Chapter 1: A Little Prince

"Mykah, what did you do wrong?"

My lip trembled, but I felt my brow furrow as I tried to think. The world around me moved viscous as honey, but my mind was elsewhere.

'I did something… wrong. What?'

My face became red. A surge of heat flowed through my body, but I copied mom and bit my lip. It helped. The world stopped slowing down, and I could speak again.

"I… didn't give him the toy."

Shaking his head, the green haired man put his hand on my shoulder. 

'...He's so… bigger.'

Dad was always a giant to me, but at the time it felt even more stark as he crouched down to my level. 

"Mykah, you took his toy. Then you complained when he didn't give it to you and started hitting him. That's not a good thing to do."

"Why?"

The anger came back before the word flew out of my mouth. Dad smiled, as if waiting for this. 

"Because stealing things is wrong, no matter what your intentions are. It's important to be nice to people and pokemon, even if you don't like them. Stealing things is something that isn't nice, right?"

My small brain worked overtime as I processed the long sentences. 

"...But, it's mine! He took it!"

"Oh? And when did you have a…"

Dad turned around, his gray eyes looking at the smirking kid behind him. 

"He took my bulbasaur!"

The kid was holding my bulbasaur pot, which Mom had given me last year for my birthday. It was just starting to grow, and I brought it to preschool to show off. 

"Hah… Mykah. First, I need to remind you- hitting people when you're angry isn't right, even if they did something mean to you. But… one minute, I'll get this sorted out."

Dad walked over, and started speaking with an angry growl in his voice to the kids parents. 

"...Seriously, did you even… What bull- Bologna! You called me here, made this whole thing a mess… Yes, my wife gave it to him. I remember… Oh, really? Let's."

Dad stepped back before pulling out a pokeball. 

"Mr. Zap!"

My eyes sparkled as I watched the pokeball arc through the air, and a moment later a towering pokemon cloaked in black scales came out. 

"Ugh… Maybe-"

"You can't run from a trainer battle, Mr. Iroshen. I don't like fighting people or pokemon, but you insisted."

..

The playground's rubber floor stopped the fight from making much of an impact, and I got my Bulbasaur pot back. I couldn't remember much of what happened after, but something did stick in my mind. When we were walking back from the office we had to go to afterward, I looked up at Dad and asked a question. 

"Dad, why were you scary? You said you should be nice to people?"

He flinched, but still spoke calmly. 

"Mykah, big boys need to be angry sometimes to get people to listen. Not everybody agrees when you need to do something, like getting you your bulbasaur back."

He stopped on the sidewalk we were walking down to meet my gaze again. Silvery eyes that shone in the sunlight... The same ones I had. 

"It's important to use your emotions, but not the other way around. Your Mom taught me that!"

He had a big smile on his face, his adult face brighter than the sun in the sky. I couldn't help but smile back. 

"Remember, your mother is the scariest when she gets angry. She is better at battling than me because of it!"

I nodded, my face still smiling. I would let Mom know how awesome Dad said she was when I got back home. 

…

Dad had a big red spot on his forehead after talking with Mom at home. I couldn't figure out why, but I was just happy to have my Mom's present back. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tak-Tak-Swoosh!

Again. The stick swung through the air, the big dog swinging it around like a toy as the boy in front of it parried and dodged. It seemed like a dance of sorts, the boy moving as calmly as if were just playing jump rope with a friend. 

Tak-Swoo-TAK!

He blocked, but did so by moving his body in a weird way. The dog took advantage, shifting it's weight in an almost human way to redirect the miss into a hit. 

The boy's eyes moved like lightning, perfectly taking in the dogs posture into account within a fraction of second as he moved like water, parrying the impossible. The dog overextended because of its assuredness of victory, and the boy was able to regain his footing to continue. 

Ta-Swoosh-Shik!

'Fast-!'

I barely held myself back from rushing forward as the sticks grew increasingly quick and the impacts far more loud. 

"I… Can stop… If you- Want! Damn, this kid-!"

"Language, Rusty. Hah…"

"Are they still at it?"

My wife was doing paperwork on the table- no, she was grading Mykah's homework. I moved over, glancing at the sheet covered in pencil lead.

'Oh.'

"Yes, but you missed something. There."

The quadratic formula was written wrong, but the answer was already checked off in her red pen as correct. 

"But he got the answer right? I checked the book."

'She's such a genius in battling, but math is far from her strong suit. I told her I'd grade it, but here she's still... God I love her.'

"He missed the plus/minus in the quadratic formula, so he didn't end up testing all the answers properly. He might have done it intuitively, but math isn't intuitive in nature even if he's ahead of his year in it. He's got to follow the steps."

She nodded, circling the part in red and adding the note. 

"I still don't understand how you get this stuff so easily. And you never thought of becoming an engineer before?"

"No, I did. I just figured my talents were better spent in administration. Unova is the largest region, and it's expanding at a rate unseen in any other continent. And with the current trend towards centralized power…"

I began to drone, she flipped to the next page. English. Absolutely not, I'll leave that to her. 

"...So, do you think it's safe for Rusty and him to play knights?"

She put the pen to her lip, thinking. 

"Well… It feels alright. He needs to be active, and its not like Rusty will let him get hurt much. Plus it's a once in a lifetime chance? I think."

She looked out the glass door, seeing the boy sweating buckets with a smile on his face. 

"I don't know why either of them like it so much, but it's something he's good at. Let them swing sticks all they want. Until it's dinner, at least."

She looked at me, a vicious smirk on her visage unlike the cheerful smile of our son. 

"Speaking of, what'cha making?"

"Er… Alfredo?"

"With?"

The slender woman stood up, getting closer to me. She was a head shorter, but the pressure she gave off was palpable. Like a dragon hovering over an intruder…

"U-uhh… broccoli… and chicken?"

"Annnnd~?"

Her claws pulled down on my collar, forcing our noses to touch. Her gorgeous blue eyes drew me in despite the danger... I couldn't hold back. 

"...Alright, we can have Castelia cones today."

"Yes! Mykah! I got us ice cream!"

Clack- Clatter

"Really!?"

The boy ran inside, dropping the stick he was holding. His bare feet were covered in mud, but we had wooden floors so cleaning would be fine. 

Clatter-

No, Rusty ran inside too, his metallic claws leaving gouges in the ground because of his excitement. The two- no, three of them were looking at me like a hungry pack of wolves now. 

"Er… Hah… We still have a few extra from when Drayden visited. You three go get washed up, it'll be done in an hour."

"""Woo!"""

Two shot upstairs, and Rusty ran out to the yard to pick up the sticks and shards of wood scattered around. He mumbled a sorry after noticing the scratches on the floor, but I had extra boards to switch out for this. It wasn't like it was the first time it happened since we moved in. 

'…My authority as a father, second only to ice cream. Drayden may have been right… Gotta go on an adventure with them soon.'

Remembering the old man's wisdom, I sat down to finish the last of the grading for Mykah. The fettuccini alfredo would take half an hour, but this was more important. 

Skrr-scratch