FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

A sudden movement in my bed shook me out of my dreams. My eyes, reluctant though they may have been, opened all the same. Lapin was sitting up, clutching at her ears like they were causing her no small amount of pain. Slowly my sleep fogged mind started to pick up on a noise.. quiet at first, but it quickly grew in intensity as I became more awake.

"Damn alarm clock.." I muttered, before grabbing the wire connecting said annoyance to the socket on my wall and yanking it out. "Sorry, Lapin. I forgot that you don't usually get up this early." Normally she sleeps a good three hours later than I do. All my pokemon do; I don't think I've ever brought any of them along on my daily routine.

After her ears recovered from the blare of the alarm, Lapin looked out the window. "C'mon Chris.. it's barely light out. Why was that clock set to go off at six?" Before answering, I reached up, pulled her down onto me gently, and hugged her. Not for any reason in particular; mostly because she was there.

"I usually get up at six thirty so I can walk around town, relax by the beach, and do whatever else before I get the three of you up for training." For some reason, Lapin looked a little hurt. "What's wrong?"

"All we ever get to do when were in this town is train, Chris, and that gets pretty boring. Why haven't you ever taken us out with you?" That was a good question.. I supposed that it was because I never have any alone time other than that and sleeping, but that made me ask myself something else; why the hell do I want alone time? Being with pokemon is much better than being by myself.

"You can come with me today if you want. I don't want to wake up Celeste and Nexus though. In case you haven't noticed, even when I get them up at the usual time they're pretty tired. You and me are the morning people in the group." It didn't appear that Lapin had to give the decision much thought.

"Sure! When do we leave?" I explained that I should take a shower and get ready just before proceeding to go about said actions. All the while, Lapin was wandering about my room, looking, rubbing, poking at anything that caught her fancy. I realized that before last night, she had never actually been inside my room, and being.. well.. her, she was curious about it all.

After I got out of the bathroom, Lapin and I headed into the dining hall of the bed and breakfast. I helped myself to bacon, sausage, eggs, and coffee, but as one would expect from a rabbit, Lapin kept to leafy salads and water. As we were eating, conversation ensued.

"So I've been thinking that we should head out adventuring again soon. Training probably does get pretty tedious for the three of you, and my bones are just aching to see more of the world. None of us have ever been to the Hoenn or Johto regions", I said. After downing a particularly large bit of lettuce, Lapin gave her input.

"Ooh, could we go to Hoenn? I've always wanted to see that town in the trees! An Absol from there came to my forest a while ago. He described the place like it was heaven!" Now I was interested. Absol had always been a species of pokemon that fascinated me, and the thought of seeing one up close, and maybe even using my pokemon to talk with it was very appealing. But a town in the trees? I didn't pay much attention back in geography class, but after a bit of searching through my memory, I realized where Lapin had meant.

"Is the place you're talking about called Fortree City?" By now other people who were eating their breakfasts nearby were giving me and Lapin strange looks. They thought I was crazy for trying to carry on a conversation with something I couldn't understand, and that the Lopunny was cruel for humoring me. It was becoming irritating.

"Yeah, that's the one. So can we go there, Chris?" Lapin was giving me the old puppy dog eyes routine. There's no way anyone in their right mind would refuse that face..

"Sure we can. After we get back here we'll get Celeste and Nexus up and start getting ready, 'k?" Lapin's face was beaming.

"Let's just get out of here quickly though, I don't like how these people are looking at me.." Making me uncomfortable was one thing, but Lapin? As soon as possible we were on our way out into the main lobby, but not before Lapin turned back around and stuck her tongue out at those who were still staring.

The first few minutes of our walk were uneventful, excepting the very start when, without warning, Lapin decided to hop up and ride along on my back. I didn't mind though, despite what some may think she was exceedingly light. I probably made for a curious sight, walking through town with a Lopunny wrapped about me, but again, I didn't mind. After a little while, I came upon a familiar face.

"Hi, Chris! How're ya?"

"Hey, Mr. Gregory, I'm doing great. Just so you know, me and my pokemon will be going away for a while again." From the look on his face, I could tell that he was happy to hear this. I would have taken offense, had he not followed up.

"Good! All ya young folk should get out th're in the world as often as ya can, so's ya can turn out old and happy like yours truly. S'is young lady here one of your pokemon?" He motioned towards Lapin, still on my back.

"Oh, that's right, you've only met Celeste. I have a Luxio named Nexus back at the B&B, and this is Lapin." Lapin hopped down from my back and held out a paw for Mr. Gregory to shake.

"Pleased ta make your acquaintance, Missy." Instead of shaking the paw, Mr. Gregory reached down and kissed it. I supposed that he was exactly how he had always come off; just an old fashioned gentleman. Lapin was blushing lightly, but the earthy color of her fur did a good job of hiding it.

"I'm happy to meet you, too, sir", said Lapin. Of course, this isn't what Mr. Gregory heard.

"She says that she's happy to meet you as well." For once, I was playing the role of translator. I hoped that I didn't have to often; hearing everything twice was already getting boring, and this is only my first time doing it. I wondered how the hell Celeste put up with me.

"How d'ya know that, Chris?", he asked, one bushy white brow raised.

"No offense, Mr. Gregory, but if I explained it, I wouldn't expect you to understand. Hell, I barely understand myself. Just know that I can hear Lapin as if she was speaking plain English." Throughout my statement, that eyebrow ascended ever higher. Being the man he is, though, Mr. Gregory didn't pry. Instead, he looked down at his watch, the one that anyone could plainly see wasn't on his wrist.

"Hoo! Look'a the time! Sorry to be both'rin ya fer so long, Chris. I'll see ya when ya come back from wh'rever it is you're goin'. You too, Missy." With that, he walked off in the direction opposite the beach, our next destination. We walked down the dirt path towards the dunes. After going along the sandy ground for a time, I picked a spot for the two of us to relax on.

I got myself down onto the sand first and Lapin followed, nuzzling up against my side and wrapping her arms and ears around my chest. It wasn't long before the cool breeze, the soft sounds of the waves coming to bear with the sand, and the warm fur against my body took their toll on my mind. Sleep always comes so easy at the beach.

_ _ _ _ _

I woke in half an hour, as I always do, but unluckily for her, Lapin lacks this ability. She was asleep, but she had a dreamily contented look on her face, one that hurt me to have to put a stop to.

"Lapin?", I said. She opened her eyes slowly. "Sorry to wake you, but it's getting to be the time when I usually wake you, Nexus, and Celeste up." She just yawned and shut her eyes again as if she hadn't heard me, but soon she was up and stretching.

"How long was I out?" she asked, brushing a good deal of sand out of her fur.

"About half an hour. Ready to go?" Lapin had a bit of a bounce to her step, usually an indication that she wants to get moving.

"Half an hour? Jeez, Chris, when exactly do you sleep?" She extended a paw to help me up, which I accepted. In reality, I was sure that had I not been mostly lifting myself, we would both be back on the ground. That was a welcomed thought.. On the way back towards the B&B I continued the discussion.

"Well I haven't really done much that would make me too tired recently. I can't wait to get back on the road.." Just the thought of the fun we four used to have was making my muscles ache to leave. "What do you say we just get Nexus and Celeste up and then leave immediately? No goodbyes to anyone."

"Sounds fine to me. I think we have everything we need to bring in your room." I confirmed her statement as we came close to the bed and breakfast. We proceeded through the main lobby and into our hall. I went into my room and packed any essentials like clothes, extra pokeballs, and money into a hefty blue backpack while Lapin roused the others.

In a scant few minutes we were once again in the lobby. Celeste was the first to speak amongst us.

"What's up with the backpack, Chris?" I was all too happy to answer.

"Lapin and I were wondering if you'd be up for a trip to the Hoenn region. The two of us want to check out a few places, namely Fortree City." Right then I realized that my choice of words might not have been the best..

"What do you mean 'the two of you'? When did you get the chance to talk with each other?" See, if I were to tell Celeste that I took Lapin along with me today, she or Nexus might see that as favoritism. Of course, when you're with a group of people who look at you as a leader as often as I, favoritism is never good.

But were I to tell the whole truth, that the two of us are in love and will probably be spending a lot more time together, I face the same problem that I did last night: I have no idea how Celeste or Nexus would feel about a pokemon-human relationship. Speaking of the same problems as last night, I realized that I was once again keeping my inquirer waiting.

"Celeste, you're probably going to notice eventually.. I feel very strongly for Lapin. I hope that you don't think less of me for it.." I wasn't prepared for what happened next; Celeste and Nexus started laughing. I was about to ask them if they thought I was joking or something when Celeste responded.

"Ha! Chris, I'm pretty sure we knew before you two did. The way you've been looking at each other since the day Lapin evolved, it was so obvious! Me and Nexus even considered betting on when you'd finally find out for yourselves." That's one problem out of the way.. kind of. When Nexus and Celeste were done, we started out of town. We were at Cerulean City's boundary when Lapin asked a very valid question.

"How exactly are we going to get to Hoenn? I don't think you brought enough money for three rooms on a cruise." For the next few moments all I could think of was sharing a room with Lapin, but I snapped out of it.

"Well, without a flying pokemon we don't have much of a choice. I'll just have to charge it to my parents. I hope they won't mind.." They never had in the past, being loaded and all, so my hopes weren't groundless. "We're going to have to try and persuade a pokemon who flies to come with us sometime, though. I always hate having to go through Saffron City to get to the ship in Vermilion.."

We were heading along Route Five from Cerulean City to Saffron City when I noticed something was off. As always, I was seeing wild pokemon everywhere, and as always, they were fleeing once they got a look at my little party, but everything felt different than it used to. Back when I was still learning about pokemon in school, all the little Rattata and Pidgey and Oddish seemed so interesting.

But now that I had actually been to another part of the world, Kanto seemed so boring. I don't know if a person coming here from Sinnoh would feel the same way, and I really doubt that, but foreign pokemon just seem better than the ones at home. I only add a pokemon to my team if they themselves want to be a part of it, but I wouldn't even want any of these little things..

And they're such cowards! Sure, a few will want a fight when they see us training, but that only happens once in a blue moon. Much more often then not they just flee when they so much as catch a scent of anything they're not used to. It makes me wonder if somehow Sinnoh pokemon are more advanced in intelligence, or simply friendlier, than Kanto pokemon.

Boring beings aside, we were coming up on Saffron. It was, in some ways, like Cerulean City. For instance, people lived in it. Other than that, the two are completely different. Where Cerulean is a pleasant little town by the sea, Saffron is a large metropolis, its high population due to its location at the crossroads of routes coming from four separate towns.

"So Chris, why don't you like this city? I don't think you've explained it yet." As she asked this, Lapin had her ear wrapped about my shoulder, and pulled me down towards her a bit more.

"Just look at it, Lapin. It's filled with noise and people.. Let's just get through it quickly; being here always gives me a headache." Luckily, we didn't have to bump into too many people as we made our way towards the south exit. However, a strange man in a trench coat asked me if I would be interested in purchasing a 'Mega Potion', which I'm fairly sure doesn't exist..

Route Six from Saffron to Vermilion has that same brand of monotonous pokemon as Route Five. However, I've heard that fishing here can get you a few more interesting species, such as Psyduck, which is another one of those pokemon that always fascinated me (I mean, c'mon, it gets headaches capable of hurting stuff!), but unfortunately I was without a fishing rod.

Much of the time in the Kanto region if you aren't trying to find wild pokemon to capture, you can get across routes rather quickly. Route Six was not exempt from this generalization. In a short ten minutes of trekking through the various sizes of native grass, Vermilion City was in plain sight, and it was my kind of place. There was beach right up against two sides of the city, and the cool sea breeze was sending shivers down my spine.

I shot off and made it ten yards before Lapin, Nexus, and Celeste knew that I had moved. I was running straight towards the ocean, and had Nexus not caught up with me and grabbed me by biting onto my belt, I probably would have hopped right in and swam about. After Lapin caught up, followed soon by Celeste, the four of us went down to the docks. It wasn't hard to find the place to buy cruiseline tickets, occupied by a sickeningly cheery looking individual.

"Hello, trainer! Are you going to be riding along on our humble cruiseline?" From the look of the only ship in the port, which seemed to be a huge mass of white and red paint from here, the cruiseline wasn't all too humble.

"Yes, I'd like to charge the cost of three adjacent rooms to my parents in Cerulean City. Here's my trainer I.D." I held up a small metal case built to hold gym badges, of which I had none, that had my license and identification fitted into a slot on top.

"Very good, sir, but whom may I ask will be taking the other two rooms? I'll need their full names if they are to board without you." From all his cheeriness, which I had determined by now was not just an act, I hadn't expected this man to be one of them.. Another person who sees my pokemon and wouldn't think that I might treat them like I would humans.

"You're looking at them." He appeared to be confused, eyes wandering this way and that for a few moments, before he understood. He turned to a computer at his side and typed for a little while before a machine somewhere down by his feet started making all manner of noises. He reached down and pulled forth three cards.

"Alright, sir, here are your room keys. Have a safe and pleasant trip!" We said our goodbyes, and of course he was surprised that he could understand Celeste. As we reached the ship, I found that my earlier representation of its size may not have been accurate; it wasn't just huge, it was a freaking leviathan! Instead of the usual ramp, we had to get on by way of a ladder.

And once we made it up and off of that, we had a hell of a time finding our rooms. When eventually we came across our hallway, we were all so tired from walking aimlessly about the ship that we said half-hearted good night's and entered our respective rooms, and Lapin, of course, went into mine. She and I stumbled over a few chairs, but after a bit of searching in the dark, we found the bed.

The moment I lifted up the covers Lapin jumped in, and I followed, though not as quickly. When I felt the touch of her fur I instinctively embraced her and moved closer. I placed my head on her soft chest, the slow heartbeat, the soothing vibrations of her breathing, and the sweet, yet earthy scent radiating from her body serving only to heighten my drowsiness. In a matter of seconds I was asleep, but not before Lapin hugged me back.

The next morning I would find that for once, Lapin had beaten me to getting up. One might expect I realized that she wasn't in bed, or perhaps that her yawning or stretching was what roused me, but no. I awoke to her soft lips pressing up against my own. I don't know if she knew this was my first kiss, and I sure didn't know if this was hers, but I was hell-bent on enjoying it.

I felt one of her ears against the back of my head, pushing my face towards hers, and I followed suit with one of my hands. When at last the kiss ended she let forth her heavenly voice, not weighed down by the morning grogginess as mine always is. "How did you sleep, Chris?"

"It was fine, but not quite as good as waking up just was.. And you?" I was wondering if perhaps her dreams had contributed to her amorous mood. Instead of answering, though, I could feel the paw that was upon my chest start to journey downwards. This didn't go unnoticed. I grasped her wrist.

"Lapin, what's gotten into you?" Though it wasn't easy to see in the dark, I could hear clearly the sound of Lapin licking her lips.

"Nothing... yet."

_ _ _ _ _

I awoke with a start. It took a few moments for my brain to register that it had been a dream, and I was greatly relieved when it did. While dreams of that nature were not exactly unwelcome, when Lapin becomes the star player it all just seems so wrong. It just feels like she's too innocent to be a part of anything that intimate. But what really had me troubled was that normally I control what I dream about.

'I definitely didn't tell myself to dream about that.. But if not me, what did?' It just seemed terribly unusual, but I soon felt that since I was now awake, and considering how hungry I felt, I thought it would be a good idea to wake Lapin and try to find someplace on the ship to eat. As I reached for her shoulder to gently shake her, I noticed that her scent was a bit stronger than it had been the previous night. It wasn't hard putting that together with my seemingly spontaneous dream.

'It must be getting close to the Lopunny mating season about now..'

_ _ _ _ _

Jesus, I keep getting great plot ideas right before I go to bed, but I always forget to write them down..

Oh, and ten points to the person who finds the Diamond/Pearl (videogame, not show) reference. Think of it like Who's Line is it Anyway, where everything's made up and the points don't matter.