Not My Friends (Pokémon)

Inadequate

A/N: I realize these introduction chapters are awful compared to the first chapter, but that's because they're really insignificant and literally serve no purpose other than, well, an introduction. Don't worry. I'll get back to the quality of the first chapter soon! I apologize if I'm severely boring you with the introduction chapters. There's only this one and one more, I promise!

When Gladion first met Elio, he thought he was lame.

Elio was a Pokémon Trainer just like his twin sister, but no matter how infuriating she was, Selene still had about a hundred times more determination and ambition than he did. It was almost like he trained Pokémon because he had nothing else to do. He wasn't a bad Trainer, but he wasn't an exceptionally good one either. He lacked the vigor a Trainer ought to have to take them to the top, and Gladion was even more unimpressed when Elio revealed he had no desire to get to the top at all.

Selene's brother had eventually defeated the Island Challenge like her, but Elio didn't go any further after that. He explained that he'd continue to be a Pokémon Trainer but that he wasn't seeking any sort of title or fame, despite admitting to being slightly aggravated by all the attention Selene was getting. Gladion thought he must have been kidding and told him that basically meant he'd gone on an entire journey for nothing. Elio had simply shrugged in return.

The only reason Gladion got along with Elio better than his twin was because, unlike Selene, he kept his mouth shut—sort of. Elio wasn't quiet, but he talked slightly less than the average person, and he didn't keep talking forever like a motor. At least the kid understood what good some silence could do once in a while. Plus, Elio didn't keep forcing friendship on him all the time, and he didn't continue denying it when Gladion hissed that they weren't friends.

Okay, he rolled his eyes. But that was still better than fighting him about it!

Gladion honestly believed the boy was wasting his perfectly good talent for battling. He hated people who wasted their talents, mostly because he found it stupid they weren't taking the chance to be the best they could be. He'd told this to Elio; he wasn't the type to hold things back because of manners. Elio didn't seem to care and brushed him off each and every time.

He was never really sure if Elio liked him, either. He was pretty sure Selene did and that her constant teasing was her way of trying to get closer to him, which he couldn't decide was a good thing or not. But Elio didn't think much of him, or at least that was the way it looked.

Gladion decided it didn't matter. After all, he didn't want friends.