FSE

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formerly SoFurry search engine

Though this is part one, there was story before this. I wrote a prologue, and if you didn't read it, don't expect to understand a thing that's going on.

_ _ _ _ _

I got up out of the sand. My day is not yet done, and the next phase happens to be my favorite. I walk back to my parents' B&B and down the hall I had left through earlier this morning. Instead of heading into my room, though, I approach the next door in line and knock on it.

"Celeste, you awake?" Judging from the tired moans and groans from within, I assume that she wasn't. After a few moments, she answers back.

"Wha?.. Oh, that you Chris?.. *yawn*.. Is it that time already?" With a few loud, clumsy footsteps, the door opens, and there stands my Riolu, tired as could be. "I take it I'll be waking Nexus again?"

"Yeah, I'll meet you in the lobby." With that, Celeste walks down the hall towards the lobby, but stops outside of a room with a rather large dog-door built into it. I, meanwhile, walk further away from my room until I reach a door that's painted brown and cream. Without bothering to knock, I turn the knob and walk right in. This room is filled with much warmer, earthier colors than my own, as is its resident rabbit.

I walk to the orange and brown bed up against the far wall and sit myself down gently on it. I could hear little sounds of a happy sleep coming from beneath the covers, which I gently eased back, revealing my Lopunny fully. Without hesitation I bent down and hugged her, as I do every morning. I'm sure the natural charms her species possesses had a hand in it, but I find her irresistibly lovable.

"Wake up, Lapin. We're about to get some training done." A few happy squeaks later, Lapin was up. We walked out to the lobby to find Celeste seated on a large couch with Nexus, my Luxio, at her feet. I think a bit of explanation is in order. Between the time when I found my subconscious abilities and now, both Lapin and Nexus have evolved.

Lapin was first. For a Buneary, all it takes to evolve is an excess of happiness. Lapin, being her energetic, gleeful self, had that in the bag. She evolved about three weeks after we had camped at that lake. I've gotten closer to her since the evolution, mostly due to the fact that I don't have to lean down as far to hug her because of her increased hight.

As for Nexus, his method of evolution is also pretty basic. All he had to do was train for a while, but eventually he turned into the Luxio he is today. He may have been beaten by Lapin when we first met, but now he's a fiercer fighter than she and Celeste combined. Besides their larger size and raised strength, Nexus and Lapin haven't really changed much, though they seem really pleased with their new selves.

But Celeste... The method by which a Riolu becomes a Lucario is similar to how a Buneary becomes a Lopunny. Happiness. Thing is, Celeste isn't exactly the cheeriest individual. Other than the giggling during our first conversation, I've never heard her laugh. She's always so serious.. The rest of us do whatever we can to please her, but the most she's ever done in return was give a monotone "Thanks".

It gets annoying at times, but we still try. I had a nice gift in mind for her in the near future; a custom designed pokeball. Yes, yes, it's not the most original thing a trainer has ever given his pokemon, but it's just about the only thing I haven't tried yet. Hopefully Nexus and Lapin won't mind waiting for balls of their own, I just want to make Celeste feel special.

It was around one fifteen in the afternoon when we reached the place we had claimed as our training grounds. The area was a large clearing deep within the woods that included an adjacent stream. The cool water made a perfect spot for my pokemon to bathe after a particularly hard session, and a few times, when large migrations of Magicarp passed through, served as the training itself.

Another perk was all the wild pokemon about. They would notice us sparring and either watch, cheer, or in the case of the bolder ones, even join in. I didn't really like the idea too much, but my companions would insist that it would be alright. And everything always was alright, but that never stops me from worrying.

First up on today's list of training exercises was Celeste and Nexus practicing against each other while Lapin tried to perfect a few strategies. I decide to test her reflexes out. Having an odd number of pokemon usually means that I'm included in the training as well. Life threatening? Maybe. Do I care? No. Lapin started warming up and stretching as I slowly came up behind her, trying my hardest not to make even the littlest of noises.

Of course, sneak attacks don't usually work too well when your opponent has ears that make up about half of her body mass. As expected, before I came within three feet, I was on the ground before I knew I had been hit. I tried to get up, but there was a large fluffy ear holding me to the ground at my chest. I followed it upwards with my eyes and found Lapin's face, looking victorious.

I attempted to get up numerous times, but she kept lifting her ear before pressing down once again the moment I moved. Finally, Lapin let me stand. Soon, we began coming up with a few strategies for any upcoming battles, however few there may be. She had recently learned to use the move "Charm", and its effects should be obvious considering the name.

I've said it before, I'll say it again; Lapin is adorable. But when she uses Charm around me.. it takes every bit of willpower in my body to keep from running to her, hugging her, and not letting go until the day I die. I have no idea how her enemies can take it. Anyway, she has another, older move that also effects an opponent's ability to battle; Dizzy Punch.

When using Dizzy Punch, Lapin basically beats the opposing pokemon with her ears until they're too confused to retaliate properly. More often than not they'll even wind up hitting themselves. These two moves gave me a good idea for a battle tactic. I turned to her and explained.

"Lapin, I want you to listen carefully." She nods, smiling. "What I have in mind could be a bit dangerous for me, so I want you to be careful. If it looks like I'm hurt too badly, get me back to town, understand?"

"Punny!", she exclaims, but she seems a little scared.

"Don't worry, I trust you." She looked a bit relieved, so I continued. "I want you to use Charm on me, and then immediately use Dizzy Punch. I have an idea of what might happen to me, and if this works it'd make for a good combination in a fight. When I get back to normal have Celeste tell me what I did, alright?" She nodded once more. We both stood up and walked until we were a bit further apart.

"Okay, Lapin, now!" Instantaneously, she reached up to her mouth using her right ear, kissed the fur on the tip, and blew in my direction. Suddenly, to me, her fur was looking softer and more inviting than ever, her eyes were glistening like jewels, and she had a soft glow radiating out from her. Lapin just looked much, much more appealing, however hard that was for me to believe.

I felt myself moving towards her, craving to bask in her company, but I didn't get to bask for very long. As, somewhere in the far reaches of my mind, I had been expecting, she lifted her ears up and started whacking me over and over again. In all honestly, if I was going to be getting hit by something, I would want that something to be nothing other than the soft appendages that were now doing so, but that knowledge didn't make it hurt any less.

My eyes were starting to lose focus, and conscious thought was becoming harder and harder to muster as the onslaught I was enduring went on. Apart from a sharp pain in my head that seemed somehow familiar, the last thing I felt was the sharp blades of grass covering the ground as I collided with them. By now I had been regretting my decision in becoming a test subject, but it would be worth it if Lapin's combination of moves had the desired effect.

_ _ _ _ _

When I woke up I felt something pressing against me. '..Arms?.. Yeah, those are definitely arms..' I confirmed within myself. Beneath my body I felt the itchiness of grass, so I assumed that whatever I had been through wasn't serious enough to merit being taken to a Pokemon Center. Confusingly though, I was hearing sounds akin to weeping. If my injuries were nothing big why cry about them?

Curious, I opened my eyes. To my surprise, those arms wrapped around me were my own. Also, what I thought was crying had in fact been laughter, no doubt at the position I was in. Nexus, being his quiet self, was standing a few feet away, trying to conceal his mirth but failing miserably. Loud exclamations of "Lux!" and "Luxio!", with more happiness than usual injected into the tone, could be heard. Celeste, on my opposite side and a bit closer, was giggling uproariously.

What I found a bit strange, though, was Lapin. She was sitting at my feet going through all the usual motions one goes through while laughing. She had one paw upon her stomach and the other on the ground, steadying her, and her mouth was opening and closing. The way she was laughing wasn't what I found odd, though. It was the laughter itself.

Like Nexus, or almost any pokemon for that matter, Lapin usually says all or part of her name in varying tones depending on what she means. Her speech was nothing but strings of "Lop!"'s, "Punny!"'s, or "Lopunny!"'s. Disturbingly, those weren't the sounds that reached my ears. I was hearing something that was... alien to me, to say the least. It was like a garbled stew of Pokespeak and the tounges of man.

And it was beginning to scare me.

I sat bolt upright, catching the attention of my companions. Celeste was the first to notice.

"Chris? What's wrong?" Sadly, she found herself ignored. Instead of answering, I spoke to Lapin.

"Lapin, could you do me a favor? Say something. Anything." She was a bit thrown off by the odd request, but still she complied. From her cute mouth on her cute face atop her cute body, she spewed forth a vile, off-putting concoction of words. Before long I spoke again. "That's enough. Please.. stop." Obviously feeling that she had failed me in some way, Lapin obeyed. I then turned to my Riolu.

"Celeste, when she spoke just now, what did you hear?" By now my pokemon were staring at me like I had gone insane.

"..She said that she was sorry if she had caused you any harm with her attacks." I sighed. If I was the only one that was going through this.. maybe I really had lost it.

"I couldn't understand her.." This, of course, only confused my pokemon more. Nexus was wondering to himself if I had received a concussion from Lapin's Dizzy Punch.

"What on Earth are you talking about, Chris? Since when could you understand any pokemon but me?"

"That's not quite what I mean.. I'm saying that I can't hear her usual way of talking. You know, where she says "Lopunny"? All I'm hearing is nonsense, and it isn't pleasant. It's like my language mixed with hers.. No, mixed isn't the word. More like chopped up and smashed together.." Suddenly a look of realization came over Celeste's face.

"Chris, I want you to try something. Think hard about how Lapin used to talk. Try to remember exactly how her voice.. This may sound a bit weird, but try to remember how her voice felt to you." I was a bit skeptical, but I tried my hardest to do as she asked. I closed my eyes and thought about all the time I had spent with Lapin, good and bad. I played back every instance where she spoke to me that I could remember as if it were a film strip.

I then attempted to determine what Celeste meant by "how her voice felt". It wasn't easy. 'I know how her voice makes me feel.. happy. But how the voice itself feels?.. Feeling a voice...' The concept seemed beyond my comprehension. When I realized that thinking about Lapin talking to me was probably not what I was supposed to be doing, I tried something different. I thought hard about her voice, disembodied, free-floating in my mind. I imagined the sweet sounds as if they were tangible, and in one short moment, I started to understand.

That wasn't her voice I was listening to, it was like it was her soul. And it was beautiful. All the times that Lapin had spoken flashed through my head once more. It wasn't like before, where I simply understood her through her body language and tone. It was like my brain was simply interpreting her speech as it would any other human's, like she was just using my language and I was listening. I then understood why Celeste had trouble finding the words to use; the experience defied accurate description.

I opened my eyes to find Celeste's face, looking hopeful. I turned to Lapin and spoke. "Lapin, could you say something else, please?" Her fear of failing me was apparent, but she knew saying nothing wouldn't help anything.

"Um.. I'm sorry if me talking hurts you.." She got a bit of a surprise as I shot up and ran at her. A second later, I was on the ground with her, holding her to me as tightly as I could without causing her pain. "Chris! What--"

"I can hear you! I understand what you're saying to me!" Lapin had trouble believing that. She decided to test me.

"Alright.. Repeat this statement: Lapin rules me." Whether she thought she was toying with me or simply saying something she thought I couldn't hear, it didn't matter. That's something I would have no trouble saying.

"Lapin rules me.. You always have, you know." All of a sudden Lapin had a look of shock and embarrassment on her face. I guessed that she really hadn't expected me to hear her, and was probably regretting her choice of words. It didn't matter to me though, I just kept on hugging her, rubbing my cheek against hers every now and then. After a few minutes of that, I turned once more to Celeste.

"Celeste, how did you know what I was going through?.. And what was I going through anyway?" Where moments ago she had been looking on at myself and Lapin as if it was unbearably cute, Celeste adopted her usual look of indifference before responding.

"The way you said she sounded, like a mash of human and pokemon speech, seemed familiar. Then I remembered what my mother had said when I asked her what being a Lucario was like. She told me a few things about "aura", which she said was an energy that all living things posses, and that Lucario can sense and control. Riolu can as well, but only to an extent. Anyway, she told me that shortly after she evolved into a Lucario, she started hearing those same strange noises whenever she was around others. My mother explained what she to do if I ever hear those sounds, and I said the same thing to you, Chris." All that helped, but it still seemed very strange to me.

I remembered that disembodied light that I had seen in my head and thought was Lapin's soul. This inevitably led to another question. "When I thought about Lapin's voice, I saw a bright light in my mind. Was that her aura?"

"How would I know? I can't do any of that stuff until I evolve. You're lucky, you're not even a pokemon and you're further ahead than me.." This appeared to be another one of those things that would keep Celeste sad all the time, so I felt it was my obligation to change the subject.

"Not to change the subject or anything, but nobody told me what I did after Lapin used her attacks on me." Suddenly everyone started laughing again. I was amazed at just how sweet Lapin's laugh sounded, but it was over all too quickly as she explained what had taken place.

"Well, first I used Charm on you, and after a few seconds you started running at me with a weird look in your eyes. When you got close I hit you with Dizzy Punch. I guess that you were charmed, and then once you became confused.. you thought you had charmed yourself? Whatever it was, you collapsed onto the ground and started hugging yourself. You face made you seem like you were in utter bliss, I think you were even drooling a bit. After that you rolled around on the ground mumbling things." That wasn't quite what I had in mind when I thought up the tactic..

"Well.. that could come in handy in a battle, don't you think?" To be honest, I was blushing a bit at the time. It was all coming back to me, and I had a pretty good idea of the things I had been mumbling. I prayed that they hadn't heard any of it..

_ _ _ _ _

After a few more hours of training, this time with me staying out of any life threatening situations, we decided to call it a day. The four of us walked back to Cerulean City and the good old Stidolph & Son Bed and Breakfast. Why my father decided to call it that, I'll never know, as I never actually do any work around the place. We walked in through the sliding glass doors and pass the receptionist; my mother.

As she does each and every night, my mother frets over every little scratch, stain, or bruise upon my figure. I find it kind of wrong that she doesn't care nearly as much about my pokemon, but they put up with it, so I feel that if I didn't I would be making a scene, despite that fact that nobody's around. After an extensive amount of convincing, she finally accepted the fact that I was fine, so we continued down the hall.

Nexus's room was first, so he turned and walked through the large flap-covered opening at the door's base. We bid him good night and walked onwards. My door was next in line, so the three of us parted ways and I entered my blue home. The thermostat was set to sixty degrees, and, as always, the room was about three degrees hotter than the damn thing told me.

I took a shower, washing off all the grass and grime I had accumulated over the day, before setting my alarm clock for six thirty-five a.m. and slipping under my coverlet, the thinnest that money can buy. After a little over eight minutes passed, I was just on the verge of falling asleep when there came a sound at the room's entrance. The door was opening, and judging from the unexplained happiness I felt, I had an idea of who was opening it.

"Chris, can we talk?" Came that soothing, angelic voice.

"Sure, Lapin, what's on your mind?" She shut the door, and though there was no light I could hear her making her way over to my bed. Lapin sat down on its side and spoke.

"I don't think Celeste or Nexus heard you, but you said some.. things about me when you were mumbling earlier. Was any of it true?" If my brain could sigh, it would've been doing so. I've said it before, it's just too hard to get anything by someone with ears that big.

"I don't remember.. I was unconscious after all. Could you refresh my memory." Just a half truth. I was unconscious, yes, but those abilities of mine let me remember just about everything I had said. I just wasn't sure how much of it Lapin had heard, and didn't want to give anything more than what she knew away.

"Well.. um.. you said that you loved me.. more than anything. I have to know, was it just the Charm or did you really mean that?" That would be the big thing.. I had really hoped Lapin hadn't heard that, for it puts me in a difficult position. Humans have morals, and relationships between pokemon and humans are looked down upon by all but small few, most of which are perverts or rapists. I have no idea how pokemon feel about the prospect, though.

'If I say it was just the Charm, it would ruin any chance I have of being with her.. but if I were to say that I love her, and she doesn't agree with that sort of thing, it could not only ruin our friendship, but she might even want to leave.. I wouldn't be able to bring myself to stop her, either.' Alas, as I sat there thinking, another problem reared its head; how would she take my silence? If I didn't answer her soon, it might be worse than if I answer wrong. I decided to just tell her the truth.

"Lapin, I don't know what you think about relationships between my kind and yours, but I do love you. Whether you feel the same way about me or not, I hope you'll stay with me. It would kill me to have to see you go.." For once, instead of the other way around, Lapin hugged me. She maneuvered her ears the way a human would their arms. Her fur was so silky.. if she hadn't been holding me so tightly I would've been embracing her back, trying to touch as much of its softness to me as possible.

"I always wondered why you were so affectionate towards me and not Celeste or Nexus. I had hoped you felt this way about me, because I love you, too. I have since the day I met you. It's the reason I was so happy when you asked me to be one of your pokemon." I felt like I could spend an eternity in Lapin's ar.. er.. ears. I was happy just being with her all the time, but to know that she loves me back..

I may adore the cold, but spending that night being held by someone else, the warmth, is something I could definitely come to love.

_ _ _ _ _

Sorry I took so long to get this out, but I took a trip to Florida for a week. Sadly, the internet at the hotel was screwing up. The next part should be finished sooner than this one was. I hope you all like everything so far.