Chapter 10

Cream ran into the caves at home and curled up in a corner. She didn’t notice her tears forming a salty puddle on the floor or care when Kitten came in looking for her. Kitten had followed Cream’s crying and now curled up with her, comforting her by just being there and letting Cream know that she wasn’t alone as she let her emotions out.

“Why’d he do that?” sobbed Cream finally, “Does he hate me?”

“He doesn’t hate you,” said Kitten softly, “he was just… trying to help you.”

“By saying I can’t do anything?” asked Cream angrily.

“That wasn’t him, Bandit said that.”

“Well he didn’t disagree; he said he had a point.”

“He meant you needed to concentrate more.”

“No, he meant I couldn’t do anything and should just jump off a cliff!”

“Wait a minute! That’s not it!”

“Yes, it is! He hates me!”

Cream then collapsed into another spate of crying. Kitten draped a paw over Cream and pulled her closer.

“He doesn’t hate you. He wants you to get better.”

“Because he doesn’t like me like this,” mumbled Cream.

“No, because he’s concerned,” said Kitten hoping that Dark Growlithe did care for Cream, because if he didn’t Kitten didn’t want to know what Cream would do. “You’ll see. I’m sure he’ll be over to apologise for what he said.”

‘Because if he doesn’t he’s going to have a fatal accident!’ she added silently.

Obviously Kitten didn’t tell Cream her thoughts, the other eevee still cared for Dark Growlithe, a lot, judging by her reaction to his criticism.

*****

Dark Growlithe had wandered home himself, very confused about what had happened. He’d had no idea Cream had any interest in him, he decided he hadn’t noticed because he was busy adjusting to life in a new pack. It was more likely, though, that he had absolutely no skills when it came to understanding other pokémon especially when considering a similar thing had happened with Ninetales. He now had two problems, what to say to Cream the next day and where to sleep, since he decided it was totally out of the question to sleep with Cream and Kitten in their current situation.

“Dark Growlithe! Are you deaf?”

“What?”

Dark Growlithe shook his head, clearing his mind, mostly, and saw Steam looking at him rather impatiently.

“I called you three times and you didn’t respond.”

“Sorry, I was thinking.”

“It’s not a problem. I heard you’ve got your own group of eevee to train up for the exam. How is it going? Any problems?”

“Well, I’ve got Bandit.”

“Mmm.”

“And…one of the eevee has a crush on me.”

“That’s interesting. Let’s hear more. Who? Do you like her?”

“It’s Cream and I don’t know how I feel. I never thought of it before.”

“So did she ask you out or something? How did you find out? What did you say?”

“She didn’t tell me, Kitten did, so I never said anything, at least not about that.”

“Wait, Kitten told you?”

“Mmm.”

“Why’d she do that?”

“It went with her whole tirade of why I’m an insensitive jerk.”

“You are?”

“According to her.”

“What did you do?”

“We were having a simulated hunt and Cream tripped and Bramble, who was being the prey, escaped. Bandit got all angry with her and started saying she couldn’t do anything right. I told him to stop but said he had a point and told Cream what she needed to work on. She got upset, burst into tears and ran off. Then Kitten comes up to me and says it’s all my fault and that I’ve crushed her spirit and all sorts of things. It’s not as if I meant to do anything like that. I didn’t even know she had any interest in me.”

“I see. I think Cream’s just being overly emotional. Girls can be like that sometimes. It’s not really your fault but I think you will probably need to talk to Cream and be a little easier on her if she’s going to get upset easily.”

“I guess. What am I going to say to her though?”

“Don’t ask me. That’s entirely up to you. I can’t tell you how to handle your relationships, it just won’t work. If you want some advice though, be sensitive, and if you’re not interested in her, break it to her gently. Alright?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“See, you’ll be fine. You could use tonight to think about what you’re going to say.”

“Okay,” said Dark Growlithe nodding, “Thank you.”

“I’m always here to help. Good luck and good night.”

“Good night.”

Steam then walked off and Dark Growlithe resumed is hunt for a place to sleep. After deciding vaporeon were too cold and seeing all the eevee were already fast asleep he curled up by himself and closed his eyes.

*****

Dark Growlithe woke up the next morning when a weight landed on his side. He opened his eyes quickly, wondering what had attacked him. Kitten was glaring at him.

“You’re awake, heart-breaker,” she smiled, underneath it though it was obvious she wasn’t in a good mood.

“What do you want?” he asked, not ready to have another fight with Kitten his early in the morning.

“You’re going to apologise to Cream,” stated Kitten, climbing off Dark Growlithe and letting him up.

Dark Growlithe stretched, cracking his back, and yawned.

“What if I say I don’t want to?” he asked, just curious about Kitten’s reaction, he was already intending to apologise.

Kitten narrowed her eyes. “There’s sure a lot of water lying around here where pokémon could just ‘accidentally’ fall into it,” she insinuated.

“You’re very obsessed with this whole Cream thing.”

“She’s my best friend. Are you going to apologise or swim?”

“You know that kind of attitude could get you into trouble sometime.”

Kitten glared harder.

“Okay!” exclaimed Dark Growlithe, giving in. “I’ll go apologise.”

*****

Kitten led Dark Growlithe to where Cream was sitting eating breakfast. She wasn’t actually eating though she was just staring at it and occasionally taking a tiny bite that would have been small for a pichu.

“She looks depressed,” observed Dark Growlithe.

“I wonder why?” said Kitten.

“You’re saying she’s this depressed just because I told her she needed to focus more?”

“That’s all it was to you. She took that you thought she was pathetic and were siding with Bandit and didn’t like her.”

“Jeez, I didn’t know.”

“Well now you do.”

Kitten nudged Dark Growlithe in Cream’s direction.

“Go talk to her.”

“Okay. Here I go.”

Dark Growlithe walked up to Cream while Kitten watched from a distance.

“Cream,” said Dark Growlithe softly as he got close.

Cream jumped at the sound of his voice and looked nervous but didn’t say anything and continued sitting where she was.

“I want to apologise,” said Dark Growlithe, “I’m sorry I was so hard on you yesterday. I didn’t mean to hurt you; I just wanted to help.”

Cream looked up at him hopefully, wanting him to continue.

“I realise you thought I was joining Bandit against you but I didn’t mean it to sound like that. I’m very sorry you got the wrong idea. If I had known what this was going to do to you I never would have said what I did. Please forgive me.”

“So…you don’t…hate me…do you?” asked Cream fearfully.

“Of course I don’t hate you,” reassured Dark Growlithe, “I would never hate you.”

“Thank you.”

Cream then buried her face in Dark Growlithe’s chest and started crying in relief. Dark Growlithe placed a paw on her to comfort her but was confused as to why she was crying. Kitten watched them from a short way off, glowing with happiness.

*****

That day there wasn’t much training done. Dark Growlithe set some small little tasks but didn’t pay much attention to what anyone was doing; instead he spent the whole time staring at Cream, wondering how he felt about her.

‘Well you’ve apologised to her, now you need to make a move,’ said a little voice in his head.

‘But I don’t know if I’m ready. I barely know anything about her,’ that was the other voice in his head, a much more cautious voice.

‘What do you think the whole idea of dating is? It’s to learn about the other pokémon.’

‘It’s probably only a little crush. If Cream was really serious she would have said something.’

‘Do you seriously think she’s at all like that? Of course not, she’s too shy to actually ask you. It’s all up to you. Or do you want her to hate you again? I wonder how much disappointment she can handle.’

‘What are you talking about?’

‘If you don’t ask her out she’s going to think you don’t love her.’

‘But I’m not sure I do.’

‘She thinks you do.’

‘No she doesn’t.’

‘I suppose it’s normal to collapse into tears after someone apologises? She thought you hated her, you said you didn’t. Since you didn’t say anything about your feelings to her she assumed you love her.’

‘You sure?’

‘Watch her.’

Cream was now balancing on a thin branch. As soon as she noticed Dark Growlithe looking at her she blushed, lost her footing and fell. Embarrassed, Cream hid behind Kitten, ignoring Bandit’s remarks about her skill, or lack thereof.

‘See. She’s convinced you love her. If you don’t do something you’re going to ruin everything you’ve got.’

‘Maybe you’re right.’

‘Of course I’m right. Ask her out.’

‘Out where?’

‘Uh…a night time walk in the forest? I don’t know, be creative. She probably won’t care anyway.’

‘Okay. I’ll ask her.’

‘Excellent.’

With that the voices disappeared from his head, his mind made up, and he walked over to the balancing eevee.

“Well done, everyone. You did really well.”

This was a lie, Bramble and Cream hadn’t managed to walk across the branch even once. Bandit was, of course, infuriated about being placed in the same category as the others, who he was convinced were below him.

“Really well?” he demanded, “I can’t remember any of them taking more than two steps.”

“I crossed it fine!” protested Kitten angrily.

“At about the same speed as a magcargo and fell off a few times. I did it perfectly.”

“There’s no need to compare yourself to the others, Bandit, you’re not them.”

Bandit became silent but the tip of his tail was twitching angrily.

“I think that’s enough for today, we’ll continue tomorrow. You’re all dismissed and, Cream, can I talk to you alone?”

“Okay, sure,” answered Cream.

“I’ll meet you back at the caves,” Kitten informed her friend before leaving.

While Bramble and Kitten ambled back to the caves and Cream and Dark Growlithe talked, no one noticed Bandit heading to the forest.

“Yes?” asked Cream, completely attentive.

“I was just…uh, wondering if you…um, wanted to go for a walk later. With me. Yeah.”

Cream’s eyes lit up with delight and she nodded enthusiastically, trying to suppress a squeal of joy.

“Well, that’s good,” sighed Dark Growlithe, “I’ll see you later. ‘Kay bye.”

‘That was harder than I thought,’ commented Dark Growlithe to himself.

‘You did fine. Just don’t stutter so much next time.’

When Cream was sure Dark Growlithe wasn’t nearby she let out a loud, high pitched squeal of joy and raced to tell Kitten her good news.