Chapter Text
Poppy was bored. So bored. So insanely bored. Words could not describe how bored Poppy was. And it was entirely that stupid Nuzleaf’s fault.
Seriously, what a crappy way to end an utterly bizarre day. From waking up as a Treecko in a random forest, to getting attacked by bloodthirsty weirdos, to running into a Nuzleaf with the stupidest accent she’d ever heard, to fighting her way with said Nuzleaf through mystery dungeons (which were an experience and a half), Poppy was having a blast! Sure, the whole nearly dying thing sucked, but who cared? She was a little reptile that could breathe draconic fire and suck the life force out of other pokemon! She was living the dream!
Well, she was, until Nuzleaf had lead her to a tiny little hamlet called Serene Village. She had been promised food and a place to sleep. Instead, she got shoved into a prison known only as ‘Nuzleaf’s home’, told she wasn’t allowed to leave, and then abandoned as Nuzleaf went off to enroll her in school! How dare! She didn’t need to go to school! She was…
…okay, she actually had no idea how old she was, but she was totally old enough that she didn’t have to go to school anymore. Probably. Maybe. Definitely. And even if she wasn’t, school was stupid and dumb and she didn’t wanna go.
So there she was, splayed out on the ground, occasionally lifting her head up just enough so that she could knock it against the floor, hoping that maybe if she gave herself a headache she’d at least have something to think and complain about. That’d be nice. Part of her wanted to ignore Nuzleaf’s orders and go explore the town a bit, but in her brief time with him she quickly learned that he had a bit of a temper, and she didn’t want to tempt fate and see what happened if he got properly upset at her.
Which meant that she was stuck for an indeterminate amount of time, until whenever the heck Nuzleaf decided to free her from her shackles. That, or something interesting happened that Poppy could use as an excuse to break the rules.
*CRUNCH
…like a mysterious noise right outside the window of the (her?) room.
Poppy shot to her feet, her eyes snapping over to the window as she crouched into a battle stance. Someone was sneaking around outside her room. Was it the Beheeyem? Had they followed her all the way to Serene Village? She wasn’t eager for another fight with them (it hadn’t gone well the first time), but if she had an entire town backing her up she could probably take them on.
But wait, Beheeyem didn’t need to walk, they could float. So why would they accidentally step on a twig? Okay, so maybe it wasn’t the Beheeyem, but then who was it? It wasn’t like anyone else had a reason to be sulking around. Had her bored mind just imagined the sound?
A shadow dashed past her window, accompanied by the sound of laughter. Okay, nope, definitely not her imagination, someone was definitely outside. And they were taunting her too! Poppy absolutely wasn’t standing for that. She turned on her heel, rushing through the tiny house and throwing open the door, jumping out onto the grass and holding her arms up in front of her, ready to deck whoever was trying to mess with her.
Her eyes scanned the area, looking left, right, left, finding nothing but lush grass and quaint little houses wherever she looked. Where was the pokemon? Poppy narrowed her eyes, turning her head to scan the area one more time.
…nothing. There was no one there.
Poppy let out an annoyed sigh, letting her hand drop to her side, trying and failing to stick them in her non-existent pockets. Great, now she was bored and looked crazy. She shook her head, deciding to go back inside before Nuzleaf came back and chewed her out, vowing to find something to do in his stupid house to occupy herself. She turned around and-
“Hiya!”
“AGH!!!”
Poppy stumbled backward, flailing her arms around wildly as she tried to balance herself and get away from the snout that was shoved an inch away from her face. The hell? How had someone managed to sneak up on her? They were snapping twigs and laughing to themselves before, how were they this quiet now?
“I knew it! I knew I saw Mr. Nuzleaf bring someone to his house!”
The sneaky pokemon - a Fennekin with absurdly large ears that had giant wads of red fur sticking out of them - danced in place, jumping up and down and swatting a paw in the air. Poppy blinked at the strange pokemon, tilting her head to the side.
“What are-”
“Hi there!” the Fennekin interrupted, once again getting way too close for Poppy’s taste, a massive grin on their face. “I’ve never seen you before. Are you new here? Where did you come from? How do you know Mr. Nuzleaf? Are you related? Are you his secret love child? Do you have a tragic secret past that you don’t want anyone to know about?”
The Fennekin continued rattling off, speaking at a breakneck pace that Poppy couple barely keep up with, her ears starting to ring ever so slightly as she strained them to try and pick up anything the Fennekin was saying. “…what?!?” she eventually exclaimed once she had grown tired of failing to listen to the Fennekin prattle on, causing them to snap their mouth closed for a brief, blissful second.
“Oh wait, right, you wouldn’t tell me about that last few. Whoops!” The Fennekin snickered to themself, tutting and shaking their head. “Oh right, I’m Tuft by the way! What’s your name?”
Poppy stared in confusion at the strange pokemon she was talking to. Tuft was… certainly a name. Poppy blinked again, giving Tuft a weird look. “Wait, I thought you weren’t supposed to tell other pokemon your name.” Nuzleaf had made that very clear when she tried to introduce herself to him. Apparently names were a very personal thing. And yet here Tuft was, giving theirs away without even having been asked.
Tuft rolled their eyes, letting out a scoff. “That rule is DUMB,” they complained. “How are you supposed to be friends with others if you don’t even know their name? What, am I just supposed to call my new best friend ‘Treecko’? That’s so weird!”
“Frie- we aren’t friends! I don’t even know who you are!”
“Sure you do! I just told you, I’m Tuft!”
“Yes, I know your name, but-”
“Exactly! And only friends and family know each other's names! You know my name, that makes us friends!”
Poppy glared at Tuft, finally feeling that headache she had been asking for a few minutes ago creeping up on her. “…what kinds of drugs are you on and where can I get some?” she asked with exhaustion.
“What are drugs?” Tuft asked, tilting their head to the side so quickly that their ear folded over their face, covering their eyes with bright red fluffy fur.
‘Oh dear god they’re an idiot.’
“Whatever, doesn’t matter!” Tuft decided. “You can tell me later! It’s your first time in town, right? Lemme show you around, Slimy!”
“Wha- SLIMY?” Poppy yelled. “Why are you-”
“Cuz you’re green and look kinda slimy!” Tuft happily replied, cutting Poppy off again, making her eye twitch. “Oh wait, I already have a Slimy. He’s a Goomy. Have you ever seen a Goomy before? They’re really slimy! Well, they’re more goopy, but they feel slimy, so I call him-”
“Shut up,” Poppy snapped. “My name is Poppy. Either call me that or nothing at all.”
“Oh, Poppy! That’s a nice name! Like poppy flowers! Those are super pretty. And poppy seeds! Those taste really good! Wait, are you named after the flower or the seed? ‘Cuz like why would someone name their kid after a seed? Maybe ‘cuz they look tasty? I don’t think you look very tasty. You kinda look slimy, and that doesn’t sound very good to eat. So maybe you're named after the flower. Wait but poppies are red! You aren’t red. Well your tummy is red, but is it Poppy red? Maybe you were named ‘cuz-”
‘Shut up shut up shut up shut up please dear god shut them up,’ Poppy internally groaned, unable to get a word in edgewise as Tuft continued senselessly rambling on about absolutely nothing at all. She looked over at them as they chattered endlessly, their head pointing off in random directions as they swung it around with every word, their expression full of wonder. Poppy could already tell that there wasn’t a single thought behind those eyes.
Tuft suddenly stopped talking, taking a deep breath to fill their empty lungs, panting like crazy. Poppy relished in the brief moment of silence before Tuft found their voice again.
“Wait a minute!” they yelped. “What are we still doing here? I’m supposed to be showing you around town! C’mon, let’s go!”
Without giving Poppy a chance to say “Hell no, leave me alone,” Tuft hopped forward and bit Poppy’s hand, not hard enough to hurt but enough to give them a grip, dragging her across the small bridge and down the hill towards the town plaza, completely ignoring Poppy’s demands to let her go.
Resigning herself to her fate, Poppy let herself be dragged along, her face heating up with embarrassment every time she noticed someone glancing her way, their smirks and amused faces making her skin crawl. She wanted nothing more then to snap at them to stop laughing at her. It wasn’t her fault she was forced to lean over and waddle like an idiot! The blame there was on the Fennekin that still would not let go of her hand, forcing her to bend down.
Poppy barely took in her surroundings, letting the cozy little town pass her by as Tuft dragged her along. They eventually let her hand go, but only because they had something new to say, launching into a tangent about all of the ‘cool stuff’ that there was to do in town as soon as they let go of Poppy’s hand. To her credit, Poppy tried to follow along, she really did. She did want to see what was around town, and it would have been nice to know where everything was, but she absolutely could not keep up with the breakneck pace that Tuft was speaking at.
“Hey, are you listening to me?” Tuft was staring at Poppy with unblinking eyes, giving her a questioning look, waiting for her to reply. Oh, so now she was allowed to talk? How lovely!
“I’m trying to,” Poppy stressed, “but you keep-”
“Oooooh, I get it,” Tuft cut in, nodding their head. “You’re totally thinking I’m annoying, aren’t you?”
“Yup,” Poppy immediately replied, not even bothering to hide her contempt.
“Hah! I knew it!” Tuft cheered. “I get that a lot.”
‘Surprise of the century.’
“Anyway, quit it!” Tuft grinned. “Gimme a break! I bet you’re just jealous I know so much! You’re basically green with envy.” They grinned even wider, leaning in close. “Eh? Eh? See what I did there? Green with envy! Get it? It’s a joke, ‘cuz you’re green, and you’re jealous!”
Poppy took a step back to get Tuft out of her personal space, biting down on her tongue to stop herself from laughing at that absolutely horrible and not at all funny pun. She would not laugh! It wasn’t funny! At all!
“There you are, brat!”
Tuft and Poppy turned their heads to the angry voice in unison, looking over at a Lombre who was marching over to them, glaring at Tuft with a look of hatred and contempt that Poppy wished she could match. His lily-pad had cast a dark shadow over his face that would have made him look somewhat intimidating, if not for his long dangly arms dragging on the ground behind him.
“So this is where you’ve been hiding!” the Lombre snapped. “You’re the one who trampled all through my lotus pond, aren’t you?!”
“I-it… it wasn’t like that!” Tuft insisted, looking a bit sheepish for the first time Poppy had seen. “I was just trying to have a little adventure!”
“Why you…” Lombre seethed, taking a couple of steps forward, prompting Tuft to let out a yelp, hopping in the air and turning around, running off in the opposite direction for about two seconds before another voice called out.
“FENNEKIN! STOP RIGHT ZERE!”
A furious looking Hippopotas charged down the path, trapping Tuft in between her and the Lombre. She stomped her foot, kicking up clouds of dust and shaking the ground ever so slightly.
“You!” she snarled. “You are ze one that vent into my cave, aren’t you?! And vat’s more! You stole ze treasure I had hidden inside, didn’t you?!”
“N-no!” Tuft said, shaking their head wildly. “I was just exploring a dungeon, ya’know? And, well, you know how it is! You gotta have a reward after clearing a dungeon, right?”
“MY HOME IZ NOT A DUNGEON, YOU-”
“Stop right there, you!”
‘Oh what now,’ Poppy groaned, dragging a hand down her face. Seriously, how many pokemon did this one Fennekin piss off? Was she going to have pokemon coming after her with torches and pitchforks if she stood too close to them? She already had a trio of evil Beheeyem hunting her, she didn’t need any more enemies!
Already sick of the situation, Poppy looked over at the newest voice, seeing a massive Carracosta waddling towards Tuft, his expression screaming anger and disappointment. Only one kind of person could have a face like that.
“P-pops!” Tuft exclaimed.
‘Yup, knew it. Only a parent can pull off a look like that.’
Old man Carracosta looked down at Tuft, putting his flippers on his sides. “So this is where you’ve been loitering?” he said, a scolding tone in his voice. “What about your chores back home, huh? I know you haven’t finished them! You playing hooky to wander around again?”
“N-no, pops, you got it wrong!” Tuft insisted. “I got a reason this time! See-”
“And I know you’ve been snacking on the oran berries in my field again!” Carracosta snapped. Poppy couldn’t help rolling her eyes as he interrupted Tuft. ‘Like father, like child.’
“I have not!” Tuft yelled back.
“Yes you have!”
“Have not!”
“You have!”
“No I haven’t!”
“I want the truth from you child!”
“Okay yeah, I did eat them!” Tuft admitted, snickering to themself with a face completely free of guilt and fear. “They were delicious!” The heck? They were so nervous a few seconds ago! Was that all an act? Where did their sudden confidence come from?
‘What is wrong with them?’
“There they are! I see Fennekin!”
“Uh oh,” Tuft yelped, a stupid smile still plastered on their face. “Welp, gotta go!” They quickly turned around and ran, shooting past Poppy and nearly tripping her.”
“Don’t you dare run!” Old man Carracosta yelled, shaking a flipper. “Get back here!”
Carracosta ran after Tuft, quickly followed by Hippopotas, Lombre, and a small mob of other pokemon that started flooding in from nearby, their furious charge kicking up a storm of dust that left Poppy coughing and sputtering, desperately rubbing her eyes to clean them. After a minute, the dust finally settled, leaving her alone in a now empty plaza. She turned to look off in the direction that Tuft ran, unable to wipe the baffled look from her face.
“…what have I gotten myself into?” she complained. She was starting to regret taking up Nuzleaf’s offer to house her. This town was insane.
“Oi! What in tarnation are you doin’ out ‘ere? I told’ya not to leave the house!”
Poppy cringed, her shoulders shooting up and covering her neck as she slowly turned around to see Nuzleaf stomping towards her, looking particularly cross at Poppy for disobeying his orders.
‘Oh I am going to kill that stupid Fennekin.’