FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

As the spoon clattered on the kitchen floor, Jake’s heart raced. But not in a good way like it did last night.

"That's impossible."

Cassie looked up at him. She'd never seen his face like that.

"Cassie, that's literally impossible. There's no way."

"Well… who else would it have been but you?" She asked.

Jake was dumbfounded. Stanley told him that humans didn't even have an egg group. For the past year and a day, he had really been banking on biological incompatibility as the world's most foolproof birth control. Yet even with an indestructible condom, Cassie was pregnant, and the only one who could have fertilized the egg was him.

He stood there, processing it for a minute.

"I need a second opinion."

Throwing on his t-shirt and shorts, He went up to the TV over the mantle. "Alexis? Get me Stanley."

"Calling Stanley." Said the smart assistant connected to their home system. It rang for a second before Stanley picked up. As his image displayed on the TV, they noticed he was in a crowd of people in what looked like a seated concert.

"Shh." He said. "Mewtwo's part is coming up."

"What???" Jake asked incredulously. "We need to talk to you!"

Stanley just pointed his phone to the stage, showing several band members playing various instruments, and Mewtwo, just hovering on the left side of the stage. The vocalist sang,

"Never gonna dance again, the way I danced with you…"

And then Mewtwo grabbed a mic, teleported an oversized saxophone into his hands, and flew out over the crowd. As he slowly spun around with several spotlights illuminating him like a hairless, bulbous angel, he belted out an utterly captivating Saxophone solo.

Jake and Cassie temporarily forgot about the egg he had just given her, and stared at their TV; half trying to figure out how Mewtwo had landed a role like this, and half listening to him play.

"It's 2 AM in Kalos, you know." Stanley said, turning back to his phone. "Glad I'm still up to answer. What's up?"

"Look at Cassie." Jake said.

Stanley shielded his eyes from the glare, squinted at his screen, and recoiled.

"AAH, Jake, I don't wanna see that!"

Jake put his head in his hand. "It's not that, Stanley. We think she's pregnant."

"W H A T ? ? ?"

"But we need a second opinion from someone who's experienced in this sort of thing. Is there any way you can–"

"There sure is, and I think I know the culprit."

"What? The culprit?"

"Mewtwo, we have a category 9!"

An "OH SHIT!" was heard from the stage and suddenly Stanley was back at his penthouse apartment in Lumiose, along with Mewtwo.

"So who fucked up?" Mewtwo asked. "And how?"

"LINUS!!!"

"Ok, but what did he do?"

"THIS." Stanley showed Mewtwo his phone.

Mewtwo's eyes practically left their sockets, and his shock gave him a coughing fit. Linus, Stanley’s Sylveon, rounded the corner, rubbing his eyes with his ribbonlike feelers. He asked,

"Dude, it's 2:07, what did I do?"

Stanley showed Linus his phone. Linus saw Cassie sitting up on the bed, the egg-sized bulge in her stomach, and Jake sitting next to her with his head in his hands. He had a similar reaction to Mewtwo, but managed to choke out,

"I didn't do it, I swear!! She’s taken, I’m not a fuckin’ moron! And when would I have even done that???"

"Yeah, when would he have done that?" Mewtwo translated for Stanley. "He was chilling here with the rest of the team the whole time we were in Johto yesterday."

Stanley's shoulders relaxed as he realized his accusation was a bit unfounded.

"...Yeah. Sorry about that, Linus. You can go back to bed."

"Okay…? I hope you can find the dad, guys." Linus said. "Good luck, Cassie! Hang in there!"

"Thank you, Linus. I'll try." Cassie said.

He turned around and went back to bed.

"I've asked you this before, Stanley," Jake said, "but are you sure humans don't have an egg group?"

"Yes, Jake." Stanley said. "Humans have no egg group. They don’t lay eggs. It's very simple. How do they say it on TV?... You are not the father."

Jake’s heart broke a little. He was never trying to get Cassie pregnant, but now that he knew the egg wasn't his, he was sad. And furious. Who did this to Cassie? Why weren't they taking responsibility? Why was Jake’s fist not three feet into their skull yet? But wait. No one could have gotten in.

"Are you absolutely sure?" Jake asked. "Mewtwo, you're the gene guy, right?"

Mewtwo chuckled. "I see what you're getting at. Mind if I come over?"

"Go ahead." Cassie said.

Mewtwo teleported into their living room. He took a long look at Jake, reading parts of his genetic code. Then he did the same to the egg inside Cassie. His eyes widened.

"Jake?"

"Yeah?"

Mewtwo held out his hand to him. As they shook hands, Mewtwo said, "Congratulations, you're gonna be a dad."

"Are you serious?" Jake asked, his face struck with astonishment.

"There’s an Eevee in there…" Mewtwo said.

"And they've got your eyes."

"Th– bu– whu– thu– They do?" Jake sputtered. "What do you mean, ‘they’? Aren’t you gonna tell us–"

"And ruin the surprise? Hell no." He teleported back to Stanley’s apartment, and said, "I'm gonna hit the sack, guys. That Sax solo is way too long for my puny lungs. Goodnight."

"Goodnight." They said.

Stanley was about as speechless as Jake and Cassie.

"That’s…"

"Impossible, we know." Jake said, his face seeming to lose a little color. "Listen man, it’s really late for you; you should get some rest."

"You're right." Stanley said. "I hope you guys can figure this out."

"Us too."

Stanley hung up and Cassie hugged Jake.

"We're having a baby, Jake! I know we never tried for it, but now that it's happening, Isn't it exciting?"

Jake hugged her back, but he didn’t say anything. He just started to cry.

"Jake, those don't sound like happy tears. Are you ok?"

Jake broke down. "I’m scared, Cassie!… I'm really scared."

"Why?"

"Well… what if I mess this up? What if they don't like me?!" He sobbed.

"Jake, you're their dad! Of course they're gonna like you! They'll love you!"

"But– you heard what Mewtwo said! They're an Eevee; I don't look like them, Cassie! What are they going to think?!" The tears poured down his face.

Cassie thought about it. As much as she wanted to make Jake feel reassured, she knew it was a very valid fear. But she thought she had the right words.

“Jake, I can’t imagine a world where our kid doesn’t think you’re just as cool, fun, and lovable as I do. I know that you’re gonna be a little different from them, but you don’t have to worry, I promise."

"But… even if they do like me, I don't know anything about taking care of a kid! I'm gonna screw something up!"

"Jake, you are not going to screw it up! We've known each other for a year and a half, and even before we knew we loved each other, you were always so good to me! You've taken such good care of me every day we've been together! Do you think you're going to mess something up just because it's gonna be a kid instead of me?"

"I– I mean…"

"Jake, you are going to be just as good of a dad to this Eevee as you've been a best friend to me. You have nothing to worry about, everything's gonna be okay."

She squeezed him and nuzzled her head against his. She took some long, steady breaths to encourage him to do the same, and started purring to help soothe him. Jake followed her lead and managed to calm down.

Once his breathing steadied, he sniffled and said,

"So I got you pregnant on our wedding night, huh? That's kinda funny, honestly."

"Considering how much we did it beforehand, yeah." Cassie laughed.

Jake pulled away from the hug so he could look at the bulge in Cassie’s stomach. He gently put his hand on her belly and felt the egg inside.

"S-so how many days… until you– lay this?" He asked awkwardly.

Cassie looked at him the way a teacher would at an enthusiastic, yet inept student.

"Try minutes, Jake. It was fertilized nine hours ago."

"What???" Jake asked in shock. "You're gonna go into labor in a few minutes?! –Fuck it!"

He grabbed the Loyal Ball from his satchel on the dresser and held it in front of Cassie.

“Get in! I need to get you to a hospital– or Elm’s lab– or something!”

Cassie pushed the ball back to Jake.

"It's not the same as labor." She said. "–listen. I'm confident that you're ready to be a dad, but I don't think you're totally prepared for every step in the process of raising a Pokémon."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, for one, laying an egg isn't that painful. And it'll take like thirty seconds."

Jake’s mind was reeling. Apparently laying an egg was very chill compared to childbirth.

He had a lot to learn.

"Um, so how long will it take to hatch?"

"Well, we can either walk around with it for an hour or so, or we can incubate it ourselves. that’ll get it to hatch in a day-ish."

"…Um, I'd rather incubate it, then." Jake said. "I have so many questions before I think I'm gonna be ready for when it hatches."

"Okay." Cassie smiled. "What do you wanna know?"

Jake sighed.

"How long does it take to raise them? I know you raised yourself, but I want our kid to have a less stressful childhood."

"Yeah, I agree." Cassie said. "They're self-aware right out of the egg, so I'd say we just get them to a high enough level and then they can go out on their own."

Jake stared at her.

"That could be all of a week."

"Uh-huh."

"So we just raise our kid for a few days and then say goodbye?" He started to tear up again, thinking how little time they'd get to spend together. "What about teaching them good values? What about giving them memorable experiences?" Jake smacked his hand to his forehead. "What about the sex talk?!"

Cassie swallowed.

"Um… don’t think about this too much, but that’s completely instinctual. So no birds and bees required… They'll cross that bridge when they're ready for it."

Jake took her advice and tried not to think about it.

"Whu… well, what about giving them a fun childhood with their parents? Something to look back on?"

"That can still happen." Cassie reassured him. "It's just that they'll be self-sufficient in only a little while. They can move out really soon, and then," she put her paws on his shoulders and massaged them a little, "we can get back to us~"

Before Jake could protest to her nonchalance, Cassie suddenly pulled her paws back and winced, clutching her stomach.

"Nnnggghh…"

Jake started to panic.

"Oh Arceus, it's happening, Isn't it?!"

"I said it wouldn't be that painful, Jake." Cassie said, smiling through the difficulty. "Just really uncomfortable. Can you help me get to the middle of the bed?"

"Y-yeah!"

Jake helped her shift over so the egg would have the bed under it.

Cassie was right, and it took only a few moments for the egg to come out. Even so; once it was over, she was breathing hard.

"Hah. Hah. Hah…"

On the bed, there was an egg about the size of a large cantaloupe. It was brown with a beige zigzag band, and a little shiny, but that may have been from the fluid. Jake gingerly wiped it off with a bath towel, and stared at it. It blew his mind that his child was in there, and he would get to say hi to them for the very first time in only a day or two.

Cassie smiled at him. "Do you wanna hold it?"

Jake's eyes darted to her. "Really?"

Cassie giggled. "Of course; you're their dad!"

Jake very gently put both hands under the egg and picked it up. As he cradled it in his arms, he got a powerful feeling. He was holding someone's life in his hands. His kid. HIS kid. Somehow he could even feel the love emanating from it. He started to cry.

Before Cassie could say something like 'Aww, Jake…', there was a loud and impatient knock on their door.

"Are you guys okay? I forgot to check on you earlier!"

"Yeah, we're okay. You can come in!" Cassie said.

Cass started to punch in the code for the door.

"Alexis told me there was another lifeform at your house, but she didn’t recognize it. Is there–"

But once she got the door open, she was stupefied. There were her two best friends in this universe, cuddling a large egg. That could only mean…

"There’s no way."

"That's what we thought." Jake said, chuckling.

Cass fell onto her haunches.

"...Is there anything I can do to help?"

"We've got it under control from here." Cassie said. "...Do you wanna hold it?"

Cass was even more jarred at the question than Jake was.

"M-me? But I'm not even related to–"

"Bullshit." Cassie smiled. "You’re family. C'mon, they won't bite."

Cass gingerly went to sit down on the bed and Jake offered her the egg. As she took it and held it in her arms, she teared up too.

"I-I've never held an egg with a real person inside it before…" She said. "...I can't wait to meet them."

"Do you remember when you were an Eevee?" Jake asked curiously. "Or– the Marsupistrus version, I mean."

Cass smiled. "No, actually. Mysterae are born as fishcats, so I didn't evolve from anything. And they give live birth, so no eggs either."

"Interesting." Jake said, as Cass handed the egg back to Cassie.

"Have you decided on a name yet?" Cass asked.

Jake and Cassie looked at each other.

"No, actually." Cassie said. "We probably should, though."

"Well, uh, I guess… I'll leave you guys to it, since there's no catastrophe." Cass said, turning to leave. "Make sure I get to see them when they hatch, though!"

"Will do." Jake said.

Cass shut the door behind her and Jake and Cassie were left with a lot of thinking to do. Not just of deciding on a name, but the idea that they had actually made a baby last night. It still blew their minds, and it nagged at the back of their heads all day. But in the meantime, they were brainstorming names.

Breakfast was ready, so they wrapped the egg in a blanket and put it on a chair. As they ate their overcooked poffins, they kicked it off.

"Maybe Flint?" Jake suggested.

"I don't want to pressure them into evolving into a Flareon." Cassie said.

"Oh, that's a good point."

"James?"

"Too generic… Henry?"

"Too last century. Ummmm… Mitchell?"

"...Too contemporarily unique."

"That's fair." Cassie said. "Oh, but what If they're a girl?"

"Daisy." Jake suggested.

"Natalie." Cassie countered.

"Terratia."

"Mia."

"Brandy."

"Jasmine."

"…I don't like any of those." Jake said reluctantly.

"Neither do I!" Cassie laughed.

Morning turned into afternoon. Over a lunch of Mago Crêpe Magikarp wraps, they continued the back and forth.

"How about Tucker?" Jake asked.

"I mean…" Cassie began, "it's kinda cute, but it feels weird in my mouth. 'Tucker'... wrong vibe. What about… Wade?"

"Ooh, I like it…" Jake said. "...But that kinda sounds like someone's middle name that they go by because they don't like their first name."

"Uh… Uh-huh."

"Arthur." Jake offered.

"Like the Heatmor on kids TV? Nah."

"Oh, I didn’t even think about that…"

"Let's try girls' names again." Cassie said.

"Okay, maybe… Jennifer. Jenny or Jen for short."

"No one named Jennifer is younger than 27 in my memory. That would break my brain."

"Dang it, you're right."

"Karen." Cassie tried.

"You can't be serious." Jake gave a confused smile.

"Oh, duh!" Cassie laughed. "Okay… Sylvia!"

"That might pressure them to become a Sylveon, wouldn’t it?"

"Crap!"

They went about the rest of their day, doing various chores like berry collecting, wood chopping, and so on. After a nice dinner of homemade pasta they got ready for bed. Cassie wrapped an extra sheet around their egg and became the big spoon for once. She held it with her arms and tail wrapped around it for warmth, and Jake hugged her from behind like always.

"We seriously need to decide on a name." Cassie said, nestling into Jake's embrace as she gently held their egg.

"Yeah…" Jake said absentmindedly.

Cassie could tell he wasn't fully checked in to the conversation.

"Jake, what's up?"

Jake sighed. "I don't know. I'm just still stumped on how this happened in the first place. It's literally impossible. The whole thing feels so surreal."

"Jake, that's not what we should worry about right now."

"Isn't it?" Jake asked. "What if we have sex again later, and I get you pregnant again? Who's to say this is the only time it'll happen? We can probably handle one kid, but I don't know about more."

Cassie paused.

"Well, I guess… we start using condoms, maybe? I don't think they make contraceptive pills for Pokémon."

Jake frowned. That didn't sound particularly fun.

"But I love feeling your warm, soft insides…" He said, stroking her crest fin. "Putting a barrier between us would make it feel cheap, wouldn't it? The contact is part of what makes it special– at least in my mind… and don't you like it when I cum inside you?"

"Yes, but if your cum being inside me leads to more eggs, I would rather go with skipping the filling than biting off more than we can chew."

Jake sighed again. "Yeah… you're right…"

Then Cassie got an idea.

"We, um… We could try anal."

Jake nearly bluescreened. In a year and two days of the sexual side of their relationship, they had never once done anal. But why? Maybe they just never felt the desire to…? or maybe…

"There’s no way that would feel as good for either of us, especially you."

"How do we know that? We've never done it that way. Maybe it could be fun!"

Jake hesitated. "I just… I don't know. It seems weird to me."

"Okay." Cassie said. "I won't push you about it if it makes you uncomfortable. …Just know that the only other options are 69'ing and abstinence."

Jake thought about it.

"I'm fine with that. Just as long as we can find enough time alone from our kid. That'll be hard, I'm sure."

"Yeah…"

"And I mean, it's not like we need to have sex to show our love. Or to have fun. And if they catch us, that'll only stir heat from the wrong coals." He yawned.

"What an odd metaphor…" Cassie remarked.

"Yeah, my wordsmithy gets broken when I'm tired, you know that."

"No, it's good, actually. 'Stir heat from the wrong coals'..." Cassie gasped.

"What?" Jake asked.

"Cole! We should name him Cole! I mean… if they're a boy."

For the first time, Jake thought the name was an excellent idea.

"That's perfect! …I think we should come up with a different girl’s name, though." he chuckled.

"I kinda want that to be a tomorrow thing." Cassie yawned.

"Yeah, good plan." Jake sighed. He gently squeezed her. "Good night, Fishy."

"Good night, Ninjaboy."

“I love you.~”

“I love you too.~”

And they drifted off to sleep.

That wasn't all the activity for the night, however. Jake suddenly found himself on a white sandy beach illuminated by a golden sunset. He sat up, looked around, and realized he was sitting next to Arceus.

"GAH!" Jake yelled in shock. "Arceus, what are you doing here?!"

"As I understand it, you have a few questions for me." Arceus said in his powerful, yet soothing voice.

"But I don’t…" Jake started, but caught himself. Actually, he had at least two very much burning questions only Arceus could answer.

"Before you start, may I ask you how you've been?" Arceus interrupted, in the most polite way you can possibly interrupt someone. "It's not every day I get to chat with my children one-on-one."

"Oh– sure." Jake said. "I mean, every day with Cassie is a great day, if you ask me. She makes me so happy. She's so funny, and caring, and affectionate, and cool… and she loves me." He sighed dreamily.

"You're her soulmate; of course that's what you'd say." Arceus said with a warm and genuine smile, delighted that one of his children was leading such a contented life. "But don't forget how fun she is in bed.~" He added playfully.

Jake jumped.

"What!?"

“I see everything.” Arceus said. “I don’t get to turn it off.”

Jake’s face flushed. He and Cassie did some very lewd things in bed. Not all were kinky, but then again, some were. Among the kinkiest were handholding, nuzzling, and post-coitus snuggling. And Arceus had seen it all. The more Jake thought about it, the redder his face got.

"Don't be embarrassed." Arceus said. "That is an important part of your relationship with her, and I trust that it too, has been going well?"

At least he was pretending he didn’t know. The tact was appreciated.

"...I-I mean, yeah. It has." Jake said tentatively. "She knows what I like and what I'm into… and she'd satisfy me regardless. She's so perfect for me…" He sighed again.

Arceus cocked his head knowingly.

"I hear that word spoken a lot; 'perfect'. It's not always properly used, you know."

"What do you mean?"

"You and Cassie are both imperfect beings. You are more ideal for each other than nearly any two people on the planet; that was my idea, make no mistake of it. But that does not mean there are no flaws in each other for you to discover. Keep that in mind."

"O-okay."

"But you had some questions?"

"Oh, yeah." Jake said. "...How did I get Cassie pregnant? It just doesn't add up."

Arceus laughed softly.

"No, it sure doesn't. But I may have opened a few locked doors just a crack for a moment or two there."

"I should've known…" Jake said, propping up his chin with his hand. "In that case, why, if you don't mind me asking? Why did you let us have a kid? Was it to test us or our resolve? To challenge our relationship that otherwise doesn't have any wrinkles?"

"Yes, yes, and yes." Arceus smiled. "But there is one other reason…"

"Which is…?"

Arceus paused.

"Can I level with you?"

Jake was surprised he was even asked.

"I mean, I don't mind… go ahead, yeah."

Arceus sighed.

"Someone needed to knock you down a peg or two."

"What?"

"My survey Mew have been keeping a close eye on you, and to put it bluntly, you're OP."

"Huh??"

"You and your wife. You're ridiculously overpowered. Here, listen to this." He pulled out a clipboard and reading glasses from nowhere, and said,

"You need to format your story correctly XD; it looks like a clusterfuck."

Arceus paused.

"Actually, that one's on me. I need to patch some stray particles that have been acting up… oh, here's one about you.”

'Too OP; Arceus pls nerf.'

“That is from my most eloquent mew on staff. You drove a poet of the ages to m3m3sp33k by sheer awe at your unfair strength."

Jake looked at him blankly, and Arceus continued.

"Your only challenges have come from each other and yourselves. First, it was your mutual hesitation; then it was Cassie's heat; then your desire, but perceived inability, to get married. Even these challenges you have faced have been quite unsuccessful at actually challenging you."

"What are you saying?"

"Life becomes far more interesting when conflict is introduced into it. You may think you’re feeling happy just living with your wife until the end of time–"

"Of course I am, I love her! Are you saying I won't?"

"You will. But there is a difference between feeling happy and being fulfilled. The difficulties you will face, and the joys of cresting over the hill of parenthood will show you satisfaction you have not yet considered possible. You will be fulfilled beyond what you have ever known. But the best way to become closest to your family is to withstand feeling threatened that you will fall apart. That is why I allowed Cassie to conceive. That is why you will soon have a child. Because it will bring both of you insurmountable challenge and unbelievable joy. And should you come out on the other side, your relationship with Cassie will be ever stronger for it."

Jake was taken aback. Arceus was purposely about to put him and Cassie through difficulties that would nearly tear them apart? He loved Cassie with every fiber of his being; a test of their bond like that sounded awful.

But he didn’t have much of a rebuttal. He hadn’t really broken a sweat since he ran from those Ursaring with Cassie tucked safely in his satchel. Even a BLJ didn't take much out of him. Cassie herself had never lost a battle.

And even if he did disagree with Arceus, he wouldn't dare say it aloud.

"Um… thanks for the heads-up, I guess." Jake said.

"You're welcome." Arceus said. "And don’t worry too much; this will be a one-time thing.”

Jake sighed in relief.

“Okay, thank you. We were really worried about that part.”

“Of course. Now you should get back to sleep. You have a VERY big day tomorrow."

Jake was dumbstruck.

"Wait– do you mean–?"

But Arceus simply smiled and the dream faded away.

"JAKE! JAKE, WAKE UP!"

Jake opened his eyes and sat up in bed. Cassie was shaking him, and it looked like for good reason. Their egg was wiggling all on its own. He was jolted awake and his eyes were instantly fixed on it.

"I think it’s hatching!" Cassie said nervously.

"We don't have a girl's name ready!" Jake said in panic.

But there was no time. A small split appeared in the egg's surface, and all of Jake’s worries came rushing back to him.

“What if they don't like me?”

Another split in the egg appeared.

“What if they resent the fact that I'm a human?”

A fragment fell off of the shell.

“What if I screw something up raising them and they grow up wrong somehow?”

But Jake’s mind received another jolt when he saw something through the cracks in the egg. He expected to see fluffy brown fur. What he saw was quite different. He glanced at Cassie and her look of excitement was now one of disbelief.

“Cassie? Is our kid…?”

“Umm…”

Suddenly there was a loud snap, and the top of the egg popped off, revealing an adorable Eevee…

With bright beige fur.

Already Jake could tell that it was a boy by the scruff fur, which was almost white rather than a gray color.

The Eevee shook his head and opened his eyes– a rich hazel color, just like Mewtwo had said. They fell on Jake first, and without skipping a beat, he leaped out of the egg and tackled Jake in a hug.

“Daddy!!!”

In shock as he was, all Jake could do was start crying and wrap his arms around his son. He managed to croak out,

“H-hi, Cole…”

He was barely able to process it. Not only did Cole not seem to be bothered that his dad was human, but he recognized Jake first.

Cassie couldn't help but notice it too.

“HE RECOGNIZED YOU INSTANTLY!” She mouthed.

“I KNOW!” Jake mouthed back.

“Daddy, are you crying?” Cole asked. “Why are you sad?”

“No, I-I’m fine.” Jake reassured him. “Sometimes people cry when they’re really happy.”

“Is that why you’re crying right now?”

“Yeah, buddy.”

“Why are you so happy?”

“Because I finally got to meet you, little guy.” Jake said, squeezing him.

“Hey, I want a hug too!” Cassie said.

Cole gasped.

“Mommy!!!” he jumped into Cassie’s arms, nearly knocking Jake over.

Cassie squeezed him and said, “How are ya, little Eevee?”

“Okay, now I’m confused.” Cole said. “Is my name supposed to be Cole, Buddy, Little Guy, or Little Eevee?”

Jake and Cassie burst out laughing, and Jake hugged them both so Cole was sandwiched between them.

“Cole. your name is Cole.” Cassie giggled. They sat there cuddling until Cole tried to wiggle out and said,

“I’m hungry, do you have any food?”

Jake had a brief thought, one very much on the foreboding side, but dismissed it. There was nothing to worry about on that front, he was sure.

“Sure, buddy. You want some berries? We have tons of those.”

Jake walked over to the kitchen and Cole followed him. As Jake opened the fridge, Cole spotted the basket of Mago berries.

"Ooh, I love Mago berries!" Cole exclaimed.

Jake did a double take.

"Wait, really? How do you know?"

Cassie bit her lip. Maybe Jake was a little less ready for this than she thought.

"Because sweet stuff is super tasty!" Cole said, helping himself. "You should try some!"

Jake was bewildered. How did Cole know he liked sweet things? How did he know what Mago tasted like? How did he know what Mago berries were? He wasn't just born yesterday, he was born less than two minutes ago! Jake held his head, getting dizzy.

"Oh shit, he's bluescreening." Cassie said under her breath. "Cole, buddy, help yourself, just don't eat too much. And save some Mago for me, please, I like ‘em too! I just need to talk to daddy for a second." Cassie wrapped her tail around Jake's waist and dragged him into the bathroom.

"Okay, mommy!"

As Cassie shut the door behind them, she asked,

"Are you okay?"

"I– Buh– He… H–how did he know that???" Jake sputtered.

"You know how egg moves work?" Cassie asked.

"...Yeah."

"He's gonna know a lot of things we know right out of the box. You’re gonna have to get used to that."

Jake's head spun, but suddenly a clear thought surfaced.

"Oh my gosh, speaking of eggs, I had a dream from Arceus!"

"What?!"

"Yeah! He told me he let me get you pregnant as a way to test us, and not to worry about any more eggs!"

Cassie's heart beat a little faster. "S-so we can…?"

"I mean, I can't get you pregnant again; it was a one-time thing."

Cassie started panting heavily, and suddenly she slammed Jake to the floor. She tore his fly open and Jake knew damn well what she was after. Frantically, he whispered,

"ARE YOU CRAZY? HE'S RIGHT OUT THERE!"

As Cassie loomed over him, she dripped right onto his dick.

"I've been dying to get into your pants since my womb was emptied of Cole’s egg. You think I'm not gonna burst into horniness when you tell me you're ready to cum inside me again?~"

She had a crooked, hot-and-bothered smile as she breathed into his face. Her breath smelled like berries. Jake's dick practically flew up to greet her pussy, but he wasn't ready for Cole to catch them having sex within the first ten minutes of him being born.

"I didn't exactly say that! Besides, he's gonna catch us!"

Cassie’s smile turned from lewd to goofy, and she blushed and nuzzled Jake's face. Ignoring his words, she said,

"Jake, you put a baby inside me! That does stuff to a person. My crush on you is even bigger now!"

Jake started some huffing and puffing of his own.

"Y-you still have a crush on me? I have a crush on you still!"

Cassie rubbed her cheek against his.

"I never stopped having a crush on you, Ninjaboy! C’mooon, please? Just a quickie! He won't even notice, I just need to feel you cum inside me!~"

Her voice quivered with those last three words.

Arceus, It was always so hard to say no to her.

“Ok,” Jake said, “but we have to be quiet! And only because I love you so fucking much! And I’m not gonna hold on either, this has to be fast or he’ll notice!”

Cassie grinned.

“I don’t mind. And I have an idea to keep us quiet. Gimme your mouth, cutie~”

She pulled him into a kiss and lowered her tight pussy onto his shaft.

"HHMMMMMHH…" Jake sighed deeply into her mouth. It had been way too long since he had felt her soft, warm insides. Actually… It had been two days. But that was longer than they had gone without sex in months.

Cassie moved up and down at a nice, steady pace, knowing if she went too fast, it would be over soon. She felt his dick throb inside her and sighed back into his mouth. The pulse of his heartbeat was both loving and lewd, and she couldn’t get enough. But Cole would get suspicious if they were gone too long, and she remembered what Jake had said about stirring heat from the wrong coals. She hilted on him and pulled her lips away, then moaned in satisfaction.

“Haaaaahh… Okay Jake, I’m ready~ give it to me!” Then she started grinding on him, which was usually enough to set him off once he’d been holding on, but for some reason, he didn’t bust.

“Hah. hAaH. Jake, I said I’m ready now.” She said, trying humping instead, which he had said before felt amazing because of how squishy her pussy was.

“But– But– I miss this!” Jake said reluctantly, straining not to cum, because she did feel amazing.

“Don’t tell me you’re holding on even harder now! We have to finish or Cole’s gonna wonder what’s taking so long! Since when are we not on the same page about when the creampie happens??”

“I don’t know, you just feel so goooOOood!” his voice groaned on the last word.

“Arceus, you’re cute!” Cassie whispered.

Suddenly a third voice joined the conversation.

“Are you guys okay?” Cole asked from the living room outside the door.

Cassie sat straight up on Jake’s dick and whirled around, mashing her tail fin over Jake’s mouth so he couldn’t say anything stupid.

“Yeah, we’re good!” she said in a nonchalant tone. “I’m just helping daddy freshen up because…”

She racked her usually lightning-quick brain. It was a lot easier for her to think without a vagina packed full of boyfriend.

“...We’re gonna go get cake later!”

“Really? Why?”

Her mind stalled at such a seemingly obvious question.

“Uh, because it’s your birthday, buddy!”

“Does that really count?”

“Sure it does! Now go wash your face so you look good for grandpa when we go visit him! You still have egg white on your chin, I saw!”

“Oh, okay!”

Cassie turned back to Jake and released his mouth from her tail.

“Did you just add a trip to azaleAAHH–” Jake started to say, but was cut off when Cassie started hump-grinding as a last resort attempt to get him to cum. This had gone from quickie to core workout for her in very few steps.

“It’s your fault you refuse to cum!” she hissed. “You’re not fooling anyone, I can feel you throb! I’m satisfied, just frickenOOOhhhh…”

The moment she had said ‘satisfied,’ Jake had grabbed her hips and finally came inside her. As she felt his gushing spout of cum spray the top of her womb, she let fly a nice, long squirt of pussy juice, leaving a wet trail on him from head to stomach.

“HHAAahhh…” She moaned softly, trying not to make too much noise. Now that she finally got release, she felt weak, especially from how much work she had done. She flopped on top of him and tried to catch her breath.

He wrapped his arms around her and squeezed her lovingly.

“That’s all I needed to hear, fishy. You know I hate cumming without you.”

"Sometimes it's almost frustrating how much you love me…" Cassie pouted. "Rrgh, I still kinda wish you had just cum faster; now Cole is totally on to us!”

Jake drooped. the time crunch really didn’t occur to him; he only wanted her to have fun…

Cassie gritted her teeth.

“...And we smell like sex. There is no way he’s not going to notice that… just– take a super fast shower with me and I'll freshen my water bank.”

They took a one-minute shower together. Usually they’d intimately clean each other as they washed off. All of each other. But they only had time for Jake to rinse off his body and Cassie to flush out any of their cum she may have absorbed. Jake toweled off and Cassie let all of the excess water fall off of her in a single splash, drying off completely. Jake put on a new t-shirt and shorts (he kept some clothes handy in there for this exact kind of situation) and they stepped out of the bathroom.

Cole was right outside.

Jake and Cassie froze. Was he listening the whole time?

Jake could barely think anything other than, “Please tell me we did not just get busted by our kid less than ten minutes from his birth.”

“Were you guys…” Cole started.

Jake faltered, but Cassie expected it. This kid was anything but dumb. Better shut the truth down as fast as possible.

“No, we were just chatting. Your daddy needed a pep talk.” She gave Jake a reacharound squeeze with her tail.

“Well, at least that’s how it started out.” Jake thought, leaning into her tailhug to drive her point home.

“And we took some quick showers. But why would we do that when you were right here?” Cassie added cleverly.

“...Yeah, that makes sense.” Cole said. “So where does grandpa live?”

Cassie realized she didn’t think this through. Whelp, gotta commit now.

“He actually lives pretty far away, now that I think about it. Hmm. Pretty far to walk."

Suddenly she got an Idea.

"Jake, you should make a–"

"NO."

"Oh, come on!"

"I hate how you have one! You think I'm gonna put Cole in a tiny ball too!? You're insane!"

"But it's so cozy in there! You could make a nice one for him, too!"

"The idea of having both my wife and son bouncing around in little balls in my pocket viscerally disgusts me."

"But the inertia's isolated! We won’t bounce around!"

"Oh, yeah! Just let me trap my best friend and our kid in conveniently hand-sized spherical cells so I can put them in my satchel like they're fucking objects!" Jake said through a fresh batch of tears. "Do you have any idea how awful and fucked up that would make me feel?? The answer is no."

"Jake, I appreciate the respect you want to show us, but it's really–"

"NO, Cassie!"

"...You're impossible."

They broke eye contact and Cole looked at them uncomfortably.

"Do you guys fight like that all the time?"

"No." Cassie said. "That’s really the only thing we've ever fought about. I say it’s a cozy spot for him to keep me safe in while we travel because he can go way faster than me out of the water, and–"

"And I think it's a tiny, limiting space that makes me feel like a domineering scumbag every time I put her in there, no matter what she says."

"...And we can never agree on it." Cassie finished.

"Oh." Cole said.

"Your mom is my wife." Jake told Cole. "She's my best friend. She's not my wallet. I don't like having so much control over her like that; it makes me feel horrible."

Cole sat there for a second, but eventually said,

"I thought only humans could make Pokéballs, like, in factories and stuff."

Jake tried desperately to hold on to consciousness. Who the hell told him what factories were!?

"Egg moves, Jake. Egg moves." He thought. "It makes no sense but it's not supposed to…"

"Well, some very skilled craftspeople like your dad can make them by hand with the right materials." Cassie said, giving Jake another tailhug. "It's an ancient skill that pretty much only he and his dad have anymore."

"...Okay." Cole said, his confusion not fully resolved. "Well, can someone teleport us to grandpa's house?" He asked.

"Ooh." Jake said. "...Well, I don't wanna bother Mewtwo."

"Who's Mewtwo?"

Jake paused.

"That's a really long and kinda scary and sad story."

Cole looked a little frightened.

"–But he's really nice! We just don't wanna bother him." Then Jake snapped his fingers.

"Cass has teleporters!"

"Oh, duh!" Cassie said. She lives like sixty seconds away– and she wanted to meet Cole anyway!"

"Who's Cass?" Cole asked.

Cassie laughed.

"She's me, but from a totally different, uh… dimension–"

"Timeline. Whole separate multiverse, actually." Jake said quickly, shutting down the inaccuracy before it could get too situated in their little one's head.

"A dimension is an axis across which something occurs, whether a dimension of space or time. Not a world. Cass is Cassie but from a different world." Jake suddenly wondered how much of that would go over Cole’s head.

"Oh, okay. but… she lives next door?"

"Yeah, she got stuck here a while back. Just think of her as your auntie." Cassie smiled, impressed at how much Cole was already able to grasp. "We'll go say hi to her and then have her teleport us to go see your grandpa. How does that sound?"

"Okay!" Cole said.

Once they were approaching Cass' door, Cole asked,

"Why is her house so much bigger than ours?"

Jake laughed.

"Because she built it herself above ground. It's a lot easier to build two floors when you don't have to dig them out first."

"Oh." Cole said.

"And she actually built a lot of our house for us." Jake chuckled. "We didn’t even ask her to, and she just did it to keep herself busy. When I made it the first time, the walls were all made of packed dirt."

They knocked on the door, and suddenly they heard the sound of a quadruped running through the house at full speed. Cole’s eyes bugged.

"She was really excited to meet you when she saw you in your egg." Cassie explained.

Suddenly the door burst open, and Cass locked eyes with Cole. She gasped, made a huge smile, and her eyes lit up.

"Hi, Auntie Cass." Cole said sweetly. "Thank you for building our house for us."

"OH MY GOSH YOU'RE SO CUTE!!!" She said, gripping Cole in a hug that nearly crushed him, but he just hugged her back and wagged his tail.

"...Did you just call me auntie?"

"Yeah. You're my auntie, right?"

"Ooooofffrrshifrshifrshifrshifrshi…" She squeezed him harder. "C'mon inside and let's get you a snack or something, huh?"

"Okay!"

"Alexis! What do we have for snacks!?" Cass yelled to her smart assistant, walking into the house.

"Uh," Alexis started, "I mean, closest thing is some energy bars–"

"That's boring! Can you make us some cheese sticks or something?"

"You… you want me to make cheese? I mean, I can–"

"That's okay, Alexis!" Jake said. "We'll eat at my dad's."

"Alright, cool. Because cheese isn't fast, lol." Alexis said.

"Oh, I see how it is." Cass said. "You came here because you want me to teleport you guys for Cole to see his grandpa. That way, Ninjaboy here can avoid putting his entire family into Pokéballs and hold on to his chivalry." She cast a sly sideways look to Jake.

"It's not about holding on to anything, it's about the fact that it makes me feel awful!" Jake protested. "And only Cassie gets to call me 'Ninjaboy'!"

"Sorry, sorry. I'm kidding… In all seriousness, Jake, it's very sweet how well you treat your family."

"Thank you."

"Auntie Cass?"

"Yeah, kiddo?"

"If you're Mommy from a different world, where's daddy from a different world?"

Cass sighed and sat in her armchair.

"Well, I never got to meet my timeline's version of your dad, but I'm sure he's a great guy. Their spirit turns out pretty cool, no matter where it incarnates…" She paused and made a face like she had just seen something decaying.

"Well, there's Easton Pontertarry, but he's a serious edge case. Anyway, I did get to meet one from a different timeline. His name was Ewan. He was very fast, very smart and very kind, just like your dad."

"Were you and Ewan in love like mommy and daddy?" Cole asked innocently.

Cass giggled.

"Nope, funnily enough. Just best friends. He saved my life from two bears and we spent the next 64 years traveling the polyverse and mostly having fun together– aside from when we had to save the polyverse. So when I think about it, it's almost weird we never caught feelings for each other. Maybe he's not into aliens, I guess."

"You're over 64 years old!?"

Cass rolled her eyes.

"I may have been alive for almost 84 years now, but when you’re around Ewan’s tech, you don’t age. I'm really 20 with 84 years of memories."

Cole looked at her weird.

"Listen, buddy. I'm no old lady. I'm the same age as your mom, got it, mister?"

"Okay."

"Okay." Cass smiled.

"But where is Ewan?"

Cass sat back in her armchair and sighed.

"Heck if I know, buddy. I used to hang out with him every day on his enormous starship, but…" Cass paused and her voice got shaky.

"One day we were fighting a bunch of evil parasites.

They wanted to take over every multiverse in the cosmos, and they were starting to pick up too much speed with their plans. We had to stop them one way or another.

When we were in the last battle against the last of their fleet, they fired a plasma blast straight at Ewan. It could have been regular energy, which would kill you instantly, or it could have been cosmic fire, which burns up your whole body into the cracks between the fabric of reality and spits you back out somewhere totally random. I had to choose between losing Ewan somehow, or possibly my own life." Cass was tearing up at this point.

"I knew that it would be better to dive into the unknown, and maybe die, than to watch it happen to the best friend that I would ever have. So… I jumped out in front of him, blocking the shot, and I found myself shooting through the atmosphere above Johto.

Luckily, I still had enough Hyperfluid in my system to protect myself on impact. When I woke up, I saw your mom and dad standing over me and wondering if I was okay. I am super lucky that your dad can understand me, and I'm even more lucky that he and your mom were sweet enough to take me in until I got a house set up."

Jake and Cassie looked at her.

"How could we not?" Jake asked. "You had nowhere else to stay."

Cass grinned.

"How about any hole in the ground ever? I'm a tactical specialist. I would have survived if I needed to. Besides, your house had only one room at the time. I'm sure I ruined so many nights that would have otherwise been very fun by sleeping on the floor next to your bed."

Cassie rolled her eyes.

"Okay, we love each other a lot, but we don't need it that bad."

"The night after I moved out, I could hear the smacking from my bedroom." Cass said with a smirk.

Jake and Cassie’s faces flushed.

"Did we really do it that hard that night?" Jake whispered to Cassie.

"I'm pretty sure we did. It had been almost a week." She whispered back.

Cole looked at Cass, still amazed by her story.

"Do you ever miss him?"

"Every day." Cass said, a little sadly. "Sometimes, when I have some time alone, I close my eyes and imagine what he might be doing. He won the battle after I got here; I know that for sure. He still has his other friends back on our ship, and I hope he still has fun traveling the polyverse without me…"

–<[Timeline MontiPythomia-TBAS-ASYAO]>–

Floating lazily in space far above a verdant planet, there was a starship larger than imagination can usually conceive.

The Endeavor.

The scale was baffling, and an explanation that would truly do it justice would only serve to confuse you. I'll settle for saying that its walkable interior had a larger square footage than the planet below. Somewhere in the depths of its third secondary fuselage, a young man and his friend were playing a game of ping-pong. The young man's name was Ewan Christopher Pettittattittep, and his friend was Camuel Odysseus Meltonbenger. (His middle name at birth was Ulysses, but that caused certain problems and was legally changed as soon as possible.) They both held the rank of Captain, but that had very little to do with actually flying the ship these days; they just decided where it went. Ewan expressed feelings of general stress earlier, and Cam offered a game of ping-pong to get his mind off of whatever was bothering him.

"Dude, just tell me what's on your mind."

"I just need to think for a second."

The ball bounced back and forth across the table, from paddle, to table, to paddle, to table, and back again. This particular volley had been going on for almost four minutes.

"We're 91 fucking years old. Grow up and talk about your damn feelings. You know you need to talk to me about what's getting to you or you're not gonna get any less tense."

"You never told me you were dyslexic."

"What?"

"We're still 19, dumbass."

"I'm saying you have 91 years of experience feeling shit to know that you can't hold stuff in, dumbass. And that's not how dyslexia works."

"I know, I'm just trying to figure something out! And since when are you therapy guy!?"

They started bouncing the ball faster as the conversation got more heated.

"Well, tell me anyway! I'm an engineer too, I can help you! Collaboration is part of that job, d u m b a s s. They tell you to ask for feedback from your colleagues on day one of class at Stanhope because that's a big fuckin part of engineering!"

Ewan angled his paddle so the ball bounced upward, then swung his arm with full force and shot it back at Cam, burying the ball in Cam's paddle.

"I'M TRYING TO FIGURE OUT IF CASSIE COULD STILL BE ALIVE!!!" He yelled, and buried his face in his hands in an armchair in the corner.

"...Hoooo…" Cam puffed. "Listen dude, I know it's a really sore subject for you, but that one's gonna be pretty easy to figure."

"What are you talking about!? I've been grinding my brain against itself for a year on this!"

"That's because your brain's jumbled! You're still grieving for her, and I don’t blame you, so trying to apply science to it is going to be cyclical!"

"So what do you suggest I do?"

"You taught me theoretical reasoning yourself. What is step one of crunching an abstract problem?"

Ewan took a deep breath.

"Give yourself as many logical shortcuts as the situation allows."

"Good. So how many assumptions can we make– or– let me ask you this. What was Cassie's IQ?"

"By… human scales, it was in the 150s somewhere… maybe higher? It's hard to measure fishcats, there's no control data."

"Okay, we'll just say 155. We can then assume she would quickly determine the best method of survival.”

"Alright. But she wouldn't have much of a chance if she didn't reenter in a breathable atmosphere."

"She can breathe two kinds of fluid, remember."

"Okay, so that takes it from 1 in a few million to 2 in a few million. Great."

"Oh! How much Hyperfluid did she have in her system? I dearly hope you were both hopped up on it, battling an enemy force on foot."

Ewan slapped his face to his forehead.

"It had to have been about 2 liters! …roughly."

"Okay, and how much mass did she have?"

"She only weighed like 29.7 kilograms…"

"She’s lucky for that. Less matter to move. Now, her best chance of survival would be to teleport to the nearest inhabitable body, correct?"

"Yeah, but… that's usually a supernatural action."

"Don't get stuck on that. We're already to solid math. Even then, she only needs 100 kilojoules of supernatural energy to teleport a kilogram of herself any distance. So that’s 2,970 S-KiloJoules to get herself to the best spot she could possibly be, which she would know to do. Did she have enough Hyperfluid in her bloodstream to do that?" Cam held his hands open, knowing they both knew the answer.

"Yes! And she'd still have more than 971 Milliliters left to resist impact!"

"Ewan," Cam said, placing his hand on Ewan’s shoulder, "Cassie is alive. And considering you taught her all your smarts and skills, she's likely doing very well for herself." He grabbed Ewan’s hand, helped him up, and gave him a handshake hug, a very rare thing from him.

"Thanks, man… Do you think…"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think she misses me as much as I miss her?"

Cam respectfully broke the handshake hug. Physical stuff like that was awkward for him.

"Man, you two were fricken inseparable. You ate next to each other, you talked constantly, you gave her the room next to yours, you sparred any day you weren't actively killing threats to sentient life together… I have no choice but to say she thinks about you every single day." then he asked Ewan, "Can I level with you?"

"Go ahead."

"It still baffles me that you two never dated. Are you just not into aliens or something?"

Ewan gritted his teeth, expecting the same outdated joke he heard way too often, even when Cassie was still around.

"Arkoos' sake, if you so much as mention that 'most compatible' bullshit, you're actually a racist prick and I will bite my Hyperfluid capsule just to put you through the next seven walls behind you."

"Bro, that’s not racist. That's a biological fact of fishcats. They generate so much moisture, it's insane."

Ewan gripped Cam’s collar and lifted him up to eye level. He was fuming, but Cam decided to let the tension pass. Eventually Ewan let him down and paced away.

"Okay fine, then I guess I'm not into aliens. I don't know, there was nothing I didn't like about her, I was just… never attracted to her."

"What if she was into you?"

"Id… give her a chance, totally, but she'd have to make the first move."

"Alright. Noted."

"What would you be noting that for? That information is useless to you."

"Don't worry about it."

–<[Timeline Marsupistrum-Suetus-Epsilon]>–

Cass looked blankly into space for a second before checking back into reality.

"So you guys wanna go see Cole’s grandpa?"

"Yeah, we just wanted to say hi to you first." Jake said.

"I appreciate it." Cass smiled. She slid a teleporter out from beneath the couch and tapped a few buttons on the rim. "Just stand on this and wait a few seconds. And make sure you tell ME first if Cole ever needs some babysitting. I'd love to look after this cute little guy if you need me to."

Jake and Cassie stole a look at each other's faces, and then at each other's crotches.

"We might take you up on that offer." Cassie said.

"Yeah." Jake said.

The three of them stepped onto the teleporter.

Cass nonchalantly stood on her back two legs (she was almost as adept a biped as a quadruped) and whispered into Jake's ear,

"Quick question before you go. I thought Eevee were supposed to be brown."

"Uhh, we got a rare mutation. They're called shiny. Biologically the same, just a different color."

"Bro, nat 20 first roll?" Cass asked.

"More like nat 4,096." Jake said.

Cass dropped the whisper for a celebratory yell.

"YO, LET'S GOOOOOO–"

Jake, Cassie and Cole found themselves in Kurt's front yard in Azalea Town. The White Apricorn tree to the left had almost ripe fruit, signaling that Fast Balls were going to be put up for sale rather soon. They walked up to the front door and knocked.

Maizie, Jake’s younger sister, answered the door.

"Oh, hey, Jake! Been a while! Sorry I couldn't make it to the wedding." She gave Jake a hug.

"Hey Maizie! And that's fine." Jake said. "Finals are a bit difficult to get around, haha."

"Heyyy sis!" Maizie said, kneeling down and giving Cassie a hug too.

"Hiiii!" Cassie said. "Jake, ask her what she's studying."

"Ooh, Cassie wants to know what you’re studying." Jake translated.

"Physics." Maizie said. "I asked the QP professor when we'd study the Polyverse Theory and he looked at me like I was insane. He was like,”

'Do you mean the multiverse theory?'

'Yeah, but like, the other layer too. The Polyverse.'

'You watch too much sci-fi. There is no Polyverse.'

“So yeah, I'm gonna transfer to a different school once I get my associate's so my program actually covers the polyverse. The professor at Goldenrod U is apparently not completely in the loop." She laughed.

Jake and Cassie giggled.

Then Maizie noticed Cole.

"You caught a shiny!? No way!"

Cole stared confusedly at her.

"Uhhh, IIIIII didn't catch him…" Jake said.

"What do you mean? Did you hatch him?" Maizie asked, and suddenly realized what that would entail.

"You could say that." Jake chuckled, a bit awkwardly. "This is Cole, and he's your nephew."

"Hiii!" Cole said, jumping into Maizie's arms and hugging her around the neck.

Maizie froze. She whispered to Jake,

"I thought that was impossible." Then, hugging Cole back, she said, "Oh my goodness, Cole, you're so fluffy!"

Cole giggled, and Jake whispered,

"Oh, it is impossible. Apparently divine intervention to combat how easy my life is."

Maizie burst out laughing.

"Deserved, bro. Deserved."

"Hey!"

Maizie broke out of her laughing fit, set Cole down, and said,

"Okay, but like, your main source of income is selling rare flora– not very hard; you have the athletic capability of a swole Jolteon, and you could not get along better with Cassie if you tried. If you're not BS'ing me, I agree with Arceus. You need a freakin' challenge."

Jake rolled his eyes.

"But I suppose you came to introduce Cole to dad?"

"Yep. Is he busy?"

"Not very. Come on in, I'll grab him."

They walked in and made themselves comfortable, and Maizie went into Kurt's workshop. Kurt was currently hunched over a sketchboard, trying to improve upon the Fast Ball design.

"If I used Sky Tumblestones, then it would fly faster in the air…" He thought. "Some customers have been confused by the name… But they only form up high, and my back isn't what it used to be… ah, maybe I could commission Jake to collect some for me! –But he moved away to have a peaceful life and I'm sure he's on his honeymoon now anyway…"

Maizie knocked on the open door.

"Hey dad, your grandson came to visit."

Kurt whirled around.

"WHO GOT YOU PREGNANT!?"

Maizie laughed.

"Not my kid. Jake's."

The drafting pencil snapped in Kurt's hand. A shame, too, that was a really nice pencil.

"You absolutely cannot be serious."

"I am."

"That's impossible."

"Nothing is impossible through Arceus."

"...Already?"

"Gestation is like eight hours."

"...S-so, he's…"

"An Eevee, yup. He's super fluffy," and she whispered, "and he's shiny! Cmon, say Hi to him! He wanted to meet you!"

Kurt simply stayed in his chair and stared into space.

Maizie walked up to him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Listen, dad. I know this is unorthodox. Your biological grandson hatched out of an egg and has four legs and greige fur. I'm not pretending that's normal." She chuckled. "But having a biological grandfather with two legs, pale skin, eight fingers, and two thumbs isn't normal for him either. He's giving you a chance, so you have to at least give him one too."

"But…"

"What's even so different to you about Pokémon anyway!?" She hissed, trying not to let Jake and Cassie hear. "They're sentient creatures with intelligence, the ability to communicate, wants, needs; that describes humans! There's a word for thinking you're superior to someone just because you're–."

"That's not it! I just–"

"You nothing. Cassie doesn't have any parents except you, remember? That means you're Cole’s only grandparent." She yanked him out of his chair and pushed him out the door. "He's super cute, you'll love him."

Maizie shoved Kurt into the living room and he was forced to put on a front of being excited to see Cole. Not that he wasn't, but the type of excitement he felt was technically more on the side of fear than joy.

Cole saw Kurt and immediately jumped up and hugged him.

"Grandpa!"

"H-hi, Cole… Sorry I'm so disheveled, I was just at my workbench. I didn't get a lot of notice for your arrival." He cast a glance at Jake and Cassie.

"This is hitting him like a truck." Cassie observed.

"This is hitting him like a truck." Jake confirmed.

"Should we leave? He looks really uncomfortable. "

"Yeah, at the fact that his grandson has a different number of legs than him." Jake rolled his eyes. "He sucked it up and accepted you as his daughter-in-law; he's gonna do the same for Cole as his grandson."

Cole squeezed his grandpa, and Kurt, somewhat reluctantly, wrapped his arms around his grandson.

"...Gracious, you are fluffy."

Cole giggled again.

"Thanks, grandpa."

But all Kurt heard was, "VeeVee evoi."

"Sorry, bud, I can't understand you like your dad can." Kurt apologized, setting Cole back on the floor. "But it's very nice to meet you."

Cole looked at Kurt quizzically.

"Hey Maizie," Jake said, "would you mind playing with Cole outside while we chat with dad?"

Maizie gave Kurt a knowing look.

"Of course. C'mon Cole, why don't you show me some of the moves you know?"

"Okay!" Cole said enthusiastically.

"But we didn't teach–" Jake began, before Cassie put her paw over his mouth.

"Egg moves." She reminded him. "He's probably got at least ten."

"Nevermind." Jake said. "Go ahead."

Cole ran outside, and Maizie followed him. Kurt sat down with them on the couch.

"Sorry I was so awkward–"

"You don't have to apologize to us." Jake said.

"Okay, but… I never know what to do!"

"What do you mean?" Cassie asked.

"Yeah, what do you mean?" Jake translated.

"I…" Kurt sputtered. "Listen. I was never even a trainer! I don't know how to act around Pokémon, much less the ones in my family!" Kurt turned to Cassie. "Like with you. I don’t know whether to hug you… pet you… rub your– ffrkshktrfshkr…"

Jake realized the crux of the issue. His father genuinely didn't know the difference between Pokémon kept as housepets and sentient ones.

"Okay, well first of all, Eeveelutions are sentient, so hugs are fine. You don't need to rub their bellies, they're not Furfrou."

"Hugs are nice!" Cassie said cutely. "But I do kinda like it when Jake massages my belly…" She thought.

"See?" Jake said. "You can just give her a hug. Try it."

"Huh?" Kurt asked.

"She's your daughter. Give your daughter a freaking hug. You love her, right?" Jake asked, raising an eyebrow at his father.

Being told to hug someone can devalue the action of the hug itself, usually enough to decline, but Kurt had very little leverage at that moment.

"Yes, of course I do!" Kurt looked at Cassie. She was already offering her arms out. They hugged a little awkwardly, but that was Kurt's fault. Suddenly, Maizie yelled from outside,

"JAKE, CASSIE! A LITTLE HELP HERE!"

"Oh shit." Jake and Cassie said.

They ran outside to find Cole pinging off of every surface he touched, ricocheting from tree to lamppost to tree in straight lines. He was moving so fast that he seemed not to be affected by gravity whatsoever.

"I DON'T KNOW HOW TO GET HIM TO STOP!" Maizie cried.

"It's okay, he's fine." Jake said. "I'm just trying to figure out what move this is. Eevee aren’t that fast and Cassie doesn't know Extremespeed."

Cassie started snickering.

"What?" Jake asked. "Tell me if it's so obvious."

"I may not know Extremespeed, but you sure do." She said, trying to hold in her laughter. "Have you seen yourself?"

Jake realized something.

"Hey, Cole! Show me your best High Jump Kick!" Jake said, holding out a small branch that fell from the white apricorn tree.

"Ooo, okay!" Cole said, leaping upward, arching back down, and plummeting toward the ground, his leg outstretched.

"What are you doing??" Cassie asked.

"Running an experiment." Jake said.

Cole's foot came down, collided with the stick, and…

nothing happened.

He bounced off of it, and tumbled backwards in the air. Cassie caught him with her tail, and let him down to the ground gently.

"What happened?" Cole asked disappointedly.

"We need to get you some levels if you're gonna use crazy moves." Jake said.

"But–" Cole started.

"But nothing." Jake said. "You are a danger to yourself."

He reached into his satchel and pulled out a Rotom phone. Stanley had forced him to get it recently because,

"You're 20 years old in 2019! How the hell do you not have a phone!?"

"...I live a self-sufficient life in the middle of the woods with my girlfriend. Why do I need one?"

"To contact people!"

"Who would I contact?"

“Okay, you need the Pokédex app at the very least.”

“I’m not a trainer.”

"Ggghhaaaahhhh!!!"

So Stanley got him a brand-new rPhone as a wedding present.

The phone rang for all of one second before “WHY HAVE YOU NOT BEEN ANSWERING MY CALLS?!”

“You’ve been calling me?– Oh, that must be what silent mode means.”

“Yeah!!! Has your kid been born yet!?!? I want to know about that kind of thing! It’s an important part of your life and I want to support you in it!!!”

“Um… ye–”

“MEWTWO! HE DIDN’T TELL US!!!”

A voice that sounded far away from the mic started to say

“That little shi–”

“WE’RE COMING OVER!!!” Stanley interrupted.

He hung up.

“...So much for getting cake.” Jake said. “Well, we don’t have much time before he’s going to notice we aren’t home and teleport us there, so, bye, guys.” Jake said apologetically to Maizie and Kurt.

“You're leaving already!?” Maizie exclaimed in exasperation.

Jake leaned in to whisper, “Listen. he can’t even deal damage with a 130-base power move. We need someone who’s really good at training to help us.”

"Didn't you train Cassie!?"

Jake’s eyes bugged and he looked away.

"Um… not… not really."

Maizie looked confusedly at Jake for a few seconds but soon realized what he meant.

"Don't tell me that all your–"

But Jake found Cassie, Cole and himself in their living room, looking at Mewtwo and Stanley.

Stanley began to say something, but Jake held his hand up and cut him off.

"Everybody shut up. I'm sorry for not telling you guys that he was born, but frankly, it's not really your business. Everyone say hi to Cole."

Cole waved awkwardly and said, “Hi…”

“Cole learned berserk egg moves from Cassie AND me, so he needs some levels or he could seriously hurt himself. None of the Pokémon in this part of the forest are below level 20, so they’d one-shot him. Mewtwo, you have permission to read our minds. Any Ideas?”

“Excuse me? Speak for yourself!" Cassie yelled at Jake.

“I’m sorry, how rude of him.” Mewtwo said, casting a harshly judgemental look at Jake. But Jake did say Mewtwo could read his mind, and one accidental glance into it gave him the additional context he needed.

"...Okay, you're gonna be useless here." Mewtwo said to Stanley. "Make lunch for the team or something."

"Do I look like your housewi–" Stanley began to say, but Mewtwo cut him off by snapping his fingers and teleporting him straight back to Kalos.

"Nobody's gonna like this Idea, but it's the only viable one I have." Mewtwo telepathized to Jake and Cassie. "The little man's gonna have to battle his mom and win."

"What." Jake thought back.

"I'm sorry?" Cassie thought. "He's level one. Is that even possible?"

"You can miss with recoil moves, struggle to defeat, confuse yourself the whole time, quietly hum Perish Song without letting him hear; there are tons of ways." Mewtwo said. "Choose your own adventure. Common denominator is that you lose a battle to him."

"...And this is a good option, how?" Jake asked.

"Defeating a level 100 Vaporeon yields enough EXP to spike him to level 58." Mewtwo answered matter-of-factly.

Jake and Cassie looked at each other. That was an excellent payoff.

"...but I don't even have any revives!" Jake thought to Mewtwo. Then he felt a shuffling in his satchel.

"Well, THAT'S irresponsible. Have a max revive on me." Mewtwo thought back. "Seriously man, come up with a better idea. I dare you."

"How long are you guys gonna stare at each other?" Cole asked timidly, to break what from his perspective was a very long and uncomfortable silence.

"Sorry bud, my bad." Mewtwo said out loud. "Anyway, you guys have a great day and I hope you figure something out!"

He waved goodbye and teleported away.

"I thought he was supposed to think of something! Cole protested. "I wanna go adventuring soon but I need experience!"

Jake's brain stalled again. Adventuring? That smelled suspiciously like leaving the house. Jake barely even got to know his own son, and he already wanted to leave the nest?

Before Jake could say so much as 'kid, you crazy', Cassie piped up cheerfully as if she'd expected Cole to say this.

"Of course, kiddo. Don't worry, I have an Idea! Why don't you battle me?" She smiled.

Cole backed up half a step and drooped his ears.

"Aren’t you really strong?"

"Don't worry, I'll go easy on you if you want." Cassie replied. "But not too easy." She grinned.

Jake was borderline incredulous. Did the father have no say in this?

"Okay!" Cole said. "...But not too easy."

And just like that, they were out the door.

"Jake, don't you wanna watch?" Cassie called from outside.

Jake ran out the door and up the stairs to find that they were already at it. Cole was pinging around the trees with Extremespeed, possibly trying to disorient Cassie. If it was intentional, it was working. He was several meters up, and Cassie was far more concerned with making sure he didn't slam into the nearby cliff face or ping away into the forest than she was with watching her six.

Cole eventually got up to such a speed that Cassie couldn't track his movement, and he took that opportunity to strike. He bounced off of a tree a little ways behind her and to her left, landing a well placed kick and knocking her a good few feet back.

"Woah, good one!" Cassie said, starting to wonder if she and Jake had created a monster. "Don't hold back, I can take it!"

Jake blushed. He had heard her say that before in a different context.

She deliberately missed a Hydro Pump, but Cole dodged farther away from it than she expected. He leaped off the tree next to Jake and landed…

A Water Punch?

That was the only way Jake could describe what he saw. A gauntlet of swirling water formed around his fist, and he punched Cassie.

Nothing happened, of course.

"Nice try, buddy!" Cassie encouraged, trying to keep it together. That move DID NOT EXIST. What the heck was this kid? "But I'm Immune to water moves. All they do is heal me!"

She slipped her tail fin under him and catapulted him across the clearing, sending him into some bushes. As soon as she did it, she knew she fucked up.

"Shit, that was stupid."

Jake was flabbergasted. What was she thinking?

Cassie winced and said,

"...You okay, buddy?"

No answer.

She rushed toward the bush, but didn’t see the next part coming. Cole burst out from the bush, slid between Cassie's front legs, and punched her in the stomach from underneath. She flew upward, but landed nicely on her feet. Nonetheless, she felt like she was about to pass out.

How did he deal that much damage to her in a single– But she didn't get to finish the thought as Cole bounced off of the tree again and landed a Quick Attack, felling Cassie onto her side.

Jake rushed to her, and Cole did the same.

"Cassie, talk to me!"

"Mommy, are you okay?"

"Ooohhh…" she groaned. "Hoooooly crap, buddy, you kicked my butt!"

"Sorry…" Cole said.

"Don’t be sorry, you did such a great job!"

"How!?" Jake marveled.

"Cause he was at 1hp and I'm at none." Cassie said, exhausted. "That was REALLY clever. Endeavor and Quick attack. He won fair and square."

Jake thought this was going to be a contrived, fixed battle where Cassie let Cole win, but

The fact that Cole won organically despite a 99-level disadvantage roused both awe and fear in him.

Jake fished around in his satchel and pulled out the max revive. He twisted it to break the seal, letting Cassie smell the strong, invigorating aroma.

She stood up and stretched her legs.

"Are you okay, kiddo?" Cassie asked.

Cole was tense, and seemed to be quivering.

"I feel… so much stronger…"

"Well, I hope so. You just got almost 200,000 Exp. there." Jake laughed.

"Huh!?"

"Your mom's level 100, bud. But you beat her anyway. That was really impressive." Jake tried to hide the worry in his voice. What was this kid capable of?

"Let's get you something to eat, buddy. We haven't eaten all day, have we?" Cassie said.

"Oh, uh–" Cole started, but Jake and Cassie had already walked into the house.

When they opened the fridge, they found it in quite a state. An empty one, specifically.

This was Jake's foreboding thought from earlier.

They used to have a swath of berries. But Cole… Cole ate them. He ate them all. They were gone. Every single one of them. And not just the Mago. But the Wacan, and the Chilan too.

While Jake and Cassie were working on their quickie earlier, Cole was working on stuffing his face with every berry in their fridge. Good thing they kept the overripe Leppa berries in the freezer up top while Cassie's heat was out of season.

"...I wish he had a middle name I could yell right now." Jake said.

"COLE SYLVESTER PETTITTATTITTEP!" Cassie shouted.

"Ooh, I like that one." Jake said.

Cole walked slowly into the kitchen with his tail between his legs. Literally.

"Sorry… we have really good food here."

"We did before." Cassie said.

"We forgive you." Jake said. "But you’re still gonna have to help us collect more tomorrow. And you'll do a lot of the work because you're the one who ate it all."

"Yes, sir."

Cole walked sadly into the living room and laid on the bed.

"...Were we too harsh on him?" Cassie whispered to Jake.

"I don't think so." Jake whispered back. That's the kind of look I had on my face as a kid when I regretted doing something."

"Alright… he still looks so sad, though… Maybe he shouldn't have to do more work. Only as much as us."

"What? No way. He needs a consequence if he's going to learn not to do things like that."

"But look how sad he is…"

"Look at our lack of food!

"Jake, he's–"

"No! Even though he regrets it, he still needs to actually learn that he can't do that kind of thing!"

"Oh, come on! He won't do it again!"

"If we aren't firm, he won't learn!"

"Arceus, you’re impossible!"

Cassie walked over to Cole.

"Hey buddy, you know what? How about we–"

"Make some hot chocolate!" Jake cut her off.

Cassie shot an angry look at Jake, as if to say, "how dare you go through with punishing my baby?"

"What's hot chocolate?" Cole asked.

"It's a really yummy hot drink." Jake said. "It's very sweet, I'm sure you'll like it."

Jake whipped up a batch of his personal hot chocolate recipe: he heated some milk on the stove, stirred in milk chocolate bars, and added almond extract and cinnamon, along with a secret ingredient (not leppa berries). Once it was done, he poured three mugs and took it to the bed, handing Cassie and Cole one each.

Cole sniffed it for a second. His eyes widened. Then he took a sip of it, or at least he tried to. As soon as it hit his tongue, he recoiled and accidentally threw the mug. Luckily, Jake snatched it out of the air and collected the cocoa as it flew.

"Sorry buddy. I should have told you to blow on it first."

"What'll that do?"

"If you don't blow on it, it's hard for the heat to escape because the air above it's hot too. But if you blow on it gently, like this–" Jake blew across the top of his mug– "the heat can escape to the new, cooler air you're blowing on it. That way it cools down way faster."

"Ooh, that’s smart!" Cole said, and began blowing on his Cocoa.

Once the cocoa cooled, Cole took a sip of it. His eyes bugged again.

"This tastes so good! Thank you, daddy!"

"You're welcome, bud." Jake smiled. "Do you like the new recipe too, Cassie? You’ve been kinda quiet."

Cassie simply nodded, and didn’t make eye contact.

They went about the rest of their day, but Jake had to go to Azalea town to get rid of the trash they accumulated over the week. Once he got back, it was past sundown. He unlocked the door, but when he got inside, Cassie and Cole were already asleep.

"Alexis, what time is it?" Jake whispered.

"9:37 pm Central Johtoan time." Alexis whispered back.

"Then why are they asleep already?"

"Beats me. I don't listen to you guys constantly, you know that, right?"

"Yeah, yeah." Jake said.

He took a shower, put his pajamas on, and went to get in bed, but then he realized something. Cassie was spooning Cole, which was to be expected, but her back was pressed up against the wall. Jake was disabled from spooning her, or even from her spooning him, which they did on occasion.

Now Jake felt a little dispirited.

Cassie did that on purpose. No way she didn't. But the only reason she would do that Jake could think of was because she was still mad at him for punishing Cole. Which was a little petty. But pettiness wasn't what Jake was concerned about. He had come to depend on Cassie to help him sleep. He wasn't a terrible sleeper before they were together, but being totally wrapped around the person he loved was extremely soothing. A night of snuggling her always made him feel so well rested in the morning, ready to give the day, and her, his all. But with her deliberately depriving him of that, it would be very hard to get a good night's sleep.

He crawled into bed, pulling the remainder of the covers over himself, and instinctively reached his arm out. But his beloved fishcat was not there for him to cuddle up against.

She didn't want to.

He teared up a little, rolled his eyes, and squeezed them shut.

That morning, Jake woke up to a room filled with sunlight. Very groggily, he got up in bed. But his shoulders were sore. So were his knees. They were usually nicely aligned all night by his wife's huggable, squishy, blue body. But tonight, they had drooped out of place for the last… how long?

"Alexis, how long and how well did I sleep?"

"Got some bad news for you, Jake." Alexis said in an apologetic voice. "You got maybe four hours of actual sleep. And what sleep you got did not read as very good."

Jake rubbed his eyes with his palms.

"Ugh… hey, what time is it?"

"8:14."

"Wait, you're telling me I got four hours of sleep out of almost twelve??"

Whatever the closest thing a smart speaker can do to wincing, Alexis did.

"...you seemed very distressed."

"Well– yeah." Jake said. "I'm… I've become dependent on cuddling Cassie…" His eyes welled up a little again. "I get to cuddle her all night every night for over a year, and the moment I don't… I literally go into withdrawal."

"Physical affection is a very important part of a romantic relationship." Alexis said. "I'm not at all surprised that your body is reacting to a sudden lack of it."

"Thanks. Very helpful." Jake said. "Maybe the next time I vent to my smart speaker, she could do something else useful like reminding me what my favorite color is."

"...it's light blue, right?"

"Fuck you, Alexis… wait, where's Cassie and Cole?"

"They're picking berries to restock the fridge."

"Rrgh, If she's going easy on him like she wanted to…"

Jake changed into his survey uniform and walked outside. To his surprise, Cole was out of sight, But he found Cassie sitting on one of the lawn chairs.

She saw him and said,

"Oh, Hey, hubby." She yawned. "Good morning."

"Good morning… You didn't get much sleep either, did you?" Jake asked.

Cassie sighed.

"No. I really didn't. I think I literally need to feel you wrapped around me to sleep well now."

"That's why I slept poorly too."

"Listen, I'm sorry about ghosting you last night. I don't wanna stay mad at you."

She stood up and hugged Jake around the neck.

"I forgive you, Fishy." He said, hugging her back.

They stood there holding each other for a little bit, trying to make up for the snuggling they had lost last night.

"We've never fought like that before…" Jake said.

"Yeah… we haven't." Cassie said. "Arceus did say Cole would be a test."

"Hey, wait, where is Cole?" Jake asked.

"He's out by the spring, picking berries to stock the fridge. You were right. This is a good punishment to fit the crime."

"Hey, you were right about being harsh on him too. He clearly regretted it. Why don’t we call it off and leave it at 'time served'?"

"Okay. Let's go find him."

The Spring was a clear body of water a few miles from the gate to Goldenrod city. Many varieties of berries grew there, including Mago, Cassie's favorite. She and Jake split up to look for Cole once they got there.

"Hey Cole?" Cassie called out.

"Over here, mommy!" Cole called from behind a Sitrus bush.

Cassie walked over to him and found that he had been working diligently even without supervision. The bag she gave him was already half full of plenty of berries.

"Nice, buddy! Good job working even when I wasn't watching. Your dad and I can help you now."

"Oh, okay!" Cole said. Then he paused. "Can I ask kind of a probing question?"

Cassie giggled.

"I don't know how your vocabulary's so wide at two days old, but sure."

Cole shifted his weight awkwardly.

"Um… what's daddy's real form?"

Cassie stalled.

"...Huh?"

"Well, what is he when he isn't transformed into the human shape he uses all the time? Is he a Zorua or a Zoroark? Oh, Is he a Ditto? That would be super cool! Ditto are usually such jerks but he's always so nice!"

Cassie fell back on her haunches. She started crying.

"Mommy? What's wrong?"

"Did you really not know???" She looked up at him, her face soaked in tears.

"What do you mean?" Cole asked; wondering if he did something wrong.

"DADDY IS A HUMAN!" Cassie cried. "AND I LOVE HIM JUST LIKE HE IS!" she collapsed with her face in her arms on the ground, sobbing.

Cole froze. He almost asked Cassie if she was serious, but decided against it. His mom was definitely lying about not having had sex with his dad yesterday, but she wouldn't lie to him about this.

But that meant that his dad was a human. Honestly, he should have known. There were tons of signs. His Hazel eyes, his crazy egg moves.

…But wasn't that impossible?

"Is– is he my real daddy? Or am I adopted?"

"Do I have to spell it out for you!?" Cassie cried incredulously. "On our wedding night, Me and Daddy made love and he put you inside me!"

Cole’s face flushed. A little explicit, but that sure answered his question.

"Oh."

Cassie managed to somewhat calm herself down.

"Listen. Daddy loves you just as much as I do. He really does. But if he knows you thought he was a Pokémon, his biggest fears about raising you are gonna come true, okay? You can't tell him about this!"

"O-ok-kay."

Cassie went up to Cole and hugged him.

"Buddy, I know this is a lot to take in. But it was a lot to take in when we found out we were having you, too. For daddy especially. He panicked thinking he would mess up being your dad. You need to prove to him he didn't mess up, okay?"

"...Okay."

Cassie heard rustling in the bushes to her left. She instantly collected herself and absorbed the tears she'd been crying.

"There you guys are." He said. "I heard you talking about something."

"I was just congratulating Cole on doing such a good job picking berries." Cassie said, relieved he didn't catch what they were saying. "Look how many he got already!" She showed him the bag.

"Oh, great job, bud!" Jake said. "We'll help you with picking them now. Where are the spots you got already?"

They continued picking berries around the spring until they had at least as many as before Cole ate them all. But all the while, Jake noticed that Cole was acting oddly aloof. He barely talked, he wouldn't make eye contact with him for more than a second– something was up. As they were walking home, Jake asked Cole,

"Cole, is there something wrong? You've been acting weird all day."

"Oh, nothing."

"That's a lie. What's bothering you? You can tell me. Maybe I can help."

"I– don't wanna talk about it…"

"C'mon, it's–"

"He doesn't want to talk about it." Cassie interrupted curtly. "Give him some space."

"...Alright. Let me know if you change your mind."

Cole half wanted to say, "I'm acting off because I have no idea how to feel about being your son." But bursting that bubble was the last thing he wanted to do.

As the next few weeks went by, Cole remained distant. He couldn't wrap his head around it. Firstly, his entire existence was biologically impossible. That sure didn’t make him feel like any less of an abomination. Second, the implications were… graphic? well… unsettling. Jake was his biological father. His mom had married him only hours before his conception. He tried desperately not to actually picture it, but it stuck in the back of his head that he was the result of a human having sex with a Vaporeon.

On the other hand, Jake in particular had nothing wrong about him. He took care of him and his mom as best he could, he didn’t have a regular job, so he spent almost all his time with them, and was always very affectionate. On paper, he was a great dad doing his best to juggle being both a husband and a father. But if you look at the facts, he had broken an unwritten law, and brought a misfit halfling into the world as a result of those primal desires. There were so many conflicting emotions brought on by Cole’s situation that he eventually just tried disassociating to cope with it. That is, until Jake intervened.

When Cole was a little over a month old, Jake had had enough. Once Cassie went out to catch some magikarp for their dinner, Jake saw his opportunity for a one-on-one with Cole.

"Okay, Cole. Something is seriously bothering you. I want to know so I can help you. Please just tell me."

"I-I don't want to talk about it."

"Too bad. Something is making you act like this and I'm getting worried. I want you to be happy, and comfortable, and it's obvious that you're neither. You need to let it out."

"I… I don't think that's a good idea."

"Cole, tell me what's wrong. I want to help you."

"You couldn't help me with this if you wanted to."

"What? Try me."

"No!"

"Cole, you need to tell me!"

"When I hatched, I thought you were a Zoroark or something! But you're a human, so I'm a monster!" Cole hid his face in his arms.

Jake started crying. This was what he feared from the beginning.

"Cole… you're not a monster! You're–"

"What!? What am I!? A Pokémon!? A human!? I can't even tell! Why couldn't you just keep it in your pants so I could've been born as something else!?"

Jake felt miserable.

"It… it's valid for you to feel that." He said shakily.

"What do you mean??"

"I mean I get it. Your mom's a Pokémon and your dad's human. I wouldn't know what to think either. I don't have an easy answer for you, buddy. I wish I did. I'm really sorry."

Jake offered a hug, hoping they could hug it out, cry it out, and maybe figure it out.

But Cole recoiled almost as if in fear.

"Don't touch me!"

He ran out the door and into the forest.

Jake had nothing to do but sit there and cry, alone. Maybe Cole was right. Maybe he should've never gotten with Cassie so Cole didn't have to be born into such a difficult and confusing situation. Maybe Cole’s spirit deserved to be manifested somewhere else, somewhere he wasn't going to have to wrestle through the nature of his existence.

Cassie walked in with a big, juicy Magikarp wrapped in her tail. But she dropped it when she saw Jake.

"Jake, what happened!?"

"C-Cole… he… he didn’t…" Jake struggled through his sobs.

"Oh, Arceus!" Cassie said in frustration. Cole was not supposed to tell him. She jumped up on the bed and hugged Jake, hoping to calm him down. But she just started crying with him.

"H-how did he tell you?"

"I… I asked him what was wrong, and–"

"Are you kidding me?! I told you to drop it!"

"I couldn't stand seeing him so upset!"

"Well you sure made things better now!"

"Why are you going after me? I just… I just wanted us to be a happy family…"

"Oh, shut up, where'd he go!?"

"...He ran off."

"What? Where?"

"I don't know. He just bolted out the door and into the forest."

"We need to find him!"

Cassie wrapped her tail around Jake's torso and tried to yank him out the door with her, but her physical strength didn't match his.

"Cassie, the last thing he needs is to be found. He was literally asking me why he had to be born. We don't have the answer. He… he needs a break."

“I’m not gonna lose my baby like this!”

And Cassie hurried after Cole.

“Wait!” Jake yelled.

He ran up the stairs and looked for where Cassie had gone. She was already out of sight. So much for “get him to a high enough level and then he can go out on his own.” Leaning forward into a full-tilt run, he went after her.

Cole ran and ran. He had to get away from his life. He had to escape. But he inevitably wore himself out.

Hiding behind a tree, he tried to catch his breath. But he could still hear his mom calling him from a ways away; she had been tracking him.

“Cole! Cole! Baby, please come back! We can figure this out! Please, don’t leave us!”

She sounded incredibly distraught, but he couldn’t go back. He needed to run away from his past.

“Psst! Hey!” came a soft voice from the bushes.

“Huh?” Cole asked.

An Eevee the same size as Cole peeked her head out of the bush.

“Are you running away too?”

“Yeah! My parents are crazy, I need to get away from them!”

“Follow me!”

The Eevee led him through a crevice in a cliff face and through a stream, and finally into her den, a nice hole in the side of a hill with cushy leaves for the floor.

“We should be safe in here now that we washed off our scents.” She said. “So, uh, what’s your name?”

“I’m… Cole, I guess. What's yours?”

“My name’s November." She smiled. "But you can call me Nova. Nice to meet you, Cole."

Cole was suddenly completely focused on her.

"Woah. That's a really pretty name."

"Oh, stop it…" Nova blushed and looked away.

"...So what now?" Cole asked. "Wait, who were you running from?"

"My parents. They, uh… I-I think they hate me." Nova said, starting to cry. "My dad's always yelling at my mom, and… my mom says it's my fault…"

"Are you… are you okay?" Cole asked. suddenly his problems seemed smaller in comparison. At least his freaky parents loved him and each other. "...Do you need a hug?"

"...I could really use one…" Nova nodded through her tears.

They hugged each other tight. Both of them were having one of the worst days of their lives, and they felt very lucky to have someone to lean on.

"So what about your parents made you need to run away?" Nova asked eventually.

"Oh, uh…" Cole started. "I… don't really want to talk about it… it's not as bad as yours though, that sounds awful…"

"Oh, that's okay." Nova said. "Well, do you want to eat something? I have some extra berries, and I'd be happy to share them."

"Oh, thank you!" Cole said. "Yeah, I am a little hungry…"

Cassie had worn herself out. She had covered miles and miles, and her body wasn't meant to do that on land.

She was crying. She had never felt so depressed and hopeless all her life. Cole was gone. Her precious baby ran away, and she couldn’t find him.

"Cole!" She called miserably between shaky sobs. "Baby, please! I need you to come home! Come back! We can figure it out, please just don't leave me!!!"

She collapsed on the ground, weeping uncontrollably. He was gone. She would never find him.

…This was Jake's fault.

If that stupid boy hadn't butted in, Cole might've had time to process his situation. But he scared away her only child she would ever have. Not only that, he insisted on letting Cole get away.

As she caught her breath for a moment, she heard something above her. Not even a twig snapping, just the sound of leaves rustling very gently, almost perfectly silent… even though the air was still.

That son of a bitch.

Cassie calmed her mind for a moment… and fired a Scald at the source of the noise.

Jake burst out of the tree, tucking and rolling not far from Cassie.

"AAH, what the hell was that for!?" He yelled, clutching his wet, burned wrist.

"For making my baby run away from me!!" Cassie cried in anguish, launching an Aura Sphere at him.

"I didn't make him!" Jake yelled through tears, catching the sphere and crushing it in his hand, dissipating the energy into his arm. "And he's my son too! Do you think I'm not in pain just like you??"

"Shut your fucking mouth or I'll punch it clean off!!" Cassie threatened him through a face soaked in tears, getting right in his face and starting to Close Combat.

Jake blocked every blow she sent; kicks, punches, tail strikes. But even though every move she made was one he taught her, she was starting to wear him down.

"You don't know what it's like!" She cried. "You have no fucking clue what it's like to build another person inside you and bring them into the world just to lose them forever! Don't you DARE tell me you're in pain just like me!"

She relentlessly attacked Jake. punches, jabs, snap kicks, roundhouses, tail strikes, tornado kicks; all of them aimed to injure… but all he did was parry and block. And instead of calming down, Cassie turned from brokenhearted to enraged.

"How did it take me two years to realize how spineless you are!?" She shrieked. "Why won't you fight me back, dammit!?"

"Because I love you, Cassie!" Jake sobbed. "You're my whole world; I don't wanna fight you!"

Cassie was pushing Jake backwards inch by inch.

"I don't care that I'm your wife!" Cassie yelled. "I don't care that I'm your girlfriend! I don't care that I'm your best friend! Be a man and fight back!"

"No!" Jake cried. "I can't fight you! All I want to do is hold onto you and cry!"

"RRRAAAAAGGGHH!" Cassie roared into the sky, summoning a dark gray thunderstorm as if she had used Rain Dance. She tackled Jake onto his back, and a loud snap was heard.

She pinned him down and stared daggers into his face. He was looking right back at her. What Cassie saw made her blood finally stop boiling.

Jake was a mess. He hadn’t shaved, his eyes sagged from crying so much, his hair was dirty, and he had the expression of someone who lost one of the greatest joys in his life.

He was completely broken.

Cassie lost hold of her anger. She didn't have the energy to fuel it anymore. She let go of Jake’s arms and legs and fell on top of him as the rain started to fall. She wrapped her arms around him and he did the same to her. Then they both just laid there and cried.

"My baby's gone…" Cassie wept. "My only baby's gone…"

"We'll see h-him again someday…" Jake said in a shaky voice.

"How can you be sure?" Cassie asked. "How do you know his back isn't against a tree staring at the faces of two bears with no way to defend himself?"

"He's strong, Cassie. He'll be okay. Someday we'll see him again…"

They laid in silence for what felt like hours, until Cassie remembered something.

"Hey, what was that snapping noise? Please tell me I didn't hurt you."

"It was in my satchel…" Jake said. He reached into it and pulled out what had broken.

It was the Loyal Ball.

The ball Jake used to save Cassie's life, and that changed both of theirs by bringing them together.

The one-of-a-kind ball that Jake painstakingly crafted by hand from materials he had gathered himself.

It had broken into almost a dozen pieces. all but two of the six propeller flaps had fallen off their hinges, and the bottom half had snapped into three chunks.

He hated using it, but he always kept it with him, because life can be unpredictable.

"Oh, no…" Cassie said, knowing how much effort Jake put into it, and how significant it was to their relationship. "Jake, I'm– I'm so sorry…"

"It's okay." Jake said, his eyes welling up again. "I always hated using it anyway."

Then Jake stood up, bunched it in his hand, and chucked it into the forest.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" Cassie demanded.

"We don't need a stupid nut and rock to remind us we love each other." Jake said. "Cmon. Let's go home. I'll make some hot chocolate for us, and we can snuggle in front of the fireplace as we dry off…

Just like we used to."

Cassie wearily nodded her head. "That… that sounds good." She gave him a tailhug.

Ignoring the rain, they walked home.

"Arceus, this rainstorm came out of nowhere…" Nova said, looking out of the entrance to her den at the rainfall.

"Yeah." Cole said. "It was sunny just a minute ago."

Nova shivered.

"It's really cold out there. And it’s getting in…" She looked at Cole. "Hey… would it be weird if we huddled together? It's really chilly."

"No, that sounds nice." Cole said. He slid next to Nova and pressed his body against hers, happy to share his body heat.

"Ooh," Nova said, "You're really warm." She nestled into his fur and pressed against him. "How come you're so much warmer than me?" She giggled.

Cole thought for a second.

"Well, uh… My dad was always warm. Maybe I get it from him."

"Maybe he wasn't all bad." Nova said. "You feel so toasty. And I think you're fluffier than me."

Cole blushed.

"N-no…"

"Hehe." Nova giggled. "Are you getting flustered or something?"

"No! …Why would I?"

Nova looked into his eyes, then planted a tender kiss on his cheek.

"How about now?~"

"Wh-wuh?" Cole sputtered.

"You're really cute, Cole." Nova said. "I can't wait to get to know you better." She nuzzled against him again and buried her head in his mane.

Cole’s heart raced. She liked him. Holy crap. What was he supposed to do?

"Just enjoy my company and listen to the rainfall, silly." Nova said with a giggle, feeling his heart rate go up. "It's getting late anyway. We might as well fall asleep like this."

She was right. Just relax, as hard as that’d be now that she kissed him. He laid his head against hers and eventually fell asleep.

Jake and Cassie held each other, looking into the fire. As much as he wanted to be optimistic, deep down, Jake didn't expect to see Cole ever again.

Cassie had basically given up. After the rain was over, there would be no way to track Cole down. No footprints, no scent, nothing. Even her motherly instincts couldn't overcome her rational side. She was back down to one boy in her life, and she pressed herself against him, hoping to find some kind of solace in the sensation of being close to her best friend.

Neither of them had touched their hot chocolate. They simply sat in silence, wrapped tightly in a blanket and each other's arm, staring at the flames.

Suddenly there was a knock at the door.

"It's Cass!" Cass said from outside.

No one answered, so she punched in the code and cracked the door open.

When she peeked in and saw nothing sexy was going on, she opened it and said,

"Hey, where's Cole?"

Cassie clutched Jake and started bawling again.

Jake shot a depressed and angry look at Cass.

Cass nervously reached to her back right ankle and pulled out a remote-like device. She pointed it at herself and it flashed. When she put it down, her shoulders sagged and she started crying too.

"This is awful. Why would he–"

"Cass, I appreciate that you care, but can we just get some space for now? This hit Cassie like a truck." Jake said wearily.

"No, she might be able to help!" Cassie said, finally feeling a spark of hope.

"Wh-what do you mean?" Cass asked.

"Don't you have some kind of tech to find where he is?"

"Uhhh…" Cass thought. "I mean, I never got a spirit signature on him, so we can't track him spectrally… we could try a lifeform scan, but that'll show him as just a dot like every other living thing in the forest…"

"Well, can't you just use Hyperfluid or something!?" Cassie yelled. "My baby's somewhere in the forest all alone!"

Cass closed her eyes and winced.

"Um… my Hyperfluid's gone."

"What!?"

"I used the last of it to sense if you were in danger of being found out at the Champion's dinner. It's… it's all gone."

"Can't you make more!?"

"No... I need a hypernatural chaos jewel to synthesize even a drop. And that's only if I can convince it I'm benevolent."

"Oh, you're no fucking help!"

"Cassie!" Jake protested.

"It's ok." Cass said somberly. "I'll give you guys some space."

Cass left quietly, and Cassie started to cry again. Then Jake got an idea.

"Mewtwo!"

"Yeah? –oh Arceus, what happened!?" Mewtwo exclaimed as soon as he teleported in.

"Cole ran away." Jake said defeatedly. "--but you can help us, right? Teleport him back to us!"

Cassie's face lit up. She was going to get Cole back!

"Uhh… about that…" Mewtwo began.

"Don't you fucking dare tell me you can't do it!" Cassie said through gritted teeth.

Mewtwo looked scared. He was arguably the most dangerous organism ever documented, but a Pokémon powered up by interspecies sex and momma bear boost was not high on his list of things he'd like to fight.

"Hey, woah, give me a second to explain." Mewtwo said, making very sure not to say the forbidden 'calm down'. "I technically can, but I'm not familiar with his mental imprint. It could take years to weed out where he is in such a big forest. Like trying to find a needle in a haystack using tweezers. And by then, he'd probably have moved somewhere else."

Cassie's face quivered, and she clung to Jake, buried her face in his chest, and sobbed. Jake wrapped his arms around her and rested his head on hers.

Mewtwo took that as his cue to leave. He popped back to Kalos and convinced Stanley not to speak to Jake or Cassie unless spoken to.

It was getting very late. Jake put their hot chocolate in the fridge for later, whenever they'd want it after such an emotionally devastating day.

"C’mon, let's go to bed." Jake said.

"Read the room, Jake, I am not in the fucking mood!"

"I– I didn't ask to–"

"Oh… whatever…" Cassie said, getting in bed and tossing the covers over herself.

Jake stood beside the bed awkwardly.

"Jake? I still need you." Cassie sniffed quietly.

"What?"

"I need you to wrap yourself around me and physically tell me it’s going to be okay.” she managed to say.

Jake got the picture. He climbed in bed with Cassie, wrapped his arms around her body and his legs around her tail, and engulfed her in his embrace. He held her much closer than usual, and squeezed her a little.

“It’s going to be okay, Cassie…” Jake whispered through tears. “Somehow it will… I promise…”

The next day, Cole and Nova went out to collect some wood for a door to go to Nova's den. It was Cole’s idea; the concept of constructing something to fix the problem felt weird to Nova, but Cole insisted it would be worth the effort to help keep the cold out. So they went out after the rain had mostly dried up; Cole searching for wood and Nova gathering small vines.

“I have no idea how you’re going to make a door out of a round log and some stringy plants.” Nova said curiously.

“Don’t worry, I got it.” Cole said. He put a log on top of a stump and gave it a swift Karate Chop, dividing it cleanly in two.

Nova had never seen something like that (she was barely a week older than Cole, but regardless).

“Where did you learn how to do that?” she asked in wonder.

“Oh, uh…” Cole started. “It’s… an egg move from my dad…”

“No way. Tell me again why you wanted to run away?” she giggled.

Cole suddenly looked very uncomfortable.

“Sorry!” Nova quickly corrected herself. “You didn’t wanna talk about it.”

“It’s alright.” Cole said, chopping the log in half again to make four short half-cylinder pieces.

“So what’s the vine for?”

“This.” Cole said, lashing the wood together until it became rigid, forming a square-ish board slightly bigger than the entrance to Nova's den.

Nova looked at it, mystified.

"Holy crap, you built this like a human would!"

Cole’s head started aching.

"Are you okay?" Nova asked. "Did I say something wrong?"

"I'm… alright." Cole said, rubbing his head. "Just– try not to mention humans around me, okay?"

"Okay.” Nova said. Cole definitely had a bad experience with humans. Maybe he was pushed too far by his former trainer? She let it drop, though. Cole asked her not to pry, so she wouldn’t. “Is it ready to be a door now?” she asked.

“Not quite.” Cole said, bringing it over to the entrance to her den. It fit very nicely, but…

“It won’t keep wind out very well with these gaps. Here–” he scooped up some wet dirt from the rainstorm and smeared it in the spaces between the planks. “That’ll keep the wind out.”

“How do you know how to do all this stuff?” Nova asked.

“Well, uh… my dad was really good at it…”

Nova was tempted to ask again what was so bad about Cole’s dad, but he didn’t want to discuss it.

“Cool.” Nova said. “It’s so nice of you to make this for me, Cole.”

Cole blushed again.

“Well, it’s the least I can do for letting me stay with you…”

Nova smiled slyly.

“Noooo… I think it’s because you like me, and you’re trying to impress me, huh?~”

Cole could barely form words to protest with.

“I– itsnot– I mean–”

“Arceus, you’re cute when you’re flustered!” Nova giggled.

“...Bu– isbu– Imean–”

“Don’t worry, cutie.” Nova said smoothly. “I like you, too.”

“H-huh?”

Nova dropped her confidence and fidgeted nervously, having trouble making eye contact.

“...uh…d-do you wanna be my boyfriend?”

Cole could hardly form a coherent thought. That was extremely sudden. But after several seconds, his mind cleared, and he smiled.

“Yeah!”

Nova made a few excited squeaks before kissing Cole, on the lips this time.

Cole’s fear melted away, and he closed his eyes, sharing a long kiss with Nova.

Jake and Cassie had not had sex since before Cole ran away. Eight days. That was the longest drought they'd ever had since their first time. But they weren’t really itching for it like you might assume. The mood wasn’t very conducive to romance when their son– the result of their romance– had gone. So aside from abstinence, they went about each day in the same way they always did before Cole came along. Chores and cuddling, mostly. They didn’t exactly have the emotional energy to swim, hike, spar, or teach each other combat moves, like they may have.

Jake was actually having a way harder time than he was letting on. He very likely lost Cole forever. The only son he would ever have. He wanted to break down and cry, but Cassie needed something solid to hold onto. Who else could fill that role but her best friend? In Jake’s mind, his feelings were not as important as hers.

One day, as Jake came home from getting moomoo milk in Azalea Town, he heard Cassie’s voice from outside the door.

“Please, Arceus… Please bring my baby back to me… I'll do anything…”

Jake punched in the code and walked in. Cassie had been splayed out on the bed, looking at the ceiling.

“Oh, hey, hubby!” Cassie smiled through the tears she had been shedding.

“Hi, Fishy!” Jake said, setting the groceries down on the dining table and going over to sit by Cassie.

“Are you okay?” He asked, putting an arm around her and giving her a kiss hello.

“Yeah, I guess, it’s just…” she started crying again.

“Arceus gave us a baby… why can’t he bring him back to us!?”

Out of nowhere, there was a flash of dry lightning nearby that shook their home. Some old ashes in the fireplace fell apart and onto the hearth, scattered unevenly.

Or that's what it seemed from the bed. Weirded out to no end by the sudden thunderclap under a clear sky, Jake walked over to sweep the charred embers up. but he realized they spelled out,

'With patience, your loss will be paid back twice over.'

Jake looked at the embers incredulously.

"Jake, what is it? Cassie asked, walking over. When she read the words, she looked disgusted, and her tears came back.

"I don't want more kids! I want Cole back!"

In her anger, she gritted her teeth and shot a strong style Hydro Pump at the embers, blasting the mantle clean. Unfortunately, the embers that were in the fireplace washed out too, covering the whole floor in wet charcoal.

"I got it." Alexis said, opening a hatch in the baseboard and sending out a bot to squeegee the floor.

Cassie ignored Alexis and splooted on the bed, letting her sadness and anger fester.

Jake kneeled next to her and felt her shoulders.

"Holy crap, you're tense." He began to squish and massage her shoulders, trying to work out at least her physical stress.

Cassie let out a sighing groan.

"Thank you, hubby."

"Of course, fishy." Jake said softly. "And can I say it's super cute when you lay like that?"

Cassie raised an eyebrow.

"...Is it a wifey cute or a housepet cute?"

"...uhh…"

Jake’s brain hit a lag spike. Not once in his life did he think of Cassie as his housepet. But confusion was the wrong answer.

"I'm not your pet, Jake. I thought degradation turned you off."

"No, I didn’t say–"

"You get to massage my paws and tail now, too. They’re stiff as well."

"...Okay."

Jake worked out the tension in her shoulders and started massaging her paws, giving attention to every bean. Then he massaged her tail all the way from fin to base.

Cassie had groaned the whole time as Jake's strong, warm hands squeezed her muscles into relaxation, but while he was massaging the thicker part of her tail, her groans slowly turned into moans, and by the time he got to where her tail met the base of her spine, the moans sounded rather sexual.

"Is this turning you on?" Jake smiled.

"N-no."

"Are you sure? Because I think your tail is one of the sexiest things about you. Maybe it likes stimulation too.~"

Jake tried teasing the base of her tail; Rubbing it, massaging it, caressing it. Cassie squirmed, laid on her back, and started to moan a little more.

"Mmh… Jake!"

"Yeah?~"

"I don't know why this feels so… sexually good, but I don't… I don't wanna do this right now."

Jake stopped.

"Why not?"

"Because it makes me feel guilty!"

"Guilty– like how?"

"Like we're having fun with each other as if Cole was never here!" Cassie cried.

"Cassie, Cole's still out there…"

"Yeah! It feels horrible to pleasure each other while our baby's lost in the forest!"

Jake exhaled.

"Yeah… You're right. You’re right." He kissed her forehead and put the milk in the fridge. Returning to the bed and laying back next to Cassie, He held her paw in his hand and just laid still, listening to the soft sound of her breathing. As he let his mind wander, he only thought more about Cole and how much he missed him. And then he remembered how hard it was hitting Cassie. Tearing up, he looked into her eyes.

"Cassie?"

"Yeah?"

“This whole thing… all of this is awful.” He took a deep, shaky breath. “But I’ve got you, okay?”

Cassie nodded and pressed her forehead against Jake’s.

"I love you, Jake."

"I love you too, Cassie."

Another month went by. But for Cassie and Jake, it felt like years. The sadness and grief they felt from losing Cole seemed to seep into the walls of their home, blanketing their entire lives in a sheet of unfulfilled, broken hope. Cassie must have called out to Arceus dozens and dozens of times, begging him to bring her precious baby back to her. She offered her life in servitude to him, a literal arm and leg, anything she could think of to catch Arceus' attention and grant her wish.

While Cole's parents were slowly losing their minds over losing their son, November's parents made no attempt at reunion.

At first, it didn’t bother her much. She just spent her days collecting berries, hunting Sentret (Cole always caught them; she couldn’t figure out how), and playing around with Cole. They swam in a secluded pond they found, explored the forest, and just talked and enjoyed each other’s company.

They also began to grow more attached to each other, and like each other more. Cole kept finding out about little quirks Nova had, like how she ate most kinds of berries in a spiral, leaving the seeds inside. Or how she sneezed when she got startled (he definitely didn't try scaring her just to make her sneeze). He thought her mannerisms were super cute, but November was feeling the same way.

Cole acted… not weird, per se, just… out of the ordinary. For one, there were times he acted kind of human. He tried to make berry collecting go faster by using a large leaf like a bag to put them in, rather than picking a few and eating most of them right away. Then he tried making a blanket for them to huddle under at night by tying leaves with stems together into a sheet. All of his Ideas worked wonderfully, and Nova never realized they had the problems Cole’s ideas solved until he solved them. He was an excellent boyfriend to her.

In fact, he filled certain holes in her life that her parents were supposed to. Once or twice, they were attacked by a wild Pokémon, but Cole always beat the living shit out of them before they could land a single move. He protected her like she was… his girlfriend.

But the fact that he served so well as a protector only made her think more and more about her actual parents. They probably hated her, but… did they really not love her at all? They lived within smelling distance (at least for a Leafeon and a Quilava), so they definitely should have found her by now. But they would never find her if they never looked…

"Cole?"

"Yeah, Nova?"

"My… my parents haven't even tried to get me back…" She said, sniffling.

"Didn't you want to run away?" Cole asked.

"Yeah, but… they don't care that I'm gone! They're probably happy I left…"

"That might be true, but–"

"Your mom sounded heartbroken while she was chasing you." Nova interrupted. "At least she wanted you. My parents just hate me…"

Nova collapsed into Cole’s chest and buried her head in his fluffy mane, crying. Cole put his arms around her.

"Hey, it's okay." He consoled her. "We don't have to worry about before anymore. It’s just us now. We’ll make sure each other are alright."

He lifted her chin up and kissed her. She closed her eyes and kissed him back. As they broke the kiss, Cole looked into her eyes and mustered up the courage to say what he had meant to for so long.

"N-nova?"

"Yeah?"

"Uh… I…"

Nova waited, hoping to Arceus he was going to say what she thought he would.

"...I love you."

Nova's face lit up.

"I love you too!"

Cole gasped softly.

"Do you… would you be my…"

Cole blanked for a split second on what he meant to say next. His parents were married, but marriage was a human construct. He had an idea that would fit better, But Nova knew the words that were about to come out of his mouth.

“My–”

"Yes!"

It was another sudden and early leap in their relationship, but they both felt like the time was right, as naive as that was.

Nova wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him again. Cole hugged her back and leaned into it. They squeezed their eyes shut.

Then they both shone a brilliant white.

Their tails both thinned, and Nova's grew longer and split toward the end. Her ears moved to the side of her head and grew tufts of fur beneath them. Cole’s ears got fluffier, he grew a bow on his neck and one on his head, and two ribbons each sprouted from the bows.

They grew taller and slimmer, almost twice the size they were before. Cole lazily opened his eyes. What he saw made him jump. Not only had November evolved into an Espeon, Cole could see his own reflection in her forehead jewel, and he had become a Sylveon.

Nova could tell he was shocked, but didn’t know why. She opened her eyes, and they bugged like his.

They froze in place, their lips still connected. They were paralyzed in shock, but a Cheri berry wouldn't've helped.

Still without moving, Cole slowly wrapped one of his ribbons around Nova’s front leg. He smiled.

“You’re so flustered right now~”

“And you have a really dirty mind~” Nova said, trying to hide her flusteredness.

“Oh yeah? What am I thinking right now?”

Nova’s eyes bugged again, but then she smirked.

“You want to hold paws, you perv?~”

Cole reached out and held one of her paws.

“Yeah.”

Nova tackled him in a hug, and they rolled down a hill into a 15-foot ditch. When they reached the bottom, they were still making out.

Meanwhile, Cassie was getting more and more depressed. She was hardly eating to the point of losing healthy weight, she wouldn’t go outside, and she wasn’t talking nearly as much as usual. She moped on the bed most of the time, and there always seemed to be a steady trickle of tears going down her face.

When Cassie wasn’t happy, Jake wasn’t either. He hated seeing her like this. She was his wife. His soulmate. His best friend in the world.

He knew why she was depressed. But there was really no way to fix it, so he decided to try cheering her up by distracting her from her sadness. He was sure they would grieve for months, if not years, but he wanted to be Cassie’s anchor.

He decided to prepare a dish he’d never tried making before: pan-fried Magikarp with a sweet Mago berry drizzle; something that combined Cassie’s two favorite foods. He’d catch the Magikarp tomorrow so that it’d be fresh, and get the rest of the ingredients this evening, under the guise of saying he’d collect herbs.

He did actually need some herbs for this; a few Pep-up Plants and a Bugwort flower. He and Cassie already maintained a patch of Pep-up Plants across the river, so that was taken care of. The Bugwort would be harder to track down.

Bugworts were wide-rooted plants that needed lots of water, so they only grew in damp environments without deep-rooted plants nearby. Jake knew of an area to the southwest that should fit the bill, so he started walking.

He didn’t recall it being as far away as it was, but his search proved fruitful. He found a clearing filled with little more than grass near a stream, and a Bugwort bush near the middle. He gently picked a single flower from it, put it in his satchel, and started walking back home, listening to the birds and the sounds of the forest.

Starly were passing through Johto this time of year, making their way back to the thawing Sinnoh region. Jake recalled he once went to visit some relatives in Sinnoh, but he was only around eight at the time. He should schedule a vacation to Sinnoh with Cassie and… and Cole.

Jake started crying. He thought about all the fun things he had wanted to see and do with the family he built with Cassie. He had planned to take them to Kalos to visit Stanley, to Alola to go sightseeing, to Paldea to try the food… but all those plans now had one fewer name on the guest list.

As the tears ran down his face, he overheard something from a dip in the earth to his left. A… quiet, wet, smacking sound? And then a cooing voice…

“Speee~ Espe, hehehe~”

Oh, gotcha.

Better not intrude.

The next day, Jake got up early to start making the Magikarp dish. He caught a nice one from the river and, looking away, gave its neck a sharp chop. He couldn't watch himself do it; even giving a braindead fish an instant, painless death was tough for him. Then he went inside and started making the drizzle. He squeezed some Mago berries’ juice into a saucepan, heating it up slowly to thicken it. The dangerous part here was that Cassie usually woke up when she smelled Mago, and if she did now, the surprise would be ruined.

But all was clear. Jake started preparing the Magikarp; washing it, actually chopping off its head (he nearly threw up), descaling it, and filleting it. He chopped the fillets up and laid them in a buttered pan, heating them slowly as well. Adding a single drop of Bugwort nectar and some Pep-up juice, he stirred the Mago drizzle into a thick, sweet, invigorating sauce.

Once he finished filling both plates and drizzling the fillets, he set them on the dining room table, seeing if Cassie would wake up yet. When she still didn’t, Jake laid in front of her on the bed, gently stroking her crest fin.

Cassie opened her eyes sleepily and looked at Jake.

“Good morning, Fishy.~” he said, kissing her.

“Good morning, Jake.” She yawned.

“Guess what I made for breakfast.”

“Crêpes.” she said wearily.

“Nope. Come see.”

“I don’t wanna get up…”

“You don’t have to.”

Jake picked her up and held her like a baby.

Cassie averted her eyes, embarrassed.

“Why is it so easy for you to do this?”

“Because I’m the leading expert on cuddling you. This isn't too different.”

Jake brought her over to the dining room table and set her down in one of the chairs. When she saw what Jake had made for them, her jaw dropped.

“Jake, this looks so good!”

“I’m glad you think so.” Jake smiled. “How come you didn’t wake up from the smell?”

“I– my nose is stuffed up from…” she shed a tear. “From crying so much.”

Jake sighed.

“Yeah…” There was a long pause before Jake cut up a piece of Magikarp with the edge of his fork. “Well, go ahead, try it." He started to eat.

Cassie grabbed her fork and took a bite. Even with her sense of taste suppressed from her stuffy nose, it was amazing. The Magikarp had been caught less than an hour ago, so it was unbelievably fresh; and the Mago sauce was sweet and zesty, and it woke her right up.

But even though it tasted fantastic, she had to force it down.

“What’s up?” Jake asked, noticing her discomfort.

“I’m… I’m not really hungry…” Cassie said, hanging her head and starting to cry again. “I’m so sorry, Jake… you must have spent forever on this… It looks so good and it tastes so good but I still can’t eat it…”

“Hey, that’s okay!” Jake said, a little disappointed, but only because he wished she could enjoy it. “I’m glad you ate any; your appetite’s been so low. Here.”

He took Cassie’s plate and kissed her temple, then wrapped both their plates in plastic wrap for later, storing them in the freezer.

“What do you want to do today?” He asked her.

“I don’t know… nothing…”

Jake smiled.

“Doing nothing sounds great.”

He took her back to the bed and spooned her.

“Do you wanna talk about anything? I could snuggle and chat with you all day.”

Cassie didn’t answer at first. Eventually she said,

“Do you think… Will we ever see Cole again?”

Jake looked inside himself. His signature optimism was spreading thin.

“...I don’t know, Cassie… I don’t know.”

Jake pulled her in tight, and they just laid there and quietly cried together.

Cole and November were having a fantastic time together. They were living pretty much like wild Pokémon; so even though they didn’t have the same quality of living that Jake and Cassie did, they had even fewer responsibilities than them. Their time was spent with each other. During that time, they grew even closer and more intimate, learning about each other and themselves. But one thing Cole kept secret.

His parents.

No one could find out, not even Nova. Actually, especially Nova. If she found out he was a halfblood abomination, she would dump him for sure.

One day, as they were watching the sunset from just outside their den, Nova turned to Cole and asked,

“Hey, I know you don’t like talking about your parents, but what gives?”

“What do you mean?” Cole asked nervously.

“Every time I compliment you on something about yourself, you get all blushy and refuse to take responsibility for being so freaking awesome. you say, ‘oh, I got that from my mom’ or ‘yeah, I get that from my dad’. If so many of the things I like about you were inherited from your parents, I want to know why you ran away from them. What made them so unbearable?”

“I… I’m…”

Cole took a deep breath.

“It’s not both of them. It’s my dad that bothers me. My mom’s amazing. She’s a Vaporeon, and–”

“And what was your dad?”

“Rrgh… that’s what I can’t tell you.”

“Why not??”

“Because you’d never look at me the same way again!”

“I highly doubt that.”

“Trust me. You don’t want to know.”

Nova rolled her eyes.

“If I wanted to, I could effortlessly peek inside that cute brain of yours and see what this is all really about.”

Cole backed up.

“PLEASE don’t!”

“I won’t. But listen to me.” Nova said. “There is no way in hell this is as bad as you’re saying. He loved your mom, didn’t he?”

“I mean… yeah. They were obsessed with each other. Constantly kissing and hugging and staring into each other’s eyes… –If I looked away for a second too long, they’d sneak off and have sex!”

Nova giggled.

“Then that proves my point. If your mom was amazing, and she loved your dad that much, shouldn’t you trust her judgment?”

“My mom being in love with him is the problem!”

“I’m gonna cut that bs short before it goes in another circle.” Nova said. “I don’t know if this is you being oblivious, internalized racism, or what. But your mom and dad are sounding more and more like the perfect couple, and I dunno why I'm seeing that and you're not.”

“Nova, I–”

“You nothing. Look at me.”

Cole looked her in the face.

“I don’t care where you came from. I love you for you, and your dad's species doesn’t make a difference to me. End of story.”

Cole looked directly into her eyes. He wrapped one of his ribbons around her foreleg.

“Say that again.” He said.

“I don’t care if your dad’s Giratina. I’ll still wanna hug you around the neck,” she hugged him, “nuzzle your fuzzy face,” she nuzzled him, “And make you melt as I kiss you until sunset because you’re my favorite person in the world." She kissed him and didn’t let go.

As she said it, Cole felt through his ribbons how sincere she was. She meant every single word.

She’d still love him even if she knew what kind of a freak he was.

At least she thought she would.

Four months.

It took Cassie and Jake four months to go through all the stages of grief. You could definitely argue that was too fast, but they knew their son didn't die, just that he had run away for good, and they made peace with it. They got back into the swing of things right on time for Jake’s birthday, actually.

On the morning of August ninth, Cassie woke up first, and Acid Armored right out of Jake’s arms, trickling off the bed and reconstituting on the floor. Then she sat back on the bed and gently nudged Jake awake with her tail.

"Wake up, Hubby."

Jake opened his eyes and yawned.

"Hey, fishy! good morning~" He sat up and kissed her.

"Okay, so I know we said no gifts this year–"

"Dammit, fish!"

"SO…" Cassie continued, "I want to trade with you instead."

Jake brow furrowed and he cocked his head. This sure wasn’t the spirit of that law, but his interest was piqued.

"...I'm listening."

"So you remember how Arceus said if we were patient, he'd pay us back double?"

Jake was still waking up, so he hadn’t connected the dots yet.

"Uh-huh."

"I feel like I've been patient enough."

"...What's the trade part, though?"

Cassie smiled naughtily. She sat back and stretched her legs apart as wide as they could go.

"You receive– THIS." she spread her pussy lips apart with her paw, presenting her pink, wet, tantalizing insides.

That sure woke Jake up.

His breaths came deep and shuddering, remembering for the thousandth time how amazing it felt to be inside her.

"You get to have your way with me all day. Do whatever you want to me. Go insane. But, in return…"

She used her tail to pull him in and press his forehead to hers.

"You have to put twins inside meee~" She giggled excitedly at the thought of Jake impregnating her again.

Jake had a well-established tent in his shorts by now, but he hesitated.

"Cassie… no twins could ever replace Cole…"

Cassie sighed.

"I know. And you’re right. There'll always be a Cole-shaped hole in my heart that I wish was full."

"Exactly." Jake said.

Cassie persisted.

"But… Well, isn’t it fun to have a little one running around?" She smiled at him. "Another person in our lives brought into the world by the sheer power of our love?~"

Jake smiled.

"When you put it like that…Yeah."

"And you have no idea how much it turns me on that you can get me pregnant again." Cassie said, staring into his eyes and her breath getting ragged. "The fact that when you cum inside this time, you could plant babies in me… it makes me so fucking wet."

Jake’s heart was speeding up too.

"So… Anything I want?"

"Jake, today I want you to do things TO me instead of WITH me. It's your birthday. I want you to have extra fun, so don't even worry about pleasuring me. Just surrender to your desires and fuck me silly."

Jake smiled. He pulled off his t-shirt and shorts and grabbed Cassie under the arms.

"Where ya takin' me, hubby~?"

Jake got off the bed and pinned Cassie to the wall.

"Oh fuck yes…" she said.

He started making out with her, and grinding his shaft against her folds.

"MmmMMmm~" Cassie moaned.

Once Jake’s dick was nice and lubed up, he rested his tip gently against her entrance.

"You ready? I'm not gonna hold back." He said.

"Give it to me rough, you sexy man." Cassie said through a gritted smile.

The moment Jake was about to start pounding her, the doorbell rang.

"...did I just get cockblocked three milliseconds before I was inside you?"

"Hey, I was stoked too! You think getting pussyprevented is any fun either?"

"Pfff… okay, that's an excellent word. 'Pussyprevented'... Just a moment!" Jake called to the door. He set Cassie down gently and pulled his pajamas back on. Looking out the peephole of the door, he couldn't see anyone.

"I fucking better not have gotten cockblocked by a ding-dong-ditch…" He muttered.

Opening the door and staring straight ahead, again his eyes met nothing but the stairway up to ground level.

But then he looked down.

Standing there were two Eeveelutions, an Espeon and a Sylveon. The Espeon was pink as you would expect, but the Sylveon was blue, a shiny.

It was as if time paused just for the moment to sink in. Jake's heart stopped, and his breath caught in his throat.

"Cole?" He asked in a tiny voice with tears in his eyes.

The Sylveon looked sheepishly up at him and said, in a voice deeper than Jake remembered,

"Hi, dad. I'm… I'm really sorry."

"MY BABY!!!" Cassie screamed in unbridled joy, sprinting at Cole and tackling him all the way up the stairs and onto the patio.

"YOU CAME BACK!!!"

"Hey mom. I'm sorry for running away."

As Cole was being attacked by an onslaught of squeezing hugs and kisses, November turned to Jake.

"You must be Mr. Pettittattittep. A pleasure to finally meet you."

All Jake heard was, "Espeon Spe Espe Speon."

Oh boy.

"Sorry, could you telepathize that to me? I didn't understand." Jake said awkwardly.

"What, like this?" November asked out loud while telepathizing, making it appear to Jake as if she was speaking English.

"Yeah, thanks. Sorry. What's your Name? And, um… how do you know Cole?"

"My name’s November." Nova said, smiling. "But Nova works just fine."

"That's a really pretty name." Jake remarked.

"Your son thought so too." Nova giggled.

"And to answer your other question, Cole decided to live with me once he had run away. I feel kind of responsible for keeping him from you guys, so I'm really sorry. You uh," Nova looked back at Cassie, who was still showering Cole with kisses and nuzzles.

"You clearly missed him."

"I thought he wouldn't ever come back…"

"Well, I kinda nagged him to introduce me to you. After a three month anniversary, you get curious about your in-laws."

"Wait, you two are married!?"

"Do you mean mated?" Nova paused. "Are you hard of hearing? If you change to your natural form, I could try and restore your hearing with a hypnosis technique. It's the least I could do for separating you guys."

Jake shifted around awkwardly.

"Uh, no… it's… not that…"

Nova squinted her eyes, took a three-second look at Jake, and figured out what the problem was.

"Oh, for fuck's sake…"

She rolled her eyes, turned around, and yelled at Cole,

"Is THAT why you were bitching this whole time!? Cause your dad’s a human!? Arceus! That’s COOL, not traumatizing, you dumbass! You’re five months old; GROW UP!”

Then she turned back to Jake.

"I apologize for him. That’s a bullshit reason to run away. And I'm really sorry that I mistook you for–"

"Don’t worry about it, you didn’t know." Jake smiled. "I'm just glad that he's back. I missed him so much…"

"Well, give him a hug or something!"

"Eehh… I'll give it a sec. Cassie and I are best friends, but I don't wanna mess with momma bear right now." He chuckled.

"Yeah, that's a good plan." Nova giggled.

As Cassie finally took a second to breathe, she got a good look at Cole.

"Cole… you did fine on your own, you evolved, you found a mate… you're all grown up…"

"Yeah, I guess I am." Cole said.

Cassie squeezed him again.

"I'm so proud of you, buddy!"

She finally let go of him so Jake could hug him. Then they all sat on the patio and started to catch up with each other.

"You evolved each other when you said 'I love you' for the first time?" Cassie asked with a huge smile. "That's so romantic!"

"Isn't it?" Nova said. "And can I compliment you guys on raising such a gentleman? He treats me like a queen."

"I think you got to raise him." Cassie said. "Kinda jealous of you there."

Nova snickered.

"But he gets that from his dad." Cassie said, smiling. "Whenever we go out in public, and someone mistakes him for my trainer, it takes every ounce of his willpower not to knock their lights out."

Nova giggled.

"He's definitely not like any human I've ever seen."

Cassie noticed that for a while now, Nova and Cole had kept stealing glances at each other, getting a little antsy.

"Do you guys wanna say bye for now? You two desperately want to lay paws on each other. The tension is not subtle."

"I think that'd be good." Nova said, blushing. "...oh shit, we interrupted you two as well, didn't we?"

"Not badly…" Cassie tried to reassure them.

"I beg to differ." Jake said, looking lewdly at her. "I had you right where I wanted you when that doorbell rang."

"Jaaake…"

"Okay, we'll leave you guys to it." Nova said.

Before Cole and Nova left, they all shared a group hug.

"I promise to visit, okay?” Cole said, fully committing to make good on that promise. “ I… I really missed you guys too."

"That sounds awesome, buddy." Jake said. "Hey, good luck with Nova. She's really sweet."

"Thanks."

As they watched their kids walk back into the forest, it was clear Cole was in good hands.

Speaking of hands, Jake remembered what they were doing before Cole and Nova visited. He grabbed Cassie's butt and yanked her into his arms.

She gasped, but started giggling.

"I'm gonna do so many naughty things with you…" Jake said, walking back to the Oak.

He locked the door behind him, but realized there was a wrapped present on the dining room table.

"You naughty fish! We agreed on no gifts!"

"I didn't give it to you!" Cassie defended.

"Well who–" Jake said, setting Cassie down and reaching for the gift. It was addressed to him alright, but it said, "To Mom and Dad, from Cole". Jake opened it and pulled out the contents.

It was the Loyal Ball.

He froze. It was repaired as if it had never broken. And there was a note inside the box:

"Figured you guys would want this back. It was pretty banged up, and laying in a bush north of Nova's den. Happy birthday!"

Jake held it in his hand.

"It's from Cole." He showed it to Cassie.

"–He found it!?"

"And repaired it too…"

There was one change Jake noticed, however. The propeller flap furthest from the button was replaced. Instead of being made of pure sky tumblestone, it was black tumblestone.

Jake checked the back of the note. The reverse side said,

"The anterior propeller blade was a wash. I replaced it with the best material I could get. I hope you don't mind. Maybe it can remind you of the occasion, I guess. Love, Cole and Nova."

"That's so sweet of him." Cassie said.

Jake put the Loyal Ball back on the nightstand.

"It is. …and speaking of occasions…"

He took his clothes back off, picked Cassie up again, and loudly slammed her against the wall.

"Hehehehehehehehehe~"

"Why are you so giggly?" Jake laughed.

"Because you're finally being rough with me…" Cassie said, putting back on her gritted smile from earlier. "You're never rough with me…"

"I am so!"

"Not rough enough– GUH!"

Jake shoved his dick in. The size difference between them meant that anytime he hilted inside her, his tip went through her cervix. And that can be a little shocking when someone abruptly thrusts inside you.

Cassie squirmed a little under Jake’s hold, adjusting to the feeling of being stretched open so suddenly.

"Ffffuck… did your dick get bigger since last time?"

"Mmmh~. I think it’s your pussy that finally had a chance to tighten back up since you had Cole’s egg."

Jake started pounding away at Cassie's pussy, happily giving her the rough dicking she so clearly desired.

"Hah. Hah. Jake, you're so big… this is so good… nngh… fuck me harder… stretch me wide open…"

Jake was having a little trouble using words. It had been months since he felt her insides, and her insistence on going hard and fast was driving him insane. As he gave her her wish, his mind was reaching capacity with the pleasure of getting to unleash his full power and fuck her silly.

"Oh Arceus… Cassie… your pussy is amazing… I'm… I'm gonna… nngghhAAAHH~…" He said, going balls deep and dumping his liquid love into her.

"Yes…" Cassie said, feeling her womb fill up.

Jake clutched Cassie and fell backwards onto the bed, trying to catch his breath.

"Oh, c'mon!" Cassie said. "Don't tell me you're tired already! It's barely 11! You've still got another good 12 hours of fucking to give me!"

"You're the one who said to give it to you rough!" Jake said, half laughing, half panting. "How much stamina do you have!?"

"130." Cassie said slyly.

Jake rolled his eyes and sat up.

"Alright, fish. Gimme your cute ass."

He grabbed her asscheeks and thrusted forward.

But he wasn't as careful as he could've been.

"OH FUCK, JAKE! WRONG HOLE!"

but Jake could barely hear himself think, let alone his lover's pleas to give her ass a rest. He moaned dreamily.

"Mmmh… you're so tight, Cassie…"

"Y-Yeah, cause you’re not using my pussy, Jake… nngghaah… fuck… ow…"

"Oh, you feel so good…"

"Just hurry up and finish, you're stretching me out too much…"

"Okay, Fishy~"

Jake hugged around her waist and came inside her.

"Mmmhh…"

"Fuuuuck…"

As Jake fell onto the bed again, he regained his senses. He looked back up at Cassie…

And saw her asshole still gaping and leaking his cum.

"Ow… fuck… nngh…"

"CASSIE, ARE YOU OKAY!? DID I HURT YOU!?"

"I'm… you destroyed my ass…"

He jumped up and hugged her with tears in his eyes. He hated the idea of hurting her.

"I'm sorry, Cassie! I didn't mean to– I should've been more careful! I'm so sorry… Please don't hate me… I didn't–"

"Shut up, dumbass. It's about fucking time we did that… oh, it hurts so good…"

"Wh– what do you mean?"

"Jake, I knew you were apprehensive about trying anal, but are you seriously so out of touch with the concept of pleasurable pain?"

"Wh… you're gonna have to run that by me again."

"Jake, it hurts, but it hurts good. The fact that it was your dick that did it makes it so erotic. I love feeling how powerful you are…"

Jake was confused. What in Arceus' name did she mean it hurt good?

"Al… Alright… So you're okay?"

"Yeah, Ninjaboy. I'm okay. …Let's take a shower."

"Don't you want it in your pussy again? I'm still hard~"

"That is not safe!" Cassie scolded him. "Vaginal to anal is just fine, but you need to clean off properly if you want to stick it in my wet hole again."

"O-okay."

They got in the shower and started cleaning off. Jake sat down on the shower floor after a second.

"Fuck… my legs are so sore…"

"Mine too, dummy." Cassie said, sitting next to him and wrapping her tail around him. "But you have to keep your promise and give me those twins I asked for~"

Jake was about to say something lewd in response, but it dawned on him what Arceus really meant. He hung his head and sighed.

"Cassie?"

"Yeah?~"

"We aren't getting any more kids."

"What!?"

"Arceus already paid us back double. We have Cole back, and November."

Cassie took a deep, frustrated breath. She slammed her tail on the floor.

"Dammit."

"Honestly, I'm kinda glad…" Jake said, a smile creeping to the corner of his mouth.

"What!? Why?" Cassie asked, her eyes filling with tears of what-might-have-been. "Don't you wanna have more babies with me!?"

"Well, we went through four months of emotional agony with just one. And you were hovering on the edge of an impregnation fetish. You would've made me a father of 100 if no one stopped you."

Cassie was about to argue, but couldn't muster a very substantiated rebuttal; he was right. She would have given him thousands of kids if she could.

"Yeah, but you would've loved every single one of em…"

Jake put his arm around her.

"I would've, and I would've loved that you gave them to me! But I think it’s better with just one… And definitely easier to keep track of. Did I ever tell you how bad I am with names?"

"No…"

"In my last year of high school, I was paired up with someone in science class as my partner for the whole year. I only memorized their name in time to give the presentation on the final project."

"So what was their name?"

"I don't remember."

"...pffff…"

They started laughing together under the shower flow, and eventually Cassie forgot about wanting more kids.

"You sure you don't wanna smash more?~" Cassie asked once they had finished their shower.

"Nah. I just want to snuggle you all day. Can I offer a trade of my own and swap birthday sex for that instead?"

Cassie laughed.

"Sure, hubby."

Jake spooned her on the bed, nestling her into his arms and holding her tight. He sighed happily.

"I could stay like this with you for years…"

– 5 years later –

Jake and Cassie were relaxing on their patio, just enjoying the clear afternoon autumn weather and each other's company as they held hands.

"Did Cole and Nova tell you what they're doing on Saturday?" Cassie asked. "We haven't visited them in a while."

"We saw them three days ago, Fishy." Jake laughed. "Let the kids breathe, they're trying to find a little adventure, not helicopter parents."

Cassie sighed.

"I know, but I still miss the little guy and his girlfriend."

"Little? He's been taller than you since he evolved." Jake said, almost slyly.

"Only if you count his ears." Cassie defended.

"I count your crest fin, too."

"Oh, whatever."

Out of the tranquil silence, Cassie's exceptional hearing was just barely able to detect a shockwave in the sky over the forest to the west.

"What was that?" Cassie asked, squinting up at the source of the sound.

"I didn't hear anything." Jake said.

"Look up there." She pointed.

Jake shielded his eyes and peered up at the sky. He could barely make out jack.

"Your eyes are better than mine." Cassie said. "Can you tell what that is?"

"Not even close." Jake said. "But it wasn't in the sky a second ago. Let's go check it out."

"Okay."

Cassie hopped onto his back, and he ran toward where the object seemed like it would land. They found themselves in front of a clearing, a ring of trees surrounding a sparsely ferned patch of grass.

"Did we go to the right spot?" Cassie asked.

Jake set her down next to him.

"It should have gone right about–"

Suddenly a figure clad in a black jacket and khaki pants plummeted at terminal velocity and slammed into the ground in front of them. The moment their feet hit the ground, there was a deafening wham, but the figure stood calmly as if they had been standing there for the past half hour.

"There…" Jake whispered.

"Scanning surroundings." Came a voice from the figure's wrist. It was Alexis' voice.

"Oh SHIT, do you know who that is?" Cassie asked Jake, her pupils the size of grains of sand.

"Yup... I don’t know whether to run toward him or away."

"We have to get Cass!"

"She's meditating."

"Yeah, and he could kill us both in a microsecond!"

The figure jumped vertically five meters into the air, backflipping several times.

"Whoo– gravity here's low as hell…" He said as he landed, in a voice nearly identical to Jake's.

"He's gonna notice us any second now…" Cassie said in fear. "Wait. Assuming he’s cool, how much do we tell him?" She looked at Jake, referring to their relationship.

"Pfft, he can figure it out…"

The figure heard them whispering, and turned to look at them. His eyes bugged when he saw Cassie, but he shook his head, as if dismissing a thought. Then he turned to Jake.

Jake rushed at him, aiming a dragon kick toward his head. But the visitor whipped out a metal bar from his belt, which snapped to a length of about five feet, and he used it to block Jake’s kick.

"What, you think you're some kind of ninja? Coming at me with a dragon kick, ya tryhard?"

"You could say that." Jake smirked, starting to throw punches and kicks at the visitor much like Cassie had to him when Cole ran away.

"But from seven meters away?" The visitor asked, blocking every blow with his staff with pinpoint efficiency. "You're gonna have to think harder than that, ninja boy."

Jake's eyes narrowed.

"Only Cassie gets to call me that."

The visitor's stance softened. In a weak voice, he asked,

"Did you just say 'Cassie'?"

Jake and Cassie's story will continue in EpsilonRandy's upcoming book,

Elements.

(Working Title)

Coming to Amazon Kindle and Audible.

Watch EpsilonRandy's YouTube channel for further details and updates on the book's release.