Teams:

Pierce Lawson:

- Narcissa, Beedrill

- Orion, Onix

- Cygnus, Abra

Lillian Dale:

- Root, Bulbasaur

- Talon, Spearow

- Gem, Geodude

- Star, Cleffa

Cerulean City VI

Pierce swam, the cool water of the pool washing past him as he continued pushing it behind him with his arms and giving light kicks with his legs. The silence of the underwater was wrapped around him and combined with the darkness of his closed eyes. It all worked to make the feelings on his skin seem all the more prominent, really.

He felt the shifts around him signaling the pokemon that were keeping him company. Or was it him that kept them company? Pierce supposed they were keeping each other company, really.

He didn't want to come out of the water, not even to breathe. Bit by bit, he continued advancing and his lungs started asking for oxygen that he denied. It was always something that he enjoyed doing, testing his limits and trying to hold his breath underwater for as long as possible. He wasn't sure why, but he imagined it was something about enjoying the feeling of being underwater and just trying to prolong that for as long as possible.

Eventually, he had to come out, but when he did so it was with a smile. After all, he'd reached the other end of the pool, just like he'd wanted. Taking a deep breath in, trying to make up for the lack of oxygen he'd subjected himself to, Pierce turned around and then pushed himself up to sit at the edge of the pool. He looked down at the pokemon with a grin, leaning down to rub his hand on Goldeen's side.

"Neat, right?" he asked, receiving some faint, almost indifferent bubbling from the water type. For Pierce though, that might as well be happy dancing coming from her. "I know. How about you guys, wanna go again?" he asked, turning to Tentacool and Magikarp.

The former simply bobbed up and down in a way that many might have mistaken as just regular floating, but not Pierce. The latter was much more expressive, swimming around in an infinity shape and wiggling excitedly. She was adorable like that, honestly. 'As if she weren't cool enough being a magikarp and a shiny,' he thought to himself.

"Honestly, I do wonder if you guys are just humoring me," he commented as Poliwag hopped next to him, outside of the water. The lil' water type had decided to stay out of the swimming with Quagsire and Vaporeon. The former two because they weren't quite well enough physically speaking yet and the latter likely because she thought they were all being childish.

As a response to his words, all the water types had rolled their eyes.

"Oh, you are, are you? I see how it is. I think I'll just go swim at the beach instead of here if you are all going to be like that," he commented, making Poliwag jump to push himself against his chest. "You are the only friend I have here, buddy. I want you to know you are great," he commented, holding the little tadpole pokemon in his arms.

At his words, Goldeen rolled her eyes once more before pressing herself lightly on the side of his leg. Magikarp hurried to do the same on his other one too. He grinned at both of them, kicking his legs likely to rub them against the two fish.

"Well, good to know you guys can be honest once in a while," he told them. Then he took another deep breath in and cracked his neck. He was tired, but he could always swim some more, especially with good company. 'Maybe I should get goggles or something if I want to swim with the pokemon more,' he mused. As it was, he hadn't even known he could actually swim in that pool until that very day when he'd asked Daisy. "Ok then, let's go again," he said and all three of the pokemon in the water prepared themselves.

As for Poliwag, it started hopping around the edge of the pool to go back where Vaporeon and Quagsire waited on the other side, where they'd started their back and forth some time ago. Pierce watched the little guy go for a bit before nodding to himself and preparing to dive into the water. He couldn't swim nearly as fast as the water types, so he at least liked to have that little advantage to start with.

Not that it took the creatures even a second to catch up, but it gave him the illusion of possibility, he supposed. It was a nice way to get started on swimming anyway, and certainly helped him reach further without breathing. Unfortunately for him, he'd only managed to get through the entire pool once like that, but he was eager to try and get a second added to that.

Sadly, it was not to be, at least not then. He did at least manage to do it only having to come out once, but that wasn't as good as he'd have liked. 'Maybe tomorrow,' he mused, feeling his muscles starting to feel tired, even if he'd have liked to continue all day. 'Guess I have to get ready to get out and pick up everyone.'

"That was fun," he said, smiling at the pokemon as he held onto the edge of the pool, not pulling himself out just yet. Instead, he extended a hand to the side and rubbed it on Magikarp's head. "We'll be doing this some more tomorrow, I can promise you guys that."

'Not only is it great, but it counts as a work out, which makes it even better,' Pierce thought to himself, chuckling as the water type pushed against him and rubbed herself on his side. Apparently, that made Goldeen jealous, surprisingly, because she swam forwards, pressing against him too.

"We can do this everyday while I'm here, I think. Unless you guys have better ideas, at least. You might not like swimming as much as me since it's kind of… normal, for you," he mused, finally dragging himself out and sitting on the edge with his feet in the water still. "Ok, you like it too," he conceded when Magikarp gave a surprisingly animated protest and wiggled. "Good to know."

They were all just adorable, honestly.

Even Vaporeon, in her own tsundere kind of way.

"Welp, I have to go for today, but I'll be back tomorrow, yeah?" Pierce said, pulling himself fully out of the pool and then standing up. Stretching a little, he regarded the pokemon that had to stay inside the water. Tentacool waved two tentacles at him, while Goldeen gave a little round swim. Magikarp was the most expressive, wiggling and jumping off the water a bit. "See you, guys. Don't cause trouble for the sisters."

With that, he moved to the side and pulled a towel to dry himself off. As he did, the non-waterbound pokemon followed after him, with Quagsire draping himself on the bench next to his backpack like the lazy bum he was. Granted, he had to rest more than usual for his recovery, but the ground type just really loved being lazy too, Pierce had found.

"Take care of yourselves and each other, yeah?" Pierce asked after putting on a t-shirt. Leaning down, he patted Poliwag, who wiggled under his hand. "Yeah?" he repeated, turning to Vaporeon, who he knew was the most mature of the bunch, to which she nodded. "Thanks. I'll bring you extra pokeblocks if you keep these bunch out of trouble."

Now that seemed to gain the water eeveelution much more determination, if the straightening of her back and the narrowing of her eyes were anything to go by. Pierce would never not be amused by how easy it was to bribe pokemon with food. The best part was that somehow the people of the world didn't quite seem to get it. Sure, pokemon were a bit scary when you really thought about it, but they were also like people, give them something nice and they were likely to be nice back.

"See you tomorrow, guys," he said then, patting each pokemon in the head before walking away and waving at them when they cried out their own goodbyes.

"Pokemon adore you," Lily commented, making him blink. He hadn't even seen her standing there against the wall. "It's weird."

"Is it?"

"It is," she answered with a nod, looking at him like he was an amusing puzzle. "There's people that have an easier time befriending certain pokemon, even pokemon in general. But you… you are different, for some reason. I'd call you naive, but I've seen naive people approach pokemon and they mess up sooner or later. You know what you are doing, too well."

"I just do what I think it's best. Other than that, I couldn't tell you anything else even if I tried," he replied with a shrug. If anything that seemed to make the pink haired woman even more curious, however. "Any ideas?"

"Some, but they are all pretty crazy."

'Can't be crazier than me being from another world,' Pierce thought to himself with a slight smile.

"Well, tell me if you figure it out."

"I will," she agreed easily with a nod. "For the moment, would you mind meeting some other pokemon?" To that, he answered with a raised eyebrow and a half-smile. "I figured, but I had to ask. It's only polite," she commented with a laugh. "Still, it'll be great to have someone that can interact with the pokemon and help with some of their rehabilitation without causing issues. The League wasn't prepared for the amount of pokemon that were suddenly dropped on them. They are having trouble finding places to send these pokemon to, so they'll likely be around for a little longer than expected."

"Not to say that's good, but I'm not sad to hear that," Pierce commented, continuing to walk towards the place's exit. As for Lily, she followed suit, taking the spot beside him as they moved. "I grow fond of pokemon, but they usually leave, or I do, relatively quickly. It's nice to know that they'll be around for a bit."

"Gee, good to know you wish us to have more work," Lily commented dryly, but the grin on her face let it be known that she was just joking… mostly. "Well, we might as well put you to good use and have you help us have an easier time. The Gym is working again and while we have the people to keep things running, we are a bit stretched thin… And it doesn't help that we don't have time for shows anymore."

"I've been hearing complaints at the Pokemon Center about that, actually," Pierce replied, not even having to lie. People really liked the Sisters's show and from what he'd seen, it wasn't without reason. "I'm honestly a little bummed about that. I hope I can stay here long enough to catch one."

"Well, if you help us as much as I think you will, the least we can do is let you in on a rehearsal, if nothing else," Lily told him, which honestly sounded pretty neat.

"Looking forward to it then," he replied with a grin. "Anything I should know?

"Not much, just come here as usual and we'll see what we can have you do," the Sensational Sister told him. "Not to be presumptuous or anything, but if I know you as well as I think I do, you'll enjoy yourself."

"I mean, I'll be playing with pokemon. Nothing better than that," he said, because really, he wasn't that hard to figure out. He liked pokemon, he liked helping and… that was about it, really. Life was better if it stayed simple.

"Yeah, I figured," Lily replied, chuckling. "Well, take care, Pierce. I'll see you tomorrow."

"You can bet on that."

[}-o-{]

"Missed you too, guys," Pierce commented sitting on top of Orion as he used the special wipe on his rocky skin/shell. Narcissa couldn't stop herself from flying around him, occasionally latching onto him. Cygnus' presence in his mind seemed to be even closer than usual, which Pierce took as the psychic version of clinging to him, even if the abra would deny that.

And Orion wouldn't have shut up and let go of him if Pierce hadn't agreed to use the wipe on him.

Even if it was a little annoying, he loved it. He loved his pokemon and he'd truly missed them too. Sure, he wasn't very sure if it was good or bad that they were acting like that after barely half a day away from him, but he'd take that over a normal reception. Call him self-centered, but Pierce enjoyed knowing that there were individuals out there that cared and missed him so much.

"And that's that, big guy," he called, earning a whine from Orion. "Don't give me that. You know that it'll be bad for you if I use it too much. Besides, my arms are tired," he chidded, palming the side of the onix's head. After swimming so much at the Gym and now having to rub the entirety of Orion's ever growing body, he didn't feel like doing much of anything with his arms.

Sadly, he had things to do.

"So, how's the tutoring going?" he asked, receiving a… sort of "meh" from Orion. Narcissa seemed pretty happy with herself, but not overly so. Cygnus though, he was positively vibrating with how excited he was… At least in Pierce's mind. Granted, the abra would never admit to that either. "What's the matter, Orion? Don't like the move or is your tutor bad?" he asked, a little concerned.

The onix then rumbled a response that Cygnus translated in his mind. Apparently, he just thought his teacher was positively dull, but the move was alright and he was learning. 'Well, no offense to the guy, but I might have to mention that in a review,' Pierce mused. After all, there were pokemon that might do really badly in regards to something like that. Especially young ones, he supposed.

He was kind of surprised that Orion was dealing with it so well, but that might have been the drive to match his teammates. After all, the other two were learning new moves through tutors too, so he might not have wanted to be left behind. If that was the case… Well, that was good, but Pierce might have to address that in the future. It could become a problem, after all.

"It is… very… interesting… I want… to learn… more… I like… it," Cygnus told him, but that was expected. This was the path his psychic wanted to go with, the physical fighting one. Sure, they might get to work on his psychic powers later once he evolved and all, but his little friend was interested in punching things, so that's what he was going to do. "Thank you… Helper-Speaker," Cygnus told him, to which Pierce just smiled at him.

"No problem, buddy," he said simply, patting his abra on the head. "So, Narcissa?" he asked, turning to his starter. She was hovering in the air in front of him without doing much else. A moment later though, the tips of her stingers started shining and cackling with electricity. "Doing great, I see," he commented, knowing that she was all for getting new moves to attack things with.

Her excitement was a bit toned down because it wasn't a physical attack, which was her preferred option, but it was an attack all the same. Narcissa wanted to prove her strength, and while physical shows of prowess were better for that in her opinion, ranged attacks had their own appeal to her, he supposed. Now, defensive moves and status ones, she might not be that much of a fan of, but even those had their use as she knew. Tungsten Strike was, after all, built entirely on non-attack moves.

"Well, good to know you are doing well," Pierce commented, chuckling as the beedrill stopped her show and moved to latch into his back. "Once you are all done, we'll challenge the Gym. Now, you are likely not going to be participating there, Orion, I'm sorry to say, but we can go to the battlegrounds together and have a fun time, yeah?" he told them, even though they already knew. He thought it was a good idea to remind them of the goal and that there was something to look forward to…

For them, that is, although Pierce couldn't say he wasn't a bit interested himself. After all, even if he wasn't a fan of pokemon battles, he was kind of looking forward to sharing that with his team. He'd had many battles on the road and in the battlegrounds of Pewter and Pierce would admit that he was kind of starting to like it.

He didn't think he'd ever be a battlemaniac like Narcissa, but he could see himself enjoying them and looking out for battles to have. It was just a matter of understanding that pokemon enjoyed battles for one reason or another and that this was part of how they were. It wasn't people forcing them to fight for sport, this was a sport that had been born because of pokemon's inherent wish for battle, or so Pierce gathered.

That made it a little more understandable, he supposed.

At the same time, he was nervous. What if he couldn't help his pokemon get to the level they dreamed of? What if he just wasn't a good enough trainer to reach that far? He didn't have the love for it, even if he tried to push through anyway. What if he just didn't have what it took?

"We… trust… you…" Cygnus told him firmly. "We follow… We learn… You lead… You teach… We all… reach far…"

Pierce wished he could have the abra's confidence. All of their confidence, really. Because he'd been a normal dude back in his world. And here, he might be a bit special in how he could interact with pokemon and get along with them, he supposed, but that didn't translate to being a great trainer. They were completely different skills.

"Narcissa. Orion. Me," Cygnus continued. "We know… you will do it," the abra insisted, just as confident and determined as before. Pierce might have doubted that, but if they were so stubborn… then he'd have to try his best and hope it was enough.

Being nervous wasn't going to help anyone, after all. Being hesitant and afraid would only make things worse. No, he needed to push through, just like he had so far. Maybe his doubts would be there forever, but he needed to keep going despite them.

"Better," Cygnus told him, nodding.

'Thanks, buddy,' Pierce projected at the abra, patting his head.

"It's why… I'm here… Helper-Speaker."

'You are gonna have to tell me about that soon, by the way.'

"Soon," the abra agreed.

[}-o-{]

"Seriously, that was the problem?" Dennis, the farmer Pierce was helping that day, said incredulously.

"You'd be surprised how easy it is to find out what's wrong with a pokemon," Pierce replied with a smile on his face as he continued petting the rattata on his lap. "Just ask a few questions, be calm and let them know you aren't there with any negative feelings towards them. I think pokemon are more reasonable than humans, most of the time."

"... I guess," the farmer mumbled, not sounding very sure. Still Pierce was certain he'd listen this one time, at least. "So, I just have to make sure to be careful when near their burrow? And they'll be gone whenever the little ones have grown?"

"That's the deal I was talking about with the parents," Pierce confirmed, continuing to pamper the little one on his lap, who seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the attention. His parents, the raticate off to the side, didn't seem too keen on things, but their child was having a fun time, so they were allowing it. The siblings of the rattata didn't seem to agree with their parents, looking longingly at Pierce.

He guessed he'd have to play with all of them before going, or he'd feel terrible.

"You are careful here and they'll leave you alone. The most they'll probably do is take a few berries here and there. A family this big shouldn't need that many though, even with the little ones. It should make less of a dent in your income than the trouble they've been causing anyway," Pierce said then, turning his attention back to Dennis.

"It's fine," the man waved off, looking half-relieved and half-resigned. "At least I don't have to fear having to repair my equipment again. That was the worst part, really, and not being able to get close," the man explained, to which Pierce nodded. "Guess Don wasn't lying," he added, running his fingers through his graying hair. "Good job, young man. I'll be sure to pay you a bonus for solving it so quickly and cleanly. I half expected a battle and losing more than a few plants."

"Happy to help," Pierce replied with a smile. "Besides, this was fun. It's always nice to play with the little ones," he added, tickling the rattata and making it squirm. "They are adorable."

"They sure are," the old man agreed, smiling softly himself. That was nice. He'd looked pretty annoyed with the rodent pokemon before, but now that things had been explained, he seemed to be fine. Pierce half expected more annoyance and to be asked to kick the family out or something. He would have – because if not someone less kind could take the job – but he'd have hated it anyway. "Well, good to know I don't have to worry about this anymore," the added, moving to the side and plucking a berry off a tree. "Here, little ones," he said, moving carefully to place it close to the family but nowhere near actually close.

"See, it's not so hard," Pierce praised. Sure, the parents had been on edge and the man had been even worse, but so long as people tried, they'd be fine. "The parents are very protective and are likely to overreact, so I'd watch out for that. But so long as you don't make sudden movements or come off as threatening in any way, you should be fine. Remember that misunderstandings are a thing too, so maybe something you think is ok might not be for them."

"I'll keep all of that in mind," Dennis commented, looking thoughtful. "I guess this could cut back on requests for trainers," the man continued. "You might have saved me more money than you and I think, Lawson."

"That and trouble for the pokemon too," he replied, very pleased with himself. Someone was going to have an easier time with their work, pokemon were going to have a nice time going mostly unbothered and he was getting paid to do something he enjoyed.

It was all wins, basically. Doing Trainer jobs might just become his dream job as a whole, really. 'Why do people want to be champions and shit? This is much less stressful,' Pierce thought to himself, chuckling as an envious rattata made its way towards him and then started climbing his side.

"You are not mentioning this to my wife, by the way," Dennis commented and Pierce laughed even harder when he saw a few rattata circling the old man and poking at him with their paws. "Neither will you be mentioning that either, but especially the rattata family and children."

"Because she'll adopt them?"

"With how long our son is taking to give her grandchildren? Hell yes, she will," the man answered, to which Pierce just kept laughing. "Yeah, laugh it up. I just know she'll have me build a home for them… or stuff for them inside the house. I'm too old to be taking care of this many pokemon, Lawson."

"I'll keep the secret, Mr. Calhoun."

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How's it going?

Well, a whole lot of pokemon interactions and stuff, which is always nice. I'm having fun writing Pierce's trainer jobs too, they are just great. Overall, I guess I like writing regular human-pokemon interactions and such.

Hope you enjoy reading them too!

As always, if you can't wait until next week for next chapter, or if you just feel like supporting my writing, there's up to three new chapters in my Pa tre on:

P a treon . com (slash) AdrianKing

Discord Link: discord .gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: On the topic of the notes, any interactions you can come up with? If they sound interesting and the muse likes them, I might even include whatever ideas you guys have.

See you.