Pikachu laid steadily next to a warm body; their soft fur brushed naturally against his. He took a deep, relaxed breath as he continued sleeping, until, of course, something woke him up.
"Hey. Hey, kids. Wake up," said a familiar strict, savvy voice.
He looked up, a bit annoyed, but also excited for he knew what was to come; so his frown immediately turned into a characteristic smile.
Seeing the 'kid' was awake now, the Leafeon turned around, carelessly.
"Eevee? You up?" he asked the Pokémon next to him.
"I woke a while ago, but I didn't want to disturb you. Had a good night sleep?" she answered, smiling weakly.
He immediately noticed. "What about you? You look... um, a tad tired, maybe?" he stated.
She tiredly rubbed her big brown eyes. "I couldn't sleep yesterday..." She was interrupted by her own yawn. "I was too一"
"Excited?!" Pikachu's ears rose up with said feeling.
"No... worried."
"Huh, why?! There's nothing to worry about! After all, the Queen's going to help us!" he chirped, turning his whole body upside down with energy.
Eevee gave him a slightly pitiful, compassionate look.
"She will help?! Right...?" he asked, the last sliver of hope in his voice.
Queen Nymphia, who was sitting straight ahead next to 'Commander' Leafia, shook her head. "Nope, this is something you'll fight off completely by yourselves, Cheese!" She smiled warmly.
"Cheese...?" Pikachu unknowingly thought aloud.
"Hey, 'Pikachu' is a pretty common name. Let me give you some individuality, dear! Only humans call Pokémon by their species name!" She puffed out her chest. "So pathetic."
"Hey...! What about me?!" Eevee yelled, but was ignored.
He just kept staring at her with an exasperated look. "Oh, I do have name. And madam, it's NOT Cheese," he said in his thoughts. Pikachu let the subject go. "Hey, look ahead! I can see it!"
"That's exactly why you needed to wake up, Chizu," Leafia stated, face blank.
"Is that... is that 'cheese' in Japanese?!" Pikachu hollered, now quite angry. "Is that going to be my new nickname or something一"
"I can see it, too!" Eevee ignored the name-calling; she was too tired to deal with it anyway.
"Eevee, if you're exhausted, just tell me," Pikachu told her concernedly. "You need your full senses to fight off any dangerous Pokémon."
"I-I'm okay..." She waved him off, way too slowly. "No worries..."
After a few minutes, the swimming Lapras finally reached shore.
The beach. It held quite a handful of people but they didn't seem to mind the flock of Pokémon who had just arrived on one of the strangest travelling ways possible.
The critters quickly jumped down from the giant sea creature; they had slept (well, not for Eevee), and travelled by it, so it looked pretty darn tired, which Leafia noted.
"Your Majesty and I will be forced to stay around and find a place for Lapras to rest. So we can harbor next morning, however, we won't follow you," the Leafeon told the Eevee and Pikachu.
"But if there's an emergency, don't doubt to search for us! Eevee, dear, you know how to use the Call Light, right?" the elder asked.
"Yup..! I... practiced... all night..." She almost fell asleep, but when Pikachu snapped his fingers, she went full awake again. "Hehe, no prob."
"Al... right," Nymphia answered, looking at her granddaughter strangely. "See you later, kids."
"Bye!" both cried out before sprinting away. When they dissappeared, a crucial question popped in the Sylveon's mind.
"You gave them the map, right?"
Leafia turned to her, with an extremely unusual worried face. "...Oh."
× × ×
"Okay! Where to go first?" Pikachu asked with a positive outlook, after they went very far away from the beach.
"Let me take out the map," Eevee searched inside her small backpack.
Silence enveloped her.
"What? What's wrong?" the mouse asked, his plastered smile not leaving.
"We're lost," Eevee said plainly.
Pikachu wanted to scream. But no, Ash wouldn't do that... think like Ash. Be Ash.
"No worries! Let's just find the nearest Eeveelution! They must know about a whole forest dedicated to them, right?!" he said, carefree.
They weren't exactly surrounded by Eevees, and Jolteons, and Vaporeons... not even Pokémon in general...
"How is this possible?!" Eevee cried. "This is Kanto! Everyone's favorite region! The main region! How... how isn't it crowded to death right now?!"
She was already losing her calm, so Pikachu laid an assuring paw on her shoulder. "Let's keep positive. This is probably just a small deserted area of the town. I bet further down, it's flooding with Pokémon and people."
"It may be...?" Eevee blushed. "But which direction should we go?"
"Huh... when in doubt, just... listen to your heart!" he improvised, nervously.
"Hmm." Eevee took his advice to heart. Literally.
"My heart says..." She dipped her face inside her fluffy fur collar. "This way!" She pointed at the left street.
"Nice~" Pikachu complimented her with a smug expression.
"No prob. My Grandma gave me the same advice a while earlier!" Eevee shrugged, before the two ran away.
~ ~ ~
Hours of walking from their last point, and by far they had only seen a few people, and some Rattata and Pidgey.
Something was definitely wrong, or Eevee's heart just liked messing with her.
Pikachu let out a deep sigh of desperation, though trying to keep his plastered grin.
It was kind of creepy.
"I'm sorry," the Evolution Pokémon muttered, ashamed.
"Hey, I was the one who suggested it. I have no right to compla一"
He interrupted himself. "W-wait a minute! I smell something! Something..." He sniffed again, this time deeply. "...Familiar!"
"The bad or the good kind of familiar?!" Eevee beamed.
"The ugly... I guess?" He shrugged. "Follow me!"
They both ran until they got to a seemingly abandoned building, but all Pikachu wanted to do was turn the corner around it, which consisted of an alley, trash cans around.
Eevee had no idea what Pikachu supposed to find in such an environment, though she had to admit, the smell was familiar for her as well, maybe more now that she realized.
They heard rustling between the used boxes and cans: something was definitely there.
A Pokémon.
They waited in suspense before a bushy, dark grey, small tail rose from the trash.
"It's..." Pikachu awaited for comfirmation, and when he finally got it, he wished Eevee and him had just tossed luck out the window and ran back crying to Leafia and the Queen.
"Oh. Zorua," he muttered, an extremely annoyed face replacing his previous fake smile.
"Rat!" the Dark-type growled with spite, seemingly surprised himself.
He jumped onto the mouse and started nibbling into his ear "menacingly".
Pikachu seriously wondered what he did to deserve seeing Zorua again instead of, literally, anyone else.
Eevee was really confused, indeed. Her mind told her she knew this Pokémon but she couldn't bring herself to actually wonder how in the world she had met someone who calls others 'rats' and bites their ears.
Confusing, indeed.
"Um... could you stop?" Pikachu brought himself to ask. "Please...?"
Zorua spat before responding. "Whatever. What the heck are you doing here?! I thought I would never have to see you or that pesky girl ever again!"
"Ooh, believe me. I thought I was the one to be angry," Pikachu responded, livid electricity coming out of his cheeks.
Zorua immediately backed down, but instead of out of fear, he prepared to tackle the mouse, starting a fight.
The two males squirmed one way to the other, clawing into each other's skin (well, fur).
Just as Zorua used Bite on Pikachu again, Eevee jumped between the two. "Hey, stop!" she cried. "This isn't even a battle! You guys stop fighting!"
Zorua's sharp glare met her eyes.
"...Please?" she added, shyly.
He spat again. "Ugh, fine! Who do you think you are anyways?" he growled.
Pikachu had a feeling that since that accident Zorua despised Eevees as a complete race.
"I'm... his partner. We're travelling together!" She held unto her growing courage, facing him. "And he's my friend so stop biting him!"
He kept staring at her eyes for a while before turning around, a smirk on his face. "So you aren't intimidated, huh?"
"You're just a mean bully, there's no reason to be scared of you." She pouted, then turned to her yellow friend. "C'mon, Pikachu, let's go一"
Zorua jumped in front of her. "Hey, hey! Wait a minute there!"
Pikachu started growling menacingly again. "Leave. Her. Alone."
The fox just waved him off with his paw, nonchalantly. "I just want to talk now," he stated. "Aren't you guys lost? You should be more thankful you encountered someone who knows around the place..."
He got closer to the Eevee. "Especially the place you specifically want to go to."
She squirmed away. "W-what? How do you一"
"How do you know?!" Pikachu snarled.
"Easy. You guys are so easy to read," he said, calmly, something particularly strange from him.
He cackled. "I should be a Psychic-Type, shouldn't I?"
Pikachu just stood in front of Eevee, shielding her without realizing it. After a deep breath, Eevee asked, "You could take us to Eeveelution Camp?"
"Gladly. Unlike Pikachu here, I haven't forgotten that path."
"Alright, thanks for the offer, but we'll一"
Eevee and Pikachu exchanged doubting glances. They were desperate.
But Pikachu considered situations like this called for desperate measures, so, going back to Queen Nymphia and Leafia, but Eevee had different plans.
"Take us there, please," Eevee interrupted him.
Zorua smirked. "My pleasure, lady."
Pikachu couldn't do anything but facepaw. Just what had she gotten them into...?
Unlike him, a satisfied grin took over Eevee's face: she had found a way to find the camp! While extremely tired, without a map, and without worrying her Grandma! She would be proud.
"Follow me!" the dark fox said before running ahead from them into the street.
Eevee shrugged at her friend, before going behind their leader, and Pikachu let out the least 'Ash Ketchum-like' sigh he'd ever heard.
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