Author's note: Hey there!

This one-shot is dedicated to Infinite Nexus!

I didn't have a clue what to write for this request for the longest time... but, recently, something finally came to me! So I hope you enjoy it!

It was surprisingly easy to write, once I got going. Haha.

Oh, the Humanity

Pikachu stirred in his sleep. Someone was trying to prod him awake. Groaning slightly, he turned around, ignoring them. He was so comfy. Just five more minutes...

The prodding continued.

"Pikachu?" a voice asked. "Pikachuuuu..."

He groaned again. Okay, fine. Turning around, he cracked his eyes open to see who was talking to him.

The first thing he saw was some flat, cream-coloured shoes. Slowly looking up, he took in the person's whole appearance. A long, flowing cream-coloured skirt that blew gently in the breeze. A brown long-sleeved shirt. Short brown hair that reached the middle of her neck. A small, fancy cream-coloured hat perched on top of her head.

Brown eyes lit up as the girl beamed at him. "Hey, sleepyhead~!" she said.

He blinked at her. "... Who... Who are you?" he asked.

She giggled. "Wow, you must still be half-asleep~! It's me! Buneary!"

His eyes shot open. Scrambling into a sitting position, he stared at her, his mouth dropping open.

"Bu... Buneary?!"

"Yeah!" She gave him a confused look. "Hey, what's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Wh... Bu... Why are you a human?!"

Now she looked even more confused. "Huh? What do you mean?"

"What do you mean 'what do I mean'?! Why are you a human?!"

"'Cause... I was born one? Wow, you're acting strange today."

He continued to stare. "... Huh?"

"Now come on, get up! Breakfast is nearly ready!"

Grabbing his arm, she gently pulled him to his feet and began to lead him to where Ash, Dawn and Brock were sitting at a table, with Brock making rice balls. As Pikachu walked over in a daze, all three turned to look at him.

"Oh, hey, buddy!" Ash said. "Good to see you're finally awake!"

"Yeah..." he replied, "hey..."

"Thanks for getting him up, Buneary," Dawn said. "He's a heavier sleeper than Ash!"

"Breakfast will be ready soon," Brock said, "so feel free to take a seat."

"Okay~!" Buneary replied, letting go of Pikachu to sit down.

Pikachu stared. "... Does... no one see a problem with this?" he asked.

"Hmm?" Ash asked. "With what?"

"Yeah, with what?" Dawn asked.

Pikachu pointed at Buneary. "With... Buneary being a human," he replied. "Did I... miss something while I was asleep?"

Dawn frowned slightly. "Oh, come on. Now that's just rude."

... Huh? It was?

"Yeah," Ash said, chuckling. "You want her to be a pokémon, instead?"

Pikachu blinked. "... Well..." he replied awkwardly.

Brock began putting the rice balls on plates. "He's probably still half-asleep," he said. He looked directly at Pikachu with a smile. "She's just as human as you or I, Pikachu."

Pikachu blinked. Wait... what?

... Wait. This whole time, had he been... speaking in English?! That explained why the humans could understand him!

But... he didn't know how to speak in English! He'd never learned!

And... wait... now that he was looking at them, the humans seemed a heck of a lot smaller than they'd looked yesterday...

He quickly looked at his paws. His eyes widened in shock and horror.

They were no longer paws. They were human hands!

Panicking, he pressed his hands to his face. He couldn't feel any fur, and his nose was much bigger than before!

He looked down at his feet. Instead of what was usually there, he saw yellow sneakers and the bottom of yellow jeans.

Heart racing in panic, fear and horror, he quickly looked around for something, anything, to look at himself in.

Spotting a nearby river, he made a beeline towards it. Stopping by the river bank, he stared down, wide-eyed, at his reflection.

A human face stared back at him, with reddish-brown eyes and short blond hair. Holding up the yellow jeans was a brown belt, and draped over it was a yellow short-sleeved shirt. On his head was a black baseball cap.

... Just what the heck was going on?!

"Everyone, time for breakfast!" Ash called out.

"Yeah, come on out!" Dawn called out.

Pikachu spun around to see Ash, Dawn and Brock throwing their pokéballs into the air. All of them popped open, the white flashes of light materialising into his friends.

There they all were, looking the same as they always had. It brought him a little bit of comfort, knowing that at least they hadn't changed.

... Just why were he and Buneary different, though? Why were they humans now? They were still being called by pokémon names, for crying out loud! It didn't make any sense!

He watched as his pokémon friends all scrambled for a bowl of pellets each, chattering to one another as they usually did.

"Star, Star, Staravia," Staravia said.

"Chimchar, Chim," Chimchar replied.

"Turtwiiiig," Turtwig said.

... Wait. Pikachu's eyes widened frantically. Why could he not understand them anymore?!

Suddenly, Buneary appeared beside him, looking concerned. "Pikachu?" she asked. "Are you okay?"

He looked at her in disbelief. "No..." he replied. "No, not really..."

"Oh, what's wrong?" She moved closer and nuzzled him. "You can tell me."

He stiffened in shock. It felt almost exactly the same as it had always done. The only difference being that neither of them had fur now.

He could feel the skin of her cheek against his own, and it felt... weird.

"Looks like Buneary's getting her early morning nuzzles!" Dawn said cheekily.

"Huh," Ash replied, his mouth full of rice ball, "well, whatever works for her."

"When it comes to love," Brock said, "every time is nuzzle time. Morning, noon or night."

Despite the bizarre situation, Pikachu couldn't help but blush. Even here, in this twisted reality, he still couldn't avoid comments of love.

As he felt Buneary move away from him, he glanced at her. Her face was bright red as she pulled out a cream-coloured fan, flicked it open and hid her face behind it.

He stared.

Well... despite the two of them being human, it seemed not much had changed between them.

Just like before, though, he still wasn't sure if she actually did like him. Many people had said she did, but, whenever he'd brought it up with her, she'd... well, done this. Except with fluff and not a fan.

He'd always wanted confirmation first, but had always found it too awkward to bring up. That was no different now that they were humans.

... In fact, now it was even more awkward.

"So, uh..." Buneary said from behind her fan, "yeah. Anything bothering you?"

"Uh..." Pikachu replied, "it's... nothing."

"Oh. Well... okay."

"Come on, Pikachu!" Ash suddenly said. "Come and get your breakfast!"

"Uh... r-right," he replied.

Walking over to where his friends were, he sat down by a food bowl. Grabbing a pellet, he raised it to his mouth, bit a piece off and chewed it.

A foul taste washed over his tongue. Nearly vomiting, he spat it onto the grass, coughing and spluttering.

"Uh... Pikachu?" Dawn asked. "Why did you try to eat the pokémon's pellets?"

"Your food's over here, you know..." Brock added.

"Man, Pikachu," Ash said, "you feeling okay?"

Pikachu looked at the pokémon, who were all giving him weird looks. Glancing over the humans, he saw them giving him weird looks, too. Buneary had a hand over her mouth, her eyes wide in surprise.

He heaved a sigh, his face now even hotter than before. Just what the heck was going on in this messed-up world?

Once breakfast had been eaten, Ash stood up from the table.

"Alright!" he said. "Now, how about we do some training?"

"Sounds good, Ash!" Dawn replied. "Can I be your sparring partner?"

"Sure thing, Dawn!"

The two of them ran out onto the open field, then turned towards their pokémon.

Dawn smiled. "Okay, who wants to do some contest practice?"

"Ambi, Ambipom!" Ambipom replied, bounding over to stand in front of Dawn. Linking her tail hands together, she hopped over them like they were a jump rope. "Ambi!"

"Alright, Ambipom it is!"

Pikachu smiled. He always loved battling. He was getting pumped up already!

"Awesome," Ash said. "Now who on my team wants to battle?"

Pikachu immediately stood up from the table. "Me!" he replied, getting on all fours and running over.

... Wait, his arms were much shorter than his legs! Far too short to act as forelegs! His eyes widened at the realisation, before he collapsed unceremoniously on the grass.

All four humans stared at him.

"... I swear, Pikachu thinks he's a pokémon today," Dawn said.

"Did you hit or head or something, buddy?" Ash asked worriedly. "We don't need to get you checked over, do we?"

Pikachu scrambled to his knees. "Uh, no, no!" he replied, his face warming in embarrassment. Gosh, a human body was so inconvenient! He didn't think he could ever get used to this! "I'm fine!" He laughed awkwardly.

Ash put his wrists on his hips. "... Well, okay. You just take it easy, okay, buddy?"

"Y-Yeah, sure."

Pikachu shifted uncomfortably where he was sitting on the grass. He was attempting to sit cross-legged, like the humans often did, but good grief, was it uncomfortable!

Sitting next to him was Buneary, who seemed to have mastered the position, despite wearing a long, flowing skirt. He had to admit, he was impressed.

... Then again, she'd said she'd been born a human? So, then, had she never been a rabbit? He was so confused that his brain was starting to hurt.

Instead, he watched Chimchar and Ambipom battle, while Ash and Dawn called out commands.

Buneary shuffled closer. "They're looking good out there, huh?" she asked.

He turned to her. "Huh?" he replied.

"Chimchar and Ambipom." She sighed. "Kinda makes me wish I had pokémon."

He blinked. "... Is that so?"

"Yeah. Though it might actually be cooler being a pokémon. Don't you think?"

"... Uh... yeah."

She giggled, nuzzling her face against his. That weird skin-on-skin contact made his back stiffen again. He was pretty sure humans didn't tend to nuzzle.

"I saw you today. You wanna be a pokémon, too, right?"

"Uh... yeah, you could say that."

"Mmm, sounds fun. What kind of pokémon would I be?"

"... Uh... a buneary?"

She giggled again. "Oh, come on, be serious!"

"... Right. Sorry."

She sighed contently, resting on him. "I'd wanna be something cute."

"... Like... a rabbit?"

She gasped. "Yeah, a rabbit! Though I wonder what kind of rabbit..."

"Uh..." He glanced away awkwardly. "Dunno..."

Suddenly, he heard a shriek. Snapping his head in the direction of the humans, he saw that Chimchar and Ambipom were being dragged away in a net. Out of the trees, a meowth-shaped hot air balloon floated towards the sky. A man, a woman and a meowth inside the balloon basket cackled in laughter.

"Team Rocket!" Pikachu cried out, getting to his feet.

He listened to them recite their motto as the balloon pulled Chimchar and Ambipom into the air. He watched as Wobbuffet and Mime Jr. popped out of their pokéballs to chime in.

"Chimchar!" Ash called out.

"Ambipom!" Dawn called out.

Without thinking, Pikachu ran towards Ash. He tripped and stumbled, still not used to running on two legs, but he kept going.

He stopped by Ash's side, glaring up at the hot air balloon. "You let them go!" he called out.

"Oh, what?" Jessie asked mockingly. "What's the fashion disaster going to do?"

... What?

"He's got about as much fashion sense as he does common sense!" James added mockingly.

"Or pokémon!" Meowth added.

Pikachu blinked, looking down at himself.

... Okay, maybe his outfit was a bit of a fashion disaster, but that was hardly his fault. He hadn't chosen to wear this clothing!

Suddenly, Buneary was at his side, frowning up at Team Rocket. "You leave him alone!" she called out.

... Actually, now that he looked at Buneary, she had pretty amazing fashion sense, considering all the right colours of her species were in the right place.

"Buizel!" Ash called out. "Get over here and use Water Gun!"

"Bui, Bui!" Buizel replied, running towards Ash.

"And Piplup!" Dawn called out. "You use Bubble Beam!"

"Pip, Pip, Piplup!" Piplup replied, running towards Dawn.

Stopping in front of them, they spun around and fired their attacks at the balloon.

Manning the controls, Meowth desperately tried to steer the balloon out of the way of the attacks.

Normally, at this point, Pikachu would wait for the instruction from Ash to use Thunderbolt. However, he knew that, for whatever reason, Ash viewed him as a human. So there was no way he'd even consider calling on him for an attack.

Instead, he clenched his fists, deciding to do it himself.

He concentrated. He tried to send all his electrical power into his cheeks. Normally, he'd feel a tingling, burning pressure from all the built-up electricity. One that begged to be released and fired at the target.

But... he felt nothing. Nothing at all.

Panicking, he tried again.

Nothing.

He stared at his fists in shock. He... had no electricity. Did this mean he had none of his other moves, either? Quick Attack? Iron Tail?

Well, he couldn't run on four legs anymore, and he had no tail, either, so...

Was he really just an ordinary human now?

"Buizel!" Ash called out. "Use Aqua Jet!"

"Piplup!" Dawn called out. "Hop on and use Peck!"

Jumping onto Buizel's back as the weasel took off in a jet of water, Piplup made his beak glow. It grew to twice its size as they approached Team Rocket's balloon.

When Meowth fiddled with the controls, the balloon swerved to the side, avoiding them. Jumping off at just the right moment, however, Piplup drove his long beak straight into the balloon. It popped, sending a screaming Team Rocket hurtling towards the ground.

When they landed with a crash, Chimchar and Ambipom scrambled out of the net, running towards Ash and Dawn.

Before Team Rocket could get to their feet, Buizel - who'd done a u-turn in mid-air - crashed into them from above with Aqua Jet. There was an explosion and they went blasting off again.

When Piplup landed next to Buizel, he posed proudly.

... Pikachu wasn't sure how to feel, knowing he could never be part of that again.

Sometime later, the humans packed up their things, recalled their pokémon and got ready to continue travelling.

At this point, Pikachu would usually jump on Ash's shoulder, but he'd gotten the hint by now that doing that just... wasn't practical anymore. He was pretty much the same size as Ash, so he was pretty sure he couldn't climb on his shoulder. Nor should he try to.

Dejectedly, he walked alongside Buneary, who'd decided to hold his hand. He couldn't say it was entirely unpleasant. It was quite nice, actually. Though, again, the skin-on-skin contact felt rather weird.

He didn't think he could ever get used to being a human.

That evening, the humans set up their campsite. By nightfall, everyone was tucking themselves into their sleeping bags.

Buneary brought hers over and placed it next to Pikachu's. He looked up at her beaming face. She seemed to be wearing a set of pyjamas, where the top was brown and the bottoms were cream-coloured.

He, himself, had changed into yellow pyjamas.

She wrapped herself up in her sleeping bag, making sure to snuggle up to him. "Well..." she said, closing her eyes, "night, Pikachu."

He blushed slightly. "Uh, yeah..." he replied. "Night, Buneary."

He closed his eyes, trying his best to get to sleep.

Pikachu stirred in his sleep. Someone was trying to prod him awake. Groaning slightly, he turned around, ignoring them. He was so comfy. Just five more minutes...

The prodding continued.

"(Pikachu?)" a voice asked. "(Pikachuuuu...)"

He groaned again. Okay, fine. Turning around, he cracked his eyes open to see who was talking to him.

It was a rabbit. A brown and cream-coloured rabbit.

She beamed at him. "(Hey, sleepyhead~!)" she said.

He blinked. He blinked again. Then his eyes shot open and he scrambled to his feet.

"(Buneary?!)" he cried.

She jumped back, yelping in shock. "(Uh... yeah?)"

Wait... pokémon! She was speaking in pokémon! And so was he! He quickly looked down at himself.

Paws! He could see paws! And yellow fur! And his small, bulky body!

He pressed his paws to his face. He could feel his small nose! And his bulky electric sacs! He looked behind him, and could see his lightning bolt tail!

He beamed so brightly, he felt like his face might crack. He was a pikachu again!

"(Are... you okay, Pikachu?)" Buneary asked.

He turned his beaming smile in her direction. "(Yeah! I'm a pikachu! And you're a buneary!)"

"(Well, yeah, we-)" He lunged forward, grabbing her paws and spinning her around. Her eyes widened in surprise. "(Whoa!)"

"(We're not humans!)"

"(H-Huh? Humans?)"

He let go of her. "(Yeah!)" He paused, looking at his surroundings. "(... Wait, was I asleep? Was that a dream?)"

"(That we were humans? I guess so. You were tossing and turning, so I thought I'd wake you up. Besides, breakfast is almost ready.)"

He quickly looked around, then spotted the humans at a nearby table.

Ash chuckled at him. "You sure are lively this morning, huh, buddy?" he said.

Dawn giggled. "No kidding," she replied.

Brock smiled from where he was making rice balls. "Breakfast will be ready soon, you two," he said.

Pikachu couldn't stop beaming. Everything was right with the world.

Then a paw grabbed hold of his own. He looked down at it in surprise.

The warm feeling of brown fur against yellow fur felt so comfortable. So warm. So... right. He looked up at Buneary.

She was smiling at him. "(Come on, let's get over there.)"

Looking at her face - her brown rabbit face, with its pink button nose and cream-coloured eyebrows - he realised he much preferred her like this to the human version in his dream.

She was much cuter.

He smiled back as he nodded to her. "(Yeah, sure,)" he replied warmly.

The End