So, what do you think? Like? Hate?

Disclaimer: Pokemon belongs to Nintendo and Shogakukan Comics. This non-profit, non-copyright infringing fanfiction belongs to me under international copyright laws and taking it is plagiarism. Thank you. *Phantomness bows*

Notes: <> for telepathy, ** for thoughts, italics if a pokemon talks

And yes, Lance is a girl, which makes this het, although Ash isn’t aware of Lance’s true gender yet, so she’s usually referred to in the wrong pronouns, like Dragon’s Love.

Chapter 2

Waking was odd, realizing that he didn’t have to breathe. But the breaths he took didn’t hurt him.

Lance fed him nuts and berries and spring water, tinged red with blood. It should have sickened him, but it didn’t. Within a few days he was drinking blood straight from willing pokemon donors and he didn’t mind anymore.

After all, if the pokemon didn’t mind losing a little – he didn’t need gallons and gallons, simply a few sips, and really, that wasn’t much at all.

Squirtle and Butterfree didn’t mind either, which was good. He didn’t want to hurt his pokemon after all!

And so life went on… well, and he discovered his latent talent. If he fed from a willing pokemon, he could absorb something of them… like he had learned how to use Stun Spore from Butterfree, and he had an instinct to take cover whenever danger appeared, like Squirtle might…

They didn’t mind though, luckily. They were willing after all. This was just a bonus of his type.

So he waited, waiting for his body to heal further. He still couldn’t run, and Lance said that until his blood types aligned, he’d have difficulty training pokemon and moving. He believed him.

Lance had dragon pokemon, lots and lots of beautiful dragons. He was lucky! And dragons didn’t mind losing a few teaspoonfuls; it was almost nothing to them. And so Ash learned not to mind, almost to enjoy the feeling when his fangs cut through flesh, neat, sharp little pinpricks, no messy tearing flesh like canine teeth or loose flaps. Wasteful. Who would want to waste blood?

And he got stronger, because dragon blood could protect one from fires – Lance explained this one day, while he was lecturing Ash on dragon pokemon. Ash hadn’t minded, because learning about pokemon was important if he ever wanted to be a great trainer, and he learned how dragons were immune – or at least pretty close to it – from the first four elements.

Fire. Water. Lightning. Grass.

And that was lucky, because sunlight could burn vampires, but now he had no fear, and running water used to make him uneasy, but it didn’t anymore, and lightning protected him from the crosses, and the garlic was immunized thanks to grass protection.

And he learned, and grew, and waited for his legs to heal properly, and soon enough, but never too soon, they left the cave and stepped into the sunlight.

And it was warm.

He didn’t think he’d like sunlight, honestly – his skin had gotten paler as a result of his vampirism and the loss of his tan had irked him, but only for a few days, because then he realized that he looked like Lance. And that was actually cute in a way, because Lance was cool, and really, it would have been cool to be Lance’s little brother.

So he started calling Lance aniki all the time and Lance just smiled strangely and never protested, and so he tried to force away his memories from earlier and make himself believe that he really was Lance’s little brother.

He tried to forget about his mother – his mother who had abandoned him, and now when he thought of her, he wasn’t furiously angry anymore; perhaps distance and time could heal all wounds…

But the sun was warm and he smiled at Lance as they began walking to Cerulean City, because he had lost his badges in the S.S. Anne wreck, along with his other pokemon, and it was just… he wanted to become a Pokemon Master after all, so he needed her badge!

Squirtle and Butterfree were with him, and also two more pokemon – Zubat and Nidorino… he had caught them almost by accident, but no matter, Butterfree and Squirtle were good, good pokemon, his trusted team…

“Ash?”

He needed to quit zoning out. But it was so easy to do when he was with Lance. They didn’t really talk, when they weren’t talking. Even when they didn’t talk, he could feel Lance’s presence around him. It was like a fluffy blanket – the feeling was like being wrapped in a fluffy blanket sitting in front of a fire eating peanut butter cookies with squishy marshmallows and a big mug of hot chocolate, with the snow falling outside the window and maybe a Growlithe or Vulpix curled up next to him. It was a warm nice feeling.

Lance was warm.

It was odd, since Lance wasn’t a fire-type like him, but he was warm.

“Ash…”

He snapped back to reality and smiled up at his pretty guardian, warm sun, warm heart, what could be better? He didn’t know. “Yes, Lance-aniki?”

“You’re spacing out again. People will start to notice.”

He nodded as he gave an unspoken question, and received an unspoken answer, and realized that he probably should not be standing in the middle of a dirt road. At least there weren’t any cars around to see him…

Lance shook his head. “I know – you’re overdosing on happy sun vibes. Fire types almost always like the sun, and if not that, they like light. I suppose it only makes sense you’d feel the same way, after so much deprivation. The cave wasn’t the most suitable place after all, but you might have gotten injured if I had let you out as soon as you woke up.”

He nodded. He knew.

And he was happy.

“Lance?”

“Mmhmm?”

“Er…” He poked. No. It was still there. So he hugged Lance, just to make sure, and blinked. No.

Well…

It looked like Lance was a girl.

But it didn’t matter, since he – well, she, but it was easier to think of Lance as he, was the perfect big brother, and Ash was happy, so he snuggled deeper into Lance’s arms and gave a cute smile, and the Dragon Master just laughed.

“I knew you’d figure it out someday.”

But what did she have to hide?

And Ash smiled back at her and nodded, and the Cerulean trip was put on hold.

End Chapter

Started 7/18/05

Completed 7/21/05

Lance: You scare me

Phantomness: I’m in a weird mood. Must be PMS…

Ash: Ah… or the pain medication

Kairo: Could be that too, least it’s not darkfic, ne Shoyko?

Shoyko: *Sighs*