EVERYONE: Lucarious

[RockJackal]

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?

 

[RockJackal]

Here is chapter 2. In this chapter, Louis decides to visit the city by himself. The formatting seems to mess up when the story is posted to this website.
FFN: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12841927/1/Lucarious
AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14280453/chapters/32940480



The Riolu Years 2


Both dad and Louis slept as the sun rose over the trees. Dad asleep sitting up, as Lu slept in his robe like a kangaskhan. Dad’s rest was interrupted by the sun peeking through the front window and into his closed eyes. With a quiet grumble, he slowly arose. Lu sat on his robe rope, fast asleep with his arms around dad the best he could manage as he kept on snoozing.

With Lu still sound asleep on the sofa, dad headed to the kitchen to cook breakfast. He rubs the stubble on his face as he thinks of a nice morning meal to awaken his slumbering child. With an idea in his head and a frying pan nearby, the stove was turned on to a medium flame and the cupboard next to the oven opened. The pan was put onto the stove before the bacon and eggs were taken from the fridge. The thought of Lu waking up to a nice breakfast brought a warm fuzzy feeling to dad, something about nice family moments always made him feel good inside. However, when dad turned his head to look back at Lu, he was already awake, and sitting on the dining room table.

“You sit on the chair, not the table.” Dad scolded the little miscreant, who responded with a nod and a quiet “Oh.” before making his way back to the chair facing away from the living room. Once Lu was seated properly, his head and shoulders were the only visible parts of him that made it above the table. His arms were outstretched on the table as he smiled at dad, who was still wearing his robe and woodland pants. As Lu smiled, his too returned as the bacon was well on its way to completion. “Anyway… good morning, Louis! Are you ready for eggs and bacon?” Lu’s tail started to wag as he sniffed the air rather loudly, his gaze drifting from dad to the stove. He pointed to the stove as he asked “Eggs?” as some drool started to form on the corner of his mouth. “Bacon.” was all dad said as he turned back to breakfast. “What I like to do is fry the eggs in the bacon grease… so you’re gonna to have to wait before you can have the eggs.”

The bacon popped and sizzled under Lu’s patient, wide-eyed gaze. Even as the eggs were cracked, he stared at the plate of bacon on the table… the allure of its scent holding on to his attention. Lu’s head was on the table, the minutes of waiting too much for his short attention span. As soon as the frying pan was lifted, Lu’s eyes lit up! He watched as the eggs slid from the pan and onto a plate… and then again onto a second plate. He eagerly turned back to the bacon strips, and watched as dad pinched a glistening, long strip… then gently laid it next to an egg. Each strip was carefully peeled away from the others, evenly divided between the two. As the plates was set, Lu turned his gaze to dad for approval. He simply nodded with a knowing smirk, watching in amusement as Lu instantly reached for a piece of bacon and shoved it into his mouth. While dad ate with civility, Lu shoveled the eggs into his mouth with the bacon strips. Lu was quite a fascinating and rather entertaining Riolu, Dad had to pause eating when he couldn’t hold back his laughter to the sight of Lu trying to use bacon strips to pick up egg pieces when they didn’t slide off the plate into his open maw. Mess aside, moments like this always brought at least a smile to him if he wasn’t holding back snickers.

Lu’s messes always varied in size. A routine became quickly established of dad supervising showers with Lu: which is to say dad cleaned them both before he taught Lu how to walk to and from the sofa, where he would learn the alphabet. Three days after the egg incident as dad walked him to the sofa, he asked to be let go using his limited vocabulary. One hand reluctantly supported Lu by his back as he attempted his first steps as the other readied dad’s camera! There was some wobbling at the knees as Lu stood onto his toes, but once he was standing nothing could stop him from walking. Dad had started taking rapid fire pictures as Lu picked up pace. Lu only paused once to smile at dad’s camera before breaking off into a full-on sprint. He ran around the small confines of the house as dad tried his best to keep his eyes on him. He ran figure eights around the dining room table and the fireplace, he scrambled under the table and onto the sofa before jumping off the back. He ran in random directions, things getting knocked off of tables as dad felt nauseous just trying to keep his eyes on the little guy. With a tired sigh, dad asked “Do you want to go outside?” to which Lu replied with a happy “Yes!” as he spun around in circles towards the front door. Once the front door was opened, Lu took off into the woods and then back to dad. Dad rubbed his forehead before taking a seat under a tree, watching Lu disappear into then reappear from the forest more times than he could count.

Lu had so much energy, that once he knew how to run, dad changed Lu’s “curriculum”. He was given an hour to run around the woods until he couldn’t any more, then return to wash and study. As the seasons changed from summer to fall, Lu had learned to speak, and dad had started to fill his big photo album once more. Where it ended at a picture of dad and his wife, continued on the next page with pictures of Lu and dad. Pictures of Lu being startled eventually became pictures of Lu striking poses, ranging from playful drama to faux-fighting, many of which Lu was wearing a dark-brown robe. Dad got Lu a robe when they finished all six movies of their favorite series, and Lu had just started wearing it out of habit. What had started out as wearing it for warmth became wearing it because dad had one to “because it felt right”. He became aware of this oddity of his as the two visited the relatively-nearby lake. Randomly, before dad couold pick Lu up when he approached him on the dock, Lu baffled dad with a rather philosophical question.

It happened when the two decided that before the weather wouldn’t allow it, to have a dip in a relatively far away pond. The trees tried to hold on to the little green leaves that they had, the discarded orange, brown, and yellow leaves scattered all over the forest floor and the dirt road that parted the trees. “Dad, why do we wear clothes?” Lu asked with a quizzical slant to his head. Dad had to take a deep breath as he rested his chin on his hand while contemplating the various answers he could give Lu. “Well… you see…” he started out saying, but his confidence wavered as he didn’t know which answer to give him. Should he give him social reasons? Scientific reasons? “Why are you asking anyway?” He tried to stall as he gathered his thoughts. Lu just powered on, saying “Well you always wear specific clothes before you leave to do your job, why bother?” Dad mulled over his answers as he spoke, cautiously saying “Well… clothes are comfortable… and they have pockets… and I wear what I wear to be harder to spot when I work.” Louis incredulously raised a brow to dad’s series of answers, and he follows up with “But… all the time? And I can always see you clearly!”

Dad was one to raise a brow this time to Lu’s reply. “Wait… what does that mean?”

“Well…” Lu explained as he smiled with pride, chipper to be able to be the one giving the answers “I know what your aura looks like-“

Quickly dad raised a hand to pull back on the metaphorical reigns of Lu’s answer. “And what does it look like?”

“It ah… kind of spikes out of you and coils as it moves…” Lu started to explain, but once again dad interrupted with a question. “So you can use that reliably now?” dad asked as he crossed his arms with a knowing smirk as he looked down at him. “I like to play with it in the shower…” he admitted with embarrassment. This new brought a revelation to dad, who quickly interrupted Lu to accuse “Is that why you’re in there for so long?” Lu nodded gently as he added an addendum to his confirmation. “I mean I’m still kind of getting used to it… so as I was saying-“ the last part of his thought he quickly and loudly said in an attempt to pre-emptively interrupt dad before he could do the same to him “I can always see you, even if you’re behind a bunch of walls… so… why bother?” he continued, his head slightly turned away from embarrassment.

“Well Lu… every little bit helps.” he said as he kneeled down to give Lu a pat on the head, but still he wasn’t satisfied with this answer. “Then… why is it needed at home?” Dad sighed as Lu’s persistence wore at him slightly. “You see… the body is self-cleaning to a degree…” he started, Lu staring with a slight smile as he listened. However, that smile slowly faded as the details became more and more graphic. His smile had become a full-on grimace as dad had come around to the ending of his explanation. “That’s gross!” Lu exclaimed as he grabbed at his dreads. “Dad, I need more clothes! I can’t keep wearing my robe, it’s probably fiiilllthyyy!” With a quiet mutter, dad tries to roll back his damage done as he covered his face with his hand. “Lu… you wash yourself, right?”

“Uh… yeah.”

“And your robe gets washed, right?’

“Yeah?”

“So… what’s the issue?”

Lu looked at dad as if he grew a second head as he frantically shouted “I haven’t been wearing underwear the entire time, DAD!!!”

All dad could do was rest his face in his hand as the realization that their talk wasn’t without consequence fully sunk in. “So… you don’t want me to throw you into the lake anymore?”

“Not without swim shorts!” Lu loudly exclaimed as he looked dad in the eyes with a pleading expression. He looked back with equal plead to his face as he tried to convince Lu to stay.

“We just got here! Do you really want to go RIGHT this instant?” he asked with a slight whine to his voice, to which Lu responded with an eager and desperate series of nods. Dad’s sigh was louder as his nose crinkled and mouth frowned, surrendering to Lu and his irrational need. Once properly dressed, the two hiked back home and went straight to dad’s truck.

From there the two endured a two-hour drive to the only nearby city. The skyline of said city was so big, it could be seen from behind the trees after only an hour of travel. The densely packed buildings dwarfed everything around them, the tallest of which was round and in the center of every other building. It looked much like a polygonal needle, due to the building becoming narrower within sections as opposed to gradually over distance. All of the buildings except that one had blinking lights on them, and animated signs that couldn’t be fully seen from behind the trees. They were quite colorful, and Lu shifted in his seat in the back of the big pickup, trying to achieve a better glimpse at these dancing images from behind the obstructive foliage.

Soon though, the densely packed trees gave way to homes. Lu was staring at the people and Pokémon wandering around the suburbs beyond the dividing fence on either side of the highway as the truck barreled on through. As traffic became more and more dense, the presence of foliage became less and less prevalent. Even the grass gave way to organized street planning and proper sidewalks. The homes were quite nice despite this. Each home looked like the ones they saw earlier in the trip, but better and sometimes bigger. The homes lessened in quality the further in they went, but the homes seemed to house multiple families, looking completely different from the other homes they saw earlier. As they went in further Lu noticed the near-total absence of grass, and only areas of trees. Everything was so foreign, even the air felt different... this immensely excited Lu! Instead of trees there were street lights and lamps all over the place! All of these forms of modern convenience clashed beautifully; the greys, blacks, and light-blues were just as nice as the greens and browns of the forest back home! Dad navigated the truck over to a large mall on the outskirts of the towering cityscape proper and he parked the truck. As soon as the engine was turned off, Lu leaped from the truck and he slammed the truck door closed before running over to dad.

“Dad, why have you never taken me here?!” he asked, beaming with energy as he looked around at everything as fast as he could. Before he could spin around too fast, dad placed his hand on Louis’ head to gently pat it, trying to calm him down. “Because you’re quite young. Also, you run so fast I’m afraid you’ll run off and get lost!” He teased Lu with a playful smirk and raised eyebrow as the two’s eyes met.

“Nuh uh! I’ll aalllwwaayys find you!” Lu said as he happily reached out a hand for dad to grab. Through the permanently open doors of the mall’s dedicated Poké-mart, one could see right behind the entire row of registers was an aisle perpendicular, unceremoniously displaying all sorts of potions, elixirs, and all kinds of medicine any trainer could need occupying the entire wall facing the entrance. This aisle, roughly about six feet in height with multiple shelves showed hints of multiple aisles that reach the ceiling, much like warehouse storage. With Lu’s hand in his, dad led Lu into the Poké-mart, and almost as soon as they went through the automatic doors, Lu tugged his hand free and ran towards a random aisle. Dad’s perplexed expression from this random gesture, especially after what Louis just said prompted him to return with a shameful frown and a telepathic apology. However, before dad could get in any form of ‘I told you so.’, an employee made her way from a nearby aisle and quickly greeted them both.

“What a cute little scamp! Hey! I’m Sarah!” she said in a pleasantly rehearsed tone complete with a smile and wave, but before dad could introduce himself, she continued on to say something more genuine than her practiced greeting line from before. “Don’t tell me… you’re a Pokémon hunter and you’re looking for clothing for your little helper here, aren’t you?” she asked as she bent over Lu to tussle his left dread. “We understand the need to hide the more fluorescent colors of your hunting Pokémon, however Riolu and Lucario are not very common Pokémon, so I’m afraid to tell you that we don’t have hunting gear for either of them!” Dad just stood agape as Lu enjoyed his petting, even wagging his tail and tilting his head for her hand. Sarah eventually caught her eager mistake when she looked back up to dad and quickly stood back up, flustered as she tried to correct herself. “I-I’m ssoooo sorry sir! I got a little too excited there!” she said before she nervously chuckled. Dad chuckled alongside her, wanting to calm her down. “Heh… so… I’m Aldo… and this here in the robe is Louis!” Upon being introduced, Louis waved as he said “Hello Sarah!” who then immediately swooned over his greeting. “Oh my gosh he can talk!? That is ssooo cute!” she gushed before dad snapped his fingers to get her attention again.

As she laughed nervously yet again, Lu turned his head to contemplate her words as dad snapped his fingers to get her attention. “Please focus… we aren’t here for hunting gear, we are here for regular clothes.”

“’Regular clothes?’ You mean like costumes?” she asked as she put a finger to her chin to think. “Oh! Spoiling the guy, are ya?” she asked as her eyes narrowed with a sneaky grin. Her smile turned apologetic as she explained: “I’m sorry to say that since Riolu and Lucario are both exotic Pokémon, there isn’t a demand for clothing that fits them. The only thing we have that will fit him are our generic one-size-fits-all canine booties. Anything beyond that will require a specialty store.” With a simple twist of her torso, she pointed towards the far side of the store as she instructed “Our store organizes apparel by zoology; canines are the aisle by the wall. If you need anything else please don’t hesitate to ask! Have a wonderful day, sir!”

Lu thought about Sarah’s comments as they walked back to the exit. Why was it cute that I knew how to talk? Spoil me how? As the two reached the exit, Lu tugged at dad’s arm gently to get his attention. “Dad… why was I cute knowing how to talk?” he asked the instant their eyes met. The slight frown to Lu’s mouth let dad know that this wasn’t going to have a punch line. “Not a lot of Pokémon know how to speak english.”

“Why?”

“For one reason or another… they just don’t bother learning. They only learn how to talk from other Pokémon”

This answer only confused Lu, who tilted his head in response. “So… what language do they learn?”

Dad sighed as he tried to think of an appropriate answer. Silently, he placed a hand on Lu’s head as he calmly said “They learn whatever language it is they are taught in the wild.”

“What if they are raised with humans?”

“Well… somehow they start understanding all Pokémon. I don’t know why.”

“So… what you’re saying is that I’m awesome!?” he asked with a cheerful tail wag and ecstatic beam. This happy line of thinking left dad smiling, although because of relief. “Yeah buddy, you’re the best!” he exclaimed before he grabbed him by the hand and walked towards the exit, but Lu somehow managed to hold dad from leaving.

“What’s wrong?” he calmly asked as he kneeled down to Lu’s eye level. “They said that they had shoes that fit me.” Lu said in a matter-of-fact tone as he pointed back into the store. “You wanted shoes too?” dad asked with hesitation, which was answered by eager nodding from the little guy. “If I’m getting clothes, I may as well get shoes too.” He said as he practically dragged dad back into the store. Lu hurried them both towards the aisle Sarah mentioned. Past the shelves that were in the center laid an unobstructed view of the rest of the store, revealing isles that went from the floor to the ceiling much like a warehouse; Lu caught on this design as he looked around, these aisles were not nearly as flashy as the center aisle that blocked it. That aisle proudly displayed pictures of the wares it carried and even about other wares on the other side of itself. The attention-grabbing bright white of the shelves out front made the rest of the wood and steel of the other aisles appear very drab. On a second look around himself, Lu noticed that the kids, teens, and their Pokémon did not go past that aisle. He felt like such a cool kid, going where only the grown-ups went!

Lu once again let go of dad’s hand to have a look around every shelf in the first aisle of this special zone, although he would be sure to push dad forward after he looked around a section of shelf. Despite his search, it was dad who found the boots that Lu looked for ever so eagerly. Unlike the other products, they hung from the steel supports of the shelves within cheap plastic packaging. Dad took one off a hook and he examined the 4 pack of boots. They seemed to be made with quadrupeds in mind, but every boot looked and when felt through the packaging was made from the same rubbery-cloth as the boot next to it. Lu stared in awe of the boots, which dad frowned in disapproval towards. He leaned toward Lu to hand him the boots, which he took eagerly to feel.

“Do you… really want that?” dad asked as he stood back up. Lu beamed the hardest he could as the plastic crinkled under his roaming digits. “Why wouldn’t I? There’s 8 pairs of boots!” he responded as he started grabbing at the paper folded over and stapled to the plastic. He was quickly stopped by dad before he could tear into anything. “It’s… cheap.” dad said, with a brow raised in confusion, which contrasted Lu’s eager smile complete with wide eyes. “There aren’t any others though! Not here at least.”

Dad just fumbled his words as he tried to come up with reasons why Lu shouldn’t want these boots, but it proved futile as Lu just held on to the package, reassuring dad how he would be careful with the boots and take care of them. With a defeated sigh, dad caved in once more, and Lu quickly tore open the package to get to the first pack of boots. The few people around them stared. Dad realized that their eyes were fixated onto the odd visage of an incredibly buff old man arguing with a child pokémon in a dark brown robe. Their gaze moved onto him once the two stopped though, and he could feel their eyes silently judging them both. Lu looked around at everyone as he used aura, a little nervous from so many staring people looking at them both.

With a quick ‘Excuse me.’, dad signaled Lu to follow him as they headed back towards the entrance, however before they could round the bend, a middle-aged man that was watching the two gently placed a hand on dad’s shoulder as he said “He won’t be a good hunting dog if you treat him like that.” and as quickly as the hand was placed on, it was removed as he continued on with his own business as dad tried to mutter “That’s not why I’m… here…”. He just shrugged the guy off though as he turned back to leave the store, Lu relaxing as they headed to a self-check-out register. Lu had already donned a pair of his boots, stretching side to side with awe as he watched his boots stay tight against his legs, each paw pad comfortably resting into its own sole, even the pads that he doesn’t stand on. His elation spread to dad, who slowly smiled as he felt Lu’s joy. As they headed back into the parking lot, Lu was quick to tug at dad’s hand as he called out “Dad! Daaaad!”. Dad looked down to his little energetic bundle of joy eagerly calling for his attention, and he answered “Yes?”

“Where did you get my robe?” Lu asked as he bounced in place.

“Right there.” He said, pointing to the section of mall outcropping relatively near-by that read ‘Trainer Couture’.

“Why don’t we just get clothes there?” he asked as he started to grab and pull dad there by his arm.

“You’ll settle for anything, huh?” dad asked with a cocked eyebrow and amused smile. He started to chuckle when Lu replied with “Yep!” as the two continued on and into the store.

From the outside, it had automatic doors that worked. Once inside, one could see a cool color scheme of blue and white, mannequins at the entrances, and a busy atmosphere of people walking this way and that. A distinct lack of pokémon was also noticed. The few pokémon that were there were small enough to fit inside of a purse or hoodie or were there with a child. This didn’t bother Lu any, who eagerly followed dad upstairs. The mannequins on the second floor were smaller and had vehicles and cute pokémon decorating the walls. Clearly, this floor was dedicated to children and younger. On the far-left wall was pajamas and other nightwear for kids, and along that wall was a rack of robes like the one Lu is wearing. Dad points to the rack and he says with a smile “This is exactly where I got your robe.” as Lu’s eyes widened, comparing his robe to the others. His robe faded with time, but it was still one of these for sure. “I’m wearing THAT robe!” he exclaimed with a pointing finer and wagging tail. Dad just chuckled as he said “Yep… you sure are… now go look around for something else you want.” He said as the sound of footsteps could be heard. Both the sound of Lu’s soft pitter-patter, and the sound of heels approaching. When he turned towards the noise he saw a woman, blonde hair in her blue uniform standing at attention in the middle of the aisle.

“Hello, sir, do you need help?” she politely asked as she looked up to meet his gaze.

“No thank you miss… Lindsey. I’m quite alright.” He politely responded with a genuine smile.

“I think you need help.” She responded in her same polite tone as before, a little grin expanded her smile as they talked.

“Excuse me?” dad said, his eyebrows furrowed to her brash behavior.

“Yeah… you seem to be confusing that riolu.” She said, her polite voice held throughout her chat. “He’s going to think that he’s people if you treat him like that, and he’s going to have a baaaaad time with other pokémon.” As dad opened his mouth to rebut, Lindsey was quick to speak over him saying “It doesn’t matter how lonely you are, you’re going to ruin that riolu’s life treating him like a human child.” After her diatribe, Lindsey paused for a few seconds as dad frowned, his immeasurable displeasure and annoyance towards the rude employee peeking through a semi-squinted eye. After a few seconds of staring, Lindsey finally spoke. “Will that be all?” she asked in a disgustingly sweet tone.

“Who’s your manager?” was dad’s only reply, his tone calm yet rife with discontent. “Have a good day, sir.” was Lindsey’s last reply, a rather smug smirk subtly formed on her mouth as her words left her lips before she walked away... It was at this time Lu came by, barely holding a basket with a few hoodies, plain t-shirts, cargo pants and shorts. He shifted through it and noticed that all the clothes were solid colors, not a design to be seen. “You didn’t want anything with pictures?” dad asked as he shifted the contents around. “Nah.” Was Lu’s simple reply. “The graphic designs were very babyish… I didn’t like any.” Amazed by Lu’s use of big words, dad leaned down to pet him, but he started to talk at the same time he was being pet. “So… who was that?” Lu asked as his smile faded away. “Her aura was mean... was she being mean?”

Dad just gave Lu a little smile and a thumbs up as he said “Yeah, but daddy took care of her… lets find a changing room and see if any of this actually fits you.” before he started to lead Lu forward. Many of the kids they passed by would steal glances before they continued their own way or would point out how cool that riolu was. Lu kept an omniscient eye out for Lindsey without paying attention to much else. Dad’s answer did indeed comfort, but he read from dad’s aura that she got under his skin regardless. Dad noticed Lu’s constant spacing out and constant rising then falling dreds between trying on articles of clothing. “Are you ok?” dad asked after all the clothes were put back into the basket to leave. “She’s waiting outside.” Lu telepathically warned dad. He let out a sigh before he whispered “Don’t let her distract you from your fun. You were spacing out so much I thought you were getting bored.” He said as he lifted the basket up. “Come on, lets get out of here.”

As they exited the dressing room to the registers, they were stopped just past the exit by Lindsey, who didn’t give dad any room to get past without knocking into her. Her same eager and chipper smile betrayed her intentions, as she opened with “Hello again, sir! I see that you still need help!” as she looked him in the eyes. Her gaze drifted down towards Lu, who stared back with a serious scowl and furrowed brows. She kneeled to pet him as she opened her mouth, but his sudden step backwards broke her concentration. “Come here, little guy!” she cooed, as dad kept a close eye on them. He hadn’t seen Lu like this before, and curiosity bettered his judgement of intervening. Lindsey took an awkward crouched step towards Lu to pet him, but this time Lu batted her hand away as he sternly demanded “Don’t touch me.” Lindsey didn’t falter and again she reached her hand out to stroke his ear. This time, Lu smacked her hand away as he screamed “I SAID NO!” and the sound of silence filled the entire floor. Curious kids, parents, and the pokémon that accompanied them both turned their head in alarm and curiosity towards the shout. Lindsey was quick to stand up the instant Lu screamed.

Quickly, dad stood between the two as Lu gave Lindsey the meanest of glares he could muster: a full frown and narrowed eyes as he stared unflinching at her. The three stood in an awkward silence; Lu staring up into the depths of her soul from behind dad’s leg as dad stared down into her eyes, Lindsey with her head turned away towards the aisles with her eyes focused on dad. Before long, a fresh-faced mall-cop in a neatly ironed uniform cautiously entered the scene with a pokéball in hand. “What’s going on here?” he demanded more than he asked. He looked over all three of them, and quickly Lindsey started stammering out “Th-th-the riolu just screamed out loud for no reason!” to the mall cop, identified by a yellow ID tag as Mark on his left pectoral. “I heard a child scream.” Mark retorted as he looked around, which Lu quickly responded to with “Th-that… was me…”, his voice suddenly shaken and eyes watery. He breathed heavily, on the brink of tears as he looked into Mark’s eyes. “S-she was touching me… and I didn’t like it… s-so I said no… b-b-but she kept touching me anyway s-s-so I screamed then dad came and-“ Lu started, but was quickly interrupted by Lindsey who quickly assumed a position between the two and Mark to loudly protest “This little shit is lying!” but mark sighed as he put his pokéball back onto his belt. “Lindsey… you’ve gotten warnings about harassing customers before, but this time I have to take you to your boss.”

“What? Why?” she asked with sass in her voice as she fixed her hair in an attempt to keep a level head. “You know why.” was all Mark said as he crossed his arms and raised an expectant brow towards her. She seemed to lose her regained composure as she exclaimed “Since when have we listened to a pokémon?!” which just received a serious toned reply from Mark. “We are skeptical of biased translators, but this time the pokémon knows english. I HAVE to treat it like any other report.” Once he finished his statement, he turned towards dad and said “I’m so sorry this happened sir. If you can wait here-“ until dad interrupted him by saying “No-no its fine. As long as she gets in some kind of trouble we’ll be fine.” he assured the enthusiastic mall-cop before they turned to Lu. He still sniffed every so often as he held dad by his pant leg. As Mark turned to Lindsey, Lu quickly looked up to dad and gave a thumbs up with a big goofy smile before just as quickly burying his head back into dad’s pant leg.

Lindsey only caught a glimpse of Lu’s thumbs up, but it was all she needed to righteously announce “HE’S FAKING IT! LOOK!” upon deaf ears. Mark apologized as he escorted Lindsey out of the store and into the mall proper as she kept loudly saying expletives about how they both had to have planned this. When dad turned his attention from the spectacle of Lindsey metaphorically digging her grave deeper back towards Lu, he noticed that he was fully dressed in a black hoodie, rubberish boots, and blue shorts; his old robe in the large basket where both articles of clothing used to be. “How do I look?” he asked as he flipped the hood up and over his head, covering his eyes with the hood as his tail wagged a mile a minute. “Like a cool dude, but I think we’re gonna have a talk during the car ride home.” Lu’s tail stopped wagging as he moaned “Aaawwwwww whhyyy? She was being mean.” To which dad replied with an amused smile “I know… it’s gonna be a short talk.”

After paying for the clothes, the two left the department store the way they came and had returned to the truck. As dad promised, he brought up what had happened in the store to Lu as he merged onto the highway. “You handled that quite well… but please don’t rely on deception like that. You might cause permanent trouble for someone who doesn’t deserve it.” Lu just tilted his head in response to dad’s diatribe. “Huh?” he asked as he flipped his hood up and over his head. “I thought you wanted her in trouble?” he asked as he played with the strings on his hoodie. Dad just shrugged as he said “Yes I did, but I don’t want to have her lose her job. Your acting could have cost her that.” Lu looked back at the city as they drove, or at least the best that he could from the passenger-side window. “You thought I was a good actor?” Lu asked, eyes wide with awe from what he perceived to be a compliment. “I mean… you did great until you broke character.”

“I didn’t want you to be worried.” Was Lu’s answer as he turned his head to face him with a genuine smile.

“I’ll admit I was a little worried-” he started, but then quickly cut off his train of thought by saying “Louis!” loudly. Once Lu was fully focused on him, he continued his previous talk. “Don’t be a manipulator. You’ll lose friends that way.” were dad’s final stern words on the subject matter, and Lu nodded silently at dad before turning his head forward, letting the strings go before silence befell the two.

When he took a good look out of the windshield, he realized just how much time had passed. The excitement of getting his own set of clothes and being inside most of the day made him miss most of the sunlight; although most of the time spent was travelling to the city. They drove into the sunset, and as they left the city, Lu noticed a sign saying ‘You are now leaving Stardust City. Starman awaits for you!’ Lu turned his head to dad before turning to try to look at the sign behind them. “Did I miss that sign earlier?” he asked as he pressed his head against the window, but only managed to look quite silly from his fruitless attempt. “Yeah, you did. Put your seatbelt on!” dad barked as he turned to realize Lu’s lack of a seatbelt.

He clicked the belt into place before he turned to dad with a smile and twinkle to his eye as he said “So… how do people act?”

 

[RockJackal]

Excuse the second chapter description, it is wrong and the website won't let me change it.