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It was a sunny summer day when Ethan and Chou conspired to trick the abnormally shy Chi out of hiding and into an outing with themselves and Stella. Of course, nobody had mentioned the thought of Stella or his evil twin sister coincidentally being able to meet the pair at the park they had decided to hang out at today, but Chi was far too frazzled at the moment to be able to confront their conspiring ways. It had been Chou’s idea for her and her friend to make a picnic basket for the group, and Ethan was more than happy to get free food in the process of helping his best friend woo his dream girl, though the feat itself always seemed impossible. Chi’s tension had continuously showed throughout the day, and no matter how hard he tried it seemed he couldn’t find it in himself to be able to converse well, even in this group he was most comfortable with.
While enjoying the day, Ethan and Chou united to try and find more ways to get Stella and Chi to have a conversation.
“So hey. It’s getting pretty hot, I’m gonna take Ethan here and go get us all some ice cream! Come on!”
The purple haired girl stood up quickly and pulled Ethan along with her, with both of them making ridiculous faces towards Chi that he supposed were supposed to be well-intentioned.
Stella giggled at the very obvious advances and signals the other two had been making back at them, and Chi couldn’t help but feel his chest tighten up at her soft laughter. With a blush very quickly rising to his face, Chi stood up as well and covered the bottom half of it, being sure to avoid her gaze.
“I uh, j-just remembered there was something I had to tell Chou! I-I’ll be right back. Will you be alright by yourself?”
Stella smiled back up at him and gave a nod.
“Don’t worry, I’ll be fine. Come back quickly~”
With this small phrase, Chi swiftly turned as he felt himself growing brighter and dashed off towards the other two.
“Hey, what are you doing here you dummy! You’re supposed to be chatting with Stella!”
Ethan and Chou had already begun making their way back with their frozen treats, and Chi could only stand in front of them covering his face.
“How could you guys leave me alone! You know how I get around her! It’s bad enough you didn’t tell me she’d be coming today, I would have at least p-practiced or something!”
Ethan and Chou both exchanged irritated looks towards Chi, and sighed.
“If we’ve told you once, we’ve told you a million times bro! You gotta make your move! She’s not gonna wait forever!”
“Yeah, and if you don’t do it quickly, someone’s gonna come by and steal her away! And then you’ll end up sad and alone. Forever. Like Ethan here.”
“Yeah!” Ethan shouted, before processing that last bit and giving Chou a look. “Hey, wait. No!”
Chou stuck her tongue out playfully at him, when suddenly a scream had come from behind them.
“Hey, was that Stella?” Chou asked, with a concerned look on her face.
Before anybody could react, Chi was already darting back to where he had left her, leaving Ethan to stare back at him and simply whistle.
“Usually he only runs that fast when he’s trying to get away from her.”
Chou rolled her eyes and started to follow behind her brother.
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As Chi got closer to the picnic area, he saw a tall, white haired stranger standing in front of her. He could only see the strangers back, but even from where he was coming from he could tell that the man was way too close for comfort.
“Hey you!”
Chi quickly pulled back the stranger’s shoulder, making room for himself to get between the man and a very surprised Stella.
“If you want to get to Stella, you’re gonna hafta go through me first!”
The stranger regained his balance, giving Chi a look over before raising one eyebrow while simultaneously furrowing the other.
“Hah?! And who are you supposed to be, pipsqueak?”
Chi clenched his fists and stood his ground. He couldn’t help but notice that the man in front of him was larger, and much more scary-faced than he had seen at first glance, but if he was going to try and do anything to Stella, Chi wasn’t going to stand by and let that happen.
“My name’s Chi, and I already told you. If you want to get to her, you have to go through me.”
“So, the mouse has a bit of backbone, doesn’t he?”
Ethan and Chou had finally made their way back to the scene, with Ethan quickly going to Chi’s side to be another wall in front of Stella, who couldn’t seem to get a word out.
“And who’s this ugly mug supposed to be?!”
After shooting off a visibly annoyed look, the silver haired boy pointed at Chi.
“Alright, you losers are starting to piss me off. The names Zed, and I challenge you to a battle!”
Even with his hands full of ice cream, Ethan got up in Zeds face, giving a taunting face.
“Bring it on ugly! I can take you anytime!”
Feeling a hand on his shoulder, Ethan turned around to see Chi with a more determined look on his face than he had seen in a very long time.
“If you don’t mind, I’ll take this one.” Chi stated, taking a confident step forward towards the stranger.
Ethan couldn’t help but smirk, knowing that his friend had really meant business.
“Kick ass, Chi.”
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Finally speaking up after this whole hurricane of events, Stella turned over to Chi.
“I’m sure this is all a big misunderstanding. You really don’t have to go through with this.”
Chi mustered up a soft smile and was finally able to meet her gaze.
“Don’t worry Stella, he’s not so tough. I can take him. Believe in me, okay?”
With that, Chi walked off and Stella felt as if her heart had skipped a beat. She had never seen Chi so confident, and from a small line she had been brought to a light blush.
“Siiigh. Must be nice to have boys fighting over you, huh?”
Chou slid to the blushing Stella’s side, and gave her a crafty look. Stella simply looked away, and Chou couldn’t help but smile a bit more.
“Well. My brother’s usually a huge dork, but I gotta say. He’s got his good moments. Sometimes.”
With a shrug, Chou walked off and Stella put a hand to her chest to try and calm herself down.
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“Just tell me one thing before we start, mouse.” Zed stated, staring at Chi. “Just who exactly is she to you? Huh?!”
“M-me? I’m… uh…” Chi averted his eyes, trying to think of the right words to describe their relationship. It wasn’t what either of them had wanted it to be at this point, but it was mostly due to his own shyness that they hadn’t been able to move forward.
Squinting his eyes and balling his fists, he stated it in a booming voice with a small bit of a squeak at the end.
“She’s….. my girlfriend! If….she wants to be….”
Chou and Ethan looked as dumbfounded as Zed at Chi’s confession. They had told him before, but he was always too afraid to tell her how he really felt, despite how obviously his affection showed on his face.
Everyone’s attention suddenly turned from Chi over to a furiously blushing Stella, who covered the bottom half of her face in disbelief. Her emotions seemed to be getting the best of her, and she almost looked as if she was ready to cry at that exact moment.
Chi started waving his arms around a bit, and worried.
“I-I’m sorry if that was too bold, I, uh-“
Stella couldn’t help but laugh as she shook her head.
“It’s not that, but that made me extremely happy, Chi. I’d be happy to be your girlfriend.”
Ethan and Chou couldn’t help but go up to Chou and start hitting him in a congratulatory fashion, though it was a little bit harder than was necessary and Chi was almost knocked over by the two of them combining like that.
“You finally did it, dweeb! It’s about time”
“Hell yeah man, you finally got the nerve! Good job!!”
Zed growled under his breath, before shouting out the everyone again.
“Hey! We got a battle here, remember?! ”
The group had ignored Zed for their small moment of happiness, but Chi and Ethan exchanged expressions before looking back at him.
“That’s right. I’m totally ready to take you on.”
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Chou had moved to the middle of the field, ready to mediate and announce the guidelines of the battle.
“Alright! The rules are simple! Three on three battle with no substitutions!”
Chi and Zed both gave a simple nod, standing at opposing sides of the field.
“Ready? Begin!”
Zed made the first move, pulling out a pokeball and calling out his first pokemon.
“Alright pipsqueak, it’s time to show me if you’re a man, or a mouse!”
A small, yapping pokemon came out and the group stared at it for a bit.
“What’s that pokemon?!”
Chi finally managed, with Zed crossing his arms and smirking at his opponent.
“This little guy’s rockruff. Maybe you should have asked before deciding to battle me, but I just came from the Alola region.” He shrugged. “Not my fault if you don’t research your opponents before you fight em.”
Though Chi furrowed his brow, but pulled out his first pokeball and pressed the button to expand it. His mood was all the way up to a thousand percent, and even something like this wasn’t enough to bring him down.
“Well, even if you do have pokemon I’ve never seen, I have a dependable team. Crobat, let’s show ‘em who’s boss!”
With it’s combined speed and shadow ball, Crobat was able to knock out rockruff in almost no time without taking too much damage.
“Alright Crobat, I knew you could do it!”
While Chi cheered, Zed scoffed as he summoned back his rockruff and looked down at his pokeball.
“You fought well. Get a good rest.” He looked back at Chi as he pulled out his next pokeball. “That was just me warming up, now the real fight begins! Camerupt, lets go!”
Chi felt nervousness at this next pokemon. At least it was one that he did know, but it’s magnitude was simply too much for Crobat to handle on its own.
“Arbok, let’s get ‘em back!”
Though burned by the camerupt, Arbok managed to scrape through the battle and Chi had cheered it on.
“That’s two for two!” Chi said, confidently. He just knew he could trust his team, and in his bounding confidence flashed a smile back to Stella as well, throwing in a small little victory sign as well.
“Yeah!!! That’s the way to do it Chi!” Ethan stated, entirely too loudly while he and Pancham stood on the sideline cheering for him. “Show that lughead who’s boss!”
“Tch.”
Zed continued in his annoyed state as he pulled out his final pokemon, Sharpedo. With it’s rain dance, it’s aqua jet was only strengthened and was able to knock out what remained of Arbok’s health.
Though they had just celebrated, Chi debated on who his last pokemon would be. All he had left was his Joltik, and his Nidorino. He pulled out both of the pokeballs and looked at them in his hands, trying to decide.
“What’s wrong pipsqueak? Giving up on the last battle?” Zed taunted, getting an angry response from Ethan on the sideline.
“Nidorino, I’m going to count on you, alright?”
Before he could call it out, Joltik’s ball had started to glow as it released itself and let out a cry.
“J-joltik? What are you doing here?!”
On the other side, Zed had begun laughing loudly at Joltik’s appearance.
“What is that, a jellybean?!”
Joltik had squeaked in Chi’s direction, and Chi couldn’t help but smile in return.
“You want to help Stella too, huh buddy?”
With a happy response, Chi looked at his surroundings. The rain dance effects were still falling down on the arena around them, and if Chi remembered correctly, that move actually gave electric types an advantage.
“Heh, looks like I get to use your own moves against you.” Chi almost mumbled, causing Zed to finally calm his laughing in an attempt to hear what he was saying.
“Alright Joltik, let’s finish this once and for all, you ready?! Thunderbolt!!”
Zed, finally realizing his situation, stood back in disbelief as the small pokemon in front of him was ablt to take down his Sharpedo. He clenched his fists after getting his pokemon back, and the rain clouds started to clear away.
Chi didn’t know what to expect, but Zed started walking towards him. Ethan stood behind him, making an ugly face as Chou and Stella weren’t entirely sure what he was going to do. He stuck his hand out to Chi, though his face was still pouty and he didn’t really look at Chi as he did it.
“’was a good battle. Guess you’re not such a mouse after all.”
Chi gave a smirk as he shook his hand, with a bit of a stronger grip than he usually had.
“Wait. So now that everything’s over, mind telling us who you really are Zed?”
Chou chimed in, looking over him expectantly.
Zed rubbed the back of his neck, and Stella finally stepped up beside him and Chi.
“If you guys don’t mind me stepping in~” she started, “This is Zed. My ‘little brother.’”
The trio in front of them nearly toppled over while looking at the now-blushing Zed.
“B-brother?!” Chi sputtered, worried that he had just made a very bad first impression. He had also realized Stella’s scream earlier was one of happy surprise, not actually being attacked. Chi only felt worse.
“Now why do you have to go and scare them like that?!” Zed started. “We’re not related….. just…. Really old friends…”
He continued to avoid eye contact as Stella gave a small laugh and Chi grasped his chest to be sure that his heart hadn’t stopped completely.
“Oh thank god….” He muttered under his breath.
“But listen to me, punk!” Zed started again, poking at Chi. “I’m only allowing this right now because she wants this, alright? If you step out of line even once, I’ll kick your ass!”
Chi blinked for a moment, but couldn’t help but laugh. For a brief moment, he thought of Ethan’s sister, and the boy she called her fiancé. Chi had been in the exact same situation for even a brief moment, and wondered how the boy could handle it for most of his life with Ethan hovering around him. Getting back to the angry man in front of him though, Chi gave him a pat on the shoulder.
“I’ll be sure to remember that.”
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Stella went over to Chi, and planted a soft kiss on his cheek.
“Thank you for coming to save me. You were amazing today.”
Chi turned so red that Chou and Ethan could practically see the smoke coming out of his head. Stella had decided to take Zed to the nearest pokemon center to give them some time to catch up with each other, and waved back as they left the rest of the group.
A lovestruck Chi simply waved back, mouthing a small “call me” that he could have sworn he had said out loud. Zed couldn’t help but give back a disgusted face, and a small gesture towards Chi that he was going to be watching him. Ethan shot back a condescending face, knowing that Chi had won today, and throwing in a certain rude hand gesture towards him just for good measure, before getting a smack in the back of the head from Chou.