Pokemon - Solo's Strange Journey

Narrator-POV:

The next morning, our young hero woke up and forgot all about the things he wanted to remember.

Instead of unpacking the gift of his loving mother or giving a gift to his beloved new girlfriend, he spends the entire morning-hours by petting his pokemon.

Then watching Dawn's behind as she picks out her outfit for the day.

"You can't wear that in the wilderness. You need sturdier boots and pants. And I can lend you a camouflage outfit you can wear over it."

She pouts. "You could have told me that from the start." But then she bends over again to pick out another outfit. All according to our hero's plan.

When they begin their arduous journey into the wilderness, one of the first things Dawn notices is, "How come there are so few pokemon around in the wilderness? "

At the edge of Chocovine Town is a light forest, full of pokemon that live there and sometimes interact with the nearby humans.

But after a few hours of walking, the density of pokemon noticeably drops.

Out here are the outcasts. The loners. The ones who are too wild for civilization but not wild enough for the wilderness. But sometimes they are simply born here and cannot get out.

"It's not the wilderness yet." Swole informs her. "You will notice when we enter the wilderness... Just make sure to stay close to me."

It is here where a Burmy lies in wait. Or rather, hangs in wait from a tree by a thin thread.

Attracted by the makeup on Dawn's face, the silent prey becomes the predator.

"Ahhh!" Dawn's scream of fright echoes through the forest.

Burmy repelled down from a tree and landed directly in Dawn's arms.

With unnaturally large, yellow eyes, the wild Burmy begs to be taken along with the trainers. The pokemon is naturally able to tell that Dawn likes to decorate herself too and is only wearing woodland colored camouflage by necessity. 

They found a like-minded spirit in each other.

Just as pokemon are naturally drawn to trainers, in turn, trainers are naturally drawn to pokemon.

Even though Dawn has an aversion to bug pokemon, she simply cannot look at the large eyes of the pokemon and deny her the spot in her team.

The battle for Burmy to prove her worth was a quick affair and despite Prinplup's advantage with Aerial Ace and Peck, Burmy managed to make a convincing enough display for Dawn to capture her.

"That's some serious skill with String Shot. And Protection too! And look how cute she is with the little flower on her head!"

Swole has to listen to her endless prattle of praises.

But eventually, the atmosphere changes and he motions for Dawn to stop talking.

There are no more sounds of random pokemon.

No more sights either.

They are truly alone now. They have entered the wilderness.

Swole changes to a whisper as his previous experience bubbles to the surface of his mind.

"No more random chatter. And if you need something, whisper it. Stay right by my side and I will protect you. Your pokemon will protect you too and mine will protect me."

And so, the rest of the day is spent silently marching through the wilderness. Not a single pokemon was seen.

Around an hour before sunset, Swole begins to dig the hole for the night.

"What are you doing?" Dawn whispers as she watches him dig.

"It's our sleeping hole."

"What's wrong with tents?" Sarcasm finds its way into her voice.

Swole looks at her as if she's dumb before remembering his reaction to the 'necessary equipment' that his father gave him before.

"We can't use tents or fire. It would put too much attention on us. Get your--"

He wanted to say 'to get the sleeping bag', but then he remembered when Nuzleaf had attacked him. A sleeping bag would have hindered his movements too much and Razor Leaf would have hit his neck instead of his arm.

"Can you get the tarp out of my backpack?"

He does not even dare to send her out to collect insulation material for the hole. Any moment when he cannot watch her, terrible scenarios go through his mind that would leave Dawn eaten by pokemon or worse.

He will not risk any of these scenarios to happen.

And so he uses his newly developed muscles to dig the hole alone, large enough for the both of them to fit inside.

He then collects dry leaves and pads it out before placing the waterproof tarp over it.

Finally, he goes inside and pats the ground next to him.

"What?" Dawn is confused.

"Bed is done. Come in. And we need to keep whispering."

"That's not a bed." Her disgust over the missing luxuries is plainly visible. "We should have taken the long way..."

"Come on. It's not that bad once you get used to it. And we can cuddle too."

Dawn's sensibilities fight against her desire for constant attention. On the one hand, she really does not want to sleep in a hole like a homeless person. On the other hand, she really wants to be closer to her boyfriend.

In the end she was convinced after seeing his pokemon climb in to cuddle with him.

She enters the hole, her pokemon too. And then Swole covers the group up with a sheet of camouflage netting.

The walls and floor of the hole sap her body heat away immediately but it is alright because she has the warm body of her boyfriend right next to her.

She looks up at his face but loses herself in his features.

"Have you checked Burmy with your pokedex yet?" His whispered question rips her out of her spiraling fantasies.

"Y-yes. She has pretty good defensive values. What about Riolu?"

"Her special attack and move set are insane. She already knows how to use Aura Sphere and even Ice Beam... But, as expected, her endurance isn't up to standards just yet."

"Oh. She already fell asleep... That's so cute."

The day's activities were simply too much for the newly born body to keep up with.

The humans are not too far off the realm of sleep either. They whisper to each other about their pokemon. 

Then, slowly but surely the exhaustion of the day and the warmth of each other's bodies lulls the couple into a dream-filled slumber.

---

After having wet dreams of each other, the two teenagers stir awake quite stiffly. In various ways.

Awkward silence permeates the air as they prepare a nutritious but tasteless breakfast of pressed foods.

Salandit realizes where that tension stems from and only makes it worse by relentlessly teasing her trainer.

~"Look at her asss." And similar temptations are whispered into our hero's ears by the devil upon his shoulder.

Our hero's mind is very weak to temptations. They are super effective, one could even say.

And so his stiffness only grows throughout the morning. Luckily, his wilderness pants are thick.

After breakfast, the silent duo stalks through the dense forest once more. Buneary, Salandit and even Riolu are taking care of scouting, since they are all capable scouts with their own strengths and weaknesses.

Buneary has the best hearing, Salandit has the best vision and Riolu has the best sense of smell. Together, stacked on top of their trainer, they are a mobile spy-machine, capable of pinpointing almost any pokemon that would ambush them in advance.

They do find a few such pokemon. Lying in wait. Hunting their prey.

But sometimes, even the humans are able to hear the noises of battling pokemon.

"Psst. Swole. Let's check out their battle." Dawn whispers after they managed to avoid the 3rd battle today.

"Are you sure? It's not going to be pretty."

"Yeah, I'm sure. I've never seen a wild pokemon battle before. Let's go."

...

Needless to say, it was the first and the last wild pokemon battle she ever wanted to see.

"... That was fucked up."

Her hand grips our hero's tightly as a shiver runs down her spine while thinking about the battle.

"... Why does Cherubi bleed so much blood? Isn't that fucked up?" Her mind keeps replaying the scenes of nature. 

The cherry pokemon was screaming in pain before she passed out and was eaten by the victor.

"Technically, it's called juice. Ouch, stop pinching me." Our hero's whispers become too loud for his comfort.

In her mind, Dawn promises herself to never look for a wild pokemon battle again.

"... I understand why you hate Starly. They are pretty fucked up, aren't they?"

"I don't hate Starly. I just wouldn't ever have one in my team. They suck and are assholes." Buneary nods along to her trainer's judgment of the cowardly pokemon.

"I saw the goosebumps on your skin whenever Barry's or Ash's Starly got too close to you."

Cold sweat breaks out. At the thought of the pokemon, but also at the thought of having his troubles found out.

"Are you alright?" Dawn asks but her sincere concern falls on deaf ears.

"Yeah. Are you alright? When I first saw... nature happening in front of me, I know I needed some time to get over it." By which he means he almost peed his pants.

Dawn's grip on Swole's hand tightens further. "Yeah... I- I knew I wasn't in any danger and it's not the first time I saw a pokemon die either. Remember the Magikarp in the Bewilder Forest? I had a few nightmares after that but I understand that real life isn't like on TV. Besides, Magikarp was really tasty."

A snort of suppressed laughter rings out in the forest but he quickly manages to reign himself back in.

"That's still very impressive of you."

"No it isn't. I had loads of time to prepare for reality. Ariados, Magikarp, your stories, Regirock... this barely compares. You were thrown right into it. And you lived in the wilderness for a whole month. I can't even imagine what that must have been like. And!--" 

She notices Swole's motion to quiet down her speech back to a whisper.

"And... and despite all that," Dawn says as she nestles her head into Swole's shoulder, "You keep going. You're pretty amazing, you know?"

"Hehe. Stop feeding my ego. Heh." With which he means 'tell me more'.

"Okay." Dawn teases him and wags her tongue at him after he glared at her.

They spend the rest of the day with just a few more close encounters of wild pokemon and then Swole prepares the next sleeping hole for the second night.

The 3rd day passes the same way.

"The wilderness doesn't seem so dangerous anymore with my own pokemon around." Swole eventually concludes.

With the scouting of his pokemon, he managed to avoid most battles and did not get surprised by any more ambushes, after Burmy.

"Maybe my trauma just made my first excursion seem worse than it really was." He thinks to himself.

However, just as he thought this, a few hundred meters away from the group, an Alpha Tangrowth is being held back by Mesprit. The undisputed ruler of this forest had noticed the easy meal walking and whispering in his forest.

But despite his size and bulk, he does not stand a chance against the almost god-like powers of Mesprit.

Her psychic powers allow Mesprit to keep Tangrowth's tentacles at bay and to manipulate his mind into forgetting all about the humans in his territory.

As for why Mesprit would do so much just to save a couple of unsuspecting humans:

The guardian spirit of Lake Verity has a mission. A quest of unimaginable complexity and countless steps. Just a single misstep by her would lead to disaster of cataclysmic proportions.

She and her lake guardian sisters know all of the steps by instinct. The mission is the very reason they were created after all.

That is why Mesprit is elated when she feels the trainers leave the forest behind.

Swole and Dawn have reached the flower fields of Floaroma Town near the end of the 3rd day of travel.

A sigh of relief escapes her. A long awaited break awaits her.

For the toughest battle her pawn has yet to face, she will not be able to intervene.

---

Swole-POV:

"I see it!" I twitch as I hear Dawn's noisy shout echo around us. My nerves are still fried.

But when I look at what she points out, I can't help but let my tense muscles finally relax a little.

The edge of the forest and the edge of the wilderness.

The flower fields of Floaroma.

As we emerge from the shadows of the forest I am immediately pulled into a sense of calm.

Billions of flowers of all colors as far as the eye can see.

Far in the distance, a majestic Vespiquen directs a swarm of Combee to gather nectar for honey.

Closer to us is a tiny Cutiefly. She was scared off by a Flabébé who had already claimed the flower that Cutiefly wanted to eat from.

Swarms of Beautifly and Butterfree flutter and dance through the air.

And I wouldn't be surprised if a Comfey, a pokemon that collects and decorates itself with flowers, was hiding in plain sight somewhere nearby.

Rolling hills of nothing but flowers.

"Did you know," I start. "That all of this used to be infertile, rocky soil? Nothing used to be able to grow here."

Dawn, who stopped to smell some of the flowers, stops even more to look at me in surprise.

"No way. You're making it up."

"Haha! Yes way. My history book said so. One day, a family that lived out here prayed for a better harvest and the legendary pokemon Shaymin heard the prayers. It caused the growth of all of these flowers. And later, that family ended up founding Floaroma Town."

"Wasn't the founding of Floaroma part of Akari's letters from the past?"

I'm trying to think back on what she means and remember how the letters said this became a town for all the rich people.

"You're right. And it matches my history book. Apparently the soil is still infertile for most plants. Only flowers can grow here and only a few are edible. So you can only really make a luxury industry here."

"My perfume is made here." Dawn comments and I lean over to take a sniff of her neck.

She smells of sweat, soil and of the forest. "I'm not wearing it right now, idiot."

"Speaking of smell, next time we go into the wilderness, we need to cover our scent somehow. Maybe rub dirt over ourselves."

I don't want a repeat event of the Luxio who mistook me for a Stunky.

"Yeah... no. Let's not go into the wilderness again." Dawn yawns and stretches her back. "I want a tent, campfires and cooked meals on my travels."

"I dunno, I kinda liked our sleeping arrangements." I mentally prepare myself to get pinched or boxed. "But if you don't want it, I'm sure I can convince Akari or Zoey to come on my next wilderness adventure."

... No reaction.

"I guess we could do that again..." She forces herself to say.

"Oh. Did I hit a nerve? I'm sorry. We don't need to go into the wilderness again, if you don't want to. We can just stay on the routes."

"No! If you like the wilderness, then I won't stop us from enjoying that together!"

"A-alright." 

Guess I will need to go back into the wilderness someday... Damn. I just wanted to cuddle with my girlfriend in a tight space again...

"Hey, check out your Burmy."

Somehow she managed to replace her entire camouflage coating during the few moments we looked away. From the green forest leaves to a colorful covering of flowers.

"Awe! When did you do that! You're so prettyyy!!"

And just like that, Dawn forgot all about the previous topic and we continued our way across the ocean of flowery hills.

As we crest one hill after another, I keep expecting to finally see Floaroma Town, but it's just more flowers every single time.

"Do you want to try and make it to Floaroma before the sun sets or do you want to train a little and camp out here?" Dawn eventually asks me and I pause to think.

The sun will pass the horizon in about 4 hours.

We could probably make it to Floaroma and check into a hostel... But I skipped training for 4 days in a row already.

And I need to figure out how to train Riolu. She will need special training because her body is still so young.

"Then let's camp out here. Might as well make the most of the time that we gained from the shortcut, right?"

"Right." Dawn agrees. "We can set our camp up on that hill over there and... look at the sunset after training."

That's a bloody brilliant idea! "Yes. Let's do that."

As we scale up the hill, Dawn manages to come up with another amazing suggestion. "And to save time, of course, we could just set up one single tent."

"Right. We could save time and have more time for training."

"Of course. For training."

Her hand sneaks back into mine and our fingers intertwine as we crest the hill--

... Fuck.

That's Floaroma Town at the bottom of this hill.

A small stadium for pokemon contests, a pokemon center, a pokemart and lots of mansions with massive, colorful gardens. Some of which rival even my parents' property.

"I didn't see anything, if you didn't see anything."

"See what? I'm legally blind." Dawn jokes.

"Me too. Let's set up our camp on the west side of the hill. The very top wasn't a good idea."

"I completely agree with you. It would be much better to view the sunset from that side."

"Yes. Yes. Great idea."

And then, with a simple press of a button, my tent is placed and ready to be slept in. It's the same model of tent that Dawn has, by the way. 

Then a few orders are given to my pokemon for some basic training and I pull out my notes for Riolu.

---

Looking at my notepad like that... Weren't there some things I wanted to write down so I won't forget them? Damn! I forgot about it all!

Gifts!

I pull out the package that mom sent me and the necklace for Dawn. A thin, silver chain with a sapphire pendant that matches her eyes. I can't believe how lucky I got with the jewelry for the girls. The shopkeeper had to liquidate his assets and we were around at the perfect moment.

I look around to make sure nobody needs me right now. Salandit and Buneary both know what to do and Riolu is training aura. I think I can let them do their thing for a while longer.

Dawn is currently busy preparing our portable kitchen for dinner, so I decide to postpone giving her the gift until sunset.

Which makes my eyes settle on the 'good-luck charm' that mom sent me. It's still in its Pelipper-post packaging.

I open it up and look inside. Inside is another necklace. A long, dark, thin, leather band with... a dongle. A black, teardrop shaped dongle with a golden stripe on it. The same as Cynthia's hair ornaments and the appendages on Lucario's or Riolu's head.

Except, Riolu doesn't have a golden stripe on her dongles. Lucario doesn't either.

I put it around my neck and immediately felt the placebo effect of being a better aura guardian. Heh.

But I do feel a little more... authentic now.

Or maybe I'm just a poser.

Anyway, let's focus on Riolu's training plan.

I pull out my pokedex and the books on her species I got from Canalave City. 

After notifying Riolu of my intentions, I quickly recall and release her in and out of her pokeball to get a fresh scan of her stats.

Health Points: 12

Attack: 14

Defense: 12

Special Attack: 94

Special Defense: 14

Speed: 30

Moves: Counter, Vacuum Wave, Metal Claw, Feint, Detect, Aura Sphere, Rock Throw, Ice Beam, Confusion

Wow! Since we left Chocovine Town, almost all of her stats have doubled!

And my eyes didn't betray me last time: Aura Sphere, Rock Throw, Ice Beam and Confusion are moves a Riolu shouldn't be able to know. 

I would think they are from her previous life, but I remember Lucario used Bone Rush before but Riolu doesn't know the move. So they can't be explained as simple leftovers from her time as Lucario.

The pen drifts along a new page to jot down my findings. This needs to be recorded! All her weird moves and a comparison of my Riolu's stats with the values from professor Elm's book.

Counter, Vacuum Wave, Metal Claw, Feint and Detect are all common moves for a Riolu to know. Vacuum Wave, however, usually requires extensive training due to the skill it needs to manipulate fighting-type energy into a special attack. It's extremely rare for a hatchling to know such a complex move.

Those moves on their own are already extremely impressive.

But in addition to that, we can absolutely destroy most enemies with mind games. Counter, Feint and Detect. And I also have Protect on a TM.

And then mixing in Aura Sphere and Ice Beam? Along with her special attack value? She's going to be a terrifying force! Especially once she learns Flash Cannon from my other TM!

After disrupting Riolu's meditative training once more, I slot Protect into her pokeball. The process completes without issues but after trying the same with Flash Cannon, it fails. As expected only the TMs worked for moves that Riolu is known to be able to learn.

Lucario can learn Flash Cannon, but Riolu can't. She isn't even a Steel-type pokemon yet.

Would have been nice though. There was a chance for it to work, since Aura Sphere is also a move that can only be learned by Lucario and has never been recorded on a Riolu before.

As for Rock Throw, Ice Beam and Confusion: That should be impossible. Neither Lucario or Riolu can ever learn those moves.

My only explanation is that something happened while I revived her. Same for her missing moves. 

When I did it, it felt like there were pieces missing. Like it wasn't really her. But she said she was...

Let's not delve into that. That way lies madness.

Anyway, I plan out Riolu's training regiment for the foreseeable future and then start it off by doing my personal physical workout together with her. Her body is still growing and she shouldn't overdo the training just yet and keeping up with my own power is just perfect for her right now.

Then she's using her moves a couple of times, so I can gauge her current proficiency with them and prioritize her training better.

This continued for about an hour to two. Afterwards, Buneary and I squeezed in a few more rounds of battles.

It ended with 0 to 10 for her before Dawn started bothering me to join her for dinner.

The next round would have been 1 to 10. I swear.

---

"Are you finally done with your training?" Dawn asks me as I approach the camping table.

"You tell me. You were watching me closely the whole time." I wink at her.

"Wha- No. I- I wasn't." A bold-faced lie.

But no matter how bad she is at lying, she was a whole lot worse at appearing inconspicuous. Not sure which one was worse with their lechery. She, or Salandit? Dawn at least had the courtesy to look worried whenever I took a hit.

Anyway, she made fried rice with shrimps and fish from Chocovine Town.

It's missing salt. And the fish is dry.

"How is it? Does it taste good?"

"Yeah. Hey, let's cook together tomorrow. It will be fun."

"Sure!" She beams in pride as she takes a bite of her food.

It doesn't look like she finds anything wrong with her food... I guess my taste in food is just more refined than hers.

Oh no... I am a snob.

While we eat, I pull out the necklace for Dawn and hold it out in my hand for her attention to finally notice it.

Her eyes widen in disbelief, she stops chewing and her spoon falls out of her mouth.

"I-is that for me?" I nod. "It's beautiful!"

She stretches her hand out to grab it but I pull out of reach at the last moment.

Her pouty glare is cute.

"I want to put it on you."

"Wait, let me take off my scarf first."

Now she only wears her black, sleeveless shirt and pink skirt. Her hair is back in Mar-- In the style that I told her I like the most.

I'm feeling a little underdressed now in my sweaty, dirty tank-top and joggers.

Nonetheless, I lower the necklace over her head and close the clasp behind her neck.

The silver chain is barely visible against her pale skin.

Just as I'm about to return to my seat with a job well done, Dawn stands up suddenly and gives me a kiss on my lips before hugging me.

"My reward for becoming your girlfriend? Or why did you wait until now?"

"Nonono, I swear, I just forgot about it and I wanted to wait for the right moment!"

"Haha! I'm kidding! Thank you so much for this, but I know you got all 3 of us something in Canalave City. You weren't being as sneaky as you thought you were."

"3?"

"Akari, Marley and I. I saw you give Marley the cute Ledyba earrings."

"Oh. I also have something for Zoey. A brooch."

"A... Brooch?"

"Yes."

"What are you? Some kind of aristocrat?"

"Ha. Ha. And yes. We both are."

She laughs. "Touché. Can I see it?"

"Sure."

I pull out Zoey's gift and let Dawn inspect it while I resume eating.

It's a brooch. Brooches are pinned on someone's chest. That's all I know about it. It's made of polished bronze and has some impressive, intricate patterns on it. A deep red, oval shaped ruby is the centerpiece.

Well, it looks like a ruby. The guy who sold it to me didn't actually know what type of gem it was.

It was dirt cheap too. Might even just be colored glass but it looks really pretty in my opinion and will fit Zoey's eyes and hair well.

"You're giving her gold jewelry?"

"Nah. It's bronze. But it still looks pretty."

"Mine's prettier..." She mumbles before speaking up again. "That's gold."

"No way."

"Yes way. My mom's cosmetic set has a bunch of gold jewelry and it's the same metal."

She shows it back to me and points out some tiny details in the metal that supposedly make it gold.

"But why did the vendor sell it for dirt-cheap?"

"Maybe it's cursed?"

"It's not cursed."

"But maybe it is?"

"Nuh uh."

"Uh huh."

"Nuh uh."

A grin spreads on her face and she suppresses a laugh. "Snort. Ah, shit."

"Ha! I won!"

"Dork."

"I'm the dork you're stuck with."

"Hahaha! That's so cheesy!"

"No, it's rice and seafood."

She visibly tries to reign her laughter back in before staring at me with a deadpan face.

"Cringe." Her judgemental words pierce through my heart and I grasp at my chest in pain.

I couldn't hold the pose. A snort of laughter escapes my nose. This time, I cracked first but then her stone cold face twists and a smile blossoms on her face as well.

The moment seems to drag on forever as we share the laughter. 

But the sun slowly approached the horizon in the meantime and the day's end drew ever closer.

After we cleaned the dishes - Dawn cleaned, I dried - we placed our chairs next to each other, stacked as many pokemon on top of us as we could fit and just relaxed with the most amazing view ever.

An ocean of flowers, flying pokemon returning to their homes after a busy day of gathering nectar and the orange light of the fading sun.

Picturesque doesn't even begin to describe how pretty everything is.

And best of all, I'm watching it with my girlfriend. Her hand is intertwined with mine and her eyes sparkle in the sun.

A few of the brightest stars start to twinkle into life as the night begins.

A shiver runs over Dawn. An obvious fake shiver.

But it's the perfect pretense for me to let go of her hand and wrap my arm around her shoulder instead.

"Thanks. Without my scarf, it was starting to become too cold." She says and now I'm not so sure anymore if it was a fake shiver or not.

"No problem. Anything for you."

She gets even closer and nestles her head into my shoulder. Sharing the small space with Buneary.

Surprisingly, Buneary doesn't seem to mind it too much. She doesn't mind the occasional petting anymore either for some reason. By me and even by Dawn.

And she became really attached to me right after I started our brawling-training. It's almost as if... Did I tame her?

I feel her muscles tensing up as my hand reaches up to pet her. Salandit turns her head on my other shoulder.

~"His his his! You are pretty tame now, aren't you?"

Was I mumbling again?

~"S-shut up! You're not doing much better!"

~"Ssso? I'm not afraid of admitting it. Masster hass tamed me!"

This is getting a little bit uncomfortable.

~"Y-yeah? W-well, me too! ..."

~"Iss that ssssso?" Salandit's snout suddenly appears right in front of my face. ~"Did you hear that masster? Did you tame uss both? I remember you have only tamed me! His his his!"

Oh my Arceus! Now I understand what she means! "I-it was just a reward for doing a good job in the gym."

"What reward?" Dawn asks me.

"Oh! Uhhhh, nothing. Just a game we played after you passed out on the ship."

~"Wass it just a game for you?"

Please smite me Arceus! End this! 

"Y-yes..."

~"Buneary, maybe you sshould put more ssome more effort in. Maybe then you can play thiss game too."

Riolu looks up at me. ~"What are they talking about, daddy? What's that game you played? Can we play it too?"

"I-I... I."

~"His his his! Good job, you broke him!"

~"Hihi! Thanks. But you seriously mated with him already?"

She knew what it meant!

Fuck it. I'm tuning them all out.

"Good grief."

"What's up?" Dawn asks as she looks at me with concern.

I follow my sudden urge to kiss her. "Nothing."

It felt way too short so I kissed her a second time.

Still not enough... Maybe we should kiss in the same way that Zoey and I kissed before? A tongue kiss, I think it is called?

I'm just going to ask her. "Hey, D--"

But suddenly my throat clogs up... Literally.

"Cough!" I dislodge a long, flexible tongue from my throat. "What the fuck Salandit?"

"Hahahaha!" Dawn falls into a fit of laughter.

~"Are you lisstening to me again?"

Dawn is in a heap on the ground. Laughing her ass off.

Buneary watches Salandit and me in what I assume to be jealousy and Riolu is laughing too.

Salandit, the smug diva, watches me with half-lidded eyes.

"That's it. Bedtime. Let's go." It's past sunset anyway. "Tomorrow is going to be a long day."

~"Yess. Let's move thiss converssation to the bed."

"Another comment like that and you're sleeping in your pokeball tonight."

~"Nooooo! I'll be ssilent now! Not the pokeball!"

Good grief.