Chapter Text
~~~~~ Aria: ~~~~~
Today is the day Aria is starting her adventure and she's shaking with excitement the second she wakes up. She barely got any sleep last night as she was too anxious for today. She goes to her closet to get her clothes for a shower.
"Aria, before you leave you need to take a-!"
"Already on it Dad!" Aria cheers, cutting off her dad before he can tell her to shower. He appears by her doorway and smiles at her gently.
"I can't believe you are already eleven! Where does the time go?" He asks in disbelief, making Aria giggle.
He comes into the room and starts tickling her, making her squirm in delight.
"Daddy!" She whines, "I need to get ready!"
"Okay, okay little one. I'll leave you to it." He says, stopping and kissing her forehead before leaving the room.
Aria shakes her head and sighs happily, following him out of the room. She turns into the bathroom beside her bedroom and turns on the hot water before stripping off her pajamas. The cold tiled floor makes her flinch before she steps into the warm shower.
'Today will be a great day!' She thinks to herself, quickly washing her skin and hair before she steps back out of the shower and towels off. She then looks in the mirror at her messy blonde hair and sighs, that's going to take forever to dry. She quickly brushes it out, cringing as the wet strands tangle together. Then she struggles to get it to cooperate enough to put it into a ponytail. Three minutes later, she slips on her mint green t-shirt and black ripped shorts, nodding approvingly at herself in the mirror before exiting the bathroom. She goes down the hallway to the kitchen and grabs a bagel before hugging her dad goodbye.
"Good luck Honey." He says, kissing her on the top of her head.
"Thanks daddy! I love you!" Aria says, kissing her dad's cheek before breaking free from her his embrace and going to the living room where her Alolan Vulpix is napping. She kneels before her and shakes the Vulpix gently, causing the sleeping Pokémon to open its sleepy eyes
"C'mon Eira, it's time to go!" She cheers, making the groggy Vulpix cry in excitement, rising from her bed before going to the door, wagging her tails excitedly. Aria follows her with a bright smile. Then she crouches down and puts her mint-green sneakers on. Eira leaps onto her shoulder and licks her cheek.
"Vul!" (It's time!)
'Yes, it's finally time to go!' Aria thinks happily, trotting out of the door and into the town of Vaniville, her precious Vulpix riding along on her shoulder.
~~~~~ Catherine: ~~~~~
Today's the day! To sleep a little longer.
An alarm blares to life and is immediately shut off and ignored.
Catherine flops back on the bed with no hesitation, curling under her blanket.
"Vul!" Comes the cry of her fiery Vulpix, jumping up onto the bed.
"Amber, nooooo..! Little longer..."
Amber jumps and smacks the calendar above Catherine's bed off the wall, hitting Catherine on the head.
She immediately sits up, glaring daggers at her Vulpix.
"Owwah! What was that for?"
Amber slaps the calendar that had fallen to Catherine's lap with her paw.
Catherine flutters her eyes for a second, still tired, before focusing on the calendar, her eyes going wide at the date.
"Ooohh, crap!"
She flings herself out of bed in an instant, almost flinging Amber off the bed in the process, too, excitement coursing through her.
"Ohmygosh, ohmygosh, ohmygosh! Oh. My. Gosh. Woohoo!! Sorry Amber, but WOOOOO!!!!"
"Quiet! The baby's sleeping!" Comes the loud voice of her dad from upstairs.
"Sorry!" She whisper yells.
"Jeez, yell at me to stop yelling, good plan Dad... Right, Amber?" She says with a laugh.
The Vulpix raises a paw to her mouth and snickers, rolling her eyes.
Catherine has had Amber since she was born.
Her dad had found the abandoned egg just before he got a call to come to the hospital, and this tiny little Vulpix hatched a few hours after Catherine was born, immediately taking a liking to the baby girl.
"Thanks for waking me up, Amber! Find your scarf, I'll go get dressed!"
Amber gives a happy cry and walks off to go get her scarf.
"Bring extras!" Catherine adds.
A few minutes later and Catherine has her brown hair brushed, a bag by her side and she's dressed! Shoes on and ready to go and everything!
She looked in the mirror, twisting to different angles.
Emerald eyes shine like stars, as Catherine hops up and down excitedly.
"Do you like it, Amber? Mom just bought it for me the other day!"
The dress she was wearing had a navy top with a striped skirt and a fabric rose on the left side of her chest.
"Vulpix! Vul!"
"I'll take that as a yes! Got your extra scarfs?"
Amber nods and hands the scarfs over, Catherine placing them in her bag.
Catherine pats her shoulder and bends down, Amber hopping right up happily.
Heading upstairs, she greets her parents and siblings who were there, grabbing a cheese stick and eating it quickly as she looks around the room still filled with boxes from just moving a few days ago. They even still had the rental truck. Dad was too tired to take it back last night, so now they were gonna have a late fee...
"Did you get a shower?" Her dad asks.
"Yup! Did last night!"
"Wow, look at that, she willingly got in the shower for once." Her mom smiles at her.
Catherine laughs, bringing a hand up to her mouth.
"Got everything packed then Cat?"
Catherine smiles and nods, "Mhm!"
"Is Catherine leaving?" Abel walks in with Adeline in his arms, the baby girl awake and staring at Catherine.
"Sissy's leaving?" Jerry and Sam ask at the same time.
"I'm going on my very own Pokémon adventure!" Catherine smiles brightly.
"Where you headed to first?" Abel asks as he hands Adeline to their mom.
"Aquacorde Town first, to meet up with some kids that are a little bit older than me and get a Pokémon from the Professor!"
"So grown up, my little Cat!"
"I'm not surprised, she's always been the independent one."
"You mean stubborn like you, right Hun?"
Catherine's dad leans over to give her mom a quick kiss, then walking to Catherine and ruffling her hair.
"Dad! I just brushed that!"
"Sorry sweetie," He leans down and gives Catherine a hug, "Be safe."
"I will Dad, promise."
A bright smile from Catherine almost has her mom in tears.
"I love you, Catherine, don't get into too much trouble."
"Can't promise that." She winks at her mom and skips to the exit of the kitchen, stopping to turn and smile with a wave.
"Bye!"
Catherine walks away and opens the front door, waits for a second, then closes it, going around the other way to the kitchen, surprise hugging her mom from behind.
"I love you, too, Mom!"
She lets go of her mom and presses a kiss to Adeline's forehead, "Bye bye."
A hug to her dad follows an; "I love you." and an "I love you, too."
A hug to Abel.
A hug to Jerry.
A hug to Sam.
Catherine bounds away and stops once more to say; "I love you all so much! Bye!" Then proceeds to blow kisses at everyone.
Standing in front of the door, she takes a deep breath, turns her head to Amber, lets out the breath, and opens the door.
She'd stepped out this door so many times before, but it felt different this time.
It was different this time.
She walks out and shuts the door behind her.
"Let's go."