Making sweets was something Ethan had never bothered too much with back on Earth. While he’d made cakes, muffins, cupcakes, cookies, and other baked items every once in a blue moon, he never attempted to make proper candy. Theoretically, it was a metric-crapton of sugar and flavoring, with the real difficulty being the heating process of the sugar.

  Sugar had several different temperature ranges with different outcomes depending on the heat. 280C was the ideal temperature for hard cracking, which would be perfect to make some simple hard candies. Though, if he wasn’t careful and the sugar reached 310C, then the sugar would begin to caramelize and ruin the batch.

  Since this was his first time making candy, starting with a very small batch would be wise.

  Joyce was lounging about watching him pull pots and pans down from up above his stove with idle curiosity. “How’s that egg doing?”

  Unlike the sweets he was attempting to make, his face soured. “Your Pikachu is a hoe.”

  After a snort of surprise, Joyce cackled and rapidly nodded her head. “She’s free spirited.”

  “Sure…” Ethan dropped the subject. “You can go check on it if you want. It’s in the guest room. Pachirisu has been doing his best as a single father…”

  “Oi…” Jennifer looked at Joyce with contempt, causing the nurse to raise her hands in surrender. She stood and then wandered off to check on the Pichu egg as Ethan began pouring sugar into a pot.

  Jennifer stood awkwardly in silence, not used to being alone with Ethan. After learning of his past, she’d clammed up a bit. Ethan huffed out a bit of air as he fixed her with a stare. “You can let your team out if you want. My ranch is huge. No point in having them cooped up.”

  Looking relieved at the prospect of being with her friends, Jennifer quickly grabbed five pokeballs of varying rarities from her belt—A pokeball, two Ultra balls, and two Great balls. One by one, she released them right there by his dining room table, letting him know that none of her pokemon were overly large without having to say a word.

  The first one to materialize was ‘the best pokemon in the world’, a title Ethan had to agree with. Bi-pedal, black, red, and orange—Champ, the Incineroar appeared with a toothy grin. Immediately, the large cat pokemon giddily sauntered up to Ethan and stared him up and down like he was a toy to play with. “Nope! He’s not teaching you any moves! Maybe another time!” Jennifer quickly bit out, causing the large feline to pout and deflate in less than a second.

  Ethan laughed as Champ sulked off, opening the front door and pretending to slam it close behind him like a ruffled teen. He stopped the slam just before the door actually closed and very carefully pulled it the rest of the way to prevent any damage. As the door slowly closed the final gap, one of his golden eyes peered through the crack with angst towards Jennifer.

  Champ’s trainer simply shook her head with exasperation and released another one of her pokemon. With a flash of white… a pokemon he’d never seen before bounced from foot to foot. It… looked like a feral viking cosplaying Meowth? Long claws protruded outwards from its paws, clanking together to form a seamless blade. The pokemon gazed around his home with a subtle nod of appreciation before purring? “Perrrrr.”

  Immediately after inspecting its surroundings, the pokemon looked at Jennifer with a questioning tilt of its head—a pearly white grin was still spread wide on its face. “No battles. Just relaxing.”

  Within the blink of an eye, the smoothly formed blade of claws retracted back into the pokemon’s hand and vanished like it had never existed.

  “What pokemon is that?” Ethan asked, his hands slowing as he became distracted by curiosity.

  “It’s a Perrserker.” Joyce said as she closed the guest room door, rejoining them in the front of the house. “It’s the evolution of Galarian Meowth. They’re extremely rare here in Sinnoh, but fairly common in the Galar region.”

  Seeing Ethan’s still fairly confused look, she expanded upon her statement. “Galar is from what you called the Sword and Shield games.”

  “I see. I think there were over a thousand different pokemon… At least, from what I remember. I probably only really know a little more than half of them.” Ethan kept a careful eye on his sugary concoction as he did his best to inspect the Perrserker from head to toe. It wasn’t an overly large pokemon. It was about the size of Munchlax.

  Jennifer nudged her pokemon with her leg. “It’s not often that you’re the one getting the attention, now is it?” She teased, and the brawly looking pokemon gave her an aggravated glare from over the shoulder.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Jennifer laughed then plopped out another member of her team. This time, the pokemon wasn't unknown… and Ethan was beginning to see the ‘theme’ of her team. With a surge of electricity and a spikey coat, a very famous evolution of Eevee appeared in a blink of lightning. “Jolt? Jolteon?” It cried out in question at being released in such an unfamiliar place.

  “I bet she cost an arm and a leg.” Joyce flippantly remarked. It must have cut a deep wound as Jennifer tsk’d and knelt to pet her spikey feline.

  Ethan couldn’t help it. He just had to ask. “Are all of your pokemon, felines? Cats?”

  “Well of course they are? They’re the best?” Came the reply… dead serious and unrepentant.

  She wasn’t joking… like, at all.

  Before Ethan could even gather a response, she flicked out another ball. As Jolteon saddled up her what must be her close friend Perrserker, judging by the very catlike side rub she was giving the viking, a flash of white revealed yet another bi-pedal cat, this one green.

  “Meowscarada?” Ethan asked, unsure if he was correct. He’d only ever seen the pokemon a handful of times in passing when on the internet.

  “Close, but not quite there yet. This is a Floragato, the evolution of Sprigatito. Pre-evolution of Meowscarada. He’s definitely close to evolving again.” Jennifer said, praising her pokemon.

  Floragato was a very interesting pokemon. Its body was mostly covered in long, light green fur, with green ear tips and a short fluffy tail. It had a growth of fur-like leaves around its neck which trailed down to its hips, resembling a poncho. A poncho which blended in nearly seamlessly with the fur itself. The only reason Ethan spotted that the patch wasn’t fur, was because of vine which spread from within, ending in a small bud on the shoulder.

  The green pokemon tucked its ears back from the praise, somehow embarrassed and proud at the exact same time.

  Jennifer’s final pokemon appeared when he was distracted, and Ethan almost let out an ‘aww’ from how cute it was. Short, small, and very pink—a Skitty pounced up to Jennifer’s chest with all the love in the world shown on full display. As Jennifer held the small cat, she looked down at the Espurr who had never left his spot between her legs. “Do you want to go into your ball and rest or hang out? You’ve been attached to me like glue.”

  Larry’s only response was an unnerving, unblinking stare.

  “Suit yourself. By the way, your sugar is almost boiling over.”

  With haste, Ethan focused back on his cooking. After twenty seconds of frantic adjustments, he’d gotten the near-disaster back under control.

  Jennifer looked around at her squad and nodded once. “Okay! This place is huge. Lots of space to run around.” Her eyes drifted to the nearby window, where the large and intimidating Incineroar could be seen sprinting around the ranch with its arms held up high above its head. “Let’s leave Ethan to his cooking and get some exercise.”

  “Remember the rules.” Ethan reminded as Jennifer opened the door for her pokemon.

  “I broke the rules here once. Didn’t work out well for me.” The joke was self deprecating, and Ethan saw a twinge of painful regret flashed across her face.

  As the door closed, Joyce just had to throw in a last barb behind Jennifer’s back. “Phew! Finally! Being around a Jenny… Ack!”

  “Yes yes. I noticed your distaste for one another. What’s that about anyways?” Ethan casually asked. He did want to know the details, and he was definitely prying…. Play it cool…

  “Long story. Basically, our clans are the two in Kanto that fight over everything. Mining rights? Yes. Reserve space? Yup! Everything, Ethan! They think they can just ask every single year to get a larger piece of the pie! We all have our jobs! Stop asking to take mine!” Joyce bit out, some kept in anger finally venting out.

  “Sounds like it’s a little too much for me to help out with. I am a lowly berry farmer and tutor from Sinnoh, after all.” Ethan joked as he carefully poured juiced Oran berries into the bubbling sugar for flavor. The last thing he did before carefully pouring the sugar onto a tray was drop a few droplets of Shuckle’s concentrated berry juice. He didn’t know which berries this concentrate was from, but it was bound to be tasty nonetheless.

  “Sorry, Ethan. It’s just frustrating. I shouldn’t be venting to you.” Joyce said as he sauntered up to the counter, resting her hip up against it.

  “Oh, please. Like I didn’t literally trauma dump to you the moment I saw you. I think a little bit of venting from your end is a drop in the bucket by what you’ve done for me.” Ethan carefully poured the extremely hot sugar onto the tray. The bright blue sugar pooled and began to cool in moments. So, without wasting any time, he grabbed a spatula and began flipping it, evening it out.

  “No no, that’s what therapy is for.” Joyce idly replied with a not-so-subtle hint thrown his way.

  “It’s not for me. I am happy with my life now. Am I sad sometimes? Yeah, of course… but aren’t we all?” Joyce looked thoughtful, but Ethan had to speak up again. “Careful, it’s coming your way.”

  “Eiiiii!” Joyce squealed like a pig as some of the super-hot sugar rolled near her bottom. She scurried away from the countertop as Ethan chuckled.

  When he was done, he realized he was missing something important. “Munchlax, go find Tinkatink and have her make me a hook—”

  Ethan looked around, but Munchlax must have snuck away during the conversation. He didn’t hear him go outside… “Munchlax! Treats!”

  The thunderous padding of feet zoomed from within the house, and in less than five seconds, Munchlax was skidding across the wooden floors with a desperate smile. After repeating his wants for a hook and tossing Munchlax a handful of Orans, the big eater went back whence he came. Not so long later, he was leaving out the patio door with Tinkatink in tow. His pink menace looked eager to make something new.

  “You’re good with them.” Joyce remarked, a slight smile stretching across her face.

  “I try,” Ethan shrugged. “They all have their own wants and needs. I often think that I have too many pokemon, but I can’t imagine getting rid of any of them. They’re mine and I am theirs.”

  Joyce let out a wistful sigh. “If only all trainers thought the same way.”

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