IT'S MY BIRTHDAY! I'M FINALLY AKIRA'S AGE! (insert those things I uhhhh hforgot the name mb…)

Reviews:

*crickets*

Changelog:

- Deleted almost all Pokémon dialogue, because uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Call meeeee if you geeet looooost- (the estate sale)

I uh… this capter is even shorter than the last one, hooray! (I had to, for the sake of this being my "birthday chapter" or something like that… plus you guys had nothing for the entirety of February because my procrastination got way worse and I had something else to work on and didn't work on this basically AT ALL, so…)

Chapter Date: 03/11/25 (uploaded about 3 hours before for the sake of having this all the day, but let's just pretend)

Chapter 4: Intermission for… Something

-Pokémon World-

Paldea Region

Poco Path

Now Playing:

Bayonetta - Cereza

Now back at this place, Akira is just catching every new Pokémon he sees here, like a certain someone earlier today.

"Okay, that's my third one now…" Akira picks up the Poké Ball in which he just caught a Scatterbug, meaning he has a full team now. "That's… probably all of them here."

"Gia." Koraidon just… says behind him.

"Meow." He replies, deciding to sit down on a rock under a tree to watch Hoppip—who was just recovered after he went straight to the Pokémon Center at Los Platos—and Flay train against the wild Pokémon in the area, with the others gaining the same battle experience through the Exp. Share function his Rotom Phone automatically turned on.

Koraidon sits down too right beside him, staring down at him.

Akira stares back at Koraidon in silence for a bit. "Number, number. I just hope to god you saved my number," He sings, rocking his head side to side. "-Number. Call me when you can…"

"...Gia?" Koraidon looks confused at Akira's random decision to start singing.

He stays silent for another moment, before sighing. "...Wish I had my actual phone so I could at least listen to some songs."

Koraidon starts to feel a bit concerned when Akira just goes completely silent after saying that, staring off into the distance. "Agia…?" He moves closer to his Trainer, nudging him to snap him out of it.

"Oh, uh… sorry." Akira chuckles, feeling a bit embarrassed that he got caught just staring emptily into space.

"Agias." Koraidon purrs softly as he lays his head on top of Akira's own, still curious as to what is going through his mind.

"The silly." He randomly says.

"...?" Koraidon makes a slight chirp of confusion, still wanting to know what he means by this.

'...I'm just being a bit silly… also known as autistic, I guess." Akira shrugs. "...Yeah, I can be quite awkward."

The lizard just hugs him in response

"Yay!" He throws his hands up into the air. "The silliest!"

"Agia-gia-gias!" He mimics Akira playfully.

"...Exactly." Akira gives him a surprised yet slightly confused thumbs up. "...Uh, very cute… but now I don't know what to do with this information." He said in an oddly dry tone.

"Gia!"

"...Okay, this aside, maybe I should head to Los Platos now…"

Los Platos

After battling a couple of trainers along the way, he wanted to test if the Pokémon Center could recover Koraidon.

("God, I hope this works…") He thought to himself, staring impatiently at his Pokéball as the machine started to do its job.

The jingle played once it quickly finished. "Your team should be all better now!" The nurse says as she gives Akira his Pokéballs back. "Please, come again!"

"Uh-huh..." Akira nods, putting them back into his backpack, but he just stares down at Koraidon's. He walks off to let the Pokémon out.

"Gias!" Koraidon cries out, seeming more content and full of energy. It looks like it worked.

Akira can't help but grow a soft smile at Koraidon's attitude, but he's still gotta ask. "Do you feel better now, bud?"

"Agias!" Koraidon nods happily, dispelling his Trainer's worries.

"Thank god… or well, Arceus." Akira pets him on the head, but he stops, staring into his eyes in silence… slowly caressing his cheeks with both hands.

"...?" Koraidon tilts his head in confusion at Akira's sudden silence, but doesn't really say anything back.

He lets go with a shake of his head. "...So uh… I should be looking for an apartment or something, but I have no idea if I even remotely have the money for one… and I've actually never had money of my own, so this is a bit new to me too…"

"Gia…" He looks a bit worried for how Akira might be feeling, considering the dilemma as a whole. While he doesn't really mind that, he's of course aware that he might not be comfortable with the idea of being homeless.

"...I should just look for the prices." Akira opens up PoNét on his Rotom Phone (of which he changed the UI color to be black instead of orange) and searches up just that… and finds that he is indeed nowhere near affording one for even a decent amount of time. "...Welp, we're… gonna be without a home of our own for a while."

"Agias, gias…" Koraidon can sense his Trainer's disappointment, and he tries thinking of something…

"What to do now…?" He crosses his arms, trying not to think about it too much, but he fails at doing so.

"...Gia!" An idea finally pops up into Koraidon's head. "Gia! Gia!" He barks, storming off back to Poco Path.

"W-What the-!?" Akira is caught off-guard by him suddenly running away. "H-Hey, don't just leave me here!" He shouts, chasing after him.

Cabo Poco

By the time he gets to Cabo Poco, he's already way out of breath and energy to keep on running, having taken a bit longer than he should've.

He looks around, searching for Koraidon, as he hasn't seen him yet. "Now where are you…?" Just after saying this, he looks twice at Juliana's house, and sees the lizard there at the doorstep. "H-Hey! What're you thinking?" He calls out to him, upset about being left in the dust.

Koraidon turns around at Akira's voice. "Agias!" He didn't notice he had left him behind at all, but then the door opens, with Juliana's mom coming out.

"Oh, it's you two again! I was wondering who made all that noise outside." She looks surprised, but definitely not bothered, to which Akira lets out a sigh of relief.

"I-I… yeah, blame this guy here." He just points at Koraidon, who replies with an upset "Gia!". "He just went off here, leaving me to chase after him."

"I see…" She nods, looking at Koraidon with a raised eyebrow.

"So… sorry about that." He replies while he tries to figure out why Koraidon did this in the first place.

"Don't worry about it. I'm glad to see you're doing okay." As she spoke, Akira seemed to already have found an answer to his question. "But… I don't think we've introduced ourselves, or have we?"

"Uh, no, so… My name is Akira, and my Pokémon here is Koraidon."

"Agias!" The Pokémon says hello.

She chuckles at Koraidon's greeting. "What a nice fella, don't you think? I'm Elena, Juliana's mother as you should know by now, and it's nice to meet you two."

"W-Well, uh…" Akira stammers with a nod. "...About what you said earlier… We're not exactly doing all that… "okay" in one particular thing." He pauses, wondering if he should even say this. "...A-And that is having a home."

"Oh…" Elena's eyes widened at his words, not having expected these two to be experiencing something like that. "I'm so sorry, you're just a kid to be experiencing those types of things…"

"I know, but I guess not." He shrugs, frowning slightly at the thought…

Music abruptly stops.

Then… his stomach let out an oddly loud growl.

"I uh…" A big sweatdrop appears on his head (like in anime, will now be called "sweatdropping" for short) as he's now speechless, remembering that he… had completely forgotten about eating.

"...G-Gia…?" Koraidon stares at Akira's abdomen in absolute confusion, not knowing how to even react to that.

"...That doesn't sound good." Elena says with a smile, which comes out as forced due to how much that took her aback. She's obviously extremely concerned about this poor boy after that. "...Y-You can come in. I'll make some food for you." She then hurries over to the kitchen to start cooking some food.

Akira felt a bit embarrassed at the sole fact that that even happened at all, but seeing Elena turn so concerned for him made him feel worse. "E-Eh- Thanks?" Yet, he somewhat reluctantly steps inside.

Juliana's Home

Neon Genesis Evangelion - A Moment When Tension Breaks

Koraidon follows Akira inside, which makes the teen panic a bit from how even more embarrassed he would feel if he was told to get him back in his Pokéball. "Oh- I uh- K-Koraidon?" He stumbles around with his words, trying to figure a way to tell him about this without sounding rude.

Before his Pokémon could ask, Elena quickly diffuses his nervousness with a simple: "Tell your Koraidon to not cause much of a ruckus, please?"

"Agia." Koraidon nods, deciding to sit down right beside one of the sofas.

"Oh, thank god…" He follows Koraidon to sit beside him (on the sofa, of course). "At least I didn't have to deal with that…"

"...?" Koraidon looks at Akira curiously, wondering why he's so tense all of a sudden.

"..." Akira looks him in the eyes, but can't get himself to say anything.

"Is there anything you two want for breakfast?" Elena asks as she checks the fridge.

Akira's head snaps to Elena, his head taking a while to think of an answer. "Oh, uh… Just some pancakes, I guess?"

"Gia!" Koraidon answers… despite no one really understanding what he's saying in the first place.

"I'll take that as a "Steak." Elena says to whatever Koraidon said, chuckling at his eager cry that confirms he wants one.

("...Wait, steaks?") The teen asks himself in his head, wondering what type of meat that uses… mentally reeling at the conclusion he comes to. ("A-Absolutely not, just… don't think about that… please…")

As Akira was trying his hardest to think about something else, the pet Skwovet of the house appears and nudges Koraidon on the foot. "...Agias?" He tilts his head to the side as he watches the smaller Pokémon go around, deciding to follow it.

Akira managed to get rid of those thoughts, looking to his side for Koraidon, but he immediately stood up to look around for him the second he didn't see anyone… noticing that the Pokémon was walking up the stairs, following a Skwovet he recognized from the bit that he played the game.

"Gia?" Koraidon purrs in curiosity yet slight fear of being caught in a misunderstanding as he follows the Skwovet up to Juliana's room, oblivious of Akira's eyes on him.

("...Now that I think about it this reminds me of- W-Wait, not this!") Akira whistles to Koraidon, getting his attention.

"G-Gia!" Koraidon yelps, his heart skipping a beat from how much that startled him.

"N-Now's not the time to go Tom and Jerry, come down here." He orders in a bit of a whisper, nervously begging for Elena to not have heard that. "Please never do that again, I thought you would've actually screwed something up…" He shakes his head in dismay as Koraidon goes down the stairs.

"..." Koraidon is looking down at the floor also nervously, not saying anything.

Akira's expression softens, petting Koraidon on the head to calm him down. "I know the wait might be boring, but please stay still…" He then goes back to sit on the sofa.

Koraidon watches him go in silence before looking back upstairs, where the Skwovet is staring down at him intently on the rails, but he still follows his trainer.

Elena notices this last part while she walks around the kitchen, which comes off as a bit strange to her. "...Is something wrong?"

Akira mentally berates himself at her question, hoping that she didn't figure out anything else. "Nah, we're fine."

"...Okay." She decides to not think too much about it, continuing to focus on cooking.

…It then takes him a second to realize he could just watch something while he waits.

"...?" Koraidon seems to be interested in what Akira's gonna do as he pulls his Rotom Phone out of his pocket.

He was gonna just straight up go search for whatever was the Pokémon universe of Youtube, when… he seemed to spot it in the PoNét folder already, called "PokèTube." ("What a lame name…") He thought as he opened it up, proceeding to log in.

Koraidon watched silently as he did this… he sure as hell didn't understand anything of what he was doing, but he had nothing better to do, really.

After that, he got sent back to the home page, deciding to give it a chance and just scrolling through it. He saw some names streaming right now like "Iono Nanjamo Ch." and "Nidothing", but not really anything that interested him, until…

Some time later…

Elena sets down their plates on the small table, along with some water. "Buen provecho."

"...Gracias." He nods as the phone goes back into his pocket, taking the fork and knife already on the furniture.

"Gia!" Koraidon eagerly eats the multiple steaks on his in one big chomp, chewing it down rather noisily.

"Hey, don't be so noisy…" Akira whispers to Koraidon.

"Gfiah!" Koraidon cries out with his mouth full, a bit upset that Akira's calling him out.

Elena chuckles at their interaction, finding it cute. "Let him have his fun, I don't mind."

Akira sighs, going back to his food and finally taking a bite out of it. He savors it for a bit, tasting a flavor familiar alone, but not with pancakes. "Mmm, what did you add to this?" He asks between bites.

"Can't tell you that, it's a little secret of mine." Elena sits down on the sofa, chuckling. "So, does it taste good?"

"Yup." Akira simply shrugs off her refusal to answer properly. It's not like he's gonna be cooking this anytime soon.

"Well, I'm glad to hear that."

"...Thanks a lot for this, though… I don't think I would've had anyone else just cook me something for free."

"You don't have to thank me. You seemed like you really needed it, after all."

"...Yeah." He drinks from the cup given to him, seeming a bit embarrassed remembering that. "I didn't think I was that hungry… I wasn't even feeling hungry at all…"

"I guess you just never know, then."

"...Fair enough."

"Agias." Koraidon has finished his steaks already, eyeing Akira… more specifically the food on his plate.

Elena notices this. "Looks like your Pokémon's still hungry."

"...Huh?" Akira looks back to Koraidon, who turns away, trying to pretend that he wasn't looking. "Oh…" He scoffs, shaking his head with a smile. "Sorry, but I'm pretty sure I need to eat more than you do."

"Gia-gias…" Koraidon seems to be apologizing, judging by the fact that his head is hanging low, having forgotten about that .

"Oh, uh… don't worry about it." Akira quickly reassures him with a shake of his hand, but even so, Koraidon still feels a bit bad.

A bit later, Akira has finished his food. "...Yup, I really… really needed that…" He sighs, leaning back into the sofa. "I know I already said this, but thank you…"

"Do you want more or are you fine for now?" Elena asks him.

He shakes his head. "I'm good."

"Okay then… anything else?"

Akira stays silent for a bit, pondering about his answer… "...I think that's all."

"Okay." She nods. "Oh, and don't forget about picnics for you and your Pokèmon.

"I guess that would be fun." He says as Elena gets up to get some water for herself.

"It definitely is. Which is nice when you need to just take a break from whatever adventures you're having."

"Let's go, Koraidon." He gestures to him as he walks to the door.

"Agia!" The Pokèmon follows, and so does Elena.

Akira opens the door, walking out with Koraidon while Elena holds it.

She puts her other hand on Akira's shoulder, interrupting him. "Hold on a minute, before you go, do you mind if we exchange numbers?"

"Oh... that's a good idea." Both of their Rotom Phones come out, going back in as they quickly finished.

"You can always come visit again when you need to, Akira." She waves goodbye to them.

"See you uh… sometime, then!" Akira waves back.

"Agias!" Koraidon cries out, basically doing the same.

"I wish you good luck!" Elena replies, before closing the door.

Now with that done, Akira decides to ask Koraidon one last thing before they head back to Los Platos, maybe farther. "So… I think it's time I start focusing on the League, right?"

"Gia-gia!" He nods in excitement.

"Well then…" His Rotom Phone comes out again, displaying the map of Paldea, including a couple of pins for the locations of the Gyms. He assumes they're there because Nemona put them in. "Bug-type Gym's there…" He checks the map for a bit.

"Gia?" Koraidon tilts his head as Akira's phone goes back into his pocket after he's finished.

"Well, uh… let's go, then." Akira goes to his right, into Poco Path, and his Pokèmon follows.

To be continued…

"Agias!" Koraidon introduces himself.

"...And this is Dot."

"...?" Koraidon looks Dot up and down, not recognizing her from anywhere.

"Apparently, your trainer just saw my PokèTube username… and that's why I'm here." She shrugs. "...I was in the middle of my stream too… What a pain…"

"Gia…" Koraidon tilts his head to the side, finding that pretty curious.

"I really need to get back to that, so let's just finish this…" Dot pulls out a piece of paper. "Next chapter is… "Picnics for Arven's Sanity." ...Huh."

"Gia!" The lizard's eyes light up at the name.

Do you want to save your data?

Yes

There is already an existing save file, do you want to overwrite this file?

Yes

Successfully saved.

-Pokémon World-

Paldea Region

Cabo Poco

Akira, Koraidon, Juliana, Nemona, Arven

Teams:

Akira: Flay (Fletchling), Hoppip, John Michael Wingull (Wingull)

Juliana: Sprigatito, Lechonk, Fletchling, Hoppip, Tarountula, Pawmi

Againnnn, I'm sorry for the (ACTUALLY) short chapterrrrrrr…

Extras:

The song Akira's singing at the first scene is NUMBER, NUMBER, an unreleased song only used for Tyler, the Creator's Call Me If You Get Lost teaser (the phone number now gives a voicemail related to Chromakopia instead, iirc).

Dot in here is not the same as her from the anime, just think of her as my own "game counterpart" for her. (which is also a good excuse for when I get someone's personality wrong!11111!)

…Also, Akira's gay, aromantic and fictosexual (like me!), so you won't be seeing him with anyone either way.

"I… did you really have to say that?" Akira asks, sounding very irritated.

Yes.

"In front of like… everyone?" He gestures to Koraidon, Juliana, Elena, Nemona, Arven, Penny, Dot… and strangely enough, Iono, all behind him.

…What did you expect? It was bound to happen soon.

"..." Akira sighs.

"No one minds, really." Juliana shrugs.

"It's who you are, after all." Elena continues.

"Yeah, we basically just met, but does it really look like that matters?" Arven shakes his head.

"Plus, judging others for that is just lame." Penny adds.

"Agreed." Dot nods.

"Yeah! Who are we to do that?" Iono asks with a wide smile.

"So don't sweat it! We're here for you." Nemona says.

"Agias!" Koraidon cries out.

Akira blushes slightly in embarrassment. "...T-Thanks, everyone…"

…Now that we're done with that… I think it's time for the line. *The author snaps his fingers, making some decorations appear.* In unison, everyone! Just remember that it's one line and one line only.

"Okay! let's make this a birthday party to remember!" Nemona shouts.

Three…

Two…

One…

"Happy birthday!" Everyone (except for the birthday boys, of course) says in unison.

"Agias!" Koraidon is just built different (quite literally).

Haha, funny Tyler, the Creator reference numero dos.

"Would you look at that? You two are finally the same age now!" Elena claps her hands together.

"...Technically not?" Akira mutters, scratching the back of his head.

"Let's not bring that type of stuff into this, alright?" Arven softly punches Akira on the shoulder.

"We've already gone through enough of that…" Nemona sighs. "My brain really can't handle more…"

"Yeah, all of us would really rather not." Juliana chuckles nervously.

"...Especially us who just got here." Dot says, gesturing to herself and Iono, who's already eyeing the… surprisingly intricate cake in the corner along with Penny and Koraidon, albeit the latter is doing so sparingly compared to her considering the entire reason the cake is there, and the second is only doing so because it looks genuinely impressive to her.

"That's one helluva cake…" Iono mutters to herself.

"Wow, uh… yeah, it sure is." Penny replies, before going back with the others.

"Agias, agias, agias!" Koraidon looks very excited and happy for Akira, jumping in place.

"I love you so much." Akira speaks in a dry tone as he caresses him.

Best boy, best boy in the whole world. I cannot express how much I love you, you silly little goober. *Pat, pat.*

"Agias!" Koraidon purrs at their loving touch.

"...I think I smell favoritism." Arven semi-jokes, leaning less on the "semi" part considering what the author just said.

"Mhm." Penny agrees.

"...Seriously?" Juliana's expression turns unamused at the two, while Elena chuckles.

Anyways, I think that's enough for now, before this turns into a chapter of its own…

…Now that I think about it, that actually doesn't sound half bad… Sadly, I don't think I have much more time, maybe I'll add more later, but it'll kinda lose a bit of its charm considering it ISN'T my birthday anymore (albeit this part was written entirely the night before).

…Oh, god now I'm starting to really, REALLY like the idea… I guess this is the power of actually being interested in something…

…Also, man… it's already my birthday, and I've only gotten four chapters out… Man, this sucks.

Well, uh… thanks for reading, I hope you wished me (and Akira) a happy birthday (or else I will do a thing), and have a wonderful day!

"Also, what happened? Did you find a house yet?" Nemona whispers to Akira, low enough for the author to (supposedly) not hear, but high enough for the chapter to continue.

"...I found out that I'm too poor and would rather not get on my knees and beg to live in someone else's house… for the sake of that someone else, of course." Akira explains, seemingly referring to someone actually here, but that completely flies over Nemona's head. "So now I guess I'm a nomad for now, or something." He shrugs.

"Oh… that doesn't sound good."

"You tell me, I'm probably the one who's the most entitled here… and that is meant in an extremely derogatively way."

"...Dang, you really do hate yourself, don't you?" Nemona says for last, looking very concerned for him.

Little did they both know, the author made it so everyone heard that… Didn't matter much, but he did it anyway.