A/N: Chapter six. Pewter City!

I don't know why the charmander line doesn't learn metal claw in other generations. Granted, it's not the best move out there, but why try to fix something that's not broken?

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon.

young, but i'm not that young

old, but i'm not that bold

and i don't think the world is sold

on just doing what we're told - onereupublic, counting stars

6 — The City of Stone

Leaf's first really lucid thought upon exiting the city gates is: This is not a city.

Maybe she's being picky about it, or maybe she's just feeling a little out of it, considering what'd just happened in the forest. But when she'd heard the word city, she'd anticipated huge buildings, bustling streets, movie scenes in places like Castelia in Unova or Lumiose in Kalos, or something.

Not a town barely bigger than Viridian had been, whose only exciting feature was the museum by the gym.

Still, it's bigger than what she'd had in Pallet — and there's more reaching beyond, she knows.

More cities. Oceans. More forests.

The last one makes her shiver a bit, her knees still trembling a little from the incident in the woods. She'd known this — traveling — might be dangerous, but she'd never considered how dangerous until today.

But we're okay now, she tells herself, calmly. We're in a city with people and nice, domesticated Pokémon and I can even see the Pokémon Center from here.

She pulls Blue out onto what must be the city's main street without a word, and he, surprisingly, allows himself to be dragged.

They don't talk about the beedrill.

It's like a switch flipping, once they enter the Pokémon Center. Blue immediately veers to the right with a square to his shoulders that immediately tells Leaf not to bother him. He does what he needs to, heals his Pokémon and takes the room key from the nurse behind the counter.

Leaf follows suit, feeling oddly disjointed. Disappointed. Maybe that's the weirdest part. For all she had been terrified while in the woods, he had called her Leaf when they'd made it out, and for some reason she'd thought a near-death experience would be enough to get them on similar footing.

No such luck, then.

Leaf sighs, pulling out Sparky's pokéball and handing it and Rose over to the nurse. Rose looks so hesitant to leave her arms, but she smiles at the little fire-type, and it seems to assuage her fears enough that she is able to go without much fuss.

The young trainer considers her shoes for a moment. She'd known it wouldn't be easy, but a part of her had sort of… hoped that this adventure would be enough to bring back whatever time had lost in her friendship with Blue. She's missed her best friend, whether she'd admit it or not.

But he's not here now. He's still the same old Blue, mean and snarky and completely ignoring her when he's upset.

She doesn't know why she's as surprised as she is.

Leaf gets her own room after her Pokémon are all healed up, but doesn't stop to settle down. There's still daylight to burn, after all.

"Come on," she tells Rose, who, admittedly, looks like she just wants to curl in a ball and sleep. But they've got a badge to win — it's what Leaf's focusing on now. Not the beedrill, not the woods, not her own desire to go back home.

The fire-type looks dubious, but obediently follows her trainer out into a makeshift training yard located just outside the center. A few other trainers — mostly young kids, probably from Pewter's academy — were already there, commanding their rattata or pidgey or the odd ekans.

"Char?" Rose mumbles. Leaf looks down, just in time to see her starter nod at the other pokéball at her trainer's waist. Leaf's hand curls around the pokéball on instinct, but she does not move to remove it.

"Maybe not today," Leaf says, haltingly. "I mean, electric-types aren't much use against rock-types anyway, you know?"

Rose gives her a look that seems to say And I am? but she doesn't say a word more, her face growing serious as she steels herself for today. They'd never had a real training session before, but Rose is sort of a natural battler anyway, and seems prepared for it.

Leaf, however, is a little more wary and unsure of herself. Blue's words from the forest are still echoing in her ears — you're not good enough, just go home — and she tries to shake them off as best she can before referring to her Pokédex for a list of moves the charmander line can know.

"Let's see… anything against rock-types?" Leaf thinks she remembers that the charmander line can learn iron tail, but she's not sure if that's only by TM or not. One quick scan tells her that it is — she huffs in annoyance. All the useful moves could only be taught by TM.

Well. Maybe not all of them.

There's one move. Which could very well be their saving grace, despite the fact it's only got half the power of iron tail. It makes up for its lack of power with accuracy, which, while not perfect, is still pretty decent.

"Metal claw," she reads, biting her lip in consideration. "Sounds about right. Rose, do you think you can do it? It's — sort of like your scratch attack, except with a little more 'oomph' to it." She emphasizes the oomph by splaying her fingers, wiggling them in the air in front of her.

Rose looks confused for a moment, and Leaf pauses, her hope faltering. But then the charmander's blue eyes slip closed and she concentrates for a moment, the light dancing off her claws seeming to flicker for just a moment before fading again.

She opens her eyes and deflates.

"No, no!" Leaf says immediately, trying to buoy her partner's spirits. "That's a super good start! I mean, at least you can do it, you know? You know the basics. I think I actually saw that before — when you were fighting Sparky in Viridian Forest, remember?"

Rose looks mildly uneasy at the mention of the forest before she nods, slowly.

Leaf's smile is gentle before she nods back. "Yeah — see, I remember. Now, we just gotta hone that power. C'mon — there's gotta be someone here we can battle."

There are, of course — the place is full of young trainers itching for practice fights. Plenty of them are Pewter City natives — kids who are a couple years away yet from being eligible to receive starters, and therefore have to rely on rattata and pidgey caught in their backyards or just outside the city.

They're no match for Rose, really — she out-levels them easily, her ember strong enough to reach them before their tackles or sand attacks can truly hit their marks. It's when Leaf tries to have her use metal claw that they get hit — more than once has the white glow flickered out just before it can hit its mark, allowing for their opponents to get an opening.

But the damage is minimal, and nobody's been able to beat her yet. By the time the sky finally becomes pinky-orange from the setting sun, both trainer and Pokémon are exhausted. Leaf's timed it, and Rose can keep her metal claw going for a total of six seconds. It's not very long at all, but it's certainly better than what they had to go on that morning.

"Tomorrow."

The word is uttered as she gets ready for bed, blue eyes locked on the pokéball sitting lonely on the Pokémon Center's bedside table. It's awfully unfair, Leaf thinks, that she and Rose had got in a full day of training and all they had with Sparky had been a fit earlier that afternoon.

"Char," Rose says, and she looks a little dubious as she follows her trainer's gaze. Leaf doesn't blame her for not liking Sparky's attitude, but they couldn't just ignore him.

"Tomorrow we'll try again, and if that doesn't work…" If that doesn't work, I have no idea what I'll do.

Leaf sighs. She doesn't want to release her newest teammate, but she has the faintest feeling that if she can't do something now, it would be pointless to continue with him. Maybe the time will have helped him — maybe he'd just needed to get used to the idea of being with a trainer now.

The young trainer bolsters her spirits with those thoughts, and turns to the bed, pulling her long brown hair up as she goes. Once the tendrils are twisted into a messy bun at the top of her head, she settles down, curling up beside her beloved starter.

"We'll figure it out tomorrow," she tells her, and Rose yawns, nodding.

She's sure they will.

A/N: Not much else to say here, except I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! It felt filler-ish, but Leaf's going to try and train Sparky next chapter, and Blue... well. Blue. Heh.

Hope you guys have had/will continue to have a lovely week, and I'll catch you next update!