Nom
Xavier held his new Pokémon - no, his new partner - close to his chest. “You’re cute, you know that?” he asked as he looked down at it, meeting its eyes.
The Fennekin looked back up at him and made a little cooing noise before licking his chin.
The teenager laughed at the ticklish feeling. “You hungry?” The Pokémon nodded. “All right, Fennekin how about…” Xavier trailed off. “That doesn’t feel right.”
The Fennekin looked up at him curiously. “Mmhm?” it asked.
“I can’t keep calling you by what you are. You need a name,” he declared.
The Fennekin’s eyes went wide in understanding. Then it smiled at him before making a lot of happy noises.
“Calm down, would ya? Okay… how about Firefox!?” The Fennekin’s response was to reach up and bite his nose. Hard. “Ow! Leggo leggo leggo! Okay. Not Firefox,” he relented as the Fennekin smiled up at him smugly. He touched his nose gingerly. “Did you burn my nose?” The Pokémon nodded. “Well can you not do that again? I think I’m gonna be speaking funny for a week.”
Xavier sat down at a nearby bench, still holding the Fennekin close to his chest. “Okay… how about… Scorch?” The Fennekin settled for glaring at him. “Guess not.”
The pair sat there in silence again as the trainer idly scratched the Pokémon behind the ears. “Firebrand?” The Fennekin chomped down on his arm. “Hey!” It let go. “Okay, fine, something normal. Daniel?”
The Fennekin rolled its eyes. “Come on, what’s wrong with Daniel?” Xavier asked. “It’s a perfectly good name. Kenny?”
The Pokémon’s expression turned to shock, as though it was asking him if he was being serious.
“All right. Ethan?” The Fennekin shook its head. “Brendan?” More shaking. “Lucas?” Now all the boy got was some blank staring. “Hilbert? Nate? Calem?” The Fennekin put a paw against its head and looked down at the ground.
The Fennekin stayed like that for a while, trying to think of the best way to get it through the trainer’s head. Then, it realised. That red thing, which the strange screen. Immediately, the Pokémon stuck its snout into the boy’s pocket and began rooting around.
“I can’t call you Red, that’s just - hey!” Xavier looked down as the Fennekin managed to pull out his Pokédex. “What are you doing?”
The Pokémon fumbled with the device for a few moments, trying to figure out how to make it work. It let out a frustrated screech and pointed at it with a paw.
“You want me to open it?” When the Fennekin nodded he shrugged. “All right, don’t know what you expect…”
The Fennekin watched in amazement as he pulled the two red sections apart, revealing the screen. “What now? You want me to go to your page in the ‘dex?” He tapped the screen a few times. “Huh. You eat sticks? That’s kinda cool. But I don’t understand what this has to do with anything.”
The Fennekin rolled its eyes before tapping the screen a few times with its paws. It honestly had no idea what would happen, it was just hoping for something.
“Hey, watch it!” Xavier shouted, pulling the device away. “I don’t want you scratching the screen!” He held the thing up over his head, far out of the Fennekin’s reach. “Seriously, why are you so interested in this?” he asked. “I’m trying to decide on a name and…” The teenager blinked as he looked at the screen.
Above the moving image of the Fennekin was the word ‘Female’. There were no arrows anywhere that he could touch to show him a male one. He remembered what Serena had said, how it would only show him Pokémon he had seen and captured, including alternate colourations and gender.
“Um…” He looked down at the incredibly irritated Fennekin. “So. You’re a girl.”
The Fennekin nodded.
“I… You probably think I’m an idiot.” She nodded again. “At least that explains why you didn’t like any of the other names I picked. So… girls names. Girls names…”
The Fennekin looked up at him expectantly. Her ears began to droop the longer she waited.
“Velma!” There was a brief pause. “So I guess that’s a yes?” He let out a pained grunt as the Fennekin sunk her teeth into his arm again. “That’s a no…”
As he rubbed at his latest injury, the Fennekin sighed. Of course she had to get the idiot. Just her luck, wasn’t it?
“Okay. How about Buffy?” That made her pause. That actually wasn’t a bad name at all. A bit odd, though. She wasn’t sure. “If you don’t like that, how about Daphne?”
That one got her attention. For some reason that name really appealed to her.
“I guess you like that one, huh?” Xavier asked, noticing how happy the little fox seemed with that. “All right, Daphne it is!” The Pokémon cooed happily as the trainer picked her up. “Let’s get something to eat. Then I need to go back home and show you to Mum.”