Ch. 15

I slowly came to my senses to someone or something shaking me. I slowly open my eyes to meet those of a teary eyed Kirlia. "Ok their Jenavee, you don't need to shake me so hard." I close my eyes again and lifted my hand up to rub the sleep out of my eyes, as I do every morning.

When I open my eyes again I can see that Jenavee's eyes were are all red an puffy as if she'd been crying for some time. "Oh Donovin I thought that I was going to loose you there for a moment." I was a little taken back their for a moment.

"Why do you say that Jenavee?"

"Because when you were about to tell me about your home, your eyes went into the back of your head and your heart stopped." I died? Wow. Jenavee's hands went to her face and she started to cry. That's when I realized that she was sitting with her legs and on my chest. I pulled her into a tight hug and held her there.

"Their their Jenavee. Everything's alright now. I'm here as you can see and ready to face another day. But first things first."

"What is that Donovin?"

In a bit of a rushed voice, "I...can't...breath."

"Whoops. Sorry about that Donovin." Jenavee jumped off my chest, then I took in a good long breath, as if I was coming up for air after a deep dive in the water. I looked over and saw Jenavee sitting next to me in the same sitting position as the old samurai used. After I regained my breathing I sat up in bed and looked over to the clock. It said that it was five in the morning. I stretched and found that I was still a little sleepy but since I was wide awake I decided that I would go down with Jenavee and check on the Riolu.

I got up and put on my pants back on then turned to face Jenavee. "Where are you going Donovin?"

"I was thinking that since I'm wide awake now, I would go downstairs and check on the Riolu." Jenavee stood up and placed her hands on her hips.

"Why are you so interested in that Riolu? Is it that you care more about that Riolu than me?" I smirked and leaned down to kiss Jenavee on the forehead and picked her up to place her on my right shoulder.

"Of course not Jenavee. I am just concerned for that Riolu's health, is all." She gave me a long look as if she were telling me that she didn't believe me. "Don't you remember how I cared for you when we first met and you were injured?" She nodded.

"How could I forget. That was when I........" She trailed off their in thought. I looked up at her to see her blush and turned away. I smiled and reached up and rubbed her cheek. The lights were still out but I knew that this place would become a little more active in a few hours. We walked down to the observation room where the Riolu was and looked in through the window in the door. The bed was a mess and their was no sign of the Riolu. I quickly opened the door to the room and started to look around. The Riolu was to small to have turned the doorknob so that left only one option.

Had the trainer had followed me here and taken back his Riolu back? I searched all over the room until Jenavee lightly tapped my head and I stopped.

"I think you might have missed a spot."

"Where?" Jenavee pointed to the bed then I furrowed my eyebrows, then she pointed to the underside of the bed. I smirked and set Jenavee down on the chair next to the bed. I got down on my hands and knees then looked under the bed, and sure enough there was the Riolu. The poor thing looked like it was frightened out of its skin as she was looking back and forth and shaking. I looked at the Riolu for a moment then without warning the Riolu dashed out from under the bed right into my chest where it started to cry. I wrapped my arms around the frightened little thing then stood up.

I guess the Riolu had woken up in the darkness and when she realized that she was alone, she had hidden under the bed where she thought it was safe. She didn't stop crying for quite a while. I walked over to chair that Jenavee was standing in and nodded. Jenavee jumped backwards and landed on the top of the chair with the grace of her kind. The chair looked like it was about to fall backwards so I sat down in it and started to cradle the Riolu.

"It would seem that she was really frightened when you were not here." I nodded.

"I wonder how old she is?" Their would be almost no way that I could easily find that out other than to ask the nurse in the morning. Which I really didn't want to do.

"Would it be ok if I asked her?" I looked up to her.

"That would be great Jenavee, but I think that it would be best if you used your regular Pokemon speech." She nodded and I lifted her up with my spare arm and had her sit on my leg. She turned to face the Riolu and I gave her a gentle nudge. The Riolu looked up at me then I nodded to Jenavee. The Riolu turned to look where I had nodded and saw Jenavee. Almost immediately she buried her head into my chest again. After a little coxing she finally looked at Jenavee and Jenavee started to talk to her.

Of course I couldn't understand a single word that Jenavee or this Riolu said to one another, but I listened to the sound of the Riolu's voice. I could tell that she was scared of Jenavee, and probably for good reason. Jenavee was a psychic type and she was a good fighter, where as this Riolu was a fighting steel type and weak against psychic attacks.

The two talked until Jenavee seemed satisfied. After they were done the Riolu lay it's head back into my chest and seemed to fall asleep.

"So what did she tell you?"

"She said that she is barely three full moons old, and she was taken away from her mother." Which caused a little bit of anger to bubble up in me. "She goes on to say that the person that had taken her away from her mother pushed her into many battles that she was obviously not ready for. So naturally she lost every battle and since she lost so many times the person would beat her." I nodded and looked down at the Riolu, feeling a quite sorry for this baby Pokemon.

"It would seem that she has had a very tough start in life and I suspect that she would very much like to return to her mother." When I mentioned that, the Riolu looked up at me with wide eyes, as if she didn't believe what I had just said. "Though, I think it would be best if we waited a little while before heading out and finding her mother, since she still needs time to heal."

With that the Riolu hugged my chest and I could feel my shirt get a little damp where she had her head against my chest. So I smiled and started to rub it's head, then looked up and could see Jenavee was getting a little jealous, so I pulled her in as well and started to rub her head as well. We spent the rest of the morning like that, me rocking both Jenavee and the Riolu back and forth, until the lights started to come on in the center. A little later nurse Joy walked into the room and placed her hands on her hips.

"Oh it's you again, well I hope that you aren't going to be causing me any more trouble." I didn't really understand what she meant by that. Other than when I had woke her up so late at night. "Well let me get a look at that Pokemon to see if we can release her today." The nurse walked over and pulled out a stethoscope from a pocket in her apron and walked over to us. Like before the Riolu buried it's head into my chest at seeing a stranger approach her with a weird looking device. The nurse stood over me and opened her arms to take he Pokemon out of my arms.

"If its all the same to you nurse Joy, I would really appreciate it if you would check her while she's in my arms." The nurse was a little taken back by this. I guess not many people asked for this. So she nodded and looked over the Riolu and said that she was all better and that she could go. With that I thanked her and picked them both up and headed back to our room.

"Well I would have to say, that is one nurse I hope to never meet again."

"Well we did wake her up in the middle of the night and that fight yesterday."

"But still she did not have to be so rude to us. Is it not her job to heal injured Pokemon like us?" I nodded and looked down to the Riolu who was looking up at me. "So what do we do now?"

"Well first I would like to go to the market and get some new cloths and stock up on some supplies.... Oh shoot."

"What is the matter Donovin?" She asked with a worried look on her face.

"I just realized that I don't have any money." I laughed at myself for being so stupid.

"So why don't you just go out and get some."

"There is only a few ways to get money. The first is to work here at the center to heal some Pokemon like we did before, but I don't want to have to work under someone that already hates us." Jenavee nodded. "The second would be to battle other trainers, but I don't want to have to force that upon you two." The Riolu nuzzled into my chest a little deeper with a smile on her face and let out a little happy sound. "And the third is to have one or both of you participate in some sort of contest."

"Are those the only things that we can do?" I nodded. 'For the life of me I can't think of anything else right now.' "Well I do not know about this Riolu here, but I am more than willing to go into a battle against another Pokemon. I have enough experience to easily win a battle, but as far as contests go, I think the only thing that I would be good at would be dancing."

"Well I don't really think that is the only thing that you could compete in." Jenavee looked up at me, as I tapped her on her nose. "I think you could easily win a beauty contest." Jenavee blushed. "But if you prefer to have a battle with another trainer, then that's ok too." I gently reached over and rubbed Jenavee's her head.

"Well then, how about we go and find us a trainer?" I nodded and we got up and went outside to find our first Pokemon battle.Chapter End Notes:Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended