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It was a nice day in June. It was at the point in which it was significantly hot enough for everybody to be picnicking in their local park or packing up to head to the nearest beach, but not so hot that it was stuffy and a fan was needed at all times to clear your airways.
It was a nice day.
However, Meowth had a predicament.
No, it wasn’t because the ice cream supply in their freezer was getting low (although that was also a major issue) or that warmer weather meant that social gatherings were more common again than in the colder and incredibly dull months of November and December, other than the wonderful fact that it was his birthday.
The problem also wasn’t the day itself as it was a sunday; a day of relaxation.
Meowth’s current problem was the month itself. In fact, the main dilemma was something a little bit more personal.
Once again, June.
June was known for many things.
One celebration in particular stood out, though.
Pride month.
—————-
Meowth, Jessie and James were sat in the living room when Meowth finally decided it was time to say something. It was over the halfway mark of pride month and so he had seen countless pride flags and heard of multiple stories of people coming out, some good and some bad. For some reason, though, seeing so much representation of what he went through, which apparently has a name in the human world, ‘transgender’, he felt somewhat motivated to tell his friends. His family.
The scratch cat gulped and resisted releasing a shaky breath.
He couldn’t be stressed. This was Jessie and James, Jess and Jim, Bozo #1 and Bozo #2, he shouldn’t be stressed.
He scratched at a small itch on his arm and tried to ignore the tingling up his spine.
He couldn’t be stressed. It almost felt as though he were betraying years of blast-offs, mottos, embraces, fights over food— Firstly, by not telling them the truth from the beginning and secondly, by not having trust in them.
It was just so hard to trust anybody with this. Arceus, the only humans that know are Giovanni and a Team Rocket scientist and they weren’t supposed to find out…
But they didn’t refer to him as a girl.
Maybe he’s overthinking-
If they of all people somewhat accepted him then surely- surely-
“Meowth, if you’re going to tell us that you’re bisexual, we already know.” Jessie interrupted her small friend’s thoughts smugly as her and James grinned at each other evilly after Meowth had told them that he needed to tell them something.
“W-w-what? How!?” Embarrassed blush etched its way across Meowth’s face but at the same time he was somewhat thankful for the goading as a way to distract from his busy thoughts.
“You aren’t tricking anybody with the way you look at Pikachu.” James laughed and rubbed the fur on Meowth’s head teasingly.
Meowth sighed rather than responding back jovially, indicating to Jessie and James that something else was definitely bothering him seeing as he’d usually always fire back to jokes.
He had to tell them now or else it would never see the light of day, “uh- I just that, uh, too…but dere’s somet’in else as well…”
The cat pokémon shuffled awkwardly and clenched the soft sofa cover tighter in his sweaty paws. Suddenly the sun that had previously felt so warm and comforting now felt oppressive and uncomfortable. Or, maybe that was the piercing eyes of the two humans before him.
No. They were soft, soft gazes that he didn’t deserve to be at the receiving end of.
This was silly, stupid, stupid mistake to risk his family life for this. To risk theirs. Selfish actually, very, very-
A kind hand rested itself on his shoulder and suddenly the words just blurted out.
“Um, I’m not male.”
Both sets of human eyes widened exponentially, neither was expecting that. The three sat in silence for a moment as the two humans took in the information and the cat wished the ground would swallow him whole.
“Would you prefer if we called you by she/her?” James asked, he had a small frown on his face, Meowth noticed as he somehow chanced a quick glance in the man’s direction. However, it wasn’t anger, or disgust, or any other emotion that the cat commonly felt directed at him. Hesitancy? Shock? Yes.
“No! Sorry, just…no.”
The magenta haired woman was clearly confused but curious, “um, they/them?”
A small head shake and his hopes started to crumble. They didn’t get it, so he’d have to explain it to them.
He really didn’t want to explain it to them. He could feel his ears lowering and his shoulders curling in on themselves, he didn’t want to seem too affected by this. It’s not that big of a deal, right?
He was just being stupid, so incredibly stupid and dumb and over dramatic and-
James’s eyes widened in realisation and a deep frown etched its way onto his face, “Oh, Meowth.”
His voice was so welcoming and so were his arms which he had ever so sweetly offered to the cat. Meowth found himself instantly accepting it and ended up huddled in a tender embrace that did in fact make him feel somewhat more at ease.
He could feel the waves of confusion flowing from Jessie and he wanted to help her to understand but even if he could muster up the courage to make some sort of mutter of explanation he was sure that it would end in some sort of stuttery catastrophe, or possibly even a pathetic whimper. So he forced himself to stay silent.
“Meowth, were you born… in the body of a girl?” James was the one to ask the question and the insight hit Jessie all at once, causing her to lift a hand slowly and partially cover her mouth.
He couldn’t do much more than shudder in response, so that is what he did. It was enough explanation for the two humans.
“Meowth, you should’ve known that we’d accept you no matter what,” Jessie told him confidently with no hint of doubt or regret and suddenly he felt a large wave of appreciation for how far the woman had come in expressing her feelings to her family, “this changes nothing.”
Jessie leaned in to wrap an arm around James’s shoulder and in the process she placed her other arm around Meowth too, so that he was fully embraced by both of his human friends. Maybe not just physically.
They sat in a satisfied silence for a few moments and Meowth could feel himself deflate like a balloon with relief.
“Wait, so did they know about this!?” Jessie asked as she pointed towards the two other pokémon present in the room.
Meowth had forgotten about them. He sighed as he turned his head to look at the wide eyes of a bewildered mess of a blue blob that was led on the sofa next to them and the slightly opened slit of an eye belonging to an apathetic growlithe that lay on the mat near the humans’ feet.
He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, slightly dislodging Jessie and James’s grips on him, “Uhh, not really? I mean, unless youse got like a pyroar or a pikachu or somet’in where it’s obvious what de biological gender or whatevah is; pokémon of different specieses can’t really tell. When youse get to know de pokémon den yeah but wit’ me I guess ‘cuz I sounds like a boy and don’t look like a goirl everyone just assumes I’m a boy. Which I am…”
He clenched his paws together and swallowed, his brain screaming at him to continue. “Dat’s kinda why Meow- ugh, Meowzie didn’t like me and like…lookin’ back on it fair enough y’know? I was distraught of course but I could kinda understand it, but she uhm- she said de bad stuff about how I was a f-freak and stuff for wanting to be a human but she also said some stuff dat wasn’t…very good about me pursuin’ a goirl.”
He could see James’s frown and could feel Jess’s hands clenching in anger.
“That stupid, homophobic, little bitch!” The fierce woman managed to grunt in fury, looking as though she were plotting to murder somebody. She probably was. It was obvious who.
Seeing somebody getting angry and protective on his behalf still made him stall for a second in surprise but once the initial shock was over, Meowth was going to awkwardly interject but James beat him to it, “Jess, it’s over now, okay?”
The lavender-haired man planted a kiss to his wife’s cheek in an attempt to calm her down; it worked, of course, seeing as James seemed to have some sort of superpower of being able to lessen Jessie’s rage.
Meowth’s ears flattened even lower against his head and even his whiskers seemed to droop as he frowned and suddenly it seemed incredibly easy to speak. They accepted him. Of course they did. He was acting ridiculous earlier.
“Well, actually, only uh- a couple of humans did know.” Meowth changed the subject, he didn’t know why he changed it to this particular one because he didn’t want to talk about it. Or maybe he did? The stuff he said about Meowzie seemed to lessen an ache in his chest so maybe this could too.
“Oh?” James added encouragingly after another small moment of silence.
“De boss- uhm, Giovanni…and de main scientist guy who was wit’ him when I joined Team Rocket, dey knew. Know.”
The two human’s eyebrows furrowed and Meowth felt as though he owed them more of an explanation, “When I foirst joined me and de bo- Giovanni had a uh- agreement dat he’d have money and food and stuff f’me but I had t’go wit’ his sciency guy every so often t’have small tests run on me an’ stuff ‘cuz I can walk and talk and all dat-“
Noticing his friend’s faces become slightly concerned he quickly tried to remedy what he was saying, “Not bad stuff or anyt’in’! Just like tests t’see how much human stuff I knew and puzzles an’ stuff.”
They seemed less worried now but Jessie gave him another confused look, “But how did he find out?-“
“He did scans and body tests or whatever at one point- t’see if it’s all my head or if I had had body…modifications? And when he was doin’ all dat he noticed dat I was…smaller den a male Meowth was usually an’ I was young so surely dat makes me smaller right? But he had finished everyt’in’ else and was interested and so- I didn’t tell him anyt’in’ but den he uh- looked more and he asked if I was a goirl and I got mad ‘cuz I’m not! I mean I am but-“
“You’re not.” Jessie stated as she noticed Meowth getting worked up in his rant and he gave her a quick, sharp nod.
He decided to continue, “-and so he knew and he told de boss when he came to collect me and dey did…joke about it a little but dey never referred to me as a goirl…I mean de sciency doofus called me an ‘it’ mostly and he normally treated me as a human but when doing tests on me he’d treat me like I was just an animal to be experimented on an’ I didn’t like it much. But de boss- he always called me a ‘he’ an’ sometimes when talkin’ to the other guy about me it sounded like dey were talkin’ about just a test subject but other den dat he treated me like his equal y’know? I t‘ink dat’s a reason why I admire- admired him so much? He never, he never mentioned it. Just didn’t acknowledge it.”
The scratch-cat finally released a breath after his rant and slowly lifted his eyes back to meet his two friends.
Neither really knew what to say after everything that was admitted, so they settled for holding their smaller friend tighter and murmuring reassurances to him.
The blue blob beside James was fully alert to the conversation by this point and looked very confused, clearly having listened in on what they were saying but not fully understanding a lot of it. Meowth grumbled at the bemused look on Wobbuffet’s face but couldn’t help but smile slightly at the patient-pokémon’s innocence.
Jessie removed her arms from Meowth and patted her lap, encouraging the blue pokémon to come to her, which he did of course. She stroked his head and looked down at the cat-pokémon again, “So other pokémon really can’t tell?”
Meowth shrugged and gave in to the urge to lay the side of his head against James’s chest, “I guess it’s different f’every pokémon but like different specieses care more den others, youse dig? Cat pokémon…care quite a bit. Actually, it’s kinda somet’in dat we’re supposed to show pride over or whatevah. But wobbuffetts even though dey look different as a goirl dey just don’t really care other den dat,” He gazed down at Growlie briefly, “-and growlithes I guess dey don’t care so much ‘bout gender and all dat too. I mean sure dey mate wit’ the opposite gender normally and stuff but dere’s less expectation to appear uh- more like a boy or goirl?”
“Masculine or feminine?” James asked understandingly and Meowth nodded.
“Yeah, dat. I guess it just feels kinda shameful since I’m a cat-pokemon to not present myself as more feminine but since I already act more like a human I guess I disrespected dat in de foirst place.” He let out a small laugh that only contained a bit of humour and before either of the humans could interject, Growlie got up from where he was led by his trainer’s feet and lifted his paws to the sofa in order to reach Meowth and place a lick to his cheek.
Meowth froze, instinct told him to complain about the slobber that was now present on his face but at the same time, Growlie had never done that to him before and it felt…strangely comforting.
The puppy-pokémon took it even further and nuzzled against Meowth’s cheek slightly. Sure, they normally treated each other as insignificant or as a simple annoyance, mostly because it was in their natures to rival each other as a cat pokémon and a dog pokémon but they do actually care about each other.
Deep down. Very deep down. But Growlie knew that Meowth was in a position where he needed the unlikely comfort. He jumped up fully onto the sofa and lay in the gap between Jessie and James that was created when Wobbuffet joined in and let out a huff, saying something in pokéspeak himself to help reassure Meowth that there was nothing wrong with him. Nothing. Other than the fact that he sometimes sings too loudly in the shower, but then again, that was just another quirk about him that the family had gotten used to.
Meowth grinned and laughed slightly, “Jessie does too but she’s too passionate and flings water everywhere!”
Growlie lets out a small rumbling chuckle in agreement as Jessie’s face settles into anger and Meowth has to duck away from an approaching fist, he just laughs deviously and hides behind James.
They all settle into a content silence and at some point one of them turns on the TV so that they can binge watch shows together. Sure, it was a nice day outside but right now they just wanted to be inside; present with one another.
During one of the ad breaks they decide to change shows to one of their favourites, a little more fitting for the month and Jessie can’t help but laugh, “We’re a family of bisexuals and we’re watching RuPaul’s Drag Race and are going to a pride parade tomorrow and now we‘ve found out that one of us is transgender…what’s next, we find out that Wobbuffet likes boys too or something?”
Meowth ears perk up and he forces out a small chuckle, “Umm, about…dat…”
All eyes turn to Wobbuffet in only slight surprise but attention quickly returns back to Meowth as he can’t help but complain about what Jessie had just said, “Also, I am not!-“
James smirked wickedly, “Wait, Meowth…if cat-pokémon can tell other cat-pokémon’s genders then that Purrloin-“
Meowth’s red face wasn’t nearly concealed enough by the thin fur there, in his opinion, and he couldn’t help but shout in embarrassment, “SHUT UP!”