As Hogosha slowly regained consciousness, he thought, "I'm dead, aren't I? Shit! Mom's gonna KILL me when she finds out!" then a few seconds later, "But...if I'm dead, then why am I so warm?" and he opened his eyes.

His first impression was that he was looking up at the roof of a casket, it was so dark. However, almost as soon as his eyes opened, they started to adjust to the darkness. Soon it was as if he was standing outside on a sunny day. But, there was one problem. As he looked around, he realized that he was in a cave with no source of light to be seen. Just then, while he was looking around, a slight movement caught his eye, and he turned his head to see the suicune that he had saved earlier lying a few feet away with its back to him, easily identified by the bullet wound in its thigh. As his eyes unintentionally strayed too far up, he looked away with a blush, and sat up. As he did, he realized that his body felt a bit ungainly, and he looked down.

And almost died of a heart attack right then and there. For as he watched, his body was changing. When he first saw it, it was already covered in blue fur, but as he watched, his body began to take the shape of a suicune, organs and bones moving, changing, growing, and vanishing. He watched as his knees turned backwards, sending him falling forward, forcing him to throw out hands that had turned into paws in order to catch himself, as his arms grew longer to match his legs, and a thousand other changes that should have felt excruciatingly painful, but somehow, didn't. At some point, he even felt a strange new appendage at the base of his spine, and was surprised to see a tail waving back at him.

This process only lasted a few seconds, and when it was over, Hogosha fell to the ground, utterly exhausted, as a suicune. As he lay there, he heard a soft, beautiful, feminine voice say, "I'm so, so sorry," and opened his eyes to see the suicune, the REAL suicune, watching him intently.

It took him a moment to register what she said. When he did, he said, "What for? It's not like you intended this to happen," but when he was met only by silence, he said, "Did you?"

She looked away and didn't respond for a few seconds, and when she did, her voice was pained. "You risked your life for me and were about to die because of it...but I couldn't just let that happen! You have every right to be angry, or to hate me, but please understand, I did the best I could! The only thing I could think of to save you was to give you that form, so I did," she said before breaking down and crying.

When she started crying, any rage or resentment Hogosha may have been feeling faded completely. Despite his complete exhaustion, he managed to get within a few inches of her before his legs gave out, and he managed to wiggle over the last couple inches to lean against her, trying to tell her it was okay in a way that his mouth could not.

Apparently she got the message, because when she had calmed down enough to stop crying and realize he was there, she jumped and said, "Y-You're not mad?"

Seeing the hope in her eyes further obliterated and feelings of resentment he may have held toward her. "No," he said softly, "I'm not angry. How could I be? You saved my life, even though you could have simply walked away and left me to my fate."

At this, the suicune gave a choked laugh, which jarred her wounded leg, causing her to flinch. This was not lost on Hogosha, and he immediately realized the reason for this reaction. "Let me see your leg," he said, urgently, and she turned around to show him the injury. He examined the wound for a minute or so, before giving a growl of frustration. As he'd feared, the slug was still in there. Normally, this wouldn't be much of a problem, as he would just remove it with the scalpel he kept in case he ever needed to remove a projectile, like a pin missile, from himself, but he was a suicune now, and his blades had been reduced to mere markings on his fur.

He growled. "If only I was still human, I could get this thing out in no time, but-," he said, but was interrupted by a strange feeling, and he looked down. "WHAT THE...?" He said at what he saw. His body had begun to change again, but immediately halted when he stopped thinking about being human to be freaked out. When he had calmed down a bit, he tried to imagine what it would be like to be human again... to have fingers, feet, opposable thumbs... and the changes resumed. When they finished, he found that he wasn't completely human, nor completely pokemon. Rather, he was something in between. He had a mostly human body, with hands, feet, a bipedal stance, etc., but he also had fur, a tail, and a muzzle. His hair, while the same style and length as it had been when he was human, was the same amethyst as the suicune's mane. However, much to his delight, all his knives were now hanging from the belt he had been wearing before he'd become a suicune, including his scalpel and first aid equipment.

"Ok... what the hell just happened?" he said to no one in particular.

"Hell if I know, but now that you have hands again, can you do something about this wound? It really hurts," said the suicune, snapping the half-human out of his daze.

He drew the scalpel and said, "This might hurt, ok?"

"Ok, ok, just hurry it up!" she replied impatiently. And with that, he carefully worked the blade into the wound, being careful not to cause any more damage to the delicate tissue than was necessary. After about five minutes of carefully and skillfully working the tool, he managed to get the slug out without damaging any critical arteries or muscles.

When he was done, he used all of the potions he had on him, and managed to close the wound a fair bit, so that it wasn't as deep, even though he had to bandage the last of it so it wouldn't get infected. When she realized he was done, the suicune said, "I thought you said that would hurt!"

"I forgot that I covered it in a fast-acting anesthetic before I left. It's kind of hard to operate on yourself if you can feel everything that you're doing," replied Hogosha calmly.

After some more trivial discussion, the two of them went to sleep. After all, it had only been a few hours since they had met, and they were both tired from that event.

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When Hogosha woke up, he wondered if it hadn't all been just some crazy dream. He hoped it was, because if it wasn't, the implications were staggering. He opened his eyes slowly and looked down...

And saw what he had feared. He was indeed a pokemon; or rather he was a half-pokemon, at least for the moment. He was also lying on the floor of a cave that was (for all he knew) hundreds of miles from the nearest town, next to a suicune that was watching him as if he was a very interesting piece of art that had suddenly appeared before her.

When she realized that he was awake, she said, "About time you woke up. I was beginning to think that you were going to sleep through lunch as well as breakfast."

Hogosha groaned and rolled over, wanting nothing more than to go back to sleep and forget his predicament. "Go away," he groaned sleepily.

"Don't make me start with the licking," she said playfully, getting only an annoyed groan in response. "Don't say I didn't warn you...," she said and started bathing his face with her tongue, leaving trails of dripping saliva in the fur on his face. Needless to say, this got him up REAL quick, practically flying to the roof of the cave, only to come back down and land on his feet.

"What the?! What did you do that for?!" he demanded, blushing heavily. From his understanding, what she had just done was considered a sign of affection among pokemon.

Upon seeing the expression and the blush on Hogosha's face, the suicune burst out laughing. She couldn't help it; he just looked too much like a pup whose mother had just done something embarrassing in front of all his friends. Through the fits of laughter, she managed to say, "Well you *laughs* wouldn't *laughs for several seconds* get up, so I *laughing dies down to a giggle* had to *giggles* do...THAT," before bursting into a new fit of laughter, which continued for some time.

When at last the laughter finally faded, the suicune heard a growling sound, and looked around for the source. When her eyes landed on Hogosha, she heard it again, and realized what it was. "Looks like someone's hungry," she said, walking away and returning seconds later with a palm leaf between her jaws, which was overflowing with berries. She set it down in front of him and stepped back, indicating that he was welcome to it, and he gratefully dug in.

However, he quickly found that it was difficult to use his hands to bring the food to his muzzle, and uncomfortable and embarrassing to get on his hands and knees to try to eat that way. So although he was loathe to risk losing his human form, even as altered as it was, he decided that the best course of action would be to try to return to the fully-suicune form, so he focused on the thought of what it was like to be a suicune, and within seconds, he was back on all fours, and eating berries ravenously.

When Hogosha started eating, the suicune couldn't completely stop a thought from entering her mind. "He really is an attractive male...I wonder how big his- No! Stop RIGHT THERE!" she started thinking, but interrupted herself before she could finish that particular train of thought, "you don't like him like that, and there is no way in HELL that he'll ever like you like that." But even though she told herself that, she couldn't help but admire his body.

Then, out of nowhere, Hogosha looked up and said, "I don't think we've had a chance to catch each others names yet, have we?" the suicune only blinked in response. She hadn't even realized that. "I didn't think so," he continued, "I'll go first then, shall I?" he was met by silence, so he continued. "I'm Hasaki Hogosha, and you are?"

"Crystal," said the suicune.

"That's a...nice name," said Hogosha.

"Why, thank you," said Crystal, both proud and embarrassed by the complement. An awkward silence came after that, and it persisted for several seconds.

"So...any chance you'd mind showing me around the area?" Hogosha asked in an attempt to break the silence, mentally kicking himself directly afterwards. He'd made it sound like he was asking her out on a date! She was just a friend, nothing more...right? but as much as he tried, he couldn't deny that he had feelings other than friendship towards her, but for the life of him, he couldn't figure out what they were.

"Oh, umm...sure! I forgot that you were out of it when I brought you here," said Crystal. In truth, she was rather exited to show him around, but she didn't want to let that on. She then proceeded to lead him out of the cave. When they finally rounded the last corner, Hogosha was forced to cover his eyes with his foreleg, and even then he still had to squint until his eyes adjusted.

When at last he could see again, Hogosha noticed for the first time just how sensitive his nose and ears had become. In the cave, the only things to smell had been himself and Crystal, and the two of them had spoken softly without even realizing it. Now that he was out, he realized that he could hear a stream that was several hundred feet away as if it was right next to him, and could smell that same stream and by smell, he could tell how sweet it was.

"What are you waiting for? You're the one that wanted to see the area, so come on!" he heard Crystal call out excitedly, and looked up to see her anxiously prancing about several yards away. Her voice had snapped him out of trying to consciously deal with all the new sensory input that his human mind was unused to, allowing his subconscious to take over. He started towards her, and when he got to where she was, she led the way, keeping just half a step ahead of him.

They walked and talked for hours. Every time they passed a landmark, Crystal would point it out and give a brief history of it. Occasionally, they'd pass a friend of Crystal's, and she'd introduce them. More often than not, the friend would say something about them being a couple, and they'd blush furiously and stammering denials, and usually the friend would walk away, laughing. One such incident happened thusly: the two of them were heading upstream next to a small brook, when they heard a voice behind them call out, "Hey, Crystal! Where've you been lately? I haven't seen you in days!" and the two of them turned around to see a weavile jogging towards them. It stopped directly in front of them and asked, "Hey Crystal, who's this?"

"He's a friend I found a few days ago. His name is Hogosha, and he was injured by some humans, so I was taking care of him," Crystal replied, elegantly avoiding the whole truth.

The weavile looked back and forth between them, confusion evident on its face. After a few seconds, it asked, "So have you two done it yet?" with as little tact as could be possible.

"NO!" yelled the two of them at exactly the same time, causing the weavile to give them a look with even more confusion. "Aren't you two mates?" it asked.

Again, the two of them spoke in unison, saying, "W-what? N-n-no! We're just friends!" and the weavile just walked away laughing so hard that it's a wonder that its sides didn't rip open.

A few minutes after this event, they came upon a small, river fed lake. When they got there, Hogosha stopped and stared. He had no idea why, but that shining water, coupled with the elegant suicune that was standing in front of it appeared to him to be the most beautiful sight he'd ever seen. After a few seconds, he shook his head to break the trance. After another few second spent pondering just why that had appealed so strongly to him, he put it down to his new form's instinct. Just when he reached this conclusion, he watched Crystal leap out onto the lake, landing lightly on the surface. Seeing his surprised reaction, Crystal called back, saying, "Come on! It's not like you'll sink."

Hogosha nervously complied. The first couple of steps were nerve-wracking, but when his paw just floated on the surface, he realized that he really wouldn't sink, and became more confident. Suddenly, he noticed a strange sensation. It was almost as if he had grown another body part. When he tried to move this new appendage, however, the lake was thrown into chaos, waves churning as though in a violent storm, and he immediately stopped, returning the lake to its peaceful state. When he calmed down, he could feel Crystal's gaze on him. Ignoring this, he tried again, this time moving the limb, this time upwards, and a large, shapeless mass of water arose from the depths of the lake, connected to his feet like a second shadow. As soon as he saw it, he freaked out, and the water fell to the lake with a loud crash.

"What was that?!" he cried out in shock, only to realize that Crystal was staring at him with a mix of awe and fear etched into her features.

"Th-that shouldn't b-be p-p-possible!" she almost yelled, her voice mimicking her face, "You just used an ability that even purebred suicune have to train for years to gain, and on a scale that was thought impossible for those without the affinity for it, nonetheless!"

"What are you talking about? And why are you so scared?" asked Hogosha, taking a step forward.

Seeing him step forward, she took a step back, crying out, "Stay back!"

Her voice, not her words, were what caused Hogosha to stop dead in his tracks as raw anguish raced through him at the sound of fear, awe, and something he couldn't put his finger... well, paw on. He didn't move as she darted past him. When she was gone, he walked over to shore, and cried for several hours, before falling asleep. He had just lost the only friend he had in the world right now. What was worse was that he didn't even know why....Chapter End Notes:yeah, yeah, i know im probably gonna get a lot of shit for this, but i dont wanna hear it. if you think it was stupid, go inhale glue. if you think it could have been better, please tell me how, preferably without being an ass