The Friendly Battle & Other Pokemon One-Shots

Seven Kids at the Beach

Branwen comes over the rise, and her heart drops to her feet.

There's some trainer and some bulbasaur already on the sand below.

Ugh. She came all the way out here because she was trying to avoid this sort of harassment. They'd just wanted a day at the beach. And maybe that's stupid of her, but it's the middle of a heat wave and Baltasar's over his latest batch of pneumonia and Brighid's never even seen the ocean before and...

It's just not fair.

The boy only has one pokeball, so, maybe Brighid could win the obligatory battle without getting too hurt and then they'd be left alone. But it's not fair to rely on Brighid that way, and if anything goes wrong... even the thickest trainer knows what it means when someone can't recall 'their' pokemon. Then Brighid's back with the asshole and Branwen's in jail and they put Baltasar down saying he'll be better off like everyone's always telling her.

And it wouldn't be right, either. The bulbasaur is actually playing down there like they're just a regular kid. A previous visitor must've forgot a set of sand-castle molds, and they're moving their vines about to build a tower, focusing on it like it's the only thing in the world. And she can see the speed in their movements, way faster than a normal bulbasaur, and the bulb on their back is a green so deep it's almost black. It's so sadly obvious they're some poor champion-bred pokemon belonging to the sort of sociopath who'd buy one, and as soon as the trainer sees her they're back to being that and just that.

"Sorry, guys," she whispers. "Let's keep going, maybe we'll find somewhere else."

She starts to turn and not a second too soon, it seems, because yet another trainer has just ridden in on a staryu, his hair dyed an attention-seeking neon green. "Hey!" the newer arrival shouts. "I didn't think I'd find anyone all the way out here. I'm Enos! Let's battle!"

There's no response. "Huh?" the neon-haired Enos says after a bit, then, "You can't just refuse a challenge!"

She glances back over her shoulder. Enos is crumpling a piece of paper and chucking it into the ocean while the first boy is scribbling in a notebook and shaking his head. His bulbasaur has retreated to press against his legs. The first boy tears the paper off and holds it out, only for Enos to try to smack it out of his hand. The first boy, for all he's a foot taller, flinches back so badly he stumbles and almost falls on his butt.

"What's your problem?" Enos demands. "You're a trainer; you have to battle!"

The boy shakes his head harder and slurs out, "O, ro."

She doesn't understand what's so bad about some kid having trouble speaking, but the other boy looks at him now like he's not fit to be scraped off the bottom of a shoe. "You," Enos hisses. "You're..."

She pulls Baltasar out of the papoose and then Branwen alone is skidding down the side of the rocks as Enos shoves the bulbasaur's trainer, hard. The first boy goes toppling back and then Branwen's fist connects with the newcomer's face. "No means no, jackass!" she shouts.

"But - that's - look -" the jackass babbles, and actually points behind her like he thinks she'll be on his side and just didn't realize what was happening.

"Get the hell out of here," she orders. "Or I'll break your jaw."

And he does. Thank god for cowards. Once she's really sure he's actually retreated she turns back to the first boy.

He's still on the ground, hugging his bulbasaur like they're a lifeline and breathing so fast she thinks he might pass out. For their part, the bulbasaur is tense and growling, wordless she'd guess, looking like they expect she's going to punch him next.

"Are you okay?" she asks, like she can't clearly see he isn't. She doesn't know what else to say, though. Branwen doesn't really know how to talk to other humans. She's been talking to the nurses and doctors at pokecenters for half her life, and it's still a crapshoot if she can get them to hand over the right medications for Baltasar or if she has to break in later and then skip town again.

Maybe she should just go...?

But then the boy seems to realize she's spoken to him and comes out of it a little. He grabs his dropped notebook and flips to the back, holding it out so she can read, 𝓘'𝓶 𝓼𝓸𝓻𝓻𝔂, 𝓘 𝓱𝓪𝓿𝓮 𝓪 𝓼𝓹𝓮𝓮𝓬𝓱 𝓲𝓶𝓹𝓮𝓭𝓲𝓶𝓮𝓷𝓽 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓬𝓪𝓷'𝓽 𝓽𝓪𝓵𝓴.

"That's okay?" she says even more awkwardly. Kind of obvious, really.

The boy nods and begins to write frantically. He holds out a sheet with, 𝓣𝓱𝓪𝓷𝓴 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓯𝓸𝓻 𝓱𝓮𝓵𝓹𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓾𝓼. 𝓘'𝓶 𝓿𝓮𝓻𝔂 𝓼𝓸𝓻𝓻𝔂 𝓯𝓸𝓻 𝓬𝓪𝓾𝓼𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓽𝓻𝓸𝓾𝓫𝓵𝓮.

"I would've got in trouble one way or another," she says. "Uh. Is it okay if we share this beach for a bit? We all really wanted to visit the ocean, but there's just trainers everywhere around. And like, if we say we fought each other already maybe the next person will leave us alone." Probably not, but hey, it's worth a try at least.

The boy nods and smiles up at her, timid but apparently sincere.

She looks up toward Baltasar, waiting at the top for her to carry him down safely. Baltasar points up at his head and wiggles both ears, then down at the two of them. She looks down again and.

Oh.

Oh.

And she thought her life sucked.

"So I uh," she stammers. If she just says something she's just going to make it worse. The boy will run for it or just have a heart attack on the spot. Maybe she should just pretend she didn't notice, that she doesn't know.

But...someone just swam up. Anyone else could come by. His hair's so thick and curly they're almost hidden but. Well. Almost is just a nicer way of saying aren't.

"I'm um. Not a trainer, exactly," she tries. "Like I don't. Have any extra pokeballs. Couldn't catch a pokemon if I wanted to. Which, I don't. Uh." In a burst of hopefully-not-going-to-bite-her honesty she continues, "I've only got Baltasar's actually, Brighid's is a couple towns away if, um, you know what I mean."

The boy now looks at least as baffled as he is anxious.

"So. Um." She holds up both hands and tries her absolute best to look nonthreatening for all the good it would do. She looks to Brighid. Maybe it'll be better to hear it from a pokemon?

Brighid looks just as uncomfortable as Branwen feels. Brighid takes a steadying breath and then blurts out something unintelligibly fast, even when Branwen already has a good idea of what she must be saying.

He drops the notebook and pencil to clap both hands over his ears and then he doesn't have the ears again, just like when she first saw him.

And he just... doesn't do anything, and the bulbasaur is just as dead still in his lap. The silence stretches out until she gives in and says, "So. I'm Branwen." She holds out a hand to shake and then realizes he obviously isn't going to want to touch her, not when all it took was a shove to break the illusion and he's just seen she can punch a lot harder than that. How old is he, even? He looks barely younger than her but those were zorua ears, not zoroark. So she's standing there frozen, not sure what to do next, but then he does reach out and grasp her hand. She cups her fingers around his carefully, like she does with Baltasar, and he bounces up and down once and then pulls away again. He reaches for a pocket of his bag and pulls out a trainer's license, then pauses, replaces it and retrieves his pencil and notebook from the ground instead. He writes and holds it out.

𝓒𝓪𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓲𝓷𝓮

She finds she can't articulate why that feels like more of a surprise. Silly, really. "Nice to meet you, Catherine."