When I next opened my eyes, I was feeling properly groggy and disoriented. I realized that I was actually laying on my back on something soft, which was unusual. Only now that I found myself in this position did I realize I had never really lay over while in my Ditto form, I mostly just slumped to the ground in a blobby puddle. This orientation just felt very foreign to me, alien, like I had forgotten what it was like to not have my body centered underneath myself. It just didn't feel right! While not to the extent of being a turtle on my back, I definitely wanted to get upright again. I started to jerk upward, before a surprisingly firm hand settled against the front of my body and pressed me back into the bedding.
"Easy there, don't go getting up in a hurry! Everything's being taken care of, so stay in bed. You might be a little wanna-be hero, but now that you're awake I can tell you you're on strict bed rest for at least a day." The voice that spoke to me was slightly high-pitched. While the content of the words sounded stern, it was also rather gentle. It reminded me of a young lady trying to act like a concerned grandmother, just from the tone. I glanced toward the sound, and spotted a figure matching my stare over the edge of an almost comedically-downsized medical bed. It almost looked like a child's playset or something, considering the bed was just correctly sized to settle my roughly foot-tall figure into it, and on some sort of raised counter.
I stared back into oval, bright-blue eyes set in a pink and cream-colored face. Its floppy, ruffled ears flickered as it examined me in return, waiting expectantly for some sort of response. An Audino! So, there's the healing Pokémon I wanted to copy, at the very least. A pair of long, curly feelers dangled from beneath the ears, and one of them was being held in the Pokémon's three-fingered grasp and lightly pressed to my chest like a stethoscope.
"Well? Say something. I've been standing here waiting for you to wake up long enough!" She chided gently, but flashed a smile all the same. "I wanted to say 'thank you' for being the one who jumped forward and took the worst of the beating today. I saw the recording when nurse Joy was showing it to the investigating officers, and you just kept throwing yourself at the danger like a reckless fool!" A gentle, bubbling laughter escaped her as if something about that amused her, and she idly twirled the curly feeler in her hand like an anxious girl playing with her hair after drawing it back from my chest. "If the battle hadn't been kept in the lobby, there's a lot of Pokémon in recovery who could have wound up seriously hurt by stray attacks. So, good job at making sure I didn't have to do any extra work."
The tone she was using as she described my battle earlier was vaguely admiring, and the undertone of warmth as she spoke to me was making me uncomfortable. I... okay, I've never been good with situations like this. She... she was flirting with me, right? Or was she just being naturally playful? I've never even met them before, let alone the fact I had no idea how to react to the fact that it seemed like my Pokémon nurse was flirting with me. It read like a bad sitcom, or a mediocre 'romance' novel, and I just froze up like a Stantler in the headlights.
That only made the smile aimed my way take on a wicked undertone, and the curled feeler in her grasp twitched slightly, "Darn, and I just stopped listening to your pulse a moment ago. I wonder what I might have heard if I had kept listening in just a little longer." The Audino's hand twitched slightly forward, like she was thinking about checking my pulse again despite having just done so.
This time I was the one who gave a weak excuse for a laugh, sounding more nervous than anything else. "No, no, I'm fine, thank you!" I excused myself hurriedly, glancing around the room. I must have been in one of the recovery rooms, and this one seemed to be arrayed for a number of smaller resting areas separated by curtains that could be drawn. I seemed to be the only appropriately-sized Pokémon present to need the room's use, though, so none of them had been drawn and I had full view of the room. I definitely wasn't just looking around to avoid making eye-contact with this mischievous healer Pokémon. "I was just acting without thinking about it, it wasn't anything praiseworthy. The other Pokémon jumped forward to help too, the Rhyhorn and the Sandshrew. If anything, I was mostly just the punching bag that let them finish the battle." I pointed out in order to try and deflect some of the attention. The last thing I wanted was people making a fuss about me!
The Audino clicked her tongue at my remark, and murmured quietly to herself. "And you're a modest one, too." It wasn't soft enough to be trying to avoid being overheard, but it was as if she was merely making a note to herself in my presence, regardless of if I overheard her or not. "They weren't nearly as beat-up as you were. After all, I saw you get the life sucked out of you, then get back up and go all macho on that rampaging Galvantula." She laughed again, and her tone grew marginally gruffer, like she was trying to imitate another's voice. "Take my Giga Impact!" Her arms mimicked a faint echo of the slamming motion I had made as a Pangoro, and I felt color rush to my face as I remembered my antics in the heat of the moment.
"That... oh Arceus, that was on camera?!" I asked with an absolutely mortified expression. I was never going to live that down. The only saving grace was that any of the humans who saw the recording wouldn't be able to tell the things I had been shouting as I attacked... but that didn't mean that their Pokémon present at the time wouldn't know! Not to mention them, if this Audino was a gossipy type, the whole Pokémon Center probably already knew. I covered my face with both hands. "I just wasn't thinking, I wasn't trying to posture!" I insisted.
She nodded her head, grinning brightly. "Oh yes, even if the lights in the room were knocked out by that Electroweb at the start, the security cameras are made out of sterner stuff. They kept running through the whoooole fight. What's wrong? Did you want to be the sort of mysterious savior who does a good deed then vanishes without accepting thanks? I'm sure that you're at least going to get thanked publicly for your contributions, alongside the other Pokémon that leaped in to assist. They just need to figure out exactly what drove that Galvantula crazy before they announce anything officially. Have to let everyone know they have things under control."
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Abruptly, she patted herself on the forehead, like she had come to a realization. "Here I am going on and on when I never got to the most important question: how are you feeling? I've already applied Heal Pulse to you to get some energy back in you, which is probably the only reason you're awake enough to talk right now. If you're still in pain, though, I don't mind giving you further treatment. Mostly, though, you just need rest... hence why I didn't let you get up earlier. On top of that, absolutely no transforming for at least a day! After forcing through a transformation during a moment of weakness like you did, and then using one of the most exhaustive moves right afterward... you're lucky you didn't seriously injure yourself! The only way it would have been worse would be if you tried something like Hyper Beam!"
Under her breath, she continued in a totally separate line of thought. I was noticing that when she spoke at a normal volume, it was strictly professional and complimentary at most. However, she seemed almost wicked when she added something softly, particularly as it was obviously meant to be something for me to 'accidentally overhear'. "It's a shame about that 'no transforming' thing. Otherwise I might wonder what you'd look like transformed into an Audino, yourself..." That warm, more-than-vaguely flirting undertone returned, and she giggled again. You stop that! The way her demeanor could shift from caretaker to... I don't even know how to describe it. A predator? The way she stared intently at me sure seemed to be predatory, in a way that made me squirm in place and my mouth go dry.
Nope! I'm not even going to consider a response to that! Just let the comment lie there like a sleeping Dragonite, something too terrifying to disturb or address. "Y-yeah, understood! I'm actually not feeling that bad, so I don't think I need any more healing. Even so, I won't do any transforming until I get a clean bill of health from the medical staff!" I stammered slightly in my haste to agree, almost wielding the excuse like a paper shield toward her remarks.
The pouting face that the Audino put on almost seemed disappointed by my declaration of obedience to the doctor's orders, but it vanished just as quickly as it appeared. "Alright then. Oh, and your trainer should be stopping by sometime in the near future. As far as I know, she and the other trainers should have finished speaking to the police by now, so I'll run off and let her know that you're awake!" The Audino made a pointing gesture toward the side of the bed, where there was a singular button dangling from the side of the bed. "If you need anything, hit the call button, and I'll come on back to see what you need..." Somehow, she even made that remark sound like she was flirting with me, and I merely nodded my head that I understood as she turned to leave.
Once the Audino was out of sight, I sighed heavily and dropped my head back against the bedding. That had almost been as tiring as the actual battle had been! How was I supposed to react to that? You'd think that I had picked up the move Attract somewhere along the way with the stares that I had been getting from her, but I was pretty certain I hadn't. While this was the first time that I had encountered something like this, I was worried about the fact that this might be an 'issue' that I needed to address more in the future. I'll just have to be firm and steady, like a lone mountain! Nothing will shake me! I'm not looking for a relationship, or anything! I'll be a single Ditto forever!
At that moment, the door opened again, and I almost leapt up in fear that Audino had somehow read my intent and turned around just to taunt me some more. Impossible, I know, they aren't one of the telepathic-capable species... right? When I saw it was just Mable entering, I relaxed again.
"You really don't learn your lessons when it comes to battling, do you, Ditto? I swear, you jump into every problem like you're going to get through it on nothing but determination and good luck!" She approached the spot I lay, "This time, though, you jumping in like that really saved me. You jumped in to act before anyone else did, and you were careful to shield me from that attack. Honestly, I froze up in the moment. I didn't know what to do. For once, you being too impulsive to know what fear is was really a saving grace."
A squeak came from Mable's jacket pocket, and I saw the chubby, yellow face of Dedenne peek out from inside and stare at me with wide-eyed adoration, "You looked really cool when you jumped forward like that! You weren't scared at all!" I hadn't even realized where he was, but I was glad that he was safe, too, even if he had hidden away. It wasn't like he would have been able to do much to assist in that fight, anyway.
"Not scared? Are you kidding me? If I hadn't been a rock-type at the time, I'd have been shivering in fear too much to move!" I retorted with a small grin, waving at Dedenne.
Mable noticed our interaction, and reached down to pat a finger atop Dedenne's head, which he didn't object to. If anything, his eyes closed in a display of pleasure. The pair of them really seemed to get friendly quickly, considering he was all but a stray that we had bumped into by chance earlier. While I didn't want to be hopeful about it, if Dedenne turned out to be a battler more than he looked, maybe he could wind up a teammate? If not, I'd be happy to just have another energetic face join us on the pasture. "Yes, your new little friend's doing just fine, too, Ditto. As you can see." Mable commented. "Nurse Joy suggested we leave you here overnight so they can oversee your recovery after that battle. I'm inclined to listen to the professionals on this one, so just behave, please. I know it doesn't come easy to you, but for once just lay around and relax, don't do anything. Alright?"
I nodded my head, and Mable just stared at me like she didn't believe me. "Alright. Well, it's getting late and Bibi's going to be worried sick. I said I'd be back by dinner, but we've already missed that. You were out for a couple hours. I'm going to head home, and bring Dedenne back to the pasture with me. I'll pick you up tomorrow." I nodded again to reassure her before she finally turned to the door and left, leaving me alone in the medical room. It was just one night in a Pokémon Center. How much trouble could I get into in one night?