Alola

Normally battle always excited her, regardless of if Batuan sent her out or not.

The intensity of calls, the rush or excitement and fear as they turned, it was thrilling.

She had never understood why humans liked to watch battles that would never involve them before, but it was something she had figured out ever since she met him.

They mattered for how their goal of proving themselves worthy of the Royal Knights of Alola. Or, as they had talked (as much as they could), about the possible new goal of entering that international tournament they had heard rumor of.

The fact that the second could easily lead into the first, from what they had been told, was quite appealing to them both.

And yet, this fight wasn't really exciting her. It was frustrating her.

"Detect!"

Not because of what Batuan was doing. It was sound strategy, having Sneasel's eyes flash blue and leap out of the way before the Dugtrio rose up from the ground, blond locks flailing in the air as the attack missed.

"Get back under..."

"Use Blizzard and freeze the ground!"

It wasn't because she disagreed with that call. She wouldn't have done it personally, a Dugtrio could easily break through the ice and go underground.

She could see what he was going for with it, and she could also see him take the call and use it to his advantage. The ice had creeped far beyond the hole Dugtrio had made after all, and Sneasel was then ordered to skate on the ice.

Dugtrio's next few attack were thus avoided by the speed and the distorted detection the ice caused.

The problem was that this was a fight she felt like he would have sent her in, but had been avoiding for a while now.

And she didn't know why.

"Brick Break before it gets away!"

Sneasel struck Dugtrio before it could slink away, and that was the fight. What followed was the customary 'you fought well' handshake humans liked: both the arms holding their Z-Gauntlets clinking together before the opponent ran for a healer.

Batuan rapidly rubbed the inner corner of his face, as he was want to do when he was a bit embarrassed.

"Well, that wasn't my best showing. Thought that ice would have slowed them down, but it worked out somehow."

"Stee."

It would have worked out better if you had used her instead. No offense to Sneasel, but she was stronger and had far more experience battling Pokémon that liked digging.

Batuan and Sneasel exchanged surprised looks, apparently caught off by her tone. Sneasel, face grimacing, gestured to his Pokéball.

Reluctant as he seemed to be, he obliged, and found himself alone with her as if he feared it. Or perhaps, just this particular conversation.

This wasn't some accidental mishap after all.

"Steenee, is something the matter?"

She doubted he needed to ask what was bothering her, but he was clearly hoping it was something else.

She would be disappointing him.

"Stee, steenee!"

It was times like this she wished that humans and Pokémon could actually share a language clearly between themselves. Humans always missed something in translation, no matter how smart they were.

"Did you want to battle? I know you did, but you know that everyone needs some experience. Sneasel, Scizor, and Electabuzz need to have battles too. Especially Electabuzz, but a Dugtrio's a bit of a bad matchup for him so..."

She thrust both her hands at him, wishing she had fingers.

Still she could still make a point about 'two'.

Like the two weeks he had been avoiding having her battle anything.

"Two weeks? Has it really been that long?"

She glared at his attempt to play dumb.

That was not something he was good at.

She could feel herself approaching a breakthrough, and Batuan was acting like it was something to be avoided. Like that human 'taxes' thing.

"...Say, I heard that the Malasada place is finally getting fixed up today. Let's go."

She loved malasadas, but Batuan did not. He was trying to change the subject. To bribe her to drop it.

"Stee!"

She turned around and darted into the brush. Well aware that Batuan couldn't keep up even without the bushes in the way.

"Steenee please come back! Steenee!"

Her eyes felt wet at the tone in his voice, but she did not stop.

...

Three hours later, and he was still down a starter Pokémon.

Down a friend.

His legs were scratched up and red, his legs nearly torn up as his heart.

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He was probably only not crying because he could feel the judging glare of an village elder on him, even on an entirely different island. Such things stuck to you like Spinarak webbing.

He could only stare at the reflection of himself in the water, and doing so only seemed to make him angrier at himself.

"DAMN IT!"

He slammed a dangling foot into the water, shattering his reflection and soaking his left foot quite wet.

He was such an idiot!

Of course she'd notice. She was smart, smarter than he was.

He could have just said something. He could have talked to her. But no, he had to keep it in.

Like tears, and look what that got them.

He felt someone come up behind him, and he looked behind himself to see who it was.

He didn't recognize her, though a part of his brain seemed to react to her.

...The way he phrased that made it sound like he was talking about hormones, and she was attractive. A slim pale body, shoulder length purple hair, a casual purple and black dress that left her arms and shoulders exposed.

But it wasn't the fact she was an attractive girl (probably a few years older than he was, at nineteen or twenty if he'd have to guess) that was making him feel something. It was the feeling that he had seen her somewhere before.

Maybe a relative? Was she related to a Kahuna? Her dress looked to be something simple, but not cheaply so, if that made any sense.

It probably didn't, he was pants at clothing, up to and including his own pants.

"You want to talk?"

The way she talked had a different air to it than he heard among most other people. Perhaps she was related to a Kahuna, and one of the more uptight ones. Maybe some government figure he knew the face of.

"You won't go away unless I do, will you?"

She smiled, displaying specter-white teeth.

He avoided a reflexive sigh.

"My starter and I had a fight. She's a Steenee, we met back outside my home village years ago. She was so small then as a Bounsweet, and my mom's Persian tried to chew on her."

She nodded before noticing his legs.

"A Steenee couldn't do that. Magical Leaf would have left larger cuts. She ran off."

Odd how she knew that, but he had no idea who she was after all. It was no smoking gun to say who she was however: it could be for either a Kahuna relative or the child of the Medical Minister.

"This was the brush, not her. She ran away because..."

He found the reasoning sticking to his tongue, not wanting to get out.

"Because..."

It just sounded so stupid, so childish.

"You can say it. I won't judge."

He doubted that. Most people didn't understand these things, and that included minister families. Unless she was a Kahuna's kin, but he was starting to lean against that.

He knew what the Kahunas looked like, she did not resemble any of them.

"Its because, I didn't want to have her evolve."

The expected questioning about power or strength did not come. She looked at him with curiosity, but not in a 'why would you not want to evolve' sort of way.

"Normally it is the other way around. Pokémon wish to stay as they are, not the humans. Did she want to evolve and you rejected the idea?"

"I don't know."

She looked at him in confusion, perhaps not sure where this was going.

"I'm scared of what would happen to us if she did evolve. You know what Steenee evolves into?"

"Tsareena."

He nodded.

"Yeah, the Pokémon that kicks things it disdains into a bleeding pulp. Thugs, the unbathed, intruders, and trainers who give dumbass orders in battle. Guess what, I'm a dumbass."

He flinched as she put her hands on his shoulders, as if to comfort him.

"Don't be so hard on yourself."

He resisted the urge to force her hands off his shoulders. He may not want to talk, but he didn't want to be harassed by 'daddy' or something.

"You clearly have never seen me battle. Every battle I seem to make some dumb call. Ever try and freeze a Dugtrio in place?"

"You have a Z-Power Gauntlet. They don't give those to the average fool, or let one keep it. I also see you have crystals. That's hard work and determination and some smarts if I ever knew it, and I happen to be quite good at knewing."

The light tone she had was oddly laced with a confidence that made her words no idly praise, as from a mother. It was more sincere than that.

If just as bad as grammar. 'Knewing' was not an actual word.

"Tsareena are prideful Pokémon, that is true. Their pride can make them lash out, and that can hurt. Not just physically, but emotionally. One such incident did create the great native poetry of Queen Uulani's reign, if you could call twelve volumes of depressed poetry great in any case. But it isn't just Tsareena that are like that. So are the Lycanroc who draw their power from the night. The Midnight Lycanroc are just as prideful, and have turned on trainers for the same reasons. They just use their claws and fangs instead of their legs. Do you know why they aren't making people worried?"

He shook his head.

"Because people train Rockruff early. They are many trainer's starters, many people's life companions, to every one of them dear friends. Pokémon change when they evolve, but they don't forget bonds. Your Steenee is the same. She might change, she might even find your mistakes more annoying. But she won't forget you, or the times you had. Pokémon and Trainers can fight, but that is the same as everyone. Bonds can be reforged when the damage is not severe, and this isn't severe in the slightest. You two can get through this, and regardless of what you two decide, you will be better for it."

"Yeah, if I can find her. She could be anywhere."

She giggled at this.

"Oh, I am sure she's somewhere."

With that odd tone to her voice she let go of his shoulders and began walking away, whistling a merry tune.

She snapped her fingers, and he saw something move in the trees. A purplish shadow, distinct from the shadows the tree projected itself.

He reached for his Pokéballs, seeing a ghost type ready to pounce at him, and something was sent his way.

"Stee!"

Steenee, flung out of the tree by purple hands. Which hands he didn't quite catch, as the shadows slunk from the tree and into the shadow of the still merrily whistling girl.

A girl who was a bit more than some bureaucrat's progeny, yet not a Kahuna's.

"Stee?"

He was torn away from that mystery to the look on Steenee's face. It was no longer one of anger, but it was a look that made it clear they would need to talk some more.

An eavesdrop was not enough.

"Take a seat."

He patted the space next to him and she plopped down, her gaze drawn to his beat up legs.

A gasp of shock later and a green mist began to leak from her palms, bathing his legs in healing fragrance.

Part of the worry in his core ebbed away with the loss of the pulsating winces that shook him from the scratche fi.

"So, you know what Tsareena are like, right Steenee?"

...

Two months later and he found himself in a malasada shop, though without any of the pastries in hand.

They had a pretty good coffee business, so that was what he sipped as his partner had her own malasadas.

"Well, that was harder than it should have been. We won, but it was no thanks to all of my 'bright' ideas. So, you feel a desire to kick my face in for being an idiot?"

His partner put her malasada down slowly and looked him right in the eye.

"Tsar."

His evolved partner and himself were quiet for a moment, before both burst into uncontrollable laughter. Both glad they weren't eating or drinking the moment the laughter got out.

The chuckling eventually died down, and they resumed their victory treats, no sound in the store beyond the televisions playing in the corner.

"...and in further news, rescue efforts for those affected by the Akala mudslides enter their third day. The cost of recovery is now believed to have been slightly overestimated, but a hundred residents will find that little comfort. Talk is already underway of using this surplus in assisting in temporary housing while rebuilding efforts are underway. The Queen's personal efforts in assisting the afflicted are still ongoing."

He caught the television in the corner of his eye, and at the sight of their purple haired queen comforting a crying old woman while a few dozen Ghost-types poured out of a crooked house with various items he wasn't as fortunate as before.

Thus coffee was spat right into the face of his partner, who was now legitimately glaring at him and not in a joking way.

At her annoyance he pointed, sheepishly, at the screen, which now was interviewing the queen.

"A Queen is no different from a police officer or doctor, their first duty should always be to helping her people..."

He didn't need to be looking at her to see her annoyance give way to shock.

"Reen?"

He nodded in agreement.

It was shocking, the idea that the person who had come out and helped them in their spat was the Queen of Alola herself.

He probably should be worried he couldn't recognize his head of state, even if she was in disguise.

End