sorry, that tickled a bit" he said after calming down. "You nuzzling your head into my chest like that."

"Sorry about that" I apologized. He smiled for some reason, making me wonder why. "What happened after I fell asleep?"

"It's fine" he said, grinning. "And you were using me as a pillow and a blanket. You looked so peaceful and calm, I didn't want to wake you up." I felt my face heat up again as he frowned. "Well, mostly. There was a minute where you were shaking and mumbling a bit about 'being bait' or something like that. So, I held you, and you calmed down." His face was red at the end.

I shivered and turned away from him. I knew exactly what nightmare that had been and what memory it came from. The images of old rope and Ekans eyes filled my vision. Suddenly I felt two arms wrap around me from behind, bringing me back to reality.

"Don't worry, I'm here" he whispered, pulling me backwards against his chest.

It was strange, but I actually felt protected in his embrace. Like he was warding off the painful memories. I didn't know how or why he could. Nothing and nobody else ever was able to comfort me like this.

But he was. And I loved it.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked. I felt my eye twitch at the thought of reliving that painful memory. No thanks.

"So, how long was I out?" I asked, quickly changing the subject. Oshawott gave me a curious look and I prayed to Arceus he wouldn't press.

"I'm guessing around an hour" he told me, much to my relief that he had dropped it. "I didn't want to wake you up because…well, I was enjoying it." He blushed heavily after his confession, but I was more interested in the time that had passed. A whole hour? I wasn't supposed to be gone a whole hour!

"Shoot, everyone must be really worried about us now" I commented with concern. I was visualizing Dawn running around and worryingly shouting my name, which made me feel guilty.

"Yeah, they probably think we killed each other" he joked as he laughed.

"We should get back" I said as I stood up. Oshawott frowned but nodded and stood up as well. "Let's go."

Upon exiting the cave, I studied the sand, but found no footprints or anything else to direct me on where to go. I looked up away from the ocean and saw a rather oddly shaped rock. I remembered seeing that before we entered the cave. I turned to Oshawott and pointed to it with my flipper. "That rock was in front of me when we ran this way. That means we should go-" I turned and pointed down the beach in the opposite direction "that way." He shrugged.

"If you say so" he said and began to walk that direction. I frowned, of course I knew the right way! Then I realized he was leaving me behind.

"Hey, wait for me!" I called out and ran after him as he stopped and waited for me. I then began walking side by side with him as we silently headed off the beach and into the trees. He seemed to be upset we left the cave. I'd have to ask him why later.

I started to think about all that had happened in such a short time. Apparently Oshawott and I were now in some sort of relationship. I needed to discuss that with him later as well to define exactly that this, and we, were.

Buneary was probably through with Pikachu by now. I shivered at the thought of what they likely did. I did not want to know the specifics.

I was broken out of my thoughts when I felt Oshawott hold my flipper, intertwining it in his arm. I gave him a curious look. Sure, we hadn't talked about us being public, whatever we were, but I felt concern and nervousness creep up in my mind. What would everyone think of me if we were dating?

"Don't worry, I'll stop before anyone sees us" he assured me, to my amazement. He knew what I was thinking before I even said anything! I wonder how he knew.

This was all so quick, but it felt so natural. So comfortable. So right.

I made up my mind. For now, I'd go with the flow. I'd wait to process all my feelings until we left this island.

Speaking of said island, the ground was starting to shake, and a deep rumble sounded from below us. My eyes widened and I felt nervous as something was coming up from below us. Oshawott's grip around my flipper tightened, indicating he was nervous too.

Large chunks of soil and rocks went flying in front of us as something emerged from the ground below us. I was blinded by the flying debris. A loud roar sounded from in front of us, and a silhouette of an Onix appeared. This thing was massive! It was easily 50 feet long and 10 feet wide, I was tiny in comparison.

The dust settled, revealing the giant Pokémon in front of us. For an Onix, it was shining unusually bright in the sunlight. I had never seen one shine like this before, and it didn't make sense. How could rocks reflect light?

I felt Oshawott start shaking along with me as we both realized this wasn't a giant Onix.

This was a giant Steelix.

/

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