Chapter 9 - Enter Patrick

"If she wants to kill herself, then who am I to stop it?" Delia huffed as she ran her hands over her braided hair and straighten her shirt.

The girl had been at a complete loss ever since Celeste jumped into the ocean. For a while, she paced around, shooting the occasional nervous glance at the water. But as her friend swam further away, Delia figured she needed to busy herself.

First, she organised their boat. Ropes were roped, clothes were folded and electronic collars were…? What does Cee even want with this thing? The Pallet girl thought, involuntarily looking at the figure in the ocean. She was almost out of view… What if she never got to see her again?

"I hate her," Delia muttered as she picked one of the ropes she had so carefully tied around. "Shelly, do you think you can help me out?"

—*—*—

Shellder were definitely not made to tow a boat, Delia thought, distressed both at the speed her pokémon was moving and at the fact she could not see her friend anywhere.

"Please Shelly, I know it's hard, but try to move faster."

"Sheeelll," the pokémon let out a high-pitched cry, as if trying to boost her own strength. Unfortunately, Shelly was too small and swimming forward while attached to a boat was too constraining.

In the almost unmoving ocean, the minutes felt like hours and, until Delia finally spotted Celeste again, she felt like her heart had stopped beating.

"Cee!" Delia yelled, as the pair finally reached the beach.

The trainer made her mouth curl into an uncertain smile when she saw her friend. She limped towards the water, but stopped inches from waves.

"What happened to you?" the Pallet brunette asked worriedly.

The girl's ragged state would have given pause to anyone. Not only she had her body covered in bruises and scratches and her shirt ripped, but she was also limping. And her expression? Delia could not for the life of her decipher it. Cee's eyes and nose were red, as if she had just been crying and she was nervously bitting her lips. Yet, contrary to all her body language, the girl's eyes looked somewhat happy.

"Had a bit of an accident with a tentacool," the trainer answered, forcing herself to ignore the traumatic experience behind her. "But guess what?"

Celeste held up the pokéball in her hands. Half of it was covered in patches of damp sand, but the ball was still new, and its exposed polished surface glistened with the glowing sun. The trainer, not taking her eyes from the object in her hand, gave away the best smile she could.

"You caught one? Those things are vicious!" Delia gasped, taking in Cee's state once more. Case in point.

"Hell no," Celeste replied with a cringe, "Patrick is way better!"

"Patrick…?"

"Well, I haven't settled on Patrick yet. I still need to ask it if it's a 'he'," the trainer said, looking at the pokéball once more. "Also, I want to know if it likes the name."

"You need… to ask?" once more Delia was dumbfounded.

"Yeah, I'm not assuming things."

"You can usually tell the gender of a pokémon by looking," Delia started explaining again. Doesn't this girl know anything?

"I know that. I wouldn't have come up with Patrick if I couldn't tell," Celeste said, tilting her head, "But I want to know how it thinks."

"What?"

"We ask people, right?" Celeste explained. "I mean, we should, at least. And pokémon, they are sentient, intelligent creatures, right? We can communicate with them. They understand our language. So I figure I should ask them too."

Delia had no words. She had met many trainers, especially while working for the professor. Most people cared for and loved their pokémon. But never she has seen someone give them such… freedom? She didn't know if it made any sense to ask about the pokémon's gender identity. These were human constructs, after all… But in either case, the girl's kindness was refreshing.

Back when she was a trainer… should Delia have given her pokémon a choice, too?

"Hey guys," Celeste finally said, letting her two pokémon out. "Let's meet Patrick… Well, probably Patrick."

"Wait. Your pokémon haven't met—? Don't tell me you caught another one without battling?"

This girl had to be the most unique trainer Delia had ever met, and probably one of the luckiest. Or the unluckiest. She wasn't sure which yet.

"Pat kind of captured itself," Celeste shrugged, kneeling by her pokémon. "Girls, we have a new teammate. I want you to be nice and welcoming, ok?"

"Vul-pix!" the little fox cried out in excitement, even though she wasn't sure what she was excited about.

"That means you too, Aria," Celeste said, looking at her eevee's plotting face. "Play nice. I mean it."

The eevee whined for a moment, but she was too curious. She knew Celeste would eventually catch other pokémon, but somehow didn't expect her trainer to be successful so soon and without her help.

"Okay, everyone. I want you all to meet our new buddy."

With a small toss, the pokéball burst open and, as its light disappeared, everyone held their breath in anticipation. But none could quite believe the creature that emerged, least of all Delia, who could only shriek at its sight.

The pokémon was pink, round, and a little dopey. It was Patrick, Celeste's new slowpoke.

"Y-you caught a slowpoke?" Delia asked, while hurriedly grabbing her shellder in her arms.

"Exciting right!" Celeste said while petting her new slowpoke. With Delia and her pokémon around, she felt safer. "Hey, buddy, my name is Celeste, and I can be your trainer if you like."

"Huh… Celeste?" Delia paused, somewhat forgetting the pink horror in front of her. Now that is a name…

"Uh… yeah… Cee is short for Celeste. Didn't I mention that before?" the trainer said absentmindedly. All that mattered now was her slowpoke. "Would you like it if I named you Patrick? It's a boy's name. Are you comfortable with it?"

The pokémon blinked and stared emptily at Celeste.

After a moment, it blinked again.

"Po…" another blink, "… ke."

"Was that a yes?" Celeste asked her companions, but none seemed capable of answering. The vulpix only tilted its head, and Aria seemed to be almost bursting with a repressed laughter. Looking at Delia and Shelly, who seemed to be slowly backing away from the group, the trainer prompted, "What do you think?"

"It's a slowpoke."

"I noticed it is a slowpoke, Delia. I'm not THAT lost," Celeste said, getting annoyed. She turned back to her new pokémon. "Okay, we don't need anyone's help, do we? You just say 'po' for yes and 'ke' for no. So tell me, are you a boy slowpoke?"

The pokémon blinked at the trainer again.

"… Po."

"Good. We are making progress here," Celeste smiled.

"… Ke…"

"I didn't—" she started saying, but interrupted herself. "Never mind. Tell me, do you like the name Patrick?"

"…"

The slowpoke blinked at his trainer again.

"… Slow…"

"No, buddy," Celeste said, taking a deep breath. Aria was laughing out loud now, and the trainer was seriously considering throwing her eevee to the tentacool. "Let's do this again, 'po' for yes, 'ke' for no. Can I call you Patrick?"

"…"

The pokémon moved toward Celeste. And put its two front legs on the girl's knees.

"Just tell me, buddy," she said, petting the pokémon's snout; "Can I call you Patrick?"

The slowpoke moved its head up, getting closer to Celeste's own head.

"You can tell just me. Don't worry about the mean eevee, or anyone else," Celeste whispered, also getting closer to her pokémon.

The slowpoke opened its mouth.

"Yeah…?" the trainer held its breath. This was the moment of truth.

The slowpoke closed its mouth again, this time around the tips of her hair.

And started chewing on it.

Aria was rolling with laughter at this point, and to Celeste's shock, her little vulpix had joined in. Delia and Shelly, having moved even further away from the new pokémon, only stared at the scene.

"Now, now, buddy," Celeste said, gathering all her patience. "My hair is not food."

The trainer tugged her hair away from her pokémon and tried to lift him away. Slowpoke, even though relatively small, were quite heavy. Which turned out to be a problem. Eventually, a panting Celeste lifted him into a rock and, even though she maintained herself at eye level, kept her head at a safe distance.

"… Po," the slowpoke finally spoke, with his empty gaze still following the tips of his trainer's hair.

Aria could not stop laughing.

"I'll take that as a very delayed yes…" Celeste grumbled, somehow more annoyed at the eevee than Patrick. "We will need to work on that, Pat. Hey, De… lia? What is wrong?"

"You caught a slowpoke."

"Again?" Celeste said, trying not to look frustrated. It was not even lunchtime yet, and she had already dealt with too much. "I know he is cool, and that I'm lucky for not needing to battle and all that. But honestly, it's not THAT impressive."

"Impressive?" Delia scoffed, still holding on to her precious Shelly. "You caught a slowpoke. The only thing impressive is that this one seems dumber than usual."

"HEY! You are hurting Patrick's feelings."

"I doubt this thing can't even understand us, Cee—leste."

"Hmpf," Celeste huffed, "I knew you would drop the nice girl act, eventually."

"I wasn't trying to act nice," Delia muttered. "Can't you see you got a slowpoke? And I have a shellder?"

Celeste blinked with the same blank expression as Patrick as she looked at Delia and Shelly.

The Pallet girl was very protective of her pokémon. A shellder, of all things. A horrible shellder who could bite Patrick's tail and trigger an evolution at any moment. Celeste's eye widened. She promptly stepped in front of her new pokémon with the resolve to protect it from the menacing Shelly at all costs.

What would happen if they evolved? He would become a slowbro, of course. But would the slowbro be Patrick? Or Shelly? Or would they be both? Whose pokémon would they be? It wasn't even an hour since she caught Patrick, but Celeste refused to lose him. She was already too attached.

"Okay. I see the problem… Maybe you should call Shelly back?"

"Why should I do that? You can return your pink monster instead."

"We are bonding," Celeste tried appealing to Delia. Or to her eevee, who was still having way too much fun with the situation. "Besides, you said it yourself. It's hard for Shelly to tow the boat."

"And you think this thing can?"

Celeste looked at the slowpoke. No, he definitely couldn't. Would they need another water pokémon? She didn't want another one. She wanted to take her time to get to know Patrick better, hair chewing and all.

The girl closed her eyes and grabbed his pokéball from her pouch. She hesitated for a few moments, not wanting to call him back. Did she even have a choice? She and Delia would never figure a way out if they were too busy arguing.

She opened her eyes again to notice Patrick wasn't behind her anymore.

Celeste briefly panicked, but calmed down again once she saw her pokémon lounging by a nearby tree. How did he get there so fast?

It was kind of cute, Celeste thought. Pat had found a nice shadow for himself and he laid there on his side with his little legs and tail sloppily hanging about. He blinked slowly at the other pokémon and let out a yawn. Aria, who finally stopped laughing, yawned back and nuzzled Powder so they would join the slowpoke for a nap.

Celeste could use a nap after the day she had. And Patrick had chosen the perfect tree. The biggest leaves the girl had ever seen danced over her pokémon and their rustling sound made a perfect melody with the waves. It was peaceful and safe.

But Delia was still giving out her icy stare at both trainer and pokémon.

"Pat," Cee started saying, pointing the ball at the slowpoke. It broke her heart to end that moment. "It's time to—Wait."

Celeste studied the pokémon and the trees. The strange trees catching the breeze with their gigantic leaves.

That was it.

She turned to Delia, now with a big smile.

"Hey. Want to help me make a sail?"

A/N:

Well this one was hard to do (more like hard to edit). Hope you guys enjoy! Again, thanks for all the feedback, reviews and all that. I really appreciate it :)

NEXT CHAPTER: Adrift