C055 - The Numel Problem

That night, Vivian and Sophie had immediately dragged Jasmine to the twin's room to discuss their afternoon, but the boys were pretty much oblivious to it all and didn't show much reaction.

Pete placed the two multi-colored eggs inside the currently unused incubators that used to house Oddish eggs from the Vileplume tribe but they had hatched earlier this week. As agreed, these Oddish didn't stay exlusively with Pete but returned back to the Vileplume tribe.

Together with Professor Elm, Pete confirmed that he was indeed right about his assumption. They were both Smeargle eggs. Since they were pretty unique pokemon in their own right, the professor was just as excited as Pete was.

Pete obviously went to bed alone today, and it wasn't until just before lunch that he saw Jasmine once more. She didn't sleep in like before, but still woke up only after Pete was already outside grafting the branches his pokemon had brought the night before to existing trees.

Under the teasing smirks of both Sophie and Vivian, Jasmine gave Pete a very short peck on the lips before running away toward her pokemon outside.

"Yesterday wasn't enough? I'm afraid her heart won't take a full week of all this teasing," Pete said as he shot Sophie and Vivian a mirthful grin.

"Heh! Wait until mom and all of our sisters hear of this! I wouldn't hold it against her if mom brought them all over later today just to tease Jas," Sophie gloated.

"'All' of your sisters? I thought you only had two excluding Jasmine," Pete inquired with a raised brow.

"Heh, our oldest brother Lucifern is married. Naturally, his wife Chloe counts as a sister. Rose and Buddy both have girlfriends, too. I bet they would all like to come for this," Sophie added with an 'evil' grin.

"Well, first off: I'm happy to host your family, but I didn't really build enough rooms to house the entire extended family for long out of the blue. And second: are you sure that's what you want to set into motion? Cause that would also happen once you have your first boyfriend, no?"

Sophie paled a little once she properly processed Pete's argument. Her smirk immediately turned to a horrorified mask as she hurriedly grabbed her phone from her pockets and ran back to her room.

"Pff, amateur," Vivian scoffed, gave Pete a thumbs up and turned back to tend to her son.

"Hey, what am I looking at?" Pete asked as he stepped next to Jasmine outside. The girl's blush turned a little more rosy, but she didn't break focus and kept looking at Gligar.

"Gligar is... uh, contemplating sharpness?" Jasmine answered, unsure of what she was actually looking at.

"So she's self-inflicting wounds to get why the fang is sharp? Is that what she came up with for the evolution?"

Pete looked on in concern as Duosion floated behind Gligar and repeatedly used Heal Pulse while the Gligar used one of her pincers to stab and cut herself with the sharp Dragonair fang.

"I did tell you that the evolution likely only happens during the night, right?" Pete asked with a heavy tone.

"Mhm, no worries there. I spoke to Gligar about it. I don't like seeing her like this either, though," Jasmine mumbled with a worried frown.

Pete reached out and brought Jasmine close to him with one arm on her shoulder, and her head leaned against his chest as they both looked on.

Three minutes later, Pete couldn't take it anymore.

"Hey Gligar, I know Jasmine still has a little time before she needs you to be extra strong for the gym leader challenge. How about you take it a little slow and properly recuperate with some Oran Berries? There's a limit to what even Heal Pulse can do in a day," Pete suggested with furrowed brows.

"How about you follow the adventure group after lunch and challenge some Scyther in the forest later. Who knows, maybe you'll even learn the bug move X-Scissor from them if you're just half as smart as I think you are," he added quickly.

He could see the pokemon wanted strength much more than Jasmine's other pokemon, so he offered it a different path instead of doing whatever it was doing right now and not just saying 'no, don't'.

"Have you asked Nidoking to teach you fighting moves yet? I'm sure you could figure out Rock Smash and Counter quite quickly. He's always looking for sparring partners anyway. Maybe Klink could show you some steel type energy, and you learn Metal Claw, Steel Wing, or Iron Tail?" Seeing as Gligar had stopped the self-harm and contemplated his argument instead of outright dismissing it, Pete struck the iron while it was hot.

'Elm brought the TMs for Poison Jab and Hone Claws also, though I think she already learned Bite before, so she has dark type energy,' Pete pondered.

They didn't call each other boyfriend and girlfriend yet, but Pete naturally thought about letting Jasmine in on the secret of his reusable TMs before his Hoenn trip in a little over a week. Even without the kisses the day before, he would have likely offered it soon enough.

"Sorry for speaking so much. I know only husband and wife are supposed to share everything," Pete whispered directly into Jasmine's ear as he watched Gligar fly over to Nidoking.

"N-no. I'm glad you said something. And thanks for all your suggestions. Gligar really craves for power, so you did amazing," Jasmine complimented after getting over her flustered stutter quickly.

"Have you planned anything for Numel? I mean, she could likely use some more rest, but eventually, she might not get any better. Or lose her interest in battles completely if she stays as withdrawn as she is. I know you'd never force her, but I feel like you could make sure she's okay if you say the right things," Pete asked as he turned Jasmine around to look at him and he rested both of his arms on Jasmine's shoulder as she instinctively found held him by his waist.

"Haa, the poor girl barely opened up to me and Phanpy because she's so young. Numel's kinda wary of even Steelix, and he's just a big goof-ball once you get to know him," Jasmine responded with a pout.

Pete leaned in and gave Jasmine a quick kiss, "I could get Rapidash and Growlithe to help out? Rapidash's motherly instinct is kind of cracked for these things, and Growlithe just came out of her own tragic shell. Duosion would likely want to help as well?"

Jasmine was flustered once more, getting that sudden kiss, but she quickly returned Pete's warm smile.

"Yeah, Numel and I would really appreciate that, I think. Rapidash has been trying to get closer to Numel all on her own these past few days, but without the both of us saying anything, Numel avoided her and Rapidash concentrated back on her own charges instead," Jasmine replied with a brilliant smile.

"Let me talk to them, maybe have Numel eat her lunch close to Rapidash later," Pete suggested as he gave Jasmine a warm smooch on her forehead and walked over to where Rapidash was enjoying the warmth of the sun while looking at Ponyta and Blitzle playing catch once more.

He took out one of his grooming kits, sat down next to the lying pokemon, and began to brush her velvety white fur. As Pete explained the situation to Rapidash, Jasmine kept staring at him with rosy cheeks and a big grin.

After the big lunch Pete cooked, Luna finally arrived to install the sliding door for the new underground shelter that Golurk had created inside the hill. Herbert, who had played taxi for the young interior designer with Exeggutor, gave Pete two thumbs up secretly before turning to Sophie to gossip about the situation.

It became quickly apparent that Sophie had taken plenty of pictures of the pairs interactions today, and Herbert wasn't very quiet about it. Jasmine eventually took her pokemon plus Rapidash with her and relaxed at the beach to get away from the teasing.

Pete would have followed, but he was taken into his study by Elm for a scheduled call with the other assistants back in New Bark. So the four of them, two on each side of the video call, discussed Elm's latest discoveries at Pete's farm for a few hours. Fred and Becca were largely uninterested in most things that weren't numbers and data sets, but even they watched the video of the Dragonair evolution with laser focus. Twice, they watched it twice in this call alone.

Before she left, Pete had a short discussion about how to best realise an outdoor bath in a sort of hotspring setting here at the farm, which Luna quickly explained in great detail. The fitness fanatic was a great hotspring enthusiast and wholeheartedly agreed with Pete that this place needed at least a three baths hotspring.

After dinner, when the adventure group had returned from the forest with another haul of berry tree branches, Pete got ready to accompany Jasmine and Gligar to see if they could help out in the evolution.

And despite several protests from Vivian, Professor Elm and Valentino 'intruded' in the late night date of the young couple by trying to witness this extraordinarily rare evolution with them.

Professor Elm ignored every protest of Pete, reminding him that he wasn't quite sure about this evolution and kept hyping Gligar up ever since he got wind about the plan at the dinner table.

Through the Feebas evolution, Pete knew that some pokemon needed to be in the right mindset. So he wasn't quite sure what was ultimately the cause of tonight's outcome. Professor Elm's praise, surety, and overall giddiness at seeing the evolution kind of skewed the process.