Usually, Shinji liked the rain. He found it relaxing in that the rain made people quieter as they felt “cozy” and therefore less bothersome.

The only time that Shinji found the rain itself bothersome rather than pleasant was when he had no roof to sleep under. He didn’t mind training in the rain, but he did find sleeping under it…difficult. He didn’t have a tent, and this often called for extra searching and scavenging, trying to find some kind of cave or shelter.

Sometimes he would find a town he could stay in that happened to have a Pokemon Center or hotel. He, like most others, also preferred to sleep in a warm bed rather than on the hard ground in forests.

This night happened to be a night in which the clouds decided they were far too heavy and dropped a lot of their water back on earth. A LOT of their water.

It seemed to be a normal sunset to the innocent passerby; no rain to come to the normal human eye. However, Shinji had trained himself to see the signs around him to tell him when rain was near. He had seen dark clouds coming, and the pokemon all seemed to be quiet and secluded in their shelters. He quickly scanned the surrounding area, trying to find somewhere he could take shelter in.

Suddenly, as if someone living in the clouds was holding a massive bucket filled to the brim with water suddenly dropped it. Shinji felt one drop, and then two, and then suddenly he was caught in a huge downpour of cold, heavy rain. He sighed in discontent as he jogged through the trees.

Unfortunately, Shinji didn’t see anything that would prove sufficient for shielding him from the rain, and Shinji was beginning to wonder if he would have to dig a hole in the ground to keep himself from catching his death in this rain.

It was times like this that he really wished he at least had a hood on his jacket.

He looked ahead and spotted a few distant lights through the darkness of the new night. He knew this had to mean that someone was around and must have some kind of shelter that he might be allowed to share for the night.

He broke into a full run, soon bursting out from the trees onto a paved way of road. Ah, a town! He spotted a Pokemon Center nearby and burst inside, dripping water everywhere. He stormed up to the counter, very obviously angry, and grunted to get Nurse Joi’s attention.

She telling a Chansey to help some guests find towels in the lobby area and turned around to find the sopping wet Shinji standing before the counter.

“Oh, my! Were you just caught in the storm outside?”

It took all Shinji had to not start yelling rude remarks, but he managed to calm himself enough to at least sound sane.

“Yes. I would like a room for the night.”

Nurse Joi’s face fell. “I…I’m sorry, but you can’t.”

“What?!”

“Well…all of our rooms are full! I would even let you sleep on a couch or something out here, but they’re crammed full as well!” she said disdainfully.

Shinji turned his attention to the large couches that had many people smashed together like sardines, all trying to at least have a little place to sleep for the night. He even spied many people lying on the cold, tile floor.

Shinji groaned and, without thanking Nurse Joi, dashed back out into the rain.

Unfortunately, every hotel and place providing any form of public shelter was full as well, being that the storm seemed to be getting worse by the minute.

Shinji was beginning to run out of steam. The rain poured harder and the wind blew faster by the minute, and it had even begun to hail.

In desperation, Shinji went to the first door he could find and firmly knocked, hoping he could at least find a place to stay until the storm cleared up.

Eventually the door opened. A woman stood on the other side of fairly short stature. She gave a shocked expression at the boy before her.

“Ah, w-what are you doing out there?! You’re soaked to the bone! Here, please come inside! I’m sure you need a place to stay, right?” The woman ushered Shinji inside the warm house, much to Shinji’s relief. She ran off to fetch some dry towels while he stood just inside the door, shivering and dripping all over the linoleum before the door.

“Hey, Mom!” He heard a girl thumping downstairs. Why did her voice sound so familiar…?

“Do we have company or something? I mean, who would be out wandering around in the rain?” A girl a few years younger than Shinji came into his view. Shinji’s eyes widened as he recognized the long, midnight blue locks.

Her mother came back into the room carrying some fresh towels for the unexpected guest. He quickly used one to cover his face and dry off his drenched hair. Why, of all people, did he have to end up at her house?

He would have rather died out in a tornado.

He highly hoped that if she didn’t recognize him, then maybe he wouldn’t have to talk to her.

“Hey, is that…Shinji? Is that you?” Drat. Why did his clothes have to be so distinctive?

He grunted in response, hoping to avoid any further conversation, but she stepped over and pulled up the towel covering his face, confirming her previous question.

“Hey, it is you!”

“Great deduction, Sherlock.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?!”

“Any imbecile could have figured that one out.”

Hikari whirled around to face her mother. “Moooom! Why did you have to let him inside?” she whined.

“Now, Hikari, that’s no way to treat a guest,” she scolded. “Now you apologize to him and show him to the bath so that he can warm up and get out of those wet clothes.” She turned her attention to Shinji and smiled sweetly. “I’m very sorry about my daughter; is there anything that you need? Do you have some extra clothes that you can wear while I wash the others?” Shinji nodded. “Good! Now, Hikari, apologize!”

Hikari glared up at Shinji. He smirked down at her. “Mmnfry,” she mumbled.

“What was that?” her mother snapped.

“I’m sorry,” she said a bit louder.

“That’s better. Now show him to the bath!”

“Augh, you mean he gets to take one first?! He might poison the bath water!”

“Hikari! He is our guest! Now take him to the bath!” Hikari sighed and grabbed Shinji’s arm, forcefully leading him to their small bathroom.

“It’s not much, but here it is.” She pointed out the soap and everything for him before heading back out into the main living room.

Shinji washed and rinsed himself before settling down into the hot bath water.

He supposed that this wasn’t so bad. I mean, her mother was very nice and had let him take the first bath before he caught his death of a cold, and the best part was that he could insult the girl and she couldn’t make any comebacks. He chuckled to himself as he allowed his body to warm up in the hot water surrounding him.

After feeling that he had “poisoned” the water enough, he dried himself off and put his spare clothes on. He carried the wet ones out into the living room, not knowing what exactly he should do with them. Hikari’s mother quickly rushed over to him and took the clothes, saying she would have them clean and dry in a few hours.

Hikari leapt up and rushed to the bath, obviously wanting to avoid conversation with Shinji as much as he wanted to with her.

Perfect.

He sat down on the couch and placed his legs up, and then slid down into a position in which he was lying down, resting his head on the armrest.

“Hey. Shinji.”

Shinji blinked his eyes a few times, irritated. He had just slipped into a dreamless sleep, his favorite kind, and was now being poked awake.

Of course, it had to be that troublesome girl again.

“What do you want?” he yawned.

“I want to sit down. Scoot over.” She began to poke harder, practically jabbing into his shoulder. He sighed and swung his legs back onto the floor, making room on the small couch.

Hikari’s mother walked through the room once again, calling out to her guest.

“Your clothes are nice and clean now. I left them near your bag over there while you were sleeping. I’m going to go to bed now; don’t stay up too late now, you two!”

“Okay, Mom!” She went up the stairs, and Shinji looked over at Hikari.

“So, aren’t you going to go to bed as well so I can get some sleep?”

Hikari ignored his question and looked him straight in the eye. “Why did you come to my house?” she demanded.

Shinji gave her a puzzled look. “I’m sorry; next time I promise that I’ll look for “Stupid girl’s house” on the map and try to avoid it.” Even Hikari admitted to herself that it was a silly question. How was he supposed to know where she lived, anyway?

“Well…what were you doing out in the storm, anyway? Couldn’t you have stayed at a Pokemon Center or something?”

“Would you have liked me to sleep on someone’s head?”

“You know, you could have just told me that it was full.”

“And what amusement would I receive from that?”

Hikari leapt up from the couch in a huff and walked over to the window. She pulled back a curtain to find that the storm was really raging. “It doesn’t look like it’s going to let up any time soon,” she said disdainfully. Shinji nodded.

A flash of lightning tore across the dark sky, and then suddenly a large boom of thunder cracked out in the quiet town. Hikari suddenly dropped the curtains and rushed back over to the couch, huddling into a ball and draping a blanket around herself.

Shinji smirked. “Scared of thunder?”

“N-no. It just startled me; that’s all.” Another boom of thunder barreled through the house, causing Hikari to squeal slightly and curl up tighter.

Shinji chuckled. Hikari pouted. “It’s not funny.”

“Of course it’s not. A 10-year-old still afraid of thunderstorms is hilarious.” Hikari threw the blanket off of herself in anger, leaping toward Shinji to the best of her ability while sitting on a couch. However, another set of thunder and lighting sounded off and caused Hikari’s tackle to turn into an almost-hug. She clutched onto Shinji’s arm for dear life, as if she thought that she would be eaten by the thunder if she was to let go.

“You’re cutting off the circulation to my arm, stupid girl.”

“I have a name,” she grumbled. Shinji sighed. She obviously didn’t plan on letting go any time soon.

“So why are you here, anyway?” Shinji grunted.

“Um…Shinji, this is my house.”

“I know that. What I meant was, weren’t you traveling with that idiot and breeder?”

“Well, we got here a day or two ago and they were actually staying here with me and were supposed to come back, but they must have gotten caught out in the storm. It’s kind of funny, thinking that you ran all over town in the hail even, while they just stayed in their cozy Pokemon Center.” Shinji didn’t find it funny at all.

With her being so close, he couldn’t help but notice how nice she smelled after her bath.

He usually didn’t find melon-scented hair that pleasant, but for some reason it suited her.

She huddled up closer to him, shivering. He figured she must have been getting chills from her fear. He reached for a blanket lying nearby and tossed it over her. She gladly accepted and threw half of it around Shinji. Before he had the chance to protest, she quickly threw her arms around the torso of the warm boy next to her as the next boom of thunder sounded.

Shinji decided against throwing her off as it seemed that she was genuinely scared. For some reason, he couldn’t allow himself to leave her alone when she was so helpless. He reluctantly placed his arm over her back and tried to get some sleep.

Perhaps getting caught in thunderstorms wasn’t so terrible after all.

Whoa…SRHtheHedgehog wrote a fanfiction in which the main characters are all the age they are supposed to be at present (albeit estimated)? O: What kind of crack-filled oneshot is this?