Welcome Home

Paul woke up while his mom was carrying him. He looked around and saw that they're in a car which his dad was driving; with Paul and his mom sitting on the front seat. As silence permeated the car, Mary initiated to talk to her son.

"Paul, we're now going into our home. We're quite near already as it's only in the outskirts of the Rustboro City. I'm sure the fellows are quite excited to finally meet you, as they've been waiting so long." Mary whispered.

When he heard his wife speaking to their son, Joseph interjected on the one-sided conversation. "Yeah, I bet that the guys would be happy to see you. I just hope you won't get overwhelmed."

The car finally stopped somewhere on the outskirts of Rustboro City. As he was carried out from the car by his mom, his gaze finally settled on the mansion that was supposed to be called his home. Paul has seen a lot of mansions in his past life, and he can say that this mansion is quite grand. European elements could be seen on the features of the mansion, with large windows and baby blue curtains. The main color of the mansion was porcelain white, while having midnight blue roof.

As he was taking in the features of his new home, his mom proceeded to carry him inside the house. The moment she came in, a dark purple, bipedal pokemon with a roundish body came up from the shadows. Paul recognized it to be a Gengar. Another figure suddenly appeared out of nowhere, a humanoid pokemon with a large mustache who has a long, thin snout, and narrow eyes. It has ear-like spikes extending from the top of its head, and an additional spike protruding from each cheek. It was an Alakazam, Paul stared at it with an amazed expression.

Five pokemon quickly followed the two, a yellow bipedal pokemon with a white belly, a bipedal weasel-like pokemon with a pale gray body, a two-meter purple bat-like pokemon with a round body, a dark-blue avian pokemon with plumage resembling a person dressed in formal attire, and a large mainly blue-purple vampire bat-like pokemon. These pokemons are Ampharos, Weavile, Crobat, Honchkrow, and Gliscor respectively.

"Hey guys, how are you?" Mary asked them as she quickly walked towards the second floor of the house. The moment they peeked at the bundle she was carrying; Paul also saw them. Then, they answered the question in a chorus, mostly by speaking their name. Pokemons could be weird and cute like that. She then looked toward Paul as she climbed the stairs with seven figures tailing her. "Only few of our pokemon could fit here in the house. As large as this is, some of them could only stay at the lawn outside."

As Joseph finished parking the car in the garage, he heard Mary speaking to their one-day old son. He suddenly interjected while speaking from downstairs. "Yeah, most of them are larger than the doorway so they need to stay outside. We don't like to keep our pokemon in the pokeballs because we believe that the bond between them and us needs to be constantly cultivated. But mostly because they don't like being in the pokeball."

After Joseph spoke, a giggle suddenly could be heard coming from upstairs. Joseph stopped for a while, then suddenly rushed up while Mary was looking down on the bundle she was carrying with wonder. "He giggled!" Mary shouted. "He giggled!" She repeatedly exclaimed while looking at her husband with teary eyes. Joseph finally embraced his wife at last, though he was currently being squeezed by the pokemons at the top of the stairs. "Geez, you would think it was their son" Joseph murmured, then he continued to reply to his wife endearingly. "Yes dear, our son giggled! And it would only be one of the many times he would laugh with us, starting today." As they shared a tender kiss, a giggle again spurted from their son.

"Oh my god, love. He's so adorable. What do I do?" Mary finished in one breath as she began to coo at her beloved son. Joseph laughed at how cute his wife and his son were currently being. Paul looked up to his parents and saw that they were laughing. With that view, Paul felt laughing again. They were just so happy talking to him, despite only being a day-old. He wanted them to know, through his laughs, that he was listening to them.

He wanted them to know that they make him happy, especially on the prospects of having them as family. Paul's so happy currently, though he knows that he should feel guilty that he was the one enjoying their affection. But he decided that he wouldn't think in that depressing direction. He would just be thankful for whoever or whatever is responsible in sending him to this family. Finally, after forty years, Paul was finally able to feel home.

After his parents put him on his crib which was near the bed of the master bedroom, Paul felt sleepiness cover. A few minutes later, he was a goner. Mary and Joseph looked at their son adoringly as he fell asleep. Mary checked the baby monitor if it was working, for her to know when her baby would awake or cry. Then, they quietly left the room right after kissing Paul's forehead, to see their other pokemons outside.

When Paul felt hungry, he wakened alone in a dark room. He didn't know how to express himself yet, with him being unable to control his tongue. So, he only did what he knew baby does to express themselves; he cried. For a few seconds there were no responses, but suddenly the lights lit up and he saw Mary approach him. She carried Paul towards her gently, as she slowly made a rocking motion. Paul already stopped crying the moment he saw his mother, because he thought that she would know what to do appease his hunger. Mary slowly unbuttoned her pajama top as she attempted to breast feed her child.

Paul really forgot about this part. Despite it being embarrassing, especially considering his mental age, he had already done this at the hospital. As Paul was very hungry, he did what he could only do at this moment; he drank milk. After being satiated, Mary laid Paul on the crib. Again, as he felt sleepy, he was able to slowly enter the land of dreams in just a few seconds. As he awoke the next morning, Paul suddenly realized it wasn't a dream. He was still a baby in the Pokemon World, which was verified when he saw his baby pillows and pokemon stuff toys. From today onwards, he has a family. He smiled in his head as he thought to himself, 'Welcome Home Paul'.