Chapter 7

Ash is sitting on his bed a few days after the incident happened, he's been in a bit of an ashamed mood ever since the incident. Suddenly, Delia walked in holding Lillie in her arms, she had a bandage on her forehead and right hind leg, at least Ash was relieved that Lillie's hairstyle wasn't cut off from her fur.

"H-hey Ash..." Lillie greeted Ash, as she walked in front of him with her tail wagging a bit, "H-how are you f-feeling?"

"Lillie I feel like we should be asking you that question." Snowy whined, "We were so worried!"

"I know, I'm sorry, I just felt like I was holding you all back..." Lillie sighed as Ash, Pikachu, and Snowy hugged her softly, saying they'd never do that.

"You know, I haven't been the great friend recently, keeping things secret, neglecting you when all you wished was to make me happy." Ash stated, "But that changes today! From now on, I'll do better to make sure I treat you the way you want to be treated!"

Lillie cried and thanked Ash, as after breakfast, Ash and his family had to do some things around the region, and Goh, Chloe, Max, Serena, and Bonnie wanted to explore more. While everyone else left with their Pokémon, Minami of all of them, picked up Lillie and started to pet her.

"M-Miss Minami?" Lillie was confused.

"Don't worry Lillie," Minami whispered, "I wanted to say that I'm very sorry for how I treated you, I was a complete jerk, it's just I'm used to seeing others as infuriating when they screw up because of my past with Team Rocket..."

"If you want, I'd be willing to listen so you can let it all out." Lillie offered, as Minami said that would be nice.

"See, as you know from a young age I was kidnapped by them, however, Giovanni forced me to call him 'father' and for seven years, I was subjugated to calling others inferior, and only my Shiny Eevee, now Sylveon, was my friend that I could care for...when Mother saved us, it was over, but those behaviors never truly left, seeing you leave Ash made me think about those times. However, those moments of trauma don't excuse my behavior. So what I'm saying is, I'm sorry, and I hope you can forgive me, Lillie Aether..." Minami looked away, knowing she can't look Lillie in the eye with the guilt, however, to her shock, Lillie jumped on her shoulder and nuzzled her, which stunned her, "Lillie?"

"I'm not one to hold grudges, my mother left me for so long until Ash showed up and made my life much better," Lillie explained, "I didn't have any malice, but I just wished she would be with me..."

"So, friends?" Minami asked as she put her hand out, as Lillie smiled and grabbed it to shake with her paw.

"Friends."

The two proceeded to hug, as Minami asked since the others will be gone all day, if she'd like to go to some of her favorite places in Sevestar, Lillie agreed, as they first went to RPA High, which caused Lillie to turn into an Umbreon, she was nervous but Minami promised to try and make her comfortable with it.

"Well if it isn't Minami!" They saw Professor Eve appear with a smile, "How's one of my favorite students doing today?"

"Great Professor Eve, I also have someone to introduce you to." Minami stated as she pointed to Lillie, "Professor Eve, this is my long-lost brother's latest Pokémon, Lillie. Lillie, this is one of my teachers Professor Eve, who is also an Elite Four member."

"So this is the transforming Eevee I heard about." Eve gasped with a bit of excitement, as she lowered herself to Lillie and pet her head, "Hello Lillie, I'm Professor Eve, one of Minami's teachers. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Lillie got a closer look at the teacher, she realized Professor Eve is really young to be a teacher. She didn't know if she should talk it out loud because it might be embarrassing. Eve smiled, "So how are you doing, Lillie?"

"Good, just bonding with Minami, since we got off to a rough start, but it's okay." Lillie explained as Minami's Sylveon (who's Shiny if you recall) used her ribbons to pet Lillie's head.

"So anyways, is there someplace you want to check out?" Eve offered, as Minami said she had three areas to check out, first, they checked out the Cafeteria, and Minami did decide to get herself a chocolate chip granola bar. Lillie did want something from the human snacks too, but she felt like that wouldn't be allowed, as when she was still a human, her school refused to let her give snacks to Snowy that were meant for humans, even if they were 100% safe for Snowy. She can't bring up the courage to ask so.

"Lillie? Is something wrong?" Minami asked with concern, as Lillie lowered her ears and walked back to Minami. Despite saying everything is okay, Minami is starting to tell that something's bothering Lillie...then it hit her: Lillie wasn't told that both people and Pokémon are meant to be treated like royals at this High School. That means Lillie thinks the only thing she's allowed to eat here is Pokémon food, simply for being turned into a Pokémon against her will to survive. She secretly read her mind...

'It's gonna be fine Lillie, you can handle Pokémon food...I know you hate it but you gotta handle it...' Lillie said in her mind, trying to hold back tears...Minami picked Lillie up and tried to soothe the pain, confusing Lillie.

"Hey, don't be like that Lillie, you want one of the snacks right?" Minami asked, as Lillie nodded, and to her shock and happiness, Minami bought Lillie's favorite fruit snacks, "Pokemon or not, you're one of us still Lillie!" Lillie happily had the fruit snacks, which were difficult to eat due to the no actual hands thing, but she still managed. Next Minami went to show Lillie one of the battlefields, which was big enough for Dynamax to be used. Lillie decided to try and stretch a bit, as Lillie did that, Minami got a call from her mother, which she quickly answered.

"Hello, Mother." Minami answered, "How are things?"

"Oh me and Ash are doing well at the moment," Delia stated, "Your other siblings went to guide the others around, what are you up to?"

"Oh, me and Lillie are at the school right now, I'm currently showing her three of my favorite places, I'm showing her one of the battle courts." Minami explained, "She's currently exercising, well, mostly stretching but you know what I mean. After this, we're going to the RPA's department store."

"Alright, just be careful alright dear?" Delia asked as Minami agreed, "See you soon sweetie!"

"Bye Mom!" Minami hung up as she picked up Lillie, "Hey Lillie, you want to check out the RPA Department Store since we only really went there for the birthday battles last time?"

"Sure, I'd love that!" Lillie exclaimed, as they soon took the limo to the store. Although, Lillie now turning back into an Eevee, seemed to have something on her mind, which Minami caught onto.

"Lillie? Is something bothering you?" Minami questioned with concern, as she noticed Lillie trying to hold back tears, "Lillie! What's wrong?! What's bothering you?"

"It's just, you know how Ash and Serena are dating?" Lillie whimpered, looking ashamed.

"Yeah? What's wrong abou-OH!" Minami quickly caught onto what Lillie was implying!

"Yes, I have feelings for Ash, and I was going to the 'celebration party' to not only congratulate him for winning the Masters Eight Tournament but also to finally confess, it felt like we had something special." Lillie sighed, "Before I even met Serena, I was somewhat concerned Ash wanted to use his frustration from the betrayal on me, since I was useless, and nearly was used to kill him...Snowy tried to reassure me I still had a chance. Meeting Serena however, only made me worry even more, then I noticed that Ash deleted pics with me in them. I know I was probably in pics with the traitors, but we couldn't edit them to remove them, that was all I had left of my human form, and he didn't even bother asking to know if I was okay with that. Then there's the whole getting yelled at by Ash where he confirmed he was dating Serena. It really felt like the traitors were right, they said that once Ash saw me as not being of use, he would discard me the first chance he got...I'm just glad that was proven wrong, but it still hurts..."

"It's okay Lillie, you know, how about we try to surprise Ash by recreating your old outfit?"

Minami suggested, shocking Lillie again, "I'm sure Ash will see that despite everything you're still the same girl from Alola who cares for him."

"Sure, that sounds like a good idea!" Lillie smiled at the idea.

Later that night, Ash, Pikachu, Snowy, and Delia returned home and saw everyone else hiding something or someone behind them.

"Hey, what's going on guys?" Ash asked with confusion, as everyone moves out of the way, and saw Lillie as in Eevee, in a somewhat replicated version of her Z-powered form dress, sitting there with a massive smile.

"Hi, Ash!" Lillie exclaimed with the biggest smile Ash had ever seen since she was transformed, "How was your day today?"

"Lillie? You're...you're smiling..." Ash was about to cry in happiness as Lillie seemed like she was finally happy once more, "And your Z-powered outfit..."

"Yeah, do you like how I look?" Lillie asked while wagging her tail, as Ash picked her up.

"It's beautiful, Lillie." Ash started having tears run down his face, "I also missed seeing you this happy."

"Well, I had some help..." Lillie looks at Minami and the others, who throughout the whole day had been pitching in to help Lillie with this surprise, "I know this probably is going to only be for special occasions since I don't want this dress damaged, but we figured I'd show it off for you to see your reaction."

Ash smiled and hugged everyone else that was in the room, as Delia petted Lillie and soon they were having dinner before going to bed...

Just when Lillie was about to get in her and Snowy's Pokémon bed, Ash decided to offer something to the two.

"Hey, Lillie, do you and Snowy want to sleep with me and Pikachu?" Ash offered, "I'm sure you'd want to at least feel the comfort of a human bed again right?"

Lillie and Snowy looked at each other before smiling and jumping to Ash and Pikachu to sleep with them on the bed.

"Goodnight you three." Ash chuckled to his three Poke-pals...