Just let me crawl back into the trash where i belong, where i keep my heart and soul

i want the whole world to know i want to shout it out loud that this is where i know i belong

Dedicated to Hweianime, who basically did half of this story with me

[Eevee is] A rare Pokemon that adapts to harsh environments by taking on different evolutionary forms.

Ten was the usual age Pokémon trainers started out. That is usually because ten was the age they were officially given a Pokemon. Many children were impatient and eager, immediately deciding to start out on their journey before even bothering to learn more about their Pokemon – or even just Pokemon in general. While Tsuna couldn't really blame them, he didn't exactly share their sentiments. Leaving on an extended journey with someone you barely knew sounded really scary; nothing a useless person like him was able to do. Hence, when everyone else left for their journeys, he just stayed in his little town, Gracilis Dea, helping his mother with her daily chores and doing simple errands around town. Basically, life went on just the same as usual, with the only difference being that he had someone to accompany him around town.

His first friend, an Eevee named Natsu.

[Ace trainers] generally use strong and evolved Pokemon, [and] have a diversified and balanced party.

The town of Gracilis Dea was one of the few places in the entire world that had the famous Gracidea flowers. The Gracidea flowers were pretty pink flowers that were said to strengthen the powers of the Pokemon Shaymin. Legend has it that a long time ago, a Shaymin arrived in the town of Gracilis Dea. At that time, Gracilis Dea was just a barren land full of impurities and pollution. However, a Shaymin landed in the middle of the town and, with a powerful blinding blast of light, purified the entire area and filled it with flowers.

There was a garden of Gracidea flowers in the middle of the town that were said to have been the first flowers that graced the then polluted land. The people in the town were so grateful to the Shaymin that they named the town Gracilis Dea, after the Gracidea flowers, and meticulously took care of all flowers in the town from then on. Tsuna's mother, Nana, always seemed so amused when the townsfolk talked about Shaymin, or when she passed by the garden of Gracidea flowers, but she never really said anything. Tsuna followed her lead and didn't question her about it.

While Gracilis Dea had a rich and interesting background, it was still a rather small town and very far away from the other towns. Hence, it was rare that someone would visit the town. It was more likely for people to leave the town than to enter it.

Tsuna was twelve, almost thirteen, when a stranger entered the town.

The stranger had black hair and scary red eyes, but Tsuna felt drawn to him all the same, trailing after the stranger like a lost Togepi. He thought that he was being very inconspicuous about it, but he was wrong. Within an hour of his stalking, Tsuna had been called out by the man.

"Scum, why are you following me?" the man sneered. Tsuna flinched back a little, causing Natsu to bristle protectively, but managed to gather his courage to look at the scary man in the eyes.

"Um, I… I think you're. Um," Tsuna stuttered out. The man seemed to grow more and more impatient by the second. Tsuna took a deep breath to calm himself. "Are you a Pokemon trainer, mister?"

The man raised an eyebrow. "And if I am?"

Tsuna seemed to withdraw into himself. "Um, I. I think you're really cool, mister." That might have been a lie, Tsuna didn't really remember, but regardless of what it was, it seemed to appease the man.

"Yeah. I'm really strong too," he said smugly. Tsuna automatically nodded in agreement, and Natsu jumped onto Tsuna's head to peer more closely at the man. Seemingly satisfied, he jumped back to the ground to sit next to Tsuna's legs. At this, Tsuna completely relaxed. Since Natsu didn't outright tackle the man in the face, it meant that the man wasn't a bad person. Tsuna was rather reliant on Natsu's character judgment and intuition.

"Um, mister, are you going to try out for the Pokemon league?" Tsuna asked. A strange look flashed across the man's face but it was quickly replaced with an emotionless expression and he shrugged. Although Tsuna was pretty socially inept, he knew when not to push a question.

With a tentative smile, he changed the topic.

"A long time ago, a Pokemon fell in love with her trainer. She wanted to be with her trainer so much that she wanted to turn human as well. One day, the Pokemon found seven special stones. Those stones held the power to affect the Pokemon around them by allowing those Pokemon to shift between a Pokemon form and a human form. Using these stones, the Pokemon and her trainer lived happily ever after."

"What happened to the stones after that, mom?"

"The stones were passed down through the family. Along the way, the family gave some of the stones to Pokemon who needed to turn human. However, it is said that if the Pokemon were to lose the stone, they will be stuck in the form they had last until they find the stone again."

"Cool!"

Nana smiled down at her son as she fiddled with the stone pendant attached to her necklace.

"Eevee!" Tsuna's eevee leapt into his arms and Tsuna didn't bother suppressing a smile. It didn't matter that everyone thought Natsu was at a disadvantage due to his Normal typing; Natsu was Tsuna's. Natsu chose Tsuna, and that was enough for him. Tsuna didn't need to go on fancy adventures, or become a respected Pokemon trainer like his father. He just needed someone to believe in him.

Everyone else was setting off on their own adventures. A pang of longing struck Tsuna's heart, but it quickly went away. He didn't need to be like everyone else; Tsuna was Tsuna, and that was that.

"Eevee?" Natsu pawed at Tsuna's face, drawing Tsuna's attention back to the fluffy brown Pokemon. Natsu then licked his human, trying to cheer Tsuna up. Tsuna didn't deserve to be sad. Was he sad because he couldn't go on adventures?

Natsu wasn't stupid. He was aware of what other people said about him; about him being worthless as a Normal type, asking Tsuna why he hadn't been evolved yet. Tsuna never really answered them, only preferring to smile and pat Natsu's head. And suddenly Natsu realized.

Tsuna was waiting for Natsu to take the first step.

It was all simple now, Natsu couldn't understand why he didn't see it before. Tsuna wasn't the pushy type, and often shouldered everything while waiting for the other party to come to their decision. He wanted people to be as comfortable as possible and why the hell hadn't Natsu seen it before? Natsu often prided himself as the one who knew Tsuna best, even better than Tsuna's own mother. But he hadn't picked up on this.

At least he now knew what Tsuna wanted.

Sawada Tsunayoshi was a fourteen year old boy who wanted to stay in safe, familiar Gracilis Dea for the rest of his life. So, when Natsu pounced on a fire stone and started glowing, signaling the start of his evolution, Tsuna was surprised. He had absolutely no idea what brought this on. After a few seconds, he decided to shrug and just go with it. If Natsu wanted to be a Flareon, why not? Natsu would still be Natsu no matter what he was. It wasn't as if it would affect his life that much.

Understandably, he was extremely confused when Natsu suddenly decided that he wanted to go on an adventure like everyone else.

There are some cases in which Legendary and Mythical Pokémon are implied to breed in the wild, as seen with Lugia, though they do not do so in the games.

Before Tsuna left, his mother gave him something: a pretty necklace with a silver chain and a stone pendant hanging off from it. "This is for good luck," Nana told him seriously. "Don't ever lose the stone."

Tuna was a bit intimidated by his mother. He had never seen her so solemn before. "Yes mum," he replied her with utmost seriousness. Nana's face lightened up and she gave a smile. However, her eyes were still troubled.

"Be safe, Tsu-kun." Her gaze flickered to the newspaper on the table for only a brief moment, but Tsuna caught it. He glanced down at the newspaper and saw that the front page was dominated by an article of the infamous Team Estraneo, easily spotted by their symbol of a syringe in a circle.

If Tsuna was lucky, he wouldn't have to run into them. And besides, they only targeted particularly strong Pokemon, like Legendaries.

Tsuna had no real reason to be in danger, right?

Aromatherapy: The user releases a soothing scent that heals all status problems affecting the user's party.

Tsuna's first battle was with a really nice person. Although Tsuna lost, the person didn't take any money from him, and even gave him some useful advice on levelling a Pokemon. That might have lulled Tsuna into a false sense of security.

His second battle was with a really horrible person whose Pokemon was five levels above Natsu. After paralyzing and confusing Natsu, the trainer then proceeded to slowly wear down Natsu, dragging out the battle for the hell of it. Tsuna bit his lip, distressed at Natsu's pain. If he could flee from trainer battles, he would have done so immediately; but he couldn't and was hence forced to watch Natsu slowly lose his health. Tsuna wished that they had done more training in the tall grass, he wished that he could be a better trainer and tell Natsu to do better moves, he wished that he wasn't so useless, so that he could do something.

Suddenly, a pleasant, soothing scent filled the area, and Natsu was able to move again. In a moment of carelessness, the opposing trainer tried to hit Natsu with a fire type attack. Tsuna knew that Natsu's Flash Fire ability had been invoked, increasing the damage Natsu could deal out, and took the chance.

"Natsu, use Fire Spin and trap the other Pokemon in a vortex of flame! Then bite it with Fire Fang!"

The other Pokemon tried to retaliate, but Natsu's attack caused it to flinch and be vulnerable to anything else Natsu could inflict on it. Soon, out of pure luck and willpower alone, Natsu managed to win the battle. The other trainer seemed disgruntled, and all but threw the reward money at Tsuna before walking off. Tsuna eyed the careless way the other trainer treated his Pokemon with distaste. How could a trainer treat their precious companions that way? He knew he'd rather die than even verbally abuse Natsu.

Natsu walked up to Tsuna and sat in front of the brunet, seeming to smile triumphantly. Tsuna gave him a shaky smile in return. Battling was really scary – almost too scary for someone as useless as him – but if Natsu wanted to battle, then it was the least Tsuna could do.

For a long while, it was just Tsuna and Natsu. Theoretically, Tsuna knew that he should capture some wild Pokemon to cover the weaknesses Natsu had, but he couldn't bring himself to. Those Pokemon seemed fine by themselves, and Tsuna knew that someone as useless as him wouldn't be able to take proper care of more than one Pokemon, so why shouldn't he just… stick with Natsu? Some trainers did that – stick to one Pokemon, that is. That would put him at a disadvantage, but it should be fine, right? It wasn't as if Tsuna was going to be deliberately seeking out battles with other people.

However, things changed when Tsuna met a near-dead Torchic by the side of the road.

Torchic sticks with its trainer, following behind with unsteady steps.

When Tsuna saw the Torchic, there was a pause, followed by a gasp of horror. In his experience, Pokemon were supposed to be lively and wonderful, not lifeless and lying on the ground, looking as if it wished for death. There was no hesitation in Tsuna's actions as he scooped up the Torchic, cradling it in his shaky arms, and ran to the hospital with Natsu bounding alongside him. For once, Tsuna didn't bother with niceties, didn't bother with waiting for someone to get out of his way, brushing past some and almost bowling over others, leaving a hasty and apologetic 'Sorry, excuse me' in his wake.

He reached the Pokemon center and ran for the counter, completely ignoring the queue. The trainers looked at him, him who was harried and panting and on the edge of terrified tears, with confusion in their gazes. Confusion that turned into horrified shock when the noticed the Torchic in his arms as he sought out a Nurse Joy for help.

Tsuna collapsed in one of the seats after the Torchic was taken away from him. Natsu jumped into his lap and licked his face, trying to comfort his trainer. Things were silent for a long while before Nurse Joy came out to update Tsuna on the Torchic's condition.

"It has no trainer," was one of the things Nurse Joy said. "We suspect that it has been abandoned, since Torchics aren't native to the area." Tsuna didn't know what to say. Abandoning your Pokemon? That was unimaginable! Why would anyone do such a thing? How could anyone do such a thing? Nurse Joy read the look on Tsuna's face and gave a sympathetic smile. "The world isn't all good. There are some very evil people out there and their innocent Pokemon suffer because of them. There's not much we can do about it."

"I… see…" Tsuna didn't really know what possessed him in that moment to make that decision, but he did it anyway. "If it's possible, can I help with the Torchic's recovery?"

Nurse Joy seemed pleasantly surprised at Tsuna's offer. "Of course you can! What the Torchic needs right now is rest and healthy interaction with a trainer. We don't exactly have trainers that aren't Nurses so you'll be a great help."

Tsuna smiled at Natsu as the both of them exchanged a glance. This way of spending time outside the village was a much better alternative to battling.

Tsuna was fifty-nine percent sure that the Torchic didn't need any interaction with him, and a hundred percent sure that the Torchic hated him. Even Natsu took to bristling protectively occasionly, but he didn't go out of his way to attack the other fire Pokemon, so Tsuna figured that the Torchic just hated humans in general and wasn't just targeting him. Still, Tsuna was adamant to see the Torchic through his recovery process, and definitely would not leave until he was absolutely sure that the Torchic was healthy and in the hands of a good trainer. Natsu agreed with him.

Still… Tsuna thought as he was scratched again by the Torchic, it really is a lesson in patience when dealing with him.

Gokudera didn't understand why that irritating trainer – what was his name? Tsuna? – kept bugging him. Didn't he see that Gokudera wanted to be left alone? And why did he save Gokudera, anyway? After his trainer left him, Gokudera didn't know what to do. Apparently he had a 'bold nature' or something, which was bad. Gokudera remembered his trainer talking about decreased attacks and increased defense, which made Gokudera useless. The worst possible Torchic.

Gokudera wasn't surprised, he knew that there must have been a reason he was the last one that got picked in the lab. It wasn't too unexpected either, when his trainer decided to leave him by the side of the road, broken and bruised and abandoned, when a newer, better fire type Pokemon got captured.

He had failed his trainer. The only thing he could do now was die. However, this irritating brown haired human was making it very hard to do so.

"Hello Torchic!" He was here again, with his annoyingly silent Flareon. Gokudera couldn't help but feel envious of their relationship. Why was it that other Pokemon could have such a bond with their trainers but he couldn't? The other Pokemon in his trainer's team was closer to the trainer as well… There was probably something wrong with Gokudera. That was why no trainer wanted him.

"Good day, Gokudera," the Flareon leapt from his perch on Tsuna's shoulders to the spot beside Gokudera. Gokudera didn't bother hiding his displeasure as he shifted away.

"What the hell do you people want from me this time?" he asked, trying to keep the bitterness out of his voice. "Trying to rub your relationship in my face once again?"

Natsu gazed at him blankly. That was one thing he both hated and liked about the Flareon. Natsu never seemed like he judged you but on the flipside, he never seemed like he even had the emotions to judge. There were times that Gokudera thought that Natsu was just some kind of robot masquerading as a Pokemon, but then his trainer would come about and the Flareon would become animated and full of emotions, and Gokudera had to scratch out that theory whilst swallowing down his envy. He didn't want to seem pathetic to anyone.

"No," Natsu replied evenly. "Tsuna just obtained some Pokeblocks and he thought that you might want to have some."

"I don't need your pity," Gokudera muttered. The Flareon seemed to sigh.

"This is not pity." There was a moment of silence as they watched Tsuna try to find his newly obtained Pokeblock case, panicking even more when he wasn't able to see it anywhere in his bag. Since Natsu and Gokudera were sitting behind him, there were in full view of the Pokeblock case that sat in the back pocket of Tsuna's pants.

"Your trainer is an idiot," Gokudera commented derisively. Natsu sighed once again.

"You are not the first one to say that." Natsu decided that he had enough of watching his trainer flail about and snatched up the Pokemon case himself. Tsuna laughed sheepishly at that.

"Thanks, Natsu. I don't know what I'd do without you."

Gokudera could feel the same stabbing feeling rise up inside him and opted to turn around to ignore the pair. However, it seemed that the human refused to be ignored.

"I have something for you, Torchic! I hope you'll like it! I heard from Nurse Joy that you have a bold nature, right?" At Tsuna's words, Gokudera bristled and immediately whirled around to spit an Ember at the human. Tsuna quickly dodged but instead of looking annoyed, he looked concerned. "Sorry, did I say something wrong?"

Gokudera glared at Tsuna for a while but, upon realizing that Tsuna meant no harm when inquiring about his nature, he calmed down. Tsuna seemed to have sensed that and cautiously moved closer to Gokudera, setting down some Pokeblocks in front of him. "I just heard that you might like sour Pokeblocks. They're the yellow ones. Uh… the green ones are bitter, pink is sweet, blue is dry, and red's spicy. I thought you might want to know."

Gokudera eyed the multi-colored cubs on the table, and only started eating when Natsu picked one up and swallowed it. To his annoyance, he did prefer the sour Pokeblocks, but tried to hide it. He didn't think he succeeded.

"Your nature is not something to be ashamed of," Natsu spoke up suddenly, causing Gokudera to jump. After processing his words, Gokudera simply snorted.

"That's easy for you to say," he muttered. Natsu shrugged.

"Possibly. I've heard from others that my nature causes none of my stats to increase or decrease. Then again, I've heard from those same people that I'm a lousy Pokemon with a horrible movepool, whatever that is."

"What is your nature?" Gokudera asked.

"Serious," Natsu replied promptly, and Gokudera resisted the urge to roll his eyes. It figured.

"I think the Torchic has healed enough for you to try bringing it outdoors," was all Nurse Joy had to say before Tsuna ran off to get ready for an outing. He could tell that the Torchic was getting a little restless as he was cooped indoors with basically nothing to do. And besides, it'll be easier for the Torchic to find a new trainer if he went out! All in all, a wonderful situation all about. Everybody won!

He really should have known to never count his chickens before he hatched. What better person for him to run into today, the first day he could bring the Torchic out, than the Torchic's previous owner? Upon seeing his own trainer, the Torchic trilled excitedly, attracting his attention. After that, everything went to hell. The Torchic's previous trainer had some derogatory words to say about the Torchic, and Tsuna very much disagreed with him. Some words were exchanged, with Tsuna hanging onto all the good manners his mother ever taught him and the other trainer not holding back. Things took a turn for the worse when Natsu basically outright tackled him to the ground and tried to claw off his face.

Tsuna took his time removing Natsu from the other trainer.

This, however, set off the Torchic who seemed to be incredibly overprotective of his previous trainer – for what, Tsuna didn't know. Everyone on ear would know the other trainer didn't deserve it – and he attacked Tsuna. Which made Tsuna scream very loudly, which in turn set off Natsu. Tsuna didn't quite remember what exactly happened next, except for the fact that there was a lot of fire. Too much fire.

When he came to his senses, he found himself standing in between Natsu and the Torchic, trying to talk Natsu into backing down. The Torchic didn't seem to be in very good shape, and was staring up at Tsuna with wide eyes. The other trainer was nowhere to be found, having fled the scene when Natsu and the Torchic started battling with each other. Tsuna glanced back at the Torchic and despaired when he realized that he had fainted. This was probably bad for the Torchic's health. And it took so long for the Torchic to stop attacking him on sight too!

Maybe… it would be better if another trainer took care of the Torchic's rehabilitation. Tsuna would most definitely cause more harm than good to the Torchic.

Healing Wish: The user faints. In return, the Pokemon taking its place will have its HP restored and status cured.

The Torchic was in critical condition. He was in critical condition because of Tsuna.

"It's not your fault," Nurse Joy tried to reassure Tsuna, but her words weren't getting through. Natsu stoically stayed by Tsuna's side, never once uttering a sound.

"I wish…" Tsuna confided in Natsu when it was just the two of them, "that I could help Torchic get better. I'd do anything." After saying that, the world around Tsuna started to spin and he fell forward in a dead faint.

Since he wasn't conscious, he didn't notice the stone pendant his mother gave him pulse orange for a second.

Natsu knew what Tsuna had done immediately after his trainer had fainted. He yelled loudly in the corridor until a nurse came and noticed Tsuna's unmoving body on the floor. She handled things quite calmly, Natsu noted, Tsuna needed to take cues from her. She didn't panic at all.

When he was sure that Tsuna was safe, he made his way to Gokudera's room in order to inform him about the situation. Maybe then, Gokudera would stop pushing Tsuna away.

But first, he had to steal a Revive for Tsuna.

Tsuna didn't know what happened. One moment he was in the Pokecentre corridor, and in a split second he was in a very white bed, in a very white room. The only few splashes of color came from the Flareon and Torchic sitting in the chair near his bed. They seemed to be in a rather serious conversation, judging by their tone. Something about following Tsuna on his journey? Nah, that was probably just Tsuna projecting onto them. He couldn't understand Pokemon speech after all.

Nurse Joy entered the room and smiled at Tsuna when she realized that he was awake. "You have good Pokemon. Your Flareon was the one who alerted us to your condition, and your Torchic refused to leave your side," she told him. Tsuna blinked in confusion.

"My… Torchic?" he asked, feeling extremely confused. "But he's not…" Before he could finish his sentence, the Torchic trilled loudly and sadly, but quickly quietened down when Natsu seemed to whisper something to him. Understanding began to dawn on Tsuna. "Did… did he choose me?" Tsuna asked Natsu. Natsu nodded and Tsuna smiled. "Oh. Then I guess he is my Torchic," he said to the Nurse Joy, who had been watching the interaction between the Pokemon and their trainer with barely restrained squeals. Oh god, they were all so cute! But squealing and fawning over patients were not professional behavior, and Nurse Joys were always professional. Hence, she kept quiet and only nodded.

When the Nurse Joy was gone, Tsuna turned back to Natsu and the Torchic. "Um, do you have a name?" Tsuna asked the Torchic, unsure if he would get an answer.

"I'm Gokudera, Tsuna-sama! I'll always protect you!" the Torchic trilled back, but Tsuna didn't understand him. Still, he tried his very best.

"Goku…dera?" he mentioned the first name that happened to jump into his head. He wondered why he had come up with that name, of all names. It felt oddly fitting, however, so he went with it. When Flareon nodded on the Torchic's behalf – he seemed rather tongue-tied – Tsuna nodded to himself. "Gokudera it is then! Welcome to our little family, Gokudera!"

"Did… Did Tsuna-sama understand what I was saying?" Gokudera asked Natsu. Natsu nodded.

"He does that often," Natsu explained. "But he doesn't know he understands. He just thinks it all comes from his imagination."

"Tsuna-sama is really awesome!" Gokudera exclaimed. "He is kind and wonderful and accepting and he even understands a bit of Pokemon speech!" There wasn't a better trainer Gokudera could ask for.

"I know right?" Natsu added, albeit with much less emotion.

Tsuna watched Natsu converse with the new member of their little group absentmindedly. Now that he had the chance to think about it, the sign on the clothes of Gokudera's previous trainer looked really familiar. A simple syringe in a circle… now where had he seen this symbol before?

Author's note

Probably not continuing this, definitely not a priority. It's just that my interest in this au got rekindled and I decided why not.

You can tell that there's something different with Tsuna because he doesn't use 'it' for Pokemon like all the others do. It's unconscious because. Well. You know. Natsu is HDW!Tsuna, in a way, but a lot more blunt. Also, guess what Tsuna's mother (and by extension, Tsuna) is.