Trials of a Champion - Kanto [Pokemon x OC]

49 The Green-Eyed Monster

Sparky presented the rest of his electrifying team: a Magneton, Pikachu, Raichu, Electabuzz, and an Electrode. Seeing them all made me feel like a kid on Christmas morning.

"These Pokémon all look wonderful, Sparky! The well-groomed coats on this Pikachu, Raichu, and Electabuzz!" Magneton let me hang around on its body while floating around. "You can tell how healthy this guy is from the shine of the magnets. And that Electrode!"

I went over and threw my arms around the massive ball-shaped Pokémon. The low voltage flying off its body made my hair stick up.

"It's nothing but static. Look at my hair! I love it!"

"You're crazy," Sparky laughed as he pried me from Electrode. "But let's not scare him enough where he explodes."

"That's a bad thing? Getting a taste of Electrode's Explosion would be exhilarating."

"Maybe another time."

Pikachu and Eevee played with all of Sparky's Pokémon, making me smile. "That's a really nice team. I haven't seen this many Electric-types since I left home. I want to catch more soon."

"I take it Paul doesn't have any?"

"Nope. It's just Pikachu and Luxio between the two of us. He has a lot of impressive Pokémon, but no Electric-types. Haha, maybe he's avoiding them so that I don't obsess over them."

Sparky chuckled.

I stared in the direction that Paul left, pursing my lips. "I wonder what was bugging him? I hope he's okay."

Sparky looked in the same direction, eyes flickering between me and the dirt path. He felt a little curious about the same thing, and being a rather curious person, he wanted to find out why.

"So, how long have you two been dating, anyway?"

My brain overloaded. "Huh...Huh?! O-Oh, uh, actually, we're not...uh..."

He turned pale very quickly. "Oh, you're not?!"

"No, we're just friends."

"Oh! Whoops, sorry, my bad. You just seemed so close that I thought—"

"Ah-hah-hah, don't...don't worry about it! Others have thought the same thing."

"Really?"

I scratched the back of my head. "See, we've been traveling together for quite some time now. Let's see. Almost half a year, I think. We started our journeys on the same day, actually, in Sandgem Town. We're both from the Sinnoh region."

"That's neat. That means you two have something in common from minute one."

Grinning, I pressed my fingertips together. "I suppose so, but don't get me wrong. We fight all the time."

"You do?"

"Oh yeah. A few fights in particular have left their mark." I gazed over at Pikachu and Eevee. "But, if you look past the arguing, we get along pretty well; our Pokémon, too. And when push comes to shove, I can always rely on Paul to back me up. He's the kind of person I can count on. Once you earn his respect, he'll never let you down, and to me, that's what matters most in a person. That's why I can move past some of his issues."

Sparky laughed. "Issues? Like what?"

"He's short-tempered and stubborn. So am I, but he's a whole other level."

"Oh, then, of course, you guys would butt heads all the time."

"Yeah. Makes sense." Especially if he's an Aries, and I'm a—