CHAPTER 6: Love for not being alone
Times later, Ash won his third gym badge, and they went to the next city for the fourth one, it was going to be a very long way, but they had time to prepare themselves well for the gym battle.
One day, the trainers re-encountered with Bianca in middle of the way, and they stopped to eat lunch. Later, Iris wanted to give apples as a dessert, but the others didn't like the idea, they wanted to eat something more gourmet than just simple apples, but for Oshawott and Axew, they liked the idea. Iris wanted to give one to her Pokémon, but it went rolling down the hill, and he went to look for it. Everyone went after him so he wouldn't get into trouble.
In the lower part of the hill, they met with a new Pokémon, that was an Emolga, who had the apple in her possession. She looked very adorable and kind to the Pokémon that were there, later she passed the apple to Axew that he had dropped, and as a thank you, she could take the apples that Iris had. From nowhere, Bianca appeared and she wanted to catch her to be her Pokémon, and a battle started with her Minccino to catch her.
In middle of the battle, Bianca's Minccino used Hyper Voice to leave Emolga vulnerable, later he tried to use Tickles, but the sky squirrel used Discharge that electrocuted everyone that was there. Bianca wasn't going to give up and ordered to the chinchilla to use Attract, but the electric-flying also used Attract and beat the normal-type's move. Unexpectedly, Oshawott got in middle of the hearts and received Emolga's Attract, being in love with her. To avoid more trouble, Ash had to return his Pokémon to his Poké Ball, and Emolga escaped to the forest.
Axew tried to follow her and the others went after them. Without noticing, Axew, Iris and Emolga went down a cliff and ended in the darkest and dangerous part of the forest, and they ended bumping into a group of Swoobat that attack them and forced them to hide in a small gap in a rock wall. Ash, Cilan and Bianca went to go to look for them and they found them and they went to help them to defeat the Swoobat, and they did it, but Emolga had gone already.
Everyone returned to where they were lunching, and Cilan brought apples for dinner. Emolga appeared later and she wanted to belong to Iris. She used a Poké Ball and caught the flying squirrel. Now Emolga was part of Iris's team.
The next day, Bianca wanted to have a battle with Iris's Emolga, and she accepted. The battle wasn't how it was expected, it turns out that Iris's Pokémon didn't want to fight and she escaped using Volt Switch, and changed herself for another Pokémon of the trainers. After those problems, everyone decided to eat lunch and Ash took out his Pokémon for everyone to eat as well. Everyone was given an apple for each one. Emolga ate the fruit very fast for being her favorites, and she was hungry for more. After seeing the others, who were eating, she got an idea. She used Attract on them so that they could give the apples to her.
Once the Attract effect finished, the male Pokémon fought each other because they thought that someone of them ate their apples. The trainers tried to separate them, and Pikachu used Thunderbolt on everyone to calm the situation once and for all. The humans tried to know who was the one that ate the apples of the boys. Just then, Snivy, using Vine Whip, raised Emolga and showed to them. They saw that she had pain in the tummy by eating many apples. Cilan theorized that the sky squirrel was the one who ate the fruits, but Iris denied to believe that, saying that her Pokémon wouldn't do such cruelty, and the others said sorry for thinking wrong of her.
After the mess of who ate the apples, everyone rested for a moment. Emolga, who was still hungry for apples, went to the forest to get some. Oshawott and Axew noticed that and went after her. They looked for her and found her on the ground, possibly injured. The sky squirrel said that she wanted to get some apples from a tree, but three Watchog attacked her and took out from there, but all was a lie so that she got apples. Later, Oshawott went towards where the meerkats were and he cut some apples with Razor Shell to took them and give them to his partners. The three normal-type Pokémon got angry and attack them, but the three Pokémon from the trainers dodged and the Watchog ended crashing against a tree. Nobody expected that a Simisear fell from the tree, and he was very angry. The meerkats escaped and the giant monkey Pokémon came closer to attack Emolga, Axew and Oshawott.
The otter went to attack him, but he got fainted in one hit and crashed against a tree, as the Tusk Pokémon tried to make him react. Emolga was in a bush looking what was happening and eating an apple. She ate the fruit and threw the leftovers on Simisear's face, making him very angry. He tried to attack the sky squirrel, while she dodged. In one moment, she wanted to abandon her partners, but Axew stopped her so she could help them. Before receiving an attack from the Ember Pokémon, Snivy stopped him with Vine Whip and went to her partners to help them. Emolga wanted to leave from there; nevertheless, Snivy forced to stay to defeat Simisear. The grass snake protected Oshawott and Axew from a Flamethrower, but she received a strong punch. After deciding between to help or not to help, Emolga went to attack Simisear, as the trainers went to take out Oshawott and Axew from there.
For one moment, the sky squirrel almost received a Flamethrower, but Snivy tied Simisear's foot to make him fall on his back. The Flamethrower went towards the top of a mountain and the tip came off, falling with direction to the fire-type Pokémon. Before falling on him, Emolga and Snivy crushed the giant rock with Hidden Power and Leaf Storm respectively. The giant monkey Pokémon, after being saved, decided to leave from there after being even with them.
After saving Simisear, Emolga, with an apple in her paws, went towards Snivy. The two were very angry between them, but everything changed when the electric-flying wanted to give the apple to the grass snake as a sign of truce after the problems that the flying squirrel made. Axew also wanted to eat the apple, so the grass-type cut the fruit in three parts to share between them.
Once the problem solved, Bianca went to Castelia City for her third gym badge and said goodbye to the others, who resumed with their trip to Nimbasa City for the fourth gym badge for Ash.
In middle of the way towards the next gym battle for Ash, the three trainers rested for a moment after a long walk. All the Pokémon were free to do their own things. Snivy decided to go a bit far to be alone. Some minutes later, she heard something at certain distance from her. She saw where the noise came from, there were voices that she could recognize. The snake came closer to know who were exactly, without them to noticed her presence.
By coming closer, she noticed who were they: it was about Oshawott and Emolga. Oshawott was coming closer to Emolga and had a couple of apples in his paws. After arriving next to her, he said:
"Here are your apples, Emolga."
"You're very kind, Oshawott, Thank you so much."
"I'll do everything for my love."
"Uh… yeah… whatever." she said with an uncomfortable look, "You can leave me alone, go to rest around there."
"Yeah, I'm tired of looking for the perfect apples for you. Well, bye, Emolga."
"Bye-bye, Oshawott."
And the Sea Otter Pokémon left from there, leaving the sky squirrel eating alone the apples that he brought to her. Snivy, after seeing that scene, she had to talk with Oshawott, seriously. Once the water-type was far enough from Emolga, the grass snake came closer and said to him with seriousness:
"Oshawott."
He got scared because he didn't see his partner coming. After the scare, he said to Snivy, pretending he not got scared:
"Oh! Hello, Snivy, how are you?"
"I'm fine, Oshawott:"
"And what are you doing here?"
"I came to talk about something."
"About what?"
"It's about Emolga."
"Okay… what do you want from her?"
"I saw you bringing a couple of apples to Emolga."
"Huh?! Were you spying us?"
"Yes, I heard a noise and I wanted to know who it was. It was about you two. I stayed hidden and watched you."
"Uh… well… the thing is…"
"What does this mean, about giving apples to Emolga?"
"I… I just… Argh! Okay! I did it because I'm really in love with her."
"In love with her, you say?!" she asked surprised.
"Yeah, I love her so much."
"But… why?" with unbelievability.
"It was a love at first sight, when I saw her for the first time, I was completely on love with her. That shape, those colors, that so cute face, that she was very kind with everyone. I knew that I had to win her heart for us to become boyfriend and girlfriend, do you understand, Snivy?"
"How can you be in love with her, Oshawott?!" Snivy exclaimed with a lot of anger.
The grass-type's anger made the Sea Otter Pokémon feel fear, why she was like that with him? He asked to her:
"Why are you angry with me now? Is there something wrong with me wanting to be Emolga's boyfriend?"
"Yes, of course! She is just using you!"
"She is… using me, you say?"
"Yes, she is taking advantage that you're in love with her for her own benefit, she is using you to bring her apples so that she eats them. She doesn't even feel something for you! Do you not understand?!"
Oshawott got thoughtful for his teammate's word, until he realized something. He said:
"I already understand what's wrong with you. You don't want that I be with Emolga because you hate her a lot, isn't it right?"
"That's not true, Oshawott! Where did you get that stupid thing?!" Snivy said even angrier.
"Calm down, Snivy, there's no need for you to get upset."
"And since when did you get the idea of looking for love?!"
Oshawott got silent after that, he later put a sad expression. Snivy noticed and her rage was disappearing little by little.
"Oshawott?" she asked worried.
The water type gave a heavy sigh and answered:
"Snivy, I… yes, I'm looking for love since time ago."
"Do you speak truly?"
"Yeah, you don't know a lot but… I was rejected uncountable times when I was in Professor's Juniper lab. The young people aspiring to be trainers said to me that I was ugly, weak and useless, while they picked my other partners" getting sadder. It hurt me a lot that they said those words to me in that moment. I looked at the lucky Pokémon going out of the lab with its trainer that chose it, while I stayed one more day there, waiting for someone to choose me. Days passed, weeks, even months I imagined, that nobody had chosen me for its adventure."
"Oshawott…" feeling pity in her inside.
"But one day, Ash and Trip came to the lab. Trip wanted his first Pokémon and the Professor took us out to show ourselves. It was there when Ash something cute. I never in my life someone had said to me something nice of me, I felt… very happy and thankful for him, but the happiness didn't last so long. In the moment where Trip would choose his first Pokémon for his adventure, he chose Snivy, that now you know him as Servine. I was in complete shock by that, rejected all over again. I had to stay in the lab for yet another time until one day someone would choose me as a Pokémon partner. I felt very sad, but I remembered in that instant the nice words that Ash told me before. I felt a strong connection with him, and I wanted for him to choose me for his adventure in the Unova region. So I exited the lab and I followed him anywhere to ask him to stay with me."
Snivy was quiet and thoughtful by the story that Oshawott told. She didn't know that her partner got rejected multiple times before getting chosen by Ash, actually, the Pokémon was the one who chose him to travel together. She felt rather pity for the Sea Otter Pokémon. She said later:
"Now I know what you had to live at that time, but what does it have to do with looking for love?"
"Now I come to that, Snivy. I was traveling happy with Ash, and I still am, I didn't care if I had to battle to become stronger, I just wanna travel with him. Days ago, a thought came up in my mind, what will happen when Ash's journey in Unova ends? What will I do when that moment arrives? I was afraid that I'd be alone again like my stay in the Professor's Juniper lab. What could I do in that moment? I was like that until something came up in my mind. What if I get a girlfriend to not being alone later on? She would accompany me for all my life after Ash finished his journey in this region. I have no idea if I'll be or live in a specific place when that moment arrives, but I'd have my girlfriend to love her and she accompany me for the rest of my days. That's why I wanted to win Emolga's heart."
"Oshawott…"
"I know that somehow you don't accept my romance with Emolga, but it's my only option that I have for the moment to have someone to accompany me and not to be alone. So, could you someday accept my romance that I have with her?"
Snivy got thoughtful for what Oshawott said. She knew that the romance he had with Emolga was toxic and it wasn't going to work for a long time; however, after all what her teammate told, she was doubtful. What could she do regard to this?
"Mmm… Oshawott, I don't know really."
"Please, okay?"
With just looking her partner's sad face it made her feel bad in the inside. She didn't want to see Oshawott like that. After thinking so much, Snivy said the following:
"I don't know now, but maybe I might consider it later on."
"Are you talking seriously?"
"I'm still doubtful that your romance with Emolga is going to work. I don't think that this is going to end very well for you."
"Don't worry, Snivy. I'm sure that Emolga loves me after all, so don't be upset. Everything is going to work out well for me."
"If you say so…"
"Alright, I think is moment to come back with the trainers to continue traveling. So bye, Snivy."
"Bye, Oshawott."
And the Sea Otter Pokémon went to where the others were, leaving Snivy alone and thoughtful. She wasn't still very sure if the romance that Oshawott and Emolga had was good for him. She didn't know what would happen from that moment on. I may be bad things happen to him for his romance with the sky squirrel, despite that, he wanted to believe her teammate just that time. If the water-type was sure that his romance with the electric-flying would work, she had to believe him just once. If he failed, she expected that Oshawott to apologize with the grass snake for not believing her that she said a while ago. She would say to him: "I told you" in all his face. That made her happy for a moment. It was getting late, it was better to return with the others to continue with the journey to the next gym battle for Ash.