Fire and Ice

Flowers

Hawlucha was busy practicing his Karate Chop in the forest when he ran into Froakie trying to mutilate a patch of flowers. Confused at his teammates antics, the former forest champion walked up to the blue frog Pokemon and tapped him on the shoulder. 

"What are you doing to those flowers?" Hawlucha asked once Froakie had paused long enough to pay attention to him. 

"I'm trying to murder every patch of flowers I see," Froakie replied, scowling darkly. 

"Why?" Hawlucha asked, confused. "What did those flowers ever do to you?" 

"I hate flowers," the younger Pokemon said bitterly. 

"But why?" the Aztec bird Pokemon pressed. "Why do you hate flowers so much? They're not all that bad, even if they are kind of girly." 

"Maybe I don't like flowers because they almost got me killed!" Froakie snapped back, and Hawlucha was shocked into silence. "One of my old trainers got me around Valentine's Day, and he had a girlfriend at the time. He mentioned once that he always got her flowers on Valentine's Day. Always. But that year he forgot, and she took it to mean that he didn't like her anymore. They got into a fight, and by the end of it she had broken up with him. My trainer blamed me and had his Raichu use Thunder on me as punishment. Then he locked me in my Pokeball-without even taking me to the Pokemon Center, I might add-for an entire week without any food or exercise before he took me back to Professor Sycamore's lab. That's why I hate flowers!" 

"Oh," Hawlucha said quietly, feeling guilty about asking now. "I'm sorry." 

"Don't be. It doesn't really matter anymore," Froakie said with a sigh, looking down at the ground. "Sorry to dump my horrible past on you like that. It's not really that big a deal anymore anyway. I don't mean to be annoying." 

"You're not," Hawlucha reassured his young teammate gently, resting a talon on his shoulder. Some of the other Pokemon had mentioned to him that he was the only one who was allowed to do this without Froakie slapping him away. "And you don't have to feel bad about telling anyone about yourself. We're all your friends, if you just give it a chance." 

Froakie didn't say anything to that, but the fleeting smile on his face was all Hawlucha needed to see.