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Clive is kind enough to let Joshua hold onto his eevee as they walk into the forest behind their house. He's still very small, not quite a hatchling but still downy-soft. Joshua hasn't seen a baby eevee before, and it's so small and cuddly that Joshua never ever wants to let it go. Some of the roots in the forest are a little big for Joshua to clamber over, but he keeps him lifted just enough while he looks at his feet to keep from tripping.
"It's not much farther, Joshua," Clive says a little farther ahead.
Joshua glances down at Eevee with a little scowl. Eevee looks back up at him with a matching look of dissatisfaction. "We wouldn't have to rush if you weren't leaving tomorrow," he says in his best effort of being chiding. "We would have all the time in the world!"
They come to a small clearing. Clive stops and turns, reaching for Joshua's hand to help him over a particularly large root. His face looks apologetic. "I know. It's smart, though, isn't it? How am I supposed to tell you how to beat the Gyms if I haven't gotten there? Besides, once you have a pokémon of your own, I'll come back and we can travel together. It'll be like I never went anywhere, alright?"
He means to keep his insistent pout, because Clive can definitely wait until Joshua is well enough to travel, but— well, he did wait this long. Clive deserves to travel around, and he probably won't like having a tagalong with him as much as he says otherwise. Besides, when will Mother allow him to adventure and make new friends? Clive could stay here forever unless— no, absent brothers are the enemy, and Joshua has to convince Clive to stay! Of course, he is immediately distracted from his thought by Eevee squirming in his arms towards a rustle in the trees. Joshua blinks at it, over Clive's shoulder. "Is… that a pokémon?"
Clive blinks, then turns to look over his shoulder at the rustling tree. His face lights up, and he turns to hold out his hands towards Joshua. "That's what I wanted to show you! Can I please?"
He gestures a little. Joshua realizes exactly what Clive wants, but pouts and squeezes Eevee a little tighter. "But he's so warm."
"I know. He's nice to hold, isn't he?" Delicately, Clive reaches and plucks the thing out of Joshua's arms to set him on the ground. He shakes out his fur a little, then skips towards Clive to rub against his leg. "But, this is important. I found something when I was practicing with Eevee. That's what I wanted to show you."
Joshua crouches down and holds his hands out towards the eevee again, but he stays closer to Clive. Traitor. "Well, what is it?"
Clive grins that broad and knowing thing, then steps over to the tree. His eevee follows him eagerly, dropping into a playful bow just before it. "Just like we practiced, boy," Clive says lightly, beckoning at the tree. "Go on, tackle it!"
Eevee throws himself forward to ram against the tree, making the leaves shake. In response, a strangely colored bird drops from the branches to land in the clearing near them. The warm orange of its head extends down to its wings, and there are little flecks in its tailfeathers that don't look right. It seems much older than a fletchling should be, and watches Clive with open warmth. Joshua gasps, then scrambles forward to grab Clive's PokéDex out of his bag. The device turns on quickly, though the camera takes a longer time than usual to register the shape of the bird.
"Fletchling," he reads. "The Tiny Robin pokémon. When it's excited, its temperature can double!" After a moment, Joshua glances back and forth between the picture in the PokéDex and the little bird standing before him. "Is it one of those variants?"
Clive reaches into his bag to pull out a small orb, tossing it up into the air and easily catching it. "It caught my eye, at least. I thought that, so long as I was leaving, you might like having a friend. Joshua, I'm going to teach you how to catch a pokémon!"
Joshua's eyes go wide. Mother doesn't even like Father's pokémon in the house, and her own are in their balls all the time! What'll she say when he has one of his own? But, he can't resist the urge of a friend. "Really, Clive? You mean it?"
Clive's grin gets even wider. "It's not too hard. Uncle taught me how, when I was your age. First, you have to weaken it in battle. Eevee, tackle it!"
Eevee reels back, then flings himself at the fletchling. It doesn't seem to expect the motion, because it squawks and flutters back a few feet. It flicks its wings and tilts its head at Eevee, then flutters up to flap more certainly. The motion stirs up the wind and nearly flings Eevee back to Clive, but he catches enough balance to fling himself at the fletchling again. That is enough to knock the fletchling out of the sky, though it doesn't look very worried (or weakened) at all. It tilts its head at Clive as it lands, looking expectant.
"Once you've weakened it enough," Clive says, showing Joshua the empty ball that he holds, "you can catch it. Just like this!"
As he speaks, the fletchling tilts its head as if its listening for something deeper in the forest. It's distracted, so Joshua expects the ball to hit it dead on, but the fletchling turns to peck the ball away as soon as it's close enough. It lands right back into a bewildered Clive's hand.
"Is it supposed to do that?" Joshua asks.
Clive throws the ball again, though it is quickly returned with another swift peck. "Not… exactly," Clive says, looking back at the ball. "Maybe it's broken? Byron never mentioned anything like this happening…"
He gives the ball one last throw. This time, the fletchling turns very quickly, batting the ball aside with a wing and diving deeper into the forest. Joshua squeaks. "It's running away!"
"No!" Clive scoops up his eevee and starts running after it. "Come on! We have to follow it!"
Joshua does not like running very much, but he has to keep up or else he'll be all alone in the forest. Joshua takes a very deep breath to steel himself, then scrambles after his brother. The path is clearer, at least, though the woods around them are still dense. Joshua can still see his brother before him, though watches as the fletchling whips around to instead fly directly at him. Clive is late in turning, so Joshua ducks and puts both hands over his head to try to avoid it. Lowered as he is, he can see a lot easier under the bushes at the base of some of the trees, and he can see a speck of white fur and vibrant blue eyes. It stares at him as Joshua stares at it. After a moment, it tries to shuffle away, but it makes a properly pained clicking noise and Joshua gasps.
"Clive!" He straightens up as Clive comes running back. Though Clive is still looking towards the fletchling, he does slow down and come to a stop once he's close enough to Joshua. "Clive, I found something!"
Clive delicately crouches to follow Joshua's gaze, gently taking his PokéDex back so that he can scan the creature in the bush. "It's a larvesta," he says gently. "It must be far from home. They're supposed to live by volcanoes."
Joshua grabs his lunch out of Clive's bag and hastily unwraps his sandwich so that he can offer it to the creature. It rustles gently, and moving seems to pain it, but it does drag itself out from the bush to bite at it. It's nearly as large as Joshua is, tender on its legs. Joshua's fingers brush gently against a fuzzy head as it eats. He shivers when he does. "It's so cold, Clive. I think something's wrong with it."
"It must have been in a battle before we got here," Clive says. He looks up at the sky as if he's looking for predators, then frowns.
"What do we do?" About halfway through the sandwich, the larvesta weakly pulls away, though it can't move much farther.
"It's big, and the PokéDex says that it's heavy." Clive gently holds his hand out to the creature. It doesn't flee, but it doesn't approach either. His eevee tries to nudge against it, and it doesn't even flinch. "I might be able to carry it, but I don't want to hurt it any more than it already is."
Joshua closes his eyes and tilts his head up. It must be so scared, out here all alone. If they don't do anything, it'll certainly die. When he opens his eyes again to try and think of a plan, the fletchling is back, sitting on a branch just above them. It makes eye contact with him, then— does it nod? After all of the struggle that Clive went to to catch it, it's almost acting like it… led them…
"A pokéball," he says after a moment, snapping down to look at the larvesta again. "If— If we catch it, then, won't it be okay until we take it to a Pokémon Center?"
Clive blinks, then lifts his head to look at Joshua. "It… should be, though they might not be able to help."
"We have to try, still." The larvesta wriggles a little, still, and Joshua looks back down at it. "We can take it to the Pokémon Center until it gets better, and then we can let it go again. So that it can go home. I think that's only fair."
"Fair…" Clive is staring at the tree when Joshua looks back at him. He must have seen the fletchling come back, too. When the quiet comes, he looks down at Joshua with a slight frown. "…Are you sure that's what you want? We might not be able to catch anything before I leave."
Clive is still leaving. Clive is leaving, and Joshua is going to be all alone. He swallows the fear of not having a fragment of him. There's always going to be something, isn't there? Nobody else taught him how to catch a pokémon. "I'm sure." He nods again anyway, just to convince himself. "I'm not doing it like a real trainer does. I'm just helping it. Can I please take the ball, Clive? It'll be just like you taught me, and then I can catch one of my own when I'm ready."
The only sound for a moment is the rustle of the forest. Then, Clive laughs a little. "Since when have you gotten so grown up, Joshua?" he asks, gently setting the empty ball in Joshua's hand. "Do you remember how to do it?"
He needs two hands to hold onto the ball, so he sort of passes it back and forth for a moment. "I remember. It was already in a battle, so I don't have to worry about fighting it," he says. He turns to the larvesta and holds the ball out to it with both hands. "When I'm sick, it helps when they tell me what's happening. So, I'll tell you, okay? You're really hurt right now, and I want to help you. I'll catch you for now and take you to the doctor. Then, when you're better, I'll let you go. Okay?"
If it can understand what Joshua is saying, it makes no visible sign. It just stares at him with some weary expression. After an eternity, it uses its remaining strength to lean forward and press itself against the ball. In a flash of light, it vanishes, and the ball twitches firmly in Joshua's hand until it offers a satisfying click.
The Pokémon Center is quiet for a long while as they wait. He's sitting in Clive's lap, with Clive's eevee sitting in his lap. Joshua's legs don't hit the ground from where he's perched. He's making patterns in Eevee's fur to distract restless hands. "Clive?" he asks gently. Clive makes a soft hum to tell him that he's listening. For a moment, Joshua wonders if he should ask if larvesta is right for the fifth time, but he thinks better of it. Instead, he tips his head up to look at Clive's face. "Do you think that it understood what I was saying?"
Clive is quiet for a long while. "It's hard to tell," he admits, his voice soft. "But I don't think that it would have let you help if it didn't. Pokémon are smarter than they look, you know, and you gave it some of your lunch. That does a lot to tell something that you're trustworthy."
"You don't think that it accidentally bumped into me?"
"No. I think that it knew you wanted to help."
Joshua melts a little in relief and closes his eyes. "Do you think that it's going to be okay?"
Clive is quiet for a while again, until he vaguely bounces Joshua with his knee. "Let's find out, hm?"
When Joshua opens his eyes, one of the nurses has come to meet them. She smooths her skirt now that she's still, looking first at Clive, and then at Joshua. "You're Larvesta's trainer, right?"
"Oh, um!" Joshua glances up at Clive, then he scoots off of his lap. "Kind of. I just found it and wanted to help. I'm… not really a trainer, or anything."
"He has its ball," Clive supplies.
That seems to be what the nurse was looking for, because her smile grows. "I'm glad to tell you that its on its way to a full recovery. I wouldn't go off on an adventure anytime soon, but you can definitely take it home. Will you please come with me?"
Joshua looks up at Clive for an answer. Clive smiles and nods a little, leaving Joshua emboldened to look back at the nurse. "Yes, please!"
The nurse leads the way behind the counter and past the machine that heals pokémon in their balls. There are a couple of more intensive recovery rooms. Larvesta's room is quite warm, when they get there. Its laying on a bed with a few scorchmarks on it, and visibly perks up when Clive and Joshua enter. The fletchling is sitting in the open window, having a staring contest with Clive.
Joshua closes the distance to the bed, though leaves a respectable distance for Larvesta. Eevee is back at Clive's side, leaving Joshua with the ball in his hands. "I'm glad that you're better," he says. "I was really worried about you. I never realized what people feel when I'm sick before. I guess, I should do my best not to get sick now." The larvesta clicks a noise that is almost like a laugh, so Joshua grins. "I'm going to keep my promise, okay? Especially since the window's open. You can just climb out whenever you'd like."
The ball opens with the push of a button. Joshua starts to put pressure on the halves of the sphere with intent to snap it in half, but a flash of string whips it out of his hands. The now closed ball, covered in webbing, lands delicately next to larvesta. It hisses and clicks again, wriggling back and forth.
"Hey," Joshua says, closing the distance. The fletchling is laughing too, now, a trill of a tweet as Joshua tries to grab the ball. "I promised! You can go home!" When Joshua reaches for the ball, though, the larvesta shoves itself forward. Its whole fuzzy head rubs against Joshua's chest in the same sort of affectionate gesture that Eevee likes to do. Joshua freezes and looks down at the larvesta. "Clive? Doesn't it want to go home?"
Clive finally breaks from his staring contest to close the distance, settling at Joshua's side. "I heard that some pokémon love their trainers so much that they'll come back when they're released. Uncle says that happens, sometimes."
"I'm not a trainer," Joshua says, even as Larvesta begins leaving little webs on Joshua's shirt.
"You're probably the first human that's been so kind to it." Clive reaches out a little to let Larvesta nudge against him, too. "If it were me, I'd let you be my trainer."
Joshua is quiet for a minute before he pulls away to look Larvesta seriously in the face. "You really want this? To be my pokémon?"
Larvesta doesn't hesitate at all, bumping its head firmly against Joshua's.
"That's that," Clive says with an audible smile. "There you have it! You caught your first pokémon, all on your own! …Still, it's a shame that I couldn't catch that fletchling." When Joshua looks up, Clive is staring at the bird in the window again. "…Do you think that it's mocking me?"
Joshua looks at the fletchling. It doesn't seem to be paying Joshua any mind at all, instead staring straight at Clive. "I don't think it knows how to mock anyone," he says after a moment of watching the staring contest. "And, it did lead me to Larvesta. Maybe it just doesn't want to be my pokémon."
Clive scoffs. "If it's not mocking me, then why is it still here?"
"Maybe it wants to be your pokémon? You were only going to catch it for me, after all."
"What? That's silly. You'd be a great trainer." Yet, the quiet passes for another moment, and Clive's focus returns to the bird. "…That's not really why it's here, is it?"
Finally, the fletchling flies inside. It flutters around Larvesta for a moment, critically examining it, before it settles on Clive's shoulder. Joshua puts a hand over his mouth and laughs. "There, see? It likes you! If you try to catch it now, it'll probably get in the ball just fine!"
Clive pulls a ball out of his bag and lifts it towards Fletchling. It bumps against it and vanishes in the same flash of light, though the click is much faster this time, and it immediately snaps out again so that it can rest on Clive's shoulder. For a moment, Clive hesitates with the ball, almost certainly on the verge of offering it to Joshua, but he eventually sighs. "…It'll be nice, having it around," he relents. "It reminds me of you, a bit. That's the only reason I wanted to give it to you."
"It'll be like I haven't left!" Joshua chirps. Larvesta bumps up against him again, and suddenly the despair of Clive leaving feels so much less pressing. "But not forever, okay? Because I promise, Larvesta and I are going to be right behind you!"