Buddy | Pokémon One-Shot

Buddy

⠀⠀Up until I was 14 years-old, I ain't ever held a Poké Ball before.

⠀⠀Pokémon required money, and I never had any. Ma kept all her funds under lock and key because she needed to pay the bills and all that stuff since Dad died. I didn't know what happened to him. Ma shooed me off every time I asked and told me to go play outside.

⠀⠀Every penny I scraped up I got through hard work, ethical or not. Sometimes I earned cash through contests like "who can eat the most hotdogs without throwing up" or "who can chuck the most Pyukumuku in ten minutes." Those were easy to do, but the events weren't held very often.

⠀⠀That's why I did a few bad things. Stole candy from kids, shoplifted bracelets, snuck into old people's yards to pick their fruit, and one day I pickpocketed a white-haired man who was wearing a gold chain necklace.

⠀⠀"Whattaya think you're doing, punk?"

⠀⠀I jerked back with the wallet in-hand, startled by his raspy voice. The hunchback grabbed onto my wrist, and I cursed as his fingernails dug into my skin.

⠀⠀"You dropped this, sir!" I lied through clenched teeth.

⠀⠀"It was in my back pocket," he said. "Why were you trying to pickpocket me?"

⠀⠀I frowned. Ain't nobody ever told a story where the person he was trying to pickpocket asked him for the reason behind it. "I'm no pickpocket."

⠀⠀"Stop lying, boy. If you 'fess up right now then I won't turn you in to the police."

⠀⠀His threat chilled me to the bone. Still, I wouldn't budge.

⠀⠀I told him, "I ain't lying."

⠀⠀He didn't speak while he stared me down. I glared right back at him. Just like all those rich people from Hau'oli City, he was judging my patched up clothes from behind his dented, yellow sunglasses.

⠀⠀"Heh." The stranger let go of my newly bruised wrist and gave me a crooked smirk. "We'll settle this over a Pokémon battle."

⠀⠀"I don't have no Pokémon," I replied.

⠀⠀"Really? How old are you?"

⠀⠀"Fourteen."

⠀⠀"You're a 14 year-old boy and you don't own a Pokémon?"

⠀⠀I narrowed my gaze. He was insulting me. "Not everybody got the money to buy a Poké Ball and catch one."

⠀⠀"Yeah."

⠀⠀The man put his hands on his hips and turned away from me to look at the ocean. I looked at it, too, but I didn't see anything special. It was the same old blue water with the same old breeze that you could find almost everywhere in Alola. If the man was a foreigner it'd explain why he acted so weird.

⠀⠀I was readying myself to make a dash for it when he announced, "I can give you a Poké Ball."

⠀⠀"What?"

⠀⠀He repeated, "I'll give you a Poké Ball so you can catch your own Pokémon."

⠀⠀Fury boiled within me, making me hot from head to toe. I clenched my hands into fists and stopped myself from punching him. "I don't want to hear any jokes like that. It ain't funny telling people that you'll do something for them then not do shit at all."

⠀⠀"Oi, I'm not giving you an empty promise," he said, eying my tense form. "I'll give you a Poké Ball."

⠀⠀I watched him carefully as he reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a red-and-white sphere. The capturing device lolled in his hand, taunting me with its presence.