I got some requests for more Vaporeon focus, and this is a story I've been working on for a while that I think fits the bill!
Aiden and Michelle: 4 years old
Vaporeon's Tale
"Vaporeon's so pretty!"
"Yeah, and strong!"
"Vay…"
The water type purred contently as Aiden and Michelle fussed over her while stroking her head and back. The twins were older now, and not nearly as rough with her as they had been in the past. Vaporeon was a resilient Pokémon, so she'd never complained, but this was certainly preferable to the way it used to be.
Misty, who had been watching her children from the couch, smiled. "Yeah, Vaporeon really is the best partner!"
Looking over her shoulder, Michelle asked, "how'd you meet Vaporeon, Mommy?"
"Yeah, did you catch her?" Aiden added, his head popping up to look in the same direction as his sister.
Misty shook her head. "I got Vaporeon when she was still an egg as a gift from Professor Oak!"
"So, did Vaporeon used to be an Eevee?" Aiden squeaked, his eyes shimmering.
"She did!" Misty confirmed. "She was my sweet little baby Eevee."
Michelle giggled. "I can't imagine her as an Eevee!"
"Well, she was a little bit different when she was younger," Misty mused, watching as Vaporeon switched her tail between the twins, brushing the tips of her fins against both of their cheeks and causing them to laugh. "A little more…mischievous."
"Miss-jeevus?" Aiden repeated, tilting his head.
"Not quite," Misty chuckled before repeating, "mischievous! It means she was playful, and sometimes a little bit naughty. Kind of like you two!"
Michelle's jaw fell open. "Mommy, I'm not naughty!"
Aiden furrowed his brow. "Hey, how come you didn't say I'm not naughty neither?"
Michelle looked over at her brother, shooting him a deadpan expression that all but screamed really?
Vaporeon smirked herself as she got to her paws and glided over to her trainer, rubbing herself against the woman's legs. Misty giggled and reached down so she could pet the water type herself. "I don't mean it in a bad way! That's what happens when you're little. Even for a Pokémon!"
"What kinda stuff did Vaporeon do that was naughty?" Michelle questioned.
"A couple of different things," Misty recalled. "But there's one thing she used to do all the time that really stands out…"
XXX
"Hey, Mist-OOF!"
The gym leader winced as she peered around the front desk, knowing exactly what she was going to find but dreading it all the same. "Oh, Eevee. Not again!"
Indeed, her young Pokémon was perched atop a sprawled out young man's chest, her tail wagging back and forth. At the young man's side, his own partner Pokémon observed the scene with an obvious look of concern, but unable to do much else about it.
"How many times do I have to tell you it isn't nice to tackle Ash?" Misty sighed, getting up from her seat and plucking the normal type off of her target. "Sorry about that."
"It's fine," Ash wheezed, halfway sitting up and smiling at Misty. "I think she's gotten even stronger!"
"I wouldn't be surprised," Misty relented, showing off a weak smile as Eevee pressed her paws against her shoulders and leaned up towards her face so she could lick her cheek. "We have been training quite a bit!"
"Oh, so we should have a battle!" Ash exclaimed, getting back to his feet. "I'd love to see Eevee in action!"
"Sure, just don't try and use Pikachu again," Misty giggled, recalling the last time Ash had tried to battle her and Eevee.
"I know, it's like Togepi all over again," Ash groaned, shaking his head. "Guess I should've realized Pikachu wouldn't have been too keen on battling her."
"Pi," Pikachu agreed from beside his trainer's feet. He and Eevee had hit it off right away when they'd first met, to the point where Pikachu seemed to view Eevee like a little sister. He was very protective of the normal type, loved to play with her, and was always teaching her new things; very reminiscent of the relationship he'd used to have with Misty's Togepi. So, the last time they'd battled, Ash had made the mistake of trying to send Pikachu in against Eevee…and his partner wanted nothing to do with it. Eevee, for what it was worth, had no qualms about the matchup; she just thought of it as playtime. Pikachu couldn't bear the thought of potentially hurting Eevee, however, and had refused to battle her. Ash had been embarrassed by the whole thing: partially because Pikachu had pulled himself out of the match, and partially because he himself had made the boneheaded move of asking Pikachu to battle in the first place. It had definitely been a careless decision, but sometimes Ash just got too excited when it came to battling and didn't think before he acted.
"Although now that I think about it, maybe there's something else we should do with Eevee," Misty mused, glancing down at her cheerful young Pokémon. "Something better than a battle."
Ash inclined his head. "What could be better than battling?"
"Teaching her to quit using tackle on you," Misty replied with a smirk.
"I already told you, I don't mind," Ash assured her. "I know that Eevee's just being playful!"
Misty twisted her mouth. "Yeah…I don't know if it's totally playful."
Ash blinked. "What'dya mean?"
Sighing, Misty placed Eevee on the floor, watching as the normal type scurried up to Pikachu, her tail wagging as she encouraged the mouse to chase after her. "I think she might be a little…distrustful of you."
Ash's eyes widened. "What?! No way! Eevee loves me!"
"She does," Misty confirmed. "But she's also really protective of me, and I've noticed that the closer you and I get, the more she's been tackling you."
Ash suddenly pulled back as he thought about that himself. "Hey, you're right! She has been doing that a lot more lately!" Frowning, Ash asked, "you really think she doesn't trust me?"
Misty smiled reassuringly at Ash. "I don't think it has anything to do with you specifically. I think she'd act the same way with anyone I was involved with. She does kind of me think of me like her mother, after all. You'd never want anyone potentially hurting your mom, right?"
Ash rapidly shook his head. "No way! If anyone ever did that, they'd definitely have to answer to me."
"Hence why you've been answering to Eevee's tackle," Misty giggled.
Ash frowned. "But I'd never, ever hurt you, Mist. There's gotta be some way I can prove that to Eevee!"
"I know you wouldn't," Misty assured him, the smile still on her face. "And I'm sure there is. We just have to figure out how!"
Ash's frown somehow managed to deepen. "Does that mean instead of battling, we're gonna be brainstorming?"
Misty winked at her frustrated boyfriend. "You've got it!"
Groaning, Ash furrowed his brow and grumbled, "I think I'd rather Eevee just keep on tackling me…"
XXX
Aiden and Michelle were raucous with laughter, which Misty presumed she should've seen coming. The twins adored their father, but they also thought it was completely hilarious when he was being tormented.
Vaporeon, on the other hand, glanced up at her trainer with a displeased expression. She considered that part of her youth to be very embarrassing and didn't particularly enjoy it being shared with others.
"Oh, come on, Aiden and Michelle loved that story!" Misty cried. "They probably think you're twice as cool now that they know you used to mess around with their dad all the time."
"Yeah!" Aiden agreed, hopping up and down on his knees. "That's really funny!"
"How come she doesn't do it anymore?" Michelle asked her mother.
"Vaporeon's all grown up now," Misty replied with a smirk. "She's matured and knows that your daddy loves me very much! So, she trusts him and doesn't feel the need to pounce on him as a warning."
The water type nodded to confirm that this was, in fact, true.
"Aw, but it'd be so funny!" Aiden cried, crawling closer to the water type. "C'mon, Vaporeon, just one more time!"
The water type sighed and gently flicked her tail towards the boy; her way of turning him down.
"Pleeeease?" Aiden pleaded, a pout now gracing his young face.
Misty giggled and leaned over to pat her son's head. "She's not going to do it, little guy. No matter how much you beg!"
"Aw, man," Aiden grumbled, crossing his arms. "That woulda been so cool!"
"I bet it'd hurt a lot more too, cause Vaporeon's bigger than an Eevee!" Michelle commented.
"That she is," Misty agreed. "I think Daddy is lucky that Vaporeon didn't want to evolve right away! Otherwise, all those tackles would've hurt a lot more."
Michelle blinked. "She didn't?"
Misty shook her head before explaining, "Daddy very much liked the idea of Eevee evolving into Vaporeon as soon as possible, but she wasn't interested."
That confused Aiden. "But it would've made her stronger!"
"True, but evolution also takes a lot of energy to go through," Misty explained. "If you do it before a Pokémon feels ready, they can have a bad reaction to it. It's almost like growing up too fast!"
Michelle nodded in understanding. "Sometimes I wanna be a grown up, but I like being a kid, too!"
Misty giggled at her daughter's response. "Exactly! There are good things about being a grown up, but there are also plenty of good things about being a kid. And Eevee was still enjoying being little. She didn't want to rush to that next part of her life! I understood that. Daddy did too, especially once he remembered that he had his own Pokémon who's never shown any interest in evolving."
"Pikachu!" Aiden cried out excitedly, having remembered all of the stories his father had told him about Pikachu's desire to remain the same.
"Yes, Pikachu," Misty confirmed with a giggle. "Sometimes Daddy just gets really excited and forgets those kinds of things."
"What do I forget?"
As Ash appeared at the bottom of the stairs, Vaporeon quickly shifted her gaze between Aiden and Michelle before charging towards the Pokémon Master. As Misty and the twins' jaws dropped, Ash yelped and recoiled, bracing himself for impact.
After a still few seconds, however, Ash opened just one of his eyes and realized that Vaporeon was standing right in front of him, still in her crouched position but now with an impish smirk on her face.
"Oh, thank goodness," Ash sighed, hunching over and placing a hand on his chest. "I started having flashbacks!"
Aiden and Michelle burst into laughter, while Misty just smirked. "Vaporeon, that wasn't very nice!"
The bubble jet Pokémon spun around and scurried back over to Misty, rubbing herself against her trainer's side. Giggling, Misty began stroking the Pokémon's head, earning delighted mewls from the water type.
"Sorry," Misty apologized to a still bewildered Ash. "I told the twins about how Vaporeon used to tackle you when she was still an Eevee, and they were begging her for an encore. She refused to actually do it, but I guess she decided a fake out was okay."
"I'm just amazed I still have the muscle memory to react to it," Ash grumbled. "It's been so long I was kind of hoping I'd forget by now!"
"Vay," the water type called out to Ash, inclining her head.
Ash, on the other hand, offered the Pokémon a sympathetic smile. "It's okay, Vaporeon. I know you were just trying to entertain those two little monsters!"
"Hey, I'm not a monster!" Michelle protested.
"Sure, you are," Ash playfully refuted. "You're a super cute monster! Monsters can be cute, ya know."
Michelle huffed and looked up at her mother. "Can they, Mommy?"
"Of course, they can!" Misty giggled.
Aiden, meanwhile, had his brow furrowed. "I don't like to be cute. Can I be a scary monster instead?"
"Yeah, if that's what you want," Ash chuckled.
"Alright!" Aiden cheered before crawling up next to his mother's Pokémon. "Vaporeon, teach me how to jump like you do!"
The water type tilted her head in the opposite direction. "Pore?"
"Daddy said I'm a scary monster, and a scary monster jumps on people!" Aiden explained animatedly. "You even scared Daddy just by pretendin-!"
Mewling softly, Vaporeon got to her paws and skirted away from the boy, who was quick to follow after her.
"Aiden, you know Vaporeon isn't into all that naughty stuff anymore," Misty sighed. "She only pretended she was going to jump on Daddy to make you and Michelle laugh!"
"Well, if Vaporeon won't teach me, I'll do it myself!" Aiden declared, pouncing at the water type. But Vaporeon, who had excellent senses, effortlessly moved out of the way, instead stopping the boy practically in midair with her tail.
Ash, unable to help himself, laughed quite heartily. "She got you, buddy!"
Looking over her shoulder, Vaporeon smirked once again as she gently tapped the top of Aiden's head with her tail before sauntering off. Misty watched the whole thing with a lopsided grin, not exactly surprised by her partner's behavior.
"Okay, so maybe Vaporeon's still got a bit of a mischievous side."
I've always loved the idea of little Eevee being a bit of a handful, especially for Ash. It's such a contrast to her personality as a Eevee and really shows, for me, why some Pokémon choose to hold off evolving until they feel ready.
