Settling in

A/N: There have been a few things brought up that I feel need to be addressed. First is that I don't get to pick and choose what pokemon gets trained , I use a legitimate roulette wheel for that. The only exception to this was Vulcan and that was merely because so very few pokemon fics allow the MC to have a legendary at all and none that I can think of showed the legendary growing strong after being weaker which was a huge pity in my opinion. Second was that a few people are wondering about how friendly he was behaving despite his recovering apathy. The answer to this is that he is a VERY good actor , which had been mentioned previously. His attitude hasn't changed or anything all that much but he is merely really good at faking it. Third is more of a personal gripe of mine but why is everyone saying "cringe" on the interaction between Alex and Emas mom? Like he's not flirting with her or anything of the sort but everyone seems to be thinking deeper than that for some reason I just don't get.

_________________________

After that I cooked dinner for the family while fully utilizing my cooking skill for the first time to great effect. See I first sautéed some Tauros steak cut into fine strips to render out the fat before removing the meat from the pan and adding a chopped sweet onion , two cloves of minced garlic and two julienned carrots that I stirred frequently to let cook down. Then I deglazed the pan with some red wine followed by a bit of flour and a pinch of Figy berry powder to add some heat.-

I then tossed in the meat and diced tomatoes with some salt and pepper before letting that mix and cook down. While that was going on I had also boiled some rigatoni noodles in salted water that was now ready at the same time my sauce , vegetables and meat was done. I plated up three servings and set them on the dining table along with the extra pasta in a bowl next to the pan in the center of the table. "Foods done!" I said with a smile and the whole family rushed over to the table practically drooling since they had been smelling me cook it for the past twenty minutes.-

"Why are there only three plates , aren't you going to eat?" Lily asked confusion evident on her face. I shook my head "I eat what my pokemon do so I'll be cooking for Vulcan and myself later." I explained honestly. Birch wasted no time taking a bite of the food on his plate and moaned with a pleasure. "I'm kinda jealous of your pokemon to get to eat like this all the time!"  he said honestly. I chuckled "Today will actually be the first time actually since I tended to cook what I had available back at the mountain and most foraged things had a pretty bitter taste save the mushrooms." I said honestly.

"You aren't by chance single are you?" Lily asked and May choked on her mouthful of food. "MOM!" she exclaimed with a bright red face. Lily scoffed at her though "Don't mom me! Alex here seems like a great trainer , he's fairly well mannered , handsome and can cook! It would be a shame to miss out on such a good match for you." she said reducing May to a blushing mess. "I'm flattered but I am not a fan of getting tied down to any one woman." I said honestly with a smile.-

She looked disappointed at that "A pity , but I suppose I should have expected something like this. No offense Alex but you do seem a bit too perfect at first glance." she says honestly and I shrug. "I am by no means a womanizer since I don't believe in breaking hearts unless necessary but I have no issue with casual flings every now and then. Other than that I have no intention to settle down at any one place permanently , bad case of wanderlust I'm afraid." I said with a smile.-

Birch nodded "It pretty common for pro trainers to have a similar problem after they eventually retire. They tend to get antsy and bored if they stay put until they shake it off after a couple years." he said in understanding. "Well I better head over to the general store to grab some ingredients for my own dinner but please do enjoy your meal." I said excusing myself. I left the house after that and walked over to the store like I had said I was. Lee looked surprised "I hadn't expected to see you back here so soon , everything alright with what I gave you?" he asked worried a product was faulty somehow.-

I shook my head "No no nothing like that. I just came to buy some stuff to cook dinner for my pokemon and me is all." I explained and he relaxed. "I've got some kibble over in the corner of the food section that should do you just fine. As for whatever else you need feel free to browse." Lee said while waving his hand to gesture at everything. "Got it thanks!" I said cheerfully and did exactly that.-

I ignored the kibble after reading the ingredients on the bag as it was basically just ground up and dried ingredients that while not a bad and definitely capable of sustaining a pokemon were totally flavorless. Now I rather enjoy a good flavor to my food and I KNOW my pokemon do too so even if a bit more expensive I stuck to buying a bunch of fresh or frozen ingredients to cook the meal myself. I also grabbed one of every type of seasoning Lee had available before heading to the counter to pay for everything.-

"Planning to cook the meal for your mon personally are you? To each his own I suppose. All together it's four hundred and thirty three." Lee said casually. Pulling my bag in front of me I found the coin pocket on the inside and started to count out the amount I needed before putting it on the counter. Lee gave me an odd look at that point "I have money from before I got teleported , it's just never come up before now." I explained and he had a look of understanding. I packed up my purchase into my bag before turning to leave the store "Don't be a stranger!" Lee called after me and I just gave him a thumbs up.-

It was a short walk to get to the pasture that Gaia and Vulcan were in that now didn't have a single blade of grass on it but instead hard black rock. It was pretty clear to me what had happened to cause this and I couldn't help but chuckle at the thought. Obviously Vulcan had taken the time to use magma coat on the whole pasture removing all the plantlife and leaving only the hard black stone after the fire energy faded away.-

Gaia was playing a little game I came up with Vulcan that was designed to help them strategize that I called type chess. The game was basically elemental chess and had all the pieces represent a single type with each side having two of each type piece. The exception to this rule was the "trainer" piece that counted as every type and only had one per player. The rules were fairly simple as at the start of the game the board was set up with one of each type piece much like chess in a specific location on the board.-

Unlike chess however each piece can only move a single space in any direction around it and a player can only move a single piece a turn. The twist however came in the form of capturing other pieces. See unlike chess where any piece can be captured by any other piece each type piece can only be taken if the taking side used a super effective type piece or if that piece had been "bumped" by a neutrally effective type piece twice. The objective of the game was to either take the trainer piece or all the other type pieces. The trick was that each player basically got two chances per type as once that type was removed from their side they can place the replacement type piece in the starting space.