Warning. ALTERNATE UNIVERSE approaching.

Author's note: Hey there!

This one-shot was actually written quite a while ago (and I've had the concept in my mind for even longer), but I held back on posting it, because I was kind of scared of the feedback. XD

It was just an experiment, though! Another angle to explore the ship from, if you will! I'm always looking for new ways to do that!

Anyway! I hope you enjoy it!

P.S. There's a reference to something from Johto tucked away in here. Can you find it?

P.P.S. There's also a reference to one of Midna's attacks in Hyrule Warriors! I do so love that game.

Take a Swing

"Ice Beam!" Dawn yelled.

Forming the concentrated cold energy for the attack, Buneary shot a beam of blue light towards the sky. It swirled around itself to form a giant ball of ice.

After a moment, the rabbit ceased the attack, causing the ice ball to plummet down to earth. As it did so, power filled the tips of Buneary's ears, making them glow a rainbow-accented white. They effortlessly caught the ice ball before it hit the floor.

Beaming, the rabbit rolled it around and around with the glowing ear-tips, looking almost like a circus act. A few moments later, Buneary threw it upwards and performed a series of backflips, kicking the ice ball to keep it suspended in the air.

"Alright, Buneary, use Bounce!"

Grabbing the ice ball with the still-glowing ear-tips, Buneary bounced high into the air.

"Now, finish up with Dizzy Punch!"

Using one ear-tip to punch the ice ball higher, the rabbit waited until the perfect moment, then smacked the ice ball down with the other ear-tip. It flew towards the ground and smashed into a fountain of sparkly shards.

Performance over, Buneary landed on the grass, spun around several times, then posed.

"Way to go, Buneary!" Dawn cheered.

"Not bad!" Ash agreed.

"Impressive display," Brock agreed.

"(Good work, Buneary)!" Pikachu said happily.

The mouse paused as he noticed the rabbit looking directly at him, eyes sparkling in wonderment. Uh oh...

As if on cue, Buneary hopped over to him, got right up in his face and winked. "(Impressive, huh~?)" the rabbit said.

Pikachu felt his face heat up in embarrassment. Especially since he was pretty sure Dawn was smiling at him. He could also see Piplup throwing a smirk his way, while Pachirisu was giggling behind his paws, and Buizel was rolling his eyes. None of this helped in the least.

The humans never saw any problem with Buneary crushing on him. In fact, Dawn thought it was cute. Heck, even May had thought it was cute, back when she'd visited Sinnoh for the Wallace Cup.

"We're gonna win the next contest, for sure!" Dawn said.

"Yeah," Ash replied, "you and Buneary are looking great!"

"You've both come a long way," Brock added, nodding.

Dawn giggled. "Yeah!" she replied. "Her attacks have gotten really strong!"

... Of course, the humans also thought that Buneary was a girl.

He couldn't blame them, honestly. What with the rabbit's very feminine nature of dancing on his tiptoes, pulling the fluff over his face, and being graceful in everything he did - not to mention, his very blatant crush - it was no surprise that people thought he was female.

Not that the rabbit seemed to mind the mistake, of course. Whenever someone referred to him as 'she' or 'her', he wouldn't even bat an eyelid. Heck, he even seemed to enjoy wearing dresses and cutesy clothing. He supposed that Buneary didn't find gender to be all that important...

The pokémon knew the truth, of course. Oh, did they ever... Most of them thought the situation was hilarious, and several just loved to tease Pikachu about it.

It was so awkward, though! He'd never had anyone crush on him before, and now a guy was doing it?! Just how was he supposed to react to this?!

Romance had never been his strong suit anyway, but who was he supposed to turn to about a guy crushing on a guy?! Ash was about as romantic as a brick, Dawn didn't really care about this kind of thing, and Brock was as straight as a plank of wood! And none of the pokémon had even come close to dealing with this kind of situation, so he was up the creek without a paddle here!

... It wasn't as if Buneary didn't know that the mouse was male, either. The first time the rabbit had made his feelings clear, Pikachu had flusteredly asked, "(Uh... you do know that I'm a guy, right?)", only to receive the happy response, "(Yeah. I know~)"

Why did these things have to happen to him?

While waiting for Brock to get started on their dinner, the pokémon had decided to play a game of hide-and-seek. The rules for today's game, in order to make it go by faster - since Brock probably wouldn't take too long cooking - were that, whenever the one who was 'it' found someone, they'd recruit them onto their side. Therefore, the more pokémon that Pikachu found - since he'd been elected as 'it' - the larger his team would get.

Pikachu checked behind another bush, finding nothing. "(EEEEverybody run~)" he quietly sung to himself, moving over to the next bush. "(EEEEverybody hide~... Ohhh, how I love this game~... Ninety-seven, ninety-eight, ninety-nine, one hundred~)" He checked behind it and was mildly surprised when he saw Buneary. "(Oh!)"

The rabbit jumped. "(Eep!)" he cried. After a moment, he giggled. "(You found me!)" Walking out of the bush, he stopped beside Pikachu and nuzzled up against him. "(Not that I can complain, 'cause now I get to be on your team~!)"

Pikachu felt the heat rise to his face. He laughed awkwardly. "(Uh, yeah...)"

Suddenly, he heard giggling from behind the nearby tree.

He gave a light sigh. "(I found you, Pachirisu...)"

"(Aww, no fair!)" Pachirisu replied. "(You haven't even seen me yet!)"

"(No, but I can hear you.)"

"(Aww... Okay, okay...)" The squirrel jumped out from behind the tree, grinning. "(Guess I'm on your team now!)"

"(Yeah...)"

Pachirisu giggled again. "(Though it looks like I'm interrupting something~!)"

Pikachu's blush darkened. "(W-Well...)" He glanced sideways at Buneary, who was still nuzzling into his side.

"(Well, I'm off to find the others. Join me when you're done, lover boy~!)" The squirrel skipped away.

"(H-Hey...)"

As Buneary inspected behind various trees and bushes, in search of their friends, Pikachu couldn't help but watch him curiously.

Just why was the rabbit so interested in him, anyway?

"(Cute, isn't he?)" Pachirisu asked, appearing right next to him.

Pikachu jumped, blushing at the accusation.

"(Th-That's not-!)" he replied frantically. "(He's not-! We're not-!)"

Pachirisu tilted his head at him.

Huffing, Pikachu shoved the squirrel further away from Buneary. Once he was fairly certain they were out of earshot, he turned to the squirrel with a sigh.

"(It's not like that at all...)" he said, making sure to keep his voice low. Buneary did have excellent hearing, after all.

Pachirisu gave him a curious smile. "(Why not?)"

"(Because...! Because we're both guys!)"

"(So?)"

Pikachu balked at him. "(What do you mean 'so'?)"

Pachirisu shrugged. "(So? He likes you, he's cute... What's the problem?)"

"(But... he...)"

"(Is a guy, like you. What's wrong with that?)"

The mouse found that he couldn't provide a suitable argument. "(Well...)"

Pachirisu tilted his head. "(Or are you just not into guys?)"

Pikachu flusteredly waved his paws around. "(N-No, I just-! I don't-!)"

"(So, are you? Or aren't you?)"

Pikachu averted his eyes, staring at the grass. "(... Well...)"

Pachirisu paused. "(Oh... then is it like Buizel said?)"

The mouse glanced up curiously. "(Hmm?)"

The squirrel was looking contemplative. "(That Buneary should stop flirting with you, 'cause you're clearly not interested... and it'd be wrong to pressure you into it, and stuff... I told him he was being silly, but was he not being silly?)"

Pikachu glanced down again unsurely. "(... I... dunno.)"

Pachirisu's tone immediately perked up. "(Oh! You dunno? As in, there's a chance?! Well, in that case, I don't see the problem! Like I said, he's really cute... especially when he's wearing that heart vest!)"

The mouse grumbled. "(Well, why don't you date him, then?)"

Pachirisu laughed. "(Nah, he's not my type... and I'm not his, either!)"

Deep in thought, Pikachu didn't respond.

"(Aha!)" Buneary's voice suddenly rang out. "(Found you, Piplup!)"

"(Aww, darn it!)" Piplup's voice replied.

Pachirisu giggled. "(We should get back to finding the others, before Brock finishes dinner,)" he said.

Pikachu slowly raised his eyes to look at the squirrel. "(Y-Yeah...)" he replied.

With one final smile, Pachirisu skipped away.

Pikachu stared at the spot the squirrel had been standing in for a few moments, then sighed to himself.

He supposed that Pachirisu was as good a person as any to talk to about Buneary. He was, after all, just as girly, and enjoyed crossdressing just as much. It wouldn't surprise him if Dawn thought he was female, too...

Suddenly, Buneary entered his line of vision. The rabbit was smiling and chatting to Piplup, who looked slightly disgruntled, as they looked around for other pokémon.

Well, Pikachu supposed the rabbit was pretty cute...

... Wait, what?

His eyes widened. Oh, good lord...

He gave his cheek a light slap. Turning on his heel, he wandered in the opposite direction, in search of the others. His face felt awfully warm, all of a sudden, but he was trying to ignore that.

The End