"What do you mean it's your egg?"

"What do you mean it's your egg?"

"Now now, I'm sure that we can work this out…"

I suppose this will take some explaining. It was a few years after Satoshi finally came to the stunning realization that I wasn't his rival and would never measure up to me. He decided that we should "go our separate ways." Sadly, he's still under the strange delusion that I, along with him, consider us to be equals. In any case, I hadn't seen any of them in three years or so, much to my relief. I happened to find a daycare facility near one of my normal training spots, recently, and decided that maybe they could do something with my stupid Magmar that I had been planning on releasing.

"Can I help you?" the cranky old bat barked at me as I walked in. How did she get a job as the daycare lady?

"I don't know, can you? I've got this Magmar that I was hoping you could do something about."

"Oh, it'll be alright! Just leave it here with us for a little while and I'm sure it will be up to your expectations!" Gosh I hate it when cranky old people fake enthusiasm to get you to pay them money.

"Whatever." I dropped the Pokeball on the counter and strolled out of the daycare. Nothing of notable value happened in the few days I was gone.

When I returned to retrieve the worthless thing, I saw someone I had hoped I would never have to lay eyes on again in my entire life.

"…Shinji?"

"Hey…you're that stupid girl." She flared up. Nope, she definitely hadn't changed in the least.

"HOW DARE YOU? AFTER ALL THESE YEARS YOU STILL HAVEN'T LEARNED MY NAME!"

"It's not like I've been forced to socialize with you all this time. Now get out of my way, troublesome."

She stared daggers into my back as I pushed past her to the counter. "I'm here to pick up my Magmar."

"Oh! Yes, let me just go get it for you." She turned away and scurried out into the back garden. After a few moments, she returned with a Pokeball. I went to grab it, but she drew it away from me. "Sorry, you don't get your pokemon back until you pay." She stuck her hand out stubbornly.

"Wrong. You don't get your money until I see what you've done with that worthless excuse of a Magmar." I snatched it from her hand and released it from its small place of residence. I had to admit, it did look as if it had gained at least a little power in its time there. I decided it was probably worth paying the old bat, so I dropped the money she charged me loudly onto the counter.

"My turn!" The stupid girl shoved me off to the side as she requested to see her pokemon. I think it was an Ambipom or something. I returned Magmar to its Pokeball and turned to leave.

"Wait! Sir, I forgot to mention. While you were out, an egg was found…"

"Ah. So then Magmar laid an egg, did it?"

"Well…that's the problem. We're not quite sure."

I stared at the woman in front of me who was standing there wasting my time. "How can you not know what pokemon it came from? Wouldn't it be protecting it?"

"You see…this girl's Ambipom was protecting it as well as your Magmar. They're both female, so I'm not really sure…"

"So who gets the egg?" That girl has a serious problem with interrupting people.

"It's for the two of you to decide." She placed the egg on the counter and went back outside as if to avoid the explosion that was about to commence.

"The egg is mine," I said simply.

"Who died and let you decide?"

"Even if it is your pokemon's, you would waste it on contests. The egg is mine. You can have it if it turns out to be weak."

"But it would only be a baby! How would you know if it was weak?" She looked as if she was going to rip my face off at any moment. Normally I would have no fear from such a frail girl as her, but that breeder wasn't here to hold her back this time.

"Look, just let me take it until it hatches. We can decide then. Truce?"

She gained a thoughtful look. "I have an idea. Why don't you and I travel together until the egg hatches?"

"Absolutely not."

"Why not?"

"Because I can hardly stand being around you right now. How in the world would I survive the weeks it may take for the egg to hatch?"

"Don't be stupid!" Quite hard to accomplish that when I was never being stupid to begin with. "We could separate after it hatches and we decide who gets to keep it. I never said this was a permanent deal. Can you please at least try to pretend to stand me for a week or two?" She held out her small, pale hand, obviously wanting to shake. I hesitantly took it. Her hand was soft and cool, drastically contrasting to my dark, rough ones. She seemed to almost flinch at my touch. I myself almost felt a surge of warmth from her otherwise cold hand.

"Fine." I quickly jerked my hand away in disgust. I may hate to touch others, but I still shake hands whenever I make a deal. It's just common courtesy. Don't look at me like that; even I have some concept of manners. I wiped my hand on my pants, trying to shake off the strange, feverish warmth that seemed to be tingling up my arm. It felt so…nice that it was really beginning to scare me. I stormed out of the daycare.

"Shinji? Where are you going?"

"Training. If you want to travel with me so badly, don't slow me down." I was fully willing (and intending) to leave her behind. Unfortunately, she started jogging after me.

"Wait! You're going too fast!" she panted. That would be the point.

She eventually caught up to me and clutched onto my arm, panting. I was a few good inches taller than her by that time, and so my stride was a lot wider. She must have really been running to try and keep up with me. I tried to shake her off, but she clung on as if she would fall through an abyss if she was to let go. Realizing I was really stuck with her for a while, a thought occurred.

"So, what happened to the idiot and the breeder?"

She glared at me before replying, "Satoshi went on to the next region along with Takeshi. I decided to hang back in Sinnoh and keep training for the next Grand Festival here." It was quiet for a few moments. "…So…"

"What?"

"So…how old are you now?"

"…What kind of question is that?"

"I'm just trying to make small talk!" Her cheeks flushed slightly from embarrassment. I found this particularly amusing.

"I'm 15."

"Oh." She seemed surprised.

"What?"

"I don't know…I guess I just thought you were younger than that." What a compliment. She may as well have just called me immature.

"Well the fact is that I'm not," I snapped.

"You don't have to get mad about it," she grumbled. Her cheeks puffed slightly as she spoke.

"Hey…" I mumbled.

She glanced up at me nervously, cheeks still slightly pink. "What is it?"

"…Could you let me go? Troublesome girl."

"SHINJI!"

A/N: Yes, I've decided that Shinji's Magmar is a girl XD I really have no idea whether either one of those pokemon is female or not as it never specifies, but I was trying to think of something that Shinji found acceptable enough to keep, but not necessarily enough to use.