While you and Mawile discussed what you should do next and bantered, two figures watched you from the shadows of the trees nearby. The pair looked at Mawile with mystified and amused expressions.
“Hey, you’re seeing what I’m seeing, right?” One figure asked.
“Of course I am but… I can’t believe it! That is the Mawile we know, right?”
“Yep, with that scar on her ear and the way she holds herself , it’s obvious. Now, do you see what she's holding?”
“Um…”The shadowy figured leaned forward. “I can’t make it out very well but it looks like a doll. It’s super small though.”
“Ha! A doll!” The other figure spoke, astounded. “I would never believe it if I wasn't seeing it as we spoke.”
“Yeah, me neither.”
“You know what I’m thinking, right?”
“Yeah I am. But… are you sure? That could end pretty badly.”
“Ah we’ll be fine! Are you ready? We cannot miss this chance!” The shadowy figure bounced with anticipation.
“Yeah, why not?” The other agreed casually. “We’ll probably regret this later but what the heck.”
- - -
“Alright Mawile, now we need to figure out what to do next.” You told her once you stopped laughing.
“Mawile.” Your partner said simply, pointing to Rustboro with the thumb of her free hand.
“Exactly. Now the first thing I thought of was going to the Pokémon Center. But then I thought what about Rox-aaaaaaahhhh!”
Before you could even register what happened, you felt something grab hold of your leg and start carrying you through the air. Whatever it was that grabbed you was incredibly fast, so much so that the world around you whipped by in a blur. Your only dangers were getting sick and whiplash.
- - -
Mawile was focusing intently on you as you stood on her paw, too preoccupied with figuring out what to do next to make fun of you right now. One moment you were talking to her and the next, something snatched you out of her paw! And another thing tried to push her over! All it managed to do was nudge her a little but whatever it was quickly followed the thing that had taken you.
“Hey!” Mawile shouted, sounding more irritated than angry. “What’s the big idea!? Give him back to me before I kick your-”
Realizing that the two figures hadn’t stopped running, Mawile stopped talking and instead ran after the duo.
“When I get you two, you’re gonna wish you pissed off a herd of Tauros instead of me!”
- - -
After who knows how long of being violently shaken by whatever had grabbed you, everything finally stopped moving. Stopped moving physically at least. Your head, which was miraculously still attached to the rest of your body, was still spinning.
Thankfully, whatever had grabbed you wasn’t running anymore and they seemed to have settled into a spot. Things kept getting better as you stopped being held by just your leg and were gripped firmly but relatively gently between what felt like two paws. As long as you weren’t about to be thrown down a Pokémon’s gullet, things were marginally improving for you.
Since you weren’t getting tossed down a gullet, your head was slowly able to recover until the headache and blurry vision went away. You desperately wanted to rub your eyes, but the paws held your arms tightly at your side.
Understandably nervous, but well aware that you would have to eventually, you looked at whatever had just kidnapped you. To your surprise, you hadn’t been taken by one Pokémon, but a team of two! Even more surprising, you actually recognized these two troublemakers!
Believe it or not, your hometown had more troublemaking Pokémon than just Mawile. You had problems remembering all of them, but Plusle and Minun were two that you remembered very distinctly. After all, they were by far the most ‘popular’ of your town’s resident Pokémon.
These two were a very different type of troublemaker than Mawile was. They didn’t threaten to beat people up and try to establish themselves as the tough ones. They simply couldn’t. They didn’t sneak around town, testing doors to see if they were unlocked, or trying to take stuff from street stalls. They didn’t have to. Plusle and Minun didn’t try to make trouble. They just were trouble.
They were, for lack of a better term, brats. The two of them were adorable, and the town loved them for that. And Plusle and Minun were well aware of that. So they used their cuteness to get things, whatever they wanted. They always got free food, even though they were wild Pokémon who would never pay back the person in any way. People would knit or craft them cute stuff that they’d wear for a while before it disappeared forever. The two of them were given more stuff than most wild Pokémon would even dream of.
Mawile took stuff, Plusle and Minun were given stuff and expected to keep receiving more.
Admittedly, this was all mostly harmless. It wasn’t that different from how many people treated their Snubbull, Furfrou, or other stereotypically spoiled Pokémon. But those cases were usually one person spoiling one Pokémon. Plusle and Minun were being spoiled by a whole town. So the two of them were… less cute when someone was alone with them.
You were well aware of that. You always seemed to end up alone with them.
At first, the two of them would still act cute like they always did. But since they were used to being adored by so many people, your attention alone usually wasn’t enough. You always had something ready for them, especially after meeting them alone became a normal thing, but they were never satisfied. Give them a bit of petting and nice words, and they’ll quickly get bored and skamper off… or start going through your bag while it’s still on your back. You try to give them a gift, like a blanket or something, and they’ll look it over. If they like it, they’ll treat it like any other gift, use it for a bit and then throw it out. If they don’t like it, one would distract you by acting appreciative while the other threw it away somewhere.
The only thing that consistently made them happy was sweets. They enjoyed getting any kind of treat, even simple things like sweet berries. They couldn’t always be bothered to be super appreciative, but it kept them under control. Even that didn’t please them forever, they expected you to mix up the variety of gifts after all. And if you had a few visits without anything… they’d give you a shock and be on their way.
They didn’t have as much of an impact as Mawile did, but they were just as troublesome as she was. To you they were, at least. Especially now that they were giant enough to whip you around like a rag doll while running from Mawile!
You were going to call to them and ask why they had taken you, or why they had left your hometown in the first place, but you were when the two of them and you were rocked by a massive tremor!
- - -
“You two rats get down here, or I’ll punch this tree down!” Mawile shouted up to the two Pokémon after leaving a noticeable crack in the tree’s stump.
“As if!” Plusle said tauntingly from above. “And if you try punching this tree down, we’ll just hop to the next one. There’s plenty to chose from.”
Minun, the one who was holding you snickered mischievously.
Mawile clenched a fist angrily and glared at the duo. “Give him back to me. If you play nice, I’ll let you walk away without consequence. The rest of that town ain’t here to keep you safe.”
“Oh, I’m so scared. That’d be a lot more threatening coming from a Pokémon who didn’t play with dolls.”
Plusle and Minun both pulled an eye down and stuck out their tongues.
“I don’t have a stinkin’ doll! You just stole my trainer, and you do not mess with the boss while I’m around!” Mawile wasn’t shouting anymore, but anyone who understood her could hear the threatening undertone of her voice.
“Ha! Don’t lie to us. A human that small? Don’t be ridiculous! You’re just mad we’re playing with your toy.”
Knowing how to play along, Minun held you out in front of her face, using one paw to hold an arm each. Tauntingly, she started swaying you back and forth and rocking you up and down. Which made you very uncomfortable and embarrassed.
“Q-quit that! You’re gonna hurt ‘im.”
"Aww, don't be sad. We'll give you your doll back once we're-"
"Gah!" Minun's screaming interrupted Plusle's taunting, just in time for her to see you dropping from the tree branches.
"Minun, what are you doing? We could've taunted her more and-"
"T-that wasn't a doll!" Minun muttered, shocked and sounding a little guilty. "I-it was her trainer. The guy who always tried to give us stuff and... and I just dropped him!"
Anxiously, the pair got on their knees and looked over the edge of the large branch. Both their hearts raced with anticipation and dread, Minun's going much faster than Plusle's.
To their relief, you had been safely caught by Mawile below... who looked really angry.
"You... idiots! I'm going to destroy you! I'm gonna make all of you red, Plusle! And when I'm done with you Minun, you'll be black and blue instead of white and blue!"
"Um... I'm more of a cream." Minun pointed out meekly.
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