RockJackal
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This is a silly story about a lucario that is raised like a human, and the shenanigans that this would cause.
Hopefully my attempts at humor don't fall flat. I'm trying to improve my writing, so please do leave a comment if you can.
FF.N: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12841927/1/Lucarious
AO3: Lucarious - Chapter 1 - RockJackal - Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types [Archive of Our Own]
Here is the first chapter.
Lucarious: The Riolu Years
Within a green forest around mid-day, an old hunter fully kitted out in woodland camouflage gear carefully stalked. He rotated his grandfather’s service rifle and he looked to the enbloc clip pouches one more time. The rush he felt as he looked over his gear gives him a soft smile. His expensive “sleep ammunition” will ensure that anything he shoots will go down without permanent damage. He may be a hunter, but he never went after Pokémon who didn’t deserve it, and this hunt was promising to be a fun one. People have reported of a Nidoking that attacked everything around it with a lethal ferocity; knocking its foes unconscious wasn’t enough for it.
As he took a step through a bush in a thicket, his foot tapped against a blue egg lying sideways. Quickly, he lifted his foot up and away from the egg, his head turned as he expected some repercussion for accidentally invading a nest, he readies his gun. However, the lack of response from his intrusion made it obvious the egg was here by itself with no guardian. The old man stepped over the egg carefully and then continued to the end of the thicket. His head turned towards the egg as he exited, and couldn’t help but sigh with pity. Leaving this egg out here would nag at his conscience. The first thought that popped into his head was What are the chances that its parents will be back shortly? as he decided to just hover about the egg, at least for a little while. Hours passed with still no sign of anyone or anything having looked for the egg. Perhaps I am scaring his guardians away? was his next thought. Quietly, he kneeled behind a bush close to the exit of the thicket. Even more fruitless hours passed before the realization that his waiting was for naught. With a quick gaze at the obscured sunset peaking from behind the trees, he could tell that he had wasted this day. He didn’t want to abandon the egg, but he didn’t want to walk home in the dark either. He hadn’t packed any lights for what was supposed to be simple track searching. An epiphany brought a grin to his chiseled face: I should just take the egg home. He emerged from his hiding spot to retrieve the egg, and carefully he cradled it in his left arm as he held his rifle in his right hand as he started his trek back to his truck.
The drive home was relatively quick for a three-hour drive through dirt roads just to get to the highway before returning to a different dirt road, all with the egg carefully held in his lap. His gaze often rested upon it as he thought of ideas on how he could keep it healthy, at least until he could get someone else to take it off of his hands. The thoughtful drive had him back at his modest cabin sooner than he expected. While larger than usual for a cabin, it was still single-story. As he entered his abode proper, the egg was placed onto his dining room table as he passed by it to retrieve his heat lamp and spare blanket in his “crafts room”, both of which could both easily keep the egg nice and warm until he found someone to take it away.
As the hunter passed the first set of doors in the hallway in the back of the house, he heard cracking come from his dining room. Quickly his head turned back to the dining room in a panic, then forward again in a mad dash through the rear-right door. The elder’s crafts room shook from his muscular frame stomping a frantic path towards the cabinet in the back of the room, then again when he stormed back out to the hatching egg. With a single motion he wrapped the blanket around the baby as it exited its shell, then lifted it up and into his left arm. After he freed its head from the blanket, he could properly identify as a Riolu. Gently the man rocked his arm back and forth as his free hand pulled his phone from his pants pocket in order to search for a proper place to take this Riolu off his hands, preferably right now. A promising website advertised around-the-clock operating hours, and quickly the man dialed the number before his attention went back to the Riolu, who slowly opened his eyes to meet the man’s. Slowly the Riolu smiled, causing the man to smile as memories of his previous children came flooding back. However, the voice of a woman from his phone quickly brought him back from his nostalgia trip.
“Hello? Is anyone there?” said the woman politely on the other side of the receiver.
“Uh, yes.” He said, completely caught off guard from her prompt answering of his call. Before the woman could respond though, he quickly fumbled a response with his deep and gravelly voice “I’m sorry for disturbing your… uh… nursery. I must have accidentally dialed. Have a nice night.” before hanging up. He pocketed his phone as his full attention was turned towards the Riolu in his arms.
“Hey, little fella.” He said as softly as he could, which elicited a big smile from the Riolu. “Sleepy?” He asked in hope that he wouldn’t have to stay up looking after it. The baby however kept on smiling, just happy to have the man’s attention.
The elderly hermit sighed then turned towards the kitchen, which seemed to permanently smell like cooked pork and pizza. He opened the pantry cabinet tucked away between the wall and the kitchen counter, and looked for some sort of midnight snack he could at least feed it before bed. That’s when it hit him… can it even eat solids? When his head turned back to the child in his arm, his face lit up as his tail wagged again. The man turned his head away out of curiosity, and the Riolu stopped wagging his tail as his face returned to being neutral. Once their eyes met once more, he was back to tail-wagging happy. This was a very adorable discovery, in his opinion!
He played with his finding for a good five minutes, turning his head away just to look back with a goofy expression. The little guy loved this so much it started to imitate his faces or come up with a few of its own. The fun ended when the man turned to head towards the bathroom, he wanted to deal with feeding tomorrow. “So little guy, what should we call you?” he asked the Riolu. Almost as if he understood the situation, he turned his head and stared intently at the geezer, almost as if ready to judge his suggestions.
“Let’s see, a male luca- I mean Riolu-” he started, but the Riolu’s sudden amazed expression made the hunter hesitate, but before he could continue his train of thought a voice entered his head.
“Lu!” said the voice, startling the man hard enough that his head jolted around the room before settling back on the Riolu.
“That was you, wasn’t it?”
“Hey!” the omnipotent and childish voice said excitedly, trying to imitate what the elderly man said earlier.
Although he was impressed, the man still wagged his finger as he said “Cut that out, you won’t learn proper speech doing that.” sternly yet calmly. The Riolu lowered his ears, and then opened his mouth.
“L-Lu.” said the Riolu with his mouth this time.
“Alright then, Lu it is…” he said, and then Lu pulled his arms out from under the blanket, and he tried to hug the man as he made a happy sound. “But it’s short for Louis.”
Quickly, Lu stopped hugging, and determinedly looked back into the eyes of the old man. “Lu!” he protested as best as he could with his highly limited vocabulary.
“Oh alright alright…” the guy said with a sly smirk. “It’s Lu…” and quickly, the Riolu made a happy sound and then went right back to hugging him with a big smile. “But it’s short for Lucas.” The Riolu, as fast as he went to happy and content, quickly went back to protesting. However, the man’s grin just grew as he thought up of some simple word-based entertainment.
“Lu!”
“Oh fine, it’s Lu…”
“Mmhhh!”
“But it’s short for Francis.”
“Lu!”
“Oh ok you win you win, Lu it is…”
“Mmmhh!”
“But it’s short for Lu.”
This time though, when Lu opened his mouth to protest, he blinked as he realized that the name dad offered didn’t change, then slowly resumed his snuggle. The man interrupted Lu’s snuggling briefly with a poke on the head. Once he had Lu’s full attention, he pointed to himself and slowly annunciated “Dad-dy”. Lu slowly formed the syllables, trying to mimic dad’s mouth with his. “Da-dad… dada.” He annunciated slowly. Lu’s attempt at saying daddy was adorable to dad, who smiled whole heartedly at his attempt. “You did great for your first time!” he said before carrying him off into the bathroom. “Now let’s get clean and go to bed, Louis. I’m beat.”
Hours passed into the night, and Lu’s eyes open slowly. Gently he sits up and yawns before looking around. The soft bed didn’t move much as he started to crawl over to the footboard and then down the side of the blanket that draped to the floor. Leaving the small bedroom was as simple as walking along the carpeted floor and just nudging the door inward, he was out and free. He crawled his way to the kitchen area and he took a deep breath. It smelled great, but it also made him hungry. Quickly, his attention turned to the pantry cabinet. He had only a brief glimpse into it, but dad went to it looking for food, he read it on him! He crawled his way between the dining room table and the kitchen counter and made a beeline straight towards it. With the door still open, Lu looks up and takes in the sight of preserved and dry foods in various containers. Two rows down from the top was a red box amidst other colorful boxes, clashing with the rest of the various packaged foods found within. Something about the various Pokémon on the side demanded Lu’s attention. It was decided, he had to get to this box! He stood up the best he could, and he grabbed the first shelf within arm reach. His legs found purchase on plastic containers with cereal in it and up he climbed, knocking over various containers as he climbed up. Up past the canned food, up past the condiments, and finally to the snacks.
He proudly takes a seat with a big smile as he overcomes his climb and receives a red circus cage box for his efforts. Quickly, he grabs the box and he unceremoniously shoves his fist through the top. Inside was a plastic bag with Pokémon shaped cookies within. After picking one up and smelling it, he slowly puts it in his mouth and savors the taste. He looked from right to left around the room as he partook of his snack. He observed the living room in the bottom right of the room, and he looked at the sofa and TV. He turns his head, and he observes the cabinets occupying some of the space behind the sofa, and the desk with computer facing the right wall in the top right corner of the room. His gaze drifts past the circular fireplace in the center of the room, and of course recognizes the kitchen and dining room occupying the entire left part of the house. Shortly after, his gaze turns back right and he investigates the hallway. There he sees four plain doors. The first door on the left was the one he exited from, dad’s bedroom. The first door on the right he was cleaned in hours earlier, that is the bathroom. There were two remaining doors he hadn’t entered, one past dad’s bedroom, and one past the bathroom. There was also a string that dangled suspiciously from the ceiling in the back of the hall way. Even in such a small house, there were so many places to explore!
As Lu contemplated this exciting fact, dad’s bedroom door flew open and in came dad, donned in nothing but his pajama pants equipped with a flashlight in the left hand and a handgun in the right! Lu covered his eyes as the light blinded him, and dad upon seeing Lu sitting on his pantry shelf lowered his gun. He made his way to the dining room light switch and dimmed the lights on. Lu just smiled as he offered a cookie to dad, who gave him a scowl as he sighed. He couldn’t hold his scowl though, Lu’s innocent smile and offering melted it into an amused grin. Eventually he gives in and he takes the cookie, moving his gun to his flashlight hand before eating it in a single bite.
“You shouldn’t be eating my snacks or making a mess this late at night.” Dad chastised gently as he looked around at the various containers and boxes on the floor around the pantry. With a finger tapping his chiseled chin, he thought of an appropriate punishment for the little guy. “I’ll clean this up for you, but you’re going to clean up one of my messes someday.” He said with playfully sinister tone. Lu just tilted his head in response before offering another cookie, but dad declined before closing the box. He moved his light and gun onto the kitchen counter before moving Louis onto the table. The mess was sorted out quickly, and everything was put back in place, as Lu absentmindedly watched. With the mess cleaned up and the firearm locked away, the two went back to dad’s room to sleep.
As the sun rose and peaked through the curtains, dad groggily rose from his slumber. He nudges Lu gently, who stirs awake and then turns over. “Now you want to sleep, huh?” dad asked incredulously as he gets out of bed. He turns and leans over Lu to whisper “I know it might be soon, but I have to start teaching you things you need to know. I’m not gonna be here your entire life.” To ease him awake. His only response was to angle his ear towards dad as he snoozed. Dad sighed as he turned to leave, grabbing underwear, blue jeans, and a grey tank top from his dresser before heading to the bathroom. One shower later, and he returns to the sight of Lu fast asleep in his bed. Picking Lu up seemed to wake him from his slumber. As they moved to the living room, Lu rubbed the sand from his eyes as he groggily took a look around to see black and white notecards on the floor in front of the sofa.
He was gently seated on the floor before dad went off to the rear right door. Lu watched him leave, a confused tilt to his head as he turned back to take a better look at the notecards. He reached for the closest notecard stack and he took a single white card from it. Inscribed on it was just the letter A, both upper case and lower case. As Lu turned it around, dad called out “Smile!” and as Lu turned his head towards dad, a camera flash goes off and surprises him, causing him to fall onto his back. Dad just chuckles as he takes a seat next to him before lifting him back up. “I’m probably going to be doing that a lot…” He admitted with a big amused smile on his face. “So get used to it now.” After a quick look at the preview of the picture he just took on his digital camera’s screen, he puts it onto the coffee table and turns his full attention to Lu. As Lu was blinking his eyes, dad takes the notecard from Lu and he holds it out in front of him. “Repeat after me… A. Eeeeyyy…”
For hours, Lu practiced pronouncing the letters on each notecard. His progress was relatively quick, all things considered. He was born the night before and already he said his first word! On top of that, he was crawling around and getting in trouble! Dad figured that Lu was either very smart, or Pokémon just grow up quick. As time went on, Lu started to grow more and more restless. He rocked back and forth the longer he practiced, rocking faster the longer it took. As dad saw Lu practically thrash back and forth, he decided that enough was enough. He picked Lu up and he stood him up on his own shoes, making him mimic his walking as he held him up by the hands. “Ok, hold on now.” He said as he started to step. Left foot, right foot, he marched them both over to the little cabinet table behind the sofa. “You know the cards that we used? They go back in here when we aren’t using them.” Dad instructed as he looked down at Lu. Lu looked back, beaming as his tail wagged a mile a minute as he held on to dad’s hands. Lu replied “Ok!” before he was lifted onto the cabinet. He dangled his legs over the side as dad packed the cards away in their case. The pack of cards were waved to Lu before the cabinet was opened, who watched carefully where dad put the cards. As soon as the cabinet doors were closed, Lu quickly raised his arms at dad and he exclaimed “Up!”
“Looking to be with your old man?” dad teased as he picked Lu up and then held him above his head. Lu laughed as dad spun them around, but almost as fast as he was picked up, he was put down again. The fun had ended much too soon for Lu, and he called out to dad as he headed to the front door. As dad turned and their eyes locked, Lu stood up and he raised his arms, a hopeful smile on his face before he fell backwards. “Sorry Louis… daddy has to go out. I’ll try to get you a little something.” Was all he said with a thumbs up before the front door was closed and then locked. Lu smiled weakly at the promise he was given, but after a few moments of silence he quickly crawls to the door and then tries to chase dad. After a few minutes of fruitless scratching, he turns his attention to the room he occupies. With only a quick glance, he decided the living room is worth his attention. He makes a beeline for the sofa, and quickly climbs up.
As soon as he reached the top, Lu turned around and he sat properly in the center of the right-most cushion. The comfortable feeling of the springy cushion against his hind brought upon him an urge to bounce. He started to bounce up and down gently, testing the cushion as he slowly picked up speed with his bouncing. Eventually he started launching himself as high as he could each time he hit the cushion, arms outstretched as he stared at the ceiling. He laughed as he left a few inches each bounce from the couch, the sofa hitting the end table every time Lu tried to launch himself upward. The TV remote on the right end table falls to the floor with a loud plastic thud, and Lu quickly stops. Nervously, he crawled to the right arm of the sofa, and he slowly peered over. There he saw the remote, on the floor as the TV started to blink on. He dropped himself to the floor as questions flooded his mind: What is that? What is that red light? Did this turn the wall thing on? Slowly he picked up the remote, turning it around to face the front in fear that it might retaliate in some way. Once enough time passed and nothing happened, he reaches to the top of the remote and presses the big red button. The DVD player under the television blinked a blue light, and then stayed on solid, but the thing that caught Lu’s attention was the animated DVD logo that bounced to each corner on the screen and then faded away. Yellow text over a black background started to scroll from the bottom of the screen, and it raptured Lu with excitement as the accompanying brass instruments introduced the movie in the DVD player.
As the credits started to roll, Lu was beaming. He picked up the remote and swings it back and forth, making sword noises with his mouth while falling over and over as he tried to stand up. Despite falling over constantly, he had fun swinging his imaginary sword around, vanquishing imaginary foes. His imaginative play time wasn’t satisfying enough once he stumbled his way into the kitchen and his eyes lit up upon seeing the roll of paper towels on the edge of the kitchen counter. He grabbed the nearest chair, and he pushed it towards the counter. Quickly, the paper towels were nabbed, and the paper towels were removed from the roll. Quizzically, he looked at the tube. He put the remote down on the counter, and the tube in his right hand. He jumped from the chair, and he landed on his feet before falling to his butt. The chair was struck gently with the tube, and then harder. Soon he started banging it against everything bigger than him. Finding something light enough to be held and be able to hit anything with it with no mess was a huge discovery. It was great, but he needed more. He needed a robe. Quickly he crawled into dad’s bedroom, he knew he saw one there before! There, hanging from a hook attached to the door was dad’s plaid robe! As fast as it took him to climb up was as fast as it took to get it off the hook. He dropped onto the collapsed robe and quickly donned it the best he could. Satisfied, Lu heads out and into the kitchen again. He didn’t want to upset dad again with a mess, so quickly the paper towels were stuffed into the robe pockets and then pushed the chair back. Then he hit the chair… and the floor… and the table leg with the tube. Lu was having the time of his life, hitting everything with the cardboard roll as he made sword sounds, drowning out the sound of the cardboard roll’s hollow thunk against everything it struck.
After hours passed, the sound of the front door being unlocked interrupted Lu’s fun. Lu scurried as fast as he could towards the door and then sat up, happily expecting dad on the other side. Surely enough, dad opened the door, and there he stood. Bewildered, he looked over Lu and the robe he took from his bedroom. Seeing Lu raise the cardboard tube triumphantly over his head to greet him prompted an eyebrow to raise over this bizarre scene. Slowly, the memory of last night crawled into his mind, and dad winced as he raised his head to some sort of mess. Thankfully the only thing out of place was the fact that the TV was looping the menu of the space opera he put into the DVD player… and a missing roll of paper towels. Lu stood up and raised his other arm, eagerly saying “Up!” as dad scratched his head at the lack of a mess. Dad obliged, and he picked up Lu, wrapping him up in his robe as he did so. This made the paper towels within the robe pockets fall in clumped balls as the robe bottom was folded under the little blue and yellow thief. “Is this how you greet me? Stealing my clothes and my paper towels?” dad asked as he tried to stifle a laugh. He found this whole scenario so cute, he couldn’t possibly be mad at him. Lu’s response was to make a “Bzzt” sound as he touched the cardboard tube against dad, who cried out in playful and ham-fisted pain. He dramatically limped his way to the sofa, and then dropped Lu onto it. With a last gasp, he collapses next to Lu, and makes a final whimper.
“Were you doing this all day?” he suddenly asked as he sprung up to his feet to instantly head towards the front door. Lu’s response was an excited “Mhm!” as he sat firmly in the right corner of the sofa, all giddy as dad came back in with shopping bags and a big smile. Quickly, the groceries were stuffed into the refrigerator and pantry, save for two ice-creams. He made his way to the sofa with the wrapped treats and the TV remote, one in each hand while the remote was pinned under his right arm and plopped himself onto the center of the sofa. Lu quickly crawls into dad’s lap, and dad hands Lu an ice-cream. Lu was quick to tear his wrapper off to get to his snack after watching dad unwrap his and immediately took little bites. Dad took the remote with his left hand and navigated the menu on the TV. ”I hope you don’t mind watching it again.” he said as he wrapped his left arm around Lu, hugging gently as he took a bite of his ice-cream. Dad sighed as he settled in after his busy day as Lu starry eyed stared at the opening text crawl once again. The two relaxed as the movie went on, the rest of the night uneventful except for Lu bopping dad with the cardboard tube randomly during the film.
Dad wanted to do his best to raise Lu to be happy and healthy with the time he had left, but could he do it right?
Hopefully my attempts at humor don't fall flat. I'm trying to improve my writing, so please do leave a comment if you can.
FF.N: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12841927/1/Lucarious
AO3: Lucarious - Chapter 1 - RockJackal - Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types [Archive of Our Own]
Here is the first chapter.
Lucarious: The Riolu Years
Within a green forest around mid-day, an old hunter fully kitted out in woodland camouflage gear carefully stalked. He rotated his grandfather’s service rifle and he looked to the enbloc clip pouches one more time. The rush he felt as he looked over his gear gives him a soft smile. His expensive “sleep ammunition” will ensure that anything he shoots will go down without permanent damage. He may be a hunter, but he never went after Pokémon who didn’t deserve it, and this hunt was promising to be a fun one. People have reported of a Nidoking that attacked everything around it with a lethal ferocity; knocking its foes unconscious wasn’t enough for it.
As he took a step through a bush in a thicket, his foot tapped against a blue egg lying sideways. Quickly, he lifted his foot up and away from the egg, his head turned as he expected some repercussion for accidentally invading a nest, he readies his gun. However, the lack of response from his intrusion made it obvious the egg was here by itself with no guardian. The old man stepped over the egg carefully and then continued to the end of the thicket. His head turned towards the egg as he exited, and couldn’t help but sigh with pity. Leaving this egg out here would nag at his conscience. The first thought that popped into his head was What are the chances that its parents will be back shortly? as he decided to just hover about the egg, at least for a little while. Hours passed with still no sign of anyone or anything having looked for the egg. Perhaps I am scaring his guardians away? was his next thought. Quietly, he kneeled behind a bush close to the exit of the thicket. Even more fruitless hours passed before the realization that his waiting was for naught. With a quick gaze at the obscured sunset peaking from behind the trees, he could tell that he had wasted this day. He didn’t want to abandon the egg, but he didn’t want to walk home in the dark either. He hadn’t packed any lights for what was supposed to be simple track searching. An epiphany brought a grin to his chiseled face: I should just take the egg home. He emerged from his hiding spot to retrieve the egg, and carefully he cradled it in his left arm as he held his rifle in his right hand as he started his trek back to his truck.
The drive home was relatively quick for a three-hour drive through dirt roads just to get to the highway before returning to a different dirt road, all with the egg carefully held in his lap. His gaze often rested upon it as he thought of ideas on how he could keep it healthy, at least until he could get someone else to take it off of his hands. The thoughtful drive had him back at his modest cabin sooner than he expected. While larger than usual for a cabin, it was still single-story. As he entered his abode proper, the egg was placed onto his dining room table as he passed by it to retrieve his heat lamp and spare blanket in his “crafts room”, both of which could both easily keep the egg nice and warm until he found someone to take it away.
As the hunter passed the first set of doors in the hallway in the back of the house, he heard cracking come from his dining room. Quickly his head turned back to the dining room in a panic, then forward again in a mad dash through the rear-right door. The elder’s crafts room shook from his muscular frame stomping a frantic path towards the cabinet in the back of the room, then again when he stormed back out to the hatching egg. With a single motion he wrapped the blanket around the baby as it exited its shell, then lifted it up and into his left arm. After he freed its head from the blanket, he could properly identify as a Riolu. Gently the man rocked his arm back and forth as his free hand pulled his phone from his pants pocket in order to search for a proper place to take this Riolu off his hands, preferably right now. A promising website advertised around-the-clock operating hours, and quickly the man dialed the number before his attention went back to the Riolu, who slowly opened his eyes to meet the man’s. Slowly the Riolu smiled, causing the man to smile as memories of his previous children came flooding back. However, the voice of a woman from his phone quickly brought him back from his nostalgia trip.
“Hello? Is anyone there?” said the woman politely on the other side of the receiver.
“Uh, yes.” He said, completely caught off guard from her prompt answering of his call. Before the woman could respond though, he quickly fumbled a response with his deep and gravelly voice “I’m sorry for disturbing your… uh… nursery. I must have accidentally dialed. Have a nice night.” before hanging up. He pocketed his phone as his full attention was turned towards the Riolu in his arms.
“Hey, little fella.” He said as softly as he could, which elicited a big smile from the Riolu. “Sleepy?” He asked in hope that he wouldn’t have to stay up looking after it. The baby however kept on smiling, just happy to have the man’s attention.
The elderly hermit sighed then turned towards the kitchen, which seemed to permanently smell like cooked pork and pizza. He opened the pantry cabinet tucked away between the wall and the kitchen counter, and looked for some sort of midnight snack he could at least feed it before bed. That’s when it hit him… can it even eat solids? When his head turned back to the child in his arm, his face lit up as his tail wagged again. The man turned his head away out of curiosity, and the Riolu stopped wagging his tail as his face returned to being neutral. Once their eyes met once more, he was back to tail-wagging happy. This was a very adorable discovery, in his opinion!
He played with his finding for a good five minutes, turning his head away just to look back with a goofy expression. The little guy loved this so much it started to imitate his faces or come up with a few of its own. The fun ended when the man turned to head towards the bathroom, he wanted to deal with feeding tomorrow. “So little guy, what should we call you?” he asked the Riolu. Almost as if he understood the situation, he turned his head and stared intently at the geezer, almost as if ready to judge his suggestions.
“Let’s see, a male luca- I mean Riolu-” he started, but the Riolu’s sudden amazed expression made the hunter hesitate, but before he could continue his train of thought a voice entered his head.
“Lu!” said the voice, startling the man hard enough that his head jolted around the room before settling back on the Riolu.
“That was you, wasn’t it?”
“Hey!” the omnipotent and childish voice said excitedly, trying to imitate what the elderly man said earlier.
Although he was impressed, the man still wagged his finger as he said “Cut that out, you won’t learn proper speech doing that.” sternly yet calmly. The Riolu lowered his ears, and then opened his mouth.
“L-Lu.” said the Riolu with his mouth this time.
“Alright then, Lu it is…” he said, and then Lu pulled his arms out from under the blanket, and he tried to hug the man as he made a happy sound. “But it’s short for Louis.”
Quickly, Lu stopped hugging, and determinedly looked back into the eyes of the old man. “Lu!” he protested as best as he could with his highly limited vocabulary.
“Oh alright alright…” the guy said with a sly smirk. “It’s Lu…” and quickly, the Riolu made a happy sound and then went right back to hugging him with a big smile. “But it’s short for Lucas.” The Riolu, as fast as he went to happy and content, quickly went back to protesting. However, the man’s grin just grew as he thought up of some simple word-based entertainment.
“Lu!”
“Oh fine, it’s Lu…”
“Mmhhh!”
“But it’s short for Francis.”
“Lu!”
“Oh ok you win you win, Lu it is…”
“Mmmhh!”
“But it’s short for Lu.”
This time though, when Lu opened his mouth to protest, he blinked as he realized that the name dad offered didn’t change, then slowly resumed his snuggle. The man interrupted Lu’s snuggling briefly with a poke on the head. Once he had Lu’s full attention, he pointed to himself and slowly annunciated “Dad-dy”. Lu slowly formed the syllables, trying to mimic dad’s mouth with his. “Da-dad… dada.” He annunciated slowly. Lu’s attempt at saying daddy was adorable to dad, who smiled whole heartedly at his attempt. “You did great for your first time!” he said before carrying him off into the bathroom. “Now let’s get clean and go to bed, Louis. I’m beat.”
Hours passed into the night, and Lu’s eyes open slowly. Gently he sits up and yawns before looking around. The soft bed didn’t move much as he started to crawl over to the footboard and then down the side of the blanket that draped to the floor. Leaving the small bedroom was as simple as walking along the carpeted floor and just nudging the door inward, he was out and free. He crawled his way to the kitchen area and he took a deep breath. It smelled great, but it also made him hungry. Quickly, his attention turned to the pantry cabinet. He had only a brief glimpse into it, but dad went to it looking for food, he read it on him! He crawled his way between the dining room table and the kitchen counter and made a beeline straight towards it. With the door still open, Lu looks up and takes in the sight of preserved and dry foods in various containers. Two rows down from the top was a red box amidst other colorful boxes, clashing with the rest of the various packaged foods found within. Something about the various Pokémon on the side demanded Lu’s attention. It was decided, he had to get to this box! He stood up the best he could, and he grabbed the first shelf within arm reach. His legs found purchase on plastic containers with cereal in it and up he climbed, knocking over various containers as he climbed up. Up past the canned food, up past the condiments, and finally to the snacks.
He proudly takes a seat with a big smile as he overcomes his climb and receives a red circus cage box for his efforts. Quickly, he grabs the box and he unceremoniously shoves his fist through the top. Inside was a plastic bag with Pokémon shaped cookies within. After picking one up and smelling it, he slowly puts it in his mouth and savors the taste. He looked from right to left around the room as he partook of his snack. He observed the living room in the bottom right of the room, and he looked at the sofa and TV. He turns his head, and he observes the cabinets occupying some of the space behind the sofa, and the desk with computer facing the right wall in the top right corner of the room. His gaze drifts past the circular fireplace in the center of the room, and of course recognizes the kitchen and dining room occupying the entire left part of the house. Shortly after, his gaze turns back right and he investigates the hallway. There he sees four plain doors. The first door on the left was the one he exited from, dad’s bedroom. The first door on the right he was cleaned in hours earlier, that is the bathroom. There were two remaining doors he hadn’t entered, one past dad’s bedroom, and one past the bathroom. There was also a string that dangled suspiciously from the ceiling in the back of the hall way. Even in such a small house, there were so many places to explore!
As Lu contemplated this exciting fact, dad’s bedroom door flew open and in came dad, donned in nothing but his pajama pants equipped with a flashlight in the left hand and a handgun in the right! Lu covered his eyes as the light blinded him, and dad upon seeing Lu sitting on his pantry shelf lowered his gun. He made his way to the dining room light switch and dimmed the lights on. Lu just smiled as he offered a cookie to dad, who gave him a scowl as he sighed. He couldn’t hold his scowl though, Lu’s innocent smile and offering melted it into an amused grin. Eventually he gives in and he takes the cookie, moving his gun to his flashlight hand before eating it in a single bite.
“You shouldn’t be eating my snacks or making a mess this late at night.” Dad chastised gently as he looked around at the various containers and boxes on the floor around the pantry. With a finger tapping his chiseled chin, he thought of an appropriate punishment for the little guy. “I’ll clean this up for you, but you’re going to clean up one of my messes someday.” He said with playfully sinister tone. Lu just tilted his head in response before offering another cookie, but dad declined before closing the box. He moved his light and gun onto the kitchen counter before moving Louis onto the table. The mess was sorted out quickly, and everything was put back in place, as Lu absentmindedly watched. With the mess cleaned up and the firearm locked away, the two went back to dad’s room to sleep.
As the sun rose and peaked through the curtains, dad groggily rose from his slumber. He nudges Lu gently, who stirs awake and then turns over. “Now you want to sleep, huh?” dad asked incredulously as he gets out of bed. He turns and leans over Lu to whisper “I know it might be soon, but I have to start teaching you things you need to know. I’m not gonna be here your entire life.” To ease him awake. His only response was to angle his ear towards dad as he snoozed. Dad sighed as he turned to leave, grabbing underwear, blue jeans, and a grey tank top from his dresser before heading to the bathroom. One shower later, and he returns to the sight of Lu fast asleep in his bed. Picking Lu up seemed to wake him from his slumber. As they moved to the living room, Lu rubbed the sand from his eyes as he groggily took a look around to see black and white notecards on the floor in front of the sofa.
He was gently seated on the floor before dad went off to the rear right door. Lu watched him leave, a confused tilt to his head as he turned back to take a better look at the notecards. He reached for the closest notecard stack and he took a single white card from it. Inscribed on it was just the letter A, both upper case and lower case. As Lu turned it around, dad called out “Smile!” and as Lu turned his head towards dad, a camera flash goes off and surprises him, causing him to fall onto his back. Dad just chuckles as he takes a seat next to him before lifting him back up. “I’m probably going to be doing that a lot…” He admitted with a big amused smile on his face. “So get used to it now.” After a quick look at the preview of the picture he just took on his digital camera’s screen, he puts it onto the coffee table and turns his full attention to Lu. As Lu was blinking his eyes, dad takes the notecard from Lu and he holds it out in front of him. “Repeat after me… A. Eeeeyyy…”
For hours, Lu practiced pronouncing the letters on each notecard. His progress was relatively quick, all things considered. He was born the night before and already he said his first word! On top of that, he was crawling around and getting in trouble! Dad figured that Lu was either very smart, or Pokémon just grow up quick. As time went on, Lu started to grow more and more restless. He rocked back and forth the longer he practiced, rocking faster the longer it took. As dad saw Lu practically thrash back and forth, he decided that enough was enough. He picked Lu up and he stood him up on his own shoes, making him mimic his walking as he held him up by the hands. “Ok, hold on now.” He said as he started to step. Left foot, right foot, he marched them both over to the little cabinet table behind the sofa. “You know the cards that we used? They go back in here when we aren’t using them.” Dad instructed as he looked down at Lu. Lu looked back, beaming as his tail wagged a mile a minute as he held on to dad’s hands. Lu replied “Ok!” before he was lifted onto the cabinet. He dangled his legs over the side as dad packed the cards away in their case. The pack of cards were waved to Lu before the cabinet was opened, who watched carefully where dad put the cards. As soon as the cabinet doors were closed, Lu quickly raised his arms at dad and he exclaimed “Up!”
“Looking to be with your old man?” dad teased as he picked Lu up and then held him above his head. Lu laughed as dad spun them around, but almost as fast as he was picked up, he was put down again. The fun had ended much too soon for Lu, and he called out to dad as he headed to the front door. As dad turned and their eyes locked, Lu stood up and he raised his arms, a hopeful smile on his face before he fell backwards. “Sorry Louis… daddy has to go out. I’ll try to get you a little something.” Was all he said with a thumbs up before the front door was closed and then locked. Lu smiled weakly at the promise he was given, but after a few moments of silence he quickly crawls to the door and then tries to chase dad. After a few minutes of fruitless scratching, he turns his attention to the room he occupies. With only a quick glance, he decided the living room is worth his attention. He makes a beeline for the sofa, and quickly climbs up.
As soon as he reached the top, Lu turned around and he sat properly in the center of the right-most cushion. The comfortable feeling of the springy cushion against his hind brought upon him an urge to bounce. He started to bounce up and down gently, testing the cushion as he slowly picked up speed with his bouncing. Eventually he started launching himself as high as he could each time he hit the cushion, arms outstretched as he stared at the ceiling. He laughed as he left a few inches each bounce from the couch, the sofa hitting the end table every time Lu tried to launch himself upward. The TV remote on the right end table falls to the floor with a loud plastic thud, and Lu quickly stops. Nervously, he crawled to the right arm of the sofa, and he slowly peered over. There he saw the remote, on the floor as the TV started to blink on. He dropped himself to the floor as questions flooded his mind: What is that? What is that red light? Did this turn the wall thing on? Slowly he picked up the remote, turning it around to face the front in fear that it might retaliate in some way. Once enough time passed and nothing happened, he reaches to the top of the remote and presses the big red button. The DVD player under the television blinked a blue light, and then stayed on solid, but the thing that caught Lu’s attention was the animated DVD logo that bounced to each corner on the screen and then faded away. Yellow text over a black background started to scroll from the bottom of the screen, and it raptured Lu with excitement as the accompanying brass instruments introduced the movie in the DVD player.
As the credits started to roll, Lu was beaming. He picked up the remote and swings it back and forth, making sword noises with his mouth while falling over and over as he tried to stand up. Despite falling over constantly, he had fun swinging his imaginary sword around, vanquishing imaginary foes. His imaginative play time wasn’t satisfying enough once he stumbled his way into the kitchen and his eyes lit up upon seeing the roll of paper towels on the edge of the kitchen counter. He grabbed the nearest chair, and he pushed it towards the counter. Quickly, the paper towels were nabbed, and the paper towels were removed from the roll. Quizzically, he looked at the tube. He put the remote down on the counter, and the tube in his right hand. He jumped from the chair, and he landed on his feet before falling to his butt. The chair was struck gently with the tube, and then harder. Soon he started banging it against everything bigger than him. Finding something light enough to be held and be able to hit anything with it with no mess was a huge discovery. It was great, but he needed more. He needed a robe. Quickly he crawled into dad’s bedroom, he knew he saw one there before! There, hanging from a hook attached to the door was dad’s plaid robe! As fast as it took him to climb up was as fast as it took to get it off the hook. He dropped onto the collapsed robe and quickly donned it the best he could. Satisfied, Lu heads out and into the kitchen again. He didn’t want to upset dad again with a mess, so quickly the paper towels were stuffed into the robe pockets and then pushed the chair back. Then he hit the chair… and the floor… and the table leg with the tube. Lu was having the time of his life, hitting everything with the cardboard roll as he made sword sounds, drowning out the sound of the cardboard roll’s hollow thunk against everything it struck.
After hours passed, the sound of the front door being unlocked interrupted Lu’s fun. Lu scurried as fast as he could towards the door and then sat up, happily expecting dad on the other side. Surely enough, dad opened the door, and there he stood. Bewildered, he looked over Lu and the robe he took from his bedroom. Seeing Lu raise the cardboard tube triumphantly over his head to greet him prompted an eyebrow to raise over this bizarre scene. Slowly, the memory of last night crawled into his mind, and dad winced as he raised his head to some sort of mess. Thankfully the only thing out of place was the fact that the TV was looping the menu of the space opera he put into the DVD player… and a missing roll of paper towels. Lu stood up and raised his other arm, eagerly saying “Up!” as dad scratched his head at the lack of a mess. Dad obliged, and he picked up Lu, wrapping him up in his robe as he did so. This made the paper towels within the robe pockets fall in clumped balls as the robe bottom was folded under the little blue and yellow thief. “Is this how you greet me? Stealing my clothes and my paper towels?” dad asked as he tried to stifle a laugh. He found this whole scenario so cute, he couldn’t possibly be mad at him. Lu’s response was to make a “Bzzt” sound as he touched the cardboard tube against dad, who cried out in playful and ham-fisted pain. He dramatically limped his way to the sofa, and then dropped Lu onto it. With a last gasp, he collapses next to Lu, and makes a final whimper.
“Were you doing this all day?” he suddenly asked as he sprung up to his feet to instantly head towards the front door. Lu’s response was an excited “Mhm!” as he sat firmly in the right corner of the sofa, all giddy as dad came back in with shopping bags and a big smile. Quickly, the groceries were stuffed into the refrigerator and pantry, save for two ice-creams. He made his way to the sofa with the wrapped treats and the TV remote, one in each hand while the remote was pinned under his right arm and plopped himself onto the center of the sofa. Lu quickly crawls into dad’s lap, and dad hands Lu an ice-cream. Lu was quick to tear his wrapper off to get to his snack after watching dad unwrap his and immediately took little bites. Dad took the remote with his left hand and navigated the menu on the TV. ”I hope you don’t mind watching it again.” he said as he wrapped his left arm around Lu, hugging gently as he took a bite of his ice-cream. Dad sighed as he settled in after his busy day as Lu starry eyed stared at the opening text crawl once again. The two relaxed as the movie went on, the rest of the night uneventful except for Lu bopping dad with the cardboard tube randomly during the film.
Dad wanted to do his best to raise Lu to be happy and healthy with the time he had left, but could he do it right?