Fire and Ice

Melting Ice

Hawlucha had no idea what he had done wrong, but no matter what he said or did, Froakie always seemed to hate him, even after they had supposedly reconciled their differences during their double battle. He tried being friendly, and when that didn't work, he tried leaving him alone. Nothing seemed to work. And it hurt because Hawlucha could see that Froakie wanted a friend desperately, but all his attempts were met with aloofness and cold rejections.

One day, a month or so after their failed attempt at a double battle, Hawlucha found Froakie training by himself near a river. Ash and the others were playing a game of tag, so the Bubble Frog Pokemon was on his own. Taking a deep breath, Hawlucha walked up to Froakie and tapped him on the shoulder.

"What do you want?" Froakie asked irritably, turning around to face him.

"I just wanted to talk to you," Hawlucha replied defensively. Honestly, he hadn't even said anything and already Froakie was snapping at him.

"Well, make it quick then, because if you haven't noticed, I'm kind of busy at the moment," the blue frog Pokemon snapped, turning around and aiming another Water Pulse towards a rock.

That was enough for Hawlucha. He'd tried his best to be patient, but now he couldn't take it anymore. No matter what he did, he could never seem to get on Froakie's good side. But why? What had he done so wrong?

"What did I do to make you hate me so much?" he demanded, trying to mask the hurt he was feeling. A thought crossed his mind and he decided to follow it. "You're not still mad at me for what happened during our double battle, are you?"

"No," Froakie replied, still not looking at him. "I'm not mad at you for that."

"Then why?" Hawlucha asked, with eyes threatening to tear, and he tried to stop himself from crying. "Why do you hate me? I've tried everything I can think of to make friends with you, but you reject my efforts every time! I tried being friendly, I tried leaving you alone-what more do you want? Just tell me what I did wrong so I can fix it!"

And it was that moment, seeing the proud fighting and flying-type so broken over his failed attempts at winning the friendship of his teammate, that finally caused the protective barriers Froakie had built up and surrounded himself with to come crashing down.

"I never hated you and I don't," he shouted, startling Hawlucha into silence. "You just don't understand-my whole life, I've been abandoned. The other Froakie at the breeding center attacked me because I preferred to train instead of playing. Then I had nine trainers before Ash, and all of them cast me aside to care for their other Pokemon! Ash is the first one who's ever actually given a crap about me, but even now, I barely have any friends! And I tried too, but no one likes me! Fletchinder is terrified of me, Pikachu thinks I'm okay, but not much more, and everyone else thinks I'm annoying and coldhearted! So I gave up on trying to make friends with the others and decided to just focus on training instead! But now you're here trying to make friends with me, which no one has ever done before! And I didn't know what to do, so I kept trying to push you away, but it's not because I don't like you, because I do, Hawlucha, I do like you, it's just I-I-"

And with that, the first time Froakie had ever let his guard down around anyone, Hawlucha found his heart twisting with pity and affection for the young Pokemon standing in front of him, who was so young yet had been through more than anyone should ever have to go through. Almost instinctively, he wrapped him in a comforting embrace. Froakie stiffened for a moment, but eventually relaxed.

"I'm sorry," he sighed.

"I like you," Hawlucha told him. "And I'm not sorry."

"Why, though?" Froakie demanded. "Why do you like me? I've been nothing but horrible to you ever since you joined the team. You know what everyone else thinks of me. I'm nothing but a coldhearted pain in the ass who cares more about training than his own teammates."

"I don't believe you are," Hawlucha told him, looking the frog Pokemon in the eye. "And I'd like to think that you don't either."

"Maybe," Froakie said with a shrug. "You know, you are kind of annoying sometimes, especially when you feel the need to pose every time you're let out of your Pokeball. But you understand when it matters-and that's, like, ninety percent of the time."

"That's awfully nice," Hawlucha told him honestly. "Coming from you. Maybe try that a little more often."

Froakie rolled his eyes. "Don't get used to it," he said jokingly.

Hawlucha chuckled and turned around. He was about to walk away when Froakie suddenly called out, "Wait!"

"What is it?" he asked, turning around again.

Froakie looked down at the ground, seemingly in embarrassment. "I-uh, I suppose I really don't need to spend all afternoon training," he said sheepishly. "You can stay if you want. Maybe we could-I don't know..."

But Hawlucha understood what Froakie was trying to say. "Sure," he agreed, smiling back at him.

Maybe it wasn't an explicit declaration of friendship, but it was something. Something had been formed between them, taking the place of the bitterness and pain. It wasn't something he could put a name to, but Hawlucha knew that he wasn't going to mess up whatever Froakie had given him.