Chaser and the Herald of Spring

Part 1

Greetings! This is Purim, the author. Thank you for joining me here. This story was an idea brought to me by a good friend of mine, Kuroblitz, whom you can find both on YouTube as well as on Twitter. It's a two-part story that takes place just around the changing of the seasons, which is very nice for the time of year it actually is! As you may have noticed from the description, this story takes place a bit out of order of release; while we just ended a story of Goh racing off towards his ultimate objective, we find ourselves now only a few weeks after Book 6's dramatic confession and conclusion. This story, told over two parts, will be our break between Books 8 and 9, so I hope you enjoy it!

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There was a part of him that was still struggling to shake off the chill, and when he closed his eyes, he could still see the ice covered caverns and the red, piercing eyes. It was a difficult image to shake from his head, even in the warmth and comfort of the Cerise Laboratory. But as Goh laid on the couch behind the stairs in the lobby with Grookey lying asleep on his chest, his mind and body both still felt very cold as he recalled his ill-fated raid battle with Articuno and the icy feeling in his heart, placed there by the cold words of Gary Oak. He hated the feeling of being so cold, especially since it was about a week ago that all of this went down. He shouldn't even be feeling the cold at this point, but if Goh was left to his own devices for too long, he would inevitably think upon his chilling failure.

Though it was still technically winter, he knew that they were close enough to the start of spring that things should be warming up more outside, so he gently played with the idea of actually heading outside and seeing what the weather was like for himself before he remembered the time.

There was a reason he was waiting in the lobby, after all. And as he heard the rhythmic steps of the puppy Pokémon Yamper plod their way towards the door, he knew what was coming. And since Grookey was still asleep, he would at least pretend to be asleep as well. So he gently tucked his phone into his pocket and closed his eyes.

A few moments later, he heard the door click open and a pair of familiar voices.

"I'm home!"

"Eievui!"

"Yamper!"

Yamper hopped up and down, and though his eyes were closed, Goh could perfectly imagine in his mind's eye that Eevee would be hopping from Chloe's arms and down to the floor to play whatever game they were going to run off and play this time. Usually, this would be Grookey's time to jump in and join them, but the chimp was still curled up. Goh heard Chloe's steps come closer even as she stepped lightly and tried to muffle the giggle in her throat.

"They're sleeping..." she whispered to herself, not knowing that Goh was awake at that moment. "Since everyone's busy... maybe I can..."

Goh willed himself to remain still, but he knew exactly where his mind went as Chloe's mischievous voice came closer.

It had been about a month since the day in Azalea Town when he had finally confessed his growing feelings for Chloe, and she had revealed that she, too, had fallen for him as well. The two awkward teens then shared their first kiss and agreed to be together as a couple.

Since that day, they hadn't managed to share a kiss once.

At first, Goh felt like it was just something he wasn't sure how to manage. He didn't know how often he would be able to ask for such a thing without getting Chloe mad. She had her school work and he had the work of taking care of all of his beloved Pokémon. While he wanted to spend more time with his girlfriend, just holding her hand and kissing her, they were both busy, and he didn't want to intrude on the time she needed for other things to spend with him.