Work Text:
It has always been that tugging want for adventure in his heart that had frustrated Hajime most, that throbbing sense of longing that he couldn’t quite touch at. Even if he was only seven years old and thriving, he yearned for a journey, he yearned to learn about Pokémon, he yearned for more than his aimless wandering and yearned to escape away from adults that pat his head telling him that his time will come. They phrased their words nicely but that meant waiting. Waiting when Hajime didn’t want to wait, he wanted to grasp on to his wants right at that moment and make them a reality— the only problem was that there really was nothing there at all to grasp. In the end, he really was just a seven year old kid and needed to have patience.
So that’s how he learned how to be straightforward. He knew that he loved Pokémon so he continued to ask people all that he could. Regardless of age and experience everyone had a tale to tell to which Hajime would respond to just as eagerly. His parents even allowed him to wander the forest independently because they understood how much it meant to him.
Not only that but just a few blocks from his house there was even a Pokémon Center where trainers from all across the region would flock in and out of, all holding incredible stories of adventure and glory. Trainers who love their Pokémon as family and hurtled in worried for their Pokémon’s health then always, everytime reassured and thankful when the Pokémon Nurse healed their beloved Pokémon back to tip-top condition and ready to go out to experience the world once more.
Then there were also the Pokémon that weren’t so lucky. Ones that were abandoned by their trainers or worse, “betrayed“ by them, they are rushed to the Pokémon Center crying in pain from a wound that Hajime assumed must be there but before he could see for himself his eyes were always covered by some adult and he would be ushered away.
So for now, the forest was the perfect place for little Hajime. The greenwood that was in constant need for exploration, his own small travels for the endless ache for wanderlust that filled that tiny body of his until it overflowed.
And incidentally, Hajime was the perfect little adventurer with his roughly cut hair as if it was shortened with the blade of a Scyther rather than a hairstylist and then— there were those eyes. His eyes were the same grayish green of a Dragonite, and while more sharply formed then the rounded eyes of the kind-hearted dragon Pokémon, the gaze was just as compassionate.
He observed among the forest with that look, full of adoration for the world and brimming inquiry. The Emolgas played tag with one another and a horde of Sewaddle followed one another up a tree. He could hear the faint wooden and bright beats of Krikitots thumping their antennas and the rustling in the trees overhead as flying Pokémon maneuvered through the branches.
Noticing a Sawsbuck nosing into a berry bush, the boy crouched carefully on the other side of the bush and observed those great antlers of the Season Pokémon. They were green and leafy just like the trees even though just a few weeks ago those very same antlers were sprouting pink flowers instead. Hajime knew for sure then that it was most definitely summer.
Stepping up around the bush, Hajime took his chances and held his hand out to the Sawsbuck but the Pokémon simply glanced at the hand and then went back into the bush. It didn’t initiate any movement to meet Hajime halfway, so slightly embarrassed, he pulled his hand back, gave a brief bow and then scurried back away a few paces to continue his observation from a distance. If the Pokemon didn’t want to reach back to him then that was fine. The boy was straightforward in his wants just as much as he was straightforward in his morals.
A few minutes of peaceful forest silence went by when in a brief movement, the Sawsbuck perked its ears and looked curiously up. Hajime followed its gaze.
Something was running through the long grass and when it hopped up occasionally Hajime recognized the species but he never expected to see such a Pokémon, especially in the forest out of all places. It was a medium little thing around the size of Hajime’s huggable plushies with a rounded head, beady oval emerald eyes, and stubs for hands with three round digits of red, yellow, and green. As it got closer it emitted a pitchy hollow cry.
“Elyg! Elgyem!”
Elgyem the Cerebral Pokémon
(Psychic Type)
It is theorized that a UFO crash 50 years ago in the desert brought these Pokémon to this planet. Their high intellect gives it their strong psychic abilities.
Scurrying through the grasses and shrubs, the Elygem was hidden and when Hajime realized that the Pokémon had gotten drastically closer, he was a few moments delayed to dodge. With a leaping stumpy-legged jump against the dirt, it pounced right on to Hajime’s face causing him to stumble back a few steps. The blob of its body obscured his field of vision and he could feel the Pokémon’s colorful pads grapple at his hair. “Hey buddy— ow OW what are you doing?”
Hajime tried to ask it politely as he could despite the surprise intrusion of space and not to mention the language barrier though he did get some sort of response even if it was just the Pokémon laughing at him as if it was playing around.
Then there was another voice, human this time. Disembodied with Hajime’s vision blocked off yet hurling from a distance towards him all the same, a voice so youthful and so very annoyingly tone death. “Hey! No no you're my catch! Get off that guy!”
Hajime pulled off the Elgyem and had a half second of freedom. Then—
SMACK.
He received a terribly mistimed Pokéball to his face.
Hajime yelped out at the impact and while putting his hand to his face he felt the Elgyem slip from his grip. The laughing from the Elgyem raised momentarily then faded out as it made its escape. The sharp pain was mostly in the moment so after just a few seconds the pain faded exponentially into more of a dull throb. He registered the thumping sound of sneakers beating against leaves, sticks, and sod so he looked up and searched through the trees.
It was a brown haired boy about his age, still in his patterned green pajama pants despite it being almost noon. He was running through the forest with a drawstring bag at his back and a pair of unused Pokéballs in his hands. As the kid glanced at Hajime, a light gleamed in those eyes, definitely a tease of a laugh which took Hajime’s steadying patience and irked it at its weak point.
“Sorry!~” The boy yelled as one does in more of a minimal courtesy rather than an actual apology. “Hope your face isn’t broken!” He didn’t seem to care for an answer back either as his running momentum didn’t halt for even a second, just a figure disappearing and reappearing as he weaved between the trees.
Then the boy flicked away the eye contact to look forward once more only to immediately have his feet stumble upon a root of a tree. Hajime watched as the boy clumsily regained his steps with a few choppy flaps of his arms and then returned into his sprinting chase after the Elgyem.
“Come on, Elgyem-san! Just stay still—“ The boy barely evaded crashing straight into a tree. “JUST STAY STILL AND LET ME CATCH YOU!!”
“Elelelele!! Gyem! Gyem!!”
As the kid moved further away, Hajime looked back to the Sawsbuck that was already back to minding its own business. Maybe Hajime should’ve done the same. Brushed it off and moved on with his day. But when he scanned the forest he could still search out the boy fading in and out between the trees, the light green pajama pants that were just a hue lighter than the bushes and grass that brushed against the kid’s legs. The light of the sun that filtered through the branches flitted on the little gold shines of the patterns that were decorated across the lime fabric of the pants. Flickers of light in the shade of the trees. Shooting stars peeking across the twilight sky.
So Hajime jogged after the boy, out of both vexation and perhaps a sense of curiosity.
His initial worry was that the kid was a danger to the forest but oddly enough the Pokémon weren’t afraid of the strange boy at all. Actually, they even seemed to be interested in him. Even if the stranger got a little too close to Buneary dens or smacked into branches of the trees that Taillows were known to rest on, none of the Pokémon seemed to mind. To be fair, they were also well out of the boy’s path by the time the clumsy rampage reached to their part of the forest but the Pokémon didn’t seem to flee or brace their paws in hostile defense either. The boy really did mean them no harm and the Pokémon could sense that. So instead of having the expected caution at suspicious human behavior it was more like watching a newly born Ponyta attempt to gallop for it’s first time, tripping over its own hooves and doing its best. It was endearing.
That still doesn’t mean the boy deserves to catch the Elgyem, Hajime reasoned wryly. For a Pokémon that strong, the boy would need to show it his potential and give it a good reason for it to choose him as its trainer. That usually involves Pokémon battles among many other ways, like attracting the creature with food or helping it with an injury. And even if the boy was able to do any of that he still couldn’t be any older than Hajime and therefore critically underage.
The whole forest seemed to appreciate the kid, but all Hajime saw was an idiot that was embarrassing himself.
Hearing the sound of the river, Hajime expected the clearing of the forest, the trees that lessened abruptly as he approached the empty clearing that split forest from the edge of the cliff. It was just a five or so meter high edge to the rocky gravel bottom that blended into the stretch of the great calm river. A bit away to the right was the wooden log bridge that connected his side of the ravine to the other side. The river itself was probably the width and height of a Wailord longways and the ravine as a whole around three wailords and then another three stacked upon those.
The Elgyem was now hovering in the middle of the wide ravine, a faint shining glow outlining the Pokémon showed the usage of its psychic abilities.
Hajime leaned his shoulder on a tree and observed how the brunet stood out in the open, safely from the edge yet as close as he deemed necessary, and shouted out to the Elgyem with accusative motions of his arms.
“Stop running away you coward and face me!”
The floating Elgyem began to dance around in the air in flying figure eights with that expert telekinesis on itself. “Gyem~ Elgyem!!~”
The boy vented out a loud frustrated sound of complaint and stomped his foot on the ground. Hajime was disappointed at the brunet’s apparent surrender when just as swiftly and almost in quick contrast with his foot stomp, the brunet straightened and breathed in a deep long breath. Then, before he even started to breathe out, he moved from his standing position directly into a sprint rightwards towards the bridge. Even from his distance Hajime could hear how the dull thuds of running on dirt transformed into the knocking on wood as the kid in all his sparkly pants glory ran on to the bridge without any sense of doubt.
Hajime sighed at the boy’s stupidity. Top rule of crossing bridges in the forest: be sure to always cautiously check if the bridge really was an actual bridge and not actually a mirage sent up by a devious Pokémon. Completely ignoring safety procedures, the kid was only focusing on how the Elgyem did indeed get baited closer to the bridge to tease him further. He was in a tunnel vision of just his catch-to-be and what looked to be his final Pokéball in his hand.
Now in a feasible range, the boy clicked the small sphere and it enlarged to that familiar hand sized ball. Hajime watched as he then stilled, and how those hazel eyes glared towards the target. Even the Elgyem paused at the gaze and that’s when the boy tossed it. “Go Pokéball!!!”
The Pokéball veered a whole entire meter away from the Elgyem and... plop. It fell into the river.
The Elgyem laughed once again at the boy’s poor marksmanship and flew off but Hajime was no longer paying attention to the Pokémon or even the boy.
Underneath the rippling of the river there was a red flashing glow. It was the tell of a Pokéball catch even if it wasn’t intentional.
Hajime broke away from the trees and ran to the ledge.
That wasn’t good at all. Leaving a Pokémon caught at the bottom of a river was too cruel. It was dangerous. It was an awful fate for a Pokémon.
He crouched and swung himself down so that he could position himself to correctly climb the drop. He always had a knack for climbing so the descending five meters itself wasn’t an issue but doing something like a rescue by his lonesome made him feel a little jittery. Hajime looked back up wondering if it was too late to call the boy back to help—
It was the afternoon and the sun’s relentless glare led Hajime to pause. The summer heat blossomed across Hajime's skin so it wasn’t the forming breeze that sent a chill through him.
The kid was no longer chasing after the Elgyem but instead on the farther side of the bridge and looked down towards the river with those steeled eyes. Stepping forward with his tiny sneakered feet he used the limited room of two steps. The heavy thumps sounded across on the wood, an echo of how Hajime’s heart pounded in his chest. And then the brunet leaped off the bridge and was soaring. Hajime gripped tighter on the edge of the ledge and a small ‘oh Arceus’ escaped him as he watched how the kid floundered in the air. The brunet’s determined eyes were now pinched shut as if he was blocking away his fears. Hajime still hasn’t had a clear view of the Pokémon that patterned the boy’s pajamas though it still reflected the sun even then, a definitive falling star in daylight.
And then the meteorite of a kid crashed into the river, water backlashing far into the air.
Hajime snapped his head back forward and with his grip slightly more forceful then he should have used, he descended down the rocky surface. The rocks dug imprints into his bare hands, though already safely well calloused from the boy’s practice in climbing trees. His feet met the solid ground but his mind was anything but grounded as he tracked over rocks towards the stream.
The first thought that Hajime had should have been concern, panic really. He should have felt more worried. The kid had just leaped off a bridge just to save a Pokemon that he had yet to meet. Hajime gulped back a rising surge of feelings even if his heart remained racing.
That was so cool.
It was ridiculous really. Jumping off bridges even in the pleasant splash worthy summer should’ve been something to worry about. The boy had been flailing in the air and could be drowning for all he knew but all Hajime could think was how brave that leap of faith was.
He approached the side of the river and made haste sitting down on one of the flat rocks that bordered the stream. He tossed his knapsack off his back and hopped into the river, the water immediately hitting up to his thigh. Stepping carefully over the rocks that gathered below his feet he squinted further ahead into the water as he trudged through, searching for movement. He felt how his shorts became completely soaked and noticed his tank top being half splashed on to. The river was beginning to get deeper.
Underneath the water, the kid was a silhouette of shadowy gray of his shirt and lime of his pants. He was positioned upwards and had accomplished getting the Pokéball in his grasp but seemed to be straining himself to make the rest of the swim up. Hajime submerged his arm into the water and towards the boy, his hand feeling the comfortable resistance of the river. At first, the milky hand weakly reached up and then with a jerk of motivation the hand clutched at Hajime’s wrist. Hajime resisted the urge to flinch away from the slimy-feeling hand and instead furthered his grip up the boy’s forearm and tugged the weight up. Once the boy broke the surface, he messily gasped for breath and Hajime was relieved that it wasn’t anything more fatal.
It turned out though, the kid’s talent for diving wasn’t much better than maneuvering through water and left it up to Hajime to drag him to where they could walk and then push him through the slippery rocks that the kid tripped thrice on. Finally, Hajime nudged the boy to the edge and let him seize towards the land and hoist himself up with Hajime following behind him.
“Why did you do that?” Hajime questioned first, imagining himself to have the ferocity of a Mightyena (when really it ended up coming out more like an awed Lillipup).
“Huh?” answered the boy tiredly, his eyes a bit distracted and his hair a drenched mess as he pushed his wet bag to the side and rolled onto his back only to be pushed up by Hajime into a sitting position for better breathing posture. Hajime also noted that the boy wasn’t trembling in any way but instead was sluggish and tense with his movements. The boy wasn’t scared.
“Why did you jump in the river?” Hajime tried rephrasing, then added, “The Elygem ran off.”
“...HE DID?” The boy’s eyes clicked back into focus and he stumbled straight to his feet, droplets splattering around and the water squishing in his sneakers. He looked around and turned back to the bridge where the Elgyem was long gone. He put both hands on his head in dramatic despair. “Nooooo!!”
He looked back to the cliff behind Hajime with a determined look of someone ready to scale the rocks and continue his pursuit.
“Stop it,” Hajime pulled him out of the run, the damp sweatshirt sleeve clamming to skin in his hold. “You obviously weren’t going to be able to catch it. Your throwing is really bad.” He added that last part for attitude.
The boy turned to Hajime quickly with his cheeks puffed up at the insult. Brushing off the grip and crossing his arms, the brunet looked as menacing as a soaked Jigglypuff. “And who are you?”
Hajime tried to keep himself from snickering at the boy’s expression and voiced out somewhat steadily in a held back laugh. “Iwaizumi Hajime. I come from the town that way.” He pointed into the direction that the boy was about to run towards and also the direction they came from.
The kid, following where Hajime directed his attention, took a moment to actually regard the ledge and his expression revised to wonder when he must have realized that Hajime would’ve needed to climb down that cliff to get down to where they were. After all, descending down a cliff with a heroic purpose should’ve been a lot cooler than blundering off bridges. Somewhere in how the brunet peered back at Hajime, he seemed to understand that.
“Okay then you’ll be ‘Haji-kun’!” The boy pointed close to Hajime’s face, so close that Hajime was almost tempted to chomp at it but before Haime could debate attempt-cannibalism, the hand retracted away so that the boy could spotlight himself. “And I’m Oikawa Tooru but you can just call me Tooru as a thanks for helping me out.” Hajime simply nodded in acceptance at that. It wasn’t that bad of a nickname and the kid wasn’t making him call him anything outrageous. “Oh also, my town is on the other side!” He pointed across the river and up to the forest.
That also made sense. Hajime had never seen the brown haired kid in his own town and the closest one around this area was over the ravine. That meant they were from neighboring towns and definitely could continue hanging out with each other in the forest. The thought of having a chance to have someone his age play with made Hajime fidget with excitement so he gripped the hem of his shirt to fiddle with the soaked edge and filtered his enthusiasm into curiosity for a question. “So, uhm Tooru, why were you chasing that Pokémon?”
Tooru bounced like an Azurill on its tail at the opportunity to talk more and claim superiority. “Duh, I wanted to catch him!! My sister let me borrow some of her Pokéballs and I wanted to catch something really, really cool! When I saw the Elgyem I knew it must be fate cause, I mean, it just had to be fate—” He started to stumble over his words in the rush of his excitement and it annoyed Hajime at first but regardless of whatever Hajime felt, Tooru was lost into it and kept pushing forward with his explanation anyways. It was as if a dazzling gleam had been casted in Tooru’s eyes and his words were enhanced with hand motions and at some point he had gestured to his still soaked pajama pants which Hajime recognized as being adorned with an array of golden outline patterns of, well obviously, Elgyem.
“—And my sister showed me a really cool article and it was from this really REALLY REALLY famous researcher so it was really smart and stuff. And you know how usually alien sightings are actually just people who mistake Elgyem for aliens, right? Right?!” No, Hajime didn’t really know but he nodded anyways as he was charmed more by Tooru’s enthusiasm rather than the actual topic at hand. “But what if Elgyem really are aliens then how could that be false?! It’s hy-hypocritical! Especially since there’s research about how Elgyem’s psychic energy is so powerful that they can cause TV interferences and display images of their space home!!”
Tooru seemed to have finished with his rant and held himself confidently but Hajime just blinked as he was a bit confused. “That’s it?”
“What do you mean ‘that’s it’ ?!!” Tooru turned red in the face with his arms clenched at either side.
Well, it’s lame, Hajime had wanted to say but he already felt guilty with the response he gave to Tooru. It’s just that he couldn’t help but think the whole thing was a bit, well, anticlimactic especially with such a long winded explanation. And his pants weren’t anything special either, it was just the Elgyem that Tooru was such a dork fan over. If the boy wore the pajamas pretty much every day of his life then obviously he’d run into an Elgyem with them on at some point.
And there’s just so many other types of Pokémon, aren’t there? Pokémon that can carry a whole car? That’s cool! A Pokémon that can soothe any violence and create world peace? Extremely cool! Pokémon that can glitch out a TV and is mostly just known from pseudoscience? ...A little bit less cool!!
“Well, it’s just that…” Hajime began awkwardly and Tooru pouted slightly waiting for the elaboration. “It’s… uh cool that you’re excited about your fate pants Pokémon but you didn’t actually catch the Elgyem right?”
Tooru almost wilted. “Well no—”
“So what did you catch instead?” Hajime said in a rush, immediately trying to change the subject. He reached toward the ball to tap it open but Tooru raised it up into the air with a raised eyebrow and that teasing look back in his eyes. Tooru was just a tad bit taller which pulled Hajime back to his growing cons list of the boy.
“Just a moment, Haji-kun!” he tutted and swept Hajime a few steps back. “Let me get ready!”
After Hajime grumpily obliged, the brunet suddenly turned stern. His eyebrows furrowed and his lip set in a line as he patted at his own sopping wet hair. Splush splush. Then he grabbed the hem of his shirt and tried to air and wring it with his free hand. Flap squish squish.
Tooru then softened with confusion and tilted his head as if he wasn’t sure what to do next so he looked back up to Hajime. “Uhh. How do I look?”
“Like you just smacked at your hair and shirt. Was that supposed to do anything?” Hajime slighted, still annoyed at the small height difference.
Tooru pouted thoughtfully in response. Then when it seemed like he got an idea, he flicked a look to Hajime and then in an abrupt change he sighed melodramatically in defeat and even gave a sad (yet perfectly timed) Cubchoo-esque sneeze so Hajime reached in his knapsack and tossed him his Tyranitar hoodie. It hit Tooru’s face but he chirped a happy thanks all the same. Hajime grunted some sort of response and then asked another question from his curiosity, “Why’s it matter how you look?”
“My sister says that first impressions are important!” Tooru asserted and carefully placed down the Pokéball and changed out his shirt for the hoodie, his hair sticking up as he yanked the wet sweatshirt off and tousling when he tugged the hoodie on. “And I want my Pokémon to know that I’m reliable and put together!”
The Tyranitar hoodie and the Elgyem pajama pants clashed in so many awful and non-together ways but Tooru seemed to think it looked fine so Hajime didn’t comment. Maybe it was some sort of fashion thing that Hajime didn’t understand.
So Hajime stuck to what he did understand and picked up the soaked shirt that was tossed on the ground, flapped it in the air, and then stuffed it into Tooru’s wet drawstring backpack. There were some wet notebooks and squashed berries so Hajime just used notebooks as a divider to keep the shirt away from the berry disaster.
When Hajime finished with that, Tooru had just completed using the Tyranitar hood to dry up his mop of hair though he ended up keeping the hood on anyways, the spikes crowned over the hood and the fangs hovered over Tooru’s fringe. Hajime nodded his head in approval. Tooru looked really cool. Really everyone looks a bajillion times cooler in a Tyranitar hoodie.
Once Tooru had finally deemed himself ready, he gently cradled the Pokéball in his hands and then pressed down on the button. It flipped open and with a white light the Pokémon materialized on to the gravelly ground. It was a dreary brown fish with darker brown spots and blue fins. A large circular eye stared up at them.
Feebas the Fish Pokémon
(Water Type)
A shabby and ugly Pokémon. Due to the shoddy tatters of their scales they are largely ignored and unwanted by trainers and researchers.
“Give me that!” Hajime jumped forward and tried taking the Pokéball. So much for first impressions.
Tooru’s shock at his Pokémon adjusted into more of a confusion at Hajime’s reaction and gripped tighter at his Pokéball. “What? Why?!”
Hajime scoffed and yanked at the front of the Tyranitar hoodie. Images of all the abandoned Pokémon he’s seen in the Pokécenter flashed through his mind. “Tooru, don’t you dare hurt that Pokémon. Feebas may be ugly but it has feelings too so if you have anything bad to say about it then you better keep it to yourself.”
Tooru’s confusion shifted into a dark glare of frustration which only motivated Hajime to continue. Those hazel eyes were a repulsive shade.
“And okay yeah, no one cares about a Feebas. They’re ugly and it’s not a guarantee that it’ll even evolve. And with your nonexistent experience you’ll probably be stuck with that ugly and lame Feebas for the rest of your life so it’s better just not to stick with it, okay? You can just let it free again before it gets attached—”
Tooru shoved Hajime off of him and scooped the Feebas up and into his arms and hugged it to his face. That was also when Hajime noticed the watery sheen shining on Tooru’s eyes that he stubbornly refused to let fall. “Stop calling Feebas ugly!! Haji-kun is the one who’s ugly!” The hood of the Tyranitar hoodie had fallen off and his mousy hair framed his angry tearful appearance in a frenzied way as he protectively held on to his new Pokémon. “You idiot! You hypocrite!! You MEANIE!!!”
Feebas flopped his fins with a supportive look at his trainer. “Feebas! Fee! Fee!” And Tooru, a bit shaky, directed his attention to his new Pokemon and let himself calm down.
Hajime blanked with bewilderment. Despite his clothes being now half dry they suddenly started to feel heavy. He’s not going to just eat it or do something bad to it? This boy actually wants to raise the Feebas as his first Pokémon? I went and told him not to say anything bad about Feebas but what did I just do?
“I’m sorry,” Hajime said, still mildly baffled.
“Don’t apologize to me!” Tooru berated, snapping a look back to Hajime. “Apologize to Feebas!”
Hajime leaned into a slow bow towards the Feebas. “I’m very sorry… Feebas-san.”
The fish’s wide unnerving gaze stared at Hajime and then responded with a spasm of it’s body in Tooru’s arms. “Feebas!”
“Hmm… okay fine, apology accepted!” Tooru patted Hajime’s head in thanks to which Hajime knocked off, knowing that the brunet was definitely smirking.
As Hajime straightened back up, Tooru’s smirk flashed into a grin though when he seemed to notice something, it shifted into an interested look. “Hey Haji-kun, do you have a Pokémon too?”
“No, I don’t…” But Hajime’s statement faded off when he followed Tooru’s stare to the side pocket of his cargo shorts where there was a noticeable round shape of a Pokéball. Hajime wasn’t aware of having a Pokémon but he brought out his Net Ball—
Net Ball
A type of Pokéball. Best for bug and water types.
—which was full sized and definitely contained a Pokémon. A rush of panic flew through him. “It must have happened in the river earlier but I...” His sentence trailed off and he clutched at the ball.
The Net Ball was just for good luck or if he came across an injured Pokémon that a Potion couldn’t help with. He hadn’t planned on catching a Pokémon, just watching and playing with them in the forest was already everything to him. Of course, other people could catch Pokémon and as long as they loved them, Hajime was more than thrilled to acknowledge the concept of Pokéballs. It’s just that… he never expected to be catching any himself.
He felt Tooru’s eyes on him but when Hajime braced to meet his gaze it was just that stupid smiling look which made everything so much worse. “The Pokémon chose you, Haji-kun. Don’t keep it waiting!~”
It was supposed to be a teasing statement but it hit into the depths of Hajime’s emotions. It was also exactly the push that Hajime needed to hear.
In his newfound and changed determination he held out the Pokéball above the river. “Come on out… whoever you are!”
The Pokémon emerged and plopped into the water. They both looked into the river and squinted at the shadowy figure together. Hajime blinked in recognition and Tooru, still hugging his Feebas, bursted out into a cackle. “It’s a Magikarp!”
Magikarp the Fish Pokémon
(Water Type)
An underpowered and pathetic Pokémon. They are such a useless Pokémon that they’re prone to being swept away by even the smallest of currents.
Hajime, with some alarm, pulled up the fish Pokémon from the stream. As soon as the Magikarp surfaced the water though, Hajime knew something was wrong. With how common Magikarps were, Hajime had definitely seen many before— and with that knowledge Hajime was very sure that they’re supposed to be red.
Tooru screeched and Hajime almost dropped the wiggling Magikarp in shock.
“Why is she yellow?” Hajime put a hand against the fish for a heartbeat but where the heart actually was… well Hajime didn’t really know.
Tooru snorted and Hajime realized belatedly that his screech was actually one of excitement not fear. “It’s not sick, you Bidoof! IT’S A SHINY!!”
Hajime’s green eyes widened. Shiny Pokémon were an incredibly rare variety of Pokémon. They are also highly sought out by bad poacher people but if in Hajime’s hands, then he’ll be able to keep this Pokémon safe and give her the home that she deserves. Also, they’re very cool. “... SHE’S A GOLD MAGIKARP!!!”
“Give her to me!!”
“No way!!’ Hajime raised Magikarp in the air. “She’s mine!! She chose me!!”
“Hmph!” Tooru patted at his own fish. “Feebas is so much cooler anyways!”
Hajime only was paying attention to his Pokémon though as he spun around enthusiastically. “You’re going to be the meanest, baddest Gyarados ever!! Yes that’s going to be you!” Magikarp flopped with excitement in Hajime’s grip. “You’re going to be the best Pokémon ever!”
“Haji-kun, are you listening to me?!” Tooru laid Feebas on the ground and showed him off. “Feebas is better! He’d wipe the floor with your Magikarp!” Feebas gave a sturdy little flop to back Tooru up.
“KARP KARP!!” Magikarp gave an angry reply to Tooru and tried to wrestle herself from Hajime’s hold so he adjusted her under his arm but didn’t let her go just yet as he faced Tooru.
“Oh reallyyy?” Hajime said, sensing a challenge and Magikarp immediately agreed with her trainer.
Tooru met the Magikarp owner’s look with a smirk. “Yes and I’ll show you right now! Feebas use splash!”
Feebas’ body convulsed for a second and then sprung into the air, all the way up to nearly a Wailord high and then hit at the earth with its back fin to cushion itself comfortably back to its side.
Tooru stood proudly at his Pokémon’s performance but Hajime was feeling competitive as well and if his Magikarp’s thrashing was anything to go by, she felt the same way.
“You call that a splash?” Hajime placed his ambitious Magikarp on the ground. “Magikarp, your turn! Use splash!”
And Majikarp catapulted in the air. A pleasant leap that reflected the sun onto it’s golden scales and yet… she was below needed height. It was a clear half a meter short of Feebas’ peak.
Tooru brightened. “That’s a win for us!! Good job, my handsome Feebas! You did wonderful!!”
“Fee!! FEEBASS!!”
Hajime sighed, tolerating the loss and crouched down to his Magikarp that was still stubbornly trying to do splashes on his own to best Feebas’ high point yet it was to no avail. “Hey, hey, Magikarp, you can stop now. Good job, Magikarp, your jumps were really cool to watch!” The fish Pokémon seemed to glare at him and was about to do another jump but then Hajime gave her a strong understanding look. “Don’t worry about it! We’ll train a whole lot! I promised that you’ll be the best, right?” Hajime reassured Majikarp and the fish seemed to like that answer a lot more. Hajime smiled in relief and petted her scales.
“Woah, how did you do that?” Tooru immediately asked, watching how Hajime’s Magikarp first bristled her fins and then relaxed under her trainer’s touch. The Feebas owner brushed his own Pokémon in the same way, a wide open handed stroke across the body and Feebas relaxed almost instantly. “Wow…”
And with that, there seemed like little else to do so they both returned their satisfied Pokémon back into their balls. Hajime was just doing his own thing, putting on his knapsack while figuring out in his mind how they were going to get Tooru up the cliff, when all of a sudden Tooru bestowed him another look of query.
“What is it now?” Hajime sighed.
“Is your face broken?” Tooru asked innocently and Hajime understood that Tooru must have been referring to the Pokéball to the face incident earlier. It actually wasn’t that bad of a question, Hajime realized, and even had the idea that Tooru might apologize properly.
“Oh uh no, it’s fine—”
“Then why is your face so ugly!” Tooru cheered with those taunting eyes and at the tailend of the tease he was already bubbling into giggles.
Even without his blanched reaction, Hajime didn’t have any time to provide a proper retort because Tooru was now laughing way too loudly and then it was so much that he actually started to choke over his own laughing fit and needed to hold at his stomach. He was barely keeping himself together.
“And!!” Yet the idiot still carried on. “And your hair looks like a durin berry!!”
The whole thing ticked Hajime off so he snarled, “You idiot—”
“Eep!” Tooru startled for a moment but the laugh still wasn’t dying down. “Oh that’s so funny! Maybe you’re more like a tamato berry with that attitude!”
Tamato berry
A type of berry. It has the occasional spike although not as textured as the durin berry. It is extremely spicy so eat with caution. (Lower speed base, raises friendship.)
“Well,” Hajime forced his outburst into a sizzle and gave a poke at Tooru’s cheek. “Did you know that when you’re annoyed, you puff up your cheeks in this really funny way and you look just like a Jigglypuff?”
Jigglypuff the Balloon Pokémon
( Normal & Fairy Type)
Inflates their cheeks to hold air before they perform. When this Pokémon sings, they do not take breaks to breathe and will not stop singing until it’s enemy falls asleep.
“Hey! I do not!!” Tooru denied and since he was annoyed, his cheeks puffed up into a clear example to which Hajime poked at once again. Tooru perplexedly blinked and then patted at his own cheeks. His eyes widened into saucers just like a Jigglypuff too. “WOAH! I REALLY DO!! And I look like a Jigglypuff? That’s so cool!!”
Hajime gave a bemused look with a raised eyebrow. “That was supposed to be an insult, why do you look so excited about it?”
“Wait yeah!” Tooru’s face then contorted shakily as he pushed himself to pretend as if he was annoyed. “Ergh, you’re a meanie!”
Hajime rolled his eyes. “Dummy.”
The guise slipped away and Tooru gasped. “No you’re a dummy!!!”
Hajime felt an odd sort of giddiness that he never expected to come from a foolish banter of all things. He grinned. “Says the one that jumped into a river when they can barely swim. Remember how I saved you?”
Tooru was smiling too. “At least I wasn’t the idiot that thought the shiny Magikarp was sick!!”
“Oh you know what’s really idiotic? Having a clear shot at an Elgyem and then—”
“Stop stop!!” Tooru whined and smacked a hand at Hajime’s face. “That was so embarrassing, I can’t believe you saw that! I was so sure that I was going to catch him.”
“Really, Tooru? ‘Cause you know your aim was really really realllly awful.”
“Meanie!” Tooru complained, sticking out his tongue as he smacked more at Hajime.
“Oi,” Hajime snorted, putting up an arm to shield himself. “What are you doing?”
Tooru laughed and it was that clear, uncontrolled sound again like a singing Chimecho that flew into a glass door. Then in a sudden moment his shining eyes sparkled with an idea and he pretty much shouted right into Hajime’s face a big ol “RACE YOU UP THE CLIFF!” and off he went.
“Hey wait, that’s cheating! And watch out before you step on anything!”
“SLOWPOKE!! SLOWPOKE!!! HAJI-KUN’S A SLOWPOKE ACK-” Tooru slipped on literally the first foothold he tried to step on, landed unbalanced on one foot, and then collapsed onto his behind. “OWIE MY BUTT!!”
Chuckling brightly, Hajime reached his hand out to Tooru for the second time that day. Tooru is a good person, Hajime concluded right then. He’s an idiot but he isn’t all that bad. He’s someone that he can play lots of fun games with and they can go on all sorts of adventures together. This is someone that Hajime could call a friend. Hajime wanted this person to be his friend.
And Tooru reached up... Those hazel eyes meeting his own. Those eyes with the endless taunts and teases and secrets that Hajime had yet to learn now gave off such an open and innocent look— and oh shoot... Far too delayed then Hajime would like to admit, he realized that Tooru had not taken his hand but instead the brunet had reached up to pants down Hajime’s shorts and therefore uncovering his embarrassingly cute pair of Togepi boxers.
Tooru would not stop laughing even after Hajime threatened to bite the boy’s fingers off.
Togepi the Spike Ball Pokémon
(Fairy Type)
Their shell is said to be stuffed with happiness that they share with the people they like. When treated kindly they are the absolute best good luck charm.