(Word count: 1,241)

"Wood Hammer and Acrobatics!"

"Disarming Voice and Dark Pulse!"

Stella Knight, who had been watching Caramia and Astro's double battle, winced as her sister Raven jumped up and cheered, "GO DREADY AND TARZAN!"

"Pip!" Pearly, Raven's Piplup, cheered loudly, making Taika, Nyx, and Starry wince as well.

"Raven, calm down!" Stella scolded her sister as Dreadnought the Chesnaught and Tarzan the Infernape attacked Kalliope the Gardevoir and Poe the Pancham.

"It's family support, Stella!" Raven told her cheerfully. "We gotta give Caramia encouragement!"

"Astro's family too."

"But Caramia is blood! GO CARAMIA!" Raven cheered again, causing Stella to cover her ears.

She's so immature sometimes... Stella thought bitterly, but she quickly retorted to herself, But she's so much more carefree...

Several months earlier, Stella had fell into a depression after losing her dream for the third time. It wasn't until Astro, her third traveling companion, helped cheer her up and offered to take her along to Kalos. She agreed to come if Raven or Caramia would go with her, and she had been shocked to find both of them canceling their own personal plans to travel with them.

"Kalliope, finish with Psychic!" Stella heard Astro call through her covered ears, causing her to lower her hands.

Astro's partner gave a loud shriek as her eyes glowed light blue. The aura surrounded Caramia's starters and lifted them up into the air, causing them to thrash wildly. Kalliope repeatedly hit them against the ground and didn't stop until sure they fainted.

"Dreadnought, Tarzan!" Caramia cried, running over to her pokemon. "Y'all ok?!"

When neither Pokemon responded, Stella stood up and said clearly, "Chesnaught and Infernape are unable to battle. Gardevoir and Pancham win!"

"Well, there went our family honor down the drain..." Raven sighed as Poe the Pancham ran over to Astro with pride while Kalliope followed behind him.

"Oh Raven," Stella sighed exasperatedly. "It's a friendly battle to prepare them for their gym battle!"

"It would've been nice to win though..."

"Piplup..." Pearly agreed while shaking his head sadly.

Stella gave a huff of annoyance and instead watched the battlers shake hands. While Caramia hated losing, but tried to be a good loser nevertheless. Astro was both a gracious winner and loser, which was one of many reasons why Stella liked him so much.

"Your Pokemon fought well," Stella heard Astro tell Caramia encouragingly as she returned Dreadnought and Tarzan to their pokeballs. "Ya almost beat me."

"I would've beat ya too if you didn't keep using that Gardevoir every time we battle!" Caramia pointed out in a huffy tone while glaring at Kalliope.

"Well now, if I recall, you said I couldn't go easy on you, and using just Poe and Nyx would be letting you win."

Caramia scoffed and stalked off to get her bag. Stella couldn't help but giggle at her cousin's behavior, and she had to restrain herself from laughing as Astro's Gardevoir stuck her tongue out at Caramia's back and blew a raspberry. Kalliope stopped immediately as Astro turned to see what nonsense his partner was doing now.

"You behaving, Kalliope?" Astro told her shrewdly. "You have to set an example for the youngsters."

"Gardevoir," Kalliope replied back, which was probably her way of saying that she "agreed" with him.

"Where is Blitzen anyway?" Raven added, looking around the clearing curiously.

Stella looked around as well, her heart stopping. Blitzen was so small and young that he could easily slip past them. She then noticed that he wasn't the only one missing.

"Where's Blaze, Evian, and Denver?" Stella asked, standing up and looking around at the nearby trees. "They're not as small as Blitzen is!"

"Y'all lost a great big Torterra and Blaziken?" Caramia sneered, walking back over with a smirk on her face. "Y'all have reached an entirely new level of density."

"You weren't paying attention either!" Raven snapped angrily.

Stella was about to scold them, but the tension vanished at the sound of a loud, "Fennekin!"

Everyone looked around to see a small Fennekin run out of the trees with a bunch of flowers between his jaws. A low groan came from behind him as Stella's enormous Torterra, Denver, slowly moved into the clearing. He was accompanied by Stella's Medicham, Evian, and Astro's Blaziken, Blaze.

"There you are, Blitz!" Astro greeted as he knelt down in front of his Fennekin. "We were getting mighty worried!"

Blitzen barked through the flowers and wagged his bushy tail. When they first came to Kalos, they had visited Professor Sycamore, the region's Pokemon Professor. After learning that Astro never received a traditional region starter the last time he came to Kalos, the professor allowed him to choose between Froakie, Chespin, and Fennekin. Astro chose the same starter Pokémon that Stella had, which was Fennekin.

"Who are those for?" Stella asked the Fennekin as she knelt down to look at the pink flowers between Blitzen's jaws.

The Fennekin shifted his weight and glanced nervously over at Kalliope, who was standing beside Astro with her arms behind her back. Blitzen flattened his big ears and approached the Gardevoir. He blinked up at her before setting the flowers at Kalliope's feet.

The Gardevoir blinked at the flowers and raised a slim eyebrow at Blitzen. Without saying anything, Kalliope bent down and scooped up the flowers. She sniffed them before bowing her head at the starter and said in her low voice, "Gar."

Blitzen's eyes lit up with happiness and he began to leap around in circles. Stella felt herself smile at how happy the little Pokémon was. All the female Pokémon looked happy for Blitzen, but the males, however, looked irritated and jealous. All of them had been rejected by Kalliope.

"Well, I guess I have better things to do," Stella sighed, thinking about all the work she would have to do to make dinner. Of the four friends, she was the only one who knew how to make a decent meal. Astro wasn't very talented with cooking as he was with battles and music, Caramia had been known to burn water (literally), and Raven didn't know how to cook a whole meal. So that responsibility usually fell on Stella.

While retrieving the cooking supplies from one of her bags, Stella saw Kalliope approach Astro while Blitzen was playing with other small Pokemon. The Gardevoir bowed her head and used her psychic powers to pick several pink flowers out of the bundle in her hands. The Gardevoir then levitated the plucked flowers and offered them to Astro.

"That's mighty nice of you, Kalliope, but wouldn't you rather keep those for yourself?" Astro asked his partner with a slight chuckle. "Blitzen picked them for you."

The Gardevoir merely blinked at him. She raised a slim eyebrow before levitating the picked flowers and putting them in the chest pocket of his buttoned shirt.

"Awww, I bet she's giving those flowers to you as a present!" squeaked Raven as she too watched the moment between trainer and partner. "Sometimes Pokémon will give their trainer's little things as gifts! Prince will give me cool stuff that he finds or makes with everyday objects!"

"I reckon so," Astro replied, reaching out and putting his hand on Kalliope's cheek. "Thank you kindly, Kalliope."

Kalliope bowed her head and said quietly, "Gardevoir."

Stella felt herself smile as she watched her cousins, Astro, and Kalliope. She felt happy and very lucky that she was traveling with friends like them.