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Sunshine trickled through the fluffy clouds, lighting and dimming the lands.
Milo ushered the stray Wooloo back onto his farm, smiling as Yamper bolted off.
The rest of his Wooloos seemed to all be present, strangely crowding around… Is that a person?
He made his way over.
The boy and presumably his Pikachu were sleeping against the fence, oblivious that half the farm was staring at them.
Shaking his head, Milo knelt and nudged them.
Pikachu’s ears twitched as he yawned, rubbing at his cheeks.
He stared up at Milo.
He smacked his trainer’s face, yelling at him.
Stirring, the boy wearily glanced at Pikachu.
He jolted when Milo said, “What are you doing?”
The boy yawned, glancing around. “Where am I?” Silence. Milo rolled a giant roll of hay off to the side, crossing his arms with narrowed eyes. “Oh! Is this your place? I’m sorry, I must have accidentally drifted off. I’ll leave right away-”
A Wooloo rolled over, headbutting at the boy’s hand. The boy patted the Wooloo, freezing when several more charged at him.
Milo sported a mischievous grin as the boy was buried under a pile of wool.
Pikachu sweatdropped, hopping onto the fence. Milo reached out to tickle under Pikachu’s chin. “Aren’t you a cutie?” he cooed. “You must be real tough, huh?”
“Yeah he’s a gremlin,” the boy murmured, trying to wrestle his way out of the pile of Wooloos by petting every one of them.
“What?”
“A brat. A little thief-”
“Noooo don’t be mean! He looks so baby!” Like on cue, Pikachu pouted, squishing his cheeks.
Brushing the dirt from his pants, the boy yawned again. “That’s how he fools you.”
Pikachu laughed, tackling his trainer and gently shocking his hand.
“Sure seems like you understand your pokemon real well,” Milo said with a grin.
“Yeah, I train with them!” the boy said, plopping Pikachu onto the ground.
Milo blinked.
The boy stood up, took one step, and got steamrolled by another pile of Wooloos.
“...Oh my, I’m really sorry.” Milo sweatdropped. “You’re definitely not from around here then. Are you ok?”
“I’ve had worse.” The boy rolled his eyes when the Wooloos nudged at him, demanding cuddles.
“All of you, apologize,” Milo demanded. “Especially you, Snowball!”
The Wooloos cooed at the boy, who tapped their noses before sending them off. Pikachu squeaked, also asking for pets. “You can tell all of them apart?”
Milo nodded.
“Oh like me with my Tauros!” the boy exclaimed, letting Pikachu dart onto his shoulder. “And yeah, I just recently got here.” He bowed his head. “I do apologize for all this. It was nice meeting you!”
The boy scooched closer to the exit, squeaking as the rest of Milo’s Wooloos bowled him over like a rolling pin. Pikachu tumbled to the ground, ears drooping in exasperation as the Wooloos nosed at him.
Milo snickered. “My Wooloos really like you, so don’t worry about it!”
Rubbing the back of his head, the boy grinned. “This is a really nice place! Really homey!”
As quickly as they arrived, the Wooloos rolled off. Pikachu trotted next to one, blinking when Wooloo made a Charizard face at him.
“Is there anything I could do to help out?” the boy asked.
Milo tilted his head. “You remind me of my baby brother. It’s ok, I like doing the chores myself.”
The boy watched Pikachu and Wooloo do pokemon impersonations at each other. “Then you raised all of them very well, thank you.”
While the boy innocently marvelled at the flowers in a nearby garden, Milo was trying to hide his embarrassed flushed face in his scarf.
“Oh that’s right, I haven’t introduced myself yet! I’m Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town, and that’s my partner Pikachu!”
Pikachu chirped, waving.
“My name’s Milo. I’m a Gym Leader and rather partial to Grass-type Pokémon,” Milo said out of instinct.
Ash and Pikachu perked up. “Gym leader?” Milo paused but nodded. “Oh cool, like Cilan! Is that a Yamper over there?” Ash gasped. “Man, imagine if a Yamper wanted to come with us! Would you like that, Pikachu?”
“...You’ve travelled to Unova?”
“Yeah! I’ve also met a lot of grass type pokemon!” Ash scooped Pikachu up, eyes sparkling. “Whoaaa, is that Wooloo wool over there? Try saying that ten times fast.” Pikachu rolled his eyes as Ash chuckled to himself. “Brock tried teaching me how to knit, I probably forgot all of it by now. Whoops! Picked up guitar though!”
Pikachu patted Ash’s face with his tail, teasing him.
“You’re a… strange person.” Ash only shrugged, his grin beaming just as bright as Milo’s. “Want a lesson on needle felting?”