Oddish Circumstances

Dongwoo is a very busy man. As a nurse, it’s pretty easy, since there’s a machine that he just inserts Pokéballs into and when the machine beeps, the Pokémon are healed. But that’s not the hard part of his job. The hardest part is that he runs a Pokémon daycare behind his Pokémon center. Trainers drop off their baby Pokémon with him and he raises them until the trainer decides to take them back. It’s a fun job, taking care of baby Pokémon, but sometimes they can get a little out of hand.

Like today for example, Teddiursa is being mischievous and once Teddiursa starts anything, all the other babies are sure to follow. For some reason today, they are all hiding in the tall grass and it’s dangerous because if they’re attacked by wild Pokémon, they can get seriously hurt. Dongwoo is searching frantically for them because a trainer is going to pick up his Igglybuff today and Dongwoo needs to find him.

“Guys, come on!” Dongwoo calls into the grass. “You can’t hide in here all day – you still have to eat!”

There’s no response from any Pokémon and Dongwoo wants to give up. He’s corralled most of the Pokémon already but the only ones left to find are Igglybuff and Oddish. He spots Igglybuff easily (he’s bright pink after all) but Oddish is more difficult since he blends in so easily with the grass. After placing Igglybuff with the others, he goes back to searching for Oddish. He hopes none of the babies start crying in his absence.

“Oddish!” he calls out in exasperation. “If you come here I’ll give you a poffin! Please, Oddish, I need you to cooperate. I need to get you all back to the daycare!” Sighing sharply, he bends down and starts rustling the grass in hopes of finding Oddish. “Come on, Oddish – can’t you just work with me today?” Even if Teddiursa is the most mischievous of the babies, Oddish comes to a close second.

“Need some help there?”

Dongwoo stands up abruptly and turns around in surprise. He breathes in relief when he sees that it’s only Hoya. “Oh, Officer Hoya. It’s just you.”

Hoya smiles at him, his canine teeth matching the ones of the Growlithe at his feet. “Now, now – no need to call me officer. As the gym leader also, it’s a lot easier if you’d just call me Hoya.”

“Hoya, then.” Dongwoo smiles. “What brings you here?”

“I was coming into the Pokémon center after a gym battle to heal my Pokémon and you weren’t at the counter. I assumed you were in the back with the babies then.”

“You assumed right,” Dongwoo chuckles. “I apologize for not being at the counter – I ran into some difficulties with the babies.”

“So what’s the problem here, Nurse Jang?” he asks with a playful smile.

“You can’t call me nurse if I can’t call you officer!” Dongwoo says teasingly.

“All right, all right – Dongwoo. What happens to be the problem?”

“I lost an Oddish in the grass!” he exclaims. “I need to find him before any wild Pokémon can attack him.”

“I could help you out, if you like,” Hoya suggests. “My Pokémon are a little beat up, but they’re still able to help you out.”

“Oh no, I couldn’t ask that of you.”

“Don’t think of it as asking me to do something – I’m just helping you out.” Hoya grins at him. “Besides, it won’t be that hard.” With a flick of his wrist, he throws out a Pokéball and a Lucario bursts out. “I’ve trainer Lucario to sense aura. He’ll be able to find the Oddish in no time.”

“Oh, really? Thank you so much!”

Dongwoo is absolutely amazed at Lucario’s ability to read aura. He watches in amazement as Lucario scans the grass and finds Oddish within seconds. Lucario picks up the tiny Pokémon and brings it to Dongwoo who thanks Lucario with a smile and pets his head. Hoya walks with him as he brings Oddish back to the other babies, and Dongwoo can’t help but notice that Hoya seems a tiny bit flustered. He coughs like he wants to say something and Dongwoo is listening intently.

“Hey, Dongwoo,” Hoya murmurs, “I, uh… Well, before I came here I kind of wanted to ask you something. And I know it’s under kind of odd circumstances to ask this here. Er, now.”

Dongwoo laughs at him as he opens the gate to the daycare. “It’s fine,” he says. “Go on.”

And Hoya would have continued if a Cubone had not run up to Dongwoo, tugging on his pant leg and crying. Dongwoo gasps and picks up Cubone, holding him close. “Oh, Cubone – did you miss me that much?” Cubone squeaks and clings onto Dongwoo tighter.

Cubone is Dongwoo’s Pokémon. After finding him stranded, Dongwoo had decided to take him in and raise it himself. To this day, Cubone isn’t really comfortable with anybody except for Dongwoo.

Hoya smiles awkwardly at the little Pokémon and waves. “Hey, little guy. How’s it going?”

Cubone shies away from him and Hoya swallows with a nervous chuckle. During its nervous squirm in Dongwoo’s arms, it drops it bone and looks down at the floor anxiously, not being able to see it. Dongwoo laughs at it and kisses Cubone’s head.

“You’re so nervous, Cubone – relax. It’s only me and Hoya.”

At his feet, Growlithe picks up the dropped bone and hands it to Hoya. Hoya thanks his Growlithe and hands the bone back to Cubone very carefully as to not startle him. “Here you go, Cubone,” he whispers. “Don’t want to lose this, now do you?”

Cubone snatches the bone away from him and buries itself into Dongwoo’s chest. Dongwoo laughs again. “He likes you, Hoya,” he states. “I can tell.”

“Are you sure?” Hoya says with a laugh of his own. “He doesn’t seem to like me very much.”

“Believe me, if you made him uncomfortable he’d be throwing a fit.” Dongwoo sets Cubone back onto the ground carefully and pats his head. Cubone goes over to Growlithe and pokes his fur with his bone gently. “So,” Dongwoo continues. “What did you want to ask me?”

“Like I said, it’s kind of odd circumstances,” Hoya repeats, shuffling his feet on the floor uncomfortably. “But I don’t have another gym battle scheduled until tomorrow afternoon and… I just wanted to know if it would be a possibility that you’d go to dinner with me today.” He finishes by looking at the floor with his cheeks flushes. Dongwoo grins because it’s not often that Hoya gets this flustered. Growlithe is sniffing Cubone all over.

“I’d really love to,” he replies immediately, his eyes sparkling.

Hoya looks up in pleasant surprise. “You will? Really?!”

“Only if it’s a date,” Dongwoo sang teasingly. “Besides, if you’re so nice that Cubone is comfortable around you then I can spare you a date.”

Hoya grins at him. “It’s a date then.”

Growlithe Cubone affectionately and Cubone doesn’t protest.

a.n. --

in which yadong are cutie patooties and hoya scores a date under oddish circumstances
aren't i great with this pokepuns. cubone? more like cute bone amiright amiright? but anyways, hope you liked it! i love yadong, so this is super cute to me! (+flustered hoya is adorable all the time)

pokemon referenced

teddiursa -- igglybuff -- oddish -- growlithe -- lucario -- cubone