3DS clicked shut with a soft, satisfying snap.
Yugito leaned back in his chair, staring at the ceiling of his small room, a slow smile pulling at the corner of his mouth. Nineteen years old, and he'd just finished Pokémon X for the eighteenth time like it was the first. He set the console down on the desk beside him, rolling his shoulder.
"Ya know," he murmured to himself, "it'd genuinely be fun to explore the Kalos region in real life. Legends ZA was a wonderful experience, but actually being there..."
He trailed off, eyes half-lidded, imagination already drifting through cobblestone streets and towering Lumiose spires—
Then a flash.
White. Complete. Total.
Then nothing.
He woke up twelve years old.
It hit him slowly at first. The ceiling above him was wrong — smaller, unfamiliar, water-stained in one corner. His hands were too small. His legs too short. There was a narrow window letting in pale morning light, and outside it were rolling green hills he didn't recognize.
Then the memories settled in on top of his own. Like two rivers meeting.
Kalos, he thought. And I'm an orphan.
He sat with that for a moment, staring at his own small hands.
Alright. Cool.
No parents waiting downstairs. No name attached to him beyond his own. Just a region he knew like the back of his hand from a hundred playthroughs, and a second chance nobody had asked him if he wanted.
He could work with that.
The years passed.
Professor Sycamore found him on a Tuesday afternoon, age thirteen, crouched behind one of the lab's Poké Ball storage units, trying to coax a skittish Eevee out from underneath it with half a rice ball.
"Don't grab for it," Yugito it'll run away
Sycamore had stood there in his white coat, dark hair slightly disheveled as always, and waited.
The Eevee eventually crept out and ate from Yugito's palm.
"Remarkable," Sycamore had said, genuinely awed. "How did you know it would respond to patience?"
Yugito had looked up at him then. "Everything does, eventually."
By fourteen, Yugito had a standing assignment at the lab three afternoons a week.
He learned the feeding schedule before Sycamore even had to explain it which Pokémon preferred their food warm, which needed it broken into smaller pieces, which
ones would only eat if you left the bowl and walked away first. He kept a small notebook in the pocket of his vest, updating it constantly.
The Sylveon in the far enclosure had taken three weeks to stop flinching when he entered. He'd spent those three weeks sitting just inside the doorway, doing nothing, letting her set the pace. When she finally walked over and pressed her ribbon-like feeler against his knee, Sycamore had been watching from the window and had to press his fist against his mouth to keep from making a noise.
Later, Sycamore adopted Yugito properly — paperwork and everything — in a ceremony that was just the two of them and a shared meal at a small café off Lumiose's Route 4 entrance.
"You don't have to call me anything in particular,"Sycamore had said, a little nervously, adjusting his glasses.
Yugito had looked at him across the table.
"I know, Dad."
Sycamore had laughed startled, warm, slightly wet around the eyes and covered it very poorly by taking a large sip of his coffee.
There was no orphanage to look back on after that. No file to close. Just a lab full of Pokémon, a man in a white coat who'd never once made him feel like a burden, and a home that finally felt like one.
He turned eighteen on a clear morning in spring.
The same morning Shauna and Serena arrived at Professor Sycamore's Pokémon camp in Vaniville Town.
Sycamore stood at the front of the open-air camp with three Poké Balls arranged on the table, beaming like a man who had been waiting for this moment for weeks which he had, because he'd talked about it for weeks.
"Today marks something truly special," he said, spreading his arms. "Three young trainers, three partners waiting to meet them. The bonds you form today
"Dad," Yugito said.
Sycamore paused.
"You've been practicing this speech since Tuesday."
"I wrote four drafts," Sycamore said, with great dignity.
Shauna burst out laughing a bright, bubbling sound and Serena pressed her lips together to hold hers in, the red of her hat catching the light as she tilted her head.
"Professor," Serena said, "with respect, I think they're ready."
"Yes, yes, of course." He waved his hand with a smile, stepping to the side. "Yugito, as you've been here longest, would you like to go first?"
Yugito glanced sideways at the two girls.
"I hope you don't mind."
Shauna and Serena exchanged a look — amused, conspiratorial — and both nodded.
"Go ahead," Shauna said, grinning, her curly pigtails bouncing as she tilted her head. "We already figured you'd pick Froakie anyway."
"Ah," Yugito said.
"We're not wrong, are we?" Serena added, one eyebrow arched, arms folded across her black top.
He didn't answer. He walked past the table.
There was a separate enclosure off to the side not on display with the other two starters. Yugito had arranged that a year ago, after it became clear that the Froakie in question had opinions about being stared at by strangers.
He crouched down in front of the low gate. The Froakie was already there, watching him with those large, steady eyes, the frothy bubble-scarf at his neck shifting as he breathed.
"Well," Yugito said quietly. "Big day."
The Froakie stared at him.
"I know you've heard me talk about this. I'm not going to make it dramatic." He held his fist out, low, at the Froakie's level. "Would you like to be my partner?"
A beat of silence.
Then the Froakie stepped forward and bumped his knuckles against Yugito's fist.
"Froakie."
Behind him, Shauna made a sound that was somewhere between an "aw" and an actual squeak, hands coming up to her face.
"That," she announced, "was the cutest thing I have ever seen in my entire life."
"Don't embarrass him," Yugito said,
straightening up, though there was something warm in his expression he didn't quite manage to hide.
"I'm embarrassing you, not him. He looks very dignified."
The Froakie did, in fact, look very dignified.
Serena stepped up to the table with calm purpose, studying the two remaining Poké Balls for exactly one second.
"I knew you'd go for Froakie," she said, mostly to herself. Then, louder: "That's why I'll pick Chespin."
"A bold choice," Sycamore said approvingly.
Why thank you, she said picking up the Ball.
Shauna was already bouncing on her heels, looking between Fennekin's Ball, the door, her friends, and the Ball again.
"Okay, so Fennekin is right there and she's adorable and I've already decided," she said in one breath, scooping the Ball up without ceremony. "Can I let her out now? Can I let her out right now?"
"Please," Sycamore said warmly.
The camp filled up with three starter Pokémon and considerably more noise than it usually held. Chespin immediately headbutted Yugito's boot in greeting. Fennekin sat in Shauna's arms, looking mildly offended by the enthusiasm and secretly pleased about it.
Froakie stood on the table beside Yugito's hand, watching the chaos with an expression of supreme composure.
Yugito scratched him gently behind the ear.
"Long road ahead," he said quietly.
Froakie glanced up at him.
"Froakie."
Yugito nodded.
"Yeah. Let's go."
Yeah I won't lie I had to rewrite this because
I just went back and Noticed the Ai give him a family Already when I specifically said he jsut woke up thier. And it must've jsut Assumed
Fuckers any just say yugito met serena and Shauna At pokemon school or something I doubt people wanna see 50 chapters of most school life content casue I hate it when fanfics do that