Nimarkiva's Random Stuff

Dit was bored- again- and decided that he would visit Nim instead of waiting around since it was a slow day for Pokémon battling. He had recalled that it was still summer break for her, so she’d probably be home in spite of how early in the afternoon it was on a weekday. The teacher had definitely earned a break and he hoped she was taking one.

The Pokémon trainer knocked on the door, only to have it swing open at a touch. He got defensive until he realized it was just unlocked. A large box in the entryway showed why Nim likely hadn’t shut the door completely. She had probably kicked the door with her foot after setting the delivery down. There were no signs of a fight or struggle to indicate that something bad had happened to the other trainer.

“Yo, Nim, you here?” he called out.

The Ditto froze when he heard a muffled yell of pain from downstairs in the basement, as well as other loud sounds. So much for no signs of trouble. He ran towards the basement training room as fast as he could. It sounded like his friend needed help- again. And if she needed help, there was a fight to be had. The trainer swung around the corner to the staircase, agilely jumping a good three steps at a time before stopping in the doorway leading to the training room to assess the situation.

There was loud music playing from the radio, recognizable as the sort Nim preferred to listen to when she was in a bad mood. The woman was on one knee, the large sword which normally hung on the wall laying where it had fallen beside her. She was holding her sore leg as she balanced on one knee, her other hand on the training mat for balance.

He was about to say something when she pushed herself up again, retrieving the blade. Nim had her back to him and didn’t notice he was there because of the music as she started to practice again. The woman showed signs of being in pain, favoring her right leg, but kept up with her practicing. She wasn’t as fluid a fighter as she had likely been before the accident, but still something else with a sword. Dit found it was pretty neat to watch Nim fight. It was clear where Lucas had learned to wield an Aura sword- his trainer swung the real thing pretty well.

He sat down on the bench and waited until she stopped for a break. “You ok?” Dit asked as he passed her the water bottle which was beside him.

She jumped, surprised, but took it with a grateful little smile. “Hey, Dit, you let yourself in again? It’s good to see you. And I’m ok, promise. Just needed to do some training myself.”

The Pokémon raised one eyebrow at her. He was skeptical that she should be doing such strenuous physical activity. “Doesn’t that hurt a lot?”

Nim did his least favorite response- she shrugged off the concern before taking a sip of water. “Sure, it hurts, but I need to do it. Everything hurts, Dit, almost all the time. That can’t be something that stops me. I also have a really high pain tolerance. I’ll be fine.”

Dit gave her an exasperated look. “You gotta be gentle with yourself,” he told her. “Hey. Don’t you have someone down here to help spot you if you fall over?”

She shook her head. “Nah, everyone is in the barn relaxing,” the woman explained. “They had a day, too, we did a lot of practicing with the Riolu triplets. I still had some adrenaline to work off.”

The Ditto rolled his eyes at her before asking, “You done yet?”

The woman gave a little nod, wiping her forehead on the back of her wrist. Yeah, she was definitely done for the day. She was the sort to push her limits, it was one of the things that made her a good trainer, but she had gone over what she should have been doing. Dit whistled when he saw just exactly how much the sword she’d been lifting weighed, picking it up out of curiosity. It was absolutely solid and heavier than it looked. “You are crazy,” he told her. “But this is cool. Where’d you learn?”

“Thanks,” Nim replied before swallowing some more water. “I learned as a kid, from a friend of the family. Practicing with a sword is surprisingly easier than doing bench presses and stuff. Still hurts, but you know. No pain, no gain, as they say. Everything would hurt worse if I didn’t keep moving.”

The Pokémon trainer was surprised at how much she was still able to do as he hefted the sword and imitated some of the moves he’d seen her do, testing what limits she had been pressing. It was a heavy thing, and he was curious what she’d been doing for her workout. Definitely the woman practiced as hard as her team worked on their training. That was admirable, he liked a human who was willing to push themselves in training alongside their Pokémon.

Still didn’t mean he entirely approved of a companion with chronic pain doing the same. When Nim started to limp up the stairs, awkwardly because her cane was still on the first floor, Dit followed behind to make sure she didn’t fall over. He could see the signs clear as day, his friend had overdone it.

“Mind if I take a quick shower?” Nim asked as she leaned on the kitchen counter. “Feel free to make yourself at home, you do anyways. There’s stuff in the fridge for sandwiches, or leftovers. Seems like you’re always hungry.”

The other trainer nodded, heading to the living room and settling down on the sofa instead. He could hear the water running a few moments later. Dit looked around, trying to decide what to do to keep himself entertained while he waited. A sheaf of papers at other the end of the sofa caught his eye, rustling in the breeze coming in through the open window. He reached for it and flipped through the stack casually.

He realized they were drawings. And really cute ones, too, cartoon drawings of Pokémon and natural things. The obviously photocopied ones towards the back were colored in, some really well, some badly. A few had the names of children scrawled on them, or cute little messages saying they were for ‘the world’s best teacher’ and other messages of support with bad spelling. Dit realized that each of the originals had a signature and a date on the back. Nimarkiva Anne Ramsden…oh. OH. These were Nim’s creations, likely drawn for the kids she worked with.

Dit paused when the thought struck him that he had never used her full name. He didn’t even know what school she worked at, or that she drew things for the kids. It seemed she drew a lot of Pokémon she knew. The trainer had found one page he especially liked as he rifled through the stack. It was a Ditto, sitting on the back of an Arcanine while a Vaporeon and a Galarian Rapidash stood on either side of the fire-type Pokémon.

Wait a minute. Dit took a second look and had to chuckle. Apparently that was him and some of his family. Nim had drawn a cartoon version of him, as a coloring page for her kids to do. That was kind of neat.

“I want a copy of this,” he said, holding it up when Nim stepped into the room a few minutes later.

The woman paused. “A copy of- oh, I forgot all about that. Sure, Dit, I’ll make a copy for you. Found my drawings, huh?”

“I like them,” he said.

Nim sat beside him with a little sound of amusement. “So what brought you over?”

“I was bored,” he said, raising one hand to stop her. “And before you ask, no, I don’t want a Pokémon battle for once. You look way too tired for that.”

“Sad but true,” Nim chuckled. “Well, I’ll never say no to a visit from a friend. MT is coming tonight, for a chat and a sparring match to work out some of his stuff. I’m also expecting a new arrival at some point tonight or tomorrow. Oof, I still have to set up for that…and I have to get the triplets their shots tomorrow at the Pokémon Center.” “What you need is to rest,” Dit grumbled.

“Probably right,” the woman agreed with a small sigh, leaning back. “I needed that workout, though, I had some stuff in my head to deal with.”

“What sort of stuff?” the Pokémon found himself asking. Chronic pain, regularly putting herself in danger to help Pokémon who were violent when they arrived at her house…what else was going on now? He hoped it wasn’t something to do with the medication he knew she took.

“ADHD and some other stuff,” Nim said, tapping her knuckles against the side of her head. “The brain stuff.”

Dit sat straight up at that. “Nim, tell me what is on your mind right now,” he demanded.

“Gee, thanks Pinky, you say it like I’m broken,” the woman said dryly.

“I mean it,” he said, pointing at her and jabbing his finger at her shoulder with each statement to emphasize what he was saying. “Quit ducking around the question, Nim. Talk to me, don’t brush yourself off. You take care of everyone else, but who takes care of you? Friends worry, and you call me your friend, I should know what to be worried about. What’s on your mind?”

Nim blinked, startled by his force. Dit had been pretty calm around her lately, so it was a shock to have him be so aggressive and demanding now. He was in her space again like he did when he was trying to express that he was in charge. The woman gave him a soft smile to try and soothe the irate trainer.

“Ok, settle down,” she said, gently pushing on his shoulder to get him to sit. “You’re right, and I’ll tell you.”

Dit found he had good reason to worry about the human after hearing what was on her mind. She was feeling the pains she’d had even before getting hit by a car more often lately, and hadn’t been sleeping well. With everything going on recently, the things in her head had chosen to act up a bit, and the prescription only took off the edge. He’d seen the medication she was on, it was the strong stuff and that was saying something. It wasn’t good. Everything was acting up at once and she was just tired.

“Well damn,” Dit said softly. “That’s a lot. No rest for the wicked…except you’re one of the good ones.”

“Thanks, Dit,” Nim replied with a tired little smile. “It really is a lot, but it’s why I focus on other people. It keeps me distracted from everything. Can’t focus on what hurts if I’m helping someone else get through what is hurting them.” “Not exactly a healthy coping mechanism, and we’ve had this talk,” the Ditto chided. “You considered doing some self-care? Maybe a vacation?”

Nim snorted. “Dude, really? You’re going to get on my case, too, Pinky? Lewis and the others already do. I know it’s not great, but it’s what works to keep me together right now.”

Dit took a good, long look at her. The woman was tired- real tired. More than just staying up late to take care of the triplets, and more than just an early start. Now that he knew what all was going on with her, he had to wonder if she’d gotten any sleep. A bad day usually came after an even worse night, something he understood all too well.

“When did you last sleep?” he asked her after considering it.

Nim pinched the bridge of her nose. “You’re not going to like the answer. I think…yesterday morning? Yeah, sounds about right. I got up about 9:30, I slept in.”

“You didn’t sleep at all last night?” Dit demanded. “That is really unhealthy. You should go to bed. Right now.”

“I’m exhausted, Dit, but I still can’t sleep,” she told him softly. “And not because of the reason you think. I can’t slow my brain down enough to fall asleep right now. I’d just be staring at the ceiling. It happens, sometimes.”

He thought about what she was saying. If it was something with her head that wasn’t allowing her to sleep, well, he could fix that. The Ditto subtly put one arm behind her on the sofa. “Nim?” he said cheerfully. “Yeah?” she asked, turning her head to look at him.

“Goodnight,” Dit replied. He brushed his arm over her head, now the wing of a Butterfree. The Pokémon made sure she got a good dose of the sleep powder.

Nim had just enough time to cough and blink at him owlishly before slumping against him. Dit carefully took her glasses off her face, letting the woman rest with her head on his shoulder for a few moments. “You trust me too much,” he said as he looked down at the slumbering human, smirking.

He easily lifted her to her room, tucking Nim into bed. Some sleep would do her well. Hopefully it would take care of some of her mental state, too, a good rest usually did with that sort of thing. The Pokémon trainer then went back to the living room, exhaling slowly. Now there was nothing to really do at the moment. Dit was about to just go back to the park when he spied the large box in the entry way.

Nim had mentioned having to set up something for a new arrival she was expecting. This delivery likely was part of what she needed to finish. Since Dit was the reason she wasn’t getting it done, and he was bored, he might as well help out a bit.

The trainer recoiled as if the contents of the box had bitten him when he saw what it contained. An incubator? What did Nim need one of those for? He had unpleasant memories of the devices. Dit scratched at his neck as he considered what he should do. He really did not want to touch this thing. But he also knew that Nim wasn’t a Pokémon breeder. Maybe her new arrival was an egg that needed human care or intervention for whatever reason. He himself had brought her three Riolu eggs, it wasn’t a stretch to think that she got others at her rehab house.

“You better appreciate this, Nim,” he grumbled as he lifted the device out of the box.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Apparently the woman had been a lot more tired than she’d let on for the sleep attack to have worked so well. Upon seeing how tired her own Pokémon were after going to let them know she was asleep, the Pokémon trainer had stayed to keep an eye out for trouble. Dit found himself pacing outside the bedroom door and glancing at it every so often. Evening had fallen, and he knew who was on the way to visit her. Sticking around made him nervous as he wasn’t always sure where he stood with the big Mewtwo. But he also knew her enemies were some of the same as her powerful guest. Leaving her alone under the effects of a very effective sleep attack was not so great an idea either knowing what he did about her lifestyle.

“Nim, wake up already,” he muttered under his breath.

He looked up when a large shadow fell over him. Welp, her friend had arrived. The genetically altered Pokémon looked down at Dit with an unreadable expression. Then the Mewtwo looked to the doorway, where Nim could be heard snoring softly on the other side.

“I just made sure she got some sleep,” Dit said quickly, raising both hands to chest level with his palms towards the Mewtwo. “She needed it.”

The Pokémon surprised him by laughing. “Yes, she needs to sleep more than she does,” MT agreed, speaking telepathically in his thoughts. “I have seen that for myself on many an occasion. Trickery is often the only way to make sure she lays down for a time. Or blackmail, when she is particularly stubborn.”

Dit perked up at that. So he wasn’t about to be reprimanded for what he had done to Nim, cool. It was slightly unsettling to have the big Mewtwo there even though they weren’t on bad terms. Dit actually wasn’t sure where they stood, though he did know that the big guy had briefly owed him a favor for helping Nim while her team was away. He also felt that the Pokémon had appreciated the help when Telibris had been after Nim. They weren’t exactly chummy, but at least the Mewtwo wasn’t ready to rip out his guts like he’d been when they first met.

“So…you come to her for stuff, huh?” he asked in an awkward attempt at conversation when the Mewtwo made no move to let him get past.

“Yes,” MT said simply.

Dit fidgeted, jamming his hands in his pockets. He was about to say something when the clone spoke again. “You have not wished her harm for some time. When she ran into trouble, both with the Scyther and with Telibris, you saved her life when we were not there to aid her. Thank you for not abusing her trust that you are a good Pokémon at heart.”

“Maybe I’m not,” Dit replied. “I kill people who find out about me and I take out Team Rocket members any time I get the chance. That Nim survived to earn my trust says a lot more about her than it does me.”

“You are surviving,” the Mewtwo corrected. “You have allowed Nim to keep your secret and have not done any further harm to her. You offered your aid when she was wounded, showing kindness to my friend. When Telibris attacked her, you threw yourself into the battle with no promise of reward nor threat of consequence to save her life. She speaks well of you.”

The Pokémon trainer smiled a bit at that. Of course Nim did, she always wanted to see the best in anyone, human or Pokémon. “She talks about me, huh? No offense, but she rarely talks about you guys. The most I’ve heard was when Telibris was around and you guys told me stuff yourselves.”

MT nodded. “Indeed, she enjoys when you stop in for a visit and worries when she does not see you for long periods. She is nothing if not forgiving and has never held the past against you,” the Mewtwo said quietly. “As she has not held my actions against me. She sees our future actions, which is a very admirable quality.”

“I heard about the tree branch through the shoulder,” Dit told him, wincing in sympathy at the thought. “That had to seriously hurt.”

“It could have killed her,” the psychic Pokémon replied in a pained voice. “I am…particularly defensive of this family member for what wrongs I have done to her.”

Dit whistled. “And when you think about it, that’s just what Nim has told us about or we already knew.”

“I try not to think about what others she may have encountered or what they have done to harm her, outside of her involvement with my affairs,” MT said dryly.

Both of them froze when Nim snored particularly loudly in the other room. But then her slumber leveled out again from the sound of things. Dit noticed the Mewtwo’s left hand was glowing slightly- he’d done something to ease Nim’s sleep unless the trainer missed his guess.

“The others will need a solid meal,” MT said thoughtfully. “And I would prefer to know she is in safe company while she sleeps so soundly. Will you stay with her? It is another favor I would appreciate and repay, as I offered before when she was wounded and repaid in full.”

Dit blinked as he looked up at the taller Pokémon again. The big Mewtwo really wanted him to stick around and help out the trainer a second time? Helping Nim when she’d gotten sliced up by a Scyther and then again when she had faced the altered clone Pokémon, Telibris, really had earned him some powerful trust.

The Pokémon trainer nodded slowly. “Not like I had to be anywhere.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

When Nim woke up the next morning, it was to the smell of breakfast coming from the kitchen. The woman blinked the sleep out of her eyes as she tried to figure out who was cooking. When she heard cheery whistling, she realized it was the same tune Dit always hummed or whistled when things were going his way. In a strange turn of events, he was making breakfast for her. Normally she was the one cooking when he stayed over at her place for whatever reason.

Nim padded out to the kitchen, rubbing her eyes. Dit beamed when he saw the human. He was standing at the stove while his team and some of hers could be seen through the window in the back yard, running off some morning energy. In particular, they were trying to wear out the rambunctious little Riolu pups.

“I made coffee,” he told her with a grin. “Everything else should be ready real soon.”

“Thank you, Dit,” Nim said appreciatively. “Normally it’s me making breakfast, the reverse is nice. But don’t think we aren’t going to talk about that low blow of a sleep attack.”

“You’re welcome, it’s what friends do,” Dit smirked.

“Friends hit friends with sneaky attacks?” the tattooed woman asked with a chuckle. “But it is nice to hear you say that.”

He simply grinned, not saying anything. They both knew she had really needed the sleep. “So, breakfast?” “Distraction with food is normally my thing,” she teased. “But breakfast sounds great, Dit, thank you.”

He gave her a toothy grin back. The Ditto watched their teams through the kitchen window for a moment. That reminded him of something else from the day before. “So, I saw the incubator and set it up for you while you were snoozing, you getting another kid?” Dit inquired.

Nim nodded at that. “An unknown egg, with a crack in it,” she explained. “Everyone thought I was nuts when I said to put duct tape over the crack and send it to me. It’s showing signs of still being alive, so I’m hoping that incubating the egg will help keep it that way.” “…duct tape,” Dit said slowly. “You told them to put duct tape on a cracked egg.” “It’s waterproof and keeps the crack from getting worse,” Nim said with a nod. “A bit of hot glue around the edges, too, to really keep it sealed and from spreading. Gotta keep everything in somehow, no early jailbreak from the shell.”

Dit gave her a strange look at her sense of humor. “For an egg, I guess it’s not that bad an idea.”

“The rangers managed to warm it up, and it’s still alive. I’m just hoping that whatever caused the crack didn’t hurt the little one inside too much,” the woman said as she sipped from her coffee mug.

“What are you going to do if it did?” Dit asked her.

Nim chuckled. “What I always do, Dit. Do my best to help and make sure the Pokémon can live a good life. You’ve seen how it was with Kip, and what I’m doing for him.”

The Ditto nodded as he dished up breakfast for the two of them. Then he made an amused sound. When Nim looked at him, he explained what had crossed his mind. “Knowing what I do about you now? I’m gonna laugh if it’s something that grows up and evolves to be near-legendary. I’ll come over and find you got zapped or something, looking an absolute mess while whatever you hatched thinks it’s a great game.”

“Oh, you’ll be laughing, until I ask you to babysit, Pinky,” Nim retorted.

Dit shook his head at that. “No way, nuh-uh, nope, I don’t do babysitting. You want to get away from the kid for a bit, I’m your guy, we’ll get pizza or burgers. But watching a kid? You’re on your own, lady.”

“Fair,” Nim said. “Thanks for setting up the incubator, Dit. And for breakfast. This is honestly a really nice way to wake up. No wonder you pass out at my house all the time.”

He made a face at her, then gestured at her plate with his fork. “Less talking, more eating, you skipped dinner when you slept all night.”

“Skipping a meal here and there won’t kill me, Dit,” Nim replied before taking a bite. That better not have been the implication Dit thought it was. Whatever it was that Nim hatched didn’t need a nanny, she did. “Three square,” he said, pointing at her with the fork. “I mean it.”

“I manage two, most days?” Nim offered with a sheepish laugh. “That’s good, for me.”

Dit made an annoyed sound, looking up at the ceiling as if he was asking some higher power for guidance- or patience. “Lady, you need a babysitter, you know that? Three. Square. Don’t give me that crap about two meals being alright.”

“My bad,” Nim said, getting up when the doorbell rang.

Dit watched as she talked to the ranger who was dropping off her newest arrival. The woman was gentle as she took the fragile thing, further swaddling the already wrapped egg in her own hoodie to keep it close and warm. When the door was shut, he got up to see what Nim had.

The rangers who had found it had taken her advice- there was a huge y-shape of silver duct tape on the egg’s side. The edges of the duct tape had been held down with smears of hot glue, not the prettiest thing but effective. Dit honestly had no idea what type of Pokémon this egg would hatch into. When he reached out to touch it, though, it was warm and gave a tiny shake.

“Well, seems active,” Nim said as she carried the egg to the incubator. “May be a week or more, or just a day or two until it hatches- there’s no way to know.”

“You can see Aura, right?” Dit asked. “Doesn’t that help?” Nim shook her head. “Not really. I can’t get a good read on eggs, never have been able to.”

“If that thing hatches into a legendary or something, I really am going to laugh, that’s just your luck,” Dit told her as she got the egg settled.

“Gee, thanks,” Nim grumbled. “Ooof, it’s heavy, whatever it is!”

“You let me know how it goes,” Dit told her. “I’m off to go see about a Pokémon battle or two, it’s a great day out for that. You better not skip lunch or dinner, you hear me?”

Nim rolled her eyes. “Dit, I’m ok, honest.”

“Believe it when I see it,” he quipped back. “Later, Nim. Take care of yourself for once.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Dit found the front door was unlocked when he arrived at the rehabilitation house about a week later. That usually meant Nim was home…but there was no one in the house. When he called out for her, the response came from the back yard. He chuckled when he saw that the woman was working in her garden. That seemed to be her place to escape from the world for a bit, when she needed it. The egg was beside her with a blanket nest to rest in. The Riolu triplets were playing in the sun where Nim could keep an eye on them as well.

“Stay out of the pokénip!” she told him playfully when he inspected the area where she was working. “How goes it, Dit?”

“Good,” he replied as he hunkered down beside her.

The woman smiled as she continued to work, yanking out weeds and trimming back some of the dead leaves as she knelt in the dirt. She waited for her fellow trainer to say why he was there. As she thought, Dit spoke up after again after a moment. “I was bored, you want to have a Pokémon battle?”

A little smirk tugged at Nim’s lips. Yup, there it was, just as she thought. “Sure, Dit, I have time for that before I get started on packing,” she agreed.

Dit perked up. “Packing?” he asked. “What for?” “I’m going to the Alola region for a week, in a few days,” she explained. “I was hoping you would come around so that I could tell you that. The others convinced me, I need a vacation. Not with Team Family, either, a vacation away from everything. The Mewtwo siblings are going to take care of the triplets and my mystery egg while I’m gone, as well as the house. I’m taking a real break from things.”

“Alola region, huh?” he said slowly.

“Eeeyup,” Nim answered. “I’m going to spoil myself and take a trip just for fun, see some of the amazing Pokémon they have there. I’ve heard there are some beautiful variants as well as so many that are truly unique- I want to see for myself. And, you know, take a few days away from the crazy that is my life. I will miss you, though, I’ll be sure to text you photos of Pokémon and places I see while I’m away.”

Dit was happy for her, Nim needed a break. What with her near brushes with death recently, the things she did for her family, just her life in general…the woman had more than earned a vacation. “Put me in the suitcase to go with?” he joked.

“Oh jeez, do you know all the booster shots you’d need to go with me?” she asked with a snort. “It was bad enough getting the triplets their shots, and all they were doing is staying home. Bing was not having any of that.”

Then she paused. Dit got the feeling he was not going to like her next question when he saw her expression change. There was something on her mind. “Dit, you’ve been living as a human a long time,” Nim said slowly. “How have you been getting your vaccination shots from the Pokémon Center?”

Yep, nope, he didn’t like that path of inquiry. “I…ah…haven’t been,” he said as he pulled his cap down a bit more. “My family still gets theirs, though.”

Nim made an annoyed sound at that. “Dit, that’s really important! What if you get sick or something?”

The Ditto waited a moment for her to realize what she was suggesting. “Right, right, you can’t use the appearance of your trainer if you’re getting shots as a Pokémon,” the woman grumbled. “Ugh…when was the last time you got them?”

“Before I killed him,” Dit said simply.

He watched as the woman reached under her glasses to pinch the bridge of her nose. The Pokémon trainer could definitely see the gears whirring away in her head. Nim was bothered by that now- and he knew her, she had to be coming up with a plan. Over the months, she had come to be a friend, and as his friend, the human worried for his sake.

“What are you thinking?” he asked when she looked up and smiled.

“I have an idea,” she told him.

Dit shook his head. “I’m not going to like it, am I?”

“Probably not,” Nim admitted.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Dit was right, he did not like Nim’s idea at all. But he had to admit it was a good one. The Mewtwo she knew who did like him somewhat, the big one, had created an illusion for himself with his powers to look like Dit so that they could give permission for Nurse Joy to give the Pokémon his needed shots.

The Ditto fidgeted on Nim’s shoulders as they walked in. He had to be in his own form, so the woman had offered to carry him. Dit did not like needles…and while he appreciated what Pokémon Centers did, especially Nurse Joy, it made him nervous to be here. He wrapped himself around Nim’s neck a bit tighter to tuck himself into her hoodie.

“Hey, it’s ok,” she said with a small smile, gently stroking the Pokémon’s back.

“No it’s not,” Dit muttered back. “I don’t like shots. Needles bug me.”

MT made an amused sound as he walked with them. The big Pokémon wore Dit’s face, which the Ditto found mildly disconcerting. He’d even managed to recreate the Pokémon trainer’s distinctive grin without any trouble. Yet again the Ditto found he was happy not to be on the clone’s bad side.

They used the excuse that he wasn’t talking because of a sore throat- which Nurse Joy accepted- and let Nim explain that Dit wasn’t current on any of his shots. “Oh dear, that’s terrible!” the nurse said. “You really shouldn’t have let your Pokémon go so long without them!”

MT looked sheepish, and Nim added that Dit was a bit shy of needles and would always hide when it came time for them to come in, which was why it had gotten so out of hand. He made an annoyed sound in her ear, but went with it- that was a good explanation which seemed to satisfy the nurse.

“Now, since it’s been so long, he’ll need all of them,” Nurse Joy explained as she started to prep the syringes and needles. “That means no shapeshifting for three days, for a Ditto, so that the doses aren’t thrown off.”

“Three days?” Dit hissed in Nim’s ear. “What am I supposed to do for three days?”

“Relax, you can stay with me,” the woman whispered back softly. “I can’t make you do this if you don’t want to, Dit, and I won’t bug you about it, but you probably really need these.” The Ditto sighed, slumping against her. “Fine.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

“I don’t like needles,” Dit grumbled as Nim walked. “Ow.”

The woman made a sympathetic sound. “Sorry about that, Pinky. I’ll make it up to you, promise. Anything you want for lunch, I’ll get it or make it, how does that sound?”

“I’m not hungry,” he muttered. Nim blinked in surprise at that. Dit, not wanting food? He definitely was sore and out of sorts then. “Alright, offer still stands when you want it,” she said.

“This sucks,” the Pokémon said again. “But I probably did need those.”

“You know, my mom always used to do ice cream for me and my brother when we had to get our shots,” the woman mused. “It helped, a bit. You want to stop at the stand near the park?”

Dit shifted on her shoulder so that he could look at her. Nim had a brother? He didn’t know that. She never talked about him. The Ditto hoped it wasn’t because…he was…dead or something. His fellow trainer noticed the look and chuckled. “His name is Joey, he’s on his own training journey,” Nim said. “He’s definitely something else- got the same fire I do, we get it from our mom. She lives in the Kanto region.”

“I didn’t know you had family that wasn’t, you know, the Mewtwos and the crazy,” Dit said after a moment. “Why don’t you talk about them?”

“I just haven’t thought about it,” Nim said. “I mean, I haven’t told them about you, after all, and it just never really came up. It’s not like I meant for it to be some big huge secret.”

Dit leaned forward when Nim pulled her phone out of her pocket, pulling up photos of her family to show him. A smiling teenager with curly dark hair and dark blue-grey eyes who was posing with a Dodrio, a smiling older woman who looked so much like Nim with graying hair and a Treecko. There also photos of the Pokémon they worked with. There was even a picture of her brother, holding a trophy from a tournament and pointing at it with a big grin. Dit recognized it as the same style of trophy as one in the basement training room- like sister, like brother, he had apparently won in one of Nim’s old stomping grounds and was proud of that fact.

“He’s just a kid,” Dit said.

Nim chuckled. “A kid of seventeen, yup,” she agreed. “He was the ‘oops’ baby, but my mom and I love him. I cut my training journey short to go home and help take care of him, then set off again when he was old enough and didn’t need me. I love him, he’s something else.”

The Ditto lightly poked Nim in the side of the head. “The more you talk, the more I really think you need a vacation,” he grumbled. “Quit doing so much for others, be selfish for once.”

“I know, I know, I’m going to the Alola region for a vacation,” she reminded him. “My own choice, too, no one really had to twist my arm to get me to go. Tomorrow, I’m hopping on that plane first thing in the morning and taking a breather.”

Dit paused. “Ah…Nim? Nurse Joy said I can’t shapeshift for three days,” he reminded her.

The woman tilted her head back with a frustrated sound. “Aw crud, I knew I was forgetting something. Maybe I can shift my plans a bit,” she mused. “Crap, I wasn’t thinking.”

Like hell he was going to let Nim reschedule. She definitely needed a vacation if she hadn’t thought of that already. Normally the trainer planned for every little detail. Dit made a non-committal sound as he leaned against her neck. “Or, you know, you still go as planned,” he told her slowly.

“Yes, but I promised you could stay with me,” she said. “You know, while you aren’t supposed to be doing any shape shifting? It’s my fault because I’m the one who insisted you should get your vaccinations updated.”

“Pokémon don’t need plane tickets,” he reminded her.

Nim gave him a blank stare. Then realization slowly hit. Oooh, he was right, he could definitely go with her. Who would honestly notice one more tourist when he could shift again? And it was definitely a new area for battling, something she knew he absolutely loved.

“Want to go to Alola for a week?” she asked with a chuckle.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The plane ride was uneventful. His friend definitely had needed the trip- it was plain to see from the moment they stepped off the airplane. Nim spun around with her arms outstretched, and beamed from ear to ear when a beautiful wreath of extremely fragrant tropical flowers was placed around her neck in greeting by one of the welcoming staff. Dit was less amused by that because he was still currently on her shoulders, but didn’t grumble too much.

“Oh, this is perfect!” she exclaimed as one of the attendants got her suitcase for the woman. “This is going to be great! I think…I may have needed this.”

Nim then paused when she realized that Dit wasn’t saying much. The Pokémon trainer normally had a lot to talk about. That he wasn’t saying some variant of ‘I told you so’ about her needing a break at the moment was strange. “You’re awfully quiet…”

“Damn flowers in my mouth!” he mumbled in protest. “Oops,” Nim said with a laugh as she adjusted the wreath for the Ditto. “Sorry about that.”

Dit took a deep breath before looking around. Yep, this was definitely paradise. Beautiful beaches, sandy battling arenas, a boardwalk with restaurants cooking things that smelled amazing…this place had everything he could want. And just as importantly, his friend had already started to relax. He was sitting on her shoulders and could feel that some of the tension had already gone down.

“Gonna be a good trip,” he agreed.

Their hotel room was plush and on ground level, with a sliding door that literally opened on to a stretch of private beach for the guests only. Nim sighed deeply when she saw the view. “Wow,” she said as she dropped her suitcase to the floor. “Oh man, Dit, look, that small island there is literally an arena only open at low tide! How cool is that?”

He made an amused sound as Nim looked longingly at the beach. Before Dit could even suggest that unpacking could wait a bit, Nim was already kicking out of her boots and her socks. Her cane was left forgotten in the room as she ran out to the sand…and then onward to the ocean. The Ditto was surprised when she went right on into the surf, splashing water everywhere as she did so.

“Hey!” he protested.

Nim stopped when she was up to her waist in the gentle waves, and playfully splashed a little water at him. “It’s warm,” she told him with a laugh.

“Didn’t mean I wanted to go in,” Dit replied. “But it is ok, I guess.”

“Good, hold your breath,” Nim said before holding her own nose.

The Ditto paused. “No, no, don’t you dare!” he demanded.

Too late, the woman was already falling backward into the water. She came up just seconds later, and Dit gave her an annoyed look as he sputtered. “Really, lady? Really?” he grumbled.

“Sorry,” she said with a grin which implied she was anything but apologetic. “Come on, let’s see about dinner, I’m absolutely starving!”

Nim got changed into dry clothes, and had given Dit one of the biggest, fluffiest towels he had ever seen to dry off with. It was nice- he was looking forward to trying out this space as a human. The tub looked like it could hold three people in it, and the two beds in the room were absolutely enormous. It was a nice space to crash for a few days.

“You up for trying some new foods?” Nim asked Dit after scooping him up again and placing the Pokémon on her shoulder. “I saw a restaurant that is buffet-style, offering a lot of local cuisine.”

“That sounds good!” he said, wriggling a bit in excitement. He genuinely did enjoy trying different foods. Sure, the Ditto had some favorites, but new things? That was half the fun of being human.

The food was good. Dit was surprised at how much Nim had eaten- she’d even remembered to take her meds before dinner without being prompted to do so. He wasn’t sure he had ever seen the woman eat such a large meal in one sitting. Normally he was the one with the healthy appetite, not her.

Once they were back in their hotel room and their teams had been take care of, there had been the surprise of fireworks going off from a ship offshore. Nim and Dit had watched from the beach, enjoying the show from the comfort of the sandy stretch. Her team and his also watched with them, appreciating the fun event.

“This is perfect,” Nim said softly, laying back on the sand. Dit cuddled into the crook of her neck, watching as she traced the stars above them. Her hand found the constellation Milotic, and her fingertip traced along it.

“You did that in the ruins where we stayed with that Mew, too,” he recalled. “What does that mean?”

“It’s always been my favorite,” Nim told him, scritching the top of the Ditto’s head with her free hand while she mapped out the stars above them. “Whenever I was stressed or things weren’t good…I’d look up from my window, and there would be the great starry eye of that beautiful constellation. I still do that, on the bad days. Or the good days, like today.”

“Today was a good day?” Dit repeated.

“One of the best,” she promised with a smile, lightly resting her cheek against the Pokémon in affectionate gesture. “And hey, after tomorrow you can get out and enjoy it properly, too. No offense, but I’m looking forward to having you back to normal.”

“I can’t wait,” Dit said with a happy sigh. “I want a Pokémon battle, I bet there are some neat ones to fight here.”

Nim chuckled. “So predictable, but that’s not a bad thing.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Nim was sound asleep and suspected nothing. Dit snuck up alongside her bed, carrying a glass of ocean water retrieved just moments before behind his back. The Ditto watched the sleeping woman for a moment, a very slight smile on his lips. She looked so peaceful. But that could not last. His expression became a big cheeky grin as he dumped the water over her face.

“Rise and shine, sleepyhead!” he said cheerfully as she sat up, sputtering and cussing. “That was for dunking me with you when we got here, by the way.”

“Oh, you so did not just do that, Pinky!” Nim said, flinging off the covers and chasing after him. Dit laughed as he ran out the door and onto the beach, but realized his mistake when she followed after. That water was pretty close, and Nim was already soaked, she had no reason not to use it against him.

“Hey, no, no, play fair,” Dit said, hands out as Nim came towards him with a smirk of her own.

She laughed, tackling him into the surf. “Should have thought of that before you started it, Pinky!” she told him.

Dit shook his head at her antics as he helped her to her feet, after managing to get up out of the water himself. The other trainer really was feeling better. He had seen her sarcastic humor and the way she liked to joke before, but not this sort of playfulness.

“You want breakfast?” Nim asked before he could say anything else. “Because breakfast sounds amazing, I don’t know about you, but I’m thinking breakfast on the beach.”

“Sure,” Dit agreed, a bit surprised. Normally getting her to eat was a lot harder- the day before, she’d eaten three square meals and now she apparently was still up for breakfast. The Ditto almost wasn’t sure he was hanging out with the same trainer.

Lewis, who had woken up at the noise and followed them out, made an amused sound. Dit raised one hand to covertly whisper to the Haunter. “Are we sure this is Nim?” he asked the other Pokémon.

“Weird, isn’t it?” the Haunter replied. “Come on, slowpokes, breakfast!” Nim called out to them from the doorway to their room.

“Very,” Dit agreed with a nod.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Dit was waiting for Nim where they were supposed to meet up for lunch. He found it worrisome when the woman didn’t show up over an hour later. When he called her cellphone, it went straight to voicemail. “Come on, lady, where are you?” he muttered to no one in particular.

Which made it all the more unnerving when someone replied in his thoughts with telepathy.

“You are far from home, Ditto.”

“Oh hell, not you,” he groaned, looking around for the last person he wanted to see while he was worried about Nim.

Sure enough, there was the altered Pokémon, leaning against a nearby wall. He was dressed in a bright t-shirt and shorts, odd considering he had preferred dark clothes when they last met. He still kept his own preferred human appearance, dark hair pulled back in a ponytail and dark eyes. He had gotten some sun, though, or maybe was eating better, because he didn’t look as pale this time.

Telibris was the last person Dit wanted to meet in good health. He’d been a big enough pain in the ass when he was in physical distress. The Ditto was not keen on another run-in if the other Pokémon had finally recovered some.

“I could say the same,” the altered clone replied dryly. “When last we met, you wished me ill.” “You were gonna kill my friend!” Dit growled back under his breath, trying not to be obvious. “What did you do with Nim?”

The clone’s eyes widened. “She is here as well?” he asked, obviously startled.

Dit froze at that response before whirling around to face him straight on. “You didn’t know that?” he demanded.

“No,” Telibris said. “I did not know that. I have no desire to see her and felt that Alola would be best to escape to.”

“I don’t believe you, what did you do to her?” the Pokémon trainer snapped back.

Telibris shook his head. Then he gestured for Dit to follow him after looking around to make sure no one had noticed the outburst. “Come with me, you are making a scene and that is bad for both of us.”

Dit swallowed hard before going with the altered clone. If it was a trap, he was ready to give Telibris one hell of a fight. To his surprise, the other Pokémon led the way to a quieter place which seemed to be more popular with locals than the tourists. Telibris then pulled a small notepad and pen out of his pocket, ordering a black coffee for himself as well as a soda for Dit. The man behind the counter nodded and grinned before getting started on that. The clone smiled back before taking a back table with the irate Ditto.

“It is quieter here,” Telibris said. “Less obvious so we can talk. I speak the truth, I did not know that Nim was here and I have done her no harm. Think what you will of me for our past interactions, but I truly do not know where your trainer is.”

“She’s not my trainer, she’s a friend,” Dit growled through grit teeth, annoyed at the insinuation he could be kept again. “And why should I trust you?”

“I have nothing that will convince you,” Telibris replied quietly.

The Pokémon trainer leaned forward, hands braced on the table as he got ready to demand more answers of the other Pokémon. Then he paused when the irony hit him. At one point, he had tried threatening Nim like this, when he was warning that he was going to kill her if she had told others what she knew about him. Then, later on, he had no proof for her friends that he didn’t want her dead until he’d gotten to show that by saving her from bleeding out.

He was pretty sure this Pokémon would not be in the mood to save Nim from any trouble, but Dit saw the parallels. Telibris probably was being honest. The Ditto sighed before leaning back, forcing himself to relax. “Yeah, I know that feeling,” he said. “Been there, done that.” “You have also tried to end her life?” Telibris asked hesitantly.

Dit made an annoyed sound before nodding and admitting their past. “Three times. The first time, she stopped me with literally the same attack she used on you on the bridge. Almost the same spot. I don’t know what stopped me the second time, when I actually could have done it. She just seemed so sincere, like she really trusted me. Then a third time, when I thought she had told someone. Again, I didn’t, she just…did not seem like she was lying to me. I found out later she hadn’t blabbed like I thought, and I was glad I did not kill her.”

Telibris gestured for him to be quiet a moment when their drinks were brought over. Then he focused on the Ditto again. “I wondered why you would help her so vehemently. You call her your friend, and you know full well how she throws herself into harm.”

“Stupid me,” Dit grumbled. “I do care, and that’s a problem when shit like this happens.”

“You may have your reasons for disliking humans, but it is impressive what loyalty you show those you call your friends of any species,” Telibris said slowly. “I will help you find her. I know this island, I have come to call it home since we last met.”

“…what’s in it for you to help me find her?” Dit asked warily. “You gonna try and kill her again?”

“No. I will get my curiosity sated,” the clone replied. “I am no longer actively seeking her to kill her. I merely wish to know how she has managed to earn your trust.”

Speaking of trust…Dit didn’t trust Telibris any further than he could throw him. But he had to admit it was helpful to have the other Pokémon with him as he asked the shopkeepers if they had seen a tourist matching Nim’s description. The Ditto wasn’t sure how far they’d get, considering how many people were about on the island, until one remembered her for her particularly distinctive Sharpedo tattoo. The woman recalled that the tattooed Pokémon trainer had been going up on a tour to one of the volcanoes, with a local guide instead of one of the big tour groups.

“Just great,” Dit muttered as he hiked after Telibris. “This is just great. Knowing her, something awful happened when she tried to do something good. We’re gonna find her half-dead somewhere.”

Telibris gave him a confused look. “You truly think that?” he asked.

“I know her,” the Ditto said. “You’ve seen the ones that she knows, you of all Pokémon should know what she messes with. It’s not like her to miss a schedule or not answer her phone.”

“Perhaps the battery just died and the tour went late?” Telibris offered.

“She keeps that phone charged because she runs a safe house, and sticks to schedules in case people need her,” Dit grumbled.

The altered clone made an amused sound at Dit’s vehement insistence that something terrible had happened. But when he saw a very distinctive knob-headed cane laying on the path the locals often chose to use, he had to pause. The Ditto made a sharp sound of dismay before picking it up, looking around for any signs of a struggle. A bit of the dirt was churned up on the path. There were a few snapped plant stalks nearby, too. Fortunately he could find no signs of blood, which was oddly reassuring.

“Possibly you are right,” Telibris mused softly. “I may have underestimated her ability to get into trouble even in paradise.”

“Told you so,” the Pokémon trainer muttered.

Dit found which direction most of the broken leaves were going in and decided to head that way. Telibris blinked before following him into the dense underbrush. “It is not wise to go off the trails if you wish to avoid getting lost,” he reminded the Ditto.

“We’re both shapeshifters, dumbass!” Dit reminded him. “The beaches are perfectly visible if we need to fly out.”

“Such a charmer,” Telibris snorted.

“You know, you’re a lot more like Nim than you think,” the Pokémon trainer told him as he followed the broken leaves. “She tells me that all the time.”

The other said nothing in response. What could Telibris honestly say? He still was not sure what he felt regarding the woman now that his eyes had been opened to the truth. The clone certainly did not feel the way Dit did about her, but he also did not want her dead by his own hands any longer. It was an odd juxtaposition after having only wanted her death for so long as he had.

The two of them paused when they reached a steep ravine. There was no way that Nim had crossed it, not on her own. And it was too wide for almost any human to have jumped. But the path of broken bits continued on the other side.  Dit thought for a moment before snapping his fingers. “You, what other Pokémon had she encountered when you were around?” he asked Telibris.

“I do not know,” the clone replied slowly. “You have spent more time in her company.”

“Ok, let’s try this a different way,” Dit said. “What could she possibly run into here?”

Telibris paused. “Would you like them in the order of most to least dangerous?”

“It is Nim we’re talking about,” the Pokémon trainer quipped back.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The clearing near the base of the volcano was enormous, and sure enough, it was where Nim could be found. She was standing alongside a Silvally, and Nim was holding a blue sword of focused Aura. Four members of Team Rocket were opposite them.

Given how tired everyone looked, Nim and her team had given them hell while preventing their capture of the Silvally in a very unfair fight. Now the entire affair had culminated a standoff. At this point, it was who would give up first. The woman was visibly shaking on her feet from pain and overexertion, while all of the Pokémon on both sides had been utterly exhausted to the point of fainting and being recalled to their pokéballs. Her team had held out against an impressive four full teams, but even they had limits. It was human against human this time. But the other humans could not attack Nim physically while she was wielding a claymore made of Aura. Nor could Nim get the exhausted Silvally away from its attackers without opening herself up to her opponents.

Dit shook his head when he saw that Nim had managed to find trouble. Protecting another, too, as usual. “Oy, you missed lunch!” he called out to her.

The woman perked up at that, grinning over her shoulder. “Yeah, Pinky?” she yelled back. “Sorry, I had an unexpected playdate. A little help? They like to play way too rough.”

While she was distracted, one of the grunts pulled a knife and lunged forward. Dit did not think twice about shifting to a Greninja and hurling throwing stars before the human could stab his friend. Muscle and skin tore easily, dropping the man quickly as blood splattered on the others standing near him. The remaining three yelled in surprise at the unexpected and particularly bloody demise of their comrade.

“Oh shit!” Nim yelled when Telibris reached out with his powers and snapped the neck of another, realizing he was there for the first time.

“Worry about him later, these guys first!” Dit commanded when one of the remaining two focused his attention on fighting the woman.

Nim nodded, defending herself. The Ditto realized in frustration that even with her opponent being a member of an organization that wanted her dead- she couldn’t kill. She was not striking any finishing blows, only defensive ones. He leaped over and slit the man’s throat himself, allowing Telibris to deal with the remaining human.

“Thanks,” Nim said slowly, regarding the corpse at her feet. “Ugh, still never going to get used to seeing a dead body…”

Telibris watched her. “Your companion has killed to keep his secret many times before, yet you still cannot kill even to save your own life?” he inquired.

“Hey, I don’t judge him, and he doesn’t judge me,” Nim snapped back, leaning against a nearby tree. “We all make different choices.”

“No, it is…admirable, in its own way,” Telibris said. “That you respect life so much, and that he is willing to kill for another as well as his own sake. Two sides to the same coin, after a twisted fashion.”

“Do I have to worry about you?” the Pokémon trainer asked the clone.

Dit watched, wary. Telibris had told him he was just curious. Now he’d see for himself if that was the case. Telibris stared evenly back at the woman, having a telepathic conversation just between the two of them. Then he looked away sharply. “Enjoy your vacation,” he told Dit before shifting to his own form, a strange combination Lucario and other Pokémon.

The Ditto stared as the hybrid shifted wings and took off from a standing start. “Yeah, leave the bodies for us to clean up,” he grumbled. “What was that about, Nim?”

Nim chuckled softly, a tiny smile on her face. “He’s still confused, but apparently you two spoke? I don’t have to worry about him trying to kill me here, at least. He promised to leave us alone here in Alola.”

The other Pokémon trainer chose not to elaborate on the conversation they’d had in the coffee shop, simply nodding before looking at the mess. “Jeez, this was supposed to be a vacation. How’s your new friend, lady?”

She looked to the tired Silvally, who bent down to give her a little nuzzle. Their secret was safe with the Pokémon, and it was grateful for their aid, particularly the human who had come to its rescue. Nim rested her forehead against the powerful creature’s cheek for a moment, raising her hands to its neck. Dit watched as her hands glowed blue with Aura, offering her own energy to the Pokémon. It gave a trumpeting call before fleeing into the dense undergrowth, using the gifted strength to return to the safety of its own home where it could recover in safety.

“The Silvally will be just fine,” Nim said with a tired smile. “Hey, sorry about lunch- let’s clean up here, and I owe you one. Again.”

“I stopped counting,” Dit told her with a snort.

He insisted that she rest while he dealt with the cleanup of the scene of the fight. The good thing about the area was that it was secluded- and there was an active volcano right there. No worrying about the body being found in a lake or dug up, he could just dump them into a pool of fire to clean up after himself. The Ditto easily did so without a single qualm. Nim might have been his friend, but these goons had been the sort of humans he hated with a passion, it was nothing to him to dispatch of them and get rid of the corpses. Just taking out the trash, really.

“So how did you get roped into that?” Dit asked with a frustrated sigh as they walked back to the trail.

Nim chuckled as she leaned on her cane. “The Silvally almost ran me over, trying to get away from them. My guide just ditched me, ran back towards town. I couldn’t let them get their hands on that Pokémon, I had to help. And you saw what happened from there.”

“I’m not gonna be around to rescue you all the time,” the Ditto grumbled. “You know that, right?”

“Hey, I did just fine when dealing with the Lugia recently!” Nim protested.

“The what now?” Dit demanded. “Hey. Whoa. When did that happen?” Nim gave him a little shrug. “Last month?” she offered sheepishly.

“You, back on vacation, right now,” Dit told her firmly. “No more crazy, you were supposed to be avoiding that.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The woman sighed in contentment as she stretched out on a beach chair, a cold fruity drink in hand and Lewis resting beside her. “Back on track with our vacation,” the Haunter said with a grin, hands clasped behind his head as he got a little more comfortable. “I’m up with Dit, no more of our usual insanity, we’re going to do the rest of this thing right. We have a few more days in paradise, let’s use ’em wisely.”

“Hmm-hm,” she agreed.

Nim snorted when she heard a familiar voice nearby, calling out to another trainer for a battle. “And he’s having fun,” Lewis chuckled. “You ever wonder how we ended up having him hang out with us?”

The woman snorted. “Some days, yes, but you know what? I’m glad he does hang out with us, and I’m glad he came with us to Alola.”

A few minutes later, victorious crowing could be heard. Apparently someone had won, and knowing the bets he made, it had been a good one as well as a fun battle. Dit would probably be in a fantastic mood the entire rest of the day. Nim made an amused sound at that before settling down again to enjoy her break.

“Go get ‘em, Pinky,” she chuckled.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

“So good to be home!” Nim said as she dropped her suitcase in the entryway. “The vacation was nice, but I’m happy to see my boys.”

“That egg hatch yet?” Dit asked curiously.

The woman chuckled, shrugging, and beamed when the triplets came running to see her. She put the small floral wreaths she’d gotten for each of them around their necks, nuzzling each Riolu fondly. Neve and Kip were happy to get cuddles- Bing immediately went for a Wind Chop to Dit’s stomach, but Dit was expecting it and deftly blocked the infant’s attempt at a greeting. “Hah, not this time, you little monster,” the Ditto told the youngster.

Bing smiled at that before going to hug his mother. MT was the Mewtwo who was there when they arrived home, and he gave Dit a small nod before focusing on Nim. “Your family has grown,” he said. “The egg hatched, and is aware of who her adopted mother is. She was…not pleased to see Sunny and I as opposed to you.” “Oh, great!” Nim said eagerly. “Where is she? And what is she?”

Dit perked up as well, rather curious to see what Nim had left behind. He paused when a Cosmog came around the corner at the sound of Nim’s voice, almost slamming into the wall in the excitement of getting to see her mother for the first time. The female trainer blinked, but didn’t so much as bat an eye at trying to hug the gaseous little Pokémon when the baby cuddled against her. She was all smiles as she snuggled the new arrival.

“You want me to say ‘I told you so’ now, or later?” Dit asked with a snort. “And on that note, I’m out of here. Babies are your thing, not mine.”

Nim and Dit were sitting on the sofa, drinking a beer after a good Pokémon battle and dinner at Nim’s place. Or at least, Dit had a beer. The woman had hit the vodka bottle, stressed out from ‘Team Family’ stuff and in need of some de-stressing. She’d gotten the Ditto a much lighter beer than what she normally drank, too, but still enough where he was definitely feeling it.

“You gotta take a break,” he told her, his speech a tiny bit slurred as he knocked back the last of his bottle. “Just…walk away from it all for a bit.” She snorted, taking a swig from her own drink. “Yeah? And how am I gonna do that, hmm? You know it doesn’t work like that, Pinky. I can’t just stand off to the side and let them deal with stuff on their own.”

“Ya should,” he grumbled.

“Should, but won’t,” she said with an amused snort. “You know that. I’ll be ok…I always am.” “Nuh-uh,” he told her, shaking his head. “You get hurt a lot. Someday…someone ain’t gonna be there. Can’t always have such crazy luck.”

She made an annoyed sound and was about to say something when there was sounds of a commotion in the back yard. It took a few seconds to register, but then the pair realized it was likely very bad news of some sort. Immediately both trainers were on their feet and out the back door to see what was going on.

Lucas was fighting two Team Rocket goons and their Pokémon while four others were at the barn, obviously battling others of Nim’s team. It took only a moment for the woman to register what was happening. Then she dove right into the fray.

“You were so not invited!” Nim shouted, annoyed.

She summoned an Aura sword to her hand, taking two tries. Dit tilted his head when he saw it was in her right hand- normally it was in her left. “Wrong hand?” he offered.

Nim shook her head. “Nuh-uh, I’m ambide- uh- y’know, bi.”

“That’s sex,” he said. “Bisexual is sexy time stuff.”

“Well, I’m that too, but you know what I mean!” Nim grumbled back. “The two-hand stuff. That word.”

“Ambi- ambidetr- ambidec- bi,” Dit agreed when he couldn’t think of the pronunciation of the word either.

Lucas groaned when he realized what was going on. The Lucario knew that they’d been sharing a drink, chilling after what had been a particularly long week for his adopted mother. Both of the trainers were drunk and in need of sobering up before they’d be much help. But there was no time for that at the moment. He groaned even louder when Dit put his hat on Nim’s head before saying, “Watch this, I got it!”

The Pokémon trainer shifted to…a Litten. “Terrifying,” Lucas muttered as he used an Aura sphere to deflect the Houndoom’s fire attacks. “Dit, out of the way!”

“Oooh, wrong one,” he said with a drunken laugh.

The Lucario tilted his head back in exasperation as the Ditto went through a gamut of Pokémon before settling on a Scyther. Dit’s swings went rather wide, until he managed to cut the arm of one of the goons, quite deeply, too. Lucas winced at the spray of blood and the scream of pain. He was trying not to kill them…and he’d forgotten that Dit had no such compunctions. The Pokémon trainer killed any and all Team Rocket members when he got the chance.

Lucas had no time to think on that, keeping one distracted as the blood-thirsty Ditto dispatched his wounded target. Then Dit moved on to the one whom the Lucario had been fighting, making good use of the man’s horror at seeing his team member get his throat brutally cut.

Nim, meanwhile, was helping her team in the barn and doing her best not to kill anyone as well. Her balance wasn’t so hot as she tried to distract the trainers so that her Pokémon could do what they did best. They didn’t need her giving orders like the others did. The woman made an annoyed sound when Dit’s hat fell over her eyes, though, after a lunge at one of the other humans. “I’m gonna smack him, I’m not a hat rack!” she grumbled as she pushed it up, just in time to see one of the Team Rocket members come at her with a knife.

“Not cool!” she said as she deflected the blade. “No fair, I was not ready!”

Lewis knew full well that Nim…had the equivalent of a few drinks. The Haunter did his best to make sure she didn’t get hurt while she distracted the other humans. He made a relieved sound when he saw Dit come into the barn, until he realized the Ditto wasn’t much better.

Fortunately, Dit was good at killing and had no morals regarding a fair fight when it came to Team Rocket. The Pokémon trainer was still very helpful in the fight, even if he was stumbling a bit and perhaps not the most graceful at the moment. He easily killed the one that Nim had been fighting by coming up behind him and slicing him across the chest.

“That one was mine!” Nim protested, pouting.

“You weren’t gonna kill him anyways,” Dit said as he took out another who was focused on her Charizard, Pipsqueak. “So it’s fair.”

“Is not, even though that’s true,” Nim muttered.

When the other two had been killed, Lewis regarded the havoc before him. Dit certainly was…something else. And things had really gotten messy. “Not a hat rack,” Nim told Dit when he had shapeshifted back to his own form, still covered in blood. “Ugh, you’re all gross…you are not sitting on my couch until you shower. Eeew.”

The Ditto was drunk, but not so out of it as to forget the important things. “Gotta clean this, too,” he mused. “Bodies gotta go.”

“Eeeyup,” Nim said, making a face.

“Gonna ask Mewtwo,” Dit said with a nod. “He owes me one. Move bodies and wipe memories, yup, that’s my favor. Then no more favors until you get hurt again…but that happens a lot.”

The woman stuck her tongue out at him. “Don’t have to be so honest, brat!”

“I’ll let him know,” Lucas said, shepherding the two of them back to the house. “Go get the blood off yourselves and just…stay inside, alright?” “Ok,” Nim replied. “Thank you, Lucas.” He nodded, giving her a kiss to the cheek. “Love you, Mother.” “Love you too, sweetheart,” she said before going inside with Dit, who gave the Lucario a double-thumbs up gesture while grinning maniacally.

“Go shower, Pinky,” Nim told Dit, giving him a light shove towards the bathroom. “Too much blood.” She herself got changed while he washed the blood off. Nim left his hat on, though, after putting on her pajamas. When Dit came back to the living room, he went to reclaim it and made an annoyed sound when Nim leaned back so he couldn’t take it. “No, you decided to use me as a hat rack,” she told him.

He snorted before managing to take it back, putting the cap on his own head once more. Then Dit sat beside her, his arm on the back of the sofa behind her shoulders. “Got messy real quick,” he said.

“See why I can’t step away?” Nim replied. “They aren’t gonna let me. I gotta keep doing what I do, y’know?”

“Still sucks,” the Pokémon trainer told her.

She nodded before leaning her head back. “Gonna spend the night?” “Gonna make breakfast?” he quipped back.

Nim chuckled. “Duh?”

“Then yeah, I’m staying over, breakfast,” Dit said with a nod.

The woman held her hand up for a fist-bump, which Dit reciprocated. “Thanks,” she said. “Got messy, but the help was nice. I don’t like killing…but y’know. Not gonna judge or grumble about the help.”

He sighed, then smiled at her. “You’re welcome. No more crazy tonight.”

“Agreed,” Nim replied. “No more crazy and no more booze.”

 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

 The next morning, there were no signs at all that the night before had been anything other than peaceful. Nim and Dit were sitting at the table with breakfast when Nim perked up. She had suddenly recalled something from the night before that had been bugging her. “Ambidextrous,” she said. “That’s the word.”

 Dit gave her a confused look before recalling what had happened. “Oh yeah,” he replied. “So you’re ambidextrous, did not know that.”

 She nodded. “And bisexual, that was accurate, too, but yes. That’s what I couldn’t remember.”

Dit had let himself in when Nim didn’t get to the door and he found it to be unlocked. The Pokémon trainer hadn’t meant to sneak up on her, but apparently Nim had been very focused on some paperwork at the kitchen table, not hearing the knocking. When he reached out to her shoulder, the woman jumped and very nearly got him with a small Aura sphere.

“Just me,” he said, raising his hands and grinning at her.

She smiled back, relaxing a bit. “Sorry, you surprised me. There’s a lot of stuff I have to get done before next week. I was going to come by tomorrow to tell you that I was going to be out of town next weekend, for a tournament. You’re welcome to come to the house if you want to while I’m away, my space is always open. Feel free to raid the fridge.”

“A tournament?” Dit asked curiously as he took a seat beside her. “You up for that?”

“I’m not fragile,” Nim said with a snort. “My team and I got this. And if you must know, we’re taking a train to the location since it’s in a city about three hours away, so traveling shouldn’t take too much out of me. The triplets will be staying with a friend of mine, too, so no worries about them. I did plan for my limitations.”

“Wow, respecting your limits? That’s new,” the Ditto said with a smirk.

Nim stuck her tongue out at him. “Hush, you. So yeah, heading out for that.”

Dit tilted his head, regarding her. The trainer seemed genuinely excited to be going and battling. He could tell that she loved it. The woman had a light in her eyes as she talked about going with her team to compete. It was hard to imagine her ever giving that up, even as much as she obviously loved working with kids and running her rehabilitation house for Pokémon.

Then he saw her cane, leaning against the edge of the table. Some days she could barely limp from one room to the next. He recalled exactly why she had to give up her dream for a day job. The Ditto had been there on more than one occasion where her leg had simply given out for no obvious reason and left her kneeling on the ground in pain. And that was without counting the numerous times others tried to rough her up for doing a good thing.

“You take care of yourself there, alright?” he told her.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

It was easy to let himself into the rehab house even without keys. He was checking up on things as much as making use of the space, since he knew Nim would worry while she was out. He’d be able to text her that all was good while she was gone. Dit flipped to the channel that was showing the tournament and turned up the sound before making himself a sandwich in the kitchen, preparing to settle in for a bit. He darted back into the living room when he heard Nim’s name announced, eagerly getting comfortable on the sofa to watch the battle.

The woman was in her denim jacket with all of its various pins, and her black leather top hat. Lucas was by her side, looking like he was rearing for a fight. She herself looked like she was having a grand time- but he also saw how she leaned against her wooden cane. The smile was a little too wide, a little too showy. He knew what it looked like when she was masking pain.

“Come on, you got this,” he said to no one in particular as he leaned forward.

He watched with bated breath as Nim and her team battled hard. The woman and her Pokémon were doing well. She was something else- he had fought with her, he knew that, but seeing her in action against strangers…it was surreal to see how she moved from several angles, what her tactics were. She and her team were cohesive, they communicated in little ways that others might miss. Small wonder there were several trophies in the basement from her younger glory days before the accident. When the rules were followed and everyone was playing fair, Nim and her motley crew were something else indeed. Showy, too, there was just as much a performance as a fight.

The tournament went on for hours. It was a live broadcast, and he could see how it was taking its toll on Nim to battle so hard with her team. She was starting to look exhausted and frazzled. That smile was her tired one. But she and her crew of rehabilitated misfits kept up their winning streak. Small wonder she was known for training Pokémon that other trainers would have written off- they were doing just fine against all comers.

The last match had him worried. It was the deciding match of the tournament- winner went home with the title and the glory.  Not to mention the substantial cash prize, which would surely help out with the rehab house. Nim was looking utterly worn, leaning heavily on her cane. She was doing the odd semi-hop she did when she didn’t want to put any weight on her injured leg, instead favoring her left one and leaning almost entirely on it. That was the face of a trainer who was reaching her absolute limit.

Dit watched as she and the others battled. They were doing pretty good until the other trainer used a mega evolution move. Lucas, who was on the field, paused as he looked back at his mother. She nodded, bracing herself and standing a little taller. The Ditto hoped they weren’t going to use that as well- it hurt, both trainer and Pokémon. If anyone could, it was probably those two, but at the same time…it was a bad idea.

But they didn’t. Somehow, by a stroke of luck, the duo managed to beat the mega evolved Charizard and its trainer to claim victory in spite of their exhaustion. Nim collapsed to her knees just seconds after being declared the winner, to the gasps of the crowd. Lucas helped her to her feet once more, and Nim raised her free hand in a victorious fist while leaning on her cane. She looked like hell, but she was grinning like a fool as she and the Lucario leaned against each other.

The Ditto grinned as he watched the tv, the camera panning in to show her face. That was the stubborn trainer he knew. “Good job, Nim,” he said to thin air. “You still got it.”

He was about to turn off the television when suddenly the camera angle went haywire, the device obvious dropped. There was a scream up close as well as a deafening sound, and further noises of distress in the background. Signs of an explosion could be seen, faint glimpses of movement and flashes of pink light crackling like lightning in the dust cloud and falling clumps of grass. There was definitely mayhem going on at the arena- and a moment later, coming into view of the fallen camera, a bloody hand flopped on the grass beside the cracked lens. The figure it belonged to was blurry and out of focus, but the hand itself was a dainty one, with a recognizable ring on one finger. Then the screen shifted to the disconnected airing bars.

Dit was stunned. That was where Nim was…given what he had just seen in those few seconds, something had happened right next to the trainer. He stared for several long moments before diving to retrieve his phone and dialing frantically. No. No. That had not just happened. That could not have happened. As the phone went to voicemail, he flipped through the channels to find the news. Surely they were already covering what had happened, that arena had been packed with onlookers.

“-and word has just come in, there was an accident at the arena where-”

The Ditto stopped. That was the news channel he needed. He listened as the news anchor spoke about an unfolding tragedy that had taken place literally moments ago, a seemingly rogue Pokémon attacking a trainer and leaving her badly wounded. No one had gotten a good look at the Pokémon responsible for the attack to identify it, while the trainer in question was being rushed out of the arena to a nearby hospital. No harm had been done to the cameraman who had been recording her or the Pokémon who had been beside her, aside from mild cuts and scrapes from the explosion attack used.

“Stop talking about what she does,” he muttered as the reporter spoke about the woman’s accomplishments, and how fans were reacting to the critical condition of a beloved trainer so shortly after her return to the professional circuit. “Tell me that stubborn idiot is alive.”

He sighed when he heard about half an hour later that she had been taken to a hospital and was in critical condition, but still breathing. “More on this story as the tragedy unfolds,” the news anchor said.  Then the news repeated through the other stories of the day, which Dit had no interest in. He turned off the television before sitting on the sofa, leaning back with a scowl on his face.

That had happened. Nim had gone for a competition, had a blast, and then been picked off when she was worn out and couldn’t defend herself. The trainer couldn’t believe that she had gotten attacked at a tournament of all places. That was a bold move on the part of any organization- was it Team Rocket, and the Team Family stuff coming around to bite her? Or was this literally something else, some other mayhem Nim had gotten herself into? Surely it had not been a random attack. It was too callous, too brutal. Too obviously focused on her, since Nim had been the only one seriously harmed. Someone had definitely planned this.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Dit managed to find out the hospital where Nim had been taken, and was surprised to see just how many people had already left flowers, candles, cards, and other tokens at the reception desk. He knew she’d been a bit of a big deal in her younger days, before the accident. The Ditto had seen the trophies in the basement. But he hadn’t realized just how much people had enjoyed watching her and her team, or just how many disabled Pokémon she had battled with over the years before re-homing them with good trainers. He stood beside the space for a moment, his hands shoved in in his pockets. The Pokémon trainer felt strange seeing this offering of support from strangers to a friend. All he’d brought was himself, come to see how she was doing.

The nurses, however, stopped him from going to her room. She was in critical care, which meant family only. Dit was still protesting vehemently that he was a friend who knew her and not a fan when Reba and Remy came in. The twins were using their human forms as well, and had visitor passes stuck to their shirts. With them was a tall man in a dark suit with spiky purple hair- his visitor tag declared him to be Lewis. They had gotten passes, allowing them to go see Nim.

“He’s with us,” Reba said softly. “Nim would want to see him.” The woman at the front desk nodded at that, filling out a visitor pass for Dit. He regarded the other human- surely not. He knew Haunters could make themselves appear as humans, and often did to cause mischief by making people believe they were actual ghosts. But surely it wasn’t the Lewis he thought it was? Wouldn’t he be at the Pokémon Center with the others? When the man saw him staring, he gave the Ditto a little salute.

“Human family only,” the Haunter said as they walked to the room where Nim was, hands shoved in his pockets to hide how they were shaking. “Like hell I’m gonna let them keep me from my best friend. She needs her support crew. The others are recovering at the Pokémon Center, so it’s just us come to see her until MT and Sunny arrive.” “Thought that was you,” Dit said. “What happened out there?”

“Hell if I know,” Lewis replied, his voice soft. “Nim was on top of the world, just had a big win…next thing I know, there’s pink light everywhere and an explosion, I saw it through her eyes because it was a really strong emotion. Nim…she used Aura, it’s probably the only reason she’s not dead right now. Before you freak out, MT is on his way to patch her up as much as he can. He won’t be able to fix everything, because so many people saw her get wounded…but he can take her out of the red zone.”

The Ditto paused when they got to the room and Lewis fell silent. No one was being allowed in, though they could see the trainer through the glass window. Nim usually looked tired, that was nothing new. But this was something else. She looked so fragile in the white room, hooked up to all of the devices with an oxygen mask over her face. The thready pulse blipping away on the monitor was the only proof she was alive aside from the ever so slight rise and fall of her chest. So many bandages- and so pale. How could that be Nim?

He looked over to Lewis and saw the Haunter’s lower lip was trembling. “Never thought we’d be back here,” the Pokémon said softly, eyes wide and fixed on Nim’s inert form. “Not after…she got run over…when I find the bastard who did this to her, I swear to Arceus I’m gonna gut them.”

The Haunter raised one fist to the glass separating them, as if he wanted to smash the only thing keeping him from his trainer. Instead he sighed and dropped his forehead to the window. Reba and Remy looked to be at a loss for how to comfort him. Lewis was a mess seeing his best friend like this. He’d already had to do this once, to see her where he couldn’t help her or be there for the human.

“It’s wearing on all of us,” Lewis said softly. “What we do…it’s the right thing. But it’s gonna be too much one of these days, with everything happening all at once like it has. Nim’s gotta catch a break before it breaks her.”

“Hey, focus,” Dit said. “The humans are busy scratching their heads, and the one who could tell us anything useful isn’t able to talk right now. So you have to keep your head on straight. Think, Lewis, who could have done this to her who would have reason to hurt Nim?”

“I don’t know,” the Haunter said miserably. He was having a hard time focusing with his best friend laying at death’s door and it showed. He wasn’t his usual self at all.

Reba perked up, eyes narrowing. “Lewis. You said pink light? As in, psychic energy?”

Lewis nodded. He seemed to realize where she was going with that. “Aw fuck no, not Telibris,” he groaned. “Not him, it’s been a year! Why now of all times?”

“Nothing says ‘I hate you’ quite like trying to kill someone at their peak,” the female Ditto said. “And you know he detests her. It was also advertised she would be there at the arena, so he had time to prepare.”

“Teli-who?” Dit asked in confusion.

“An altered clone with a bad attitude,” Lewis explained. “We’ll tell you about him later, when there ain’t as many ears around. It’s Team Family secret stuff. For now…we just gotta be here for Nim.”

Dit watched the woman. “I hate waiting,” he grumbled. “I’d rather be doing something.”

“You and me both,” the Haunter agreed quietly.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

MT arrived, using his human illusion, and subtly healed the trainer over the course of an hour to take her out of the danger zone. Dit watched as the Pokémon silently tended to Nim. He thought of her as a friend- this big guy saw her as family. It had to be especially hard on him not to just heal her and whisk her out of the hospital. This Pokémon had the power to heal her completely, but could not hide her connection to him if he did.

The nurses alerted the doctor to her progress, who said she could be moved to one of the private rooms and out of the intensive care wing. He shooed the visitors away, saying they could come to see the woman the next day in her own room. She would need rest before they came to see her, but she was out of the at-risk zone and would likely make a good recovery.

That left nothing to do but to wait. And while they waited, Dit wanted answers. “I don’t get into your business, but I need to know about this,” he told the Mewtwo when they were back in the hotel room. “This is about Nim, not you.”

“I agree,” MT said softly.

Telibris was the result of Team Rocket genetic tinkering. They had found that a pure Mew clone simply would not survive past a certain stage. Even with a modified Mewtwo clone, only three had ever survived numerous attempts at the process. But that did not mean the scientists could not try other things. One such idea had been to graft skin from a Ditto to a powerful clone who had been created with Ditto DNA patched in. That allowed the clone to partially shift, while still maintaining the powers of the original base they had added the shapeshifter’s DNA to. Two for one, as it were.

They had chosen a Lucario, further modified with other Pokémon DNA to make him taller and stronger. It was a good choice that had produced fantastic results for the nefarious group. This clone had not only survived, but thrived in spite of a few flaws in his genetics. The Pokémon had been powerful.

But Team Rocket had one more scheme up their sleeves in mind for their clone when he woke up from his creation. Using the power of hypnosis, they had created false memories that Nim had been the cruel mastermind behind his making and the pains he felt. It was the easiest way they could see to test out his abilities, as well as attempt to rid themselves of one of Mewtwo’s best allies.

Unfortunately for them, he was also extremely unstable mentally because of the pain and had killed every person in the facility. He had razed it to the ground when the scientists had used pain as a prompt to get him to fight. There was still only rubble and scrap metal where the building had been. No survivors and no record of how he had been created. Like the Mewtwo clones, he was unique. Unlike them, he still had no mercy towards those he viewed as his enemies. He did not hate the human race in spite of how he had brutally killed the group at the facility- he hated one and one alone. His remaining malice was reserved solely for Nim.

“That…explains a lot,” Dit mused as he looked out the window at the city skyscape. “So what now?”

“We wait, and keep Nim safe while she recovers,” the big Pokémon said. “That is all we can do for the moment.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Dit was the one with Nim when the woman opened her eyes for the first time. She blinked up at the ceiling before turning her head on the pillow. He didn’t notice she was awake immediately because he had kept himself busy with moving the flowers so she could see them when she woke up. It was something to do while he waited.

“Hey, lady,” he said when he saw the human was conscious.

Nim smiled up at him before blinking. Then she tried to wriggle away a bit, nervous. Not only could she not see well without her glasses, but she just realized who might be with her. “Do something or say something only Dit would know,” the trainer said as she struggled weakly to raise one hand, a spark of blue wavering in the middle of her palm.

“Nim, come on, that’s not a great idea right now,” he told her slowly, trying to calm her down.

“Do it,” she repeated. “I need to know. Something only Dit would know about. Or else.”

He thought a moment before reaching out with one fingertip to poke her nose. “Vibe check, lady,” Dit said with a toothy grin.

She let her hand flop on the bed and the tension visibly eased out of her body. “Yep, you’re Dit,” she agreed, chuckling weakly. “Sorry, I just- I thought- sorry.”

“I get it,” the Ditto promised. “The others told me about Telibris. You’re safe here in the hospital, Nim. The Mewtwos are keeping an eye out for trouble around the building.”

“My team?” Nim asked worriedly.

Dit grinned at her concern for the Pokémon in her care. “They’re all recovering just fine, some mild bruises and scrapes. The same can’t be said for you, lady, so chill out and rest.”

She settled back on the bed again with a sigh, closing her eyes. “Yeah…Dit?”

“Hmm?” “Thank you for coming here,” Nim murmured as she slipped into unconsciousness again.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

It had been over two weeks since the explosion, and a week since Nim had been allowed to go home from the hospital. She had recovered well- the moment the spotlight was off of her, the big Mewtwo had healed her remaining wounds from the explosion. Then the younger sister had snuggled her close and not let Nim out of her sight for three days. Dit had appreciated that those she called Team Family had really stepped in for Nim when she needed them.

For his own part, he had been there to help with the little things. Mostly it was just keeping the woman from overdoing it. Healed or not, her body had been put under intense stress. Dit made sure to check up on her in the evening before heading home himself. No battling or anything like that, just making sure she wasn’t trying to kill herself with overexertion. Nim had been a bit subdued since returning home- that spark she’d had in the arena was gone, replaced with worry for what was going on. That meant lots of caring for others to distract herself.

He had just let himself through the front gate when he heard a human scream from the back yard- a very shrill, decidedly female pitch. He knew who that likely had to be since there was usually only one human around the house. And she was a target of late.

Nim had found trouble again.

The Ditto raced around the house and stared when he saw the scene before him. The Pokémon holding her up by the throat looked like a Lucario…sort of. He was too tall, the stance was a bit different, the tail a bit too long. His markings were far too jagged, with extra stripes on his body. And there was a weird square on his back with a patch of familiar looking pink skin, grafted to his body during his creation. Even without having seen what the Pokémon looked like from Sunny via telepathy, he would have recognized him as Telibris from the description Lewis had told him.

Telibris must have been watching, waiting for the changing of the Mewtwo guards for just the right moment when Nim wasn’t expecting him. Dit could see the crackling pink energy at the woman’s neck, shaped like a clawed hand and throttling her. The pokéballs on her belt were not being used at all, but not for a lack of trying- Nim had one in her hand and was desperately pressing the button to try and summon her team while her other hand scrabbled against the energy around her neck. Her own fingers were lit blue with Aura, but it wasn’t helping to loosen the hold on her throat one bit.

Dit paused before stepping forward, pulling a pokéball out of his own pocket. “Hey, over here!” he shouted antagonistically, arms spread for emphasis that he was right there. “You want a fight, come and get it from me!”

He pressed the button- and nothing happened.

The not-quite Lucario turned towards him, a nasty sneer on his lips as he casually threw Nim across the yard after clenching down viciously on her throat. She landed with a sickening thud, not moving. Dit swallowed hard when he tried to pull out another pokéball from his pocket. Again, as before, nothing happened. That…was not how this was supposed to go down. He realized there a tiny spark of pink at the seal. Somehow, this bastard must have learned how to jam pokéballs. For a Pokémon trainer, that meant no calling in reinforcements.

“You wish to fight me for her sake?” a voice asked in his thoughts, dark and low. “Then you and I will battle, trainer. Show me what you are made of.”

“Shit,” Dit said as he looked at the approaching Pokémon.

He had no idea what else this Pokémon could do, and he didn’t want to find out while his friend was laying injured on the ground. That left a single option open- time to run for it. It was lucky for him and Nim both that he wasn’t an ordinary Pokémon trainer. The Ditto shifted to a Pidgeot and took off, only swooping down to gather the unconscious Nim into his claws.

The Pokémon trainer made a startled sound when the woman started to wake up a few moments later, shifting a bit as she came to. “Nim, hold still!” he demanded, giving her a light shake to reinforce that she should stop moving.

She did so, realizing what had happened and who she was with when she had fully come around. “Dit, watch out!” the woman called out frantically after a fit of coughing, her voice hoarse from having her throat nearly crushed. “That’s Telibris!” “I know,” he told her. “But I left him on the ground.”

“No, Dit, he can fly!” the woman yelled back over the rushing wind.

Oh hell no. No. That was too much. Of course he could fly, Telibris was part Ditto. Dit looked over his shoulder, and sure enough, they were being pursued. From the patch on his back, the Pokémon had sprouted the wings of a Pidgeot as well. Dit watched as the wings became those of a Staraptor instead- shit, shit, shit! This bastard was smart and able to shift in midair without so much as slowing down. And now he was going to be able to catch up quickly.

“What’s his weakness?” Dit yelled as he dodged an Aura sphere. Ok, so maybe in part Telibris was still a bit Lucario, which was bad because all of the Lucarios that Dit had met were forces to be reckoned with.

“Not much,” Nim said softly, so Dit could barely hear her. “Set me down somewhere, he’ll go after me, not you.” “Like hell, lady,” the Ditto told the woman.

Before he could demand more information, the strange Pokémon veered off, one paw raised to his head as if it was causing him intense pain. Dit kept flying hard and fast until he was sure that they weren’t being followed. When he had put a good amount of distance between them, he realized it also wasn’t a precursor to a sneak attack. Only then did he land in a secluded area, shifting to his human form and regarding Nim.

“You need the hospital again?” he demanded as he looked her over, breathing heavily himself after a workout like that.

“No, I’ve survived worse than this without help,” the woman said as she rubbed her sore throat. “Telibris really is back in the area…I’ve got a huge problem on my hands.” “We,” Dit corrected. “We do. I just got dragged into your crazy by rescuing you.”

Nim shook her head. “No, you didn’t. He will ignore you, Dit, as long as you don’t try to help me out. It’s safest to just…stay away for a bit. This is Team Family stuff, my friend.”

The Ditto paused when he realized what the woman was trying to do. Nim wanted to keep him out of trouble, out of harm’s way, even though he had just rescued her. The stubborn fool was going to get herself killed by not accepting help.

“Not happening,” he told her. “So what’s the deal with the pokéballs? I couldn’t use them when he was around, and neither could you.”

“One of the first things he learned was how to jam them,” Nim admitted sheepishly. “Sorry, MT and Sunny must have forgotten to warn you about that. We’re still not sure how he does that. But it means that usually, we don’t have help. I’d have been in really big trouble if you hadn’t arrived when you did.”

He sat down beside the exhausted woman as she rested a bit. When she swayed, Dit reached out to keep her from falling over. “Hey, let’s go tell the big guy what happened,” the Pokémon trainer said. “They can keep you safe.”

Nim exhaled slowly, leaning against a tree. “Yeah,” she murmured.

Dit tilted his head, confused at why the genetically altered Lucario had given up seemingly so easily. Such a badass did not seem like the sort to give up without much effort. Maybe it was a trick- Nim would likely know, she seemed to have experience with this Pokémon and how he worked. “Any idea why he stopped chasing us?”

“Using his powers causes him a lot of pain,” Nim said. “At times like that, I can almost reach him. At one point…he was going to let me try and help him. But I couldn’t get him results fast enough. Then he tried to kill me again, would have managed if Sunny hadn’t been there. When Telibris vanished for almost a year…I had hoped…he was doing what MT and Sunny did, and had learned to find a place for himself. That he had let go of his hatred. Then he tried to kill me at the tournament. And again just now. I guess he still hasn’t given up on that.”

“Guess not,” Dit mused as he looked at her bruised throat. The marks were even more obvious than when he had last threatened to strangle the life from her. He had been giving her a warning when he had done that, but this Telibris guy had really meant business. It was obvious that the woman had gotten extremely lucky again, as she had when he had tried to kill her in the arena.

“I mean it, Dit, you’re safe as long as you are not around me,” she told him softly. “Don’t get involved in my fight. Not this time.”

He gave her a stern look at that. “Hey, lady? I prefer you not die while dealing with this guy. And you know me, I like a good battle. This guy is definitely a challenge. He’s dangerous? Well, so am I.”

Nim gave him a tired little smile at that. “Thanks, Dit. Come on, I have to go tell the rest of Team Family what happened.”

Dit paused when he realized something. “A year…lady, is that part of why you were so adamant on reaching out to me?” he asked. “It’s not been a year since we first met, but it’s kinda close. Were you trying to make up for failing him?”

The woman’s eyes looked a little sad at that. “Something like that,” she admitted quietly. “I saw your dislike of people and just- I couldn’t. You genuinely didn’t seem to like the idea of killing me, so…I wanted to prove you didn’t have to. That not everyone had to die for you to be safe.”

Her words made the Pokémon sigh. Now her actions towards him since day one made all the more sense to the trainer. Nim had felt guilty for another, and focused that energy on him. He knew it wasn’t that he was the pity case- no, she had reached out to him because that was how she dealt with things. They’d discussed before how helping others was her coping mechanism for a lot of stuff.

“Don’t get yourself killed, lady,” Dit grumbled.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Night had fallen, and Dit was walking away from Nim’s house when he felt a shiver run along his spine. He got the feeling he was being watched, which he definitely did not like one bit. Nim was safely with the Mewtwo clones- but who was to say her attacker had not changed his mode of operation since she’d last encountered him? Nim felt he would not attack anyone who wasn’t with her, but Dit was not so sure.

He kept his hands shoved in his pockets, covertly looking around. When he spied a dark shape leaning against the metal railing of the overpass, the Ditto recalled why he himself had once used it as a place to attempt a murder. On Nim, no less. This was not something he wanted to deal with. Before he could change shapes and make a run for it, though, the shadowy figure spoke in his thoughts.

Exactly who he had guessed it would be.

Except…the person who stepped out of the shadows and into the light from the streetlamp was not the altered Lucario. He was tall, though not as tall as Dit, with long dark hair pulled back into a ponytail and equally dark eyes. His clothes were casual, a black hoodie and jeans with ripped out knees. But there was something definitely wrong, the instinct hammering against Dit’s skull that he really needed to get away from this guy.

“You inspired me,” Telibris said in his mind, with a playful smirk that didn’t reach the rest of his face. The look in his eyes was something else as he walked forward.

“Oh yeah?” Dit asked, trying to act casual.

The other Pokémon gave a wry chuckle. “I was impressed at how you helped my creator,” Telibris said softly. “Interesting that you should swoop in out of nowhere to her rescue like that. Do you not know the cruelty she is capable of?”

“We talking about the same person?” Dit snorted back.

Telibris leaned forward. “And what do you know of her?” he asked, his tone sending another cold shiver down Dit’s spine.

“That we are not having this conversation,” the Ditto said firmly. “The human I know is decent, if strange. She doesn’t hurt Pokémon, even if we want to hurt her. That I’ve seen for myself.”

He stood his ground when Telibris took another step forward. “As you wish,” the altered Pokémon told Dit. “Watch where you place your trust, Ditto. I know of her, and I know of her actions. What front you may have seen…it may not be what is. Do not do something stupid for the sake of that human. She is not worth it.”

Dit watched uneasily as the other Pokémon walked off. Telibris paused, and did not turn around. However, his voice could be heard loud and clear in Dit’s thoughts. “Did she tell you about me before today?” he inquired before waving over his shoulder and continuing to walk away, towards the outskirts of the city in the opposite direction of Nim’s home.

“Don’t like that guy,” Dit muttered, hunching his shoulders and scowling angrily at the retreating figure. He pulled out his phone and immediately texted Nim what had happened. As an afterthought, he added another text to be careful of anyone she didn’t know, as she had been in the hospital.

Even if it was him.

Or rather, especially if it was the Ditto. He had not liked the look in the other’s eyes when he said that Dit had inspired him. The Pokémon trainer got the feeling that Telibris hadn’t just said it to unnerve him.

But Nim was right about one thing, he wasn’t going after others she knew. The Ditto wasn’t entirely sure how he felt about that. On the one hand, good, it meant Nim wouldn’t have to worry about friends getting hurt. One less concern on her mind at the moment. On the other…it meant that Telibris was able to focus his energy entirely on her. No dividing and conquering there, no tiring himself out fighting others. Part of the Pokémon trainer wanted to race after the altered Pokémon and demand a fight, demand to be taken seriously as a threat on Nim’s side. But a small voice in the back of his head said that also was not a good idea. It wouldn’t help anything.

The only thing to do right now was to rest and keep an eye out for whatever happened next.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

When he came back to visit the next morning, he found Sunny was the one who opened the door. She glowered at Dit. But when she looked through his memories, the female Mewtwo had to admit that it was definitely him. The large Pokémon reluctantly stepped aside to allow him into Nim’s house.

The woman looked exhausted as she sat at the kitchen table, and her Riolu triplets were making soft sounds of concern. Bingham came over, oddly subdued for once. “Mommy’s tired,” he told Dit with a pout.

“I see that,” he said. “Bing, I want you to go out into the garden with Lucas and get a bunch of pretty flowers, ok? We’ll put them on the table. She likes flowers.”

Nim watched as the Lucario took his younger brothers outside. “Good distraction, Dit, thanks,” she said with a frazzled smile. “I got your texts…you were right. He tried to stop by the house again as you and I almost opened the door. Are you ok?”

“Yeah, that Teli-what’s-his-name tried getting into my head, though. Why didn’t you tell me about him, before the attack at the arena?” Dit asked. “He brought it up last night, and I do want to know.”

“Because I didn’t think he was going to come back,” Nim explained softly. “Also…I wanted to keep some things separate in my life. Strange as it may sound, Dit, you’re the closest I have to an ordinary friend. When we hang out, things resemble the nearest to normal I’ve had in a long time. I didn’t…want to drag what has happened with Team Family into that. I wanted to be selfish and just…enjoy hanging out with a friend, no guillotine of the crazy things I do to help others hanging over my head. Even after you saved my life when I was bleeding out, things just went back to normal like usual. I needed that.”

Sunny made a soft sound as she looked at Dit. The woman was always there for Team Family, and only recently had they truly started to learn what she kept to herself while helping them. To hear her talk about her friendship with Dit like this…they hadn’t realized quite why Nim kept her circles apart as she had. It was not just because Sunny did not still entirely trust the Ditto, but rather because Nim herself had needed that separation.

It surprised Dit to hear Nim say that he was part of what she considered normalcy. He guessed in a way he should have seen that. They hung out, had friendly Pokémon battles, and didn’t normally talk about what she got up to when her adopted family called on her for help. He knew some stuff, sure, but not much. Who all she knew wasn’t part of their thing. Considering how they had started off…it was strange to hear that he was her anchor to casual stuff some days.

“Makes sense,” Dit said with a shrug. “Hey, you want to go get a coffee?”

The female Mewtwo gestured over Nim’s head, scowling at him. What on earth was he doing? Coffee, at a time like this, when a particularly dangerous Pokémon was out for her blood? Was the Ditto crazy?

Dit grinned back at Sunny. He knew exactly what he was suggesting. Nim needed a dose of normalcy to clear her head. And he had a good idea how to do that. Convincing the Mewtwo to stay home had been a bit harder, but Dit managed. Mostly by promising that Lewis and Lucas would be there keep an eye out for Telibris, outside of their pokéballs. Soon he and Nim had made their way to the place where they normally got drinks and a snack after a friendly match. No sign of the altered Pokémon, but definitely signs of a smile on Nim’s face.

She was starting to relax again into the routine of hanging out with Dit. No expectations of anything more than a coffee and a nice chat. That was what the Ditto had thought might happen. He grinned as his fellow trainer settled into her usual, calmer state over the coffee. They didn’t discuss Telibris or what was going on with the group she called Team Family. Instead, they discussed how the Riolu pups were growing, what the weather was supposed to be like over the next few days, who was going to kick butt in their next Pokémon battle. Training methods and new moves they’d learned about.

The usual things.

Normal things.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

“You again?” Dit asked as he felt the other Pokémon’s presence on the overpass. “I don’t have time for you.” Telibris gave a dark chuckle at that. “Don’t you?” he asked as he bounced a bloodstained pokéball in his hand, stepping out of the shadows once more. “Pity. Because I have time for you. This is a warning- stay away from Nim. I do not want to hurt a fellow Pokémon to get to her, but I will kill anyone who gets in my way this time. I have had enough of the infernal woman. Her life is the cost of my misery, and I will see her pay it in blood.”

The Pokémon trainer paused when he realized that the pokéball in the altered Pokémon’s hand was one from Team Rocket…with a name painted on it, in Nim’s handwriting. Apparently Telibris hadn’t let Nim destroy it for him. So instead she had tried to at least make it a bit nicer for him, but that had likely backfired at some point. Dit got the feeling that the blood which had stained the metal of the pokéball…likely belonged to the woman, based on what he had heard from her before and witnessed when Telibris was attacking her. This Pokémon had also killed before, and he fully intended on destroying Nim. He was trying to use the object as an intimidation tactic. It was proof of what he was capable of, yet he still wanted to give Dit a chance to walk away.

Dit leaned his head back. The irony of the situation was not lost on him. He had once had the same mindset- to be fair, he still did spill blood when he needed to. And the Ditto had once been willing to kill Nim for what she knew of him. Not because he had hated her, but because he hadn’t trusted her to keep his secret. Now he was being threatened by another for helping her in the very spot where he had once tried to murder his now friend.

“Don’t do this,” he said. “She’s not who you think. Walk away so I don’t have to fuck you up.”

“Not the one who created me? Not the one who left me in pain? Not the one who promised to help me and failed?” Telibris said in a dangerously soft voice as he clenched the pokéball in his fist. “Oh, I know who she is, Ditto. And I will show you why she cannot be trusted. Do not throw your life away for her.”

Dit shifted his stance, preparing for a fight. He knew what that sort of tone meant. But then a soft voice called out from behind him.

“Telibris, please, don’t. Leave Dit out of this. He’s not the one you want.”

Shit.

“Nim, get your ass out of here,” Dit said through gritted teeth.

“No,” she said, her cane making a soft tapping sound as she walked into the circle of light cast by the streetlamp. “I’ve got my head on straight, and I’m going to do what I do best.”

“Lady, do not get yourself killed,” the Ditto demanded hotly.

Nim gave him a smile before walking forward. Telibris gave her a wary look, eyes narrowed as he pocketed the pokéball. He could tell that the woman had something up her sleeve. She was clever, and he had seen what the human could do before. Even when unprepared, blind luck seemed to be on her side, as it had been when Dit came to her rescue.

“You should listen to him,” Telibris said, lifting Nim up with psychic powers by the front of her jacket. “Or rather, should have. This is over now, human. I will not be foiled in my attempts again.” “Take some time to rest, to recover,” Nim said softly, letting her walking cane fall to the concrete with a clatter. “Let me help you. I did not break my promise, I have an idea for how to make the pain go away.” “Do you now?” Telibris inquired, growling as he lifted her a bit higher. “Oh, no, I am done listening to you. No more. Your voice will become a ghost in my memories, offering lies no longer. Pay for my pain, Nim, with your life. I think it only fair. But since you seem to care for this Pokémon’s well-being, know that I will not harm him. I am not cruel like you, you may die in peace knowing he will not be killed.”

Dit made an angry sound and was about to step forward when realization struck. He knew what Nim was doing. R&R- Reba and Remy. Her cane falling from her hand. Nim was going to use the same thing on Telibris that she had used on him. Sure enough, the twin Dittos emerged from their pokéballs while the altered clone Pokémon was focused so entirely on Nim, and subtly used the same method they had on Dit. Lewis sank through the concrete after raising one finger to his lips- he needed the element of surprise. She had offered herself as bait so that her team could help her. In distracting Telibris like that, she had stopped him from thinking to block the pokéballs.

Telibris only noticed when he felt the knives press against his stomach. “You have tricked me,” he told Nim, his eyes going wide and his voice sounding as startled as he looked.

“Telibris, I really do want to help,” Nim said gently, reaching out with one hand to brush his cheek with her fingertips while her other hand was at her jacket to loosen the fabric as best she could from around her throat. “And I am sorry about this.” Dit watched as Lewis rose behind Telibris. Even a powerful Pokémon like the psychic was not immune to a sturdy length of wood connecting solidly to the back of his skull. Once again, the irony was not lost on Dit that Nim had previously used this same attack on him. It still looked pretty effective, cunning in its simplicity now that he was seeing it from the other side of the situation.

The Ditto watched as the altered Pokémon went down sluggishly, Lewis catching him so that Telibris was not further hurt. His human form wavered before returning to that which Dit had seen him in when he was attacking Nim before, his true self. He was not as good at maintaining a separate form while he was unconscious as the Pokémon trainer was.

Nim herself had been dropped to the concrete when Telibris had released his grip on the fabric of her jacket, where she sat and caught her breath a moment. She smiled up at Dit when she saw that he was unharmed.  Remy and Reba gave Dit a thumbs-up gesture, grinning at their victory. Their trainer then moved to sit beside the unconscious Pokémon who had threatened her life, resting his head on her lap. Dit really hoped he didn’t wake up on her, that was the last thing they needed.

“Oh, Telibris,” Nim said quietly as she stroked his ears. “I think I know how to help you, though. This is the only way to get you to stop so I could.” “You’re not going to just roll him off the bridge?” Dit asked dryly.

“Dit!” Nim protested, making an amused sound. “No, I am definitely not going to do that. If I didn’t take the easy route with you, I’m not going to take the easy route with him. No memory wipe, and no hurting him while he’s down.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Dit grumbled. “So…why like this? Like you did with me when I didn’t trust you?”

Nim smiled up at him. “Because I realized something when we went out for coffee, Dit. I realized that if he had met you here once, he’d likely do it again. It’s a good place for bad news. I didn’t want him to hurt you, but it also made a great spot for something I knew could possibly work. It did before, after all. Thank you for getting my head on straight this morning so that I could plan this instead of continuing to run scared. I needed to put my foot down and call the shots instead.”

“What now?” the Pokémon trainer wondered.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Nim was acting way too nonchalant as she drank her morning coffee. Dit fidgeted with the food on his plate, pushing it around with his fork while trying to determine if the other trainer’s idea was brilliant or just plain stupid. It had worked once, yes, but surely it would not work a second time.

“You’re just…going to let him sleep off that clonk to the head,” Dit said slowly.

“Yep,” Nim agreed casually. “MT was able to reverse the hypnosis which gave him the false memories, and repair the DNA combination that got messed up in his creation so that it won’t hurt him any longer to use his abilities. Now, I wait and see. You didn’t have to stay, you know.”

“You are absolutely insane,” he told her. “You know that, right?”

Nim did that shrug he detested so much. “Maybe I am,” she agreed. “But I’m going to try and trust him. Worked great with you, here we are.”

The woman paused when she heard a door open down the hallway. She made no move to get up, though Dit shifted in his chair a bit when he saw Telibris come into the kitchen. He was wearing the human form again, and his eyes literally glowed with absolute fury for her trickery the night before. Yet he seemed to have some regret as well, mingling with confusion at what had occurred. That showed in the odd tilt of his lips as he regarded the human before him. There was tense silence as the altered Pokémon stared at the back of Nim’s head. After several long moments, he turned away and walked out the front door.

Nim let out the breath she had been holding when he slammed it shut behind him. “Right,” she said softly. “I expected he might do that. A lot on his mind and all. Just because he knows the truth now doesn’t mean he has to like anything about me, especially not after that stunt I pulled with him last night. So, Dit, Pokémon battle after breakfast?” “…you’re really going to pretend that didn’t just happen?” Dit asked incredulously.

He watched Nim as she let out a quiet sigh. The woman closed her eyes for a few moments. It was hard for him to read her expression. “Dit? I have to,” she explained. “I can’t always be fighting that battle. You told me best, when you made sure I got out to take a day for myself after the incident with the Scyther. I need to take care of me, too. And sometimes that means separating the things that happen in my life.”

“Not the healthiest method out there,” Dit mused, perking up. “But I get it. You’d probably go crazier than you already are if you didn’t. As for a battle after breakfast…you ready to lose?”

“Bring it, Pinky,” Nim challenged before shooting him a warm smile. “And Dit? I don’t think I can say enough just how much I appreciate all you’ve done.”

Nim didn’t say what she was grateful for. She didn’t have to. Dit had gone from trying to kill her to actively saving her life twice over. When her head had been cloudy, he’d offered a bit of normalcy to help her clear it again. Of all people, the Pokémon trainer most justifiably found to be creepy had been her biggest help in the latest situation Nim had to deal with.

“You’re welcome that I failed to kill you, lady, and you’re stuck with me because you wanted to be friends,” Dit mused. “You know I’m going to win our next battle, right?” “Oh, you think so?” Nim quipped back.

The Ditto grinned. “You bet. Or rather…how about we make a bet? Tell you what, loser buys lunch. Deal?” “Raise you one better,” Nim told him with a smirk. “I win, you buy lunch. You win, I make lunch here and you get a pan of berry bars with pokénip all to yourself.”

“You are on, lady,” Dit agreed. He’d had her berry bars with ‘extra’ before, and that had been a helluva good time. Nim had even spoiled him with affection when the Pokémon had gotten cuddly, playing with his hair and rubbing his shoulders the entire time he had been under the influence of the pokénip.

He wasn’t surprised at how Nim chose to deal with things. Like he’d said before, it made sense in her own crazy way. And Dit was certainly looking forward to the Pokémon battle all the more. There were fresh baked goods on the line as well as a fight.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

It was hard for Dit to tell if Nim had actually lost or cleverly managed to throw in the towel without being obvious. Either way, it was nice to have lunch and a relaxing treat at her place. Warm berry bars with pokénip were definitely the best, hands down. The Ditto was snuggled on the sofa, getting a nice shoulder rub as he draped himself over the woman’s lap. His arms were crossed under his chin and he was definitely enjoying the attention. Everything was warm and fuzzy feeling, quite nice after all the weird that he’d experienced with Nim the past few days. Things were good and he was going to enjoy this.

“If you had told me I’d be letting you do this back when we first met, I would have laughed in your face,” Dit admitted to Nim with a giggle. He was already high as a kite on the pokénip in the treats and the blush on his cheeks showed it, along with his dilated pupils.

Nim chuckled, amused that yet again she was being used as a pillow while he insisted on getting affectionate attention. “Honestly? Big surprise to me, too. But I’m ok with this.”

“No more crazy for a bit, lady,” Dit demanded as a content sigh. “Quit pissing people off.”

“You can’t expect me to make that promise,” Nim said with a laugh.

Dit breathed heavily as he regarded the bloody body in front of him, grinning ferally. The man had not gone down easily- but that hadn’t deterred the Ditto in the slightest. He leaned against a nearby tree and tried to decide how best to get rid of the corpse. The Ditto finally decided that a lake would be the best bet. It looked like a Scyther attack, after all, as long as he didn’t do anything that would put his human prints on the body. A good water blast at the camp site would clean the signs of the blood right up.

He paused when he saw a large cardboard box near the fire. It caught his attention because of a faint scuffling sound that suggested it didn’t just contain supplies. The Ditto went over, curiously nudging it with his foot when he heard a soft sound from inside it once more. When nothing sprang out of it, he tentatively opened the box to inspect the contents. The Pokémon trainer ran one hand over his face as he regarded the three oblong objects. Well, that was not what he’d been expecting.

Eggs. And not just any eggs, these were rare Riolu eggs. He had no way to get them to someone who might return them, not without arousing suspicion as to how he himself had gotten these. That was the last thing he needed, seeing as there were other things he’d done which were…not legal.

The eggs were at the stage where they would move every once in a while, the tiny inhabitant trying to get comfortable in a space which was fast becoming far too small. They’d need to be in the care of someone soon. One had a crack in the shell- not from hatching, but rather damage that had happened to the egg. It looked like it would be alright, though, nothing smelled off and it did wobble a bit.

Dit had stumbled on three rare eggs when taking out the Team Rocket grunt who had been transporting them.

…but he had no interest in raising babies, especially not baby Pokémon. Newborn Pokémon needed a lot more attention than he had to give. He and his team just couldn’t do that, baby Pokémon wouldn’t work with their lifestyle. It wouldn’t be fair to the little ones even if he had wanted to. Which he decidedly did not.

The trainer sighed before realization struck.

Of course, why hadn’t he thought of her first? He knew someone who would absolutely love three baby Pokémon. The fact that they were Riolu eggs would just be the icing on the cake. From what he knew of the trainer, she absolutely loved Riolu, and their evolved form, Lucario. The woman would be the perfect home for three tiny little monsters.

He quickly cleaned up the camp site, got rid of the body, and made sure there was no blood on himself. No evidence to show that he was there- and no sign of a crime. Even the campfire was put out and scattered. The Ditto then scooped up the box, taking it with him. It was late at night, but he knew the trainer in question didn’t sleep much anyways. It’d probably be fine.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Nim had been comfortably asleep for only an hour when Dit knocked on her door, waking her up. She and her team looked blearily at the smiling Ditto when he held up a box. The woman sighed at his cheerful attitude. “Yes, hello to you too, Dit,” she grumbled tiredly. “Couldn’t this have waited until morning? A decent hour when I have coffee?” “Nope, these need you now,” he told her, plunking the box in her arms.

The sleepy woman barely managed not to fumble the heavy thing. “And what are ‘these’, exactly?” she asked as she took the box to the kitchen table, setting it down to take a look. “What did you- find- oh!”

He chuckled when he saw that she was immediately awake. All signs of being tired were gone as the woman stroked the shells gently. She carefully lifted each one out of the box, checking its temperature and listening for signs of life. Her smile only grew as she inspected each of the eggs and found them to be fairly healthy.

“Dit, where did you get them?” she gasped. “These are Riolu eggs!”

The Pokémon trainer gave her his creepy trademark grin. “I was dealing with a member of Team Rocket, and he had them,” Dit explained. “I’m not a fan of babies, I thought of you.”

“Dealing with…ah, I see,” Nim said after a moment. She knew full well what that meant. Of course the Ditto had killed the Team Rocket trainer in question. Well, she knew what he did, and while she didn’t condone it…there were babies who needed her now. No time to focus on how Dit had gotten them, not that she really would have anyways. She happily cuddled each of the eggs, crooning over them. Lucas, her Lucario, had watched in silence the entire time. Dit thought he was angry, at first, but the Lucario’s blank expression had soon become a look of stunned delight. There would be Riolu pups! He’d have siblings! He knew how his mother loved Riolu- she would be ecstatic with three of them running around the house.

“Take care of them,” Dit told her. “I’m trusting you to treat these Pokémon right.”

Nim smiled at him, resting her chin lightly on the egg in her arms. “I promise I will,” she told him. “Oh, goodness, let’s get them tucked in for the night! Lucas, help me get a few more blankets, we’ll make a nest on the bed. Far better than in incubator, they need warmth but also a body nearby. Get the wool blankets from the closet, those will be best.”

Dit left the woman and her team to getting the eggs settled in. He knew he’d made the right choice to bring them to the human. The Ditto was sure that the newborns would be spoiled rotten when they hatched, since Lucas already was.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

It had been a week since Dit had dropped off the eggs in the middle of the night. He decided to stop in and see how they were doing, not to mention their caretaker. While he waited for Nim to get the door, he got the distinct feeling of being watched the entire time. But there was no one around that he could see.

“Hey, Nim,” he said when she finally got to the front door. “You look like hell.”

She gave him a tired grin. Looking like hell was an understatement- her hair was a mess and she looked like she hadn’t slept in days. There was a noticeable bruise on her cheek just below her eye, and the trainer was out of breath like she’d been running. “Gee, thanks, you’re such a charmer,” she replied dryly.

Then Nim froze, holding up one hand. “Wait, it’s gone too quiet…oh no, where’s Bing? Bing, come on, where are you?” she called into the house. “Bingham, you better not be causing mayhem again. Neve, Kip, c’mon over to Mommy. I need to know where at least two of you are.”

Dit made an amused sound when two little Riolu came over. Each was wearing a different color of bandanna tied around their neck. “This is Kip,” Nim said, gesturing to the one in the red bandanna before pointing at the one in the purple bandanna. “And this is Neve. Bingham…is here somewhere.”

“Cute,” Dit said as he looked at them. “They seem real happy.”

Before he could say anything else, a little blue and black blur dropped down beside him from the roof top. The tiny figure jumped up, using Wind Chop right across his stomach. Dit stumbled back, gasping for air, and crossed his arms over his torso to shield against a possible second attack. He barely managed not to cuss as he looked at the Riolu with the orange bandanna around his neck. The newborn was already a powerful little monster, and feisty to boot.

Bing pointed at Dit, looking up at his mother proudly. Look what he could do, he’d taken down the big man! He then nuzzled against the Ditto’s knee in an oddly affectionate gesture considering he had been so aggressive just a few moments ago. The tiny pup had won, now he could be cuddly to this friend of his mother.

Nim sighed, shooing the little Riolu pup inside before resting one hand on Dit’s shoulder as he recovered. “Hey, that means he likes you,” she said sheepishly as the Ditto glared daggers at the infant. “Sorry about that.”

“I can’t imagine what would happen if he didn’t like me,” Dit said dryly.

The woman snorted. “Oh, trust me, you’d know,” she explained. “This morning, he decided for whatever reason that he didn’t like the ranger who came to drop off a Pidgey who is going to stay with me for a few days. Bing didn’t jump like he did when he hit you just now, and instead used an uppercut punch combined with Wind Chop.”

“He’s like…barely up to my knees,” Dit said. “If he didn’t jump, then where did he hit? The shins?” Nim shook her head. “Think about it.” The Ditto paused for a moment as he worked out what she was saying. Then his eyes widened when he understood. Oh- oh hell. That poor ranger. He glanced at the seemingly cute little Riolu who was snuggling against Nim’s legs. A veritable monster of a baby indeed. Bing just smiled up at Dit as he leaned against his mommy. He was a fierce Riolu, he’d protect her from anyone! But she seemed to like this trainer, so he’d go easier on him.

“Come on in, Dit,” Nim said as she scooped up Bing. Kip and Neve happily ran off to the kitchen- it was lunch time, lots of good food!

“You want a sandwich?” the woman asked Dit tiredly as she started to prepare three bottles as well as a large amount of berry mash. “Pretty sure I have the energy to make that, at least.”

Dit made an amused sound as she went to lift the little Riolu pups up to the chairs at the table once their bottles were made. Neve and Bing seemed to be able to manage and just wanted to be held for a moment while she Nim set them on the chairs- Kip seemed a little special, though, and kept trying to walk forward instead of attempting to jump up on to the chair. “Is he ok?” the Ditto asked Nim confusedly.

She smiled faintly before kissing the tiny Riolu pup on the head. “He’s ok,” she promised. “Just…a bit of a special bab, that’s all. He’s the one who hatched out of the cracked egg.”

He gave a small nod and knowing look at that. Right, well, the little guy was with the best trainer for that. Nim would care for the young Riolu no matter what. He watched as the woman made sure each youngster got a bottle before she made a sandwich for Dit. When she sat at the table without something for herself, the Ditto cleared his throat.

“Oh, right, my lunch,” she said with a bemused chuckle.

Dit made sure she got a sandwich for herself and didn’t immediately focus on the pups first. The woman managed to eat a few quick bites before she set about feeding the baby Pokémon the berry mash as well as their bottles. That was less than ideal, but the Pokémon trainer supposed it was better than nothing. And at least it wasn’t like a sandwich could get cold.

“You doing alright?” Dit asked as he watched her take care of the three little Riolu pups. “You look tired. More than usual, I mean.” “I sleep when these terrors do,” Nim chuckled. “And they’re always hungry, still at the age where they need a bottle late at night.”

“Sounds fun,” he said sympathetically.

The woman smiled as three sticky little pups clambered on to her lap, poking each other as they tried to get comfortably curled up. “I love ‘em anyway,” she said. “Ok, boys, no, bath time before nap time, don’t think wiping berry juice on my shirt will make you any less sticky. That goes doubly so for you, Bing.”

Dit let her bathe the Riolu pups, finishing his own sandwich as she did that. Nim came back a short while later in a clean shirt, awkwardly carrying three tired infant Pokémon. She sat down and let them curl up in a cuddle pile on her lap to sleep. The woman then retrieved her half-finished sandwich, taking a large bite. Dit pushed her glass of iced tea a bit closer in a subtle prompt to take care of herself.

“I’m glad I could bring them to you,” he said sincerely. “Even if being a new mom is hell on you. Sorry about that.”

“They’re wonderful, even if Bingham is a little hellion and Kip is special,” she mused, tapping below the bruise on her cheek with one fingertip. “Did you know that Riolu hatch ready for a fight before they want to cuddle? Bingham especially, jeez, he tried to take me out. I wanted to snuggle him in my arms, he wanted a fight, bonked me good before I got my defenses up.”

The Ditto tilted his head. “I was gonna ask for a Pokémon battle, but I think you’re not in any shape to do that right now, no offense.” “You want to fight Bing, tire the little guy out when he wakes up?” Nim asked with a laugh.

“Not if he goes for the balls,” Dit told her, wincing at the thought.

The woman snorted. “Oh, he does, he’s my brutal one. And it was so strange, too, I’m not sure why he decided he didn’t like a ranger of all people. I mean, you’d think he’d like someone who helps Pokémon.”

Dit paused. “Did anything feel off to you? You read Aura…”

She sighed. “No, it didn’t feel off, but I also wasn’t looking. I didn’t think of that.”

That made sense. Dit could see just how tired his friend actually was. Raising three young Riolu was tough- there was a reason he hadn’t even considered doing it. Of course she had seen no reason not to trust a Pokémon ranger, why should she? Especially not if they left a Pidgey in her care- Nim was there for Pokémon who needed a place to recover, and that was a good cover if someone wanted to get a look around.

“Just keep an eye out,” the Ditto told her. “I know your enemies, you hang out with powerful Pokémon who have a lot of nasty people after them. And there’s probably stuff you haven’t told me.”

“You aren’t wrong,” she agreed with an annoyed sound.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Knowing what Dit did regarding Nim and her rehabilitation house, he got the feeling that she would have a fight on her hands soon enough. Bing, obnoxious though the little monster was, seemed to be more aware than his exhausted mother. Not that Dit was faulting Nim for not noticing something was off sooner. She did have her hands full.

So he did what any friend would do and stuck around for the battle. He liked a good fight, and if one was coming to Nim, well, Dit was not above getting to join in on the defense. Not that Nim was aware he hadn’t gone home. She really was feeling the drain of raising three rambunctious Riolu pups, considering she still hadn’t noticed his presence.

The Ditto watched from the roof of the house in the form of a Taillow as Nim played in the back yard with the infant Riolu. They were practicing with Lucas. Neve and Bingham were genuinely training, while Kip…well, Kip was trying, but Dit got the feeling the little guy was more suited to being a companion Pokémon.

He had been right, trouble was coming her way. The Pokémon trainer saw the man slip into the back yard, over the wall, with a pokéball in hand. Before he could call out a warning, the Team Rocket member threw the pokéball at Nim. The woman retaliated, throwing Pipsqueak’s pokéball before recalling Kip and Neve to their pokéballs.

But Bing had been grabbed by the man’s Gengar already, and was struggling to get away from the large Pokémon. He was kicking and trying to fight back, doing his best for having his little paws pinned. The baby didn’t know what to do yet in such a situation, he hadn’t been trained for that. Bing, for all of his fierce attitude, was still just only four days old.

Pipsqueak gave Nim a frantic look. He could use his most powerful move, it would work just fine against a Gengar…but what if he hurt the young Riolu? Nim was torn about what command to give when Dit dove down, barreling into the Gengar by shifting to a Tauros at the last moment. The startled ghost type dropped the Riolu, who immediately used Wind Chop on the big Pokémon’s stomach in retaliation.

Realizing he was outnumbered, the Team Rocket trainer summoned a Lucario of his own to try and combat Nim’s team as well as the unexpected Dit. Nim hesitated when the Lucario made a miserable sound, focusing an Aura sphere at her. “I’m sorry,” he said in her thoughts. “I have to.”

“Oh no,” she said softly, before frantically shielding herself and Pipsqueak with Aura.

Dit got an idea when he saw that Bingham was still rearing for a fight. “Bing, remember what you did when you said hello?” he told the little Riolu. “Say hi to that bad man, he wants to hurt your mommy.”

Bing gave him a confused look before the light bulb clicked. Oh yeah, he remembered that! The little Riolu darted in close to the Team Rocket grunt, using an uppercut punch and his favorite move.

The man went down with a screech. He managed to recall his Pokémon before running off very awkwardly after just a few moments on his knees. Dit had to give him credit, he had to have balls of steel to run after that. Or he knew what Nim would do to him for attacking her kids…a pissed off Gyarados had nothing on the trainer if the look on her face was any indication. She looked ready to tear him apart.

The little Riolu chased after the human, irate and shaking his little fists when he couldn’t get over the wall. Then he ran back to Nim, who scooped him up into her arms and kissed the pup’s head and ears. She looked up at Dit when the Pokémon trainer shifted to a Garchomp. “Get him, please,” she asked the Pokémon trainer with a low growl. “Do what you do best regarding Team Rocket?”

He nodded before taking off after the man. Catching up was more than easy- and Dit was not about to show mercy when he got a hold of the human. He hated Team Rocket with a passion. The Ditto also wasn’t sure what the man had seen of his shifting and abilities- not to mention his talking. It was a threat to him as well as Nim for this one to be alive.

This idiot made the mistake of trying to hide in an area outside of town. Well, all the better for Dit to do what he needed to. He shifted to human form and crept close. The man was making it too easy, breathing heavily and blundering through the forest as he was. Dit changed one arm to a bladed Scyther claw, brought it up swiftly across the human’s chest and throat, and watched as he dropped to the ground with a gurgling scream of pain.

Dit waited until the human had stopped moving entirely to rummage through his pockets for the pokéballs. There were three, and three pokéballs which hadn’t been set yet. Probably for the Riolu he was trying to kidnap from Nim. Good thing Nim had already gotten the pups with her own pokéballs, being able to recall them to safety had made the rescue easy.

The trainer got rid of the body before cleaning up his crime scene. Spotless as ever- he’d had practice. The Ditto then regarded the pokéballs in his hand. He had seen firsthand that the Lucario had apologized to Nim for what he was trying to do to the woman. And the Gengar had been particularly careful of the Riolu pup in spite of the attempted snatching. He wasn’t sure what was in the third pokéball, but he had a feeling he’d find another Pokémon who regretted having a bad human for a boss. And he knew all too well what that had been like. His family had been afraid of their previous trainer, too.

He pocketed the pokéballs before heading back to Nim’s house. Well, he had a plan for that now. Normally he’d release them to do their own thing, but this time, he felt it would be better they got some TLC before making any decisions. He also needed to know what all they had seen.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Nim chuckled as she set out some freshly baked berry bars for the Pokémon sitting at her table. They didn’t have any pokénip in them, but they were still good, so Dit had snagged one from the pan while she was cutting them. The big Gengar was actually quite a sweetheart, for being such a mischievous Pokémon, and drank a cup of tea quite daintily. The Lucario was young, like her Lucas, only having evolved to his final evolution in the last few years. Last but not least was a Sawk, who also drank his tea like a proper gentleman.

…Nim’s Riolu kits were messy about enjoying the treats, and drinking their bottles. Bing had nearly spilled the woman’s tea on himself as well as her in an attempt at pulling the cup down so he could get a sip of it. “So many sticky faces and paws,” the trainer said with a shake of her head as she looked at them.

“What happens to us now?” the Lucario asked quietly, his paws wrapped around a mug of hot tea. “He left us…and I’m happy about that…he was awful, and threatened to use the shadow process if we didn’t obey him. But now what?”

Dit let Nim do the explaining as he ate one of the bars. That was why he had brought them to her, after all. This was the sort of thing she did. The woman smiled at the three of them as she spoke. “Well, you have a choice,” Nim explained. “I can release you from your pokéballs and destroy them, and you can go your own way. Or, I can destroy your old pokéballs and you can stay here until you know what you want to do, be it stay with me until I can find a trainer you like or choose to go elsewhere. Either way, we’re getting rid of those things.”

The Lucario gave her a soft little smile before looking at Dit. The Ditto waved back before promptly snagging another one of the berry bars. “Thank you for bringing us here,” he said quietly to the Pokémon trainer. “I…I want to stay.”

Nim beamed as the big Gengar nodded, not to mention the Sawk. They hadn’t felt good about attacking a rehabilitation home, but what could they do against their trainer? Now, though, they had a chance to do some positive things instead. They would stay and help protect the others who Nim cared for.

“Looks like your team has grown again, Nim,” Dit said with a laugh.

The sound of his voice made the Lucario and the Gengar pause. They looked at each other, remembering the talking Pokémon who had shifted between forms so easily and had to be a Ditto. Dit’s eyes narrowed when he saw recognition dawning.

“Did you kill him?” the Lucario asked in a shaky mental voice.

Dit stayed silent. The young Pokémon shook his head. “No, please, I need to know,” he pleaded. “He…he bragged about what he had done…to the trainer he kidnapped me and Piper from…and what he was going to do to Nim when he stole her Riolu pups…I need to know that bastard is dead. Please.”

The Pokémon trainer’s expression became softer at that. He felt that the nervous young Lucario was being sincere. “He’s dead,” Dit promised, a steely glint in his eyes. “Dead and never coming back. I brought you to one of the safest places I know. You saw how Nim fights for those in her care. She’ll do the same for the three of you. This human won’t let anyone on Team Rocket get you again.”

Bing made a soft sound, not entirely sure what was going on. He did see that the Lucario was sad, though, and sweetly offered him a slightly nibbled berry bar. Didn’t treats and nice things make things better? The Pokémon took it from the infant with a little smile. “Thank you,” he told the pup.

The Gengar spoke up then, surprising Dit by being able to speak a human language. Then again, some Ghastlys and their evolutions tended to have an easier time of it with speaking in a human language when they wanted to, so it wasn’t as big a surprise. He had an odd accent, though, likely learned in another region. “Weel, ye kin be sure we are safe an’ sound here, li’l Rowan. Ah dink ye will be doin’ jus’ fine wit’ these li’l Riolu ‘round.”

“I hope so, Piper,” he said softly. “Rowan? Is that your name?” Nim asked the Lucario with a faint smile.

He nodded. The woman’s smile became wider as a thought struck her. “Well, Rowan, I know something the three of you will like very much, I think. It’s a tradition when we get Pokémon who are rescued from Team Rocket.”

Dit followed the others outside, wondering what Nim was talking about. He hadn’t heard of this tradition of hers yet. The Ditto watched as Nim took the three pokéballs out of her pocket, handing each of the rescued Pokémon the ball that was theirs. She then patted Pipsqueak on the neck. “You know what to do, big guy,” she crooned. “But aim away from the garden this time, please.”

He nodded, making a happy sound back before aiming a Burn Blast attack straight upward. Piper realized first, hurling his pokéball into the roaring flames. Upon understanding what he was doing, Rowan and the Sawk did the same. All three spheres hung in the air from the force of the attack for a few seconds before falling into the grass as slagged and unusable items, barely recognizable for what they had once been and glowing hot. Those Team Rocket pokéballs would never be used again.

“Feel better?” Nim asked them cheerfully.

The three nodded, and Piper had the biggest grin on his face. Dit found he approved of this tradition of pokéball destruction. Nim definitely had her ways of helping those who were brought to her. The woman then offered them hugs and affection before leading the way back into the kitchen. After she got them settled in with more tea and treats, she pulled Dit aside.

“Hey, thank you,” she said softly. “I was caught off guard and I appreciate the help.”

He shoved his hands in his pockets, giving her a toothy grin. “You ain’t half bad, lady. You probably would have been just fine. But you’re welcome.”

Nim sighed as she leaned back against the kitchen counter. “Team Rocket is getting bolder…I don’t know what to do. So many new cases, and it sounds like even the lower ranking members are getting access to shadow Pokémon now from what Rowan said…three Riolu eggs…what is going on?” she wondered as she tipped her head back. “Is because we’re in a bigger city, or what?”

“You holding up alright?” Dit asked. “It’s not just the Riolu pups that have you so tired lately, is it? Stuff been going on here at the house, and with your family?”

She shrugged, giving him a little smile. “I’ll live, I always do. There’s just been a lot going on. It’s starting to get to me, a bit.”

The Ditto tilted his head. What she didn’t say told him just as much as what she had. There was a lot of stuff going on again, and she hadn’t been talking about it to him. So it was definitely her ‘Team Family’ stuff wearing on her. Now he was wondering if bringing her three kids hadn’t been a bit much to drop on her shoulders. But then he remembered how fondly she had smiled at the infants while tending to their needs. Nah, he’d made a good choice, she loved the tiny monsters and the triplets loved her.

“How come you don’t have cameras and stuff around here?” he asked when he realized that the only defense of the house was a large wall and rehabilitated Pokémon with bad attitudes.

“Because then some Pokémon and people wouldn’t feel they could come here,” Nim said with a bemused sound. “You think you’re the only one who comes around with secrets?”

He looked over at the Pokémon sitting at the table. Right, Nim had friends and family who were exceptionally infamous, and of course wild Pokémon knew to come to her for help as well through word of mouth from those she had helped. They’d talked about her space being open to literally anyone. He was proof, he came over whenever he felt like it.

The Pokémon trainer grinned as a thought hit him. “You need a bunch of Houndour or Arcanines,” he said. “Maybe a Granbull or two.”

Nim snorted, looking amused at that. “Still defeats the purpose, Dit,” she reminded him gently. “They’d scare off some of the Pokémon who need help as well.”

“You and your helping everyone,” he grumbled. “Fine, I get it, just be more careful.” “Aura check on everyone who comes in,” the woman agreed. “Even if they’re supposedly a ranger or something. That was a slip-up I’m not going to be doing again.”

“Good,” Dit replied.

He blinked when she reached up to poke between his eyes with one fingertip, where a nose should have been. Nim giggled before saying mischievously, “Vibe check.”

“Lady, I’m gonna smack you,” he said in exasperation.

She laughed harder at that. “Yep, you’re Dit.”

The woman smiled before giving him a quick hug. “And thank you again. Don’t ever change, alright?”

“Wasn’t planning on it,” he promised

Nim went back to focusing on the newcomers, trying to figure out where best to put everyone for the night. Kip and Neve were tired, lifting their paws up to be held and cuddled by their mother as she got the newcomers comfortable. Bing surprised Dit by coming over to him. The little pup didn’t want to be lifted up, he just wanted to lean against the trainer’s leg and rest a bit.

“Oh, now you like me, huh?” Dit asked. “Yeah, alright.”

Bing watched as his mother got the others taken care of. His brothers were tucked into bed as well, though the little Riolu pup was fighting sleep. Dit pointed down at him when he saw that Nim was looking for Bing. The tiny monster was still using him as a place to lean.

“Awww, you decided he’s ok, huh?” Nim said as she scooped Bing up. “Time for bed, you. And no, no bedtime fight this time.”

Dit gave a low whistle at that. “You have to fight him to get him to go to bed?” he asked incredulously.

Nim made an amused sound. “He’s my wild one, no lie,” she told the Ditto. “A little spitfire of a pup, for sure.”

But for once, Bing went to bed without a fight. Normally it wasn’t much of a battle anyway, just his mother deflecting an attack before tucking him into bed. Nim smiled as she watched the sleepy little Riolu snuggle into the cuddle pile with his brothers. It warmed her heart to see the triplets. Then she went back to the kitchen where Dit was and started making a pot of coffee.

“Great, I’m wired for sound now and going to regret it tomorrow morning,” she said tiredly.

The Pokémon trainer gave her a sympathetic nod. He watched as the woman made two sandwiches, sliding one over to him and keeping the other for herself. “Seems like you’re always hungry,” Nim snorted.

“And you always worry about everyone else, take care of yourself,” he quipped back.

Nim chuckled, making no promises as she ate. Dit hadn’t expected her to. They’d had this talk before, and every time she just would shrug and smile. It was infuriating. He did take the sandwich, though, and appreciated the gesture.

“Thanks,” Nim said quietly after a little while. “For everything you’ve done.”

“I tried to kill you a few times, brought you three little hell beasts who have been wearing you down, and killed a guy for you tonight,” Dit mused. “That’s not what most people would be grateful for, lady. You know that, right?”

“Don’t forget saving my life and being a friend,” Nim added.

Dit shook his head as he watched her take a long swallow of coffee. And here she was saying he should never change- Nim was just as strange in her own way. It was a good way, though, he liked not being judged for his actions.

“Yeah, ok,” he agreed. “There is that. Nim? Do me a favor- don’t you go changing either.”

“For better or worse, you know I won’t,” she promised.

He knew she meant that. There were some things he and others who knew her wished that the woman would do differently. But then again…that was what Nim did, and those infuriating actions made her so good at what she did for others.

Dit was about to knock on Nim’s door when he realized it was quiet. Too quiet. The lights weren’t on or anything even though the day was extremely overcast. He thought at first she might have been asleep or out running errands…before he saw the splash of dark red on the grass.

The Ditto knelt down and dipped his fingers in it- tacky, at least an hour old. And there was a lot of it. A handprint on the corner of the house showed where someone who was bleeding had stumbled and tried to catch themselves, using the same hand for balance that had been attempting to staunch a lot of blood. It was particularly dainty handprint with slender fingers, even for the obvious smearing. He swallowed hard before going to inspect it, following the splatters of crimson around the corner of the house. Another smeared print, this one even blurrier, more blood on the wall. The Pokémon trainer wasn’t sure what he was about to find in the back yard.

When he saw the distinctive hiking boots, his stomach twisted.

The woman was sprawled face-down on the grass and she wasn’t moving.

There was a lot of blood.

Dit sighed dejectedly as he hunkered down beside her body, picking up the glasses which had fallen near her prone form. She had been one of the rare humans he called a friend. “Nim, what happened?” he asked quietly as he fiddled with the frames in his hands.

Then his eyes lit up when he saw that there was a pulse of blue at her side just as she stirred a bit. Aura. She was still using Aura to try and stop the bleeding. His friend wasn’t dead. Somehow, the stubborn woman had managed to hold on. She groaned at the sound of his voice, eyes fluttering open weakly. The Ditto immediately rolled her on to her back after pocketing her glasses, being as gentle as he could. Her side was a mess- but proper compression would keep her from bleeding out until help arrived. Her use of Aura on the wound had likely saved her life.

“Come on, not today,” he said as he scooped her up as carefully as possible while doing so quickly. “Lady, you are gonna get yourself killed. You can tell me what happened later, let’s get you inside. We need to stop that bleeding before I call your family. You know I’m gonna yell at you about this, right? I-told-you-so and everything?”

The Ditto managed to treat her wounds with the contents of her first aid kit once he had stripped her bloody shirt off, cleaning the gash on her chest and side before wrapping nearly all of her torso with bandages and gauze. He ignored her yelps and other pained sounds. It had to be done for her own sake, and it had to be done tightly to stop the bleeding. Dit was almost relieved when Nim quieted into semi-consciousness, no longer needing to struggle to use her Aura to slow the blood loss. He could see she was still breathing, so it didn’t worry him too much when the blue light flickered out.

“Jeez, lady, what did you mess with?” he muttered as he regarded her.

Once he had staunched the bleeding, the Pokémon laid her out on the living room floor with a pillow under her head. She looked an absolute mess. The woman was breathing shallowly- every breath had to hurt- and still hadn’t opened her eyes much. What mumbling Nim had tried to do when he was moving her was not the least bit understandable. Dit sighed as he regarded the barely conscious human. He gently washed the blood from her hands and face, looking for other wounds to make sure the immediate threats had been tended to. Head wounds in particular could be nasty, though he didn’t see any major bleeding.

Aside from some small cuts and scrapes, she seemed to be doing alright. Most of the blood on her clothes was from the one injury, a big slice wound on her side which curved up to her chest. It was fairly shallow, but had seriously bled a lot. The bruising around it suggested that she had gotten smacked pretty hard as well as cut. He hoped there wasn’t too much messed up inside. There was nothing he could do about that for Nim if there was.

Now that he was reassured she wouldn’t bleed out, he had to make a phone call. And hope that the Pokémon would answer. During a conversation with Nim, he had learned that one of her family members could heal injuries like this, and she needed him to help her out now.

Dit looked around for her cellphone and found it in her pants pocket. He wondered at the absence of her team as he went through her contact list. Surely they would have helped her had they been there…Lewis definitely knew how to use a phone. Had her Pokémon been kidnapped? That would explain the condition Nim was in, she would never give them up without a hell of a fight. Maybe someone had gotten sloppy and forgot to make sure she was truly dead. That was probably something they’d come to regret if it was the case.

He paused when he found the number he was looking for. When the phone was answered after just a few short seconds, he could hear breathing at the other end but no voice. “This is Dit, something happened to Nim that wasn’t me,” he explained. “She is in a real bad way and I haven’t seen any of the others. We’re at her place.”

The breathing on the other end of the line stopped. He heard the phone go dead just a moment later. The Ditto busied himself with trying to further clean up his bloody friend while he waited for the powerful Pokémon to arrive.

Mewtwo did not keep him waiting long.

“Where is she?” the genetically engineered Pokémon asked when he arrived at the house. “Resting,” Dit said as he led the way to where he had put the woman. “I don’t know what happened, I came over and saw the blood. Found her like this and bandaged her up.” The Mewtwo had an unreadable expression on his face as he looked at the human and how badly she had been wounded, assessing the physical damage without a word. MT raised one hand, a purple glow crackling around the woman’s injuries as the Pokémon focused his power on her. Nim’s breathing evened out and it was as if her entire body relaxed. The light then completely surrounded her as the clone Pokémon levitated her carefully to the sofa instead of the floor where she had been laying. Dit could see the fondness in the Mewtwo’s careful attention to her- the woman was definitely family to him, and the big guy was concerned for her sake.

“There was a great deal of internal damage and blood loss, I could not heal the old wound in her leg at the moment,” the Pokémon explained to Dit when Nim was settled once more. “But the recent pains and damage could be eased. She will recover just fine with a bit of rest, which should be simple enough with the house quiet as it is.”

“You aren’t worried about her Pokémon?” Dit asked confusedly.

MT shook his head. “They are with friends,” he explained. “Nim thought it would be safe to be left alone…her entire team is with the younglings we consider as family, and she had no others in her care at the moment.”

“Great, she’s on her own and she still decided to pick a fight,” Dit grumbled. “Nim, what the hell did you tangle with this time?”

The clone Pokémon gave Dit an even look. “I must ask a favor of you, Ditto. I cannot stay here, my family needs me because of where they are. But Nim cannot be left alone. There are none I can trust who are available to care for her. But she has placed her faith in you, and that is enough for me to follow her lead.” “It’s Dit,” the trainer corrected. “…are you asking me to stay here with her?”

“It is a favor I would repay without question as you see fit at a later time,” MT said evenly. “Will you accept?”

The Pokémon trainer scratched his neck as he mulled it over. On one hand, the woman was someone he was on decent enough terms with, he would have done it anyways. Whatever she had messed with was definitely dangerous- but when had that stopped Dit before? So was he. And having a favor owed from a Mewtwo was an offer he could not resist even if he hadn’t somewhat liked this human.

“Sure,” he said. “If we need you, does that number work?”

“It does,” the Mewtwo replied with a small nod.

Dit looked at Nim, who was now sound asleep on the sofa. This human was such a lot of trouble, and going to get herself killed one of these days. He could definitely understand why the Mewtwo didn’t want her left alone right now.

“I’ll keep an eye on her,” he promised.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The Ditto was cooking dinner when he heard a stiff groan from the living room. He went out and found that Nim was sitting up, looking like she had decided to tango with a Mac truck or a Machamp. The woman winced before blinking at him blearily. He thought she was still dizzy until he realized she was squinting because she couldn’t see.

“You apparently need these more than I thought,” Dit said as he passed Nim her glasses. “How are you feeling?”

“Awful,” she told him. “What are you doing here? The last thing I remember was that Scyther…I thought it was you, with an injury or something, but then when I saw it wasn’t, he got me with an attack.”

Dit blinked. “You had an injured Pokémon come to you, and that’s what happened?”

Nim nodded, putting one hand to her side as she remembered. “Yeah. You seem to like that form, I thought…maybe it was you…my mistake. I realized that when he took a panic swipe at my side after ramming into me pretty hard. Wait…my injury is gone…did you contact MT or Sunny?” the woman asked when she realized that her wounds had been healed.

“I bandaged you up until the big guy arrived,” Dit agreed. “Came to visit and saw the blood, thought you were dead at first.”

“You stayed?” she murmured softly.

“The big guy promised me a favor in return, but I would have anyways,” the Pokémon trainer told her. “You should find some clean clothes and eat something. You look like you could use it.”

Nim nodded, noticing the bandages on her chest and torso as well as her lack of a shirt for the first time. Her bloody, shredded clothes were still lying beside the emergency first aid kit. “Thank you,” she told him. “I seriously owe you one, Dit.”

He watched as she rose to her feet, unsteady. The Ditto reached out to her and took Nim’s arm gently when she nearly fell over. “Hey, easy there. Even that Mewtwo couldn’t fix everything,” he chided.

“I know,” she said with a shaky laugh. “This is the old stuff hurting- but I’ll take being this side of the dirt. Though I would kill for a hot shower right now.”

Dit shrugged. “Then go for it,” he replied. “I can finish cooking, Nim, I don’t need to be entertained. Take care of yourself.”

He helped her get to her room, making sure that Nim didn’t face plant on the floor as she retrieved clean clothes. Then the Ditto followed after to keep an eye on the shaky woman until she got to the bathroom alright. He watched as she started to run the water in the tub- good, she wasn’t going to try and stand for a shower. Dit honestly wasn’t sure how she had managed even as much walking as she had to reach her room. She may have been awake, but he was not entirely sure she should be doing so much on her feet just yet.

“You mind?” she asked with a little laugh as she inspected his bandaging skills in the mirror. “A little privacy, Pinky. Hey, not bad. This would have held and stopped the bleeding even without MT, I think. Thank you, Dit.”

The Pokémon trainer stayed a moment more before realizing what the woman meant. “Oh! Oh. Right,” he told her before stepping out and closing the door.

He wasn’t about to say he’d already seen that- he had treated the wound, after all. But he could understand her desire for an attempt at modesty, at least. That was a thing with most humans.

Dit hummed to himself as he picked up with the cooking again. There had been all the fixings to make a wonderful meal not just for himself and Nim, but also his Pokémon family. He figured she wouldn’t begrudge him a warm meal for all of them considering what had happened. And she definitely needed to eat something after putting her body through that sort of trauma. He was happy to see that his friend was alright enough to have gotten back some of her sense of humor, though. The big Mewtwo was right, Nim would be just fine.

The Pokémon trainer shot her his usual creepy grin when Nim came out a while later. She was cleaned up, dressed in comfortable flannel pajamas, and looked to be feeling much better. “Well well, look who cleans up nice,” he teased.

“Thanks,” she said sheepishly. “You’re cooking dinner? I could have gotten that, Dit…”

He gestured for her to sit down when the woman started to move towards the stove, pointing the spatula at the table and chairs. Sure, she probably could. But he also could cook. Somewhat. “Don’t even think about it. How many times have you made breakfast? Besides, I’m almost done. My family are outside, running off some steam. We were hoping for a Pokémon battle after a boring day, but you’ve loaned your team out.” Nim chuckled. “To help some kids who are adopted family,” she said softly.

The Ditto rolled his eyes. “And who helps you out here with them gone? You are literally got yourself slashed up without your backup.”

The woman gave a little shrug, much to Dit’s annoyance. He didn’t like that. At one point, he had intended on killing this human himself…as a Scyther no less, sort of. Now she was brushing herself off again. He watched out of the corner of his eye as she got up from the table- now what was the other trainer doing?

But before he could demand she sit back down, Nim retrieved a container which held weekly dosages of medication from the island in the kitchen. She paused a moment, counting on her fingers after staring at it in consternation. “Hey, Dit, is today Tuesday or Wednesday?” Nim asked. “Wednesday,” he said slowly.

“Damn, missed one,” she said as she opened the compartment for the proper day and fished out the tablet. “Lewis called it, he said I would without him there to poke me.”

Dit watched as she put it in her mouth and tilted her head back. So much for knocking the pill down with a drink of water or something. The Ditto chose to focus on cooking instead when Nim didn’t offer any information about the purpose of the medication. He got the feeling it was something important where skipping a day was not a good idea, though.

“You supposed to eat something before you take that?” he asked as he started to plate up the burgers he had made.

“Taken before a meal,” Nim said. “Burgers, huh? I’m not surprised, you really seem to like those. Here, want me to get dinner out to your family?” “No, I want you to sit,” Dit told her firmly.

He carried the rest of the food out to his family, in a much better mood for seeing his friend on her feet. There was the typical generic Pokémon food, of course, but also things that he knew each of them loved to eat to go with it. Nim kept a well-stocked kitchen, after all. The Ditto smiled when his Arcanine licked his cheek before nuzzling him. The fire type made an anxious sound, looking towards the house.

“Yeah, she will be alright,” the Pokémon trainer said. “You’ve all met her, Nim is stubborn as hell. Stupid human.”

The entire team made sounds of agreement before focusing on their meal. Dit sat with them for a few moments more, then headed back inside. He was frustrated to find that Nim had been polite and waited for him to return to eat. She had, however, gotten up to pour a glass of iced tea for herself and a soda for him.

“You were supposed to start without me,” he grumbled as he sat down beside her. “I know you don’t eat enough as it is. You take care of everyone else, but not yourself.”

Nim snorted, giving him a little smile. “Hey, Dit? Thank you. I appreciate everything you’ve done.”

“Less talking, more eating,” he said, jabbing one finger towards her plate in annoyance.

Then his expression softened a bit. “And you’re welcome, Nim. Now eat already, I didn’t cook just so you could look at it.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Dit was fairly sure he could leave Nim on her own as darkness fell. The woman had eaten, drunk lots of water, and seemed to be taking care of herself. But he also didn’t trust that she wouldn’t try something else stupid. Her track record wasn’t so hot when it came to not getting herself into serious situations. So the Ditto watched from the sofa as she made popcorn and tried to decide on a movie.

“Any votes?” Nim asked as she regarded the options on Netflix.

The Pokémon trainer blinked and looked up. “What?”

“Since you’ve made yourself comfortable, any votes on the movie?” Nim asked. “And I can make up the guest bedroom for you, if you’re determined to stay the night.”

“Your friend asked me to keep an eye on you,” he told her.

Nim smiled softly at that. “Well, then, you should have a say in the movie. I’m thinking an action film, that new one about the trainer and his Eevee looked pretty good, where they’re figuring out who is trying to catch a Lugia and why? But I leave it up to you.”

“Sure, that one sounded like it might be good,” Dit said after a moment.

He made an amused sound when Nim came back with an enormous bowl of buttery popcorn. She plunked it between them on the sofa before sitting down, leaning back with a small sigh. Nim took a moment to just rest before finding the movie on Netflix, starting it after making sure that she had everything. Drink, popcorn, pillow, check.

“You need anything else?” she asked the Pokémon trainer beside her. He rolled his eyes in frustration. “For you to just sit down and take a break?” he said dryly. “You’re making me tired just looking at you, and I’m not the one who was stabbed.”

“Ok, ok, I get it,” she said with a chuckle.

Dit had to admit it was kind of nice to just hang out, though the circumstances why annoyed him. He was about to ask Nim what she thought of a part of the movie when he realized her eyes were closed and her head was back. She had fallen asleep on the sofa. The Pokémon laughed softly before moving the bowl of popcorn to his lap. Well, he’d watch the rest of the movie and let her sleep. No point in letting the popcorn go to waste, either.

He glanced at her when Nim shifted in her slumber. The woman leaned over and ended up with her head on his shoulder. “You better not drool in your sleep,” the Ditto admonished with a little snort.

The Pokémon trainer watched one more movie and finished off the popcorn, letting his friend slumber on. Dit was amused by how much Nim trusted him. For all the times he’d nearly killed her, she still had faith that he wasn’t a bad guy. “Why do you insist on trying to help everyone?” he mused quietly. “Someday, you’re gonna stretch your luck too thin and the help won’t come in time.”

He decided it was time to shift her to her own bed. His arm was starting to fall asleep, after all, and it would be much better for her to rest there anyways. The Ditto carefully lifted Nim, who instinctively snuggled against his chest. He made sure to tuck the blankets around her after transferring the woman to her room. As an afterthought, Dit even pulled the blinds down and closed the curtains so that the sunlight wouldn’t wake her before Nim was ready to get up on her own.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Dit woke up the next morning to a startled yell. He sat up, blinked, and recalled where he was. Nim’s guest bedroom, right. The Pokémon trainer realized that it had to have been Nim who had shouted and scrambled out of bed to find her. He found that she was in the back yard- and she was facing a Scyther.

He was ready to call for his family when he realized that the woman was holding out her hand not in fear, but reassurance. Even though she was the one who had fallen on the grass, Nim was attempting to offer comfort. The Scyther in front of her was indeed injured pretty obviously, with a cracked carapace and severe nicks in his bladed arms. His wings were also tattered. Something had beaten this Scyther up badly, and the bug type was lashing out in pain. Nim was…well, being Nim, and trying to help in spite of the danger to herself.

“Easy, big guy,” she crooned, still holding out her hand. “I don’t want to hurt you, and you don’t want to hurt me, shhh, there. Come on, settle down.”

The Scyther made a soft sound, wings twitching as he came closer to the woman. Nim stood- or rather sat- her ground and didn’t flinch a muscle. She gently stroked the top of his battered arm when the Scyther knelt down in front of her. He could feel that she meant him no harm now that he had calmed down a bit.

“There we go,” she said as the bug type trustingly rested his head against her hand. “That’s it, big guy, no one’s going to hurt you here. Goodness, what did you pick a fight with, hmm? Come on, let’s get you fixed up.”

Dit stared as Nim rose to her feet, gently leaning against the enormous Scyther and stroking between his eyes in a soothing gesture. The woman motioned that she would be just a moment before coming towards the back door, where the Ditto was still standing.

“See, he’s ok,” she said cheerfully. “I just moved too fast yesterday. Bug types are pretty sturdy, he’ll be alright with some basic care. Let me go and get the first aid kit as well as some food for the big guy. Sorry if I woke you up, I know it’s still awfully early.”

“You are going to get yourself killed,” he grumbled.

The Pokémon trainer found he appreciated what the woman did, even though he didn’t necessarily agree with her just throwing herself into situations like that. It was good that Nim was there for wounded Pokémon. She didn’t judge those who came to her, either. When the Scyther left, after being patched up and fed well, Nim just smiled and watched him go. She didn’t need thanks for what she did.

“He’ll be just fine,” she told Dit. “When he molts next, the old exoskeleton will come off, take the rubber cement and bandages with it, and he’ll be good as new.”

“He sliced you up pretty good yesterday,” Dit said. “Why are you so calm about that?”

The woman sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Because if I judged everyone who lashed out because they were hurt, or scared, how could I offer kindness and help?”

“Some of your other friends have gotten you before, haven’t they?” Dit asked slowly.

Nim nodded. She explained that the original Mewtwo- the one she called MT- had at one point thrown her against a tree. The branch had gone straight through her shoulder. Lucas had done his best to absolutely beat her to a pulp as a Riolu pup, pummeling her mentally as well as physically. The others had been in pain, and she had hurt to see that. Sometimes she had to get injured a bit to help.

Dit sighed heavily. “Yeah, I’ve seen you do that firsthand,” he agreed, recalling some of their own past interactions. “So, does that have anything to do with the meds you take?”

She gave him a little smile. “It does,” she admitted. “Maybe if I save others, I can keep saving myself.”

The Ditto gave her a confused look. Nim gestured for him to follow her into the kitchen before digging a pill bottle out of the drawer. She passed it to him- it had a name he couldn’t pronounce on the label, but just as clearly typed beneath it was the purpose of the contents. These were anti-depressants. Strong ones, too, from the look of things.

“You need these?” he asked her. “That’s what you forgot to take on Tuesday?”

“Yep,” Nim agreed. “I was diagnosed as a teenager. I take these, and they help, a bit. But keeping busy helps me even more. If I’m helping others…I can’t focus on my own crap. Except for the days where my brain gets especially weird, but caffeine usually shuts that down so I can focus, that’s the ADHD. I need to see about treating that too, at some point. Not the best coping mechanisms, but hey,”

Dit regarded the bottle in his hand. He hadn’t known that his friend was dealing with that. She masked everything so well…but now a lot more made sense. The Pokémon trainer stayed still for several long moments while Nim started to get things ready to make breakfast. Then he clenched the bottle in his hand and made a snap decision. He set it on the counter before gently pinning Nim’s hands with his own.

“Hey, stop that,” he said softly. “You’re not making breakfast today. Come on, I’m getting you out of the house for a bit. You’re here on your own? Cool, that means no one you need to take care of but yourself. It’s summer, I know you do not have classes to teach right now.”

“But I-”

“No,” Dit told her firmly. “When was the last time you had a day just to yourself?”

Nim fell silent at that. Her eyebrows crinkled together as she genuinely tried to figure out a decent answer to that question. Dit crossed his arms as he waited for her to reply. The woman gave him a sheepish smile when she couldn’t remember. “It’s been a while,” she admitted.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Dit watched as Nim hiked up a particularly steep area with her camera in hand to get photos- he hadn’t known she did photography. The human didn’t have her cane up there with her, because she needed her hands for her camera, and nearly stumbled twice. But she always caught herself before Dit could say something. The look on her face as she reached the point she had wanted to get photos from was one of freedom. With her hair blowing around her face as she overlooked the edge of the bluff, Nim looked the most content he’d ever seen her. The way she smiled and laughed looked genuine as she leaned her head back. He could tell that she wasn’t masking, today Nim really was having a nice time.

“You get some good pics?” he asked when she had made her way down once more.

“Yeah,” Nim said as she retrieved her cane from where it was leaning. “Phew, I will be paying for that climb now! I’ve missed hiking in this area. Got to admit, my house has taken…a lot. And then with all the stuff my family and friends need me to be there for…I needed this.”

The Ditto made a non-committal sound. He didn’t have to say what he was thinking- it had been obvious. Of course Nim had needed something like this. She was always giving of herself, but what did she get back? A recharge in the heart of nature was just what the human needed. Time away from her house, the responsibilities she had taken, the crazy life she had settled into when she befriended two Mewtwo clones and a homicidal Ditto. She needed a proper break. It seemed she knew the forested area well, and it was doing her good.

He froze when he heard a soft call nearby. That was a sound he wasn’t sure he should investigate. Nim, however, perked up and grinned. “Dit, want to see a really cool place?” she asked eagerly.

“What crazy are you about to drag me into?” he asked with a sigh.

Nim laughed at his statement. “No crazy, promise, it’s not like with Sunny and MT. I want to show you where we go when we all need a break,” she explained. “Whether we want to or not, if Mew decides we should go.”

Dit stared. Then stared some more. As he had thought, it was the call of a very particular Pokémon. And Nim had just confirmed it with what she said…but what she had said was insane by any standard. That one, too? What all did Nim do when she wasn’t teaching kids? No wonder she hadn’t batted an eye at all the things he’d tried to do to her over the first few weeks they’d known each other.

“Back it up?” he asked her slowly. “Did you just say Mew?”

The woman shrugged, tilting her head and making an amused little noncommittal sound before grinning at him. “You wanted to know more about the Pokémon I know last time we talked over pizza?” Nim asked. “Well, I trust you.”

Nim grinned, gesturing for him to follow. Then she took off, towards the sound he had heard, using her cane to help dodge brambles and such. Dit sighed before going after her. He and Nim were going to have to discuss what she considered to be ‘normal’ at some point.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Nim sprawled on the cool stone floor of the ruined little temple, sighing happily. Dit sat nearby and kept an eye out for their host. They had been led to the old stones, and a happy call had rung out before the little Pokémon had flown off once more. Something about a meal for friends.

“You really are comfortable here?” he asked as Nim closed her eyes and took several deep breaths.

“Hmm-hm,” she said. “When I was on my training journey, I’d stay in places like this for days before moving on.”

The Ditto paused when the mythical Pokémon returned, carrying a large amount of fresh fruit and berries through use of telekinesis. Mew looped around Nim with a happy chirp before regarding Dit with a curious sound. Nim’s laugh rang out again as the curious little Pokémon poked Dit’s face where his nose should have been with one paw. Dit’s eyebrows wrinkled in mild annoyance as the mythical Pokémon did it again with an amused sound this time.

“Mew, meet Dit,” she said. “Dit, meet Mew. This Pokémon…it gave Sunny a heart attack when it took me and Toby while I was watching the little guy.”

“And who is Toby?” Dit asked in confusion.

“MT’s son, a young Mewtwo clone,” Nim told him simply. “He’s a little cutie, we found out about him after our friend Borya helped get me and another friend back from Team Rocket, when they got us because of rescuing Lucas. Toby is another attempt at making a Mewtwo for nefarious purposes, but Borya took him from Team Rocket. MT and Kit adopted him.”

Dit just stared again. “What the hell do you do, lady?” he wondered out loud as he tried to process what she was telling him. He got the feeling he was only being told a massively condensed explanation of events.

Nim snorted. “What I need to,” she replied quietly. “What I wish more people did. Makes getting up on Monday mornings to go teach kids hard, though. One day I’m plotting rescues and fighting to keep my family safe, the next…a normal teacher, in a quiet classroom, trying not to bring my worries to work with me.”

The Pokémon trainer glanced at her before looking up at the tree branches above them. “You know, the world needs more humans like you and less like Team Rocket. Don’t get yourself killed doing the right thing, okay?”

“Trying not to,” Nim promised. “Yesterday was a fluke, that Scyther caught me off-guard and I didn’t dodge fast enough.”

Mew, who had been listening, gave the woman a startled look. It then intently stared at her face, searching for what it wanted- her memories of what had happened. The mythical Pokémon made an irate sound before going over to Dit to find out what he had needed to do for her. Nim sighed when Mew flew back to her once more and began to rant at her in annoyance. It was like being yelled at by a squeaky toy.

“Hi, Mew,” she said. “I know, I know, I was stupid. Yes, I’m resting. Oh come on, I do not need to be kept overnight- yes, MT healed me, I’m sure I’m good.”

Dit snorted as he regarded the woman and the other Pokémon. “I guess we’re spending the night out here,” he told her.

Nim made an amused sound. “Guess we are,” she agreed as she stood up. “Come on, I think MT gathered up some firewood the last time we were here, there’s a room that’s a bit more intact where we normally sleep. It’s got a nice fire pit and everything.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Dit looked up at the stars as the fire crackled nearby. His entire family was sleeping in the midst of the small ruins, and Nim had made a comfortable little nest of leaves and such to sleep in. It was a warm night, perfect for camping like this. Mew had brought them plenty of food and water, a simple meal, but also one of the best he’d had in a while because everything seemed to taste different out here. It was definitely not a burger and fries, but it was still nice.

He glanced over at Nim, also asleep. She looked comfortable and relaxed. More than he had ever seen her unwind before, as it were, it was almost like seeing a different person. The Ditto realized he still didn’t know a lot about her, even though they had been talking more over the past few weeks. There was so much going on in that head of hers that she just…kept to herself.

“She needed this,” he said softly, to no one in particular.

The Pokémon trainer sighed, looking up at the sky again. To be honest, so did he. It was good to get away from the city for a bit. Away from people. The sounds of the forest around them were soothing. This was an area where humans- aside from a rare few- didn’t come. It was wild and every sound proved it.

So did the stars. Without the lights of the city to drown them out, every single one sparkled above them. He’d watched as Nim traced constellations in the sky with her fingertip, laying on her back in the ruins and staring up with all of the joy of a wide-eyed child. She had particularly seemed to like the constellation Milotic, with its especially large starry eye. The Mew who was their host had made a soft sound at that before hugging her neck. Dit would have to ask what that was about later.

For now, though, what he needed was some sleep as well. He snuggled up to his team, content to sleep beside them. It had been a pretty long day but also a good one.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Dit woke up the next morning to find that Nim had gathered more things for breakfast. She was currently befriending his team with food and affection. “Traitors,” he teased when he saw they were enjoying being pampered a bit.

“Saved some for you,” Nim said with a grin.

The Pokémon trainer had to smile at that. They finished breakfast before letting Mew teleport them back to Nim’s home. MT was waiting in the living room, along with a Lucario that Dit had not met before. He glanced at Nim, who grinned in response.

“Trust me, he’s cool,” she said to the Ditto as she took the pokéballs of her team from the Lucario, putting the belt back around her waist where it belonged. “Thanks, Barry. How did Julie and Jonathon do?”

“Knocked it outta the arena, like you said they would,” the Lucario replied with a smirk.

Nim chuckled. “And did my crew behave themselves, only the attacks they were told?” “Yup,” Barry replied. “It was great, one of the few times I wish I was human again, I’d have loved to challenge the kids.”

Dit gave him an incredulous look. “Human…again?” he asked slowly.

Barry snorted. “What, Nim hasn’t told you?”

“I keep my friend circles apart, you know that,” Nim replied. “Besides, I hadn’t gotten your permission to say anything, and honestly hadn’t thought of it. That’s Team Family stuff.”

“Go for it, I don’t mind,” Barry said. “Your buddy looks curious.”

Nim made an amused sound before turning to Dit. “So, right, the deal with Barry. He was a human trainer who needed out of Team Rocket, but had no way to really get out because of his rank and a bunch of other stuff. MT made him into a Pokémon, was going to turn him back again when we could figure out getting him away safely. But then they had to rescue me, and he had to rescue the kid who is his trainer by having his pokéball thrown to her so he could carry her up a cliff. But his pokéball wouldn’t work because of the dormant human DNA, so he had MT take that out and now can’t go back to being human. He trains with a sweet kid I know named Julie.”

The Ditto just stared at her, stunned by the matter-of-fact tone which Nim used. Yet again he was getting a condensed version, and it still sounded crazy to hear. The human sounded like she was just talking about the weather when she casually explained all of that to him. It also was something she wouldn’t tell just anyone- he got the feeling she was placing a lot more trust in him again.

“Is anything ever normal around you?” he asked slowly.

Barry answered before she could. “Probably not, man, she doesn’t tell even us everything. And we’re Team Family, the ones who she fights with and trusts.”

The woman chuckled as she rubbed the back of her neck. “Yeah, that’s fair,” she said. “It’s only as big a deal as you make of it.”

Dit laughed as the Lucario gestured at Nim with both of his paws, a frustrated look etched on his muzzle. “I know what you mean,” he agreed.

“I mean, hell, some dude has been trying to kill her off and on the past few months, and she brushes it off!” Barry muttered. “I heard from one of the others she even still has dinner and stuff with him, can you believe that? Won’t let this big guy wipe his memories or anything.”

Nim smirked at him as Dit hunched his shoulders, pulling his cap down a bit over his face. “Ah…that would be me,” he admitted with his usual grin.

Barry paused. “You?” he asked, scarlet eyes narrowing.

“Barry, no,” Nim said firmly. “Absolutely not, no. I told Sunny no, too. There’s a lot going on you don’t know about. And who on Team Family has a big mouth? I asked Sunny and MT not to tell you guys about Dit.”

The Lucario growled. Nim crossed her arms over her chest and gave him a stern look. “Sunny,” he admitted in a quiet mutter. “She only told the adults of Team Family, and said you wanted it kept secret. Didn’t tell us a name or anything like that, especially didn’t say he’s a Pokémon. And seriously? Lady. Seriously. Nim, I adore you and you’re great, but what the hell?”

“If it is any consolation, I regularly tell her the same thing after our…misunderstanding,” Dit offered, mildly annoyed that the female Mewtwo had been talking about him but relieved to know it was in circles that couldn’t blab to anyone else.

“What does she see in you?” Barry demanded in frustration.

Dit shrugged. “You figure it out, let me know.”

Nim lightly smacked Dit in the shoulder, and Barry as well for good measure. “Same thing I see in you, dork,” she told the Lucario. “I see that sometimes, situations get out of control, and you end up where you shouldn’t be. Doesn’t necessarily make you a bad guy. The world can’t be black and white, there are gray areas.”

“Too trusting,” Barry grumbled. “But I get it. One of these days, Nim, someone is going to come along who you can’t help. And I really hope they don’t hurt you too badly.”

“Someone else who agrees with me,” Dit said innocently. “Yeah, yeah, I hear you guys,” Nim told the Pokémon. “But honestly, I’m willing to take that risk. You two, shoo, I’ll meet up with you later. I wanted to talk to Dit about something.”

Barry waved to her, while MT put up his human illusion and nodded to Nim. Dit was surprised as ever to see the big Mewtwo hug the woman- he’d called her family, but still, it was something to see. The Pokémon trainer hadn’t expected that sort of fondness from another known for his intense dislike of humanity.

“What did you want to talk about?” Dit asked when the door was shut behind them.

“Well, first, I wanted to apologize for Sunny’s big mouth. I also wanted to thank you,” Nim told him. “I mean it, thank you. Not just for helping me the day before yesterday, or taking me out of the city afterwards. I literally mean everything. Your trust means a lot to me. I know that’s not an easy thing to get, so…thank you. For trusting me as much as you do.”

Dit stayed quiet for several moments. Then he lightly nudged her with his elbow. “You know? You’re not half bad, Nim. For a human, your heart is in the right place. Keep doing what you do. But maybe try and be a bit safer about it next time?”

“I can’t make that promise,” Nim told him with a little smile.

“I expected that,” he said, exasperated. “Hey, at least take your meds and take care of yourself a bit more.”

The woman chuckled. “That I can try to do, Dit.”

He paused, then reached out and gestured for her to hand him something. “Pass me your phone, lady.” Nim did so with a confused look on her face. She realized when he started adding a contact what he was doing. “You get into some crazy shit, call me,” he demanded. “I’m good at killing Team Rocket grunts and can help if you need someone at your back for whatever reason.”

“Dit…” she murmured.

“Don’t get too sentimental, I like battling and you seem to have a lot going on,” the Ditto said firmly. “It might be interesting to see what all you do. Also, you know a lot of really strong Pokémon. I’m eager to get knowledge of any form I can.”

“Just that?” Nim asked with a raised eyebrow, skeptical.

He shrugged, then smirked. “Ok, maybe I like hanging out. And you did have me worried when I came over and found you were a bloody mess.”

That made the woman chuckle. She gave him a quick hug after pocketing her phone again. “Thanks, Dit,” Nim said softly.

Dit watched while Nim checked on her team in the back yard. All of them were a lot friendlier to him- even the usually standoffish Lucas tried to include the Pokémon trainer. He realized that in rescuing their trainer, Nim’s crew had finally found a reason to put the same trust in him that Nim did.

“Yo, Dit!” Lewis said, flying over. He lightly poked the Ditto in the forehead with one pointy finger. Dit blinked, not entirely sure what was up with that.

“Vibe check, you’re a good one,” the Haunter said playfully. “We all owe you one for helping Nim. We knew something was up, but we couldn’t come get her because of where we were. Question, did she take her meds at all?” Dit grinned at the Haunter’s joke before pausing. “She said she missed Tuesday, and she didn’t have them with her in the woods last night,” he told the ghost type. “How bad is that?” “Well, means she’s gonna be in a mood tomorrow,” Lewis said, scratching his head. “Real good time to come around for a Pokémon battle, if you catch my drift. If you want a particularly tough one, that is. She gets moody and fierce. Fights hard before making one helluva dinner and pokénip berry bars for the rest of us.”

“You don’t say?” Dit asked, perking up.

Lewis nodded. “She does the stuff she loves to keep ok while her meds get back in her system. The pokénip is for those of us with really strong connections to her, to help us chill while she feels awful. And, y’know, everyone else, she makes sure all of the Pokémon here can have one of them, as a treat. At least, she does when a certain someone doesn’t eat half the pan.”

Lucas wandered over after he had given his mother a checkup and run-through of what had happened with the siblings. He sheepishly looked up at Dit. What he was about to say was difficult for the young Lucario. There were some things he had come to regret regarding how he had been treating the Pokémon trainer.

“I owe you an apology,” he said quietly. “I…may have judged you harshly for what you did to my mother and ignored that things have changed. Thank you for helping her…the last thing I’d felt from my mother was pain and fear. I thought the worst until MT said that you were the one who brought her in and called him.”

“So you actually can bond enough with a trainer to feel stuff they feel?” Dit asked slowly. “I bet you and Lewis both can do that, definitely Pipsqueak.”

The Lucario nodded. Then he tilted his head. “Have you never had that?”

“Can’t say that I have,” Dit said. “My trainer was an abusive bastard and none of us miss him.”

“I wondered how a Pokémon could kill their trainer,” Lucas mused.

Before Dit could respond, the Lucario raised his paws. “I did not mean that in a judging way, but a curious one. I was not with the Team Rocket grunt who abused me with the shadow process long enough to reach that point. My mother rescued me before that. And I could not imagine ever hurting her now.”

That was fair. Dit could understand that. Nim had been nothing but good to Lucas since he was a little Riolu. They’d had very different lives with their trainers. He was going to reply that he understood that when Pipsqueak lumbered over, making a happy sound before almost knocking Dit off his feet with a friendly headbutt to the chest. They’d have to talk later, right now the Charizard was making his appreciation known.

“You like me now?” the Ditto asked with a chuckle, scratching the big Charizard’s horns. “Well, I’ll take that. Maybe you’ll go easier on me in our next Pokémon battle.”

Pipsqueak snorted at that, smirking back as he chuffed at the Pokémon trainer. Of course he wouldn’t. If anything, respecting the Ditto meant that he was going to be harder on the Pokémon trainer, he would not insult one he respected by letting up on them. The Charizard was not that sort of Pokémon to offer offense like that.

“You are a Charizard, alright,” Dit agreed.

He froze a moment when Reba and Remy came over. They had been there to save Nim from him during his first attempt on her life. Then they had learned of a second attempt, when there had been a misunderstanding, and been even more distrustful of him. Due to Team Rocket tinkering, the Ditto twins were like him. But they were also fiercely loyal to Nim because of how she had helped them. As far as they were concerned, Dit was enemy number one and had been since they first met on the overpass.

This time, though, Remy was smiling and Reba didn’t look like she wanted to reach down his throat and tear his guts out. The male twin never spoke, so Reba did for both of them. “We wanted to thank you,” she told him. “Neither of us felt we could trust you. Not knowing what you had nearly done to our trainer. But. You showed Nim was right about you by helping her while we were gone. It would have been so easy for you to let her just bleed out, none of us here to help her or stop you. You didn’t, you helped her.” “I know it may not seem like it to you guys, but I don’t hate her,” Dit said. “Might even go as far as to say she is a friend.”

Reba chuckled slightly at that. “She certainly calls you one, Dit.”

The female Ditto looked over to where her trainer was laying on the grass, her Chikorita and Meowstic happily flopped against her. The Medicham who so often helped as the resident nurse was watching with a content smile, delighted to see that she wasn’t showing signs of stress. Nim still looked free, like she had on the bluff while taking photos. Dit made an amused sound while he watched Nim as well. As much as she had needed a break away from this place, she needed her team and to be doing something. She was such a strange one.

“It’s good to be home,” Lewis said. “So, Dit, if I know you, we’re gonna have a Pokémon battle at some point. You ready to get your butt kicked?”

“Uh-huh, we’ll see who loses,” the Pokémon trainer said with his usual creepy grin. “Just because you helped some kids win a big tournament doesn’t mean you’re going to beat me.”

“Yeah, but that was with a bunch of kids,” Lewis said. “Not Nim, and not on one her good days after a nice recharge.”

“Nim, your Haunter is challenging me,” Dit called over to the woman. She laughed at that. “Is he now? Bring it, Pinky,” Nim called back. “Gratitude only goes so far, I’m not going to take it easy on you.”

“Told ya so,” Lewis smirked.

Dit found he was looking forward to a match with the woman and her team. She never went easy on him, and he never knew what she was going to throw at him. The big Necrozma who was sitting in the sunlight was proof that she had some heavy hitters, though Dit had learned quickly that the ones to really watch out for were Lewis, Knight, and Lucas. Pipsqueak, of course, but that rather went without saying. He had been Nim’s starter, and he was the sort who would take down a building to get to her if she needed him to. Dit had seen firsthand that they didn’t even need to talk to each other at times…they just knew.

And speaking of that. Nim looked at Pipsqueak, who nodded before nuzzling the Ditto’s shoulder. It was a gesture of wordless appreciation. “That was from Nim, huh?” he inquired. “I’d do it again.”

The Ditto was happy to have the others include him a bit more. He hadn’t realized just how careful they were not to be around when he was until suddenly Nim’s team let him be a part of things. It was like a switch had been thrown now that he’d proven to them what Nim had been trying to prove to him. She offered trust from day one, and in helping her, he had shown that her team could trust him as well.

Dit was pleasantly surprised to see a fellow trainer, who owned a rehab house. At least until he got a good look at her. Nim seemed…well, annoyed. The Ditto had to wonder if it was something he had done when she practically stomped over in his direction, carrying a paper bag with a grease stain. At least as much as someone with a cane and a sore leg could stomp. He couldn’t recall anything he’d done that would upset the woman, though. The Haunter who was with her, Lewis, seemed mildly amused.

Nim shoved the bag in his direction when she got to Dit, muttering that it was for him.

“Uh…thanks?” he said after a moment. When he opened it, he could definitely tell this wasn’t meant for her. It was from one of his favorite places to get fast food, and his usual order. Nim regularly called it a ‘heart attack in a bag’ in jest whenever she got it for him.

The Pokémon trainer looked at the woman as she leaned against one of the nearby trees to rest a moment. It was confusing to him that she would take the time to find him on what was clearly a bad day. He knew how much walking could take out of her some days, having seen firsthand how easy it was for the woman to tire herself out. There had to be a reason for it, but nothing special was coming to mind.

“So…what’s the occasion?” Dit asked.

“I’m having a bad day,” Nim grumbled.

The young man blinked at that. “So you bring me lunch?” he said slowly. “Lady, I’m not sure you know how self-care works.”

Lewis chuckled, explaining. “See, Nim’s weird like that. If she has a bad day, she likes to do things for friends instead. Apparently making a friend happy helps cheer her up.”

Given what the Ditto knew about her, that actually didn’t sound out of line at all now that he thought about it. Well, no point in turning down a free meal. He sat down at one of the park benches with Nim and Lewis to see what she’d ordered. Upsized the meal and ordered extra fries? She really was spoiling him. And a large drink, his favorite soda to boot.

“You want to talk about your day?” he asked between bites.

“No,” Nim said tersely. Then she perked up. “Hey, how about a Pokémon battle after lunch?” “You didn’t need to bribe me for that,” Dit teased.

The woman chuckled at that. “Who said it was bribery? Maybe I’m apologizing in advance for a major butt-kicking,” she quipped back. “All depends on how the new guy listens.”

“New guy?” Dit asked, curiosity piqued. He knew the trainer often had new rescues, and some of them she would train before finding them new homes which were good placements. Nim was strict about who she would ‘adopt’ her rehab cases out to, more so than even most of the nurses at the Pokémon Centers.

“Yup,” she said. “Well, not new, but we haven’t tried battling together yet since he’s been in my care. A Greninja- and I think we worked out a truce? Maybe? I dunno. He may just as likely use those throwing stars on me as one of your Pokémon.”

Dit raised one eyebrow at that, unable to respond because he’d just taken a very large bite of the burger she’d brought him. A fighter who didn’t like humans much, of course. Sounded like just the sort Nim would take in and try to rehabilitate. He was not the least bit surprised considering how they knew each other.

“You’re on,” he said after swallowing. “Lunch first, though.”

Dit did his best not to laugh when they started the Pokémon battle and things immediately started out on the wrong foot. As Nim had thought he might, the scarred up amputee was not having orders from her. The Greninja was missing his right arm just below the shoulder, had a specially fitted eye patch on over where his right eye used to be, and had some wicked scars on the right side of his head and upper torso. He wasn’t a pretty Pokémon at all, while his attitude towards Nim…was lacking, considering she was the one who had helped nurse him back to health. She dove for the ground when he whirled upon her with his throwing stars instead of aiming them at Dit’s Arcanine.

“Crap, Grief, no! Not at me!” Nim said with a shaky laugh when he threw two more at her. “Ach, back in the pokéball!”

But he wasn’t listening and immediately shot back out of the containment device to chase after her with more of Greninja throwing stars. Dit watched as the woman dodged, fairly sure she had it under control. He would step in if she needed him to, but he got the feeling this would be just fine. The Pokémon didn’t seem to be aiming as well as he could have at the human. It was more a display that he could get her if the Greninja wanted to. And Dit also knew that this was one of the ways Nim tried to build trust- she wasn’t going to retaliate or actively defend herself aside from running. After a few minutes of that, the Greninja glared at her before recalling himself to his pokéball in her hand by reaching out to press the button. Nim was breathing heavily and sighed as she pocketed it.

“Well, crap,” she said. “That…was something.” “So…that was one against one, right?” he asked. “And…you recalled him?” Nim groaned as she flopped on the grass. “I mean, technically, yeah, meaning you won. A bet is a bet, I promised you all the money I had on me if you beat me.” She dug out a crumpled five dollar bill and some change from her pocket, tiredly holding it up without getting off the ground. Dit snorted at that as he took it from her. Then he gave her hand a light tug, helping her up when Nim wrapped her fingers around his. “I really don’t think that Greninja likes anybody,” he said with a snort.

“Not surprised,” Nim said as she retrieved her cane. “I mean, all things considered…”

“You think you can help him?” Dit asked.

Nim smiled. “Sure, I just have to keep letting him try to beat the crap out of me until he sees I won’t retaliate,” the woman said with a chuckle. “I get it, he has reason to dislike humans. But I want to help him recover. Building trust takes time.”

“That was special,” Lewis said with a snort. “Nim, how come you work best with those of us who try to getcha when all you want to do is help our sorry butts?” Dit tilted his head and raised one eyebrow. Surely Lewis, the Haunter who was Nim’s right-hand Pokémon, had not at one point tried to do something similar to the trainer…? Not him. Not with how protective the big ghost type was of the woman. They were best friends, he wouldn’t have done something like that.

“Yeah, I was gonna hit her with a shadow ball when we first met,” Lewis explained when he saw the Ditto’s expression.

“…well then,” Dit said after a moment.

Nim made an amused sound, her mood improved a bit. “Oh, don’t let our buddy act now fool you,” she chuckled. “He was totally going to hit me with whatever he could muster- lucky me, I didn’t get a shadow ball attack to the face, he was too tired from escaping Team Rocket’s labs. And when I got him feeling better, he decided he didn’t want to do that any more.”

Lewis made an amused sound, reaching out to tousle his trainer’s hair. It had been a long time since that- and he liked what they had now. The day he intentionally hit Nim with an attack was the day he just plain wasn’t himself. “I decided she was a good one, and here we are,” he said.

The Pokémon trainer had seen them work together on many occasions. In particular and most memorable to him, when Nim had distracted Dit so that Lewis could use his favorite signature move against the Ditto. He had been trying to kill her, before they got to know each other, and Lewis had whacked him with the woman’s particularly solid wood cane. The duo called it ‘Vibe Check’, and the Haunter had a batting arm any professional baseball player would envy. Nim and Lewis had a bond which any trainer would be jealous of, barely needing a word or expression to communicate with each other. Dit had literally seen them argue with just expressions and annoyed sounds before- though he wasn’t entirely sure who had won the argument.

“Here you are,” Dit agreed, amused by the fact that such a tight-knit pair had started off like that. “You feeling better, Nim?” “Yup, but no more Pokémon battling today,” she told him. “That was a little more than I was up for. Grief didn’t pin me to a tree this time, at least?”

“How are you still alive, lady?” Dit wondered out loud.

She shrugged back. “Stubbornness, mostly,” the human replied with a grin. “Hey, thanks for the chat and the attempt at a Pokémon battle, I am feeling a lot better now. Back to work, no rest for the wicked. So many papers to grade…”

“Later, Nim,” Dit said, waving to her. She waved back before making her way back home. Lewis gave Dit a thumbs-up gesture, then turned his focus towards helping his trainer.

The Pokémon trainer shook his head. He wasn’t always sure what to make of Nim. She was a strange one, for sure, but the Ditto was surprisingly happy that she had managed to survive his attempts on her life. Dit had come to appreciate what they had. The woman did not judge, and let him do his own thing. She offered companionship, but mostly let Dit come around on his terms. It was rare that she came around looking for him on purpose.

“Crazy lady,” he said to no one in particular, finishing up the remaining few fries and sips of the soda she’d brought for him.

Dit watched as Nim bustled around the kitchen. She was preparing for guests- he would be sure to leave before they arrived- and baking. The Ditto had come to her house for a friendly battle and some lunch. It was strange to think that they’d known each for several months. He’d gotten so used to killing anyone who found out his secret, yet this human not only knew but made sure he could relax a bit.

“Whatcha baking?” he asked curiously as she pulled a pan out of the oven. “Smells good.”

“Berry bars, but with a bit of extra in them,” she told him. “One of the kids I know has a Pokémon who gets pretty tense sometimes, and these will help him to relax.”

“Extra, huh?” Dit asked as he walked over and picked up the bottle she’d been using. It just looked like it contained some sort of cooking extract to him. He honestly didn’t see what the big deal was. The contents smelled really good, though.

Nim took the bottle from him, capping it and putting it away. “That is pure pokénip extract, and probably the last thing you need. But you’re welcome to one of the bars when they’re cool,” she told him.

A knock came at the door- a Ranger, dropping off some paperwork for Nim. The woman gestured that she’d be right back before stepping outside to deal with that, shutting the front door behind her. Dit waited patiently, but after five minutes decided it wouldn’t hurt to try what Nim had made. She did give him permission, after all, and it smelled really nice.

One became half the pan while he waited for Nim, since her talk with the ranger took almost fifteen minutes. She didn’t notice immediately when she came back inside, washing some dirt off her hands at the kitchen sink. “What do a Ranger and a gardener have in common?” she asked with a mildly amused laugh. “You don’t realize the dirt you’ve still got until you shake hands with someone else.”

The Ditto laughed a lot harder, and Nim blinked as she held her hands under the water. “It’s not that funny, Dit,” she said, raising one eyebrow.

Then she spied the mostly empty pan on the stove. Oh no…he didn’t. She really hoped he didn’t. Nim sincerely hoped he had not eaten that many of the berry bars- they were made with her homemade pokénip extract, and she made the stuff particularly strong to bake with. Half a pan made her Charizard, Pipsqueak, almost dangerously cuddly and affectionate. He’d practically sat on her the last time he ate as many of the berry bars as she was starting suspect Dit might have.

“Dit, did you eat all of those?” she asked slowly.

He blinked at her, and Nim could see the rosy blush already forming across his upper cheeks and the area where most people had a nose. That was pretty common with Pokémon who had gotten into the stuff. It was odd to think that it was able to affect Dit, but he was still a Ditto no matter what form he was in.

“Let me get you a glass of water,” she said, shaking her head. “And I have no idea what it will do. I’m hoping not much…jeez, dude, you’re supposed to eat only one or two, not most of the pan.”

The trainer turned back to the sink, getting a glass from the cabinet above it. As for her hope it wouldn’t do much…no such luck, that large of a dose kicked in quickly. Dit leaned against her, almost knocking Nim off balance, and rested his chin on her shoulder. The woman was barely able to keep them both from falling over by grabbing the kitchen counter.

“Ooof, Dit, you’re heavy,” she grumbled. “Come on, man, stand up…”

He did listen, fortunately, before they both ended up on the floor. Nim blinked in surprise when he nuzzled the hair at the back of her neck. “You smell nice,” he told her, still affectionately rubbing his face against her wavy hair. “Same soap as ever, Dit,” she told him.

Nim gave up on trying to get him a glass of water when he wrapped his arms around her waist and tucked his head into the crook of her shoulder. He wasn’t doing anything forceful or embarrassing- just trying to be close. She didn’t feel like he was a threat in any way. The Ditto was just high as a kite and feeling affectionate.

Which, granted, was strange from what Nim knew of him. The only other time she’d seen him this snuggly, he’d been drunk. He just wasn’t like that normally. The closest he usually got with physical contact was his hands around her neck, though thankfully that hadn’t happened in the weeks since their last big misunderstanding. Or the one time she’d accidentally gotten him drunk, he had been snuggly then.

“You big dummy,” Nim said with a little sigh. “Come on, let’s go sit in the living room.”

She managed to get to the sofa with the Ditto in spite of him being clingy and not wanting to let go. The woman was able to shift him just enough sit down. Dit was not making it easy, he didn’t want to be moved. Nim was considering that she might need a spatula to pry him off.

He settled down on the sofa, laying on his stomach. His long legs hung over the end, but he didn’t seem to mind as he wrapped one arm behind her, around her waist, and put his other hand on her leg, resting his head on her lap. It was a very possessive yet oddly tender gesture. Nim was equally startled by an odd sound and a thrumming feel in Dit’s chest.

…purring. He was purring. The Pokémon trainer who had draped himself on her lap was purring away like a happy Litten. Nim found that was adorable, not that she’d be telling him that. She gently stroked his hair, which made him purr even louder. When she started to rub his shoulders, he practically melted against her, eyes closed and a big smile on his face.

He definitely was enjoying whatever it was that was in those baked treats Nim had made. It made him feel all warm and fuzzy, and everything just felt nice. The Pokémon trainer was enjoying the attention, too. The world just felt good at the moment.

“Dit, what am I going to do with you?” she asked with a soft laugh.

Dit gave a little shrug, holding her a bit tighter. Nim smiled at that, mildly amused. Trust her favorite creepy bastard to get snuggly while he was high as a kite. The woman kept running one hand through his hair, which Dit seemed to really like. He wriggled his shoulders with a demanding sound- those too, he’d been enjoying the shoulder rub. Nim rolled her eyes before focusing on that as well. Pushy Pokémon. She was definitely hiding the rest of that pan the next time she was able to get up. It was nice to see Dit relaxing, but this was just plain odd. Nim felt like it was so out of character for him…or maybe not, maybe this was what he’d have been like if he didn’t have the weight of such huge secrets on his shoulders.

Then she thought about what she knew of him, and his way of ‘dealing’ with Team Rocket. Yeah, no, he was more likely just high on pokénip. Nim made an amused sound at how clingy he was, though. Even Lucas hadn’t been this bad the first time she made those for him.

It was clear to see that there was no moving the Ditto for the time being. He was obviously not in the mood to go anywhere. The woman managed to shift just enough to get her phone out of her back pocket- though Dit whined and held her a bit tighter when she moved- and managed to call her friends to cancel the dinner plans. The others were understanding when she said that she had a situation, though she didn’t go into detail. The woman had barely managed to put her phone down before the Ditto made an annoyed sound. There was a distinct lack of attention going on and it needed to be remedied.

Nim chuckled softly as she rubbed Dit’s back and shoulders, playing with his hair again as well. He sighed happily and continued to purr away. Whenever she stopped, he would make a soft sound of complaint and give her waist a squeeze. The woman snorted in amusement at that.

“You’re gonna wear my hands off, demanding thing,” Nim chuckled.

Dit turned his head and looked up at her, his pupils dilated and his eyes wide. His creepy grin was just so happy. Nim could see how people would think it was a disconcerting expression, with all his teeth, but she was alright with that. He nuzzled his cheek against her leg before just purring. The woman just shook her head and continued. Well, he was snuggly and not letting go, so might as well. It wasn’t like he was about to let her get off the sofa anyways.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

“You’re something else, but you can be sweet sometimes, Dit,” Nim said. “When you actually let someone try to get to know you a bit.”

“Like you,” he said cheerfully, letting go of her waist and rolling over so that his shoulders were resting on her knees instead and he could more easily look up at her. “You’re not half bad, you let me do my own thing.”

“Of course I do, why wouldn’t I?” she retorted. “I may not always approve of what all you do, but it is your life, Dit. And you’re the one who has to live it. If you are alright with your choices, then that’s fine.”

“Hey, Nim? Thank you.”

She smiled at him, then blinked. The blush had gone down a great deal over the last two and a half hours to barely noticeable. It was clear to see that he was mostly back to his usual self aside from his dilated pupils. The good thing about pokénip was that it was strong, but also that the effects wore off quickly. “You brat, how long have you been feeling back to normal?” the woman grumbled.

“About the last half hour,” Dit chuckled. “I wanted to see how long you’d keep doing that. Still got some of the warm fuzzy feeling, it’s nice.”

“You are such a jerk sometimes,” Nim said as she tousled his hair.

Dit smirked up at her, his normal disconcertingly toothy grin. “And you wouldn’t have me be any other way than I am. You don’t expect me to change. But sorry I keep messing up your dinner plans.”

The Pokémon trainer laughed when Nim poked him in the stomach with one fingertip. “You owe me dinner, Dit.” “Pizza?” he offered.

Nim made an amused sound. “I could go for that, though it’s definitely not the soup and roast that Kit was going to bring over.” “Pizza and cheesecake,” he amended.

“Deal,” Nim told him. “I’ll definitely take that.”

He sat up, stretching his arms over his head with a content sound. Nim laughed at that as she tossed his hat at him. The Pokémon trainer grinned as he stood before offering her a hand up. “You want a battle later, too? Just a friendly one-on-one match for some practice?”

“Sure,” she agreed. “You know what? One of these days, we’re going to have do that. Me versus you, Aura versus shapeshifter.”

“Not a fair fight, you’d probably be a fighting type if you were a Pokémon,” Dit quipped back before waggling his eyebrows suggestively. “I almost thought you were going to say something else there for a moment.”

“Eeew, Dit, no, get your mind out of the gutter!” Nim protested. “Someone’s still got some of the pokénip in his system.”

“Aww, you don’t think I’m cute?” he said with an attempt at what was meant to be a playful pout.

Nim shook her head. “Dit, you’re adorable when you’re high on pokénip, and very handsome, but you’re one of my friends. I also can’t get a bad anime image out of my head whenever I think of you doing that stuff.”

“I’ll take that,” he said with a little snort. “One of your friends, huh? Even though I’m a jerk?”

“Even though you’re a jerk,” she agreed, though her tone was teasing.

The woman was about to get her jacket when he beat her to it. Dit was surprisingly a bit of a gentleman as he held it so that she could put her arms in the sleeves. He then startled Nim by taking her hand and giving it a light squeeze before letting go. The Pokémon didn’t like being put in compromising positions, but she’d been pretty good about it when he was feeling the full effects of the pokénip. He appreciated that.

The woman blinked in surprise. Then she smiled. “I think you just might keep surprising me, Dit. Dinner sounds really good, I’m absolutely starving. And I know pokénip gives most Pokémon the munchies.”

“I could eat a whole pizza on my own,” Dit said. “And maybe half of yours.”

Nim raised one eyebrow. “Damn.”

The Ditto honestly didn’t mind just keeping it as friends with the human. That in itself was a pretty big deal, for him. He liked what they had gained over the past few months. There was a good foundation of trust, built on a mutual respect of what each could do, and Nim never treated him as anything less than her equal no matter the situation. She let him do his own thing. Sometimes dangerously so, when they’d had that misunderstanding a few weeks back.

He leaned on her shoulder lightly for a moment as they walked alongside each other. There was still some residual desire to cuddle left from the pokénip. “So, dinner and a Pokémon battle?” he said.

“Yup,” Nim agreed. “Though I’m hiding the rest of that pan where you can’t find it. You’re only supposed to eat one or two of those at a time, Dit.”

“You’re a good baker,” he told her with a laugh. “And it tasted nice…you ever get a warm, fuzzy feeling while eating something that tastes good? How was I supposed to know you put what is basically Pokémon drugs in those?”

“Ok, point,” Nim told him. “Next time, only one, ok?” “One pan, got it,” he said with a smirk.

“No!” the woman protested with a snort of laughter. “Not the whole pan, you’d be insufferable. Besides, I make it for more Pokémon than just my team, I share it with the Pokémon of friends as well. A pan is supposed to go a lot farther than this one did.”

Dit raised one eyebrow, smirking at her. “So, you drug up your team and others, do you?” he teased. “I see how it is, what kind of trainer does that?”

Nim just about dropped the bags she was carrying when she saw that Dit was sitting on her sofa. He had his hood up over his cap, and was slouched back in a very relaxed pose. His hands were shoved in his pockets, and he’d probably been there at least an hour given how comfortable he had made himself.

It had been a few weeks since their first encounter, a good two months, and she was starting to get used to him being nosy. He’d drop by maybe once or twice a week, to make sure she was keeping his secret and enjoy a meal or a quick Pokémon battle. Usually they’d end up talking about the Pokémon staying with her for rehabilitation, or current events around the city.

It was, however, the first time he’d actually waited for her to come home inside the house. Normally he would wait on the front steps, though she had seen the signs someone had been in her house while she was out and guessed it was him. The timelines and the things that had been disturbed all matched up.

“Bloody hell, give me a heart attack, why don’t you!” she grumbled. “I know I locked that door, how do you get in here, anyways?”

“My secret,” the Ditto said with a shrug. “I’m bored and was in the area.”

She snorted as she set her groceries on the kitchen table. “So you come to pester me, huh? Well, I’m not battling on an empty stomach, if you want a Pokémon battle, it can wait until after I eat something. One of us actually had to go to work today.”

Dit’s eyes lit up. A Pokémon battle, yes, that was just the thing for his boredom! But he had to wait for Nim to eat a meal first? Well, then. “So…what are you cooking?” he asked casually.

The woman knew exactly what that translated into. He didn’t want to know what she was going to be having for dinner, he wanted to know how long the food preparation was going to take. The Pokémon was an impatient bugger who wanted to be entertained. “Dinner is going to be burgers and a beer,” she said cheerfully.

“A beer?” Dit asked, head tilted. “I didn’t know you drank.”

“Sometimes, after a really long day,” Nim told him. “Right now, I’m sore, and I swear my shoulders ate my neck because they’re so tense and hunched up at the moment. So, booze with dinner to help me unwind a bit.”

Dit paused. Nim didn’t think anything of his silence as she went about putting things away. The Ditto knew that she didn’t have any other company coming over, she’d have said if she was. The human was surprisingly good about warning him that others were going to be at her house. That meant only one thing- she was planning on drinking alone, and one thing he’d learned was how much that sucked. He preferred Pokémon to humans, but there were some things that Dit had figured out when he did spend time with people and wasn’t battling.

“…can I have one?”

Nim made an amused sound. Then she realized he was serious. “What? Definitely not! Are you even old enough to drink? And what would alcohol do to a Pokémon? Dude, no. I’m not giving you a beer. Burger yes, booze no.”

Dit stuck his tongue out at her, crossing his arms over his chest. “I’m an adult, aren’t I? Look, I have had alcohol before. Drinking alone sucks. And I do just fine after a drink or two, thank you very much. Some people say more than just fine.”

The trainer paused a moment. She realized he was implying exactly what she thought and made a face. Nope, mental image of her semi-friend which she did not need at all. He was a handsome and muscular human, but knowing what she did about him…all her brain did was provide the idea of the Pokémon in his own form.

“Ok, brain bleach,” she grumbled as she started to unpack her shopping. “Lots and lots of brain bleach.”

“You know, I’m kinda offended right now,” Dit said dryly.

“And I’m kinda mentally scarred right now at what crossed my mind, Pinky,” Nim answered. “Did not need to think of that, too much like a bad anime.”

“Yeah, whatever,” he grumbled back.

Dit got up, helping Nim with the groceries. He knew where things went- he’d snooped around her house while he waited for her to get back on many an occasion. Sometimes just because he was curious, other times to memorize the forms of some of the newcomers since Nim seemed to get so many rare types in. The Ditto especially liked the small training room in her basement, where he could see awards and old framed newspaper clippings on the wall. He’d learned that the woman had been one helluva trainer before she’d gotten badly injured in an unrelated incident and settled down into a day job. She also had some seriously cool swords hanging on the wall down there. He had wondered if she actually knew how to use them since he first saw them. But asking would prove he’d been snooping around the place.

“So no beer?” he asked.

“Soda,” the woman retorted. “But I know you like burgers, so I’ll make you two, how does that sound?”

The Pokémon trainer tilted his head, giving her what was supposed to be an attempt at a disappointed pout. It didn’t work so well, what with his toothy grin and his usual impishness showing through. Nim knew that he was trying to convince her otherwise on her stance. It might have worked if not for the fact that the woman knew he was far from the innocent young man he was pretending to be.

“No beer,” she said firmly.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Dit had a tendency to get into the space of others. More than once Nim had found he was uncomfortably close. It had been unnerving when he felt like a ticking time bomb waiting to go off. She still felt like that about him, some days, but most of the time his lack of personal bubble was literally just that. He had no sense of personal space when it came to humans because that intrusion was a form of intimidation, whether he was doing it intentionally or not. Having no boundaries was a way of asserting control in situations.

Nim made an amused sound as Dit sort of just…melted across her lap. He had absolutely no sense of personal space on the best of days. Even less so when he was drunk. She was sitting on the sofa, he was laying on his back with his head and shoulders on her legs. It was hard to imagine that she’d only given him one drink as she looked at the trainer who was taking up most of the couch.

The Ditto was an absolute featherweight if his reaction to one strong beer was any indication. Nim liked a good, strong drink with a high alcohol content and a punch of flavor. Sher herself had an almost ridiculously high alcohol tolerance, so two bottles with 15% alcohol in each had barely relaxed the stressed woman. But just one was seemingly enough to knock the Ditto off his feet. She got the feeling he was going to regret asking her for a drink in the morning.

“Dude, are you ok?” she asked him as he raised one hand to her cheek.

The Ditto’s form was a bit wavery. Not just like he was relaxed, but like he was having trouble staying human. She had seen over the last few weeks that he normally was pretty good about that, even when Lewis had knocked him unconscious. He also was in her space in a different way. Normally Dit was brash and lacked personal space because he meant it as a display of being in charge. This was a softer side of him, in a way, more casual.

“You’re not half bad,” he told her thoughtfully, brushing his thumb against the woman’s jawline. “I mean it. You shouldn’t let anyone kill you. Hey, Nim, can we have a battle? I wanna have a battle.”

“Thank you, I think. And no, you’re drunk,” the human trainer said with a gentle chuckle. “We can have a Pokémon battle later.”

“Awww, ok,” Dit agreed, obviously disappointed.

He snuggled onto her lap, making a happy sound as he got comfortable. Dit was especially goopy, definitely starting to lose his human form. Nim was about to say something else when he flat-out shifted to full Pokémon. And not a dangerous one like she’d seen him do a few times. No, this was full-on Ditto. She’d never seen him in his own shape.

“You tired?” she asked him as she stroked his skin lightly with her fingertips. He was oddly silky and soft in spite of being a jell-o like consistency, as well as warm. The Pokémon wriggled against her hand when she touched him. It seemed he was a bit ticklish. Dit looked and felt so small as an actual Ditto, considering his human form was pretty big and pure muscle. She’d never considered that the beefy trainer who regularly intimidated her was actually this fairly tiny Pokémon.

“Noooo,” he said as he pancaked himself across her knees in an attempt to get away from her hand. “Not tired.”

“Uh-huh, sure,” Nim said as she scooped the Pokémon up, carrying him to the guest room.

She knew full well that he could be dangerous. Even to her. Or rather, especially to her because he had put a bit of trust in her and would be furious if that trust was betrayed. He had killed before and would do so again in a heartbeat to protect himself. But at the moment? This was kind of cute, almost adorable.

“Noooot tiiiired!” he protested.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The next morning, Dit found he had a throbbing headache. He’d woken up in the middle of the night and shifted to his ex-trainer’s form before rolling over again, subconsciously knowing that being human meant being safely disguised. The Ditto recalled that he’d had dinner with Nim and convinced her to give him one of her beers…but what she drank was a lot stronger than he’d expected.

Normally one drink he could handle alright without making an absolute fool of himself, but not the hell brews Nim liked. He’d been surprised by the choices of the disabled trainer after tasting the contents of the bottle. The teacher drank like she trained- with heavy hitting skull bashers. Perhaps knocking back a third of the bottle in one go to prove that he had drunk alcohol before hadn’t been such a great idea. Nor drinking the rest of it when he realized how bitter it was and what that likely meant. It had never crossed his mind to check what the alcohol content was of the beer he’d managed to get Nim to share before chugging it.

“Ooof,” Dit mumbled, resting his chin on the pillow in the divot where his head had been resting. One arm was tucked under the pillow, the other was stuck in the twisted fabric of the blankets. He had sprawled on the bed in the night, getting tangled up in the covers and sheets. His trapped arm was uncomfortable, so he shook it free of the blankets. The Ditto swore hotly when even that much movement made the world spin like a top.

Someone knocked lightly on the bedroom door a few moments later, making him tense up. He relaxed when he heard a familiar voice start speaking. “Dit, you awake?” Nim called through the closed door.

“Unfortunately,” he groaned, hiding his face from the morning sunlight by burying it in the pillow. “How many of those beers did I drink?”

“You only had one,” the woman replied, sounding amused.

“Let’s not talk about this again,” Dit grumbled. “What did I do when you let me give myself alcohol poisoning?”

Nim thought for a moment. She decided it was better to be honest. “You said I shouldn’t get myself killed before going full Ditto on my lap. I managed to talk you out of a drunk Pokémon battle and tucked you in, where you promptly zonked out for the night after a mini rant I couldn’t understand.”

Dit stayed quiet for a while. He to think about that. Nim worriedly tapped on the door again after about three minutes. “Hey, Dit? You still in there, or did you turn into something else and fly out the window?” she asked.

“Still here, but that’s a good idea,” he told her.

The human made an annoyed sound. “Don’t you dare, I made breakfast and everything.”

The Pokémon Trainer reluctantly got out of bed, making sure he was fully human. He opened the door to find Nim on the other side. She smiled up at him, gesturing with one hand as she turned to walk towards the kitchen. “Bacon and eggs, I know you like a really heavy breakfast. Still scrambled, I suck at cooking eggs. Not like it seems to bother you any.”

“That’s it?” he asked.

She looked over her shoulder at him, rolling her eyes. “What, you want more than that? I hadn’t put the toast down yet, figured you’d like that to be warm. Buttery toast gets soggy if you let it sit and I wasn’t sure when you’d wake up.”

“Not what I meant and you know it,” Dit told her firmly.

“You wanna talk about last night?” she asked. “If you do, go ahead.”

“Not really.”

Nim smiled. “There you go, then. So, aspirin is probably a bad idea for you…got the usual stuff from the Poké Mart, maybe one of those will help that hangover. Something for a poison attack, maybe? No hair of the Houndour that bit you, man, that won’t help at all. Breakfast should help some, though.”

Dit reached out to put one hand on her shoulder. Nim didn’t so much as flinch- she was getting used to him invading her personal space without warning. She also trusted him. The woman hadn’t recently given him any reason to try and kill her again, after all, at least not that she knew of.

“Thanks,” he said after a moment.

“You’re welcome,” she replied. The woman knew what he was thanking her for- of course she wasn’t going to treat him any different for doing that last night. As far as she was concerned, he was Dit, and that was that.

He perked up. “I’m still bored,” Dit said brightly.

“You cannot be serious,” Nim asked. “Wait, it’s you, of course you are. Eating, sleeping, and Pokémon battles…don’t you do anything else?”

“Well, yes, but you told me not to talk about that last night,” the Ditto said innocently, giving his creepy little grin.

Nim made a face. “Ugh, dude, not enough brain bleach,” she agreed. “You want a fight? Let’s have a battle after breakfast.”

He smirked as he followed her to the kitchen. “Hey, what’s the big deal? Human bodies are a lot of fun. So many interesting things to do and try.”

“Yeah, and I really don’t want to think of a semi-friend doing that,” she protested. “Did not need the mental images, Pinky.”

Dit snorted as he sat down at the table. “Ok, sure, miss teacher lady. Like you don’t have a love life of your own?”

The woman gave a little shrug as she got breakfast off the stove. Dit was no idiot, he knew when someone wasn’t saying something. Come to think of it…he’d never really seen pictures that weren’t of Nim’s family. No photos of a significant other, no signs that she’d had human company aside from generic friends visiting for dinner. No flowers or sweet cards. The human didn’t have many human friends who stopped by the house from what he had seen, most of those in her space were Pokémon. Preferring Pokémon to humans was something he had quickly learned they had in common. Nim tended to wounded Pokémon and young kids for a reason.

“…you do, right?” he asked slowly.

“Weird question, Dit,” Nim replied evenly. “So hey, how’s the food?”

“Nim. Don’t use breakfast to dodge the question,” Dit chided.

The trainer shrugged. “It’s not a big deal, Dit. Some people are on their own, and that’s ok. I have Pokémon friends.”

“So…you really drink alone, huh?” he asked. “If I hadn’t stuck around last night, you were just gonna have dinner and a drink with only your team here?”

“Making it weird, Dit,” Nim told him again. “But yeah. My other friends and family don’t drink, or are way too young. Or, y’know, Pokémon, and we saw why booze is not a good idea.”

Dit made a face. Alright, but he didn’t have to like that. He’d decided to trust Nim, a bit, and over the last two months she hadn’t broken that trust. Even though he had tried to kill her twice and regularly sort of broke into her house. The Ditto liked the term she regularly used, ‘semi-friend’. It fit since the dynamics of their acquaintance were still shifting. They weren’t quite friends, he didn’t trust her that much, but he didn’t want her dead like he used to. Sometimes it was even a bit fun to hang out at her place for a bit when he was bored.

“You’re limping a lot today,” he noted.

Nim shrugged. That gesture was really starting to annoy Dit to no end. He made an irritated sound- now he saw why Lewis was always on her case. Too much care for others, not enough for herself. That shrug was a sign she was brushing off herself, in a way.

“It’s just because it’s probably going to rain later this evening,” Nim said when he opened his mouth to ask why. “I survived being hit by a car, dude, and I’m hella lucky to even be walking, let alone alive. I’ll happily take being sore when it’s damp and being this side of the dirt.”

“You were hit by a car,” Dit said incredulously. “Where at?”

“The crossing to reach the same overpass where you tried to kill me,” Nim said nonchalantly, taking a long sip of her coffee. “It hit my right side, that’s why my leg is so messed up. Most people think it was a Pokémon attack or something…actually pretty mundane considering what I used to do for a living.”

Dit gave her an irate stare. “You should not be so casual about nearly dying and shit, you know.”

“I’m too stubborn to die, Dit, you know that,” the woman reminded him. “I’m going to have friends over later tonight, so you probably won’t want to hang around then, but I’m free the rest of the day if you still want that Pokémon battle you were after last night.”

“Quit. Trying. To. Distract me,” he growled, hands on the table with his fingers splayed to brace himself as Dit leaned forward. “I’m being serious. I don’t like many people, but you’re bearable and do a lot of good with this house. Take better care of yourself.”

“Thanks, Dit, that means a lot,” Nim said with a wry chuckle. “No offense meant, but especially from you.”

The Pokémon trainer growled again, annoyed, before giving her the toothy grin which so many people found disconcerting. “That wasn’t an agreement to take better care of yourself. I am still waiting on that.”

“Gonna be a long wait,” Nim told him as she poured herself a second cup of coffee. “I only make the promises I can keep.”

“Why aren’t you scared? None of my tactics work on you,” Dit grumbled. “I thought I was creepy, everyone else keeps telling me that.”

“You should see who is coming to hang out tonight,” Nim chuckled. “Then you’d see why I’m not too worried. His glare is worse than yours, dude.”

Dit leaned back in the chair, arms crossed over his chest. “Can I meet your friends?”

The woman froze, then shook her head. The look etched on her face showed she was regretting saying anything about that to Dit. Nim knew full well that it was not a good idea. They’d get along like oil and water- meaning not at all. She didn’t want to risk anyone getting hurt. In her surprise, she let slip more than she had intended to tell the Ditto.

“Probably not the best idea, Pinky. I’m not sure how they’d like you…and MT might freak out a bit. He’s protective, and you did try to kill me. I trust you, but MT is like a freakin’ Kangashkan when it comes to his family,” she tried to explain to him.

The Pokémon’s eyes narrowed. “You told them about that?” he asked softly, a dangerous expression on his face as leaned forward again.

His hand was on her throat in a flash, though he didn’t squeeze down, not yet. It was more a threat that he could and would kill her if Nim had double crossed him. What they’d had the past few weeks was rather fun, but not enough to keep her safe if the woman had put him in danger. They weren’t that friendly.

The speed with which he grabbed her neck made the woman freeze up and stiffen. Unlike when he had first tried to kill her on the overpass, the woman wasn’t prepared for the attack, and she had no help this time. Her team were all outside and couldn’t get to her before he did. It would be a race to see if she could shield her neck with Aura before he could snap it. Nim took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. She looked as terrified as she felt, but took the chance to keep talking. He hadn’t crushed her windpipe yet after all. The Ditto was at least apparently giving her an opportunity to clarify the situation to him.

“No, Dit, I kept my promise to you,” she said softly, trying to stay calm as she spoke in spite of how her heart was hammering in her chest and ears. “MT has ways of figuring stuff out without being told. So does Sunny. I know you don’t want others to know you killed your trainer, that’s why I’m asking you to stay away from my friends. Trust me, it’s for your sake that I’m asking you not to visit while they’re here. Not for the reason you think. I’m a woman of my word, I haven’t told them you even exist, let alone how we met.”

He snorted, but didn’t reply. There was a genuine look of fear in her eyes as his grip tightened in warning. Yet she didn’t change her story or offer anything else about her friends, even with her life on the line. The Ditto stared Nim in the eyes for a few moments, feeling how she tried to gasp for breath around his hand. Then he let go of her and leaned back in the chair. Nim coughed raggedly before focusing on breakfast once more, downing half her mug of coffee in an attempt at washing away the soreness in her throat. Her hands trembled as she held the ceramic cup.

“You had better not be lying to me,” Dit told her with a dark smile on his face. “That was a warning of what I will do if I find out you told them.”

The one-on-one Pokémon battle they’d shared before he left was tense instead of fun. Things had changed again, and there was an unspoken threat hanging between them. What fun the two had hanging out before was gone in a wave of distrust. Even her Pokémon had sensed it- the two trainers called the battle a draw because Lucas was too focused on what was on his mother’s mind to really get into the fight. Dit had wanted a challenge, not an easy win. He had to admit that he was just as distracted by his own thoughts.

Dit had no idea what to think about their conversation. How could someone figure out something like that if Nim didn’t say anything to them? And why hadn’t he just snapped her neck? He easily could have, he wasn’t sure why he didn’t. Perhaps it was because she had seemed so sincere. But maybe he should just be done with her already. The Ditto knew how she could plan ahead when she had enough warning. Letting her live as long as he had might have been a big mistake.

He had to know that she hadn’t betrayed him- he was going to spy on the woman. The Ditto really hoped it wouldn’t come down to murdering her and her guests…that was so messy. And he’d slowly come to trust her, a bit. It showed in the fact that he hadn’t just killed Nim at the breakfast table when he’d thought she told someone his secret. Having to kill her for breaking his trust would be even more annoying after he had decided to let her into his life a bit.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Nim went about her usual evening, and made a really nice dinner. A lot of it, too, how many people were coming over? The Ditto was at least pleased to see that she took equally good care of her Pokémon who were relaxing in the barn. Everyone looked to be content and doing well, enjoying a nice meal of their own and time with their trainer, who had relaxed since he’d left that morning.

Nim didn’t seem to realize that she was in a great deal of danger if Dit didn’t like what he heard or saw.

Dit watched from his perch in the tree as Nim’s guests arrived. The two of them were obviously siblings, a brother and a younger sister. Their long lavender hair was pulled back in the same style of braids, wrapped in fabric strips so their hair looped back at the base of their skulls in a C-shape away from their spines. It was an odd hair style, for sure. The older brother had his hair cut short on top and long in the back, while the sister’s hair was all the same length, with a few loose locks hanging to frame her face. He wondered if it had something to do with a religion, or if they were from a different region and it was a culture thing. The two siblings were also tall, really tall. Even he would have to tilt his head up to look at them.

There was something about Nim’s friends that just gave him a weird feeling in his gut. It wasn’t just their strange appearances. Something instinct in the back of his mind said he probably shouldn’t mess with them, though he couldn’t pin why. And for some reason he found that he couldn’t really focus on their faces. It was disconcerting.

Still, he would stick around- he had to know what needed to be done. If he had to kill the woman and these two, it would be best to do it sooner rather than later. Dit didn’t like leaving loose ends.

Nim and her guests didn’t notice as he got closer to inspect the situation through the window, in the form of a Taillow. The human seemed genuinely happy, and not at all stressed. He could hear her laughter- no talk of anything out of the ordinary. How were the kids, how was work, blah blah blah. Nim said nothing about her brush with death earlier in the day. She was acting like nothing whatsoever had happened.

But it struck him as odd that neither of her guests said anything yet, even though one of them was clearly amused.

The younger of the two with the weird braids walked out, heading down the hall towards the bathroom. Dit thought nothing of that. Then the brother suddenly looked not-so-human, dropping whatever psychic illusion it was that had hidden his true form. Dit almost fell off his perch in shock. Nim didn’t so much as bat an eye when she went to give the powerful Pokémon a hug.

One of Nim’s guests was mother-friggin’-Mewtwo.

Now Dit understood why Nim wouldn’t have to rat him out for her friend to know- he could just read the Ditto’s mind for himself. The Pokémon also understood why she wouldn’t tell him who she was inviting over. Nim had probably made a promise not to talk about the clone Pokémon. That was actually somewhat reassuring. It was proof she could keep a secret, alright. It was also proof to him that he wasn’t her only dangerous friend.

Dit turned to leave…only to find himself face-to-face with a hovering Mewtwo. He’d forgotten there had been siblings. Of course there was more than one, just his luck.

The female Mewtwo reached out her hand, easily ensnaring him with her powers. “Transform into your own shape, spy,” a powerful voice demanded loudly in his head. “I will know who dares to pry in the affairs of my friend.”

He hesitated. The Mewtwo squeezed a bit, making him grunt in discomfort. “I will not ask again,” she said firmly.

The Ditto reluctantly did so, still restrained. He hated not having control in a situation, but what could he do? He could try and transform into a Mewtwo himself to fight his way out of this mess now that he had seen them, but there were two of them and only one of him. The best option for the moment was to wait and see what happened. The Pokémon irately tucked himself into a wiggly pink ball as the powerful clone took him to the back door leading into Nim’s house.

“Hey, Sunny, what’d you- find-” Nim asked when the Pokémon flew into the kitchen. “Oh, no, tell me you didn’t. That better not be you. Dit, please tell me you didn’t.”

“I did,” he admitted, slumping in annoyance against the Mewtwo’s psychic grasp.

Nim pinched the bridge of her nose. “I was seriously hoping to avoid this. Sunny, please put him down. He’s not a Team Rocket spy or anything like that. MT, Sunny, meet my semi-friend, Dit the Pokémon trainer. Dit, meet MT, and his sister, Sunny,” the woman said, waving her hand.

The moment he was put down, Dit shifted to human form and crab-scuttled away from the Mewtwo whom Nim had called Sunny. She scowled at him, and he focused on Nim instead as he rose to his feet. “You use nicknames for them? These two come here often?” he asked.

“I could ask you the same thing,” the Mewtwo whom she had called MT said darkly, staring at Dit with a sharp look that felt like it could pierce his soul. “You have tried to kill one whom I call a dear friend and see as family?”

Dit paused. Yep, there was the reason why Nim had told him not to come. The powerful psychic had easily rummaged through his thoughts and found exactly what he wanted to know about how the Ditto knew Nim. And now that Pokémon was obviously mad at Dit for what he had learned.

“I was only doing what I thought I had to,” Dit tried to explain, raising his hands. “She wouldn’t tell me about you, either, when she said something this morning that had me worried and I…overreacted.”

He gave the one called Sunny a nervous look when her eyes flashed. She raised one hand, clearly preparing an attack. The female Mewtwo had searched his thoughts as well to see exactly how he had ‘overreacted’ and was about to have an overreaction of her own. Dit swallowed hard and got ready to do his best to dodge her shadow ball. Maybe if he timed it right and was fast enough, he could make it out the front door as well. He didn’t feel bad leaving Nim behind because she wasn’t the one in any danger, not from her friends.

But Nim intervened before Dit could bolt from the kitchen. The woman stepped in front of the Pokémon trainer, her arms outstretched to shield him from the attack. “Sunny, no,” she said firmly. “I mean it, no. I’ve worked too hard getting him to trust me even a little for you guys to hurt him. My home is a safe place for everyone, and I plan on it staying that way. No. Don’t you dare do that in my kitchen.”

“He has killed before,” Sunny told the human flatly. “He wished to kill you when you meant him no harm. He thought of it today and planned out how to make another attempt on your life. This one had his hand on your throat with the intent of harming you this very morning.”

Nim snorted. “Yeah, and? Look, I’m not going to judge him. Dit knows what it’s like to worry about people finding out secrets. I don’t think he’s going to rat you guys out, either. I know he’s done some really horrible things, but he does what he has to do to survive. You guys of all Pokémon should know what that is like.”

MT sighed, reaching over to push his sister’s arm down. “She has a point,” he said slowly. “While he did consider killing her this morning…he gave her another chance to prove herself. However, I will say this. Dit, was it? If I find you have done such a thing to Nim again after this night, I will hunt you down myself and put you through tortures which would make you wish I had only killed you.”

Dit bristled at that, angry at being threatened. He did not take that sort of thing well at all. Yet he understood where the powerful Pokémon was coming from. Somehow, Nim was a part of the big guy’s family. And family stuck up for each other in any situation. “Got it,” he said through gritted teeth.

Nim clicked her tongue and shook her head. “Ok, guys, I think that’s enough fun for one night,” she grumbled, getting a pan of baked berry bars off the stove and handing them to MT in an attempt at defusing the tension in her kitchen. “Don’t let dessert go to waste, I know everyone else back at your place will appreciate it. Raincheck for dinner tomorrow, you two? I need to talk to Dit.”

“We could erase all of his memories of you,” Sunny offered cheerfully, trying one more time to get Nim to listen to her. “Then he would be no threat.”

“Guys!” Nim protested. “NO! I trust him, even though I can tell you’re not happy about that. Come on, let me do what I do best. I support Pokémon- all of them. No matter the choices they’ve made.”

MT gave her a look which was hard to read, but nodded eventually. “I trust you, Nim, and we will leave you to your talk. Be well.”

Sunny glared at Dit. But the younger Mewtwo finally caved. She hugged Nim tightly and held her head near that of the human. Dit could tell she was saying something to the woman, because of her focus on Nim, but it was a conversation he wasn’t privy to. Sunny apparently hadn’t meant it to be for him.

Probably promises of horrible things she’d do the trainer if he tried anything. Or telling the woman to get them if she needed help. The unspoken threats were almost worse than the older Mewtwo’s promise of suffering if he hurt Nim again. Dit got the feeling that the younger one could be a whole lot nastier than her brother. She had been ready to attack first and talk later, after all.

Once the siblings had left, albeit somewhat reluctantly, the tattooed trainer sighed heavily and leaned against the front door. Dit looked away to the side when she turned towards him, shoving his hands in his pockets. He had a lot on his mind and one thing she’d said really stuck in his head.

“What you do best, huh?” he demanded hotly. “I am not a pity case, and I do not need you.”

“Sit,” Nim told him firmly.

He growled at her. Dit hated being given commands by humans. She glared back at the Ditto, not the least bit threatened or swayed. Then her expression softened into a sad smile. “Please, Dit, give me a chance to explain,” she said quietly. “That’s not what I meant. Sit a moment?”

Given who she had just done the same thing to, Dit couldn’t say he was surprised by her response. Even his attempt at choking her that morning wasn’t enough to scare her for long. He didn’t like being bossed around, but he did grudgingly sit on the sofa when she asked him to do so. “Fine, start talking,” the Pokémon trainer muttered.

“It’s not like that at all and you know it. I help Pokémon because I want to, not as a job. You asked about my personal life earlier? I take care of others, it’s what I do, there’s not much time for me to go out on dates. Those two that just left are like family to me, and they’ve needed a lot of my time,” the woman explained. “So do the others who live here, you’ve seen for yourself how many Pokémon come through my house on their way to recovery. I don’t talk to you because I pity you or think you need help, I talk to you because I like our weird conversations.”

The Ditto felt she was being honest with him. She genuinely did care for some reason. If she hadn’t wanted to deal with him, she would have just called her friends and had them wipe his memories. Or to get rid of him. That she hadn’t meant Nim was aiming for trust. And she had shown him that same trust…just for him to go and break it by spying on her when she’d asked him not to do anything.

Dit looked up when he realized he was the trust-breaker this time. He was also starting to realize why she kept doing such asinine things. “You’re right, I don’t need anyone. But I get it. Does this change things?” he asked her. “I kinda liked what we had. When I’m not trying to kill you.”

“It doesn’t change anything,” Nim promised, reaching out to move his cap back a bit and tousle his fluffy pink hair. “You remember how I said I had secrets of my own, when we first met and I promised that I wouldn’t talk? Well, that’s it, that was one of my biggest secrets right there. And I’d like you to keep it, please, like I’ve kept yours”

“I thought you had told them about me,” Dit said as he put his cap back on right. “I didn’t realize that they were probably Pokémon as well when you didn’t want to tell me. You kept your mouth shut for your friends, even when I had you by the neck…you had to know what I was going to do.”

Nim gave him a small smile, rubbing her neck sheepishly as she spoke. “You’re just protecting yourself, Dit, I get it. It took MT ages to have any faith in me, Sunny too. Trust is a hard thing when people have been awful. If I want you to trust me even a little, I’ve got to have a lot of confidence in you.”

“Is that why you keep letting me nearly kill you?” Dit inquired. “Some weird show of trust for whatever reason?”

“Preeeeetty much,” Nim agreed, drawing out the word. “I know what you’re capable of, don’t get me wrong. It’s a way of showing that I won’t do anything to you and that I really hope you won’t hurt me.”

“Your friend was right, I really had seriously thought about killing you again today,” Dit admitted to her. “I had a plan for what to do if I found out for sure that you’d told them.”

“Again, kind of not surprised,” she said with a shrug. “If it had to do with a random botched robbery attack, that’s super cliché and lame. But I’m really glad you know what’s up now, even if you did spy on my family and nearly get yourself into a lot of trouble.”

Dit raised one hand. “Semi-friends still?” he asked with a little smirk. “Though I don’t get why you’re so keen on keeping me around.”

“Semi-friends,” Nim agreed, firmly clasping his hand with her own so that their fingers locked together. Dit slipped his hand out of hers, balling his fingers into a fist, and was surprised when Nim the same for a fist bump. The human even did the finger wave of an ‘explosion’ afterward, though he didn’t.

“Where’d you learn that?” he chuckled.

“I work with kids,” she reminded him. “I am not some boring old lady, thank you very much. Seriously, kids are dorks who think thirty is old if you aren’t in the loop of their social interactions. I keep up with hand games and slang to avoid being the fuddy-duddy teacher.”

“Which is harder to work with, kids or recovering Pokémon?” Dit wondered out loud.

Nim made a face at him, then wrinkled her nose and smirked. “Easy, the recovering Pokémon who act like kids.”

Dit smirked at her response before leaning back against the sofa. “So…I kinda ruined your plans. My bad. You uh, you want pizza or something? Let me make it up to you.”

It wasn’t just ruining her plans that he wanted to apologize for. He could see the bruises that had formed where the red marks had been earlier on her throat, in particular where his thumb and index finger had been. The Ditto had misjudged her at breakfast and found he actually regretted that a tiny bit. Granted, he was justified in thinking that she had betrayed him. But still. He felt mildly bad about that now that he knew why she wouldn’t talk. She had proven she would keep secrets, not just his own but those of others.

“Pizza sounds pretty good,” Nim agreed before lowering her voice a bit. “Hey, Dit? Thank you. I really mean it. Thanks For giving me a second chance, and waiting to see who was coming to visit. I know what you’re capable of. I really wasn’t ready for you to go for my throat like that this morning- that was the first time in a while I have genuinely been afraid of someone.”

“I almost did kill you,” he told her. “I don’t know why, but instead I went with my gut and not my first instinct, which was to snap your neck.”

That made Nim chuckle faintly. She looked relaxed again in spite of what he had just said to her, like things had been when they were drinking together over dinner the night before. “I’m grateful for that,” she said softly.

Dit gave her a little nod before changing the subject back to one he liked a great deal. “So hey, that pizza? I know this great pizza place downtown. It’s not the prettiest place to look at, but the food is cheap and good. The music is a lot like the stuff you listen to. I’ll even buy you one of those awful beers you drink, you look like you could use it.”

“You are not wrong,” Nim said with a wry chuckle. “I swear you gave me a few gray hairs this morning.”

He hopped up from the sofa and reached for her jacket, handing it to her. “Still not sure why you trust me. Big question here- how the hell does a teacher make friends with not one but two adult Mewtwos?”

“Oooh, long story,” Nim replied as she put her arms in her jacket sleeves. “So Kit, a friend of mine, really hit it off with Mewtwo. She brought him- MT- to meet me because he’d seen her photos of my place. He didn’t trust me at first, but he helped some Pokémon of mine and did come to trust me after a while. Eventually Sunny- his sister- found out there was another Mewtwo and hung around. I’ve been helping her with some of her own problems. I’m good at giving help and advice, I guess? And very good at kicking Team Rocket ass, I regularly help with that as well. Super short summary here, dude, with a lot of the good stuff cut out.”

Dit just stared at her, utterly incredulous. The Ditto knew she had secrets, everyone did, but not that kind of stuff. She had seemed so normal at times, when she wasn’t practically inviting someone to try and kill her as if she had a veritable death wish. He mulled over his words as she finally took a deep breath.

“Shit, no wonder you were ready for me,” he said after a few moments. “You better not drag me into that crazy stuff.”

“Pinky, no, you literally just jumped right into it all on your own,” Nim told him with a snort. “I warned you, I said specifically that it was for your own sake not to come snooping. But no, you gotta go and stick your nose in what I do.”

“I thought you had normal friends!” Dit protested.

Nim tilted her head, eyebrow raised and a little half-smirk on her lips. “Dit. Think about it. I didn’t bat an eye at trying to befriend you, who tried to kill me, and you somehow think the rest of the folks I know are going to be normal?”

The Ditto crossed his arms over his chest, ducking his head down and glaring at her. “Yeah, yeah, I should have expected some sort of shit like this. So you know the original Mewtwo, and apparently there is a second one as well. You have a nickname for both. What other Pokémon do you know?”

“Good question,” Nim mused. “I’ve had a few guests who wiped my memories of them, and I only know because of weird stuff that happened around the house which I don’t recall. There have been some really odd footprints in my yard and stuff that I couldn’t possibly have ignored, if you get my drift. But I get why. The sign out front does welcome any Pokémon who need help, with any problem.”

Dit recalled something else that had been said as he listened to her. “You could have had either Mewtwo wipe my memories of you at any time. The one you called Sunny even offered to do it. Why didn’t you do that on day one? It would have been a lot safer for you if I never knew you existed. I can’t be that much fun to hang out with that you’d risk your life when making me forget was an option.”

The woman stayed quiet for a few moments as they walked together. Dit elbowed her lightly in the side, wanting a response to his question. It would have been a lot less trouble for Nim if she’d just let her buddies deal with the Ditto, and he needed an answer about why she didn’t do that.

“Nim, why?” he repeated.

She shrugged. “Because I figured out some stuff, Dit, the first night we met. You may have done a lot of bad things, but you’re not entirely a bad guy. I mean, you seemed to genuinely regret it when you were about to try and cut my throat on the overpass. Always fighting the big battles on your own is tiring, both of the Mewtwo siblings have told me that. I have a rehab house, and it is open to literally any Pokémon who needs it. For any reason.”

“And what do you think I need from you?” the Pokémon trainer asked skeptically, looking over at her. “Why is it such a big deal to you that I know you can be trusted? Your life isn’t on the line as much as I thought it was, even if I did almost kill you this morning.”

Nim grinned back at him. “You? I know that you don’t need anyone or even really like people all that much. But it felt like you could use a friend sometimes, Dit. Not everything should be an uphill battle done on your own. You have your family, sure, but does it really hurt to have someone else around?”

That made him stop in his tracks. Nim had risked her life to try and make friends with him because she thought he could use one. Him, a Pokémon who had killed people for getting too close- a fact that she had seen firsthand shortly after meeting him.

The woman simply kept walking as he stared at her back.

“You are absolutely insane, quit trying to throw your life away!” Dit snapped as he ran to catch up with the other trainer. “I mean it!”

“It’s not wasted if I can help even a little,” Nim replied with a tiny smile.

“You’re gonna get yourself killed,” the Pokémon trainer grumbled. “I very nearly did it myself.”

The human made that annoying shrug again. He was really starting to hate that. But the mini rant that Nim went on just a few seconds later was a bit of a surprise. She clearly felt strongly about what she was saying to him.

“I’ve been hit by a car. Had a branch shoved all the way through my shoulder by a friend when I accidentally triggered his PTSD. A bunch of my new arrivals are in pain and don’t like people, you think they’re ever gentle about trying to shove me through a wall? I won’t say I can’t be hurt, because I regularly hurt like a bitch. But I will say I am far too stubborn to kick the bucket any time soon. Things suck sometimes. I want to be a person who helps make things better for those who have been hurt as well, and I can’t do that if I’m dead,” the woman said hotly. “That includes helping people and Pokémon who may not trust me. Sometimes that hurts, too.”

Dit rubbed one hand over his eyes. “You are stubborn as hell, Nim. Come on, pizza and a beer. Now I need one.”

“Rats, speaking of buckets, I don’t have one to carry your lightweight butt home in,” Nim teased, her tone becoming playful again.

“Don’t push it, lady,” he muttered with a scowl. “I’m already annoyed with you.”

The human stifled a chuckle at that. Dit scowled at her, but relaxed after a bit of walking. He looked up at what few stars could be seen for the bright city lights. Knowing the vastness of it compared to what tiny pinpricks of light he could see made him consider what else he didn’t know about his semi-friend. There was a lot they hadn’t really talked about. Sure, he’d rifled through her house a bit and looked her up, but for all the times she’d trusted him with her literal life…he basically just knew the surface stuff. Encountering those whom she called her family had been a jarring experience which only further proved what he didn’t know about Nim.

And she had never asked any major questions about him. No questions about his past, no questioning why he had murdered his trainer. Nim was almost careful about what things she asked the Pokémon trainer. There were never any conversations which really delved into serious things. Just friendly chit-chat, even when he got drunk at her house on accident and she could have pried without much repercussion. Nothing that wasn’t casual, until her slip-up that morning at breakfast.

He switched his focus to the present moment. The quiet tapping of Nim’s cane on the sidewalk could be heard as they walked together, a steady little rhythm on the concrete. Almost like a heartbeat. Dit realized that until that morning, he hadn’t even known that being hit by a car was the event that had changed her life from that of a high-ranking battler to the quieter life of a teacher. He glanced at her, trying to read what was on her mind. There was a lot which just didn’t make sense.

“Take a picture, it lasts longer,” Nim quipped playfully when she noticed his look from the corner of her eye.

“I can’t figure you out,” Dit told her seriously. “You seem fun and playful, but then you show this major shift to calm badass with a plan for all sorts of shit. Or agitated and annoyed with the world.”

“Sounds accurate,” Nim mused.

Dit rolled his eyes. “I’m being serious, Nim. It’s been two months. You keep doing things for me and hanging out even though I keep trying to kill you. For some insane reason, you have decided to trust me in spite of everything. Let’s actually talk while we hang out tonight. You want trust? Let me see who you are.”

Nim’s surprised but delighted smile up at him said it all. She was quite obviously happy that he was opening up, even if it meant she had to do the same. Dit got the feeling that she was being sincere in her offer of friendship, and not because she’d be safer if he trusted her. If she had only wanted safety, Sunny would have been happy to make him forget about her.

It would have been easier to just let her family wipe his memories when he left her house after that first day. Nim didn’t want that, though. She did actually like talking to Dit when he wasn’t expecting her to do something awful like betray him, or attempting to kill her because she had messed up. She understood how things could snowball, in regards to his situation. It wasn’t as if anything in the world was ever truly a black-and-white scenario. She didn’t approve of him killing, but she did understand protecting himself and his own family. And the woman was not the sort to hold his attempts on her life against him- he didn’t truly know much about her. She couldn’t expect Dit to just trust her blindly, even if Nim herself gave blind trust in the hope she hadn’t misjudged him.

“I like that idea,” she said as he opened the door to the rundown pizzeria for her. “I don’t need to know anything you don’t want to talk about, but I’m an open book for anything you want to know about me as long as it doesn’t break a promise to others. First thing, though, you said the food at this place is good? Because I swear I just saw a cockroach the size of a Team Rocket member here.”

The Pokémon blinked. That was definitely a big cockroach, and while it was a bit of a dump, this place didn’t normally have bugs. Then his gaze landed on the back table and he understood what Nim meant. He growled low in his throat at the sight of the two uniforms. Not in his hangout they didn’t! It was a dive which welcomed anyone, but this was his dive, dammit. He didn’t want any members of Team Rocket thinking they could hang out there.

“No killing,” Nim said softly. “At least not right now and preferably not around me. I don’t want to know if you do it later, either. But we can sure kick their asses out of here now.”

Dit could understand her request. These two got a short reprieve. He normally killed Team Rocket goons when he saw them, but lucky for this pair, they’d get to live until he caught up with them later.

“You wanna have a battle?” Dit yelled over to the two offenders. “The losers don’t come back here again.”

The two humans rose to their feet, pulling pokéballs out of their pockets. Dit grinned as he retrieved a pokéball of his own, followed by Nim. The two of them stood at an angle to each other as they faced off against the Team Rocket goons. It was a subtle way of keeping their backs safe while supporting each other, like most duo teams did when battling.

“Get lost, then,” one of the Team Rocket members snapped. “We’re tired.”

“Not as tired as you’re going to be,” Nim said with a smirk on her lips. “It’s been a long day and I’m not in the mood tonight to go easy on you guys.”

“Take it outside!” the owner of the pizzeria said with an angry wave of his hand, pointing to a sign on the wall. “No Pokémon battles in here, you all know the rules!”

“Let’s take out the trash,” Nim told Dit with a laugh.

Dit grinned ferally at the woman. For all he still didn’t know about Nim, things were interesting around her sometimes. They would be having a real talk after dealing with these goons, because he had questions.