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When Blanche's alarm went off, they found themself jolting out of their desk chair, accidentally knocking Vaporeon to the ground. The water type grumbled, rolled over, and continued snoozing.
Blanche adjusted their glasses and looked around, mildly confused. Damn, they'd fallen asleep on their desk again. They reached up and wiped the drool off of their chin, then moved to gently prod the marks their keyboard leftover on their cheek.
Trying to get their bearings, they looked around their workspace. Yes, they were still in their office at Willow’s lab. They hadn't meant to spend the night… again. It had been at least three days since they'd been to their apartment.
Oh well. Science marched on, and so must they. They took a swig of last night's red bull and popped their neck before shaking themself out and waking up their laptop. The screen lit up, reminding them of what they'd been researching last night.
Ah, yes. Missing children reports, spanning back up to a hundred years ago. A night of heavy research, but they were sure that they'd found him…
Blanche pulled a collapsed pokéball from their pocket and released the new occupant. A tiny Phantump peered up at her solemnly.
“Are you Thomas?” They asked. It tilted its head, thinking. Blanche waited, patient. Not all ghosts could retain their human memories, especially if this was the little boy they'd found online. He'd been reported missing almost seventy-eight years ago.
Blanche let him stare at the picture on her screen, let him think. Finally, the memories seemed to come to him, and he nodded. Blanche sighed in relief.
“It's nice to meet you, Thomas.”
“Tump.”
Quietly, they brought up the Phantump’s information on their Pokédex and edited his name. T-H-O-M-A-S. They made a quick note to contact the authorities in charge of cold cases and inform them of their findings. They could then contact the remaining family members and let them know that he was now a Pokémon. Decisions could be made from there. They’d be happy to reunite the boy with his family if they wanted that, but would be just as happy to continue taking care of him.
Their phone made a noise, informing them that they had a meeting in twenty minutes. They leaned over and picked up the little ghost; he nestled into their arms.
Blanche looked at him. He'd been barely past his second birthday when he died, having wandered away from his family during a picnic. The file mentioned that a body hadn't been found, and Blanche didn't really want to know what had happened to it.
Blanche exited their office and into their lab. One of their cupboards was filled with Pokémon formula and bottles; they quickly mixed two parts ghost type formula to one part grass type formula and gave Thomas the bottle. He took it and latched on immediately. Blanche smiled.
With that done, they started to head to their meeting, but was startled by another ghost Pokémon hovering quietly beside them.
“Ah, good morning, Susan,” Blanche greeted the Yamask. Yamask were interesting in that they had a perfect recall of their human lives. Susan had been an archeologist in life, and in death she helped Blanche around the lab.
Susan peered at the baby ghost in Blanche's arms curiously.
“His name is Thomas,” Blanche explained. “I found him last night. He went missing almost eighty years ago.”
Susan seemed to smile. She took a pen and piece of paper to write Blanche a note. “You're good to us dead folks.”
Blanche shrugged. “Just because you're Pokémon now doesn't mean people should forget who you used to be.”
Susan nodded before floating away to continue her work. Blanche headed to their meeting.
Willow and Candela were already in the meeting room, chatting about battle strategies. Spark would probably be late, like usual.
Candela grinned at them. “Hey, you.”
“Good morning,” Blanche replied, adjusted Thomas in their arms. He was half asleep but still drinking his formula. “I'm sorry that I wasn't home last night. I was busy with Thomas here. I found him in the forest while walking Vaporeon, and I wanted to make sure I found out who he was.”
“He's adorable,” Candela replied. “How old was he?”
“Two.”
“Oh… so young.” Candela held out her arms, and Blanche shifted the little ghost into their lover's arms.
“Yeah… I went back over almost a hundred years of missing children reports before I found him. Knowing his species, he'll be very infant-like until he evolves.”
Candela cradled the baby ghost easily, long experienced with caring for Pokémon infants. “You know, people don't usually dedicate so much thought and time to ghost Pokémon.”
Blanche frowned. “Most ghost Pokémon used to be people. It only seems fair to them.”
Candela just smiled again. “You're a sweet person, you know.”
Blanche snorted and was about to retort, but Spark burst into the room at that moment. Willow began the meeting then, distracting them.