Chapter Text
Lando was an interesting kid as most of the people in the village said, for some reason the boy always seemed to get into trouble when he really shouldn’t be. Enraging the sleeping Slaking, dirtying the clean freak Eevees or even scaring the blacksmith’s Charmander a few times. But he always had good intentions.
Unlike most kids his age, instead of setting off into the forest at the age of 10, because honestly who the hell lets their child go run off with wild creatures at 10, his parents decided to keep him home until he turned 18. Lando didn’t mind of course, it gave him more time to think about which pokemon he would kidnap as a starter.
He had gotten pretty close to a little Houndour pup, it had hatched a few months ago and his parents had put him in charge of taking care of it for the time being. Lando knows that most people don’t name their pokemon, but it was so cute that he just had to, (read: the author needs to name it to keep track of it) so that day Dory was named. It was a shit name, but it was a name nonetheless.
Dory hated being alone, always enjoying sitting on Lando’s shoulder or keeping close to his feet, for some reason the Houndour seemed hellbent on tripping the poor boy. It had only happened a few times and it was mostly just around the house, though there was that one time he was tripped into a lake. That one was not fun. Luckily his mother’s Beautifly was able to spot them from the house and get help, his father’s Froslass freezing the lake to free the poor boy.
A small smile was planted on Lando’s face as he walked along and hummed softly to himself, Dory was following close behind when Lando spotted something. It seemed like brown hair..? Maybe fur..? It had a unique swoop to it and Lando was almost sure that it had to be a pokemon. So he got one of his many empty pokeballs out and pointed at the little hair tuft, gesturing to Dory to remain quiet.
As he crept closer his excitement grew a little bit, what would be his first real addition to the team? Maybe it was a new discovery of pokemon all together! Naive to think about but Lando was still excited for the possibility. He was only a few meters away from the bush the swoop was hiding behind, he let out a silent prayer before launching the ball basically point blank.
“ What the fuck?!” A shocked and somewhat pained screech came from the bush as Lando jumped back and stared at the little hair swoop in shock, he found a talking pokemon? Wait no.. The pokeball hadn’t even worked.. That must mean…
“Oh my god I’m so sorry- Are you okay? I thought you were a pokemon- I just never saw someone with such pretty hair before- I mean like it was so pretty I thought it belonged to a pokemon, wait no that’s-” Lando was cut off from his horrible and embarrassing rambling by the person standing up and shaking their head a bit.
Lando practically fainted on the spot. God he was pretty. Soft face shape, relaxed eyes and mouth curved slightly upwards in a slightly annoyed smile. The way his brown eyes finally settled to stare at Lando with a blank expression and- Oh yeah, Lando should probably help them up.
“I’m fine, I’m fine.. Christ, do you just throw a ball at everything that moves?” The boy asked as Lando pretty pathetically tried to help haul him up. Lando could only give a sheepish grin as he shuffled his feet with a small awkward cough.
“Uh.. No..? It’s just.. I just started so, y’know… My parents didn’t want me running around doing this when I was too young.. Obviously the reasoning was solid since this happened but uh.. Oh right! I’m Lando! This is Dory!” Lando said as he held his hand out with a big smile on his face. The boy in front of him seemed to almost restart mentally as he just stared at the outstretched hand.
“Right… I’m Oscar. It’s nice to meet you, I guess.” The boy, now known as Oscar, said as he lightly shook Lando’s hands. Lando nodded and muttered a soft, ‘You too!’ in response.
“So… What were you doing in the bush? Not to be creepy! That sounds a lot worse than I thought it would- I didn’t mean- Mmmfph?” Lando was yet again cut off from his rambling by a pecha berry being shoved into his mouth. Oscar sighed softly and gave him a tired and almost endearing look, almost. Lando blinked a bit and just happily ate his berry watching as Oscar leaned down and grabbed a tomato berry from his basket for Dory.
“You take care of her well.. She’s very healthy and happy. At this pace she should evolve easily.” Oscar said as he gently pet and examined Dory, a small considerate hum leaving the taller’s lips. Lando couldn’t help but just watch the interaction, Dory happily eating her berry while Oscar gently moved his hands along her fur.
“Y’know a lot about this stuff huh? You a pokemon doctor or something? You aren’t pink…” Lando said once he finished his berry. He heard a small sigh from the boy in front of him before Oscar looked up with a raised eyebrow.
“You ask a lot of questions you know. Yes, I’m a pokemon doctor.. Or training to be one at least. No, I’m not pink. But Nurse Joy is my mother. Not all pokemon doctors have to be pink, you know.” Oscar grumbled as he rose to his feet and stretched a bit. There was a bit of rustling in the bush Oscar had come from and Lando almost immediately reached for another pokeball before his wrist was grabbed.
“I would rather you not injure my partner please.” Oscar mused, just a hint of mocking sarcasm in his tone. If Lando wasn’t so tuned into him he would’ve missed it. Though his heart dropped a bit at the mention of a partner, did he mean another human? Did Lando not even have a chance? He had only met this guy like five minutes ago…
All his questions were answered though when a very confused looking Audino came walking through the bush, holding its own little basket of berries and herbs. The Audino looked between Oscar and Lando, making the shorter of the two painfully aware that Oscar had yet to let go of his wrist. The very pink pokemon seemed to shrug it off, proudly presenting the full basket to Oscar, who let go of Lando to give the Audino a small pat of approval.
“..If you’re done throwing pokeballs at innocent and unsuspecting civilians, the pokemon center isn’t far away and it is getting dark.” Oscar said as he grabbed his basket and started to walk, turning his head ever so slightly to speak to Lando. It took Lando a few moments to realize that Oscar was telling him to follow, and a second later he was happily walking behind a very tired looking Oscar.
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The morning brought chaos, as it usually does for Lando. He was currently trying to chase down Dory to get back whatever the hell the Houndour had in her mouth. He was skidding around the pokemon center while people watched him like a mad man. He nearly slid into the wall though when Dory changed direction at a very sharp whistle.
Lando looked up to see Dory respectfully walking right up to Oscar and dropping the sock into his outstretched hand. Oscar gave the small thing a pat on the head before looking at Lando with a pointed look. Lando groaned softly and hid his face in his hands, god even his pokemon knew he had it bad for the man he just met.
“Come on, we’re wasting daylight. If we want to get to the next pokemon center and not camp outside on the way to the first gym we need to go now.” Oscar said as he threw the sock, and Lando’s backpack at him. Lando stood up before pausing and staring at Oscar with literal puppy eyes.
“You’re coming with me? Really?” Lando asked as he walked over with a small frown. He didn’t understand why the boy who seemed so annoyed with him wanted to follow along.
“Someone needs to make sure you stop assaulting the general public. Plus, I haven’t been out of this place for a long time.” Oscar shrugged, as if deciding to go on a trip across the region was a normal thing for someone to decide after a few hours of sleep.
“I don’t want you to come just because you think I need babysitting.. I don’t want to burden you with- Hey don’t leave me behind!” Lando couldn’t even finish his self-deprecating thoughts before Oscar had picked up Dory, gestured to his own Audino, and walked out the door.
“Don’t kidnap my daughter!”
“Then hurry up, we’re wasting daylight.”