"You know sooner or later you got to get her used to the ball." a vine had whipped across the air to bluntly knock the cup right out of Sharon's grasp. At first she was confused then so quickly aware and panicked before the weighted plastic met with the carpet and spilled all of its contents in a thorough soak. "Ugh-Wren!" the smooth green vine had retracted not as quickly back to its owner who hid behind the corner of the couch the young woman had been sitting on. She knew full well the Pokemon wanted her to know it had done that, not that there would have been any doubt in that apartment when it came down to one single mischief maker. When Blain had wandered in from the kitchen with a brow raised, the scene before him was a heavy reminder why they seldom kept anything fragile around. "You know she doesn't like being talked about in third person when she's in the same room." The Chikorita snickered from the corner, her red eyes watching as Sharon dabbed at the carpet with some napkins. Blain raised his head and snapped his finger with a sigh "Come on Wren, we've talked about this." the pokemon was forthcoming about pushing out but she reluctantly hopped onto the couch and sat on her corner with her head held high so that the leaf drooped over her face. "You told me she was going to.." Sharon paused her words, scrunching the napkin before getting on her feet once more with the cup. She drew closer to Blain and whispered "You said she would get some discipline training at least. We talked about this yeah?" he handed her his cup and she traded, keeping her eyes on his. Sharon had been a good friend since Blain could remember, and she made for one heck of an interesting roommate too. When she had agreed to move on in with the man she had known for a long while of his unique relationship with his Pokemon. After the last two years though she was slowly losing her mind and it was easy to see that frustration in her eyes. He ran his hands through his short brown hair and let out a soft chuckle as he looked at Wren. "Yeah actually we tried that." he had paused, searching for the right words to choose. "It's been a bit difficult though. I mean finding the time still, and getting a one on one course." her eyes darted between him and the floor, rolling as she kept her voice as a whisper to him. "I know Blain, but seriously I'm getting tired of this. I mean it. I want this to work still but it's getting difficult when she's romping through this place every other night. You let her walk all over you and- we still share here. I've been looking at some of the college dorms. I don't want it to come to that but seriously, just get a hold of her for once okay?" he exhaled and nodded but tried to keep a half smile on his face. "In any case, I think someone owes you a little apology!" The Chikorita watched the man from the corner of her eye up to that time and snapped her head towards him as he neared the couch. She was about to say a few things that came to mind, most topically that she hated it when she was treated as some pet the way the woman would act to her most days, but when she glimpsed the look in his eyes and that quarter of a shaking head she relented with a slight digging of her paws into the cushion. Her cheeks puffed out and Wren muttered, curling her vines in a display as if they were her arms to fold. When she turned to Sharon she closed her eyes and said thusly "Chika." it was better than nothing. Blain laid his back into the couch right next to her with an audible sigh and she scrambled to gain her balance from the sudden weight. Most times they couldn't get a thing from the grass-type and that was usually just because of her pride alone, but the display had some merit in it to please Sharon. "Alright, I forgive you this time you little leafed terror." they both had known she was joking but there was still that semblance of truth in the joke. The two of them hadn't exactly gotten along since the start and that went years and years back. Wren was a feisty little thing with a mind of her own and once she got started it was near impossible to stop. At least that's how it appeared around Blain. It was that kind of tenacity of hers that glued both Blain and Wren together actually and created their rather unusual relationship. "Okay good, we can go on with our lives then!" he said as teasingly as he meant light heartedly, bending forward to grab the remote from the table and switch on the monitor. "Don't suppose you're in the mood for.." he gaged Sharon's expression as she took a sip from the cup then shook her head. "mm-mm, no I actually was going to a club meeting in the next hour. Some of us still do a lot of studying around here, or attempt to for that matter." she said with a smirk and slipped the cup into the empty one he held up as she passed him by. She'd be gone for awhile and the two would have their time by themselves. For now at least the bullet had been dodged but Blain wasn't so sure he could keep that gun from firing again. When the papers had been gathered from around the living room, the books stuffed into her bag that Sharon slung around her shoulder before heading out, he'd felt a great relief and an even greater weight of doubt. "You know you really need to be more fair on her. It's not like she would understand so why make a whole mess about it?" Wren gave a look of disbelief, hopping on the man and spouting out words he could not ever truly understand, at least not intricately. He knew Wren enough to understand she was defensive about the way she acted even if it wasn't proper or well thought out. When she finally had her say he lifted her stubby body back off him and sat her aside. "I'm sure it felt right to you but you're not making it easy on either of us too. Now you promised me you would play nice and at least act a little more friendly. She's halfway out the door already on leaving this place you know. If she does that I don't know where we're going to go with a better arrangement; do you?" she puffed her cheeks once more and sat quietly facing away from him. He hated it when she did that because she could be really stubborn. A part of him was aware that she knew he was right, but that pride of hers made Wren unable to be any less difficult. "Hey..come on." the Chikorita remained silent and motionless. "Wreeen, don't give me the silent treatment." Blain tried to sound soothing and soft but he couldn't hold back a few soft chuckles as he reached out and tickled at the buds on the back of Wren's neck. She arched, bent and tried to avoid his touch but began to chuckle and laugh at his persistence until she rolled onto her back and tried to curl. She wanted to be upset; it made her feel a bit more in control of things, but the two of them had found it hard to keep a consistent semblance of agitation between each other for long. She knew he was a big pushover, but she also knew that he counted on her to have that bit of push back on her too. It was always hard for her to keep the lid on that bottle of restraint when the two of them had spent so many years under different circumstances previously. When she had uncurled and lifted her leaf just enough for her eyes to peak out and meet with his, she sighed and smiled a little. His hand played with her leaf and she quietly felt bad while trying to relax once more. Being out on the road again didn't sound like such a bad thing to her. She missed having the dirt under her paws, being able to run on ahead of Blain and keep on running even when he called out for her as she dove into the swaying fields of tall grass. She missed the forests and how differently they sounded than a city especially at night. She missed when it was just the two of them and things were more than a schedule and playing nice because 'That's the way things are surviving here.' So it made it that much harder for Wren each year they seemed to stay in Loren City. It was convenient enough when the two had decided on visiting and catching up with some of Blain's older friends who had migrated to the area a bit before he transferred but it gave him some sort of idea that maybe things could be better for them there if maybe for a little. She just never thought it would be that long when she went ahead with his idea. The way he talked about it even sounded rather nice to her before the reality set in for the two of them. The kind where she wasn't allowed out on the streets without a trainer, or watching the sky grow dark before the click of the door unlocking would wake her up sometimes at night. He gently tugged on one of her paws and she further uncurled before she strode her way into his lap and let him pet at the smooth green skin of her back. Sharing was not one of Wren's greater graces especially in the confines of an apartment. It was one of the reasons they were there and not somewhere else with different dreams. There were no other Pokemon that Blain had caught because Wren made it an impossible feat for him back when he still had the inclination in him for that kind of adventure. She wasn't even supposed to be with him on the day he had arrived at the Johto transfer station arriving from Kalos. *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* He was quite a bit younger still when she had seen him from the small window in her carrier. Up to that time she was on a transfer out herself. The Chikorita especially then had a pride in her that hadn't yielded the day she was caught off guard and in that same sentiment, caught. Since then she found every which way to escape the confines of whatever Pokeball she would be forced into, and every way to not cooperate with whatever trainer she wound up with. She had become a loner, only meant as a substitute for starting trainers, region travel guarding or even someone like the young man who she watched from the bars. He had been talking to a ranger about the availability for a loner, and the way he spoke was so quaint and different than how others had been previously. She wasn't so sure where they would be taking her from there soon enough. Maybe a training camp, maybe back out into the wild. The more she listened to him though the more her mind began to fill with ideas and plans. She began to ram her head at the lock, wriggled her vines out to yank and pull, push and shove at the bars of the carrier making quite a ruckus before bursting it free. The Chikorita was quick to run across the tiled floors of the office past all the surprised and confused people, the errant halted mid step of others as the Pokemon found the boy out and bounded into his chest knocking him easily to the floor. She chirped excitedly and repeatedly on him before suddenly being grabbed from behind and lifted off by the ranger. "I'm really sorry about that. She's an..unusual case." the older man's grip was firm as she struggled against it, and her vines slapped at his arms hard enough to make that grip of his lesson and let her fall to struggle back onto the boy. He had been laughing, unsure and surprised by her excitability, and when he hugged her she knew he was hers. "She really is unusual. I've never seen such a..a affectionate Pokemon! She wouldn't happen to still be available for lone would she?" the Chikorita looked towards the ranger and could see the surprised expression on his face. "She's never been that way with anyone-" she stuck her tongue out and the ranger just chuckled. "I still wouldn't recommend it but if you really want her.." and the teenager left the station that day completely unaware of what kind of trouble he had accepted. That trouble by the way didn't take long at all to become apparent when she refused, dodged and even found ways to knock back his Pokeball when he would ask her to go inside it. "Come on Wren!" Blain was quick to tire of the antics, would go through the pokedex to see if there had been any notes or even advice on wrangling her. The only thing that seemed to be marked was her name. He had given up towards sundown about the prospect of Wren ever going inside, and the Pokemon celebrated her easily won victory over him with a proud march ahead the two on the forest roads. Wren was absolutely rambunctious but also playful. Blain was a delight to exasperate so easily with her wild antics, the sudden run off the road or dash into the wild grass always had him calling for her hurriedly and it lured a smile across her lips. She could have just kept on going and left him there so many times to wonder her fate and move on, but that look of relief on his face when she always came back was kind of addictive. She didn't know where it came from. Maybe it was how long she had been kept around humans or how quick the boy seemed to just give in, but the idea of wandering alone didn't have that golden appeal as it once had when she was free again but with him. When Blain with his frustrations had settled down in his sleeping bag for the night, The Chikorita found some way to manage her way in too whether he agreed or not. She had a mind of her own and a will that could outlast his let alone the most stern of trainers which he clearly was not. When he kept his back to her, Wren placed her tiny paws on him as if in a hug. She enjoyed the heat and in some smaller way she enjoyed the closeness being next to someone who was getting the idea she was more than just a tool. He was just as unaware of that enjoyment as she was unaware of his when he felt her hug him. Things weren't always so peaceful nor desirable between the two though. There were times that they might be caught off guard by the wild life of the region, the lesser than happy bug-type or two who were so easily disturbed by their crossing ways. Chikorita was quick to act at those times and although her natural abilities were not so critically benefited by her breed, she was fierce enough to show whatever came their way a healthy dose of tackling that was not quite so affectionate as Blain had priorly been acquainted. There was a time she even drove off an aggressive Oddish into the surrounding brush with a growl, and it was enough to have Blain laughing out at her intimidating display. "You really are like my little warrior." he complimented and she felt his hand pet her quivering leaf. The little comment she could do without but after awhile it felt kind of..nice to be appreciated and given the attention for it. As if she really was protecting someone for the first time without being forced to do it. It made her cheeks feel warm and a sweet aroma drift on the air around her. Her demeanor was taken to flipping on a dime however and that mischievous streak was never so far away to remind and haunt Blain that his little warrior was also a little spitfire. For one thing, she didn't listen to a single order he gave her during a fight, and for another..it was a lot of things really! She enjoyed eying his food even when she had already eaten, and would often try to incite some form of retaliation from Blain, good or bad. Wren had a way of getting down into the littlest whims of disturbance whether it was her knocking against his map whenever he was trying to sit and concentrate, or tugging away his pack inch after inch from him with her vines until he just shrugged his arms and gave up. It was hilarious to her but sometimes she felt a bit bad for it and that maybe she would have her way and push too far. He wasn't always so agreeable with her sort of entertainment and the two would even yell at each other when he would grow too frazzled by her energy. It only ever felt worse when he wouldn't say anything at all and just sit there. Eventually though she would yield in some small way, would paw at him and call softly until he looked her way again. He always gave in with a sigh and would stroke the back of her neck. She hope he knew how difficult that was for her to do, and she only had ever done it for him. Eventually however her willingness to further display her protective nature of him gave Blain the initiative to push for battles and in that same breath to capture Pokemon. After more than a couple weeks of travel, it had just been an assumption for Wren that the boy wasn't even interested in other Pokemon and she was okay with that. The Pokemon they did come across had the habit of quickly dashing away or giving up prematurely before taking off in whatever direction they could scramble. When she had been fighting a less than common Sunflora that would not yield, she pushed the battle onward until it could hardly move from the assault. She was confused when she heard that familiar sound of the pokeball expanding, caught sight of it whirling through the air overhead and at the Sunflora. Before it could reach the fallen fighter however her vine met with it first and whipped it away. Blain was just as confused and excitable, trying to toss another one but Wren knocked that away too. "Wren stop!" he was growing agitated with her and she puffed out her cheeks, stomping her paw into the ground and standing between him and the Sunflora. When his arm lowered she could see the disappointment in his expression, and the way he stared at her then was something that never quite left her since. He just collected the pokeballs, stared at the Sunflora then to her and walked away without a word. She had followed him and there was that sinking feeling inside herself that ate away at the Chikorita quickly. At that moment she remembered she was still a loner and that her only purpose was to be a substitute until he caught his first Pokemon, until he found someone better than her that he actually wanted. Did he just simply put up with her all that time because he was patient enough to wait her out before sending her away again? She felt sick for having let her guard down and for thinking that there was some sort of adventure meant for only him and her. The two had fought that night when she couldn't take the silence and the growing feelings around the campfire. That weakness she had allowed inside herself that so easily made her feel any sense of bonding to Blain. She just yelled at him and tried not to look as weak as she felt. Didn't know what else to do, and he stood there yelling back at her. "I don't even know what you want from me! All you ever do is cause trouble and harass me every single day! You won't even let me catch a Pokemon! Why don't you just do us both a favor and finally do something if you're this determined to make my life a living hell! Go inside your pokeball, run away! I'm- I'm just done, Wren!" and his words cut into her far more viciously than any attack she had ever received. It was like something had snapped inside him that made every moment they shared up to that time a faded void completely removed from reality, and then something snapped in her too. She threw herself on him and knocked him to the ground, shrieking at the struggling teenager as she tried to claw at him. Her vines had spiraled through the air and whipped at him wherever she could find and it all happened so very fast. He didn't throw her off or hit her, and in their hearts they both knew she could have hurt him so much more than she was trying to. Her claws just dug into his jacket, and her vines bluntly smacked against him. They were both angry and tired, confused and lost in that struggle that seemed to go nowhere and felt like an eternity. When the vines had receded back into her neck and the two were left panting, Blain could see the tears dripping off her cheeks and onto him. She was quick to try bolting away from him, kicking at his stomach to back away and run into the night but his grip tightened on her. "..I'm sorry." he panted out and kept trying to restrain her. "I'm sorry, Wren." she just sort of gave up there and collapsed further on his chest, shivering and shuddering as she cried. He cried too actually and kept saying he was sorry; for the words, for the way he acted. *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* "I'm sorry.." one of her eyes lazily opened and she murmured as she stretched further across his lap in the apartment. She was so relaxed that she fell asleep for half a minute, maybe more or maybe less. "For the finger snapping I mean. Had to give Sharon some sort of sign you aren't all that uncontrollable you know." she giggled and sighed then rolled onto her back to look up at him. He was looking back and Blain's expression was tired but soft. Most days he would be working at one of the Gym's as a pass advisor and schedule administrator, and granted the titles sounded fancy but they certainly didn't pay it. He worked a lot of hours for the both of them, and in many ways Blain did it especially for the Chikorita but he had grown deep in that web of responsibility that came with domestication. It was hard making minimum wage and surviving a growing culture that thrived on expense, and things just sort of turned out that Sharon being a student was looking for a few expense breaks of her own around the time. He also knew that Wren didn't care for the idea. She had bared with him when they lived far less comfortably but even with the higher than standard accommodations of their newer living location he would catch glimpses of her staring out a window and it certainly wasn't at the city. She was still so ever as rambunctious as evident by the damp spot on the carpet from the previously fallen drink, but a larger part of the Chikorita had grown a further calm through the years. At first Blain considered that Wren was simply growing tame over time but he understood more when her leaf was not raised so high and her high strung demeanor became more of whispers through the days. It was silly to him that he kind of missed the way she used to be, raising all forms of hell and running circles around him. It was also saddening. For awhile he had thought about leaving with her again. Maybe like a vacation or maybe something more. Sharon had depended on him though and their friendship meant a lot to him too. He knew Wren went along with him though, and she showed a patience he had never seen in her before up until then. He had those flights of fancy still, even now as he stroked at her cheek and soon her stomach. That sense of longing of the two of them just walking out the apartment door and leaving to someplace, any place. She squirmed on his lap and shivered; his touch had been electrifying to her especially then and it made her little heart beat faster as she grew less relaxed in a different way. Her paws felt for his hand and when they took hold she brought it to her face once more. She drew her tongue across his fingers before giving a soft kiss to them, and her saliva had that strange cooling affect on his skin. She was frustrated in a lot of ways and this was not the first time she had shown such openly affection with him, but she also knew things were very much different for them now than it had been in the past, and it had been awhile since she had shown that boldness to tease him again. It had been springtime and Blain was more than acquainted with the knowledge of her yearly desires let alone needs. It didn't quite so dawn upon him until then though that she might be further disagreeable from being so pent up especially with another female being around to agitate her. Blain just sort of fell into the habit, no matter how silly it sounded, of forgetting she was a Pokemon at all and that she could still act like one when she wanted to or was driven to being in this case. He just smiled, felt that stirring in his heart as he began to chuckle and stroke her cheek again from her sudden display. She puffed her cheeks then blew air up at him softly, enough for him to close his eyes and when they opened again she was bracing her front paws against his chest. She stared into his eyes with a strange little smile across her face that was uncertain. He knew she was asking permission and she didn't have to. Not when they were alone like this and with each other. She leaned forward and pressed her lips to his own. It was enough to make the man melt from how gentle she was being, and maybe he truly was strange for it but he missed that feeling she was giving him now. It was the only one he was certain Wren could give. When their lips had parted again a small shiver formed in the back of his neck and he shook his head. "Sharon is right. You really are spoiled. One moment you're whipping drinks around and the next we're doing something like this." and she kissed him once more, further silencing his words as she parted her mouth and rubbed her tongue across his lips before he let her inside. Her leaf perked up for that moment, and her flank swayed as he held her close, quite certain her stub of a tail was wagging. He really did miss this. *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* The two of them hadn't said that much since the fight but they hadn't gone their separate ways either. When the ashen pile of the night's fire had been covered, Blain just stared at the Chikorita and she stared back. He had turned hesitantly towards the open trail then looked her way once more. "I didn't mean it. The things I said." he had some minor bruising on one of his cheeks, elsewhere on his neck and arms. He'd been worse off than she had in the physical sense but emotionally he had crossed a line he had never expected himself to go over. The truth was that for a time he had forgotten Wren to be a temporary thing, and her ability to get under his skin was on a profound level, but it wasn't just in that sense of antagonizing him. There were times she was softer to him; others when that toying nature of hers wasn't dependent on his expense but genuinely taking him along some ride of the Pokemon's. The way she was with him was never how he expected a Pokemon to act, and that uncanny personality of Wren's so quickly changed the dynamics of his anticipations when she grew further protective of him. He felt vulnerable and uncertain when all he wanted to feel like was a competent trainer. Things just didn't seem to pan out that way when she had found her way into his arms that first day. He expected a companion, perhaps even in some minor if not distant way, a pet. Yet she had wound her way easily into his heart and it made every one of her shows of defiance, every willful disregard littered among those times she opened up to him a harmful stack that was destined to fall. She wasn't like a Pokemon to him but a friend, and that made every action of hers all the more potent. He still had his desires though and he wanted to see where they lead him. Blain wanted to be a trainer, and the further he had been taken along by Wren, the further he felt distanced from his dreams until they compounded on that one moment she whipped away the Pokeballs and denied him the chance to even start. She couldn't understand what it meant to him. He hadn't understood what it meant to her either when the two had grown further used to one another. How confusing the feelings had been for Wren finding him so amusing and comforting yet more often than not being understanding of the way she was. Like she had easily found her way into Blain, the same had been for her. Wren wanted to show him so many things and wanted him in that big part of her mischief, and the idea just naturally took hold in such a big way that when everything came to a screeching halt it was devastating. He got under her skin so quickly too like no one ever had and it drove something out of her that terrified the Pokemon. The kind of thing that left those bruises on the boy who stared at her across the way, and it wasn't in disappointment or anger but regret. She had never attacked a human before and it had to be with him that she did. She felt numb to the idea and regretted it too. When his back finally turned and he started walking away she hesitated, struggled to say anything as her paws dug into the ground. Wren could feel her front legs shake and her heart beating terribly in her chest. Was it really just going to be like that? When he had heard her call, Blain hadn't even fully turned before she tackled him to the ground for the third time since they had met. He was sore and weak, and the Chikorita was determined; he could see it in her saddened expression. The anxiety and newfound caution, the uncertainty and longing that a lot of him shared and he hadn't even realized it. He had shifted in the grass, and found her head with his hand to stroke as they laid there. She crawled up his chest and sat on it, and weight aside he was glad she had. "If we're going to still be doing whatever this is, we have to talk about all this tackling you seem to enjoy doing." he murmured and felt her lick his cheek. "We'll try things your way for a bit..alright Wren?" she didn't say anything and it was hard for him to say anything himself. They both wanted to feel normal again, to not feel that awkward and sinking feeling they were now sharing but that would take time. They would find it. She was gentler with him and quieter when they began traveling again. The days passed as if a strange dream in the wake of their fierceness. Blain would talk to her about Kalos and Luminose City; how he hadn't thought so extensively on becoming a trainer but sort of fell into the idea when he wanted to travel and see more of the world than he had. How his mother and father encouraged him and were proud of their son's late blooming into embracing a culturally celebrated tradition as the role of a trainer. When he had placed a transfer for Johto, his eyes were on Loren city and that's where he had been heading from the start. It was where he was hoping to meet with some of his friends he hadn't seen in a while, students like he had been, more or less. When he told her these things it brought some relief to the Chikorita. In a way he was letting her into his life and understanding; hopes and dreams. The more he spoke of these things the more certain it seemed the two of them grew interwoven. Eventually that fiery attitude of hers came around again but Blain didn't seem so distanced from it. He even on occasion threw some of it back on Wren which surprised her. It also made her teasing and volatile nature a bit more prominent. Wren was still cautious with him though in some ways. That wavering uncertainty made itself so easily apparent when battle would find them. Her hesitations in a fight would cost her at times and send Wren reeling in pain from letting her guard down and receiving whatever came her way. He never tossed a pokeball. Her mind would drift through the weeks and sometimes think that somehow she would find herself back in that office and in some cage. That suddenly she would be whisked away from everything and back where she started. Sometimes it came to her that way in bad dreams and she would turn in her sleep. How could that even happen though when she never went inside a Pokeball? A part of her wanted to wish so dearly that she would simply fall through the cracks, that she had shown enough how unresponsive and aggressive she could be that they wouldn't bother with her coming back and making her some loner. Seeing that loop of balls on his belt band made Wren uneasy whenever she noticed it. When the two of them had been looking out over the pier's edge of Olivine city and on the ocean's sunset, Blain had pulled his Pokedex out and looked bothered. He would receive messages on it and Wren knew it was from the station. It had been months and both of them knew that there were questions needing to be answered. He had spent days pulling it out and typing for minutes at a time before slipping it back in, and Wren learned to hate that soft buzzing noise that came from his pockets whenever he would receive a new message. For Blain, it was rather awkward to express the situation but from the way the emails were worded back he knew they were rather familiar with Wren's nature too. He just wanted more time but he didn't know how long. He didn't know what to tell them. When the email had come through with the offer for him to accept full responsibility and ownership of the Chikorita it was like a muscle cramp finally easing up. He would open up his Pokedex and stare at the message unsure of himself, then he would look at her. If he had accepted her then what would that truly mean for the both of them? He could have been in Loren city but he had detoured; they both did. The way her face lit up seeing the towns they came across had a profound affect on the boy. He would tell himself that eventually she would come around and let him have his way finally; to let him catch another Pokemon and see things through. For a time he actually believed she had. She stopped giving him those looks when they found trouble or it found them, stopped looking over her shoulders and even waited when the fight was over. He just didn't let himself though and it was for her. He would tell himself from a distance that eventually it would happen and maybe it still would but that voice grew further along the breeze the more time they spent together. If he had accepted the offer would that voice vanish away altogether? It made him nervous and he kept staring at the message and reading the same words over and over. He looked over to her on the pier and smiled weakly before he held the screen in her direction. When she had read the words her eyes wavered in processing the growing realization of her finally breaking away. A smile had formed on her mind and her lips quivered as she became uncertain how to react. "I haven't messaged them back yet. To tell you the truth Wren, I've been thinking on it for days." he sighed and lowered it to his lap before staring out at the ocean again. "Yes, no? I'm not sure. Heck, things certainly didn't happen the way I thought they would." she hadn't expected them that way either. A couple of times she had imagined they would storm away from one another never to be seen again but there they were still. Her leaf drooped. "I just wanted to be a trainer, you know?..Then you came along the way you were and caused a whole lot of trouble." he chuckled softly and kept staring away. "A part of me keeps saying that if I said yes, I might not ever become what I wanted to be." and Wren became fully aware of what she had been taking away from him all that time. "But if I said no..it's hard to say no to you. You're seriously a big pain, you know that?" he could see her cheeks puff up but he was smiling. "You're also my friend, and its hard to imagine being out there, anywhere without that energy of yours that never seems to quit." he flipped open the pokedex and she stared at the bright screen with him. "You've always had a mind of your own, Wren. So I'm asking..is this what you want?" her leaf brushed his hand as she stared up at him. She fidgeted when he looked at her again but she still had that determined look in her eyes as always. "Guess we're stuck with each other then." he smirked and she barreled him over with a lunge nearly sending the Pokedex flying out of his hands and down into the waters. She was happy, and he was happy too. The old dreams could wait for now. The new ones were rising. *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* The Chikorita let out a series of soft breaths, shivering and inching whatever way she could in the cushions beneath and behind her. Her eyes were closed and she took in every sound; the soft squelching as the man's fingers found their way in and out of her yielding green slit. His own breathing that seemed dictated by her handling on him. The Pokemon's vines extended from her neck and had long since undone his pants, pulled them down along with whatever else, and were wound around his fully hard shaft. They loosened and constricted as she pumped him encouragingly, her head leaning into his arm that toyed and played with her. The two sat there on the couch feeling and indulging beside one another, and Wren bit down on his arm to muffle her moan as he further passionately masturbated her. It wasn't a hard bite, at least not hard enough to harm Blain. Her breath would deepen as his fingers rubbed at the opening before plunging back in, and that excitement easily showed in how wet she had become from his persistence. Her vines had grown moist, noisily slipping around the fullness of his length in a mixture of his pre and her own natural excitement that gave it a yellow tinted discoloration. That oil from her vines was much more than simply colorant. It heightened the sensations, grew him further sensitive to her indulgent stroking. Any other time it may have been used to further a reminder of the Chikorita's attack, the wet compound settling in and aggravating whatever damage she could inflict in battle, but its purpose then served in a far more unique way. She loved it when it was enough for him to thrust in return; when his hips twitched and tightened in her care. It got her little heart racing and tail grinding into the couch before she seized up and tensed her eyes shut. She bit into his arm way harder that time as her back arched. Blain could feel her inner walls spasm around his invading fingers, and he drove them deeper inside. Her mouth let go of him, the leaf atop her head shaking violently and almost releasing the smaller, far sharpened ones from inside as she squirmed and cried out. He so easily pumped in and out of her, and her mind was a mess between the fantasies that flooded through that moment. Her vines had constricted tightly around his shaft and wound to the very base. As she was coming down from the release, she knew it wasn't enough, not nearly enough at all. She felt far more needful and bold, panting and pawing his arm away. She shivered when his fingers escaped her with an audible pop. Wren had rolled herself upright, clinging to his thigh as she brought her head to his lap. "Come on Wren- You'll make a mess!" Blain was there enough to scold but his words were distant to the Pokemon, and her cool mouth easily took in the head of his cock. She sucked hungrily, starting her vines once more. The only thing she wanted to hear was his pleasured moans and she quickly got them, the way her cheeks bulged as she took him inside. When she felt him trailing his hand down her tail and further, she eagerly accepted his fingers finding their way again. He was always such a pushover, and now more than ever she was more than happy about that as she sighed dreamily and gulped. Their relationship was indeed unusual, and not a single person outside the two of them were aware just how unusual. This wasn't the first time they had done this. It just sort of..happened gradually over time. *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* The two of them had traveled a lot of places since Olivine and they had the time since the digital signatures and paperwork processed. They just sort of wandered, and there was that sense of unguided freedom for the both of them. Walking a road without a plan. Officially the Chikorita had been called his but the two of them didn't view their familiarity as something so casual or disregarding as simply an ownership. He was hers and she was his, and they could leave that whenever the time would come. It just had a way of not coming as the days turned to weeks, the weeks into months and those months to years. The two of them just seemed to take life by the day. It wasn't always for the safer or stable comforts, and at times the two were quite a mess if not hard pushed by their string of luck, but somehow they managed to make it work. Her early captivity as a loner made the Chikorita an excellent fighter but certainly not a proper scavenger. It didn't help how Blain spoiled her with his supplies and cooking. There were sometimes fellow travelers with their own stories and interests and they were often forward to having a friendly, and sometimes not so friendly sparring. It helped when there were stakes whether that meant something as money or even crackers up for the taking. They weren't all that lost sometimes either. The Chikorita would take him places, nearly drag him even when she felt excitable enough. When she had taken him along the isolation of a valley clearing, he hadn't even been looking over the map enough to understand where they had wound up. The way she stared across the ocean of oddly blue pined tress, he knew it was once her home. The air was colder around there compared to the spring warmth outside the twisting branches, and the sun did not so easily reach through the trees to create a perpetual dimmer setting threatening eternal night in some of the thicker patches. His breath felt heavier in those woods, and it was curious finding the air swimming with pollen. It felt eerily still in that place; so much so that something as a single branch creak or distant fluttering was unsettling. Blain had grown older though, enough into adulthood and experience to keep his wits with that breath of caution. Wren had grown a bit alongside him and even gained a few more inches to her height let alone weight. He had learned to follow her intuition in many ways however, the most prominent being without words but smell. The Chikorita often communicated far more affectively to him in expression and through the host of aromatic scents her body seemingly produced. The scents she had been producing however were far more stronger than he had been used to with her. That spring had felt so very different to Wren than any other had previously. It was like a compulsion for her to be there in those woods; like all the years had been leading up to it. Her odd behavior hadn't been so lost on Blain either. The air around her smelt so vividly sweet and with every step she took them both in, her heart stirred further. She almost appeared peaceful in there to him which betrayed her previous demeanor the weeks before they had come. She had been far more active up to that time, near unstoppable to settle and when he tried to handle her she would grow worse. Not threatening but in a way deeply concerning for Blain. Her steps were far less graceful, and her running romps around him became far more erratic as if she didn't know what to do about it. She really didn't, and it wasn't just him that could smell her. The grass-type could smell him too and it appealed to her in some way that..made her angry? It wasn't really anger but it made her feel bothered. It left the Pokemon in a perpetual manic state and the only thing keeping her tethered together was the idea of going back home and..something else her mind could not piece together still. When Blain would try and hold her still during her hopping all around him, his touch would send her reeling into him. She wanted him to play with her, to touch her more. When he was closer she loved and hated it at the same time. It felt good to lay in his lap and shove him away at the chest, but digging her paws into his jacket felt so much more satisfying too. She wasn't the only one who felt off and even different beyond greater understanding. The Pokemon's increased attention over him in this new way made Blain rather uncomfortable, bothered even. She loved to tease him but it became far more physical with an emphasis on her making contact with him. The sweet plant-like scent that grew from her body had only been far more potent, and it made his head feel as if there was buzzing coming from inside it. His chest would feel hollow when she sat on his lap and pawed away at him during those times, and if he tried to nudge her from him, she would find some way to further against it. His hand had retreated one of the afternoons he had in so vein attempted to uproot her scrambling form from him. She had trailed her tongue across his fingers, even managed one into her mouth before he pulled his hand away. She chuckled but it wasn't so funny to her. It wasn't funny to Blain either as she stared up at him with her half lidded gaze. Another moment and she was a wound up mess again but he sat there with the cooling sensation on his hands, his heart pounding in his chest and strange thoughts swirling in his head. Some of those thoughts..they felt so very wrong to him when she had done that. It was hard to say his body felt the same way when he became more familiar with the lower stirrings because of it. A part of him was afraid to feel that way with Wren around him constantly. His cheeks would flush when she would touch him in any way, and the sounds she made were softer than he was used too even when they quickly gave into louder shrill calls. It would get to him sometimes, and those physical feelings only grew more needful the longer she spent near him in that state of hers. For the first time in a long while the two were rather mutually opposed to each other's presence. They were also further needful, it mystified them and simply could not be fulfilled the same way it had been previously. Some nights when they would be laying in the sleeping bag wherever they might find rest, his hands would timidly find their way lower so that he might tease and play with himself when he believed Wren to be asleep. It was the only time he could find for himself to explore the pleasures his body was readily craving with his age. He never did it for long as the Chikorita so easily stirred next to him and murmured from his motions. It deeply frustrated him. When he had seen the gathering of many Chikorita in the forest clearing of some massive grove, Blain kept his distance while Wren just kept going on without him. He couldn't call for her, so intimidated by the amount of Pokemon that had massed together in that one area. There must have been over fifty or more of them, and that same eerie quiet could be found there. The various scents had found him long before he had been aware, drifting through the branches and pines. It was curious a sight to see, and the man had no idea how rare a view it truly was. They were far too intoxicated by the various spores that left their bodies, drifting on the nearly non existent air and carried around them in a gathering ocean of clumps. He watched as some of them extended their vines out to stroke the cheeks of another, some blowing air in the other's face much to their delight before nosing into each other. He had realized that what he had been witnessing was a species mating ground. He understood enough, watched Wren step through and displace some of the clumped spores as she ventured into that crowd of Chikorita. Her home was calling her, and she had finally grown old enough that her body found its needs. He had never seen any Pokemon mate before, and he didn't want to. It bothered him imagining Wren doing..whatever it was a Chikorita might do, and he didn't know why. So he turned away, zipped up his jacket further and found some tree to slump into and slide down against until he rested in the damp grass to close his eyes. She would find him again eventually; at least he thought she would. Wren was lost in that crowd of aromas and affections. Her mind swam with strange desires that nearly threatened to overtake her. In comparison to the other Chikorita, she was bouncy and easily apparent as she watched the others curiously. When another Chikorita had approached her and brought a vine from its neck to stroke at her cheek, she chirped happily at the touch. It felt like static passing through her skin then, and when the pokemon blew its scent over her face, Wren grew clouded in her eyes just as she had grown fixated on maintaining that scent. She had drawn closer to nose against them but Wren had hesitated in her advancement. Her body told her what the Pokemon wanted, but it wasn't what she truly wanted. It didn't feel the same way that it did when she had been doing something so similair with someone else..with..Blain. She panicked somewhat, backed away completely unsure of herself in front of the confused Pokemon. Wren's head felt heavy and her legs felt heavy, and her breathing felt heavy as she turned and ran away from whatever it all was. It felt right but not the right that she truly wanted. It was home but it hadn't been for a long time. She was desperate to escape the crowd and fight all those urges. She found Blain through it where he had been sitting against a tree with his head down. He had been trying to rest when she bolted up to him and quickly pulled at his arm. She spouted at him hastily and startled the man, dragging Blain forward and onto his knees. He couldn't understand a word and was just as equally confused by her sudden antics. She looked absolutely darkened around the face. It had all happened so quick that the jarring display just had him following her, finding his footing just barely as her vines took hold of him and nearly tripped up Blain as she ran him out of the woods with her. "Are you going to talk about it..?" she hadn't said a word for hours after they had found their way out and elsewhere in the valley. She looked absolutely terrible by the time they had settled along a rock path and he began unpacking. She looked terrible when he tried to talk to her around the small fire he had made. She didn't eat and hardly seemed to register whatever was going on around her. Wren had been lost in her head and thinking about the way she had been acting, the strange sensations she had around the human; How close she had come to experiencing something so very intimate that she understood in a near instant the moment she had finally been in that crowd. He was worried about her. She knew it when his voice would phase in and out between her thoughts. She was worried about her too, about the both of them. Even if he could not understand, he just wanted her to talk to him. By the time the fire was going out in a billowing smoke, the two had lain there beneath the pale moonlight of the late night. Neither of them could find sleep, and the warm air did nothing to ease their already hot bodies inside the confines of the sleeping bag, but it was that only buffer between the hard ground. Wren tried hard to find that rest; to banish every jarring need in her body. She had almost been there when she picked up that alluring and uncommon scent from Blain. He had mistaken her for asleep when he had taken to his self touch. The pollens from those woods had wound up the man past his very limits, and his constant inability to ever finish what he began had near tortured him. The only thing that kept his body at bay up until that night was Wren. Blain felt terrible for it; it wasn't the time for this.. but his body eagerly pushed him on. He was subtle as he always was at first but the relief of his toying was so much more rewarding then that he grew less considerate of his motions unlike the other nights. That scent of his was just like in the forest, just like from that other Chikorita but in a way that only belonged to him, and it clouded over Wren's eyes in her needs. She finally understood that she had not been so angry with him but desperately frenzied to desire mating with the man. He had grown so lost in his own pleasures that he hardly noticed the sweet air forming around them both. Neither of them had been aware that she had been unaware releasing pheromones all those days and nights not at all different from what was deemed one of her attacks, 'Attract'. It had its affect on Blain, and he was completely taken by it whether he understood or not. She was frightened to turn to him, what he would say if he understood what she wanted. They weren't even the same species but they had been through so much together that the major fact seemed to melt away between the two most days. What if it frightened him too and that need drove him away? Was it right of her to want him in the way she had been wanted by her own kind? With each breath she took, her body only grew further hot and bothered next to him. When his arm might gently bump against her it made her thoughts scatter. If he wouldn't accept her, Wren at least wanted to show him her passion before it was too late. When he had heard the murmurs from behind him, the man had seized up in a way his heart could have stopped. That delirious wave of pleasure crumbling into shame. She had been awake and he felt..he wasn't sure how he felt. It hadn't been good at all, that much so easily came through. He didn't know what to say or if he should have said anything at all, and his hands retracted so quickly away to his chest. When Wren had pushed closer to him, he felt her paws brace him as if in a hug as she would sometimes do; then he arched in confusion as he felt the cool sensation of her tongue on the back of his neck. Her vines had slid cautiously from her own neck over his, sliding past his hands and chest to his stomach. He felt so very tense to her then, but the Pokemon continued to lick at him, to draw her teeth against his neck as she nibbled. He had realized in some small way because of how she was being, how she had ran from the forests and mating was because she had chosen this instead. He shivered in her grasp, neither of them truly understanding what enticed them further on. Some part of him grew aware of what was happening, timid and terrified of how easily he let her do this. Had it been right to do this, for either of them to suddenly show these signs of mutual need? Wren had been his friend, and although his mind uncommonly related the idea, she was still a Pokemon. Was it right for him to just let it happen? Her prehensile vines had wiggled their way into the warmth of his boxers where his hands had been, and Wren could feel every detail of the cotton as the sensitive appendages slipped inside. He had curled forward and gasped, his legs drawing near his stomach. It was enough for the Chikorita to pull away her vines and withdraw from him. They both were scared. He kept his back to her, breathing unevenly and it felt like a terrible eternity that he did it. When he had stirred and rolled over to face Wren, he shared the same hesitant expression that she had. They were still so very close, and he hadn't pushed Wren away. His eyes closed as she gently blew air into his face, and the sensation made his body completely shudder. She looked so very different to him in that moment when his eyes opened again. It was just Wren. It had always been just Wren, but the Chikorita was beautiful to him. She leaned her face in closer to his and nosed at his cheek. When he leaned to her in return she was confused as his lips met with her own. The sensation was like a shock traveling from her lips throughout her whole body. It had been a kiss and it was brief; the kind you could imagine that only lasted a second or two. Wren wanted to understand that feeling so much more and brought herself further close to Blain as her lips found his again. That closeness stirred her in ways that were indescribable; the same had been for her human partner whose heart fluttered from the shared sensations. Her vines had extended once more, slipped between the both of them and into his boxers. They curled together around his hardened shaft and she had no idea what to do with it. When they slid against him, Blain shivered and parted his lips. She had done the same and quivered as his tongue found its way across her lips. Her own met with his and the action was so deeply satisfying as it was further frustrating for the both of them. His arms had curled around her, and she loved being held in that way as the Pokemon deepened their kiss. She wanted to be so very much closer as she delved her cool tongue into his mouth. His positive receptions, those soft moans of his further encouraged her to share in the vocalizing. Her vines had looped around his shaft and squeezed, and the experience was a sensory overload for Blain, the likes he had never known. From the way he responded, Wren knew she had been doing something right when he squirmed against her ministrations. She followed the feeling and panted with her own needs between their shared breath. The vines struggled through the boxers, retracted to yank them further down and expose him to her ease as they returned to ensnaring him in her hold. His own hands felt along the Pokemon uncertainly. The further down he went the deeper her heart beats grew as if when he reached between her hind legs it might stop beating at all. She eagerly accepted his touch, had broken their kiss to bury her face into his neck as he felt at the very wet lips of her vulva. He was delicate just as she had been delicate; his fingers feeling along the folds and quickly taking on the strange wetted texture of her excitement. She kept pushing against him until she nudged him onto his back. Her legs kicked at the sleeping bag until it gave with a loud zip and exposed them to the warm night air. He winced as she bit his neck; not hard enough to draw blood but certainly enough to remind him how needful she had grown. Wren lout out a deepened sigh and loosened that bite as he tended to her once more. When his finger had slipped further past her lips and inside her, Wren cried out with delight. She clung to him and dug her paws into whatever she could grab, tensing and squeezing at his intruding finger. Her tiny hips thrust with an uncanny knowledge that knew well before the Chikorita what she wanted, and with every time his finger would be pulled out, she forced it quickly back in. Her eagerness and excitement had gotten the better of him, and all those frustrating nights had all culminated in that moment as Blain felt a rising indescribable pleasure forming inside him. Neither of them understood when he seized up with a loud gasp. His legs had squirmed, braced as he thrust into her pumping vines that would not stop even when he had cum for the first time. His cock had let loose a fine series of thickened white shots that quickly covered those excited vines. They seemed to vibrate and shiver as they were covered in the hot loads he had expended, and Wren knew something had happened; something she wanted to experience as well. She wouldn't let up on him, did not let him catch his own breath as she straddled his hand and rode his finger. She squealed out as she managed a second one into her by mistake and it was a wonderful mistake. Everything from his lustful scent to the sudden additional accommodation did not have her lasting longer after him and the Chikorita let out a series of high pitched screeches each louder than the last as her body flushed with the tidal wave of pleasures having reached their peak. She had collapsed on him, kissing at his neck messily through her loud breathing. He knew in that moment that they had crossed some final line, the last of their boundaries whatever they had been before. The feelings had been there for a long time, buried enough for them to be unaware, and they had crossed that divide through their mutual physical needs. At that moment he didn't know what that truly meant, or any of what they had just done meant to either of them. When the Chikorita began to straddle his hand once more, Wren gave him a far more clarified expression. She certainly was not done with him that night, and she wouldn't be for hours. Even when the week came and went and the two were left with the fragments of what that storm had left. Every inch of her had appeared different to Blain since then. The way she looked at him, the way she carried on with that mischievous grin of hers. She hardly had to try, or not even try at all and he found her to be so very cute, attractive at times even. He didn't push on those feelings however. A larger part of him had accepted what happened between them but he considered it simply a part of the Chikorita's mating habit and needs. The two of them had that awkward mist around them for some time but it wasn't always a Spring that she would find him with her affections or lust. He never could say no to her, and the way she handled him was on a level only the two of them could understand. *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* Blain had been scrubbing at the couch with a sponge, doing his best to avoid the Chikorita who lazily sat curled in one of its seats. He knew they should have just gone into the bedroom but had he tried to stop that train from starting she would have probably vine whipped him back down to her in the moment. He sighed as he watched her there with her eyes closed. The conversation played in his head again of what he had told her when she had finally settled for the time being. Maybe they weren't meant to be there yet, just yet. Not in that city and not doing what they had been doing then. The Chikorita was still to full of spirit and so was Blain. Maybe it had been that sign he was looking for, a reminder of what they both had given up together. In the afterglow of their passion he murmured to her as she rested her head against his lap. Told her that he heard there would be a rather large festival in Goldenrod next summer. She knew by the way he stared down at her what he was truly asking her. Wren had yawned loudly with a quaint " Chika." before resting her head against him once more. Even if she was tired at the moment, she had gotten a lot out of her system, he knew what it meant for her. He had talked with Sharon that night when she finally arrived back at the apartment. Maybe it would be for the better that they finally went their separate ways again. Loren was a city for students and higher profile work so she couldn't blame him for throwing in the towel while it was still early and he was still young. She was kind of relieved actually when he told her, even when he stumbled with his words and looked distress. In a way she had felt responsible for him and his Pokemon since the day they had agreed on moving in together, and she had so many responsibilities to begin with. There would still be enough time, a year's worth before she would be saying goodbye to him, and while the idea of migrating to the dorms was not so appealing, it was a distant idea. For some reason though she felt a whole lot more hopeful that night. Maybe it was how sweet the air had smelled to her. The Chikorita had still be laying there on the couch when Sharon had gone into her room for the night. Wren's leaf swayed as she felt the touch of Blain on her head. "I love you Wren." he softly whispered to her and she hummed. She had slipped off the couch as he went to his own room, slipping past his legs and through the doorway before trotting into their bed. A smile was forming on her mind like it hadn't in a lot of years. She had ideas, plans growing like they used to. All she had to do was wait a bit longer, and so did he. Life hadn't come around the way either of them had expected but it wasn't over yet. There were still dreams in them both, and that adventure only meant for her and him was still waiting for them. -The End- Hey you made it! Thanks for reading! ;_;