Chapter Text
Admittedly, cats weren’t really his thing.
Monoma liked looking up videos of meowth as much as the next person, but the thought of owning one had always seemed like a bit more of a commitment than he was ready for. After all, a pokemon meant training, frequent visits to the center, treats and battles and enough toys to keep it happy while he was out of the house—not to mention the inevitable loss of clothes and furniture to their claws and shedding.
It wasn’t that he didn’t like them, it was just that he wasn’t big on owning a pokemon in general. Growing up, he’d only had a squirtle for around a week before his parents realized that him and competitive battling didn’t mix well and took it away from him. And, considering his gut reaction to a girl in his class telling him that he couldn’t be a model because of his height was to dedicate the next five years of his life becoming one to spite her, he thought that they were probably on to something. (Naturally, his parents hadn’t particularly liked that career path, either; they said he was squandering his talents by not going straight into business, but what they didn’t understand was that modeling was just the springboard from where he’d start launching his own brand of beauty products, and his clothing line, and if everything went the way he planned he’d have a reality show under his name within the next fifteen years, and then he'd be the last one laughing.)
So, he knew it was a bad idea.
Even so, as he watched the purple-haired trainer he’d had his eye on for weeks battling some kid on the street with his litten, Monoma found himself with his phone in his hand, idly scrolling through adoption listings.
He sipped his non-fat iced latte through a straw as he traded glances between his phone and the battle outside. The kid was using a dhelmise that she must have borrowed from an older sibling or a parent, because whenever she said something to it, it’d hesitate for just long enough to earn itself a face-full of embers from the litten.
The dhelmise lashed out with a vine that still smoldered from the litten’s attack, and Monoma sighed through his nose as he looked down at his phone. Espurr. Cute, but psychic pokemon tended to give him a headache. Next. He scrolled down the list with a flick of his thumb, glancing up out the window to see the litten leap out of the way of a vine, up into the air and straight at the dhelmise. The size difference between the two was almost comical, but when the litten sunk its teeth into the dhelmise’s green, slimy seaweed, it shrieked so loud he could hear it through the window, sharp and bone-chilling as banshee.
Monoma cringed and went back to scrolling. Definitely no ghosts, then.
A glameow wrapped in a pink ribbon made him pause, tilting his head. It did sort of fit his image, but he didn’t know how he felt about himself being associated with a purugly if it ever ended up evolving. Plus, they seemed pretty high-maintenance, which would be difficult whenever he was on the road.
Next.
Shinx were cat-like but they weren’t quite what he was looking for, and all the static electricity would probably make him want to murder someone.
Next.
Introducing himself with a freshly-adopted litten might have been tempting if it weren’t so dreadfully transparent.
Next.
Were eevee even felines?
Next. Next. Next.
When he looked up at the battle again, it was already over. The dhelmise was on the ground, unresponsive to the girl who shouted at it, and the purple-haired guy was walking over to his litten, who sat on its flanks, panting.
It was probably stupid to adopt a pokemon just to meet a boy in the first place. No matter how good said boy looked with the alolan sun shining down on him. Monoma watched as he bent down and picked up litten, strong arms reaching forward towards the cat, shirt riding up just enough that Monoma could see a tiny patch of exposed skin on his back, paler than the rest.
Monoma went for a drink of his latte and only managed to suck up air, the ice rattling noisily against his straw.
As the trainer straightened, the litten in his arms climbed up to his shoulder to rest. The trainer seemed to try for an exasperated look but was unable to hide his grin as he reached up to scratch its chin, and then as he dropped his arm back to his side his gaze found the café window.
By then, most of the others who had been watching the battle had moved on, their curiosity sated. Only Monoma remained staring dreamily at him, and his breath caught in his throat as he noticed the trainer was staring back. He blinked away the surprise, heart pounding in his ears. Straightening, Monoma popped the straw from his mouth to give a wave and a practiced smile: not too wide, inviting without being eager, easy and natural and pretty enough to land him a nice magazine spread.
The purple-haired trainer seemed to startle at this as much as Monoma had, chin shooting up fast enough that his litten clung to his shoulder to stay on. The cat glared at him as he winced, glancing at it before looking back to Monoma to give him a slight nod. He hesitated, taking a half-step toward the café, and then turned away sharply and walked off, a hand coming up to rub the back of his neck.
Monoma snickered at the reaction, but it turned into a longing sigh as he watched him go. He settled back down in his chair, chewing on the end of his straw idly.
Since when did he even need an excuse to talk to a cute guy, anyway?
He nearly rolled his eyes at himself as he moved to close the window on his phone, but then paused at the last second as his eyes met something pink and cream and fluffy, rolled over on its back with its tail clenched in its stubby little paws. Its mouth was wide open, like it’d been caught mid-bite, one of its three-pronged ears pointed backwards.
And he thought, well, if he was ever going to have a pokemon, he couldn’t do much better than a skitty.